Brad's Road Trip Ch. 12

"What a mess!" she exclaimed when she got over to us.

"Yeah, I'm sure this isn't what you were expecting when you went to work today," I said. "Ellie, this is my sister Lea. Lea, this is Ellie, from the hotel."

"No offense, girl," Ellie said as they shook hands. "But you picked a real winner."

"Oh, I know," Lea said. "Trust me. I should have known he'd do something like this."

"What'd they say?" I asked Ellie.

"Nothing really," she replied. "Just asked me what happened. I told them I heard loud banging on a door, and then two men shouting. I got concerned and walked down the hall to see what was going on, and then I told them exactly what I saw."

"No idea what they plan to do with me?" I asked. I'd told Lea it would be fine, and I was pretty sure it would be. But until I heard it from someone carrying a badge, I was a little nervous.

"Nothing," a voice said behind me. It was one of the sergeants who'd taken my statement. "We have your contact information, so we'll call you if we need anything else."

"I'm free to go?" I asked.

"You both are," he replied, talking to me and Ellie. "I just had to keep you here until we knew if he was going to press charges. He said he was, but then his lawyer showed up."

"Probably the same worthless slimeball he hired for our divorce," Lea said.

"It is," the cop said. "And maybe he is everything you said, but he told your husband he had absolutely no shot of winning if he pressed charges, and told him he'd have to get a different lawyer if he wanted to proceed with it."

"Wonders never cease," Lea said. "I'm still going to chop off the prick's nuts and feed them to the dog."

"That, I'm guessing he would press charges for," the cop said, drawing a laugh from all three of us before he walked away.

"You have to go back to work?" I asked Ellie once the three of us got outside. My thanking Roy earlier had been sarcastic, but it had also been the truth. I'd seen her checking me out as I stood there bare-chested in the hallway, and I knew her rubbing against my abs had been no accident. As for her, she'd caught my eye on my way out to the track that morning. If nothing else, she'd be a good companion to bring along for whatever Lea had planned that night.

"Yes, but not at the hotel," she said. "My shift ended at 11. I have another job I have to start at 1."

"Where?" I asked.

"Actually," she said. "I heard him yell about you buying her lingerie. Where are you going to shop?"

"Le Chic, over at the mall," Lea piped up.

Ellie smiled wide. "Excellent," she said. "That's my second job."

"Really?" my sister asked.

"Well, you certainly have the body for it," I said.

"And you said I,/i> was checking you out," Ellie teased.

"You were," I replied. "When I left this morning, when I got back, and then in the hallway. I think you were hoping we'd keep arguing so you could keep getting a peek. I didn't complain about it because the view isn't too bad on my end, either."

My sister's jaw went slack -- just like my best friend Scott in Florida, Lea didn't remember me being this kind of flirt.

"Whatever," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. She didn't stop smiling, though, and she didn't deny it, either. "I'm gonna head home real quick and shower before I go over. We close at 5 today, since it's Sunday. I hope I'll see you guys there."

"You will," Lea said. "I didn't have to twist his arm much to get him to go to begin with, and now I'm guessing he'll be even more eager."

"He better be," Ellie replied, winking at me as she left. Lea and I decided to hit a little Italian joint for lunch, and she waited until we'd placed our order to start staring at me.

"What?" I finally asked, once the stares got to be a little strange.

"Who are you, and what have you done with my little brother?" she asked. "First last night with that girl, and then today?"

"Things have changed, sis," I explained. "I've always had this in me. I just had to let it out. I had to learn to not let one or two girls rejecting me blow up my confidence. Once I figured that out, I became a different person around women."

"I'll say," Lea said. "The Brad I know wouldn't have even spoken to a girl that hot, unless he absolutely had to."

"I remember," I said, fake shuddering. "Thank God those days are over."

"Didn't you say something about a girlfriend last night, though?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. When I didn't say more, Lea moved her hand in a circular motion, the universal signal for 'keep going.' "Trust me, Lea. I'm not cheating on her. Let's just leave it at that."

My sister had been quite the freak in high school, if I believed even half the stories I'd heard about her. She probably wouldn't have been all that shocked or surprised by the deal Kelly and I had struck. She'd have speed dialed our mother before we even finished the appetizer, though. While I would have been okay talking about it with my sister, I really didn't feel like explaining the intimate details of an open relationship, even a temporary one, to my mom.

