Saving the Doctor

Saving the Doctor

Part 2. One Fateful Night.

On Monday morning everything seemed back to normal. Beth walked in wearing what he was sure was an honest attempt at an appropriate professional outfit, but what she had achieved was a sexy-librarian stereotype, with the tight red dress-shirt still open enough at the top to tease her cleavage and the remaining buttons stretched enticingly.

“I didn’t know you wore glasses,” Jon said.

“Yeah I usually do contacts. Just thought I’d mix it up,” she replied.

“It suits you well,” he said and gave a friendly smile.

She looked down at her clipboard in a tight smile, almost looking like she was fighting off a blush.

“Your first 2 patients are here. Your 3 o’clock canceled. Want me to make some calls and try to fill the spot?”

He thought for a moment. “You know what just leave it free. It’ll probably help keep me on time.”

“Good call,” she said writing on her clipboard.

“Hey Beth before I forget, are you doing anything on the Saturday after next?”

She froze and looked up confused and nervous, biting her lip.

“Elaina and I are throwing a housewarming party,” he quickly added. “I just wanted to throw out an invite to you and Jared, if you’re not doing anything. The list is finally growing to a decent size, but we could always use a few more. Don’t feel obligated though,” he shrugged.

“Oh,” she relaxed and thought, “Yeah maybe… what kind of party?”

“Well, it’ll be hopefully fairly laid back. Elaina’s gonna have some fancier hors d’ourves. There’ll be a supper. If the day’s nice we’ll probably spend a lot of it outside on the deck. We’ve got a jacuzzi and a big yard. You might be the youngest ones there, not gonna lie, but you’re more than welcome. At least a couple of the docs from clinic here are coming, so you might know a few people.”

She thought some more, “Actually that might be kinda cool. Something a bit different, it’d be good for us. I’ve been trying to get Jared to do some classier stuff lately.”

“Ooookay great,” he said, trying not to look too surprised.

“Sweet. Do I need to bring anything?”

“No. No please no housewarming gifts or anything, I feel like we’re swimming in stuff already. Just yourselves. A few drinks if you want, but we’ll have plenty of beer and wine and other stuff there for everyone.”

“Okay cool. So just ourselves and our swimsuits I guess,” she shrugged and smiled.

“Uh, yeah,” he said. Not having thought of that part. Now putting effort into not picturing it.

“What time?” she asked sounding more excited and playing with her hair.

“People can start showing up 3-ish, and it’ll go into the evening, until people get tired I guess.”

“Awesome,” She smiled wide. “Text me the address at some point,” she said as she bounced out of the room.

Even the business-style pants clung around her hips and ass in a way that would catch the attention of any man. He sighed. He had expected her to decline, but Elaina had continued to insist that she be invited. Hopefully it wasn’t too awkward for anyone involved.

The day went smoothly after that. Almost boring if he was honest with himself, but he preferred it to the chaos of the past week.

At 3:30 he got a text from Carly.

-Is our “date” still on? ;P

He smiled and replied.

-I’m still feeling good since you fixed me last week, but I could go for a coffee and a chat…

-Good, maybe you can return the favor 🙂 I’m off at 5:30.

-Sounds good. I’m running a tight ship today for once, might be done before you.

-Ooo check this guy out 😛 If you are maybe grab me a coffee and meet me in the park?

-Lovely. See you then.

The last set of patients were actually fairly challenging, but he kept focused and worked through them efficiently. The thought of staying on time for Carly had lit a fire under his ass and by 5:15 he was out the door.

He texted her to ask what kind of coffee she wanted and she warned him she was a little behind. He decided to get a couple pink frosted cookies as well.

He took the longer way to the park down the street, not wanting to jump over the ditch with his arms full, and found a park bench.

He thought about Carly as he waited. She was amazing. As a friend. As a person. As a woman… Deep down he knew he had fallen for her at least to some extent, but he wanted to believe he could just keep it suppressed in the back of his mind, and hopefully the more time they spent together as friends the easier it would be to ignore.

Every day that he got to talk to her seemed that much better. He worried how much the stress and burnout would be ruining him, had he not met her. The thought scared him. The thought of losing her scared him. He was a bit nervous about her coming to the party, in case Elaina had the same jealousy towards her as she had towards Beth. Despite what she had said, he didn’t trust that Elaina could completely change her paranoid habits. He would simply have to keep himself in check to make sure things stayed platonic. They were both settled in relationships, so it shouldn’t be that hard right? There were some moments though…

6:00 and she finally arrived. Looking a bit frazzled.

“Hey, I’m so sorry. It took longer to finish everything up than I thought,” she looked genuinely sorry and worried.

“It’s okay. You were just a bit late don’t worry about it,” he tried to reassure her.

“I was scared you might have to leave,” she said furrowing her eyebrows and working to slow her breath.

“No way,” he reassured her as he stood up. “At least I would have texted like… seven times first.”

She gave a soft laugh, “I would have begged you to stick around after each one.”

He tried to hand her the coffee.

She gestured towards the bench, “Put those down I want my hug,” and looked up at him with a pout.

He didn’t think he’d seen a cuter face in his life.

He put the coffees down and they fell into each other. She nuzzled her face into his shoulder and squeezed into him, the soft pillows of her breasts meeting the top of his abs, he pulled his hands against the wide curve of her lower back and lowered his face into her hair, breathing in. They stood there for several long comfortable minutes.

“That’s a lion by the way,” she said, not moving her head from his shoulder.

“What?”

“Your text said you were on the bench by the dog statue, but that’s a lion.”

He looked over at it. “Ohhhhh I see it now,” he said. “Sorry I’m a dolt.”

“Yeah,” she said endearingly, and giggled. He chuckled with her and squeezed her back.

Then she sniffed, and he looked down and realized her eyes had welled up.

“Rough day?” he asked.

“Ughh,” she sighed and leaned into him. “I know I try not to act like it, but my life isn’t all sunshine and roses.”

“Well lay it on me little miss grumpy, what’s eatin’ ya?”

She pulled her head away and looked up at him adoringly.

“How much time have you got?”

“As much as you need,” he said.

She seemed to hesitate.

“Come on,” he gestured towards the bench. “I’ve got cookies”

She grinned, “Ahhh my weakness.”

They sat down and she immediately took his hand and leaned against his shoulder.

They talked and ate and drank. One of the other pharmacists apparently had left 2 weeks ago and they were taking a long time to hire a replacement, so work was heavier. She had very little say over her hours and days off. The past weekend had seemed like one giant argument with her husband Brent, whenever he wasn’t avoiding her.

She seemed to be at a crossroads. She either wanted to start a family, or start living her life. Neither was happening. She wanted kids and he at least seemed to begrudgingly agree to not-NOT want them, but it was a question of when. She adored her two nephews who lived an hour away with her sister, but knew exactly how much work they took, and how much they changed your life.

If not, she wanted to travel, see Greece, Australia, maybe even South America, and she felt like she should be making the best of her time as a free adult before they started their family, but there were always excuses he came up with to avoid making any plans. She had apparently backpacked around the country between university semesters in her wilder days, but had never had the funds to do much international travel back then. Her husband seemed indifferent though, content to immerse himself in his role as a college professor, and seemingly nothing else.

They changed the subject and he asked again about her singing, and apparently besides being classically trained she had been in her own rock band back in the day. She had once had dreams of being the next Stevie Nicks or Alanis Morissette. She was self-conscious about the topic, but he insisted that one day he’d figure out how to get her to sing for him.

The coffee and cookies were long gone and the evening was getting colder. The conversation died naturally and they finally decided to get up and walk back to their cars. One last soft warm hug as she thanked him, and their bodies finally slipped away from each other as she flashed her perfect dimples and said goodbye.

Monday was a good day.

Tuesday was worse. Every little thing that could go wrong in the clinic seemed to happen. He wasn’t even close to finishing on time, and a couple texts from Carly kept him going, but they never had time to meet. That night he pissed Elaina off more than he could remember in a long time, when he simply blurted at her that no one would care what color scheme she picked for the party, and that she was trying too hard with the food, threatening to grill up fucking hot dogs instead and seeing who’s food was eaten more.

The next week and a half went by and he would notice that the days continued to be very up and down.

On a good day, he went for lunch with Carly, and she spent most of the time trying to convince him to go skydiving with her. She had never tried it and couldn’t convince anyone else to go with her. He agreed in principle, but she couldn’t get him to set a date. He apologized to Elaina that night and helped her finalize the last few details of the party, and they picked out the next two wedding venues they wanted to visit, feeling like they were definitely going to pick one of the two and getting closer to setting a date. It was exciting. They had what felt like make-up sex that night, and it felt incredible, like they both needed it. Their naked sweaty bodies clinging to each other under the covers like they had rediscovered one another and why they were engaged.

On another not-so-good day, clinic was uneventful, but dragged along with a million tiny setbacks and delays, despite Beth’s best efforts to keep him on time. He noticed she had kept wearing her glasses every day since his comment, and she asked a couple excited questions about the party. Carly apparently had to head home early that day to let a plumber into their house, so he didn’t get to see her. In the evening he kept his distance from Elaina, still irritated at how much she was trying to make the party into a high-class wine-and-cheese type affair. He decided to just let her run with it and whatever happened happened. As long as she didn’t hire a cello player… She seemed happy to ignore him as well.

Near the end of the next week as he lay in bed, he started to finally realize consciously how much his daily mood depended on Carly.

On the Friday before the party, Jon and Carly had another park date at the end of the day. This time she brought the coffee, and surprised him with a massive cinnamon bun. He jokingly accused her of reading his mind like a witch. They walked and talked, exploring a different part of the pathway, discovering a duck pond next to a children’s playground.

“…Yeah I listened to their latest one anyway it’s got a bit more of a pop vibe than I had expected from what you told me, but it was still really good,” Jon said, finally finishing off his cinnamon bun and licking his fingers.

“Oh! K yeah I agree but the first 2 albums at least, are just gold. More experimental and sort of like an industrial feel sometimes. I finally just got the second album on vinyl and it’s just…ughh! So good!”

He smiled down at her, “Carly I’ve been meaning to break the news to you.. They’ve made some amazing technological developments that I think you’re kinda out of the loop with. So like, first they invented tapes, and that was nice, but then, there were these amazing things called CDs!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” she rolled her eyes and swatted him.

“And then!… they made it so you can just listen to music on your computer and even your phone!”

She chuckled, “Whaaaat? Why didn’t somebody tell me?” she said sarcastically, “Goddammit I’ve been collecting all these clunky records like a schmuck this whole time!” She smiled up at him and pinched him hard in the side.

“OW!” he flinched away from her with a laugh. “That really hurt!”

“Good you deserved it!” She said giving him a light elbow.

“Probably,” he chuckled. “That’s okay I can take it.”

