Here is the conclusion of your peek into UNKNOWN INNOCENCE, which I included in UNDER PRESSURE-MOTIVATIONAL VERSION by Mr. D, copyright 2013 by Wayne T. Dowdy. I hope you enjoyed the first part of Sheila.
SHEILA
He looked toward his boxer shorts. “Sorry, I must have drank a little too much.” He got out of bed and headed for the end table. “I don’t know where I am, how I got here, or much of anything, other than my name. My head hurts. Got any Ibuprofen or aspirin?”
“Yes, I have both,” she said as she slid off the satin sheets. “I can’t believe you don’t remember anything. Last night you wanted to marry me, and now you don’t even know who I am or where we met.”
“Sorry.” He hopped and stumble a few steps while putting on his boxers. “I wish I remembered. From looking at you and your beautiful body, I had to have had fun.”
“We had lots of fun!”
“Damn, I have not remembering. Please fill me in on what a lovely time I missed with you, Sheila. Start from the top, if you don’t mind.”
She looked over her shoulder and smiled as she put on her lime-green thong. “One moment and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“That’ll be great. Got any coffee?”
“Couldn’t live without it.” She strutted through the door wearing nothing but a thong. “I’ll be right back with us a cup and your Ibuprofen. How you like it?”
“Straight and black, no cut.”
“It’s a special blend a friend of mine from Colombia sends me every year for Christmas. That all right?” Her voice echoed from the kitchen.
“Is it a real special blend, like laced with Peruvian flake?”
“Not quite. You into that stuff, much?”
“Can’t say I am. I did some in college at a few parties but never liked the way it made me feel, nervous, jittery. Always felt depressed after doing it. It affects different people different ways, I imagine. Just not my thing.”
“Mine neither. A lot of the other girls live off of it, spend all their money on it and then some, but not me. I only work there to pay the bills, not for the lifestyle.”
He walked into the kitchen and put his arms around her waist as she stood at the counter making the coffee. “Work where?”
“Oh, I forgot. You don’t remember. The Star Shadow Gentlemen’s Club. Your buddy in the Mercedes dropped you off there. You said you had been at some other club with him before coming there. I knew you were drunker than hell when you got out of his car.”
He let go of her waist and rubbed the stubble on his block-jaw-chin. “Well, … I. I don’t know what to say. I can’t remember much more than going into the Lonely Rooster Lounge with Roger and drinking a few beers.”
“From the looks of you when I saw you get out of his car, you’d had quite a few,” she said, putting emphasis on the last three words. “Here.” She handed him a porcelain cup filled to the brim. “Careful, it’s hot.”
“Thanks.”
“I had finished my last dance of the evening and went outside to smoke a cigarette before figuring out my earnings. That’s when I saw the Mercedes pull into the parking lot. I had seen it a few days earlier and knew it belonged to Leroy Johnson’s son. He, the son, used to go there all the time until he got into it with the bouncer for grabbing one of the girls by the tits.”
“Now you’re joking, right?”
“I’m as serious as pollution to the planet.”
“An environmentalist, huh?”
“Kind of. Anyway, you came up and flirted with me some.” She sat down her cup and then reached into a cabinet. “I thought you may be a keeper, so I led you inside.”
“For real,” he said, kissed her on top of her head.
“You know it. Anyway, we sat at the bar in the back of the lounge. You had a couple more beers as I counted my money.” She handed him a bottle of Ibuprofen.
“What happened after that?”
“Not much. We sat around for maybe a half hour and then we went to the car. Oh yeah, you in a CRX,” she said, then giggled. “I played hell getting your big ole self inside the cracker box.”
“Hmm. I imagine you did.” He sipped his coffee.
“When I carry you home we’re going in my Escalade.”
“You kicking me out so soon?” He sat down his cup before pulling her close to him. “Was I that bad in bed?”
Light danced on her pupils. “Depends on what you call bad. Bad as better than good, or bad as not good?”
“Bad as not good.” He smiled as he stared into her amber eyes. He said to himself, no woman has ever said I was bad in bed or didn’t please them.
“Hell, no, you weren’t that kind of bad. You were great! You reached parts of me I didn’t know existed until I felt you there.” She laughed and then smiled as she gazed at his smiling face; put her hands on her hips.
“Want to try it again?” He caressed her shoulders.
“I’d love to, honey, but I have to go pick up my son at my ex-husband’s house. I get him twice per month. I’m a divorcee, does that bother you?”
“Not really.”
