The bed shook as Jun leaped up and stretched her naked limbs. “While you do that, I’m going to go clean up. Your gunk is starting to…you know…” She ruffled her own hair before disappearing into the bathroom, breasts bouncing in ways Reina’s could not.
Reina leaned over the bed and rummaged for her jacket; the sound of a high-powered sink blasted behind her. Eventually she found her jacket and procured her phone. With a mighty huff as she righted herself in the bed again, Reina hit Aiko’s number and thought of the best way to explain her situation.
It took more than three rings for her to answer the phone. “Moshi moshi?” Aiko’s voice was barely audible above the rabble of people laughing and shouting. “Reina?”
“Uh, hey. What’s going on? Having fun?”
“Yes! How about you?”
Reina couldn’t remember what her wife was up to that night, but at least she wasn’t miserable. “About as much fun as I usually have.”
“So more than you would ever admit.”
That got a laugh out of Reina. “Naturally. Anyway, I’m calling because you-know-who wants to steal me for the night.”
Although Aiko remained silent on the phone, the people she was with continued to shout and laugh over each other. What is going on over there? Charades? Once another few seconds went by, Reina assumed Aiko would come back with a firm “no.” Actually, Reina rather hoped she would. The more she thought about going home, crawling into bed next to her wife, and then making love to her, the more Reina tingled in ways Jun could not inspire. That’s why I married the woman I did. Any excuse to have to go home would be good enough for her.
Yet when Aiko did resume talking, it was with a high, optimistic voice full of revelry. “Sure! Stay with her tonight. I plan on staying here pretty late anyway. I won’t be home until well after midnight, probably.”
Plans for matrimonial domination went up in smoke. “Really? How are you going to get home?” The trains stopped running around midnight, and buses long before that.
“I’ll walk home. I told you I was only going a couple of blocks away. Don’t worry about me. You stay and have fun with Jun-san. I know she appreciates a long night with you.”
As if on cue, Jun returned from the bathroom, still naked but now smelling of floral hand soap. She slipped into the bed next to Reina and looped an arm around her midsection. “How goes it? Do I have permission to love on you all night?”
Reina ignored her. “Are you sure?” she asked her wife.
“Of course! Ah, somebody’s trying to get my attention! Sorry! Love you!”
She hung up before Reina could say another word. For some reason the silence of the hotel room disturbed her.
“Well?”
Reina lowered her phone. “She said I can stay.”
“Yay!” More hyper-feminine cheers invaded Reina’s ear. She sounds like Aiko, but not really. Aiko sounded like that without thinking. This was one of Jun’s only chances to act this way, and she let it all out while she could.
“Yay.” Reina tossed her phone onto the nightstand and stared at the ceiling. Although she was aware of Jun’s fingers walking through her cleavage, she did not offer any affection in return. I wanted to give it to Ai-chan.
For all her silliness that evening, Jun caught on to Reina’s mood and responded with her more natural deep voice. “What’s wrong?” She flattened her hand against Reina’s chest and gently massaged it.
That voice knocked Reina back to her senses. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
As she attempted to turn over, Reina bumped her leg into her phallus still between her and Jun. “I’m sure.” She reached one hand between them and brought the phallus up. Jun looked at her incredulously but said nothing. Nerves pricked along Reina’s arms and boiled inside her gut: if it had taken her twenty years to let Aiko make love to her that way, it had been longer since another woman attempted it. She glanced at Jun’s reddening face and sucked up her pride. “Do this,” she said, dropping the phallus in Jun’s lap. “I trust you know how to use it.”
Jun’s clean fingers were marred again as she held the phallus in her lap. They had used a condom earlier, but now it was bare – and wet – in Jun’s hand. “I’ve used one a time or a dozen. Rarely with women like you, though. I thought you weren’t into that.”
Women like me. At least Jun called her a woman. “Don’t ask me about it. Will you do it?”
Brows furrowing, Jun untangled the straps and held them to her waist. “I’ll do it. Are you sure it’s what you want, though?”
