by Charity B.
I think he’s kind of being a baby about it, so I smirk at him as Cheyanne sets our drinks down.
“Well, aren’t you a lucky girl? Three handsome men all to yourself.”
She brings enough for Lex and I to each have two, so we give the extras to Todd and Timothy. After Alexander gives Cheyanne orders to keep them coming, we all hold up our glasses and clink them together.
“Cheers!”
All of our empty shot glasses hit the table and the buzzing from the alcohol bursts through me. I love this song so I clasp my hands together. “Let’s dance!”
Todd throws his hand up and grabs mine. “I knew I liked you.” He lifts me out of the booth and bumps his shoulder against mine. “Let’s go tear it up.”
I grin. I like him too. I turn to Lex and he nods to me. “Have fun, we’ll be out there in a bit.”
I’m able to throw him a smile before Todd takes me to the middle of the dance floor. He’s taller than I thought. Next to Timothy, he seems so small and he looks a lot younger too. I think his tan skin is so pretty and he’s a great dancer. It’s hard not to constantly smile around him. He has so much energy and keeps making me laugh with his facial expressions.
The music loosens my mind and I give into the hope. I’m choosing to believe that I’m finally done with all of it.
Earlier today, when I talked to Toben to tell him about Lex buying me, he told me Logan hasn’t mentioned anything about it, or Sasha, or anything. All Logan has told him is that I’m not coming back, and that he’s to continue with his playdates as normal. It’s so weird. This isn’t how Logan usually works.
It’s hard to release all my uneasiness, but the things Lex was saying…school, work, my own apartment. I’ve never lived on my own before. What would I do if I could do anything? If what he’s promising is true, I can be anything I want to be.
I ALLOW MYSELF A MOMENT of watching her dance before turning back to Timothy. “They take to each other well.”
He laughs, “Yeah, but Todd makes friends with everyone.”
I turn the glass around in my hand. I don’t want to bring down the evening with heavy conversation, so I try and keep my tone light.
“I’m glad you came out tonight. I want to talk to you about something. Obviously, your discretion is appreciated.”
“Of course.”
“Since you’ve seen Tavin in a bathing suit, I know you’ve seen her scars and the…marking.”
“Oh, the logo?”
My back immediately straightens. “The what?”
He takes a drink before rubbing his thumb over his chest. “The scarred flower on her sternum? She calls it her ‘logo’.”
Products. Logos. Sweet Girl. Clients. Playdates. I am so sick of this repulsive lexicon.
“Of course she does.” I swirl the whiskey in my glass. “As far as I know, there’s no immediate threat, however, I still feel the need for caution. She’s allowed to go anywhere she wants besides her old house. If she wants to see her friend, Toben, she can do it anywhere other than there. As long as wherever she goes, you go with her. Ultimately, I feel much safer with you there and she obviously enjoys your company.”
“As I enjoy hers. And Sasha’s. I won’t let anything happen to her on my watch, Alex. I don’t care what the threat is. You can rest easy knowing that.”
I hold up my glass in silent cheers. “Thank you.”
“You’re such a pretty girl, we really should do something about this.” The alcohol clearly has an effect on Todd’s filter as he scrunches his nose and rubs Tavin’s lilac hair between his fingers. “Come by my salon, I’ll fix you right up.”
Thank God, I really miss her brown hair. “You have a salon?” I ask, as we walk outside.
“Yeah, it’s the T. Acosta Beauty Bar, right on the boardwalk.”
Damn, he’s got a reputation. He is supposedly one of the best in California. “No shit? You’re T. Acosta? Didn’t you get an award recently?”
Todd rubs imaginary dirt off his shoulders. “Oh, I was just named ‘Master Hairstylist of the Year’ by Salon Today Magazine. And I was on the cover, no big deal.” He acts as if he’s shining his nails on his shirt, and grins.
“At least he’s humble, right?” Timothy laughs, and adds, “We really should do this again. We both had a lot of fun”
“We would love that.” I take Tavin’s hand and pull her next to me. “We need to get going though, I have to work tomorrow and I happen to know Timothy does too.”
