The Cost To Play (Slivers of Love) (12 page)

March rolled in quietly as Jayne and Toshi completed the designs of the main Vigilante characters for the comic book.  Everything was shaping up nicely and both were pleased with the progress.  Although they were spending a great deal of time together, neither had pushed the romantic envelope.  Jayne was frustrated with the way some of her projects were developing at work and Grammy was pushing her harder to arrange a meeting with Toshi. Frank was also farting more than she could stand.

Toshi swore he was working on his filtering system and often would slip, saying things that he had no business addressing or being entirely too honest at the wrong time.  One of these moments happened after the development of the first set of costumes.  Jayne was proud of the stitching of the outer legs of the pants for her costume as well as the mesh inlays of the bustier.

“You need to work out some more so those pants will fit right,” he told her as he looked up from his desk.  Jayne gulped hard to swallow down any personal feelings. He even came to the gym with her one Wednesday afternoon and took out a great deal of aggression on her. Jayne held her tongue.

Her lips only tightened when he spouted off a gem of encouragement by telling her, “You are not working hard enough, Jayne.  If you want definition in those abs, you need to sweat and increase your heart rate to burn of some of that fat.”
What fat? You tyrannical monster
!

She knew he was frustrated and so was she.  They were spending at least three nights a week together sharing nothing more than a few kisses. In the past week, Toshi had withdrawn from even a modicum of affection with her.  It was all she had to keep her going and now work was trying to literally suffocate her. Frank’s farting was becoming about as unbearable as Toshi’s clogged up filters.

It was wrong.  Jayne knew it was wrong, but one evening after Toshi had been particularly hard on her, in a week where Frank seemed to intentionally make her miserable, she decided to kill two birds with one stone.

“I will have the new layout ready for you tomorrow, Toshi. Can you swing by my office to pick it up?”

It wasn’t difficult to understand the man was sexually frustrated.  Jayne thought that maybe a change of pace from working was also in order.  “If you have some free time, maybe we can grab some lunch.” She was hoping to shift the tension between them.

“Sure,” he mumbled. “Thursdays are my short days. I am out of class by 11:50. I could swing by your office at 12:30?”    He said it in the form of a question and Jayne was almost giddy in anticipation.

Of the many traits that made Toshi Yamaguchi very likeable in Jayne’s book, he was a man of his word and always on time. He arrived at Cawley and Associates at 12:30 on the dot, which happened to coincide with the after effects of Frank’s lunch. Rebecca the office manager, directed him to Jayne’s desk. She rose to watch his approach down the corridor of cubicles and stood waiting for it.

He hit the invisible wall of Frank’s funk and began to twitch as if he had stepped on an electric Taser.  His face contorted, while his hands began swinging at an invisible enemy he could smell but not see. He launched into a rant that sounded like the announcer on one of those Japanese games shows. It started with, “Aoohhhh!” Jayne could hear the snickers from the other pod dwellers who also suffered daily from Frank’s malevolent
malodorousness.

“What is that awful stench?” Toshi asked as he backed up, refusing to come down the row any further.

Jayne waved to him over the top of her cubicle. “I’m back here Dr. Yamaguchi.”

“You can stay back there! I am not coming any closer!” He simply stayed put.

Jayne wasn’t going to let it go. “I have some new designs on my computer I need you to see.”

“You can email them to me,” he told her as he started walking toward the front door.

The snickers from the pod people had turned into giggles, but she needed him to get in some one on one with Frank. It took some coaxing, but finally, she got him to travel down the aisle. The giggles had turned to laughter as each cubicle Toshi passed, he poked his head in to sniff, to try to locate the source of the stench.  Heads began to pop up over the work stations like Meerkats on the lookout on the desert plains, waiting for Toshi to locate the violator.

As he walked, he sniffed.  He took a step, then sniffed.  He was only two pods away when Gladys stuffed her scarf in her mouth to dampen her laughter.  One cubicle away. The boss had left his office as well to see what was going to happen.  Jayne looked down the rows to see whose head was not visible. As soon as Kris Cawley, the VP of Operations came from his office, Tunisia’s head was among the onlookers. Leave it to the office busybody to be busy stirring the pot. She had called Kris to come and watch.

Toshi rounded the corner and sniffed the air then came face to face with Frank the Farter. Not only were his filters off, so were the gloves. “Man! What is wrong with you?”

Frank’s face had turned red. “Excuse me? Who are you?”

