Author's Note: This one is something of a slow build. It could have been Romance or Erotic Couplings I suppose but because one of the characters is a real porn actress, I submitted it here in Celebrities.
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Chapter 1 - The Karmic Disaster Area
I don't know how it happened. I don't know why it happened. Maybe the Happiness Fairy decided that after the week I had that I needed a boost. Maybe it was a little bit of karma balancing itself out across lives past and present. All I know as I sit here in my apartment late on a Friday night after the most incredible day I have ever had is that I am incredibly glad it did happen.
Okay, okay. I know you are asking yourself "What? What happened"? Let me back up a bit then and tell you about my week.
It sucked. Not the "Stubbed my toe on the couch leg, spilled coffee on myself while driving, check engine light on the car" kind of suck. No way. Up until Friday morning, I would have traded my left arm for any or all of those minor suck factors. I had a hurricane of suck, a storm of awful circumstances so bad that it should be memorialized in song and legend. Let me tell you my tale of woe as briefly as possible so that I can get to the incredible ending.
On Monday, the company that I worked for decided it was going to cut their losses and close down. No warning. No severance. The powers that be decided that the venture was not working out as well as they wanted, it was not returning enough on their investment and so poof, no more company. Must be nice to be able to take the tax write-off while the 25 employees take it in the neck. Fortunately, I stash money away as a squirrel does nuts so I was going to be okay for a while. Not a forever and I'd have to cut back some but I figured my emergency fund along with whatever unemployment I'd get could keep me going at near normal for six months. If I was austere, up to a year.
On Tuesday, Marie, my girlfriend of the last two years, decided that she was not really into this whole relationship thing anymore and was leaving me, leaving Miami, and moving to New York to become an actress or some damn thing like that.
On Thursday, well Thursday was not bad as far as Thursdays go. Except that I turned 40. Ugh.
By Friday I had filed for unemployment, gotten Marie out of the apartment and had started to reach out to business contacts to see if I could drum up some freelance work or better yet a job offer. Having done everything that I could do I decided to go have some fun. I was suddenly single and unemployed so I did what any person would do. I went to the Dog Park with my buddy Bismarck. Bismarck is my Belgian Malinois. He is four years old and a riot to be around. I bought him as a puppy from a breeder up near Tampa and we have been close to inseparable since I brought him home. He is awesome. He loves the outdoors. I usually take him running with me so the big galoot gets some exercise before I have to go to work for the day. His favorite thing though is the dog park. Probably because of all the other butts to sniff. What can I say? He is a dog. Anyhow, we made it to the dog park around 10 and I took him over to the off-leash area and took his favorite tennis ball out of my pocket.
We played fetch for about 10 minutes with me throwing the ball progressively further and into weirder spots, behind trees, into some scattered bushes, whatever would give Bismarck a bit of challenge. Then as if the karmic pendulum had reached the apex of its outward swing, I saw her. Near a small copse of trees was one of the most stunning women I had ever seen. Long red hair, freckles splashed across her face, slim figure but with what looked like a really nice rack, legs that seemed to go on for miles. Amazing. She was sitting on a blanket with some sort of small lap dog lying next to her. Now I like dogs, but I am not wild about what I call "Yip-Yips". You know the dogs I am talking about. Bismarck barks. He sounds like a dog. Yip-yips do not have a bark. They sound exactly like what I call them. They yip. Annoying. If you love those kinds of dogs, more power to you, just not my thing.
Anyhow, something in the back of my mind started to twitch. I felt like I had seen this girl somewhere but I could not place her.
What the hell I thought. Whoever she is, she is here and she is worth meeting. I whistled Bismarck over to me and hunched down in front of him. I know he is a smart dog but sometimes I think he understands everything I tell him be it dog commands or if I'm talking about the stock market. The look in his eyes just screams intelligence.
I held the ball up in front of his nose and looked into those dark brown eyes. "Catch. Stay" I told him. Then I threw the ball in the general direction of the redhead. Bismarck went bounding off after his ball and I silently prayed that he would do what I told him. The ball bounced once and then rolled into the copse, not far from where the girl sat. Bismarck disappeared into the trees and I lost sight of him.
When he did not come out, I called his name while I thought, "Good boy" to myself. Bismarck had gotten the idea. He was probably sniffing some hole in the ground or a new tree. I walked toward the copse of trees while I called him to me a couple more times. He still did not come out. "VERY good boy," I thought.
I got closer to the girl on the blanket and got a better look at her. She was even more attractive up close than she had been at a distance. She had sat up cross-legged and was reading a book. Her Yip-Yip was passed out next to her. I thought the tawny and white pile of fur was a Papillion but I was not sure. The girl was wearing a large floppy hat to keep the sun off her shoulders, big retro 70s tortoise sunglasses, a ribbed white tank top, cut-off jean shorts and a pair of red Chuck Taylors. I have to admit, the way she was sitting made the top of her tank gap open, and I did sneak a quick peek. Her skin was like cream and she did indeed have really nice tits from what I could see. There was a hint of pale green lace and then I lost any deeper view because of the angle. The back of my brain tickled again. I knew her from somewhere.
