Jean and the Dance Contest

This story took place in 1974

"Damn it, Janus, do you have to hit every fucking pothole between Ithaca and Binghamton?"

We had barely started, and I was already regretting accepting Bonnie's invitation to watch her performance in some stupid bar outside of Binghamton, New York. I wasn't fully recovered from my week-long battle with the flu, and every bump in the rough and winding county road added to the pounding pain in my head. Hot and humid air blowing through the open windows on a late August evening adding to my discomfort. All I could do was grit my teeth and try to endure.

There were four of us in the rusty, rundown commercial van with no air conditioning and worn out shocks. Janus, my best friend from graduate school at Cornell, was driving. His wife, Bonnie was in back with my girlfriend, Jean. The women were perched on an old mattress Janus had thrown in to cover odds and ends of lumber from his current job. I strained to hear the women's whispered conversation. I wasn't thrilled to hear my girlfriend use my name in the same sentence as asshole and motherfucker. I guess if what they say about "hell has no fury like a woman scorned" is true, then maybe I should refer to Jean as my ex-girlfriend?

I was annoyed the women hadn't offered to share the bottle of wine and weed Bonnie had brought along, even though I would have turned it down because of my feverish headache, but at least, they could have offered. I nursed my misery and prayed the Tylenol would kick in soon.

There was barely any daylight left when we arrived at the bar. A battered sign on the roof read 'Tony's Saloon.' Janus parked in the back of a large and almost empty parking lot. The door of the van squealed as I forced it open. The stifling heat and humidity of the day had barely diminished with the setting sun. I prayed it was cooler inside the bar.

Janus and I left the ladies in the van to change clothes and headed into the rundown building. Our assignment was to find a table near the bar. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dingy smoke-filled interior. My former roommate had already headed towards a horseshoe-shaped bar that filled one end of the long room. Janus wasted no time grabbing a table close to the middle of the bar. The room was large enough to seat about a hundred people. It was early enough that most of the bar was empty. Tony's Saloon was a squalid place crammed with miss-matched furniture. The nearby bar stools were mostly filled, but only a couple of tables were occupied. The room was slightly cooler than the outside, but thankfully the air conditioner managed to wring most of the humidity out of the beer-soaked atmosphere. The dry heat reminded me of riot weather in Southern California where I grew up.

My friend waved to a waitress while I studied the room. There was a stage at the opposite end from the bar where a crew was setting up band equipment. I was happy to see a large dance floor in front of the stage. Dancing was one of Jean's obsession, and I hoped it would improve her mood. Her other obsession was sex, but we hadn't had any for over a week. For many couples, a week without physical contact might not sound unusual, but my girlfriend was a borderline nymphomaniac. Since Jean had graduated from Cornell in June, we had been having sex three or four times a day. At least we had up until I said something unbelievably stupid. I can't even blame it on the flu since I didn't get sick for another couple of days.

I surveyed the crowd as I walked over to sit next to Janus. It was obvious this wasn't a college bar. Most of the patrons were burly sunburnt men with a scattering of women. Many of the construction workers looked like they had come straight from the job site and were dressed in grimy shorts and tee shirts. I was the only one in the room wearing a polo shirt with clean shorts.

I did the usual guy thing and judged my chances of taking any of the regulars in a fair fight. It didn't look good. I'm not a small guy, and I spend a lot of time in the gym. However, these guys were construction workers who spent their days outdoors doing heavy physical labor. In a college town bar, I wouldn't have thought twice about my safety. Luckily, Janus, my barrel-chested friend, fit right in. He had grown up working as a carpenter during summers and had gone back into construction after he dropped out of graduate school. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any trouble, but if there was, I knew I would need his help.

Janus said, "Bonnie will do her act on top of the bar right in front of us. We'll have prime seats for her performance as well as for the dance contest."

A waitress in a miniskirt, white shirt, and cowboy boots put her arm around my friend's shoulders and said, "Honey, I know you didn't come here to visit me. Where's Bonnie?"

"Hey Jolene, Bonnie will be making her grand entrance in a minute. Oh yeah, this is my friend Steve. Maybe you can cheer him up. At least bring a pitcher of Genny to drown his sorrows. We'll need four glasses."

Jolene turned to me with a big sexy smile, "Hey sweetie, why the long face?"

I said, "Woman trouble. I said something stupid to my girlfriend, and she's been pissed for days."

