Another Time, Another Place

Under no set of circumstances could Craig ever visualize Kay as a man. As for the other suggestion, that wasn't a place he even wanted to go. Not after one of his college buddies had screened some old 80's adult films at a stag party one night, and he realized that the woman on the screen bore a striking resemblance to his best friend's mother. They even had the same first name and a similar last name.

"I'm only mentioning it at all because I want you to remember what I said about keeping any relationships casual right now," Kay went on. "You're doing great, and now is not the time to get distracted."

"I guess not," Craig agreed.

"All I'm saying is, before the two of you take it any further," she concluded, "you should make sure she knows you aren't looking for a serious commitment right now. If she's fine with that, all the better. If not, then it's better that you're honest up front."

"You're right," he further agreed.

"I know I'm right," Kay said with a knowing smile. "Now finish your drink and go off on your date. Have fun."

Putting her own now empty glass on the bar, Kay turned and headed for the door and the street outside.

-=-=-

If Craig had thought his first three months at Eaglestone had gone by quickly, the second quarter seemed to go by twice as fast. Once again, he found himself summoned to Chester Brown's office for his review, the results of which matched or exceeded the first. More importantly, to him at least, this time his high rating had also come with a raise.

As he had promised Kay that night at the bar, Craig had been quite honest with Julie about his not wanting to get into a serious relationship. To his delight, it turned out that neither was she. Even better, she had no qualms about taking what they did have to a more physical level, beginning with that very night. He and Julie continued to sleep together for the next four weeks, and the sex was so good that Craig wondered if perhaps Kay had been wrong about making the relationship more permanent. In the end, however, it turned out not to matter as, while Julie was indeed both quite uninhibited in bed as well as non- demanding relationship wise, she also eventually grew tired of having the same man in her bed and moved on. Still it had been a lot of fun while it lasted.

"Congratulations," Kay said, raising her drink to him as they sat at the bar for their weekly libation. "It's well deserved," she said of his raise.

"Thank you," Craig replied, tipping his own glass to hers before taking a drink.

"So, what are your plans to celebrate your good fortune?" Kay asked.

"I guess this is it," Craig said, looking down at his drink and wondering how the glass has already gotten so empty.

"No, that's not right," Kay insisted. "You should call up a few of your friends and go out."

That sounded great in theory, Craig explained, but the truth was that he had fallen out of contact with most of his college friends, as well as those he knew from the old neighborhood. In addition, he had been spending so much time working on all the projects Chester kept assigning him to, he hadn't been able to hang out with any of the guys in the office, much less find a replacement for Julie.

"Definitely not right," Kay repeated. "An occasion like this should be marked by some sort of celebration."

"I'm open to suggestions," Craig said, realizing for the first time in weeks that he had fallen into the old all work and no play scenario.

"Well, if you wouldn't be too embarrassed being seen with an old lady, we could go out for dinner and maybe take in a movie, or if you're really feeling daring, I know a club where they play some great old time rock n' roll."

"You mean like a date?" Craig asked, unsure of what she was suggesting.

"No, not a date," Kay smiled, "although I'm somewhat flattered that you'd even think such a thing. Just two friends spending time with each other. We are friends, aren't we?"

"Of course," Craig smiled back, "and I think that's a great idea."

"Let's be off then," Kate replied, picking up the excess bills from the bar top, leaving enough for a tip for the bartender.

Stepping out into the street, Kay was lucky enough to flag down a taxi that was stopped at the light right outside. As Craig followed her into the back seat, she gave the driver an address down in the East Village. The driver somewhat grunted his acknowledgement and pulled out into traffic.

"I hope you don't mind if we stop by my apartment for a few minutes first," she said to Craig. "Just long enough for me to freshen up and get a change of clothes."

"No, not at all," Craig replied, glancing down at the casual shirt and slacks he was wearing.

"Don't worry, what you have on is fine," Kay assured him. "I'm the one that overdressed."

