Full Moon Over Tulsa

He was right, so I shook my head.

"There's probably a reason for that. Don't let that stop you though. Just tell her you always wanted to fuck a star, and have her wear the mask the whole time."

"You're an asshole, Steve," I informed him.

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Anderson," he chuckled his usual response to being called an asshole.

Movement from the bar area caught my attention and my eyes focused there again, instead of Steve. Snowman, Reindeer, and Christmas Tree were moving away toward the elevators and the sitting area behind them where most of the partiers were congregated.

I knew I was staring, but since their backs were toward me, I had no reason not to.

I had seen Amber's butt in tight pants, shorts, bikinis, and nothing enough times to know what it looked like when she walked. Even Amber was a little loose in the caboose when she walked.

The butt I was staring at definitely had a shimmy and rhythm, but not a trace of a wobble. It wasn't just her butt either. From her toes to the top of her head, nothing moved that wasn't supposed to move, or in a way that was anything less than spectacular.

I'm certain I had forgotten to breathe, until I felt myself lifted by the shoulder of my ridiculous elf costume.

"Come on, Don Juan, we'll go talk to her together. I'll be your silent but good looking wingman, and try to not distract her from your stunning good...mind."

"Mind?" I accused him.

"I couldn't very well say looks or conversation, now could I?"

I had assisted his efforts, somewhat unaware of my actions, and was standing when I felt his hand on my back pushing me in the direction of the fleeing women.

"You just want to witness me crashing and burning..." I growled at him.

"Yeah, but I'm rooting for you, big boy. Plus I want to hear the blow by blow Monday morning."

"Blow by blow?" I almost stopped as I questioned him.

"For your sake, I hope so," he retorted, then pushed me again in their direction.

"You really need to get laid, dude."

"So do you," I told him over my shoulder while inexplicably making my way after Christmas Tree.

"I'm married. I don't get laid," he laughed.

He suddenly stopped laughing, and groaned.

"Speak of the devil. The wife spotted me, and it's waving me over."

I stopped without looking back at Steve. My eyes were scanning the crowd in the sitting area behind the elevators.

"You'll be fine. I mean, look at Amber. She was a real hot piece of ass, and you got her. There must be something about you."

"She still is," I mumbled to myself as I moved away from Steve.

I assumed, without any facts to base it on, that there were more single than married guys that worked at my employer. I knew better than to assume most people were like me, yet I was still looking for a group of single guys gathered around a Christmas tree dressed woman.

I was about to give up and return to my untouched second drink when I found them.

They were standing together, near the side wall.

The three women were alone, without the throng of single men I anticipated would be gathered around trying to say something witty or interesting to grab her attention.

She was standing between Snowman and Reindeer, swaying with the rhythm of the music drifting in from the stage.

I imagined her lips curled into a pretty smile because that was the expression each of her friends wore, except not so much the pretty part.

Instead of trying to find something even slightly intelligent to say, I was trying to decide where to look as I approached her.

I couldn't look to either side; she, and whichever of her cohorts I happened to look past, would think I was approaching that one.

I couldn't look down; she would rightly assume my only interest was in her unimaginably flawless body.

Of course, her body was all I knew of her, but something inside me told me she wouldn't appreciate that.

So, against everything my mind was screaming, I fixed my eyes on the dark eye holes in her mask and wished I could see her eyes.

I was about ten feet from her when Reindeer spotted me, turned her face toward me and raised one eyebrow.

Snowman and Christmas Tree turned their attention to me, but I only had eyes for one of them.

Still, I wanted only one thing more than to turn around and run away. Since that one thing was to say something, anything would do I surmised, I decided to do that.

When the dark eye holes of her mask met my eyes, her body stopped swaying to the music. Every muscle in her body seemed to tense.

That didn't dissuade me. I was determined.

"H..hi," I choked out, then cleared my throat.

"I'd...um, would you..." I stammered nervously.

"Can you dance? I mean, would you? With me?"

I probably could have cooked an egg on either, or both of my cheeks.

"And?"

"Oh, um..."

I wasn't expecting a question, at least not that question.

