“Hey,” Jake said. “Nobody owes anybody anything here, right, hon?”
“Right,” Laura said quickly.
“If you and Dex want to hook up and start laying down your tunes, you don’t need to ask our permission. Go for it. If Laura isn’t up for playing sax for us when it’s our turn, we’ll find someone else. As popular as we are now, I don’t think we’ll have any trouble attracting a decent horn blower.”
Z looked at the two of them meaningfully. “You ain’t gonna find anyone better than Teach here.”
“No, I don’t think we will,” Jake agreed.
“You won’t have to,” Laura said. “I’ll be ready to play for the next albums.”
Jake nodded. “All right then,” he said. “Issue resolved, right?”
“Right,” Z and Dex said in unison.
They looked very happy about this. Jake couldn’t help but feel that one of the suites the two men had been assigned to was going to be empty tonight.
The reception went on. Dinner was served—roast pork luau-style was the main course—and then the wedding cake was cut. There were no presents to open since Jake and Laura had insisted that they did not expect or want any wedding gifts. Jake removed the garter from her left leg and slingshot it out into the gathering of single men. Coop was the one who caught it, snatching it out of the air instinctively and then looking at it in horror. Laura then tossed the bouquet over her shoulder to the collection of single women. It landed neatly in Pauline’s arms like a Steve Young pass to Jerry Rice. She smiled sweetly over at Obie and held it up to him in salute. Obie had himself a good chuckle over that. He had already offered three times to marry her and she had turned him down all three times.
After dinner and cake, the dancing began. Jake and Laura shared the traditional first dance and then Phil danced with Laura while Jake danced with his mother. Soon, open dancing was declared and the lawn came alive with couples moving and grooving to the sounds of Hibiscus Dreams belting out classic rock and pop tunes from the sixties to the eighties. They really were a pretty good band and Jake made a mental note to give them a healthy bonus.
About an hour after the dancing began, Laura found herself sitting at one of the tables across from Neesh. She was still wearing her wedding dress and was a little sweaty from the muggy air and the dancing (and her lack of recent aerobic exercise). Jake was out on the dance floor, moving his hips and shoulders with Elsa while the band played their version of Twist and Shout. Elsa, it turned out, was a surprisingly good dancer.
“Hey, girlfriend,” Neesh greeted her. She herself was a little sweaty as well, she had been out dancing with G just a few minutes before. “How are you feeling?”
“A little drunk,” Laura confessed. “And kind of tired. It’s been a long day.”
“A day you’ll remember forever though, right?”
“Right,” she agreed.
Neesh looked out at her fiancé, who was displaying his own dancing skills with Pauline. She then turned back to Laura. “This is the first time we’ve been alone together ... you know ... since that night.”
“Yeah,” Laura agreed, taking a sip of her wine and wishing she had a joint to puff on. “It is.”
“By design, I’m assuming?” Neesh asked her.
Laura nodded. “It’s nothing personal, Neesh,” she said. “I really like having you as a friend. It’s just ... I find it difficult to resist you when ... you know...”
“When I want to have a little girl-time?”
“Right,” Laura said. “I can’t look at girl-time as casually as you do, not when Jake doesn’t know about it.”
“You think it’s cheating?”
“When Jake and Gordon don’t know about it, yes, I think it’s cheating. And I don’t like being a cheater, Neesh. I felt so incredibly guilty after that night, after ... after you put your mouth on me, after what I did to you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I enjoyed what we did, and yes, I had high hopes of doing it some more, perhaps in a hotel room we rented for the day, but I got the message when you kept turning down my offers of us getting together.”
“I didn’t do it to hurt your feelings,” she said. “I really do enjoy your friendship, I just ... just didn’t want to do that anymore.”
“You could have just told me that,” Neesh said.
“I did tell you that,” Laura said. “The night you came over. I told you out on the deck that I didn’t want to do those things with you.”
“You did,” Neesh agreed. “But when the two of us went in that room together, you did want to do those things. I didn’t force myself on you, you’ll remember. I told you that all you had to do to make me stop was push me away.” She smiled. “You didn’t push me away, Teach. You put your arms around me and pulled me closer.”
“Yes,” Laura sighed. “I did.” She looked at her face, at her lips. “I wanted to do what we did ... I still do. That’s the problem, Neesh. I can’t. And if you and I get together again and you offer yourself to me like that again, I’m afraid I will. I have a hard time resisting the temptation you represent.”
Neesh sighed. “Listen, Teach,” she said. “I don’t agree with your point of view on this matter. Girl-time is just that, it’s girl-time; a pleasant little diversion from the day to days that should be embraced. I don’t think it’s cheating any more than I think G or Jake looking at a porno magazine and whipping their weasels is cheating. But I respect your feelings. And I don’t want to lose you as a friend. I don’t want you to have to avoid me because you’re afraid I’m going to lead you into temptation.”
“So, what’s the answer?” Laura asked.
“I promise not to try to seduce you anymore,” she said. “After you get back from New Zealand, we hang out like girlfriends should hang out. We’ll go out shopping. We’ll go out and have ourselves some drinks together, maybe catch a movie. And I will not attempt to get you into bed. I won’t kiss you. I won’t touch you in the places you like to be touched. I will not do anything sexual to you unless you beg me to.”
“Beg you to?”
“Beg me, girlfriend,” Neesh said. “And I’m here to tell you that, from this moment forward, you will have to seriously beg if you want me. I’m talking down on your knees. You dig?”
“I ... I dig,” Laura said.
“All right then,” Neesh said. She held out her right hand, the little finger sticking up in the air. “Pinky swear on it?”
Laura smiled and then hooked the little finger of her right hand around Neesh’s. “Pinky swear,” she said.
Jake and Laura retired to their suite just after nine o’clock that night. Both showered separately, Jake going first and then retiring to the bedroom in his birthday suit. Laura cleansed herself and then emerged from the shower room wearing a flimsy negligee she had bought (with Celia’s help) just for the occasion.
“That’s a nice outfit,” Jake said appreciably.
“Thank you,” she said. “And now, I think I’d like to fuck my husband.”
“All right then,” he said, patting the bed next to him. “Let’s consummate this thing.”
They consummated for the next hour or so. Both agreed it was among the best they had ever had.
They did it again the next morning, a little slower, a little more like lovemaking as opposed to fucking. And then they showered and packed their things.
They had said their goodbyes to everyone last night before retiring so when the limousine arrived, they simply loaded their things into it and climbed into the back. They were driven to Lihue Airport where they boarded a Hawaiian Airlines 737 for the twenty-five-minute flight to Honolulu International Airport. There, they went to the international terminal and, after a two-hour layover (during which they enjoyed custom-made omelets and a few bloody Marys in the first-class lounge) they boarded an Air New Zealand Boeing 767-ER and settled into the extra-wide seats in the front of the plane.