Chapter 16

“How has your day been?” Hailey asked when Phil answered.

“It was fine,” Phil said. “I did my laundry and talked to my family. It’s my typical Sunday.”

“Uh, is it OK if I don’t come over and spend the night tonight?” Hailey asked.

“Of course, it’s OK!” Phil said. “I don’t want to make decisions for you. If you want to be here, be here. If you don’t, be somewhere else.”

“I want to be there,” Hailey insisted. “It’s not a matter of want. It’s just ... it’s just that today got complicated. I need to be here.”

“I understand,” Phil said.

“No, you don’t,” Hailey told him. “It’s really a big problem. Let me ask you a serious question: Would you be hurt or angry if I had sex with Tiffany tonight? Wait, that’s a stupid question. I guess what I want to know is how hurt or angry would you be if I have sex with Tiffany tonight?”

Phil was silent for a moment as he considered his answer.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess it depends on the rationale behind it. Are you just horny and want to get laid or is there something more to it?”

“There is a lot more to it,” Hailey insisted. “If I just wanted to get laid I would be at your apartment as quickly as I could race across the campus. I think I only found out today exactly how screwed up Tiffany really is. She’s got two older sisters, you know. Well, the Grayling family is completely fucked up. Her mother and sisters have given her shit since she got her first period. Her sisters take after their mother – busty, aggressive and immoral. The most recent generation has squandered almost all of their money. Now she is the last unmarried member of the family and they have been putting pressure on her since she was 15 to find a husband rich enough to rescue the family.

“They tried to coerce her into a marriage with a 60-year-old guy when she turned 16. She threatened to call the police – and the scandal would have destroyed the family name. Instead they just got more and more hostile to her. They belittled her looks. They called her stupid and worthless. Her sisters would punch her or hit her whenever they got the chance.

“The family put up the last of their money to send her and her brother here with the stated goal of landing her a rich guy. Instead she has done what she could to fight them. I think part of her sexuality – the attraction to females – is her own passive-aggressive way of spiting her family. It’s also why she has never dated any guy of her own. She has contented herself to the ones, uh ... I guess the ones I was using.”

“You realize that she’s in love with you,” Phil said bluntly.

“I, uh, I didn’t until today,” Hailey admitted. “I understand it now.”

“It makes sense,” Phil said, sighing heavily. “You had a similar personality – aggressive, arrogant – that she was used to so she latched on.”

“Gee, thanks,” Hailey said.

“That’s not what I meant,” Phil said, “though you can’t really say I’m wrong. She was used to being dominated. It’s like we talked about earlier. But she got something more from you that she never had before – genuine affection. I can tell you care for her. She can tell it, too. Can I ask what you hope to accomplish by having sex with her?”

“To show her that’s she’s an equal!” Hailey told him. “I want her to understand that she is a sweet, lovely, beautiful person who deserves to be treated as more than an accessory by people like her mother and her sister – and me, I suppose.”

“That’s admirable, I guess,” Phil replied. “Do you think it will work?”

“I have no idea,” Hailey replied sadly. “I just don’t know what to do next. We had a good long talk today. I actually find out that I care about her more right now than I did even this afternoon. She’s really, I don’t know, screwed up, I think. Some of it is my fault and the only way I can think of to show her that she’s as good as anyone is to ... uh, reciprocate, I think you called it.”

She could tell Phil was trying to choose his words carefully before he spoke.

“I won’t, though, if it causes trouble with us,” Hailey cut in. “I don’t want you to think you’re less important to me than she is.”

“I should be,” Phil replied evenly. “I haven’t been by your side since you got here. I haven’t put up with you at your worst. You haven’t sought to subjugate me or dominate me. I also might be a fleeting part of your life. I shouldn’t really be a consideration if this is what you think you should do.”

“Is that what you think?!” Hailey asked angrily. “You think you’re a ‘fleeting part of my life?’ Well I don’t think that. I think you’re the first part of the best part of my life. I thought you believed that, too. I thought I was important to you!”

“You are important to me,” Phil said. “You are very important to me. That doesn’t mean you’re not going to grow tired of me in a week or a month or a year. We’re talking about a woman who sounds as though she is your best friend – or at least she could be if she grows to understand that she isn’t your subject. It’s likely that in 20 years you’ll still be close to her. The odds of our relationship surviving that long are less than 10 percent. Divorce rates are hovering at 60 percent and you have to realize that very few relationships starting at 18 even last to marriage.”

“You’re talking statistics and I’m talking emotions!” Hailey said. “And you’re starting to piss me off.”

“It’s not what I wanted,” Phil explained. “I just wanted to point out that I’ll understand whatever decision you make.”

“You’ll understand it,” Hailey agreed, “but will you hate it? On a scale of 1 to 10 – 1 being ‘I think you’re doing a great thing for your friend and I like you even more for it’ and 10 being ‘if you follow through with this idea you need never call me again’ where do you fall?”

“That’s a hard question,” Phil explained. “I can’t know what I’m going to feel until I feel it. I think what you’re suggesting makes sense on a certain level but I can’t say for certain how I’ll react. A lot of it will depend on how Tiff reacts. If she follows you around like a puppy, it could be a problem for me. I don’t want to have to compete for your attention. I also don’t want to grow to resent Tiff. I really think she is a sweet girl and I hate how her life has been. At the same time I know me well enough to understand that I would grow to resent her if she winds up destroying a relationship that we develop.”

