Destiny Can Be Strange

"What was that all about?" Olivia asked Gabe.

"Just a supposedly friendly bet. Wayne just hates losing…at anything." Gabe replied. "You figure in, that he's never won a bet with me on a football game, I can understand why he is a little upset."

Olivia looked about Gus', sighed and rested her head against Gabe's chest. "Looks like Tina's a no show."

"So, I guess you'll need that ride home after all." Said Gabe.

"It seems that way." Olivia looked up at Gabe. "Or I could just take a cab home. You've got designated driver duties."

Looking around, Gabe sighed and looked back at her. "No problem. They all left already leaving me no one to take home. Well, dammit…. They left me here. I am gonna have at least one beer before I go home. Unless you're in a hurry Olivia."

"No Gabe, I'll even have one with you."

They each ordered a beer and began by talking about the game and other inconsequentials. Gabe noticed that Olivia repeatedly placed her hand over his. He also noticed how brightly she smiled and seemed to be having a remarkably good time. He was happy to keep her happy and entertained and to keep her mind off her break up with Maurice. Gabe found himself having way too much fun with this dark petite beauty. Yet again, he wondered what it would be like to touch and kiss her. They finished their beers and left. On the way out to his van, Olivia held on to his arm and rested her head against him. It was quite pleasant for both of them. Gabe unlocked the van and opened the passenger door for her.

"Quite the gentleman, aren't you, Gabe?" Olivia asked with a sweet smile.

He shrugged. "Just something drummed into my head by my father." Then he waked around, opened his door, got in and started the van.

The drive to Tina's was very quiet.

Gabe brought his van to a stop right in front of Tina's apartment. He shut off the ignition and looked at Olivia.

"Are you feeling any better?" Gabe asked her.

"More than you know, Gabe. Thanks for the ride. Thanks for being there…..Thanks for everything. I guess I owe you big time."

"You owe me nothing. I'm just happy to help a friend in need. Would you like me to beat up Maurice for you?" Gabe chuckled, and then winked at her.

"It's a very tempting offer Gabe but, I'll pass." She frowned." If he wants to fuck Debbie, he can have her. I'm probably better off without him." Tears threatened to fall again, but Olivia wiped her eyes and smiled at him.

"Debbie? Debbie, the day time bar maid at Gus'?" He asked her.

"That's the one."

"Um, no comment."

Olivia smiled conspiratorially "Tina hates her…she told me that Debbie loves to screw black guys, won't give a white dude the time of day."

"Gabe shrugged. "Her choice…Not my concern."

"Would you? I mean would you do her if she were interested?"

"I don't think...No, I wouldn't."

"Why not?" She almost sounded disappointed.

"Her breasts. Their way too big and their fake." Gabe stated emphatically.

"You don't like implanted titties?"

"Not when their so obvious that they look unnatural. I don't think much of unnatural breasts. I'll take small real ones over huge fakes any day."

"I understand." Olivia said quietly.

Gabe opened his door and got out of the van. When he got to the passenger side, he opened the door and bowed slightly. "Milady." he said gallantly.

Olivia giggled, "Why, thank you kind sir! You know, you really don't have to take me all the way to the door."

"Blame my father. He raised me to do things like this."

They got to the door and Olivia turned to face Gabe, taking both of his hands in hers. "You can't know just how much I appreciate this. You have been a bit of a hero for me tonight. You even made me happy for a while." She pulled Gabe close and gave him a short, soft, yet lingering intimate kiss on the lips. After which, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him with a lot more strength than Gabe thought she possessed.

Gabe's mind was racing. He could not understand how a simple kiss from this woman affected him this way. He felt hot and a little light headed. None of Cheryl's kisses on the lips even during their wild sexual escapades had ever gotten to him quite like this and she was a damn good kisser. Damn, he even felt a little short of breath. He would have to talk to some one about this, but whom?

Olivia finally released him and sighed. "Good night Gabe. See ya soon?"

"Of course. Night Darlin'." Gabe said and turned to leave. He paused and waited until Olivia went inside and closed the door. Then he walked to the van thinking just exactly, what the hell was going on?

