Chapter 4: Awkward Conversations and a Big Send Off

I was in bed with Anh and Natalie later that evening. I'm not quite sure how they worked it out, but they managed to rotate using some complicated selection criteria so each night I had a slightly different combination of women in my bed. We'd found five to a bed was pushing things, but I had a feeling that would change as soon as the rest of the women arrived. Or maybe not, depending on how things went with my potential upcoming dates.

We were having a good time. Anh was whispering advice over my shoulder as I ate Natalie out, when the phone rang.

"Are not you get?" Anh asked when I didn't immediately jump up to answer it.

"Mrmm merfin moo moor ah mime," I mumbled into Natalie's snatch.

"What?" Anh asked as the phone in my room rang again.

"I said, I think I've got better things to do at the moment," I said, lifting my head in order to speak clearly.

"Well, you bet," she said in slightly fractured English, although I understood what she meant, "it maybe Kitty or Chalise," she concluded with emphasis, sitting up and putting her hands on her hips.

Sighing heavily, I rolled over and grabbed the phone, leaving Natalie still gasping as I answered it.

"Jennings Residence. Alex speaking," I answered.

"Hey Alex, this is Chalise. Did I call at a bad time? You sound like you're out of breath, did you just run in from outside?"

"Nah, just a bit surprised is all, what's up?"

She paused a bit. "Were you fooling around? With your women?" she gasped loudly over the phone.

"Oops, busted," I laughed, embarrassed and expecting the worst. "Please, don't worry about it, though; we haven't progressed past third base yet." I started to wipe my wet cheek when Natalie sidled up to me and, pushing my hand away, proceeded to lick her own juices off my face while I continued to talk to Chalise.

"Riiiiiggggghhhhht, these are the women that are supposed to be OK with us going on a date and possibly developing an intimate, exclusive arrangement?"

"Yep, that's them. Only there's just two here right now," I said, finally sitting up and throwing my legs over the edge of the bed. "We figured more than two was stretching things a bit, and my mother laid down the law. Their names are Natalie and Anh. Want to talk to them?"

"What? Are you crazy? I don't—"

"Ah, come on, they're really eager to speak with you. Here, just say hello. Here's Natalie," and with that I quickly handed the phone off before she could beg off. Natalie pulled her face away from mine and took the phone. Although she had been busy, I felt Chalise would feel more at ease with her since she was closer to her own age.

"Hey, Chalise is it?" Natalie asking, sounding happy and eager to talk to her. "I'm so glad you called. We've all been anxiously waiting for your call."

"Nah," Natalie replied to what I could only guess was a question about where my face had just been. I was proven right when she continued. "We were just having some fun. I was licking my juices off Alex's face while you were talking to him. Don't want him to catch pneumonia from walking through drafts with a damp face or anything," she giggled, as if this was the kind of thing you typically talk about with your lover's new girlfriend.

I couldn't believe she would be so blatant about what we'd been up to. Maybe they were taking after my new hobby of always trying to surprise people. She certainly had surprised me, and I knew how they liked to pattern themselves after me. I listened to the rest of the one-sided conversation.

"Oh no, I'm sure you've got a wild side, too. And if you don't, maybe Alex can help you develop one." I guess, instead of getting pissed, poor Chalise was feeling insecure. Natalie continued to reassure her.

"No, he's not very wild. I mean, I've been involved with him for almost two weeks and we've never gone beyond oral, but I guess that's more due to Shani and the others. They all have this ... yeah, that's the one. I guess he mentioned it to you already. Anyway, he's just such a peach, he's not pushy, although he's definitely aggressive when it counts, if you know what I mean. Anh's been instructing him on the proper technique in cunnilingus and he's been a very apt pupil." Despite my merely listening to this conversation I could feel a deep blush covering my face. I couldn't believe she was telling a girl I had just asked out on a first date—someone who hadn't even accepted yet—all these intimate details. She laughed at a supposedly shared joke.

"Yeah, well, just think, you get the results of our training. And if you're very, very good, maybe we'll give you some special training of your own." I hoped she just didn't offer Chalise what she clearly did.

"Oh, hope I didn't say too much. I figured you'd guess that a few of us are pretty bi by the fact that we're all here together, but I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." I knew she was only putting it on for effect now, as Natalie hadn't yet fooled around with any of the other women. Still, I was wondering if maybe this was a mistake and I should have followed my first instinct and never answered the phone. Every fiber in my being screamed at me that it was a dreadful mistake, but I just couldn't seem to help reacting to people honestly lately. I guess I figured, 'Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck'. I'd been assuming both girls would drop me as soon as they got past being confused by me, so I really had nothing to lose.

