The Road to Redemption

by Stephen Morris

  “How's the walking going? “ quizzed John attempting to engage Alice in conversation as much as anything else.

  “Great,“ said Alice,

  “I’ve also signed up at the local gym to do aerobics classes twice a week. That's getting me really... fit.”

  At the time John noticed the emphasis on, “really...fit”, but didn’t know what to make of it. He was to find out later.

  He looked around the table and saw everyone other than he and Alice, was deeply engaged in conversation. Then, he noticed that Audry was so engaged with Elizabeth about their tennis function, she had not cleared the dirty dishes away. If there was one thing John did not like, it was sitting with dirty dishes in front of him.

  “I’ll just take the dishes to the kitchen.”

  “OK, I’ll help you,” said Alice.

  They gathered up most of the dishes and headed off towards the kitchen. Following behind Alice he couldn’t help again noticing that slight sexy wiggle of her hips. She had perfected it to a fine art.

  In the kitchen John rinsed the dishes under a running tap, while Alice bent down stacked them in the dishwasher. She looked very sexy squatting down like that, with her mini skirt creeping right up, showing off all her legs and her ample breasts in full view. John dripped a bit of water on her leg from one of the dishes, as he handed it to her. He bent down to wipe it off with his hand and found she wasn’t wearing any stockings. All she had on was her dress and platform strapped shoes, definitely nothing else. He was getting very turned on. When it came to the last two dishes, he bent down beside her and put them in the dishwasher. For an instant their heads touched, as they brushed against each other. A shiver of excitement went through John’s body and he could swear he felt the same response from Alice.

  Slowly they both rose to their feet looking each other in the eye. It was now or never. John purposely put his hands around her waist and gently pulled her towards him. She did not resist. Far from it she seemed to welcome his advance, by putting her hands over his shoulders. Next they engaged in one of the most passionate and exciting kisses he had ever experienced in his life. Her lips were full and smooth and the body he now held in his arms was not only toned, but also surprisingly soft and warm. His mind was spinning out of control. He could feel the curvature of her body through her thin dress. He was totally intoxicated by her expensive perfume. She was sex personified and he was totally in the moment.

  Then........

  Suddenly his senses snapped back on full alert. It was a voice from the dining room, above the general chatter. Bill was saying quite loudly,

  “I’ll take these other dishes to the kitchen.” Obviously he had tired of the argument with Peter and was making an excuse to get away from him.

  Quickly John and Alice moved apart. As they did she whispered,

  “Lipstick.”

  Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed a tissue and gave his lips a quick rub. He had barley got the tissue back into his pocket, when Bill entered the room.

  “What have you two been up to?” he asked, handing the dishes to John

  Bill had a strange look on his face.

  “Just doing some washing up,” John struggled to get out. “Would you like a liqueur to finish dinner off?”

  “That would be great. I’m sure Peter could do with one.” Turning quietly towards John,

  “You were right he’s a real pain in the arse.”

  Bill next turned towards Alice,

  “Lets go back and join the others.”

  John couldn’t help notice that unlike him, Alice did not seem to be at all flustered by what had just happened. In fact she seemed perfectly calm and in control as always.

  Alice led and Bill followed her back to the dinner table, while John went to the drinks cabinet, to get out the liqueurs and some glasses. He could feel his hands still shaking. He had just had the most passionate kiss of his life, with his beautiful exotic neighbour and had nearly been caught by her husband. Yet everything was perfectly calm. Everyone was talking at the dinner table, just as normal. Sure, he had had a few drinks, but everything seemed surreal, it was almost as if he had imagined the whole thing.

  The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Peter continued to be the perfect bore, while John and Alice, continued to catch each other’s eyes across the table, from time to time.

  As she was leaving Alice gave John the usual kiss on the cheek at the front door, but there was more to it this time. She pressed up against him and he could fell her breasts against his body. He responded by putting his hand around her waist. He was confused, not being able to make head nor tale of it.

  “Good night Bill,” he pretended nothing unusual was happening, as they went off down the front steps.

  He went back into the house, his mind was racing. He helped Audry clear the rest of the table, while they engaged in some idle talk about what a lovely dinner party it had been. But he was not concentrating; John’s mind was elsewhere.

  “I’m going to bed,” said Audry, “It’s been a big night.”

  “OK, I’ll be along soon.”

  John returned to the lounge room and poured himself a stiff scotch. He sunk back into the lounge. It certainly had been a big night, in more ways than one.

  Chapter 7 Another Day at the Office

  Monday morning and John arrived later than usual at the office. It was 10 past 9. He usually arrived before 8 am but something had happened to him since that kiss on Saturday night. He just wasn’t in his usual go go state of mind.

