Chapter 02: Girlfriends
Jenna fidgeted nervously as she waited for Ben to arrive at the airport pickup lane. His plane arrived late, the result of a series of delays caused by a massive snowstorm in Cleveland. A few minutes of waiting for his baggage and Ben would be coming through the door, happy to be back in Baltimore and anxious to find out about her week.
She brushed a strand of her auburn hair away from her face and hoped that her new haircut would be enough of a distraction to postpone the inevitable discussion until after they got back home. She honestly didn't know how he would react and she certainly didn't want to find out in the car.
There he was, stepping through the automatic doors. She'd recognize that face anywhere. Damn, he was good-looking. Ben dropped his suitcase into the back seat, and got into the passenger seat.
"Hi Jenna," he said, leaning in for a kiss.
"Welcome back," Jenna replied, quickly depositing an obligatory kiss on his lips.
She pulled away from the terminal and made her way back onto 195. Jenna felt like she was prolonging their silence. "Like my new haircut?" she asked.
"I love it," Ben answered. "You cut, like, five inches off. It's nice."
"Thanks."
"Yeah. You look great."
"Thanks."
Silence.
"So, quite a snowstorm in Cleveland," she said. "Were you stuck at the hotel during that?"
"Yeah," said Ben. "Power went out, so I ended up playing solitaire on my phone." It was a total lie, but he wasn't about to admit to cheating on her with a stranger. Even so, the memory of his sweat-soaked body sliding against another woman's skin was making him aroused. He looked over at Jenna, hoping she was in the mood.
"Sounds pretty boring," Jenna commented.
"How about you?" he asked. "Did you do anything fun while I was away?"
"I worked a lot," she half-answered.
"I know you hate to cook when I'm not here," he said. "Did you eat out a lot?"
Jenna stifled a huge laugh. "Um. Yeah. The pizza delivery guy knew the route by memory."
The conversation finally began to loosen up about half way back to Jenna's house. They discussed the project Ben had been assigned to in Cleveland. They could always rely upon Architecture as a topic. They had met when they were both working at the same firm. After Jenna was laid off, she took a lot of consulting jobs, but still hadn't found anything permanent.
They arrived at the house and Ben put away his luggage. He took a much-needed bathroom break and freshened up in the mirror. His mind wandered again, filled with images of entering Rachel from behind during the snowstorm in Cleveland, how good it felt as he approached climax. He had to clear his head. He brushed his teeth and began to head out of the bathroom.
There, on the end of one of the towel racks, hung a pair of black panties with red edging. "Very nice," he said to himself. "Something new."
He walked into the living room, where Jenna was working on her laptop. He grabbed her hand and lifted her to her feet. His arms slipped across her back and he kissed her. "Must have had a big surprise in mind for me when I got home, huh Jenna."
Jenna tightened her brow. "A surprise?" she said. "I don't think so."
Ben held the panties up. "These are nice. Are they new?" he said.
The color seemed to drain from Jenna's face.
"What's wrong?" Ben asked.
"Uh," Jenna replied nervously. "Ben, I think we need to talk."
"These aren't for me, are they?" he asked.
"Ben, I ran into some old colleagues on Tuesday. We went out for drinks," she began.
Ben could sense where the story was headed, but felt like anything he could say would be hypocritical.
Jenna continued. "Preston was there... and, um. You know who else was there? Do you remember Heidi?"
Ben nodded.
"She was there too," Jenna went on. "Actually, it turns out she had a huge crush on you when we all worked at Burns & Jarvis."
