Chapter 4

All was very quiet on the law suit front, in fact as far as I had heard she hadn't filed a single new motion in County Court since our last disagreeable chat. The one pending motion sitting up in an Appeals Court in Austin seemed to be very thoroughly buried deep in some 'pending' stack for cases destined never again to see the light of day. My attorney had even mentioned a very odd conversation he'd had with a law clerk who claimed to speak for one of the State Supreme Court Justices basically begging that we do everything in our power to make sure that this appeal never did reemerge itself, let alone make to his bosses desk. Very strange. My attorney then started to make more unveiled hints about taking down his shingle and retiring, which I pointedly ignored.

I noticed some changes nearly immediately as Charline got out of her car that Friday evening in front of the Waffle in Port Lavaca. For starters, her usual Mercedes or BMW had been replaced by a fire engine red Ford Mustang convertible. Then I was further surprised to find that she was wearing a pair of blue jeans with her usual white silk blouse. Granted upon further inspection, the jeans appeared to be brand new and of a designer line but I still ... I gave her bonus points for trying. I resolved to be as civil as possible and to mind my manners and refrain from offering any further useful life advice.

Charli had arrived about mid-afternoon on the bus from Victoria. Despite her apparent success in the adult entertainment business she had still never bought a car. I had offered to drive up and pick her up there but she had declined. She liked the long (and not so long) bus or train trips, of seeing new places or seeing how old well known towns had subtly changed in the previous year or two. Plus it gave her 'time to her head straight' between jobs she had added.

I was breaking in a new afternoon cook at the time, who seemed fairly promising but wasn't quite ready to solo yet. My other day cook had the day off so I had to remain for a few hours until the evening guy would come in around 5PM. Since I had taken over as restaurant manager and especially since I had bought the Lovett property, my hours had been fairly flexible. As a rule, I normally worked the kitchen from 5AM until about 9 or 10AM, and then I'd leave for Lovett and take a run on the beach before working on the property until near dark. After a last run on the beach, I'd then drive back to Port Lavaca, shower and work the evening dinner crowd for a few hours and/or do stock ordering and other paperwork until late, getting a few hours of sleep before doing it all over again the next day. Frankly I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep burning my candle at both ends, plus a visit from Charli meant that I wasn't likely to be getting much sleep anytime soon either.

The new guy now entrusted to the care of head evening cook, Charli and I were about ready to walk down the street to a local hole in the wall seafood restaurant for some superb flounder (hopefully) when Charline came in to join us.

There were a few awkward moments when Charli and Charline were introduced and for a moment I thought I saw Charline go total pale and look a bit faint. I did ask her if she was alright and received a vague reply that she was fine, just a bit tired and hungry. She had flown in from New York to Houston and then taken a charter flight from there to Victoria's municipal air field. Lovett's old Army air field did run some irregular charter flights but had no rental car service — let alone provided any high end European sedans or fancy sport coupes.

Before I could get another word in edgewise, like ask her to what we owed the honor of her visit, Charli grabbed her by the arm and invited her to join us for dinner in tones that brooked no disagreement. Charline and I exchanged gapping fish mouthed stares at each other and at Charli but her mind once made up was for forever fixed and firm. Off we went then to dinner, if not quite all together hand in hand. Naturally, I had told Charli quite a lot about Charline and in a recent late night unguarded moment of conversation over the phone, I'd admitted that I was "quite attracted to her but it was too bad it could never work out."

We hadn't been seated for more than 10 seconds when Charli grabbed Charline by the arm and loudly announced, "Time for us girls to go powder our noses." And off they went ... and stayed gone for a good 15 minutes. I exchanged shrugs with An, the Vietnamese owner and head chef (a good many of the late 1970's Vietnamese boat people refugees found new homes and lives along the Texas coast). We were pretty good friends and I usually cooked his breakfast every morning before his brother came in later in the morning with the nights fishing catch. He had been married for over 30 years to his own childhood sweetheart but he maintained he knew less about women now than he did when he was first courting her.

I resolved the let the ladies 'get their stories' straight before facing me again. I thought I knew what they were up to but fortunately or not, I ended up being dead wrong. Just as well...

