By Rachel Torrent

"Jack’s got himself a new piece of ass……….a damn fine one too," Scottie said, chewing on a handful of cashews.

"I know. He brought her by the restaurant yesterday." Julie didn’t look up from her cutting board. She was intently chopping celery, onions, and garlic for a gumbo. U2 was pouring out angst from their Irish hearts on the stereo.

"What’s her name?" He scooped up a few more nuts from the bowl on the bar and popped them in his mouth.

"Kaitlin. And she’s perfect for Jack."

"You jealous?" Scottie smiled slyly to himself before he even glanced over the bar at her. The knife had stopped its steady chopping.

When he did look up, she had that look of hers that screeched, "Give me a fucking break."

"Eat me, Scottie." Or that.

"Ah, babe………You just yank down those tight little drawers of yours, and I’m there……..in a heart beat." He grinned. "Lococco’s nowhere around………and you look like you could use a good lashing with the ol’ tongue."

"That’s enough, Scottie. You’re making me sick." Julie was still holding her knife in mid-air.

Scottie, undaunted, was still grinning. "Aw, c’mon, Jules, sweet cheeks. You just step ‘round here and hop that ass up on this bar. It wouldn’t take me any time at all to have you screaming with euphoria……..unless, of course,"—he dropped his voice—"you want me to tease you and prolong the ecstasy—"

"Shut the fuck up, Scottie! What’s gotten into you?"

He laughed and suggestively eyed her up and down. "Must be the alcohol, baby doll……..Sorry……..Watching you in the kitchen just sets me on fire."

Julie sighed disgustedly and resumed her preparatory duties. "Well, maybe you should watch TV or something besides me ‘til Roger comes home……..And why’d you think I’d be jealous of the new girl anyway?"

"Don’t you and Jack do it?"

She glared at him, realizing he was trying to rile her. "No, you cocksucker. Jack and I don’t do it."

"Only in your minds, right, darling?" Shrewdly, he winked.

"Just go to hell. Okay?"

"Can I have another beer instead? And a shot of that whiskey too?" Scottie sounded boyish and pitiful now, and she couldn’t resist looking up and smiling at him. Could he help it if he was such a wild, over-the-top personality? Would she even like him if he wasn’t regularly pissing somebody off? He wouldn’t be Scottie LaMont if he was anything else, right?

She set a Beck's, the bottle of Jack Daniels, and a tiny shot glass down in front of him on the bar. "You’re getting loaded, Scottie. I’ll have to drive ya home."

"Or I could stay here with you………We could lock Roger out………and do s’more cooking."

Julie gave him a stern warning glance. "Don’t start again, Scottie."

"Where IS the prick anyway?" Scottie tossed back his whiskey.

She laughed. It had been too long since she’d heard that nickname for Roger. "He’s out somewhere with Vinnie. I’m not sure where." She glided over to the stove.

"Whatcha doing now?" He strained to see the activity. Obviously, he didn’t really care about Roger’s location.

"Making a roux……..It’ll be the base for the gumbo," she said as she stirred the contents of the iron pot.

"You’re incredible, Jules. A woman who knows her way ‘round the kitchen and enjoys it too is sexy as hell." He winked again when she fired him a look. His green eyes twinkled.

"Scottie—"

"Just an observation, sweetums." He shook his head and looked down. "That bitch I used to hang with didn’t know the stove from the damn dishwasher………dumb, lying cunt."

Julie jumped at the sudden vicious words and acidic tone. "Why so hostile, Scottie dearest? Did something happen?" Rarely now did he dig this subject up out of the mud.

"With her? Are you kidding me? Hell no!………But the wideload sure knew how to strap on the ol’ feedbag, didn’t she?…….Poor, pathetic creature……….always desperate for that positive reinforcement………..not matter what it cost……….how very sad."

She wasn’t sure what to say. "I, uh, don’t see her much since she pissed Roger off that last time. He won’t have a damn thing to do with her anymore …………discourages me from associating with her too…………and she’s always busy with other stuff now anyway."

"Can’t imagine WHAT stuff………Her only marketable skill was giving head." His voice was raw with bitterness. What could have happened? Did he simply need to get some old hatred out of his system?

"C’mon, now. Ease up. She’s not around to defend herself."

"Yeah, whatever……..I don’t know why I even brought it up……..means nothing," Scottie said gravely.

"And, it’s somebody’s else’s problem now, right? We’re free, Scottie." Julie wanted to move on. This subject matter was heavy and bringing them down.

