Chapter 23*
In Charleston, SC, Jeff slid the key in his door and waited for the little green light. Sliding into the room, he absently caressed the wall looking for the switch. Flicking on the lights, he dropped his bags on the floor and made a beeline for the remote control. No sooner had he sat down on the bed, than there was a knock on the door "Who the hell?" He mumbled to himself as he opened it. Matt, Amy, Adam and Jay were all standing there looking expectant.
"Man, are you gonna go out with us tonight?"
"Yeah why not, what's the plan?" Jeff stepped aside so that the group could enter his room. It took all of about 5 minutes for them to get the details down.
"Meet you in the lobby in 30."
"Ok. Cool." Jeff grabbed his bags and set them on the bed so he could go rummage through and figure out what to wear. He located his shaving kit and made his way into the shower. The cascading water fell in rivulets down his body making him feel refreshed. He remembered that he was supposed to call Monique, but inwardly decided to do it later when he returned. He was curious as to what she would say when he finally did call. Women always think we forget or say we'll call when we really have no intention of it. Jeff had little tests that he put them through. Not many pass with flying colors. Twenty minutes later, after having completely "primped", Jeff entered the lobby to find them all waiting.
"Man, you are worse than a woman!" Jay exclaimed. He was instantly rewarded with a smack from Amy. "Ouch!"
"If you damn men weren't so picky-we wouldn't take so freaking long AND furthermore if we came out looking like we did a half ass job-you'd say so." Matt and Adam just laughed. Neither of them was taking sides in this one. Matt had been chosen earlier as the DD so he led them all to where he had parked the blazer.
Climbing in the back seat with Adam and Jay, Jeff asked, "Aims, did you call Kirsten already?"
"Yeah I called her as soon as I hit the room. Wanted her to know I'd call her in the morning-since we were going out."
"Did dickhead here talk to her?"
"Barely-it didn't go well."
"Hey, who's Kirsten?" Adam and Jay asked in unison
"Gees, do you two really share one mind?" Matt grumbled. He didn't need to be reminded of his earlier fuck up. "Do we really have to go into this now?" He pleaded.
"You guys don't remember Kirsten? You met her and her sister back at RAW a few weeks ago."
"Ah, I'm getting a visual-were they the two with the Kick Barbie's Ass sign?" Jay wondered.
"Yeah," Adam interjected, "the one had blue hair tints and the other had purple?"
"Yeah that's them." Amy answered.
"Cute if I do say so myself" Jay said.
"Hey, don't get any ideas," barked Matt, "you two are spoken for remember?"
"Nobody said we couldn't look and appreciate, right Adam?" Jay chuckled.
"Speaking of your appreciation of the fairer sex-Thanks Adam!" Jeff piped in.
"What for? What did I do?" Adam was puzzled.
"Your little stunt on Heat a couple months ago-remember the brunette and the blond at ringside?" Jeff tried to jog his memory for him.
"Ooh I do!" Jay said. "That was the night Adam's head (the one atop his shoulders)got to cop a feel!"
"Oh, them." Adam got red. "What about them?"
"Well it seems a couple people noticed it-you helped solidify our mystique, man."
"Ok, don't give me any shit. I got plenty of it from you know who" Adam would never forget the tongue lashing and silent treatment he had gotten for that episode.
They arrived at the club just in time to give Adam a reprieve. Not as if they weren't totally obvious when they walked thru the door-the bouncer had to rush them upstairs before a stampede started. You'd think by now they'd know by now how to downplay-but with Jeff's hair and Adam's height-you really could try your best-but it never worked. Jeff was ready to hit the floor so not wasting any time he and Jay made their way back downstairs. Soon they were lost in the sea of horny, gyrating women. Matt, Amy and Adam were content to take their time and decided to order drinks first. Amy barely sat down with hers when she was asked to dance. She graciously accepted-"Hey the guy was cute." That left Matt and Adam to get into one of their "help me understand women" discussions. Adam was curious to know what the deal was with Matt and this Kirsten, and where did Jeff fit in with the other one. Matt explained the last week or so of events to Adam in detail and asked for his opinion. Adam couldn't figure out what was Matt's hang up, so he asked him. "Man, you mean you didn't know this story by now?"
