She bounded to her knees and tried to grab him. He moved to the side. “Undress for me, Janie,” he said to her again. This time his voice was unassailable.
She fumbled with the buttons down the front of the dress, trying to unfasten them. Giving up, she pulled the dress over her head. “I don’t know exactly what to do, but you can show me...teach me how to please you, Ethan,” she said.
Ethan froze where he stood, “What do you mean?”
Janie removed her bra and threw it at him. “I have never done this before...I mean... I’ve never done it before with a man.”
“Whaaaaa...” Ethan said.
Janie was crawling across the bed, trying to get out of her underwear in the most undignified manner. “I never met a man who turned me on, unlike now. I am so hot for you I am about to combust.”
Ethan still had not moved. “Janie, please explain,” he said as he took a seat on the side of the bed.
“Nothing to explain, Baby,” she told him as she reached for him. “Because I never met a dude who turned me on, I thought maybe I was gay. So I dated this lesbian.” She leaned forward and kissed his neck as she massaged him in her hand. “Janie didn’t like that shit.”
Her breasts were pressed against his back. “Janie likes this a whole lot,” she told him as her hand enclosed around him. She maneuvered him back and forth like it was a gear shift. “Janie likes this a whole lot. I want it! Give it to me, Ethan!”
“I am the first man to be with you intimately,” he said softly. He removed her hands from around his person as he leaned forward to pick up his tee shirt. He waved the shirt in the air over his head.
“What are you doing, Ethan? I am ready to make love with you,” Janie said, completely befuddled by his actions.
“I, my dear Janie, am waving the white flag of surrender,” he told her as he lay back on the bed.
“Okay fine, but can you surrender after you make love with me? Seriously Ethan, I am naked, showing you ‘ma titties...I’m ready. Come pluck ma’ delicate flower,” she told him.
“I’m going to do more than pluck it,” he told her as he reached for her. “So...Janie, do you want a church wedding or something outside...”
He pulled her close as his mouth found hers.
“Later, Ethan...we will discuss that stuff much later,” she said as her nails sunk into his back. His fingers worked slowly as his lips learned every inch of her body. She screamed his name as he connected their bodies, moving in unison in the soft light of the room as he created enough friction to bring them pleasure. Janie held him tightly as his pace increased, delving deeper into her petals, stroking the stamen with each downward stroke of his body.
Ethan could not hold back any longer. He wet his thumb before using it to rub the nub of flesh. It drove Janie wild as she bucked against him, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Janie likes it! Janie likes it!”
“Ethan likes it too Janie,” he growled as he increased his pace, slamming into her over and over until he was drained. They collapsed in a sweaty heap. Ethan knew he had surrendered himself to her love and he would never be the same again. Neither would his Janie.
“Janie, can we work on that whole third person thing? It’s kind of distracting,” he said.
“Shit, that was so good, I wasn’t sure if it was real or what! Both me and my subconscious were enjoying that immensely,” she laughed.
“You were magnificent,” he told her.
“And you... were everything I knew you would be,” she told him as she snuggled closer and drifted off to sleep.
Tomorrow there was so much to do that tonight required rest. He held Janie close in his arms, inhaling the sweet strawberry and peach scent of her hair. The pixie cut was something he would have to get used to, but waking up with her in his bed and his arms was something he could easily get become accustomed. Life was going to be grand.
Chapter 20. The Falling Action...
Something wasn’t sitting well with Holden. The whole morning felt off-kilter. Deciding to get to work late, he called his boss to let him know that he would be along as fast as he could. His first stop was the Comic Book, where he found Jimmy Earl sitting in the parking lot crying.
“Jimmy Earl! Stop all that carrying on and get yourself together,” Holden yelled at him. It startled the weird little man, who pointed at the building.
“What happened to our store? Is my Janie okay? Who did this?” Jimmy Earl said through ugly tears.
In truth, Holden had assumed it to be Jimmy Earl who set the fire, but the next five minutes made him realize his sister’s life was in serious danger.
