'Fine, no problem, let's leave.'
Her eyes searched his. 'What the hell's happened to you?'
'For Christ's sake, no matter what I say it's wrong.'
'You just don't get it.'
Frank sighed. 'Come on, we'll blame everything on me. I'll tell Charlie I'm not feeling well and we'll take off. We can stop, get a few cups of coffee somewhere and I'll be fine.'
Sandy's face slowly twisted into an expression he had never before seen. 'No,' she said, spitting the word at him. 'I think I want to stay.'
Before he could reach her she'd crossed into the kitchen. Frank ran his hands through his hair and tried to shake off the effects of all the alcohol he'd consumed. He noticed that most of the steaks had begun to burn, but no one seemed to care, including the man left in their charge.
'Girl problems?' Sal asked flatly.
Frank looked at the steaks. 'Those things are about as dead as they're gonna get.'
Sal shrugged. 'I told Charlie they were burning. He said he didn't think anybody was hungry anyway. It don't matter to me one way or the other.'
When Frank returned to the living room, Sandy was sitting on the couch, sandwiched between Beth and Steve. He hesitated, watched his wife inhale a line of coke and then sit back as it hit her system. Steve looked over at him and smiled. 'I guess she changed her mind.'
'She's a big girl,' Frank said, forcing a smile.
'Have you changed your mind?' Pepper asked, moving behind Frank, her breasts pressing against his back.
Frank ran a finger through one of the lines then put it in his mouth, brushing it back and forth under his upper lip. His gum line was completely numb by the time he reached the bar. 'Where's that drink I ordered?' Charlie handed the glass across the counter to him. Frank gulped it down and handed it back. 'Thank you. I'll have another.'
Charlie laughed. 'I'm not about to fuck with a guy who can do that.'
'Doesn't that bother you?' Frank motioned to the cocaine on the coffee table. 'Isn't it sort of like drinking in front of an alcoholic?'
Charlie handed him a fresh drink. 'At my lowest point I was sitting on a park bench in L.A. I hadn't had a bath in more than a month – hadn't eaten in God knows how long. With a gun to my head I couldn't have told you where I was or even what the hell my name was. If it hadn't been for the cops busting me and forcing me into rehab, I'd be dead now. Whenever I get the feeling I might relapse, I remember that moment. The temptation leaves me like shit through a goose, my friend. Shit through a fucking goose. Nothing is worth going through that again. Nicotine and booze are all the drugs I need.'
Pepper slid into the chair at the bar next to Frank. 'Did somebody say boobs?'
'Watch out for this one,' Charlie warned with a chuckle. 'A woman like Pepper could ruin a man, if he's lucky.'
'Wanna buy me a drink?' she asked Frank.
Frank glanced over his shoulder. Luther and Claire had started dancing again. Sal had returned from the deck and was sitting in a chair, his eyes taking everything in, and Sandy was still on the couch with Steve and Beth, each of them taking turns snorting lines from a fresh pile of coke. 'Sure,' he said, turning to Charlie. 'One of whatever the lady wants, on me.'
'Lady? Who the hell let a lady in here?'
Pepper hissed at him like a cornered cat and Frank felt her arm wrap around his back and fasten onto his shoulder. Charlie gave her the drink and left them alone. Frank could hear laughter behind him, but his mind was quickly fogging over and he feared for a moment that he might lose control. Steve seemed to materialize out of thin air to his left, the acrid smell of pot wafting all around him. They passed the joint between them twice, and Steve wandered off without ever saying a word.
'Are you as high as you look?' Pepper asked.
'Probably a little worse.'
'Me too, let's get some air.'
They made a quick stop at the coffee table and shared another line. Steve was looking through a tall rack of CDs, trying to decide which one to play next. Luther and Claire continued to dance until Charlie cut in. Unfazed, Luther strode to the bar. Beth and Sandy were still on the couch giggling like schoolgirls, oblivious to everyone else.
'Come on,' Pepper said, tugging at Frank's arm.
The room titled and swayed more than once on their way to the deck, and once they arrived the cool air felt good.
Sandy watched them go then looked to Beth. 'I don't think Pepper likes me.'
'You're a woman, aren't you?' Beth smiled. 'That's enough.'
'She does look sort of – '
'Plastic,' Beth interjected. 'I can spot a pair of fake tits from across the room.'
Frank leaned back against the railing and lit a cigarette, watching Pepper as she removed the sash from her waist and tossed it aside. She moved closer, her nipples and a black smudge of pubic hair visible through the thin material of the bodysuit. As if in slow motion she plucked the cigarette from his lips, took a drag herself before crushing it under the sole of her boot, then wrapped her arms around Frank's neck. Their faces touched, and her tongue found his ear.
The top portion of the bodysuit peeled down to her midriff easily. Pepper's breasts tumbled free in sections until Frank felt the tips of each between his fingers. He pushed on the small of her back and she arched it, thrusting her chest upward, twisting at the waist so he could take each breast into his mouth. She moaned, threw her head back and snaked one of her legs around his. They nearly fell, and she began to laugh.
'Maybe we should turn the flood light out,' she suggested with slurred speech. 'Or do you want to go back inside?'
'Go back inside?' Frank heard himself ask, heart racing.
She smiled, brushed a wisp of hair from her face. 'Some couples only play – they don't go all the way. I don't know how far you and Sandy go.'
The sound of his wife's name startled him and he had a sudden desire to find her. 'This is just fun and games to you, isn't it?'
'Of course.'
'Of course?'
'How can anybody take something like sex seriously?' she giggled.
Frank watched as she slid one hand beneath the bodysuit and between her legs. 'Maybe we should go inside,' he said.
'Are you sure?' Pepper reached out with her free hand and massaged his crotch, her eyes widening. 'I don't think he wants to.'
His face twitched into something that felt like a smile. 'Go ahead. I'll meet you in there in a few minutes.'
Pepper leaned in and kissed him on the mouth. He allowed her tongue between his lips and responded with his own. 'Don't be long,' she whispered, then glided back through the sliding doors and into the house, not bothering to cover herself.
Frank slowly made his way to one of the chairs on the deck and collapsed into it. Time, it seemed, had lost all meaning, and he sat quietly with his blurred thoughts.
'Are you all right?' a voice asked.
Frank looked up, hoping to see Sandy's face but finding Charlie's instead. 'Yeah. I'm just really fucked up.'
'Figured I better check in on you. You've been out here quite a while.'
