Chapter 2: Absinthe

Somewhere in the Mediterranean: Thursday Night

Dinner that night was an awkward affair. Diana was acting sullen for some reason, barely picking at her food, and not so much speaking as grunting when I tried to make conversation. I wasn't much better - I'd started to feel responsible for what happened to Marissa, even if it wasn't anything I did on purpose, and that left me growing more quiet and introspective the more I went over it in my head. As for Marissa, she seemed to have accepted her new self wholeheartedly, and her interest in me was now plain to see.

Luckily, Richelle had managed to situate herself between us, a buffer to Marissa's new enthusiasm. Lucky for me, anyway - all this stuff seemed to hit Richelle kind of hard, and having the "new Marissa" kind of shoved in her face didn't seem to be helping. Poor Bobbie's concern for everyone was self-evident, as was her inability to do anything about it; she just wound up babbling, trying to keep the conversation afloat. Unfortunately for her the only other talkative person was Edward, who was hopelessly unaware of the drama and kept making clueless statements, or asking the wrong questions.

Suffice it to say, I was pretty happy when the meal was over and I could make my escape. I was worried Marissa would follow me, but the girls shanghaied her into one of their gab sessions - I guess they wanted more details than they thought they could get with me around. I should probably have worried: as Benjamin Franklin once said: Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. But the cat was already out of the bag, even if I didn't know what kind of cat it was. Heck, I didn't even know if the cat was still breathing.

"Hey buddy." Edward's voice saved me from further mangling that metaphor. "You look like you want to phone home."

Did I mention earlier, Edward was one of my closest friends? We'd grown up together, and now he was a TA with Marissa, both teaching Italian. He was filling in for some other TA who apparently got sick. The guy was everything I am not: handsome, muscled, confident - a ladies' man.

"Shut up, Ward." On autopilot, I'd wandered to the deck and was leaning over the edge, staring at the night sky. "I'm not in the mood."

"Yeah, I noticed." He shook his head. "You've been moping ever since I saw you with Marissa's bra. What the fuck, dude? I would have thought getting laid would have loosened you up."

"I don't know, Ward." I didn't really want to let anyone else in on this, at least before I found out anything about it. "It's complicated."

"Complicated, hell! You've got issues, man."

You don't know the half of it. "Yeah, but we knew that." I grinned at him. "Besides, I didn't get laid. She just sucked me off."

"Seriously? Little Missy blew you?" Edward laughed. "She told me she'd never go down on a guy again - thought it was disgusting. You must have a magic dick or something. I never thought she'd... " He shook his head, disbelieving. "Still, beggars can't be choosers - I'd call that getting laid, especially compared to the 'dry spell' you're always whining about."

"She told you what!?" I turned to look at him straight on. "Man, now I feel even more guilty."

"Guilty? What do you have to feel guilty about?" He turned to look out at the sea. "You're not the kind of guy to force anything on anyone, so whatever she did, she did of her own free will." Turning back to me, he added, "And from the conversation at the dinner table it's obvious you didn't lead her on."

"But..."

"No buts, Eric. If you don't want to talk about it, fine, but you don't get to feel guilty about it."

"I don't want to talk about it, Ward."

"Fine. Then we're going to get your mind off Marissa." He pointed down the deck. "See those two girls? We're going to pick them up. Maybe you can get laid properly this time." He winked and started walking off.

"Ward, wait." He kept walking. "Wait! Goddamnit." I ran after him.

They were all laughing at one of Edward's jokes when I finally hobbled my way up. "Here he is," Edward said. "Eric Chase, meet Yvonne and Yvette Garnier." He pronounced their name to rhyme with 'weigh'. "They're traveling the world. I'm going to get them some drinks, you want anything?"

"I'm good," I said. I didn't really feel like drinking. "'Anything but wine, ' right girls?" At their nods, Edward started off for the bar, leaving me alone on the deck with the two girls.

"It's nice to meet you two." I looked back and forth between them. "Ward didn't point out which of you was which..."

"I'm Yvonne," said the redhead.

"But you can call us both Evie," said the black haired girl.

"You're not just related, are you?" I said, studying their faces. "You're twins?"

They exchanged a glance and giggled. "You're the first one who's noticed," Yvette said. "At least since we dyed our hair," Yvonne added. I wondered what their natural color was.

"So..." I wasn't sure what to say. I looked around for Edward, but he was still at the bar getting drinks. I gestured at the moon and the stars and the sea. "Beautiful night tonight." That didn't get more than some polite smiles. "You two are traveling the world? Where have you two been so far?"

There was a topic they were interested in. "Oh, not too far," Yvonne said. "We've only just started," Yvette added. "Switzerland," Yvonne continued. "Then down Italy." Yvette clapped her hands. "And now, Tunisia."

"Where are you going from there?"

"We don't have any plan," Yvette said, blushing a little. "We're just, how do you say, going with the flow?" I nodded to her. "We want to go to all seven continents, eventually," Yvonne added. "But we are in no rush. We can afford to take our time." The girls giggled and looked at each other. "Trust funds," they added, simultaneously.

"Did someone say trust fund?" Edward showed up, wide smile, somehow juggling three glasses in two hands. "Here you go girls," he passed two identical drinks over to them, "Two Hpno-politans. And Eric, they had some absinthe - you want to at least taste it?"

I pushed away the drink he was waving in front of my face; it smelled like licorice. "Ugh, no thank you, Ward. That stuff rots your brain."

"No problem dude," Edward said. "More for me. Bottoms up, girls!" He drained the glass in one gulp while the twins tittered about it.

