Lost and Found Chapter 3

Author’s note : Sorry that it took so long to publish the next chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you enjoyed the previous chapters.

PS: Not much descriptive sex. I’m trying to progress the story line.

On the next morning, I went down to the kitchen to find my mom preparing breakfast. She was humming a familiar tune while cutting up some fruits at the counter. I shuffled to the fridge, poured myself a glass of orange juice and then perked up onto one of the counter seats.

“Morning, dear.” My mom chimed happily.

“Morning.” I replied groggily. “When did you come back?”

“Around seven in the morning.”

I watched her movement. She seemed oddly lighter as she shifted from one side of the counter to the other to grab the olive oil and back. It’s almost like something heavy had been lifted off her body. Not to mention that she was lightly dancing to the tune she was humming.

“Something happened?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” my mom asked innocently.

“You seem…” I paused for a moment as I contemplated the right word. “…happy.”

“I’m always happy.” My mom retorted cheerfully.

“No you are not.” I countered. My mom was never happy. At least not after the divorce. She acted happy for most of the time and when she did seem truly happy, it was because she’s drunk.

“Nonsense. I’m happy all the time.” She shuffled from one foot to another and gave an odd little shrug. A kind of thing she did whenever she was lying or playing down things.

“No. You were never happy unless you are drunk, mom.” I asserted firmly. “But today, you are. So what happened with Paulina?”

“Oh, you know. Paulina and I had a great time last night.” She said nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal.

“You had a great time running on treadmill?” I prodded further.

“Yeah.” My mom choked. “…and trying out her clothes, you know. Girl stuff.”

“Uh huh.” I didn’t buy that. “What model?”

“What?”

“The treadmill.” I might not be able to see her face, but I swore her ears were red right now.

“You won’t know it.” My mom brushed me off and went into the storage room. Possibly to take something out but most probably to hide from my questioning. When she returned some fifteen minutes later, she ignored my inquisitive eyes and went about to prepare the waffle batter.

“Will you be seeing her again?” I asked as my mom placed the pan on the stove.

“Tonight. She wants me to try out some of her newer designs. Give comments and criticisms, that sort of things” She elaborated with indifference, like it was ‘only natural’ ‘that she had to go visit her. I couldn’t help but to think that whatever she would be doing with Paulina, it would involve them both being naked most of the time.

“I’m going out tonight too.” I said.

“Where to?”

“Jason’s.” I lied. I was going to Charlotte’s.

“Oh, right. You two haven’t met each other for like months.”

“Yeah. He was here yesterday while you were busy using the treadmill.” I might have stressed a little too much on the word treadmill as my mom didn’t look happy at my insinuation. She thought of saying something but ended up turning her attention back to the searing hot pan.

“What time will you be back?” my mom asked a little while later, not without some hint of irritation in her voice.

“Not sure. Maybe I will be staying overnight if that’s okay with you.”

“Well, sure. Of course you can. You are eighteen now.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Will you be staying overnight too?”

“Probably.” She said after a noticeable pause. “She does have a lot of dresses for me to try on.”

“Right.” I didn’t buy her hull at all.

Mom turned back and gave me a fowl look.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“Nothing.” She said and went on about with preparing the pancakes.

After breakfast, my mom left for her work. She worked as an accountant for a small time construction firm somewhere in town. The firm only took on light construction jobs for individual business owners. So there was never really much work to do, especially on my mom’s part. All she needed to do was to keep the account balanced and neat so when it was time for tax claim, her boss didn’t have to scratch a hole through his skull trying to find all the receipts that he never really kept. The job didn’t pay much but she only needed to work from nine to five, five days a week.

With her meager salary, she was never able to support me through college. While the college did sponsor my tuition fee and gave me some allowance on a monthly basis, it was never enough to cover the cost of living in a big city. Even a bottle of water cost two fifty five and God forbids if I ever need to ‘hang out’ with my college friends because that’s what college life was supposed to be. With that said, I took many side jobs through an online website and did mostly on programming and circuit designs to make money.

With her gone, I went over to my room and resumed designing the main logic board for a friend at college. His father wanted to make a lighter RC quadrocopter but the boards on the market were simply too bulky for his father’s design. So, he ended up getting me to work on a new board design for his father. Since I didn’t go out much at college anyways, I took up the job as a way to pass time and earn a little extra money for myself.

I was rechecking the connections for possible flaws in the board’s logic design when my phone buzzed. Charlotte had just sent me a message asking me what I would like to eat. I recalled her offer to cook for me yesterday and my lips curved into a giddy smile. I told her that I could and would eat anything she prepared and would want her to surprise me. Of course, being the playful lawyer she truly was, she offered to dish herself up on the bed garnished with whipped cream at specific points on her body. My cock hardened at the lewd suggestion and my brain was suddenly too stupid to come up with a proper response to her advances. Saving me from my perpetual embarrassment, the cheeky woman replied again and told me to come to her house at 7.00pm, which I replied ‘okay’.

I went back to work a little happier than before. After all, I had something really exciting to look forward to. And the massive erection between my legs couldn’t possibly agree more but I digress. I checked out on the logic once more. After making sure the final I/O was as required by my client, I began laying out the connections via a software I got it from the college’s IT department for free. The connections were automatically done by the software and I only had to reconfigure a few of them that the software couldn’t figure out.

By four, I was no longer able to keep my head together. The waiting was killing me and there were still three hours to go. I had rechecked the schematic of my design over and over again only to realize I had been looking at the same God damn spot for the third time. When Jessica told me that we would be having sex the next day, I wasn’t able to sleep and ended up designing a main logic board from scratch just to keep my sanity intact. With Charlotte, however, the anticipation was far worse. No form of work could sway my stupid brain from thinking about all sorts of dirty stuff that I would be doing with Charlotte tonight.

Half an hour later, I gave up. Instead, I decided to head out to the local supermarket and get something for the occasion. I needed something for the visit. After all, it was socially impolite to go to someone’s house without bearing gifts. I ended up being in the wine aisle, looking at hundred dollar bottle of wine. Yes, I knew I was underage but I’d be damned if I had to bring over sparkling juice to her house. And which sane eighteen year old wouldn’t consume alcohol anyways these days.

