dream – and, boy, did they blush! I pretended not to notice it, of course, but it was still fun watching them. I don't care if they keep going, or not – I just want them to be a little more discreet, and quiet, about what they do.'
I laughed at her description, and at what she'd said and done to make her point. I also had to tell her yet again that the now-obvious bruise and tooth marks on my neck weren't anything to worry about, after she saw the green-and-purple blotch on me.
Monday morning, I emailed the corrections and updates I'd made to the code for my client, and got confirmation from them that they'd received it intact. That out of the way, I was sitting in the living room, enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee when the doorbell rang, and when I went to see who it was, my suspicions were confirmed when I saw Sandra and Robyn standing there – though dressed in halter tops and shorts, for a change. I invited them in, and we were chatting in the living room when the phone rang. I answered it, and was surprised to discover that it was Lucy.
I listened as she explained to me that one of her companies customers was suddenly having trouble with one of THEIR customers, and wanted 'someone' to go to their customer's site and do an audit of their books. I asked her what was going on, and she admitted that she was the 'someone' they'd selected to supervise the accountants that would be doing the actual work. She wouldn't be doing anything except acting as*her* company's 'presence', and summarizing the accountant's results. The expectation was that she'd be out of town for as few as 2 days, but perhaps as many as 4. I asked her if she wanted me to watch after the girls, and she laughed, saying 'Yeah. I know it breaks your heart, but could they stay with you while I'm gone? I'd trust either one of them alone in my apartment, but not together – particularly with what's going on between them.'
I said that it wouldn't be any problem, and she said 'I'll bet. I know you're not going to just start jumping their bones, but could you at least wait until I clear the parking lot?'
I laughed, and said 'You will recall that I*do* have a large bed – easily large enough for the girls – and that my couch is plenty large and comfortable enough for ME.'
'Yeah, right. Okay, we'll both pretend that's gonna happen – but you'll excuse me if I don't bet cash money on it, right?'
I laughed again, telling her 'Yeah, that's probably a pretty good idea.'
She answered 'Look, I'm cool with it. I know you're not going to push either one of them into anything; if anything, you'll try to talk them out of it. But I know what they're going to be like at their age, and I don't believe for a minute that you're going to get through these next few days with your good intentions intact.'
With that, she asked to talk to the girls. I asked if she minded if I put her on the speakerphone, and she agreed that it was a good idea.
I gestured to the girls to the girls to come over, and as they did, I got the phone switched over. When they got there, I told Lucy that we were all there, and she started to tell them what was going on. At first, they were disappointed that she was going to be out of town, but quickly cheered up again when they heard her tell them that they were going to be staying with me while she was gone.
With all of us working from the same page, we were able to get the initial details worked out in fairly short order; other stuff would have to wait until Lucy got home with more details. That settled, Lucy told us she'd talk to us when she got home, in a couple of hours, and hung up.
I told the girls to go ahead and go back to the apartment and get enough clothes for a couple of days – including going out in public – along with their nightgowns and robes. Both looked at me as though I'd lost my mind, but left. A short while later they were back, each with a knapsack full of clothing. I had them put their stuff in the bedroom, and got out a set of linens to use on the couch. This time, they fussed a little, and I finally took a moment to explain to them: 'Look, do you*want* Lucy to think we're going to spend the entire time humping each other's brains out? If we don't at least
That seemed to get them settled down, and the rest of the wait until Lucy got home went pretty smoothly.
When she got home, Lucy filled me in on the details I needed to know – when she was due at the airport, where she was going, and where she'd be staying when she got there. She also tried to leave me some money to help pay for their food, and got a little testy with me when I simply laughed at her before telling her 'You know better than that. Keep your money; you might find you need it where you're going.' She grudgingly admitted the possibility, but it was still a few minutes before it left her mind. Still, we all managed to get everything straightened out well ahead of the arrival of the transportation her company had arranged for her. That left the two of us plenty of time to do a little snuggling – and even some making out – before she had to leave.
Part 6
After Lucy left for the airport, I got the girls together and took all of us out to eat – we'd been so busy helping get Lucy packed and getting things organized that we'd completely missed lunch. A little discussion finally found us in a local drive-in fast-food place that made surprisingly good burgers.
About an hour after we got back, I got a call from my client, letting me know that the code I'd written was doing what it was supposed to, and giving me the go-ahead to start on the next part of it while their hardware people finished up their design. Surprisingly, the girls weren't much interested in going to the pool; electing, instead, to spend the afternoon in the bedroom gossiping over the teen magazines they'd brought over. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting myself organized, and thinking through what I thought was likely to happen with the hardware people. Over the years, I'd developed a 'feel' for how good a company's design engineers were, and how efficient they were. For this particular client, I knew their engineers were good enough, but that management couldn't resist sticking their thumbs in the process. Though not a hardware engineer, I was fluent enough with it to be able to anticipate the scenarios that they would likely run into; with that knowledge, I would write the program in such a way that covered all but the last bit of the hardware/software that I thought would bite them on the ass; and put the frame in place for the last little bit, so that I was prepared for any last-minute changes. It was more work for me during the 'regular' part of the development cycle, but paid BIG dividends when they (invariably) hit me with last-minute changes – the bonuses I earned more than made up for the difference. Only rarely did I have to actually pull 'all-nighters' to meet a deadline. Amazing what a little planning and organization can do for one's bank account…
As it got toward late afternoon, I finally got things set up so that I could begin coding the next day; when I was done, I went into the bedroom and asked the girls if they were hungry yet. Due to the late lunch, they weren't; instead, they wanted to know if I'd go swimming with them for a little while. I agreed, and before I could even get to where my swim trunks were, they'd both jumped off the bed and stripped, leaving me with plenty look at as they took their time getting their suits on. Figuring 'the hell with it', I didn't pay any attention to them as I changed, too.
With all of us ready, we grabbed towels, and headed for the pool, where we spent a good half hour chasing each other around in the water, playing a pool-bound game of tag. I'll leave it to the reader to guess who was 'it' most of the time.
When I'd had enough, I declared my participation over, and climbed out to lay on one of the lounges as the two of them continued their game by inviting a couple of the other kids that had shown up while we were playing. The boys were the most enthusiastic about joining in – at least, until they discovered that Sandra and Robyn both were far superior swimmers, and almost impossible to catch (and thus, touch).
Finally, they tired, as well, and climbed out to come over to stand over me, dripping water on me until I opened my eyes to look up at them – and notice that the slight breeze was cooling them in some rather interesting ways and places. Once they had my attention, they made it more than clear that they were ready to leave, for a variety of reasons.
When we got back to my apartment, the two of them quickly headed straight for the bedroom, leaving me to close and lock the front door. When I went in to get out of my suit, I found that they'd already shed theirs. They
