Coffee by the River

"Dave, I quite honestly don't know what to say." Holding Dave's eyes in hers as she leaned back in her chair. "For sure, like you, I've known a herd of wantabes. But I'm beginning to think you're different. Bubba and Cici's endorsement of you says a lot about you and your character. I saw you the other night while you were running the reception. Now, here, with your friends, it makes me think that you have a lot going for you. Honestly, Dave, I want to see where this goes."

As they got up and started to walk out of the Café, Dave took his wallet out and left a generous tip for the waitress. As they left, Cici looked over at Bubba. "He don't know it yet. But that girl will be around for a long time. I wonder what her story is?"

The French Quarter is a beautiful place to wander about aimlessly and window shop while chatting with your companion. Amy knew where every gallery and shop that offered women's clothes and jewelry was. Dave knew where every restaurant that posted their menu outside was. Their conversation was light and playful, filled with lots of chuckles and giggles. Eventually, the afternoon began to fade into evening. Taking a deep breath, Amy said. "Dave? This afternoon, no make that this day has been a total delight for me. Something completely different for me. This is a first for me. Spending the afternoon with a man I hardly know. But this has been a total joy. But I must get home and back to the real world. I really want us to stay in contact with each other. Please give me your phone number. No, better yet." Taking her phone out. "What's your number? I'll call you right now, and I will save your number. I hope you'll save mine, too."

"Amy? I will do a lot more than save your number. I will save the memory of our time together. For sure, we will talk. Let's get your car and your paintings in it. Then get you home and me too."

The next several weeks became months. The two of them talked on the phone like a pair of teenagers almost daily. Now and then, they would grab a cup of coffee by the river, but their schedules worked against them having the time to spend with each other.

Amy gave Dave a quick thumbnail of where she was from and how she ended up living and working in New Orleans. She explained that she had moved here to teach art in one of the local high schools after getting her M.Ed. in Art Education. Behind that degree is a BFA in Fine Arts and Illustrations. She was from a small town in Minnesota and hated winter, and all that went with it. Dave responded that he had never seen snow but really didn't want to. Going on, he said that he only had an AA in Culinary Arts. But that degree and where I got it from is a door opener in the world of restaurants and food service.

Scattered in their phone calls, they added to what they liked or disliked. Dave's list was almost short in comparison to Amy's. He loved to cook anything that came out of Bayous, where he was from. Along the way, he told Amy that they would have to take a trip to see that side of the state. Many of the small churches would do a Friday night fish fry, and a group of locals would play the music of bayous, Zydeco. He went on to tell her about this type of music. Somewhere along the line, he mentioned someone usually played the washboard. Amy got the idea that she was having her leg pulled. When Dave detected that, he went on to tell Amy about Jazz Fest, where usually they had a tent set up for nothing but Zydeco music.

While Dave was talking about his likes and his early life in the bayous, Amy realized how different they were. Yet how alike they were. In their own ways, they were both very creative people. Amy talked about how she loved to create a mosaic from small tiles. Doing this demanded total concentration on her part. While she was working on a piece, she'd have her headphones on blasting one or another hard-core rock band or someone playing delta blues. Over the years, she had heard a lot of stories about the Delta, and she was determined to go there and see it for herself.

As the school year was about to start, Amy was covered up in getting everything ready to go on day one of the new school year. Dave was busy reviewing several offsite catering opportunities, so he was up to his eyeballs in plans. At the same time, he was working on changes to the hotel's coffee shop and room service menus. Marc Angellotti and Leon Ashford, wanted these changes yesterday. Their idea was to emphasize the hotel's connection to the city's heritage. They were going to achieve this by having an in-house traditional marching jazz band, creating a space opening on Canal St and off the lobby for the Artist's Alliance. Also, reworking the menus to include a selection of different Creole and Cajun foods.

When Amy and Dave were talking and commiserating on Friday evening. He exclaimed that he was going to hang up all the paperwork and walk away on Sunday. He asked if Amy would like to go to the hotel's Sunday Jazz Brunch. Her immediate response was that Dave was an evil man who was trying to lead her astray. Then she said hell, yes! They agreed that he would pick her up at 10:30 for their 11 o'clock reservation at the hotel's Sunday jazz brunch.

