Part 65
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Where are you going dressed like that?"
Sarah flounced through the sitting room of the penthouse suite and laughed at Howie's reaction. "Becca's bachelorette party at Tabu."
"You're still going through with it?" he laughed. "You know how Bec feels about stuff like that and yet you're taking her to the Chippendales show. I can't even imagine." He shook his head and laughed again.
"D, get real. You KNOW Becca isn't the church lady she makes out to be. She's a different person when she's not around Nick, so tonight should be fun. What are YOU doing tonight?" she asked, pressing herself up against him.
"Oh, not much," he hedged. "Just hangin' with the guys …."
"Liar!" she laughed. "I know for a fact that you moved Nick's party here to the hotel."
"What?" he asked innocently, "Me party without you?! Not a chance." He kissed her nose as she giggled.
"In a heartbeat. Just don’t get into any trouble. Mr. Dorough."
"I promise, but the same goes for YOU, Mrs. Dorough."
Sarah sighed and got that same dreamy statement on her face that always appeared when anyone called her 'Mrs. Dorough'.
Howie shook his head in amusement. "You still have time to change."
"You don’t like my outfit?" Sarah pouted.
"Angel, I LOVE your outfit. And so will every other man that sees you tonight." He looked her over once again. Sarah was wearing a pair of black leather hip huggers and a halter top that had very little back. Her stomach was showing and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail just like his.
"D, it's LADIES night, remember? The only other men there will be your employees, and if they like their jobs they won’t look twice at me."
"I could blow off Nick's party…"
"No, you can't. You’re the best man and it's your responsibility to get him trashed tonight. Too bad Becca can't drink," she sighed, "I've seen her drunk and it's quite a sight."
"Go on, get going. The sooner you leave-"
"I know, the sooner I can come back to you. And you can help me out of these leather pants, ok?"
Howie groaned in frustration. "Just GO. The car's waiting downstairs."
Sarah laughed, waving over her shoulder as she sashayed out the door.
**********
"Are you ready to PAAAAAARTY?" Sarah laughed as she burst through the door at Becca's house. "Sarah D is IN da house!"
"You're insane!" Becca laughed. "Is that what you're wearing?"
"God, you sound like Howie. YES it is, this is a party night. Is that what YOU'RE wearing?" She shook her head at Becca's outfit. "Girlfriend, I KNOW you have better looking maternity clothes than that. Let's go change you. And don't give me any lip about your image, because I KNOW better."
Twenty minutes later the limo, filled with all the girls, was on its way to Tabu and a night none of them would soon forget.
"Look at this crowd!" Sonja said. "Is it like this all the time?"
"Almost," Vanessa said. "It was more crowded than this the first night we came here, remember Ali?"
"I know, this seems to be a light crowd."
"There were only a limited number of tickets sold. More intimate that way," Sarah said, laughing at the statement on Becca's face. "Come on, you guys, let's GO!" The bouncer on the door parted the crowd for Sarah and led them to their table right down front.
"Sarah-" Becca began.
"Bec, would you lighten UP? This is supposed to be fun. How you can write about our husbands having wild, hot sex together and then blush at a total stranger is beyond me." She shook her head, downing the first of what would be many Purple Orgasms.
"I'm not a prude, Sarah, but writing about it in the privacy of my own home and seeing it waving in my face in public are two entirely different things."
"Bec, get real. You may write it in privacy, but then you post it on the fucking Internet for thousands to see! Hell, even Nick has read most of it."
"Read what?" Sonja asked, returning to the table with her own drink.
"Nothing," Becca said quickly. "So, what time does the show begin?"
Sarah laughed at the incongruity of the situation. The crowd that was together for this party was diverse, to say the least. There were Ali and Vanessa, who had virtually no secrets from her; there was Sonja, who was Brian's girlfriend (and she knew HE was not as pious as everyone made him out to be) and then there was Becca. She smiled wondering just how loose she could get her tonight without the use of alcohol. Motioning to the waiter, she ordered another drink.
The show was everything it promised to be and more. Damn, she never knew there could be that many good-looking, buff men in one place. Ali and Sonja had bonded over the guy in the leather dog collar and were busy trying to entice him to their table with dollar bills while Vanessa simply drooled over every one that made an appearance.
One of the last to come onstage looked too much like AJ for anyone's comfort. All five women sat with stunned looks as he danced, his well-oiled biceps sporting almost as many tattoos as AJ had.
"God," Ali said breathlessly. "Wouldya look at that?"
"Oh, baby," Sonja agreed. "Take me now." She giggled for no apparent reason.
