Alan Ch. 24

* * *

The limousine Mr. Lazarus sent arrived at ten in the morning, and Anne-Marie was ready for it, having awakened at six. She was nervous. She really did love her work at the casino, and could see herself making a career there, but the picture Carl had painted for her, a glamorous life filled with travel and interesting--and varied--work had its attractions as well. The struggle within her caused a restless night, and so, when the summer sun rose over the shore and filled her bedroom with early morning light she was almost relieved that the suspense was nearly over. She would know. Today was the day she would know whether she would be departing her comfortable existence for a new more cosmopolitan way. In the four hours between her rising and the arrival of the car she fussed. First over her make up, spending more than twice her usual time applying the cosmetics, albeit with her usual feather-light touch, and then over what to wear, settling, after numerous false starts on a just-above-the knee tan skirt, a matching jacket, and her fanciest, most stylish white blouse, one that was cut low, but not too low. She checked her hose over and over looking for runs, putting aside three pair before finding a completely unblemished set, and then donning them in an extremely careful fashion. Too nervous to eat she sat at her kitchen table, nursing a mug of coffee for more than an hour waiting for her ride, looking at the morning paper, but not actually focusing on it enough to read the words.

She took the paper with her when the chauffeur had led her to the car, and during the ride up the turnpike she managed to stanch her nervousness enough to read it. She was surprised when she reached the office building that Mr. Lazarus was waiting on the pavement to meet her, but he explained as he climbed into the car that their first meeting was to be over lunch, and he directed the driver to a nearby restaurant.

The lunch went well, she thought. The job, as he described it sounded interesting, and had he asked her for a decision right then and there she would have accepted, but he made no such gesture. After lunch they returned to the office and she met Karick. Immediately she liked him; he seemed very competent, and she was put at ease by being among a fellow security professional, though he was reticent about clueing her in fully to his background. He showed her around the small offices and gave her a brief about what her position would entail. Mr. Lazarus disappeared for a few hours, upstairs to his lawyer's office he had said. Karick drove her to her hotel around four in the afternoon and got her checked in. She would be meeting the board of directors the next morning for her final interview, and tonight Mr. Lazarus was taking her out to dinner and a show.

* * *

"Alan, she's everything you said she was," Jack enthused over the line.

"Yeah, she's great, huh?"

"Pretty, intelligent, good at her work. Even Karick thinks we should hire her! And those legs, wow! It's very good not to be an old man anymore."

Alan suggested he suppress her memory of Carl Sutherland. "I think it would make things less complicated, and anyway, she's going to know me as Alan, so I'd rather not have to keep two stories straight in my head." Jack agreed.

"So, what are you going to do with her tonight?" Alan asked.

"We're going to the dinner and the theater, and then I'm going to seal the deal. Gotta run," he said, finishing up the call, the lascivious tone of his voice fully transmitted.

Alan went back to his books, a high afternoon sun the only source of illumination as he reclined on his bed. He had to declare a major at the end of the coming school year, and he was leaning towards something to do with ancient history or archaeology. The department at Columbia for these topics is called Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures, or MEALAC, and he had spent yesterday afternoon browsing through its homepage, making printouts of the class pages which had reading lists and syllabi. He had ordered a great many of them from Amazon, and found others in the local public library. Jack had even volunteered to teach him some languages, Classical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Akkadian, and with his abilities he would be able to take them in in no time.

He had wanted to spend the day with Kate, but when he called her earlier in the afternoon Mrs. Van Devanter had told him she'd gone out, not knowing where she went. He tried to raise her by cell phone, but it just clicked through to her voicemail each time he had called. They had soft plans for that evening, and he wanted to talk to her to firm them up.

Around five o'clock in the evening he finally reached her. She wouldn't say where she was, telling him she had a surprise, so he returned to his reading, losing track of time. When he looked up from his pages twilight was falling. The doorbell had just rung, and he heard his mom greet the visitors. He got up from his desk making towards the door, figuring it was Kate, and just as he pulled it open she came barreling into the room, smashing into him and wrapping him into a ferocious embrace, kissing him, and turning him around in place all in one motion so that his back was to the door.

"So what's my surprise?"

Kate cleared his throat, and taking that signal Scarlet appeared in the doorway. "My I present...Miss Scarlet Cavanaugh!"

"Wow," he smiled, "Good surprise! When did you come in?" He gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Just now," she answered, returning the kiss.

"I was picking her up at the airport," Kate chimed in.

"So how long are you in for?"

