Chapter 18: A Happy New Year

When they drove to the Road House for the New Year’s Eve dance, Christina was the designated driver. She was not partial to drinking claiming a bad experience in her youth. Josie contemplated to forsake drink but knew it would be noticed. How could she explain her fear of screwing up?

Still, she drank only lightly during dinner in the restaurant near the harbour and she sipped sparingly when they sat at their table in the dance club. She danced a lot, though. She danced with Harry, but she sensed his insecurity. She danced with a few other men, always careful to stop before the slow dances.

The dancing made her thirsty and after another fast number, she emptied a glass of beer, not thinking of its impact on her dehydrated body. She felt it almost immediately, but whilst trying to clear her head she was pulled up for another dance by a guy, Roger Something, with whom she had danced before.

She was reluctant to begin with, but when the music changed to a slow foxtrot, she wanted to return to her table. Roger, also under the effect of a few drinks, would hear nothing of it. He wanted to harvest the slow dance where he had sowed the open dance. He tried to pull her into his arms and convince her to stay.

Josie had felt slightly dizzy and uncomfortable anyway. She wanted to resist, but he was manhandling her into his embrace. The flashes of the strobe lights and images from her nightmares combined with the beer and her dehydration, and she went starkers.

Harry heard the ruckus from the table where he was talking to Christina. He could hear Josie’s shrill voice even over the music, and he sensed her anger and panic. He was up and at the centre of the dance floor before anybody else could react.

Josie and her dance partner had squared off in a circle left open by the stunned onlookers.

“You crazy bitch! What’s wrong with you?” the man howled trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose.

“Can’t you fucking hear? I said no. I said I’d had enough. I told you to let me go!” Josie screamed back, her face blotchy with an almost insane rage.

As soon as Harry touched her, she turned into him with her hands forming claws.

“Let go of me!” she screamed. Then she recognised Harry and the rage left her face, replaced by fear. “He wouldn’t let me go. I told him to, but he wouldn’t.”

“Ssh, Josie. It’s okay. I’m here. Relax!”

He held her feeling her body tremble in his arms, but he was confronted by Roger of the bloody nose.

“Take that crazy slut and get the hell out of here!” he screamed, poking a finger into Harry’s chest and leaving a blood stain on the shirt.

Even with only his left hand free, Harry had no problems dealing with the man. Taking the outstretched finger in his hand and using it as lever, he forced the suddenly squealing man to his knees.

“Listen, mate! First of all, no name calling! Second, don’t ever point at me! And thirdly, you were out of line when you grabbed her. Now I suggest that we stop your nose bleed and then sit and talk like adults. She will apologise for hitting you and you will apologise for being an ass. After that, we’ll call it quits. You can go and find somebody more willing and we’ll keep out of your way. What do you say?”

“You’re breaking my finger! Let go!”

“I asked you a question, mate. Shall we call it quits or do you want to continue? Just to be clear, you’ll be facing me, not a woman.”

Harry’s voice was perfectly calm, but Roger understood. He tried to maintain some dignity.

“She apologises first!”

“Okay,” Harry smiled. He looked down into Josie’s face. “Josie, it would be helpful if you expressed your regret over the altercation. Easy, okay? Just say you’re sorry and then we can talk in peace.”

Josie took a deep breath and he felt her body shake in his arms.

“I’m sorry I overreacted, but you wouldn’t let me go and I panicked.” Another deep breath. “I hope I did not hurt you too much.”

Roger blushed with embarrassment. He’d been beaten up by a woman and everybody looked at him with grins on their faces. He tried to find a fitting response. “I misread your signals. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Harry released Roger’s finger and smiled.

“See, that was easy. I suppose this settles things. I wish you a good evening.”

Again, Harry did not raise his voice or take an aggressive stance. Nevertheless, Roger was happy to take the hint. He disappeared from the dance floor leaving Harry with the still shaking Josie.

“Show’s over, folks,” Harry announced to the onlookers and led Josie away.

Once off the dance floor, they were surrounded by family and friends. Harry signalled them to give them space. He led Josie out of the hall and to the big veranda. They found a table away from the bar but a waiter reacted to his signal and was sent to bring them two glasses of Harry’s special medicine for jittery nerves.

He sat on a large chair and pulled an unprotesting Josie down to sit in his lap. She wanted to speak up but he gently placed a finger on her lips.

“Wait, Josie. Settle down first. Let’s take our time.”

