Jem… Chapter 166

*Before…

I gotta girl crush…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWecuhUUvX0(link is external)
I’m swaying and I’m smiling and hugging myself in this really likely hormonally boosted so in love way.
I mean it’s simply past amazing.
And today might just be right up there with the best of all the days of my life.
Rayne gets done and I know it’ll be a mess on the screen but I lean over to her and I kiss the screen and her.
I hear clapping on her end and there’s people in the background that are cheering her on and she’s blushing and she’s smiling too and even through the screens I can see the gleam in her eyes.
I laugh-cry-happy-bubble into the camera and shout so they all can hear me.
“I LOVE YOU RAYNE! I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL YOU GET HOME!”
There’s a hand reaching for the power button that's not hers but another woman's (long nails with funky polish.) and she yells to me. “I LOVE YOU TOO!”
Then the screen goes black and I fall backwards on the couch happily hugging myself.

*And Now…

It’s so one of those hug yourself happy moments that I’m still getting used to. Not in last night’s PTSD freak out sort of thing but where it’s just that intense that it leaves you teary eyed and breathless.

I know it’s the relationship with us having been through some stuff already and come through it but it’s definitely the hormones too. I can feel the difference in how I feel, how I react to stuff too and oh yeah the boobies.
They’re definitely starting and that’s awesome.

I never really got a positive hit past dressing the part with the whole body integrity stuff.
But yeah from the waist up it’s like all more than good.

Molly and Carmen are smiling at me and they’re setting together cooling off from the dance stuff while heating back up in a whole other way with some light petting and necking and I grin back and wipe at my eyes and go and bounce over to the door when the pizza’s get here and we dig into things after I pay the guy and give him a five-dollar tip and he asks for an autograph and a picture with me for his FB page and to show to his GF and he was really happy when he left.

Pizza hut pizza is actually pretty good, or I like it and the price is perfect too really. I like it because of the crust, it’s soft and fluffy but it’s pan-pizza and it’s kinda sort of got this fried bread thing happening with the bottom of the crust.

And I’m not super fussy so everything else on it’s just like lots of bonus stuff really.

I’m talking my time with slice three after scarfing down the first two and I’m sitting and thinking about stuff for the fall fair and what we are going to do and need and start making lists out of things like for the tables and baking things and the merchandise table but with our staging too and Then I go online and to the fall fair message board and find out a few things that we’ll need and yeah if dad will help we can definitely swing it.

I text him asking about the fair and using one of the generators and things and he’s cool with it and then we’re brainstorming over the stuff for the fair and our staging.

I’m sharing it with the girls too as we’re eating and Carmen’s got a sketch pad out and she’s drawing things that we might wear for the fair and all and that’s pretty cool too. She’s a good artist, like seriously I had no idea just how well she can draw in addition to the hair and make-up stuff and out clothes.

And I kind of love that she’s into it because she gets to that point of where she kisses Molly and heads out with the credit card for things and she took her sketch pad with her.

“She’s so into this.” I say going for slice four.

“She is and it’s a big deal for her Angel, seriously she got stuff shoved down her throat all her life like I did and the rest of us.”

“I know, and Adam really doesn’t help any of the shit that people go through.”

She nods. “I’ve never really had dealings with him and stuff like your cousin Jace did but he’s part of all of it, how people treat others like shit for being different.”

“Yeah, and hopefully we’ll get him…I just…it’s frustrating knowing he’s doing all this crooked stuff and not really being able to prove it.”

She’s looking at me. “Can you do the Halloween thing?”

I nod. “We have to, one to show that we’re not afraid of him given things that’s happened and two to show we’re professionals that can work or are willing to work past bad blood.”

Molly nods. “Plus we can network more with The Brewster’s and the people they know and get more stuff done with the town maybe that way and really it’ll throw him off with us looking seriously like we’re concentrating on our careers instead of going after him.”

I nod.

Molly looks at her screen adjusting her glasses. “I’m still worried about Mike though, the whole biker thing and all it’s way out of my league.”

I nod. “I know, there’s a lot going on there that’s just really scary and big deal kind of stuff. The only thing that I know is that Adam doesn’t know what he’s doing either with all this stuff with the bikers too according to Billy and Davie.”

