For the first fifteen years of our marriage, Ellen worked in several local hotels because the hours suited the responsibilities of having two young children. Typically, she'd work for a couple of years in one place before moving on and usually because, for some unknown reason, no matter how good and reliable a worker you were, hotel owners and managers, somehow, eventually turned into Basil Fawlty and it was time to go. The one exception to that norm was when Ellen got a job working with two particularly obnoxious women. After a week of listening to her complain, I suggested that she should just leave, however, she was determined that these two wouldn't drive her out but, after two months, it finally got to her and, after telling both women exactly what she thought of them, she handed in her notice. Yes, I know that, in effect those women did push her out but I was certainly not brave enough to point that out.
She'd been working in her current job for about two years when a new girl joined them as a waitress. Her name was Sue, she was short and round and her hair was the same colour and style as Ronald McDonald's and, in my eye, she was totally unattractive. She and her husband had recently relocated from somewhere in southern England but I was never interested enough to find out exactly where. From the couple of times that I'd met her, I thought she was loud and crude and common but Ellen took an instant liking to her as did all the other staff at the hotel so maybe I'm just a snob.
Every day, Ellen returned home with another crazy story that Sue had told everyone but I only remember one in particular. It seemed that Sue and her husband had lived near to an american airbase and that on almost every weekend, Sue met up with an airman called 'Woody' ( and a few of his friends ). What made this story memorable for me was that, apparently, whenever Sue was with Woody, he insisted that she was naked apart from a heavy leather belt so that he had something to hang onto when he was fucking her from behind.
If the reason that they'd moved was that the husband hoped that Sue would leave all that behind, he was sadly mistaken because all of Sue's other stories were about whichever guy she'd picked up the night before.
I've no idea what Ellen had told Sue about her own adventures but, one day, Ellen told me that Sue intended going back to her old home town for a weekend to catch up with 'old friends' and she'd invited Ellen to accompany her. Ellen was really enthusiastic about the idea and had already agreed to go but, for some reason, she tried to pretend that she didn't know the real reason for the trip. To be honest, I was quite excited by the idea myself but sadly it never happened, circumstances got in the way.
One day, Ellen came home and informed me that she was going for a drink with Sue that saturday and I immediately replied that I didn't think that was a good idea. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by how angry she was as she snapped back "Who the hell do you think you are, telling me who I can and can't go out with?"
I was taken aback by the ferocity in her voice and I tried to sound like the voice of reason as I pointed out that, in the short time that she'd lived here, Sue had gained a terrible reputation. I pointed out that guys regularly called out to her in the street, asking for blow jobs and gang bangs and her typical response was to laugh and call back "Maybe later" or "What again?" or "Ok" and I didn't want Ellen getting the same reputation.
This only made Ellen angrier and she was almost frothing at the mouth as she yelled back "What do you think I am? I'd never do anything in front of Sue, I'm not stupid, she's a blabber mouth and can't keep anything to herself. I'm not going out with her to pick up guys, she's a good laugh and we're just going for a drink. That's all".
Her outburst had really taken the wind out of my sails and, even to my own ears, I sounded lame and pathetic as I muttered "Well, you can be seen as guilty by association".
Ellen glared at me and snapped "So, that's it, you don't trust me" and, as I feebly tried to insist that I did, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, slamming our bedroom door behind her.
T was almost time for me to go to work and I heaved a sigh of relief as I left a little earlier than I needed to.
I had ten hours in work to think over our argument and the first thing that I was forced to concede was that Ellen definitely wasn't stupid and the next thing I had to concede was that she was right, I didn't own her and I had no right to tell her who she could or couldn't go out with, after all, she never complained about my friends, even the ones that she quite clearly couldn't stand. There were a couple that she'd often told me made her uncomfortable as they watched her every move or made comments that were supposed to be compliments but actually made her skin creep but, despite that, she was always polite when she met them.
I also had to admit that Ellen was discrete, she'd had several one night stands over the previous few years and, because we lived in a holiday resort, she'd been able to 'accept a drink' only from guys who were on holiday and would be gone in a few days.
I mulled it over for hours and I finally came to the conclusion that she was telling the truth, she had no desire to risk disrupting our lives and she was just going for a drink with Sue because she was good company so, when I arrived home in the morning, I was feeling really contrite and I attempted to apologise to Ellen but she'd obviously spent a lot of the previous evening thinking about our argument as well and gave me a really cold "Whatever" and left for work.
When I got up that afternoon, I could see the tension in Ellen's body so, once again, I tried to apologise but I was rewarded by a brief and angry lecture on how I didn't trust Ellen and how I thought she was stupid. I insisted that I didn't think she was stupid and retreated
to the safety of my shed, my only sanctuary other than the bathroom. I skulked in there for hours, only emerging when Ellen called.me in for dinner before I left for work and, just like that, the storm seemed to be over.
