The Lonely Hearts Club

by Radclyffe

  I’ll be there tonight. Will you?

  This time, instead of deleting the message as she had every other night, Bren immediately typed What makes you think I know where it is?

  You write the city like you know it.

  Bren smiled. Nothing caught a writer’s attention faster than someone who paid attention to their work. The doorbell rang, but Bren ignored it. She should go. This was a game that was becoming too real. Instead of signing off, she asked,

  How will I know you?

  Ask the bartender. He’ll have a note for you from Jae.

  “Bren?” Candace shouted from downstairs. “Hey? You ready?”

  “Just a minute,” Bren called back as she typed. Jae isn’t real.

  Are you sure?

  Bren closed the email program and stood up. Enough. The game was over. All she had to do was ignore the whole thing. It was probably just a prank anyhow. She could be getting an email from someone in Iowa who’d Googled the names of bars in Philadelphia. There was no reason to think that this person would actually be there tonight, and even if she was, there was no reason to meet her.

  “Bren?” Candace asked again.

  “On my way.”

  Bren hurried downstairs. Nothing would happen that she didn’t want to happen, because she was in control. She slowed, considering that. Jae—no, the stranger—understood her need to be in control. Even though it seemed like the stranger had been making all the overtures, she’d set everything up so that ultimately, Bren would make the critical moves. Bren would be in charge, just the way Bren wanted it. Interesting.

  “Happy birthday!” Candace pulled Bren into her arms and kissed her exuberantly. “You ready for some adventure, baby?”

  Bren tightened her arms around Candace’s neck and kissed her back. “Could be.”

  “Oh my God,” Candace said, stepping back and eyeing Bren incredulously. “Where did you get leather pants?”

  “The usual place. A clothing store.” Bren smiled, enjoying Candace’s astonishment. Her lightweight dark brown leather pants were cut low, and she’d chosen a sleeveless black shirt that dove between her breasts and rode high enough to expose a few inches of her belly. She had a lot of skin showing—well, for her anyhow—but it was her birthday. A girl was entitled to be daring on her birthday.

  “You look so hot.”

  “Well don’t say it like it’s such a shock,” Bren chided.

  “No. I don’t mean that. I mean you look…different. Good. Great.”

  “Come on before you say anything else and really get in trouble,” Bren said, laughing. “Let’s not keep Liz waiting.”

  “Where have you been hiding this side of yourself,” Candace complained as Bren closed the door behind them and they started down the steps to the sidewalk.

  “I guess you could say between the covers.”

  “You’ve got some explaining to do,” Candace grumbled.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Bren teased. But maybe it was time.

  *

  “Want another beer?” Parker asked, pushing her chair back from the table.

  Reilly reached out to steady the empties on the sticky, crowded surface of the small round table. After she’d showered and changed into jeans and a T-shirt, she and Parker had opted for dinner at a neighborhood bar where they could watch a baseball game on the big screen TV. Over the course of a couple of hours, they ate chicken wings and spicy curly fries and drank beer out of the bottle. Parker had drunk most of the beer.

  “Are you driving somewhere later on?” Reilly asked.

  Parker squinted at the round clock behind the bar. The letters spelling out Schlitz on the dingy face were faded from decades of smoke, even though no one was smoking inside now.

  “I’ve got a little time,” Parker said. “I’m crashing a birthday party.”

  “Now that sounds like a hot time.”

  “It is when it’s Candace and her friends.”

  Reilly sucked in a breath. “Oh. Well, if you’re driving, you’d better go easy on the brew.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m spacing ’em out.”

  While Parker went to get refills, Reilly watched the game. Or tried to. She wondered where the party was. She wondered if Liz would be there. If Candace was going to be there, Bren and Liz probably would be too. She told herself it wasn’t a good idea to think about Liz, but she’d been telling herself that all week and it hadn’t really worked.

