California Girl

"No Emily ... and I don't have eyes for your husband if that's what you're asking."

"No ... not ... not at all. I've never worried about Samuel," she said, them both knowing it was a bald faced lie.

Emily found an empty space and effortlessly parallel parked the large SUV. She got out and swung her purse over her arm, throwing in the keys.

"Actually you heard his stutter. He stutters when he meets beautiful woman." She put on a wide brimmed hat and smirked at Marnie. "And you are beautiful."

"Yes ma'am, if you say so."

"I say so. So what do you think about Mexican?"

* * *

Emily overcame the embarrassment of the moment, and relieved, the two became fast friends. Marnie learned that the beach scene in Southern California had absolutely no analog to life in Ireland. They shared ice cream cones while watching weight lifters on the sun drenched beach, their tanned muscles rippling as they bench pressed under the watchful eye of a spotter, and roller bladers laughing and talking as they glided by.

They found that they had a common interest in literature, that being the minor to Emily's Fine Arts major, and of course the focal point of Marnie's studies and her dissertation. Emily had read all of Maeve Binchy's books, and was impressed to learn that Marnie had met the famous author more than once (Ms. Binchy being born in Dalkey and a resident for many years), while Emily regaled Marnie with stories of the famous actors and actresses she had met over the years working at the art gallery.

At a beachside taqueria, Emily introduced Marnie to authentic Mexican food, and the young woman who grew up on roast beef and potatoes was instantly enamored with carnitas tacos and homemade tortilla chips smeared with fresh guacamole.

Marnie stepped out of the restaurant and wiggled her toes in the hot sand on Venice Beach, surveying the scene of bodybuilders, roller bladers, and bikini clad sunworshippers, with her hand clasping Emily's, and knew that somehow she would find her way forward in this strange and wonderful land.

Chapter Two

Kelly Steps Out

A strong swimmer cut through the water, her flawless freestyle stroke producing minimal splash as she approached the wall of the pool. A tall, muscular woman hoisted herself out of the pool, peeling off her swim cap and giving a shake to her short, brassy blonde hair, her thick light brown eyebrows betraying her natural hair color.

Kelly Bennett's skin tight competition swimsuit revealed the graceful curves of her body, at the top generously sized breasts transitioning down to rock hard abs, narrow hips, and well-toned legs. She had a vigorous swim to burn off some of her residual frustrations, but was only partially successful in her efforts.

One of the constant stars in Kelly's universe was her daughter Tasha. She was the youngest -- the baby of the family -- and could do no wrong. It frosted her older sister Sophie to no end when Tasha would get caught drinking or smoking weed without any consequences. Tasha had a belligerent streak that Kelly worked hard to rationalize as the behavior of a misunderstood (but ultimately well meaning) daughter.

The night before didn't go well. Kelly asked Tasha if she was interested in going to a neighborhood mixer the following night and she said no. One of the reasons the Bennetts stayed in Brentwood was to give the girls continuity to their high school education. They argued that night, and the bottom line was that Tasha wasn't going to the event and was even more annoyed with her mother. Kelly was steaming mad but was forced to internalize it, lest she trigger a bigger blow-up. She was sure that everyone they ran into at the party would note Tasha's embarrassing absence. She was frustrated with Tasha, disappointed that she failed to show some gratitude every once in a while for the sacrifices her parents made.

She checked her phone. There was a text from Emily Vandebroek informing her that she had just picked up an exchange student from the airport. Kelly scrolled down to the picture Emily took of Marnie at the terminal.

"Pretty," she thought. "So young" was her next thought. She looked no older than Tasha.

Emily and Kelly met at a neighborhood mixer when their kids were in grammar school and had been best friends from the moment they met. They were both organized and driven. Kelly hired Emily to help out in the gallery, and Emily soon proved to be an adept salesperson, becoming the gallery's top producer. She and Kelly teamed together outside of work to throw innumerable school fundraisers and neighborhood parties over the years. Emily treated Sophie and Tasha as if they were her own daughters. Emily and Kelly became close enough to consider each other as sisters.

