Next day I slept late. When I awoke, Mark was gone. I took a long shower and dressed casually in a t-shirt and shorts with no underwear. I was just making coffee when my phone rang. I saw it was my friend Alice.
"Hey," I said, "This is a surprise, I thought you were in Spain."
"I was," Alice said, "I just got back this morning and somebody broke into my house while I was gone."
"Oh no! Are you ok?"
"Yes, I'm fine but it feels weird here right now. The workmen are repairing the window but it's just scary that someone was in my place. I don't even want to be here right now. I was wondering if I could stay with you for a day or two until I can deal with being here?"
"Of course Alice, come right over! Don't even pack, just come right away and I'll lend you clothes. We can watch movies and drink wine and eat ice cream. Just come right now!"
"Oh thank you sweetie, I knew I could rely on you. I'm actually in my car on the way there, so I'll be at your house in ten minutes. Love you."
"Love you too!"
I had known Alice since we were kids and she is my dearest friend. She's in her late thirties and divorced for about a year. Alice is also rich -- really rich. Her ex, Sam, was a nerd and a software genius who made billions when he sold his start up. Alice has always been drop-dead gorgeous with a curvy body that men drool over, and Sam couldn't believe his luck when she first went out with him. Next thing they were married. Then he turned out to be quite controlling. He made her promise they would never have kids. Alice agreed at first, to please him, and then regretted it. He got her to have plastic surgery to enhance her already big breasts -- he was trying to turn her into Pam Anderson, and she went along with it for a while. But she got tired of being his sex doll and wanted to have children. I guess by then he had already found a younger model and he divorced her and gave her their fabulous house and hundreds of millions that he peeled off his stack. Sam was basically a good guy and he loved Alice, so he took care of her in the settlement. Since then, she has done a lot of traveling but hasn't found the right man to father the kids she wants. All the guys she meets seem to be gold-diggers looking for a sugar-mommy.
My doorbell buzzed and it was Alice. I invited her in and gave her a big hug. She looked fabulous -- with a deep tan and her golden locks in a beautiful expensive cut. But I could see she was shaken up.
She had brought lunch in carry out bags and a couple bottles of some great red wine. We ate and had wine and she seemed to relax. I could see the tension go out of her face.
"Oh God, " she said, "I feel so much better here with you. Being at my house alone right now is just creepy. I can like feel the presence of whoever was there in my house." She shuddered, "It makes my skin crawl. If I'm honest, I really want to just sell that house, and never go back there. It's so full of baggage from Sam and I. It would be liberating. Anyway, enough about me, what's going on with you?"
Maybe it was the two glasses of wine we'd had, plus the fact that Alice is the only person in the world I could talk to about what had been happening with Mark, but I took a gulp of wine and started in.
"You know how Mark has been sleepwalking for some time now, right? Well..." I paused, wondering if I could do it, and took another big drink, "last week I woke up at about 2.00 am and Mark was standing by my bed... naked. With an erection.'
"OMG," Alice breathed. She was totally drawn in, "What did you do?"
"I was half asleep, and either I had thrown the covers off in my sleep or Mark had pulled them back before I woke up, but I was exposed and Mark began stroking himself, right over me."
Alice's eyes were wide, and she moved closer to me, like we were whispering. "Oh wow! Did you try to stop him?"
"Well I've always been told when someone is sleepwalking you should never wake them."
"Yes! I've heard that too! So you just had to lay there! Oh my God" Alice was spellbound.
"Yes and I knew if I woke him while he was naked in my room and vulnerable like that it would be so embarrassing for Mark. It was better to let him finish and take him back to his room."
"Yes of course!" Alice was nodding her head and searching through her giant leather purse. "I have to smoke a cigarette! Do you mind?"
"No go ahead, I might join you," I said.