The Wednesday Couple

Some of his wiring would never pass inspection, but it was safe and only there until the right parts could be ordered. Most of the townsfolk seemed to start their first conversation with me with the words "Katie said," and it became an echo in my life. If she wasn't on the radio, the people who came in kept her name in my head. In one of my more flamboyant moods I casually mentioned to the last person I talked to in my shop that I may need a part-time assistant.

The next morning a woman walked into the shop and stood directly at the desk. Her deep blue eyes held a seriousness about them that her smile couldn't soften. Her hair hung loose, but couldn't hide the burn mark on her left cheek and down her neck. For a moment I did wonder how far the burn went down her body, but just until I figured out that it was none of my business.

"I've come for the job. I will work four hours a day during school times and two hours a day when school is out, and get cover when it's needed. Once I'm married we may have to negotiate a different hour scale, depending on how long it takes me to get pregnant."

If you have ever tried to play catch up on a conversation you have never been part of, you are where I was right about then. The lights still didn't come on until she followed with "Katie said you're looking for an assistant to handle the stock and keep the books in order."

It was then she saw the understanding on my face; what she didn't see was more than understanding about the job. When Beryl protected her man and brought him home she left a part of herself in Afghanistan as well.

"Did she tell you how much I pay?"

Even her eyes softened a little; more so when she nodded her head.

"I know it's minimum wage, but it's all going to the wedding anyway."

This woman was proud; she wanted to earn her way, even though I knew Jordon worked. I leaned on the counter and looked real hard at her. Beryl's features hardened once again, expecting bad news.

"OK, these are my terms and conditions, and are non-negotiable. The hours are fine; you do the stock orders when I'm down to one, and of course if I let you know I need more then get it. You only get to phone the radio station once a day on the shop phone."

She bit back her smile and her neck got ever so slightly red about then. The eyes softened even more as well.

"Between us we will muddle for awhile until we get to the point that we understand one another, so don't go all crying-girl on me since I don't stock tissues. Plus, and this could well be the deal breaker here, the day of your wedding I get to hand you two a check for a thousand dollars to go to whatever fund you want, be it baby fund or honeymoon."

You could almost feel the wheels going round in her head, right up until her eyes narrowed and the hardness returned to them.

"Why?"

I sensed she was ready to walk, the only reason she was still here being to find out the answer to her question. Katie's remark about tarring people with the same brush still echoed in my thoughts even after the few days it had been since she said it.

"You and Jordon love one another. I don't think I've said more than ten words to Jordon and not that many more to you, but I know your history, and every day on the radio I'm reminded about what true love is supposed to be. So the thousand dollars is my way of thanking you both for reminding this old man that true love does exist with the right woman by your side."

Her eyes moistened before she nodded her head, turned and walked out of the shop. It wasn't until an hour later when Katie came by that I knew whether or not Beryl had accepted the job. She came with a coffee in one hand and another sandwich in the other.

"We don't do pin the money on the wedding dress in this town."

The smile reached her eyes and for that I was eternally grateful. Katie watched as I pulled the saran wrap away from the sandwich and handed her half, and for the first time since I had met this woman she seemed confused about something. Hell, it was half a sandwich, nothing more, and yet she still seemed reluctant to take it. It finally dawned on me that perhaps she was more used to giving than receiving.

For the first time since I came here I started to get pissed.

"It's called sharing bread. Where I come from, decent folks do it all the time and without the need for anything in return. I'm asking if you're hungry; I'm not asking you for a date."

At least she had she decency to blush before she declined the offer of half my sandwich.

"Beryl said to tell you that they don't have time for a honeymoon, so it will go to family projects. She's already looking up days out at theme parks with their boy."

I just had time to nod my head before her attention went back to the radio. Katie must have figured out she had spent too long talking to me and dashed out of the shop. She must have made it back to the radio station in time, since the news and weather finished and the sound of Katie seamlessly continued as though the dash out of the shop hadn't even happened.

*******

Beryl turned up the next Monday morning and basically took over the shop. She re-did the stock take I had already done, and tutted her way through it as she pulled parts off shelves and placed them on other shelves.

