by Sabrina Kane
There was silence on the other end of the line. Rachel knew it was silly but she started to worry that she had scared Ainsley off somehow.
Eventually, Ainsley said, “That actually sounds like a great idea. If you have room, I mean…”
“I have a guest bedroom,” Rachel assured her. “My hotel even provides free wi-fi, free guest parking and a complimentary breakfast.”
“Hmm,” Ainsley began, “hotel breakfasts usually suck.”
“Oh, fuck you! I’ll have you know I am a great cook!”
“Which is what I’m sure a lot of those hotel chefs say,” Ainsley replied. “But you do have free guest parking, which is nice…”
“So, we have a deal?” Rachel asked, hoping beyond hope Ainsley said yes. For some reason, Ainsley staying in her house—even in the guest bedroom—was something Rachel wanted to experience.
“Of course we have a deal! Thanks for saving me from all that driving!”
Chapter 12
“Nope…Nope…Nope…Ooh! I like this one! I’ll try it on myself!...Nope…This one, yes…Aaand, this one!”
Krissy was finally done selecting clothes for Ainsley to try on at the upscale boutique they were at in one of the tony neighborhoods of San Diego. It was Saturday and Ainsley had wanted someone to come shopping with her because she wanted to find a new dress for Valentine’s Day, which was, thrillingly, now less than a week away.
Of course, she had a closetful of dresses—none of which Rachel had seen. Also, instead of buying new clothes—and who was she kidding? She wasn’t going to end up buying one dress; she’d end up with bags of new clothes by the time this shopping trip was over—she ought to be packing her old clothes and everything else up, preparing for her move to Carlsbad.
She had considered inviting Charlotte. After all, Charlotte lived in San Diego also, whereas Krissy lived up in Carlsbad. But lately, Ainsley had begun tiring of Charlotte and her downer attitude and Ainsley wanted today to be about having fun. And fun meant Krissy.
Krissy hadn’t minded making the drive and Ainsley even sweetened the offer by suggesting that Krissy just stay the night with her at the condo. Provided Ainsley wasn’t called in to the hospital for any reason, the two of them could look forward to a night of wine, Netflix, take-out Korean and, for dessert, cheesecake.
“We’ll try these on,” Krissy informed the saleswoman, holding up the three dresses she had selected, along with two additional tops she had selected earlier.
“Dressing rooms are right this way,” the saleswoman said, a pretty young girl who Ainsley guessed might be a college student.
After escorting them to the back where the changing rooms were, the saleswoman gestured toward one room to her left and another to her right. But when Ainsley stepped into the first-indicated room, Krissy followed her right into it also.
“We’ll just share this one!” Krissy informed the young woman, shutting the door.
Ainsley laughed.
The room was spacious enough for two, with plenty of mirrors for them both to share. Krissy immediately started lifting her casual swing dress over her head. Meanwhile, Ainsley started removing her fitted tee and then unfastened her denim shorts.
“I like the idea of this friend-date with Rachel,” Krissy said as she started removing the dress she had selected for herself to try on from the hanger. “After we’re done here, our next stop is lingerie shopping.”
Ainsley rolled her eyes.
“Krissy, I have plenty of lingerie at home. Besides, a woman makes an effort with lingerie when she’s more than ninety-percent certain her date is going to see it.”
“Uh-uh!” Krissy exclaimed, turning to face her and using her hands to indicate her body. “Are we on a date? And yet look at what I’m rocking!”
Ainsley swallowed.
She had to admit that her friend’s lingerie game was on point today. Krissy’s breasts were encased in a soft pink mesh bralette through which her dark nipples were clearly visible. And the mesh thong panties she was wearing matched perfectly. On Krissy, the combination was mouth-wateringly alluring. It certainly wasn’t a woman’s everyday-type underwear. By comparison, Ainsley had on her all-purpose white Maidenform bra that had the sex appeal of a pair of mittens, and black comfort panties which would hardly make even the gayest of gay women crazy with desire.