I had went to the cheaper section but knowing Charlotte, she wouldn’t have the palate for cheap flavored alcoholic grape juice. And it would make me look cheap too. Finally, I reluctantly settled for a hundred and sixty dollar bottle of Merlot. My heart ached at the huge sum of money that I had to fork out and my stomach cringed at the sight of the total cost including tax. That’s two weeks’ worth of grocery. But a small part of me was proud that the cashier didn’t ask for my ID at all. I guessed no sane eighteen year old would buy a hundred and sixty dollar bottle of wine too.

I drove to Charlotte’s right away. When she was drunk during the 2nd DWCT part, my mom forced me to take her home. That night, I ended up in circles trying to navigate the dark streets under the direction given by a drunken woman. Eventually, I did get her home and dropped her at her front door. So, I knew roughly where she lived. Despite being in the same neighborhood, Charlotte’s house was bigger than my mom’s. The exterior design was similar, the only difference was the extra rooms and total floor area.

When I reached, I noticed her driveway was empty. I stayed in my car and anxiously waited for her to come back. My palms were already sweating from the intense anticipation of what was promised of. God, I still couldn’t believe that Charlotte had actually wanted me to come over her house and fuck her.

A red Mustang came to my view and my heart pounded with fervor. I didn’t remember Charlotte’s car plate number, so I didn’t leave my car yet. It would be embarrassing if I waved and the driver wasn’t Charlotte. But it was when the red Mustang pulled into the driveway and out came a very sexy, very attractive lawyer. I quickly leapt out of my car and took the bottle of wine, which was in a brown paper bag, with me.

“You are early.” Charlotte said with a sly smile.

“I couldn’t wait.” I croaked pathetically. Instead of annoyed by my early presence, her smile grew wider.

“Couldn’t wait huh?” she asked while casting a dirty look at my crotch.

As she turned around and headed for her door, I allowed myself to look at her curvy ass that swayed at every stride. The fact that she was wearing a three-inch heels made her looked all the more alluring and sophisticated. She was wearing a white blouse and a thigh length pencil skirts with cutting that accentuated all her curves. I felt a sudden urge to push her into her house, shove her skirt up and fuck her right at the entrance.

Charlotte opened the front door and walked in. I locked the door behind me and followed her into the living room. There’s a large brown sofa set around a small coffee table stacked with paper work. Three large book cases occupied one side of the wall, while the other side contained a piano and an aquarium with a few colorful fish swimming in it. The lights were casting a warm orange glow to the homey looking carpet on the floor that grandmothers would own.

I always thought Charlotte would keep her house immaculate. She seemed like the kind of person that liked order. But this house was nothing like what I had imagined. In fact, this house almost looked like it didn’t belong to Charlotte, but a cat owning fifty five year old retiree.

“This is for you.” I said and handed the bottle of wine to her.

“What’s this?” she asked with an amused smile, as if she thought of me being cute for getting her a gift. “Oh wow. You have expensive taste.” She raised a brow as she pulled out the Merlot.

“It’s nothing.” I shrugged, downplaying the amount of hurt that piece of fermented grape extract had caused me. Especially during the checkout.

“Did you buy it yourself?” she cocked an inquisitive look at me.

I blushed a little but managed to give her a ‘no big deal’ shrug.

“My my, Brandon, breaking the law are we?” she gave me a snide smile.

“I break the law for you.” I quipped only to regret how incredibly cheesy I sounded.

“Well, I guess I can’t report you then.” She let out a purr as she pressed her body against mine. “Tell me, how much did you spend on getting this?”

“It’s a gift. You aren’t supposed to know the price.” I felt heat rising on my cheeks.

“You are really cute, do you know that?” She wrapped one arm around my neck and pulled me down. Then, she planted a quick kiss on my lips. “Thanks. We’ll open it during dinner.”

She walked away into where I believed was the kitchen. I heard the fridge opened and closed, and shortly after Charlotte came out again.

“I’ll get a change. And then I will start preparing dinner.” Charlotte told me as she headed to the stairs.

I didn’t know what had possessed me but I followed her. I wasn’t sure at first if I was being too bold but I wasn’t really thinking straight. Women said men think with their cocks and now I finally understood in the truest of sense what that actually meant. She went into her room but didn’t close the door. I pushed the door open and saw Charlotte unbuttoning her blouse. She spotted me on the large mirror mounted to the wall and cast me a sly grin. When she peeled away the white fabric from her skin, she revealed a pair of breasts cupped by a lacy purple bra.

“Do you mind?” she asked as she swept her hair over her shoulder and revealed the clasped of her bra. I walked towards her and then unhooked the undergarment. She pulled the straps away from her shoulders and let the lacy material fell to the floor. My eyes were transfixed at the reflection of her naked upper body. My hands, with a mind of their own, went and cradled the voluptuous masses. I couldn’t believe how much I missed the touch of her skin until that moment and I didn’t want to stop touching her. The way her eyes fluttered dreamily as I felt her up told me that she didn’t want me to stop either.

“We haven’t prepared dinner.” She reminded with a throaty voice.

“No, we haven’t.” I mumbled softly as I nipped against the softness of her shoulder. She smelled incredible. There’s a hint of perfume mixed with something else, something feminine, something that made me want to immerse myself into it.

My hands released her breasts and went down to her waist. I trailed my fingers along the waistband of her skirt and unclasped her pencil skirt. I shoved the skirt down past her ass and watched it fell onto the ground. She was wearing a matching purple lacy panties with flowery embroidery that partially revealed the milky skin beneath. A second later, her panties joined the rest of the discarded garments on the ground.

“Your turn.” She pouted.

I was less than elegant when I shed my clothes. It was hurried and clumsy and I had no doubt that Charlotte could see the desperation I had for her through my haste. I wasn’t joking when I said I couldn’t wait. When I was completely naked, Charlotte turned around and gave my hard throbbing cock a few firm strokes. Burst of pleasure reverberated through my body and I shuddered helplessly at her touch.