When I went to make us coffee she had already put a note above the kettle with her preference. Reading from the note I was supposed to put the milk in last, even after the sugar. The devil in me wanted to see if she would notice if I put the milk in first, but even a quick look at the way she was moving stuff around on the shelves told me that she most probably would.

The muddling through bit took two weeks, or maybe you could say one week since Beryl was part-time. She would bitch at me on a Monday since I worked on the Saturday, and she quickly noticed things missing and no notes or reason why, so had to go hunting through the job sheets to figure it out. It caused about the only argument I ever had with her. She ranted about the work I was making for her, and in retaliation I asked who paid her.

Beryl stopped dead in her tracks and looked real hard at me. It was then I knew how she kept herself and Jordon alive as she systematically killed those men.

"I'm not here to breast-feed you. Look after the stock and keep a clean shop I will do; run around after you I won't. You're a grown man and I'm told have qualifications to prove you're a good electrician, but that doesn't make you a slob. So write down what you take off the shelves and I will do the rest. Mess with me again and I may just piss in your coffee. Get me?"

I got. To say I may have overstepped my boundaries would have come as a gross understatement. What could I say? She was right. We muddled on for a couple of days, and I made sure I smelt my coffee when she handed me one.

*******

The town had a collective buzz about it over the coming months. Jordon and Beryl's wedding seemed to be the hot topic, and the procession of people just popping into the shop to talk details of wedding arrangements meant I kept out of the way or clamped my mouth shut when passing through. On occasions Beryl struggled to get a sitter so brought her son into the shop: he would sit in the corner with pencils and paper and amuse himself.

I felt a pang of sadness as my own memories came flooding back: of the two little people I had spent ten years thinking were the fruit of my loins, only to stare at the paperwork stating that they were someone else's. Leaving her was the easy part, but walking away from those two children drove a stake through me. If anyone was innocent in this whole mess, it was them. They were the real victims in that charade of a marriage.

Katie gradually wore me down. At first she was just the judge's daughter, but she had gone from being the "cute little redhead" who had delivered that first breakfast to someone who I realized just about ran the town, despite her relative youth. Not only that, but she had done such a good job of sneaking under my skin that I was hard-pressed to imagine life without her. She would still turn up and scare the pants off me, though I'm sure she did it to see if I would crack my head again. On occasions I would have lunch or dinner at the diner; it didn't take Katie long to sit down next to me when that happened.

"Can you tell me why you're bugging me?"

The question didn't even faze her.

"Oh, that's easy. I want to see if you really are an asshole who has women issues, or if it's just the one woman that fucked with you."

The staring competition took even longer. She even rested her arms on the table to make herself comfortable while we did. I actually found what she said quite funny, although I may not have a few weeks earlier. Looking back on that conversation, I should have quit while I was behind.

"Well, the mouth on you makes me wonder if you are a woman."

This time she moved her hands and started to unbutton her blouse.

"What are you doing?"

By now Katie had a hand on both parts of her blouse and pulled it apart. Her breasts sat snugly in her bra, the freckles adding to her charms.

"I'm showing you my tits, dumb ass, so you can see I'm a woman."

I leant across the table and pulled her blouse closed. Marlene came over and poured more coffee into our cups.

"Not in here, please, sweetie."

Katie looked up at her friend and said, "I'm sorry, Marlene, but this shit-for-brains had it coming."

"That may be so, honey, but Emmett just spat his coffee over the floor when you got your tits out and I'm stuck with cleaning it all up. You have a gripe with him, then take it elsewhere."

Marlene moved away from us and headed to the kitchen, coming back out with a bucket and mop just seconds later. My head turned to once again look at Katie; she seemed to be waiting for me to do just that.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but just enough to let me know a storm was coming.

"Don't fucking play with me shit-for-brains, are you man enough? So far I've done all the dancing: it's your turn."

It wasn't a single light-bulb that clicked in my brain at that moment; it was like a whole stadium lighting up as I realized that, for some strange reason, Katie fancied me as much as I fancied her.

