Afternoon talk

We certainly have gotten full use of our island home since September. We were here for a week or more after I found it was ours. Tom and Steve made arrangements to totally redo the caretaker’s house. Tia and Carl were bursting at the seams with their large family. We put them in the guest houses while the work was being done during October. This was also the beautiful spot Tom whisked me off to when I was planning Nancy’s demise and how to make it look like an accident.

Christmas and New Years were a swirl of wonderful events, but I was exhausted. Finally one day, not long after New Year’s, we girls found an afternoon to just sit and relax. The men had gone golfing and Allie, Annie, Sue and I gathered peacefully around the pool. I felt so content. These friends are those I love the most. I have no secrets from them and there is no pretense when we talk. There is nothing to hide. It does me good to be with them.

That afternoon we were sipping wine (those of us over 21) and basking in the beauty of our surroundings. Allie stretched catlike then turning to me said, “I hope you don’t mind Cassie but I’ve decided I’m never leaving. I'll try not to be in the way.”

“You won’t be in my way,” I laughed, “but don’t you have a college degree to finish?”

“Ugg,..” she said with feeling. “Don’t remind me. I don’t even what to think of getting back in that grind.” She took a deep sigh, “I did something so stupid this year. I think I should have ‘idiot’ tattooed on my forehead.”

I cast her a withering look. She gave me a quick smile and said, “Sorry, sorry! I know I’m not supposed to mentions tattoos to you!”

“So what did you do that was so stupid?” Sue asked her.

Allie shook her head, “I really blew it. I ask Ryan to help me get things done on time and not get so stress like I did last year and I even agreed to let him spank me when I don’t keep to the schedule.”

“You did WHAT?” Sue and I shouted in unison. Sue looked disgusted, “Go ahead and get that tattoo.” She told her, “You deserve it.”

“Oh honey,” I told her, “you never ask for help getting over a bad habit. They’re on it like a dog with a bone. They never let up.”

"Wait, you told me Tom helped you overcome tons of bad habits. You said you used to cuss like a sailor before Tom helped you.”

“But Allie, I never asked him to! Breaking some of my habits that he didn’t like was his idea, not mine. I only ask him to help me break my gambling habit, and that request came back to bite me in the ass! Forgive my language.” I laughed.

“Well let’s hear it.” Sue insisted. “What torture has your Tom-clone been putting you through?”

Allie sighed. “You see last year I was driving myself crazy. Ryan too part of the time, but he really kept his cool. I usually got everything done but I was always in a panic. Every time something was due I was up until three or four the night before trying to pull everything together. I’d run out of paper or the printer cartridge would be empty or something. Sometimes I couldn’t get it done and lost credit for late stuff. I’d be tired and surly the next day and before you could turn around the next things was due. Ryan had as many paper and junk to do as I did, but he never seemed flustered or rushed and so dummy me asked for help.”

“Well, what’s his secret?” Annie asked. “Has it worked?”

“I guess it did help.” Allie grudgingly admitted. “It’s pretty simple really. He just took all my due dates on each syllabus and moved them up by four days. If it’s due in class on the 4th I have to have it 100% complete and in Ryan’s hands by 9:00 pm on the 1st.”

“We were discussing this in bed. I think that was one of my problems." Allie admitted. "I was feeling pretty much agreeable to anything at the time. I was just mentioning that I wished I was as organized as him. He might have been the one who offered to help. I know for sure he was the one who suggested spanking as a way to back it up.”

“Entrapment! I knew it.” Snarled Sue.

Allie laughed. “I think you’re probably right, but whatever it was, I agreed.”

“Oh Allie, the same thing happened to me. We had a conversation before we were married where Tom swears he explained exactly how our marriage was going to be an old fashion one and if he ever thought I needed a spanking he was going to give me one. I wasn’t paying any attention! I was trying to get his clothes off. I’ve always said that my answers of ‘yay, yay sure’ should not have been binding!”