As they were being seated, a waiter brought an ice bucket on a stand, which is called a high hat, that held a bottle of Prosecco. The sparkling wine was opened with a flourish. Another waiter came to their table with a pair of flutes and a carafe filled with orange juice. Dave sat back, then looked around and smiled to himself. "Amy? It would appear we will have Mimosas with our brunch. I'll make you a small bet. The OJ is spiked with apricot nectar. If you happen to look over towards the bar, you'll see two clowns wearing those funny-looking white hats you asked me about. They are the Executive Chef and the Executive Sous Chef, aka my bosses. Next to them are another pair of clowns, who are undercover, wearing suits. Those two are the hotel General Manager and the Food and Beverage Director. The four of them together are truly sick people. They are in the same class as Bubba and Cici, demented. Oh, at some time in the future, we need to have a chat about them."

With that, they turned toward the bar and raised their glasses in a toast. All the while, Amy kept looking around cautiously. "Somehow, this doesn't surprise me. Given the reception, we got from Bubba and Cici. Your friends are certainly watching out for you."

That made Dave chuckle. "Yeah, I suppose so. Amy? Ya know. I have to have the world's worst track record when it comes to women. But who knows? Maybe my luck is about to change."

"Gee, thanks a lot, Dave. Then again, I've had a shitty track record myself." Amy chimed in. "In high school, you could count on the fingers of one hand how many dates I had. Then, in college, I was determined to at least date some guys. In my sophomore year, I ended up with a guy who was hell-bent on being my first. And he was. Let's say the experience was, to put it kindly, a disaster. That ended my college dating career. Many girls in college were husband shopping. That wasn't the road I was destined to follow."

"My roommate and I would talk about any and everything. She had about the same experience that I had. Yeah, we both had that wonderful urge, that unfilled need. In our considerable wisdom, we decided the road to go was 'lesbian until graduation.' It wasn't that we swore off men. Hardly not. It was just that we didn't see any men that were worth a second look. After graduation, we both landed jobs in Chicago, and we continued living together. I got on as an art teacher in a private school. My roomie picked up a gig with the city doing architectural reviews. Our jobs would cover the cost of grad school, so why not? It wasn't a major brain strain for me to get an M.Ed. After we both finished grad school. Well, we both went our ways. Eventually, I came here for a lot of reasons. I hate winter and the city has a certain vibe. What iced the cake was that I got an amazing job offer teaching art in a private school that draws students city-wide. The kids in the school are highly motivated and want to learn. When I first got to the city at the beginning of summer. I started to check out the local LBGTQ community, and well, let's say it was like a college rush party. It wasn't a pretty picture. Somehow, I found the VCAA and fell in there. I felt like I was welcomed to the city and the art community. Which is how I ended up at the reception you were at."

"Now? Do we keep sitting here drinking endless Mimosas? Or do we take a look at the buffet and see what's there?"

"Endless Mimosas? Mister Dave, you are an evil man. Truly wicked. But my belly button is pressing against my spine, so I better put a little something light in my tummy."

They walked over to where the buffet tables were set up. "Amy, I have some dishes on these tables. Can I steer toward them? We could start with a mixed plate of different appetizers if that's OK with you. The Deviled Eggs are different than what you might have seen at a picnic when you were a tike. The egg is cut so it's a cup, and the rim of the cup is lightly dusted with Cayenne Pepper and smoked Paprika and then stuffed with the egg yolk that has some whipped butter and crab meat worked into it, along with some appropriate seasonings. Over there are creamed oyster canapes, which I like a lot. My mom would make something like this for a community potluck dinner. And this is a shrimp mouse done with tiny river shrimp."

Amy's eyes were drinking in all the different plates on the table. "Dave. I get it. This table is beautifully composed. All the different dishes work together to create an amazing presentation, if you will, a melody of assorted colors and textures. I've heard the saying that you eat with your eyes first. I certainly did here. Mister Man, you guys outdid yourselves. Did you do all the ice carvings, too?"

"Amy, thank you for the great compliment on the table. But I am not the one to do ice carvings or any other carving. One of the other chefs here does all of that. Let's get back to our table how everything tastes now."

"Uhh? Dave? What did the waiter just put on our table?"

Dave stood there shaking his head as Amy was looking at their table, wondering what this was. "Amy? This is their handiwork of the four clowns. I have to warn you, the plates are scorching. There are three pairs of baked oysters for us to try. The greenish one is Oysters Rockefeller, next is Oysters Iberville, and the other is Oysters Bienville. This is something I'd do as part of a tasting menu for a prospective client displaying different dishes we can prepare."

Amy started giggling, "So tell me, Dave. When I come to your place for dinner, you're going to do this for moi?"

That got Dave to shake his head. "Ya know, it's funny you don't look at all like Cici. But you talk like her. What is it, a female thing? Now, please, try what we have, and then we will go and have a cup of gumbo and a Crawfish Omelet."