After needling me for more info for a few more minutes, Lea finally let it go and we enjoyed our lunch. Not long after that, we walked into the mall and made our way over to the boutique.

"Thank you so much for this, Brad," Lea said. I was the only man in the place. "You know you don't have to pay for it."

"I'm in a lingerie shop with my sister, Lea," I said. "The fact that I am paying for it is the only thing keeping me from exile in West Virginia."

She laughed, and we took our time meandering around the store. It was a quarter past one, but Ellie was nowhere to be found, and I started to wonder if maybe she worked at a different mall. I was looking at a turquoise corset when she snuck up behind me.

"Excellent choice, sir," she said. "Got anybody in particular you'd like to see that on?" Ellie had thankfully discarded the hotel outfit and now wore a baby blue blouse and a black sequined miniskirt. She'd also put on some makeup since she'd left the police station, but I didn't think it was necessary.

I decided to go for broke. I was every bit as into her as she seemed to be into me, and I had promised Kelly story time tonight. If she was just some kind of uber-enthusiastic cocktease, now was the time to find out.

"I do," I said, then moved until my lips were inches from her ear. "You."

She was a confident woman, for sure, but she was still blushing like a little red sports car. My forwardness must have thrown her off a little, because she didn't answer for a few seconds, and when she did, her voice cracked.

"I think..." she started. I wasn't sure if she was going to finish, so I raised my eyebrows a little to encourage her. "I think that could be arranged."

Bingo. I took her hand gently, and after she made eye contact with me, I said, "I'm very glad to hear that."

Just then, Lea made her way back over to us. She'd picked out a few items and had then hanging over her forearm.

"What kind of limit do I have, Brad?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not wiping my ass with 100-dollar bills or anything, hon," I joked. "Let your conscience be your guide."

"We're women," Ellie said. I might have had her off-balance for a second, but she was rapidly recovering. "We don't have a conscience when it comes to spending a man's money." She turned to my sister with a grin. "C'mon, honey. Let's make sure this little spending spree is worth it."

I rolled my eyes as Ellie took Lea's arm and led her off, but I smiled. Lea deserved to be happy. I did have a limit, but I doubted she'd get anywhere close to it.

Of course, I had another reason for coming to this store. The negligee I'd been checking out was for Kelly. My mom handled all the uniform ordering for the Taco Bell employees, so she knew what sizes Kelly wore. Obviously, Taco Bell didn't have standard issue bras, so she'd made her best guess and told me a 32B, maybe a C. I thought it might be awkward having that particular conversation with my mom, but really, it hadn't been.

Either way, the fit wasn't all that important. If things went the way I hoped they would, we'd likely be shopping for lingerie together in the future anyway. The problem was, I hadn't ever purchased anything like this for a woman. I had more than my share of sex, but most of it had been casual. There weren't a lot of girlfriends in the Brad Carver history books, so I'd never had a need to become familiar with these things. Obviously, I had no idea what Kelly liked, but I didn't even know what I liked, or how most of the things in this store would look on a woman.

I knew how I could find out.

I made my way to the back of the store just in time to see Lea disappear into one of the dressing rooms. There was just one other customer and one other employee in the store, so I figured it would be as good a time as any to corner Ellie. She was sorting the restock items, the things people had tried on but didn't buy, and I slid up behind her silently.

"So, about that fashion show I mentioned earlier," I said, sliding my arms around her shoulders. She jumped about a foot off the ground, but started giggling when she came back down.

"We'll do anything to make our customers happy, sir," she said in her best customer service tone. Her voice got a little lower and a lot huskier then. "What did you have in mind?"

"You said you close at 5, right?" She nodded. "Well, what if I come by about five minutes till 5, and once you kick everyone else out..."

"I can't, Brad," she said. "My boss comes by around 4 on Sundays to do some end of week inventory paperwork. She'll be here after we close."

"Hmm," I said. "Does she stay all night?"

"She leaves around 7 usually," Ellie said. "Why?"

