Chapter 31
The depth of the love between Connor and Charlene is evidenced by the fact that they continued to be friends, confidants and lovers for many years, so long, indeed, as the Regans remained in the city and the church. Another indicator is that Charlene never had relations with Marcia, even though the younger woman tried on several occasions to lure the elder's wife into a sexual encounter. It was a situation that Marcia had to learn to accept; although she found it a bitter pill to swallow, she had to acknowledge the truth of Michelle's words, who told her that this was the Lord's way of keeping the young wife and mom humble.
Marcia couldn't help but notice the change that had come over Connor in the last few weeks, after his baptism in the waters of "unconditional love". He was more confident in the bedroom and happy to talk about matters of the heart, which had always been something he shied away from before. Of course, as the day came closer for Marcia to counsel the beautiful Jennifer about her homophobic attitudes, he became very interested in the methods Marcia would adopt to help her see the error of her ways and embrace a more compassionate and loving approach. It got to the point that Marcia regretted telling her husband about the mission she had been asked to fulfil by the church leadership, a leadership about which Connor now knew a lot more than his wife. God, how he wished he had been given the job of straightening Jennifer out! The good news, though, is that Charlene had told him that it was very likely that the Schwarzmans would be members of Connor's house group, once the formality of his appointment had been confirmed. The major roadblock lay in Jennifer and Dean's application for membership, which Michelle and her team would not even countenance while they promoted hatred rather than love, and bigotry rather than kindness.
In order that Jennifer might give Marcia her full attention, the older woman had suggested that the young mom place her 18-month-old baby girl in the care of a church-run daycare centre for the half-day that Marcia was planning to meet with her. Jennifer was a little anxious about being separated from her toddler for so long, but Marcia impressed on her both the importance of their meeting and the excellence of the service provided by the fully qualified staff at the center. For Jennifer, it also meant canceling her session with her personal trainer.
Marcia couldn't help but be impressed by the property owned by the Schwarzmans: they lived on 12 acres of prime real estate on the edge of the city limits. The house itself had been extensively remodeled and fully redecorated before the family had moved in, and featured a tennis court, an outdoor pool, an indoor pool, a cinema, a spa and a gym among other facilities and features. It was while Jennifer was showing Marcia around their palatial dwelling that Marcia conceived her plan for her seduction of the blond beauty. That plan revolved around the indoor pool. Marcia expressed such an interest in it that Jennifer asked her guest if she would like to try it out. When Marcia said she had no swimsuit, her host said that wasn't a problem: she could lend her one of hers.
So up they went to Jennifer's dressing room, which connected to her bedroom. Marcia managed to get a peek at the bedroom as she followed Jennifer down the corridor on the second floor. It was spacious, tastily decorated and contained what looked like a king size bed. The dressing room itself was almost the size of Marcia and Connor's bedroom. Jennifer asked Marcia what kind of swimsuit she would like to wear, and when Marcia expressed a preference for a bikini she showed her a dozen or more different types. Pretending to show consideration for her host, Marcia asked her which costume she would be wearing. When Jennifer picked out a dark green bikini, with a string tie for the top and adjustable string ties at the hips for the bottoms, Marcia's heart skipped a beat.
Could Jennifer's anti-gay talk be just that? Talk. In spite of appearances, Marcia didn't think so. She reckoned that the gorgeous yet somewhat ingenuous woman considered dressing in this way quite normal, because it was always done to please men; more specifically, her man. To Jennifer, Marcia realized, she was just another girl, like the girls in her sorority, or the girls she met up with at the mall or at the spa. Wholesome, all-American, God-fearing girls. As Marcia had discovered recently, though, pleasure knows no boundaries. All she had to do, she reckoned, was to recalibrate Jennifer's parameters, so that the acceptance of such pleasure was no longer seen as something taboo but as something normal and, yes, for someone with Jennifer's background, something outside the realm of morals altogether - something that inhabited a space where right and wrong didn't exist.
Marcia picked out a more traditional pink floral bikini with a twist-front top featuring a centre-back hook and loop closure and more modest bottoms. After all, the seduction would be that much more powerful, that much harder to resist if it came at the hands of a woman who was considered a pillar of the church and who dressed in an appropriately conservative manner. As they walked downstairs to the pool, Jennifer chattered away about this and that. She really was a bit of an airhead, Marcia concluded, but with the view she was getting of the tall girl's ass she wasn't going to be questioning the validity of her college degree anytime soon. She'd heard that she had majored in Communications. Marcia would soon discover for herself how proficient she was at picking up signals and responding to stimuli.