*******

She laughed when I switched the sign to "Closed." She even resisted heading up the stairs. Something about her virtue, and what would the folks in town think? The bitching stopped when she decided that I wasn't getting my pants down fast enough. Hell, how could I, since she was already naked and all I could do was stare at her.

"My God, you're beautiful."

"Flattery ain't going to stop me sticking your dick in my mouth, shit-for-brains."

And, to prove her point, she did just that. Her hands went behind me and held onto my ass, the magic that had been her dirty mouth for the last half an hour doing more than drain me. Her eyes locked onto mine, challenging me to either give in or make her fight for it. Katie may have been all of a hundred and twenty pounds in the birthday suit she was showing me right now, but all of those pounds carried determination inside them.

We both knew I wasn't going to last all that long: the woman attached to me made sure of that. Even more so when I went to tell her, my cock telegraphing that information to Katie before my own voice got to her. With the speed I had come to associate with this woman she detached herself from my cock, stood up, and jacked me off with her hand. We both watched as rope after rope splashed across her stomach, its own momentum already starting its slide towards her navel.

"I've known you since you arrived here, Daniel, and that's been in you since then. I do swallow," she chuckled, "but I have no intention of drowning in the stuff."

For the first time in awhile I smiled. The scene before me was just plain weird, and perhaps one of the reasons my next questions left my lips.

"Shit-for-brains?"

Katie blushed; her motions with her hand also stopped me going soft.

"When a man's got his back against a wall he has no choice but to come out fighting, Daniel. It's easy enough to see that you like me ... a lot... just like I like you, but it looked like you would never do anything about it. I had to goad you into this; the alternative was just to continue watching you die a little more inside each day."

My finger traced the length of cum that ran down her stomach. Katie shuddered when I got to her navel, a moan escaping her lips before she had a chance to hide it.

"Make love to me, Daniel. I don't do weird sex. Just love me, and you will get it back in spades."

Her hand stopped, and then tightened around my cock just firmly enough for me to know that she planned on making a point.

"I'm not the bitch you left, Daniel. When this goes into me then you're my man, and my man gets the respect he deserves. Make love to me, Daniel, and I will do my best to make your pain go away, but if you ever look on me like you do her, and treat me bad for something I didn't do all because I have tits and a pussy like her, then this comes off with a blunt knife." An extra little squeeze just emphasized the "this" that she was talking about.

So there stood Katie, her eyes showing so many emotions that I had trouble keeping up. So far she had been right on so many subjects. I did wonder how she did it, but just remembered the phrase I had heard from so many people in this town: "that's Katie." To emphasize her point even further, she leant down and placed her mouth around my finger. Her tongue swirled around it, taking possession of all the cum it had collected. Her hand also eased its pressure on my cock, for which I was ever so grateful.

"This is your last chance, Daniel. We have a bed behind me, so do we make use of it or are you going to let the bitch continue to eat the life out of you?"

In a moment of blinding clarity, it dawned on me that something had to give before I self-destructed, and that realization meant that, at last, my mind could finally be at peace with itself. I was looking at a woman who, at that moment, was not only a mind-reader but the most beautiful woman in the world. She was also naked, and holding onto a fairly important part of me.

"Condoms?"

She tried ever so hard to hide a smile, "No need; on the pill."

"You clean?"

Katie sensed where this conversation was headed, and didn't kick off at my question. "As clean as you."

"You do anal?"

This time the smile got in ahead of her attempt to hide it. "Only when you have worn out the other two holes."

"You sleep on the left or right side?"

The glance at the bed bought her a second before she answered, "As long as I have room to rest my head on your chest, and to throw a leg over you so I know when you try to sneak out, I don't give a shit what side."

"OK, I'm done; the interview is over."

Katie finally let go of my cock and jumped onto me, her hands around my neck and her legs clamped around my waist. Even as light a weight as Katie was, the unexpected act of climbing all over me took me by surprise, and we both landed on the bed. Katie looked directly at me.

