PAULINE made a deliberate effort to keep things very social between us, even though we would flirt with each other and make suggested remarks.

Pauline lived in the apartment next door to me on Constant Spring Road and was married to Phillip Green, who worked at the Century National Bank branch downtown located beside the Advertising Agency where I worked. Phillip was one of the senior managers and would sometime “ok” cheques for me. Phillip and I were friends but not what I would consider close friends.

Non-the less we were always over at each other’s apartment for one reason or the other. So Pauline coming over to see me was not considered out of place or suspicious.

As a matter of fact because we were in the same kind of business, Pauline was a Freelance graphic designer working mostly from a small room in their apartment; we would spend a lot of hours talking shop. Phillip was not too interested in what we had to discuss and would leave us alone for hours.

Pauline had a liking for very short shorts and was always dressed casually, part of the benefits of working from home I guess. She frequently came over to my apartment dressed in shorts and t-shirt. She had great legs, she knew it and wanted and sought every opportunity to show them off. I was sexually attracted to Pauline the first moment I saw her, ten months ago when she and Phillip moved into the apartment next door to me.

Phillip worked at the down town branch of Century National Bank where I had my account and so I would see him whenever I went into the bank.
So when I came out one Saturday morning and saw him standing outside the apartment next door to mine, I was kind of surprised. The apartment had been vacant for over two months, as the previous tenant had moved out; I think the couple who lived there had brought house in Havendale somewhere.

“Phillip, what you doing here?” I asked him surprised.
“I’m moving in today, we just rented this apartment” he replied.
“Oh that’s great” I said, “anything I can do to help”
“No not at the moment, but I’ll take a rain check on that” Phillip replied.
“Ok then, see you around” I said and went downstairs to my car. It was while I was driving out of the car park that I remembered that he said “we”. I wondered who the "we" was.

I came home late that afternoon, having spent most of the day at the Liguanea Club playing squash with some friends. I came out the car and went around the trunk to take out by squash gears. As I closed the trunk I saw her in front of my car.

She was dressed in a pair of very short red shorts and a black sleeveless t-shirt, and was carrying what appeared to be a Mac computer in a box towards the steps.
“Need any help with that?” I enquired.
“No thank you I’m fine, but thanks anyway.’ She said smiling and moving up the steps.

I quickly caught up with her following behind, ensuring a spectacular view of her ass as she climbed the steps in front of me. At the top she turned towards my apartment and stopped outside the apartment next door to me. She bent over to lower the box not bothering to bend her knees, knowing that I was behind her and was having a hell of a show.
As I walked up to my apartment door she looked over at me.
“Do you live here?” she inquired
“As a matter of fact I live right here” I said pointing to the door next to where she was standing.
“Oh, so where neighbors then are we?” She said smiling and at the same time inserting the key into the door.
“Well it seems that way. Are you related to Phillip?” I asked fearing the answer.
“Yes, he’s my husband. He’s back at the other apartment with the truck men packing things up. I came ahead to get things sorted out. Are you a friend of Phillip?” She said standing in the open door.
“You could say that, he works in the bank down stairs from my office, I saw him here this morning as a matter of fact.”
“Yes, he came over to drop of some cleaning stuff for me. I was inside this morning cleaning, I think I heard you both talking.”

We talked for a little while longer, exchanged names and said we would get together when they were finished moving.

As I walked into my apartment, the feeling of loneness hit me. It was at times like this I wished I were living with someone. But then it struck me that if I were living with someone I would not be able to make a play at Pauline. That’s when I remembered why I had rejected all attempts by former girlfriends to move in with me. I needed the room and freedom to go where and when I want.

Phillip and Pauline moved in and over the next couple of months we got very close. During this time Pauline and I spent a lot of time together talking about advertising and marketing. I was even able to slip her a few assignments every now and then. She was good at her work and had a natural talent for graphics and design.

Pauline made a deliberate effort to keep things very social between us, even though we would flirt with each other and make suggested remarks. It was the hardest thing for me to keep things social. I was very attracted to her and did not hide my obvious attraction when we were alone. I somehow felt she was attracted to me also and would at times give subtle hints, such as a suggestive look or passing very close to me, or she would say something sexual and then quickly say she was only joking. I guess she just wanted to find out what I would say or do.

I suspected that Pauline was not sure how I would handle the situation with Phillip if we started an affair and if she could handle it also. There was a lot at stake, but the excitement of an affair with Pauline under Phillips nose excited me.

Pauline and I continued this game of testing the waters for some time, until one Sunday evening things came to a head in my apartment.
For some reason or other Phillip trusted me, with Pauline that is, or maybe he just trusted Pauline. Whatever it was he had no qualms about leaving us together to talk shop or whatever. So when Pauline told me that Phillip had to go to Montego Bay for two days to sort out something at the Bank Branch there, I knew that this was the opportunity to make my move.

Phillip left for Montego Bay the Saturday morning, as he wanted to check with his parents in Runaway Bay on his way down. He was to start his Montego Bay assignment on Monday and be back in Kingston on Tuesday evening, he however said that he might just come back on Wednesday. It all depended on how long it would take. I wished and prayed the problem would take the whole week to sort out.
Two hours after Phillip left I called Pauline and asked her if I could have Phillips dinner since he would not be here.