I've always loved watching Ellen pampering herself before a night out either with me or friends and saturday was no exception.
She had a long soak in the bath whilst I was excluded from her bathroom activities but, once she emerged, I stuck to her like glue. I sat on the bed and watched every movement as she sat naked at her dressing table, drying and styling her hair then applying a little foundation before starting the serious business.
She applied some smoky brown eyeshadow and dark brown mascara before blending a light pink blusher onto her cheekbones and, to my surprise to the tips of her large brown nipples, causing them to immediately plump up and stiffen. She applied a darker red lipstick than she'd wear in the daytime, carefully blotting and smacking.her lips together before adding a glossy top coat. She added ear rings and a necklace then examined herself critically in the mirror patting and fluffing her hair with her fingertips and, probably subconsciously, doing the same to her pubic hair.
I was as rigid as a poker as she stood up and opened one of her underwear drawers, taking out scarlet satin knickers and a matching bra and my heart was thudding in my chest as I watched her slowly easing into them and carefully adjusting them. She reached for a pair of sheer, fifteen denier black tights and, sitting back on her stool, she raised her left leg and began rolling them on. I protested, asking why she wasn't putting on the matching suspender belt and stockings but she didn't even glance in my direction as she continued rolling and smoothing the tights up her legs and replied "I told you, I'm only going out for a drink with Sue".
She stood to pull the horrible things over her bum, squashing and flattening the glorious soft, round globes of her bum and, looking towards me, she suddenly burst out laughing and said "Ok, I won't be out long and, when I get back, I'll put on stockings and suspenders for you". My heart and my.prick surged and I'm sure that I must have looked like a puppy that had just had his head patted and been told that he was a good boy because Ellen burst out laughing again.
She chose a dark blue dress to wear which was one of my favourites. It was a quite conservative, knee length dress with a high neckline and three quarter length sleeves but it buttoned down the front from neckline to hem with big brass buttons and, whenever she wore it, I always imagined slowly opening each one of those buttons one at a time and I'm sure that a lot of other guys got that same urge. Depending on her mood, she could open as many buttons or as few buttons as she chose, sometimes exposing a lot of cleavage and a little glimpse of bra and sometimes leaving enough buttons open to risk revealing that she was wearing stockings when she sat down.
Her final act was to spray a little perfume below her ears, onto her wrists and a quick spray between her thighs, which a!ways made my heart leap, and then she was ready to go and, giving me a hug to avoid smearing her lipstick, she said "Wait up for me, I won't be long, bye" and she was gone, hurrying out to the waiting taxi.
Normally, I would have poured myself a drink but I'd told Ellen to call me if she couldn't get a taxi home so I sat in the living room with a cup of coffee and watched some tv. I got caught up in a film and hardly thought about Ellen until I realised that it was almost e!even o'clock and the pubs would soon be calling time so I tidied up a bit and waited for Ellen to return.
E!even came and went and eleven thirty came and went and I realised that Ellen must have been having a better time than she'd expected and had probably either gone back to Sue's for a last drink or even on to the local nightclub that stayed open till three in the.morning.
I was a little frustrated because I felt that she could at least have phoned to say she'd be late but it was the days before mobile phones so I had no way of contacting her if she didn't phone our landline.
I decided to lie down on the sofa just in case she phoned to say that she needed a lift but, of course, after being awake for well over twenty four hours, I immediately fell asleep.
I woke up with that disorientated feeling of where am I and, after realising that I was in the living room, I remembered that I was waiting up for Ellen. Sunlight was streaming in around the curtains and, glancing at my watch, I saw that it was gone seven o'clock in the morning. I leapt to my feet and hurried upstairs thinking that Ellen might have come home, found me asleep and, not wanting to disturb me, had gone up to bed.
I burst into the bedroom and came to an abrupt halt because Ellen wasn't there and the bed was made up and undisturbed.
I returned downstairs, not really knowing what to think or do. I was convinced that Ellen had been telling the truth when she'd said that she had no intention of going with anyone and that left just two options. First that she'd stayed overnight at Sue's or something bad had happened.
Logic told me that Ellen had gone back to Sue's, which was about a quarter of a mile from our house, she'd had too much to drink and fallen asleep on Sue's couch but some frightened, primal part of my brain insisted that something bad had happened. I thought of phoning the police but I knew that they wouldn't be interested in a woman who was late home from a night out and I wondered how soon it was appropriate to start checking hospitals and how you even go about doing that. I was in a bit of a panic as I paced back and forth, listening to the muted sounds of people starting to go about their business.
