Happy Ladies Book 01

"I can get you some," Brandon said.

"Okay," Derek said.

"I didn't know you're an artist," I said as we walked out.

"I don't talk about it much," Brandon said. "My painting is like another world, a special place. It feels strange to me to be sharing it with you now."

"I didn't see anything like that in the van," I said.

"I rent one of those self-storage units," he said. "That's where I paint and keep my stuff."

He directed me to where his storage unit was located on Kraus Avenue.

"The light's really shitty," he said as he unlocked the padlock and raised the roll-up door. "But it's the best I can do right now."

I looked in to see tables stacked with art supplies and, just in front of me, an easel with a partially completed canvas; behind it other canvases were leaning against the wall. I was immediately struck by the bold bright colors and the sense of authority. I looked at him with new eyes.

"My God Brandon," I said. "What are you doing being a rooster? These are great."

He gave me a bitter smile. "The people I've shown these to haven't felt the same way," he said, "my experiences with potential patrons hasn't been very good."

"Well, I like them," I said. "And I think Derek will too."

"We'll see," he said. He went to a row of metal shelves and picked up a large leather folder. "Let's get this over with."

Brandon was fidgety and quiet on the way back to the construction site, clutching his portfolio. I tried a couple of times to start a conversation but my efforts fizzled. We found Derek in what was in the process of becoming the Chanticleer Cafe. He took Brandon's portfolio and laid it out on a work table. I peeked over his shoulder.

"Oh my God," Derek said after almost ten minutes of silence. "These are wonderful." He got a far away look in his eyes. "Okay, I was wrong about not needing something like this. We could do murals," he said. "Erotic murals. Like Pompeii. All over the frigging place."

"Jesus," Brandon said.

"Think of the House of Roosters as your canvas, son. Any flat surface is yours to use in any way you like. It's going to be fabulous."

Brandon started crying. Derek fixed his eyes on the portfolio.

"I will, of course, have to okay this with Dorothy and the board," Derek said, "but I don't anticipate any problems."

"You've got my yea vote," I said to Brandon. "And I'll fight for you if anybody puts up resistance."

I tried to hug him but he pushed me away.

"This is hard," Brandon said in a choked up voice. "I've been working at this for so long with so little positive feedback that I've felt like giving up. But the problem was I couldn't. It was like having a demon inside me. I had to paint. But now, being accepted has brought another demon to life. This one is telling me I'm going to fail."

"You'll do great, son," Derek said, putting his hand on Brandon's shoulder. "Just start small and let your confidence grow. And remember you can always paint over the ones that don't meet your standards."

"Thank you Derek," Brandon said, shaking Derek's hand. "I'm not showing my gratitude very well. I think you're right that once I get started I'll be okay. And thank you too, Melissa," he said, turning to me. "You've changed my life."

"I'm delighted for you," I said, finally getting to hug him. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you do." He kissed me.

"I need to get back to work," Derek said. "As soon as I pass this by Dorothy and the board you can get started. It's all right if I keep your portfolio to show them, isn't it?"

"Of course," Brandon said. "Thank you again."

Brandon was jubilant as we walked towards the main building. "I'm already getting some ideas," he said. "Derek was right. Tell me if you think this sounds crazy. One of the things I'd like to do is pussy portraits."

"What?" I said.

"Pussy portraits," he said. "I'd like to do a portrait of your pussy, of all the founders at least but probably others too."

"You just want to look at all our pussies," I said.

"Of course," he said. "But I think it could make a really neat piece of artwork too. Put them in kind of a mandala structure."

"Actually," I said, "I do think it's a good idea. I'd be happy to pose for you. But what do you think your chances are of getting Ethel to pose for you?"

"Good," he said. "I think I could get her to do it privately. Where are we going, by the way?"

"To see if Dorothy's here. And get you a place to stay," I said.

Brandon stopped. "Thank you Melissa," he said, "for everything. I apologize for all those things I said."

"Apology accepted," I said. "I understand why you said them."

We found Dorothy in the office area.

"We'd like to talk with you privately," I said.

Dorothy shifted her gaze from one of us to the other. "Okay," she said. She led us into one of the first finished private rooms. "So what is this about?" She said, after closing the door.

