Her name was Dominique--Sudanese, with dark brown skin and a tight-cut hairstyle that aroused him. They worked together at a juice bar in the new outdoor mall on the border of Belmont Shore and Seal Beach. She had a boyfriend: An older man, over-stuffed with testosterone, not to mention, that he considered himself far out of Dominique's league.
Still, they were friends. And when they worked together--which he tried to make happen as often as possible--it was fun, and flirty, and the hours seemed to fly by.
He also worked the third shift at UPS loading trucks. He had a decent studio in the center of Long Beach. It was the 90s, Sublime and Snoop both in their primes, the tail-end of Grunge because it was Southern California, Ska and Offspring were big. He was 27, freshly dumped by the then-love of his life. A Jewish woman. He had no idea what Jewish meant. He was from Ohio, and grew up on a farm. Not an agricultural farm, just a home farm. A garden, some animals, a pony, an orchard, and even a vineyard. He was not cultured in Judaism, or Islam, or black, or sexual orientation. He had no idea those things even existed, and if you'd told him that it was possible for a man to put his penis into another man's butthole and they would both like it, he would have laughed you out of the county. He knew work, family and friends, and baseball. He had a culture, but it was singularly built and derived from his family.
This is the kind of culture that is privileged--ignorant, yet blissful in its ignorance. He was blissfully unaware that life could be lived any other way. So, when he met Jacqueline and she told him she was Jewish, it meant absolutely nothing to him. She may as well have said she was an Israelite; he would have understood both with equal ignorance.
They were both 25 when they met in a poetry class at Cypress Community College. They would fall in love, but Jackie was never satisfied with his ignorance regarding her lifestyle. It was a religious lifestyle more than a religion. But it was his ignorance about its history and weight, and how he seemed to be sympathetic, yet say antisemitic things and see nothing wrong with it. She couldn't allow herself to stay with such a fool. Her intellectual friends would mock him in front of her.
Of course, he was blissfully unaware. He always felt and believed he was open-minded and eager to learn. It probably sounded so astoundingly implausible that a grown man could be so ignorant of Judaism. In reality, he didn't care. He only loved her ravenously. She seemed to love his stories. She was also the most adventurous lover he'd ever had. And she loved that he loved that about her.
When she finally ended it--after several "last-time-I-swear" one-night stands that only fueled his fruitless hope--it was truly over. That's when he got the job at the juice bar. He was definitely the oldest person working there. He didn't care. He didn't think it mattered. He knew it mattered to some of them. The girls and boys, as many were just 18 and 19-year-old kids. A 28-year-old man looks like an old man to a kid like that. He knew it, did his best to assuage their fears, and once they all smoked and had a few drinks on the beach at night, he fit in well enough.
Dominique started working at the juice bar, and at about the same time he went full-time at the juice bar and quit the UPS job. But he couldn't get full-time hours, so he got a part-time job at Tower Records, next to the juice bar. It was the '90s, he would blade down the beach to the basketball court. Play pick-up all morning, go for a swim before going to work with a bunch of young gorgeous people. He was pinching himself with bliss.
Dominique seemed to glow. From her eyes, and cheeks. He could make her laugh. She was the kind of woman one could not befoul with pedestrian courtesies, it demanded something valorous. He didn't have that to offer.
The "crew" at the juice bar became his social life. They were much younger and he was trying to live his youth. He'd never really had this many cool and fun friends since high school. Most of his friends went off to university and grew their networks. He worked. So this group of young cool kids was new and exciting to him.
They would smoke, blade, ball, beach, beach-party, house party, music party, any party. Dominique and the assistant manager used to club. Dominique used to tease him, and try to get him to come. But he always had something to do. He said yes one Friday. And, at closing Dominique picked him up at his studio in her boyfriend's sportscar dressed like she was going to shoot a music video, so goddamn hot. She laughed and hugged him and made him feel like he was about to have the time of his life.
That night changed something in him. Dominique wore no panties and she danced with him almost exclusively. She let him touch her however and wherever he wanted. She wore a tight, dark, but sparkling dress that cut a V across the front and grabbed the curve of her ass around the back. Her legs were like giant snakes. Her pussy was warm and wet and silky smooth and she smiled down at him somehow, because he is half a foot taller than she is.
She dropped him off that night, and just like she did when she picked him up, she laughed and hugged him, this time with the assurance that he was a valorous accompaniment to her evening.
He got home and stripped down. He lay down on his queen-sized mattress, that took up half his flat. It was Jackie's idea, and he'd gleefully agreed to it. He looked up and saw himself reflected. That was another of Jackie's contributions and one he had wholeheartedly approved. His reflection was that of a young woman, not yet 30. Sexy, long, shaved legs encased in a pair of thigh-highs, a black silk garter belt, and a pair of Vanity Fair bikini-cut, nylon black panties. He stared at himself thinking all the many times Dominique had reached into his pants to caress him. The look of shock and then joyful curiosity she had on her face the first time she grazed her fingertips across the waistband of his panties as it snuck above his slacks as she'd unbuckled him along with the top button. That made them both laugh and from that moment Dominique and he were joined and inseparable. Dominique knew his secret, and she seemed to like it, at least she didn't seem to mind it.
Dominique, he'd learned, was here as part of some diplomatic exchange her father had arranged. She was free for two years and the big guy was just her security. He couldn't believe his luck. He thought he must do this right.
