Chapter 40

"Okay, I'm ready -- start the next episode."

Larry chuckled under his breath as he unsteadily pushed himself up off the threadbare couch, shaking his head.

"There is no next episode. That was the last one."

"What?!" Chuck, sprawled across the other half of the couch and surrounded by empty beercans, scowled in disbelief.

The room was a typical one for a college apartment inhabited by lazy males: bare of any elements of style, filled with functional, mis-matched furniture and the detritus of a lifestyle of haphazard self-gratification. Larry crouched in front of "entertainment central," the roommates' name for a tangled mish-mash of various game consoles, stereo equipment and cabling, crammed into an under-sized particle-board bookshelf, which was the focal point of their communal living space in their cluttered college apartment. He hit eject on the DVD player, causing the drawer to slide out.

"Sorry dude, but that's it," he said with a chuckle as he picked up the disk by it's edges. "The show was cancelled after one season, so you've seen all there is."

"You're kidding me, right? I just spent the last two days getting hooked on this show and NOW you tell me it was cancelled early?"

"It's not like you'd ever heard of it before now," Larry said with a shrug. "Ever wonder why that was?" He continued to talk as he pulled a case from the floor-to-ceiling shelving next to the TV and replaced the disk. "It's a good enough show and all, but there wasn't enough interest in it to keep it going. You'd probably never have even heard of it if they didn't release it on DVD."

Larry drained the can of beer in his hand, released a long, low belch and crushed the can, dropping it on the floor where it came to rest among it's contemporaries.

"Not enough interest? I'M interested in seeing how the story ends!" He shook his head, scowling. "Fuck, that sucks," he said quietly. "Just as I was getting into it, now I find that they didn't even bother to finish it. I mean, how am I supposed to find out what happens next?"

Larry just shrugged again, running his hand along the rows of DVD cases in the "house collection."

"Wanna watch some Asian horror?"

Frank sighed and got up from his seat on the floor where he'd been leaning against the sofa. He'd been drinking beer and watching TV with his roommates all weekend, trying to think of anything except Cindy and how much he wanted to be with her. Now, late Sunday afternoon, he felt even more miserable than he had before, and was fairly drunk on top of that.

"Hey, if you're going to the kitchen..." Chuck called after him.

"Yeah, yeah," Frank mumbled on his way out without turning around. "I'll bring back some beers."

Chuck and Larry shot each other a look.

"He's got it bad," Chuck said.

"Yep," Larry said. "I can understand why, that Cindy chick is hot."

"Yeah, great tits, great ass..."

Larry ran his finger along the spines of their DVD's, looking for something to watch. Chuck sat back on the sofa, looking up at the ceiling as he bounced an idea around in his head. Suddenly he sat forward, his mind made up, and pushed himself off the couch, staggering a bit before he found his balance. Then he carefully made his way towards the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway to find Frank sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. He considered the scene for a minute before saying anything.

"So, I was wondering," he said slowly, "since you're not seeing Cindy anymore, you mind if I ask her out?"

Frank lifted his head to glare at Larry, but his expression quickly turned to a smirk.

"Ha, ha, very funny."

"Oh come on, Frank," Larry said, grabbing the chair across the table from his roommate, "I know she's a total dream-babe, but you're not gonna be like this much longer, are you?"

"Oh, I don't know, Lar," Frank said with a sigh. "I just feel all screwed up right now. It'll pass," he said, not very convincingly. He just couldn't stop thinking about Cindy.

P.A.U. Flight 622 from Jamaica wasn't totally full, but there were still plenty of passengers on board keeping Tracy, the lead stewardess, on her toes.

"Hello everyone, this is your captain speaking," came the muddled voice over the overhead speakers. "We're about 10 minutes outside of Capital City and expect a delay of just a few minutes while the tower makes room for us. We'll probably circle the airport to give other flights a chance to safely land, and then we'll land ourselves. Estimated time of arrival is 2:00, just a little shy of our target time. Thanks."

Andrea watched as her husband drained the last of his cocktail, then held up the little plastic cup and jiggled the remaining ice in an attempt to get the attention of a stewardess. She rolled her eyes and turned to look out the window at the stream of clouds passing by. All in all this had been a rotten trip, and she was ready for it to end.

Janice tucked a stray wisp of hair back behind her ear as she noticed Tony's gesture. She managed a weak smile and nodded her head before turning to walk back up the aisle to the small alcove where the supplies were kept.

