Ain’t No Business
Chapter 5
*Goddamn*
James couldn’t believe his eyes. Miss Pattie Labelle Jr. was Ororo Monroe. He let his has trace the contours of her razor cut hair and the long lines of her neck. He blinked quickly under the harsh lights of the bookstore, which reminded him of his surroundings. He did a quick 360 degree turn to see if anyone saw him drooling on the book. He flipped through the colorful pages and saw random inserts of Ororo holding the dishes she was explaining.
He flipped to page sixty-two. It was another full color insert. This time it was a full body side profile of her working at her island in the kitchen. He could tell her height by the refrigerator. Not even the flat pumps she was wearing could take away from those legs that made her tall enough to jump start a straining erection.
James just rolled his eyes. He hated it when he got hard in public. Oy, talk about awkward. Usually it wasn’t so much of a problem as it was annoying. It kind of felt like an 8:00 pm low tide. By six you could see the tide ebb differently then it did at four. Then around seven it came less and less on shore. Had a beach goer been sitting at the waters edge at for two hour and the clock struck eight, he could no longer feel the water at his toes. That was a normal woody.
But nooooooo, this was no normal piece of wood. It was the sudden growth of a redwood. He shifted and turned so that no one could see his lower half. It was weird. He’s never been so completely hard so quickly before. It was like someone purposely dropped an anvil on him, and enjoyed it immensely.
Another strange thing about this was that he liked the feeling of getting smacked into the ground by a heavy obj...hard-on. It was a complete 180 from what he felt like when he was with Jean. He threw his head back and laughed at the irony. Both women had unintentionally turned him (Mr. Machismo) into a masochist. Hell, he hadn’t even met Ororo, yet.
Well...that wasn’t entirely true. He knew a lot about her already. While waiting in line, he heard a Motown song being hum in a deep baritone. Oh yeah, that was him. He was also the only person in the long-ass boring bookstore having a great time. *Wait a minute. If no one in this country, or mine, read anymore, why are commercial bookstore lines ALWAYS long?* He ignored his own question, and kept humming. As he got to the counter the tired cashier asked him for his money. He dug it out and got his bag, still walking around with a goofy grin. When he got to the door, he finally hit the chorus of her song.
“Voulez-vous couchez avec, moi, sez soir?”
*Oui, si vous plait!*
While he was driving home, and not readjusting himself, he had flashes in his mind of a deliciously tipsy, leggy, snowy headed, earthen skinned, woman having a great time on a stage, just for him. Oh yeah, tonight’s “business” dinner was going to be a blast. He adjusted himself, yet again. Yulp, a real blast, in more ways than one.
~By the Goddess~
“ALI!!! I am going to kill you!”
“What,” was Ororo’s far too innocent sounding reply. She put the sauce pots on the stove and stared at her friend. There was no way in hell Ali could ever look innocent, of anything. Even minus the black hair dye, heavy eye shadow, platforms, chains, tattoos, and other clothing and accessories that made it looked like she robbed several Hot Topics, Ali could never look innocent.
“When did you get that phone call?”
The rocker put her index finger under her chin in a fake pensive pose. “Which phone call? I was a good girl and answered lots of phone calls. My lady must be more specific.”
Ororo smacked her own forehead. *Oh dear God and all other Holy Beings. The woman answered the phones for the whole day!* She took a deep breath. “Ali, when you were answering phone calls, did you take messages?”
“Wait, you wanted me to take messages too!”
“Ali, you asked me if you could help out. I thought you actually wanted to help.” She gave her the sorriest put she could muster.
Alison Blaire was the world’s most un-empathic person in the world. She had one weakness. Pouts. Of course, leave it to her best friend to exploit that. At least she was to angry at her, or else she would have brought up the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n discussion. Eww.
Ororo continued to bore through her oldest friend like a angry faced psychic. Any moment know. Three, two...
“Alright, alright. You win, Miss Thang.” Ali dug into her left but pocket to pull out the pink postit that had the details of tonight’s meeting with the big-wigs from the studio, an act that didn’t go unnoticed by a very nervous sous chef. Life was good. Ali was able to drive two people crazy in one strike. Oh yeah, she still got it.
Ororo snatched the pink piece of paper and walked into the kitchen. Ali just picked at her nails, just waiting for her to storm back out again.
Sure enough a few seconds later.
“ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIii! Why does it say that they’re coming at seven o clock? YOU DO KNOW THAT’S ITS 5:50!”
“Looks like you should get started. Oh yeah while your at it, you might want to clean yourself up a bit. You look highly stressed. That’s never a good sign.” All that could be heard was the slamming of pots in the kitchen. She turned her head when she caught movement in the corner of her eye. It was her own tasty little dish trying not to laugh at her antics.
“Kurt, right?” She came up behind him as he polished glasses. Ali just couldn’t help herself when it came to her crushes. Letting her hands run up his back, she was able to feel the sinewy muscles that were well hidden underneath the chef’s uniform.
