Summary: Charged with cleaning up after a birthday party at their workplace, a newlywed couple finds a use for all that leftover cake and melting ice cream.

Setting: The early 1980s

Author's Note: This is rated slightly higher than TLT#1 but it's still light on the adult content. It was inspired by GreetingCard's adorable "Addie After Church" story. And thanks go out to ReelGudSpeler for encouraging me to write this!

This was originally posted on the now-defunct WAM Story Archive in 2016, and thanks to the writers there who helped me figure out how a couple from WAM's "vintage era" might have come to terms with their interest, when there was no real Internet or any other way they could have known they weren't the only ones with said interest.

*****

"Is that a twenty-dollar bill?" Todd asked, perplexed to see his wife clutching what appeared to be a nice sum of cash as she pushed through the swinging doors of the kitchen of their shared workplace, a children's party venue, only to lean against the wall, dramatically feigning exhaustion. "Someone really tipped you that nicely? What did you do?"

Miraculously recovering, Cindy flashed Todd an apologetic smile, stripping off her blouse to reveal a black halter top, and her actions did not go unnoticed by her husband, who blushed as he finished spraying down the countertops. Though he had recently been promoted to kitchen manager, he had built himself a reputation for working diligently alongside the employees he supervised, and he had even sent the janitor home early when he'd shown signs of being overwhelmed earlier than night. Todd and Cindy were the final two employees on duty, charged to lock up the facility.

"It's not so much what I did, but what still needs to be done. That party I hostessed for in Room 4? I knew something was up when 'Mom and Dad' ushered the last of the guests out when it was over and handed me this with a simple, 'We're so sorry.'" She tucked the bill into the pocket of her skirt, then fixed Todd with a quizzical expression. "Let's just say I'm going to earn this fair and square, and let me show you what I mean." Hooking an arm around his, she led her husband to the party room.

*****

"What in the name of all that's..." Todd stared in disbelief at the deplorable condition of the room. Tiny handprints that had apparently been dipped in chocolate ice cream covered the walls, at least up as high as the kids had managed to reach, and the chairs and table where the guests had enjoyed their birthday celebration were practically shellacked in melting, dripping goo. He forced himself to smile.

"I guess it's safe to say fun was had today, and now I see that giant tip was justified. Hmm, we'll need a strategy here," he said, stroking his chin and pretending to be deep in thought before he snapped his fingers. "Got it! We just need a firehose..." Cindy threw a rag his way, then tossed him a spray bottle.

"Less talk, more mopping up," she lightly scolded him, and they spent the next half-hour scrubbing the walls and wiping down the chairs until the smell of bleach in the small room was almost overpowering and only the table, strewn with an astounding amount of unfinished food, remained to be dealt with.

"I don't get it," Todd remarked, looking down at the table and shaking his head at the incredible amount of uneaten food. "This stuff's all sugar, why wouldn't the kids devour it like hungry locusts?" His naive comments provoked a laugh from his wife.

"You're forgetting that they had a jungle gym and ball pit and arcade games to compete for their attention. I would imagine cake and ice cream play second fiddle to those attractions, but it is kind of a shame; all this stuff is wasted." She frowned at the remnants of the frosted birthday cake, stuck through with plastic forks, the melted bucket of ice cream and the various toppings and sprinkles in foam bowls, all mixed together in a wholly unappetizing fashion. Who was watching these kids?

"Well, let's get this done," Todd suggested, taking two handfuls of the plastic tablecloth in his hands and motioning for his wife to do the same. "We'll get this off the table and then roll it up into the trash or something." Strangely reminded of the parlor trick that involved whisking a tablecloth out from under the place settings, the couple gingerly lowered the entire mess to the floor, and then Cindy dropped to her knees.

"Ugh, we're going to be here all night," she groaned, and Todd knelt down just behind her, conceding they'd earned at least a brief break. "And I won't deny I'm a little hungry, but I'm not taking my chances with this stuff," she said, picking up a plate with a slice of cake on it to examine it more closely. Some child had seen fit to cover it in the chocolate sauce that had been meant for the ice cream and then not so much as take a single bite.

"Wuss." No sooner had the word left Todd's mouth than Cindy impulsively drew her hand behind her back and smashed the sticky dessert into his face, smearing the plate for good measure.

"You deserved that!" she giggled, twisting around to see the effects of her mischief. A wry smile on his face and chocolate sauce slowly dripping onto his work shirt, Todd burst into laughter and wiped the cake crumbs from his eyes, then impishly grabbed her around the waist.

"And what do you deserve?" he taunted, surveying the many items at their disposal while Cindy laughed and squirmed in his arms. He grinned widely, bending over her to lift first a bowl of ice cream, then another plate of uneaten cake and holding each out for her inspection. Leaning in close, he whispered, "pick your poison, or I will, and you're not escaping this one," then nipped her earlobe, delighting in the shudder he could feel rippling through her body as he held her.

"The ice cream," she announced confidently, and he reached for the nearest foam bowl, only to have his wrist seized. "No, I want the whole bucket," Cindy corrected him, shaking free of his grasp and crawling forward to pass him the plastic beach pail of the melted stuff. He bit his lip, getting a good glimpse under her skirt as she went in pursuit of the bucket.

"Are you sure?" Todd gasped when she'd willingly returned to her position in front of him, struggling against his desire to treat her with the utmost respect and yet remembering how much she had enjoyed their turn on the world's messiest game show a little over a year before.

"Never been more sure of anything in my life," Cindy replied with a wink, her hands overlaying his as she helped him raise the bucket over her head. The cold dessert poured over her waves of hair and she shuddered again, more strongly this time. From his vantage point behind her, Todd pulled his wife's dripping hair gently aside and kissed the back of her neck.

"We should get this over with," she said huskily as his hands pushed inside her halter top, caressing over her already-hard nipples while she arched against him.

"You're right, no more of this monkey business. We're grown adults and we should go right back to cleaning up!" Todd joked, seconds before she upended a foam bowl of chocolate ice cream topping over his head. He licked his lips and sputtered, hardly believing they were acting this way.

"You deserved that, too," Cindy pretended to scold him, ducking and only half-heartedly shielding herself from the rain of cherries in syrup Todd sent her way. She squealed in delight and ran her hands over her bare arms, only succeeding in spreading the gelatinous syrup more, then tossed the final bowl of sprinkles at her spouse, showering him in a technicolor explosion of candy bits.

"Okay, forget being adults, I'm not above this!" Todd chuckled, and they were soon wrestling on the tablecloth, crushing foam plates and bowls and food beneath themselves and laughing so hard they had to pause to catch their breath a few times.

"Cindy," Todd gasped, already feeling beyond exerted. "I think we both knew where this was headed, but do you, uh...wanna?" His hand grasped her thigh under the short hem of her skirt, and he silently prayed she wouldn't find his offer strange.

"I do wanna." All was made clear moments later when she laid back on the tablecloth, pulling him close. As Todd helped Cindy at least partially out of her clothing, sliding her halter top up and tugging down her panties, she suddenly realized with joy that this was about to be a new experience for both of them. Her bed-shy husband had never been one to initiate lovemaking and she had patiently tolerated his need to turn off the lights, but that was all changing now...

When it was over and she rested with her head on his chest, relishing the afterglow, Cindy slapped a sticky hand to her forehead.

"We're probably really weird, aren't we?" She felt him nod dreamily against her, and after a while she sat up, readjusting her clothing for modesty's sake. "I guess we'd better finish the cleanup sometime before midnight, hmm?"