We pulled into my home in Fort Smith about 11 pm. I live in a manufactured home on an acre I bought from a farmer right on Old Union Town Rd in Rena, north of Fort Smith. It's got a nice, long circular gravel driveway in front - I'm damned if I'm gonna be backin' up when I bring a semi to my house.
Now, in case you're thinkin' it's some old rattletrap mobile home, it's not. It's a Sun Building Systems, two story, 2200 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Its most prominent feature is a cathedral ceilinged great room/living room, with an open loft above it for the bedrooms and two baths. I'm proud of it, and I'm not bragging.
But I AM bragging when I tell you it has hardwood floors, nice carpeting and I had it decorated by Ann Coleman Interiors. I may be a poorly educated ex-military truck driver redneck Arkansas hick, but I will be damned if I don't do my best to have a nice home. A home for Sneezer the cat, and Bruiser and Polly the dogs, and me, when I'm in town.
"Whoah," Virginia said. "Nice place."
"Yeah, thanks," I said. "To tell the truth, I'm lookin' forward to a nice, long, hot bubble bath, followed by a good night's sleep in my very own bed. And I've got a guest bedroom all fitted out for you, and you're sure welcome to a bubble bath, too/"
"With you?" Virginia said, startled, her eyes wide.
"Heh, well, if you like, but I meant in the guest bathroom. I'll be in the master bedroom."
""I didn't mean, I mean, I think it would be fine, uhh, I haven't, I don't.....umm."
"Are you done, honey?" I chuckled. "You're my passenger. Just think of me as your low rent bus driver, and I don't think bus drivers go around propositioning their passengers, do they?" Virginia's face was bright red. Of course, I didn't tell her how much I'd have loved a bath with her...
"It's been a long, long day, sweetie. Let's get us some rest, okay?" Virginia looked relieved as we entered.
"Wow, this is really nice," she said, when we got inside and I turned on the lights. The front door opens directly into the great room, with its cathedral ceiling, so, yeah, it makes a pretty nice entrance. The spiral staircase to the second floor gets some comments too. It's just too bad I've never had much opportunity to have someone over. Relatives were out, hadn't talked to my family in some time. Neighbors were sort of out. With a one acre lot the smallest in the rural area, it's hard to get to know your neighbors, and because I was on the road so much, I didn't have that many friends in Arkansas. And....lovers. There hadn't been any of those.
Thinking about it, I was probably closer to the guys at Arcturus, based in Los Angeles.
"Would you like something to eat?" I asked Virginia. She smiled wearily.
"Naah, maybe just show me where my bedroom and the bathtub are?" she said.
I pointed at the kitchen. "Everything you'll need for eats are there, feel free to root around if you get up before me, okay?" She nodded.
She marveled at the staircase. "Don't you get dizzy?" she asked, jokingly.
"Only when I roller skate down," I replied with a smile. I let her go first. Virginia sure did a nice job of filling out her jeans, and I felt a stirring in my loins, no matter that I'd sort of tried to keep things non sexual. The stories we kept telling each other made that goal kind of iffy.
She held onto the railing as I led her to her bathroom and bedroom, as the hallway is open to below on the one side. "Wow, I feel kind of a vertigo," she said.
"Sorry to say, I hardly notice it anymore, but that railing will keep you from falling, don't worry." I said.
"It's a really nice view," she admitted, referring to the view of the living room from above.
She was thrilled at her bedroom, down the other end of the hall from mine. The decorating had extended to the three bedrooms, the fourth bedroom I'd turned into an office, and it clearly hadn't had a woman's touch, unless you count mine. It was pretty business-like. It was next to my bedroom.
I left her there, after telling her she could take that hot bubble bath if she wanted, and that I'd be in my office catching up on paperwork for an hour or so. I had settled into my desk, reconciling my fuel logs for the last few months. After about ten minutes, it occurred to me that there was no bubble bath in the guest bathroom. So I went to my bathroom, where I kept a spare. There is an herbary in Fort Smith that makes a luscious cucumber melon mix, and I wanted to share it with her, I thought she'd like it.