On his way down for dinner, Ben met Gerd in the entrance hall. Gerd, in an overcoat and car keys in his hand, was going out. Although he seemed in a grim mood, he stopped to exchange a few sentences with Ben, shook his hand, wished him Good Luck, and bade him Goodbye. Christine was watching them from behind the glass. Once Gerd had gone, she gave Ben a wave to come into the office.

Christine had obviously been angry. She reached into her desk and took out a bottle of Schnapps and held it questioningly in Ben’s direction. When he nodded, she produced two glasses to pour a generous shot. Throwing back her head Christine toasted Ben with an emphatic, “Well, to us and may Gerd go to hell!” She emptied her glass with a gulp.

Keeping the bottle out of sight but well in reach, Christine leaned back in her chair and told Ben about her grievance. The hotel was too small to afford a night-porter. The entrance door had an electronic lock and – as Ben had learned - could be opened with a code of numbers. These were given to guests who planned to return late. But there was also an emergency call button for unplanned, late arrivals.

The duty of being on-call after 10 o’clock – for admitting a locked-out guest or late arrival, or an in-house emergency – Christine and Gerd were supposed to share. The signal could be directed at either the marital apartment or – from the time before their marriage – to what had been Christine’s separate room situated closer to the reception area. This room she had never surrendered. As her marriage to Gerd from an unpromising beginning progressively deteriorated, Christine had practically moved back into her room.

The argument tonight between her and Gerd was triggered by his going out again. As he returned “mostly late and always drunk” -as she put it - the responsibility for the night-vigil at the hotel had more and more fallen on her alone. She shrugged her shoulder and refilled her glass, “I blew up. I just had enough!”

Then, with an apologetic smile, Christine changed the subject. She told Ben that she and Erika had looked at the hotel offerings in Munich. They had downloaded the prospectus of the one they had chosen. Christine would download it to Ben’s Pad. Then she grinned and said, “You can text us if you agree with Erika’s choice of bathroom and my choice of bed for our two nights in Munich.”

Ben had gotten up to leave for dinner. In the doorway, Christine stopped him. She had turned serious and added, “Erika seems to think you are worried about us three getting together as lovers. Both of us are looking forward to being with you in Munich. For Erika and me, finding and now loving you after all these years is wonderful! It’s like a breath, no, a gust of fresh air gushing into our stale, settled lives. With you, we are feeling free and young and sexy and desired! Erika and I are not going to let it go to waste by being jealous and prudish shy!”

Ben looked at Christine. There was a glint of tears in her eyes. It made him stammer, “Neither will I waste it. You both loving me is the greatest gift! It is so undeserved and unexpected that I still find it hard to believe.”

As he could not find the right words, Ben turned and fled.

After dinner, Ben returned to his room. He rang his father, not talking at great length. Ben gave him his departure time and thanked him and Helen for coming to see him off. Then Ben settled down to answer, at length, a letter from friends in Australia.

A mail arrived on Ben’s Pad at ten o'clock, with no message, just an enclosure. It was the Munich hotel brochure Christine had promised, sent from the hotel’s computer. Ben guessed that it was the last task Christine had done before closing and going to bed.

Ben could only applaud the choice made by Erika and Christine on the details that mattered most. The super-king-size bed, discretely lit, looked sinfully inviting. And then the bathroom: besides a large, glassed-in shower with gleaming apertures, it sported a luxurious hot tub. Ben could imagine how Erika had drooled over the picture, with mind and pussy aflame about what such a playroom promised!

Ben wanted to show his approval. He posted an immediate reply to Christine and Erika’s Pad:

To Christine & Erika: - “Great choice of hotel! Imagine myself already with two sexy-loving sisters on the silky sheets of the bed, in the hot tub, the sinful bed, in the bubbling tub again, etc., etc. Why, oh why can we have ONLY two nights? B.”

With Erika at home, Christine retired for the night and, he assumed, their iPad locked away, Ben did not expect a reply. He, therefore, cleared his desk and packed his Pad into the overnight case, ready for departure in the morning.

