Chapter 33: Career Change

George came home from the office with a smile on his face. Slipping through the house, he stopped at the kitchen door and watched his wife trying to cook while keeping an eye on the boys.

In an excited voice, he asked, “Who’s up for a little wrestling?”

John and Joe immediately spun around and saw their dad at the door of the kitchen. With wild screams they charged him ready to wrestle at the doorway. George picked the two boys up, carrying one in each arm. When he reached the living room he got down on his knees and released the boys.

The boys charged, laughing wildly, and George fell over. The boys immediately scrambled over him. The wrestling match was in full swing. John and Joe went into full tickle mode. George laughed, loving every minute of his time with the two boys.

In the kitchen, Cindy was thankful for the chance to be alone. Dumping the noodles into boiling water, she was seven minutes away from serving dinner. Stepping back, she set the timer. She couldn’t believe that her husband had asked for spaghetti with sauce from the jar. Sometimes he just made it too easy.

She stood there for a moment listening to the noises coming from the living room. The boys were having fun doing things that boys enjoyed doing. It was nice having George around the house to wrestle with the boys. She was happy to chase them around, but wrestling just wasn’t her thing.

When the timer said there were three minutes left, she leaned out the kitchen door and shouted, “Dinner in five minutes! Everyone wash their hands.”

Not wanting to stop wrestling, John asked, “Do we have to?”

Knowing how to motivate the boys, George said, “It’s spaghetti night!”

John and Joe looked at each other for a second and then raced to the bathroom to wash their hands. Spaghetti night with Dad around the house was great. He knew all kinds of neat tricks to do with spaghetti noodles that they weren’t allowed to do when he wasn’t home.

Getting up from the floor, George followed the boys to the bathroom to make sure that they did a proper job of washing their hands. Grabbing a towel, he waited for one of the boys to finish washing. Little Joe was the first to finish. He turned and held out his hands for inspection. George made a huge show of inspecting the hands and finally said, “They look clean enough. Great job Joe.”

Joe held his hands out while George dried them off. He finished in time for John to hold out his hands for inspection. Turning to Joe, George asked, “Do you think they’re clean enough?”

“No,” Joe said and then stuck his tongue out at John.

“Hey!”

George started to dry off John’s hands while he said, “We won’t tell Mommy.”

“All right,” John said. He looked over at his little brother and said, “They are clean enough.”

“No they aren’t,” Joe said.

“Yes, they are,” John said.

“Boys, spaghetti night!” George said knowing that they would argue like that all night until something more important grabbed their attention. It worked. John and Joe were on their way to the table before he had even finished his reminder. They had taken off as soon as he started to say spaghetti.

Grinning, he washed his hands and headed to the table. He was just in time. Cindy had just set his plate of spaghetti at the table. As soon as he sat down, she put a huge bib on him. Shocked, he said, “What’s with the bib?”

“Little boys make a lot of mess eating spaghetti,” Cindy answered with a grin. She pointed to the boys who were wearing bibs as well.

George picked up a noodle and stuck one end in his mouth. With a loud slurping sound, he sucked the noodle into his mouth. Cindy was just fast enough to back away before getting splattered with the sauce. The boys clapped their hands at seeing the spaghetti sauce fly around the kitchen. Of course, each of the boys had to try it as well. The results weren’t as spectacular since Cindy had cut their noodles into fourths.

Laughing, Cindy watched the boys playing their food. It was amazing, but she had never thought of spaghetti as a finger food. She watched as George lifted a noodle high in the air and tilted his head back.

Winking at her, he said, “Baby bird!”

The boys were making peeping noises as George lowered the noodle into his mouth. Even Cindy was having a hard time keeping from laughing. The dinner progressed with each of the males trying to outdo the others in eating the spaghetti in a creative fashion. The boys enjoyed it tremendously. Their enjoyment of the meal paled beside the joy that George felt.

Sitting back in his chair, George said, “I’ve got a bit of an announcement.”

Cindy looked at him and asked, “What?”

“I changed jobs,” George said with a smile.

“What?!”