"Come have dinner with me," I said. "Lea and her boyfriend will be there, with a few of their friends. I was going to be a fifth or seventh wheel, so you'd be doing me a big favor anyway. Then after that.. you have a key to the mall?"

"Yes," she said.

"So then we can come back here, around maybe 8 or 9 o'clock, and you can try on some things for me."

"I'll be your personal little fashion model, huh?"

"If you're willing," I said. "You might even get me to help you put them on."

She grinned up me with a smile that would have lit up the whole store if the power had suddenly gone out. "Or take them off."

"I'll pick you up around 5 then?" I asked.

She nodded, then leaned close to me. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," she whispered.

************

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I would think you're a troublemaker."

I'd spent the past couple of hours at Lea's babysitter's house playing with my niece and nephews. I was having a blast, but getting tackled by two little boys gets old after a while, even when you're my size. So, I'd gone outside to take a little break. I'd missed a call from Kelly and quickly returned it.

"I mean, what is that?" she asked. "Three run-ins with the police or other security folks? In the past five days?"

"Four," I said.

"The one at the concert the other night," Kelly said. "The cops at the hotel in Charleston, and now this."

"Before I got back to the hotel in Charleston, I had to smooth talk the bouncer into not throwing our whole group out of the bar."

"Oh, yeah," Kelly said. "I wasn't counting that."

"Well, the two in Charleston were definitely my fault, although I don't think Beth was complaining about the second one," I said. "The one in Indy, I guess I can say that was my fault. I could have stayed out of that one and just let 'em brawl. But this one, this one's all on my asshole brother-in-law."

"Sounded like he deserved it," she said.

"And a whole lot more," I replied. "I'm glad I had to go down to the police station, because Lea wanted to come be with me. If not, she'd have gone straight over to the hospital and gotten herself arrested for assaulting a patient."

Kelly giggled at that.

"Seriously, though, Brad. You know there are other ways besides violence, right?"

"Yes, Kelly," I said. "I promise, I don't go that direction unless I don't have another choice. Those guys at the concert were throwing each other around and could have hurt other people. They were way past the talking stage. And Roy... honestly, Roy has needed to have his ass kicked for a long, long time."

"Any other fights I should know about?" she asked. I could hear the slight hint of mirth in her voice.

"I'll tell you about every fight I've ever been in, if you want," I replied.

"Sure," she said. "I've got some time before the next awful family event." Kelly was attending a family reunion today, and it was an all-day affair. It left me with way less time to talk to her than I would have preferred, but at least I'd been able to get in a lot of quality time with my sister and her children.

"I got bullied in elementary school," I said.

"You?" Kelly asked. "Really?"

"Yeah," I said. "Surprised?"

"More than just a little, yeah," she said. "I mean, you're a great guy and a nice guy, Brad, but I've kinda been picturing you as the alpha male. Those are generally the ones doing the bullying."

"Well, I've changed a lot over the past six or seven years, but in grade school, I got picked on all the time. So, right in the middle of math class one day in fifth grade, I punched this one kid right in the nose. I hit him way harder than I should have. I broke his nose, and there was blood everywhere. I got suspended for a week, and my mom beat my ass when I got home. I would have traded places with the other kid, broken nose and all, just to get out of dealing with my mom. But after that, no one else at school bothered me."

"I would imagine not," she chuckled.

"Let's see," I said. "The next one was when I was 16, a junior in high school. The first excellent decision my sister made, husband number 1, was screaming at her so loud I could hear him in their second-floor apartment as I was pulling in to park. I got out, pulled my best Dukes of Hazard impression to slide across my hood and was up the stairs in time to see him punch her in the back. I tackled him to the ground and punched him a couple times before he scrambled away. He was trying to get away from me so much that he didn't look where he was going and tripped at the top of the stairs."

"Oh, no," she said.

"He was fine," I said. "He only fell down about six or seven stairs before he caught his balance, and all he got was a twisted ankle and a broken toe. He had some pretty powerful parents, so even though the cops knew I was just defending my sister, I did get arrested. They only charged me as a juvenile, and after I did a bunch of community service, they expunged my record."

"Wow," she said. "Any others?"