“What makes you think, I’m going to cook? She replied laughing.
“I don’t know, but I have no dinner today, so I figured I could get some from you”
“Well you’re out of luck, anything else I can help you with?” She was testing the water again.
“That depends on what I have to choose from.” I fired back.
“When you figure it out give me a call, I’ll be here all evening.”
“Since you’re not going to cook, let me order something and you can come over and have dinner with me, how does that sound?”
“Sounds good to me, see you later then”
“About 7 then”
“Ok” She said and hung up.

At 7:05 pm Pauline knocked on my door. She was dressed in a black stretch to fit mini skirt that was more micro than mini, and a long sleeve baby pink shirt that she had rolled up the sleeves. As she passed me and entered the room, the scent of her freshly washed body filled my nostrils. She smelt good, looked good, she must surely taste good, I said to myself watching.

“So what’s for dinner? She enquired as she turned to face me.
“You” I said looking at her, the hunger showing on my face.
She smiled, turned and headed towards the kitchen.
I had picked up some Chinese food at the Sovereign Centre, and had it lain out on the Kitchen counter. The bottle of wine in the fridge chilling I had for some time.
“Chinese, I love Chinese food” Pauline said from the kitchen.
“Set it up for me, I’ll be there in a minute” I shouted out to her as I went into the bathroom through the bedroom.

I took a quick shower and was toweling off when I heard Pauline calling out to me.
“Do you have chop sticks?” she said
“What?”
“Chop sticks!’ she shouted again.
I came out of the bathroom wet and naked with the towel in my hand and bumped into Pauline coming towards the bathroom door.
“Chop” she said, not able to complete the words. She was looking me over from head to toe as if this was the first time she was seeing me.
“Chop Sticks?” I said “no, no can’t use the dam thing.”
“Oh. Ok” Pauline said still looking at me.
I dropped the towel and pulled her into my arms, pressing her against my wet naked body. I kissed her on the lips and she pulled back, looking up at me, with a smile on her face.
“Do you know how long I have wanted to do that?” I confessed to her.
“What took you so long?” she whispered.

I looked Pauline in the eye and saw that she was feeling the same way I was. I slowly unbuttoned her shirt to revel her breast. She was not wearing a bra and the excitement she was feeling made her nipples hard and erect. Her breasts fitted and felt great in my cupped hands. As we kissed I reached behind her to pull down her skirt and remove her panty. Pauline wormed her way out of the mini skirt and as for panties, there was none.

She tasted as good as she looked and smelt. Pauline was very experienced at loving making and even showed me a few tricks. When she went down on me, lights and fireworks went off in my head. The feeling was sensational and unlike any I had ever felt before.

We made love all night.

I’m not sure how long I had slept for, but when I woke up Pauline was not in the bed beside me. I got up and walked into the living room naked.
Pauline was sitting in the love seat with some Chinese food in one hand and the TV remote in the other. She was completely naked.
“Did you leave any for me?” I asked her.
“No, but you can have some more of this” she replied smiling and turning around to me.
As she turned she looked down at me and smiled.
“You’re a big boy,” she said.
“You think so” I replied
“I know so,” she said bursting out in laughter.

We sat in the love seat, made love in the love seat, eat and drank wine in the love seat until early the next morning.

We talked about how we felt about each other and how attracted we both were to each other and importantly how we would handle Phillip.

We were both sure that we were not in love with each other, just sexually attracted to each other, which in some way made it easier to deal with. If there was love and strong emotion involved that would make things very difficult to handle. I did not want to take her away from Phillip, I needed my freedom to roam and conquer.

We were sure that we had to behave as if nothing happened. That I could do easily. But could Pauline pull it off. That was the big question. Was she able to hide this from him? I asked her directly.
“Can you do this?”
“I think so” she replied looking at the TV.
We made love every night that Phillip was away and even in the day. Because Pauline worked at home, I was able to slip out of the office for an hour or two and go over to her apartment.

When I came home Wednesday evening I saw Phillip in the car park washing his car.
“Hey your back, everything went well,” I said walking up to him.
“Yeh, but things are worse than we thought I may have to go back down later this week or sometime next week” he replied.
“That’s rough man, sorry to hear that” I lied.
Phillip began to tell me about the problem at the bank. Apparently the Bank of Jamaica was probing some financial transactions at the bank, which they felt was not done to regular banking rules. In addition the bank was having severe liquidity problems and was seeking BOJ assistance. Bottom line was the ministry of finance and the central bank wanted to shut down the bank.

“That’s some serious shit man,” I said listing to him.

We talked for a while longer until it became dark. He was finished washing the car and was drying it off, when Pauline came down with a Red Stripe in her hand.
“If I knew you were down here I would have taken one for you.” She said looking at me and handing Phillip the beer.
“I’m ok, besides I only drink wine.” I said and looked her straight in the eye.
Pauline looked at me with a knowing expression. Phillip took the beer from Pauline and pulled her close to him.
“Come here, what you been up to in my absence.” He said mocking her.
“You don’t want to know,” she said laughing and looking at me.
That was my cue to leave.
“Listen I have to go. I’ll leave you love bugs to get your thing on. I have some left over Chinese food upstairs that I’m going to heat up for dinner.

“Chinese food should not be reheated” Pauline shouted at me as I walked off. “It should be eaten straight from the pot, hot.”
“I‘ll remember that next time, Phillip see you later man.” I replied and went upstairs.

As I walked up the stairs, I looked back and saw Phillip and Pauline hugging and chatting, I was reminded of why I had taken a vow never to get married.