I take a breath and then relax, It’s one of those things that you got to relax about really and if I’m keeping things in perspective I’m only being a small part of this whole deal anyways.

Between the guys and the RCMP and Mike I’m just a sort of partial witness and a go between in building all of this.

And from what “Uncle Bobby.” Says they’ve been looking for a way to take some of the Marshal family down for a long time.

Who knows if we nail Adam to the wall then maybe he’ll spill the beans on the rest.

One can like only hope right?
I take a drink and sink down to work some on the computer with like paying bills and on chat with the girls about The Brewer gig at The Cat from time to time and the playlists there and what we’re going to do for Fall Fair.

We’re a mostly girl rock band but the Fall Fair’s going to be one of those venues like The Amsterdam with a lot of folks that are older there too. In fact they usually go to these things more and stay longer while the families with younger kids stay for some stuff but mostly the animals and the rides.

So…maybe a different set of small shows?

Like an early one and a later one that we can play some vintage rock at for the folks that will be more suited to that.

I love Fall Fair.

Here in Harper’s Point it’s this whole thing down by the lake because there’s usually some lake stuff going on but there’s all the veggies and then there’s like the animals for like judging and competitions and stuff or awards through community stuff like 4-H and then there’s like the games with like the folks from The Rotary Club, Lion’s Club, Fire Department and all sorts of local stuff too that fundraises or does charities and then there’s hired on folks that run the trucks that bring in the rides and carnival games.

Hopefully, it’s actually getting harder and harder I think to find the mobile guys these days with so many parks being more common and things.

But there’s usually a straw maze and then there’s all sorts of cooking done and then again the carnival folks that have all the junky trinkety stuff that I actually liked like the dart games with the rock band mirrors and then the engraving booth for stuff from the fair or even things that you bring in and then there’s the food.

Seriously there’s that chip truck with the almost burnt but somehow just right fries, the same with the onion rings and the hot dogs and burgers in that paper foil stuff that somehow makes it all greasier and sort of better?

And Cotton Candy…I actually like cotton candy but like not more than once a year or so.

And Beavertails…and sometimes fuddle cakes but those are really rare and one of those things that you don’t really see here outside of places like the Toronto exhibition.

Dad’s online off and on and he’s really into it and he might do something this year for something he’s not sure what or what to support but he’s always been a fan of doing stuff for the locals which is why he cuts folks who need their heavy equipment fixed a break.

Farmers and such don’t generally get paid every two weeks.

And some businesses do things for the fair or go in with others for the fair.

Bit by bit I’m sort of getting things together especially when I get sent the plotting chart of who’s going to be where from The Fall Fair folks and know how big our space is and just how much room we’ll have to do the stuff we want to do.

Swag table, baked goods table, make-up chair, and our mini stage for who’s going to be playing and giving lessons…then room to move…wiring…amps and speakers.

And once that’s sort of done I’m looking through You Tube videos and my Pandora to find songs that might be okay for us to play or cover at The Fall Fair.

That keeps me going until I hear the vehicles pulling in and I’m doing the blinky thing from too much focus on the screen as Rayne comes in from work.

I smile just…huge smile because all the cool stuff this morning comes back to me and I hop up and bounce over and give her a kiss and she kisses me back long and deeply and she slips her hands down and over my butt and sort of cups and holds.

It feels good and it’s kind of embarrassing all at the same time but that sort of good embarrassing where you feel silly but good.

And the kissing is really that way good sort of over and over kissing that gets more intense as we do it and she actually lifts me and sets my butt down on the junk table.

That’s that little hallway table where things just sort of get like tossed, you know that place in your own place.

The kissing gets more tender after that and she’s leaning into me and our breasts are touching even if it’s through shirts and my legs move so I can sort of curl them around hers and I’m getting lost in her smell and her eyes.

Even with the work stuff she smells like her own body scent after her long day at work and she lingers with the scents of her perfume and her deodorant.

She nuzzles into my neck after breaking from the kisses. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, that…all of that was exactly what I needed.”

I sort of nuzzle back, there’s just something about that just barely there grazing touches and hair whispers.

“Good, I hate it when you’re down.”