"Are you about ready?" Brian called out, leaning into the walk-in closet. There was obvious frustration in his voice. He was already fully dressed and bored after checking his phone. He was in his early forties, a few years older than Kelly, who just turned forty the previous year. Though he was pretty much bald, he still retained his game shape by playing in a thirty and older "recreational" basketball league. Other than a scar from a knee surgery ten years ago, he had the body of a twenty-five year old. He had just refreshed his wardrobe and purchased a late model Ferrari Speciale. He was looking forward to Tasha's high school graduation, and his release from a loveless marriage.

As in any divorce, there were two sides to the story. Brian's justification for stepping out was Kelly's loss of interest in sex. Brian was always horny, and when they were married he and Kelly were fucking like rabbits. Brian met Kelly at a party at her sorority house. He was there to meet someone else, but ditched his date to spend time with Kelly. Kelly was on the Pepperdine women's club water polo team, though she occasionally played on a co-ed team. She had a hard body, and the sexy dress she was wearing the night they met left an indelible impression on him. Brian fell for her hard, and pursued her until she said yes to a proposal of marriage.

At the beginning of their relationship they couldn't get enough of each other. But after they were married the sex became less and less frequent. Brian didn't know that Kelly had not only lost interest in him, but in men generally. Kelly was too busy raising two daughters and running a high end art gallery to be concerned about her ambiguous sexual identity. Kelly's discovery of Brian's affair with his administrative assistant extinguished any hope of salvaging their relationship, now only a marriage of convenience.

Brian knew that Kelly always made them late. He didn't give a crap about these neighborhood affairs but he heard from a workmate who also lived in the neighborhood that there was this hot new girl -- Irish he heard -- who was a real looker. Brian wanted to see for himself, and wanted to be on time, at least this once.

"Five more minutes," Kelly called back from her sink. She had finished dressing and was now fixing her make-up. There was a last minute smudge that had to be repaired. She liked the block party. She liked talking to her neighbors to catch up on the latest gossip. The food was always good -- a pot luck. Kelly usually brought her homemade macaroni and cheese casserole. Sometimes people got really drunk at the end, and that's where everyone's true colors came out. She usually left before that.

It was one of the few things they did as a couple anymore. Kelly wanted to make sure their relationship with the community wasn't affected, so they always went as the happily married couple and Brian always received accolades on his hot wife. He was always tempted to tell them that Kelly was a cold hearted bitch, and to show them a picture of his latest girlfriend, his former administrative assistant who was twenty-three. She didn't have a smart mouth like Kelly.

They walked the four blocks to the community center as they always did. It was an unusually balmy night, and they both brought sweaters, hoping they wouldn't have to use them. Kelly carried a cloth shopping bag holding her sweater and high heels. She'd change when they arrived. The high heeled sandals looked great on her, but walking in them four blocks, and then all night on her feet at the party, was completely out of the question. They took the familiar walk and heard the noise of the party in the distance. The DJ was playing 70's and 80's music, and faint strains of a familiar rock anthem mixed with the chirping of crickets.

"It's nice this time of year," Brian started after an uneasy silence the first few minutes of the walk.

"Fuck you Brian," Kelly snapped back.

"Kelly ... Kelly ... can't we at least be civil?" he pleaded.

"You mean ... you mean about your bitch whore ass administrative assistant?" Kelly fumed. Even though she didn't care, she did. Kelly and Brian's marriage wasn't completely loveless. They did have mutual affection for each other for the first four or five years, but the separation caused by Brian being on the road all the time, and Kelly's growing ambivalence to sex with him, took whatever love that was in the relationship and put it squarely into the shitter.

"Fine, fine ..." he said in resignation. But he was never done, and that bugged the fuck out of Kelly.

She waited for it.

"Kelly ... Kelly ... the piano."

"What about it?" she bristled. She knew Brian was going to dump something on her and she didn't appreciate it.

"It's being picked up next week. The 26th, I think."

Brian stepped off the curb and into the street. Kelly followed.

"Well good." Kelly tried to cut off his ask. It came anyway.

"I've got a presentation on the 26th. In Cleveland. If I get the sale, it's worth a hundred thousand to us in a commission bonus. One of the biggest contracts I've ever chased."

