Ineffable

by Sherrod Story

  Nori, fresh from the loo, had puffed up, prepared to charge in and straighten the fucker out.

  “Just wait, man,” Jeremy said, holding his arm. “Watch.”

  Nori opened his mouth to blast his new friend, but then he realized Margot had everything under control. As he watched, the guy touched her shoulder in a clearly caressing move. But with a charming, cheesy grin, she lifted the man’s hand away and wagged her finger back and forth.

  “See?” Jeremy laughed. “She knows who she belongs too.”

  Nori was slightly appeased. It appeared she did indeed. But he was still on guard. Men were dogs. He’d been a dog too at one point, he supposed. But now his bone was too valuable to chance letting anyone get close enough to steal it.

  “Try this,” she said now, reappearing with a tray bearing two highball glasses and a small plate with some of the thin ginger biscuits she favored.

  “They’re fizzing. It’s not going to blow up is it?”

  “Ha, ha. Try it.”

  He took a sip. It was delicious. Fruity with a hint of booze that warned him to not to underestimate the drink’s potency.

  “It’s lovely. What is it?”

  “Ginger ale, orange juice and whiskey.”

  “Mmmm,” he drained his glass, burped, and reached for hers.

  Laughing she swung it out of his reach and drained it.

  “Spoilsport.” He stretched. “I’m for bed. You?”

  “I’ll there in a minute.”

  That could mean a minute or two hours. And the way she was eyeing her latest project, it was looking like two hours, which sucked shit since he was hoping for a night cap that did not come in a glass.

  Sighing like he was being martyred, Nori waited a beat to see if she’d fall for it. Sometimes she did, and he was able to get her under him fairly quickly. But now she ignored him, absently nibbling on a cookie before she put it down in favor of those wretched pliers.

  Nori sighed and pulled open his laptop. He might as well get in a little work. What choice did he have? He couldn’t go to bed without her.

  “Do you think I’m going to hurt you, Margot?”

  She didn’t answer, but he knew she was listening, felt the tiny movements of her body as she focused on him. Perhaps she would answer because it was dark and warm and safe in the bedroom. It had happened before.

  “I might,” he admitted. “But it will never be on purpose. I won’t cheat. I know how horrible that feels, and I wouldn’t do it to any woman, let alone one that I love.” He felt her jump at the word love, but he continued. “I won’t cheat you either. It might appear complicated because we are lovers, and we are in business together. But I’ve built a reputation in the global marketplace for being tough but fair, in all dealings. I will not compromise my integrity for any reason, not even love,” he said, deliberately using the word again. Again she flinched. She did not, however, move away. He relaxed a little bit more.

  She shifted, moving onto her side, head on hand as she listened.

  Encouraged, he laughed. “I confess, my girl, I’ve never felt quite like this about a woman. So if I make mistakes, if I do hurt you in some way, I hope you’ll tell me so I can make things right.” He scooted down and turned onto his side so they were face to face.

  “I love you, Margot,” he repeated. “And I want you to love me. To feel comfortable with me, to lean on me, and to build a life with me. We don’t have to define what that means immediately. I know we’re just getting to know one another, and we should take the time to do that right. But I want you to know that my intentions toward you are not transient. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she said after a while.

  Their hands clasped in the dark, and he waited.

  “I, love you too, Nori. I didn’t expect to, and that’s probably part of the problem. You usually get what you expect. I wasn’t expecting you at all, but I can’t deny that you’re wonderful,” she admitted.

  He rolled her under him, and buried his face in her neck, knowing she could feel him grinning.

  “More,” he demanded.

  “More, huh. Well, when I say you’re wonderful I’m not just talking about the sex, though I’ve never enjoyed myself more with a man,” she said and earned herself a squeeze and a kiss. “I feel like I can learn from you. We talk, you bring me books and send me articles, and introduce me to people who have knowledge I can use.”

