Chapter 8

Sunny’s turn:

Stuck in Nowhere, Mississippi with a dead pickup truck.

I was actually enjoying the drive, sharing with Carl.

Carl, who’s turning out to be something.

The boy could’ve stayed in Arkansas and kicked back over the weekend while I caught an empty seat on a company flight back to Alabama to retrieve my pickup.

He didn’t. He ran around with me all day Saturday, the two of us kind of being tourists, well, him more than me, because this has been my base of operation for a year and a half since I slid sideways out of college and snagged a job with 3Sigma as a field technician.

Then he danced with me. Vicki thinks we’re a couple.

You know, the thought had crossed my mind, but I’ve heard stories of romances that lasted no longer than the job, and Mom didn’t raise me to be a slut.

So that makes me have a serious discussion with myself – what counts as ‘being a slut’?

Multiple sexual partners figures in there. Soon Yi has had ONE. Virgin on my wedding bed. That’s me. And since the divorce I have made sure that I wasn’t ONE of the things that he’d claimed – a slut.

Okay, so if it was an arranged marriage, then that first time wasn’t about love, it was about obedience and tradition.

I honestly tried to get into the joy of it, but from all indications, Chu, my ex, was not the best of sexual partners. You will note that I did not confer upon him the title of ‘lover’. I never loved him. I was bound by duty and tradition and was assured by the women who’d gone before me that respect and love would grow over time.

It never even sprouted.

So Sunny’s waiting for her first lover.

Lab time in the community at Auburn. I worked with Terri and the team over the prototypes for Luggage when he was still ‘Bubba-bot’. Seeing Terri in love, I had to ask Cindy.

“I’m perfectly satisfied that it can happen that way,” Cindy told me. “I’m an example. I met my Dan when I was thirteen. By the time I was fourteen, I knew there’d never be another.”

Terri says “I look at him, I talk with him, I work with him, and it always has this sense of rightness.”

Rightness. Okay ... But he’s supposed to have that same sense about me or it doesn’t get off the ground.

So how do I find that bit of information out?

I could try the direct approach, as in “Carl, tell me honestly, do you see me and you as lifemates, forever joined in the eyes of the Creator, an example to all who observe us?”

If I’m wrong, I can see him running off into the bushes screaming.

A certain amount of subtlety is called for.

We checked into the hotel – two separate rooms, thank you.

It’s late afternoon. I’m bored.

Punch up Carl’s room.

“This is Carl. Can I help you?”

“I’m bored. Nothing good on TV. You said something about movies and an HDMI cable?”

“Your room or mine?”

I snickered. “Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”

“This spider’s got movies.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Gosh, I hope I don’t come off as easy.

He was waiting with the door open to his room. Two beds. His overnight bag was in the middle of one.

“You can move that,” he said.

“You move it or I’m climbing in yours,” I snarked.

He looked at me. “Uh, I’ll move stuff. I don’t know if...”

“What?!?” I squeaked. “You and me in the same bed with clothes on?!?”

“You don’t know how much credit I’m giving a very scanty amount of self-control here, darlin’.”

“Oh, you’re safe,” I chided him. “I climbed a ladder last week and had my butt six inches from your face. Nothing. You’re safe.”

“Shoulda had teethmarks.”

“Yeah,” I said with a flounce as I plopped down on HIS bed. “What’d we say about ‘fishin’ off the company pier’?”

“I usually regard it as a bad idea.”

“Why?” I sort of smirked. “Let’s say I was asking for a friend...”

He gave me a look that was kind of confused.

“Other company I worked for a few years ago ... Had a thing with a temp they hired for a while. She broke it off, picked up another guy at the same company ... Let’s just say that I found it painful and distasteful. Left ‘em. One of the reasons was that.”

“Lemme guess ... The new couple were rather talkative...”

“That too...”

“You thought you lost something and she didn’t care. I can see where that would hurt. But let me pose another scenario – look at how Dan and Cindy...”

“Ain’t he engineering and she’s robotics?”

“And pilot, too...” I said. “But Jason and Susan ... And Nikki and Dan 2.0...”

“Yeah,” he back-pedalled. Then, “but they were married first, then they started working together. I know that Dan Granger got Nikki in a plant as a visitor because she was too young to actually work.”

“Yeah ... good point. I’ll shut up. What movies do you have?”

He looked at me. “Hey, you don’t get off that easy. What brought up that whole line of questioning?”

I took a deep breath. Here’s where it could all go horribly wrong. “Carl Primeaux,” I said as bravely as I could muster, “I’ve gone on dozens of jobs since Jason hired me. I’ve worked with a lot of guys, sometimes like you and me, a senior and a junior, and sometimes with a larger crew. I think I worked with everybody out of that office over there. All good guys to work with. But you’re different...”

