At Ease Ch. 01

As we talked, I looked around visually taking in the bar. Being early in the afternoon, there were few customers. At the entrance and throughout most of the front of the bar, it was typically decorated as a biker bar. However, toward the back it seemed to change. On the back wall, there was a large drawing of two nude women kissing, embracing and fondling one another. That in itself did not surprise me but, next to it was another drawing of two nude men doing the same thing. Neither drawing would be what I would consider pornographic, but there was no mistaking the meaning of either. Jerking my thumb casually back over my shoulder, I asked Gabe. "What's with that?"

"My place is very biker friendly, but we also have a fairly large gay and lesbian community here in San Juan."

"So I take it you have no problem with gays or lesbians."

Gabe looked at me long and hard. "I do not. Do you?"

"I have no problem with gays as long as they do not expect me to participate with them. I've had a few female friends that are lesbians. Never had a problem with any of them either." I looked Gabe straight in the eye so that he would know I was serious.

"Then we should get along just fine." He said to me.

At that moment, a lovely Asian woman came through the entrance. At first glance, I could tell that she was small of stature, appearing to be in her mid-20's. I guessed her to be about 5 feet tall and maybe 100lbs, soaking wet, if that. She had long glossy black hair that fell past the small of her back nearly to a cute little butt. Without being able to see them yet, I knew her eyes would be very dark. She appeared to be Japanese. I'd spent enough time in Asia during my career in the Marines that I was able to tell to a limited degree the difference between some of the Asian races. Although I could very well have been wrong about her. She set the bar about four seats away from me and ordered a White Russian from Gabe. "How are you today, Mariko." I heard him ask her. I was unable to hear a response as she was very soft-spoken

She glanced at me and gave me a distant yet friendly smile. She was dressed rather provocatively, wearing jeans that were so tight that the appeared to have been spray-painted on her, along with a tight sky blue spaghetti strap tank top. I could easily tell that she wasn't wearing a bra. She was very petite with breast that couldn't have been bigger than a small B cup, but I could see small nipples trying to poke through the fabric of her top. She said to me in a soft voice, speaking perfect English with no accent. "Good afternoon, sir."

"And to you as well." I said to her pleasantly. She nodded and sipped at her drink when Gabe brought it to her. After that, she got up from her barstool and approached me almost timidly. "Hi. My name is Mariko." She held out her hand for me to shake. I grasped it gently yet firmly and shook it briefly.

"You can just call me Trip, little lady." I said with a friendly smile.

She smiled brightly. "Pleased to meet you, sir."

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you." I told her. She seemed to be very openly friendly person, but. I also noticed that she seemed to be more than a bit submissive but, decided not to comment on it.

Mariko went back to her barstool, set down and resumed sipping on her drink, glancing my way shyly from time to time.

I spent most of the next hour talking with Gabe as time permitted, when he wasn't servicing other customers. I asked him several general 'get acquainted' type of questions. As the afternoon progressed, more people started to come into the bar.

About another hour had passed, when a rather tall scruffy looking man entered the bar wearing a faded old red USMC cap. He appeared to be a couple of inches over 6 feet and weighing maybe 280lbs. What struck me first about him was his hair. His hair was actually as orange as any carrot I've ever seen. His eyes were emerald green. After pausing a moment, walked straight over and sat down next to Mariko and began speaking to her, inaudibly from where I was.

Mariko began to shake her head emphatically. I could not hear what she said to the man, but he clearly did not like it. Speaking much louder, he said. "What you mean you're waiting for your friend...?" A long pause. "Oh! I remember you now. Your friend must mean that auburn haired lesbo that hangs out here. Are you a carpet muncher too?" He asked harshly.

I became immediately angry with this asshole and what he was saying. I stood and started moving toward him. He looked at me and said. "Don't waste your time dude. She's a fucking lesbo!" I looked him dead in his eyes. He was much taller and heavier than I am but, I was clearly in better shape despite my injuries and as he had apparently let himself go over the years, I was not concerned.

"I don't care what she is. You don't need to talk to her like that! As long as she is not harming you, there is no need for you to be insulting."

"They're always letting lesbos and faggots in here. I'm surprised they get enough customers to be able to stay open."

I smirked at him and said. "Well, you're in here. Is there something you're not telling us?" His pale face flushed almost to the same color as his hair.

"Why you son of a bitch..." He said, taking a couple of step toward me.

About then, Gabe spoke up. "Whoa! Stop right there Jim!" The guy stopped, looked at Gabe and stormed out of the place grumbling inarticulately. As I turned to return to my barstool, I noticed that Mariko was silently weeping.

"Are you all right? Sorry about that jerk." I said to her in a soothing gentle voice.