“I tried to ride my bike over to the new store, but it was too far, and ‘ma legs and ‘ma lungs gave out. It was way past curfew when I got home. I was in a lot of trouble. I have been on lockdown for three days,” Jimmy Earl confessed.
If not him...then who?
“Janie is fine, Jimmy Earl,” Holden told him, but a niggling feeling crept up the back of his neck. No she isn’t.
“Go home, Jimmy Earl,” Holden said as he broke into a run to get to his truck. He drove as fast as the speed limit allowed to get him across town to The Roxy. He arrived, sweaty and out of breath.
Janie was nowhere to be seen and he faced Ethan panting. “Janie... where’s Janie?”
“She’s in the back, Holden. What is wrong?” Ethan asked.
“The fire...” Holden started to say but the doorbell jangled. It was Kate; her face was full of concern and emotion. Her hair was still askew.
“Ethan, you must be devastated. I came as soon as I heard. I know you are heartbroken losing Janie in that fire,” she said as she threw her arms around him.
Janie came out of the back, “What are you talking about, Kate?”
The look on Kate’s face said it all. She had not expected to find Janie in the store, let alone alive. “Three times I have tried to get rid of you! You filthy piece of trailer trash! Ethan is mine! He is mine!”
Kate took off at a sprint after Janie, who took off at a dash around the table, trying to get out the front door. Holden ran after Kate and slipped, falling over a stack of books and landing on his backside. Ethan had to think fast to give Janie a chance to get some help; he called out to Kate.
“Kate, Baby, come over here. Janie is not important to us. I was a fool, Kate. I should have never attempted to do any of this without you. I knew better than try to build this without your help,” he told her.
She stood in the middle of the floor, eyes wide, chest heaving, with a crazed look about her eyes, “You are just saying that so I don’t kill your pretty little blond sex toy!”
“Kate, Sweetheart, if you are in prison, then we can’t be together. Killing her would get in the way of our dream,” Ethan told her. His eyes were on Holden, who had managed to get back to his feet. Janie had not stopped when she ran to the front door, but she also ran out of it and across the street to ask Bitsy to call the police. It may have only been a few minutes, but to Ethan it felt like a lifetime.
The crazy woman was yammering on about the attempts she made to get rid of Janie. “I thought if I convinced that crazy hillbilly Jimmy Earl that she loved him, that he would do something to separate you two, but no...”
Holden listened in disbelief.
“I also thought that infecting her little brother with the measles when he came into the library would show you how crazy her family was...how they lived like animals...no vaccinations...but you went and got your sister to help her!”
She charged at Ethan with a knife that she pulled from her purse, “If I can’t have you, Ethan, neither will that bitch!”
A police officer with a stun gun came through the door and zapped Kate with enough volts to loosen her bladder. The knife hit the floor with a clank of metal against the wood, followed by a slobbering convulsing Kate.
As the officer escorted Kate out, Janie slowly walked back in the doors, her mouth wide as she tried to process the reality of it all. She looked at Eth
an, saying, “That crazy bitch was trying to kill Janie!”
“You are safe now, Honey,” Ethan told her as he pulled her into his embrace. “You are safe.”
“I hope so; we have our grand opening next week. You don’t have any more stalkers out there do you?” she asked Ethan.
Holden piped up, “I think I pulled my muscle in my butt cheek. I’m thinkin’ I may be able to get that pretty sister of yours to make a house call.” He rubbed his handful of bum. “Hey guys, speaking of which, I ran into Jimmy Earl. He says this is too far for him to ride his bike and get back to his halfway house before curfew.”
Ethan didn’t understand how that concerned him or how his butt cheek connected to Tallulah, but Janie did. “Holden, as soon as I get a vehicle, I will make a trip to the group home and leave some bus passes and show them how to use the bus system to get here,” Janie said. She was still shaking a bit. “The group home makes a small monthly donation for us allowing the harmless ones to come and hang out once a week.”
