Synopsis:

Amanda meets with her fathers lawyer. The problems at home begin to mount.

Story:

Karma part 10
By Amanda D.

Thinking back I probably should have taken more time to enjoy the day instead of wishing 2:30 would come faster. Perhaps a longer breakfast with Rita or one last roll in the hay with Pat would have been in order. But how was I to know what Paul and Mia had in store for me. The photos probably should have given me a hint, but in my heart of hearts I just didn’t believe they were real. The first moment I saw the mug shots of Mandy, taken only a week earlier in New Mexico, I should have split.

However I ignored all the obvious danger signs and showed up for the meeting alone. Paul and Mia were seated in the back of the bar when I arrived.
I walked over to their table after ordering myself a beer at the bar. I needed something to help sooth my nerves.

I sat down and threw the envelope containing the pictures on the table. “I believe these belong to you,” I said to the pair.

“Amanda, charming as always. Thank you for coming.” Mia said sweetly.

I glared at her. “So…what is it you want?” I asked cockily.

“First off, I’d like to know who you really are.” Paul stated.

“Who I really am?” I replied, playing dumb. (At least they didn’t know.)

“Yes. Obviously you’re not my daughter, so I’d like to know your real name,” he said, his voice heavy with agitation.

I took a long swig off my beer, weighing my options. I decided that the best defense was a good offense, so I took the fight to them.

“You guys are crazy!” I exclaimed. “What do you mean I’m not your daughter? Some joker sends you a doctored up picture of one of my old mug shots and you, being so desperate to make sure I don’t testify against you, immediately jump on to them. Figuring … what? … that I’d fall to pieces and tell you that I’m not me?” I looked over to Paul and said, “You truly are as pathetic as Ma said you were.”

Paul jumped to his feet. “Why you little … ” he glowered.

“Paul! Sit down!” Mia commanded. He glared at her and then complied. “I’ll admit that was a wonderful performance. You’re a terrific actress. No wonder you’ve been able to pass yourself off as Amanda all these months. But alas, the jig is up. The photos are not faked. They are pictures of the real Amanda. You see, she was arrested last week in New Mexico on charges of prostitution and drug possession. Having no money for bail, she called her fathers office to see if he would help her.”

Paul cut in “You see at first I didn’t believe the message was real. So I sent an associate to check it out. He is the one that acquired the pictures I gave to you.”

“Upon confirmation, Paul had me contact the police and arrange bail for Mandy. I then flew out and met up with her to find out what she was doing there.” Mia continued.

All my saliva in my mouth dried up at once. I tried in vain to swallow, and I must have looked as uncomfortable as I felt, because she smiled brightly as she continued, “Apparently Amanda was under the impression that the Massachusetts police were looking for her. For some reason she believed that she had killed her ex-husband and was wanted for murder. Strange, that no body has ever turned up,” she finished with a knowing look.

What can I say other than my jaw hit the floor? Did she know the truth? Amanda had been hiding out all these months and never tried to make contact with anyone. And when she finally did, she contacted the one person that had a major ax to grind with me. Something smelled fishy.

On the other hand, the details of their story rang remarkably true. I needed to get out of there so I could think over what I should do. (Yeah that’s it, when confronted with an impossible situation, do like ol’ Jake would, and run! I guess I haven’t changed as much as I thought.)

I stood up. Trying to sound indignant I said, “That’s a nice little fairy tale you’ve got there. But I assure you I am exactly who I said I am. I’ll take any kind of test you want me to, genetic or whatever.”

And I’m sure you’ll pass them all…Jake.” Mia said smugly.

My blood went cold. I looked at her and said, “What did you just call me?”

“I think you heard me just fine.” she replied.

“Oh by the way, Mia here is working diligently with the New Mexico authorities trying to get Amanda permission to return home. You figured it would be, how long?” Paul asked.

“About two weeks.” she replied.

“You got two weeks ol’ boy, better enjoy what time you have left. That is, unless you want to play ball,” Paul gloated.

“If you don’t want to play, then if I were you, I’d just disappear.” Mia added as they got up to leave.

“We’ll be in touch soon … Princess.” Paul sneered.