"It is not your fault. I will be okay." She said softly in her perfect non-accented English. I very nearly patted her sympathetically on the shoulder, but decided against it because didn't want to give her the wrong idea about my intentions. I returned to my seat and slowly began drinking my beer. The girl was lovely and I couldn't help but think, too bad that she is a lesbian. My loss, I guess. I thought jokingly to myself. Oh well, as long as she's happy, I guess.

About 15 minutes after the jerk left, another woman entered the bar, went straight to Mariko and kissed her on the lips. This was not a kiss between two friends, but lovers. Not very long, but deep and passionate enough to tell that they were a couple. The woman was also wearing jeans but not quite as tight as her companions. She was wearing a loose San Diego Chargers T-shirt. She was perhaps two or 3 inches taller than Mariko, with auburn hair and green eyes. Her breasts were rather small, but still noticeably larger than the other girl's. After the kiss, she nodded a silent greeting at Gabe and ordered a vodka and orange juice. Mariko said something to her and then both of them looked at me. "Sarah, this is Trip. Trip, Sarah." She introduced us.

"Trip?" The woman asked with a mischievous smile.

"It could be a real long story, which I might tell you about one day. But in fact, it is really quite a short story. I am Aaron Allen Archambault III...get it? AAA III? I said to Sarah. She nodded, laughed gaily and turned her attention back to Mariko. They sat close together always discreetly touching or caressing one another. I was slightly impressed by the fact that unless one knew they were lesbian lovers or was very observant, that the average person might not know. They were discrete in the extreme. I had seen other lesbians in other bars kissing and groping one another openly not caring if they were offending anybody or not. But not these two.

As I sat there slowly drinking my beer and listening to the music others were playing on the jukebox, I did not even notice that a man sat next to me at the bar and ordered a martini, until he was right there. I looked and for a brief second, I nearly burst out laughing. This was a stereotypically effeminate gay man straight out of a very bad comedy movie. Between his appearance and his lispy voice, there could be no doubt. He was dressed in black slacks and a black long-sleeved button-down shirt, very expensive looking shoes, with a pink sweater vest and was wearing a pink bow tie. His name, I learned when Gabe spoke to him, was Bruce. I didn't want to laugh or be mean to the guy, but everything about him screamed homosexual.

He held out his hand and introduced himself to me and I took his hand firmly and shook it, telling him my name. "No offense, but just to be sure, I want to tell you now that I'm straight have no intentions of changing that. So as long as you can acknowledge that, we should get along just fine."

I saw a very brief flash of disappointment in his face, but then he smiled and said. "No problem. I can live with that." After that, he acted somewhat like a normal man...well, as much as he could.

Bruce and I talked for a while to get acquainted. I quickly learned that he was a very intelligent man. A whole lot smarter than I could ever be. He was some sort of computer engineer working at the Naval Base in San Diego. After a while, another obviously gay man entered the bar and Bruce politely excused himself and went over to talk to him.

I sat by myself for another half hour or so, just listening to the music drinking my beer and taking in the atmosphere. I liked this place and would return quite often or at least that was the plan. About that time I sort of 'zoned out' and figuratively speaking, put my brain in neutral. Then, for reason unknown I snap to and came back to earth. When I looked around I found the girls Sarah and Mariko sitting on either side of me. A small courteous nod to both of them, I said. "Ladies."

Sarah spoke first. "Trip, huh. You just have to tell me about that." Mariko said nothing but gave me a friendly smile.

"I thought I already had. All three of my initials are 'A' and as I mentioned I'm the third my family with that name consecutively, hence my being the third."

She grinned at me and said. "Good enough!" Her eyes were a quite lovely shade of jade green. Her auburn hair was thick and wavy hanging down a little past her attractive backside. Her skin was pale white with just a light sprinkling of freckles. After a moment she spoke again. "Thank you, Trip. Mariko told me what you did."

I waved her off and said. "It was nothing. The jerk try to hit on her and then started giving her a lot of unnecessary grief about her being a lesbian. He was way out of line."

"Yeah, she and I are a couple. She's a lesbian and I'm bi." She said as if her comment had special meaning. I am not sure what, if anything she expected me to say about that, but I chose to say nothing and nodded.

"What? You have nothing to say?" She grinned at me with a very mischievous grin covering her face.

"I thought it best not to say anything...yet."

She leaned in close and whispered so only I could hear. "I like to play on both sides of the street, if you know what I mean. I love eating pussy and I especially love sucking cock on occasion." She winked at me.

I looked directly at her and noticed that while her eyes were jade green, there was a small ring of dark green or brown around the outer edge of her irises. "My daddy taught me, that a wise man knows when to remain silent. So, why don't we wait until I know you better before talking about that? Fair enough?" I asked her.

