Chapter 21

I headed home, still thinking about what Orville had originally asked. I really was enjoying being a deputy, but as I dragged myself into my apartment and flopped into bed, I realized there was one part I didn’t like. After a week of constantly shuffling shifts, I was having a hell of a time developing a sleep schedule. I’d talked to Al about it a few days before, and he had a method of taking a nap for a few hours when he got home, then getting up and going about his day, or night depending on what that day’s schedule had been, finally going to bed for good eight or so hours before his next shift. He said the short nap helped him get just enough rest to function for the ten or so hours he’d be up before it was time to go to sleep, while making him tired enough to go to bed and sleep more or less a full night before he had to work.

I’d been trying it, but so far I’d only managed to maintain a fairly uniform level of tiredness. I hoped eventually I’d get used to it, or maybe we’d get the money for a fourth deputy, so we could manage staying on the same shift without working seven days a week. Knowing how strapped the county always was for funds, that seemed doubtful, but I could dream.

My next shift was a day shift, so the upside was I was on Rosita’s schedule, more or less, which meant I got to spend more time with her. I still hadn’t managed the short nap part of the plan, but she worked most of the day anyway, so I could sleep through her lunch hours and show up to hang out with her through the dinner rush and after she got off work. It would mean I’d have a harder time going to sleep that night, but it was also when I got to spend the most time with her.

I showed up around five and was surprised to see Julie there, since it was the middle of the week. Julie rarely worked weekdays, at least since I’d been hanging out. I guessed maybe they had a different schedule during the school year, when lunch got really busy, but I’d only seen Julie a handful of times, and that was always because of some big order, which Rosita hadn’t mentioned when we’d talked the night before.

“Big order tonight?” I asked, looking in Julie’s direction.

“No,” Rosita replied, “Julie asked for extra hours for the next few weeks and I didn’t have the heart to say no.”

“At least not after I pointed out it would give her more time to spend with you,” Julie said.

“Planning a trip or something?” I asked.

Although she hadn’t done it since I’d been back in town, a few weeks before the three of us had been talking and she’d mentioned a trip she and her husband took to upstate New York just before Christmas, and how she’d convinced Rosita to give her extra hours to pay for it.

“Unfortunately, no. Julie’s had enough of me and is getting some extra money to move to Charleston.”

Julie laughed and shook her head at that, so I knew at least the ‘had enough of me’ part was a joke, although I assumed the rest was probably true.

“You’re moving to Charleston?” I asked.

“Yeah. Joe got a job out there that pays way better than the mine, so we decided to give it a shot.”

Joe was Julie’s husband. I’d never met him, but she mentioned him from time to time, and he seemed like a good guy. I hadn’t realized he’d been looking for work, but I couldn’t blame him for wanting to get out of the mines. He was still in his twenties, which meant he probably hadn’t done any irreversible damage to his lungs yet.

“So that means you’re free tonight?” I asked, hopefully.

“It does. Julie even agreed to close up, so I don’t have to come back.”

“Julie, you’re a saint.”

“Sometimes,” she said, giving me a wink.

I’d only recently realized she had a wicked sense of humor. Although it was exciting for them moving on to the next stage of their lives, it was always a little sad when you make friends with someone just in time for them to leave.

It still took a few minutes to get out of the door as Rosita went through all her checklists with Julie. While Julie had covered nights before and even closed a few times, when it came to the restaurant, Rosita was a stickler for making sure everything operated just right, which was probably how she’d managed to be so successful.

I knew better than to try and rush her, so I took a seat and leaned back against a wall. I was still a lot more tired than I realized, because I’d just about dozed off when Rosita jostled my shoulder to wake me up.

“Sorry,” I said, pushing out of the chair.

“It’s okay. I know you worked last night and probably haven’t slept well. We can do this another night if you’re too tired.”

“Not on your life. How many chances do we get to actually have a night away from the restaurant? I’m not giving that up now for a little sleep.”

“Okay. I grabbed some food and I thought maybe we could go back to my place and watch a movie.”

We’d done that date before and I knew it was code for ‘watch half a movie and then make out for the second half,’ which was a date I could get behind.

We headed to her place, since it was both bigger and nicer than mine, and I spread out the food while she went to take a shower and change. I didn’t blame her. Even just hanging out in the back of the restaurant for a few hours I could feel grease clinging to my skin. Actually, standing over the stove or fryer was a hundred times worse, and I’d want to shower after finishing up too.

“Orville asked us to come over for dinner with them on Sunday night, if you’re free,” I said when she came back downstairs.

“Really? I mean, sure, I’m free.”