He looked up, slowly coming out of an unpleasant moment of memory. "Aw, never mind…….What the fuck does it matter anyway, hmmm?……….And why am I traipsing ‘round in the past like this?……………Hey, I like this song." Bono blasted out "Angel of Harlem" in the background of the loft.

Julie noticed that his eyes were reddening with the alcohol. "You want something besides those nuts to eat? There’s some leftover chicken piccata in the fridge."

"Yikes! Lococco must eat well ‘round here……….even when he’s not having dinner." He snickered softly, returning to his jovial self.

Julie cut her eyes over to him. "All right, Scottie. That’s about strike three for you."

"Sorry, babe."

"Sorry, my ass. Go and change the cd, you dickhead. Your song is over."

When Scottie returned from the stereo, he stood at the end of the bar and studied her in her element. "Does Roger sit here and watch you like this while you’re cooking?"

She smiled at the mention of Roger. "He sits there……but he’s usually talking ‘bout something……explaining something deep………You know Roger. He doesn’t do much watching while I’m in here."

As he came around into the kitchen behind her, Scottie mumbled, "He’s a damn fool."

"What did you—"

She had tried to whirl around to face him, but Scottie was too swift, too quick-footed despite the alcohol. He besieged her from behind, encircling, surrounding, arresting her with his whole body. He pressed himself tightly against her back side, wrapping his arms around and down the length of her own slender arms, grabbing her wrists with his hands. Rendering her totally helpless. All in about two seconds.

Julie gasped with shock and dropped her wooden spoon to the floor. Her senses instantly filled up with smells of Jack Daniels and a faint cologne, one she wasn’t familiar with. Her heart beat doubled its rate. A tiny scream caught in her throat.

"Why you gotta fight it, sweet cheeks?" he whispered into her hair. "You and me……..we’d be good together……..just once." His voice of seduction and enticement, barely audible.

Julie felt paralyzed. The only part of her body she could move at all was her mouth. She clenched her teeth. "Let go of me, Scottie. The only reason you THINK you want me is because I’m about the last woman in this little town you HAVEN’T fucked yet," she hissed.

He tightened his squeeze, folding in on her, and she felt his hard penis against her ass. "Ah, baby, baby…….That’s not it at all…….and you know it, don’t you?" He kissed her neck.

She struggled against him to no avail. "What I know is……..Roger’s gonna kill you."

He snorted out a laugh. "Kill me, huh?……..Okay……..Whatever…….I’ve been dead for years, darling……..C’mon now…….There’s a spark between us, isn’t there, doll?"

Julie gritted her teeth again, feeling a rage rush through her helpless body. "Let me make this perfectly clear, Scottie, you goddamn motherfucker………Until today, you were fun to be ‘round as a friend……but sexually, you repulse me."

Almost before she’d gotten the last word out of her mouth, he spun her roughly around to face him. He gripped her shoulders and glared into her face. His eyes were filled with an unrestrained recklessness, tinted crimson.

After what seemed an eternity to Julie, he smiled. "I repulse you, Jules?"

She let a gulp of air out of her lungs and glared back at him. "You turn me off completely, Scottie….I’d NEVER fuck you…….NEVER!"

He released her then and grinned. To Julie, the grin looked like a mask for another emotion. "Well, fine……’cause I was just playing with you anyway…….Sorry if I scared you."

He casually turned and walked back to the end of the bar, picked up his warm beer, and drank it. As if nothing had happened. Julie stared at him unbelievingly.

"Playing with me? This was all one of your fucking little games?"

He looked at her with wide-eyed, imitation surprise. "I said I was sorry, Julie."

"You accosted me, you jerk! I woulda knocked the shit outta you if you hadn’t been man-handling me so damn tight! Who in the hell do you think you are?"

He snorted/chuckled again. "Look, babe……..Don’t take it so personally. It was only a joke…….You know me, sugarpie."

Just then, the loft’s elevator door opened, and Roger stepped into their presence. He was alone. Scottie and Julie stood and stared at him as he sauntered over to them. He glanced back and forth between them and then smiled wistfully.

"What did I interrupt here, boys and girls? The atmosphere feels like peanut butter."

Scottie was first to gather himself. "Hey, bro. What’s shaking? Your lovely girlfriend here was just showing me the fine art of making New Orleans gumbo…….She’s quite a talent." He darted his devilish eyes over to meet Julie’s for just a second, then gave Roger his full attention, along with a near-genuine smile.

"Have a seat, man. You want another beer?" Roger clapped him on the back and then made his way into the kitchen where Julie stood. She still had not moved.

"Hey, baby." With almost more irony than she could bear, he wrapped himself around her from behind and kissed her neck affectionately. "It smells damn good in here." His voice was low and sultry in her ear. More irony.

