Bloodbrothers by Richard Price Read Free Book Online

swizzle stick.
    "What kinda question is that?"
    "About what percent?"
    "Stony..." Chubby took the straw from him. "What's on your mind?"
    The waitress stopped at their table. Chubby motioned for another round.
    "Well." Stony picked up the straw. "Cheri..." He tossed it aside.
    "She don't come?"
    "Oh no, it ain't that. Yeah, she don't come, I mean she comes, but not when we're balling."
    The waitress brought another round. Chubby sipped his drink thoughtfully.
    "I mean I try all different ways. I go slow, I go fast, I do it from the back, from the front, from the side. Nothin' works."
    "I don' know what to tell you. If it'll make you feel any better, I been married to your Aunt Phyllis for twenny-three years. I think she came three times, but I'll tell you one thing though, it don't do any good to worry about it."
    "Three times?" Stony looked pained.
    "Look, some women come more'n that in one fuck, others go to their
graves
without coming." He shrugged.
    "Don't that drive you crazy?" Stony squinted.
    "Well, look. Somebody can still dig sex without coming. That don't make 'em lesbians. But like I said, it don't help anybody to worry about it, you know, you just gotta hang loose."
    "Hang loose." Stony nodded, picking his teeth with the mangled straw. "Lissen, Chub, I got Butler's car. I gotta go pick 'im up at the club. It's gettin' late."
    Stony stood up. Chubby sat playing with his pack of Marlboros, slowly stripping the cellophane wrapper.
    "Ah lissen. thanks for helpin' me out tonight."
    Chubby gave a short salute off the top of his head.
    "Hey, Stones? Also, stay away from PR women. They got two million boyfriends and brothers. They'll tear yah heart out."
    ***
    Stony got back to D'Artagnan's about midnight. Butler was standing at the bar where Stony left him. He was talking to Chili Mac.
    "Stones, you missed some fuckin' fight." Butler was drenched with sweat.
    "Oh yeah?" Stony ordered a seventy-seven.
    "So how's Cheri?" Butler smirked.
    ***
    "Well, I'll tell you one thing, mah man, she can fuck Mott, Pot, Snot, Twat and half the fuckin' Marine Corps from now until doomsday, she ain't never gonna find a better stickman than me and
that's
the goddamn truth."
    They sat parked in White Castle. Stony scarfed down half a hamburger and exhaled through his nose as he chewed. Butler had stopped listening to Stony's bullshit hours ago. He stabbed a straw through the center of the plastic top on his orange drink and eyed the middle-aged carhop ladies scurrying around the parking lot in royal blue slacks, blue short-sleeve tops and little blue Dixie cups on their heads. Some of them wore blue scarfs under the Dixie cups to keep their ears warm.
    "My mother would dig that get-up," Butler said.
    "Because not only am I a good fuck physically, Butler, but I know all that psychological shit about scoring pussy too." Stony crumpled the hamburger wrapper into a ball and rolled it lightly between his palms.
    "I mean, you know, how to make them, how to get them relaxed." He dragged out his words. "You know how ... how to get them to trust you, you know? So they don't even know they're gettin' laid."
    "You know what my ol' man got my ol' lady for Christmas?" Butler challenged. "Ankle socks! A fuckin' dozen pair a
ankle
socks." He paused for the news to sink in, reaching for his cigarettes on the dash. "She
asked
for them." With his thumb he bent a match onto the carbon and flicked a light.
    Stony ignored him and went on. "First I get 'em a drink, see? An' then I put on some music, you know somethin' nice, right? An' we'll dance." Stony shut his eyes and dreamily swayed his head. "I won't even grind, maybe just a little bump like ... unh!" Eyes still closed. Stony licked his lips, arched his pelvis off the seat and rotated his hips.
    Butler raised his eyebrows and making a noise like a garbage disposal sucked the last drops of orange drink from the crushed ice.
    "And now they're startin' to breathe a little funny, right? So I dance just a little