"Don't worry, you're not expected to," Natalie reassured her. "But the offer is there if you ever feel like taking us up on it." I almost wished that Natalie was a Seer, just so I could listen to the conversation, but I was almost afraid to. Hearing just this side of it was bad enough.

I considered what she'd just told Chalise and wondered what she was trying to say. Was Natalie honestly offering to fool around with her? Was she possibly intimidated by the other women and was thinking another newbie would be easier to approach, or was she merely teasing her? I hoped it wasn't the latter, because I was making quite an effort to be completely honest with them both. I guess I'd have to see how it played out. There's no telling from listening to only half a conversation. For all I knew, Chalise might just be goading her on, trying to get a rise out of me.

"No, we're quite serious," Natalie related, leaning back against the headboard and relaxing, resting her feet in my lap. I did the only thing I could, I started massaging them, watching her reactions for any additional clues about how the conversation was progressing. "We value our friendship with Alex way too much to try to mess up his budding relationships." Well, it was about time Natalie stopped digging my hole deeper for me and tried to straighten this mess up a little, so I motioned for her to hurry it up.

"OK, sweetie, here he is," she said, smiling at me. "Oh, wait, do you want to speak to Anh? She doesn't speak much English but I'm sure she'd like to speak to you." This suggestion made me even more nervous than the previous conversation.

"OK, one second." I waited to see who she'd hand the phone to. When she handed it to Anh I tried to listen in via our mental communication.

"Hi, Chalise," Anh cooed, my prompting her with the name worked well, as her pronunciation was perfect.

"Hey, Ann, your English sounds very good," Chalise said very slowly, enunciating each and every word. Anh was able to understand her, through me, but still responded in Vietnamese, so I leaned close and spoke over her.

"She says, and trust me, this is in her own words, 'Not so good yet. But I practice. Soon I be, what you call, cunning linguist?'" Chalise laughed.

"You're so bad," she teased. "I can certainly tell you're American enough, you have our sense of humor. Even as tired as that old joke is." She slowly began talking in a normal speaking voice. Again Anh answered, after which I spoke over her into the phone from a slight distance.

"She says: 'America didn't invent dirty jokes, and your generation certainly didn't invent sex'," I laughed along with them both.

"Wow, you both sound so nice. I can't believe you're trying to get Alex to invite me out."

"She says that she thinks we might be good for each other. If not," I paused, just as she had, "then you'll at least get a free dinner out of it."

"Oh, gosh," Chalise blustered, "please tell Alex he doesn't have to pay for an expensive dinner. I was just expecting a movie or something."

"Don't worry, Char—" I started to answer her directly, before Anh started speaking over me, so I instead returned to translator mode.

"She says: 'Nonsense, we expect Alex to treat you like the little princess you are. And if he doesn't have enough money to do so, then we'll slip him a few bills as he heads out the door, '" I translated as I felt myself blushing, but Chalise laughed again.

"Well, it was certainly nice talking to you both. Can I speak with Alex now?" Anh managed the goodbyes on her own, and I took the phone she handed to me.

"Glad you all got along so well," I told her. "One always has to worry when one girlfriend talks to another." She giggled; she seemed to be in a better mood all the time.

"Maybe that's just the case when a current girlfriend talks to a past girlfriend. There may be a 'multiple girlfriend exception' to the rule," she joked. However it made as much sense as anything I could come up with. There didn't seem to be any other reason she'd go along with the current conversation.

"Say, are you using a speaker phone? It sounded like you were talking from a distance while Ann was speaking, but now you sound normal." I knew what the problem was as soon as she mentioned it. I'd been dreading it. She wanted to know how I could respond to a question she'd asked Anh.

"Nah, I just guessed how you'd respond. That plus I could tell from Anh's response." It was hardly a reasonable explanation, but it was the best that I could come up with. "So, do you have any good news for me?" I asked, before she had a chance to question me about my weak excuse.

"I certainly do," she announced, "Darrell says 'Hi'," she stated happily. I sputtered for a minute before catching myself.

"You little sneak. You tricked me. You're as bad as my sister," I laughed with her over the phone.

"Ha, now I know you were pulling my leg with all that, 'my friend Darrell' nonsense."

"Well, Darrell certainly doesn't see us as friends, but I'm hoping to change that."

"Maybe, we'll have to see. It's not looking so good right now though. Speaking of siblings, your sister said she saw quite a bit in New Orleans."

"That may or may not be, Chalise, but you'll have to talk that over with her. You're not going to get me to either confirm, or sneak additional information out of me regarding anyone else. I don't tell other's secrets. It's a matter of pride with me. So if you want any information regarding Kitty, or from Kitty regarding how good your brother is in bed, you'll have to ask them yourself."

