Imploded Lives

Chapter Five – Josie Everett and Don Silver

Chapter Five – Josie Everett and Don SilverTen Days Before

The calendar said it was almost the beginning of spring, but Des Moines was still winter cold. The latest storm left the roads difficult to travel and a number of communities without power. Josie Everett looked at her husband, Tom, who was still in bed, and then turned and walked to the kitchen without speaking. When she had been a prom queen and he had been a football star, they were a match made in high school heaven. But after twelve years of marriage, forever had become harder to see. Tom was in and out of construction jobs with the demand and the weather. Over the years they had both grown in different ways and they slowly had grown apart. She had studied accounting, and to her way of thinking, he had studied nothing but football and craft beer. There was a distance between them that was hard to navigate. When he wanted s*x, her first reaction was to resist. She would tell him that she had a headache or there were other things she had to get done, but he knew the truth. Her desire for him had waned with the growing distance between them.

Josie grabbed a travel cup and some coffee and carefully drove the fifteen miles she commuted to work, but it was hard going in the harsh weather, with cars randomly strewn across and beside the road like pieces arbitrarily left on a game board. She parked in her usual spot and walked into the building. She proceeded to the restroom and checked herself. She was satisfied with what she saw. Her large breasts were always noticed first, and guys had been staring at them since junior high. She had a good figure that she maintained by intermittent jogging and random periods of starvation. She had considered one of the newer, short haircuts that had become popular, but she wasn't there yet. Her long black hair was attractive, and the contrast to her penetrating, dark green eyes still drew stares and smiles. Her high cheek bones and small nose completed an image of elegance and intelligence. Josie would celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday next week and had decided she wanted big changes in her life. She walked back to her office and checked email, responding to several before turning her attention to the documents awaiting her attention and analysis.

At 10:30 a.m., Josie walked down the corridor from her small office to her boss's larger one. She entered and closed the door behind her. He was surrounded by documents as the office was slow to make the turn to paperless. Don Silver was forty and graying at the temples. He was a white-collar guy who was handsome in a Marlboro Man kind of way. He looked up from his laptop and asked, “Any word on my meeting with Encore?”

“Yep. It's all set for Thursday during the L.A. trip.”

“Good news, thanks. What about the pitch to Winston Marble?”

“Waiting to hear back from them,” she said. “If I don't hear today, I'll call them again.”

“Great,” he said and smiled warmly at her.

Josie walked to the door and twisted the lock on the handle. She turned and faced him and then reached under her skirt to slide her panties down to the ground. She stepped out of the panties and walked over to him. She smiled and then reached down and rubbed him over his pants. She got an immediate response. She undid his belt, and pulled his pants down, and then straddled his lap and slid him into her. She began to move, at first slowly and then more rapidly. When the chair began to squeak loudly, they stood and she leaned over the desk. He entered her from behind and tried hard to remain silent so they couldn't be heard by the community of workers not far from the office door. She smiled as he came with deep thrusts and held her tightly. She felt warm all over. It was just the way lovemaking was supposed to feel.

They stood and got dressed.

“Wow,” he said, “that was incredible.”

“Yeah,” she said, “it was.”

He smiled and took her hand. “I can hardly wait to have you all to myself for four days in Los Angeles,” he said.

“It will be wonderful,” she said.

“Where does Tom think you are going?” he asked.

“He thinks I'm visiting my sister in Minneapolis,” she said.

“Your sister will cover for you?”

“Yeah, although she doesn't like it. What about your wife? Is she suspicious about us?”

He shook his head and then said, “No, I don't think that she has any clue at all. She doesn't behave like she is concerned when your name is mentioned.”

She ran a hand through his hair and kissed him softly. “Obviously she should be, though.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he replied.

She combed her hair and straightened her blouse and skirt, and then she emerged from Don's office back into the world of work. She was suppressing a smile and had concerns that an after-s*x glow might be seen on her face. No one should look like they just got laid on a busy day in an office, so she made herself ponder her lengthy to-do list. She felt a flash of guilt about Tom, realizing that at some point there were decisions to be made there; decisions she had been deferring for some time. She still cared about him and a breakup would be hard, but maybe not as hard as staying together when the love was slowly leaking out like air from a punctured tire. Those hard realities brought her back down in a hurry and she was instantly back in work-mode.