Thank you to my intrepid crew of beta readers and editors, AwkwardMD, Bramblethorn, and BrokenSpokes, who all provided some critical suggestions and hopefully made this a smoother read.
There is an important character under the age of eighteen in this story. It's sort of hard to write a story about a young single mom and not have her munchkin in it. But don't worry, when we get to the adult playtime parts, the little one will be safely tucked in her own bed and sleeping while the grownups play. These are responsible adults after all.
Little Miss Madison is not old enough yet for chapter books, but if you're here, you must be. So please read the earlier chapters if you haven't done so yet.
Chapter Four
Jennifer
"Ugh, why am I wearing this? I hate dresses." I exhaled to collect my thoughts. "Can you stand on the chair and zip Mommy up?"
I felt Madison's little fingers tugging at the zipper on my little black dress. "There you go Mommy. Turn... see, you look pretty! Just like Miss Whitney said you would."
I bent down to give her a kiss on the forehead. Normally I would kneel down, but that wasn't an option in this thing.
How did I let Whit talk me into this? Oh yes, on the car ride home from the island she suggested we go on a proper date, just the two of us. That's what couples do, right? Then she got a bee in her bonnet about what I was going to wear and insisted that I get a "sexy" dress. Thus, on Tuesday night we were at Nordstrom with her picking out a dress for me. She tried to get me in a pair of black pumps too, but at least I talked her out of that and into a pair of black boots. They still had a small heel to them, but what can you do? I did put on my favorite black tights instead of the thigh-high stockings she suggested. A girl has her limits.
Or at least, this one does. Besides, the tights would keep me warmer on a cold January evening. I was brushing my hair when the doorbell rang.
"Coming," I yelled out as I went to the door. "Hi, come on in," I said, greeting my usual babysitter. That is, when I hire one and not swap sitting with a friend.
"Annabelle!" Madison ran over to give her a hug. Annabelle was one of Madi's favorite teens from the church. I liked her as she got along well with Madison, plus she was old enough to drive.
"You look good, Ms. DeLuca."
"Thanks. And please, call me Jennifer. I'm not that much older than you."
"Sure." She looked down at my daughter. "Are you ready to have fun tonight?" Madi took Annabelle's hand, and dragged her off to show off her Nani and Anna dolls, when the doorbell rang again.
I opened the door and there was Whitney.
Wow!
I thought. Her red bandage dress left little to the imagination. The parts that were left to the imagination, I could easily complete in my mind. Annabelle insisted that we let her take our picture, not that I minded, as my
hawt
girlfriend put her arms around me.
As Annabelle texted me a copy of the picture, Whit leaned down and whispered in my ear, "You look fucking hot tonight, my dear."
Apparently, she wasn't as quiet as she thought she was.
"Mommy, Miss Whitney said a swear."
Whit looked at me and shrugged. "Sorry Mommy, I guess I'll have to make it up to you later." She turned to Annabelle. "Okay if we're home around eleven?"
"Sure thing. I have a bunch of schoolwork to do once Madison goes to bed. Eight PM right?"
"Yes.And don't let her talk you into a later one, okay?"
"Sure, have fun you two."
"Bye Mommy, bye Miss Whitney," Madi said, waving as only little girls can.
Whit held the door to her Jeep open for me and then we headed downtown in her Jeep. As we pulled up to the valet at the Seattle Art Museum, I had to giggle as I watched the valet girl check out Whitney as she opened her door. The other valet did the same to me as he helped me out, but I think both were looking at my girlfriend's ass as we sauntered away. Fine with me, the fewer eyes on me in this ridiculous dress, the better.
We headed up to the banquet room. The SAM was a popular spot for fundraisers. Tonight was some fundraiser for the children's hospital or something like that. Whit was waving the company flag I guess I was as well. There were about twenty tables set up, each with eight seats. I guess my catering instincts were kicking in for me to notice that. It dawned on me that this was the first time I'd ever been to an event like this where I wasn't on the catering staff. Looking around, I noticed all the other guests were all dressed up. For as much as I hated this dress, I was thankful that Whit had pushed me to dress fancy. I realized I would have really felt out of place if I hadn't.
Whit must have sensed my nervousness and held my hand, which was reassuring. I dutifully followed her and tried to keep up with the small talk as she greeted the other guests she knew. I looked around at the catering staff and tried to see if there was anyone I knew, but there were no familiar faces. Not that there would have been any time for me to talk to them, but a simple smile and hello would have been nice.
