One Embarassing Night


By Aries

It had been a long Friday at work when Aries finally made it out of the portrait studio towards the front of the store to drop off the cash earnings for the day. Quickly she dropped the zipped envelope into the drop drawer and headed out of the doors into the hot sun. She stopped and watched several cars pass by before stepping into the parking lot and heading towards her car that seemed to be parked a million miles away at the current moment.

As she walked to her car, she thought about all of the kids that had been brought into the studio to have their pictures taken today. She smiled at the thought until she remembered the parents of those children. She didn't understand why the parents couldn't comprehend the concept of getting their kids pictures taken and constantly insisted on interfering with her doing her job. Not one of the parents could follow her directions for their kids' safety, which made the sessions take longer than they were supposed to.

Finally she reached her car. As she opened the door, she shook her head to clear all thoughts of work out of her head. She began to think about all the fun she was going to have at her good buddy Trace's party tonight. Aries smiled and laughed softly thinking of the theme of the party. Togas of all things! Only Trace would come up with a theme that crazy and pull it off!

Aries began her drive home smiling and thinking of how hard it was for her to find a toga. She knew it was only a sheet sewn together in different places but since she wasn't that talented with sewing, that would have been a disaster if she'd tried making her own. After going through all kinds of costume shops, her good friend North offered to make one for her when she made hers. Gratefully, Aries agreed.

She pulled into the parking area for the apartment complex she lived in and parked quickly. She still needed to shower and get something in her to eat before going anywhere. She certainly didn't want to go to the party and eat like a pig!

Aries entered her apartment softly voicing her list of things she needed to do before heading over to Trace's place for the party. She opened and closed the door quietly dropping her purse on the end of the couch. She walked without thinking into the kitchen and grabbed Mt. Dew and popped the tab drinking greedily. She popped two French Bread pizzas into the oven to bake while she prepared her shower.

An hour later, Aries was fully showered and stuffed. She walked into her bedroom and over to the closet to pull out the toga North had generously made for her. As she pulled it out of the closet, she noticed that there was no way in the world she was gonna wear a bra under that thing! There wasn't enough fabric covering the bra-line!

Her mouth gaped open as she looked at it. How could North do that to her! She knew that her friend was trying to push her into a relationship so she wouldn't be lonely anymore but this was ridiculous! Every guy there was gonna think she was a slut! She shuddered as she thought about putting it on but knew she had to. She'd promised North and Trace that she wouldn't back out of this party like she had the last few that had been held.

Quickly, she put the toga on and looked at herself in the mirror. She was relieved to find that it wasn't as bad as she thought, but she would have felt better if she could have put a bra on underneath. Pulling her hair up, she threw on some make-up and ran out of the door not wanting to be late. There were going to be some pretty kewl guests at this party that Trace wouldn't tell her about. Aries was dying to know who they were.

She got in her car and headed off towards Trace's house in anticipation of meeting her special guests.

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Aries arrived at Trace's house a bit early but that suited her just fine. She wanted to have a little talk with North before the party started anyway. She got out of her car, adjusting the toga to make sure that it covered everything and headed up to the door.

As she reached the door, it swung open and North came flying threw it towards her with open arms. Aries didn't know what hit her as she was swept up in a huge hug.

"You're not gonna believe who Trace got to come to her party! You're just gonna die! In a toga no less!" North rambled on in excitement.

"Whoa! Slow down and then tell me what the heck you are talking about!" Aries said trying to calm her excited friend a bit.

Aries found that she could calm her friend and started towards the house with her. Just as she was about to step through the door, North grabbed her arm.

"Be very prepared to faint! He is gorgeous!" North told her then proceeded into the house without another word. Aries looked at her friend's back in confusion then continued into the house to greet Trace, Aly and a few other friends that would be there.

There were a few people milling about the house when Aries entered and deposited her purse in Trace's closet for safe keeping. None of which seemed to be Trace. Sighing, she went wandering around looking for Trace, Aly or somebody to talk to who made more sense than North was making at the present time. It didn't take long for her to find Trace with a man on her arm of course!

Aries walked up and said hello. She stopped dead when she saw the man on Trace's arm. It was none other than Bruce Payne! Her jaw dropped in shock.