“Looks like dinner have to wait.” She said and I couldn’t agree more. “Let’s take a shower first.”

“Okay.” I mumbled like a brain-dead moron.

She grabbed me by my hand and pulled me into the bathroom. Her bathroom was much bigger than mine and had a bathtub by the tiled wall. She stepped into the bathtub and I followed her. I stood patiently and waited for her to turn on the water. It wasn’t those troublesome twin knobs where one had to manually control the flow of hot and cold water to hit the right temperature. It was one of those modern water temperature control system where all you need to do is to set the right temperature and press a button. A torrent of water began to rain down upon us and when I looked up, I saw the largest showerhead ever.

“Now, come here.” She purred and wrapped her arms around me. My hands went to her ass and pulled her up slightly as I reached for her lips. We locked together and tasted each other while the water petted down on us. I had never had a shower with another person before but I thought I could really get use to taking shower with Charlotte.

I didn’t know for how long we kissed under the shower. Eventually, Charlotte turned off the water and squirted some body shampoo onto the cup of her palm.

“Time to wash you up big guy.” She grinned and began applying the shampoo on my chest. I watched her scrubbed me thoroughly and made sure every part of my skin was covered with the lavender scented shampoo. She did my arms, legs, back, chest and my ass. Then, a playful smile curved on her lips as she squirted another palm full of shampoo. She spread the scented substance over both hands and with one hand, she cupped my balls and the other she stroked my shaft. My knees almost gave way as the wave of pleasure came crashing onto me.

“There. All clean now.” She said after rubbing my cock twice longer than the length of time she took for the rest of my body. “Now, my turn.” She said.

I squirted a generous dose of shampoo onto my palm and applied it on her body. Her skin felt buttery and smooth to touch. I spent an awful amount of time on her breasts, squeezing and kneading the soft feminine lumps against my palm. I wanted to do the same to her pussy the same way she did to my cock. She stopped me instantly, telling me that it would hurt like hell if shampoo, or any other wash product, ever get inside her. Something that I didn’t know until that moment.

Charlotte turned the water back on and we both kissed while allowing the water to wash off the shampoo we applied to one another. When every last bit of shampoo had been rinsed off, I turned Charlotte around and bent her down. She let out a soft yelp at my forcefulness and braced herself against the rim of the bathtub. I knelt down, spread her pussy with my thumbs and began tasting her.

“Oh God, Brandon.” She cried out.

Her pussy didn’t taste as intense as it was before and there’s this watery and bland aftertaste. I grabbed her by her hips and pushed my tongue deeper into her. A hint of saltiness invaded my sense as I prodded further in. This was the second time I tasted a pussy and I found myself enjoying it really much. The way her pussy lips kept folding back on me every time I moved my tongue out was a different kind of pleasurable experience in itself. Each time she gasped, mewled, or groaned was a sign that I was doing a good job.

Five minutes and a very hurried attempt to dry ourselves later, we were both on her bed with me on top of her. I pulled her hands up above her head with one hand while the other hand sensually explored her breasts. I loved the way her soft lumps molded against the palm of my hand as I kneaded them.

“Oh, Brandon. Please.” She mewled.

“Please what?” I parroted the common phrases in porn videos. Perhaps porn does somewhat reflect reality, I thought

“Please fuck me.”

My tip of my cock glided along the crevice of her damp slit before nestling right at the entrance of her pussy. A light flex of my hips and her pussy yielded. The tightness of her opening enveloped me and absorbed one hard inch of mine after another. My body trembled with immense pleasure as her pussy clenched greedily around my thick shaft.

Charlotte writhed underneath me as I slid in and out of her. As if my body had lost the ability for rational, it just kept moving. Wave after wave of intense pleasure crashed through my body, pushing me higher and higher to my inevitable release. Her pussy gripped and gnawed against my cock, sparing me no shortage of stimulation to accelerate my climax. It wasn’t long before I unloaded my hot seed into her pussy. Charlotte climaxed shortly after and squealed in mind-blowing delight.

After we caught our breath, we had another round of making out. It was short-lived as we came to the conclusion that it was time for dinner. My stomach was letting out the loudest guttural growl I had ever heard. We put on some clothes, I my briefs and the t-shirt I worn while Charlotte a negligee. We both went down to the kitchen.

Charlotte took out some skinless chicken breasts, a pack of pre-made spaghetti and a variety of vegetable. I stood behind her while I watched her expertly cut the chicken into bite-size chunks. Decided that I should make myself useful, I offered to chop up the red pepper, celery, and tomatoes. Twenty minutes later, she was already stir-frying the ingredients together in a large pan with learned efficiency. I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her tight against me while she cooked. It felt surreal and I hoped this would never end.

When she was done with the cooking, she playfully ground her ass against my cock, causing me to have another erection. I repaid her little stunt with a thorough kneading of her breasts. Her nipples grew hard under my touch and moans kept flowing out of her throat.

“Shouldn’t we have dinner first?” Charlotte asked breathily.

“We can have it later.” I muttered against the crook of her neck.

I shoved the hem of her negligee up past her waist and bent her against the counter. Hungrily, I pulled my erection out of my brief and guided the tip onto the crevice of her opening. It had only been an hour since I came and it surprised me how I could still want Charlotte so badly. I gave a firm thrust and felt her pussy engulfed the length of my cock.

“Your pussy feels so good.” I groaned.

“Your cock’s so big, Brandon.” She whimpered.

We had another quick and dirty fuck. Before long, we both shuddered as orgasm tore through our bodies. By then, Charlotte was too exhausted to even walk. I gently wiped off the product of my orgasm from her well fucked pussy and then carried her out to the couch in her living room. I went back to the kitchen and served the still steaming hot pasta onto a large salad bowl. I popped open the bottle of wine, let it breath for a minute or two, and then poured the crimson content into two glasses.