What I did notice was that we weren't the only lesbian couple in the room. There were four others that I spotted and a few gay men couples as well. Well, this was Seattle, so it wasn't all that surprising. But for me, it was the first time I noticed multiple LGBTQ+ couples at the same time. We had a few come through the diner now and then, but they were a rarity there.
I watched how they interacted with each other and how people treated them. They all seemed just like any other ordinary couple
Whitney introduced me to an older gentleman and his wife. "This is Mario Lombardi and his wife Janet. Mario is the other half of Mitchell and Lombardi."
"How do you do Jennifer? It's a pleasure to meet you. Ben's been telling me about the young lady who's swept his daughter off her feet. You must be a special lady to capture this one's eye. I've had fun watching her grow up to be the confident woman she is today."
"It seems like only yesterday she was running around the company picnic in sandals and pigtails," Janet chimed in.
I giggled. "Now that is a sight I'd like to see."
"And if I recall correctly, you drank a ridiculous number of grape sodas that day."
"Yeah, Mom got mad at me for that. I was so sick that evening from all the sugar and carbonation. I don't think I've had grape soda since."
The hosts started going around trying to get people into their seats, so we said goodbye to the Lombardis and found our table. We were seated with three other couples. One of them was a lesbian pair, up from LA. I was seated next to the older of the two, Taylor, who as it turned out was from Idaho as well. They had been invited to the fundraiser as she was an artist who was exhibiting her work at the museum. Her show was opening the coming weekend.
We talked about Idaho, and although she was from Boise, she at least had heard of the wide spot on the road that was my hometown. I admired the dark gray men's style suit she was wearing. I had never thought about something like that for an event like this. It was classy, masculine but not manly, clearly made for the female form. Thinking about all the events I had worked, I probably had seen someone in something of the sort, but never mentally processed it before.
"I like your suit. I think I might have to get something like that if Whitney drags me to any more of these types of events. This dress, ugh, so not me. Just give me my jeans and a hoodie and I'm a happy girl."
"I know the feeling," Taylor said with a smile, "I've been doing so many of these art shows and openings that my wife talked me into wearing this."
We had a really good conversation over dinner. I was impressed as to how she dealt with coming out to her family and the problems she faced doing that. I realized that I needed to think about how to come out to my mom. I thought she'd be fine with who I am; she wasn't the religious type by any stretch of the imagination.
I showed her a picture from Christmas day of Madison in her Elsa dress and both Taylor and her wife, Aly, said she was cute. Whit scooched over closer to me, holding my hand as we listened to the presentation about the work the children's hospital was doing and what the funds that were raised tonight would be used for. I had caught bits and pieces of these while working at similar events and knew what was coming. Near the end, people were encouraged to go into the museum, which was closed to the public for the evening, to check out the exhibits and to bid on the various items up for silent auction. Taylor was introduced,and people were encouraged to see her sculptures. She and her wife took off as soon as her intro was done so she could get stationed near her exhibit to greet people.
Whit and I made our way around the museum. I felt like I was a movie, walking through the museum while being served flutes of champagne as we navigated the exhibits. We stopped by Taylor's exhibit, her metal sculptures were beautiful.
I stopped to admire a piece called "Pacifica". The note card said it was a miniature version of a signature installation she had on the North side of L.A. The model had clearly been her wife. In fact, you could see her wife's face in several pieces. I was studying the curves of the metal when Whit whispered in my ear, "You know, we have a couple hours until we need to get back to relieve the sitter. We could stay here, or we could head back to my place for some adult playtime. Got a preference?"
"Um, I think the only real question is which way is the coat check?" We beelined out of there back to her place. I'm not sure what I was looking more forward to, getting out of that ridiculous dress or making love to my girl. Once again, Whit put on our not so little red friend, who we had taken to calling Big Red, and we made love until we collapsed. Best part was, we made it back with five minutes to spare before the agreed upon time to let Annabelle go home.
_\|/_
"Hand me that hot pad, will ya?"
I took the offered pad and checked the chicken in the oven for dinner that night. The three of us sat at my little table. Madi frowned at the piece of broccoli on her plate. "It's just a single piece, okay honey?" I looked at Whit. "So how was work today?"
"Good, getting the hang of the place. I was talking with Uncle Silas today and he said that his ski condo is available this weekend if we want it. It's a three-day weekend. Interested?"
"Um, I don't know how to ski and we don't have gear."
"Don't worry about that. There are a ton of ski sets and lots of coats, ski pants and the like there. Even sizes for Madi. Come, it will be fun. All we have to do is buy lift tickets and food."
