Laura may have had a premonition that something was up. She certainly gave me the impression that she was uneasy. I wondered if she had spoken to one of the girls at the brothel. Why hadn't I warned them that she was not to know of the plan to retaliate against Ollie?
If she knew I had skipped one of my classes that day and was planning to miss school the following day she did not let on. With the answering machine light no longer blinking she did not resist when I pushed her toward the big bed.
We undressed one another and sunk into bed. Laura kept the conversation moving, talking about everything from her new job to who we were inviting for Thanksgiving dinner to what would have happened if.
"Did you ever think what would have happened if we had never met?" Laura said, cautiously containing the exhilaration she must have been feeling by the way she was twisting one of my nipples.
"Sure," I answered, wanting to humor her. "If we hadn't met I would probably be a vagrant looking for handouts."
"No! You would be in bed with a beautiful society girl and I would be working in a dark house outside of Vegas."
I shuddered. It was no longer funny. She had remained at the brothel because of me. The thought popped into my mind that by moving on she would have avoided getting a cigarette put out on her butt. I wondered if she was thinking the same thing. Indirectly, the cigarette burn was my fault.
"Let's not think about that any more, okay?"
But Laura wasn't ready to stop. "If we hadn't met I wouldn't have this ring."
"If you hadn't asked me to spend a weekend in the hotel with you I wouldn't be lying here with a hard on."
"Oh?" Her hand moved down. "Oh, you do, don't you."
That is when I opened the package and made a production of rolling a condom on my cock. Laura roared when she felt what I was doing.
"You don't need to take precautions yet. I haven't stopped the pills. I may not."
"That's not what I meant at all. I was just trying to be funny. Don't keep taking the pills for my convenience." I felt my cock going soft in the condom
We talked for an hour about the pros and cons of Laura eliminating the use of the pills. She brought up our difference in ages and her past. I countered with how lucky I was to have her, stressing how attractive she was. She repeated her vow to not trick me or trap me. I urged her to find an alternative to the pills as a form of birth control. She promised to see a medical doctor for advice. Sometime during the conversation the condom dropped off of my cock.
"I'm going to have to give this thing a jump start," she said as she rose to her knees and knelt near my mid-section. The stirring in my balls told us both that the jump start would not take long.
Laura loved to paddle around the house with bare feet on the cold wooded floors. She also loved to stand on my feet, she said, to avoid the early morning November cold. I indulged her, enjoying her closeness. She seemed to know I was in no rush to leave.
"Would it be too much to ask you to spend the afternoon with me?"
"You decide what you want to do. I'll come straight home," I promised.
"Have fun. Don't get into trouble," she cautioned as she pushed me out the door at 7:30. She knew I had an 8 o'clock class. I could almost tell she knew I wasn't going to school.
The girls had stayed up to see Ruby Mae off. They were dressed for bed; she was dressed for adventure.
Ruby Mae towered over me. The midriff was a little extreme to my way of thinking but it was her role. She was in charge of wardrobe.
She relaxed when I smiled to show my approval. The red jacket buttoned smartly down the front and missed meeting the short black skirt by three inches. Her legs, showing from six inches above the knees to where they disappearing in black high heels, were bare.
When she gave me a skeptical look for taking too long to re-socket my eyes, I covered my tracks by saying I hoped she wouldn't get too cold dressed that way.
"Honey, I could warm up an Eskimo in this outfit," she said, causing the girls at the table to giggle in unison. Even Bea Cummins smiled.
"Driver's license?" It had just occurred to me that some car dealers wanted to know who they were taking for a test drive.
Ruby Mae tilted one hip sideways before slowly unbuttoning the jacket to reveal a black bra. She reached into a zippered pocket.
"That's so fucking sexy," Kelley said. "Let us see."
Ruby Mae pivoted on one heel, maintaining the angled hip in the process. The girls applauded but Kelley had more to say. "That padded bra does wonders for your tiny tits."
"Take that back, you know it ain't padded," Ruby Mae shot back.
