"Oh shit," Rachel Parker exclaimed as the twenty-five-year old redhead recognized the well dressed older woman standing at the corner bus stop, not ten feet from the building she had just exited.
Her outburst had been louder than she'd realized as both of her companions turned in her direction. Mary Ann Bradley, standing to Rachel's left, had been a friend since high school while Brenda Phillips, on Mary's left, had only met the two of them at another club a few weeks before. Realizing that, whatever the reason, her comment was directed to something ahead of them, they shifted their attention in that direction.
"Fuck!" Mary said in a much lower tone, echoing Rachel's reaction, as she recognized the woman, now close enough to display a similar recognition.
"Oh my goodness, Rachel, it is you," Belladonna Giordano said as she closed the distance between her and the three girls. "I was sure when I first saw you standing there that I had to be mistaken, but I can't say how happy I am to have been right."
Normally, Rachel would've had no problem with running into Belle Giordano, no matter how unexpectedly. After all, up until nine months ago the forty-two-year old was on track to become her mother-in- law, and throughout the two years that Rachel had dated Anthony Giordano she and Belle had enjoyed more cordial relations than she did with her own mother.
That situation was exemplified by the different way Belle and her own mother had reacted to the couple's breakup, only three days before the wedding, when it came out that "the asshole", as Rachel would now forever think of him, had been cheating on her. Elizabeth Parker's counsel had been to forgive his little transgression because, after all, men were men and good ones were hard to find.
Getting a blow job by, or even screwing, one of the hookers his best man had hired for the bachelor party was a little transgression, Rachel had shot back at her mother in an angry tone she had never used before. What Anthony had been doing was fucking his former high school girlfriend, Karen Miller, who he'd run into a few months before at his grandfather's garage. Moreover, he had been doing it right up until two weeks before the planned nuptials
Belle, on the other hand, had been the first one to refer to her son as "that asshole" and had immediately taken her almost daughter's side, agreeing with her that the wedding be called off. She had divorced her own husband for similar behavior a few years after Anthony had been born and had zero tolerance for such behavior.
No, running into Belle Giordano wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had run into her just as Rachel and her friends were coming out of Cherry Pie, one of the best lesbian clubs in the city. Going there tonight had been Brenda's idea and as luck, or lack of it, would have it; Belle had to have seen them. It just didn't seem possible that she couldn't have since she was looking right at her as they came out the door.
Yet, as she kissed Rachel on the cheek, the statuesque brunette didn't seem to have any reaction to it at all. In fact, she was just going on about how much she had missed spending time with Rachel.
"I've missed you too, Mrs. Giordano," Rachel finally replied with a surge of relief as she accepted the fact that the impossible was indeed possible.
"Oh, it's Mrs. Giordano now, is it?" Belle asked, taking a step backward to better see the young woman.
"I'm sorry, Belle," Rachel apologized, "I've missed you too."
"And are you going to introduce me to your friends?" Belle asked.
Introductions were quickly made and Belle smiled at Mary Ann and Brenda, remarking that she knew Mary Ann, didn't she? When the younger woman replied that yes she did, Belle made a further remark that she really had to make the time to have her eyeglass prescription checked.
"It's getting so I can't see what's ten feet in front of me at times," Belle laughed, "or at least clear enough to really recognize it."
"Let's hear it for bad eyesight," Mary Ann whispered to Rachel in a very low voice.
"So where are you all off to tonight?" Belle asked after explaining that she was meeting a friend and going to the late night showing of her favorite old movie at a theatre on the next block.
"Oh we had no specific plans," Rachel quickly said, "just a girls' night out."
"Well you all have fun," Belle said, adding that she'd love to come along but knew they didn't need an old lady like her slowing them down. "It's been a long time since I had a girls' night out," she laughed.
"You're hardly old," Rachel insisted, a sentiment both of the other girls echoed.
"Well I really must run," Belle said, "Julie will be waiting at the theatre and wondering what's become of me. But before I go, I want you to promise that you'll come to dinner next week, and I won't take no for an answer."
"All right," Rachel gave in, "how about Thursday night?"
"That would be fine," Belle agreed, "say about seven?"
"I'll be there," Rachel said as she leaned forward and kissed Belle on her cheek.
Belle took a further moment to say goodbye to Mary Ann and Brenda, saying again how delighted she had been to meet them. Then she turned and hurried down the street toward the old Rialto Theatre.
"Wow, that was close," Mary Ann said once Belle was across the street and far out of earshot.
"You're telling me," Rachel laughed.
"I don't get it," Brenda said, feeling she was missing something.
"Well, let's just say that not all of us are out of the closet," Mary Ann explained.
"I still can't believe that she didn't see us coming out of the club," Rachel said.
"So what if she did," Brenda asked. "It's not as if she would've known what kind of club it was, would she?"
Both Mary Ann and Rachel turned around and took a long look at the "Cherry Pie." It really didn't look any different from any other club they had been to. In fact, except for the decorative lettering, and the picture of a pie with a slice cut out, on the smoky front window, there was nothing to identify it at all. The short line of girls waiting outside to get in really didn't say much either since you could find similar lines at many straight clubs too.
"I guess we were just being a little paranoid," Rachel concluded.
"Or feeling a little guilty," Brenda suggested.
"I guess that too," Rachel agreed, if somewhat reluctantly.
