As you may have noticed, I have changed the category description to "Romance". For the patient, and those willing to continue, there are more erotic couplings to come. Thanks again for your encouraging comments!
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Jake hosted the next bridge night. He had a typical bachelor pad. I would have expected some feminine touches, with Beth's influence, but there weren't many. They seemed to be getting along better as a couple, though.
I had Abigail for a partner, against Massimo and Darren. Abigail didn't seem at all flustered by Massimo's presence. And her bridge
had
improved: her bidding was crisper, her leads less hesitant. She also appeared to be comfortable with me. We won a nice rubber.
In the second match, Carmen and I took on Darren and Christina. I had to admit it to myself, at last: I
was
crushing on Christina. Badly. She was pretty, and exotic. Long dark hair, beautifully shaped brown eyes, that cute little upturned nose, that beauty mark at the corner of her mouth that I so wanted to touch, to kiss ...
- "2 hearts, Norm." said Carmen, with a touch of impatience. From the tone of her voice, I could tell that she was repeating herself.
- "Sorry." I said. "Must have been wool-gathering."
- "Looked like plain old daydreaming to me. Get your head in the game, man. We're getting killed here."
Carmen was right. We went down hard.
On the way home, I was still thinking of Christina. She was slender, but more sylph-like, graceful, as opposed to Abigail's runner's body. At home, I did a search for sylph. Too skinny. And invisible. I got side-tracked, and ended up reading about naiads and undines.
Christina was a creature of air, and earth, I concluded. The books, the philosophy ... air. But her body was well-rounded, well-proportioned. She had a nice pair of B cup breasts, I guessed. It was hard to tell, because she rarely showed any cleavage, unlike Carmen or Beth.
She was kind, and giving, paying the upkeep on a house so that her sister would have a place to live. And her friends all seemed to like her. There were none of those catty, competitive remarks about her from the others.
Yes, I had it very bad indeed. And Edgar Allan Poe was not the least bit pleased with me. This could end up wrecking my revenge on Massimo.
What else could I do? I rationalized it like this:
- Beth was unavailable (relationship with Jake)
- I hadn't even met Emily, the alternate. What was I supposed to do? Hang out where the girls worked, in the hopes of meeting her? Follow her husband home? Stalking, next?
- we were only about 3 months into the bet, and I had already slept with 2 of the girls. I had plenty of time to romance Christina, until the other two became available
Bullshit, said Edgar Allan Poe. And he was right.
I wanted Christina. I wanted her to fall in love with me.
And if she did, and I then went out and slept with 2 other women, would she ever forgive me?
I wanted to be with Christina when the bet was over. But I didn't want Massimo to win.
You're doomed, said Poe.
******************************
It was my turn to host the next bridge game. I decided to put a little effort into it. I cleaned my apartment thoroughly. And I cooked. It was the Saturday night, stay up later bridge night, so I planned to serve food during the break after the second game.
Carmen and Abigail had already seen my apartment, but the others had not. When Jake and Beth arrived, she instantly went into detective mode. She didn't ask for a tour; she just snooped around everywhere.
- "What smells so good?" she asked. I showed her.
- "You cooked?" said Jake. "That's kind of gay."
Darren, who was standing nearby, was not impressed. Neither was I. When I called him on it, Jake apologized.
- "I didn't mean any offense. You know what I meant." he said.
Beth had to take him aside to explain it to him.
Christina was a little bit late, as she often was. But the moment she came through the door, she smelled the food. She did a double-take, and looked at me, astonished.
- "You didn't." she said. And she made a beeline for the kitchen.
- "Did what?" asked Beth. She followed me in. "Did what?" she repeated.
On the stove, I had two tajine pots. They're made of glazed pottery, and they're standard in North African cuisine. You can slow cook a savory stew, usually of lamb or poultry, along with sliced vegetables and fruit. The spices are crucial: cumin, turmeric, saffron, ginger, even cinnamon. It uses minimal water, which is helpful in desert countries.
I explained all this for Beth's benefit. "They do this in Morocco. I don't know about Algeria, though."
- "The Tunisian version is more like an Italian fritata." said Christina. "We use eggs, sometimes, too. But this is wonderful!"
- "You must have this all the time." I said.
- "No! Who has time? It takes forever. And I don't cook just for myself very often."
- "Why did you make two pots?" asked Beth. "It looks like a lot of food."
- "One is lamb." I told her. "The second is vegetarian. For Darren." Darren was a vegetarian.
Beth pinched my cheek, and then kissed me on the lips. "You're a sweetheart."
Christina was more restrained in her praise. "This is wonderful. Thank you." She knew who I had done it for.
As luck would have it, Christina and I faced off against Carmen and Darren in the first game. I found it hard not to stare at my partner. I couldn't tell if Christina was blushing, because of her dark skin, but she was certainly aware of my attention. Even Carmen's incredible cleavage couldn't distract me from Christina's shining eyes and shy smile.
We lost.
I had to play with Massimo in the second game, but even that couldn't spoil my mood. At the break, I served the tajine. Jake and Massimo were unimpressed. Fuck them. The girls all complimented me, and Darren thanked me for making one vegetarian.
In the final game, Beth was my partner, against Jake and Darren.
- "You couldn't have made a Cuban dish?" she teased. "If I'd known you could cook, I would have placed my order."
After the cards, I managed to speak to Beth alone.
- "Can you give me Christina's number?" I asked.
Beth gave me a long look. "Yes, I can. But you have to understand something, right from the start: Chris is not Abigail. And she's certainly not Carmen."
- "I know."
- "Don't fuck this up." said Beth.
******************************
I asked Christina out for coffee the following Saturday afternoon. She hesitated at first, but then agreed.
She looked great in jeans and a t-shirt. But she seemed a little ill at ease.
- "Is everything ok, Christina?" I asked her.
She shook her head. "No, Norm. I have something on my mind. I want to get it out in the open. I should probably just say it."
I nodded. "Go ahead."
- "I know all about you and Abigail." She looked me right in the eye. "And you and Carmen. Well, maybe not
everything
. But you've slept with two of my friends, just recently. Did you know that I knew?"
- "Yes." I admitted.
- "OK. Neither of them seem angry, or upset with you, so I assume that you parted on good terms. You
have
parted with them, right?"
- "Yes. All over. All done."
Christina took a deep breath. "Well, here it is. They - and you - may all be comfortable with that. But I'm not. I won't be the third notch on your belt, if that's what this is about. It hurts me to say this, Norm, because I like you. But I don't trust you. Yet. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I don't trust your motives. I refuse to be number 3 on your record sheet, or your scorecard."
- "What ... what can I do?" For a moment, I considered revealing the bet, and telling her everything.
- "I don't know, Norm. Give me time. Keep it at this level for a while. Let me get to know you better. We can just kill some time together until I can decide if you're trustworthy."
- "What is your friend, that you should seek them with hours to kill? Seek them always with hours to live." I'm not sure what possessed me to utter those lines. They were out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying. Edgar Allan Poe was horrified.
Christina looked at me in disbelief. "Kahlil Gibran? You're quoting 'The Prophet' at me?"
- "It just came out." I confessed, sheepishly.
