Jennie

The next week flew by pretty quickly when I wasn't thinking about Lisa, which was practically every second of every day.

Okay, so I guess it didn't really fly so much as go so fucking slowly I wanted to shove a rusty fork in my eye. I wanted to talk to her and see if she was okay but every time I decided to pick up the phone and get her number, I put it right back down. Regardless of how shitty the way she found out was, now she knew. If she wanted to know the whole story, if she had questions or concerns or just wanted to bite my head off, the ball was in her court. She knew where I worked, and she knew how to find me if she wanted to talk. Maybe I was being stubborn, but oh well. I was a girl and it was my right to stomp my foot and hold my breath.

I handled two parties for Doyeon this week and got three orders for cookie trays from the women there so things were looking up in that regard. Aside from the parties, I was keeping fairly busy. During the day, I baked and finished getting things ready at the shop and in the evenings, I bartended and tried not to stare at the door every time someone walked in, hoping it was Lisa.

By Thursday I had tested out every single product from Doyeon's magic suitcase and decided to hell with men. I was going to marry the Jack Rabbit. We were going to run away together and would be very happy making little tiny Jack Rabbit babies together. That thing was going to have to grow some arms and legs though. After a few years of being married to JR, I was not going to be able to walk anymore. JR would have to carry me to Pleasure Town.

I spent all day Thursday in the kitchen at the shop making white chocolate covered potato chips and baking Snickers Surprise cookies for the party I was doing Saturday night. It would be the last party I would do since the shop was opening next week. Now that I knew what all the fuss was about with these sex toys, I was a little sad to see the parties go. Doyeon told me I could keep my suitcase of fun though.

I made her sign a waiver that stated that in the event of an emergency or the death of Jennie Ruby Jane Kim, she was required to remove the suitcase from the premises within fifteen minutes of said emergency and/or death. It was always a good idea to have a plan like this in place. God forbid your dad or your grandmother got to the scene first and found your stash. You just couldn't allow that to happen. It's also probably a good idea to have them delete your internet history. No one really needs to wonder why you Googled "turtle having orgasm" or were closely watching an EBay auction of a Jesus candle with a penis.

Don't judge me. Google is my enemy after a few glasses of wine.

I was under similar contractual obligations to get to Doyeon and Jim's house and erase the web history on their computer within fifteen minutes and dispose of any and all pornographic movies in their nightstand, under their bed, on the top shelf of their closet, saved on their DVR, packed in the third box from the left in the garage and in the cupboard in the kitchen where the cutting boards are.

I'm not kidding. She made me a list.

As I dipped a potato chip into the big silver bowl of melted white chocolate, I looked out to the front of the store and smiled. Gabi was lying on his stomach by the windows coloring a picture. When I walked out there a little while ago, he covered it up and told me I wasn't allowed to see it. I held the chip above the bowl to let the excess chocolate drip off and then set it down on the sheet of wax paper next to me just as I heard the door connecting mine and Doyeon's store open.

"You can just turn right back around and go back to your side. For the last time, I am not going to tell you on a scale of one to "holy shit" how good my orgasm was last night with the butterfly vibrator."

"Well that sucks. Can I at least watch next time?"

My head jerked up and my mouth hung open at the sound of Lisas baritone voice.

Why the fuck am I always talking out of my ass around her? And why the hell is she standing there looking so God dammed hot that I want to mount her face.

"Um, you're dripping," she said.

"I know," I muttered, staring at her lips.

She laughed and I blinked myself back to reality as she pointed at the bowl.

"I meant the bowl is tipped. The chocolate is dripping out."

My head flew down and I muttered profanities as I righted the bowl and used my fingers to wipe the drips off of the lip of the bowl and the counter.

Lisa walked over to stand next to me and just like our last few encounters, her close proximity forced my pulse into overdrive.

"I'm sorry I snuck up on you like that. Doyeon caught me as I was getting out of my car and dragged me into her side so she could hand me my ass," she explained as I concentrated on wiping up the chocolate and tried to ignore the heat from her body. "I hope you don't mind me dropping by like this. I feel like such a dick that it's taken me this long to talk to you"

I stood there like an idiot, trying not to touch anything since my fingers were full of chocolate. I turned my head to the side and found her face inches from my own. I saw the sincerity in her eyes, and I knew I could never be mad at her about this.

"It's okay, believe me. I've had a lot of time to get used to the idea. I'm sorry that it was sprung on you like that out of the blue. I swear that I fully intended to tell you. I don't want you to think I intentionally kept this from you. I planned on telling you from the start. I was just trying to figure out how. And then it all blew up before I could do anything about it," I explained.

