Grace Notes

"You need any help applying your sun tan lotion in any of those hard-to-reach places?" Chili called over the music.

Grace started, then scrambled and gathered the straps of her bikini top and expertly hooked them behind her back. She rolled onto her back. Her eyes were hidden behind dark glasses.

"You didn't have to do that," Chili said. "Benny's out cleaning the fish."

"So how did it go?"

"Pretty well. Fish for dinner!"

"Good. Benny grills a mean fish."

"Albert Collins, huh?" Chili said, nodding toward the boom box.

"Yep. You know Albert?"

"Yes. I've seen him live several times, he's one of my favorites. We have the same birthday as a matter of fact: October first. You're into the blues?"

"I love the blues. That's what we listen to if it's my choice."

"Me too!"

"Wow, great minds think alike."

"That's what I was thinking," he said. Then: "You look ravishing in that swim suit."

"Thank you."

"Are you wearing anything underneath it?"

Grace smiled coyly and said, "The answer again would be no."

Chili sat on a lawn chair to her left. "Are you sure you don't need my help applying more lotion?" he asked.

"It's tempting but I think I better pass."

"Why, don't you trust me?"

"I don't trust either one of us."

They gazed at each other and Chili imagined her eyes behind her shades. He shook his head slightly and reached over to the armrest of her chair and took her hand into his. He lifted her hand and kissed the top of it, twirling the ring on her finger as he did so.

"I need a cold shower," he said, and went into the house.

--

Benny did a great job grilling up the fish. He also grilled mushrooms, peppers, onions and corn on the cob. It all was delicious. But after a day out on the water under the hot sun, numerous beers and a big meal, Chili was fading fast. He helped clean up and then said he was beat and was going to turn in. He said goodnight to Benny and Grace and headed up to bed.

He was finding it harder to be around Grace knowing he couldn't have her. The original plan was for him to stay a couple more days but he'd had enough. He would leave in the morning. He washed and brushed his teeth and got into bed. Before falling asleep he masturbated, imagining Grace was on top of him.

--

Chili woke very early and waited until he heard Benny drive off in his truck at a little after six. A few minutes later he heard Grace in the kitchen and he went downstairs. She was wearing a robe standing at the counter.

"Good morning!" he said as he entered the kitchen.

"Good morning," Grace said perkily. "How did you sleep?"

"Like a rock. Fishing in the hot sun all day really took it out of me."

"Coffee?"

"Sure," he said, and Grace poured him a cup.

"Look, Grace, I want you to know I'll be leaving this morning. I really want to thank you and Benny for having me and your hospitality but I have to be going."

"No! We're going to the ballgame tonight."

"No, I can't, I have to go. Don't get me wrong, you've been wonderful and I had a great time visiting but it was a mistake to come here. I never should have come. Every minute I stay here it gets harder."

Grace's eyes glassed over. "What do you mean? What's Benny going to say?"

"Tell him my parents have an emergency or something. But I can't tell him because...because I'm falling in love with you, Grace...and he won't want to hear that. I can't help it, I'm sorry. The longer I stay the deeper and harder it will get. Its torture being in love with someone you can't have."

Grace started crying softly and dabbed her eyes with a napkin. She took a sip of coffee and poured the rest into the sink. Chili stepped closer and raised her chin so she was looking up at him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you. But I have to be completely honest. I'm falling in love with you and that's not good when you're engaged to another man. The other night in the vapor room might have been just another crazy, kinky sex romp around here, but for me it was much more than that. And the next morning—I don't know about you, but I was making love. And all the playful flirting: it's only made it worse."

Grace resumed crying and Chili put his arms around her and put his cheek against the side of her head. He inhaled her lush, lemony scent.

"Do you know what I did when I went to bed last night?" he said softly into her ear. "I thought about you and jerked off." He felt her squeeze him in her arms until her tears subsided. "So if it's okay I'm going to get a shower and hit the road, okay?" He felt her head nod up and down. "May I kiss you goodbye?" She nodded again.

Grace raised her head to his. With his arms still around her he put his mouth to hers and they softly mashed lips. He lingered for a few seconds, breathing in her citrusy zest.

"Goodbye, Grace," he said, and backed away. He turned and left the kitchen and went back to his room.