"Maybe we could talk?" I answered her question, I guess.

"And..." she answered, but it didn't seem like a question this time.

She didn't really give me a chance to come up with options for more before she continued.

"Anderson," she hissed at me.

"You're still an asshole. I don't need a sympathy fu...dance. Or talk. Go find your plastic girl to dance with. You don't need to be seen with a frumpy gingerbread girl. God, I still hate both of you!"

The motion of her arm surprised and confused me. She wasn't close enough to strike me, but it seemed that was her intention.

Then it hit me. Literally. The cold liquid mixed with ice cubes that had been in a glass in her hand was now covering my face and dripping down the front of my elf shirt.

"Stay away from me!" she screamed before shouldering me roughly out of her path and stomping past me.

I turned to watch her half walk, half run for the front door while the cold liquid soaked through my elf shirt.

It tasted like lemon-lime soda on my lips.

"Dude, that was amazing!" Steve gloated behind me.

"Not only did you crash and burn, that was probably a world record for speed and intensity. Did you ask her for a blow job in the parking lot or something?"

I ignored Steve and headed for the door.

The parking lot was lit fairly well, but I'm pretty sure I would have had more trouble finding her had her Christmas tree lights not still been blinking.

She had a head start on me, and even in her stiletto heels she was making good time.

I ran, and just made it to her car when she shifted into drive after backing out of her parking spot.

"Ophelia, stop," I demanded as I looked into her driver's window.

The mask was on the passenger seat, and the platinum blonde hair appeared to be attached to it.

My kid sister turned and glared at me before raising her left hand in front of me and extended one finger -- the middle one. She gunned the engine and sped off.

What had once been her pride and joy, a head full of flaming red hair that reached past her butt, was now cropped to just below her ears.

It was too dark inside the car to see the freckles that ran together into blobs across her forehead, cheeks, nose and chin.

She even had freckles on her lips and eyelids.

She did, anyway, the last time I had seen her, more than four years ago.

"Now that's some perseverance, dude. You chased her to the parking lot to get shot down again, and this time it only took one finger!" Steve laughed as he walked up behind me while I watched Ophelia's tail lights disappear around a corner.

"I'll see her again," I said with confidence.

"You're a glutton for punishment, that's for sure. I'd be saying 'good riddance, bitch'."

**

Ophelia and I are six years apart in age, so we were never close. She was always the annoying kid sister. She wasn't old enough to need anything from me before I left for college, and I didn't really ever look back once that happened.

I had gone home for a few Christmases, and she maintained her ability to be annoying. I didn't even go to her high school graduation.

Our mom sent me one of her senior pictures. She was still short and stubby, sporting chubby, freckled cheeks under plastic-framed glasses, and her long, red hair looked almost like she had not even bothered combing it before the shutter snapped. She seemed more proud of the braces on her teeth than she did of anything else in the picture.

I doubt I even thought about her after I met Amber. Then that May, when Amber and I had been together about eight months, and were crazy in love, Ophelia called me.

There had been a fire in one of the barns. They thought Dad was working on a tractor and something ignited. Mom went in to get him out, but neither one made it.

I went home, and took Amber with me. I thought I should be responsible, see if anything for the farm needed to be taken care of. The crops were planted, and there were two experienced hands that worked for Dad, so they were good with taking care of that part of it.

The bills were all caught up, and there was probably enough cash to take care of it until the harvest started, but then I found the land leases.

What I thought was our farm, wasn't. Everything my parents farmed was rented, even the house. Most of the equipment, the tractors and combine, the tillers and planters, had outstanding loans that most likely exceeded the market value of the collateral.

I knew harvest would bring in lots of cash, but most of it would need to be spent on the next year's land leases, note payments, seeds, and fertilizer. All I saw was a vicious circle that needed somebody to tend it to keep it going.

Ophelia and I fought. She couldn't bear the thought of losing the only home she had ever known. It was the one place she associated with her parents. She thought I should quit school and run the farm, but I had no intention of doing anything like that.

I refused to even discuss renewing any leases. We would take the harvest and split it, then let somebody else take up the rat race of farming.

