Chapter 3

“Joe?” Joe heard weakly in his smartphone. “Help?”

“Lindy? What’s wrong?”

“Henry,” she sniffled. “He...”

“Where are you?” Joe growled.

“Don’t know. Henry’s place I think.”

“Where are you there?”

“His bathroom.”

“Lock the door. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

“Already locked.”

“Good girl.”

Joe knew where Henry lived, in a nice condo in downtown Minneapolis. He dressed quickly and rushed out to his car and drove as quickly as would be safe, getting there in less than ten minutes. He buzzed Henry’s apartment several times until Henry answered. “I know Lindy’s there,” Joe lied. “She’s diabetic and needs her insulin.

“Shit,” Joe heard from the speaker before buzzing him in.

He banged on the door to Henry’s apartment a moment before Henry opened it, wearing a light robe and nothing else. Joe immediately shoved Henry’s face, sending him to the floor, stepping over him.

“Lindy?”

“Here Joe,” he heard.

A door opened and a naked Lindy embraced him. “I’m sorry Joe,” she sniffled.

“What the hell are you sorry for,” he replied with surprising anger. “Sorry. I’m pissed but not at you.”

“You should be.”

“Let’s get you dressed,” Joe sighed.

He stood in the bedroom door sort of guarding her while she put on her clothes. She had worn a dress and she moved to him for him to zip it.

By then Henry had gotten up and stood nearby.

“We were just having some fun,” Henry whined.

“Not another word, asshole,” Joe growled. Joe was a lover not a fighter, but he was strong and he was sure he could figure it out if Henry decided to attack. He didn’t think that would be a problem and it wasn’t. The two had to slide by the asshole to get to the exit door out of the apartment.

They kept silent in the elevator and outside until they settled in Joe’s car.

The glazed yet intense eyes told Joe Lindy had drank and snorted coke and probably smoked some weed.

“Can you talk about it?” Joe asked.

“He was charming when he set up my audition and filmed me,” Lindy started.

“I know how charming Henry can be,” Joe nodded. “But I always thought there was something slimy about him, and not just the cocaine effecting him.”

“I actually felt good about my audition and didn’t even mind looking at myself and hearing myself when he played it back for me,” she began to babble with surprising coherence, sobered and unnerved by what happened, Joe figured. “Everything was professional, his directing, the tech people, Miri, the make-up girl who actually made me look good, and he paid them cash, generously it seemed. Afterwards we went to a small office where he laid out some lines of cocaine and we snorted it through a hundred dollar bill.

“We went to a bar where he bought me some drinks and I ordered a hamburger basket even though I wasn’t all that hungry, but I’d been too nervous to eat earlier and knew I needed something in my stomach. He didn’t seem hungry either, grabbing a few French fries from the basket and that’s it.

“Realizing I was too drunk to drive home I accepted his offer to crash at his apartment which was only a couple blocks away. There we did a couple more lines and he started coming on to me. Even though I wasn’t all that attracted to him, I did feel a bit horny, and he did get a bit insistent when I didn’t jump into it, talking about me being a fun party girl. And maybe I felt a bit obliged as well to tell the truth.

“So we’re making out, he managed to guide me to his bed, and his hands worked to get me naked and he got naked and basically put his cock against my lips. He wasn’t even all that hard really, but I guess I managed to get him harder while he was feeling my body and telling me how great it was. Then he takes it out of my mouth, has me down under him and starts shoving it in. The guy is fucking thick and it hurts and I pull away and tell him I feel sick and managed to grab my purse and locked the bathroom door and called you,” she finished, beginning to sob.

“Shit,” Joe muttered quietly.

“Could you take me to your place?” she murmured. “Please?”

Nearly being raped and still wanting to be with him, Joe realized the trust she had for him. “Sure,” he told her.

Her half smile with her wet cheeks and puffy eyes and sadness nearly broke his heart when she thanked him.

“Could I take a shower?” she asked when they arrived.

“Of course,” Joe smiled.

“Go back to bed Joe,” she insisted after he unzipped her dress.

