American Dream

Jodie and I spent our honeymoon in America, the jolly old US of A.

Actually I had wanted to go to the West Indies, maybe Martinique, but of course I was out-voted, and as frequently happens I didn't regret it at all.

We flew British Airways out of Heathrow, and landed at JFK several hours later, having tried but failed miserably to join the mile high club on the way. That didn't matter as we soon made up for it, as we toured the East coast, taking in New England and the surrounding area.

Coming from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, near to Cambridge University, we especially enjoyed our visit to Yale and Harvard, but the biggest surprise was quite how wonderful and rural New York State was. Not at all how we expected it to be.

Three weeks later Jodie and I had no doubt made love in more motels than the average American would manage in a lifetime.

We loved every minute of it, and vowed to one another on the aeroplane back, that it would not be long before we returned.

Great plan ----- great idea ---- but of course real life and our careers just got in the way.

Nine years on, and I, Dave Martin, and my wife Jodie, found ourselves in our early thirties, happily married, no children, and a lovely house mortgaged to the hilt, as most of the people in our position would be at that time --- but living life to the full. I had recently been made a junior director of Alscans Ltd., who specialised in high tech incinerator plants, in which in our narrow sector, we led the world. We were a small company but growing, and I had managed to grow with it. Under my boss George, who virtually owned the company, I guess I was about number four or five in line.

Jodie had done quite well, but as a schoolteacher her progression was a matter of length of service as well as ability, and just occasionally she got frustrated that I had shot ahead of her. I later wondered whether it was this sort of jealous undercurrent that made her act in the way that she did.

I would say without doubt that we were still in love, not perhaps with the passion that we had when we'd first got married, but that was to be expected. Our love life was not bad at all, with the odd week or two of abstinence when we were both under pressure, made up for by the more frequent flurry of sexual activity when we were both in the mood.

Our story starts when we were in the middle of a particularly long spell of the former, but looking forward to a well-deserved period of the latter.

We hadn't actually taken a holiday of any sort for almost a year, but Jodie had broken up from school the week before, and we were due to go off on a well deserved break to the Beaches of Spain just the next day.

Jodie dragged me out to buy some new holiday clothes for the pair of us, though as expected, I ended up with one pair of shorts. No surprise that Jodie ended up with four or five new outfits, and each one more revealing than the last.

It was the last one she chose that started her off.

Jodie tended to be rather adventurous and headstrong on holiday, and wore and did things that she would perhaps not normally do at home. I suppose that day, that she had already entered into the holiday spirit, and the blouse that she picked out seemed to reflect that fact exactly.

"Do you like it?" She asked, as she held it up for my approval.

"It's a bit see-thru," I noted, not with any genuine disapproval.

"Then it's just what I'm looking for then," Jodie told me. "I'd better try it on I suppose."

She disappeared out of my sight into the changing room with the filmy, black wisp of satin, leaving me stood there with six or seven other guys all waiting, like me, for their wives or girlfriends.

I wondered whether Jodie would decide herself, or whether she would come out and model it for me, to see what I thought. I thought that she had put on a fairly skimpy bra that morning, so if she did come out, then a few guys could be in for a minor treat.

She did come out. Right out into the waiting area --- no peeping round the corner for me to come and look like some girls do.

I did get one thing wrong though, and that was the bra. It probably had been the skimpy one that she'd put on that morning, but since she'd removed it to model the blouse, then it didn't make much difference.

Male eyes, including my own, popped open in surprise as Jodie spun around showing the new blouse off to me. Well, nominally to me.

It was black.

It was flimsy.

Other than that, what could I say?

It covered her ---- well sort of I guess.

It covered her up adequately --- well I couldn't really go along with that.

What was the word or phrase I was looking for?

Hid her --- no.

Protected her assets --- certainly not.

Covered her breasts --- well not really.

Guarded her modesty --- hardly at all.

Could me and the other guys make out the shape of her tits --- You bet we could.

