My Seoul Man

Chapter 52

AJ's face on the screen hit me like a shot of serious tequila. I fell back against the pillows on Sadie's old couch feeling all warm and calm and giddy.

But then he covered that face with his hands and moaned, "God, this is making me crazy..."

Which made me sit up again immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"Seeing you but not being able to touch you or anything."

Yeah, I knew exactly what "or anything" meant. Cause I'd had to touch myself more than once, when that love came down hard.

For those of you who don't even know what that means, it's a very old school way of saying you're hungry for somebody in "that" way. I used to get all squirmy when the old folks sang blues songs with that line in them.

And yeah, it's TMI, probably, what I just told you. But I was missing that man so bad I had to do something...

So I said, "Yeah, you know I slept in that t-shirt you practice in."

"Oh my God, there's not a detergent on Earth that could wash out all the funk soaked into that thing."

"That's the point, though."

He finally relaxed back in the peacock chair he was perched in...somewhere...and said, "I wish I'd brought something with your scent on it. Except I'd probably get a little bit too into it."

I gave him this licentious little wink and said, "Been there, done that."

And he covered his face again and said, "She's trying to kill me, this woman."

"It's your own fault. Doing me like you did me that last time."

He let out this little "sob" and I couldn't help but laugh a little knowing he was reliving it in his head, too, that "last" time I'd just mentioned.

I'd put on another one of his t-shirts. No undies. Minding my business trying to brush my teeth. And he came easing up behind me. Sliding his fingers down in front and all that hardness up inside real slow at first. I could still see our faces going through all kinds of changes in that mirror. Fogged it up like the hot water was running...

He broke the spell with, "One of the ladies is gonna walk in here and see my face all red."

"Oh, ladies, huh? You got it like that over there?"

"They're little grandmas. From the village. They kinda watch the house for me. Kept an eye on my mother, too, when I moved her out here toward the end. I think it added a couple more years to her life, sitting around outside nibbling and giggling over all the hot goss."

"So, nobody pestered you or anything? When you landed?"

He looked relieved that I'd found a "normal" topic, finally.

"We took this kinda convoluted route and landed in Busan. Which cut down on the drive to this place, actually. You'd love it here, aegi. We could make it work. You could fly right into Seoul and someone'd be there to snatch you up and drive you over here."

"But you need to concentrate on the crazy right now, AJ."

"I'd be able to do that so much better with you here. And nobody gives a shit about me here—it's a small town like Whitman. Smaller, even. Average age, around 70-something. The young folks took off to Seoul years ago and never looked back. Never come back, either. Which is probably why the ladies love me so much. The son who actually did come back to take care of his mother."

"How do they manage?"

"Sometimes I wonder. And worry. There's no medical care and all the shops are closing--all the smaller towns are kind of dying, unfortunately. But let's do the grand tour long distance—hang on."