“Marco’s only five. Me and Timothy got a divorce last year, and because of my job, the court didn’t want to give me full custody.”
“Oh.” He wondered what had led to the divorce.
“He wasn’t a terrible husband, just unfaithful. He never beat me or Marco, or I’d be in jail for shooting him, so it wasn’t like that. He just couldn’t keep his pecker in his pants, like some of our Presidents.” She frowned.
“You sure are pretty. Are you Native American or part Spanish?”
“I’m mostly Cherokee, but there’s always a cracker in the wood pile,” she said, and then giggled. “I guess that’s where my eye color came from, passed on from somewhere down the line. I think my great grandfather was from somewhere across the ocean. How’s your headache?”
“Still throbbing. I’ll be okay, though. I’ve had ’em before. They usually go away by noon.”
“What type of work do you do?”
“If I tell you you’re probably going to be shocked.”
“Try me. Men have shocked me many times.”
“Well, I’m a social worker who works with disadvantaged children at the juvenile center in Charlotte.”
“You’re right, I am shocked. That’s something I’d never have thought.” She stepped back from him and looked up. “That is really good of you. What led you to doing that?”
“I had family issues and then got into trouble with the law when I was fourteen-years-old. A social worker got through to me by reaching out, and it changed my life, so I decided I wanted to do the same thing for someone else.”
“Amazing.”
“I enjoy what I do. It’s wonderful when I can see I made a difference in one of their lives, you know, watching them change, get off the streets,” he said.
She wrapped her arms around his sides. He bent down and gave her a short kiss on the lips before he continued. “Some struggle with adjusting to a new way of dealing with things the right way, without breaking the law.”
“I’m truly impressed.”
“Well, don’t make me out to be more than I am. I’m honestly not anyone special, so please don’t take this like I’m arrogant and full of myself, but I really do seem to be able to reach some of the more unruly ones that my coworkers claim no one else could get through to.” He stopped speaking for a second. A broad smile illuminated his face. “I don’t know why. Maybe it’s my size, who knows.”
“Could be. Maybe it’s your personality. You are certainly a likeable person,” she said, as she raised her head and pursed her lips.
She giggled when he reached down to pick her up. “You are really likeable,” he said, and then gave her a long, passionate kiss before sitting her back down.
Her cheeks glowed and her eyes sparkled. “Now, that was a kiss, honey.”
“I wish we had time for me to give you more than that,” he said. He picked up the coffee and sipped it. “I know you’ve got to hurry up and get ready to leave, though, so maybe we can try again one day.”
At first she smiled but then the smile turned to a frown. “Dog gone it, darling. I really do wish I didn’t have to leave. If it wasn’t for my son, we’d go straight to the bed.” She grabbed him by his waist again and put her head on his stomach while pulling him closer. “When do you think you’ll be free so we can get together again?”
“How about next weekend? Is that too soon?”
She let go of him and then picked up her coffee cup and took a sip. Then she paused and grinned as she watched him watch her. “How about tomorrow? My mom wants me to let Marco spend the night with her because I have to work. After I get off we can come back here to have some really good sex that you’re sure to remember, this time,” she said and then popped him on the rear.
Blood ignited the capillaries in his face before the brightness from his eyes rushed to release a short burst of laughter. Still smiling, he stopped to stare into her eyes. “I can’t get over how pretty you are, sweetheart. Damn, I hate that I can’t remember anything. What all did we do in bed, anyway?”
She sat her coffee cup on the counter. Her eyes lit the room. “Honey, you ravaged my body like it was your favorite piece of candy. You are really a kinky one under the sheets. I almost pulled my hair out, it felt so good.”
“If you thought I was good last night, just wait until tomorrow night when I know what I’m doing. I might not even drink so I can make sure I don’t forget my name.”
Both laughed. He picked her up by the elbows to kiss her. After kissing, he sat her down so they could get dressed. Fifteen minutes later she carried him home in her Escalade. “I will see you at the club, okay?” she said before he got out.
“Bet. I can’t wait.” He opened the door and climbed out.
“I can’t wait, either, you big handsome rascal.”
He stuck his head back in and gave her another long kiss. “I like you a lot, Sheila. Maybe this thing between us will turn into something, huh?”
“It’s possible. We’ll see, honey. See you tomorrow.” They kissed again and she drove away, smiling.
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February 21, 2021, UPDATE: Purchase UNKNOWN INNOCENCE by Wayne T. Dowdy as an eBook or paperback from your favorite eBook store. Visit my author’s page on Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/WayneMrDowdy) for free essays. Thank you!