The Third Wheel by mandygirl78
Sometime, in the summer of 1984, Kris and Kelly went to a girls bar with their friend and former Angels co-worker, Sabrina. Kris and Kelly were a couple, so that made Sabrina the third wheel.
The girls bar, Simply Ruby, was decorated in typical 80's style. The walls were light gray with abstract patterns from the Memphis-Milano style, and various grid patterns popular in the 80's. Also on the walls were canvas paintings of women, which were done in the 80's art deco style. They were done by the late master himself: Patrick Nagel, who died earlier that year. There were all solo paintings of women. The bar itself was rather long, and was located on the left side of the room, right in the middle. It had a look similar to that Bar Noir bar in the movie The Terminator. On top of the bar is a red neon sign in Streamster font that says the club's name. There were two private booths with curtains at the ends of the bar. For a price, any female couple, or group if you're into that, can rent it out and enjoy some intimate time there.
Besides the bar and the booth, the club was surrounded with red couches and roundtables, so that you can see the action on the dance floor. The dance floor itself covered the rest of the room, with a typical checkered floor and a DJ booth on one end of the floor. At night time, DJ Hot Lips, one of the best female DJ's in LA, takes over, but since right now it's the afternoon, the bar itself is playing the music via a cassette tape mix.
The women were dressed to the early/mid 80s fashion at the time. Kris was wearing a multi-striped (pastel pink-blue-purple) wide-shouldered short-sleeved shirt along with a short skirt to match it, and some neon-blue penny loafers. Her hair was still long and flowing, but it was updated to 1984 standards, so it was wavier. Kelly was wearing a navy-blue blouse with thin black stripes, collar-up, black leather mini-skirt, and hot red low-heel pumps. It was the mid-80s… Her hair was big and feathered. Sabrina hadn't changed much in terms of fashion sense, as she still wore something low-key. She was wearing a white blouse with a wide brown belt, black Jordache jeans, and a pair of white Reeboks sneakers. Her hair was also feathered, like Kelly's, but with less volume. She looked like Amanda King from Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
The bar was blasting Madonna's hit, Lucky Star. A song that Sabrina did not want to hear, as she saw her Lucky Star holding hands with a blond she was never totally fond of.
"Why did you two bring me out here?" Sabrina asked. She was already feeling uncomfortable around Kris and Kelly.
"Because Bree, it's time for you to get your social back in stride again. Ever since your divorce, you've been in a long funk," Kris told her.
Sabrina was thinking, "Yeah, because you got Kelly."
"But why did you choose a girl's bar? Why not like a regular bar, like regular folks go to?"
"Because, I wouldn't be able to cuddle up with my Krissy here," said Kelly. Kris just blushed, but it infuriated Sabrina.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I need to see." Sabrina delivered with a touch of venom.
Kelly, who didn't want things to turn nasty, ignored the venom and told Sabrina, "What you need is to have some fun. It's been over a year now; you need to move on." There was a double message in this. Not only was she telling Bree to move on from her divorce, but to move on from Kelly herself.
"And what makes you think that I'll have a fun time here? What makes you think that I need a woman right now?"
"You need to do something, instead of sitting in the house all the time," Kelly encouraged. "Besides, we both know that you like girls more than guys, even though you got married twice."
Sabrina shrugged in agreement with Kelly, while she was thinking, "Yeah, but the girl I want the most is unavailable now."
"True, but still, I have a young daughter. She's going to need a father figure."
"Honey child, two women can raise a child just fine." Kelly reminded her.
Sabrina was thinking in her mind, "Yes I totally agree, but the woman who I wanted in our lives would rather be with someone else." She then briefly looked at Kris with anger.
While they were talking, the bar started playing Bar-Kays' R&B hit, Freakshow on the Dancefloor. Kris, who was starting to get uncomfortable with the subject in hand, noticed Sabrina's anger towards her. Thus, she used it as an opportunity to change the subject.
"Oh my God, I can't believe they're playing this song! The other day, Jill was practicing her breakdancing moves to this!"
"What?" Kelly looked at her like she was crazy.
"What?" Sabrina followed with the same expression.
"Yeah, I'm not kidding. When she was trying to do the back spin, she hit her head on the portable stereo."
Kelly and Bree laughed. It was typical Jill. Kris sighed in relief, for it seemed to work.
"Why is a woman in her mid-30s trying to learn how to breakdance?" Bree asked.
"I don't know. I don't know." Kris responded while shaking her head. "That's Jill for you."
"That sure is typical Jill for you," Kelly responded with befuddlement.
"Totally," said Kris looking at her partner.
Kelly then looked at her digital Timex watch. Ever the alert detective, Bree noticed, and asked "Why do you keep looking at your watch? Are you expecting someone?"
"Uhh… I'm just checking out the new features on my watch. I got it a few days ago."
Seeing that Sabrina was not okay and that they probably need to talk privately, Kris made up an excuse.
"I gotta go to the bathroom." said Kris, knowing that Kelly will join her.
"I'll join you," said Kelly. Then she turned and looks at Sabrina. "Will you be okay?"
"I will." However, her body language was saying something else.
Kelly and Kris left and went to the bathroom.
"Where is she? She was supposed to be here a few minutes ago. This is unlike her. She's very, very punctual." Kris fussed.
"I know. Something serious must have happened." said Kelly with a shoulder shrugged.
"If she doesn't arrive in the next fifteen minutes, give her a call on the pay phone." Kris informed her.
Kelly nodded, "Sure. Of course that's assuming that she's still in her house."
As Kris was washing her hands, "I hope it works. You probably saw how angry she was when we were hugging."
"Yeah, she hasn't totally gotten over me." Kelly shook her head followed by a sigh.
"If she still loves you, then why did she get married?" Kris asked. It really made no sense to her.