Jayne knew there was no stopping him, but she added some credibility to what he was about to unleash on Frank. “Dr. Yamaguchi, my workstation is over here.” This statement he ignored.

He began in Japanese, shaking his finger at Frank, who outweighed Toshi by at least 100 pounds.  For some dumb reason, Frank thought it a good idea to stand up to his full height of six feet, hoping to intimidate Toshi who was truly angry. “Sit down you disgusting excuse for a man!  How dare you subject your coworkers to such toxic levels of methane! Why? Because you are too lazy to go and have your prostate checked and eat some vegetables?”

Frank mumbled something, which caused Toshi to lapse into Japanese again, reverting to English, back to Japanese then again to English. “You should be ashamed!”  It came out like the master sensei in a bad karate movie where he is explaining to the student why fighting for money is wrong.

“You are going to change your diet, eat leafy green vegetables, reduce your carbs, and make a doctor’s appointment to have yourself checked!”

Frank was still trying to say something. “Shut up! You listen! You call this man!” He took a personal business card from his wallet and scribbled a number on the back of it, then changed his mind. “No, you go! You go now! See him! Tell him I sent you!”

Frank was almost in tears. “I can’t just leave work like that.”

Toshi turned to look at all the heads who were staring at him. “Who is this man’s boss?”

Kris reluctantly raised his hand. Toshi asked, “do you grant this man permission to leave work early for this appointment that I am setting for him right now?”

Kris nodded.  Toshi took out his cell phone and called someone. He spoke to them in his language. He turned back to a red-faced Frank. “He is expecting you.  He is on the corner of Davis and Washington road in a white building.”

Frank rose slowly and gathered his things, but Toshi stopped him. “You are going to feel much better. Monday will be a better day for everyone in your life.”

Frank exited the main doors of the building and cans of air freshener were being sprayed while others clapped and cheered for Toshi.  A few people patted him on the back as he looked at Jayne with his arms folded across his chest. He knew she had done this on purpose and he was madder than a wet cat.

Kris Cawley was speeding down the row headed in their direction. She wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but everyone in the office was tuned in to the scene. Jayne moved closer to Toshi who had planted his feet, ready for whatever Kris was about to bring.

Kris approached them both. “Jayne. Who is this?”  He and everyone in the office wanted to know who this man was that said what they all wanted to, but could not say to Frank.  Toshi had given them new hope and for Jayne, he had given her something else. Clarity.

Her fingers laced into his. ‘This is Dr. Toshi Yamaguchi,” she told her boss. “He is my boyfriend.”

The words uttered in her office to her coworkers, which also defined her relationship with Toshi, was all he needed.
  He had started to smile again and as she expected, he changed tactics on her once again.  The romantic Toshi was unleashed upon an unsuspecting Jayne who, by all accounts, was eating up every minute of his new approach.

He stopped by on Monday morning, on his way to work, with a single stemmed perfect daisy, just to help her start her week out right.  He gave her a warm kiss, massaging her neck with his thumbs, then backed away.  Jayne was agitated all day.  Tuesday, he sent her a selfie of his smile and goatee with the caption, “it happens every time I think of you.”  He was getting smoother.

After their work out on Wednesday evening, Jayne had a tight muscle in her calf, which he readily volunteered to massage out. He used his vast knowledge of the body’s muscular system to explain as he worked. “In order to force the
gastrocnemius
to relax, I must start higher at the
abductor magnus
,” he said as his hand slipped between her inner thighs.  His fingers probing deep into her flesh, coming way too close to the proximity of her pocketbook. Toshi pushed at her thigh spreading her legs a little further apart, while magical fingers kneaded the back of her thigh.

“Now,” he said as one hand worked on her lower calf. His face so inappropriately close to her butt cheek she felt the warmth of his breath. “I will manipulate the bicep
femoris
and stimulate the
semintendinosus
, as I stroke the hamstring.” Jayne’s eyes closed as she tried to steady her breathing. He was standing upright behind her with waves of heat radiating from his body. She still leaned forward on the workout bench with her butt pointing toward him.

“Jayne, I need you to remove your knee from the bench and bend down and touch your toes.” Jayne followed his instructions, feeling his hands upon her hips.  She was breaking out into a heavier sweat.
His hands were on the back of her thigh, “Focus on the movement of my hands as I caress the
semimembranosus
.” Strong, adept hands were burning through the fabric of her workout pants.  Just when she was about to tell him that was enough, her calf muscle relaxed. He stepped away. “There. How did that feel?”