So the four of us talked for the next hour or so. Edward drank down a second absinthe soon after, and the girls even managed to talk me into taking a couple sips of their Hpno-politans. I learned Yvette wanted to sing and act, while Yvonne was hoping to take over the family business. We talked about the differences between French and Italian. Edward started to look dizzy, but waved off any concerns. "I'm okay," he said. "Really."

Although Edward got quieter, the conversation never slowed down. The girls were excellent company, and they seemed to enjoy mine as well. We talked philosophy, about the past and future, about free will. They coaxed me into revealing the details of my dating life, and were shocked to find out I was single. "American girls are fools," Yvonne said. "You are quite the catch," Yvette added. I figured they were just being polite, but it still flustered me so much I had to change the subject. I wasn't used to this kind of positive attention.

I started rambling on about my art, and how I thought they'd be good models for sculpting - they seemed interested, so I gave them each one of my business cards so they could later check out my artwork on the Internet. They said they would. Then the two of them dragged me out on the dance floor, where I impressed them with my horrible dancing. Edward was looking positively green by then, but he was still insisting he was fine. By the time we got back from dancing, the poor guy was sick to his stomach. "I shouldn't drank down that absinthe so quick," he muttered. "I need to lie down." Then he turned around and threw up over the side of the boat.

Thus followed a ten minute conversation that led to me letting him have my berth for the night, at the girls' insistence. "You'll owe me ten euros in the morning," I said, but he was too far gone to disagree. He was snoozing in as soon as his head hit the pillow; I had to pick him up to rescue my backpack in case he exploded again. Afterwards one of the girls mimed a yawn; I took the hint and offered to walk them back to their private cabin.

"Where will you sleep tonight, Eric?" That was Yvette.

I ran my hand through my hair. "I don't know, I guess I'll just find a seat..."

Yvonne was shaking her head. "No, no, that won't do." Yvette was nodding, agreeing with her sister. "You can stay with us. We have enough room." "It might be a bit snug, though." Yvonne winked. "I don't think Eric will mind," Yvette added. Together they looked at me and asked, "Would you?"

"Um," I said, smoothly. Also: "Huh?"

Yvette took my left hand, Yvonne my right. "I think he's shy," Yvonne said. "He just needs a little encouragement," Yvette added. Neither of them took their eyes off me. I swallowed hard, and the door to their cabin swung open.

"But..."

They pulled me into their room, cutting me off. One of them - Yvonne I think - leaned in and kissed me. "Don't think about it," the other one said, then they switched places. "Just let it happen," the first one said as the other sister thrust her tongue in my mouth, and the cabin door swung shut behind us.

Yvette had my shirt halfway off before the door began to close; Yvonne had already stripped her blouse off and was working my belt buckle. I kicked my shoes off into the corner and helped Yvette out of her blouse. Their bras matched their hair, I dimly noticed, and then Yvette had her tongue down my mouth again. She tasted like cherries.

Then I felt Yvonne's tits envelop my cock. I groaned, and pulled Yvette closer, biting her earlobe and nibbling her neck. Her whimpers and moans suggested she liked that, so I reached out and started playing with her tits. Her moaning only got louder - I could feel Yvette's nipples rock-hard beneath my fingers. I pinched them - she cried out and pushed herself into me.

My cock was rock-hard too by then - and I guess Yvonne knew I wouldn't get any harder, because her tits went away, and I felt the warm, slippery wetness of her mouth replace it. She was too far away for me to reach anything but the top of her head; I looked down and caught her eyes. It was my first time with two women at once - I wondered if I should pay her more attention.

Yvette seemed to read my mind. "Don't worry about her," she whispered in my ear, "she'll have her turn." I could feel Yvonne nod her agreement on my cock as Yvette shifted upwards and pressed her tits against my face. Well, who was I to disagree? I started kissing and suckling at them with enthusiasm, using one of my hands to keep the other breast happy, switching back and forth.

Still, that meant I had one hand free - and I quickly learned that there was little under Yvette's skirt to get in the way of my fingers, just a thong. With the way she ground against my hand, I could tell I'd hit the right spot. Yvette let out another moan, and that seemed to encourage Yvonne to go faster, working her tongue all around my shaft as she kept sucking and bobbing. I think she was fingering herself too - I'd lost track of her hands, but she was rocking back and forth as she bobbed. I knew where Yvette's hands were - they were keeping us together, holding me close, clawing some of the skin off my back.

"Eric," Yvette moaned. There was no question in my mind what that meant - it meant she wanted more. And so I did my best to oblige, biting her nipples, lightly scraping my fingernails across her chest, increasing the rhythm on her g spot as my thumb found her clit and started making light, gentle circles... "Eric," she said again. And then she went rigid, and her words just became screams of primal pleasure.

What I didn't expect was that Yvonne would go off too, right then. Almost immediately after Yvette began trembling and crying out, Yvonne started to do the same. But she wasn't going to let my cock go - she kept suckling and whimpering and moaning. I just couldn't help myself, or hold it in any longer - I exploded in her mouth. "Oh God, Evie," I said, using their nicknames for the first time. "Oh God." Now I could see at least one reason for the using the same nickname...

My cumming seemed to set Yvonne off again - at least, it felt like two separate orgasms. And then Yvette arched her back a second time as she cried out once more. After that I collapsed backwards. Yvette fell on the bed to my left, and Yvonne crawled up on my right. She gave me a deep kiss, and Yvette followed suit, then they put their heads on my shoulders and their hands on my chest.