He woke with a start. It took him a moment to realise where he was. His mouth was dry. He was naked. He looked down and could see the semen filled condom hanging half off his now flaccid penis. He sat up. Tracey was next to him, asleep, making soft snoring sounds. She was on her side facing him, partly covered by the doona, her right leg bare and bent towards him. The blinds in the room were drawn and Arthur could see daylight around the edges of the blind. What time was it? There was just enough light to see his watch. It was ten past ten. He hadn’t slept so late for ages.

Shit! It was after ten! He missed his shift. Great, he thought, Martin had to work on his own. He would really be impressed with him.

He slid out of bed slowly and quietly so as not to wake Tracey. He saw his mobile phone on the floor, picked it up and headed to the bathroom. He removed the condom which he threw into the toilet, emptied his bladder and flushed, hoping the noise would not wake Tracey. He dialled Martin’s number and when Martin answered he almost whispered into the phone. ‘Martin. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what happened. I slept in. Were you okay? I’m so sorry.’

Arthur heard Martin chuckle.

‘I hope she was worth it, Arthur. Stop apologizing, I forgive you. I managed fine. I’ve done it before, stop worrying. Enjoy yourself.’

Arthur felt relieved. He hung up, first thanking Martin for his understanding. He slid open the bathroom door and went back into the bedroom. Tracey was awake, sitting up, holding the doona up to her chest to cover herself.

‘Good morning sleepyhead,’ she said. ‘I heard you on the phone. Bragging about your exploits already?’

‘Not at all, Tracey. I had to call Martin. I missed work this morning.’

‘Is that the time?’ Tracey asked, looking at her watch.

‘We really did sleep in. Can we still get breakfast? I’m starving.’

What it was with this woman, Arthur thought. She was starving again. He could barely think of food. His head was aching, his mouth still very dry and a slight sensation of nausea had settled into the pit of stomach.

‘Don’s do an all-day breakfast,’ he volunteered.

‘I need to get home to shower and shave though.’

‘Don’t worry about shaving, your stubble looks very sexy. We can shower here and go to breakfast. Come on, hop into the shower with me.’

With that, Tracey threw off the doona, got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Arthur gave her a couple of minutes. He assumed she needed to use the toilet, which she did and then followed her in. He was still naked and joined her in the shower.

It was the best shower he had ever had. Tracey offered to wash him, which she did with great enthusiasm. She seemed particularly interested to make sure that his penis was clean and after a few minutes of that he found himself ejaculating for the second time in twelve hours. It was then his turn to wash Tracey, which he did with equal enthusiasm and with a similar effect on her.

They dried off, went into the bedroom and collected their clothes, which were strewn all over the floor, got dressed and made it to Don’s just after 11am. The place was almost empty at that time and they had no trouble getting a table. Arthur was yet again amazed how much Tracey could eat. On the way to Don’s she confided in him that good sex makes her very hungry. It seemed to Arthur that just about everything had that effect on her. He was however, very happy to hear the ‘good sex’ part.

They ate breakfast, were just finishing their coffee when Tracey asked.

‘How old are you Arthur?’

‘I’m fifty four, Tracey,’ was his reply.

‘Arthur, don’t let this go to your head, but you’re better than men half your age. I should know, I‘ve had plenty of men half your age. I’m thirty nine, almost forty. Does that shock you? I like young men, usually, but you, Arthur, well you were okay last night. More than okay, really. It was great.’

Arthur could not help it. He beamed with pride. He did not mind if Tracey saw him smiling. He felt good, alive for the first time in a long time.

‘It was great for me too, Tracey. I think it may have been the best night of my life.’

‘What shall we do now?’ asked Tracey as they got up to leave. Arthur went to the counter, paid the bill and joined Tracey.

‘You said you are not interested in seeing Eden. You’ve seen all me that there is to see and while another roll in the hay sounds tempting, I don’t think that my fifty four year old physiology would take it. I know it looks sexy, but I would love to go home and shave and change my underwear and socks. You could meet Martin and Natalie. I know they would love to meet you.’

‘Okay, Arthur. Sounds like a good plan. Let’s go.’

Arthur felt that he had to explain a few things to Tracey before she met Martin and Natalie. First and foremost was his actual job. He told her that he was an accountant. Not exactly a lie but not currently true. On the way, he explained to her that while he was an accountant by profession, for reasons which were complex, and which he did not want to go into right now, he wasn’t employed as an accountant. Martin, while really being his friend was also his employer. Home was the Eden Dairy where Arthur worked as the assistant milkman, courtesy of the Centrelink Work for the Dole program. Tracey did not seem at all fazed by that information.

