Can't Stop the Girl

"Sullivan and his friend," Daryle mumbled almost absentmindedly.

"Well, we shouldn't jump to conclusions, but..."

"No, I mean, they're here, Annie!" Daryle said.

"Speak of the devil!" Annie muttered, and turned around to see they were indeed in the restaurant and heading her way.

"Came to your senses about the PC pageant, did you?" Sullivan said with his usual smarmy grin.

"Long story," Annie said, shooting Daryle a look that warned him not to spill the beans. He didn't.

"Good to see you working so hard on it, then," Sullivan said. "Scoot over." Before Annie could think of a polite way to tell him he wasn't invited, he plopped down beside her.

Jeff followed suit beside Daryle, who had the decency to give him a disgusted look. "Found a way to leave it up to the other ladies, did you, Annie?" he asked. "Or did they just not want your feminist meddling anyway?"

"What is it you guys want, anyway?" Annie asked, managing a smile.

"A late lunch," Sullivan said. "But we saw you here and, quite frankly, we were worried about Daryle."

"Yeah, no offense, Annie, but if the kid's having problems with his mother, he doesn't need a woman telling him how to grow a pair."

"Look!" Annie was at the end of her rope.

"Hey, calm, calm!" Sullivan held up both hands as if he expected her to attack him. "We're just saying, Daryle might need a man to man talk with someone. If you do, Daryle, we're here for you, with no politically correct claptrap, okay?"

"Thanks," Daryle said. "But guys, Annie's great about this stuff. She knows what it's like." He reached across the table and touched her hand affectionately, and Annie felt a welcome jolt of pleasure.

Of course their unwelcome guests did not look impressed. But the waitress arrived with their coffee and cake before they could respond. Once the guys had ordered burgers and fries and they were on their own again, Sullivan picked up as if Daryle hadn't already shot him down. "Listen, Daryle, my folks are out of town for Christmas -- sorry to use that word, Annie, but that's what it is for us natives -- and Jeff and I were already thinking of filling up their hot tub after lunch. If you'd like to join us and talk, you're welcome to.

"That sounds lovely, Sullivan," Annie said, though she knew she wasn't invited.

"Sure, I'm in if Annie is!" Daryle added, giving her a conspiratorial look that delighted her.

"Oh, Annie, this is men only," Sullivan said. "Unless you don't mind being naked in otherwise all-male company!"

"Of course I don't mind," Annie said, forcing a smile. "We're all adults here."

"Come on, Annie, you don't mean that," Jeff said. "Besides, didn't you say last night you were on your you-know-what?"

"Ever hear of tampons, Jeff?" Annie asked. "I'm in."

She fully expected Sullivan to try to lose her on the drive to his house. But he didn't, and she was not at all surprised to follow him into the driveway of an even more ostentatious home than the Barkers'. "Are you sure you're okay with getting naked with those losers, Annie?" Daryle asked. "Or with me?"

As soon as Annie had the car parked, she turned to Daryle. "If you're uncomfortable with me being there, just say so, Daryle. No hard feelings."

He smiled and blushed. "I...no! Honestly, I'd...I think I'd like it, Annie."

"So would I, Daryle!" She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "And I agree with you about Sullivan and Jeff, but I think my being there is going to bother them a lot more!" She dissolved into laughter, and Daryle joined in. "Besides, we do want to find out if they know anything about the toys, don't we?"

"I bet Nancy Drew never went to this length," Daryle said. "But if you don't mind, I...well, it sounds awesome, really!"

"You guys want some beer?" Sullivan asked as soon as they were inside the spacious foyer that looked nothing like his working class hero attitude had ever suggested.

"I'm only eighteen and my mom would kill me," Daryle said.

"And I'll have to drive home," Annie said, though the prospect of getting naked with Sullivan and Jeff had her thinking a lot of booze was a wonderful idea.

"You know I want one, Sul," Jeff said over his shoulder as he strolled into the living room, where he flipped the switch on the Christmas tree and flopped down on the couch. Annie and Daryle reluctantly followed him, while Sullivan went off to fill up the hot tub and collect the beers.

The couches and chairs in the living room were all white, and Annie could hear Jeff's latest insulting comment before he said it. Sure enough, it came. "No offense, Annie, but maybe you shouldn't sit on anything white, huh?"

Annie ignored him and sat down on the couch across the cocktail table from the one Jeff had already monopolized. Daryle did not ignore him. "Dude, shut up already! What kind of caveman are you?"