  Earlier in the week he’d brought a lady by who’d been a top jeweler in her day. Grace was old now, her store closed. Because of age she was unable to work every day making crafts, though she still sold pieces occasionally. Nori proudly told Margot she’d been an Ineffable customer for more than 25 years.

  That day over fresh mint and ginger tea, they made earrings and a necklace. Grace insisted that she sell them when Margot tried to give them to her. But she was pleased when Margot told her she would name the pieces after her.

  When the taxi bore the old lady away to her North Shore home, Margot stared at Nori. He sat on the couch, tea cup balanced on his knee, a soft look in his eye. She relocated his drink to the coffee table, knelt between his legs, yanked his belt free, pants down, and blew him, hard.

  Practically hissing with pleasure, Nori was so surprised he came in like two minutes. But there was no embarrassment. Not with Margot grinning and washing him down with the tea from his own cup.

  “I hadn’t realized I could look up to a man,” she said now. “To date that privilege has always been reserved for my girls.”

  He was so happy he couldn’t resist tumbling her onto his chest, where he kneaded her butt hard and whispered “more” again.

  Margot chuckled softly, propping her chin on her hands on his chest. “My girls, they’re all so talented and supportive. We trust each other, and together we’ve accomplished a lot. None of us come from money, yet here we are, all at a place in life where money is the least of our worries.

  “I guess it didn’t occur to me that a man could inspire me. I mean, I know there are some good ones out there. Lani and Tommy and Baby and Reiko have all found good ones. But I have other friends, Sophie, and my girl Steele, who, like me, let’s just say they haven’t had good luck.”

  She rubbed her nose into his chest then sighed as she placed her cheek over his heart. For a moment she listened to it thump. “But Tommy told me not too long ago that I should open up and let you love me. And as much as that bitch gets on my nerves, more often than not that heffa’s right, so I am. Sometimes I don’t think I have a choice. I feel like if I let you go now, I would suffer.”

  He waited. But in typical Margot fashion, she spewed like a crack in a dam and then clammed up. Still, he felt lighter knowing that she loved him. He fell asleep with a smile on his face, and her snug in his arms.

  The next morning he woke with her hands around his shaft. She was sitting up beside him, naked, her narrow shoulders thrown back proudly, those big luscious breasts pushed out, nipples soft and beautiful and begging for his mouth.

  He tried to rise up onto his elbows, but subsided when she shook her head.

  She didn’t speak, and he didn’t either. But he gave her a long and shaky sigh, his back arching as she reached beneath his erect shaft to firmly cup and roll his balls.

  He could already feel the orgasm rising, and he didn’t want to let it go in her hand. He wanted to come inside her warmth, snug and stroking until they both came apart from the pleasure.

  He began to whisper things to her, some came out in French, and he didn’t notice because she seemed to understand. And she did. Not because her French was fluent, though she was getting better, but because he was speaking from his heart, and that she understood very well. She and Nori were alike, how they worked, played, slept, how they ate, and especially how they fucked.

  He loved touching her, smelling her skin, rubbing her tits with his face, with his everything. And for her touching Nori was like stroking a dream. He was smooth and hard and hot, and he smelled amazing, like
man and soap and ambition. He was sweet and beautiful, with his piercing eyes and his habit of lapsing into French when he was pissed or out of his mind with pleasure.

  “What are you thinking about?” He gripped her hand on his cock and groaned. He pulled her on his chest, grinning when she sighed in disappointment at losing her prize.

  “Why I love you.”

  Busy rubbing his cock between her legs, he squeezed her butt hard. He slapped each globe and groaned happily at the sound. “Yeah?”

  “And why I love to fuck you.”

  He chuckled, rubbing back and forth, back and forth in the wet he’d brought out. “That’s my girl.” He worked his way in, making the little sounds she loved.

  You’d think they’d be tired by now. They’d made love so many times, the bloom should at least be off the rose, but it still felt fresh, enticing. He still wooed her, coaxed her, reacted to every arch, every moan, her heat, the damp on her skin. Even her scent spoke to him. She made him crazy with need and desire.

