Being Jim Ch 10 Birthday Surprise

*All characters mentioned in this story were of legal age of consent or older*

Surprise Birthday Party

As I stuck my key in the lock to open my door, I could hear the phone ringing. "What the hell?" I asked myself out loud as I pushed the door open and removed my key before shutting it behind me. I dropped my lunch bag on the dining table as I rushed past into my little kitchen to grab the phone off the hook.

"Hello?" I answered, still wondering who would be calling me this early in the morning.

I'd just got home from working all night at the plant. I was tired, grumpy and only thinking about a quick shower and then a bite to eat before I laid down to sleep the morning away. It was barely seven thirty in the morning. Hopefully it wasn't work calling with some problem or another.

"Jim! Good! I caught you before you went to bed." I heard a giggling voice on the other end of the phone respond after I had answered.

"Yeah... What..." I began to ask but was cut off by more giggles and an all too cheery voice, a familiar voice.

"Susan? Shouldn't you be in bed sleeping too?" I asked with a wry grin as I relaxed a bit, turning to lean back against the kitchen counter.

"Well... I guess, but I need to eat too. I know you just got off, and since I caught you this early, you've not eaten yet either."

"Right..." I admitted, a little suspicious that Susan was going to ask for... a booty call... It was not unheard of for her and I to fool around some mornings after we both got off shift from working nights.

"I was talking with a couple of folks on Night Friends before I left work. They were up late and we all thought it'd be great to get together for breakfast. You up for it?" Susan asked a little more calmly.

Ordinarily I wouldn't have thought twice about it. We shared a lot of friends online at Night Friends so any get together was usually fun. However, I'd been getting an odd vibe from Susan and a few others the last few times I'd been online at Night Friends myself. I had to wonder what was going on. That age old truth that keeps coming back to me time and time again... women talk, kept nagging at the back of my mind. I wonder what they have been talking about? And was this impromptu invitation really... impromptu, or part of a plan?

Those thoughts, and wondering who else was going to be there, flashed through my mind in the blink of an eye, and didn't pause the conversation one bit. My stomach growling, however, did sway me towards joining Susan and whoever else was going to join us for breakfast.

"Sure, why not? I don't smell too bad, I think. Where are we meeting? And, who, are we meeting?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Where, would be Frisch's... Who... well, you'll just have to wait and see... besides me, that is. You want to see me, don't you?" Susan informed me and then teased with that little pout in her voice that made me want to growl.

"You know I'm always happy to see you... tease. Okay, one more question, when?" I asked with a grin on my face.

"Right now. If you leave right now, you'll likely get there the same time I do." Susan told me, again with a giggle, yeah... something was up.

"Okay. See you in a few minutes." I told her and heard her hang up on her end before I stood up and reached over to hang my phone back on the cradle.

I stood up straight and stretched my arms toward the ceiling hearing my arms and my back pop and crack. I ran my fingers through my hair and rubbed my face, feeling the beginnings of a five-o'clock shadow. Looking at the clock on my microwave on the counter I realized that I didn't have time to shave, but I could at least wash my face and brush my teeth before I left my apartment.

Five minutes later I was going back through my door, locking it behind me before going down the steps to the building entrance and out that door. The skies were a little cloudy but it only made the hot air feel that much more humid. It was August, and even at eight o'clock in the morning the air was muggy already.

Pulling my Ford Escort into the parking lot at Frisch's, I did see Susan pulling into a parking space as well. I did almost beat her to the restaurant, even after taking time to wash my face and brush my teeth. I parked next to her and got out. I was greeted by her cherubic smiling face and a mischievous look in her eyes. Oh, and a hug. A nice big ol' squishy "titty hug". I so very much love those!

After I set Susan back down on her feet, after the hug, we both went inside. Susan asked the hostess for a large table for six. Hearing the number, I turned to look at Susan questioningly but she just grinned at me and shrugged.

"I'm not sure if everyone is going to show up or not, but if they do, we'll have room." Susan explained as we both followed the hostess to the table.