The feeling of being totally fucked sank in deeper as I watched them walk out of the bar. The jig was definitely up. I certainly couldn’t trust them to keep this from Rita and Anita. I needed to come up with a plan. I mulled it over, but no ideas came to mind. I ordered another drink. I wanted to get drunk in the worst way all of a sudden. As soon as the waitress brought my beer over I ordered another one. (And that was only the beginning.)

Some time later Pat came strolling in with some others. I watched her drunkenly for a while as she sat at the bar. I wanted to be with her, but at the same time I knew I would be lousy company. So I kept to myself. Eventually however, she noticed me. She came running over and sat right down next to me. “Hey sexy. How long have you been here?” she said as she gave me a quick peck on the lips.

I gave her a half hearted smile and slurred “I ben here for a wil.”

She stared at me for a minute and said, “I guess you have been.”

I picked my beer up to take a sip. My grip let go and it spilled all over the table and my lap. Pat hopped up. “Jesus, Amanda!” she yelped.

I sat there and laughed stupidly.

“Okay. That’s it I’m taking you home.” she told me.

I looked up at her. (Man she was beautiful. Wonder why I never noticed before.) “Oh yeah? What ya gonna do to me when we get there?” I asked trying to sound seductive but more likely sounding stupid.

She gave me a real smile. “I’ve created a monster,” she said jokingly. “Come on, Sweetie, let’s get you outta here,” she said as she pulled me out of the booth.

The ride back to Rita’s was an adventure. I was so drunk that I had to have Pat pull over several times so I could throw up. When we did finally arrive, Rita was at the door waiting. She took one look at me and said, “What’s going on here? Amanda, are you drunk again? Patricia, how could you let her do this to herself? What kind of friend are you?”

“Hey, don’t blame me for this. I found her this way at Murph’s,” Pat said angrily.

I smiled stupidly and said “Hi, Ma.” I leaned towards her to give her a kiss. Luckily, Pat was holding on to me because my aim left something to be desired and I almost wound up falling flat on my face.

“Come on, Mandy.” Pat said. “We better get you inside. Mrs.D. could you make some coffee?” she asked.

“I can, but I think she’s do better to just go sleep it off.” Rita replied.

My head was pounding like a bass drum when I woke up the next morning. “Oh, God take me now!” I thought to myself. My stomach rolled in unison with my head when I looked to see what time it was. (Not gonna get a lot accomplished today I can see.) Movement was definitely out for the moment. So I just lay there waiting for the pain to subside enough that I could get up and go to the bathroom.

After a bit the room stopped spinning and I attempted to get out of bed. My stomach lurched again, but then quickly settled down. I headed out to the hallway and found Rita waiting outside my room.

“Why good morning, Dear,” she said too loudly for my taste. “How are we feeling today? A little under the weather are we?”

(We? What’s this “we” shit? Was she there drinking last night too?)

I started to feel a bit green. “Ma, I really need to get to the bathroom.” I groaned. She stepped out of my way and I stumbled in.

When I returned to my room she was sitting in my chair waiting for me. “I want to talk to you,” she said in a tone that allowed no argument.

I gently settled onto my bed and said “Fine. But could we do it quietly?”

The look she gave me let me know that she was not amused. “I want you to know that if you continue your current behavior, mainly the drinking; I’m going to have to ask you to move out. I’ve seen you go through this kind of stuff before, and I just can’t do it again. I had hoped that the change in attitude you had when you got out of the hospital would be a permanent thing. You acted so nice and were so sweet to everyone, but now I see the old Mandy coming back and I can’t say I’m pleased about it. (Man if she only knew how close to the truth that statement was.) We won’t even get into what you and Pat have been doing.”

I felt my face redden at her last comment. “Ma…” I tried to reply.

“I don’t want to hear it Amanda. Shape up or get out! Those are your choices.,” she said gruffly.

Rita stood up and started to leave the room. Before she did she said “By the way, I talked to Phil the other day. He told me that someone he knows told him that the reason your father doesn’t want the ADA to drop the charges against you is that he believes that he has some kind of information about you that he can use as leverage to keep you from testifying against him. Phil said that while he didn’t know what the information was, he would be looking into it. He also said that under no circumstances should you talk to your father or his lawyer until he knew what they were up to.”