Reina lay back on the bed, head crunching into the pillow. Jun finished putting the straps over her legs and readjusted the phallus hanging from her omanko. “I said don’t ask me about it.”
“Hmph.” Although Reina didn’t have her legs open, Jun rolled on top of her and grazed the phallus along her hip. “If that’s what you want.”
“And don’t talk.”
Jun mimed zipping her lips shut.
“And turn off the lights.”
Hesitation. Jun got up long enough to turn off the lights both on her side of the bed and on Reina’s. They were both thrown into the darkness of night, save for the soft light still spilling out from the genkan of the hotel room. But Reina couldn’t see any of Jun’s features in the dark, nor could she hear her deep, increasingly masculine voice. She could feel her lean, tall body however, as it pushed between shaking legs and loomed above. Aiko is shorter and curvier. Reina clung to the image of her wife up until the moment Jun penetrated her.
Then she saw was nothing.
* * *
The party at Takeshi’s lasted well until midnight as Aiko predicted. Shortly after the wine freely flowed the whole lot of them turned into a giggling, rambunctious mess that led to corny parlor games mimicking the prose of older English works. Although Aiko was not as well read in this era as her new companions, she fell into line with them soon enough, especially since they were all equalized by the steady – or not so steady – hand of alcohol.
She did not learn all of their names by heart, but they seemed to remember hers. When it was late enough for couples to head out and catch a train, they each said farewell to her by name and expressed an interest in seeing her again. It left a level of elation inside Aiko she hadn’t felt since her wedding day. The day I can’t tell any of them about. Regardless of how liberal these academics seemed, Reina had drilled into Aiko the need for secrecy many years ago.
At midnight the only couple remaining were the Ishidas, who also lived within walking distance and thus were not bothered by train schedules or drunk driving. Not that they were much inebriated anyway. Professor Ishida – given name Nanako – confessed to not being a big drinker and only shared one glass of wine with her husband. The four of them sat back down at the sitting table in the living area and digested the evening now behind them.
“What a wonderful time we’ve had,” Nanako said. “You always throw such great parties, Matsumoto-san.” She patted Takeshi’s hand.
“Thank you. It was a pleasure having the both of you here as well.”
“And it was a pleasure meeting your charming new girlfriend here.” Nanako gestured to Aiko, who turned away in alarm. Of all the misunderstandings. Takeshi’s girlfriend! Thankfully he shook his head and rebutted. Nanako narrowed her eyes. “You mean she’s not?”
Aiko forced a pleasant “oh, you,” laugh and hid her words with more wine. Takeshi created more distance between him and Aiko by scooting closer to the edge of the table. “Aiko-san and I are merely friends. Why, we met only a couple of weeks ago, when I tried to kill her with my bicycle!”
“Oh! Well, excuse me then, Miss Aiko.” Beside her, Nanako’s husband stifled a laugh on behalf of his wife’s mistake. “I shouldn’t have assumed, although you and Matsumoto-san make a good pair.”
Blush she didn’t intend to exude swarmed across Aiko’s cheeks. Us? A good pair? No way! Takeshi was much too successful and refined to be of
any equal to Aiko, the homemaker who was apparently single. Maybe Nanako meant they looked good together. No way! Takeshi still had youthful air around him that was exhibited in his relaxed demeanor. Compared to him, Aiko was an old hag.
“Ara, she’s all red!” Nanako pointed at Aiko’s face.
“It’s the wine.” Reina always commented on Aiko’s complexion after she had been drinking for a long period of time.
Nanako and her husband continued to tease them both as they were on their way out the door ten minutes later. Takeshi laughed their schoolyard comments off as he showed them out, Aiko remaining at the table. I wonder if Reina is home yet. That was the only way Aiko could shirk this mess. Then she remembered that she had given Reina permission to spend the night with Jun. Aiko would be sleeping alone that night, with her own embarrassing memories.