Could we see her erect nipples ___ bet your bloody life we all could.

Bloody hell, my missus Jodie was flashing her boobs off at all the guys there as if she was topless. The thin material of the blouse hardly camouflaged what was underneath, and her nipples stuck out like thimbles, every detail plainly on view.

It would have been less erotic if she had been bare to the waist.

And she was loving it!

I couldn't honestly claim that I was that upset, but she was loving it --- the cheeky cow!

Jodie bought the blouse, and we moved on to the next shop.

Then we got the new bikini!

If you could describe it as such.

She disappeared into the changing room, and seemed to take her time. Eventually she pulled the curtain back and stood there for me to admire.

Bloody hell!

I found my heart pounding as I stood there looking at her, aware that at least a couple of other chaps waiting around were also getting an eyeful. Jodie I should explain is a rather attractive young woman, about five foot three, reasonably slim and with boobs that though not more than a "B" cup, thrust out firmly as if issuing a challenge.

"Where's the top?" I asked her when I managed to recover my powers of speech.

"We're going to Spain," Jodie proclaimed gleefully. "Who needs a bikini top there?"

True as it happened. We'd been there the year before, and after the first hour or two, my wife had discarded her bikini top and joined the many other women who were topless. To my knowledge she never bothered with it again the whole time we were there.

But a department store in Cambridge was hardly a beach in Spain.

"Do you like it then?" She demanded, arching her back slightly, emphasizing even more just how stunning her bare breasts were.

"Love it," answered at least two of the admirers looking on, before I could so much as utter a word either way.

Jodie giggled at the attention she was getting, and twisted around to offer a different angle.

"Can I have it then?" She asked me, while I stood there, not sure whether I should be embarrassed or turned on by her show.

"I'd give her one," said one of the guys cheekily, and the others all laughed.

"Ok, you can have it," I told her before the whole thing got out of hand.

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On the way home in the car, I got to thinking.

Jodie wouldn't normally have acted quite like that, so something was up.

My wife Jodie was one of those women who was strong willed, and when I did something to upset her she felt she had to get her own back. Four months previously she had flirted with one of her colleagues in front of me and it ended up with her kissing him out on the dance floor, while I had to stand there watching them. I wasn't too sure where his hands were either for that matter.

We had a blinding row afterwards at how she had humiliated me in front of everyone, and all she had to say was that it was all my fault. Apparently I had forgotten that it was the anniversary of our first date a few days before, and she had decided to make me pay.

The anniversary of our first date??

When the hell had we last celebrated that for Christ's sake?

Then about a month after that I got home late when we were supposed to be going out for dinner. It was only half an hour or so because I got held up in the traffic coming home from a meeting with a client up North. Four hours on the road, and an accident on the motorway that had happened earlier in the day had delayed me. I'd even rang to say I'd be late but that didn't help.

By the time I got home she'd already gone out, and left me a note to say that she'd cancelled the dinner reservation. No idea where she'd gone, just that she'd ring me in a bit so that I could join her.

A 'bit' turned out to be over three hours later, and it wasn't so much an invitation to join her as a demand that I went to pick her up to give her a lift home.

I told her what I thought of her, and that she could make her own bloody way home. She'd gone out on her own, so she could come home on her own.

"Plenty of guys here would be more than happy to bring me home Dave. I just don't know how I would be able to pay them back for their kindness."

They were her exact words!

When I got to the club I was fuming. It wasn't helped when I found Jodie surrounded by a group of young men, most of them five years younger than her, and so obviously hoping for a special ending to the evening.

The skimpy dress that she almost had on did nothing to dissuade them that they had chosen well, or to calm me down. As I walked up to the group, at least three of them actually had their hands on her, round her waist, on her exposed shoulder, and another perilously close to her breast.

"Excuse me lads," I said as I carefully eased my way through to her, somewhat cautiously pushing their hands away from her body. "Time this little lady was going home."

