Freja and Jeanie Ch. 04

Alex nodded. "Yep. One half Pernod Fils, and one half Bacardi 151. A few of those and you're blind, you're deaf, and you're not speaking too well."

"Horrible name for a drink," Karen sighed as she knocked one back. She swallowed and shook her head. "But potent, yes."

"C'mon, that's a great time to do karaoke," Jeanie insisted, holding onto Pax's arm and rubbing her boobs against it. "When you're wasted enough that you won't remember your embarrassment the next day."

"I don't do karaoke," Pax growled, wondering when his lips went numb.

"Well that is a pity," Karen said, looking at him. "By the way, Mister Kim, have we discussed how you will be paying the remaining sixteen thousand dollars you still owe us?"

"Y'know what, I just remembered a great song that I love to sing," Pax said hastily, rising from his seat and bracing himself against the table while the world around him picked a direction to spin in. "I'll... I'll go set it up with the DJ."

"You two go with him, before he collapses through every table on the way over," Mike instructed. Jeanie and Freja both got up and hurried after him, taking his arms and leading him over to the man controlling the music while some woman up onstage butchered Mariah Carey.

Of the three identical disc jockeys who floated back and forth in his vision, he chose to speak to the one in the middle about his selection and then waited silently while the girls held him upright. If he was normally paranoid about their proximity to him and any disasters that might follow in their wake, he was clearly too inebriated to remember at this point.

In due course, it was his turn, and lots of patrons were watching as the two girls escorted him onstage. They stood on either side of him while he looked around the crowded bar, his eyes heavily-lidded and somewhat unfocused. He leaned forward slightly, speaking into the microphone.

"My name..." he began saying in an assertive voice that was somewhat mistimed with his mouth. "Is Paxton Bernard Kim... you remember it..."

"Because chances are he's not gonna tomorrow," Alex said to Alexa, who put her hand over her mouth and snickered.

It was an Eighties tune he'd selected, and as Jeanie recognized the tune, she began nodding her head and shimmying to it. Freja took a little longer, but just went along with the rhythm. His voice warbled and slurred slightly, but he mostly managed to stay on his lofty- almost squeaky key.

"You don't have to be beautiful to turn me on,

I just need your body, baby, from dusk til dawn,

You don't need experience to turn me out,

You just leave it all up to me, I'm gonna show you what it's all about.

You don't have to be rich to be my girl,

You don't have to be cool, to rule my word,

Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with,

All I want is your extra time and your... kiss."

"I admit, I wasn't expecting to hear funk tonight," Karen mused as she noshed on a honey-garlic wing.

"Sometimes people have hidden depths to them," Mike replied, shrugging. "And from the looks of him, he's about to let it all flood out."

Pax was leaning into the mic still, swaying his shoulders with the music. Alcohol sweat had darkened parts of the mauve button-down shirt he was wearing. He seemed to be getting into the mood, even if he was almost hunched over like a caveman. Freja and Jeanie were still beside him, wiggling and enjoying themselves.

"You got to not talk dirty, baby, if you wanna impress me,

You can't be too flirty, mama, I know how to undress me,"

"Ah, uh oh!" Jeanie and Freja chimed in, leaning toward the mic. Pax almost scowled at the intrusion but kept going.

"I want to be your fantasy, maybe you could be mine,

You just leave it all up to me, we could have a good time,"

Jeanie and Freja had both applied some of the makeup, and made sure that the lights were playing to their advantage as they joined Pax in singing the chorus again. He started getting louder as he sang, fumbling with the first button of his shirt and loosening his collar. His normally crisp, faded hair was beginning to wilt from perspiration, and his voice had an almost growl tone to it, despite the counter-tenor range he was attempting to sing in. Alex just looked on in amusement, counting silently to himself.

"Women, not girls, rule my world, I said they rule my world,

Act your age, mama, not your shoe size, maybe we could do the twirl,

You don't have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude, uh,

You just leave it all up to me, my love will be your food, yeah,"

Five... four... three... two... Alex counted down in his head, smirking.

"Y'don' have to be rich, to be my girl, y'don' have to be cool to rule my world," Pax began almost shouting before he screeched into the mic while tearing off his shirt, to the gasps of the audience.

