Bingo Players

"Hey Niykee, this is crazy. Would you go on a first date with me in Olympic National Park this weekend?"

Niykee remembered Donovan, the guy who sent her the text. Her producer had rented out the Sky Bar to throw a promotional party. She was sitting with her girlfriends at the far end of the pool at the table with the glass railing that opened up a full view on Los Angeles, the gird like streets and lights that stretched for thirty miles. Mandee had brought out her new white poodle Biscuit. The cute puppy had its fur shaved off except for decorative, fluffy clouds around his ankles and on his head. Without the fur, Niykee could feel his warm skin as she snuggled with the dog on her lap.

Donovan had walked up. He was standing in a confident stance, actually towering over the low couches around the table. The first thing she noticed was that his hair was perfect. Every hair was aligned. There was an elegant shine from the product. He was wearing a tailored suit. He was wearing a red Armani tie. There was a golden tie clip to make sure his tie was perfectly in place. He was wearing golden cufflinks with green emeralds. On his wrist was a gold aviator watch with a brown, textured leather band. Everything about him was very kept in place. His smile was absolutely measured. He waited the perfect amount of time to make his presence felt and to let Niykee admire him.

"Hi, I was standing over there," and he pointed to the other side of the pool, "and I saw you over here. You look absolutely stunning. I had to come over and introduce myself. My name is Donovan."

Now, Niykee was sitting on her bed. She was in her underwear. Her hair was a big puffy mess from napping in the afternoon. She bounced on the bed because she was so excited. Finally a guy, who was ready to make a commitment. Being in the music business, a lot of guys wanted to always have sex with her. This guy actually wanted to spend the weekend with her. He was a rare breed. She looked around the room. There were her dirty socks from Wednesday. There was her still sweaty pink t-shirt from the gym. There was a pile of letter-sized photographs of her that she had been through signing half way.

She pulled a box out of the bottom corner of her closet with her hiking boots. She fished a headlight out of the basket with random knickknacks. She got her pink lingerie underwear. Being a teenager, she had been teased with the nick name of "mushy cupcake" because her hips were so big. She had learned to embrace them as a unique body part that gave her personality. The skinny pink band of her panties ran high over her hips to show offer her whole butt. She put on a white t-shirt with a very thin fabric to let the silhouette of her breasts and areolas show. With the headlight on and the hiking boots on her feet, she made a high angle selfie with the thumb up sign and a deep wink of her right eye.

That's all she messaged him back.

About a year ago, she was sitting on the porch of her mom's house. There was a cocoon like chair hanging from the ceiling. It'd swing around gently. Niykee had pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them. Her mom was in front yard in the sun, hitting the ground with weed puller. She was 45 years old. She had to color her hair to keep the gray in check. Three times a week, she went to Barre class.

"Mom, my first single finally launched. I have so much fan e-mail. I should be excited but a lot of people are calling me a slut. They think that I sleep with my producer. A backstage photo from me at Jay Z's gig came out with the title that he was fucking me as well."

"Child, you must understand one thing about the world. People are narcissistic. When they call you a slut, they are judging themselves or are expressing what they want. This morning, a driver overtook me on a residential street and yelled 'asshole' at me through his open window. Guess, who the asshole is. That's how you must look at all of this."

"When I went to high school, the kids said that I was ugly. The only date that I got was Bernie, and that only happened because I went over to him and kissed him. Now, everyone is saying that I'm only popular because of my body."

"Niykee, you must always remember when you are in my house, we love you. Don't expect that love out in the world. You go out to do your thing. And you come home to get your wounds licked. I don't see any point in you walking around with a turtleneck to proof a philosophical point. Use your body without any shame. If that gets people to pick up the record and give your music a chance, so be it."

After the talk, she agreed to the request of her producer for a second photoshoot to remake the cover for the single. The single had hit a million sales. The studio was willing to fly her with a big time photographer to Miami. She had slept very restlessly the night before because she had decided to follow her photographer's lead and let him peel her completely out of her clothes to take naked shots while her private parts were strategically covered with curtains, plant pots, puppies, and other objects from the big prop box. That's why she had learned to feel more comfortable to send the provocative photo to Donovan.

When the weekend actually arrived, they had to take separate flights because Donovan was pitching a new mutual fund for 25 to 35 year old urban family demographic who care about ecology. Donovan's specialty was packaging mutual funds for retail sale. They met at the Hertz car rental counter after a short airport bus ride. Donovan had rented a BMW. The paint was shiny and new. Donovan politely held his hand to take the luggage from her. He was so good with these little gestures. There was an elegance in how he held his hand to her as if he were trained by British royalty and there was a patience as if he'd never yell at her out of frustration. She curiously eyed how he arranged the luggage in the trunk. It was so neat, just like a Japanese bento box arranged by a master from the lineage of five generations of perfection.

