MILLICENT: Act Two

MILLICENT
Act Two

Millicent walked along the busy walkway taking long strides. She ignored both men and women who turned her way, yet knew her secret smile attracted the second glances. She stopped and looked at her reflection in a shop window, Thormen’s Shoe and Apparel was written across the window but she didn’t look at the display or the sign; she looked at herself.

Her body was perfection, not according to the modeling world, but rather for what she needed it to do for her. She wore jeans and a short waist sweater with a ‘v’ neck and no bra. She’d let her hair go back to its natural color and her dark sun worshiper’s tan blended smoothly as a backdrop for her mid-length honey-blond hair. Her brows were light brown and her eyes were a light brown; though in certain lighting they took on the look of deep golden-bronze. She smiled her pleasure, her eyes didn’t show the hunger she saw a few days prior and her features were relaxed and harmonized.

Millicent turned and continued to stride toward the bench and wait for the bus which would take her to her other place, her other world. It was on the quarter hour when her bus hissed to a stop before her. Millicent had the three tokens in her hand and dropped them in the change chute as she turned to take the next available seat. She strolled midway down the aisle and the bus was moving before she sat and slid next to the window.

Millicent sighed as visions of last night flashed in her mind. She closed her eyes and savored the after image of Jabrina’s arched back as her orgasm gripped her. Millicent opened her mouth and took in a deep breath. It didn’t matter that only diesel tainted air filled her lungs, she remembered the sweet musk and the lilac that was Jabrina’s gift to her. She opened her eyes and a tear slid over her cheek. Jabrina had touched a place within her she had not allowed to be touched in many years. Maybe she could go back, but even as she the thought materialized she shook her head and knew she wouldn’t go back. One feeding frenzy per mark, that was all she ever allowed herself. If she had stayed, disaster would befall her and Jabrina.

Millicent bit her lower lip as an unbidden image rested behind her eyes. A beautiful girl, no more than seventeen lay naked on a carpeted floor; Colette sweet Colette. Millicent shook her head to rid herself of the vision. Colette was long dead, fifty years in her grave and she had lived a short life. Another image, this time of an old withered woman laying in a bed looked up at her. Tears streamed down both of Millicent’s cheeks. She wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt.

“Don’t cry my sweet. The degenerative disease is to blame for my premature ending, not you. You have given me heaven on this Earth and I love you with all my heart.”

Millicent nodded her head as she had fifty years ago. Colette was twenty-five when her heart failed her. The doctors estimated her physical age as somewhere in the eighties. The onset of the accelerated aging was never determined; only, Millicent knew what caused Colette to whither before her eyes. She vowed on the day she said farewell to her first true love that she would never be the cause of such a death again.

Millicent sighed as the bus lurched to a stop. She focused on the street and realized she was at her change over. She stood and exited the bus, wiping her face as she walked. She walked around the corner and down two blocks then sat and waited for her next bus. Millicent hated regrets and tried to clear her mind of unwanted memory; but her eyes fell upon a young woman with long dark hair and the image of Jabrina walking into the bar on Fifth and Maple two months ago filled her consciousness.


Their eyes had locked and Millicent swiveled on the stool and maintained eye contact as Jabrina strolled passed her. Jabrina maintained eye contact to the point of turning and walking backwards until she was next to an empty booth. She sat facing Millicent.

The young man who had Millicent’s attention until that moment looked toward Jabrina with interest. “Is she a friend? Do you think she would like to join us tonight?”

“Don’t be silly, Frances. You won’t be able to handle me let alone satisfy her too.” Millicent broke off eye contact with Jabrina with a slight shrug. Jabrina nodded as she watched Millicent turn her attention back toward the young man sitting next to her. Millicent smiled in relief when Jabrina frowned and pulled her gaze away from the eyes of the young man upon her. She surmised Jabrina didn’t prefer men then.




Millicent sighed and looked at her watch. The next bus wouldn’t arrive for another twenty minutes.



She’d been right about, Frances. He’d paid her for an all nighter and she ended up giving him back a hundred because he’d passed out after the first round. She left him sprawled on his bed. Still hungry she went out to find another score.