"I was wondering if Brandon could live in the rooster house?" I said.

"Where are you living now?" Dorothy said.

"In my van," Brandon said.

"Oh honey," Dorothy said. "I thought you were going to college. I know you had an apartment."

"That was awhile ago, Dorothy," Brandon said. "I was laid off and had to drop out of school. And then I couldn't pay the rent on the apartment. The money I'm getting from you for being a rooster is almost all I have for income. I've been looking for a job but there isn't much available."

"Oh my God," Dorothy and I said almost simultaneously.

"Why didn't you say something?" Dorothy said.

Brandon looked at the floor.

"He wasn't too thrilled, to say the least, when I found him in his van and offered to help," I said. "We just talked to Derek about a job but it's going to have to be approved by the board."

"Why's that?" Dorothy said.

"Brandon's an artist," I said.

"I knew that," Dorothy said, "although I haven't seen any of your work. You always hid it when I was there."

Brandon was still carefully examining the floor.

"He's very good," I said. "Derek was impressed and want him to create murals."

"Derek isn't easy to impress," Dorothy said. "You're hired. I'll make sure it gets past the board. And you also have a place to live. It's kind of funny that this came up now because I was just thinking of having Derek build some apartments that roosters could use. Tiny Tom is having some financial problems too, so you're not the only one Brandon."

"Thank you Dorothy," Brandon said.

"You can stay in one of the private rooms for now," she said. "This one would be fine. And I'll have Derek's design team start working on some apartments."

"What about my painting stuff?" Brandon said.

"Move it into the main room," Dorothy said. "I'm sure you can find a place for it. And we'll work on setting up a permanent studio later."

"I can't believe how fast this has all happened," Brandon said as we drove back to his van. "This morning I woke up wondering when I was ever going to get out of this hole and a few hours later my life has totally changed."

"It's part of the House of Roosters magic," I said.

"I'm going to have to take a long nap," Brandon said. "All this emotional stuff has worn me out. But as soon as I do I'm going to get started moving my painting stuff."

"That's great Brandon," I said.

I dropped him off at his van. He kissed me before he got out.

"I owe you," he said, standing in the open door, bending a little to look at me.

"Do a great portrait of my pussy," I said, "and we'll be even." He grinned and shut the door.

I was smiling as I made my way back to the rooster house.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"We'll be opening the temporary rooster house in three weeks," Dorothy said to the assembled board members. There was applause. "And in two weeks we'll hold the last party at my house." This was met with cheers as well as applause. "And since it's the last one I want it to be a real blow out. Patricia has already sent out an invitation to all the members. It'll be a madhouse, no doubt, but when it's over my neighbors will get their peaceful neighborhood back."

"There isn't enough room in your house for all the members," Cynthia said.

"I know," Dorothy said. "First of all I don't expect them all to come. But I'm also having Derek set up a large tent in the back yard. If that isn't enough room we'll just have to squeeze together a little tighter."

"Isn't that what we always do?" Anne said.

"It will be a huge relief to transition out of the parties and into the rooster house," Dorothy said. "I have to say I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this."

"Yeah," I said. "The rooster house should be a lot less stressful."

"It'll have its own set of problems, I'm sure," Dorothy said. "Now let's get down to the business at hand."

We spent the next hour and a half discussing a variety of minor problems and resolving them.

"Anything else?" Dorothy said.

"I'm not sure what this means," Samantha said, "but Doris says she has a bad feeling about Ray."

"Anything more specific than 'a bad feeling'?" Dorothy said.

"Not really," Samantha said.

"I don't know that I have 'a bad feeling' about him," Cynthia said, "but I find his constant flattery annoying. He seems fake to me."

"I like him okay," Donna said.

"Well, let's all keep an eye on him," Dorothy said.

And with that the meeting was adjourned.

"So, what's happening with the temporary rooster house?" Anne said. "I haven't been through to look at it for almost a month now."

"Oh my," Dorothy said. "You're going to be amazed. Why don't we all take a little tour?"

Since most of us hadn't seen the most recent additions we were eager to tag along.

