My Two Alphas, page 2
part #1 of Alphas Series
“Call me”, he smiled, making the telephone gesture with his thumb and pinkie finger against his ear and mouth, before turning off and strolling to one of the suburban platforms. It seemed that his meeting required him to catch a train through the loop and get off at another station, whereas my call centre was a brief walk from the station. I watched Bram as he disappeared down another escalator, then shook myself out of my funk and turned to head towards a turnstile, swiping my card over the card reader.
Two
My job was normally a shitty one. Today was worse. I used to have a better job, a much better job, but it was in the same company as John. That was how we had met, on the job, and because we worked in different departments, it had never seemed a problem when we were married. However, when I threw John out of the house – watching him march next door and move in with Elly – it had become untenable. Somehow, I had become ‘the bad guy’ at work. John was always so friendly and personable, that he had a lot better relationships with everyone at work than I had, and somehow I became aware that I was being painted as the frigid, unloving wife that had driven him into the arms of someone more affectionate. Relationships changed, people became colder, and I couldn’t stay there any longer. I wanted to get out quickly, so I took the first job that came along, thinking to get a better one later, but I had been so busy with everything else that I hadn’t done anything about looking for another job, and was still working at the call centre. Unfortunately I had left too much control of our finances to John, and our mortgage was a lot larger than it should have been. I had also been shocked to find credit card debts that I didn’t know about, which explained so much of the clothing and male grooming products that John had always seemed to have. I hadn’t noticed all of this before as John had always kept control over everything, including me. All of our money went into a joint banking account, and we each drew an allowance out of it for personal expenses, using the rest to pay down our mortgage, or so I had thought. Our house was an old inner city one, and it had been expensive, but I had thought we could afford it. Apparently we really couldn’t, and when I went through all the papers that John had normally kept control of, I found that my financial position after the divorce was going to be very grim. Once I paid the divorce lawyer, there would be very little left after our house was sold, and with my reduced income, I couldn’t afford much in which to start again. I could have rented, but I had decided that I was sick of being controlled by someone else. John had taken charge and I had taken a back seat, and I didn’t want anyone to be in charge of my life again. I reasoned that if I rented my home, I was at the mercy of a landlord who might decide to kick me out if their own circumstances changed. So I decided to buy my own home, even if all I could afford was a tiny little house on a cottage block a long way from the city. Even though it was tiny, it was mine. So long as I kept up the mortgage payments, no-one could take it away from me, and I needed that feeling of security at this point of my life.
All of that wasn’t helping me right now, as my boss stood over me, berating me for not getting enough calls on the board, and even worse, for bringing him cold coffee. It wasn’t in my job description to make coffee, but I had been so scared of not making a good impression when I first started at the company, that I had swallowed my pride and done it. Then it had been harder to refuse the second time, and now, months later, I found myself to be the office lackey. I was the one who made the coffee, unjammed the printer, and lugged the spare paper up from the storeroom. I stared at him as his mouth moved, not really hearing what he was saying. I had heard it all before, how useless I was, how incompetent, how unattractive, how sexually unappealing. In my head, the vitriol my boss was heaping on me was getting mixed up with my memories of how John had talked to me. It had been slight at first, and had gotten worse, and slowly he had chipped away at my self confidence. When I had flipped out on finding him in our bed with Elly, he had grabbed his clothes in a huff, tossing more insults at me as he left. No matter what my boss said to me, he couldn’t hurt me any more than I had already been hurt, so I just tuned him out and let him rant, intent on keeping my job.
The only man who had ever seemed like he was really interested in me, who really listened to what I had to say, and seemed to care, was Bram. Bram who was just a stranger I had met on the train, who unbelievably seemed to care, even though there was no reason for him to. Bram who was so unbelievably attractive that he was way out of my league, but who still seemed genuinely interested. Hadn’t he seemed happy that I was single after all?
Suddenly, in mid rant, Mr Stephens stopped talking as the lights flickered, then went out. A number of groans sounded around the room as people’s computers went off line, but I also heard a few quiet cheers from others who hoped for a few minutes’ reprieve from the mundane. Mr Stephens tutted and wandered off, and I took the opportunity to pick up my phone and scroll through the contact list. There it was. Bram Charleston. Hmmm. Even the name was interesting. I picked up the mirror from my handbag and looked at myself, wondering what Bram had seen that had interested him. I wasn’t in the first flush of youth anymore, but even at my advanced age of twenty seven, hadn’t yet started to form wrinkles, or have grey hairs, so the image staring back at me wasn’t bad. It wasn’t remarkable, but it wasn’t bad. My hair was a non-descript brown, and my eyes the same, but my skin was clear and my features were regular, even if not remarkable. Average. I was average. And Bram was spectacular. I dropped the mirror back in my bag with a sigh. Maybe he was just being nice, I thought wearily. He had said that he didn’t like to read on trains, maybe he had started out just wanting to pass the time chatting, and had found himself consoling a depressing stranger who had almost sobbed her sad story on his shoulder. I sighed as I thought about those shoulders, and the chest, and the chiselled features of his handsome face. I sighed again and rested my chin on my hand. The little voice in my head wanted me to accept that Bram had just been being nice, and suddenly I decided that the little voice needed to shut up, forever. I had been a good girl all my life, and what had it got me? A husband who controlled me and cast me aside when he got sick of me? A shitty job that I could have done with my eyes closed? A boss that got off on abusing staff, particularly me? Before I could change my mind, I picked up my phone and called Bram. Closing my eyes in frustration, I listened to his voicemail message. That would be so right. Just when I got the courage to do something completely out of character, I couldn’t even do it right. I waited for the little beep.