"Fair enough." She winked at me, leaned over, kissed me softly on the cheek and taking Mariko by the hand left the bar.

By this time, I realized that I had a pretty good buzz on and decided to call it a night. I said good night to Gabe, carefully walked out the door and across street back to my hotel. I stripped down and climbed into bed. As I lay fell asleep, I figured I'd done quite well today, made a few new friends and found an interesting place to hang out.

*******************

The next few days ran smoother than I had anticipated. I was fitting into my new job quite well and was getting a grasp of the paperwork much faster than my new employer had anticipated. My boss, whose name was Bob Crane, was more than happy with me and told me that I would be getting a one dollar an hour raise after 90 days if I continue to impress him.

Thursday night after work, I went back to Anything Goes. Gabe was sitting at the bar nursing a beer while two attractive women in short black leather miniskirts and tight white tank tops were tending bar. One of the girls, was rather tall with white-blonde hair and breast so large they could not possibly have been natural. They threatened to spill out of her tank top. Her name tag identified her as Brandi. The other girl, whose name tag read Tex, was of average height and just a tiny bit on the stout side. She wasn't what anyone could call fat, just thick. She had a slight mannish look about her but was not unattractive. She was blonde, but a different shade from Brandi. Hers was more yellow blonde. She also had large breasts, but hers appeared to be natural. Given her appearance, and where she worked, I wondered if she might be a lesbian too.

I set the bar next to Gabe and ordered a beer. Tex brought it to me smiling brightly. I looked at Gabe and nodded a greeting to him and he asked how I was doing. "By the way, Sarah and Mariko were here yesterday asking about you." He said.

"How well do you know them? I asked him.

"I've known Sarah for over five years but Mariko only a couple."

I told him of my brief conversation the other day with Sarah.

"She tells everyone that she is bi. The only thing is, no one that I know of has ever seen her with a man."

I grinned and said. "I'll just take her word for it and leave it at that. I have no intention of calling her a liar."

"Wise choice." Gabe said grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

"Mama didn't raise no idiots." I said with a grin of my own.

I turned to find Tex looking at me. "Hey good looking, I'm Tammy, but everyone calls me Tex...What's your name?"

"You can call me Trip."

"Trip, huh? You must be new around here."

"Yeah, just retired from the Marine Corps."

"I just love Marines." She was clearly flirting with me. I quickly reevaluated the lesbian thing and guessed that she was not. She wasn't my type, not really. But as the old saying goes, I wouldn't have thrown her out of bed for eating crackers. She looked at me as if trying to make up her mind about something and said. "And before you ask, no, I am not a lesbian.

Again, I thought it best not to say anything...or better yet, change the subject. "Are you from around here originally?"

"No, I was born in Longview Texas, but moved here very soon after that. I've spent nearly my entire life here. I don't see myself moving away anytime soon."

Brandi was at the other in the bar flirting shamelessly with a small group of bikers who were there when I arrived. I could tell that one of them was apparently her boyfriend, husband or whatever. She essentially ignored me, which did not bother me at all. She was clearly the type of girl who loved to be the center of attention. The kind I prefer to avoid.

About a half hour later, Sarah and Mariko arrived. They were dressed identically in tight black jeans and skin tight black tank tops. I got hugs from both of them, Sarah's was tight and sensual, and Mariko's was hesitant and timid. They both set the bar to my right and ordered drinks.

Over the next couple of hours, had a long discussion with both Sarah and Mariko. I learned a great deal about both. Both of them told me straight up at the beginning of our talk that they were currently in a committed BDSM relationship with one another, with Sarah being the mistress and Mariko the slave. This did not surprise me as I already figured Mariko was a submissive.

I also learned that Mariko was the niece of Mr. Yamaguchi, who I had talked to before at the Little Capri. She had been disowned and thrown out of the house simply because she was a lesbian. Her parents died when she was very young. She was raised by her aunt and uncle. Mariko explained that she bore her family and no ill will. She simply considered them to be narrow minded folk and had decided to live her life on her own terms.

Throughout the evening, Sarah was very friendly with me. Maybe even a little flirtatious, but I doubted that. She was in a committed relationship with Mariko and as Gabe had said, no one had ever seen her with a man. I assumed that she was just a lesbian who simply liked to tease men at times. That probably should have bothered me, but it didn't. I liked them both and although I'd known them only a short time, I considered them both friends.

The three of us spent most of the evening drinking and having what I can only call a delightful conversation. Just before midnight I decided to head back to my room. As I stood, both girls hugged me tightly and I received a kiss on the cheek from both and then hand-in-hand they walked out the door just ahead of me.