PUNKS Ch. 13: It's Not Cheating

"And she said you have a fantastic head," Jenna added in a sultry tone.

"And big balls." Casey piled on while taking her last sip of beer.

"Okay, that's enough," T said. "You've made your point." She looked at Casey. "He always escalates if he's losing the game."

Joe continued. "Did Tina tell you what she loves to do with all that... stuff?"

Tina put her hand on his arm. "No, we're not going there."

"You ladies thought you could embarrass me." He said to T, "I invented this game. I'm just playing along with what you started."

"No, you're being provocative," said Tina.

"I like provocative." Jenna smiled. "Yeah, she told us what you like."

"Is that what you like too?" he looked into Jenna's eyes.

Jenna blushed, but she was game. "Yes, actually, it is. Tina and I have a lot in common in that particular area."

"You mean talent?"

"Joe, enough," Tina gave him a stern look.

"Yeah," Jenna said. "I think I have talent."

Tina held her arm up so the waiter could see her. "Check please."

"Good to know." Joe smiled at Jenna. "How about you, Casey?"

"I think so." She said shyly. "How do you actually know for sure?"

"The key is," Joe said in a whisper, leaning closer to Casey. "Do you love giving head?"

Tina smacked him. "Stop."

"If you do," he continued. "chances are you're good at it."

Casey smiled and nodded. "Okay. That makes sense."

Jenna waved a drink menu at her face. "Is it just me, or is it hot in here?"

Tina and Casey laughed. Joe smiled mischievously at Casey. It felt like a game-winning goal in overtime. He won the lunch.

Joe had a blast with the girls. Afterward, bored in a meeting at Guerilla Records, he nostalgically recalled how he met Jenna, fourteen years ago, as a hostess for a gallery Tina once managed. He flirted with her on the day they met. He then teased and embarrassed Jenna every visit. She learned to play his game, and Jenna loved it. They became close friends, until 1984.

He did the same with Casey in 1992 after he and Tina reconnected. Casey was intimidated by her boss's ex-boyfriend rockstar she'd heard stories about. He flirted with her. Joe put words in Casey's mouth to make her squirm uncomfortably in front of Tina. She was so cute when she blushed. Now she was trained to play Joe's game - but she still blushed.

Joe was happy to be in New York with his old friends.

--- Expert Rationalizer ---

After Friday's lunch, Joe and Tina had no contact over the weekend. She was busy pretending to be a happy wife, Joe was in the studio with The Jumping Chollas by day and showing the

too-young-to-legally-drink-band from Phoenix around NYC at night.

Joe had a good feeling about this band. They were Mexican Punk with a lead singer who commanded the stage and played some accordion. Accordion punk, it took Mexican kids from Arizona to find that formula. Joe liked their one-of-a-kind sound and the fact they were good blue-collar kids.

On Monday, Joe waited outside the Amethyst Gallery. He stood just beyond their windows at 9:58. When he heard the click of the door unlocking, he briskly strode into view with a box and bag filled with bagels and pastries. Tina was mildly startled, and delighted.

She held the door open for him. "I think you're a bit early."

"I have treats. Do you have coffee?"

"You know we do." She closed the door behind him.

Casey was listening to messages on the reception podium. She waved happily as he passed.

"I hate that you don't get her a chair," he said to T. "The poor girl has to stand like the palace guard all day."

Tina punched his shoulder. "She has a chair over there."

"Fifteen feet from the podium, where she stands all day."

The gallery didn't have a kitchen, but there was the coffee closet, as Joe had tagged it a few years back. There was a small fridge, coffee maker, electric teapot, and a tea selection. There was also a microwave, but most importantly, it had a toaster oven.

Joe set his bag of gifts on the small countertop. He pointed to Tina's office. "You get to work. I'll handle this." He began removing the goods from the bag. "Besides, there's not enough room in this closet for both of us... but I'm game to give it a try."

"Yeah, no, I have work to do." Tina smiled. "This is a nice surprise. Thank you."

"I offer free delivery."

"You know what I like."

"Damn right I do."

Casey stood in the wings, listening to their banter and innuendo. Joe started making bagels, one at a time for anyone who walked in. A handful of artists wandered up from the studio when they saw a peer munching on a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. A dude with dreadlocks walked up to survey Joe's offerings.

"How's it goin', dude." He nodded at Joe, head back, chill. "This is cool. Do you have anything with sugar?"

Joe smiled, "Glucose is your drug?"