"I'm in for good," Scarlet informed him. "I was working for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency as a paid intern this summer, collecting and analyzing water and soil samples, but the budget crunch forced not only all of us interns being let go, but a whole bunch of the real employees got laid off."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Alan told her, sympathy drawn on his face.

"Yeah, well, that's the way the cookie crumbles, as my dad would say. It was a great summer, anyway. Kate said she'd find work for me for the next few weeks down where her dad works, so I got a flight, and here I am."

"What about your stuff? Don't you have to go home to pack?" Alan asked.

"Nah," Scarlet explained, "I stored a bunch of stuff in Kate's basement at the end of the semester, and I brought two big suitcases with me, plus my parents have to drive my kid brother to Boston College in a few weeks, so they'll all swing by with the rest of it."

"Yeah," Kate added, "And she's staying with me until school starts, plus when her folks and brother come through, they're staying with us too. I just have to clear it with my mom, but I'm sure it'll be OK."

"ALAN!" his mom yelled from the foot of the stairs, "ARE KATE AND SCARLET STAYING FOR DINNER?"

Kate and Scarlet nodded, and Alan went down to tell his mom. The girls followed, and soon Mrs. Marshall taken up Kate and Scarlet's offer to help; Alan was given the task of making the salad, Scarlet at setting the table, while Alan's Mom and Kate fussed over the rest of the cooking. Mr. Marshall got home just before seven, and they all repaired to the dining room. Both of Alan's parents had a great deal of questions for Scarlet, not having met her before, so dinner took longer than usual, and it was after half past eight before the table was cleared and the dishes and pots in the dishwasher.

Alan was wiping dry a serving platter Scarlet had just handed to him when Kate excused herself to use the bathroom. She leaned closer to him and dropped her voice. "What happened to Kate? She looks like a skeleton."

"Don't worry, we're working on it. She lost some weight on her canoe trips, and she was thinking about keeping off, but I told her she looked unhealthy. Trust me, when I picked her up she was even thinner. Her mom even approached me and we talked about it out of Kate's earshot. I seems that she was anorexic during her sophomore year in high school. Mrs. V said it wasn't too bad a case, but she did see a psychiatrist for more than a year."

They heard the toilet flush, and Alan continued, sotto voce, "I don't think its that, and I've been pretty much on her to put some of the pounds back on." He was going to keep telling, but Kate reappeared.

"So what do you want to do tonight?" Kate asked. She had a feeling they had been talking about her, judging by the way they had both clammed up upon seeing her come back, and she wanted to break the tension.

"What's there to do in a small suburban town on a Thursday night?" Scarlet asked.

"Well," Kate told them, "My folks are in New York for the night."

"Why is that, dear?" Mrs. Marshall asked reentering the kitchen.

"My mom's Aunt Vicky broke her hip, and she was released from the hospital today, and the private duty nurse doesn't start until Monday, so my folks are staying in her guest room until then."

"How 'bout we rent a movie or two, pick up some ice cream?" Alan offered.

Kate wanted to object to the ice cream, she was getting sick of it, really, but held her tongue as she saw that Scarlet thought it was splendid idea. Because Alan had to phone his Uncle Lou--it was his birthday--the girls left without him for the grocery and the video store, thanking his mom for dinner as they left. It wasn't until he had hung up that he realized that he didn't have a car, his still with Karick. The station car was making funny noises, probably because with Alan using it at night it had seen more miles than usual. He went to the garage and took his single-speed off the rack on the side wall. It was the only bike he owned which had its original pedals, ones which didn't require him to wear specialized cleats.

He reached the house before the girls returned, and waited for them on the front porch. He was surprised to find the house empty. Conchita, he knew, wasn't due back for a few more weeks, but he wondered about the whereabouts of Pauline and Cal.

Kate cleared up the mystery when thy returned. First, she had Alan take Scarlet's heavy suitcases from the trunk of the Jetta, and then she told him that Cal was in Philadelphia taking the tour of a few medical schools he was interested in applying to, and Pauline was a chaperone at a campout for her summer charges. Alan hauled Scarlet's stuff up to the guest bedroom while Kate fired up the DVD player, and Scarlet scooped out the ice cream. Alan was pleased that the one of the pints the girls had bought was pistachio, his favorite flavor. The film was "Secretary," which surprised him, as it was very risqué. As they watched the movie Alan plunged into Kate's mind. She had, he learned, never gotten her courage up to take Scarlet to bed. Dipping into the redhead's thoughts he learned that Scarlet didn't even know Kate was bi. He was also surprised to find out that Scarlet had been sleeping with guys over the summer, well, just one, but it was still a surprise nonetheless.