After they seated in the car, he put leather racing gloves on. He put the car into first gear and told her how he preferred the Fahrvergnuegen of a stick shift. Right away, he accelerated to twenty miles above the speed limit. He smoothly, like a race car driver, shifted from one lane to the next to needle through the traffic. There was a smoothness to his driving. When he turned the steering wheel, he almost imperceptibly lightly turned it to shift the lanes. Once, he hit the brakes hard. A motor bike cop on the side of the freeway had his radar gun aimed on their car. Right after they passed him, Donovan downshifted again to accelerate.

Niykee felt very bad when her phone rang, "Sorry, I have to take this." Her producer was on the other end. The lunch with Kanye had to be rescheduled. Her show in New Orleans had sold out. She registered the self-satisfied smirk on Donovan's lips. He liked hearing the big names and all the big things that she was doing. He must have felt very good about his catch. When her producer gave her some lip, she smacked him down with sharp and explicit humor. The smile on Donovan's face started growing. To her, it turned into a game of saying things to affect him.

When she finally finished the long business call, they were crossing Hood Canal Bridge, the largest floating salt water bridge. Whenever a ship came, part of the bridge had to be disconnected and pulled to the side, almost like a boat. On the other side was the Olympic peninsula, the longest untouched coast line in America and plenty of primeval forest. Donovan pointed to the wicker basket on the backseat. She bumped her body against his shoulder as she moved her whole body between the front seats to grab it. The wicker basket was a neatly arranged picnic basket with silver ware, napkins, fruit, cheese, pastry, and beverages.

"Oh, you are a golden boy," said Niykee excited and gave him a big smooch on the cheek.

"I hope you don't take me as too forward. I'm done playing games," replied Donovan.

Late in the afternoon, they arrived at La Push, also known as First Beach by the Quileute Nation. Donovan had rented a cabin on the beach. The beach was littered with giant trees who had washed down the Quillayute River during hefty winter storms. Years on the beach had bleached the trunks. There was one tree trunk lying on its side whose bottom of roots were two to three stories tall. The waves were wild and full of white water. They raged into the bay for quite some length. Red lights blinked on either side of the bay. There was still a last surfer fighting in the man-high surf. A couple of people were lighting bonfires on the beach.

Donovan held Niykee a wine glass that was filled a quarter of the way. Niykee put it down and asked Donovan if he had extra tooth paste. With that, she turned over her suitcase and let the entire contents fall out, so that she could search it more easily. A ball of white socks rolled under the bed. She felt a little sheepish about the condom pack that fell out as well. There was a dog eared copy of the Vampire Diaries, which she had thought about reading for the whole year. Relaxing at the beach had seemed like a good moment to read it. She felt like she had opened up her whole life by letting him peek at all of her luggage. And he seemed to take very keen notice.

There was a look on his face. The look was very subtle. Retrospectively thinking about it, this was the first time that he had showed her an unguarded look. He had such a polished presentation, even when he slipped under the sheets with this brand new pajamas. That moment, he seemed to be really thinking. She couldn't shake that moment because that moment was a turning point. He treated her cordially like before. Yet, she could feel that the flame of enthusiasm had died in him.

The next morning with the first light, they got up. He made drip coffee like he was a barista. He even had a checkered towel over his left arm as he prepared breakfast. She looked at him. Is this what it feels like to meet the father of her children? Is this what our mornings will be like? There is a joy in watching a handsome man expertly working and assembling something. She held the warm cup of coffee to her chest and fell in love with his butt.

The hike started in a forest parking lot with muddy and puddle covered dirt. A soft mist drizzled down. They had known about the rain in the Washington area and were prepared with rain pants and jackets from REI. The forest was absolutely green and the ground absolutely muddy. Obviously, the two came as a packaged deal. She happily walked along his side. A man was taking her hiking, what could be better!

After two miles, they reached the cliff. The ocean was a dramatic display of waves breaking and rolling in a long way. A young couple had hiked in wet suits carrying short boards through the forest. The cliff was very rocky. The ocean must have tormented everything here. There were little rocks and rock arches in the water that seemed to be whittled down by the water's force.

Donovan held her the hand rope. She lowered herself down the cliff. She slipped. She had to hold onto roots at some point. Her knees and her face got brushes with dirt. She was laughing and smiling. On the bottom of the descent, she crawled on her hands and knees backwards to the sand because the hand rope had stopped short. He on the other hand had leaned back like a mountaineer and stepped precisely backward without ever struggling.

"Oh, you are a manly man," she laughed into his face. He responded with a smug smirk.

They walked along the beach. Occasionally, the beach was sandy. The sand had been fluffed by the water to be soft and collapse under each step. Sometimes, huge piles of seaweed covered the beach a foot deep. Each step sent a thousand flies to take to the air and swarm around them. The rotting stench of seaweed was heavy. She had to hold onto his arm with both hands to pull her feet out of the foot traps that the sea weed presented. Sometimes, huge fallen trees blocked their path and forced them to walk out toward the ocean and jump over tide pools that the low tide had left behind.

