Plugging in her ear-buds, Sami reached over to Lynn's hand with her own and squeezed it tenderly, which drew a smile from Lynn.
They were taxiing and about to take off from LAX for the final leg of their flight to Maui. Sami's insides was aflutter with excitement for this trip; hell, except for moving to New Orleans for college, the furthest that Sami had ever been from her home near Jackson, was to Birmingham, so yes, Sami was excited by the trip.
Feeling the big jet lift from the runway, Sami's eyes took in the blue waters of the Pacific, while her ears heard the earthy tones of Etta James, singing only as Etta could do. Looking to Lynn as she leaned back in her first-class seat, Sami's thoughts returned to the other thing that had her stomach aflutter.
The awfulness of the scene with Charlene, and her being 'outed' by the girl she once loved like a sister.
That New Year's Day, after Charlene had screamed Sami's lesbianism to the family, Sami had run up the stairs, slamming her door and throwing herself onto her bed, her hands shaking with the urge to strangle that bitch, Charlene.
Oh sure, Sami could've fired right back, dropping Charlene into the grease as well, but for once in her life, Sami chose not to do that; was it because at the bottom of it all, she still had deep feelings for Charlene? Sami didn't know that, but she did know that it this case, turnabout wasn't fair play.
Sami heard the car door slam shut, and heard Charlene drive off, spinning her wheels and trying to throw gravel at Sami's new car. Thankfully, she missed. Sami heard the muffled conversation, downstairs, between her parents, and Charlene's parents, finally pulling a pillow over her head and ears.
The winter sun was setting when the soft knock at her door awakened Sami; automatically, Sami said, "Come in," and was greeted by the sight of her dad, a small smile on his face.
Sami felt the heat rush to her face in embarrassment and shame, turning her face from her pops.
"Mom fixed you a plate of supper and has it in the fridge, baby, you know, if you're hungry," Sami's dad said as he sat on the corner of Sami's bed.
"Thanks, pops, but I'm not feeling very hungry right now, okay? Maybe later," Sami replied.
The silence was deafening in Sami's childhood room.
"Sami, just so that you know, about what's going on between you and your cousin; well, mom and I just want you to know that nothing will ever change the fact that you're our babygirl, and that we love you as you are, for who you are," Sami's pops said.
"And just so that you know," Sami's dad continued, "your cousin's accusations in front of us wasn't right; it wasn't right to do that, to embarrass you like that, and its not like she told us something that we hadn't already sorta figured out for ourselves," he said, patting Sami on her leg, gently, fatherly, his touch, a tonic for Sami's troubled soul.
Turning her head to face her pops, with her mouth open, in shock? Sami just stared at him, wanting to say something but her mouth just not working at the moment.
Smiling, Sami's dad pulled his babygirl to his body, his long, farmer-muscled arms wrapping around her, protectively, his voice trying to soothe her crying.
"Sami, you're just too pretty of a woman not to have beaus lined up clear back to Memphis; when you avoided dating in high school and at college, well sugar, your mom and me might be country, but we've still got a few brain cells between us," chuckling a bit while his hand patted and smoothed Sami-girl's blonde tresses.
Sniffling, but still keeping her head against her pops' chest, Sami said, "And you and mom, ya'll are okay with that?"
"We're okay with you, Sami-girl, we're okay with you; and if that's who you are, then, yes, we're okay with 'that', as you say," planting a soft kiss to his babygirl's head, afterwards.
They held on to each other for a while, neither talking, both letting the moment go where it will.
"Hungry, munchkin?" Sami's dad finally asked, breaking the silence.
"I could eat," Sami admitted.
"Yeah, you always could do that," Pops jokingly said and giving Sami a good-natured shove afterwards.
"Yeah, well, it's all that slave labor you had me do as a kid," Sami teased back, pushing back at her pops.
Hearing them walking down the stairs, Sami's mom walked in from the porch, and without a word, hugged her beautiful, golden-haired daughter, closing her eyes and thanking the good Lord that they had Sami in their lives.
Despite the horrible end of the old year with Charlene, it was an outstanding way to start a New Year.
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Sami absolutely fell in love with Hawaii and had she been able to, she would have pressed the rewind button on her life to the beginning of their trip so that it would never end.
She got her very first taste of 'Maui Wowie' through Lynn's friend, Pete, and knew, instinctively, that all other weed would forever pale in comparison. She and Lynn played golf, played with a couple of local college students, and of course, played with each other, neither tiring of bedding the other.
For Sami, however, one of the most touching evenings of the whole trip was the evening she and Lynn spent with the two ladies, life-partners, who lived up the road from their rented condo.
