Northern Proposals

by Julia P. Lynde

"Oh. All right, thanks."

  "Wait. It was too low. There was a counter-offer, but it's still more than the buyers can pay. They are trying to find more money for a down payment, but right now, the cabin is still available. However, if you want it, I recommend you move quickly."

  "I don't know," I told her. "But I wanted to know the status. Thank you."

  I went into my boss and asked for Thursday and Friday off. She granted it.

  That afternoon, I waited until late afternoon, then I went to find Jessica. She was in her cube with her boss. They both looked up when I stepped in.

  "I'm sorry," I said. "I'll come back. Jessica we need to talk."

  "We're done," said her boss. "She's all yours."

  I stepped outside the cube while Jessica's boss finished with her, then stepped back in. Jessica looked at me sadly.

  "Conference room," I said. "You owe me this talk."

  She nodded and followed me. The small conference room was busy, but the big one was empty. As soon as we were inside, I closed the door.

  "Jade," she said, as soon as the door closed. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

  "You did, and I want to know why."

  "My kink-" she said. "I'm sorry."

  "Your kink is to find a straight girl, feed her a bunch of lies about how she is your dream girl, make her fall in love with you, then in the morning, throw her away?"

  She stared at me. "You're the one who freaked. I told you the punishment was too much, but you just had to push my buttons until I couldn't help myself. You knew I couldn't resist."

  "I liked the punishment!" I told her firmly. "I freaked when you wouldn't touch me the next morning. I freaked when I got that shitty kiss. I freaked when it was clear you were dumping me."

  She stared. "You-" she pause, taking a large breath of air. "You left."

  "I had to go to the bathroom. Then I was wide awake and wanted to let you sleep."

  "You took the scarves off and left them where I'd find them. That was pretty clear."

  "Yeah. I left them where you would find them so you would know where they were when you used them to tie me up again." I glared at her.

  A look of horror crawled over her face. "This is all my fault."

  "We're agreed on that," I said curtly.

  "You-"

  "Wanted you." I looked deep into her eyes. "Still want you. The question is, were you lying about how you felt about me? Or are you going to grovel and beg my forgiveness?"

  She didn't respond.

  I sighed. "Fine. Whatever."

  I was halfway to the door before she stepped forward and grabbed my arm. "I don't know how to grovel, Jade."

  I turned and looked at her.

  "This is my fault," she said. "I was so sure you were going to freak. I was positive of it. When you weren't there, I was sure you had run as far from me as you could. I saw the silk and assumed it was a message."

  "You should have asked. You owed me that."

  "I know."

  I turned away. "Are you seeing anyone else?"

  "No."

  "Are you going to apologize and that's it? We agree to be civil to each other at work? Or are you going to grovel and beg for another chance?"

  "Grovel and beg for another chance."

  My heart leapt with joy, but I wasn't going to forgive her without a proper grovel. I turned back to her, staring at her again, waiting for her to grovel.

  She stared at me for a moment, then lowered herself to her knees, then all the way down to my feet and began kissing my feet, the little bit she could reach through my shoes. "I am sorry, Jade." Kiss. "Please forgive me." Kiss. "Please can we try again?" Kiss.

  Staring down at her, I almost started to laugh. Well, at least I knew what she was going to expect from me at some point in the future.

  "Stay there, but stop kissing," I told her firmly. "There are rules. You will agree to them."

  "Yes, Jade."

  "One. You will never again assume you know what I am thinking based on some action that is easily misinterpreted."

  She looked up at me and smiled. "Agreed."

  "Two. You will go slow with me."

  "Agreed."

  "Three. You will see to it I get at least an even dozen orgasms by Sunday evening."

  Her smile grew. "Agreed."

  "Four. You will never again forbid me from giving you one."

  "Agreed."

  "Five. You will love me. That is also rules six through ten."

  "Agreed."

  "Eleven. You will call your brother and ask if he supports us buying the cabin. Get up."