When they got to the pool, Jennifer pointed Marcia to the changing room, told her guest to make herself comfortable on one of the fancy loungers and went off to get them some lemonade. "Home-made", said Jennifer, which, Marcia thought, could mean anything from "It says home-made on the label" to "My mom/friend/personal trainer's mom made it, and brought me over a batch." (As it happened Jennifer had made it herself, but we are more concerned here with Marcia's thought processes.)
When Jennifer returned with a tray of drinks perhaps ten minutes later, she too had changed into her bikini. After handing Marcia her glass, Jennifer sat up on her recliner next to Marcia and sipped her drink. All the latter could think about was those strings on her bikini bottoms. One snap of her fingers and the material would gape open, soon to reveal another gaping opening. In the warm air of the room where they were sitting, a droplet of water that had formed by condensation on the outside of Jennifer's glass teetered at the bottom of her tumbler, gathering in more moisture, before falling. Marcia, who had already leant forward as if looking at something in the yard outside, turned in time to see the droplet land just above Jennifer's navel and run down and pool in her cute bellybutton. How much Marcia wanted to drink the liquid from the cup that nature had made for it, but she contented herself with looking at the beautifully pedicured feet of the goddess sitting next to her and dreaming of the time - not so far in the future, she hoped - when she would be drinking a more nutritious potion altogether from a much larger receptacle a little further south.
Jennifer was still wittering on about something or other, but Marcia wasn't really listening. It was something to do with her trip to Colorado. Marcia, naturally enough, didn't want to antagonise the object of her desires, so she made all the right noises, even asking a few questions, which Jennifer answered with great vivacity. She really was super cute, the older woman thought, and totally clueless about her guest's intentions. If she had ever so much as kissed a girl before, Marcia would have been amazed. Either that, or she was one unbelievably good actress.
After a half hour or so of this fluffy chit-chat had elapsed, Marcia (ever mindful of her schedule) turned the conversation to the subject of the desire that Jennifer and her husband had to join the church. Marcia had been charged by the leadership with ascertaining how genuine their application was and how much they wanted to involve themselves in the ongoing work of the church. After she had finished her little speech, Jennifer turned to Marcia and, touching her on the arm, told her - a cloud passing across her beautiful face - that nothing in the world meant more to Dean and her. Marcia, continuing to wear the grave look that she had put on a couple of minutes before, told her that that was all well and good, but what the leadership team, and especially Pastor Donaldson and his wife, were looking for in prospective members was action and not words. Suddenly, the weight that had been burdening Jennifer's mind lifted and she smiled the most dazzling smile at Marcia, displaying many thousands of dollars worth of orthodontic treatment.
"I know I can speak for Dean, as well as myself, when I say that we are willing to do
anything
for Pastor Donaldson and for the entire assembly. We have already been made to feel so welcome."
Marcia wondered whether she should pursue this lead and find out exactly what sort of welcome had been extended to the Schwartzmans by whom, but decided that could wait. Jennifer probably only meant the sharing of recipes for lemonade and hearty handshakes with fellow millionaires after a Rotary lunch, anyway, Marcia thought. She decided instead to home in on the biggest stumbling block to their membership - their unwillingness to embrace unconditional love and their determination to hang on to outmoded concepts that had no place in modern, culturally sensitive congregations.
"May I be honest with you?" said Marcia, turning towards Jennifer, who was still turned in towards her.
"Of course!" she gushed, but the nervousness was evident in her voice.
"The leadership is concerned - very concerned - about your attitude towards those among us who are oriented in a different way than yourself."
Marcia could see that Jennifer understood what she stood accused of, but she let it sink in before proceeding any further. That cloud returned to cover Jennifer's exquisite features.
"It is the way I was brought up," she said finally. "In accordance with God's word in the Scriptures."
"But those Scriptures were written in another age for other cultures. Do you believe you should wear a head covering because people 2,000 years ago were instructed to wear one?"
"Well, no, but we are talking about something that is an ordinance forever."
"But is it really, Jennifer? Jesus never told us to shun people who were different than us. He told us to embrace them. And love them."
"But the Scriptures say it is unnatural."
