Looking up from my check, still surprised at the amount, I saw Amiko walk into the room.
Wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her waist.
My Amiko. At least I had been thinking she was my girl.
My surprise turned to shock, she saw me and seemed startled, then she looked down.
I looked back at Cary, he just grinned at me.
"Darla is up at the house if you want to go up there." He said.
Like that would somehow make this right, perhaps we would be..even?
Cary's wife Darla was beautiful. The best I can say about that is that it is an understatement. Most of the time Darla looked like she was ready for a classy magazine photo shoot.
Six weeks I had lived with Cary and Darla, I knew them a total of seven weeks if I counted the one week I worked for them.
Rich people. Beyond belief rich people, too. Plus not the kind that have worked all their lives and earned it, it was all inherited.
Cary had a devil may care don't give a shit attitude all the time. I suppose people with huge resources can get that way, if they want something they just get it and that is it.
At the same time he was friendly and pleasant, unlike Darla that could switch from sweet and pretty to demanding in an instant.
I won't lie, I liked living there. I liked the good food, attentions of women almost daily in Cary's massage room. I didn't even much mind the odd quirks that Cary showed, he liked it when one of the women he hired attended to his needs and he liked it when I was there recieving the same.
I had even wondered if perhaps he had some latent homosexual tendencies? But considering the number of beautiful women always around, nearly always in various stages of peek a boo dress I dismissed that.
I never really got to know Cary. We never talked, not like one man does with another. Cary was just there, then he would be gone. If he wanted to do something, he did it. If he wanted me to come along, he just expected me to.
There was no relationship. I had been hurt, Cary's fault. That seemed to mean to him that it was his job to take care of it.
It was a bit like he had ran over the neighbor's Dog, so he paid the vet bills. To him, that was all there was to it.
So to him I was hurt. Medical attention, food, shelter, pay the bills. The closest I ever got to having any idea at all what he was about was when I saw the look on his face as one of his hired women took care of us. He would get a look on his face, it wasn't really even enjoyment.
It was...power..control?
Then my leg healed and I was back in my own lifestyle. Broke, looking for work, wondering what the next day would bring.
The bright spot had been Amiko. Tiny, pretty, wild in bed Amiko.
Smitten? Hell, more than that. I had even had visions of what our kids might look like, my Irish and English heritage mixed with her obvious oriental features?
It was just an accident that I called a number in the newspaper looking for work. An accident that Darla had answered and not one of the staff. Another accident that Cary was even there. He took the phone, I had the job and he was gone.
No explanations about the job, no questions, nothing. I showed up for the work. There wasn't any "work." I just went through the motions, putting in the time.
Then Amiko had stayed with me, overslept and was late picking up Darla. Darla's idea of power, control was to show up and have me serve her orally. Put me in my place, so to speak.
I did that, feeling shame and excitement at the same time.
Then Cary, competitive Cary. We raced, I won. Perhaps he even let me?
We raced for Maria, so sweet to look at, so efficient in the kitchen and around the house. Yet she accepted sex with me as a reward? Or was it just to allow Cary even more control?
To both Cary and Darla staff were nothing more than servants, plus they doubled as playthings at their whim.
They all acted like this was normal?
I had looked at my check, three times what one would expect.
I had hesitated, too. Shameful of me, but I thought about putting up with it for the money.
It flashed in my mind that if I could put up with everything going on for maybe a few weeks, a few months. Build a fine nest egg, then take off on my own.
I had even decided to do just that, even heartsick at the idea of Cary and Amiko together, obviously having sex.
So I went and bought the old van, went home. I just loaded it up, easy to do when all there is is a couple of small suitcases.
Then I drove away.
Just like that. I didn't even think about it, didn't plan it. That just happened. Even packing my few belongings, rolling my bike into the back, I never thought about it.
I guess I knew, though.
I drove until the needle on the gas gauge read nearly empty, finally stopping at a little cafe in a tiny town on the Oregon coast.
It didn't look expensive, it wasn't.
The waitress was a slightly chubby but pretty little thing that cracked one joke after another in a style well practiced from dealing with a solid string of passing through customers.
The first one was when I tried to push the door open, then spotted the sign that said "pull."
"You must be from the city!" she laughed as I stepped in.
Then she asked me if I wanted my eggs "Up, down, or sideways?" When I ordered the $6 Steak and eggs special, rare and sunnyside up.
I heard her sing out to the cook, "Special!! With a bandaid!"
Just banter, somehow funny. It made me feel better.
I decided to spend the night at the little motel I had passed a mile back.
The tired clerk handed me the keys, I settled in.
The next morning I stopped by for breakfast to get in on the $4.95 early bird special. There was a pile of golden brown hash browns, three eggs, some bacon.
Good, too. I was just shoving the last forkful of hash browns in my mouth, thinking about the $17 I had left in my pocket. Then I saw the sign.
"Dishwasher needed. Apply in person."
The sign was maybe 6" X 6", I thought that was funny, the "apply in person" part.
I was still laughing to myself about that when the waitress walked up with a pot of steaming coffee.
"Is the job still open?" I asked her.
She looked me up and down.
"How many years of college do you have?" She asked in a dead straight face.
"Uhhh....."
Then she laughed.
"Six bucks an hour, sweep the floors, do the windows and clean the rest rooms?"
"I can do that."
"Well, you are the cutest dishwasher I ever hired." She handed me an apron.
"Starts now. Breakfast is on me!" She said over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen.
Then she stopped.
"I'm Katey."
Well, that made sense, the place was called "Katey's Cafe."
"Dan."
She nodded and went to work.
Great. My new career. I got up and went to work too.
The place was already spotless so there wasn't much work to do, just a steady string of plates, cups, saucers and untensils.
"You work good!" Katey said that evening as she reached in the register and handed me some bills.
"I don't want to mess with taxes, is that all right?"
"Fine with me."
I wasn't exactly thinking of being there the rest of my life, anyway.
"You coming back tomorrow?"
"Yes."
