My name is Easton, and a short time ago I discovered a hidden world inside the Cheslea Inn hotel chain. I found out a private, non-exclusive sex club exists that meets just after the bar closes each night. One night a beautiful woman picked me up for anonymous sex and introduced me to what was known as The Inn Club.
*****
Late winter saw me attending a customer conference in Tennessee. Though the event was being held at a swankier resort, the Nashville Cheslea Retreat, the off season and atypically cool weather meant that the resort was far less crowded than one would encounter in the spring and summer. I had never attempted to link up with Club members at a resort location, and my little on-line faq didn't have any crowd sourced entries for me to go by.
As a result, there were many possible bars where one might encounter Club members...or not. There were also several other conferences and conventions going on, so there were quite a few people around until much later than at the typical hotel.
Coming back on Tuesday night after a full day of meetings at one side of the resort, I planned to relax in my room until ten thirty, but I found myself going stir crazy at the thought of a casual hook-up. Departing early also gave me time to browse a few of the resort bars before settling in on one where I might indulge in a little polite hunting.
This was not made easier by the fact that I had left my glasses behind. Short distances such as within a room were no problem, but reading signs and recognizing people at a distance was a non-starter.
I walked through the first couple of bars noting relatively few people, but the third one was close to another set of convention rooms and it was quite busy. Though not quite standing room only, I estimated there were forty to fifty people, men and women, of varying ages though mostly older than thirty. I sidled up to the bar and ordered a G&T as I attempted to nonchalantly look around the room for possible Club partners. As most of the people were talking loudly in groups of three or four, it seemed likely they shared in whatever conference was going on nearby. I should have joined in one of these conversations to gain some insight into the group and their interests, but me being me I didn't do that.
It was fifteen past eleven when a number of the groups started to break up and the crowd thinned out. One woman of about my age with dirty blonde hair remained behind after the rest of her group left. She took a seat at a table by herself and sat back. I watched as she took out her phone, did something with it, then placed it face down on the table before her. She sipped her drink and sat back again. I took a brief look around, and seeing no one approaching her, I did.
Arriving at her table in front of her, I bent down slightly and said, "Do you mind if I join you?"
A pair of surely unnaturally bright blue eyes looked up at me and smiled. "Please do," she said in a quiet but sure voice.
"Can I ask you a question?" I said.
She sipped her drink and smiled again, "Please do."
"Was the large group here all part of the same conference?"
She nodded and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Yes."
"I see. And that conference is?"
She grinned, "I like a specific question. Pharmacologists. An annual bash put on by drug manufacturers."
An alarm bell tried to go off in my head, but the volume was strangely turned down and I was able to ignore it. I grinned back, "Must be interesting when Pfitzer gives away hundreds of Viagara."
She was sipping when I said that and she coughed rather violently when she started to laugh at the same time. She coughed for a good thirty seconds before she cleared her throat and calmed down. She was smiling, and blushing. "Oh yes, lots of promises of all nighters wouldn't you know."
I shrugged. "I would never promise all night, but then again I am not a Pfitzer fan."
She raised an eyebrow. "I see. And why would you tell me this?"
I reached into my pocket and withdrew a card. "I made an assumption that you might be one to, play?"
She reached out and I handed her my card. At that exact moment a female and rather slurred voice said loudly over my shoulder, "I know this guy Beth!" And the unseen assailant took my card and dropped heavily into a third chair.
My companion to be looked at me with surprise, looked at the new arrival with disdain, and rose from her seat. "Have a good night Jane."
At that exact second I didn't need to look over at the new woman to know that I had a very big problem on my hands. Pharmacist. Jane. My ex-sister-in-law met those parameters. I turned to confirm my conclusion and found Jane examining my card with obvious difficulty as she struggled to focus.
Moving the card to and fro she said, "So, Alex is it? What's the deal with this?"
This is illustrative of what happens when you are not paying attention to your surroundings, say the people in the bar or the big signs that must have welcomed the pharmacists to their convention. Crap.
And now I should probably provide a little background.
*****
Many years ago my wife's brother married Jane and they proceeded to have two children. I always found Jane a bit standoffish and she never entered into the discussions the family would have at our periodic gatherings. Nevertheless, as the years went by I may have been one of the few people in the family that tried to engage her in conversation. I am certain that a big part of the family's feelings toward her resulted from how she treated her children. In fact, when the kids were younger we observed this directly and frequently talked about it behind her back, and when the kids got older they would tell us stories—in the presence of their father no less. As for me, I was always polite and tried to reach out, but as I mentioned, she was standoffish to the last and I also didn't think much of her parenting skills.
Then, about six months ago Jane sent me a birthday gift. The preceding history should tell you I was surprised to receive it. It was a t-shirt from a museum in her hometown and a gift card for a local chain restaurant. Nice, nothing too special, definitely unexpected, and the timing made little sense to me.
When Christmas came around she sent me another gift. This time it was a fairly pricey bottle of scotch, and it came to my work address rather than my house. Surprising twice over. As with the birthday gift, there was no card to explain the mystery, so I simply took the bottle home, added it to the liquor tray and began to enjoy it. The wife isn't a drinker so she didn't even notice the addition.
A month later we had another family get together and Jane's kids let it be known that their mom was having a bit of a tough time. That night I reached out to Jane and offered some conversation over dinner if we were ever in the same city. We both traveled quite a bit for work, but neither of us was ever in the other's city. I sent her the current version of my work calendar, she thanked me for the offer, but said nothing else about it.
I learned a short time ago that to no one and everyone's surprise that Jane and Ray were getting divorced. To my additional surprise the kids decided to remain with their mother until the youngest finished high school.
And now, maybe two weeks after that, Jane was sitting at my table, drunk, and holding my Club card which clearly did not have my real name on it. Though a lot in those last paragraphs was interesting, nothing happened to be more interesting than the fact Jane was not only drinking, but drunk. To my knowledge they didn't even keep alcohol in the house. So now that I appeared to be at the mercy of my shrew of an ex-Sister-in Law, it looked like I was pretty well fucked. And not in the way I had planned.
*****
"So,
Alex
, care to explain?" she asked, still struggling to focus on me and the card.
