Rendezvous Read Free

bags down and
undid her coat a couple of buttons.
    “ Yes, thank you. I’m
wondering if you have a Braden Mitchell staying here?”
    “ Oh, let me have a look.
Is he expecting you?”
    Heather believed he did, they had
spoken on the phone four times over the last week and it was on as
far as she knew.
    “ Yes.” Where she was
getting all of this confidence was another question, but she was
well-dressed and a perfect stranger in this burg.
     
    #
     
    Braden had reserved a room on the
second floor, and had mentioned her name to the desk clerk. He also
hadn’t arrived yet, which was a bit troubling but Heather had a few
hundred dollars in cash and the usual credit cards, a debit card
with maybe two hundred in that account. Heather had been living on
a small stipend from her teacher’s pay-cheque for so long she
didn’t even really think about it anymore. The bulk of her earnings
went to her House. The freedom her small inheritance had given her
was a constantly-recurring revelation of sorts.
    The lady searched a rack and came up
with a key.
    “ Room
two-thirty-four.”
    It was up the elevator and down the
hallway leading left, around one more turn and there she
was.
    Unlocking the door and snapping on the
lights, the place was nice enough in a kind of Howard Johnson’s
predictability. It was the first time she’d ever had that thought.
Getting away from home was good for her. Even without Braden,
getting out of town would have been a good thing, although what she
would do alone in a place like Burlington eluded her for the
moment.
    Other than dress like a whore and try
and pick someone up…the thought stirred her, almost uncomfortable
in its intensity. She went to the window. Peeling the curtain back,
she looked out hopefully, checking for Braden’s big vehicle. There
was a good view of the street, anyway.
    Heather put the first case up on the
bed and unsnapped it. It was almost one in the morning and she
would like a shower and some sleep, unless Braden turned up in the
next hour, maybe even half-hour or so.
    It had been years since Heather
deviated from routine, or violated her set time for bed by more
than a half hour. That routine helped keep her stable. It made life
easier, and anyone could see the sense in that. It made it easier
to go to work in the morning.
    She was just turning off the water and
pulling back the shower curtain, all squeaky clean now, when a
light thud from the outer room caught her attention. Cool air
swirled in through the door, which was not quite closed.
    Heather stepped out and started
toweling off, ears tuned for further sounds.
    Keys or money hit the top of the long
desk along the front wall.
    “ Braden?”
    “ Yeah, Baby!”
    Heather’s heart flooded with relief.
It was going to be all right.
    “ Hi, lover!” Heather’s
face was lit up in the mirror by the worst blush, as she went naked
to the bathroom door and stuck her head out.
    Braden might not be alone, and she was
relieved to see her man sitting on the end of the bed pulling off
his shiny black shoes. Braden looked good in a suit, but then
Heather had kind of expected that. No one else in the room, and
thank God.
    Braden looked around, giving a smile
of recognition.
    “ You’ve got the place all
steamed up.”
    Heather smiled, stepping out and
giving a habitual ruffle of her wet hair.
    “ Yeah, eh. I must have
been thinking of you.”
    Braden flung off his jacket and the
two embraced, Heather in full hedonist nakedness, unashamed and
looking forward to two whole days with Braden and the other still
in pants and shirt but looking calm and relaxed.
    The two smooched, with Braden’s hands
on her bottom and Heather swaying from side to side, setting the
mood by living it at first hand.
    “ Hello.” His eyes bored
into hers.
    “ Hi.”
    This was real. The week by the lake
was real. Braden was real. Everything was real, including the bulge
evident in Braden’s trousers, the swelling of her nipples, and the
goose bumps