Satin Dreams Pt 02

This is part two of Satin Dreams. You'd be advised to read Satin Dreams Part One to get the context. In this story, Adrianna the escort girl who gave Karen her first lesbian experience has moved in on the proviso that sex is off the agenda. Karen is still curious however and arranges a date with Detective Senior Constable Simone Ferguson, who first advised her to seek out the agency if she was curious. This is one of those stories I would like to continue with as and when new episodes come to mind. I have mentioned Adrianna's diary/journal and I'll be hopefully writing excerpts soon. Keep checking for Adrianna's Diary. In the meantime I hope you enjoy Satin Dreams Two: Tasting the Oyster.

*****

TASTING THE OYSTER

Karen picked up the white blouse. It had a ruffled collar and waterfall ruffles down the front. She laid it on the bed and flicked through the clothes in her wardrobe. A blue top? Cream? A red dress? A black dress? The clothes were laid out on the bed and eventually she sighed and perched on a stool in front of the dressing table. She could hear Adrianna and Holly downstairs singing a song and a wistful smile nudged her lips. Adrianna had moved in two weeks ago and it seemed like she'd been here much longer, but then she came back to herself and contemplated the clothes on the bed. Each article of clothing was nice but what to wear for a date with Simone?

Detective Senior Constable Simone Ferguson was new to Melbourne, having transferred in from Sydney six months ago and Karen had come to respect her work ethic and her quiet unruffled demeanour. Both women had been through failed marriages, in Simone's case she'd been bitten twice before finally admitting she was bisexual, with a preference towards women. Over the years that sexual orientation had merely strengthened and for the last five years she identified as lesbian although as she admitted to Karen the other day in her office as she was just preparing to leave for a court appearance.

"I do have the odd crush on men but they tend to be much younger men."

"So you're still bisexual?"

"I'm not entirely sure I'd go all the way with a younger man, even if opportunity knocked," she leaned against the desk, "to be honest it tends to be confined to crushes on movie stars."

"I'm with you there," Karen smiled crookedly.

"So," Simone looked her over, "you're living with her now, how's that working out?"

"Great, so far," she adjusted the jabot.

"And the sex?"

"Is off the agenda," Karen replied, "it only makes sense. She does that for a job and I accept that for a boarder but not a partner."

"So, how was it?"

"It was," she stared at herself in a small wall mirror and smiled, "not what I expected."

"In a good or bad way?"

"Oh definitely good," she smirked, "talk about orgasm with a capital O."

"Oh," Simone smiled, "so, would you be up for dinner soon?"

"Dinner sounds good," Karen looked at her in the mirror, "I could do dinner."

"I'm free on Thursday night," she took out her phone, "or Friday but I have to fly into Sydney Saturday morning and I'll be at my parent's place until Sunday arvo."

"Thursday's good," she took out her lipstick and popped the cap, "when and where?"

"I'll text you," Simone headed for the door, "catch ya later, good luck in court."

She pursed her lips as she twisted the dial at the bottom.

So now I have a date,

she smiled,

with a woman?

***

Karen turned as she heard Adrianna coming up the stairs followed by Holly, the child was giggling as she counted the steps.

"Ten, eleven, twelve."

Karen waited until they'd reached the landing before calling out.

"Adrianna? Can you come in here a moment, please?"

Adrianna stopped at the doorway, she had a washing basket under her arm. She cast her eyes over the clothes strewn over the bed.

"Is this one of my new duties?" Adrianna smiled crookedly.

"Um, no," Karen returned the smile, "I'm going on a date tonight, with Simone."

"I see, and you can't choose an outfit."

"Do I have to spell everything out?" Karen inclined her head in the direction of the bed, "can you please help me?"

Adrianna looked down at her feet and Karen sighed. "That rule is bendable."

Adrianna put the washing basket outside the door and whispered to Holly, the girl nodded and retreated to her mother's bedroom.

"So," Adrianna moved to the bed, "where are you going?"

"Dinner, we chose a Thai restaurant near her place."

"Interesting choice," Adrianna inspected the clothes and then stepped over to her wardrobe and started flicking through her clothes, "well that's a coincidence," she stopped.

"What?"

"You're a size larger than me in some things but some of these tops are my size."

"I go up and down, I'm between sizes."

