Page 46 of His Wife

“Okay,” Ashley says, but it sounds like this is the last thing that she wants to do.

“Yeah,” Heather says, echoed by Dani with the utmost resistance.

Leigh smiles, and then returns to her massage. The others return to their own massages too, and then they go about receiving the other treatments that they had planned. Everyone’s head is filled with disdain for what this weekend will entail, but not Leigh. She is excited. She knows that this is silly, because it is just a pub. But it isn’t the pub that thrills Leigh. Rather, it is who goes to the pub. There are a couple of ‘normal’ people that go there, but there is also the biker element. And it is this element that excites her incredibly.

Sure, she knows that there will probably be wannabe bikers there, but she knows that there will also be the real deal. Leigh isn’t even sure what she wants from them, what she expects from them, but she knows that she just wants to be around them. Something about the grit, the grime, and the authentic rustiness of these beasts gets her a little warm between the thighs.

“So, I’ll see you Friday night? We’ll meet at my house at seven. Okay?” Leigh says as she leaves the spa, her friends going off in the other direction to talk about her and her strange tastes. This is a conversation that she really wants no part of, and so she just gets into the town car and relaxes in the backseat as they make their way to the penthouse. She thinks of this Friday, of what she will wear, and how she will try to fit in. She knows her friends will put in zero effort, but what can she do?. Maybe if they have a little time to think about it they will feel some of her excitement.

Anyway, she tells herself, it is just for one day. And she needs her entourage to make her feel more comfortable. The truth is, Leigh really isn’t as brave as she makes out to be. But she hides this exceptionally well. Her insecurities are so deep beneath the surface that she comes across as anything but, at least in public. However, growing up the way she has can really cripple your self-esteem, and Leigh is not immune. She thinks, in fact, that she is probably so rebellious just because she is trying to hide her real self, and trying to find her real self.

She does tend to look in all the wrong places though!

Chapter Four

Come Friday, Leigh is beside herself with excitement. She takes out her clothes, and she knows that the price tags on most, on all of the items in fact, is probably nowhere close to the price tags of most of the people at American Trash. But this doesn’t matter. There is no time for her to go out and get suitable clothes, not that she would even know where to look, so she would just have to make do with what she has in front of her.

She decides on black leather pants, that fit tighter than should be legal, an even tighter leather and silk black top, and chains that are in a word, excessive. She doesn’t look at all like a biker chick. She looks like she just stepped off a couture runway in Paris, but there is really nothing that she can do about this now. She just has to deal with the fact that she looks like a million dollars. She is worth a hundred million actually, so you could say she dressed down.

When her friends walk into the penthouse, they look equally like models, and equally less than biker chicks. They are really going to stick out like sore thumbs, or like tall models in a sea of fat people, but one thing is clear, obviously so, and that is that they are all absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. Their make-up is perfect, their clothing fits perfectly, and their purses match almost too perfectly with their shoes. They look so well put together that you would think they were on their way to a charity event or a movie premier. This couldn’t be further from the truth!

They leave for the bar, in a town car, although Leigh really just wants to take a cab. She knows that the drivers of town cars talk, and that there is always the chance that one of them might mention to her mother, who doesn’t drive, that he dropped her daughter and her friends off at American Trash. Even at twenty-one, she still doesn’t have the energy for her mother’s judgments. Her mother is the most judgmental person that she knows, and Leigh actually cannot wait until she will not need to come home and live with her parents anymore.

‘One more year’ has become her mantra!

As the car drives through Manhattan the feeling in the car is tense. It is a limo, a stretch, so there is more than enough space for all four of the girls to entertain their own thoughts. But these thoughts cross over to one another. None of them say a word. They just let the tension settle over them in waves. It does, even for Leigh, who doesn’t know really what to expect, but she knows that the excitement will keep her from changing her mind.