"AIN'T NO PARTICULAR SIGN I'M MORE COMPATIBLE WITH, ALL I WANT IS YOUR EXTRA TIME AND YOUR... kiss..."

"Oh my," Karen said as she watched, tilting her head as she watched. The spectators in the place were laughing, hooting, and cheering. Freja and Jeanie, while surprised by his sudden display, began running their hands around his exposed chest while the final rhythms of the song faded out. "First funk and now a strip show? An evening of unexpecteds."

Her husband shrugged as the girls walked Pax off the stage. He seemed to be breathing heavily, almost snorting as he came down, his bleary eyes fixed on a point far, far away on another plane. "Remington could never keep her clothes on either when this song first came out, you may recall."

"I remember," Karen said dryly, shaking her head while the trio sat down, with Freja and Jeanie on either side of their charge. Val excused herself and went to find a shirt for Pax before he was asked to leave the establishment for being underdressed. "Well, Mister Kim, that performance has no doubt gone some way toward reducing your debt. Well done."

"Can't believe I did that," he breathed, still sweating while Jeanie wiped him down with the scraps of his dress shirt. "Wonder if I'm drunk enough that I won't remember this in the morning."

"Just don't look down," Alex said, smirking.

"Why?" Pax asked, scowling before doing what he'd been instructed not to. "Why the Hell can't I look d-"

The gravity took over, his head dropped, and it hit the table with a decided thunk! Jeanie and Freja both leaned in, but then they heard him snoring.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there will be no encore..." Alex said casually, sitting back in his chair while his wife burst out laughing.

***

Back in the hotel room...

Freja and Jeanie were lying together on the edge of the bed, holding one another. Next to them, taking up most of the mattress, a very passed-out Pax was snoring loudly, his limbs splayed in every direction and his mouth wide open. The temptation to put a pillow over his face to dull the buzz-saw sound was tempting, but they were afraid it might work a little too well. So they made an executive decision and quietly exited the room and went down the hall, opening the door to the room designated for Valentina. She was, not surprisingly, staying in the bedroom of her Master and Mistress, so her bed was unoccupied. It may have seemed strange to have a room for her set aside, but for tax and propriety purposes, she had her own room. They knew she wouldn't mind.

They crawled into the large, comfy bed and snuggled together, foreheads pressed. There was no point in pretending the following day wasn't on their mind, even if they both felt a small, cold ball of dread sitting in their stomachs. Their fingers twined and they both sighed, each knowing how the other one felt.

"We did good tonight, didn't we, Fre?" Jeanie murmured, looking for at least some assurance. "It... it felt like it went well."

Freja nodded her head gently, but kept her eyes closed, thinking about her words. "Yes, my love, it went very well. They saw the makeup to almost its full effect and potential. And they also had a good time. Now all that remains is to see if it was enough. For us to take on the music industry and show them an advantage they could have before anyone else, and to make so much money with it, that is what remains to be seen."

Jeanie's voice was tiny, and it trembled. "I'm scared, Fre. What if we fail?"

The Danish girl cuddled her wife closer. She hated seeing Jeanie feel afraid. It meant she was failing her lovely wife, and that killed Freja inside. "Then we fail, yndling. We go home empty-handed, we give Mike and Karen the patent, and they sell it for untold amounts of money, of which they will give us a generous amount, no doubt. So even if we fail here, all will be well."

The brunette was silent for several seconds before she spoke. "I don't want to fail. I want to prove that we can succeed, Fre. Not just to you and me, or even to my parents, but... to the world. I want everyone, ever, to know that we made it. That we made our own way."

Freja smiled. "No persons are islands, my love, we all need help. And yes, maybe we did the biting off of more than we could chew, but I agree. I want this to be our victory. I am so very nervous, and even scared. But then I think of you, and everything I want to give you, and that gives me courage. I must hope it is enough to succeed. At this point, it is all I have."

Jeanie nodded gently and snuggled into her wife, closing her eyes and falling asleep.

***

The following morning...

"Nrrrrrrrgh..." the young man groaned miserably, lying propped up in the bed with a cold, damp cloth on his head and feeling absolutely horrid. Thankfully, the curtains were closed, and the three people with him in the room were being quiet, since dealing with the rotation of the earth was bad enough. "What the Hell..."

