I heard my phone ring and recognized the bride-to-be's face, which worried me because I hadn't heard from her since our afternoon adventures had wrapped up. That wasn't like her, and since it was now after seven in the evening it made me worry a bit. I answered on the fourth ring because that's how long it took me to pick up the phone and answer. "Hey, I was starting to wonder if--" I started.
"I have a crisis here, Jackson hated the dress and told me to go return it!" Paula screeched through the phone, nearly shouting.
I gritted my teeth, glad that I was not on video because she would have seen the rage on my face. I took a deep breath, ready to listen, trying not to call her fiance the names I was thinking of, and that he probably deserved. "Slow down. He actually
said
that?" I asked, giving Jackson the benefit of the doubt, knowing that I was probably wrong. He wasn't a bad guy, he just occasionally suffered from the same arrogant superiority complex that a lot of high school football stars seemed to get.
"He said it was overpriced and too revealing." She said, clearly still seething.
I knew that Paula had moments where she could react too quickly to things and make them overblown, but my intuition told me that this was not one of those times. I knew how to help her take a step back and take the emotion out of things, but it wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to do over the phone. "Well, it's early enough for a girl's night, or hell just an evening if we need to. I have tequila out, let's share a glass or two, or five." I said, cackling after the comment.
"See you soon!" Paula said, her voice already sounding infinitely lighter.
When my front doorbell chimed, I didn't have to see who it was, I already instinctively knew it was her. I barely had time to open the door when she crashed into me, hugged me close, and held on for dear life. She was wearing a coat that shielded me from feeling her body up against me which was probably a good thing for me. Paula let out a long sigh that appeared to release some of her tension and then let go of me and stepped back. "I soooooo need my bestie." she said, smiling.
"And this," I said, producing the twin of my own glass, filled with tequila.
"Mmmmmmm you always know exactly what I need," she said, swirling the alcohol in the glass a few times before taking a swig.
"I was about to hit the hot tub when you called, would be nice to sit and soak while we talk," I said.
Paula giggled and took another sip, this one much smaller than the first. "Yeah, that sounds pretty damn amazing. But unless we are planning to be nude..." she began.
'Nude, that would be way too tempting for me',
I said to myself, remembering images from times we had changed around each other. Each and every time I had to stop myself from letting desire take over, even if just within my own head. I cleared my throat, pushing out the lascivious images already forming in my mind, trying not to let desire take over. "Well, you
know
that would not be fair to the gay girl right?"
Paula's eyes sparkled, telling me that the tequila had already started affecting her inhibitions. "Well," she said, intentionally taking another sip before adding, "Well we can't have that now can we?"
"I can lay out a swimsuit for you if you want. Or pick one if you feel up to it." I said with a wink, not certain what would happen if she did choose on her own. Still sipping her drink, she nodded in response.
I spun around on the heel of my bare right foot, my eyes catching a few nicks on my toenails that I needed to touch up. I ran my fingers through my now-loose hair as I walked back to my bedroom, debating what to suggest for Paula to wear. Was this a bad idea? She was pissed at her fiance and already buzzed which could make for a perfect storm of sorts. On the other hand, she was 100% straight and never even hinted at even a glimmer of interest in women, so it seemed altogether unlikely. We had done this kind of thing numerous times so what was the harm? I silently moved over to my dresser, slid open the third drawer on the right of the mirror, and started rifling through the sea of colors contained inside it.
If I was being honest with myself, I was feeling a little conflicted, as my own buzz had kicked in already, making my mind drift to naughty thoughts. Do I pick something conservative for her, or something a bit more daring? As I pondered the answer, I remembered that most of my swimsuits were bikinis, and pretty revealing ones at that. Of course, some were downright scandalous, so it was going to be a tough choice regardless.
Just as I had decided to behave, my eyes caught the sight of the black fabric of the bikini I had worn in the picture from Mexico, flooding my memory and senses with the recall of that moment. Perhaps it was in poor taste and slightly wicked, but I had an intense urge to live back in that moment. I slowly pulled the skimpy bikini to me, a bit surprised that I felt no shame about flirting with danger. Catching my breath, I saw several nice selections that would fit her and look sexy, but kept gravitating to something more revealing and gave my eyes something to feast upon. I would never take advantage of my best friend in the world, but a fantasy never hurts, right?
"Here ya go!" I said cheerfully, lobbing the skimpy garment in her direction.
Paula caught it with her left hand, a pretty good feat considering that she was right-handed. Downing the rest of the pale liquid, she shook it in front of her face before swallowing it. "Where the hell is the rest of it? Might as well go nude with as little as this covers," she said, giggling so much I thought she might not remember to breathe.
"You are hilarious," I said, slipping into the adjacent bathroom to give her some privacy. I could hear her humming as she undressed, as evidenced by the soft sound of things dropping on the floor. I flung my clothes over the hamper to the left of the door and pulled the bottoms up until they fit snugly, letting go of the elastic, and making a loud snapping sound when it hit my skin. Suppressing a giggle, I turned towards the mirror, my breasts on full display in the reflection. I cupped them and smiled at the view, knowing that they were one of my best features and admired by women and men alike. Snapping back to reality, I tied up the top and opened the door, shocked to find my best friend closer to the door than I expected her to be.
I felt my breath catch as I took in the sight of her body in the borrowed swimsuit, which showed lots of skin in all the right places. Paula's shapely legs filled my field of vision, arousing me slightly, though I did my best to hide it. My eyes traveled upward, past her incredibly flat tummy, to her breasts, and at that moment I panicked, worried that I might have offended her. Her own eyes were on my breasts as if fascinated by them, surprising since she had seen this view many times in the past. I cleared my throat. "It's not polite to stare," I said, slapping her shoulder playfully.
Paula's face reddened as I caught her looking as if doing something wrong or at least distasteful. "Um, sorry, just...always envied how much bigger yours are than mine," she said, turning away. I was about to call bullshit on her, but the fact that she had made that comment many times before made me rethink it. I mean she wasn't ogling me, was she?
Careful not to cross any lines, I leaned in and gave her a loose hug, one that communicated reassurance without getting
too
close. As I pulled back, I headed out the door and in the direction of the porch area, grabbing the bottle of tequila as I did. "Let's go relax, Pauls!" I said loudly. I sat the bottle at a small table attached to the edge near the back of the tub and slid down into the frothy water.
I settled into one of the fiberglass seats and sloshed another helping of tequila into my glass and leaned my head back against the cushion made for that purpose. After a few minutes passed and no Paula, I started to get concerned. "Hey, you ok? You seemed ready to jump in before I got out here!" I shouted, not caring who heard.
