She considered her body again this morning standing there nude in front of the mirror, critically examining herself for any sight of something.

 

The contest was not even a week away, and she had been working so hard for so long now. Her whole life seemed poised on this one event.

 

Greg had promised her he would get a job and not depend on her so much. Her mother was waiting to hear about what was happening to her, and David was saying they should get married.

 

"I have no idea what I want to do," she said despondently as she considered all the others depending on her, and how sometimes the burden was getting too big to be carried.

 

"I wish there was someone I could even talk to," she cried to her reflection. "You are no goddam good. You agree with everything I say."

 

Smiling tightly, she grabbed the big fluffy white towel that she loved and completely nude walked across the open area to where the full sized pool was, being cleaned by Stuart, her trainer and sometimes friend.

 

He looked up as she arrived, and realised something was troubling her. He had that knack of seeing what she was thinking, and over the years he had worked for her, they had developed a strange bonding. He lived above the stables, in a perfectly designed apartment overlooking the arena and the stars at night, and he went his own way.

 

His duties were the pool and the running of the stables. Anna, the wolf eyed Lady, was a horse whisperer, possibly because she was half animal herself, and Dale the stable boy, lived and breathed the horses under his care, so Stuart had plenty of time for himself. Stuart did not bother them and they did their tasks without any fuss and the property ran smoothly under his control. Greatchen had the money, they did what they were paid to do, and if her maintenance and cheques came in as they should, everything would go smoothly.

 

However, despite the enormous figures that went through the accounts, there were months when things were lean.

 

It was then that Greatchen would come and spend more time where he was, and he would massage her tenseness away while he let her talk about what was on her mind. Sometimes she would take a hose and ride. He knew she rode them hard as they were covered in sweat and almost wild when they returned. On a couple of occasions he had gone with her, but she was faster and more aggressive and always managed to lose him somewhere along the trail. He hated tagging back alone, as Dale would see him when he came to attend the horse and snigger ever so slightly.  He chose to simply let Greatchen get rid of her fierce intensity with such driven physicals that he knew were her need.

 

He never had to offer much, just company and someone to talk at. She found she could organise her thoughts better when someone like Stuart was there touching her at the same time, and he was more than content to rub her with soft almond oil laced with a touch of peppermint, and simply let her think she was talking to him. He was soothing, and he knew it. Sometimes he felt like a marshmallow someone was licking softly ,so it wouldn't go away too quickly.

 

She brought the towel to the lounge that he pushed forward, and with one graceful movement turned and dived clean into the water and swam away.

 

He watched the figure underwater, and marvelled again at the lithe grace she had in and out of water. He smiled slowly and watched her lapping one after another until even she must have felt the pain of pushing herself so gracefully.

 

He saw that she was nearing the end of her relentless training, and went to get the Margarita that was already prepared and filled the tall crystal glasses she loved so much, with fine shaved ice, and took the already frozen and bleeding glass to her for approval.

 

She pulled herself from the water. Stuart was there, towel extended out to her, Margarita in the other hand. He marvelled at her body as the water cascaded from her head in large, pregnant drops, as she stepped from the pool's edge and took the towel.

 

It was hard for him to balance the very different relationships he had, one relationship with Anna and the other with Greatchen who was his boss. He knew that Greatchen would never stand for any type of romantic relationship between himself and another staff member. This is because, he realized it would erode the degree of intimacy and trust that had built up over the years.

 

Anna was relatively new to the staff. She'd been there just a bit more than a year. Stuart knew that Dale - the stud of the county, had of course 'tried it on' with Anna. But Anna, whose eyes not only were half animal, but also should a deep, perceiving, mysterious soul, had of course, seen Dale for what he was and rebuffed him. That was perhaps when Stuart and Dale's friendship began to erode.

 

Greatchen wiped her mane of hair a bit, and tossed it back. She put the towel behind her neck as so many athletes had done before her and reached for the Margarita. She gave Stuart an appreciative look, as she took the first taste.

 

"Stuart” she parted her lips in a wonderful, friendly, intimate smile at him. "This is fantastic!  Could you get me some water too, please?"

 

Greatchen was always polite. It was one of those things that had been drilled into her being through years of proper upbringing. She took the Margarita and walked over to the lounge. She carefullys et the drink on the lounge and sat down languidly. She leaned back on the lounge, and took her sunglasses, carefully placed there earlier by Stuart. She closed her eyes and soaked up the sun for just a minute.

