“Hi, I’m Stephanie.”

That was how it started, basically, the day of her job interview. She looked a little nervous, which wasn’t too surprising, so I smiled, hoping that I looked both professional and comforting at the same time, and offered my hand.

“Hi Stephanie, I’m Devin, the store manager.”

Her hand was soft and warm and slightly moist, but she smiled up at me and gave me a good, firm shake back.

“Nice to meet you.”

I nodded my head towards the office, tucked away at the back of the video store, and said, “Why don’t we go have a seat?”

“Okay.”

“Hey, Lindsay!” I gave the girl at the counter, my assistant manager, a yell. “Buzz me if you need me. We’ll be about a half-hour.”

“Sure, boss.”

“After you…”I unlocked the office door and held it open, letting Stephanie go in before me. I gave her a quick appraisal, looking her up and down as she walked by me.

I thought she was kind of cute: short and plump, but in a nice, buxom way. She was dressed casually for the interview, wearing a pale blue fitted blouse that was slightly unbuttoned over a white, silky camisole, light khaki pants that were tight around her hips and a pair of old leather sandals. Her hair was dark brown, thick and glossy and cut short so that the tips curled around and under her ears. She had a sweet, heart-shaped face with prominent, rosy cheeks and a pointed chin, and she wore a little too much makeup for my taste. She had a tendency to peek up with her doe-like eyes when she smiled, making her look a bit like a chubby, mischievous pixie, but the silver crucifix dangling in the deep cleft between her breasts distracted me from that little blemish.

“Welcome to my closet.” I cleared my throat, pried my eyes away from her chest and pointed to a chair. “Have a seat.”

She sat down and crossed her legs, immediately comfortable. Maybe she wasn’t as nervous as I’d assumed. Either that, or my considerable boyish charm and good looks had really worked to loosen her up.

“Thanks,” she said.

Her pant legs slid up when she sat, giving me a tantalizing glimpse of her thick, tan, muscular calves. I settled down into my comfy leather chair just opposite her and pretended to search my desk for a pen. I gave her another smile.

“You’re welcome.”

She made a quiet humming sound in her throat and absent-mindedly tugged her blouse down, smoothing it tight over her breasts. She glanced around the room, taking in the big cork bulletin board tacked full of comic strips, work schedules, inventory lists and what-not; piles of old sale invoices, movie magazines and late-lists spilling out of boxes on the floor around my cluttered desk. “You know, a closet might be bigger.”

I actually laughed, and casually flipped through her job application. “Yeah, you might be right.”

My office was tiny, with barely enough room for a desk set up along the back wall, a beat-up metal filing cabinet, and the two chairs we were sitting in. Another door opened into a small storage area with walls of shelves full of movie posters and display boxes. Beyond that was a dimly-lit back room where we kept the safe.

The store itself was shaped like a sideways L, with a large, open floor plan that the owners believed encouraged customer browsing. It was brightly lit with red neon signs, flashing lights and lots of televisions set up like tic-tac-toe boards – always turned on and blaring taped ads for the latest movies and games. In the back of the building there was another storage room, an employee break area and a small warehouse with a dingy bathroom for the staff (and the occasional customer emergency) that was always kept locked.

The adult movies – the porno’s – had a room all their own, with a closed-circuit video surveillance system to monitor the freaks. Lord knows how many idiots we’ve caught on tape jacking off in there.

“So, you want to work for a video store?” I asked.

“M-hm,” she nodded. “Trisha really likes it here. She said you needed someone to take her spot when she leaves.”

Trisha was one of my better employees. She’d worked for me for a little over a year and was leaving for college soon. She’d recommended Stephanie to me. I knew they were friends from high school and swam together on the school swim team.

“I do. I remember when you dropped off your application,” I lied.

The only reason I knew I took her application is that Trisha asked me to. Without Trisha putting in a good word, Stephanie probably would’ve completely faded from my mind.

She beamed. “Really?”

“Yeah. You bet.”

Stephanie’s application indicated that she was a certified lifeguard and had worked the last couple years as a counselor and lifeguard at a Catholic summer camp. She also worked the counter at the camp store, selling the kids cold drinks, popcorn and candy, t-shirts and sweatshirts, that kind of thing. Not all that much different than what she’d be doing for me.

“So tell me about camp.”

She took a deep breath. “Well…”

I watched her while she talked, nodding, scribbling notes on her app, asking a quick question here and there. Normally – sexist as it sounds, I’d try to hire someone a little sexier than Stephanie, because the beautiful people tend to bring in the money. But basically, right now I just needed a warm body and wasn’t feeling too picky. If she could at least make change and carry on a half-way decent conversation, I was probably going to offer her a job.

For the fifty-six minutes we were in the office together, Stephanie showed me everything that a potential employer wants to see from a prospective employee.

I started working here in high-school, took over as assistant manager pretty quickly, and got promoted to running the store full-time after I started film school. It’s a relatively simple job and I make decent money doing basically nothing. I’m about ready to graduate now, and over the last few years I’ve had a lot of employees come through here. I’ve learned that most interviews are awful, some – a few – are better.

Most of my applicants are high school kids looking for an easy summer job or college kids needing some quick part time work. Rarely, someone I interview is really motivated to get a job. Frankly, Stephanie impressed me, and I warmed up to her pretty quickly. She was animated and lively, sharp and funny. She had a habit of blinking once or twice after each question, thinking before she answered.

I liked that.

She liked all kinds of movies and was already familiar with the store, which was great, telling me that Trisha made her help her close up the shop every weekend so she could get out and party earlier.

“Ah.” I said, and made a note of that to put in Trisha’s file. For safety, one of the cardinal rules was that only employees may be in the store before or after store hours. I don’t think Stephanie caught the slip.

Best of all, she was flexible. She still lived at home with her family and was starting school in the fall, part-time at a local community college, so her schedule was open, at least for now. As we wrapped the interview up, I made sure it was okay to call her references and her supervisor from camp, and asked her what size uniform shirt I should order, and what color would she prefer?

“Um, red, for sure. Small?”

“Great. I’ve only got a few other people to talk to this afternoon. Hopefully I can call everyone back by tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thanks for the interview!”

She shook my hand again, and I grinned as she walked back through the store, absently wondering what she’d look like in a bathing suit. I heard her say goodbye to Lindsay, who was busy returning video games, and then the door chimed and she was gone. Lindsay grinned from across the room and gave me a big thumbs up.

“She’s a keeper, huh?” She shouted.

I shrugged.

“We’ll see.”

“You snooze, you lose, boss-man. Hire her yesterday.”

I laughed and started back to the office. “Opinion noted. Okay?”

One of our regulars, an fifty-ish lady named Nancy, was herding her grandkids through the game section with a look of utter frustration plastered on her face. She was trying to get them to make a decision between renting some shoot-‘em-up and a racing game, and she was failing miserably.

Nancy was probably one of the first customers I’d made an effort to connect with when I became manager, although I’m not quite sure why.

Truthfully, I think I was a little smitten with her. She was married to an ex-cop who’d started flipping property after he retired, and now he was always gone, being (in her words) the real estate tycoon. Nancy used to be a nurse. She retired a few years ago to help her daughter take care of her grandkids (the little devils that were now screaming at each other and yanking all our game boxes off the rack. Lindsay looked at me and rolled her eyes. She hated those kids…).

Nancy kind of moped around with this sad-sack complex, that for some strange reason I found extremely sexy. So I made it a point to flirt with her whenever I could. It seemed to make her happy, at least for a minute or two, and once I got her talking, she was actually pretty interesting.

Besides, she had a pair of whopping big tits. I couldn’t resist.

I ignored the screaming demons making a mess out of my store and put on my best smile for her. “Hi, Nance.”

She looked up and brightened immediately. Sometimes I wonder if she comes in now just to see me. She waved back, and then her grandkids started a nice, loud shoving match. Nancy rolled her eyes at me and I took the opportunity to slip back into my office.

Maybe I made her day a little brighter. Sometimes we all just need someone to say hi, let us know we mean something, even if it’s just a grin from some kid at the video store.

Anyway…

I shut the door and plopped back into my chair with a sigh. It was a little quieter in here with the door closed. I hoped Lindsay had a bottle of aspirin at the counter, and then waited for the other applicants to show up. Lindsay escorted the next one back a minute or two after I heard the demons leave.

By the time I kicked the last one out the door – a pale, zit-faced teenager who ignored most of my questions and couldn’t stop talking about his collection of obscure Japanese animation videos that he was busy burning to disc – one copy to watch, one to save, in case of fire or flood or some other cosmically ordained cataclysm – I was grumpy, tired and ready to grab some dinner and call it a night.

Lindsay gave me irritated looks from the counter as I walked them out. She stuck out her tongue and shook her head after each one left.

“Stephanie,” she said. “This is so you don’t forget.” She’d written the name on a sticky note paper, and stuck it to my forehead. “Hire. Her. Now.”

One of our phone lines started ringing.

“Cut it out and answer the phone,” I grumbled.

It was supposed to sound threatening, but Lindsay just grinned and blew me a kiss. I stalked back into my office and peeled the note off my face, and then I just sat there for a bit, staring at my pile of applications and playing with the sticky paper with my fingertips.

Stephanie’s app was right there, at the top of the pile.

I cleaned up the junk on my desk and then called the main office, which had already closed for the day. I left a voice message for the office manager and ordered two small red polo shirts and a nametag for Stephanie.

Then it was time to go.

***

As I left work, I checked my voicemail on my cell phone on the way to my car, a red ’73 VW Superbeetle. A friend of mine named Desiree had left me a message, asking me to stop by when I got off work.

I’d met Desiree under somewhat, uh, kinky circumstances during my senior year of high-school, at a Halloween party thrown by one of my teachers, a transgender named Linda, who I had a brief affair with. Linda moved away to France later that summer, but for some strange reason Desiree and I became, um, well, friendly.

You can read into that whatever you’d like.

Anyway, I rolled back the sunroof and then drove over to her house. Desiree lived in one of the nicer areas of town, in an old Victorian-style house that she was busy fixing up herself. I think the house must’ve set her back more than I’d make in ten years at the video store. It had been confiscated in a drug bust, and when she bought it the whole thing looked ready to fall apart.

It looked pretty good now, I thought. Nicest house on the block.

I parked at the curb and locked the car, then trudged up a steep flight of steps to the front door and rang the bell. I heard a deep bong emanate from somewhere inside, and Desiree opened the door before I could put my arm down, shrieking my name in her husky voice.

“Devin!”

She pinched my cheeks and crushed me to her chest, smothering me with her breasts.

“Baby! Come to momma and give me a kiss, baby. Mm…now, watch the lipstick. I just put it on.”

She wiped a smear of bright red lipstick from my cheek with a fingertip. She held me at arms length and gave me a good once-over, batting her eyes and looking me up and down.

“Mm…Baby, you look good enough to eat. Come on in, honey, make yourself comfy. There’s someone here I want you to meet.”

Desiree’s as beautiful as a large, black transsexual could be, and she’s about as flamboyant as they come. When I first met her at the Halloween party, she was decked out like a flapper from the roaring twenties. I’m a pretty big guy, but she’s taller than I am, around six-six, and she’s got a figure most female porn stars would die for.

She looked great today, with her long, kinky curly hair pulled back in a tight braid, and she was dressed conservatively in a black pinstriped pantsuit and a crème silk blouse buttoned up just to her breasts. She was wearing high-heeled pumps and was even taller than usual. She towered over me.

Desiree and my teacher, Linda, had met working as call girls back in college and hit it off. Desiree was still in the industry. Currently, she owned a sex club called Kings and Queens, and judging by her home, she seemed to be doing pretty well for herself.

“Hey, Swan!” She called out, pulling me down with her onto an over-stuffed, antique velvet sofa. “Company! Devin’s here!”

“Coming!”

She rested a big hand on my thigh and snuggled close enough for me to smell her perfume. A door that led into her kitchen swung open and shut, and Desiree smiled at me again as a tall, reed-thin guy dressed in sweats with a huge, nappy afro walked through the dining room, munching on a bunch of grapes.

Desiree gave my thigh a little squeeze, sending a warm, tingly jolt up to my crotch, and introduced us.

“Dev, this is my nephew, Swan.”

Swan chewed his mouthful of grapes and acknowledged me with a sleepy nod. He sat and slouched down into the chair next to us, threw his leg over one of the chair arms.

“S’up.”

“Hey,” I said, and nodded back, cool as he was. Two could play it like that.

“Swan just graduated from NYU. Didn’t you, sweetie?”

“Yup.”

I blinked. “Film school?”

“Yup.”

This time, I nodded appreciatively. “Wow.”

“He’s going to be staying here for a couple months.” Desiree smiled. “I thought you two might like to get to know each other, since you’re both up and coming directors and what-not.”

“Auntie says you into Zombie flicks, man.”

I laughed. “Yeah. I am.”

“Cool.” He grinned, showing a ton of white teeth, and nodded again. “Who and what.”

It probably sounds crazy, but I knew what he was talking about. Desiree looked mystified.

“Romero. Night of the Living Dead.”

“What the hell are you two talking about?”

I grinned at Desiree. Swan and I both said, “Best movie ever.”

He ate another mouthful of grapes. She shook her head.

“All right. Looks like you two already have a lot in common.” She patted my leg, gave me a kiss and stood up. “I’ve got to head to the club. I’ll see y’all later.”

Desiree bent and kissed Swan.

“Bye, Auntie.”

Desiree grabbed a small clutch and blew us both kisses, then she was gone.

“So. How you know my Auntie?”

I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that.

“We, uh…”

“You sleepin’ with her?”

Hell.

“We…”

“You know that she a he, right?”

“Yeah…”

“You cool with that?”

“Sure.”

He nodded. “Man, the rest o’ my fam’ly don’t even know. It’s the big secret, right?”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” He scratched his nose. I could just feel the question coming. “So, straight up, man. You two gettin’ nasty?”

I licked my lips.

“We’ve slept together, yeah. But...”

“Damn, man.”

“But…” I interrupted him and kept on going. “…we’ve never had sex. With each other, I mean. There was someone else who…”

“Ah, yeah. I bet I know. Linda?”

Surprise. A little lightbulb popped in my head.

“You know Linda?”

He nodded. “Met her a couple times, when I was a kid. During holidays and shit, when I’d come out to visit Auntie. Always figured they were into some kinky shit.”

“You don’t even know.”

“Prob’ley right about that. Don’t know that I want to, either.” He waved his hand. “So, what is it you do?”

I told him, about work and school.

“I’m just finishing my last short film. Then…I don’t really know what I’m gonna do. I thought about moving to L.A., but…” I shrugged.

“Yeah. Me too. Go be where the action is, an’ all.”

“Yeah.”

He finished his grapes, chewing thoughtfully.

“Thing is, you can make movies wherever these days. Just need the equipment an’ some folks to do the grunt stuff.”

“Sure.”

“I got my own cameras.” He pointed upstairs. “Brought ‘em with me. Some nice digital. Looks as good as film up on screen.”

“I’ve been using a digital camera too.”

“Cool.” He sat up. “When Auntie told me ‘bout y’all, I got this idea. I talked it over with Auntie. She thought I might be onto something, wondered if you’d be into it too.”

“Oh yeah?” I leaned closer, interested. “What’s that?”

“Makin’ our own movies, man. ’Could mean some good money, if we’re lucky.”

I blinked. “Movies?”

“Yeah. You an’ me. We start our own production company, make our own shit.”

“You’re serious about this?”

“Hell yeah.”

I leaned back into the couch. “I don’t know. I mean…”

Swan had been relaxed for our entire conversation, thumping his leg on the side of the chair. But now he spun around so he was facing me.

“Look, bro. Here’s the thing. Auntie said she’d help with our cash flow. She’s loaded, man. I don’t wanna make some crappy indie shit that nobody but some tattooed patchouli smellin’ motherfuckers are gonna see at some outta the way art house theater. We need to get profitable, quick, or we dead in the water.”

That was the truth.

“So?”

“Auntie tells me you’re into some kinky shit.” He raised his eyebrows. “Me too, man. See, I don’t care if you’re fuckin’ her. It’s all cool. I think that’s why she introduced us.”

I didn’t see where this was going, and said so.

“I’m talkin’ about making porno’s.”

I blinked again. He grinned, showing me all those teeth.

“Y’know, dudes and chicks, chicks and chicks. Chicks with dicks. Hell, chicks with fuckin’ goats! Whatever we can get away with.”

“You’re serious?”

“How ‘bout we go get some grub, an’ I’ll let you in on what I come up with so far.”

I thought about it. “There’s a club not to far from here with a bar.”

“Food okay?”

“They make a sloppy gyros.”

“Damn. Okay.”

We both stood up. I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Porn, huh?”

“Yup.” Swan nodded. His afro bobbed back and forth. “An’ the crazier shit, the better.”

He stuck out his hand, and after a second, we shook.

“All right. Sounds cool to me.”

He grinned.

“Right on. Damn, partner. I’m starved. Let’s eat.”

***

I drove. Swan had to rack the seat back as far as it would go and bend himself almost in half, but he managed to squeeze inside the beetle. It was still pretty early, so the club was quiet when we got there. I didn’t see anybody I knew yet either, but the souvlaki joint was packed. We could hear the buzz of conversation from the curb.

Inside, I nodded to the Asian guy working the counter, Chucky. He slapped my hand, and Swan and I each ordered a large lamb souvlaki with veggies and extra feta. We got a couple drinks and found two empty stools at the skinny bar along the back wall.

Between bites of hot, meaty, drippy goodness, we slurped on cold beer and got to know each other, almost shouting to be heard over the music from the blues CD blaring out of the beatbox on the counter.

“I was born and raised in Chicago,” Swan said, licking at a blob of greasy sauce running down his wrist. “My pop left and moved to Brooklyn when I was little, so I spent summers with him, hangin’ out in the city. Auntie’s my mom’s…uh…” He tried to come up with the right word, then just grinned and shrugged. “Well. You know. Her brother. His real name is Shakim.”

“Shakim?” I blinked.

Swan laughed and nodded. “Yup. I think my Gramma wanted him to go into politics, get radical, join the Panthers or somethin’, you know? Mom says she always knew he was gay, even when he was a kid. But nobody but me knows what he’s up to nowadays, what with the titties an’ all.”

“So you’d come here and visit?”

“Mm. Yep. On vacations and whatnot.” He tipped back his beer and washed another bite down. “Mom was okay with that. She and Auntie were close as kids, so she trusts him. My Pop thinks he’s fucked up, but I could give a shit about his opinion. The motherfucker’s been a junkie since he was a kid. I figure, what the hell kind of truth can he show me?”

I noticed that Swan was slowly losing the hip-hop attitude, the longer we talked. Maybe he was getting more comfortable around me. I finished my sandwich, wiped my hands and shrugged.

“I don’t know. My dad’s drinking himself into the ground. I haven’t been able to talk to him about anything for a long time.”

Swan chuckled.

“See? All my old man taught me was to be scared shitless of needles. Maybe that’s enough.” He tipped his beer bottle at me. “You still drink, though?”

“Not usually.”

“Special occasions?”

“Only if it tastes right with whatever I’m eating.”

He studied me, giving me that sleepy took. Then he took another sip and grinned. “The beer does wash the Greek down nice, all right.” He polished off the rest of his bottle and wiped his mouth. “So Auntie says y’all spend the summer together in France?”

“Yeah. We’ve gone the last couple of years. Our…mutual friend lives there.’

“Cool. I’ve been all over the place, myself. Spent six months after high school, bumpin’ around Europe. Spent some time working as a chef at a bread and breakfast in France. Lived in Japan for a few months. That was crazy.” He pointed at the remains of our food. “Greece, too. Hot women, there, man. Whoo!”

“So how long have you had this…idea?”

“About the porn?”

“Yeah.”

Swan stared at the dozens of concert flyers pasted on the wall in front of us. For the first time, he really opened his eyes, and he smiled an easy, slow smile.

“Forever, man. For as long as I can remember.”

We dumped our garbage, and walked out onto the street to the disjointed rumble of music from inside the club. A band doing a sound check. A deep base line rattled the store windows around us, and I heard a muffled voice I recognized, singing through the PA system.

“Hey, you want to meet some friends of mine?”

“Sure.”

ScaryBrotha’s was a converted movie theater that the city had been ready to tear down. Some friends of mine that I’ve known since high school, Dave and Byron, bought it for about a dollar a few years ago and were slowly renovating it into a music venue.

They’d fixed the building up bit by bit, installed a full bar along with the little restaurant, and opened it up to the public about a year ago.

We got in line, but Suzie, the girl working the entry, caught my eye and waved me up. She put everyone else in line on hold; not caring that it pissed everybody off. She flipped open the bottom door to the ticket booth and gave me a hug. The club’s bouncer, a big, scary biker dude named Victor, stood like a rock behind her. He folded his huge arms across his chest, growled like a rabid wolf and glared at us out from under his sunglasses.

I glared back, and they both broke up.

“Dev!” Victor slammed me on the back with a hand the size of a football. “Been a long time since you dropped by, you little motherfucker!”

Suzie was still hugging me, going “bbbbbrrrrrrumsky!” into my chest.

“Just been busy.” I grinned and shrugged. “You know how it is.”

“You here to see K.C.?”

“We just ate next door...”

I pointed to Swan, who was slouching against the brick wall. He looked asleep on his feet. I realized the sleepy-look thing was how he reacted when he was in an uncomfortable situation. Like meeting new people.

“…and we heard some of the sound check.”

“Yah. I can smell. Here, c’mon in. They’ll be starting in a few minutes.”

Suzie let me go and stamped my hand. Swan peeled himself off the wall to follow me in, but Victor stopped him, strong-arming him with a palm to his chest. There was a hollow thump, and Swan grunted.

“Hey man,” Victor tried to peer into Swans’ heavy-lidded eyes. “You high or something?” He glanced at me. “You know we don’t let in anybody who’s fucked up. It’s bad for business.”

They were almost the same height, but Victor outweighed Swan by probably two hundred pounds of pure, lean, vicious-dog style muscle. Swan was so skinny; Victor’s hand covered most of his chest.

“No, he’s…”

I got that far, before Swan casually grabbed one of Victor’s fingers and twisted. There was a loud pop, and then Victor bent double, shrieking like a girl.

“Oww! Hey! Leggo!”

Swan let go. Just that fast. But his eyes were open now, and gleaming. Victor was holding the finger Swan had tweaked. It was bent at a bad angle.

“Sorry man. I don’t like people touching me.”

“No shit.” Suzie stared at him in amazement. The crowd around us was suddenly really quiet.

