Strip!

I checked him, he was OK, just cold cocked so I went out to my car. Kelly sat there in the passenger seat.

"I'm sorry." She told me.

"It's not your fault, Pat just needs to stop with the drinking." Kelly looked out the window and didn't answer.

I drove her to a motel, planning to drop her off and let things cool down.

"Danny? Stay with me, please? I am worried about what Pat might do."

So I did. I curled up in the lousy little chair, she slept in the bed in her clothes. After perhaps 10 minutes, she sat up.

"I can't sleep wearing my clothes, will you be upset if I take them off?"

"No, that's fine." I averted my eyes as she tugged off her outer garments.

"You didn't need to look away, Danny. You have already seen me." She actually giggled. Then she slid under the covers and was soon asleep.

It was a very long and fitful night, I listened to her soft snores, thinking.

My friend Pat had turned out to be something far less than what I had thought when we first met. I knew he drank, but I didn't know how much. I was thinking that it must be a lot.

+++

Pat was there, sitting on their porch when we drove up the next day. He had a very large red lump on his jaw where I had reluctantly hit him.

"Have a good time?" He glared at me.

"Not really, chairs aren't real comfortable to sleep in."

"You hit me."

"No shit, you had it coming." I growled right back.

"I suppose you fucked her, right?" Pat asked me the moment Kelly was inside.

"No, Pat. There is no way in hell I would do that to you. It wouldn't be fair to her because you were making her do it."

His shoulders slumped, I could see that when he was mostly sober he was just...Pat? Drunk, he was something else entirely.

Kelly came back out, I looked at her questioningly.

She picked right up on that, smiled.

"I will be fine, Danny. Thank you. You are one hell of a nice guy, you know that?" She walked right up to me and kissed me on the cheek.

+++

It was just over two weeks later when I read the story in the local papers. The cops had been out, an ambulance had been called. There had been another drunken row over there, lord knows what about this time, but Kelly had ended up bonking Pat over the head with her "favorite six inch cast iron frying pan" which I guess is what she told them since they printed that in the paper, word for word.

Pat got hauled off to the hospital with a concussion, Kelly went to jail over night, something about domestic violence and if one goes, they both go?

I was sorry about that but sometimes things happen and no matter what we think, there is not one damn thing a person can do about it, not really.

Over the next six months I lost track of them, busy with my own life. I got promoted at work to the position of Adjuster, no more packing 100 pound wrappings of paper bags, now I tuned and fixed the machines.

Plus dates were easier to get for some reason, my old Rambler was looking pretty spiffy and some of the ladies thought it was really a neat old car.

Which it was. She purred like a kitten, got great mileage, and when I touched the key she was running almost before I finished turning it.

And I discovered real sex for the sheer fun of doing it. Way late in life compared to most, some of my earlier experiences made me perhaps a little bit fussy? That's what I told myself, anyway.

I almost had to laugh one evening when a pretty little blond waitress named Sammi, I am not sure why "Sammi" since her name was actually Candice but oh well, noticed the small off colored spot on my dash, rubbed it with her finger.

"That won't shine out, maybe you can repaint it?" She asked.

"I was planning on recovering the entire dash." I told her, stifling the memory of how that happened.

"Oh, I don't think you should do that. This car is cool, looking all original." She told me.

Yea, it was. To hell with the Corvettes, the Mustangs, the funny looking little sporty cars.

Sammi was one of them that taught me a few things too. I came pretty close to trying to see if she was the one, maybe making things permanent?

But as it turned out, she had quite a few other guys that she liked to teach also.

It's the way things are, I suppose.

+++

I was very busy one Sunday afternoon moving things around in the brand new Condo I had saved up enough money to put a down payment on.

It was one of those "infill" places, long and narrow with an upstairs, built in what used to be a couple of yards between two older houses.

Someone knocked on my door, I answered it and there stood Kelly. It had been what, maybe 2-2 1/2 years since I had last seen her?

"Danny!" She grabbed me and hugged me. I let her in, gave her the two bit tour. She thought my new place was neat, I agreed on that of course.

We went and sat on my big fake leather couch and talked. I noticed when she walked in that she had on a flowery blouse, sort of thin because I could see a hint of a black bra underneath it.

Even the shorter skirt was a surprise, and her legs were obviously bare.

We were sharing the bottle of fine wine I had bought, planning to sit and have some, look out my upstairs window of my very own first place at the cars going by on the street below.