"Yeah, uh huh," the dude snickered. "And caffeine and wine and weed and other things."

Joe opened a box of donuts. Dread's eyes widened. "Sugar overload." He inspected, then stuck a finger out.

Joe pulled the box back. "You touch it, you eat it."

"I'm gonna touch all twelve." he laughed.

"Take two. Bagels are the star of this show."

Dread picked two honey-dipped, nodded, and walked off. "Thanks, dude. I was starvin'."

"Check in later," Joe said. "there may be leftovers."

"I'll be here."

A few feet away, Casey stood dutifully waiting for her bagel in the oven. Joe handed her a napkin.

"You've been smiling at me like you know something you shouldn't know," he said.

Casey shook her head. "No. I just like seeing you and Tina together. We really missed you. When you're coming here, she whips us all into shape. She wants nothing but a good impression for you."

"I'm sure she's like that with clients too."

"Sure, the whales. She puts out the red carpet for big spenders and donors, but for you, it's different."

"How so?"

"I'm not sure, but I think this is personal for her. The other stuff is just business."

The toaster oven dinged. "You're a smart young lady, brains and good looks; you'll do fine in this artsy business." Joe removed her plain bagel. He slipped another bagel into the toaster. "Cream cheese or jam?"

"Can I have both?"

"Mixed, or jam on top?"

"Mixed." She took a step closer.

Joe spread some cheese. "Tina likes your work by the way. I'd like to see the Swiss cheese sculpture with photos in the holes." He plopped strawberry jam on top and scrambled it a bit.

Casey was blushing like a schoolgirl with a mad crush. "She told you about my art?

"Yes, and the Totem Pole and the ocean photography. I'd like to see it all."

"It's at home. I could bring it in."

"I fly home tomorrow," He made a pouty face. "but next time I'm in town." He handed her the bagel on a tiny paper plate.

"Thanks, I need coffee." Casey slid past Joe in the tight closet, brushing hard against his side.

"I could've gotten that for you," he said.

Casey looked up. "Nope, this is good." She poured herself a cup, standing inches away. She could smell his light cologne mixed with a toasted bagel scent. Joe could smell her hair. She then shimmied past him, brushing again, face to face.

"If I didn't know better," he said, "I'd think you were flirting right now."

Casey smiled. "Tina says you're highly observant." She walked away, peeking over her shoulder to see if he was watching. He was - every step.

Goddamn, that girl has something good going on.

The toaster oven dinged, awakening him from his daydream about Casey's sweet ass. He spread a half portion of cream cheese and placed just a little jam on the side. After pouring a cup of coffee, with a very light splash of cream, he made a special delivery.

Joe backed through her office door, opening it with his hip. Tina was on the phone, smiling as he placed her breakfast on her desk. She held up an index finger and mouthed, "One second." and returned to her call. "Okay, Roger. I'll call her this afternoon and make sure she's aware you must have the piece returned by the end of the month. I'm certain she already knows, but I'll remind her."

She listened for several more seconds, rolling her eyes. "I appreciate that. You can definitely trust me." He kept talking. "I have to go, Roger. Okay, bye."

She hung up the phone and picked up her bagel. "That man is high maintenance." She took a healthy bite and talked with her mouthful. "He's impossible to please."

"You should know about that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

A piece of bagel fell out her mouth, jam landing on her cream-colored skirt. "Oh, shit."

"Look at you." Joe gestured to her newly stained skirt, "How can someone be so beautiful and elegant, and also be a clumsy slob?"

Tina laughed with her mouth open, displaying her half-chewed bagel. "That's what you love most about me."

"No, there are other things."

She pointed to the chair across from her. "Have a seat, let's talk."

"I thought you were busy."

"I am, but that phone call was the only urgent matter because Roger said it was." She took another bite and a sip of coffee. "I love how you knew exactly how to make my bagel and coffee, cream cheese on top and jam on the side."

"We ate a lot of bagels in the eighties."

"This is wonderful of you. I wasn't expecting you until noon." She took another large bite.

"Man, you don't eat daintily," he said. "This is a thank you for picking me up at the airport."

"I'm starving," she said, "I ran late this morning."

"Did you and Mr. Home Foreclosure have a toss in the sheets?"

Tina covered her smile with a hand. "No. A funny thing, it seems tax evasion kills my libido."

Joe snickered. "So there's a no vacancy sign on your doghouse?"

