Afterlife

I toweled off and went back to the "kitchen" to refresh the drink before I punched the button on the answering machine. When Carol's voice floated out, asking about how to fix the furnace, I hit the erase button. She could fucking well get Sir Lancelot to fix it. I doubted if he knew which end of a screwdriver was up. I tipped the bottle a bit longer than before as I fixed the drink. I ate some leftovers and watched TV. I had a third drink and called it a night. Work came early for me. I tucked myself in about 9:30 and fell into a sound, dreamless sleep.

I worked and went home. That was the way it went the rest of that week and all the next. I thought a lot about Peggy but held off calling her. I felt like a kid I was so nervous about it. I didn't want her to get the impression I wasn't interested, but I also didn't want it to just be one of those rebound relationships. Finally it was Friday again. I decided to drop by Willie's after work.

The place was considerably busier than the afternoon I'd been there last. I watched Peggy shagging drinks a while before her eyes drifted past me. They snapped back to look directly into mine. I smiled and waved. She just gave me a curt nod and went about her business. Well, she's busy, I thought, but the look wasn't exactly all that friendly. I should have called her, I decided. A short, skinny barmaid was handling all the booths and the tables while Peggy commanded the bar.

A stool became vacant and I jumped on it. A few minutes later she made it to my end of the bar. "Hi, Allen. Want a beer?" The atmosphere was definitely chilly.

"Uh, yeah. How have you been?"

"Busy," was all she said. She popped the top of the beer and set it in front of me and spun away before I could say anything else. I sipped and waited. I was on my second beer before the happy hour crowd thinned out. Still, Peggy made no effort to take time to talk to me. I got an idea as I finished the beer. I pulled a fresh bar napkin from the stack standing on the back edge of the bar. I scribbled a note and folded it inside the tip and set my empty on top of it. I waited until she wasn't looking before slipping out into the night.

The next morning was perfect. Seattle in December can go either way, but usually it's lousy. That Saturday was different. After two weeks of gray, blustery weather, Saturday dawned bright and clear, but cold. By 10:00, the sun had begun to dry out all the mossy surfaces and the air as well. A light breeze carried most of the city's exhalations away, leaving the whole world feeling fresh and new. It was a day like this that reminded me why I live there.

I had shopped the evening before after leaving Willie's. I didn't have a picnic basket, but I had a drawer full of plastic grocery bags. I also had a medium sized cooler that would be perfect for my plan. I put everything together and carried it all to the truck and then drove across town to Woodland Park. The park is really a park. It also houses the Seattle Zoo. I'd left instructions in my note. If Peggy wasn't feeling too rejected, she would meet me near the polar bear enclosure at 11:00.I wandered around, peering into glass cages and through bars at snakes, lizards and chimpanzees. I strolled through the big cat area, marveling at the controlled power under the short fur.

I had been watching the clownish antics of the white arctic bears for fifteen minutes. I glanced again at my watch and felt my heart begin to slide down in my chest. It was quarter after and there was no sign of her. I was bemoaning an opportunity lost when a voice said just behind me, "Hey mister, got change for a twenty?"

I turned and found myself looking at Peggy's broad grin. I laughed and -- incredibly -- she gave me a hug. I hugged back. "Wow! Thanks," I said. "I needed that." She laughed and leaned on the steel rail next to me and we watched the roly-poly animals swimming and diving. "They're not really bears, you know," I said. "They're just 'bear-like'." She didn't believe me.

We bantered a while and turned away. We strolled around, revisiting some of the places I'd already seen but I didn't mind. It was nice being with her. At some point she hooked her arm in mine and left it there. As we walked I occasionally felt her breast brush my arm. A few times while we were stopped she pressed herself against my arm. I felt like a thirteen year old again getting my first feel of tit. I began to remember what first dates were all about.

By half past noon, Peggy began to complain about being hungry. "Aha! My plan iss verking," I said in a bad German accent. "After you, my dahlink," I said and indicated the direction to the parking lot. She smiled and gave me an inquisitive frown, but she obediently went along the asphalt path, once again taking my arm.

