Let the Good Times Roll Part 37
Title: Let the Good Times Roll
Author: Concupiscence66
Pairing: Howard/Vince
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: angst, alcohol
Summary: Sally, Kylie and Vince go out for a night on the town in Camden.
Author's note: I've had such awful writer's block, I made bluestocking79 read this just to make sure it wasn't total shit (and she cleaned up my typos to boot!). I know many of you have been reading for a very long time and being awfully patient, and I thank you. There are a couple of little angsty bits I feel are necessary to complete the story. Here's one of them!
Sally had been dubious about getting a Camden make-over. She'd been worried she would end up looking like freak show (and she totally did), but she kind of liked it.
"Oh my god!" Kylie squealed, jumping up and down in a pair of frighteningly high platform shoes. "You look Scary Spice raided Posh Spice's closet..." Kylie cast a glance at Sally's Afro-puffs, "and then Baby Spice did her hair."
"They have names, you know," Vince scolded as he spun in front of the mirror, admiring his new cape. "Some of them are called Mel, and I think there's an Emily or an Emma..."
Sally and Howard would be spearheading tomorrow's museum tour-Howard had labeled their handouts: Fun-see'um!-but their first day in London had to be spent shopping and dancing. Sally had considered staying back at the flat with Howard, but she couldn't deny the appeal of shopping with Vince. In the five months she'd spent as Kylie's girlfriend, Sally was starting to get downright frumpy. Kylie's apartment was full of perfume and pastels, and it made Sally long for a simple beige. She understood why Kylie didn't like coming to Sally's apartment; even if "it looks like it's full of dust mites and vampires" was a bit harsh, Sally's apartment was a bit utilitarian and dark. And dusty.
Sally wasn't ready to give up her apartment quite yet, but she spent nearly every night in Kylie's elegantly appointed apartment, drinking herbal tea from a mug that matched the kitchen curtains and wondering how everything in the apartment managed to smell like magnolias. In unconscious rebellions, Sally dressed in drab colors and, with the best hair products in the world at her fingertips, wore a headscarf every day.
She needed to find a midway point between frumpy librarian and Black Barbie. Her moddish A-line Union Jack mini-dress wasn't quite what she'd had in mind, but it certainly wasn't boring.
"I feel bad leaving Howard on his own," Kylie mused as she patted her own hairstyle. A series of braids wrapped around curls was piled on top of her head, making her hair look like a vase full of flowers. It was not the most elaborate or strange look Sally had witnessed on her partner, but it was one of the most precarious. Sally's grandmother had told her as a child that a Black woman didn't need to waste her life worrying about her hair, and that Sally should be happy as she was. Kylie, on the other hand, claimed to have spent about "80-85%" of her childhood at a beauty shop, most of it just reading magazines and waiting for her turn to be tortured into high-gloss perfection.
"This is the longest I've been away from Howard since..." Vince trailed off and looked concerned before plastering a grin on his face. "He's got Bollo and Naboo. He's fine."
Sally reached out to pat Vince on the arm, while Kylie gave him a careful (non-outfit wrinkling) hug.
"Of course, he's fine!" Kylie cried. "He's got a shaman and a gorilla looking after him. With a posse like that, I'd even feel safe back in New Orleans..."
Kylie trailed off and looked uncomfortable. For all her perfectly justified fears of being victimized in the Big Easy, she and Sally had never even considered something along the lines of Howard's ordeal.
"I think he's glad to have some time alone," Vince added with forced cheer. "I'm always under his feet, even when he's dreaming."
It made her feel like a terrible pessimist, but the longer Sally had to consider the idea of sharing dreams with someone else, the more catastrophes she could envision. She'd spent enough time scratching her head over the meanings of her own dreams; she really wouldn't want someone else seeing that weird dream where she ordered a hotdog made of actual dog, or the all-too-upsetting sex-with-a-man dreams. She wasn't disgusted by heterosexual sex -actually, she was a little disgusted -but they were not images she would ever want to exist in Kylie's head.
She certainly never wanted to walk in on Kylie's dreams. She imagined they were full of statistics and unicorns.
"So you guys still share dreams?" Kylie asked. "And you still live together? I think if I had to endure one dream about this one organizing her sock drawer, I'd be history."
