"So what's the big date?" My esthetician looked to be maybe in her early 40s.
"No big date, I just like the sting of it." I was referring to the waxing. I also liked where she placed her fingers to brace me before pulling the wax off. "Though a lot of people have been seeing me naked lately..." For some reason I didn't feel bothered saying that out loud. I wondered if men actually preferred me hairless or not, or if I'd just gotten that impression from pornography.
She quirked an eyebrow. "That's a new one. Glad to hear it though, I was debating having a talk with you about the bruises..." She meant the bruises on my wrists, ankle, and all over my ass, of course.
"Thanks for looking out, but I'm fine." I had learned to enjoy the dull pain that I was perpetually in. I didn't think I was seriously hurt, so I could override my body yelling at me. I wasn't sure if the limp I still had was because of my bruised ankle or because of what Cody had done to me the night prior.
She gave me a knowing smirk and finished her job, rapidly peeling another wax strip off, leaving me panting and white-knuckled.
When we were done, I paid and was about to leave when I felt the tug of my promise. I had to be honest. I turned around and met her gaze. My hands were sweaty. "Would you like to come have dinner at my place? It's a dorm but I can make it nice." There was a pause. "Or your place - or any place, actually?" I continued.
"Sorry, I don't date clients, I also don't swing that way." She gave me a sympathetic smile. I was partially grateful, since I hadn't even begun to figure out what to tell Olivia if I brought another woman home.
"I--Hm, suppose I should find another beautician huh?" An unfortunate chuckle broke its way out of me.
"You can try but you won't find anyone better than me, darling."
I marveled. What a perfect response. She'd let me know I was still welcome there without opening the door to my advance even slightly. Completely professional. "Okay... see you next time then!" I admire women like her so much.
---
I met Liam the next afternoon, and luckily my limp had mostly subsided by then. We met in the park and got ice cream cones and walked, and I held his hand and watched him blush. I was glad that it was another pleasant sunny day. I tried not to be aggressively sexual about licking the ice-cream, since I knew he would notice.
He was noticing other things, too - I caught him looking at the gap between my skirt and my knee-high socks, at my thighs. A dandelion fluff caught up by the warm breeze hit me in the eye and made my face scrunch up funny. He laughed at me. I laughed with him.
We played frisbee, or rather, he played frisbee and tried to teach me how to throw. I mostly just ran around after it. I was moving pretty slowly because every step still hurt a little bit, but I think he had fun. He walked me back to the dorms. I interlocked my fingers with his and guided him over to the brick wall of the building in the shade of a big oak and leaned back against the wall, pulling his hand to my thigh, right into the gap that I'd caught him looking at. His fingertips explored my skin, then his palm dove in and he gripped my thigh and lifted my leg higher, while letting his body sink against mine to pin me against the wall. He kissed me. It was soft, joyful, my heart swelled and I didn't know what to do. When he broke the kiss his cute face was inches from mine and I just said "I like you."
"I like you too." He smiled with his eyes. "But I need to get to class..." He leaned in to kiss me again, his hand coming up to my neck. I felt him fighting himself about pulling away, so I pushed him slightly with a hand on his clavicle.
"We'll do this again soon?" He asked, studying my lips.
"Yes please." I giggled and kicked off the wall, waving at him like a dork while I turned to go up the concrete stairs into the dorm.
My phone dinged on the way up to my room. "Tomorrow? Or Saturday?" It was Liam. "Sorry I don't want to be the kind of guy who pressures you, but I also don't want to play games, I like you and really want to see you again soon."
I fell down in my bed and held my phone to my chest and beamed a smile at the ceiling. "Saturday. I promised tomorrow to Olivia. My roommate. Gotta make time for study too, I'm not that bright." Then I remembered I had to go to Cody's on Saturday night to obey his previous order. "Oh crap, can't do Saturday either - might have to be next week?" I felt a little dirty typing that. "I'm not dodging you I promise I really like you too and want to see you again. Tuesday night?"
"Sure thing! Do you want to go roller blading? I'm not afraid to fall down in front of you."
I laughed out loud at that, but then pondered whether it was an innuendo, deciding ultimately that it must not have been, and silently scolded myself for letting my brain get so corrupted.
"Okay but you should know I'm really good on skates, I won't let you fall."
