As it happened, Staci was exhaling her own plume of smoke as she left her office. She didn’t seem to notice the smoke I had just exhaled wafting in the room. She was holding her keys and slip of paper in one hand, and her Virginia Slim and mug in the other. I wondered if she would notice the smoldering Saratoga sitting in my ashtray.
“Can you stand up a second, Joey,” she asked as she walked towards me.
I stood up and she wrapped her arms around me. She was really hugging me tight, and that, along with the smell of the wine and cigarette were making me aroused. I hoped she wasn’t noticing my arousal.
“What was that for?” I asked when she finally released me.
“For being such a bitch earlier.”
“No you weren’t,” I protested.
“We both know that’s not true,” she smirked, then took a puff, “Anyway, I’m sorry. Do you forgive me?”
“Of course,” I said.
She then handed me her mug. There was a tiny bit of wine left in it. I wasn’t sure if she was offering me another sip, or wanting me to wash it and put it away.
“It’s okay, Honey,” she smiled, sensing I was unsure.
I finished up the little bit of wine left in the mug and handed it back to her.
“I’m gonna have to go to my lawyers in about an hour,” she said, changing the subject while flicking her ash, “The Asshole is trying to take my house.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, not really knowing what to say.
“Anyway,” she said as she handed me her keys, “Why don’t go to the cleaners and printers now and be back by two.”
“You want me to drive?” I said.
Yesterday she had said something about letting me drive her Cadillac, but I really didn’t think she was serious.
“No, Silly,” she genuinely laughed, “I’m sorry- it’s just- no. I’m giving you my keys so you can get my clothes out of the trunk.”
“Oh,” I said, relieved and glad to see her laughing.
“The cleaners are just two blocks away on our side of the street. Just turn left when you walk out the door,” she said, then handed me a slip of paper,”This is to pick up my cleaning. Their name and address are on the stub. You’ll need about ten bucks.”
She then went back to her office and sat down at her desk.
When I saw that she wasn’t looking, I grabbed the almost-finished Saratoga and went outside to her car. I looked around to make sure there was no one around, and took one last puff. I dropped it on the ground and crushed it out with my shoe.
As I was getting the clothes out of the trunk I suddenly remembered Staci’s appointment with the Yellow Pages lady at 3:00.
I went back to the office and took the keys into Staci. She had just poured some more wine and was sitting down at her desk.
“How long will you be at your lawyers?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, reaching for her Virginia Slims, “A couple of hours. Why?”
“The lady from the Yellow Pages is coming over at three,” I said, hating to have to remind her.
“Sh*t,” she said, then added, trying to seem happy, “That’s okay. We can just reschedule her.”
“Okay,” I said as I headed out to do just that.
“Wait,” she said, standing up.
“Yeah, “I said as I turned.
“You know what? Don’t cancel.”
“No?” I asked, puzzled.
“No,” she said, “You can handle it. You did great with the Chamber of Commerce thing.”
“Yeah, but-“
“Really. I trust your judgment. You’ll be okay. You go do your errands and we’ll talk about what you should do before I go to the lawyers.”
“If you’re sure,” I said as I walked out of her office.
I grabbed one of her business cards and put it in a manila envelope along with the flyer, dry cleaner stub, and ten dollars from petty cash. I thought about taking some cigarettes with me, but decided against it.
I went to Plum’s Printing first. Linda was behind the counter and there was an older man working behind her. She looked genuinely happy to see me.
“He Joey,” she smiled, “I didn’t expect you so soon.”
“I was able to make an outline of a flyer,” I told her as set Staci’s clothes on the counter off to the side, “Staci also said she needs 1000 business cards.”
“Cool,” she said, then looked at the man behind her to make sure he wasn’t paying attention, “By the way; don’t mention anything about my smoking. That’s my husband, and he thinks I quit.”
She gave me a little wink.
“Sure,” I said, “And if you ever see Staci, don’t mention anything to her about my smoking.”
“She doesn’t know you smoke?” She seemed surprised.
“Not yet.”
“Then we’ll just have to keep each others secret,” she winked again.
I then gave her the business card and flyer and we worked out what I would need. She said she could have the flyers done by Thursday, but the cards would take a week.
As I was leaving she asked me if I was going to Super Cleaners two doors down. When I told her I was, she told me to let them know we were in the Chamber so they would give us a discount. She also asked if Staci would be going to Thursday’s mixer and I said I wasn’t sure.