It was one of the tables they make by pushing two regular tables together, chairs got shuffled around. Soon, we were sitting and placing orders for something to drink before we ordered our food. I ordered a glass of orange juice, a glass of milk, and a glass of water. Working in the plant in the summer time, if I didn't drink plenty of water I would easily dehydrate. Heat cramps are not pleasant. Susan ordered juice and coffee.

The waitress had just brought our drinks when the first of the mystery friends showed up. Sarah! I hadn't even seen her come in or approach the table. The first I knew of her being there was the quick flash of recognition on Susan's face across the table from me... and mischievous smile... then soft arms encircling my shoulders and neck from behind and warm soft lips kissing my neck.

Oh, God! What a way to be greeted... especially by someone very near and dear to my heart. Sarah and I shared a little history. A complicated history, short lived but it burned hotter than some relationships ever achieve. I wasn't sure how much of that Susan was aware of, and I wasn't one to kiss and tell to begin with so I minded my manners and played it cool.

That's not to say I didn't welcome Sarah to join us for breakfast, it really was a treat to see her, anytime. I stood and turned to give her a proper hug, though I didn't pick her up like I had Susan a little earlier. Sarah smiled, knowingly, secretly, but she too minded her manners and kept it "friendly" after the hug. She had a seat to my left and joined us at looking at the menu, and talking.

I kept getting those oh so subtle questioning looks from Susan. Looks that turned to smirks, just shy of irritation because I wasn't being forthcoming with anything regarding Sarah and myself. For all Susan knew, we were just friends on Night Friends and not much else. I'd just as soon keep it that way too. Not that I was ashamed to be around Sarah, hardly! But Sarah was married, and happily... now, and I would not rock that boat. We'd already been down that path and I still had guilt issues over our... fling.

Sarah and Susan were chatting about something that another user on Night Friends had said online earlier, last night, I corrected myself. Yeah... girls talk. I excused myself to run to the restroom for a moment, both sets of eyes turned to me and both ladies smiled and told me to hurry back. There it was again... that feeling that something was up. I bit my tongue and headed off to do my business. My bladder was screaming... too much water I suspect.

When I returned to the table, I noticed we had been joined by two other people. I knew one of them by sight, having met her in person at a couple of other Night Friends get-togethers, Lauren. The other girl I hadn't met before. After I sat back down, introductions were made. The other girl turned out to be Lauren's younger sister Eve.

"Hi Eve." I said in way of greeting, with a friendly smile.

"Hi Jim, or should I say, Frodov?" Eve responded with a wink, that made me give her a puzzled expression.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Eve asked with a wry grin. "We've talked on Night Watcher before, at least in the trivia room anyway." She elaborated a little further, still leaving me to draw a blank.

Susan and Lauren both laughed at my puzzlement. Lauren, who had seated herself to my right, placed her left hand on my thigh under the table and gave it a light squeeze. I didn't exactly jump at the unexpected contact but I was still a little surprised. Surprised enough to turn and give her a look. To the others it might have been seen as me looking at Lauren for further explanation.

"Eve is 'Winny' on Night Friends..." Lauren explained and gave me a surreptitious wink.

"Ah... okay. Now I know who you are." I said, smiling at Eve, who grinned even bigger than she had been already.

Eve was Lauren's younger sister. While Lauren was in her late forties, Eve was in her mid-twenties and just coming out of a bad relationship. Something that I had picked up through conversation chatting on Night Friends. I really hadn't talked in depth with her, but not because I was unwilling, but rather because we seemed to be on different schedules coming and going online. Lauren, on the other hand... well... we had talked in depth about many things, mostly her adventures with other users on Night Friends.

Lauren was a teacher, currently teaching at college level in mathematics. She was very intelligent, but at the same time, very... well...uncertain. Uncertain about relationships. Lauren couldn't get into the whole bar scene and dating within her field of work was pretty much a bust. However, like so many others, myself included, Night Friends had opened up a whole new world for her.