As it turned out, she had parked only a few places away from where I had. Woodland Park has a pay lot, so I told her to follow me. I took the street down to Green Lake and pointed to a parking spot. She got the message and pulled in. I went around the block and stopped next to her little sedan. Securing her car, she hopped into the passenger side of my pickup. "It'll be okay there," I told her. "There are enough joggers along the edge of the lake to call the cops if they see anybody trying to jack it."

We joked about the coffee saturated, technophiles that had become the new elite in Seattle. Like me, it turned out that she had been born and raised in the area. I drove for half an hour or so until I got southeast of downtown and made the turn that would take us up the hill to another park -- Volunteer Park. It's a small but beautiful park that seems to be forgotten by almost everybody except its nearest neighbors. The best part of it is that it is home to a jewel of a conservatory. I had found it by accident one sleety January morning several years before. It had become one of my favorite places to go and think.

I parked and we went into the glass hothouse. Our lungs soaked up the warm, earthy, tropical air it enclosed. I've always felt something primal in that air. It's like I feel closer to my primitive roots or something. I had invited Carol to share it with me but she never wanted to take the time. So I treasured it as a private retreat. It was far enough from the I-5 corridor to be quiet and, even when the weather was as nice as it was that Saturday, it was nicer inside.

Whoever designed and maintained the place knew what they were doing. The central dome housed tall palms and banana trees skirted by lower flowering bushes and vines. A brick path meandered through the whole thing. The building was bisected by a small gurgling stream that flowed around the central island and terminated in a low waterfall into a tiny irregular pond that held huge Koi goldfish. The musical voice of the stream added to the splashing and misty spray of the fall to make the whole scene soul healing.

Our mood was altered by the place. We'd had fun at the zoo and on the ride over. We'd laughed and joked and even flirted a little. I was relearning things being married had put into hibernation. Once we began to inhale the earthy atmosphere inside the conservatory, though, things took on a deeper, more serious feeling. I sat on the concrete bench next to the pond. Peggy sat next to me. After a few minutes of comfortable silence she reached over and took my hand in a gentle grip. She leaned her shoulder against mine, and then leaned her head on it too. I let the peace of the place and the companionship Peggy was providing soak in. I leaned my head on hers and smelled the light scent of her shampoo. It didn't conflict with the tropical perfumes surrounding us. An older couple entered and moved away from our end of the place.

I took a deep breath and lifted my head. She raised hers. I looked at her. She looked up at me. I kissed her. She kissed back. I rescued my hand and wrapped my arms around her. I tasted her hunger as we kissed and let mine be released into her mouth. She felt it. She groaned and we hugged tighter. Her hand, which had been resting on my ribs, slipped down. She first hooked her fingers into a belt loop and pulled before she moaned again and let her hand continue down and across my straining erection.

Her touch was like an electric shock to me. She squeezed and I tingled. My hand responded by slipping around to the front and I cupped one of her palm-filling breasts. I felt the hard nub of her nipple through her top and bra. It was my turn to groan.

We broke the kiss and I looked at her again. She smiled and blushed. Without speaking I stood up and pulled her up beside me. We hugged and kissed again. I felt an answering pressure when I pressed my hips hard against hers. Then she let her hands slide down to my butt and she squeezed there. She pulled her face back and grinned at me. "Hi, there, sailor. Want to go somewheres?" My response was a sharp slap on her ass which brought a happy squeal from her. I saw that it had also caught the attention of the older folks who were approaching. I grabbed her hand and we hurried out into the cold winter air.

It wasn't far from Volunteer Park to my place. Still it seemed like too long. I grabbed the cooler and the food bag from the back of the truck. When she saw them she grinned appreciatively. "And here I thought you were gonna treat me to some hoity-toity restaurant meal! You were gonna give me the real thing!"

"I'm gonna give you 'the real thing', all right," I growled. "Let's go inside." She laughed and followed me into the building.