Krissy started pulling on the dress she wanted to try on.
“There is nothing wrong with a woman wearing sexy lingerie just for herself, Ains,” she said. “It makes you feel pretty and confident, even if no one else sees it.” She looked at Ainsley. “Don’t you want to feel pretty and confident during this…friend-date with Rachel?”
Ainsley cocked an eyebrow at Krissy.
“Why do you say it like that?” she asked, smirking.
Krissy giggled.
“Because Rachel totally wants you! I mean, I totally want Rachel, but first she has to get over you.”
Ainsley sighed. Part of her was super excited that Krissy also apparently noticed Rachel’s attraction to her, which meant that Ainsley hadn’t been picking up the wrong signals from her new friend. Another part of her only felt more frustrated at this realization. Ultimately, what could it lead to?
“She’s straight,” Ainsley said, pulling on one of the dresses Krissy had selected for her.
“Straight and curious,” Krissy stated. “Trust me, she’d be gay for you.”
Laughing, Ainsley said, “And what should I do with that piece of information? This dress is fabulous, by the way.” Ainsley was looking at herself in the changing room’s mirror.
“I’m good at this,” Krissy stated. “Let’s go out to the bigger mirrors,” she added, opening the changing room door and stepping out into the vestibule just beyond it, which had several full-length mirrors angled in various ways so as to provide customers with the ability to see their potential outfits more completely. Ainsley followed her and began examining herself in the dress more fully.
“Anyway,” Krissy began, also turning this way and that, “to answer your question: just go with it. If Rachel wants to be curious, let her be curious.”
“I like her as a friend, though,” Ainsley said. “I kind of don’t want to fuck that up.”
“Which is super sweet,” Krissy said. “But I think guys are more likely to be dumb like that, you know? Like, if a supposedly straight guy tried to do something gay with a gay friend of his and it didn’t work out, they’d never speak to each other again. But we’re women; we’re soooooo much more reasonable than guys.”
“When we’re not on our periods anyway,” Ainsley added.
“Well, duh! Sure! But other than that? Waaaay superior to men. You look super-hot in that dress.”
“Thanks. So do you.”
They went back into the changing room together and began disrobing again.
“So, you want to know my opinion?” Krissy asked when she was once more standing in just her underwear, starting to pull her brown hair into a ponytail. Ainsley couldn’t help it. Seeing Krissy like this made her heartrate increase and her center take notice.
Why had they never gotten together, Ainsley wondered? Why shouldn’t they get together now? It would be a whole lot easier with out and proud Krissy than with probably-only-curious Rachel.
It was tempting. Even though she and Krissy had never been anything more than friends, there was always this unspoken attraction between them which, because of either bad timing or circumstance, had never been acted upon. It really was tempting. And Krissy was the type of adventurous gal to make out with Ainsley right here in the dressing room of this shop—and probably do more.
The problem was, Krissy was a bit of a player. Ainsley couldn’t imagine whatever they got up to in this dressing room or in a bedroom turning into anything committed and serious, which is ultimately what Ainsley would want.
“What’s your opinion?” Ainsley said, starting to pull on the next dress as a way to avert her eyes from her yummy friend in see-thro
ugh lingerie.
“Well,” Krissy began, “I’m not entirely sure you can even have a normal friendship with Rachel unless you get this sexual tension addressed.”
Ainsley thought about that. It made sense. From the very moment they first met, she and Rachel had had this sexual energy flowing between them whenever they were together. And though it hadn’t impeded Ainsley from recognizing that there were other wonderful attributes about Rachel which made her want to become close friends with the realtor, that sexual energy was nonetheless distracting.
And how long was it going to last? A few more days? A few more months? Every single time they got together in the future was Ainsley going to have to keep pretending her center wasn’t soaked?
“So, how do you suggest me and Rachel address this sexual tension between us?” Ainsley asked Krissy as, once more, they left the changing room to admire themselves in the other mirrors.
Krissy shrugged.
