Chapter 1

Even with that ass as my motivation her pace was just too fast for me to run with her. Those curves almost made me willing to try.

Gloria waved as she jogged past my window. Super tight sports bra (couldn’t be anything else but, given her pulchritude) form-fitting yoga pants all color-coordinated down to her expensive Nikes.

I watched until she turned the corner and ran out of sight. Time to focus on my own workout. I began working out to get back in shape even before Gloria returned to our hometown. Too much soft living and a long depression after the break-up of my 6-year relationship with my ex-fiancé Renee left me about 30 lbs. overweight and a far cry from the youthful and athletic build of my twenties. Natural strength and agility and a disciplined upbringing made for an impressive 190 form and I used it for a better than average D3 wrestling career - no titles but I was an All American.

I work out regularly with weights and do low-impact cardio. Sometimes I join my buddies for wrestling, MMA and Karate but mostly I just stay fit by training at home daily. I go hard on Saturdays and Sundays since I don’t have to work.

Running isn’t my thing due to bad knees so keeping up with a strong Runner like Gloria is not only a pipe dream, it would mean intense pain and days of recovery. Maybe I will do an extra half hour on the elliptical with an image of Gloria in my mental.

I finished my session, showered, and went to the kitchen to put together our binge-watching snacks. Fruit and cheese slices, wheat crackers and flavored water would be healthy enough not to feel guilty after working out and filling enough to keep us happy.

Gloria and I got together to binge-watch TV every Sunday after our morning work outs. We have done stuff like this ever since we were kids. We were inseparable. I moved back home 5 years ago to take care of my mom after my dad died of cancer and stayed after she followed him a year later. The death certificate said heart-failure, but I should has said “Could not live without the love of her life”. Sometimes I think she took care of me more than I took care of her because I was still in my post Renee depression. Mom was never able to get me to start dating again but at least she got me to take care of myself and start working out. She stopped bothering me about dating when Glo moved back and three months later she was gone. I think she held on to make sure I was happy again. Having my childhood friend and crush Gloria back in my life brought me out of my funk.

A retired Navy officer, Gloria spent most of her 14-year career overseas. She decided to retire after she was in a car accident that made her re-evaluate her priorities. She survived without a scratch but lost her 3 best friends that were also on-track to be career officers. She put in her papers, moved back home to live with her mom and focus on family. She was single still with no family of her own yet because Gloria scares the hell out of most men, including me.

5’1”, 116 lbs. soaking wet, limber and flexible like a gymnast and holds multiple black belts in different styles of martial arts. For a time, she was a training instructor before wanderlust took her overseas. But even with minimizing under garments while in uniform, she still looked like a porn star in a lesbian themed version of Top Gun.

Breasts too large for her frame yet high and firm, even at 37 years old; tiny waist that melts into a peach of an ass on curvy but not exaggerated hips and legs that seem to belong on a woman 8 inches taller - all protected by the foulest, most vulgar mouth and fists of fury.

I out-weigh Glo almost 100 lbs. and she still gives me run for my money until I close the distance and can use my size and strength to overpower her. She never fails to make me earn it with a full set of bruises.

Within days of returning home, Gloria and I bonded like the old days and fell into some of the same routines. Once again, I had most gorgeous tomboy in the world attached to my hip and no clue how to tell her I was madly in love with her. What’s worse, instead of catching a hint about my she refused to take my secretive admiring stares and uncontrolled hard-ons seriously. No interest in a conversation about feelings and an evil delight for gut or groin checks with the back of her hand if she catches me checking out her form. As she puts it, she does not play with her food and does not want to swallow to favorite playmate.

We first saw one another naked when we were 5 while changing bathing suits after running through the sprinklers in the backyard. She wasn’t shy about showing her form then when neither of us knew the differences and still has the same attitude, especially after years in the military. Cruel maniac still changes in front of me!

So for, I do not know how long, I’ve been on a four-times a day masturbation regimen, seven on our binge-watching Sundays.

Blam! “Diablo [Damn / Hell], why can’t that bitch, get Alzheimer’s or something and leave me alone?!?

“Good afternoon to you, too and stop slamming my fucking door.”

“Coño! She’s on the grandkid thing again! She was on the phone with Mami after church and she had to listen to her talk for an hour complain-bragging about how Tia [Aunt] Leyde’s grandkids visit too much and ask her to cook treats all the time.

Sometimes I wish I had a brother or sister to take off the pressure. I am back home and dating but she acts like I have no interest in kids. What I have no interest in is having kids alone or worse, having kids with a partner that ain’t worth shit.”

“Okaaay, we are doing Ghetto Latina, today, huh?”

“Your black ass is just as middle-class and bougie as mine so give me a break if sometimes my culture shows. I don’t give you a hard time when go all southern and start saying Y’all and dropping Rs when you get with your family.”

“Yes, you do. Every ... single ... time, you lyin’ ass so and so. You know you love Mama Fonsi...

“Not as much as you!

“Shut up, and stop trying to change the subject ... as I was saying ... you love your mom and she just wants you to be happy.

I gave it up as a lost cause because she started humming reggaeton, twerking and shaking her boob like a stripper. Every so often she would imitate how Mama Fonsi babies me - “ Come todo tu comida Glenncito [Eat all your food, Glenn-nie]”, “Quiere mas jugo, Bebé? [You want more juice, Baby?]” and pressed my head to her bosom just like her mom does.

Yes, I’ve had a crush on Mrs. Fonsi long before my crush on Gloria. That’s right - she is still unbelievably gorgeous and yup, Gloria ‘git it from her Mama!’ But I can only deal with one emotional crisis at a time...

Glo got her laugh so she calmed down and helped me finish preparing our binge snacks.

“It still amazes me how organized your kitchen is. Dishes clean, everything in its place, well stocked. You ruin all my stereotypes of a single man.”

I threw a dish towel on the floor (she doesn’t need to know I had already decided it was ready to go in the wash). “Better? I will sweep some dirt under the counters later, so you don’t lose touch with reality.”

Glo kicked the dish towel towards the basement stairs that lead to the laundry room (no fooling her) on her way to throw away the fruit and veggie peels. Stuck her head in the refrigerator to see if she could find in anything, she wanted to add to the snack tray. We did not just eat healthy snacks; we also use this as an opportunity to clean out leftovers.

“Mom never puts anything in the same place twice. Even in the fridge for God’s sake! How hard is it to put the milk on the same shelf every time?” She found some leftover chicken breast and steak filets.

Since, I am faster with a knife, I focused on the slicing and dicing, and she arranged everything on the two trays. I diced the additional protein, she spread it out and we were done.