Page 3 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"I amso sorry!" Ashley fled, presumably to get a t-shirt.

Penny yelled, "It's fine! Accidents happen!" after her. The bra came off for a thorough rinsing and a scrub with soap from the dispenser, although she paused to put her beer-wet shirt back so she wouldn't jiggle quite as much while she scrubbed. Ashley came back with a shirt clutched in her hands and offered it silently. Penny shook her head. "I'll wait until I've washed this, at least. That way I'm not splashing water all over the new shirt. Thanks. You don't have to wait for me," she added ruefully. "I know you've just taken over managing the place and I'm sure you've got better things to do than watch people wash bras in your bathroom sink. Think the hand dryer has enough power to dry this thing?" She lifted the dripping bra.

"It's lace," Ashley said in a funny voice. "Not padded cups. It might."

"Are you a padded-cups girl? I can never get them to fit right." Penny squeezed as much water as she could out of the lace and squished it out of thin padding around the underwires before draping the bra over the hand dryer and stripping her beery shirt back off to plunge it into the sink.

"Sorry!" Ashley spun around to fix her gaze on the bathroom door.

Penny laughed, though a trill of disappointment went through her. Apparently Ashley was either too polite, or too disinterested, to ogle. Not that Penny generally wanted to be ogled, but if it was Ashley ogling, she would make an exception. "Yeah, because you've never seen boobs before, and nobody's ever seen mine. It's fine. I promise, after being in a band for ten years, I've gotten really comfortable with randos seeing my boobs. Not that you're a rando! It's just, you know, backstage and stuff! I'm going to stop talking now!" Maybe if she drained the sink, it would suck her down into it and she wouldn't have to face having made a complete—well, tit—of herself in front of the Thunder Bear Bar manager.

Ashley coughed like she was trying to cover a laugh. "Want me to try drying your bra?"

"That would be great," Penny mumbled. "I've almost got the shirt clean, I think, but it's going to take forever to dry. No, wait, don't you have work to do?"

The other woman was already putting Penny's bra under the dryer, which kicked on with enthusiasm. Ashley raised her voice to say, "They can hold down the fort without me for fifteen minutes. You can probably dry off with some of the paper towels. I really am sorry. I'm not usually clumsy."

"I don't usually try to thrust beers on unsuspecting women in bars, either, so I think we can say we're both at fault."

There was an audible pause. "Do you thrust them at suspecting women?"

"I wouldn't saythrust," Penny said in an attempt at dignity. "And I'd prefer to say I offered them tointerestedwomen, not suspecting ones. That makes me sound like they have reason to be suspicious of me. Okay, is it too weird to hang my shirt up infront of the window or something?" She'd wrung it out, and was now eyeing the small, open bathroom window near the ceiling.

"I kind of want to see you try."

Penny sniffed. "I'll have you know we short people have our ways. They involve turning the garbage can over and climbing on it, if necessary."

"Or asking tall people to reach it for you." Ashley smiled over her shoulder at Penny, realized she still didn't have a shirt on, and turned pink along her magnificent cheekbones. "Er, sorry."

"I shall spare you the terrible vision of my naked flesh and put a shirt on," Penny promised, and did so. The Thunder Bear Brewery had a pretty good icon, a big grizzly-type bear with a slash of stylized lightning that stretched across her boobs in an appealing way. "Better?"

Ashley glanced at her again, expression sheepish. "I just don't want to be rude. I think the bra's drying. The underwires might take a while, though."

Penny shuddered. "Nothing worse than damp underwires. Okay, there are lots of things worse than damp underwires, but in the moment, you know?" She ended up flinging her shirt over the top of one of the two stalls in the bathroom, mostly because it would be up against the wall at the window and it could dangle across the stall bar. "Somebody is going to get dripped on because of that, aren't they?"

"There are two stalls," Ashley pointed out. "If they're either desperate or dumb enough to use the one with the wet clothes hanging over it, they won't mind a few drips. Do you want to feel this?"

"My hands are all wet and wrinkly. I don't know if I'll be able to tell if it's dry." Penny took some paper towels and dried her hands, then felt the bra carefully. "Underwire is definitely still wet. The lace is pretty good, though. I can wear it if I have to. Yay me for lace bras."

"I don't know how you wear them. They itch." Ashley shuddered.

"People always say that, but it's never bothered me. But I can wear wool against my skin, too."

Ashley twitched so hard it was almost a jump. "Really? Augh! I can't even think about it without itching!"

Penny, without exactly thinking it through, said, "Well, if you've got an itch, I'll scratch it," then heard what she'd said and laughed out loud. "I mean, um. That didn't come out the way I meant it."

"Hahaha no I'm sure it didn't." Ashley actually just aboutsaid'hahaha,' it was so staccato and fake and clearly uncomfortable. "I think I just heard something out there that needs my help sorry bye!" She thrust the bra back at Penny, and hurried out of the bathroom.

"Okay," Penny said into the silence, and to her damp bra, "that went well. Oh, no, wait, it was the other thing.Notwell. Dang. No, that's fine. I didn't need a tall, hot, blonde girlfriend anyway. Just a dry bra and a rock and roll tour. There will betonsof hot babes on tour," she promised the bra, and finished drying it.

CHAPTER 3

Why did you run? Ashley's bear asked plaintively as Ashley bolted down the hallway.Someone to scratch our itches would be nice. I like back scratches.The bear dreamed up an image of vigorously rubbing its spine against a tree.

We can go for a hike in the morning and scratch our back on a nice tree,Ashley promised desperately.

But Penny will scratch it for us! And she's our mate!

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