Millicent fed on three more that night, taking them together in a frenzy of lust they would not soon forget. Her take was thirty-four hundred dollars--counting Frances and his refund--and she walked away no longer hungry.

The next evening Millicent had gone back to the bar and found Jabrina sitting in a booth alone. From the moment she entered the bar, Jabrina’s eyes focused on her and drew Millicent toward her like sunlight into a flower.

“Do you mind some company?” Millicent smiled down at Jabrina.

“No, I invite you to sit, in fact.” Jabrina’s smile startled Millicent and she caught her breath. Her hunger stirred within her as she sat opposite the brunette.

Jabrina blushed and laughed. “Please, I’m not that great to look upon, surely?”

Millicent smiled as she focused on Jabrina. “Yes, yes you are.”

A barmaid stepped by the booth and looked at the women.

“I’ll take another vodka tonic.”

Millicent looked up at the barmaid and appreciated her tight blouse before making eye contact. “I’ll have a JD and coke, tall.”

The barmaid smiled and turned with a flare. Millicent smiled and watched the tart as each step moved her heart shaped ass with invitation.

“I see I’m not the only attraction here.” Jabrina held her drink and downed the last swallow as Millicent returned her attention back to the girl with a sad smile.

“My name is Millicent, and she is no competition next to you.”

“Jabrina.” Jabrina’s eye brows had shot up and her mouth had opened as her jaw fell slack. The expression of surprise only lasted a moment before Jabrina regained her composure.

“Nice to have a name for the beautiful image before me.”

Their drinks arrived. The barmaid took the empty glass and the money for the drinks; Millicent paid for them fending off Jabrina’s protest. “No, I insist.”

The barmaid left with a tip and a smile.

“I will pay for only this round, then you and I leave right after.”

Jabrina had cocked her head and intrigue squinted her eyes. “What makes you think I’d leave with you?”

Millicent shrugged. “I don’t presume to know if you will, I’ve only said I would pay for this one round. If you and I leave right after, that is good. If we stay then you pay for the remaining rounds.

Jabrina nodded. They sipped their drinks and talked. Jabrina worked as a waitress in a small café just down the street. She’d been single for a year and was just now getting back out into circulation. Millicent almost stood and walked out of the bar when Jabrina revealed this about herself; but hadn’t followed through with her impulse.

“So you are a bit fragile, my dear?”

“Yes, I suppose I am.” Jabrina blushed.

“What do you do?”

Millicent smiled and leaned back into the Naugahyde cushion of the booth. “Do you want honesty? I would think so given your recent reemergence into the bar scene.”

Jabrina looked into her eyes and frowned. She didn’t answer right away and Millicent thought she saw the war raging within her. If she took the honest answer then it meant she searched for something more than a mere one night stand.

Millicent sipped her JD and coke and waited. She watched every nuance of Jabrina’s struggle which didn’t last more than a few seconds, but time had stood still. It was an uncomfortable moment for Jabrina and Millicent knew she settled on a quick answer more to relieve her discomfort than anything else.

“Yes, honesty would be refreshing.”

“I hook. I was working last night when you saw me.”

“Oh.”

Millicent smiled and slid toward the edge of the bench seat.

“No, you don’t need to leave. It just…I was just…You were more honest than I expected, is all. You didn’t look, you don’t dress like a hooker.”

Millicent smiled. I don’t need to advertise. My reputation precedes me somewhat.”

“Do you have regulars then?”

“No. I’m not set up as a high class. I troll the waters in places like this one and I never stay long in an area.”

“When will you leave this area?”

Millicent smiled and shook her head. “I’m not sure. I might stay a little longer than usual.”

Jabrina’s smile disarmed Millicent and she stood up from the booth. Jabrina’s smile faded and her eyes darted from where Millicent had sat to where she stood with her hand out as if to assist Jabrina from the booth.

“I haven’t said I’d leave with you.”

Millicent smiled and nodded. “Yes, I know. You must decide because I am leaving. My drink is finished and your drink is almost finished. I know of a place, more private than this one. Care to go?”