  She tried logic again. Liz had told her to stop, because she didn’t want to be involved. That made sense. There was no law against pregnant women dating, except they weren’t talking about dating. If Liz hadn’t stopped her, Reilly had a feeling that kiss would have turned into a lot more very quickly. And that spelled complications, for both of them. No, they both made the right decision. Bad timing. Bad idea. Use your head, Reilly. Let it go.

  “Whatever you’re thinking, it looks pretty heavy.” Parker dropped into the chair opposite Reilly and passed a mug of sweating draft beer across to her.

  “Nah,” Reilly said. “I was just zoning.”

  “Huh.”

  “So. A birthday party.”

  “Yeah. Bren’s.” Parker sipped her beer. “At the Blue Diamond. Ever been?”

  Reilly shook her head. “After hours place?”

  “Strip club.”

  “Girls? Stripping, I mean?”

  “Yep. And lots of girls in the audience, too.”

  Reilly laughed. “And this is where Bren’s going for her birthday?”

  “Yeah, kind of sounds like Candace’s idea, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t.” Parker shook her head. “Candace says it was Bren’s.”

  “So, um, I guess they’re all going?”

  “You mean all of them including Liz?”

  Reilly looked away.

  “You know,” Parker said, rubbing her face gingerly. “Even with the shades, the lights hurt my eyes. I’m not so sure I can drive in the dark. I didn’t think about that when I came in this afternoon.”

  “You can stay at my place tonight if you need to,” Reilly said.

  Parker said, “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

  “And,” Reilly added slowly, “if you need a ride down to the Blue Diamond, I’ll take you.”

  Parker grinned. “That would be great.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The minute Bren walked through the door of the Blue Diamond, she felt as if she had stepped into a scene from a William Gibson post-apocalyptic cyber-fantasy. The walls and ceiling were painted black, and blue bulbs in recessed fixtures drenched the room in a murky haze, obscuring everything except the raised platform which took up the length of one entire side of the room. Featureless, nearly formless figures of indeterminate sex occupied most of the tables. Three upright silver poles gleamed beneath tightly focused spotlights on the stage. At the moment, it was empty, but a pounding bass beat reverberated through the floor and shimmered in the air.

  “I think the act is about to start. Let’s grab a table,” Bren urged.

  “I can’t see a thing,” Liz muttered, stumbling into a chair.

  “You’re not supposed to,” Candace replied, grabbing her arm. “That way you can get a hand job under the table without anyone noticing.”

  Bren snorted, moving a little faster as her eyes adjusted. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t want to miss any of the acts.

  “I’m not sitting on these chairs then,” Liz announced.

  Laughing, Candace tugged Liz’s hand. “Come on, I’ll take care of you. I’ll find you a nice safe seat.”

  “There’s a table open right at center stage,” Bren said. It was almost as if it was waiting for them, because as near as she could make out in the gloom, the other tables with good views of the stage were occupied. “I’ll grab it.”

  Before they’d reached the square wood pedestal table, the room grew even darker and the music ratcheted up a notch. Almost by feel, Bren found an empty chair and slid into it, and Liz took the seat next to her.
>
  “I want a drink,” Candace shouted above the blaring music. “I’m not sure there’s table service.”

  Bren thought about the note that might or might not be waiting for her, and quickly focused on the stage. If there was a note at the bar, it would be there later. If there wasn’t, she didn’t want to know right now. She liked the anticipation, the excitement, of thinking that Jae was here somewhere, possibly watching her. Of course, Jae wouldn’t know what she looked like, because there were no pictures of her as her author persona. But still, she had a feeling that Jae would know her, and that she would know Jae.

  “I’ll have a screwdriver,” Bren said.

  “Be right back.” Candace disappeared into the gloom.

  “Okay, confess,” Liz said into Bren’s ear.

  Bren started in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “Why did you pick this place?”

  “Oh.” Bren considered any number of plausible replies, but it was something about the tone of Liz’s voice that caused her to say the one thing she never expected to say. “I might be meeting someone here.”