"No, I wouldn't be asking if I did."
Matt proceeded to enlighten Adam on the disastrous last serious relationship he'd had. Matt was sure by now Jeff or even Amy had told Adam and Jay.
"So you think that just because Shane and Shannon complimented the girl and that Shannon asked her to dance, she was going to turn to one of them?"
"Well, she accepted Shannon's offer to dance?"
"Damn, how dense are you? Did you expect her to sit all night and not dance at a club? Had you asked her to dance again?"
"No, but I was planning on it."
"But instead, you got hard headed and decided to act like an ass."
"Man, I don't know for sure if she likes me in that way. I wasn't going to be made to look like a fool."
"Dude, you looked like a fool all of your own doing. You need to just ask her what she thinks or wants, if you are seriously into her. Women hate it when you make decisions for them without even consulting them first."
"Maybe you're right. I should have talked to her more when Amy called her tonight."
"Just call her when you get in, you'll be loose and not so serious."
"So, what's the deal with the other chic and Jeff?"
"Jeff likes her I guess. He spent some time with her yesterday-she's got him pretty curious. You know, she's the older one-she's even got a kid."
"What? Are you kidding? She doesn't look a day older than Jeff-if that. You two kill me-you are stressing over the younger one and he's got the older one on his brain. Talk about ass backwards."
"Yeah, you'd figure that I'd be sweating the older one-she's just like me, serious as shit." "Opposites attract, man. I suppose Kirsten has a sense of humor?"
"She cracks me up and Amy loves her to death already. They get along great."
Unbeknownst to the two men, they were being eyed by a couple of ladies at the other side of the bar. Liquid courage fully in place, the two women approached the table and brazenly asked them to dance. Matt looked at Adam and shrugged-"Why not? Just a dance right?" Jeff certainly was getting his fill. He had been grabbed and touched in places he almost forgot existed as far as erotica was concerned. Jay, the ever faithful man that he was, had gotten uncomfortable awhile ago and had retired to the bar across the room. He was still getting his share of propositions though. Jeff needed something to drink so he excused himself from the woman in front of him as the music faded and swaggered over to Jay. He squeezed in next to Jay and ordered a beer. "Man, you amaze me. No wonder you can't find someone who'll keep your ass." Jeff really didn't need this. Jay was only reminding him of what was already making him not take full advantage of some of the undercurrents on the dance floor.
"Man, I haven't done anything-just dance. It's not like I'm groping her back."
"Ok if you say so. I couldn't see where one body started and the other ended. I'm shocked you don't know that girl's body inside and out by now!"
"Jay, dude, I am going back to my room tonight, alone. That's what counts."
"What, you don't want me anymore?" Jay couldn't help but blurt that out. "I'm hurt man." "Shut up, fool." Jeff just laughed. "That's what this is about-you're jealous of that chic being all over your territory huh?"
Just then Jay's attention was turned elsewhere-he nudged Jeff and pointed in the direction of the dance floor. Jeff and Jay were looking at Matt and Adam dancing! Holy cow, what a sight. One could tell the women were drunk, but Matt and Adam made the picture so hilarious by the serious discussion that seemed to be going on at the same time.
"Leave it to those two-why did they even agree to dance?"
"I'll never know."
Amy suddenly appeared with a shit eating grin on her face-seemed she had spotted the same thing Jay and Jeff had. "So, here comes Miss Popularity. No wonder we were getting swamped. All the men wanted to dance with you- leaving us with the sex starved females." "Oh like you were just hating it too! Don't give me that, I know better."
"Are you guys ready to go soon? I'm beat."
Matt and Adam had joined them at the bar unannounced-with timid drunks in tow.
"Yeah if you 2 tell your friends good night!" Jay laughed.
"You? Beat? What the hell have you done all night besides flap your gums?" Jeff teased. "Did you talk those women into silence?" Amy asked.
"That or they talked them out of craving sex!" Jay added.
"Ha, Ha, very funny-can we go?" Adam was already making his way to the door.
The quartet of handsome men with the lone sexy red head called it a night and headed for the hotel.
