Chapter 4
It was ten days later, and Bruce left for another trip.
This time he was going to Dallas, and it was with a heavy heart that Leslie drove him to the airport.
She was in the dumps as she drove home, and after she arrived back she went out into the backyard and watered the lawn. She wanted to do something to make herself feel a little better, or at least to forget about what had just happened.
It seemed like Bruce was always leaving, and that their times together at home were so few and far between.
Just as she was finishing watering her lawn, the young married woman from next door, Judy Forbes, walked into her backyard and noticed Leslie.
"Hi, Leslie," she called out.
"Oh, how's it going, Judy?"
"Oh, same old grind," Judy shrugged.
"How 'bout you?"
"Oh, Bruce went away on another trip."
"Gosh, he seems to spend most of his time away now."
"That's right. He's working his way up there in the bank hierarchy, but I often wonder if it's worth all of this."
"I know what you mean. It makes you feel in the dumps, doesn't it?"
"It sure does."
"I'll tell you what. Why don't you let me take you to lunch today."
"Oh, you don't have to do that."
"I know I don't," Judy smiled. "I don't do anything because I have to. I do things because I want to, and I'd like to take you to lunch."
"Gee, that's awfully nice of you."
"I'll pick you up at one o'clock."
"Fine, I'll be ready then."
Even though Leslie was still feeling a little saddened over the fact that her husband was gone, she felt good about at least having the opportunity to go out to lunch with Judy.
After all, Judy was a nice young girl, bright and peppy, just like herself. Judy was maybe two or three years older than Leslie, and they seemed to have a good deal in common.
There was one area, though, wherein they appeared to be different. Whereas Leslie was strongly devoted to her husband, it appeared that Judy did not really care that much about her husband, Frank.
Leslie took a lengthy warm shower, then put on a beautiful dress to go out to lunch.
When Judy arrived at the house, she looked at Leslie's dress and exclaimed: "WOW! that husband of yours is absolutely crazy for going away. With a gorgeous hunk of woman like you around, he ought to realize just what might happen with him gone."
"I'm not the roving kind, Judy," Leslie said.
"I sure wouldn't blame you if you became that way. After all, he's gone so much."
"I love Bruce very much."
"Oh, I know," she said. "But I'll tell you something. When I get bored by Frank, I go out and have myself a good time with some other man and it doesn't bother me one bit."
"Oh, Judy, I hate to even hear about that," Leslie shook her head.
"That's just the way it goes, honey. I have a roving eye."
The girls got into Leslie's Pinto and they drove to a restaurant not far away, where they had lunch.
They had a couple of cocktails, then a delightful lunch, after which they left the restaurant.
"How 'bout coming in and having a drink with me at my place," Judy exclaimed, as she pulled into the driveway.
"Well, I guess I could."
"Of course you can. Your husband's gone and all. What's going to prevent you?"
"Nothing, I guess."
"Of course not."
They went into the house and Judy fixed them some screwdrivers.
As they sipped the drinks, Judy walked over toward a nearby table and picked up a copy of a newspaper.
"Do you know anything about this newspaper?" Judy held the copy up before Leslie's eyes and smiled.
"I don't know a thing about it."
"It's an underground paper," she laughed. "You know, I've met some of the grooviest guys through ads in the back of this thing. They've got great ads. For example, here's one. Swinging guy want to meet discreet married women for fun and games on weekday afternoons. What do you think about that?"
"I wouldn't be interested," Leslie exclaimed.
"You certainly do sound like a prude," Judy laughed. "Can't you even laugh about some of this stuff?"
"Oh, I suppose I could if I let myself, but I really don't think it's all that funny."
"Well, I guess you're entitled to your opinion on these matters," she shrugged. "But I'll tell you something, dear. It sure beats being by yourself."
"I don't think that I'm going to be by myself that much more," Leslie said, not quite believing what she was saying. "No, I think he's going to be transferred out of that National Division pretty soon."
"Hasn't he been talking about that for a long time?"
"He's mentioned it a few times."
"It makes me wonder if he's going to be transferred out of there as fast as he says. Or if hell be transferred out of there at all."
"Please don't make things appear more pessimistic than they are already," Leslie shook her head.
"I'm just trying to look out for your welfare, dear. I can see how you go to pieces when he's gone, and he's away so much of the time. It's very rough on you. There are no two ways about it."
"Let's not talk about it."
"I'll tell you what I'd like to do," Judy said. "I'd like to at least give you this underground paper to read. I mean, you can at least get a few laughs from it. If none of those ads interest you, then fine. But, on the other hand, if your curiosity is aroused by any of them, then don't hesitate to look into them. After all, you might wind up having a whole lot of fun."
"There's no danger of that happening," Leslie said confidently.
"Then there's nothing to worry about in reading this, is there?"
"No, I guess not."
"Take it home, honey. I'm finished with it."
"Just why are you so eager to have me read it?"
"Oh, it will give you something to do."
"Fine, thank you."
They got off the subject of the underground newspaper and conversed about matters in general as they finished the screwdrivers.
"How'd you like another one?" Judy got up from her chair and asked with a smile.
"No thanks," Leslie said. "Things are fine with me as they are. I don't think I need anymore drinks."
"Okay, suit yourself."
"I do want to thank you, Judy, for taking me out though," Leslie said as she got up from the chair. "I really enjoyed it. The next time I'm going to take you out."
"Oh, that's so nice of you to suggest."
"So I'll see you later."
"Good bye now," Judy said.
The only thing that Leslie didn't like about Judy was her boldness at making suggestions. She was always trying to tell her that, if she was bored and dejected 'bout the fact that her husband was out of town, she could easily do something about it.