“I’m the newest member of the corporate sales team,” George said.

Barely able to believe her ears, Cindy stared at George. In the barest whisper, she asked, “Will you still travel?”

“Two days every other week. I’ll be home on weekends,” George answered with a smile. Leaning forward, he said, “We’ll go to dinner every weekend. We’ll take real vacations for two weeks a year. I’ll be home almost every night to play with the boys. Saturdays will be spent mowing the lawn, washing the car, and helping out around the house. You’ll be able to go shopping while I watch the boys.”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she considered what he was saying. This was a dream come true. The years of traveling had almost destroyed their marriage. Terrified of what she would learn, she asked, “How about the money?”

“I lose five percent of my salary, but I get a five percent commission on the sales,” George answered. Seeing the expression of concern on her face, he said, “One sale a year allows me to recover that five percent.”

“Is that hard?”

George looked down at his sauce stained bib while he considered the answer. He had been training the sales staff for years. They had a huge turn over. Those who were successful often retired after ten years. Those who were not successful usually left after a year. Most of the salesmen were somewhere between those two extremes. He wasn’t going to try to delude himself into thinking he was going to retire in ten years. All he wanted to do was the best job that he could.

Finally, he said, “Some folks make a couple sales a year. Others don’t make any for several years. It’s hard to say without being in the trenches how well a person will do.”

Although she was concerned about the risk of losing income, she was confident that her husband would do well in whatever he attempted. The chance of having him at home was just too good to pass up.

Smiling, she said, “You’re going to do great. I just know it.”

“You know, I think so too,” George said. He looked over at the boys. They were getting a little bored by the serious discussion. Winking at them, he said, “Let’s see who can get cleanest the fastest! Ice cream for the winner.”

The boys left the table for the bathroom like a shot. He rose, walked over to Cindy, and kissed her forehead leaving a lip print of spaghetti sauce in the middle of her forehead. Grinning when he realized what he had done, he said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Cindy said. She rose to prepare ice creams for everyone. It was a special occasion and she’d have one too.

Later that evening, Cindy was seated in the living room enjoying a quiet cup of tea while George was reading a story to the boys. Little tears of happiness were trickling down her cheeks. It had been a glorious evening. George had taken care of the boys, dinner had been fun, and she had a little time to herself. It was hard to believe that this might become an everyday event.

She turned her head to look in the direction of the boy’s bedroom. George would be finished in ten minutes. After taking a final sip of her tea, she rose and went into the bedroom. Tonight she was going to put on the new lingerie she had purchased. The plan had been to wear it on Saturday after going out to dinner with him, but tonight was a special occasion.

In the bedroom, she opened the closet and removed a small bag. Inside was a lacy black corset. Undressing, she put on the corset. With the weight that she had lost over the past two months, the corset really looked spectacular. Her breasts filled out the cups to almost overflowing. Smiling after looking in the mirror, she said, “George is really going to love this.”

Returning to the bed, she picked up the small bag that she had put there. Reaching into it, she pulled out the stockings. These were real silk stockings complete with a line up the back. The dark color went well with the black corset. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she opened the package. Looking down, she decided that she would remove her panties before putting on the stockings. They were off before she even finished the thought.

Even though she didn’t have much experience with stockings, Cindy had always considered the act of putting them on to be very sexy. It was almost as sexy as taking them off. Of course, removing them would be George’s job. She had a feeling that he wouldn’t be put off by that little errand.

High heel shoes completed her little ensemble. A quick glance in the mirror as she walked past it to the bedroom door nearly took her breath away. She couldn’t believe that she was the woman in the mirror. Stopping, she returned to the mirror to look at herself. Poor George had no idea what was waiting for him. With a satisfied smile, she walked out of the bedroom.

Easing into his chair, George wondered what had happened to Cindy. He noticed her cup of tea and knew that she didn’t normally leave her empty cup in the living room. With the boys in the house, it wasn’t good to leave fragile things where they could get their hands on it. He was about half out of his chair intending to take it into the kitchen when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Looking over, he saw her. Off balance, he fell to the floor.