Charlotte was already sitting upright when I came back out with the glasses of wine. There’s a really sexy feel to it looking at a disheveled woman with rosy cheeks lounging on the couch not knowing what to do. She literally bounced excited on the couch, which only add to the adorableness of the whole situation. She took one glass from me and sipped the red liquid. Then, she let out a delightful sigh. I took a seat on the couch with the pasta at hand.

“Here.” I forked up a generous serving of pasta and fed it to Charlotte. She took a mouthful of pasta and munched happily away.

“Emm.” She let out a satisfied moan and leaned her head against my shoulder. “You really do know how to make a woman happy.”

I blushed at the remark. “I’m just glad that you are happy.”

“I am.” She snuggled herself onto me as if she’s making herself comfortable. Then, she opened her mouth awaiting for me to feed her again, which I did.

While she chewed, I took the opportunity to taste her cooking. The pasta was incredible and the vegetables were cooked to the right texture. Not too hard, and not too mushy. I savored the deliciousness of Charlotte’s cooking with another mouthful of pasta.

“Your pasta tastes really good.” I remarked and slurped in another mouthful.

“Hey. Don’t finish it yourself.” She grumbled. She grabbed me by my wrist and snatched the forked pasta for herself. I couldn’t help but to smile at her childishness. I ran my fingers through her brown hair and massaged her scalp.

“So, what did you do today?” I asked.

“Oh God.” Charlotte sighed exasperatedly. “I have this one client…”

She began complaining about a client she had that just wouldn’t leave her alone to do her job. Every hour, the client would call her and ask her about the development of the case. Charlotte told me how this client of hers didn’t seem to have any shred of patience and no matter how much she had told him that it would take days to acquire and verify the evidences, the client had unceasingly called in. At one point, Charlotte simply told her secretary to ignore the call.

Then, she asked me what I had done. I told her about the side project I was doing for a friend and how I would get odd jobs from the internet to earn myself a little extra money. Charlotte’s face frowned with worry and she asked me if I had enough to live in the city. She also went as far as offering a couple of hundreds per month to ease my financial burden but I vehemently rejected. I didn’t need the help and I liked what I was doing anyways.

“You are such a stubborn guy.” She teased with a smile.

When we finished our meal, we turned on the television and enjoyed the rest of the wine in peace. I had to say, the hundred and sixty dollar wine certainly tasted different than the usual wine that my mom bought. It tasted much better and there’s this odd flavor that I couldn’t place. It tasted almost woody.

After a while, I took the opportunity to further my exploration of Charlotte’s body. At times, Charlotte would make these tiny gasp when I touched her on the right spots. I found those sounds that she made really cute. We shuffled and shifted and finally settled with us lying on our sides and with me hugging her from behind. I would surreptitiously sniffed her hair and kissed her temple. When the bottle of wine was emptied, Charlotte was already flushed in the face. From her slightly slurred speech, I knew she was drunk.

“Bed time?” I asked.

“Em hmm.” She nodded.

I did what I thought men should always do. I carried her up to her bedroom. She was much lighter than I anticipated. Her lean frame was no more of a challenge to my massive bulk than simply carrying a fully loaded luggage. When I got her to her bed, Charlotte grabbed me by my arm and looked at me in the eyes.

“Please stay.” She purred.

“I am staying.” I reassured her and lied down beside her. She smiled giddily and snuggled onto me. “What time do you need to wake up for work?” I asked.

“Six.” She murmured groggily.

“Okay.” I whispered and planted a firm kiss on her forehead. “I love you.” I whispered afterwards to a then sleeping Charlotte.

After setting my alarm at six, I pulled the comforter over our body. Eventually, I fell into a deep sleep.

The next day arrived. My phone rang annoyingly, stirring me up. I patted my hand down onto the nightstand until I found my phone and turned the alarm off. I turned to my side and found the beautiful lawyer still sleeping peacefully by my side. I propped my head up and studied her face. I never really looked at Charlotte’s face up close and now that I did, I noticed that she had a tiny little mole at the right corner of her eye brow. I traced a finger along the curve of her lips and felt the softness against my digit.

“Wake up, Charlotte.” I said in a hush voice. I didn’t want to startle her.

The woman stirred and frowned but her eyes remained stubbornly closed. I traced my finger along her forehead and tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ear. Perhaps if I kiss her, she will wake up, I thought. I moved closer to her and gave her lips the best kiss that I could manage. Then, she cracked a smile and opened her eyes.

“Morning.” She said.

“Morning. You have to go to work.” I reminded.

“Work.” She gave a long and lazy sigh. “I don’t want to.” She protested.

She looked infinitely adorable and for some reason, I wished I was a millionaire so that she didn’t have to work anymore. But a wish was an impossibility. I simply stroke her soft hair, perhaps in an attempt to coax her into waking up and go to work.

“I wish I can just stay here with you.” She murmured.

In that moment, a profound realization kicked in. A realization that made me feel so ashamed of myself that my mouth tasted bitter. Could she really just stay here with me? Could I even afford it? She must have lots of bills to pay and I was by no means capable of providing for her. At least not yet. I suddenly found myself worried of her being reliant on me. The thought made me feel even worse than being punched in the face.

“I had a great time yesterday.” She let out a yawn and broke my train of taught.

“Me too.” I muttered.

“Can you come again tonight?” she asked.

“I am going to Melissa’s.” I reminded after some hesitation.

“Hmm…crap. I forgot about that.” She grumbled. “Okay then, what about Wednesday?”

“Wednesday is okay.” The words tasted bitter as it came out of my mouth. I didn’t know why it felt wrong saying that, it just did. But I agreed nonetheless.

“Wednesday.” Charlotte grumbled. “I guess there’s nothing we can do about it.” She rose from the bed and went straight to the bathroom.

We had breakfast, which was the leftover pasta Charlotte made yesterday. After a brief talk on some trivial stuff, we both left the house and parted ways. She drove to work and I drove back home. I thought I would leave the house a very happy man, but instead, I felt empty. I felt oddly vacant and insignificant. I kept replaying the moments I had with Charlotte and wondered where it had gone wrong.

