"Charlie? Hi!" Emmy had just come back from a morning meeting to find a message.
"Emmy. I'm glad you could get back to me. I know you know this, but the last of your sessions finished yesterday and I'm calling to check in to see if you have any feedback. Is this a good time?"
Emmy glanced at her calendar, not seeing anything for another hour.
Did she want to give feedback? What kind of feedback? To Charlie? The receptionist?
She could only imagine ludicrous answers to her questions: "Oh, I really enjoyed feeling Yogi Jacob's thick hot cock fucking me." Or "Satisfied? More than satisfied. The only thing I would have enjoyed more is feeling his hot cum down my throat! Doesn't he ever cum?"
But, she graciously accepted the opportunity. The questions were what she would have expected and she giggled at the thought of giving one of her knee-jerk responses, but she played it straight.
"So, that's great, Emmy. We really appreciate it. Now, I'm not here to sell you anything; it isn't our way of doing things. But if you are thinking about doing another set, we have a returning member discount."
"Thanks," she paused. "I need to think about it...maybe, before committing to more. It was pretty intense." She could feel herself moistening just at the memory of the last couple of sessions: how he let her be herself, opening to him, begging him with and without words. She only wished she could find someone like him who understood her so well.
"Of course..." Charlie paused.
"Is there something else?"
"So...I don't know how to say this. Shoot. I'll just come out with it. I'm not talking to you as an employee of NamasteYoga now, okay?" Charlie paused again, counting heartbeats.
"Oookaay."
Where was this going?
"I just...well...I really would like to be friends with you. Since you came into the studio a while back, I've been meaning to suggest we go out for a drink or something. Would you be interested in having a drink?" She rushed the words as if she was really nervous.
Emmy shook her head in confusion.
What was going on? First Greg, then Julie, and the guys around the office? Now Charlie wants to hang with me?
She was flattered and couldn't quite get her head around it. "Ummm, wow, Charlie, that's so nice. I...when were you thinking?"
"I'm easy," she said it as if she had shrugged. "I'm going out with a few friends tonight if you're available. Compton's. Over on 3
rd
. You know it?"
She didn't have any plans, as it happened, other than doing some laundry which could easily wait. "Sure! Of course. It looks like I have a meeting until 4:30. I could be there by 5. Their Happy Hour doesn't start til then anyway. Oh! Shoot! I forgot, you probably are there later than that!"
"Nope, nope, 5PM is perfect. We close early on Wednesdays. Oh and Emmy?" She waited for her answer, "thank you. I really appreciate it."
They both arrived almost at exactly the same moment, Charlie watching Emmy's skirt swooshing through the door just as she reached for the pull.
The place was filling up, but there were still plenty of tables. Eyeing a booth near the bar, Charlie asked the hostess if they could take it.
"So, long day?" Charlie pulled off her jacket and set it on the seat.
Emmy looked around the room, making some kind of non-committal response. Looking back at the room she wondered if she knew anybody.
"So, what will you have?" The waitress looked attentive.
"Moscow Mule," Charlie replied, quickly.
Emmy looked at her and raised her eyebrows. "What the hell. Me too."
They made small talk about the studio until the drinks arrived.
"What do you do?" Charlie took a drink from her mug.
"Hah! I have the most boring job in the world..."
Charlie waited, feigning interest to get her talking.
"Really? You want to know? I'm a front line manager at a placement agency for temps." She took a long swallow. Charlie noticed her throat didn't move.
"That's a neat trick. How do you do that?"
Emmy laughed again and tried to explain, the alcohol hitting her brain pretty hard. "Shoot, that came out all wrong. Maybe we should get a plate of fries or something."
Charlie called the server over, they decided on some food, and she ordered them a second round.
"I dunno," Emmy tried to protest. "It's a school night."
Charlie kept the conversation light, asking Emmy to make up stories about other people in the bar. "She's having an affair," Charlie giggled, eyeing a young woman with cat's eye glasses being coy with an older man.
Emmy blushed, thinking about the scene with Yogi Jacobs, feeling him slide into her, forcing herself against him. The last several weeks had almost obliterated her obsessive memory of the sauna; almost but not quite. Now the scenes from the studio, the smell of incense, kneeling and taking Jacob in her mouth, the L from just the other day, and Greg's thick cock sliding into her throat, the smell of dry cedar and sweat.
"What? Did I strike a nerve?" Charlie paused and looked scandalized. "Don't tell me! You're having an affair? But do you even have a steady guy?"
"No!" Emmy laughed, finishing her drink to buy some time. "I'm...that's...oh, forget it." Still laughing she looked at the other woman to make sure she wasn't making fun of her.
Charlie's eyes glinted in the bar light, with a mischievous expression.
The food and drinks arrived interrupting the discussion momentarily.