“Either you tell her you’re not interested in being an experiment—which we both know would be a lie because you’d totally be interested in being Rachel’s experiment. I mean, I would totally be interested in being Rachel’s experiment! Like, she could bring a lab coat and test tubes over to my place any fucking day.”
Ainsley started laughing so hard she almost snorted.
“Or…” Krissy went on, “you guys just have sex and see what happens. You don’t have to marry her and if she gets all weirded out and it becomes all awkward between you two, well, fuck, Ains, you already have a lot of friends.”
Ainsley nodded, resolving to think more about it throughout the day.
“But I hope you remain friends with her,” Krissy said. “Because she is really, really good at volleyball!”
***
The next day, at the volleyball club, Ainsley held the ball and surveyed the opposing team, which this time included Rachel and Krissy. It was her serve again. She had already scored three straight aces, which was a good thing because those points had brought her team back from the brink of losing to within one point of the other team. Another ace and the set would be tied. Lose this point and they’d lose the set.
There was no way she was going to serve to Rachel’s zone, not with the game on the line. But Andrea seemed tired. Ainsley had noticed Andrea wiping her brow twice in less than thirty seconds and she just seemed listless. Okay. That was her target.
She spun the ball a couple of times in her hands and then tossed it up. Timing her jump perfectly, she delivered another cannon shot, this time straight at Andrea. But remarkably, Andrea dug it out, preventing the ace. However, though Andrea had managed to keep the ball alive, she shanked the pass. The ball bounced off her hands high and heading backwards. All it needed to do was fall out of bounds and the game would be tied.
But then…
Ainsley, who was watching the flight of the ball while getting into her defensive position, caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eyes. As a quick as a rabbit, Rachel was chasing after the ball, keeping her head turned up and her eyes on it as it started arcing downwards and then, at the last possible moment, Rachel slid with her feet forward, stuck out her right foot and kicked the ball back toward her teammates a half second before it fell out of bounds!
“What the fuck!” Charlotte, on Ainsley’s team exclaimed.
Even Ainsley was stunned.
Rachel’s foot save pass was intercepted by Lucinda who then whacked the ball over the net. It wasn’t even a particularly hard shot. It should have been easily handled by anyone on Ainsley’s team. But after witnessing Rachel’s miraculous play just moments ago, her teammates—and herself—had been ill-prepared. The shock of what they had just seen had forced all of them to drop their defensive stances, lose their concentration and basically just be spectators to Lucinda’s shot. Only Wendy made a feeble attempt at getting to the ball but it fell to the sand.
The set was over.
“New girl rocks!” Krissy exclaimed, both fists in the air. All of Rachel’s teammates crowded around her to congratulate her on the play. Even Ainsley’s team crossed over to that side of the net to give Rachel kudos.
“That was fucking amazing!” Charlotte declared and Ainsley had to laugh because Charlotte, uncharacteristically, was acting like a starstruck teenager, even though she had been on the losing side.
“Thanks,” Rachel said, blushing from all the attention, which only made her hotter in Ainsley’s eyes. “It might have been a low-percentage maneuver but I had to try something.”
“I saw a player for Brazil do that once in an indoor match,” Becca said.
“I saw one from Peru do it too,” Lucinda added.
“Yeah, but no one from fucking Solana Beach!” Ainsley said, making them all laugh.
In the locker room, as they prepared for their showers, Rachel said to Ainsley, “That may have been a sweet move I made but it’s going to take me a week to get all of the sand out of my cootch.”
Ainsley laughed.
“Ah, the perils of being an superstar athlete!”
“Bar again afterwards?” Rachel asked, gathering up her shower supplies.
Or my place?
Ainsley had to admit that she was extremely turned on. Rachel just being Rachel was hot. Rachel being superhero volleyball player, however, was inferno hot and if Ainsley was able to, she’d lie Rachel down on one of the benches that were in front of the lockers and clean all that sand out of her cootch…with her tongue.
