John groaned as the man turned the page to read another line of text. "Look, we all know she buggered me with this. Can't we just move on?"
"Mr. Bates?"
"We've been at this for a month and I'm tired of paying bills and salaries to people who can't get the damn job done." John studied each face around the table and no one could meet his eyes. "So no one denies they've been shit at this?"
"There's no need-"
"There's every need when my reputation, money, and credit have been shattered by a woman I already paid too much money to divorce two years ago." John jabbed his finger at the table. "I'm losing money being here. Not just to you leeches who've proven you're not worth the retainers I pay you, but also to the woman still running rampant with the loan she took out in my name. More to the point I've got a commission that's sitting in a storage closet on the other side of the ocean that won't be valid once hurricane season ends."
The room quieted, everyone refusing to meet to his gaze. He took another turn looking the table over before speaking again. "Who's going to solve this problem? Because when I step out of that door I'll waste no time in dialing every solicitor and lawyer this island over to find someone to fix this yesterday."
When no one answered for the second time John pushed off from the table. "It's not been a pleasure and I'll make sure the next person I hire can get me back the money I wasted on your billable hours."
He shoved through the doors, pulling his phone from his pocket and dialing a number. As it reached his ear the sound of someone's huffing breaths took his attention and he turned to see a woman running toward him from the room. John frowned, his finger still tapping the button for the lifts as he flicked his gaze to the glass-paneled room where he spent another day holed up with people who smelled of fragrances too expensive to be worth the double spritz in the morning to see the suits inside angrily shoving papers into briefcases.
Turning back to the woman, John raised his eyebrows and pointed between the phone and the open lift. "I've got to take both of these so if you've got something to say-"
"I can get it back for you." She managed, slipping into the lift with him before taking another moment to haul a deep breath into her lungs. "I know what's happened here, in this whole debacle, and I can get you out of it."
John held the phone slightly away from his ear, biting at the back of his jaw with the hope the wait music on the other end was not loud enough for the woman to tell he was still on hold. "How would you know anything about it?"
"Because you'd be amazed what people say when the caterers are hanging around." She winked at him and John blinked.
"You're a caterer?"
"That's right." She puffed out her chest and then handed over a card from a pocket of the apron bearing no marks of use that either spoke to her efficiency or to whatever scam she was trying to run on him. "I work on contract with this firm."
"Doing what?"
"Replacing pastries and doughnuts and the like." She rolled her shoulders and drew herself to her full height, which barely graced the edge of John's elbow. "It's amazing what people say when the help's around because we're invisible."
"And you want to use that invisibility to do what?" John waved the card, glancing briefly enough at it to guess the woman before him matched the name 'Patmore' on the card. "I've not got a need for a caterer."
"But a man like you's got friends. People throwing exhibitions and parties and the like and I'll tell you what I know for your address book, simple as that."
John chewed the inside of his cheek, narrowing his eyes and then taking a more thorough study of the card in his hand before nodding at her. "Alright, since it'll just cost me friends I'm not sure I want anyway."
"Good." She stepped to the side as the doors dinged open and John exited to the lobby. "I finish here at eleven and then I've got a teatime soiree at three but if you'll come to my catering place at one I can give you some tea sandwiches and the information you want."
"Won't it lose you this business?" John waved a hand at the building around them but Patmore just shrugged.
"There are a lot of places that need pastries and this city's big enough for me to find them all."
"Thank you Ms. Patmore." John nodded at her, "I'll be in touch."
"I should hope so." Her finger hit the button on the lift and the doors closed again, leaving John alone to finally answer the voice calling to him at the other end of the phone.
"Sorry? Yes, sorry, wrong number." John dragged the phone from his ear and headed outside the building, flagging down a cab while hurrying to dial another number.
After a moment the tones of a pre-recorded voice sounded in his ear and John tried to juggle pressing the right buttons while also getting into the cab. Unfortunately it took a bit of shouting into the phone at the incorrect voice cues picking up his directions to the driver while he struggled to connect his end of the call. Finally, as he slammed the cab door shut- handing over more money than the ride was worth to the poor, harassed woman who drove him for enduring the marathon of connecting calls- John sighed into the receiver at the recognizable voice on the other end of the line.
"How are you?"
"I sound better than you do." There was a beat where John thought he could hear the sound of a bedspring. "Long day?"
"Like every day here for the past month." John waved at the man behind the desk of the hotel and took the lift to his floor. "How's it been there?"
"It's all hurricane cleanup here." She sighed into the phone as John worked it between his head and shoulder to open his hotel door. "Do you have a few minutes?"