“Oh yeah? How about this?” she said and suddenly shoved her hands under his sweater and tickled him.

“HA! No! Goddammit!” He laughed in agony. He grabbed her soft arms strongly and tried to move her away but she pushed her body into him and laughed as she mercilessly attacked him with her fingers. “I can’t believe I told you my weakness!”

“Yup! Your screwed now!” she laughed with him they struggled against each other.

“Okay! HaHA! I admit it! Records are cool! They’re the best way to listen to music! Just stop it! Hahahh!”

She broke down in laughter and collapsed against him victory. Her fingers relaxed and suddenly felt amazing sliding along his torso.

They slowly broke apart, and settled down. She sipped her coffee with a fading blush and they started to stroll down the path again.

After a long comfortable silence she spoke again, “So, 3 o’clock tomorrow hey? Don’t forget to text me the address.”

“Yeah, is Brent gonna make it?” he asked.

“We compromised,” she sighed. “He’ll make an appearance, but he’ll likely head home before supper. He always has a pile of grading to do. Between you and me though he’s very selective at what activities he lets it interfere with.”

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m glad you’ll be there anyway.”

“Anything I need to bring?”

“Nope,” he said “No gifts or anything. There’ll be plenty to eat and drink. So just yourself and maybe a bathing suit for the jacuzzi.”

She seemed to stiffen up, “I don’t know. Not sure anyone needs to see me in that.”

He stopped and turned his head to her in in amusement. “If you’re worried all the men’s jaws will drop to the floor with too much force and break through the deck, don’t worry, it’s built really well, I think it can handle the impact,” he said, with a sly smile.

She laughed heavily, wrapped both her arms around him and squeezed, her breasts jiggling into him as her giggles subsided.

She looked up at him fondly and sighed, “Okay you convinced me. I’ll bring one.” She bit her lip and smiled up at him.

“Should we head back?” he asked.

“Yeah I guess,” she sighed.

She kept her arm around his as they slowly strolled back to their cars. He couldn’t help notice how incredibly good it felt, and once again stifled the warning from his subconscious, and let himself enjoy the beautiful soothing bliss of her company.

**********

The Saturday of the party had finally come.

Carly looked out the window as Brent drove. Her stomach fluttered.

“This is one of the more impressive neighborhoods,” Brent said. “They did well to find a place here.”

“Mhm,” she responded quietly.

Just a party at a friends house. She kept telling herself Just a friend’s house. Just a friend. You and your husband, he and his fiance, a bunch of other people… It’ll be fine.

She played with her dress. Would he like it? She had chosen a thin yellow floral-pattern sundress. It wasn’t the most fashion-forward choice, but she liked how it clung and complimented certain parts of her. Between last night and this morning she had spent nearly 2 hours in front of the mirror trying to decide what to wear, thinking of him the entire time. In her purse was a balled up black bikini. She felt stupid for even packing it, but it was there. The thought of Jon seeing her in it filled her with dread and excitement at the same time.

The thought of being around him with their partners right there worried her as well. She was so used to them being alone together, and she wasn’t so naive to not know how it must look when they had their ‘dates’ together, hugging, and snuggling close on the park bench, and even occasionally holding hands while they walked. She would have to be careful. She still believed he mostly thought of her as a good supportive friend, something he obviously needed these days. In a way it would feel tragic to ruin that by trying to take it further. She couldn’t help but feel like he wanted more too though, the way he looked at her sometimes… and it felt so good. She shivered.

They parked on the street and walked up to an incredible-looking white and grey house.

The area was well treed, on a gradual slope that led down to the main city. It had a very private feel, despite being only a few blocks from a major roadway. All very rich, well taken care of houses. It felt intimidating.

Brent pushed the doorbell and a chiming church-bell style song played.

The door opened and a beautiful, elegant and confident looking woman smiled down at them.

“Hello!”

“Hi, I’m Carly,” she said forcing a smile.

“OH! Yes, and Brent! Come in! I’m Elaina,” the woman beamed at them as they stepped inside.

Carly tried to shake her hand but Elaina leaned in for an awkward hug and did the same for Brent.

“Thank you so much for coming,” she said taking their coats.

Elaina looked perfect. Like a queen in her palace. Carly felt like a chamber maid in comparison, whom she had taken pity on to invite to the royal ball. Her face had such defined, symmetric features. Her eyes shone out gorgeously and piercingly, the kind that could probably make any man do whatever she wanted. Her svelte figure glided through the room covered by a very expensive looking dark purple cocktail dress.

She led them through the house and pointed to the far end of the living room.

“Everyone’s out by the sun room and on the deck, we’re so lucky it’s such a beautiful day out. I’ll put your coats in the guest room.”

Carly noticed Brent watching her leave and they made their way over to the group.

“Really nice place,” he said looking interested in the ceiling and windows.

Half of the people were inside the screened-in sunroom, and half outside on the deck.

Carly saw Jon out on the deck with his back turned to her, already caught up in conversation with another group. She slowly made her way through the dozen or so guests to get to the deck but her eyes met with Doug, one of the other doctors from Jon’s clinic, and they recognized each other, having met in passing a few times.

He immediately waved her over as he called out, “Carla!”

She corrected him amicably, as they said hello and introduced themselves to their significant others. His wife Helen seemed sweet, looking like the quintessential 50-something housewife, but she was actually a pediatrician. She felt like apologizing to her and embarrassed as she felt Doug’s eyes drift obviously to her cleavage as they shook hands. That was the problem with dressing to be noticed is that attention never exactly comes from where you want it, she thought.

She knew Doug was harmless, and overall a nice guy, but he was just oblivious to his ways. She felt even more sorry for Helen as Doug turned his attention back to the young woman across from him. He introduced Beth as one of the receptionists at the clinic.

“Clinical assistant,” she teasingly corrected him as she sipped her mojito and reached out to shake Carly’s hand with a cutesy little “hi”.

She was breathtaking. She wore a lot of makeup but the girl knew how to wear it well. She had that busty-petite figure that seemed to catch every man’s attention from a mile away. That unfair superpower to put just the perfect amount of fat onto only her breasts and ass to fill out her white denim short-shorts and stretch her pink zip-up tank top into those “perfect” proportions. She noticed Brent’s gaze linger a moment as he shook her hand. Fuck, she didn’t even blame him, SHE could barely take her eyes off the girl. She stopped feeling guilty and instead felt a certain camaraderie with Helen now.

Her boyfriend Jared looked every bit the personal trainer he said he was. Though it came out shortly after that it was more of a part-time gig that he was trying to break into, but seemed to lack the credentials, and he was actually making most of his money working for a drywaller. As amusing as it was to see that admission slowly come out of him, and Beth’s unimpressed face as it did, she found a tactful time to say how nice it was to meet them and slipped away.

“Lets head outside,” she told Brent, who shrugged in agreement.

She got 2 steps toward the deck when Elaina intercepted them, insisting that she bring them something to drink, listing off the long list of options. Brent decided on a sherry and she complimented him on his taste, coaxing a rare grin out of him. Carly decided Beth’s mojito had looked pretty refreshing and asked for that, but Elaina told them to follow her to the kitchen so she could tell her how strong to mix it. She started to tell her it didn’t matter, but she was already walking away, so she followed politely, looking back regretfully at the deck.

While they were in the kitchen a woman came in and introduced herself to Carly as Laura, one of the neighbors. She reminded Elaina that she had been promised a tour of her beautiful house that she’d been waiting so long to see inside. Brent immediately asked to join, complimenting Elaina on the design of the kitchen. She thanked him magnanimously and called him a dear, making him smile again.

“Oh did you design and build this place yourselves?” Carly asked, knowing full well the answer was no, and not realizing how bitchy it sounded until it was out of her mouth.

“Oh, no honey we just bought it a few months ago,” she replied respectfully. “Here let me grab a few more people and we’ll take a look around.”

Brent looked at her incredulously and mouthed, “What was that?”

She shrugged innocently and mouthed “sorry” back.

Carly couldn’t bring herself to ask to be excused from the tour after that.

As the group was walking to the stairs the door bell rang.

“Honey can you get that?!” Elaina called.

“Jon! Doorbell!” Doug relayed the message loudly from the sunroom without asking.

The tour group started filing down the stairs to the basement, she kept looking over her shoulder and waited to be the last down. Finally she saw him bounding in from the sun room and hop down the sunken floor of the living room. He was wearing a well fitted blue polo shirt and tan shorts. His exposed lower legs flexing athletically as he half-ran through the room. She made a hesitant wave and nervous smile and he suddenly noticed her.

“Hey!” he gleamed excitedly and suddenly reached out his hands to her as he kept moving. She reached back out to him and took his hands and let out a gasp of surprise as he spun them around saying. “It’s good to see you!” smiling down across their outstretched arms as they twirled. He let go and slingshotted himself towards the door again and she had to grasp the door frame to stop from falling down the stairs from her momentum in the opposite direction.

“I gotta…” he pointed at the door and took off again to answer it.

“Yeah,” she giggled breathlessly and turned down the stairs to catch up to the others, with goosebumps on her skin.

She tagged along with the group, not really interested in most of what Elaina was saying but she had to admit it was a beautiful house. More than beautiful, it was like her dream home, but looking around at it only made her feel depressed and jealous as Elaina gushed over the details of this and that.

She saw the framed engagement photos of Jon and Elaina and they looked like the most perfect, happy couple. She knew those photos could paint anyone in that light, but it was hard not to believe, looking at their faces, despite some of the things Jon had said.

She tried holding Brent’s hand for a bit, but it only lasted a minute. He let go to point out some of the architectural details to Elaina’s delight.

Carly grinned knowingly when she saw the guitar case in the den, at least, and was impressed by Jon’s stereo system despite the lack of turntable.

Finally the world’s lamest tourist group came back to the muster point and disbanded. At least Elaina didn’t ask for tips.

Carly watched despondently as Elaina glided away elegantly into the sunroom to say hello to the newcomers with her perfect radiant smile.

She decided to help herself to the punch. She poured a big glass and finally headed onto the deck, Brent tagging along again. Her eyes went wide as she took a sip and a generous wallop of rum hit her. It tasted good though. She found Jon talking with another doctor who’s name she couldn’t remember.

“Hi!” Jon said excitedly, interrupting the conversation as soon as she stepped towards the group. He gave her a brief hug, careful not to spill their drinks. He shook hands with Brent, telling him now nice Carly had been since he had met her, and that he was a lucky man. Brent smirked and said thanks.

Carly what are you doing don’t blush! It was a perfectly normal thing to say.

Jon’s immediate attention on her had felt so good though.

He introduced them to the other doctor, Jeff, and his wife Grace.

Carly said hi and was reassured when he hadn’t remembered her name either from their brief encounters previously.

Grace seemed great. “Enjoying the punch too I see,” she said with a wink and clinked her glass into Carly’s conspiratorially.

