I threw the last forkful of wood-shavings and old straw onto the bonfire and flicked a droplet of sweat from my eyebrow before turning to my long time friend.
"Thea. Whatever gave you the notion that a day in the middle of August when there isn't a cloud in the sky would be a good time to clean out your old chicken shed?"
Thea (Dorothea to her mother) smiled ruefully and leaned her rake on the shed door. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"
"Sitting on the lawn with a nice cool white wine and lemonade seems a better one."
"But not half as satisfying. I've been meaning to do it ever since we moved in. Now Barry can start turning it into a studio."
"So, for the sake of your amateur daubs, I've had to get dried chicken shit in my hair, get covered in muck and dust, and ruin a perfectly good top?"
"Lucy, in answer to your list of complaints, I'll wash your tee-shirt myself and lend you one of mine for tonight, and the shower works just fine so you can decontaminate yourself as soon as we put the tools away. Now quit whinging!"
Thea and I are not the same size, she is shorter and proportionately just a little slimmer. But where we really differ is in the chest department. I'm blessed with full breasts - too heavy in my mind although Phil likes them - and Thea is almost flat-chested. It's been a standing joke between us that I got her share as well as my own, so how I would fit into one of her tops was a mystery. But we'd worry about that when the time came.
"And to top it off I expect you'll want a hand preparing dinner?"
"No, that was all prepared this morning. It just wants cooking."
"Which slave did you get to help you with that?"
Thea took a playful swipe at my backside and set off for the house.
"Come on, let's get cleaned up. We've no dinner to cook so we'll still get time for that wine if we don't stand here gabbing."
Stripping in front of Thea is no problem, we'd met at college some ten or twelve years ago and over the years we'd seen each other naked many times.
"How about you soap my back and I'll do yours, so long as you don't mind?"
It sounded fine to me; I didn't mind someone touching my back, though my front might be another matter. Thea adjusted the shower and we stood together under the warm cascade, smiling quietly at each other as the water flushed away the loose dirt from our bodies.
"That feels better." She said, squeezing shower gel into her hand before passing it to me.
As I filled my own palm with gel I watched Thea begin to soap herself up, noticing that her little breasts were so firm that they didn't seem to move at all even when she lifted her arms to soap her armpits. If only I could keep my over generous bosom but have it as firm as that. Then I noticed that she was watching me looking at her.
"It's alright for you." She told me. "At least you've got a good figure. I have to keep walking when I'm in a timber-yard, because if I stood still they'd sell me as a board."
"Sorry Thea, I was staring, wasn't I?"
"No problem. At least you don't look and laugh like most women would."
"Hey." I told her, trying to sound open-minded. "If men or women were all made to the same plan, wouldn't life be boring?"
She smiled cheerfully and ran soapy hands over her breasts, watching me do the same to mine. There isn't a lot of room in Thea's shower and it was strange but pleasantly intimate to be showering in such close proximity to another woman. We found ourselves looking directly into each other's eyes as we worked our way down and half smiling in conspiratorial pleasure.
"This is a nice way to finish off a hard days work." She remarked suddenly as she lathered her stomach, suds running into her bush.
I just smiled silently and nodded, relaxing under the warm water and my own soapy massage. But then she reached down between her legs to wash her pussy and I noticed her eyes close just for a moment in pleasure at her own touch, and I realised she was feeling randy.
"Hot weather having an effect is it?" I asked her, smiling innocently.
She looked at me curiously, then blushed as she realised what I meant.
"Always does, doesn't it get to you sometimes?"
"Regularly." I told her, abruptly feeling that today no exception. "Though I've no idea why. Maybe it's because we all wear fewer clothes."
"Maybe. Whatever it is perhaps the menfolk will oblige us when they finally get home?" Our respective husbands were out fishing for the day and not expected back until evening.
"What! Both together?" I deliberately misconstrued her remark and feigned bewildered surprise.
"Don't worry, you're safe. I can't see those two going for same room sex even if we would." She answered as if she'd taken me seriously and now I was genuinely bewildered.
"You never know your luck." I told her, still teasing.
"One day." She sighed, and I looked at her in amazement, understanding suddenly that she really was serious. I wondered briefly what had started that off for her, but then pushed the thought to one side before we talked ourselves into trouble, but it had sort of set the tone for the day.
We let it go at that, standing facing each other and stooping slightly with our hands between our legs supposedly washing ourselves but taking far too long over that one little bit.
"There isn't room in here for us both to bend down, so how about we do each other's legs as well as our backs?" Thea asked eventually, breathing just that little bit heavier.
"Yes, fine." I could see what she meant; we'd probably bang our heads together if we both tried to reach our legs.
Thea squeezed more shower gel into her palms and then half crouched, half squatted in front of me, looking strangely defenceless with the shower water cascading over her head and shoulders. She soaped up my calves, then my knees and worked her way up my thighs, just once brushing the side of her hand against my pubic hair as she reached the top of my leg. It was only a very brief touch, but I was incredibly conscious of it. She gave no sign of noticing and I didn't say anything, but afterwards it was as if I could still feel that tantalizing touch.