The poor boy was trying to speak, but nothing was coming out. She stepped out from behind him and stood to his side. She tried to peer around to look at him, but he was artfully dodging her attempts.
Finally at his wits end with the playful sprite, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Liebling, please, I think I should go and help Ororo.” He kissed her head and laughed at her bottom lip poking out.
Hmmm, liebling? Was her tasty treat German import? Ali did a quick little happy dance. *Ich ern ien Berliner!*
When Kurt walked into the kitchen he was amazed to see his boss already working on several dishes, and nearly done them. He’d only been out of the kitchen for less than ten minutes.
“Oh common, Kurt. Don’t look at me like that. I cheated, its just a couple of backward sushi rolls.”
“How did you finish the rice so fast?”
“It’s for tomorrow’s special.”
“Good idea.” He walked over to the stove and saw the eel and the unagi sauce boiling. The unique smell coming from the oven. When he peered through the glass he saw almonds being roasted. Maybe it would explain why she was boiling chocolate. At least the movie people would have the greatest most undiluted hot chocolate known to man.
“Could you start on the oranges, Kurt?”
In about forty minutes they had buckwheat soba topped with salmon skin, orange infused spring rolls, and unagi inside out rolls. It was only afterwards did they plan to attack with their secret sweet weapon.
“It looks like you have time to spare, Ms. Monroe. Why don’t you get changed?”
She rolled her eyes when he called her by her last name. She flew by him and kissed his cheek. “You are so getting a bonus and a raise.” She raced upstairs to her office and ran through a clothing rack that her friend Betsy had made her keep. Ororo actually made herself a note to thank Betsy and her modeling career. For once, they both came in handy. After rummaging for a couple of minutes, she found the perfect dress. Well, sort of. She and Betsy may have been the same size, but they had different measurements in different place. Oh well, safety clips, and artfully skipping a few buttons would fix that. She plugged in her super fast flat iron, and hoped that rush hour traffic would keep them an extra ten minutes. *Please God, please!*
~27 Minutes Later~
Dani and Xian looked at the six smartly dressed people who were outside The Goddess.
Xi looked at her best friend, then back at the door again. “Do we have to let them in?”
Dani made it a point to ignore them. “Nope.”
“Uhm, yes ya’ll do.”
“Ms. Monroe,” both girls exclaimed. Neither one had seen the boss sneak up behind them. She was surprisingly quiet in her Manolo’s.
“I suggest that you, Dani, go and get our guest, and you, Xian, go and find me a sherry, a blush, and a spritzer.
Ali who also managed to clean up, just a little, managed to get in one last snide dig before she was shooed away. “How much are you planning on juicin’ them up, girl?”
“You. Out. Now!.”
“Fine.”
“Dani, seat them in the glass expansion, and help out Xi with serving the sherry. And both of you better be nice. No smart-assity. You two are hostesses. So smile, welcome, and host.” She left to help Kurt with the last of the food preparations.
When Dani lead the guest into the inner glass dining room, Xian was pouring the last of the wine and flashed them all a bright smile. Dani rolled her eyes, and poked her tongue out. Xian walked of to stand next to her and glared. Dani was able to get away with it because her back was turned.
When she motioned to have the guest sit at the table, only a pretty and shallow smile remained. Both girls hated Hollywood types. Every time they came in, they closed the restaurant down, demanded the world, and got to be ugly jerks. The only consolation was that when ever someone was snorting, stealing, cheating, or making deals they always did it in front of the staff, then expected silence. Dumb asses. Whenever Xi or Dani got juicy information the first two people they called were Sara, a ninja-esque paparazzi, and Callisto, the assistant editor to People. Dani nor Xi never made any money on their scopes. They did it for fun. Tonight it didn’t look like they were going to get anything good. Both girls just quietly blended in when Ororo walked in. Good thing they were getting overtime. It was going to be boring as hell.
The party looked up at the stunning woman who introduced herself as Ororo Monroe, the owner of the establishment.
An older silver haired man stood up an introduced himself as Eric Lensherr. He introduced the man in the power chair as Charles Xavier. She shook hands with both men. The first gentleman had a slightly cold but tight and calculated grip. Ororo could tell that although that he was fair, she knew that he was precise and had very little time for humor. The second man’s shake was completely different. He had a warm, easy, and light grip. She couldn’t help the genuine smile that came to her face.
Ororo was so bemused by this Xavier guy that she didn’t think about the next few words that came out of her mouth. “Would you like to have a seat?”
“Thank you Ms. Monroe, but I came in with one,” he whispered to her. He was delighted to see laughter bubble out of her. “You know, my dear, I already like you. There’s only one other person here with a remote sense of humor.”
“Oh?”