“Here, let me fix that.”

Victor looked like he wanted to run and hide as Swan reached for him.

“Serious, man. It’s just dislocated. We can pop it right back, no problem.”

Another loud pop. I saw Victor wince, and then he sighed, held his hand in front of his face and wiggled his fingers. Swan stepped back.

“There. All fixed.”

“Goddamn.” He flexed his hand again, and finally grinned at Swan. “Get your ass inside, before I call the cops.”

Suzie stamped Swan, and I heard Victor muttering something about those damn kids as we disappeared through the doors.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Swan said, following me through the growing crowd of pierced hipsters. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

What could I say? “Okay.”

“Seriously. I just reacted, you know?”

I nodded again. “Okay.”

“I just freaked you out, didn’t I?”

“Yeah. A little.”

“Shit. I was just tryin’ to keep a low profile.”

“Right.”

“Auntie taught me all that stuff. She used to be really into martial arts. Thought I’d need to know how to protect myself, you know? With my pop leavin’ me alone in a fuckin’ crack house all the time.” His lip turned up in a snarl. “She was right. Knowin’ the shit helped. If the homie’s knew you were like Bruce Lee, they didn’t fuck with you as much. Got respect the first time I kicked somebody’s ass.”

“Well, I think you made an impression.”

“Aw, fuck.”

We turned and stepped into the main floor of the club. There was a bar that ran along the back wall, that served light drinks like coffee and soda, and there were tables that seated three or four people roped off along the side. The stage was down front. Dave and Byron had kept the theater’s original stage, but reinforced it for safety, so the bands could jump around all they wanted. The dressing rooms for the acts were upstairs, along with another, full bar and a balcony for the VIPS; the pretty, important people could hang out and pose while they mingled with the stars, and not rub elbows with us common folk.

I didn’t think we’d find my buddies up there. I was right.

I paused and peered over the sea of heads, bobbing to the canned house music thumping out of the speakers, some reggae. I only had to scan half the room before I saw them. Dave and KC were hanging out with some other folks I knew, all grouped together at the tables down in front, not far from the stage. For some reason, Byron wasn’t around tonight. He was probably out dorking one of his honeys.

I went to school with all of them, KC too: he was a chubby gay white boy with a monster singing voice. Some local music critic recently described his voice as sounding like Etta James soaked with warm honey.

That’s about right, I think.

KC wanted to be a soul diva since he was five, and he started a band with our buddy Porter during college. They called themselves maybe five different things before deciding on the Soul Disciples. Now they’ve been playing clubs around town for a while, attracting bunches of faithful groupies who flock to see them play. Seems like we weren’t the only crowd who missed being able to go out and groove to a real band and not have to deal with gang-bangers and bad rap acts. Like KC says, it’s all about Soul.

They’ve been rewarded by finally attracting some serious label attention.

KC waved when he saw me.

“Dev-Dev!”

He was already sweating, probably from goofing around during the equipment check. He doesn’t hold back when he’s performing, even for the few minutes it probably took the club engineer to check the lights and the sound. By the end of a show, he’s usually guzzling pitchers of warm lemon water to help ease his throat.

The band hoped he could keep his voice until they cut their demo.

I just hoped he didn’t have a heart attack on stage.

I kind of half-turned to Swan, who was taking everything in, squinting in the black light and checking out the murals painted on the wall and the ceilings. Dave had them commissioned from a bunch of starving local artists, in exchange for VIP passes to the club. There were probably a few of them hanging out upstairs now.

“Damn. Some of this shit is pretty good.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Damn,” he said again. “I’d pay just to look at some of this stuff.”

Suddenly, I wanted to warn him about my sex life, which was full of sensitive information my friends just didn’t need to know. “Hey, Swan, I just want you to make sure that…well, most of my friends know that I screwed one of our high school teachers, okay? But they don’t know anything about Desiree, or…”

He grinned. “You mean you’ve never brought my Auntie here on a date?”

I shook my head.

“Alright, then. I got it. Don’t bring up the chicks with dicks thing. Right?”

“Right.”

“What about the business? They got anything against us being entrepreneurs?”

“I think they’ll be okay with that.”

“Cool.”

So I made another set of introductions, this time with no dislocated fingers. Swan and Dave hit it off right away. Dave was originally from back east too, and he’d gone to art school in New York for a year before transferring back here. We made small talk for awhile, then KC and Porter had to go to work.

The band started off with a nice, slow groove, the same song they used for the sound check. Dave ordered us a round of drinks on the house, and then folks around us started dancing. Swan drank and bobbed his head. His eyes were wide open. I think he was enjoying himself.

Dave knew Suzie had a crush on me, so he got some other employee to give her a break. She wandered in to check out the music. Dave waved her over and she sat next to me. I ordered her a beer, and we spent the rest of the night drinking and necking, then eventually we were groping each other on the dance floor.

I remember Swan calling it a night, late into the band’s second set. He patted my shoulder and left with some girl who Suzie knew, named T.J. He checked Suzie out as she was grinding her ass into me.

He winked and made a ‘mm-mm!’ sound, then T.J. was pulling him out the door.

The band finished up not too long after that, and the bartender shouted for last call around two a.m. And that’s when Suzie pulled me out of the club and dragged me back to her place for a nightcap.

I’d like to say that the sex would start here, for those of you who are wondering when the hell I’m gonna get to it. And it probably would, if I could remember much else after we got to Suzie’s apartment. But I don’t, really. Except that she has a little tattoo of a bug chewing on a leaf on the inside of her left thigh.

Oh, yeah. And her clit’s pierced.

I only remember that because she didn’t warn me. So I cut up my tongue, and it bled like a motherfucker. I could barely eat the next day.

So, with all due apologies, hold onto those boners, or whatever, and I’ll just skip ahead a bit, several Friday nights down the road.

***

Weekends and holidays at the store are a bitch, from a staffing perspective, insofar as it’s generally our busiest time (which is good). But on the other hand, seeing that most of my employee’s tend to be high school kids who all decide they suddenly need Friday night off all at the same time, it’s also the most aggravating.

Especially when you get two of them who are supposed to be working (one of them a freakin’ half-an-hour ago), but they both mysteriously get – cough - cough – sick at exactly the same time. Funny how that works, huh? The frustration’s enough to make a guy want to bomb the movie theaters, or wherever it is teenagers hang out these days. But that wouldn’t work; I’d just have to find some real employees.

Like that’s gonna happen.

So, just as I was slamming the phone down after the second ‘I’m calling in sick (this one actually had his mom do it for him.) phone calls, Stephanie walked through the door with three or four out of control little boys at her heels.

And guess what? She was wearing a swim suit: a tight, red one-piece, with a fluffy, flowery-patterned beach towel wrapped around her hips.

They were all wearing swimming suits. Stephanie’s hair was still damp, hanging in thick wet strands down her back. The kids ran screaming over to the games (No, you say. Not the games. Anything but the games. Dev, remember what happened the last time you told us about kids in the game section? Shit…), and then a couple of things happened at once.

While I was busy grumbling about assholes fucking around with me, Steph (as I’ve come to call her) sauntered over to the counter. She grinned when she saw my face, and I got a big fucking boner when I looked over and saw her big fucking tits packed into her wet, clinging swimsuit.

Thinking quickly, I pushed my crotch into the counter to try and hide my erection, which was, for all intents and purposes, completely impossible as my dick was suddenly trying to rip its way out of my trousers. By rubbing my cock up against the Formica, I just managed to escalate the problem.

So to speak. The wave of horniness that hit me was so intense, I think I actually groaned.

“Hey.” She said.

“Hey Steph.”

Then she made everything worse by running her hands through her hair, combing it back with her fingertips. It looked casual, but thinking back on the gesture, I wonder if she did it on purpose. I’m still not sure.

This time, I know I sighed. But I tried to be cool, to play it casual.

But, you know…

I was having a really, really hard time not staring at her boobs. I could see her nipples, for God’s sake. Every cold little bump. They were right there. Poing! Hard as little pebbles, poking out at me, just-like-that.

JesusChristAlmighty, this was bad.

She’s one of your employees, I thought. Get a fucking grip. I had to come up with something to say, other than telling her how nice her boobies were.

I didn’t get off to a swinging start, conversationally.

“So, uh, you guys go swimming?”

See?

“Yep.” She grinned. “How’d you guess?”

“I think it was the towel.”

I pointed to her belly, and my eyes drifted that way too, and I realized she wasn’t as chubby as maybe I thought. She was thick, but solid. Then my dick throbbed, and I actually got so dizzy I had to cling to the edge of the counter to keep from keeling over.

I took a deep breath, and swallowed hard.

“It’s a nice touch.”

“Thanks.” She shook her hair back and grinned again. “Is everything okay?” She asked. “You looked like you wanted to kill somebody when we came in.”

“Yeah, well. Ben and Norm just called in.”

“Really? So who’s working tonight?”

I shrugged miserably. “Jenny’s due in at four, but she can’t close. That was supposed to be Ben’s shift. I already tried Lindsay, but she’s out of town until tomorrow, so…” I shrugged again. “Looks like I’m pulling a double tonight. I…”

I trailed off. Steph was staring at something behind me, trying not to giggle. It looked like she was blushing. I turned around, looked through the big picture windows into the parking lot. There was a woman sitting in a minivan, grinning at me.

She waved.

I waved back. The woman made a face and pointed frantically at something behind me. I whipped around, and found Steph sticking her tongue out at her.

“Who’s that?” I asked. Steph made another face and tried to blow it off.

“That’s my mom. She just picked me and my brothers up from the pool.” It was Steph’s turn to sigh. “She’s teasing me.”

“About what?”

“Nothing. She’s just being an idiot.”

I glanced over at the gang of kids dripping poolwater around on my floor.

“So…” I looked back at Steph, who was silently mouthing something that looked like ‘shut up’ towards her mom. “Those are all your brothers?”

She stood up a little straighter, caught in the act.

“Oh, no, those are my little brothers.”

I blinked. “You mean…there’s more?”

“Yeah,” She nodded. “I’ve got three older brothers too.”

“Wow. Eight kids?”

“Yeah. It’s a Catholic thing.”

“I see.” I shook my head, amazed. “Must get crazy during dinnertime.”

She laughed. It made her boobs jiggle. I tried to keep my mind on the subject.

“Where do you all sleep?”

She held up two fingers. “Two houses. My older brothers live in a house across the street from where we live.”

“Oh.” I said, and nodded sagely, like everyone I knew had a family of eight kids that lived in multiple dwellings. “That makes sense.”

It was Stephanie that brought the topic back to my staffing predicament. She took me by surprise, and said:

“So, do you need help tonight? I could come in and help close, if you want.”

Wow. Maybe I’ve actually gone and hired one of those real employees I’d wondered about.

“Are you sure? I mean, we won’t be getting out till after two, especially if you want me to show you how to close.”

“Yeah, it’s okay. I don’t really have anything to do.” She tilted her head down and kind of peeked out from under her eyebrows. “I mean, I’d rather make some money then listen to my little brothers fight, you know? I could work tomorrow, too, and Sunday…”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

“Great!” She broke into a huge grin. “Just let me get these guys some movies, and I’ll go home and change…”

“Ah.” I waved a hand. “It’s okay. You could work like that.”

She laughed and went to gather her brothers. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

I wasn’t kidding. I would’ve loved if she’d just hung out in her swimsuit. But then, the way my dick was sucking all of the blood from my head, I’d probably just pass out.

***

Stephanie was as good as her word. Barely half an hour later, her mom pulled back up in the van and dropped her off. Jennifer, my other employee, surprised me and came in early too. I hooked them both up with their jobs for the evening, and then we had a huge rush of business between five and seven o’clock. The girls did a great job, even Stephanie, although she’d only been training a few weeks.

The flood eventually tapered off enough for me to run and grab some dinner at the market we shared the parking lot with. I ordered a sandwich and soup at the deli counter, then just kind of zoned out while the clerk made my food. I was so tired and hungry and spaced out I didn’t even notice Nancy sneaking up on me until she bumped my elbow with hers. She almost tipped me over.

“Hi.” She grinned at me. “Fancy seeing you here.”

I almost didn’t recognize her. She looked…younger than usual, I guess. She was wearing a faded purple denim jacket over a satiny, multi-colored blouse, and a pair of old jeans and sandals. I caught a whiff of perfume, and noticed that she was wearing a nice pearl necklace with matching earrings.

“Hi yourself.”

“Just getting off work?”

I tried to laugh, but it came out like a snort. “Actually, I get to go back after this.”

“Somebody call in sick?”

Another snort. “Sounds like you know what I’m going through.”

She smiled. She was wearing makeup, too. And no glasses…contacts, maybe?

“You just usually aren’t around here this late. And I thought you didn’t live close by…”

“Mm-m. I don’t, really.” I said slowly. My mind was still focused on how good she looked.

Something must’ve showed on my face, because she stepped back and spread her arms, then gave me a funny look.

“Do I have something on me?”

“What?” I realized I was staring, and blinked a couple times. “No. No, you just look…really nice tonight.”

I think I caught her off guard. This time she blinked, then she smiled.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Then there was an awkward silence. A short one, but still…

“So…” I cleared my throat. “What are you up to tonight? Why are you so dressed up?”

I guess it was maybe the wrong thing to ask. Her face kind of fell, and she started to look more like the Nancy I remembered.

“Dan and I were going out to eat.” She heaved a sigh. “But he got called away for the weekend. There was a problem with one of his new fix-ups in Bend. The plumbing burst, or something like that, so he’s driving down for the weekend to try to fix it.”

“Oh.”

“So here I am.” She grinned again and kind of bounced her arms up and down, slapping her hips with the palms of her hands. I think she was trying to be funny, but she just managed to look even sadder. “Alone again, like usual. I thought maybe I’d just find something quick to eat and grab a movie for tonight, instead…”

I really didn’t know what to say to that. I managed a weak, “Sometimes stuff happens, I guess.”

Nancy shrugged, and we had yet another uncomfortable silence. Can you read where this is going? I thought I could too, but I still surprised myself when I opened my big mouth again. We waited together while the clerk rang me up, and then:

“So, he’s going to be gone all weekend?”

“Uh-huh. He thought he’d be back Tuesday or Wednesday.”

Here it goes…

“Well,” I handed the clerk a twenty, took my food and felt the palms of my hands get sweaty. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow…” Nancy repeated, with more surprised blinking. “Um, nothing…”

“You know, I’m off tomorrow, and I don’t have anything planned either. How would you like to go to dinner and catch a movie…?”

For a second I thought she was going to slap me. I really did. But then she smiled again, and the years seemed to just melt away.

“Okay…”

***

I walked back to the store in a daze and was going to head straight into my office and eat, but somebody was calling my name. Swan was waiting at the counter with his sleepy look in place, chatting up Jennifer. Stephanie was busy at one of the computer terminals, checking in returns. She peeked up and gave me one of her little grins.

“What’s goin’ on, brother-man?” Swan grinned, we slapped hands. “Tried to call, but these fine young ladies said you were out eatin’.” He stuffed his hands back into his pockets. “Why you still here, man?”

“Long story.”

“Like that, huh? Some geek call and say they sick, can’t come in an’ shit?”

“Yep.”

“So you gonna be closin’ up shop tonight, huh?”

“Yep.”

He winked at Jen. Stephanie hid another grin. “Sorry, man. That’s bullshit.”

“Yep.”

“Y’all ain’t real talkative when you’re pissed off, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Okay. That’s cool.” He frowned like Al Pacino in Scarface, nodded. “But y’all make me wonder why I even came by, with an attitude like that.” He sniffed the air. “Somethin’ smells good. What’choo got there?”

“Breakfast.” I jerked my head towards my office. “Come on back while I eat.”

“Cool,” he said, and ambled along behind me, looking an awful lot like a skinny, talking tree. He tipped up on his toes and peered back at the counter while I unlocked the door. “You know breakfast was a long time ago, don’t you?” I glared at Swan, trying to melt him into the floor with my super heat ray vision. He just grinned again. “Dev, you got some hotties workin’ for you man.”

I opened the door and he followed me in, walked around the little space looking at movie posters. I opened my bag and dug out my dinner. “You think?”

“Hell, yeah.” He plopped down in the other chair. “Damn that smells good…it’s a lotta food, too. Man, you can’t eat all that. Here, gimme a bite…”

I gave him half of my sandwich, hoping it would shut him up long enough for me to eat. I dug into my soup, and we ate in companionable silence for a minute. Then he piped up again. “You hate this place so much, why don’t you just quit?”

“I can’t do that…”

“Sure you can. Just call up the motherfucker who owns this place, and say ‘I quit’. Or you can send them a nice, typed letter, if you wanna be a sucker about it.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why not?”

“I need the money. I’ve got bills…”

“Man, that’s pussy shit. There’s so much other stuff you could do…hell, Dave was tellin’ me he offered you a job doing advertising for the club. Making commercials and whatnot. KC wants you to direct a video…and I’ve seen the design work you did for Auntie…Hell. You’re just wasting time her, man.”

“Swan, all that stuff won’t pay my tuition, or my rent. It helps, but…”

He took a huge bite of sandwich and washed it down with a gulp from my soda. “I’m just sayin’ that you’ve got options. Lord knows I wouldn’t wanna interrupt your cash flow. How else am I gonna bum food off’a you?”

I snorted.

“Man, you don’t have to deal with the shit goin’ on here, if you don’t want to. Besides…you say you want to make movies. Right?”

“Yeah, of course.” I nodded. “I wouldn’t have spent a buttload of money on school if I didn’t.”

“Then why don’t you think spending twelve hour days here is a waste of your time?”

I didn’t have an answer for that. He was right. I sighed and gave him the rest of my soup.

“What, you don’t want that? You full?”

“It’s all yours.”

“Thanks.” He took a slurp. “Mm. That’s good. Hey Dev, you know I’m just fuckin’ with you. Right? I understand about keeping commitments and all that.”

“Yeah, I know. But you’re right. Dave’s been telling me the same thing for years.”

“Wise man, brother Dave.” More slurping. “But you do have some fringe benefits.”

“What’s that.”

He waved his hand towards the door. “Like those girls out there man. They dig you. And that Stephanie girl, she really likes you, you know that?”

I finally laughed. “Right.”

“Seriously, man. I was out there scammin’ on…on…what’s her name?”

“Jennifer?”

“Yeah, yeah. Jennifer. She was tellin’ me about your flaky employees fuckin’ with you, then Stephanie gets all embarrassed and says she’s gonna help you close up tonight. You get that? ‘Help you close up.’ She digs you, man. I can tell. I bet you could fuck her right here on your desk.”

“She works for me. Won’t happen.”

He gave me the Scarface frown again. “H’okay, boss. Whatever.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Hey,” he leaned over, “Why don’t we hook up some of those little video camera’s in here? We can hide ‘em up there in the lights, an’ in the bathrooms and whatnot. That way if you do screw her we can catch it on tape.”

I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. He gave me an innocent shrug.

“What? We’re filmmakers, man. Remember? People are into that spy-cam shit. You think it won’t work?”

“I think it’s a bad idea. You say stuff like that, and I hear the sound of a heavy, barred door slamming closed on a jail cell.”

He laughed and sat back. “Dev, you worry too damn much.”

“Maybe. But I really think I prefer not to go to jail.”

“There are many prisons, Grasshopper. The worst prison is always in the mind.”

“Wow. That’s deep. Get it off a fortune cookie?”

“Hell, yeah. Auntie and I had some smokin’ take out from this little Chinese place by her house. Mm-m.” Swan finished off his half of the sandwich and started eyeing the rest of mine I wrapped a protective arm around the chunk of soggy bread and smacked his hand into the desk.

“Leave it alone. You already ate most of my dinner. How the hell do you eat so much?”

“I thought you said this was breakfast?” I groaned. “Man, you know I’m a growin’ boy. I gotta keep up my strength.” He patted his stomach and backed off, a little. “So…you really gonna be here late?”

“Yeah.”

“Too bad. I was gonna meet T.J. tonight, maybe hang out over at Dave’s place, catch some music.” He slapped a tune out on the desk with his hands. “She’s down with makin’ a movie. I was gonna see if you thought maybe you could hook up with that Suzie girl tonight. Maybe she might wanna be a star too?”

It took a second for that to sink in.

“You’re gonna shoot tonight…with T.J.?”

He grinned. “Oh, yeah. I would’a taped some that night we all met, but I didn’t have a camera with me. She called me a couple days ago and we hooked up. She’s into it man. This is the beginning.”

“Wow.” I sat back in my chair, dumbfounded.

“Yeah. You should come with us, you know, hang out. This could be our first break, man.”

“Wish I could. Next time, sure, but I can’t tonight.”

“All right. I understand.” Swan stood up. “Duty calls, and all that. Hey, you sure about that spy-cam? We could hook one up in the bathroom too…”

“No way.”

He held up his hands. “Right. I won’t push it, then. But try to get hold of Suzie. T.J. says she’s freaky as shit. Getting both those girls together’ll blister my socks and make us rich.”

“I’ll call her this weekend.”

“Right on.”

Then I thought of something. “Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“I’ve got a date tomorrow.”

“For real?”

I leaned back in my chair, grinning. “Yeah. You wanna make some movies about old chicks?”

“How old?”

“Fifties. She’s a customer. I asked her out when I was over at the store.”

“Really? You gonna fuck her?”

I shrugged. “I’m gonna give it a shot.”

“She know about us?”

I shook my head.

“She married?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah.”

“He know about this?”

“Nooo.”

“Good. You had me sweatin’ there for a sec. Man. I had you all wrong. You do like to live dangerous. So…how you gonna work it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well all right. We’ll play it by ear. So now we got us a couple things on the plate. That’s cool.” Swan opened the door, letting in a rush of cool air. “Okay. I’m outta here. Check you later, baby.” He stepped out, then peeked back in. I could see Stephanie, behind him with her back to the door, bent over and putting away movies. He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do…”

***

We close late on weekends, at one in the morning. It usually takes about an hour to clean up, close everything down and count out our receipts for the day. Right at one I locked the doors and turned off the lights and the ‘open’ signs, then Stephanie and I got to work. I went over the closing checklist with her, explaining the process and helping her along, step by step.

I emphasized that she needed to be really careful, because she’d be working alone the couple evenings. We’d had people hide in the store before, and I didn’t want anything to happen to her.

She did pretty well, yet again, and we finished with everything but the deposits by twenty to two. We ran the closeout reports and pulled all the till drawers, and went back into the office to count out and go over the nightly paperwork. I sat her down at the desk with the computer and she got busy.

