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From: Lazlo Zalezac <lzalezac@yahoo.com>
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Subject: {ASSM} A Different Sort Of Lifestyle 30 (MF, rom)
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Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:10:04 -0500
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Lazlo Zalezac
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Lazlo_Zalezac
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Lazlo_Zalezac
 
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<1st attachment, "Life01-30.txt" begin>

A Different Sort Of Lifestyle
Chapter 30: The Pain of Recovery
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2006

Upon waking up, Jack groaned and regretted it immediately. His 
head was pounding, his bladder was filled to bursting, his stomach 
was riled, and his bowels were boiling. He didn't know if he was 
going to piss, puke, or shit first. Regardless, it wasn't going to be 
long before he was doing one of them. This was the hangover from 
hell. 

Jack rolled out of bed and raced for the bathroom hoping that no 
one would be in it. Each step was pure misery, but he was in luck. 
June had just stepped out of the bathroom. He ran past her closing 
the door behind him with enough force that the noise caused him to 
groan. 

June watched Jack rush into the bathroom and shook her head in 
amusement. In a way, she had been relieved the previous evening 
when Greg had come over to take him out for a drink. He had been 
pacing around the boat, unable to work on it. He had reminded her 
of a tiger trapped in a cage. She had been afraid that he'd come in 
the house and ruin the evening for Lisa. 

Although Jack would have been shocked to learn of it, she had 
been pleased at how drunk he was when he came home. A man 
who didn't care about his daughter wouldn't have been so upset 
about what his daughter was doing. It just confirmed what she had 
learned just a little while ago, although she would never say that 
aloud to anyone.

After hearing the sounds coming from the bathroom, she went in 
the living room and called his job to let them know that he 
wouldn't be coming in that day. She knew that he would be 
spending most of the day in bed nursing a first class headache. She 
went into the kitchen to get a bottle of aspirin and a glass of water. 
He'd need it when he came out of the bathroom.

Jack left the bathroom twenty minutes later moving like he was a 
hundred years old. His face was white and his forehead dotted with 
beads of sweat. June handed him a pair of aspirin and the glass of 
water. Barely able to speak, Jack said, "Thank you."

Seeing him grimace at hearing his own voice, she smiled and 
patted his arm rather than answer. Thankful, he swallowed the 
aspirin. After draining the glass, he handed it back to her and 
returned to the bedroom. June stood at the door and watched him 
move a pillow over his head. She smiled and closed the door.

Lisa and Harry came out of her bedroom. Harry had an arm around 
Lisa and held her close to him. Both were dressed in their regular 
clothes. The fact was that Harry was feeling a little weird about 
having to deal with Lisa's parents in light of what they had done 
several times since going into the bedroom the previous evening.

June put a finger in front of her lips and gestured towards the 
kitchen. Confused, the young couple followed her. Harry 
immediately thought that she was going to try to sneak him out of 
the house before Jack saw him. His stomach flipped several times 
at the thought.

Once in the kitchen, June said, "We need to talk softly. Your father 
isn't feeling very well."

"What's the matter?" Lisa asked looking at her mother with worry.

"He and Greg went out last night for drinks. They were in pretty 
sad shape when they got home," June said glancing in the direction 
of the bedroom.

"Why?" Lisa asked looking at her mother in confusion. She 
molded herself to Harry when he pulled her close.

"I think they both were upset about their little girls becoming 
women," June said.

Harry's eyes grew round and he asked, "Do you mean my sister 
..."

"Yes, Harry. Your sister was doing the same thing you were 
doing," June said.

"I bet Dad was fit to be tied," Harry said knowing that his dad 
wouldn't very happy about what Cathy had done. The thought that 
Jack probably felt the same about what he had done with Lisa fully 
registered in his mind. He looked over at Lisa and said, "Your dad 
probably hates my guts about now."

"Daddy likes you," Lisa said looking to her mother for 
confirmation.

June smiled and said, "I'm pretty sure that it is a good thing that 
your father is indisposed. I'm confident that we would not enjoy 
breakfast if he was here."

"Maybe I should leave," Harry said. He held his head in his hands 
and said, "My dad is going to kill me."

Lisa frowned and asked, "Are you sorry about what we did?"

"Sorry? No way. That was the best experience of my life. I love 
you so much that I don't know what I'd do without you. I want to 
do that with you for the rest of my life," Harry said. 

Although Lisa grinned, June frowned and said, "Hey, it's a little 
early to be talking marriage."

