“Yes of course!!! I’d love to come to dinner!!!”There, I’d done it. Didn’t know if I could. The thou
“Yes of course!!! I’d love to come to dinner!!!”There, I’d done it. Didn’t know if I could. The thought gave me fits last night when my wife, home from her ‘Garden Club Meeting’, suggested that we have Melissa to our home. Why what huh…?? My first reaction, of course, was Nuh-uh no way. Not a good idea.But then…the old saying came into my head…”he who doth protest too much”I’d realized almost immediately that I really had no argument. We’d had Jeannette, my previous manager, over a bunch of times. It was a kind of common nicety, my wife and I, entertaining our manager. “It’ll be good to meet her,” Sheryl said, “make her feel like part of the family…” She was being auspicious, welcoming to Melissa, proactive…...Yeah right.Sheryl was doing it, insisting on this invite, to get under my skin. At best, teasingly, at worst…as punishment. Either way, I knew the night would be torture - my wife and Melissa in the same room? What would we talk about? How would Melissa behave? What might she say? What would she wear??? My skin crawled just thinking of it all through last evening, and it was made no better waking up and knowing that not only would I actually have to go ahead with it, invite her…but that Melissa’s friend Randi was starting at our scheduling desk today, too. Staff’s gonna love that…All stressful, and - I realize, of course - all a torment of my own making. But the discomfort was ameliorated perhaps in the slightest by Melissa’s reaction to the invite: she was overjoyed. “Oh my god I’m so excited! So what can I bring??” The pride and accomplishment lit up her face; she glowed with a vigorous enthusiasm as I laughed and shrugged. Good god she’s gorgeous, I can’t help thinking, in times like this. I tried to stay on task but it mollified my angst, my stress and tension, seeing her happy. Well…that and her perfume…and the fit of her sweater…and the short skirt she’d chosen for the day…She leaned towards me, standing as we were against the wall in the back corridor, alone. More perfume.But the anxiety and fear returned - redoubled and retripled upon itself when I pulled out my phone, with her looking on, ready to add the date into my calendar. I’d just gotten a text, a few moments ago, from an unknown number but marked urgent. I swiped into it and… Oh shit!! What is THis???It took a moment to recover from my shock, my eyes likely bulging, but I pulled the phone away.“S-s-s-sorry….” I scrambled, swiping the text window away, “from a, uh…a message from one of the staff…” Had she seen anything?!?It had been a photo of her, obviously from some type of modelling shoot, or glamour pose or something. But most disturbing - and I couldn’t be sure, I’d only seen it for a second - she seemed to have been wearing the exact same sweater she had on right now!! Who sent this???“From one of the staff??” she retorted, confused a bit by my over-reaction but brows furrowing with seriousness, “If they have a problem they should come to me first, they shouldn’t be disturbing you…here, let me see it…” She reached for my phone and-He who doth protest too much…“NO….!” I exclaimed, too loudly, as - in a spastic moment of panic, hands fumbling away - dropped my - gahhh!As if in slow motion my phone - complete with bosomy photo of Melissa filling the screen - spastically slipped from my hands, turned in the air and .began to fall to the floor. We both lunged for my phone trying to catch it. Instead we collided into each other.“Ooooof!”We bumped - my face into her left shoulder and - god help me! - left boob. My left hand sought to grab her right thigh for support. Her left hand went to my right arm, steadying me as the phone clattered to the ground and my only thought-Please land face down.…Oh my god thank you.She laughed, as I quickly grabbed it, and helped me to my feet.“Are you okay??” she giggled, eyes sparkling into mine as she held me, now, one hand on each of my shoulders.“Heh heh, y-y-yeah” I chuckled, in a nervous recovery, attempting a deep breath, “sorry, it’s nothing…” I slid the phone away, into my pocket.I smiled, brows sweating, knowing I should say something.“So, for dinner, Saturday. How abo-”She stopped me with a giggle.“What should I wear???”