Poor and Proud

She replied, "Let's go to the bar for a nightcap and call it a night after that."

At the bar we took two big drinks each and talked about some personal matters before we parted for the night.

At breakfast I once again told her that I was sorry and ashamed for acting so stupid last night. Camilla told me that she had no hard feelings and she understood that it was fifty percent her own fault for going too far with temptations but nothing had really happened.

The meetings with the Polish went much better than expected and during the afternoon we signed a contract. Camilla joked and said that at least I had found a ladder and taken the first step up from my deep black hole. The Polish invited us to a nice restaurant to celebrate the contract during a pleasant evening.

During the flight home Camilla invited me to dinner at her home the next Saturday evening and I accepted her invitation.

On the dot, as the custom is in this country, I rang the bell of her nice house, holding a bunch of flowers. She was as sweet as usual when she opened the door, hugged me and led me in to a very tastefully furnished living room and introduced me to her husband Sebastian, her little daughter Rebecca who was sitting on his knee drinking from her bottle and one additional woman in her mid-thirties, whom she introduced as Elise.

Camilla left us for the kitchen and her husband excused himself and said he would try to get Louise to sleep.

I took a closer look of Elise and noted the she was dressed down rather than dressed up for the evening. Her hair was in a simple ponytail and she had almost no make up and a long dress, which didn't show much of her legs. I began to think that introducing Elise and me to each other could be one of the main reasons for this dinner. I suspected that Elise wasn't really amused at this kind of game and didn't want me interested in her for sex reasons.

When Elise and I were alone I asked her if she was willing to surprise Camilla and Sebastian and have some fun during the evening. She gave me a very sweet smile and accepted my suggestion.

Camilla rejoined us from the kitchen; she asked that we excuse her for leaving us alone and hoped we had a pleasant chat.

Elise gave her a bright smile when I replied, "Yes indeed, we had such a pleasant chat that we agreed to have a date tomorrow."

Camilla got a very strange look in her face when she turned to Elise and asked her, "Is that really the truth?"

Elise was obviously a very good actor because she played her part well when she replied, "Oh, yes, it is and I really look forward to it."

I continued, "Me too."

When their child was sleeping, Sebastian came back to us and we were sitting at a table eating of Camilla's great dinner when she told the news about us to Sebastian, who was as surprised as his wife. Elise and I played our game the whole evening and when we left that night we shared a taxi. During the trip we agreed to have a date on Sunday just as we had told Camilla and Sebastian. Elise had asked me if it was okay that her six years old daughter Jennifer joined us during our walk in the park and I had no objections. We had agreed to begin with a kind of combined open-air walking and quiz competition in a spare time area and thereafter have lunch at the golf restaurant in the neighborhood.

Elise's cell phone rang during our walk and it was Camilla who wanted to know if we had joked with her during the dinner. Elise told her the truth that we were walking in a quiz competition together with Jennifer and so far we had succeeded in finding out the right answers. Then she gave the phone to me and said that Camilla wanted to say some words.

I thanked Camilla for the very pleasant dinner and told her that Elise, Jennifer and I had a good time together during our walk in the park.

Camilla wanted to know more and asked, "What the hell did you do to Elise? We left you alone for a couple of minutes and you two had arranged a date. Incredible. Did you know her before?"

"No, I didn't and we didn't do anything unusual. Don't you believe in love at first sight?"

"Not in one minute between two strangers."

I asked her to give my thanks to Sebastian and that she was a lucky girl who had found such great husband.

Elise and I got a good laugh at our joke and she said, "My sister Annelie is Camilla's best friend and I'm sure that she is getting some gossip from Camilla right now. I can promise you a month's salary if Annelie doesn't call me within an hour

Annelie rang after 35 minutes. Elise told her that Camilla had invited her for dinner where she had met a guy. Now we were on date and Jennifer was with us. Like most children in her age, Jennifer liked McDonalds and had persuaded me to change our lunch to be there instead of the Golf Restaurant. Elise continued with telling Annelie that we had a good time and everything was fine.

