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Her & Him: The Backseat – a very short story by David Guerra

I have been tinkering with the idea of writing in a different genre. While I am not abandoning Historical Fiction, I am considering something else.

Here is a little something to give you an idea of what I am talking about. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.


The Backseat by David Guerra

“Where is it?” an adult woman’s voice asks.

“It’s right there,” the accompanying adult male responds.

“It’s too small,” with a little frustration in her voice she replies.

“It is not too small. It’s right there. You are not working it right,” he says with a little frustration in his voice, as well.

“I am working it right. It is just too small,” she sarcastically or matter-of-factly replies.

He can’t tell.

“Do I have to do it, again?” as the level of frustration in his voice slightly increases he asks.

“No! I can do it. If you let me do it.”

“What does that mean?” slight discomfort replaces the frustration.

“I mean, you do it all the time and I hardly do it, so I want to do it.”

“What do you mean I do it all the time?” now the discomfort comes out.

“I’ve seen you doing it,” she replies with a slight knowing smile on her face as she looks at him.

“Oh,” is his humble response.

“Oh? This is not the time to become shy. Now scoot over, let me get my fingers on it and let me try,” she says with a tone of deliberate intent.

“OK,” he says as he shifts his body over give her room to work.

Soon the SUV is rocking and swaying back and forth. Luckily, where the SUV is parked there is little to no chance of anyone walking by. If there were from the outside, passersby would not see what is happening on the other side of the vehicle’s dark tinted windows. Then again, why would anyone want to see the activity inside a parked swaying vehicle?

It’s a little bit later now. Maybe three minutes later.

After numerous near misses, a lot of shifting of bodies and fumbling fingers the female voice from inside the SUV calls out, “Yes, Yes!”

“Yes! I think you’re getting it,” he says with some excitement in his voice. His increased breathing gives his excitement away.

“Oh gawd yes, finally,” she joins in with her exhilaration knowing the end is near.

“What does that mean?” he asks as all the excitement has left his voice.

“Damn it! Don’t start, you’ll ruin it,” vainly holding on to what is left of her excite.

“Ok, Ok, come on hurry up so we can go back inside. The windows are all fogged up,” he says as he tries to regain his composure.

“I know right. We’ve been out here too long but I didn’t think it would take this long. Usually you are done in a minute or two.”

“Yeah, but I am usually alone or without an audience,” with the wind out of his sails he replies.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you were sensitive about this.”

“Hey, sometimes the male ego can only take so much of a beating,” stating his case.

“You can say that again,” she says with a slight knowing smile and a slight gleam in her eye.

“Huh? Oh never mind, look what happened,” they both look at it and he continues, “We started talking and now you don’t have it.”

“My you do distract easy,” now she is full on with a small wicked smile.

“OK, now what does that mean?” he asks.

“It means when you lose concentration, I lose concentration and now we have to start all over again,” she says as she plays all her cards.

“Me, lose concentration?” he asks, “You are the one hell bent on doing it. So let’s do it!”

“Fine. Let’s do it. Wait a second look at it,” they both look at it and she continues, “It looks smaller.”

“It’s not smaller. It the same size it has always been. You are just looking at it wrong.”

“I know,” she says with a smile and a wink, “Let’s get situated again, so we can finish.”

“Yes, let’s.”

The man and the woman adjust themselves in the backseat of the SUV. She moves just enough to get her hand back in the right position and he moves ever so slightly to not crowd her but to give her enough room to work with comfort and to get the job done.

A minute or two later and after more moving, fumbling around, near misses and some frustrating moments.

“Yes!” she calls out sensing the end is now really truly seconds away.

“Yes?” with a slight sense of doubt that it is finally happening.

“YESSSS!!!” a great sense of accomplishment overcomes her.

“I knew you could do it,” he says as he looks down to see her handy work, “See, it’s not too small you just had to get your fingers around it to work it and the rest was easy.”

“Yes but it wasn’t too easy getting to that point,” she adds, “Next time, let me do it from the start or do it by yourself.”

