She took a chance. "So, are you married?"
"No," I said. "So, are you married?"
"No," Ivy said.
"You still live with your folks?"
"Not since my dad died two years ago. Now I have my own place." She gestured down the highway. "My uncle lives in Lihue. He looks in on me now and then, sees if I'm doing okay."
"Are you doing okay?"
She had a sour pout. No, she wasn't doing okay.
"So what keeps you here?"
"This crummy job, for one thing," Ivy said. "Not enough money yet to leave." She became more upbeat. "Someday I'm gonna leave. First chance I get."
"You might check Vegas out. There's something going on twenty-four hours a day every day. You could get a job there easily."
"I like dancing," Ivy said.
I was smiling. "Topless?"
Ivy blushed. "Not with what I got."
She pissed me off. "It's not what you got, Ivy, but how you carry yourself. Remember that. You parade, everybody notices you, and nobody notices what you got."
She was skeptical. "Not with what I got."
The silence stretched like a lazy cat, and we became uncomfortable with each other. But we didn't stop looking at each other.
I started grinning again. "How about if I drive you home after work?"
Ivy thought it over. "I don't want to go home after work." She slid out of the booth. "I gotta get back to work."
I stayed and watched her work.
She came back to me and said, "I feel like I'm on trial."
"I’ll read my newspaper instead."
"You can look now and then."
The Pier Inn closed at nine. When we left, I helped Ivy into the passenger side. I walked around, got in behind the driver's wheel. I started the car and was ready to drive off, but the skinny young waitress stopped me from turning the ignition key.
"All night, okay?" she said wistfully. "I mean, I don't want to have to get up and leave in the middle of the night."
I was taken aback. "You stay all night with me."
Ivy was relieved. Me, I got to thinking about that.
Man, this town had treated her shabby.
At my Beach Chalet room we made love with a full moon from an open window lighting up our naked sweatiness. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s taking a woman to her limit and beyond. I didn’t come by that talent naturally. A lot of hungry women in Vegas taught me how.
Ivy clutched the mattress with both hands as I brought her to orgasm. Her eyes were closed in rapture. She cried out sharply.
I felt like bragging about it to someone, too.
When she was sated, Ivy still lay on top of me, nearly asleep on me. I caressed her forearms, then nudged her shoulders to move. She didn't respond, so I nudged her again.
"Bathroom--" I murmured.
Ivy roused herself. "Hmmm?"
As we broke apart, her grip on my arm tightened, and she kept me from moving away.
Ivy blurted out: "Oh, god, I love you!"
I caught the passion in her voice. "Oh yeah?"
Ivy was struck silent. She looked self-conscious and embarrassed. I figured she hadn’t been with many men, and all of them had been selfish. Then I started feeling something special for her.
When I came back to bed, I said, "Let me do you again."
Her eyes widened. When I started on her, her eyes slowly closed.
I was feeling good, too. This was Paradise, I realized.
How was I to know she was telling the truth?
A blood-red sunrise came over the Pacific Ocean. Inside my hotel room we lay in bed, my arm around her, her head on my shoulder. We were exhausted, but awake.
"Just a week and then you're gone?"
I nodded. "I gotta work for a living, Ivy."
Ivy had sad eyes. "I don't want to lose you."
"We got no choice, Ivy."
"Do me again," she pleaded.
I teased her. "I don't know if I ought to. I might be ruining you for the next guy who comes along."
She was in no mood for my teasing.