“I do,” said Gabby who pouted her full lips.

“You’re such a ***** *****,” Alice chuckled low in her throat before diving forward to seize Gabby’s lips in a fast but fierce kiss. Then she rose to her feet and accepted the guitar that Ed was handing to her and stepped up to the microphone. “I guess  I’ll be singing this song,” she drawled into it, smiling at the cheers from the audience. “Oh goody, you like. I’m glad because you know I’m not sure how ***** this song is. But it was requested so here we go.”

Saying this, she turned back to the band to discuss the song they were about to play and when Alice turned back, Ed was already playing the opening riff. Grinning largely, Alice went up to the microphone and grabbed it in her hands, leaning it down and looking right at Gabby, who stood directly below her, as she sang, “Wynona’s got herself a big brown beaver. And she shows it off to all her friends.” When the audience started cheering and laughing at the lyrics, Alice drawled, “One day, you know, that beaver tried to leave her. So she caged him up with cyclone fence.”

“Along came Lou with the old baboon,” sang Alice as she smiled slowly and locked eyes with Gabby who stuck her tongue out in a licking gesture. Laughing at this, Alice looked over to Ed who wore a worried expression but gave her a grin nevertheless. “And said, ‘Recognize that smell?’ Smells like seven layers, that beaver eats Taco Bell.”

“Now Rex he was a Texan out of New Orleans,” Alice told the tale matter of factly, finishing off the last guitar riff and looking out into the audience. “And he traveled with the carnival shows. He ran bumper cars, sucked cheap cigars. And he candied up his nose. He got wind of the big brown beaver. So he though he’d take himself a peek.” Finishing this lyric off, she grabbed the microphone off the stand and walked the stage as she continued on, “But the beaver was quick and grabbed him by the kiwis. Now he ain’t pissed for a week!”

This lyric finished off, Alice stalked back to the stand and put the microphone back where it belonged and proceeded to begin the ripping guitar solo the song required. Sinking to her knees as she played, Alice looked up amidst her playing and met Gabby’s eyes that gleamed dark in desire, joy, and maybe even love if she looked close enough. But Alice didn’t want to look, no not at all. She wanted to forget and lose herself in the music. That was what it was for.

Rising to her feet as the guitar solo died off, Alice let the guitar hang at her waist and grabbed the microphone to sing, “Now Wynona took her big brown beaver. And she stuck him up in the air.” Pausing to soon wear a face of utter sensual provocation, Alice’s voice lowered in a husky tone as she sang, “Said I sure do love this big brown beaver. And I wish I did have a pair.”

“Now the beaver once slept for seven days,” Alice once again sang the song in matter of fact tones, smirking and lifting her eyebrows humorously. “And it gave us all an awful fright. So I tickled his chin and I gave him a pinch. And the ***** tried to bite me! Wynona loved her big brown beaver. And she stroked him all the time,” she boomed the lyric out exuberantly and grinned widely as the end lyrics to the song finally arrived. “She pricked her finger one day and it occurred to her she might have a porcupine!”

The song required another ripping guitar solo and perhaps this might have been ignored on other nights but it was obvious to the band Alice wanted this, no, needed this so they let the second solo stay in. Her face lost in the music and hard with concentration, the blonde sank to her knees and slid off the stage to play the solo in the teaming audience. Though she only paid attention to a single person, the one who had requested the song, and the one who had somehow turned her bad mood into something entirely more tolerable.

Alice only had eyes for Gabby and Gabby certainly only had eyes for Alice as she played the guitar. Sweat making her tank tops cling perfectly to her skin, her hair a glorious mess, eyes dark and shining with excitement, looking at Gabby deep and endless as she finished her solo off with a spectacular roar.

Unaware that as this all went on, in a shining moment of perfect and painful irony, Dana stood in the back of the club, watching every second.

To be continued