Elaina combed out her hair again, leaving it to air dry loose around her shoulders. She put on a simple, white linen shift dress she had in her bag. She didn't bother with a bra or panties. She just didn't care about them right now. With a smile on her face, she slid out of her room and down the stairs, where she found Kayla waiting with a glass of wine and a knowing, sly look on her face.
"So, I heard you found my gift," she said.
Elaina nodded and smiled. "Best present ever for the weary traveler."
"Oh no," Kayla said. "I have an even better gift in mind. But from what I heard, you are going to need a few minutes to recover."
She put the glass of wine in Elaina's hand and said with a wink, "Drink up, old friend."
Two glasses of red later, the women sat with their bare feet propped up on the coffee table between them.
"Remember that sleepover at Karen's house?" Kayla said. "I brought that book about masturbation, and I thought you were about to call your mom to go home."
"We were thirteen," Elaina said.
"You were so uptight back then. I'm glad to see you've grown up a little."
Elaina looked at Kayla for a long time. "It was different for me. Your parents were European. They were so frank about everything. My mom was practically born in the age before Christ, and her parents were religious freaks into the mix. It's a wonder she let me go out at all."
Kayla returned her friend's long stare. "I know. Like I said, I'm glad you've grown up. And a beautiful woman you've grown into, too. Look at you! Skinny as a rail and bendy as a willow tree."
"The boobs are still tiny," Elaina said, cupping one small, firm breast in her hand.
Kayla shrugged and lifted one of her large, heavy breasts with her free hand. "Trust me, big boobs can be more of a pain than the hype would lead you to believe."
"So what made you decide to leave that toy for me? And why put it in the drawer?"
Kayla's eyes snapped to Elaina's face again and her look changed. It was playful, but serious, gauging. "I wanted to see what you would do—I wanted to see if you were still uptight Elaina. If I had left it on the bedside table, uptight Elaina would have packed up and walked out right then. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. But if I put it in the bathroom drawer, then you would have had to be poking around to find it in the first place, which is a little less uptight. And if you didn't want to use it, you could just pretend you didn't see it. No problem."
"But I used it."
"And used it well, from what I could hear down here."
"I'm sorry," Elaina started—
"Don't ever apologize for having a good orgasm for God's sake! Do you know, how many women can't do that, never have done that, or think it's somehow wrong to do that? And besides, it was kind of a turn-on sitting down here listening to you up there. I almost felt like joining you." Kayla's eyes ran over Elaina in a way she was used to seeing from men. And she kind of liked it.
"Any word from Mark?" Elaina asked, setting her empty wine glass on the table and picking up one of Kayla's naked feet. She started to massage the ball of her foot gently, struck by how much smaller and softer the woman's foot was than a man's.
Kayla sank back into the sofa and let Elaina work on her foot. "No news is good news."
"So he could be home any time?" Elaina tried to keep her voice neutral. Like it didn't matter one way or another. But she couldn't fool Kayla, ever.
"Are you worried about seeing him?" Kayla asked, looking genuinely perplexed. "I thought you liked him."
"I do—I like him a lot. I just, oh, never mind." She refocused her mental energy on the foot massage.