3rd World Products, Book 16 (41 page)

“Oh, yes, ma’am. As you command, ma’am. I done forgot myself and got carried away.”
 

From somewhere beyond her bedroom, a woman called, “Toni? Did you get him?”
 

Toni called back, “Yeah! He ran into somebody we know, Bon. Well, sort of, anyway.”
 

Bonnie entered the room in a bikini, toweling her hair as she asked, “He ran into somebody? On his bike?” She took a moment to wave and said, “Hi, Ed! You okay?” as she approached.
 

I said, “It wasn’t a wreck and I’m fine. You seem pretty fine, too, ma’am. Wearing suits in the hot tub now?”
 

Bonnie said, “We had friends over this afternoon. Some of them are a little shy.” She grinned and added, “Why? Do you want me to take it off?”
 

I laughed, “Yes, please?”
 

Thumbing at Toni, she instantly replied, “Sorry. Her eyes only. Who’s your friend?”
 

Tanya said, “I’m Tanya. I remember you. You kept me from falling on the stairs at the club.”
 

That seemed to spark Bonnie’s memory. “That was
you?
Gawd, girl, you were
wasted!
”
 

“Oh, please don’t remind me. I remember too much of that night as it is. Someone threw up on my shoes.”
 

Bonnie said, “It was that skinny blonde. She was doing fine, running her face like crazy, then all of a sudden she started spewing. Everybody scattered like rats in a feed bin.”
 

“Uh… what?”
 

“When you open the door, the rats run like hell.”
 

“Oh. Yeah, I guess they would. That was Jessica. She… she was on medication.”
 

Bonnie laughed, “Medication?! Bullshit. She was speeding and drinking white wine. That’s some
bad
chemistry.”
 

I chuckled, “Hey, Toni, keep this one. She’s not only gorgeous, she tells it like it is.”
 

Toni replied, “Yeah, I noticed that right away. So all you wanted was a club ref?”
 

“Well, seeing you two was a real fine bonus, but yeah.”
 

“Take it with a grain of salt. I haven’t been to the ‘mill since the new owner party in November.” She put an arm around Bonnie and sang softly, “Don’t get around much anymooorrree.”
 

I looked at Bonnie and asked, “So, how’s it feel to be the ol’ ball and chain, ma’am?”
 

She grinned and waggled her tongue at me between two fingers, then said cheerily, “Pretty damned good, really!”
 

Tanya blushed slightly. So did Toni, I noticed, but she grinned and kissed Bonnie’s cheek. Toni whispered something to Bonnie, who gave her a fisheye, then shrugged and nodded.
 

Toni looked at me — or us, I suppose — and said, “It isn’t that late. Were you thinking of going there tonight?”
 

“No, we had… other plans. Just whenever.”
 

“In that case, why don’t we all go Friday night?”
 

Tanya said, “Can’t. I’m scheduled to work Saturday.”
 

Toni shot back, “Saturday night, then.” With a grin, she added, “Bonnie’s never been on a flitter.”
 

Bonnie gave her a fisheye. “And
you
have? While it was actually
moving
? You, who wouldn’t take a plane to Boston?”
 

Giving her an aloof look, Toni replied, “Yes, I have. And flitters aren’t planes. They can’t crash.”
 

“Correction,” I said, “They
haven’t
crashed. Not once. But some crackpot genius might yet find a way to do it.”
 

Toni snapped, “Well, gee, thanks
so much
for that clarification. But it
won’t
be
you
, right?”
 

“Oh, no, ma’am. Not me. I love my flitter.”
 

Bonnie waved a hand and said, “Wait a minute. You have a flitter? How come I’ve never seen it?”
 

Toni said, “Because he does all his short trips on his bike or that flying board.” She shuddered. “You’d
never
get me on one of those things.”
 

I laughed, “Awww,
pleeeeze
, ma’am! Lemme take ya for a ride? Can’t fall off, y’know. It’s a field gadget, just like a flitter.”
 

