Whipped, Whipped, Whipped
 
Author: Limonize
 
Email: spiral@spinfinder.com
 
Rating: PG
 
Summary: Barbara throws a costume party.
 
Adult situations. Sexual content. Do not proceed if you are not over 18.

Author's note:  Much thanks to Linda W. and Suzanne M. for their very helpful
suggestions and comments.
 
 
--+--


Lulu scoured her desktop, looking for the revised brief that Barb was
supposed to have left for her, but could see it nowhere – at least,
not anywhere on or near the top layer of her growing piles of papers.
As she looked up, she saw Barb standing in the doorway, pen and memo
in hand.

"Lu, I was thinking you might want some more edits on this" Barb said
with some concern, gently flipping some stray red curls off her
shoulder. She quickly pointed to a paragraph already heavily marked.

Lulu's eyes followed Barb's pen tip to the words on the page.

"Yeah, that doesn't...you're right," Lulu responded, a little alarmed
at some of the wording she had used. "I'll have to clean it up a bit.
Just leave it with me."

Barb gave her a half-smile of encouragement, turned to leave, but then
stopped to speak again. "By the way, Lu, I'm having a Halloween party
at my place next Thursday–- a costume party. You're invited. I really
hope you come!"

"Oh, yeah? Sounds like fun! I don't have a costume, though..." Lulu
hesitated.

"You don't need anything fancy. I'm just going to a second-hard store,
throwing a couple of things together, making a foil paper crown and
dressing up as a duchess!"

"Neat - that would suit you." Lulu pondered the possibilities.
"Hm.." Second-hand store…older clothes... the more she thought about
it, the more the idea of trying to piece together an outfit from old
clothes appealed to Lulu.

Seeing that Lulu was warming up to the idea, Barb broke into her
thoughts. "And listen – guys never like to come to these things, but I
want the men coming too, so let's put the pressure on, if we have to.
Gotta get the guys there in some costumes, too!" Barb smiled
conspiratorially.

"O-h-h-k-a-ay! sighed Lulu "I don't know how much 'persuasion
quotient' I've got, but I'll do what I can."

Barb's mouth tightened and she curled her hand into a tight fist and
made a swinging motion, suggestive of the measures Lulu should resort
to if necessary. Lulu giggled self-consciously. Pleased that Lulu
was "on stream", Barb left her to search out her next invitee.

"Hey Nick!! Nicholas Fallin!" Barb shouted halfway across the
bullpen, as she saw Nick glide by. He slowed and turned in Barb's
direction on hearing his name.

"You called me?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, Nick!" She looked directly at him, but Nick was already
fidgeting, feeling like someone cornered.

"I have some people in my office," he explained, hoping to bypass any
edicts that Alvin might be trying to spread via Barb.

"Real quick--I'm inviting you to my Halloween party next Thursday.
Don't forget to wear a costume! If you want to bring guests, please
bring them!"

"Uh, okay. I don't have a costume, though," he said.

"Lulu will help you with that." Barb assured him.

Nick stared at Barb in disbelief. "Lul…?"

But he never got to finish his question. Barb had already disappeared.


~ ~ ~


"Uh--are you going to this costume thing of Barb's?"

"Yeah." replied Lulu. "You're going, aren't you? I assume she
invited you."

"I don't have a--"

"Me either.. I was thinking of going to a second-hand store and
throwing something together. I can pick something out for you, if you
like--that is, if you don't want to be bothered."

"Okay, but--" he stammered, trying to choose his words carefully.

"- But what?" she asked.

" -But NO aprons. Got it?" He wanted to be sure he left no doubts
about his dress-up limits.

"Yeah, I got it," Lulu snickered as Nick turned to leave. He heard
her mumble something and turned.

"I didn't hear you," he said.

Lulu assumed a knowing look. She spoke softly: "Let me see, what was
it now?" She placed her index finger on her lip, and looked heavenward
as if groping for an answer. She then abruptly looked back at him,
wagging her finger. "I've got it!" She wagged her finger at him a
second time. "Wasn't it something like 'WHIPPED!! WHIPPED!! WHIPPED!!'?"

She saw his ambushed, dazed look, but taking no prisoners, she asked
sweetly, in mock innocence, "Did I get it right?"

So she'd known all along about James' mocking comment--and had played
dumb about it with him! Nick grabbed her wagging finger. But he
caught himself, remembering that he was still very much "at work". He
would soon need to mollify his waiting clients.

"On second thought, I think I'll come as the Marquis de Sade" he
hissed, beginning to make his usual, hasty exit.

"No aprons, I promise!" she called after him.

~ ~ ~


"Hippies?" Isn't that..well--" Nick looked less than thrilled

" --pretty bohemian?" Lulu supplied.

"Yeah. It's very bohemian." His eyes narrowed in suspicion as he
looked at the clothing that Lulu had spread out across the
tangerine-quilted guest bed of her new apartment.

"You'll look good!" Lulu assured him. She had assembled a wardrobe
of clothing that would have made a good tribute to John & Yoko. She
had picked out some small white and peach-colored flowers to weave
into her hair, rolled some rosehip leaves with cigarette rolling paper
to resemble fat joints and had purchased matching, weathered and worn,
low-fitting jeans and matching headbands. She also had a long-haired
wig for Nick to complete the unkempt, wild-haired look of the
seventies. She slipped two colorful scarves through the jeans loops
for belts.

Nick was skeptical. There were small holes in his slightly graying
T-shirt, and the faded bellbottom jeans indeed, looked over thirty
years old.

"This thing looks as if leeches have eaten right through it!" he groused.