“I would resent her if that happened, too,” Hailey admitted. “I’m pretty sure I would hate her. That’s why I’m talking to you before I go through with it.”

“Can I offer a suggestion?” Phil tried.

“I’d be happy to listen to anything you have to say,” Hailey replied. Phil suspected Hailey would be happy to listen to anything he had to say – so long as it conformed to what she already thought.

“Make the night about her, not about you,” Phil said. “Look, I’m a guy and a pervert because of it. It comes with the penis.”

“So you want to watch us?” Hailey asked.

“No!” Phil said. “I mean, well, yeah. Any guy would want to watch you and Tiffany together. It’s probably the fantasy of 95 percent of the males who know you both – and not an insignificant portion of the females – but it wouldn’t be right for me to be there. This needs to be about Tiff – not about us.”

“So what is your suggestion?” Hailey wondered.

She listened intently for the next few minutes. At one point she grabbed a piece of paper and started to take notes. When Phil finished talking Hailey sat back in the chair.

“Why do I suspect you have some experience in this situation?” she asked.

“I do, sort of,” Phil admitted. “There was a girl I knew at home. She had a lot of the same issues that Tiff does – and I didn’t recognize them before she fixated on me. I had never purposefully made myself an authority figure to her. I think it was more just how everyone looked at me there. I finally realized what was going on because she was further along than Tiff is. I didn’t handle it well, I’ll admit. I started to ignore her, to make sure I was somewhere else whenever she was around.

“It was bad. She was in therapy and her therapist approached me because she worried that Scarlet – that’s her name – she worried that Scarlet was going to harm herself because of my lack of attention. What I’ve just told you is what she told me to do – if I was willing.”

“Did it work?” Hailey asked urgently.

“I ... I don’t know,” Phil said in a sad voice. “I was only 15, Hailey. I had no idea of anything on the subject. I didn’t have the guts to go through with it.”

“What happened to her?” Hailey pushed.

“I don’t know that either,” Phil said. “Her family moved away and I was content to let her become someone else’s problem. I guess I should try to find her and see if everything is OK. I’m just a little scared of what I might find.”

“And that’s what you want for Tiffany?” Hailey asked harshly.

“No,” Phil said. “The reason I didn’t go through with things with Scarlet was because of something else the therapist told me. She said that there was a chance that Scarlet would become even more fixated on me. I had to make it clear that this was the end of one relationship and the start of another. She said it would be hard for her to hear but I had to tell her after we were finished. She was such a nice girl. I didn’t have the heart to do it.”

Hailey wasn’t sure she had the heart to say something like that to Tiffany either.

Tiffany knocked lightly on the door and tried the handle. The door was locked and Tiffany thought Hailey had decided she didn’t want her company any longer. The door swung open as Tiffany started to turn away. She blinked when she looked inside. The lights were dimmed and soft music played in the background. Hailey stepped out from behind the door. She was wearing a translucent peignoir over a silk nightgown that came to barely her thighs. Hailey’s breasts filled the cups and supple white flesh overflowed the tops.

“Oh, is Phil coming over?” she asked.

Hailey shook her head.

“It’s for you,” Hailey answered in a throaty voice. “Come in, Tiffany.”

Tiffany wasn’t sure she could find her voice but she tried.

“I, uh, I thought we were not going...” she began.

“We might not,” Hailey said. “I’m not sure what the future holds. I have been thinking of you a lot and I’ve realized that our relationship has been remarkably one-sided. Tonight that is going to change.”

“Change?” Tiffany squeaked. She could barely take her eyes off Hailey’s breasts.

“Tonight I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted from me,” Hailey told her. “All you have to do is ask and I will give it if I’m able.”

“Anything?” Tiffany asked, continuing her one-word questions. “You mean...”

“I mean anything,” Hailey said. “You told me this afternoon that you love me. I love you, too. Only, it’s not exactly in the same way you love me. I think you’re beautiful and sexy and smart and wonderful but I’m not in love with you.”

“I know that,” Tiffany admitted. “I’ve always known it.”

“But that doesn’t mean I love you less than you love me,” Hailey said with a smile.

Tiffany felt tears on her cheeks as Hailey took her hands.

“Can I hug you?” Hailey asked.

“Of course,” Tiffany responded, opening her arms. Hailey didn’t permit her to move forward into the hug. Instead Hailey closed the distance as soon as Tiffany expressed her agreement. Hailey kept reminding herself that she was the subjugant tonight. She would follow Phil’s suggestions. They made sense – but they also gave her something to argue with if he couldn’t deal with this.

Hailey wrapped her arms around Tiffany and put her head on her friend’s shoulder. Tiffany’s hands felt their way down Hailey’s back as she struggled to catch her breath. She had dreamed of the night that Hailey would do this but a few things were different than what she’d thought.

“I’d really like to kiss you,” Hailey said. “Is that OK?”

“I’d like to kiss you, too,” Tiffany said. Hailey pulled back and let Tiffany take the first step. She just moistened her lips and waited. It took Tiffany a few seconds to accept that Hailey looked expectant. She brought her lips up and pressed them to Hailey’s. Both women moaned; Tiffany because of many of her dreams were fulfilled; Hailey because she knew Tiffany would appreciate it. It was obvious that Tiffany did appreciate it. The young woman’s tongue insinuated itself into Hailey’s mouth. Tiffany intensified the kiss, her hands descending down Hailey’s robe until both found purchase on her ass.