While waving goodbye, we walk back to the valet to wait for the car I called to pick us up.
Once we’re in the back seat, I pull her dainty feet into my lap and make the most of the half hour ride by gently massaging my way up her legs. By the time the driver pulls up my driveway, my fingers have just found their way to the hem of her panties. I softly touch over the fabric before getting out and hand the man his tip. Reaching into the backseat, I grab Tavin’s thighs to yank her out of the car and throw her over my shoulder. She squeals and her little ass is too cute not to spank. Her sweet laugh brings out my grin as I unlock the door and carry her all the way upstairs before tossing her on my bed. She sits up and slightly spreads her legs, only enough for her to reach down and touch her fingers over those sheer turquoise panties.
“What would you do for me Lex?”
I pull my gaze from her hand to look at her eyes. “Anything.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
She smirks. “Dance for me.”
No way she’s serious. I scoff at her. “What?”
“You watched me dance at Marvel. I want you to do that for me.” She arches her eyebrow, daring me to refuse.
She’s fucking with me.
“You want me to Magic Mike you?”
Her bravado falters for a moment with her confusion. “Um…maybe?”
“Tavin, I’m not doing a striptease.”
She crosses her arms. “Oh. So, when you said you would do ‘anything’ for me that was a lie?”
I know my jaw drops. She’s testing me. She wants to know if I mean what I say. If all these promises are real or just pretty lies. She needs me to prove it, but does it have to be in such a cruel way?
I place my knees on the outside of her thighs as I climb on the bed, forcing her to lean back. “You will pay for this.”
Her eyes widen with her smile as she laughs and scoots back on the bed. She situates the pillows and crosses her ankles. She’s enjoying herself way too much.
I cannot believe I’m about to do this. “Comfortable?”
“Very.”
I roll my eyes at her and unsuccessfully keep the grin off my face. Scrolling through my playlist, I find the shortest song I can pull off dancing to.
The music starts and I kind of want to die.
“You cannot tell a soul about this.”
Her finger traces an X across her chest as she smirks. “I swear.”
I begin by lifting my shirt and feeling actual shame before I thrust my hip out. She shifts to her knees, biting her lip as she pulls her dress over her head. I drag this out as long as I can, while continuing to remove my shirt and…dance. Dropping my tee to the floor, I tug the leather strap of my belt through the loop. She smiles as she slides her hand down the front of her panties, her hand moving beneath the fabric as I unzip my jeans.
I don’t have many places outside of my comfort zone, preferring to avoid the few that I have, and this one, is way out there.
You can’t possibly understand how difficult it is to take off shoes while trying to dance. Her dimple appears with her smile as she pulls her panties to the side and shows me her fingers deep inside of her.
Okay, I can do this.
I lower my jeans enough to show her my erection and most of my underwear. Thank Christ the song is coming to an end. I stroke myself over the cotton before lowering the waistband and freeing my cock. She swings her legs off the bed, keeping eye contact as she walks to me and lowers to her knees. Her
hands are on her thighs as she takes me deep into her mouth.
Fuck yes. Oh, fuck yes. My hands go to her head as I press her down further. Obviously, I passed the test. Now it’s time to stay with the theme and keep my promise.
She’s going to pay for that.
Friday, June 26th
“Every time with this! Hold your head still.” Todd straightens Timothy’s head again. “I have four-year olds who sit better than you.”
I decided to take Todd up on his offer to do my hair. Apparently, it’s impossible to get Timothy to take the time to let Todd give him a haircut, so Todd’s taking advantage of him being here and doing a quick trim.
“Alright, you’re done. Let’s go wash you so I can get started on Gumdrop.”
Todd winks at me as he lowers the salon chair and I laugh as Timothy smacks his butt on their way to the shampoo bowls.
Once Timothy is styled and Todd sweeps up the hair, he turns the chair to face me. “You’re turn.” He puts a big, black cape on backwards and holds my hair in a ponytail as he brushes. “Oh, sweetie, she fried your hair.”