The waiter returned with two tumblers filled with a clear, amber liquid. The first sip of the single malt whisky burned Josie’s throat and warmed her from within, easing the trembling. The second sip calmed her breathing and she became aware of her surroundings again. Embarrassed, she tried to get up.

“Stay, Josie. You’re not heavy,” he whispered. “Tell me what scared you so much.”

She looked down at her hands and blushed.

“I had this nightmare last night. I had been drinking and I was dancing. And then somebody danced with me, and he kept coming closer and closer, and I couldn’t make him go away. He started to fondle me, but I was drunk and I didn’t know to stop him. And then I saw it was James. I pushed him, but he had his hands between my legs. Then the lights went on and you were standing in front of me, and you looked at me like I was scum.” She stopped, her head bent low.

“What happened then?” he asked softly.

She looked at him. “You beat the crap out of me and I woke up.”

“That was just a stupid dream, Josie.”

“No, you don’t understand! It’s more! I went to this business meeting with James. After dinner, we had two or three drinks in the hotel bar and then, nothing! I wake up naked with James in my bed and my head is splitting with pain. I don’t know how I got there; I can’t remember a thing of that night, except that I had been fucked. When I’m drunk, I’m a slut. That’s what scared me so much when that asshole tried to pull me to the dance floor. I was feeling a little drunk and I was afraid I’d go with him and be a slut again.”

Harry looked at her quizzically. “So you really don’t remember taking Elrin to your room after having two or three drinks?”

Josie nodded.

“That’s hard to believe, you know,” he said.

“I swear, I had three drinks. A Budweiser and two white wines.”

“I believe you, but two glasses of wine don’t cause amnesia.”

“Amnesia?”

“A fancy word for ‘can’t remember a thing’. Josie, surely you heard of Rohypnol. Roofies. It’s a date rape drug. It is slipped into a drink and the victim loses all control. It also induces amnesia, so the victim will not even remember who he or she was with. To me, it looks like Elrin slipped a Mickey Finn in your drink.”

Josie became very pale. “I think I may have to throw up,” she whispered.

Harry let her have another sip of the whisky and the colour returned to her face. So did comprehension.

“Are you sure?”

“Think about it! Number one, to completely lose the memory of an evening, you have to have a lot more than two or three drinks. Number two, if he let you drink that much, he’s a scoundrel to begin with. Thirdly, I think we can agree that he was trying to hoodwink you all the time. He wanted to get into your pants, into your heart and lastly into your purse. He played it well till he tried to get rid of Pat and Megan.”

Josie’s face gained colour again, but the blush was one of anger, not shame.

“That goddamned, slimy, wimpy, chickenshit son of a bitch! What’s the going price for a hit these days?”

“Leave it be, Josie. He lost. Just get over him and leave him be.”

“I can’t! I was so ashamed of myself when I woke up with him. I thought I was a stupid slut who gets drunk and fucks the first guy that comes her way. I didn’t know how to handle that. I — I couldn’t think of you without feeling guilty. So I blocked you out. I tried to find reasons why we couldn’t be a couple, just so I wouldn’t have to decide whether to tell you about that night or not. And so I hurt you, because I was a coward. And you went to Iraq and almost got killed. I screamed all those ugly things at Pat and Megan and now they hate me. All because of this ... this ... rotten piece of shit!”

He hugged her to his chest.

“Josie, forget Elrin. I’m alive, the twins have forgiven you and as for us, nothing has to be over. Stop beating yourself up about him. He tricked you and probably drugged you, and he used your vulnerability against you. I think I can understand you a little better now. We should come to terms with it.”

“Do you really mean that?”

He nodded whilst trying to find the words to say what he felt. Being around Josie over the last days had made a lot of things clear to him even if he still had problems understanding his feelings.

“I think I can live without you, Josie,” he began haltingly. “Or maybe I should say ‘survive’. But it’s not something to look forward to. I ... I’d like ... perhaps ... we could try again?”

There, he had said it. He looked at her waiting for the axe to fall. Instead, Josie just reached out and took his face in both hands.

“Harry, may I kiss you just once?”

A smile lit up his eyes, and he shook his head. Her breath stuck in her throat.

“No, if we try again, you’ll have to kiss me lots of times.”

Her expression changed from rejection to consternation.

“How could you scare me so much?” she exploded.

