A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers. You are awesome. Please review this story, even if it's the worst piece o' crap fiction you've ever read.
Tensions were high at the Coffin residence. Alison and Benny still weren't sharing a bed and, as with any marriage, it was only making things worse.
Alison took Benny's coat and hung it up as he came in, in an attempt to extend the olive branch. As she hung up the coat, she felt something in the pocket. She reached in to find a carton of cigarettes. "What's this?" she continued before letting him answer, "I thought we quit together."
"I'm sorry, Alison. I did quit," he was trying to make excuses for himself. It seemed that he was always apologizing to her, "but these last few weeks have just been stressful."
"They've been stressful for me, too, but I didn't take up smoking again."
"Then you have more self-restraint than I do, I guess. Good for you."
"Duh. I'm not the one who cheated." This again, lovely. "By the way, did you book the room for the benefit, yet?"
Benny sighed. He had completely forgotten about it. "Not yet."
"Benny, I've asked you four times already. When are you going to do it? If you put it off any longer we won't be able to get it for the date we want!"
"Calm down. It's not a big deal. We don't even know if we're going to do it yet. We might not have enough time to organize the whole thing, remember?"
"We won't have enough time if you keep putting it off."
"Why do I have to do it anyway? I don't even like going to these things much less putting them on."
"Right. Heaven forbid me from asking you to do something to help me, even though you know the person in charge. You never do anything for me anymore. I spent the whole day running around doing errands for you and your stupid business. But the minute I want something, you don't have to do it because you don't want to."
"Oh don't act like you're always spending all your time serving me. You spend more time at the spa than you do in the house. You are the most self-serving self-righteous-
"Don't you dare finish that sentence!"
"Bitch I have ever known."
"So why did you marry me if you hate me so much?" She grabbed her purse and stormed out.
God, was she pissed off. She needed to get drunk. She needed to not feel like this. She needed her friend, Lilly. Alison needed to relax and cheer herself up, and Lilly was always the best one for that job. She had been divorced twice and was currently enjoying single life and alimony. No obligations. No real life. Just what the doctor ordered.
"Lils, are you free tonight?"
"Yeah, what's up, Allycat?"
"I need a night out of the house with no husband and no stupid responsibilities."
"You called the right girl. Take a cab to my place, you're not going to be driving home tonight." Just what Alison wanted to hear.
Alison wasn't as thin as Lilly, but she could still fit into some of her clothes, so she could at least dress for the occasion. It was still way too early to go out and drink so they stayed at Lilly's place watching stupid movies, eating ice cream and drinking various flavors of schnapps.
"He'll come to his senses tomorrow. He'll be begging you to come home. They always do."
"That's just the thing, I don't want him back tomorrow. It may be long time before I'm ready to take him back. It was like it was too far, you know?"
"You're not going to join my club, are you?"
"Get divorced? No. I don't think I could ever do that. I love him too much. I just need some time on my own."
"Ah. Right."
They started at a classy up-town bar at a hotel, but neither girl really felt like that was what they wanted. Too normal. They did that sort of thing all the time. Tonight they were getting totally smashed. They needed a dive. They weren't dressed for it, but whatever. They needed to go somewhere where they weren't going to see people they knew. No keeping up appearances tonight.
Three tries later, they ended up in the most gawd-awful looking bar Alison had ever seen. It was still in an area of town she'd willingly go, but it was definitely a nosedive from her usual standards. They sat at a little table towards the back of the room where they chatted and drank until they were plastered enough to get up and dance. This should be interesting.
They danced with each other for a while, then, Lilly got asked to dance by a hunky guy pulling off the hot-rocker look. Lucky girl. Alison danced with a couple random guys, but it felt wrong. She had left her ring at Lilly's place, but she was still married.
There was a karaoke stage in the next room. Alison decided to try it out. She had never done karaoke in public before, despite thinking she had a pretty good voice. It just wasn't classy. Pretty much everywhere she went, she was seen. Not to mention most of those places didn't do karaoke. Too pedestrian.
Oh lord, was the girl singing at the moment bad. She had never heard such an awful rendition of "Honey Bun". It was such an easy song! Then again, the girl was probably even more intoxicated than Alison was. She decided to take a look at the songbook, to see if there was anything worth completely humiliating herself over.
"Honey Bun" girl finished her song and a new bar patron got up to sing. He was nothing special, but not completely terrible. She decided to sing Madonna's "Cherish". In college, that hat had been one of her absolute favorite songs. She used to sing it much with her sorority sisters. She was confident in her abilities with that song, even though she hadn't tried in a while. It was perfect for her range, too.
She signed up. There were three more people before her. Okay. She was kind of glad Lilly wasn't in the room. She'd never let her live it down. Until then, she'd just listen. There was a stream of clichés preceding her: "You May be Right", which encouraged drunk driving; "I Will Survive"; and "Livin' on a Prayer". So uninspired. Not that "Cherish" was a whole lot better. She just hadn't heard it in a while.
She stepped up to the stage when her name was called. It wasn't until she started singing that she realized how ironic her song choice was. It was all about new love, and lasting forever. It was strange to sing "Cherish the thought of always having you here by my side," when she had temporarily left her husband.
