Chapter 6: Lisa and Julie - in Which They Consummate Their Relationship

When Lisa opened her eyes the next morning, the sun was shining brightly and Julie was already up and dressed.

“Well, good morning, sleepyhead!” Julie said, giving Lisa a quick peck. “You were sleeping so soundly. You must have been really tired.”

“I guess I was, but I’m awake now, I think. What are we doing today?”

“Nothing but lying in bed if you don’t get dressed!”

Lisa thought about that for just a moment, and some of the previous night’s hunger returned. She thought it might not be too bad if that was all they did, but then she decided that she really should get dressed and go out and enjoy Newport with Julie. She could satisfy that hunger later.

“The first thing is to go to breakfast, which is included in our resort package, and then we should talk to the concierge. I was in the lobby a little while ago and saw that there are way too many fun things to do in the time we have, so we need to go back when the concierge is on duty and figure out our priorities. Come on, chop-chop, breakfast is over in less than an hour.”

Never having woken up with her, Lisa had no way of knowing what a morning person Julie was, but she smiled, hoisted herself out of bed, and decided that they would make this work.

Fifteen minutes later, Lisa was presentable and they left their bungalow and made their way to the breakfast room.

After breakfast, they found themselves sitting in front of the concierge’s desk, looking at brightly colored brochures describing activities in the area. Julie was definitely interested in hearing about the boutiques and other shops around Newport. Lisa wanted to know about restaurants. She was a little bit disappointed to hear that there were no good Italian restaurants nearby, only pizza joints. The concierge suggested that they might be interested in a Portuguese restaurant that had opened recently. He explained that the cuisine was a little like Italian, with a particular emphasis on seafood, and that he had heard only good things from resort guests. The arroz de marisco was said to be especially good. Lisa and Julie looked at each other for a moment and then nodded together and asked him to make a reservation. They also agreed that it would be fun to rent bicycles and ride out to see the historic lighthouse outside town.

Then Lisa asked about tidepools.

“Tidepools, ma’am? the concierge asked. Julie looked at her quizzically.

“You know, rocky places where the tide comes in and out and all the little animals live.”

“Hmm, let me make a phone call. I’ll see what I can find out.”

After a few calls, the concierge told Lisa that they were in luck.

“I just got off the phone with a professor of marine biology at the state university, Prof. Whitaker, who has been a guest here in the past. She told me that some of the best tidepools in the state are on a beach very close to the lighthouse. She knows the lighthouse keeper and says that if you ask him, he can give you detailed directions to get to them. I have to admit, this question is a new one, but I am happy to have been able to help.”

Lisa and Julie thanked the concierge and got up to leave. As Julie was walking away, Lisa slipped a fifty-dollar bill to the concierge. His eyes widened a little when he saw the denomination, and he looked up at Lisa. Lisa looked back, smiled, and mouthed a silent “Thank you”. The concierge returned the smile and pocketed the bill.

Lisa and Julie found the bicycle rental stand and picked out bicycles. They considered for a moment renting a tandem bicycle, but then they decided that, since neither had ever ridden one, it was a silly idea. They had a good laugh at the mental image of them trying to navigate on a tandem and then they climbed on their separate bicycles and headed out onto the road.

It was early still and not yet hot as they rode through the streets of Newport and then onto the road to the lighthouse. The road ran alongside a state park with a nineteenth-century fort and then along the shore and in about a half-hour, they reached the lighthouse. After they had dismounted, they went to find the lighthouse keeper and Lisa asked him about the tidepools. She mentioned Prof. Whitaker and said that she had heard that these tidepools were exceptional. The lighthouse keeper wanted to be sure that Lisa understood how sensitive these tidepools were, and when Lisa assured him that she would be careful, he gave them directions.

Lisa and Julie left the bicycles at the lighthouse and began hiking down the path that the lighthouse keeper had pointed out. They walked along saying nothing for a while, and then Julie cocked her head and broke the silence.

“Tidepools, eh? You really like tidepools.”

Lisa didn’t reply immediately, but after a few more steps, she began to explain.

