The Bedroom Invitation

THE BEDROOM INVITATION

  A Seemly Sex Story

  by

  BobbyB

  This story, like all Seemly Sex Stories, is pure fiction, an imaginary concoction of the seemly but mischievous mind of BobbyB. Any resemblance to any actual person or situation is completely coincidental.

  Copyright 2015 seemlybobbyb

  THE BEDROOM INVITATION

  Jane, Mr. Fry's assistant, brought the one woman and two men bookkeepers into Fry's office and seated them.

  "Thanks for coming in" Fry began. "As you all know business has been bad. So the front office has decided to let some staff go, and I'm afraid the ax has fallen on you three. You're the best people in Bookkeeping, and I wanted to keep you and let three others go instead. But front office won't buy it. You are the only ones in Bookkeeping with college degrees. As you know, I wanted to establish the practice of hiring trained but inexperienced accountants as bookkeepers with the intention of moving you up to accounting as openings developed. Front office never liked the idea, and they're using the necessity of a layoff as a way of killing it."

  "Lucky us" one of the men observed. "We get axed because we know our work too well!"

  "Yeah!" Fry agreed. "Isn't that the pits? But front office likes the idea. If we lay off people the union contract requires a lengthy and always contentious hearing process. But by redefining the job specifications for a bookkeeper the company can dismiss you as overqualified without the union being able to get involved. Since as college grads you also have the department's highest salaries, the idiots up front think they are saving more money by axing you, even though you're my best people. So my arguments got nowhere. Sorry. Jane has copies of all the memos, if you want to see them."

  "They're at my desk" Jane announced.

  "Your last day is the end of the month. You'll get a month's severance and pay for your accumulated vacation. The union contract allows the company to cancel your remaining sick leave, and the front office so ordered. But if you'll help Jane and I transition your accounts to the most suitable remaining staffers, then I think the news I've just given you is sufficient to make you sick, if you get my drift."

  The two men laughed at Fry's devious way of allowing them their accumulated sick leave. Robin, the terminated woman, simply said "Thank you, Mr. Fry."

  "Jane and I have worked out possible account transfers, but they're only suggestions. You know the accounts, and we need your input to get the most suitable remaining staff for each. If you'll go with her now, you can begin right away."

  As Jane and the three got up to go Fry continued.

  "Would you stay a minute please, Robin?"

  After the others left he spoke.

  "Robin, I'm worried you'll think your refusals to date me might have had something to do with your termination."

  "You needn't, Mr. Fry. In the first place you've always accepted my refusals with good grace. You never really hit on me. But also, we three knew a reduction was coming, and that we were the most likely to go. I'm not going to file a complaint."

  "That's not what I'm worried about. I still want to date you, and I was worried you wouldn't because you might have thought me a vindictive fink. I'm no longer your boss, Robin, so how about letting me take you to dinner as a way of saying Farewell to the company and Hello to friendship?"

  "That's very considerate, Mr. Fry, but I still think it best if we don't date."

  "I'm not Mr. Fry to you anymore. My name is Bill! And what's wrong with me? I shower and brush my teeth every morning. I don't use swear words in the presence of ladies. You're only a couple years younger than me. So why won't you let us form a friendship?"

  "Well, Bill" she carefully used his given name, "I'm afraid you are interested in much more than dinner, and it's easiest to avoid bedroom invitations by not dating in the first place."

  "I'm not going to try to deny that I'm sexually attracted to you. That would make me sound like an idiot. You're beautiful! Both personally and physically. Men and women do get together you know, it's what keeps the species from dying out."

  Robin just smiled and gently shook her head.

  "OK, if that's the way you want it!" Fry conceded, letting out a big sigh. "Back to business. Those other two have wives with good paying jobs. Joe's is a nurse and Pete's is a high school math teacher. They'll have to play Mr. Mom till the job market opens up, but they'll get by. But what about you? Do you have any job prospects or savings to live on for a while?"

  "I'm afraid not. I've been skimping in order to pay off my student loans. I got them paid, but it's kept me from building any savings."

  "Jane and I were on the phone all morning trying to find other job openings, and we couldn't find a thing. All I can offer you is the possibility of freelance bookkeeping. Sometimes we get potential customers who only want a bookkeeper. They don't want our whole bookkeeping-accounting-legal deal. I keep a file of them, and you're welcome to it. Any other similar inquiries which come in I'll send to you. I worked my way through college doing freelance bookkeeping. You won't get rich doing it, and it's a pain having to drive all over town to service dozens of small accounts, but it'll keep you fed for a while."

  "It might if I could drive all over town. But last week my car threw its timing belt, whatever that is, and it'll cost a thousand dollars to fix it. I guess I put off routine maintenance too long in order to pay off my student loans. I don't think our unreliable bus system is up to what an itinerant bookkeeper would need. So it looks like I'm on unemployment till it runs out, and then on food stamps. It's funny in a way. I wanted to major in math in college but did accounting instead because I was told there were no jobs in math. Now because not enough people studied math the school district is paying math teachers like Pete's wife signing bonuses of several thousand dollars, and I'm out of work."

  "As I recall you had much more than a math minor in college, almost a major. Wouldn't that qualify you to teach math?"

  "As far as the math requirements go, it would. And I'd like that … a lot more than bookkeeping. But I'm up against state law. I didn't take the courses to get a teaching certificate. I took accounting courses instead. So no matter how much math I know, I'm not allowed to teach it in the public schools."

  Fry slammed his palms down on his desk.

  "Christ! What a pile of shi … Sorry! I guess sometimes I do swear in a lady's presence. Can you take out a loan on your car to get it fixed?"

  "It already has a loan, a loan I have to keep paying even though the car doesn't run. Anyway, thanks for your concern. I'd better go see Jane about my account transfers."