Luck in the form of light traffic was with them and they pulled up in front of a six story red brick apartment building on the corner of East 9th Street a short time later. As Kay paid the driver, Craig looked up and down the street at the variety of buildings.

"Nice block," he said as she joined him on the sidewalk.

"I like it," Kay replied, then added with a gesture that the entrance to the left was hers. "No elevator, I'm afraid, and I'm on the fourth floor."

"Not a problem," Craig smiled.

The apartment was decorated in much the same style as he remembered the Parkes' house back in Brooklyn. In fact, some of the items he spotted in the living room were familiar as being from there. On the far wall was a set of shelves filled with a number of sports and academic awards. Craig knew that most of them belonged to George; the rest had been won by Kay's younger son, Steven, who had enlisted in the Navy after high school.

"Do you live here alone?" Craig asked, thinking that in all of their talks he had never heard Kay mention a man in her life.

"I have a roommate," Kay said casually as she draped her suit jacket across a chair, "but she's away for the evening."

"Oh," Craig replied, finding it a little funny that someone Kay's age would have a roommate.

"It's not as funny as you think," she said as she noticed the look on his face. "Both of us spend so much time at work that we're hardly ever here at the same time, and splitting the rent and utilities works out great. You wouldn't believe what they charge these days in a neighborhood like this."

Actually, Craig would believe it. A month after he'd gotten the job at Eaglestone, he'd entertained the idea of relocating to Manhattan. It only took two days of apartment hunting to convince him that living in his parents' basement wasn't so bad after all. At least for the foreseeable future.

"Make yourself comfortable while I take a quick shower," Kay said, "There's six hundred channels on the cable and cold soda, or beer if you like in the refrigerator. I shouldn't be more than fifteen or twenty minutes."

"I'll be fine," Craig insisted as he sat down on the couch and picked up the remote.

It didn't take him long to realize that with six hundred channels, it would take forever for him to find something that actually interested him. There was a TV Guide on the coffee table and he picked it up to narrow it down. On the front was an address label and the name wasn't Kay's. It said Estelle Jones.

"How about that," Craig mused, thinking his now long ago assumption about the two of them had been right on the money. They'd been not only friends, but also roommates.

Even with the guide, it proved impossible to find anything that caught his interest and Craig turned off the television. He'd heard the water from the shower already turn off and figured that Kay would only be a little while longer. Looking around the apartment, he spotted a familiar framed photograph on the bookcase and got up to get a better look at it.

The picture that had caught his attention had been taken about five years back, in the backyard of the Parkes' house in Brooklyn. That had been the summer that he and George had turned eighteen only a few weeks apart and Mr. Parkes had thrown a barbecue to celebrate. It saddened Craig to think that George's Dad died only two years after the photo had been taken; he'd always been nice to him.

"The two of you were so cute back then," Kay said from behind Craig, having reentered the room so quietly that he hadn't heard her. "I almost envied all the girls in your class."

Craig smiled as he turned around, his eyes flashing wide when he realized that Kay was wrapped in only a bath towel, one that looked just a bit too small to contain the body beneath it.

"But you're even cuter now I think," she grinned as she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Craig actually blushed, not sure if it was the kiss that did it or her partial state of undress. Kay's response seemed to think she considered it the latter.

"You'll have to forgive my appearance," she offered as she glanced down at the amount of cleavage the towel failed to cover. "I probably should've taken a robe into the bathroom with me, but when you live practically alone you forget about things like that. Normally I just would've walked out of the bathroom naked, if you could imagine such a thing." she laughed.

The image of such a thing was enough to leave Craig speechless.

"Just give me ten more minutes and we're out of here," Kay promised as she dashed toward her bedroom.

"Wow!" Craig exhaled quietly as he watched her disappear behind the closing door.

-=-=-

True to her prediction, Kay was out of her bedroom in just under nine minutes. Wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a light green top, the top buttons of which undone just enough to give a hint of what lay below, the forty-four year old was even more impressive than in the business attire he had become accustomed to seeing her in.

"Now that didn't take too long, did it?"

Craig just shook his head no.

