Emily leaned back in her chair, kicking the front legs up as she sipped cabernet, the deep purple wine clinging to her lips. "You seeing anybody yet?"
I rolled my eyes and poured myself. "No, Em, I haven't got time for that."
"It's been six months. Don't you think it's about time you made time."
"You know how my job is. I've got three projects going right now, and we're bidding on the new library."
Emily leaned forward and plucked a Gitane from the cobalt blue box. It was like her to smoke a strong, foreign cigarette. She wasn't the kind of girl who'd smoke something so prosaic as a Marlboro or Winston. She drove a Peugeot that cost her a metric ton to maintain, drank Chilean wines and wore silk dresses when flannel was chic among lesbians. Her neighboring apartment was a temple of books, which probably explained why she had lived there throughout and beyond two serious but failed relationships. Her books outweighed the baggage. Perhaps that's why I'd stayed as well, or simple inertia. I slid the last of our dinner dishes into the dishwasher, while bitching mildly about unreasonable deadlines in between sips of wine.
"Gary, you are always facing deadlines. Don't let work become an excuse. I know she hurt you, but it's time."
"And who would I date?"
Emily turned her eyes away, taking a long puff from her cigarette, letting the smoke hang in the air. "Whomever you want."
I pulled the cork from the bottle, and refilled our glasses. "And what about you, Em? I haven't heard much giggling from your bedroom lately."
"You can hear?" She turned around, mouth open and face slightly flushed. "I didn't think I was that noisy."
"Fear not. There's concrete block between our apartments. It's intended as a firewall, but it does a decent job of blocking sound.
Emily smiled wanly. "I'm glad. Still, I was relieved when you replaced that old box spring."
I winced. The damned thing was loud, but I didn't think the noise would transmit through concrete block and drywall."Don't be so serious, I'm just teasing. Have you met that new girl in 42-C?" she asked, now grinning mischievously. "She's awful cute."
"The one across the courtyard?"
"Yes."
"I ran into her once in the laundry room, but no, we haven't really met. Even though I can see right into her apartment."
"Really? Get any shows?"
"Pervert!"
"Like you're better. All guys like to look."
"Em, when I sit at that window I'm normally working on a CAD drawing. Yes, I can see but I don't peek. What's up, are you interested in her?"
"A little," she said taking another puff from her cigarette. She looked away again before adding.
"Usually when you say that you're very interested."
"Alright, she's really cute. But she's probably straight."
I poured myself a bit more wine so I wouldn't have to say anything.
"You should go to the party next weekend," Emily suggested. "I could introduce you."
"You know her?"
"We've met, in the laundry room. Only I was folding my unmentionables so we had a chance to chat. Her name is Lisa, and she's a techie."
"Was she checking out your undies, Em?"
"Maybe a little. I have some pretty interesting stuff." Then she winked at me.
That was one of those places I didn't want to go. Emily often teased me sexually, and more often lately now that we both were between relationships. I enjoyed it but preferred to suppress that fantasy. Emily was far too tempting. She was pretty. Tall and slim with long red hair and flashing blue eyes. And she was so feminine, so atypical of the lesbian stereotype. Adding our friendship and her known interest in other women made for a dangerously seductive package. I dared not think about Emily sexually, because I knew what would happen. You start out with a few harmless fantasies, but sooner or later they turn into the drunken pass or unwelcome hints. Pop goes the friendship. I didn't want to become one of those men, so I refused any hint of delusion. Better to think of her as the sister I never had and leave matters there. "Well, she has some pretty interesting stuff too." I added.
Emily raised her right eyebrow. "So she did give you a show?"
"She hangs her clothes up on the porch to dry."
"Sun-dried clothing is the best way to go. But usually you don't hang your unmentionables out there, at least the good stuff. Women reserve viewing for special moments with someone special."
"Unless you're living with them."
"Well, small apartments do challenge the feminine mystique. No space for a boudoir."
"I didn't think you did such things."
"You'd be surprised at what I do, Gary. You really would."
I smiled at her and saw that pensive look in her face, that I'd seen a lot of lately. And then her face lit up as she grinned at me again. "Well, Em, I've got to get back to my drawings. Deadline tomorrow, you know."
She grinned and sipped her wine, before rising. "I think the reason they gave you your computer is to get more work out of you. I know that's why they gave me my laptop."