"Hey sugar, you wouldn't be a guy if you didn't say something stupid every day. Just be attentive, and she'll come around."

I shook my head and stared at the table as Jolene left to fetch our pitcher.

Janus said, "Jean was furious when we were over for dinner two weeks ago. That's a long time to stay angry. Are you going to tell me what you did to piss her off?"

Jolene brought a pitcher of cold Genny and poured each of us a glass. I finished off my first beer while I waited for the waitress to leave.

"Jean is taking off for law school in a couple of weeks, and she'll be there for three years. I'm headed to my parent's place in California to look for a job. I don't know what to expect. The economy has been in a slump since the Vietnam war wound down. The aerospace business crashed after we put a man on the moon. There may not be any jobs for a Ph.D. in physics. With my prospects, I can't afford to make any promises to Jean. Hell, I don't even know if I'll ever see her again. She's not used to being single, and I wanted to let her know it was all right if she dated other guys while she's in law school. It's going to be a hard three years for her, and I just want her to be happy."

"How could she be pissed if you told her what you just told me?"

"That's where I fucked up. You know how I always play the clown and make a joke even when I'm discussing something serious. I'd been listening to The Mamas and the Papas singing "California Dreaming" to cheer me up. I told her I was looking forward to dating hot California chicks. Somehow, I assumed she'd get the message that I was telling her it was also OK for her to date."

"Steve, you're an idiot. You may have a Ph.D. in physics, but you're a world class idiot."

"I've tried talking to her, but she just walks away. I even bought flowers and made her favorite meal. Hell, you saw the way she acted when you and Bonnie came over for dinner. She didn't say a word to me all night. She spent more time talking to Bonnie while I cooked dinner than she's talked to me all week."

"Steve, you did more drinking than cooking, but I've eaten worse. It wasn't hard to see the fury in her eyes over dinner. She didn't even relax after I passed her a joint. Man, you need to fix this before she heads off to law school."

"Janus, I've tried. I don't know what's going on in her head. All I know is she is just as angry today as she was when I opened my stupid mouth. She's spent the last week throwing her stuff in boxes. She plans to move it all to her mother's place and spend her last days in Ithaca at home. I invited you two over for dinner hoping to bring an end to her silent treatment. It took me by surprise when she said she wanted to see Bonnie's act."

I nursed my beer in silence and watched the bar fill up. There were a few more women, but most of the new arrivals were more rough looking guys. The two men who sat at the table next to us looked especially coarse. Both of them wore grimy muscle shirts that exposed Airborne screaming eagle tattoos on their shoulders. One of the guys was considerably taller than his bulky companion. Both of them looked like they were well over 250 pounds and easily capable of bench pressing their own weight. Neither of them had shaved in several days. The taller guy was sitting just behind me and judging by his acrid odor, I doubted he had bathed since the last time he shaved.

Every head in the room turned when the bar door banged open. Bonnie and Jean stood posed in the doorway for a moment as they quickly caught everyone's attention. It wouldn't have been a more dramatic entrance if the Queen of England had walked in with trumpets sounding. Their appearance made a stark contrast with every other woman in the bar. The few women in the bar were dressed in clothes as functional and drab as the men. The only exceptions were the waitresses in their skimpy cowboy outfits. A lot of the guys yelled greetings to Bonnie.

I was stunned by Jean's outfit. Honestly, I'd never seen my girlfriend dressed so erotically. Jean was a card-carrying member of the women's liberation movement and normally dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. I had never known her to wear a bra, but her standard outfit barely hinted at the ample breasts hidden beneath her baggy top. Tonight, she was wearing a dress I had never seen before. The short silky black dress had spaghetti straps and a deep V-neck that exposed a lot of her generous breasts. It was exciting to watch the way her unfettered breasts jiggled as she and Bonnie strutted toward the bar.

Bonnie was wearing a red bodycon dress that was even more revealing. I was certain she had helped my girlfriend pick out her outfit. The time they spent dressing in the van was worth every minute. I rarely saw Jean wearing anything more than minimal makeup. Tonight, her mouth was a dark red gash that matched her stockings. Her dark brown eyes were highlighted by dark eyeshadow. If Bonnie's goal was to make me appreciate how hot my girlfriend is, she had succeeded.

