I awoke with a start.
Sitting bolt upright and sticking to the plastic strapping of the lawn chair, I squinted hard and tried to blink some clarity into the blazing world that I had awoken to.
I reeked of booze and looking at my arms, hands and chest I realized that I was covered in beer.
Hearing a familiar chuckle I strained to make out the silhouetted figure hovering over me.
"Jesus Hammer, what were you thinking?" I asked.
"Har har" he laughed in his best pirate impersonation. "The beer may be hot but at least it's free" he added with his patented toothy grin.
The warm liquid stung as it rolled from my brow into my eyes. I rubbed them roughly, only adding to the already increasing roar of my mounting headache.
The fog started to clear and one small comfort began to take shape before my clouded and bleeding eyes. I had somehow ended up on the deck of my pool in my own back yard. Hallelujah.
"How in the hell did we get home last night?" I asked as I struggled to my feet.
"You drove" Hammer grunted as he flopped back into his lounger like a great pink salmon thrown on the deck of fishing boat.
"I drove?!?" Incredulously I continued, "you can't be serious, I was a freakin' wreak".
"Well no one ever accused you of being a rocket surgeon" he observed after a long pull on his mug of beer.
"I'll say" I thought to myself as I crouched at the pools edge splashing water on my face.
The last thing I remembered from the night before was playing pool at Slacks, the local strip joint. Handsome Steve and The Big Russian were in fine form leading our little band of merry men down the righteous path of drunkenness and debauchery.
The true horror of the night's debacle was only just starting to unfold as I noticed for the first time that I was wearing a tiger print thong and nothing else.
"Good god" I groaned and looked over to see that my bloated buddy of 25 years had on the same gear.
"Don't even tell me" I croaked as I stumbled back and lay back down on my chair.
Although we were tucked back into the southernmost tip of the deck area, where the breeze was normally at its best, the day was already excruciatingly hot. Even the giant elms with their broad leaves and wide canopy of shade couldn't provide any shelter from the blistering heat.
The sun was slightly behind us and seemed further to the west than it should have been. "Dear lord, have we been here all day?" I asked of no one in particular. Judging by its position in the sky, it had to be at least 3 in the afternoon. My skin already a bright red, the searing sun had poached me like great greasy egg as I had slept.
Dejected, stinking and horribly disappointed in myself, I looked up to see a lonely pint of beer sitting on the table between Hammer and myself. "Hair of the dog" I thought as I raised the glass in a mock toast to last night's stupidity and look a long steady drink.
Grimacing hard, I double-clutched and nearly barked.
Coughing out a barfy "Sweet Jesus", I looked at Hammer in disgust. "What did you do, boil this shit first?"
"Har har" he guffed giving me that fucking crooked grin again.
I wondered how in gods name this day could possibly get any worse.
Well, as if god himself was tapping in, my question was immediately answered.
Across the pool, on the far side of the deck, the patio door of my house opened and out walked...THE WIVES.
"Oh this is just fucking great" I moaned.
"You have some splainin' to do boy" Hammer muttered referring to the lecture the girls had given us the night before. They had berated us at length as to the evils of drinking and driving; telling us they would splay us like gutted dear and impale our heads on pikes on the front lawn for all to see if we ever did it again.
I sank further into myself. What an ass I was.
The truth of the matter is that they were right. We had done it before and, apparently, had done it again. As I watched them spread out their towels on their loungers, I knew they were going to be beyond pissed.
I puffed a sigh of relief as I saw that they hadn't noticed us and were settling in for a long tall drink of afternoon sun. Now with it almost directly behind us, it would be almost impossible for them to see us. Even though it was only putting off the inevitable for a few hours, it was a brief reprieve that I would gladly take.
Hot or not, beer was beer and I needed it bad so I took another gulp. "Christ on a cross, this is awful" I thought, and took another pull.
"Ah hem" Hammer phlemed and I followed his gaze to where our wives were reclined.
A young man, very fit and shirtless, had come out the back door of our house and was making his way to the girls with a tray of drinks. Tanned and about 25, he was the color of a beer bottle and had the youthful look of a man in his prime. Good looking, he strode with confidence to the table between Mess and Cher.
"Who the fuck is that?" I asked.
Noticing his presence, the girls said something to each other and had a good giggle.
He smiled at their comment and placed the drinks on the table. As he bent over, my wife reached back and with a devilish grin, gave him a brisk smart slap on the ass.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
The man/boy just grinned, finished placing the drinks, stood up and waited at attention, tray under his arm.
The girls smiled knowingly at each other, reached for their frosted cocktail glasses and took long thirsty drinks. Obviously approving of the libations, the pool boy was dismissed with a friendly wave and ladies relaxed into their chairs.
With a wry grin on his face he retired to the comfort of my beautifully air-conditioned home.
I ached for the cool of the house.
I ached to sup on the cool drink my wife had.
I ached all over.
As I tried to rub away the pain that pounded away at the inside of my thick skull, I noticed a huge lump.
"Did you punch me again?" I asked Hammy in my best accusatory, pissed off tone.
"Didn't have to" he replied. I looked over and saw that he too had a big nasty bruise on the side of his face.
"That's it, no more of that Vodka Redbull bullshit...what the hell did you get me into?" I demanded.
"Ah hem" was all he said.
I looked over to see my wife sitting up and reaching back behind herself with both hands.
I watched as my wife of 6 years and the mother my two kids, undid the lower strap of her bikini top to let it hang between her gorgeous full breasts.
"God I love her" I thought.
My dad had asked me "How did a guy like you ever manage to get a girl like that?"
I had no answer for him. I just figured that I was a very lucky man.
She really was as beautiful as the summer day is long.
Sandy blond hair framed her perfect face and the brilliant smile that had somehow managed to warm my cold and black little heart.
It was her eyes though that put Mess into a league of her own. Piercing blue, they seemed to be a color unlike anything else in nature. Changing with her moods they could at once love you and then, just as quickly, turn and tear you to pieces. Ice ice baby.
She reached up to undo the top from around her neck, her breast swaying gently, seductively.
Big round areolas, browned from the summer sun, stood out, puffed.
"She's turned on" I thought to myself, amused.
Jaw dropping a little, I watched as she laid back, raised her butt and slid her bottoms off.