Meeting new friends and exploring possibilities was exciting. Not that it didn't come with its own pitfalls and drawbacks, nothing is ever perfect. Lauren, like most women and girls online was pursued by quite a few guys when she signed onto Night Friends. She was flirted with, yes, by me too, and hit on by several guys who were regulars there. Only thing is, she didn't know their stories so she had to learn the hard way.

Not everyone online was single. In fact, more than half the guys on Night Friends were married or in a relationship. That didn't stop them from perving though. They would pursue any female who got on the site. At first, Lauren ate it up, like a someone starving and then being offered an endless buffet. She chatted and got nasty with several guys. But when she found out about the ones who were seeing other women in exclusive, supposedly, relationships, she dropped them. There was one guy, however, that was married and somehow convinced Lauren that his was an open marriage, and he was free to play with others.

This was new to Lauren and it intrigued her. I lost count of how many times I had spoken with her in private chat about the subject. Yes, I knew the guy and his wife. Not to be too blunt, but I thought Lauren could do much better. There's a world of difference between being open and being sexually indiscriminative. They got around, a LOT. Honestly, I was afraid that if Lauren 'played' with him much she was liable to contract something nasty.

I told her ultimately the choice was hers, but I did advise her to be safe when she fooled around. I think that one of the reasons she liked talking to me was that I didn't judge her, and I certainly didn't tell her business to anyone else. There are some things she told me about her rendezvous with this man that I really wished I hadn't been told. But it is what it is.

Lauren was not some spinster, far from it. She had been married for many years and had an adult son who often crashed at her house because of a multitude of reasons. Partying too much, drinking too much, being broke, or pissing off his girlfriend or roommates etc. etc. I met him several times. To me he seemed to be like most any other 20 something year-old part-time college student. He was smart, as well as smart-assed, but he really did love his mamma and I knew for a fact that she loved him.

Yes, Lauren often talked to me about her son too. Trying to understand him and how he thought, she would ask me to help her understand. I did what I could, but I told her only he knew what he was really thinking or feeling. Lauren would also talk about her younger sister Eve, from time to time. She expressed how jealous she was of her younger sister and the ease that she had finding guys. Meeting Eve in person, now, I understood better just how that might be a reality.

Eve was a younger version of Lauren, to a degree. They both had the same color hair, dirty blonde. They both had similar or at least familial facial features. They shared a similar laugh whenever they were amused. Another thing they shared was that look in their eyes... they were on the prowl, hunting, checking out all the guys, including me.

My history of flirting with both of them online at Night Friends could have been my undoing. They like the other girls here this morning knew however that I was not serious, much, when flirting. It was all in fun and I never was rude or offensive... so they always welcomed more from me.

Our waitress stopped by the table again and asked if we were all ready to order yet. Susan was about to say that we'd wait a bit more but then smiled and waved across the dining room to someone coming in the doors. I turned to look and had to smile as well. It was another of my closer friends on Night Friends where she went by the name Velma. The thick glasses and short red hair gave her a distinctive Velma look from the Scooby Doo animation. The slightly oversized sweater and knee length plaid skirt certainly didn't detract from that idea either.

Cass walked briskly over to our table to join us. She greeted everyone with a smile or rather a smirk, and an apology for running a little late. Cass looked at me sitting between Lauren and Sarah and tilted her head down slightly to look over the tops of her thick glasses and her dark red eyebrows rose questioningly even as she gave me her signature smirk then a wink. Okay... now I was certain that something was afoot with these women.

The fact that I had been to bed with all of them except for Lauren and her sister Eve was not mentioned, aloud anyway, but it was obviously common knowledge amongst the females at this gathering. I know it was not by my telling though. I didn't kiss and tell, and they all knew it... and as far as I understood, respected me for that. But there it was again... women talk.

"You off today, Cass?" I asked as she sat down at the end of the table to my right with Susan to her right and Sarah to her left.

"Well, I wasn't supposed to be, but thanks to the broken sprinkler head in the archive's basement yesterday, they told us to stay home till they can get all the water cleaned up. It's going to take weeks if not months to dry everything out, especially down in the dungeons." Cass lamented in her typical cynical voice.

