Satisfaction Pt. 01: Ch. 01 to 07

Luv yer, Glen

Glen had hardly had a chance to look at his bank statement when he received a reply from Jan.

Clueless:

I'm as brown as a berry. All over. I mean ALL over. Shaved clean down below too. My skin glows. My nipples were sore for a while when the sun burned them. Got so sensitive. I thought of you as I rubbed the balm into them.

I'm getting along famously with my new companion, Cynthia. She likes to be called Cyn. You can't make this kind of thing up.

My sister, as I call her, reciprocates the good-vibes feeling. No demands by MF so all is good. We've decided to play along if MF decides to ask us to do each other. Weird (my fav recent word) as it may seem I think I may enjoy it. We haven't had any rehearsals, but I came close to initiating something when she was putting suntan lotion on my back.

Jan

PS I just received your email. Wendy's reeling you in good. Glad to hear you're going for it. The box inquiry from her is a major breakthrough. Love J

Chapter 6

Putting on the Pressure

Glen sent his agreement to supervise the youth program by email. He heard nothing from Wendy and was close to contacting her when he had a phone call.

"Glen. I was remiss not to thank you for your acceptance to run the youth activity program. I was away for the week and then tied up in other matters. The good news is that the Management board of St. Simon's approved the indoor soccer with Ultimate Frisbee project on a one-year basis for fourteen to eighteen-year-old kids only. The parents paired with youth idea was held in reserve if the youth option failed to attract enough kids." She sounded as if she was reading from some minutes.

"Good to hear."

"I'll manage the equipment purchases and have the assembly hall detailed to accommodate the soccer. Can you come over to discuss the building improvements with me and our facilities guru? Greg's an engineer who is one of our congregation."

"Sure. But I have a condition: only if I can take you to lunch afterward. Can we make it say about eleven one morning soon?"

"Lunch? Why would you want to do that?" Wendy paused for a moment, "That sounds ungrateful, sorry. Sure, I'd like to have lunch with you. Let me line up Greg and we'll email you when we can do it."

Wendy called back twenty minutes later. "Are you available tomorrow? At eleven as you suggested."

"I'll be there. I'm taking you somewhere nice afterward."

Glen felt nervous at first, and then panic set in. He didn't know the local restaurant scenes very well. Which was nice enough to take Wendy to?

Jan:

Panic. I've invited Wendy out to lunch tomorrow to somewhere nice, implying dress up nice. I don't know where to take her. Get back to me asap with the name of a good one locally. Help!

Glen

Glen checked his laptop every half hour before he had to sleep. The first thing he did when he woke up was to check again. He whooped when he saw he'd received a reply. It was cryptic.

Clueless:

Luigi's. Phone to reserve a table near the back.

Now on a Greek island with Cyn and MF. No action yet.

.

Glen found Luigi's website. Photos looked good. He blanched at the prices but rationalized that he was spending very little at the moment anyway. He called. They were not open yet. He got through later, before he left, and made a reservation.

The meeting at the church went well and Greg thought the minor improvements could be completed in about a week.

Glen noticed that Wendy had dressed up slightly, wearing a skirt that was just above her knees. He could see that she had slim, shapely legs.

They drove in Glen's truck to Luigi's. As they arrived Wendy sounded excited, "Oh. Luigi's. I've only been here once before. It's terrific."

"I'm told it's good. Let's see."

Glen bounded around his truck to open the door. He was rewarded by a full-length view of Wendy's legs as she got out of the high cab. He felt his cock stir.

An obsequious maître d' looked at them and announced, "I have the perfect table just waiting for you." He led them to the back of the room to an almost-enclosed circular space with a round table.

"Oh. My." Wendy uttered.

Glen was now concerned. "You OK with this? I can ask for another table."

"No. It's just fine." She then grinned. "You're not trying to seduce me, are you?"

Glen did not know what came over him when he spoke. "Of course. But we'll eat first." He was just about to backpedal when Wendy laughed.

"Good luck with that."

Glen continued, "I've always been lucky."

He did not know where his flirty words were coming from. Then he thought of Jan and knew she would have approved.

"I bet you have. Gotten lucky that is. But I think we're getting a bit off course. And, I hope you agree a touch inappropriate." She grinned again. "For a first date."

