Clean out the barn

I found Deb standing impatiently. As I walked up, her eyes flicked down to my crotch then back up at my face.

“There you are.”

“Yeah. Sorry, I needed a moment after that prank.”

“Prank?” Asked Deb. “From the proportions of the picture, I thought you taped them up yourself to advertise.” She winked, “Unfortunately I’m married so it had no effect on me

I tried to explain, “I did not post those.”

She ignored me, “I have a task for you. You need to clean out the barn and get the equipment ready. My cousin will lead you.”

On my walk to the barn, I finally realized who she was talking about. Her cousin. The consultant. The goddess in the BMW. The woman who appears every time I get naked. I was shocked she didn’t walked into the cabin when I was losing my virginity.

Amanda was already in the barn standing with a clipboard. Jeans, a khaki button down, pony tail, and a look the stern look of someone is annoyed at having to wait.

“There you are. You were suppose to report right after breakfast.”

“Sorry. I lost something in the cabin.”

“Did you find it?”

“No. I’m never getting it back.”

Her dark eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Just another weird thing that I had said to her.

She handed me a pair of work gloves.

“We’re organizing.”

I looked around. The equipment barn smelled like sawdust, old canvas, and gasoline. It looked like a sporting goods store had exploded. Shelves overflowing with equipment. Boxes stacked randomly. Paddles mixed with soccer balls. Extension cords hanging like jungle vines.

“This seems impossible.”

“It isn’t.” She smiled. “It just needs a system.”

I should have known she had a system. Amanda seemed like the kind of person who alphabetized her spices.

She pointed to one side of the barn. “First, we sort. Get rid of all the broken equipment and things we don’t need.”

Then another. “Then we decide where things belong. Paddles with the canoes. Uncle Same costume with the box of mini American flags.”

She listed another item on her checklist. “Then we clean until the place is shining. Then standardize it so it doesn’t turn back into the mess it was. Like setting up racking for the canoes to hang on.”

I looked dumbfounded. We were going to do all this today? “You sound like you’ve done this before.”

She laughed. “Just a few times.”

“What’s it called?”

“Five S-inf.”

I waited.

She waited.

“That means nothing to me.”

“It’s Japanese. A tool to get a workstation organized. It’s one of the first things we’d do out on the floor of a new place.”

I looked around. If I just didn’t have the best sex of my life (the only sex of my life), this would’ve put me in a bad mood.

For the next few hours we worked, and sweat. We sorted sports equipment. Stacked paint supplies. Organized canoe paddles. Swept corners that hadn’t seen daylight in years.

Amanda with her sleeves rolled up moved through the chaos with surprising enthusiasm. Chucking items in the trash that the camp had held onto for decades. Her work ethic made her even sexier. I expected her to just boss me around, but she was literally getting her hands dirty.

“Why are you smiling?” I asked.

“Because this is fun.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“It absolutely is.”

I laughed. “You’re a very strange person.”

She smirked, “I’ve been told.”

I paused, “That’s my line.”

She smiled.

By mid-morning the barn looked completely different. Things had places. Shelves made sense. I could actually see the floor. Amanda looked genuinely happy.

“You know,” I said, “I think you enjoy telling people what to do.”

“That’s because I’m very good at it.”

I couldn’t argue.

By late-morning the barn looked transformed.

Amanda surveyed our work proudly. “Perfect.”

I looked around. “I’ll admit it. This is satisfying.”

She grinned. “I knew you’d come around.”

We sat on the tailgate of the rusty Ford F-250 that was filled with trash for the dump and drank water.

A breeze moved through the trees. I looked at her. Her beauty was still imitating. The gaze of her eyes still shrank me.

“So,” I said not knowing how to broach the topic. “The picture.”

She groaned. “Do we have to talk about that? I saw the model for the portrait. I’ve seen you’re penis three too many times.”

“I just wanted to say that you were right. Emma was not a good decision.”

She laughed, “She’s a white girl with dreadlocks. I can’t believe it took humiliation for you to realize that.”

“I’ve recovered, and I’m already starting to make better decisions,” I said proudly.

“With Maggie?”

I almost dropped my water bottle in surprised, “How did you know?”

“Because every time she walks into a room, you notice. And she’s the one who ran after you when you fled breakfast.”

I considered lying. Then remembered I was terrible at it. “Maybe.”

Amanda nodded. “She’s nice.”

“You sound unconvinced.”

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “I heard things about last summer.”

“What kind of things?”

She looked out at the lake. “Rumors.”

“What rumors?”

She sighed, “That she had a lot of… camp romances.”

I frowned, thinking of her pussy juices dried on my cock.

“How many is a lot?”

Amanda looked at me. “You really want to know?”

I nodded.

“I heard ten.”

I stared at her. “Ten?” I should’ve used a condom. No way she was cleaned if she was with ten guys in a summer. That’s only two months. How many did she fuck the other ten!?

She shrugged. “Again. Rumors.”

I didn’t know what to say. “That seems like a lot.”

“It does.” She smiled. “You look horrified.”

“I think I am.”

Amanda laughed. “You still have a lot to learn. Everyone has a past.”

I thought about Maggie. Then thought about not thinking about Maggie. Then changed the subject. “What about you and your past?”

“What about me?”

“How does someone end up as a consultant at a summer camp?”

She leaned back against the truck.

“Long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

Her eyebrow knitted, deciding how much info to give me. “I used to work in New York. Big company. Lots of travel. Gone three weeks. Home for a week.”

“That sounds important.”

She agreed, “It sounded important.”

I waited.

Eventually she said, “I don’t work there anymore.”

“You quit?”

A pause. “Something like that.” The answer felt incomplete. She turned her water bottle in her hands.

I pressed, “You got fired?”

She laughed softly, “Pretty much.”

I nodded, “Why didn’t you stay in New York? Get another job?”

It took her a moment to reply, “I didn’t have a home there anymore.”

I noticed her thumb brushing the spot on her left hand where a ring might have been. She caught me looking, and stopped.

I looked away.

The silence stretched.

Finally she sighed, “I guess we’re both out here starting a new life. I just have a 20 year head start.”

Water sprayed from my mouth, “TWENTY YEARS!?”

“Oh fuck,” she groaned. “I shouldn’t have said that. Do not tell anyone my age!”

I grinned knowing her secret, “Okay. I won’t tell anyone you’re thirty ei—“

“DO NOT FUCKING SAY IT!” She yelled and pushed me off the tailgate.

I fell onto the gravel laughing, “You’re older than my mom.”

She stood above me glaring down, “Number one your mom had a child way too young. Number two shut the fuck up because I take that hatchet down from its shadow board and chop your tongue out.”

I shut up but the grin on my place was too loud for her. She lashed out, “You need to go shower. At first I thought the dead fish smell was coming from the barn, but it’s confirmed from you.”

She climbed into the cab of the truck, and leaned out the window, “Use disinfectant if you have it. I’m not sure how clean Maggie actually is.”

She peeled off leaving me in a cloud of dust. I stood there confused. We were having a good time. I thought we were joking and flirting. I didn’t care about her age. It’s not like I had a romantic chance with her. Talking about her past must have set her off. Thinking about the job and home she no longer had.

I pulled out my shorts from my body and took a whiff. Yup, I smelled like rotten sex. But the smell make my dick move with the memory of Maggie’s tight slick pussy.

I needed to bathe, but I didn’t want to walk all the way up to my shower house.