Chapter 10

I had been in my office for maybe a half an hour after lunch with one of my buddies and a salesman and Kim when there was a light knock on the door. I looked up and saw the round face of our administrative analyst. Yeah, a less gentle generation would've called her 'unit clerk' or 'secretary' or just kept her femaleness out of the place entirely. I found her competent and likeable.

"Heard you're getting married," she said.

"News travels fast. Buzz met 'er at lunch."

"Sixteen? Really?"

I guess I sort of hung my head.

"Oh, gosh, Tim. I don't mean it like that. But still..."

"All I can say is that the heart wants what the heart wants. And in Kim's case, it's really easy for my head to go along. She's smart. Skipped two years of school. Conversation with 'er's like nothing I've ever enjoyed before. Funny, witty, full of these excursions into every subject imaginable."

Carole looked at me, a smile forming. "You sound like you're in love."

"I am."

"Guess that means that I crafted a list of my girlfriends for nothing."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, you know," she laughed. "Here you are, single, engineer, and I have all these single friends. I thought that maybe one of them might fit. Be good for both of you."

"I appreciate the thought, Carole," I said.

"D'ya have pictures of 'er? Your new fiancée?"

"Just this one." I brought up the picture and swiveled my monitor.

"She's a cutie, Tim," Carole said.

"The cute bit's disarming. You're looking at a very bright young lady."

"Her eyes laugh. Mischief."

"Worst puns imaginable," I said.

"So what is it that attracted? The cute? The young. Or the smart?"

"A and C," I said. "Heavy on the C."

"Then it's a good thing that I didn't start you working down my list," she laughed. "I got some DUMB friends."

My turn to laugh. "Kim's refreshingly uncluttered, too."

"Oh, I know where you're headed with that. Divorces. Exes. Kids. One of the reasons that I stay with my Gary. I'd hate to have to kill 'im. He's mean enough when we're married."

I knew the stories about Carole and Gary. This was her sense of humor talking. One of their kids had just received a scholarship for college and they were doting and faithful parents. Yeah, I'd asked about her when I first came to work. She had that look about her, steady, pretty enough, self-assured. She is married. VERY married.

She returned to her desk leaving me with a stack of invoices and reports to occupy the rest of my day. Friday! The weekend had arrived.

I was out of the gate and headed home. Punched the earpiece of my Bluetooth and said one word, "Kim".

"Hey, baby!" was the bright answer. "You on your way home?"

"Yep."

"Did they talk about me after lunch?"

"Uh-huh ... The news is out." I recounted some of the conversation I'd had with Carole.

"You told me that married women would try to set you up."

"Apparently she was getting ready to start working down the list. I'm glad I have you, peaches."

Giggle. "I dunno. You might've found the one."

"Did already. Standing on the sidewalk when I moved in. What's on tap for the evening?"

"I dunno. Evening in? Go out to eat? See if Aunt Jen and Laci are up to something? Talk to me."

"Dinner and a movie?"

"That might work. You know something you want to see?"

I didn't say 'You. Naked.' I did say. "Why don't you see what's playing?"

"Okay. I'll have an answer by the time you get home. Love ya, Timmy!" I had a picture of the expression that went with the comment. Cute. Satisfying to know that it was waiting for me at home.

I got home and was walking up the sidewalk past Jen's apartment. The door opened and I was joined by this cutie, still wearing shorts and a short-sleeved rugby shirt in the mild Louisiana autumn.

"Y'know, about that movie thing," she said, "there's this wonderful thing called the Internet."

I looked sideways at her. "So you're saying that you don't want to go out to a movie?"

Giggle. "You catch on fast. Or dinner either."

"We'll starve."

"Got bread. Got peanut butter. Won't starve. High energy foods, too!" Giggle. "I kinda worked myself up thinkin' about you all day, you know..."

"Oh," I said. "Here I was trying to be all cool and mature and caring to show you that we're not just about the sex..."

She didn't let me finish. "But sometimes it can be about the sex, okay?"

"Not just okay. A very happy coincidence. Because I thought about you all afternoon, too."

"And you can tell me that at no time did sex cross your mind?" We turned onto the walk to our front door.

"I can't say that at all, little one," I said. "Tried not to." I reached for the front door, key in hand.

She pushed me against it, kissing me. "Why'd you try not to?"

"Because it's difficult to walk around with an erection, that's why." I kissed her back then unlocked the door to let us in.

"Ooooooo, an erection," she giggled. "I fix those for you." Twinkly eyes underscored the statement. Fingers tugging me by the belt towards the bedroom further reinforced the idea that just maybe this little doll wanted to play.

And play we did. For a happy hour. The two of us were laying in a sticky, happy knot, making happy sounds to one another when Kim's new cellphone rang.

"That's gonna be Aunt Jen," she said, picking it up off the nightstand.

"Hi, Aunt Jen," she said." Pause. "I dunno. Lemme ask 'im. He's right here." Pause. Giggle. Outrage. "I can't believe you asked me that!" Giggle. Pause. "Okay. You missed catching us by ten minutes." Kim turned to me. "Are you okay with goin' to dinner with my nosey aunt and her friend?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"We'll be there in a half an hour. Shower first." Giggle. "Okay. Bye!"

