It was New Year's Day in southern California. 80Β° and not a cloud in the sky. Anna and her husband were coming over with their kids. Allen and Michael would head out for a round of golf, my nanny would take all of the kids to Lego Land, and Anna and I would sit out by the pool sharing gossip. This time there was a lot to share.
Our friend Kelly had a miscarriage in October and another mutual friend, Leah, filed for divorce the first week in November and had an abortion two days later.
When I'd heard about it just before Thanksgiving I was shocked. I don't have an opinion on abortions but this seemed kind of rash. I'd thought to myself at the time that Leah could never have been that vindictive, to abort a baby just because she was getting a divorce. The four of us had known each other since college and it just didn't seem to be in her nature to do such a cold-hearted thing. We'd been close but that kind of put a chill in our relationship.
Anna and I were roomies in college. We are a lot alike and could pass for sisters. We have the same build and when we were in college we did a lot of the same things. She's the only woman with whom I've ever had girl-on-girl sex, and that was once when we got high at a frat party. We did a threesome once, too, so I know she can be pretty wild. She knows that Michael and I enjoy an occasional threesome, but since she got married she's been straight as an arrow, as far as I know.
When they got to our house there was the usual greeting, cheek kisses, hugs and handshakes. The kids all got together and everyone was happy it was a new year. All the while, though, Anna kept looking over at me with a "cat that ate the canary" look; she was brimming with stories.
Finally, after everyone had gone their respective way, we took our iced tea down to the pool and took off our tops to lay out in the sun.
"How are you and Michael doing?" she asked. I'd told her about him coming home from Dubai and finding me in bed with my cousin. It was the closest we'd ever come to ending our marriage but we worked it out. I explained to her that it wasn't the incest so much as that she was having sex without him being there to watch. He really liked to watch.
"So fill me in," I said, changing the subject. "You've had a grin on your face since you got here. You know something."
She propped herself up on an elbow. "I had my first black cock, Cassie," she said softly.
"You little slut!" I laughed, amazed. "So, how was it?"
She laid back on the lounge chair. "It was incredible, Cassie, incredible."
"So tell me more."
"Well, you remember back in September when the four of us were going to meet up in Malibu and go to the Getty and see the new Ancient Troy exhibit?" I remembered. It was supposed to be a Girls Day Out. I'd had to cancel because Michael and I were still working through some things.
"Kelly came up from Newport and picked me up in Manhattan Beach and Leah drove over from Calabasas."
"So how was the exhibit?" Fantastic, she said, with new things they'd uncovered at what the believed to be the ruins of Troy.
"But Cassie, the fun came later in the day, when we went out for a bite to eat. The Beach Inn is pretty close by. You know, they have that beautiful patio looking out at the pier? So we went there. It was a little late for lunch and too early for dinner so we just ordered appetizers and a bottle of chardonnay. Then another bottle, then another. By 5:00 we were all blitzed and getting kinda loud."
Now when Anna says they were getting kind of loud, that meant the talk had turned to sex, and they weren't afraid of who heard.
"Leah was bitchin' about her husband and how he didn't like to give her oral." Her husband was an assemblyman and a real jerk. He spent more time in Sacramento than he did in Calabasas and rumor was that he was banging a lobbyist's wife. "'Bastard wants me to suck his cock,' she said kinda loud, 'and I get it hard, he fucks me for about a minute and when he's done it's back on his cell to his goddam chief of staff. Last week-end when we did it I was not in the mood but he wanted it so he damn near raped me.' We didn't take that real seriously but it just proved what a damned asshole he could be."
Sounds like her husband.
"So about that time a group of maybe fifteen guys and a few women come out to the patio together. All wearing name tags and most dressed in khakis and flower shirts. Two guys come out just behind them wearing suits and ties, looking all business. Good looking. I mean really good looking black guys. Leah looks over the top of her sunglasses. She's already got both of them naked. There's no place left to sit so she catches their attention and asks if they'd like to join us."
"Leah did that?" I said, "she must have been pretty wasted."
"Not so much wasted as pissed. Oh yeah, she was feeling pretty loose but she'd really had all she could take from that snake of a husband."
She sipped her tea. "So they sat down. Found out they were both from Fresno, dermatologists there for a demo convention on a new laser hair removal machine. Single. Really good looking. Did I say that? David and Rafael."
"So for a few minutes it's still a little noisy but then the conversation changes. Leah starts her complaining again about oral. Rafael says the fool doesn't know what he's missing, and Leah is all ears. She starts melting. 'I'll be back in a minute,' she says, and motions for me to meet her in the ladies room."
I turn over to get some sun on my front. Anna is still propped on an elbow.