--

Grace was confused. She felt bad that Chili had to leave but she understood. It was unexpected, but she'd liked having him around. She liked his looks, the way he talked, and then the way he kissed her. And the way he'd eaten her and fucked her. She'd liked the feel of his body and of course the feel of his cock; in her hands, in her mouth, in her pussy. Even up her ass. But 'I'm engaged for God's sake for what seems like forever' she thought. 'What the hell am I doing? God, my life is so fucked up'.

She picked up the phone and made a quick call. Then she walked upstairs and down the hall. The shower was running in the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom Chili was using. She sat on the bed.

The shower stopped and a minute later the bathroom door opened and Chili walked into the bedroom. He was naked and stopped in his tracks when he saw her.

Grace took a moment to take in the look of him: The broad shoulders, his slim waist, the muscular thighs. And the muscle between his legs wasn't bad either. She stood.

"I took a sick day. I figured if we're going to say goodbye we should do it right." She opened her robe and let it drop to the floor.

Chili came to her and swooped his arms around her and plastered his mouth onto hers. Grace's tongue instantly probed into his mouth and he sucked on it. With one arm around her back and her ass in the palm of his hand he lifted her and they fell onto the bed in a single melded piece.

Their kiss was deep and prolonged and their hands roamed their bodies, re-familiarizing their fingers to their fiery flesh. Chili kissed Grace's nose and eyes and hair and neck and shoulders and sucked her taut nipples into his mouth. Grace held his cock like a hardening lifeline and dug her nails into his neck.

Not playing favorites Chili alternated tits, sucking her nipples hard until they felt like chunks of gravel in his mouth. Grace moaned as Chili suckled her and she pulled on his cock like it was the arm of a slot machine and she was hitting the jackpot.

Chili tried to move his head further south to get to her salty oyster but Grace wouldn't let go of his cock. He got the idea quickly and pretzeled his body around quickly so his mouth was in her crotch and her mouth was in his. He spread her legs and she sighed loudly when he tickled her asshole with his tongue. He licked her slit and sucked her clit and felt it grow and harden in his mouth. Then he started fucking her pussy with his tongue.

Grace had been kissing and licking his dick and balls but Chili hissed into her cunt when she took his cock into her mouth. He thought back to the other stoned, smoky night—was that only two days ago?—and how he'd watched his whole member dissolve into her mouth and throat. He shoved his meat into her and as if she were reading his mind he felt her mouth widen and take it all in and just like that her lips were kissing his balls. Their bodies were grinding alternately like a giant inchworm as they crawled toward orgasm. Pushing his cock into Grace's head was slick bliss and the taste of her lusty snatch almost made him high. He knew he was going to blow a load soon and he wouldn't hold back. Then suddenly Grace's body shimmied and her water broke and with a loud groan and a mouthful of cock she came. Chili felt the warm wash in his mouth and on his face as he ate. Then she backed off slightly and sucked him even harder and milked his nuts at the same time.

He came like a hose that couldn't quite handle the pressure and might burst. As his cum boiled upward it was the kind of ejaculation that felt like the payload was just a tad too wide for the passageway and left an afterburner in its wake. Grace must have swallowed a good amount of cum, but not all of it because he saw a good amount ooze from her mouth and down her chin and some clung to the head of his cock as she moved her head away.

Chili spun his body up beside her and they kissed, their tongues resuming their earlier dance. Grace covered him with little kisses, all over his upper body, from head to waist. Once she relaxed she rested her head on his chest and gently held his scrotum in her hand.

After a minute of quiet repose Chili said, "Man, I could get used to this. Too bad I won't be able to."

"You're going to make me cry again."

"Oh, no, no crying, not after something so wonderful...so Graceful."

"I'm so fucked up," she said.

"What? No you're not."

"Yes, I am. Look how fucked-up my life is. I have a ring on my finger for what, going on two years now? No plans to marry. My family wonders what the hell's going on and I don't even know what to tell them anymore when they ask. What the fuck am I doing? Sure, I have a decent job and we live in a nice house, but I have a fiancé, if you want to call him that, who gambles too much, drinks too much, gets high too much and gets off watching other men fuck me. And look at me now, lying in bed with his old roommate."

