Petsi seemed a little taken aback when Sophia broached the subject with her that evening. She regretted having shown her those photos of Ulf when she attended the interview and for having told her about his work. But that was before Sophia got so touchy-feely with her yesterday when having what had seemed at the time like a friendly, caring conversation with her about her plans for the future. Now she felt that the Englishwoman had ulterior motives for her attentiveness, motives she couldn’t – or wouldn’t – put into words. On the other hand, she knew she had at least to go through the motions of entertaining her employer’s request. So she smiled and said that of course she would talk to him, even though he was very busy at work and might not be able to get around to it for some time.
When Sophia brought the matter up again a week later, Petsi, normally so cool, was a little flustered and said she’d completely forgotten about the project. Anyway, Ulf would be delighted to do the job and would only charge for materials. Sophia said they would see about that and expressed the hope that the job could be done by Christmas (now less than three weeks away) as a kind of Christmas present for Peter. Petsi said she thought that wouldn’t be possible but would check with Ulf. At this point, Sophia decided to put her foot down, asking Petsi to let her have Ulf’s phone number so she could speak with him directly. However much Petsi wanted to decline to give it to her, she knew it was a reasonable request in the circumstances and give it to her she did. How she regretted one more thing: telling Ulf after the interview how beautiful her prospective employer was. By now, he had probably searched for her on the Internet and seen pictures of her on the bank’s website – or wherever else they might be stored!
Before Sophia had got around to calling the beefcake builder, Petsi received bad news from home. Her mother’s cousin, who had helped raise Petsi and now lived in Kettering, had been hospitalised with viral pneumonia and parainfluenza. Petsi felt she needed to be with Ingrid, who had lost her husband only recently, but had decided to stay on in England for the time being due to her strong involvement in community work. An artist, she had pioneered a programme for the mentally handicapped, which had proved to be such a success that the model was being adopted county-wide and in other counties in the East Midlands.
It was late Sunday afternoon when Petsi received the call from Sweden, and after a brief chat with Peter, Sophia told Petsi that she could take the week off and they would expect her back at work on Monday week. Petsi was extremely grateful and told Sophia she would order an uber immediately to take her to St Pancras to catch a train to Kettering. Ingrid was in a private room so she would be able to visit her when she arrived. Before she rang off, Sophia asked Petsi to give her house key to Ulf, in case he was able to fit her in during the week.
This left Sophia with two problems: the first, and most important, was fixing a date for Ulf to come over when she would also be at home; the second was to ring the agency and arrange short-term help to cover Petsi’s absence. She managed to do the latter with remarkable speed and smoothness, the agency having someone who was looking for a placement for the following week. That left her call to Ulf, which she decided to postpone for another half hour to be sure that his girlfriend had already left the house. She also wanted some privacy, so she told Peter that she was going for a run, which is something she sometimes did on a Sunday. She took her time getting changed, then got the tea things ready for the children before setting out on her normal route. It was a dry but chilly winter evening, so she thought she’d run for ten minutes to warm up before popping into Patel’s convenience store, where she could catch her breath and make the call.
When Ulf picked up, she immediately inquired after Petsi and was told that she’d left ten minutes earlier and was immensely grateful for the kindness shown by Sophia. (Sophia registered that he didn’t mention Peter now or at any other time in their conversation.) As she circled around in her approach to the subject of the date of his visit she sensed that he wasn’t going to help by bringing it up himself. She found this exciting: if she had read him aright, he wanted her to hunt him. As with have already seen, when it came to the chase, Sophia could give the Roman goddess Diana a run for her money.
When Sophia finally suggested Friday, Ulf said he needed to check his schedule. He did that (or pretended too) for nearly a minute before resuming the conversation by telling Sophia that he thought it might be feasible but he’d have to check with Jeff, presumably his boss. He asked Sophia if she was on WhatsApp and, when she confirmed that she was, told her he would message her when he had more information – probably on the following day.
Pleased with how well the call had gone, and secretly believing that the Swede would move heaven and earth for the chance of being with her, she set off to complete her three-mile circuit. Of course, the thing was that she hadn’t said that she would be at home on Friday, but Ulf knew that Petsi wouldn’t be home on that day. This thought sent a frisson of excitement down Sophia’s spine – a sensation she was hoping the hunky Scandinavian would be experiencing. Perhaps he was even at this moment jerking off on his bed, imagining undressing the busty blonde and ramming her with his cock. Sophia’s own manual ministrations must wait at least until she was in the shower – a consideration that made her cover the remaining distance in record quick time.
So confident was Sophia that she had Ulf ensnared in her web that she booked a personal day for herself almost as soon as she got to the office on Monday. Her attention then turned to what she would be wearing when Ulf arrived. She ran through a range of options – négligée, tight fitting jumper, see-through blouse, mini dress – before deciding on a slightly subtler number. After all, her very presence would be indication enough that she wanted more than woodworking services from him that day. So, it was to be a sexy office look (as if she was working from home): silk blouse, uplift bra, knee-length skirt and two-inch heels. The latter she felt was an important touch, since so many men had a thing for feet and stylish shoes. She would leave it to the day to decide whether she would wear stockings or not.
Sophia admired Ulf’s discipline, as he held off texting her until seven o’clock that evening. Of course, it came as no surprise to Sophia that his boss had given him the day off: he’d probably told him that his girlfriend had a family crisis, if she knew men. Sophia toyed with the idea of making a jokey referring to his toolbox or instrument, but thought better of it. For one thing, these messages might be read by others; for another, such heavy-handed come-ons weren’t really in her line. Instead, she sent him pictures of the study, indicating where she wanted the shelves put up. She knew it wouldn’t be a difficult or long job for a professional, which suited her just fine. He said he’d get started around eight thirty.