She looked a few years younger than Jeff, probably mid-thirties. A freckled redhead like him, but cute as a button and a mischievous look to her face.

“Very much so,” Carly laughed. “How much rum is in this stuff by the way Jon?”

He smiled a shit-eating grin, “Enough. Just don’t mention it to Elaina she doesn’t know.”

“Nice!” Jeff laughed.

“Hey speaking of drinks did you bring some of your own brew like I mentioned?” he asked Jeff.

“Yeah I threw a few in the fridge,” he replied “It’s a heavy porter though, so maybe not the most refreshing in the hot sun.”

“I’ll wait till the evening then,” Jon said. “You’re sticking around right?”

“Oh for sure,” Jeff replied “You gonna fire that thing up?” he pointed towards the brick firepit on the lawn.

“Proooobably not,” Jon said. “Elaina wasn’t keen on it anyway. Plus, I don’t think I have wood.”

“I’m sure Elaina could help you out there,” Jeff chuckled at his own innuendo, and Jon spit his beer back into his glass.

“You’re such a dweeb,” Grace rolled her eyes at him.

Carly and Grace started their own conversation and left them to their terrible jokes.

Grace was an occupational therapist, and worked out of the hospital. She said she’d come across Elaina already a couple times though they didn’t ever really work together per se. She said Elaina had already made a name for herself there, as very intelligent and hard working, but also very demanding. Doctors respected her, nurses hated her, but she always took care of ward issues quickly and thoroughly apparently. Grace joked that she’d probably find a way to end up as chief of staff before the end of the year. She reassured Carly that if she didn’t feel intimidated by Elaina then she wasn’t normal, and they shared a laugh. Grace ended up having good taste in books in movies and they found a couple deck chairs and chatted in the sun.

Brent had drifted away from Jon and Jeff, and was out on the lawn with Elaina pointing up at the house, explaining something about the sunroof. Elaina was somehow looking extremely interested in what he had to say.

They went and refilled their drinks. Getting up she noticed she was already starting to feel the booze a bit, with the hot sun not helping much. Grace had grabbed a beer for Jeff and pecked him a kiss as she handed it off, and they sat back down nearby and kept chatting.

After a while Jared walked over.

“Hey Dr. Davidson.”

“It’s Jon, for the third time man, call me Jon please,” he said, smiling and returning an offered fist bump.

“Right, sorry, Just that Beth always calls you Dr. Davidson when she talks about you and stuff…”

“No worries, what’s up?”

“So like, the jacuzzi, um, is that happening at some point? or like…”

“Oh anytime Jared yeah, it’s heated up we just have to take off the cover and hit the switch for the jets.”

“Aw sweet, sweet. You guys wanna come then?”

“Oh, no you guys can go ahead don’t worry,” Jon said politely.

“Nah come on lets all go,” Jared persisted.

Jon looked at Jeff.

Jared continued, “Look Beth really wants to go in, but if like, we’re alone for a long time she ends up talking about serious stuff and getting all pouty and shit… C’mon the more the better right?”

Grace looked over at Carly waggled her eyebrows and whispered, “trouble in paradise?”

Carly stifled a giggle.

Jeff broke in with an amused smile on his face, “Sure man yeah, we got your back. Come on Jon, I packed my trunks I might as well use them.”

“Okay we’re doing it!” Jon shrugged in agreement.

“HEY BABE! HE SAID YES!” Jared suddenly yelled across the deck. Making one of the older guests behind him jump in annoyed surprise.

Beth wasn’t even that far away.

“Woooo! Jacuzzi!” she playfully sung out lifting her drink into the air. Then she set it down and reached for the zipper of her tank top. Carly went bug-eyed when, in a move that was almost pornographic, Beth unzipped her tank top and pulled her shoulders back to slip it off her arms, pushing her chest out to reveal two large perky breasts barely covered by a pink bikini top.

“HELLo” Grace muttered under her breath with a glance Carly.

A sudden smash of a glass from the patio below and she saw Brent apologizing and reaching down to try and pick up the shards of his dropped drink.

Carly facepalmed and whispered, “Oh for fuck’s sake Brent.”

Grace giggled hard, trying not to break into full-out laughter, “Try to go easy on him I was this-close to doing the same.”

Elaina was beside him asking if he was okay and telling him not to worry and that she’d find a broom.

Jared pulled off his own shirt and gave her and the other women some eye-candy as well, as he walked over to Beth and they bounced over to the other end of the deck excitedly.

Jeff poked Grace, “Yo ya comin’ babe?” he said, in a mock bro-voice.

“Don’t. Talk like that. Ever. Again,” she said, trying to sound serious but smiling at him nonetheless.

“Sorry. Seriously though, lets go take a dip. You brought your bathing suit right?” Jeff asked.

“You’ve just been trying to get me out of this dress,” Grace raised an eyebrow at him flirtatiously.

“Well yeah… obviously,” he said smiling back.

“K gimme 5 minutes I’ll go change,” she said, and flicked his ass as he walked away.

“You bring a swim suit?” she asked Carly.

“Yeah.. but I dunno…” Carly replied.

“Oh come on, don’t leave me alone with all them. Besides we can’t sit back and let girls like her have all the fun.”

Carly smiled, “Okay well I gotta go grab it, it’s in my purse.”

“Mine too, lets go,” Grace said, leading her away.

As they got up she heard Jon asking Elaina if she wanted to join them, and she scoffed incredulously, saying someone had to be looking after the party.

She didn’t even ask Brent. He had refused to bring his trunks.

They headed through the house to the guest room.

Once they were alone, Grace asked “Do you know that Beth girl, by the way? I’d only caught her name, how does she know them?”

“Sorta but not really,” said Carly. “She’s one of the clinical assistants there, mostly works with Jon I think.”

“Ah,” said Grace, “Hasn’t broken into Hollywood yet I guess.”

Carly shook her head, “You know, if you can forgive her for her age and the crowd I think she seems to hang out with, I feel like she might not be that bad a girl. I realized after I met her today that I’d talked to her on the phone a few times before, and she’s actually always been super friendly and really good at her job.”

“You’re too nice,” Grace said with a sigh. “Maybe you’re right.”

They got their things and went to the bathroom to change. Carly made a sour face as she pulled at her small muffin top, and looked down at her thick thighs, then forced herself to stop it and just walk out there.

“Dayyummm Girl!!” Grace blurted out when she saw Carly in her black bikini. “How do you walk around with those things?” gesturing at her chest.

“Too much?” Carly said, already feeling self-conscious. She felt like she was spilling out.

“Hell no, you’re perfect.” Grace smiled at her. “I should go down and warn people though we don’t want any more glass shattering.”

“God, don’t remind of that,” Carly said, rolling her eyes. “You look great too Grace, did you seriously say you had two kids?”

“Oh whatever,” Grace brushed her off. “Come on let’s go. You gotta go show Beth what a set of tits looks like.”

“Oh shut up,” Carly giggled as they headed downstairs.

“Helllooo Nurse!” Jeff called out as Grace walked up to the jacuzzi. Jeff and Jon had already joined Beth and Jared. The tub was huge and could probably hold more than a dozen people if they packed in shoulder to shoulder.

“Nine years of marriage and he can’t remember I’m an O.T.” Grace joked as she slipped in beside Jeff.

“Maybe after ten she’ll be able to take a compliment,” Jeff countered smiling at her and putting his arm around her. She stuck her tongue out at him, but pecked him a kiss anyway.

Carly dipped her foot in to slip in between Grace and Beth. She still felt self-conscious, but Grace’s reassurance and a few drinks had helped. Jon was directly across from her and she could feel his eyes on her. Her mind was both loving and hating the different possibilities of what he might be thinking.

He suddenly stood up, “Hey there’s no step there Carly!” and caught her arm just before she lost her balance. His strong arm felt good supporting her.

“Oh! Thanks,” she exclaimed.

“You look amazing too Carly,” he said quietly, as he helped her sit down.

“See, that’s a nice compliment, straightforward and to the point,” Grace said looking at Jeff.

“You girls both look gorgeous, honestly,” Beth said amicably.

Grace gave her a calculating look. “YOU’RE one to talk girl. The fashion line paying you to model that thing?” she said smirking at her.

“Oh Stop it!” Beth laughed. “I’m not like-…”

“Oh Please,” Grace said giggling. “What was that little show you put on, back on the deck there huh?”

“I was just… excited,” Beth blushed. “It’s not my fault, Jon spiked the punch!”

“Ohh, like you don’t know what rum tastes like,” Jon said mockingly.

“Plus you had like 3 mojitos babe,” Jared said seriously.

Beth gave him a long-suffering look.

“Well cheers to all 3 of us breaking hearts out there,” Grace raised her drink and they clinked, giggling.

“So what, the men don’t get any love here?” Jon asked jokingly.

“I think you look sexy Jon,” Jeff patted him on the shoulder patronizingly.

Jared snorted into his beer and laughed.

“Hey the old ladies always talk about him all the time when they fill their prescriptions,” Carly chimed in.

“Oh it’s not just then,” Beth laughed “You should HEAR the waiting room some days.”

“Oh what am I chopped liver over here?” Jeff asked. “They never talk about me?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Fickle old bats,” Jeff shook his head as Jon laughed and sipped his beer.

Jared looked at Beth, “Hey is he the one Chloe was calling McDr- OW!!”

Beth lurched and hit him in the ribs with an elbow.

“Sorry baby I slipped,” she said, rubbing her hand on him. “Grace right? You said you were an O.T?” she continued, quickly changing the subject

They chatted on, Beth actually seemed like a really sweet girl, and even Jared was kind of a love-able dufus. Jeff and Grace were a cute couple and she could tell there was still a deep true love behind their playful bickering. Jon sitting across from her felt both too close and too far. She caught his eyes brushing over her every now and then, noticing her bikini, and she would glance back at his chest and arms, feeling a warmth that wasn’t just from the drinks and the jacuzzi. They all were joking and laughing more as the drinks took hold and any remaining ice melted between them.

“Hey Jon!” Doug called out, sounding like he’d had a few. “How do you change the music, this light jazz stuff is getting kinda tired!”

“It’s a bluetooth speaker, the tablet for it’s on the side table there!” Jon called back.

“Wait why the hell did I just tell him that?” Jon said immediately after. He shouted back, “But ask Elaina! H- Hey Doug!.. Goddammit.” Jon stood up and climbed out of the hot tub, but slipped on the deck as soon as he stepped out and nailed his knee.

“Oh my God are you okay?!” Beth blurted out, as Carly instinctively stood up and reached out, even though she was no where near enough to help.

“I’m good,” he said. “Doug!” he called out as he stood up carefully.

“Somebody cut this guy off, he’s loaded!” Jeff said jokingly.

