PIANO LESSON Part 1 By Merz Peter and Jennie get a surprise when the movers arrive. Looking around his girlfriend's apartment Peter Semple thought through his schedule for the next couple of weeks. Jennie had to be out of the apartment by next Monday. The new apartment was vacant, clean and waiting. But Peter could see no time when he would be able to help with the move itself. As he closed up yet another box of books he had packed for her he again pulled out the business card he had picked up at the coffee shop near campus. "No Sweat Services: Moving, Demolition, Manual Labor Lowest Rates Around" Lowest rates were important. Peter was finishing graduate school and Jennie would start her senior year following the upcoming summer break. Neither had any money to spare and were reluctant to add to the pile of loans school had already loaded onto them. Maybe a couple hours an evening could get the job done if they both worked at it hard rather than cram for tests - tests they had to do well on for the sake of both their futures. Then he looked again at the piano and his heart sank. The old upright presented an immovable barrier to any thoughts that he and Jennie could do the move alone or even with the help of their close friends. Peter had tried lifting an end and knew even with a couple guys helping he couldn't get it down the two flights of stairs to the street, let alone up the four flights at the new apartment. With a sigh Peter dialed the number on the card, hoping a gesture of paying for the moving service wouldn't break his slender budget. Jennie was grateful already for all the help he had been with packing, but he had hoped his contribution would be strictly labor rather than cash from his pocket. Jennie's gratitude kept him at the packing and kept him looking for more ways he could come to her assistance. After several rings a woman's voice answered, "No Sweat Services. How can we help you?" Peter explained his need for help with Jennie's move, that he couldn't afford to pay much, and that he would gladly work alongside their crew to keep the cost down. And he mentioned the piano. "It doesn't sound like there will be any problem, and our people would handle the whole thing. How about if we send an estimator over this evening to give you a price?" Peter agreed to be available at six to make the arrangements for the move the next day, Saturday. He hung up with a sense of relief that he would be basking in Jennie's gratitude Saturday night before spending another Sunday in the library. Jennie could clean this place on her own as her last act in changing addresses. "We can handle this in a couple hours. No sweat." The tall blonde woman in the training jacket surveyed the two rooms of the apartment. From her voice Peter recognized this estimator was the one who had answered his phone call to No Sweat Services. She strolled among the boxes, hands in her pockets, counting boxes and occasionally giving one a push with her foot to judge its weight. "Let me guess. Students, with lots of books. And this box looks like old LP records. Heavy." "Yes, Jennie is studying music with a minor in literature. She says she these records aren't available on CD, and are classic performances." "And that explains the piano as well." The blonde woman pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. "As long as all the packing is complete we'll say three hours at twenty-five dollars per hour. Like it says on our contract here, it's another twenty-five if you watch and another fifty beyond that if you want to help or give advice. How does that sound, Pete?" She explained the terms with a friendly smile as she jotted figures. Peter tore his gaze from her fine-boned face to glance at the paper before signing, then a moment later realized he was staring at her slender figure beneath the bulky jacket. "Seventy-five for the whole thing? How many guys do you think you'll need for this? The piano's pretty heavy, you know. A real classic instrument for an upright. It's oak, with an extra heavy frame inside." "Yeah, I've seen these before. We'll send enough people to handle it, don't worry. Leave a sketch of where you want the furniture set in the new place tomorrow and we'll take care of getting it all there. Then all you have to worry about is unpacking and settling in. Sign here and I'll be on my way." "This sounds like quite a deal, Miss. I would have figured that much for just one of your crew for three hours." "Like the card says, no sweat. And you can call me Linda." She pocketed the signed paper and gave Peter a friendly wave of parting. "Enjoy your weekend, Pete." His eyes followed her bouncing rear as she walked briskly from the apartment. "Oh, Peter, that was so sweet," Jennie told him when she came in an hour later from her regular workout at the gym. She gave Peter a quick kiss on the cheek before hanging her wet gym clothes in the bathroom. "I'll pay the seventy-five dollars, and I don't want to hear any arguments. I'll get my cleaning deposit back from this place next week so my checking account will cover it. Especially if this company will wait a couple days to cash it. No arguments, I