“I was a serious marine biology nerd when I was a kid. I really wanted to be a marine biologist when I grew up. I guess that is somewhere on the list of things that every kids wants to be, somewhere after firefighter and astronaut, but I had it pretty bad. Whenever my family went to the beach, the first thing I wanted to do was to find where the tide pools were. My father would always go with me. He taught me as much as he could about the things that we saw, and he taught me to be very careful around them because they are very sensitive. I even went to marine biology summer camp two summers when I was a kid.”

“Tell me something about tidepools,” Julie said.

“Tidepools are like little hidden ecosystems,” Lisa began, her voice full of enthusiasm. “They’re little pockets of ocean water that get left behind in the rocks along the shore when the tide goes out. But they’re not just puddles of water. They’re full of life, like tiny, bustling communities with a lot of different species coexisting.”

Julie listened and nodded, but Lisa could tell that she still didn’t quite get what Lisa saw in them.

“What’s so special about them?” Julie asked, curious.

Lisa smiled at Julie.

“There are sea anemones, which look like little flowers, and hermit crabs, which live inside the discarded shells of other animals. Sometimes a sea anemone will attach itself to the outside of a hermit crab’s shell and go for a ride. The hermit crab likes it, because even though it looks like a flower, a sea anemone is actually an animal and those things that look like its petals are tentacles with stingers that the sea anemone uses to get its dinner. The hermit crab likes to have the sea anemone along, because those stingers help to protect it. The sea anemone likes to be attached to a hermit crab because the hermit crab moves around and the sea anemone can find more food that way. The hermit crab likes having the sea anemone around so much that when it discards a shell and moves into a new one, it will coax the sea anemone into attaching itself to the new shell.”

“That is amazing!”

“These little animals don’t always cooperate like the hermit crab and the sea anemone. The common starfish loves to eat mussels and it can smell them in the water. Once it has crawled over to the mussel, it uses two of its arms to pry the mussel’s shell open just a bit and then it sticks a part of its stomach into the mussel’s shell and starts digesting the mussel’s body. One it has done that, it pulls its stomach back into its body and moves on looking for another mussel.”

“Poor little mussel!”

“It is bad for that mussel, sure, but if it weren’t for the starfish, the tidepool would be just wall-to-wall mussels and then there would be no room for anything else. And life in the tidepool is not all fun for the starfish either, because there is another kind of starfish called the common sunstar, which will eat a common starfish if it can catch one. Most of the sunstars live in deeper water, but you can sometimes see small ones in the tidepools. I know that not everyone does, but I think things like that are really interesting.”

“So, it’s not just about looking at this creature and that creature. It’s about understanding how they all fit together?” Julie asked, beginning to see the bigger picture.

Lisa paused, and her voice got softer as she continued. “Yes, the most fascinating thing is how it is all interconnected. Each creature does its part and, as species, they all survive. They have a lot of other things to deal with too, like changing tides, crashing waves, and exposure to the sun. It’s like nature’s little soap opera, full of drama, survival, and beauty.”

Lisa’s passion was infectious, and Julie could feel herself getting drawn in.

“That actually sounds really cool,” she admitted. She took Lisa’s hand and said, “I am so glad that I could see it with you.”

They spent longer than either of them had imagined exploring the tidepools. Lisa admitted that these were some of the best and most interesting that she had ever seen, and Julie loved hearing Lisa talk about what they were looking at.

As they walked back to the lighthouse, Julie asked, “So, what happened?”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you grow up to be a marine biologist?”

Lisa smiled and said, “Who said I’m grown up? But seriously, it is a difficult way to make a living. You almost have to go to graduate school to do anything interesting, and then you find yourself in academia, where the competition to publish and get tenure is fierce. Most people end up not even working in the field. I did take a few classes at St. Margaret’s, but I decided that Communications was a safer major. There are always good jobs in my field.”

“Do you have any regrets?”

“No. If I were out on a ship somewhere doing research, how would I have met you?”

Julie blushed and looked down.

“Besides, I’m still young. Maybe I could change careers. Do you think I could?”

“I think that you can do anything you want to do” Julie said and squeezed Lisa’s hand.

