In bed later that evening, Sophia tried to wrest back the initiative from Peter by teasing him about his obvious hots for the au pair. As usual, Peter deflected the comment, saying that she was a foreigner in a strange culture, who had been suddenly separated from her boyfriend, and needed empathy and understanding. Knowing that to call bullshit on him would redound to his credit and not hers, Sophia contented herself by saying that she was a totally different proposition from little Myška, who had always been so needy and desperate for love and affirmation. Ignoring this simplification, Peter said that his time with Petsi (he didn’t say ‘alone with Petsi’, though Sophia knew that was what he meant) had shown him that behind the confident exterior lay a person who was crying out for love like everyone else.
Sophia didn’t know whether to gag or scream. Instead, she bit her tongue and told Peter through gritted teeth that his compassion was an example to every member of his gender. Peter took the sarcasm at face value, saying that he was particularly sensitive to the plight of minorities, before changing the subject to Sophia’s Italian trip and, in particular, her interaction with Luca’s wife.
‘I don’t think you mentioned her name,’ he said with obvious relish at the opportunity to snipe away on the this subject again.
‘That’s because I couldn’t remember it,’ replied his wife, demonstrating the capacity for thinking on her feet that had served her so well in her career.
‘Has it come back to you yet?’ asked Peter, his voice dripping with irony.
‘As a matter of fact it has; her name is Elena. They have no children and live in a nice place in the suburbs above the city.’
‘So you visited them, did you?’ Peter asked, sharp as a tack.
‘No, she told me about the place when we were chatting during the interval of Tancredi. That was the name of the opera, you know.’
Sophia considered talking a bit more about the opera and its composer but decided against this, on the grounds that her husband would definitely smell a rat. Instead, as Peter sat there in bed checking a message that he’d just received, she decided on a change of subject, mentioning that she’d been asked to join the Parent Teacher Association of the school both their children now attended. Peter was very supportive of the idea, saying she had all the qualification and skills, while noting that this would give her the chance to spend more time with her friend Carrie.
‘”My friend Carrie!”‘ Sophia was struck by the wording.
‘One would like to ask, my dear,’ she pondered, ‘just how much of a friend she is to you.’
‘Right,’ she said, ‘that’s settled then. I’ll start after Christmas. It doesn’t involve a lot of work, Carrie says, though they want to run a bunch of legal documents past me ASAP.’
Pleased with the way she’d deflected Peter’s incipient interrogation about Elena, Sophia leant across to give him a kiss, told him she needed to sleep and switched off the lamp on her bedside table. Suddenly it struck her that he hadn’t shown any interest in Luca. Did he just assume she would sleep with him to obtain the contract? She felt outraged, Just what sort of person did he think she was? With such thoughts swirling in her mind, it was a good half hour before Sophia was able to fall asleep that night.
The following day, while she was at work, Sophia received a call from Peter checking about details of the outing they had planned with the children at the weekend. While they were on the phone, Sophia remembered something she had meant to speak with him about the previous evening, but which had got lost among all the talk about Elena. While she had been working in the study at home, she’d noticed the growing number of books that were piled up on the floor and thought that they ought to get someone in to put up some shelves. Peter, not an avid reader himself nor a DIY type, thought it was a splendid idea and asked Sophia if she wanted him to check out local carpenters online. Sophia told him that Petsi had mentioned to her that Ulf worked in the building trade as a carpenter and perhaps they could ask her to see if he was interested in doing the job. So, it was settled that Sophia would have a word with the au pair about it when she got home.
Petsi seemed a little taken aback when Sophia broached the subject with her that evening. She regretted having shown her those photos of Ulf when she attended the interview and for having told her about his work. But that was before Sophia got so touchy-feely with her yesterday when having what had seemed at the time like a friendly, caring conversation with her about her plans for the future. Now she felt that the Englishwoman had ulterior motives for her attentiveness, motives she couldn’t – or wouldn’t – put into words. On the other hand, she knew she had at least to go through the motions of entertaining her employer’s request. So she smiled and said that of course she would talk to him, even though he was very busy at work and might not be able to get around to it for some time.