He didn’t know how long she showered having gone to sleep, but his name on her lips woke him. She stood naked beside the bed. He couldn’t help notice the glass on the bedside table, and when she pulled the sheet and blanket away and slipped in and kissed him, he could taste the whiskey.

“Lindy?” he asked when the kiss ended.

“Please Joe,” she murmured sounding reasonably sober. Her hands went to the bottom of his t shirt and he allowed her to pull it off. She moved lower, tugging on his boxers, and lifted up to let her remove them, immediately taking in his semi-soft penis. He nudged her to straddle his mouth, and found heat if not a lot of moisture at her pussy. While she got him hard he managed to make her wet, though not to the point of cumming.

Once satisfied with the stature of his cock, she found the strip of condoms in the drawer beside the bed and soon had him covered before straddling his cock and lowering onto it.

“So much better,” she murmured.

She performed a slow ride with lots of kissing involved. Eventually it quickened and she stopped, embracing Joe and murmuring into his ear, “Fuck me Joe,” while leaning to the side. He brought her underneath him, remaining deep inside, stroking long and slow. “Fuck me Joe,” she insisted, lifting faster against his strokes.

Grabbing her ass in both hands, his mouth moving to her breasts, sucking each nipple, his thrusts became swift and hard. “Yes!” she repeated, one hand on his ass, the other between their bodies rubbing her clit. She met every one of his thrusts with hers so that they banged together when groins met.

“Right there,” she began to moan. “Right ... fucking ... there,” she announced, stiffening and arching against him. Cumming. “Keep going,” she moaned. “Keep fucking going!”

He was close and her obviously intense pleasure brought him closer, but he managed to keep things going, more close in and less hard because of it but faster. She swiftly climbed the ladder of ecstasy after briefly relaxing, and when he came his thrusts continued until she reached a second peak near the end of his ability to retain any hardness.

When he finally let go of her and himself really, resting on his elbows so as not to crush her, his penis slipped out and he felt her juices wet his balls. She began sobbing again.

He managed to turn them over so that her tears washed his shoulder. His hands moved caressingly across her back. Not knowing what to say, and figuring she needed to cry, he comforted her as best he could just with those caresses.

“Why do things always fuck up?” she finally murmured.

“You didn’t fuck up,” Joe replied. “He did.”

She sighed. “But you wanted to audition with me.”

“It’s not as important to me.”

“I did mention you, but he insisted the part would just be for me. I could have insisted, you know. Maybe something in the future? Personally I think we look good together.”

They both laughed which felt like a shift into a better mood.

Lindy lifted her head, showing Joe her smile. “Maybe I could make him make us an audition piece together?”

“Honestly Lindy,” Joe responded carefully, “I don’t see the leverage. Yes you weren’t ready and it sound like he nearly raped you.”

“He was inside me, Joe. It hurt.”

“So he did rape you, but...”

“I was naked and drunk and coked out.”

“Yes. And I did shove him onto his back. I don’t think I hurt him but he could have at least bumped his head.”

“Because you saved me.”

“Yes, but...”

“Fuck. If I just let him fuck me.”

“You couldn’t.”

“No I couldn’t. I just wish I could get that fucking tape, Joe.”

“Give me a couple days,” Joe offered. “Maybe I can work it out with the asshole.”

“A couple days,” she sighed. “I think I need another drink. I’m still wired from the coke ... and everything. You want some, Joe?”

“Sure.”

He started to rise with her. “Let me get the bottle and a glass,” she insisted and he watched her naked glutes shift walking away.

They sat silently, naked, on the side of the bed. “Just one drink, Lindy,” Joe insisted.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Yep.”

She seemed to take that to heart, sipping instead of drinking it down as did Joe. Once finished she set her glass and Joe’s down on the bedside table and straddled his lap. “Up for one more?” she smirked.

“If you are.”

“Always,” she giggled, rocking against him, her pussy sliding against his hardening cock. Once it got hard enough she grabbed another condom and covered it and led it to her ready pussy. They continued rocking, creating a subtle fucking, kissing all the while.