“So tell us,” Annie probed, “Did you get spanked or did you get things turned in on time.”

“I guess about what you would suspect.” Allie told us with a grin. “I did a lot better. If I didn’t have it by nine the day Ryan said, he just spanked me with his hand, and actually I’m surprised at how much that can hurt. But if I didn’t have it by the next night at nine he was getting more serious. He’d use that awful rubber spatula/scraper or whatever it is from the kitchen. That stupid thing is red and I think he tries to make my butt match.”

“And if you don’t have it the third day? I probed.

Allie’s look turned sour. “That stupid brush!”

I had been afraid of that. “Oh honey, I’m sorry. They always seem to know the worst one.”

“Well we didn’t get there but once. But I was so mad. I mean I’d been spanked the two day before for not having it so I was getting mad at Ryan. And then I was mad at myself too because the only reason it wasn’t done is just that it was a stupid project and I didn’t want to work on it at all.

“Ryan called me at eight that last night. First thing he asked was, ‘Is it done?’ I was so mad I told him, no, the damn things not done. It’s stupid, I’m not doing it and you can’t make me. Then I hung up on him.”

Annie and I stared at her in horror as Sue snorted, quoting Dr. Phil “And how did that work for you?” she chuckled.

“Not so well.” she admitted ruefully. We sat back to hear the rests of the story she had to tell.

He didn’t call back but at nine, the deadline, he was at my door. I knew I was safe on the hall, too many people. He looked over what I had. I showed him it would only take a couple of hours to finish.

He said that sounded good but he needed me to come back to his condo for about a half hour. I knew what that meant and I told him I didn’t have time. My roommate was looking at him funny because she knows he’s always the one pushing me to get things finished and now he wanted me to go somewhere with him before it was done.

I told him, “Honey it’s just going to have to wait until tomorrow. I’ve got to get this finished.”

He looked me right in the eye and said “It has to be taken care of tonight. I guess I can take care of it here if you’d rather.”

Well then I couldn’t get out of there fast enough! But by the time we got to his place I was pretty mad. “If you had just let me alone I’d be done with the damn thing by now!”

He walked into the bedroom and got the brush. When he came out he told me, “I’m not going to take anymore attitude or any more cussing tonight. You had plenty of time to get that thing done and you just wouldn’t. You knew it was coming to thing and you still didn’t do it. Now do you need some time in the corner to calm down?”

I was mad. It’s bad enough to be spanked but it really embarrasses me for him to mention the corner. “I don’t need the corner,” I snapped.

All I got was a terse “Fine.” And I was over his knee. He didn’t even do a warm up! He was in full lecture mode. Time management, thinking ahead, the evils of procrastination, and ended with, “You’re right I can’t make you do it but I can hold you to the bargain you made and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

It was a pretty rough evening. I hadn’t been spanked that hard in a long time. I don’t know if it was for not getting finished or for how I’d talked to him, but it sure was thorough. When he was done he just gave me a quick hug and drove me back to the dorm. He didn’t mention the project as he dropped me off; he just said “I love you.”

“I finished it that night.” Allie told us, concluding her story. “I never let anything run that late again.” Allie sighed deeply but then added with a little sparkle in her eye, “But I did check my grades on line this morning, B in Chemistry and an A in everything else!”

We all gave her a shout and our sincere congratulations. I couldn’t help asking “Are you going to tell Ryan how well you did? He may try to take all the credit you know.”

Allie laughed, “I might as well. I already agreed to do it again this next semester.”

Annie and I laughed as Sue shook her head in disgust. “If Steve had a hairbrush I wouldn’t agree to a damn thing!” she insisted.

It had been a lovely afternoon. I know Tom and I brought great changes into Allie’s life, although it was never our intentions, when we moved in beside her family 4 years ago. I worry about it sometimes, but Allie seems happy with how things are going so I usually take a deep breath and keep my fingers crossed.

I’ve been in more of a writing mood lately. I’ll try not to be so long between post.