Forever and a Day Page 10

  “Uh, thanks Jessie. Talk to you soon, babe.” Joel quickly left Jessie behind and headed up to the VIP section. Jessie began to chuckle when Joel disappeared from view, “Like hell you will ever call!” She laughed.

  She had heard that Joel was a bit of a sadist in bed, some of the girls in the club talked about how his favorite thing to do was pinch and twist sensitive parts to the point of bruising.

  Joel finally got around to asking her out and she gladly accepted. Unknown to Joel was that she loved it hard and mean, and she shocked the hell out of him when she gave it back twice as hard as he had tried to give. She had fucked, pinched, bit and hit Joel so hard and viscously that his little dick went limp. He even had the audacity to fake cumming so he could get the hell out of her bed. She recalled laughing at him as he hustled down her stairs and out of her house.

  She knew all about Joel and his type, she wasn’t afraid of him retaliating against her as she was connected by family with the owner of this and a bunch of other clubs throughout the US. Very, very few people would even think with messing with the owner, who bore the nickname, Sugar Man. Not even Joel’s rich daddy or his lawyers would enter that ring. To her, Joel was a punk ass, ‘paper gangster’ in her eyes. She giggled to herself with the memory of Joel’s little dick withering in fear inside her.

  Jessie noticed a new guest coming up from the ticketing booth; she quickly put on her innocent look and greeted the next VIP customer with a sweet smile.

  Joel saw Johnny wave to him from one of the red curtained VIP booths, which was situated twenty feet overlooking the dance floor. Joel saw that Johnny was wearing his latest look: a black Armani suit jacket over a white tank top that sported a faded marijuana leaf on front, faded blue jeans with holes over each knee and white flip flops. Part surfer, part chic and part druggie, it fit Johnny perfectly. Johnny Stone was born blessed with awesome dimples and stood about six feet tall; he had a thin wiry build that fit with his shoulder length sun bleached, blonde hair. Women flocked to Johnny and he thrived on it.

  “Johnny my man!” Joel called out in his reedy voice.

  Johnny came up and clasped his hand hard on Joel’s shoulder. “Joel! How’s my number one boy!” Johnny replied with a slight slurring of his words, “Come on over and check out these hotties!”

  Johnny spread his arms wide and turned to the three, twenty somethings, sitting together in the private booth, “Sexy ladies, this is my producer friend I told ya abouts! Joel Miller! He just landed me a role with my girl, Halo Raines! So you be nice to him and I’ll be nice to you!” He flashed a toothy grin at the smiling star struck girls.

  “Hello, ladies!” Joel laughed.

  A shapely, tanned and black haired cocktail waitress, with a big smile and wearing a red miniskirt dress came up to Joel smiling. In a high-pitched voice she asked, “Mr. Miller, your usual tonight?”

  “Yeah Becky.” He held up a finger for Becky to wait, “Ladies! How do a few bottles of Cristal sound for you three?” Joel watched as they looked at each other wide eyed and they all nodded in unison at Joel with smiles across their tanned faces. Joel turned his attention to Becky, “Make those two bottles of Crissy for the ladies.”

  “Two bottles of Cristal and a bottle of Henessey, I’ll be right back!” Becky said, sounding oddly like Minnie Mouse.

  Johnny grabbed Joel’s elbow and smiled to the three girls in the booth and bowed, “Sexy ladies, Joel and I have to talk business, we’ll be right back!” Joel nodded over towards the stairway and Johnny followed.

  “So my friend, what’s the news with my Halo?”

  Joel stepped close to Johnny and leaned next to his ear, “Here it is: two hundred and seventy five thousand, no expenses. She is NOT your Halo; you need to get that through that head of yours. No sharing cars, no talking to her, no questions, if you do have one? You go through Deacon or me. One hundred percent professional at all times. Halo will, and I mean WILL, fire your ass. If you screw it up Johnny, it’s all on you. It will be all in your contract. Oh, if she fires you, you get to keep the cash. You can thank me for that, I fought like hell for hours to get you your asking price, I told you that I even made her cry. My debt is paid to you.”

  Johnny smiled and hugged Joel hard, “You da man! Don’t worry Halo will cool down, it will be all chill and shit. She’s my girl, no worries man! Ha ha! Money for nothing! We are cool, Joel. Debt is paid!” Johnny grabbed Joel’s arm and pulled him back to their booth.

  Once there in front of the girls, Johnny grabbed Joel’s shocked face and gave him a big wet kiss on his skinny, pale cheek. Johnny and the girls laughed at Joel’s shocked look and even he gave out a surprised chuckle after a moment’s pause.

  Joel patted Johnny on his shoulder, “Let’s get this party started!” Joel yelled and nudged Johnny to take a seat.

  Joel watched Johnny slide into the booth and recalled why he owed Johnny Stone a debt. It was a night just like this, here in this same club a few weeks ago. Johnny picked up some random hot chick and all three of them went back to his house to party after the club closed. Johnny took her back to the room he crashed at and they got it on. Afterwards Johnny left her there and he went out to the pool. He went in, woke her up, and got her to come out to sit with him on the couch.

