Chapter 1 - The Dinner Invitation

CHAPTER 1: THE DINNER INVITATION

Vusi hated this part of being a landlord, but it had to be done. Most of the time things were fine. The tenant paid their rent by debit order, he inspected the flats and houses every quarter, and they rang him when something needed fixing. That was how it had gone with this tenant for the past eighteen months, until about six weeks ago, when he had just stopped paying. He had sent letters and received no answer, and phone calls had not been picked up. So he was sitting in his BMW outside the flat, waiting for Gift to come home from work.

Sure enough, right on schedule, Gift the computer geek came sauntering along from the bus stop at six o'clock. Vusi waited until he had passed the car and followed him in, collaring the young man as he fumbled for his front-door key. "Hello, Gift. You're a hard man to get hold of!"

Gift looked like he'd crapped himself. He was quite a nervous type. In his early twenties, he spent most of his time with his computers and looked like it too. Vusi was a good fifteen centimetres taller than him and probably another twenty kilograms heavier — all muscle. He didn't need to try very hard to intimidate the young man. "Oh, hi, Vusi," he mumbled, trying to appear nonchalant and failing. "Mind if I come in for a chat?" asked Vusi.

Once inside, Gift skirted around the rent issue for as long as he could. He talked about his programming work and how the bonuses had dried up of late. Vusi had just begun to get to the nub of the issue when the front door opened and someone else walked in.

Vusi's chin nearly hit the floor. The young woman who had just joined them was drop-dead gorgeous. No more than nineteen, she was slim and fresh-faced, with long legs, side-swept braids and a tidy pair of tits. Dressed in denim cut-off shorts and a tee, with a small rucksack over her shoulder, he guessed she was a student. "Who do we have here, then?" he asked.

"I'm Nomi, and I live here," snapped the girl. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm the landlord, and I don't have you on the lease," answered Vusi nonchalantly, "so it's probably best if you lose the attitude! Now, what do you do for a living?"

Nomi got the message, and her tone became a lot more respectful. "I'm a student," she answered.

"OK, so you're living on NSFAS, I'm guessing," said Vusi. "The reason I'm here is because your boyfriend hasn't paid any rent for the last six weeks. I want to help you out as much as possible, but I'm a businessman. I can't just let you freeload. Can you make a contribution?"

The two youngsters started to speak at once, making hollow promises and excuses until Vusi stopped them dead. "Right, the two of you need to think about things and have a talk amongst yourselves. This is what we'll do. Tomorrow night, you can come to dinner with my wife and me, and we'll come up with a way forward that suits us all and stops you getting thrown out onto the street. How does that sound?"

Nomi and Gift both nodded enthusiastically.

"Good," continued Vusi, passing Nomi a card. "This is our address. Eight o'clock, and don't be late." He stood up and made for the door. "Oh, and dress appropriately," he added, looking Nomi up and down. "That means a dress, Nomi."

As the door closed behind their landlord, Nomi and Gift looked at each other. "What do you think?" asked Nomi.

"I think he wants to get your panties off," snarled the scruffy young man. "No doubt about that," said Nomi. "There's no harm in letting the dirty old perv think he's in with a chance if it gives us some slack on the rent, though. You watch me flirt with him tomorrow and wind his old woman up."

The following evening, the young couple were ringing the bell of their landlord's huge Centurion house at exactly eight o'clock. Nomi was dressed to kill in her little black dress, and Gift had made an effort with a proper shirt and trousers. The big door was opened by a gorgeous older woman with a welcoming smile. "You must be Nomi and Gift. Welcome to our humble home. I'm Gomolemo."

There was nothing humble about this home, Nomi thought as she handed over her jacket to the older woman.

Gomolemo looked Nomi up and down. "Wow," she said. "I can see exactly what Vusi meant. You are stunning." She grabbed the young woman by the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Nomi's head was spinning. What exactly had Vusi said to his wife about her?

The two couples made small talk over dinner. Gomolemo and Vusi were delightful hosts, and they knew how to set people at their ease. Beneath the chat, though, they were following a carefully choreographed strategy with only one objective: Nomi. Whereas Gift was being loaded with as much alcohol as possible, both in his glass and his food, Gomolemo was carefully monitoring the amount that Nomi drank. She wanted her compliant, not comatose. As they moved on to a brandy-soaked dessert, Gomolemo skilfully maneuvered the conversation around to sex, to discover that Gift was Nomi's first proper boyfriend after leaving her girls' school. The girl was clearly very inexperienced and began to blush as she talked about their relationship. Seeing her embarrassment, Gomolemo started to talk about their swinging lifestyle, and watched the girl's eyes widen as she recounted some of their adventures. "Life doesn't really end at forty, you know," she laughed. "Or even thirty!"

Looking over at Gift, Gomolemo saw he had fallen asleep in his plate. "Do you want to take Gift into the lounge, honey, while I talk business with Nomi?" she asked her husband. As Vusi dragged the drunken youth through and out of earshot, Gomolemo topped up Nomi's wine glass. "What you really want to know is how we can help each other, isn't it?" Nomi nodded. "Well," Gomolemo continued, "every now and then we host swingers' parties, and we look for gorgeous young girls like you to serve drinks and encourage the old toppies to get hard-ons to please the wives. You're just perfect for that. What do you think?"

"Just serving drinks?" asked Nomi.

"Just serving drinks," repeated Gomolemo. "Topless!"

"Oh," said Nomi, and thought about it for a couple of minutes. "What are you paying?"

"Once we get into the swing of things, it will definitely meet your rent and probably a bit more," said Gomolemo, with a warm smile on her face.

"OK, then," said Nomi. "I don't mind being ogled by dirty old men if it pays the rent."

"Good," beamed Gomolemo. "Let's have a look at you, then."

"Excuse me?"

"Nomi," lectured the older woman. "You look like a pretty young woman, but for all we know, you might have the ugliest tits in the world. We need to see what they're like before coming to an agreement. Here, if you're shy, I'll go first."

Without breaking step, Gomolemo stood up from the table and stripped her dress down to her waist, before unclipping and shrugging out of her bra. "Your turn," she said, standing topless in front of the young woman.