"What? Why you, that's a perfectly nasty thing to say," she responded after sputtering as much as I had. "But I get your point. I'll stop being nosy. Do you at least want to know what she said?"

"No, again, that's a private conversation between the two of you. She can say whatever she wants about me, but I won't talk about her unless we're both here and we both agree. Now, about the previous allusions, I take it you and Darrell don't get along very well?"

"No, he's a bit of a prick," she answered honestly, which made me feel that much better. She at least was going with my whole 'honesty' policy, and wasn't pulling any punches with me. "He treats me like his bratty little sister all the time. We don't get along very well."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Tell him I said he's supposed to be nice to you. He'll do it, too. He listens to me when I tell him things."

She laughed with a nice tinkling laugh, relaxed and gentle. "Yeah, sure. Anyway, before I forget, I do want to go out with you. And just like Kitty, I'll manage to get over there somehow so I can meet everyone. Is eight oclock OK?"

"Why don't we make it seven so we can get dinner at a reasonable hour? And are you going to have trouble getting over here?"

"OK, that's fine. And no, I don't have a car of my own, but my mother sounds intrigued by you. I kind of told her about you and Darrell getting into it yesterday. She thinks you're either a cad, a sneak, or even, gasp, a nice guy." I laughed again.

"OK, we're on for Saturday then. Wear something nice as I'm expected to take you somewhere fancy." We both said our goodbyes and hung-up before I turned back to the two girls as I rubbed my hands together.

"Now, where were we?" They laughed as Anh started to wipe what was left of Natalie's cum from my cheek.

"No way, buddy, we want all the details. What'd she say?" So I proceeded to explain everything I could remember, while Anh kept me distracted by going down on me and Natalie nibbled on my neck and chest. We progressed from there to them both pretending they were 'nearly virginal' high school girls, doing their best Chalise imitations. We had a lot of fun, almost forgetting what we were doing we were laughing so much.

The next morning, after a quick shower with Natalie offering to help me scrub myself, I came downstairs to discover all the women clustered around Anh. Apparently she'd been telling them the latest gossip, a fact confirmed by my mother's gleeful expression. It never failed to amaze me how much she liked gossiping with my girls about my budding sex life.

When Natalie cleared her throat they quickly scrambled to their feet and clustered around me, hugging and congratulating me. I wasn't in very good shape to respond, as I still needed some coffee to get my motor running, although the early activity with Natalie certainly left me in a very good mood. When the rest of the girls moved away, Cate came up and gave me a big hug.

"You never cease to amaze me," she said, giving me a quick hug before pulling back to look me in my eyes. "Though I'm still waiting to see how you fare with Bulldozer today."

"Don't worry," Shani laughed, "By the end of the day, Alex will probably have a date with him as well." Everyone thought that was quite funny. I was too busy pouring my coffee to worry about the implications overly much.

"So I guess there isn't much need for me to find you a girlfriend after all, huh?" Cate asked once we were on our way to school.

"What? Of course there is," I protested. "These are just two introductory dates. I'm not expecting much. After all, there's a lot for them to have to deal with. I'm coming into this with a LOT of baggage."

"Yeah, but don't forget, you've got a bunch of women all perfectly happy to carry that baggage for you," Cate snickered.

"Exactly my point, you don't think that would freak someone out?"

"I don't think you realize quite the extent you've changed in the past week, Alex," Cate said. "Frankly, I don't know what you did with my shy, quiet brother, but personally, I think I'll take the new, improved version instead." I turned to her and saw her wide smile and felt good just seeing her so happy. "You don't know how attractive a strong, confident young man is, especially one who everyone else is panting over already. I think you're going to be surprised by how you're treated now," she informed me.

I groaned, "I know, every time I turn around someone else is looking at me."

"Ha, you should be used to that by now," she replied with a smirk. "But seriously, can you really complain about being noticed and admired by everyone?"

"Right now, I'm not sure if they are admirers or just curious. If they were Watchers I could deal with it. I know how to handle them. I don't know how to handle this new attention, and I can't help but think it's a bad idea," I told her.

"It's not a bad thing," Cate insisted. "If you're going to make a big difference in the world, you're going to have to get used to it. With big ambitions comes a lot of attention."

"Yeah, but I'd like to have some idea of what I'm supposed to be doing before everyone starts looking to me for answers. Right now, I don't know what it is I'm supposedly doing. Maybe I'm just someone who happened to be struck with an odd ability that will never be able to do anything with it?"

