AN INTIMATE ENCOUNTER
Valerie's marriage has disintegrated after she discovers her husband has been having an affair. At the same time, Karen's marriage is also ending although her breakup is much less dramatic. Before Karen and Jonah finally go their separate ways, they agree on a mutual settlement and use the money to finish their extension. Karen accepts Valerie's offer to stay for a couple of weeks but the night before she is due to move some of her things in Valerie kisses her. Her intimate approach has consequences but is she willing to take things further?
Sultans of Swing could be heard in the spare bedroom and Valerie managed a smile as she tucked the blue, striped blouse further into a dark grey, pencil skirt. The song brought back memories of a simpler time, dancing in Anne's bedroom as a teenager to Dire Straits, she was in her last year of Primary school and Anne was mooning over boys. Anne's crush at school was a Dire Straits fan and thus Anne became a fan as well. She had moved on from him but stayed a fan, she and Tony seemed to possess that ability to extricate themselves from destructive relationships without making a dog's breakfast of it. Melody and Valerie on the other hand could go for years in relationships that were going nowhere.
Melody had ended a long term relationship with Marcus some six months ago but he was still in and out of their former home as if nothing had changed. Her attempts to get back into the dating game were hampered by the fact that her ex husband would just turn up with something for her or the kids that he 'just happened to see on sale.' It was just one of many excuses and you couldn't class him as being creepy or violent. On the contrary he was all at sea now that his marriage had ended. Every other month he gave her another self help book to help her come to terms with life. Melody had once joked that she would even pay for a prostitute just to get it out of his system, it hadn't gone down well.
Where Marcus was clingy, Robbie was the opposite and at first she'd prided herself on breaking the mould and getting with someone who was an alpha male. Robbie didn't do the clinging thing but there was a part of her that wished he'd clung to her a little more. It was like two sides of the same coin, the clingy man who needed a mother/maid and the alpha male who thought the entire world revolved around his dick.
Private Investigations
started playing as she exited the bedroom on her way to Damien's room. One thing she'd learned about Karen last night had been her love of music, she'd confessed that if she set up her laptop to play her entire collection end to end it would take, "three weeks, five days and seventeen hours to play the lot." Her tastes ranged from Dire Straits through to old 50s rock, even older '30s show tunes, the '60s, '70s, '80s, 90s, and '00s and there was also an impressive array of world music. She couldn't speak another language but reasoned that music and mathematics are the only true universal languages.
The song finished suddenly as she entered Damien's room and she heard Karen moving around the room, packing her laptop and other items. She was just stuffing dirty clothes into the washing basket when Karen stepped into the room. She was wearing a cream-coloured blouse with beige fluorescent stripes and a matching silk collar tie, the blouse was tucked into a black, buttoned skirt accessorised with a black belt and gold buckle. The white fishnet stockings shimmered in the light and she managed a grin as she adjusted her grip on the laptop bag slung over one shoulder.
"You need a hand with anything?"
"Huh?" Valerie looked up blankly and then came to her senses, "um, no, I'm fine thanks."
"No worries," she replied, "I've got an early finish today, there's a department working lunch and seeing as they finish off at the pub I'll duck out and come home."
The two women looked at each other for a moment and then Damien held up a toy giraffe.
"Giraffe!"
"That's right, sweetie," she took two more steps and bent down, "what's his name?"
"Giraffe."
"Hmm, how about Gerald the Giraffe?"
Damien burst out laughing as she rose and winked at Valerie.
"I'll leave you with Damien and Gerald," and then she was gone.
How would it work between us?
Valerie frowned.
The question still had no answer but she felt as if she was skating on the edge of something much larger, an unknown landscape that hid both delights and dangers. On the plus side, Karen cleaned up after herself and actually offered to help, on the negative side she wasn't sure how it would work if they were to take things further. Would she find the other woman intruding into her personal space on the premise of just being concerned? It was one thing she feared, being owned totally. One major reason Robbie had lasted so long was simply because he was younger. She could control a younger man in a way she couldn't if he'd been older.
Is it really as simple as that? A loss of control?
There had been no goodnight kiss last night but it wasn't as if neither of them were up for it, Karen had been upstairs unpacking her clothes while she was downstairs with Damien. No one had said anything about it but Valerie knew that couldn't last. Even if it was just to clear the air and put it down to an insane urge and draw a line between them but Valerie wasn't sure she wanted a boundary between them at all.
Was she complicating it? That thought popped into her mind a little later as she reviewed her client list for the day. Aludra was in the other room and she looked up as she heard Damien's giggling, the child looked on Aludra as being just part of the extended family and indeed the younger woman had become almost indispensable. In time she would no doubt finish her studies but Valerie hoped she'd stay in contact. She recalled a somewhat nervous young woman sitting on a sofa while Valerie went through her resume. When she asked the origin of her name, Aludra had told her it was Arabic and meant the maiden or virgin. Prior to meeting Aludra, she'd always looked upon the conflict in the Middle East as being too confusing but having listened to her talk of it openly, Valerie had changed her perspective dramatically and become a strong supporter of Palestinian statehood.
And that brought her back to the problem at hand and the solution.
We evolve, our perceptions will change over time.
Prior to meeting Jacqueline she'd never considered sleeping with a woman but the younger woman had triggered something with her flirting some months ago. Could it be that Karen's rather graphic descriptions had merely done something similar? She found herself drawn to the older woman in a different way. Yes, she was desirable but there was also a maturity to her, Jacqueline would fuck you in an instant and forget you just as quickly but Karen would look for a more permanent arrangement.
What was that line from Shawshank Redemption?
Valerie frowned as she sipped her tea in the living room a few hours later after a lunch break.
Get busy living or get busy dying.
A smile nudged her lips as Karen's car pulled into the driveway.
Okay, let's see where this leads.
Karen greeted her with a smile as she stepped into the living room. She dropped her bags on the floor as she sank into the sofa.
"Thank God that's finished," she loosened the tie, "it turned out the department meeting wasn't a thing I needed to be at so I came home early."
"So you've got the afternoon off?"
"Yeah," she undid the tie and started sliding it off, "and you?"
"Got three more clients and then I have to transcribe their notes, cook dinner, bath Damien and somehow manage to find some 'me' time," she cracked a wry grin. "I'm always telling clients to find me time and when they do can they give me some too?"
"Okay, how about I cook dinner and you can bath Damien? I'm home all afternoon, got nothing planned at all," Karen undid the top button of her blouse.
"Deal," Valerie leaned back against the back of the couch and closed her eyes.