"Hmm, mm," Adrianna took a couple of tops out and then put them back and looked at the door, "I might have something in mind. Wait here, don't go away."

"Kind of hard," Karen called out as Adrianna left the room, "I live here too."

Her eyes flickered to an ivory-coloured blouse with billowing sleeves and deep cuffs in the basket. She'd seen Adrianna wear it last Monday when she went out to work for Satin Dreams. It had a high ruffled collar and an attached collar tie that was tied off into a pussybow. When Karen admired it and asked where she'd bought it, Adrianna smiled.

"I made it."

"Oh," Karen stared at her, "you made it."

"Yeah, the sewing machine is at mum's place. I haven't had much time for dressmaking except if I'm doing clothes for Holly. I started doing it because my clients started commenting on a couple of the outfits I was wearing, they were mum's old clothes. One thing led to another and I decided to start making my own outfits at mum's suggestion," she flicked at the ties.

"I can even take a picture off the Internet, draw the pattern and make a copy."

"You're kidding? I'd pay you for something like that."

"I could now that my workload has dropped off," she adjusted the strap of the bag containing her other outfits, "why, do you want one like it?"

"Yes, look, the fourth bedroom is just a junk room. Maybe you could put it to good use."

"Okay," Adrianna paused, "it won't be for a couple of weeks but I'll make you one for free."

"That's fine but I insist on paying."

"Are you forgetting the rent is ridiculously cheap?" Adrianna's eyes flickered to Holly, "and I'm not even factoring in the extra food we're eating and the free child minding."

"Okay, all right, I'll pay for materials then."

Adrianna looked down at the blouse and finally nodded.

"Deal, I um, I gotta fly, I've got a six thirty appointment. Are you sure you'll be all right with Holly?"

"Positive."

Adrianna returned with a dress draped over her arm. Holly was just behind her with a makeup bag and an intent look on her pixie-like face.

"That's nice," Karen looked at it as Adrianna held up a button through dress and a leather belt. The garment was made of silver satin and reminiscent of the eighties look with its attached collar ties and billowing sleeves that ended in deep cuffs.

"You like?"

"Outstanding, very chic, if I wore this to work I'd have my way with the C.I.D, at least the male detectives anyway," she smiled.

"Okay, get that shirt off and put that on."

Memories rose in her mind as she unbuttoned the shirt. The last time she'd disrobed in front of Adrianna things had been a little different but she felt perfectly comfortable doing this while Holly was present with Adrianna.

Perhaps that rule needs adjusting,

she finished fastening the buttons and slid the belt through the loops.

God, I haven't looked this good since,

she smiled,

since I was her age.

The ties had been left undone and she undid the collar buttons and the top two buttons. Her eyes flickered to Adrianna's reflection in the mirror. The younger woman was laying out the makeup and Holly was repeating the names as she did so.

"Lipstick, eye shadow, mascara, what's mascara, mum?"

"It's for your eyelashes," she replied.

"Can I have some."

"No, sweetie, I don't want you looking like a tart."

"What's a tart?"

"A sweet treat," Karen spun around, the skirt flared out and she fluffed at her hair, "well?"

"Wow," Adrianna looked at her, "isn't Auntie Karen beautiful."

"Uh huh," Holly nodded.

"Okay, makeup next," Adrianna rose and nodded at the seat in front of the dressing table, "Holly, shift onto Auntie Karen's bed while mummy fixes her face."

"What's wrong with her face?" Holly asked as she clambered onto the bed.

"Nothing," she replied.

"Then why are you fixing her face?"

"I'm making her more beautiful," she glanced over as Holly started walking on the bed.

"Holly Anna Lamb, will you stop walking on that bloody bed."

"Let her walk on the bed," Karen spoke up quietly, "at least my bed anyway. I used to love walking on my dad and mum's bed when I was her age."

"Me too," she sighed, "okay, honey, but take your shoes off first and stay away from the edge of the bed or you'll fall and hurt yourself."

The makeup session was over remarkably quickly and Karen was pleased with the result, Adrianna had highlighted her eyes, rouge on her cheeks and a gloss for her lips. She slid a tongue over her lips and puckered her lips.

"Nice, I think I might have lost a few years."

"I think she'll like it."

