If you know the characters they are Janet's, Carla's all mine.
Chapter 9
A few hours later I was showered, dressed and had made a small dent in the bottle of JD. I had spent a pleasant couple of hours with Ella in her apartment before she had to start on Ranger's evening meal. That man didn't know how lucky he was. She had offered to make me something but I was a bit more nervous than I would care to admit about this evenings proceedings. I had told Ella what I would be doing and she hadn't seemed too pleased. Her parting words to me had been "they better look after you or they will have me to answer to". I wondered if this would put the fear of God in any of the Merry Men but I doubted it. Stranger things had happened though.
I was now standing in front of the bathroom mirror doing my make up. I stepped back to have a look at myself. I thought I looked rather good. I was wearing a short electric blue satin dress with diamonte straps and my new Victoria's Secrets push up bra and lacy black thong. My 36D cleavage now looked even more impressive under the low neckline. I also wore a pair of shoes I had bought months ago but had never had the chance to wear. They were also electric blue with peep toes and diamonte ankle straps with 4 inch heels. I was struggling to keep my balance but for some unknown reason once under the unfluence of alcohol I could suddenly walk better in heels and could dance the night away in them. But in the soberish state I was in now I was in serious risk of breaking an ankle. Another drink was needed and soon. I had styled my hair in a choppy 'just got out of bed' look and my eyes were given the smokey treatment to bring out the blue in my eyes. I had finished off with a deep pink lip gloss and a dab of Ravishing to the pulse points. I looked like a proper slut. And I felt great!
Just after seven there was a light tap at the door. I answered it to find Steph standing there holding a large paper bag, a brown folder and a big smile on her face.
"Wow you look amazing Carla" she said as she walked in.
"Thank you dahling" I said putting on a posh voice. "You looking absolutely super yourself".
Steph looked more than super. She looked stunning. Like myself she had a sexy little dress on. It was short and sequined with a single wide strap. She had matched it with four inch shoes with sequined ankle straps. Her eyes were heavily made up but she wore a pale pink lip gloss which only emphased her big blue eyes all the more. She wore her curls piled on top of her head in a big sexy mess. Round her neck she wore a beautiful black crystal on a thick silver chain. I imagined she must have drawn quite a lot of attention once she had arrived at Rangeman and I said as much to her.
"Mmm yeah I think I did but then . . . ." she paused and had a think "it really gives my confidence a boost to see their reaction, its not that often I get to dress like a whore" she laughed.
"Has Ranger seen you?" I asked.
"Probably but not in person. He's bound to have seen me on the camera's though" she moved over to the kitchen and put the brown bag and folder on the counter top. "I've brought dinner" she said changing the subject.
The most amazing smell filled the kitchen as she opened the bag. I suddenly realised that I wasn't quite so nervous and I was starving. Probably the lack of nerves was due to the Jack Daniels.
"What have you brought?" I asked. "It smell wonderful".
"Meatball subs from Pino's" she said handing me one and producing a couple cans of Diet Coke. She stood over the sink and took a big bite of her sub.
"You want to sit at the table?" I asked.
"No here is fine" she mumbled through a mouthful of food. "Less likely to mess my dress this way" she eyed my cleavage "mind you if you lose any I'm sure we can find someone to lick it out of there" she laughed.
"Good aren't they" I said proudly looking down at myself. "Its not too much is it?" I asked suddenly worried I had overdone the slut look.
"No you look just great. Can't wait to see Les's face when he sees you" she said.
I felt myself blush at the thought of Lester seeing me in my dress. Steph laughed when she noticed my condition.
"Don't worry about Les he's a sweetie" she said. "Although don't take anything he says too seriously, he is a habitual flirter and a real ladies man. You're just a bit of entertainmant for them just now". She took a couple of glasses from a cupboard and split a can of coke between them.
"Entertainment!" I spluttered. "Oh great so I am just a bit of amusement for them all then". I took the glasses and poured a couple of shots of JD into them. Steph eyed them nervously.
"Oh don't worry I have been entertaining them all with my antics for a while now" she said. "They don't mean any harm, its just a bit of light relief away from their jobs" she looked thoughtful for a second "they have seen a lot of bad stuff over the years".
"Like what?" I asked sipping my drink.
"Now's not the time to tell you, some other time maybe" she eyed the glass in front of her "you know Ranger really isn't going to be happy if we get drunk before tonight".
"We're not going to get drunk, just a bit merry maybe" I said. "Hey where's Tina? I asked suddenly realising the absence of Hal's girlfriend.
"She's had to pull out, Hal decided he couldn't handle watching his girlfriend trying to get it on with another man" she said taking a tentative sip of her drink. "Bobby's girlfriend Sasha is stepping in but she's meeting us at the club. She's lovely you'll like her". Steph took a bigger sip of her drink and seemed to be enjoying it now.
"I take it Bobby doesn't mind his girlfriend getting it on then?" I asked. I still hadn't met the elusive Bobby.
"He's in Miami just now but gets back tomorrow morning. But Bobby's pretty laid back so probably wouldn't have a problem with it". Steph drained the last of her glass and poured herself another. I was going to have to play catch up here with my drink so downed the last of mine.
