“No, but I give you my word.”
“I didn’t have any family growing up. That’s all I’ve ever really wanted. The white picket fence. A doting husband who works while I stay home raising the kids and cooking his dinner. Like one of those vintage sitcoms from the fifties or whatever.” She shakes her head. “It’s stupid. I know that.”
There’s the girl I knew. I lick my lips wanting nothing more than to kiss her. “Not dumb at all. It’s sweet, but gotta tell ya, babe. Be a rare thing to meet a man wanting to give you that at a strip club.”
“I never said it’s what I want now.”
“Fair enough. What do you want?”
She unzips her hoodie, revealing nothing beneath it but her bare skinned beauty. “To go for a swim. You game?”
“Little chilly for that don’t ya think?”
“Don’t be a wuss puss. Besides, the water’s heated.”
“I take it you’ve been here before.”
“I dated the manager’s son. She likes me.” She stands up and kicks off her shoes before dropping her pants to reveal hot pink cotton panties with the word FLIRT in black bold print. “You coming?”
No but I will be if I don’t get away from her.
“Why not?” I down the rest of my beer hoping to erase the taste of mouthwash.
Hazel doesn’t hesitate to dive on in. When she comes up for air her tits bob in the water taunting me.
I hang my cut over the back of the chair with care. I undress quickly and Hazel shrieks while covering her eyes at the sight of my cock.
I strut to the edge of the pool and drop in off the side. Hazel swims away from me, but I go under and grab her feet, yanking her toward me. Her legs wrap around my waist, breasts smashed to my chest, arms around my neck. The moon shines bright on a cloudless night. Low hums of the sleeping city provide our soundtrack.
Out here just the two of us is like existing in a dream world of what might have been had I found her sooner or had I never left.
“What’s your name?”
“Holy.”
“No.” Her beer flavored breath fans over my lips. “Your real name.”
“What’s yours? I doubt it’s Honey.”
“It’s like that, huh.” She moves in like she might kiss me on huh.
I have two choices to make here. Come clean with the truth or continue the lie and take what I want. My dick votes option number two. Hazel can hate me for it later. Wrapping her ponytail in my fist, I draw her in, claiming her sweet lips.
Intoxicating and sinful, I feel like I’ve stolen the key to the Garden of Eden. I probe the seam of her velvety lips with my tongue demanding entrance, needing so much more. A million emotions and memories slam into me as I deepen the kiss. Heart hammering in my chest I explore all the parts of her that I never knew. The white-hot flame of desire consumes me. I burn and ache to be inside her. To confess all my sins and pray she’ll still want me. Will she see me as friend, enemy, or lover?
Grazing my bottom lip with her teeth she nips me then pulls away much too soon for my liking, but I let her go. Leaning my elbows on the edge of the pool I watch her swim, gilding under the water like a fish remembering all the times we snuck out in the middle of the night to swim in one of the neighbor’s pools. I taught Hazel to swim. Does she remember?
I close my eyes remembering how she’d beg me to do handstands and to compete to see which of us could hold our breath the longest. In those moments we are allowed to be kids. We were free.
“Promise me forever,” the soft plea plays in my head on a loop.
“Forever and ever,” I’d reply every time.
I broke my promise.
I’d do it all again if it brought us to here every time.
My Honey Bee in my arms.