by London Casey
But if she decided to come…
It would end up a night both of us wouldn’t forget.
Chapter Twelve
Callie
I went to get a coffee and came back to find Jackson standing at my desk. Holding my elephant statue in his hand. Looking suspiciously at it.
When I cleared my throat, he turned and smiled at me.
“Are you checking out your new office?” I asked. “You don’t mind the smaller one, right? I’m going to give Misha your office.”
Jackson laughed. He wiggled the elephant statue. “That’s a hell of a hard trunk on this guy.”
“Of course you’d notice that. Jealous?”
“Of what?”
“How much bigger that is than yours.”
“You saw me naked, Callie.”
“That’s my point.”
Jackson put the statue down. “You can’t stop thinking about what I’m packing. It’s okay to admit. Maybe if you’re nice to me, I’ll show it to you.”
“That’s sweet of you to say,” I said.
“I show you mine, you show me yours?”
“Sad,” I said. “Did you run out of cheap fucks at bars? You came here to negotiate with me?”
“Are you a cheap fuck?”
“You couldn’t afford me with all of your uncle’s money,” I said.
“Goddamn,” Jackson said. “High-class ass.”
“Is there something you wanted?” I asked.
“Why do you have an elephant statue?”
“For good luck.”
“You don’t believe in that garbage, Callie.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve heard you complain fifteen hundred times about it,” Jackson said. “It’s quite annoying actually. You’re so cold and heartless.”
“Get out of my office, Jackson,” I said. “And for the record, it was a gift from my mother. She’s the one who believes in that stuff. So forgive me for appreciating a gift from my mother.”
“Sorry,” Jackson said.
He jumped back from my desk as I moved toward him.
“What do you want?” I asked again.
“Vince wants to celebrate tonight,” he said. “Of course, I told him we can’t celebrate without you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m serious,” Jackson said. “So tonight we’re going out. The three of us.”
“Let me guess… you picked somewhere I wouldn’t ever want to go, right?”
“Hardly,” he said.
“Then where?”
“A strip club.”
I laughed. “Exactly.”
“What? You can’t appreciate a woman’s body the way I can?”
“Oh, I can, Jackson,” I said. “I can just look in the mirror at myself. I don’t need to pay to see.”
“I’m sure you pay,” he said. “You suffer to be you. I can see it in your eyes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What time?”
“For what?”
“To go out,” I said.
“Really?”
“What? Think I can’t handle myself at a strip club? You do know that most strippers love hanging around other women, right? I’ll have a much better time than you will, Jackson.”
His lip started to lift with annoyance.
Did I want to go to a strip club?
Hell no.
Was I going to let Jackson bully me out of a chance to show face with Vince?
Hell. No.
“I’ll let you know,” Jackson said. “Vince is making the arrangements. We’re going to have our own private table. And dancer.”
“Perfect,” I said. “I’ll find something nice to wear. And I’ll bring lots of money too. This is exciting.” I reached up and touched Jackson’s steel framed jaw. “Thanks for the invite.”
He backed away and wiped his jaw like I had spread the plague on him.
This conversation did not go the way he planned it.
And there was no escaping me either.
We were together now. We’d be together later.
And during the in between time?
We were still neighbors.
Time to go home.
That came with its own sense of happiness and strangeness.
My goal was to get to my apartment without running into Jackson.
I had to find something to wear and prepare myself for a night of hanging with the guys.
The guys.
I hated it so much.
Of course Jackson picked a strip club on purpose. He wanted me to feel uncomfortable. He wanted me to stick out like a sore thumb. He wanted to sit there with his uncle and drink expensive whiskey and flirt with women who were only interested in their wallets and not their dicks. And believe me, no matter what they said, their wallets were most certainly bigger than their dicks.
But I could handle myself.
I could drink like the guys. Flirt like the guys.
I was going to have a great time watching Jackson slowly slip into a state of erection shock. He would be so fucking hard that he’d have to excuse himself and send a load of mini Jacksons into the toilet at the strip club.
As for me?
I’d walk out of there just fine, proving to myself, Jackson, and Vince that I could handle any situation.
Hello, promotion.
Goodbye, Jackson.
Simple as that.
I opened the door to the hallway and froze when I heard a familiar sound.
It was… literally this…
Err-arr-err-yay-err-arr-err-say!
I cringed when I saw Sunny twirling with her blanket like shirt flailing through the air.
The person making the noise was Joni.
She cupped her hands to her mouth and sang like she was about to win a recording contract.
She couldn’t sing.
She knew it too.
But she didn’t care.
That was the whole point of being a free thinker and all that.
My mother looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.
In her hands was something.
Whatever it was, there was a blue piece of cloth covering it.
“Oh, no,” I whispered.
“Come here, Callie!” Mom called out.
