INSTALLMENT TWELVE

INSTALLMENT THIRTEEN

They had taken full advantage of the spa soaking in the Jacuzzi, steaming in the sauna, and lounging around the pool. The penthouse had a beautiful view of the city and the sun had begun to set. They all took showers and headed to the living room where Tori made a fire. They each fixed themselves a drink and told stories, catching up on old high school and college tales, and filling each other in on what they had done in the past few years.

"I'm serious. On a dare, Alexi streaked across campus with Brett and me chasing after her. You should've seen her hiding behind tree after tree in all her glory." Adrian kissed Alexi on the cheek as she told the story. Alexi still blushed after all these years.

"So many people had heard about it that Alexi actually made it onto the college paper. 'Authorities were called to the University of Michigan last night when it was reported a college student was parading on campus naked. No names have been found as of yet. If you have any information as to whom the assailant may be, please contact the campus security immediately.'" Alexi slid down lower in her sit, wanting to be anywhere but there.

"I can't believe it. Dear sweet Alexi, an exhibitionist. It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for." Tori shook her head in disbelief as the rest laughed at Alexi's embarrassment.

"Okay, wise guy, what's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?" Alexi asked Tori wanting desperately to get the attention away from her.

"Pff, how much time do you have? …….. After I left home, I swear I was out to ruin the Hull name in my first year at college. You don't even want to know what I did while I was in Europe. There's a bar in Austria that I'm not even allowed to enter anymore. That's how bad I was." Tori laughed remembering her escapades although at the time they weren't all that funny.

"Ooh tell us that one!! It sounds interesting." Adrian went over to the bar and refilled everyone's drink.

"I ….ah…I don't think so. I wouldn't want to insult Brett." Brett sat straight up from her position between Tori's legs.

"What do mean? How bad can it be?" Brett cocked her head to the side and stared at Tori inquisitively.

"I just think it's in poor taste to talk about ….well….you know?" Tori hoped Brett would get her drift.

"Oh you mean it involves another……?" Brett waited for Tori to fill in the blanks.

"……woman." Tori supplied.

"Honey, I know you haven't been locked away in some closet all these years. I can handle it." Brett sat back confidently.

"Oh really? So much has changed in 24 hours." Tori let a smug look grace her face.

"That's entirely different." Brett huffed.

Tori rolled her eyes and looked at her friends knowing that Brett was deluding herself.

Oh heck why not. "Care to explain what's different?" Tori knew from past and, more importantly, recent experience that Brett was not someone to toy with.

"Well that girl was just the other day and we were seeing each other at the time, right?" Tori nodded her head in affirmation. "And this story was years ago. You and I weren't involved back then. Therefore, what claims do have? To get jealous over something that happened in the past would be ludicrous." Brett folded her arms and waited for Tori to argue.

Lauren jumped in. "What…. girl the other day?"

Tori immediately shot Lauren a look that told her to drop it. "Okay… forget I asked." Lauren picked up her drink and listened as Brett and Tori resolved their discussion.

"Well, I can't argue with that logic. Now can I?" Tori looked at her friends for guidance.

They all shook their head and Lauren put her two cents in again. "It's useless Tori. Don't even try. Brett won't let go of the subject until she's finally won."

Tori knew the truth of this statement and motioned Brett to lean back against her. Against her better judgment, she began telling her story.

"I was attending Cambridge at the time. It was my senior year. A bunch of us decided to go to Innsbruck, Austria between semesters and go skiing." Tori took a sip of her wine, set it back down on her leg, and ran a finger over the rim of the glass.

"There were eight of us and we all piled into two rooms because everything else was booked. The trails were great. The powder was incredible. It was sunny. Not too cold. You didn't even have to wear a coat. Anyway….we stayed in this chateau at the base of the mountain and every night we would eat in the pub. The owner was this big burly Austrian guy. He looked like Paul Bunyan and he stood a good foot above me."

Tori took another sip and thought about the trip. "Anyway, I was a bit of a swinger back then and wasn't opposed to sowing a few oats. There was this waitress who waited on us every night. If we came for lunch, she would wait on us. If I stopped in for a hot chocolate, she popped out of nowhere. My friends started to notice and told me to give her a whirl. She was beautiful, long blond hair, blue eyes. A real St.Pauly's girl."

Tori peaked over Brett's shoulder to gauge how she was doing. Tori placed her glass on the coffee table and wrapped her arms securely around her lover. "She had nothing on you believe me."

Brett rewarded Tori with a tender kiss and responded, "Good answer baby."

Tori kissed her again and then winked. "Where were we……?"

