We stayed connected as we half fell and half slid down onto the floor, landing with a thud. And a giggle. If you have never kissed passionately while also giggling at your own stupidity, I would highly recommend it.
We landed with him half on top of me and half sprawled across the carpet. He broke from the kiss just long enough to look down at me, smile, say "Oops," and start kissing me again. I felt one of his arms slide under me, between me and the carpet, and tighten firmly about my waist. His other arm tried to push us up from the carpet. I felt his intent and helped him by wrapping my legs firmly around his waist and starting to sit up. That gave him the leverage he needed to hold me tight to him, and push us up together. He was on his knees with me tightly wrapped around him. Legs around his waist, arms around his neck, I felt him stand up, one hand on the bed for more leverage.
I giggled against his mouth as he deposited us once again on the bed. "I'm impressed," I stated, still laughing and kissing. "You should be," was his response.
A few minutes passed, full of kissing and groping, but no more rolling. He pulled his mouth away from mine and said, "We are supposed to be getting dressed for dinner."
"You started it."
"I plan on finishing it, as well. Later. Come on, I'm starving. Man can not live on kisses alone, even yours."
We untangled ourselves and started repairing the damage. I had come prepared this time, so I was able to straighten my hair and fix my make-up. Once I slipped back into my heels, the only clues that we had been rolling around were my kiss swollen lips and the pink flush I had to my face. He of course, looked unaffected. Men.
As he drove us to dinner he seemed slightly uncomfortable. He kept messing with the radio, and seemed distracted. He finally brought up what was on his mind.
"Umm, about tonight. I mean, well, it isn't a big deal or anything, I just don't want to hide anything from you. It's about Jean. We used to date. Not long, and it wasn't serious, but since we are all having dinner together, I thought you should know."
"So," I asked, mulling over this new development. "You are going out to dinner, and then dancing, with your ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend, and me. You are a glutton for punishment, aren't you?"
"I wouldn't call her my ex-girlfriend, we never made it that far. Just a few dates, and it was months ago, maybe close to a year ago now. She has been to the house, once alone and a few times when I've had everyone over. We've been to dinner, to a movie, and we did kiss, but that is all."
"OK, that doesn't sound so bad. Thank you for the heads up, though. I hate being part of underwater currents that I don't understand. Weird looks and stuff, everyone knowing things that you don't. So thank you. Really."
"It only seemed fair."
"How come it didn't progress to more?" I asked.
"It's like you said, about the guy you were talking to when I brought you that drink. No real chemistry. Maria introduced us, she has been a friend of theirs for a while. I was single, Jean was single, Maria has a tendency to want to pair people up. I think it is because she is married. Married people seem to want other people to get together. I was willing, so we tried a few dates, but nothing was there. The weird part though, is that neither one of us has seen anyone since. So this new guy Robert, and then, of course, you, well... "
"Wait, so I'm the first person you have dated since Jean, and Jean is coming to dinner. With her new man. Her first new man since dating you? Yeah, this won't be the least bit awkward."
"Well, I have met Robert once before, last Friday night. Jean brought him to the club. That was the group I was sitting with by the front door. Mark and Maria, Jean and Robert, and two girls that sometimes hang out with us there, but we don't see them outside of the club. I think they just sit with us to have a safe group to hang out with. If they sat alone together, more people would bother them."
"Oh, yeah." I remembered them all, the two with rings on were obviously Mark and Maria, and the two awkward first date looking ones must have been Robert and Jean. That explained the two single girls as well. "Yeah, I did see them. Kind of. I was watching you, but I did notice you were with other people."
"Yeah, that's them. Robert seemed nice, but kind of quiet. Hard to tell though, when you throw someone into a group he doesn't know in a loud bar. Umm, they remember you, as well."
"What? How so?"
"Taking you that drink the way I did. And then going back to them at the table and toasting you from afar. That got their attention. I got teased the rest of the night. They are very curious about the first person to catch my attention in a long time. So, that brings you up to dinner tonight."
"No pressure." I said glibly.
He laughed. "Really there isn't. They are just friends, not my parents." He said as we were pulling up at the restaurant and parking.
We were the last ones there, everyone else was already seated. They stood up when we got close to the table, and Caleb made the introductions. We sat down and gave our drink order to the waitress. Nothing helps ease the weirdness of something like this quite the way a glass of liquid courage does. Just one glass though, at least until we go dancing. Nothing is worse than the new girl with too much to drink.
Everyone was really friendly, if a bit curious. Mark and Maria went out of their way to make me feel comfortable. Asking me questions, telling stories to embarrass Caleb. I could tell they had his well being in mind and really were just curious about who he was seeing. Caleb was right, Robert was quiet. He watched more than he joined, but so did I. I'm sure he felt just as odd as I did. Jean was friendly as well, but seemed the most curious. Not in her questions, but in the way she was constantly sneaking peeks over at us. We were at a large round table, so everyone faced each other, but she seemed to be watching us more than trying to make Robert feel at home.
Mark and Maria tried to fill in that gap, directing the conversation toward him. He would answer the question, quietly, but that was all, he didn't go into details or try to hold up his part of the conversation.