It felt like I want some more of that, along with whatever else you got in that bag of tricks
. Instead of saying what she was thinking, she played along. “A little more of that and management will be asking us to leave.”  She laughed as she patted him in the chest, saying good night. She would see him on Saturday night, since she had plans on Friday.

Toshi was not going to be upstaged.  He showed up on her office on Friday morning with a perfect red rose and a cup of Bouna Café poured over Brazilian roast coffee.  Frank, who was feeling and smelling so much better, was the first to greet him with a hearty thank you and offers of friendship.  Toshi had one thing on his mind, only he told Frank he was glad he was feeling better. When he turned his attention to Jayne, he kissed her so completely and thoroughly, that every woman in the office fanned themselves. One even swooned. A few of the men, including Frank, spoke up. “Damn!”

When he departed, Jayne was still out of breath. She was approached by the office busy body, Tunisia. “Girl, if he kisses like that, he must be hell in bed!” Jayne blushed at such forthright talk, especially with a woman who was outside of her inner circle. She gave no answer in words or in tells, excusing herself to get back to work.  Her mind was all over the place and so where her hormones. Tunisia’s question continued pinging about her brain.  Finally, when she could no longer focus, she picked up the phone and called her GYN.  She was going to need some birth control…and soon.

On Saturday evening, Jayne was more nervous than a prostitute heading to Sunday service. Instead of being locked away in his apartment, working all close and in a confined space where she didn’t know if she would be able to escape his sexy,
come to me baby
approach, Toshi took her on a date. It was nothing fancy. A dinner and a movie kind of date.  Jayne was disappointed that they watched the movie and discussed its high points over dinner, with no mention of any special alone time. 

Jayne was lost in her thoughts wondering what was wrong, as he walked her to her door.  She was totally unprepared for his next move and even more shocked to find out you can kiss someone with your whole body. Which is what he did once he stepped inside her front door.

It seemed so innocent when he stepped forward to take her into his arms, but as his kiss deepened, so did his movements.  His arms tightened around her waist as his fingers pressed into the nerves around her spinal column, turning her legs into jelly. When he slanted his mouth over her lips, Toshi moved his thighs against hers as if they were in a slow dance. The thigh movements transitioned into hip movements, swaying from side to side, while he kissed, lifted, and turned her body. Jayne’s senses were in overload as his hand slid down her thigh, hefting her leg upward pressing closer to her. 
He’s right. That is a nice dinky
.  The movements were not vulgar or suggestive, but subliminal in the most evil of ways. Toshi broke the kiss, allowing his lips to trail down her neck, to the base of her throat. He gently suckled at her neck, still swaying, pressing, and holding her even closer.  The catching of her breath could be heard as his teeth grazed her collar bone. His wayward right hand allowed the thumb to hover just below her right breast. And just as suddenly as he started, he stopped, providing the briefest of kisses and then he said goodnight.

It was not a good night for Jayne.  She could not sleep, nor could she forget the feel of his body against hers. This was nothing short of warfare and he was playing dirty. The anger was simmering on the surface, but deep down, she liked how he played. She was ready to get in on the next game. This time, she was dealing.

Monday morning brought a new set of worries, troubles, and problems that seemed to be unresolved on her latest ad campaign.  If something could have gone wrong, it did. The client hated everything about the concept including the slogan which they provided. Frank was doing his best to lend a hand, but there was no other choice but to scrap the project and start over.  Starting over also meant late nights from conception to design.  It also meant no Toshi.

Frank was equally unhappy.  Since his cleansing through the special appointment Toshi had set, Frank was smelling better and far more pleasant to be around.  He started seeing someone in his building.  This gave a big spark to his desire to come up with something clever on the cat food campaign which he delivered in a big way.  By Thursday morning they were in the black with the client singing their praises. The timing could not be more perfect since Jayne had a doctor’s appointment at 9:45. Everything was left in Frank’s capable hands as she opted to take the afternoon off as well.

The appointment went fast. By 10:45, Jayne was sporting a new
no kids right now
patch and a saucy attitude.  There was enough time for her to swing by her apartment to make a quick change before she placed an order with Yosko for lunch.  Food in hand along with a new approach in mind, the drive downtown to the campus cruised along without a hitch. Locating Toshi’s office was not as easy.

