Marlene stood outside on the steps of the courthouse with a smile on her face and a tremendous sense of relief. It felt as though a huge weight had been removed from her shoulders and she felt almost giddy with pleasure.
The court proceedings had gone smoothly and flawlessly, and worth every cent her lawyer had cost her. She was not only granted a divorce but was also rewarded with one-half of everything she and Gary had owned jointly.
Gary's countersuit, smugly presented by his lawyer, and replete with volumes of photos and meaningless surveillance reports, was summarily dismissed by the judge as having no credible evidence of any wrongdoing by her. Gary had also produced a witness who had been present at one of Louise's parties and witnessed her doing her little stripper dance. He alleged that Gary had suffered irreparable anguish and embarrassment because of the humiliation he had felt to see his wife acting so lasciviously in front of the other party guests.
But it was quick-thinking Ross, who really destroyed Gary's countersuit by producing an actual video of her doing her dance from his phone. The video showed her doing little more than dancing and looking surprisingly innocent, but it also showed Gary smiling and clapping along while chanting her name, which completely nullified his suit alleging irreparable anguish and embarrassment which was almost laughed out of court.
Alimony was waived, she didn't need his money, she had only wanted what was rightly hers by marriage. Gary had the option of buying her equity in the house they had owned or selling it outright and giving her half of the net gain. He opted to sell and said he was going to put the house on the market immediately. They were to divide the proceeds of their joint bank account and she and Gary were to each keep their respective vehicles.
As for the house furnishings, Gary said he wanted very little if anything. After the judge's verdict, they very amicably made an appointment to get together at the house to take the things they each wanted and then parted ways. He had left the courthouse hand in hand with his new love interest and, much to Marlene's surprise, it was not the office assistant he had been fucking on his desk.
A week or so previous, Ross had located a house for her to rent that was just around the corner from their place and she had already put a deposit down on it. It seemed perfect, and nice to be close to Louise.
She was finally a free woman, free to openly explore her new relationship with Jimmy, as well as explore her sexual fantasies. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, finding it hard to keep the smile from her face.
"Congratulations," said a voice from behind her, giving her a start.
She turned to see the private detective Gary had hired, the man who spent all those countless hours following her all around town in an attempt to justify Gary's countersuit of infidelity.
She smiled at him and nodded. His name was Gerry Porter, as was reported in court. Having never seen him so up close and personal, she looked him over appraisingly. He appeared to be in his mid-fifties, with a receding hairline and a rather hefty paunch around his middle. "You are a very tenacious man, Mr. Porter," said Marlene. "I know from my own experience with you that you worked your butt off. I just hope you were adequately compensated for all of your wasted time and effort."
He smiled and nodded, "Thank you, and yes I was indeed nicely compensated for my efforts," he said. "Most of the time, in my kind of work, the jobs are more than a little unsavory at best, sometimes even dangerous. But following a pretty lady around was actually one of the most pleasurable jobs I've had in a long while."
Marlene smiled at his thinly veiled compliment. "I would think that following me around would have proven to be almost as exciting as watching paint dry."
He laughed aloud and nodded, "It certainly did have its dull moments, I'll give you that. I hope I'm not being too out of line by saying this, but you have exceptionally nice legs, and watching you get in and out of cars sure made up for all the other boring times."
It was Marlene's turn to laugh out loud. "I hope you realize that none of that was accidental. I'm not normally in the habit of allowing my skirts to rise that high when I'm getting in and out of vehicles," she explained with a little smile. "I only allowed it to happen when I knew you were watching."
He looked at her curiously, "Teasing me, eh?" He queried with a raise of his eyebrows. "Maybe we could talk more about that over a couple of drinks sometime?"
"Oh, I don't think that would be such a good idea," she returned with a smile. "But I'll tell you what," she continued, "if you enjoyed looking at my legs, then you just might enjoy seeing a lot more of me at the Little Darlings strip club. I'm looking into trying my luck there on one of their amateur nights."
His eyes widened and he smiled, looking her up and down with an appraising leer. "Yes, Ma'am, I think I would enjoy seeing that very much. When will you be dancing there?"
"I haven't decided yet, but very soon I would think," she replied. "Maybe I'll see you there?"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure you can count on that," he smiled, staring at her chest.