  He tried to make out with her, but she resisted. He brought out some coke and unknown to her, he laced it with Oxy… he remembered her lips began to turn blue as he was fucking her, the bitch died before he could blow his load. He was so pissed that she could not wait to die until he finished. He was hitting her trying to wake her but she never came to. He must have been screaming because Johnny came running in.

  He recalled the look on Johnny’s face… it was as if he killed his wife or something. She was just some dumb bitch from the club. He had implored Johnny to help dump her body. Reluctantly he did help to get her in his trunk, but refused to ride with him. After some begging and dealing, Johnny agreed to follow him to Topanga Canyon Road. Once there Johnny refused to help him dump the stupid bitch’s body off the side, so he had to do it himself. He remembered hoping that the cougars would all get high from eating the stupid cunt.

  Now his debt was paid, and no one was the wiser. He smiled and slid into the booth next to a pretty, longhaired blonde. He smiled from ear to ear at her at her, “Hey, you wanna be in a movie?” He grinned.

  The Next Day

  Halo came downstairs from her bedroom and walked into the kitchen. She quickly made some scrambled egg whites, plain oatmeal with some fresh strawberries. She made herself a cup of coffee, sat down and quickly ate her breakfast in silence. When she was done, she washed her dishes, dried them and put them away.

  Grabbing a water bottle from the refrigerator, she headed downstairs to her exercise room, which was more like a small gym you would find in a small city. The vast room was equipped with the latest work out machinery: free weights, an elliptical, treadmill and three different exercise bikes.

  Against one wall were various Pilates machines, she walked by them and decided on running instead. Getting up on the treadmill she picked up the remote and turned on the stereo, soon the expansive gym echoed with the beat of a high-energy song. “Not bad.” She muttered and soon was jogging at a fast clip.

  She spent forty minutes on the treadmill and began a cool down walk when her phone rang. Picking it up from the cup holder and partially out of breath she answered, “Hey JJ! What’s up?”

  “Halo, we have a small problem.”

  Halo quickly hit the stop button on the treadmill, “What’s up?”

  “Well, Blacktie called and no one is available to pick up Mystery man and take him to LAX. I’m too far away to make it on time. You think you can go pick him up?”

  “Uh, well…” Halo quickly pushed aside her confusion, “Ok, I will go get ready! Give him a call and warn him please!” She was surprised at the excitement she heard in her own voice. Now I can ask him myself if we met, she thought cheerfully.

  “Oh, hell. Uh Ha
lo?” JJ laughed nervously.

  “What?” She said excitedly looking at the clock on the wall, “I’ve got to get moving!”

  “Oh shit…you are so gonna kill me. I was just messing with you! I’m so sorry! I thought you’d just tell me to call him a taxi. I feel awful.” JJ whined, “Are you mad at me?”

  “Really? Uh… no, I’m not mad, but I am so going to pay you back.” She gave JJ a little laugh, “Jokes on me, so is that the only reason you called?”

  “No, I called to tell you that the limo company called, I don’t know why… but they confirmed picking up Xander and they will be heading to the airport as scheduled. And, uh Doug and I are headed to the grocery store… you need anything?”

  Halo heard the regret in JJ’s voice, “Uh sure, some fruit, yogurt and see if there is any fresh fish in. No Chinese farmed stuff please.”

  “Of course Halo. Hey, you ok? You sound bummed. I’m so sorry…”

  “You caught me off guard and I just got done running when you Punk’d me! I will get you back my pretty!” Halo heartily threatened.

  “Oh I have no doubt! I deserve it!” JJ laughed, “I’ll pick you up a skinny latte, my treat ok?”

  “Sounds nice, I’ll see you when you guys get here.”

  “Ok, see you later.” JJ replied, and Halo ended the call.

  Looking at the treadmill’s start button, she decided against continuing her cool down. Going over to her exercise ball, she began to half-heartedly stretch. Her thoughts went to the tingle of excitement she felt when the opportunity came up of talking directly to her Mystery man. She sat up, shook her head hard, and clenched her fists against her thighs, “For fucksake!” She blurted out. He is married, she reminded herself so why the hell were there warm fuzzies in her belly?

  “It’s got to have something to do with slime ball Johnny.” She said aloud, trying hard to convince herself.

  Xander was moving with the throng of people past the security checkpoint at Portland International Airport. Suddenly he saw Athena waving her arms at him. His heart warmed at the sight of her big smile, and waved back enthusiastically. He saw Evie give him a half smile and a nod as he made his way forward to them.

  “Hey! I thought you were going to pick me up at arrivals?”

  Evie shrugged, “Athena wanted to come in and surprise you.”

  He looked to his daughter who reached over and gave his shoulder a hug, “Thank you! Let’s get going, I have a lot to tell you!”

  Evie gave him a hard smile as they took the escalator down to baggage claim. He retrieved his bag, last as usual, and they headed out to the parking area

  “Did you have a good flight?” Evie asked.

  “Yeah, it was cramped on the way up.” Xander replied.

  “Ma, there’s the van!” Athena said pointing in the direction of their parked van.