  She stood slowly, looking at me. "It sold," she said. "Karen called me last week and asked if we would be putting in a competing offer. I told her no."

  "Kiss me."

  And she did. We were both breathless by the time she was done.

  "Call your brother. I have talked to Karen more recently than you have. The offer was too low. If we move quickly, we can get our own offer in. I have the next two days off. You are going to ask for them off. You are going to call your brother. If he supports us, I want to drive up there tonight and have an offer in as soon as we can get Karen to write it."

  She stared at me. "My phone is at my desk."

  * * *

  I listened to the conversation.

  "Hi, Jon. It's Jessica." Pause. "Actually, I'm suddenly doing really well. There's someone I want you to meet." Pause. "No, I think this one is permanent."

  I smiled at that.

  "Jon, you know that cabin I keep lusting after. What if I bought it?" Pause. "I know, I was waiting, but if it's okay with you, I'm going to write an offer in the morning. Jade and I are writing it together." Pause. Her smile grew bigger.

  "Ask Marcy too," I ordered.

  "Jon, what is Marcy going to say?" Pause. Pause. She turned to me. "Marcy refuses to comment until she has met you."

  I held out the phone. "Give."

  She handed me the phone.

  "This is Jade."

  "Hello, Jade," said a male voice. It was a friendly voice. "This is Jon."

  "Jon is your wife there?"

  "Yes."

  "Please, may I talk to her?"

  Jessica immediately tried taking the phone from me. I backed away from her.

  "Um," said Jon. "Sure."

  I danced away from Jessica and told her to knock it off.

  "Hello?" This time it was a woman's voice.

  "Hello, Marcy. My name is Jade. I want to thank you so much for the use of your cabin a week ago. It is a lovely place, and I truly enjoyed myself."

  "You're welcome. It's been in the family a long time. I spent most of my summers up there. Jessica is the only person I ever let borrow it, and it's really hard for me. I'm glad you had a nice time."

  "Jessica and I are driving back up either tonight or in the morning," I said. "And we're placing an offer on another cabin."

  "The old Benson place. That's such a sad story." She sounded wistful before her tone became more businesslike. "I won't give my blessing until I've met you. I know I can't stop you."

  "I'd rather have your blessing, Marcy. I don't want this to be a point of contention between you and Jon, and frankly, I don't want that cabin if we can't get Jon's help from time to time."

  I heard background noise over the phone as Marcy considered what I'd said. "Come to dinner tonight."

  "We'll be there," I told her. "Two hours from now? Should we bring something?"

  "Thank you for offering," she said. "It'll be something simple. Just bring yourselves, dress is casual."

  "Thank you, Marcy. I am looking forward to meeting you."

  I found the hang up button, then gave Jessica her phone back.

  "Are you insane?"

  "Take me home and take me," I ordered her. "We have just enough time to make it to dinner."

  * * *

  I never ran so fast to a car.

  * * *

  She took me. Twice.

  The In-laws


  Jessica and I hadn't stopped touching each other. We rang the doorbell at Jon and Marcy's house. The door was answered by a little girl of about seven years old.

  "Auntie Jessie! Auntie Jessie!"

  The door flew open, and suddenly Jessica had her arms full of giggling girl. Seconds later, another girl of about five joined the first one, almost knocking all of them off the steps. I had to offer a steadying hand.

  A woman in her low thirties came to the door.

  "All right, Dawn, Laura, let your aunt and her friend in the door."

  Jessica set them both down. They each took a hand and pulled her into the house after them. I followed them into the house.

  Marcy and I faced each other. "Hello, Jade," she said offering a hand. We sized each other as we shook tentatively. "I'm Marcy."

  "Hello, Marcy."

  Marcy was of average height with short, professional-hair, perfectly cut. She was wearing light makeup, a blouse and skirt. Her appearance and posture were both quite precise.

  I looked around briefly. We were in a foyer. To one side was a formal dining room. To the other side was a living room. Nothing was out of place.

  "Jon is in back grilling," she said. "We'll eat out there, if that's all right."