“Sunny...”

Something broke inside me. I think my heart was falling inside me. Here it comes...

“Sunny, I don’t hit on girls, as a general rule. I’ve never been ‘cool’ or ‘hot’ or whatever it takes. Means I spend a lot of time wishing, and wishes don’t generally come true. But you...”

Okay. Heart’s back where it belongs, or at least starting to head that way.

“Me?”

“You. You’re a package.”

“Whaddaya mean?”

“Smart. Good worker, which means you have a pretty good set of personal qualities aside from those one might be looking for in a ... whatever. You’re funny. You’re intelligent...”

“You said that...”

“No, I don’t mean ‘educated’, like a lot of folks that come out of college with degrees. I mean intelligent – inquisitive, able to make those little leaps where you have A and you have B and you can imply C and so on ... Intelligent. And you like things I like.”

“That’s surely a sign of intelligence,” I snickered.

“See?!? You’re funny. Smart funny.”

“So...”

“So you’re damned sure pleasant to look upon. That opinion has been relayed to me by the construction bunch.”

“You’re not bad yourself, Carl.” I stood up.

“So what’s all this data say to us?”

“You ‘n’ me.”

“Scared of that, Sunny. You’re a good friend and a superlative co-worker. That’s worth a...”

He didn’t get to finish. I kissed him.

Scared. He could’ve pulled away. Refused.

Didn’t. Melted right into me...

I melted back.

I sighed.

He said “Damn. Damn damn damn DAMN damn.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Means I might be crazy, but I don’t want to stop.”

“Crazy’s okay, Carl.”

“I ... I wanted to kiss you, Sunny.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Scared. If I was imagining things, I could be in deep shit.”

“Either of us...”

“Oh, yeah ... Let’s see. Uh, Bill, I need to do something. Sunny’s making inappropriate advances...”

I kissed him again, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Fluke? My toes curled.

“The opinions would swing between ‘Are you freakin’ CRAZY?!?’ and ‘You lucky sumbitch... ‘“ and he put a hand behind my back and pulled me against him.

“Tell me I’m not crazy.”

“We both are.”

“Sunny ... we can stop. I’m a weirdo. I can’t do this stuff and not think it means something...”

“It means something,” I said. “It means I’m being kissed in a most remarkable and wonderful fashion by somebody whom I regard with more than normal amounts of fondness.”

“Fondness?”

“Above and beyond ‘acceptable co-worker’...”

“Ditto,” he said.

“Your vocabulary attracted me.”

“I was enamored of your evil streak.”

“I was lying down,” I said.

“Sunny Kim, if I lie down in that bed with you, I’m not responsible for what happens next.”

“Yeah you are. You, Carl Primeaux, are an entirely responsible adult.”

“You, Kim Soon Yi, are a fantasy and I cannot combat that.”

“Yeah you can...” and I shoved him backward on the bed.

You have to know this about me because inside my head there’s this little girl saying ‘Sunny, what’s come over you?’ I’ve never considered being aggressive in any fashion, especially sexually, and there in front of me is this guy with a half-expectant smile and I like it.

So I flop down on top of him. Immediately I like being there. I get the impression he likes it too because one, his arms are around me, holding me there, and two, there’s an erection.

I was married. I know about erections. I was a virgin on my wedding day. The idea of erections was fascinating. After six months of being married to Chu, though, the fascination was gone. Sex was for HIM. He used my pussy. He used my mouth. Either one was good enough for him, and I never...

Right now I’m experiencing a excitement that surpasses anything with Chu. Anything. With. Chu. And all I did was press myself against Carl.

“Sunny, baby,” he sighed.

“Yes, Carl?”

“You feel awfully good.”

“So do you, baby.” Kissed. I feel kissed. “Carl?”

“Yes, cutie?”

“This is serious stuff...”

“I know, Sunny. I may need a cold bath afterward, but we can quit. I don’t want to do anything either of us will regret.”

“What would you regret?”

“Something between and man and a woman that’s supposed to mean more than scratching some itches.”

“You don’t have any idea, do you?”

“Idea?”

“Yes,” I said. “What goes on inside my head.”

“That’s sort of the problem, Sunny. You’re beautiful and desirable, but inside my head I know the hurt if this doesn’t...”

I put my finger to his lips and finished for him. “ ... mean something.”

He almost looked frightened.

“We’ve known each other for three weeks. In those three weeks, there hasn’t been a single day that we haven’t been with each other for hours, Carl.”

“I know, Sunny. Part of the problem.”

“How’s that any kind of problem?”