They had everyone's attention as they strolled arm in arm over to our table. Bonnie dropped a sport's bag on one of our chairs. Jean didn't even give me a glance. Instead, her eyes surveyed the unfamiliar scene. Bonnie pulled Jean over to greet the vets at the table next to us. She bent over and kissed the bigger guy while he caressed her curvaceous ass. She introduced Jean to the course men.

"Jean, these guys are a couple of longtime and very dear friends. The big one with his hand on my ass is Dale. I call the tall one Long John but not because of his height. Guys, this is my friend Jean. She's a great dancer."

The playful introduction was all it took for John to reach out and slide his hand up the back of Jean's thigh. He got in one firm squeeze of her athletic ass before my girlfriend spun out of his grasp.

She shook a finger in his face and laughed. "Naughty, naughty."

Dale said, "Is Jean going to join us out on the patio after your last number?"

Bonnie ruffled Dale's crewcut and said, "If you're good, maybe all your fantasies will come true."

During this exchange, Jean was standing with her back to me. The silky dress left her supple back bare to the waist except for the crossed straps. A slit halfway up to her waist flashed a hint of pale bare thigh above her bright red thigh high stockings as well as a flash of white panties. Her strappy black high heels emphasized her long legs and curvaceous ass. Her bleach blond hair wasn't in her normal ponytail and fell unconstrained to her shoulders in long wavy curls.

Bonnie leaned over the table and kissed John's cheek as she gave the men a good look at her breasts. She straightened up and led Jean over to the bar. She pulled Jean in between two guys who were all too eager to give them just enough room to squeeze in. One of the guys gave Bonnie a hug. The muscular giant next to Jean slipped an arm around her waist and whispered something in her ear. Jean tilted her head back and laughed. When he slid his hand down to cup her firm dancer's ass, she moved his hand back to her waist and shook her finger in his face. The guy grinned and stroked her bare back.

The bartender greeted Bonnie warmly. He nodded at her request and set up two shot glasses. He pulled a couple of beers before filling the shot glasses to the top with Jose Cuervo Gold. The bartender pushed the drinks across the wide bar. The women had to lean over the wide bar to retrieve their drinks. Every guy in the room watched as Jean's short dress rose up her long legs to expose the bare skin between the top of her stocking and the bottom of her tight bikini panties. Her pale thighs contrasted with her red thigh-high stockings and black dress. That was when I realized that Jean must be wearing one of Bonnie's stripper outfits. The four-inch difference in their heights meant the short dress barely covered Jean's silky white underwear.

The women rubbed a lime on the back of their hands and poured on some salt. Bonnie started counting to three. Jean and the two guys joined in the count. On three, the women downed the Tequila. Jean made a face, bit into a lemon slice and sucked on her salted hand. Her body shivered momentarily before she joined Bonnie in chugging her beer.

I doubt Jean realized what her new friend's hand was doing at her waist. A casual glance would suggest he was rubbing his massive hand around in a small circle. Actually, he was gathering a little bit of her dress with each swirl. The bottom of her black dress slipped up higher and higher as the foursome chatted. Bit by bit the dress slid up over her gossamer panties. It was hard to believe Jean wasn't aware. It was even harder to believe she was permitting his behavior if she was aware.

I shook my head and said, "Does Bonnie always flirt with the customers?"

Janus laughed, "She's a crazy extrovert. You know I'd rather be walking in the woods with a good friend. This is our compromise. She gets to be an exhibitionist, and I get to watch. My job is to keep her safe."

"Do the guys cross the line very often?"

"Depends on the bar. This crowd is always on the edge of being out of control. They're a bunch of testosterone-fueled red necked shit kickers. They've put in a long week and want a little excitement before they go home to their old lady. That's the main reason there aren't a lot of women here. The few girls who come to the bar probably want to marry one of these guys. Construction workers make good money."

"If they're so crazy, why do you let Bonnie work here?"

"Simple. This bar is the best paying. Don't worry. The guys respect Bonnie. They know if they cross the line with her, she'll cut them off at the knees. I've only had to step in once."

I heard Bonne shout, "One more." I was shocked when Jean nodded in agreement. My girlfriend never drinks hard liquor. She prefers wine and can only be coaxed into an occasional beer with hamburgers or hotdogs. I watched in amazement as she followed Bonnie in downing another round. Everyone around the bar counted along with the women.