He explained that Natalie and Martin were recently married and then went on to explain Natalie’s anatomical situation. He warned Tracey that often Natalie did not bother putting on her artificial legs when she was at home and to be prepared for that. He reassured Tracey that she would like them both and reiterated to her that they were his closest friends.

Tracey seemed to take it all in her stride. And she was again striding quickly and Arthur had to jog to keep up.

He opened the door and they went in.

‘Anyone home?’ he called out. ‘Martin, Natalie, are you home? There is someone I would like you to meet.’

‘We’re in the lounge, Arthur’ that was Natalie calling back. ‘Come in, we’re decent.’

They went in and Arthur did the introductions. Thankfully Natalie had her legs on and walked over to Tracey, gave her hug and peck on the left cheek. Martin shook her hand.

‘Martin, Natalie, could you look after Tracey for a bit? I need to shave and change. Won’t be long.’

‘Go ahead, Arthur,’ Natalie said. ‘No problem, Tracey will be safe with us. I promise.’

Arthur was back fifteen minutes later and found the three of them deep in conversation. It seemed a jolly conversation and all were smiling. I wonder if they were talking about me, he thought.

‘We’ve just been talking about you, Arthur,’ Tracey called out. ‘I’m learning a lot from these two. You did say they were your friends.’ Tracey had a mischievous smile on her face.

Arthur thought better than to ask any questions.

‘Tracey works for Channel Seven. They’ve done one story of Eden. And it has been on TV. We all missed it. They’ve just completed the interviews for a second story. It seems that there is quite a bit of interest in our project, Martin.’

‘Your project, Arthur? What do you mean? When I asked you about it you fobbed me off. You said you had no opinion and it didn’t affect you anyway. Now it’s your project? What’s going on, Arthur?’

Tracey sounded a bit annoyed.

Martin was the one to reply. ‘Let me explain, Tracey. Until this moment, only Arthur, Natalie and I and of course our lawyers knew what I’m about to tell you. Arthur fobbed you off, as you say, because he was not able to tell you anything then. Arthur referred to our project that was not strictly correct, it is my project. Arthur, however has been an integral part of it, and without his involvement we would not be where we are now.’

Tracey said nothing. Clearly there was more to come.

‘Natalie, why don’t you and Arthur go into the dining room? Have one of those single malts that you are both so obsessed with. And close the door behind you. I’ve got a story to tell Tracey.’

Arthur and Natalie did as they were asked. With the door closed they could hear Martin’s voice, but could not hear what he was saying. Martin seemed to speak for a very long time, although it was no more than fifteen minutes. They did have a single malt, this time it was the sixteen year old, Lagavulan, that wonderful peaty Scotch from the isle of Isla. They had finished the Scotch when they could hear Martin, louder this time and calling out ‘You can come back now.’

They found Tracey sitting down, a serious look on her face. She was obviously digesting everything Martin had told her. Martin had an exhausted look about him. He had spoken for fifteen minutes, hardly stopping to take a breath.

‘What do you think, Tracey? Quite a story,’ said Arthur.

‘It sure is,’ she replied. ‘Can I ask, why tell me? You’ve kept it a close secret until now. I hardly know you, any of you. Well you perhaps a little better, Arthur.’

Arthur responded. ‘Martin has decided he wants to come out, as he calls it. He wants everyone to know that he is behind the Eden Foundation, and that the project, the social experiment is his idea.’

Tracey interrupted. ‘And I’m with channel seven and we are already doing a story on Eden, so who better to tell the story than me? So this is what the last twenty four hours has been about, Arthur? You’ve been using me so I would help you get Martin’s story out.’

Arthur was shocked. ‘I can’t believe you just said that, Tracey. Nothing could be further from the truth. Me, using you? You’re the one that came onto me, remember?’ Arthur’s voice was shaking, he was so upset.

‘Arthur, calm down. I was joking. And even if you were using me, I’m not complaining. I had a great time.’

Arthur smiled, he was relieved. Martin and Natalie stayed silent.

‘So, the idea is for Martin to offer your program an interview to tell his story. And you’ll like this, Tracey, he will only give the interview to you.’

Martin looked up at Arthur. This was news to him. That had not been discussed, but he smiled and nodded in agreement. He was a smooth operator that Arthur, he thought.

‘What do you think, Tracey? Will they go for it?’

‘They will go for it alright, Arthur. This is a great story. I’m not so sure they’ll go for me fronting it. But if that’s the only way you’ll do it, Martin, what choice do they have?’

Tracey got up, walked over to Arthur, put her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth.

‘Thanks, Arthur,’ she whispered in his ear, ‘feel free to use me all you all you want.’