Then she turned to me and said with a bright smile. "Much noise for an innocent date."

"We ought to have more dates."

"Are you honest?"

"Yes, I am and teasing Camilla isn't the only reason I would like see you again."

"Could you please tell me some other reason?"

"Yes, you Elise and I promise to take you out to something much better than McDonalds"

"Why me?"

"Because you are lovely. Yes you are."

"If you want any further dates with me, I want you to tell me the truth about you and Camilla. I got a feeling yesterday that she and you are in a very tight relationship."

"Camilla and I have been working very close together on an important project and both of us are, for very different reasons, very much depending of the results. I want to save an almost bankrupt company, which means saving my own and my employee's jobs. Camilla's job was almost a mission impossible, which none of her more experienced collogues dared to take. I can say that fixing my problems will take her a quantum leap up the stairs to the top of her company where she belongs."

I continued, "Yes, we have been working tightly but for most of the time via phone and computers. Sebastian has been a good support and back up for her. Camilla says that choosing the right jargon in every situation is an important part of her job. But I've seen her very formal and ice-cold during some negotiations with people who think they can take advantage of her. Am I qualified for the next date?"

"Yes."

We went to McDonald's and Jennifer, who was happy because I had agreed with her in spite of Elise's objections when she wanted go to McDonald's instead of the Golf Restaurant, said that I was the best of her mom's boyfriends. When I tried to ask her about how many there were, Elise interrupted us by saying that she hadn't had any at all.

I smiled at her and said, "I would like to know if an almost bankrupt entrepreneur can be qualified to apply for that honorable position?"

Blushing a little she replied, "It depends on his personal qualifications."

It was no reason to rush into a new relationship until I knew her much better, so I found it best to avoid further questions in that matter. However, after lunch we decided to take a tour with an old restored small steamboat at a nearby lake and after that we went to the mall for a DVD I had promised buy for Jennifer.

Then Elise suggested dinner at her place and we arranged it with take-away from a kebab shop. She was living in a three-room apartment near the town center and her place was in good order and gave a positive first impression.

While Jennifer was watching her new DVD, Elise asked me how much Camilla had told me about her and I told her the truth, "Nothing at all."

Elise told me that she was 36 years old, working with administration at one of the leading industries outside our city and had been divorced for almost two years from Jennifer's father after she discovered him having an affair for two months. Elise's sister Annelie and Camilla were best childhood friends why Camilla sometimes invited her to a dinner or a party.

Camilla had told her that she wanted to introduce Sebastian and a business friend of hers for each other and it would be more fun with four at the table. She had described me as a good guy, newly divorced and probably of some interest to her, a suggestion Elise didn't like very much.

Elise liked Camilla and accepted her dinner invitation but had refused to be a kind of sex object for her customers. That's why she had dressed as un-sexy as possible; she liked my joke about the date, had a good time during the dinner so she had accepted our date today and not regretted it a single second during the whole day.

I gave her a short version of myself: Kenneth Hillman, 43 years old, father of twins, boy and girl, bought a company with two employees 18 years ago in a village outside the city and they had increased to 42 people when the shit hit the fan. Today there are 20 left. Camilla's company has done a great job during the restoring process and I hope we can begin to take back people rather soon. I met my wife Nathalie 16 years ago and we had been married for fourteen years. She was some kind of a "Belle de village" and I was regarded as an up and coming man in local business.

In my opinion we had a good marriage and a happy family with our now 10 years old twins but her happiness lasted only as long as she was the important man's wife in our village. When the company fell onto serious problems she took a job in town and began cheating on me with her boss. I found them together in a hotel room and phoned his wife, who went to that hotel early the next morning, found them together in his room, dumped him and filed for divorce. Nathalie and her boss are living together today.