By that time, I’d been at work since nine o’clock that morning, and up since seven. I dragged the other chair around the desk behind Stephanie in case she had any questions, sat down and promptly fell asleep.

I woke up to her nudging my knee.

“Hey, Dev? I don’t know what to do here…?”

I blinked, totally discombobulated, and quickly checked my chin for drool.

All dry.

God, I hoped I hadn’t been snoring.

“Where? I mumbled.

I pushed out of the chair and leaned over her shoulder to have a look.

“Right here…” She pointed and trailed off, staring blankly at some vague space around my jawline. I started blabbing about adding up certain columns when I realized she wasn’t listening to a word I was saying.

“Steph…?”

She was just inches away from me, smiling this sweet little smile. Her head was tilted a little to one side, and she was still staring at me, her eyelids fluttering and her chest heaving, far off in some other world.

We were so close I could have kissed her. I wanted to. I wanted to tangle my fingers in her hair and pull her close, press my mouth against hers. I wanted to kiss her and nibble her on her ears and lightly run my lips down to the base of her throat. I wanted to watch her eyes close and hear her gasp for breath as I reached down and gently pulled up her shirt and touched her breasts…

One of us moaned, softly. I don’t think it was me.

In that very brief moment, I knew Swan was right, that I could probably do all those nasty things that were running through my head and more. I knew that if I wanted to, I could lift her up and bend her over the table, slowly unbutton her pants and tug them down around her ankles.I knew she’d be soft and warm and wet, that her panties would stick, just a little, as I pulled them down…

But I didn’t.

“Steph…? Are you okay?”

She blinked herself awake, and I saw a slow blush creep up her neck. “Oh. Yeah, I just needed to make sure I was doing this right…”

***

Somehow, we got through our little moment, and finished up just after two in the morning. Stephanie used the phone at the front counter to call for her ride while I got my shit together, and she was still there with the receiver stuck to her ear when I locked the office door. I raised my eyebrow and she gave me a frustrated shrug.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Nobody’s answering.” She hung up and dialed again. “Shit.”

At the front door I flipped off all the lights and got her new set of store keys ready. We stood there in the dark together, waiting. She was starting to look really upset.

“I think they’re all asleep.”

“Do you need a ride?”

“Um…”

“It’s not a problem.”

“Let me try again.”

She dialed. I unshouldered my pack with my computer and cameras and set my gear on the counter. She crossed her arms and tapped a fingernail on her front teeth. I waved at someone returning some DVD’s in our after-hours dropbox.

“Shit. I can’t believe it. They forgot about me.”

“C’mon, Steph.” I picked up my stuff again, and headed for the door. “Let’s go.”

“Really? It’s okay?” She grabbed her bag, a big leather thing that probably had enough space in it for a scooter, if not a small car, and slung it over her shoulder.

“Yeah. Of course it’s okay. It’s the least I can do for offering to help me out this weekend. Here, you need to know this.” I punched in my alarm code. “Got it? You can use that code when you leave tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“You get to lock up.”

I handed her the spare set of keys.

We checked to make sure the store was locked tight, then we crossed the parking lot to my VW. I unlocked the car and tossed my bag behind my seat. Steph slid into the passenger seat and dropped her bag on the floor between her feet.

She was tucking a stray curl of hair behind her ear when I sat down and started the engine. It was still warm out, so I cranked back the sunroof while she looked around at interior of the old car.

“This is…cute.”

I gave her a he-man look and signaled, turning out into the street. “Cute, huh?”

“Yeah.” She grinned.

“Okay, then. Mock my car if you want to. I don’t need to give you a ride, you know.”

“Oo. Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend the big, macho car.”

“It takes insults very personally.”

“I can tell.”

I turned on the stereo. KC’s voice drifted out over the speakers, a copy of an acoustic gig the band dubbed a few months ago. My stomach rumbled, loud enough for Stephanie to hear it, and I realized it had been hours since the little sandwich I’d split with Swan.

She stared at my belly and laughed.

“Hungry?” She asked.

“Oh, yeah.” I glanced over at her. “How about you?”

A small shrug.

“If you want to grab a bite, I know a great place that’s open really late.” My stomach growled again, even louder. “Unless you need to get home right away…”

She was still laughing, and my stomach was still rumbling. “No…I mean, I like to go…”

“Good.” I said. “Because I don’t know if I’d make it home...”

The ‘place’ was a trendy, Cajun style bar and grill called YoMomma’s that was open until at least four a.m. on weekends. They served stuff like alligator jambalaya and spicy mac-and-cheese for the late-night club crowd, and they had killer deserts to go along with a huge selection of booze.

And because there were so few restaurants in town that were still open at this hour, they were always jumpin’. Tonight was no exception. There was a line at the door that stretched a half a block long. Fortunately for us, most of them were probably waiting for a spot in the bar, not the restaurant. I figured we’d only have to wait ten, fifteen minutes.

I parked the car at the curb across the street and killed the engine. Stephanie was looking out her window, at the crowd of hipsters.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Um. I don’t think I can go in there…”

Then remembered something I’d said to Swan earlier, about Stephanie’s age.

“Oh, hey. Don’t worry, I know you’re eighteen, but that’s okay, I know the owner. You’ll be fine, as long as you’re with me.” I winked at her. “And you don’t drink.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s a problem too.”

“What’s wrong?"

She turned away from the sea of black leather, tattoos and body piercings, and glanced down at her red polo work shirt, her khaki Capri pants and her tennis shoes.

“I feel like a dork.”

“Why?” I gave her a critical inspection. She looked good to me. “You look fine.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

I shrugged. “I don’t care if you don’t have a tattoo on your forehead. Nobody here will either.”

Stephanie shook her head at me like I was a complete idiot. I was going to tell her to forget about it, and then she took a deep breath and stripped off her work shirt, right there in the car.

Underneath her shirt she was wearing a lacy, black satin camisole. With no bra.

Basically, instant boner for me.

“There,” she said, and tucked her shirt in her bag.

“Wow.” I think is what I said. I can’t really remember. I was too busy staring at her boobs.

“Okay. This’ll work.” She grinned and opened her door. “Let’s go.”

I scrambled out of the car after her, and she followed me across the street. I started to sweat, cold drops trickling down my sides, and I was wondering why it was suddenly so warm out when I realized that Stephanie was so short, every time I looked down to talk to her, I found myself staring right down between her breasts. Stephanie eyed the crowd some more.

“They’re really crowded.”

“Always.”

I was going to see about a table, but I heard my name called. I half-turned and saw a flash of curly red hair, and someone pounced on me.

Suzie.

“Dev! Hey, baby!”

She drunkenly pushed by Stephanie, threw her arms around my neck and shoved her tongue in my mouth. I could taste the booze. Stephanie went from bright-eyed and happy to looking like she wanted to run and cry, just that fast.

She took a step backwards.

“Suzie…”

I tried to gently disengage myself and failed miserably, so I just took hold of Suzie’s arms and pushed. She stumbled and almost fell. She would have too, if I hadn’t been holding her up. Then two more people disengaged from the line.

Swan and T.J.

They were stuck together at the hip. Swan had a video camera in his free hand, recording the whole scene, and was wiggling his eyebrows at Stephanie and showing me all of his teeth.

“What’s up, baby?” They wobbled over. “We were just leaving. Y’all here for drinks?”

T.J. glared at Stephanie, who had enough gumption to glare right back at her.

“No…we’re just going to grab a bite to eat, then we’re going home.”

“So who’s this?” Apparently not getting the reaction she wanted from Stephanie, T.J. interrupted and turned the glare on me. “Your little sister?”

“Y’all could hang with us.” Swan ignored her. “We were just heading back to T.J.’s to have a little fun…”

I stepped closer to Stephanie and put my hand on her back. I felt her muscles tense underneath the thin satin camisole, but then she relaxed. I rubbed her back in a small circle, enjoying the feel of the material against her skin.

When I realized what I was doing, I dropped my hand like she was on fire and hoped this would all end soon. T.J. glared. Stephanie looked up at me with those big brown eyes, wondering why I stopped.

Swan kept up with the eyebrow wiggles.

T.J was obviously pissed and looked like she was ready to rip off my nipples, but Suzie had forgotten all about me and was already wandering away, hitting up some goof-ball with a twig stuck through his nose for a smoke.

“Oh, God. Suzie!” She shouted. “Goddamnit, knock it off!”

T.J. gave me another look that told me she was willing to make me eat my nards, but took off to babysit her friend, who was now busy groping Twig-boy. We all watched T.J. wobble away in her high heels. She was probably just as drunk as Suzie.

I doubted either of them would remember much in the morning.

I took Stephanie by the hand. Her palm was warm and moist. I thought that maybe she’d pull away from me, but she scooted even closer, brushing up against my hips, and clenched my fingers tight. I sighed and finally answered Swan.

“I don’t think so. Maybe some other time.”

“Cool. All right, then.” Swan noticed our hands, shook the camera. “I’m gonna get us a movie.” He smiled, having to look about four feet down just to see Stephanie’s face, and he actually bowed. His eyes were wide and bloodshot. “Y’all have a good night.”

A few feet away, T.J. was trying to pull Suzie off the sidewalk, where she was flopping around, trying to unbuckle Twig-boys’ belt. T.J. started shouting for Swan to come and help.

“Lovely ladies, huh?” He said, and looked at me, glanced at my hand, knotted in Stephanie’s. “Hey, man…” he nudged me. “Told you.”

Stephanie didn’t notice; she was too busy watching the spectacle going on down the street. But I flipped him off anyway. Swan laughed and went to go gather his girls. I almost felt sorry for him, but I figured he’d made his bed. Then my belly gurgled, and I led Stephanie into the restaurant.

I didn’t see how Swan made out. Or Twig-boy either, for that matter. However, I did see the movie later. And it turned out that I was right: neither of the girls remembered anything later.

Anyway…

Once we got past the crowd, I tried to apologize to Stephanie for the mess she just dealt with outside.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t think anyone would be here.”

“That’s okay.”

Stephanie didn’t seem too concerned about the scene she’d just witnessed. She just shrugged, like things like that were supposed to happen when you’re downtown at three in the morning, hanging out with your crazy boss, who you’ve know all of a month.

“So, um…” She looked up at me. “Was that your…girlfriend?”

“Ha.” I said. “No.”

“Oh. Good.”

I gave her a sideways look, wondering what exactly that meant, but she was staring at a huge painting of the last supper, with Christ and his disciples depicted as 70’s era punk rockers, that covered one of the back walls. I couldn’t read what she was thinking from the expression on her face.

“Can I help you?”

A big lesbian with a white tuxedo shirt unbuttoned down to her waist and a pink fish tattooed on her neck took my name and asked if we’d like to eat at the bar. I told her no, and, just like I figured, a few minutes later she had us seated across a table from each other, looking at menus. She never even bothered to ask to see our I.D.

Someone had scribbled the names of all the dishes in overlapping circles on construction paper, so to read the menu you had to turn the page around in your hands. I glanced across at Stephanie, who was fidgeting with her menu and looking around, taking the whole experience in.

The tables were mostly arranged in a series of long benches, like picnic tables, lined up in rows. A few booths for larger groups were scattered next to the windows. A heavy dance beat was thumping out from the bar area in back. A blue cloud of cigarette smoke mixed with the haze emanating from the kitchen grill. Waiters shouted out orders over the noise of the crowd for oyster shooters and carried leftovers back to departing customers wrapped in tinfoil and sculpted into animal shapes. I saw several ducks and lobsters sitting on partially cleared tables. The cooks rang a cowbell with each order up.

It was a little noisy.

Our waiter ambled over, tucked his tie into his apron and squatted down on his haunches next to Stephanie. He was eye-level with her tits. The air-conditioning was on full-blast and her nipples were hard, poking through her camisole. I noticed him sneaking looks while he reached across and pointed out dinner recommendations from her menu.

Stephanie ordered the spicy-mac. I ordered two oyster shooters and a large Creole salad (whatever that is) with grilled rabbit and peppered ‘gator meat, and iced-tea’s for both of us.

Standing up, the waiter took our menus and shouted towards the kitchen. “Two oyster shooters!”

“Two oyster shooters!” The kitchen shouted back, and then he was off to fetch our drinks.

Stephanie was grinning at me, said something I didn’t quite catch.

“What?” I shouted.

We had to lean over the table to hear each other. She bent close, giving me a great view of her boobs.

“I said, ‘oyster shooters’?”

“Yeah. Why? Did you want one?”

“Eww, no.”

“What’s wrong with oyster shooters?”

“They’re all slimy and gross! That’s what’s wrong.”

“Well, yeah, they are all slimy, that’s true. But what’s wrong with that?”

She made a face and stuck out her tongue. It was a cute tongue; tiny and pink. For a second, I imagined sucking on it, and said, “What? You know, there’s lots of good stuff that’s slimy and gross.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think so.”

“Seriously.”

“Like what?” She asked, all innocence. This conversation was starting to go somewhere dangerous, and I knew it.

That’s when our waiter returned with my shooters. He plunked them down in front of me; two tiny cocktail glasses filled with slimy, gross looking things about the size of my ears, drenched in cocktail sauce, butter and lemon juice. He set down a lit candle then stepped back, waved his order book and shouted, “Two oyster shooters! Ladies and gentlemen, if you would direct your attention to my two friends here…!”

Oops. I’d forgotten about this part.

“Folks as we all know, oysters have always been thought to enhance a man’s potency…”

Everyone cheered.

Stephanie’s cheeks turned pink.

“And this fine gentleman is willing to enjoy not just one oyster shooter. Oh, no. He’s willing to guzzle two of nature’s own bounty of love! Let’s all give him a hand and wish this gentleman’s libido long, robust health!”

He stood back a step and began to applaud.

Stephanie looked like she wanted to crawl under a rock.

The applause turned into chants. I picked up one of the glasses and saluted the crowd, then knocked it back. The crowd cheered again.

Wow, that was good.

I pushed the other shooter over to Stephanie, and shouted, “Your turn.”

“Oh, no…” She held her hands out, shook them at the little glass. “No way.”

Our waiter bent over and asked, “What’s her name?”

She was shaking her head. I gave her a wicked look and told him.

“C’mon everybody!” The waiter was pacing, working the crowd. “It looks like our friend Stephanie needs some encouragement!”

The chant started again…

“Go, go, go…”

Stephanie stared at me, then at the grayish-pink chunk stuck to the side of the glass.

“Go, go, go…”

She grinned weakly and picked up the cup. Then she took a deep breath, pinched her nose shut and choked the slippery contents down.

The crowd erupted with applause as she squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed. She made a few more faces and almost turned purple, but when she finally got the whole thing down, she came up for air smacking her lips, her eyes watering.

Our waiter patted her on the shoulder and moved on to torture another table.

“Okay, so it wasn’t too bad,” she said, and guzzled half a glass of water.

“See?” I grinned. “Told you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not eating another one.”

The waiter was heading back our way, loaded down with a tray loaded with plates and drinks.

“That’s okay. Dinner’s here anyway.”

“Why do you like those things?” she asked, while our server plunked down huge bowls of food.

I thought about that for a second, and then decided, what the hell.

Go with the flow.

“Well, see, I’m almost twenty two, you know? I’m getting a little older…” I poured a light, peppery dressing on my veggies and dug into my salad with all the gusto a starving man could muster. “My libido probably needs all the help it can get.”

“Oh, really?”

“Mm-hm,” I mumbled around a mouthful of salad.

She tucked that stray hair behind her ear, peeked up through her bangs and gave me that crooked little smile I was beginning to like so much.

We made small talk for a while, relaxed and enjoyed dinner.

It was during dessert, while we were halfway through two cups of strong coffee and an enormous slice of strawberry cheesecake, that she abruptly looked up and asked, “So…what other slimy, gross things do you like?”

I called for the check.

***

“Do you live around here?”

We were squeezed into my car again, the breeze blowing through the open sunroof, heading back uptown.

“Yeah, my place is just down that way.”

“Oh,” she said, staring out the window.

“Would you…like to come over for a little while?”

The invitation sounded lame, even to me, and I was already kicking myself mentally. But Stephanie rolled her head my way and gave me the smile.

“Okay…”

***

“Well, here we are.”

I unlocked my front door and flipped on the light switch. The lights blinked and then blew out completely. I swore while Stephanie laughed.

“Well,” I sighed. “Come on in.”

I lived in the southeast area of town, not far from school, in a big old house that had been split into three separate dwellings. My apartment took up the entire middle floor of the house and ran in a complete circle, starting from the landing I shared with Sarah, the girl who lived upstairs.

I held my finger to my lips, and pointed to another door up the short flight of steps. “We have to be a little quiet…”

“Okay,” Stephanie whispered back.

My door opened into a front room with lots of floor-to-ceiling windows that I used as my editing room. The rest of the apartment wrapped all the way around, through a living room with a fireplace, a big dining room, a small eating nook and a huge kitchen with a pantry, then into my bedroom and on into the bathroom. I guided Stephanie inside.

“Sit tight. I’ll go hit the breaker.”

“Okay.”

The ground level portion of the house had been converted into a community bike shop back in the seventies, and the aging hippies that ran the place used the stairwell that ran from the basement through the middle of the house, all the way upstairs as a storage room. They often hung out in the shop and worked on their bikes until two or three in the morning, until either I started yelling at them to shut the hell up, or Sarah started hucking shoes at the walls around the stairs. Sarah had an old, orange tabby cat named Barnaby that would stumble around with a contact high from all the pot smoke that wafted up through the air vents in the floors.

Home, sweet home.

I dealt with the lack of heat in the winter, and lots of bugs and the mice in the summer, because I lived smack-dab in the center of everywhere I needed to be. And the apartment was huge, and dirt cheap for the area. It gave me a lot of space, and as beat up as it was, I kind of liked it.

I groped my way into the pantry and flipped the breaker switch, then made a mental note to call the landlord about the problem again. The lights had been blowing out all through the building for the last week or so, and so far, no one had come out to fix it.

“There,” I called out, and followed a dull glow back into the front room.

Stephanie was wandering around looking at some framed black and white photographs on the wall in my front room. They were series of nudes of Linda that I took right after high school, when I thought I wanted to be a photographer or an illustrator, instead of a filmmaker.

“There are really good.”

“Thanks.”

She looked at me. “You took them?”

“Yep.”

She was quiet a second. I stood there next to her, watching her look.

“I like them a lot.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you still…take pictures?”

I shook my head. “Not much, anymore. I’m too busy.”

“Oh.” She sounded almost disappointed. “That’s too bad.”

I gave her a look over my shoulder as she followed me into the living room. I turned on another light, a lamp this time, and held my breath.

No problem. A small miracle, but the wiring held up.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

“Okay.”

“Tea all right?”

I think she was hoping for something stronger.

“Sure.”

She sat down on the futon sofa; put her bag down on the floor. I’d dropped mine in the front room, next to the door; the same place as always. I poured us each a glass of tea from a pitcher I’d made and left in the refrigerator. I put the pitcher back and peeked down the little hallway that separated the kitchen from my living room.

“I hope you like yours sweet…?” I couldn’t remember how she took her drink at the restaurant.

“Please…”

I could see her from where I stood at the kitchen counter. She was checking out my house, just like I was checking her out. I grabbed our glasses and walked back into the living room.

She smiled up at me from the couch and took her glass with both hands.

“Here you go…”

“Thanks.”

“So…” I took a sip and wondered how to handle this. Having this eighteen year-old girl in my house. This nice, pretty employee of mine, casually sitting on my futon in her underwear, checking out nude pictures of my freaky teacher and drinking my tea and whose parents were home asleep with absolutely no idea where she was…

I just kept thinking, over and over, like there was a little devil sitting on one shoulder: She has huge boobs…

And then, the dorky little angel on my other shoulder would say something like: You know if something happens, you’re gonna lose your job, and her dad’s gonna hunt you down...

Little Devil: Of course somethings gonna happen, you idiot. She’s here in her underwear, well, half in her underwear, anyway. So get it over with. Go ahead and make a move, Slick…

Little Angel: But she’s…chunky. You’ve never liked chunky girls…

Little Devil: She’s not chunky, she’s just…juicy, like a nice, ripe pear, or a plum, or some kind of melon, maybe…

Little Angel: Yeah, okay. Now that you mention it, I can see the pear thing…

“Sooo…” I said, trying to block out the goofy debate going on in my head. “How about a movie?”

“Okay!” She bent over and dug around in her bag. “I got one right before we left work…”

She handed me a DVD case. I plopped the disk in the player without even looking at it, used the remote to turn on my television. I sat down on the floor by her legs with my back propped up against the wood base of the futon. I took another sip of tea, used the glass to cover up the bulge in my crotch, and leaned my head back into the cushions.

Oh, God…

The movie started, and twenty minutes in, I still had no idea what it was about. I was too busy trying to watch Stephanie’s reflection in the TV screen. I heard her yawn, and the futon creaked as she curled up behind me.

The clock on the wall told me it was well after four in the morning. I watched people moving around in the movie, talking and doing whatever the script had them do, but I wasn’t paying any attention at all to what was going on. I could hear her breathing, slow and regular, and I could feel it on the back of my neck.

I turned to find her lying down with her head pillowed on her hands. Once again, her lips were just inches away from mine. She was wide awake, and she was staring at me again.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” she smiled.

“Sleepy?” I asked.

“A little,” she nodded.

“Do you want to finish the movie?”

“Not really.”

I set my empty glass on the scuffed wood floor and pushed it out of the way, then I propped an arm on the edge of the futon and twisted until I could see her without having to crank my neck. We ended up even closer than before. Her breathing changed, sped up subtly, but I noticed. She licked her lips.

“So…did you sleep with whoever that was? In the pictures?”

I hesitated a second before answering, then I nodded. “Yeah. I did.”

“Who was she?”

I felt a slow smile spread across my face.

“My high school French teacher.”

She laughed.

“I’m serious.”

“No way.”

“Okay, don’t believe me.”

“Really?” Stephanie lifted her head a bit in surprise. “You slept with your teacher?”

Oh, yeah, I thought. If you only knew what I did with my teacher. I managed another smug grin. She shook her head and relaxed again, squirming to get comfy. That stray wisp of hair spread across her cheek. I reflexively reached over and tucked it behind her ear, brushed her cheek lightly with my fingertips. Her skin was warm and soft.

She caught her breath and closed her eyes.

I guess I’d made my move. In the back of my head, the Little Devil, Little Angel assholes kicked their running commentary into overdrive.

I took a deep breath myself, and started playing with her hair. It was thick and straight and soft as silk. I smoothed her hair down, away from her face, using the tips of my fingers like a comb, and toyed with a small, silver hoop earring that dangled from her earlobe.