He’s running his fingers through my ends and I can see him looking a little repulsed in the mirror.
“No she didn’t, she colored it.”
He chuckles. “I’ll need to cut a couple inches off, you shouldn’t really notice. This color though, it needs to go.”
I don’t mind the way it is, even though the need for it is gone. I only want it to look good. “You can do whatever you think will be best.”
He claps his hands together and grins at me in the mirror. “Now that’s what I like to hear.”
Timothy goes to get us coffee as Todd puts the color on. It tingles, but not as much as when Alia did it. When it’s been on long enough, he takes me to the shampoo bowls. It feels so good to have someone else wash your hair.
“Mmm. That feels nice.”
Even with my eyes closed, I can hear the smile in his voice. “I have magic fingers, ask Timmy.”
That makes me laugh every time he calls him that. He wraps my hair in a towel so I don’t drip on the way back to the hair cutting chair.
I like the snip, snip, snip sound his scissors make. I don’t even watch him, I just enjoy how good it feels to have him comb, and brush, and blow dry my hair. When he finishes, he turns me around.
It’s shiny and so pretty. It’s a little lighter brown than it used to be, and he put a whole bunch of different lengths in my hair. The ends are slightly curled, making it look full and thick.
He stands behind me and holds his arms out. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think my hair has ever looked this good.” I smile at him in the mirror. “Thank you, Todd.”
“My pleasure, Gumdrop.”
After the salon, Timothy brings me back to Lex’s and when we walk inside, Sasha is sitting in the kitchen. She glances up from her phone as a big smile lifts up her cheeks.
“Look at you! The hair is gorgeous.”
I like feeling pretty. It makes it hard to stop grinning. “Thank you, Todd did it.”
She looks back at her phone and laughs. “Oh my God, look what Marie posted.” She turns the phone to me and I walk up to it to see a picture of a bunch of little girls in pajamas. “It’s one of our middle school slumber parties. God, that was forever ago.”
“What’s a slumber party?”
She puts her phone back in her purse and shakes her head. “I forget how many things you haven’t experienced.” She rests her cheek on her fist and smiles her pretty smile. “It’s when friends stay the night together. The fun part though, is what you do before you fall asleep. Prank calls, truth or dare, tee-peeing houses, games like ‘black cat scratch back’ or ‘light as a feather stiff as a board’…the list goes on.”
I smile at her. Even though I can never do this stuff, I like hearing about it. “That sounds really neat.”
Her face brightens. “Why don’t we have one? I bet I can talk Cara Jo into it. We can get pillows and blankets to make a fort to watch movies in. We’ll make popcorn and I have a Ouija board we can play. What do you say?”
I clasp my hands together and gasp in excitement. I get to go to a slumber party! I just found out what it is and I already can’t wait. I don’t know what a wee-jee board is, but I know my head is nodding.
“I say, yes!”
“So, you’re telling me I can’t go into my own basement?”
“Sorry bro, not till tomorrow. No boys allowed. Slumber party law.” Sasha is sorting her nail polishes so we can give each other manicures tonight.
He laughs and combs his fingers through the strands of my hair. He obviously likes it. His face lit right up when he first saw it.
“Are you excited?”
I grin at him. “Yes.”
“Wait until you try my strawberry Jell-O popcorn,” Cara Jo says, as she loads the dishwasher. It made me feel so good when she said she would come to our slumber party.
“Invited or not, I definitely get some of that.” Alexander finishes his drink before he kisses me and whispers, “Have fun.”
He disappears up the stairs and Sasha rubs her hands together. “Since this is a grown-up slumber party, I say we start off with drinks. Get rid of the apron Cara Jo, you’re officially off the clock.” She gets up and takes down three glasses. “I can make anything. Perks of being the daughter of an alcoholic. Chocolate martinis, anyone?”
Chocolate martinis are the most delicious alcohol drink I’ve ever tasted. I’m going to be drinking a lot of these.
