The holiday cookies are baked and frosted, the candies are made and the Christmas decorations are up. It's time to submit part two. I wish you all a pleasant and joyous holiday season.
All parties portrayed as having sex are 18 or older.
*****
It was time to pick up Joann for our first date. I went to the garage where I kept my pride and joy housed, a 1965 Ford Galaxie 500, it had been mothers, I inherited it when she died. When I lived with her I drove a 1998 Honda Accord which got me there and back comfortably, however the ravishes of winter weather and salted roads had taken a serious toll on the car I referred to as Bernadette. On the other hand, mom's car had less than seventy thousand miles on it and had been kept in a heated garage all its life. Mom and dad heated mainly with wood so one more heat run into the garage was no big deal.
Her driving activities consisted of going to the grocery store and beauty parlor every other week until I moved back home, from there on I would take her and the car seldom left the heated garage. It was rust free, the only drawback was that mice had gotten into the backseat upholstery one winter and the paint was in serious need of a wax job. I'd hauled it on a trailer behind my late model pickup when I moved south, I had the back seat reupholstered and the entire car detailed right away, it hadn't been out of the garage in over six weeks. This one I named Henrietta, other than new upholstery it was all original, oh wait, that's not true, I got rid of the original hubcaps and put on baby moons. Those under fifty will probably have no idea what baby moons are, so do what those under fifty do with everything else they don't know, Google it.
When I rolled up in the bright red 500 she stood and did a double take, the girls ran to the car wanting a ride. I opened the back door ushering them in then opened the door for Joann, the federal seat belt law hadn't gone into effect until 1968 which meant I didn't need to have them. As I drove around the block and back home they each took a side and stuck their heads out the window laughing, having fun, being little girls. They piled out and ran to Gramma as we drove away, our conversation was light and airy.
She was the first to speak, "How old is this car?" I told her 1965. "Damn, compared to the new cars you could have a small party in this thing, maybe that's why y'all learned about sex in cars instead of bedrooms or motels."
I wasn't old enough to be one of those y'all, but she was right. Why look for a room somewhere when you could sneak into the haymow or get it on in a backseat as big as a modern couch. Not that I hadn't made out in that very car more than once, I was just never lucky enough to get past second base, much less make it into the backseat for a homerun. Nope, it was later in life that I learned what little I knew before marriage, I say what little because we all have room to learn and expand our horizons so speak.
Dinner was fun until ten minutes before we left, a heavy set guy and gal stopped at our table, staring first at Joann then at me before the woman spoke.
"Wat you doin wit dis white boy? I thought you was goin black. Dis is fucked up sistah."
As those words left the woman's mouth, she grabbed the guy and ushered him out the door. Jo was embarrassed and pissed at the same time. I began to say something when she put her hand up in a *stop* gesture.
"I'm sorry for that Luke, she and I were cellmates the first two months I was in jail. She's the main reason I told everyone I was done with white guys, well not her directly, but her constant diatribe about white guys and what pricks they were. After a while I bought into that train of thought. Her vocabulary is horrible, but in her defense, she's never known any other lifestyle. She doesn't live in the ghetto anymore, but she still acts like it sometimes."
After reassuring her it didn't bother or matter to me, I asked if there was anything else she'd like to do. After thirty or forty seconds she looked me in the eye.
"Would it bother you if we went to a bar I know in Pensacola where they have a band on Saturday nights? There'll be a lot of people there, all races and sizes, they have some great bands though and I haven't danced in over a year. Could we do that?"
I knew what my answer would be without any thought, "Sure, I'd love to go, how you answer this question will determine IF we go. Am I escorting you there and back home so you can dance with every guy who asks, or are you going as my date?"
She glared as she spoke, "Damn, white boy wanna own me already, I aint nobody's property."
Shaking my head I commented, "I don't want to own you, at the same time I don't want to have to stand in line to dance with my date. If you want to go to party, then I'll drop you off and leave money with you to call an Uber when you're done. I'd prefer you go as my date and spend time with me but that's your choice."
She looked away then back at me, through a grin she began, "Okay white boy." At that point I put up a finger signaling her to stop.
"Stop the white boy bullshit, I don't refer to you as black girl. I have a name just like you do, please use it just as I use yours."
"You're serious about this aren't you Luke. Are you sure you want to get tangled up in the whole black/white crap sandwich that society expects every mixed race couple to eat? I like you Luke, you're polite, considerate, treat my mama and the girls great, just be sure you know what you want."
I felt bold as I reached across the table taking the little finger of her right hand in mine, "I know what I want Jo, I haven't felt this attracted to a woman since Betty left. I think we have chemistry between us, I hope you see it that way as well, if not we'll be friends, if so, I want it to be more."
She smiled and reached for the rest of my hand, "Luke, will you take me dancing? I'll only dance with you unless you say otherwise."
As I helped her up, I carried her hand upward to kiss it. She made a quiet squeaky kind of noise when I did then she whispered into my ear, "No one has ever kissed my hand before, sorry for the squeal, it caught me by surprise. Oh, and don't stop doing that stuff, I love it."
Her assessment of the place was correct, it was packed with people of every color and ethnicity to coincide with the local population. We were early and fortunate enough to find a small booth at the back, we'd had two beers each when the music started, in a heartbeat the dance floor was full. We avoided most of the hard driving rave kind of stuff, they weren't dancing, they were basically grinding against as many as possible and called it dancing. We enjoyed the slow numbers and did fast dance to a few of the oldies they played. It wasn't that we were so old, we simply couldn't get in tune with the new stuff.
Guys had been asking her to dance all through the night, each time she would decline until a large black guy stood at our booth looking down. He nodded to me and then smiled at Joann.
"Hey Jo, wasn't expecting you to be here. You think I might have a dance?"
She looked at me. "This is Jerome, we went to tech school at the same time, do you mind?"
I stood and gestured for her to go ahead. She was back in less than two minutes, grabbed my arm and told me to get her out of there. Seems good old Jerome wanted to know if she was up for some blow and group sex, there were several guys who wanted to fuck her, black and white. When we were at the car she stood next to me as I unlocked the driver side door, once open she pushed ahead of me and slid to the center of the bench seat. As I got in, she scooted tight to my side.
"What's going on Jo? Are you frightened by that guy?"
"Damn straight I'm frightened, it's not just Jerome. I didn't know he was mixed up with that bunch, all those worthless motherfuckers are never up to anything good. Black, White, Mexican, Asian, it don't matter, they been running together so long not one of them thinks right anymore. Get me out of here, please."
I drove slow and took the back streets where I could, there's only one bridge over the bay into Pace so there was no choice, once we were across though I meandered around delaying the arrival at her place. She never left my side, didn't put a hand on my thigh or any other gesture of intimacy, just stayed tight to my side. I helped her from the car and walked her to the door, as I was turning to leave, she grabbed my arm.
"What's the matter, have you had to much of me already, or am I too ugly to try and kiss?"
It was time to put this little game to bed, I wrapped my arms around her damned near pulling her off her feet and planted the best kiss I had in my arsenal on her lips. She in turn put her arms around my neck pushing herself into me and was moaning softly through the kiss. I pushed her back and said in a smartass tone.
"Did that feel like an *ugly girl* kiss to you?"