  Rebecca greeted him at the front desk.

  “Bit late today John?” she queried. “Just two messages for you.” She handed him two telephone message slips.

  Rebecca was turning out to be quite a good receptionist and after laying off the two staff recently, he had given her the rent roll. The rent roll, as John had experienced early in his career, is the bottom end of the real estate business. It means looking after the properties that real estate agents rent out on behalf of owner/investors for a 7% commission. Not large but steady income for the agency. However there are always problems with rentals from tenants falling behind in their rent, to doing damage to the properties. Not to mention the continuing need for repairs and maintenance, as most properties investors rent out tend to be quite old.

  John had to admit he had initially employed Rebecca, six months ago, for her looks, as much as anything else. She was 19 with long blonde hair. Nothing wrong with having an attractive girl at the front desk, he had thought at the time. However she had actually proved to be a real asset to the business, once he had sorted out some of the office rules with her. Like not having her scruffy boyfriend hang around the reception area late in the day, waiting for her to finish. Also he had told her about keeping her desk tidy, as it is the first thing people see when they come into the office and makes an initial impression on them. But she was coming along now and seemed to be quite cluey, so had been given the rent roll. He had also encouraged her to do a real estate course at Tech and she had cleverly negotiated with him to pay the fees. John had always intended to pay the fees, but was impressed with how she had negotiated with him; by saying it was a good investment for the business, if she could take on more tasks. He was already getting her to check over the sale contracts, as well as the rent roll.

  He walked through the office past the open plan desks where the agents sat. The office was about half full, which is quite normal, as agents spend most of their time in the field, showing clients around. There is no need for them to be in the office as John could judge how hard they were working, or at least how successfully they were working, from the amount of commission each was earning. Agents in the office, said good morning to him as he walked past them. Maria sat at the last desk just outside his office.

  “Morning Maria.”

  “Morning John.”

  Maria was his best agent and as such had pride of position, just outside his office, which was at the back of the room, so he could keep an eye o
n everything. There is quite a subtle pecking order in the way a real estate agent’s office is laid out, starting with Rebecca furthest away from John at the front desk, through to the other agents, then Maria at the rear, right outside John's office. John’s was the only enclosed office, signaling his level of importance.

  He was just sitting down at his desk, when Rebecca appeared at the door,

  “Sorry John, there’s another message I meant to give you.”

  She walked in and handed him the message slip. Yes attractive he thought but for him not sexy. Initially of course he had found her sexy, but she was only 19 and after a while somehow the initial attraction had worn off. Also seeing her every day he had started to notice little things that he had overlooked at first. For instance her eyes were rather small for her face and her legs had a slight bow in them, when she wore a mini skirt. Also she was certainly a real blonde, but unfortunately had those rather thickish blond hairs on her arms, that a lot of blonde girls get. Still it all came together well and she was proving to be a real asset to the office. The more responsibilities he gave her, the more she seemed to revel in it.

  John looked at the new message, as Rebecca returned to the front desk. It was from the Wilson’s solicitor, who needed to clear something with the Wilson’s and make, what he said were, some minor changes to the contract. It was in John’s interest to keep things moving smoothly. Even though contracts had been exchanged and the buyer had paid 10% deposit, he would not get his commission until final settlement, in about six weeks time. After John had sold their house the Wilson's had immediately traipsed off on an overseas luxury holiday, without informing their solicitor how to get in touch with them. They hadn’t told John much either, but they had mentioned something about staying at the Surfrider Hotel in Hawaii, so he passed this on to the solicitor. Lucky rich bastards he thought.

  The other calls he had to make were routine and he arranged to meet a potential buyer at another property he was selling, not far from the Wilson’s.

  He was back in the office around 11:45 am and asked Rebecca to bring him the Wilson contract, so he could look at the changes the solicitor wanted to make. He sat there for a while studying the contract, when he heard something and looked up. There was Rebecca standing at his office door and striking an unusual pose. She had her right hand up against the doorframe and her other hand on her waist striking a sexy pose.

  “There’s someone here to see you John,” she said, in a provocative voice.

  This was highly unusual, as she always phoned through to see if John was available and whether or not he wanted to see the person. Still holding the pose Rebecca continued,

  “Its a Mrs.”...... she paused, “A Mrs. Alice Johnson.”

  She had a look on her face as if to say, “I know this is no ordinary client.”

  “OK,” said John, trying to maintain his composure.

  “Tell her I will be out shortly.”

  “Okay...” said Rebecca with a big smile on her face, as she turned and left.

  John sat there and tried to steady himself. He tidied up the papers on his desk, straightened his tie and adjusted his hair, in the mirror he kept in the corner. He did everything about three times. Finally he took a deep breath and went out to meet Alice.