"Doesn't Ranger mind you flirting with other men then?" I asked.
Steph threw this question around in her head before answering. "Ranger knows its all part of the act. But anyway its not his place to tell me what to do or act around anyone". She took another large gulp of her drink. "Ranger and I have this understanding, but we are not in any kind of relationship" she said as she drained the rest of her glass and hiccupped. "You know I really don't drink much except beer. This is going straight to my head" she laughed as she poured yet another drink and finished the last of the coke.
"Whats this understanding then?" I asked her pouring myself a neat shot of JD.
"Well" she said moving through to the livingroom area to sit on the couch. "He's knows I'm in a serious relationship with Joe, but that doesn't stop him from poaching" she answered slightly slurring her words. She wasn't wrong about not handling her alcohol.
"Poaching?" I asked. I joined her on the couch taking the nearly half full bottle of JD with me.
"You know, trying to steal a kiss here, cop a feel there, jump into my bed with me whenever the chance arises. Not that we have sex or anything" she added. "Well only the once but I'm not going into that tonight".
"But what about this Joe?" I asked pouring us both another large JD each. "How does he feel about you doing these jobs and this relationship you have with Ranger? Surely its not fair on him" I said.
"He hates it, but I don't go into too much detail about what I am actually doing on these jobs, and he doesn't know anything about the poaching" she giggled and hiccupped again. "He's too busy joining forces with my mother trying to get me to give up my job and settle down with a job at the button factory" she looked sad again at the thought. "I've known Joe nearly all my life and there was always a certain element of danger and excitement about him which attracted me to him, but now that I've got to know him, and obviously cos he's matured, he's just Mr Dependable now." she finished with a large sigh and a larger gulp of her drink.
I looked at her for a moment and realised just how confused she was about the men in her life and her relationship with them. They were obviously taking their toll on her by the look of anguish in her eyes as she spoke.
"So maybe you're attracted to Ranger so much because he has that sense of danger around him" I ventured. "You love Joe for his dependability, but Ranger for the excitement".
She looked at me for a long moment then nodded her head "Carla, you've just said out loud what I have been thinking to myself for the last few months. Suddenly she stretched over to give me a big hug. "I've only known you for five minutes but I love you already" she gushed, probably due to the JD more than anything else. "Its so good having someone to talk to who's not already involved with Rangeman, my family or Trenten Police Department". She picked up the now nearly empty bottle of JD and poured the remaining liquid into two very large shots.
I picked my glass up and held it aloft. "You know what you need Stephanie Plum" I said standing up but then falling straight back down again. Oh dear maybe I was a tad more inebriated than I thought. I stood up again and raised my glass again. "You need a man free night" I declared. "Any man comes near us tonight, and I mean any man" I emphasised "we are going to give them the slip".
Steph jumped up with her glass and held it up beside mine "To no men whatsover" she shouted "except for our target though" she said in a whisper "we better not forget our actual aim for the night". We clinked our glasses and drained them in one go. Steph grimaced as the drink went down and I couldn't help but laugh. She really couldn't take the hard stuff.
"We need some music" she declared heading over to the entertainment system and hitting away at some random buttons.
"I'm on it" I said. Earlier I had noticed the Ipod docking station and had already worked out how to use it. I switched it on and quite fittingly the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling" came on. I cranked up the volume and we started to dance about to the music. I felt about twenty one again, I honestly couldn't remember having this much fun before a night out for such a long time. Of course this wasn't a night out, this was work. But at that moment I honestly couldn't care.
The music was so loud and we were so busy jumping about like mad to chorus that we didn't hear the banging on the door. In fact the first thing we knew Tank was in the room was when he picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned off the music. We both stopped dancing and looked up at Tank in shock. Then we both fell to the couch in an uncontrollable fit of the giggles.
"Fuck Steph, Ranger's gonna go nuts" he shouted closing the door behind him. "You're both hammered" he said looking down at us shaking his head.
"We're fine Tankie" Steph said stifling a giggle but failing badly.
"Christ we're going to have to call this off, you can't work like this" Tank said digging out a radio from his cargoes.
"We're fine honestly Tank" I said standing up and steadying myself against his chest. "Mmm nice arms" I said running my hands down his big muscular arms.
"Oh Carla Lula will kill you if she finds out you been feeling up her man" Steph laughed waggling her finger at me. Tank just took a step back shaking his head again. "Steph doesn't normally drink before these jobs" he said looking at me accusingly.
"Hey I'm sick of you men telling what I can and can't do" Steph shouted jumping up and poking Tank in the chest. "Tonight I'm being my own woman" she proclaimed picking up her empty glass and downing absolutely nothing.
"Girl power" I shouted then we did a high five and tried a complicated handshake out for size, but we just ended up tickling each other and falling about laughing again.
"We're royally fucked" Tank said. "Ranger will not let this go ahead once he's seen the state of you two".
"We'll just have to make sure he doesn't see us then" Steph said.
"How we gonna do that?" Tank asked with a sneer.
"I have an idea" I proclaimed. "But we're going to need some help!"