***
“No way!” Ainsley exclaimed thirty minutes later in the same bar she had taken Rachel to last week.
“Yes way!” Rachel insisted. “How can you not think that?”
Ainsley rolled her eyes and then took a sip of her margarita. This time, she had chosen a strawberry-basil one while Rachel had the coconut-flavored one. Both of the flavors were so good that the two women were practically sharing their drinks, with one taking sips from the other’s whenever.
“You’re wrong,” Ainsley stated.
“I am so right!” Rachel insisted. “Ask anybody!”
Ainsley shook her head.
“Nope, because I don’t want people thinking I’m the type of person who goes about asking stupid questions.”
Rachel did that thing Ainsley loved. That thing where she sat back in her seat, crossed her arms and cocked her eyebrow at Ainsley.
Ainsley wanted to pant like a dog.
“You’re just afraid,” Rachel began, “of finding out that I’m right.”
Ainsley scoffed.
“That is so not the reason!” she declared. “God, I can’t believe that in a few days I’m about to spend my Valentine’s Day with a woman who thinks Squidward is funnier than Spongebob!”
“Because he is!” Rachel exclaimed, laughing.
“Squidward is mean!”
“That’s what makes him hilarious!”
Again Ainsley rolled her eyes.
“You just think that because you’re from the east coast. East coast people are cynical and sarcastic and so Squidward-y!”
“And you’re in love with Spongebob because you’re from SoCal where the sun shines six-hundred days a year! So of course you like his bubbly personality and the way he sings tra-la-la every time he walks down the street.”
Their server returned to check on them.
“Two more of the same,” Rachel told him. “Also, who is funnier: Squidward or Spongebob?”
“Squidward,” the guy said without a moment’s pause.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Ainsley cut in. “Where are you from?”
“Jersey,” he answered and then left to get their new drinks.
With a self-satisfied grin on her face, Ainsley looked at Rachel.
“Told you!” she said.
“All that proves is Jersey people also have good taste in cartoon characters,” Rachel retorted.
Their server from New Jersey returned very quickly but without their drinks.
“So, those guys over th
ere,” he said, pointing to a table at the far end of the outdoor patio where two guys in swim shorts and tank tops were sitting, “want to know if they can buy this round of drinks for you two.”
Ainsley looked at Rachel with an amused look. She also wanted to gauge whether or not Rachel was maybe attracted to at least one of the guys. Who was she to stand in the way of a possible romance, after all?
But Rachel gave Ainsley a micro-shake of her head, the kind that was so miniscule that only another woman would have picked it up. Ainsley turned back to their server.
“Would you tell them thanks but that we already have boyfriends, please?”
Jersey shrugged and went off to deliver the message.
Laughing, Rachel asked, “Boyfriends? Is that what you tell gay women you’re not interested in when they hit on you? That you have a boyfriend?”
“No. I only use ‘boyfriend’ when it’s a guy hitting on me because if you say you’re a lesbian, most men will then persist with something like…” And Ainsley deepened her voice. “‘Well, how do you know you won’t like being with a man until you’ve tried one?’”
Rachel burst out laughing.
“No!”
“It’s true!” Ainsley confirmed. “No, when a woman I’m not interested in hits on me, I just state that I’m already seeing someone.”
“Wait…not that you’re seeing a woman?”
Ainsley shook her head.
“No, no, no…see, I keep it purposely vague because of the BALs”
“What are the BALs?” Rachel asked, her eyes wide with wonder.
“Brazenly Aggressive Lesbians,” Ainsley explained. “It’s my own term, I made it up. See, there are some lesbians who, if you tell them you have a girlfriend, they just crank it up even more.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. BALs will be, like…” And Ainsley changed to a different voice. “‘But baby girl, I can do things for you your woman can’t!’”
Rachel laughed.
“Oh my fucking god!”
Ainsley was also laughing.
“Trust me, you have no idea! Lesbians can be just as bad as men! Hey, you cut your nails!”
Ainsley had just noticed how short Rachel’s nails were.