said." Peter watched her sit quickly at the keyboard of the piano that dominated the small room. Jennie played a few chords, ran up and down some scales, then played the opening of a piece Peter liked but could never remember the name of. Something by Schubert. . . or was it Schumann? What was the difference? "They know about the piano, don't they? And that it needs careful handling?" "Sure. They sent somebody over to look at how much stuff there was and do the estimate. She said they've handled these things before." "She? We hired a woman to move my piano?" "No, she was just the estimator. She said there'd be a crew to do the actual move. Don't worry. Just draw the arrangement you want at the new place and they'll set things where you want. Since your stuff is all packed up do you want to spend the night at my place?" "I'd like to, Peter, but I have to do a few last things. I'll take my bed apart and sleep on the mattress tonight. You're such a doll." "Then I'll stop by in the morning to see how things are going. The woman said they'd be here about ten." At 9:30 Saturday morning Jennie answered the knock on her door. She was dressed for the gym and was surprised to be greeted by two women in athletic clothes of their own. "Hi, we're from No Sweat Services," said the tall blonde woman. Judging by the well muscled arms and her firm lines in the tight black lycra shorts and snug sleeveless top Jennie thought she must be extremely fit and proud of it. Behind her came a shorter brunette wearing a loose football jersey, looser shorts that came nearly to the knees of her powerful looking legs, and black lace-up boots. "We got done with our first job of the day earlier than we expected and hoped we could get started here. I'm Linda, this is Monica. You must be Jennie." As she shook hands Jenny guessed Linda must be in her mid thirties and Monica perhaps five years younger. "Hi. I was hoping to do a quick run before you got here, then go the gym. Peter should be here soon if you'd like to wait for him." The women exchanged glances. "What if you just give us the keys to this place and the new apartment and we'll get started? And we like to work by ourselves so I wonder if you could call Peter and ask him not to come by? It may sound silly, but we do include a little line in our contract that we charge extra if the client watches us work or interferes - they usually call it helping. You understand how it is. Some men just can't stand by and watch women carrying boxes, and they throw off our flow when they try to help." "There's just the two of you? Didn't you know I have a piano that has to go? And the other furniture?" The shorter woman, Monica walked over to the instrument and ran her hand along the lid. "Oh, don't worry. Linda and I will start on the boxes. We'll have enough people for the heavy stuff when the time comes." Jenny wondered about the big wink she gave Linda while saying this. As Monica hefted the piano bench Jenny realized the woman's forearms were thicker than her own calves, and surely thicker than Peter's arms. "Well, um, okay. Here are the keys. And I'll go call Peter. Maybe he can meet me at the gym. He never finds time to workout so maybe this will give him a chance. You said three hours? So after the gym I'll have lunch and just head over to the new place for the first shower in my new home." Now Monica was wandering about hefting boxes and Jenny's eyes kept straying to her wide shoulders and broad back under the big shirt. "That sounds like a great idea. You do look like you work out," Linda complimented her at the same time she gently led Jenny toward the door. "And yes, we did say three hours. We'll have the new apartment until 12:30 and then it's all yours." As Linda pulled a pair of work gloves from the waistband at the back of her shorts Jenny was startled by the swell of her biceps. Gotta hit those weights even harder, she thought to herself. She phoned Peter, then handed over her spare keys and set off . "I'd say you could make a new conquest, if you wanted," Linda remarked to her partner once they were alone. "She couldn't take her eyes off you. She and her boyfriend both enjoy checking out the scenery. Let's get to it." Peter met Jennie at the college gym after her run but left early to get in a little more studying. Jenny decided to cut short her own weight lifting to meet the movers at her new apartment. She arrived well before noon and saw the truck with a only few items of furniture and her piano still to be hauled up the stairs. Remembering that Linda had specified the movers didn't like having to put up with interfering clients, Jenny knocked on the manager's door on the first floor where she would kill some time talking about building rules and habits. While Jennie was inside Linda and Monica each made another trip up to the apartment with the last of the furnishings, then slid the piano off the truck and over to the base of the stairs. Hearing the noise Jenny looked out the window of the manager's apartment in time to see the two women studying the instrument and the long sets of stairs winding above them. Her eyes widened at the change in Linda's appearance. In