Sally rolled her eyes. The dream had been about Sally's socks suddenly not fitting in the sock drawer, no matter how she arranged them. It had clearly been a stress dream. The sock organizing was just a metaphor.
One she clearly should have never discussed with Kylie.
"Yeah," Vince said, his tone non-committal. "We still wander into each other's dreams. It's well embarrassing sometimes... You can't control you dreams n'all."
Vince was smiling, but he wasn't making eye contact. His piercing eyes-highlighted by his now royal blue hair-seemed to be piercing Sally's eyebrows as he tried to use his charm to smooth over the sudden tension in the air.
Sally took Vince by the hand and guided him to a loveseat conveniently placed for supportive friends (and bored husbands).
"What's going on, Vince?"
Vince's eyes immediately welled with tears as he feigned ignorance. Sally didn't let up. She glanced at Kylie, who was looking lost, and nodded towards the other side of the loveseat. It was a tight squeeze for the three of them, but Sally had a feeling Vince needed to be literally surrounded by friends.
"S'nothing. Howard just had a stupid dream, and it's not like it means anything... I mean, it means something, but it doesn't mean what it might mean if you didn't know what it meant."
Kylie was mouthing something about her failure to follow Vince, but Sally had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"Who was it?"
"A woman we used to work with. Mrs. Gideon." Vince was beginning to sniffle. "She was well brainy and sophisticated and mature, and Howard really fancied her."
"And how did she feel about Howard?" Sally asked, increasingly certain she knew why Vince was so upset.
"She never noticed him, she couldn't even remember who he was. He was always trying to get her attention."
"So you know what the dream is about? Right?" Sally gently prodded. "It's about healing that old wound. It's not about..."
"Making love by candlelight?" Vince supplied. Sally tried not to wince, but Kylie cursed under her breath.
"It's not about sex. It's probably about a lot of things, but it's not..."
Vince nearly knocked Sally over with a hug.
"You're so smart," Vince gushed. "S'mazing, the things you understand. I know Howard wasn't doin' anything wrong, it's just... He was just asleep. I'm not angry or anything..."
Kylie rested her head on Vince's shoulder as he continued to hug Sally. It was like being hugged by a beautiful, two-headed monster.
Now that was some uncomfortable dream fodder.
"Howard adores you," Kylie crooned into Vince's ear. "I don't know what the hell Sally is going on about, but there is no way Howard would prefer some weird old spinster to you."
Sally silently noted that Kylie had translated brainy, sophisticated and mature into 'weird old spinster.'
"She was dead sexy, though," Vince giggled, wiping tears from his eyes. "She was like Anne Bancroft in that movie where she was pretending to be older than Dustin Hoffman."
Sally mentally filed Vince's description of "The Graduate" away with Kylie's 'spinster' reference, under 'things I don't need to make a big deal about at this very moment'. Kylie was helping her be less "fucking pedantic."
"What was Howard's reaction?" Sally asked, trying to stay on track. She hated to see Vince so unhappy, and she knew how good he was at deflecting people from noticing his sadness.
"He was so upset. He still feels bad about it, I think. He always feels bad these days, and I don't want to make it worse by bringing it up."
Kylie was draping herself over Vince's shoulders like a strange (but beautiful) second cape, her flower vase hair spilling over Vince's shoulder.
"Talk to him about it," Sally urged him. "Give him a chance to reassure you and get it off his own chest."
"Listen to Sally," Kylie insisted. "She is crazy smart."
Sally felt her cheeks getting warm at the compliment.
"Enough of this girly feeling stuff," Vince exclaimed as he stood up and shook out his cape. "It's time to get our mani/pedis!"
Sally wasn't fooled for a moment by Vince's dazzling smile, but she had faith in Vince and Howard. They'd work things out.
xxx
Vince was a bit tipsy from the various rum drinks Kylie and Sally had been ordering all night. It made him happy to see the two of them together, different in so many ways, but sharing a love of sugary rum and empirically demonstrating the long-term dangers of hydraulic fracturing. They were like a brainy, Black, lesbian, adult Romeo and Juliet, without the sad ending. When he'd tried to explain as much to Sally, she'd taken his drink from him.
Vince tried to carefully move around the dark room so as not to disturb Howard, but his cape promptly caught on his 'clothing chair.' Both Vince, the chair, and the dozen outfits piled on top of the chair tumbled to the floor in a series of crashes and tinkling noises.