"Piss off mate," one of them retorted, trying to barge me away. "We got her first. Go find your own bit of crumpet."

"It's OK boys," broke in Jodie. "It's my husband come to save me. Sorry to break up the evening, but I'm afraid I'll have to go home with him."

Oh dear!

It looked as if it would turn nasty, and there was no way that I would stand a chance against the group of them.

They weren't happy!

It was obvious that they thought Jodie had been leading them on, and that by pre arrangement I had arrived to take their fun thing away, and two of them including the stroppy one started to push me.

It had been some years since I had been involved in any sort of fight; not since I'd been at school. But I'm not the sort of guy who backs down too easily, so I pushed back.

It started to get out of hand, until Jodie interrupted again.

"Come on you guys," she scolded them. "Leave him alone will you."

It quietened them down just a little, but the atmosphere was still very threatening.

"Come on then," Jodie carried on, as if she was enjoying the situation. "I'll give you all a nice kiss goodnight, and then me and hubby have got to be going."

That may have placated them, but it infuriated me.

"You kiss one of them Jodie," I shouted at her. "And don't bloody well bother to come home tonight."

Stand off!

People round us started to move away, and the barman started to clear glasses from in front of us. Most of the bunch of young men seemed happy enough to back off and leave it, but the two trouble makers were as riled up as I was.

There was going to be trouble, and I was in the thick of it.

Suddenly two huge bouncers arrived and started to push us apart. I can't say that I wasn't relieved, even though I was pumped up and would have gone for it.

"You lot stay there," one of the bouncers said to the group of young men, pushing them back, before turning to us.

"I suggest you get out mate while you're still in one piece," he said to me. "And take that trouble making bitch with you."

There are times when you make a stand when your wife is insulted, and times when discretion is the better part of valour. I took the second and easier option, and dragged Jodie out behind me. Besides, at that moment I agreed with his judgement.

The drive home was in silence, but when we got home we had another screaming row. We hardly talked to one another for three days or so, and I warned her that if she ever did anything like that again, that the consequences would be dire.

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So back to the incidents in the changing rooms, and what caused them?

"Just a warning shot," she informed me. "You know I'm not happy that you're working tomorrow morning when we're going away, so it was just a warning."

Well in my book, crazy cow that she was, there's a big difference between flashing her boobs off at strangers and actually leading them on with her flirting as she had done previously.

Truth was, it had actually turned me on quite a lot, and the thought of Jodie wearing her revealing clothes and going topless in her bikini in front of other guys on holiday got me rather excited.

All a matter of degree really. I've never minded other guys looking, but touching was something else altogether.

That night we screwed one another senseless, breaking our period of no sex. When I eventually regained my senses, I wondered how many other wives or girl friends had enjoyed such a night of passion, due to their men-folk remembering how wonderful Jodie's breasts had looked, and imagined that they were fucking her.

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The next day, I had just one appointment with Butch. Butch was one of those more real than real sort of guys who was over from America to look at our products. My boss George had been out visiting them a couple of weeks previously, and he was on the return trip, to see how we operated. My job was to run him quickly through the manufacturing process, and then take him out to see a plant in operation.

I planned to have a quick lunch with him then leave, giving me plenty of time to get back home, get changed, and drive to Stansted Airport in time to catch our late afternoon flight.

Jodie had been furious when I told her what I would be doing, demanding that I cancel my meeting with Butch and get someone else to cover for me.

I tried to explain how important the meeting was for our company, and how a foothold into the huge American market could lead to expansion for us, and even greater prospects for me.

She hadn't been happy, and that no doubt, was what had led to the display the day before.

"You think more of your bloody job than you do of me," she screamed at me when I refused to go along with her idea. I declined to remind her of the numerous times we had cancelled arrangements because of her commitments at her school, knowing that all would be fine between us once we were on the plane.

I knew that Jodie could sometimes be a bit self-centred and righteous, but I'd known that when I married her, so I could hardly complain.

