Lipstick stains down the front of my shirt
Your panties on the floor, my mind's in the dirt
You're two kinds of sweet, naughty and nice
If I get this chance again I won't think twice
- Ladies Come First, Hinder
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October
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"How's my girl?" I asked Ashley. The gorgeous Indian bartender was obsessively polishing the bar, letting the other two bartenders handle the drink orders.
"Which one? The cheerleader or the pirate?"
I rolled my eyes at her. "You know the answer to that."
"The cheerleader is doing fine. A little nervous, but better than last time. And the pirate is doing good too. Don't know if she told you, but she started work on her bartender's license."
I took a swig of my Wild Turkey. "Really? Good for her."
"Yeah, Jane plays in the store, Sienna plays with her when we're not busy, does her studying. As soon as she starts taking opening shifts, I can actually start getting some sleep."
I reached out and covered her hand with mine, gave her my warmest smile. "Thank you."
"Sure thing."
I turned and slid off my barstool, melted into the crowd, moving towards the stage. The room was hot and loud, lots of people packed into the bar, most wearing costumes, most with drinks in their hand. A few watched from tables, eating along the sides of the crowded main floor, watching the stage where costumed band members were just about to start singing. Jessie - dressed in a black and red cheerleader outfit was conversing with her lead guitarist who was dressed in a very distinctive red superhero outfit. I smiled. My girl was so gorgeous.
I excused myself as someone bumped into me, catching and steadying them by the shoulder as they hurried by. "See? How's it going?"
The redhead grinned at me. "Making a ton in tips. Drunk people like to give pretty girl money. Who would've guessed?"
She WAS pretty. In a bar full of women, the majority of whom seemed to be competing to see who could wear the skimpier Halloween costume, she was dressed extremely conservative. Brown pants tucked into high boots, ruffled white shirt under a cheap black corset under a frock coat. A tricorner hat hid most of her red hair, a few wisps visible around her ears and neck. Most striking of all was her face. After her awful week, week and a half of detox, she'd looked gaunt and exhausted, sunken red eyes and weight burned off with fever and vomiting and nearly seven days without food. Since then she added weight back, and though I didn't have much to compare to in the last three years, she definitely looked healthier than when she'd shown up on my doorstep, happier, more awake, vibrant in a way that wasn't chemically induced. She'd even put on makeup tonight, black mascara swept back and up.
Sienna looked like a happy, healthy young woman, finally.
"No surprise to me at all. You look great. How's Jane doing?"
The pirate bartender blushed at my compliment. "She's in the back playing with a couple of other kids. A couple of Ashley's employees have kids, so she's got a room set up for them."
"Nice."
Another waiter started jumping up and down and waving over by the bar, and Sienna rolled her eyes. "I think that's my cue. You'll wait till the end of my shift, take me home?"
"No, I'm gonna leave you and Jane here. Duh."
She punched me in the shoulder, gave me a brilliant smile, and started cutting through the crowd.
Microphone feedback stabbed my ears and I turned back to the stage as Ashley coughed to quiet the crowd, and started her introduction. "Thanks for coming out tonight for a very special evening, a very spooky, very creepy evening, All Hallows Eve." Her voice was low and dark, matching her long black witch costume. "We have a very special treat for you tonight, a local band, friends of mine, The RocketGirls, performing some new material! Get ready for some hot and heavy ROCK!"
The band opened up with a couple of power chords that I could barely recognize, and I cocked my head, trying to figure out the tune. Then Jessie started growling over music and I smirked to myself. A rock version of a very sexually aggressive rap song.
Oh, Jessie.
#####
Jessie was amped up when we got home. Despite the exhausting performance, she was riding high on adrenaline, and immediately after Sienna took Jane up to the bed, the cheerleader pushed me against the door for a vicious kiss, hand snaking down into my pants to grip and stroke. Then she broke away with a laugh, running for the refrigerator. "Ice cream?"
"Why not?"
I watched her maniacally sprinting around the kitchen grabbing bowls and toppings from cabinets and grinned. A couple of hours ago she was singing filthy, explicit rock, now she was acting like a little kid.
Oh, Jessie.
Footsteps on the stairs and a tired-looking pirate walked into the kitchen. "See, ice cream?" my girl called back.
"Nope, I've got dinner in the car." She walked past me out the side door. "Hey, Gary,
We sat around the kitchen table, Jessie and I chowing down on ice cream, Sienna digging into microwaved spaghetti from the bar. My girl was pounding out text messages and social media updates, tagging pictures and posts from that night's performance, and I smiled as I watched the cheerleader's fingers flying over her screen, cold electronic light glowing over her smiling face between bites of dessert. I glanced over at Sienna and noticed her smiling softly at me. I had to fight not to glance guiltily down at my food. "How are you liking the job?" I asked.
"It's good. I'm making some money, Ashley's nice, and the customers beat serving horny oil drillers in Dakota."
"Jane doing ok?"
She shrugged. "I'm sure the restaurant isn't her favorite place in the world, but there are toys in the office and Ashley lets me stop back and see her pretty often. It works."
"She is a good person."
"You sleep with her too?" Sienna was grinning at me, no judgment on her face at all.
I shrugged. "No kissing and telling."
"You slut."
Jessie looked up from her phone, gave me a sultry, predatorial smile, and waggled her fingers at me in a slight wave.
Sienna just rolled her eyes, sighed dramatically.
"Working tomorrow?" I asked.
"Day off," she sighed. "Laundry, taking Jane to the park if it's at all warm out. What are you up to?"
"Absolutely nothing. Lazy day. Groceries and working out."
"And I've got another concert tomorrow night," Jessie interrupted excitedly.
"Oh yeah. It's actually Halloween. So they're playing again. People apparently really like Alice Cooper this time of year, who'd've guessed?"
The black-haired cheerleader giggled. "And they really like seeing hot girls in costumes perform it."
"You're funny." Sienna rose and threw out her styrofoam to-go box. "I'm gonna go pass out now. Long day."
"Sleep well," Jessie called after her.
"See you tomorrow."
We sat there for a while finishing our ice cream, then Jessie grabbed our dishes and took them into the kitchen. I watched as she grabbed a cookie from the jar and hopped up on the counter, looking out at her rocket. I watched her chew and contemplate, and then walked over. "Everything alright?"
She nodded. "Yeah. It is. Just thinking."
"About?" I leaned on the counter and started idly kneading the muscles in her drawn-up legs.
"Stuff. Like... Are you ok with her being here?"
"Yeah. I guess. I mean, having a kid in the house for the past three months has been weird. And a little inconveniencing... You don't walk around naked outside of the second level anymore."
Jessie giggled. "But it's not been BAD having her around, right?"
"Right..."
"And you're not having any problems with Sienna?"
I thought about it. "Not really. It was kinda weird, but now she's out of the house a lot, working, and I...we just don't have the same relationship we did back then. I don't even think it's possible." I laughed harshly. "There was more sexual tension with McKenna living here for a week than there is with See."
"Seriously?"
"It's like living in a hotel." I shrugged. "We usually all eat meals together, that's it. Other than that, she's at work or upstairs or taking care of Jane. She's just... Here. It's not like we're having big, deep conversations about how she loved me and how I fucked her."
"Ok." This seemed to satisfy the raven-haired beauty, and she took another bite of her cookie.
"Why do you ask?"
"I just wanted to make sure you're ok... And I wanted to ask them to stay longer. I know we didn't put a time limit on it but..." Her voice trailed off and she stared at the baked good in her hand like it could give her strength.