Ordinarily, she might have taken offense by such an overly salacious come-on but reasoned a man like Gerry Porter was exactly the kind of man who would normally be attracted to watching women dance in strip clubs. With that in mind, she thought it a good sign and didn't mind at all. To be completely honest, she was even moderately pleased by his physical attention.
It did, however, give her pause to consider how she might react if he ever did attend while she was performing and offered her money for a lap dance. Would she consider writhing on his lap and grinding her body against the bulge of his erection? It brought a smile to her lips to realize that she would not only consider doing it, but she would also even look forward to doing it. What an ironically poetic ending something like that would be to Gary's involvement with this man's attempt to damage her reputation if she were to pleasure herself while pleasuring him with a lap dance.
At that moment Ross and Louise approached, their faces wreathed in happy smiles. Mr. Porter took that moment to nod a goodbye and make a hasty retreat.
"What was that about?" Asked Ross, frowning as he watched the private detective walking away.
Marlene smiled and shook her head, "Nothing really, he was just saying goodbye."
"Well, I say good riddance," said Louise with a wide grin. "Listen, why don't we all go out to dinner to celebrate your newfound freedom?"
Marlene took a deep breath, thinking there was no time like the present to tell them both about her new relationship with Jimmy. "Yeah, about that," she began tentatively. "Actually, I already have a date for dinner."
Louise grinned, "A for-real date? It's about damn time. Who's the lucky guy?"
Marlene bit her lip, "Okay, I might as well tell you now because you'll find out soon enough anyway. Jimmy is taking me out to dinner tonight."
"Jimmy?" Queried Ross with an expectant look. "Our Jimmy?"
Marlene nodded, "We...kind of hooked up a few weeks ago, but never said anything to anyone because of the whole divorce thing that was happening and the detective always skulking around."
"He's a little young for you, don't you think?" Asked Ross while Louise just smiled and gave Marlene a wink.
"No, Ross...he's a lot young," Marlene retorted. "But the age difference doesn't really seem to matter much to either of us very much, and...well, we enjoy each other's company."
"Well, I for one think it's wonderful for both of you," chimed in Louise as she stepped forward to embrace Marlene. "Have a good time tonight, we'll leave the light on for you."
"Thank you," smiled Marlene, reaching up to embrace Ross. "You saved the day with your video, Ross. I can't thank you enough," she said, raising on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Ross blushed and smiled tentatively, "Just this morning, I remembered I had taken the video of you at the party. But I sure didn't remember Gary's enthusiastic reaction. I'm glad it all worked out for the best."
They said their goodbyes and parted ways on the courthouse steps. Marlene turned just as Jimmy pulled up to the curb in her car. She hopped in the passenger side with a broad smile and leaned over to kiss him passionately.
Jimmy laughed as the kiss ended and Marlene leaned back into the seat with a smile. "Everything went well?" He said as he pulled away from the curb.
"Oh, Jimmy, it was perfect." She went on, relating the details of the hearing and the judge's decree. "I'm hoping you might get some time next week to go with me to meet Gary at the house," she said, explaining how they were going to divide the furnishings. "Once that's done, I'll get a moving company to pick up my things and rent a storage unit until we move into our house."
Once Ross had discovered the house for her, she had asked Jimmy if he would like to move in with her. She had laughingly told him he could have his very own bedroom, as long as he promised to only sleep in hers and Jimmy readily agreed.
Jimmy was equally agreeable to helping her with her furniture, noting how he now had his days free again. He and the band had been working day and night on a weeks-long recording project and had just completed it.
"So?" Smiled Marlene, "Where exactly are you taking me for dinner?"
In answer, Jimmy leaned forward and looked up through the windshield. "There," he said, pointing with his finger.
Marlene leaned forward and looked up to see they were approaching the Stratosphere. She had, of course, seen the Stratosphere every single day. How could one miss it? It towered above the Las Vegas skyline. And yet, for all its familiarity, she had never had occasion to visit. She had never been all that fascinated by casinos in general and had only ever ventured down to the Strip when family or out-of-town friends were visiting and wanted to see the sights.
Interesting fun fact about the famous Las Vegas Strip, Marlene had learned, very little of it is actually in the city of Las Vegas. Everything south of Sahara Avenue is technically in Clark County and not part of metropolitan Las Vegas.
Dinner had been wonderful, and the view was breathtaking. She had one glass of wine too many, however, and designated Jimmy to continue being the driver.