"Whew, glad to hear it - I am actually pretty afraid to fall down in front of you. I was just even more afraid to say so."
I really liked him.
I got up and got back to my life.
---
The next day after class my phone dinged, almost the second that I got home.
"Come meet me at Jellybean tonight at 9. No panties, no bras, wear the coral lipstick from my drawer in the bathroom (Vivid Cotton Ink Shade 18 if you're a dummy), do your eyelashes, mascara, the whole works. But don't put your hair up - you're cuter with it down. Wear that black skirt you have with the crescent moons on the hem, the white shirt I put on your pillow, and those cute lace-up combat boots under your bed that you never break out."
Olivia's text made my heart race. Such explicit directions made me burn with curiosity about her plan for the night. I took a shower, spending quite a few minutes zoning out with the hot water pouring down my backside. The steady flow of heat soothed my skin. I had started to feel pretty normal again at that point, no pain.
I followed Liv's instructions, of course, and was surprised about the lipstick, it was perfect for my porcelain skin tone and was absolutely not right for her warm Latina skin. While I pondered that, I found the 'white shirt' she'd put on my pillow was a tiny plain white t-shirt that had stripes crudely cut out of it all over, and black ribbon woven into the cuts to make it look like a makeshift corset. Once I got it on, I played with the lace to try and tighten it. I felt pretty naked because my nipple, small as they are, poked quite visibly through the thin fabric, and because so much of my skin was visible through the cuts. It was also so undersized that it clung to my shape completely, making even the tiny bit of pudge around my belly button feel really noticeable.
When I looked in the mirror I felt like a rejected wanna-be goth girl from the 90s, maybe with a little bit of an identity crisis too - my quite casual bob cut suddenly felt very out of place. I silently judged Olivia's dress-up choices while also thinking about how well dressed she always was. Suspicion grew.
I met Olivia at her car, which was easy to find because it was a bright yellow Volkswagen bug - as she called it, 'Jellybean'.
She got out of the car and clapped her hands while walking over to me, putting a hand on my head. "Turn for me." I obeyed, she laughed and grabbed my ass beneath the skirt. "Good girl." I felt my breath hitching already, How did she do this to me.
I beamed her a smile and she put her finger to my lips. "Quiet now, not a word." She smiled and said my name with the tone of an order. "Kis." I moved onto my tip toes to kiss her softly. "Mm, that's enough Kis. Get in the car."
Once we were strapped in, she got us onto the highway and then reached a hand over to my face. "Kis," she continued her playful use of my nickname, "...my fingers."
I reached up to squeeze her hand and started planting little kisses all over her skin, learning just how perfectly manicured her fingernails were when my lips grazed over them. I sucked one finger into my mouth but she pulled away. "I didn't say suck." I giggled and she turned on the radio, blasting it loud. The city lights broke through the car interior in rapid waves as we drove, whites and reds and yellows bouncing around and pulsing, embedding the pattern and pacing of the streets into my mind until we entered a tunnel and it went suddenly pitch dark. Liv reached over in the dark to squeeze my thigh, making me squirm.
That trip will always be burned into my memory, even though it was short and relatively uneventful, just because of the sheer power of the vibe that Olivia had cultivated. I felt like I was in a movie. We pulled into a parking lot in front of a bar and she turned to me. "You can speak now."
"Where are we?" I looked at the dimly back-lit sign in front of me and Liv belly-laughed.
"Can't you read?" She grinned. It said Wild Orchid Gentleman's Club.
"A strip club?"
"Yea... I have a special job for you. My friend Erika is really pissed off about something I did to her a while back, and I need to make amends. So you're my gift to her for a while tonight." Liv got out of the car and circled around to my door.
"You're pimping me out?" I wondered if she meant that Erika would want me, or if she would want me to serve the men in the club. As I exited the car, Liv caught my face in her hands and kissed me hard.
"I love you." She kissed me again, then again on the nose, then pulled me into a tight hug with her lips smushed lazily against my left eyebrow because of the upward tilt of her head and our height difference. Her hands cupped my ears.
I raised my hands to her hips and cooed out a shy little "I love you too," and of course it was true. We hadn't known each other that long, but she had been a light of stability and joy in my life since the day we met.