Piece by Piece Chapter Three: The Kick

Staci decides to go out of town for the night and gets some much-needed advice.

It had been a few weeks since I saw Shannon, the neighbor’s daughter screwing the help. Robin had told her what I had done. Although Shannon was mad at me for spying on her, she was grateful that I intervened before her dad caught her.

Shannon stood taller than Robin by a few inches, which made Robert like her much more. He loved tall women, especially if they were taller than him. Because of her friendship with Robin, Shannon was always over our house. Our house, when had I started calling this place ours?

Even though my mother-in-law still lived here, it was such a prominent place that I hardly saw her most days. Days would go by without me saying anything to her. The kids were doing great. Even though Shannon had graduated high school, she loved hanging around in the senior class.

Thomas was in his usual after-school clubs. Robert would be trying out for the football team once it started, and Robin was way above most of her classmates in every subject. Things were getting back to normal. Jack spent more time with his grandma than with me, which was good. She took him outside of the house to meet people.

The truth was our lives were returning to a state of normalcy. I was even calling people by their names at the diner. There was one guy in particular. His name was Henry. He came in at lunchtime and ordered the same thing: a BLT on wheat with sweet potato fries and a large soda.

The bell rang and brought me out of my daze. “Order up!” Frank yelled at me.

“Got it,” I said, taking the plate to Henry’s table.

“Thanks Staci,” Henry said as I put the plate down.

“One day you have to try something else,” I told him.

“I will try something new the same day you let me take you out,” Henry replied, looking at me through those green eyes.

“What about Natalie down at the hardware store, or Tabitha at the grocery mart, or…” I began to say.

Henry had a reputation around town as being a womanizer.

“You say the word and I will drop everything and everyone,” Henry said, taking off his cap and putting it on the seat next to him.

“I don’t think you could if you tried,” I smiled as I walked away.

It took everything in me not to go on a date with him and more. He was handsome, and he owned the tractor store by the interstate.

Although he was a man that I probably couldn’t trust, he was my type. He had muscular arms, a bald head, and a lovely ginger beard.

“You should do it,” Gina said as I returned to the front. She was the other waitress. “The things I would do that man.”

“You’re married,” I said, reminding Gina of her husband.

“I know,” Gina nodded. “I am sure I could talk him into letting me have one night of mad passionate sex.”

That was the main thing that stopped me from having any relationship with Henry or any other man. What Stan had done to me had not just caused me to change my life, but it had caused severe problems for me mentally. I couldn’t picture myself with another man without thinking about what Stan had done.

While life for me had changed drastically, the same could be said for Stan, but in a good way, after the initial shock and fallout. He managed to get a publishing company to help him publish a book that sold like hotcakes.

Then there was a porn movie made with one of the biggest stars in porn. Stan had a cameo in the film. There were videos and pictures of what he had done everywhere. He had become a big name in the sex industry and planned on starting his own porn production company.

I had read his book online, making me feel sick and disgusted. Stan was proud of what he had done. He even boasted about sleeping with a woman in a hotel close to home, then coming home to his wife and talking her (me) into sucking his dick even though he hadn’t taken a shower or cleaned himself off.

It wasn’t the first time Stan had done that. I read many instances where he had come home after a night with others just to have sex with me.

“Are you okay?” Gina asked, concerned about me.

I nodded at her. These trips into memory lane and beyond were becoming more frequent.

“Mind if…” I began to say, but Frank and Gina were already nodding.

I took off my apron and walked out into the fresh air. I took a deep breath and bent at the knee, looking down at the floor.

“You got this,” I said to myself. “Things are turning around, the kids are happy, you just need to find something that makes you happy, that’s all.”

It was a daily speech I gave myself every day, sometimes three to four times in a single day. I walked to my car and got in. While everything else was getting put together, I felt like I was in a snow globe that someone constantly shook.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how gullible I was. How could I not see the signs? The late nights, he didn’t get promoted, no raises, constant out-of-town trips.

Whenever I said I wasn’t in the mood, he never put up an argument. There were signs, and I didn’t read them.

Now he was living the porn dream, fucking porn stars, and making more money than he had when we were together.

I did nothing but set him on the golden path. And here I was, wearing a blue and white checkered uniform outside a small-town diner.

Henry waved at me as he got into his expensive sports car.

“Fuck it,” I said as I got out of my SUV that Teresa had bought.

I walked over to the driver’s side of his car and tapped on the window.

“You okay?” Henry asked. “Seemed a little out of it today.”

“When?” I asked.

“When, what?” Henry asked.

“The date,” I replied. “When do you want to go?”

“You’re serious?” Henry asked.

“Is that a yes or a, no?” I said, standing up.

“Yes, of course,” Henry said. “Friday?”

“Friday,” I said as I started to walk away.

“How do I reach you?” Henry asked.

“You know where I work,” I replied without turning around.