"The kind who doesn't want to explain to Sullivan's parents why we need to get their couch dry cleaned," Jeff quipped. "I'm just looking out for my buddy."

Daryle made no effort to hide his disgust as he took his seat beside Annie. "You know, you're a real --"

"Daryle, it's okay!" Annie said, patting his knee and squeezing it a bit. "Women put up with that kind of thing all the time, we can take it. And we know who the good guys are, too, okay?" She gave him a look that seemed to mollify him. "It is a lovely house, isn't it? Nothing like I'd have guessed for Sullivan, the way he talks about his hardscrabble background."

"Hey, just 'cause he doesn't want to buy presents for some jerk who can't budget for her own kids doesn't mean he's poor himself," Jeff said. "What don't you libs get about that?"

"What indeed?" Annie said. "Really, it's too bad you guys didn't join us today to wrap the presents. I've never felt such togetherness and joy! Have you, Daryle?"

"Huh? Oh, no, never!" Daryle managed to keep something like a poker face. "Just what do you have against it, Jeff? I know what Sullivan doesn't like about it, but not you."

"Same as him," Jeff said. "Christmas is about giving. What did those people ever give to anyone? I'd save the toys for people who did give. Maybe the VA hospital, you know? The veterans there, they gave, their families deserve something."

"Not a bad idea," Annie said. A coincidence or a clue? She decided not to push any harder on it lest he get suspicious.

"I'll say it's not a bad idea," Jeff retorted. "Sully and I spent last night there, praying with the vets' families. You can't imagine the joy and love we felt giving a helping hand to people who'd actually earned it."

If true, Annie realized, there went her prime suspects.

A few minutes of uncomfortable silence later, Sullivan appeared with three bottles of beer. "In case you changed your mind, Daryle," he said. "No one here's going to tell your mother, or at least Jeff and I aren't."

"Want to split it, Annie?" Daryle asked as they stood up.

"Sure," Annie said, and couldn't suppress her grin as she took the bottle from Sullivan, passing over in silence the fact that he hadn't offered it to her.

It would have taken a lot more than a few sips to quiet the mix of revulsion at Jeff and Sullivan and tender affection for Daryle that Annie felt on the walk to the finished basement. But she found the latter outweighed the former quite well. The hot tub was behind a clear glass wall at the far end of the basement, and the glass was already growing steamy with the hot water Sullivan had turned on. Sullivan opened the door and reluctantly ushered Annie in first.

"I guess you know it's the twenty-first century when you can't even keep a woman out of a place like this," Jeff said.

"You're welcome to go back upstairs, you know," Annie said sweetly as she looked around the opulent room, which was well-stocked with towels and a table for leaving clothes. She was prepared to be the first to start undressing if that would prove some kind of point.

But that proved unnecessary, as Daryle pulled his shirt and sweatshirt off while Jeff and Sullivan were still looking awkwardly at one another and at Annie. "Great idea for a cold day like this, Sullivan," he said. "Thanks so much for inviting us!"

"You're welcome," Sullivan said in a tone that sounded a little forced to Annie, but he did follow Daryle's lead and start unbuttoning his shirt.

Annie swallowed her nerves and pulled off her sweater and t-shirt in one go. It wouldn't do for her to be the last one to bite the bullet, after all, and Daryle's bare rippling torso was a beautiful sight that she welcomed. Only fair to reciprocate, she reasoned as she was excruciatingly aware of all three of them watching her undo her bra. She stubbornly refused to betray any embarrassment as she pulled it away, and returned Daryle's admiring look as they both unbuttoned their jeans.

Daryle was the first to get all his clothes off, followed closely by Annie. Thrilled at the strong possibility that she was the first woman he'd ever seen naked -- and flattered at the sight that he was hard as a rock -- she took his hand and they climbed into the steamy water together. "Ohhh, this is lovely, Sullivan!" she said. "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Sullivan said, as he and finally Jeff finished undressing and followed her lead. For all their objections to her presence, Annie noted that they were both eyeing her body shamelessly. She welcomed this, and returned the favor, amused at the sight that neither of them was particularly well-endowed. Unlike Daryle, they weren't hard. Though Annie's body couldn't reflect as much in the water, the feeling was mutual. They were no more attractive with their clothes off than on. Daryle, on the other hand...

"So Daryle," Sullivan said once he was settled in the water. "How are you coping with the situation at home?"

