Chapter 5

A little after one in the morning, the front door of our apartment slowly opened and Lindsey peered around it, grinning. The jangle of her keys must have woken me up, but I had no recollection of falling asleep on the couch. I’d been determined to wait up until she returned from her date with Jerry or John. Whoever. I must have conked out, but I was wide awake now.

“Lucy, I’m home!” she sang, softly. “Are you alone?”

“Me?” I sat up and returned her smile, but had no idea what the girl was talking about. “Yeah. Well, not anymore, I guess. Why?”

“Well, I was thinking you might be...” she said, stepping inside and locking the door behind her. “What time is it? Oh my God, you didn’t have to wait for me. I’m sorry, Emma.”

She was a little buzzed, that quickly became obvious. Lindsey wasn’t stumbling drunk or anything, but she was awfully giggly! More than usual, I mean. She tried to hang her leather jacket on the doorknob, but it fell onto the floor. She looked at it for a moment and then dropped her purse on top with a soft thud.

“Josh took me dancing and ... You made popcorn!” She flopped onto the sofa beside me with a giggle and reached for the bowl. “I’m kinda hungry.”

“I can make you something,” I offered. Her perfume smelled so good.

She didn’t look any worse for wear, which is a lousy expression, but my jealousy had kicked in again. Josh, that was his name, had taken her to dinner, and then dancing? Great. And she’d obviously had a wonderful time while I’d been sitting here with a bowl of cooling popcorn, a boring book, and my Timex. Takes a licking, and keeps on ticking.

“No, no no no no ... I just want to sit here with you,” she said, crunching the words with a handful of popcorn.

Like I was saying, she’d at least come home with her make-up intact, her dress in one piece, and so far as I could tell, still wearing all of her sexy underwear. Lindsey’s stockings were a bit crooked, but I could see a bra strap peeking over her bare left shoulder. That was probably a good sign, right? But then I noticed...

“What’s on your neck there?”

“Huh? Oh!” Lindsey touched the left side of her throat. “Just a little love bite.”

“Okay.” I frowned at that.

“It’s no big deal,” she said, shrugging.

“So ... I guess you guys had a good time?” I half-asked, despite really not wanting to talk about her old boyfriend. I just wanted to know how far behind I was in the race for Lindsey’s heart.

“Yeah, it was great,” she replied, bending at the waist and reaching for her shoes. “Would you mind?”

Lindsey turned sideways, lifting her legs and putting her feet on my thighs. I looked at my shoes - hers now, I guessed - sexy three inch spikes with those cute ankle straps, and followed her stocking clad legs upward. Her dress had gotten scrunched up a bit, exposing the rose motif garter and a teasing glimpse of her pale thighs. I tried not to stare and Lindsey giggled, pulling my gaze past her flat tummy and upturned breasts. They were looking extra perky as she leaned back on the cushioned arm of the sofa and I let my attention linger there longer than I probably should have.

“Up here, Emma.”

She offered me the sexiest smile I’d ever seen, although one could hardly call it that. The corners of her bee-stung lips were pulled slightly upwards, true, and dainty dimples made her look like a teenage girl. But it was the way she parted her lips and showed me the tip of her pink tongue that made the my heart stutter. She bit her bottom lip, rolling it inward slowly and watching my reaction all the while.

I’d forgotten to breathe as Lindsey held me in thrall; so easily, so completely. I ached inside. Literally, I felt a dull throbbing ache in the center of my chest as I stared into her eyes. They were blue and shining, lit with unmistakable amusement.

“My shoes?” she whispered, breaking the spell after ... How long? Only seconds, I suppose, but I wouldn’t be able to swear it wasn’t minutes or hours. I felt so lost right then.

“Sorry,” I apologized, blushing and feeling embarrassed, and ... Why? I’d done nothing to be embarrassed about, but I burned all the same. She made me feel small, somehow. Weak? Something, I didn’t know.

“Mmmm...” she sighed as I unbuckled the left shoe and removed it carefully. “We danced a lot. It was amazing, but wow! My feet are sore.”

“Oh, well...” I started on the other shoe, feeling her eyes as I kept my head down.

“Go ahead,” Lindsey told me. “Ask. I know you want to, Emma.”

“Ask ... What?”