I realized right then that I didn't want her to be mad at me. I wanted more than anything for her to be able to handle this and to stick around. Spending the last week going to bed without hearing her voice was sad and depressing. Having her here right now made me realize just how much I missed her.

"We have a lot of things to talk about I guess. You have no idea how many questions are swirling around in my head right now," she said.

I nodded my head and before I could say anything, she changed the subject.

"But for right now, I am in a kitchen with a beautiful woman who has melted chocolate all over her fingers," she said with a smirk.

Before I could grab a towel, she reached over and wrapped her hand around one of my wrists and pulled my hand towards her. I held my breath as she opened her mouth and slid my chocolate coated index finger into her mouth. The pad of my finger slid along the roughness of her tongue as she sucked all of the chocolate off while she slowly pulled my finger back out through her warm, wet lips.

Check please!

"Mommy, I finished coloring my picture!"

The excited yell and pounding footsteps of Gabi as he barreled into the kitchen doused a bucket of cold water all over my vagina. For once, I was glad I had a built-in cock-blocker in the form of a four-year-old. I was one more finger suck away from dropping Lisa down on the floor and showing her that I was quite bendy.

Quickly wiping my hands on the apron I wore, I turned away from Lisa and bent down to my son's level.

"Can I see your picture now?"

Gabi held it tight to his chest and shook his head no.

"Sorry, Mommy. I maded this picture for the little maggot," he said earnestly.

I heard Lisa laugh behind me.

"Um, did you say 'little maggot'?" I asked.

"Yup," he said, popping the 'p'.

"Do I even want to know who you're talking about?"

Gabi pointed behind me to Lisa.

"Her. Papa called her dat the day we met her."

I groaned in embarrassment. One of these days my father was going to have to realize that Gabi is a parrot.

"I don't like your name. It's weird. And you don't look so little to me," Gabi said to Lisa. "But I still drewed you a picture."

He reached around me and handed the paper to Lisa. I took a quick glance at it and realized it was a picture of a big stick figure being punched in the junk by a little stick figure.

"Well, at least now I have a photo to commemorate our first meeting," Lisa deadpanned quietly.

"Gabi, how about you just call her Lisa," I said, looking to Lisa with my eyebrows raised in question to make sure she was okay with that.

She nodded her head at me and smiled, then squatted down so we were both eye-level with Gabi.

"Thank you very much for my picture," she said with a smile.

Gabi wasn't big on strangers, mostly because I put the fear of God into him when we had the discussion about stranger-danger. In hind sight, telling him all strangers wanted to eat him wasn't my finest hour. Having to explain to a bunch of crying children in line to see Santa why my kid was screaming "DON'T GO NEAR HIM! HE'LL EAT YOUR FINGERS!" was no picnic. Doyeon had to talk me out of taking him to the vet and getting a GPS chip put in his neck. Something told me though that anyone who took my kid would bring him back within the hour. They wouldn't be able to take the kicks to the nuts and the cursing.

Gabi didn't usually talk to strangers unless I prompted him to do so. The ease with which he talked to Lisa surprised me.

"You're welcome, Lisa. My papa is coming to get me so Mommy can give beer to people. Papa lets me watch movies that Mommy don't let me watch and I get to have pop and I wanna get a dog but my friend Luke has a jeep that he rides in the yard and I hurted my knee and it got cut and Mommy put a band-aid on it and told me to 'shake it off' so I wouldn't cry and did you know vampires suck?"

"Gabi!" my dad bellowed before I got a chance to.

He had walked into the store during Gabi's run-on-sentence and was almost to the kitchen when he heard her drop that bomb. I quickly stood up and faced her with my hands on my hips.

"Dad, I told you he wasn't allowed to watch that movie."

"Hey, Lisa, I'm team Jacob, bitch!" Gabi yelled.

"Gabriel Allen! Do you want me to put soap in your mouth?" I asked him sternly.

Gabi shrugged. "Soap tastes like Fruity Pebbles."

My dad came around the counter and picked up Gabi before I could punt him like a football.

"Sorry, Jennie, "Vampires Suck" was on cable the other night and there was nothing else on. You'll be happy to know that he covered his eyes during the s-e-x stuff," he explained.

"Super," I muttered.

"I saw boobs!" Gabi yelled happily.

"Okay, he may have peeked a few times," my dad admitted after Gabi's announcement.

