Even though she was single, she was a young, attractive woman, and therefore welcome anytime, unlike single guys. She was never alone for long in the clubs as long as she was friendly and well dressed. There were endless couples who wanted to experiment with another woman, and she was happy to indulge in faceless, string-free sex.
The couple she had played with weren’t new on the scene. She had seen them around before, and she imagined she would be seeing them again. Toni was good a separating sex from relationships, and she would have no issues with a repeat performance. She could look them in the eye and imagine his cock in her cunt and his wife’s lips on her tits, and it would mean nothing to her. She wouldn’t be jealous if she saw them doing someone else. She wouldn’t care if they flirted with her again. Just because she’d fucked them that night didn’t mean she had to swing with them again. She had been with five other couples over the years at the club. Sometimes there were repeat performances, sometimes there weren’t. It didn’t matter to her. And it didn’t seem to matter to the others involved either.
The couple that night had been friendly and attentive. They knew what to do and she knew what to do, but together, the sex was merely adequate. Everyone had fun and came, then went about their business as if they had just bought some groceries and now had to put them away.
The experience didn’t really bring her the highest high that she craved. She figured just the excitement of fucking strangers in a safe and discreet place would give her a thrilling rush—wouldn’t it for most people? But it didn’t.
The first few times, she had been scared and excited about the concept of fucking in a club. About fucking strangers with no obligations or expectations except pleasure. It seemed almost sinful that people could join together for the same purpose and leave after fulfilling themselves.
It was like when she first started to look at porn. Just seeing a picture of a cock in a cunt made her wet and trembly. It didn’t take much to trigger herself to orgasm. But now, she would watch several videos in a row, fast-forwarding to gang-banging and fisting and bondage, and still sometimes she needed just a little edge or something odd to get herself off. Sometimes just a glance from the model or moment of apprehension or power exchange that felt real instead of contrived; that moment of humanness would get her off.
She hoped she hadn’t already peaked and sizzled with her sex drive and fantasies.
She wanted more.
Toni knew there had to be more, a more mind-blowing orgasm. Something that could be ignited by flesh and movement, not necessarily toys and props. She knew she would find it someday. She had experienced it plenty of times in her imagination. The ultimate orgy with the ultimate orgasm. Sweaty, vigorous, pulsing, penetrating sex that indulged the most extreme of senses until her body, mind, and soul exploded with pleasure.
Maybe now she had just turned 25, something magical would happen to her.
So far, she was pretty happy. She had a decent bartending job with palm reading on the side, she had just gotten laid and she had her own place. What more did she need?
Good sex and a fun companion.
Maybe soon.
She finished her beer and went into her bedroom. She had a simple double bed with four posts that was still in disarray from that morning. Her dresser drawers were hanging open from her earlier rummaging. Books and magazines were piled on every surface, along with water bottles in various levels of consumption. Toni went into her tiny bathroom to brush her teeth. She looked at herself in the mirror.
She quite liked her new bob. For years, she had worn her hair long and red, but over the holidays she had changed to short and black on her hairdresser’s advice. It made her look dramatically different. The only problem was that she had to keep going back to the hair salon to get it trimmed and colored. But her new look brought her lots of compliments and attention. She would have to go back again soon. Her natural light brown was starting to grow in underneath. She shook her head and moved her hair around to try to hide the roots. There would be no escaping the hair salon.
She used a cleansing cloth to take off her makeup. A quick splash of water on her face and she was done.
With her face feeling normal again, Toni went over to the tub and turned the large, brass taps. As the water spilled into the basin, she adjusted it until it was a good temperature. She turned on the shower and popped the shower massager from its handle. Stepping into the tub, she spread her legs and aimed it at her pussy. A smile touched her lips as the warm water pulsed against her still-swollen pussy. The steady pulsing reminded her of the firm and rhythmic pounding she had enjoyed earlier. With her free hand, she spread open her pussy to rinse away the night.
Finally finished with her primping, she returned to the bedroom and crawled into bed. She curled up into the blankets and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
The alarm went off at 11:00, and Toni pushed away the blankets. A slight chill hung in the air, and she shivered as she made her way to the bathroom. In a daze, she did her business and brushed her teeth. She returned to the bedroom and grabbed her robe, and then it was off to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.
Once it was percolating, she sat on the couch and idly clicked through the TV channels. She found an old episode of Cheers and enjoyed it until her coffee was ready.
While she was up, she opened the front door to her apartment to see if her Sunday paper had arrived. With a grin, she scooped it up and eagerly turned to the horoscope section as she settled back onto the couch.
With the moon void of course for most of the day, new situations you encounter won’t turn out exactly as you anticipate. Plans made will yield different results than you originally intend. The moon entering Virgo later on will affect your decisions. Withhold your judgment until you have all the facts.
Toni nodded as she flipped through the rest of the paper, reading the advice columns and the entertainment section. Hermana didn’t have the biggest newspaper in the world, but the Sunday edition was always thick and juicy with a myriad of articles. Every spring, the paper swelled bigger as the tourist season approached and the locals flogged their unique attractions.