“Thank you, I don’t know it just hit me like this sort of messed up too happy…”

Rayne’s looking me in the eyes and she’s nodding and I can see that she gets it.

“It’s hard getting that it’s good, that it’s okay through to yourself sometimes.”

As she says it she leans into me more and her arms do the circle around me not like hugging but this casual loving sort of holding thing.

It’s pretty good.

“Sorry though for messing up our early night.” I say sort of bashfully.

Rayne smiles and she softly kisses me again. “We’re good Angelle, as long as I get to freak out too.”

I nod and we both share this look like we’ve been there for those moments already and that we’re going to be there for more too.

I mean we’ve been together for such a short time and we’ve well…u-hauled already but we’ve really been through some things along the way as well.

And that’s kind of really shining out as a strength for us right now.

Carmen slips past us to the kitchen.

“You two should keep up the momentum with today and use the whole Monday night no gig thing and actually go out.”

I look at Rayne and she looks at me and she does that sexy cute raised eyebrow thing and I’m smiling and nodding.

She nuzzles me smiling again and talks in that sexy husky whisper thing she does with that hint of her French accent in it. “So what do you want to do?”

“Movies?”

“That’s pretty stereotypical?”

“Yeah but do we really get to go?”

And that’s true even with Dad and living home movies were a thing either on pay-per-view or like from the video stores/corner stores that rented stuff all of which are vanishing because everyone just watches stuff online.

She looks like she’s thinking it over and she nods. “That’s true, and it won’t be that crowded on a Monday night.”

“We can go out for supper too.”

Rayne smiles. “Of course we are.”

I kiss her softly. “What do you feel like having?”

“Besides you?”

I smile and nod then kiss her again. “Besides me.”

“Chinese.”

Brook must have sacrificed a goat to the timing gods because she and Kimmie were coming in just as Rayne and I were doing all of this and she says while taking off her boots. “Well you can stay in and have Kimmie cook then, that’ll be Chinese.”

And Kimmie’s swearing in Japanese then saying. “I’m not Chinese I’m Japanese! You soulless ginger!”

And they’re off with Brooklyn going for her usual. “Chinese, Japanese it’s all Napa cabbage and soy-sauce.”

Kimmie’s chasing after her as they head off into the kitchen.

Rayne and I are chuckling watching them go and I smile at her and run my fingers through her hair and tuck a few errant strands behind her ear. “I could go for some Chinese food that’s another thing that we don’t really do that much.”

She nods. “Let me get cleaned up and we can look where to go.”

I slide off the junk table. “I know a place.”

“Where?”

“It’s called Turtles. Mom liked the food there.”

Rayne looks interested. “I’ve never been there do they serve turtle?”

“No, but they did like a pork dish or something that they called turtle or something all I can remember is that mom only really ordered from there when we ordered it out.”

“You mom cooked Chinese food?”

I laugh. “My mom cooked Wong-wing and VH sauce stuff which isn’t the same thing but it was good and she made homemade eggrolls.”

Kimmie’s head pops out the kitchen door. “Angel…Angel do you know how to make homemade eggrolls?”

I laugh. “Sort of I helped mom with hers and I know how to like seal them up and stuff. I’ve never actually made my own.”

She’s looking at me pleadingly. “Can you, I’ll buy the stuff!”

“Suuuuure…when?”

Okay I don’t really have to ask because the look on her face is all that I need to see. “So tomorrow then?”

She runs out and she hugs me. “Thank you, thank you seriously thank you!”

I hug her back. “You really like eggrolls huh?”

She nods. “Homemade eggrolls though, I ate them when hanging with my cousin and his gang, they got them from like these vendor ladies in one of the parks and they were like one of the best things ever.”

“Meat or veggie?”

“Can we have both?”

“What kind of meat?”

“Isn’t it always hamburger?”

I shake my head my mom used a whole bunch of things but there was always pork in most of the dishes.

She shrugs. “I dunno but I really, really love them.”

“Okay then tomorrow but you’re helping, they’re pretty labor intensive when you’re putting them together.”

Kimmie hugs me again and she skips back into the kitchen and I look at Rayne who’s smiling at me. “You spoil them.”

I grin and blush. “They’re my friends and besides there’s a few things that I’ve wanted to try doing.”

She looks at me. “Like?”

