"Another party?" Vannah's face was scrunched and head retracted in confusion.
Logan sat on the couch still in his clothes from work and Chloe was humming idiotically and swaying her hips back and forth in front of the refrigerator as she retrieved a large carton from the freezer side to make everyone ice cream. Her expression was dreamy-eyed with a goofy grin permanently plastered over her rosy cheeks. Her cheeriness drew concerned stares from Vannah.
"He said there'll be clients there. They don't roll this type of party out for just anyone, but the big fish. He never misses an opportunity to pitch a client and he'll have the information with him. Snap a pic of it or snatch it while he's not looking. I'll have Chloe dump it in his car after we make copies." Vannah teetered.
She weighed her discomfort for espionage on one scale and Logan's pleas for assistance coupled with her college tuition on the other.
"You don't even have to do that much. Just get me names and contact info on them. I can stitch together something from it, whatever it is."
"Ok." Vannah broke.
Logan's smile returned and she smirked as it crested over his face.
"What do you want me to do?" Logan stood up as the ring of the bowls hitting the grey quartz countertop sounded. Chloe looked like a very tall excited child as she scooped heapfuls of the soft white substance into each bowl. Logan stepped over to Vannah until he was towering over her and staring down into her eyes.
"This is big. We'll need to prep. I'll walk you through the whole thing, but the most important thing is you need to be ready for anything. I think we should go on a practice date."
Vannah giggled uncontrollably and looked back to see Chloe too fixated on the ice cream to even pay attention to her boyfriend asking out another woman.
"Chloe?" Vannah started.
"Hmm?" she responded with wide childlike eyes as she spooned a mouthful of ice cream into her mouth.
"You have anything to say about this?" She nodded fervently as she struggled to clear her mouth enough to speak.
"It's a good idea! Let Logan help you." immediately she plunged another spoonful in her mouth.
Vannah shrugged, "Ok." Logan nodded victoriously.
"We'll go tomorrow. Wear something nice." Soon he was standing next to Chloe moaning with spoons of ice cream crammed in their mouths. Vannah bellied up to counter and slid the last remaining bowl closer. She sighed heavily as she mentally prepared herself for her date tomorrow and instantly moaned approvingly when the delicious ice cream hit her tongue.
♦
Vannah had tried to keep her mind occupied in the lavish confines of Chloe's modern condo, but it raced with thoughts of a romantic night out with her stepbrother. Just the premonition of it made her stomach and back tighten. Her hands hadn't stopped sweating and she could only ever get herself to sit down for five minutes before she was up pacing around the condo looking at the same empty rooms over and over again. She resigned herself to her room to at least put some of her nervous energy to work picking out an outfit. She had worked through the entire suitcase.
The first outfit was too childish. The second too green. The third too blue. The fourth showed way too much cleavage and the fifth not enough. The sixth was too tight and the seventh wrinkled and stained beyond repair.
She was starting to at least put the clothes away in the closet, when she heard the door open and Chloe call out, "Vannah, you here?". Vanna emerged innocently in her grey cotton gym shorts and pink round neck tee. Chloe felt a pang of jealousy at how the front of the fabric strained over the younger woman's endowments.
"It's almost time, are you ready?" Vannah looked down at her bare pedicured feet.
"I-I...I don't have..." Chloe seemed amused at her stammering.
"You need something to wear?" Vannah nodded. To the young dark-haired beauty's chagrin, Chloe never stopped smiling as she managed to find a pair of long dress shorts she had ordered online that were way too big for her, but fit over Vannah's curves like a glove, and a matching black swing tunic top that bared a little midriff due to the young woman's impressive bust. All the while, Vannah sensed hate behind her blue eyes and flawless alabaster skin.
Vannah questioned the sincerity of a woman who would not only agree to let her boyfriend openly go out with another woman he shared no real relation with, but also lend her clothes and dress her for the occasion. No one could be that calm about this. Let alone desire it.
Still, Chloe's smile persisted and she never spoke in anything, but soft words in her direction. When Vannah was finally dressed and ready, Chloe sat on the bed with her and the coed jumped as Chloe grabbed both hands in a gesture of intimacy.
