THE SEDUCTION GAME
Zoe is drawing closer to Lisa but she's still in a relationship with Grant that is drawing to its inevitable conclusion, leaving her free to experiment but Lisa is still struggling to come to terms with her own past. Meanwhile, Charlie also has her eyes on Zoe but feels out manoeuvred by Lisa's greater maturity and her growing friendship with Zoe. When an unexpected opportunity falls into her lap she makes her move as she plays the seduction game on an unsuspecting Zoe.
Lisa shifted in her seat and fiddled with the knot of her tie as Stella took a seat next to her again, her friend lifted the paper plate laden down with leftover food and put it on top of Lisa's empty plate and sighed.
"So much for conserving our resources, there's enough leftover food to fill my compost bin twice over," she dug an elbow into her side, "don't suppose you want to take a bag of leftover food for your compost bin?"
"Sadly no, but thanks for the offer. Don't you have neighbours with compost bins?"
"Probably," she sipped her Coke, "but I've yet to make their acquaintance, unlike some people I could mention," she leaned on her elbows and stared across the backyard to the house.
"You certainly don't do things by halves," she finished.
"Don't remind me," she winced, "Rita was a wakeup call in a big way. I really wasn't looking forward to sharing a house with her and she was certainly edging towards that."
"We've all been there before," she took another sip, "we live and hopefully learn."
"Tell me about it," she chuckled.
"Speaking of lady friends," Stella stared in Zoe's direction, "your new lady friend seems to be making a few lady friends of her own," she glanced at her, "and just between you and me, and the black stump, she is just a friend isn't she?"
"She is," Lisa smiled crookedly, "although she seems to gravitate towards me but by the looks of things I may have some competition."
"I like how you said that without a hint of malice," Stella looked at her.
"There's no malice there," she shook her head, "to be honest I'm still not sure. If she decided to hang out with some other love hungry woman I'd be happy to just stay on the sidelines and cheer them both on."
"Like that is it?" Stella replied, "well she's certainly made friends with just about every woman here, even the attached women are chatting with her, along with their partners, and the single women are panting like bitches on heat."
"You always did cut to the chase," Lisa grinned as she let her eyes move around the backyard. There were approximately twenty five people in the yard and a further ten inside. Zoe was chatting and laughing with the birthday girl, Mei Lin. The two women were close in age and they'd bonded in a very familiar way when they complimented each other on their blouses.
Zoe made her way over to them a few minutes later, leaving Mei Lin to circulate around the yard, her face was flushed and she let out a sigh as she sank down on the bench opposite them.
"Oh, there you are," Lisa nudged her leg gently with a foot, "I thought you'd been kidnapped by Lesbomania."
"I think I have been," she flicked her hair, "they want to use video of me for a music video."
"Oh, so now you're about to hit the big time," Lisa grinned, "I thought it was just something in the studio? Wasn't it a violin intro or something?"
"Oh there is that as well, but Mia thinks I have the perfect look after I showed her the picture of me in my orchestral clothes," she glanced down at her phone it beeped.
"And Mia would know," Stella chuckled.
Zoe didn't look up straight away as she read the Facebook friend request from Charlie.
"Another friend request?" Lisa nudged her leg again.
"Yeah," she put the phone down and stared past Stella for a moment, "she's a client from work so we're just friends."
"Okay?" Stella raised her eyebrows and Zoe felt the colour rising in her cheeks as she realised the subtext behind her statement.
"Um, okay, she's gay and I'm pretty sure she's interested but it couldn't happen, she's a client and I'm sure there's rules against that kind of thing."
Both women chuckled at that and Lisa nudged her gently.
"Um, yeah, but it's more to do with doctors and people in some kind of authority over others, the general premise behind it is the fear that someone can use their relationship to gain an unfair advantage over others or to prevent abuse."
"I guess so," Zoe frowned, "but I'm the one who fills job vacancies for our clients and if someone at work knew that she and I were involved it could cause problems. I'm not sure if it's a sackable offence but they'd take a dim view of it."
"You're a heartbreaker," Stella picked up her glass, "well, I'll leave you two lovely ladies to get better acquainted," she rose and moved away.
"She's a crack up," Lisa propped on her palm, "she's as subtle as a brick."
Zoe glanced over her shoulder as Stella sauntered across the backyard and then turned back to Lisa, she had a serious expression on her face.
"So, you and Stella, were you ever like tempted?"
"I can't speak for her but I certainly was but she was the one who took me under her wing and she hadn't been that long sober herself but she told me that we had to keep our shit together before we opened our legs. I did heaps of meetings with her but not once did we ever talk about taking it a step further and then she started dating again and I wasn't long behind her."
"So, how long would you have to be sober before you start you know, having sex?"