When things began to get more intense, she coaxed him farther on the bed and rode him much faster than she had earlier until she reached her climax. After, lifting off, seeing him still fully hard, she positioned herself for doggy style fucking, her wondrous ass high, and he pushed back in and fucked her hard and fast, her ass moving back against each rapid thrust, his hands holding her at her hips while hers worked both her tits and clit until both approached critical mass.

“Almost there,” he warned her.

“Just a little longer,” she pleaded.

Somehow he managed to cum moments after hers arrived. They collapsed once the orgasms faded and shifted into spooning on their sides. Joe ended up sleeping with the condom still attached.

In the morning they seemed to not have moved at all, Joe still behind Lindy. Soon after he awoke, she must have realized it because she said his name and turned around, giggling at the condom still hugging the top of his morning wood.

“Let me get rid of that and piss, then join me in the shower?” he practically pleaded.

“Sure,” she agreed.

And for the first time since their relationship began, she didn’t run off once sober.

Sharing the shower had been a sensual delight, and sharing breakfast somehow just as intimate.

“What are you going to work on since the game’s done?” she asked.

“I thought I’d get back to my graphic novel.”

“Can I see it!” she responded excitedly.

“Sure,” Joe chuckled.

He led her to his office, giving her the completed panels and began working on what would be the final ones.

“It’s really great Joe,” Lindy interrupted him.

“Glad you like it,” Joe grinned.

“I think it would make a really cool movie.”

“Kind of cliché, a movie from a graphic novel,” Joe answered.

“I know, but I could really see it.”

“Usually it’s a proved commodity,” Joe argued.

“Have you been published?”

“Just self-published.”

“What does that mean?”

“I have that scanner and use some home publishing software to create pages, then print the pages on some two sided photo paper, my printer can print both sides, then crease them and staple them together. I bring them to comic book stores and a couple independent book stores where they’re willing to pay half price for the books and put them on shelves with other small run publications. I also have a website where I sell them.”

“Do they sell out?”

“Yes, but they’re really small runs. And for online sales, I can just run off the book for the customer.”

“How many have you done?”

“Four so far. This will be my fifth.”

“Can I see them?”

“Sure.” Joe started to get up.

“Wait. There’s something else I want to do first.”

“What?”

“There’s some really great dialogue in there.”

“I think it’s some of my best writing,” Joe agreed.

“I’d like us to read it, you know, act it out?”

“Maybe record it?” Joe added.

“Sure.”

“What pages?”

“Just a second.”

Lindy chose five and Joe scanned them. “Come on.”

In the basement, Joe printed out the pages and set up the mics and created a file in the computer. They read through the dialogue three times before they thought it was good enough.

“What would it take to animate them?” Lindy asked.

“A lot of time and work,” Joe chuckled. “But...”

He scanned each page and used a program which had the image dissolve into the next, then timed it so the dissolves happened when the dialogue moved to the next page. It didn’t take long for him to finish.

“That actually works,” he commented.

“Yeah,” Lindy agreed. “What about her thoughts?”

There were thought balloons, always hers since she was the protagonist.

“Let me try something,” Joe responded, setting up a tight echo, a reverberation for her voice. “Maybe speak quietly, not quite a whisper.”

“Okay.”

“Just one at a time and then I’ll try editing them in.”

Within a couple takes, she had it. He placed them in the recording.

“That works,” she laughed. “Do you think... ?”

“The whole thing? Why not?”

“But you’re not done.”

“I’m actually working on the final panel.”

“Maybe finish that while I read the other books?” she offered.

“Or you could scan the pages,” Joe countered.

“Sure.”

She finished scanning before he finished the panel, so she read through the older books. It was somewhat distracting, like any artist, Joe wanted to know what she thought, but he managed to get through it to complete the last page.

“I liked the other books, but I think this one’s your best,” she critiqued.

“Because of the heroine?” Joe smirked.

“That too,” she laughed. She read the final moments. “Perfect,” she decided.

“Good to know,” Joe grinned.

They brought the copies down to the basement. The protagonist narrated throughout, and Joe had Lindy read those words in a strong, steady voice without much emotional inflection.

There were other characters which, having experience with the game, they knew to handle with vocal changes. Joe even created overlaps at one point.