When Sophia brought the matter up again a week later, Petsi, normally so cool, was a little flustered and said she’d completely forgotten about the project. Anyway, Ulf would be delighted to do the job and would only charge for materials. Sophia said they would see about that and expressed the hope that the job could be done by Christmas (now less than three weeks away) as a kind of Christmas present for Peter. Petsi said she thought that wouldn’t be possible but would check with Ulf. At this point, Sophia decided to put her foot down, asking Petsi to let her have Ulf’s phone number so she could speak with him directly. However much Petsi wanted to decline to give it to her, she knew it was a reasonable request in the circumstances and give it to her she did. How she regretted one more thing: telling Ulf after the interview how beautiful her prospective employer was. By now, he had probably searched for her on the Internet and seen pictures of her on the bank’s website – or wherever else they might be stored!
Before Sophia had got around to calling the beefcake builder, Petsi received bad news from home. Her mother’s cousin, who had helped raise Petsi and now lived in Kettering, had been hospitalised with viral pneumonia and parainfluenza. Petsi felt she needed to be with Ingrid, who had lost her husband only recently, but had decided to stay on in England for the time being due to her strong involvement in community work. An artist, she had pioneered a programme for the mentally handicapped, which had proved to be such a success that the model was being adopted county-wide and in other counties in the East Midlands.
It was late Sunday afternoon when Petsi received the call from Sweden, and after a brief chat with Peter, Sophia told Petsi that she could take the week off and they would expect her back at work on Monday week. Petsi was extremely grateful and told Sophia she would order an uber immediately to take her to St Pancras to catch a train to Kettering. Ingrid was in a private room so she would be able to visit her when she arrived. Before she rang off, Sophia asked Petsi to give her house key to Ulf, in case he was able to fit her in during the week.
This left Sophia with two problems: the first, and most important, was fixing a date for Ulf to come over when she would also be at home; the second was to ring the agency and arrange short-term help to cover Petsi’s absence. She managed to do the latter with remarkable speed and smoothness, the agency having someone who was looking for a placement for the following week. That left her call to Ulf, which she decided to postpone for another half hour to be sure that his girlfriend had already left the house. She also wanted some privacy, so she told Peter that she was going for a run, which is something she sometimes did on a Sunday. She took her time getting changed, then got the tea things ready for the children before setting out on her normal route. It was a dry but chilly winter evening, so she thought she’d run for ten minutes to warm up before popping into Patel’s convenience store, where she could catch her breath and make the call.
When Ulf picked up, she immediately inquired after Petsi and was told that she’d left ten minutes earlier and was immensely grateful for the kindness shown by Sophia. (Sophia registered that he didn’t mention Peter now or at any other time in their conversation.) As she circled around in her approach to the subject of the date of his visit she sensed that he wasn’t going to help by bringing it up himself. She found this exciting: if she had read him aright, he wanted her to hunt him. As with have already seen, when it came to the chase, Sophia could give the Roman goddess Diana a run for her money.
When Sophia finally suggested Friday, Ulf said he needed to check his schedule. He did that (or pretended too) for nearly a minute before resuming the conversation by telling Sophia that he thought it might be feasible but he’d have to check with Jeff, presumably his boss. He asked Sophia if she was on WhatsApp and, when she confirmed that she was, told her he would message her when he had more information – probably on the following day.
Pleased with how well the call had gone, and secretly believing that the Swede would move heaven and earth for the chance of being with her, she set off to complete her three-mile circuit. Of course, the thing was that she hadn’t said that she would be at home on Friday, but Ulf knew that Petsi wouldn’t be home on that day. This thought sent a frisson of excitement down Sophia’s spine – a sensation she was hoping the hunky Scandinavian would be experiencing. Perhaps he was even at this moment jerking off on his bed, imagining undressing the busty blonde and ramming her with his cock. Sophia’s own manual ministrations must wait at least until she was in the shower – a consideration that made her cover the remaining distance in record quick time.
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