Adam's Journey Pt. 31

I woke to my alarm far too early the next morning, well before the sun would put in an appearance. I was relieved to notice no apparent after-effects of the alcohol consumed the previous evening, and I started a pot of coffee and took a quick shower. Exiting the shower I saw the other Cialis pill that Sue had given me laying on the bathroom counter in it's tiny baggie and, once dried off, I dropped it in the small aspirin bottle that I carry in my toilet kit.

Lord knows I'd have no need for it at the jobsite, but who knew what the following week might bring. Besides, Kristi would be at the house and I didn't want to take any chances on her finding it, not needing any questions asked. It felt extremely odd to leave without kissing her goodbye and starting the countdown for when we would see each other again, but things change.

I left her a short note thanking her for house- and dog-sitting for me, and telling her how much I would miss her, then filled my coffee mug and thermos, said goodbye to Ralph, who opened his eyes briefly but didn't bother to get up, and left with my last small bag and coffee in hand.

I was west of Laramie by the time the sun came up, and at the jobsite about 4 or 5 hours later. The days there passed fairly uneventfully, the necessary repairs to the equipment having been completed. The August weather, with it's hot days and cool nights, was much easier to live with than the winters in Wyoming, although the wind was a little tough at times, blowing sand, dirt, and any loose equipment around. I loved the huge open sky and the smell of the dust and sage, and felt very much at peace out there.

Three days before I was to begin my vacation the scheduled maintenance and upgrade period for the remote data collection sites rolled around, and I knew I had a very long day ahead of me as part of a two person team that would travel by ATV to the remote sites in order to maintain and repair the hardware, download data, and upload new software at the four remote sites.

The remote sites surrounded our worksite at four outlying test bores, miles out over rough terrain, and it typically took twelve to fourteen hours to reach and service them, a task that needed to be done about every sixty days. I had argued in favor six or eight remote sites in order to gather more complete data, but at these moments I was kind of glad there were only four.

Dana had volunteered to accompany me, and she's a whiz with the programming, software, and data gathering end of our work so I welcomed her help. We loaded up the supplies and fired up the four-wheelers, leaving as it was beginning to get light, hoping to get back before it was fully dark that evening.

I had looked at Dana several times that week, remembering that Kristi had suggested I invite her along with me to Lake Powell, and as I watched her tight little ass, tightly encased in it's blue denim wrapper as she hovered over the seat of the bouncing four-wheeler ahead of me, it didn't seem like a bad idea at all. Then too, I had been without sex for six or seven days at this point after being badly oversexed my last trip home, so I probably was entertaining thoughts that I should have quickly stepped on.

Dana had been our intern and resident computer whiz-kid for about eight months at this point, and except for one incident which I had to step in on, she and I had not had anything other than purely professional contact. We had all been a little concerned when we had found out that some human resources genius at the company had decided to send a woman out to this remote site to live and work with a bunch of guys (eight to twelve men at any given time), and when I first saw her I figured trouble was inevitable.

Dana showed up in her Jeep Laredo, slim and sexy in tight jeans and a heavy down coat at the Sinclair station near the interstate, and followed me in to the site for her first stay. Despite her youth and the long brown hair, full lips, ready smile, and sexy little swing to her walk, she had turned out to be very much the professional, and her abilities and easy going attitude quickly earned her the respect of most of the guys.

The living quarters were not set up to house men and women separately, nor was there a separate bath house, but we hung blankets for her privacy and tried to work around each other's schedules, and relatively few embarassing situations occurred. When they did she took it with a sense of humor and grace, and the same practicality that had caused her to hack her own hair short just days after her arrival, for ease of maintenance.

The short hair just gave her a sexy little pixie-tomboy look, so it didn't keep the guys from noticing and fantasizing about her, but their kidding and sexual jibes were generally well received and fired right back at them, and it quickly became apparent that she could handle herself just fine and was quite comfortable among the men. With one exception.

Every worksite has one, the ubiquitous asshole that always has to push too far, that always has to know more, talk louder, act tougher, and think he's smarter than anyone else, and we had Brian. I was always a little amazed each morning that Brian hadn't been killed silently during the night and had his body dumped in a ravine for the coyotes, but each day there he was, at breakfast, and each morning I chalked up another day of borrowed time for him.

Thinking himself God's gift to women (and to the world in general), I figured it was just a matter of time before Brian screwed up and pushed Dana too far, and after a few weeks of exposure to each other I could see her tighten up when he was around, her body visibly tensing up and her jaw clenching until her lips were white. I knew the tipping point was coming, and as the nominal on-site supervisor I had called her aside to talk to her about it.