Sex Happens

by Carol Soloway

  “How did you know I had sex with Luke last night?” Alex asked, guilt making her face flush.

  “You had sex?” Liz shouted.

  The man in front of them in the line turned around.

  Alex shot him a mind-your-own-business look. “Liz, I wasn’t planning on doing anything with Luke. We went dancing. When we got back to my house, he asked for one more dance, and sex just happened.”

  “Just happened? What do you have in common with a plumber?”

  “He owns the company, remember? And Gabe and I had everything in common, but it didn’t make a difference.”

  “What’d you ever see in Gabe, anyway?”

  “Gabe and I met in my first year of college. Before we knew it, life happened—marriage, children. Life was perfect, or so I thought. I never expected to lose everything.”

  “What about your practice, your life? And the boys are your children too.”

  “Liz, do you really think women are respected for their careers? It’s whether they have a husband, a family, children—that’s how a woman is valued.”

  “What’ll it be?” the man behind the counter asked.

  Alex ordered a short stack of pancakes, which she didn’t feel like eating, and coffee, which she needed. Liz decided on two vegetable omelets and insisted on treating. They took the coffee cups from the clerk, filled them at the dispenser in the center aisle, and ferreted out a table in the crowded restaurant.

  Liz put down her coffee cup and looked at Alex. “Why are you so attracted to this guy?”

  “He’s so different from Gabe, and he makes me feel sexy, feminine.”

  Liz shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

  “When Gabe told me he was leaving me, he said sex with me was ‘like scratching an itch.’ I started to doubt whether any man would ever be attracted to me.”

  “Alex, you’re beautiful. You can’t let any man do this.”

  “Gabe wasn’t any man; he was my husband. Now I’m done with him.”

  “Doesn’t sound like you’re done.”

  “I needed to be reassured. It wasn’t just sex. It was validation.”

  “I’m here for you,” Liz said.

  “Liz, I know, but I needed a little proof that my life isn’t over just because Gabe left me.”

  “Whatever it takes.” Liz leaned over hugged her. “You can count on me.”

  Stan pulled out a chair at their table. “May I join you two gorgeous chicks?”

  The server delivered their orders, and Alex moved aside for her to put down the plates.

  “Liz told me you had a date last night,” Stan said. “Better than when we invited you over to the house to meet Rob, I’m sure.”

  “Much better,” Alex said and pushed the pancakes around on her plate, trying to take enough bites to make it appear as though she was eating.

  “Tell us what you really said to Rob to make him reach for the Viagra.” Stan winked.

  “I agreed to go for a walk to his boat after dinner. Then he pulled out a tissue from his pocket, unwrapped a pill, and dropped it.”

  “I still laugh when I think about Rob crawling around on our dining room floor, trying to find his Viagra, yelling, ‘The dogs will eat my pill.’” Liz transferred a few home-fried potatoes from her plate to Stan’s, a small wifely gesture that made Alex’s heart ache.

  “He does have a fabulous boat,” Stan said, as though that should be enough of a reason for a woman to date a man.

  Alex’s cell phone rang.

  “Hi,” she said, motioning an apology to Liz and Stan.

  “Ever been boating?” Luke asked, his question almost an appendage to the conversation she was having with Liz and Stan.

  “Wait a minute.” She excused herself and took the call outside.

  “I just bought a boat, and I’d like to take you out.”

  “Luke, I need to talk to you about last night first.”

  “Last night was great. I thought about asking if you wanted to go out on the boat in the morning, but I’m on the ocean by six with my buddy. I didn’t think you’d be up to it, but how about tomorrow?”

  “I can’t,” she said, wishing she could. “My boys’ll be home by five.”

  “We’ll be back way before then.”

  “I’d be too nervous about getting back on time,” she said.

  “You have my word,” he said. “You’re safe with me.”

  She didn’t know why she agreed to go out with him again. Maybe it was the word “safe.”

  CHAPTER 16

  At seven on Sunday morning, Luke arrived at Alex’s house dressed in jeans and an old gray sweatshirt. When he put his arms around her, she moved close with an ease that surprised her.

  He looked at his watch. “We gotta get going now. The ocean’s perfect at this hour.”

  She grabbed her navy windbreaker from the hall closet and locked the door.

  He took her hand, and they walked to a black Toyota truck. After he opened the passenger door, she stretched one leg onto the runner and hoisted herself up. Pushing aside the debris and trying to clear a place, she sat on the edge of the seat. “Weren’t you driving a Honda on Friday night?” she asked.

  “I told you that my daughter needed to use my truck, so we traded.” He closed the door and went around to the driver’s side.

  Alex glanced at the backseat, littered with CDs, discarded paper cups, dirty socks, an open toiletry bag, two empty Snapple bottles, and a small plastic container with orange Tic Tacs. She thought it was amazing he could emerge so fastidious from such a disheveled vehicle.

  He got behind the wheel. As he turned the ignition key, an Aretha Franklin CD blared through the speakers. Reaching his right hand back, he pushed some of the things that were scattered across the backseat into a pile. “I was gonna clean it up for you.” He glanced at her. “It’s a mess ’cause, in addition to all of my responsibilities for Southern California Plumbing Company, I have another business on the side.”