"I already called for a cab on my cell," Kay said as she pulled a light suede jacket from the closet and put it on. "It should be downstairs by the time we get there."

Five minutes after they exited the building the expected cab pulled up and as they climbed into the back seat, Kay gave their destination to the driver. It was only a ten-minute ride, but would've taken two or three times as long if they'd taken the subway.

The club was situated under a dry cleaning store and if you didn't see the small, barely illuminated sign, you'd have to have already known it was there. From the amount of people filling the tables once they were inside, Craig surmised that quite a lot of people knew that it was.

"I think we might have to stand at the bar," Craig said, failing to see a single empty table.

"Nonsense, I'm sure we can find..." Kay started to say, then spotted some familiar faces and instead called out to a middle-aged couple sitting a half dozen tables away.

Her voice couldn't quite carry over the music, but the man at the table evidently saw her waving and returned it with a motion for them to join him and his companion. With only a small space to maneuver between the tables that was easier said than done, but they did so with a little effort.

"Kay my dear, how wonderful to see you again," the older man said as he pulled out a chair for her, "it's been far too long since we've seen you in here."

"Well, you know how busy work keeps me, Carl," Kay said as she settled into the offered seat.

Craig pulled out the remaining seat and sat down as well, earning a smile from Carl's companion, who was now directly across from him.

"Craig, I'd like you to meet Carl and Lana Castleton, they're old friends of mine," Kay said in way of a quick introduction, and then after turning to the couple said, "I'd like to introduce Craig Ross, who not only has the good fortune to work with me at Eaglestone, but happens to be my son, George's best friend."

Hands were presented across the table and following a brief flurry of exchanges, during which Carl inquired just how Kay's son was doing, the foursome sat back to enjoy the music. A waiter appeared to take drink orders and Carl, after having heard that they were celebrating Craig's raise, ordered a bottle of champagne for the table.

The music was, as Kay had mentioned earlier, old time rock and roll. Craig had developed a great appreciation for what Mrs. Parkes had always referred to as the classics when he and George had been growing up. Enough so that when someone mentioned Elvis, he knew they were talking Presley and not Costello.

A second bottle soon followed the first and both the conversation and music seemed to get better with the passing hour. Craig was surprised how the age difference among the four of them, the Castletons had to be at least ten years older than Kay, seemed to fade away. He was having as much fun as he might've had sitting in a club with his peers.

"Let's dance," Kay said.

"What?" Craig replied, a sudden rise in the music level drowning out her words.

"I want to dance," she repeated, "and don't dare tell me that you don't know how to dance to this kind of music because I know better."

Grinning as he remembered summer afternoons when Kay Parkes had taught a number of neighborhood kids how to dance, Craig worked his way out of his chair and turned to pull out Kay's, only to find she was already on her feet. She took him by his hand and navigated a path among the tables until they reached the dance floor.

It had been a while since he'd danced to the music of the sixties and seventies but it quickly came back to him. Kay, on the other hand, seemed to fall right into step as if she went dancing every night. Her body moved in time with the music, demonstrating a carefree abandon that one normally didn't associate with someone of her position.

"Don't you just love it," Kay said, leaning close enough so that she could be heard over the din.

They continued into a second song, and then the house band segued into a slower, love song. Craig hesitated for a moment as the couples around him drew closer to each other and embraced. Turning back to Kay, he saw her reaching out her hand, not intending to relinquish her place on the dance floor.

As their bodies moved in time to the music, Craig was all too aware of the press of Kay's breasts against his chest and the warmth of her cheek against his face. Somehow, he thought it would be different seeing whom she was, his youthful fantasies not withstanding. The final proof that he was only seeing her as a beautiful woman came when he realized the nearness of her body had produced an involuntary reaction in his own, one that she couldn't fail to notice. A moment of panic followed, one that Kay quickly dispelled as she lifted her head for just a moment and told him not to worry about it at all. They continued through that dance and the equally slow love ballad that followed, until Kay suggested they return to their table.

