King of Hearts

She had yards of curly blonde tresses that cascaded down her back. In a high pitched voice she demanded to know why I had handcuffs on. The three cops there all fell over themselves trying to free me.

"So she does know you and, did just stop by to look at your house?" asked the officer in charge.

"Of course," said the woman. "She's a friend. She's just never been to the house before. I guess she just wanted to check it out." Her voice had that southern twang in it that always sounds like honey and magnolias. She looked across at me as she came closer and I suddenly realized that I'd been a fool.

At five foot eight, I'm tall for a woman, but nowhere near a giant. The woman standing in front of me was at eye level with me while I was sitting down. She was beautifully proportioned and I envied her body, but she couldn't have been more than four foot ten or four eleven. At that moment, two thoughts popped into my mind at the same time. The first was how glad I was that I hadn't made a fool out of myself by running around telling everyone that Ray was screwing a child. It had obviously been this woman he'd been having sex with.

The second thing to pass through my mind was that when I'd seen the two of them together I'd been jealous and angry. It just seemed stupid to me now, to think that Ray hadn't had sex or hadn't found anyone in the three years that we'd been apart. Shit maybe he'd met her and left me for her. I'm not gay but I could see that happening.

As soon as the police let me go, she started talking to me. "I told him this wouldn't work," she said. I had no idea of what she was talking about.

"Should we take her somewhere ma'am?" asked the officer.

"I may as well take her home with me," said the woman. "That way she can take Peggy her car back."

"Come on Christina," she said. "You can drive back to Peggy's from our house."

"You know my name?" I asked. "You told them that we were friends?"

"Of course I know your name," she said smiling. "I hear it every day. And we are friends in a way."

"How so?" I asked.

"If a person gave you the greatest gift you'd ever received in your whole life, wouldn't you consider them a friend? Honestly, Honey that's why I named my daughter after you."

I was so confused. But maybe this wouldn't be that bad I thought. Maybe she, like everyone else worked for Ray. Maybe she could get me closer to him.

"Does Ray know that I was in jail?" I asked. She pointed towards a car that wasn't there when I was brought in. I gasped as I saw the car. Theoretically it shouldn't exist. Since I'd seen Ray's car I'd begun doing research on Mustangs. The car Ray drove was a Boss 302. It was a limited edition street legal race car version of the Mustang. It was so limited that they had waiting lists to buy one. They were also not going to make the car anymore after this year.

Her car was a convertible Boss 302. Ford doesn't make a convertible version of the Boss. Her car's paint scheme was also totally customized. The car was arctic white with pink accents. Her car's rims were the same color pink as the trim. Her exhaust tips were anodized in the same pink color. But when she started the engine, it was the exact same exhaust note that Ray's car had. That got me to thinking that some of those times that I'd thought I'd heard Ray coming and going were probably her.

"Of course he knows that you were in jail," she said. "We were uhm...doing something...when they called. I wanted to send him down here to get you so we could get this all out in the open. But Christina started crying for her daddy and he sat down in front of the fireplace to rock her back to sleep, so I had to come."

That was hard to take in. Ray had a daughter with this woman. "Well at least I know that he knows I'm in town now," I said. "Except for getting me a better job, I wasn't even sure he knew I was here."

"That wasn't him," she said. "That was moi." And as she said it she sang the last word almost as if she was some kind of opera singer. As we pulled away from the police station her tiny foot pressed down on the accelerator and the car took off like a fucking rocket. When we stopped at a traffic light, she let the top down. A few moments later we were on the freeway doing more than a hundred miles an hour. Her long hair streamed out behind her and the smile on her face told me that she loved this.

We pulled through the gates into her neighborhood a few moments later and she stopped in front of Peggy's car. "We need to have a talk," she said. "I'm going to make that man of mine talk to you. None of this is really fair. He can't keep avoiding you like this. It's childish."

"I can agree with that...uhm...?" I began.

"Angela," she smiled.

"I can agree with that," I said again. "The least he could do is to explain why the hell he ran off on me. He's carrying his guilt a bit too far." She looked totally confused.

