Felicity Ch. 34

I groaned which is the proper response to a bad pun.

"Merci," she said and kissed me.

We went back inside and went to her studio. I detoured for a leak and when I joined her she asked, "What did you do to my settings?"

She was playing back what we had done that afternoon.

"I adjusted it to the piano, your voice and the room."

"Ahh, the room. You are the first to account for the room and that is why it sounds so perfect."

Matt called Ruthie as I fine tuned the sound in the room. After she hung up she told me he had asked her who did the sound on tonight's concert. The sound on the video was awesome, best ever, he had said.

"I gave him your name and you will be getting a check in the morning and royalties thereafter. The concert is going on a DVD."

I was standing behind her massaging her shoulders and said, "Paychecks are nice" and kissed her neck.

She pulled me down and sat me next to her on the bench and said, "OK, listen. Neither Wendy nor I are ready to see you and your Mom leave so we called a friend and he found someone to drive your trailer home. He will start on the way Tuesday and have it at your house on Saturday then fly back.

Your Mom will be with Wendy and fly to Vegas on Thursday. We need to be there Tuesday.

I will be introducing you as our sound-man but Caesar's has one of the best so you do not need to do anything except love me for a week. Any objections?"

"Is there anything to eat in your kitchen?"

I was as happy as could be but decided not to show it. Ruthie saw it anyway.

After a wild kiss she answered, "Yes, anything I like from any restaurant I always get a second meal to go and freeze it. I must have thirty in the freezer?"

"Lets get some parkas on and search."

We went to the kitchen and I settled on some swordfish with sauce and she decided on shrimp pasta like we just had that evening.

I asked if there was another one and she pointed at a shelf that had three more. I put the swordfish back and got the linguini.

We kissed as we waited.

While we ate she told me what she had to do when she got to Vegas. I asked her if she would have time to look around the town and she said no.

"You have Friday and Saturday," I said.

"Yes, I would," she said and put her dish in the sink.

She seemed to be down more than a bit. The leaving the next day now had a concrete date.

"Hey, don't punt before it's fourth down."

I wondered why I said that but her small smile made whatever I meant worthwhile.

I put my dish in the sink and got a Dr. Pepper for her and a coke for me and walked us out to her back porch. We got on her swing and sat silently for a while.

"Is it because of Melody?"

Somehow she thought I was rejecting her.

"Melody is your job. You are Ruthie and I really like Ruthie. I like Melody in concert but I'm not sure we are compatible."

"You are right, Melody is just my job. I am happy to hear you like Ruthie better."

I kissed her. I meant it to be a sweet short kiss but as the kiss progressed neither of us felt like ending it so we continued the kiss. My hand ended up on a breast, her hand ended up on my cock. A few moments later she straddled me and sank her pussy over my very alert cock.

Our kiss continued but we did not fuck, we loved as I gently propelled the swing for us.

I kissed her breasts as I caressed her ass. She wound her arms around my shoulders and pulled me harder to her body.

I put both hands under her butt and stood with us still coupled. She wound her longlegs around me and I walked us to the bed and lay on my back. The kiss intensified.

I put my legs outside hers and squeezed them together effectively trapping my cock in her pussy. I began pressing her ass down in a slow rhythm. Our kiss ended when she groaned in orgasm.

I did not pause or stop until I filled her with my semen, which came after her fifth cum. It had been a nearly hour long fuck.

We resumed our kiss until we fell asleep.

She was staring at me when I awoke the next morning.

"What?"

"You made real love to me last night, I felt it. It was real so don't try to deny it. Careful, I might get used to that.

But we do not have time this morning, I have to go to work and you do too. We are rehearsing the Vegas show and we do not have a sound-man. Allen told me to do whatever it took to get you there.

I told him that Canadian bacon, sausage gravy over potatoes and blueberry pancakes would do it."

"You had me at the Canadian bacon."

"We need to dress and go," she said as she got off my body. It was then that I realized my cock had been in her pussy.

We had to hurry to the studio so neither of us got to the pancakes but that was overkill anyway, we were not too disappointed.

I met several people including the head and owner of the studio, the first such person I had ever met.

The working atmosphere could only be described as casual. Everybody kissed everybody including me and everyone knew what they needed to do except me.