The film was making Kate hot. The scene where the lawyer spanked the secretary and then jerked off over her ass was kind of gross, but on the whole she was turned on. Alan hadn't tied her up at all since she returned from Maine, and now with Scarlet's arrival she wouldn't get the opportunity to fuck him tonight. She rubbed her legs together, hoping neither of her companions would notice; Alan did.

After the movie was over Kate took the bowls into the kitchen and washed up.

"So, your job was good, I mean besides the budget cuts?"

"Yeah," Scarlet answered. "Commuting sixty miles to Columbus five days a week was draining, but I liked it, and I made some good friends, well, one, really." She blushed.

Alan arched an eyebrow, though he didn't betray that he knew Scarlet had been fucking a guy while home for the summer. "Good friend? Does she have a name?" he asked, eliciting a blush.

"Jeremy," she croaked, embarrassed as all get out. Kate had always told her that Alan could see right through a person, and this was the first time she had experienced it first hand. They way he looked at her, the arched eyebrow, the inflection in his voice when he asked the question, it was like he was penetrating her innermost thoughts.

"Jeremy, interesting name for a girl," he kidded. "So, tell me about him."

Kate called over from the kitchen, asking each of them if they wanted a beverage, listing off what was in the fridge, and Alan asked for a root beer, Scarlet for a diet coke.

"He's from the next town over, a junior at Ohio State, and we carpooled. One day I would pick him up, and the next he would come get me."

"Who're you talking about?" Kate asked, coming back in.

"Scarlet's boyfriend."

"I don't have a boyfriend!"

"Did you sleep with him?" Alan asked, his expression sly.

"That's none of your business!" was her shocked retort, but he was looking at her again, that same piercing glance. "Well, um, OK, yeah, we, uh, yeah."

"Scarlet!" Kate exclaimed, a faux horror in her voice. "What happened to 'Lesbian until graduation?'"

"Well, you see," she started, grasping for an explanation, "Technically, I wasn't in school, you see, and uh, he was, uh, is, really cute, and you see, really good at, you know, uh good in, uh, bed." The color on her face matched that of her name, as she kept on sputtering.

"So, are you and this Jeremy a couple?" Kate asked, taking a seat after handing out the cans of soda and placing a bowl of fruit along with a bowl of pretzels on the table in front of them.

"No, it was just a summer thing. Long distance relationships suck."

"Oh, poor baby," Kate said sympathetically, stroking the other girl's red hair.

"Oh, Kate, it wasn't like that. We agreed to, uh, hang out again next summer, or maybe this Christmas break, if both of us were still single."

"So you're no longer an LUG?" Alan asked.

"I'm not sure," Scarlet admitted. She hadn't been with another woman since the school year had ended, mostly because she wasn't ready to reveal that part of herself to her friends and family back home, and that made finding a willing female partner impossible over the summer. She was beginning to get confused. Was Kate just being nice to her, or was she coming on to her? They had shared a room for ten months, and never had her roommate held her they way she was doing now. Even more confusing was the fact that her boyfriend, a boyfriend Scarlet knew Kate was madly in love with, was sitting five feet away, watching them from his seat in an overstuffed den chair, and amused look on his face.

"I uh, found that I missed being with a guy, and," she paused shivering as Kate's hands migrated down to her back, massaging it gently. Her nipples popped out, so she hugged herself so he wouldn't see. "I uh still like girls, very much, and uh, I think a small part of me wanted to sleep with a guy so I would see if I, uh, really wanted just to be an LUG, or maybe see if I was becoming an out and out 'L,' you know?. Kate, what ARE you doing?"

Kate had managed to untuck Scarlet's t-shirt from her jeans during Scarlet's explanation, and was now under the fabric.

"I never told you," Kate began, "But last year, after you told me about you and Jessica, ah, doing it, I began to have fantasies about doing another girl. Right before spring semester started Alan and I had a threesome with this really really cute grad student he knows." She punctuated this revelation with a lazy swipe of her tongue across Scarlet's earlobe.

"Really?" Scarlet gasped in a breathy whisper.

Alan nodded. Kate popped her bra clasp.

"Hey guys, I'm not sure about this."

"Why?" Kate teased, licking her again on the ear. Scarlet shuddered, feeling her panties moisten.

"Well," Scarlet began, marshaling her thoughts, "When you and Alan and the grad student had that, ah ah ah, threesome," she started as Kate began distracting her by playing with her pointy nipples, "You were just--JESUS that feels nice. What was I saying? Oh ummmmmm, yah, you weren't really a couple yet. But now."

