Sundays was church and everybody frowned on people who worked on the Lord’s Day. That kind of frowning didn’t bother him much because he would have stayed open out of pure spite towards God because of his wife and son. But he knew there would be blowback and he didn’t want to deal with it. So he used the day off to do work around his home and mow his lawn. He figured that was just about enough to stick it in God’s eye and give that big nobody upstairs a big fat middle finger.
The lunch crowd was thinning out. It was always like this; come about 1:00 and the place would be empty. At 2:00, a few stragglers would come in, and by 3:00, kids out of the local school would be by, eating pie and drinking soda.
They’d be gone by 3:45 or so and then he and Aggie would start closing the diner down. They would be out of the building by 4:30 on most days, barring any kind of weird stuff happening, and Sam would be home by 5:00. That would give him plenty of time to get ready for his date with Sadie tonight.
A flash of her naked, according to how his imagination conjured her, surged through his mind and Sam, who hadn’t thought of sex in so long he’d forgotten that it even existed, got a little light in the head. Where had that come from? He felt his groin tighten and then he knew.
Well, that probably wasn’t on the menu for tonight, but he certainly wouldn’t object to the meal if offered.
Sam whistled to himself, the first time he’d done so in years, and went back to work.
IV
Mayor Reed
Mayor Reed strolled back to his office, Tina next to him, as the various office workers peeled off to their cars and enjoyed their half-day of work. It was like this most days; come to work in the morning, grab a late lunch, and have the rest of the day off. Constance was a small town and not a lot usually needed to get done, other than clerical work, and most of that could be done fairly quickly. Mayor Reed liked that his work load was a small one and he liked giving his workers a full day’s pay for the job they did.
He’d been Mayor for two terms now and was pretty sure he was locked in for a third, so he felt he was in a good spot in his life; comfortable and happy, the kind of life most men wanted to live but failed to, for whatever reasons.
He also like that Tina was so willing to get down on her knees and service him whenever he desired. And he desired most every afternoon, thus the dismissal of his workers and the free time to romp with her chunky ass.
He looked over at her, the sun beaming down hot and bright. Tina was good-looking. She was no stunner, and most guys would find her too big around the legs, but she was just what he liked in a woman and apparently, he was just what she liked in a man. It was the power, he knew; it was an aphrodisiac. He didn’t have enough toes and fingers to count how many times he’d been hit on by women in town and whenever he went to the National Mayor’s Convention, held once a year in some big city somewhere. Women were drawn to men with power like flies to shit. He laughed and shook his head. He certainly shouldn’t think of himself as a piece of shit. He was a good man and he did the best he could to keep things going well in his town. After all, he was the one who got the deal with Toyota, practically saving the town and his job in one swoop.
Thoughts of Hazel, his wife, flitted through his mind and he pushed them right back out again. She wouldn’t approve of what he was doing with Tina, but his wife had grown very fat over the years, fat and content and completely uninterested in sex. Which was a shame, because even at age fifty, Mayor Reed had the constitution of a rutting thoroughbred, and he couldn’t see a time when he’d need one of those magic blue pills to get it up and get it on.
“What are you thinking about?” Tina asked, smiling up at him. He’d hired her straight out of college, where she’d majored in political science. Tina was from Hazard and had gone to school up in Cincinnati. She wanted to return to her roots, spurned by big city life, but it was hard to find a job that fit her degree, so when the secretary’s position opened in Constance, she’d been one of the first through the door to apply. He took one look at her, checked her resume, and knew he had his woman. Oh, he interviewed others, mainly for appearances sake, but the moment he laid eyes on Tina, he knew.
She must have, too, because a bolt of electricity passed between them when their eyes met on that first encounter. It was clichéd to think of their meeting like that, but it really was true. Their eyes met and the hair on the back of his neck rose and his dick stirred. He didn’t need any more signs than that.
“Oh, just when we first met,” he said, smiling back at her. She giggled as she blushed. “You don’t have to get home too soon, do you?”
He knew she didn’t, that she really had nothing to go to, but it was a game they liked to play.
“Actually,” she said. “I do need to get home. I have a date tonight.”
Mayor Reed stopped. “What?”
Tina slid him a sly smile. “I’m just teasing, you dummy,” she said.
God, she was half his age, he thought. What was he doing? And when she said she had a date, his stomach had fallen. He was getting too wrapped up in her.
“Okay,” he said. “Sorry.”
Tina patted his ass quickly and jerked her hand away. “It’s okay, baby.”
“Not in public,” he said, his voice dropped to a hush.
A red car drove by and Mayor Reed looked at it, hoping whoever was inside it hadn’t seen what had just occurred. Gossip spread like lice in an elementary school in this town.
It was the family from the diner, the strangers. They were driving north, headed for the highway, he supposed. He let out his breath.
“What do you want to do when we get to the office?” she asked.
“I was thinking…dictation.”
“You know, I’m tired of taking dictation,” she said, smile still beaming. “I’m thinking that today, we do something different.”
“Okay,” he said.