***

Simone recognised the car as she walked up the drive towards it but did a double take when she slid onto the passenger seat.

"My God, woman. I can't believe the difference," she flicked at her hair, "I mean you look hot at work but this is smoking."

"Adrianna made it," Karen ran an eye over the pink, wrap front dress, "you look pretty hot yourself in that dress," she felt the material, "crinoline."

"Yep," Simone shut the door, "I got it off Asos."

"I like it," she smiled.

"But yours is hand made and that's different," Simone pulled the seatbelt across herself, "the woman's a wasted talent. I'd wear something like that myself just not to work, unless they want me in the interrogation room. See if she can make one like it for me?"

"No worries, but you'll have to stand in line behind me," she nudged the accelerator, "I've just ordered one myself tonight before I left. I didn't have time to go through her swatch book but most probably ivory white or white," she looked at her.

"Tell me, did you ever, with her?"

"She didn't tell you? I'm impressed, the answer to your question is yes. I thought it was a fake name because it was the first time I'd used the service, the second was Bridget but then it jumped to Samantha and I figured out they were probably using their real names."

"Three times," Karen murmured, "do you use them a lot?"

"I've only had three visits," she replied as Karen nudged the accelerator, "I was kind of planning on asking for a fourth after our talk but it never panned out and then you agreed to a date, so I guess it's been postponed until further notice."

She smiled at her.

"You're not going to lecture me, are you?"

"No," she shrugged, "just wondering. She gave me her diary to keep in my locked drawer, all the names in it are fake though so you might be in it but I couldn't tell because she's even omitted the suburbs these women live in."

"A diary," Simone winced, "wow, what's in it, just fake names?"

"It's a journal more than a diary. She stopped writing it after six months because she got too busy with her studies and work etcetera, but she was also concerned that someone might put two and two together and come after her."

"Okay," Simone frowned, "should I be interested?"

"Only if I'm burgled and they get a hold of it. I've got the only copy but some of these clients were well known public figures who might try to sue her. It's not like her life would be in physical danger but for the moment it's been left in my care," she looked at her.

"You're not going to bring work into this, are you?"

"No," she replied, "it only concerns me if her life is in danger."

"It's not according to her. From what I've read she could probably make some changes and publish the damn thing. What celebrity is going to come out and sue her if their name doesn't appear in the book? It's a bit like shooting yourself in the bloody foot."

"Did she mention any celebrities?"

"No, she's discreet like that. I mean I had to ask you if you'd been serviced by her. That should tell you something."

"It does," she flicked at her dress, "I'm sorry, it's just the cop in me."

"Don't be sorry, I understand that. I was a little unsure at first myself but I'm confident that her life isn't in danger, but if it is I'll call you first."

***

She'd been at this restaurant before with a girlfriend. They'd had their meal, a glass of wine and then parted company, she to her boyfriend while Karen went home. She went for dinner with girlfriends on a fairly regular occasion and even invited them back to her place for a coffee, but tonight was different. If they chose to, they could go back to Simone's place and have sex. Nowhere in her experience had this ever happened to Karen, granted she'd been out with gay women, but that was in a group. Sometimes the woman even had her partner with her, other times it was a single woman just out with friends.

To add to that their conversation revolved not around work or home life, but what they expected from a partner. It was the kind of conversation you had with a man and she knew the script with a man but with a woman? There were so many different ways to go. It was like shifting the goal posts so wide that even a casually aimed kick would make it over the line. Eventually however, Karen fell back on the one trait she knew wouldn't fail her.

Honesty.

That most desired of human traits and yet so hard to find, she'd thought she had it with her ex husband but he'd been the most dishonest of all.

"He was a therapist and stayed late for clients who worked during the day but what I didn't know is that his second office," she made imaginary quotation marks in the air. "Was the house he owns jointly with his brother," she fingered the stem of her wineglass.

"I only found out when one of my girlfriends, who didn't know about the second house happened to drive down the street and see his BMW parked in the driveway. He was just getting out with a woman. He didn't see her but when I asked just casually where he'd been that night, he claimed he was at the office. He even showed me his mobile phone and said I could check where he'd made his last call from."

"So he had a second phone?"

"Yeah," she grimaced, "I hired a car but parked it in a city car park during the day and loaned my car to a colleague who was in on it," she smiled.