Joni let out another err-arr sound and Lake reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
Joni stopped singing and looked at me. “Just spreading good vibes. Good tunes. Cleansing the hallway of any negativity that could exist from the previous tenant’s life.”
There were a lot of things I could say to what was happening in the hallway to my new apartment, but I just bit my tongue.
I walked to my door and hurried to find my keys.
“Wait,” Lake said. “We need to speak first.”
“What?” I asked.
“Look,” she said. She opened her hand. There was a rock resting on the palm of her hand. “This is where we charge up.”
“I’m not a cellphone,” I said.
“Callie,” Mom snapped. “Be nice.”
“I have to get moving here,” I said. “I have an important dinner tonight.”
Tits and shots!
“So you need all the energy you can get,” Joni said. “Should I sing some more?”
“No,” I said. “I mean… no, thanks. You did great already.”
“You can’t go in there yet,” Lake said as I stuck the key into the lock.
“Why not?” I asked.
“I wanted to give you something,” Mom said. “From all of us. We’re so happy and proud of you, Callie. You’re really becoming something.”
“But don’t forget yourself,” Lake said. “You must sit back once in a while.”
“Or for good,” Sunny said.
This was Mom and her crew.
Sunny’s real name was Sheila. She couldn’t get pregnant so her husband left her.
Lake’s real name was Lisa. She lost her boyfriend when they were both eighteen and she never got
over it. Even forty years later, the pain stuck with her.
Then there was Joni. That was her real name. Her husband died of pancreatic cancer.
They somehow all found each other, and they were the lifeblood to my mother and her business… and quite honestly, a pain in my ass.
“Look at this,” Mom said.
She wiggled the blue cloth away and there was a piece of bamboo in a small, red pot.
The bamboo had quite the shape though…
“Mom?” I asked.
“What?”
“Look at that thing,” I said.
“So?”
I traced my finger up and around the bamboo then back down.
When nobody said a word, I did it again.
Slowly.
The bamboo was thicker at the top. Where it made the half circle.
“You can’t see it?” I asked.
“No,” Lake said.
“It’s for good luck,” Mom said. “You carry it into your apartment and you’ll have good luck the entire time you’re here.”
“You all can’t see this?”
“See what?” Sunny asked.
“It’s a dick!” I yelled. “A bamboo dick!”
They all gasped at the same time.
Light bulbs went off above their heads.
“Oh, wow,” Lake said. “I can see it. It really does look like a very healthy co-”
“Don’t say it!” I yelled.
“What?” Lake asked. “A cock. A nice cock. I mean, look at that curve.”
“Oh, yes,” Sunny said. “At that angle, can you imagine what that would hit inside of you?”
“Talk about rocking your chakra,” Joni said with a snort.
“Ahh… no…,” I said. “This is terrible.”
“Callie, stop,” Mom said. “It’s bamboo. So it’s in the shape of a very nice curved penis. Is that the worst thing in the world?”
I turned around to catch my breath.
Hearing them say cock and penis…
And just on time, to make the moment even worse than it already was…
Jackson entered the hallway.
He carried a bag in his hand and shoes with his other hand.
He was in shorts and a sleeveless shirt with a faded picture of a tiger on it.
Sweat glistened on his skin.
Sweat stains on his shirt cascaded down to his shorts.
When he walked… well… the shorts didn’t do much of a job of hiding something.
“Let’s go inside,” I said. “Right now.”
I unlocked the door and opened it.
“Wait,” Mom said. “You have to take this.”
I grabbed the dick shaped bamboo and waved for them to go in first.
“You do it first,” Lake said.
I stepped into the apartment and then back out.
“Okay, I did it,” I said. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“Look at all these beautiful ladies hanging around here,” Jackson said.
I cringed.
“Jackson,” I said.
“Who is this?” Mom asked.
“My neighbor,” I said. “He’s just going inside.”
“Are you all Callie’s sisters?” Jackson asked.
They all laughed and their faces went flush.
“Oh, stop that,” Sunny said. She touched Jackson’s left arm. “Oh, my. You’re made of steel, aren’t you?”
Jackson flexed his arms.
I tilted my head to one side and lifted my eyebrow.
“I have to protect those around me,” Jackson said. “Right, Callie?”
He winked.
“You two know each other,” Joni said. “Oh, this is juicy.”
“No,” I said. “We work together. This is just a sad tragedy that I live next door to him.”
“Wait a second,” Mom said.
“I like the plant,” Jackson said.
“It’s bamboo,” I said. “For good luck.”
“You know it looks like a dick, right?” he asked without hesitation.
“We were just talking about that!” Lake squealed.
“Nice curve too,” Jackson said.
“Oh, god, please stop this,” I whispered.
“Are you a curves kind of man, Jackson?” Sunny asked.