I join her in heading up the stairs. “Like taking Mac’n cheese and then putting it in a baking dish with one layer and then more cheese and then a layer of either chili or hamburger and then more Mac ‘n cheese and freezing it then like cutting it into bars than I can wrap in eggroll wrap and then deep-fry.”

She’s staring at me in amused horror. “Oh god I’d weigh three hundred pounds….”

I laugh. “No you won’t but they’d freeze well and could be reheated in the oven and we could show these to like Jake or Charlie.”

“Like Hot Pockets.”

I give her the squinty eye. “Nooooo…Hot pockets suck.”

No, seriously, they do…I mean I’m not a fan of The Pillsbury pizza pockets but McCain Hot Pockets suck even worse that those do…like right down there with those microwave Stouffer sandwich sort of things.

I made her laugh though and she’s nodding as she’s laughing. “Oui, le Hot Pockets are pretty gross.”

We both go and we get ready to go out and I check for Turtles on my smartphone because it’s been ages and I find it still listed and I make a note of the address and then I’m getting ready for my shower and I take pictures of all the cool things that Rayne wrote on me before I end up scrubbing it all off.

I want those as pictures, like printed out real pictures.

They’re really important.

And as I’m doing that Rayne comes in wearing her towel and we end up taking some pictures together with her in the towel and us together and a couple of side selfies of us kissing together. Those take some doing since we’re not great at the aiming thing so it’s like two really great shots out of like a dozen and then I head to the shower and get ready.

Yeah as much as I talk about Rayne and I in the shower together or the bath as often as not it’s more a rare thing as opposed to it being something usual for us. It’s actually way more awkward then it seems, but I’m glad that we do it anyways.

And it’s a good shower.

Not in the getting clean thing but in that getting clean and not slamming into the urgh my body stuff that comes with things a lot being trans.

This was good, no flare ups and I actually like the girl looking back at me with the really small boobs but definitely there boobs and I even do the shoulder push together thing that sort of makes like more cleavage.

I so like the look of that, it so, so looks like the me that’s in my head these days.

I slip into the double panty combo that hides the mistake and then with it hidden and out of the way I feel even better and blow dry my hair and then towel wrap and head to our room and start getting ready.

We’re going out but at the same time we’re eating out so I actually dress nice. Inserts and then my bra and then my deodorant and a little perfume, just a dab of Juicy and then it’s a slip and a nice blouse/shirt and I go with a longish free flowing sort of peasant skirt and then just a little make-up like some foundation and concealer blending things in just as a touch up more than the real thing and some eye shadow and mascara and liner then just some lip gloss instead of lipstick. I’m going eating so wearing lipstick is kind of a waste really when I’d be just re-doing it all the time.

Though Rayne’s definitely lipsticking with this killer deep plum color and matching eyes and she’s going with this really sexy bra under a chemise like top and she’s wearing a sort of like guy’s sports coat over it and jeans.

There’s something about that contrast of the jacket with all that sexy stuff underneath it all that just really works especially when you add in her long black hair and the way she does her make-up.

She’s just really, really stunning and since we were taking pictures before we do some more again before we head out and she gets my door and we drive off for Turtles.

It’s a nice drive too. I mean we’re not really going that far but we’re going out and not to a gig so we’re just driving and we’re not in a hurry either and there’s good tunes playing which just makes it all better too and one of those just cool moments.

Seriously…Driving with my girlfriend listening to tunes and going on a date is a very cool moment.

Turtles is sort of on the edge of this old residential area before the highway was like moved for a new overpass and it became the main drag in town as it were with all the new malls going up and Cost-co and all the other stuff that migrated out of the inner parts of town.

It’s right in this little mini-mall place and it has this sort of Turtle shell print awning and there’s a big picture window with Chinese writing on it and House of turtles in English and there’s a ring of ceramic turtles in the window with one of those little mini-fountains. The place is kind of run down and not, it’s old, it’s old and it sort of shows it especially on the inside where it’s like super old like eighties Asian faux décor.

But it’s actually pretty busy and while we don’t have to wait the place is still three quarters full.

And it smells amazing in here too.