Then Elise told me that her ex-husband was still a problem because he turned to a nasty stalker when he got drunk. He was forbidden to be closer than 50 meters to her apartment but didn't care much about that and the authorities didn't do much about that. The police used to take him away but they could only keep him a few hours.

We continued with pleasant small talk and before I left she invited me for dinner the next Friday evening, which I of course accepted. On my way home I had a feeling that once again I had climbed up from my black hole.

Though a large number of my acquaintances and so-called friends were "gone with the wind" when I had lost my money and importance in the social life in our village, I still had a bunch of real friends left. Benny Jensen was one of them. We met during my short time as a biker and then we did our army service in the same platoon of an infantry regiment and got involved for a long time with two horny twin sisters in the garrison town. Benny remained as a biker and because we, at least now and then, were living on different sides of the law we used to help each other with some favors when we had serious problems. I called him on Monday morning and told him that I had met a nice divorced woman who had a serious problem with a stalking ex-husband. When Benny got the stalker's name and address, he only said, "I heard you had some other problems so you can forget this one. Good luck with the bride."

Obviously my bad luck had turned to something better because at breakfast one of my employees asked if somebody was interested in two tickets to the Wednesday evening dance at a hotel with one of the best bands in the country, which been sold out for a month. I was quick enough to take that chance and rang Elise, who accepted that date.

Then I got a call from the real estate broker who told me that the bidding on my house was much higher than expected, which meant that there would be something left even for me after I had settled Nathalie out of my life economically. We still had shared custody of our children but she had begun inventing excuses to limit her weeks with the children to three or four days.

When I picked up Elise on Wednesday evening, I met a completely different person than when we met at Camilla's dinner. Perfect make up, her hair done and dressed in a rather short black skirt and a gray top with some silver threads. It was the first time I saw her legs and they were great.

She smiled and asked, "Will I do?"

"You are great!"

At the hotel as soon we were in the foyer we met Nathalie and Kim. To my great pleasure I could see that a comparison between my soon to be ex and she who hopefully would my new was, without any doubt, in favor for Elise. Nathalie didn't look happy when I introduced them.

"My dear friend Elise, this is my ex-wife Nathalie and that creep with her is Kim Ahlman, her new girlfriend."

Nathalie shouted, "Bastard." But Kim obviously still feared me and took the humiliation without any attempts to attack me.

When we were a distance from them Elise had a worried look in her face and asked, "Why did you call her boyfriend her girlfriend?"

"Because Kim is a girl's name and he behaved like a girl. No real man would have taken such humiliation."

"You are a bit naughty, aren't you? Kim is a unisex name. There is a Kim on our national soccer team. You ought to know that."

So what? I didn't care a shit about his name, but it gave me an opportunity to show Nathalie that she had dumped a real man for a coward wimp.

We had a pleasant meal before the dance band began to play. Elise and I danced well together and had a good time. Then we met Elise's sister and her husband at the dance floor. They were there together with Camilla and Sebastian and invited us to their table, where they took in Champagne to celebrate Elise and me.

Elise became horrified and said, "For heavens sake it's only our second date."

Her sister's husband replied, "Your body language says more than a thousand words. Both of you are invited to have dinner with us on Saturday evening so your number of dates will increase."

We had a very pleasant evening and when Camilla hooked me for two tunes, she looked me straight in my eyes and asked, "What have you done to Elise? I have never seen her so happy before."

"I can only be what I always used to be. I can't pretend to be anything better than that."

"Be a good boy and you will be a lucky boy."

After the dance Elise invited me into her place for a nightcap and even offered to let me sleep over if I accepted doing that without sex for two reasons: she had her period and it was only our second date.

I accepted but after some goodnight kissing I had got a real hard on, which made her a bit amused when she felt it. For several reasons, mostly because she continued her touching, it remained stone hard. After a while she felt sorry for me, took off my boxer shorts and began kissing, licking, wanking my hard cock and finished with a good sucking.

Of course, I couldn't resist that unexpected treatment for very long time before I had to let it go, and as it was big load, we had a good laugh when she had to replace the sheets and said, "It's better because we'll do it the proper way next time."