As Sami played with their dog and listened to the conversation, her heart ached for what she felt 'might' have been the future for her and Bonnie, had the fates dictated otherwise than what had happened on that horrible night that she lost Bonnie.
As much as she loved Lynn and Ali, she knew that they would, one day, be that couple, not she and they; and she knew that to think otherwise would be setting herself up for the heartbreak of all heartbreaks.
But for however long it would last, she could not deny the love in her heart for her two girls.
_________________________
Sami had to pinch herself, at times, to check if she was really awake, and to see if all of this good fortune had, indeed, really happened to her.
By the time she left her two loves in Hawaii and had returned to the City, she had become an officer of their corporation, had been given the green light to pursue her website idea, and had been offered Ali's French Quarter apartment to rent, for her own space.
The girls' friend, Sharon, wasn't exactly moving with speed in her search of an apartment for Sami; oh, Sharon had taken Sami on several 'look-sees' at places, but none of them met the criteria of Sami.
After the third or fourth such outing, Sami realized that Sharon was more about trying to get into Sami's pants than she was about finding Sami a place to live. Not that Sharon wasn't a 'bedable' commodity; she was good-looking, had a great body, and as sexed-up as any woman Sami had been around. Bitch was constantly horny, Sami thought, and seemingly always on the prowl for cock or pussy; Sharon was an equal opportunity slut, for damn sure, Sami had figured out.
But, for whatever reason, Sami wasn't attracted to Sharon as a sex partner and fended off Sharon's sexual advances, successfully.
Sami's sex life wasn't suffering, though, not at all.
There was Gina, an assistant to Ali's lawyer who was ready to drop her panties for Sami at anytime, and seemingly enjoyed being Sami's bitch whenever they were together.
Casey and Sami continued to see each other from time to time, their outings more like a real 'date' than simply a booty call. They enjoyed doing things together, outside of bed, and while Sami's bed was always where they ended their outings, it wasn't the main focus of their relationship, strange as that might seem.
Nikki had left New Orleans after Sami's last fall semester, taking a position with UCLA as a department head. She and Sami's last hook-up was a sweat-inducing fuck-fest that went on into the early morning hours and, indeed, left them with good memories of each other.
Su and Sami saw each other a couple of times a month and without the pretense of having a date; no, their liaisons was simply because they liked fucking each other, and no pretense was needed for that.
And, though not wise, Sami would occasionally bed one of the older, rich and bored clients of their gallery. Those that let Sami know that they fancied a romp in the hay with her, and to whom Sami was attracted, sexually, would usually be rewarded with a fucking of the century; not all, of course, but some, to be sure.
Sami, Lynn and Ali continued loving each other, of course, sometimes as a threesome, and sometimes, not; Sami was always ready to get into bed with either Lynn or Ali as a partner, and unbelievably, none of the three of them had problems with the one on one flings that Sami would have with one or the other..
Lynn and Ali loved Sami deeply but they also encouraged her to spread her wings as a young, single Sapphic Soul and date. The three of them knew that what they had would always be, no matter who Sami dated or fucked.
Sami did notice, however, after the three of them had returned from Hawaii, that Lynn and Ali seemed conflicted at times about the plans they had discussed concerning a gallery site in Hawaii. Indeed, they, Lynn and Ali, vacillated about decisions that Sami thought the three of them had agreed to, and that troubled Sami-girl, it surely did.
On a weekend getaway for the three of them, ideas were tossed about, agreed on, then rescinded, and then put back on the table. By the end of that getaway, Sami wasn't quite sure what had been decided or tossed out of the idea basket.
Sami wasn't quite sure where their heads were these days but she thought it best that she find out.
One thing that had been agreed to on that trip, however, was that Sami would model for Lynn's Lesbian Erotica series that she wanted to shoot, using Sami and another model.
Ramona, a tall Afro woman of incredible beauty, was Sami's partner for the shoots. From day one, it was all she could do to keep her desires in check with Ramona. Their chemistry was sizzling hot; the camera saw it, Lynn saw it, and Sami felt it, as did Ramona, it turned out.
On the last night of the final shooting for the series, she and Ramona gave in to the lust that had been steadily building throughout the project. As incredible as that night of lovemaking had been for them both, it turned out to be only the beginning of the steamy, torrid relationship that they formed.
____________________________________
"Baby? Is that you?" Ramona's voice called down when she heard the front door of Sami's apartment close.
"Yeah, sweetie, it's just me," Sami called back, then heading for the fridge to grab a beer, calling back to Ramona and asking if she wanted one, as well.
"Yep, give me a second, and I'll be right down to join you," Ramona cheerfully replied.