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  Proudly, he held out a card. The logo—a picture of a toilet—was in the top left corner, and “SNAP” was written in big red letters across the middle of the card.

  “See, S-N-A-P. ‘Service Not Attitude Plumbing.’ Designed it myself.”

  She took the card. “Um, I have a question for you.”

  “Fire away. I can answer anything you need to know about drains and toilets.”

  Alex decided that a discourse on toilets was all she was going to get, so she mentally shelved her question about Friday night. She thought it odd that he’d have another business on the side if he owned the franchise.

  Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the parking lot of Southern California Plumbing Company, a division of VIP, Victory International Plumbing. “Because I own the franchise, I’m allowed to park my boat in the lot,” he said.

  “Nice.” She stared at the rows of parked neon-yellow trucks, each painted with a white toilet and black wrench under letters denoting the Southern California Plumbing Company. Then she watched as this rugged, un-Gabe-like man hitched his boat to the truck.

  After securing the boat, he climbed back into the truck. “It’s only five miles from the office to the Dana Point Marina. You ready to fish?”

  “We’re fishing?” She crinkled her nose. “I thought we were just taking the boat out for a ride. I’ve never fished.”

  “You’ll love it,” Luke said.

  “Maybe,” she said, doubtful fishing would interest her.

  He pulled up to the launch pad. “I’m going into the office to pay for the boat lift, and then I’ll park the truck.”

  She got out of the truck and watched as the two dockworkers wrapped chains around the boat, hoisted it, and then deposited it into the water.

  Luke returned to the launch
, climbed aboard the boat, and helped her onto it. She glanced at the cabin below and noticed the same kind of disheveled mess she’d seen in the truck.

  Touching the boat’s stern, he said, “Just bought my boat two weeks ago. Came into some cash and couldn’t resist this beauty. It’s meant for fishing, not like those fancy ones that just sit in the harbor.”

  The one that Gabe bought, the ones their friends had, she thought. No, this wasn’t familiar, but maybe that was good. The familiar had disappointed, even devastated.

  Luke got behind the wheel and deftly negotiated the channel, the engine gurgling. When they approached the ocean, he increased the speed. “Duck behind the windshield with me so you don’t get sprayed.”

  “The ocean’s beautiful.” She inhaled the salt air, recalling how much she loved being on the ocean and how long it had been since she’d done something like this. With the exception of tennis, and that was only because Gabe had paid for membership for the entire year, she’d never spend any time away from the boys or work.

  “That’s why I love it here.” He wrapped his arms around her.

  Basking in the sparkle of the shimmering water, she smiled up at him. The sunlight caught his face, highlighting the cleft in his chin. She loved the feel of his body against hers, familiar yet foreign.

  “I hope there’s bait left at the station,” he said.

  “Bait?” she asked, wondering where one would purchase bait in the ocean.

  When they pulled up to the bait station, the stench of dead fish on the platform overtook her. She fought the rising bile in her throat.

  A woman in yellow plastic rain gear and black rubber knee boots approached their boat. “How much bait?”

  “Just half a scoop.” Luke paid and turned the boat south toward San Diego.

  After adeptly guiding the boat, he shut off the engine and then went down to the cabin to retrieve the fishing poles. He returned with two poles, reached into the bait tank, and took out two wiggly, slimy eels. Fishing poles in his left hand, he slid the bait onto the hooks of the two poles and handed her a baited pole. She took it tentatively.

  Studying the GPS, Luke maneuvered the boat until the screen burst into fireworks. Each dot, he explained, confirmed the presence of fish. He dropped his line, and instructed her to do the same. Methodically, he reeled in one bass after another and measured them against the ruler decaled onto the ledge of the boat. He threw back the ones that were less than sixteen inches, the minimum length for keeping fish.

  With each tug on her line, Alex struggled for a few seconds then lost the fish. After several attempts, Luke moved behind her, slipped his hands around her waist, and then placed his hands over hers on the fishing pole. With his help, she reeled in two bass.

  When Luke’s twelfth bass filled the tank, he smiled. “That’s enough for today.” His hands were covered with blood, and the deck was littered with bits of bait and blood.

  Luke went below deck and returned with a board and knife. “Now the fun begins.” He placed the board into the holder on the side of the boat, retrieved the first fish from the bait tank, and gutted it.

  Surprised by the speed and skill with which he wielded the knife, she thought he could’ve been an excellent surgeon. Then she looked down at the fish and realized she’d dropped Luke into Gabe’s world. “How’d you learn to do that?” she asked.

  “I can teach myself anything I put a mind to,” he answered.

  “Anything?” she teased, thinking about his sexual prowess.

  “Yep. That’s how I taught myself tennis and played all over the world for the Marines.”

  He was an incredible athlete. That’s what had first attracted her to him, and now she was enjoying this foray into his world, a world as far away from Gabe as possible.

  Luke returned the poles to the lower deck and then took the wheel.

  “Move behind the window, near me,” he said.

  She leaned into him. After years of living in her white-collar world, this Marlboro man enticed her. She felt like she’d sneaked into another life and didn’t want to leave. And maybe this man wouldn’t leave her. Maybe he really had learned his lesson with his former wife.