“Um, Bram? This is Diane? From the train? If you’re not busy, I’d love to have lunch, but I only get half an hour, so we’ll probably only have time for a sandwich. My break is at twelve, so can we meet at…”
I sighed in frustration as the allotted time for me to leave a message expired. I couldn’t even leave a message properly. I grimaced as I realised how unsure I must have sounded, how everything had been a question, it was even as though I didn’t know my own name. I texted the address of my building to Bram’s number, not wanting to leave a second message. I didn’t even know if he’d show, but I would just go outside and wait, and hope.
We sat there in the dark for a bit longer, and then the unthinkable happened. Word spread around the staff that there was a problem in the building, and the power wouldn’t be restored for hours. Everyone was called into the large meeting room, stumbling by the emergency lighting. Mr Stephens stood up when the last of us filed in and cleared his throat.
“Well, staff, it seems like this is your lucky day. The power is expected to be out until at least two. Because the power is out, the hot water will run out shortly too, so the building will be uninhabitable until the power is back. You can all go out until then, go shopping or have an early lunch or something, but you will be expected to come back when we text you. We’ll send out a mass text when the power comes back, and then you all have to come back. Well, off you go then”.
“How do we get out of the building, the elevators will be out?”
I craned my neck trying to see who had spoken, but it was too dark. I did hear the aggrieved tone of Mr Stephen’s voice though.
“Obviously down the fire stairs, how else? That’s what we have drills for – so you know how to get out of the building in an emergency! There’s emergency lighting in the stairs, it operates on batteries I think, so that’s how you get out”.
As the groans rippled around the room, we were on the twenty third floor after all, Mr Stephens spoke up a little louder this time.
“If you don’t want to use the stairs, feel free to stay. But don’t complain if you can’t use the toilets, or make a coffee in the kitchen, you’ve been warned!”
I didn’t wait for any further discussion, thinking with glee of four hours to myself, and maybe a long lunch if Bram called me back. I sprinted back to my desk, dropped my phone into my bag, and headed off to the stairs, following the exit signs and opening the door. I looked at the concrete steps with trepidation. I hadn’t been here for the drill, and I was walking down stairs and not up, how hard could it be?
By the time I got to the bottom, I realised that it was a lot harder than I had thought it would be. Even though I didn’t have the exertion of climbing up the stairs, it took more effort than I would have thought to go down the stairs. I was hot and thirsty, my thighs were starting to twinge, and I was even starting to feel a little dizzy. I hadn’t been alone on the stairs of course, the whole building was being evacuated, and the closer I got to the ground floor, the more crowded the stairwell got, but finally I was out in the open air. I took a few deep gulps of fresh air – it had been hot being surrounded by the press of bodies in that stairwell – and started to fumble in my bag for my phone, wanting to check to see if Bram had replied. Before I had the chance I heard my name being called, and turned in the direction of the sound. I saw Bram striding through the crowds of people towards me, a worried expression on his face. Without an effort, and seeming to not even notice what he was doing, he shrugged people aside, ignoring their complaints and grumbles, until he reached me, and he put both hands on my arms, holding me from him and looking me up and down as he spoke.
“Diane! Are you alright? Has something happened in your building?”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned me so that I was facing away from the building, clamping an arm around me and hustling me away quickly. I struggled to keep up with his long strides, tottering along in my heels, and unable to speak as I was trying to catch my breath. I still hadn’t gotten back to normal after the trek down all those stairs, and now that I was rushing along to try to keep up with Bram, I didn’t have any breath to spare. I stopped walking, planting my feet on the footpath and hoping that Bram would notice and wouldn’t keep walking, or I would probably stumble. He stopped and turned, frowning at me before glaring over my head, looking up at my building. Realising what he must be thinking, I put up a hand to his face, nudging it gently down so that he was looking at me.
“Everything’s fine, Bram. There’s no fire, or attack, or anything like that, we just lost power, that’s all. We’ve all been sent out because without power there’s only emergency lighting, but there’s no computers, or hot water, or airconditioning, so we can’t stay. Why are you here though? Normally I can’t go to lunch until twelve, it’s not even eleven yet”.
Bram grinned at me, managing to look a bit sheepish at the same time as he looked like something else – something a bit predatory.
“I got your message, and the text with the address of your building. I came early in the hope of taking you out for a morning coffee, and hoping that I could convince you to spin your coffee break out into a long lunch break, but it looks like the fates were kind enough to do my work for me. Have you got the rest of the day off?”