When I got to the cleaners a very attractive brunette was working there. She seemed to be in her late 20s or early 30s. She bares a striking resemblance to Reese of Southern Charms. Go figure.
She was very friendly, and even more so when I told her I worked for Staci and that we were now members of the San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce.
She went through the pockets of the clothes I was dropping off and didn’t seem to find anything.
She went to take them in the back and get the clothes I was picking up when something caught my eye. I noticed a green pack of More Menthol 120s on a shelf behind. I got a little excited.
Our next door neighbor, Mrs. Oberholtzer, was a More smoker. She smoked the regular ones in the red pack. She was in her 50s, always tan and had short bleach-blonde hair and a nice body. She looked alright when she wasn’t smoking. When she had a long, thin, brown More though, she looked very hot to me.
Also, when she wasn’t smoking, you’d guess she was a smoker anyway. She just had that look.
Part of what got me so excited when I saw Staci smoking was that she didn’t look like a smoker. That made it all the more arousing to me.
This woman here at the cleaners was like Staci. When I first saw here I assumed she wasn’t a smoker. It would just be too good to be true. Now, however, after seeing the pack of More’s, I had a glimmer of hope.
“Please let her light one up in front of me,” I thought.
She didn’t though. She brought Staci’s clean clothes draped in clear plastic, charged me half-price(Staci would like that,) and said the clothes I had just brought in would be ready the day after tomorrow.
I left the beautiful lady, wondering if those were her More’s, and headed back to the office. It was starting to really get hot now, and I was feeling hungry.
Staci must have been reading my mind, because when I walked through the door the air conditioner was blasting and there was a pizza box on the coffee table. Staci was sitting in one of the chairs eating a slice.
“I thought I better get a little food in my stomach,” she said, pausing to take a sip from her mug, “and I thought you’d be hungry too.”
“I’m starving,” I smiled.
“Just hang those in the closet in my office for now,” she said, indicating her cleaning I had draped over my shoulder, “and then grab a slice.”
As I was putting the clothes away, she shouted out to me.
“I think there’s a Coke in the fridge. And bring that open bottle of wine.”
She still didn’t seem drunk, and I wondered how that was possible. She’d been drinking non-stop for the past hour. I guess that wasn’t too long, I thought. When I got my Coke and her wine, the bottle was half-full. It was one of those big jugs. There were still the other two other bottles, and this one had been full yesterday, so I figured she had drunk half a bottle of wine in an hour. Was that a lot, I wondered. I really didn’t know.
I went back out to her and uncorked the wine. She thanked me as I refilled her empty mug, then I took it back to the refrigerator.
As we ate our pizza she explained what she wanted in her Yellow Pages add and how much she could afford to pay. I expressed my nervousness about doing this, and she told me not to worry.
She offered me a sip of wine at one point, and I declined, enjoying my Coke instead. She said I could offer the Yellow pages lady some wine when she got here.
“Maybe,” she half-joked, “you can get her a little buzzed and she’ll give us a break on the price.”
“Really?” I said, not knowing if she was serious.
“It’s worth a try,” she said with a wry smile as she finished her pizza, “Do I have time for a cigarette?”
“It’s ten to two,” I said after getting up and looking at the little clock on my desk, “You’ve got ten minutes.”
She started to get up, but I stopped her.
“I’ll get you one,” I said as I went to her office.
I shook one loose from the pack on her desk and took it, along with the glass lighter, back out to her.
As I held it out to her she leaned forward with her hands holding her mug in her lap. I guess she wanted me to put the cigarette in her mouth. I was starting to wonder if she knew how much her smoking was turning me on.
I put the filter in her lips and ignited the lighter. I brought the flame to the tip of the Virginia Slim and she puffed it to life. She then did something I hadn’t seen her do before; She exhaled twin streams of smoke from her nostrils while at the same time taking another drag.
I stood there dazed for a moment, then went to put the lighter back on her desk. I checked to make sure there wasn’t a bulge in my pants as I walked back out to her. Thankfully, there wasn’t.
She smoked the cigarette in five minutes, then declared that she better get going. She gathered her purse and briefcase from her office while I went to sit at my desk. I was going to work on the receipts while she was gone and took them out of my pockets.
She set the mug, which was half-full, on my desk when she came out and asked me to stand up.
