As she took a deep drink of her rum and Coke, Ray and Olivia were silent as they waited for more of her story. It felt as though she was leaving something out.
“So I started riding lessons and it was weeks before I got up the courage to tell my trainer that I wanted to learn how to leap up behind a man. He agreed instantly. I think he was bored teaching rich girls how to stroll through a park on a horse. For weeks we rehearsed.
“He’d ride up to me, then lean down. I’d grab his arm as high up as I could, put my foot in the stirrup, and leap. It was a really hard thing to do but I managed it. Maybe it was silly, but it made me feel, well...prepared.”
“For when a naked woman bent down from atop a tree branch and held out her arm to you?” Ray asked. When the women looked at him in surprise, he said, “I listen. I have to so I can sell things to people.”
At the memory of her day’s adventure, the sad look left Elise’s pretty face and she smiled. “Exactly! If I hadn’t rehearsed I couldn’t have swung up, and that old man might have hit us with a shotgun.”
“You presaved our lives,” Olivia said and the two women started laughing again.
Ray’s groan halted them. “I hope you women are aware that neither of your little daydreams has to do with sex. A sex fantasy involves tongues on flesh and being tied to a bed and orifices and—” He broke off because they were looking at him with great interest. “I think you two want romantic fantasies.”
Olivia and Elise looked at each other, then back at Ray. “No, we’ll take the sex,” Olivia said.
“I agree,” Elise said. “Tell us about the sex. Do bad boys...you know...do things in different ways?”
“No,” Ray said. “We don’t.” He was grinning. “Bad boy. No one’s thought of me like that in a long time. I think all the suits I have to wear rub the edge off a man.”
“True. You look like a stockbroker now.” Elise was smiling at the naked upper half of his body.
“If I didn’t think I’d break a little thing like you in half, I’d demonstrate what I know. I could—”
Olivia cut him off. “I think you have enough problems with two women in your life. Tell us your sex fantasy—unless it involves your wife and your mistress together. That’s too close to home for me to be able to stand.”
“No worries,” Ray said. “Kathy and I don’t... Anyway, as for the sex fantasy, get your mothers to buy you a book. My romantic fantasy is to be myself around a woman. Not an image but the real me. And she still likes me as I am.”
Olivia sighed. “Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean. My late husband never really liked me.”
“After all you did for him?” Elise said.
“I think maybe it was because of all I did for him.”
Ray refilled their glasses. “Now don’t go getting maudlin on me. Drink more rum and eat more guacamole. There’s ice cream in the freezer. Want some?”
“How did you meet your wife?”
“I guess you’d say it was through my overwhelming ambition.”
“Because her father owned the company where you worked?” Elise’s voice was hard.
“No. Not that. I could learn about the business, but Kathy knew things I didn’t.” He smiled at the looks of interest on the women’s faces. “Three forks on a table, that sort of thing.”
Elise grimaced. “I put on dinner parties with four forks. Kent’s family loves to impress people.”
“Kathy knows all that. She’s really great. She and her mom lived in a big place in Connecticut, but her dad mostly stayed in his apartment in town. Considering Bert Cormac’s temper, we all understood.”
He took a breath. “I knew Kathy had a sort of crush on me—she was always hanging around my office—but I was afraid that underneath that outward sweetness she might be like her father. Bert in a dress? No thanks! So anyway, I didn’t actually think about her as wife material until the annual office party. Black tie, lots of clients.”
“Clients of what?” Olivia asked.
“Advertising. We have some big accounts. Whatever is said about Cormac, he’s one of the best. Anyway, that night I was supposed to be out of town, but Bert wanted me at the party so I flew back—and I had only hours to come up with a date. I had an old girlfriend, Dolores, who I’d known most of my life, so I called her.”
Ray lifted his hand. “Big mistake. She was out of her element. She got drunk, then spilled a drink on Kathy, and said some awful things to her. I tried to get her to shut up, but I wasn’t fast enough. But then, it turned out that Kathy could handle herself.”
“What happened?” Olivia asked.
“As I said, before that night, I’d never paid much attention to her. She has a really pretty face but she’s a bit... What’s that German word? Zaftig, that’s it. Not my taste and besides, she was so overwhelmed by her father that I thought she had the personality of a wet noodle.”