“I appreciate that. Thank you again.”
“Sure thing. Goodnight.” With that, she turned and started to walk down the hall.
“Hey,” I called out after her, and she turned around and looked at me expectantly. “How’d you find out what room I was in?”
“I ran into Jim in the lobby. I don’t think his date went swimmingly, honestly. But I explained to him what happened—in general terms, don’t worry—and told him I needed to apologize and give it back to you.”
“Okay. Thanks again.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said, turning on her heel. “You’re actually only six doors down from me,” she called out over her shoulder. As she strode down the hall, I caught myself looking at that amazing ass again. I quickly closed my door and sat down, chiding myself for the events of the evening again. After a few minutes of stewing, I turned on the TV, but eventually, I gave up switching through the channels and pulled up the video. Guiltily, I pleasured myself to it twice that night before I finally fell into a fitful sleep.
The next day I went through the conference in a bit of a daze. Jim and I grabbed lunch, and I filled in the blanks for him. “You’re a much stronger man than I, my friend. I’d have fucked her till the sun came up.”
“I nearly did.”
“Well, no judgement here if you did. But I’m glad you feel good about your decision.”
I hesitated and then changed the subject. “So how was your night, anyway? Mariah said you looked frustrated.”
“It wasn’t terrible. She just got way too drunk, which ruined things at the end.”
“How so?”
“Well, we went back to her place, and had another drink. Then we fooled around, and finally ended up in her bedroom fucking. We went one round, and it was good, don’t get me wrong—the girl gave a mean blow job, for sure. But then after the first round I was wanting to go again after a quick break, but she wanted to do shots. So we took two tequila shots in the course of 10 minutes, and she passed the fuck out. I mean, right out. I woke her up and helped her into bed, and she was all apologetic and sloppy and shit. I left and came back to my room.”
“Bummer.”
“Yeah. She sent me an apology text this morning and offered to make up for it tonight, so we’ll see. I think she’s just a total lightweight. But she’s a nice girl and a lot of fun. No matter what happens, I appreciate you hooking us up. Thank you again.”
“No sweat, brother.”
The afternoon drug even more than the morning. By the end of the session, I nearly bolted out. Mariah tried to catch my eye, but I just shook my head no to her and kept on walking. I went back to my room, ordered food, and holed up for the evening watching TV, taking a break only to Skype with my kids. My wife was cold and all business yet again, and I went to bed angry.
The next day, as the last presentation was winding up, Mariah caught up to me, and firmly said “We need to talk.”
“Okay. Go ahead.”
“Not standing here. Let’s go get a drink. I need to explain myself and try to make this whole thing right.” I nodded my assent, and we went to the lobby bar and found a booth. As our first beers came, she leveled her gaze and said, “I know I said I’m sorry a few times already, and I don’t want to just keep repeating that. What I did was over the line by about a mile.”