Kirsten made her way to Moni's room where Moni was struggling with Nicole to put her pajamas on-promising anything she had to in order to get the toddler's cooperation. "Hey sis, just wanted to let you know, Aims just called. She and the boys made it ok to the hotel. She said she'd call me in the am they are going out tonight."
"Ok. I figured they would anyway. Did you speak to Matt?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"Well, he's just stubborn. I can tell. He wants to act like nothing's up."
"You just need to talk to him when he's not in a hurry to go somewhere or when he can be cornered into addressing the issue. You need to learn how to push men's buttons."
"Oh and you're the expert?" Kirsten threw at her. "You couldn't push "jerks" buttons enough to get him to stop reducing you to a piece of ass."
"I never said I was an expert. I have my faults too when it comes to men."
"Sorry sis. I didn't mean it like that. This is just getting to me. Why can't he just tell me what his deal is?"
"Look at me-I could never get Allen to tell me what was his real hang up- what was his issue with women? I wonder if the Nicole excuse was a cover up? I'll never know now"
"What brought that on? You haven't talked about Allen in that way in quite awhile." Kirsten saw the look of affection on Moni's face when she mentioned the Marine. She had assumed her sister was sufficiently mad at and over that man. Something was up.
"Nothing, just that Matt's lack of ability to just tell you what was wrong reminded me of Allen. He never wanted to talk about his former girlfriends or the like. He never really opened up to me. He'd listen to whatever I needed to get off my chest, and we'd talk about it. But it was just a one sided relationship. Sure he stuck by me, when I said I loved him after 6 months, but I wonder why he even did that."
"I think he was afraid of his feelings for you and didn't want to hear them said aloud. He knew you were leaving the base-you'd be 8 hours away from him. Why attach yourself to something that wouldn't be there like it was before?"
"Gees Kirsten, don't listen to yourself or anything, but I think you're helping Matt make his feelings known to you."
"OOH I hate it when you do that." Kirsten knew Moni was right. That is probably what was going through Matt's head. But that still didn't help her figure out how to get him to talk about it.
In Charleston, SC, Jeff slid the key in his door and waited for the little green light. Sliding into the room, he absently caressed the wall looking for the switch. Flicking on the lights, he dropped his bags on the floor and made a beeline for the remote control. No sooner had he sat down on the bed, than there was a knock on the door "Who the hell?" He mumbled to himself as he opened it. Matt, Amy, Adam and Jay were all standing there looking expectant.
"Man, are you gonna go out with us tonight?"
"Yeah why not, what's the plan?" Jeff stepped aside so that the group could enter his room. It took all of about 5 minutes for them to get the details down.
"Meet you in the lobby in 30."
"Ok. Cool." Jeff grabbed his bags and set them on the bed so he could go rummage through and figure out what to wear. He located his shaving kit and made his way into the shower. The cascading water fell in rivulets down his body making him feel refreshed. He remembered that he was supposed to call Monique, but inwardly decided to do it later when he returned. He was curious as to what she would say when he finally did call. Women always think we forget or say we'll call when we really have no intention of it. Jeff had little tests that he put them through. Not many pass with flying colors. Twenty minutes later, after having completely "primped", Jeff entered the lobby to find them all waiting.
"Man, you are worse than a woman!" Jay exclaimed. He was instantly rewarded with a smack from Amy. "Ouch!"
"If you damn men weren't so picky-we wouldn't take so freaking long AND furthermore if we came out looking like we did a half ass job-you'd say so." Matt and Adam just laughed. Neither of them was taking sides in this one. Matt had been chosen earlier as the DD so he led them all to where he had parked the blazer.
Climbing in the back seat with Adam and Jay, Jeff asked, "Aims, did you call Kirsten already?"
"Yeah I called her as soon as I hit the room. Wanted her to know I'd call her in the morning-since we were going out."
"Did dickhead here talk to her?"
"Barely-it didn't go well."
"Hey, who's Kirsten?" Adam and Jay asked in unison
"Gees, do you two really share one mind?" Matt grumbled. He didn't need to be reminded of his earlier fuck up. "Do we really have to go into this now?" He pleaded.
