2.

I was scared that when we woke up next morning Saanvi would freak out about being naked, and everything we’d done, but I’m happy to report she didn’t. I watched her with my eyes half closed while she lay on her back and stretched, and she did a sly move where she dipped her fingers between her legs, then passed them up over one titty, and finally under her nose. That made me smile.

“Hey,” I said, doing my own stretching, and my own sly move.

“Oh. Good morning.”

“Sleep OK?”

“When I finally did.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Something woke me up in the middle of the night, too.”

We cracked up at that like of couple of naughty six-year-olds. Saanvi got out of bed first, and she took her time putting on her nightgown. I watched her from the bed, and she watched me watching her from the bed. It felt nice — intimate, I guess is the word — to lie there with the quilt half-covering my bare titties, and her standing naked in the middle of the room, fussing with her gown, and neither of us in any hurry to get dressed.

In fact, I stayed naked when we went downstairs, just to prove how much Dad didn’t care about seeing me with nothing on. And he didn’t. It was Saanvi who looked weird about it. She kept glancing at us, back and forth, while I got the cereal bowls out.

It was Friday. Dad had a couple students in the morning, and then a chamber rehearsal the afternoon. He gulped the last of his coffee, grabbed his cello case and headed to the kitchen door.

“I should be back about four,” he said. “Clean up your breakfast things before you leave. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

He kissed me on the head and ran his hand down my back and patted my bare bottom. That doesn’t usually give me a chill, but this time it did. Having Saanvi there was making me more aware of my body, especially my nipples, which stayed erect after my gooseflesh went down.

“Saanvi, always nice to see you,” Dad said. “Make sure she behaves.”

And he dragged his case out the door.

I went to shut it, but paused behind the screen and let the sun warm me all down my front.

“Hey! Somebody’ll see you!” Saanvi said behind me.

Rather than try to convince her it was no big deal, I gave a big, dramatic sigh, pushed the screen open and stepped out onto the back steps. We have a big yard, with trees and shrubs down at the end. There wasn’t much chance anybody would see me, unless they were leaning out their back windows, but it was fun making her think I was exposing myself the neighbors. Behind me, she seemed a lot more quiet than usual.

Still holding the screen-door open, I looked back over my shoulder. Saanvi was standing stock still beside the counter, and she’d forgotten all about the glass of juice in her hand.

“You should try it,” I said. “It’s nice.”

And it was. Much nicer even than standing inside the door, because I could feel the breeze better. I hadn’t been outside nude in a while — too long, I was thinking. I’d missed the feeling of the warm sun and cool air touching me all over.

Saanvi just stared and shook her head.

“Oh, grow up,” I said. “Nobody can see. Come on — I dare you.”

Those were the magic words. I could see the wheels turning in her head. She actually looked around, like there might be somebody behind her.

“You should know what this feels like,” I said.

I am a very bad person.

But I wasn’t holding a gun to her head. Finally, she put the glass down, with a quiet plink, and she drew her hands up into her sleeves. She had different ways of taking her gown off — she must have given it a lot of thought. This time, she worked it loose from the inside. Her shoulders wriggled around, her arms pushed the material out over her boobs, and in a second the whole billowy contraption came off over her head like a saffron cloud.

“If I do this,” she said, “will you promise never to mention it again?”

“Cross my heart,” I said.

“Just for a second?”

“Just one.”

“I can’t believe I’m naked in your kitchen.”