I patted her on the bottom as I went out, pecked her on the cheek, and confirmed that she had to be ready and packed when I got back home in a few hours time.

"You be one minute late and you'll regret it," Jodie spat at me with a touch more venom than I thought appropriate.

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The meeting went well, in fact extremely well indeed. I found I got on really well with Butch, only having met him very briefly on his previous visit a few months before.

He came up with some extremely searching questions, but I acquitted myself well, and as the morning came to a close I was pretty sure that we would soon be confirming the order.

"Where we going for lunch then?" he asked me at about eleven thirty, and I suggested a local pub where we could get a quick bite to eat and a beer.

"No," he came back to me. "Let's go to that place Mario's where we can sit down a bit more quietly. I've still got a number of things that I need to go through with you."

I glanced at the time, realised I had a bit of time to spare, and agreed.

An hour later we were only half way through our meal, and he was grilling me with questions that I could hardly believe. How much did he want to know about our company and our product, and for that matter about me?

"I'd better just ring my wife and warn her I might be a bit late," I explained to him as I made my way to the toilet, not wanting him to hear the explosion that would no doubt result. I decided to then give it another ten minutes or so before I would reluctantly interrupt him and explain why I had to split. You think twice before deserting such a potentially important client, but I still had a little time to spare.

"You what?" Jodie screamed at me over the phone when I told her, unprepared to listen to my protestations that we still had time to spare. "I warned you Dave that if you were late, then you'd regret it. I'm not missing this holiday even if I have to go without you."

I tried to calm her down but with no luck. By the time I rang off we were both angry at one another, and she had stopped listening what I had to say. I decided to just go back to Butch and explain my problem, and ask him if he could make his own way back to our plant. That would save me twenty minutes or so, and I'd be back at my house maybe just five minutes later than planned. Butch was a married man himself, and would no doubt understand.

"Well Dave," he greeted me on my return to the table. "It's time I came clean with you, because I know you're in a rush and have a plane to catch."

Oh shit!

What was this all about? How did he know that? What was he about to hit me with?

I sat down and waited for the axe to drop, convinced that he was about to pull the plug on the new big order that I had thought was in the bag. How did he know that I was in such a rush? I'd obviously blown it by trying to rush things through.

Why oh why hadn't I simply told him at the beginning of our meeting that I had a tight schedule to follow?

"I want you to come and work for me Dave," Butch said confidently. "How do you fancy coming over to live in the States?"

I had one of those moments when you just can't seem to get your chin to come back up and meet the rest of your face.

"Say that again please," I demanded when I recovered.

"All these questions Dave, I've been checking you out. George hasn't told you but we are going to take a license to manufacture your plants in the US, and we need someone with your knowledge to help us set it up."

"But ---- but.... " Was all I could manage, before Butch carried on.

"George suggested you Dave, as the best man. He doesn't want to lose you of course, but this deal could make Alscans a fortune over the next decade or so, and he says you're the man to make it work."

"George knows?" I asked limply.

"Of course he does Dave, but didn't want to say too much till I met you and decided that you were the man I wanted."

I collapsed back in my chair with the most incredible warm feeling running through me. Going to live and work in America as an executive of a large company. Jodie would go crazy with delight when I told her, as we both still talked about what a great time we'd had there, and how much we would like to go back. But never in a million years had I ever expected to be going back on terms like these.

I listened in astonishment, as he quickly outlined the package they were offering me, a salary that I could hardly comprehend, share options, company BMW, an apartment till we found one for ourselves .... It just went on and on.

"Well you have a plane to catch young man," he finished with. "Perhaps you'll give me your decision when you come back from holiday and had time to discuss it with your wife."

"I'll give it to you now," I found myself spluttering. "I accept, and I'm absolutely sure that my wife will agree."

We both stood up and shook hands on it, and Butch shooed me off to go pick up my wife and catch my plane.