This is the thirteenth story.
This is the story of Willow.
Willow was a barista at my local coffee shop, one in walking distance from my apartment, which in Los Angeles still meant more than 10 minutes away. I'd been going to this coffee shop for years, recognized generally the entire staff, and then one fall morning there was Willow. She was tall and thin, and achingly pale. Her dark brown hair was sometimes pulled back in a messy bun, sometimes hanging down in two wavy sheets running down to just above her breasts. Her breasts were small but she had a bigger bump of a butt, overall proportioned like she was still coming into her body. And she was, still in college, only 20, working the coffee shop on weekend mornings.
We were still in pandemic days when I first saw her, so the first thing I knew about her face was her eyes. Big, round, gorgeous things, a Caribbean shade of blue-green. They looked unreal, like a cat or an anime character, and I had many great nights imagining those eyes staring up at me, my cock buried in her mouth.
She was innocent, fresh and open and eager, but also with a little bit of an edge, a slight Aubrey Plaza anarchism. I think she understood the age dynamics at play between us and was excited by them. She wasn't a 20 year old getting preyed on by a 30 year old but instead a young woman getting to use her sexuality and put an older man in her pocket, to have that power over me.
The morning we met I asked her about herself, and when I found out she was in college I asked what she was studying.
"Poetry," she said.
I nodded, impressed. "I love poetry."
"Oh yeah? Who are your favorites?"
"Ilya Kaminsky. Carolyn ForchΓ©."
"I love ForchΓ©! Haven't read Kaminsky."
"You have to. I'll bring you something. Next Saturday."
Her head bobbed in a quick nod. "It's a date!" She immediately blushed scarlet, and shook her head quickly. "Not a date. You know."
I laughed. "I know. You're cute."
She looked down quickly, bashfully, looked away then looked back at me. I held the eye contact briefly, smiling with my eyes over the mask, and left.
The next weekend I brought her Deaf Republic.
"Oh my gosh!" she said, taking it. "Thank you!"
"I'd love to hear what you think," I said.
I grabbed a coffee sleeve, wrote my number on it, and handed it to her.
"Text me."
She looked down at it, then looked up at me, and nodded. I didn't linger, just walked away.
And the next day I got a text.
Hi! It's Willow
Excitement ran through me. I typed back:
Hey! You read the poems?
Immediately lol. So good!
I'm so glad. We should hang out sometime, talk poetry
A bit of a delay, and then:
I'd love that
What are you doing next Saturday?
Working
...until?
Oh lol. 2
I live close. Wanna come back to mine after? I can show you my collection.
It's a plan
And she followed that with a smiley emoji.
The next Saturday I didn't go for my usual morning coffee, waited to go to the shop until 2. When I walked up, there was a gorgeous girl, maskless, sitting at a table outside. My eyes lingered on her a full few seconds before I realized it was Willow.
"Hey!" I said.
She looked up and smiled. Well, fucking hell.
There are a lot of faces with really nice top halves and not so great bottom halves, and in the pandemic you truly didn't know what the full effect would be until the mask came off. I had gotten incredibly lucky. Willow was fucking beautiful. The lower half of her face tapered gorgeously, she had a nice nose and a wide, thin mouth, everything perfectly complementing the bigness of her eyes.
She was wearing a black-and-white striped t-shirt over a black leather skirt that fell to just above her knees. The shirt was tight, emphasizing her small breasts and skinny waist. She had a small backpack purse slung across her back and her thumbs were playing with the straps, very much the schoolgirl.
"Hi!" she said. "I got off early."
She stood up and I gave her a brief hug. I felt her long arms wrap gently around me.
"Ready to go?" I said.
"Yeah!"
We walked back through the neighborhood toward my place, chatting, talking poetry and college. She was starting her junior year, was excited with where the instruction was heading. Part of her wanted to be a poet after school, but another part knew how hard that life would be, was considering other options. I tried my best to convince her to try the harder path, to take the risk and live a little. She swore she would, her eyes twinkling as she did so, I think wanting to impress me with her courage.
We got back to my place. She wandered in and her eyes landed on the bookshelves lining the wall of my living room.
"The dream!" she said. She dropped her purse on my coffee table and hurried over to them.
I watched her eagerly scan the spines.
"Oh my god, Plath. I love Plath."
I smiled. Could've guessed that.
"Grab it," I said. "Read me something."
I sat on my couch and she pulled out a battered copy of Collected Poems. She skipped over to the couch and sat down next to me, kicked off her sandals, and put her feet up on the couch. She immediately leaned back into me and opened the book. I put an arm around her, rested my hand on her knee. I looked down at the top of her head, then at the page she'd opened to.
"'Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries,'" she said, and kept reading.
She was a strong reader, with good intonation. I listened to her, let my hand gently stroke her knee. Her hair smelt citrusy. When she was finished the air hung silent for a moment, and then she looked up at me.
Her face was so close.
Those massive eyes, totally mine.
But she made the first move. She pushed herself up and kissed me. I made a surprised sound, kissed back. We stayed locked together for a second and then she pulled away, her face flushed but triumphant. Then she quickly looked back to the book, turned the page, and nestled against me once more.
"Want me to read another?" she said, the tone of her voice self-satisfied.
"Hey!" I said, in mock offense.
Her face turned back to me, grinning, fully aware she was being a tease.
I put a gentle hand on her chin, holding her face up, and I leaned down and kissed her, slowly, sensually. She responded, her lips pushing back, her body subtly pushing off the couch toward me. The hand holding the book extended out, and the book fell from it onto the coffee table. She stopped kissing me and looked at me, starry-eyed, and then shimmied her body down and put the back of her head across my lap. Her dark hair spread over my thighs, and I looked down at her face. She was breathing deeply, looking up at me like I was the only person in the world.
I looked down her body. The hem of her shirt was resting on her belly, just above the waistband of her skirt. Her legs were bent, her feet still up on the couch. I looked at the pale skin of her thighs, her knees, swaying back and forth.
I looked back down at her face, put a hand in her hair and started stroking it. I was getting slightly hard, and wondered if she could feel my dick starting to press against the back of her head. We just looked at each other for a bit, enjoying this dynamic. Then I put my other hand on her chin, caressed it, gently pulled open her mouth, pushed it closed again. Those massive eyes stayed locked on me the whole time. I moved my hand off her chin, placed it flat across her neck. Her mouth opened reflexively, her head pushed back into my crotch, against my hardening cock.
"Oh my god," she said softly, "you're so hot."
I lifted the hand off her neck and placed it across one breast. I gently massaged it, feeling its smallness beneath my palm, and her eyes closed and she pursed her lips and started moaning softly. Her hands moved across her belly and undid the top button of her skirt. Then, while one arm bent up, her hand coming to softly hold my elbow, the other hand she pushed down under her waistband toward her crotch, and started to finger herself.