"It's so great that you're doing this for Logan." Vannah cocked an eyebrow at the half-true statement.
"And me." she corrected.
"Right! Right....right...." Chloe giggled nervously and then trailed off. "What I mean to say is, I understand that you and Logan have...history and..." she trailed off again looking up at the ceiling. Her cheeks blushing red and threatening to burst under the strain of her smile. "What I mean is...."
Her blue eyes darted this way and that, but never directly at Vanna's. Her procrastinating was becoming painful for Vannah.
"I see the way you look at him." Now it was Vannah's turn to blush.
"Ummm..."
"And I understand! He's gorgeous, isn't he?" again the blonde giggled like she'd just inhaled laughing gas. "And really when you think about it, this is a special thing we're doing..."
Chloe's smile lowered to a more normal level. It was the closest thing to a sincere face Vannah had seen from the woman in the handful of days she'd been imposing upon her.
"It's going to make his career." she chirped cheerily. "And for this special thing we're doing, this special occasion," she leaned closer and gently brushed back a stray lock of hair that had escaped the large french braid she'd styled into Vannah's hair, "it calls for special considerations."
Vannah's brow tightened as she started to piece together her meaning.
"On both our parts." Chloe was looking at the dark-haired ingenue strangely now. Her grin had remained pleasant as always, but some vision now played behind her starry blue eyes and her gaze was in Vannah's direction, but it was as if the girl was a television and she was watching some deeply beautiful movie on her face. "You may have to do things you think you're not ready for, but if you're worried about me, I want you to know that I support you one hundred percent."
Vannah read the insinuation and blushed an even deeper red on her brown skin. The rich woman rubbed her neck as she seemed to snap out of her trance with a fluster. Chloe shook her head and exhaled as if easing out of a dizzy spell. She reset and looked at her boyfriend's date with a renewed look of cheerfulness.
"I intend to be here for Logan for as long as I can and I think of him as family. You two may not be blood, but he thinks highly of you and that makes you family too." This time Chloe's eyes were staring into Vannah's light brown irises, beaming warm sentiments of desire straight into her soul.
The slender woman gracefully leaned forward and wrapped Vannah in an embrace that was warm with matronly care. The coed's brow knitted once more with worry, but the sensation was intimate and earnest, and she felt herself melt into her arms slightly. Chloe's arms tightened around her until their chests pressed together and the coed felt the slender woman lovingly nestle her cheek against her and whisper, "and I share everything with family."
Vannah's heart was hammering beneath her breasts. She couldn't see the way Chloe smirked as the thrumming vibrated to her own, stiffening her nipples. She relinquished the flustered girl only to stand up running her hands over her boot cut trousers and walked to the doorway of her guestroom.
When she looked back at Vannah still recovering from her innuendo, the chestnut-skinned girl got another shock of a rare smile-less expression on Chloe's face. "And, oh, Vannah? Don't let me down." she winked and then quickly disappeared.
♦
Vannah felt more at ease once she was in the car with Logan. Things were a bit more relaxed and the two found a rhythm they'd often had as young teens in the same house. Laughter shook their bodies as the two sped to an upscale restaurant.
There weren't any white-gloved waiters or overly formal guests, but the place was well appointed with trendy fixtures and smooth jazz playing softly over the murmur of respectful conversation.
Vannah, slowly, forgot about her troubles with school and her mom. She simply lost herself in Logan's charming jokes and interesting stories. Logan spoke passionately about business and economics and Vannah fed on every word with rapt interest. The details of it fascinated her. It was her major and, hopefully, one day it would be her profession, but when Logan spoke of the information he was able to get from research. The details he learned to surmise from stats and indicators, she was more than impressed. The young student leaned on the small wood table for two, resting her chin in her hand with a genuine look of admiration for her date.
The food was delicious, but Vannah was careful of her etiquette. When she felt that tug of nervous awkwardness building in the pit of her stomach, she would remind herself, this was just Logan, but when he would flash his smile, she would stiffen again. Eventually, the check arrived and Vannah was grateful that Logan had taken it easy on her. In her mind, she wondered if Logan would test her in other ways and as she pondered what they might be, her box pitched and heated between her thighs.