Kelly was pissed. "Brian, you know I work. Just like you. I'd have to take a day off and that comes out of my vacation. It's your fucking mother's piano."

She kicked the curb lightly with her tennis shoe. "Why do you try to dump shit on me? It's one of the reasons I can't stand you anymore."

He stood next to her, under the light of a streetlamp. The last wisps of daylight were on the horizon, and it was almost dark.

"Look Kelly ..." he started to argue.

"No" said Kelly.

They stepped up on the sidewalk as a car drove by.

"I'll give you something you want. Something you want in the divorce."

Kelly and Brian had actively discussed the property division. Kelly had a weakness. About twenty years ago Brian inherited a Picasso drawing from his grandmother, and the drawing had become a fixture in their dining room. Brian didn't give a shit about the drawing, but Kelly, as an avid art collector, became very attached to it. Brian knew that. Of course, the drawing was going to Brian as his separate property so there was never any discussion about it.

Brian was the insurance guy. He took care of the insurance appraisals. The piece was appraised at $250,000 by a reputable auction house. Because it was Brian's separate property, Kelly was never aware of the appraised value. She did know it was worth a lot, and knew that similar drawings had been sold in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Brian continued walking on the sidewalk and Kelly walked alongside.

"So the Picasso ...," Brian started.

Kelly figured it'd be something like this. There was always an angle with Brian.

"So I'm listening ..." she told him.

"Well the Picasso. Here's the thing. I know you've always argued that you're entitled to a share of the drawing because you were the one that spent all the time with Grandma when she was sick. And you know, I'm not really attached to it. Not like you are."

He had Kelly's full attention. He didn't tell Kelly that he planned to marry his (former) administrative assistant once their divorce was finalized. He was planning on using the cash he would ask for as a down payment to buy the new house he was currently renting. He knew that Kelly would balk if she knew the purpose of the money.

"So, I had the drawing recently appraised at $250,000 ..."

Kelly realized Brian was serious.

"But I know it's not the easiest thing to sell and I know I should give you credit for taking time off work to be with Grandma. So if I treated you as a half owner I'll give you the drawing for $125,000. You can pay me out of the proceeds of the divorce settlement."

Kelly wasn't expecting his proposal. This was a big decision. But she really wanted the drawing. She also knew Brian would have a solid appraisal backing up his number. She had no reason to doubt its value and never dreamed she'd have the chance to own it, and at half its market value. She was sure that Brian needed the cash, but she'd never pry out of him what he wanted to use it for. The offer was too tempting, and Kelly, being the art professional, couldn't resist a deal on something she really wanted. She also knew that Brian might think better of this offer, so she needed to decide right away. She decided to jump.

"OK ... I'll do it for $125,000."

Brian smiled hearing Kelly say it. He was going to have the cash for his house and he'd be able to tack on this one more thing.

"There's something else ..."

"What?" Kelly said, exasperated. Here comes another ask, she told herself. What a fuckhead.

"The 26th. I need you to cover it. Cover the 26th and then it's a deal."

It was only another day off. And besides, she could spend more time with Tasha. She just needed to supervise the loading of the piano and its delivery to the house Brian was renting. Brian wasn't living there yet, but was renting it to store his stuff there in anticipation of his move out of the family house once Tasha went to college. It was yet another annoying request, but she relented.

"Good ... I'll have our lawyer draw up a bill of sale," Brian said, relieved to resolve an issue that was nagging at him. "You can give me a note for your share and pay me when we sell the house."

That was more than generous in Kelly's book. She was wondering when she would pay, and Brian's solution was a fair one. In truth, the house needed a lot of work and Brian wanted to make sure that Kelly would be on the hook as well for the repairs. Brian didn't know that Kelly was planning on borrowing money from her father and her 401(k) account to buy him out of this house. She never had any intention of moving -- only kicking Brian out. They shook to seal the business transaction. That's all they were capable of at this point in their relationship.

They got to the block party, both in a good mood because they both thought they got the best of the other. They were going to find out their deal had bigger consequences than they imagined.

* * *

Brian and Kelly entered the main doors to the community center, a structure built some forty years ago. The sound of the dance music was reverberating off the brick walls and the linoleum floor. There was a folding table set up outside the center's main ballroom.