The next two hours were as enjoyable as the two before it and it was only with reluctance that they decided to call it a night. Hugs and kisses were exchanged as well as the promise that they must do it again soon. The night had turned even warmer and Kay suggested they walk a little to help clear their heads.

-=-=-

The walk, and the conversation with it, proved so pleasant that they wound up walking all the way back to Kay's block. It was nearly two in the morning, but neither of them felt tired at all.

"I hope you had a good time," Kay said as they reached the door of her apartment house and she fumbled in her bag for her keys.

"I had a great time," Craig said with a broad smile. "In fact, I can't remember the last time I've had this much fun."

"I'm glad," she said with an equal smile as she undid the outer lock.

As the door opened, she paused and turned back to him.

"Would you like to come up for a cup of coffee before you head home?" Kay asked.

"That might not be a bad idea," Craig said, thinking that while the long walk back might indeed have burned most of what he'd consumed at the club out of his system, some strong coffee might help even more.

Once back in the apartment, Kay told Craig to make himself comfortable on the couch and she'd have the coffee up in a minute. While he waited, he noticed the light on the answering machine flashing and called out to Kay that she had a message.

"Be a dear and hit play for me," Kay said as she walked back into the room carrying a tray with a coffee service on it.

"Kay, it's me, Estelle," the voice said after he'd hit play. "I've decided to stay out here at Paul's tomorrow as well, so I won't be home until Monday. I'm going to go directly to the office, so please do me a favor and bring in my blue suit so I can change once I get there. You'll find it hanging in the hall closet with the other dry cleaning. Thanks love, see you soon."

"I guess I should've mentioned that Estelle and I are roommates," Kay said as she poured the coffee.

"I already knew," Craig replied, picking up the TV Guide with her name on the label.

"I guess I also should say that she didn't know I knew you when she offered you the job," Kay added as she joined him on the couch and poured two cups of coffee and handed him one. "I did say a white lie when I claimed I didn't recognize your name when she asked me to mentor you, but everything that you've accomplished these last six months has been your own doing, I want you to know that."

"I know," Craig said as he slipped his coffee, "but I do appreciate all the helpful advice you've given me over the last few months."

"I was glad to help," Kay said, sitting down next to him with her own cup in hand.

They silently drank their coffee for a moment or two, then Kay remarked that it was a pity that her mentorship was at an end.

"It is?" Craig asked.

"Yes, the program only runs for the first six months," Kay replied, "one has to stand on their own judgment eventually and you've more than proven that you can."

"I can still come to you for advice if I need it, can't I?" Craig asked, a touch of hesitation in his voice that suggested he was worried she might say no.

"Of course you can," Kay smiled as she put down her cup on the table, "We're still friends, aren't we?"

"Definitely," Craig said, putting down his own drink as he leaned towards Kay, his intent to give her a platonic thank you kiss.

At the last second, Kay turned enough that the kiss landed not on her cheek as Craig intended but almost totally on her lips. The brief contact ended almost as quickly as it began, the two of them staring at each other only a few inches apart.

Then, almost hesitantly, Craig leaned forward and kissed Kay again, this time intentionally on her mouth. It took a moment, but she began to respond to the kiss. A second kiss followed, this time initiated by her as she brought her hands to the side of his face and held him close, even as her mouth opened and she pressed her tongue between his lips.

A third, fourth and fifth kiss followed, until there were too many to bother to count. Hands began to wander back and forth, as each kiss became longer and more intimate. Craig could feel a rush of warmth filling his body and it had nothing to do with the coffee he'd drunk. It didn't take long before his body again began to react just at it had back at the club while they'd been dancing.

With her hand on his thigh, he knew Kay had to be aware of his erection. If she hadn't been, she certainly knew about it once she moved her hand a few inches to the left and came down right on top of it.

Craig let out a loud rush of air as he felt her fingers close around his cock. Even through the material of his pants, the press of her fingers was enough to send him to a place he knew he shouldn't even consider going.

"Craig?" Kay said softly as her fingers continued to glide against his covered manhood.