the morning she had looked like an extremely fit, slender woman, like a dancer or aerobics instructor. Now she sported the physique of a serious bodybuilder in top contest shape. Every muscle on her long arms and legs stood sharply defined, glistening with a light layer of perspiration. Monica continued to give the sense of power hidden under her looser clothing, her shirt now damp from the morning's exertion. "Okay, here we go." Linda grabbed the piano under the keyboard and by the lifting handle at the back. Monica crouched low to get her own grip underneath. With a grunt the women raised the heavy piano and Linda started backing up the stairs. As Linda rose with deliberate steps Monica moved forward and more upright, raising her end higher and higher. "Just a sec. I need to shift my grip," Monica grunted. Linda paused until Monica said she was ready again. Monica's end of the piano was now chest high as Linda resumed backing up the stairs. Three more steps and Monica had pressed her end over her head and began her own ascent. They climbed steadily and confidently. "Okay, I'm at the landing. Hang on while I swing around." After turning the corner Linda resumed her careful backward progress. All this time Jennie had been staring in disbelief from the behind the curtains in the manager's apartment. She had assumed at least four large men would be needed to haul the heavy piano up the stairs, but now she was seeing the job handled smoothly by two women. "I have to set it down. My biceps are about to explode," Linda gasped out. She eased her end of the piano down onto the second landing as Monica lowered the weight to rest on one powerful shoulder. Linda shook her arms vigorously to restore circulation, drew a few deep breaths, and was ready to start again. This time she faced forward and stooped to grip the piano at its bottom. "Up we come." She stood upright as Monica again pressed her half above her head. "Ummm. I like this view even better than looking at your quads," Monica called up. Linda smiled and took even more deliberate steps, knowing the exertion of her hamstrings flexing and stretching would be putting on a dramatic muscular show. She imagined her own calf muscles bunching, then stretching and separating into two rockhard halves as she rose onto her toes. She wished she could have a similar view of Monica, sighing as she thought of the incredible arms, shoulders and back that propelled the load upward behind her. With the sleeves of Monica's loose shirt pushed up to her shoulders Jessica was staring in fascination at just that view, and wishing she could see more of the power hidden under the damp shirt. "Last flight. Ready to switch? I think I can manage the low end for one flight." Linda set her end on the landing and squeezed under the keyboard. She crawled down the stairs beneath the piano until she came to Monica's tanned legs blocking her way like marble pillars. "Spread 'em, lover, I'm coming through." Monica took a wider stance and shuddered with delight as Linda made a slow, sensuous passage between her thick thighs and stood up close behind her. "Did you really want to swap or just get an appetizer?" As Linda reached up to take the weight from her, Monica ducked down and crawled up to the front. The tight space between the leg and the body of piano was even tighter around her thick torso, but she forced her way through and onto the landing. Linda's arms were already pumped and pulsating from her exertions as she pressed the great weight upward when Monica lifted the front. Jessica had slipped out of the manager's apartment and was following their progress from the bottom of the stairway. She couldn't believe the definition and size of Linda's deltoids and triceps revealed by her tight sleeveless top. The cloth across the blonde woman's trapezius muscles was dark from perspiration, her pale skin sparkling and glowing hot pink. "I see what you mean about the view from back here. God, let's hurry up with this bastard. Even good scenery doesn't make this load any lighter." Monica smiled but maintained her mechanical stairstepping. At the top she crouched lower as she walked forward until Linda had also finished the climb. "Set it down and take a breather while I get the door." Monica ran to the apartment and opened the door. She stepped inside quickly to pull a towel from the gym bag she had added to their first load of boxes, then hurried back to the task. Together the two women lifted the great weight one last time and eased it through the doorway, setting it a couple of feet from the wall where Jessica intended it to rest. "Quick, shut the door. Then show me those biceps you say were exploding on you." Monica grabbed the hem of her shirt and peeled it up over her head while Linda quickly slammed the door into the hallway and began undressing. Once her piano had disappeared through the doorway of her new apartment Jennie started up the stairs. She moved steadily, reminded that on her previous visits to her new home this climb had always seemed a little daunting despite her good physical condition. Now her amazement grew at having seen two women perform the same