Page 4 of My Thursday Throwback

Pip, exhaling loudly, catching her own breath to explain.

“Persephone?” He said her name as if he were quietly encouraging her to provide an answer to why she was playing ball in the house and broke the vase. She knew what he wanted to know.

Sighing loudly herself, Pip ran her fingers through her red hair and said, “Mama got us kicked out of the trailer park by bringing home a biker gang to initiate her into the group. Yes, by initiate, you are assuming correctly. I came home from work to find her stumbling, drunk as some guy with three teeth was trying to truss her up on the kitchen table like a Thanksgiving turkey. I called the cops. However, it didn’t do much good as those ruffians vandalized the trailer park, and we ended up living in some motel under the interstate which was infested with bedbugs.”

“Oh, wow,” he said, shifting the phone to his other hand.

“’Wow’ is the least of it. The money I stashed in the house, she’d found and given to the biker gang to pay her supposed membership dues,” Pip said sadly.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Michael told her.

“Oh, it gets better. I had just given her half of my income tax on that Thursday to buy us food and things she needed. We are talking about my mother, whom I may add, by Saturday night, spent, blew, threw into a hidey-hole the money and all of that was gone too,” she said. “We were screwed, barely eating, and soon-to-be homeless.”

“Okay, but how does Scott play into this?”

“I was working on a grant at the museum. He was so nice to me and he noticed I was scratching my arms and legs when he spotted the bites. Scott offered to help me get settled if I would agree to head up the new grant I currently work on at the Vent Museum,” she said. “We got the house I live in now, but I had to buy furniture piece by piece each paycheck,” she said.

“Your Mom doesn’t work?”

“No, she gets a check for being...oh hell, I don’t know what is actually wrong with her versus what she claims. Evidently, none of her disabilities are impacted by her ability to swizzle beer and suck on Winston Reds,” she said with a frown. “She can’t handle any sort of money.”

“Okay, I got it,” he told her. “I am heading out to see this second project we are supposed to bid on here in Corpus Christie, then I will see if I can get out of here early and get a cheap flight your way.”

“Michael, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about this thing between us, my Mama, all of this,” she said.

“Persephone, since you walked into my shower, I have awakened every morning with a new zest for life. I feel I have a purpose again versus working and coming home. I want to come home to you, and if that means I have to slay some dragons to get to the princess, I will do just that,” he told her.

“Princess. Ha, that’s rich,” she said.

“The biggest problem I can see is that you don’t understand what a man sees in you. Of course, there is the obvious, but lady, my nose is wide open and all I can smell is the fragrant bouquet of your love,” he said softly.

“What the hell does that mean? Are you saying you can smell my cooch?”

Michael burst into laughter. He threw his head back and roared. “No, that is not what I meant...dear Lord where do you come up with this stuff?’

“I read too many romance novels....bouquet...you know. Anyhoo, again, I am scared of all of this. I truly want to take off running,” she said.

“Don’t be scared Persephone. Please don’t run from me but with me. We will go at a pace in which you are comfortable, but I wanted to make my intentions clear. I don’t see a reason to have you wear a ring for three years while I reap all the benefits,” he said.

“Oh you won’t be reaping all the benefits,” she said with a toothy grin.

“Tell me what you want, Persephone,” he whispered to her.

Her nipples throbbed, her pulse raced, and she wanted more than anything to be alone with him for just a few hours. She’d only known one other man and he was clumsy in his ministrations of lovemaking, versus a skilled man like Michael, who knew how to make her body respond in ways she never knew existed. Loving him would be easy. Dealing with her Mama, the dragon was not.

“I want the fairy tale. I know it sounds stupid, but I want to be wowed by a man who loves me. Don’t get me wrong Michael, sex with you is amazing, but what about the romance?” she said.

“Hmmpf. Romance,” he said. “I will call you up later. I need to head to this site and meet these chuckleheads for a beer or something later.”

“Michael, you have me all up in my feelings and I don’t know what to say or how to handle all of this,” Pip said.

“Handle this as you handled me,” he said smiling.

“I handled you?” She asked incredulously.

“Lady, you had me eating out of your hand and going up against my boss with my chest puffed out in less than 24 hours of meeting you. If anybody should be scared it should be me,” he said looking around the almost empty office.

“You are making me blush,” she said.

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