"My turn, buster. I like morning sex, so don't be surprised if you wake up and I've already got a head start on you."

I waited for her to continue but, when she said no more, I replied with "OK."

"What? You want more? Let me say this slowly so you can understand. Both of us haven't had sex for so long that neither of us will last. Before we hammer the shit out of each other the first time of asking, you had better be prepared to make it up to me the second time round."

The Katie I knew with clothes on was just the same one I saw in front of me now without. She was that breath of fresh air I needed and, when I looked at her one last time, her eyes held that "what are you waiting for?" look about them. Her kiss was real and held nothing back, and her neck signaled her excitement by its warmth as I nuzzled her in return. Her pelvis lifted to try and trap my cock. As my body slid down hers and back onto the floor, my cock dragged across her pubic bone and traced the entire length of her slit.

Katie's hands quickly grabbed my head and pulled our eyes close together. Words weren't needed: she was pissed off, and if I carried on teasing she would take matters into her own hands. With my knees now on the floor and her own legs draped over the edge of the bed, I held a leg in each hand on the way back up and placed them tight to my chest. The smile that radiated from that woman melted my heart.

She seemed to sense my mind drifting away, and quickly brought me back to reality. Her hand once again found my cock as I stood up, and was already in the process of rubbing it up and down her slit. More of me entered her on her downward motion until even Katie's own impatience took over.

"I need to cheat, Daniel; this dry spell of mine has made me tight, and I don't want to damage this."

The "this" got a gentle squeeze with one hand while the other frantically rubbed her clit, and within seconds her eyes became unfocused as the sensual assault on her body continued. I watched and waited; perhaps mesmerized would be a better word. Katie was so comfortable with her own body that she didn't even feel uncomfortable with me staring at her actions. Finally the hand around my cock pulled me towards her and, as the bulbous head of my cock entered her, the rubbing of her clit increased.

Katie's head arched back, her neck totally exposed as a slow moan escaped her lips. Her body was doing a fine job lubricating the walls of her pussy, yet she still felt the need to remove her hand from my cock and place it on my body to stop me entering her any deeper.

"Fuck, Daniel, two years has been too long. Thank God you're not going to find a hymen down there or you may think I'm still a virgin."

Even this guy thought it best to keep his mouth shut, and not answer what was clearly a rhetorical statement. Over the next few minutes a pattern emerged. Katie would frantically rub her clit and nod her head at the same time for me to ease slightly further inside her. Her hand would again stop me as the resistance became too much and her muscles had to take time to adjust. I always thought myself Joe Average in the penis department and, looking down at this sweating, panting and clit-rubbing angel, I'm sure she was grateful I was too.

The sigh as pubic hair met with bald pussy drew my attention away from the snug fit of my cock in its new home. The expression on Katie's face made it look like she had just won the New York Marathon: sweating, drained, and glad that it was over. As that thought snuck into my mind, I had to clamp my lips together to stop the only answer I had in return leaking out: was she ready for her prize now?

When her last moan ended her eyes opened. Her whole body was bathed in sweat, yet all that lay in front of me was a glow with a smile on top. Katie's lips moved, and after licking her lips she tried again.

"Well, that was fun! Judging by the way you're looking at me, Daniel, I think it best if I have my legs back."

As my hands released her legs, Katie slowly removed them from my chest and placed them around my waist in anticipation. My thoughts, although borderline carnal, still held concern for the woman in front of me.

"Are you OK?"

She smiled and nodded her head. I'm almost sure she wanted to leave it at that, but I refused to move.

"Who do you see in front of you, honey?" she asked.

At first I thought it was an odd question but, thinking back on certain conversations, I realized why she asked.

"Katie. As naked and as beautiful as I have ever seen her."

She grinned at my flattery but, just as I would have expected, it didn't fool her.

"You're in me, Daniel, not her. You get this one chance to kick the dust covers off both of us; after that you're mine and I'm yours. She is a distant memory, Daniel. Hell, she shouldn't even be part of this conversation since your cock is so deep in me, but I'm not letting you do what your eyes are telling me."