Howard shot up in bed and turned on the bedside lamp. He blinked a few times, looking confused, before hanging his head and sighing.
Vince tried not to take his apparent disappointment to heart. Maybe Howard had been dreaming he was jamming with Hot Wee-Wee Jefferson.
"Expecting someone else?" Vince asked, trying to sound cheerful and teasing. It didn't take much to upset Howard on a good day, and he hadn't been having a lot of good days recently. Seeing Saboo had helped Howard in a lot of ways, but revisiting his experiences had taken its toll.
"No," Howard said ruefully. "I've been expecting you for a while now."
Vince felt a stab of guilt for staying out so late. He'd considered coming home earlier, but Sally and Kylie had been having fun, and he'd hated to ruin their evening.
And it was nice to spend the night dancing. It had been a long time. Howard had gone out with Vince, trying to be a good sport, but the crowds made him panic (as did the inevitable playing of a Rick James song).
Vince climbed across the bed to Howard. His clothes were sweaty and he was getting his boots on the duvet; Howard should have been scolding him, but he was silent.
Vince put his head on Howard's shoulder. "What's wrong, Howard?"
Howard tried to pull away, but Vince held him tight. Howard went limp in Vince's arms and mumbled, "Just get it over with."
"What do you mean?"
"Tell me how horrible I am, and how I deserve to be alone, and how Vince would be better off without me. You can't possibly make me feel worse."
Howard's face was blank and his eyes were dull. He felt like a ragdoll.
"Are you asleep, Howard?" Vince asked. "Are you sleep talking? Tell me what you really think about those new trousers I bought. Do they make my arse look big?"
"Yes," Howard sighed, "and that's why I like them, but I'm not going to fall for it. You can be as cute as you want, but I know you aren't real."
Vince raked his fingers through Howard's hair, instinctively separating and shaping his curls. Even Howard had to admit that his hair looked amazing now that Vince was allowed to play with it day and night.
"What's going on?" Howard asked after a few moments of silence.
"I'm playing with your hair and you're talking bollocks," Vince offered, continuing to groom Howard's hair. It already looked good, but Vince wanted it to look just right.
"I don't know why I dreamt about her. I hardly ever think of her, honestly. I'm so sorry, Vince. I know you don't believe it, but I've never wanted to hurt you."
Howard's eyes were wet, but there was almost no expression on his face. He just looked defeated. Vince stroked Howard's hair and hummed.
"Weather Report?" Howard asked, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Ugh! Look what you've done to me with your jazzy rubbish! I need to take an antihistamine before I break out in hives!"
Howard laughed and Vince kissed the worry lines on his forehead. The wrinkles only deepened as Howard reached up and touched Vince's hair. It wasn't until he saw his new navy blue hair wrapped around Howard's finger that it all clicked into place.
"It's blue!" Vince yelled, causing Howard to jump. "My hair's not black, it's just really dark blue!"
Vince felt sick to his stomach as Howard examined his hair. In the past eight months, Vince had dyed his hair a myriad of colors, but carefully avoided black. The last thing he wanted was to remind Howard of the horrible Vince of his nightmares.
"I'm just daft, Howard. I didn't think. I should have talked to Sally and Kylie. They'd have been smart enough to know it would look black. I'll get it taken care of tomorrow."
Howard continued to play with Vince's hair.
"I like it, it's pretty. It shows off your eyes."
Vince blinked back tears as they switched positions so that he was lying in Howard's arms.
"I'm sorry I'm so dim," Vince sniffled.
Howard hushed him and kissed his forehead.
"You're the opposite of dim. You're brilliant. You border on blinding." Howard's voice was soft and low and reminded Vince they hadn't had sex since Howard's unfortunate dream. "I've always liked your hair, no matter what color."
"Even my real color? When I looked like a muddy golden retriever?"
"Even when you looked like a dandelion," Howard agreed, giving Vince a squeeze. "You should get some sleep, Little Man. We have a big day ahead of us."
Vince snuggled into Howard's arms. "I have a feeling Sally and Kylie might want to postpone the funsee'um trip. Sally was collecting the swizzle sticks from her drinks in her hair. She looked like a porcupine."
Howard laughed and continued to stroke Vince's hair. "You must be tired."
"Not that tired," Vince purred, kissing Howard's neck. "Tell me more about how much you like my hair."
