Authors Note: This is another
FICTIONAL
story. All characters in the story are
FICTIONAL
with the exception of my wife and I. All of the actions and conversations in this story are
FICTIONAL
.
*****
I got a text from Donny on Tuesday afternoon. He had promised to send me the details of the birthday party that he was throwing for one of his friends on the coming weekend. I had spent the previous weekend entertaining his friends at Stevie's bachelor party. For most of the weekend I was completely naked in various positions often with more than one cock inside of me. In spite of the fact that I was doing it under duress I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.
The birthday party was taking place on the Friday evening at a church hall in the west end of the city. I was nervous about the location because I knew that there would be a superintendant on duty at the hall. His duty was mainly to clean up after the party and make sure that nothing belonging to the hall was damaged. Other than that he would pop in every once in a while to check with Donny. Donny had rented the hall and arranged the liquor licence and was therefore the permit holder and would be held responsible for any damage or activities that might be considered illegal.
I knew that I would be expected to strip in the hall and probably engage in some sexual acts. I wondered if those actions would be deemed illegal. I texted Donny to let him know that I would be there.
I was driving home from work when my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number but I had been expecting a call from my daughter and thought perhaps her phone had died yet again and she was either calling from her work or a friends phone.
"Hello."
"Hi Janice, how are you?" It was a raspy female voice that sounded a little familiar but I could not match it to a face.
"Sorry, but who is this". I asked.
"It's Cheryl." She laughed. "I guess it's been five or six years but who could forget this voice!"
I chuckled. "More like ten or twelve. Where have you been?"
"It's a long story. Got time for a beer?" she replied.
"I haven't drunk beer for at least ten years but if you'll buy me a decent merlot I'll say yes. Where are you?"
"Well, you'll find this hard to believe but I'm at the Boston Pizza near your house."
"Ok, I'll be there in 20 minutes or so. Does Boston Pizza serve a decent merlot?"
Cheryl and I grew up together, played on the same softball team and played ringette together. Our sons had played on the same hockey team in our hometown and we had even worked together for a few months until her job was transferred to another city. I was looking forward to seeing her and catching up but I was curious as to how she had vanished from my life all those years ago and where she had been. I was also curious as to how she got my phone number and address.
I knew Alan wouldn't be home yet so I called him to let him know about the phone call and let him know that he would have to fend for himself when it came to dinner.
As I entered the Boston Pizza I figured that she would be sitting in the bar side rather than the restaurant side of the place. Sure enough, I found her in a booth thumbing through the menu. There was an almost full beer in front of her and a very large glass of wine on the other side of the table.
Before I had a chance to take my coat off she stood up and we hugged. It really had been ten or twelve years since we had seen each other but she looked just like I had expected her to.
I took my coat off, sat down and lifted my glass. "Cheers."
She clinked her glass against mine and responded. "Cheers."
"What are you doing here and how did you get my number." I asked. As soon as I said it I realized that it sounded cold but I thought it was a fair question.
"Well, I have kept in occasional contact with Yvonne (another softball and ringette teammate) and when she realised that the house I just bought was only a couple of miles away from yours she gave me your number." She explained.
"So what have you been doing for the last decade." I asked.
"Well, when I was transferred to the Soo, my husband and I split up. He couldn't find work and he wanted to go home. In truth, our marriage was over several years before that but we stayed together for the kids. I don't know if you remember but you were still my manager when I relocated. You came to the office several times but you never came to see me." She sounded very hurt.
"Yes, I recall going to the Soo several times but it was always in and out very quickly. I asked for you on one trip but you weren't in the office. Bear in mind that I managed Sudbury and a department in Toronto as well. On top of that Tim and I were going through a divorce and that got really nasty. Then I got transferred to Toronto and someone told me that you had quit." I felt annoyed that I needed to explain myself.
"Where did you go after you quit?" I asked.
"That's where things got a little interesting." She laughed. "I hooked up with a guy in the Soo. My kids went back to live with their father and I got pregnant. There weren't many black guys in the Soo back then but one of them knocked me up! Two days after I found out that I was pregnant my guy finds out that he has cancer. He was dead within three months. I was so lost I just needed to get away. I had kept in touch with my cousins back in Poland and I decided to go to live there. I didn't feel like I had anything to keep me here and I still had my Polish citizenship because of my parents. My baby was stillborn and the nurses very discretely got rid of the evidence. "
"What about your kids?' I asked.
"Their father and his family fed them stories about how bad a mother I was and they wouldn't even take my calls. I still haven't been able to contact them. Of course, getting pregnant by a black man didn't help my cause. Anyway, I don't know what I was thinking when I went to Poland. If my kid had been born normal do you think they would have accepted us knowing that the father was black?"
"I knew that I couldn't make my way in Poland so I used my share of the divorce settlement and my severance money and bought a place in Greece." She explained.
"Wait. What severance?" I asked.
"When the office in the Soo was moved to Toronto I was laid off. I didn't quit."
"Ok, what happened next?" I was intrigued. It seemed that she had lived a lifetime since I last saw her.