Inside, I almost threw the cooler and bag on the couch and pulled her toward the bed. She didn't hesitate. We wrestled each other out of our clothes and fucked fiercely. I nipped her nipples and she wrapped her legs around me and shouted when she came. That brought on my climax and I gasped, freezing in mid-stroke. I throbbed deep inside her silky sheath and my energy drained from me.

I transferred my weight to one side but remained inside her. I leaned my head on my hand and looked down at her eyes. They were a greenish-brown and sparkled like no eyes I'd ever seen. She smiled a gentle smile at me. The uneasy feeling that had been repressed in the back of my mind began to come to the surface again. She must have sensed it.

I was trying to figure out how to explain how I felt but she stopped me before I even started. "Allen, I know the ink is barely dry on your divorce papers. You aren't ready for a 'relationship'." The quotation marks were audible in her pronunciation of the word. "That's okay. I'm not sure I am either. I mean, it's been two years since Willie was killed. I still don't know if I want to get that close to anybody again." She flexed her vaginal muscles as she added, "This was what I really wanted and needed. I think you did too." I nodded.

"To tell you the truth, it was better than any first time I've ever had," I told her. For that matter, it was better than most other times I'd had, too. "I know it's unusual for a guy, but I usually need a connection with a woman before the sex is as good as this was." I leaned down and kissed her. I centered my weight again and stroked in and out of her slick pussy. The rush and need had been satisfied. This was stroking and caressing her inside. She responded and ran her hands over and around my back while pulling her knees up and out to the sides. Her hands slid down to cup my ass again.

Then she did something I'd fantasized about during all the time I was with Carol. She squeezed my ass cheeks and then pulled them apart. She stretched her arm and slipped a finger in between them and caressed my anus. I was still fairly firm, but that made me instantly hard again -- as hard as I'd been the first time. My gasp told her she'd hit a good spot. She chuckled. She kissed me, nipping my lip so hard it hurt. At the same time, with her fingertip probing my rectum, it was the right thing for her to do. My hips jerked, driving my cock deep into her.

She removed her finger. Maneuvering her legs, she rolled us over without dislodging me. She rose up to a sitting position with my stiff cock as a pivot. She grinned at me and rocked her hips back and forth. "So you like your ass played with, eh?" I felt my cheeks redden and she smiled again. "It's okay. I've been fascinated by asses -- and ass holes (real ones, not the other kind) -- for as long as I can remember." She leaned down to whisper into my ear. "I'll even let you fuck my ass if you play your cards right."

Her words thrilled me. It was something I'd been curious about as long as I could remember. Of course, the whole (no pun intended) subject was distasteful to Carol. Peggy began to take advantage of my reawakened erection then. She rocked forward and rose up, slid down and rocked back. As she continued to ride me a humming noise began to come from her throat and I saw a sheen of sweat break out on her face and chest. She was driving her own orgasm this time and taking me along for the ride. All I did was to hold on to her fleshy thighs and let her do it.

She began rising and falling fiercely, grunting on each down stroke. Her face contorted into an erotic grimace. She was close. Then suddenly she was emitting little high pitched shrieks and I felt her muscles go into spasm on my cock. The milking effect brought on my climax again and I felt a surprising amount of fluids running out around my cock and down over my balls and into the crack below them. Peggy was the first woman I'd ever been with who ejaculated like a man.

She rolled off and flopped down next to me. My suddenly released cock splashed against my belly and began to soften. I rolled against her and pulled her tight. We kissed and relaxed for at least fifteen minutes before either of us said anything.

Finally Peggy sat up and looked around the room. "So what did you make me for lunch?" she asked. "I was already hungry, but now I'm starving!" She slipped off the bed and with no self consciousness about her nudity at all walked to the couch and peeked into the grocery bag. I followed her. I took the bag to the counter and began to set out the plastic-bagged sandwiches and pickles and other things I'd fixed. Peggy went into the bathroom. I heard the toilet flush and I glanced at the open door. From my position I couldn't see in, but I was still surprised that she hadn't closed the door. My experience with women told me they almost always close the bathroom door -- even just after sex. Peggy was a different kind of cat. Water ran in the sink and she came out a few minutes later. She brought two towels which she draped over the tall stools at the counter that served as a dining area.