He felt her mouth on his. For a few delicious moments, the world stopped rotating. This was even sweeter than their first kisses over three years ago. He could not miss the longing in Josie’s touches and the tenderness with which she held his head. When the kiss ended they looked deeply into each other’s eyes.

“We can do it,” Josie finally said. “If we really want it, we can make it happen.”

“It’s already happening, Josie. Just look at us!”

“I know. I can hardly believe it. I had been hoping all the time.”

“Let’s go back to the others. It must be close to midnight and they’ll be worried.”

They got up and walked arm in arm back into the dance hall. Megan saw them first and nudged her sister whose face split in a big, happy smile. By the time they made it to the table, everyone was grinning at them with those ‘I told you so’ faces. Not that Josie or Harry cared one whit. Harry signalled a waiter and ordered two bottles of champagne.

“What’s the occasion, Colonel?” Milena asked impishly.

“To toast the New Year, of course,” he answered.

The waiter barely made it to their table and opened the bottle before the countdown chant erupted. They quickly filled the glasses and when the cheering began, Harry and Josie handed out the champagne glasses to everyone. It was hard to make oneself heard with all the cheering and toasting around them, but Harry made the effort anyway.

“To a happy New Year for all of us! Health, happiness and may our dreams come true!”

They all drank to that. Then Josie held up her half-full glass and took Harry’s hand.

“To a wonderful man whose understanding, kindness and loyalty never cease to amaze me!”

Harry blushed deeply whilst the females at the table toasted him. Pat and Megan hugged him and kissed him, wishing him a Happy New Year too. Harry’s blush intensified with their liberal interpretation of how a future stepfather should be kissed.

To cover his embarrassment, Harry dragged Josie to the dance floor. The band played slow numbers after the countdown and the two lovers melted together and swayed slowly to the rhythm of the music. When the music switched to faster numbers after about fifteen minutes, they woke from their dream-like state and grinned at each other sheepishly.

Their blissful state was disturbed by a loud argument. Milena and Chris were standing hand in hand and facing an angry man in a white suit. Taking Josie’s hand, Harry moved closer.

“I don’t give a damn. This is my club and I don’t allow lewdness on my premises.”

“What lewdness?” Chris retorted with fire. “We did nothing more than dozens of other couples. We danced and we kissed.”

“See! There’s a difference! They are couples, man and woman. There is nothing perverted about a man kissing his wife.”

Harry could tell that Chris was close to blowing a gasket.

“What seems to be the problem, Chris?” he asked lightly and Chris wheeled to face him.

“Fat Boy here wants to kick us out for lewdness because I kissed a beautiful woman instead of some old geezer.”

“I can’t allow such behaviour. My club has a reputation to uphold. And now she’s even insulting me.”

Harry glared at the man. “I believe the words ‘lewdness’ and ‘perverted’ are also insulting. Whatever standards you want to uphold do not allow you the tone of voice you employed.”

“My clients are offended!” the manager insisted.

Harry pointed at another couple, a balding white man in his late fifties who danced with a pretty dark skinned girl not older than sixteen or seventeen and had planted his hands on her buttocks.

“I am offended by that pedophile pawing a juvenile. Would you kindly remove that child molester from your premises?”

The manager opened his mouth and closed it. His mouth moved again, but no sound came forth. Then he turned abruptly and left. The waiter who had kept in the background approached them, smiling apologetically.

“I’m sorry for this. The boss can be kind of a jerk sometimes. Can I bring you people anything?”

“Let’s have the check,” Harry answered with a shrug.

The mood was a bit dampened after the confrontation, but they drank the remainder of champagne and stayed for another half hour to make their point. When they finally left, the manager watched them with a smirk.

They were approaching their car when two uniformed constables approached them.

“Good evening. Who of you is the driver?”

“I am,” Chris answered.

“Then I must ask you to blow into this Breathalyzer, Ma’am.”

Whilst Chris complied, Harry noticed that several guests were leaving the club and driving off without being controlled.

“Dead sober, Ma’am,” the constable said. “Thank you for co-operating.”

Chris smiled sweetly. “Not at all, Constable.”

“Say, Constable,” Harry asked lazily, “you wouldn’t have been tipped off by the manager of this fine establishment?”

The constable blushed. “I can’t comment on that, Sir.”

“No need to, thanks,” Harry answered genially.

Chris smiled wolfishly at the constable. “On a word, Constable. The manager is carrying a vial with some white powder in his breast pocket. I saw him snort some of it from a small spoon. I am willing to testify to that too. Doesn’t that sound like probable cause?”

