Power Relationship

We talked about the interview as we waited for the food. "The woman on the panel seemed to know you," said Andrew. "I saw her give a start when you came in."

I didn't want to be giving away too much at this stage, so I just replied casually "I've been for an interview at that place myself, that's why. Not at the level you're applying at, just a technician's job. But I didn't get it. They kept asking why I had dropped out of my degree course."

This led on to discussions about the work I was doing, and I felt embarrassed talking about working in an electronics store. I was expecting Andrew to tell me how disappointed he was, or how I could do better. My mother kept reminding me of this every time we met.

Instead he nodded. "Times are hard," he said. "We all have to take what we can get. I'm sure you would be an asset to the store, you have always been genuinely friendly and a hard worker. I haven't been able to get a teaching position myself, though I must modestly say I am very good at it. It appears as if game playing among managers and massaging corporate egos are more important than teaching. That's why I was trying to get that consultancy job. But if what you say about my failing to make a good impression on that pompous old fart in the suit is true, then I don't fancy my chances much."

"You were a very good teacher." I cringed. I could hear myself gushing. "You would be wasted at that place."

"I didn't do a very good job with you. I hoped you would stay and finish your degree. Just after I had made the deal with management for the golden handshake, I got messages from so many of my students wanting me to stay. I felt I had let you all down. If I had known a few days before instead of a few days after signing the deal, I would have stayed. It would have meant facing disciplinary proceedings, but the management didn't really have anything on me - I realise that now."

"We all make decisions we regret. The thing to do is move on." As soon as I had said this I realised how trite it sounded. Here I was giving advice to someone old enough to be my... well let's not go there - and who was I to preach about bad decisions anyway. My own decision to drop out of my degree, start a dead end job on minimum wage and estrange myself from the only family I had was not one that even the most tactful life coach would comment favourably on.

Andrew refrained from making any sarcastic or even mildly remonstrative remarks. He just smiled and changed the subject. I take back what I thought about him having no sensitivity. In his own way he could be very perceptive, just not to nuances of power. "So have you been in touch with any of your classmates?" he asked.

We spend a pleasant half hour talking about people we knew in common, some of whom had gone on to get top jobs; others like both Andrew and myself had been less fortunate. The waiter brought the menu and leered at my cleavage. I would like to have chosen a beef kebab, but in deference to Andrew, who was after all paying for the meal, I chose a vegetarian option. It went through my mind that a strict vegetarian like Andrew would not like the smell of meat on someone he is kissing.

I waited for Andrew to order wine, but it never came. Whatever he had in mind for me, it appeared seduction was not part of it. If there was any seducing to be done I would be the one initiating it. Just as I thought of this, Andrew's phone rang.

"I'd better take this," he said, looking at the number display on his antiquated device. "It's Stonkins, calling me back. Probably to say I haven't got the job."

Andrew put his mobile on speaker phone so I could hear. It was the woman, Jenny, who was talking. "We have been discussing the role, and we can't make up our mind between you and another candidate. We wondered if you might be able to come in again tomorrow to meet our chief executive, so he can make the final decision. We will of course pay for your accommodation in Opotane to make up for the inconvenience."

I gave a toothy grin and signalled the thumbs up sign. If they were still interested in Andrew after his disastrous performance with the balding man in the suit, then he was in with a good chance. Jenny at least seemed to be backing him up.

"I can make it tomorrow. Would you need Maxine to be present as well?"

"I should think Maxine would need to be back at work." Jenny seemed too certain for my liking. "Though it would certainly be to your advantage for her to be present. To be honest, she has far more tact in dealing with the management here than you do. You are by far the best candidate in terms of analytical ability and in my mind that is the most important consideration, but you must understand not everyone on the interview panel agrees with me.

"Unfortunately," she went on, "our CEO has no interest in seeing her. I have however arranged to be present myself, and I hope I can be of some support in your application."

Andrew muttered something vaguely thankful, and Jenny continued.

"One more thing - get some decent clothes. It's quite obvious to me you have no fashion sense at all, and personally I don't care if you come to work in boxer shorts as long as you can do the job, but again not everyone sees things the same way."