Mom and Dad had lots of friends and acquaintances who attended the funeral, then came to the house afterwards. There was a house full of people they knew, but my sister and I were their only living relatives left.

Ophelia was dressed in her typical shapeless, baggy clothes. She hadn't changed much since high school. She still looked frumpy, and Amber had no qualms about pointing that out to her.

Ophelia waited until the last of the well-wishers left, then she exploded at Amber.

When Amber fought back by telling my sister she needed to find a man, but she wasn't going to have any luck with that if she continued being a "frumpy, gingerbread girl", Ophelia had had enough.

She told me that she hated me, she hated Amber, and she wished she hoped we'd be happy together, but she didn't, then stormed out.

Until I saw her in her Christmas tree costume, I hadn't seen or talked to her since.

That last time I saw her, I knew she was at the end of her second year at Oklahoma State, but I didn't think I had ever seen her on campus. We never even accidentally ran into each other.

Now, I had no idea if she had graduated, or anything about her life. She was a stranger to me.

I was surprised to discover that I felt a twinge of regret.

**

My arm reached beside me, searching for something, but my mind was still groggy with sleep. Emptiness in the bed beside me surprised me and my eyes opened wide and looked at the empty spot next to me.

I very briefly struggled with who exactly I was expecting to see there.

I laughed, out loud, when I realized I was probably expecting Amber to be next to me in bed, but she had not immediately come to mind as missing.

Maybe it was a sign I was getting over her.

After a shower and cup of coffee, I went back to my bathroom and shaved.

I didn't usually shave on the weekends anymore. Without a reason to, I just didn't want to go to the trouble.

My mind asked me, part-way through my second cup of coffee, why my kid sister was at my office holiday party.

Since she told me to stay away from her, the only good explanation I could think of was that she felt like she belonged there.

**

Saturdays, as far as I knew, there wouldn't be many people working. I didn't know for sure, since I hadn't been there on a Saturday.

I was right. I passed through security without seeing anyone except the bored guard at the desk.

I almost felt bad for waking him up.

Based on Steve's comment about them being coders, I headed straight for engineering. That was where the hardware the company designed was born, and the software that drove the gadgets was written.

Engineering was on the first floor, but as far from the lobby as you could get and stay in the building.

When I arrived at the key card controlled entrance, I still hadn't seen anyone besides the bored guard.

Executives, human resources, and legal were the only departments with key card access to any room in the building.

Inside engineering, I waited with my back to the door for the telltale click telling me it was secured.

The room was much bigger than I anticipated. Apparently the people who worked there were divided into teams, and each team had their own area within the large arena.

Just as I heard the lock latch behind me, I noticed a girl at a desk see me and stand up.

She was cute, in a geek-chique sort of way, but not enough to give her much more than a glance, so I headed for the nearest group of desks.

"Excuse me. Who are you?"

I faced her and held up my key card.

All of the inclusive badges were black while the other badges were color coded by department.

"Oh...um, can I help you with anything, sir?"

She had gotten closer to me, and at this distance, she looked at least my age, maybe older.

I almost laughed at being called 'sir'.

"Yes," I replied before looking around the room again. Now I noticed that a few of the desks were actually occupied, and I hoped to not find who I was looking for.

I just wanted confirmation of why she was at my holiday party.

"What can I do to...for you?"

I looked back at her and caught an impish grin just as it disappeared into a more innocent expression.

"Is there an Ophelia Smith working here?"

"Ophelia? Ophelia...um," she muttered, shaking her head and looking like she was putting a lot of effort into it.

"Oh! You're talking about Fifi. Her desk is in the next pod over, behind me..." she directed me without fully turning away or taking her eyes off mine.

"She's not here though. Probably won't be 'til Monday," she interrupted my movement toward my sister's desk.

"That's fine, I just, um, need..."

I didn't know what to say. I knew I was there in no official capacity.

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

"A secret?" she whispered. "That sounds titillating."

I leaned toward her, and a little down.

"This is a human resources audit, so we might want to skip the titillation for now."

Her face was bright red when I stepped back and looked at her.

"For now?" she squeaked.

Geek-chique wasn't the worst thing in the world, I guessed.