"Alex, no one believes that," Cate said, daring me to contradict her. "We all know you have what it takes to make a difference, whatever it is you decide you're going to do with it. You've already begun. Look at how you took over telling Betty about 'her' people. You're already gathering people to you, and you're trying to establish them into a united group. Even without any further ambitions, you're already moving toward something major just with that."

"Maybe," I reluctantly admitted, "but right now I just want to focus on getting through the rest of the school year without getting into too much trouble."

"Says the man who decides to date both the supposed girlfriend and the sister of a guy who threatened him! Somehow it doesn't sound like you're really committed to that idea, Alex," Cate challenged my statement.

I simply grunted. "You've got a point there. Still, we'll see how it goes this weekend. So far, I think I've been lucky they've put up with me this far. I'm not expecting to get much farther with either of them."

"Good, that's always the best approach," Cate said almost gleefully. I shot her a glare, but she was already off to the races and missed it. "Be thankful for what you get and don't go putting on any attitudes, assuming you somehow deserve what life hands you." She now noticed my look but just smiled sweetly, not paying any attention to my mood. I wasn't sure whether her happy grin was because she was proud of herself for characterizing me, or proud of me for my personality.

When we got to school I attracted less attention simply because I didn't have any new women with me. I saw Darrell in the hallway. He looked at me strangely but didn't do anything else. I knew that Kitty was going to tell him that I'd instigated her asking him out. I asked her to keep it subtle and not tell Darrell anything about me, but if a girl is going to give a guy a second chance, she's going to want him to know it's a second chance, just so he'll be on his best behavior. Telling him I'd been behind it was a not so subtle reminder that he was on thin ice, but had a decent chance to make good. Of course, I didn't really know if this was actually a second or simply a first chance, Darrell and I never quite got that far into details. But either way, the effect was the same. He knew he had a chance because of me, and that was the in that I was looking for, however slight it was.

At lunch I sat down at the black table in the corner I'd sat at earlier. That was where I'd first met Chalise when I joined Wanda Gerrard on Monday. I hadn't made the connection initially. Cate also came over from her normal crowd and we joined in with the rest of the group there. Apparently several kids already knew about Chalise and my upcoming date, and it seemed that everyone knew about my run in with her brother. They all thought I was a "crazy white dude," but we all laughed about it. Cate told Chalise she'd wanted to meet her and asked her about Kitty as well.

Since I now knew we'd be going out, I took a moment to really look Chalise over while we talked. Before, I hadn't known her from Adam and hadn't really paid her much attention. She was quite pretty but, like Kitty, it wasn't in that 'I'm gorgeous, look at me' style that always draws attention. She had the same fine, silky skin Shani had, though she was darker, yet not quite as dark as her brother. Like him, she wore her hair in a more natural style, unlike most black girls nowadays. I didn't know the name of the style she wore, but it was like short cornrows that stuck out several inches but weren't as tightly packed. I guess I'd have to start catching up on ethnic trends from now on. I also assumed her parents put a big emphasis on 'natural' looks, since both she and her brother had that type of style.

She had a thinner nose than her brother and a more rugged physical presence than Kitty did. She was more traditionally packaged than Shaniqua in that she had slightly more of the typical African-American build, with larger breasts, wider hips, thicker thighs, and a more substantial butt than the various white girls I knew, but it wasn't nearly as exaggerated as it was in most of her peers. Unlike so many modern blacks, she didn't have the big caboose and breasts that are so common, something else she shared with Shani and her brother as well. Not that I was checking out her brother's ass, by any account.

Her build was nice, but I'd become accustomed to judging girls by white girl butt standards, so I figured it'd take me a while to appreciate larger asses. Still, she was a cutie with a beautiful smile, but sad eyes with long lashes and nice dimples. She and her friends made us feel welcome, so it was a better lunch period than it was with Cate's friends. Something I think Cate was aware of as well. That certainly explained why she was here with us, rather than with her own friends.

In Physics, both our partners were back. I tried suggesting switching partners, but they both scowled at me, so there wasn't any graceful way around it. We went back to our original partners. As a result, I couldn't spend any more time with Alice during class. A fact I wasn't happy with, not least because my partner wasn't overly bright and I ended up doing most of the work. It hadn't bothered me before, but now really annoyed me. That's probably why both guys wanted to keep things as they were.

After school, I met up with Cate again, no signs of Vicky, and we headed home. On the way, Cate turned to me.

"I really liked Chalise when we spoke today, and I enjoyed speaking with Kitty last night."

"That's nice," I replied simply, waiting to see where this was going before saying any more.

"You're pretty good at choosing people. I think you'll do well with them both. You were so worried about finding someone to date, but you didn't have any problems."