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

Olivia closed and locked the door berating herself. Why didn't you kiss him more than you did…you know you wanted to, She thought. Everything about Gabe seemed so right to her. She had secretly been in love with him for well over two years. She had no idea why she loved him, but hoped she always would and prayed that one day he might feel the same toward her. Her interest in him went back to when they first met. Gabe was married to Cheryl then so she was content to be his friend at the time.

The moment Olivia actually realized she was in love with him was still vivid in her mind. She and Maurice were at a party and had run into Gabe and Cheryl. Everyone seem be having a great time. At one point, though she could never remember why, Cheryl dared Olivia to kiss him. She was slightly buzzed and figured why not. Just good clean fun, right? Their lips met and it was just like in the movies…fireworks, explosions and train wrecks. The kiss astounded her. It was all over, but the proverbial crying. The kiss was never repeated, as she wanted, much to her disappointment. Not yet, anyway she told herself.

Later, that night, while having sex with Maurice, she fantasized that Gabe was the one in bed with her. Oddly, she felt no guilt over her fantasizing. There was no looking back after that for her. She had never really been in love with Maurice, but she did care for him and the sex was pretty damned good. Olivia was not quite a person who could remain celibate. She just didn't have the genes for it. She knew in her heart that while she could never prove it, she was sure that Maurice cheated on her every chance he got. It bothered her at first, a lot. As time passed and then after falling in love with Gabe, she found herself not caring anymore. As long as Maurice practiced safe sex and did not bring 'anything' home with him. The only thing missing from their love life was that he would never go down on her. He always claimed that it just wasn't natural and her pussy always stank. She became convinced that he was right after hearing it time after time. She'd even gotten to the point that she was almost okay with it. How can one miss what they are not getting and most likely never would?

He had no problems with her sucking him off nearly every night and practically demanded it of her. Still, it broke her heart being dumped the way she was.

With Gabe, it had to be love, didn't it? Olivia seemed to think of him nearly every minute of every day. Whenever they touched, it was like tiny bolts of electricity. Sitting at Gus' earlier with their arms around one another, posing for that photo made her extremely wet. She already had plans for the copy of the picture she would hopefully soon receive. Her desire for him often threatened to overwhelm her. Images of them both naked and screwing like rabbits raced though her mind and she became instantly much wetter. She knew her panties were soaked and could even smell her own excitement. Olivia was nearly mortified at the notion that Gabe might have smelled it too when they hugged good night. Or maybe not. She was in love she was sure.

On the other hand, perhaps all of this was just lust?

"Oh shit! I forgot, Olivia." said Tina walking into the room shaking Olivia from her reverie.

"It's okay, Tina. At l east I got to spend some time with my future boyfriend." she chuckled.

"I am so sorry. I was reading and lost track of time. Then I fell asleep…." Tina paused. "…Future boyfriend? You in the market already?" said Tina, mildly taken aback. "Who is it? Do I know him?"

"Ummm…" Olivia hesitated.

Tina smirked, knowing already who it was. "C'mon, fess up! It's Gabe, isn't it?" Tina guessed

"You know?'

"Girl, it's very obvious to me. As much as you talk about him. And you were at Gus's tonight and I know Gabe and his friends are there every Monday night during football season."

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

On his way home, Gabe tried to figure out what happened without success. He really hated looking for answers for problems using emotion rather than logic. In his mind, the world ran on logic and not on emotion. This was especially true since Cheryl and he had split up. He liked his life to be simple, orderly and logical. Nothing more, nothing less. However, this young woman was tossing the proverbial wrench into the works. There was no doubt that he cared for her a great deal. She was far and away one of his best female friends. Olivia had always been easy to talk to. He even confided some things to her. Moreover, she was always willing to listen. She in turn, would confide in him as well.

The problem was that he'd started seeing her in a completely different light. He had even wondered a couple of times this night what it be like to have sex with her. Though his interest in her was piqued, he valued her friendship far too much to risk destroying it. Better to keep her as a friend than lose her completely.

Gabe awoke early the following morning and was in the midst of his normal getting reading for work routine, when the phone rang. Checking the caller I.D., he saw that it was Cheryl, his ex-wife.

"Hello?" he said it so softly and slowly it sounded as if he had actually said 'yellow.'

"Hi, Sugar." Cheryl said brightly. "How are you today?"

"Just getting ready to go to the shop, Cheryl. What's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if we might get together this weekend. I'm getting a little tense and need relief, if you know what I mean."

