“No,” admitted Melissa. “I’m single. I guess a little swim couldn’t hurt.”

Melissa went into the luxurious women’s bathroom to change. She stuffed her clothing into the plastic bag from the store that had contained the swimsuit. Renee had even remembered to include a pair of cheap flip-flops.

Melissa left her bag of clothes backstage. The backstage area had been cleared off, so there was room for the three large inflatable pools and one smaller pool. Neil and Hudson were stewing in the smaller pool.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” asked Neil, looking over Melissa. His cock throbbed as he imagined her out of her practical clothing and in some skimpy two-piece swimsuit. Scratch that. He wanted to see her in a no-piece swimsuit. He wanted to take Melissa ‘skinny dipping’ with him and Hudson.

“Come on in,” said Hudson, patting the free area next to him. “The water’s great.”

“Fine,” said Melissa, tucking into the pool across from Neil and Hudson, or was it between them? The pool was so small it was hard to tell, but the cold water felt great against her skin.

“Do you guys know where Renee went?” asked Melissa.

“She should be back soon,” said Neil. “Don’t worry. You spend all day worrying about the club, Melissa. It’s after hours. You can relax.”

“I may relax, but I can’t relax,” said Melissa. “I’m naturally anxious. Maybe I care too much. I don’t know.”

“Maybe learn to just…chill,” said Hudson, motioning a flat line with his hands. “Don’t take it all so seriously. This isn’t a serious place. The only thing we’re serious about is having fun.”

“I thought it was all about the audience and their fantasies,” said Melissa.

“Their fantasy is to see some hot hunks who love to strip have some fun on that stage,” said Neil. “Nobody likes to watch a stripper cry. Well, some people do, but we charge them extra for that.”

Renee came around with a cart full of plastic cups with plastic bendy straws and started passing cups out to people. Neil and Hudson shared a cup.

“What’s in here?” asked Melissa.

“Oh, peach Long Island iced tea,” said Renee.

“Yum,” said Melissa, taking a cup with a bright pink straw and sipping down the peach flavored tea.

“You might wanna take it slow,” said Renee.

“Heck no,” said Melissa. “I’m thirsty!”

Melissa kept sipping at the drink.

“What exactly makes it a Long Island iced tea?” asked Melissa after drinking half the cup.

“Wait, are you serious?” asked Renee. “Melissa, it’s a very strong alcoholic beverage. It just looks like tea. There’s no tea in it.”

“Uh…what kind of alcohol is in it?” asked Melissa.

“Oh, gosh, I put peach vodka, peach schnapps, dark rum, some tequila, a bit of gin, and even some sweet tea brandy in there,” said Renee. “Hold on, Melissa, and get ready for a ride.”

“Maybe you should put the drink down,” said Neil. “You’ve probably had more than enough already. Just sit back and enjoy the water.”

“Aren’t you two drunk?” asked Melissa. “It’s a bit hypocritical of you to tell me how to handle my alcohol when you two are probably already pretty wasted.”

“We barely split half of this,” said Neil. “Plus, we’re shifters. We metabolize the alcohol faster than humans do.”

“You do?” asked Melissa. “Prove it. Recite the alphabet back to me, backward.”

“Z, y, x, w, v, u, t,” said Neil.

“S, r, q, p, o,” continued Hudson.

“N, m, l, k…j, i, h,” said Neil.

“And g, f, e, d, c, b, a!” said Hudson. “Easy-peasy.”

“Fine,” said Melissa. “All that proves is that the two of you function as well as one sober guy. Why did you two invite me to swim with you?”

“Excuse me?” asked Hudson.

“You heard me,” said Melissa. “You two? You hate my guts. Why invite me to have fun? Is it just because I went and got the pools in the first place?”

“Slow down, cowgirl,” said Neil. “Just…chill.”

“If we didn’t want to hang out with you, we would’ve gotten the pools ourselves,” said Hudson. “You’re a cool chick, Melissa.”

“I’m not cool,” said Melissa. “I’m a theater geek who turned it into a career. That’s the opposite of cool.”