Amy took a small taste of everything on her plates and then looked over at Dave with a huge grin. "I get it, really I do! As beautiful as everything looks, it all tastes even better. You're amazing." They dove into the variety of different dishes they found on the buffet. Their conversation over brunch was about what they saw in the dining room, the music, and the general ambiance. After they polished their plates clean, Amy looked up with a sparkling smile and commented. "Oh, Dave? I think our luck has changed."

As they were leaving the dining room, and on the way out, she gave the foursome by the bar a thumbs up, she asked. "Where's the lady's room?" Being a gentleman, Dave walked this woman, who continued to amaze him, to where the restrooms were located. In a few moments, she popped out wearing her dazzling smile and exclaimed. "Hon, I have a problem. Actually two. Usually, I wear flats. But today, I wanted to get really dressed up for you and this fancy outing. So, I wore my only pair of heels, and my feet are killing me. That and you and your evil friends conspired together to get me almost drunk. So, what we are going to do is take a cab back to your apartment, where I will stretch out on the sofa and take a little nap. Deal?"

In the back seat of the cab, Amy curled up like a kitten next to Dave. When they got to his place and settled down on the sofa, Amy stretched out next to Dave with her head in his lap. He soon realized that she wasn't wearing a bra. "MMM... this is a good thing. Hey, you, so that you know. Being here like this is something I dreamed about all the time. When we talked on the phone, I often felt like my head was resting in your lap. At the same time, my fingers traced a design on your leg. And, to top it off, your fingers were sliding back and forth along my back or somewhere else, just like they are now. Dave? You have no idea how good this feels to me. Being here like this with someone special to me is a dream I have always had. Dave, ya gotta know." She stopped for several moments, then went on. "I am terrified. I've never felt how I am beginning to feel about you. This is all very new to me." While Amy was talking, she sat up and hugged the man who was becoming central to her.

Sitting up and looking him in the eyes. "Dave? I'm scared. I guess I always have had issues with trust." Stopping for a moment, then taking a deep breath. "Will you take my hand and lead me along new paths? Will you show me a new world? You need to know. You have done what no other man has done. You have taken my heart." With a huge sigh, she buried her head in his chest and then softly purred as he ran his fingers along the back of her neck. Then Dave tugged on her hair, lifting her face upward, and he kissed her. As he did, she closed her eyes and quivered as they began a new journey.

Amy moved around on the sofa so both of her hands were free. Then, nervously, she began to unbutton her blouse while her eyes were locked on Dave. When that task was done, she reached down and took both of his hands in hers. At first, kissing his hands. Then she pressed his hands over her soft breasts. Molding her breasts into his. Under her moans, she mumbled, "Yes, baby, these are for you." At first, Dave softly squeezed the gift she had given him. Then, slipping a hand behind her neck, he pulled her to him. And their tongues began an impassioned dance back and forth. At the same time, his other hand explored one then the breast. "OHHH, SHIT. This is what I have dreamed of forever. And you are the man I have dreamed of for ages. Mister Dave, take me to bed, and let us make love."

Slowly, they got untangled, and as they headed to the bedroom, a trail of clothes was dropped here and there. With a soft, warm voice, Amy murmured as she lay nude on the bed. "Come and take your woman, Dave. She needs you."

"Baby? You are the one that has filled my dreams since. Well, since forever." Dave whispered as he slipped in beside the woman who makes the sun rise in his world. With one hand, he took both of her hands and held them as he began to rain kisses across her face, then down her neck. All the while, his other hand teased one then the other breast while Amy wiggled about on the bed. Taking a short break, Dave sat up and looked at this most remarkable woman. "Baby, I just have to taste those breasts that look so delicious." With that, he dragged his tongue slowly over one, then the breast. Nibbling, tasting, savoring them as he added to the chorus of passionate cries sliding between Amy's lips.

Somewhere, his fingers began to get lost in the forested mound at the top of her legs. At first, he ran his fingers in and out. Then he tugged on the tangled mat of hair. This made Amy go from soft purrs to muted screams. When he shifted around and knelt between her open legs, her screams became louder. As his fingers ran along the damp open lips and over her swollen clit, she let loose with a mixed moan and yeesss. At first, very slowly, he began to feed her open pussy his cock. Taking the woman who had taken his soul. The two of them moved together, becoming one, which ended with them both exploding into a climax together. Then, collapsing into a heap on the bed, they both purred in each other's ear.

Eventually, Amy shifted around on the bed and then slowly sat up. "Dave? Now, at last, I have become a woman. I have made love with a real man. A man who I think the world of. The man who I love. You have given me a whole new life, and I so want to explore, with you, this new world, my man."