"Girls!" That was all Bea had to say. There was silence in the room.
Ruby Mae turned back to me and I decided Kelley was right. The black bra was padded. But she was also right in saying the move was sexy.
"It's from California but it's valid," she said as she zipped up the inside pocket and buttoned the jacket.
"That's a relief. And that was good thinking to bring it," I congratulated Ruby Mae. She smiled.
We had plenty of time. It was Ollie's habit to arrive at the used car lot at 10 A.M., even on Wednesdays when he played golf. Huley would not say or did not know if her father intended to golf that day but I had decided not to take any chances. I had moved up the encounter from afternoon to the morning. Morning was better for Ruby Mae. She would have the afternoon to sleep.
We went over the plan as I drove. I described Ollie's appearance and had Ruby Mae repeat what I had told her.
"His eyebrows are crooked. The one on the left is longer," she finished the description just as I had told her.
"He lives with his wife and two daughters in a big house on a quiet street," I informed her but when she wanted to know about Rosita and the girls I declined to say more.
"Let me tell you about his sister. Aunt Clarisa is the best looking one in the family."
We took the route twice. From the car lot we drove north and made two turns until we found a roughly graded road that ran next to power lines. It was a long, practically deserted road with only jack rabbits and the buzz of the wires to entertain the traveler.
On the second trip to the power line road I stopped to buy a Polaroid camera and several packs of film.
At 10 A.M. I parked about two hundred feet from the lot on the opposite side of the street.
"There's a back entrance. Make sure you come out this one," I said to Ruby Mae.
"What's this for?" She asked as I handed her the red briefs that had caused me so much trouble in the past.
"Wave them out the window so I'll know it's you."
Aside from the inside zipper pocket, which was too small, there was no place in her outfit to store the briefs.
"What the fuck?" I gasped when I saw her sliding the red briefs up her long legs.
"It'll be a good ice breaker," she said, winking at me as she got out of the car. I watched her swing her ass as she crossed the street. I wondered if she putting on a show for me to prove that she was secure in the role.
Thirty minutes passed and there had been no cars leave the lot. I was getting nervous. Had something gone wrong? Had she been found out?
Then I saw it. A black four door Cadillac pulled out of the used car lot and stopped at the traffic lights. I could make out the dealer plate on the rear of the car and there it was, my briefs being waved out the driver's side window. I started my engine and whispered to myself, "Praise you, Ruby Mae."
"Praise you, Ruby Mae," I repeated when I saw that she was making the second turn and speeding up the dusty road. I stopped when I saw my red briefs in the middle of the road. She must be warning me to not come closer, I thought.
The next 45 minutes was the longest day and a half I had ever spent. I hummed along to the radio. I practiced taking a picture with the camera but my subject, a jack rabbit, moved. I read the documents twice and thumbed through my history text, unable to concentrate. It must have been well after 11 A.M. when I saw the car heading my way.
"Whatcha been doin?" Ruby Mae asked as she stopped the car.
"What have you been doing? Did it go okay?"
"You know about the bear in the woods, don't you?"
I laughed. She was securing the bra fasteners at her back.
"How much did you get?"
She gave me a disgusted look. "Do I gotta hand it all over? Can I keep some?"
"Put it in this envelope, all if it."
"I got everything he had on him, a hundred and fifty bucks. Then I got him to write me a check."
"No shit! You did good, Ruby Mae."
"I did, didn't I," she grinned. She had opened the door and was getting out.
"Did you keep your shoes on the whole time?" Besides the bra which she had put back on, the shoes were the only thing she was wearing.
"You know about the bear?"
I laughed again and watched her adjust the black skirt around her waist. She put the jacket on and got back into the car.
"He'll be along in a few minutes. It may be tough walking on these stones," she said, holding up one of Ollie's shoes with a wide grin.
"What should I be looking for?" I asked, wanting to know if he would be wearing pants or his shorts.
"He's got one eyebrow that's longer than the other one," she said before hitting the accelerator and leaving a cloud of dust.