  When they reached the launch pad, Luke told her to wait while they hoisted the boat out of the ocean. He went to get his truck from the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later, with the boat in tow, they drove back to his office.

  “Only need about twenty minutes to wash down the boat. You wanna rest in the truck while I clean?”

  “I’ll help,” she offered.

  “If you insist, you could wash down the deck.” Luke gave her a mop and liquid soap.

  While he walked around the boat to hose and wash the exterior, she soaped up the bait tank and then the deck. By the time he returned, she’d lathered up everything.

  “I’ll hose down the deck,” he said.

  “No.” She reached out her hand. “Give me the hose.” She watered the deck but, unaware of how the soap residuals would kill the fish, decided it would be best to leave the soapy water in the bait tank to let it soak.

  Luke washed off his fishing poles, leaned them against the railing, and surveyed the scrubbed deck. “You really took to fishing. We’ll get in several more times before the weather turns.”

  Needing clarity before proceeding with him, she summoned her nerve. “Um, about Friday night? You left right after we, um …”

  “I had to check on my daughter, make sure she moved all of her stuff out of the apartment and into my house. Hey, would you go out with me again next weekend?”

  “I’ll think about it,” Alex said.

  While they were driving back to her house, she weighed Luke’s abrupt departure on Friday night with his parental responsibility. She agreed to go out with him again—not next weekend, since she had the boys—but another time, maybe one more time. Maybe he’d fill the hunger raging in the pit of her stomach. But right now, she needed to get home before the boys returned.

  When they got to her house, Luke said, “I’ll help you repack the fish, ’cause it can be messy.”

  She looked at her watch.

  After he parceled the fish into small bags and placed the last bag in the refrigerator, he bent down to kiss her. She felt his eyelashes brush her cheek. Her lips met his. The tips of their tongues touched. He caressed her hair. His hand trailed down the nape of her neck and then rested on the small of her back.

  She wanted him but pulled away. “The boys’ll be home soon.”

  “I want you.” Luke pressed closer to her.

  She looked up into his amber eyes and felt a stirring she couldn’t resist.

  They slipped off their shoes and raced upstairs, laughing, touching, and leaving a trail of clothes.

  When they reached the top step, Luke put his hand on her shoulder. “Alex, after fishing, I gotta wash up.”

  “You can use the shower first.”

  “It’d be better if we showered together.” He kissed the back of her neck.

  Leading him to the master bathroom, she unfastened her bra and tossed it aside. Then she took off her watch and placed it on the sink. They only had a half hour before the boys would be home.

  She got into the shower and let the water caress her face. Luke opened the glass shower door and stepped in behind her. Gently reaching in front of her, he took the bar of soap. He lathered his hands and then smoothed the soap onto her breasts, lingering on her nipples.

  Moaning as he massaged soap over her body, she leaned back into him. Magical how he knows how to touch me, she thought and turned around to kiss him.

  “Hold on to me and let me lift you.”

  “I’ll fall.”

  “I won’t let you,” he promised. “Wrap your legs around me.”

  Water pelting onto her back, she let him lift her. He slid his penis into her. Draped against him
, she surrendered to him. As he drove her to ecstasy, she shuddered. A few moments later, she felt chilled. She left the shower, grabbed a towel for him, and then wrapped herself in another.

  He went to the bedroom and pulled back the covers. “Get in for a few minutes.”

  “Luke, the boys’ll be home soon.”

  “Just let me feel you on top of me.”

  “No.” She glanced at the clock on the night table. “We’ve got to get dressed.”

  As she dressed, Luke playfully tugged at her panties. “When can I have you next?”

  “Never, if you don’t get out of here.” She bent down, picked up his jeans, and threw them at him.

  He dressed and then followed her downstairs.

  “Go now.” Alex kissed him.

  CHAPTER 17

  The headlights from Gabe’s silver Mercedes sliced through the living room window. Alex heard the slamming of car doors, the boys laughing, and then pounding on the front door. As she opened the door, Gabe’s car pulled away.

  Each clutching a balloon adorned with the Barnum & Bailey logo, Jon and Daniel ran to Alex. But Eric, also holding a balloon, lingered at the doorway.

  “Hi, guys.” She bent down to kiss Jon’s cheek. He cuddled into her, and Daniel leaned over and kissed her.

  “How was the circus?” She straightened Jon’s collar and then ran her hand along his chocolate-stained white shirt.

  “Fun, but the elephants stinked.” Jon crinkled his nose.

  Eric stood at the entryway, his hands behind his back. Wearing his blue-and-white Oxford shirt and jeans, he looked preppy. He held out a red balloon. “Here. It’s for you.”

  “Thanks.” She started to kiss his cheek.

  He turned his head from her.

  Wondering why he’d pulled away, she decided it had to be “teenage behavior,” but it wasn’t like him to be that cold, almost rejecting, to her. She decided she’d talk to him tonight. Maybe his father upset him—that had to be the reason. “Boys,” she called to Daniel and Jon as they started towards the stairs, “I caught some fish on a boat today. I’ll cook it for you guys.”