.
Author: Concupiscence66
Pairing: Howard/Vince
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: angst, alcohol
Summary: Sally, Kylie and Vince go out for a night on the town in Camden.
Author's note: I've had such awful writer's block, I made bluestocking79 read this just to make sure it wasn't total shit (and she cleaned up my typos to boot!). I know many of you have been reading for a very long time and being awfully patient, and I thank you. There are a couple of little angsty bits I feel are necessary to complete the story. Here's one of them!
Sally had been dubious about getting a Camden make-over. She'd been worried she would end up looking like freak show (and she totally did), but she kind of liked it.
"Oh my god!" Kylie squealed, jumping up and down in a pair of frighteningly high platform shoes. "You look Scary Spice raided Posh Spice's closet..." Kylie cast a glance at Sally's Afro-puffs, "and then Baby Spice did her hair."
"They have names, you know," Vince scolded as he spun in front of the mirror, admiring his new cape. "Some of them are called Mel, and I think there's an Emily or an Emma..."
Sally and Howard would be spearheading tomorrow's museum tour-Howard had labeled their handouts: Fun-see'um!-but their first day in London had to be spent shopping and dancing. Sally had considered staying back at the flat with Howard, but she couldn't deny the appeal of shopping with Vince. In the five months she'd spent as Kylie's girlfriend, Sally was starting to get downright frumpy. Kylie's apartment was full of perfume and pastels, and it made Sally long for a simple beige. She understood why Kylie didn't like coming to Sally's apartment; even if "it looks like it's full of dust mites and vampires" was a bit harsh, Sally's apartment was a bit utilitarian and dark. And dusty.
Sally wasn't ready to give up her apartment quite yet, but she spent nearly every night in Kylie's elegantly appointed apartment, drinking herbal tea from a mug that matched the kitchen curtains and wondering how everything in the apartment managed to smell like magnolias. In unconscious rebellions, Sally dressed in drab colors and, with the best hair products in the world at her fingertips, wore a headscarf every day.
She needed to find a midway point between frumpy librarian and Black Barbie. Her moddish A-line Union Jack mini-dress wasn't quite what she'd had in mind, but it certainly wasn't boring.
"I feel bad leaving Howard on his own," Kylie mused as she patted her own hairstyle. A series of braids wrapped around curls was piled on top of her head, making her hair look like a vase full of flowers. It was not the most elaborate or strange look Sally had witnessed on her partner, but it was one of the most precarious. Sally's grandmother had told her as a child that a Black woman didn't need to waste her life worrying about her hair, and that Sally should be happy as she was. Kylie, on the other hand, claimed to have spent about "80-85%" of her childhood at a beauty shop, most of it just reading magazines and waiting for her turn to be tortured into high-gloss perfection.
"This is the longest I've been away from Howard since..." Vince trailed off and looked concerned before plastering a grin on his face. "He's got Bollo and Naboo. He's fine."
Sally reached out to pat Vince on the arm, while Kylie gave him a careful (non-outfit wrinkling) hug.
"Of course, he's fine!" Kylie cried. "He's got a shaman and a gorilla looking after him. With a posse like that, I'd even feel safe back in New Orleans..."
Kylie trailed off and looked uncomfortable. For all her perfectly justified fears of being victimized in the Big Easy, she and Sally had never even considered something along the lines of Howard's ordeal.
"I think he's glad to have some time alone," Vince added with forced cheer. "I'm always under his feet, even when he's dreaming."
It made her feel like a terrible pessimist, but the longer Sally had to consider the idea of sharing dreams with someone else, the more catastrophes she could envision. She'd spent enough time scratching her head over the meanings of her own dreams; she really wouldn't want someone else seeing that weird dream where she ordered a hotdog made of actual dog, or the all-too-upsetting sex-with-a-man dreams. She wasn't disgusted by heterosexual sex -actually, she was a little disgusted -but they were not images she would ever want to exist in Kylie's head.
She certainly never wanted to walk in on Kylie's dreams. She imagined they were full of statistics and unicorns.
"So you guys still share dreams?" Kylie asked. "And you still live together? I think if I had to endure one dream about this one organizing her sock drawer, I'd be history."
Sally rolled her eyes. The dream had been about Sally's socks suddenly not fitting in the sock drawer, no matter how she arranged them. It had clearly been a stress dream. The sock organizing was just a metaphor.