After a couple hours, the ocean kept pushing in closer and closer. Donovan had to lift Niykee up to get her over a fallen tree trunk. Eventually, the big waves reached close enough to lick their feet. The cliff was a two hundred feet wall. The ocean was closing in on them. Donovan pointed at a grassy spot a few hundred feet ahead, "If there is grass, it means the ocean doesn't reach the spot."

The spot was quite cozy actually. Someone had put tree limbs all around to build a little nest. There was an old campfire in the center. Donovan sat down. She immediately sat down next to him and nestled into his chest. All morning, she had watched him. He was very sexy and cute. This was finally a guy who liked her. She enjoyed smelling him, and his chest left against her ear with every breath. The ocean closed in around them from all sides but the cliff side. They felt like holdouts against mighty nature.

"Do you want to fuck? The scenery is so perfect. And with the high water, nobody can surprise us," Niykee asked.

She could feel his hesitation. She could feel the 'no' coming. She pulled her top off in one swoop to show her big boobs. The nipples were big and pink. Her lips were unusually large for a white girl. It had made the boys fantasize about blowjobs from her. Her blue eyes looked helpless and innocent. The contrast of the little girl next door eyes was in stark contrast to her hips that gave her almost a farmer like strength. The contrast is what made her unique and intriguing. She let her mouth drop open to make a bedroom expression. He kept a suave smile on his face. His eyes were curiously scanning across her boobs. She could still feel his no, yet for the moment, he was holding it back to enjoy her breasts.

She unzipped his pants. He didn't quite want to lift his butt to let her pull it down. She got a hold of his circumcised penis anyway. She took the limp thing in her mouth and glided her tongue around it. The penis grew in her mouth. He let out a sigh followed by "Alright, let's have beach sex." She giggled with excitement.

He grabbed her and pulled down her pants and panties. He put her on her hands and knees. She liked being handled. Her hands and knees felt the cold sand. She looked out onto the waves that had white mist flying off their top. The waves battered hard. The ground was shaking from them. She could smell the salt in the air. A hawk circled around a little outcropping of rocks in the ocean. The vivid experience of nature while having her pussy pummeled and making her feel good was very memorable. Though, a little thought tainted her experience. He never turned her around. They never fucked face to face. He always just held her like an anonymous cunt. She fought those thoughts back to protect the moment.

They lay back on the sand to rest against each other and stare into the sky. Torn clouds were swiftly moving. They made it a game of guessing which cloud would overtake which cloud. Niykee felt transported back into her childhood, not those messy days of a teenager, but the innocent and loving days before that. So, it spurted out of her mouth, "Let's go for the next date in Costa Rica. My treat this time."

He said coolly, "Let's talk about it later."

That's all that he said. He wasn't excited about it. He didn't talk about what they could do in Costa Rica. She wanted to tell him about being alone with him under a waterfall. She kept it to herself. She could feel him pull away. There was something that had made him judge her. In his score book, she had scored poorly on something. He didn't even let her know what. She realized that this was a bad spot to break up. He was probably simply a gentleman to drop her off at the airport and never call again.

That night, they were in the same queen sized bed. The cottage had a small bedroom entirely with wood walls and a tiny little window in the top corner. There was a small in-wall heater that kept the place cozy and warm. After the light went out, she turned away from him. The tears started rolling down her face. Her lungs wanted to quiver. She didn't want him to know. She counted to slow her inhales, 1-2-3-4-5, and her exhales, 1-2-3-4-5. Once the air was all out, she held the air out. Her belly quivered as the emotion poured over her. As long as she kept the air out of her lungs, she wouldn't make a sound. The pressure to breath in oxygen became overwhelming. Very controlled, she inhaled, 1-2-3-4-5. The tears kept streaming over her face. At some point emotional exhaustion must have set in because she didn't remember falling asleep. The sun was simply up from what had seemed like one moment to the next.

Donovan was already in the kitchen making his special drip coffee. This time, he hadn't kissed her on the neck to gently wake her up. Niykee's eyes were full of buggers from the crying. She walked into the kitchen and loudly spoke to him.

"Who are you? You are so smooth and perfect with everything. Yet, you haven't told me even one personal bit about you. What do you want in life?"

"Well, I have a PhD in finance. I'm more successful than 95% of the people. I know that I will never be as successful as the finance guys in Manhattan. So, I stay in LA to not have that pushed in my face."

"You still don't know how to open up, how to be intimate with someone."

Donovan smiled nervously at her and didn't say anything anymore. She pressed him harder, and all he did was smile his smooth and handsome smile. Underneath, she could feel that he was really simply helpless.