"I really look forward to that, yes indeed."

"Me too."

Our next date was on the next Friday evening at her apartment. When I rang her doorbell with my wine, flowers and a big candy bag, it was Jennifer who opened the door. Inside the apartment I was greeted by one more girl of Jennifer's age and a bit stressed. Elise explained that her babysitter had gotten ill and Elise now was her babysitter's babysitter. She told me it was up to me if I wanted to skip the date or join her as babysitter.

I told her that if we liked the situation, whatever it is, it would be fine. It was a funny evening with much laughing. We played several different family games with the girls, who got tired around eleven o'clock when Elise and I could have a little supper with some wine.

When we had gotten in the bed, I licked her to an intensive orgasm and then fucked her in the missionary position to one more, a bit less intensive orgasm. She began to cry and said that it was because she was so happy to have met me and loved me so much.

I told her that I was in love with her and then, without any suggestions from me she went down and sucked me stone hard again, climbed up on me and began riding me slowly. When she felt that it was getting close for me she began to move faster and faster until she felt me soften in her.

She remained on me for a while and I said; "You've faith in your pills."

She replied, "What pills?"

"I thought..."

"Why should I take any pills? I haven't slept with a man in two years and my period ended yesterday so you don't have any reason to worry. By the way, what would you do if I got pregnant?"

"Do my very best to be a good dad to our baby."

"Are you honest?"

"Yes."

The children were awake before me, so I didn't get a morning fuck but I got a great breakfast in bed.

In the morning we went to the supermarket shopping for the poor sick single mom, who had gotten slightly better. Elise asked me if it was okay that we kept the child for one more day and I had no reason to say no.

After the shopping we went to my house and Elise found it very nice and when she saw the "For Sale" signs she asked if there was no way to save it. I told her that Nathalie demanded her money and it was almost sold.

Then we went to my company and Elise was surprised once again when she found that it was much bigger and much more modern, clean and in much better order than she had expected. She was really impressed and agreed that Camilla had done a good job when she helped me to save it. Though the profit was still on a very limited level, it was increasing and the red figures were hopefully history.

Once again Jennifer and her friend decided where to have lunch and neither Elise nor I were very happy about their choice but accepted it without objections.

Even Elise's parents were invited to her sister's dinner at Saturday evening and they were nice people but had a bit too many questions, which neither Elise nor I could answer, at least not then. Because we had both children with us, we said goodnight rather early.

Even that evening Elise and I got in one good fuck and afterwards we talked about our secret desires about sex; to our great relief we found out both of us had almost equal interests and neither of us would accept cheating. We decided to be open with each other if either of us got some ideas and wanted something extra. Elise was happy that her ex had not stalked her since we met and had obviously accepted that their relationship was history.

I left early on Sunday morning because I had some matters to attend before I had to pick up my twins for my week. We decided that Elise and Jennifer would come to my house to see my twins Monday evening. When I brought the children home after lunchtime, Nathalie said that she wanted talk about some matters with me and suggested we meet at the Thai restaurant at Wednesday evening, to which I agreed.

I had talked a lot with my twins about Elise and Jennifer and Monday evening went by without any problems. Elise became a bit worried when she heard about Nathalie's and my meeting on Wednesday evening, not thinking that I would take Nathalie back but more me accusing Nathalie of different things and making an already bad relationship worse. Elise offered to baby-sit my twins, which I accepted and I promised her that I would be polite to Nathalie when I met her.

On Wednesday evening I met a nicely dressed Nathalie, who was in a pleasant mood and our dinner went fine with small talk about our children and pleasant memories from our marriage. Then after some silence she told me that she had came to the conviction that her affair and present time relationship with Kim was a big mistake, which she regretted very much. Neither she nor Kim had wanted their affair to be known by his wife or me.

To be honest I didn't give a shit, but said only, "Such things happen. Nobody is perfect and we learn as long as we live."