Chapter Four - Second Encounter
I worked late that night, arriving home at just after two-thirty in the morning. Walking toward the house, I was surprised to see light coming from the kitchen. I let myself in the back door, closing it softly behind me, wondering at the light emanating from the stove's range hood, which cast a soft yellow glow about the kitchen. As I turned I started and gasped to see Louise sitting in shadow at the kitchen table.
"Sorry." She said, laughing softly, "I didn't mean to scare you...I thought you saw me when you came in."
"Whew." I said, holding my hand to my heart, "You got me." It took barely a moment or two for the initial shock to wear off, and then I became concerned. "Is everything all right?" I asked, keeping my voice down, "Is something wrong?
Her face was in relative shadow, but I could see her smile and nod. "Everything's okay." She said, and then went on to explain how her son had either eaten something that did not agree with him, or come down with some sort of stomach flu, and had been up most of the night vomiting.
"I think the worst of it is over now." She said, her voice sounding tired, "At least he's finally gone down to sleep.
I sat at the table with her. "You sound tired." I said, noticing she wore her burgundy robe.
She nodded. "I only managed to get a couple of hours sleep before he woke me up."
"Is there anything I can do?" I offered.
She shrugged. "Not really...I'm just going to stay up a little longer to make sure he's okay...You can keep me company for a while, if you want."
"Oh, sure." I said, "Happy to."
We chatted for about a half an hour, she asked about my night and I related a couple of amusing incidents to her.
"Oh...incidentally," She said during a pause in our conversation, "I believe Ross owes you flowers and candy." She laughed.
"What? Why?" I asked, surprised by her statement.
"Well...I think that what you and I did this afternoon kind of had more of an effect on me than I realized." She laughed softly again. "After dinner, while the kids were watching tv, I pretty much dragged Ross off to the bedroom and raped him."
I laughed with her, extremely pleased to hear that our intimacy together had aroused her.
"He kept saying...'Wow, what's gotten into you?'" She said with another laugh.