I was fueling my pickup at the Shell station on Pine Island. It was about noon and I had just finished the plumbing on a new water heater installation down in St. James City. I leaned against the truck bed and immediately pulled away feeling my back burn. It was ninety-eight and metal truck beds were apparently a lot hotter than that.
I hate pumping gas these days. A fill-up when the gauge was near empty cost more than ninety dollars. Fuck me. I can't charge any more for my work and I can't get enough work close to home when I live on an island.
I heard a dog bark. It sounded like a big one. I scanned the area but nothing resembling a dog came into view. Then I saw her. Not a dog, really not a dog. At a distance she looked tall, tan, slim, and pretty. She had come through an opening in the trees across the road from the station. The only thing beyond those trees was the Palm Isle Motor court, a small, simple short-term RV park. It was cheep, not so clean and the owners were not too interested in the comings and goings of the residents.
When she crossed the street the first thing coming into view from behind a low hedgerow was the missing K-9. It was on a leash she held in her right hand. It looked to be a Pit bull-Doberman mix and was big enough that if it chose to do so, the girl had no chance of controlling it, another example of Florida summer heat. Everything is overcome with a lack of interest. It had even given up barking.
She was maybe five foot ten. She had long lean muscular legs, short brown hair, and bare feet. She wore cut-off jeans and a t-shirt that said FUCK HATE on the front, a girl after my heart. If she weighed in at more that a hundred and fifteen pounds she would have to be holding the dog food bowl. She was no more than nineteen or twenty.
My pump was unfortunately still spinning and busting my credit card balance. I just enjoyed watching the girl walk to the entrance of the quick shop. She had an amazing ass that had a trailer park swish. She was making my dick hard from a distance. A talent not possessed by many.
She was just standing at the door and staring, then she turned and looked out across the lot toward the pumps. She scanned the entire lot and stopped when she looked at me. Admiring my ten-year old Dodge no doubt. It was a babe magnet. Yea.
I stopped joking to myself when she started to walk in my direction. What a sweet vision. She stepped around the pump and pulled hard on the leash when Fido decided to sniff my crotch. "Friendly dog you have here."
"Not really." She paused just looking at me. She said, "I need a favor."
"Hey, it's what I'm here for." I said.
"Sure." She said, "I can't go inside without shoes on. I need a pack of Marlboro Lights."
"I wear size ten. I slipped off one of my loafers."
"It would it be easer if you would just go in and get them for me." She said.
"Not for me." I replied.
"Don't you have to go in to pay?"
I took the credit card from my shirt pocket. "Magic plastic." I said and waved the card.
She turned and pulled at the dog that still seemed to have an interest in me. Only now it was staring longingly at my shoe.
"So how much are cigarettes these days?"
She stopped. "Look, it's too hot for this shit. I'm soaked from a five-minute walk across the street and I have to get back home. Will you get them for me or not?"
"What's at home?" I asked
"Nothing." She said "But if my dad calls and I'm not there he gets all pissed."
"Can't even go to the store?" I asked.
"You don't know my dad. Ever since mom bailed he's been half crazy. I can't walk the fucking dog out of his sight." She was getting quite emotional.
She held out a five-dollar bill. "Please?"
"You're going to owe me big time." I smiled at her.
"What's new." She said, "Welcome to my world."
She waited by the truck while I went inside. When I returned she was on her cell phone. When she ended the call and put the phone into her pocket I handed her the pack of cigarettes. "Business call?" I asked.
"My dad." She said, "He's at the repair shop. He said a wheel something went bad. He won't be home till around eight."
For the first time the girl was acting relaxed and not so on-edge. "Things break." I said. "Tell me, did daddy know you weren't at home?"
She stood there for a minute allowing that fact to sink in. When she finally spoke I was pretty sure she still did not get the premises of a cell phone. "I'm in lot forty-five." She looked at me with a blank stare. "If you want to come over for a while."
"What would dad say about that." I asked
"How would he know?" she replied.
"Always a possibility." I said. "Just how big is daddy anyway?
"Not to worry." She laughed. "Hell, he's never sober enough to really hurt anything."
"Forty-five you say?"
"Yes." She turned and pulled the dog back into the sunshine. He was not happy about it be followed her anyway. He must have known the air conditioner was on at the trailer.
I drove around for about twenty minutes and checked my watch. It was one o'clock. I turned and pointed my Dodge toward the Palm Isle Motor Court. When I pulled into the space in front of Lot forty-five there was no one in sight anywhere. Everyone was buried inside their own spaces, close to the air ducts. I saw the blinds in the near window of the small camper bend down and then straighten. I walked to the door and started to knock.
The door opened before my knuckles rapped the metal and she said. "Come on, get in here before they see you." When I stepped inside she quickly closed the door and locked it. Then, as if a transformation had taken place, she became a different person. She was relaxed and acted very confidant. She slumped down into a ragged armchair, throwing one leg over the arm and reaching for her Marlboros. She lit one up and took a deep drag and held it and then let it filter out her nose. "What's your name?"
"Chuck." I said.
She smiled. "That sounds like a cut of meat." She was looking at me and running her tongue over her upper lip. "Are you?"
"Am I what?" I asked.
"A cut of meat." She said. She took another deep drag and tilted her head back and blew smoke rinks toward the ceiling.
"Well," I hesitated. "Somewhere between a cube steak and a side of ribs."
"That leaves a lot of options." She said.
'Yea, I like options. Is there something in the butcher's case that describes you?" She was blowing smoke rings again and letting her ash fall wherever it wanted.
"Petite filet." She said. "Buy one get one free."
"What do filets go for these days?" I inquired.
'Fifty, but remember, you get to return for a freebee at a later date." She stood up and walked to the refrigerator. She removed a package and walked to where a large chrome dog dish sat against the wall. She unwrapped the white paper and let about a pound of hamburger drop into it. The noise alerted the mix breed hound and it came trotting in from the small bedroom at the end of the camper.
She tossed the paper in the sink and walked back over beside me. "Well. Did I just waste a pound of good hamburger? If I don't keep him contented when I have company, he gets a little angry.
I reached into my pocket and removed the fifty I have just gotten paid for the water heater job. I handed it to her. "No." she said. "If you don't think you got your monies worth, you don't have to pay." I tossed it on the coffee table and followed her into the tiny bedroom.
I reached for the buttons of my shirt and she grabbed my hands. "You do nothing. I do everything." She rose up on her toes and kissed my mouth with lips as cool and as soft as whipped cream. "Just relax and enjoy yourself. When I am finished, if there is something else you want, all you have to do is ask."
She stepped back and pulled her tee shirt over her head. She was not wearing a bra and a pair of small round very tan breasts appeared before me. She sunned in the nude, cool. She unbuttoned here jean shorts and wiggled them over her hips and let hem drop. Standing there in just a pair of bikini panties she stepped forward and finished unbuttoning my shirt. Her hands slid up my chest and over my shoulders and down my arms taking my shirt and letting it fall to the floor. She unzipped my jeans and slipped her hands down around my ass forcing my pants to gather around my ankles.
She guided me against the bed and pushed on my chest and I sat down. She knelt down and removed my shoes and socks and pulled my legs free of the jeans. She looked up into my eyes and smiled. "You know, I'm about to find out if you're a lire."
"Truth is in the eyes of the beholder." I said.