Feeling as if she might burst with something like tension, Julie turned around in his arms and hugged him back, burying her face in his warm neck. There was the scent she knew. Sweet comfort. "Hey……I’m so glad you’re home."

She felt herself loosening up as he caressed her shoulders and back. "Your spoon’s on the floor, sweets. You’ve really been doing some heavy cooking, haven’t you?"

"That lady’s got the hottest kitchen in town, man," Scottie chirped cattily from the bar stool he’d perched on. So very like him.

When Roger bent down to retrieve the spoon, Julie turned around quickly to throw Scottie an evil dagger of a glare. He looked away and smiled at seemingly nothing. He was enjoying every minute of her discomfort. So very like him.

After he dropped the spoon into the sink, Roger grabbed two beers from the refrigerator and walked back to where Scottie sat. "C’mon, LaMont. I gotta show you something I found on the Web last night………..He’s staying for dinner, right, Julie?" He glanced over his shoulder at her.

Julie chose not to look up from the stove this time. "I haven’t asked him yet, but I’m sure—"

"Sorry, pals, but I got another date to keep tonight……..maybe next time." Scottie sounded typically self-assured and arrogant as he stood up and took the beer from Roger. The two of them left Julie to her culinary mission, and she almost cried with relief when she was finally alone.

* * *

"So what was with you and Scottie this afternoon?" Roger asked her that night in bed. He was sitting up against some pillows and had just closed the book he was reading.

Julie cringed. Why must he always be so damn intuitive?

She had been debating with herself all evening as to whether she should fill him in on what had taken place. And she had decided not to.

Scottie claimed it was all a sick joke, right? And although she hadn’t believed him for one second, how could she possibly dispute him? After all, he hadn’t hurt her in any way, just frightened her a little. And Scottie frightened everyone a little.

If she told Roger about it, he would most certainly react in one of two ways: 1) He would laugh softly and call her an overtly-exaggerating paranoid female; or 2) He would fly over to Scottie’s penthouse at this late hour and promptly bash his head in for him. Neither reaction could be considered positive. So Julie kept the incident to herself. If it repeated itself, then she would bring in her shining black knight to rescue her and defend her honor.

"There was nothing between Scottie and me, Roger. What are you talking about?"

He elegantly settled down beside her, on one elbow. "Just seemed like bad vibes or something I walked in on…….I don’t know…….Forget it……..If you say it was nothing, it was nothing."

She looked up at him and smiled. He was so easy on her eyes. "It was nothing…….really, honey."

"The gumbo was to die for. He shoulda hung around."

"Well, he had his chance……….I’ll make it at Renaissance next week. He can order it off the damn menu," she said.

Then Roger lowered his mouth onto hers, and Julie completely forgot what had happened in her kitchen with Scottie that afternoon. When he lowered his body onto hers as well, she completely forgot everything else too.

* * *

A few days later, Julie had truly almost forgotten about Scottie’s surprise "embrace" in the loft. It had become a thing of the past for her. She was in her office at the restaurant on Wednesday when she saw him again. He appeared, without warning and larger than life, in her office doorway and didn’t speak until she looked up to see what had cast such a huge shadow on her world.

He attempted a sincere smile. "Hiya………Busy?"

She rolled her eyes, suddenly remembering everything. "Actually, yes. I’m very busy. I gotta get these figures entered on the PC before I meet Roger at the Snake Pit at four, and it’s been one hellava day. I had a party of nineteen Young Republicans stop in for lunch without a reservation, and they drove everybody crazy. Including me." She picked up a folder off her desk, looking distracted.

Scottie ventured in slowly. "Can I squeeze in just one teensy minute? I promise that’s all."

Julie looked up at him again, slightly irritated. "What the fuck is it, Scottie? Sit your ass down and spit it out. I’m still pissed at you, ya know."

"Ah, Jules, you’re a soft-spoken and gentle lady," he said, stealing a seat quickly in the chair.

She stopped her rustling around on her desk and glared at him. "I don’t have all day."

Scottie laughed. "I know……..Roger waits……..So is he gonna break me in little pieces the next time I see him or what?"

"I spared you. I didn’t tell him…….yet."

She saw relief and gratitude flood his eyes. "Sweet cheeks, I know I’ve sat here and apologized to you a thousand and eight or so times in the past……..but I really am very sorry this time……..All that shit Saturday was supposed to be a prank……..I guess I went too far."

"You’re always going too far. If it hadn’t been for my ‘tight little drawers,’ as you so charmingly called them, you woulda raped me from the rear, Scottie."