As Jean chugged her second beer, the big guy slid his big hand inside the top of her panties and squeezed her ass. My girlfriend spun aside and punched his enormous bicep hard. She shook her hand and shouted something, but I couldn't hear over the sound of the band warming up. Her mouth looked like she'd yelled ouch. The guy laughed and flexed his bicep for her. Jean reached out and squeezed his massive muscle.

I cringed at a loud comment from Dale behind me. "Damn Bonnie's looking hot tonight, and her sweet friend looks like a horny slut. I think I'm going for a three-way out on the patio. I guarantee you, I'll be the first one in line tonight."

John laughed, "Dumbass, you barely had enough dough to buy a blowjob from Bonnie last week. What makes you think you could afford two whores?"

"Fuck you, dickhead. I picked up a big paycheck today, and I know where I'm going to blow it."

"More likely you already blew your load in your pants."

I looked at Janus, figuring he must have heard what the drunken assholes were saying about his wife. He was watching the women without a care in the world. I had known Bonnie was as much of a hedonist as Janus ever since she married him. When they got back from their honeymoon, I had gone to their house to meet her and was surprised to be invited to join them in bed. Bonnie is gorgeous, but there were two reasons I declined. First, Jean would be waiting for me at our apartment once she finished her shift at the hospital. The second reason was that I suspected Janus would be after my ass while I was fucking his attractive wife. I had no desire to have my virgin ass reamed by the big Latvian.

I got to know Bonnie better after that night. When she had problems with her marriage, she came to me for advice. I was impressed with her intelligence and passion for life. As I thought about the guy's comment that Bonnie was a whore, I wondered if she was supplementing her stripping income with some paid action on the side. I knew I needed to warn Jean if she would listen to me.

The band began to play a Rolling Stones number. Bonnie grabbed Jean's hand and led her out onto the empty dance floor. People always seem to shy away from dancing the first set. Jean and I have often had the floor to ourselves for the first couple of numbers at the Salty Dog in Ithaca. Tonight, everyone seemed to be content watching the two beautiful women dance together.

After the first number, Bonnie motioned to me behind Jean's back to join them. I pulled my aching body erect and headed out to the ladies. Janus stayed behind guarding the beer. I got to Jean just before the two guys from the bar arrived. Bonnie grabbed one of the guys and sent the other packing.

"Jean, can I have one last dance with you before you head off to law school?"

My girlfriend turned and glared at me for a second before reaching out a hand. Jean had been dancing since she could walk. I wasn't much of a dancer before I met her, but she showed me enough moves to be respectable. What she liked the most about me was my stamina. Jean could dance any number of partners under the rug. Normally, I was a good match for her. I played my part as the male lead which is to make the female look good. I didn't think making her look good would be a problem tonight.

We danced the rest of the first set. The music was fast, pounding rock, and she couldn't hear me trying to warn her over the band. I managed to keep up for a while, but by the end of the set, I was dragging. My fever and headache had returned. I hadn't had a bite to eat since lunch. I hoped some food would help. I led Jean back to our table and poured us a beer. I asked the waitress to bring us four speedies. She returned with a plate of marinated lamb skewers famous around Binghamton. My hand bumped into Jean's as we both grabbed for the succulent meat. Jean's easy laugh was infectious. We had a long history of eating speedies and playing air hockey while our laundry spun in a washing machine across the street in college town. It felt good to laugh with my girlfriend again. She stopped laughing as if embarrassed. I waited while she used a roll to slide the meat off the skewer. Her face had already returned to the scowl that had become so familiar for the last ten days.

Between bites, I asked Janus, "Where's Bonnie?"

He pointed to the sturdy wooden chair sitting by itself on top of the bar. "Bonnie's getting ready to do her first dance routine."

I switched seats with Jean, so she was only four or five feet from the chair Bonnie would use in her act. At least now I knew why the top of the bar was so wide. Bonnie climbed up a ladder at the back of the bar. The lights went down in the room, and a spotlight shone on the chair. She strutted into the spotlight and began dancing to the Carpenters singing "Top of the World." Bonnie wasn't doing a striptease because there was no tease. She wasted little time peeling off her dress. She pranced around the chair and removed a ting G-string. She tossed her outfit to Janus. Once she was naked, she posed for a moment. She had every reason to be proud of her trim body. Her breasts were a little smaller than Jean's but matched her short athletic frame very nicely. It was the first time I'd seen a completely shaved pussy in the flesh.