As he undressed for going to bed, he heard the Pad’s muted binging. When he took it out of the valise to check, the email was – to Ben’s surprise - from Christine:

To Ben: - “I hoped to hear from you tonight and took our iPad with me to bed. So glad you like our choice and see its possibilities(!!) for our nights in Munich! Pity that we can only justify ONE Christmas shopping day with our husbands. All we can do is combine it with a night of ‘rest’(!??!) before and after the shopping stress. I wanted to risk and spend an hour or so with you tonight to find out your ideas about ‘resting’. But then, Gerd put me on night-duty again! That made sneaking up to your room impossible. You saw how angry I was. So, I am nursing the Pad in my bed in the hope of some sexting! C.”

To Christine: - “God, the thought that you are – possibly dressed - in your room waiting for an unlikely ringing of the doorbell! Instead, you could now be twisting naked in my arms, with our tongues wrestling and my fingers at play in your luscious-slippery, just waiting to be fucked and devoured pussy. The loss will rob me of my sleep! B.”

There was a five-minute delay for Christine’s response:

To Ben: - “Bloody Gerd! I can’t stop imagining what I am missing out on, Ben! It’s going to be a long, long wait for me until Christmas. What is a girl supposed to do? See enclosure. C.”

The attached picture was a selfie of Christine. Sitting up leaning against the bedhead, she was in a dressing gown. Its cloth had fallen aside from Christine’s arching body, framing her enticing nakedness. Christine’s eyes were on the Pad in her stretched-out hand, and therefore on him. Her lips were breathily parted, and her nipples were perkily pointing up.

To Christine: - “Love the picture! Makes me wish I could be there and kiss your luscious lips and your beautiful tits. And suck and bite your so naughtily excited nipples! B.”

To Ben: - “God, they were, but I could only get half of me on the picture. So, you can’t see the turmoil in my pussy under my fingers! C.”

To Christine: - “And me not there to slide my tongue down your belly and into your delicious pussy, to begin a long, long session of eating you up! Missing out, I now imagine seeing your fingers sweet torturing your naughty clit. God, I’m getting hard! B.”

To Ben: - “I love turning you on like that! Erika promised you already webcams of her sexy stripping. You want such cams of me as well, Ben, don’t you? With Erika and me posing and getting hot shooting them for you, you’ll get more than an incomplete selfy like now! Erika and I have watched webcams on our iPad. We liked the ideas behind them but thought there was no man we would ever make one for. Now we have you!!! My imagination is running hot! We’ll outdo each other trying to drive you crazy lusting for us; getting your cock rock-hard for our – you can be sure - itching for you pussies!!! Love & kisses all over, C.”

To Christine & Erika: - “I’ll have the first of many restless nights tonight! You are my naughty, lecherous vixens. Love you – both of you - madly! B.”

*

As was usual, the reception was busy in the morning with departures and arrivals. Christine ordered a taxi for Ben. While he waited, they exchanged a few polite, neutral words. Just as with Erika yesterday afternoon, there was no sense of leave-taking or sadness of loss. And although Ben was disappointed that Erika had not turned up to farewell him, the three of them knew they would stay connected. They were bound to each other in body and mind.

Ben had timed his arrival at the railway station well. He wanted to avoid a too-long wait with father and Helen - and the embarrassing silences as they run out of things to say – before it was time to leave. Helen and father had arrived before him and were waiting at the taxi rank. Assisting Ben with his lighter pieces of luggage, they strolled, chatting, to the platform to await the train.

On visiting his father and Helen the previous day, Ben had told them that they would, perhaps, already next year, see each other again. He had explained that his occupation and financial circumstances allowed him now more frequent holidays ‘back home’.

Therefore, when the train pulled in, they farewelled each other with a cheery, “See You Again next year.” The uncertainties besetting their reunion were not allowed to cloud their mood.

As the train set in motion, Ben leaned against the window to wave. Only now he saw her.

Erika had come to farewell him but Ben, being with his father and Helen, she had stood back. Standing behind the glassed entrance to the station, she sent Ben a hopefully seen kiss and furtive wave.

The End.