“You care, and that’s cool,” said Hudson. “We care, too. We care a lot about this club. If we gave you the impression we dislike you…then we truly apologize.”

“We?” asked Melissa.

“Neil and I, we’re a group package, like every other pair of dancers here,” said Hudson. “We speak for each other.”

“That we do,” said Neil.

“You two really don’t hate me?” asked Melissa.

“Just because we disagree with you, that doesn’t mean we hate you,” said Neil. “I like playing devil’s advocate.”

“And I like making sure that we’re approaching an issue with all kinds of perspectives,” said Hudson. “We care about this club, Melissa…and we know you do, too. That’s good enough for us.”

Melissa was shocked by what the glacier bears were saying. Had she really been wrong about them this whole time? Were they really not her rivals, but instead, potential friends? And maybe, potentially something more?

“You’re just saying that because you’re drunk,” said Melissa, banishing those thoughts from her head.

“Don’t worry about us,” said Neil. “Worst comes to worst, one of the other pairs of dancers tosses us back in the cocktail room—I mean, dessert room.”

“You guys really live there?” asked Melissa. “It doesn’t exactly look…comfortable.”

“We sleep a little differently than everyone else,” said Neil. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I wish I had that luxury,” said Melissa. “I wish I could just crash here instead of worrying about how I’m going to get home tonight.”

“You could stay here,” said Hudson.

Melissa’s cheeks started burning red.

“I think what Hudson means to say is we could find a room for you to stay in by yourself, and some of us dancers would bunk up together,” corrected Neil.

“I know what I meant to say,” muttered Hudson.

“What was that?” asked Melissa.

“I said I…know what I meant to say,” said Hudson, technically not telling a lie. “We can find a car service to take you home. Don’t worry. Just chill. It’s a pool party.”

“With strong drinks?” asked Melissa.

“Yeah, of course. You’ve never gone to a pool party before?” asked Neil.

“Technically no,” admitted Melissa. “I’ve been in pools. I can swim. I’ve just never been to a pool party.”

“Well, they’re the best kind of parties,” said Hudson. “You just need to relax and chill. Do whatever it is you want.”

“I want to do something, but I don’t know if I should,” said Melissa, lowering herself down deeper into the pool.

“What would you do if you weren’t yourself?” asked Neil. “What would you do if you were just…chill?”

“I’d…probably do this,” said Melissa, moving to sit between Neil and Hudson.

“Oh-ho-ho,” said Neil. “I see. And would you want us to do…this?”

Neil and Hudson wrapped their arms around Melissa.

“Yes, and I’d also want to do this,” said Melissa, turning to kiss Neil. Melissa pressed her lips against Neil’s lips. She felt slightly embarrassed, as it was apparent Neil’s lips were much smoother than hers. It must’ve been part of the strippers’ daily handsomeness routine, along with conditioner that made Neil’s dark hair soft as a feather.

Melissa felt a hand against her head. She turned to face Hudson. She closed her eyes and kissed him as she ran her hands through his surprisingly soft hair. Melissa would’ve thought the bleached blond hair with obviously dyed blue stripes must’ve been brittle, but the hair felt soft and natural beneath her fingers.

Melissa kept her eyes closed and moved her hands lower, onto Neil and Hudson’s pecs. At times, she couldn’t tell who was kissing her. Melissa imagined her fantasy from earlier. She hadn’t expected things to move so fast, but she had come to Bear Buns to find true love. She wondered if Neil and Hudson were planning to take her back to their cocktail room or dessert room or whatever it was called. Were they planning on taking her there that night? How would they take her there? Would one of them carry her tipsy, curvy ass back to the icy cold room? Who would take her first? How would they take her?

These questions danced through Melissa’s head as she rubbed her hands over the glacier bears’ bodies. The cool water of the pool had become hot with the body heat generated by the glacier bears and the BBW. It was still cold compared to the surface of Neil and Hudson’s skin, which burned hot with desire underneath Melissa’s touch.

Melissa moved her hand down lower. She felt two thickened bulges. She tried to guess which of the cocks belonged to which of the bears. She was glad she’d had the drink, lowered her inhibitions, and gained the liquid courage needed to go after the glacier bears. Who had she been trying to kid? She obviously had the hots for them. From the way they were feeling up her curves, she managed to make the coolest bears in the club run hot, hot, hot.