“Well, happy birthday,” Dani says, pouring champagne into four flutes. She hands these out to each of her friends, and they clink their glasses together. The ‘happy birthdays’ are echoed throughout the limo. Leigh humbly accepts them, and then she says ‘thank you,’ really meaning it. She really loves these girls.

“We’re here,” Leigh says, looking like a child outside Disneyland; a poor child who is visiting the land of dreams for the first time.

“Yes,” Heather says.

“Yes,” Ashley says, downing her second glass of champagne, before making unnecessary adjustments to her outfit.

“How long are we going to stay?” Dani asks as they exit the limo, the driver holding the door open for them.

“We will stay as long as I want. It’s my party and I’ll stay as long as I want to. We will stay as long as I want to!” She tries to sound light-hearted, but she does feel a little bad for her friends, seeing how absolutely uncomfortable they are. She hopes that they will like it when they get inside. She hopes she will like it, but she knows that even if she doesn’t, she will have to pretend, for as long as she can, just so that the girls who are looking very apprehensive now don’t get a chance to say ‘I told you so!’

They make their way inside and look around. It is every bit like a biker bar, every bit the way it looked on the internet. Leigh would have liked to go to a seedier joint, but this was a compromise, purely for the benefit of her friends. At least, since this place had an online presence, she knows that it will seem just that little bit more legit.

But only a very, very little bit!

Leigh almost looks around for a concierge, and then she remembers where they are. She throws her eyes around the space, already filled, looking for a table. She spots a table in a corner, on the end of the bar, and quickly makes her way towards it. There is another group hovering around the table, and she hopes that she will get to it before these people sit down. The last thing she wants is to spend her birthday standing around the bar. When she sits in the closest chair to her on the table, and there is no protestation from the group of girls who look like authentic biker chicks, she motions for the other girls to take a seat.

With all of them sitting, and no waitress coming towards them, Leigh stands up, and looks at Ashley who is shifting, visibly uncomfortable, in her seat. Ashley gets up and follows Leigh the few steps to the bar. They order a round of drinks, and then turn back towards the table. Three guys are at the table right away, talking to Dani and Heather. The two women are obviously not interested, and by the time Leigh and Ashley sit down with the drinks, the men have assimilated into the crowd once more.

“This is going to be a long night,” Dani says, and she takes a huge sip from her drink!

Chapter Five

Andre is already in the pub, sitting with his friends a few tables down. They aren’t really friends, but they are all here on holiday. Most of them are bikers, and they are all staying at the Crowne Plaza in Manhattan, which is nice enough for the Europeans but not really the authentic New York experience they wanted. There are two Italians and a Spaniard. Andre is German. He looks the most like a biker, tatted all up his arm, and halfway up his neck. He is also dressed most like a biker, understated but no less authentic!

He gets Leigh’s attention, just because of his gregarious laugh. Andre really seems to laugh from the base of his stomach. It is a velvety, hoarse laugh, and every time he lets out a chuckle, Leigh looks up, and she cannot help but let her eyes linger for a while, looking at him with definite interest. What she doesn’t see, is that when she isn’t looking at him, Andre is looking at her too.

Andre is drawn to Leigh for many reasons. Mostly, he is drawn to her for her obvious fearlessness. She relaxes quickly into the situation that she doesn’t really belong in. It is obvious that she and her friends are from money, real money. But unlike her friends, she looks more comfortable in the bar than he thinks she should. He is also attracted to her physically. Every time she gets up and goes to the bar, he looks at her breasts, at her ass, and at her pretty face. He cannot help the thoughts running through his head, and he really wants to get her alone.

She needs the bathroom, and Andre sees his chance. He watches as she gets up and takes her purse, asking her friends to come with her. The other women still look horribly uncomfortable, despite being on their fourth or fifth drink, and so they just stay planted in their seats. He gets up as she disappears through the double doors that lead to the bathroom, and excuses himself from his own friends. He stands outside the male bathroom, looking at the female bathroom, the door still tightly closed.

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