Dinner was really good, it was a seafood place, and the shrimp were huge. We got a large order of crab legs to share with the table. Trying to get crab legs out of their shells with a group of people helps break the ice. Something about eating with your fingers, incoming projectile crab shells, licking your fingers of the butter dripping off of everything, and the occasional 'sorry' when you elbow your neighbor trying to wrench open a shell has a tendency to make quick friends out of strangers. The alcohol didn't hurt either. By the time we were wrapping up I was having a great time.
I excused myself to go to the ladies room, and wound my way through the crowd. The place was packed with Cinco de Mayo partiers, nothing like a great drink special and good food to bring out the masses. I was surprised that the ladies room was empty, usually on a night like tonight a girl has to stand in line. I finished, washed my hands, checked my hair and make-up and headed out into the hallway. As I walked a step or two I realized that my nylons were twisted funny, and that I had to go back and make an adjustment. No way was I going dancing with uncomfortable panty hose.
As I was nearing the ladies room door, Caleb popped out of the adjoining men's room.
"Are you escaping already?" He asked, "Going to shimmy out the window to avoid going back to the table?"
"No, I just need to make an undergarment adjustment."
"An undergarment adjustment? Sounds intriguing, here let me help," he said as he slid his arms around my waist, kissed me, and walked me backward 'til my back hit the ladies room door. He pressed on, and the door swung open, letting us inside. He turned me so that my back was against the door, holding it shut while we kissed.
"I guess it is too late to ask you if anyone else was in here, huh?" he laughed against my lips.
"A little," I said, shutting him up with another kiss.
"Aren't your friends going to wonder what we are doing?" I ask him.
"I followed you to the bathroom, my guess is they know exactly what we are doing. If we are g
etting credit for it anyway, why not reap the benefits?"
After a few more kisses he asked if I was having fun. Not in here per say, but meeting his friends.
"I am actually, I like them. I'm looking forward to going dancing as well."
"I guess we should be getting back. I left my credit card for our portion, I'm sure everyone has paid and are ready to go."
As we readied to leave he asked, "Didn't you need to make an adjustment?"
"Oh yeah, my nylons are bothering me, hang on a sec, I'll fix them."
As I hiked my dress up a bit, just to readjust, Caleb gave me a wide grin.
"Take them off," he said.
"We don't have time, besides, someone could walk in any minute."
"No, take them off and give them to me. Let's make them think the worst, that is if anyone even notices."
So I did, I stepped out of my heels for the second naughty time tonight, shimmied out of my black nylons, adjusted my dress back down over my hips and stepped back into my shoes. By the time I had finished adjusting and looked at him, he was staring at me with that evil grin of his, and it took me a second to notice that he had tied my hose around his neck. He had done it so well, that it looked natural. He had made a necktie out of my panty hose. Honestly, unless you looked really close, you couldn't tell that it wasn't a black silky tie.
I busted out laughing. "Are you kidding? You are really going to walk through this restaurant wearing my hose as a tie?"
He said, "If you are really going to return to our table, without the panty hose that you were wearing when you got up, then I am willing to wear said panty hose as a trophy around my neck."
I looked at him a second, the dare evident in his eyes. His eyebrow raised in question.
"Well OK then, lets do this."
As we turned to leave the ladies room we heard female voices coming toward us down the hall. Two voices. He looked around the bathroom quickly and noticed there were three stalls, all open.
"Act natural," he said to me with a grin, as he ducked into the stall closest to the door.
"As if," I thought as I pretended to wash my hands, just as the door to the ladies room flew open. Two ladies came in, talking to each other. They each went straight for an empty stall. Once they had the stall doors closed behind them, Caleb came out of his stall, grabbed my hand, and we ducked out of the bathroom holding our free hands over our mouths, trying to contain our laughter. We escaped with no one the wiser, or so we thought until we ran smack into a waiter in the hallway.
"Sorry, excuse us," Caleb said as we passed him. We looked back at the waiter, he was still grinning after us, and he flashed us the thumbs up sign as we turned the corner. That only made us laugh harder. We walked through the restaurant, hand in hand, giggling like little kids who had gotten away with a cookie from the cookie jar. We pulled ourselves together a bit and sat back down at our table. They were finishing up a conversation and looked at us funny, but didn't say anything.
Everyone took their respective credit cards back from the folders on the table, and someone made noises to go. We all got up as a group, and filed out the front door together. The entrance had wide double doors, Robert was holding one open for us to pass and Jean held the other. As we walked past them saying thank you, I saw Jean's eyes drop to Caleb's chest. She looked quizzically at his tie for a second and then looked to me.
She looked me in the eyes, and then dropped her gaze down to my newly bare legs, then back up to my eyes with both of her eyebrows raised high up on her forehead. I just smiled and winked at her as I walked though the door.
CHAPTER 10
AN OFFER
After we left the restaurant, we got into our separate cars with plans to meet up back at the club.
"Well, that was a first." Caleb said.
"You don't often follow women into bathrooms and steal their underwear?"