“Hey you’ve got some good stuff on here, why haven’t we been listening to this?!” Doug said as he poked at the tablet. “Here we go. Where’s the volume on this thing?..”

Carly recognized the opening chords of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘I Know A Little’ come across loudly through the speaker.

Jon laughed and slowed down in his final few steps towards Doug, “Okay you know what, never mind, I’m sold.”

“OOOooo this is a dancing song,” Grace said, elbowing Jeff, who smiled and nodded and they helped each other out of the jacuzzi.

Carly laughed when she looked back and saw Jon and Doug doing dueling air guitar to the opening guitar solo.

“It doesn’t sound like a dancing song,” Beth said confused.

“Just wait,” Carly said.

Elaina came out on the deck just as the catchy southern-swing beat broke out. “Hey who changed the- AH!” She cried out in surprise as Doug swept her up and started 2-stepping with her. He was actually surprisingly good.

Grace and Jeff were hooting and dancing already and the other guests on the deck were laughing and quickly pairing up to do the same.

Beth started to shimmy to the beat and quickly looked at Jared and said, “Come on babe,” and they were off to join the fun.

Carly was content to watch the show from the safety of the hot tub, but then she saw Jon strutting towards her snapping his fingers. She couldn’t help grinning widely and moving her shoulders in time with his as he approached. She reached up and let him help her out of the hot tub.

“Care to dance?” he asked her.

“Sure,” she laughed, “just watch your feet there klutz.”

He laughed back and he wrapped his arm around her and took her hand as they started to bounce and twirl. It felt amazing. She clutched him close, all too aware of the wet skin of her breasts sliding over his bare chest. He spun her around and she squealed in delight and collided happily into him again, holding him closer as they danced. He was a pretty decent dancer despite looking like he was thinking hard about it. She told him he was good at it and he blushed and grinned at her. She felt his big hand tighten on her lower back and felt shivers run up her spine.

Everyone cheered and clapped as the song ended. Carly saw Elaina smirking begrudgingly off to the side, Doug having left her to dance with his wife halfway through the song. She looked like she had to be happy that people were having fun, but annoyed it wasn’t on her terms. Jon walked over to apologize to her and she reassured him.

He said he’d let Doug DJ for a bit but that they would change it back at dinner. A live version of Freebird was evidently next up in Jon’s song library and everyone relaxed and started chatting again at the slower music.

Their jacuzzi group of six found each other at the side of the deck again.

“Well what now?” Jeff asked.

“I think I”ve spent enough time in the tub, or else I’ll become too big of a fall risk,” Jon said.

Grace laughed, “Yeah that’d be my assessment too.”

“I’ve a got a bocce ball set if you guys are up for it?” he ventured.

“Yaaaassss!” Grace called out “Guys vs Girls!”

“Yeah let’s do it! Refills first though,” Beth said

Everyone agreed.

They came back out on the deck with fresh drinks just as Sweet Home Alabama started to play and Doug was trying to get people to dance again, only succeeding with a few of them. Jon and Jeff started nodding their heads to the beat and their walk turned into a strut. That’s all the support Doug needed and he let out a “rock and roll!” as he joined the group and they started grooving out.

Grace started doing the twist with Jeff. Beth and Jared started dancing like they were in a club. Carly shimmied up to Jon and he bounced up against her. She loved the way he looked down at her as they danced gradually closer. Everyone was still in their bathing suits. She slid her hand up his chest as he put his on her hip and slid his thumb along the curve of her waist. She wished they had put their drinks down to let them get into it more, but maybe it was for the best, helping keep things appropriate.

They started dancing more as a group. She bumped her hip playfully into Jeff and laughed. Grace tried out her dance club moves on Jared, while Jeff scoffed, and then had a dance-off with Doug.

Carly fought off a pang of jealousy when she saw Beth dancing with Jon. She watched as she slid her hand sensually up his chest and around his neck, then spun around and pressed her back up against him, looking up and over her shoulder, as she wiggled her her ass over his groin, and slid her hand down his hip. Jon only put a hand over her stomach, but the brief embrace had a very sexual feel. To Beth’s credit she seemed to quickly realize she was getting a little too into it, and Carly was surprised to see HER blush as she broke away. Jon seemed a little uncomfortable but played it off cool. Carly decided she needed to try to stop paying so much close attention to him. She was reading too much into things.

The song ended as they all laughed, and they went to find the bocce ball set.

They played the game on the lawn in their bathing suits as they dried off in the late afternoon sun. They were pretty evenly matched, but Grace was the all-star, clearly having played a lot before, and rubbed it in to the guys team teasingly. The guys tried to step it up. Mostly by bumping chests and acting like they were playing football instead of throwing small colored balls onto the grass, but it was funny nonetheless.

Carly was surprised when Beth asked her what skin products she used. “Your skin is so creamy and smooth I’m jealous.”

She told her the brand she usually used, but mentioned she wasn’t too strict about it, “I usually stay covered in the sun and don’t tan a lot,” She offered with a shrug.

“Yeah I’m realizing more now that I gotta cut that out,” she agreed.

Carly noticed Jon oddly stiffen up a bit and look away.

“It’s bad for ya,” Jeff butted in. “Cancer risk and everything.”

“Wait, it causes cancer??” Jared asked. “What the hell?”

“Babe there’s warnings, They make you sign that thing.” Beth reminded him.

“But I thought that was just some legal thing no one reads… Fuck, it really causes cancer?”

“Increases the risk,” Jeff said with a shrug.

“Shit babe, I gotta stop tanning!” He started looking at his skin in genuine concern.

Carly and Grace shared a silent chuckle.

Elaina interrupted them to pull Jon away to help with the food. She wouldn’t accept anyone else volunteering to help though, so they ended the game and split up. Carly and Grace decided to just put their dresses on over their dry swimsuits in case they wanted to use the jacuzzi again later. Grace introduced her to a few other people she knew from the hospital. Eventually the music changed to some soft classical quartet piece which was evidently the cue for dinner.

She had agreed with Brent before they came that she would stay for the evening and he would leave, hoping maybe he would change his mind, but he didn’t, and left before the food was served, thanking Elaina profusely for everything. Carly told him she’d either find a ride or a cab home and he seemed uninterested in when she’d be back. She sighed as she watched him leave. She told herself she had no reason to feel guilty about staying, and that his lack of sociability wasn’t her fault.

The meal was delicious, very high class offerings, and she wasn’t sure if it was catered or if Elaina had slaved away the night before. Jon sat with Elaina and a few of her colleagues from the hospital. Carly sat with Grace and Jeff, and soon Beth and Jared joined them. She giggled with Grace as Beth explained to Jared what some of the things on his plate were, complaining that they needed to start going to fancier restaurants so he would know these things.

Carly still couldn’t believe how much fun she was having, and she definitely hadn’t expected to be making new friends. She had half-expected to change her mind and leave with Brent if the party sucked. It definitely didn’t. The food had sobered them up a little, but they already started talking about what games they wanted to to play and whether to hit the jacuzzi again, and what other drink options they had…

It was going to be a fun night.

*****

Jon looked over at Carly chatting with Grace and Beth. He was glad she was having fun. He wished he was over there joking with them, rather than the drudgery of Elaina’s and the other doctors’ hospital-politics debate. He had to hand it to Elaina, the food was amazing, everything organized smoothly, the party was going well. Although he admitted some of the fun was happening despite her and not because of her. Their conversation kept revolving around medicine and he chimed in here and there, but he didn’t find it alluring to talk about work during a party.

The food sobered him up fairly well. He had been getting fairly drunk in the hot tub, Jeff’s joke about him falling over hadn’t been way off the mark.

He hoped he hadn’t been staring at Carly too obviously. Even in her sundress she shone. The way it hugged her chest and teased her thick soft thighs under the hem, he was already worried his eyes were wandering too much. Then when she walked out in that bikini… Holy shit. He was glad his lower body was hidden under the water of the jacuzzi as it took a while for his loins to settle down. Did he look like he was having too much fun dancing with her? He had hoped that with their partners around, the party would be a good environment for them to just act as good friends, and prove to himself that’s all they were. It was not working out that way…

Beth hadn’t failed to catch his attention either, but he felt he could say the same for most of the men there, and with her it wasn’t as much of a shock as it had been with Carly. To his relief Beth had been acting appropriately… most of the time. He had felt fine around her until that dance. Good God that had escalated quickly. He hadn’t been to a club in a long time and had forgotten how a girl who knew what she was doing could move her body over you and suddenly drive you wild. It was only a few seconds, he told himself. She probably didn’t even think much of it. Jared was right there… That guy had actually grown on him throughout the day. Despite seeming like a bit of a douchebag at first, he had turned out to be nice enough. He and Beth seemed well matched for each other.

“Jon!”

He turned his head suddenly, “What?”

“Were you listening to me?” Elaina asked him in annoyance.

“Sorry I missed that, what did you say?”

“The desserts, can you please come help me put them out?”

“Yeah sure honey,” he got up quickly to help her.

They went into the kitchen alone and brought the trays out of the fridge.

“Party’s going well,” Jon ventured.

“Is it?” Elaina asked, a touch of acid in her voice. “It’s not exactly going as planned.”

“It never EXACTLY goes as planned,” Jon countered. “It’s good to plan but you have to be able to improvise and let people have some fun.”

“I want people to have fun,” she defended. “I just… put a lot of thought and work into planning this. And you seem to be just be out there having f-…” she sighed, “…letting it get out of control.”

“Out of control? Do you mean the dancing?” he asked.

“That was part of it.”

“Everyone LOVED that, the mood was SO much better after that.”

“It…would have been kind to ask.”

“You would’ve agreed?” he raised his eyebrows at her knowingly.

She crossed her arms and tried to stab him with her eyes.

“Also I had told Beth we were waiting until the evening to use the jacuzzi, and then you went and told Jared the opposite!” she said.

“I had missed that detail of the plan I guess,” he said with a shrug.

“I told you last night. I said we could all go in after dark and that the lights would be impressive.”

“I didn’t think that was set in stone, or that we couldn’t do both,” he said, raising his hands helplessly.

Her repressed anger turned to tears suddenly, “I just wanted it all to be perfect,” she sobbed quietly and fell into him.

He suddenly felt incredibly guilty and embraced her in a hug.

“Hey… Hey honey it’s okay. I want you to be happy I really do, but there’s no such thing as perfect.”

“Why not?” she sobbed into his shoulder and hugged him.

“Well, maybe it’s hard for you to understand cause you’re perfect, but you’re an anomaly.”

To his surprise she gave a small laugh and looked up at him sniffling.

“Everyone’s having fun,” he reassured her. “Everyone’s impressed with the house, impressed with YOU, you look gorgeous, the food’s delicious. It’s going to be an amazing, fun night, just let it happen and enjoy it,” He said looking in her eyes. It was so rare for her to cry, part of him was worried what it meant that she was that stressed out, but part of him was amazed and even relieved that her human side was breaking through.