"Let's take a look at the private rooms first," Dorothy said, leading us out of the office area and across the hall. There were a line of doors with signs that read 'Unoccupied'. "Most of the rooms are like this one," she said, opening one of the doors. "You push this button and you'll notice that the sign now says 'Occupied'."

"Cool," Nicole said.

It was a bit tight but the nine of us managed to cram ourselves into the space. It was, however, much larger than the tiny rooms in Dorothy's house although the set up was pretty much the same.

"Now let's go to the next type," Dorothy said. We managed to exit the room and followed Dorothy to the next door; it had a picture of a swing below the 'Unoccupied' sign. "Okay," she said. "This is almost the same as the last one except it has one of Derek's swings instead of a bed. Let's just peek rather than all go in."

"Great," Donna said. "I've been wanting to try the swing but I'd rather do it without a whole roomful of people watching."

"We have, as you can see from the signs, three of these rooms," she said, "and now for the last type."

She took us to a door with a picture of a Sybian on it.

"We have two of these," she said, opening the door. In the far corner of the room sat a Sybian. Nearby was a shelf displaying a choice of attachments and below it stood a small sink. Next to the sink was a sign detailing the clean up procedures for the attachments. "We're going to use the honor system for cleaning," she said, "although I think I'll suggest that people clean whatever they use themselves just to be on the safe side."

"And there are twenty-four of these private rooms all together?" Patricia said.

"Yup," Dorothy said, "now for the piece de resistance." She led us back into the hallway and down to the double doors between the main room and the warren of offices and private rooms. She opened one of the doors with a flourish.

"Oh my God," Anne said as we filed in. I think we all felt that sense of awe.

We were in a very large room but one on a much more human scale than the original space. There were several men scattered around painting the walls. From the doorway we could see, at some distance, a curving wall that marked the far end of the room. To our immediate right we could see, through several tiers of lockers, the shower area.

"Where we're standing now," Dorothy said, "will be part of the social area. That spot in the left hand corner will be where we'll have the food and drinks. We'll have tables and chairs set up over there."

Looking to my left I realized that one of the men working was Brandon. He seemed to be drawing something on a section of the wall.

"In the central area over there," Dorothy said, pointing to the space directly in front of us, "we'll have a variety of seating arrangements. It may take us awhile to work out what's best. Let's start the tour with the shower area. That little room next to the shower room will be the Toy Box," she said. She led us between two banks of lockers. "We have a hundred and fifty lockers in here; counting our lockers in the offices and the storage spaces in the private rooms we have enough for two hundred women. The roosters, of course, have their own lockers in the rooster room."

"You expect to have two hundred women in here at one time?" Cynthia said.

"I can dream," Dorothy said. "And the way my dreams have been working so far it could very well happen."

By this time we were looking at a wall with three open showers; on either side was a small cubicle with a privacy curtain across the back.

"For the more modest among us," Dorothy said, pointing at the cubicles, "now let's go through the doorway to the left." We found ourselves in a room in the middle of which stood a large hot tub. "Self explanatory," she said. "Continue through the next door."

We exited to find a row of small rooms to our right and open space to our left.

"These are the bathrooms," Dorothy said, indicating the small rooms, "there are six of them. I trust that will be sufficient. We also have the one in the offices and the roosters have one."

"I'd think eight would be enough," Charlotte said, "plus there will be restrooms in the Chanticleer Café."

"That's right," Dorothy said, "I forgot about those. Okay, that space there," she said, sweeping her arm to the left, "is the orgy area."

"Holy shit," Cynthia said.

"Is that a bench along the back on this side?" Samantha said.

"It is indeed," Dorothy said. "That's probably where Midge will be hanging out a lot."

A few of us laughed.

"And to the left of the bench, as you can see, are the swings."

I counted five of the swinging platforms.

"And directly across from us is the cam room and next to it, obviously, are the four Sybians with their own little wash up station." Dorothy said.

"The cams are going to be live on the Internet?" Anne said.

"Yup," Dorothy said. "But we're going to be putting up a bunch of warning signs so no one just stumbles in there."

"And shows their booty to the world," I said.

"I just realized you can see the whole orgy room from the social area," Cynthia said, "so Midge can sit down there with a glass of wine and see everything."

