Chapter 9

Dawn twilight filtered into the bedroom. Janet roused and saw Eva lying on her side facing away. She snuggled against her, slipped her arm around her waist, kissed her shoulder and nuzzled her neck.

Eva placed her hand on Janet’s. “I was about to get up.”

“It’s Saturday. What’s your hurry?” Janet cupped her hand over Eva’s breast.

“Someone seems to be coming between us,” Eva remarked.

“Do you mean my tummy?”

“I do. Did you have another dream?”

“I did. In this one we lived in an old stone house with turrets and arches and stairways ... stairways leading to stairways like in an Escher painting. You were wearing nothing but the sheerest of sheer white, full robe.” Janet kissed Eva beneath her ear. “Then, we were in a conservatory and we were lying in a bed of rose petals. Of course, I wasn’t pregnant.”

Eva rolled toward her. “You have so many of these dreams.”

“Just recently.”

“It must have to do with you being pregnant.”

“I was having an orgasm when I woke up,” Janet remarked. “Don’t you ever dream about me?”

“I never remember dreams,” Eva replied.

“Don’t you ever wake up with fragments of it in your head?”

“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of a dream and I think, I need to remember this. But I go back to sleep and in the morning it’s all a fog.”

Janet kissed Eva’s lips. She smoothed her hand along her breasts. Eva eased Janet onto her back, knelt straddling her hips and caressing her pregnant belly. Eva began fondling Janet’s nipples. “Feels good,” Janet whispered. She drew in a breath. “I need this, Eva. I’ve gotten so horny lately.”

“You seem to need it morning and night,” Eva replied. She rolled Janet’s areolas between her thumbs and forefingers. Drops of clear fluid formed on her nipples. “Your boobs are gearing up for milk production. Are you planning on nursing the baby?”

“I was going to give it a try,” Janet answered. “I was thinking...”

“Thinking what?” Eva asked.

“It’s May. The baby’s due in three months. Wouldn’t it be nice if you and I went on a baby-moon?”

“What’s a baby-moon?”

Janet kissed Eva’s lips. “It’s when expectant couples go away for a few days before the baby comes. It’s like a last chance to have some romantic time away. I was reading about the baby-moon packages offered by the Eagles Club and Spa. It would be nice to go there and be pampered.”

“The Eagles? Do you have any idea how expensive that place is?”

“How expensive?” Janet asked.

“Rob took me there for an anniversary a few years back. We had the most basic room and it still was three hundred a night with a two-night minimum. Their least expensive spa package is two hundred, and three hundred for anything you’d want to try. By the time we paid for the room and meals, we couldn’t afford anything else. We ended up coming home pretty unsatisfied. That was four or five years ago. I’m sure by now the prices have gone up even more.”

“I have some money set aside,” Janet said.

“So do I. Don’t you think it would be better to save it for baby needs?”

“I suppose.” Janet sighed.

“Was that too much of a passion-killer?” Eva asked.

Janet hooked her arm around her shoulders and lifted up to kiss her lips. “Are you kidding? I love it when you talk money to me.”

Janet reached into the nightstand drawer, removed Eva’s pink vibrator and switched it on. With one hand she stroked Eva’s breasts and with the other she held the vibrator between her labia.

Eva straightened her back and put her hands on Janet’s abdomen. Then, she moved her left hand to her own breast and squeezed it. Her thighs trembled and she gasped. “Oh, God,” she panted and pushed the device away. “I come so fast when you do that.”

Janet smiled and wiggled her hips. “Turnabout’s fair play, don’t you think?” She tossed Eva her own polished chrome device.

Eva switched on Janet’s vibrator. She caressed her thighs to ease them apart. Then she traced Janet’s mons and labia with the tip. Gently she eased it past her entrance while caressing her bulging abdomen with her free hand.

The vibrations permeated Janet’s pelvis. “Oh, that feels good,” she whispered as she ran her fingertips across her own nipple. “Just leave it there for a while. I love feeling your hands on me.”

Eva let go of the vibrator and began stroking Janet’s thighs. Janet opened her mouth and took deep breaths. “Oh, God,” she purred, “feels so good...”

“Can you come like this?” Eva asked.

“I don’t think so. But the vibrations ... all through me ... mmm...”