  Jessica nodded and let the girls pull her through the house. We stepped through a great room, which was also perfect, then out the back door to the deck. Marcy and I followed.

  Minding the grill was a tall, slender man. He and Jessica hugged fiercely. The love in his eyes was clear. Then he turned to me and held out his hand.

  "Jade," Jessica said. "This is my big brother, Jon."

  Jon knew just the right way to shake hands with a woman. Some men are afraid of shaking with us, and I admit a lot of women don't know how to shake hands, so men have been taught to be afraid. But he was just right about it.

  I met the girls, too. The older one was Dawn, the younger one Laura. They were both very cute. I smiled at them, but I didn't really know what to do with them. That didn't matter. They only had eyes for their aunt, and Jessica was brilliant with them. She stepped into the yard and began playing with them.

  I watched Marcy. She was watching the interplay with concern.

  "She won't turn them gay, Marcy."

  She turned to me with a harsh look. "Don't be ridiculous. I know that. But if one of them is gay, that will be okay."

  I didn't say anything. I shouldn't have said what I had. We were there to make peace.

  We turned back and watched Jessica play with the girls. Jon turned to me. "How did you two meet?"

  "We are co-workers. We were working on a project together." I told them a very abbreviated version of the story, the clean parts version.

  "So you came together at my cabin," Marcy said.

  "Yes."

  She smiled. "Yours wouldn't be the first relationship to begin there. That's how Jon and I began dating. I had invited a number of friends up for a mixed gender slumber party. We made the boys sleep in tents and the girls slept in the cabin. I hadn't paid much attention to Jon before that, but by the end of the weekend, I knew I'd make him marry me."

  I turned to Jon. "She's not kidding," he said. "I didn't even see it coming. She invited me out the next weekend."

  "If you haven't guessed, Jade, I am a control freak. Jon lets me control whatever I want and says, 'yeah, whatever' and just doesn't care. He's like a big dog around some yappy little puppy. I love him for it. No one else would put up with me."

  I stared at her. I hadn't ever heard someone offer a self-assessment like that before.

  "Oh please," she said. "You just walked through my house, and you've been to my cabin. You already knew I was a control freak."

  I smiled, but didn't say anything.

  "You don't know how hard it is to let anyone use the cabin," she said. "People. In my stuff. Moving my stuff. Leaving dirt behind. Breaking something. Touching my private things. Jessica is the only one I can stand to loan the cabin to, and even then it's hard for me. I have to keep reminding myself she is very careful with everything. The two of you did a nice job erasing any evidence you had been there. Thank you."

  "Thank you so much," I told her. "I have never been somewhere more lovely."

  We turned to watch the kids and Jessica for a while. They were playing tag. Jessica was it, and the girls were running around her, screeching.

  "Which of you wore my bathrobe?" Marcy asked quietly.

  I looked over at her. "How could you tell?"

  "It was washed. That meant one of you must have worn it."

  "Jessica."

  She nodded.

  "Are you angry?" I asked her.

  "No. I told you, it is hard, but Jessica is very respectful."

  "When we went up, we didn't have that kind of relationship, and Jessica had packed for a trip under the assumption she was bringing a girlfriend. She was trying to be kind to me by covering up more than a teddy and underwear."

  "Like I said. She's very thoughtful," Marcy said.

  Jon was quiet through all this. I didn't think he was the strong, silent type, so I wondered what the dynamic was.

  I started to wonder if Jessica and Marcy needed to have a proper conversation. And I started to wonder if Jessica made a habit of misunderstanding silent communication.

  "Do you know a couple of guys named Matt and Mike?"

  "Oh lord," she said. "Did they bother you?"

  "A little. Mike seemed okay. Jessica dealt with them."

  She looked at me. "Did she say you two were a couple?"

  "No, we told them Jessica had a freshly-broken heart and we were up there to get away from guys for a weekend."

  "Good. The townspeople are pretty nice, but some of them are total rednecks. If they found out you were a lesbian couple, I don't know how they would have treated you. Maybe forcing them to confront their own bigotry is the better choice, but I wouldn't have wanted guests at my cabin to come away with a bad experience."

