'I DON'T KNOW WHAT she is so upset about,' Jack said. Jeffrey was at the bar ordering our drinks. Sea Breezes for the boys and a Boiler Maker for me. Trust me, I needed it. And it was what my grandfather used to drink, so it had the nostalgia factor.
February 1st had dawned nipples-fall-off cold and snowy. We met up at The Corner Bar for a drink. Me to regroup over the
man thing, Jack to spout off about mom (my father was deceased so we didn't have to deal with the father aspect) and Jeffrey because he was damn nosy.
'She's worried about you, Jack. You have to remember, we're a different era. Mom and Dad watched lots of people go through lots of bullshit and even some scary stuff because they were gay. She'd be worried about you if you became a cop or joined the military or swam with sharks. She's worried because she's seen some bad stuff happen to good people who happened to be gay.'
'Who's gay?' Jeffrey said, setting down our drinks. What a shit, he knew damn well.
I laughed. Pointed. 'This is old news to you so don't stir the pot. The gay is, the man, the myth, the brother.'
'I knew you'd take her side,' Jack said pouting. He could be such a fucking brat.
'I'm not taking a side! I'm trying to explain. She's worried because she loves you, you moron.'
He blinked and Jeffrey snorted. He wore peachy lip-gloss today with faded, surely expensive, jeans, a black sweater and a white beanie with a skull on it pulled down over his shaved head. His fingernails were painted black in a punk rock, kick ass style. 'Listen to your sister,' Jeffrey said to Jack.
Jack turned, frowned but then smiled. He's always had a little crush on Jeffrey. Hell, who didn't? I'd seen it forever. But now my radar lit up like Christmas tree lights. 'And you two! No hooking up! That would just be too, too eew. Yuck and also bleh!' I dropped my shot of whisky in the beer and drank it down. My grandfather would've been proud.
Jeffrey shuddered and Jack blinked, looking mildly offended. 'Girl, don't even go there.' Jeffrey swigged his Sea Breeze, pinky up. But that was just to taunt Bruce the bartender. It drove him mad. Bruce swore that men, gay or not, did not drink with their pinkies raised. Jeffrey only did it at The Corner Bar and it always made me laugh.
'What? Am I that gross?' Jack balked, his face red. He drank his drink, pinkie down, and I chomped some on the stale, over salted, complimentary popcorn.
'Yes, you have cooties,' I said, resurrecting a favourite taunt from childhood.
Jeffrey shivered in mock disgust. 'Agh! Cooties?'
Jack looked fit to swallow his own tongue with indignation when a voice said, 'Who has cooties?'
Jack looked up, then was on his feet, shaking the man's hand. 'Hey, man. What brings you to our local hole in the wall?'
The stranger smiled. Thin and tall but broad like a football player, he looked like he could snap Jack in half if he tried. His square retro glassed winked at me in the low bar lights. 'My sister lives up the street. She just had a baby. I went to visit my new niece.'
'Well, child, let us buy you a drink!' Jeffrey raised his pinky at Bruce who promptly frowned. 'Get this man a ...' He pointed to the newcomer.
'Beer?'
'Get this man a beer! He's an uncle! And none of that watered down sex-in-a-canoe beer!'
'Sex in a canoe?' the newcomer asked, sitting when Jack pointed.
'Fucking close to water!' Jack and Jeffrey said in unison. I raised my finger to Bruce for another beer of my own. Shook my head when he waved the whisky bottle my way.
'Just a beer,' I said.
Jack was clearly enamoured. 'Guys, this is Alan. We work together. He just started, in fact. He moved here from ...' Jack shook his head.
'Michigan,' Alan said, his brown eyes on me, he grinned. 'Who's this beautiful woman?'
Jack's face fell, Jeffrey uttered a disgusted but amused 'unh' and I flushed bright red. Had I already found Mr February? He reached out and took my hand, shaking it lazy and slow and somehow intimately.
'Carina,' I said, my voice a little watery and high.