I help Sasha carry all the pillows, blankets, and sheets we can find down to the theater room, while Cara Jo gets Lex’s Christmas lights to line along the top of our blanket house. We crawl inside and get comfortable on piles of pillows as Sasha shows us where she stashed a bunch of snacks and drinks.
It’s perfect.
The alcohol is making us laugh, and so is Cara Jo’s story. She tells us about when she was in high school and some of the silly things she did for a boy’s attention. One of which got her kicked out of school for three days!
Sasha laughs as she eats more pink Jell-O popcorn. They were right, it’s delicious.
“Oh my God, we should prank call people. I haven’t done that since I was a kid.” Taking Cara Jo’s phone, she chuckles, “Hamilton’s gettin’ it.” She puts her finger to her lips to tell us to be quiet as she puts the phone on speaker.
“Hello?”
“Congratulations, Mr. Hamilton, you have been chosen for the ‘Sexiest Gay Bachelor of The Year’ award!” She’s changing her voice, so it’s overly chipper, high-pitched and twangy. “Now, I just have a few questions for the article, but let’s be honest, the answer everyone wants to hear is: Who is your ideal man?”
For a moment there’s no sound, until eventually he clears his throat. “I apologize, there must be some kind of mix up… I’m not gay.”
“Are you ashamed of your sexuality Mr. Hamilton? Or do you simply hate the LGBTQ community as a whole?”
“What?! No! Of course not!”
I grab a pillow to cover my face so he doesn’t hear me laughing.
“So, to be clear, you do like homosexual men. Correct?”
“Yes, I have nothing against—”
“Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. I think I have what I need. You have a great evening. We’ll send you the issue when it goes to print.”
“Wait! What—”
Sasha hangs up and starts cracking up laughing as she gives Cara Jo back her phone. “Classic.” Shoving another handful of popcorn in her mouth, she hands me her cell. “Do you want to try?”
“Um…okay.”
I don’t know who to call besides Lex and Toben and I don’t know if Toben would think it was funny. I pick Lex’s number and it rings. He answers and I don’t know what to say. I guess I’m not good at prank calling.
“Sasha?”
“It’s not Sasha.”
I try to change my voice, but I don’t think I do as well as
Sasha did.
“Tavin?”
“It’s not Tavin…um…you won! Congratulations!”
Sasha grins as she looks at Cara Jo.
Lex chuckles, “Oh yeah? What did I win?”
“Uh…an award! For…business.”
“An award for business?” He sounds amused, so I don’t think he’s falling for it.
“Yeah…so just keep waiting for it.” I think I’m done so I hang up and give the phone back to Sasha. “Did I do it right?”
She nods and laughs. “That was great.” Leaning back against the pile of pillows, she takes a drink of her martini. “You guys wanna watch a movie?”
Cara Jo says she doesn’t want anything sad, so we pick a funny one. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed like this before. The girl in the movie is trying every horrible thing she can think of to make her boyfriend break up with her, and I kind of feel bad for him, except not really, because he’s only with her to win a bet. By the end of it though, they fall in love for real and I clap my hands when they kiss.
That was such a good movie.
Cara Jo stands up to turn the lights on as Sasha scrolls through her playlist and lands on Bubblegum Bitch. Sitting up on her knees, she dances and makes me laugh as she lip syncs the lyrics. Cara Jo goes behind the bar to grab us sodas, as Sasha takes a thin, brown board from her bag and lays it on the floor. Ouija is written across the top in pretty black letters right above the alphabet. A picture of the sun is in the top left corner next to the word Yes and a crescent moon is in the top right corner next to the word No. It’s so beautiful. I run my fingers over the numbers and the word Goodbye along the bottom of the board.
“How do you play?” I ask.
Cara Jo sits next to me and hands us our Dr. Peppers as Sasha places a heart shaped piece of wood on the board. It has Ouija carved into it and there’s a hole in the top with a magnifying glass inside. She lifts my hands and gently places my fingers on the heart piece.
“This is a planchette. Keep your fingers on it, just don’t move it.” She and Cara Jo do the same. “Now we ask a question.”