She bowled me over onto my back and kissed me. "Let's go shower. You smell like you've been having sex!"

"I thought that was YOU," I retorted as I stood up.

She hooked a hand behind my leg, tugging me up to the edge of the bed where my dick was near the same level as her mouth. The "Mmmmmmm" that accompanied her next move reverberated through my body. She released me, pulling her head back with a pop and bounced out of the bed.

"You're so easy," she said. "I can make you shake like a leaf."

I pulled her nakedness against me and slid a finger between a pair of slick lips to find a little pink pea. She quivered in my arms. "Yeah, so?"

Her eyes connected with mine, dreamy. Then she pushed. "Shower. Otherwise they're gonna think we're at it again." Giggle.

"Your aunt knows entirely too much about our intimate relations, little girl," I said.

"Just wants me safe and happy, that's all." She reached in the shower and turned the water on. Twenty-five minutes later we were showered and getting dressed and I was marveling at how comfortable we felt around each other, really comfortable when we walked out the front door and down the sidewalk to Jen's apartment, hand in hand.

I knocked at the door and it was almost instantaneously opened, Laci smiling at us.

"Come in, you two," she said. "Jen's replacing a shoelace." Jen was behind her on the sofa, shoe in hand, doing exactly that.

"Just a second, y'all," Jen said. "Talkin' to little Kimmy upset me and I blew a shoelace."

Kim dove right in. "You're the one that started it, Aunt Jen. 'Did I catch y'all again?' Hah! You haven't caught us the FIRST time!"

Jen was laughing. "An' I really don't wanna know, either. So YOU tell me that I missed by ten minutes. He's been home an hour and a half. You don't..."

"Waste time? Nuh-uh! Got me a new toy. I wanna play with it."

I could feel my face turning red.

"Awwwww," Laci giggled, "We embarrassed Timmy. That's sooooo cuuuute!"

Kim put her arm around my waist. "They're so awfully rude sometimes."

"Sit a second," Laci said. I sat on the sofa and Kim perched on my knee.

"Uh, there's plenty more room on the sofa," Laci said.

Kim stuck her tongue at Laci. "This is better!" and she kissed my cheek. I breathed deep, nostrils flaring, savoring the smell of freshly bathed, clean Kim. My hand rested familiarly on her hip. Comfortable.

Jen was pulling her shoe on, tying it. "Okay, let's go before Kim and Laci get in a fight." When she stood, Laci kissed her, a light brush of lips. That was the first time I'd seen them actually kiss.

I know Kim noted that, too. I let her drive us to the restaurant in her new SUV. Laci and Jen took Laci's car.

"That's the first time you ever saw 'em kiss, huh?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Did it squick you out?"

"No," I said. "I figured they kissed."

Giggle. "More'n kiss, apparently," Kim said.

"They're adults. And like you said, pretty committed to one another. Shouldn't be frightening that two people who're happy with one another would kiss."

"They're very subdued in public. They ... well, I was here for a while before I saw 'em kiss in front of me. Even when Laci used to sleep over. I mean, I knew about 'em. Mom acted like she was so superior because she was, in her words, 'normal' and her sister was 'one a'them bull dykes'. And I saw the parade of men in and out of Mom's life and how they treated her an' she treated them and, you know, I thought about bein' a lesbian myself. But it's not something you just decide to be. I talked to Aunt Jen about it."

"You talked to her about becoming a lesbian?"

"Not exactly. Just how I hated men, the way Mom did it, and the turds in school."

"What'd Jen say?"

"Aunt Jen's been a rock, Tim. She said that I needed to not be confused about who I was and not get swayed by what other people do. That I was supposed to be myself and that she'd be there to help me in any way she could." She glanced away from the road to spear me with her eyes. "And then YOU came along. And I just knew, deep down, in my heart. In my head. I wasn't supposed to be a lesbian and I wasn't supposed to be a slut. I was supposed to belong to one man and that one man was supposed to belong to me."

I smiled. "I'm glad it turned out that way. I absolutely adore you, you know."

Smirk. "I am quite adorable, you know."

"Yes you are. I would happily fondle you right now, but you're driving."

"And when you touch me, I lose track of everything else. So keep your hands to yourself." She was smiling. "You can use 'em later."

We pulled into the almost filled parking lot and walked to the door of the eatery, meeting Laci and Jen approaching from the other side of the lot. Jen had made reservations.

"I didn't know this place took reservations," I said.

"You have to know the manager," she smiled. "Or who the manager knows..."

"I'm not sure I want any more information," I said.

Kim tugged my head down and whispered, "He's dating that 'queen' we talked about."

"Oh, okay," I said. "I figured as much just from the way Jen was smirking."

Jen bumped her hip against me. "And I was trying to be subtle."

"You're just not very good at 'subtle', Jen," Laci said as we were herded to an empty table in the crowded restaurant.