"A lot better with Annie to lean on," Daryle said, with a grateful look at her. Annie felt nothing but amusement at the way he tried to look only at her face but couldn't resist a look downwards. "She knows what it's like."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sullivan said. "Annie doesn't have the gender barrier to deal with on top of everything else."

"What gender barrier, Sullivan?" Annie demanded. "Look at us, we've got nothing to hide here!"

"It's not a matter of hiding. Annie, you can horn in on our space here, but you can't know what it's like to live with the demands a man has to in this life, and you can't teach Daryle that either."

"No one's asking her to!" Daryle chimed in. "And I don't feel like she's 'horning in' either. I'm glad you're here, Annie. I think we need more open gender relations like this, really." He took the opportunity to gaze shamelessly at Annie's pubic hair triangle and the inescapable taboo of her tampon string floating in the water, but she didn't mind in the least.

"I couldn't agree more," Annie said. "One reason why gender relations aren't better is that people like you throw up so many barriers, Sullivan. I'm not trying to be Daryle's father, you know." Looking down at her body, she added, "Obviously," with a grin she hoped might lighten the mood.

It didn't. "All I'm saying, Annie, is that Daryle might need a male role model in his hour of need, and he's not going to find that with you or your other do-gooders with your holiday pageant." Sullivan spat out the word 'holiday' like it tasted bad. "I mean, even the men there saying we ought to condescend to those kids in the city..."

"Condescend?!" Annie found her contempt for Sullivan knew no bounds, even when they were both naked. "By trying to help them?"

"Uh!" Sullivan drew a hand out of the water and wagged a finger in Annie's face. "What did the colonists say when they forced the Native Americans off their land? 'We only wanted to help them!'"

"I...what?!" Annie sputtered.

"Admit it, Annie, he's got you there," Jeff drawled.

"They ought to be left alone to have their own celebrations, with whatever they can afford on their own," Sullivan said with finality.

"Is that what you want to happen now?" Annie asked him with a knowing look.

"Too late for that, isn't it? Didn't you wrap the presents today?"

"Right," Annie said. She was careful not to look at Daryle. But he squeezed her thigh under the water, and she felt a jolt of pleasure and a pleasant flashback to the night before.

"Do you think they really don't know what happened?" Daryle asked as she drove him home through the early sunset an hour or so later.

"I'm not sure," Annie said. "Could be, but of course they wouldn't want me to know if they had done it. Annie the Feminazi would turn them in, after all."

"Well, you would, wouldn't you?"

"Of course!"

"Me too," Daryle said. "But I wonder if they think I would."

"I think you showed them whose side you were on when we were getting dressed," Annie said with a grin as she stopped the car at a stop sign. She had invited Daryle to fasten her bra for her, and he had more than willingly complied.

"That was sweet of you to share with me," Daryle said. "Thank you. I think they were jealous, you know."

"I'm sure they were!" Annie said. "You know, Daryle, it was nice for me too, sharing that with you."

"Awww...Annie, is it okay if I say I hope we can spend more time together while I'm here?"

Annie's heart leapt, and she let out a gentle laugh. "Daryle, you've seen me naked! I think we've established that I like spending time with you!"

"Oh good," Daryle said as Annie pulled up by his house. "You have my phone number, right? And I promise I'll be a gentleman."

"I'm sorry to hear that!" Annie quipped. Putting the car in park, she turned to grin at him.

"You are?"

"No one should be lonely at this time of year, Daryle," she said, reaching across to stroke his leg. "And, well, I liked what I saw, okay? Take that any way you want."

Daryle leaned across, and they shared a long kiss. Both kept their hands to themselves, but that was good enough for Annie for the moment. As she watched him retreat into the darkness of his big front yard, she was so aglow with the kiss and so sorry to see him off to his uncomfortable family situation that she forgot, for the moment, about the stolen toys.

Her memory received an unwelcome refreshment when she arrived home ten minutes later. "So how was the giftwrapping klatch?" asked Mrs. Goldstein.

"Oh, good heavens!" Annie's sense of well-being all but vanished. "They were stolen!"

"What were stolen?"

"The toys! Right out of the truck in the Barkers' driveway. Can you believe that?"

"You're joking!" Mrs. Goldstein exclaimed. "Annie, I'm so sorry. I guess it's just as well I didn't get to tell the others about it, then."

"Oh, please still do!" Annie said. "We're going to...well, we're still going to do something. The show must go on, you know?"

