Free Finding Jaime by P. Dawn

my jaw shut. My ignorance isn’t lost on him when he clinks our bottles together and takes a long draw from his bottle.
    “I’m sorry,” I rush out. “I…this is all new to me, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.”
    “That’s all we ask, Bunny,” he says and hops off his stool. “If you can release yourself from the forced opinions of society, then you’ll be free.” He turns to walk away.
    “Free from what?” I call out, and he looks over his shoulder.
    “Free to be who you are, not who others say you should be.”
    I sit my ass back down and wonder what the hell he’s talking about. Of course, I’m myself, who else would I be? Sure, I can be loud, have a mouth like a sailor and not give a fuck about it, but there’s something in his words that hit me square in the chest. Hard enough to burn like hell, and I don’t know how to put out the fire.

    “Hello, Bunny, welcome back.”
    I recognize that voice; it’s the one I’ve been waiting for. I turn to the sound and I smile when I see Butterfly sitting on the stool next to me.  
    “Hey, Butterfly,” I say, breathlessly, and I try to cover up my nervousness.
    Her hair is tied back off her face, and I let my eyes fall over her body. A lilac bolero covers her shoulders and fastens at the neck—oriental style. Her dress is black with lilac ribbons running vertically around the body of the bodice, with the same colors in a lace trim over the neckline that’s curved over her mounds—a bow in the center—securing them in place. The layers of netting in her skirt fan out over her thighs from under the same colors as the top. Her legs are bare, with black shoes with small lilac bows on the front. My heart’s racing and I begin to feel the prickles over my skin as heat surges down south into my center. I want to ask her something, but the voice of another woman tells me I’m wrong, that I shouldn’t.
    A glass appears in front of her, and she takes a sip from the straw, and I stare at her mouth as she drinks, then her throat as she swallows.
    “Have you been here long?” she asks, and I blink back to consciousness.
    “About an hour,” I reply, and reach for my third drink.
    “See anything interesting?” she asks, and I see the corners of her gloss covered lips turn up. “I bet you have.”
    “Well,” I say, blowing out my breath. “Cerise tied Lily’s arms behind her back in a way I never thought possible. Oh, and Fido came onto me as a joke, and I threatened to kick him in the nutsack.” I shrug a shoulder and raise an eyebrow. My bad!
    Butterfly giggles and the sensation in my chest that Fido caused begins to fizzle out. She signals for two more drinks and Fidel brings them over.  
    “It’s a good thing you didn’t, my mom wouldn’t have liked that very much.” She tips her head towards the place where we sat last night, and I follow. “What else did he say to you?”
    We sit close together in the darkened corner, and I tell her the conversation, and she chews her lip as I speak.  
    “He’s a smart man, Bunny. He said almost the same thing to me.”
    I narrow my eyes. “He did?”
    “Yes,” she smiles. “I was having a hard time with something, and he encouraged me to just be myself.”
    “What happened?” I ask, eagerly.
    She takes a deep breath and slowly releases it. Her chest rises high, and I try not to look. Damn, I looked! But I can’t miss those things. No, because you want to look, don’t you? Admit it, Jaime.
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing?”
    She shakes her head, her hair swishes behind her, and the small rhinestones on her mask reflect the beams from the disco lights. “No, but it’s okay. It’s a good thing, believe me.” She takes a drink before continuing. “What about your friend?”
    Joss’s beautiful face flashes before me, but all I can see is awkwardness and tolerance. She’s putting up with me because she has to.
    “What?” she asks incredulously.
    “I said that out loud? Fuck, sorry.” I