For The Life of You Ch. 02

"Justin." He looked over his shoulder and saw Mel wave at him from the booth they were sitting in. "Are you coming back any time soon?"

"Yeah," he gave her a rueful smile and paid for his drink. His couldn't help but look to the other end of the bar, searching for her. He saw that she was sitting at a table with two other women who looked younger than her, but not by much. It was just the three of them. Good.

The thought stopped him in his tracks. Why had he thought that? He shook his head and frowned as he turned to slide into booth across from his brother and his wife. Why did it relieve him to know that she didn't have a man with her? He wasn't in the market for a woman in his life. That was the last thing he needed right now.

His divorce was final a year ago, but now he was in the middle of an ugly custody battle over his fifteen year old daughter, whom he hadn't seen in two years. She probably thought he didn't care about her, and he was sure that Kimiko used that to her advantage, but damn it, it was hard trying to get custody while he was in America and she was in Japan.

"Fuck you!"

Justin was almost knocked over as a woman pushed past him. He heard a shout of laughter coming from the end of the bar where she was sitting and his breath caught in his chest. She was turned his way and her face as aglow with laughter. For a split second he thought she was looking at him, but then he realized that she had been watching the woman that had stormed past him. He couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. She looked so sexy as she wiggled in her seat with delight.

"WELL, REGARDLESS of what you think Ms. Blu, far be it from me to turn down such a gorgeous arrangement. So, I thank you." Kat was a beautiful woman inside and out. She always had a positive attitude no matter what was going on. She was smart, even tempered and always tried to look out for the best interests of everyone that came into her life, and that included Blu.

She stepped around the bar and put the flowers on the back counter before looking back and took in Blu's newly purchased out fit. "And look at you, Ms. Thang. You're all dolled up this evening. Are you sure you don't hope to be meeting up with someone special?"

Blu snorted and gave Kat a deadpan look. "Not on your young. Irish. Life."

Kat had known Blu for a couple of years, but she'd noticed that whenever Blu came down to The Pub, she was usually by herself. Some times her friend James would join her, but Kat saw right away that there was nothing going on between them.

Every great once in awhile, like tonight, she'd meet up with her niece Krista, but Kat had never seen Blu with a man other than James. It was none of her business, but being the ever romantic that she was, Kat hoped that tonight of all nights, Blu had a man waiting in the wings for her.

At that moment, a table opened up and Krista and Enira moved to claim it before someone else did.

"I know what you're thinking Kat," Blu said as she puffed on her cigarette and took a sip of her drink. "So stop it." She followed the girls to the table and settled in her chair. "My niece," she looked pointedly over at Krista. "And my friend Layla, have conspired against me to get me out of the house tonight."

Krista looked at her, her eyes wide with innocence. "What?"

Blu rolled her eyes. "Please, don't give me that innocent look. You forget, I taught you that. Breakfast, getting the fingers and toes buttered, shopping spree? Oh, and wait, what day is today? Valentine's" She wagged her finger. "Mama raised crazy, not stupid." She looked up a Kat with a twinkle in her eye.

Krista sat a little straighter in her seat and said, "in our defense, we are all alone. David is in Iraq, and Enira's husband is in boot camp, you don't have a man-"

Blu stabbed her cigarette out in the ashtray and broke in. "For a reason."

Krista continued on as if she didn't hear her. "This is the one day, besides Christmas and New Year's, that one should not be alone."

Blu threw her hands in the air and gave up. They had succeeded in getting her out of the house, so she might as well enjoy it.

"Well, this is my table," Kat said. "So I'll make sure to take proper care of you." She tilted her blond head to the side. "Will we be having dinner tonight, or are you going to stick with your usual liquid diet?" She winked at Blu.

Blu gave Kat a look, but ignored the last part of her question. "Actually we're going to eat first. Krista has only been here for cocktails and this is Enira's first time here. What do you suggest?"

Kat giggled a little. "Oh, a newbie. Well, welcome to our humble establishment that we like to call, 'The Vortex'."

Enira looked confused. "I thought this place was called 'The Pub'." Okay, so she wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the Crayola box.

