The Last One of the Night People
A Tale of the Early Morning
Author's Note:
Inspired by the song of the same name by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah, the early 70's, and some people I knew in the day... I'm putting it in Romance, even though it doesn't have the apparently mandatory HEA. I hope you enjoy it, regardless. Cheers!
*~*~*~*~*
It was 4am and I was walking down the empty street, headed home from the club. The squad car and I were the only things moving and they just gave me a nod as we passed each other, like they had a hundred times before. I'd left my guitar back at the club, but it didn't matter. They knew who I was, just by looking.
I'd hoped to be walking with company. The cute brunette down in front had been flirting with me all night. But I guess she had to leave when her girlfriends did, to drive back to the 'Burbs. These good-looking chicks who really knew how to take care of themselves would come in to the City to party, but always seemed to split back to their white picket safety before we closed up.
Didn't matter, though. Just another night alone, the last one out on the streets. With luck, I'd be home and asleep before dawn. I gave the can one last good kick as I turned to mount the half-flight to my apartment, and slowed to a stop.
She was sitting there, on the top step, waiting.
"Hi," she greeted me softly, with a slight smile.
"Hi, back," I sort of smiled. "Um... uh, what are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you," she told me, again very gently.
"I, uh, realize that," I told her. "I mean, how did you know where to wait?"
"Oh!" and this time she smiled broadly. "I asked the guy on keyboards, Ian. He told me where you lived, but told me it was only because he was conceding to a better man."
"Oh." It was my turn. "Sometimes Ian talks too much," I muttered, then looked at the girl on my steps. "Do you want to, like, come in or something?"
"I'd love to," she told me and stood up. There was something too wholesome about this girl. NaΓ―vetΓ©, purity, innocence... they just don't last long in the City.
"Where're you from?" I asked as I unlocked the door and let us into the foyer. Then I pointed at the stairway. "My flat's up," I added.
"Originally or recently?" she asked as we went up.
"Both," I told her, then thought to ask, "What's your name, by the way?"
"Dorothy," she told me, "but my friends call me Dotty, or Dot. I'm originally from Topeka, but I've been going to school out at the UW in Seattle. I'm here visiting my aunt."
"So Dorothy from Kansas, by way of the Emerald City," I smiled. "Your aunt's name wouldn't be Emily, or something like it, would it?" I asked as I opened the door at the top of the stairs and ushered us into my parlor.
"
Very cute
," she told me as she looked around. She was smiling, though, and not looking pissed, so maybe she hadn't heard it a million times before. "You've got a nice place. Kinda ruins your Scruffy Night Person image."
"Is that what you're looking for? A Scruffy Night Person?"
"Actually, I was looking for brilliant green eyes, to go with the ruby slippers," she teased. "But I found stormy grey ones instead." She had to be talking about me, because I was the only one with grey eyes in the group that hung around the clubs. At least that I knew of...
"Would you like some coffee, or a beer or something?" I offered as I hung my coat on the rack.
"Do you have any wine?" she asked as she took off her trench coat and I suddenly remembered why I'd been flirting with her at the club. She kept it toned down, but she was stunning. A light ivory sheath dress, demure but form fitting, and a knockout form for it to fit. A lot different from the usual jeans and T-shirts crowd.
"Um..." I stumbled as I put my eyes back in their sockets and reeled in my tongue. "I think I've got a bottle of something around here. I'll have to go look."
"That would be nice," she told me as she hung up her coat and moved to sit on the couch, while I headed for the kitchen to see what I could scrounge.
I came back triumphant with a bottle of cheap Chablis and two clean glasses.
"Sorry it's not cold," I told her as I poured out a glass for each of us. "I had to remember where I put it."
"I'm sure it will be fine," and there was that soft smile again. She raised her glass in a mock salute before taking a sip. I did the same. Somehow, she was leading this dance and I was being willingly swept along.
"So..." she drawled, scanning the room. "Where are the tools of your trade, Wizard?"
"With the Tin Man," I smiled. I liked this game. "You may run into the Cowardly Lion, if he isn't in hiding. The Scarecrow moved out a couple of months ago."
I did have a roommate who had moved out. And I did have Kiska, my Parlor Panther, who was alternately gregarious and shy. Since he wasn't currently out demanding pets, I figured he must be in hiding.
"Although I'm not too sure about the Wizard part," I told her.
"Well, your music is magic to me," she told me in that same soft tone. It wasn't timid. Just gentle. And it went straight to my head. And other body parts. It just added to her attractiveness. "May I see?" she asked. "If the Tin Man doesn't object."
"I don't think she'll object," I teased, my turn to smile. "She's still trying to cope with the gender change. C'mon..." I extended my hand and she took it to rise. The shiver of excitement that shot through me at her touch surprised the hell out of me.
The reality was, it was a 3-bedroom flat that I'd shared with another musician friend until he got an offer that meant relocating to L.A. We'd both used the third bedroom for storage, and a lot of strange stuff had migrated there, including a department store mannequin. Don't ask... I have no idea.
That's also where we'd kept our instruments and where we'd done most of our fiddling around and songwriting. When Alex had moved out, I'd just let my stuff sprawl. I had an old Baldwin upright in there, plus old acoustic and electric guitars, a flute, a bunch of other junk, notebooks scattered around and so forth. Not exactly emblematic of an organized mind.
Dot appeared delighted. Especially when she saw the mannequin and got what I'd meant about the sex change.
"You need counseling," she leaned in and told it in a whisper, but loud enough for me to hear. "See my Auntie Em..." I cracked up.
"No, really," Dot turned to smile at me. "My aunt's name is Mary, so that's an 'Auntie M' and if anyone can help this poor, unfortunate victim of a gender identity crisis, she can. Or drive the sad, conflicted mannequin to suicide... one or the other."
I couldn't stop laughing. "What is she?" I managed to get out. "A sex therapist?"
"No," Dot told me. "A butch dyke. An expert on Sapphic BDSM. I
really
needed to get away from her for awhile. And see? I found you!"
"Really?" I chuckled. "I'm not sure I'm an improvement."