Stephanie sighed, and her eyes fluttered open. Her chest was rising and falling quickly, and her high cheekbones had turned a rosy shade of pink.

The Little Devil was screaming at me.

Kiss her, dammit…

And then,

No no no, wait a minute, don’t do anything…

I told the annoying Little Angel to go to hell and followed directions…

Our lips touched, and Stephanie moaned softly, the sound emanating from deep in her throat. Her mouth parted slightly, and her little tongue flicked into mine. I slipped my hand around the back of her neck and scooted closer, and she turned onto her side.

I felt a hand lightly touch my chest, then another, and then she wrapped her arms tight around my neck and pulled me close. We kissed for a bit, and I let the hand that was stroking her hair drift down her neck and over her shoulder, down her back. She moaned again and kissed me harder.

I pushed her the rest of the way over and rested the flat of my hand on her hip, ran my palm slowly up along the side of her belly, again enjoying the feel of her skin under the smooth satin of her camisole. She moaned again and was panting hard when I slipped my hand over her breast and gave it a nice, gentle squeeze. .

“Oh, God…” she whispered.

Stephanie’s eyes flew open. She stopped breathing, her back arched and her whole body jerked up hard, shoving her breast into the palm of my hand. She pushed at my shoulders and her body trembled underneath me.

I froze solid, hoping I just hadn’t made a horrible mistake. Her nipple, hard as a little pebble, tickled the palm of my hand.

And then she relaxed, collapsing back onto the cushions, and almost growled.

“You okay…?” I whispered.

She nodded, and then hooked my neck with her arms again and pulled me back down. My legs were falling asleep, and I had to shift to a more comfortable position. Not as easy as it looks in the movies, to twist around and smoothly keep kissing. Our teeth clicked together.

I had to pull away a little and stretch my aching legs. Stephanie was squirming a little, her legs sawing back and forth against each other.

“Come up here with me…”

I raised my eyebrows. She pulled at my shirt and licked her lips, then scooched back as far as she could, but I shook my head.

“There’s not enough room…”

“Please…”

I grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her down onto the floor, right on top of me. She giggled and pulled the throw pillows off the couch with her. We thrashed around on my oriental rug for a bit, until I hooked a leg over one of hers and rolled halfway on top of her. I ran my finger lightly down the side of her face, back down her neck. I hooked the thin strap of her camisole under my finger and gave her a quizzical look.

“It’s all right…I want you to…” she breathed.

I wasn’t sure if that made it okay, but I pulled the strap down over her shoulder anyway. The thin material slipped over the top of her breast and then down to her belly.

I smiled. There it was. A big, firm, real live boob.

Finally.

Stephanie was breathing hard now. I smiled reassuringly and kissed her gently on the lips and cupped her breast with the palm of my hand, squeezing, tickling the tip of her nipple with my thumb. I kissed her cheeks and her forehead, and then trailed my lips to her ear and nibbled on her earlobe.

She hissed with pleasure and her back arched again, driving her thigh into my groin. I ran my tongue down her neck, nipped at her collarbone, and I slowly inched my way down even further. She was wiggling all over now. She had her fingers tangled in my hair, and she cried out softly with every inch my lips traveled.

I squeezed her breast hard, evoking a breathy sigh, and gently, lightly nipped the pink little rosebud crowning her tit, feeling the rubbery flesh between my teeth. I took as much of her breast into my mouth as I could, making her gasp and pull me even closer.

“Oh, God…”

I raised my head a bit, keeping her nipple between my teeth, stretching her breast, and then let go, letting it plop down. I kissed and sucked and pulled the other strap down until her camisole was bunched around her waist and I had both of her breasts free in my hands. She was twisting underneath me; pulling my face hard into her chest and rubbing my crotch with her leg.

Her little cries were coming louder now, and my Little Devil decided it was time to make yet another move.

I slipped my right hand under the hem of her camisole and tickled her belly. She moaned and pushed closer against me. I found the top button of her pants and yanked until the button popped. I pulled and was rewarded by the unmistakable sound of her zipper coming undone.

I casually kept sucking on her tits and gently slipped my hand down into the crotch of her pants. I was moving as slowly as I could, trying to feel my way along, not knowing how far she’d let me go.

It was a tight fit, so I used my leg to help pull her pants down a little. Then I let myself explore a bit, dividing my attention between the huge pair of nice, firm boobs up by my mouth, and the warm, moist coochie down at my fingertips.

She was wearing a lacy pair of panties. I slipped my fingers under the elastic band and tickled my way down, past the thatch of soft, curly pubic hair. She gasped again, and I froze, waiting. She didn’t try to slap my hand away like I’d half expected; instead, she pulled me back up by the hair and planted her lips back on mine.

“Mm-mmm…”

Her panties were wet already, and I went back to work while we kissed. I found her pussy, nice and slick, and her little nub. I lightly tickled her clit, rubbing it with my finger, and Stephanie went crazy underneath me.

She cried out and pushed my face against her neck, squirming as I slipped a finger inside her…

“Oh, God…Yeah…”

Her back arched again, and it gave me a little better access. I slid the first joint of another finger into her, and her entire body stiffened and started trembling. She clutched at me with her arms, running her hands over my hair, over and over.

“Oh…oh…”

I took my time, fingering her. She was so tight…

And then she stopped breathing again. She had my head pressed tightly against her chest, and I could hear her heart racing. Suddenly, I felt a tiny gush of moisture, and my hand was soaked from the fingers up.

“Okay,” I said, and stood up. “That’s it.”

She up at me, shocked. “W-what? Did I do something wrong…?”

I laughed and shook my head. I was so horny I felt light-headed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m just not going to do this here on the floor.”

Stephanie nodded and picked herself up, scooting back onto her elbows.

“Okay. I mean…”

I could see the disappointment in her eyes. For a split-second, I wondered if she’d been in this situation – or one like it – before.

“…I understand if you don’t want to…”

She started to pull up the straps to her cami. I shook my head again.

“Hey, quit that.”

She stopped and looked up at me.

“What…?”

I bent over and gently pulled her hands away. “Leave those alone. I worked all night for that view.”

Her eyes flashed and she gave me that grin. I smiled and reached for her, and then I picked her up and carried her, giggling, into the bedroom.

***

I dropped her, laughing, onto my futon (yes, I have one in my bedroom too. It’s got a nice, thick mattress and rumpled sheets. The one in the living room is way too beat up to really sleep on.). She bounced around, getting comfy.

Then I pushed her flat on her back.

I grabbed her ankles, lifted her legs up, and then I ripped her pants off and tossed them on the floor. Her legs flumped back onto the bed, and I yanked off my shirt.

Now we were both breathing hard.

She braced herself up on her elbows and watched me strip. I dropped my pants, kicked them off into the corner with my shoes. I followed those with my socks, and suddenly I was standing there naked except for my underpants.

Stephanie watched me slip those off with wide eyes, eyes that got even wider when I stood back up and that Little Devil (who wasn’t quite so little anymore) sprung out at full attention. She licked her lips and then glanced up at me. I think she smiled for a second, and then her eyes traveled back down to my crotch.

She didn’t move a muscle. She just kept licking her lips, and I thought, okay then, here we go…

I grabbed her by the ankles again and pulled.

“Hey!” She squealed, and slid down to the edge of the bed.

Her panties showed off a lot of her thick, muscular thigh. The panties were cute and sexy and I wanted to tear them off in the worst way you can imagine.

I wrapped her legs around my neck and leaned over, kissing her lightly on the mouth and her breasts. I rolled her camisole up and tongued her belly-button while I hooked my fingers under the waistband of her panties.

I had her bent at an angle, with her feet pointed up at the ceiling. Her ass was already lifted off the bed, enough that I was able to back off a little and pull her panties over her butt. I slowly rolled them up the length of her thighs.

And lo and behold: I was right again – the panties were so damp they stuck to her crotch before peeling away. I slipped them up over her smooth, muscular calves, and snagged them on her foot before they were off.

“There.” I grinned at her and tossed them onto the bed. “Finally.” Then I paused and had a nice, long look of my own.

She had a thick, trimmed triangle of dark brown pubic hair. Her skin was smooth and soft, with tan lines outlining the shape of her swimsuit. I could see the soft outer lips of her pussy, and I felt my cock throbbing, poking out between her legs. She was still staring at it intently, giving me quick, shy little glances.

“Can…can I touch it?”

I smiled. “Sure.”

She tentatively reached out and cupped my shaft with a soft hand.

“It’s so…so big. And hard…”

I blinked, and tried not to laugh. I thought it might ruin the moment if I did.

She gripped my dick with both hands and stroked me gently. I twitched, and she looked up nervously. “Did that hurt?”

“Oh, no,” I said, and let out a breath. “That just feels really good.”

“It does?”

She looked so earnest, staring up at me with those big brown eyes and my cock clenched in her hands. I smiled again. “Yeah, it does.”

Suddenly, I had to kiss her. Over and over.

I pushed her back on the bed and smothered her with my body; I felt her breasts flatten against my chest, heard her moan as base of my cock slipped up against her pussy, and felt her legs lightly wrap around my waist as she sucked on my tongue. I pushed her arms over her head, pinning her down, and kissed her mouth hard.

“I want you so bad…” She whispered. “Please…”

I started rocking, gently shoving with my hips, lubricating my cock with her pussy juice. She hid her face, burying it against my chest. I rubbed my face in her hair and lifted my hips up, dragging my dick along her pussy. I let my weight push me into her, feeling her pussy lips open and swallow the head of my cock. I heard her gasp, and her legs clamped around my ass, pulling me closer. I was just barely an inch or so inside her, and I wanted more. And then there was a hitch in the works.

I shoved with my hips, driving into her, marveling how tight she was, started moving slowly, pushing harder and harder, working my way deeper inside her. And then she cried out in pain and started bucking underneath me. I felt something tear inside her, and suddenly I slid in another couple inches. Stephanie bit my shoulder hard.

Hard enough to draw blood.

“Hey!”

Stephanie had her eyes squeezed shut tight, and she was crying.

“What’s wrong?” I let go of her wrists and stopped moving. “Did I hurt you?”

She was biting her lip, nodding and shaking her head at the same time.

Then it hit me, the same time she managed to catch her breath enough to let me in on the secret.

“It’s okay…I’m okay…” She cupped my face with her hands and kissed me. A tear trickled out of the corner of her eye, fell down her cheek. “It’s just…you’re…this is my first time, and you’re so big…”

The Little Angel popped up on the headboard of the bedframe, waggling a tiny finger at me. I could hear the lecture already…

See? I told you so, you big, dumb jerk. You should’ve known better. This is what happens when you take advantage of a sweet little teenager. She’s a flippin’ virgin, for God sakes. So you take her home and pork her? And what about a condom? Huh? You didn’t even think of that, did you, now that you’ve got half your dick buried in her pussy?

Oy.

I closed my eyes and tried to tune him out again. Stephanie was petting me, still giving me little, quick kisses all over my face while she explained.

“…it just…hurt a little. But I’m okay…”

I thought maybe I could give her an easy way out. “Steph, maybe we should just stop…”

“No!” She wrapped her arms around me and held me like she was afraid I’d just get up and walk out of the apartment. “I mean, just go slow, okay? Like you were?”

“Steph…” I thought about my sexual history, and gritted my teeth. “I don’t have any condoms. I don’t want you to…”

“I won’t get pregnant. I’m on the pill. Devin, it’s okay. Really. I don’t want to stop…please. Will you kiss me some more?”

I’d slowly slipped even further into her, until I was buried inside her. Her stomach muscles were twitching under my belly, and I could feel the walls of her pussy clenching and unclenching around me. She was still crying a little.

I wiped a tear from her cheek and she smiled up at me. She stroked my chest. I grinned back, and the Little Devil popped up and shoved the Little Angel off the bed. He smirked and gave me a big thumbs up, and then he disappeared in a tiny poof of smoke.

Good riddance.

Stephanie was frantically kissing me again. I heard birds chirping outside, and the first rays of sunshine were just creeping under the bamboo blinds covering my windows.

I smoothed her hair back from her forehead and looked into her eyes.

“Please, she whispered. “Please…”

Oh, well. In for a penny, in for a pound, is what someone used to say. I guess sleep would have to wait for a while longer. I rolled over and pulled with me. The breath went out of her in a whoosh as she settled on top of me. I wrapped my hands around her waist and pushed myself all the way into her. She braced her hands on my chest and leaned over a little.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s try this again.”

***

We took it slow and easy. I let Stephanie experiment, do whatever she wanted to, really, and in the end, everything seemed to work out just fine. Eventually, she cried out and collapsed on my chest. Afterwards, I managed to stay awake long enough to realize that we’d actually climaxed together.

Amazing.

I woke up a little after noon on Saturday, flat on my back with Stephanie asleep on top of me, with her head pillowed on my chest, and her hand tucked under her chin. We were in exactly the same position we finished in the night before. My cock was still wedged into her pussy, rock hard, ready to go.

Maybe later, I told myself.

I watched her sleep for a little while before the pressure of her hips pushing on my bladder forced me to move. I tried to disengage and shift out from under her as gently and slowly as I could, and managed to slip off the bed without waking her up. There was a nice big wet spot where I’d been sleeping, a little bit of it stained slightly pink.

Stephanie groaned and rolled over, snuggling my pillow. It was going to be a hot day. The temperature in my apartment was already heating up. She was perspiring, and I felt sticky and smelly myself.

I covered her with the sheet and caressed her shoulder. She mumbled something that sounded like ‘I love pumpkins’, and curled up into a tight ball under the covers. I turned on the air conditioner to a low rumble and padded into the bathroom. I relieved myself with a hearty sigh, sending a steady stream into the toilet for what seemed like about a half an hour, and then took a cool shower.

She was still dead asleep when I got out, so I dressed and went out for a quick run. On my way back, I stopped off at a market a few blocks from my apartment and picked up some stuff for a quick breakfast. Bagels and cream cheese, fruit and two freshly blended berry and banana smoothies.

I walked the rest of the way back, cooled off, and stretched for a few minutes, soaking in the sunshine, talking with the hippies for a while. All the late night noise and bong smoking sessions aside, they were pretty nice people. Eric, one of the younger guys, did most of the mechanical work on my car. He basically kept it running in exchange for my filming a few TV spots for the shop. I thought it was a fair exchange. They were all concerned that they’d made too much noise that morning and kept me up. I guess they’d heard me and Stephanie thumping around upstairs.

I just grinned and assured them everything was cool, that I’d just had company over for the night.

“Really, man?” Eric grinned, flicked his dreadlocks over a really tan shoulder He reeked of pot and patchouli oil and body odor. “A chick?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Cool, dude. You gonna share?”

I think he was serious. “Nope.”

“Bein’ stingy, man. Bummer.”

By the time I called it quits, I was feeling pretty loose; nice and sweaty and relaxed. I picked up my groceries and went inside. Sarah had already picked up the mail and left the house by the time I got back. She’d drawn a smiley face on all my bills and left everything on the little table in the landing. Her cat zoomed past my ankles when I opened the door, and ran off to see Eric.

“Hey, little dude! Just in time for some grub…”

I swept up my mail as I unlocked my door and dumped the envelopes on my desk. I’d sort through all the junk later on. I had better things to do this afternoon than shuffling money around to pay my cable bill.

In the living room, the television was still turned on, and the DVD player was whirring away, repeating the title sequence over and over for the movie we didn’t finish. Wondering what it was, I peeked at the title, and still didn’t know what the damn thing was about. It looked like a chick flick.

I shut everything off, and kept moving. I dropped the bag of food on my kitchen counter, and peeked into my bedroom to see if my houseguest had stirred yet.

Stephanie was still asleep, her thick, curvy body twisted up in the thin sheet, her hair spread out over the pillows. I could hear her soft breathing from where I stood. Lying there with the sun shining through the windows, bathing her in a bright, golden light, the scene reminded me of the subject of a painting, or a photograph.

Or maybe even the beginning shot of a movie. I grinned and snuck back into the kitchen to make breakfast.

***

Stephanie finally stirred when I was cutting the bagels. I heard her yawn, and I turned around. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, stretched her arms out towards the ceiling. The sheet fell into a puddle in her lap. She finished her monster stretch and looked sleepily around with a disoriented look on her pretty face.

She seemed a little panicked, but she looked great; actually, she looked better naked than she did in clothes, I thought. She had an unbelievable hourglass figure, with those great big tits and wide, round hips, and a remarkably tiny waist with just a trace of baby fat. If she kept on swimming, I figured the baby fat would disappear completely in another year or so.

She just was so short, clothes made her look plump; rounder than she really was. I was glad I got to see her like this. I couldn’t help but smile. The Little Devil got a little excited again, too.

She finally saw me and jumped.

“Oh!”

“’Morning, Sleepyhead.” I grinned and walked into the bedroom with the food. “Actually, afternoon, but hey, close enough. It’s only one.”

I sat on the side of the mattress. She scooted over and pulled the sheet up around her chest, tucking it under her armpits, toga-style.

“Morning.” She blinked at me and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. I offered her a smoothie. She stared at the cup a minute. “What’s that?”

“Well, in my language, it’s called ‘a drink’.”

She glared at me.

“Here, I’ll show you…”

I took a big gulp of my smoothie, swallowed and wiggled my eyebrows.

“See?”

She frowned. “It’s not coffee.”

I sighed and picked up a strawberry. “Not a morning person, are we?”

She grunted and took a sip. “Mm. Hey. That’s good.”

“I know. Remember, I’m an old man. I’m chock full of arcane knowledge.” I held out the strawberry. “And this is something I call ‘fruit’.”

She laughed and took a bite. “Mmm…”

Juice ran down her chin. I leaned over and licked it off. She groaned and shivered, and I kissed her once, twice, tasting the sweet berry in her mouth. When we parted, she was smiling again. And I’d unhooked the sheet.

I let it fall back into her lap.

“Remember, I worked hard to get you naked. No sheets.”

“Oh. Right. Okay.” She ate the rest of the strawberry and looked at me. “So what about you? Why do you get to have clothes on?”

“We’ll fix that in a minute. Let’s eat first. I’m starving.”

“You know,” she said around a mouthful of bagel. “This is the second time you’ve fed me. I always thought first dates were never supposed to be food dates.”

“Who said this was a date? I’m just giving you a ride home from work.”

That got a sassy look. “Oh.”

“Speaking of which, shouldn’t you let somebody know you’re all right?”

“It’s okay.” She waved her hand, chewing. “My mom just thinks I’m staying at Trisha’s.”

Oho. A lightbulb went on in the cobwebby space I called a brain. I heard echoes of the Little Devil, laughing at me. Had this all been planned? My, my…what a sneaky girl.

“Trisha’s,” I nodded, and took a bite of my bagel. “Right.”

“So, what do you want to do today?”

I chewed thoughtfully. “Well, I thought maybe I’d Roger you roundly some more, before you have to go to work.”

“Okay.” She blushed. “Don’t you have to work tonight?”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “Lindsay opened, and Jennifer’s there to help you tonight. I actually took the weekend off. Last night was just an emergency.”

“Oh.” She looked dejected for a second, but brightened and said, “I could come back after work…?”

“I’m sorry, Steph.” I didn’t want to let her down, but I shook my head. “But I’ve already got plans.”

“Oh.”

She frowned and turned away from me. Her body language killed me.

“Hey, quit that.”

I tipped her chin back towards me.

“We’ve still got a couple hours. Right?”

“Right.”

I set the empty dishes on the floor and pushed her back into bed.

“So,” I murmured, kissing her. I let my hands drift over her belly and snuggled close. “Let’s have some fun while we can.”

***

About an hour later, Stephanie asked if she could use the shower. I dozed off as soon as the water started running, and woke up to find her standing at the foot of the bed, drying her hair with a towel and staring at me with that impish little grin. I glanced down to where she was looking, and surprised to find myself sticking straight up.

“It just does that?” She asked. “Whenever?”

I shrugged. I was tired enough that I really didn’t think I could get it up, but there it was. My penis in all it’s glory.

“Maybe I could call in sick.”

“You…” I groaned and rolled over. “…are going into work, like you said you would. And I’m going to take a shower before I drive you there.”

She frowned, limped over to the edge of the bed and eased herself down.

“Sore?”

“Mm. Yeah, kind of.” She nodded at the messy sheets. “Did I do that?”

“Yep. Pretty much.”

“Eww.”

She made a face and pulled a clean pair of panties and a bra out of her bag.

A-Ha! I thought. The sex conspiracy has been confirmed! I watched her dress for a moment, and then snuck in to take a shower before we had to leave.

Now I just hoped I could be as sneaky.

***

Nancy stared at the clothes in her closet and wondered what the hell she thought she was doing. She had no idea what to wear. What was she thinking when she said she’d go to dinner with this…this kid?

She sighed and shoved the clothes hangers back and forth on the wood rail. It would help if she’d thought to ask where they might be going. Frustrated, she stood with her arms crossed under her breasts, chewing on a fingernail, weighing her options.

Someplace casual, probably.

Maybe the pink dress? It’s pretty. And it would be cool, which would be nice; it’s so hot out…

No…bad choice. Then she’d have to change her underwear again. She glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was almost five. He was going to be here to pick her up any minute, and she couldn’t even decide on her underwear. Shit.

Why did I have him come here? I could’ve picked someplace for us to meet…God, she thought. I hope he doesn’t think a burger and fries from a drive-through is dinner.

Maybe he won’t show up, and I won’t have to worry about this…

She heard a car pull up outside. The pit of her stomach did a flip-flop.

Oh, no. Not yet. I’m not ready.

The engine died and a door opened and closed. Nancy held her breath, listening to the footfalls patter up her walkway.

The footsteps got closer. She chewed her lip, waiting, her stomach in knots. The doorbell rang, and she groaned. Nancy ran over to the bedroom window and peeked out through the curtains.

There he was. Standing right on her doorstep. In broad daylight, waving at Jillian, her next door neighbor, who was out, watering her flowers. Jillian knew what was going on. She knew pretty much everything. All about Dan’s affairs, and their marriage, which was crumbling into shreds. Maybe it already had. They’d talked about Devin, too. Jillian had urged her to go on the date, have some fun. She thought it would be harmless and do her some good to get out, meet some new people.

Nancy wondered about that, and thought about her husband, a hundred miles away. Gone. Leaving her alone on their anniversary, for God’s sake.

The doorbell rang again. Jillian saw her peeking out the window, winked and waggled her garden hose. Nancy bit her lip. Suddenly she felt dizzy and a little weak in the knees.

