Chapter 1
"Say that again?" I asked, to make sure that I heard her right.
Deanna Maxwell was one of those ladies that one gave close attention, with her tall, slender, statuesque body, striking blue-grey eyes, and luscious, wavy nut brown hair. Even so, there was still a chance that I might have slipped into a daydream on a lazy Saturday afternoon like this, one where I had a RC Cola in one hand and a hoagie in the other. We were in the town's only barbershop, and Deanna was there with her then boyfriend, Robbie Walters, one of the town's three barbers. He was very late with their afternoon date by now, as she had come to pick him up already. That didn't make her comment any more likely in my book, but stranger things have happened.
"I said, marry me, funny man!" Deanna laughed as she proposed again to me, seemingly in jest.
"Sure, I got nothing better to do with my weekend, but won't your boyfriend here object?" I teased her back, thinking that she was being facetious at the moment.
"Hey, it's not a love match, but he can like it or lump it. At this point, I don't give a fuck. But you think that I'm kidding, don't you? No, I'm very much in earnest. Marry me, take me home with you, and fuck me into next year, and, yes, I hope that Robbie heard me say that!" Deanna rose, gathered her purse, and offered me her hand.
"That's shutting the door rather hard on your plans and his for the future, I should think," I observed, standing slowly, but unsure about actually accepting her proposition.
"Go ahead, marry my girlfriend, Sam. Why not? A high maintenance girlfriend like her? Maybe I'm better off as the boyfriend, sharing her with her husband, not having to keep her in the lap of luxury," Robbie chuckled, for whatever reason not worried, "she'll be back in my bed before you know it and you'll just be her dumbass cuck, raising my brats."
"See, Sam? He doesn't even care enough to fight for me. But don't worry...you'll be getting plenty of action in the future, and more respect than he ever will," Deanna scoffed now, in the presence of everyone else.
"It's not your respect that I want, Dee. Just that wonderful honeypot between your sweet, long legs. We've been dating for a good while, ever since high school. You just now figured out what a prick I am? I'm a good ol' boy. Sure, I'll marry you, given the chance, but if you marry him, I'll be ready to pounce on your fine, married ass and plant the flag in you, anyway. Mark my territory. Either way, I win, the way I see it. Admit it, babe. You'll be crawling back for more of my lovin' inside a week," Robbie upped the ante, daring Deanna to defy or contradict him, which she pointedly didn't.
"Hey, now...I'm not into the wimp hubby, hot wife scene, so if that's what you have in mind, Deanna, well, I don't much care for horns and have no plans to wear them. I didn't think that you were serious, and while I would love to bed you, I'm not a one-woman man, either. Certainly not if my wife is stepping out on me. That being said, if you weren't talking out of your sweet ass, and you actually had a serious marriage proposal that would make sense to me, that's a different matter.
"Even if we just end up in divorce court in ten or twenty years' time and it's not a love match, as you say, it's a worthwhile possibility. I just didn't expect to say such things in public. Just remember that turnabout is fair play, sauce for the goose is good for the gander, you get the idea. You're still very much in love with Robbie, childish as he is, and it would have to be one hell of a sweetheart deal to make me marry another man's girlfriend, even one as sexy as you," I finally treated Deanna's suggestion with the seriousness that it might actually deserve, albeit in front of her beau.
"Sam, honey, it's not gonna be like that. I don't want to hash out this deal in front of Robbie and other prying eyes and ears, so how about we go on the date that he stood me up for, if that's okay with you? You up to a date with your old friend, Sam, your former classmate, who just happens to be the barber's girlfriend? Don't worry. I can give you a haircut later, dear," Deanna invited me with a wink, knowing from the beet-red look on Robbie's face that he really was jealous now.
Now, bear in mind that Deanna and I had known each other for years by then, pretty much our entire lives, in fact. We had joked, flirted, played a bit, she had threatened me with serious bodily harm one time for a skit where I borrowed her favorite dress if I tore or ripped it in any way, that sort of thing. She had said some strange things at times, making me wonder about her sanity, such as when she sang a very bawdy chorus to me, a very platonic friend of hers, about "laying me in your bed" or some such stuff.
Still, we were just friends and that was all that we had ever really been. We had gone to church camp together. Our parents were friends and attended the same church events, socials, revival meetings, etc. You get the idea. We had played volleyball, catch, softball, etc. with each other, too, especially before she grow into serious womanhood after puberty. She also fiercely defended me against an accusation of cheating on a test once, even making the point that a keen and sharp mind like mine didn't need to cheat. That was very flattering, to put it mildly, to know that she thought that highly of me.