"I've got to meet someone at one to try and clean up my own mess of a hurricane. It's named Vera."
"They say hurricanes with women's names are the worst because people underestimate them."
"Any response to that'll get me into trouble."
"Probably."
John closed his door and went to the desk to open his laptop. "But you'll never guess who's the one helping me out."
"Your meeting at one?" A snort of confusion reached him as John booted up his computer and waited only long enough to agree to the ridiculous internet fee before clicking on the Skype icon. "You mean you didn't get it all worked out this morning. You said last night you-"
"I know but they didn't have anything new. They're just dithering idiots trying to count it all as billable hours." John selected the right image and then grinned into the screen as Anna's face appeared. He hit the button to end the call on his phone and waved at her. "You look better everyday."
"Charmer." Anna waved back, putting her phone to the side. "You've got me at my most indecent."
"Have I?" John made a show of looking over her but Anna only swatted in the direction of the camera. "You're practically glowing in your pajamas."
"It's like five in the morning here."
"Why didn't you tell me?" John went to end the call but Anna's voice stopped him.
"I'd rather talk to you."
"But you like your sleep."
"I like you more." Anna pulled her legs under her, sitting cross-legged in front of the screen. "Now tell me about your meeting at one."
"It's with a caterer."
Anna frowned, "You're playing a function?"
"Apparently I underestimated the help because this woman's apparently been listening to all the conversations while refilling pastries." John shuddered, "I'm never saying anything sensitive where anyone with a uniform or nametag can hear it ever again."
"What's she want in return?"
"Making assumptions about gender roles are we?" John grinned at Anna through the screen and hurried to continue before she could argue statistics. "She only wants my contact list."
"Is that going to hit your checkbook in any way?"
"I plan to give her the people I hope never call me again." John shrugged, "Luckily for me they tend to be the ones who hold the most annoying galas so she'll get all the business she needs."
"Non-zero sum game and all that?"
"You could say that." John leaned back in the chair, tugging his tie loose. "It's more… I don't know. There's something about it that rubs me the wrong way."
"The obviously convenient timing of the caterer coming forward with the information?" Anna folded her arms, leaning forward and giving John a bit of a view down the collar of her large sleep-shirt top. "It's a bit deus ex machina."
"It's not even that." John let the tie hang off the back of the chair and toed off his shoes before carefully pulling the laptop from the desk and running the cord so it could rest on the bed and he stretched out, propping his head up to look at Anna in the screen. "It's that there's anything going on here. I went to all the trouble to divorce this woman and then these people, whose only job it is to get the work I need them to get done, can't use that to actually get anything done."
"Money's the great destroyer of men."
"Root of all evil." John laid back, sighing at the ceiling and leaving his hands on his chest. "The whole thing… It just feels like an attempt to get me to go crawling back to her."
"Maybe that's what she wants."
"After two years?" John turned his head toward the screen to see Anna laying on her stomach, feet kicking up behind her. "Why bother after all this time?"
"Maybe she's broke."
"More likely she heard I was actually finding relative success in my chosen vocation and wants to destroy my life because my being happy is an insult to her existence."
"Then why not find happiness in a way she can't ruin?" John quirked an eyebrow up as Anna dragged herself to sit up and then pulled her shirt over her head. "It know we're far away but…"
John's jaw dropped and he almost bounced his laptop off his bed as he hurried to get into a position to watch Anna. She did not move, nodding at him until his fingers settled on his buttons. With each one he undid her smile widened and her fingers skimmed over her skin to taunt him with places he wanted to touch and feel again.
"Where's your roommate?"
"They've got me in the attic of their place and if they complain then I'll just pantomime hitting the wall." Anna rolled her eyes, "It's not like she's not made it hard for me to sleep when she's with her boyfriend."
"Not sure international porn is really a justification." John let his shirt flutter to the floor and managed to tug his socks off his feet without losing his balance and then his belt struck the floor. "But I'll go with it."
"It's hardly porn." Anna adjusted her position, sitting back while her legs came up to give John a view of her pajama trousers and the hint of a damp patch. "This is consensual and enjoyable on both ends."
"You make it sound like you've done this before."
"Haven't you?" Anna waited, leaning back on her elbows in the image until John finally left all of his clothes on the floor. "Can't say I've had this much fun with it before."
"What? You've watched someone jack off over Skype before?" John tried to find a comfortable position on the bed before just settling sideways with the computer on the desk chair he dragged next to the bed.
"I did it over the phone once with a boy and it wasn't exactly the best." Anna rolled her trousers down her legs and left him with a view of her ever-dampening knickers. "He went early and then hung up."