His words thankfully seemed to reassure her and she relaxed in his arms.

“I love you,” she whispered, “don’t forget that I do.”

“I love you too,” he whispered back, as she buried her face back into his shoulder. He furrowed his brow at the possible subtext… was there another reason she was crying? Was she seeing more than he thought?… His guilt heightened.

Jared suddenly walked in. “Hey is this where we pick up desser- Oh! shit sorry Dr. Davids- I mean Jon, I…”

“It’s okay Jared, we were just having a moment,” Jon reassured him as he broke away from Elaina as she wiped away her tears. “We were just about to serve them.”

“Oh uh, okay cool. Hey I can help you- OH! Hey Beth’s a waitress! She should totally do it too!” he gleamed, proud of his revelation. “Hey Beth! Get over here!”

Elaina took too long to realize what was happening as she was still recovering from her breakdown. She stiffened up when she saw Beth walk in.

“What?” Beth said, looking annoyed at Jared.

“Let’s serve the desserts Babe!”

She looked at him and her frown slowly faded. “Actually that’d be kinda fun.” She looked at Jon and smirked, “Can we?”

Elaina moved to tell them no, but Jon squeezed her shoulders, “Let them do it honey, they’ll be fine. Let’s go sit down and let someone else do the work.”

She looked at him with a concerned face and he could taste the effort it took her to say, “Okay”. He almost felt proud.

“Oh my God these look amazing! Elaina did you make these?” Beth asked as she expertly stacked plates over her arms.

“Yes I did in fact,” Elaina said, looking surprised at the kind compliment.

“Well I’m crazy impressed, the ones they serve in our restaurants don’t look half as good as these,” Beth smiled.

“…Thank you,” Elaina slowly smiled back. “Oh be careful!” she reached out, bewildered at how many Beth was carrying at once as she watched her walk out of the kitchen. Elaina put her hand over her chest and breathed out.

She turned to Jon and placed a delicate hand on his arm.

“They seem like a good couple don’t they?” she asked, searching his face.

“Yeah definitely,” he said, and watched her give what looked like a relieved smile after he said it.

“Well let’s go sit down honey,” she said, and took him by the arm proudly to walk back to their table.

The desserts were delicious, everyone agreed. Elaina beamed at the compliments.

Beth and Jared were quick and surprisingly professional in serving the whole room, more so than he and Elaina would have been. They even cleaned up the plates without asking as everyone chatted and looked satisfied. The meal ended perfectly.

Elaina stood up and made a short speech thanking everyone for coming and that they were all welcome to stay as long as they liked.

Everyone slowly started to stand up and spread out. They chatted a while more with a few of the other doc’s from the hospital, thankfully the subject wasn’t work related and they talked about their engagement plans, receiving some good advice about some of their potential venues that the others had been to for conferences and charity dinners. Elaina moved her hand affectionately over his back as they talked and smiled proudly at the congratulations and well wishes when the conversation ended.

They made their way into the kitchen to find that Helen, Grace and Carly had taken it upon themselves to start washing all of the dishes. Elaina tried to stop them, but they were already well underway, so she resigned to helping them out, and started showing Grace where to put things away. Jon left them to it, accidentally catching a very generous glimpse down the front of Carly’s sundress as she leaned over the sink.

He ran into Jared on the way back outside.

“Hey, thanks again for the help with dessert Jared!”

“Oh no problem man. Honestly thank YOU, Beth was getting kinda bored and crabby and that perked her up a bunch.”

“You two looked really professional, I know she waitresses sometimes, but you looked like you knew what you were doing too.”

“Oh thanks man, that’s actually how we met, we worked at the same place, I was a bartender, but I filled in doing tables if they were short,” Jared explained.

“Ahh, a bartender, I can see that. Maybe you can mix us up something special at some point?” Jon asked.

“Dude really?! I’d LOVE to. I’ve been wanting to do that all day but I didn’t want to tread on Elaina cause she seemed really into it. You have a killer stack of booze in there but people aren’t making much with it.”

Jon thought and smiled “You wanna set up a bar?…”

“Who’s setting up a bar?” Jeff butted in as he walked up.

“WE ARE!” Jared said excitedly. “Where?” he said looking around.

Jon thought, “Well the booze is all in the kitchen but that’s kinda too far removed right?” They both agreed. “The deck would be ideal… Okay I got it, there’s some folding tables in the basement that were there when we moved in, but they’re clean and might be the right size.”

“Lead the way Jon!” Jeff said.

They marched downstairs and each came up carrying a table.

As they walked by the kitchen Elaina noticed them and exclaimed, “Jon what are you doing!?” but was more confused than angry, to his relief.

Before he could reply, Grace came up beside her and directed the straw of a fresh drink up to her lips “Keep drinking girl you gotta catch up remember?” and winked at Jon.

Jon couldn’t help but laugh as they continued towards the deck.

10 minutes later they marched back in to the kitchen, now with Doug in tow, and started gathering up all the booze.

“Hey they’re stealing it!” Carly shouted.

“Jon why?…” Elaina asked, still confused but looking more amused.

“Because it’s OURS! HA!” he laughed.

“Glorious Plunder!” Doug shouted as they each grabbed an armful of bottles.

“We’re setting up a bar on the deck,” Jared finally revealed.

“Actually that’s a really good idea,” Grace said. “Get to it men!”

“Leave us this one at least,” Helen said grabbing a bottle of tequila from Doug’s arms and slapping him on the ass with a smirk as he left.

“Woman’s got fire in her tonight!” Doug exclaimed happily.

Elaina gasped and giggled.

They had a makeshift bar set up 10 minutes later with two tables in front and one behind with an impressive lineup of bottles and mix on display. They had found a tub to put fresh glasses in, an ice bucket, a bar towel, and had even lit two tiki torches on either side. Jared smiled and looked right at home.

Beth sauntered over, laughing, “Oh my God are you tending bar?”

“You know it,” Jared said.

“Come here,” She leaned forward and undid the top button of his polo shirt and popped his collar, “There.” She dug her nails into his abs and tickled his nose, then walked away swaying her hips and looking back over her shoulder and said, “I’ll take your orders,” smiling flirtatiously.

“Ha! You’re set man,” Jeff laughed.

Jared mixed all 4 of them a new drink they hadn’t had before, putting some flare into the pouring as they laughed and said “Cheers,” as they complimented him on it.

Doug convinced Jon and Jeff to come join a game of charades that was starting just beside them on the deck. A good portion of the guests had left after supper, but the ones that had stuck around seemed more in the mood to party. A group had found the bocce ball set, and a few had even started to throw a frisbee around.

Beth went from group to group taking orders and making suggestions for drinks, seeming to love her new role.

Charades got going, the clues were movie-title themed and Jon did a terrible pantomime of “Shakespeare in Love,” but got through it and sat back down.

The girls finally came back from the kitchen giggling and looking very tipsy.

They flowed over to Jared and handed him a mostly-empty bottle of tequila.

Grace asked him to make them something pretty, and they squealed and cheered as he performed some trick-pouring maneuvers to make a colorful layered drink for them.

Jon was taken off guard when Elaina suddenly plopped down onto his lap and put her arm around his shoulder.

“Hey,” she smirked down at him, obviously feeling the alcohol. Jon pecked her a kiss, obviously tasting the alcohol.

“Hey,” Jon replied putting his arm around her waist. He had seen her this way before, but it not for a long time.

“Can I be on your team?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said “You having fun now?” he asked her.

She wiggled her butt into his thigh and pecked him another kiss in response.

He noticed Grace had snuck behind Jeff and was giving him a shoulder rub. They started yelling out guesses as someone gestured wildly in front of the group. The sun was starting to set and a light breeze finally taking the heat of the day away.

Once the title was finally guessed, Grace said she was going to join Carly in the frisbee game, and as she left she bent down and whispered, “You’re welcome,” in Jon’s ear. John smiled back and looked up at Elaina who was already shouting out guesses to the next player, really getting into the game.

Beth strolled by and pointed at Elaina’s drink, “Jared’s good at those, hey?”

“It’s lovely!” Elaina said “You’re such a dear serving everyone like this thank you so much, I feel like I should be paying you.”

“Oh don’t sweat it, I’m having fun. When I’m waitressing I don’t get to drink on the job so this is a nice little change,” Beth said with a giggle.

“Even so,” Elaina persisted, “Are you going to stay until later?”

Beth giggled again, “Oh definitely, at this point you might have to kick us out with the stragglers in the morning.”

“Okay how about this,” Elaina offered, “Whatever hard alcohol is left over at the end of the night is yours to keep. You and Jared. It’s the least we can do.”

Beth placed her hand on her chest, “Awww really? You’re the best! Thank you!”

Beth insisted on bringing them another drink and surprising them.

A few minutes later she was back with another colourful drink. She bent over to hand it to him, and tops of her tits hung proudly in front of him, the zipper of her tank top now slightly undone to draw the eyes and tease even more cleavage. He couldn’t say how intentional it was, but didn’t want to think about it. The drink was delicious but very strong.

Elaina started to shiver and told him she was going inside to find a sweater.

Grace came over shortly after. “Hey come play frisbee with us. Two more guys and it’ll be even for guys vs girls.”

He looked at Jeff and shrugged and they headed down to the lawn. It was a game of keep-away frisbee. Carly and Grace were waiting for them.

“Thank you, by the way,” he said to Grace.

“For what?” Jeff asked.

“Getting Elaina drunk,” Grace answered. “It was Carly’s idea actually.”

Carly giggled, “Oh I made one tiny what-if suggestion and then you ran with it.”

“You give the inspiration and I make it happen. We’re a good team,” Grace smiled. “I mean I don’t think she’ll be dancing on tables but we got the girl to loosen up a bit at least.”

“Oh here it comes!” Carly shouted as the game got underway and they leaped for the disc.

They laughed and bumped into each other. The game was more competitive than he expected and they were working up a sweat. People were friendly but bumping and jostling and getting more rough. Grace tackled Jeff to the ground mercilessly.

Carly slid up against him reaching up his arm as he caught a pass. “Not fair! you’re too tall!” she complained. Then she tried to intercept his attempts to throw it and he successfully deke’d her out and made the pass, but as she flailed into him and knocked him over.

It hurt hitting he ground but her soft hip that checked him down had felt too enticing for his body to complain. After he got up she turned up beside him again and elbowed him in the ribs.

“Hey,” he laughed and looked at her.

Her face was looking redder than before but she was smiling. He pushed her in the arm and in a few seconds they were locked arm in arm pushing and shoving. The frisbee flew overhead beyond his reach and he turned around to run after it. She jumped on his back and took him to the ground, landing on his back. He stood up but she wrapped her arms and legs around him to piggyback on him as he tried to run. Grace screamed in laughter at the sight. He could feel her breasts pressed into his back and noted how strong her legs were, wrapped around his torso. She jerked to the side and sent them sprawling into the grass again.