"What's the matter Aries?" Trace asked sweetly knowing exactly why Aries was reacting the way she was.

"Uh…" Was all Aries could get out.

Just then, Aries noticed Trace motioning someone over out of the corner of her eye. Aries couldn't turn to see who it was because she was still in shock over seeing Trace's date for the evening and couldn't tear her eyes away from him.

A few seconds after Trace motioned someone over, she felt a presence at her side. She turned to see none other than the man himself. Roy Dupuis! In a toga no less!

Aries was oblivious to everything that was going on around her. She felt the drool slipping from her mouth and running down her chin but was helpless to stop it. She'd admired him on screen as his character Michael for about two years now but never expected to meet him in person, let alone in what he was wearing!

Trace saw the predicament her friend was in and excused the two of them. She pulled Aries towards her room and locked the door behind them. Once they were inside the room, Trace slapped her friend to bring her out of her trance.

"OH MY GAWD!!! That was Roy Dupuis and Bruce Payne! You could have at least warned me!" Aries shouted at her friend.

"I guess I should have." Trace replied with a sly smile on her face.

"I just totally embarrassed myself out there! I can't go back out there!" Aries said flopping down on the bed prepared to take up residence there until the last guest had left.

"You certainly are going back out there! I've been telling Roy all about you all night and he's been eager to meet you! You are not going to stand him up at my party!" Trace replied angrily. "Go splash some water on your face and get yourself together!"

Aries looked at her friend in shock. Trace had never spoken to her that way before. She didn't know what to think.

"Did you hear me?" Trace asked impatiently. She wanted to get back to her date with Bruce.

"Yeah… Yeah, I heard you." Aries mumbled as she picked herself up from the bed and headed towards Trace's private bathroom.

Meanwhile.....…

Roy looked at Bruce as the two females walked away.

"What was that all about?" Roy asked Bruce.

"That was the friend Trace has been telling you about all night. I guess Trace didn't tell her you were going to be here and she was a bit surprised." Bruce replied with a smile on his face.

"Oh." Was all Roy said in reply. He still wasn't sure what to think of what just happened but decided to have a drink with Bruce while they waited for the two to return.

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Aries finally pulled herself together but still didn't want to go back out to the party. It had been highly embarrassing to literally start drooling in front of Bruce Payne and Roy Dupuis. She didn't want to take the chance of it happening again. Just as she was going to tell Trace that she was going to head home, there was a knock on the door.

"Hold on a sec!" Trace called out dabbing just a little more lipstick on and blotting it.

"Don't answer that!" Aries called out. She didn't want anyone laughing at her for the way she'd reacted to meeting Roy.

"Oh get over it!" Trace said not wanting to put a damper on her party mood. She knew that Aries wouldn't take offense by it.

Trace walked over to the door and opened it to find Bruce and Roy on the other side.

"Sorry to burst in on you! We just got tired of waiting and decided to come see if you guys were ok in here." Bruce told Trace giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Of course! I'm glad you came looking for me!" Trace said grinning widely. She knew that she'd made quite an impression on him and was quite proud of herself.

Roy stepped in the room around Trace and Bruce who were paying him or Aries no mind. He walked over and knelt next to the bed to talk to Aries.

"Bon jour." Roy said, his French accent coming out heavily.

"Hello." Aries said shyly, turning her head away from him.

He put his finger lightly on her chin and pulled her head around to face him again. "Don't be embarrassed." He told her softly.

"Why shouldn't I be? I just drooled in the middle of a huge party just looking at you!" Aries said with tears welling up in her eyes.

"It could have been worse." Roy responded softly moving himself up from crouching in front of her to sitting next to her on the bed.

"How?" Aries asked curiously.

"You could have spilled punch all down the front of me like North did." Roy said showing her his now pink toga. They both laughed at the site.

Trace and Bruce watched the two with smiles on their faces and exited the room quietly. They didn't want to disturb the couple they were hoping would get to know each other better and possibly go out on a date.

After a few minutes of laughing, they settled down and looked at each other.

"So, would you like to go out there with me and have a drink?" Roy asked sweetly.

"Are you sure you wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with me? There were quite a few people standing around when… when…" Aries couldn't finish her sentence and began to turn a bright shade of red.

