Erotic Reader: Carmen, Two Faces Pt. 1

By: Alexandra Walker

Carmen looked out her front window, expecting to see Alex’s car rolling up, to see him stepping out of the driver’s see in his always-classy style, slacks, nice shoes, a tie probably. But Carmen knew he wouldn’t come, and that was the best situation for both of them. Even though they had tried to sort things out on their trip, tried to makes things work, even had sex, the damage had already been done.

The rest of the trip was fine, but awkward. Carmen and Alex struggled to even keep the small talk going. Carmen didn’t resent Alex at all for the way he was acting, silent, moody, terse – she felt the exact same way. When they got back to the city, they made several attempts to get together, but plans always fell through. And so like that, in such an anti-climactic fashion, Carmen’s relationship with Alex came to a close. Carmen did not feel bad about the way things ended. She looked back at their relationship together in a very fond light. It would be much easier to move on than the last time, and for this Carmen was grateful.

When Carmen went back to work she had trouble focusing. She spent the whole morning surfing the internet and ignoring the report that needed to be completed by the end of the day. She felt so exasperated by her job – she didn’t feel like she was going anywhere. She resolved that she would quit soon and do something that really excited her. On her way home, Carmen stopped at the hardware store to buy some new curtain rods. She walked around the giant hardware store, unable to find the home décor section. She walked into the lumber section, and saw an employee struggling to manage several 2x4s in his arms. Carmen walked over to him,

“Hello, do you work here?”

Startled by Carmen’s approach, the man dropped the pieces of wood to the floor. He looked lost as he tried to figure out how to pick everything back up again.

“Um…hello? I asked if you worked here?” asked Carmen. Who the hell was this guy?

“Oh, no, no, you got it all wrong. I don’t work here at all. I’m just buying some wood.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Carmen. She pointed at his overalls, dirty, with paint on them, and she looked down at his battered construction boots. “I just thought, with your outfit, you might be an employee.”