“Can I be on top?” Peggy asked.
I sighed and sadly nodded. The life of a human sex toy … I guess I could handle that.
She put a condom on me and plenty of lube, then just straddled me and dropped down. I laid back and enjoyed the motion of her breasts as she began to use me. A big smile appeared on my face when she got her cookie.
“That was only like four minutes,” I said.
“You’re just that good,” she teased.
“We’re not done,” I warned her.
She must have been horny because she got off two more times before I did. I disposed of the condom, and she folded herself into my arms. I felt a little disappointment over what could’ve been, but decided that whatever we had now was enough. Her life with a new baby and school didn’t need me to complicate it. Her head was on my chest, and I detected the faint scent of the strawberry shampoo she’d used. I only had happy thoughts as we drifted off to sleep.
◊◊◊ Sunday January 24
I woke up to find myself alone. Even Duke had abandoned me. I needed to run, so I geared up for the weather. Once suitably attired, I grabbed my Bo staff and started my run. There was just a dusting of fresh snow on everything, which made it look new and bright. I felt good and began to increase my pace. When I finished, I showered and went to the house for breakfast.
Peggy had made the cinnamon rolls and was now working on coffee and hot water for my tea. After we finished with breakfast, Mom took me to church, and then I found myself at the Pearson farm for lunch. Mrs. Pearson was in rare form as she served a feast of fried chicken.
“I was down at the Walmart, looking for my Buty Pants.”
“Hang on, Buty Pants?” I asked.
She stood up and pointed at her butt.
“Because sometimes you need a Buty, or so the package says,” Mrs. Pearson said.
“Mo-om,” Roc complained.
“Anyway,” she continued, “I turned my head to look down an aisle, and suddenly, I hit something. My first thought was, ‘Oh, crud, I’m going to be out tens of dollars.’ I was startled when I looked down and saw a midget lying on the floor.”
I glanced around the table to see if this really happened or if she was putting me on. Roc and Zoe’s expressions told me it had happened.
“I’m not up on all the lingo nowadays. Is ‘midget’ politically correct?” Mrs. Pearson asked.
“I believe they want to be called ‘little people,’” I shared.
“Okay, there was a ‘little people’ lying on the floor,” she said.
“I think the singular is ‘little person,’” Mr. Pearson offered.
“This ‘little person’ is lying there. I apologize and ask him if he’s okay. He tells me, ‘Well, I’m not happy!’”
“Well, then which one was he?” I asked with a straight face.
“What are you talking about?” Roc asked.
“If he wasn’t Happy, was he Doc, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, or Dopey?”
Zoe rolled her eyes at me for encouraging her mom.
“I’ll have to write that down so I can tell it at church,” Mrs. Pearson said.
“Now see what you did,” Mr. Pearson grumped.
Maybe he was Grumpy.
◊◊◊
After lunch, I helped Zoe with the horses, and we made out some, but it was too cold to expose any body parts. While we were doing that, my mom sent me a text to meet her at the strip mall. Zoe had some reading to do, so we said our goodbyes.
The mall was on the state road that ran through town. It was a two-story structure with a restaurant at one end and a quickie mart at the other. There were four units downstairs and four upstairs in between the quickie mart and restaurant. The only one of the four currently rented was a barbershop. I was happy to see Caryn, Kendal, and Megan talking to my mom. When Mom saw me, she switched into sales mode.
“What I envision is Dawson Realty next door to the restaurant. We could put a big-screen TV in the window to advertise our listings,” she said as she led us into the restaurant.
It had seen better days, and there was only one customer in the place. It did have a full kitchen, and there was an upstairs which was currently used for storage. Mom thought that would make a good banquet room, or could be used as overflow seating if the restaurant got busy.
She then showed me the space she wanted for the real estate office.
“Why isn’t this place rented out?” I asked.
“It’s easier to just show him,” Caryn said.
We climbed the stairs to the office over the unit my mom wanted to use and opened the door. It smelled terrible, and black mold showed along the ceiling and down the back wall.
“The roof has leaked. When the mold started, the county shut down this part of the mall. The owner can’t afford to make the repairs. He can’t get a loan, because he can’t show a decent rental history. He’s in a serious catch-22, and is now at the point where he needs to get out,” Mom explained.
I looked at Caryn.
“What all needs to be done?” I asked.
She pulled out a folder which listed everything with estimates. It was a gut job. The building had been built in the mid-’70s. It had to be rewired to meet the current code and to be able to get the place insured. New roof, mold remediation, insulation, pest control, flooring, paint, and the list seemed endless. The good news was that with us redoing everything, we could offer potential renters an empty shell with the understanding we would configure it to their needs.
Caryn showed me what price we had to buy it at to make it work, in her estimation.
“How quickly could you close this?” I asked Mom.
“By Friday, if there’s clear title.”
“Offer them half and a cash deal to close Friday,” I said.
Mom looked at Caryn and smiled.
“I’ll see if I can make it happen. The owner might counter,” Mom warned.
“Is anyone else even talking to him?” I asked.
“No,” Mom admitted.
“I liked the Victorian on Main Street,” I teased.
Mom and Caryn left to write up the offer. Kendal came up and gave me a hug.
“Thank you for hiring us. Things were looking bad at the law firm,” Kendal admitted.
“Thank Caryn. She hired you.”
“Can I talk to you privately for a moment?” Megan asked.
“Sure, why don’t we get in my car and turn the heat on?” I suggested.
Megan was a tiny girl with big brown eyes and glasses, and her nickname of ‘Mouse’ fit her perfectly. She suddenly became nervous, which made me a little worried something was seriously wrong.
“People tend to ignore me,” she started in a quiet voice. “It’s been that way all my life. Kendal was one of the few people who treated me well at the law firm. She would at least talk to me during breaks.”
“I agree, Kendal’s a nice person. I think you’ll find that Caryn is too.”
“Yes, she will be,” she said with a smile.
Megan seemed to change when she smiled. I wanted to see more of the happy girl than the timid one.
“I’m afraid you’ll be mad at me,” she said.
“Why would I be mad?” I asked.
She seemed to think about it and then sighed.
“I have to tell someone about Brandon,” she said, which made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“Brandon Rigby?”
“Yes. He and one of the younger lawyers would talk in the break room. They went to school together. I found out Brandon didn’t leave school voluntarily. They gave him a choice to leave quietly or to face what he did. He decided to take off to Europe,” she almost whispered.
“How would you know that?” I asked, perplexed.
That’s not something anyone would bring up about himself in a break room. Megan looked a bit defensive.
“Something else Brandon said led me to do some research. That’s one of the things I did for them, you know. It’s something I can do for you, too.”
I just filed the last comment away for future reference. We’d hired Megan to take care of our technology and bookkeeping. It sounded like she had more skills that might come in handy.