In late part of November I found a new beginning for myself in a sleepy Arkansas town. I had just gotten out of the military, was working with a new band that had just gotten started and was recently (I say recently, but it was more like half a year) single. I was really doubting a lot about myself and was suffering not just musically, but psychologically as well. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jacob Schwartz and I am a 25 year old former US Marine. I know there is no such thing as a former Marine, but for the sake of the story and to help me explain myself a bit better I use that term.
After separating from the Marine Corps I had found work during the day at a factory not far from my small house in central Arkansas and had a night gig as a guitarist for a band here in town. We all got along well and we wrote a few small hits that were known locally. I had heard a kid humming and mumbling the lyrics to one of our songs recently in a coffee shop and smiled. Shortly there after I got hit with the biggest bombshell in my life. Nothing could have prepared me for Julie leaving me. Nothing. I had spent all my savings on building a life with her and it tore me apart. I had moved to central Arkansas just so we could be together. When I found out it was for another man, it killed me inside. I couldn't write anymore. For a guitarist that's a big loss. Losing my creativity killed me. I had no idea what to do next.
One night after a band practice our drummer introduced me to Mallorie. She was alright. Smart, cute, had a dry sense of humor that takes a while to get used to, and she had just moved into town and was staying with family of hers. She really wanted to get out from under her aunt and uncle so I offered to let her use the spare bedroom in my house. Our drummer (Steve) seemed to like the idea but Mallorie seemed hesitant. After all, she had just met me. After some reassurance from Steve and Jeff (our Bassist) she decided to take me up on the offer.
The first few nights were slow and easy. No flirting or anything and it was almost professional our relationship. We didn't hit on one another, the small talk was almost like something one would expect at an office water fountain instead of a home. I didn't view her as a woman as I had just lost the "Love of my life" to some scumbag that I didn't even know. I knew I would recover eventually and that I would be out looking for someone to fill the void in my life but I just didn't know if I was ready or not. In early August we landed a gig at a local fairground and we did fairly well. We had the crowd standing after the show and we all considered it to be a success. That being said, one of the guys pulled me aside and asked me what was wrong. They knew I was suffering and so did I. Mallorie was waiting off a ways so I smiled and faked myself into believing that it was all okay. I told them that I just didn't seem to have the same creativity and that it would all come back to me soon, but for now I just didn't know what to do musically but that it would be over soon and I would be back to my old strange quirky self soon enough.
Mallorie was smiling ear to ear as I walked off with my gear on my little tug along cart. My amps, part of my stack, and my guitar in its gig bag on my back. "Hey Jake, great show tonight... You know I never heard you guys before. I really liked it!"
"Thanks, I really need to write some new stuff though." I replied, "We can't live off of the old stuff forever and the band will get annoyed at me soon enough if I don't give them some new riffs to work with."
To this she smacked me on the back of the head and said that I just needed to calm down. We loaded up the gear onto the truck and headed out to the local coffee shop. I got my usual, black with a handful of sugar packets. I bought her a frappe and we went on home. I usually sit there and hang out with the band after a show but tonight I was tired and worn out and just wanted to sleep. Truth be told I had lost my love for being in the band and did this more as a way to act like I was okay. I was in a bad spot and needed help but didn't know where to turn to get it...
Mallorie must have sensed something was wrong and when we got in the house she wouldn't even let me go to my room to put my stuff away without stopping me to ask what was up.
"Jake, I haven't seen you like this before. What's bugging you?" She said, her face full of concern.
"Nothing, why does everyone ask that?"
"Maybe because you show it on your face all too clearly... You don't look like nothing is wrong, you look like someone kicked your puppy and ran off with your woman!" She stated.
There it was... The one thing that drove me over the edge. I noticed the tears falling into my hands before I even knew I was sobbing. I had held back all these months all the pain and suffering about Julie leaving me right after I got out of the military. She had been the one stable thing in my life for the entire enlistment and she left me because she knew I was going to find out about her and her new love.
"Jake, what is it? What's wrong talk to me." I felt her hands but it didn't register that she had taken my coffee and had started hugging me until I heard her voice again. "Jake, tell me... What is it?"
"Julie... She left me with nothing... I gave her four years of my life and she left me for some scumbag... I don't even know what to think anymore, I can't write, I can't play half the damn songs I already know." I was sobbing hard and held onto her like my life depended on it. At that point it did. I really needed someone stronger than me at that point to keep me from becoming a total recluse.
"Jakey, it will be okay. Let it out..." She said... She held me there as I fell to my knees and rocked in her arms crying like a girl like I had nothing left. "It's alright, it's gonna be alright hun..." I could her the softness of her voice and smell her hair, she had used a coconut and vanilla bean shampoo... I loved the smell. I don't know why, but right then that's all that mattered to me. That someone with a touch that only a female could have to soothe someone who was hurting was there.
"Mallorie I wanna go to bed... I need to be up for work in the morning and you have that interview early in the day so let's call it a night... Thank you though, I don't know what I would do without you here." There had been some other small chat but it was mostly my rambling before I was able to convince myself it was time for bed.
I awoke the next day with the first sense of reality around me in a long time... I was a single man who was giving someone else who was living me my spare room for free. Normally that would be unheard of. I had let someone stay with me rent free for the past few months and hadn't even thought about it. No wonder I was broke. I had every intention of telling Mallorie she needed to help out with rent when I walked out to the kitchen that morning until I saw her and took a minute to examine her.
Here was this woman who had brown hair, dark full brown her down just past her shoulders and pair of pj's in my kitchen. She was maybe 5'4 not too much taller if so... She had full hips, a gorgeous smile, a little button nose that perked up a bit when she smiled. Then I saw her chest... I immediately stopped thinking with all reason and logic and the male in me took over... This woman was never paying rent as long as she lived with me. She had the greatest set of D Cup tits I had ever laid my eyes on.
"So uhm, what's for breakfast?" I asked in a kind of daze.