This edition was celebrating the beginning of April and the much-anticipated tourist season. Toni pulled out a thin but glossy and nicely formatted booklet that listed the various hotels and bed and breakfasts available in Hermana. She flipped through to see that her place of employment was also listed under restaurants, taverns and clubs. The place went by the initials CC, which stood for the Crone’s Cauldron.
Many of the various residents of Hermana also had listings for their various unique services. Toni spotted Maggie’s tarot reading, Natasha’s séances, Adele’s aura art classes, Ursula’s tea leaf reading, Ellie’s feng shui, and her own palmistry. There were three pages of counselors, and Toni knew there were many more who weren’t listed in the flyer.
It was kind of cool seeing the town all summed up in the glossy pages by eating, sleeping, entertainment, history and shopping sections. She tossed the booklet aside and stood up.
No use putting it off, she thought.
Toni took off her bathrobe and went to her desk. She pulled out her gym bag and found her exercise bra and some shorts. As tired as she was, she knew that in order to live the lifestyle she craved, she had to pay attention to her body. She had to smash it into shape. There were no excuses for the little paunch that was starting to form in her belly, but less beer and more exercise would solve that problem.
She watched the rest of Cheers and then part of I Love Lucy while jumping around in front of the TV set before she had to get ready for work.
* * *
The bar was quiet when she arrived. The musicians were setting up their equipment, and Toni waved at the singer as she went into the back room. She enjoyed the Sunday afternoon shifts because there was always a singer of some sort for a few hours in the afternoon.
Today there was a singer and guitarist, the Jaded Blues. They played old bluesy and rocka
billy tunes as well as riffs on current radio hits. Their long, shaggy hair and grizzled beards were reminiscent of the seventies, a time when the guys themselves were teenagers. Toni thought that for old guys, they were rather decent-looking and talented.
Toni put away her coat and tied her bar apron around her waist. She counted out a float before locking away her purse and coat.
Toni was working with Gill behind the bar, and two waitresses would be coming in to help as well when the band started at two.
“Hey.” Toni nodded at the bleached-blond, blued-eyed California girl. Gill always looked so bright and out of place in a dark little town like Hermana. Like a diamond in a pile of coal.
“Hi, Toni.” Gill grinned. “Did you have a good birthday weekend?”
“I did indeed,” Toni said.
“What did you do?”
“Oh, suffice to say, I had a good time. We’ll leave it at that.”
Gill pouted. “But I like it when you tell me your stories.”
“Maybe later, after a few drinks.” Toni winked as she turned to serve a customer.
* * *
The next few hours flew by quickly. The band had hit a good groove, and the beer was flowing to a nearly full house. Toni was pleased to see that at least half the crowd appeared to be out-of-towners who wanted to relax to a few tunes before hitting the road back to wherever they came from. It was often easy to spot the tourists because they had bags.
Shopping bags.
Canvas, plastic, cloth, vinyl...
Hermana was known for selling a wide variety of strange and interesting items. A lot of people would buy almost anything just to say they had bought something there and to get a cool-looking bag with Hermana stamped on the side.
The beer flowed and the tips were generous as people came and went. Toni turned to serve her next customer and was surprised to see her good friends, Maggie and Weldon standing before her.
“Hi, guys,” she greeted. “What can I get you?”
Maggie, a tall red-headed Sagittarius, ordered beers while Weldon, a handsome Virgo with short, sandy hair, grinned at her.
“We came to hear a set. It’s such a gorgeous day that we were out walking,” Maggie said as Toni poured their pints.
“I figured you’d be working today,” Toni said as she set the beer down. “Tourist season is cranking up again soon.”
“I was at the booth, actually, but it was dead. Everyone is outside or here, I guess,” Maggie said, looking around. Most of the tables were full, and people were still pouring into the bar in a steady stream. “My Lord, I haven’t seen this many people since before Christmas.”
“I know. It’s great,” Toni’s energy surged as she poured drinks for another customer. The sounds of beer opening, of people murmuring, of the band playing made her grin. She had a spring in her step and a ready smile for anyone who came to her. She poured several pints of beer for one of the waitresses and set them on a tray. When she was finished, she returned to Maggie.
“You know, Toni, you should come out for darts with us on Tuesday. My birthday treat to you.”
“Sure,” Toni said. “Name a time and place and I’ll be there. I don’t play darts much, but what the hell.”
* * *
When Toni arrived at the bar that Tuesday night, Maggie and Weldon were already seated at a table with a half-full pitcher of beer.
“Hey, guys,” Toni greeted.
“Hi,” they said. Maggie stood to hug her and help her with her coat.
“So this is your dart place?” Toni asked as she settled into the wooden chair.
“Yep,” Weldon said. “We come here almost every week. Sometimes even more than that.”
“In the winter they have a wing and beer special from Monday to Wednesday,” Maggie said. “So, it’s a nice night out.”
“I like wings,” Toni said.
“Good, ’cause we already ordered four pounds,” Weldon said.
“Whoa,” Toni laughed. “That’s a helluva lot of wings.”