“Let me finish with the introductions. The man to my left is En Sabur Nur. He is an executive producer. The woman next to him is my twin sister, Cassandra. She’s our casting director. Next to her is our director for this film Scott Summers.”
Ororo looked at the tall man in the Oakley’s. As stylish as he looked, she saw the early crows feet and the laugh lines developing. From the set look of his jaw, it was obvious that he didn’t smile or laugh much. The poor man was aging early from stress. Ororo took pity on him and offered him her hand. A firm grip, totally technical, all business. Nope he didn’t have the elusive sense of humor either.
It must belong to the last person. She took a look at the shorter man. Ororo rubbed her forehead. Why did he look familiar?
James took the woman’s hand and introduced himself. She still looked at him with a tilted head. He still had her soft silky hand in his, and he pulled her closer. She smelled...yummy. “Are you ok, Ororo?”
The sound of her name snapped her out of her daze. “Yes, I’m good.”
Now that he was touching her, it gave him an excuse to give her another once over. She was wearing a dusty silk dress that had a gold trim. The dress was nearly her skin tone. The trim made her naturally shiny skin glow even more. The low cut neck let her left her breast parted and framed by more gold trim. James felt another red wood spring up. She reminded him of a present with a pretty gold bow that only needed one pull to come apart.
“Your staring Mr. Howlett.”
“It’s James, and so are you.”
“I’m sorry, its just that you seem very familiar.”
She heard a soft cough behind her.
Charles was trying to get her attention. “You know what else would be familiar. Food. I’m hungry.”
“Have a seat Ms. Monroe. We’ll get it.” Xian took Dani back to the kitchen. We they bust through the door they saw Kurt and Ali break apart really quickly, and awkwardly.
“Oops, sorry,” Dani said in a way that said otherwise.
Ali narrowed her eyes at the two girls. “Neither one of you better say a word about this.”
Xian had the smarts to look bashful. “We would never...”
Kurt cut her off by loudly coughing.
Dani pushed past Kurt to get in Ali’s face. “What’s going to stop me from making a call to my friends at People?”
“What if I told you everything that went on at that dinner? I mean how often does Rory talk to the owners of studios like Xavier Productions.”
Xian couldn’t believe what she just heard and elbowed Dani. Suddenly struck with a brilliant idea she took Dani aside and told her. When they were finished they offered Ali their proposition.
If she could go out there and charm some of the most influential people in Hollywood, they wouldn’t squeel about her current crush. How could she refuse? She pushed open the double doors of the kitchen and walked into the dinning room like she was the star of her own old western.
“Rory, you didn’t tell me you were having a private dinner. I feel really bad about interrupting. I was only hoping for a bite to eat before I hit the road again.” Before she could get an answer, she had already pulled up a chair next to Ororo and the man in the wheely chair. As she sat down, she asked, “do you mind?”
Ororo looked at her with a plastered smile and answered her through graded teeth, “of course not, Ali, by all means.”
The bigger man who never bothered to shake her hand finally spoke up. “Alison Blaire. What are you doing here?”
“Me and Ro go way way back.”
Ororo sighed and inhaled. Then she kicked Ali as hard as she could under the table.
Before anyone could say anything else, Kurt had come out with the salmon skin salad. Finally, now she could start with the techno babble. As the party began to eat, she went on to tell them the history of the food, how she cooked it, and how she could cater for them on and off screen.
She noticed that the only people talking were Eric and Charles. Everyone else stayed quiet. Was that good?
“Don’t worry about them, child,” Charles said as if he read her mind, “If Eric and I agree then your in. When I say Eric and I, what I meant was me.”
Everyone just rolled their eyes, except for James. Finally someone else who didn’t have something dead stuck up their ass. When their eyes met across the table, she could feel him hold her gaze. Then it hit her. That’s where she saw him before. It was his eyes she felt on her while she was stumbling around on a kareoke stage, drunk.
*Oh just fucking great!* Before she had the chance to let her head slam into the table in utter shame, the door to the restaurant was thrown open.
In walked a flurry of motion that belonged to a dazzling red-headed woman. She looked around at the dinning party and gave a slightly over practiced frown. “Why didn’t anyone tell me that there was a meeting?” It was obvious that she had recently finished drinking, alot.
Everyone stopped. She noticed that the two men whose back were facing the red-head had similar reactions. Scott’s jaw tightened. (Ororo didn’t think that was possible.) His back became ramrod straight, and his chopsticks were nearly thrown down. James on the other hand threw became stiff and angry, but hit it well as he chugged his remaining wine.
Just what the hell was going on?
Dani, Kurt, and Xian poked their head out of the kitchen door on top of each other looking a lot like the Scooby Doo Gang. When the tipsy red-head flew in mouths just dropped. Ororo hadn’t said anything about A-list movie stars coming. Drunk ones at that. Dani took out her pink razor and started to click away.
This was so going to make a great cover story.
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