His business card said he was located on the third floor of the building she was in, as she followed the room numbers, she located his office. “Hi, I am looking for Dr. Yamaguchi,” she told the middle age woman behind the desk.

“Dr. Yamaguchi is in class. May I assist you with something?” she asked over the rim of her glasses, eyeing Jayne with some suspicion.

The desk name plate said D. Banks. “Ms. Banks, I brought him lunch. I thought since today is his short day, I would surprise him.”  It appeared the one who was more surprised was Ms. Banks who began to sputter over her words.  Jayne let the woman off the hook. “I know he is still on the podium, but if I could leave this on his desk and meet him at his classroom, that would be even better.”

D. Banks held up both arms each pointing in a different direction. Jayne took it to mean his class was down the hall and his desk was in the rear. “Ms. Banks. After I sit this down, can I get that room number?”

The workspace of Dr. Toshi Yamaguchi looked nothing like any tenured professor’s office she had in college.  It was organized and it was clean.  His desk was not covered by piles of papers or journal articles. It held the faint scent of his cologne, which lingered throughout the office. Jayne checked her watch. There were only a few minutes left in his class and she wanted to surprise him. Ms. Banks handed her the note with the room number on it as she walked by. “We will be back in a few,” she told her as her high heels clicked down the hall.

The lecture room wasn’t difficult to find. She followed the sound of his voice. Jayne slipped inside the door to take a seat in the rear of the room.  The light weight coat was removed to reveal a far too short black skirt and button front form fitting sweater that clung to every bit of the imagination. The stool on the far right was far enough in the rear of the room to not distract the students, but very direct in his line of sight. A cute young female student in the front of the room was pelting him with nonsensical questions. When he looked up, Jayne chose that moment to open and then cross her legs. A slight lean forward onto the table caused his mouth to drop open followed by a very large frozen grin.  Every student in the classroom turned to see what had made the professor break his composure.

“That’s it for this week. Remember, your outlines of the
olfactory nerves are due on Tuesday.  Have a great weekend.”  Although he addressed the students, his eyes never left Jayne or the too short skirt.  Mary Elizabeth was still asking questions. Many of which fell upon deaf ears, until finally the young woman asked, “who is that? Your girlfriend?”

Several of the young men were eyeing Jayne whose eyes were transfixed on her man. She licked her lips, silently saying, “hope you’re hungry.”

One of the men responded, “If he isn’t, I sure as hell am.  I will take whatever you are serving.”

Toshi turned so fast, all of the students jumped. He quickly spotted the wise guy. “You will not disrespect any woman in the classroom Mr. Jones. You will apologize instantly.” The embarrassed young man mumbled an apology to Jayne, while Mary Elizabeth watched the professor pack his things and join the guest.

As he approached her, Jayne added in, “I thought I would surprise you with lunch.  I brought all of your favorites,” she told him in a breathy voice. She turned for him to follow her out the door. Toshi’s eyes followed Jayne’s perfect ass all the way down the hall to his office. As they both hoped to keep everything above board, the office door was left open. Jayne opened the containers and used the chopsticks to feed him his first piece of sushi. This she followed with a kiss as she tried to nibble at the sashimi he was holding between his teeth.  Her hands became very friendly. Each time she leaned forward, she would stroke his thigh.

A light tap came at the door. Mary Elizabeth had a few more questions for the professor. Jayne wanted the young woman to understand her role in Toshi’s life. While his back was turned to answer the young lady, she undid one more button on the sweater as she feigned dropping an ink pen. A bend from the waist in high heels is impressive by any one’s standards, but doing so, and picking something up from the floor while showing off cleavage, is a winner. Toshi responded to the student, “go home Mary Elizabeth. Enjoy your weekend. He then closed the door.

“Jayne, Jayne, Jayne.” He shook his head as he watched her fiddle with the necklace he had given her. “Whatever am I going to do with you?”

I can think of a few things
. She took a seat behind his desk, slowly crossing her legs again. This time revealing the thigh high stockings and the sexy garter. He snapped his fingers. “I got it! Your name should be Gauntlet.”

“Is that what you think I just did, throw down the gauntlet?”

“It doesn’t matter what you throw at me Jayne. Either way, I am ready to suit up and go all in.” His eyes were twinkling as he fed her a piece of the Sierra roll.

“I just bet you are.” She toyed with a piece of zucchini, feeding it to him as his eyes followed her back and forth. She swiveled to and fro in the chair.  This was definitely a turning point in their relationship. This Saturday night would be very different.