Jabrina licked her lips. Millicent had caught the smell of lilac and fresh musk. She closed her eyes as her hunger clinched her lower abdomen and she took a long breath feeding on the smell that was Jabrina.

Millicent opened her eyes as Jabrina slipped her hand into Millicent’s. Jabrina blushed and her eyes sparkled. Her breath came in quick mini gasps as if she had taken a frightening plunge. Millicent lead Jabrina from the bar. There they stopped and Millicent looked at Jabrina closely.

“Do you have your car?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Take me.”

‘Okay.”

Jabrina lead Millicent to her car, but just as she went to step off the curb Millicent gripped her hand and wouldn’t let her go. “No my dear, you have drank too much to drive.”

Jabrina turned toward Millicent. “But…”

Millicent leaned into Jabrina and kissed her on the lips. Jabrina froze unresponsive, neither backing away nor receptive. Millicent probed with her tongue, not invading but caressing Jabrina’s lips. Jabrina sucked air through her nose and her lips opened. Millicent’s tongue was met by Jabrina’s just inside the barrier of her own lips. Jabrina wrapped her arms around Millicent and returned her kiss with passion long restrained.

A police car rolled by slowing next to Jabrina’s car. The right seat officer rolled the window down.

“Come now ladies, find yourself a more appropriate spot to do that.”

Jabrina broke away from Millicent and turned her face away from the female officer looking at them from the window. Millicent wrapped her arm around Jabrina helping her to hide and nodded toward the policewoman. “Yes, we will go somewhere more private. Thank-you.”

The car never stopped its slow forward creep and Millicent watched as the unit turned the corner and disappeared.

“I think you need to give me your keys, hon. There are many police out and you don’t want to be pulled over.”

Jabrina nodded. Millicent smiled as Jabrina swayed and blinked. “Do you always kiss like that?”

“Only when I’m not getting paid.”

“Oh.”

Jabrina dug her keys out of her small hand bag and handed them to Millicent. Millicent opened the car door and waited for Jabrina to slide into the bucket seat before closing the door. She selected the Ford ignition key on the ring as she walked around the front of the car to the driver’s side. Jabrina leaned over and opened the 1967 Mustang’s door from the inside. Millicent grinned at Jabrina, who grinned back. “I will have you know I never let anyone drive my car--Ever.”

“I promise, I won’t hurt your car.”

Jabrina had sobered and looked at Millicent. “Will you promise not to hurt me?”

Millicent took in a breath and let it out slow before she turned and answered. “I can’t promise not to hurt you, Jabrina. I can only promise to be with you until I must leave again. Now, where do you live?”

Jabrina stared at Millicent and shook her head. “I thought you knew of a private place. I thought you were taking me there?”

“I do and I am as soon as you tell me where it is.”

“Oh, uh thirteen-oh-five Wisteria loop.”

“Nice neighborhood.”

“Yes and quiet.”



The bus lurched to a stop before the bench. Diesel smoke hung thick in the air. Millicent stood but didn’t move toward the open door; instead she threw an apology toward the driver and walked back two blocks turned the corner and crossed the street from where she had left the previous bus. A few minutes later the bus that was on its return loop stopped and she got on, paid her fair and rode to the street where she had first boarded. She then called and caught a cabby and had him drive her to thirteen-oh-five Wisteria Loop.


Jabrina sat at the kitchen table holding a hot cup of coffee in both her hands. Millicent saw that she was crying. Jabrina didn’t stand as Millicent walked over and sat at the chair adjacent to Jabrina.

“I thought you had left me. I thought you had gone.”

Millicent nodded her head and bit her lip as Jabrina’s anguished voice ripped at her heart. “I did leave, but I couldn’t stay away.”

Jabrina refused to look at Millicent, instead she concentrated on her coffee cup.

“I need to tell you something about myself. I need you to understand what it means if I stay.”

“You make it sound like a death sentence.”

“It could well be, but I think it doesn’t have to be.” Millicent’s voice caught as emotion gripped her throat.

Jabrina looked at Millicent with red swollen eyes.

“I love you Jabrina. I’ve loved you from the first moment we locked eyes on each other.”

"I know."





2492 words