Leslie went home and watched a little television. She was bored with the programs, however, so she wound up turning off the set and just sitting in the room.
She got tired of staring at the four walls without anything to do, so, more as a means of relieving boredom than anything else, she picked up the newspaper that Judy had given her.
She looked at some of the erotic pictures inside it, which contained handsome men and beautiful women.
As she looked at them, she thought about her husband, and how great it would be to have Bruce back in that room at that very moment. How she would have liked to have gone to bed with him right then and there. But instead he was on an airplane heading toward Texas.
She decided to have a look at those ads in the back of the publication. She ran over scores of them, most of them concerning wife swapping.
Suddenly she came across an ad that caught her interests. It was an advertisement put in there by a woman named Peggy, and concerned massages.
Right away she thought about what her husband had told her concerning her natural abilities in the area of massaging. He had made those statements several times, and the more often that he had made such remarks, the more she wondered as to whether he was just saying these things or whether she might have had a flare for massaging.
This ad was strangely worded. It merely stated that Peggy wanted beautiful young women to massage famous, handsome, very discreet men.
For some reason or other, the advertisement made her feel more curious than anything of that particular nature that she had ever read. The other advertisements hadn't aroused her curiosity in the way that this one did.
She noticed that there was a telephone number, and she decided that it might be a good idea just to call Peggy and see if she could satisfy her curiosity.
As she picked up the phone, Leslie was confident that she would do nothing more than talk to this woman on the telephone. After all, she wasn't interested in meeting other men, even if, as the ad claimed, they were handsome, wealthy, and very discreet.
She just wanted to find out what this woman's gimmick was, so she dialed the number.
"Hello," a woman's voice answered.
"Is this Peggy?" Leslie asked.
"Yes it is. Could I help you?"
"Perhaps you can. I read an ad saying that you wanted to hire young women for purposes of massaging men."
"Yes, that's right, but I don't go into all those details over the phone. I just will answer a few basic questions and no more."
"I see."
"Our operation is top secret."
"Then why are you advertising in an underground newspaper?" Leslie asked.
"Very simple. I can qualify the girls on the telephone to some degree. I rule a lot of them out just on the basis of that. Then, if I think that there is a good chance that maybe we can get together on some point, then I ask them to come in. Now first of all, how old are you?"
"Isn't that a rather impertinent question to ask."
"You called me," Peggy immediately shot back. "Let's remember that, dear. Now I'll ask you a few questions. If you don't want to answer any of them then all we've got to do is say goodbye to each other and hang up. That will be the end of that."
"All right, I'm twenty-three."
"That's a pretty good age. I'm looking for girls in their early and middle twenties. Oh, I take a few in their late twenties and some in their thirties, but generally the age category I'm looking for is early and middle twenties. Now I want a direct answer to this one. Are you beautiful?"
"I certainly am."
"I mean, are you the kind of girl who draws attention wherever she goes?"
"Yes I am."
"You get plenty of wolf whistles from truck drivers?"
"I seem to get them from all levels," Leslie laughed. "What does that have to with any of this?"
"If you will notice, the ad specifically calls for beautiful women. I want to make sure you are beautiful. And if you're not, it's foolish for us to talk any further."
"I am," Leslie said, almost bursting into laughter. Several times she thought about hanging up, but her curiosity was becoming more powerful with every additional minute.
"Do you have a fantastic figure?" Peggy asked.
"Yes I do."
"Another personal question. What are your measurements?"
"They are 37-22-37."
"Very good," Peggy said. "How tall are you, my dear?"
"I'm five nine."
"Well, a tall girl," she laughed. "That's better yet. Are you a blonde or brunette?"
"I'm a blonde. Now maybe you can answer a few questions from me."
"Go ahead, honey, but I'm not going to answer many on the phone."
"Just what does all this have to do with being a good masseuse?"
"It has everything to do with it, but I'm not going to discuss those details from the telephone. Have you ever done any of that kind of work before?"
"Not professionally."
"A good answer," Peggy laughed. "Well, just maybe we have something in common. Maybe we can get together. I'll tell you what. I could see you at four-thirty this afternoon."
"Okay, fine," Leslie said. "Where should I meet you?"
"At my office in downtown Miami," Peggy said.
At that point, Peggy told Leslie to get a pen and a piece of paper. She provided her with the address of her office.
"You sure didn't tell me much," Leslie said.
"I'll tell you plenty later, dear," Peggy replied. "So I'll be seeing you later this afternoon."
"Okay, I'll be there."
"Fine, dear," Peggy hung up.
As Leslie put the phone back down on the cradle, she began wondering just what was causing her to act that wildly and out of character.
After all, she was the wife of a man who was doing exceptionally well in the conservative realm of banking. So now here she was not only answering an ad that appeared in an underground newspaper. She was following up on that ad with a telephone call, then a personal meeting.
She thought several times about not showing up at all, but everytime that she came to that conclusion she decided that she was much too curious to pass up the opportunity.
No, she thought, she was just going to have to find out exactly what this gal Peggy had on her mind. There would be no two ways about it.
She thought about herself massaging other men, and wondered what she would be expected to do to please them.
If Bruce had even known that she had looked through the newspaper he would be angry, but he would absolutely flip, she thought, if he ever knew that she responded to an ad of the type that she had.
Late afternoon finally rolled around, and Leslie got into her car to drive into downtown Miami.
"You've got to be absolutely crazy," she laughed to herself as she started up the car and drove off.
She couldn't tell Judy about this. If she did, Judy would be pumping her for the next ten years.