The incessant ringing of his Blackberry pulled Dan from a restless slumber. Eyes still closed, warding off the bright light that filtered through the shades, he clumsily felt around the bedside table until his fingers closed around the device.
"What?" he managed to grumble, his mouth parched from last night's Christmas celebration.
"Dude, are you up? I've been trying to call you for ten minutes." Steve.
"What . . . what are you talking about?" He had to swallow hard, his throat was so dry.
"I'll be there in ten minutes, maybe fifteen."
Dan's eyes eased open and he rolled to his side, the phone still at his ear.
"I . . . uh." His eyes danced about the room. "What are uh . . . what are you talking about?" He coughed to clear his throat.
"What!?! What the fuck is your problem? We're supposed to go Christmas shopping today."
"Yeah," Dan acknowledged sheepishly after a moment, his voice hoarse. "I may have forgotten."
"Oh, come on, man! I need your help. You said you'd help me find something for Karen."
"I know, I know. I'll be ready when you get here."
Dan hit the 'end' button and took a moment to look around the room. He stretched his body across the disheveled bed and sighed.
"What the fuck happened . . ." he began before his eyes fell upon the Santa cap that lay, crumbled in a ball, in front of his closet door. In the background, his ears pricked as the shower was turned off.
In a moment, the events of the night before flooded back into his memory. He collapsed to his back, stretching.
"God, how I love Christmas parties," he muttered to himself with a satisfied smile
* * *
Dan kicked a bit of slush from his shoes and pulled the lobby door open. A gust of warm, dry air rushed past him as he stepped into the building and began climbing the stairs. The muffled sounds of music and commingled conversations bounded off the walls of the stairwell, growing stronger as he ascended.
He reached the third floor and took the twenty or so steps to the door to Steve's apartment. He knocked once and, without waiting for an answer, turned the knob and pushed the door open. The music and the voices became clear and assaulted his tender-from-the-cold ears. Dan stepped into the kitchen to find nine or ten people surrounding the island.
"Dan!" one of them announced upon seeing him enter.
"What's goin' on, Jerry?" He grabbed his friend's hand and pulled him into a hug. "Been a long time, my friend."
Dan greeted the rest of the guests huddled in the kitchen for this, Steve's third annual Christmas party, then excused himself to get a drink. On the way to the dining room, where Steve had set up the bar, he waved to another group of partygoers in the living room.
"Hey, Mr. Sheridan!" He paused briefly to shake the hand of one of his parents' friends. "Lemme get a drink and I'll come back and catch up with you."
Dan continued to the dining room and stepped up to the bar beside Mr. and Mrs. Moore. "Fancy seein' you guys here," he said from the corner of his mouth.
Scott Moore turned toward the voice and a broad smile creased his distinguished features. He grabbed Dan's hand and pumped it twice. "Well, you don't say. How you been, kid?"
"Pretty good, pretty good," he responded, turning to Marianne Moore and extending his hand. "It's great to see you, Mrs. Moore."
"You, too, Dan," she said, leaning in for a kiss on the cheek.
"So, where're your parents?" the older man asked.
"New York for the weekend. Christmas shopping, I think," Dan responded, reaching for a tumbler.
Mr. Moore took the drink from his wife and poured some of the fluid down his throat. "Well, we're all out in the living room. Dick and Susie Sheridan are there, too. Pour yourself a drink and come out and join us. We'd love to hear how life's treating you."
"I'll do that," Dan promised, grabbing a pair of tongs and filling his glass with ice. As the Moores walked from the room, he watched the sway of Marianne Moore's behind as she trailed her husband.
Before Dan could tear his gaze from the tight, khaki-covered buns, a new image appeared: that of Donna Morgan.
Atop open-toed heels click-clacking against the hardwood floor, she strode purposefully into the dining room and toward the bar -- and Dan.
Her lustrous blonde hair cascaded across her shoulders and down her back, a perfect set-off against the bright red silk blouse that was wrapped around her torso. A black wool skirt, ending just above the knee, completed the ensemble.
"Pervert," she muttered beneath her breath.
Dan poured a measure of Ketel One into the tumbler before responding to her taunt. "What was that for?" he asked, an amused expression on his clean-shaven face.
"That was for you being a pervert," Mrs. Morgan answered, pouring herself a glass of egg nog. "I saw you staring Marianne's ass. The drool was practically dripping from your chin."
Dan chuckled as he added tonic to the tumbler. "I only drool for you, Mrs. Morgan."
"Hmph."
"Yeah. Hmph. I've heard that sound from you before."
Donna Morgan glared at her son's best friend over the rim of her glass. Dan smirked back at her in response. "You know what I'm talking about, Mrs. Morgan."
"I don't know why I'm even standing here talking to you," she intoned, refilling her glass. She took a sip and turned on her heel, stomping from the dining room.
He smiled to himself as he squeezed a lime over his drink and then rejoined the party.
* * *
Coming up on 10:30, Dan, now well-lubed, rattled the two or three ice cubes that remained in his empty glass and moved from the kitchen into the dining room. Before he reached a freshly cracked bottle of vodka, Mrs. Morgan glided into the room through the wide entrance leading in from the living room, barely acknowledging his presence.
As she poured another glass of egg nog for herself, Dan approached the table-cum-bar and scooped a few cubes from an ice bucket. Elvis' 'Blue Christmas' played from the stereo in the living room.
"And how is your evening going, Mrs. Morgan?" he asked, not looking at her, his eyes measuring the vodka as it flowed into his glass.
"Very well, Dan. And yours?" Her voice was curt.
"Couldn't be better." With a hiss, Dan opened a bottle of tonic, pouring it over the ice and vodka, the cubes cracking. "Looks like you're riding solo tonight. Where's Mr. Morgan?"
"Stuck in Boston."
"How terrible. And on a weekend, no less. How'd that happen?"
"Snow. He was supposed to get in last night but Logan was closed."
"What a shame. A beautiful woman like you should not be without an escort."
"Yes. Well."
"Yes. Well," he mocked.
Mrs. Morgan was nonplussed. One arm crossed beneath her enormous breasts, the elbow of the other resting on it, she brought the egg nog to her full, shiny lips and rolled her eyes. But she made no move to extricate herself from this conversation.
"I see you've been tucking that egg nog away tonight. Sure hope you're not driving."
"Of course not," she responded, taking another swig of the creamy drink.
"Room at the Ritz again, Mrs. Morgan?"
Over the rim of her glass, bright blue eyes bore into him, the ever-present hatred of the young man shooting from them like bullets.
"So," Dan began, turning slightly and looking through the door into the living room, then into the kitchen. The party was still going strong, most of the guests congregating in one of the two rooms. "Picked out your prey for tonight?"
"Go fuck yourself, Dan," Mrs. Morgan responded, downing the rest of her egg nog and refilling her glass.
He tut-tutted her. "Such foul language from such a classy woman. I'm shocked."
"I've got more class in my right pinky finger than you have in your whole body, young man," she hissed at him, leaning into him so that no one heard their conversation.
Dan's cock stirred within his pants as a saline-packed breast squished against his muscular bicep, but he just smiled. "Yeah, and you have more plastic in your left breast than you could find on a porn set."