"Phone sex operator?"
"Thought about it. I've got a great voice for narration." She ran a finger under the elastic of her knickers, "Is it too needy if I say that I've missed you?"
"All evidence to the positive as to what I'd say to that." John reached over the bed and fumbled with something until he found a tube in his bag.
"Do you really need that?"
"Chafing is a serious thing." John rubbed some on his hands and then paused at Anna's grin. "I get dry hands and vasaline is the best thing for it."
"Multipurpose by the looks of it." Anna watched as John took a bit and rubbed it over both hands before running one of them over his growing erection. "Dear me I only have my hands."
"In other circumstances I'd only need your hands on me." John squeezed at the base and twisted slightly as he skated to the tip. "But I'll have to make do with the prototype versions."
"Because I wouldn't use my hands." Anna trilled into the camera, running her hands up to her breasts and kneading there. "I'd just start with my tongue."
John jerked slightly, eyes falling closed to remember that exact sensation. "You're not playing fair."
"Because you're not experienced with this?" Anna giggled and John cracked his eyes open to watch one of her hands venture back to her knickers, teasing him with a view of her fingers encased in the material. "You've never had phone sex?"
"I lived in the days where calling a girl on the phone meant a party line and the possibility of dialing and reaching her father on the other line." John shuddered, his thumb rubbing over the tip to try and skirting back down. "Nothing shoots a man's horse faster than that."
"Then think about how I'd ride you." John bucked and Anna laughed, "Just like that. Although I can't say I'm an accomplished horseman or anything."
"I think you'd be good at it."
"Because I could control it?" Anna's voice drew John's eyes back to her and they widened when she finally dropped her knickers off the side of the bed to see her spread wide for him. "I've got great muscles."
John groaned, "That's not fair."
"What's not fair is that I can't put my hands or my mouth where I want them." Anna let her fingers circle and caress while John only pulled harder, trying to mimic the clench and cling of her walls around him. "Or that I couldn't do it all at once."
"What?" John gasped past the sensations, images running riot in his mind but none of them matching the depth of possible pleasure she promised.
"See I think I'd want to send you over the edge with my mouth first. You seemed to like my tongue before and I want to see how much more you'd like it when I'd use it on you."
"Anna you're not being kind."
"What's not kind is that I can't put my knees on either side of your head so you'd have to eat me out while I suck you off."
John could no more control himself than stop the rush of plans to get the fantasy now playing over in his brain to become reality as soon as possible. He gasped out, body glistening in the light from the large windows, and finally turned back to the camera. Anna still only teased at the edge as he watched.
"You didn't finish." John blinked, shifting on the bed while trying to clean himself up as best as he could.
"This game goes both ways." Anna stopped moving completely and John studied her in the screen to note the rise of red in her cheeks and the slightly faster tempo to her breathing as her fingers only whispered hints against her skin or tweaked slightly. "You can't take unless you give."
"Then imagine…" John swallowed, trying to organize his thoughts. "Imagine I've got you over me. Your knees are on either side of my head and you're holding onto that useless headboard in my hotel room while I run my tongue over you. It's not as good as yours but it'll do the job."
"Will it?" Anna's voice hitched and John tried to tamp down on his smile at the quiver to her thighs and the tremor in her fingers.
"What I lack in finesse I'll give in effort." John lowered his voice, enraptured as he watched Anna move. "Like when I run it over you, back and forth until all I can smell and taste is you. Then I'd try to find that spot inside you that makes you cry out with that little hitch at the back of your throat. But I'd have to use my fingers for that because my tongue works much better wrapped over your clit so I can suck it into my mouth."
Anna could not respond any longer, her hands working furiously at two different tasks while John tried to find the right words to help her reach the crescendo that rise in her gasps promised waited. One of her legs stretched out while the other bent closer to her body and she tried to find the right place with her thumb working her nerves to send her over the edge. John swallowed and went for the best words he could find.
"Because I wouldn't stop until I'd brought you over the edge. Then I'd drink up whatever was left. Maybe enough to send you over the edge again because there's nothing better than watching you when you come. If I could paint with that particular shade of red you get in your cheeks when you-"
Anna crashed, her whole body vibrating to the point she almost kicked the computer from its position but the image on John's end only teetered. He waited, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she sucked for air, and then grinned when she raised her head to look at him. "Proud of yourself?"
"Aren't you?"
"I'm very proud of you." Anna grabbed blindly for her knickers and used them to try and clean herself up before sitting up. "I repeat my earlier statement. I want you here."
"So you can sit on my face?"
