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motivations, but he was too late.
He decided
to stop into the bar where Morgan and the rest of
the guys had gone for a few drinks.
He couldn't
imagine going back to the empty house.
He would
only think about Jean or Alex.
"No, what I need is a night out," he muttered to
himself as he started his car.
The Standing Ovation stood invitingly before James
as he thought about maybe not staying.
It had
been a second home to all of the Hasani employees
at one time or another.
It had seen more than its
fair share of fights between the co-workers and
their wives and the co-workers themselves.
James finally gave up the battle walked into the
building.
He was soon greeted by a round of
applause that he could have done without.
He
knew it had been a while for James.
He had
avoided the place during his fight with Jean, so as
not to give her more ammunition, but since she was
gone there was no harm in him being
there.
James smiled as he made his way to the bar
and ordered a beer from Vickey, the bartender.
"Hey handsome, how are ya," she asked as she
brought the beer to him.
"Fine, you're looking great," he responded with a
crooked smile.
Morgan sat beside James smiling at the ongoing
banter.
It was no secret to the inner circle that
Vickey and James had had a few dalliances.
"Glad you came, James," said Grayson leaning close
to him and ordered another beer for himself.
"Yeah, well, Jean finally moved out and the house
seemed too quiet."
"Even with those damn horses you call dogs there?"
"Even with them.
How long ya'll staying?"
"For a while; Melisa is in Pawling visiting her
mother, so Morgan will be here for a while.
Beth
has let Dave out of his cage for a bit too.
So we're
here."
"Great, just like old times," smiled James."
”So what do you think of our red-head, James?"
"I try not to.
Her and I have been doing nothing
but butting heads for two days now.
I don't
understand it.”
Morgan laughed at James and shook his head.
"You're trying too hard, buddy.
Relax and be
yourself.
She's cozied up to us just fine."
James turned and gave Morgan a hard look, "Well,
we all can't be perfect, can we?"
James stepped off his stool and walked over to the
dart game in progress in the comer.
It appeared as
if Joey was winning and Bert Foster, the shop
supervisor, was not happy.
Bert who stood six feet one inch and weighed about
290 could have broken Joey in half.
James had to
smile at the battle between the two.
Poor Joey
was only five feet nine and weighed 125 on a good
day.
Bert could break him in half if he wanted
to.
James leaned against the wall and watched
Joey beat the pants off Bert three times.
The side
betting had been hot and heavy and several of the
guys came out losers as they continued to bet on
Bert.
Luckily, James had held onto his money and
spent it wisely on beer instead.

Chapter 6
James was with the last group of employees as they
trickled out of the bar around 11:30.
By then, Alex
had crawled into her bed and drifted off to
sleep.
She had ordered herself not to dream
about James, but that proved impossible.
The
dreams came anyway and this time they were
interspersed with visions of Tad and their last night
together.
James thought the alarm clock was a cruel practical
joke as it went off beside his head.
He had left the
bar at 11:30 but then went to Grayson's for a little
more partying.
He had finally stumbled in about
1:30 a.m. to two angry dogs.
His drinking last
night had done little to ease the empty feeling of
the house or relieve his growing desire for
Alex.
She had floated in and out of his dreams
torturing him with imaginary kisses and touches.
James roused his tired body off the couch and
stumbled upstairs to kick start his mind and body
with a hot shower.
He scrubbed down quickly,
trying to not be late for work.
He wanted to see
Jeff first thing and tell him about the flowers that
somebody had left Alex last night.
By no means,
did he want Alex working late anymore.
James
stepped out of the shower and tracked a wet