Glen almost choked on the water he was sipping. "This is a date?"

"Only in a manner of speaking. Not a date, date. If you know what I mean."

The situation was saved by the waitress arriving with the menus and a monologue about the chef's specials of the day. They ordered the meal and Wendy declined to have any wine. She stuck with water. Glen ordered a glass of the house special red.

They talked more about the church youth. After a quiet moment Glen spoke again, "You know about my background. What path has brought you to where you are today?"

"Starting where you did: my grandparents were farmers and the other side of the family, shopkeepers. They were all early immigrants. My dad started and thrived in an import business and became quite rich. My mother stayed at home. I had a younger brother who killed himself on a motorbike when he was eighteen. I had just finished my MBA when Toby died. I've never fully recovered from his loss. The young vicar, just five years older than me, who counseled us became a family friend. I later married John. Been a vicar's wife ever since. We've been here for ten years."

"Family?"

"No. I'm unable to have children much to my parents' dismay. All that help? It's beginning to sound like a date. Change subjects, please."

Glen detected Wendy's discomfort. Reviving the memory of her dead brother clearly troubled her.

"You asked me about a specific box from the bazaar. Do you know who submitted it?"

Wendy chewed her lip. Glen did not let her off.

"Hmmm. You know what. I take the fifth."

"The fifth?"

"Yes. The fifth. You understand?"

"Ok. That tells me a lot, you know?"

"Whatever."

"I've read the stories. Pretty racy for congregation members, if that it is who wrote them. Did they?"

"Fifth." Wendy's eyebrows raised.

"I'd like to meet them."

"Fifth."

"OK, inquisition over. Give my question some thought. That's all I ask."

"OK. I'll give it some thought. Can we change subject?"

"Sure. Are you happy as a vicar's wife?"

"Wowee buster. That's a swing for the fences. I can only answer one thing, deliriously."

Glen pressed on even though he thought he'd blown the whole meal. "Ok. Let me try this. How do you think the school's football team will do next year?"

"Much safer. With you at the helm, pretty good I would say. Top three."

They continued their conversation bouncing around, staying clear of uncomfortable subjects, until they had finished their coffee and it was time to leave.

Glen wound up the conversation. "I should tell you I'm going to be away for a week, in Houston. I leave on Friday. I'll contact you when I get back and have sobered up."

"A woman or football?"

"I take the fifth. Nah, it's football related, and I catch up with three of my university buddies every year. High School Coaches Association annual conference."

Glen drove Wendy back to the church. She held his hand as she thanked him for the lunch.

"I'll give that other matter some thought while you're away."

She turned and did not look back. Glen did not know what to make of the meal and had no idea what Wendy really thought of him. He received mixed messages. He wondered if she was the type of woman to just use him as it suited her needs.

Chapter 7

The Ambush

"Hi Wendy, I'm back."

"Welcome back. I'm so happy. All approved. One condition though, it has to be open to both sexes. Hope you can live with that. We're ready to start the youth program as soon as you're are ready. We'll have to get the word out. I've spoken with the rugby people behind us and providing none of our young folks wear cleats on their shoes we can use their field if there is no game or practice going on. It's rarely used." Wendy was not to be stopped as Glen tried to get a word in. "Greg has fixed up the great room for the soccer. We have a dozen Frisbees and a similar number of soccer balls. The floor lines are painted and anything vulnerable has been protected. I think that covers it all."

"Wow, Wendy. You guys certainly know how to move things along. I'm OK with mixed teams. Insurance issues covered?"

"Yes. Our insurance agent has looked at it and we're fine."

"Put out the notice for Monday and Thursday evenings. I'll send a brief description of the program."

Wendy slowed down. "Any chance you can come over on Thursday evening to look over the work Greg did? I'd like you to check it out. Say, about six thirty?"

"Sure, I should be organized back at home by then." Glen felt a brief flutter in his stomach as he thought of seeing Wendy again. "Another date?" Glen heard Wendy giggle.

"Of course. Want to know what I'll be wearing?"

"Surprise me."

The flirting continued. She sounded much more relaxed than when he left her about ten days earlier.

********

Before Glen could sit, Wendy stood up from her office chair and suggested, "Let's go and look at the Great Room improvements and how the storage is working."