Rob, the studio head, apologized for forgetting I had not been there before and led me to the sound booth and introduced me to the love of my life. The beautiful monster had more channels, buses, sliders and power than anything I had ever worked with.

Sony had purchased three and I had trained on the one that had been set up but I had never worked using it.

I told Rob that and he laughed and said, "Don't worry, no one has worked on this thing since we had it installed. It is the mother ship of the one you worked on last night so Allen thought you could handle it. Have fun."

I had a blast with it and by the time we needed a sound check I was ready. I got useful stuff from everyone but Ruthie, she gave me a raspberry and an Oww.

I looked up and saw Edie had slapped her butt.

I turned on my mike and said, "Perfect."

Ruthie said, "Thank you."

"I was talking to Edie."

As Ruthie was giving me the finger a smiling Edie started a violin intro and everyone else jumped in at precisely the right time and Ruthie began to sing a happy up-tempo song.

I had everyone and every instrument perfectly pegged before the first chorus and kept them there for two hours. As they finished the set I turned on my mike and said, "Uhm, Janis, are you doing Cry Baby?"

Ruthie jumped up and down as the others immediately got ready and Allen began to wail on his Fender as Edie rushed to the piano. It was an even longer hair-raising version of the one Janis did on the Canadian train tour.

They had done this before.

Everyone was laughing and jumping and clapping when finished and Ruthie ran to me and gave me a ferocious kiss then began to lobby to include it in the program. She did not need to; Rob and Allen had already decided it had to go in.

For lunch I told Ruthie I wanted to try the fish place downtown that was too crowded to get into on my first night in town, Ruthie agreed and so did everyone else so ten of us walked there.

As it turned out it was as crowded as it had been before, but they had a covered patio that could hold all of us at one table.

Ruthie ordered the swordfish and I ordered the grilled grouper which came head and all. Ruthie called me a barbarian and said "Yeww" when I ate the eye.

I gave her the other eye to eat and after a great debate with herself she ate it.

Everyone else said "Yeww."

Ruthie kissed me then announced, "It was good."

Ruthie and I spent the lunch feeding each other as we talked with the others about everything except the concert session.

I learned more about the people and relationships in town. I was introduced to Doris, the co-owner and chef of the place, and learned that Martina's husband had financed the restaurant. Doris and her husband Larry already paid him back but he owned ten percent.

Ruthie told me he had done the same for Sally, and Julian and Marissa, and he owned ten percent of those. She also said that for all practical purposes all were brothers and sisters. The relationships in town began to make some sense.

Also eating with us were Ruthie's agents Edna and the elder Petra, our Petra's mom. They had business to discus with Rob.

Allen did tell me that after lunch we would go back and listen and take notes then argue for a couple of hours and do it again tomorrow until we had it perfect, then do a dress rehearsal. We would do another run-through at Caesars Tuesday afternoon and if needed Wednesday morning.

Once as Ruthie was giving me a forkful of sauce-covered swordfish we noticed that everyone was looking at us.

"What?" Ruthie asked.

Eight people smiled and said, "Nothing."

I though I saw a tear fall off Edie's eye.

"Allergies," I thought until Ruthie ran to her and gave her a ferocious kiss then ran back to me.

Ruthie was borderline overflowing with happiness when she kissed me, took a deep breath and asked if anyone was not going to finish their fries.

Everybody threw them at her, which started a food fight.

The guys got up and went to the register and left the fight to the ladies. I followed the guys after I caught a fry and ate it.

Apparently a tradition of some kind had been honored.

As we walked back everyone had somebody's hand in theirs. Rob had Marie's hand in his, as it turned out she was his mother.

Alice was walking hand in hand with the drummer, which turned out to have been Nikki, the drummer for a popular all girl group at the turn of the century and also her daughter.

Allen and Edie had been married for a long while.

Petra the mom and Edna were doing a lot of giggling behind us. I had the feeling it was about me, or about Ruthie and me.

"Ignore them," Ruthie said which sent them to a full laughter. It was then that I noted they had identical rings by Wendy.

As we got to the boulevard they said bye and headed to an office building to our right.

