It was mid-afternoon the next day, we had been out of bed for about an hour, she had on her usual attire, jeans and bulky shirt, only this time I knew what she had on underneath. I was in the chair in the living room with a magazine but I wasn't reading it, I was watching her, really, I was sort of seeing her for the first time.
She was at the stove when I said, "I want pictures of you ... like the ones you took of me."
She looked over her shoulder at me and laughed, a little nervously, "Not a chance."
I knew she'd object but I also knew she didn't have much of a choice. "You took mine."
"You told me to."
"And I asked for them back, but you didn't give them, did you? You kept a set — for the same reasons I want a set of you." She didn't say anything so I upped the ante. "How often have you looked at them?" She didn't respond, she just kept fidgeting at the stove. "Once a day?" Nothing. "Twice a day?" Nothing. "You do, don't you: you look at them when you come home from work and before going to bed. Do you look at them when we talk on the phone, too? Do you sniff my panties when you look at them?" Still nothing. "Next weekend when I come over, you will have the lights, the camera and you will be prepared for some action. Got it?"
We talked every night all week but never for very long: I told her before I left her apartment that I had a lot of thinking to do and I didn't want to talk about what we had done together — I had found it really surreal, I told her that and I told her I wanted to let it all sink in; we would talk about it next weekend.
And I wasn't lying, I did find it surreal. And why wouldn't I? I'd had sex with a woman, my best friend for god sake. What did it mean? Were we just fucking around or did it mean something more? I mean, it didn't make a lot of sense to me that one day I was having lurid photos taken of me so I could lure in a man and the next I was wiping a woman's cum from my lips — reluctantly, I mean, it just shocked me that I would do such a thing, and it stunned me that I loved it so much, that I couldn't get her out of my mind, that I couldn't wait for Friday to come around again so I could get back at her body. Am I a lesbian? Do I want to be? I mean, what's going on here?
As I've said, Annie and I had been best friends for years but we had never been particularly good for each other, or to each other for that matter. For instance, we never acknowledged each others' birthdays; we never gave presents for each other; we never went shopping together; we never went to the movies together and we never really talked about anything important; we just hung out when we had the time, that was about it — so she didn't really know how to handle the flowers I handed her when she opened the door and I brushed by her heading for the kitchen and some much needed wine.
As I sat in the only chair in the living room Annie sat on the couch, "Cheers," I said lifting my glass to her before drinking. She lifted hers and when she drank from it and put it on the table I asked her, "So, why are you so nervous?" She clearly was.
"I'm not."
"Ya, right. Look, for once in our lives let's have a real conversation." I hesitated for a moment to queue up the question that had been on my mind all week, "What do you want out of me?" She wasn't looking at me and wasn't going to answer so I said, "Do you just want a fuck buddy, is that it?"
"No," she said, emphatically — she seemed a little shocked at the suggestion.
"Then what?"
She still wasn't looking at me and she was slow in answering, "I told you last weekend."
"Told me what?" But she wasn't going to respond. "Look Annie, I'm having a tough time with this."
"Well, so am I," she said, combatively, looking up for the first time.
"Why are YOU having a tough time?" I said, equally combatively, "You're the fucking lesbian."
"Because you aren't!" She took a quick drink from her glass.
"How do you know I'm not?" I tried to be calmer now because I wanted her to calm down.
"Because if you were, you'd be feeling like I am right now and there's no way the last five nights could have gone by without us being in each other's arms."
The confusion I had been feeling all week came tumbling back. "Is lesbianism just about sex?" That's one of the things I was having a lot of trouble with, I honestly didn't know, but I sure as hell knew that sex played a huge part, I had been unbelievably horny all week, hornier than I've ever been in my life.
"No, of course not, but it is about strong feelings and ... "
She didn't complete the thought and wasn't going to, and, anyway, I wanted to get off a topic that wasn't going anywhere so I asked, with an objective in mind — I had thought of this moment all week, "Why are you wearing jeans and a sweat shirt?"
She looked at me curiously, "That's what I always wear."
"I know, but what did you WANT to wear tonight, I mean, did you think of putting something else on, like you said you did last week?"
She nodded, meekly, "I almost always do."
"So what did you want to wear?"
"Something cute." Her words were pathetically whispered.
"So go put it on."
She looked up at me like an excited child, "Do you want me to?"
"Put on something cute ... for me."
She wasn't gone very long, about five minutes, time enough for me to beat up on myself again. As usual, I had been thinking only about myself all week, what all this had meant to me, my constant horniness — I had barely given her a thought. But obviously it had been a tough week for her, too, far tougher than for me because she knew exactly what she wanted ... me, and she seemed terrified of not getting it.
I had filled our wine glasses and moved to the couch when she came back in. She stopped in the middle of the room; she was so anxious for approval it hurt me. "Come here, Annie."
She came over and stood in front of me so close I could feel her heat and when I put my hands on her hips I felt a jolt of exhilaration as I realized just how badly I wanted what was inside that little black dress, "You look beautiful."
She reached out, cupped my head and as I forced my face into her stomach she pressed herself against me and we were motionless for a moment and then she clutched my hair, pulling me in tighter and my hands went from her hips to her bottom and I could feel her try to push away. "Stay still, I want to touch you." And she did, she stayed absolutely still as my hands travelled around her strong, smooth ass and then slowly down her sensuously slick nylons to her ankles and then slowly, very slowly my fingers travelled back up the backs of her legs with my fingers lightly tracing a straight line along her inner thigh and then they were under her dress which rose up with my hands as I felt the tops of her stocking give way to the hot flesh of her groin and then I forced my fingers under her panties as my thumbs dug into her. "Annie?"
"Yes?" Her voice was weak, almost hoarse.
"Tell me how much you love me. I need to hear that." And I did: this was the crux of the whole thing to me. I could see in her eyes that she loved me — and in her actions. I believed she loved me, now I felt an irresistible urge to hear say the words.
She didn't hesitated, "I don't know how much I love you, Bets, I have no way of knowing. I didn't think I could love you more, then last week you got in bed with me. I thought I couldn't love you more, then tonight you gave me flowers. I thought I couldn't love you more, then you ask me to dress for you tonight. I thought I couldn't love you more, then you pressed your face into me and put your hands on me. I don't know how much I love you, Bets, how can I know? I love you more every moment."
She tried to pull me up but I continued to press my face into her — her words had stunned me, for their meaning but as much for their sadness. "When we made love last week, was it what you wanted, Annie, was it the way you wanted it?" I hadn't cared about this until this moment, but now it really mattered to me.