Eva continued caressing Janet’s thigh. “Oh, I love your peaches-and-cream skin,” she said.

“I love yours ... so clear and pale...” Her heart accelerated and her breathing became panting. “Okay,” she said. “I’m ready for it outside.”

Eva slid the vibrator from Janet’s vagina and held it point down against her clit. She began sliding it up and down so Janet would feel more or less stimulation from the throbbing tip. “You’re teasing me,” Janet gasped. “I need to come!”

Eva drew up the device and held the point against Janet’s glans and the stimulation soon pushed her into orgasm. Janet drew in a breath, arched her back and gasped. Her thighs shook and she drew up her knees, and she alternated between gasping moans and rapid panting as one after another orgasmic wave swept over her.

“Stop,” she panted. Eva lifted the device and switched it off. Gasping through wide-open mouth Janet began to catch her breath. She reached toward Eva, embraced her and they kissed. “Oh, I love you. I needed that, Eva.” She pulled her partner into lying beside her and they wrapped legs around each other. Janet held Eva tightly. She relaxed the muscles in her body and drowsed.

It was mid-morning when Janet awoke. Eva was still in her clutch, but awake. “Now will you let me get up and take my shower?” Eva asked.

“Go ahead. I’ll take one later.” Janet arose and slipped into a loosely fitting dress. She headed downstairs to the kitchen and heated a mug of water in the microwave. Into it she placed a tea bag and then she opened a package of cookies and placed some on a plate.

She carried the mug and plate to the table in the bay window and looked out over the lawn. The grass was greening and daffodils bloomed in the beds near the house’s foundation. She saw the mailman head up their walk and heard the plop of letters being dropped through the mail slot.

Janet scooped them up and sorted through them. Eva descended the stairs in a blouse and jeans, pulling her fingers through her wet bicolor hair. She spotted the cookies on her plate. “Some breakfast,” she remarked.

“I felt a bit queasy and thought some tea and a cookie or four might help me feel better.”

“If you hadn’t held me up this morning you’d have a proper breakfast by now. Shall I make something?”

“I’m not really hungry any more.” She tore open an envelope.

“What’s that?” Eva asked.

“A letter from my mom.” She read from it. “Dear Janet. I was delighted to hear from you. I would like to see you and meet your partner. Any time is fine, I never go anywhere. Mom.” She held the scrawled sheet for Eva to see.

Eva carried some tea and a slice of pie to the table and sat across from Janet. “See? Your breakfast isn’t any better than mine.”

“Except,” Eva replied, “that I made the pie so I know what went into it. Lord knows what went into those cheap chocolate-chip cookies of yours.” She scanned Janet’s letter. “That’s quite the handwriting.”

“Mom’s vision isn’t very good.”

“Does she have cataracts?” Eva asked. “How old is she?”

“She’s fifty-eight. No, not cataracts -- she suffers from glaucoma. She has since I was a kid.”

“Are you going to go?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting an invitation.”

“You haven’t said much about your mother.”

“Well ... we’ve been estranged for a number of years. I thought since we’re expecting it might be an opening for reconciliation. So I sent her a note informing her that I’m pregnant with her grandchild.”

“Did you mention me?” Eva asked.

“Of course I did.”

“How did you become estranged?”

“It happened when I was in college. I told you how Miss Bronson suggested I would need to move away in order to feel fulfilled. I was accepted at Mills College in Oakland.”

“California?” Eva asked.

“Yes, California. My mother didn’t understand why I needed a higher education. I think she was anticipating I would get a blue-collar job and start paying room and board. If I was going to college I had to figure out a way to pay for it myself.”

“Which you did,” Eva interjected.

“Miss Bronson helped me immensely. She tracked down scholarships to which I could apply. She wrote letters of recommendation. I ended up with a full scholarship. I also had found part-time work. I was pretty frugal to begin with...”

“You still are ... more frugal than I am.”

“ ... so I was able to be self-sufficient and even have some savings.”

“I’m not familiar with Mills.”

“It’s a women’s college,” Janet replied. “I had a double major in computer science and humanities. Once I graduated I parlayed my degree into a job here as a technical writer. I wrote manuals and training material and then was asked to go out and teach what I wrote.”

“You met Annie at Mills?”