Back at the studio we all got comfortable and listened to the playback. Everyone had a pad and a pencil and all of us wrote something down. I was sitting on a cushion on the thickly carpeted floor against a wall and Ruthie was on the floor with her head on my lap as Allen and Edie did the same.

Rob had his mother in his arms as he sat against the wall and Alice had her daughter in her arms as they did the same. There was guy I had not met but knew it was Matt at the playback booth and a woman was sitting on the piano stool.

The playback stopped at the fifty minute mark and everybody got up and went to the restroom then returned with a coke or Dr. Pepper except Allen who came back with coffee. I decided that was a good idea and asked him where the coffee was.

I met Matt there; he was doing the playback and did the filming for every concert. He appeared to be a good guy and very good at his job.

Ten minutes later we talked about the first fifty minutes.

Who wants to start? Rob asked.

"I do. I want to apologize for the first five seconds or so. It will be better next time." I said.

"Not to worry, we all know it was Ruthie's fart the led you astray," Edie said.

Ruthie held her hand up then slowly curled all her fingers except one. I slurped the finger into my mouth and that made Ruthie go, "Yeww," which got laughter from everyone else.

I noticed Ruthie had musical notes and numbers on her pad.

Another bathroom/drink session later Rob again asked, "Who wants to go first?

Alice said to her daughter, "Baby, before the last stanza of Roses I think we need something a bit more boisterous; that is when the listener realizes the song is not about the flower but about sisters."

All nodded in agreement and I said, "Bass drum and cymbals leading to the normal beat should be enough," I said.

Everyone looked at me, and I realized that type of comment was not part of the job.

I was about to apologize when Nikki, asked, "One or three?"

"Three and one."

"I got it. Thanks."

From that point I gave my input was only when requested. It was requested often.

The lady sitting on the piano stool never said anything but wrote copious notes. I learned she was a representative of Caesar's and would be the stage manager at the venue. I did not know if everyone did that or if it was just Caesar's, I had never sat at any of the meetings.

As the meeting ended I asked, "When should Janis show up? I will need ten seconds to adjust the board for her so it can't be in the middle during the long medley. And is there going to be an introduction of Janis, maybe something on the screen. Just something to consider but not a question for now, Ruthie's tummy is growling at me."

I was looking at Caesar's rep when I said the part on archival video.

She nodded at me.

"Think about what Sean said but let's go home. See you tomorrow at nine," Rob said.

We all groaned our way off the floor and began to walk out.

"Where to?" I asked.

"Home, we have two more containers of garlic oil linguini."

Ruthie was skipping and humming as we walked out to her car.

"Why are you so happy?"

"It's more than that. It was the first time I had anyone with me for playback. It felt good. Thanks," she said and kissed me. She waved at the others when they said bye but never stopped the kiss.

Ruthie and I shared one bad habit, we would eat the same meal over and over until we were done then never again for a year or so. We were not near that point with the linguini.

She said "I had promised Janie I would watch her dance tonight but I am too tired. I just want to sit on the swing with you and watch the creatures walk by."

"I thought Janie was deaf."

"She is and yet she is the best dancer of us all. Matt puts the bass speaker face down on the floor and she is barefoot as she dances. She is my best friend even though we have never had sex. We became best friends during the year I tried to seduce her. She is married with two kids now. I am on her baby sitters list and on Vicky's list too."

"Vicky?"

"Rob's wife.

"Funny, I can easily see you babysitting but I would never be able to see Melody babysitting."

"You are weird."

We were now at her house and got naked.

We talked, we cuddled, and we kissed until our quiet evening ended when Allen and Edie arrived. They did bring a box of empanadillas so I was happy to see them even though I had to put gym shorts on. Edie wore just a t-shirt of the opera Carmen. Ruthie put on a t-shirt of Alice and Marie.

As they came in I saw that they had come over in bicycles.

They wanted to know if Ruthie had finished the duet. She said yes but was having second thoughts about her partner on the song. Ruthie took them to her studio and before I had a chance to decide to follow them or not Mom and Wendy walked in, they were wearing just t-shirts. Mom was wearing the New Orleans one I had bought her. Wendy's was an old Air Force Academy shirt. I later learned it was the first time Wendy had worn the shirt since her husband died.

Both gave me long kisses and Wendy added a dick grope then asked where Ruthie was. I told them, "In the studio with Edie and Allen, they just went there."

