Chapter 3

I grabbed the phone, eager to discover what was behind the newest door of this journey, if a journey was what it would be.

And as I said hello into the phone, knowing it would be her, I couldn't help but think, with a slight and unexpected pang of fear, that she was calling to say, "hey, that was hot last night, but, umm... have a nice life!"

No, I thought, hopefully. How could a woman be so intimate with someone, make love to them all night, sleep in their bed, and then drop them? Men did that, not women. But Danielle, did she have male attributes? Was a lesbian like her apt to do things in a "male" way? She certainly didn't make love like a man... oh god I was so ignorant of all this!

"Nina! Hey it's me, Danny."

"Hi... I..." --what the hell to ask her? Where did you go? Why did you go? It was really none of my business, but... and then she set it all straight.

"I'm sooo sorry! I totally forgot that I had a meeting at the club this morning with the owner. Me, the barmaid, the night manager, we all had to be there. I didn't want to wake you, you were sleeping so peacefully. So I just snuck out."

"It's ok," I said. My heart was calm suddenly. Her words seem to have such a deep effect on me. Why? I had only known this young woman for less than eighteen hours. But, oh, what an eighteen hours it had been!

"I was gonna make us some breakfast," I said unsteadily..."if you wanted to stick around."

"Aww that would have been great. And yes," she said, her voice softening, "I definitely would have wanted to stick around. Last night was beautiful, Nina."

I thought my heart would leap out of my throat and fly around the room.

"Yes, it was," I said, trying to sound calm.

There was a brief silence on the phone just then, and I suddenly felt so awkward, so unpracticed. I felt silly, like a high school girl with the biggest crush of her life, and I wanted desperately to find out what the immediate future held. What did this make me? Bi? Lesbian? What did it make us? Lovers? Were we going to see each other again? I myself didn't know if we could, or should, and I wanted to leave it all in her hands, good or bad.

"Danielle--" I started, wanting to ask the corny Hollywood phrase, "Will I see you again?" but for some reason I couldn't speak.

"Hey," she broke in, "Want to get some dinner tonight after we get your car? I know a great place nearby where your car is, if you like Indian food."

She asked it as if it were a certainty that we were going to be together, that there was no question getting the car was something she was going to do with me. Her voice seemed to throw a lassoo around me and pull me to her. There wasn't much room for me to say no. And dammit, how did she know I absolutely loved Indian food?

I hesitated. Maybe it was my Catholic upbringing, an invisible nun with a very long ruler, reaching out of the shadows of my subconcious and whacking my knuckles, her voice echoing, "Having sex with a woman?... Cheating on your husband?? Awful, nasty, sinning girl!!"

I winced. I wanted to run away and hide somewhere, collect my thoughts, sort out what was happening, and figure out a way to calmly tell Danielle: No, thanks so much. Look you were wonderful yesterday, in all ways, and I loved our time together, but my husband will be back tomorrow and things are simply going to have to return to normal, and we really shouldn't be together any more... my friend Jan will help me...

"Sure," I said, swallowing hard. "I love Indian food." I braced for the invisible nun to strike again.

"You do? That's cool." She hadn't yet acknowledged David, and what lay ahead. Maybe over dinner. Good god, we're having dinner together. What seemed so uncertain and confusing five minutes ago now seemed pre-destined. I was losing control.

"Can I come get you at five? Freddy said the car should be ready then. It was your fuel injection or something. He'll tell you all about it."

Come get me at five, I thought. Again, my mind went on fast rewind back to high school. A date, coming to pick me up.

"Five will be ok," I said calmly.

Hell, come get me now. Put me in the Jeep, ride me to wherever it is you want to go, as long as I get YOU.

I glanced in the mirror and found that I was smiling from ear to ear. I had too many mirrors in this house.

I sat at the kitchen table after I hung up, and sipped my coffee. When I did, the steam from the drink wafted over my lips and into my nostrils, carrying with it the faint, dried remnants of last night's passion. I could smell her on me. Her fluids, her kisses, her skin, swirled gently up into my nose, and I began to tremble... I closed my eyes briefly, imagining the touch of her, and what it was like to, for the first time, put my mouth to a woman's sex and taste her.

"Danielle..." I whispered, my eyes closed, wanting to hear her name as her scent meandered around me... I licked my upper lip slowly, hoping to reconstitute some of the gift her body had left me, and I felt a warm creaminess accumulating in between my legs.

I nearly jumped out of my chair when there was a loud knock at the door. I took a sip of the coffee, smoothed my tousled hair, and walked to the door. Even though I knew it was Elaine, my next door neighbor, I checked the peephole. Yup, it was Elaine Pachmeyer, all right. No one else knocked like that. In fact, no one else knocked. They used the doorbell and intercom. Not Elaine.

"Hi Elaine."

Every neighborhood has a busybody, and ours lives next door to me. Elaine just turned sixty. Her husband died two years ago, and now she gardens more often, as a catharsis, I suppose. I think it just gets her in better position to check out the neighborhood. There she was, her sharp, light blue eyes peering keenly out of the shadow of her big floppy hat. She was taking off her gardening gloves, and looking down the street, as she always did, then back to me.

"How are you Nina?... hope I didn't wake you."

"No, no... just got up a few minutes ago. Everything ok?" I felt transparent just then, wondering if Elaine's special nosiness powers gave her an instant readout: AHA! Nina Cutler had a lesbian affair last night!