“I think I need a hug before I go,” she said as I stood up.
She gave me my second hug of the day, plus a little kiss on the cheek. I loved the way she smelled. She must have put on some perfume, and that, along with the smell of wine and Virginia Slims, was heavenly.
She took a huge gulp of her wine and set it back down on my desk.
“You can finish that up if you like,” she said, nodding towards the wine, “It will help you not be so nervous. I left a blank check on my desk for the Yellow Pages. You just need to fill in the amount.”
“What if I get drunk?” I asked, truly concerned.
“There isn’t that much left,” she laughed, “but drink it slow just in case.”
I was going to wait five minutes after she left before even taking the open pack of Virginia Slims out of my desk. I changed my mind. I opened the cigarette drawer as she was walking towards the door, and as soon as she shut it behind her I took out the pack and lighter. I immediately took one out and lit up.
Keep in mind that although I was inhaling every cigarette I smoked, they were very small inhales. I wanted to pace myself and build up a resistance.
I then took my lit Virginia Slim to the window behind Staci’s desk. The window looked into the little parking lot where Staci parked. Despite the bravado of lighting up so soon, I wanted to make sure she was gone. I also hoped to see her lighting up in her car while I too was smoking.
I peaked through a slit in the curtain and sure enough, she was lighting a Virginia Slim with the car’s lighter.
I decided to be brave, but not too brave. I opened up the curtain, but made sure I held my cigarette under the window sill. I tried to get her attention by giving her a wave good-bye. She clenched the slim cigarette in her teeth as she put the car in reverse and turned her head to back up.
When she noticed me she put the car in park and got out of the car.
“Crap!” I thought to myself, “Well, I did want to get caught. I guess this is it.”
“Is everything okay,” she asked loudly as she walked around the car and came to the window.
“I was just waving good-bye,” I explained after sliding open the window.
My heart was racing as I noticed the smoke rising from the end of my cigarette towards the now open window.
She stopped about halfway between me and her car.
“That’s sweet, Honey,” she smiled, “Hopefully I’ll be back by four or five. You might wanna call your mom and let her know you might be late.”
“Sure,” I said as she turned and went back to her car.
She gave me a little wave and backed out. I shut the window, then took a puff from my cigarette when she turned out onto the street.
I went back to my desk and smoked as I worked on the receipts from the cleaners and carton of cigarettes.
After lighting up a second cigarette, I remembered the wine Staci had left me. I took a small sip followed by a drag from the Virginia Slim. I still didn’t necessarily care for the taste of the wine, or the cigarette for that matter, but they did taste different when having them together. Better, I guess. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the cigarette. It was hard to judge actually, because I was enjoying the pure excitement of smoking itself.
I tried again with a little bigger inhale this time, and a sip of wine before exhaling. That made the cigarette taste even better. There was enough wine left for one more sip, so I did it again.
I started to notice I was feeling a little warm inside and guessed it was from the wine and not the cigarette.
While I was finishing that cigarette, I made up my mind that I would be smoking at my desk when the lady from the Yellow Pages got here at three.
After my second cigarette since Staci had left, I waited 15 minutes before having another. This one would be a Saratoga. There were seven left in the pack, and I lit one of them up. I was again amazed that it seemed so much heavier as I held it in my lips.
I cleaned up our pizza lunch while smoking the Saratoga hands-free, taking it out of my mouth only to flick the ash when it got too long.
The pizza box was too big for our little waste-paper baskets, so I took it outside to the dumpster in the parking lot. I took my half-smoked Saratoga too.
There was a small alley next to our parking lot with a beauty shop on the other side of it. I was hoping there would be a lady from the shop outside smoking so I could smoke in front of her. There wasn’t. It was hot, so who, back in 1980 California, would be outside smoking when they could do it inside?
I went back inside and finished my cigarette and put the pack of Saratoga’s back in the drawer. I left the other pack out. So far, I was a Virginia Slims smoker, and I wanted this lady to know it.
I lit a Virginia Slim at 2:45 and waited. She hadn’t arrived by the time I finished it, so I lit another. Just as I was putting the lighter on the pack the phone rang. I figured it was the Yellow Pages lady calling to cancel.
“Stuart Realty,” I said after exhaling, “How may I help you?”
As I took a drag from my Virginia Slim and waited to see who was calling, the office door opened.
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