At length my absent dinner guests returned and we did enjoy the finest flounder the Gulf Coast can provide but the table conversation (despite two decent bottles of Pinot Grigio) remained firmly entrenched in just generalities and pleasantries.

When I finally got the chance to ask Charline why she was in town, she replied vaguely, "Just checking up on a few things. I did have one or two thoughts on how our whole 'situation' can be resolved but I need to think about things for a day or two first."

That pretty much settled that. The two women then did 98% of their talking to each other and if I got much of a word in edgewise, I don't remember it. The women seemed to get along fabulously and Charli was working her usual charm of turning a stranger into an instant friend. I did catch something about "all of us" going into Lovett the next morning. I ground my molars a bit and nodded my head — it wasn't going to do any good to argue anyway.

I spent the rest of the evening listening to the girls chatter endlessly and trying not to stare too overtly at Charlines chest, of which a nice amount of lovely cleavage was on display. A further discovery also ruined any hopes I had for coherent concentration; underneath her white silk blouse I could plainly make out a flawless pair of long dark nipples that poked out unrestrained just above a sheer lacy demi-bra. How I did end up dumping half of my dinner into my lap that long evening I'll never know.

Charli and I headed to our little trailer. Charline left us to go and get a room for the night at the big chain hotel next door with a reminder that she'd see us at breakfast tomorrow.

(Insert large amounts of male grumbling here... )

We hadn't been inside our trailer for 15 seconds when I faced down Charli.

"Alright, fess up time! How long have you known Charline and where on earth did you two ever meet to become lovers?"

Charli thought this was the funniest thing she had ever heard and rolled on the bed laughing for a good 10 minutes until I threatened to pull her jeans down and give her ass cheeks some very special and direct attention. Actually, this might not have been a deterrent to her, Charli loved every flavor of sex, including very occasionally anal but it had the desired result. Charli fessed up ... sort of.

"I swear! Charline and I had never ever met before tonight. In fact, I heard so many bad things about her from you that I was quite prepared to hate her but in fact we actually have a surprising amount in common. We've never, ever been lovers either ... but not that I wouldn't mind, she's really quite a looker and the crazy ones are always the most fun in bed. Would you be mad if I tried?"

"Give her a chance Charles," she continued," and let her say what she has to say, when she's ready to say it. I think our little miss goody two-shoes has had some hard shocks lately and is more than willing to meet you now at least half-way, if not further. Be nice and give her some space for a little while."

"Trust me." She added. "I might well be the flightiest lover you've ever had in your life, as inconstant as the wind and just about as predicable but I've never once lied to you or led you on, making you believe anything that wasn't true. Give her some rope, the worst she can possibly do is hang herself and just maybe some good can come out of all of this."

Charli definitely knew more than she was saying but she was right — her word when given was pretty much gospel, as she disliked any variety of falsehood. That was good enough for me.

As expected we didn't get very much sleep that night. We had a lengthy bout of lovemaking but I was more than a little distracted and I kept imagining Charline's nipples every time I closed my eyes. We made up in quantity what we might have lacked in quality and Charli was at less than her best when my alarm clock went off at 4:30AM that Saturday morning. She made some vaguely menacing threats (promises?) and went right back to sleep after promising to see me later for breakfast when the sun was properly up and nice and warm ... like about Noon.

The Waffle was already getting busy that morning and from the time I walked in about 5AM to greet my morning staffers the place was already hopping. We're the only breakfast place in town unless you want to risk poisoning at our local Jack in the Box, about a mile or so down the road next to the Wally-World. Accordingly, we get a very nice cross section of the entire community for about a 30 mile or so radius. Ranchers and farmers about to make an early start a busy day, fishermen and workers from the local petrochemical plants nearby who've either had a late night or about to start a long day of their own, townsfolk, tourists making a drive of the coastal road and various other travelers, such as Charline, staying at the chain motel next door. It was still late summer and the hotel was about half full of tourists still, fortunately they didn't tend to be early risers or there might have been food riots.

We were as usual, very busy. It wasn't unusual for us to be standing room only with a waiting queue on some benches outside after 6:30AM or so and this morning was no exception. When Charline made her grand appearance at 7AM, it looked like she was going to have to wait if she even wanted a stool at the counter ... and longer if she wanted one of our six booths (the corner one perpetually taken by an old retired couple who came in at 6AM every single morning for breakfast and then lingered to do their crossword puzzles over coffee until at least 8:30AM, if not 9.