Wendy headed that way as Mom hugged me.

She said, "I am going home the Saturday morning after the concert. You do not need to come with me, Wendy is. We hired the driver to stay and unpack for me. Wendy will stay until Tuesday.

I am not telling you can't come with me, I am telling you that if you want to stay with Ruthie you can."

Wendy came back and told Mom, "Marti, you have to come and listen to this."

Mom followed her and before my head could absorb what she had just said more people came in, Mo, Marie, Alice, and Nikki came in, all of them in ill-fitting t-shirts. I could see Nikki's tits under the sleeves. All came to me and gave me big kisses and dick gropes then went directly to the studio.

Rob walked in as Allen walked back out, apparently Allen had called him. Rob waved at me as he went to the studio and I just gave up.

I went to the kitchen, put some empanadillas in a bowl, got a coke, and then started out towards the patio but I noticed a kitchen cabinet in a corner.

"If I was hiding booze anywhere in the kitchen it would be there," I said to myself.

I found what I was hoping for in that cabinet, an already open bottle of crown. I filled a tall glass with ice, filled a third of it with crown then filled the rest of it with coke.

I was at the patio table and had eaten all my empanadillas and drank half my drink when Allen and Rob joined me. They had crown and cokes and empanadillas.

Rob said, "We would like for you to consider being our audio supervisor. We are ready to pay you twice what Sony is paying.

"Wow, I didn't see that coming. Did Mom just tell you we are no longer in a hurry to get to L.A.?"

"Actually she told Ruthie and her reaction immediately brought verbal abuse from the other women.

Anyway talk it over with Ruthie tonight and give us a hint before we return from Vegas," Allen said.

"And no, she does not know we are making this offer and will not tell her we did if you decide against it." Rob added.

"Any empanadillas left." I asked trying to get it all in my head.

"Yeah, a bunch. The ladies are otherwise occupied. Bring the box with you," Allen said.

For the rest of their stay we talked about song order and the Janis intro.

I told them that, "I was sure it was not well received in Vancouver because that audience did not know Janis.

Ninety percent of Melody's fans were not born before Janis died. Ruthie has a memory of discovery that she should share with her audience."

"Write it down for her," Rob said.

I asked them when they were returning from Vegas and they said, "Sunday night. Vicky and I want to revisit some places and all the ladies want time to play. You have a seat on that plane."

"Man, I suddenly have a lot to consider and I am living with a woman that doesn't drink."

Both laughed and Allen added, "And she doesn't buy either. Whatever booze you find in this house someone else bought it and brought it here. Your turn to buy the crown."

"Got it."

About thirty minutes later the ladies came out and kissed all of us, grabbed an empanadilla, and left taking Allen and Rob with them.

Every kiss smelled like pussy.

A few moments later Ruthie came out and sat with me at the table. She had a Dr. Pepper and I slid a paper plate with four empanadillas I had hidden for her.

She kissed me and wolfed them down quickly.

When she finished the last I asked, "What was all the commotion about in the studio? I asked.

"You."

"I wasn't in there."

"Yes you were, in the song we sang together. Funny thing, when I played it back yesterday I was listening to me and marveling at how good you made me sound,

Tonight I listened to you. You have a romantic baritone voice everyone liked. All said we sounded really good together, even Edie."

'That's nice. Do you drink anything except Dr. Pepper?"

"Root Beer, orange juice, Tea, nothing with alcohol. Why do you ask?"

"The guys discovered me drinking their crown. I have to replace it."

"Serves you right. I am still hungry. Do you still want the pasta?"

"Yes please."

"I will be right back."

As she left I asked myself. "Lets see, what do I know?

I know that if Mom is fine with it I would love to take the job here. Felicity is a much more pleasant place to live in than Los Angeles, and Los Angeles doesn't have Ruthie.

I would be making enough money to buy a house if I needed to. This is her house, not mine or ours. Her house.

Hmm, this is Melody's house, not Ruthie's.

I wondered if she has thought of it that way. Maybe we could....

OK, lets get back to basics. Do I love her? Does she love me?"

Ruthie put my bowl in front of me and we inhaled the food. Ruthie kept interrupting my eating with wild kisses so I interrupted her with wild kisses.