But he wanted her. As he poured inside of her, as he filled her up, as he fucked her senseless, he wanted her. Life could very well become an impossibility without her. And that reality, for a man like Charles Sinatra, was a hell of an amazing thing.
“Another one,” Charles said later that night, as Jenay laid in his arms.
They were still naked, under cover, he on his back, she on her side, with her head on his chest. She smiled. “Not another one, Charlie!”
“Another one,” he said again. “I like the way you taste. Up and down.”
Jenay kissed him yet again. Charles enjoyed her kiss and fondled her bare butt as she laid her head back down on his chest again. After a moment, he spoke again.
“So you like my hometown?”
“I haven’t seen it yet.”
“So you like Jericho Inn?”
“From what I’ve seen of it, yes, it’s beautiful.”
“You don’t like the name, do you?”
“It’s a simple name.”
“It’s supposedly a simple town. People like simple around here.”
“But it’s not the people around here who stays here. Jericho is on the way to other places, including Canada. Those world travelers hear Jericho Inn, they may think a dinky motel. But if they hear, say, Berkshire Bed and Breakfast, or some such name like that, they will check it out and be willing to pay the price.”
“So you recommend I change the name?”
“Yes,” Jenay said. “I know I just got here, but yes. We’ve also got to build a website, and that’s on my To Do list too, but we need the right name first.”
“Compile a list of names,” Charles said, “and I’ll take a look. But this place has been around for over twenty years with that same name and it has some loyal guests. I haven’t owned it for even a year. I’m disinclined to change the name at this point, but I can be persuaded. Do your research, compile the list, and I’ll see.”
Jenay nodded. “Fair enough,” she responded.
“Tell me what happened with Beatrice,” he said and began rubbing her between her legs.
“She isn’t pleased with your selection,” she said, closing her eyes to his rub.
“That’s a conclusion. Tell me what she did.”
“She went out of her way to make it clear to me that I wasn’t coming in here running anything. The way she made it clear was to march my black behind straight to the kitchen and introduce me to the housekeeping supervisor. She thought it was funny.”
“Yeah, it’s funny alright. The funny part is if she thinks I’m going to put up with anybody’s racism b.s..” Then he looked at Jenay. “I guess you know what it looks like, don’t you?”
“What?”
“Racism. Racial hatred.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jenay said. “I know what it looks like.”
“How do you handle it?”
“I don’t. It’s not my problem to handle. I keep doing what I’m doing and trust that good will always triumph over evil. Because guess what? It always does.”
Charles held her tighter. “So Moynihan decided you belong in the kitchen.”
“That was her point, I’m sure. I think she thought I was going to react some kind of way, but that didn’t happen. So then she showed me around the rest of the building, but she wouldn’t honor my request to see a single unoccupied guestroom. According to her, there were no unoccupied rooms.”
“She lied,” Charles said, “but go on.”
“It was just general disrespect,” Jenay went on. “That was the main thing. She and your girlfriend were like a tag team coming at me.”
Charles looked at Jenay. “My what?”
“Your girlfriend. At least that’s who she said she was.”
Charles stared at her. “What was her name?”
“Paige somebody,” she said. “I asked her who she was, since she was putting her two cents into my conversation with Beatrice, and that’s what she said. She’s your girlfriend.”
Charles exhaled. “She’s not,” he said.
Jenay looked at him.
“She’s not,” he said again. “No.”
But Jenay knew there was more to the story. The woman looked arrogant, but she didn’t look delusional. “Who is she then? You know her?”
“I know her, yes. She’s somebody I used to . . . I used to have sex with.”
“So she used to be your girlfriend?”
“She was never my girlfriend. Let’s get that straight. She used to be somebody I had sex with. Period.”
Jenay decided to go there. “You mean she used to be to you what I am to you now?” She then looked at him, as if his reaction to the question was just as important as his answer.