Working well into the evening, Joe ordered an extra-large pizza to nibble on when hungry and brewed a ginger tea to help their well-used vocal chords, but near the end that changed to beer at Lindy’s request.

Once done they celebrated with whiskey, her three to Joe’s one, with her usual horniness following which Joe happily extinguished with nearly forty-five minutes of sex, a lot of it rather strenuous with some soft loving in between.

The next morning a sober Lindy left fairly quickly, though with a tender, post orange juice kiss, and the explanation that she should check in with her mother and start looking for a job.

She called that afternoon amidst a meeting of the partners, the three working on ideas for the next game.

“Hey Lindy,” Joe said.

“We should all go out together,” Dave exclaimed, “since we seem to all have mutual friends.”

“Did you hear that?” Joe asked.

“Sounds like a good idea,” said Lindy, and Joe nodded to Dave. “But guess who called?”

“Who?”

“Henry.”

“No shit?”

“No shit. He offered me the ad.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I said I’d call him back. He told me not to wait too long.”

“Asshole.”

“I think he expected me to say yes and jump up and down.”

“Do you mind if I call him back?” Joe asked.

“You mean like my agent?” she chuckled.

“Why not? Would you do it if I’m there?”

“If you were there, for sure.”

“Okay. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey Henry,” Joe said as soon as Henry picked up. “I’m calling for Lindy. Do you recall what happened the other night?”

“You mean when you showed up at my condo and shoved me onto the floor?”

“Do you know why I did that?”

“Jealousy?”

“Not exactly, no. You’re really interested in Lindy for the ad?”

“Why else would I call her?”

“So you won’t mind me being with her?”

“At the shoot?”

“Yep.”

“What the hell, Joe. You don’t trust me?”

“Nope.”

After a long pause, Henry muttered, “Whatever.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes it’s a yes.”

“Text me the information. I’ll let her know.”

“Whatever. By the way, you remember the old days? What we talked about?”

“Which old days?”

“When you’d be writing a script that wasn’t that avant-garde nonsense and we’d storm Hollywood?”

“I recall you trying to impress Kathy,” Joe chuckled, Kathy being the Wynona lookalike.

“So you weren’t serious, because I was.”

“Okay yes, I thought it was a wonderful fantasy.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Any scripts?”

“I might. Not exactly a screenplay, but it might just get us in the door.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I’d have to show you.”

“Bring it to the shoot.”

“Since you asked nicely.”

“Fuck you,” and Henry ended the call.

“What’s that about?” Dave asked.

“Long story,” Joe said, ready to call Lindy.

“You calling your girl?” Dave interrupted.

“Yeah.”

“I thought we could go out with the girls. Head over to Uptown for some dinner, maybe pick up a Weekly Breeder and see if there’s any shows we want to see.”

“Sure.”

“Cool. Stuart’s texting as we speak,” and Joe saw Stuart thumbing his smart phone. “I’ll ask Beth.”

“Mary agrees to meet,” Stuart reported.

After a brief call, Dave had the same result.

“Give me a minute,” Joe said, walking away from the living room into the kitchen, his phone blipping with Henry’s text. Touching the phone icon beside Lindy’s name had her answering right away.

“Henry’s not happy about me accompanying you, but you’re still on for the ad.”

“Thanks,” said Lindy.

“I’ll forward his text with the time and location. He brought something else up which I’m not sure is good or bad.”

“What’s that?”

“I’d rather talk to you about it in person. Dave decided to invite your friends which I guess are now his and Stuart’s girlfriends over here and then we’ll head to Uptown for dinner.”

“Maybe we could all meet up at the restaurant,” Lindy suggested. “Parking around your place can suck.”

“Good idea. Just a second.” Joe moved back into the living room. “Lindy suggested everyone meet at the restaurant,” he reported. “How about Chino Latino?”

Both Dave and Stuart agreed and got back on their phones. “You okay with that?” Joe asked Lindy.

“I’ve always wanted to try it,” she replied.

“It’s pretty good,” Joe reported having had a date there a few years before.

“Mary won’t be able to meet us for at least an hour,” Stuart told them.

