Best Laid Plans Ch. 02

Ch 2 – Toying with the Mouse

Helen's answering machine had half a dozen messages on it when she got home. Most were from her father, "Miss you. Please call. We need to talk. I have something important to tell you."

"Yeah, right, Dad," she answered. She had no desire to talk to the man. He had walked out on her, hadn't found the time to be there while she was growing up, and now suddenly, he needed to talk to her. She deleted the last of his messages and played the last one on the machine.

"Helen, it's me, Jason. Your cellular was busy, so I called here. Anyway, I wanted to wish you luck tonight and I want you to call me after whatever it is that you have planned. That's all."

Helen was good at reading between the lines, especially where Jason was concerned. She knew that he was missing her and that he wanted to be with her tonight, but it just wasn't possible. Jason wasn't in love with her, but he still found it hard to share her with other men. Ryan was more than a rival for her time, he was a business rival; and Jason wanted to be sure where Helen's loyalties were.

She pulled off her heavy sweater and pulled on a comfortable t-shirt and replaced her boots with fuzzy slippers. She pulled her mail out of her purse and made herself a cup of tea.

Helen knew Ryan's routine rather well; he was the consummate creature of habit. He would spend the day in his office and then stop at the mall coffee shop to read the paper. He would check out his company's product placement at the mall stores before coming home for the night. She knew that he liked to do his laundry very late at night when the building was quiet. She decided to spend the time waiting online. She checked out her snail mail while reading through most of her email. She ended up trashing a fair share of junk mail and spam.

She checked out a few corporate web sites before deciding to hack into Ryan's company site. She noted that there was a fair amount of security on the site and decided to wait. She stopped by Jason's site and left him a very naughty message. "Wish you were here, you naughty boy. Here I sit with nothing on except a smile, rubbing my clit and thinking about how much I wish you could be here sucking it for me. I miss your agile tongue licking my nipples and the way your cock hardens as I suck on it. I miss how your cum fills my throat before I swallow every drop. I miss riding your hard cock while you tug on my nipple clamps until I come all over your lap. Tomorrow, I promise, I won't miss you!"

She knew that Jason would be waiting for her at their usual rendezvous and that helped her get ready for Ryan. She wanted to reek of her sex when she ran into him later tonight and leaving this message made her wet. She replaced her fuzzy slippers with a pair of medium heels and replaced her t-shirt with a see-through shirt that made her rock hard nipples more obvious. She turned on her television and popped a tape into the VCR. She chose the one movie that she knew would only make her wetter and sat down on her couch.

When the movie was finished, she went to her bedroom and gathered the sexiest laundry she could collect, and grabbing her keys and some coins, she headed down to the laundry room. As expected, Ryan was there, sitting on top of one of the folding tables with a sketchpad. She entered the room, letting her heels tap loudly on the floor and dropping her basket on a nearby machine. She carefully removed each item of lingerie on at a time from the basket and placed it into the machine. She made her temperature selection and then dropped her quarters into the coin slots. She poured the laundry detergent into the machine, closed the lid and then looked around the room.

She shot a surprised look in Ryan's direction. "Don't I know you?" she asked.

Ryan looked up from his sketchbook and stared at her for a moment. "You're the coffee spiller and paper ripper that I met at the mall, aren't you?"

Helen was uncertain of his mood; she decided to take the apologetic route. "I'm sorry, I guess I'm a bit of a bull in a china shop. Am I disturbing you?"

"No, actually, I could use a break from all this peace and quiet."

Helen turned away from him and headed towards the door.

Ryan scrambled from the tabletop and ran after her. "I'm sorry, please don't leave. I mean, I don't even know your name," he stammered. "Mine's Ryan Dalton," he blurted out.

"Helen Parker," she replied, limply offering her hand. He was standing close to her and she was certain that he could smell her pussy juice as it dripped down her legs. She glanced down at his chinos to see if he was interested in more than polite conversation. She was not disappointed.

Helen walked over to the folding tables with Ryan following close behind. She sat down and picked up his sketchpad. "Are you an artist?" she asked.

"No, a designer," he said as he retrieved the pad, "and these are just preliminary sketches."

"Can I see them?" she queried as she reached for the pad.

"No," he answered abruptly. "Let's talk about you," he countered in an attempt to change the subject.

"What do you design?" Helen inquired as she stood her ground.

"I don't like to talk about my work," he stated dryly.

"Sorry I asked," Helen responded as she slid off the table. She walked over to her machine and inspected her lingerie's progress. She let the lid slam back down and walked back over to Ryan. "I sell perfume in a department store," she spoke in a subdued manner. "It's not much of a job but it pays the rent!"

"And how do you pay for your dinner?" he asked pointedly.

"I date men," she answered with a laugh. The smile on her face betrayed the joke, and Ryan laughed in response.

"Does that mean that you are open to having dinner with me?" Ryan asked smiling at her.

"Only if you ask me?" Helen shot back. Helen left the table to retrieve her laundry from the washer and started towards the exit.

"Aren't you going to dry that stuff?" he shouted after her.

Helen ignored his question as she exited the laundry room and headed towards the elevator. On the way up to her apartment, she went over the conversation she had just had with Ryan. Helen realized that he wasn't the easy mark that she thought he would be. She would have to get very close to the man to get what she was after.

She entered her apartment and hung her laundry in the bathroom to dry. She went online one last time that night to check for mail and to send a report to her boss. Joshua Radford would not be pleased at the lack of progress that she had made, but Helen really didn't care at that moment. She answered the few other letters that has straggled in late at night and shut down her computer.

Helen then turned her attention to her answering machine. There was a single message that she almost deleted unheard. She hit the play button expecting it to be another plea from her father. "Helen, it's me, Jason,” the message began. "I can't meet with you tomorrow. Something came up and I have to go out of town for a few days. I'll call you when I get back. Bye."

Helen was not having a good night and found it hard to get to sleep. She had gotten comfortable with her arrangement with Jason and hated to miss their weekly appointment. As she drifted off to sleep, Helen had little idea of just how many things in her life were about to change.