"God, that guy in 32b is a pain in my ass," she muttered under her breath to her co-worker, Tracy, a slender young woman who was currently tucking loose odds and ends away in preparation for landing. Both women wore the uniform of PiperAirUnited, a small airline that ran flights out of Capital City to various vacation spots. Tracy was working the first class section while Janice and another woman handled the rest.

"You're almost done, sweetie," Tracy assured her. "Just stick it out and we'll be partying poolside before you know it. God, that first margarita is gonna to taste soooo good."

"I'm gonna need something stronger than that after this flight. I've had assholes hit on me before, but this guy is shameless; he's with his wife, for shit's sake."

Tracy leaned slightly out of the alcove to look down the aisle, then went back to replacing odds and ends.

"The guy in the blue Hawaiian shirt, right? Yeah, he said something to me too when they first got on. He's not that bad-looking, but jeeze, what a dork."

Janice cracked open a little airplane bottle of vodka and dumped it into a cup with a couple ice cubes, then poured in some mixer. She was used to having guys' eyes all over her when she worked, in fact it was a part of the job she sort of enjoyed under the right circumstances. But this guy was just a creep. He'd obviously had a couple drinks before getting on the plane, which, in itself wasn't unusual -- lots of passengers felt the need to have a drink before flying -- but his wife was clearly not impressed with his behavior. She'd tried to apologize for her husband's behavior to Janice earlier, but Janice and just smiled and told her not to worry about it.

Janice returned down the isle, took Tony's money and empty glass and handed him his drink, managing to smile courteously. Before he could say anything she cut him off by asking Andrea if she wanted anything.

"Another orange juice? Or maybe some headphones?"

Andrea smiled at her.

"Thanks, no. I think we're all set here."

Janice nodded, appraising Andrea. She was quite a stunning woman, actually, with a thick main of gorgeous hair and vaguely Mediterranean features. She could do a lot better than the guy she was with, Janice decided. Who knew how people like this ended up together? She had heard the woman mention their teen-age daughters, so she guessed she was somewhere in her late 30's to early 40's, but she could pass for much younger than that. And Janice, who spent a lot of time keeping her body in shape, had noticed that Andrea's was in fine condition when they'd first boarded. All in all, she far outclassed the rough-looking man seated beside her.

"I'll let you know if there's anything you can do for me, darling," Tony said, giving her a lewd wink. Andrea sighed and looked away.

On her way back to the stewardess station Janice passed through first class. She had to slide past Tracy, who was leaning against one of the large chairs and chatting with a pair of young women who seemed to be good friends.

"Yeah, this was my first time in Jamaica," the brunette was telling her. "It was a blast, though. Amber has been there before, so she showed me around when we weren't working."

"Oh?" Tracy asked the young woman. "What kind of work do you do?"

"We were there for a photo-shoot," the other girl answered. "Which meant that we didn't really have that much free time. We've already decided we need to go back sometime when we're not working so we can really enjoy it."

An older woman across the aisle was traveling with them, and she took this opportunity to inject herself into the conversation.

"Remember these faces, honey," she said with obvious pride in her companions. "They're gonna be the hottest new faces this season, mark my words."

Both girls giggled and rolled their eyes at this, and laughed with them. Tracy just smiled, nodding her head. She could believe it, actually; both girls were fairly striking, and though they were both causally dressed in sweatshirts and jeans they had a certain air of glamour about them that was hard to miss.

"Oh Nancy, you say that every year" Josie said, shaking her head and giving her friend a look.

"And every year I try to get you to take modeling more seriously. I mean it, Josie. You too, Amber. You both are going to be huge, but you have to let me line up more work for you."

Tracy and Janice stepped away to finish prepping for landing, leaving Josie and her agent to again have the same conversation they'd been having all weekend.

"I know, I know," Josie said, fiddling with diet soda. "But I'm still in school..."

"Sweetie, school will wait, but you need to strike while the iron's hot when it comes to this business. You've got a million options now, but if you keep putting it off, eventually you'll lose your place in line. Amber knows this, she's signing on for the full deal. You need to too."

Josie looked to her friend, who simply gave her a grin and a shrug. Amber had gotten to know Josie pretty well this weekend, the two of them hitting it off incredibly well for two young women who'd just met. She knew that Josie had huge potential as a model, but she also knew that she was head over heels in love with her boyfriend and didn't want to spend any more time away from him than she had to.