They got up on their knees and he wrapped his arms around her torso and lifted her up on her feet, holding her from getting away as she squealed playfully. She relaxed and leaned back in to him as they stood, and he kept his arms around her. Feeling her soft ass press back against his groin.

“Am I gonna have to tie you up?” he asked.

She arched her neck back and to the side to look up at him, he could see down the top of her dress as her chest rose and fell and she replied breathlessly with a smile, “Yeah maybe,” then suddenly broke away and ran for the disc.

She caught it but he was right behind her. He loomed in front of her to stop her from passing. She faked to the side and then laughed and held the disc behind her back, daring him to reach for it. He took the bait, but couldn’t quite get it, bringing his face next to hers and their chests together. Someone suddenly stole the disc right out of her hand, pulling her backwards as they did. She grabbed his neck and they both fell together. He wrapped his arms around her as they toppled over and he landed on top of her on the grass with a thud. Her breasts bounced in to him, and one of her thighs came up to slide along his hip. They slowly stopped laughing and looked at each other breathlessly for another few adrenaline-filled seconds. Finally getting up from their embrace.

The game came to an end with everyone sweaty and out of breath as dusk was setting in. Jon looked at the grass stains on his shirt and Carly flattened the wrinkles out of her dress. He felt exhausted, sweaty, and very turned on.

He bumped playfully into her shoulder as they walked back to the deck. “Good game,” he said

She looked up at him in a pondering smile, still catching her breath. “You too.”

When they reached the bar, Jared flagged him down and said he was running low on glasses. Carly quickly volunteered to help him wash some. He took the tray of dirty glasses and headed inside, noticing Elaina still wrapped up in the game of charades, shouting guesses excitedly.

They got to the kitchen and he poured a glass of cold water before filling the sink.

“Can I get one of those?” Carly asked, and he grabbed another glass.

They drank silently as the sink filled.

“Feels good,” Jon said quietly. The endorphins left over from the game washing over him.

“Yeah. Yeah it does,” she replied.

There was a smoothness to her voice; an almost suave demeanor. She looked at him and leaned against the counter. Her eyes twinkling like they shared a secret. He didn’t have to guess long at what that secret might be.

“You worked me pretty hard out there, I got a hell of a sweat going,” he joked.

She giggled softly, “Me too. I feel like I’m burning up. I might get pit stains on this thing,” she said looking at her dress.

“You can take it off to dry out and cool down if you want.”

She opened her mouth in a joking gasp, “Jon…” and smiled wickedly.

“What? You’re wearing your bathing suit underneath, I’ve already seen you in that,” he said innocently.

“What if someone walks in and sees me half-naked with you,” she raised an eyebrow.

“We tell them the truth,” he shrugged.

“Which is?…”

“That you’re hot,” he said. “I mean that… you’re…” he sighed and smiled, having stumbled into the innuendo.

She giggled again and bit her lip, “Oh I know what you mean.”

She slid her hand along the counter, and rapped her fingers playfully. Her skin was pebbled with droplets of sweat, including the skin of the tops of her breasts, offering an enticing new texture to their curves. He brought his eyes back to her face and realized she had just watched him blatantly check her out, and her lips curved into a subtle smile. His heart raced as the silence wore on and their eyes stayed locked together. Her fingers found his on the counter.

Beth suddenly walked in, “Hey guys they told me you were washing glasses so I gathered up a few more…”

He could hear the hesitation in her voice as she looked at them. They broke out of their stare and he thanked her awkwardly. He quickly turned off the tap to stop the sink from overflowing, and got to work, feeling embarrassed, trying to tell himself it probably didn’t even look like anything.

Beth placed the glasses on the counter and left awkwardly. Carly started washing the dishes while he dried and stacked them.

“I’m glad you you could make it Carly,” he said, breaking a long awkward silence.

“Thanks, I’m having more fun than I expected, to be honest, you guys put on a great party,” she replied.

He chuckled, “Most of the fun’s thanks to you guys really. Elaina was doing her best to make it a formal wine and cheese and nothing else.”

Carly’s smile faded, “She’s an impressive woman Jon. Even if she’s a bit stifling before the booze hits her, you’re a lucky man.”

“Thanks,” Jon replied, feeling much too sober all of a sudden. “Brent couldn’t stick around?”

“Had to go mark papers, like I said,” she replied.

The hot tension in the air before had turned into a cold rigidity between them.

Carly let out a long sigh as she washed the last glass, “That frisbee game was fun, but the exercise sobered me up too much.”

Jon smiled, “Here,” and walked up to the cupboard. “I kept the scotch hidden….If that tickles your fancy.”

She giggled, “It does. Am I a VIP now?”

“Definitely. Special access,” he joked as he poured two glasses.

They clinked them together and sipped.

“Mmm that’s good!” Carly said, “Let me see that bottle.”

“It’s not the highest-end stuff but I like it,” Jon said.

“Me too,” she said, shimmying her shoulders and smiling, “makes me all warm and tingly.”

He smiled back, admiring her again.

Even though they were only standing there at a reasonable distance, he still made a start and slid away from her when he caught Elaina walking toward the kitchen from outside.

“Oh there you are. Oh hi Carly. Oh! thanks for washing those,” Elaina tripped slightly and laughed at herself. “Honey I’m going to get my swimsuit on, Helen and Doug want to try the jacuzzi, you should join us. You too Carly. It’s finally starting to get dark out there and the lights should look pretty,” she smiled and turned towards the stairs.

He shrugged and smiled at Carly and they took the fresh trays of glasses back out to the bar.

Jared had taken a break from bartending, so they dropped off the glasses and headed to the jacuzzi to find him and Beth already in there with Doug and Helen and a few other guests.

“Here we can hang up our clothes around the corner here,” Jon said, and Carly followed him out of sight of the others.

He saw her eyes run over his body as he took off his shirt. She turned towards the hooks on the wall and slipped her dress up, revealing the half-covered skin of her smooth, immensely round ass and then her arched back as she removed the dress completely, she hung her dress up and looked at him over her shoulder, her eyes drawn to his hands unzipping his shorts to reveal his trunks underneath. She spun slowly to let her massive bikini-clad breasts come into his view. He had seen the outline of a tattoo on the upper left part of her buttock just under her bikini.

“Looks like a Sun?” he said gesturing down, referring to her tattoo.

She blushed and smiled. “Yeah I was really into Sublime for a while.”

He hung his clothes up and without thinking, grasped her soft hand in his, to walk back to the hot tub. She squeezed back, but they quickly let go as they turned the corner and approached.

The near-miss seemed to scare them both and they separated and got into different sides of the tub.

Elaina came through the screen door to the deck just as they were getting in.

“Elaina, you look gorgeous!” Beth exclaimed.

“Oh you’re too kind dear,” Elaina replied as she delicately walked up in a green and gold bikini and slipped her slim body in beside Jon, immediately putting her arm around him. “I’m so glad we get to use this. Hey honey, the lights, go switch them on.”

Jon climbed out and hit a switch on the wall of the house and the tub lit up in a bright glowing blue, to a chorus of Ooo’s from everyone in it. The last light of the sun was fading from the sky and a few stars starting to shine through. The lights of the tub slowly changed from blue, to red to green. Jon climbed back in and a few more guests joined them in the over-sized jacuzzi.

Elaina kept her arm around him and rubbed her hand over his back and side as they chatted. He couldn’t help notice directly across from them Beth starting to slither herself more intimately into Jared, and pecking kisses. Elaina kissed him and pressed her body more closely into him as well, sliding her other hand over his thigh. He barely caught Beth’s eyes darting away from them, as she squished her breasts into Jared and pulled his mouth in for a brief, but open-mouthed kiss.

“Hey babe I’m trying to talk to Doug,” Jared complained.

Jon tried politely to maintain a conversation with one of the internists from the hospital but was very distracted as Elaina’s hand moved under the water, brushing in a tease against his cock which was becoming more and more erect. He cleared his throat and answered a question trying not give away his tortured state as Elaina kept sliding her hand over his shorts along his erection.

Beth sipped her drink and kept sliding her hand over Jared’s chest and shoulder, smiling, but with a hint of discomfort beneath it.

“Hey Jon are we gonna get a bonfire going after this?” Doug suggested.

“No, please, that thing’s so old and dirty…” Elaina complained.

“It’s a fire pit, that’s the best kind,” Doug smiled.

Jon kept his mouth shut, secretly on Doug’s side.

“I wouldn’t mind snuggling up in front of the flames,” Helen said, wiggling into Doug.

“Oh I don’t know… Actually I don’t think we have any wood,” Elaina said.

Jon thought back to Jeff’s innuendo. Yes we do honey. We have too much right now. He thought, as her hands kept instinctively rubbing him under the water as they talked.

Finally Jon couldn’t stand it anymore and whispered in her ear, “Honey this feels amazing but I’m not gonna be able to get out of the tub with any decency unless you stop.”

She giggled softly in his ear, “Sorry,” she whispered back and nibbled his ear.

She finally did stop and he was only just calmed down enough to get out of the tub when they all finally started climbing out. He hadn’t been able to pay much attention to Carly in the jacuzzi, and as they dried off and fetched their clothes she only spared him an avoidant glance. Elaina noticed her checking the armpits of her dress, and came over to offer to lend her some deodorant. Carly sounded a bit embarrassed and hesitant, and then Elaina offered that she could even use the shower upstairs if she wanted.

Carly seemed like she was about to refuse, then said “You know what, sure, that’d feel good, I could use a break, er, a rinse. Thanks.”

John finished drying off then followed a little ways behind them, heading upstairs to change himself into warmer, less grass-stained clothes.

As they went up the stairs he heard Elaina talking. “…I’ve been sweating a lot myself. I can only imagine it’s worse for a girl your size…”

Jon furrowed his brow at Elaina’s tactlessness, but decided that she likely didn’t realize how it sounded.

John got to the top of the stairs as Elaina was showing her the towels in the closet, and pointing towards the main bathroom, then turned to see him.

“Mmmm just who I’m looking for. Heading to the bedroom?” she asked.

“Yeah I was just gonna change,” he said.

“Come on,” Elaina said seductively and to his surprise grabbed his ass as they walked in.

He shut the door catching Carly diverting her gaze from him and turning towards the bathroom with a forlorn look on her face.

Elaina pulled off her bikini top and threw it on the bed, quickly wrapping her arms around him and pressing her bare breasts into the skin of his chest. Tracing her nails down his back, then hooking her fingers into the waistband of his trunks to begin lowering them off him.

“Need some help getting out these trunks?” she purred.