 

She heard Stuart's steps as he come down the few steps to the pool level. She opened her eyes and watched him come toward her. Her mind drifted a bit. She wondered if he still thought that she had no clue about the romantic relationship he had with Anna. Greatchen was actually amused by the whole situation. She had recruited Anna from a commercial training stable in faraway Kentucky. Anna had come well recommended by a friend of hers who had used Anna to train, or actually repair the psyche, of a champion Arabian that had kicked some Emir over in Arabia - and been rescued and whisked away to safety in Kentucky. 

 

 

He admired her supple form, as she held her margarita, making no effort to hide her nakedness from him. She accepted the towel he offered, quickly wrapping it not around her body but around her head, downed the drink in one long pull, and then stretched out on the lounge the droplets of water still glistening on her supple body.

 

“How about a quick rub down, to loosen up my muscles Stuart? I’m so tight you could play me like a guitar.”

 

“Sure G,” said the trainer, pulling another lounge up beside her seat. You look worried this morning.”

 

He slowly began working the kinks out of her muscles beginning at her toes, working his way slowly over her body. While he worked, she talked.

 

“I am,” she confided. “There’s another screw up with my trust fund, or something and money’s a little short again. I think that shrew Daddy was married too is tampering with my inheritance somehow. These things never happened when he was alive.”

 

“Uh huh,” Stuart had reached her knees.

 

“I might have to go back to work, if things don’t change. There’s enough money in the farm account to carry it for a couple of months, but my private account is nearly drained. Daddy would have taken care of it by now. He always kept an eye on my accounts, but that bitch is more concerned with herself. She’d cut me off, think, if Daddy hadn’t left me that trust fund in perpetuity. I just wish he’d set up someone else to administer it.”

 

“Really?” and Stuart was working the kinks out of her hard tight thighs now.

 

“You know, I got a call from some Rock Star’s agent yesterday. She said he was looking for a full time body guard. She wondered if I would be interested in coming out of retirement for a while. They’re offering a lot of money. I’m not sure I’ve still got the skills. It’s been five years.”

 

Stuart was kneading Gretchen’s hips now. He had completely bypassed the one area where she really wished his fingers would linger. She spread her legs, ever so slightly, hoping he would notice her invitation, but he never made any sexual advances toward her. He never had. Even when they were teenagers growing up together on her father’s estate, with hormones rushing wildly through their maturing bodies, Stuart had never once made any sexual overtures toward her. Goodness knows she had given him ample opportunities, then and since then. She had done everything short of raping him, but he never took the bait. To this day she would have welcomed him, had he taken her in his arms.

 

She often lay alone in her bed at night, wondering why Stuart didn’t seem to feel the same attraction. He was her best friend, her confidant. Often he was her conscience, but he had never been and, she feared, never would be, her lover. She was beautiful, and she knew it. That wasn’t conceit, it was simple fact. She worked hard at staying beautiful, but, other than the odd admiring glance and compliment on her form, Stuart didn’t seem to notice.

 

Knowing she wouldn’t get an answer she asked the question anyway, “What do you think I should do?”

 

These were the moments Stuart hated. His mind had been somewhere else while Greatchen was confiding in him. That was what made him such a great confidant. He could never tell anyone else her secrets because he never really listened to her. While she thought he was hanging on her every word, his mind had taken him to his apartment over the stable, where he had shared his bed with Dale last night, last night, the night before that and for a hundred nights before that.

 

They hid their love affair well, as they both knew they must. Only Anna, the Wolf Lady knew, and she was more intent on talking to the horses than to any human. Both Stuart and Dale knew she would never tell anyone. She had rebuffed Dale’s attempts to seduce her, knowing he didn’t belong in a relationship with a Woman.

 

Since he was thirteen years old Stuart had known he was gay. He had learned to cover it well, dating some of the prettiest girls in High school, but it was always the handsome boys that made his loins quiver. Alone in his room at night it hadn’t been a playboy bunny that filled his thoughts as he relieved his sexual tensions, It had been thoughts of the other boys showering in the locker room and visions of what he would like to do to them, but Dale had only known that something wasn’t quite right, until that dreadful attempt with Anna.

 

Stuart gave Greatchen his standard reply for moments like this, the one she had learned to expect. “I dunno, G, go with your intuitions.”

 

Greatchen could have screamed. Stuart was a great listener, but she needed someone she could really talk to, someone who would give her advice, good advice. Not just someone who told her what they thought she wanted to hear.

 

“I’ve got to go,” she snapped, now fed up with Stuart. “I’ll talk to you later.” With that she stormed back into the house, leaving her best friend, hands covered in lotion, wondering, what he had done wrong.

 

Just because you’re gay, he thought, doesn’t mean you understand women.