Moments II: A BWWM Short Story Collection

XI. For Worse (Pt. 2 of 5)

Carmen Gutiérrez had been the It Girl at my High School. The kind of girl every other girl aspired to be and the kind ever guy wanted to get alone for five minutes. She was smart, she was wealthy, and the word "hottie" had never been so accurately applied to anyone else. She was the kind of girl who should have dropped off a cliff looks-wise as she neared middle age, but she was, if anything, sexier than ever.

Carmen's light brown skin now practically glowed, shining like burnished bronze to a degree I could almost swear it reflected her mane of wavy black hair. She brushed her bangs out of her hazel-green eyes as they flicked up and down my body, which only caused her hair to fall back over her eye in a mysterious way. Auburn lips spread wide to reveal a flawless smile crowned with a beauty mark, and my own mouth went dry.

"Uh... h-hi, Carmen. It's been a while," I managed.

My idiotic remark should have killed any enthusiasm in the Latino goddess before me, but if anything, it made her face light up with delight. She gave a squeal that managed to be both cute and sultry as she ran up to hug me, and I became very aware of how much larger her breasts had gotten since High School.

"Dios mio! It is you, Maxie!" she said with a pout of her lips as she looked me over again. She whispered something in Spanish under her breath, and I'm pretty sure I heard the word caliente as she adjusted her hair again.

"You know this woman, Brocker?" Mr. Starn asked.

Carmen hugged me again, rifling nailed finger through my hair as she did. "Yes, sir! We went to the same High School. Maxie... Maxwell, is a good friend of mine."

Brocker gave me a wink behind Carmen's back. "Weellllll, in that case, I'll leave you two alone. Wouldn't want to uh... get in the way."

And before I could open my mouth to protest, he was out of the room. It was only in the following moments that my brain finally came to terms with what was happening, and that no part of this situation was appropriate... or made sense.

"W-what are you doing at some dead-end office job, Carmen?" I asked as I pulled away from her. "Last I heard you went into modelling!"

Carmen's angelic face soured as she rolled her eyes. "I went in to modeling but I didn't get far. They said I wasn't svelte enough to sell cover."

She turned to walk towards my office, and I was just able to stop myself from sucking in a breath from her glorious backside. Given the breadth of her hips, it wasn't difficult to figure out what she'd meant by that.

"But why here? I mean, your father-" I started.

"I refused his offer to set me up in his company," she said flatly as she opened the door for me. "Just because my father is wealthy doesn't mean I refuse to earn my own way in the world. This was the best I could do with my credentials, but I see the job offer has a few benefits they failed to disclose."

She bit her lip as I entered the office after her, and the next words out of my mouth were surprisingly difficult.

"Carmen... I've been married for almost twenty years."

Carmen's eyes fell to my left hand, growing wide with shock as she spotted my ring. She seemed to deflate all at once, but even that was strangely tantalizing. She did up the top button of her strained blouse, a flush of embarrassment crowning her cheeks.

"Maxwell, I'm... I'm so sorry, I didn't... I didn't even consider that. It's just..."

I closed my eyes and nodded. There was still the odd night where my confession to Carmen behind the stadium bleachers replayed in my head. Carmen had let me down as gently as any woman could have, and she promised to stay friends with me afterwards. I'd been the one who'd walked the other way whenever I saw her from then on.