Chapter Eleven
"So," I say without preamble as I sit down across from Beatrix at our customary Viking Union table, "Gabi's clothes didn't change last night because of
her
intent?"
Bea winces. "You didn't buy that, hmm?" The edges of my lips curl into a ghost of a smug smile. She sighs, knowing she's been caught. "No, that wasn't the reason.
"Intent fills in the details left out by the wording. The words are more of a focus that defines the domain."
Good math word,
I think. "They constrain the imagined details so that things like this don't happen."
My wry smile turns downright lascivious, hungry for the scandalous details. Beatrix sighs again, a mix of embarrassment and resignation. "I was curious, okay? I tried to imagine her clothes being transformed with her, really, but my curiosity intruded, hoping to find out what she looked like naked." She looks at me, nervously, likely fearing a jealous reaction.
"Well," I say with an encouraging tone, "I'd be lying if I said I had never had that same curiosity. Mine was just satisfied early last year when we became roommates." I smirk at her. "You know my lusty eyes are yours, but I can't say I don't admire the gods' handiwork from time to time."
Beatrix somehow looks relieved and troubled at the same time. "What?" I ask.
"Are you sure you don't have feelings for her? None at all?"
"No, why do you ask?"
"Because," her voice drops to a nervous hush, "I think she has feelings for you."
I bark a laugh. "What? That's silly. Gabi only goes for men, trust me. She's had three boyfriends since I've known her and gone on dates with half a dozen other guys. I've seen her tell multiple people that she's straight up straight. Guys drool over her, and she obviously enjoys that attention."
"Are you sure?" Bea asks, clearly unsure herself. "You don't think she protests too much, then? Like someone in the closet? That was the vibe I was getting, but maybe I'm wrong."
I don't want to dismiss her feelings out of hand, so I revisit the topic I've considered several times before. "I really don't think so, Bea. She has two moms for crying out loud. What reason would she have for staying in the closet?"
"Okay," she says. She seems unconvinced but lets the matter drop.
We eat in silence for a minute.
"I love you," she says.
I smile. "I love you too, Bea. Any reason in particular?"
"Plenty of reasons in particular," she nods.
"I'm not sur-"
Zap.
"No, Pet. I'm the pedantic one. You're the obedient one," she chides.
I rub my neck. "Yes, Mistress."
"Good girl." Despite the stings of both the collar and the scold, at this "good girl", I feel my backbone soften. I feel more compliant, ready—no,
eager
—to obey her, to simply do as told. Sarah Prime arches an eyebrow but remains silent.
"Aside from being my Mistress," I ask Bea, moving to safer topics, "do you have any other hobbies?"
"Hmm. I played football as a little girl in the UK, and I played volleyball my senior year of high school. None of us were very good, though, since the previous two years were interrupted by Covid. Still, it was fun. What about you?"
"I've played the cello since first grade, though I really haven't touched it in a year."
"Oh! I wondered whether that was yours or Gabs's," she says.
"Yup, it's mine. I put in a lot of practice over those years, but it was definitely just a hobby for me. Like so many things in my life, I was either the best of the bad or the worst of the good. Aggressively average. In ninth grade, I quit taking lessons and joined an orchestra instead. I made it to first chair by my senior year, but only because the actual first chair broke her arm a month before the concert."
"Oh! That's terrible, though, I guess the saying 'break a leg' has similar origins. So, serendipity doo dah, I guess!"
"
Plenty of arm breaks, comin' your way,
" I supply, musically. She snorts so I keep going, "
Little blue sling on her shoulder. It's the truth. It's fractural. Everything is satissnaptual.
"
In response, she throws a French fry at me. By reflex I try to snatch it with my mouth, but instead I perform an even more talented catch with the lens of my glasses.
Just as planned!
"So was that a feat of the 'best of the bad' or the 'worst of the good'?" she teases with an amused smirk.
* * *
Beatrix didn't join us for dinner Friday evening; she had a group project she needed to work on, and had told me she'd text me when she was ready for me to come over. She had done so ten minutes ago, so here I am, in Nash Hall, having slipped through the door when another Nash resident exited the building.
Appendix Chapter 11 Entry 11.1
I knock on Bea's door.
"It's unlocked," I hear her say.
I open the door to ... another room. It's a bedroom, presumably hers back in Bear Creek. I walk in and quickly shut the door behind me.
I don't know where I am, so I take in my surroundings. The room is a study in pink. Light pink walls with white trim, carpet of a deeper hue. There's a four-poster bed against the left wall made up cleanly with powder pink sheets and an elegant white duvet. The bed is curtained by off-white tulle or gossamer—something transparent—the slightest tinge of pink to them.
There's a brown wooden walk-in closet door on the right wall, and a nook that probably hides a bathroom door on the inner wall that I can't see.
I detect movement and look to the end of the room where, sitting in a plush red armchair against a window, is the most stunning young woman I have ever seen. She's maybe 5'6" or 5'7" wearing a loose, black blouse with a plunging neckline more than hinting at the plump breasts beneath. A silver lariat necklace adorns her neck supporting a jade pendant nestled within her cleavage. Below her blouse, she has a gray, pencil skirt with a slit just to the inside of her left leg, above knee-length black stockings.
Her long blonde hair is done up in an immaculate high ponytail tied with an intricate knot pinned together by a pair of pencils. Her glasses are librarian, opaque black frames. She holds one hand to the side of her face, pinky toying with the corner of her mouth, elbow resting on the arm of the chair, while the other hand holds a book open in her lap. A thick, light pink scarf is folded neatly in half, strung over the back of the chair.
"Who are you?" she asks, not unkindly, in a British accent that makes my knees weak and my mouth water.
"I'm..."—
"Crap. Line?"
—"Sarah, I think."
The girl giggles at me. "You're not sure?"