“We could meet at Cheapo Records and walk over,” Dave suggested. Dave loved shopping for all the arcane formats which CDs had become more recently but he also enjoyed vinyl. Joe preferred looking through the used DVDs and Stuart liked the video games.

They all agreed.

It proved to be fun, even educational for the ladies whose preference for shopping rarely included looking through old music or whatever, and even with Mary arriving later they remained at the store for a while, all the purchases ended up stuffing the backpack that Dave had wisely brought along. The triple date ended up continuing its success at Chino Latino, which, as the name suggests, mixes south of the border food with Chinese. Two sets of friends gelled into one.

They headed to Dave’s apartment only about three blocks away where they divvied up their purchases. Dave offered them beer and a joint which Mary and Stuart declined and decided to head to Mary’s apartment in a western suburb in two separate cars, both parked in the small Uptown Mall lot, Stuart still living at his parent’s home actually in the same suburb in which he and Joe grew up.

After the joint and the beer and some easy conversation with Dave’s purchases played in the background, Lindy and Joe headed to her car in the same parking lot as the others had been. She drove the few blocks to Joe’s abode and found a parking spot a block away. They had their usual nightcap of whiskey in his kitchen, but only a shot for her which she poured for both of them before sitting on his lap where they kissed between sips and he caressed her still clothed breasts and eventually undid her pants and slipped his hand inside to find her wet and hot pussy.

When she stood and removed her pants and panties he did the same with his pants and underpants and she straddled him in his chair, which he had pulled back to accommodate her, and led his glans inside her welcoming slit. She rode him while he removed the rest of her clothing. Her leaning back enabled him to suckle her nipples, his hands taking hold of her ass to pull her harder against him. The impromptu fuck excited her, excited both of them, but didn’t quite send her over, so she lifted herself off his cock and moved her ass onto the table with him quickly sliding the drink glasses out of the way. With his knees bent slightly, his return inside her pussy went relatively easy. She leaned back on the table, elbows and forearms supporting her somewhat so that she could watch his repeated and ever quickening and forceful thrusts inside her. That became interrupted when his mouth once more sought out her nipples, one hand assisting, the other between them, fingers working her clit. She relaxed fully on her back, her legs embracing him, her hands pulling his ass to her, encouraging his ever harder strokes until her grip almost became painful when her orgasm struck and as she held him there he found himself enveloped in his own climax, especially powerful in its emergence sans friction except for the interior throbs and buzzing surrounding his cock.

When she relaxed her legs from around him, he sensed discomfort and somehow negotiated them remaining connected while steering his ass back to the seat, which became wetted by their combined juices, even more so when his penis finally slid out, much smaller and softer than it had just been.

She got off him quickly if a little unsteadily. “Need the toilet,” she murmured and rushed to it. He used the time to clean up the loving mess they made, expecting her to return for her usual second drink. Instead she poked her head into the kitchen. “Come join me in bed?” she smiled.

“Let me piss first,” Joe answered and did just that, joining her in his bed after washing his hands and removing the rest of his clothing.

Immediately she went for his soft penis, straddling his head for a sixty-nine. She must have washed out her pussy somewhat because he could barely taste the offering he had recently bestowed to it. She remained sucking him once she got him hard, or fisting him mostly while he coaxed an orgasm from her with his mouth and fingers. After his success she rolled off him, turning onto her back and moving her head to the head of the bed, her legs wide in invitation.

Crawling between them he let her hand guide his cock inside her slickened passage where they began a slow fucking, a making love, full of gentle thrusts and gentle kisses. When she wanted more, edging towards another climax, she shifted away, releasing his cock, and moved onto her front with ass high. He reclaimed that place inside her, hands holding her hips, hers tugging nipples and rubbing her clit, and knowing her desire from her changed position, let himself let go with hard and fast thrusts rushing to the climax his cock and balls seemed to demand of him. Again she found hers moments before his, the near simultaneity as thrilling as anything he experienced during that passionate night.

The next morning, waking to her smiling face, she finally asked him, “What did you and Henry talk about?”

Joe sighed. “I always knew he was a bit of a slimeball. I should have warned you.”

“Or I could have been less of a drunken slut. I’ve been warned before.”

“Mary?”

