Best Man

"I did it, I did it, I did it!" came Caroline's squeal of glee as she ran threw open the front door and ran into the kitchen; the rubber bottoms of her pink Chuck Taylors smacking loudly against the tiled floor.

Sitting at the table with a cup of decaf coffee and staring at the crossword puzzle before him that he just couldn't figure out for the life of him, Mike's head snapped up in the direction of his fiancee as she practically hopped in place.

"What'd you do?" he inquired, raising on eyebrow in curiosity.

"I successfully made it through an entire rehearsal, playing the bass and singing at the same time. And I didn't lose track of what I was doing either. It's like..." she trailed, staring dreamily up at the ceiling as she grasped for words. "It's like it all became one. You know what I mean?" Looking back down at Mike with wild hazel eyes sparkling like little fires, Caroline bit her bottom lip to keep her smile from breaking her face.

Mike just nodded, smirking at how an ability he'd taken for granted for so long was such a major deal for her. "I'm very proud," he whispered.

"And I owe it all to you, baby," she beamed, scuffling her feet over to him and helping herself up into his lap to straddle him.

Pressing her lips firmly against his, Caroline cupped both sides of Mike's face and kissed him with all the life she had in her. When his nethers began to react to her subtle movement in his lap, he pulled her face back and stared right into her eyes.

"If I knew you'd get this passionate, I'd tutor you in everything I know."

Laughing a little, Caroline tilted her head to the right and leaned forward enough to give him just a simple peck on his nose. And, without any need for a segue and without any couth at all, Caroline shoved her hand down between their bodies and, more importantly, right down his pants.

"Uh," he grunted in surprise. Pleasant surprise.

"Let's break out that video recorder and make our own sex tape," she suggested devilishly.

Arching his eyebrows questioningly and then with a devilish look to his own eyes, Mike began to grin as he felt the heat of arousal burning in his chest.

"We can hook it up to the doohickey thing so that it records to a DV-R."

Pausing for a moment, Caroline gave him a look. "Doohickey thing?"

"Well, considering my mind's focused on fucking your brains out right now, I don't think it matters whether or not I can figure out the name of a...doohickey...at the moment."

Flashing him a smile worthy of the Cheshire Cat, Caroline slid off his lap and led him into the living room where she went to draw the curtains and gestured for him to set everything up.

And, then, when all was said and done, they turned to one another, before the camera, and began to strip each other of their clothes, while feverishly battling for dominance with their lips.

Slowly, they sank to the couch.

And the red light on the video camera was the telltale sign that everything they did was being filmed.



About one week later it was mid November, another week closer to Thanksgiving, and Tre was in his SUV; parking in Mike's driveway with his cell phone almost glued to his ear.

"Yeah, I just pulled up and I got a key," he was saying as he turned off the ignition. "We all have keys to each other's houses. It's just something we do." Blue eyes looking at the house before him, Tre slid out of his vehicle and walked up to the front door as he fumbled with all the keys on his key ring. "Yeah. Yeah, don't worry. I'll get the DVD and take it back for you. But just because it's noon on the due date doesn't mean you're gonna be charged, you know. Remember how Blockbuster did away with late charges a couple of years ago?"

Unlocking the front door, Tre helped himself inside and turned toward the living room after shutting the door behind him.

The house was dead quiet because Caroline was in the city recording with her band and Mike was spending the afternoon with his daughter.

"It's got nothing to do with morals and an honor system, babe," Tre assured. "Trust me. A few hours later or even a day or so later won't hurt anyone. I haven't seen this movie yet anyway, so I think I'll watch it first before returning it. Mike won't mind."

Tre fell silent as he stood in the archway to the living room, nodding at what the other person was saying.

"I will. Yeah...okay, Zelle, I'll talk to you later." Blowing a kiss, Tre hung up and placed the cell phone into his pants pocket as he stepped into the living room and took in the sight of a bunch of DVDs, scattered on the coffee table; overturned and right side up.

Frowning, he walked over to the coffee table and crouched down in order to find the right DVD from Blockbuster that Giselle had rented but every single DVD was a DV-R. Except for one.

Twisting his lips in curiosity, Tre's attention was suddenly focused on one DV-R in particular that was written on with a black Sharpie.

It said: Fuckin' Good Stuff.