I took a quick break from the kitchen and went out to give Charline her choice. She could wait awhile outside (at least 30 minutes) or she could come in and sit at a small table with a stool at the back corner of the kitchen where the staff usually grabbed a quick bite or drink when things were busy. She chose the stool, which surprised me. I'm sure she was thinking my kitchen would be some horror show like 'Mel's Diner' or some other TV sitcom greasy-spoon café but she showed no signs of discomfort (or abject terror) and failed to discover any cigarette butts included with the food plates or any mutant cockroaches lurking about. Texas does have huge 'wood roaches' probably large enough to carry off small children or pets but we keep the area well dosed with pesticide and they're not really a problem for us.

I asked her what she would like and she replied, "Coffee, then just surprise me." So I did, whipping up an extra fluffy waffle and a southwestern omelet to die for with sides of bacon and hashed browns. Amazingly, she ate every bite and the just smiled and drank her coffee and watched me for the next hour of so toss up breakfast orders right and left. Finally around 9AM, Charli dragged herself out of bed and stumbled over without so much as brushing her hair and helped herself to the coffee pot. Charli is invariably a cheerful person but she's not really a 'morning person' and doesn't turn on her Miss Sunshine lamp until she's had at least two cups of coffee first.

As the early morning rush was over and Charli had gotten her kick-start of liquid ambition, she grabbed an overflowing plate of food herself and towed Charline over to an now empty booth for a lengthy early morning bit of feminine conspiracy, which did happen to include a second round of breakfasts for each of them. I let them have their fun and double checked to make sure that the weekend work schedule was set and that we didn't need to order anything before Monday, so that I could an enjoy most of my weekend totally away from the Waffle. It was a good thing, as much of my day had already been planned out for me.

For reasons that I'm still not quite sure about, the ladies didn't all want to squeeze into the front cab of my old beat up truck and they both hopped into the front seats of Charline's rental Mustang convertible. I took the back seat with only a few minor token grumbles. I had to admit that the short drive along the Gulf Coast was a lot more fun than it usually was, with both of the women's long hair blowing behind them in the wind and all of us enjoying the late summer sun in the open car. Charli just couldn't resist commenting that she just loved "running around topless." Fine, I could probably afford to get a convertible sometime in about 5 more years, after every penny I'd earned had fixed up the diner and motel. Maybe I thought with a sigh, I'd still be young enough to still enjoy a convertible too then.

Getting out of the car at the motel, I got my first really good look at the ladies and their attire. They were definitely set for a day at the beach. Charli was wearing her oldest and most favorite pair of cutoff jean shorts that were so worn out and short that they would have been nearly obscene in public anywhere else other than in Lovett along with a cropped tank top that fell to about mid stomach. Braless of course. Charline on the other hand was still wearing the same nice but new, jeans that she had worn last night, with a layered combination of a fairly conservative sleeveless silk shell top with a fairly casual white silk short-sleeved blouse over it. It was hard to tell for certain but undoubtedly there was a bra somewhere buried underneath too. Still, a definite improvement over a Chanel, Prada or Valentino suit.

Charli wanted to see how her bordello themed room looked now that it was complete and Charline had never really ever had the grand tour either. Both of them wanted to see everything, especially the old diner that was still untouched but I begged for a slight delay of half an hour or so, so that I could still get in my morning beach run before the sun got too far up in the sky. I changed into my running clothes and a few minutes later off I went, leaving the gals looking on their own into the gaping ruins of the diner.

I run about a 10-12 minute mile depending on about how motivated or annoyed I feel at the time but this morning I felt in a bit of a rush to push things and get back with the ladies. They'd be fine without me for awhile and knowing Charli she'd soon be dragging Charline down to the beach to strip down and enjoy the sun and surf. I was none too sure about how the prudish Charline would go for this and really wanted to be a fly on the short seawall to watch that discussion. I made haste and made my turn-around to come back down the beach a bit earlier than usual too and made it back to the start after probably only 15 minutes. But I was already too late.