Chapter 1
Ellie was an eighteen -year-old senior in high school when she met Donny Alfonso. They happened on one another at a Food Lion Grocery store; in the produce section for that matter. Ellie was trying to decide on whether to select the right bananas for the family's breakfast the following day, and was leaning toward a bunch that was slightly green.
"You don't want to do that," a voice over her shoulder said knowingly.
Ellie spun around to confront the voice. Standing there was the handsomest male specimen she had ever laid eyes on. He stood a tad under six foot, with dark, wavy, and oh, to die for, manageable hair. As her eyes widened in shock, she felt her knees melt. A split second later, she knew her voice-box was malfunctioning.
Fortunately for Ellie, Donny didn't notice she was speechless; he was caught up in her recently bloomed breasts, red hair, and oodles of freckles all over her face.
They were smitten, both of them, and with each other.
"What... what I meant by that," Donny said, "was that it's better to select some green bananas, along with a couple ripe, but not too ripe bananas. That way," he continued, forcing his eyes away from her full chest, "some are ready to be eaten right away, and some a day or two later. The total effect is that none spoil."
"Y... yeah," Ellie managed to get out, after remembering to take a breath. "I knew that," she added for effect.
"Of course you did," Donny said immediately.
And they stood there unable to pronounce another word, until one of the store's produce workers, with a dolly full of five-pound bags of potatoes, found them blocking his path, and cleared his throat, saying, "Excuse me, please."
In what might have passed for an adroit ballet move, they both fairly leaped aside -- winding up on opposite sides of the dolly.
Donny gave the clerk a look that failed to faze the worker at all. But he had work to do and moved on. A moment later, Ellie and Donny were eye to eye - well, that's a reach, but they were staring into each other's eyes.
"What else are you buying?" Donny asked after a brief interlude.
"I... I'm not sure," Ellie told him. With her mind gone blank, she couldn't recall any of the other items her mother had asked for.
Thinking quickly, Donny said, "Well, what I usually do is walk up and down the aisles. That way I'll pass just about everything in the store, and going with the old saying, 'I'll know it when I see it, I get just about everything I need."
"That's a super idea!" Ellie blurted out, and immediately regretted it. How superficial. Am I a cow, a stupid cow, that can't for the life of me, remember what I came to the darn store for?' she thought.
"Mind if I walk the aisles with you?" Donny asked politely.
"Yes! I mean, no, not at all," Ellie said, and cursed her ineptitude in handling what had to be a routine conversation.
A moment later, she realized that he was looking at her breasts. This both embarrassed and flattered her. She had become used to the boys at school ogling her boobs on a daily basis. But this was a man... a real live man, and a great looking guy to boot. She had just turned eighteen. Did eighteen-year-olds have the same effect on grown men as they did with eighteen-year-old boys?
"My name's Donny," he said nonchalantly. "Donny Alfonso. I live over on Magnolia Avenue."
"I'm pleased to meet you, Donny. I'm Ellie Jones. I live on Webster Street."
"Why, isn't that a coincidence" We're practically neighbors," he said, and smiled down at Ellie.
"Do you go to college... here in Wilmington?" he asked innocently enough.
"Yes," Ellie said. The lie came quickly to her tongue. "UNCG."
"Oh, what year?" Donny inquired.
"I'm a soph... sorry; I'm in my second year. I don't have a major picked out yet," she said, continuing the lie. Ellie had heard several upper class girls talking in the bathroom about such things. In fact, Ellie picked up a great deal of her knowledge of life eavesdropping on the older girls, and even some boys at school.
"Ahhh," Donny said.
"What?" Ellie quickly asked.
"Well, I almost went to college. But the truth is I didn't. My grades stunk, and I couldn't even get into the Community College."
"Oh, that sucks," Ellie said, feeling very sorry for him.
"I guess I could have, you know, but I would have had a lot of makeup courses, what'd ya call it?"
"Re... remedial?" Ellie guessed.
"Um, yeah, remedial stuff. I couldn't be bothered with it. So I went to work for my Uncle Mike. He's got a construction company. He's good to me. I'm working my way up, you know? In a couple more months, I think I'll make foreman. That pays really good money, you know?"
"That's good, Donny," she said, reveling in her ingenuity in working his name into the conversation. She had been dying to say it aloud, and now that she had, she felt giddy.
'Donny, Donny, Mrs. Donny... what was his last name?' she wondered.
Meanwhile, Donny was wondering if he stood a chance of getting into Ellie's pants.
'I think I do,' he told himself, and checked out her ample chest once again.
Ellie was on to him now, and stuck out her chest so far that she had difficulty breathing.
"Oh, there's the tomato sauce," she said, primarily to distract him enough to fill her lungs with much needed air.
"How many cans you need?" He asked.
"Four," she answered, already thinking about what other arcane items she would be buying just to keep him with her a few minutes longer.
The couple wandered up and down the aisles, selecting some of this and some of that. Any item that Donny pointed out to Ellie that she knew would be unacceptable to her family, Donny placed in his cart. And so it went, until they had covered all the aisles twice, and were forced to stand in line waiting for the cashier to check them out.
Donny cleared his throat, and said, "You, um, like the movies?"
"Yeah, I love the movies," Ellie replied. 'He's going to ask me on a date!' she told herself and found that her knees were shaking.
"Yeah," he said, "Me too. You... err, wanna go with me sometime?"
"Sure, Donny. When?"
"Um, so how's Friday for you? I mean I'm asking and all, but a pretty girl like you probably has a date already."
"I did, but it's funny," Ellie said, "he called and cancelled. His uncle died and he's got to leave town. Raleigh, he has to go to Raleigh," she added, and prayed that she wouldn't panic if he told her he didn't date girls with boyfriends.
And so it was that Donny called on Ellie Friday night, ostensibly to take her to the movies.
But Ellie's mother took one look at him and pulled Ellie back into the house.
"Excuse me; it's Donny, isn't it?" Mrs. Jones said, controlling herself. "May I ask how old you are?"
"Sure, Mrs. Jones, I'm twenty-five, last August."
"Twenty-five..." she repeated needlessly.
"Yeah, old enough to drink without lying about my age," he said gleefully, not realizing how dangerous the ground he stood on was becoming.
"Twenty-five," Mrs. Jones said for the third time. "Donny, do you realize how old my daughter is?"
"MOM!" Ellie yelled. "NO, MOM, don't!"
"Well..." he hesitated before finishing the sentence." I thought she was twenty, but that's obviously not the case... is it?"