  “Really,” Liz said with interest. “Who?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Liz shifted her chair closer. “Like a blind date?”

  “Something like that.”

  “You let Candace set you up on a blind date after swearing you wouldn’t do it ever again?”

  “Oh no.” Bren laughed. “Candace’s blind dates were always disasters. We’re not interested in the same kind of women.”

  “So who set it up?”

  “She did. The woman I’m meeting. Maybe.”

  “So…you know her.”

  “No. We’ve never met,” Bren said.

  “You know this is very confusing, right?”

  “I know.”

  “I’ve thought for a long time there was something you weren’t telling us.”

  “I know, I’m sorry.”

  Liz patted Bren’s thigh. “Don’t apologize. It’s your birthday. Have a good time and explain it all to us later.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I love you, you know,” Bren said.

  “That’s a ditto.”

  “Here we go,” Bren said, as a statuesque blonde sauntered onto the stage in six inch heels, a black satin G-string, and a black leather jacket that stopped just above the perfect round globes of her full, tight ass. She strutted to one of the poles as the rhythm picked up, grabbed it with both hands, and pressed her crotch against it. Then she did a perfect split as she swung slowly around in a circle, the steel shaft jutting upward between her widely spread thighs.

  Candace slid in beside them and passed glasses around the table. “How does she do that?”

  “Flexibility,” Bren murmured, studying the woman as her generous breasts threatened to spill out of the partially unzipped jacket. The blonde was attractive, and she had a great body, but Bren felt nothing other than a vague curiosity.

  After a few more impressively acrobatic and undeniably sensuous moves that looked as if she was masturbating on the pole, the blonde slinked to the near edge of the stage and went down on her knees with her thighs splayed. She stretched her torso back and let the jacket fall from her arms, leaving her breasts exposed and jutting upward into the harsh lights. Her skin shimmered with sweat and the narrow G-string did little to obscure her glistening sex.

  Candace gave a low murmur of approval and Liz bumped her shoulder.

  “You are such a pervert.”

  “I am not,” Candace whispered. “I just have a healthy sense of appreciation for the female form.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Shadowy figures from the audience approached the stage, tucking folded bills under the dancer’s G-string or dropping them onto her tight stomach as she undulated to the pounding beat, her pelvis thrusting with the unmistakable rhythm of sex. As the tempo pulsed faster and the air grew heavy with heat and collective arousal, the blonde fondled her breasts and stroked her fingers between her thighs until, real or imagined, she and the music climaxed together. Then the room went dark and silence fell like a thunderclap.

  “Well,” Candace said a little breathlessly. “That was nice.”

  Liz wrapped her arm around Bren’s shoulders and playfully nuzzled her ear. “Enjoying your birthday so far?”

  Bren laughed. “Who wouldn’t?”

  “You’ve got a point.”

  Bren scanned the room as the lights came up high enough to prevent patrons who were making a mad dash to the bar between acts from stumbling. A few disappeared down a hallway she hadn’t been able to see earlier. The bartender, a bald African-American man the size of a Volkswagen moved with the grace of a running back in his tight runway, mixing drinks and passing bottles of beer at lightning speed. When the blonde who had just performed emerged from the hallway in a miniscule bikini and walked to the end of the bar, he handed her what looked like a glass of champagne and nodded toward a lone man seated at a nearby table. The blonde took the drink and joined the customer.

  Bren watched for a second as the blonde straddled the man’s lap, then looked away as the blonde began a slow grind. A petite brunette and a painfully thin blonde with enormously enhanced breasts, both in various stages of nudity, appeared from somewhere backstage and worked their way between the tables. When the brunette slithered onto the lap of an attractive woman with shoulder length brown hair and rubbed her breasts across the woman’s face, Bren decided she’d had enough of the floor show. Turning in the opposite direction, she stared, not certain at first she wasn’t imagining the two women wending their way between the tables toward them. Then she heard Liz’s swift intake of breath beside her, and she knew she was right.

