Absolutely Unforgivable(19)
I turned back to face the screen where a buxom blonde had just begun straddling a well-endowed gentleman and tried to hide the red that was now filling my cheeks. Zander let out a loud laugh and made his way to sit down next to me. “Here,” he said as he handed me his beer. “You look like you probably need this more than me.”
He was right. I was utterly mortified, but still I think I handled it well. As we sat around the living room watching the adult movie play on the television, we all drank beer and chatted. I was still a little uncomfortable with the porno on the TV but it was nice know that I had earned the respect of the band. I liked being treated like one of the guys.
Overall it was a relaxing night. I liked getting to know them. I liked watching them together. They were all so playful with each other, roughhousing and telling jokes. I also noticed Billy was far more relaxed and carefree that he had been the night before in the bar.
I went to the kitchen to get Jeromy another beer. When I returned Travis was telling everyone a joke. “So this guy wakes up and was real horny, so he nudged his wife awake wanting to get it on. She wouldn’t though saying she had an appointment at the gynecologist tomorrow and she didn’t like to make love the night before. The dude rolls back over and started to go back to sleep but then a few minutes later he nudges his wife again and asked her if she had a dentist appointment tomorrow too.”
Everyone laughed. It was kind of funny, I guess. But Bran’s joke was much funnier.
“A couple drove down a country road, not saying a word to each other. An earlier discussion had led to an argument, and neither would concede their position. As they passed a barnyard of mules and pigs, the wife sarcastically asked, Relatives of yours? The man thought for just a moment and then replied, Yep, the in-laws.”
Jeromy turned to Bran, put his hand on his shoulder and said, “I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.” It took everyone just a moment to get it but when they did, the room burst out in laughter.
Sometime during the night Jeromy and I got invited to see the band play again at Rowdy’s. Jeromy glanced towards me and I shrugged, so he said we would go. Part of me wondered how this was ever going to work. These guys were in a band and the party lifestyle, day in and day out, was apparently completely normal to them. Starting Monday, Jeromy had a real job to go to and I quietly worried their partying would interfere.
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When we arrived at the bar the next night I was surprised at how packed it was considering it was a Thursday night. Back home we couldn’t even pull in a crowd like this on weekends. As I glanced over at Billy, I wondered if it had something to do with the band.
Before the first set an older gentleman dressed in cowboy boots and a pair of all too tight jeans, made his way over to our table. He put his hand on Billy’s shoulder. “What a night. That f*cking Penny broke her toe and she has to stay off of her foot for the next week. I don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s packed in here tonight and it’s too late to call anyone in.”
I looked down at my pretty white new dress and then glanced at my feet in my shiny new Christian Louboutin heels. I let out a sigh as I looked to Jeromy. He nodded his head. That was one of the great things about Jeromy. We knew each other so well that we often didn’t have to say a single word; we both just knew how to answer each other, instinctively as if one knew what the other was thinking.
But before I could say a word, Billy spoke up. “Don’t worry man. I’ve got the solution to your problem right here.” Billy put a hand on my shoulder and told the man who was now eyeing me warily; “Meet my roommate Stacy. She’s been a bartender for years.”
“Is that true?” the man asked with almost a sound of desperation in his voice.
“Yes, but …” I started to say when the man interrupted me and said, “Well damn, girl, what are you doing sitting here? We’ve got a line of customers a mile long at the bar waiting for you.” He grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me along beside him.
“No, wait. You don’t understand. I’m not from here.”
The man stopped and gave me a strange look.
“I just moved here from Oklahoma. My liquor license probably isn’t good here in Texas.”
The man paused for just a moment and then said, “That’s okay. I’ve got an idea.” He led me back behind the bar and then pulled out a piece of paper and a marker, and wrote in big letters, Beer Only. He taped it to the counter that hung above my head.