"Ouch."

Grace looked up at him. "No! Sorry, I don't mean it like that. I took a sick day so I could go to bed with you. Is that fucked-up or what? So you could make love to me again. So I could feel you and hold you and you could hold me. I know you care. I can tell by the way to look at me and talk to me and flirt with me and touch me and kiss me and respect me. And fuck me; especially by the way you fuck me."

He pulled her up gently and put his lips to hers. Her mouth opened instinctively and sucked him in. They kissed deep and long and their fingers walked again all over their kindled skin. With his cock again board-certified Grace pulled Chili on top of her and wasted no time guiding it into her expectant twat.

"Fuck me," she rasped. He did.

They were immediately back in sync. Chili threw his cock into her with sturdy vigor and Grace swung her torso in perfect time with his movements. His grunts accompanied every plunge and he aimed the head of his cock at the deepest part of her.

"I love fucking you," he said sharply, and meaning it, although saddened by the fact that he could not have her. "I wish you were mine."

Chili dug two fingers into her asshole for a better grip and picked up the pace even more. He banged her with fervent force and the bed springs kept time like a tambourine. On and on they fucked, a chorus of sighs and moans and groans with each sweaty push, her pussy squeezing his pounding pecker, his fingers butt-fucking her and their tongues numb from doing their own sexy samba.

"Jesus, I'm gonna come again," Grace shouted.

Chili slowed to long, slower strokes to give her body room to erupt. Her head darted from side to side and her body bucked beneath him. With a shriek Grace expelled her cum and Chili could feel the wet warmth below him as he could feel the heat of her cheek against his own.

--

They were in bed for nearly four hours. They did a lot of kissing and holding and talking. And fucking; a whole lot of fucking. Chili's head spent another extended period between Grace's legs. In his exuberance he left her groin and thighs with several purple bruises he hoped Benny wouldn't notice. Last but not least Grace wanted it up the ass and Chili happily obliged, first with his tongue and then with his cock. She asked him to make it hurt because she wanted to feel him for a while. He could feel her sphincter loosening and tightening around his shaft as he drilled her and he yowled like a wildcat when he came and dumped his final shot of semen into her.

--

It was late morning and they were still in bed.

"I have to get going," Chili finally said. "But I need another shower."

Grace rose and said, "I'll make you some sandwiches for the road" She picked her robe up off the floor and put it on as she walked out the door.

When Chili got down to the kitchen Grace was dressed in blue jean cut-offs and a sleeveless top. She looked good enough to eat but he knew he was way overdue to leave already plus his dick was sore and felt like it was going to fall off. She had packed a small Styrofoam cooler with two sandwiches, a banana, an apple and a couple cans of cola. He put his bag down on the floor and they stood there looking at each other in silence for a moment or two.

"So this is it, I guess," Grace said finally.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"I know you have to go. I wish you could stay longer but I know why you have to leave. It's been nice having you."

Chili nodded. "Thank you. I'm sorry if I've complicated your life."

"No. My life was already a mess. I think I'm just now beginning to realize it." She stepped forward and put her hand against his cheek. "I think I'm going to miss you."

"I miss you already," he said. He put his hand over hers and kissed the palm of her hand.

"I wish I had a picture of you," Grace said with a slight crack in her voice.

"Talk to Benny. He took quite a few on Friday night."

"I mean a picture of you. Not a picture of your head in my crotch or your dick in my mouth." They both laughed, easing the angst.

"Do you have a pencil and paper?" Chili asked.

Grace nodded and pulled a piece of copy paper and a pencil out of a drawer and handed them to him. He drew a crude male face, much like his own, with mussed hair, ears, eyes and nose. Then he drew the mouth: turned downward in an inverted U creating the biggest and saddest frown possible.

"There," Chili said. "A very accurate representation wouldn't you say?"

Grace took a look and barked, "That's not funny!"

"I know. The truth hurts sometimes."

"I'm sorry, Chili."

"Don't be sorry." He could see her eyes begin to water. "Do you have a calendar?"

Grace nodded and pulled a calendar off of a magnetic clip on the side of the refrigerator. Chili took it and turned the pages to several months hence.