"But that was the look, Nick! Lots of them lived off the land, in
communes, slept in their clothes – remember Woodstock? They rolled
around in the mud in the rain!"

"H-m-ph." If Lulu thought it looked good, and she had gone to the
bother…well…maybe he'd best "go with the flow" anyway, Nick reasoned.
Looking ridiculous was a smaller price to pay than being hung out to
dry. Maybe this was just a rule in the game of relationships. The
rules of the game had been harsh all his life, especially at boarding
school, where competition was everything, where tolerating a
humiliation today meant endless humiliation tomorrow. And there was
no escape from tormenting classmates until the Christmas holidays
finally arrived.

Nick slipped wordlessly downstairs to the front house entranceway, and
retrieved his gym bag that he had left sitting there. When he
re-entered her bedroom holding it, she expected that he would pull out
a fresh T-shirt -- to substitute for the dingy one she had selected
for him. To her great surprise however, he extracted an Army fatigue
jacket from it, instead. He glanced at her nervously, and quietly
slipped it on.

Lulu stared at him in amazement.

"Where did you get that?" she asked, very intrigued.

"It's a long story.." he grunted, as he struggled to front anchor the
long wig she had handed him.

It seemed to Lulu that he didn't sound the least bit interested in
explaining himself. "Well, it's not…really hippie-ish…I don't
think.." ventured Lulu, hesitantly.

"If John Lennon wore one, so can I," replied Nick matter-of-factly,
straightening the shoulder on it, flipping his "hippie" hair out of
the way. Lulu drew it back in front to complete his ensemble, when he
had finished straightening himself.
Lulu said nothing. The jacket looked rather good on him after all,
adding to the size of his ample shoulders.

"Well, let me just chalk a peace symbol on it. Okay?"

He nodded, closely watching her, as she chalked a circle with an
inverted Y inside it on his breast pocket. With that, she applied the
finishing touch to his costume and adjusted his headband a little.
Quite pleased that they were now ready for the Hallowe'en party, she
picked up the beribboned bottle of wine she had bought for Barb and
headed for the door. Nick followed her out, the long, wavy,
dirty-blond hair swaying freely with his agile movement.

~ ~ ~

"Here's comes "Mr. Peace `n' Love," announced Alvin as he opened
Barb's door and waved Nick and Lulu inside with a sweeping gesture. He
was dressed in a white and red polka-dotted clown suit and his heavy
facial makeup featured a red nose and painted "sad" eyes. "No phone
throwing tonight, Nick!" he jibed, unable to resist. "John would have
said "Peace on earth! You know that, don't you?"

Nick briefly gave Alvin his "icy Nick" look. Seeing that Alvin had
gotten the message, he then lifted his index and middle fingers into a
"V" for Alvin to see.

"Peace to YOU too, brother" Alvin smiled, lifting his own fingers in a
"V" in response, pleased that Nick had made this gesture. "We used to
take this stuff pretty seriously, you know, Nick!"

"So tell us more about those communes, Alvin. For instance, who
usually did most of the cooking?" challenged Lulu, rescuing Nick from
Alvin's pedantic stories. It was clear to Nick that Alvin and Lulu
would wind up in a friendly but heated debate before too long, and he
tried to follow Barb out to the kitchen, but not before Jake spotted him.

"Hey, everybody! It's "John n' Yoko!" yelled Jake, who was dressed as
a vampire, sporting a billowing black cape with a red satin lining.

Nick looked at Lulu appraisingly, suddenly realizing that her
diminutive stature and raven black hair gave their costumes a bit more
"chutzpah" then he would have given the pairing credit for, initially.
He began to relax more, and joined in the speculative gossip going on
in the living room, about a high profile judge who was rumored to be
slated for removal from the bench.

~ ~ ~

"So whaddya think?" winked Lulu, returning to him after some time
spent mingling with "the Duchess", Evan "the hobo" and other assorted
guests.

Nick, having finally finished his probation (and chosen to continue
with LSP in a part-time capacity), had been exploring his reclaimed
civil right to down a couple of cups of strongly spiked punch, and was
feeling very relaxed.

"The 'peace' bit is okay." he replied. "Better than I thought." He
pulled her closer to him, lowered his head toward her and whispered:
"It's the "free love" part that I'm waiting for--."

"Free? Did you say, FREE?" Barb interrupted, catching his remark as
she walked by, heading for the other room with another plate of
snacks. She acted shocked and amazed, much in the manner of an
Ultramatic bed ad actor. Her crown gave her the look of a fairy
godmother, able to grant wishes with the wave of a wand.

Nick and Lulu both looked at her uneasily, not knowing where Barb was
going with this, hoping "Her Grace" would be kind to them.

Barb lowered her voice. "You can always have FREE love, Nick! Trouble
is -" she added sagaciously, "--it'll always cost ya!"

"Yes, Barb," Nick sighed with resignation. "I kind of figured that. I
think maybe I'm finally getting the message." He glanced at Lulu,
leaned over and whispered to her.

"Huh?" she asked.

He leaned even closer, whispering softly in her ear, almost inaudibly:
"Whipped!... whipped!...WHIPPED!" He flicked the tip of his tongue
inside her ear, swirling it around once, with molasses-like slowness.

Lulu involuntarily yelped and blushed so forcefully she thought her
temples would explode. She drew strands of Nick's fake hair in front
of her face, frantically attempting to shield herself from onlookers.

What would Yoko have done? she wondered - then she remembered the old
movie of Yoko and John making love, that had been aired on TV – and
shuddered.

~ ~ ~