"Oh, come now, Mister Kim," Valentina said gently as she stirred a small drink next to the bed that would hopefully help with his condition. "Is it really that bad?"

Pax's eyes flicked over to look at her, since he didn't want to move his head. "Remember when Patrick Beverley got trucked by Steven Adams in the 2017 playoffs? Well, that'd feel pretty good right now in comparison."

"Goodness," the servant girl said, fanning herself for effect, even though she had no idea what he was referring to. "Hopefully this will help."

He took the glass from Valentina and winced as he tried to swallow some of the concoction. "I have absolutely no memory of last night after the third of those damn Helen Kellers. What did I do?"

Alex shrugged. "Well, after we posted your bail, we-"

"WHAT?!" Pax blurted in shock, followed by gripping his head in pain, having hurt himself with his own noise. "BAIL?! WHY?!"

Alex smiled, seemingly recalling an event. "You thought the way that grape-crusher statue was bent over was very suggestive and enticing, so you went for it. The police weren't amused, and neither were the nuns or the orphans."

"Alex, you brat," Alexa giggled, flicking his shoulder as she stood beside him, trying to sound chiding and failing at it. "You're killing the poor man. Nothing of the sort happened, Mister Kim. You sang a song with Fre and Jeanie, tore your shirt off, and then you just passed out at the table, so we got you back here in due course."

"You have to admit, Alex's version of events is more amusing, though," Val pointed out.

Pax scowled at Alex. "If anyone ever tells you that you're a nice person, they're lying, just so you know."

"Holla," Alex replied amenably, not contesting the assertion. Alexa just shook her head and went to sit in a chair near the bed. Pax drank more of Val's offering and eased back into the plush bed, groaning again. There was obviously a reason he'd never before let himself get plastered like that, and he'd paid the price. Then again, he wouldn't have been in this position or misery if it weren't for those insane girls. "Hey, at least you don't reek of Bacardi anymore."

"Did whatever I sang at least reduce my debt?" he murmured, feeling like his eyes were fixed in the wrong sockets and little gremlins were playing soccer with his nerve endings. He also finally noticed that he was totally naked beneath the light blanket that covered him to his waist. When had that happened? He knew better than to ask Alex.

"Even I'm not that good, Mister Kim," Alexa pointed out. "At least it didn't deepen your debt, be happy with that."

"That's about all I've got to be happy about," he groused, disappointed that Valentina's drink hadn't just killed him quickly. "This week has been decidedly unkind to me."

"I'm sure Freja and Jeanie can identify," the blonde girl mused. "But things are being corrected, I might point out."

"For those two, sure," Pax snorted a little too loudly, wincing. He then continued, in a softer but still bitter tone. "I'm still a damned pariah as far south a Tijuana and on up to Redding. I'm in no danger of making a living in this state thanks to those two."

"Yes, they used an old-school sci-fi mind control ray on you and made you have that epic temper tantrum at the club in L.A.," Alex laughed. "Totally on them, you had no part in the fiasco."

Pax scowled and looked at the glass in his hand. "From the sounds of it, this is a constant thing with them. How do you endure it?"

"I've known Fre for ten years, and she's mellowed out, to be honest," Alexa replied. "If you'd just taken the panties to the chest and stayed quiet, instead of re-enacting a Benny Hill chase, the club would've ejected them, and your life would've gone on as normal. It's tempting to think that you weren't just alleviating boredom."

"And they have been trying desperately hard to make it up to you ever since," Val added, taking his glass and refilling it. "They may be a little crazy, but they're well-meaning, Mister Kim."

"Well, it's a good thing they don't hate me, then," he muttered, taking another sip. "I can't begin to imagine what level of Hell that would involve."

"Yes, child soldiers in Darfur feel so bad for you," Alex sighed, shaking his head. "Look, life isn't over. While we've been distracted, my mom and dad have been busy. They got your 'blacklist' lifted in L.A., and they've even set you up for a few auditions. And apparently you're welcome back at the Cinnamond any time. Mom said she only sounded as good as she did because of your playing. It may've been a lie, but she's generous. And you are good."

Pax said nothing but shrank slightly into the plush bed, still scowling but having a hard time holding it in please. How was anyone supposed to notice his scowl if he had egg on his face? "Huh. Really?"