(Ya know…I…ARRRGGG!!!)

“When did he tell you that?” I asked trying to resist the urge to shoot myself right there and then.

“The day I found you and Pat…I was going to tell you but I got a little sidetracked.” she replied.

(Sidetracked?!! Sidetracked. Ya gotta love it!)

After she left I contemplated my future. The way I saw it, I had only a hand full of options. None of them was really all that good, either. I could run, but somehow that seemed like something that would get me in trouble with powers that be. (If you know what I mean.)

I could come clean about who I really was. But who would believe me? I mean, besides Paul and his lawyer.

I could let them make the next move and see if they were bluffing. (I didn’t think they were, but you never know.)

Lastly I could play ball, as Paul put it. What exactly that meant, I wasn’t sure. (I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know.)

The more I thought about what to do, the worse my headache got. I needed some aspirin. I went into the bathroom to get some, but the medicine cabinet had none. Taking a deep breath I trudged downstairs to see if there were any in the kitchen. Rita was there with Anita and Jack. I tried to smile as I walked in. (Things hadn’t been very good between us since my date with Mike.)

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Anita said sarcastically.

I ignored her tone and said “Good morning to you to, Sis. What brings the two of you here?”

Jack gave Anita a kiss on the cheek and excused himself. A few seconds later I heard the front door open and close. With him gone, the two of them stared at me intently. After a few moments I said “What?”

Anita gave me an angry stare. “Mom told me about what happened with you and Pat.” she said in a tone that suggested that I owed her an explanation.

I rolled my eyes and replied “And?”

“Is that all you have to say?” Anita asked accusingly.

Not wanting to get into it with her I simply answered “Yep.”

She got up, grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the living room.

“Hey, let me go!” I protested.

“What the hell is going on with you?” she hollered with her finger wagging in my face.

Now I was getting pissed. “What do you mean? There’s nothing going on. Why are you getting on my ass?”

“You’ve been acting like an ass lately! That’s what I’m getting on you for. First, you embarrass the hell out of me and Jack. Then I hear that you go out drinking in the middle of the afternoon. Next I have to hear Mom tell me that she caught you and Pat having sex in the shower. Then she calls me last night to tell me you came home so drunk you couldn’t stand up. So I want to know what your problem is! Not because I want to butt into your life, but because your behavior is stressing Ma out! And I’m worried about her! Even if you aren’t!” she hollered.

That last comment hurt. I’d come to think of Rita as my own mother these last few months, and for Anita to accuse me of intentionally trying to hurt her, cut me deeply. I threw my hands into the air. “Look! What goes on with me and Pat is none of your business! As far as my drinking goes, you’re right. I’ve been hitting it a bit too much lately. But I assure you I’ve had good reason to,” I yelled back.

“Oh, so that makes it okay? Mandy has a good reason to be a drunken little bitch! So everyone get off her ass about it. ‘Cause she has a good reason!” she argued.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “Whatever!” I said, and turned to walk away. I was all through with arguing. My head was pounding, I was tired, and I needed to pee again.

“Don’t you just walk away from me!” Anita yelled.

“Why not?” I asked. “It’s not like you want to listen to me or anything. Besides, I gotta pee.”

“Amanda!” she yelled.

“ WHAT??? Jesus, don’t you have your own family at home to badger?” I screamed. “Fuck off, will ya?” I added as I pounded my way up the stairs.

As I closed the bathroom door I could hear Anita ranting away down in the living room. ’Well that certainly could have gone better, I thought to my self.

I couldn’t understand why everything was suddenly falling apart around me, but I definitely need to do something about it.

A short while later I heard the two of them leave. ‘Thank God!’

I wandered back downstairs, and was still trying to figure out what to do when the phone rang. With tremendous trepidation I picked it up, only to find the friendly voice of Pat on the other end. “How are you feeling this morning?” she asked.

“I’ve been better.” I replied. “My head was killing me until I got some aspirin in me. And of course, I caught a ton of shit from my mother and sister.”