We’re actually seen to right away though with water and menus and the waiter boy asks us if we want a pot of tea with our meal and we say yes and he leaves and comes back with a little ceramic pot that smells pretty good and of like green tea and ginger? He has two little cups for us as well.

I don’t remember that as a kid coming here but really I remember really good fried rice and me singing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles song with my folks as we came inside.

I grin as I kinda sort of want to hum it right now.

Rayne’s grinning to. “Tea…I thing splinter would approve.”

I laugh and we pour tea and sip at it and then we go through the menu.

Okay, here’s a cool thing… Rayne and I don’t like ordering combo plates.

We order beef and broccoli stir fry and beef fried rice and then there’s turtle-soup dumplings that we order and cashew duck.

And fried wontons…Mom always wanted fried wontons with that glowing red cherry sauce.

We get those first and they’re just exactly that a little bit of spare-rib folded into a corner and then deep fried. They’re pretty much exactly what you’d get anywhere but they’re still good. I really never get to have stuff like this.

The beef and broccoli is good with the beef long slices and really thin like paper and yet there’s still this sort of fatty part running through it and the broccoli is done just right and there’s some bits of other stuff in there to sort of make in rounded out like ginger and garlic and carrot bits. I kind of like this though since they used the peeled stems too and the leaves off of the broccoli and there’s even the odd mushroom slice or two.

The beef fried rice in the sit down serving is amazing though.

It’s like regular beef fried rice with the seasonings and the handful of veggies and fluffy egg bits all folded into it but that’s where it ends and there’s this sort of beef/gravy/sauce just drizzled over it sparingly and then whole top of the rice bowl is covered by the same beef that they have in the beef and broccoli and it looks amazing.

Tastes even better especially since the meat keeps the rice steaming hot literally and moist and the steam from the rice keeps the beef soft and freshly cooked like.

And the soup dumplings…turtle isn’t what they use instead it’s spiced and braised pig shank with the skin left on and then deboned and cut into thin sections. The rest is just like pork soup dumpling but the skin and the fat is what really sort of makes that turtle effect. They’re sort of hard to eat since soup dumplings sort of burst in your mouth unless you have the hang of eating them. But I really like the flavors and the “turtle” is actually really satisfying in this sort of chewy but not chewy sort of soft and sticky way.

And then cashew duck is good too. It’s sort of a riff on the chicken with the gravy and peanuts thing that they call Su-guy?

This was like cooked skin side down and brushed with sauce meat side up until the fat rendered out and then they sliced it and poured this pretty decent gravy of some kind over it and then there’s this dusting on ground cashews over it and some whole ones and some of those orange crunchy chow mein noodles.
It’s just two breasts sliced up but it’s so rich that it’s filling and we end up getting at least half of the beef and broccoli and the fried rice to take home.

The tea was such a nice touch really though, it helped cut through all of it as you ate and then there was just enough afterwards that it finished everything off.

We’re full and then some as we pay and leave a good tip and take our take away bag and head out to the mall.

We’re a little early so we end up walking around and just holding hands and looking at things for forty minutes or so letting everything settle and even stopping at Second Cup for a coffee for Rayne.

We’re getting looks.

I mean we’re definitely out, I mean there’s people that recognize us from our shows or online or something else but there’s still folks that are looking and staring and there’s even the odd frown from some folks and those are the ones that you’d usually expect.

Like older folks and not just because they’re older but that’s a good chunk of it or the ones that look a bit too prim and stuff.

I’d imagine that a decade or so past we’d be asked to stop or worse but we’re not and aside from some of the folks you know that don’t approve everyone else is actually pretty good.

I even seen a few folks not quite where we’re at together kind of sort of get closer.

Brush a hand against a hand.

It’s kinda cool seeing that.

People are people and we all deserve to like be happy.

We slip into one of the florist places and we buy each other a flower.

We spend some money getting our pictures taken in one of those photo-booths together and use the privacy to smooch while we’re getting our pictures taken.

Rayne actually has me hold her coffee and our flowers as she retouches her lipstick right outside the booth and she carefully wipes hers off of me leaving no question of what we did for the lookey-lou’s that want to stare and frown.

And as much as I’m hiding from Adam and stuff I’m not hiding my relationship.

We lace our fingers together as we head to the theater together and get our tickets to see Scott Pilgrim versus the World.