Kate cut her off, "But nothing," she insisted, ending the conversation with a tender kiss, which Scarlet returned with passion.

* * *

Jack put on his jacket and stowed his necktie in the left pocket. The night had been a success in more ways than one. Over a pre-theater dinner at Picholine Anne-Marie had agreed to come work for him. She would be in charge of his personal security force, as well as being a consultant to Cyaxares, reporting to Karick. He had made a significant breakthrough with the Japanese woman, penetrating her memories for the first time earlier in the day, and the sex he had just had with Anne-Marie, his first since his resurrection, was smashing.

He had dismissed the driver at the theater, with the intention of walking her back to her hotel after the curtain fell. All through the show, a new musical, one which featured puppets having sex, no less, but one which had garnered excellent reviews, he had slowly increased her level of arousal, reducing it when the play ended, but only slightly. They chatted as they walked up Seventh Avenue towards Central Park South, where the hotel was located.

Using his mind to distract her she didn't even realize that her new boss was walking her up to her room.

"So," he began, his voice soothing, "To a new beginning." He had opened the mini-bar and poured out two nightcaps. She glanced over the rim of her glass as she took a sip. He was very handsome, different from the guys she was regularly attracted to. His brown hair was salted with bits of gray, but that would have been more noticeable if it wasn't cut as short as it was. There was a rugged quality about his face, and he had a strong chin. His eyes, in her opinion, were perhaps his most alluring feature, a steely blue, almost gray. He was older than the men she had previously dated, but that just made him seem more debonair in her eyes. "Salut," she answered his toast before taking a sip.

Suddenly he was closer. She could feel his whisky-scented breath on her face. "Welcome to the team, welcome to the big city, Anne-Marie."

She kissed him, softly on the lips, both of their mouths closed. It was a fleeting buss, in no way obscene, but she recoiled. "I shouldn't have done that, sir."

"Quite alright, quite alright," he answered, holding his ground. They were still standing face-to-face inches apart. He put his hand on her bare shoulder, brushing her hair off of it and leaned in. This time their mouths opened as they came together, and by the time she broke it off she was panting slightly.

"Sir..."

"Call me Jack. I don't stand on ceremony." He leaned in again, but she retreated.

"Sir...Jack, we shouldn't be doing this."

"I wont tell if you wont," he joked, pressing his mouth to hers. He arousal returned, and she slipped her tongue past his lips, tasting him, tasting the slight sour flavor of the liquor. His hands ran up her back and she shivered in the embrace. A terrible thought flooded her mind. Carl Sutherland had pimped her to this man. She tried to break away, but he resisted. With more force she extricated herself from his arms and turned her back on him, stomping over to the window and looking out on the beautiful city, a small tear staining her cheek, her mascara ruined.

"What's the matter, Anne-Marie?"

"Is this a set-up?" she sobbed. Carl had done this to her, too. Seduced her. Now it seemed like he was just passing her around. She didn't love Carl, but he had been her lover, and now feelings of betrayal were welling up inside her. She was nobody's whore. Shit, even her current arousal was similar to when she was around Carl. She felt she had been manipulated, and she didn't like it.

"Carl? Who is Carl?" Jack asked, sincerity dripping from his voice.

"Pardon?" she asked bewildered. In an instant all memory of Carl Sutherland was wiped clean from her mind by the man a few feet away wielding the power of the Seed of Paishiya'uvada, the third Seed, the Seed first given to Cyaxares of Akkad. She crossed the carpet to stand near him again. "Where were we?" she asked with a smile. He arms encircled her again as their mouths met, and she held his wrists briefly, guiding his hands down to cup her ass. She was very horny, her previous upset completely vacated. Soon he had maneuvered her over to the bed, his jacket strewn over a chair, her heels left by the window. He was strong, she felt in her bones, and not just physically. He had a magnetism about him she had noticed upon their meeting. His lips and tongue explored her neck, some of her most sensitive locations, and she writhed and moaned in arousal. Her hands were all over him, feeling him through the soft cotton his shirt, scrabbling fingers dispensing with the buttons. After she had stripped him to the waist her hands explored his chest. He had a very good body for a man his age, which she pegged somewhere in the mid-forties, hard but not bulging muscles, a sprinkling of soft brown hair covering his pecs and middle, tapering off as it wended its way down to his navel. She bent forward and licked one of his nipples, bringing out the desired response.