Of course, Gabe knew what she meant. It had been nearly a month since their last get together. Gabe and Cheryl had been going on 'dates' as they referred to them. A quiet dinner at a restaurant out of town and an evening of wild sexual abandon at a near by motel. Gabe thought it odd that their sex life was far better after the divorce.

Gabe quickly thought about his schedule to assure there would be no conflict. "Sure Babe, you have any place in mind?"

"A new place just opened in Brighton. An Italian family restaurant and there is a little bed and breakfast right next door." Cheryl said sounding hopeful. "I'll e-mail you the address. The name of the place is Markov's."

"Ah, a Russian-Italian restaurant." he chuckled.

"Friday at eight?" she asked.

"Works for me. See you then.

They hung up and Gabe completed his morning ritual. The weather that day was moderate, even a little warm. He got his black 2004 Harley-Davidson Softtail Custom out of the garage. There would be few riding days left this year and Gabe would take advantage of each and every one of them.

Twenty minutes later when He arrived at work, he greeted Dave and Luke. Wayne was nowhere to be seen. "Is Wayne still mad about the game last night?" He asked.

"Don't know. He vanished right after it was over." Luke said. "Not even sure he went home."

"Speaking of vanishing…." Gabe looked at the two of them disgustedly.

"Okay…. Okay, we'll skip your next turn, Gabe." said Dave. "That was our bad, I guess."

"So, what do you guys want to do this weekend?" Luke said to them, changing the subject.

"I have plans for Friday." Gabe told them. "I'm meeting Cheryl."

"But Shelly's got someone she wants you to meet." Dave said regretting it as the words left his mouth.

Gabe looked sharply and Dave, but said nothing. It was as if Shelly saw his being divorced, single as a threat to her world, and perhaps even to her marriage to Dave. That fact that Shelly was a 'liberated' woman and a bit of a feminist and seemed to think that, every man should have such a woman in his life did not sit well with Gabe. He never thought of himself as being politically correct, and wasn't about to start now.

"Hmmm. You and Cheryl again?" Luke smirked "What's going on with that?"

"Nunya." laughed Gabe. "You know, Nunya damn business."

They all had a good laugh over it and started their workday. Wayne didn't appear until well past ten looking hung over and wore out, so Dave sent him back home.

The rest of the week continued without incident. Gabe filled his days doing tune ups on a couple of Harleys and a total rebuild on the engine of a trike conversion made from an old Volkswagen, sometimes referred to as a Hogwagen. He thought of his upcoming 'date' with Cheryl. During the divorce, she had apparently kicked her crack habit. Gabe hoped that she was still clean though he knew from friends that she had quit going to her NA meetings. The one thing he would not tolerate was if she had fallen off the wagon, so to speak. She was not a very pleasant person when stoned on that shit.

Olivia also occupied his thoughts a lot this week. Her dark eyes and her soft brown skin attracted him in ways he could not yet understand. He wanted her. Yet, she was a close friend, a confidant. He could not imagine screwing that up just for a piece of ass. They had shared so many intimate details of one another's lives…. No! He would not. What was the term? Unrequited love? However, in this case, it was just lust…or was it?

Friday evening rolled around. Gabe got into his van and drove up to Brighton. With Cheryl's directions, He had no trouble finding Markov's. He spotted Cheryl's car, parked next to it and went inside.

Markov's turned out to be a very quaint place. The inside looked like a typical small Italian restaurant complete with red checked table clothes and candles stuck in old Chianti bottles on each table. A well-hidden intercom system played very softly what sounded like Russian folk music. People of apparent eastern European ancestry occupied about half the tables. A small, thin doorman approached him and asked in a clearly Russian accent

"You are meeting lady, no?"

"Actually, yes." answered Gabe.

The waiter nodded having received that answer he seemed to know he would get, turned and walked farther inside. Gabe followed him to a darkened corner and saw Cheryl smile at him. She was as lovely as always.

Cheryl Eldritch was dressed very nicely in a strapless short black cocktail dress and matching stiletto heels. Her protruding nipples poking though the fabric indicated that she was braless this evening. Knowing her adventurous nature, he had no doubt that she was most likely pantiless as well. Cheryl stood 5' 6" tall and tipped the scale at 120lbs. Her curly blonde hair hung half way down her back. She had piercing sea blue eyes, which were easy to get lost in. She quickly jumped to her feet, put her arms around Gabe's neck and kissed him deeply. From her kiss, he wondered if they would finish their dinner before she would want to move on to matters that were more intimate.

