Louis sat at a corner, out of the way table where he could watch anyone coming and going. It was early. He'd been back home a day, but hadn't had the courage to visit his grandmother to tell her his decision, not to mention that flying for half the night had worn him out; particularly since he hadn't been able to sleep on the plane. He had intended to talk to Lonnie after Chrissy fell asleep, but when he went to look for her, he'd found her in a hot and heavy fivesome with two other girls and two guys. He knew he had no right to, but he felt very angry and jealous. So, he decided to depart.
Once back in his hometown, he'd slept at home in his own bed for most of the day and half the night. Knowing he had to tough it up, he arose, showered—finally washing off the remnants of his time with Chrissy, which might have turned out to be the best part of the entire trip—and came to the old diner for a late breakfast before going to see his grandmother.
However, sitting alone in this empty diner at ten a.m. in the morning, where he'd first met Vermeil Chaleur, a.k.a. Lonnie Carter, brought with it a myriad of confusing thoughts. His life had always been fairly simple: go to school, be harassed by the so-called "cool" kids, have hardly any friends, take care of his grandmother, and manage to get in some porn as much as he could. He'd done more in the last four days with Lonnie than he had done in his entire life before; not just the sex, but everything. Now, he had doubts about whether he had acted too harshly. Did he really want to give all of that up to return to this mundane life?
On the other hand, wasn't being paid to have sex a form of prostitution? How demeaning was that? Regardless of the lifestyle it offered, could it be argued that in any job you sold yourself for money? Because it was sex, did that make it any different? Or was that merely a societal belief?
Louis was giving himself a headache. What would life back in home town bring? More harassment by his former classmates? He'd have to find a job. Where? In a—
"Can I get you something?"
Looking up, Louis was rendered speechless by the waitress who stood before him. She was beautiful! She looked hot in a clean, white, somewhat see-through, tight-fitting old-time waitress dress: short, button-up-the-front, some of the top buttons undone to show cleavage . . . and if that wasn't enough, she was . . .
Angela!
He remembered the last time he saw her several days ago, the last day of school when she wrote something unkind in his yearbook. It was also here in the diner. What was she doing working here? That was turning out to be a memorable day—not necessarily for the best of reasons. And she obviously didn't recognize him with his new haircut, clothes and no glasses.
"Oh, my!" she said, bringing her hand up to her mouth. "You're . . . I just saw you—" then she strangely clammed up, almost embarrassed.
Or maybe she did recognize him. "Saw me where?"
"Uh, uh—"
"Please. Where do you remember me from?" Did she really recognize him? Surely the haircut, clothes and no glasses couldn't be that great a disguise.
Angela took a deep breath. "In a movie."
"A
movie
?" Louis questioned, to make certain she wasn't thinking he was someone else. Also, it wouldn't surprise him that Lonnie had released all or part of it on the internet.
"Y-yes," she answered hesitantly.
"Where?"
"On the internet. It was . . . this is embarrassing."
"Why?"
"It was a . . . a . . . p-porno movie."
"Why are you embarrassed to say that?"
"You're not from here, are you? Small town like this, folks don't think too much of people who watch that stuff. Particularly females."
He nodded. "Did you like it?"
Again, hesitant, Angela finally stammered, "
Yes
."
"Are you ashamed to admit you like porno?"
"Was that really
you
?"
"Which scene was it?"
"Uh, with Carly Saunders."
"Yeah, that was me."
"Well then, I guess I shouldn't be embarrassed to admit I like porn to someone like you, who is in X-rated movies."
"Would you like to sit?" Louis was enjoying this. She really thought he was
some
body. What would she do if she knew who he really was?
"Can't. I'm working."
He made a show of glancing around the small diner. "There's no one else here."
"Well, maybe for just a minute," she relented, now seemingly eager to talk to him. "I'm Angela."
"Rob," Louis answered, half of his surname quickly occurring to him as an alias.
"I've never met a real porn star before."
Louis wanted to burst out laughing. Here she was acting like this little small town country bumpkin when all through high school she fancied herself this all-American girl, big cheerleader, popular with all the guys. "I put my pants on one leg at a time."
"When you put them on," she quipped nervously.
"Making those movies is not as much fun as you might think it is. A lot of stopping and starting. When the director calls cut, you have to stop in place."
"But you get to have sex with hot women. The girls get to have sex with hot guys. I wouldn't mind trying it."
"So you
like
having sex?" Louis deduced.
Angela hung her head. "It's why I'm so popular with all the guys." There was sadness in her tone, perhaps even regret.
"Any of them any good?"
"Not like you. Or at least what I saw in the video."
"So, you'd like to have sex with me?" Louis was so enjoying this.
"Of course!" she said with a big smile."
The girl of his high school dreams could be his with a wave of his hand. Could he really do that to her? Be deceptive? Still, he was enjoying this too much. "You and I are not all that different, you know."
"I find that hard to believe."
"I'm from a small town also," Louis stated, similar to what Lonnie had told him.
"That's really hard to believe."
"Everybody's got to be from somewhere." Those were also Lonnie's words.
Angela merely shrugged, then leaned closer. "I get—"
But before she could finish, in walked two jocks and two girls that were all part of the clique that used to (probably still would if he stayed here) hassle him. It was about to get interesting. Mike, Angela's sometimes boyfriend, approached.
"Hey, Angie baby, what's up?"
"Mike, guys, come see who's here."
The group clamored around Louis' table.
"Anybody recognize him?" Angela asked. She stood beside Louis and put her arm around his shoulder as though she had first claim to him.
"That's the dude from the movie last night," one of the girls said excitedly. "Hey, is your cock really that big?" she stupidly asked.
Louis merely shook his head in stupefaction.
The others all mumbled something.
"Dude, what are you doing in a place like this?" Mike asked.
"I'm not sure," Louis replied, intentionally vague. He could see in Mike's eyes that he did not care for Angela's attention to him. To add insult, Louis reached up and put his arm around Angela's waist making certain his hand was touching her ass.
"We're all headed to the beach," Mike said. "We'll wait for you."