"Amber, please, talk some sense into this girl," Nancy said, returning to flip through the fashion magazine in front of her. "I've said all I'll say for now, Josie. You know where I stand."

Josie sat back in her chair and turned to look out the window. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess right now, and she wished Jake were here to talk to. She'd had a great weekend, working with Vanessa and Amber down in Jamaica, and she knew she wanted to do more modeling, maybe even make that her career, at least for a while. But modeling meant traveling; there was no way around that. She might even have to move to a big city, as Nancy was always trying to get her to do. Amber lived in New York and she'd made it sound like an incredible place to be. Jake had lived abroad for a while, but Josie had never spent much time outside of the state. She really wanted to see Paris someday.

But would it be any fun if Jake didn't come with her? He'd made it clear to her that he wanted to finish his degree even though he didn't really need it; money would never be an issue for him, but he felt like it was something he should do nonetheless. Would he want to put college on hold to travel with her? Josie let out a small sigh and leaned against the window. Maybe. He would if Josie really asked him to, she was sure. But she knew he wouldn't really want to, at least not yet.

What if he came to resent her for asking him to give up college for her? Josie hated to even imagine it. She'd become so dependent on Jake, so entirely focused on him, it was hard to remember what her life had been like before he came along. Even the time he was with Mandy seemed like a distant memory, although it was just last year. Josie remembered that first time he held her, late at night in the kitchen while Mandy slept just down the hall in her room, and her body trembled at the thought of him inside of her, his strong hands on her body, caressing her, making her writhe in pleasure. For a brief moment she considered going to the airplane restroom to pleasure herself but pushed the idea aside; she'd have the real thing soon.

But the problem remained: if she wanted to pursue modeling she had some tough choices to make.

Amber glanced at Josie and could guess what she was mulling over. In their brief weekend together the two of them had already discussed Josie's boyfriend. He must be something special, she figured, if someone as cool as Josie could be so totally infatuated with him. At one point last night, as they'd stayed up late chatting together in their room, Amber had finally asked if he had a brother, since he sounded like such a perfect guy. It was a joke, but she was genuinely looking forward to meeting him. Nobody could be as good as Josie made him out to be.

Andrea closed her eyes and imagined her two young daughters. She guessed they were probably laying out by the pool like they always were lately. It was so nice to finally see Amy and Ally getting along like they used to. She knew it was common for sisters to go through periods where they didn't relate to one another -- she and her own sister, Pamela, weren't close until after Andrea had gotten married -- but she felt better knowing they were friends as well as family.

She wondered what they'd been up to this weekend. Though they'd tried to be discreet, it wasn't hard to tell that they'd planned something for this weekend, and Andrea hoped it wasn't anything too wild. She had to smile, remembering her own high school days. She'd been quite a little minx in her day, ready for anything and fearless. Tony had been too, back then, and before he let himself go he could mask his lecherous intentions with a boyish charm that had easily won her over. Now, several years and two daughters later, Andrea felt like she'd made a huge mistake, settling for something she didn't really want.

Sure, they had a nice house, and she loved her girls more than anything in the world. She wouldn't give any of it up now. But more and more she found herself wondering what might have been different if she hadn't ended up with Tony.

Their weekend together was supposed to have revitalized their marriage, but instead it had clarified what was wrong with it. Andrea just didn't love her husband. Oh, she could tell he was making an effort, and she did appreciate what he was trying to do, but at the end of the day he'd still be the same old Tony, flirting with stewardesses and waitresses, ogling girls at the beach and generally looking for anything to stick his dick in. She wasn't sure if he'd actually cheated on her, and at this point she wasn't sure if she'd even care if he did. It was enough for her to know that he was constantly scouting around. She'd expected him to settle down eventually, but so far he hadn't. It had gotten old long ago.

No, she didn't care much about Tony anymore, but she loved her daughters dearly, and right now she longed to see them again.

The Tortelli household had, for the most part, returned to normal after last night's party. Ally and Amy had both gotten to bed fairly late, and though most everything had been cleaned up with the help of Danny and Kenny, the two sisters had still given the house a thorough cleaning when they'd gotten up that morning. Ally wanted to make sure everything was back to normal when their folks got back from their trip.

