Four

OF COURSE IT ALL MADE SENSE. Logical. Not to mention, the only thing we could do. Not only were Lissa’s kids sick, she was coming down with it, too. She simply wouldn’t—or couldn’t—travel.

I decided on the spot that I wouldn’t go either but the heated argument that ensued left me at three to one against my canceling the trip. Lissa said she would send instructions to Allison on coaching me through my first round. Sam would be headed out on Tuesday, but there was no way he’d make the early matches and it was pretty much guaranteed I’d be playing in one of the first two flights. Pairings would be announced Monday morning.

“So how would you like to be Ice Queen for a day?” Lissa asked Allison. “I’m depending on you to make sure Tony settles in, gets to the right places at the right time, and wins his matches, got it?”

“You’re really going to risk sending your boyfriend across the country with me?” Allison said. Lissa looked at me and smiled, then looked at Allison.

“Tony knows what to do,” she said simply. “Right, Melody?” Melody smiled and nodded.

“Oh, he sure does!”

It was a four-hour flight and we lost two hours crossing time zones, so it was already after eight in the evening when we landed. With the baggage fuck-ups and waiting for a taxi on Sunday night, it was ten by the time we got to the hotel downtown and got checked in.

It was all of five minutes later when I realized Allison and I were staying in the same room.

The room had two queen beds in it. When Lissa originally made our reservation, she decided to keep costs down and share one room. Rooms cost a lot more in Chicago than in Tempe.

But that arrangement was made when Lissa was going to be with us. Now it was just Allison and me.

We went about our nighttime routines, taking turns in the bathroom. I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect from Allison and I still wasn’t sure I wanted anything to happen between us, even though both Lissa and Melody assured me that they expected something to happen and to enjoy myself. I was in a three-way text session with my girlfriends when Allison came out of the bathroom in a short terrycloth robe, drying her dark hair.

My lovers wished me goodnight and pleasant dreams, complete with a few giggles. I set my phone aside and turned in the bed I’d labeled ‘mine’. Allison was still standing between the beds in the robe. Her bed had not been turned down yet.

“Uh ... Allison,” I began. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I really like you and all, but...”

“Exactly what would the right impression be?”

“That we’re just a couple of friends sharing a room, right?”

“Yes, we’re just a couple sharing a room,” she teased.

“Allison, it’s not...”

“Shut up, Tony.” That brought my eyes up to focus on hers. She held me with a serious look and then, to my amazement and fear, she unfastened her robe and let it fall to the floor.

I can’t deny my body’s reaction to the sight not three feet in front of me. I was too close to take in all of her at one time, but as the robe fell, so did my eyes. Like Lissa, Allison is muscled and toned. She’s an athlete. Her breasts are bigger than Lissa’s. Hell, I think they are bigger than any of the girls’ I’d seen over the past few weeks except Sandra. She has small dark areolae that are high enough on the curve of her breast that the hard nipples almost point toward the ceiling. Beneath these perfect mounds is a flat stomach and deeply indented navel. The swell of her hips and the rise of her mound are a counterpoint to the shape of her bosom. Her landing strip is as precise and neat as the rest of her body, her labia smooth and glistening.