Anyone who didn't know Cass, would think that she's a bitter woman. And they would be right to a certain degree. She had not had the best of luck in life either, divorced for a few years at this time, not a pretty divorce either. She also had an adult son to contend with, even though he lived with his father and his new wife. Cass also was hounded online by the horn dogs, just like the rest of the gals at the table this morning. Most of the same guys actually, including the one that Lauren was still fooling around with.

As far as I could tell, there was no animosity between Lauren and Cass. Quite the opposite, actually. It's almost like they were sorority sisters in a way, trading notes and such. Probably some things I shouldn't have been privy to, to be honest. Yeah, too much information really.

We all ordered our food and then just enjoyed everyone's company. It was a gossip fest, for sure. I was a little overwhelmed most of the time, but I went along with the banter and conversations. It wasn't long before I started to get the feeling that... well... the girls were feeling me out, seeking some information perhaps.

It was not a secret that my birthday was just around the corner. I've never been one to really celebrate much, I mean it's just another day on the calendar, right? But I forgot who I was having breakfast with.

"So, Jim? What's Barb up to next week? You have plans for your birthday?" Susan asked, I looked up from my food and cocked my head a little questioningly while I chewed the bite in my mouth and swallowed. Every other eye at the table was on me, I could feel them. They were listening.

"No plans. In fact, Barb has to go to Louisville that weekend to her niece's recital or something. She's a concert pianist, or learning to be one anyway. Barb said she and I might be able to get together sometime the week following." I said nonchalantly, playing down any disappointment I might have had or felt. Barb and I really were just very, very close friends... with benefits.

"Well, that sucks." Susan declared with a smirk, but her eyes were alight.

"Yeah, that sucks. You should come over and have dinner with Dave and I. I could make whatever you want for dinner." Sarah said with a warm smile but then gave a slight jump. I swear, I think someone kicked her under the table.

"Thanks, but I'll take a rain check, Sarah." I said and leaned over to give her a peck on her cheek that made her blush and look around the table like a startled deer.

"YOU? You're passing up a free home cooked meal?" Cass asked from the end of the table sounding like she was in total disbelief. She should know better, as well as all but Lauren and Eve, that I am a very good cook. I've cooked for all but the sisters at one time or another.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my birthday, yet. Might not do anything, really. I'll go see my folks, of course. I couldn't get out of that even if I were dead." I said with a laugh, earning me warm smiles from all but Eve who really didn't know what to make of it.

"No celebration at all?" Lauren asked, still a little disbelieving, her hand again on my thigh under the table out of sight from the others. At least I didn't jump.

Cass and Lauren started talking about a guy online who was also in a small local band. They wanted to go see this band perform, he had invited both of them... individually. They decided that they would go hear the band play, but they were going to go together. Someone was in for an awkward evening. Awkward if he left the stage and tried to talk to the two of them anyway.

Could be fun to watch I thought to myself with a grin. Funny how the show was the night of my birthday. Were they thinking about bringing me along for some sort of insurance or back up maybe? And what about Eve? Were these women trying to fix me up with Eve? I looked at Sarah in silent questioning and she rolled her eyes at me and shook her head in the negative.

Sarah had on several occasions tried to fix me up with women that she knew that she thought would be good for me. That was... well... before she and I had something between just the two of us. That's in the past now though.

"Eve? Would you like to come see the band play too?" Cass asked from her end of the table.

"I don't think so. I've actually got a date that night. I hope I'm going to be busy doing... something else." Even replied cryptically with a sly grin. I heard Lauren harrumph quietly beside me but didn't say anything.

Susan would be working, that much I already knew. Though, she did hint at maybe breakfast either the day of my birthday, if I was still in town, or the day after, when she got off work. When she looked across the table at me with that feral look in her eyes and her biting her bottom lip and waggling her eyebrows at me, I knew that she was open to playing at some point as well. Good to know. It made part of my male anatomy jump a little and feel just a little bit fuller than a few moments ago.

The conversation moved on, away from my upcoming birthday. I suspected that whoever was up to whatever they were planning had got the information they needed. But what was it? I guessed I'd find out in good time, just not today.