I Promise You (5 page)

It was now ten
o’clock. when I went back to my room and I decided to ring Frank and ask him to
meet me downstairs.

On dialling
his room my heart was pounding as I tried to think of things that I was going
to say, but when I heard a quiet “hello” I knew then that Frank must be feeling
just as bad as I did.

“Hi Frank it’s
me”

The line was
quiet, nothing! All I could hear was the sound of his breathing.

“I think we
need to talk about what happened this afternoon and I wandered if we could meet
downstairs in five minutes?”

Another silence,
then “yes that’s fine, I’ll see you then” he said before hanging up.

I put the
receiver down and got ready to meet Frank as I nervously made my way out of my
room.

Frank was
already by the lounge as I exited the elevator.

He was looking
around and twisting his hands in-between each other. He looked agitated and
nervous; did I do this to him?

He spotted me
and gave me a smile which took ages to reach its full meaning; I smiled back
and approached the lounge.

We stared
around for what seemed like ages, me looking up and down and Frank doing the
same but at opposite times so we never seemed to be looking at each other. We needed
to break the ice, and I was about to say something when Frank spoke.

“I’m so sorry
Autum, can you forgive me? I didn’t mean to hurt or upset you earlier I just,
well I just”

“It’s ok
Frank, I’m not sure myself what happened up there but we both did things that
we shouldn’t have, I think we just need to move on and put it behind us don’t
you?”  Frank looked up at me and there it was that pain in my chest and my
stomach starts to tingle,
how did he do that?

I looked away
sharply as I felt myself blushing.

“Are you sure
you’re ok?”

“I’m fine”

I wanted to
lighten the mood so I asked him if he had anything to eat, to which he replied
“no.” I called a waiter over and asked if we were too late to order food, with
a shake of his head he said no.

Frank looked at
the bar menu and ordered steak (medium rare) with mixed salad and vegetables.

I reminded
Frank that we had a busy day ahead of us tomorrow and we would need our wits
about us if we were to close this deal.

I also
reminded him that we were a damm good team, and that I could not do this
without him.

He relaxed his
shoulders a little and let out a deep sigh as he repeated the words “so sorry”
under his breath.

It was then I
guess that I realised how upset Frank was about what took place earlier. This
was a man who I had known for years, but it took minutes to reduce him to this.

We’ve had
laughs, drinks after work now and then and both of us have had our fair shares
of moans about life but now, I feel that I don’t know this lost soul in front
of me. I never thought he had a sensitive side, a caring for others before
himself side until now,
and I liked it.

I watched him
properly for the first time as he ate his meal, the way he tenderly held his
steak knife and how he sometimes slides his index finger up and down the
handle.

How he cuts
his steak pieces in a certain way always to the left, the way he scoops his
vegetables over the steak before placing them carefully into his mouth.

How his tongue
wraps itself around the food before he draws out the fork, and how he seemed to
chew roughly the same amount of time before he swallowed, and how he always ate
his salad first.

I stared at
him eating, my mouth started to water, my belly started to rumble.

He looked up
at me, paused for a few seconds, then slid the plate over to my side and told
me to eat.

By this time
my face was on fire with shame. How bad did I look and how loud was that
rumble?

Why did I not
just order something extra myself.  I said “thank you” as I scooped the steak
up and piled it in my mouth along with some vegetables.

I heard Frank
laugh and I let myself smile.
We can work through this I told myself,
tomorrow is another day.

At just gone
midnight we made our way back to the elevator. It had been a long day and I was
tired. We both entered the lift and pressed our respective floor numbers.

I took a quick
glance at Frank and he must have sensed it as he then looked at me and I just
smiled.

The elevator
announced my floor and I said goodnight to Frank before exiting.

As I turned
around he said goodnight back and gave me a smile as the doors closed.

I got back to
my room, undressed, brushed my teeth and curled up in my bed with my PJ’s on
before drifting straight off to sleep and to my dreams.

I’m in a
playful mood; I see me and my friends at home having a sleepover.

There’s me,
Isabelle, Emily and Dionne. The music is loud and we have just watched our all
time favourite film “the devil wears Prada”

There’s
popcorn all over my sofa, so we all move to the floor as the drinks start to
flow.

We have JD,
bailey’s, vodka, rum and cider as we plan on getting totally wasted.

Dionne
finishes her bottle of cider and wants to play the old classic game of “spin
the bottle”

We giggle
our way into a circle and I take the first spin, it lands on Emily, and I ask
her “truth or dare” she goes for truth.

Isabelle
asks her how many men she’s had at one time.

I’ve known
Emily since school and we have always been friends since. I think we all go
through life with around a handful of genuine friends that you’ll have for life
and she was one of them.

She laughs
and tells us that when she was at a freshman’s ball that she was so drunk, she
went back with two guys that she’d met that night. One was fucking her, as she
takes the other in the mouth.

Once they
had all “come” she swapped positions and repeated it all over again. She says
she remembers having sex, but couldn’t explain why her ass was hurting when she
tried to sit down the next day, she starts to laugh as she recollects the
event.

We all look
at Emily and then at each other. This was the quiet girl in the class, the one
who always stuck to her books and was hardly allowed outside of her home after
school, boy! How things have changed.

Emily
casually spins the bottle and it lands on Isabelle.

Isabelle
goes for “dare”

We tell her
to strip off to just her bra and thong and pretend she has been locked out of
my flat and that she needs to use the phone so that we can let her in as the
music is too loud but the phone is on the table and can easily be heard.

