Adultery The Sales Star by urbanslut

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"Let's just drop this topic. I know you mean well, but it's an outrageous idea."

And so we dropped it.

But Bhakti had planted the seed of an idea in my mind, and once an idea takes root, it is difficult to completely get rid of it. Over the next few weeks, I found myself thinking about it, weighing the pros and cons. In the end, I would always dismiss the notion as outrageous. But I did find myself thinking about it a lot. Even though Bhakti never broached the topic again.

On the home front, things kept getting worse. Manish was always in a quiet or surly mood, and had almost stopped smiling. He had started praying every single day, and dragged me to different temples and religious gurus. After every visit, I ate the supposedly magical 'prasads' that had miraculous powers - from sweets to blessed fruits to syrups. manish and I had sex following a timetable, the sex being inevitably monotonous and mundane. I couldn't remember the last time I had an orgasm with him inside me. But we kept at it. And went through several more pregnancy tests. But it all came to a naught.

Then one day, after a particularly bad week at work, when the umpteenth pregnancy test said the same thing as others before it, I snapped. I insisted that we should get tests done, and Manish kept refusing. It led to a big fight during which I was tempted to tell him about my own tests, but didn't. We gave each other the silent treatment for three days until Manish grudgingly gave a half apology and I grudgingly half accepted it. But he still refused to get tested.

Almost two months passed since Bhakti first put forth her radical idea. And in the two months, I had gone from dismissing it outright to giving it serious thought. Inevitably, this affected the way I interacted with Uday. Earlier, I found his charm and his presence pleasant and amusing. Now it started affecting me personally. I started blushing at his compliments, and often found myself feeling awkward or tongue tied when talking to him. He also started appearing in my fantasies a lot more often than he used to. Be that as it may, I was still not leaning towards sleeping with him.

Then came the night of the annual sales team party. No, I didn't sleep with him. But something happened that moved things along considerably.

Like every year, the management had booked the poolside of a five star hotel for the party. Like every year, a few of the guys and a couple of the women got into the pool in their swimsuits, milling around the pool bar. Like every year, I did not. I was dressed in jeans and a casual blouse. The drinks and appetizers were making rounds. Conversations were booming. Several of the managers had made cliched speeches about what a great year we were having, but how we couldn't afford to take our eyes off the ball. Manish was with me, talking to my colleagues whom he had known for several years.

Earlier, I had noticed that Uday was in the pool. He was wearing loose knee length swimming trunks. But his chest was bare. And what a chest it was! Six pack abs, chiseled pecs, well toned arms....he looked like he had walked straight out of a male pageant. Almost all the females (and some of the men) had been checking Uday out, and Oday knew it and was preening and flirting even more than usual.

I was sitting with Manish, Bhakti, and Bhakti's husband at a table. The two guys were talking about cricket. My mind wandered and I looked at the pool. Uday was in there, about ten feet from us, playfully splashing water at Carol, an intern in the pre-sales team. She rushed towards him splashing more water, and I saw them wrestling and giggling. Uday caught Carol in an embrace, and I saw the look on Carol's face as she felt his chest. She was turned on. Suddenly, she stopped moving, and then kissed Uday on the chest. Uday smiled and kissed her on the neck. Suddenly, Carol looked around, and saw me and a couple of others watching her. She blushed and swam away.

I looked at her swim away and turned my gaze back to Uday. He was staring at me with an intense expression. Then, keeping his gaze locked into mine, he swam towards the edge. As he propped himself out of the pool, the water dribbled off his perfect torso. He got out and started walking towards me, still gazing into my eyes.

When he approached our table, he smiled and turning his gaze to the others, said,

"Hello Ketaki. Hello Bhakti. Are these the super lucky men who get to take you home every night?"

"Hi Uday! Guys, this is Uday who is setting the sales team on fire." Bhakti introduced the husbands to Uday.

"Nice to meet you, Uday." Manish said, and pointing to a chair next to him, said, "Have a seat."

Uday, ever the smooth conversationalist started talking to our husbands. And he had clearly made a great impression. The conversation turned to travel. I piped in with a comment or a question once in a while.

But my mind was focused on the contrasting sights that Manish and Uday, sitting next to each other made. My balding, paunchy husband next to this shirtless wet Adonis. A couple of times when I tried to sneak a glance at Uday, he caught me doing it and gave me a mischievous smile. I looked at Bhakti and saw that she had noticed it as well.

Fifteen minutes later, Uday excuse himself and went to talk to another group of people. The party went on for another couple of hours. When we reached home, Manish was too drunk to do anything but crash on the bed and pass out snoring. I changed into pyjamas and lay down next to him. But I couldn't sleep. My mind was replaying images of Uday's perfect body and his enchanting smile. I closed my eyes and slipped my hand into my panties. I imagined that I was with Uday in the pool, like Carol was. I fantasized us going from splashing water at each other to wrestling in the water, to making out, to finally having sex right in the pool. I had a particularly satisfying orgasm that made me moan loudly. But when I opened my eyes, Manish was still snoring. I turned away from him, closed my eyes, and willed myself to sleep.

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Like every year, after the annual party, came the big sales planning meeting. All the managers sat with the VP of Sales, the country managers, and a few other head honchos at the main table. Us sales reps sat in the conference room in front of them. And we all had to make a presentation of our plan for the coming year, which would then be reviewed and critiqued by the leadership.

My turn came shortly after lunch. I started off with a summary of my previous year's achievement (at 114% of the quota, I was doing well), and then spoke about the segments I would go after, my quarterly and monthly plans, and a bucket list of customers that I had pursued in the past but failed to win. I listed the ones I was optimistic of winning this time. I concluded with a summary chart.

"Excuse me, Ketaki." the VP of Sales Shankar spoke for the first time in my presentation. "I see that Zincorp is still in your bucket list. Like the previous two years."

I gave him a sheepish smile and cursed at him in my mind. I had been hoping this wouldn't come up again this year. Zincorp was a European manufacturing giant that was expanding its presence in India. I had done my best to break into that account but had failed every year.

"Yes Shankar, it is. But this year, I am positive I will be able to win it." I said, trying to project optimism that I wasn't really feeling.

"How exactly?"

"Well, I have been able to establish a decent relationship with their procurement team and they are coming around to the fact that...."

"Don't give me jargon, Ketaki." Shankar icily said. "What is going to be different this year?"

"If I may, Shankar." my manager Satish jumped in to my defense, "Ketaki has been working very hard at winning Zincorp. But the procurement guy there is a tough nut to crack. And they do have a global contract with our competitors."

"That contract is binding only on their European units." Shankar said. "Ketaki has now been working that client for three years. I don't think she has established a decent relationship as she puts it."

"Shankar, I have full faith in Ketaki's abilities. Her record speaks for itself." Satish said a little brusquely. Shankar was taken aback. He looked at Satish and then turned to me again.

"Ketaki, don't get me wrong. I respect and admire your work and know that you are an invaluable asset to this company. You hit your numbers ahead of time and have been doing a great job."

"Thank you Shankar." I said politely.

"My concern is only about Zincorp. I recently found out that they are going to announce two new manufacturing plants In Nashik and Pune, and it will be great for our overall numbers as well as your quota if we can get the contract for those plants."

"I will leave no stone unturned." I said.