  Alice was sitting in the reception area casually chatting to Rebecca with her legs crossed looking very poised. She saw John emerge from the office and slowly and deliberately rose from her chair and confidently glided across the reception area towards him. What a vision she was. Today she was wearing an awesome cream business suit, with a jacket and short skirt. Underneath she had a soft grey blouse, low at the neck, showing just a hint of cleavage. She had a small cream Gucci handbag on a long thin strap, over her right shoulder and light high heeled, expensive, platform leather shoes to match.

  She seemed to just float across the room towards him. John felt himself go weak at the knees. She was a picture of perfection. She had her long dark hair down again and the light coloured suit she was wearing, highlighted her beautiful clear olive skin.

  “Hello Mrs. Johnson,” he heard himself mutter trying to look professional.

  But she was having none of that,

  “Hello John,” she said smoothly, as she softly planted her usual greeting kiss on his right cheek.

  Over his shoulder he caught a glance of Rebecca, watching the whole scene intensely, with a huge smile on her face. She quickly put her head down and pretended to be working, when John looked at her.

  “Come through to my office,” said John, still in vain trying to continue with the professional masquerade.

  When an extremely attractive woman enters a room there is a moment of silence, as everyone stops what they are doing, just for a second. And so it was with Alice, as she walked with John, through to his office. It felt like a thousand pairs of eyes were watching their every move. Well that's how it felt to John, even though there were only five people in the office at the time.

  As they walked passed Maria at the last desk, she gave John the same look that Rebecca had given him, at his office door. How do they all know he thought?

  John closed the door to his office. Rather than sit in his visitor’s chair Alice positioned herself on the corner of his desk, amply showing off her well toned legs.

  “What can I do for you Alice?” he continued, still pressing on with the effort to be professional, as he walked around to his chair.

  “Well for a start you can take me to lunch.”

  Chapter 8 Lunch and Desert.

  John had his favourite restaurant for lunch, where he often took clients and other business associates.

  Alfredo met them at the door.

  “Hello Mr. Mason,” I get you the best table,” he said in his broken English.

  This wasn’t going to be hard, as they were a bit early and there were no other customers in the restaurant.

  “How you been? Plenty of good business?”

  “Yes Alfredo. This is Mrs. Johnson.” He somehow had to keep up the pretence.

  “Hello Mrs. Johnson, welcome to my restaurant.”

  “I get you both a drink before lunch?” Alfredo enquired.

  “No, that's not necessary Alfredo, just a bottle of my normal Sav Blanc will do. That's Ok with you isn’t it Alice?” said John trying to be in charge. She nodded.

  Alfredo brought the wine and poured it.

  “What you like to eat today?”

  “I’ll just have an avocado salad,” said Alice

  “Yeah, that's fine with me also,” said John as he caught Alfredo taking a sneak look at Alice’s cleavage.

  ‘I bring you my best Italian salad,” said Alfredo, “Special just for you, just like always.”

  “He seems to know you well,” said Alice, as Alfredo walked away. “ Do you bring all of your girlfriends here?”

  In fact John did have girlfriends and yes he did occasionally bring them here. Mostly they were married. One recent one had been Annabel. She had worked in his office as a temp, when they had an overload of typing. Like Alice sitting in front of him, she was also into fitness, but also along with some bodybuilding. Annabel had the largest pair of firm breasts he had ever seen. A lot of girls have large breasts, but they are usually quite soft, like Mary’s, when they had their threesome many years ago. Annabel's were very large and very firm, almost muscular, if that is possible. She looked magnificent in the nude and when they went to hotel rooms, John would get her to pose naked in front of the mirror and admire her.

  While she was looking at herself, he would give her flowing complements about what a beautiful body she had. This would really turn her on and she would grab him, go down on him and give him oral stimulation. She would then jump on top of him and climax very quickly. Her husband had premature ejaculation and she had adjusted her sexual needs to accommodate this. She had never had children and John loved it that she was very tight. She really turned him on. The more she made love with John, the more she was able to hold her org
asm back and the better was the sex. He loved the way she wrapped her legs around him and held him in, as they moved in time with each other.

  There relationship had gone on for quite a while, until one day they were in a hotel room, but she didn’t want to make love. She wanted to sit on the bed and talk.

  “What do you think about me John?” she asked.

  He was not sure how he should answer this.

  “I think you are wonderful and we have wonderful sex together,” said John rather sheepishly.

  “Apart from that, what else do you think about me?” she asked

  “Well I think you are very attractive.” And she was. Perhaps attractive, rather than beautiful.

  “And you have one of the best bodies I have ever seen.”