“I could swear I heard her voice waking me up and getting me into the bathroom.”

“I actually think it was personal with you stuck in the middle of a grudge.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a long grudge from back in college. He thought I took a girl from him when it was she that wanted nothing to do with him, at least sexually.”

“You mean you slept with his girlfriend?”

“Hardly. A drunken one night stand between her and him was all it was. But I guess he didn’t think of it that way.”

“You knew this because... ?”

“It came out later. He had to restrain himself because we were in his film which I actually wrote. Once done and the girl had actually moved on from me, both she and I got his vitriol with both barrels, her giving back what she got and me just shrugging because like I said it had been her choice. I don’t know what was worse to him, having her tearing him down or me not reacting at all, but I guess, unfortunately, he got his revenge at your peril.”

“I forgive you even if it wasn’t your fault,” she half smiled. “So what did you guys talk about?”

“Like I mentioned I used to write the screenplays for his little movies at MCAD, and we used to talk about collaborating on something a little more Hollywood, something commercial I guess. After the fallout with Kathy, the actress, we never collaborated again though we remained friends somewhat. But when I negotiated being with you for the shoot he mentioned our Hollywood fantasy, asking if I ever got around to writing a screenplay.”

“And have you?”

“No, but I thought about that project we did with my new graphic novel.”

“I told you it would make a cool movie!” she exclaimed.

“You did,” Joe chuckled.

“But why a graphic novel? None of your cartoon books are that long.”

He chuckled again. “Graphic short stories?” he offered.

“You’re right,” she grinned. “Graphic novels sounds more impressive. You did notice we had unprotected sex last night.”

“Shit,” Joe muttered. “It was just so spontaneous.”

“And the deed was done and so later...”

“Yeah.”

“I probably should have said something, but like you said it was wonderfully spontaneous, and feeling your hot cum spurting inside me felt really fucking amazing, but my periods are like clockwork and mine’s just started.”

“Oh. I think my ex-girlfriend left some pads.”

“Us girls learn to come prepared,” she giggled, hopping off the bed and rushing out the bedroom. She had left her purse in the kitchen.

Henry ended up using both Joe and Lindy for the ad which promoted a large accident chaser law firm. The two waited for him to finish, waving off his offer of lines of coke in his small office.

“So,” Henry sniffed. “What do you have for me?”

Joe handed him a memory stick which he attached to his laptop. “I’ve read your little comic books,” he smirked.

“Trust us,” Lindy responded, an ironic phrase Joe thought since he definitely didn’t trust Henry, especially around women.

“You’ll need headphones,” Joe suggested.

“Of course,” said Henry, plucking his earbuds from his smartphone.

An occasional “hunh,” some chuckles since both the heroine and some of the other characters tended towards the smart ass, and a broadening smile informed the two that Henry liked what he saw.

However Joe wasn’t surprised when Henry came out of it skeptical.

“Is there a screenplay?” he asked.

“I thought a pitch mostly required a treatment since I’m sure the producer doesn’t want to read an entire script,” Joe responded. “And this could be an entertaining version of a treatment and even has sort of short sketches already incorporated.”

“But they’d want us to have a screenplay. And it’s short.”

“How do you suggest expanding it?” Joe wisely left it in Henry’s court.

“She doesn’t have an origin story. And we could expand her more domestic side with the neighbor she thinks is hot. And we could extend the denouement.”

“That’d probably do it. But that’s putting the cart before the horse, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why bother if no one’s interested?”

“But why show something that’s too short?”

“To wet their appetites? Unless you’re thinking about pitching to the big studios.”

“Of course. I want to work in the big time.”

“And that’s who you submit to?”

“I send ads out and created a little domestic drama to maybe get soap work.”

“And how’s that going?”

“Nothing yet.”

Joe shook his head. “You’re going in backwards, Henry. First you need to show them your passion, your MCAD work and even your award winning high school stuff. And of course the bigshots won’t want to see that, but there’s a bunch of production companies out there you can see by just watching the beginning of every big movie. I bet a lot of them are created by the creative forces in Hollywood, actors and directors who want something creative to back, who want to see the passion they feel which made them want to be independent producers in the first place.