Just as she was singing I can't hide my need," she saw someone familiar, "for two hearts that bleed," who was that? "With burning love." Mark. Oh wow, he cleaned up nice. He was dressed smartly in a nice button-up grey shirt and tie, "That's the way it's got to be." He seemed to notice the familiar voice. He looked up right at her. "Romeo and Juliet, they never felt this way I bet," she sang as she stared right back at him. He stood up and turned around and hugged some girl as she left. His ass looked good in those pants.
She finished the song and stepped down from the stage. Mark walked up to her. "Never expected to see you at a place like this." They found a free table near the stage. The place was pretty empty.
"I had to get out of the house and that whole 'being seen' scene." That was uncharacteristic of her.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, nothing a few Cosmos and Appletinis can't fix. Speaking of which, I'm headed ot the bar, want anything?" She waived a waitress over and ordered.
"I'm good for now," his speech was slightly slurred, though, "I have to get up and sing in a minute, anyway."
"Oh, will you be gracing our ears with?" She was not drunk enough right now, if she could manage that sentence. She needed that Cosmo.
"You'll see."
"So, what are you doing here and dressed so cute, at that?"
"I had a date."
"Had?"
"Well, I'm still here, alone, and I doubt I'll ever see her again. She pulled one of those 'have page you to give you an out' things. She was a bit too narcissistic, anyway. I wasn't about to go on second date with her."
"Glad you ditched her, then." He nodded.
Her drink arrived and she took it eagerly, handing the girl a twenty and telling her to keep the change. Not a minute later, Lilly found her.
"What are you doing here? And who's this?"
"I was just listening to the people sing. They can be pretty funny." Faker. Even just with Lilly she had to put on a façade. "This is Mark, an old acquaintance."
"Oh. Whatever. Just wanted to tell you I'm going to be leaving now," she handed Alison a spare key so she could get her ring and clothes back. "This is King. I know, that's his real name, says it right on his ID. Anyway, I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah, fine. Later."
"She sounds fun," Mark told Alison.
"She's the only reason I ended up here."
"Then I'll have to thank her, later," he said somewhat smoothly. Was he coming on to her? He was pretty trashed. Nah. Mark's too good for that. His name was called. "I've gotta go sing."
She watched him get up there, and saw his song on the screen facing the audience. A classic. "Can't Help Falling in Love" in the style of Elvis Presley.
"Wise men say," he sang, cheesing it up, "only fools rush in." He was actually a pretty good singer. "But I can't help," he did a really good Elvis, too, "Falling in love with you." At first he just sang to the audience. He was such a ham, people were laughing and cheering. Then, he started singing to her. He took the mic off the stand and realized it was cordless. He looked happy. Oh no.
He started singing, looking at her. When he sang, "Like a river flows surely to the sea," the second time, he started walking toward their table, staring directly at her. She crossed her hands one over the other to signal 'no'. This seemed only to motivate him more. He could totally embarrass her. Perfect.
At "Take my hand," he stuck out his hand and people started cheering and screaming louder. She gave into peer pressure and reluctantly took his hand and followed him back up to the stage. He was so dead. "For I can't help falling in love with you." He was sure he was going to get slapped or punched or something along those lines. "For I can't help falling in love with you," he finished. Despite her humiliation, it was strangely romantic.
The people cheered. She swore she could make out "Kiss her". She knew he never would, so she hugged him to shut them up. A disappointed "awww," rang out. Fine, she'd give them what they wanted. She was just drunk enough for it to make sense, yet retain some ability. She kissed him.
Afterwards, you could have knocked him over with a feather. She led him by the hand down from the stage. "It was just for the stage," she told him unconvincingly, "I was totally faking it."
He admitted to himself that he had been kind of coming on to her earlier and during the song, but that was just a joke. He hoped she didn't get the wrong message from it. But he wouldn't mind another kiss like that. She was good. If that was faking it what would the real thing be like? No! He couldn't think like that. She was married! To his friend! Bad Mark.
"Calm down," she told him, looking at his somewhat panicked face. They sat down at the table. She ordered another Cosmo, a beer for him and little appetizer of garlic bread. Bread was good as it soaked up the alcohol that they were about to consume.
Apparently, the bread didn't soak up enough alcohol. Twenty minutes later they were making out. They ended up getting a hotel room, nearby. They were both deprived and they both needed it. Badly.
It was the best sex either of them had had in years.
She woke up at seven AM with a bitch of a hangover. Holy fucking crap. She was naked in a bed that wasn't hers with a man that wasn't her husband. She got up and got dressed. The motion of her getting out of bed woke Mark.
"Oh my God. We didn't…"
"I think we did."
"Oh God. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have- what was I thinking?"
"Calm down," she told him, more because he was hurting her ears than anything else. "Look," she told him, "It's not your fault. It was a mistake. We were both pretty drunk. Let's just agree not to talk about this, okay?"
"Okay," he said slowly as he sat up and looked for his boxers from the bed. He was still too hung over to really process things. He knew he'd hate himself later, when he could think. But for now, he'd just forget. It never happened.