  I was going to have a long talk to Jessica about assuming what other people are thinking.

  "What do you do for a living, Jade?" she asked me.

  "I'm a technical writer. Right now that means I write a lot of business proposals."

  "Does that pay well?"

  "Everything is relative," I said. "Jessica and are about ten percent apart."

  Marcy nodded in understanding.

  "Food is almost ready," Jon said.

  "Jade, will you help set the table?" Marcy asked.

  "Of course."

  She led me back into the house. Sitting on the counter were plates, cups and silverware. "Those need to go outside. The girls will want to sit on either side of Jessica. I'm sorry."

  I smiled. "It's all right."

  "They're going to fight who you sit next to."

  In the end, Dawn won that fight. Dinner was grilled chicken and vegetables with rice that Marcy made on the stove. Everything was lovely.

  Throughout the meal, Dawn tried to draw me into conversations, but it was always about some topic I knew nothing about. Eventually Marcy said, "You're not used to little children."

  "I'm sorry," I said. "Not this age. I'm a big sister though. Allison, my little sister, is fourteen. I've been her sister since she was eleven."

  "You have a little sister?" Jessica asked.

  "It's the big brothers, big sisters program," I explained. "Basically I'm a mentor or role model."

  "That's an excellent program," Marcy said. "It's very good of you to volunteer."

  I nodded. "I'm better with young teenagers, I guess." I turned to Dawn. "But I hope to get to know you and your sister very well."

  "You're pretty," Dawn said. "Are you Auntie Jessie's girlfriend?"

  I looked at Marcy, unsure how she would want me to answer.

  "Yes, honey, she is," Marcy said.

  "Do you bake cookies?" Dawn asked. "Auntie Jessie's last girlfriend wouldn't bake us cookies. She said they would make us fat."

  "Oh, I make
totally excellent snicker doodles," I told her. "And my chocolate chip cookies are pretty good." I looked her straight in the eye. "But I only make them when your mother says it's all right."

  The rest of the meal went without any terrible incidents. Finally Marcy told the girls, "You may go watch one short movie."

  "We want to play with Auntie Jessie," Dawn said.

  "Yeah!" said Laura.

  "Auntie Jessie and her friend Jade need to talk to Mommy and Daddy," Marcy said. "If you are good girls and let us talk, maybe they'll join us this weekend at the lake. Would you like that?"

  "Yes!"

  "Go watch your movie now. Auntie Jessie will say goodbye before she leaves."

  The girls scampered off. Marcy waited until they were inside before she turned to us. "Well, now we can have the serious conversation. You want to buy the Benson place. You will want Jon's help from time to time. I suspect more than time to time. You may want to borrow a boat from time to time as well. And if you want to write an offer tomorrow, perhaps you could use a place to stay, as driving up and back in one day is a long ride."

  "Yes," said Jessica. "Marcy, I know you don't approve. We can find somewhere else if having me that close is going to upset you."

  "If you are further away, it is more work for Jon to help," she said. Marcy turned to me. "You are being foolish."

  "Excuse me?"

  "My sister in law has a horrible track record with her girlfriends. They don't last. Now, I will be the first one to express glee in that, and I have good reasons for it. You have been together less than two weeks, and you are committing to an expensive purchase. Have you decided what will happen if you are not dating the day after you close?"

  "We'll share it, fifty-fifty," I said. "Or one of us can buy the other out. We've talked about it."

  "I suspect neither of you has the cash to do this alone."

  "No," said Jessica. "But I could make payments against her down payment. We would share until I'd paid her back."

  "So you've talked about this? You recognize the risk?"

  "Yes," I said. "We recognize the risk."

  "And you can both afford this?"

  "Yes. It will drain most of my non-retirement savings, but not dangerously low," I said.

  "I almost have enough to buy it alone," Jessica said. "But then I wouldn't have any funds to buy a boat or anything else."