My thoughts were swept out of my mind when I came across my mom’s car. The car was parked at a driveway of one of the many houses along the street I was driving down. It didn’t take much to realize that the house was Paulina’s. I slowed my car down a little and tried to look through the windows, hoping that I would see something that would shed more light onto the relationship between Paulina and my mom. Unfortunately, the curtains were closed off. With a little more disappointment than I had when I left Charlotte’s house, I drove back home.

I would be meeting with Melissa today but since she didn’t tell me what time I should be dropping by, I decided to call her and ask. After the third tone, she picked up.

“Hey Brandon.” She said breathily.

“Hi. What time will be the best for me to come?”

“Oh, you can come right now, if you want.”

“I have some times to do, will it be okay if I come by lunch time?” I asked. I needed to finish the job for my friend’s father today. The deadline was the next day but I didn’t feel like dragging it longer.

“Oh. Well, if you are busy then I guess there’s no helping it.” She sounded disappointed.

“See you later then.” I muttered, feeling a little bad for making her wait.

After a quick shower, I resumed my work on the side job I took. I organized the layers of design and double-checked the design for flaws. When I was satisfied with the board’s functionality, I saved the files and sent it to my friend’s father. Since his father had his own PCB fabrication equipment in his garage, my friend told me that I only needed to send his father the design and not the fabricated board. That obviously made my job much easier. A phone call later, his father happily wired two hundred dollars into my account.

I left my house at around two in the afternoon. Along the way, I made a short visit at a store to grab a box of exquisite chocolate for Melissa. It was, to my embarrassment, much cheaper than the wine I bought for Charlotte. I wouldn’t be able to afford a tortilla back in college if I spent too much then.

It wasn’t hard to spot Melissa’s house considering the fact that she’s a professional gardener. It’s not often to see a fully equipped, professionally installed, hot house on the front yard.

“Hi, Brandon.” Melissa greeted breathlessly at the front door. I saw beads of sweat clinging on her forehead.

“Hi,” I said and handed her the box of chocolate. “Here.”

“Why thank you. Come in.” she took the box and stepped back to let me in.

The first thing I noticed when I entered Melissa’s house was how much the whole place smelled like a florist. I wasn’t surprised when I saw the whole living room was filled to the brink with basket of neatly bundled flowers. There were tulips, lavender, roses and other exotically looking flowers that I had never seen.

“Sorry about the mess. The client just changed her wedding schedule. The groom’s grandfather hasn’t got much longer to live and the family wants to get the wedding done as soon as possible to honor his dying wish or something.” she said while trying to clear a path for me to walk in. I quickly went and helped her out. I lifted a few baskets and gently stacked them up by the wall.

“When is the wedding?”

“It was supposed to be this Sunday. They’ve changed it to tomorrow. I need to cut all the flowers and pack them neatly and sent them to my friend’s office later this evening. She’s the wedding planner, by the way.” Melissa explained while hectically took a bunch of flowers and placed it on the coffee table.

“You need any help?” I asked as I watched the petite blonde scampered away with flowers.

“If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, that is.” She said.

A minute later and I was inside the hothouse looking at racks upon racks filled with colorful flowers. Melissa rushed to the tool box and took out a pair of cutters.

“I want you to cut the stem of these roses…” she gestured at the entire rack filled with white colored roses. “…about right here.” She pointed a third way down from the bud at the stem.

Melissa went off to the other side and began snipping off the roses. Not wanting to disappoint, I went straight to work. I never gardened before but cutting flowers shouldn’t be difficult.

“Cut it at an angle.” Melissa called out. “Like this.” She showed me the end of one of the roses she cut. The end of the stem was cut at an angle, making the stem looked like the sharp end of a simple spear. “That will expose more of the inside of the stem, making it easier for the roses to take in water.”

I did as told and snipped all the roses at an angle. When I was done with my side of the flowers, I brought the bunch to the basket where Melissa’s portion of the harvest was in there.

“I never seen white roses before.”

“It’s not white.” Melissa cried out as if she had been offended. “It’s beige. Look closer.”

“Oh, yeah.” Now that I paid attention, it did look beige rather than white.

“Don’t scare me like that. My friend will kill me if I sent her the wrong color.” She huffed.

“Does it really matters?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Of course it does.” Melissa snapped in disbelief. “Her client didn’t pay her three hundred dollars a dozen to get the wrong color.”

“Three hundred for a dozen?” I cried out in horror.

“Yes.” She grinned. “A here’s about ten dozen worth.” She pointed at the basket.

“Holy crap. That’s expensive.” I exclaimed in disbelief. I didn’t know flowers could be that expensive. Hell, I didn’t know anything as useless as flowers and will only last for a week at most to be that expensive.

“Well, love is expensive.” She winked. “And I’m going to miss out on my paycheck if I don’t hurry.”

When we were done harvesting the roses, we went back into the house to have them neatly bundled up with strings. Melissa carefully packed them in a plastic container and took them out to her car. She was very careful especially with the smaller flowers and made sure not to crush them under their own weight.

“Brandon, you should leave now. I’m sorry for you coming all the way out here only to have to help me out.” She leaned in and gave me a kiss on my cheek. It was chaste but it felt really sweet.

“You aren’t coming back later?” I asked.

“I don’t think I will be coming back soon. There’s a lot of flowers to arrange. My friend is already dying with pushing the whole wedding forward in such short notice, she won’t be able to handle the flower arrangement. I will have to help her out.” She explained while feeling sorry for me. I didn’t need her to feel sorry. Instead, I wanted to prove my worth to her.

“Would it be okay if I come along and help out?”

“You sure?” her face suddenly lightened up. “I mean, I don’t want to trouble you or anything.”

“I don’t mind.” I said. After all, I had completed my side job and didn’t have anything else to do for the rest of the day.

“Oh thank you Brandon.” Melissa gave me a tight hug. “Come, we don’t have much time.”

Since we would be entering the city, Melissa suggested that we should go together and that she would be driving. After all, she knew the way. Along the way, she made a call to her friend.

“Hey, Julia.” Melissa greeted. “I’m fixing the flowers. You don’t have to get Phoebe to do it.”