After riding back to town, they returned their bicycles and went back to the resort to eat lunch and relax by the pool. Julie had bought a new bikini for this trip and Lisa felt positively dowdy in her old suit. As they sat by the pool eating sandwiches and sipping lemonade, Lisa sneaked glances at Julie when she thought she wouldn’t notice. It was a very skimpy bikini and she could get a better appreciation of her figure than she had had before. Lisa felt a heat rising in her body as she imagined Julie without the bikini. She imagined her face between those plump breasts and her flat nipples growing as she licked and sucked them. She was particularly intrigued by what Julie’s bikini bottom was hiding. It looked like Julie had an abundant dark bush filling out her bikini bottoms, and Lisa thought she could see a few wisps of hair sticking out on either side. Lisa was so distracted by this sight that she stopped eating and didn’t snap out of it until Julie asked her if something was wrong. She did her best to laugh it off, saying something about her mind being elsewhere without going into specifics about where her mind had gone.

“Nothing, sweetie. I just got a little distracted. How is your sandwich?”

Lisa thought of herself as a pretty vanilla lesbian, but the one little kink in her sexual proclivities was her passion for female pubic hair. She could not understand how anyone, man or woman, could look at a shaved or waxed pussy and think it was more attractive than one with a natural bush. There was just something so ... womanly about all that hair. That’s who Lisa wanted to have sex with, authentic women with authentic pubic hair. Playing with it, twirling it around her fingers, getting it stuck in her teeth. These were some of Lisa’s favorite pastimes. Seeing evidence right in front of her that Julie had a natural bush turned the heat rising in Lisa to a raging fire.

After they finished with lunch, they went for a quick swim and then back to their bungalow, where they dried off and changed again to go to town for a little shopping and then dinner.

Lisa did her best to keep up with Julie while they were shopping. Lisa did not approach shopping with the same enthusiasm as Julie, but she was happy to carry her bags and offer her opinions on the relative merits of possible purchases, and she enjoyed seeing Julie enjoying herself. She did like some of the clothes that Julie bought and gave her honest opinions as to what she thought would look best on her. She also spent some time thinking about which outfits would look best being ripped off her, but she kept that to herself.

In one store, Julie was looking at some jewelry. There was one necklace that really caught her eye. It was silver, with a sapphire pendant, and when Julie held it up for Lisa to see, Lisa thought it really suited her. When Julie examined the price tag, though, she put it back with a sigh. Lisa could see that Julie really loved it and offered to buy it for her. Julie said that Lisa was already doing too much by paying for this trip and she couldn’t ask her to buy the necklace for her too.

After they left that store and went into the next one down the street, Lisa excused herself and said that she needed a pair of sunglasses for the drive home and she went back to the previous store.

“I’ll only be a moment. This looks like a nice store. Just keep looking around here and I’ll be right back.”

When she got back, Lisa was wearing a new pair of Ray-Ban Aviators, and Julie could not help but admire them.

“Those make you look hot,” Julie said with a big smile.

In time, the pace of Julie’s shopping started to slow, and Lisa pointed out that it was getting close to the time of the dinner reservations that the concierge had set them up with at Oceana Azul. They found the restaurant and saw that it had an open airy ambiance, but that it also had some more intimate seating. The maître d’ smiled at Lisa and Julie and escorted them to one of the more secluded tables.

The menu was a little bit of a mystery to both of them. Lisa remembered that the concierge had recommended the arroz de marisco, so she decided to play it safe with that. Julie was feeling a little more adventurous and so she chose the bacalhau. They shared their entrees and agreed that both were delicious. They also agreed on the quality of the Portuguese wine that they enjoyed with their meal.

As they were lingering over a dessert wine, they started to hear a band tuning up in a different part of the restaurant. They had noticed a dance floor to one side as they entered and Lisa asked the waiter as she was paying the bill if there was something going on there. The waiter explained that there would be ballroom dancing and that they were welcome to participate. Both of the women had taken some ballroom dancing classes for PE at St. Margaret’s and so they thought, why not?

By the time they got to the dance floor, the dancing was underway. They recognized some of the dances that they had learned but didn’t work up the courage right away to get out on the floor. Eventually, a tango was announced, and Lisa took Julie by the hand and said, “Let’s do this!”

They found a spot in the middle of the floor and got into dance position, their minds racing as they tried to remember the steps they had learned. Just before the band started to play, the emcee stepped up and announced that this was to be a competition. He held up a large trophy and said that judges would walk around the floor and assign scores based on both technical merit and expressiveness.