Chapter 12
I stood in the bathroom of Mimi’s apartment while standing in front of the mirror, with all the lights off save for a little Jack Skellington wax warmer plugged into the outlet above the sink.
A digitally distorted voice spoke to me on the other end of the line, speaking in a tone of cold calculus.
“Hello, Mister Dirge. Is there a problem?” asked the liaison.
“Why would there be a problem?” I questioned in a low rumble.
“Your behavior has been erratic the past few days.”
“You assume I’m obligated to act within your accepted patterns. A free man does what he wants.”
“Our concern is in reference to the agreement that was made. We provide for your needs, and you avoid unnecessary acts.”
“Well maybe my needs have grown, and I found it necessary to act on them.”
“If your stipend is insufficient, we can renegotiate your fee on a per-Mutable basis. You can also sell us the Ichor you’ve been stockpiling.”
I balled my fist and leaned it beside the mirror, staring into my reflection as my tone darkened.
“You see, that’s where you got me fucked up,” I replied. “I don’t accept your paltry pittance in exchange for my silence after what you did to me, and I have no intentions of going around cleaning up more of your messes. I’m retiring, all you need to do is stay out of my way.”
“Your frustrations have already been factored in, but you have to understand the ramifications of unchecked—”
“Get fucked. You guys tried to kill me. And when that didn’t work, you tried to lock me in a cage. That went over well, didn’t it? I’m going to live my life the way I want, and you’re never gonna call me again.
“And don’t think I’m not wise to your act.
I know you’re watching everything I do, so you’re going to make my life very comfortable.
If anything goes wrong—if I am so much as inconvenienced by a long line at the airport, I will take the fight to you directly, and you can deal with the consequences of your actions then. Is any part of that unclear?”
“No.”
“Good. Fuck you and have a nice day.”
And then I hung up and went back to the party, where Cassie, Mimi, and Monica were all waiting with a bottle of Belvedere atop a little black turntable.
“Heyyy!” Mimi greeted. “We called a few friends for the party. They’ll be over later. Pre-game!”
“I turn my back for five minutes and you’re already drinking?” I asked, banishing the tone of the earlier call as I returned to a more jovial spirit.
Cassie picked up the bottle and dangled it from the top. “It’s a penalty bottle.”
“So what’s it for?”
“Spin the bottle—Truth or Dare!” Mimi cheered. “We’re gonna play some games we haven’t done since high school, but with a different spin on it.”
“Oh boy… I see what you did there,” I chuckled toward the ceiling, then shrugged as I walked to them and reclaimed my perch between Monica and Cassie, which now included the top-up of Chinese food they’d ordered. “Alright, how do we play?”
“Right, okay, so first you spin the bottle,” Mimi initiated with a quick twist of her wrist, spinning the bottle on the turntable until it slowed to a stop and pointed at Monica. “And then you ask that person truth or dare. So, Momo! Truth or dare?”
Monica blew exasperated raspberries through her kissable lips, and then pointed a wagging finger at Mimi. “I’mma let you get away with calling me that, but only because it’s cute as fuck.”
“Isn’t it?”
“You can thank me later…” Cassie sassed while sipping on a Jack-o’-lantern mug full of lemonade.
“Oh, hush!” Monica retorted with a playful wave of dismissal, then glanced at me while she pondered. “Mmm… Dare.”
“OoOoh, skipping the warm up, I like it!” Mimi praised before looking up pensively. “Okay. I dare you to kiss… Cassie.”
“What?” Cassie blurted out with an incredulous giggle.
Monica leaned right into the game, and stuck her hands out. “Come ‘ere bitch!”
Cassie rolled her eyes and leaned forward with a pucker to exchange a quick smooch with Monica, blushing hard with a big embarrassed smile.
“See, wasn’t that nice?” Mimi inquired. “Okay, now it’s your turn, Momo.”
With the rules of the game set, Monica leaned forward and spun the bottle. It landed on Mimi.
“Ah, sheeit!” Monica smiled.
“Revenge round!” Mimi clapped while giggling.
“Truth or dare?” Monica glared with mischievous intent as she stared Mimi down.
“Alright, lemme see… hmm… I dare you to kiss Cassie!”
“Why is everyone kissing me?” Cassie shouted manically with fingers clutched beside her face with uncontrollable giggling.
“We know you like it,” I teased.
Cassie shot me a wry smirk, then rolled her eyes before leaning in as Mimi pursed her black-painted lips and pressed them against hers.
Mimi looked directly at me as her mouth lingered on Cassie’s, parting with a wet puckering sound, then shifted into a smile. “My turn again!”
“So what happens if someone refuses a truth or a dare?” I questioned.
“Then they have to take a shot,” Mimi replied as she hovered over the bottle to spin it, her bountiful cleavage jiggling as she did so.