"Christina, Honey you have this all wrong," she said. The look on her face was really sad, but she seemed sad for me. "Ray doesn't feel guilty about anything. That's not why he avoids you. He avoids you because you broke his heart."

She turned and walked into the house without another word. I didn't understand that woman at all. Why the hell would she name her daughter after me? And why did she consider herself to be my friend? Where I came from, two women who both wanted the same man would not be friends.

Her entire reaction to me was not the way she should have acted. By everything I knew, the two of us should be rolling on the ground trying to beat the shit out of each other. But she'd actually gone down to the police station to get me out. Maybe that was just her sneaky way of keeping Ray away from me. As tiny as she was there was no way she could beat me in a fight.

I realized as I said it, that Ray was smaller than Trey, but could have easily put Trey in the hospital. But I just didn't see that woman rolling around on the ground fighting.

And another thing about her, her personality just seemed to be far bigger than her body. If you looked at that woman from a distance, she looks incredible. But when you get closer to her you could see how tiny she is. Her breasts are only average sized. They're probably the same size as mine. But when you factor in the size of her tiny torso, those average sized boobs look huge. Her cups runneth over.

By the time I got back to Gonzo's house, I guess they were all worried about me. As soon as I opened the fence into the backyard, I could see the look of relief on Marcus' face.

"Where were you?" asked Peggy. "I thought we were going to have to send out a search party."

"Peggy I swear your car is fine," I said.

"I'm not worried about that piece of shit," said Peggy. "If you'd wrecked it, George would have to buy me a Mustang. A white Mustang convertible. Of course it wouldn't be like Angela's. George and I don't have those kinds of arguments..."

"What argument?" I asked. I was hoping that there was a weakness in their relationship that I might be able to exploit. "So Ray and his little girlfriend argue?"

"She's not his girlfriend," said Gonzo. "She's his wife." When he said wife, it was as if someone had punched me in the stomach.

"Anyway, this happened before they were married," said Peggy. "You know her family has a lot of money and..." It all made sense, then. Ray was only with her for the money. She had probably bankrolled the company. Ray probably still loved me, but he needed her for financial reasons.

"So they're together for the money?" I asked. Both Peggy and Gonzo looked at me as if I was stupid.

"No, Honey," said Peggy softly. "Angela's brother met Ray at some biker rally years ago, just before he came here. He hired Ray as a plumber. The rest is history as far as the business is concerned. The Hallos did give Ray that huge contract to do all of their plumbing, but he earned it through his efficiency and the ease at which he modifies jobs to suit a customer. Their deal is also weighted very much in favor of the Hallos. Ray could be making almost thirty percent more per house, but he gives them an almost family discount. Believe me, if that contract were to be terminated, the Hallos would suffer more than Ray would."

"But anyway, her family has a lot of money, Ray didn't. Sure, the Hallos liked him, but he didn't become like a son to them until he married Angela. He and Johnny were like best friends, but the old man just didn't see him as being right for the princess. In fact it was actually the old man that led to them being together." I looked at her crazily.

"But if he didn't like him..." I began.

"Angela fell, ass over tea kettle for Ray as soon as she laid eyes on him. Her father had her whole life laid out for her. She graduated from college with a degree in business and a minor in psychology. He wanted her to use both to help out in the family company. With a degree in business, she'd be great almost anywhere in the company. The psychology would help her deal with differing personalities and give her an edge on predicting the whims of the customers."

"But the plan changed when she saw Ray. He was miserable back then. He didn't date, he barely spoke to people. He just worked. She brought him out of all of that. But it came with a bunch of friction. The company was growing faster than Ray could keep a handle on things. He's a great natural business man and a great plumber but as far as everything else went, he sucked. Angela was stopping by to help out with the books and payroll and records, or that's what she claimed. I think everyone except Ray knew that she was stopping by to see him. It got to the point where she was there as much as she was at Hallos. And her daddy didn't like it. He marched in there and in front of Ray and some of the guys who've been here for a while, told her that she had to make a decision. She could either keep her job working with her family or she could quit. But she couldn't keep spending all of her time there. He told her to think about it and let him know."