I laughed. "Everyone knows that's true, we just don't want to admit it. At least they let us put video games on our home machines."
"So you've been shooting zombies all this time, instead of working.
"If I don't get this drawing done, I'll be turned into a zombie!"
"Well, I'd hate to see that happen. Green is not your color." As she opened my door to leave she reached back to touch my hand in parting. She grinned and her fingers slipped away, grazing gently across my skin. After the door clicked shut I lifted my hand for a second wondering, for she'd never touched me like that before.
There seemed no point worrying about what Em was doing. I spotted my copy of Scene. It took a moment to scan the personals. Lots of single women. This one I liked but wouldn't likeme, that one I didn't like. No one looked likely. I tossed the paper aside and headed formy bedroom, where the computer waited. Two clicks brought the ceiling plan up on my screen. I needed to check the lighting levels before handing the plan over to the engineer for the circuit diagrams.
As I worked my mind drifted back to Emily. Had she really been able to hear Theresa and I together in bed? It hardly seemed possible, and she knew our mattress squeaked from when she visited. But if they had, what would they have thought? Would they have been repulsed, like the stereotypical lesbian? I wondered about that. Mary had never been particularly friendly to me. Emily once told me she was jealous of our friendship.
Rubbing my chin, I turned to look outside my window. There stood Lisa in her bedroom, backlit from her hallway light. She was clad only in a black slip and earrings, and the sheer fabric clung to her petite body. Her nipples were plainly visible beneath the fabric and I wondered if she was preparing herself for a lover. She was so pretty, and I felt my cock stirring as I looked. So I turned away and lay on the bed to give her privacy.
Yet she was lovely, I realized, and hungered again for a woman's touch. I looked back at the wall that divided Emily's bedroom from mine. What if she had heard us together? Would our passion have inspired Em and Mary to make love? Theresa and I had made so many memories in this bed. I remembered Theresa's black hair splayed across the pillow, mouth open as I drove myself into her. I reached down to unzip my jeans, and raised my hips to slip them down. My cock sprang free, standing upright before me as I licked my fingers before taking it in my hand. So many images filled my mind. Theresa beneath me, her legs wrapped around my hips, her arms about me, whispering lewdly into my ear. And as I did that I imagined Emily and Mary in the next room, listening to our bed springs and Theresa's soft cries of passion.
I pictured them kissing open-mouthed, and tall, voluptuous Mary feeding her enormous breasts into Emily's small mouth. In my fantasy she wore an enormous dildo, and Emily spread her legs to receive it. I wrapped my fist about my cock and began to pump it, slowly at first, to savor the sweet sensations. My other hand cupped my balls and began to roll them gently as my hips writhed upon my bed.
I tried to strip that image from my mind, and instead tried to picture myself with Lisa. I remember that she had a sharp, mischievous grin from our meeting in the laundry room. I pictured her now, erect nipples poking through black satin, her slip up above her waist, legs spread wide for my thrusts. She smiled at me as I pounded her. And then her picture dissolved and only Emily lay beneath me, her long red tresses spayed out on the pillow. I licked her soft pink lips as I kissed her, my cock deep inside her. Her body was tense and breasts bounced, and she asked me to fill her. And with her image in my mind I came with a groan, feeling the warm liquid spread out upon my belly.
* * *
I awoke in the darkness, pants still down around my knees. I slid them all the way off and went to get a bathrobe. The deadline loomed before me. Back to work I went, checking the drawings one last time before sending them off to the office for printing. I heard laughter from across the courtyard, and glanced across. A neatly dressed man, tall and bearded sat upon Lisa's couch. And she was talking to him as she lowered the Venetian blinds, sealing off her world from mine.
Relieved, I walked to the kitchen to make coffee. I thought of Emily touching me again, and became angry at my weakness. Angry at myself for dreaming of Theresa again, when she was gone forever. Angry because I had intruded into Lisa's privacy. I decided that I should work with my blinds down in the future, though that had never been my habit. And then I wondered why, when all I needed to do was keep my mind on my work. And so I went back to work, never noticing when the lights went dark in Lisa's bedroom.
* * *
The party was a Luau theme, so I dug an old Hawaiian shirt out my closet and some khaki shorts. I heard the door open and Emily came in, wearing a floral print dress and grumbling "Where's your coconut bra," I asked, lightheartedly.
