Chapter Two
"It's been," she said, as my eyes opened, "almost three years since a man did that for me."
I could see it was still dark outside, making it pretty early. This was summer and sunrise comes around 6 o'clock. I had no idea how long I had slept. My memory was operating, though, and I instantly knew where I was. I was also sort of vaguely aware that it was just the two of us in bed. I had no idea where Lee might be.
I didn't say anything but my mind was working just fine, along with my third-grade arithmetic. It had been right at three years when Lee had called mom, asking if she could stay with us "for a while." She had come to the house that evening badly beaten up, with two black eyes, a fat lip, and a serious bruise over the ribs of her left side. Mom had called Don, our cousin, and told him if he showed up at the house she'd shoot him. I suppose he believed her because I don't recall ever seeing him again.
Mom, the nurse, had tended to her and I had lost my bed, consigned to the third bedroom that my father, who I couldn't have picked out of a lineup at that point in my life, had made by converting the garage. It was okay for nine months of the year, with its bunk bed, but the space heating system did not reach there in the winter and I learned to sleep in pajamas and socks.
I suppose, on some level, I had been aware that although they went out pretty regularly, I hadn't seen a new man in the morning lately. I knew these things but they hadn't impinged on my consciousness.
Until now.
I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, as they say, but I ain't the dullest either.
"Since Lee moved in," I said.
"Yes," she said, meeting my eyes.
"And now she takes care of your, well," and I hesitated, seeking the word, "takes care of your 'needs?" I finished, emphasizing that last word.
"Yes," she said for the third time.
"And now will I take care of those needs?" I asked.
She hesitated then, holding my eyes.
"Do you want to?" she asked.
"Yes," I said without hesitation. "But do you want me to?" I asked.
"Davey," she said, and for the first time, I sensed some awkwardness.
I watched her face, her eyes jumping up and to the right as she thought, and then doing that jittering thing as she focused on first my right eye and then my left eye.
"Davey," she started again, "it's a very special intimacy. Are you sure you want that?"
Later in life, as I was attending a training program to learn how to analyze financial statements to decide whether to offer government-backed financing to businesses, I first heard the phrase "no-brainer" when one of the cases we were studying was so obvious no thinking was involved in the "yes" decision. When I heard that phrase I started laughing because it had triggered my memory of this morning.
I reached over, dig my fingers into that mass of her black hair, pulled her to me, and kissed her.
It was a good kiss. Not as good as she and Lee taught me later, but nonetheless, a good kiss.
"I want it all," I said, my hand running up and down her back. I smiled at the little wince when my hand reached her ass and I squeezed a little.
"Davey," she said, her voice carrying a hint of a whine, almost fear.
I stopped her with a kiss.
"Davey," she started again, but this time the fear was gone, replaced by desire.
Her womanscent signaled her desire better than any words could. The pheromone-laden perfume of her arousal filled the room suddenly, and it was different from any girl I had ever been with.
And that's how I thought of it. They were girls (all four of them). I was laying in bed with a woman now.