As we raced through the highway, I looked at Melissa. There’s this excited look on her face as if she enjoyed the rush. I wondered how long she had been in the gardening business. For all I knew, I thought she only beautified the neighbor’s yards. I didn’t know she sell flowers too, and at such a steep price. That meant she must have earned quite a lot per job. Yet another reminder of how useless I was at making money.

Once we entered the city, Melissa turned into a basement of a big building and parked her car in one of the many empty spaces. We got out and I helped her carried most of the flowers. They weren’t exactly heavy, but the size of the containers were so big, it was kind of awkward to carry them. Even with my tall stature, I was only able to carry five of them before it would be too unstable to stack anymore on top.

We rode the elevator up to the fifth floor. When the elevator door parted, sound of ringing phones filled in the silence. A few women were rushing awkwardly in their heels across the mezzanine.

“Guess it really is a shit storm.” Melissa muttered as she dodged one of the women.

We walked a little further and passed through a glass door. The air was chiller and smelled of office carpet and generic air freshener. Melissa told me to put the containers at the corner. With the containers gone, I was able to see clearly the chaos unfolding in front of me. There were about half a dozen people talking through the phone and another half shuffling among each other with stacks of paper in their hands.

A man with neatly cut hair donning on an aqua blue suit came towards Melissa and I. The suit seemed a little too tight to be comfortable but it didn’t seem to stop him from walking a mile an hour. His dark brown leather shoes clacked against the carpeted floor with each hurried step.

“Total pandemonium. We are at Defcon 1 here Mel.” The man said while waving his hand dramatically.

“What’s the situation?” Melissa asked.

“Hotel caterer screwed up the menu. And now, the camera crew that was supposed to film the damn wedding has another job tomorrow. They can’t make it.” The man exhaled in panic while fanning his face with his hand. Suddenly, he froze and turned to me. “Oooohhh…what do we have here.” His eyes scanned me from top to bottom.

“His straight.” Melissa clarified.

“We’ll never know until we try.” The man gave me a sly smile and winked at me. Goosebumps erupted all over my skin. “Gotta go look for another camera crew. Ciao ciao.”

“Who’s that?” I swallowed nervously. It’s not every day that I got flirted by a man.

“That’s Hugo. Julia’s right hand man.” Melissa said. “Stay here.”

I did as told and stood at the corner while Melissa went off to a room. The room one side of the wall made entirely of glass. There’s a woman inside. She was sitting behind a very sleek looking desk with a phone by her ear. She had her fingers raked into her hair as she talked with the person on the other end. When she finally ended the phone call, Melissa walked to her and the two gave each other a hug. The two of them then had an animated conversation.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a girl was watching me. As I turned to look at her, she turned to her computer screen. There’s a red glow to her cheeks. I supposed it’s only natural since the office was quite cold. Another thing that stood out with her was her age. She looked very young. In fact, too young to be working in an office. But I could be wrong. Women looked way much younger than their actual age these days. Charlotte and Melissa were good examples of that.

Melissa came back and told me to grab the containers. Then, she brought me into an empty meeting room and told me to put the containers on the large oval table.

“We are setting up shop here. Do you have any experience with flower arrangement?” Melissa asked. My cluelessness in that subject matter must be showing in my face because she went on saying, “Never mind.”

Melissa leaned out of the doorway and shouted for Phoebe and told that person, whoever she was, to bring in the ‘stuff’. A few second later, the same young girl that had been watching me came in with a box of colored papers, ribbons, and an assortment of decorative paraphernalia. She was a little shorter than Melissa though I suppose she would be taller if she’s wearing a pair of heels instead of sandals. Melissa introduced us both to one another.

As common customary dictated, I held out my hand. She looked at my hand as if she didn’t know what to do with it. After a considerable pause, she hesitantly held out hers and I shook it. I could have sworn she squeaked when we came in contact.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Brandon.”

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Phoebe.” Her voice was barely above audible levels.

“Alright.” Melissa cast a suspicious glance at the young girl. “Brandon, could you get the ribbons cut. I need about five feet long for each strand.”

“How many do you need?”

“A couple of dozens. A few strands form each wheel.” She pointed at the box filled with wheels of ribbon.

After my third cut, I realized how difficult it was to cut them. I thought cutting ribbons was an easy task. But those damn things kept curling and kinking that it was as frustrating as trying to solder an IC with 40 pins onto a PCB board. Not only that, I had to find a place to keep the strands in place without them all tangling up together.

Melissa opened up one of the containers and pulled out a few stems of roses. She expertly snipped them to length. She passed the flowers to Phoebe, whom spared no effort in wrapping them up in several sheets of square chiffon of various color and then a ribbon around into a neat bow.

“These are for the guests.” Melissa informed as if she knew what I wanted to ask.

“They are beautiful.” Phoebe sighed softly.

“Of course they are.” Melissa exclaimed proudly. “I spent hours cultivating these demanding pricks every week. And I mean it literally.”

“Aunt Mel. Language.” Her voice was barely audible and if the air-conditioning was any louder, it would have been drowned out. Her face was a little redder than before.

“Language?” she eyed the young girl with irritation for a moment. Then, a sly smile crept across her face as she glanced at me. “Oh right. I see.”

Phoebe’s face brightened up and her ears grew red.

“Aunt?” I asked. They didn’t look anything alike.

“Not by blood.” Melissa clarified. “She’s Julia’s niece. I’m Julia’s BFF. And so she gets another aunt for free.”

After cutting up all the ribbons to the required length, I helped out with the wrapping. The first I wrapped was a complete disaster. The roses I bundled up looked like I was intentionally trying to ruin the wedding or something. They were so terribly wrapped that even donating them to charity would be an insult to the recipient.

“Not like that.” Melissa laughed. “Phoebe, help him out.”

The girl frowned as if she was reluctant to help. I didn’t want to pressure her into helping and told Melissa that I would be fine just by watching how Phoebe wrap the flowers. Melissa slapped down my suggestion, saying that it wouldn’t help if she doesn’t teach me personally.