“Oh,” Ethan said. He looked down at her with eyes full of love. “I would have never allowed Kate to hurt you.”
“I know, but it was still scary. I know how she feels, though. I’m head over heels in love with you, but I don’t think I would try and kill someone to be with you,” she told him.
“That’s good to know,” he said as he looked over at Holden. “I guess now is as good of time as any,” Ethan said as he took to one knee. “Janie Moonray Cimoc, will you marry me?”
Hester and Henry walked into The Roxy at that exact moment. Henry, who had not spent any time with Janie, asked loudly, “Moonray! What are your parents, hippies?”
Both she and Holden turned around and answered together, “Yes, they are. Long story. Don’t ask.”
Janie looked back at Ethan. “Janie sure would love to be Mrs. Ethan Strom, for better or worse, poorer or crazy, we are all in.”
“That too...is good to know,” he said as he rose and took her in his arms for a tender kiss.
Chapter 21. The Denouement...
No one could have predicted how turning up for a meeting on an offer for a business merger could have turned the page for all of those around the couple as well. The Roxy opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a parade with the local high school. No one understood why the owners waited until the end of the month of July to open, but Ethan and Janie needed a week for a honeymoon.
The wedding was a small ceremony in the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church among friends and family. Many made comments out loud that Ethan was marrying a white girl, while others commented on a white girl getting married to Ethan. It didn’t matter to either owners of The Roxy; they were happy. The honeymoon was small, with a trip to Orlando because Janie wanted to enjoy Universal Studios and visit Sea World. Initially, the honeymoon was not on the table until the insurance company came through with the settlement on the Comic Book. The saving grace was no inventory had been in the building.
It also helped to have a police report that proved a crazy woman had burned down the building. No clarification was ever achieved on how Kate got her hands on a live measles virus or how she even knew that Johnny had not been immunized. Janie chalked it up to some of Kate’s friends attempting to do her a solid so she could ‘keep her man.’
Ethan was thoroughly enjoying being a kept man. Janie was learning to refer to herself in first person and dealing head on with issues that troubled her, mainly her father. With the assistance of Tallulah, she managed to get her father into a rehab program only to find out he actually had testicular cancer. Alice, after attending the church service, fell in love with the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church and became a member. Alice, who had never driven in her life asked Meg to chauffuer her to church each Sunday.
In less than three months, the bookstore was thriving. It was doing so well that the big box store decided there was not a big enough market to open a new store in Venture, Georgia. The groundbreaking was as far as the company went towards the new store.
“Come on in, come on in,” Hester told the customers. It was Thriller Thursday and the book club was headed up to the balcony to meet. On the stage, Gandalf the Gray read to the Hobbits while the overhead projector layered the map onto the stage of the Shire. Ethan came up with the idea that instead of having a table top display, they would use the stage and project Tolkien’s map of Middle Earth onto the stage floor. As the action moved between locations, so did the map. This week, they were at the base of the Lonely Mountain.
The apartments on the second floor were converted to living space for the Stroms, with two bedrooms, a soundproof writing lab for Ethan, and a new studio for Janie’s Tee’s, which were sold exclusively in The Roxy and via Janie’s new website. Between the website orders and her new college classes, Mrs. Janie Strom was a busy lady. She worked in the bookstore on the weekends and some evenings, but comics were no longer her life.
Jem, Meg, and Marta still manned the counters, with Henry manning the coffee maker on Thursdays. Alice in the upstairs kitchen, bringing down trays of freshly baked goodies. His mother was engaged in a stimulating conversation with Dottie Meribodie about the new book to be read next month and the importance of character development.
“I have cookies!” Alice said as she set the tray on the table by the counter. She pulled back the cover and like ants, children began to materialize from everywhere. Parents did drive-bys, unloading mini-vans kids, along with the normal weekly loads from station wagons, BMWs, Fords, Mercedes, and everything else, including bicycles ridden by kids that came through the door at ten minutes of six. That same kid dressed like Sméagol slid in the door sideways, dragging his left foot this time, climbing the stairs to the stage to follow Gandalf. He reached up to grab a cookie from the passing tray that Alice carried, called it ‘my precious,” and took his place on a stool on the stage.