She stated, “It’s a
flying ice cream stick
. No way.”
 

After another few minutes of chat, a woman called from the other room and Toni said, “That’s Erin. Sorry, Ed, but she’s all by herself and you aren’t. Gotta go.”
 

We made quick goodbyes and she tapped her ‘off’ icon. I let our screen vanish and Tanya met my gaze for a moment, then sat down and sipped her drink before she spoke.
 

“Some friends decided to take me out for an evening to get my mind off Martin. He’d had a… a bad week.”
 

Did I want to hear this? No. But apparently she felt a need to tell her side of something, so I kept quiet and waited.
 

“At first I didn’t want to go. I didn’t feel right about going out while he was sick… but Martin’s sister told me he wouldn’t want me to turn myself into a martyr and the nurse said he wouldn’t be awake again until sometime the next morning.”
 

She looked up from her drink and said, “And I needed a break, you know? I really needed a break. Just a few hours away from work and that damned hospital. I felt as if I almost
lived
in that damned waiting room.”
 

Swirling her drink, she sat quietly for a few moments, then sighed, “So out I went with Jessica and a few girls from work. Her work, my work. There were six of us and we all had phones. Two of us had pepper spray.” She chuckled, “We thought we were all set. Loaded for bear, as my dad used to say.”
 

Sipping her drink down noticeably, she continued, “Kira told us about the Windmill and their DJ. She called a friend in Gainesville so we’d have a place to spend the night and we drove up.”
 

With a sardonic grin and chuckle, she said, “And the proverbial good time was had by all until almost closing time. We wanted to take a cab, but Kira wouldn’t leave her car there and she wouldn’t give anyone else the keys or the address. Danielle said she could drive; she’d only had a few drinks all night. We talked in the bathroom about how to get Kira’s keys and phone.”
 

Taking a pause to sip again, she said, “We were going to check her last few calls and try to find out where to go. So we went back out and found Kira sitting hunched over her purse. She turned mean and slapped Danielle when she tried to talk to her, then she got up and ran outside. We followed. She locked herself in her car and tried to start it, but one of the women from the bar pulled a knife and stuck her front tire. When she tried to leave anyway, the woman stuck her other front tire, then stuck the back tires.”
 

Shaking her head, Tanya said, “I’d had enough. I was done with all of it. I went back in the bar to call a cab and wait. I was just going to get us a room somewhere. Jessica and Danielle came
back in, too, and Jessica managed to buy us a last round, even though they’d had last call. I didn’t want mine, so she drank it. I think that’s probably why she threw up. All that wine, then a mixed drink. Anyway, she got sick and I tried to get out of the way and almost fell, but Bonnie caught me. She and Toni offered to let us crash at their place. After we cleaned up Jessica, we went back outside. The other two girls wanted to try to get Kira out of the car and said they’d get a room somewhere.”
 

Sipping the last of her drink, she said, “We went home with Toni and Bonnie. Jessica got sick again and Toni held her out the car window like she was a sick poodle or something.” With a grin, Tanya said, “That woman is
strong
, isn’t she?”
 

I nodded. “Yup. But she isn’t all lumpy and veiny, so it doesn’t show unless she takes her shirt off.” I shrugged and added, “Or throws someone through a wall. She did that once. Same bar. A bunch of bulls learned never to hit her that night.”
 

“Bulls? Oh. Real dykes, you mean.”
 

“I mean girls who dress like boys and act like asshole thugs. Most of the lesbians I’ve known just preferred women and didn’t make a big deal about it. I figure it’s roughly on a par with guys who do the same thing. ‘
Look at me; I’m tough
‘. The real tough guys and girls don’t make a big deal about it. The pushy, obnoxious ones are usually just wannabes. They travel in packs because they know better than to act like that alone.”
 

Tanya got up and went to the sink. As she mixed her drink, she glanced back at me and said, “You really think you have the world figured out, don’t you?”
 

I shrugged. “To some degree, I’d say so. When I’ve been wrong, I’ve learned from it.”
 