With great amount of hesitation, Phoebe took two stalks of roses from Melissa and placed it on few sheets of chiffon. She placed the whole thing on my hand and guided my other hand to fold the chiffons step by step. I watched intently and absorbed as much details as I possibly could. Several demonstration later, I was able to pull off a decently wrapped bouquet.

After about three dozen or so bouquets had been wrapped and prepared, Melissa brought in a large plastic object that looked like a really large chalice. It was later, after we spent almost an entire hour slotting flowers to fill it up, that I knew what it was for. It’s a large flower stand.

“You can do the other one with Brandon. I will see what else I can help Julia with.” Melissa informed and then walked out of the room.

The room became ominously more awkward than it was.

“So, it’s just us.” I tried to break the silence.

“Yeah.”

I guessed that was an improvement. I looked at Phoebe whom was now seemed more engrossed with getting the ribbon curled than to be having a conversation with me. Despite that, I felt like I needed to talk with her. She had been peeking at me too many times for me to not feel like there’s more to us than sitting together in silence. It must have been like ten times or so she had glanced at my general direction.

“Is there something on my face?” I asked curiously. I mean, I hadn’t shaved today and I might have looked a little mangy. Or maybe she wanted to talk but was incredibly shy. I did know a few girls back in high school that were so shy to start a conversation that they stressed themselves out trying to talk.

“No.” she muttered. Okay, she’s definitely a shy girl.

“How long have you been working here?” I attempted again.

“A few weeks. Just for this summer.”

It didn’t take much for me to make the connection. “Summer holiday?”

“Yeah. I’m a sophomore.” She said demurely.

“Oh. That explains it.”

“Explain what?” she finally looked at me.

“I mean, you look kind of young.”

“I see.”

“What are you majoring in?”

“Psychology and philosophy.”

“There’s psychology and philosophy course in high school?” I asked. The young girl nodded. “Oh. That’s cool.”

The situation returned to its frigidly awkward state. Phoebe went back to curling ribbons and I felt the urge to do something. I pretended to be busy by gathering the flowers. It was the kind of moment where the conversation died prematurely and you need to quickly find something to do to justify its sudden termination.

The awkwardness didn’t last. Melissa came back with a whole bunch of other things for us do. We decorated cards, printed out the corrected menu, and rechecking the list of names of people that were invited to the party. To my surprise, there were more than eight hundred people attending. That certainly explained the insane amount of flowers we had to pack.

When I asked, Melissa told me that this was a once in a life time opportunity for Julia’s company. The bride was the daughter of a billionaire while the groom was a rising star in a recent movie blockbuster. Due to my ignorance towards recent screenings, I didn’t know who he was. Nevertheless, the wedding of the ‘perfect’ couple was something not to be missed and would be televised. Hence Julia’s frustration to get things done quickly and perfectly.

“I think you need coffee.” I suggested and Melissa couldn’t have agreed more.

Unfortunately, the coffee machine was down. It had been down for a week and so was the mood of the entire office. Apparently the water wasn’t heated and the coffee that came out was nothing short of an abomination. I gave a quick check on the machine, took out the back panel, saw a burnt fuse, made a temporary fix by jumping the connections with a thin piece of wire and the coffee came out was once again drinkable.

The look on Melissa’s face was priceless when I brought her a steaming cup of coffee. Julia came in later, her hair disheveled and in dire need of a perm, to thank me for fixing the coffee machine. I told her that it was only a temporary fix and that I needed to find a new fuse for the machine. It’s really a fire hazard without a fuse.

During dinner time, Julia ordered pizza for everyone. Since everyone was busy with their work, I decided to be the waiter of the day and served everyone. I brought the pizza to every desk and when they finished cleared out the empty paper plate. I even went around to make sure their paper cups were filled with the drink of their choosing. Melissa told me, perhaps out of guilt, to stop but I told her that I was fine with it. I liked being busy.

Hugo was a little more intimidating to serve than the other employees. While he was polite with his words, he did blatantly flirt with me every chance he had. Every time he took the cup from me after I did the refilling, his fingers would graze mine. Unfortunately for him, I was not gay and had no interest in him.

It was almost nine when a loud shriek pierced through the relative silence of the office. Everyone craned their head over the cubicle wall to see what’s going on. It was Phoebe. She was cursing and banging at her laptop as if her laptop was choking and she’s trying to dislodge something. Julia rushed to her side and asked her what’s wrong only to be told that she had accidentally tipped a cup of orange juice onto her laptop. The two tried again and again to restart the laptop only to find it not responding. That laptop is screwed, I thought. I imagined the tiny ICs and capacitors being sizzled by the high current coursing across the whole board.

“The wedding schedule, crew positioning, family placements, speeches, seating arrangements…” Julia gasped. “Tell me you’ve printed them.”

Phoebe, who now looked like she had just drunk a bottle of bleach, squeaked and shook her head. Julia raked her fingers through her already messed up hair and groaned.

“How could you be so…” Julia hissed in frustration and stopped short of saying something really mean. Phoebe was already in tears.

“Calm down Julia. Haven’t you got back up?” Melissa asked.

“No. We don’t.” Julia groaned. She looked a little less pissed off at Phoebe and more to herself now.

“Told you we should have gotten a backup server.” Hugo sighed dejectedly while rubbing his already stubby chin.

“Do we have enough time to redo everything?” Melissa asked.

“No.” Julia shook her head dejectedly. “We can barely get everything done, and now this.” The office environment suddenly seemed tensed and I knew exactly what everyone was thinking. Is it over, then?

“It’s just the files you need right?” I asked and every pair of eyes turned to me.

“Yeah. Phoebe was going to print them.” Julia said while looking at me hopefully.

“Well, why not just unplug the hard drive from that laptop and use it as an external drive on another computer?” I suggested and was given a confused look by everyone in the room. Seriously, I thought to myself, can they really be this clueless about electronics? “Hard disks are built to last and most are water resistant.” I explained in hopes to make them understand. Their clueless looks only made me realize that demonstration would be best to explain what I meant.