One she clearly should have never discussed with Kylie.
"Yeah," Vince said, his tone non-committal. "We still wander into each other's dreams. It's well embarrassing sometimes... You can't control you dreams n'all."
Vince was smiling, but he wasn't making eye contact. His piercing eyes-highlighted by his now royal blue hair-seemed to be piercing Sally's eyebrows as he tried to use his charm to smooth over the sudden tension in the air.
Sally took Vince by the hand and guided him to a loveseat conveniently placed for supportive friends (and bored husbands).
"What's going on, Vince?"
Vince's eyes immediately welled with tears as he feigned ignorance. Sally didn't let up. She glanced at Kylie, who was looking lost, and nodded towards the other side of the loveseat. It was a tight squeeze for the three of them, but Sally had a feeling Vince needed to be literally surrounded by friends.
"S'nothing. Howard just had a stupid dream, and it's not like it means anything... I mean, it means something, but it doesn't mean what it might mean if you didn't know what it meant."
Kylie was mouthing something about her failure to follow Vince, but Sally had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"Who was it?"
"A woman we used to work with. Mrs. Gideon." Vince was beginning to sniffle. "She was well brainy and sophisticated and mature, and Howard really fancied her."
"And how did she feel about Howard?" Sally asked, increasingly certain she knew why Vince was so upset.
"She never noticed him, she couldn't even remember who he was. He was always trying to get her attention."
"So you know what the dream is about? Right?" Sally gently prodded. "It's about healing that old wound. It's not about..."
"Making love by candlelight?" Vince supplied. Sally tried not to wince, but Kylie cursed under her breath.
"It's not about sex. It's probably about a lot of things, but it's not..."
Vince nearly knocked Sally over with a hug.
"You're so smart," Vince gushed. "S'mazing, the things you understand. I know Howard wasn't doin' anything wrong, it's just... He was just asleep. I'm not angry or anything..."
Kylie rested her head on Vince's shoulder as he continued to hug Sally. It was like being hugged by a beautiful, two-headed monster.
Now that was some uncomfortable dream fodder.
"Howard adores you," Kylie crooned into Vince's ear. "I don't know what the hell Sally is going on about, but there is no way Howard would prefer some weird old spinster to you."
Sally silently noted that Kylie had translated brainy, sophisticated and mature into 'weird old spinster.'
"She was dead sexy, though," Vince giggled, wiping tears from his eyes. "She was like Anne Bancroft in that movie where she was pretending to be older than Dustin Hoffman."
Sally mentally filed Vince's description of "The Graduate" away with Kylie's 'spinster' reference, under 'things I don't need to make a big deal about at this very moment'. Kylie was helping her be less "fucking pedantic."
"What was Howard's reaction?" Sally asked, trying to stay on track. She hated to see Vince so unhappy, and she knew how good he was at deflecting people from noticing his sadness.
"He was so upset. He still feels bad about it, I think. He always feels bad these days, and I don't want to make it worse by bringing it up."
Kylie was draping herself over Vince's shoulders like a strange (but beautiful) second cape, her flower vase hair spilling over Vince's shoulder.
"Talk to him about it," Sally urged him. "Give him a chance to reassure you and get it off his own chest."
"Listen to Sally," Kylie insisted. "She is crazy smart."
Sally felt her cheeks getting warm at the compliment.
"Enough of this girly feeling stuff," Vince exclaimed as he stood up and shook out his cape. "It's time to get our mani/pedis!"
Sally wasn't fooled for a moment by Vince's dazzling smile, but she had faith in Vince and Howard. They'd work things out.
xxx
Vince was a bit tipsy from the various rum drinks Kylie and Sally had been ordering all night. It made him happy to see the two of them together, different in so many ways, but sharing a love of sugary rum and empirically demonstrating the long-term dangers of hydraulic fracturing. They were like a brainy, Black, lesbian, adult Romeo and Juliet, without the sad ending. When he'd tried to explain as much to Sally, she'd taken his drink from him.
Vince tried to carefully move around the dark room so as not to disturb Howard, but his cape promptly caught on his 'clothing chair.' Both Vince, the chair, and the dozen outfits piled on top of the chair tumbled to the floor in a series of crashes and tinkling noises.