Kat and Blu just smiled at each other. "Oh, it is dear," Kat said in amusement. "It is."

Enira looked even more confused. Blu sighed.

"It's a nickname. Meaning, that you only have the intentions of coming in here for a drink or two, but you're having so much fun that you forget about the time and the next thing you know you're closing the place down." Blu didn't mention how many times that had happened to her.

"That pretty much sums it up in a nut shell." Kat said with a hearty laugh. She went on to rattle off a few suggestions from the menu. After they placed their order she took her leave with the promise of a quick return with drinks all around.

Blu took off her coat and slung over the back of her chair. Then reached into her bag and pulled out her cigarettes. As she lit up, she sat back and listened as her niece and her friend happily argued about who had gone the longest with out sex. She wasn't about to tell them that she had them beat hands down. God, had it really been two years since she'd gotten laid?

She remembered the young energetic puppy. He was barely twenty-three, and she really should have known better than to mess with someone so young. But he was just so adorable, the way he followed her around during rehearsal, stepping and fetching for her.

True, he was the assistant stage director and she was the choreographer, it was part of his job to get her what she needed. But he always put a little something extra in whatever he was doing for her. And truth be told, it was a bit of an ego stroke, that someone so young found her, at the age of thirty-eight, to be attractive.

It had been fun playing with him and seeing how far he would go just to please her. She knew better, and yet she gave in. She could hear her surrogate father, Papa Ward's voice ringing in her head, "don't shit where you eat, girl." But she had ignored it when the young'un backed her up against the mirror in the women's dressing room and buried his face in between her breasts. It was all down hill from there.

They were the only two people left in the theatre, and she had teased him mercilessly all through rehearsal. Dropping blatant sexual innuendos, lightly caressing his shoulder, switching her hips on purpose. She knew full well that he was staring at her backside when she walked away.

She had a moment of weakness, when he slid his hand into her dance shorts and ran a finger between the slick folds of her lips. It didn't help that she was a sucker for guys with long hair. And his was long, thick and curly.

"Don't shit where you eat, girl." It echoed in her head, bouncing around like a ping-pong ball. But damn it, she had an itch, and that puppy was more than happy to scratch it. Boy howdy did he scratch it.

Going on Papa Ward's advice, she'd made it a rule not to get romantically or sexually involved with theatre people. Too much gossip and too much drama. There was always someone trying to claw their way to top using any means necessary to get there. And screwing around with the assistant stage director would have been the perfect ammunition.

But she had broken the golden rule and that proved disastrous. He started calling her at all hours and leaving messages on her voice mail. The end all to be all was when he showed up at her coffee shop, and demanded, in front of her customers, to know why she was ignoring him. Very unprofessional.

She had to put him down. She'd told him if he didn't stop harassing her, that she would have him black listed. He tried to call her bluff, but the fact of the matter was, she'd been in the theatre business way longer than he, and she knew way too many important people in the business, people that could make or break his career, and he was just getting started.

He ended up stomping out of Level Grounds with his tail tucked between his legs. Blu hated to fact she'd had to resort to such lengths to get rid of him, but there was nothing for it. It was a lesson painfully learned, and she hadn't broken the golden rule since. And she'd made sure never to do a show that he was stage managing.

The boy was smart and had kept his mouth shut. The only person who knew the truth was James. And that was only because he'd caught the boy with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. James had dropped in for his routine coffee, fried potatoes and scrambled eggs on his way home from the club. And he saw the puppy leaving Blu's house in the wee hours of the morning, after she'd kicked him out of her bed.

A few months later, the boy had gotten an opportunity that relocated him to New York and that was the end of it. But James never let Blu live that one down. Every great once in awhile she'd hear him whistling, "how much is that doggie in the window?"

"I'M GOING TO have to invest in those rechargeable batteries." Krista was saying.

Blu laughed at that, and it got her thinking about T.O.M. Her battery operated, Triple Orgasm Machine, hidden in the bottom drawer of her dresser.