Well I would have felt totally crushed if someone had spoken to me so bluntly. But it didn't seem to bother Andrew at all. Again, strange lack of feeling. His mind was on practical considerations.

"It will be hard to get a decent wardrobe by tomorrow," he was saying. "And anyway, aren't decent clothes expensive?"

"Maybe Maxine could help you. She seems to have very good fashion sense. Perhaps she has some men's clothing that would fit you. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow at 11 o'clock. In the meantime I'll make a booking for you at the Central Hotel. You can make your way there at your own convenience."

Jenny hung up, and Andrew turned to me. "I wonder what made her think you had some clothes that could fit?"

"I don't know," I said. "But as it happens I do." I knew where I could get some at any rate. My mother's new boyfriend was about the same size as Andrew, and I knew he had an extensive wardrobe. It was a pity I couldn't get Andrew to stay at my place. But maybe there was another way.

"I'll get the clothing and meet you at your hotel later," I said. A hotel would actually be better than my untidy flat, and we would be less inhibited without my nosy flatmate around. Though what excuse would I be able to offer for staying with Andrew and not going back to my drab, cheerless room.

We left the restaurant and I drove to my mother's lifestyle block just out of town. I had moved out of her place soon after I had left tech, after a flaming row over father. My father had left mum for another woman while I was away studying, and then not long afterwards - and quite conveniently as far as I was concerned - he had died in a car accident. My mother had blamed herself, indulging in a theatrical display of wounded despair; a self-pitying whining session that I couldn't bear, the more so because her behaviour reminded me so strongly of my own. My refusal to go to his funeral in Auckland had been another bone of contention between us.

"Pull yourself together mum," I had screamed at her one day. "It's been three years. He's not worth it. Dad was a creepy sleaze ball and we're both better off without him."

My mother could not have looked so shocked if I had smacked her in the mouth. "How dare you say that about your father!" she yelled. "He was always very good to you. It was the money he left you that supported you through that tech course that you dropped out of. I can't understand why you didn't go to his funeral. He was far better to you than you deserved, you good for nothing loser!"

Now it was my turn with the stunned mullet look. "Dad was a monster!" I screamed. "He was a raging creep, always looking at me with his beady eyes, smirking behind my back." Even I could sense how pathetic that sounded. But there was something about him that made my hair stand on end, that make me think of garlic, mirrors and crucifixes. I wish I knew what it was.

The next day, with my typical impulsiveness, I moved straight out of my mother's house. Thereafter the series of damp flats, sullen flatmates, flatulent boyfriends and corpulent bosses with wandering hands. Until I secured my present job five months ago, which reached the level of being tolerable - just.

I had not returned to my mother's place after that outburst, though our initial frosty relationship did thaw sufficiently for us to meet in town for coffee sometimes and to talk to each other on the phone. So it was with some trepidation that I entered her large open plan home, helloing nervously. I realised that Andrew had never called me a loser, in fact he seemed to have believed in me. Maybe I would finish my degree and show them all; my mother, my sarcastic boss, the pimply boyfriends - who needed them? The words of a song filled my head as I searched the house for my mum, 'a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.'

The thought of a snapper saddling a ten speed brought me out in the giggles, and it was in this undignified pose that my mother found me.

"Glad to see you find some things funny," was her greeting. She tossed back her blonde hair. "I suppose you want to borrow the clothes for your new boyfriend."

"He's not really my boyfriend," I protested. "He's my ex-tutor. He was the only one of the tutors who believed in me and I'm returning the favour."

"Whatever," my mother sniffed. "Your love life doesn't concern me in the slightest. Though I must say your tutor, for all his lack of dress sense, is a far better proposition than the detritus you usually end up with. He's a bit old for you, but not so much to be indecent, and he's all right in the looks department.

"I might take a fancy to him myself if you don't want him." She raised an eyebrow at me as she said this. "Rodney is hot enough in the sack, but his company is starting to bore me somewhat."