"Excuse me," I said politely, "Did my dog come through here? We were playing fetch and I think he took off this way. He's a Malinois, kind of like a German Shepard only smaller."
The girl looked up, half-startled. She must have been deep into whatever the book was. She cocked her head off to one side a bit and smiled. "I'm sorry. Wasn't really paying attention. Did you check in the trees?" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the copse.
"I was headed that way. Bismarck feels like he has to introduce himself to every tree and bush in the park. That's his name."
"So I imagined," the nameless girl replied.
"Thanks anyhow. By the way, my name is Josh."
"I'm Faye, nice to meet you."
"And you. Maybe I will see you around the park again. Let me see if I can go find Bismarck before he scares some squirrel to death." With that, I went into the trees to find my dog.
I found him a little ways into the copse of trees, sitting with the ball in his mouth and a goofy look on his face. I crouched down in front of him again and scratched him behind both ears. "You're a good boy. Bismarck is a good boy. I think somebody is getting bacon when we get home. Would you like that?"
Then it struck me. I knew who the leggy redhead was. It was Faye Reagan. I do not watch a ton of porn but I have a serious thing for gingers. Faye was the hottest redhead I had ever seen in porn and she was sitting not 15 yards away reading a book. I guess it was not surprising that I did not recognize her right away, as she was not made up for film, naked, or with somebody's dick in her mouth or pussy. She was just over there, having a perfectly normal morning while her Yip-Yip took a nap in the Florida sun. The thought of my favorite pornstar sitting right over there started to get me a bit stiff in my cargo shorts.
"Come on Bismarck let's go see if we can talk to the nice lady some more," I said, clucking my tongue for Bismarck to heel and follow.
I walked back to past the blanket where Faye sat, still reading. "Found him, terrorizing squirrels like I thought. Obedience school only does so much you know?"
Faye looked up from her book again. At the same time, her Yip-Yip woke up from its nap. It stretched, and yawned and then the scent of Bismarck hit its nose. Now Bismarck is a smart dog. He knows how to act around other dogs, the Yip-Yip evidently not so much. The Papillion pogoed over to the edge of the blanket and starting yipping and yelping at Bismarck. My dog just looked at the little yellow-brown and white ball of fury curiously.
Faye moved to her hands and knees (oh be still my heart) which gave me an incredible down-blouse view of her tits and reached out for her dog.
"Shush Poppy! Bismarck did not do anything to you. He's just sitting there," Faye said. "I'm so sorry. Poppy's cute but she's well, a bit of a bitch if you know what I mean."
"It's no problem Faye. Enjoy the rest of your morning. Bismarck and I have some errands to run. Hopefully we'll see you around the park again." I smiled and walked back towards my car, Bismarck at my heel.
Chapter 2 - The Bridge
I needed to get a couple of basic supplies before we went back to the apartment. The first stop was the bank where I withdrew some cash from the ATM for essentials. My first decision after the company closed was to move to cash only. If I am not running plastic, I won't be tempted by invisible money. Then we went to the pet store. I had to leash Bismarck but it was still another opportunity for him to get out and see different things and smell new smells. He had been extra helpful in me getting to meet Faye so I got him a couple of special dog cookies off the treat bar in addition to the bag of food I had been planning on buying.
Bismarck also saw Marco, a Great Dane that we knew from the dog park and his owner Kenny. We traded small talk while the dogs sniffed at each other for a bit. Kenny told me about his upcoming divorce and I told him about the company closing and my search for a new engineering position. Kenny told me he would keep his ears open and we went our separate ways. By now, it was almost lunchtime so I stopped by a walk-up Cuban place not far from the pet store to get a sandwich to take home with me. I know I should be trying to conserve money and not eat out but Bismarck got a treat for helping me meet Faye Reagan and hey, I met Faye Reagan, even if I did not say that I knew whom she was. If she were a sports star or something, sure, I would talk about whatever it was that she did. A pornstar though? Well I would not necessarily want that blabbed out in the middle of a dog park if it was I.
I actually live in a condominium building in the Bay Harbor Islands. If you have ever seen the show Dexter, his apartment is at the north end of the Island. It is kind of a neat bit of trivia. I live on the east side of the Island facing Indian Creek and across that, a neighborhood called Bal Harbor. The easiest way to get onto the island is to head east on 123rd until it turns into the Broad Causeway. The Causeway has a short overwater section, then a mini-island where the tollway complex is and then a second overwater stretch into the Bay Harbor Islands and the seaward island with Bal Harbor Beach and Surfside. Anyway, the Causeway is a little more than 5 miles long and a single problem can snarl traffic like you would not believe. Yeah, you guessed it. The causeway headed east stalled as soon as I hit the toll plaza island. I had no idea where the problem was.