A few minutes later and I had the hard drive pulled out from the drive bay of the laptop and connected it back into one of the unused SATA port in a desktop computer. The driver icon popped up on the screen and when I opened the drive, Julia let out a sigh of relief at the familiar sets of folders. The room burst out into a cheer as if I had just did the impossible, which seemed really unnecessary.

Melissa gave me a pat on my ass and winked at me. Julia pulled me into a grateful hug, which seemed really out of place because I didn’t really do anything at all. I ended up helping them to set up an online cloud storage for them to upload their important files online temporary and suggested them to hire someone professional to install a more robust server backup.

With nothing else to do, I went to the pantry to get myself a cup of coffee. While waiting for the water to boil, Phoebe came in. Her face was red as usual. She looked me in the eyes and stuttered out a thank you before running back out of the pantry. It wasn’t the best thank you I’d received in my life but I guessed she must have lost a kidney saying that.

We finished a few minutes after midnight. Everyone left together. I noticed Julia patted Phoebe on her shoulder and Phoebe placed her arm around Julia’s waist. The strain in their relationship they encountered a few hours ago was nothing but a faded memory.

“You really are handy.” Melissa said in the car.

“It’s nothing.” I shrugged. Not to look down on them or anything, but swapping out hard drive is hardy the epitome of human success.

“Julia invited us both to hang out at the wedding tomorrow to thank us. We don’t need to do anything, really. We just go there and eat, I suppose. Maybe listen to a few speeches. Are you up to it?”

“What time?” I asked nervously, suddenly remembering that Charlotte invited me to her house.

Melissa seemed to see through me when a smile curved her lips. “Charlotte?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Don’t worry. The wedding’s from morning till late afternoon. She’ll still be working.”

“I guess you are right.” I said. “Okay. I’ll go. But don’t I need a suit?”

Melissa cracked a mischievous smile and told me she got just the right suit for me. When we were back at Melissa’s, she told me to take off my clothes. A few minutes later, she came back to them at living room holding what looked like a really well made tuxedo. She told me to put it on and I did. It was a perfect fit, except for the pants, which was almost a foot too short. Fortunately, I did have a black slack pants that matched the color of the tux.

“My God, Brandon. You look delicious.” Melissa purred, tip-toed up, and gave me a hard kiss on my lips. My cock stirred and hardened a little.

“Whose tux is this?” I asked.

“My husband.” She said. “He had good taste in what to wear.”

I supposed he really did. Why else would he spend a gut-wrenching amount of five thousand dollars for a set of clothing? I wouldn’t even spend that much on my favorite soldering table.

Sudden, a cold realization set in and I stared at Melissa for a long time. I froze as thought ran wild in my head. No divorced woman with any self respect would refer the man she left anything other than asshole, jackass, and some other choiced words. Much less husband. My mom, for instance called my dad an asshole.

Melissa saw my confusion. She felt like saying something but then she clammed up.

“Let’s get that out of you.” She said with a wry smile.

After I got out of the suit, I went upstairs to the bathroom to take a shower. Moments later, Melissa came in. She was naked and didn’t hesitate to join me in the shower.

We kissed and rubbed against one another until the hot water ran out. Unlike Charlotte’s digitized heating system, Melissa still used the twin knobs kind. I had accidentally knocked the blue knob a few times and we jolted as the frigid water hit us. I would mutter an apology and Melissa would drag me back in for another hot kiss.

It’s almost like she’s taking out her frustration on me in the form of bodily contact. Like she couldn’t get enough of me to a point that it felt odd. Something wasn’t right.

Once we dried off, we headed to the bed. Melissa was much assertive than Charlotte, I supposed. She pushed me onto the bed and gave me a blowjob right there and then. I watched her stroked and sucked my cock as if it was her favorite toy. I came quickly and just like before, she swallowed the load. I decided I would return the favor and ate her pussy. She moaned and gasped and yelped. When her pussy was wet and gaping, I pushed my hard cock into her. She gasped at my intrusion and mewled when I began moving.

After a while, Melissa told me to roll onto my back. I didn’t know what she was up to but that mischievous smile told me that it would be something I like. She took a piece of ribbon and tied my wrists against the headboard. I tested the restraints. It wasn’t tight and I could easily break them if I chose to.

“Keep your hands up and no cheating. You cannot break the ribbon. Promise?” she leaned so close to me that I simply had to give her a kiss.

“Yes.”

“Okay. Good boy.”

She straddled my waists and grabbed my cock. Pointing my cock upwards, she lowered herself. I moaned at the delightful sensation as my cock disappeared into her pussy.

“Oh, god.” I shivered.

“I’ve always wanted to ride you.” Melissa moaned.

She raised her hips. Her pussy gripped around me hungrily as if it didn’t want to let me go. Then, she lowered her hips, taking my cock into her wet pussy one more. I hissed. My body shook so hard it was hard to keep my hands up.

Melissa picked up the pace. Her movement was hard and fast. My cock slid in and out of her slick hole like a well-oiled piston. In front of me was her perky set of breasts, flushed with arousal, jostling up and down, begging to be touched and kneaded. If only my hands weren’t tied.

“I’m cumming.” I groaned. The familiar pressure had once more reached a feverish point. Melissa, upon hearing that, only hastened her movement. Up and down, up and down, her hips moved efficiently. Her pussy engulfed me again and again. Delicious pleasure rippled across my body. There was no stopping it anymore. I shuddered as jets of hot cum erupted out of my throbbing cock and into her.

“Yes. Brandon. Cum inside me.” She hissed. A low moan rumbled through her throat as if she’s savoring a very delicious of meal. Her face glowed with carnal lust under the orange lamp. A sheath of sweat clung on her forehead as she basked in her own orgasm. Then, as if her soul had left her body, she slumped on top of me. Her forehead pressed against my lips.

I tugged hard against the ribbon and broke free. Then, with care, I lifted Melissa off me and laid her on the other side of the bed. There’s a rivulet of tear rolled down her cheek. I wondered if that was because she thought back about her past. I tugged the edge of the comforter and pulled it over our naked body. Then, I dozed off into a deep sleep.

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