canât stand still. As we speak, he starts picking dead flowers off bushes. I dig around in my purse for the door keys.
âNo oneâs going to think youâre slacking off. The garden looks fantastic and I appreciate you helping me. Is Jock home?â I whisper.
Tito nods toward the living room window. I peer through it and see the back of Jockâs brown curly-haired head resting against the leather couch. Suddenly, a blond ponytail rises up from what I assume is Jockâs lap. His company.
âHeâs consistent,â I say to myself.
I ring the front doorbell, announcing my arrival, then glance down to the grocery bags at my feet.
For a man with such variety in his sex life, Jockâs choice in food is downright boring. Week in and week out I shop for the same foods. I donât even need a grocery list anymore. Jock eats four tubs of cottage cheese per week and three gallons of Silk brand soymilk. Only âOriginalâ flavor, because that has the lowest fat and the lowest sugar content of any soymilk on the planet unless he personally squeezes the edamame beans.
Then there is his tuna. He bases the entire balance of his diet around his consumption of hermetically sealed foil pouches of tuna. When I hit the grocery stores for a âJock runâ and clean out the entire tuna supply, other shoppers stare.
I ring the doorbell again just to make sure he knows Iâm here. No one answers. He is, after all, busy. I slowly count to ten and then open the door. Heâs on the living room couch with a young Icelandic-looking woman draped across his lap. I keep an expressionless face as I remember my grandmother putting me across her lap and giving me a hard spanking for not minding her.
âHi, Corki!â Jock smiles.
âOh, hi!â I say without blinking.
I pass by his living room âartâ collection, consisting of childrenâs stuffed animals with all their limbs and tails severed and resewn on in improper places. Donald Duck has a monkeyâs mouth sewn on his crotch. Woody Woodpecker has a huge pecker indeed, with Plutoâs tail sewn in place of his private parts. A matching pair, Tom and Jerry, have cloth penises so long they twist and turn, are intertwined, plaited, then go up the back and end up as toupees on their heads.
I quietly put the groceries away. As I place them in Jockâs stainless steel side-by-side Sub-Zero, I canât help hearing whatâs happening in the living room: slurping.
Jock calls out, âOh, by the way, Cork?â
âYes?â I say as I enter the living room. He strokes Icyâs ass and she turns her face toward the couch cushion, running her hand over his six-pack abs.
âThereâs some stuff in the out basket for you. And whatâs going on with Concepcion? She didnât do all the laundry in the hamper. I need some clothes laundered before she comes back on Monday. I gave her tomorrow and Friday off and look what she does. This is terrible.â
âIâll drop them off to be done tonight and pick them up tomorrow. Is that okay?â I ask.
âMmmmmm, yes, that would be perfect,â he moans. âThere is one other thing in the out basket Iâll be needing today. Probably sooner than later.â
I slip into the office. Concepcionâs list awaits me: green kitchen sponges, Windex, a new mop, vacuum bags and laundry detergent. Under her list is an unopened condom. No note. I donât need one, I know what I have to do. Find this particular brand and find it quickly. He has apparently changed brands while my back was turned. This rubber with its âpleasure-enhancing pouchâ offers âoodles of sexual pleasure.â It certainly doesnât look like typical grocery store or pharmacy fare.
The clock reads 2:16 P.M .
I dodge into Jockâs bedroom closet and throw open the lid to the hamper to get the laundry, but itâs empty. I search the floors of both