ic, and if i had been in a better mood it might have worked, but i was inconsolable. a line had formed, and she joined the end of it, not stopping to pick anything up. with each sale, i noticed a little more of her. bottle of wine, $12.95. short blonde hair. two six-packs of coke, $4.49. about 5' 8", blue halter top. nice figure. bottle of gin, $6.80. cute, button nose.

she reached the front of the line, and gave me a smile that broke

through my lousy mood. blue eyes. a little necklace that looked

vaguely southwestern, all turquoise and silver.

"i'm looking for cedar street? any idea where that is?"

we're at the corner of mass ave. and cedar. this was going to be a

short encounter. i told her.

"no, no, not that cedar! cedar in somerville. i love boston, but i

hate driving in boston."

we're in boston the way new jersey is in manhattan, but i wasn't going

to start that line of conversation.

"where are you from?"

"california. how about yourself?"

"lancaster, pennsylvania. i'm going to harvard ..." i started in, but

i seemed to have said the magic word.

"lancaster! i have friends in lancaster." reminded me a bit too much

of the pennsylvania license plates, but she's gone on. "they're

members of my sorority, and i just saw them at our june weekend

reunion. i'm in town for that ..."

as she went on, a one-person conversation, i took in her voice (quite

husky, considering her bubbly demeanor) and glanced (with appropriate

discretion, i hoped) up and down her body. she was, well,

well-stacked. unfortunately, my discretion was insufficient for the

task, and i looked back up to her face to see her smiling at my

regard. as i blushed, she leaned down over the counter.

"some people get all the fun jobs," she said, in a low, conspiratorial

voice.

"uh, yeah." witty reply. clever. that's right, i thought, wow her

with your intellect.

"place seems quiet, today" she said, glancing around, stretching

herself. her elbows sunk slowly onto the countertop. i looked up from

the view thus created by the lowering of the halter-top fabric to see

her looking at me with a smile that had switched from conspiratorial to

something else.

"think of anything we could do to make the job more fun?" she said.

"well, it's cooler in the back." shit, i thought, did i say that?

"we could fix that," she said, turning around and surveying the back of

the store for the door.

"this way," i managed to gasp out with lungs that didn't seem

completely under my command. in one fluid motion, i had closed the

register, grabbed a package of condoms from behind the counter, and

locked the front door. no customers in the parking lot, good, just one

car, must be her's. it looks like there's someone in it, but nah,

couldn't be, anyway, who cares?

i led her into the back room. it's even worse than the typical back

room of a liquor store, whatever that looks like. there are boxes

piled everywhere, both empty and full, the usual collection of posters

proclaiming that all you have to do is drink some terrible brand of bad

american liquor and amazingly women who would scrape you off their shoe

now will fall into bed with you. not in so many words, of course, but

the message is clear.

she surveyed the scene, with what i assumed was less than complete

enthusiasm. well, it is a bottle shop, not the marriott. but when she

turned around, she still has that infectious lovely smile on her face ...

"i can cope with this." she pulled the tank top over her head,

revealing her lovely breasts still in a white bra. the bra came off a

moment later, and she was in my arms, pulling me down to a kiss. and a

very nice kiss it was, very deep and soft. even with lots of tongue,

there are kisses that are very sharp and angular-feeling, but this was

a lover's kiss. i still can't completely explain the difference, but

there you are.

with a plop, the package of condoms dropped to the floor. she somehow

managed to slither out of her shorts while kissing me, and did a

lovely, slow, descent to her knees, running her hands down my chest.

kissing me through my jeans, she unbuttons them, and applies her mouth

to my already-hard cock with tremendous skill.

"now ..." lick. "i don't ..." slurp. "have ..." gulp. "much time

for this," she finally managed to get out, between licks with her

tongue along my balls, "so let's be quick!"

nothing like a little performance anxiety to make an evening special,

but i wasn't going to turn this down for anything.

she retrieved the packaged of condoms, and (with cardboard and wrappers

flying everywhere) managed to extract one. as she stood up, naked

except for jewelry and shoes, she rolled one onto me with one hand, the

other steadying herself on my shoulder.

"ok, i'll just bend over like this," she said, as businesslike as if

she was staging a play. she turned her back to me, and bent