Mrs. Goldstein looked admiringly at her younger friend. "I like your attitude, Annie. But wasn't the whole point giving gifts to the disadvantaged kids?"

"No, that was just icing on the cake," Annie said. "The real point was cross-cultural friendship and teaching one another about our holiday customs. The Grinch couldn't steal Christmas, after all."

Mrs. Goldstein smiled. "That's beautiful, Annie. Yes, I'll still see about a Hanukkah event, okay? But what are you going to do about the toys?"

"I'm going to find out who stole them!" Annie said. "Say, do you know anyone at the VA hospital who might be a troublemaker?"

One thing Annie loved about Mrs. Goldstein was that she never treated her like a naïve young thing. This time was no exception: with no hesitation, she bent Annie's ear for twenty minutes with tales of one Doctor Jim Stone, with a chip on his shoulder from Vietnam, who identified a little too well with his patients. "He thinks he's still fighting that damn war, Annie," she explained. "Always willing to lie, cheat and steal on their behalf when they're not even asking him to, and he hates bleeding hearts like you and me. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past him to steal those toys just to teach your friends a lesson, and if his patients have little kids he can give them to, so much the better."

"I'll bet he has a son about my age!" Annie was delighted with her sleuthing work -- no doubt that was Jeff's connection, and he was dumb enough to let it slip.

"Hell, no, Annie!" Now Mrs. Goldstein did laugh. "I'm sorry, but that man would never get married, for one thing. He's infamous for chasing after women your age, never mind having a kid your age. I do think he has a nephew somewhere, but that's it."

"That could be Jeff," Annie mused out loud.

"Who?"

"Sorry! No one. But yeah, this sounds promising."

"Don't do anything stupid, Annie," Mrs. Goldstein cautioned. "You're not a detective, after all, and Dr. Stone only treats women like you like one thing!"

"Of course," Annie said. But already she was thinking that one thing was the perfect way to loosen lips.

When she got downstairs, Annie turned on the Christmas lights and her computer and googled Dr. Stone. It took no time at all to find a photograph of a grizzled looking doctor with a chip on his shoulder that easily showed behind his arrogant grin. The thought of getting intimate with him made her stomach turn over...but a quick check of her e-mail revealed a round of depressing messages from Rhonda and the Barkers offering platitudes and prayers, and no hope of even finding out what happened to the toys, much less getting them back.

Annie took another look at her new nemesis' photo, and thought of the toys. Right, gotta do what I gotta do, she thought. A glance at her guitar in the corner gave her a more palatable idea, and she called the hospital to see if the good doctor would be on duty tomorrow. On learning that he would, she was satisfied that her work was done for the day.

Which meant she was free to let her mind wander back to that wonderful moment in the car, and the thrill of Daryle in the hot tub before that. If only they could have been alone! But something about the frustration turned her on even more now. As she spread her period towel on the bed again and stripped down to her bra and panties, Annie embraced the frustration completely while the Christmas music played on Youtube and the lights twinkled on her bare skin. He was so lovely in all his glory and innocence, and his obvious adoration for Annie -- Rick had never made her feel like that!

Enjoying the music and lost in her thoughts, Annie strolled around the room in her underwear and thought of what they had been able to share. Stolen glances, subtle admiring, the touch on her thigh, helping her on with her bra -- which she finally decided to take off again now -- and most of all, the kiss. Standing over her bed, she rubbed her newly-liberated breasts and replayed the kiss again and again in her memory, wishing it were Daryle's hands instead of her own and wondering if he'd ever fondled anyone's breasts before?

The chance that he hadn't was just what Annie needed, and at last she slipped her panties off and lay back on the towel. Closing her eyes and imagining Daryle's soft kisses and caresses on her breasts, she went to town on herself with both hands. Somewhere after the holiday pageant, maybe even this very room, his gentle touch betraying a shyness that she both welcomed and helped him overcome, both of them now welcome to gaze upon each other's body to their hearts' content, and his eager hard cock in her grip, his own hands teasing her thighs and vulva, working her into a wonderful lather...

Annie came with a deeply satisfying grunt, and once again had a few minutes of blissful absentmindedness about the day's tragedy.

Of course that reprieve was short-lived, and as Sunday dawned, Annie had second thoughts about her plans for Dr. Stone. But a stern reminder of yesterday's sense of helplessness -- and the indignity she'd already gone through with Sullivan and Jeff -- renewed her resolve.