It was also editing night for Ethan. He was in his writing lab making changes to his latest novel. A regional publisher had picked up the manuscript and gave him a three book deal. Angus McCraffey fell in love with Ethan’s words and hilarious characters. His first novel was due in books stores by Valentine’s Day.
A newcomer to Venture walked into The Roxy, amazed at what he was seeing. Two worlds combined to create a reader’s dream. Large overstuffed chairs were littered about the space. The Christmas lights under the balcony walkways created a fairylike appeal to readers who snuggled up with cups of artesian coffees. Book club members were chatting, children were reading, and the atmosphere was inviting.
“I have never seen anything like this,” the stranger said.
“Come on in and have a look,” Janie told him. “Welcome to The Roxy: Books, Comics and More. It is the perfect bookstore where we encourage readers to pick up a book and turn the page.”
-Fin-
Bonus Reads
Discover my other multi-cultural reads with
The Cost to Play and Friends with Benefits.
Bonus Chapters: The Cost to Play
Chapter 1 -
There are some daybreaks when a body awakens and is ready for the day to commence. It was going to be one of those mornings when a girl felt like she had just stepped into a scene in a Disney movie. The day would begin with that perfect quaint scene in the movie where blue birds fluttered about, flowers bloomed as the pretty girl walked by, and a tune filled the lungs exhibiting how great a girl was feeling. Jayne Wright’s mood was just that good as she parked her Chevy Equinox on the street. Today, nothing could dampen her spirit. She began to sing as she made her way to the office. She bobbed her head to the left, swayed her hips to the right, and moved her shoulders to an imaginary beat as she belted out a few notes to an old R & B song. This day could not be more perfect.
“Yo baby! You lucky you got an ass like that. It almost makes up for your singing and dancing,” said some man rolling by in a wheelchair on the sidewalk. Jayne gulped as if she had just swallowed a very large bug. The old fart didn’t even bother to loo
k back as he continued to roll down the sidewalk, now singing the same song, but in tune and in key. Even Wheelchair Willie’s snarky comment was not going to ruin her day.
Friends often mocked her for giving every person a funny moniker, but it was her thing. It did not matter to Jayne in the least about whether she met with other’s expectations of her. It was irrelevant. She was her own person, with her own mind, and her own way of doing things. Her Grandma Pearl often chided her mother, “that’s what you get for naming a black Chile Jayne.” She liked her name and the person she had grown up to be. Independent, free thinking, and a very talented artist.
Unfortunately her talent on paper did not translate to her abilities with humans. It was even worse when it came to humans of the opposite sex. Her inability to understand and relate to men who wanted her as an arm piece befuddled her mind. It was almost a rude shock to her existence when a man would take her to dinner and make bumbling attempts to have her for dessert. Jayne LaQueeda Wright was not that type of woman. Most days, she wasn’t sure what type of woman she was exactly, but it wasn’t one that was easy.
Simplicity, however, was how she lived her life. Cawley Public Relations had been her first real job out of college and five years later she was still there. Serving as the lead designer and project manager, her work was on billboards all over Augusta, Georgia. Grandma Pearl even swore she saw an ad in Atlanta as well. It was humorous to her, even though she tried several times to explain it to her Grammy, only a handful of their clients were local. When she returned home one evening with her Clio award, Grandma Pearl whipped out the bottle of champagne. Jayne had a hell of a time stopping her Grammy from opening it, considering she had purchased the $3 bottle of Champale when Jayne was still in elementary school. There was no way on God’s green earth that she would even partake of that sour bottle of pink vinegar. Instead, Jayne had shown up with an unopened bottle of Dom Perignon. Knowing the frugality of her Grammy, she also brought along a $13 bottle of Freixenet as her back up. Much as she had suspected, Grammy opted for the Freixenet. The bottle of Dom was still in the back of her fridge.
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