Just for shits and grins, Layla had hosted a Subtle Seduction party. Although Blu had been to a couple of parties and had even hosted one herself, at Krista's insistence, she'd never bought anything. In Blu's opinion, if there wasn't a man attached to it, what was the point?

The sales woman went through demonstrating different shapes, sizes, and colors of various dildos and vibrators. When she pulled out T.O.M., Layla began tapping excitedly on Blu's thigh, saying that was just what Blu needed. Blu rolled her eyes and said, "in the words of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Tarrell: ain't nothing like the real thing, baby."

"The way his sizable shaft vibrates, rotates, and thrusts...," the lady was saying. Yo, what?! Blu's hand shot in the air. "Does he come in any color other than pink?"

Layla fell back against the couch in hysterical laughter.

The heavily made up, Subtle Seduction sales representative was thrown off by Blu's explosive question and gave a tentative answer. "Um, n-no," she shook her head. "Just pink."

Tears were running down Layla's cheeks she was laughing so hard. She knew how much Blu hated the color pink. "But he thruts!" Layla pushed the pointer fingers of each hand upward to emphasize the word. She doubled over in another fit of laughter when Blu smacked her on her leg and called her a bitch.

One hundred seventy-five dollars, and three days later, T.O.M was resting comfortably in the bottom of Blu's dresser drawer. The pink color not withstanding, Blu hated to admit it, but the few times they hooked up, he was worth every penny.

"DAVID'S NOT COMING home for another five months. No sex for five months. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself." Krista whined. Blu felt for her niece, but at the same time they'd brought it on themselves. Getting married as fast as they did.

"You two made the choice to get married a week before David had to leave for Iraq." Blu tapped her cigarette on the edge of the ashtray. "Knowing he wasn't going to be stateside for at least a year. Instead of going around saying good-bye to everyone, ya'll should've been screwing like jack rabbits."

Krista just pouted and sipped from her drink. Blu gave her a sympathetic look. Krista was young, and the thought of going without sex for more than twenty-four hours was like the end of the world to her. It was no big major deal to Blu. If she got it, she got it. If she didn't, she didn't.

Now, that wasn't to say that it wouldn't have been nice to have an available partner on hand twenty-four seven. But that also meant being in a relationship. Someone always there every time she turned around. Someone always underfoot. No personal time to herself. Having to explain where she was going, when she was coming back, who was she hanging with. Blu shuddered at the thought. Nope, she was more than happy being single. No fuss, no muss.

"Do you have a web cam?" She looked at Krista.

"What?"

"I know that David's a computer junkie, so you've got to have a web cam, right?" Blu was starting to get a little irritated, but she wanted to help.

"Well, yeah." Krista said. "Before he left, David bought two web cams so we could see each other while we chatted online."

"Problem solved." Blu said in satisfaction.

Krista looked at Blu in confusion. "What do you mean, problem solved? David's still in Iraq and I'm here."

Blu closed her eyes and counted to ten. Dear god, give me strength. She took the last puff from her cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray. "Krista, you're my niece," she said slowly. "And I love you, but you've been hanging with Enira way too long." She looked over at Krista's friend and put up an apologetic hand. "No offense."

"Oh, that's okay. I like hanging with Krista," came the bright reply.

Blu just blinked. Wow. Really? Oh my fucking god. Somebody shoot me in my face! Blu let out a soft whistle and chose to ignore Enira after that last statement. She turned to Krista.

"Okay, let me break it down for you. You've got a web cam so you can see each other while you chat online." Blu waited for the light bulb over Krista's head to come on. It flickered, but remained dark.

"Yes," Krista said slowly and looked at Blu like she was crazy. "I already told you that." Still no light.

Blu threw up her hands in frustration. "I'm talking about web cam sex, girl. You've got all those toys from the Subtle Seduction party, put them to good use. You know, we're just following ancient history, if I strip for you, will you strip for me?"

Krista totally missed the Adam Ant reference, and Blu muttered something under her breath about aging herself. But the light bulb finally flickered bright. Blu laughed at the look on Krista's face when it dawned on her the use of the web cam.