"You guys don't remember Kirsten? You met her and her sister back at RAW a few weeks ago."
"Ah, I'm getting a visual-were they the two with the Kick Barbie's Ass sign?" Jay wondered.
"Yeah," Adam interjected, "the one had blue hair tints and the other had purple?"
"Yeah that's them." Amy answered.
"Cute if I do say so myself" Jay said.
"Hey, don't get any ideas," barked Matt, "you two are spoken for remember?"
"Nobody said we couldn't look and appreciate, right Adam?" Jay chuckled.
"Speaking of your appreciation of the fairer sex-Thanks Adam!" Jeff piped in.
"What for? What did I do?" Adam was puzzled.
"Your little stunt on Heat a couple months ago-remember the brunette and the blond at ringside?" Jeff tried to jog his memory for him.
"Ooh I do!" Jay said. "That was the night Adam's head (the one atop his shoulders)got to cop a feel!"
"Oh, them." Adam got red. "What about them?"
"Well it seems a couple people noticed it-you helped solidify our mystique, man."
"Ok, don't give me any shit. I got plenty of it from you know who" Adam would never forget the tongue lashing and silent treatment he had gotten for that episode.
They arrived at the club just in time to give Adam a reprieve. Not as if they weren't totally obvious when they walked thru the door-the bouncer had to rush them upstairs before a stampede started. You'd think by now they'd know by now how to downplay-but with Jeff's hair and Adam's height-you really could try your best-but it never worked. Jeff was ready to hit the floor so not wasting any time he and Jay made their way back downstairs. Soon they were lost in the sea of horny, gyrating women. Matt, Amy and Adam were content to take their time and decided to order drinks first. Amy barely sat down with hers when she was asked to dance. She graciously accepted-"Hey the guy was cute." That left Matt and Adam to get into one of their "help me understand women" discussions. Adam was curious to know what the deal was with Matt and this Kirsten, and where did Jeff fit in with the other one. Matt explained the last week or so of events to Adam in detail and asked for his opinion. Adam couldn't figure out what was Matt's hang up, so he asked him. "Man, you mean you didn't know this story by now?"
"No, I wouldn't be asking if I did."
Matt proceeded to enlighten Adam on the disastrous last serious relationship he'd had. Matt was sure by now Jeff or even Amy had told Adam and Jay.
"So you think that just because Shane and Shannon complimented the girl and that Shannon asked her to dance, she was going to turn to one of them?"
"Well, she accepted Shannon's offer to dance?"
"Damn, how dense are you? Did you expect her to sit all night and not dance at a club? Had you asked her to dance again?"
"No, but I was planning on it."
"But instead, you got hard headed and decided to act like an ass."
"Man, I don't know for sure if she likes me in that way. I wasn't going to be made to look like a fool."
"Dude, you looked like a fool all of your own doing. You need to just ask her what she thinks or wants, if you are seriously into her. Women hate it when you make decisions for them without even consulting them first."
"Maybe you're right. I should have talked to her more when Amy called her tonight."
"Just call her when you get in, you'll be loose and not so serious."
"So, what's the deal with the other chic and Jeff?"
"Jeff likes her I guess. He spent some time with her yesterday-she's got him pretty curious. You know, she's the older one-she's even got a kid."
"What? Are you kidding? She doesn't look a day older than Jeff-if that. You two kill me-you are stressing over the younger one and he's got the older one on his brain. Talk about ass backwards."
"Yeah, you'd figure that I'd be sweating the older one-she's just like me, serious as shit." "Opposites attract, man. I suppose Kirsten has a sense of humor?"
"She cracks me up and Amy loves her to death already. They get along great."
Unbeknownst to the two men, they were being eyed by a couple of ladies at the other side of the bar. Liquid courage fully in place, the two women approached the table and brazenly asked them to dance. Matt looked at Adam and shrugged-"Why not? Just a dance right?" Jeff certainly was getting his fill. He had been grabbed and touched in places he almost forgot existed as far as erotica was concerned. Jay, the ever faithful man that he was, had gotten uncomfortable awhile ago and had retired to the bar across the room. He was still getting his share of propositions though. Jeff needed something to drink so he excused himself from the woman in front of him as the music faded and swaggered over to Jay. He squeezed in next to Jay and ordered a beer. "Man, you amaze me. No wonder you can't find someone who'll keep your ass." Jeff really didn't need this. Jay was only reminding him of what was already making him not take full advantage of some of the undercurrents on the dance floor.