“Elaina I don’t know…” he said, but she continued to slide her body down his as she pulled his trunks down to his ankles, and he stepped out of them. His cock sprung to attention and she brought him quickly to full mast as she licked his shaft from bottom to top and she slid back up his body to lock him in a kiss.

“You’ve looked so sexy out there today,” she panted into his ear, and stroked his cock. “Come on, we’ll be quick and quiet. It feels so naughty with a house full of people.”

She wiggled out of her bikini bottoms and let them fall to the floor, smiling at him and sitting down on the bed.

“That bed squeaks a lot,” he reminded her.

“Yeah…” she agreed. Then looked down. “Get down on the carpet.”

“Are you sure a-”

“Now!” she locked him with a serious lustful stare.

He sat down and she immediately climbed on to him and pushed him back to lie down as she straddled him. She wasted no time and immediately impaled herself on him as he stifled a groan at the pleasure of her slick pussy wrapping around the meat of his cock. She let out a moan, barely holding her voice back.

She started quickly sliding up and down on him, breathing heavily.

“Ahhh you like that honey?”

“Yeah,” he whispered back

She increased her efforts, rotating her hips into him faster.

“Mmm you love it?

“Ugh, yeah,” he panted, his pleasure accelerating quickly as she worked him.

“Ahhh, I wanted to make love to you right there in the hot tub, right in front of Beth and everyone else. Ahhh, and show h-ahhh, you’re mine! Ohhh Jonathon!”

He furrowed his brow, thrown off by her words. “Honey don’t t- ughhhh,” he moaned as she sunk hard into him and clenched, slowing her thrusts to heavy passionate gyrations, aiming to quickly finish him off.”

“Come on honey,” she stared down possessively.

“Come on cum in me. Cum in your fiance,” she writhed in to him, determined and smiling.

He was very close but the alcohol was holding him back a bit. He closed his eyes and focused on the pleasure of her body. Then, unexpectedly, an image of Carly in her bikini with her wide, soft curves flashed in his mind, and he suddenly came hard.

His body jerked in violent spasms as he ejaculated inside Elaina. She smiled down at him opened mouthed and triumphant, relishing in the feeling of his cum spilling inside her.

The image of Carly was still there. The sexual tension and arousal from the entire day of being around her exploding out of him and into a different woman. He stifled his grunts but it was difficult. He worried who might hear. He finally relaxed as his load was spent and Elaina caressed her hands over him with a look of confident satisfaction.

“Mmmm let’s get cleaned up honey,” she whispered, and she kissed him and walked over to their ensuite bathroom.

He cleaned himself off and put on some jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt with a button-up neck. She asked him to head down and look after the guests while she had a quick shower.

He made his way into the hallway, his mind feeling more relaxed and clear, but still slightly off-put by Elaina’s words and his own thoughts during their quickie. His distracted mind didn’t register the bathroom door opening in time, and Carly, looking back to close the door behind her, didn’t see him either, and they crashed into each other.

The immense softness of her towel-covered tits collided into him and she literally bounced back off of him and against the wall, the towel coming loose and sliding down her breasts. She gasped and scrambled with her hands to try to keep herself decent. One side of the towel dropped away to reveal the entire side of her breast before she could slide it back up. Her huge tits bounced and jostled in waves against her hands, and against each other, as she fumbled around. She messily scrunched up the front of the towel to keep it wrapped around her, and held it with her balled up clothes in two hands in front of her, pushing her breasts up and together, accentuating their massive size and only barely managing to keep her nipples covered.

He had stood there frozen, watching the whole thing in shock. His cock stirred again, despite its recent relief, at her inadvertent, but intensely sexy tease.

“I’m so sorry!” they said at the same time. Her face red and her eyes in as much shock as his.

“Guest room?” she asked.

“That door there,” he pointed

She shuffled off quickly.

He made his way downstairs, slowing his breathing and mentally willing his cock to settle down. He stopped in the kitchen to talk with Jeff who grabbed him one of his home-brews from the fridge, and he helped Helen who was cleaning some more glasses as they talked. The beer tasted amazing and he complimented Jeff, who had been brewing for quite a long time apparently, and had a bit of an art to his process. He asked him how late they could stay with kids back home, and he explained with a grin they were at a sleepover at their cousins place.

Carly walked down after a few minutes looking refreshed and back in her yellow sundress. They made eye contact and he gave a cautious smile which she returned. His eyes couldn’t resist a glance at the upper curves of her dress having seen so much of the what it contained a few minutes before.

“What’cha drinkin?” she asked.

“Jeff’s brew. It’s delicious,” Jon replied

“Can I try?” she asked.

Jon gave her his glass and she sipped.

“That’s really good!”

“I know right?” Jon said in agreement.

“Don’t act too surprised,” Jeff chuckled “You want one?” he asked Carly.

“Absolutely. Thanks,” she opened it and took a big swig.

Beth bounced into the room, “Hey! Time for shots! Let’s go!” she beamed excitedly.

“Shots of what?” Jeff asked.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s mandatory. Come on!” Beth laughed and took Jon by the hand pulling him out of the kitchen. Carly and Jeff shrugged at each other and followed.

Jared had a row of shots already lined up.

“Oooo colorful” Carly said, getting excited.

“Grace! Doug! Get over here, we’re ready!” Jared called down at them on the lawn.

“Hey Jon what’s all this bullshit about you not having firewood, there’s a bunch already chopped up under the deck!” Doug said as he walked up to the bar.

“There was even this!” said Grace brandishing an old hatchet.

“Oh God I’m in danger,” Jeff joked. “Someone get that away from her.”

“I didn’t know that stuff was there.” Jeff said “How did you even get under there?”

“There’s a little door built into the lattice over on that side,” Grace said, handing him the hatchet.

“Any blood on it?” Jon joked as he looked at it.

Carly giggled.

“So let’s get a fire going after this, no excuses now!” Doug said.

“You guys want to?” Jon asked.

“YEAH!” they all agreed.

“Shots first!” Beth persisted.

They turned around and passed the glasses to each other.

“First one’s called a bazooka joe,” Jared announced.

“To Jon and Elaina!” Jeff announced as they raised their glasses, “For throwing a hell of a party!”

“Cheers!” they all said and clinked, downing the shot.

“MMmmmm yummy,” Carly exclaimed. They all agreed.

“K, next,” Jared continued, “This one’s called a red-headed slut.”

“Hey!” Grace shouted in mock insult, putting her hand over her auburn hair.

Jeff bellowed in laughter as she swatted him, and everyone else chuckled.

“Just the name of the shot,” Jared reassured.

“To Jared and Beth for all the drinks!” Jon said as they clinked in a “Cheers,” again. Beth caught his eyes with hers and flashed him a warm smile as they downed the shot.

“And finally,” Jared announced. “I couldn’t get the ingredients exactly but it’s basically it… A purple starfucker!” He grinned.

They laughed at the name and handed them out, gave one final “Cheers” and complimented him on the taste again.

“Let’s get that fire going!” Doug said and he and Jared went to haul the wood from under the deck. More guests had said their goodbyes at that point, and other than a handful of people having a conversation on the other side of the deck, it was only their core group left.

“The night’s getting cold,” Carly mentioned hugging her arms around herself.

“Yeah you’ve got goosebumps.” Jon agreed rubbing his hands over her shoulders. She looked up and gave a small smile. It was so tempting to pull her in for a hug.

“I didn’t think to bring a jacket, it was so nice out earlier,” she said.

“I can see if Elaina could lend you a sweater,” he offered.

Jon looked through the window at the clock – almost 11 pm. He caught Elaina walking towards the door and she came out on to the deck, wearing a green tasseled sweater and holding a glass of wine, looking like she had decided to have a shower as well before coming back out.

“What was all the noise?” She asked.

“We were saying cheers with few shots,” Jon explained.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Elaina said, seeming more reserved than before.

“Here, since you missed out. There was one extra,” Beth said handing her a shotglass.

Elaina smelled it and sipped it.

“No you’re supposed to…” Beth smirked mimicking doing a shot.

“I know dear,” Elaina said patronizingly, almost rolling her eyes at her, “I just… Oh okay fine,” and she tilted it back.

She cleared her throat and put her hand on her chest. “Actually that was okay,” she said.

Then she noticed the others on the lawn with the firewood piling up by the pit and Doug making kindling with the hatchet.

“Oh no, tell me they’re not…”

“It’s okay honey they all wanted to” Jon tried to reassure her “Apparently we had some firewood under the deck we didn’t know about.”

Elaina sighed and crossed her arms. “I hope the neighbors don’t complain.”

“Two of them are still here why don’t you ask them,” John smiled and gestured towards the other group on the deck.

Carly let out a soft giggle.

Elaina crossed her arms and stared daggers into him, not amused.

“Honey, just try not to stress over it, let them have fun. Hey, is it okay if Carly borrows a sweater? Maybe you can head inside and find one.”

She stared at him with a tight-mouthed expression for a few seconds then suddenly smiled politely at Carly, “Of course. I’ll see what I can find for you dear,” then walked back into the house.

“Well now I feel bad,” said Carly.

“Don’t,” said Jon looking at her apologetically, “I think she’s probably just exhausted, she was up really late last night getting everything ready.”

They sipped on their beers and Jon explained their plans for the back yard. Carly was devastated that they were going to tear up the garden. She thought it had a ton of potential to be absolutely beautiful if only they had moved in before the spring. She mentioned she had been eyeing it out before had noticed some of the perennials growing on their own, that were valuable and hard to get established.

Elaina came out of the house holding a shawl.

“I wasn’t certain any of my sweaters would be able fit you so I settled for this.” she said. “It doesn’t exactly match that dress but I don’t know if anything w-…” Elaina cleared her throat, stopping herself and handed her the shawl.

Carly gave her a neutral stare, “…Thank you,” and took it, unfolding it and draping it over her shoulders.

To Elaina’s credit it looked very soft and warm, and Jon thought the purple and black design complimented Carly’s yellow dress well enough.

Jared ran up to the bar on the deck and then ran back with some balled up paper towel, a whiskey bottle and one of the tiki torches. They followed him down to the pit, where Doug doused the paper towel and fed it into the kindling, then lit it with the tiki torch and (almost) all of them cheered as the fire roared up. The wood began to crackle and sparks lifted slowly into the night air.

They all stood around the flames absorbing the warmth.

Jon moved up behind Elaina and wrapped his arms around her delicately. He tried pecking a kiss on her neck, but she tilted her head away.

“This is nice isn’t it?” he asked her.

She sighed, “I think I’m going to go join the others on the deck,” and broke away from him to walk back to the other group.

Grace was standing beside him and watched Elaina leave, “Sorry man I did what I could, she was fun for a while there…”

Jon smirked “Yeah thanks… for your efforts, but I guess the stress of the party’s just stronger than the booze at this point. She has to put her whole self into everything and ends up trying too hard.”