Amy woke up in a great mood and still felt wonderful now as she changed into her bikini. She knew Jake was coming over sometime today to pick up the keg, and she wanted to make sure he saw her in her bathing suit when he did. She pulled up the little bikini bottom over her hips and pulled it out in back, arranging it over her delicious little tush. Then she pulled the top over her head, shaking out her thick, dark hair before arranging the cups over her pert breasts, giving them both a quick little squeeze before pulling the strings back to tie them behind her.

She did a quick pose in front of her mirror, pleased with what she saw. She hoped Jake would like what he saw as well.

Downstairs, Ally was already out by the pool, laying on a recliner and listening to the local college radio station. She was trying to relax, but she was jittery and nervous at the thought of seeing Jake again. Being with him yesterday had been incredible, and she felt like she was totally and completely in love with him. Still, she had seen him fucking her best friend, Fiona, soon afterwards, and the jumble of confusing emotions she felt were hard to work through. She was angry with Jake and angry with herself, but mostly she just wanted to see him again. She was wearing her yellow bikini, which she knew accented her deep, olive tan, and a pair of dark sunglasses. She didn't want anyone to see that she'd been crying.

She'd left her cell phone inside and heard it go off through the sliding glass door. Amy slid open the door and held it out.

"Hey, it's Jake! Want me to answer?"

Ally had to grin at that. Amy clearly had a crush on Jake too, and for some reason that was okay with her. Her little sister had been such a pain for so long, but something had changed recently and Ally liked hanging out with her. It was fun to see her getting more interested in boys, even if one of them was Jake.

"Sure, go ahead."

Amy gave a little squeal of delight and flipped open the phone.

"Hello? No, this is Amy! Hi Jake! Are you coming over?"

Ally heard her little sister chatting away excitedly. The phone call was brief, and when it was over Amy brought her sister's phone out to her.

"He's on his way over to pick up the keg. He says we should open the garage door for him so he can pull in like he did yesterday. Do you want to or should I?"

Ally could tell by the tone of Amy's voice that she wanted to be the one to open the door for Jake, so she told her to go ahead. Amy bounced off to the garage, leaving Ally to try to remain calm and act like nothing was up.

Jake eased his car into the Tortelli's driveway a few moments later, and saw Amy waiting for him in the garage. Jesus, he thought to himself as he saw her nubile young body in her little bikini, I need to be on my toes here or I'll get myself into trouble. The image of little Amy masturbating to porn the other night was crystal clear in his mind as he pulled up next to her. Even before he'd stopped the car she leaned in through the driver's side window, throwing her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Miss me?" she purred in his ear, sounding much more mature than her 15 years.

He put the car in park and killed the engine.

"More than you know, sweetheart."

She stepped back to let him swing open the door, then threw her arms around him again as he stepped out of the car.

"Whoa!" he laughed, putting his hands on her slender waist. "Take it easy, Amy."

Amy ignored him and hungrily pressed her mouth to his, pulling him to her as she opened her lips and moaned in girlish delight at kissing him. Jake felt her body rubbing against his, and resisted the strong urge to cup her round ass with both hands, but he couldn't keep from kissing her back, and their tongues met in a wet embrace.

"Mmmmmm," Amy sighed, "I've been waiting to do that all morning!"

Jake kissed her for a few moments more, unable to deny himself the simple pleasure of her eager young mouth. When he finally pulled back slightly, Amy kept her eyes shut, a satisfied grin on her face.

"Boy, Amy, I guess you're in a good mood today, aren't you?"

"I am now," she said, opening her eyes to look at him.

Jake smiled at her, running his fingers through her hair.

"Where's your sister, sweetie?"

"She's out by the pool, as usual," Amy said, licking her lips. She moved forward to resume their kissing, but Jake put a finger up to her lips.

"I'm sorry, baby, but I should get moving on that keg. I don't want to be here when your parents get home, do I?"

Amy made a poutty little face, sticking out her lower lip.

"One more kiss?" she asked in a voice that sounded even younger than normal to Jake. He swallowed, hesitating for a moment, then relented.

A few minutes later Jake was being led through the Tortelli kitchen by the hand, watching Amy's bum swing back and forth as he tried to keep from sporting a full-mast hard-on. Amy wasn't making it easy; after making out with her in the garage for a few minutes, Jake wanted to taste more of her, despite his best intentions, and her bikini left little to his imagination. Neither, as he saw when she led him out the back door, did Ally's.