Of all the times for Gabi to act completely like…well, Gabi, of course it had to be when Lisa showed up. No wonder she hadn't said a peep in the last few minutes. She was probably stunned stupid.

I glanced behind me and saw Lisa standing completely still, staring over my shoulder at my dad. I turned back around in time to catch my dad doing the whole two-finger eye-point to Lisa that Gabi and Doyeon did the other day.

Oh for fuck's sake. It's like we suddenly have a family salute.

"Dad, quit it. Lisa, you haven't been formally introduced. This is my dad, George."

Lisa stuck her hand out towards him, "It's a pleasure to…"

"Cut the s-h-i-t," my dad cut him off."

Somehow he didn't sound as threatening when he had to spell everything. This could work as long as Gabi was here as a buffer.

"I've got my eye on you. I was in Nam and still have shrapnel in my skin from the b-o-m-b-s. You like the smell of napalm in the morning girl?"

"DAD! Enough!" I scolded.

I leaned over and gave Gabi a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll see you later, baby. You be good for Papa okay?"

He slyly reached over and tried to pull the front of my shirt down.

"Lemme see your boobs."

I grabbed his hand before he could give everyone a peep show and shot a dirty look to my dad who was just standing there laughing.

"Hey, I did not teach him that. He must be a boob person."

Lisa laughed but quickly stopped when my dad looked over at her.

"Are you a boob person Lisa?" he asked menacingly.

"I…well…um…I…don't."

I rolled my eyes at my dad and rescued Lisa from him.

"Say goodbye to Lisa," I told Gabi.

"Bye, Lisa!" Gabi said with a smile and a wave as my dad turned and headed out of the kitchen.

"Papa, what's Nam? Is it a park? Can we go there?" I heard Gabi ask as they walked out the front door. With a big sigh I turned to face Lisa.

"Sorry about that," I said sheepishly. "I will completely understand if you turn around right now and run far, far away. Really, I won't hold it against you."

"Jennie?"

I stopped fidgeting with my apron and finally looked up at her.

"Shut up," she said with a smile.

--

After my dad and Gabi left, Lisa helped me clean up the kitchen and put everything away. We talked more in depth than we had on the phone now that I wasn't so worried about slipping up. I finally found out that Lisa was crashing the frat party that night and didn't even go to The University of Ohio. She felt awful about all the time I spent with Doyeon and Jim trying to find her, and I felt guilty all over again about leaving her that morning. Especially right now, when she was being so nice and amazingly understanding about everything.

For the time being, Lisa was sticking around. I wasn't going to hold my breath though. She said she wanted to spend time with us and do this the right way, but she also hasn't spent time alone with Gabi yet.

As Gabi so nicely put it, I had to give beer to people tonight, so after we finished cleaning Lisa walked me down the street to the bar so we could continue talking. I remembered how easy it was to talk to her five years ago and how she seemed to get me and my humor when no one else did. She made me feel comfortable and she made me laugh. All of those things happened when we talked on the phone but sometimes it was harder to duplicate that level of comfort when you were face to face. In all honesty, it almost seemed easier to be with her like this, to be able to gauge her face for reactions to things I said and to see her expressions when I told her something about Gabi. It made me wish I'd done so many things differently. I was sad that she had missed out on the beginning of Gabi's life. She saw him now as a walking, talking, mouthy little boy, but she didn't get to experience the best parts, the parts that made his attitude and temper tantrums and bad habits all worth while-the first smile, the first words, the first steps, the first bear hug, and the first, "I love you."

Those were all the things that kept me from selling my child at a garage sale on a daily basis, and Lisa didn't have those things. It worried me that her expectations might be too high. What if she just couldn't form a connection with Gabi? I felt connected to Lisa in a way I never had with anyone else. She made me feel things I'd only dreamed about. But I didn't have just myself to consider anymore. I had to think about my son and how all of this was going to affect him.

For now, I suppose I needed to just let Lisa into our lives and see where it took us.

When we got to the bar, I changed quickly into my black shorts and Fosters Bar and Grill t-shirt and was surprised to see Lisa making herself comfortable at the bar when I came out of the bathroom.

I got behind the counter and walked over to stand in front of her.

"I thought you were going home," I said as I leaned onto my elbows.

She shrugged at me and smiled. "I figured, why go home to an empty house when I can sit here and stare at a hot chick all night."

I felt myself blushing and tried to suppress the giddy smile I felt coming on.

"Well, you're outta luck. It's just me here tonight."