“Next time?”

“You know there will be a next time. There is always a next time,” she says.

“True. Come on let’s go inside. It is really humid in here. Beside we got to clean it before someone wants to use it, again,” he says as he becomes aware of his surroundings, “Look at windows they are not only fogged up but already running with condensation.”

“How long were we out here?” she asks.

“A couple of minutes at most.”

“Felt like hours to me,” she quickly adds.

“Now what is that supposed to mean?” he says as he wonders how does she do it to be so quick witted.

“Nothing, just that I was the one doing all the work.”

“You wanted to do it,” he retorts.

“Oh, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” she states, “I just wanted to make the best of the time we had alone. Besides how often do you and I get to spend some alone time in the back of the SUV doing anything even this?

“Not enough,” he says as he leans over to kiss her as he opens the back passenger door.

“Next time, we do this promise me we turn the AC on.”

“It’s a deal,” he says as he help her out of the SUV.

She hugs and kisses him.

He returns the kiss as he wraps his arms around her, she lets his hands roam down and grabs two handfuls of her ample bottom.

“Settle down you. There is no time for that, I have to go clean this pacifier before you know who wakes up.”

He agrees and turns around to go back to the SUV.

“Where are you going?”

“Going back to figure out how that pacifier keeps falling in between the floor board and the side panel.”

The End…

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The Leadership Minute #82 – Give Up Excuses (Current Events Edition)

Welcome to the Leadership Minute #82 and it is the Current Events edition of things to Give Up To Be a Successful Leader. Today I am continuing my talk about Giving up Excuses.

When I first started writing the notes to this video I had a little trouble finding a real world current event that I could use then it happened.

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio at the 400 Meter Hurdle quarterfinals US athlete and the youngest to ever qualify for this Olympic event, Sydney McLaughlin, a 17-year-old high school senior was interviewed after the race that put her into the finals and that’s when it happened. While she did not finish in the top three to automatically move her into the semifinals her time had to beat the rest of the remaining athletes to fill in the other spots in the semis. Her youth, inexperience, and overly ambitious reporter got the better of her. She started with the excuses as to why she did not finish in the top three.

“It’s hard coming to a place like this, so many people, so much expectations, the rain, the change in weather, I’m sick – I have a cold. It’s a lot to take in, a lot to process, and a lot to deal with at the same time.”

Having a daughter just a less than a year younger than McLaughlin who also happens to participate in her high school track and field saw all the excuses right off the bat.

One you are not there to see the crowd. The only expectations are your own and as world class athlete you know that by now. The ringer was that she had a cold. Like I said she is 17 years old and her inexperience dealing with the media came shining through. Here was a great opportunity to be a role model for her peers and those future Olympians but instead gave the opposite.

She gave what kids her age give. Again, I am not blaming her but it does show the inexperience. It does show that people will blame others and make excuses to their advantage or they think it is to their advantage. Ultimately, it is just fronts, it’s a barrier and that’s not good leadership.

Thank you,
David Guerra

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The Leadership Minute #81 – Give Up Excuses


I am going to talk about Giving Up Excuses as one way To Be A Successful Leader.

You’ve heard the old saying, Excuses are like a certain body part, everyone has one. Nothing truly says that your level of maturity is not where it should be, you are not ready to take responsibility for your actions and you are not ready for anything that comes with the job of being a leader than being a leader that makes excuses for everything good or bad, chiefly bad.

People want to know that they have a leader that inspires them because he or she is confident, has high self-esteem and is ready to handle any situation good or bad. What people do not want is a leader that is uncertain, unproven, wishy-washy and most of all they do not want a leader that will throw them under the bus
the moment something goes wrong.

Unless if blatant there should never any reason for a leader to blame others or use others as an excuse as to why something went wrong or did not meet the expectations of the organization.

Remember, in any organization it is the leader that is there for his or her followers and not the other way around
As a leader you look good because your followers make you look good. When you look bad or your followers look bad the first and only question that should be asked and answered is who is the leader?

Thank you,

David Guerra