Takeshi returned to the living are with a satisfied grin on his face. “A successful party if I ever threw one.” He motioned to the mess of glasses, finger food, and empty dishes on the table. One of the bowls was Aiko’s, given to her by her mother when she first moved in with Reina. She regretted not telling her spouse to get her ass home before midnight.
“I quite enjoyed myself,” she said with a smile. True, at least. Years since Aiko enjoyed an outing among her own friends of her choosing, outside of Reina’s connections and the extended world of Ni-chome. Since university, even. The same one where Takeshi now taught.
He sat down next to her again and picked up the wine bottle. “I’m glad.” He shook out the last drops between his glass and Aiko’s. They filled up enough to warrant another sip. “To fun memories we’ve just experienced and those yet to come.” He held up his glass and waited for Aiko to match him.
“Cheers.” They clinked their glasses together and drank the last of the wine.
Takeshi sat his glass down. “I’m glad I met you, Aiko-san.”
That caught her off guard enough to make her choke. She placed her glass next to his and wrapped her fingers around her throat. “You flatter me, Takeshi-san.”
“Nonsense. Or if I do, then you must be a woman deserving of such flattery.”
“Hontou desu ka?” Aiko’s fingers dropped to her chest.
Takeshi smiled and looked away.
In the ensuing silence, Aiko contemplated the table over the rim of her wine glass. Men never flatter me. Not since her last string of boyfriends decades ago. Then again, she rarely interacted with men outside of her family anymore. Living the lesbian life with Reina kept them in constant contact with women of all gender representations, but rarely men.
“Isn’t it funny?” She dared to change the subject. “Your friends thought we were dating.”
Takeshi sat his glass down. “They always tell me I need to have a girlfriend. I think they worry about me being lonely here at home. I’m envious of you. At least you have a roommate.”
Who happens to be my spouse. Would probably break Takeshi’s brain to know they shared a room, let alone a bed. “Have you thought about getting a roommate?”
“I think…” Takeshi still refused to look at her. “I would like to live with a woman.”
“Ara! That would be scandalous, unless you were married.”
“Aiko-san…I…”
“Yes?” The wine made Aiko’s limbs numb.
Finally, Takeshi turned to face her. “I would like…may I…I mean…” Aiko had never seen a man act this way around her since her last boyfriend. The creepy stalker. “I would like to kiss you.”
At first she wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. But once his meaning sank in, Aiko sat back, her entire body jumping away from him. “Excuse me?”
“I’m serious.” He took her hand, which remained on the floor between them. The way he reverently clutched it between his own palms flashed a red flag before Aiko’s eyes. “Ever since we first conversed, I have been taken with you, Aiko-san.” He stuttered some more words before regaining his composure. “I haven’t met any woman like you in a long time.”
“Takeshi-san…”
“You’re beautiful, and smart, and so kind. I probably spend too much time thinking about you.” Now sweat oozed from his hands, until Aiko had to yank hers away to save it from melting in the midst of his love confession. “Please, I would be so happy – and honored – if you would consider being my girlfriend.”
What! Aiko fought the urge to recoil from him, not from fear, or disgust, but from the moral obligation to put distance between her and a determined suitor. I’m married! Aiko drew her legs beneath her. “I have no idea what to say.”
He brushed his hand against her shoulder. “Say yes. Say yes and let me kiss you.”
“No!” She shrugged him off but did not get up. “I mean,” she saved herself, as she noticed the dismay lurking behind Takeshi’s bright eyes, “I mean this is so sudden. I had no idea you felt this way.”
“How can I not around a woman like you? It’s a sign to me that you remain unattached. Why else would we have met if it were not destiny?”
“Unmei?” Aiko shook her head. No, “destiny” was what she felt around Reina those first few months they were together. If it weren’t for her, Aiko would have probably never realized her true desires. She would have gotten married – to a man – and lived her life wondering why she preferred to watch women during love scenes in movies. If destiny does exist, then that was my biggest brush with it. Nothing had changed her life like meeting Reina by chance. “I don’t know why you idolize me so, but I would not make a suitable girlfriend for a successful man such as yourself.” Best to let him down easy. “For one, I’m much too old.”