"Sonja, you're drunk," Becca said, giggling as well. She'd relaxed quite a bit, just as Sarah had promised and was hooting and hollering right along with the rest of the women in the club.
"I'm drunk, yes," Sonja answered. "And your point?"
Sarah lifted her glass in a silent toast, and then turned her attention back to the dancer. "Wow."
"What?" Becca laughed.
"Oh, nothing, just looking at all the ink on that gorgeous body."
"Oh, so you’re a tattoo fan?" Vanessa smirked. "Kevin has a couple. But then you know that already," she laughed taking another sip of her margarita.
"Yup," Sarah grinned. "But Howie …. Howie doesn't have any." She pouted, shredding her napkin.
"Nick does," Becca sighed. "I love to trace them with my-"
"Your what?" Ali asked with a smirk.
"My fingers," Becca said blushing. "I was gonna say 'fingers'."
"Uh huh, sure," Sarah snorted.
"I have one, too," Vanessa admitted.
"Nuh uh!" Sonja said.
"Yep, right here," she said, pulling up her top and exposing her lower back.
"That is SO cool!" Sarah said.
"Didn't it hurt?" Sonja asked.
"Only a little, and it's not a very big one, so that made it easier."
"I want one," Sarah declared.
"Are you CRAZY?" Becca shrieked.
"No, I’m drunk!" she laughed. "Come on, let's go get one!" she insisted.
"Sarah you're out of your mind! This is not like getting your ears pierced at a slumber party in Junior High, a tattoo is forever."
"God, that was fucking poetic," Sarah sighed dramatically.
Becca continued to reason with her. "What will Howie say?"
"Dunno, Bec. Maybe he can trace mine with his … 'fingers' too." She snorted.
"C'mon, Bec, it'll be fun!" Ali said. "This is definitely a wedding party to remember. There's a cool little parlor right down the street."
"Howie's going to kill me for letting her do this," she mumbled as she followed the rest of the women out the side door. "Wait up!"
Half an hour later they were watching the artist put the final touches on Sarah's shoulder. She'd chosen a feminine-looking angel of course, and below it was the inscription "Sweet D's Angel".
She'd begun to sober up and it hurt a bit, but she didn't regret her decision to get one. In fact, she'd spent the majority of her time under the needle trying to convince Becca to get one, too.
"I don't THINK so, Sarah." Becca browsed through the catalogs looking at the thousands of possible designs and shaking her head.
"Bec, look!" Vanessa called her over to look at a design behind the counter. "Isn't that just like Nick's?"
"Wow, 'Nessa, it's identical." The design they were looking at was the same as the sun tattoo on Nick's right arm. He'd had that one done in January in between the second and third shows in Ft. Lauderdale and it was Becca's favorite. She blushed remembering the times she'd run her tongue over the outline in the heat of passion.
"Bec, you have to do this!" Ali said. "It would be SO cool for both of you to have matching tats."
"Ali, I'm getting married in …" she counted mentally, "four days. I’m pregnant-"
"So? It's immoral for a mom to have a tattoo?? Live a little!"
She was seriously considering it. What if she did it and then Nick had a fit? But wait, it was HER body, she could do it if she wanted, right? She'd have to show him before the wedding. Wouldn't she?
"Make it a wedding present, Bec," Sarah said, reading her mind like always.
"Get OUT of my brain!" Becca laughed. "Sarah, you're the one that told me I kept too many things from Nick and now you want me to hide this?!"
"Well, ok, so it's a little unorthodox. But imagine this … there you are, alone on the boat after the wedding. You with me so far?"
"Yeah," Bec said with a far away look in her eyes.
"I thought so," Sarah smirked. "Anyway, there you are, alone at last. The boat is rocking gently to and fro as Nick slowly removes your dress-"
"God almighty!" Vanessa gasped.
"And as he does, the candle light flickers over the tiny design on-"
"My lower back. Right here," Becca said pointing to the spot just above her right buttock below the waistband of her maternity jeans.
Fifty dollars and forty-five minutes later they were on their way back to the hotel in the limo. Champagne flowed freely as they drove through downtown Orlando and Sarah had the driver take the long way while they killed two more bottles and tried to convince Becca that she had to keep this a secret until after the wedding.
"It's simple," Sonja said. "No more sex until after the ceremony."
"Sonja!" Sarah laughed. "You're a genius! God, Bec, that's perfect. Cut him off for four days and he'll be so damn desperate for love that he won’t even notice." She hiccuped loudly and Ali and Vanessa high fived each other as Becca grinned and shook her head.
"What have I done?" she sighed.