long climb while carrying her beloved piano. She hurried along to express her admiration for their feat. Bursting in through her door she froze panting and speechless at the scene awaiting her. Monica lay naked on her towel on top of the top of the piano with Linda crouching above her and licking her thighs and stomach. Monica looked up quickly but Linda continued tonguing the golden flesh of the powerhouse beneath her. To Jennie she looked like a great jungle cat devouring a powerful prey. "Close the door, we're busy," Monica directed her, then lay back down and arched against Linda's increasingly ardent explorations. After another moment Monica sighed and pulled Linda's head up from her breast and faced it toward Jennie. "We have company." "By our agreement we still have almost an hour here in the apartment. Perhaps you'd care to leave?" Linda seemed to flow down from the top of the piano as smoothly as water, her body sinewy and pulsating with thick veins along her long, muscular arms. Her eyes locked on Jennie's, who found herself unable to move as the tall blonde crossed the floor with leisurely, graceful strides. Stopping in front of Jenny, Linda reached past to push the door closed. "And our agreement says the fee for watching is $25." Jennie swallowed hard and found herself trembling in front of the taller woman. She started to turn to leave, then stopped. "No, damn it. This is my apartment. What do you think you're doing? On top of my piano? This is sick!" Monica had raised herself on one elbow and commented, "I put the towel down so we wouldn't hurt it. I can guarantee anything this heavy is plenty strong enough to hold us." "That's another thing. How in the world could just the two of you even lift it? Peter can barely lift one end an inch off the floor, but you two carried it all the way up four flights!' Jenny felt herself becoming hysterical as Linda's gray eyes continued boring into her. She flinched as the blonde reached out and stroked her cheek "Gosh, even Pete had trouble? So you watched us haul this thing up here. What did you think? How did it make you feel? You work out some. Have you ever felt a really good pump after working your body to its limits?" Linda began leading Jennie forward into the room. "Can you imagine how we feel after something like that?" Monica climbed down from her perch and took her own place in front of Jennie. Behind her full thrusting breasts her chest looked as broad and rugged as a granite boulder. Her arms hung at an angle from her broad, powerful shoulders. Her musculature wasn't as sharply defined as Linda's but looked even more powerful because of her smoother mass. "Relax, Jennie. We've taken good care of everything you own, and now we're just taking care of ourselves. That's how we're able to do the work." "It's the sweat," Linda softly murmured as she ran a hand down Jennie's bare arm. "When a woman works her muscles, all sorts of nutrients and hormones flush out of the tissue and end up mingling with the ordinary sweat. If another woman takes that mixture into her own body it recharges her, revitalizes all the systems. If she works her own muscles right afterward they become supercharged from the exercise and she can build strength and mass beyond what you would ever imagine. Just look at that fabulous monster," she concluded as she joined Jenny in admiring Monica's powerful physique. "And she's even stronger than she looks." "Would you like some proof?" Monica threw an amused glance at Linda as she spoke. "Come closer. The stuff is pouring off me now. It not too noticeable while we work, but a few minutes after we stop we both sweat like draft horses, just dripping for another five minutes or so. Go ahead. I won't bite." She extended a hand to Jennie and drew her close, then guided the younger woman's head to the space between her breasts while exchanging an amused glance with Linda. "Try it." "Salty, but spicy too. And something really interesting I can't describe." Jenny couldn't believe what she was doing, nor that returning to graze over the full breasts and solid chest muscles before her seemed so natural. "Not to mention addicting. That's enough to start." Linda watched Jenny closely. "Now how is it starting to make you feel?" "You feel so hot," Jenny said to Monica. "And now I'm feeling heat spreading inside. This is all so weird." "When you came in you were panting from the stairs. How about now?" "Not tired at all. I could run up four flights now, even after my workout." "Then why don't you, if you're interested in exploring this further." Linda pointed to the box of vinyl records. "You could carry that up and down with you so you don't just work your legs. That's it. It feels heavy now, but by the time you reach the bottom you will have adjusted to the weight. Right, keep your back straight like lifting in the gym, and you can shift it to work different muscles. I'll bet climbing back up will be easier carrying that than when you came up just now. Try a couple laps. Don't hurry. And please knock." The door closed behind her as Jenny started toward the stairs, carrying the heavy box that seemed lighter with each step.