  This was not the ordinary, I’ve got to get inside you right fucking now or I’m going to explode desire. This was his chest swelling like a balloon, and his cock turning to iron with the need to conquer her. She was a peak he had to reach. They had to reach it together. He couldn’t accept anything less.

  “We should have a dinner party.”

  He looked up from his laptop. “Oh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who will you invite?”

  “Tommy and Dom, Lani and Jeremy, Baby and Jordan, Reiko and Natty, though they’re pretty deep in album making mode right now. Maybe we can pair my friend Sophie with your lawyer friend. Is he nice?”

  “Very,” Nori laughed. “Lado is always smiling.”

  “Is he handsome?”

  “I suppose so. He’s tall with dark red hair and pale skin. He inherited his practice from his father, but he’s expanded it into a global concern. We’ve known each other since we were eight. He’s very smart, funny, well educated, and very very rich.”

  “Sophie is tiny, slender, maybe 5’5 on a good day, really dark. She’s very smart and funny. Well, she was. She’s grieving right now. Her mother died about six months ago.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Yeah, she’s taking it hard. They were close, and she lived with her. She’s rich too. She’s a successful children’s book author.”

  “Well, everyone likes Lado. He may be just what she needs to cheer up.”

  It seemed like a logical pairing. But things didn’t work out quite as neat when Sophie and Lado met for the first time. Apparently they had some history that Margot and Nori knew nothing about.

  Things started out well. Nori introduced Lado to Margot, and he immediately got her laughing because he arrived with a shopping bag full of wine.

  “I brought a few extra,” he grinned, handing them to her one at a time. “You know, since there are a few of us and it’s a three course dinner. You never know when someone may need an alcohol version of the Heimlich.”

  “Good wine,” Jeremy commented, taking two bottles.

  Margot made the introductions, and everyone served themselves from the buffet stations she’d set up, and Nori and Lado opened bottles and filled glasses. Conversation flowed, and Tommy winked at Margot, who was practically glowing she was so happy.

  “What?” Nori whispered, smiling at her ebullience.

  “This is my first formal dinner party,” she confessed. “And it looks like I’m a hit!”

  She spoke just a hair too soon though. Lado and Sophie had been talking quietly, paired up next to one another as the only singles in the group. But then –

  “You’re Shannon Murphy?” His cutlery landed on his plate with an audible clatter.

  “Who?” Nori whispered.

  “Sophie does freelance work under a pseudonym,” Margot whispered back.

  “What happened?” Jeremy asked.

  “Did she write something bad about you?” Jordan finished jokingly.

  “She most certainly did,” Lado said quietly. “Because of her portrayal of me and my firm, we lost several important clients, including one government contract I’d been courting for almost six months.”

  “What?” Nori asked, shocked. “What could she possible say that was bad?”

  “She reported that we were behind the times with regard to our diversity efforts, and she insinuated just shy of pointing a sharp, bony finger that lack of diversity and inclusivity in our workforce made us incapable of adequately serving clients with global customers or those who care for gender equality.”

  A pin could have dropped it was that quiet in the room. Sophie looked defiant but uncomfortable, and Lado, who was glaring daggers at her, looked like he’d just eaten something disgusting.

  “I gave you a chance to tell your side of the story,” she said quietly. “You canceled our interview three separate times. I had a deadline.”

  He looked at her like she was crazy. “A deadline? You took business away from my company because you had a deadline. I run a law firm,” he said slowly, like she was an idiot. “I had every intention of doing the interview, but business and my clients come first, and I you offered a substitute.”

  Sophie snorted and rolled her eyes. “Some junior attorney four cups of coffee away from the mail room. He’d only been in the company three months. What could he possibly know about your diversity efforts? He’s a white male. When I asked about diversity he looked at me like I was crazy.”

  Lado threw his napkin down and rose. “Margot, I appreciate your hospitality, but I think I’ll take my leave. It was a great pleasure meeting you, Nori actually did you justice. It was a pleasure meeting all of you. I hope we meet again under more congenial circumstances.”