"Well, I punched my uncle once, when he wouldn't stop screaming at my grandmother. Remember how I told you my two aunts hated me, when I was in South Carolina last week? It stems from that. The lady had Alzheimers and barely knew her way around the house. She certainly didn't need some huge fatass screaming at her because she'd spilled coffee on his counter. I asked him to stop yelling at her, and he started yelling at me. She jumped in to get him to stop yelling at me, and he started yelling at her again. I told him to shut his mouth or I'd do it for him, and when he started yelling at me again.. well, I did what I said I would do."

"Jesus," she said. "What happened?"

"My grandmother moved in with a different daughter until she died about three months later. The uncle died last year, and I didn't go to his funeral or even send flowers. That particular branch of the family tree hates me now, and I can't say I'm very fond of them, either."

"Holy crap, Brad," Kelly said. "I had no idea."

"I know this whole thing might make you think badly of me, Kelly, but there's nothing I won't tell you if you ask me. I've made some mistakes in my youth, let my anger get the best of me a few times, but I'm starting to mellow out some."

"I don't think badly of you at all," she said. "All those things you told me, you were standing up for someone. Whether it was yourself, your sister, your grandma, or just random people at that concert the other day. I don't want to be with someone who's looking for the first opportunity to get into a brawl, but I don't want someone who'd be scared to physically protect me if it was necessary."

"Yeah, you won't ever have to worry about that with me," I said. "I'm not too proud to back down from a fight if I think there's another way, but I also won't hesitate to do what needs to be done. Just wasn't raised that way, I guess."

"I'm happy to know that," Kelly said. "Believe me, baby. It's not a bad thing."

"I'm glad you think so," I replied.

"You have anything lined up for story time yet?"

"I think so," I said. "I won't go into details yet, until I know it's going to happen, but I don't think you'll be disappointed."

"It involves you, right?"

"That would be the idea, yes," I said.

"Then it won't disappoint me," she replied, then let out a huge sigh. "Okay, my mom is here, so I have to go. I think this time it's my uncle's house. If I shoot myself tonight, please accept my apologies."

**********************

Dinner and drinks were at a local bar and grill a few blocks from the major college campus in town. Lea and Daniel had invited two other couples, so with Ellie and I, that made eight. The burgers were actually pretty good -- damn near excellent for bar food standards -- and Ellie surprised me by ordering a Jack and Coke instead of the fruity umbrella drinks the other women were having. Not wanting to get toasted prior to a long drive north in the morning, I stuck to the Sam Adams summer ale the bar had on tap.

My sister and her boyfriend hit the dance floor right after they were done eating, and so did one of the other couples. The other two who stayed at the table were at the other end and involved in their own conversation, so that gave Ellie and I some time to get to know each other a little.

I told her about my trek across the country, and she was instantly jealous of all the traveling I'd been doing. She was going to be a senior at the college just down the street, majoring in business and planning to get a post-graduate degree in property management.

"You need a Masters degree for that?" I asked.

"Probably not," she said. "But you do to get into upper management in a big hotel chain, and hopefully to run one of them someday."

"Ah," I replied. "I misunderstood." I raised my glass, and she clinked hers against it. "To ambition."

We both took a long drink. The bar had only been playing fast songs so far, but the DJ announced that he was going to slow things down by request. The song he chose was Michael Jackson's "Human Nature." An odd song for a slow dance, I thought, but I invited Ellie onto the dance floor anyway. It was a pretty small space, so even on a Sunday night, it was a little crowded.

"So, this fashion show idea of yours," Ellie said, putting her head on my shoulder as we swayed. "You just have a lingerie fetish, or what?"

"I like lingerie, and I especially like women who have spectacular bodies," I replied, accentuating my point by rubbing my hands up and down her back. She looked up at me and smiled. "I don't have a lingerie fetish, per say, but I'm sure I'll like the way it looks on you."

"You'll enjoy taking it off of me, too," she said.

"Who says I'll take it off?" I asked, speaking in soft tones just inches from her ear. "I might just leave it on and move it to the side if it gets in the way."

"In the way of what?" she asked, teasingly.

"Of whatever I want to get to," I answered.

"Sounds like I might not have any idea what I'm getting myself into, either," she replied.

"I'm sure we'll both figure it out," I assured her. "I'm not just going to window shop, though. I want to buy a few things for my girlfriend, and I want to see how they look on you before I decide."