Meredith Willows sipped her coffee as she poured a cup for the young man who was outside staining her deck. It already looked miles better than it had the day before, no doubt due to Jimmy "Mack" MacKenzie's diligence. Any job he tackled, he gave it his all and he was never satisfied until it was absolutely perfect. As a matter of fact, Meredith had often teased him that he was too much of a perfectionist and he would just smile that endearing, crooked grin of his and say "probably".
It was his good work ethic that had caused her to hire him in the first place. Had he really been doing odd jobs for her for the past ten years? It seemed hard to believe and yet, the evidence was just outside her back door, his shirtsleeves rolled up to reveal arms as thick as steel cables.
She had known Mack for a long time, long before he had worked for her, even before she had been married. He was a high school friend of Julie, Meredith's sister and he had always been buzzing around their home. Mack had a thing for Julie, which he was poor at hiding, but her redheaded sister was completely oblivious to his antics. Merry thought he was a nice young man and sweetly charming. A few years later, after Merry had married Ryan, he had come around looking to do odd jobs to earn money to help pay for his college tuition. Ryan was a savvy businessman, but he could scarcely change a light bulb. Merry put him to work painting the garage and he did such a fine job of it, she kept hiring him for other jobs that needed doing. He tackled each and every one of them with gusto and if Ryan thought she was needlessly spending his money, he never said so.
She brought Mack his coffee, after all these years, she knew exactly how he took it. She knew a lot about Mack, his hobbies, his home life, the women he had dated. He wasn't currently seeing anyone, which pleased her. She stood outside and chatted with him for a bit before going back inside. Too much time spent in Mack's presence was too much of a temptation for her.
She knew her marriage was on very shaky ground. It had been for the past year. She and Ryan were moving in opposite directions and nothing seemed to bring them closer. Just last week, Ryan had moved out, supposedly to a hotel. Merry knew better, she was sure that he was staying at the home of Ivy Caine, one of his co-workers. The much-younger blonde was the kind of pretty little thing a man in his late 30's with a failing marriage might pursue. Oddly, it didn't bother Meredith and she knew why. She had strong urges for someone else, a younger man busily working away just outside her back door.
Meredith knew that she shouldn't even give thought to becoming involved with Mack, yet she couldn't help herself. He was so handsome and intense, with dark, wavy hair and deep, almost brooding good looks. As she had noticed on several occasions, he had muscles that filled out a shirt nicely. She had often wondered what he might look like in a suit and tie? Probably like a movie star, she surmised. He was also a success in business, earning almost as much as her husband. After his college graduation, he had started his own handyman business and now employed 5 other contractors. Yet he still insisted on doing any job Merry needed doing personally. She was his first customer and it needed to be done right, he always insisted. As she knew she was crushing on the attractive, 26-year old contractor, Merry wasn't about to belabor the point.
Meredith couldn't believe she was even contemplating her next move. She would never have thought of herself as the type of woman who would cheat or have an affair. She had been married for a little over ten years and although there had been temptations, she had not succumbed. The attractive brunette had honored her marriage vows until this time. So why was she so caught up in the thought of taking Mack as her lover?
She knew why. Working from home all of these years, she had neglected her appearance somewhat. Administrative work for an online business did not require her to be glamorous and she had taken advantage of it. Meredith had gained a bit of weight and let herself get a bit dowdy. Most of the time, she did her work with her hair curled up in a bun or in a pony tail while she wore sweats and running shoes. Unless she and Ryan went out to dinner or a social function, she didn't worry much about her outward appearance.
That changed instantly one afternoon as Merry passed the mirror in the hall. She saw her reflection staring back at her and she did not like what she saw. The frumpy, dowdy woman looking back at her was not the image she wanted to present to the world. It was time to take action.
She marched immediately to her bedroom and threw open her closet doors. Rummaging through the closet, she tossed out all but her newest pairs of track pants. She went into her bureau and did likewise until she had two good-sized boxes, one that she could donate to charity and another that was going in the trash. She looked at herself and saw that there was still an attractive woman under all the frumpery. She called her friend Marcy and asked where Marcy worked out. She thanked her friend, hung up the phone and made an appointment. After that, she called the salon where she used to go when she was dating Ryan. She made an appointment for later on in the day and plotted her course of action. Dowdy was out, dazzle was in!
When she got home at 6 that night, every muscle ached. She had not done that much in the way of physical exertion in the past 5 years, but if it yielded the results she wanted, the temporary anguish would be worth it. She was wearing a new, attractive black dress and heels and she'd had her makeup done and her hair styled. She wasn't quite where she wanted to be yet, but it was a vast improvement. Sensibly, she had picked up a pizza on the way home as she would not have had time to prepare a meal for Ryan before he got home from the office. She could hardly wait to see his reaction to her makeover.
That was the point where Merry realized her marriage was in deep, desperate trouble. He barely noticed her new look, although he did comment on how good the pizza smelled. She went to bed angry that night and when her husband reached for her, she pretended to be asleep. A part of her metamorphosis had been for his benefit and he had barely noticed. He wasn't about to reap the benefits now! Although she was unaware of it at that time, the seeds of discord in her marriage had already been sewn. Over the next several months, the two of them became estranged and no manner of counseling or discussion was able to fix things. Right now, Merry wasn't even sure that she wanted them to be fixed.
A good reason for that went back to Mack. Almost from the outset, he noticed Meredith's transformation and he was encouraging every time that she saw him. If she happened to see him with another younger, prettier girl, she felt pangs of jealousy. She used those as motivation to work even harder and by the end of her first year, she had a body any twenty-something would envy, complete with a six-pack. She had achieved dazzle and her only question now was - did she want to go the full nine yards?
Now that she was once again a sexy, vivacious woman, certain - urges - had come to the surface after lying dormant for over a year. Mack had been a cute young guy, but as a man, he was magnificent. Even Julie had commented on one occasion that had she known how he'd turn out, she might have given him a second look. "Too bad, Jules," Merry had thought to herself. "You wasted your opportunity and I'm sure as hell not going to let you have a second one!"
There was only one minor flaw in Meredith's little plan - she had absolutely NO idea how to go about seducing someone, especially a successful and attractive man like Mack. She had seen him around town with several stunning specimens and he didn't lack for female companionship. How was she going to lure him in and did she even want to do something so ludicrous?
That was the old Merry intruding on her new mindset. What was ludicrous about being thought of as desirable? She knew that she was, she had seen some of the men - and even some of the women - at her gym giving her admiring looks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. For at least one time in her life, Meredith Willows wanted an adventure and she wanted to share that adventure with the gorgeous stud laboring outside. She went into her bedroom and knew what she had to do. She stripped out of her clothes and went into the bottom drawer of her bureau. If
this
didn't do the trick, nothing would. She allowed herself a secret smile as she put on the skimpy garment that she had purchased with one sole intent - seducing Mack. She looked into the mirror and applied a bit of makeup, then messed her hair a bit. She liked the wanton look she now presented and she hoped that Mack would see the sparkle in her green eyes. If he went for it, she was going to show him the time of his life. By the time he went home tonight, he was going to be exhausted and not from yard work.
As an afterthought, Meredith donned a very sexy, very spiky pair of silver high heels. In high school, she often cursed the fact that she was the tallest girl in her class. With the heels on, she was over six feet. Mack would still tower above her, men liked to be taller.