I wondered whether she realised how jealous that last statement made me feel. I covered my feelings with spite. "Well even an empty headed twit like Rodney is better than the one you spent the best years of your life with. Mind you that's not saying much."

Mum glared at me, and I thought she was about to say something about father - for some reason she still seems to like the lecherous sleaze; but instead she started walking up stairs. "I'll show you the clothes. From what I can understand of your tutor, he will need some help putting them on as well."

Mum handed me a suit jacket, a shirt, a tie, a pair of trousers and a pair of socks. "I don't know what size his feet are," she said. "But his own shoes should be acceptable if you get him to polish them." She added a shoe brush and some black polish to the bundle she handed to me.

"Good luck," she called as I took my leave.

I drove to the Central Hotel and knocked on the door of Andrew's room. Andrew opened it. He had turned on the heater and had prepared a table of snacks and nibbles. Andrew poured me a wine - aha, now we are getting somewhere - and we moved to the comfortable sofa. The room was nice and warm, and quite luxurious. Stonkins was an affluent company and had given him one of the better rooms. I glanced at the bed and noted with approval it was queen sized. Then I decided I may as well come clean, and tell Andrew that the woman who had taken an interest in him at the interview was my mother.

"Did you know she would be on the panel when I asked you to accompany me?" he said.

"Not totally. I guessed it though. She's done well for herself since my father left."

There was an awkward pause. It seems Andrew had somehow sensed the tension at the mention of my father, or maybe there was something else on his mind.

"Your mother seemed nice. Less pretentious than those two men, and far more knowledgeable. I should have seen the likeness. Both of you have beautiful soft hair." Andrew reached up and stroked mine. Just like I'm his cat, I thought, but I did have to stop myself making purring noises at his touch.

We talked about my mother, and my time at the farm where I grew up, though I avoided any mention of my father. Andrew described his own career, the scholarship he had won as a young man, giving him easy access to teach at a prestigious university, but how he hated the sarcasm and snobbishness of the universities, leading him to take the job at the tech.

"You must have found us disappointing after your university students," I said.

"Not really. The average was certainly higher at the university, but there were some top students at tech who could hold their own at Auckland - or possibly even Oxford. And besides, students like you, with reasonable ability but lack of confidence, also deserve good teaching."

By now it was getting late. There was another pause in the conversation. At this juncture most boys would have made their first fumbling moves, but Andrew just kept staring at me, cradling his wine. I would have to initiate matters.

"Would you like to try on the clothes for fit?" I said.

"I can put them on tomorrow before I go to the interview." Did he really not know what I wanted? Again I marvelled at the combination of extreme intelligence and sensitivity, and total brain dead lack of perception.

"Tomorrow will be too late if they don't fit you. Anyway, I need to see how they look. Trust me on this one. Mum was particularly insistent that you need a dresser, and she has a good eye for fashion"

Andrew shrugged and then peeled his shirt off. "You'll need to take your trousers off too," I told him.

"Why?"

So I can fondle you of course. I stared at his naked torso. Not that handsome or muscular, but somehow attractive and cuddly.

"Because you need to put the dress trousers over your shirt tails," I said.

I thought Andrew was going to step into the bathroom to get changed, but instead he gave me what I thought was a quite purposeful glance as he undid his trousers and stepped out of them, standing in the middle of the room in nothing but his boxer shorts.

I walked up to him and then on an impulse clasped my arms around his body and squeezed. His chest was hard, but I felt him yielding at my touch.

I looked up and Andrew kissed me. His lips were soft and warm and his breath sweet. There was none of the greasy meat smell I could detect on some of my other boyfriends. Andrew removed his mouth from mine and said to me, "You really are beautiful, Maxine."

I could feel Andrew's erection digging into me as I pressed my lower body next to his, and his hands started running up my leg, ready to peel off my tights. Then to my horror I felt the familiar tightness clamp around me.

I pushed Andrew away, not violently but firmly, and he stood back and stared at me. I thought he was going to get angry. I could imagine the accusations - slut, prick teaser, ball breaker; I had heard them all before.