Glen followed her and was attentive as she showed all the work that had been done. The packaged balls and frisbees sat on a shelf in a tidy storage room. They walked out to the field to look around. Glen observed that the grass was in excellent condition.

Returning to Wendy's office she asked, "Satisfied? This is your chance, otherwise it's a signoff."

"Perfectly. There may be other things we discover as we go along."

"I have contingency budget funds left over for such occurrences. I'll get the notices out and start the promotion of the activities. Now what about you? How was Houston?"

"My buds were good. All three are now family men with small children, so whereas we used to go to strip bars and party all night when we were younger the conversations are now about diapers and getting sleep. At least we can do it in a sports bar. And beer is still drunk."

Wendy glanced up at the clock and noticed it was already seven-fifteen. "Oh. There's something else I must show you before you leave. Do you have some time?"

"Nothing on my agenda for tonight."

"Good."

Wendy rose and turned toward the back of the building. Glen had never ventured down this corridor. They stopped and turned into a room.

"Some people I'd like you to meet."

Glen glanced at the five women who sat around a large table littered with books and paper. He immediately recognized one as being the art teacher at his school. Her name was Daphne as he remembered it. The youngest of the women looked in her late twenties and the oldest in her late fifties. He guessed the other three were from their mid-thirties to mid-forties. The thought crossed his mind that they were all here to thank him for running the youth program.

"Meet the book club. I told them about you and repeated your bio which you told me. Hope you don't mind."

Glen thought, I'm getting known. No secrets around here.

"To balance things out let me go around the table. There will be a test at the end." Wendy gave a brief version of her giggle.

"Our youngest member Abigail, Abby, is a widow whose husband died in Afghanistan. She's a project manager with an engineering firm in town. I should add she is also our inveterate practical joker. Very practical and quite literal rather than literary. Abby brings a whole new perspective to our discussions, isn't that right?" Wendy nodded to Abby.

"As usual, you nailed it Wendy."

Glen detected a slight competitive undertone to both Abbey's and Wendy's comments but took the high road. "Hi Abby. I am sorry to hear of your loss. That's terrible." Glen leaned over to shake her hand.

"Next to her is Beatrice, Bee, married with five kids. Former model and somehow finds time to do social work. You'll see her second-oldest in your program."

Glen raised his hand in a greeting gesture. "Pleased to meet you, Bee."

"Carol is a teacher at another school, married with two teenage girls. She is lucky to have a successful businessman as a husband, so they can afford lots of travel every summer except this one. You are lucky she is here."

"Sound like you have a full life, Carol. I'm jealous. I rarely travel abroad."

"Daphne you know from your school. Also, a teacher. Art."

"Hi, Daphne. We survived another year, right?"

Daphne just nodded and smiled in response.

"And last but not least is our diminutive dynamo Ruth. Her early life is a bit of mystery to us, but we all know the church would not run as well or look as beautiful without her around. She is a magnificent and our grandmother of three girls and three boys. As you can see from her youthful appearance both she and her daughters were quick off the mark having children."

Glen could not resist. "Were you of legal age when you started, Ruth?"

"Started or had my first child? I'll never tell."

Wendy could see where that line was going so she interrupted, "There is one more occasional member, Janice who you know. She's in Europe at the moment."

Glen was stunned to hear of Jan's connection to this group. With difficulty, he maintained enough poise to stand and make a graceful bow.

"Ladies, it's a pleasure to meet you all. My time will be busy with the youth activities, so it is unlikely I'll have time for the book club." He thought to himself, was Jan a part of this group?

Wendy, the leader, looked puzzled and jumped in. "Join the book club? No, that's not why you're here." She was silent for a moment to build for the big reveal. "These are the authors you were looking for."

Glen articulated the first question that sprang into his mind out of the fog of his confusion. "May I ask, was Janice one of the authors?" He held his breath as he remembered her tease of clueless.

"No actually. She got so tied up with work she was no part of the erotic story exercise, and probably didn't know anything about it. Did you tell her, Daphne?" For clarification she directed at Glen, "They're good friends."

Daphne answered, "I didn't mention it. You recall we all agreed we'd keep this one close to our chest. I didn't tell anyone."

Glen felt a wave of relief wash over him.