"Kelly!" Emily cried over the voices of dozens of people between them.

Kelly had changed into her heels and spotted her best friend over a sea of heads. She wove her way through the crowd assembled in the hallway, carrying her mac and cheese, and stepped up to the registration table.

"Kelly ... glad you made it," said Emily. She was sitting behind the table, marking off Kelly's and Brian's names off the printed list and then handing them their name badges.

"So what do I do with this?" Kelly asked, resting the casserole dish on the table.

"There's an area in the back. On the right as you walk in. You can leave it there."

Kelly waited for a moment. "I thought you were coming in with me."

"I told you I'd be working a bit first. Go on in. I've got to be at the table until my replacement arrives. Should be a half hour or so. Go." She encouraged Kelly with a wave of the hand. Brian pulled the double doors open and a wall of sound hit them with "Saturday Night Fever" blaring from the speakers and a disco ball reflecting points of light around the darkened room.

"Shit ... I feel like I'm in the 70's. I need a drink," Brian shouted over the music. He never cared for disco. "You coming?"

He watched Kelly put the casserole dish down and come back to him. "Sure," she said. She needed a drink too. And she wanted to boogie.

There was a man selling drink tickets next to the bar, which was set in the back of the room. They waited in line behind a few people, watching the bartender expertly making drinks. He was a kid in his 20's, a handsome young man who was charming the women in front of them. When they got to the front she recognized him as Jimmy Jackson, a kid who used to babysit Tasha. She heard that he was in graduate school someplace.

"Hey, Mrs. B., good to see you again," he said. He was talking to her, but his eyes were focused on the cleavage she was showing from her low cut summer dress.

Kelly noticed that he had changed from a gangly teen to a very good looking man. Jimmy always thought that Kelly was the best looking woman in the neighborhood, and used to go through her underwear drawer after he'd put Tasha to bed. He discovered her vibrator in her nightstand drawer and used to rub it against his penis while he sniffed her soiled panties, imagining that he was putting his face between her thighs. The sound of her voice made him tingle.

"What're pouring Jimmy?"

Jimmy worked his way through undergraduate school as a bartender. He'd perfected a rum based cocktail that was refreshing, but had a big back end kick.

"Here, Mrs. B. Try this. It's something I was kind of known for in college."

He poured her a double portion in a red plastic cup that was usually reserved for beer. He told himself that he wouldn't mind seeing Kelly later, after a few of these drinks, and after her husband went home first.

Kelly took a sip. "Hey, this is good." She waved the cup at Jimmy. "Thanks!" She flashed a smile, and Jimmy moved closer to the bar so she couldn't see the erection in his pants.

Kelly found a few of her neighborhood girlfriends clustered in the corner talking. She immersed herself in the gossip of the neighborhood, enjoying the drink and being surprised a few minutes later when she realized her glass was empty. They were talking about Marnie, the new exchange student that Emily had picked up a few days before.

"Hold that thought," she told them. "I've got to get another drink"

She wanted to hear the discussion of this new person. The other three women started talking about Jimmy when she left.

Kelly went up to the bar. There wasn't anyone in line, so Jimmy spotted Kelly's empty cup and was already mixing another double shot drink.

"Like that Mrs. B?"

Kelly gave him a coquettish look. "You know I did Jimmy. It's really strong. In my day they would call this drink 'liquid panty remover.'"

She wasn't above flirting, even with a kid who used to babysit for her. Jimmy was now a full grown man, and Kelly had seen his look of lust many times before. Even though Brian had really soured her taste for men, she still enjoyed their attention. It made her feel good, and it was a feeling she seldom felt in those unhappy days.

Jimmy took her plastic cup and refilled it.

"Here you go, Mrs. B." In his not so subtle way, he revealed his true intentions.

"You sticking around till later?" Jimmy knew what happened late at these parties. He'd gone home with some of the neighborhood girls before, but Kelly was a wholly different level. He'd heard that Kelly was in a rocky marriage, and rumors, unfounded of course, that she'd been sleeping with some of the other men in the neighborhood.

Kelly knew what he meant. She had no intention in hooking up with him, but she also didn't see any harm in having some fun with him.