'My sister,' Jack practically spat and then waved his empty glass at Bruce.
Jeffrey was too busy chuckling. 'Foiled again. It's OK, you're a newbie. Your gaydar will improve,' he whispered.
Alan looked confused and I quickly changed the subject. 'So, you work with Jack?'
It had gotten hot and heavy fast with Alan and I. He was all the normal, calm, non-polished, big lug man that Stefan hadn't been. Stefan had been soft spoken and in control. Very self assured, very in control. Alan had a big booming voice and an easy nature, and really, you just wanted to hug him after the first 30 seconds of knowing him.
For our first date we went to Fisherman's Fancy, a small local eatery where they served the best hush puppies and fried fish. Some cold beer, a lot of flirting and some stolen kisses.
'So your brother is gay and he liked me?'
'I think he still does.' We'd spoken on the phone a few times, Alan and I, and his voice did weird things to my insides. It was a deep, dark voice that almost made you feel dirty. Like listening to him say filthy things would be good. His hand slid a bit higher up my thigh and I knew I had to decide. First date. Fuck him or not?
'That's nice. He's a nice guy. Things like that don't bother me. People are people, right?' He laughed, leaned in, kissed me with his soft lips. 'That was a song, right?'
'Depeche Mode,' I said, letting his tongue rim my lips before opening for him to kiss me harder. That was it, I'd sleep with him. He didn't care that my gay brother wanted to hump him like a horny monkey. That sealed his adorableness for me.
'Right. I remember now.' He started to hum even as he kissed me and the vibration of it worked through my chest, down into my belly, lower still to rumble softly in my pussy.
'Take me home,' I said, sliding my hand high on his thigh, letting the tips of my fingers graze the hard cock secured in his khakis.
'Christ,' Alan said more to himself than to me. He raised his finger at the waiter in the universal 'cheque please' signal. 'Are you sure?'
The fact that he even double checked made me want him that much more. 'I am so sure I could burst into flames,' I said, and leaned in nipping his throat with my teeth while the waiter finished our cheque. His cock was hard and long under my hand and I was feeling rather excited to see it up close and personal. It felt different than Stefan's and Stefan's had been way different than Darrell's. Before my husband, I'd only been with one other guy and his had been ... well, his had been unfortunate. This did not feel unfortunate.
'While you take care of that, I have to powder my nose,' I said. I didn't really have to powder my nose. I wanted to make sure my panties were straight and my stockings looked good and that I didn't have any toilet paper stuck to my naughty bits or God forbid, my dress. My cell rang in the short, dark hall to the bathroom.
'Hello?' I whispered.
'Where are you?' Jeffrey whispered back. Why was he whispering too? I told him. 'Ah, shama-lama-ding-dong!' he cried and I rolled my eyes. I knew where this was going. 'You will have hot, mad, insane monkey sex with this man before the evening is through,' Jeffrey said in his best fake psychic voice.
'No shit, Sherlock,' I hissed, pushing into the rest room. An elderly woman with hair dyed the colour of a brand new Alany looked up, alarmed. Then she frowned at me. I smiled and gave her a pinky wave while Jeffrey yammered.
'He's into something dirty. Kinky, dirty fun is what he wants from you. Mark my words. He's got something up his sleeve. OK, so I'm lying. It's in his nightstand.' He laughed at his own joke and I checked myself in the full length mirror.
'What man doesn't?' I growled. 'True, but I sense something that will make even you, my lovely Carina, go hmm.' 'Hardly.'
'Mark my words. Now I'm off to take your brother to the Pink Elephant.'
'What?' I yelped and Alany-head gave me another glare while she ran a hot pink lipstick over her thin mouth.
'We're going to–'
'No. Diddling. My. Brother,' I managed.
Miss red hair, pink lips yelped and scurried out of the ladies' room like whatever I had was catching.
Jeffrey cackled madly and tsked. 'Carina, do not be that way. Honey, he's your brother. Which
makes him nearly my brother. That would practically be incest for goodness sake!' Then he hung up.