Juliette entered the kitchenette, put the two grocery bags on the dusty table, panting, and looked around.
Not surprisingly, the lakeside house was a mess. She seldom got to go there, and the lazy asshole who, up to the previous day, was her husband, never lowered himself as to tidy up or, God forbid, clean up.
"Well," she said to herself, "let's fix Harry's crap for the last time. I've already wasted... what, four years out of my thirty two to him, another few hours won't make a difference. I'll work on my tan later!"
She shoved the food in the fridge, grabbed the broom from the closet and started sweeping the floor.
It was a sweaty and smiling Juliette who admired her work three hours later. Now the shack was at least decent.
It was warm and if it wasn't a Wednesday, people would surely be swarming the lakeside for a first taste of spring.
"And now," she thought smiling, "it's my turn to get clean."
She slipped out of her skirt, top and underwear, throwing everything on the floor, and headed for the shower.
She turned the faucet on. No water.
"The tank on the roof is surely empty... I used up all the water to wash the floor."
She switched the pump on, but the little fucker gave no sign of life. She groaned.
She picked up her cell phone and the old paper phonebook from the shelf. She went through the pages and put her index finger on a "Peter " Plumber" circled in red.
She shrugged and dialled the number. After four rings a male voice answered:
"Peter speaking."
"Good morning. Juliette Rem... Montgomery here. My water pump seems to be broken. Can you please come fix it?"
"Sure m'am. Where you at?"
"The lakeside cottage near Pinelodge, where the old pier used to be."
"Oh, Harry Remington's?"
"Yes. I mean no! Ok, nevermind... yes, you got it. What time do you think you can be here?"
"Couple of hours tops."
"Thank you, see you later then."
"Later m'am."
She hung up and sighed.
She still felt pretty awkward about all the divorce thing. Her last year has been very hard.
She found out her shit-for-brains ex-hubby was happily screwing his secretary, a twenty something blondie with big tits. The banality of the whole story made her sick.
She picked up her clothes, redressed and browsed the local newspaper she bought on her way home.
After reading the painstaking account of a day in the life of a mind-numbingly boring lakeside small town twice, she realized she was hungry.
She glanced at her cell phone and found out it was just about lunchtime.
She refused to wait for the plumber on an empty stomach and so she cooked two hamburgers and a couple of tomatoes on the skillet.
She wolfed everything down with some white bread and a cold beer.
Things started looking up for her. She saw a glint of renewed enthusiasm in her life, she felt lighter and thoughtless like she has not felt in quite a while.
She checked the time again. The two hours have already passed.
She brushed her teeth and rinsed with a glass of bottled water.
She walked around the living room.
She let herself fall on the couch.
She picked up the newspaper, looked at the front page, put it down again.
She toyed with her black curly hair.
She got up, she got out on the porch and looked at the road. No one in sight. For miles.
The cottage she won away from Harry in court was pretty isolated, now that she thought about it. She did not even have TV. The plan was to do without it since the purpose of the small house was to enjoy the wilderness, relax and fuck like animals. The only rooms they needed were the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom and a small cabin to store firewood and tools. They did not even own a boat, they rented one when they felt like it.
She got back in, walked around the living room again, let herself fall on the couch and huffed. She looked up at the ceiling. Spider webs in the corners. She didn't feel like evicting the small creatures.
She let out a little fart.
"Ops!" she said out loud, and laughed.
She walked to the bathroom, slid her panties down and her skirt up and sat down on the throne.
She pushed and passed quite a big log: she felt like she was giving birth to a baby dolphin.
She shivered with relief as the stench invaded the air and the brown stuff hit the water, splashing droplets of filthy water up to her butt.
"How long since the last time I've been fucked?" she surprised herself thinking while she streamed hot piss in the bowl.
The sex drive was one of the things that attracted her toward Harry. He never seemed to have had enough, and never seemed to tire.
Of course that was also why she found him balls deep in Mandy that day at the office.
The blonde was there, completely naked, widespread on the desk, and he had only his tie on.
The scene did not haunt her anymore, she found it arousing, in fact.
She touched her clit, let out a soft moan.
Someone rapped at the front door.
Juliette jumped.
"Timing!" she hissed. She went for the toilet paper but only found an empty cardboard roll.
She has left the toilet paper back in the car. Too late now.
She used her panties to wipe her ass and threw them in the garbage can. After all they were soiled and sweaty already.
"Anybody in there?" a man's voice asked while the knocking at the door started again.
"Just a second!" Juliette said while pulling the chain. The bowl did not flush.
"Of course, there's no water you idiot!" she thought to herself. She ran for the door.
"I'm sorry I was..." she began while opening the door, then looked up and remained speechless.
In front of her a black man in his late twenties, at least a foot taller than her, shaved head, muscular, wearing a black tank top and a pair of jeans, an heavy box of tools in his left hand.
He was smiling with perfect white teeth.
She felt the weight of his gaze all upon her petite body and wished she didn't look (and probably smelled) like shit.