Let's Make a Deal Pt. 03

"She certainly never made any move to interest me in sex with her! I couldn't help thinking about all these guys who wanted only one thing from me, and how if they let me stay with them they'd expect me to pay them back with sex, and here Martha took me in without any question. I'd been kind of falling in love with her just for being the person she was, but of course I hadn't thought of it that way. But I thought and thought about everything, and finally went to her and told her that I hoped I wouldn't offend her by asking, but would she just show me what sex with a woman was like, since I thought maybe I was in love with her. She asked me a lot of questions, in fact it feels a lot like you're doing just what she did, because she was afraid she was taking advantage of me, that I was trying to pay her back for taking me in. By this time the thought of it had me pretty turned on, and anyway I did convince her I meant it, so in the end we made love."

Scott got up and went around the desk and knelt on the floor next to Lynda's chair. He took her hand in both of his and said, "Lynda, I'm so sorry, about the way your boyfriend and your parents treated you. I wish there were something I could do. And then my example a while back, about telling you to lie down on the floor, could hardly have been a worse one. I just honestly didn't know, but I see how it had to hurt. And now here I am, another man who's going to expect you to have sex with him whether you want to or not. If I'd known all this before, I'd never have thought about taking your offer—I mean, I'd have thought about it, a lot I'm afraid, but I'd have just turned you down flat and kept my thoughts to myself. But we've gone too far now for me to just back out. If it's going to be too painful for you, though, I'll offer a couple of outs, reluctantly. We could cancel the deal completely, which seems pretty unfair to Martha but at least leaves the two of you together. Or if Martha feels the way she seems to, I could go on with just her after all, and let you out. There are a whole lot of reasons I wouldn't have done this with just one of you in the first place, but I really don't want to take advantage of you. And I really am afraid that if you're out but Martha's in, that will be really hard on the relationship you two have.

"Would you, both of you, like me to go away for a while and let you talk about the options?"

Lynda said quickly, "No! I can't offer you the kind of enthusiasm Martha did a few minutes ago, but you are not taking advantage of me! This is something I offered to do for Martha's sake, and I'll do it. Whatever you may be thinking about, you're not Ron, you didn't maneuver me into this situation or anything like that, and you're not making me do anything against my will. Whatever my feelings say, I can see that much."

Scott said, "OK, I hear you. I'm still a little worried, but I'll take you at your word." He let go of her hand and stood up. "Now, those pizzas should be waiting. Will you please go pick them up?" He pulled out his wallet and handed her a couple of bills. "That should cover it. Just put the change in the tip jar on the counter." She started to say something, and he held up his hand. "I should have said, it's only Antonio's, a few doors down. The name on them will be Scott. And here." He went over and unlocked a drawer, and took out two keys. "The front door should be locked, but for obvious reasons I haven't gotten around to checking it yet. If it's not, make sure that it is locked when you go out. But you're going to need these keys, so you can just take them now." He gave one to each woman. "I want to talk to Martha a little while you're gone. You won't miss anything. I really am serious that, at first anyway, you both see everything that happens, so there won't be any issues about what might be up. I promise that it will be just talking, no kissing even, hands to myself, though I may ask her to sit in my lap to talk to me. You can ask her later what we talk about, and you probably should. OK?

"But both of you, please keep those keys safe. I mean it when I say that I'm going to have to trust you, and it may as well start here. Just leave the office door open when you go out."

11. Knit up the ravelled sleeve of care

Lynda went out. Martha put the key on her key ring. She said, "OK, so I'm supposed to sit in your lap, but no kissing?" She came around and sat in his lap, leaned against him for a moment, then sat up. "What do we need to talk about?"

He resolutely turned his mind from how nice it felt to have her sitting there to what he wanted to say. "Is this going to work? I really need your take on it. If it were just you, I wouldn't have much doubt at this point, though I don't really understand why, but I'm kind of worried about Lynda. Yes, you should tell her this, later. I'll also need to, before we're done, tonight, I think. It just feels to me like somehow, down inside, she resents the whole situation, and I worry that things will fall apart because of it. Am I just seeing things?

"And also, I want you to know that I'm not trying to somehow come between you two."

Martha said, "I don't know for sure, but I sure want to try to make it work. I'll talk to her tonight, later, and try to make her think about it. I mean, she came to you, not you to her, so it seems unfair if she does resent it."

"Unfair, well, maybe, but not really unnatural. I think maybe she already felt guilty, that she was cheating on you, and now suddenly you know all about it, and that's my fault. I did only promise her that if I felt I had to tell you about her offer, I'd try to tell her first. But the way I did it, I can understand that she may feel I lied to her. I felt that I'd be unfair to you, if I told her first about your coming in with the same offer.

"The other thing I wanted to say is this: I really want this to work, not in terms of my getting sex—though I'm looking forward to that!—but because I need you doing your job here. I don't have anyone else I can put into that position, in particular no one I'd trust with it now. But I really mean it, I need you to have your heart and mind in it. I can't afford more screw-ups, and I really don't want to fire you again."

"I understand."

They sat without talking for a while, and then Martha leaned back against him again and laid her head against his shoulder. After a couple more minutes, she sat up again and said, "There's something else I think I need to bring up, in fact a couple of things, but I need to talk to Lynda first. I hope it won't cause trouble. But Scott, besides that, listen. I know you'd never ask one of your employees for sex, or even for a date. You'd be afraid it would be taken as a threat, go out with me—or go to bed with me, either one—or else you lose your job. Even though you'd never, ever do that.

"But if you had somehow asked me out say a year before Lynda came on the scene, and treated me the way I'm sure you'd treat any woman you'd date, I probably would have wound up pushing you to sleep with me after a while. Maybe a very little while! I know you well enough to know you'd never, ever give me any reason to feel like all you were after was to get my panties off. I only wish you'd been around when I was in high school or especially college."

"Well, but remember I'd have been, what? eight years older than you were. Not to mention married already! No, I think I know what you mean. But at that age, myself, I don't know that I'd have seemed that much different from those bozos you described, really. I was all mixed up, myself, back then. Sometimes we really do learn from the past, some of us anyway, and the Lord knows I've tried."

They just sat there for another minute or two, until Lynda came in with the pizzas. Scott had, of course, known when the front door opened. After hours, the camera monitor was set to pop up on his screen any time that happened, and it gave a little chirp as well. Martha looked around at it, and watched with him as the motion sensors made each camera's monitor open, as Lynda passed by. Scott said, "I'm sorry, I need to tell you, both of you, about all the cameras. I try to make sure everyone knows they're there, but then forgets about them and never thinks about being recorded all the time, but you need to know. Remind me later, if I don't say anything before we're all done tonight."

Continue to Part 4