The constable perked up. “You’re sure about this, Madam?”

“I used to be a police detective in Atlanta, Constable, and I know a coke head when I see him. I’m willing to come to the station tomorrow and give a sworn statement.”

The constable looked at his partner who nodded. “Fatty has a prior for substance abuse,” he said calmly. “If the lady is right, it’ll be a repeat offence. There’s going to be a new management at the Roadhouse.”

The constables walked over to the club entrance from where the manager was watching them. They could see how they argued, but then the two policemen led the manager to their patrol car. The first constable gave Chris a thumbs-up.

“Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it!” Chris laughed before they all piled into the van to drive home.

It was close to two o’clock when they arrived at the beach house. Chris and Milena immediately headed for their room whilst Pat and Megan were hanging around undecided until Josie hinted that she and Harry wanted to have some privacy.

“How about a stroll on the beach?” she asked after she had given her daughters a good night kiss.

For an answer, Harry offered his arm. Using him for balance, Josie slipped off her sandals. Harry took the hint and did likewise, and after grabbing another bottle of champagne, they walked down to the beach barefooted.

“Can we return to where we left off before that fat idiot ruined the mood?” she asked.

Again, Harry did not answer directly, but he put his right arm around her waist, pulling her close as they walked. When they reached the water line, Josie unwound the wire and let the cork pop up into the air. Bringing the bottle to her mouth quickly, she caught most of the foam that bubbled up. She offered the bottle to Harry who took a swig. Josie then drank again. Pulling Harry down alongside her, she dropped onto the dry sand above the water line crossing her long legs. The skirt of her dress rode up and Harry could see her knees and thighs in the moonlight.

“You look lovely,” he remarked causing a happy laugh.

She sat up and took another swig of the bubbly, rocking back and forth.

“This is life! Sitting on a beach in the moonlight, drinking good stuff and holding the hand of your lover. It can’t get much better,” she said with a dreamy voice. “Harry, are you very drunk?”

He took another swig. “Not yet, but I may be getting there,” he answered.

“Me too,” she giggled. “I want to get drunk because I know I’ll be with you. Even if it makes a slut, I’ll be your slut. I wanna be that anyway.”

“I might just ravish you,” Harry cautioned her.

“Yes,” she answered calmly. “What’s your point? So ravish me already! Nobody’s ever made love to me in the moonlight. Come to think of it, nobody made love to me in three years.”

Harry took another sip and held the bottle to Josie. She helped herself too.

“Are you sure, Josie? Do you want it?”

“More than anything in the world, Darling. Please, love me now before I go crazy.”

“Oh. My. God! They’re really going for it!” Megan whispered.

The sisters were lying on their stomachs behind a small dune with a clear view of the beach. The silvery moonlight gave just enough illumination for them to see their mother and Harry as they melted together in a steamy embrace. They could even hear the mewling sounds Josie made as Harry’s mouth made its way down her throat.

Pat gasped, “Look!”

Josie had stood up on unsteady legs. Taking the hem of her dress in both hands, she pulled it over her head and stood naked in the moonlight wearing nothing but a tiny string. Not for long though, for she bent down and stepped out of that last piece of clothing.

“Not bad for an old hag, eh?” Pat whispered, causing Megan to giggle. “Okay, let’s split. This gets too weird for me.”

Once out of hearing, the girls giggled and high-fived each other before slipping into the beach house and into their room.

“One thing’s for sure, Mom and Harry are in for some serious ribbing tomorrow!” Megan giggled.

“Oh, yeah! I have an idea already!” Pat agreed.

“Do you think they might get married now?” Megan asked when they were lying side by side in their bed.

“Looked good to me,” Pat said thoughtfully. “I just hope Mom won’t screw up again. I thought she did it when she beat up on that poor sap, but Harry was great. If Mom makes another hash of it, I’m gonna get him for myself.”

“Only if we share,” Megan said and grinned in the dark.

Meanwhile, Josie and Harry had recovered and were sitting side by side in the sand, their sweat drying in the night breeze.

“I’m getting a bit cold,” Josie complained. “Think we can go back and have a shower?”

Harry just stood and helped Josie to her feet. They picked up their clothes but did not bother to put them on. They walked up the path naked and holding hands. Like the girls, they slipped into the house quietly. After locking up, they went to Harry’s room. His shower was away from the rest of the sleepers and they were not likely to wake anybody.