Not knowing what else to say, Glen asked, "What are you reading at the moment?"

Bee answered, "We've just read The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson and have the first book of The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon on deck."

"Can't say I know either of them. Maybe I'll try them."

"You're a reader?" Ruth asked.

Glen gave his most disarming smile. "Sure. I read."

"No. Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Glen continued, "I notice you all have papers in front of you with stories on them. Do you write regularly?"

Wendy chipped in. "Every six months we agree on a theme and write a short story on that subject. We share between ourselves. We've probably come up with half a dozen stories that are probably publishable over the last three years. We're thinking of self-publishing."

A light went on. "That's how you came to be writing erotica?"

Glen could not resist. A heavy silence hung over the room for a good fifteen seconds. The women looked at each other back and forth.

"You've got it." Wendy gave a lopsided smile.

"Looking at you all I would have never guessed. But, hey, the evidence doesn't lie. How did this erotica caper come about?"

"Well...." Wendy paused, and took a deep breath. "A caper. I like that. Quite separately, four of us had heard about the Shades of Grey trilogy and wondered what the fuss was all about. By mutual agreement we used the Shades books as one of our month's assignments. We were all somewhat shocked, not particularly impressed but perhaps a bit titillated -- such an accurate word -- by the books. In our discussions we wondered if we were capable of writing erotic short stories. We tried. You've seen the results."

"I have. You have some excellent imaginations, I must say."

Abby chipped in. "So, as an independent critic, and a man I should add, are they erotic, or perhaps I should say arousing?"

"If I answer that I'm not sure what I am saying about your efforts and about myself." Glen was not intentionally being coy. He just did not know how to handle the question.

Ruth jumped in. "Excuse me saying so, but that's a bit of a chicken-shit answer. Did you get hard reading any or all of them? A straight yes or no."

Glen felt pinned. He was devoid of the political skills to respond with a non-answer. He looked at Wendy for help. She adopted her characteristic position with her head tilted to one side, with her eyebrows up slightly awaiting an answer. Glen looked around the table at the rest of them. Each had wide eyes in anticipation of his reply.

Glen decided to throw caution to the wind. He took a deep breath. "Yes, I had an erection and then went on from there. That what you wanted to hear?" After a moment's silence, Wendy whooped and the woman all laughed and high-fived each other. He'd never seen anything like it.

Carol joined the conversation. "Dammit. A real man at last. Would you like to join our club?"

Wendy jumped in. "We ambushed you, Glen. So, apologies for that. But after your harassment of me at Luigi's about the stories I felt I had rights to a bit of revenge. We've come up with a plan you might find a pleasurable challenge. Clearly, you were enjoying the sleuthing to find us, but we cut that off when we handed ourselves to you. We've come up with a secondary investigation since you seem to like lifting the veil. Your task, like Mission Impossible, if you are prepared to take it, is to discover which one of us wrote which story."

"We're all agreed." Ruth said. You can ask five personal questions for each of us. No direct tricky-dicky questions though, like, 'Who do you think wrote such-and-such story?' If you do not get one right, you are closed off from any more inquiries. Agree to the terms?"

"Ladies. You are clearly a fun bunch. Backing up a bit, be assured anything you have heard, or I have discovered, does not go beyond these walls. Right? This cuts both ways." They all nodded their agreement. "I look at you and I see five respectable women. You ladies are all pillars of St. Simon's. I think your bit of naughtiness should be contained. I will retain the erotic stories and tell no one of their existence. Trying to attach one story to the author could lead to other complications. I would have to get to know each of you better to match you to your sexy stories."

Daphne spoke, "Glen, you're a bit of a smooth talker. But haven't you told someone already? Janice? She told me you'd found the stories. She now knows about the existence of the stories from you. As a member of the book club, we'll fill her in fully when she returns. If you can hold off telling her more it would keep things closer."

"OK. If it comes up, I'll tell Jan to talk to you, Daphne, if that's OK."

Glen continued. "I don't know where all this figuring out and asking personal questions could lead. Would it prove to be difficult or pleasant? Further, it may draw unnecessary attention to all of us. All that said, I find the idea to be an intriguing prospect. You are all attractive women and revealing your inner dirty side could be quite erotic in itself. On balance, the risk to you and me is too great, so I must decline your stimulating offer."