The thing that broke the spell was a big ball slapping against the back of Melissa’s head, and it wasn’t the sexy kind.

Melissa turned and saw that a giant inflatable beach ball had landed by the glacier bears’ private pool. Melissa didn’t remember putting that in her cart at the store. It had to be one of her assistant’s purchases.

“Over here!” shouted Renee.

Neil grabbed the ball and stood up with Hudson. Neil tossed it to Hudson, who bumped the ball over to Renee’s pool, volleyball style.

“Oh no,” muttered Melissa to herself. “Everyone saw us kiss!”

“Guys, it’s past midnight,” said one of the sun bears. “I think we better hit the hay. We have an early practice tomorrow morning.”

“Shit,” said Neil, stepping out of the pool. “Guess this is goodbye…for now.”

“Just one thing, Melissa,” said Hudson, exiting the pool. “You, uh…might not want to wear an all-white swimsuit in the future. I enjoy the view, but I think you’re usually into more modest fashion.”

Melissa got out of the pool looked in one of the giant mirrors backstage, on the wall with dance barres used for practice. The white swimsuit was a one piece that didn’t show much cleavage, but the wet parts of the suit were basically transparent. Melissa could see not only the outlines of her nipples, but the very color of her nipples, through the fabric. The cheap swimsuit wasn’t lined and left nothing to the imagination.

Melissa grabbed one of the big fluffy robes off of the cart of robes that one of the stagehands had brought out to the backstage area before the pool party started. She wrapped herself up before she shuffled away to the bathroom to get changed into her more modest standard clothing.

Melissa headed backstage to see if she needed to help clean up, but within minutes, the dancers and stagehands had taken down the pools, draining them using some physics trick with a very long hose that they snaked all the way to one of the kitchen sinks. The only person left behind was Renee, who had gotten changed before Melissa.

Melissa couldn’t believe she’d made out with Neil and Hudson. She must’ve been really drunk to have done such a thing. She could blame her actions on the alcohol. The question was, was Melissa more worried about what Neil and Hudson thought of her, or what she thought of herself?

“Hey, did you end up with my drink?” asked Renee.

“What drink?” asked Melissa.

“I poured myself a glass of the peach iced tea when I was in the kitchen looking for stuff to use in the cocktails,” said Renee. “I wanted to have something nice and non-alcoholic for when I sobered up. It was in a cup with a pink straw.”

“Huh,” said Melissa. “And…”

“And I only used one pink straw, and it was in that cup,” said Renee.

“I think I drank your iced tea,” said Melissa. “My cup had a pink straw.”

“Oh, then I guess you didn’t have alcohol after all,” said Renee. Renee walked Melissa over to a table that had a gadget on it.

“Why do you all have a blood alcohol content test?” asked Melissa.

“For making sure the guests are good to drive before they get their keys back from the valet service,” said Renee. “Blow out into it.”

Melissa blew into the gadget.

“0.0,” said Renee. “You haven’t had any alcohol all day, have you?”

“The last real drink I had was at the show last week,” admitted Melissa. “I had a Blue Hawaiian. It’s the only thing I know how to order. That’s what I ordered when I tested the cocktails at the different bars around the club today. I didn’t finish them. I only had sips—enough to take notes—and spit the sips out into cups. Gross, I know, but I didn’t exactly want to get hammered. I’m not that into drinking.”

“You’re a frikkin’ theater manager who doesn’t drink?” asked Renee.

“Somebody has to be the sober adult at the cast parties,” said Melissa.

“Well, this cast would drive me to the bottle,” said Renee. “Believe it or not, this is a quiet night at Bear Buns.”

Melissa gave Renee a ride home after Renee did one more check to ensure Melissa was really sober. Melissa couldn’t believe it. She’d made out with the two bear shifters while she was stone-cold sober. She’d thought she’d had some liquid confidence. She’d thought she could blame her behavior on the drink. How was she going to face the bears and the rest of the staff the next morning?