"Girl, some days you really make me question your intelligence." Blu gave a rueful laugh and shook her head. "Mm-mm-mm, for someone so smart. You are so not my niece."

"Shut up!" Krista punched Blu on her thigh. "Just because I don't think like you, doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Blu let that last statement go. It would have been way too easy, and where was the fun in that? "Pfft, nobody thinks like me."

Their food had arrived, and Blu's stomach growled when her plate of Tandoori chicken, rice, pickled vegetables, and two different dipping sauces was set in front of her. She hadn't realized how hungry she was and then remembered that last thing she'd eaten was the veggie omelette at the Real Food Café that morning.

She rubbed her hands together and wiggled in her seat with delight. She pulled a piece of the chicken off the wooden skewer and dipped it in the green sauce first. She wrinkled her nose. She didn't care for the mint chutney, but she was all about the curry aioli sauce.

Although Blu would have been happy to be in bed right at that moment, with her ice cream and movies. She was kind of glad that her niece and Layla had concocted their plan, and got her out of the house. Krista and Enira had decided to split a gourmet veggie pizza and where very animated as they chatted about ideas for Krista's first web cam sex experience.

Blu was only half listening to what they were saying. She was more interested in her food than she was in her niece becoming David's personal porn star. She looked around the bar at the people milling around. She smiled and raised her glass to one of the regulars who called out to her. She saw a couple making out in one of the booths, the guy had his hand shoved down the front of her shirt and was groping her breast while her hand had disappeared under the table. Her jerking arm movement made no pretense that she was stroking his cock. Blu almost gagged on her chicken. God, she hated Valentine's Day. Get a room, for fuck's sake!

Another couple was in the middle of a heated discussion. A moment later, the woman stood up, and even though Blu couldn't hear what they were saying over the noise in the bar, the woman's mouth clearly said the words, "fuck you!" She almost knocked some man, who's back was turned, on his ass as she stormed out.

The boyfriend hastily dug into his pocket, threw a wad of cash on the table and raced out after his pissed off mate. Blu figured one of two things was going to happen: Either those two were going to have some hot and steamy make up monkey sex. Or the poor guy was going to go to bed with blue balls. Blu threw her head back and laughed out loud. Her niece gave her a curious look and she just shook her head. Oh, it was going to be an entertaining night.

MEL TURNED TO LEAN out from the high backed booth they were sitting in. She was curious to see what had caught her brother-in-law's attention. But all she could see were people milling around talking and drinking. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but something had made him stop, and she was bound and determined find out what that something was. "Justin, what's going on?"

Her curious tone was what made Justin move, and he quickly slid into the booth. If it was one thing he knew about Mel, it was that if she thought, for even a second, that he had a slight interest in a female, she'd do her damnedest to find out everything about the woman and have them married with children before the rice hit the floor.

"Nothing's going on." His long hair fell in his face. He wished he'd tied it back, but Mel had talked him into leaving it down. He tried working up a bland look on his face as he pushed his hair back. "Just a couple having a fight. I don't think it's going to be a very happy Valentine's for them." He crossed his fingers under the table and prayed that the answer he had given her would be enough.

"Really?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Seems to me that you were staring at something, or rather, someone awfully hard just now. And I don't think it was the couple that Cupid's arrow missed." She leaned out of the booth again to look in the general direction that had held Justin's interest.

Justin rested back against the booth and tried to look more casual than he felt. Damn, Mel was like a blood hound when it came to sniffing things out. He swirled the ice in his drink. He had to do something before she took it upon herself to get out of the booth and go investigate the someone she thought he was interested in.

"Nope." He said after taking a drink. "The few women in here that I'd be interested in seemed to be taken." He looked at her pointedly and saw her cheeks turn pink. It was an underhanded move on his part. He knew that, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And he was desperate.

Mel set her jaw. She knew that he was playing dirty to hide something. Being the mother of three mischievous children, she could always tell when someone was trying to cover up the truth. There was one thing that Justin kept forgetting, and that was she could play just as dirty as he. She waited for Justin to lift his drink to his mouth.