"Hi baby!" Cheryl said when they broke their kiss.

How've you been doin'?" asked Gabe

She lowered her voice. "Aside from being so horny that I'm going crazy, I doing very well, sugar."

"I guess we can take care of that in a bit."

"Lets not waste too much time, honey." her need very apparent in her eyes.

They both sat and in a moment, their waiter approached. "Good evening. I will be your waiter tonight. My name is Ivan. He pronounced his name in the Old Russian fashion though his accent sounded Italian. "Would either of you care for a drink?"

Cheryl ordered a vodka gimlet and Gabe asked for an Ochakovo Ruby after hearing the choices of beer that were available, all of which sounded Russian.

Ivan smiled and then said. "Before I bring your drinks and menus, may I tell what the specials are?"

Gabe returned his smile and said, "I have a better idea, Ivan. Why don't you just recommend something for us? It's our first time here and we'll trust your judgment."

Ivan's face light up with unexpected pleasure. "Very good sir! Then may I recommend the Lasagna Kiev. It's my grandmother's own recipe." He launched into a brief description of the dish, which sounded fantastic. And though it would be as Gabe thought of it as a 'fat and cholesterol gut bomb', he ordered it anyway. Ivan left with a huge smile still on his face.

"Looks like you made a new friend." said Cheryl with a bemused look on her face.

Gabe answered. "We probably shouldn't, but it sounds really good and I seem to recall we both like great lasagna."

She smiled coyly. "We can work some of it off later."

Ivan reappeared a moment later with their drinks. The Russian beer while not nearly as good as the good ol' American beers he preferred was not bad. Smooth and drinkable.

The dinner was exquisite. The lasagna was even better than advertised. Cheryl had a couple more drinks, but Gabe managed to nurse his beer though the entire meal.

The end came; Gabe paid the bill with his credit card and tipped Ivan lavishly. As they stood to go, Ivan reappeared and thanked them profusely "It is none of my business, but may I ask if you have anything planned for this evening?"

Cheryl smiled at him saying. "Actually, we have a reservation at that cute little bed and breakfast next door."

Again, Ivan's face lit up yet again. "Ah, the Brighton. My family owns that place as well. You won't regret it, I promise!"

Gabe and Cheryl left Markov's and went next door. Even before they got to the top of the steps, a short rotund middle-aged woman opened the door smiling broadly. She spoke in a thick but understandable Russian accent. "My son called and told me you coming and told me you have reservation. That mean you Mr. and Mrs. Eldritch?"

"Yes ma'am." Gabe answered.

She waved them to the entrance. "My name is Elena. Come, come, you rooms is, how you say, prepared?"

She escorted them to their room giving them a short description of the B&B including a very short history of it and her family's running of it. When they got to the room, Elena told them. "Breakfast is served from eight 'til ten in the morning. You want wake up call?"

Gabe nodded and said. "About eight o'clock will do just fine."

Elena nodded, turned and left. They entered the room.

It was quaint beyond description. It was decorated in an Old Russian fashion. There was a small fireplace with a cheery fire adding warmth to the room. The bed was easily one of the biggest either had ever seen. On a table on the far side of the room was an ice bucket filled with ice and a bottle of champagne, with two glasses.

Gabe went over to the table and slightly lifted the bottle to look at the label. It was in Russian. He was thinking of opening it when he heard a rustling noise behind him. He turned and looked.

There stood Cheryl with her dress lying in a pool around her feet. As Gabe had guessed, she wore no panties. Her pale nude body reflected the light from the fireplace. She had almost no pubic hair. What she had was shaved into a narrow 'landing strip' and was trimmed short. Her 36C breasts stood out from her body in near perfection. Her nipples while long were rather small and dark against the rest of her skin. As she began to pull the covers back, he turned back and started to open the champagne. With the bottle open, he poured two glasses. He then sat and removed his boots and socks looking at Cheryl. She was laying back with her legs spread obscenely, her fingers buried in he pussy; her eyes were locked on Gabe.