My fingers paused, and even though I wanted to hide my red face, I had to look at her. And there was that hickey on her neck, making me feel even worse. I frowned and pulled off her shoe, taking the excuse to look away, only to have Lindsey grab my complete attention a second later.

“If Josh fucked me,” she said, and her teasing smile had been replaced with a smirk.

“I, uh...” I blinked at her and started to shake my head, but I was trapped and Lindsey wasn’t going to let me go.

“So, go ahead,” she insisted. “Ask.”

We had a brief staring contest, or that’s what I’ll compare it to, anyway. I didn’t understand what was going on with the girl, but I wasn’t enjoying it. I felt humiliated and used. She seemed to be toying with me and I wasn’t accustomed to that. I’d had plenty of friends and girlfriends, and even after Jennelyn had broken up with me, she’d never made me feel this ... small.

“Ask me.” Lindsey repeated, and I blinked and dropped my eyes.

“Did Josh...” I cleared my throat and looked at her toes, dark beneath the nylon. She wiggled them, playfully.

“Did Josh ... What?” she urged in a sweet, coy tone of voice.

“Did he fuck you?” I blurted.

“What?” Lindsey gasped, which surprised me, of course.

So I turned to look and she’d adopted a shocked, almost outraged demeanor. She arched her eyebrows and widened her eyes. Her mouth remained open, the very picture of a woman who couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.

“I can’t believe you would ask me that, Emma!”

“But...” I’d never been so confused in my life.

“What kind of girl do you think I am?” she demanded. “I’m not a slut, I’ll have you know. Maybe you are, but I’m not!”

“Lindsey, I didn’t mean to...”

“I haven’t seen Josh in over a year and you think the first thing I’m going to do is have sex with the guy?”

“N-No!” I protested.

“You probably think I let him drag me into the restroom and do me right there in the restaurant, huh?”

“What?”

“Oh, I’ve heard the stories about you, Emily,” she said, pointing a finger at my nose and wagging it.

“What stories?” I had a sinking feeling in my gut, but where she would have heard stories about me?

“About how some woman just fucks you in her truck whenever she feels like it,” she said. “And that other one, Linda? She even told me that you eat her out in the bathroom all the time.”

“When did she tell you that?”

“She just whistles and you come running like a bitch in heat.”

“No! We might have done it a couple times, but...”

“And that ex-girlfriend of yours? She sent me pictures of you fingering some skank whore right on the dance floor!”

“Oh fuck!” I couldn’t believe Jennelyn still had those pictures. She’d told me that they were gone forever. She’d deleted them! She’d lied?

“She said that’s why she dumped you, because you’re such a slut.” Lindsey shook her head.

“She said that?”

“She wanted to warn me,” Lindsey said. “They’re on my phone right now. I can show you, if you want.”

“How? When?” I asked, barely able to properly formulate the questions that were swirling around in my brain. “When did you talk to Linda? How did Jen get your phone number? I don’t understand any of this, Lindsey. What is this? I love you!”

“I talked to all of your friends,” she replied. “I was curious after you invited me to that Goldmine place and then kept shooing away all your friends. You wouldn’t even introduce me...”

“I introduced you,” I protested, recalling the night I’d invited her down for a drink.

“No, you didn’t!” she scoffed. “Not any proper introductions. You just pointed a lot and said, this is so-and-so, and that’s somebody else. If someone came over to say hello, it was like the Emma force field was instantly up.”

“I didn’t mean to...” I tried to find an easy way to explain that I hadn’t wanted her to get hit on by a dozen horny dykes.

“So, I was naturally curious,” she continued.

“And what...” I asked. “You went back there? By yourself?”

“No!” Lindsey laughed. “Do you really think I’m that stupid? I saw how you people are...”

“You people?” I frowned.

“ ... so I went with Josh after dinner...” she said, and there was that smug smile again, “ ... tonight.”

“You were at the Goldmine tonight,” I repeated dumbly.

“Yep,” Lindsey agreed. “I had a great time, too. Even Josh had fun, although he looked like a fish out of water. I think he was a little nervous, but he likes to shoot pool, so...”

“Wait ... Josh was shooting pool?” I narrowed my eyes. “I thought you said you guys were dancing all night?”