No, I am absolutely not fishing for compliments.

"Then I guess it's a good thing that you are the hottest, sexiest woman I have ever seen."

Here, fishy, fishy, fishy.

I leaned over the bar a little to bring myself closer to her and she did the same. I didn't care if I was at work, I wanted to kiss her. And there were hardly any people here right now anyway. It was still early.

I licked my lips as I stared at her mouth and I heard her groan quietly. One more inch and I could run my tongue across her top lip.

"OUCH!"

I jerked away from Lisa and yelled when something smacked against the back of my head.

Rubbing my hand against the spot, I turned around to see T.J. with both his arms in the air doing a victory dance.

"Direct hit, Kim! That's another point for me!" he yelled as he ran over to the chalkboard behind the bar at the opposite end from me and put a tally mark under his name.

"Son of a bitch," I muttered as I turned back around to Lisa.

"Um, what the hell was that about?" she asked with a laugh.

Before I could tell her it was just T.J. being a dick, the man in question ran up and stood next to me behind the bar. He slapped a ping pong ball down on the top right in front of Lisa.

"That, my man, is a little something we like to call P.O.R.N."

"Wow, your idea of porn and mine are slightly different," Lisa said as she picked up the ping pong ball and rolled it around in her hands.

"No, no, no. Not porn. P.O.R.N.," T.J. spelled out.

Lisa looked completely lost.

"It's just this little game we play when it's slow in here," I said.

T.J. rested one hand on the bar and the other on his hip.

"Jennie, don't underestimate the awesomeness that is P.O.R.N. You are completely devaluing the one thing that makes me not want to kill myself every time I come to work. A little more respect for P.O.R.N. please."

T.J. turned his attention to Lisa. "Jennie made up the rules," T.J. said excitedly as he pulled a piece of paper out from under the bar.

"Rules?" Lisa questioned. "Don't you just throw the ball at someone?"

T.J. pushed the paper across the top of the bar and Lisa picked it up to read through it.

"Au contraire my friend. There always need to be rules in P.O.R.N. Otherwise, he'll throw a ball, she'll throw a ball, they'll all throw a ball…it'll be anarchy."

"Alright there, Breakfast Club, walk away before I break the ten-foot distance rule and chuck one at your face," I told him.

T.J. walked away and Lisa laughed as she read the rules out loud.

"Rule number one: P.O.R.N. is more fun with friends, invite them. Otherwise, you just look pitiful engaging in P.O.R.N. alone. Rule number two: Sharp objects should never be used in P.O.R.N. Poking someone's eye out will ruin the moment. Rule number three: Sneak attacks or "back door action" must come with advanced warnings or have prior approval. Rule number four: Only two balls allowed in play at all times to avoid ball-confusion, unless approved by the judges. Rule number five: P.O.R.N. is over when the other player(s) say it's over. Otherwise, someone is left holding useless balls."

Yes, sometimes I act like a twelve-year-old boy. Don't judge me.

"So what exactly does P.O.R.N. stand for and how do I get in on this action?" Lisa asked with wag of her eyebrows.

"Well, the official title is Pong Organization Rules and Notices. But sometimes we shorten it to 'throwing shit at each other.' Frankly, I'm not sure you can handle P.O.R.N., Lisa. It's an intense game of skill, determination and craftiness," I explained with a grin as I took the ball from her hand, turned quickly and whipped it across the bar to hit T.J. square in the ass as he was wiping down one of the tables.

"MOTHER FUCK!" T.J. yelled.

"It's all about being talented with your hands really," I said as I turned back around to face Lisa.

I have absolutely no idea where this boldness shit was coming from. I felt like I was channeling Doyeon.

"Don't worry, Jennie, I'm pretty good with my hands. I have a feeling I'd be excellent at P.O.R.N. It's all about how you angle your fingers and the stroke you use…when throwing the ball. Sometimes you have to do it slow and gentle, and other times you have to do it hard and fast."

Sweet baby innuendos, Batman.

"What time do you get off?"

In about ten seconds.

"Not until one. I have to close by myself tonight," I told her while I squeezed my thighs together and thought about her fingers stroking and pushing and hard and fast and gentle and…fuck!

"Can I just wait here while you work? I can help you close up and we can talk…or whatever," she said as she stared at my lips.

YES! Holy shitballs mother of YES! Yes, yes, fuck yes!

"Yeah, whatever," I said with a shrug as I walked away to stock the beer cooler and stick my vagina in there to cool it down.