Chapter 9
"You're awful damn quiet," Paul said.
Leslie smiled a little. "Actually, this crowd is a little out of my element, plus I'm not an exceptional ice skater."
"Neither am I," he shrugged.
"By the way, I forgot to congratulate you on being picked up by Bill Behrens," she smiled wider. "He's one of the best around."
"You've heard of him?" He was obviously pleased.
"Of course. Lennie goes on about him all the time, plus I've Googled him. Got to keep up on everything business related, you know."
"Jesus, this is great. About any other girl I talk to about him, they look at me like I'm discussing aliens that landed from outer space or something."
"And they call themselves fans." Leslie shook her head and chuckled.
"They like my looks."
"Can't blame them there."
"Yeah, but I'm much more than that."
Leslie had to agree. "I certainly won't argue with that. So any more auditions lately?"
"No, but the goofball over there wants to send a tape of me in to some weird reality thing on VH1," Paul replied, indicating Brian skating around and showing off.
"People do that every day. What's the problem?"
"Yeah, but the one he's going on about is I Love New York."
"Ugh." Leslie shuddered a little.
"Yeah," Paul nodded. "I wouldn't last five minutes on there before I went off on someone. Not to mention the chick isn't exactly my type."
"I'm sure. I have to wonder if your friend over there was dropped on his head as a baby, though."
"More like he got his head slammed in the ring too many times," Paul laughed. "I'm surprised he could spend Christmas with us. I guess everyone else had plans or was doing shit that didn't interest him. He's not exactly the type you can dress up and take out."
"I'm glad," Leslie answered. "He's a great guy."
"Yeah, most people see Brian's character and think he's the biggest asshole alive, but when one sees the real guy, you can't help but love him. I got to give you a head's up, though; he's been checking out your ass."
Leslie gave Paul a shocked look. "What? I thought you said he was married?"
"Like that ever stopped him before. I swear to Christ, Les, Brian's got to be the biggest ass guy that I ever come across in my life. And he has the balls to bag on me about being a boob man. I got to warn you, too, that he has kind of a dirty mind."
"As if I'm not used to that," she laughed. "I work at a wrestling academy with men, remember? Then there's Eric and all his off color jokes."
Paul then let out a loud howl of laughter; Leslie glanced toward the source and saw Brian had gone down on his behind. Brian had glared back at Paul and flipped him off.
"Dude, come on; there's a lady present," Paul reminded him.
"Don't apologize," Leslie spoke up. "I've seen a lot worse from Lennie."
"Hey, Leslie, you got a man?" Brian asked with a grin.
"Uh…" she began.
"Fucking hell, Brian!" Paul exclaimed.
"It's perfectly fine," Leslie said. "And of course there's no one at the present time. Why?"
"You're spoken for anyway, dude," Paul added.
"You aren't," Brian said.
"I usually don't go out with people I work with," Leslie pointed out. "And there a bit of a wide age range anyway."
"You're here with the doofus now, and may I point out Paul will go with any lady that's cute, legal and has a great rack."
"Jesus Christ!" Paul groaned, now embarrassed. "Do you have any shame at all?"
"You've known me long enough to figure out the answer to that one, dude," Brian grinned. "Besides, neither of us has a date to The Nutcracker tonight."
"Since when do you go to the fucking ballet?" Paul asked. "Don't even think of dragging my ass to that shit."
"Aw, come on, this is some gay company's production of it, and it's supposed to really kick ass. What are you doing anyway besides stuffing your face again and getting drunk?"
"Gay Nutcracker?" Paul had a strange look. "Only you would come up with some weird shit, Brian."
"You have to admit it's an interesting concept," Leslie agreed. "I'm not doing anything except watching Batman swat catnip mice around. Exciting. I think Nutcracker would be the lesser of two evils."
"Good," Brian said. "PL, I'm borrowing your woman for the night."
"All right, I'll go," Paul said. "only out of the interest that you don't corrupt one of my best employees."