Harry blushed when he realized what he said. At least he was 
smart enough not to try to retract it. After a moment of thought, the 
idea didn't sound that bad to him. Taking Lisa's hand, he said, 
"That's true. We have a lot of time before I'll be here asking Mr. 
McCullum for Lisa's hand in marriage, but rest assured that I'll be 
here."

As a result of his words, Lisa felt like a million dollars. She leaned 
her head against his shoulder and practically purred. June watched 
the pair and decided not to argue. They were young and life had a 
lot to throw at them. Smiling, she asked, "What would you like for 
breakfast?"

---

Greg had finally managed to make it to the kitchen table with a cup 
of coffee. Doing his best not to move too quickly, he lifted the cup 
to his mouth and took a satisfying sip of the hot liquid. Nothing 
had ever tasted so good to him. The front door closed and the noise 
slammed into his brain like a locomotive.

Humming happily to himself, Harry entered the kitchen. Greg 
would have glared at him, but it hurt too much to move his face. 
Excited about what he had just done, Harry was in a very good 
mood. Spotting his father at the table, he said, "Hi, Dad."

Greg cringed and couldn't decide if it would be better to yell at 
Harry or crawl under the table. Instead, all he managed was a 
barely heard, "Shhh."

"Oh, sorry Dad," Harry said in a softer voice.

Greg looked at the clock and saw that is was approaching noon. It 
took him a few minutes to recall that he was supposed to be at 
work. Managing to get a scowl on his face, he asked, "Where have 
you been?"

"I had an important errand to run. I ordered a dozen roses for 
Lisa," Harry said. He kept lowering his voice each time his father 
grimaced.

"Good," Greg said just as the doorbell rang. Unfortunately for 
Greg, it was more than just a single ring. Someone was outside 
pushing the button over and over. Holding his hands over his ears, 
Greg shouted, "Get that door before I kill the son of a bitch."

Harry had barely stepped out of the kitchen when Cathy shouted, 
"Flowers! He sent me a dozen roses!"

Greg grabbed his cup of coffee and headed out to the back yard. It 
didn't matter to him if it was hot outside. It wouldn't have 
mattered if it had been snowing. All he wanted was quiet and that 
seemed like the most likely place he was going to find it. He closed 
the door behind him as gently as possible and made his way to a 
chair. Sitting down, he took a sip of his coffee and sighed. 

---

Jack wandered into the kitchen and looked around. His mouth 
tasted like a rat had crawled inside and died. June turned and 
handed him a cup of coffee. In a soft voice, she asked, "Are you 
feeling better?"

"A little better. I've got a headache and everything is still too 
loud," Jack answered. He turned and looked at the kitchen clock. 
He groaned and said, "I missed work."

"I called your office this morning and let them know that you 
weren't feeling well," June said. 

"Thanks," Jack said. He sipped his coffee.

The quiet in the house was shattered when someone started ringing 
the doorbell over and over. Jack rose and said, "I'm going to kill 
who ever is at the door."

He hadn't made it out of the kitchen when he heard Lisa shout, 
"Roses! He bought me a dozen roses!"

As Jack staggered back to the table, June ran around him to see 
what had gotten Lisa so excited. He collapsed into his chair. He 
wasn't in time to cover his ears before his wife shouted, "They're 
so beautiful."

"At least he sent flowers," Jack mumbled. He wished there was 
some quiet place for him to wait, but there wasn't. The sounds of 
mother and daughter appreciating the flowers were driving nails 
into his brain. It was obvious to him that his daughter was happy 
and, in the light of day, that was the important thing. 

The pair of women entered the kitchen. Lisa was glowing while 
carrying a huge bouquet of roses. She looked up at her father and 
saw the man slumped in his chair holding up his head in his hands. 
Unshaved and red-eyed, he looked positively miserable. In a soft 
voice, she said, "I'm sorry for making so much noise, Daddy. I was 
just excited about getting these roses from Harry."

He looked over at the roses and then up at his daughter's happy 
face. Sighing, he said, "They are pretty."

"He loves me," Lisa said after smelling the roses.

"I'm sure he does," Jack said. He noticed the heart shaped pendant 
hanging on a gold chain around her neck. He wondered where it 
had come from.

June bustled over to the cabinet and removed a vase in which to 
put the flowers. She filled the vase with water and brought it over 
to the table. Together, the women arranged the roses within the 
vase. Jack watched them work. Lisa was so happy. Despite the 
throbbing headache, he knew that he'd never say anything that 
would hurt her. When they stepped back to appraise the flower 
arrangement, he said, "That was real nice of Harry to send you 
those flowers."

