I woke first, for some reason I'm an early riser these days. The slight lightening through the window curtains told me it was around 6:00 in the morning, coming up on sunrise. Paula was snoring beside me, blowing little snot bubbles, a slight crust running from her nose to her cheek.
She looked beautiful.
I slowly eased out of bed, wanting to let her sleep. I peed, made some coffee, put Fox and Friends First on the television, and sat. I was mostly thinking. Oh hell, I was all thinking. I have no idea what Steve and Brian and Ashleigh had to say on the television.
I was asking myself the same question I had asked Paula last night - - "should we stop?"
I knew things had gotten out of hand last night but, then, when we were together alone again, it had been good. I smiled and said to myself, actually saying the words aloud, "hell no we shouldn't stop."
Satisfied with my answer, and feeling a stirring in my groin, I started making breakfast.
As I knew it would, the smell of bacon and coffee drew her from the bedroom.
She walked in, naked, rubbing her ass and her belly, walking in stiff little steps.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She smiled, closed the distance between us, threw her arms around my neck, kissed me, and said, "my ass is sore, my pussy is sore, my stomach feels like I threw up stuff from last week, and I had a cramp in my back when I woke up. I'm just ducky."
I laughed and kissed her again.
"Sit, baby," I said, "breakfast is almost done."
I put a cup of coffee, half-and-half, and sugar in front of her and turned to finish before the damn bacon burned.
She ate with gusto. Well, hardly surprising since she had burned a lot of energy last night.
Finally, done, she pushed her chair back, let out a nice ladylike belch, and said, "thank you."
"Let's go back," she said, "I'll take that damn baseball bat between his legs and you can have that mountain of fat."
The look on her face was challenging.
"Paula," I said, "you don't have to prove anything to me."
"I know," she said, "I want to prove it to ME! I freaked out last night, that's all."
"Baby," I said, covering her hands with mine, "are you sure?"
"Hell," she said, and her grin was not a smile of amusement, it was a grin of challenge, "after last night I have a MUCH better idea of what I can take up the ass."
"Slut," I said, grinning.
"Trying," she said, matching me tooth for tooth in the grin.
"Well then," I said, "you'd better shower. You're looking a little sketchy right now."
So I did the dishes as she showered.
When she came out she looked bright and cheerful and ready for anything. She was in bright primary colors, a very bright blue top tight enough that her irritated nipples showed up clearly and short silk shorts in a yellow so bright that if you stared at it things had a bit of a green halo around them when you looked away from her. She had her platform sandals on that tied around her ankles and big hoop earrings, a jangly bracelet, and her big gold dragonfly necklace. If you saw her on the street you'd assume she was a hooker.
Well, I suppose, given the way we were living these days, you'd be mostly right.
I showered quickly too, threw on a pair of cutoffs, a T-Shirt advertising a restaurant we had frequented for our few days on the Gulf Coast, flip flops, and I was ready to go.
And the fancy Class A was gone.
We stood there, surprised, looking foolish I suppose.
"They pulled out late last night," a man called. I looked over and saw him standing beside a travel trailer much like ours. A woman, his wife I supposed, was next to him and I wished I had seen a flamingo on display. She should have been modeling some "mature" products on television.
"Thanks," I said, with a wave.
So we made a tour of it. And again, I was surprised at how many flamingos we saw, either small ones like you see in front yards all over, bigger ones much more elaborate, and some subtle art, obviously the work of a talented airbrush artist.
We spotted the pool and spent a couple of hours splashing around. She was in a more modest two-piece this time but still looking god DAMN good.
And then back to the trailer where I let my fingers dry out while I took a nap in my hammock. Paula sat in her little rocker reading her latest chick-lit book.
I stretched and rolled out of the hammock and went inside to uncase the guitar.
The music had worked before we found the Flamingo Life, but now the makeup of the group was different. It was interesting to see how people interacted. As I worked my way through our repertoire, Paula and me singing, doing, for example, a pretty passable version of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Summertime," her doing most of the singing but me with my own favorites, mostly odd little bluesy pieces I had picked up, heavy on Tom Waits and Tom Petty and Kris Kristofferson.
I was surprised, very pleasantly surprised, when the couple that had told us the Class A was gone showed up.
"Jenny," she said, hopping up to sit next to me. "Do you happen to know 'Saint Louis Blues'?" she asked.
"Now that's insulting," I said, and started into one of the most iconic riffs in blues guitar.
Her singing voice was gravelly and deep, much different than her soft speaking voice, and she did justice to the song in sort of a Janice Joplin way.
It turned out her husband was Rick and he and Paula got busy on the grill. The impromptu pot luck party included hamburgers, hot dogs, brauts, pork steak, beef steak, and, of all things, Halibut steak. There was a variety of chips, dips, pretzels, cookies, and brownies. The gummies were THC infused, the beer was cold, and someone had found our blender and was making margaritas as fast as he could pour in the makings.
It was an enjoyable evening.
It was about 8:30 when I noticed Paula head off with Rick. I had figured out, not being completely stupid, that when couples paired off they tended to go to the man's trailer.
By 9:00 the party broke up leaving Jenny and me with a mess. She was a good sport and helped me gather up paper plates and used paper towels and plastic cups and the rest of the detritus of a party well played.