The bottle landed on Cassie.
“Uh oh!” Monica laughed. “It’s all you now!”
“You know what?” Cassie sassed, then picked up the bottle and poured herself some vodka into her cup, taking a quick swig. “Truth.”
“Bitch, I thought you were backing out!”
Cassie took another sassy swig. “I don’t back down from shit!”
Monica stuck her hand up in the air and met Cassie’s for a high five, then reclined toward me. “Alright, alright, hmm… since you said ‘truth’, what’s the difference between a dildo and a dick?”
“At this point? Temperature.”
That one had all the girls laughing.
“Oh my God…” Monica shook her head while trying to contain herself. “Girl, you stupid. I can’t even.”
Cassie lifted herself up on her knees, doing a little wiggling dance as she bent over the bottle and spun it for her turn.
It landed on me.
Cassie licked her lips with delight as she sat back down, butt to heels with her knees pointing toward me.
“Truth or dare, Jax?” she asked.
“Dare,” I said.
Cassie flared her nostrils with a smiling, nose-scrunching snarl. “Oh, I’m gonna get you.”
“Try it.”
A countenance of pure competitiveness appeared on her. She knew the dare had to appeal to me, or I could just take a drink to get out of it. My challenge forced her to be creative.
“I dare you to…”
“Wait, wait!” Mimi waved her hands like she’d touched something hot, then quickly leaned forward to whisper in Cassie’s ear.
“Ooh—ooh! I got it!” Cassie enthused with a quick triple nod, and then shifted herself to straighten up her posture, running her fingers through the sides of her short hair. “I dare you to play another game—a game within a game.”
“I thought we were already playing a game?” said Monica.
“A minigame!” Mimi cheered with a girlish giggle.
“Just listen—listen!” Cassie narrowed her eyes after shushing the other two. “First, you have to close your eyes. No peeking.”
“Sure,” I chuckled, squinting my eyes shut to lean back against the bottom of the couch for support.
More whispers.
“Oh, you bastard,” Monica blurted with a shoulder shaking chortle, then scooted away from me. “Okay, let’s do it.”
“You just like the action,” I stated.
“Don’t you know it…” Monica replied with a flash of a flirtatious tone.
“What are we doing?” I asked, keeping my eyes closed.
Cassie replied. “Someone’s gonna stick a body part in your mouth, and you have to guess who’s and what it is. If you guess right, you can open your eyes, but if you don’t, the winner gets to pick where we go on vacation.”
“Alright. Deal.”
I braced myself for the tomfoolery to come, feeling the heat in the air as as I became surrounded by the warmth of all three women, their lovely scents filling me with the essence of their presence.
“Say ah!” Mimi encouraged.
“I swear to fuck if someone sticks their foot—“
What went into my mouth wasn’t a foot. No, I knew that texture anywhere.
It was a nipple.
A carefully inserted nipple, held in such a way that I couldn’t deduce the size of the breast by squishing my face against it. The only other thing I had to go on was the areola.
I tried to draw it into my mouth, but whoever it was pulled away.
“Just lick it!” Mimi said from somewhere very close.
A slight whimper, but I couldn’t tell who it was. I needed to assume it’d be between Monica and Mimi. My first guess would’ve been Monica, but after the initial pull away, the tit returned to my mouth, allowing me to feel more of its softness, throwing off my judgement.
So I suckled it, catching the nipple between my teeth with gentle pressure as my tongue circled and slathered it, and then it was popped out of my mouth.
“Know who it is?” asked Cassie.
I shook my head. “Mimi?”
“Open your eyes.”
The woman I saw kneeling over me with her right tit pulled over the top of her top shocked me.
It was Cassie.
“Haaa!” she shrieked and laughed at the same time as she rolled back onto the floor in a fit of giggles.
“The game was rigged!” I protested. “I’d have never guessed it was you—you just wanted to decide where we’re going.”
Cassie rolled back up to sit with a proud shake of her head. “Hey, I never said I wasn’t playing. You got to touch it before, didn’t you?”
“Technically,” I chuckled while Cassie scooted toward her drink for another swig. “Appreciate the taste.”
Mimi leaned back to sit on her knees again, a secret twinkling in her eye. “Okay, so full disclosure, that was totally my nipple, but I asked Cassie to flash you to throw you off. So you did guess right, which is why you—”
“Got to open my eyes…” as I recalled the rules of the game, glaring suggestively. “You’re trouble, you know that?”
Mimi winked. “It’s your turn now, so you can totally get me back if the bottle lands on me.”
“Or indirectly…“ I replied before looking left at Monica, who was barely containing her laughter. “Props for not snitching.”
“What happens with us stays with us, Daddy—except when we post it,” Monica retorted, resting her hand on my thigh and snaking it slightly closer to my crotch.