Takeshi curled his lips around his teeth. “Why in the world would that matter?” he asked a second later. “Your age does not determine my attraction to you. If anything, I love that you’re mature and candid. I don’t mind that you don’t have a job. I could take care of you easily.”
Take care of me? Like as a…husband? Red claimed her skin as she imagined it: living in this big house, cleaning it like she cleaned her current home and preparing dinner for it to be ready for Takeshi when he came home. It’s what I do now…but he has a… Good God, did he want to stick that in her? I’ve never seen a real one before. Only Reina’s fake ones.
“No, no, I’m too old. I’m forty.” She said the number again as if to pound it into his skull. “It’s much too difficult for me to have children now.”
“Children?” Takeshi cocked his head. “Well, if that’s what you want…”
“Don’t you want a wife who will give you children?”
“I suppose. But it’s not a requirement. I’m as happy spending my time with you.”
This wasn’t happening. The perfect man! Kind, intelligent, articulate and rich. And he didn’t care if she were older! He didn’t care if they couldn’t have children! But he would have them with me if I wanted. Aiko wanted children, but not like this. “Takeshi-san, I have valued my time with you so very much. It’s been a long time since I had a friend who opens up new worlds to me like you do.” She chose her next words carefully. “But I’m not sure I’m ready for that. There are reasons why I haven’t dated men in a long time. And I know time is running out for a life I may want to live. But I can’t make those kinds of decisions right now. This is too fast.” She stood up, hand dangling out of Takeshi’s reach. “I don’t want to lose you, Takeshi-san. You’re valuable to me too. I’m just not sure if it’s in that way.”
She almost didn’t look at him before she left – but she did, over her shoulder as she stepped into the genkan. He sat at the table, crestfallen. In his mind we’re a perfect match, and there’s nothing standing in our way. Except Reina. Except her marriage.
“Oyasumi.” Aiko picked up her shoes and fought the wine related lethargy to put them on. As she headed home, she regretted a final time not asking Reina to come home that night. While she was making love to Jun, Aiko had to crawl into their bed, alone, wondering why she hadn’t told Takeshi “no.”
&nbs
p; With a stiffness exuding from the depths of her muscles, bones, and sinew, Reina hobbled around the house late Sunday morning in want of anything else to do.
She had returned a couple of hours before, after a quick breakfast with Jun and a quicker escape. The way Jun looked at her as they broke their fast over miso and rice made Reina want to crawl beneath the bed and never come out again. That was something only for Ai-chan. While Jun had been exceptional during that last round of sex, it had been like ripping open Reina’s soul for her partner to see. From the feminine moans and undulations, Reina could tell that Jun had sensed it as well. All the more reason to get the hell out of there.
But when Reina returned home around nine she noticed Aiko was not up. She found her wife still in bed, covers completely turned while Aiko fell out halfway toward the floor. At first Reina panicked that something was wrong, until her wife grumbled something about being hot and having a long night. By all accounts, she seemed hung over.
So Reina kept to herself in the house, conflicted with her feelings form the night before while pining for consolation from her wife. Can’t she make it all better? The living area was empty without Aiko’s presence. Reina flipped through morning TV shows before giving up and lying her head down on the sitting table.
Her phone buzzed with a message from Jun. Are you okay? Did I do something wrong? Reina couldn’t respond right away. How could she say that no one had done anything wrong, but everything felt wrong? That would teach her to share something so intimate with someone not her wife. Reina got up again and went to see if Aiko was awake yet. Almost noon and she was still in bed – even on Sundays after a late night she usually got up by eleven to make lunch.
I’ll have to do it myself. Reina hadn’t cooked anything in years, but she wasn’t a fancy eater. There were vegetables in the fridge and a rice cooker on the counter. She got out one of Aiko’s older, taller aprons and went to work making a simple lunch in the kitchen. Soon she discovered that she knew less than she thought, when she stared at a bell pepper and had no idea how to cut it. I’m useless.
Koibumi Page 18