He pursed his lips and looked down. "No, no, no, doll. It was all illusion……..just a little game. I like two-way participation, if ya know what I mean."

She still wasn’t convinced that it hadn’t been the real thing, but she refused to argue with him now.

"Well, here’s the deal……..One more ‘little game’ of yours, Scottie, at my expense, and Roger gets the green light to rip off your head…..….if I don’t do it first…..…Got it, hot shot?"

He faced her again. "Got it, Jules……I promise……No more pranks."

"Good. Now scoot on outta here. I really need to get this shit done." Her mind was in a hundred other places.

Scottie stood up. "I love ya, Julie…….You know that, don’tcha?"

"I know, Scottie. Beat it."

"Okay then…….Guess I’ll go out in the bar and have a late lunch. Ya still serving?"

She was rummaging through some papers again. "Yeah. Caleb’s still in the kitchen. I’ll tell them to comp your meal……..Oh, the shrimp stir fry is good today……Knock yourself out."

"Thanks……..for everything." He was gone before she looked up again.

Then some of the clutter in her mind cleared, and she cried out, "Scottie! Wait! Don’t go out there yet!"

But it was too late.

* * *

"Julie! Why didn’t you tell me Christine was out there screwing Evan Freed in public? Huh? Is this your idea of payback? To let me see that shit and suffer? Are you really that cruel?"

As he stood in her doorway again, Scottie’s voice was rising, and his eyes showed frustration.

Julie had known he’d be back in her office in no time at all. When he’d left, she had rushed over to the door and frantically looked down the hallway. But he had been long gone. Always fleet-footed Scottie. She couldn’t catch him.

She patiently watched him now, making sure his rant was concluded. "You sound a little emotional, Scottie. But certainly not suffering. Don’t try to kid a kidder."

He sat down in the chair in a huff. "You coulda warned me. You knew damn well I’d see her."

Julie remained calm. "Yes, dearest. I did know she was out there. But I honestly forgot until you were already gone. I’ve got a lot on my mind, remember? I’m sorry. I shoulda been more sensitive." She tried to placate him with her words.

"It was payback."

"It wasn’t payback, Scottie!"

"Maybe not for you…………But it was fate’s bitchy little way of evening up the score for me………….You know……….going around and coming around." He seemed lost in his thoughts.

"What?"

He met her eyes. "For that crap I pulled on you the other day………Seeing Christine out there all tangled up with one of my friends is a small cosmic coincidence meant to adjust my karma."

"Scottie, you’re full of shit."

"Yeah, I know."

Julie was giving him all of her attention now. She felt that he needed it. "So what’s wrong with you and Christine? She came in here a coupla hours ago……….with Evan………..and explained to me that you guys were having major trouble…………and asked if I would mind her enjoying herself in my bar……….with Evan."

Scottie was peering at her through squinted eyes. "And?"

"And what? I told her that unless she unzipped his pants and started sucking him off, I had no problem with their mutual patronage."

"Thanks plenty, Jules. You’re a real bud."

It was Julie’s turn to rant. "What exactly do you mean? This is a public place! It’s not my damn fault Christine chose to be here with him instead of you! And you don’t own her, ya know!"

Scottie looked at the floor and said nothing.

"Scottie……What did she mean by ‘major trouble’?"

He raised his head up. "Why Evan? What’s he got over me?" He had ignored her question entirely.

"I don’t know. Maybe—"

"Maybe ‘cause he’s younger and fresher than me." He was sinking deeper in his thoughts.

"Scottie, don’t do this to yourself."

"She was practically in his fucking clothes with him, Julie! How could either of those assholes do this to me?"

Julie sighed heavily. "You need to talk it out with Christine, honey…….that is, if you really want to work on it. You gotta decide."

Shaking his head and furrowing his brow, he spoke quietly, almost to himself. "This kinda shit will inevitably be my destiny……….I’ll be atoning for my past forever…………I’ll never find peace…….let alone happiness."

"Scottie, don’t go philosophical on me now. I get enough of that from Roger……….Look…….Come with me down to the Pit and—"

"No, thanks, babe." He stood up, still seeming distant and reflective. "I need to be alone." He started slowly walking away.

"Hey, you! Don’t go yet."

At the door, he slowly turned to her. He was stoic and cold.

"Jules, I think I know what the deal must be."

She had risen to her feet behind her desk. "What, Scottie?"

"Christine finds me repulsive too."

"Bullshit, Scottie!"

But it was again too late. He was gone. Julie was alone. But not nearly so alone, she knew, as Scottie LaMont.

As they say, what goes around comes around; and even the swiftest among us cannot out-distance what may be unavoidably coming around to them.