  “Hey! Parker! Reilly, over here,” Bren called.

  *

  Liz hadn’t seen Reilly in five days, and she couldn’t take her eyes off her. Her tight white T-shirt stretched over her strong shoulders and arms and clung to the swell of her breasts. Her jeans were just tight enough to show off her athletic legs. Her hair was shaggy around the edges. She looked a little disheveled, a little unpolished, and a lot sexy. Liz liked the look. What she didn’t like was the fact that Reilly had her arm looped around Parker’s waist. Parker leaned against her as they walked, and they looked good together. Liz hadn’t noticed before just how fluidly attractive Parker was. Next to Candace’s cover girl beauty, Parker seemed androgynously handsome, but when snuggled against Reilly, she projected a softer sensuality. It would have been exciting to think about that sexual flexibility if she hadn’t been with Reilly at the moment.

  “Well that didn’t take her long,” Candace muttered.

  “Who?” Liz replied.

  “Both of them,” Candace snapped.

  Liz didn’t answer because Parker and Reilly grabbed chairs from a nearby table and dragged them over.

  “Mind if we crash the party?” Parker said with a big grin.

  “Looks like you already did,” Candace grumbled.

  “Great! Drinks everyone?” Parker asked, apparently oblivious to Candace’s snarl.

  “None for me,” Reilly said, watching Liz.

  “I’m good,” Liz replied.

  Candace and Bren gave Parker their orders and she sauntered off. After a second, Bren jumped up. “I’ll give her a hand.”

  “I’m going to the restroom,” Candace said to no one in particular as she bolted after them.

  Reilly indicated the empty chair next to Liz. “Okay if I sit down?”

  “Of course.”

  “I hope it’s okay we showed up. Parker said—”

  “It’s fine.”

  “So. How are you?”

  “Good,” Liz replied, thinking fat and terminally horny and really glad to see you and wishing I wasn’t.

  “That’s good.” Reilly rubbed her hands on her thighs and looked around the room. “Is it just me, or is this place particularly sleazy?”

  Liz laughed and felt herself rela
x a little. “Extraordinarily sleazy.”

  “Bren having fun?”

  “We all are.”

  Candace dropped into the chair on the opposite side of Liz and casually draped her arm around Liz’s shoulders. “So where did you find Parker, Reilly?”

  “We met at the hospital and had dinner,” Reilly replied, her gaze flickering to Candace’s hand cupping Liz’s upper arm.

  Candace smiled frostily. “That’s nice.”

  Liz shifted just enough to cause Candace to move her arm to the back of the chair, but then her thigh snugged up against Reilly’s. Reilly didn’t move away, and neither did she.

  *

  “So Bren,” Parker said expansively, “this is some place you picked for a party, honey.”

  “Isn’t it?” Bren softly touched Parker’s cheek on the uninjured side. “How are you feeling? You look like you might’ve started the party a little bit early.”

  “Feeling great. I only had a few beers.” Parker frowned. “Except I did have that pain pill right before dinner.”

  “You be careful with the drinks from now on, okay?”

  “Yes ma’am. Anything you say, ma’am.”

  “And Reilly’s driving, right?”

  “Yeah that Reilly, she’s terrific.”

  Bren nodded. “Can you make it back to the table with the drinks?”

  “Oh yeah, sure sure. I’m fine. Feeling great. Hey, where did Candace go?”

  “I think she’s back at the table now.”

  At least Bren hoped so. She hadn’t missed the fact that Candace wasn’t too pleased to see Parker show up with Reilly, and Candace had gotten quite a few looks as she’d sashayed to the bathroom. At least two men and one woman had said something to make her laugh in passing. Candace on the prowl was always unpredictable.

  “She’s really gorgeous, isn’t she?” Parker said.