Play For Me

A Hot night in the middle of the winter in Josies... Brooke Taylor is an amazing woman....Man she can play the guitar almost like a piano....There is no tune she can't play on it....I'm looking at her like a fan and I'm sitting in with her...

Me? I'm Bernard "B-Flat" Brown.... The organ is my instrument of choice...but Brooke called me again on short notice...Her Keyboard player is back in jail for failure to pay child support...So She asked if I could sit in a few dates at Josies and one date in Atlantic City....I said of course...

Tonight I'm playing the Fender Rhodes Electric Piano....I'm no "88", but I do alright... I know all of the numbers she and her band are playing...

In addition to being able to play the guitar...she sings pretty well too...Her whole show is bringing the house down....There is an electricity in the air when she plays...and I'm just along for the ride...

The crowd at Josies is loving it... Gus is standing in the front row, laughing, high fiving folks and clapping his hands to the beat....Out of the corner of my eye I see my ex-wife, Honey Brown, staring at me a little bit..
I haven't had much to say to her since she left my apartment on Christmas morning...We had a very ,very memorable Christmas Eve...It would have been nice if she had spent the rest of the morning with me...but she insisted that what we had was simply a holiday -welcome home booty call....Her exact words...and the last words between us...


II-

After the set was over....I sat next to Brooke at the bar....I ordered us two cold Coronas.... I liked that about Brooke...She didn't go for the fancy stuff...She drank what the guys were drinking...or so I thought.

''Uhhh No baby...I'll just take a coke with a twist of lemon." she said.

"Ohhh...no hard stuff tonight huh?" I joked.

"Nah baby...When I say I don't mess around no more...I mean it." she said.

"Well...I left the drugs and the hard liquor alone....but I have a beer every now and then to take a load off." I said.

"As you know...I spent some time in the women's penitentary for Vehicular Homicide." she said.

"Yeah, I heard.." I said.

"It was partly because of my drinking and doping." she said.

"Yeah...but I heard you was actually set up by Greasy." I said.

"Yeah...Thank God Kevin was able to clear my name...and put that rat behind bars where he belongs...but still B.  A woman died...an innocent woman that didn't have anything to do with that mess...I feel for her ...I feel for her family....I can't tell you how many times I wrote that woman's family...The woman that I killed...Apologizing to them for what I done..and I take responsibility for that...I did used to drink and get high with the best of them..." she said.

"I know...I know....but that time it wasn't your fault...you got set up by a bad guy...Just like I did in Spain...Kevin cleared my name too and put Jack Diamond, Charlie Roach and their whole organization behind bars...." I said.

Brooke smiled a sweet smile...She lifted her glass of Coke up and clinked my bottle of Corona.....

"To Kevin....and sweet vindication." she said....

"Yes...Here, Here....I'm surprised he and his wife aren't in here tonight..." I said.

As the night went on...We played one more set...and then sat at a small table...laughing , talking...I noticed Honey Brown glaring at us all night....I noticed also how well put together Brooke Taylor was....That and a couple of more Coronas and I was really starting to notice how good she was looking...

"You play well B-Flat...and to think, you was gettin ready to turn me down because you said you're an organist...I knew you could handle yourself on the piano..." she said.

"Yeah,I do alright...." I laughed.

"Well, we're off tomorrow and then we play that Atlantic City gig..." she said.

"We off on a Friday night?" I asked.

''Yeah, Reed Nelson is playing tomorrow night." she said.

''Where you goin after here?" I asked.

''Where am I goin?  I'm goin home..It's nearly two o'clock.." she said.

"Come on with me....I know an after hours joint you'll love and then you can crash at my spot if you like." I said.

"Ugh Ughhh, nooooooo....Not tonight B." she laughed..

"Aww come on..what else you gotta do?" I asked..

"How bout if I just stop by your spot for a little while....Just a little while now...and then I'm goin home...I'm not spending the night with you." she cautioned...

"Okay...that'll work." I said.

III-

I put on some coffee..... Brooke looked around my new spot....

"Nice...Nice place...Is this one of Clerows or Chris and Chess?" she asked.

''Chris and Chess." I said.

"I keep a spot here and one in San-Francisco...I like being bi-coastal.." she laughed...

"You need to make a decision on where you gonna stay permanantly." I laughed..She just brushed that remark off without replying...

"You're an organist, but you got a piano in your living room." she laughed...

"I write on the piano...I play my organ....There is a difference." I laughed...

''Well play something." she said.

Before I knew it...I was playing the piano and Brooke was laying across it , listening to me and staring at me with those pretty brown ,expressive eyes of hers...

We never did get around to drinking that coffee....

I don't know who made the first move or how we wound up humping like crazy on my bed...We didn't bother to unmake the bed...All I know is somehow, my trousers wound up on the living room floor, as did my shoes ,socks and shirt....Her dress wound up in the hallway, along with panties and bra..and we wound up on my bed...with her big legs wrapped around my waist, her arms around my neck and me entering her wet and warm places with wild abandon....

The bed was squeaking and zagging from one side to the other...and Brooke was moaning....

''Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh baby put it onnnn me... put it onnn me....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

I don't think I disapointed her....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu....Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh  put it onnnnnnnnnme.....OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.." she yelled to the top of her lungs as I plowed into her like it was nobodies business.

We went on like this for close to four hours...before we both came with a violent abandon....

IV-

Brooke was different from Honey....She wanted more...and we made love at least seven more times before she finally collapsed and drifted off to sleep....


Also, unlike Honey, she didn't wake up at the crack of dawn and leave...She slept like a baby until about 9:00 am the next morning...

I was up and partially dressed and looking out the window.....She joined me in the living room...

"Hey.." she said.

"Hey yourself.." I said.

''I can't believe what we did last night." she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I wasn't drunk...and I really intended to come over here and leave and go home." she said.

"At four in the morning?" I asked.

"Yeah...I was just going to have some coffee, talk a little and go home.." she said.

"Go Home to do what?" I asked...

She was quiet for a long while...

I walked over to her and kissed her...She broke our embrace after a minute...

"Ugh Ugh...You don't mix business and pleasure..I'm paying you to play in my band." she said...Then she returned my embrace...

Before I knew it... I had my trousers off again and had Brooke up against the wall, and making sweet love to her again...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my Goddddddddddddddd...Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it's soooo good, it's sooo good...umppppppppphhh.." she moaned...

Of course we wound up back in bed.....I'd try to sort this out later on....