"You were talking about the St. Pauly's girl." Brett said with a little tinge of agitation in her voice.

Lauren rolled her eyes at her sister. As adorable as Brett was, she could be a real hand full. Fortunately, Tori could wind her way through the little mood bumps that Brett threw her way.

"Ah yes, …….well….the only thing was everywhere she went this ugly ass dog kept following her. I'm talking ugly. He was about yae high." Tori held her hand about three feet off the ground.

"And about this wide." She held her hand about a foot and a half apart in front of her and Brett. "He had black matted hair, globs of drool coming out his mouth, and his eyes were all bloodshot. He had this big leather collar on and it had this bell on it." Tori illustrated the thickness of the collar and the bell. Each was about two inches wide.

"Well, I thought he was there to protect her if one of the customers tried to harass her. She'd come and take our order every time and this stupid dog would patiently sit beside her until she was through. Back and forth, back and forth, her and this dog would go. You would think it would be against health codes to have the mongrel in the establishment. But I guess it wasn't. Well, after a few days, I was used to seeing the dog. I found out that the waitress' name was Frieda. She would take our orders, wink, and leave. Always making sure I had extras of everything…" Brett rolled her eyes, but to her credit she kept any comments to herself.

"One night my buddies nudged me into making a play for the girl. And…. well before the meal was through, she handed me a note."

Brett whispered, "Of course."

"Hey, you're the one who said I could tell the story." Tori kissed Brett's check and pulled her closer to her.

"I know. Keep going." Brett let out a sigh and did her best to grin and bare her predicament.

"The note said she would meet me in my room in 20 minutes. At the time, I thought I was hot shit and all my friends whistled and cheered me on as I made my way across the pub to the room. When I got to the room, the door was slightly ajar and I looked down the hall to see if anyone was in sight. I slowly opened the door and found Frieda ready and eager to go, already naked under the sheets. In hindsight, it was a good thing I didn't have time to take off my clothes." Tori looked at her friends. Adrian sat in front of the fire while Lauren and Alexi lounged on the couch with their feet up on the table. All eyes were pinned on her, eager to here what was going to happen next.

"Frieda flung the sheets off her and motioned me to come to her. I wasn't but a foot away when she yanked me onto the bed and begged me to satisfy her." Brett squirmed and took a long sip of her beer.

"I was like 'hey…what's the rush? My friends aren't going to come back here for hours.'"

"'No'," she says. "'We must hurry. I have got to get back as soon as I can to finish job.'" Tori did her best German accent.

"She pulls me down and begs me to,…..you know?" Tori looked at her friends and they all nodded in understanding. Brett of course tried to not think too hard about what Tori was suggesting. She was asking her to play chess. Yeah that's it, chess. Hmm what do I want to get tomorrow at the outlet mall? Brett… you had to go and ask her to tell this stor. Idiot!!

"Well being young and stupid, I complied. While I'm working away, I hear this bell. I lifted my head to look around the room and I asked Frieda if she heard anything. She says, "'No. Keep going.' So, like a moron, I do."

Brett turned around and patted Tori on the cheek. "Poor baby." Tori knew she was being sarcastic and chose to ignore her. Brett resumed her position while Tori continued.

"After a minute or so, I hear the bell again. But I don't stop because Frieda's really getting into it. She starts to moan softly and the bell ringing now starts to come closer. I pinpoint the sound as coming from the hall. Frieda starts to get louder and all of sudden I hear howling. I'm like, 'It's the damn dog. He's outside the door.' " Everyone's face forms a questioning look and they stare at Tori confused.

"Wait it gets better!" Tori motioned to her friends to be patient and picked up where she left off.

"Frieda starts bucking away and gets louder and louder and the dog keeps howling and howling. The two of them get so loud that I try to cover Frieda's mouth to hush her up. The two of them sounded like a damned German opera."

The girls were laughing hysterically at this turn of events and even Brett had tears in her eyes. Tori couldn't help but laugh also and shook her head in embarrassment. She had done some really stupid things and this was definitely one of them.

After they composed themselves, Adrian inched closer dying to know what else had happened and was the first to speak. "So what happened next? Don't keep us waiting!"

Lauren decided it was safer to sit on floor. In case, she fell off the couch in laughter. She leaned her back against the couch and draped her arm over Alexi's leg. Adrian enjoyed the story and moved closer to get a better seat. She took a seat next to Tori and Brett at the other end of the couch.

