Columbus Day Pt. 03

The next day, Saturday, I arrived at Starbucks at 10:30 am. There was a good crowd. I saw some regulars. However, Pat was not in sight. I sat at my usual table, facing the door, and I tried to proofread a chapter from a nursing textbook. The tenth time I looked up, the door opened and Patricia strolled in carrying a mass market paperback novel. She waved as she walked past and headed toward the sounds and aroma of coffees. She ordered a venti triple shot something and came to my table.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi, Patricia. I'm glad to see you." I paused. "Phone handy?"

"Just a sec." She set down her coffee and pulled a flip phone from her back pocket. "Ok."

I dictated my phone number. She typed with a beautiful finger.

"Text. Or call. Maybe we can do dinner."

"I'm gonna let you work. I plan to sit on that couch and read my book."

Fifteen minutes later, Carol walked in. "Hey, Mike."

I froze. I looked at Patricia. She smiled. Carol walked directly to my table.

Crap.

"Hey, Carol!"

She spread her arms for a hug. And I hugged her like she was my aunt or sister.

"How are you doing, Mike?"

"I'm good. You?"

"I'm good. I need coffee." Carol laughed.

She walked to another table and hugged another man and kissed him on the cheek. She's a Starbucks barfly, I thought.

My phone vibrated. I reached into my pocked, pulled out the phone, and looked down.

"Hi, Michael. This is Pat. I think I want to kiss you."

"Meet me outside in 2 min," I typed.

Two minutes later, she was sitting at a bistro table on the patio, just outside the side door. She looked up and smiled.

I kneeled in front of her chair. I leaned in. And we kissed as if we were on our honeymoon. I kissed her again.

Later we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We sat in a booth. She pushed the menu away. She said, "I'm just gonna watch you eat."

"You are not going to eat?" I asked.

"I'll have something later."

My burrito arrived. It was huge.

"You have a healthy appetite," she said.

I looked at her and smiled. "You have no idea," I said.

After my dinner, we went to her apartment, where she ate yogurt and orange slices. She opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of water. I caught a glimpse of neat, perfectly straight rows of yogurt, water, apples. Everything was in rows from front to back. I looked at the kitchen. Everything had order, logic, feng shui.

For reasons that will be perfectly clear in a moment, I am going to refer to part of Patricia's body as "the beach." Neither of us was shy. Our clothes were off within minutes. I kissed her stomach, which was covered with a dark and intricate tattoo. It was a forest mostly—leafy trees, palms, vines, vegetation of great variety. In the foreground were two large pink flamingoes. As my lips traveled south, past the flamingoes, I found a starfish and two sea shells on the mons pubis—the beach. It was bald, apparently shaved religiously and meticulously. Her private beach. As I slipped lower, the beach became fragrant, smooth, and wet. I became entranced by the smoothest place on the planet. I lay between her lovely legs and my tongue swam along the shore. Her need then became clear to me and I surfaced, moving up and forward, past the starfish and pink flamingoes, back to her stomach and tattoo-free breasts. I let her guide me into her. And I dove into her over and over. I became dizzy with pleasure.

Every time we were together, I went down to her beach, kissing, licking, tasting the sexy-saltiness of her. Typically, I did not head directly to that spot. I want to save the best for last. So I kissed her lips and neck, caressed and kissed and marveled at her breasts. I played above the shore until the tide came in.

Some 517 years after Columbus landed in beauty, I too kneeled in semi-darkness and kissed the paradise I had found.

On our third date, she gave me keys to her apartment in case I wanted to stay in her bed while she was away on business or visiting her mom in Mississippi. Or if I needed/wanted her at 2 am and simply decided to enter her apartment and kiss her awake. I took the keys, but staying in her bed without her was not appealing. What appealed to me were her kisses, caresses, sighs, and whispers. Her mouth was intoxicating, and a few times I did kiss her into wakefulness and then into lovemaking and ecstasy.