  As she started to get up he interrupted.

  "Wait a minute."

  Then he got up himself and walked to the window. He stood for a long moment staring out in deep thought. Then he turned and told her what he had been thinking.

  "Robin, I've got a job offer for you. Please listen to the whole thing before you respond, because at first it will sound like a proposition, but it's not. Will you hear me out?"

  "Yes."

  She answered softly and tentatively. Though she was sure what Fry would have to say would really be a proposition, still her curiosity was aroused.

  "You say you'll need a thousand to fix your car. Also you'll need something to tide you over till you can build up a bookkeeping clientele. OK. That's what you need, and here's a way to earn it. I'm not willing to give up trying to get you as my girlfriend. You haven't let me show you who I am. So I'll buy a series of dinner dates with you to give you a chance to get to know the real me. I'll give you … No! I'll pay you two thousand dollars today for the pleasure of your company at dinner once a week for one
year beginning today."

  "Mr. Fry, I'm afraid … "

  Robin spoke as she started to get up from her chair.

  "Wait! You promised to hear me out. And my name is Bill."

  "OK, Bill, go on."

  She apprehensively sat back down.

  "The only thing I'm offering to buy is your presence at dinner. I am not trying to buy sex. In the first place because I know you would never sell, and because I wouldn't be as interested in you as I am if I thought you would. But you do turn me on. And unless these dinners uncover a hidden witch-like nature in you, very likely every dinner will end with a bedroom invitation."

  "That's what I thought!"

  Again she started to get up, and again he objected.

  "You still haven't heard me out. Sit down! Please!"

  And again she apprehensively sat down.

  "Two thousand sounds like a lot for dinners only, but I have a friend who just bought a fancy sports car for fifty-five thou in hopes it might attract some gal, any gal, for him to date. Fifty-five for hope is a lot more than two for a year's guaranteed dates with the most attractive woman in town. And if I was only after sex, I could get a lot of massages at any of the parlors around town for two thousand dollars!"

  "I guess that's so" Robin admitted with a wan smile.

  "I'm paying only for the dates. Attending them is your only obligation. You are free to reject every bedroom invitation. Accept them only if you really want to. In fact I'd be disappointed if you ever did accept for any other reason. Even though I think you're gorgeous, I wouldn't want to go to bed with you unless you wanted to go to bed with me."

  "This is the weirdest offer I've ever heard!"

  "Yeah! It's the weirdest offer I've ever made. But you haven't left me much choice. Look, I'll pay up front. I've already confessed that I'll ask you to bed, but ask is all I'll do. If my requests ever get too aggressive, you can just take the money and run. I'm sure you would do that, too, so I'm not going to risk everything by trying to pressure you. What do you say?"

  With a broken-down mortgaged car, no savings and no job Robin had little choice. But she also found the proposal intriguing, so she agreed.

  II

  Once a week for the next year they had dinner together. At the end of every date Fry asked her to go to bed with him, and she declined every invitation. The first couple of times she just said "No thanks." But thereafter she always declined by joking "Not tonight, Bill. I have a headache." It became a kind of mantra between them, and even though he was always disappointed, still there was something intimately personal about it, their own little joke, and that eased his disappointment.

  As the end of their agreement approached Fry decided to pull out all the stops. For their last date he arranged dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town. When he picked her up it was clear she was joining in the spirit of the occasion. She was dressed stunningly. He thought Robin the most beautiful woman he had ever known, but when he picked her up that evening she was so overpoweringly lovely he could only stare in awe and delight.

  After they had finished their meal and were enjoying an after dinner drink she reached in her purse and pulled out a small piece of paper. She gave it to him with a radiant smile. When Fry opened it he saw it was a check to him for two thousand two hundred dollars.

  "Thanks for the loan, Bill. I couldn't have made it without your help. I added a ten percent interest payment. I hope that's sufficient."

  "With interest rates being down near zero, it's more than sufficient. But that was no loan, Robin. I paid for your time, and you gave it. This is yours. However, may I ask how you got it? Did you rob a bank?"

  "No. With your money and the freelance bookkeeping you set up for me I was able to support myself and do something more, something I never told you about because I didn't know whether I'd succeed or not. Freelancing let me arrange my own schedule, so I went to City College and earned some of the credits needed for a Teaching Certificate. I have a couple more courses to take, but I've earned enough for a temporary certificate. Two weeks ago I signed a contract as a high school math teacher and got an up-front bonus. Your payback came from it. Now I have a secure and excellent job with wide-open prospects in front of me. Thanks millions!"

  "You're welcome. But I don't want this money back. I bought your time and you provided it."

  "Let's be honest, Bill. You thought you were going to get something more for your money. But you didn't. So you deserve to have your money back."

  "You're right about the something more part" he smiled ruefully. "Guilty as charged! But it doesn't matter. Even if I never got you into bed, I got my money's worth. Our dinners have been the most dating fun I've ever had. I just didn't figure on a gal who had a weekly headache. I'm going to miss asking you to bed. Anyway, here's to you, the most beautiful woman I've never slept with."

  He raised his glass in a toast.

  "And I'm going to miss turning you down."

  Robin raised her own glass, acknowledging his toast and returning it.

  "For old time's sake, and so I can hear your headache excuse one last time I've got to ask ... Will you go to bed with me tonight, Robin?"

  She looked at him for an extended moment over the top of her glass, then took a sip from her drink. After dating for a year they had come to know each other well, and Fry knew the mischievous little smile that was playing around the corner of her mouth. That smile always signaled a Robin zinger, remarks so clever he had learned to welcome them even when he was, as he often was, their butt. She must have thought up a witty new sex refusal, and he almost held his breath in anticipation. Finally she answered.

  "I thought you'd never ask!"

  END