"Whenever you get a new phone, you'll no doubt have people calling and asking to hear you," Alex confirmed, nodding. "Not to rub it in, but there's probably a few people on that list who you were in no danger of knowing just yet. So if it hadn't been for Fre and Jeanie's crazy..."

"No," the pianist moaned, sinking back into the pillows and holding his face. "Nonononono... you mean I have to thank them for inflicting their crazy on me?"

"They'd probably settle for you not snarling at them," reasoned Alex. "They were desperate to have my mom and dad fix things somehow. If blowjobs in wine and sex in mud won't do it, they're probably out of ideas."

"You're awful, Alex," Alexa giggled. "There's more to Fre and Jeanie than wine blowjobs and mud sex. I don't know what it might be, but there's gotta be more."

"Where are they, anyway?" Pax asked, looking around and noticing he was in Freja and Jeanie's room. "Not like them to miss out on a chance to torture me."

"They're back downtown with Mike and Kar," Alexa sighed, seeming somewhat concerned, her gaze distant. "And I'm really hoping this goes well for them..."

***

A posh waiting room of a music studio downtown...

Freja and Jeanie sat on the couch together, clasping one another's hands and not knowing what to say even to each other. Their nervousness was palpable. Mike and Karen were sitting on a large chesterfield nearby and seemed much more at ease. They were quietly discussing some issue in a language neither Freja or Jeanie knew. Based on the hint of smirk on Karen's face, and the way she was tracing her fingernail over her husband's huge hand, they were probably flirting or talking about something that was HR-inappropriate.

The same secretary as last time entered the lounge and smiled at them. "The directors will see you now. Just follow me."

The girls both stood and then started to follow the woman but paused and then turned to look back. Mike and Karen were still sitting. The older couple simply looked up at them.

"Aren't... aren't you coming?" Jeanie asked somewhat uncertainly.

Karen shook her head slowly, but her smile was a soft one. "No, honey. This is your deal. You go in there and make it happen. You don't need us. You don't need anybody."

Mike nodded in agreement. "You two have this. Once you've struck your deal, send for us and we'll bring in the initial documents to begin the process. But go make it your victory and reality."

Both girls swallowed but nodded and turned to catch up with the secretary. She led them into the same meeting room as before and introduced them before exiting and closing the door. The guy who seemed to be chairman gestured for them to sit together, and they noticed that two chairs had been set at the end of the long table, next to one another. That seemed considerate. Freja noticed that several board members seemed to be smiling at them.

"Thank you for joining us again," the man began, nodding. "And thank you for a completely unexpected and delightfully fun evening last night, ladies. We have all agreed that your product is indeed remarkable, and indeed revolutionary. It's a pity, as far as we are concerned, that the cosmetics people in L.A. were too short-sighted and, frankly, mean, to see what was in front of them. Rest assured, this company does."

Freja and Jeanie sat and listened quietly, waiting for the inevitable 'but...'.

"We've all agreed that there are endless uses for your kinetic makeup, and you've demonstrated a few of them," he continued. "The licensing alone is worth an enormous sum. To that end, we would like to make you an offer for those rights."

One of the execs took a piece of paper that was in front of him and brought it to the girls, sliding it over the smooth surface of the table to them, upside down. Freja thanked him and turned it over so that they could examine the offer. Freja could hear her wife suck in her breath quietly.

"Fre?" Jeanie murmured. "That's a big number. We could-"

"No," Freja said, shaking her head. "I am sorry, we cannot accept this."

Jeanie looked at her wife as if she had grown a second head. The execs all seemed slightly taken aback. They hadn't expected this.

"I am not meaning to be rude, please understand," Freja continued, standing now. "My wife, she is more important to me than anything. With this product, I can give her any life I want. I know what this product is, what this kinetic makeup means. We have all seen it. But I cannot part with it unless I am certain that the offer is worth it and that my Jeanette will be set for life..."

With a hand that felt like it was made of lead, she pushed it away from them. "Double the offer. And we will accept one percent shares and the resulting dividends. I am the patent holder and creator, that is not unreasonable. I will retain the patent, and we can say you always have first licensing rights if I improve the product somehow. If you will not give us one percent, then triple the lump sum offer."