Afterburn

Yardley and I stood there, eyeing each other seductively, oblivious to everyone else in the bank.

Chance broke us out of our reverie with her cynicism. “Speaking of role-playing.”

I rolled my eyes at her, then concentrated on Yardley again. He assisted me with setting the flowers on my desk and attaching the balloon strings to my desk chair. Then he took my right hand. “Has anyone told you that you’re loved and deeply appreciated today?”

I shook my head. “No, not a soul.”

He lifted my hand to meet his lowering head and kissed it. “Now they have.”

“Awwwwwww,” Chance cooed. “Rayne, you better hang onto him, girlfriend.”

“I think I might do that.” I gave Yardley a big hug and kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for making today special.”

He ran his fingers through my hair. “Imagine, today’s not over yet.”

“This is true and I have something special to give you also.” I reached up, caressed his hand and then kissed the inside of his palm. “I’ll have to give you mine tonight. It wouldn’t be appropriate to give it to you in public.”

He licked his lips and started to back away from me. “In that case, I’ll see you tonight.”

I winked at him. “Oh yes, you’ll see a lot of me tonight.”

Yardley and I kept staring at each other while he exited the bank. Once he was outside, he blew me a kiss through the window. I blew one back at him.

“The two of you sound like you’re on one of those late-night soft porno flicks,” Chance commented. “It’s mad cute, though.”

“He’s mad cute,” I said, looking forward to seeing him again in a few hours.

“He’s mad fine. You don’t call a man that looks like that cute. He surpassed that a long time ago.” Once again, Chance had invaded my space and started whispering. “Since you’re talking all dirty and thangs, I guess you two are doing the nasty.”

I pushed her away from me gently. “Yardley and I have only been dating a couple of weeks.”

“So? You were ready to give it up to Basil on the first date, ordering that raunchy outfit to wear and all that. Poor man couldn’t handle it.”

Chance was riding my last nerve; bringing the Basil fiasco up on the regular. He was cool as a friend but his balls had to be cobalt blue, being a virgin at his age.

“Don’t remind me again. Basil’s a sweetheart but most women in this day and age want to sample the goodies before they settle down.”

“True. It’s wild how times have changed. Men used to be the only ones talking such stuff but now the chicas are demanding to window shop before they buy, too.”

“Honestly, I think women have always felt that way. It’s only more acceptable now, thank goodness. We still have a long way to go because some women are automatically branded a whore if they don’t have any inhibitions.”

“Yeah, men do seem awfully intimidated by aggressive women.”

I swept my fingertips across the rose buds. “Let’s hope Yardley isn’t because I plan to get aggressive on him tonight.”

“Aw, sookie sookie now.” Chance laughed.

I bit my bottom lip. It was time to see if Yardley could live up to the imaginary sex I’d been having with him in my mind. While we’d only been dating for a couple of weeks, the time we’d wasted not speaking also counted, as far as I was concerned.

“Then again,” Chance added. “Some of the married women in that church you’ve been dragging me to seem to think sisters need to be celibate before marriage.”

“Chance, ignore them. Every woman has to live their own life and it’s easy for married women to say that nonsense because they have someone to lie next to every damn night.”

“This much is true, chica. This much is true.”

“Marriage may or may not ever come. So what? We’re supposed to do without? Please, not in this lifetime. I’m not one of those women who have to fornicate every day, but I do need some action every now and then.”

“Fornicate?” Chance giggled. “Girl, you’re beginning to sound like your old self again. I was getting concerned. It’s been a while since you’ve had some. I was afraid you were either going to listen to those chicas at church or start switch-hitting.”