“Your sister too? What is her problem?” Pat asked.

“She thinks my behavior is reverting to pre-fall from the balcony days. Myself, I think she’s just bitter about me not being interested in Mike. She’s still giving me shit about it. She also thinks that what you and I did is some kind of big issue,” I told her.

“She knows? Who told her?” Pat inquired.

“My mother,” I replied with a sigh of disgust.

1“She didn’t!” Pat exclaimed.

“I’m afraid she did.”

“So now what are you gonna do?” she asked nervously.

“Nothing. Why do I have to do anything?”

That seemed to satisfy her. “Well, the reason I called, was to see if you felt like hanging out this afternoon. I got some errands to run and was hoping for some company.,” she related.

I was going to refuse but then asked myself, ’What else are you gonna do?’ I certainly wasn’t coming up with any solution to my predicament, and I really didn’t want to be here when Rita got home. Besides, maybe a distraction is what I needed. Not to mention that I had no idea when or if I’d be able to see her again. So with a somewhat heavy heart I said, “Yeah that sounds like fun. What time are you gonna get here?”

“I’ll be there in an hour or so.”

(Well at least I made someone’s day.) “Okay I’ll see ya then.” I added, then hung up.

I went up to take a shower and get ready, deciding I would wear a nice black silk bra and panty set just in case things got interesting later. I was just getting finished dressing when I heard Pat’s horn beeping in from the driveway. I slipped on my shoes, grabbed my coat and ran down the stairs and out the door.

I hopped in the car and was greeted by a nice deep kiss. I smiled at her and asked “So where are we off to?”

“I need to run by the drug store and Toys-R-U to get a present for my nephew’s birthday on Tuesday,” she answered.

“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed.

It took us a couple hours to do what she needed to do. It was fun, but in some ways it felt like remembering the good times you had with someone that has just died. When we finished we decided were both starving. We weren’t far from where Kim was now working, so we decided that it would be a hoot to go see her.

The place was pretty empty when we walked in. We could see Kim behind the counter as soon as we walked in. “Doesn’t she look cute?” I giggled to Pat as we walked up to the counter.

Kim was dressed in the typical fast food employee uniform. But this particular restaurant made their people wear old fashioned triangular paper hats. To say Kim looked ridiculous would be generous. We tried our best to maintain control and not embarrass her.

(Actually, I’m proud to tell you we were marginally successful.)

She never looked up as she said, “Can I help you?”

I gave Pat a goofy look and said, “Yeah, I was wondering where I could get a cool hat like that one.”

Kim looked annoyed as she raised her head. When she saw it was us, she shook her head, smiled and said, “You guys are assholes.”

We both feigned indignation and I said, “Excuse me? Is that how they teach you to greet customers here? I think I’d like to speak to your manager, ma’am.”

Pat burst out laughing. “Pat!” Kim grumbled. “Knock it off. You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

Pat took a deep breath as she tried to regain some kind measure of control. Kim’s boss looked over our way to se what was going on. I lightly smacked Pat in the back of the head.

Kim gave me a pleading look as she whispered intensely “Come on guys! Knock it off!”

Seeing Kim was about to get into big trouble with her boss, I quickly placed our order and sent Pat off to find us a table while I waited for our food. Kim gave me a grateful look. “Are you going on break anytime soon?” I asked her.

She looked at her watch, “give me one second.” Walking over to her manager, she spoke to him for a moment. When she came back she said, “He said I can go in about 10 minutes.”

“Cool.” I replied. “We’ll be over there.” I said pointing to where Pat was sitting.

After I slid into the booth next to Pat, we alternated between eating our food and poking each other. (I gotta admit, I really like being with her.)

When Kim arrived, I tried to play it cool, but evidently she had seen what we were doing and was confused by it. “Alright what’s going on with you two?” she inquired suspiciously.

“What do you mean?” Pat asked in an innocent voice.

The tone of her voice sounded innocent enough, but the fact that her face turned bright red at the question, kind of gave us away.

The way Kim raised her eyebrow reminded me of Mr. Spock. “Come on you guys, tell me what’s going on.” She insisted.

