One of my favorite places to visit is Chicago. Since becoming self-employed in the wine business, I try to visit the windy city twice a year. A fantastic food town, Chicago has great museums, restaurants, live theatre, and my lifelong friend from high school and college, Terry. And although my wife of 30 years has warmed up to Terry, she is never thrilled when I announce that I am heading off to Chicago to sell wine and see him. Perhaps it's Terry's reputation for being a perpetual bachelor, or maybe it was the time he came out to visit us during our first child's baptism, bringing a date who frankly was significantly younger than us? In any event, I am looking forward to spending a long weekend with him since our schedules have not seemed to line-up in almost two years. Convenient to downtown and the L, Terry invited me to spend the weekend at his place. He owns a nice 3-bedroom condo that takes up the entire floor and has its own elevator stop. It was with positive anticipation of a nice hot shower and a visit to Gibsons for a stiff Manhattan "up" and a bone-in grass fed rib-eye that I departed my Uber in front of Terry's.
"Good evening" I said to the doorman, "can you buzz me up to the 10
th
floor please? I should be on your list, Bryan Johnson to see Terry Albright?" The doorman, whose name was Hal, from the name embroidered on his doorman jacket, gave out a small chuckle and said, "my pleasure" and then added "Terry must be throwing one heck of a party tonight since you appear to be prepared to stay all night."
Perhaps it was the expression on my face, not quite sure, but then Hal added, "I've been buzzing folks up all evening, and you've actually got what looks like an overnight bag." and at that, the elevator doors opened, and I bid my thanks, as I stepped into the small chamber. Great... ugh... a party, it was going on 7:00pm and I really wanted a hot shower, which I now guessed will need to wait. That positive anticipation I felt down at street level had been replaced with trepidation on what I might be walking into. Terry does have a reputation...
Before I knew it, doors were open, and I was out onto a hallway. To my right, I could hear smooth jazz and some laughter and voices coming out of the living room. To my left, my sanctuary, the guest bedroom, and bathroom. Maybe I could slip unnoticed down the hall and get that shower in before anyone was the wiser. But before I had a chance to move in either direction, I heard my name booming down the hallway from the living room. "Bryan my boy, welcome back to Chicago! It's been ages!!!" and the next thing you know, I'm receiving a bear hug from my old friend. "Come, let me introduce you to my guests! I figured after a day of travel you'd want to just hang out here and that gave me an idea to throw a little party!"
Abandoning my valise and laptop bag in the hallway, Terry took me by the arm into the living room to meet his friends. There appeared to be four couples, but on first glance, it was unclear to me who would have been Terry's girlfriend. He had mentioned over the phone that I'd get to meet her on this trip, but everyone in the room seemed to be coupled up. Perhaps she was in the powder room I thought? "Hey everyone, this is Bryan, one of my oldest and dearest friends"
The room erupted with "HI BRYAN" Terry then asked, "what would you like to drink my friend?"
"How about a Scotch over a couple of rocks and if you wouldn't mind, I would really like to use your facilities to clean off a little of my travel dust before making all of the rounds, OK?"
"You go guy..." was Terry's response. So much for a shower I thought. After dropping my bags in the guest room and using the facilities to wash up, I returned to the party and was handed my drink by Terry who then again took me by the arm and began making introductions. As we made our rounds to the folks in the room, I quickly learned who was paired with whom and at this count, two of the couples were straight and married with kids and one was a gay couple whose names were Mark and Dave and lived in the building on the floor below.
It was now obvious that Terry was saving the best for last. "I have one more set of introductions." Terry said with a very large smile on his face, as we started walking towards two rather tall woman, with their backs turned toward us, looking out one of the expansive windows facing the city. They appeared to be having a serious conversation as they faced each other. One of these women was blonde, with shoulder length straight hair wearing a little black dress that showed off a very tight derriere and very toned and tanned legs. If I had to guess, this was Terry's girlfriend, given his attraction to tall blondes. As Terry came up to her, they appeared to be about the same height, but she was also wearing a pair of black stilettos, so my guess was that without shoes, she was probably around 5'10", still tall, and a good match for Terry who was 6'1".
The other woman, a brunette with short hair, was wearing a stunning red dress that was open in the back, complimenting her backbone and a tasteful gold neckless. She also appeared to be tall, wearing heals that weren't as spikey as her friends, I'd say she was also about 5"11". Her figured showed off someone who was in good shape, very tight rear with very toned legs.
Interrupting their conversation, Terry said, "Excuse me ladies," and they stopped what appeared to be an impassioned discussion and turned towards us, "This is Bryan and I'd like to introduce you to my girlfriend Monica and her close friend Debra. I have already told them ALL about you!" Terry added with a bit of a laugh and exited to likely get another round of drinks.
"Hello, Nice to meet you both" was all I struggled to say after both women faced me with gorgeous smiles. My first guess was accurate. Monica was blonde and Terry's girlfriend. She had piercing blue eyes, large DD breasts with ample cleavage showing accentuated by the cut of her little black dress.
Debra was equally stunning with green eyes, her gold neckless which seemed to only draw my eyes down to her more modest cleavage than Monica's. Her red dress was only slightly more conservative than Monica's, but you could also tell that her waste and hips were smaller as were her medium sized breasts, likely a C cup. What tantalized me most though was the sheer fabric of Debra's dress. I'm certain she was wearing a bra, but it too must have been quite sheer since I could just make out the shape of her nipples underneath. Between the smile on her face, and how she looked in this red dress, I could feel stirrings of my own beneath my trousers. All in all, both women were stunning, and their smiles and good looks only made me feel more uncomfortable as I tried to muster something to say.
In my profession, I'm used to working a room when selling wine, but this seemed to be slightly different. If I didn't know better, I was being setup by Terry and his girlfriend Monica, but why? Terry knows I'm married and although I've been unhappy for many years, I've never really hinted much about wanting to stray and wander. However, I've also always been good about sizing things up quickly and upon my first assessment glance of Debra, she was at least wearing a wedding band like me. OK, relax and breath I told myself...
Monica breaks the ice with "So Terry tells us that you're a winemaker from California?"