"What is it, Maxine?" he said instead.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I wanted to, but now I'm just not in the mood." I could still see his erection through his shorts. He had wanted to as well. I knelt down in front of him. "I could still give you pleasure."

Andrew put his hand in front of my forehead and stepped back. "No you don't. If you don't want it, nor do I. It's got to be a team effort."

"Its not you - its me," I stammered. "I just can't enjoy sex .. I mean I want to, but when it comes to it..."

Andrew put his finger on my lips, as a signal to be quiet. I stood up and Andrew hugged me again. I felt the tension going out of my body. "You are beautifully soft and warm," he said. "It's getting late. Shall we go to bed. Don't blame yourself. If you're not turned on by me then maybe I'm just not sexy enough. I need to make some effort."

I'd like to have a shower first." I disappeared into the bathroom, quickly, so Andrew would not see my face redden. The shower was far more luxurious than the one in the flat with its little trickle of luke-warm water, and I revelled in the sensation of the hot stream massaging me all over, while I thought about what to do next. Andrew had behaved quite impeccably - just like a teacher I thought, but my embarrassment was not as easy to wash away as the day's grime.

I stepped out of the shower and dried myself on the soft fluffy towels the hotel provided. My mothers' company were certainly treating Andrew well. Then I remembered I had left my bag with my overnight gear in the next room.

Andrew was already in bed and I saw him look at me as I walked back into the main room, two towels draped around my body. I gazed straight at Andrew sitting up in the bed, and dropped the towels. Andrew certainly seemed to appreciate my young body if the movement of his eyes was any indication.

I changed into my skimpy nightie, spent some time drying then brushing my hair, and then I got in beside him. The bed was warm from his body, a faint smell from his skin wafting into the room as I lifted the covers. Andrew put his arm around me, and I nestled against him, leaning my head on his shoulder. We kissed goodnight, but Andrew made no other move towards me, and I was not feeling confident enough to initiate anything. We fell asleep with our faces nearly touching, my dreams full of warmth and pulsing flesh.

I woke up in the middle of the night, nipples tingling, a wetness between my thighs, wondering what this pleasurable sensation was that had crept stealthily through my body as I slept; then I realised. I was feeling horny. My pubic hair was glistening, and my nether regions were sending signals to my brain - put something firm inside me. I was still partly asleep and my fingers had drifted down to my labia to give them the release they craved, before I realised that I had a real live cock in easy reach; all I had to do was take it.

Andrew was still asleep, though he stirred and mumbled something, his hand searching, as I moved away from his side and peeled off my nightie, feeling my nipples stiffen as the air played around them.

I turned on the dim bed light, lifted the covers from his lower regions and pulled down Andrew's shorts. His penis was resting on his pubic hairs, lying on its side like an earthworm on the grass. I started stroking it, hoping it would wake up before this delicious novel feeling of wanting to stick it inside myself went away. It started to stiffen a little, like a flag in a breeze.

I put it in my mouth. The first time I had ever done so; all my other trysts had been boringly conventional, Victorian even in approach. The taste was not bad; hot, salty and with only a faint trace of urine. I moved my mouth up and down the shaft, and was rewarded with a groan from Andrew, who started stirring. I shifted my body, clamping my wet thighs onto his legs while my mouth continued its rhythmical motion. Andrew struggled again but this time his lower body was held fast. I noticed small glistening droplets of pussy juice on his legs. My pubic hairs were saturated.

Plenty of lubrication, and now Andrew's cock was semi-rigid. I knew it would harden up inside me. I straddled over the top of him, my pubes tickling the end of his cock, then lowered myself on him. Normally I insisted on safe sex, but in my state of tingling anticipation, the thought of taking a break to place a piece of rubber between my skin and the cock I wanted so much appeared ludicrous.

As I drew myself down, Andrew became fully awake. He gave out a huge groan, snapped his eyes open, and grabbed my thighs; guiding me, pinning me, moving my body round, making sure I changed my angle as I gyrated up and down moaning all the while. He started to wriggle and squirm, and then, before I was ready, I felt the liquid squirt inside me - a new sensation, but very warming and pleasant.