They reached the front doors of the office. Standing next to them, arms folded, was Mandy.
“Are you the Mayor?” Mandy said.
“Yes, I am,” he said. “How can I help you?”
“I went to see your sheriff to give him a warning and he turned me away. He said I should come see you, that I had to file for permits to hold a speaking engagement in public,” Mandy said.
Mayor Reed glared over at the Police Station. He knew the sheriff was in there somewhere, peeking between slatted shutters, laughing his ass off. Sometimes, he really wanted to fire the bastard. Of course he couldn’t, because Sheriff Monroe was his best friend and the only one who knew about him and Tina.
“Hello?” Mandy said. She waved her hand in front of his face.
‘That’s rude!” Tina said.
“Quiet, harlot,” Mandy said.
“What did you call me?” Tina said. She balled her fists and glared at Mandy, nostrils flared.
“The Lord came to me in a series of visions,” Mandy said. “He told me that evil was coming to your town. He said I must come here and warn everyone.” Mandy turned and faced Tina. “He didn’t need to tell me you were a whore; I can smell it on you.”
Tina punched Mandy in the nose, knocking her to the ground. She kicked Mandy in the ribs while she was down and then spit on her. It all happened so fast Mayor Reed didn’t have a chance to react. He heard the insult, blinked, and Mandy was on the ground, gasping for air.
“What did you do?”
Tina glowered, her fists still balled. When she spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let some Yankee bitch come talk to me like that to my face.”
Behind them, heavy footfalls and jangling keys hailed the arrival of Sheriff Monroe. He sprinted from the Police Station, chubby belly swinging in the wind. He stopped next to them, out of breath and wild of eye.
“What’s going on here?” he said.
“That bitch called me a harlot,” Tina said, pointing at Mandy, who was still on the ground, covering up and trying to breathe.
Sheriff Mo
nroe laughed. “I ain’t seen a good cat fight in years.”
“Wasn’t much of a fight, Sheriff,” Mayor Reed said. “One punch and one kick and that was it.”
“Don’t forget the goober I spit on her,” Tina said.
“And one goober,” Mayor Reed said, correcting himself.
“You jerks,” Mandy said from the ground. “You just hit a prophet of the Lord.”
Sheriff Monroe pushed his hat back on his head and considered the matter for a moment. “Well, I tell you. From across the way there, I saw this lady swing on you first, Tina. And then you did what any good, God-fearing person would do, you defended yourself.”
“That’s not what happened at all,” Mandy said. She sat up and blinked against the sun shining down in her face, cheeks gleaming with tears.
“Yes, it is,” Sheriff Monroe said. He turned and looked at Tina. “Ain’t that right?”
“It sure is,” Tina said. “Except you forgot to note how she called me a whore when she swung at me.”
“There is that,” Sheriff Monroe said. He bent down and with one hand rolled Mandy onto her back. He knelt quickly and snapped cuffs on her wrists and yanked her to her feet. The whole deal was one smooth motion.
Mandy glared at Sheriff Monroe, her eyes wild. “What are you doing?”
“You need to cool your heels,” Sheriff Monroe said. He spun her around and marched her to the Police Station. “I think a few hours in the Iron House should do you a world of good.”
“You can’t do this! I was the one punched!” Mandy cried.
Sheriff Monroe laughed and pushed her along. Mayor Reed and Tina watched as they crossed the street and disappeared inside the station.
“Well,” Mayor Reed said. “I’ll be.”
Tina grabbed his hand. “Get inside, Mayor. We got some work to do.”
Just like when Tina punched Mandy, kicked and spit a goober on her, the next few moments flew by in the blink of an eye. First they were outside and then in, locking the door behind them, up the stairs, into the Mayor’s Office, and then he had his pants down and his cock in Tina’s mouth.
“Don’t you come too quick,” she said, pulling free with a small pop of her lips. “We got a lot to do before you go home.”
Mayor Reed nodded. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
V
Tina
She sucked him hard and sucked him well, the accusations of being a whore burning her ears. Who did that woman think she was, anyway? Sure, she liked to give blow jobs, but that didn’t make her a whore. Prostitutes got paid for their work; she did this for free, because she liked it and she liked the Mayor. Of course, the fact she was a paid staff member of the Mayor’s Office didn’t strike her as hypocritical. She did work and her secretary skills had nothing to do with her mouth and how she used it. Besides, what she was doing had nothing to do with job security, or getting a raise, or coming up with some kind of blackmail scheme. She liked him, she liked his cock, and she liked spending time with him. It was really that simple.
Mayor Reed bucked against the wall. He was about to come. That was the signal that he always gave, that jerk of the hips. She pulled off him and smiled as he looked down on her, eyes glazed with lust.
“Why?” he said.
She loved that look in a man’s eyes, when he was on the verge of letting loose. They had the eyes of a little kid, innocent and pure and full of wonder. It was the most honest moment a man and a woman shared together, she thought, and she treasured each and every one of them.
“Today,” she said. “We’re doing something different.”