"I would be honored to be seen with you! I know it can be quite a shock meeting someone for the first time that you've wanted to meet for quite a while. It's an even bigger shock when you aren't warned before hand." Roy said in complete understanding.

Aries was touched when she heard the kindness in his voice and forgot all about her embarrassment. She stood up and looked at him.

"I think I would be honored to have the drink with you then." She announced with more bravery than she really had in her heart.

Roy smiled, stood and offered her his arm. She took it gladly. The two walked out of Trace's room into a house full of people looking on in amazement. By now, everyone there had heard of what happened earlier. Neither one noticed or cared. They were both absorbed in the essence of the other. Roy poured them both glasses of punch and handed Aries a glass. She smiled and thanked him gratefully taking the glass from him. Just as they were about to lift their glasses to their lips to taste the sweet drink, someone bumped into Aries from behind causing her to dump her whole glass of punch down the front of Roy's toga. Aries turned bright red again and apologized profusely. She wasn't sure whether to run and hide or stay and help him clean it off.

She looked around her at all of the staring people and held her head up. She grabbed Roy's arm and told him that they'd have better luck getting it out if they went into the bathroom. He nodded his head in agreement.

The two walked off towards Trace's private bathroom to try and clean off as much of the red punch as they could. North intercepted them as they were en route.

"Hey, you spilled punch on him too? Now I don't feel so bad!" North commented smiling widely.

"What's up?" Aries asked quickly trying to get to clean off his toga.

"I just wanted to see if you were having a good time." North replied easily. Of course she had already heard about the drool incident but didn't want to be blatant about it.

"Oh yeah, just peachy!" Aries said sarcastically. She began to walk around North towards the bathroom. North followed behind wanting to help calm her upset friend.

==============

Aries ignored North as she set about cleaning off Roy's toga and drying it. She wanted to get it clean and leave before anything else happened to make her look even more like a fool. She had known that it was a mistake for her to attend this party but she let herself be talked into it anyway. She felt like such an idiot for allowing that.

After she was done with the toga, she handed it to Roy without looking at him in his form fitting boxer briefs that he'd chosen to wear under the toga. He quickly went into the bathroom and put his toga back on.

"You've got to stay! You haven't even met Eugene or Alberta! Matthew's here and so is Don! You can't leave!" North kept repeating to her friend hoping to convince her to stay.

"I'm not staying and that's final!" Aries said and turned her back. She went to the closet and pulled out her purse. Opening the purse, she pulled out her car keys getting ready to make her exit.

Roy emerged from the bathroom and saw that Aries was getting ready to leave.

"What's going on? You're not leaving are you?" Roy asked Aries incredulously.

"Yeah, I think I've humiliated myself enough for one night." Aries replied heading towards the door with tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't even bear to look at Roy for fear of doing something else to embarrass herself.

"Actually, after what you've done, I think you owe me a dance. You can't leave until I get my dance." Roy replied.

"I don't think you want to dance with me! I have no rhythm at all!" Aries objected passionately. The truth was, she loved to dance but was scared of what would happen.

"That's not what I've heard." Roy replied easily.

"Well, I guess you're gonna have to take a raincheck then." Aries replied determined she was getting out of this party now.

She began walking towards the door and out of the house. She made it to her car only to find that Roy had grabbed his coat and had joined her.

"What are you doing?" Aries asked astonished.

"Well, if you won't stay here with me, I'm going with you." Roy said.

"Why?" Aries asked.

"Because I like you. And I'm not sure when I'll be able to take you up on that raincheck." Roy replied smiling sweetly. "Wanna unlock the doors to the car so we can go?"

Aries stood frozen for a few seconds then snapped out of it. She wasn't going to fight him. She was exhausted just from the events that had already taken place that night. She got in the car and unlocked the doors. She revved up the engine and headed off towards her house where she and Roy had a wonderful evening accident free.

THE END!!!

This story © Aries, 1999

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North thoroughly enjoyed the festivities of the night and was sorry to see it end. It was nice seeing all the Covert Lovers having fun and partying. Making her way to her room, she got herself undressed and flopped exhausted onto the bed. Before long she was fast asleep!!!

~~~~~~~ I want to thank Sherry and Aries for providing us with great stories for our Illusions this week. Great job girls!!!

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