"Well this continued for a few more moments and I can't tell you how relieved I was when Frieda finally reached her climax. She was so loud, you'd think fire trucks were coming to the chateau the way that damn dog kept howling. I got off the bed and was on my way to scare the dog away when the door to the room flung open. I almost shit in my pants. Standing there with steam coming out his ears was Paul Bunyan himself. He looked past me at the bed and then gave me this menacing look. He started yelling all these German profanities and unfortunately I speak German pretty well so I understood every word of what he was saying." Tori looked at her friends, lifted her hands and shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh no don't tell me." Adrian was about to bust a gut.

"He said Frieda was his wife and I was an American. You fill in the blanks. He told me to get out of his hotel and to not show my face in there again. It turns out Frieda had her own way of welcoming their guests and I wasn't the first guest who was caught with Frieda. Paul Bunyan had gotten the dog not to protect Frieda, but to watch her. The dog wasn't so stupid after all. He was trained to fetch his master every time Frieda was up to no good." Brett turned around and buried her face in Tori's chest trying to stifle her laughter but was failing miserably.

"Oh baby, that's got to be the most pathetic story I have ever heard. Bah…..." Brett lost it again, as well as every one else and Tori wondered what possessed her to tell this story in the first place.

"Well there's more." Tori couldn't help but laugh also. It was good to be able to share her story with her friends. They loved her no matter what and it felt good.

"Oh please, I don't think I can take any more. Whew,….. that's a good one." Adrian held her side and the rest were pretty much doing the same.

Tori gave everyone a few more moments and forged on.

"Well I grabbed my things and went to the pub to tell my friends what had happened. They all had the same reaction you did. I told them I would call them in the morning once I found a place to stay. As luck would have it, there wasn't a room in sight. Everything was booked and I had two more days to go until we were supposed to leave. It was also at that moment that the sky opened up and dumped a ton of snow down on the ground. Leaving the airport a mess and grounding all the planes. There I was with no room and no way of getting out of Innsbruck."

Brett looked at Tori concerned. "Honey, what did you do?"

Tori cupped Brett's face and kissed her tenderly touched by Brett's concern, even if the event took place years ago.

"I spent my days skiing and hanging out at the ski lodge. And at night I slept in the car we had rented. I put on all of my sweaters and turned on the heat every few hours." All of the girls looked at Tori and they looked very concerned.

"I learned a very valuable lesson back then." Tori said to her friends.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Alexi asked.

"Oh I know:…. never sleep with a married woman." Adrian answered.

"Well that's pretty obvious. But that's not it." Tori replied.

"Oh I got it….." Lauren offered. "Beware of bells ringing in your ears. It's not always tenitus." Lauren laughed at her own joke.

"No silly. What about you Brett. Care to guess what I learned from this escapade?"

Brett scratched her chin. After a moment, a thought came to her.

"Oh I know. …..Always check the weather report. Cause you never know when you have to leave the country in a hurry." Brett looked at Tori and waited for her response.

"Smart girl!! ….Every morning I look at the weather report to see what the weather is going be like." The girls all laughed enjoying Tori's story very much and happy to have their friend back. It had been too long.

Tori looked at the clock. It was now 9:30pm. "Well girls….what do you want to do now?"

"Where's this playroom you were telling us about?" Adrian got up and stretched her back.

"It's down that hall to the left." Tori directed Adrian, whose eyes immediately lit up.

"Ooh, cool. Can I go see?" Adrian stood up feeling a little tipsy.

"Sure, why don't we all go?" Tori patted Brett on the thigh and Brett reluctantly left her comfortable position wrapped in long arms and legs.

"Does anybody want some more wine? I can open another bottle or maybe something else. Brandy, Cognac, Tequila? Ooh we can make kamikazes or Margaritas." Tori watched as Brett stretched her petite form. Her T-Shirt raised up and her belly button was too tempting to pass up. Tori sat up and pulled Brett to stand between her legs and she nuzzled the delicate dip.

"Baby, stop that. It tickles." Brett bent over and whispered into Tori's ear. "Actually it's turning me on and right now is not a good time, love." Brett tilted Tori's face to hers and hoped she understood.

Tori pouted as if her favorite toy was taken away and nodded her head.

"Wine sounds good. What other vintage do you have?" Alexi asked.

"Why don't we go to the kitchen? The wine closet is very well stocked. Come on. Is anybody hungry? We can raid the fridge." Tori got up and straightened her clothes.

Brett stood to the side and waited for Tori to work out the kinks that had set in from sitting in position too long. When she was done, she took Brett's hand.

"Don't think I forgot where we were. I plan on ravishing you later." Tori whispered in Brett's ear.

"I'm counting on it." Brett said in return. They shared a tender kiss and proceeded to the kitchen.