It was nice to have her there, someone to share it with.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Danny?" She asked after a long moment of silence.

"Sure, Kelly."

"I want to know...I guess I never understood? Why didn't you..you know..make love with me that night?" She asked. I would have expected her to blush, she didn't.

"I guess it was just the situation, Pat was my friend and then when he made you..strip? I felt that was wrong, and he shouldn't do that."

"I mean that night we were alone at that motel." She grinned.

"Oh. Well, same reason I guess. You belonged to Pat and it wouldn't have been right."

"I see. It wasn't because you thought I wasn't attractive?"

"No. Of course not, you are a beautiful woman, so it wasn't like that. Besides, back then I had...never...?

"Oh, God. You were a virgin?" She giggled.

"Yea, sort of." Then due to the wine I suppose, I told her about my experience with Brenda, and how the small discolored spot ended up on my old Rambler's dash.

"I saw that, you should fix that." She giggled.

"I kind of like it, it's a memory of my first time." I grinned.

Kelly looked at me, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"I'm not married any more." She said quietly.

"I see." I answered.

"So what I am asking, would you like to be with me now?" Her voice went husky.

"Very much." I grinned.

She stood up and held out her hand, I took it and she led me into my bedroom.

I was just 26 years old by then, Kelly had to be around 45.

Blessed with smallish breasts, there was barely a hint of a sag. Her tummy was flat as a pancake, actually a bit muscular. Her hips were slender, in fact her body would have put several of the women I had dated to shame and all were much younger.

The real surprise was there was not even the slightest hint of what had been her overly modest attitude, that part I concede I did not understand.

Our joining was slow, delightful. It lasted nearly the entire rest of the day. I do know she looked up at one point, her body soaked in sweat, her hair all astray and in her eyes.

"Jesus!" She whispered.

I was erect, for the third time. Oh the wonders of youth, I suppose but this was fantastically exciting for me.

Finally, Kelly made me stop.

"God. I want to, but I can't. You are making me sore." She tittered.

Kelly stayed with me all that night, the next day and all the next night. We ate, sipped some wine, slept, and played.

Monday morning I woke up, time to go to work.

Kelly was already up, fully dressed. She was sitting in a chair, waiting.

"I need to go." She told me.

"I don't want you to." I said.

"Yes. I guess I don't want to either."

"So when can I see you again?" I asked her.

"You can't."

"Why not?"

"I...I met a guy, he is my age and good to me. We are getting married next weekend."

Now that was a surprise.

"Really? Then why come here, be with me?" I asked.

"I wanted to, I always did want to. When I was with Pat, he was always pushing me to...do it with someone else but I didn't want to. Except with you. With you, I did." She smiled.

I just looked at her.

"That night? I would have, you know."

"But what about the guy..the one you are going to marry?"

"I told him about you. He told me he loved me and to go get it over with because once we are married, I never can."

"That's..weird, I guess." I managed.

"Yea. It is. You are great, Danny. This has been the best time in my entire life!" She came over, leaned down and kissed me.

Then she shoved one hand underneath the blanket, stroked me a couple of time.

"Damn, I am going to miss this!" With a laugh, Kelly was gone.

Crazy stuff, some of the things people do. Me too, I guess, imagine getting an almost public blow job in the rear of a nasty tavern, I did that.

I am also human, that night in the motel? I know I thought about it, but I just could not.

Why would a man with a wife like Kelly want someone like me to have sex with her? It took me some time to figure out that all of the antics were part of a game he was playing.

At least I think so now, I am still not sure of it all.

I never saw Pat again, not to this day. I did see Kelly, on the street downtown. She hugged me, then introduced me to a guy named Paul who looked to be distinguished, well dressed. I watched as they went and got into a big Escalade, lord knows what one of those things cost. Kelly turned and waved at me as they drove away.

I was talking to my wife the other day, we were having a chat and I told her the story. Her name is Dotty, she is a soft and sweet little blond, as round as a female can be and in all the right spots.

She was no virgin that first time, but then, neither was I. It didn't matter, not one bit.

She listened with interest.

"Would you ever want us to do something like that?" She asked me when I finished my tale.

Point blank, part of what I loved about Dotty.

"No. No way in hell, babe!" I told her. She laughed and hugged me.

"Want me to make us a pizza, honey?" She asked.

"Sounds good." I answered, reaching for the TV remote.

Normal stuff.

Isn't normal just fine?