"There are other possible positions." Anna turned her head and then sighed. "I should probably get up for real now since I've got a shift at the research station."
"You're not running deliveries today?"
"I've got those this afternoon. This morning I've got to make sure the island's aware of those storms developing on the ocean." Anna put a hand to the top of the laptop and leaned toward the screen to mime putting a kiss on the camera. "In all seriousness, I want you back here."
"I'm trying to get back there as soon as I can." John turned his head to a knock at his hotel door. "I should probably sign off. It could be housekeeping and I'd hate to leave them this mess."
"I'm a bit fond of that mess." Anna winked at him and then put her finger over a key. "Call me with an update about your caterer."
"You really want me to call with that?"
"It'll tell me how much longer I have to wait for you."
"Then it'll be the first thing I do when I've got an answer for you." John mimed a kiss of his own and disconnected the call as another knock came to the door. "Just a minute. I've… I've got to get decent."
"No need for that."
John froze, hands holding his trousers as he went to put them back on. He shook his head and grabbed for his boxers, shoving into them and then the trousers before making sure the evidence of his sexual Skype call was away before going to the door. The chain slid into position as John opened to see the face of a woman with severe blue eyes.
"Vera?" John tried to peek through the slit in the door to examine the hall. "Where's your boyfriend?"
"He's long gone."
"I wish I could summon up the pity to feel bad for you." John went to shut the door but her hand hit the fake wood. "Have something to say?"
"Wont' you invite me in?"
"I'd rather not risk whatever nefarious thing you've got planned." John shook his head, "Thanks but no thanks. Enclosed spaces with the two of us tend to look the worse for wear when we finish."
"Then you want this conversation in the corridor?"
"I don't want this conversation at all. At least not without our solicitors present. When you're ready to show up for one of those then we can talk." John shut the door and heard her raise her voice.
"Then we'll let everyone know our business?" He tried to ignore it, going to grab for his shirt but stopping when her fist pounded the door. "I'm here for business John!"
He walked back, keeping the chain on the door, and opened it again to look at her. "And what kind of business could you possibly have to talk to me about that you couldn't tell any of the people I sent to find you? Or write back in a dozen emails and half a dozen hand-written letters?" She did not answer and John snorted, "This is just like you. To try and get my attention through the most ridiculous means necessary."
"But you're here." Vera's finger came toward the door and John recoiled before she could touch him. "It must mean something."
"It means you somehow managed to get a loan out with me as the cosigner and you almost wrecked my credit score."
"I had to take out the loan. I needed to make repairs to the house."
John ground his teeth, "Why didn't your boyfriend help you with that? He already soiled the bed when I lived there. I thought he would've appreciated the space enough for some renos."
"I told you, he's gone."
"Oh, did he finally realize that if you were willing to cheat with him you'd also cheat on him?" John gave a mirthless laugh, "Maybe men really are the stupider of the species. You screamed that at me once, remember, when you first told me you'd had ten men in our bed while I was away in York for that entail case."
"I was exaggerating."
"I didn't appreciate the grammatical device." John paused, biting down hard enough on the inside of his cheek to almost draw blood. "But I think what I didn't appreciate more than that was finding out about your little operation."
"We weren't ready for kids."
"That was my decision, not yours alone."
"It's my body."
"It was my child!" John lowered his voice, knocking his forehead against the door before meeting Vera's eyes again. "Just leave me alone, Vera. Haven't you already destroyed me enough for one lifetime?"
"You made me better John." She reached for him again but John only shut the door on her.
"You made me worse." He called through it, furiously wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. "Now leave me alone before I call hotel security."
"You won't get what you want from me."
"I just want you to leave me alone and to leave whatever account you racked up in your own hands and not mine." John paused, trying to gain control of his voice before he spoke again. "Leave me in peace Vera."
He waited and then peeked through the peephole of the door. Part of him wanted to crack the door and check that she really was gone but instead he forced himself to back away. There would be no possible false flags to give her any kind of hope.
As John sat back on the edge of the bed he put his head into his hands and let his shoulders sag. The weight of the conversation lay over him and he tried to summon the strength to even move. But all he could do was sob as the memories of a moment of happiness turned to sour sorrow. The joy of finding the discarded pregnancy test and then getting the call the same day that Vera needed a ride back from the clinic. The sorrow of realizing his dreams were dashed in the very instant he dared to imagine a child with his hair or eyes or nose.
A sorrow that drove him to arrive at Ms. Patmore's location and signal his presence so she took him into her office and gave him the tools to finally exorcise the shadow of his ex-wife from his life.