  “Xan, I’ll drive.” Evie dictated as they came up to the gray Dodge Grand Caravan. He nodded as she unlocked the doors, he opened the side door for Athena, she got in he handed her his bags. Soon they were on their way, headed home in the gray wet September weather.

  “Dad! How did the audition go?” Athena asked cheerfully, “Too bad you didn’t get to meet Halo.”

  Xander cringed at hearing Halo’s name in the proximity of Evie. No denying the elephant in the room now, he thought as he looked at Evie’s passive face watching the wet road, “No big deal, I’ll show you her letter when we get home. The audition went really well, it took a lot out of me though, when I got back my nerves were so shot I ended up tossing my cookies in the toilet.” Xander glanced back at Athena and gave her a pained look.

  “Xan? You really got sick over a silly audition?”

  Xander winced and frowned, “Uh, yeah. It was really intense; when I got back everything just hit me.”

  Evie shook her head and shot him a look, “I don’t know about you, Xan.”

  He ignored Evie’s comment and turned to Athena with a smile, “Hey, I got help from a veteran actress on the way down!”

  “Who was it?” Athena asked.

  “Well, you have all seen her,” he paused and looked at Evie, “She’s about five feet tall, about Athena’s age with blue eyes and dark hair. She lives here too.”

  “Come on dad! That could be anybody!” Athena replied and gave her father’s shoulder a little push.

  “Ok, ok! You remember the detergent commercial with the little girl and her messy dog? Her!” He laughed.

  Evie shrugged at them, while Athena stared at her father with her mouth hanging open, “Dad! That’s Christina Ascher!”

  “No duh, I met her father too!” Xander chuckled.

  “No dad you don’t know! You know that Disney show I used to watch all the time as a kid?”

  Xander groaned, “Yeah, how can I forget! That’s all you watched!”

  “Well she was one of the main characters! She played the rock star singer! Why didn’t you get her autograph for me?” Athena pouted.

  “I didn’t know. My bad.” Xander frowned at his daughter.

  “You know about her father, right?”

  “Yes of course. Nice guy.” Xander replied nonchalantly.

  Athena rolled her eyes at her father and shook her head in disapproval, “Hey, Ma said you got a check from Halo! Why’s that?”

  Xander quickly glanced back at Athena with his eyes wide open, and gestured with them towards Evie. Athena nodded back as he answered, “She doesn’t like Johnny Stone. She wants to keep me on the backburner just in case it doesn’t go well with him.”

  Athena wrinkled her nose, “Eww! Johnny Stone, what a creeper… so you might get his part?”

  “What’s so bad about Johnny Stone?” Evie butted in, “He’s a good looking actor.”

  “Oh, Ma! If you knew about him you would turn green as your Spanakopita!” Xander chuckled at Athena’s analogy.

  “Well why is he so bad?”

  “Dad, you tell her please!” Athena laughed.

  “Koukla, he goes through women like most people change underwear. He’s a good actor, but it’s been said that he is difficult to work with. Last year, he was arrested for running down a busy Hollywood street totally naked and high.”

  Athena puckered her face up, “Eww… yeah Ma, I can YouTube it for you if you wanna see it!”

  Evie shook her head, “No thanks, he sounds like another Malaka, nea?”

  “Big time!” Nodded Xander, “Big time.”

  “Oh, Xan. I forgot to mention that Nola needs you tomorrow.”

  Xander smiled, recalling his favorite client, who was the closest thing to an aunt to him. She was such a firecracker of a lady, he thought with a smile. Nola always put him in a good mood during his visits, “So what am I fixing this week?” He asked Evie.

  “Something electronic is broken. I think she breaks things on purpose so you can come fix them. If she wasn’t so old I might be suspicious.” Evie turned to Xander and gave him a raised eyebrow, “For being so rich, she at least pays you good.”

  Xander nodded and smiled. “I’ll take care of it. Can you handle the staff and get them on the road in the morning?”

  Evie shot him a miffed look, “Isn’t that what I usually do?”

  “Hey, just checking.” Xander replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, “I better text Eric and let him know I’ll chat with him later.”

  “Another Malaka…” Evie muttered.

  Xander met Athena’s eyes and they both shook their head in unison at Evie’s remark. Xander noticed a missed call as he put his phone away.

  The talking petered out as they drove the rest of the way home. Evie pulled up to their two story Craftsman style home in West Linn, ‘up on the hill’ as locals called it. Their neighborhood was your typical middle class home, the area was well kept and the schools were great. Overall, a great place to raise kids. Evie pulled into the driveway and waited for the garage door to open fully before she pulled in.

  They all got out of the v
an and headed into the house through the garage’s laundry room entrance. Xander stepped in the laundry, stopped and took in a deep inhale through his nose, “Wow! Giouvesti!” Xander dropped his bags, turned around, and gave Evie a bear hug, “Thank you!”

  “Stop it now.” Evie exclaimed trying to push Xander away playfully. Athena gave them a disgusted look as she scooted past them. He kissed his wife’s cheek and did not let go until she returned the gesture.