Jennifer Collier: Some Very Lovable Neighbors

"Why… hello, Bob! This is a pleasant surprise!"

Bob Mason smiled cheerily at her. "Hi, Adie looks like you've been doing a little housework."

"A lot of it, actually," Adie corrected lightly. "Won't you come in?"

"Thanks." He stepped in past her. "Nice little place you got here," he observed.

"Well, it's pretty small. As soon as Jack finishes the novel, and we get the rest of the money according to his contract, we're going to move into something a little larger."

"Don't pick Sea View," Mason said "Too damned much fog."

Adie laughed. "Can I get you something, Bob?"

"No, thanks. Listen, Adie, the reason I dropped over is that I had a great idea. I was sitting home, staring at the television, and I got to thinking how you were likely home all alone, too. Well, since our spouses are both at the cabin in Salmoon Creek, I said to myself, 'Why shouldn't Adie and I drive down and meet them there? We could all have dinner together, to sort of celebrate things'." He grinned down at her.

"What do you think of the idea?"

"Well… I don't know. If Jack's working on his novel…"

"I don't really think he'd mind. After all, this is the first day up there; he's going to have many more of them in which to work. I thought it would be enjoyable for all of us. And it'll give you a chance to look over the old man's new workshop."

"Well…" Adie said again. "All right, maybe it would be fun at that.

Shall I change my clothes?"

"Heck, no," Mason answered. He waved a hand to indicate his polo shirt and sports slacks and canvas shoes. "Ultra-casual, that't the epitome of sartorial elegance, as far as I'm concerned."

Adie chuckled appreciatively. "Okay, then. But if my husband is angry, you'll have to shoulder the blame," she teased.

"Deal."

Adie fetched her purse. She debated briefly putting away the vacuum, and straightened up a little more – and then decided that that could wait until tomorrow. She would have plenty of time for continued housewifely chores then.

Gaily, she took Bob Mason's arm. "Shall we go, Sir?"

"By your leave, madam."

They were both laughing as they climbed into Mason's impressive Lincoln Continental parked in front.

The drive from Seattle was beautiful and relaxing, and Adie sat next to Bob Mason with pleasure. She talked continually, usually about nothing in particular or especially important. Things were finally going well for her, for Jack, and she felt the need to talk, to release some of her bubbling enthusiasm. Mason smiled and drove the Continental with one ear cocked toward the young, beautiful woman.

Occasionally Mason would add something, but only to praise Jack, and this made Adie all the more glad that she had decided to accompany him.

The miles passed swiftly, and the quiet comfort of the luxury automobile made the passage of time effortless. Yes, Adie was at the very height of happiness. Her husband could get the book finished at last, she would not be worried nearly so much over him, and the two of them had met just the finest of people, the Masons…

Shortly after they passed through the Suburbs Mason said: "Reach in the back, Adie, and open the ice chest, will you?"

Adie turned her body, noticing the bright red styrofoam container balanced on the rear seat. Mason watched her as she moved, her legs stretching the elastic of her pants as she brought them up under her, as she swivelled to lean over the back rest. Her breasts were outlined against the thin jersey blouse, the material clinging to the bra underneath so that her protruding hillocks were shadowed and detailed provocatively. She flattened them against the cushions as she leaned, and Mason gave out an involuntary groan of desire, for he wanted to have his palms around those breasts, squeezing and kneading and pressing them into the same kind of shape. She kneeled on the seat, exclaiming, "Oh! What did you bring along, Bob?"

"Open it and see, Adie." He brought his vision back to the highway, his tongue licking dry, hungry lips. "I wasn't sure whether Jack would have thought to stop for groceries, so there's some steaks in there, along with some leftover cole slaw and some other things."

Adie laughed and squirmed her tightly-encased buttocks in an unconscious way. "You're probably right about Jack. I don't think he'd remember me, once he's there by himself. That book seems to have taken over everything."

Mason chuckled. "Well, it'll all work out for the best, if the book is a success. Which I'm sure it will be."

Adie started to turn around again, but Mason stopped her, placing a hand on her upper thigh. "Grab the thermos in there, will you, Adie?"

She hesitated from the touch of his friendly, almost too friendly – hand on her leg. Oh, his morals were unquestionable, of course, and she felt perfectly safe with him in the car… but still a faint, swiftly passing mental image of him, a perfect stranger, lewdly grasping and pawing her, rippled with cold dread through her mind, and she froze, shivering slightly.

The hand stayed a split second too long, she thought, but before she could object or move away, or really become aware that the hand was the menace her intuition warned her it was, Mason placed it back on the steering wheel.

"And a couple of those plastic cups, too," he added.

It must have been her imagination, Adie thought, returning to comply with his request. She lifted the lid of the case and on top of the cubed ice, packed next to the butcher-paper-wrapped steaks, was a large, ribbed aluminum thermos jug. The cups were handily beside the thermos, and she took two along with the thermos as she rolled around to face front again.

"What's this, Bob?"

"Well, it was for tonight, but I've developed a thirst for some reason …," he paused, smiling at her warmly but honestly.

She unscrewed the thermos cap and poured a small cupful of its contents. "What is it?"

"Vodka Collins. I made them before I left today." Again the open, frank, almost boyish grin crossed his features. "See that? I remembered."

"Remembered?" For a moment Adie didn't understand, and then she recalled asking him to fetch her a drink at the Danton party. "Oh, you mean – " She had to smile back. "Yes, it is my favorite drink. In fact, about the only one I really like."

"Have some, then," he urged.

"I don't know… it's too early in the day."

"Go ahead. There's plenty."

Adie poured herself a glass and slowly sipped the Collins. As she did, a vicarious thrill, brought about by the teenage act of drinking in a car, completely blanked out her fleeting fear of a moment previous.

"Mmmmm. This is good, Bob," she enthused.

"I used to be a bartender years ago," he said proudly.

Well, now, Adie thought as the car sped on towards Salmon Creek. This is really the last word, drinking in the middle of the afternoon with a strange man in his fancy Continental. A little twinge of schoolgirl guilt made her giggle inwardly, and her mind recalled a long-ago drivein movie when she was in her freshman year of college, and the sixpacks of beer her date had taken along, and her abandoned actions after the alcohol had gotten somewhat to her. Another shiver crossed her mind, and the fuzzy picture of that night returned, as it had many times. That was the night after she had first seen a man's erect organ, standing like a sentry, guarding the trouser's open fly – and the first time she had handled one, though not allowing it to capture her virginity. But close, so close…

Well, that was enough of that kind of thinking! She pressed her buttocks into the cushion, "Here's to Jack," she said.

"Here's to him, all right. I hope he gets everything he deserves, Adie.

Everything."

She took a heavier swallow from her cup, the bittersweet liquid warming her belly with comfortable fire. She had to watch it – she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. But before she could protest, Mason had picked up the thermos from the seat and refilled her cup, placing his empty cup down as he did so. She in turn refilled his.