Looking over at her father, Lisa was fully aware of how hard that 
was for him to say. She and her mother had discussed his feelings 
about the events of the previous night while he had been 
recovering in the bedroom. She went over to him and hugged him. 
His rough unshaven face scratched her face, but she ignored the 
discomfort. She whispered in his ear, "Thank you, Daddy. I love 
you."

"I love you, too," Jack said. He rubbed his face and said, "I guess I 
had better take a shower, shave, and brush the old fangs."

---

Seated in his backyard, Greg had finished his cup of coffee and 
was wondering if it was quiet enough to sneak in the house and 
pour another cup. Deciding to risk it, he rose and headed towards 
the house with empty cup in hand. He entered the kitchen and eyed 
the huge bouquet of roses in a vase on the table. He looked at them 
and said, "At least the little shit sent flowers."

Harry entered the kitchen and looked over at his father. He'd never 
seen his father in such horrible shape. He took a seat at the table 
and watched his father refill his coffee cup. When Greg turned 
around, he said, "Cathy told me what you said to her last night."

"What did I say?" Greg asked barely remembering a conversation 
when he had returned home from the bar. 

"She said you made Sam promise that her first time would be 
special," Harry said. It explained a lot about all of the 
conversations that had gone on between his mother and Sam's 
mother. He realized there had been a few conversations between 
his mother and Lisa's mother as well. 

"I bet she's mad at me," Greg said looking into his coffee cup. He 
hoped that he hadn't said much more than that about the boy. He 
shook his head and mentally corrected his reference to Sam as a 
boy. The kids had taken an important step towards being adults the 
previous day. 

"There for a while she was a little irritated at Sam when he turned 
her down the first time she offered her virginity to him. I guess that 
was just after your talk with him," Harry said.

"Please, let's not talk about virginity. I don't want to hear about 
that. Father's aren't supposed to know that stuff," Greg said 
making his way over to the table.

When Greg had seated himself, Harry said, "Sam spent a fortune to 
make sure that Cathy had a good time. I don't think he can really 
afford to do that."

"It's a once in a lifetime experience for a young woman. The 
young man should spend whatever it takes to make it special," 
Greg said. He looked over at Harry and wondered what he spent on 
Lisa. According to what Jack had said, they had spent the night in 
her bedroom.

"I agree," Harry said.

"So what did you do for Lisa?" Greg asked.

"Her mother didn't want us to go to a hotel for some reason. I 
think Mr. McCullum wanted her mother there to stop me if Lisa 
changed her mind," Harry said. He actually believed that her father 
wanted to be there to stop him if she changed her mind. He was 
pretty sure that he wouldn't have survived being stopped.

Greg knew that and said, "You still didn't tell me what you did to 
make it special for her."

"Her mother arranged flowers and candles around her bed to help 
set a romantic mood while I took Lisa out to dinner at a nice 
restaurant. I gave her a gold necklace with a heart shaped pendant 
on it," Harry said. 

Greg nodded his approval and said, "I hope you treated her real 
gentle."

"Yes, sir. I did," Harry said. He asked, "Is Mr. McCullum very 
mad at me?"

"Not yet," Greg answered shaking his head and then immediately 
regretting it.

"Not yet? Do you mean he will get mad at me?"

Greg sighed and gave voice to his greatest concern about Sam 
when he said, "It depends on how you act, son. If you start acting 
like a bandy rooster and crow in front of him ... Well, you'll piss 
him off something terrible. Be respectful. Don't undermine his role 
as father to his little girl."

"Yes, sir," Harry said. 

Standing outside the kitchen, Cathy had listened to the 
conversation between Harry and her father. She hadn't thought 
about how her father would react to her activities with Sam. As far 
as she had been concerned, what they did was just between her and 
Sam. Seeing her father the previous night had been a shock. Just 
the memory of his words to her still brought tears of joy to her 
eyes. 

Greg rose and said, "I need to shower and shave. When I get out, 
could you give me a ride to pick up my car?"

"Sure, Dad."

Not wanting her father to see her tears, Cathy ran back to her 
bedroom. While lying across her bed, she thought about the advice 
that her father had given Harry concerning his treatment of Lisa's 
father. It wasn't bad advice. She decided that she would tell Sam 
about the conversation.

---

It was late in the afternoon before Greg made it to the bar to pick 
up his car keys. Entering the darkness of the bar after the bright 
outdoors hurt his eyes. He stood inside the door and blinked 
waiting for his eyes to adjust. The grizzled old bartender watched 
him from his position behind the bar. He turned and picked up the 
keys along with the bar bill and set them on the counter. He poured 
a small drink and said, "Come on over. You need a little hair of the 
dog that bit you."