"Go on," Simone stared at her.

"The day I got the car I gave my keys to my colleague, faked my period pains and drove home at lunchtime. I stopped off at the local op shop, picked up some old clothes and bought a tatty blonde wig from another shop and went home to get ready," she sipped her wine.

"I must have looked like I was waiting for a drug dealer because he did glance at me but didn't make the connection when he came out of work. I followed him to the second house and just sat and waited. Eventually another car pulled up and this blonde woman got out and he kissed her at the front door and let her inside. I went back to my colleague's house to change the cars and my clothes. I got home at the same time as him, so he was there for at least two hours."

Her eyes narrowed as she went on.

"I asked him straight out, just casually, 'how was work?' He claimed he'd been kept there with a late appointment, I said, 'what? At the clinic?' He just stared at me and then I did something I've never done before?"

"Kicked him in the nuts?"

"No, I was wearing heels, I slapped his face and called him a fucking lying cheating cunt. He knew I was mad as hell because I never drop the c bomb. I told him what I'd seen and he went as white as a sheet and it all came out. He was terrified I'd call the medical board and have him suspended and I was tempted but these women were all above the age of consent, it's unethical I know but I was more concerned about keeping the house and getting a better settlement. I'm a barrister, I know how long these things can drag out and I just wanted a quick and easy divorce. My evidence while not admissible in court, would at least see him suspended pending an investigation, so he backed down in a big way and I got the whole kit and caboodle."

"I'm impressed, it's like something out of our manual, I've worn wigs a few times when I was doing undercover work. It's harder than it looks."

"It was harder for me because all he had to do was check out the slutty looking woman in the rent a bomb Commodore and it was all over bar the shouting."

"But you made it back," Simone touched her hand.

"Yeah I did," she looked down at their hands, "so, how was it for you, being married?"

"The first time I was young and stupid," she released her hand and picked up her wineglass.

"My old man hated wogs so I married one, a cute Italian boy named Mario. We eloped to sunny Queensland with dreams of a house by the beach and three weeks later I looked at him and thought what the fuck happened? Honestly, he drank like a bloody fish, sat around the flat while I was out working in a sandwich shop and wanted to get all romantic when I got home. I didn't go home one night, just hopped on a bus and headed back to Sydney."

"I'll bet your old man was happy."

"Dad was over the moon but then I went out with an Italian woman and he hit the bloody roof. Mum exploded at him for his explosion and I left home and moved in with Maria, which lasted a year and a half before she started seeing her ex. It was just innocence at first but I turned into the green eyed monster and drove them together again."

"Youth is wasted on the young," Karen chuckled.

"I love that saying," she put her glass down, "I have that saying in a laminated cover in my kitchen, so weird you'd come out with it."

"And your second marriage?"

"Ah, now that was like being at work."

"He was a cop."

"No, he was an accountant, my tax accountant. We got together because by then I'd decided I was bisexual and for the first nine months it was kind of okay, but then I got the hots for this woman at work, Denise but I don't do the cheating thing so it was definitely unrequited."

She fingered the stem of the wineglass.

"In the end it was like working undercover, I was working with a task force set up to bust a drug ring. The department set me up in a house they'd rented in a false name and I lived there part of the time, playing the role of a recently separated woman because I had to take the wedding band off before I went there. Then I'd go back home, put on my ring and play the role of the faithful wife."

"That would've been tough."

"It was," her eyes shifted, "because John was and still is a good man, he actually dropped in on my leaving do in Sydney, with his new wife and wished me all the best. I just knew I couldn't go on living a lie and though he was prepared to do less hours and even change his job I couldn't let him do it. John loves his job. How anyone can love sifting through spreadsheets is mind boggling but it was something he loved doing. We parted and I started seeing women again."

"And how is it now? What are you looking for in a woman?"

"Right now I want easy. I don't want her moving her things into my house, I want a nice easy thing where we meet once or twice a week for dinner or a movie and if we have sex afterwards that's a bonus but if not then I can just go home."

Her eyes shifted as Karen moved in her seat.

"Sound tempting?"

"Yeah," she ran a hand through her hair, "I'm curious, I mean three weeks ago I was just curious but then I hired an escort girl and now she's living with me," she chuckled.