"She probably thought that he could get her mind off me." Kelly then sighed. "I wished it had worked. She had her window of opportunity with me."
Kris then gave her partner a small squeeze. "Don't worry, baby. I'm very sure that she's perfect for Bree."
"I hope so." Kelly then gave Kris a peck on her lips. "But make no mistake about it; I'm all yours."
Kris smiled back and said, "I know you are." Then she returned Kelly's peck with a peck of her own.
As they returned back from the bathroom, they saw a miffed Sabrina who was ready to go.
"Look I've had enough of being the third wheel. I'm getting out of here."
Kelly tried her best to calm Sabrina down. "Listen, Bree. Just wait a little while, it will be -"
While they were trying to convince Bree to stay, an attractive blonde walks by to the table. She had the typical short mid-80s feathered bob haircut. She was also wearing a striped blue and white rolled-up Polo shirt, collars up of course, with a skinny white tie, a white Calvin Klein pants, and a pair of black, mid heeled, strappy stilettos.
"Hello Kris. Hello Kelly. How are you two doing?"
"Fine Tiffany," Kris said with an included handshake.
"Sorry I was late, but the Taxi driver took me to the wrong place at first. He could barely speak English."
"Yeah, that totally sucks," Kris said in agreement with Tiffany. "Oh yeah, Tiffany, this is Sabrina, the former Angel who used to work with us before you came on board. Sabrina, this is Tiffany Welles, a former Angel who joined us after you left." Kelly introduced.
Sabrina was checking out the blonde in front of her. She noticed how classy and elegant she was. She was already smitten with Tiffany. Tiffany on the other hand, was smitten with Sabrina's cute look, and although she didn't dress flashy, she did dress sensible. Well, sensible in 1984 terms...
"Nice to meet you," said Tiffany as she offered a handshake.
"Same here," said Sabrina who accepted the handshake.
As they sat down, Kelly provided Bree a summary of Tiff's background.
"Tiff's dad and Charlie's dad were friends."
That really piqued Bree's interest "Really?"
"Yeah, they were childhood friends." Tiff informed.
When Tiff said that, there was one thing that came up to her mind.
"Do you have a picture of Charlie?"
That instantly made Kris and Kelly snicker, trying their best to hold their laughter.
"Don't say anything," Kelly whispered to Kris ear. She responded with a small nod.
Tiffany, seeing the snicker from the couple, decides to play along with their game. "Sure."
Sabrina was getting super excited as Tiffany pulls out the photo from her purse. As she hands it to Sabrina, Bree takes a look at it and quickly become disappointed.
"That's a childhood photo of him!"
"Sorry, but that's all I got."
Kris and Kelly then started to laugh, and Tiffany joined them. Bree wasn't very happy about it.
Changing the subject, Sabrina then asked, "Tiffany, are you from Boston? Because its sounds like you have a Bostonian accent."
Tiffany smiled. "Yes, I am from Boston. And let me guess, you sound like you could be from Alabama."
"Well, I'm from here, but my dad was an army officer, so we went all over the country. One of the places we stayed at was around Fort McClellan, where I spent seven years of my childhood."
"Oh, that's interesting," said Tiff, seeing that Sabrina's father had a similar background as hers.
"So why are you back here in LA.?" Sabrina asked. It was a sensible question, since the last time she was in LA; she only stayed for a year.
"Well, I'm a classical violinist, and I came here to create my first record. It's part of a three-record deal I made with RCA Victor. Heifetz recommended me to RCA Victor."
Sabrina was stunned to hear his name, as she is familiar with classical music. "You mean THE Jascha Heifetz?"
"Yeah! He saw my performance at a fair back in Boston, of all places, and said that while I'm a little rough around the edges, he saw potential in me, and he told me to come back LA. He's even willing to train me! Awesome, isn't it?"
"Yeah, that's totally awesome!" Sabrina said.
Kris and Kelly just looked at each other.
"Who the heck is Jascha Heifetz?" Kelly asked Kris.
"I dunno, Kel. You're asking the wrong person."
Sabrina was stunned. Of course, living in LA, one is bound to run into a few musical artists, but she never knew one at a personal level that managed to seal a recording deal.
During the time they talked about various things, such as classical music, philosophers such as Kent and Nietche, current events, chess games, and many other things. They even talked about the upcoming Summer Olympics, even though neither is big on sports. For Sabrina, it was wonderful to finally meet a woman who matches her on an intellectual level, if not, surpasses her. She could never have had that connection with Kelly. It was hard to even get Kelly play Chess with her.
As she keeps on talking to her through the night, she was beginning to feel a stronger connection with her. It had gone so well, that inside, she had already decided to plan a proper date with Tiff.
Both Kelly and Kris took notice, smiling that their planned blind date went well.
"So Kris and I were planning to go to Spaziano's next week. Do you two want to join us?"
"Yes!" They said in unison. Spaziano's was a popular Northern Italian restaurant in LA.
"Great. Then I guess we have ourselves a double date," said Kelly.
The two women didn't say anything. Instead, they went back to flirting with each other.
"If you ever come to Boston, I know this wonderful Northern Italian restaurant." Tiffany informed her.
A small smile appeared on Sabrina's face, as she thanked Tiffany for the offer. "Thanks."
About thirty minutes later, they had to leave. Sabrina and Tiffany gave each other a parting hug. While they were hugging, Tiffany slips a piece of paper into Sabrina's back pocket. Sabrina didn't notice it until a few minutes later, when she sat down in the car. She took it out and opened it. It said, "Tiffany: 555-4382. Please give me a call." A warm smile showed on Bree's face.
When Kris dropped Sabrina to her home, she couldn't stop thinking about Tiffany. Maybe being the third wheel wasn't so bad after all?