She stood and bent over the desk, hiking up her dress and yanking down her panties. She gazed at him over her shoulder, her hair falling in her face.
“You pull out before you finish, you hear?” she said. “I don’t want to get pregnant.”
Mayor Reed’s mouth fell open as his fingers grabbed her ample ass. He guided his cock inside her and she was pleased he was a good fit. She leaned forward and let him do his work, loving the heat between their bodies as he humped her. She grunted as the warmth grew between her legs. She wasn’t so good at this, the actual sex part. She never had been. When she was in college she took many lovers, but none of them, not one, could ever make her orgasm. And she tried everything, from oral to anal to toys, to no avail. She enjoyed the sex, it was always pleasurable, but she was never able to let go and come. It was something she regretted and wished wasn’t true, but she’d long since resigned herself to the prospect that she would probably never, ever orgasm.
Still, Mayor Reed was pretty good at this, and maybe one day, with him, it could happen.
His body tensed and his hips bucked. She yelled at him.
“Pull out!”
He did. With a grunt and a spasm, she felt his hot liquid splash on the back of her left leg. He groaned and fell back against the wall as she smiled, turned around, dropped to her knees, and sucked every last remaining drop from him. She couldn’t help it. She loved the taste.
When they were cleaned up, Mayor Reed had trouble meeting her eyes. It was always this way. She imagined he felt guilty about cheating on his wife and for having sexual relations with a girl half his age. She couldn’t understand why he’d feel guilty about either thing. It wasn’t his fault his wife was a frigid bitch, and the age difference meant nothing to her. She hoped when she was fifty, she would be getting some young tail herself.
She grabbed Mayor Reed’s face and steered his chin so they were looking at each other.
“I had fun,” she said. The memory of that heifer and her unkind words were in the past now. “It was special for me. So don’t you feel guilty now, you hear me? This was between us. Nobody need know.”
He nodded but his eyes fell. She sighed; she couldn’t do much to change how he thought, so she gave up.
“Why don’t you go on home to your wife,” she said. “I’ll stay behind and do some cleaning up.”
“You sure?”
“You got gunk in your ears? Scoot!” Tina said. She flapped her arms at him like she was scolding a child late home from school. “Besides, I still got to do some filing that I’d put off.”
He met her eyes again. He’d recovered himself, it seemed.
“Listen, thank you so much, Tina,” he said. “If you weren’t here, I truly do not know what I would do.”
She smiled. “Run off, you bastard, before I get a notion to suck your dick again.”
He grinned and turned to go. “You’ll lock up?” he said.
“What do you think?”
He laughed as he stopped by the door. He hesitated, cleared his throat, and finally spoke. “Thank you again.”
“Scoot!”
Mayor Reed left.
She sighed and looked the room over. She needed to sort out her desk, first of all. Papers were shoved all around from when they’d had their little fun a few minutes ago. Her dress brushed against the back of her leg and she realized she hadn’t cleaned off the mess he’d left on her. She grinned a wicked grin. Maybe she’d let it stay there and dry, a reminder of their good time.
Through the slatted window, the sun shone in, long shafts of light that sliced through the darkness of the room, exposing dancing dust motes. She had a couple of hours of good daylight left so she opened the shades and cracked the window. No sense in burning any unneeded electricity, after all.
Tina went about cleaning up the room and started filing papers, smiling to herself. It had been a good day.
VI
Tom
Tom Arthur groaned inwardly as Hattie McDaniels studied the bottle of pills he’d given to her. She was a real pain in the ass. Every week, without fail, she came in to have one of her ten thousand prescriptions refilled and each time, without fail, she had a million questions for him.
And it was always over the same things and the same pills she’d been taking for years. He was going to have to have a talk with Doc Sizemore and see about getting her off her many prescripti
ons. Then he thought better of it. After all, she was a good source of income.
“Three hundred dollars? That’s outrageous,” Hattie said. She was a squat, round woman who wore dresses that saw their heyday back in the 1950’s and a straw hat with a daisy sticking up from the headband. Always a straw hat. That’s how she got her nickname, Hattie, and no one ever called her anything but that, even her husband. Her real name had been lost to the sands of time.
“You don’t pay that much,” he sighed. They went over this every time. “Your insurance pays $270. You only owe $30.”
“Thirty dollars! That’s outrageous!” Hattie said.
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, ma’am, it is. But I don’t set the prices for the drugs, Mrs. McDaniels, the drug companies do.”
“You hike them up, though. You got to. You have to make a profit. And I don’t begrudge you that, no sir. That’s the American Way. That’s how my dear Harold made his money. Did I ever tell you that story?” she asked.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was thirty-five now but looked twenty-five; handsome, dark-haired, with a stern face and kind heart, brown eyes and long legs. He was a good and patient man, but he didn’t think he could sit through the “Harold struck it rich investing in gas stations” story ever again. God, if he had to hear it one more time he was going to scream.
The phone rang and he thanked all the Gods in heaven and hell, too. He held up his hand for Hattie to be quiet.
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