He’ so…she chewed her fingernail, groping for the words. He’s so cute.

Outside, Jillian made a frantic little pushing motion towards the door. Devin was still there, trying to see into the house through the front window, nervously shifting from foot to foot. She looked him over, trying to get an idea of what he might have planned. He was just wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with some old sandals.

On her way back around the bed, she poked her head out into the hallway and shouted, “Be right there!”

Okay, she thought. Casual it is.

***

I was running a little late after dropping Stephanie off at the store. Our goodbye’s were rather awkward, to say the least, and she definitely wanted more of a kiss than the quick peck on the cheek that I felt comfortable with, especially with both Lindsay and Jennifer staring at us while we sat in the car.

If she wasn’t going to be late for work, I think we’d still be sitting there.

I had to check Nancy’s address a couple times. She’d scribbled it down on a napkin with a felt tip marker while we were at the supermarket. The ink had bled, and I was having a hard time reading her handwriting. I half expected her to give me a bogus address. And when I finally found the house, I was pleasantly surprised to see her Range Rover parked in the driveway.

I parked next to the curb, got out and had a quick look around. She lived in a nice residential neighborhood less than a mile from the video store. Her house was nestled in the center of a tree-lined street, set back from the sidewalk and almost hidden behind two drooping willows planted on either side of her yard. The property was nice and neat, with a green, freshly mowed lawn that had just been watered. A detached two-car garage sat at the end of a long driveway.

I took a deep breath. Off to work I go…

An attractive middle-aged woman was watering a bed of flowers at the house next door. She stared at me like I had a big green booger hanging out of my nose as I walked up the steps and rang Nancy’s doorbell. She kept on staring too, until I finally just smiled and waved at her. Then she went back to drowning her flowers and shooting little glances at me over her shoulder.

Nobody answered the bell.

I started wondering again if Nancy had come to her senses when she realized I’d asked her out on a date. Or freaked out, better yet, and decided to hide from me. Even if it wasn’t really supposed to be a date, date. If you know what I mean.

I gave it a few seconds. No Nancy. It was dead quiet inside the house. A sweet, feminine voice floated over towards me, from off to my left. The lady with the hose was wagging it at me.

“She’s in there. I think she’s in back. Go ahead, ring it again.”

“Okay…Thanks.”

I smiled and pressed the doorbell. I heard the chime inside, stuck my hands in the pockets of my faded old Levi’s and shuffled my feet. This time when the chime faded away someone shouted a muffled, ‘Be right there!”

A few more minutes ticked by. I paced the small porch and watched some kids race their bikes down the sidewalk. The flower lady kept careful watch over me. Making sure I didn’t steal the mailbox, or something. Finally, I saw a very curvy figure inside the house, walking down the hallway. Nancy opened the door and smiled sheepishly.

“Hi.” I said. “You look great.”

“Thanks.”

She looked lovely, dressed comfortably in a nice pink summer dress. That was great. My surprise evening with Stephanie hadn’t given me time to come up with plans for tonight, so I was going to be winging things a little bit.

I had some ideas, and I definitely knew where I wanted to end up, but everything really depended on Nancy. I had a pretty good feeling she was going to be at least a little uncomfortable, so I decided to keep the date on the fun side. I wanted to interact with her one-on-one, so choices like movies or the theater were both out by default. You can’t talk to someone sitting in a dark, noisy Cineplex. And Stephanie had been right when she’d mentioned that first dates should never be dinner dates. Not to begin with, anyway.

So what did that leave me?

Well, for one thing, she already seemed way too quiet. We’d have to fix that, get her in the spirit of things. I wasn’t beyond lubricating the gears a little, maybe plying her with a drink or two to help get the ball rolling, but I decided to wait. If it came down to that I’d be happy to use some booze, but I didn’t want Nancy to think I was trying to get her drunk.

We were already in the middle of an awkward moment. Nancy’s body language was pretty obvious. She was still standing in her doorway, with her arms crossed under her breasts, looking at everything and anything but me. It didn’t look like I was going to get an invitation to come inside, so I decided to get the ball rolling.

“Well,” I said, and held out my hand. “Shall we go?”

She hesitated for just long enough for me to think she might turn and slam the door in my face. Instead, she grabbed a little clutch purse and a set of keys from a small table. Then she stepped out onto the porch and locked the door behind her. She steeled herself and offered me a smile.

“Okay. Ready.”

She swept past me, ignoring my hand, and marched to my car. I followed in her wake and opened the passenger door for her. She sat and fastened her seatbelt, dropped her purse in her lap, primly folded her hands and stared straight out the window.

I walked around to my side of the car, wondering if I might need some booze tonight myself.

***

She actually started the conversation. It took about ten minutes of driving in icy silence, but by the time I hopped on the freeway heading downtown, she asked where we were going.

“Well, I was going to try and keep it a secret.”

She stayed quiet, staring at me.

“Okay, okay. I thought we’d go see the new Disney on Ice.”

That got a surprised blink. “You’re kidding, right?”

“What? No. Why? I love skating puppets, don’t you?”

That got a sly smile. I grinned over at her and changed lanes, accelerated onto the onramp that would take us towards the waterfront. I tried to keep a straight face.

“I figured that would be the last thing you’d expect.”

She nodded. “You’d be right about that.”

I got stuck behind an old, beat up Toyota belching dark smoke. The guy driving the deathtrap was moving ten miles an hour slower than anyone else and refused to move out of the fast lane. Little old ladies were lapping me. Then we ran into a bottleneck just before we crossed the river.

We inched along breathing fumes until I found an opening. I swung the VW back into the middle lane and we got ahead about thirty feet. Toyota Guy sneered at me as we drove by. I congratulated myself on being mature enough not to flip him off when I passed him.

Nancy piped up. I turned around to see her giving Toyota Guy the eye of death.

“People like that irritate me so much…grr.”

“Grr?”

“What? They make me angry.”

“So you growl at them?”

“What else?”

“You could shoot ‘em,” I deadpanned.

She blinked at me again. I grinned and signaled, snuck over another lane. Our exit came right up and I pulled onto the bridge and crossed into downtown.

The traffic was awful, and just got worse.

Every summer the city throws a two-week long bash along the waterfront; a big festival with carnival rides and live music; booths with peddlers hawking all kinds of arts and crafts; and every kind of food and drink imaginable. The U.S. Navy docks several ships during the festival, offering tours and allowing the sailors some shore leave.

It took a little hunting, but I found a parking spot on the street, just up from where the food tents were pitched. Streams of people passed us in both directions. Music from a blues band rattled windows in the buildings around us.

“Here we are,” I said, and grabbed my keys. “Ready?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Then let’s go have some fun.”

Nancy was staring out the window at a uniformed sailor groping a trashy young girl. They were stumbling down the street, his hand under her skirt, playing with her ass. They were oblivious to everyone around them.

She turned back to me, blushing.

“Okay.”

I got out and opened her door for her, helped her out onto the sidewalk. I locked up and decided to try play being the gentleman again. I held out my arm, and this time she took it.

***

We followed the crowd strolling along the grassy walkway, browsing. Grubby kids ran through the crowd, getting underfoot and snarfing down cotton candy, huge elephant ears and hotdogs. I let Nancy take the lead. She negotiated the crowd and wandered from booth to booth, holding up knickknacks, slowly starting to relax.

My stomach started growling while she was holding up a butt-ugly macramé planter that looked like something hanging from the ceiling of my grandmothers’ kitchen circa 1976.

“Mm. That’s nice,” I mumbled, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. I failed miserably.

“You don’t like it.”

“Well....”

“Me either.” She sighed. “Maybe I’m just delirious.”

“Lack of food?”

She sniffed the air. “Something does smell really good.”

I shrugged an apology at the guy in the booth and began steering Nancy towards the mouthwatering smells drifting our way.

She followed along, keeping much closer now. I couldn’t quite tell if she was finally comfortable with our ‘date’, or if she was just avoiding the crush of smelly bodies that were lined up five and six deep everywhere we looked. We bulled through the crowd and stopped at a nearly vacant bento grill.

The fragrance of chicken, fish and veggies speared on foot-long bamboo skewers, sizzling over an open flame was heavenly. We each ordered two pepper teriyaki chicken skewers with grilled vegetables and brown rice. When the cute Asian girl who was taking our order asked what we’d like to drink, Nancy surprised me by asking for a beer. I gave her a quick look and asked for the same.

I paid the girl and pocketed my change. Our food was ready to go in minutes. We grabbed forks and napkins and began eating as we wandered around, searching for a place to sit down.

“Wonder what’s going on?” Nancy pointed to a fair-sized crowd gathering along the railing at the edge of the waterfront, where the ships where anchored. Everyone was leaning over the rail, peering down at the river.

“Let’s go see.”

I shouldered my way through, with Nancy holding onto my shirt. We leaned over the waist-high cement guardrail and stared around with everybody else. Except for a few small, recreational boats, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Nothing to attract so many people, anyway. I turned to the shirtless, sweaty teenager standing next to me and asked what it was everybody was so worked up about.

“Just wait, man, they’ll be back.”

“Who?”

“The strippers, man. A couple chicks and some dudes in a speedboat. Here. They had somebody giving these away. Check it out.”

He handed me a slip of paper. A flyer advertising a nightclub. I glanced at it as he started jumping up and down, shouting and waving his shirt. Nancy held onto me as most of the crowd followed his lead. It felt like being right at the front of a mosh pit, except we weren’t being smashed into the edge of a stage. We were being pushed into a half a foot of concrete, and then there was a couple hundred feet of open space and freezing river below.

Nancy muttered, “Oh Jesus” in my ear, and she squeezed my bicep hard enough to make me wince.

I looked up. Out on the river a speedboat was roaring by the Navy ships. Two naked girls sat in the back of the boat, striking lewd poses. A muscle-bound guy with a cheesy 70’s style mustache and wearing nothing but ragged, short-short denim cutoffs and a pair of big, mirrored sunglasses piloted the boat. Another, skinny guy with a big, nappy afro and a video camera was with him in the front, filming as the girls teased the sailors and coyly struck their poses.

Nancy said something else I couldn’t hear and tugged on my sleeve. I nodded and kept watching.

Even as far away as we were from the boat, I recognized Suzie’s wild mane of kinky-curly red hair and T.J.’s tattoos. I didn’t know the guy at the wheel, but there was no mistaking Swan’s stick-like body attached to his huge mound of hair.

The horny sailors on the decks of the ships went ballistic as the speedboat cornered and raced back towards the docks, bouncing across its wake. They reached over the deck rails for the girls, screaming and shouting and throwing dollar bills out into the river.

Swan filmed that too.

“This is disgusting.” I heard Nancy that time, right before she turned around and started pushing back through the crowd. I took a last look at the flyer in my hand, hoping that Desiree got all the business she could handle over the next couple weeks. Either she, or Swan, or somebody had come up with a sweet gimmick. Pull a stunt like this in front of several hundred horny sailors? Wow. She’d be taking reservations for the rest of the festival.

Muscle Guy in the sunglasses shouted something over his shoulder at Swan, who nodded and shouted something back. I could see his afro bobbing in the breeze. And then Muscle Guy banked the boat in a tight curve and roared off.

The sweaty guy next to me pointed at something coming our way, fast, with sirens blaring. “Here come the cops again.”

I watched the harbor patrol cruise by, vainly trying to chase down the speedboat, which was long gone. I crumpled Desiree’s flyer and went off to try and find Nancy. I hoped Desiree had her premiums paid up with the cops.

The crowd booed the end of the entertainment and slowly broke up behind me.

***

I found Nancy primly sitting on the top steps of a granite pedestal. The pedestal was the base of a large brass statue of a sailboat that the local city powers-that-be had commissioned to celebrate our cities’ storied maritime heritage. The statue had cost the city and taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, and had been pretty spectacular when it was erected a couple years ago. Now, you could barely see the thing behind the wall of graffiti plastered over it.

To curb the ever-continuing vandalism, the very same powers-that-be had the statue fenced in, using more taxpayer money. Unfortunately, whoever installed the posts that secured the chain-link barrier cemented them in less than a foot from the statue itself, and the chain rope that was supposed to keep those spray can wielding taggers at bay was barely waist-high. The taxpayers threw a fit and heads rolled; but the chain stayed, the graffiti got worse, and eventually the city council turned a blind eye to the problem.

So here we were. At least the transients that usually occupied this section of the waterfront and all the used syringes had been cleaned away for the festival.

A pathetic effort, sure. But hey, at least we could sit down and stretch our legs out.

Nancy had finished her bento and was watching me approach with her head cocked to one side. She smiled mischievously at me and sipped her beer.

“Nice view?”

“Yeah.” I plopped down next to her and took a bite of my dinner. “Sure.”

“Men. I just don’t understand the…attraction of a nudie-show.”

“Hormones?” I asked.

“I bet you go to strip clubs, too.” She gave me a long look. How could I answer that? I just shrugged, and after a bit she sighed. “At least you’re honest.”

“Yeah. Cute, too.”

“You should quit while you’re ahead.”

“Well, I am,” I said, talking around a mouthful of chicken and rice. “All the girls say so.”

She finally laughed and gave me a nudge on the arm. “Knock it off.”

“Okay. Don’t believe me.” I washed my food down with a swig of beer. “Don’t take this as me trying to show my morals or anything, but for your information, I don’t like strip clubs.”

She gave me a measured look. “Why?”

“Honestly?” She nodded. “Going to a club…it’s basically an exercise in frustration.”

She raised her eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“Dozens of hot, sexy girls grinding around in front of you, and you can’t touch anything? That’s like sticking a kid in a candy store and telling him he can look, but not eat. There’s no point to it, unless you just get off spending twenty bucks for watery drinks.”

“So…you’d rather have the real thing.”

I gave her a little smile. I’d already stuck my foot in it with this conversation and she hadn’t slapped me or hailed a cab, so I decided it might not hurt to go a little further.

“Wouldn’t you?”

She took a long, slow pull on her bottle. Eventually she grinned at me. I winked and went back to my veggies.

We sat for a bit, basking in the sun. Nancy absently tapped her toes on the steps, in time with the music blaring from the loudspeakers. She was staring straight ahead, with the beer bottle pressed against her slightly parted lips. A million miles away.

I took that as my cue to finish my food. I didn’t want her to drop back into a funk, or think I wasn’t the perfect date. Especially after our conversation about strippers.

“Okay,” I wiped my mouth with a napkin and tossed my garbage in a trash bin. I stood, reached down for her hand and helped Nancy to her feet. “C’mon.”

She tossed her empty bottle away. “Where to?”

“Let’s go listen to some music.”

The sun was drooping on the horizon, sending long shadows over the grassy concourse. With the sun setting, a good chunk of the crowd was leaving, passing us in the opposite direction. We inched our way through, emerging at the upper lip of the concert bowl. The stage was set up facing east, down towards the water, so the sun was at our backs. I didn’t know the act that was playing, just a man on guitar and a woman on vocals.

We probably could’ve edged closer, but we had a good view and we weren’t crowded, so we stayed put. The group was doing some variation of a jazz standard, I could tell that much. A quiet, melody driven piece. The woman had a beautiful voice.

Nancy bumped into me, leaning up against my side, swaying her hips.

I held out my hand and asked if she wanted to dance.

She stared at me for a second or two before taking my hand. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, felt her bury her head in my chest. She mumbled something I couldn’t understand.

“Nancy?” I whispered. “What was that?”

She pulled away. Just a little. “Those girls are wrong. About you being cute.”

I blinked. “I’m sorry…?”

She looked up at me and smiled. Her eyes glistened with tears. “You’re sweet, too.”

I was about to say something stupid, but Nancy shushed me. She pressed tight against me and the next thing I knew, the music was gone and we were the last couple left in the park.

“Hey.”

She looked up. “Hmm?”

“It’s getting late. We should probably head back to the car.”

“Okay.”

We strolled the few blocks together, her arm in mine, not really talking. We found the car and I unlocked her door. She brushed by me and slipped inside. A cop drove by, and I waited at the curb until the cruiser passed, suddenly thinking about Nancy’s husband. I got into the car and stuck the key in the ignition.

“Devin?” Nancy put her hand on mine. Her touch was light and lingering, sending an electric jolt up my arm.

I managed a smile. “Mm?”

“Thanks. For asking me out.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I mean it. I wish I didn’t have to go home.”

And there it was. The opening I’d been hoping for.

***

“How do I push the seat back?”

Nancy was twisting around, trying to find the lever that would release her seat. Her back arched and her breasts pushed and strained against the front of her light cotton dress.

“You just reach down and pull the…”

“This thing…?”

“No, down by the door.”

“Here?”

I leaned over to help and one of her breasts brushed my cheek. I felt myself getting aroused. “Right here…” I found the lever and pulled. I heard the quick pop, and her seat rolled in its tracks. “There. Now push back.”

She braced her feet on the floorboard and pushed. When her legs were completely straight, she stopped and sighed happily. “Oh, that’s better.”

“Okay.” I pushed myself off Nancy’s lap and got a nice view of her body as she stretched. I was definitely getting horny. She put her hand to her mouth and tried to stifle a yawn.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

“Let’s keep it a secret.”

She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. “So…can I take off my shoes then?”

“Sure.”

She kicked off her shoes and crossed her legs, settled back in the seat.

“Comfy?”

She nodded sleepily. “Very.”

“Good.”

I opted for the scenic route. The night was clear and the moon was up and almost full, illuminating the forest along the coastal highway. I figured it would be a nice drive. Nancy dozed off as soon as I turned back onto the freeway. So much for conversation. I turned on my stereo for background noise and pointed the VW towards the beach. If nothing else, I could enjoy the scenery.

By the time we got to the beach, my second wind had pretty much worn off. I was feeling the effects of only getting a few hours sleep, and my little catnap before I took Stephanie to work seemed like ages ago. I was getting drowsy enough that I needed to pull over.

I found an all-night market and gas station combo, and pulled in to the gravel parking lot, parked the VW next to a pump. The mullet-haired station attendant peeled himself off a grimy plastic chair and moseyed over as I rolled down my window. He bent over and peered in at me, then at Nancy, still asleep. He had a dirty nametag pinned to his work-shirt that read, ‘Stevie’.

“What can I get fer ya?”

I handed him my credit card. “Fill it with regular?”

“Awright.”

Stevie ran the card, punched some buttons and stuffed the gas nozzle into my tank. The strong smell of fresh gasoline immediately permeated the inside of my car. The smell was so strong I had to roll back the sunroof. Stevie stood quietly on the little island, on the cement curb at the side of the car, holding the nozzle in place and staring through the window at Nancy’s tits. He didn’t move the entire time it took him to fill up the tank, other than to snort like a pig, wrinkle up his face, and honk up wet, green balls of snot and spit them out in the dirt.

The smell of the gas was making me woozy. I think I might have dozed off, because I didn’t quite catch what Stevie said when he started talking. It was like hearing someone speaking underwater.

“Where y’all headed?”

“Huh…” I half turned to see him staring down through the sunroof. “Excuse me?”

He nodded at Nancy. “You an’ your Mom. Where y’all headed this late?”

“We were just out.”

“Oh.” He scratched the side of his nose. “I gotcha. Hey, you want me to level this here off for ya?”

“Sure.”

“Right on.” He was quiet again until the nozzle jumped in his hand and shut off. He pumped the trigger a few times, until the meter read an even twenty-two dollars. He took the nozzle out and slapped my gas cap back on, tore off the receipt and stepped back around to my window. He handed me the receipt and bent over again.

“Hey, uh, this is a little weird, maybe, but I was just wonderin’, is she single?”

He nodded at Nancy. She had her head turned towards us, breathing softly, her chest rising and falling. I still wasn’t thinking clearly. I blinked and pointed at her.

“Nancy?”

“That her name?” Stevie grinned, showing me a couple teeth that weren’t brown and rotting. He was right back, staring at her boobs. “Man. Your momma’s really pretty. You from ‘round here? Maybe you could get me her phone number, or somethin’?”

I turned the engine back on. I wasn’t real comfortable with this conversation, and I really didn’t want to smell Stevie’s funky breath any more. “Sorry, man. I don’t think so.”

He stepped back, a glum look on his greasy face. “That’s too bad, man.”

“Yeah, well.” I turned and winked at him. “You know, she’s not my mom.”

“She’s not?”

I shook my head. “She’s my date.”

I left Stevie alone with his nasty chair and his fantasies and made a sharp turn around the corner, heading for the front of the market. There were only a few other cars in the lot: a dusty old station wagon with fake wood trim, a late model sedan with a dinged fender, and a dirty white pickup with a gun rack and a guy in a filthy, white wife-beater t-shirt, hunched down behind the steering wheel with a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.

I continued down to the far end of the parking strip and parked next to an old muscle car that had seen better days. Nancy was still asleep, curled up in a ball in her seat, and I didn’t want to wake her up quite yet. I locked the VW up tight, just in case Stevie-boy got any romantic ideas, and went inside.

Apart from the two clerks – a couple of chubby, dishwater blondes gossiping behind one of the checkout aisles, the only other person in the store (that I could see, anyway) was back by the alcoholic beverages, pulling on a black ski mask.

I froze in my tracks and almost had a heart attack.

He grabbed two cases of cheap beer and ran for the hills. I heard a car door slam. Hooting and hollering drifted back into the store over the roar of an engine and the sound of spinning tires spitting gravel.

The girls never even looked up from painting their fingernails. I wondered if the commotion woke Nancy.

Apparently the beer run was as much of a robbery as was going to happen, and since I probably wasn’t going to get shot at, I started to shop. I bought a package of large marshmallows, some graham crackers and chocolate bars, along with a newspaper and a small can of lighter fluid. I picked up a bundle of firewood and I even found a bottle of wine, a nice Merlot to go with the chocolate. I bought a bag of ice and a small mop bucket, and then found an aisle with the condoms – just in case.

On the spur of the moment, I grabbed a few packages of women’s nylon stockings. I couldn’t really tell you why. But I threw them in my cart with everything else.

The two clerks broke up their tête-à-tête when I dumped the contents of my cart out in front of the register. The older, more haggard of the pair reluctantly rang me up, talking the entire time about what a good-for-nothin’ scammer Billy Ray was.

“Could I have separate bags for that stuff?” I pointed to the lighter fluid and the stockings.

“’Kay.”

I nodded at a display case full of pocket knives behind her. “And I’d like one of those, too.”

“Why, sure, hon.” The woman grunted and shook out a plastic bag. She made a point of shoving the items into the bag as hard as she could. She fingered through a large key ring and unlocked the case, and handed me the knife I’d pointed out. The other girl glared at me and then went back to more important things, like smacking her gum and blowing her nails dry. I guess it was bad manners for me to interrupt while they were busy. I wondered how long it took her to trowel on her makeup.

