Chapter 7

Buddy’s turn:

One day around the coffee pot, one of my particularly poetic co-workers said it best. Sipping a fresh cup of Community Dark Roast, he opined, “The love of a good woman is as the gentle spring rain. It is as likely to fall upon a flower as it is a dog turd.”

The August floods that brought so much devastation to my home state also brought me the love of a good woman.

I grabbed onto Mimi Clemons before she came to her senses, hauled her to the courthouse for a marriage license, the following Saturday I took her to a preacher’s office and had the marriage solemnified.

“I’m sorry. I could dress you up like British royalty, Mimi.”

My brand new wife wrapped her arms round my neck. “That, dear Buddy, would NOT be me, nor would it be you.”

“You get to say.”

“So I’ve said. I married you. Said ‘I do’. You got something else in mind?”

“Besides around the clock sex?”

She laughed. It hasn’t been ‘around the clock’ but I think both of us used the other to make up for lost time. Or lost something. Or maybe just because we REALLY enjoyed loving each other in physical ways as well as so many others.

“At least let’s get the hell out of town for a couple of nights so we can call it a honeymoon.” I eyed her.

She smiled. “If you insist.”

“Nice hotel. Good restaurants...”

“A movie. Take me out to the movie. Guys’re supposed to take their girls to movies. It’s part of the courtship progression.”

That she was naked when she said this made me laugh.

She tried to look outraged. I rolled her onto her back and smothered her with kisses while she tried to melt our two bodies together.

“You’re a horrible, horrible husband. Training you may take YEARS,” she giggled.

“I respond well to rewards,” I whispered.

“Reward?” she giggled. “Like if I took this thing in my teeth and shook my head?” Her fingers closed over the crown of my dick.

“What am I being rewarded for?”

“Positive attitude.” Giggle. And then she did what she said she’d do.

Yes, it’s like that. We’re both working now. I caught the requisite amount of flack for going on vacation, then sick leave, then coming back to work married.

One of my co-workers at the office is a nice lady. We frequently chat about domestic issues like her four daughters and the husband she adores. She heard quickly about me and Mimi.

“I didn’t even know you were dating seriously, Buddy,” she said.

“I wasn’t. Gave up. Wasn’t going to settle for somebody that didn’t make me feel as lucky as your husband is with you.”

“Oh, hush!” she tittered. “Seriously...”

“Whirlwind courtship. She’s a nurse. I’m a patient. She’s a rescue. I’m a rescuer. She’s warped. I’m warped. Marriage seemed to be the best way to protect the world from each other.”

“Surely you have pictures.”

“I do,” I said. I have a phone full of pictures of Mimi. She objects every time I snap one. I keep ‘em all. I bluetoothed my iPhone to my computer and started scrolling through them.

“She’s pretty,” Belinda said.

I grinned, first because Belinda had the same assessment of my Mimi that I held, and second, “Told you she’d have to be as spectacular as you.”

“There you go again,” she smiled. That was about as flirty as the two of us ever got. “You need to bring her over one Saturday.”

“We’ll do that,” I said.

I recounted the story to Mimi. “Your work-wife, huh?”

“Work-wife?” I asked.

“Never mind. Female co-worker that you have a relationship with.”

“We’ve never so much as touched fingers,” I blurted.

“Buddy, it’s okay. You have friends. It’s just that male-female at work, different dynamic.”

“Just a friend. Talk about the same stuff as I do with guys.”

“Okay. I believe you. So when to I meet my competition?”

“You’re a horrible person. If you weren’t so delectable...”

Make-up sex is great, even if you didn’t actually have a fight.

Her picture’s on my desk now. Just to be sure, you know. Actually, there’s also a picture of me and Mimi.

Turns out she’s quite happy going fishing, too. The same boat that rescued her, we tow to one spot or another and put into the water and go after fish. She’s not squeamish and she’s not bored and she’s as apt to outcatch me on any given day as I am to outcatch her.

There are a few popular spots where Mimi is now known, in sun-wary jeans and long-sleeved shirt, decidedly unrevealing, but that sun-freckled smile and short blonde hair makes her memorable. She says she used to be socially inept and an outsider. I buy that because she says it was so, but now I see my wife at home talking, laughing, people drawn to her personality as much as her looks.

Me, I’m just in love.