Chapter 2
2
Tanya
I sip my coffee, the scalding liquid burning my tongue.
“Ouch!” I mutter, setting down the mug. “That was way too hot. What the hell was I thinking?”
Actually, I know what I was thinking– I’m reminiscing about last night’s moonlight ritual. It was insane. It was utter bliss. It was transcendent and everything I imagined and more. I glance over at the cucumber and carrot lying next to my kitchen sink. A giggle escapes my lips because they’re moving onto their next life as foodstuffs, and it’s going to be fun.
After all, I have a homeowners association meeting tonight with my hunky neighbors, and I know just the thing to serve to Carl, James, and Chris. Yes, that’s right. They’re going to get carrot and cucumber chips straight from my oven, and they’ll have no idea about the dirty history of these particular snacks.
I take another sip of my coffee, smiling like the cat that got into the cream. Holy shit, I’m a bad girl but it’ll be worth it. I can’t wait to see those gorgeous guys nonchalantly popping a chip into their mouth while talking about things like common areas and utilities usage. It’ll be so funny, not to mention arousing knowing that they’re eating vegetables that were buried in my pussy and asshole not twenty-four hours earlier.
Besides, it’s not like I’m going to serve the chips to them with my vaginal juices still on the veggies. I’ll wash the carrot and cucumber first, and then, of course, my pussy nectar is going to be baked right off. I generally set my oven to 400 degrees when it comes to this stuff, so my fluids will be long-gone by the time of the meeting. Still, it’s filthy and wrong, and I love it.
I take another sip of my coffee, peering out the window at the communal garden. Last night was wonderful, and I can’t wait to do it again. I’ve been holding these rituals ever since I moved into the building, and they’ve only been getting more and more satisfying. I swear, I really am becoming a goddess! My ability to lose myself in the universe, and to give myself over to the moment have been exhilarating, and I love that I’m able to “manifest” the kind of pleasure that I need and deserve.
After all, real life can sometimes get you down. As a twenty-five-year-old woman living in NYC, it’s not all fun and games. I mean, I have a good job. I’m a case specialist at HRA in the city, which means that I work with indigent folks to access benefits like cash assistance and food stamps. It’s rewarding, but the work sometimes gets me down because NYC has too many citizens who are downtrodden. We need to do better by our most vulnerable, and some days, the burnout is intense.
Even worse, I used to have an amazing co-worker at HRA who left, and I really miss her. Laurie and I were more than just office buddies. She was a real friend, and I miss her bubbly personality and infectious laugh around the office. But everything happens for a reason because Laurie actually hooked up with her delivery guy. Yeah, that girl was super-sassy and literally had sex with some dude who brought packages to her door.
But in a crazy turn of events, the delivery guy turned out to be the CEO of the delivery service itself! Can you believe it? Evidently, Tucker has some weird strategy where he goes out as an “undercover boss.” Even though he should be sitting in boardroom meetings and leading investor calls, the dude sometimes puts on a uniform and delivers packages personally to “understand the nitty-gritty of the business.” Who knew that CEO’s actually did this? I thought it was just a gimmick for reality TV shows.
But after Laurie figured it out, Tucker confessed everything, and they made up. My friend’s married now, and of course, she quit her job. Don’t get me wrong: Laurie didn’t quit because she hates HRA. She quit because she and Tucker have a gorgeous baby girl now, Callie, who takes up all her time. Hell, if I had a baby daughter that cute, I’d stay home all day too, just to watch the child sleep.
But of course, my personal life is nothing like my friend’s, and there are no wedding bells in my future. Or rather, the wedding bells have already rung for me: twice . That’s right, despite being only twenty-five, yours truly has been married and divorced twice already. It’s a little sad, and this is definitely not what I expected from life, but there you have it. There are some things you just can’t change, and unfortunately, this is one of them.
But I like to look on the bright side. I got a lot of alimony from one of my ex-husbands, and it was that settlement that enabled me to purchase my apartment. Otherwise, as a city employee, there’s no way that I could have managed to buy a home in New York City. In fact, as a government employee, I’d say the opposite: I’d need public assistance, given the paltry amount that I make at HRA. It’s sad, but true.
Shaking my head, I lift my coffee mug to my lips once more, and enjoy a steaming sip. But then my eyes sharpen because down below, I see Carl, James, and Chris enter the small schoolyard next to us. We live next door to a public school in New York City, and by city ordinance, the yard is open to the public when school isn’t in session. Neighbors like to take their kids to play on the jungle gym, or to grab a game of pick-up basketball.
But what are James, Carl, and Chris doing? The three men are clad in athletic wear, and my thighs tighten as I check out their chiseled physiques. Both Carl and James have dark hair with penetrating blue eyes. They’re tall and athletic, showing off broad shoulders and wide chests as they swing ping-pong paddles as they warm-up. Chris is a tiny bit shorter than the other two, but he’s more powerfully built with a muscular torso, and thick, tree-trunk thighs. He sets up a small net that’s about fifteen feet wide, and I squint with confusion. What game is this?
The three men begin batting a whiffle ball back and forth across the net, the swings graceful and swift. It looks like they’re playing tennis, but on a smaller scale. Suddenly, realization strikes. It’s that new game, pickleball! The sport is allegedly a cross between tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, and it’s taken over New York City because it’s fun without being too costly. Not only that, but it’s easy to learn and there have been kerfuffles between pickleball players, basketball players, and tennis players, who all want to use the same courts.
As I watch, Chris slices, and James misses the return, causing Chris to laugh. Carl seeks revenge by slamming the ball at Chris, and the chestnut-hair man dives, but to no avail. The ball zooms by him, and he lets out a bellow of rage. Ah, these alpha males. If they don’t get their way, they lose their shit.
But as much as I adore watching the muscular men in action, I have work to do. With a naughty smile, I get up and make my way to the kitchen because the cuke and carrot are waiting for me … and tonight, my hunky neighbors will get a taste of the good stuff.