“No such luck, unfortunately, but I do have until around two. So I can spend-“
Whatever I would have said next was forever lost as someone behind me pushed past and shoved me so that I stumbled towards Bram. I probably would have fallen, or at least turned an ankle, but he grabbed me and pulled me towards him to steady me. As we were standing in the middle of the footpath, and people were bustling around us on all sides, we were getting in people’s way, and Bram pulled me to the side of the footpath, against a building, turning me so that my back was against the building and his large body was shielding me from any further jabs from elbows, bags or umbrellas. While I certainly appreciated the courtesy, there was one thing that was jabbing into me that Bram wasn’t shielding me from, because he couldn’t. Because his large body was pressed up tight against mine, I was achingly aware of the very large bulge that was currently pressed against my abdomen, and as I looked into Bram’s eyes, I could see that he knew I could not only feel it, but recognised it for what it was. With a groan, he lowered his head to mine and took my lips in a kiss that started out soft and tender, but quickly became something else. My arms snaked up around his neck, his arms moved down to my waist, and he pulled me even tighter against him as his lips, teeth and tongue teased me with tantalising glimpses of what he could do to me if we weren’t standing in a public street.
Our position was made clear as someone pushed past Bram angrily. While Bram barely moved, the man who had shoved past him turned back and shouted angrily: “Get a room you two, and stop blocking the footpath”.
Bram lifted his head, and his grey eyes glinted down at me, seeming to sparkle softly as he made the outrageous suggestion.
“I’m up for it if you are”.
I pulled back a little and licked my lips nervously. What was I even thinking? I had only met this man a few hours before, and here I was making out with him in the street like a horny teenager? This was so not me, and yet, why not? I had been so consumed with doing ‘the right thing’ all my life, yet what had that done for me? I had held out for ‘Mr Right’, resisting my teenaged hormones which begged me to experiment like all my peers were doing, and had held on to my precious virginity, finally surrendering it to John, of all people, thinking that he would be my forever and would appreciate the gift I had given him. Instead, my first experience had been fumbling and embarrassing, and not particularly enjoyable, John not being much more experienced than I was at that stage. We had married shortly afterwards, and our sex life hadn’t improved a lot, John seeming to think that a quick fumble to check that I was wet was good enough, before jumping in, thrusting until he came, and then rolling over and falling asleep soon after, leaving me wondering if that’s all that sex was. When I had walked in on him and Elly, I had seen pretty much the same as I had experienced, although Elly had seemed to be getting more out of it than I ever had, but it still didn’t seem to be the earth moving experience that movies and romantic fiction had led me to believe it could be. As I stood looking at Bram, still held within the hard circle of his arms and feeling that hard bulge pressing against my abdomen, I thought that if anyone could stir the reaction in me that Bram currently was, then it was worth finding out why. I decided to take the risk, and nodded shyly.
Bram’s eyes gleamed momentarily before he dropped a quick kiss on my head and turned back to the street, pulling me behind him. He spied a tram trundling up the street, and led me to it, bundling me up the steps and seeming to surround me with his body to shield me from everyone else. As I looked up at him nervously, he lowered his head to whisper into my ear.
“There’s a couple of nice hotels at the other end of town. I’ll get a room in one, and we can take it from there. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but I think we should take this off the street, don’t you?”
I nodded nervously, unable to take my eyes from his. I watched as Bram looked around, and once he registered that our stop was nearby, he reached past me to push the bell, stepping down the steps in front of me once the doors had opened and holding out his hand for me to grasp as I walked down the steps. Once we were back on the footpath, Bram guided me to a bench seat while he ducked into a pharmacy, coming out in record time tucking something into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. Smiling down at me, he pulled me to my feet and we raced across the road once the lights changed, stepping into the foyer of a classy hotel. My cheeks began burning, and I looked everywhere but at the receptionist. We didn’t have any luggage with us, and I wondered how often they encountered people booking a room clearly just for the purpose of having sex. Even though I wasn’t ashamed of what I was planning to do with Bram, and what I was hoping he would do with me, I still felt uncomfortable with other people knowing all of my business. Thankfully Bram didn’t seem to be bothered by it, but then I had a disquieting thought that maybe he did this often. Pushing that thought from my mind – it was really none of my business after all, I took his proferred hand once he had finished the registration process and walked with him to the elevator. Once we were inside and the doors closed, Bram squeezed my hand before speaking.
“Nervous?”
I breathed out, thankful for his understanding, and suddenly needed to make it clear to him that I wasn’t in the habit of going to hotel rooms with men I had just met.
“Yes, I am. I don’t do this you know, I’ve never done this actually. You know, gone to a hotel with someone I just met. I’ve never even had a one night stand. Not that I’m trying to hook you into a relationship or anything, I just wanted you to know that – listen to me, I’m just babbling and I can’t stop”.
Bram stepped closer to me and pulled me to him gently.
“I get it. You just want me to know that this is not the sort of thing you normally do, but I’m just so irresistible you can’t help yourself, is that right?”