“Won’t disagree with you there. You know I got a bit of bud in my purse, maybe that’s the ticket?” Grace suggested.

Jon raised his eyebrows and looked at her seriously, “Do Not. I forbid you to try.”

Grace gave a defensive smile, “But don’t you kinda think maybe it’s what she REALLY needs, like-…”

“Yes. Actually I often do. But she won’t. I guarantee it. And if you try, well… I’m starting to like you guys and I’d like to be allowed to invite you over again sometime.”

“Awww did you hear that honey?” Grace said.

Jeff smiled and clinked his beer with him.

“What about you?” Grace asked.

“Huh?”

She held a finger and thumb to her lips mimicking a joint.

“Ah. Yeah um… Haven’t in a while… but might be up for it later,” he smiled.

Jeff chuckled.

“Don’t tell too many people though I only brought one,” Grace said quietly. “Maybe Carly, she seems cool,” She smiled, raised her eyebrow and looked over to see if she could hear her.

“As a cucumber girl,” Carly said smiling back from Jon’s other side, obviously listening in.

The others were talking about food and mentioned they were getting hungry. Jon said he had a bunch of snack food back in the kitchen and asked what they wanted.

“I kinda want smores,” Beth said.

“Awww yeah totally babe, great idea,” Jared agreed.

“I… don’t think we have the stuff for that,” Jon said apologetically.

“Not even chocolate?” Beth said in disbelief.

“Well there’s Elaina’s stash of super dark expensive chocolate, but I think I’d need that hatchet to defend myself if I stole it.”

Carly giggled, “Yeah and I wouldn’t even blame her.”

“Well you know what, there’s a 24 hour convenience just a few blocks away at the main drag, I could just take a jaunt down there and grab what we need.”

“Awww would you?” Beth cutely beamed at him.

“Yeah man she’s got me craving them too now” Jeff said with an amused smile

“Sure, no problem,” he reassured them, “I could use a stretch of my legs anyway.”

“Refills?” Jared asked. They all agreed and followed Jon back up to the deck.

He went into the kitchen and brought out some bags of snacks, and what he realized were the last 2 bottles of mix.

“I think I’ll pick up some of that too,” he said.

“And some Oreos. All I’m seeing is salt here,” Grace said, looking over the snacks.

Jon sighed and laughed, “Sure. Anything else?”

“Beef jerky?” Doug ventured.

Jon made the list in his head “Okay, I think I got all that.”

“You want some help hauling it all back?” Carly offered.

“Yeah go with him I have a feeling he’s gonna fuck it up otherwise,” Grace laughed.

“Yeah he might come back with soda crackers for the smores or something,” Jeff joked.

“Oh come on!” Jon laughed back.

He walked over to Elaina to tell her he was heading out briefly. She was curled up on a deck chair, looking half-asleep listening to the other guests conversation about vacation spots. She squinted at him when he told her what he was doing, like he was speaking utter nonsense, but just rolled her eyes and said “okay” and turned back to her group.

He headed out the door with Carly.

“It’s quite the neighborhood you live in here,” she said, as they strolled down the sidewalk.

The street was quiet and dark. Faint noise from the main road a little ways up the street. A high pitched bark came from a dog a couple houses down.

“Yeah, even the barking dogs sound snobby and pretentious,” Jon joked.

She giggled, “Oh come on, it sounds cute.”

“Yeah it probably is. Do you have a dog?” he asked.

She sighed, “No. Brent’s never wanted one. I get it, it’s a ton of work, but I miss the one I had growing up.”

“Yeah me too actually,” he said. “German shepherd mutt, loved him to bits.”

“Big fluffy St Bernard for me,” Carly said.

“Ooo, lucky you,” Jon smiled.

“Yeah, my parents lived on an acreage, so we had lots of room to spread out and run around.”

“You never told me that,” Jon looked at her with new interest.

“Yeah, I was a bit of a country bumpkin. It’s why I rebelled and went sorta punk in college I think.”

Jon laughed, “Right. You still never told me what color your hair was.”

Carly shrugged, “Depended on which semester. Pink, Green, Purple…”

Jon grinned, “The purple would match the shawl right now, I could see it working.”

Carly gave a naughty smile, “So you could call me your little purple starfucker.”

Jon raised his eyebrows and laughed with her, trying not to turn red.

“Are you naturally blonde? You’ve got me wondering now.”

“Hey you’re not supposed to ask a woman that.”

“Oh for Christ sake, don’t YOU suddenly become a prude. I’m asking a good friend that,” he smiled.

She sighed and leaned into him squeezing her arm around him in a half-hug, then left her arm on his waist and rested her head on his shoulder as they walked.

“I really like you Jon,” she said wistfully.

“I really like you too Carly,” he replied, and put an arm around her as well.

It felt like they were back in the park again, strolling through the trails to feel better after a hard day. He squeezed her arm and rubbed affectionately.

“Yeah it’s naturally blonde by the way, but don’t tell anyone.”

He chuckled “You could totally rock pink or green too.”

“I DID totally rock them. Maybe I should dye it back,” she said confidently.

“Nah, you’re perfect the way you are.”

She suddenly stopped and wrapped her other arm around him, pulling him into her in a close embrace, the softness of her chest against him, now a comforting and familiar feeling.

“You give such good hugs,” he said smiling and wrapping his arms around her as well.

She wasn’t smiling though. As she suddenly brought her eyes up to his she had a look of exasperation and worry, like she was thinking very hard and very fast.

“Why are you so amazing to me?” she asked.

He was taken off guard and stood speechless for a few seconds feeling her breathing heavily against him and her hands slowly kneading his back.

“What do you mean?” was all he could muster.

“Why are you so nice to me? Why are you such a prince? Why do you care? Why me?” She looked confused and scared and excited, as though she was begging him not to push her off a cliff, that she didn’t trust the parachute.

“I… well… because YOU’RE amazing to ME.” He struggled to find his words. “Because you’re so nice to me, because you care. Because you understand. Because you’re just pure… sunshine. My day feels brighter, my life feels better when you talk to me, when you hug me, when you flash your dimples at me, it just feels r-”

She kissed him.

Her soft warm lips collided with his and for a second his body and mind couldn’t compute. Then as soon as the realization struck him he kissed her back, pulling her up into him and their mouths started to open as she dug her fingers into his back. Excitement and relief flooded him, like he had finally found something he’d been missing and craving despite never tasting it before. She felt perfect.

The headlights of a car turning onto the street flashed over them and they suddenly stopped, realizing how public of a place they were in. The convenience store and the traffic of the main road were less than half a block ahead.

They let go of each other and both stared in disbelief.

Suddenly she wrapped her hands around herself and stepped back.

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking away and wiping her lips.

“I… I’m sorry too,” he said. He wasn’t. “I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Just… Let’s ignore that. Let’s just pretend- I mean, let’s FORGET that ever happened okay?” she said, looking at him with pleading eyes.

“Okay,” he looked at her helplessly. “Okay we’ll forget it.”

He couldn’t. He never would. Not for the rest of his life.

He had to fight to stop himself from shaking.

“Yeah,” she croaked. Her eyes began to look moist. “Thanks.”

They started to walk again, a foot apart.

“Fuck, this night feels like I’m in college again,” she said.

“Yeah, I’ve had the same thought,” he said, and ventured a chuckle. “It had been mostly in a fun way though…”

“Yeah, yeah it has,” she admitted. “Can’t have the fun without the drama I guess.”

“Maybe Grace will make good on her promise of that joint. You know, just to complete the college effect,” he said.

She made a tight smirk and looked up at him, “Yeah I feel like I could use that right now.”

“Well we’re walking up to a convenience store, it’s probably best we’re not high. Otherwise we’d need two shopping carts,” he said.

She laughed. Their fingers found each other briefly for a squeeze.

They walked in the store and started to look for the items they needed.

He could see her much more clearly in the bright lights of the store. The intricate embroidery of the purple shawl against the floral pattern of the sundress giving her an amazingly elegant appearance.

“You look almost regal in that shawl, you’re kinda overdressed for a store like this,” he said.

She blushed and smiled. She let the shawl slip down her shoulders to just above her elbows and pulled it around in front of her with her hands clasped together against her bosom, and raised her nose up snootily. “A queen may wear what she chooses.”

John laughed. It was funny, but… My God does she know she’s ballooning the tops of her breasts up like that? he thought.

“It amuses me to come down among the commoners on occasion,” she said in her best impression of a royal snob. “Please servant, forget not the Oreos.”

Jon chuckled, “As you wish, my queen,” and kissed her hand with a bow, looking back up to see her fighting off a blush.

They gathered up everything and went to the till. As the cashier was scanning everything Carly came back and plopped a bottle of Fireball whiskey on the counter as well.

“I know you like spicy stuff,” she smiled, having dropped the royal persona.

He laughed, “Okay NOW I’m back in college.”

He paid and they walked out, each carrying a very full bag.

She opened the whiskey and took a swig.

“Wwhhhhooo that hits ya,” she said and handed him the bottle.

He took a swig and immediately coughed and cleared his throat, “Yup, that brings me back.”

They laughed and chatted as they walked back. It was quicker and easier going downhill now. He felt like the tension from their ‘incident’ was mostly gone by the time they got back to the house.

As they walked up the door they heard a “Pssssttt” to their right on the the front porch.

Jeff and Grace were leaning against the house in the shadows sharing a joint.

Jon and Carly both smiled and walked over.

“You were almost too late, there’s less than half left,” Grace said.

Carly grabbed it first and took a long drag.

“Girl, I’m starting to like you,” she told Grace, and they shared a laugh.

Carly passed it off to Jon and he took a drag, coughing a bit despite himself.

“Sorry, I’m a bit out of practice,” he said.

“Aww,” Carly teased, patting his back and then rubbing it supportively.

“You know, if you’re not sure where to go to for your own supply I could hook you up,” Grace offered.

Jon chuckled, “Jeff did you marry a drug dealer?” he joked.

Jeff laughed, “Yeah I got a thing for bad girls.”

Jon looked at Grace again, “I’ll um… let you know. This stuff does seem pretty high quality.”

“What the hell else would I be slingin?” Grace laughed.

Jon shrugged.

Carly handed him the joint again and met his eyes with a smile, seeming to be thinking and wondering as she stared at him. One more drag and he handed it off to Grace who finished the last of it.

“Alright lets go see what goodies you kids brought us,” Jeff said.

They headed back into the house.

He looked at the clock as they walked by the kitchen. Just after midnight. They came out on the deck to see only a few people left chatting next to the hot tub. Elaina still with them, her head resting on the back of her deck chair, he couldn’t see her face to wave hi, but decided against going over to chat. The rest of them had brought most of the rest of the deck chairs down to the fire and they raised their drinks in salute as he walked up.