Chapter 4
Ol' Hard-Ass Akins was waiting for him when he parked his pickup and hauled his gear out of the bed. He was standing by the door of his air-conditioned office, his arms crossed like an irritated schoolmarm about to deal with an errant fifth-grader.
Bill hated his boss with the kind of intensity that brought the bile up from his guts every time he had to cross words with him. First of all, he was a pansy... a real raving queer, and there was little Bill Hodges hated worse than slobbering fairies. He didn't really care what a guy's sexual preferences were as long as he was a man about it -working with a couple of fags on his last job had taught him that there were all types of homosexuals. But Jason Akins was the worst kind and Bill had to swallow his pride and swallow hard every time he saw the queer son-of-a-bitch coming.
"It's about time, Hodges," he simpered. "I thought you'd taken your vacation early." He looked at his watch emphatically, as if Bill should take that as his cue and start making excuses. Only if that was what Akins wanted, he didn't know Bill Hodges as well as he thought. Bill looked past him and winked at his private secretary, Claire, who was at her desk inside, a big grin of amusement on her pretty face.
"What's eating you this time, Akins? I'm hardly a half hour late... and I finished all I was assigned. So what's the beef?" Bill stood close to him, not too close, but enough for his boss to feel the full strength of six-and-a-quarter feet of real man towering over his five- five skinny frame. Bill would never have hurt him -beating up on fags was not his style — but he did get a kick out of watching the old queen squirm. He never knew whether it was fear or passion that made the balding, flabbish man break out in a sweat every time he was around.
"Nothing's eating me," he smiled thinly, emphasizing the double-entendre for Bill's enjoyment. "But Mr. Crosby called."
"Crosby?" Bill answered. That cocksucker! How did he find out?
"Uh, what did he want? Didn't I do a good job on his pump? I even took the filter off and washed it." Bill was getting nervous but he tried not to show it — if ol' Crosby had the goods on him, it would finish him in this business. He could kiss goodbye any hopes of a pool service of his own once the story got around to the other husbands!
"He didn't say anything was wrong... he just wanted to know your name and why the old serviceman was no longer on the job. I was hoping you might have some idea why he called."
"He didn't sound mad?"
"Should he have been?" Akins re-crossed his thin arms.
Bill breathed a slow, easy sigh of relief; Akins was incapable of bluffing. If Crosby had said anything, it would be all out in the open now and Akins would be spluttering like a beheaded chicken.
"No... I did a good job like I always do. He's a fussy ol' cocksucker." He paused at the word and let his boss stew on it a moment. "I mean, with that money and those servants and all, I suppose he just wanted to check up on me, that's all. Is there anything else?" Bill turned to leave without waiting for a reply. Akins started to say something but broke it off and went back into his office retreat, muttering under his breath and waving his limp wrists in the air.
Bill stored his gear and got into his economy car for the freeway drive home, switching the radio on to a country and western station that was his favorite.
He felt good -in more ways than one. And satisfied -also in more ways than one. Jason Akins was put back in his place. His savings account was growing all the time, ever closer to his own pool maintenance service and the opportunity to run Akins and his kind out of business. And there was Caroline -that was something a man couldn't forget.
He felt his cock harden inside his pants, stiffening along the inside of his hairy thigh as he zigged and zagged through the late afternoon traffic. Already he was counting the days until he would have an excuse to call on that Crosby broad again.
Damn, I can't walk in like this! Karen'll know I've been up to something! She'd cut me off at the knees if I walked in with this hard-on!
He pushed it down with the heel of his hand. He was still pushing it down when he drove into the apartment complex parking lot.
But he was spared the problem -Karen was sound asleep on their bed when he let himself in. He thought it was sort of odd that she wasn't wearing any pants, but figured it was the hot weather and covered her with a light blanket and helped himself to a beer.
She woke herself up a little past seven, scurrying on pretty bare feet into the living room to apologize for being asleep when he got home.
"Oh, that's all right," he waved benevolently. "What's for dinner?"
"Spare ribs... I'll just have to heat them up," she said, tugging up her cut-off jeans, her face turned so that her husband could not see the reddish streaks of embarrassment that criss-crossed her pink cheeks. She had awakened to find the Danish magazine still close to her on the bed, though part of her pillow covered it... Had he seen it? She guessed not, since he had said nothing so far.
She hurried into the kitchen to prepare their dinner, breathing fast and furiously as she thanked a dozen gods for being sneaked past this close one... she'd have to set the alarm next time in case she dozed off again. That is, if there was a next time. Maybe I won't have to do that again. Maybe Bill will take care of it for me!
But she knew better. After dinner, he excused himself and went into the second bedroom that they used as a study and began to pore over his figures, and his plans, for the umpteenth time.
Karen sighed and went off to bed... alone. Always alone.