Jessica's fingers were pale and trembling around her coffee cup. The young lady was nervous about seeing him, Henry realized. There was no reason for that. He adopted his most patient tone. "What's on your mind, Jessica?"
Her dark green eyes, a bit too small for her face, regarded him with something between anxiety and hope from beneath sliver-thin black eyebrows. She took a sip of her unpronounceable frappuccino something or other before she answered. Her words came out in a rush. "I'm a waitress at a restaurant on Los Olas Boulevard and I heard some of the customers talking about you – about a guy they called Uncle Henry. It was some redhead girl. The others were teasing her about how she lost her boyfriend and she said you were the one to blame. She even tried you out for herself and said you were amazing. And very sweet." Jessica stopped to take a breath, then continued, her voice more subdued now. "Is it true?"
"Is what true?" Henry asked. "Am I supposed to say I'm amazing?" He gazed down at his plain coffee. "This is pretty personal stuff. I don't like talking about it."
Jessica looked away for a moment. Her dark hair was shoulder length; the curls at the ends bounced as she nodded and turned back to him. "I used to have a boyfriend. He ... taught me a lot about sex. He taught me to like it." She sighed. "He taught me to love it." She placed her hands palm down on the table. "He taught me to need it."
"What happened to him?" Henry asked.
Jessica spread her arms wide, drawing attention to her own girth. "Look at me. How long do you think any man would stay with a girl like me?"
"You mean because you're--" Henry chose his words carefully; it was true this girl would take up more than her share of space in a bus's passenger seat but there was no point in being crude about it – "because you're a big girl, is that right?"
She nodded, and her eyes misted over. "I've been this way my whole life. I don't know how to be any other way."
"So he left you because of that? Seems like he should have known what he was getting into when he started with you."
She wrung her hands together. "He went off in search of a trophy girlfriend. That was over a year ago. I haven't heard from him since."
Silence fell between them. To fill it, they both reached for their coffee cups at the same time. Their hands touched.
Jessica's lower lip trembled. There was no doubt in Henry's mind as to what she wanted. Her olive-colored eyes gazed up at him in silent pleading.
"Follow me to my place," Henry said. "I'll take care of you."
He led the way in his green Ford sedan. She parked her blue Honda next to him in his driveway, and he let her into his living room. He turned around to make sure the door was locked, and when he turned back she launched herself at him.
Her lips covered his small cry of surprise. Her hands clutched his back, his arms, and buried themselves under his armpits and finally under his shirt. Henry found himself shirtless in just a few minutes.
"Slow down there, sugar," Henry said, but she didn't. Her tongue and teeth were all over Henry's chest, leaving goosebumps and little shivers of pleasure in their wake. Both hands reached down and gave Henry's butt a good squeeze. He yelped in surprise.
Jessica paused and took a deep breath. "Do you still want to do this?"