Howard shot up in bed and turned on the bedside lamp. He blinked a few times, looking confused, before hanging his head and sighing.
Vince tried not to take his apparent disappointment to heart. Maybe Howard had been dreaming he was jamming with Hot Wee-Wee Jefferson.
"Expecting someone else?" Vince asked, trying to sound cheerful and teasing. It didn't take much to upset Howard on a good day, and he hadn't been having a lot of good days recently. Seeing Saboo had helped Howard in a lot of ways, but revisiting his experiences had taken its toll.
"No," Howard said ruefully. "I've been expecting you for a while now."
Vince felt a stab of guilt for staying out so late. He'd considered coming home earlier, but Sally and Kylie had been having fun, and he'd hated to ruin their evening.
And it was nice to spend the night dancing. It had been a long time. Howard had gone out with Vince, trying to be a good sport, but the crowds made him panic (as did the inevitable playing of a Rick James song).
Vince climbed across the bed to Howard. His clothes were sweaty and he was getting his boots on the duvet; Howard should have been scolding him, but he was silent.
Vince put his head on Howard's shoulder. "What's wrong, Howard?"
Howard tried to pull away, but Vince held him tight. Howard went limp in Vince's arms and mumbled, "Just get it over with."
"What do you mean?"
"Tell me how horrible I am, and how I deserve to be alone, and how Vince would be better off without me. You can't possibly make me feel worse."
Howard's face was blank and his eyes were dull. He felt like a ragdoll.
"Are you asleep, Howard?" Vince asked. "Are you sleep talking? Tell me what you really think about those new trousers I bought. Do they make my arse look big?"
"Yes," Howard sighed, "and that's why I like them, but I'm not going to fall for it. You can be as cute as you want, but I know you aren't real."
Vince raked his fingers through Howard's hair, instinctively separating and shaping his curls. Even Howard had to admit that his hair looked amazing now that Vince was allowed to play with it day and night.
"What's going on?" Howard asked after a few moments of silence.
"I'm playing with your hair and you're talking bollocks," Vince offered, continuing to groom Howard's hair. It already looked good, but Vince wanted it to look just right.
"I don't know why I dreamt about her. I hardly ever think of her, honestly. I'm so sorry, Vince. I know you don't believe it, but I've never wanted to hurt you."
Howard's eyes were wet, but there was almost no expression on his face. He just looked defeated. Vince stroked Howard's hair and hummed.
"Weather Report?" Howard asked, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Ugh! Look what you've done to me with your jazzy rubbish! I need to take an antihistamine before I break out in hives!"
Howard laughed and Vince kissed the worry lines on his forehead. The wrinkles only deepened as Howard reached up and touched Vince's hair. It wasn't until he saw his new navy blue hair wrapped around Howard's finger that it all clicked into place.
"It's blue!" Vince yelled, causing Howard to jump. "My hair's not black, it's just really dark blue!"
Vince felt sick to his stomach as Howard examined his hair. In the past eight months, Vince had dyed his hair a myriad of colors, but carefully avoided black. The last thing he wanted was to remind Howard of the horrible Vince of his nightmares.
"I'm just daft, Howard. I didn't think. I should have talked to Sally and Kylie. They'd have been smart enough to know it would look black. I'll get it taken care of tomorrow."
Howard continued to play with Vince's hair.
"I like it, it's pretty. It shows off your eyes."
Vince blinked back tears as they switched positions so that he was lying in Howard's arms.
"I'm sorry I'm so dim," Vince sniffled.
Howard hushed him and kissed his forehead.
"You're the opposite of dim. You're brilliant. You border on blinding." Howard's voice was soft and low and reminded Vince they hadn't had sex since Howard's unfortunate dream. "I've always liked your hair, no matter what color."
"Even my real color? When I looked like a muddy golden retriever?"
"Even when you looked like a dandelion," Howard agreed, giving Vince a squeeze. "You should get some sleep, Little Man. We have a big day ahead of us."
Vince snuggled into Howard's arms. "I have a feeling Sally and Kylie might want to postpone the funsee'um trip. Sally was collecting the swizzle sticks from her drinks in her hair. She looked like a porcupine."
Howard laughed and continued to stroke Vince's hair. "You must be tired."
"Not that tired," Vince purred, kissing Howard's neck. "Tell me more about how much you like my hair."
.