“Good idea Jim.” She smiled as she followed Maggie and Penny out of the room. Jules held out her hand to stop me as I started to follow them. She gave me a curious look. What was it with all these women this morning and their curious looks?
“What’s up Jules?” I asked. She glanced over her shoulder to see that everyone else had gone or were out of earshot.
“I told you I was going to leave you and Michelle alone to work here this morning…” She spoke softly and studied my eyes.
“Yeah… I heard you. And?” I asked.
“Are you two going to be… okay… with that?” Jules inquired hesitantly, a sly grin slowly forming on her lips. Classic Jules… poking and prodding and trying to get a rise out of me.
“Jules… I’m a gentleman first and foremost. I can behave you know.” I said somberly with a straight face and a stern look in my eyes. Seeing this Jules stifled a giggle.
“Ohhh buddy… I’m not worried about your behavior!” She chuckled. “But if you think you’ll be okay I’ll take your word for it.” She giggled again and motioned for me to follow her out to her car to get the drop cloths. We met Penny and Maggie on the landing at the front door. I held the door for the women as they exited the house. Michelle came down the stairs carrying the box of doughnuts and a cup of coffee, she paused on the landing and locked eyes with me for a moment, a slow grin turning up the corners of her mouth before she pulled in her bottom lip to bite it gently, and she winked and then went on down the stairs. Hmmm… curious.
I collected the two twenty by twenty foot drop cloths from Jules’ car. She also handed me a piece of paper with three different phone numbers on it telling me that if I needed anything that she could be reached at one or another of those numbers. We waved at first Maggie then Penny as they two drove off in separate directions.
“Jim, at least get the front room pulled in and ready before you let that little fox distract you… okay?” Jules said with a mock seriousness, then gave me a big unabashed knowing smile. Somehow I felt like everyone else knew what was going on but me. Jules punched my shoulder and climbed in her car and left. I took the drop cloths back inside and down to the apartment door. I left them in the hallway and entered the front room of the apartment. Michelle was sitting on the sofa licking the fingers of her right hand and holding her coffee cup in her left.
“Everyone gone?” She asked.
“Yeah, I guess it’s just you and me now.” I said distractedly as I looked around the room noting pictures hung on the walls and an old fashioned clock. Michelle set her now empty coffee cup down on the little side table then stretched both of her arms up over her head. She reminded me of a cat, her curly auburn hair pulled back into a loose ponytail secured with a scrunchy. She wore an old faded pair of jeans and an old faded tee shirt. When she stretched the bottom of the shirt rose up exposing her bare midriff flashing me her belly button. Her belly was flat and tight and slightly tanned I could tell even in the almost dim light of the apartment. I couldn’t see her gorgeous eyes while she stretched however as she had her eyes closed but there was a serene contented smile on her face that made my heart skip a beat. It skipped another beat when she opened her eyes and caught me studying her intently. Her eyes narrowed and her smile turned in to something akin to a feral grin. She went from an apparent angel to something decidedly predatory in the flash of a heartbeat.
“Yeah… just you and… me” She said as she seemed to unfold from her sitting position on the couch to standing and practically stalking towards me in two slow steps. Her arms crossing across her modest chest as her face tipped slightly to one side and she began swaying or twisting really from side to side. “Where do you want to start?” She asked coyly. Oh my god! What a question, I blind man would not miss that double meaning. But I tried to keep calm and… well… play dumb I guess.
Well, how bout we pull these pictures off the walls and that clock, we can put them in the galley kitchen on the counter. Then we can pull the sofa and side table in to the center of the room. And work our way around the walls until everything that needs to be moved has been moved.” I suggested. That got me a sidelong glance and a somewhat disappointed smirk. But Michelle nodded and we began.
It only took a few minutes to pull the pictures and clock from the walls and the sofa was no problem at all to move. We moved the small side table, a tall thin book case and the floor lamp next to the wet bar. The bar itself took a little while as we needed to remove all the glasses and bottles from the cabinet case with the glass doors first then walk it slowly away from the wall. We left the contents in the kitchen along with the pictures and clock. The TV was not a problem and soon the room was finished. Aside from the one spider that freaked Michelle out and sent her squealing like a frightened little girl much to my amusement, the front room was ready to be covered up with a drop cloth. I stepped out into the hallway to retrieve one and Michelle followed me telling me she had to use the bathroom across the hall first. I brought the cloth into the front room and started unfolding it from its packaging.
It wasn’t a cloth really but a thick plastic sheet, as I unfolded it I realized that it was a little stiffer than the actual canvas drop cloths that I was familiar with. Michelle rejoined me and we pulled and draped and struggled with the sheet pulling it this way and that trying to get it to cover everything. It must have looked like a comedy routine for a few minutes as I would pull one side and the sheet would pull up on Michelle’s side exposing what she had just covered. When she would pull back again to cover up what was exposed, my side would be uncovered. It went back and forth until we figured it out and turned the sheet and managed to get everything covered properly. Whew! Finally! Michelle said we needed to celebrate with another doughnut.
We each got ourselves a doughnut and walked on into the bedroom through the galley kitchen. I noticed that Michelle had ***********ed a custard filled, I had a raspberry jelly. We both ate in silence as we looked about the room. I guess we were both lost in thoughts of things that had happened in this room. I was of course thinking of just recently myself and Maggie… which led me to think of the events that led up to that, between Michelle and Maggie before I had arrived. Leaning my backside against the dresser as I finished off my jelly doughnut I studied Michelle as she idly ran her left hand along the surface of the bed as she popped the last bite of her custard filled doughnut in her mouth and made an appreciative mmmm sound. Turning to me she smiled and I had to stifle a short laugh. I snorted instead amused at Michelle.
“What’s so funny?” She asked looking at me curiously, which only made it worse and my chest heaved with silent laughter. “What?” She demanded stepping closer to me. I grinned and reached up with my right hand and using my index finger I wiped a small dab of custard that had found its way onto her delicate little chin. I held it up to show her and grinned. Those blue green eyes nearly crossed as she focused on my finger and frowned first then grinned. She shot her right hand out and grabbed me by my wrist and pulled my hand to her face again. She took my finger in her left hand and brought it to her lips and licked the custard off of my finger. Then she put my finger to her lips and sucked it into her mouth slowly, I could feel her tongue twirling around it bathing it clean. She then slowly withdrew my finger and licked her lips, all the while never breaking eye contact with me. Oh My God! I felt weak in the knees. I also felt my face warming as no doubt the blood was rushing to my skin making me blush a bright neon red. After licking her lips they turned up into a devilish grin as she released my hand. “Mmmm” was all she said. All I could do was first swallow then clear my throat. Taking a deep breath I nearly broke my neck forcing myself to look around the room to decide what to move first.