Mafia Desire (Erotica)

Rochelle stood up next. She looked sad. “I’m Rochelle King. The first thing I want to say is that my man Devon was a serial cheater. He couldn’t keep it in his pants if a pretty tail offered him a ride. I still loved him and each time I caught him he’d promise not to do it again and each time I would forgive him. And each time I’d lose a little more self-respect. I still love the man so I guess that says something about me. I’m now CEO of the restaurant chain and we’re doing better than ever… probably because so much of our profits aren’t going into payouts to the whores who fucked him. My daughter Sara, who is 20 is now our CFO, taking my old position and she is doing an awesome job. My son Jayden is 17 and I’m afraid he is going to be just like his father. I’ve seen it already. He’s not as smooth as his father but that’s just practice.” She shook her head and sat down.

“Hanna Cooper. Hospital Administrator of Western Mercy. I wasn’t aware that Andrew was cheating. He was a gynecologist and used to tell me that he looked into too many to consider finding another. I know. It was a tasteless joke. It was obviously also a lie. I discovered a lot of my marriage was built on lies. When I found out I didn’t take it well and lashed out at others, Gabriella and Catherine mostly, and for that I am truly sorry.”

She smiled at the two friends then continued. “I’m working through my anger and my fear of betrayal issues. I found a sympathetic ear in Ben while he was recently having a prolonged visit at our hospital. Having a captive audience was quite helpful. These talks really helped me. I hope to continue.” Ben nodded and she smiled back at him as she sat down.

“I am Tina Lee and this is my son Christopher and he is not yet one year old. I do not work and I think my husband’s investments are not good. I received a letter from the bank today.” She looked towards Ben. “It is something about our mortgage. I do not know what I am to do. I am hoping that someone here knows what I should do.”

Ben raised his hand and saw Tina’s hopeful look turn into a relieved smile. “I’ll take a look at it after the meeting, alright?”

“Thank you, Mr. Shepherd!” she said.

“Ben.” he replied.

Her smile lit up her face again. “Ben.” she said and nodded to him.

The next woman in line stood up. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she looked nervously around the room. “Hi. Daphne McKellen. My twin girls are 22 and are finishing up University this year. They are studying Early Childhood Care & Education and once they graduate we plan to open up a daycare in my home. I’ve arranged all the permits and I’ll have contractors coming in to make the required upgrades to make it a legal daycare. We’re only going to be allowing twenty children in the centre, ages 6 months to 6 years. With Scott gone and my girls away at University the house is too quiet. I’m looking forward to hearing the sound of children again.” She smiled at Tina. “As for Scott, I knew he was a terrible flirt.” Her face closed down. “No, the truth. He had affair once. It was a bad time for our marriage. Christmas parties at the bank headquarters were terrible. He’d get drunk and start acting like he owned the women who worked for him. Ten years ago I found out he was fucking a loans manager. I confronted him about it and he finally broke it off. We weren’t the same after that but I never saw any evidence that he’d relapsed. He just got better at hiding it I suppose. Fuck him. I’m making a new, better life for myself now!” She smiled at the group and got applause. She sat down with a huge grin and tears in her eyes.

Next in line was a very slim woman, 5′ 9″, whose obsession with jogging had burned off most of her body fat. She was all toned muscle and sinews which made her obviously fake breasts so out proportioned. She did her best to hide them with a loose sweater. She had short red hair to mid neck and a friendly heart shaped face with large pale green eyes and a strong hawk nose. She smiled tremulously at the group. “I’m Trish Campbell. I live next door to Daphne and I was looking forward to the sound of children in the neighborhood as well but… I may not be able to stay in the neighborhood to hear it.” She looked over at Hannah who gave her a supportive smile and nod. Trish returned the smile and collected herself.

“John had addictions. Not drugs or alcohol but adrenaline and gambling. Motocross racing, hang gliding, white water kayaking, sky diving, and jet-ski racing. We led a very active life. He also gambled heavily. He did his best to hide it but when bills went unpaid because he’d blown his paycheque on poker with his buddies at work it came to light. He owned his own marketing company but that just went bankrupt because he was spending all of the money it made on his gambling addiction. He stopped paying into the life insurance policy so there was no money when he died in the accident. He had no pension and our mortgage is only half paid off. I have my own design company which I run out of my home office. I’m doing very well but not well enough to pay off all of John’s debts. I’ve had a few frightening calls from someone named Angelo who John owes money to. I’m going to have to sell the house.” Several voices were raised in concerned protest. “I have no other choice.”

“I’ll buy it.” Ben said.

Trish looked over at him. “What?”

“I’ll buy your house. You get it appraised and let me know how much it is. You can continue to live in it and pay rent at a rate less than your mortgage. You can use the money from the sale to pay off the debts.”Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

Hannah leaned forward. “Ben, we talked about this.” Trish looked at her friend in surprise.

Ben continued. “No, this isn’t about that. This is a great investment for me! You know the properties on this street are! And we get to keep Trish as a neighbor. Her son Mason and your son Ryan are best friends so splitting them up would be a shame. They already lost their friends Bill and Kevin Miller when they moved out.”

Trish was looking at Ben like a lifeline had just been thrown to her and when Ben saw that he winced. Hannah groaned as she saw the cycle starting again. Ben’s need to help a damsel in distress overpowering his deep seated aversion to praise. She caught the puzzled eye of her friend Trish and mouthed ‘Later’ to her. Trish nodded and sat down.