"Oh no. There's always room." Tina smiled, "Jenna and Casey were lobbying to join us for lunch, but I opted to not extend an invitation."

"That young lady has a nice flirt game."

"Casey knows I'd have her murdered if she laid a finger on you," Tina smirked. "You're safe."

"I don't think I want your protection."

"She's too young for you, Joe."

"I think we should let Casey decide."

"Really? You'd rob the cradle?" She smirked. "Creep."

"Liberated women can decide for themselves who's worthy of their charms."

"My girls are certainly liberated." She took another bite of bagel and dabbed her lips with a napkin. "Jenna, Casey, and I go out for drinks from time to time. The Cairo is one of our favorite spots. We were sitting on the same sofa you and I shared. I was a little buzzed and let my guard down. I told them about the time we had there."

"All you're doing is feeding the rumors, T."

"At first I was reminiscing about the fun we had in our twenties. I told them about the night we made out and the older couple enjoyed watching us. Casey asked how often you and I had been there and I slipped up. Jenna realized I was talking about a more recent visit. She asked when you and I were there last, so I confessed."

"She broke you with one question?"

"I'm not a good prisoner," Tina giggled, "I talk too much."

"How many martinis did you have?"

"You just assume martinis?"

"Because martinis are your truth serum and lubricant."

"It may be my best character trait."

"Why do I feel this conversation is going someplace tawdry?"

"After I snapped under pressure, Casey looked me square in the eye and said, 'why don't you just fuck Joe and get it out of your system?' When I didn't answer, they concluded we already had, so I told them everything."

"You're dangerous on martins, T."

"I know." She smirked.

"I realize you trust Jenna and Casey, and I do too, but they might slip like you just did, then someone else knows. And maybe that's a person we don't trust."

"They were actually happy for me. They high-fived each other when I told them I fucked you on the tour bus." She sipped her coffee. "They were upset that I called it off."

"They're not the only ones," he said lowly. "They want you to cheat on Troy?"

"They don't care, because they don't care much for Troy. They think he's a snob and he talks down to me, not to mention his legal mess. Anyway, the conversation got down to sex. They wanted details."

"Did you sully my good name?"

"Hardly. You do a fine job of that on your own. Casey started talking about her younger sisters. She has one at UConn and another at URI. Apparently, by her account, young girls these days are sucking dick like there's a shortage."

"How is this different from our time? You Catholic girls have been sucking cock to save your virginity for as long as I can remember. You admitted that yourself."

"I didn't say I did that, but some girls did."

"You told me you loved giving blow jobs long before you let a dick near your pussy. You can't un-admit that juicy tidbit."

"Those were my boyfriends, Joe, guys I was steady with. That's not what's happening these days. I guess they don't see giving head as taboo sex, but they see intercourse as a sacred thing, something you only do with your man. Casey's sisters are sucking the dicks of their friends, like favors for boys they like, but they won't fuck them."

"I still don't think it's that different than when we were that age."

"It is different. There have always been sluts with dicks falling in their mouth one after another. It's just more accepted now. Regular girls will blow boys for the fun of it, without feeling trashy or labeled whores. Casey said, her sister has a friend who sucked two guys at the same time, letting the other watch."

"Where were these girls when I was that age?" Joe said wistfully.

"I don't know anyone who did that. There's a freedom around oral sex that wasn't around in the seventies, at least not like it is today. The thing that really got my attention was when Jenna agreed with Casey. She feels that's how it is today, and even went as far as saying blow jobs aren't cheating."

"Did Jenna say she sucks dick other than her boyfriend's dick?" Joe smiled. "I'm asking for a friend."

"Cute." She rolled her eyes. "She said that many women in relationships, even married women, have no problem sucking another man's cock, as a favor, or just for the pleasure they get from having a dick in their mouth. Jenna reads trashy women's magazines. I think that's where she gets her info."

Joe leaned back and smiled. "Times they are a changin." He couldn't help but wonder, what is this conversation really about? Is T playing an angle?

"Joe, you've known a lot of women, and I suspect some of them are younger. When was the last time you fucked a college girl?"

"It's been a while, but she's a grad student at USC, not an undergrad. Lauren works at a beach club where we play tune-up gigs. She likes me a lot."

"Have any of these girls expressed this attitude that blow jobs aren't real sex, or it's not really cheating?"

"I think so, without saying it implicitly. I've been told, it's only a blow job, or it's not a big deal."

"So it's not just Casey and Jenna. I had to run this by you to see if you have ever heard of it. I thought you might know, doing what you do."