“That’ll be forty-two seventy-five, hon.”

“Wow,” I said, and pulled out my wallet.

The woman fussed with her hair. “Yawp. Sure is expensive these days.”

Feeling like I’d been scammed, I paid and wheeled my wobbly cart back out to the VW. I suppose they needed to break even somehow, with all the beer they lost. The pickup was gone, but Nancy was still curled up in a ball, her hand tucked under her chin. Apparently she’d missed all the commotion.

I unlocked my trunk and loaded it up. When I slammed it shut, Nancy stirred and stretched like a cat. I got another nice view of her tits while she had her arms in the air, and smiled. I left the cart on the walkway and unlocked the car.

As I pulled back onto the highway, Nancy turned sideways in her seat and yawned. Her bangs dropped across her forehead, fell into her eyes. She absently pushed them away and smiled sleepily. “Are we there, yet?”

“Pretty close.”

After another twenty minutes or so we finally saw the ocean. The moon was still out, hanging like a giant saucer suspended over the water.

“We’re at the beach?”

“Mm.”

I quietly rolled back the sunroof to let the scent of the salt water in. We came to some sharp curves, with nothing but a flimsy guardrail separating us from a steep cliff. I grabbed the gearshift and downshifted, slowing the VW. Nancy reached over, took my hand and squeezed. A warm tingle ran through me, settling down in my crotch. She closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath.

She let it out slowly and looked back over edge of the cliff, down at the rolling waves. “I love the ocean. I love the way it sounds. And smells. Everything.”

I smiled. We drove the curves, winding our way back down into the forest, and lost the moonlight. I knew we were close to where I wanted to go, but I had to squint, hunting for a landmark.

We passed an old a-frame style cabin set back off the road, and I slowed down even more around the next curve, or I knew I’d miss the turnoff.

“Here we are.” I signaled, even though there weren’t any other cars around for miles, and turned off the highway.

The drive was an old logging trail, overgrown and rutted. The car bounced along the road and low branches smacked the windshield as I did my best to not flip the car. Some friends of mine had discovered this little deserted spot my junior year of high school. We used to come here every summer, but I hadn’t been here in years.

The road opened into a small clearing, and I parked and turned off the car.

We sat, listening to the whirr of the engine as it cooled off. We could hear the ocean, the waves roaring off in the distance. I shut off the headlights, plunging us into darkness.

I patted Nancy’s knee and opened my door. “Come on. Let’s get out and stretch a bit.”

“Okay.”

I walked around to her door and helped her out. We were parked on a small bluff overlooking the beach. I took her hand and we slid down the small dune, bounding into the soft sand at the bottom like we were kids.

The beach was quiet, except for the rumble of the ocean and the soft crashing of the breaking waves. The moon was obscured, hidden behind the forest pines, so it was dark enough to see thousands of twinkling stars. Nancy looked up and smiled.

“Devin…”

I looked at her.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She bit her lip and squeezed my hand.

“Want to go for a walk?”

Nancy slipped her arm through mine and we slogged through the soft, powdery sand to the harder pack at the water’s edge. We walked together for a while, not saying much, just enjoying the moment. She shivered a little, and snuggled up next to me. I felt the breeze pick up, and she shivered again.

“Cold?”

“A little.”

“Do you want to go back to the car?”

She sighed. “Not really. I kind of like being right here.”

That warm, fuzzy feeling jumped around in my gut. We walked the length of the cove, and then I led her back the way we came. When we reached the clearing, I guided her over to a pile of driftwood scattered among the dunes.

“Wait here a minute?”

She nodded and wrapped her arms around her chest. I ran back up to the car and opened my trunk. I grabbed some blankets that I’d brought along, the newspaper and the firewood. I carried everything back to Nancy and dropped most of my load into the sand.

“What’s all this stuff?”

“Hang on a minute.” I snapped open one of the blankets and spread it out. “Our night isn’t quite finished yet.” I took her hand and smiled. “Here. Have a seat.”

She was staring at me strangely, but sat down on the blanket. I wrapped another around her shoulders, and dug out a small depression in the sand. I filled the hole with newspaper and pieces of kindling from the wood, then covered that with the larger logs.

“Okay.” I squirted a little lighter fluid onto the wood. I rolled up another chunk of newspaper and lit it with the lighter. “Let’s see if my week in scouts taught me anything.”

Nancy was still staring at me. I carefully dabbed at the crumpled newspaper with the makeshift match. The lighter fluid caught, and tendrils of bluish-orange flame spurted up my tent of wood. Nothing blew up. I still had my eyebrows and my fingers. Looking good so far. I turned to Nancy. “That’s a good start. I’ll be right back.”

I jogged back up to the car and fished out the grocery bags. I sat those on the ground and pulled out the bucket and checked to make sure the bottle of wine I’d covered with ice was still intact.

Once, again, everything looked good.

I shut the trunk, snapped my fingers – forgot something – popped the latch again. I opened open a pack of condoms and shoved some into my pocket, then shoved the rest back in the bag with the nylons and dropped the bag in the trunk.

“All right.” I took a deep breath to calm myself down, counted to three and went off to woo my date.

***

Nancy was staring into the fire when I returned. I set the bucket down. She looked at it and smiled up at me as I dropped onto the blanket next to her.

“What’s this?”

“You’ll see.”

On my way back to the cul-de-sac I’d picked up a couple long sticks. I took my new pocket knife and whittled until each stick until it was sharp at one end. I handed one to Nancy and put my knife back in my pocket, then I opened the grocery bag and laid our dessert out in front of us. Nancy was holding her stick loosely in one hand while she clasped the blanket around her body with the other, looking confused.

I ripped open the marshmallows and skewered one on the point of her stick. She looked at me blankly.

“What?” I asked.

She waved at the white blob. “What…what do I do with this?”

“You’re kidding, right?”

She shrugged.

“You’ve never made s’mores?”

She shook her head.

“Okay. Hold on…”

I rustled around unwrapped a bar of chocolate and opened the box of graham crackers. Then I grabbed her stick.

“Here.”

I held the stick at the base of the fire, down by the coals, until the marshmallow burned a golden brown, and handed it back to Nancy. I opened a package of crackers and broke one in half, then I layered the cracker with a chunk of the chocolate and carefully pulled the warm, goopy marshmallow off the stick. I plopped that on the chocolate and squeezed the other half of the graham cracker on top, making a little, gooey sandwich.

I held the melting, dripping mess in front of Nancy’s lips.

“Here.”

She gave me the strangest look.

“C’mon. Take a bite.”

Nancy licked her lips, opened her mouth and chomped down. She chewed quietly for a second, swallowed.

“Well…?”

Her eyes flickered closed, and she growled deep in her throat. When she opened her eyes, she grabbed my hand and pulled it to her mouth.

“Give me the rest of that.”

I lifted the rest of her treat up above her head, made her work for the chocolaty goodness. She snapped at it like a starving puppy, stopped just short of biting and licking my fingers.

“Good, huh?”

“That’s…sinful. What are they called?”

I laughed. “S’mores. I can’t believe you’ve never had them before.” I handed her the stick, another marshmallow impaled on the tip. “Here. Your turn. You can make me one.”

While she toasted her marshmallow, I broke out a pair of clear plastic cups and popped open the wine. I poured us each a cup. Her marshmallow caught on fire, and she jerked it back.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I…”

I grabbed the end of the stick. “It’s okay, I like mine a little burnt. Just blow it out.”

She puffed and the flame disappeared, leaving behind a scorched, bubbling blob. I took two pieces of cracker and pinched it off, leaving a sticky white mass on the end of the toasting stick.

“Can I make it?”

I pushed the chocolate to her side of the blanket, then reached across her lap and anchored a glass of wine in the sand so it wouldn’t spill. I leaned back on my elbows and crossed my feet, took a sip of wine, relaxing while she built my s’more. I swished the drink around in my mouth, swallowed. I don’t really like wine, but this was tasty.

“Here…”

She fed me. She had chocolate melted all over her fingers, and she held the little treat until it was gone. Then she licked the chocolate off her fingers, looking me in the eye the entire time. It was the strangest most intimate thing I’d experienced in a long time.

She tried her wine. “Mm. Yummy.” She pronounced.

My crotch perked up again, and I took another sip from my cup. I tasted plums. The wine seemed to go pretty well with the chocolate, I thought. The benefit of a wine tasting trip with Desiree and Linda in France a year before. Nancy was already burning another marshmallow. She did a little better this time, only destroyed half.

I stretched out on the blanket, holding my cup on my belly, staring up at the night sky. Nancy made another s’more, then she leaned back on her elbow and pressed it to my lips.

“For you.”

I ate it slowly. She giggled.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, what? Tell me.”

“It’s silly.”

I waited. She took a drink.

“I just felt like…like a slave girl. You know. Feeding her master.”

My dick was suddenly trying to rip out of my pants. It was bent at a really uncomfortable angle. I opened my mouth to say…something. Shut it again. She took another drink and turned her head away.

“Nancy, I…”

“Shh.” Another gulp, then she turned to me. “You know I’m married?”

“Uh-huh,” I replied slowly. “I do.”

“Okay.”

Nancy nodded. It was as if she was giving me the go-ahead on a major project, like we were going to be building a new dam or a skyscraper, and she was my foreman, making sure our plans were in order. Then she drank down the rest of her wine in a huge gulp and tossed the cup into the sand. She leaned back on her elbow and hooked a leg over mine.

“Let’s move this so it doesn’t spill.”

She lifted my cup from my hands, buried in the sand next to me. Her heavy breasts grazed my chest, and then she was sliding on top of me. I felt her weight settle on me, and she took my face in her soft hands. She bent and kissed me. I twitched, grinding my crotch into hers. Her warmth burned through my pants, and she growled again, gently pushing her tongue into my mouth.

I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do. My eyes popped open and I flailed my hands around aimlessly until some instinct made me wrap my arms around her waist. She was moving slowly, rubbing her body against me, gently kissing, probing my mouth with her tongue. As I slowly relaxed, I felt her getting hotter and hotter, until she pushed away and sat up.

“Okay…” she whispered the word to herself, like she needed to have permission. Her eyes were glazed, the lids flickering, half-closed. “Okay…”

She scooted down further on my legs, raking her nails down my chest. I twitched again, and she was yanking open my belt, popping the buttons to my pants.

“Nancy, I…”

She didn’t stop, just hissed. She pulled my cock out of my underpants and began stroking me. “It’s…so hard…”

And then she went down on me. Swallowed me down to the hilt in a gulp. She kept me in her mouth and tugged at my clothes. I lifted my hips as much as I could, and she got them down around my knees. Then she went to work. She straddled my legs and ground her pussy on my thighs while she gave me head. I was all ready to come, just that fast.

She must have known, because she stopped sucking me. Her lips came off the head of my dick with a wet slurp. She pulled the hem of her skirt up around her waist with one hand and kept stroking me with the other. She groped at her underpants, and suddenly I heard the sound of material ripping.

I was squeezing her waist with my hands, digging my fingers into her soft belly. I was so horny, I thought I was going to explode. “Nancy…”

She ignored me and inched up my body, until my cock was pinned underneath her. She eased down slowly, guiding me with her hand. When her pussy closed around me I closed my eyes and laid my head back.

She pushed my t-shirt up, rolling it over my chest.

I let her peel it off. She tossed the shirt away, and then I was unbuttoning the top of her dress, pulling it down over her shoulders until it was bunched around her waist.

I pulled the straps of her bra down and took her breasts into my hands. She bent and kissed me frantically, moaning deep in her throat, touching and caressing me until I couldn’t wait anymore. I grabbed her ass in my hands and squeezed, feeling my orgasm building. It seemed to start in my toes, working its way up until my entire body was stiff and rigid. I heard Nancy cry out and felt her stiff nipples graze my chest, and then I was coming.

I couldn’t hold back, I couldn’t move. All I could do was hold on and let her ride me, until every ounce of my energy flooded away in one final shudder. She was still on top of me, riding me, grinding her pelvis into mine and digging her sharp fingernails into my shoulders, when the last few days finally caught up with me.

My eyelids were already drooping, heavy as lead. I was already drifting away to sleep. Nancy bucked a last time, then she stiffened and cried out, moaning her husbands’ name. She collapsed on me and began to sob uncontrollably. I wrapped my arms around her and stroked her, whispering that everything was fine, that she was okay.

And then I zonked out.

***

The sun was up, and I was stretched out flat on my back when Nancy woke me. I don’t think I’d moved all night. I blinked open my eyes to find her cuddled next to me on the blanket, naked, stroking my cock. She had my dick hard already. I was pointed up at the sky, and she was lightly running the tips of her fingers up and down the underside of my shaft.

“Hi,” I mumbled. I wondered how bad my breath smelled.

“Hi.” She smiled and kissed me softly on the mouth, then stopped and pillowed her chin on my chest. She never stopped playing with me. “You fell asleep.”

I felt myself blush. “I was a little tired, I guess. Did you get any sleep?”

“Mm. A bit.” She kissed my chest. “Thank you.”

“For…what?”

“Last night.”

I laughed. “I don’t know that you should be thanking me for last night.”

“I came to a decision about something last night after you fell asleep. Something that’s been affecting me for a long time.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s time for me to start fresh.” Nancy bit her lip. “I’m going to leave my husband.”

I was shocked. “Oh. I…ah…”

“Don’t look so worried. It’s something…I’ve been thinking about for a long time.” She smiled sadly. “Did you know today’s our anniversary?”

I shook my head. Nancy took a long, deep breath, and let it back out slowly.

“I always thought that when two people met and fell and love and got married...I always thought that meant forever, you know? But then I found out Dan was having an affair. With a friend of mine. And it turns out, she’s not the only one. I should be upset, or more than I am, anyway. But I knew. I could tell. Its like I’m waiting around for him to admit it to me, even though I know he won’t. I’ve just been kind of drifting around. And now…I guess, now I feel like everything I grew up believing isn’t…real.”

Nancy drifted off, staring out at the water. She was quiet for a moment, but kept gently rubbing me, keeping me hard. The whole conversation was getting a little surreal, but there was something I wanted to know.

“So, last night....” I cleared my throat. “Did you come with me to…get back at him? Or…”

“Oh. No.” She smiled and gave me a light squeeze. I felt my dick throb in her hand. “Devin, I like you. You’ve been so nice to me…and…I thought that maybe you liked me too.”

“I do, I mean…Nancy, I’m sorry about…”

She shushed me. “I’m sorry, too. For crying last night, especially. You didn’t need that.”

“I fell asleep, remember? It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. This isn’t either, probably. But I just don’t care anymore.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I was having a hard time concentrating anyway, so I stayed quiet. She looked me right in the eye and inched closer.

“Devin, I want you to kiss me.”

Nancy pursed her lips, and her eyes flickered shut. Our kiss was gentle, almost tentative, especially after the mauling she gave me last night. When we parted for a breath, she rolled onto her back. She spread her legs and pulled me on top of her.

She was sopping wet. She pulled me closer with her legs, and then we were joined again. This time was slower, gentler. She touched me everywhere, exploring. I was rested enough to have a little more stamina, thank god, because we didn’t decide to leave our private beach until the sun was getting low on the horizon.

We didn’t see another soul the rest of the day, except for a few noisy seagulls. We spent the morning playing. Cuddling, talking, swimming. Walking on the beach. Making love. Until finally, late into the afternoon, we were spent.

And starving.

Ahem. In my zeal to get into Nancy’s pants the night before, somehow I’d neglected to bring or buy any real food. My stomach started complaining loudly during our last round of lovemaking. Nancy laughed while it gurgled.

“How would you like to go get some dinner?”

She held up her rumpled dress. “I don’t think I want to go anywhere in this.”

We were both naked and the breeze had turned chilly, so we were hunting for our clothes. I found my shirt in a tangle of sharp, pokey bleached-white branches. I had no idea where my underwear was. I bent over and tried to pick it out without tearing it.

“You could just wear what you’ve got on.”

“Would you like that?” I snuck a look over my shoulder. Nancy was staring at my butt, smiling.

“You bet.”

“I don’t think anybody else would.” She patted her soft tummy. “I’m not really sure why you seem too fancy this old body either.”

“You look great.” I shrugged. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”

“You’re sweet.”

“You keep saying that. You don’t know me very well, apparently.”

She gave me a look. “What does that mean?”

I gave her a mysterious eyebrow wiggle. I rolled a log out of my way, and my shirt came free. It was filthy, and had a big rip up the side from Nancy yanking on it. I sighed. I liked that shirt. Nancy was slipping into her panties.

She sighed, took a long look around. “I don’t want to go home yet.”

I turned my shirt inside-out and pulled it on. Except for the tear, it looked a little better. “We could stay another night. There’s a bunch of outlet stores in town. We could hit a store, get enough stuff to last a couple days, rent a hotel room, clean up, get some dinner. How about it?”

“Really?” She was staring at me with her bra halfway on. “What about your work?”

“I took a few days off. I don’t have to be anywhere.”

She thought about it. “Well…okay.”

“Good. I have a couple conditions, though.” I walked over and helped button the front of her dress.

“Conditions…?”

“Mm-hm.” I nodded. “You let me pick out your clothes, for one. Everything I’d like to see you wear.”

She blushed. “What?”

“That’s number one.”

“What’s number two?” She asked.

I finished buttoning her up. A couple of the top buttons were missing. I guess they had popped off after I tore her dress open last night. Now her collar flopped open, all the way down to her chest. I ran my finger down her cleavage and she shivered. “After we eat, I get to take you back to the hotel room and take off those clothes…”

She put her hands on my shoulders. I cupped her ass in my hands and pulled her close, smashing her breasts into my chest. She looked up at me with a naughty little grin.

“And then…?”

“And then I tie you to the bed, and prove to you that I’m not the nice guy you think I am…”

***

It was early Tuesday morning when I dropped Nancy back at her house. She was wearing a dark, fitted suit with a pale cream blouse, and a matching skirt, stockings and high-heels. Light bruises circled her wrists and ankles from where she’d been bound for the last day or so. I was in my jeans and a new t-shirt, and I was exhausted.

I hoped she was too.

We kissed for a moment and said our goodbyes. She opened the door, stepped out and took a shopping back from my backseat.

“I’ll call you later?”

She closed the door and leaned in through the open window. “That would be nice.”

We kissed again. When we parted she smiled happily. I waited until she opened her front door, and then I drove off. By the time she disappeared into her house, I had other things on my mind. During the weekend, she’d made a decision that would affect her life.

So had I.

I didn’t notice the car parked in her driveway – a car that wasn’t supposed to be there.

***

Nancy unlocked her front door and waved as Devin drove off. When she couldn’t see his car any longer she stepped into her house and set her bag on the floor of the foyer.

She leaned against the wall, closed her eyes and sighed, feeling her age for the first time for the last few days. She was sore and tired, but she also felt deliciously…satiated.

She kicked off her shoes and rubbed the soles of her feet.

God, those things were uncomfortable. She definitely wasn’t used to wearing high heels anymore. She had to admit, though, she looked pretty good in the clothes Devin had bought for her. He sure thought so, anyway. That’s really what mattered.

She smiled at her reflection in the hall mirror, smoothed her skirt over her hips, made a little turn. She cupped her breasts and gave them a little bounce, grinned.

Then she saw Dan. He’d come from the living room, and was leaning against the doorframe, dressed in a white t-shirt and boxer shorts. Wiry grey chest hair poked out of the collar of his shirt. His upper lip twitched. Nancy knew he’d been watching her, ever since she stepped out of Devin’s car. Probably before.

He took a slug from a can of beer in his hand, gulping the beer down. He wiped his mouth with his forearm and grinned. “Hi honey. I’m home.”

He crushed the can and dropped it into her shopping bag. Then he advanced into the foyer, wobbling slightly. He stopped bare inches away from Nancy, glaring down at her with hollow, bloodshot eyes. Dan wasn’t a particularly tall man, certainly not nearly as big or muscular as Devin. But he possessed a quality that made him seem massive; as if he towered over her. It was a trait that had served him in good stead during his tenure as a police officer, and as an army drill sergeant before that.

Her good mood evaporated in a heartbeat.

“Dan…”

“So…where have you been? Huh? Since Saturday?”

Nancy felt herself blush; a slow burn that spread across her face and down her neck.

“I…”

“Out with the girls? That’s what your friend next door told me. I think she thinks I’m stupid. Whoever I just saw you with didn’t look like he had tits to me.”

Nancy tried to back away. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, sour and disgusting, and a pit opened in her stomach. She knew how her husband could get if he’d been drinking. He forgot things sometimes. Little blackouts. And if he thought she was lying to him…

“I told you before you left. Remember?” She put her hands up, to keep some sort of boundary between them. “I told you who…”

“This is nice. New?” He fingered the lapel of her suit jacket, then grabbed her breast and squeezed hard. “Looks expensive. You buy it?”

Nancy moaned and batted ineffectually at his hand. “No. Dan, I…”

“Yeah. I didn’t think so.”

Nancy stumbled backwards. Dan stayed with her, not letting her move out of his reach. She bumped into the wall, and he grabbed her neck with a big, meaty hand, pinned her against the wall with his body. He was hurting her. She slapped at him.

“Dan! Let me go!”

He sneered and easily caught her hands. He shoved them over her head and shoved his leg between her thighs. He leaned down and tried to kiss her. Nancy turned her head and cried out as he roughly bit at her neck.

Nancy writhed against her husband. Her crotch rubbed up and down his leg.

“Did you fuck him like you wanted to?” He was chewing her ear, whispering, his voice low and hoarse. “Did he come in you, baby?”

“Yesss…” She hissed.

“Did you suck him…?”

Dan was hard, shoving his pelvis forward, grinding himself into her. Nancy closed her eyes, and a flood of moisture dribbled down the inside of her legs. Her chest heaved.

“Yes…”

Dan reached down and felt her pussy. He dug his fingers into her sopping cunt.

“You liked it too, didn’t you, you fucking whore. I bet you liked when he came in your mouth…”

Nancy began to tremble, her body shivering uncontrollably. The first waves of an intense orgasm began to overwhelm her as Dan ripped her skirt up. His hot, panting mouth found hers, and Nancy wrapped her legs around his ass.

“Fuck me baby,” she begged. “C’mon, fuck your mommy…”

“That’s right, you cunt, I’ll fuck you, you goddamn whore…I’ll fuck you like you wanted him to, that dickless little shit…”

His hand left her pussy and he shoved his cock inside her with one, hard thrust. They fell to the floor together. Dan pinned her wrists to the polished oak and rammed his cock into her again, spitting into her face. Nancy gasped as he fell on her, crushing the breath out of her.

