I looked across my desk at Katie. She looked tired and a little warm. We'd been in the office for almost fourteen hours straight and the air conditioning had stopped working about six hours ago. Our company was moving to new offices over the weekend, and while Katie and I both should have been at our respective homes enjoying the start of the weekend, we'd instead been forced to stay at the office. All of our other IT support folks were involved in moving the company's equipment, while at the same time, our company's network was being subjected to a denial-of-service attack. So Katie and I were assigned to keeping the company's web servers up and running (and customers happy!) until the IT folks could install the replacement systems at the new office.
It should have already been completed, but we'd just talked to our folks over at the new office and they were missing a vital piece of equipment and were busy trying to track down a replacement that would work. It was coming up on midnight and we likely had at least another 12 hours to go. The DDoS attack had quieted down, so we were left with little to do except monitor the website and look for signs the attacks had picked back up again.
"Okay... bored now" I said, with a bit of a smile.
Katie smiled in return, "Yeah, me too. It wasn't so bad when we were busy, but this night seems like it is going to take forever."
My smile became a little more ironic. "Would that be so bad? I mean, it sucks and all, but at least they promised we'd get some extra vacation days out of it and this is a lot more fun with you here than when Ryan was in your job." Ryan had been the person Katie replaced, and while he was good at the job, he was about as interesting to spend time with as a piece of drywall. Katie was even better at the job, and she and I always had interesting conversations. It didn't hurt that she was gorgeous: a tall and tight body, blonde hair, and blue eyes. However with both of us being married and me being quite a bit older, we'd quickly become friends but nothing more.
"I guess you're right. I...Ow!" She suddenly grabbed at her neck.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, I guess I was sitting in one place too long looking at this damn screen and now I've got a muscle spasm in my neck." She was obviously in quite a bit of pain.
I got up from my desk and walked over. "Here," I said, "let me see if I can help." I gently removed her hand from her neck and slowly and tenderly started to work out the tension in her neck and shoulders.
She made a happy sighing sound. "Mmmm. David, that feels really nice. Where'd you learn to do that?"
"Here and there. Mostly it just takes a little empathy to understand how and where to push in the right way." I didn't add that it helped to have really strong fingers and hands, but that helped too.
"A little higher on the right side please," she asked. I obliged, sliding my thumb up the side of her neck while applying a little bit of pressure and motion. She let out a small moan, and despite being tired and hot, I felt myself respond. "I need you to teach my husband how to do that. He's... well, he doesn't have your touch."
"It can be hard for some people to notice what's working and what's not I guess. I know Mary appreciates it, especially when..."
"Especially when what?"
I had been about to say "when she gets a leg cramp during sex," but had censored myself. "Um... when she's been really active for a long time," I finished, hoping it didn't sound as lame to her as it did to my own ears. I continued to massage her neck and shoulders, gradually feeling the tightness melt away.
"Oh, that's so much better!" Katie stood up and stretched, and I couldn't help but appreciate how her clothes slid along her toned body as she did so. As it was casual Friday and the last day in the office before the move, we were both in pretty casual clothes. I had on jeans and a t-shirt, while Katie was in fairly tight jeans and a mens-style button down Oxford. She looked much better in her clothes than I looked in mine. There's something about a woman in a button-down Oxford that just does it for me, you know? Seeing her stretch like that and watching as the fabric of her shirt was pulled taut by the fullness of her breasts was probably the best thing to happen to me that day so far.
She turned around with a coy glance. "So, does your wife often get really active for long periods of time?" Her tone of voice sounded completely innocent, but between her words and how she looked at me when she said them, I couldn't help but realize that perhaps something had changed.
I decided to play along. "Hmm... maybe four or five times a week or so? Not as often as when we were younger, but often enough I guess." I must have said something wrong. It was like a shadow passed over Katie's face. Had I misinterpreted what I thought was flirting? Katie and I were more "work friends" than "friend friends" but she'd been exposed a little bit to my ability to make pretty much anything sound dirty - and I'd definitely made that line sound pretty damn dirty.
She sat back down. "David, can I ask you something?"
"Of course. Whatever you need to."
"You and Mary have been married for more than twenty years, right?"
"Yep. Twenty-three years next August."
"Have you and she... I can't believe I'm going to ask this, but I'm at the end of my rope. Have you and she ever had a dry spell? You know, physically?" She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"Sure. I think everyone married that long goes through them from time to time. It's just part of marriage. In our case, she had some health issues that affected our love life for almost five years. But through some new medication and her working hard to recover her sex drive, we bounced back just fine." Katie's look of relief seemed to speak volumes. "Why? Are you and Justin having issues? I mean I wouldn't ordinarily ask, but considering we're already in the middle of this conversation, seems silly to bail out now."
"So... as you know, Justin and I will have been married three years in July. And he... are you sure you want to hear all this?"
"Katie, I've always liked and respected you and I think you feel the same about me. Let's just ignore the fact we work together and just talk as two friends."
She smiled at me. "Thank you David. That means a lot."
"Anyway - so we've been married almost three years, and the sex...well, the sex just stopped. I don't know what happened! It was fine for all the years we dated and when we were engaged, but then he slipped this ring on my finger and it just seems to have stopped. Like a top that just wound down." The tears that had just been hinted at earlier stood bright in her eyes.