"As long as she's got her binoculars with her," Samantha said.

We walked back towards the doors. When we got to the social area I parted from the group and walked towards Brandon. The others left.

"What are you doing?" I said.

"Hi Melissa," Brandon said. "I'm working on my idea for creating a mandala based on all the founder's pussies."

"On a temporary wall?" I said.

"I talked to Derek about that," Brandon said, "and he said it would be easy enough to cut this part of the wall out when we're ready for the permanent rooster house and display it in the best location."

"Great," I said. "I was worried that it would be demolished."

"Nope," Brandon said. "So, do you want to be the first?"

I glanced around the room at the other men working. Craig was one of them. And then I chided myself for being such a chicken. "Sure," I said.

It took a little while to get everything set up. We had to find a table for me to lie on. And then Brandon decided he needed to enhance the lighting. But finally I was on my back with only my t-shirt on, legs spread, holding myself open. Brandon began his preliminary sketches.

It took a week, all together. I'd pose for a bit and then Brandon would work while I spent time in the office. And then I'd pose again.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I arrived at Dorothy's house for the last party thinking I'd be one of the first. I wasn't. In fact vehicles lined both sides of the street. As I walked up to the door my nose was tantalized by the rich scent of BBQ.

"Did I get the time wrong?" I asked Dorothy who was standing just inside the door in her black see-through gown.

"No, no," Dorothy said, giving me a hug. "Derek showed up at noon to set up the BBQ and called a couple of people to bring things he needed and I guess they called other people. It just kind of snowballed."

"The last party," I said.

"Yeah," Dorothy said. "In some ways I guess I'll miss them but probably not all that much."

"The rooster house is going to be ten times better," I said.

"Yes," Dorothy said. "Hello Nicole."

I turned to smile at Nicole who'd just come through the front door.

"I thought the party didn't start till six," Nicole said as she and Dorothy hugged.

I drifted into the dining room as Dorothy started explaining why people had arrived earlier.

Brandon, naked, was standing in the middle of the room with Donna and Cynthia. Both women were clothed.

"Two more volunteers for my founding members pussy project," he said to me as I joined the threesome.

"Great," I said.

"I saw the one he did of you," Cynthia said, "and had to have mine done. We had to twist Donna's arm a bit."

"I told him it was okay as long as he didn't put my name on it," Donna said.

"Any hold outs?" I said.

"Ethel and Carol are the last two," Brandon said. "But once they see that everyone else has done it I think they'll come around."

I excused myself and went to get a glass of wine.

"Hey Mel," Ellie said, coming up behind me while I was filling my glass. Putting down my glass I turned and we embraced and kissed.

"The end of an era," I said.

"Yeah," Ellie said. "Do you remember the first time we came in here? Seems like forever but it's been a little more than a year."

"I do," I said. "Remember how Dorothy started talking about how much she loved cock?"

Ellie laughed. "God yes," she said. "I was thinking 'this is my kind of lady'.

"I have to admit I thought she was a little crazy," I said. "I liked the idea but I didn't think there was much chance it would actually happen."

"And here we are," Ellie said.

"Yes, here we are," I said. "Where's all the food?"

"Outside, behind the tent," Ellie said.

"I think I'll head out that way," I said.

"See you later," Ellie said.

I walked down the hall. I looked in as I passed the orgy room; George and Regina were sitting together, talking. I waved and they both waved back.

No one was in the Sybian room.

When I walked out the back door it was clear why the house was largely deserted. The tent was full of people, about half of them naked, seated around a number of long tables talking and eating. I walked through the tent greeting everyone I knew. There were a few I didn't know. When I came out the other end I saw several male moons rising in front of several large BBQ grills at the back of the property. Between the tent and the grills, on either side, there were tables heaped with food. Jaime was busy organizing the tables. There was also a large trough filled with ice, beer, and soft drinks. Several people were helping themselves to the food. I noticed that privacy screens had been placed strategically around the yard in the places where the tent wasn't shielding people from view.

I recognized one of the moons as belonging to Derek. His butt was bare but he had a long apron secured across his front.

"Safety first, eh," I said, reaching under his apron and giving his cock a tug.