We all
laugh.

Isabelle
doesn’t hesitate to strip off her PJ’s. She has a figure to rival mine. She
does have smaller breasts but they fit her frame nicely.

She knows
some of my neighbours so she goes straight to Danny’s which is right opposite
my door.

Before
knocking she turns back to see us laughing as we shut the door and all try to
look through the peep hole as Danny answers the door.

His face is
a picture; he looks shocked at first, and then tries his best not to look her
up and down before letting her into his room.

I here my
phone ring and Isabelle tells me to let her in.

We all run
to open the door as she comes back in. Danny is still staring at her ass as I
tell him thanks before we shut the door and roll about laughing; she is so
brave I just love her.

She then
slips back into her PJ’s and the games continue.

I feel myself
smiling in my sleep as my dream shifts onto a different scene
. I am now
alone on a tropical beach somewhere.

I have a
room overlooking the pool and the beach.
I like this dream.

The tropical
trees around me have coconuts.  I have a bikini on, white and gold in colour,
and my hair is wet and I have a nice golden tan.

There’s a
cocktail in my hand and I go to sip it. I am unsure of what it is except that it’s
cold and nice.

As I take a
stroll I see another house and head towards it.

There’s
laughter and giggles and I think to myself what a lovely sound.

When I get
nearer, the sound I thought I heard turns out not to be laughter or giggles but
the sound of moans and ooh’s  and ahh’s, (god, they are having sex).

Instead of
turning away I go closer, like some peeping tom.

Stepping
towards the side of the house I look through the wooden slats and realised I am
right, they sure are having sex.

His back is
facing me and she is on the bed on all fours.

The bed is
rocking with the force of his thrusts, and they carry on moaning loud as he
grips onto her waist and ploughs deeper and deeper inside her. She is calling
out for him to fuck her hard, with sweat running down his back as he continues.

“I love you”
he says as he adjusts his grip on her.

“I love you
too” she says as she tells him she is about to come and gives out a scream as
she climax’s. He follows soon after, collapsing on top of her, they then both
turn over and lay face up on the bed.

It is only
then, as I look at them that I realised that I knew these two people, it was
me, and Frank.

Why
do we dream the way we dream? Are we missing something in our lives or is there
a hidden message behind it.

I jolt up in
my bed, sweating and panting.
“What the fuck”

I checked the
time and it was three, eighteen in the morning, I got out of bed and washed off
my face. When I went to go to the toilet, I noticed that I was “moist” 
please
don’t tell me that I got turned on by me and Frank?

I felt
distraught, disgusted and nauseous, that my subconscious was still playing
around with my mind
“without my consent”

I thought I
had got over the incident yesterday, so why would I think of him in that way? I
don’t want him do I?

“But you
asked him to fuck you hard”

“That was just
a bad dream, when I get back to Jack this nonsense will stop and my life will
get back to normal”

If you say
so, but if that’s the case then why were you enjoying yourself like that?

Not thinking
about it, “get lost mind” and let me sleep “without having sex with my boss
thank you.”

I go back to
my bed, dreading the night ahead of me, wandering if I would ever get some
sleep. The next thing I heard was my wake up call from the hotel telling me it
was six, forty five in the morning,
great!

After a quick
shower to wake myself up from my dreadful night I took a good look at myself
and saw bags under my eyes and a sleepy face,
that’s all I need.

I wore my
favourite close the deal red dress, a little cleavage showing at the front with
its v neck shape, fitted waist and a small split at the back.

My hair was up
and I left a few strands trickling down the side of my face.

I took out my
killer red open toe shoes and put my jacket on before applying my red lipstick
to finish off my look. I then headed for breakfast.

I joined up
with the gang and they take one look at me and gasped.

For a split
second I thought I had some toothpaste around my mouth or my lipstick had
smudged onto my teeth, until they said how lovely I looked and that this deal
would be signed, sealed and delivered within the next few hours.

I smiled and
told them to stop kidding around and that I had worn this dress before.

I looked up at
Frank who was still staring, although he quickly commented on how nice I
looked.

We took our
places for breakfast and went through the events of the day ahead.

This was our
last day before heading home tomorrow and I realised that I had not spoken to
Jack for the last two days. But what was worse, was that Jack had not tried to
contact me either,
why?

We left the
hotel and arrived at our destination just before ten, thirty. On checking in we
were told that the meeting had been cancelled and that they had tried to call
Frank before he left the hotel but had missed him.

They could not
re-schedule before we left but said that they would arrange a video conference
when we got back to the UK and apologised again. Frank did not look pleased but
he knew his hands were tied.

He called us
all together and asked us what we wanted to do. He said that we could try for
an earlier flight, do some shopping, top up our tans or whatever, he would go
with the majority.

Rebecca and I
were all shopped out so there was nothing more that I needed to buy as I had
bought all my presents for everyone throughout our stay.

Julian was not
a shopper and was happy to just chill. Frank was the only one left to reply.

He had decided
that once we got back to the hotel, he would make some calls and see if there
was any availability for us to catch an earlier flight. Rebecca and I clapped
our hands
. I will see Jack earlier than I thought what a great surprise,
especially if he is still at my flat, but best of all, is that by tomorrow I go
back to normality.

Frank was the
best. He got us an earlier flight which was kind of him, and we had to check in
three hours early so had plenty of time before our flight at six o’clock.

Most of my
stuff was packed as I like to prepare for my journey home a few days before. I
did not have many more things to put in except my toiletries.