“Nothing to tell. We’re just feeling kinda goofy today. That’s all. Why? What did ya think was up?” I asked.

She turned a bit red and said “Well if I didn’t know better, I’d say the two of you were screwing around with each other or something.” Pat looked mortified.

(Well so much for playing it cool.) I quickly said, “Ya mean like screwing, kinda screwing around?”

Kim nodded.

“Ya right!” I said rolling my eyes. “She is kinda sexy though.” I continued sarcastically. (I thought Pat was going to fall over with that one.)

The tone I used seemed to satisfy Kim because she dropped it after that. For the rest of her break we just kind of shot the shit. I hadn’t seen her for a little more than a week so we used the time to catch up a bit. She told all about how her father had forced her to get a job. I felt genuine sympathy for her embarrassment at having been rejected at every other job but this one. (Once again it had the feeling of a funeral remembrance.)

All too soon her boss came over to remind her that was indeed still working hours, and it was well past time that she returned. As she got up to go back, I rose and gave her a long hug. She looked at me queerly when she noticed the tears running down my cheeks.

“What are ya crying about?” she asked.

“Nothing, just getting to be my time and my emotions are a little screwy today. That’s all.” I replied.

She rolled her eyes, laughed and said, “You’re a weirdo.”

After she went back to work Pat and I went out to her car. We got in and Pat let out a long relieved sigh.

“That was close.” She said. “We almost got bagged. Nice job of covering up, though.”

She looked over at me and noticed I was still crying. She put her arm around me and asked “Are you sure you’re alright?”

I sniffled, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” We sat there for a few minutes while I collected myself.

“So know what do you want to do?” she asked when I finally had myself collected.

I looked at her and gave her a kiss. Then I said, “What time is it?”

She looked at her watch and replied, “It’s a little after 6:30pm.”

I had no interest in going back to Rita’s yet, so I suggested, “Ya want go to see a movie or something? I don’t want to go home yet.”

Her eyes brightened. “Yeah that sounds like a good idea,” she said cheerfully.

We drove back to the mall and picked out a movie to see. I wish I cold tell you whether it was a good one or not, but to be honest we didn’t spend much time looking at the screen. Instead we sat in the back of the theater and acted like a couple of teenagers. We made out and groped each other constantly. By the time the movie was over we were so wound up, we headed directly back to Pat’s apartment.

She had a nice little one bedroom place in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. It was we could do to keep from tearing each others clothes off until we got in the door. Once we were in though, all bets were off.

(And I’d thought it was hard to restrain myself when I was horny as a guy. That was nothing compared to how difficult it was as a woman!)

We stripped each other with desperate speed, then groped and rubbed each other as we slid into her bedroom.

Once inside, she had me lie down on the bed, then went into her closet for a moment. When she came out, she had a bag in her hand. “I bought these for us the other day,” she said with a mischievous smile on her face.

I returned her smile, curious as to what was in the bag. She opened it and poured the contents out on the bed. It was filled with all sorts of sex toys and scented oils.

With a huge grin on her face she asked, “So do ya wanna try any of them?”

I wasn’t even sure what all of them did but I was certainly willing to experiment, so I said “Sure.”

With my consent she proceeded to ravage me with all sorts of appliances for the next several hours. For the first time in my short existence in this body, I got to experience what it was like to have something long and hard inside of me, and I’ll say in all honesty, it was wonderful.

By the time we were finished I was exhausted and spent, and just lay there for a bit, enjoying the afterglow and holding each other. Pat looked over at me and with a sincere look on her face said, “I love you Mandy.”

Seeing that as an opportunity I gently kissed her lips and asked, “If I needed to leave, would you go with me?”

“Why would you need to leave?” she asked.

“Well, things aren’t going all that well at home, and this whole mess with my father just has me thinking about getting out of this state and going somewhere to start over,” I explained. “So if I decided that was going to be the plan, would you go with me?”.

Without a moment’s hesitation she replied’ “Yes. I would gladly go anywhere you wanted, so long as we got to be together.”

“Good,” I said and kissed her again. As we drifted off to sleep a plan began to take form in my mind.

Notes:

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