Scary Good – Audio Book

Excerpt

For the next two months I didn’t see much of Julia and Warren. They moved in the next day; lots of boxes, but not much furniture. I did help them lug up a nice wooden dining table and chairs, a recliner and couch, and two beds. All in all though, it didn’t seem like enough to fill a three bedroom. Well, maybe they would grow into it. One day I did see them both struggling to lift some heavy pieces of wood upstairs; and a large trunk. They didn’t ask for my help with those. In fact, they absolutely refused my offer. For the next few days I caught the sounds of drilling and hammering, but by ten at night they went quiet. After all, people needed their sleep to get up for work early the next day.

And they both did work. Julia wore scrubs while Warren sported a suit and tie. But their schedules didn’t always quite match. A few times I found Julia by the poolside in a nice fitting one piece. More than once I noticed her face grimace as she carefully lay down on her back. If she was a nurse then maybe she had to turn patients over in bed and it had tweaked her spine. But when she walked with a large towel draped over her shoulders she didn’t shuffle. If anything, she behaved as if she were in the best of physical health.

I sure didn’t mind looking at her, but I knew better than to take it any further. She was married, which stopped everything right there anyway. In fact, they acted like no other married couple I had met before. They weren’t newlyweds; that was obvious in how they treated each other, but there was a closeness I had never seen in a married, or more accurately, a really committed couple. When they smiled at each other it wasn’t because they had to, it was more like they wanted to. When together they were almost always within each other’s personal space, like their auras were mixed and it was only natural they be that way. Seeing them like that I was jealous. I couldn’t help it. I wanted that too. And I wondered just what it was between them that made them like that. I found out, just by the sheerest chance.

One morning, as they left for work, Julia and Warren lingered for a moment longer than usual at their side-by-side cars, his Chevy hybrid and her equally white Chevy suv. I could see them through the office window, with Julia sort of facing in my direction. Julia’s lips moved, quick and sharp, her eyes narrowed, not in anger, but to help make her point. Suddenly, Warren’s hand gripped Julia’s hair at the back of her head. Julia’s face turned to the sky, mouth open, eyes closed. They both held still like that, a frozen tableau. I’m not a lip reader, but I was pretty sure Julia said “Yes” followed by something else. After another moment, Warren roughly released her and Julia’s eyes were downcast. I think Warren said something more. Julia nodded once; with her eyes still down she turned, got in her car, and drove away. Warren watched her, not moving until she was out of sight.

The next day I found Julia out at the pool. I waved at her and she kind of waved back, then turned over on the lounge chair. Above the back line of her bathing suit were marks. Red welts.

I backed away, retreated to the office. Already my pants were getting uncomfortable, the bulge down there more than obvious. I had a nice gig here and didn’t want to screw it up. A really good friend’s family owned the apartments, a fact that I kind of kept hidden. Not that there really was anything to hide, but it didn’t seem necessary to tell others. I was burned out from college and carrying all that student debt just made things worse. When I graduated what I needed was something simple to just let me think about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and how to pay off those loans. So my college roommate Glen got me the apartment manager job. Also, I had more than a few dating disasters in college. And it wasn’t like I was about to just tell someone I had a kink for… for leather. I had tried to come out my last year at school, dating a shapely and provocative psych major that kind of let on she was more broadminded than others. But when I told her my fantasies she gently suggested I get some therapy. So, for now, there wasn’t any girlfriend around to distract me. And Julia definitely wasn’t available. So I just minded my own business and admired her from afar. And that’s how it was going to stay.

Humph. Yeah, right. A couple of days later the distance between us got a lot closer.

I was on my way out on some errand that wouldn’t wait. As I turned a corner I nearly ran into Julia. She nervously dropped a tube of something that squirted out white cream. I quickly stepped back with a mumbled “Sorry”.

“Aw, shit!” Julia said, looking down at the mess. She bent down to pick up the tube and gritted her teeth in a spasm of pain.

“Are you alright?” I said.

“It’s my back,” she said. “Warren… Well, Warren can get a little rambunctious. He doesn’t always understand when I give my safe… I mean, when I tell him to slow down. If you know what I mean.”

“Ah, yeah.” Oh, shit, here comes the erection. Ignore it, ignore it, and maybe she will too.

“In fact, I was coming to ask you for help.” She held up the tube. “This stuff is for my back. Usually only Warren spreads it on, but I really can’t wait for him. Would you mind?”

“Uh, you want me to put it on…on your bare back?” Oh, fuck, cock straining against my pants. Next thing it’s going to break out and make like the chest ripper in Alien.

“Now, David, don’t get me wrong,” Julia said, her light blue eyes boring in to mine. “That’s all I’m asking. That’s all. Got it? Will you please help me? Please?”

Alright, alright I thought to myself. Outwardly I swallowed and nodded. As I filled my palm with the cream Julia turned around and lifted her shirt in back. Thank god she wore a bra! But any thoughts of her wearing underwear or not fled when I saw those marks again. I spread the cream over them, working my hand underneath the bra strap in back. I covered them all, including the ones at the small of her back, near the top of her buttocks.

“Oh, that feels so good. Thank you, David.” Julia drew down the shirt and turned around, one pants covered ass cheek quickly rubbing against my erect cock. A couple of fast air kisses on both sides of my face and she was gone. I stood there, like some kind of dumb virgin, the tube still in my hand.

***

I didn’t do the errand. No way could I safely drive. On my couch I stared at the television, images and sounds assaulting me, comprehending nothing. Julia’s bare back. The welts. And how they got here. The doorbell rang. Several times. At last I put two and two together, knowing that when it chimed someone was outside waiting for you to open the door. I moved like a sleepwalker and guess who it was?

“Julia tells me you helped her out today.” Warren. It was Warren. What was next? A warning to leave his wife alone? Or maybe a fist in my face?

His hand did move, but the palm was open, and stayed near waist level. “She told me you still have her ointment?”

“Huh? Oh, right.” It was on the kitchen table. I hurriedly retrieved it. Warren had stepped a few more feet inside and I sensed this visit was not yet finished.

“Listen, David, I really want to sincerely thank you for what you did. Sometimes I get a little too wrapped up in what Julia and I are doing – ”

“I get it,” I said, perhaps a little too fast, then slowed down. “I get it.”

Warren gave me a long, penetrating look. “Yes, I believe you do. We all do our best to fit in, to look no different than anyone else. But there are clues. Even if we don’t know we’re giving them off. And most times, the one giving them off is the last one to find out. But again, thank you. Not just from Julia, but also from me. For the respect you showed my slave.”

With that Warren turned and left.

Slave?

I stood there numb, staring at the empty, open door. Knowing what happened, what was said, yet still not believing it.

Slave.