Sandy

Lex and I sat in the Crab Shack for our afternoon drink, but she wasn’t drinking. She was giddy about the news, and although I was happy for her, I couldn’t imagine how I’d react if the same thing happened to me. I guess I could imagine it, I simply couldn’t imagine being happy about it.

I took a drink of my beer and shook my head. “I still can’t believe it,” I said. “It just happened like that.”

She looked at me like I was an idiot. “Isn’t that how it always happens? It isn’t like it normally creeps up on you. You either are, or you’re not.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“I didn’t want to say anything until I knew, though.”

“When you said that you didn’t feel like drinking the other day, I knew something was going on.”

“I wanted to make sure.” She shrugged. “Now, I know.”

I wagged my eyebrows as I took another drink of my beer.

Lex was pregnant, and although she and her boyfriend weren’t married, they were living together. From what she said, he was as excited as she was for the baby. Their relationship was one that would be easy for anyone to envy, because Cholo was the type of man that every girl wanted.

He was handsome, kind, considerate, loving, and uncomplicated. He put it all out there, and left nothing to the imagination. In my mind, it was a huge plus.

I pushed my empty bottle of beer to the side. “So, what did the doctor say?”

“Other than I’m pregnant? Nothing, really. They don’t tell you much. She gave me a bunch of literature to read. Oh, and she suggested some books.”

“I hate doctors. They’re like attorneys. Overpaid.”

She laughed. “Unless you need one.”

“I’m not planning on needing either.”

“How’d the deal go with Smoke? He’s pretty in-your-face, isn’t he?”

I let out a laugh, even though I didn’t really mean to. She looked at me as if she wanted an explanation for my outburst, but I tried to dismiss our night together as uneventful.

I shifted my focus to the table. “It went good.”

“What? Why’d you laugh?”

I looked up. “I don’t know.”

She leaned back and looked at me. “You guys did it, didn’t you?”

Lex wasn’t a prude by any means, but she wasn’t one to have sex with random guys, that was for sure. She and Cholo were together for several months before they had sex. Even then, their relationship was rock solid before she committed to do it with him.

I knew she wouldn’t judge me, but I was still reluctant to tell her the complete truth. I decided to give her part of it, and then try to divert her attention somewhere else.

“We went back to my place, talked for a while, and hung out. Did you know he has a daughter?”

Her eyes shot wide. “Wait. What? Seriously?”

I nodded. “Almost seventeen years old. He’s a single father.”

She shook her head. “I had no idea.”

“Well, he is. I don’t know, maybe don’t tell Cholo about it. If he hasn’t told you, he might not know. Smoke didn’t say not to tell you, but it just seems kind of weird that you don’t know.”

“You know how those guys are, they’re secretive. They don’t tell anyone anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t say much about anything, and they say a lot less about each other,” she said. “It’s probably an oath of silence or something.”

I shot her a look. “Really?”

“I don’t know. I was kidding. Kind of. I’m sure they don’t take an oath, they’re just secretive.”

“Well, he’s got a daughter. Says he can’t be in a relationship because of her.”

“What?” She snapped back. “That sounds like bullshit. Wouldn’t you want to be in a relationship if you were a single father?”

I twisted my mouth to the side and shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. He said he was protecting her from being hurt. It made sense.”

She looked at me like my head was on fire. “Being hurt?”

“That’s what he said. He told me about his daughter’s mother, and how she left after the baby was born. He said he wasn’t going to give another woman a chance to hurt her again.”

Her eyes slowly widened. “Oh wow. She left right after the baby was born?”

“He said she left right after, yeah. Like maybe even a few days after, I don’t know. But not like after a month or anything, it was early. He took off work for six months to bottle feed her. Then he fired the first nanny he hired after the first day. He said he was doing construction work, and he started taking her to work with him. Kept it up until kindergarten.”

“Holy crap,” she gasped. “I had no idea. That’s impressive. I mean, it sucks that he won’t be in a relationship, but I understand the position he’s taking.”

“I kind of felt sorry for him.”

She shook her head lightly, and then looked at me. “You did it with him, didn’t you?”

I was out of ammunition to divert her attention. I wondered if she’d think less of me, and then decided she wouldn’t.

I let out a sigh. “Yeah.”

“You skank.” She chuckled. “I knew you would.”

“It’s not being a skank if I’m in control of when, where, and how. I needed it,” I said. “And I really enjoyed it.”

“Your dick fix?”

I chuckled. “Uh huh.”

“So, what now?”

I shrugged. “That’s it. We had sex.”

“You’re okay with that?”

“Yeah. We used each other. I was horny, he was horny. We used each other. I kicked him out when we were done.”

“What do you mean?”

“As soon as we were done, I asked him to leave.”

“Oh wow.” She took a drink of her tea, and then looked up. “He didn’t ask you to give him a lap dance or anything, did he?”

I worked with Lex at the seafood restaurant during the day, and worked nights at the local strip club. I’d been contemplating quitting, but the amount of money I made was difficult to walk away from.

“I didn’t tell him I danced. Did you?”

“No, I didn’t tell him. Did you quit the club already?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

“Are you going to?”

“I haven’t decided.”

“Is all Smokey’s worried about is protecting his daughter from meeting someone? I mean, is he willing to like, go out as long as that’s all it is?”

I wondered about how we left things, and if he’d be receptive to such a suggestion. If it included sex, I was sure he’d see value in it.

The thought of fucking him again bothered me. Not because I wouldn’t enjoy it, because I knew I would. My problem was that I feared I’d want it over, and over.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think so.”

“Figure out when your next night off is, and then why don’t you ask him. Maybe we could all do something together.”

I knew I’d have to make the promise of sex to even think about luring him into a night out with another couple. The thought of doing so wasn’t as exciting as it should be. Maybe it was because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to continue fucking him without developing feelings.

After struggling with it for a moment, I decided I could fuck him one more time and walk away safely.

I gave her a look of reassurance and grinned at the thought of it. “I think I can talk him into it.”