Secondly, because I was twenty-nine, I finally had a boyfriend so it was also high time I got laid.
And last, because with all the necking and early morning phone calls, Chace a touch away or his voice, sleepy and sexy coming to me over the phone or his tongue in my mouth, for the first time in my life, I needed to get laid.
The problem with this was, I had no clue how to go about doing that.
I knew Chace was experienced. I knew this through living in the same small town as him as well as experiencing firsthand that, well, experience albeit limitedly. Men had to get some too (I thought) and he was around me enough he couldn’t be getting it elsewhere (I hoped). So I didn’t really get why he wouldn’t allow it to go beyond necking.
My only thought was that, Chace being Chace or who I was getting to know as Chace, was smart, he was experienced and putting both of those together he knew or figured out I was not. So, being Chace, a good guy, he was taking things slowly. Not to mention, I wasn’t exactly like the other women I’d known he’d been with. It wasn’t (outside of Misty) like they were all loose. They just weren’t like me. I’d grown up in Carnal, my Mom and Dad had too, not to mention they were well-known and well-liked. Maybe it was a respect thing.
Whatever it was, I was going for it.
But before I went for it, I needed advice.
This time, I didn’t even have to think about it. At a quiet time in the library, I’d grabbed my cell, moved to my open office door, stood in it with eyes directed into the library and I’d called Krystal. Quickly and succinctly I explained my dilemma while trying and likely failing not to blush.
Krystal’s response?
“I’ll be there in five.”
This was both a relief and it made me even more nervous.
Those nerves escalated when she wasn’t at the library in five. She arrived in fifteen. My heart started palpitating when I saw her stroll through the door with Twyla.
Now, I liked Twyla and the night I had drinks with Chace at Bubba’s, Twyla had demonstrated (surprisingly) that she liked me too. Every girl always had openings for new girls in her posse and one could say I had more openings than most since my girl posse for years had been limited. Unless you were the type of woman to steal boyfriends or clothes, all girls were welcome.
It was just that Twyla didn’t seem like one of the girls. This was mostly because she was known throughout town as being able to best just about anyone at arm wrestling and I wasn’t talking her engaging in this activity with other women. Though, I’d heard this wasn’t unheard of, it just took her a lot less time to win. She also was known to be an ex-marine. And last she was known to hold great disdain for all things girlie. So being in a girl posse didn’t seem to be something she’d desire.
Then again, she was a girl and every girl, even me, knew that men were awesome for some things but others, no one but another girl would do.
My current situation being a prime example.
I just wasn’t certain this instance was one of those that Twyla could be helpful with.
Further, I was not fired up by the idea of everyone in Carnal knowing intimate details of my life, including my life with Chace. That made me uncomfortable, for me, but it also made me uncomfortable because Chace had been the topic of a lot of discussion for a long time. Before that happened, he seemed a man who liked to live quiet. That choice had been taken away from him. Now, when he could get it back, I thought he should.
When they made it to the checkout desk, both scanning the vicinity to see there were no patrons close, I decided to start.
And I started with a lame, “Uh…”
Krystal’s eyes sliced to me and she answered my unasked question. “She wouldn’t hear no for an answer. Don’t know how she knew. My side of the conversation was five words. She just did. I tried to talk her out of it. Ten minutes, didn’t work, pissed me off so I just came. She followed.” Krystal then looked to Twyla. “By the way, the time we’re here, you’re not gettin’ paid for bein’ there.”
Twyla was a waitress at Krys’s bar. By the look on Twyla’s face, she didn’t care that she’d lose her probably not very exciting waitress wages.
She didn’t respond to Krystal. She looked to me and stated immediately, “Throw yourself at him.”
“Holy frak,” I breathed, my lungs seizing at the thought.
“Are you nuts?” Krystal hissed, leaning into Twyla.
“Do I look nuts?” Twyla returned, and unfortunately the answer to that was, yes, she did.
It wasn’t that she was built like a truck which she was. It wasn’t this because she was entirely comfortable in her frame, she worked it and thus it worked for her.
It was that she wore her hair in a female mullet. A male mullet was bad enough. A female mullet, well, I wasn’t the keeper of all things fashionable and felt people should do what they liked but I also knew what everyone else did. That a mullet was one place no man or woman should ever go.