STEED

The only true love

One Love. The only love I ever could say was true.

We met in the foothills of Virginia at a little place just before "the steep climb" is what they called it.

My apartment overlooked the bottom of the incline where everything just sort of suddenly leveled off.

There was a place we all hung out to play games of all sorts; video games were just coming on the scene and, although I did not particularly care for Pacman and Mrs PacMan, I could, and spent hours shooting pool.

One day, a gentleman entered the hangout and it seemed like somebody paused a video. Everyone turned to look.

This gentleman was wearing a white, perfectly pressed suit pinstriped in lavender.

He wore a white 'pimp' hat -is what I called it- with the brim pulled down over one eye.

I could feel his gaze. From the moment he walked completely through the entrance, he was watching me.

Maybe it was because I still had my waitress uniform on.

Sambo's 24 Hour Fine Dining furnished the waitstaff uniforms; gold and black skirts and blouses which represented the tigers colors after they'd melted. 

The story was Sambo wanted hotcakes and lured the tigers to chase him around the tree so fast. Sambo hopped behind some bushes to hide and the tigers kept running faster until they melted into butter and syrup.

Anyhoo, I had to know the story to share with the kids mostly.

Sometimes a sarcastic adult customer, usually a guy, would ask me to tell the story and argue with me about the rationality.

The gentleman in the white freshly pressed suit with lavender pinstripes did not care about tigers nor pancakes.

He walked quietly to the pool table I was shooting a game with a friend and spoke as if we had known each other forever,

"I have the next game, Glenda," and he easily put down the money for the next game.

I kept shooting. Leaning as far over the table as I could to shoot the eight-ball which was perched almost on top of the two-ball, I asked, 

"How do you know my name and how do you know I'll win?"

I took the shot. The spin I put on cue ball jumped it over the two and backed into as it popped the eight-ball directly on the side lined up with the pocket,

"Eight-ball in the side pocket," I said, never glancing as the eight-ball slid smoothly into the side pocket. I had practiced this shot to perfection.

"I have faith in you is how I knew you'd win," the gentleman answered, "and I knew your name because it's on your name tag."

I raised all the way up to touch the tag and said,

"Rack 'em."

The gentleman laid a twenty dollar bill on the pool table beside the five he had previously laid down and asked politely,

"How about choosing a couple of friends to replace you in the game so we can talk? My name is Steed."

I looked at Steed sarcastically,

"STEED?" and asked one of my friends,

"Is that really a name or is he going to kidnap me and never be seen again?"

My friend pointed out the window at the white, chrome rimmed Caddy with a license plate on the front in big, black, bold letters that spelled, STEED.

"My father heads one of the largest outfits to save wild horses in the Appalachians," 

Steed gently took my pool stick and placed it back in the rack alongside the others.

. 

He walked to the door and opened it, dramatically waving his hat to motion me outside, asked, "Shall we?"

"One condition," I stated boldly,

You tell me why you pointed me out to watch from the time you entered The Steep Climb."

Steed circled my waist with one arm as we walked slowly to the white caddy,

"Because your gold panties under your black skirt perfectly match your blouse and I kept going over the story in my mind. That's it."

I looked up at Steed to find deception in his face if there was any. He looked down at me just as we arrived at the Caddy and winked as he opened the passengers side door.

"You know what? I believe you, STEED," I slid into the comfortable seat and Steed gently closed the door.

After he had walked around and entered the drivers side, Steed mentioned,

"You don't have to STRESS my name everytime. It's just Steed."

I was impressed at the even tone and the even keel Steed always managed to keep.

"Of course. I'm sorry, Steed, " I apologized as genuinely as possible, "You never told me your last name"

Steed looked straight ahead and pressed a button on the dash. The Caddy roared to life and Steed answered calmly,

"Nobles."

I almost choked,

"You're kidding me, right? Steed Nobles? As in noble steed?"

Steed never took his eyes off the road as we snaked smoothly in the Caddy. I never felt a single bump in those rough roads of the foothills and could not even feel the sway of the vehicle as we rounded the many curves.

Steed spoke up, still without glancing my way,

"You patronized the HillTop Bar here awhile back. That's when I first saw you."

I almost gasped. The one night I had literally let my hair down after work was in a nearby bar where a shift of waitresses had decided we'd let it all hang out after a particularly difficult shift with lots of overtime.

"Time and time and a half!" Nancy, a petite red head had boasted before we were suddenly overwhelmed by an after-hours celebration from the patrons and staff of the largest club on Highway 222.

We had discussed calling in extra help but we knew Bob, our boss, would likely serve us for breakfast so we pushed through the added hours of blustering, slobbering, and some vomiting customers until that nightmare was finally over. 

We headed to the HillTop which was just on the other side of Sambo's. As soon as we were served our drinks and I'd taken a few swallows, I took the braids out of my hair I always wore because it was so long.

I headed to the jukebox and played the sexiest song I could find. The alcohol was really kicking in and I began to sway with the music prior to the song I had chosen.

"G!" I could hear one of the new waitresses calling me, probably hoping to win brownie points by straightening me out.

"Leave her alone!" I could tell it was Nancy.

"Bless you, Nancy," I thought in my growing cloud of euphoria.

Beast Of Burden by The Rolling Stones finally began to play and I began to bump and grind to the provocative music.

The huge floor fans were blowing across the dance floor and I could feel my black skirt blowing upwards revealing my gold panties.

I could hear the few customers and staff yelling for me to strip and my thigh length hair was starting to whip across my body, stinging the flesh that was bare. The pain felt delicious.

I unbuttoned my gold blouse a single button at a time until the blouse was practically blown by the fans off my body.

My breasts felt so heavy in my tiny spaghetti string bra so I reached behind my neck to untie it.

"Yeah! That right! Let those babies free!" It was one of the busboys, Jack, who regularly did jack off watching the waitresses clean tables while he pretended to have use the bathroom.

I had forgotten I'd tied the spaghetti strap in a knot for safety and I began to struggle with the knot.

Jack started heckling me and I knew I was about to burst into drunken tears.

Suddenly, arms were around me, wrapping a white freshly pressed suit coat around, draping my body as he picked me up in his arms and carried me to his office.

There he laid me on a studio couch and I passed out.

Author's Note