“You bet,” Maggie said. “We like wings.”
Toni looked around the pub. There were quite a few people around for a Tuesday night. She grinned at the prospect of more tourists coming to town daily. More tourists meant more tips for her. Almost every table had a jug of beer and baskets of wings on it. As she looked around, she saw a man sitting alone at the bar, watching her with a strange look on his face. He was intriguing, yet a bit frightening with the intensity of his eyes made him a bit frightening. He was young, probably around her age. He wasn’t bad-looking, so Toni figured he was likely meeting friends.
She looked away from him and ran her hand through her hair. She hoped it wasn’t sticking out weird from her hat. The problem with short hair was that it often had a mind of its own.
Maggie’s hair was always wild. The long, red curls frizzed in the summer and flew with static cling in the winter. Maggie’s crazy hair suited her personality—unpredictable and adventurous. Weldon’s hair was short and clean-cut, like he was. He had kind eyes that stared at Toni as he handed her a pint of beer.
“Anything new these days?” Toni asked the couple as she drank. She mused at how comfortable they looked with each other; how easy-going and relaxed, as if they’d been together forever. She supposed in Maggie time, they had been together forever.
“Not lately,” Maggie said. “No news is good news in my world.”
“I went to see my brother, Ben, on Saturday while Maggie was at work,” Weldon said with a sigh. Weldon’s brother lived in a mental institution about an hour away. Toni didn’t really know what was wrong with him but knew it had to be pretty bad to keep him locked up for twenty years.
“How is he doing?” Toni asked.
“The same. Sometimes he appears normal and focused, but he can shift so quickly into rage. He’s very jealous of Maggie,” Weldon said.
“Who wouldn’t be? She’s gorgeous and smart,” Toni said.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Weldon smiled.
“He does try to come to me still,” Maggie said as she sipped her beer.
“What do you mean?” Toni asked.
“He comes to me, like in astral projection. I’ve learned how to protect myself, but I can feel him there. Watching me. Sometimes he touches me in my sleep. It’s creepy ’cause they’re twins. Weldon and Ben.”
“That’s right,” Toni said. “I remember. Your long-lost twin that you didn’t even know you had until a few months ago. How strange for you.”
“I’ve been trying to make up for lost time by making regular visits. But it’s hard with my schedule.”
“I think it would be hard with anyone’s schedule. We all have lives, and traveling around to visit people we’ve just met isn’t part of the regular routine. It’s hard to incorporate change sometimes.”
“He has some physical aberrations along with his mental issues,” Maggie explained to Toni. “Ben, that is.”
“And he’s really good at astral projection,” Weldon said. “I’m not witchy like Maggie, but even I can see him and feel him around sometimes. He’s jealous of my life and my opportunities.”
“You mean he just shows up?”
“Oh yeah, whenever and wherever he wants.”
“And he just stands there, or does he try and hurt you or what?”
“It depends on his mood. It’s especially creepy when we’re fucking or something like that.”
“Yeah, I bet it is.”
“He’s so jealous, though,” Maggie sighed, drinking her beer. “I worry that one day he’s going to take some kind of revenge on us, or Weldon, or me. I’m not sure where his anger lies.”
“I guess it’s understandable, living in an institution his whole life.” Toni shrugged. “But watching you fuck?”
“Well, I don’t know, really,” Maggie said. “Sometimes I can see him, sometimes I can’t. I’m not like Natasha or some of the others that can actually see the spirits on a regular basis. They come an
d go for me. I’m never sure what I’m seeing and what I’m imaging. It’s the same with feelings.”
“Yeah, I can get gut feelings about stuff. But most people do,” Toni said. “Or you would think that we all do ’cause we all have instincts and senses that operate even when we’re not consciously aware of them.”
“Especially since he knew about me but I never knew about him, ” Weldon said.
Toni nodded and glanced over to the bar. The shaggy-haired man was looking at her again. This time, he raised his pint glass to her and drank deeply. Toni winked. Maggie saw her and looked over at the man.
“Oh, that’s Sid. He hangs out here sometimes. He’s good at darts,” Maggie said. She waved at him and called, “Come over.”
Sid slid from his stool and sauntered over to the table. Toni appraised him as he walked. He was thin and wiry with shoulder-length hair and a bit of a beard and moustache. He had an electric energy about him that Toni could almost feel. She held her hand out to him as Maggie introduced them.
“Sid, this is our friend, Toni. You can be her partner in darts,” Maggie said.
Toni shook his hand, taking in how weirdly glasslike his gray-blue eyes were as they stared at her.
“A pleasure to meet you, Toni,” Sid said. “Maggie’s told me a lot about you.”
Toni withdrew her hand and stared around the table.
“Oh, I see... this wasn’t some chance ‘let’s go play darts’ thing. You guys planned a blind date for me!”
“So what if we did,” Maggie crowed. “You guys are going to have fun, you’ll see. Sid likes a lot of the same things you do.”
Sid sat down just as the waitress brought over several baskets of wings and a fresh pitcher.
Pisces: Teacher's Pet Page 19