I made my own trip to the bathroom to wash up. When I came out Peggy was happily chewing a mouthful of turkey sandwich and taking bites of the kosher dill pickle. She was perched, still naked, on one stool and patted the seat of its twin next to hers. I realized it was a good thing we had come to the apartment to eat. I'd forgotten to take a corkscrew. We'd have gone thirsty if we had eaten at the park as I'd planned. I opened the wine and handed her a cup of the cold, dry pink nectar. We clicked our plastic cups together and sipped.

As we were finishing lunch, Peggy repeated what she'd said to me "between acts". "I feel great, Allen. Like I said, I get the feeling we could make this into something, but I'm not about to rush you. I don't honestly know if I even want a 'boyfriend'." There were those audible quotation marks again. "But I love good sex, and mister, that was some of the best I've ever had!" Her praise went right to my head and buoyed my fragile ego.

I felt it was only fair to answer with an admission of my own. "What you did -- you know your finger in my butt -- was something I've wanted for a long time, too. It's kind of embarrassing. I mean, a lot of people think that guys who like that kind of thing are gay or something."

"Not me," she said. "I say, whatever works is good. Did you know there are more nerve endings in the anus than in the vagina? It's true. The really great thing is that both girls and guys have ass holes -- like the old joke about opinions, except as long as they're clean, ass holes don't stink." I recalled the joke.

"All I know is that it perked me right up," I said, feeling better about liking it.

"Well you ain't seen nothin' yet, buddy," she said with a sly grin. Her words sent a bolt of excitement through me. I was feeling more and more as if I'd found somebody who was physically and psychologically a better match for me than any other woman had ever been.

After we ate we took a shower together. It was almost comical in my tiny cubicle shower. It was fun though. Peggy showed me a little more of the "nothin' I hadn't seen yet". She used her hands and fingers to clean my ass, sliding a soapy finger probing inside me while she knelt and took my stiff dick between her lips. That was something nobody had ever done and I made her stop before I came.

We rinsed off and went back to the bed. "I want to finish what I started," she said. She meant it. She made me sit on the bed and knelt on her damp folded towel. She sucked and licked at me until my nerve ends were singing. When she pushed me to my back, pulled my legs apart and dropped her mouth to my ass I gripped handfuls of blankets and squeezed my eyes shut. I was trying to hold my orgasm off. I managed to wait until after she had licked my ass and replaced her mouth around my cock before I let go in a wet series of throbs. She took all I had left -- which couldn’t have been much, but still she swallowed it all.

Then I did something I'd ever done before. I pulled her on top of me and kissed her, letting my tongue slide around in the residue of my own semen in her mouth. She smiled at me and we rolled over to relax a while.

Later we dressed and I drove her back to her car. She gave me a light kiss through the window of the truck and told me to call her soon. "Next time we can just have coffee or something if you want," she said innocently. She had a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

"The hell we can!" I growled. "You can't show me the Promised Land and then say I can never go there again."

"Oh, I never say never. Let's absorb what happened today and let things take their course. Don't call me for at least…two weeks, say. Is that okay?"

Two weeks seemed like a long time to me. Still, the rational part of my brain that was functioning -- you know, that part that isn't located between my legs -- said she was right. I promised not to call -- or even think about her -- for at least two weeks.

She said with a laugh, "Oh, I expect you to think about me. That's partly what today was for. I wanted you to know what might be available to you when you readjust to life without the wife. Besides," she grinned, "I really needed to get laid." She turned away, got into her car and pulled out in front of me. At the corner where she turned and I didn't, her hand came out of her window and waved good bye to me. I waved back and drove home in a sex fogged daze.

I worked, read, and watched TV. I thought about Peggy. Several times I almost pulled off at Willie's on my way past. Several times I almost called her -- either at the bar or at home. She had forbidden it, however. I had to keep my word. The second Saturday after we had made love I called her.