"I didn't steal them, they were given up willingly for the cause."
"What cause was that?" I asked.
"Fun." He grinned over at me.
I didn't mention that we had been caught by at least one member of our party. I figured I would keep that piece of information to myself.
"Do you want them back?" He asked, "For dancing?"
"Nope, I am enjoying the bare leg feeling. I can dance fine in just the dress and heels. Besides, I think the tie pulls your whole outfit together."
We arrived at the club and met up at a free table. It was quite an enjoyable night. I don't normally come here with a date, but having a dancer at my disposal, especially one wearing my underwear around his neck, was fun.
It did throw my friends a curve ball though. I fielded a lot of questions. Caleb was a great sport, and we spent as much time with my friends at their table as we did with his. At around midnight, we were standing at a table of my friends, and two of them got up and started saying their goodbyes.
It was a couple that I had known for a few years, separately. They met each other here about a year ago, and had been inseparable ever since. He, Michael, was a good friend of a guy that I had dated for a while, and she, Kate, had been a friendly acquaintance from here at the bar who spent a lot of time at our table. About a year ago he bought the table a round of drinks, she was with us and thanked him. They started talking and that was it. They really fit well together, personality-wise. Michael had always been fun, and Kate was usually sweet, but quiet. He really brought her out of her shell and when you watched them together you could tell this was real. I was so happy for them.
But still, it was barely midnight and they were leaving. Someone behind me was harassing them, trying to get them to stay. Slurs were flying fast, something about being old and having no stamina. Everyone laughed. They took it well, but it didn't stop their preparations to leave.
"Have fun," I told Kate, knowing full well where they were going.
"You are welcome to come with us. You can even bring your date. I really think you would enjoy it, if we could just get you in the door."
"Oh no, I don't think so."
"It is a lot like this place and it is just around the corner. Music, dancing, they even have food. You have to bring your own alcohol, but otherwise it is similar. Just take a look around here and imagine that the lady there on the dance floor is topless, and those two- the two in the dark corner over there- are doing a bit more than kissing. It is just like this, only sexier. Anything major has to go on in the other room, so if you never set foot through the curtain, really all you get is a sexier club atmosphere." Kate was still talking as Michael walked up to get her.
He heard the end of our conversation and jumped in.
"Are you trying to get her to go to the other place with us?"
"Yes, but it isn't working." She stated.
"She didn't want to go the first time either," Micheal told me, talking about Kate. "She said she would try once as a favor to me, and we have been leaving here around midnight to head over there for months now."
Kate said, "I told her that it is just a sexier club, unless you sneak off to the back room."
"It's true." Michael stated. "The main room is like this, guys and girls. Couples come together, single ladies are welcome, but single guys have to come in with a group of couples, or with ladies. A single guy by himself isn't welcomed. That keeps the pervs down. The ladies control the show, they have free reign. They can be fully dressed or topless anywhere in the club. They can, and occasionally do, get fully naked, but usually they are in something sheer or something that makes them feel sexy. Women can be anywhere, wearing anything, at any time. But men can't. Men have to be fully dressed in the main rooms. If something starts to happen, say on the dance floor, she can lose some clothing, and they can make out and stuff, but anything that involves the men getting naked has to move to the other room. Honestly, usually it is just the couples who come together that really get into it. Say she likes to get a bit naked, be looked at, he likes to watch her and the other women, he enjoys his wife or girlfriend
's uninhibited nature, and when things reach a point, they retire to a back room for a while, and come back and continue the party again later."
Kate chimed in at this point. "We like to go and watch. I am always fully dressed, we have never partaken in the wilder stuff, but it is really sexy to go watch. I have never taken even my top off in there, and have never been pressured to. Most people don't, but you drink and eat, dance and visit, like here, only there is usually something pretty sexy happening in the background. Then we go home, together, alone. It makes for some really hot sex when you get home."
"Are you ready to go?" Michael asked Kate.
"Yeah I'm ready." Then she turned back to me, "Seriously, anytime you want to come, let me know. You can be our guests, sit with us."
"Thanks for thinking of me, but no. You two have fun." I said.
"Oh, we will," she smiled broadly as they walked away.
"What was all that about?" Caleb asked me. I could tell he hadn't heard everything. It was too loud in here to hear easily, but he had obviously heard some of it.
"They aren't going home. They leave here about midnight and head to another club. An after hours swinger's club. She was telling me about it. We were invited."
"Oh really?" He asked. "Have you ever been?"
"No, but they do offer to take me sometimes, just in passing, never pushy. Actually, that was the most they have ever said about it. Have you ever been to a club like that?"
"No, but I know there is one close to here. I've seen it while patrolling. If you didn't know what it was, you would never suspect. I've never been inside though. They don't usually have any problems, I don't think the police have ever been called there, unlike most of the bars nearby. I think it is a private club, member's only. As cops, we would only go if someone called, it is private property like a house."
"Actually, I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall in there one day, just for curiosity's sake, but I don't think I could just walk in. Seems embarrassing."
One Swinging Summer Page 6