"I guess she got her dander up, because she told him she didn't need to think about it. Ray had the building renovated and started paying her the same salary she was drawing at Hallos plus one dollar a week. That way she could always tell people that she left to make more money. The funniest thing about it is that everyone knew that she left for Ray except Ray. Within a few days of her quitting, her father marched back up there again. This time he wasn't demanding, he was more like begging. He kept telling her that she didn't need to move out of the house. I remember this one well, because she was in the process of interviewing me for my job as George's assistant."

"He begged her not to move out of the house. She didn't even have an apartment to move into. So when Ray came in later from overseeing a plumbing job and looked around at everyone, we knew what was about to happen. They'd been dating for a while and she just told him that she was moving in with him. He didn't even fight it. I think everyone around here was happier because Ray got a lot nicer once she was in his life. She usually wins their arguments. She moved from that mansion she'd grown up in, into Ray's tiny, shitty bachelor apartment. She never complained once. But as they became more successful, she got all of her toys back. The way they argue is so cute. She wanted a new car when Ray got that second Mustang. He's crazy about cars now, he doesn't ride anymore. He wanted her to have a car like his. She wanted a white BMW convertible because it would go with her clothes. That's how they solved the argument. Her car is a one of a kind. Ford made it for her from the ground up. If you think about it, it's not that difficult. The Boss 302 is really just a highly customized Mustang GT. They started with a Mustang Convertible and added all of the toys and then sent it out to be painted."

"I don't like cars anyway," I said angrily.

I went to bed then, and I had a lot to think about. I was sure that Ray still loved me. I was also sure that I still loved him. His marriage to that woman was a hurdle, but it wasn't anything we couldn't get over. People got divorces every day. I tried to think about what I'd say to him that next day, because my "FRIEND" Angela had said she was going to arrange for me to talk to him.

That night I tried to remember out last days together. I remember that he was changing so fast. It was like he was becoming a different person in front of my face. He'd changed the way he spoke. He'd changed the way he acted and even the way he dressed. I'd gotten angry when he bought that car, but it wasn't the car. I was afraid that he was becoming a different person and I loved him and our life together.

I can still remember the day he came home to find Beth and me sitting in our kitchen talking about going to the big rally in the next state for the weekend. When he walked in I went into shock. When he'd left the house that morning Ray had shoulder length light brown hair that was tied back in a greasy bandanna so it would get in his eyes while he worked.

When he walked back in that evening his hair couldn't have been more than an inch long. Beth had taken one look at him and declared that he was beautiful. I got pissed. And again it wasn't the hair cut that really bothered me. It was all of the changes. Ray was becoming something other than the man I'd fallen in love with.

I started to wonder whether or not our relationship would survive. I even had doubts about whether I should stay with Ray or find someone who still wanted to live the life that I'd gotten used to. Of course those thoughts were fleeting, but they did make me even more determined to get my old Ray back. I cajoled and whined and pretty much forced him to go to the rally that weekend.

I thought about that song by Chrissie Steele as we rode up to the rally.

"King of Hearts is it over. King of Hearts is there one more hand left to play.

"In this game. Are you ever coming back again?"

"King of Hearts, I'm reaching out. King of Hearts can you grab my hand and hang on?"

"Will I hold you in my arms again?"

Just as Chrissie wondered in her song, I wondered that day if things between King and I would ever be the same.

All during the ride to the rally, King talked about the future and what he wanted us to do. Almost all of it was boring, stupid shit that I had no intention of doing. He wanted us to have enough money to move into a nicer house in a nice neighborhood. He kept talking about neighborhoods where it would be safe for our kids to play outside with their friends.

As he blathered on and on, the one thought that went through my mind was that none of it was ever going to happen. There was no way I'd allow my body to be used as some kind of baby factory. There was no way that I was going to spend all of my time taking care of a bunch of whining little brats and cleaning some giant box in the suburbs that was only a place to store a lot of shit that we didn't need.