She grinned. “When’s the last time you were wrong? About something that really mattered, I mean?”
 

Hm. Good question. I gave it thought, then said, “1999. A kid tried to rob me in a parking garage in Tampa. I took his knife and let him go because he started crying like a baby. A few days later he was in the paper. Some guy shot him during another robbery. No telling how many other people he robbed between me and the shooter. But I wonder how much good it would have done to turn him in. He was a minor. They’d have let him out and he’d have been back at it a week later.”
 

“So you regret… what? Him being shot because you let him go? Or the others he might have robbed?”
 

“The others he might have robbed. Sort of. Like I said; would it have mattered? They’d have let him out. Could be the best thing I could have done was break his leg. He’d have been down and hurting and had time to think about a career change. But I knew there were cameras in the garage, so I didn’t. I’d have probably been the one sent to jail.”
 

Tanya stood looking at me for a moment, then turned to finish mixing her drink. When she finished, she kissed me on her way to her chair and said, “Back to my story.”
 

After a sip, she said, “Jessica passed out and we put her on a camping mattress on the kitchen floor.”
 

“The red and blue one. The green one was almost new.”
 

Nodding, Tanya said, “That’s the one. The rest of us had drinks in the living room. I didn’t really want one, but Danielle let me sip hers and I changed my mind. I don’t know what it was, but it was good. Somehow I ended up sitting with Toni on one couch and Danielle was with Bonnie on the other. We talked for a while, then Danielle and Bonnie started kissing.”
 

She paused to sip. I knew what she was doing. Telling me wasn’t just a way of explaining anything. She was watching to see how it affected me; whether I’d get turned on. Mental shrug. Sure I would if she went into detail about things. She’d be talking about the kinds of things I like to do with women.
 

I sipped my own glass down and made a new drink, then put a couple of paper towels on the table and sat down. If Tanya had any regrets about that night, seeing Toni on my screen would have sent her running for cover. She’d probably start out with Toni taking the assertive role. Believable enough; she’d been assertive enough with me at times. All I had to do was listen. Tanya would talk herself into an undeniable state of lust and pounce on me.
 

Tanya thought the paper towels were for our drinks. She folded one and put it under her glass. What the hell; I did the same with one, then I turned my full attention to her.
 

“Anyway,” she said, “Soon it was just Toni and me talking while Bonnie and Danielle made out. I have to confess… I was nervous as hell, but it was fascinating to watch. Then I turned to say something to Toni and found her face
very
close to mine. She smiled and kissed my cheek as if she wanted to see how I’d take it and… well, it sent a little thrill through me, you know?”
 

With a shrug, I admitted, “Well, actually, yeah, I do. I always found her kisses fairly thrilling, too.”
 

She shot me a brief, studious look, then sipped and said, “I knew what was happening, but I let her kiss me again anyway. Then she turned my face and kissed me on the lips. It was… It was like my first kiss ever all over again, I think. Better, even. Jimmy was clumsy as hell, but Toni knew what she was doing. I found myself kissing her back, and… well, I needed so much to be held, and… and at some point we ended up in her bed.”
 

As she sipped again, I kept quiet and sipped my own drink. She wouldn’t meet my gaze; instead she held her drink in her lap for a time and seemed to study it thoughtfully, but I saw her eyes flicker under her lashes when she glanced at my upright dick.
 

Sipping again, Tanya’s eyes found mine and I gave her a ‘please continue’ look of interest. Her gaze narrowed and she stated softly, “You
absolute dick!
You were going to sit there and let me go through the whole thing, weren’t you?”
 

I chuckled, “Yes, ma’am. I wouldn’t dream of interrupting your cathartic little tale of lesbian seduction.”
 

Getting up, she stood over me impressively as she said, “Then
yada-fucking-yada
. To use your own words, we licked each other silly a few times. Toni wasn’t my first. There was a girl in college. The only thing that bugged me was… Martin was…”
 

She paused as if looking for words.