She panted in his ear. “Come on baby, fuck your momma, fuck momma…”

Dan pounded her, grunting with each thrust. Sweat beaded his forehead, soaked the armpits of his t-shirt, and dripped onto her blouse, wetting it with dark spots.

And then she was coming, a gut-wrenching orgasm that curled her toes and shook her whole body. Her orgasm ripped through her, and she screamed, “Oh, God! Yes, baby!

Nancy clung to her husband, letting him ride her, feeling another orgasm building already. Dan was pounding her, slamming himself into her cunt. The veins in his face and neck bulged. Her bruised wrists throbbed with pain. And then he came, swift and hard, his entire body stiff and taught.

Then he collapsed on her, crying like a child, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, swearing he was going to go kill the little punk that tried to take her from him.

Nancy held him and smiled.

She loved this game.

***

After I dropped Nancy off, I drove straight to the video store.

There were only two other cars in the lot when I got there. A shiny new VW Jetta full of teenage girls was idling at the curb. Trisha (Stephanie’s friend, my ex-employee) was at the wheel. A dingy, shit-brown Toyota was crookedly parked in the handicapped spot. Not only was it taking up two spots, the Toyota didn’t have a disabled permit.

I pulled in a few spots over from the Jetta and killed the engine. Trisha waved at me. All the other girls giggled and poked each other and blew me kisses. I didn’t know any of them, but I waved and blew kisses right back. It made them giggle even more.

Lindsay was at the counter, checking out a pile of movies to Stephanie. Stephanie blushed when she saw me, but they both smiled and waved when I pushed open the door. I stepped behind the counter and picked up the phone. I glanced around; automatically checking to make sure everything was in order.

I noticed the security cameras weren’t turned on. I pointed at the monitor hidden under the counter, at the blank screen, and wagged my finger back and forth. That was a big no-no. Lindsay frowned at me, but she nodded and mouthed, okay.

“Hey, you two.”

“Hey boss-man.” Lindsay glanced over at me, raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t expect to see you for a couple more days…?”

She let the question drift.

“I guess so.” I nodded over my shoulder at the Toyota. I raised my eyebrow for emphasis. “By the way, I also noticed that you parked in the handicapped spot again.”

She stuck out her tongue.

“We’ve talked about that.”

“But…”

I kept quiet and gave her my best mean, evil manager look. Stephanie giggled.

“Okay. Fine. I’ll move it.”

“Thank you.” I pushed the button for the corporate office on the phone’s speed dial and crooked the phone between my neck and shoulder. I bumped my hip against the counter and waited with my arms crossed while the receiver beeped in my ear. Stephanie and Lindsay turned to each other and shrugged. Lindsay finished scanning Stephanie’s movies through the computer. The receipt was printing by the time our office manager, Mary, picked up the other line.

Lindsay made faces at me, trying to get me to laugh. I ignored her while Mary blurted out the company’s required phone answering spiel. I had to give her credit; she had the speech down verbatim. I thought she could’ve slowed it down a little, though. If I hadn’t had to memorize it myself, I wouldn’t have understood a word she’d said. Mary didn’t have the most dynamic personality anyway; the end effect was something like listening to the adults speaking in a Peanuts cartoon.

“Hey Mary. It’s Devin.”

Blah, blah, blah.

“It’s good. Really good.”

Blah, blah.

“That’s why I’m calling.”

Blah.

“I’m giving my notice.”

That little comment provoked complete, stunned silence. On the phone and in the store. Lindsay stopped making faces. Stephanie looked like I’d pimp-slapped her.

“I decided that I need to just off my butt and go back and finish school.” Blah-blah-blah. “Yeah. Well, I’ve got an opportunity to start making movies, too. So I’m going to be leaving...”

There were a whole lot of loud blah-blahs that time. I held the receiver away from my ear until the ruckus on the other end subsided. Lindsay and Stephanie were frozen at the counter, staring at me with their mouths open.

“Yeah. Actually, I do. There’s someone standing right here that I think would do a great job.” More blah-blahs drifted from the phone. I smiled at Lindsay. “Yep, that’s her. You should talk to her about it.”

Blah. Blah, blah.

“Okay. I’ll email you a written notice on Monday. Perfect. Yeah. Two weeks from then. Great. Thanks Mary. Bye.”

I hung up. It took about two seconds for the girls to realize what I’d done. They looked at each other, then at me, and then they both started talking at once. Lindsay wagged her finger at me.

“You can’t quit!”

“I just did.”

“But…but…” She stammered.

“And I just recommended that you take over my job. Mary’s going to call you next week. You should be manager at the end of the month.”

“But…”

“And then you can park wherever the hell you want to.”

Lindsay balled her hands into little fists and planted them on her hips. She gave me a last glare. I made a face back at her and she grinned. “Well. Okay then.”

Stephanie looked lost. She also looked very cute, standing there in her tight little t-shirt and her tight little shorts, holding her bag of movies. Outside, the girl’s in the Jetta were getting impatient. Trisha honked the horn. I grinned and waved.

“I think they want to go, Steph. Hey, Lindsay, let everybody know we’ll have a staff meeting Saturday morning at eight, and I’ll let everyone know what’s up.”

She started to say something else, but I was already out the door.

***

A couple weeks later, Nancy called and left a message on my cell phone, asking if we could get together. I called her back on her cell and said sure. And that Friday night we met downtown for dinner. She looked great again, dressed in a light skirt and a low cut top. She gave me a peck on the cheek and rubbed her boobs on my arm.

I spent most of dinner trying to not stare at her tits.

Afterwards, I walked her to my car. She’d snuck away from home and taken a cab downtown, and was wondering what I had planned for us this weekend.

“You’ll see,” I said, and drove us to Desiree’s club.

The club was smack-dab in the middle of downtown, and, surprisingly (knowing Desiree and her penchant for the flamboyant), the exterior of the building was a boring, drab slate, with a tiny neon sign with the club’s name mounted above the doors.

Generally, the businesses surrounding the club were closed by the time any of her clients were getting ready to party, and as much as anything, the club’s bland façade was a small concession from her to the city and the neighboring businesses. It helped keep the complaints to a bare minimum. During the festival, she’d stayed open around the clock for the sailors’ enjoyment. Tonight the club was quiet, reserved for a private party.

Swan and I were making a movie.

To ensure we didn’t get bothered, two big, burly gay guys in leather riding gear manned the outer doors, and two even larger bull-dykes policed the lobby. They all knew me, and by the time we walked up the steps, Desiree was there to meet us. She squealed and clapped her hands and jumped up and down, making her tits bounce. She was dressed subtly tonight, for her, anyway; practically naked except for a black, studded thong and a matching bra, and she seemed about seven feet tall in her leather, spike-heeled boots.

Desiree flipped her long, straight pony-tail over a muscular shoulder and kissed me lightly on the lips. She’d recently dyed her hair a shade of purple so dark it almost looked black until the light hit it just right.

I introduced Nancy, and then Desiree whisked us inside.

The interior of the club was more suited to her personality. Nancy stared open-mouthed. She didn’t seem to notice the threatening looks that the lesbian storm-troopers gave her.

Desiree took Nancy by the arm. “Would you like a quick tour?” she asked, and led her away, chattering up a storm. Nancy followed a half-step behind, a confused look on her face. I stayed put.

“See you in a bit,” I said, both to Nancy and the stormtoopers. One of the pair, the big blonde one who I think was named Helga, flipped me off.

Once they disappeared it was my turn. The men’s locker room was the opposite direction. Swan was waiting for me when I pushed open the door. He was naked except for a jockstrap. I could make out every bone in his scrawny body.

“Jesus, man. Put on some clothes.’

“S’up, Dev?” He grinned.

We high-fived. The dressing room was large enough to hold several hundred lockers, lined against the walls, like at a gym. A good chunk of them were full. Swan had saved me a locker next to his. I sat down on a wood bench and started to strip.

“Everything ready?” I asked.

“Hell, yeah.” He took two rubber Halloween masks out of the locker. “How was dinner?”

“Tasty.” I folded my pants, stuffed them in the locker.

“So…she came?”

I nodded and pulled off my shirt.

“How’d you get her here?”

I grinned and shrugged. “I told her we were making a movie.”

“Yeah? Okay.” He handed me one of the masks. “Except, I hear a ‘but’ in there, somewhere…”

“Well, I didn’t tell her everything. It’d spoil the surprise.”

He pulled his mask over his head. It was a clown mask, with a fringe of tangled red hair, and a garish, leering smile that was painted on the latex under a huge, long nose that stuck out like a skinny phallus. The thing barely fit over Swan’s afro, and it puffed out like a balloon when he finally got in on. Mine was the same, except the wig’s hair color was a dirty gray. And it fit.

“All right.” Swan said. “Let’s go make a movie.”

***

The day after I got back to work, Nancy’s husband came to pay me a visit. Swan was at the store too. We were discussing my retirement. He was in the restroom taking a piss when Dan walked through the door and called me a cock-sucking asshole scumbag.

I think I laughed at him.

I knew who he was, so at first I assumed he was just there for some payback, a little ‘warn off the guy who seduced my wife’ sort of thing. So I grabbed the mace from under the counter – just to be safe – and tried to calm him the fuck down.

But then he pulled a big-ass hunting knife and took a swing at me.

He almost got me. The blade whizzed by about an inch from my nose. But he was short and didn’t have a long reach, even with the foot-long knife. The counter gave me enough space to keep my good looks.

He tried to come around the side of the counter. I stepped backwards and maced him right in the face.

The previous manager had bought the mace before she left, and the canister had been sitting around under the counter forever. I’d thought about throwing it away, but had never gotten around to it. Could mace spoil? I didn’t know. What I did know, or what the other manager had told me, was that the stuff was guaranteed to bring down a grizzly bear at fifty yards.

I don’t think I’d want to try it with a grizzly bear. But spoiled or not, it did the trick.

Dan screamed and dropped the knife. He fell onto his knees and started clawing at his burning eyeballs. Swan jumped out of the restroom with his fly still open to see what was going on.

Stupidly, I stepped around the counter to try and help Dan, who was scrabbling around on his hands and knees on the tile floor, screaming incoherently at me with tears running down his face and snot streaming from his nose. His groping fingers grabbed the knife again, and he swung it blindly, shouting obscenities the whole time. I kicked the knife out of his hand. Swan jumped on him from behind and pinned him to the floor.

Dan kept fighting until Swan twisted his arm around and bent it up at a bad angle behind his back. That might have been enough to hold him until I called the cops, but then Swan grabbed Dan’s hair and pounded his face into the floor.

I heard a sharp crack as Dan’s nose shattered, and then gouts of blood joined the pool of snot I was going to have to mop up. He kept fighting, so Swan pounded his face again.

That was when Dan stopped screaming and started whimpering, telling us all sorts of crazy, whacked out stories. By the time he stopped talking, I knew how he and Nancy had set me up. It was all some sort of sick, fucked up sex game to them. And he’d come to fuck me up good, all right. That was how it worked. Nancy seduced some poor sap, and afterwards Dan would go and scare the piss out of him.

It turned them on.

Swan asked me what I wanted to do. I thought about it. I thought about Nancy, and our weekend together. What she’d told me. I picked up the knife and played with it. After a bit I got an idea.

Dan didn’t seem to like it. So I yanked his head back and pricked his eyelid with the tip. He shook his head. So I peeled his eyelid back, exposing his eyeball, and showed him the knife. His bladder failed, and a puddle of warm urine joined the rest of the mess. He struggled, but Swan had all the leverage he needed to keep Dan relatively still. I made a nice, shallow cut along his bottom lid, following the curve of his eye. He cried out. Blood welled up and dripped from the cut like a crimson tear.

It didn’t take long for him to come around.

We sent Dan home a little bloody, with a broken nose and a dislocated shoulder, and a warning.

When he left, I was shaking. I was still freaked out when, later that evening, I dropped the knife down a storm drain.

You never know what you’re capable of…

***

I wasn’t at all sure Dan would follow the plan. I half expected some of his cop buddies to show up on my doorstep, and somebody would be picking me out of the river a few days later. But that didn’t happen.

Then Nancy called to tell me he’d left her…

Everything hinged on that one, little thing. I don’t know what he said to her to get her to call, but here we were. Another night out on the town, with Nancy feeding me a new sob story about her cheating husband.

In hindsight, the act seemed a little more genuine this time.

Swan thought my idea would work, but we needed somebody’s help.

***

Desiree watched the flabby sow-cow, wondering what the hell Devin had ever seen in her. That boy had some strange kinks. Old wrinkly bitch, she thought. Fuck with my baby…

She kept her thousand-watt smile plastered on her face and dragged the cunt to the dressing rooms.

“Here we are, honey.” She pointed and gave the cow a nudge. “Right through those doors.”

“Is that where they’re making the movie?”

“That’s it. Everybody’s waiting for you.”

“Okay.”

Desiree wrapped her arms under her breasts and gave the woman a last once-over.

“Honey, you sure you want to do this?”

Nancy shrugged. “Sure…why not?”

“Well, you know what they say.”

Nancy looked back, her hand on the door handle. “What?”

“Honey…” Desiree looked at Nancy’s gut and grinned, showing her perfect, white teeth. “Film adds a good ten pounds…”

***

Nancy shook her head, thinking, what a fucking bitch....

“Aren’t you coming?”

The he-she shook her head. “This is as far as I go, honey. Have fun.”

She pushed open the locker room door and was halfway through when Desiree called back to her

“Honey? A bit of advice…?”

She peeked back into the locker room. “What?”

“It’ll be better if you relax in there. Go with the flow.” Then she turned and was gone in two long strides.

Nancy scowled and walked down a dimly-lit hallway. A thin crack of bright light shown through a space between a pair of metal doors at the far end. She wondered where the hell Devin was. Nancy pushed on a wide metal bar. There was a click, and the door swung open. She stepped through and froze.

The door swung shut. She didn’t hear the click as it locked behind her. She was too busy staring at the roomful of masked, naked men.

“Omigod…”

Someone shouted. “Action!”

Nancy screamed as the first hands grabbed her and started ripping at her clothes…

***

It was just past midnight. Friday night at the video store, and Stephanie was on the phone with Trisha, talking about Devin and waiting to be able to close the store and go home. They’d been busy earlier in the evening, but she’d only had maybe one or two customers since the sun went down. Trisha had called to talk about ten. She hadn’t put the phone down since.

“…And then he made me breakfast!” She giggled into the phone. Trisha wanted to hear all the details – again. “And then we…”

Stephanie hardly noticed the rusted-out delivery van that pulled up to the curb outside, or the two scummy guys in leather biker jackets that flicked cigarettes onto the pavement who stepped out. They walked into the store like they owned it, stopped at the side of the counter and looked around. Smoke from the moldering cigarette butts wafted in after them.

Stephanie wrinkled her little nose at the smell and kept talking “But he quit, so now I never see him, and I don’t have his phone number…”

The guys split up. One of them, a bald guy with a hook nose and facial tattoos walked straight to the back of the store. The other guy, the taller of the two, stepped to the middle of the counter where Stephanie was standing. His black steel-toed boots scuffed the tile as he walked.

When he reached her, he smacked his dirty hands on the counter hard enough to make Stephanie jump. He leaned over and stared down at her boobs.

“Hey, is somebody named Devin here?” He didn’t bother raising his eyes away from her tits. The arms of his leather jacket and his t-shirt were both torn away at the shoulders, and he flexed his muscles while he talked, making them jump and wiggle. Like it was supposed to impress her or something. “I’m a friend of his.”

Stephanie made a face. She couldn’t help it. The guy was filthy and he smelled awful, like cigarettes and beer and body odor. His beard was scraggly and his blonde hair was long and greasy. All of his fingernails were bitten down to the quick and black with grime. Blue ink from homemade tattoos had bled into the cracks of the skin on his upper arms and his scabby knuckles. Where they weren’t torn, his clothes were covered with motor oil and dirt.

Stephanie thought he looked creepy, like he just got out of jail. She wondered if he was lying. She shook her head curtly, hoping he’d go away.

“It’s nice to meet you...” He shifted his eyes enough to glance at her nametag. He reached out and tweaked it, brushing her breast. His hand left a greasy black smear on the counter where it had touched. She took a quick, sharp breath, fighting the urge not to step further away from this creep. “Stephanie. My name’s John.”

“Hold on…” She covered the mouthpiece of the phone with the palm of her hand. “Um, Devin doesn’t work here anymore. His last day was today.”

“Oh.” The guy looked so disappointed, Stephanie wondered if maybe he did know Devin. She hoped not. He was gross. “Do you have a phone number or something…? I haven’t seen him in a long time. I kinda wanted to surprise him, hook up, you know? Talk about old times and all that shit.”

She shook her head. “Sorry.”

“Well shitfuck.” He finally stopped looking at her chest and grinned wolfishly. “Well, what about you? You doin’ anything tonight?”

Her eyes widened. “Huh?”

“My friend Reg over there thinks you’re kinda cute. He thinks you’d be a nice date, you know what I mean? I think he’s right. Maybe we could rent some movies and go back to your place when you get off.” He reached across the counter again and nudged her shoulder. This time she did step back. “Have a little fun, the three of us.”

The question gobsmacked her. She stuttered, feeling totally icked-out, then managed, “Uh-uh. No way.”

“Huh.” He cracked his knuckles. “You sure?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Already got a boyfriend or something, huh?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Oh.” John frowned and stared blankly at something behind her. Stephanie started to turn around, but then he blinked and said, “I guess that’s okay. Hey, Stephanie, is there a bathroom I could use?”

“Sure.” Stephanie grabbed the ring with the key to the public restroom off its hook and handed it to him. She cringed when he touched her. His hands were rough and callused. “It’s back down that hall, across from the adult movie room.”

The door alarm beeped, making them both jump, and a teenage couple came in. They dropped a few video cases into the return box at the end of the counter and then, joined at the hip like Siamese twins, they walked over to the new release wall.

John glanced at them, then looked back the way Stephanie was pointing. Then he tossed the keys in the air and smiled at her. There was a big, gnarly gap where his front teeth should’ve been. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

He walked away. Stephanie said a silent prayer of thanks and went back to her conversation with Trisha. A few seconds later she got her final rush of customers, and she was busy enough that she barely looked up when the creepy bald guy tossed the restroom keys on the counter. She heard the quick beep of the security sensors when he opened the door, but she didn’t really see the men leave. By the time the van pulled out of the lot, she’d forgotten all about them.

***

The front entries had doors that were all keyless on the inside, with built-in bolt-locks. Stephanie turned the locks and shut off the main lights at five to one. A little early, but her mom had called to tell her she was going to bed, so Stephanie had to take the bus home. That was okay; the busses ran late on weekends, but she’d have to hurry or she’d miss the last one. Then she’d have to walk the four miles home.

Better to hurry and be a little sloppy tonight, she thought. Lindsay could fuck off if she didn’t like it.

Stephanie ran her reports and closed the computers, cleaned and straightened up a little while the printouts ran, like Devin had taught her. She wondered what he was doing tonight while she hastily ran the vacuum up and down the aisles. She thought about him a lot lately. He lived closer than she did. Maybe she could stop by and visit? She could get a cab, if she missed the bus. It wouldn’t be too expensive.

The thought made her grin, and she smiled the whole time she cleaned out the popcorn machine, throwing away a bunch of sticky, smelly, burnt kernels. She shut off the video monitors and reached for the security system, but it was already off. Lindsay had forgotten to turn it on again. Then she noticed the keys. “Shit!”

Who knew how long they’d been lying there. She was glad no one had snatched them. Then she remembered Devin telling her to always check the bathroom to make sure nobody was hiding. And she remembered the creepy guy.

Stephanie grabbed the mace. She worked herself into a frazzle walking down the hall. She was shaking, ready to bolt and run when she stuck the key in the lock and threw open the door, holding the mace straight out in front of her.

Then she laughed at herself. There wasn’t anybody there. Just a nasty brown turd sticking up out of the toilet bowl and pee all over the floor, as usual. Creepy guy had left her a present. “Eww.”

Stephanie gutted it up enough to step in and flush the toilet, but she didn’t mop. There wasn’t enough time. Lindsay would definitely yell at her tomorrow.

She put the keys away and grabbed her till drawer. She shut the office door, booted up the computer and sat down at the desk with a sigh. It was already one thirty. She didn’t have much time left, so she turned on the adding machine and dug into the cash.

Halfway through adding everything up, Stephanie thought she heard something moving around out in the store. She froze solid, suddenly terrified, straining to hear. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She waited with a fistful of cash clenched tight in her hand, the rest of the night’s money spread out over the desktop.

Outside the office it was quiet again.

Stephanie heard a car, and she relaxed. Someone had probably just dropped off some late returns in the night slot. She wondered why she was being so jumpy. She knew the doors were locked. She’d checked them, rattled their handles to make sure they wouldn’t open. Nobody had been in the bathroom...

She started counting again. And then she clearly heard the security beep from the door alarm.

Somebody was in the store. And then it hit her.

The porno room. She hadn’t checked the porn room…

She heard them clearly now. At least two men, talking in low voices. Their heavy footsteps were muffled by the carpet, but she knew they were coming towards the office. She knew who they were, and she realized she was in trouble. The stomping feet paused outside the office. She heard someone light a cigarette, could already smell the smoke.

Stephanie thought she might throw up. Her mind seemed to be working in slow motion.

What do I do? What do I do?

Her first thought was the mace. But that was out front. She’d have to get past the intruders somehow. Then she noticed the phone, hung by a peg on the wall to her side. Relief flooded through her.

The police! I’ll call the police…

She reached for the phone. And the office door swung open…

Stephanie screamed and dropped the receiver as a big, filthy hand wrapped around her wrist and squeezed. The rancid stench of stale cigarette smoke and unwashed bodies filled her nostrils. Bile burned her throat and she choked as a strong hand clamped around her mouth. A deep, hoarse voice whispered in her ear.

“Shut the hell up, bitch.”

Stephanie tried to stand, but the man was too strong. He easily wrenched her arm around her back and pushed her over. She kicked and thrashed and screamed into his callused hand. Money flew everywhere.

“I said shut up, you stupid little cunt!”

The man leaned on her, crushing the breath out of her. Stephanie gasped as her ribs were driven painfully into the side of the desk. She whimpered and stopped kicking.