As he talked more and more, I realized that both of us were talking, but neither one of us was listening to the other. I talked about going to more rallies and the rallies we'd hold ourselves this year. He talked about us actually getting married and how many kids we wanted.

I talked about trading our bike in for a newer, better one. He talked about us spending the rest of our lives together. I guess we were speaking two different languages. Those were my last thoughts before I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that I'd gotten completely off of the track that I'd started on. I'd originally wanted to figure out what I was going to say to King or Ray when I met him. There were so many things I needed to know, like why he just left me. I also wanted to know what was going on with him and the pocket diva. Did he really love her as much as he'd loved me, or was she just someone he'd used to get over me?

I also needed to tell him that I understood some of the things he'd gone through back then and I was willing to compromise now. I hadn't been willing to do that in the past and I think that was what broke us up. I should have been willing to give in on some things, and he could give in on others.

As I got up and dressed I was more excited than I'd been at almost any time in my life.

I got Gonzo to drive me in early. I flitted around the office doing mostly just busy work to keep myself from going insane. A few of the warehouse guys drifted in and out hoping that I'd made the coffee so they could filch a cup before starting their jobs. Sally drifted in after that and she looked like hell. It wasn't even 8 a.m. and she had on a scarf and sunglasses. It was going to be a sunny day, they almost always are along the gulf coast, but the sun wasn't bright enough for sunglasses yet.

"Christina, please tell me that you made coffee," she whined. I grabbed her coffee cup off of her desk and poured her some. "Nope, not today," she grunted as I started to add her usual cream.

I just handed her the cup of hot black coffee and she started to sip it with her sunglasses still on.

"You do know that this is mostly your fault," she whined.

"What's my fault?" I asked.

"I have a hangover," she began. "I'm exhausted. I can barely open my eyes. I'm tingling all over and my ass hurts."

Sally was over fifty, but obviously she'd gone out and got drunk and had anal sex with some guy. I still failed to see how any of that was my fault. I stared at her. The anal thing shocked me because I just couldn't imagine her doing that.

She looked back at me then. "I went out for a ride with your friend Dennis, last night," she said smiling from ear to ear.

"Who the hell is Dennis?" I asked.

"You know the one who works in the warehouse," she said gushing.

"Oh, Digger?" I exclaimed as realization struck me. I had a picture in my mind then of the grizzled old biker, with Sally bent over his bike and him pounding her sizable ass from behind. I smiled thinking about it.

Almost as if she could read my mind, she clapped a hand across her mouth. "Oh no, it wasn't like that," she said. "What makes you think I'm that kind of woman?"

"Well you said you had a hangover and your ass hurts?" I smirked.

"I've haven't drank any alcohol in over ten years, since my husband died," she said. "And that liquor that Dennis has in that flask is kind of strong." I nodded. Digger was known for his rot gut, homemade whiskey.

"And last night was my first time ever being on a motorcycle. I think my butt is little too big and too soft for all of the vibrating and..." As she spoke I realized that the pain in my back had also faded since we'd been here. I also realized then that I hadn't been on Marcus' bike during the entire month that we'd been here.

Before she could finish I heard a sound that sent tingles up and down my spine. I recognized that sound easily now, it was the sound of Ray's Mustang pulling into the parking lot. It sounded even closer this morning. Then the door opened and he was standing in front of me.

My knees were suddenly almost too weak to support me. I had to grab onto the edge of the desk to hold myself up.

His hair was even shorter than it had been before he left me. There was some sort of gel in it or it might have been that he'd just gotten out of the shower. But it made his brown hair shinier. His eyes also seemed to be even bluer if that was possible. And God damn it he smelled good. He didn't smell like some dirty old biker guy. Although I missed the smell of leather, sweat, gas and oil, this new smell was intoxicating. I really hoped that he'd just take me some where private and fuck the shit out of me like we used to in the old days. I remember he'd be in the middle of a meeting with the city inspectors, who'd decide whether or not we'd get a permit to hold a rally, and he'd catch sight of me and then excuse himself and take me into one of the tents and then just fuck me until I couldn't stand up. Then he'd go back to the meeting.