"We both love the blues, right?" Chili said. Grace nodded. He was looking at the month of July. He figured it was a good time because he wouldn't be too busy with work and it would be summer vacation for a school teacher. He circled a Friday in the middle of the month and handed the calendar to Grace.

"July fifteenth," he said. "A Friday. Memphis, Tennessee, blues capital of the south. On July 15, at the Peabody Hotel, in the main lobby, a block from Beale Street. Say, two p.m., mid-way between the duck marches. I'll be there."

"Duck marches?"

"Yeah. They have a bunch of ducks that live up on the roof. They come down in the elevator at eleven a.m. and march into the lobby and spend the day in this big fountain. Then they march back out at five."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Anyway, Memphis is about the same distance from here as it is from where I live. And I'll be there on July fifteenth. At two o'clock, waiting in the lobby. That gives you three months to figure things out."

Grace plopped down in a chair at the table, taking it in.

"If you don't show up, it's okay, I'll understand. I know there is a lot you need to consider. But if you do, you will be mine. And I will be yours."

Chili circled around behind where Grace was seated. He massaged her shoulders and then lowered his hands to her silky breasts. He held them as he kissed her temple, then her cheek, then the corner of her mouth.

"Goodbye, Grace," he said.

He walked back and picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He picked up the cooler and raised it up.

"Thanks for this," he said. Grace nodded.

He opened the door and turned to her and said, "I love you." Then he was out the door and gone.

She got up from the table and walked to the window. She watched him drive away with tears trickling down her cheeks and dripping from her nose.

--

Chili drove for seven hours before stopping for the night. The whole drive was a blur, a dissociative daze, with large chunks of highway behind him and unremembered. It was a wonder he thought, that he hadn't driven off the road.

He had no idea how he had come up with the idea of Memphis and the Peabody Hotel. It had just popped into his head. He knew it was only a last-second Hail Mary, with a slim chance of success, but he knew he had to do something. He knew they couldn't be in any kind of contact, that would only muddy things up even more. But if he'd just flat walked out without that date on the calendar, then his slim prospects were less than zero.

Over the following months Chili busied himself as much as possible. He worked long hours and filled his spare time with numerous activities. He dated a couple times but both were disasters. He was lousy company, and he couldn't help but compare them to Grace, and unfairly to them, they could never measure up.

He had dreams about her. In one he was standing in a long line on a ramp boarding a cruise ship. Grace was ten or twelve places ahead of him in line. She had a leg in a cast and was on crutches. He asked her about Benny and she said he was lost at sea. They talked about how they missed each other and how nice it would be to be on the cruise together so they could catch up and be together again. She boarded the ship and stood by the railing waiting for him. But only three more people after her were allowed on the ship when they shut the gate to the ramp and said they were filled to capacity, and started preparing to depart. He started screaming and tried to force his way forward but was fought back by the people in front of him. Grace was yelling to be allowed to get off and come back down the ramp but they wouldn't let her off. The dream ended with them both calling to each other as the ship sailed off.

In another dream Chili and Grace were passengers in a helicopter. They were holding hands and looking out the window as they came in for a landing. They kissed and said goodbyes. 'Don't worry,' he said, 'I'll see you in a couple days', and jumped down onto the tarmac and the door slid shut behind him. He stood and watched as the craft rose up into the air and flew off. The copter passed over a wooded area in the distance and then descended and disappeared behind it. A moment later there was a huge explosion and a massive, kaleidoscopic blast of smoke and flames flashed high into the air from behind the trees.

Grace dreamt too. She was with Chili in the Vapor Room and it was difficult to see him through the thick smoke. Flash bulbs were going off over and over, and every time she reached for him he would evaporate or vanish into a plume of smoke or slide just out of her reach and she was frustrated because she couldn't touch or hold him. Benny was yelling, 'No kissing! No kissing!' over and over and she awoke in sweaty frustration. Coincidentally, a few days after her dream Benny tried to stage another sexy trio in the Vapor Room, and as hard as he tried to convince her to do it, she flat-out refused. She expected a big fight from him later but it didn't happen.

In the days leading up to July fifteenth Chili would hold the calendar in his hand and stare at the date. He would kiss it. Three months with no contact. A lot can happen in three months. You know what they say, out of sight, out of mind. He knew he was grasping at a short straw.