“That’s right. Not everyone who goes to a women’s college is a lesbian. But there were plenty of us there. My freshman year, during spring break my mother asked if I could come home for a visit. I asked if I could bring a friend, and she said, sure. We bought tickets on Amtrak.”

“You took the train??”

“Yeah -- it was cheaper than flying. We rode for three days in coach seats. Mom picked us up at the station. She put Annie in the guest room and I was in my room. My kid sister Sally was still living at home.”

“How much younger is Sally?”

“Seven years,” Janet replied. “Annie and I didn’t want to scandalize Sally so we tried to be discreet. After everyone was in bed, I sneaked into the guest room to be with her. Mom discovered us in bed together. She blew her stack and asked Annie to leave. I told Mom if Annie left, then I was leaving and wouldn’t come back.”

“And, that’s how you became estranged.”

“Correct.”

Eva sipped her tea. “Maybe I shouldn’t come. I wouldn’t wish to precipitate a similar scenario.”

“I don’t think it’s likely. First, Sally has moved out. Secondly -- my mother has to accept the reality of our relationship. I was a freshman when I met Annie and I think we both knew it wasn’t for keeps. You are for keeps, Eva. My mother needs to accept you.”

“Are you close to your sister?”

“Not really. She followed Mom’s line -- she works for a local hardware store and lives with her boyfriend. We correspond from time to time. She recently learned how to send text messages so we keep in touch that way.”

“Have you told Sally about us?” Eva asked.

“No, nor about my pregnancy. I figured if Mom needed to learn about it, she should hear it from me, personally, first. Then, we can tell Sally. She’s a big girl now, and ought not to be shocked at the notion of two women living together.”

“What about your father?” Eva asked.

“My father split when I was a kid. My parents are divorced.”

“Do you ever see him?” she asked.

“Never. He lives in Las Vegas with his girlfriend.”

“I do think you need to fix things with your mom, Janet. Otherwise you might find yourself running out of time.”

“I suppose.”

“I told you I lost my mother to melanoma,” Eva said. “It was ten years ago. We weren’t estranged, like you and your mom. Nonetheless, I missed opportunities to be with her and to tell her I loved her. Now those chances are gone, and all I have left are regrets.”

“I’m sorry to hear it, Eva ... I suppose you’re right.”

“You have to go, Janet.”

“Will you come, too? Mom needs to know the full story between us.”

“Why don’t you see what flights are available?”

“I’ll do that.” Janet sat at her laptop and powered it up. She began entering travel parameters and reviewing the results. “Looks like the best fares are around four hundred each,” she said.

“Why so much?”

“For the simple reason that Syracuse is a tertiary market,” Janet replied. “I did training there once. There are no nonstops from here and at least one connection is a regional carrier. I made sure to filter out any airlines flying turboprops.” She scrutinized the screen. “Yep, just north of four hundred. There go my discretionary reserves.”

“I can finance my own ticket,” Eva replied, “if you can buy yours.”

“You’re not going to charge it, are you?”

“No ... Not all of it.”

“Eva -- I worry about the balances you keep on your credit cards.”

“I’m doing better with it than I was. This is important, Janet.”

“All right. I’ll phone and make sure the dates work. We’ll fly out on Friday and come back Sunday -- we’ll each need to take a day off. I’m sure Kyle and Freddie can manage.” Janet leaned back and laced her fingers behind her head. “My mother actually accused Annie of seducing me ... of using some voodoo or hypnosis or the like, and if I could be snapped back to my senses then I’d go back to being normal. She could not accept this was my nature. That sort of thing just doesn’t happen in my home town, she said.”

“I’m sure it does happen,” Eva replied.

“Oh, of course it does. There were two elderly ladies who lived together in a crumbling, old Victorian house on a hill with a black wrought-iron fence around it. They stayed to themselves and no one ever bothered them. There were whispers about them being lovers.”

“That’s kind of sad. What did your mother think of the rumors?”

“She always thought they were simply two old roommates.”

“They were too nice to be lesbians,” Eva added.

“Exactly ... Oh!” Janet exclaimed and placed her hands on her abdomen. “I just got a kick to the kidney.”

Janet and Eva stood in the security line at the airport. A screening agent beckoned her forward and into a scanner.

“Does that use X-rays?” Janet asked.

“Yes, but the dose is very small.”