“Here, gimme some of those…”

The hand over her mouth disappeared for a second. Stephanie tried to speak…

“Please…just take the money! D-don’t hurt me, okay? I…”

“Shut-up! Jesus…”

Another pair of hands grabbed her, pried her mouth open. Filthy fingers forced some tablets down her throat, and then her jaws were clamped shut. Stephanie choked on the pills and started to struggle again. One of them showed her a knife and held it to her throat.

“Swallow, bitch. Or I’ll ram this up your ass.”

She shook her head, tears and snot streaming down her face. She tried to spit, but the men held her tight, bent over the desk with both of her arms bent painfully behind her back and the big, smelly hand clamped over her lips. She felt the tablets dissolve in her mouth. They held her until her mouth filled with saliva.

Stephanie gulped, swallowing reflexively, and felt the sickening taste of the pills as they oozed down her throat. One of the men smacked the back of her head.

“There. Jesus. That wasn’t so hard, huh? Now we can have some fun.”

The man who had the knife stepped away from the table. She got an arm free and tried to claw at the hand on her mouth. Someone grabbed her wrist again, and her arms were twisted behind her back again.

“Bitch tried to scratch me!”

A plastic zip-tie slipped around her wrists. They tugged it until the soft skin of her wrists pinched and her circulation was cut off. “Tie her up tight.”

“Hold her…”

They let go of her mouth and yanked her head back by her hair. She tried to scream again and they shoved a greasy rag in her mouth, pushing it in so far it made her gag. They wrapped that with a bandanna.

Then things got bad.

The man holding her took the neck of her polo shirt in both hands and ripped. The shirt tore almost in two but stayed tucked into her pants, exposing her bra and her soft white belly. The men laughed and squeezed her breasts, kneading them hard.

“Look at those…”

“I told you…”

One of them began biting her neck. She felt him press his body against her ass. Hands ran down her belly and unbuttoned her pants. They were tugged down to her ankles and pulled off over her shoes.

“Push her over dude.”

They bent her over the desk and cut her panties off with the knife. She heard a zipper coming undone, and then hands were running over her bare ass. Her bra was cut open, and the material tickled as it slipped down her arms.

“God-damn she’s got nice tits...”

“Told you they were big. Big fuckin’ tits.” A hoarse whisper, right at her ear. “Let’s cut ‘em off. We’ll keep ‘em for trophies…”

Stephanie whimpered. They laughed.

“I got so fuckin’ horny, sittin’ in that closet with all the porn boxes…”

Behind her, Stephanie heard somebody spit. A second later, her ass cheeks were spread open, and something big and hard was rubbing her bottom. The guy behind her lathered his spit on his dick and forced the head an inch or so into her pussy.

“All right bitch. I’m gonna fuck you ‘till you bleed.”

Strong hands wrapped around her waist and squeezed, and the man rammed forward with his hips, driving his cock into her. Her eyes flew open as pain tore through her. Stephanie screamed into the gag.

The men laughed louder.

The pain was excruciating. It hurt so bad she had to gasp for breath. With each thrust the man raping her pounded her stomach into the sharp edge of the desk, making the pain even more acute.

The other man laughingly pinched her nose shut, completely cutting off her air. Stephanie panicked and kicked her feet, losing her balance and driving her body forward, crushing away what little breath remained. Her body began to twitch and spasm.

“She tight?”

“Oh, yeah…”

Blackness started to close in. A strange, detached part of Stephanie’s mind idly wondered if they were going to kill her. The fingers holding her nose moved back to her tits, and she was able to draw air again, in fits and spurts.

Enough to keep her conscious, which was maybe worse.

Eventually, the man raping her established a rhythm. She could feel her ass ripple each time his belly smacked into her. She tried to time her breathing to that, and for a minute, it worked. She was almost able to tune out and let her mind drift.

She could pretend she was someplace else, someplace with Devin…

“Man, I want some too.”

“Cool. Here…”

The man pulled out of her and the pain eased for a moment. Then she was pulled roughly away from the desk, and Stephanie found herself face to face with the big blonde guy, John. He had his pants off, and his cock was big and purple and slick with her blood. It was sticking straight out at her, bouncing slightly. It looked almost alive, like it was stretching towards her, trying to reach her.

John grinned and sat on the floor. His cock pointed straight up from his crotch. The other man, Reg, pushed her down until she was straddling John, and they levered her around until the head of his cock angled back into her pussy. Standing behind her, Reg put his hands on her shoulders and pushed hard.

Stephanie moaned into the gag as the big dick sunk back inside her. John grabbed her around the neck and pulled her forward, holding her torso down against his chest. She heard another zipper open. Reg spit on his cock and pulled her ass-cheeks wide apart.

“When does that shit you gave her start to work?”

John started to grind his hips in a circle. He smiled happily. God, this bitch is so fucking tight, he thought. He wondered if Devin had fucked her. John could picture him doing it, just like the night when they’d fucked his mom three long years ago. The night before he went to prison. There had been times since when he thought he’d never see a building without bars. He never wanted to see one again.

“Just a few minutes.”

“Fuck’n-A.”

Stephanie cried pitifully as the man behind her spit on her asshole and rubbed it in with a thick, scarred thumb, lubricating her. She screamed again, shaking her head when she felt the tip of his cock push into her butt.

Reg just smacked the side of her head with his hand. “We told you to shut-up, you stupid fucking cunt. Don’t you listen?”

He grabbed her shoulders and dug his nails into her flesh until she bled. He jerked his hips forward with quick, hard thrusts. Reg didn’t give a shit about her. It had been a long time since he’d fucked a bitch, and all he wanted to do was bust a nut as fast as he could. If it hurt her, so what? He kind of liked to hear her scream.

He just didn’t want any cops showing up.

Actually, hearing the little cunt scream and cry was a huge turn on. He reached around and grabbed a big handful of her huge tits and squeezed her nipples as he pushed his cock in her ass, until he was in up to his balls.

When both men were securely inside her, Stephanie let out a heart-rending wail, screeching until her voice was hoarse.

They grunted like pigs while they fucked her, pounding as hard and fast as they could. Pain and shame combined into a sick feeling of dread that spread from the pit of her stomach up and down her spine. Her voice almost gone, Stephanie let out a long, hitching moan. Both the men laughed.

“Did you hear that?” The man tearing into her rectum chuckled. “Bitch likes it, man!”

The room began spinning around her then, and the walls bent inwards. John’s bearded face contorted like she was staring at him through a funhouse mirror.

Whatever drugs they had given her were kicking in.

“Fuck, yeah Reg. Told you she would. She just needed a little help…”

John scrunched his face when he was ready to come. His partner in crime, Reg, had stopped talking and was banging the bitch harder now too. He was grunting and the veins in his forehead stood out in bold relief. A few more thrusts and they both shot their loads into the little cow.

She moaned again.

Her eyes had glazed over and rolled back in her head. She looked so out of it; John was sure she didn’t even know what was happening to her anymore. Better for her, he figured.

Reg shoved himself away from her immediately after his orgasm subsided and pulled up his pants, the shit and blood from her anus still smeared on his dick. The girl flopped forward on John. That was okay with him. He wanted to make the sex last as long as he could.

She was sprawled out, half on his chest, half on the floor. Her body was twitching all over. He pulled her into a more comfortable position on top of him and shut his eyes. He let his cock shrivel up in her snatch. Listening to her labored breathing, feeling the heat from her body, John almost felt peaceful.

There had been plenty of sex in prison, but not anything he wanted. This on the other hand…

When he opened his eyes again, Reg was dressed and was busy scraping money off the desk into a plastic bag. “Come on. Don’t fall asleep, you shit-head. We need to get the fuck outta here.”

“Yeah.” Reluctantly, John rolled the girl off onto the floor. He was almost gentle with her. She flopped over, as boneless and pliable as a rag doll. Her thick, glossy hair covered her face. John touched it, tucked a strand behind her ear with his finger.

She has a nice face, he thought. Stupid earrings though.

Reg scooped up the bills that had fallen to the floor like dead leaves. He nodded at the stoned girl. “Whaddaya want to do with her?”

John thought about ripping out her earrings. They were fucking ugly. Big, stupid hoops that dangled down to her shoulders. Instead, he buttoned up his jeans. “We’ll take her with us.”

“Cool.” Reg grinned, showing stained yellow teeth that had been filed down to sharp points. “My very own fuck toy. I like it.”

John picked Stephanie up and easily tossed her over his shoulder. “Okay. Let’s get her into the van.”

***

Epilogue

The police took Lindsay’s statement about the robbery first thing on Saturday morning. When she arrived to open the store and found the doors unlocked and the alarm shut off she knew something was wrong. Then, when she saw the mess in the office – all the coins and a few small bills strewn on the floor and the remains of Stephanie’s torn clothing, she panicked.

And called me.

Swan and I got back to my apartment late and had been awake for most of the night, cutting together the digital footage we’d taken of Nancy and the sailors, and we were taking a break. Swan was snoring on my couch, and I was drinking a strawberry and banana smoothie, craving bed, but thinking that if I fell asleep now, I’d never get up. Better to keep working and let adrenaline carry me through until later that night.

That’s when my cell phone started ringing.

I called the police, let an exhausted Swan know what was going on and drove over to try to help. It took me about fifteen minutes with traffic. I found Lindsay sitting on the curb sobbing. There wasn’t a police car in sight. When the police finally did show up about a half-hour later, it was just one patrol car, and things just got worse.

It seemed to me like the cop was more convinced that the robbery had been staged than he was about listening to Lindsay or finding out what had happened. He got a little more serious about it when Stephanie’s mom started calling, wondering where the hell her daughter was.

Then things started happening fast.

The cop radioed in for help. I was questioned, and so were Lindsay and the rest of the store’s employees. The police asked Lindsay if there was a security system that might have a videotape. I groaned audibly when she informed them that the system had been turned off. Stephanie’s father came to the store and threw a fit, shouting obscenities at Lindsay for letting Stephanie work alone.

The police had to restrain him. I called to inform the owners, and they spoke with the officers as well. The day went on like that, until the police let me take Lindsay home early that afternoon. When we were alone in my car, she lost it.

I held her while she cried, parked outside her apartment, and spent the rest of the afternoon with her, sitting together on her couch. Eventually she fell asleep. I tucked a blanket around her shoulders and crept out. I locked the door behind me and went home myself. Swan was still there, working on my computer.

I filled him in and crashed myself. I hadn’t slept in more than a day and a half, and things were getting blurry. When I woke up it was dark outside, Swan was gone, and there were about thirty messages on my cell phone.

One of the messages was from Lindsay, thanking me for my help and asking if I could come back over, or call her when I got the message. She left her home number. I called her back and got her answering machine and left a quick voicemail. Then I ate a turkey sandwich and went back to sleep.

Three days later, Stephanie’s disappearance was all over the local news. Her family and friends were putting a lot of effort in trying to locate her: they took out radio and television spots, placed large ads in the local newspaper, posted missing person flyers all around town, and bothered the police to no end. A whole bunch of effort that elicited no real results.

Another couple of days and the story was no longer the big news. So except for the tattered flyers streaming from telephone poles and fading in shop windows, the public slowly forgot about her.

And then, exactly two weeks after she disappeared, a jogger out for a brisk morning run found Stephanie, stoned out of her mind, wandering around in a deserted stretch of South Tabor Park. Her hands were tied behind her back and she was naked, bruised and battered, but she was alive. The jogger called 911 on her cell phone, and suddenly Stephanie was back in the news.

Front page on my morning newspaper as a matter-of-fact, sandwiched between the day’s weather forecast and an investigative report on some high school cheerleader scandal. I read what the article had to say. There wasn’t a lot of new information, or details to anything I hadn’t already doped out.

Basically, she’d been drugged, kidnapped and raped by at least two men, but that was about it. I offered up a silent prayer, hoping she’d be okay.

And then Stephanie’s family started calling me, leaving me dozens of voice messages. They got my phone number from the police. Stephanie was asking for me. She wouldn’t talk to anyone else; not her family, not the police.

What could I do?

I called back and made plans to visit.

***

My heart flip-flopped while I stood on Stephanie’s front porch. I knocked and waited, feeling my guts churn together. Stephanie’s mom answered the door and ushered me inside. She offered me a weak smile and asked if I’d like something to drink.

“No, thanks, Mrs.…,” I started. She waved a hand in the air.

“Please, call me Kelly.”

“Okay.”

Kelly nodded and motioned for me to sit. I perched uncomfortably on the edge of a blue recliner. She chose the couch, and began to talk.

Stephanie had only been in the hospital long enough to have a broken wrist set, her scrapes and cuts bandaged, and to have a battery of tests run that all rape victims have to suffer through. Then she’d been released into her family’s care.

Now she was home; tucked safely away in her own room in a nice, comfortable house that was filled to overflowing with knickknacks and family pictures and everything else that made a house a home. I knew Stephanie had a bunch of siblings. Today, nobody else was around except for her mom. Not even her father. To me, the atmosphere inside the house seemed about as carefree as a morgue following a gang war.

Stephanie’s mom talked about trivial things for a time, then she pinned me to my seat with a glare. “I want to ask you something.”

“Okay…?”

“Why…why is my daughter asking to see you?”

That sour feeling in my gut turned into a lead ball and my mouth went dry. I shrugged helplessly. It was a damn good question, and I really didn’t have much of an answer.

***

I followed Kelly down a hallway festooned with pictures; frames hung so close together the wallpaper barely showed. Stephanie’s bedroom was the last door on the left. Kelly knocked and opened the door without waiting for a answer.

“Hi honey. Devin’s here.” I heard a mumbled response. Kelly nodded at me and frowned again. I slipped inside and she looked past me. “Just call if you need anything.”

She closed the door softly behind me, leaving me alone with her daughter. Stephanie was propped up in bed, her broken wrist sheathed in a pink cast resting on the bedcovers. Her face was still black and blue and scraped from the beating she’d taken, but the swelling had mostly gone down. She looked a little dazed, like she’d just woken up. A straight-backed wood chair stood next to her bed.

I didn’t know what else to do, so I tried a smile and stood by the door like an idiot. She motioned me closer. I realized that I’d been holding my breath. I let it out in a whoosh.

“Hi.” I said.

Stephanie was wearing a light, sleeveless nightgown. She tried to sit up and the sheet covering her drooped. I got a good look at the bruises and bite marks covering her neck and shoulders, the cuts and scrapes beginning to heal on her arms and wrists. I started to sit in the chair, but she shook her head. She patted the side of the bed.

“Sit…here…” she said weakly.

Her voice was raw. I sat down carefully and spent a moment trying to look at anything but her, and then she touched my hand. It took a force of will not to jerk away, to keep my hand under hers. I tried to look her in her eyes, but mine kept drifting. I ground my teeth, and my jaw popped.

“Devin…”

“Why won’t you talk to the police?” The question just burst out. “They need to know what happened. They can…”

She was crying. I shut up, feeling like a jerk, and reached out to touch her face.

“Stephanie…”

She flinched. I snapped my hand back. She finally looked away, and suddenly I felt even worse. I put my hands in my lap and stared at them.

“Steph…I don’t know what to do.”

She nodded. After a while she wiped the tears away and started talking, speaking in short, clipped bursts. I kept quiet. She told me everything she remembered. When she finished she was weeping again, big, wet tears spilling down her cheeks.

But this time she reached out for me. I held her shuddering body for a long time, letting a new anger burn inside me.

***

Kelly walked me out. From the look on her face it was clear she had a hundred questions to ask me, but I wasn’t the person to answer any of them. Stephanie would do that once she was ready, and I promised her that I wouldn’t say anything. I just thanked her mom before I left and wished her a good night.

John, she’d told me. It was John, and someone else.

I hadn’t thought of John or his mom in years. I thought he was still in prison. His mom had moved back to Germany not long after I started college. I thought about what we’d done to his mom the night before John was sentenced, and what I’d done to her after. I thought about what he did to Stephanie, and what I’d just put Nancy through.

John.

Guilt and frustration burned my gut as I left.

I was calling Swan on my cell phone before I even reached my car.

***

The police had searched the park where the jogger had found Stephanie, and the surrounding neighborhood. They decided that whoever had raped her had dumped her in the park and left the area. I had a different opinion.

Swan and I parked my car across from the old ballpark. Each of us dug a length of old pipe out the trunk. I locked the car, and then we crossed the street and jumped a rusty chain-link fence. The park was dark, even here; lit only by one buzzing streetlamp.

John and I used to play baseball here as kids, but now the dirt field was muddy and overgrown with weeds. Swan followed closely behind me. I could barely see him in the dark.

“You sure you want to do this?”

I grunted a yes. We picked our way around the mud and I led Swan past the old picnic tables and day camps, into several miles of woods.

The police might not be able to find John, but I was sure I could.

***

I clicked on a small flashlight and found the trail without much trouble. The trail curved north, away towards the river and the industrial area. We followed it for about a mile, until it opened up along the railroad tracks, and followed those to the old train station.

The train station had been abandoned forever, condemned by the city for fear of asbestos poisoning. It was cheaper, if not safer, to board the building up than to tear it down, so that’s what they did. All the neighborhood kids used to sneak out here to play, until bums and junkies took it over. If our parents had known, we all would have been grounded in perpetuity.

Eventually, even the bums and junkies left the place alone.

Memories came flooding back. I closed my eyes, and my mind conjured up the memory of a girl covered with bruises. Swan whispered in my ear.

“This is where he’s hidin’?”

I nodded silently. We plowed through a tangle of weeds, thorny, low-slung blackberry bushes and trash, until we were even with the cracked concrete steps leading up to the two huge doors that led inside, padlocked shut with a rusty chain. To the left of the steps were the gaping holes where the floor-to-ceiling windows had been boarded up. Most of the boards had been torn away. I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke over the smell of urine, rotting wood and dead grass.

Swan sniffed the air. “Somebody’s home, smells like.”

“Yeah.”

We slipped inside, into the blackness, and paused to let our eyes adjust. The smoke was wafting down a flight of rickety steps, from the level above us.

“Careful,” I said. “The floor wasn’t good when I was a kid, and there’s probably old needles and crap in all this garbage.”

“Right on.”

The steps groaned underfoot but held our weight. When I was about level with the top of the stairs, I could make out a soft glow coming from off to the right.

We saw each other at exactly the same moment.

John was stretched out on a dirty blanket with a can of cheap beer clutched in his hand, dressed in grubby jeans and a wife-beater t-shirt. A small battery operated lantern was on the floor, giving off the soft light. On the other side of the lantern, a skinhead was snoring in a sleeping bag. Crushed beer cans, cigarette butts mixed with the dry leaves and other trash littering the floor.

John smiled at me. “Hey Dev.” He raised his beer and took a slug. “What took you so long? I thought that fat little bitch would’ve told you where we were already.”

“I thought the police already checked here,” I said, and made sure the pipe stayed close to my leg.

“Yeah, well,” John shrugged and crumpled the can in his fist. “One guy poked his head in here with a flashlight. Freaked Reg out, but he didn’t even come up here. I think the rats scared him.

He chugged the rest of his beer. “I missed you man,” he said, and stood up with a grunt.

John had grown while he was in prison. He’d always been taller than me, even when we were kids, but the last time I’d seen him, at the beginning of my senior year of high school when I was wrestling and lifting weights almost everyday, I probably had ten or fifteen pounds of muscle on him. Now he dwarfed me by a good head-and-a-half, and when he stretched, the heavy muscles in his arms and shoulders rippled. He was as tall as Swan with his afro, and twice as broad. John hucked the empty beer can at the skinhead.

It bounced off his skull and clattered off into the shadows. The skinhead shot out of the sleeping bag, smacking his face with his hands. A second later he blinked at Swan and me, then at John, bewildered. “What the fuck…?”

“Wake up fuckhead.” John lisped through a set of missing front teeth. “Company’s here.”

“What?” The skinhead pointed at us. He was shorter than me, but looked as hard as a brick. Bad prison tattoos covered most of his naked chest and back, ran up and down his arms. Swan was slouched a few feet from me, in full-on sleepy mode. The skinhead glared at him. “You know this fucking Nig…”

I barely saw Swan move. One second he looked like he was going to melt into the floor, and his arm casually shot out and the skinhead clutched at crushed windpipe with both of his hands, wheezing, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

The skinhead toppled forward onto his knees. Swan kicked him in the face, knocking him backwards, and then viciously stomped on his neck until the skins’ legs were twitching, and the wheezing turned into weak gurgles. It took all of twenty seconds for Swan to put the guy down, and he hadn’t bothered to use the pipe. Swan stepped back until he was even with me, not even breathing hard, and glared hard at John, who was staring at him with a whole new respect.

“Why the fuck did you do that?”

“Asshole racist motherfucker...” Swan’s eyelids began to droop again, and he shrugged. “…should’a learned some manners in jail. Nobody calls me that shit.”

John was still staring when I swung my pipe like a club into his shoulder. He went down with a whimper, clutching his broken arm. He tried to scoot back, and I swung the pipe again, smashing his knee. It popped loudly, like the sound of a stick breaking.

“AHHH!” John rolled on the floor in pain, tears springing from his clenched eyes. “ Holy shit! What the fuck…!”

“You hurt a friend of mine.” I stepped between his legs and swung the pipe as hard as I could into his groin. It hit with a meaty thud. My hands went numb and the shock rolled up my arms. “You fuck.”

I hit him in the balls again, and then I stomped on the knee I hadn’t smashed with the pipe, ramming down on it with the heel of my boot until it crumpled like rotten wood.

John screamed and shrieked until his voice went hoarse. Swan and I could hear him even as we picked our way back up the trail.

***

We piled into my car and drove until we found an old telephone booth that still worked. I made a quick phone call to the police and gave them an anonymous tip. We dumped the pipes down a sewer, and then I drove Swan home to Desiree’s house.

“You okay?” He asked.

My hands were shaking. They had been ever since we left John writhing in garbage back at the abandoned station.

“No.”

“You take care of what you need to, you know?” He patted my shoulder. His voice was surprisingly gentle, after what I’d just seen him do. “You’ll get over it.”

I nodded and squeezed the steering wheel until my knuckles popped. Swan quietly backed out of the car. Desiree opened her front door as he meandered up the steps. She offered me a world-weary smile.

I think I ignored her.

Somehow I made it home. I don’t remember the drive at all, nothing until I found myself naked, huddled in a corner under a shower that had run cold.

I’ve done some awful things in my life. But twice now, over the last few weeks, I’d discovered that I was capable of doing horrible things, committing heinous crimes without batting an eye.

I felt hollow inside, like something had torn away huge chunks of whatever I had left of my soul, leaving just a shell of flesh and bone and blood.

I didn’t think I’d get over it.

~ Fin ~