Lifting the disc up in his hands, Tre studied it briefly and then looked at the DVD player. After a moment, he stood up and put the disc into the DVD player, turned the TV on and pressed play on the remote.

Sitting down on the couch, he waited as the screen came to life with Mike's face taking up the entire size of the television.

It showed him backing away as if making sure he was setting up a camera correctly.

"Is it set up?" Caroline was asking; her figure only partly in view as her arm could be seen reaching out to turn on an end table lamp.

"Yeah, the red light's on," Mike replied.

Tre leaned forward a bit and narrowing his blue eyes as he watched Mike back further away and then stand up straight to turn and face Caroline who was sauntering up to him like a predator sizing up her prey. Then how they slowly met up halfway in front of the camera and began to practically rip each other's clothes off.

And the drummer couldn't believe what he'd popped into the DVD player.

Mike and Caroline had made a sex tape!

And, for some reason, he couldn't pull his eyes away.

He watched as his best friend and ex-girlfriend went down on each other and went at it in all different positions; speaking in husky voices to one another as romp after romp seemed never-ending.

Maybe it made him a horribly perverted friend, or a some version of a Peeping Tom, but Tre was aroused because it was just like watching porn.

It didn't necessarily matter to him who it was that was getting it on, just that he was viewing the act of sex.

Biting his bottom lip in a mix of embarrassment for his own actions in watching the DVD, and in the need to relieve the ache he was starting to feel, Tre began to lower his hand between his legs...

...Just as the sound of a car pulling into the driveway outside snapped him out of his daydream.

A sense of panic flying through him, Tre jumped up and turned the DVD off and popped it out, but he dropped the DV-R on the coffee table with the others but it didn't matter because he needed the Blockbuster video anyway.

He grabbed up the case and as the front door opened, he looked up to see Mike standing in the archway.

"Whatcha doin'?" the taller man asked, naively; not at all minding the fact that his friend was in his house without being invited over first.

"Uh..." I was watching you fuck Caroline and it was hot! And it makes me wanna bang her again because she always was a minx in the sack! "I was watching the movie Giselle rented. I told her I'd bring it back to Blockbuster for her but I hadn't seen it yet."

"Oh, that new Julia Roberts one?"

"Uh...yeah." He glanced down at the discs and spotted the movie he needed but when he looked back at Mike, he wasn't paying that much attention to his hand. He grabbed up the movie and placed it in the DVD case and shut it quickly as the bassist was distracted with throwing his jacket on a nearby chair. "But I'm gonna go now, so I'll talk to ya later."

"Huh? Oh, okay. See ya later, Tre."

Without another word, Tre was out of the house and in his SUV, backing out of the driveway and driving down the road as his heartbeat was beating like crazy.

A million and two thoughts were dancing around his head and he kept checking his mirrors as if Mike would've somehow figured out what he'd been doing after he'd left and chase him down. But there was no one except what appeared to be a little old lady in a Cadillac who eventually turned down a side street.

Minutes later, Tre pulled into Blockbuster's parking lot and hopped out, with the DVD case in hand as he walked into the store and up to the counter.

"Hey!" the video clerk, Rose, greeted affectionately.

Tre had been a customer of hers for years, or, well, for as long as she'd been working at this particular Blockbuster.

Pushing black hair from her blue eyes, she grinned at the famous drummer who flashed a smile back at her.

"Hey yourself."

"How's my favorite customer?"

Tre looked over his shoulder, saw no one, and then looked back at her. "Oh, you're talking about me," he teased. "I'm...good. You?"

"Better now that you're here."

"You flatter me," he commented; his eyes looking over to the list of movies that would be available as New Releases in the following weeks.

"Of course I do. It keeps you coming back here, don't it?" Without missing a beat, she continued on, taking the DVD from him. "Returning this?" She looked at the name. "Aw, this was a good one. If Julia Roberts doesn't get another Oscar for this movie I might just hijack a bus down to LA the night of the Academy Awards."

Tre laughed slightly, but his mind wasn't all there at the moment. He was just distracted.

"Well, I'll be seein' ya, Rose," he assured, tapping the counter with his hand.

"Not gonna rent anything else?"

"Nope, not today."

Turning around with a wave back at her, Tre walked out of the store as she called out a goodbye to him and then took the DVD in the back to watch to make sure there weren't any problems with it.