“Wait,” Mom said. She waved a finger at Jackson. She looked at me. “Is this the asshole you work with?”
“Asshole?” Jackson asked.
“That was the nicest term I could come up with for you,” I said to him.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Mom said. “This is the asshole with the nice eyes.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks.
“I kind of like his arms better,” Lake said.
“I’ll save judgment until I see everything else,” Sunny said.
“Get in my apartment now!” I shouted.
That’s when they finally decided to listen.
One by one, they went into the apartment.
Then I was left alone with Jackson.
“I don’t want to hear a thing from you right now,” I said to him.
He tapped his pointer finger to the top of the bamboo. “Maybe this’ll help you get some dick, huh?”
“Go home, Jackson,” I said.
“I’ll see you tonight, Callie.” He took two steps and paused. He looked down at me. “So you think I have nice eyes?”
The way he smiled at me…
I hurried into my apartment and shut the door.
I put my back to the door, still holding the bamboo.
The dick shaped bamboo.
Chapter Thirteen
Jackson
Callie arrived at Langer’s the exact same time I did.
We both exited our cars, and when I looked at her, I smiled.
She was dressed to impress, that was for sure.
Instead of going fancy and office-like, she went casual, but fucking hell, casual was something else on her.
Wearing dark-blue jeans that hugged her body impossibly tight, she waited on the sidewalk for me. Her top was a little baggy, on purpose, but the undershirt was what stole the show. The thin straps on her shoulders, hooking right down to where her tits began to spill out of her top.
She smelled like roses, honey and something else I couldn’t figure out.
Callie had a way to wear very little makeup, yet looked like she spent hours in the bathroom in front of the mirror.
And, fuck, for all I knew, that’s what she did.
In her case, less was more, because the more was already part of her.
I needed a damn drink, and fast.
“Let me get the door for you,” I said.
“I can’t wait for this,” she said.
She played into it but I knew deep down she had to have been pissed at me for suggesting this. She knew how Vince was. He loved money, women, and gambling. Anything that involved a risk and a cheap high, Vince was part of it.
Including tonight.
We entered the strip club and the music was loud.
The main lights were dimmed, leaving the club dancing with purples, pinks, greens, blues, and reds. All coming from the different stages.
At the first sight of tits, I looked over at Callie.
She kept a straight face.
Before I could make a comment, Vince appeared.
A drink in his hand, arms open, moving toward us.
He hugged both Callie and I at the same time.
We both had to turn a little to make the hug work.
Her left breast pressed against my body.
Really? One breast and I’m getting excited?
“I need a drink!” I yelled to Vince.
“Everything is on me tonight,” Vince said. “Anything. Let the possibilities remain endless.”
He turned and walked.
“You first, Callie,” I said.
“No,” she said. “You first, Jackson.”
“Walk together?” I asked.
“Fine.”
We walked side by side.
I pointed to the stage. “Look at her. Goddamn.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty,” Callie said.
I laughed.
This was going to be one hell of a night.
Three drinks in and I finally felt settled.
Callie sat near the edge of the booth, directly across from me.
Vince was like a king, arms out across the back of the booth.
We sat at a table with a pole and had a private dancer who came and went when we asked.
“Okay, let’s get this out of the way,” Vince said. “I sent Vixxy away so we can talk.”
“I like her,” Callie said. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, she’s something,” I said. “I might have to take her home tonight.”
“You think she’d go home with you?” Callie asked.
“Who is she going to go home with then?” I asked.
“Maybe me,” Callie said.
“Yeah right,” I said.
Vince hit the table. “As much as I like walking the line of inappropriate and lawsuits, let’s talk business for a second.”
Both Callie and I looked at Vince.
He reached out and grabbed one hand from each of us.
“You two… you two are fucking good together. And I mean it. That deal was a big risk. It was a tough call. I had been thinking about it for a while. I needed you both on it. Not one or the other. Both.”
“I didn’t need her,” I said, nodding to Callie.
“I didn’t need him,” Callie said.
“Can I get you some more drinks?” a voice asked.
I turned my head and a beautiful, topless woman stood at the table.
Hands behind her back, back straight, tits so perky they could make anyone smile.
“Oh, look at you,” Callie said. “I am so jealous of your boobs.”
“Really?” the woman asked.
I looked at Vince.
His eyes were as wide as open windows on a spring day.
“Yeah,” Callie said. She stood up and faced the woman. “Look at mine.”
She opened her shirt, making it so neither Vince nor I could see.
Vince kicked my leg under the table.
I moved my leg because I didn’t need to act like some horny kid seeing porn for the first time.
But I did make a fist and I did feel like chewing on it.
“No way, honey,” the woman said to Callie. “Your boobs are perfect.” She looked at me. “You’re very lucky.”