Chapter 11: Ghosts in the Light

I thought at first it was just someone who looked like her. There are a lot of tall, brown-haired ladies with great asses walking the earth and, if this one moved the way I remembered Mary moving, well, that could be a coincidence.

As I looked at her more closely, I realized it wasn't a coincidence. Mary was dancing slowly, hip-to-hip and cheek-to-cheek, with a tall blonde guy dressed in a blue pullover and blue slacks. He had to be my height, or a little taller, from the way that Mary fit against him.

They were moving slower than they had to. The song was Sarah McLachlan's 'I will remember you', "for the lovers", as O'Brien's DJ termed it. The song is slow, but they were practically statues, swaying rhythmically to the tune. I noticed he had his hand on her ass and she was rubbing her thigh against his.

What the hell? She was supposed to be in San Francisco, or New York, or anyplace but here! This was MY town now, now that she had thrown me away and fled to a better life elsewhere.

I knew it was stupid. We were divorced, long divorced. She had the right to be with anyone she wanted, to do whatever she wanted, wherever she wanted. You'd think, though, she'd have the decency not to flaunt herself in front of me!

I gently tapped my forehead against my table. The woman made me stupid. She could have no idea that I would show up at O'Brien's on a busy Friday night. In any case, she had told me that she'd had other men since leaving me AND Richard Kelly! I had no claim, no reason to even be watching her.

I tore my eyes away from her and started in on another Icehouse Draft, then pulled out my cell and punched in a number I hadn't called in a while.

"I'm only answering this because I'm curious as hell, Hugh. You haven't called me in a long time. I thought you'd moved on – to someone more age appropriate!"

"And I thought you'd have met some nice young man and gotten married by this time, not be accepting calls from old boy friends."

"Ha! Old booty-call bed partners, you mean! Old, old bed partners."

I could sense her grin across the ether.

""Why would you be that mean?"

"Maybe because I get mean when a guy makes it clear he's only after my pussy and drops me when he gets tired of that."

"He would be a really bad guy, somebody who would do that. We don't have anybody like that around here. You know I stopped calling because you were just too much woman for me."

"Because you got bored with me outside of bed, you mean!"

"Because we missed each other by a generation, Brittany. Believe me, there have been lots of times when I wished you were either 20 years older, or I was 20 years younger, and that's no lie."

"You should have been a securities salesman, Hugh. You could sell ice to the Eskimos, as they used to say. So, why are you calling me tonight? You couldn't be desperate enough to try to talk me into giving you another taste, could you?"

"I'm sitting here at O'Brien's, on the Westside, with some friends and I'm alone. There's good music, the booze is flowing and I got to thinking about you. We never did much dancing, you know?"

"We did plenty of horizontal dancing. You weren't too bad, for an old fart!"

"Be still my heart! I know you've got to be busy, but if you weren't too tied down, I thought you might bop over here and I'd buy you a few drinks.

A little change of pace for you if you're not busy."

"Actually, I'm sitting at a table at Pelicans right now. My date went to get me another drink. He's hoping he's going to get me drunk enough to spread my legs. I was getting ready to bail on him, anyway – Boring!

So, actually, your suggestion sounds pretty good. I'll grab a cab and be over in 30."

"I know you can handle it yourself, but since this is sort of a date, call me when you get here and I'll come out and pay the tab. Oh, and, how are you dressed?"

A long silence, then...

"My god, you really must be horny tonight. I'm in something tight and sheer and see through and silver and gold."

"Does it show a lot of skin?"

"Y ... essss! Oh shit, now I AM pissed. I have some pride, Hugh! I'm not going to let you use me to get some bitch you're really interested in jealous."

"It's not ... uh ... yeah, I guess it is but, it's for a good cause! I'll explain when I see you. It's somebody who needs to be eating her heart out tonight.

I want you to look as hot and slutty as humanly possible!"

"It's not ... okay, I'll be there. I want to see the bitch who ruined you for everybody else!"

My cell phone rang two Icehouses later. I was moving fluidly, but was still FAIRLY sober – sober enough, anyway. When I walked out and Brittany wrapped herself around me, I couldn't help remembering some of those sessions on her bed. Maybe she had learned how to hold an interesting conversation after sex by now.

The cabbie gave me an envious glance and said, "You ever decide to bottle and sell whatever you got that attracts women like that, let me know and I'll buy a case."

I leaned over and whispered in his ear along with the $100 I deposited in his hand, "It's called money - large amounts of it."

He just shook his head and pulled away.

I turned back to her, admiring her large breasts, which were – ALMOST – on the verge of falling out of her low cut top. The top was low enough that the pale pink circles around her nipples were almost completely exposed.

If there's anything hotter than big boobs about to pop out of a woman's dress, I've never found it.

"Put your tongue back in, darling," she said, running her hand quickly over my dick, which began to get hard at light speed.

"Will this do?" she asked, with a grin.

"More than adequate, Brittany, more than adequate."

She grabbed my hand.

"Let's go torment the bitch."

We walked back in and straight onto the floor. There was a faster song playing now, but not out of my range and we moved around to it. Gail and G were out on the floor. Gail took one look at me and burst out into the widest smile. G just gave me the thumbs up.

We'd been out there about ten minutes, two songs, when I happened to glance to my left. There, not ten feet away, was the brown-haired heartbreaker and her tall blonde ass-grabber. She was facing me, her companion facing away from me. Our eyes locked and I knew she had already noticed me.

I looked away, pulled Brittany to me and put a lip-lock on her that should have scoured the enamel from her brilliant white teeth. She tried to climb into me while I was doing it and one large breast popped free while she was enthusiastically rubbing it all over me. We got a little smattering of applause for the exhibition.

When I looked back at Mary, she was just staring at me, no emotion on her face that I could read. Her date gave me a decidedly unfriendly look but, at that point, I would have welcomed him starting something. She saw the expression on his face, pulled him down to her and tried to swallow his tonsils.

When she finished, she looked straight at me and ran her tongue over those lips I remembered so well. It was as if she wanted to lick the taste of him off to savor, and she as good as said with her eyes, "So there, you son of a bitch! See if I care!"

I was determined I was going to prove I didn't care either, so I went back to concentrating on Brittany. We stayed out on the floor another ten minutes before walking away, without a backward glance, to our table - where the rest of our party had already returned.

Gail extended her hand to Brittany and said, "Brittany, haven't seen you in months. What are you doing slumming in a place like this?"

Brittany smiled at her, undressing G with her eyes as she did so. The sheer aura of sexuality given off by the two blondes had to have cocks getting hard in all directions around us.

"I just got an interesting invitation to see how the other half parties.

I've never been in here before, this is fun!"

"It is – bracing, invigorating! I understand you've been out with Hugh before."

"Yes, we had some fun, until he decided that I was too boring to be worth fucking. His standards are too high for somebody like me."

"I love boring," came a call from a nearby table, followed by a lot of laughter.

Gail stood and said, "I've had too many drinks and I've really, really got to pee. Come with me, you too Chauvonne, let's exchange a little gossip."