It had been three weeks since Amber had made love to me, then left my life, so yeah, my cock could stand some attention.

"For now," I agreed. "I just need to see Ophelia's...Fifi's desk and I'll be out of your hair."

"You're fine. You can get in my hair...whatever, anytime you want."

"I'll keep that in mind."

I actually was serious about that.

My cock was more than half hard thinking about bending her over and pounding my hips on that overly abundant ass while I plowed her plump pussy.

"We can be very grateful," she murmured.

"We? Grateful?"

"Computer nerds. When I said 'whatever', I meant it. You can get into my whatever you want, whenever."

I was having second thoughts about seriously considering her offer.

I found my sister's desk. The name plate said 'Fifi Smith", then below that "Hardware/Software Engineer".

I chuckled to myself. Steve called her a coder. Now I knew she wasn't just a coder.

"What's funny?" the geek-chique girl asked behind me.

I had no idea she had followed me, so I jumped when she spoke.

I definitely had lost any desire to take her up on her offer. I was picturing a rabbit boiling in a pot of water on my stove when I got home.

"Nothing. I'm done here. Have a good day," I told her over my shoulder on the way to the door.

"You know where to find me," she called after me as the door closed.

**

I pulled the door of my Subaru Outback closed and relaxed in the sun-warmed interior. The day was sunny but cool, and the wind made it feel even colder. The interior of the car felt good though.

My job was already lined up before I graduated from law school, so immediately after I started I had taken Amber to pick out a new car for me. I wanted a BMW, or Tesla, but even with an above average salary now, my thin credit history and student loans prevented me from being able to afford either of those.

Amber wanted me to get a Subaru. She wanted me to take her out into the wilderness of Oklahoma. She went on and on about camping and hiking, the great outdoors, nature, and sleeping and having sex under the stars.

Half to appease her, and half because it was a car I could afford, I gave in and bought a barely above base model.

We went out and bought hiking boots and backpacks.

The weather was perfect the day we drove two hours to a state park to break in our hiking boots. We had no plans to spend the night. We never left the pavement in my Outback, and the second Amber saw a snake near the hiking trail, we were done with any and all outdoor adventures.

The subject never came up again.

I still had the Outback though, but I was thinking about trading it in on a used BMW 3 series.

My reverie was broken by the sound of an approaching vehicle. By the sound of it, I imagined it was a Corvette, or a Lamborghini.

It was neither, but rather the longest, sleekest BMW coupe I had ever seen. The bright, metallic red exterior popped against the black-out windows and black wheels, and I could feel the rumble of the engine as it passed.

I couldn't take my eyes off it, and after it passed me, my eyes automatically went to the badging on the back: M8.

I mumbled "management" through the excess saliva in my mouth and shook my head.

I was jealous.

The parking lot was almost empty, so the sexiest car I'd ever seen in real life was able to pull into the first space, closest to the front door, of the line of empty spaces in front of me.

I watched in total shock as the driver appeared above the roofline on the opposite side of their vehicle from me and glanced around the parking lot.

I caught a glimpse of flame-red hair before they covered it with their hood. Their hair was slicked back and pushed behind their ear. The color was amazing, but the cut looked a little boyish to me. Their dark sunglasses hid their eyes, but did nothing to hide the superfluous freckles covering their face.

I slid down in my seat when Ophelia, Fifi, glanced my direction before heading for the building. She didn't even hesitate, so I assumed either she didn't recognize me, or didn't see me.

I sat back up and watched her walk to the door and disappear inside.

Involuntarily, I wondered who the car belonged to.

As much as I could tell, this wasn't the same woman I had seen the night before. She was wearing a yellow hoodie that was a minimum of three sizes too large for her, gray sweatpants gathered at her ankles and worn, brown, combat-style boots. I could barely make out a butt under the over-sized sweats, and she looked, well, frumpy.

Her face however, was no longer pudgy like the last time I had seen her more than four years ago. Her high cheekbones, wide mouth and full lips went right along with the body I had seen in the bodysuit, and gave the impression she should have been on a runway instead of headed for the desk of a computer geek.