Mary Jane swallowed apprehensively as she helped Steven Cornwall pull his shirt off over his head, kick off his boat shoes, unbuckle his trousers and slide them down his legs. Her best girlfriend's husband leered lazily at her. He pulled off his socks and dropped his briefs. Now he was as naked as she was with one difference. She held the envelope he'd just given her. Inside were five one hundred dollar bills that she would get for having sex with him. Across the room, Poppy Cornwall looked on with a benign smile from a club chair. Unlike the other two, Poppy was still fully dressed and sitting with an open laptop across her knees. The nude girl made a beseeching face.
"Relax, MJ," Poppy responded, "Not a man in a thousand knows his way around the female body the way my Stevie does. He was trained by the best—my mother, in fact. Today you're going to find out how sex can be when you're not hooked up with some slacker dude. My guy is going to make you come and come again and again. You may even beg for mercy. And while he's at it, I'll take notes and afterwards you and I will have a little discussion about what other things you need before starting your exciting new career."
It had begun a week before in the sauna.
*****
An hour of Pilates in the university gym left both Poppy and Mary Jane sweaty and tired so a trip to the sauna was in order to give their muscles a chance to relax and not be sore in the morning. As they threw their towels down on the cedar benches and splashed a dipper full of water on the hot rocks, Poppy looked at her friend.
"MJ, this class may be hard but what it's done to your shape is a wonder. Girl, you are tight!"
Mary Jane dimpled. "Thanks, but all I'm trying to do is keep up with you. I can't figure out why a chick that looks the way you do is majoring in Bus. Admin. and Finance. I'd have you pegged for either Drama or Media Communications. Somehow I can't picture you behind a big desk in a pin-striped power suit."
Poppy snorted. "And you'd be right on target. I'm not studying this stuff because I want to, MJ. I really wanted to teach primary kids but Mom insisted that the family firm needs financial acumen at the top. Grandmother O'Malley has announced that she is going into semi-retirement on her seventieth birthday so she can devote the rest of her working life to her charities. I happen to know that's a big lie because she still has a few clients she is very fond of and she'll still be seeing them but most of the administration will fall to my mother and I need to be at her side as an advisor."
"So you won't be confined to a cubicle for the next fifteen years? Good for you. And at least you're married. All the rest of my friends are frantically trying to get internships with big corporations so they can 'Lean In' and make 'Important Contributions' before finding some other corporate type and starting a family. It's really depressing. My mother is a lawyer; one grandmother is a judge and the other a doctor—hyper-achieving women run in my family clear back to Suffragette days and if I don't look like I'm carrying on the same way I won't be able to show my face at Thanksgiving."
"So? What
are
you going to do?"
"Well, it looks like I'm going to law school. I scored really high on my LSAT and that looks less miserable than other options. It's just that lawyers in big firms work such damned long hours! I mean, sixty-hour weeks can't be good for you. When do you have a life?"
By now the sweat was really flowing down their faces and dripping off the tips of noses and nipples.
"Shower time," Poppy announced and they wrapped themselves in the towels and headed for the cold water.
The next day Poppy sought out Mary Jane in the student cafeteria and plopped down next to her. "MJ, I've been thinking."
"Now you're getting dangerous, Poppy."
"Always. Anyway, there isn't any reason why you would have to fight to join some New York or Washington law firm. My father-in-law's firm has been in practice here in the state capitol for over a hundred twenty years. They work reasonable hours and still make plenty of money. You could start interning with them, clerk your way through law school and then join the firm when you pass the state bar."
"Oh, right. As if it were that simple."
"MJ, Cornwall, Cordoba and Cho have been reciprocal clients with Gram's since pioneer days. If I ask Papa Andy for something related to both companies he'd give it to me. Simple it is."
"But Poppy, how does my going to work for your FIL's law firm benefit whatever it is that your grandmother's business does?"
Poppy stuck a carrot stick between her teeth, snapped it off and grinned wickedly at her friend. "You know, I think it's time you paid a visit to Asphodel's."
*****
A couple of days later Poppy drove her jeep into the underground garage of the oppressively respectable Hotel Gentian but instead of finding a place to park, she drove to a big roll-up door and pressed a button on her key ring. The door opened and when she drove through, a tuxedoed, smiling valet stepped forward and opened each door and helped each girl out.
"Thank-you, Juan. Juan, this is my best girlfriend Mary Jane Hartwell. MJ, this is Juan Costada, Asphodel's chief valet. Juan, be a dear and leave the jeep near the front. We probably won't be more than an hour. I've just got to talk some things over with Grandmother."
"Of course, Poppita, and you will need to get back to school right after that, no?"
"Not today, Juan. I only have class Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I just have to get back to the house and make sure Steve isn't making a total mess of the kitchen. Great cook, my hubby, but the mess he makes? Sheesh!"
Juan laughed and drove the jeep away as the two friends walked over to the elevator and pushed the call button. It opened immediately. Inside, the controls showed buttons for two basements and five floors but instead of pushing one of them, Poppy took out a key and inserted it in a lock above the fifth floor.
"What?" Mary Jane looked puzzled.
"MJ, Asphodel's isn't the kind of place people can just 'happen into'. A lot of people in this city know the name but most of them think it's just a story." The elevator rose swiftly through five floors and then past them. Then the doors opened. "However," Poppy continued, "as you can see, it's perfectly real."
Mary Jane looked around, astonished. It looked as though they had arrived in the bar of a very expensive restaurant or possibly an exclusive private club. Rich carpet covered polished hardwood floors, inviting comfortable lounge chairs sat next to small drinks tables in front of paneled walls hung with fine art. An elegantly dressed, sliver-haired woman approached them.
"Poppy, darling!"