Greg made his way over to the bar and took a seat. He looked at 
the glass with two ice cubes and a very small splash of scotch in it. 
He drank the scotch hoping that it would get rid of his residual 
headache. He said, "Thanks."

The old man smiled and said, "I bet there wasn't much yelling in 
your house this morning."

"You can say that again," Greg said. 

"One of the things about a hangover like that is that it is rather 
difficult for you have a major argument," the bartender said while 
sliding the car keys in front of Greg. He grinned at the pained 
expression on Greg's face and knew the guy had wanted to die that 
morning. The trick with a whiskey problem was to get them drunk 
enough to be incapacitated enough to stay out of trouble and to get 
them out of the bar before they got sick.

"That's true, I guess," Greg said. He wasn't sure that he liked the 
bartender all that much at the moment. He said, "I spent most of 
the night in the bathroom being sick."

"That doesn't surprise me."

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Greg asked.

"That's right. You were in no shape to do anything that would get 
you in trouble last night. It's rather hard to have an argument when 
you're making offerings to the Porcelain God. This morning you 
were in too much pain to say things that you'd regret later," the 
bartender answered. 

"Why did you do it?"

The bartender looked at Greg for a minute and then answered, 
"Life is tough. Sometimes you make decisions that can make the 
rest of your life even tougher than it needs to be. You just went 
through twenty four hours of hell. I figure that I maybe saved you 
and that other fellow from doing something that you would regret 
for years."

Turning so that he could point to the bottles on the wall behind 
him, he said, "Alcohol is responsible for a lot of the problems that 
folks impose on themselves. As a bartender, I watch people come 
in here and ruin their lives almost every day. If I'm careful, I can 
use alcohol to limit the damage people do to themselves. Knowing 
that lets me sleep a little better at night."

Lifting an eyebrow, Greg asked, "So is that what you recommend 
people to do? Drink until they're stupid."

"No. The best advice I could give is that they drive a hundred 
miles away and go fishing," the bartender answered with a smile.

"I'm serious," Greg said.

"So am I. A little distance, a little time on a boat, and, if you're 
lucky, a few fish; a man can't ask for more to get away from his 
problems," the old man said. 

"I think you're a pretty wise man with a good heart," Greg said 
impressed by the advice. 

"No I'm not. I'm a tired old man who doesn't want any excitement 
in his life." He pointed to the bill to remind Greg that he hadn't 
paid for the previous night's charges.

Greg looked down at the bill and saw that it was rather high. He 
asked, "Why so much?"

"It includes the taxi fare."

"I'm sorry. I forgot about that," Greg said. It hadn't occurred to 
him how he had gotten home. Even worse, he couldn't remember 
if he had paid for the cab or not. Shrugging his shoulders, he pulled 
out a hundred and twenty dollars and said, "Give the taxi driver a 
twenty dollar tip and keep the change."

"Thanks," the bartender said taking the money. He said, "I'm sure 
Dan will appreciate the tip."

"Thank you for taking care of us last night. You did keep us out of 
trouble and he delivered us safe and sound," Greg said assuming 
correctly that the taxi driver's name was Dan.

"He's good at that," the bartender said as he put the money in the 
till. He pointed to a picture by the bar and said, "Dan was a cop 
until a drunk hit him one night while he was giving out a ticket. He 
was forced to retire and now lives off his disability pay. At least he 
got the higher rate since he was injured in the line of duty."

"He must hate picking up drunks," Greg said.

"Not at all. He only picks up passengers as a result of a call from a 
bar. He knows that each drunk he drives home is one less drunk 
driver on the road," the bartender answered with a shrug of his 
shoulder. Nearly every bartender in the area kept Dan's number 
handy. Most cab drivers didn't like picking up drunks since they 
often left smelly deposits in the backseat. Dan didn't care. He had 
everything covered in plastic, even the floor.

"It's a shame that I wasn't in shape to get to know the man," Greg 
said.

"He's one of the good guys. He became a policeman because he 
wanted to help people. I figure he views his driving a taxi now as 
just a different way of doing the same thing," the bartender said. 
He wiped the bar down for a second and then looked up at Greg. 
He said, "Go home. Hug your daughter and talk to her. Don't let 
something like what happened yesterday keep you from talking to 
each other. Tell the feller that was in here with you last night to do 
the same with his daughter."

Nodding, Greg picked up his keys and walked towards the door. 
Once he reached it, he turned and said, "Thanks for the advice."

When the door closed, the bartender wiped his eyes and said, "Five 
years without a word from her because I threw that fucker out the 
window. A prison sentence would have been easier."
<1st attachment end>


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