  “Well,” said Jack.

  “Shit,” said Reiko.

  Nori rose to follow. “Excuse me.”

  Everyone turned to look at Sophie.

  “I’m sorry, Margot,” she said, rising. “I guess I better go too.”

  Margot and the others protested, but Sophie wouldn’t be persuaded.

  “I’m not very hungry, and I doubt I’d be good company. I’d better just go on home.”

  “You sure, girl?”

  Sophie nodded. “Sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to upset the party.”

  Margot waved that away. “Things happen. No harm done. You gonna be alright?”

  Sophie nodded. “Yeah,” and with a wave for the table, she was gone.

  “Well, that frickin’ sucked,” said Tommy.

  “This was her first night out in dunno how long,” Lani offered.

  “Since her mom died?” Jeremy asked.

  Lani nodded.

  “That really sucks,” Tommy amended. “Ol’ Lado came by that red hair honestly, didn’t he?”

  Nori, who’d just come back into the room, laughed. “He sure did. I’m sorry about that folks. But let’s put the little drama behind us and try to enjoy the rest of the night. Whose glass is empty?”

  Several went into the air, and the incident passed amid laughter, conversation and several excellent courses. Everyone – with the exception of Tommy who could claim a lengthy prior relationship – got to know Nori better, and Margot could tell the men respected him. She watched him charm Reiko and Lani, and when Tommy sent her a wink over dessert, she grinned so big she almost split her face; her first dinner party as part of a couple was a success.

  “D’ya think you’ll marry her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Does she know?” Lado asked. He’d called late to apologize again for disrupting the party, and since Margot was engrossed in her work, they decided to meet up for a drink.

  “Not yet. I just realized it myself.”

  “O-kay. Do you think she’ll say yes?”

  “Sometimes I think she’ll stare at me with her big brown eyes filled with tears of happiness and throw herself into my arms, whispering yes over and over. Other times I think she’ll bl
ink at me with those same big brown eyes, sans tears of joy, and walk away to pick up a pair of pliers from her work basket.”

  Lado burst out laughing. “Good grief, man.”

  “Laugh it up,” Nori said, morose now the first flush of booze induced dinner party euphoria was wearing off. “But you don’t get it. Margot is the most complicated woman I’ve ever been with. Half the time I have no clue what she’s thinking.”

  “Isn’t that pretty much par for the course with all women?”

  “Yeah! But I actually care that I don’t know what she’s thinking.”

  “Ah!” said Lado, then, “Can I be best man?”

  “Are you listening to me?”

  “Of course, I am. But I have a feeling things will turn out the way you want. And you know it’s my personal philosophy to look upon those things one wants as foregone conclusions. It saves time in the end. Now, I repeat. Can I be your best man?”

  “Aren’t you always?” Nori teased, raising a hand for the check.

  It was a familiar exchange, one that went back to their school uniform days. On the way home they whistled a cheerful, off key tune from their alma matter, both stopping to kick up their heels – Lado stumbled a bit; he’d never quite got the knack – then he stopped. Nori stopped too, raising slightly bleary eyes as he squinted ahead where his friend was staring intently.

  A man and a woman were struggling. As they watched, the man swung, the woman ducked, avoiding a blow, turned to run, and was struck from behind. They both started forward as she fell.

  “Hey!” Nori called out, waving and moving more quickly, hoping to scare the attacker away. “You there!”

  There was something familiar about the pair. They were close to Margot’s house. Nori’s eyes narrowed.

  “What a fuckin’ douche bag,” said Lado as they ran toward the fallen woman. Then he gasped. “Is that -?”

  “Margot!” Nori took off running.

  He reached her side in less than a minute.

  “Margot! Are you alright?” Nori cried, but she didn’t respond. Her eyes were closed and his heart leapt as adrenaline and fear coursed through him. “Lado, call 911.”