"I'm not sure what that means, but I'll try to not be offended."

"It just means you're single, and out there. I've been out of the game too long."

"Just for the record," Joe said. "I support the idea that blow jobs are not cheating and any married woman who wants to suck my dick is welcome. Do you know any takers?"

"Very funny. Joe. I should've known you'd go there." She paused. "So, who's this Lauren?"

"Miss Redondo Beach 1990."

"Oh, her. Is that a thing?"

"She wears the crown well," Joe smirked. "I'm gonna leave you to your work and hang out with these young ladies who think sucking dick is no big deal."

"You're a pig."

"That's what you love about me," Joe smiled and walked out.

-- Her Superpower --

Joe hung out with Tina's people in the dungeon work studio, Jenna, Dread, and a handful of NYU kids who call the Amethyst Gallery basement home. Tina collected him at noon for their lunch date.

"I'm taking you to a different place," she said. "We have to use the subway."

They sat and talked on the northbound one-train. When they reached Lincoln Center, Joe ventured a guess.

"We're going to Fine & Shapiro, Stan's deli."

Tina smiled proudly. "I thought you might like that, lots of memories there."

The moment they walked in, there was a minor commotion as the two older waitresses remembered them from their many visits with Stan Greenbaum, but especially Tina, who dined with Stan long after Joe left NYC. Joe got a little choked up recalling the laughs they had with his favorite cranky old Jew.

"Stan would be happy to see us together again," Tina said.

"Except we're not actually together."

"We're here, Joe. Together."

Joe nodded, "Remember we'd talk with our mouths full just to make the old man lose his shit?"

Tina smiled, "and the times we kept track of his complaints to see who could guess how many times Stan bitched about something over lunch."

Joe laughed hard, "he knew we had an inside joke about him and it pissed him off that he couldn't figure it out."

"I miss him," Tina said softly.

"I miss him paying for lunch," Joe said while looking at the menu. "This place is pricey."

After a long lunch recounting memories of past lunches, pastrami for Joe, and brisket for T, she coaxed Joe to take a walk in Central Park where they worked off kosher meat sandwiches on a long arm-in-arm stroll. They didn't even talk a lot. They walked quietly much of the way. Then she convinced him to stop at the Starlight Lounge, a retro fifties cocktail joint they liked from the old days. Tina ordered them both martinis.

"Are you asking for trouble?" Joe asked.

"I promise, no more than two."

Joe had to stop her from ordering a third. She pouted, but agreed as long as he promised to return to the gallery with her. "I have some Henricks and olives in my office. We can finish this there."

Joe nodded. "That's agreeable."

They arrived at Amethyst at 5:25. The front door was locked, and the lights were off.

"I thought the studio was open after hours," Joe said.

"It usually is, but NYU has an event tonight. Everyone will be there."

"But not you?"

"No, it's a student-faculty thing."

In her office, she made basic martinis in tumblers. She handed one to Joe. "I'm sorry about the glass. I know it's not as sexy."

She sat close beside Joe on a loveseat across the room from her desk. He leaned closer and breathed in her hair and perfume.

Tina whispered in his ear. "Remember what we talked about earlier? If it's not really cheating I'd like to do you a favor. I miss taking care of you."

He knew it. Joe suspected that dick-sucking talk was a setup. There was no chance that conversation was just her talking about what kids do today. Joe played it cool. He didn't call her out, because he wanted what Tina was offering more than anything.

She placed her glass on a coffee table. "Stand up." Joe did as she demanded.

Tina ran her hand up his leg, rubbing his half-hard cock through his jeans. She undid his belt, unzipped his fly, and pulled his jeans and boxers down in one motion. Joe's large cock flopped out, semi-erect, inches from her face. Tina gazed at it for a moment and then took him in her hands.

"Hello, old friend," she looked up and smiled at Joe, "Are you okay with this?"

"That's a silly question. You're a liberated woman who chooses for herself. Who am I to disagree?"

Tina pulled him closer. She wasted no time, taking him in her mouth to suckle his round fat head, very slowly, for a couple of minutes. His thick cock grew more rigid with each suckle. She pulled back, and a strand of pre-cum connected her lip to his tip. She licked it.

T played with his balls a little, nibbling on his sack, sucking them, while stroking his shaft with her saliva as lubricant. Then she took his head in her mouth and pulled him inside taking most of his long rod inside her. She bobbed up and down on him for a minute.