"Well," she said, acting casual, "I was going to ask you that. Saw a car in your driveway I'd never seen last night, and just wanted to make sure you were all ok. Dark brown Jeep of some kind..."

A stab of panic went through me. I hadn't thought of the eventuality that Elaine would see Danielle's Jeep overnight, but of course... she missed very little. Without a doubt, she saw that it was there very late. Maybe... oh Lord... maybe she even saw Danielle leaving.

"Oh," I said, nodding and scrambling to quickly think of a harmless explanation. I landed on an emergency strategy. Make it gossipy. I leaned forward, whispering, "friend of mine from my old neighborhood. Man problems. He got drunk and violent and she was afraid she was going to get beaten up. Oh Elaine, the poor thing... no place to stay so she called me."

My neighbor acted nonchalant, but I know she was absorbing it all intently. "Ahhh... poor dear..." she clucked.

I was pretty confident my story worked. After all, Elaine Pachmeyer had no reason to think I would have a lesbian tryst, particularly in my own home.

"Yeah. Hopefully they're gonna work it out," I assured her. "She was on the phone late with him last night, for a long time."

"Mmmm. Well, I miss my Frank, God rest his soul, but there is a lot to be said for being alone, sometimes, Nina," she said with a little laugh. I smiled. "Yes, I'm sure." Very sure. I was alone a lot these days. Last night excluded, of course.

"Well, then," in her I'm-out-of-your-hair-at-least-for-now voice, "Your David comes back tonight, doesn't he?"

I shook my head. "Unfortunately, he has to stay another day. Contract problems. Probably be back tomorrow." I sighed, the devoted wife, pining for her dear hubby. She looked at me hard. That one may not have worked as well as the Danielle story.

"Yes, well you poor thing, if you need anything let me know."

"Of course, Elaine, thanks so much for being concerned."

She was walking away, looking down both lengths of our block. "Oh sure, no problem..."

And, as she traversed the hilly grass that separated our yards, she said absently, barely loud enough for me to hear, "tall, pretty thing, that friend of yours..."

Elaine just has to let you know what she saw, and that she doesn't forget it. I made a note to be extremely careful about Danielle being here.

David called and gave me his new flight information. Ten o'clock tomorrow morning. For the fourth straight day, I noted, he didn't ask how I was, or what was happening. For the fourth straight day, he failed to tell me he loved me, or even missed me. I was about to tell him about the Mercedes, and then decided not to. As five o'clock approached, I got ready. I fussed in the closet over what to wear, and realized that last night was making me feel especially young and sexy. I chose a soft nylon floral mesh sundress, sexy and form-fitted that followed the contours of my petite body nicely. It was casual enough but perfect for dinner, I thought. As I touched up my makeup, I became overwhelmed with the fact that I was trying to look pretty and sexy not for the people who passed me on the street, but for a woman, one young, exciting, alluring lesbian woman who now seemed to shadow my every thought.

"My god, Nina Cutler, what are you doing?" I said to the good-looking 36-year old brunette in the mirror. And then I instantly tugged on one corner of the hem of my dress, thinking, "will she like this?"

When I opened the door, I got my answer.

"Wow," she said, her voice a throaty purr. I stood there, innocently.

"Hi," I said with a soft smile, my body starting to tingle as I looked at her. She herself looked radiant. Her black slacks and long-sleeved, tight fitting V-neck top with flared sleeves looked elegant and a little funky, almost 60-ish on her. I loved it.

"Hey," she said, stepping in. She stood in the foyer, looking around, then down at me.

What was I supposed to do here, I thought, almost forlorn at my ineptness in this new situation. Then, Danielle stepped closer, and slid her hands along my forearms, and I involuntarily brought my arms around her.

Without speaking, she looked into my eyes, as if to guage if there was any change, any second thoughts. She must have sensed that there was nothing but admiration and yes, desire in my gaze, because she tilted her head down toward my mouth. My heart was thumping wildly again, and my mouth melted into hers. The kiss was short but ohhh, so sweet.

She kept ahold of my arms. "Everything... ok?"

I nodded, not taking my eyes from hers.

"Hubby back yet?" she said, peeking beyond me and then up the stairs.

I told her then about David's phone call, and that he wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

"Shall we go?" she asked.

A minute later, me and my sexy companion were zooming to the other side of town in her Jeep. The car was ready, and didn't cost too much, and soon, I was following her to an Indian restaurant about a mile from the Daisy Chain.

"By the way," I asked her as the turbaned waiter brought our white wine, "why the name Daisy Chain, for the bar?"

She looked at me over the top of her glass. "You know what a Daisy Chain is?"

I shrugged. "When I was a little girl, my grandmother showed me one, you know, you thread daisies together..." I stopped, seeing her smirk.

"It has an entirely different meaning in the lesbian world."

The lesbian world. That idea still seemed like something very foreign, even though I had been in between this goddess' naked thighs just the previous night. I leaned forward. "What is it?"

She leaned forward too, her voice lowered so the guests at the other table didn't hear. "It's when three women are together, and they are all eating each other's pussies at the same time."

I looked up, to try and picture how this happens, and then looked back hat her. Did she do this kind of thing, I wonder?

"Wow. Wild. You've umm... done this?"

She giggled softly. "Well, not really. I mean, I was in bed with two other girls once, but not exactly a daisy chain. It was this drunken slumber party in college, and well... forget it. Girls having threesomes just isn't very common, you know? I think it's one of those myths, more than anything."