The Switch

Chapter 3

I'm going to be late. I justknow it. Do I call him? We have been strictly texting since we metand we really haven't even been doing that a lot. But it is sixthirty and I have to drive clear across town. I dialed his number."Hello?" he answered. His voice was much deeper and sexier than Iremembered. Maybe he was trying to impress me. "Marshall? ItsLauren." There was a pause. This kind of bruised my ego. Did heforget about me already? "Lauren. Yeah. Whats up?" I took a deepbreath. "Um, listen I am probably going to be late. I had a lastminute assignment to do at work and-" "Oh, that's cool. No bigdeal. Just text me when you get here." He cut me off. Did he notcare what was keeping me? "Oh, okay, yeah. I shouldn't be too late.Maybe fifteen minutes or so." I heard some people talking in thebackground, so I was beginning to wonder if I even wanted to go. Heseemed so aloof. "Marshall? Did you hear me?" I asked. "Oh,yeah, I got you fifteen minutes. I've actually been stuck in thestudio anyways. That's fine." I rolled my eyes. Great, another manstuck up his jobs ass. "Great." I said, as fake nice as I could."See you then." I'm pretty sure by now he had already hung up.

I locked up the office andfound the closest post office to Marshall's house. I put the addressin my GPS and headed out. The fifteen minutes to that post officewent by pretty slowly as I began dreading what I was doing. What wasI doing? So far, Marshall seems no different than Mark. Was cheatingon him really going to be worth it? I realized I had been sitting inthe post office parking lot. I looked in the backseat of my SUV andnoticed I had already put all the envelopes in the mailbox, so I justneeded to pull out of here. The GPS said I was still twenty fiveminutes from Marshall's so I figured I had better get going.

When I pulled up there wasa rather intimidating gate with a security booth out front. A ratherlarge man walked up and tapped on my window. I rolled it down and heasked "Name and business here mam?" "Umm, I'm Lauren. And Ihave a date with Mr. Mathers?" I said, unsure what to call him."Right." He replied, looking down at a clipboard. "I see hereyou were supposed to be here at seven." It was seven forty. "Right.He knew I was going to be late." He looked at me with doubt in hiseyes. "Well, I'm going to need to confirm this with Marshall. Ifyou'll hold on for a minute." As he walked away I realized thatthis may be why Marshall said to text him when I got here, and maybethat he meant before. He came back, startling me a little when hesaid, "Yes, he confirmed your story. Sorry for the mix up. You cango through now." As if by magic, the gate in front of my SUV creptopen and I pulled through, waving to the nameless man as I did so.

The drive felt like it wentup forever. When I pulled up he was standing outside and suddenly thedrive was worth it. He looked even better than I remembered. Ofcourse, I was a little drunk and he was there for ten minutes. Iparked my car and got out. He met me by the front door. "Hey." Igreeted him. We shared a short hug and he said "Hey. So, I've gotsome of the guys over. I hope you don't mind." I was under theimpression we were going to be alone. But I guess I would have tomake due with these circumstances. "Uh, yeah, sure. You're wantingyour friends to meet me?" He looked me up and down and said, "Yeah.Why not?" He licked his lips in a very seductive manner beforeturning to open the door for me. "I don't know. I just figured youwould want me alone the first time." We walked into a very elegantfoyer and he helped me take off my coat. "Oh, there will be plentyof alone time, don't you worry." He winked at me and I suddenlyrealized this wasn't meant to be a date. He was looking for a hookup.I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but I also thoughtmaybe I could change his mind about me.

It was about this momentthat I heard some loud laughing from another room. "Cmon." Hesaid, "The guys are in here." He took me down a short hallway andinto a living room where there were about three guys sitting on alarge wrap around couch. There was a football game on TV which Iwasn't thrilled about because I hated football. Mark always tried toget me to watch it and I just thought it had too many rules. Mark!Shit! I never told him what I was doing. I reached into my bag for myphone and began to text him. "Hey babe. Going out with the girlsafter work. Don t wait up for me." I went to put my phone back inmy bag and I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Everything okay?"Marshall's voice asked me. I turned to meet his eyes only about twofeet from mine. They were bright blue and they were much softer thanthey were when I first pulled up. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just texting afriend of mine." I was also noticing his intoxicating scent whichwas indescribable, but such a turn on. "Okay," He replied. "Wellthere are water and drinks in the fridge there in the kitchen. Idon't know how you feel about football, but the game is almost overand as soon as is I promise everyone will be out of here." I smiledat him and followed him over to the couch where I sat and had two ofthe three men looking at me like I was fresh meat. "Hey guys, chillout on the girl will ya? I don't need you fuckers scaring her off.I'm sure I can do that all by myself." They all laughed and one ofthem said, "Yeah man, you got that on lock." Marshall flipped himoff. Something good must have happened in the game then because they all stood up and started yelling. I looked at them in amazement. 

After about three more ofthese shouting spells I couldn't tell if they were for good or badreasons. Their faces all generally looked the same every single time.I gave up trying to figure out what was going on. Then the men stoodup again, this time they all headed for the foyer. They all exchangedtheir own handshakes with Marshall and took turns whispering stuff tohim at an angle where they were sure I couldn't tell what was beingsaid. Marshall would nod in agreement and cut up and laugh with them.I could tell he deeply trusted these men and were equally close toeach of them.

I saw him disappear aroundthe corner and about a minute later he returned. We were finallyalone. He stood in the door way for a minute and I took that as mycue to get up. I walked over to him and he grabbed me around my waistas if he had been waiting to do that all evening. It was about nineo'clock by now. "You got rid of everyone so quickly?" I asked,teasingly. "Yeah, I very well couldn't do this with all my friendswatching." and before I could even think of what could possibly becoming he leaned in and kissed me with a passion that I had neverfelt before. It took me by such a surprise I ended up being pushed upagainst the door frame we were still standing in. His hands didn'tmove from my hips and in return I wrapped mine around his neck. Hepulled back and removed his hands from their position. "How longhave you been waiting to do that?" I asked, teasing him again. "Awhile." he replied. This time, however, his tone didn't match theintensity behind the kiss we just shared. This man kept confusing me.One minute he seemed extremely into me, and the next he seemed likehe didn't want to touch me. He searched my face for a second andwalked away from me. "I think I'm going to freshen up for a minuteif you don't mind." I said to him, breaking the silence. It seemedlike he was unsure of what he was doing and maybe he needed thisminute to decide if he still wanted to do this at all. "Uh, yeah.The bathroom is right around the corner there to the left." Inodded and headed in the direction he pointed me in.

I went into the rather largebathroom and locked the door. I took advantage of this opportunity toredo my eyeliner and put a little more powder on my face. I ran myfingers through my hair and made sure there were no tangles. I took adeep breath and opened the door. I found Marshall sitting on thecouch where his friends had once been. I sat down next to him and asif I had chose to resume a video game I had paused, he went rightback to kissing me again. This went on for a minute or so. I wasgetting aroused and I could tell he was too. He stopped again,pulling away with both of us trying to catch our breaths. "Cmon,lets take this somewhere more comfortable." he said. With that, asI stood up and he took my hand, he whisked me away in the directionof his bedroom.