It often happened, the runners high, when Maggie had had a workout the day before. As she made the turn out of the park, thinking that was one good thing about this town, she didn't have to worry about getting mugged or waylaid as she ran in the early mornings, she saw Bill Warren three blocks over, hurrying toward her house, flipping folded papers onto the ubiquitous front porches. She smiled at her memories of the boy. He had grown up before her eyes, from before Eddie was shot, tall but skinny, shuffling and stuttering when she spoke to him, into the big, good looking Fullback he'd become. Nice kid, she knew he liked to ogle her, and she enjoyed flirting with him, out there in the open, white kid and black woman, both kind of wishing they could drop down to the carefully mowed lawn and fuck each other's brains out.
Somehow, Maggie had assumed the kid was a good lover. It was a confidence when he looked at her, ever since about sophomore year, though she hadn't really noticed for a while, what with being upset about Eddie. But one morning he had touched her on the arm when she had choked up about some memory, without any shame, or fear. Just trying to soothe her, she had thought, but then he started touching her every chance he got. And he didn't have that sheepish look, just a nice smile. She enjoyed it. He probably just had lascivious dreams about her every once in a while, then fucked the shit out of some blonde.
She slowed down a little, so she would arrive home just as he got there. At least this kid liked her, as a person, even sweaty, disheveled and nasty smelling. She chuckled to herself as she rounded the corner toward home, seeing him striding down the block, with his little routine, reach back, fold, flip. She'd often wondered why he had kept delivering papers his senior year, going on nineteen, she assumed College next year. His dad was pretty well off, she thought, some sort of Wholesale business. She got to the gate first, and stopped, arching her back a bit so her boobs stuck up even higher. She knew the nips showed like that, too.
"Hey, stud muffin. You guys win Friday night?" He grinned, it was a nice grin, cocky, open, happy. Ah youth, she thought.
"Yeah, we did, Maggie. Killed 'em." He handed her the paper, and dragged the back of his hand over her forearm. She shook her head, and with her runners euphoria still churning her, leered at him, and took a step closer.
"Bill. Whatever are you doing?" She let a coquettish lilt into her words, and batted her eyes at him. She saw him swallow, then reach out to the side of her ribs, under the arms, where she was so wet. He rubbed the flat of his hand firmly there, then holding her eyes, lifted it up under his nose and sniffed deeply. Then he closed his eyes, and sighed.
Maggie felt the flush of it down to her toes. Part of her mind screamed "You fool, lettin' him show his puppy love." The other part roared "A nice young stud, bet he's got a big honky cock, would love to jump your bones. Mmmmmm." She felt a pulse in her cunt.
Billy opened his eyes and stared at her. He couldn't tell what she was thinking, but she didn't back away. Her eyes had popped open when he breathed her smell, and he wasn't sure what he should do. It seemed like an opportunity he'd been waiting for all these years. A step toward intimacy, a chance to let her know how much he loved her. He remembered the four by five card with his favorite poem about her he'd been carrying each morning for weeks, sitting in his back pocket. He reached back and whipped it out, slipping it into the paper. "I..I wrote that for you, Maggie" he whispered.
She looked down, pulled it out, and read it quickly. Then she covered her mouth with the back of her hand, still holding the poem, and he thought he saw a little tear in her eye. "Jesus, Billy. I mean.." She kept staring at him, her hand still at her mouth, breathing hard, it seemed to him. She took a step backward and walked toward her front door, slowly. His heart sank. Don't go, Maggie. Don't go.