"Man, I haven't done anything-just dance. It's not like I'm groping her back."
"Ok if you say so. I couldn't see where one body started and the other ended. I'm shocked you don't know that girl's body inside and out by now!"
"Jay, dude, I am going back to my room tonight, alone. That's what counts."
"What, you don't want me anymore?" Jay couldn't help but blurt that out. "I'm hurt man." "Shut up, fool." Jeff just laughed. "That's what this is about-you're jealous of that chic being all over your territory huh?"
Just then Jay's attention was turned elsewhere-he nudged Jeff and pointed in the direction of the dance floor. Jeff and Jay were looking at Matt and Adam dancing! Holy cow, what a sight. One could tell the women were drunk, but Matt and Adam made the picture so hilarious by the serious discussion that seemed to be going on at the same time.
"Leave it to those two-why did they even agree to dance?"
"I'll never know."
Amy suddenly appeared with a shit eating grin on her face-seemed she had spotted the same thing Jay and Jeff had. "So, here comes Miss Popularity. No wonder we were getting swamped. All the men wanted to dance with you- leaving us with the sex starved females." "Oh like you were just hating it too! Don't give me that, I know better."
"Are you guys ready to go soon? I'm beat."
Matt and Adam had joined them at the bar unannounced-with timid drunks in tow.
"Yeah if you 2 tell your friends good night!" Jay laughed.
"You? Beat? What the hell have you done all night besides flap your gums?" Jeff teased. "Did you talk those women into silence?" Amy asked.
"That or they talked them out of craving sex!" Jay added.
"Ha, Ha, very funny-can we go?" Adam was already making his way to the door.
The quartet of handsome men with the lone sexy red head called it a night and headed for the hotel.
Kirsten made her way to Moni's room where Moni was struggling with Nicole to put her pajamas on-promising anything she had to in order to get the toddler's cooperation. "Hey sis, just wanted to let you know, Aims just called. She and the boys made it ok to the hotel. She said she'd call me in the am they are going out tonight."
"Ok. I figured they would anyway. Did you speak to Matt?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"Well, he's just stubborn. I can tell. He wants to act like nothing's up."
"You just need to talk to him when he's not in a hurry to go somewhere or when he can be cornered into addressing the issue. You need to learn how to push men's buttons."
"Oh and you're the expert?" Kirsten threw at her. "You couldn't push "jerks" buttons enough to get him to stop reducing you to a piece of ass."
"I never said I was an expert. I have my faults too when it comes to men."
"Sorry sis. I didn't mean it like that. This is just getting to me. Why can't he just tell me what his deal is?"
"Look at me-I could never get Allen to tell me what was his real hang up- what was his issue with women? I wonder if the Nicole excuse was a cover up? I'll never know now"
"What brought that on? You haven't talked about Allen in that way in quite awhile." Kirsten saw the look of affection on Moni's face when she mentioned the Marine. She had assumed her sister was sufficiently mad at and over that man. Something was up.
"Nothing, just that Matt's lack of ability to just tell you what was wrong reminded me of Allen. He never wanted to talk about his former girlfriends or the like. He never really opened up to me. He'd listen to whatever I needed to get off my chest, and we'd talk about it. But it was just a one sided relationship. Sure he stuck by me, when I said I loved him after 6 months, but I wonder why he even did that."
"I think he was afraid of his feelings for you and didn't want to hear them said aloud. He knew you were leaving the base-you'd be 8 hours away from him. Why attach yourself to something that wouldn't be there like it was before?"
"Gees Kirsten, don't listen to yourself or anything, but I think you're helping Matt make his feelings known to you."
"OOH I hate it when you do that." Kirsten knew Moni was right. That is probably what was going through Matt's head. But that still didn't help her figure out how to get him to talk about it.