“Well, it’s kind of my fault. He was asking how I liked being a deputy and we started talking about the differences between living in New York City and a small town, and I mentioned the biggest challenge was everyone treating new people, or even people who moved away and came back like I did, as outsiders. That led to talking about you and how you were treated by people, and he said he realized that, although the two of you talked from time to time, he’d never tried to be friends like he was with a lot of the other people in town.”

“I hope he doesn’t think I was complaining.”

“No, not at all. I was just giving my observations, both from being someone who was from here and someone who came back and got a small piece of that kind of reception. I made it clear that, generally, you weren’t treated badly, just that people didn’t go out of their way to make new people feel welcome.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that, but I appreciate the invitation. Sure, I’d love to go.”

She picked the movie, which meant some love story which was always her go-to choice. They weren’t bad, I guess, but they rarely held my attention, which was fine since my attention was on Rosita the whole time anyway. I liked watching her watch the movie. She was so expressive I could see the whole movie playing out on her face. Of course, she knew I was watching her and not the movie, since we’d gone through this every time we’d watched a movie, to the point where it almost became a dance between us.

She’d tell me to watch the movie or push my face back towards the TV and after a few minutes, I’d look back at her. This would devolve into her cuddling closer to me, so her head was against my shoulder or chest, making it impossible for me to look at her instead of the movie, and I’d put my arm around her. After a little, while I’d feel her looking up at me, instead of the movie, and we’d switch places, with me telling her to watch the movie.

This went on, back and forth, for the first half of the movie, like always. Even though we’d done this every time I’d come over to watch a movie with her since the first time we’d kissed, I still enjoyed the game of it. Eventually, she was pushed up hard against me, and we looked at each other at the same time, her face turned up towards mine.

We’d both been waiting for it, and as I leaned down to kiss her she pushed herself up to meet me halfway. The movie kept playing, although neither of us was even pretending to pay attention to it anymore. Eventually, she moved onto my lap so she could put her arms around me. I could tell she was getting as worked up as I was, since she started grinding against me, both of us making small sounds as the passion mounted.

Finally, I broke off the kiss, keeping my hands on her shoulders so I could keep her from leaning forward and starting again. We were starting to get to the point where everything went kind of fuzzy as our hormones took control, and she’d made it clear she had a line she didn’t want to cross, which meant stopping it before I started pushing for more.

“We need to slow down for a minute,” I said.

We’d been here before, several times, and I thought she’d nod and slide off my lap like she usually did.

This time, however, she got a look of concentration on her face and, after a second, she said, “Maybe we should go upstairs.”

I froze in place, unsure I’d heard her right and not wanting to spook her if I had.

“Are you sure? I thought...”

“I know, and I appreciate you respecting my boundaries. I said I just needed time to get comfortable. I’m comfortable.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Now take me upstairs.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. Okay, she did, but she didn’t have to tell me a third time. Even though she was in good shape, Rosita wasn’t very heavy. She was still on my lap, so instead of sliding her off and walking with her hand-in-hand up the stairs, I opted to take her command literally, scooping her up in my arms.

“Oooh,” she squeaked as I lifted her and stood up from the couch.

She hadn’t expected the move, but she grinned as she put her arms around my neck, so I was pretty sure she liked it. That was confirmed as she leaned forward and started kissing and nibbling on my neck as I carried her upstairs. Between the narrowness of the stairs and what her kisses were doing to me, it was a little hard to concentrate enough to keep from sending us both tumbling down the stairs, but I managed.

I hadn’t been in her bedroom before, although I knew which room it was. Like the rest of her house, it was neat and tidy, with the bed made and just enough decorations to make it feel homey without being cluttered.

Setting her on the bed, we resumed kissing as both of us tried to undress the other. It was frantic and passionate, a culmination of weeks of desire being built up and then put on hold as we both waited for her to be ready.

The reward was worth the wait. Her body was a thing of beauty, something to be worshiped. She was muscular and soft at the same time, her skin color seeming even darker against mine.

That night was like something out of my wildest fantasies. Terri and I had been adventuresome at times and were very physical with each other. We’d gone on raw hormones, using each other for pleasure, but until my first night with Rosita, I hadn’t realized how hollow it had been.

The next morning came way too early. Both of us had clearly been building to something amazing, because we kept at it like teenagers until well into the early hours of the morning. Thankfully, Rosita managed to keep her head better than I did, because she’d remembered to set an alarm to get me up in time to go to work.

I told her she could stay in bed, but she insisted on getting ready with me, although her idea of joining me in the shower almost made me late, since I still had to go back to my apartment for clothes. I hadn’t actually expected to spend the night, so I wasn’t prepared for it at all.