by Sorcha Black
Elodie only smiled, her eyes crinkling in the corners. “Yes, lucky. Most are happy to have two parents, if they do. You won’t shock me with tales of your poly friends, ma souris. Families come in all sorts of configurations. I just hadn’t heard they were poly.”
A sales associate came and tried to help them choose a duster, but Elodie sent him away with a grateful smile, saying they could manage on their own.
“So your background is in some sort of teaching?”
“Yes, I’m an early childhood educator, but no one is hiring. People are having fewer kids nowadays, so most daycares are cutting staff. Even when positions become available I don’t get them, though. I usually get questioned about whether I think I can handle a roomful of rowdy children, as though they don’t think I can.” She shrugged. Even if she did get a job in her field, it wouldn’t pay very well. For the past few months she’d considered going back to college, but she wasn’t sure what she was interested in yet. Then there was the need to try to arrange for a loan without much collateral. “I come from a big family so managing children is easy for me. It’s adults that make me nervous.”
“Nothing in your field? That’s terrible! So you have to work all these random jobs just to make ends meet?” Elodie shook her head. “I’ve been lucky so far. My toys have basically been selling themselves, but if I didn’t sell anything for a while I’d go hungry. I’m sure Lock would help me out, but we’ve only been together a few months, so it would be weird.”
“I know what you mean. The band wanted to keep me on, but they don’t really need me when they’re not touring and I don’t want to be their dependent until they go on tour again. I babysit and work at Cross’s shop, and I also...” She was going to mention modeling for romance novel covers, but it seemed ridiculous to tell Elodie that. In real life she was drab, but Q was good at getting her to look just right for the types of books that needed someone young, thin, and impressionable looking on the cover.
A woman glared at them as they walked past her and her husband in the aisle. “Do you know her?” Tess whispered.
“Who? Oh, the woman? No. Women just hate me. I think they can just tell I’m an odd duck.”
“She’s probably worried you’ll steal her husband.”
Elodie snorted and they both laughed.
“You’re very pretty when you smile, Tess. It makes your whole face light up. You have good features, you know. There’s no need to dress like a nanny.”
Tess smiled and looked down. “I’m not pretty like you, but I wouldn’t know what to do with all of the attention, anyway.”
“I assume you’re not married – at least you haven’t mentioned a spouse. Are you dating anyone?”
“No. I wish I was, but the guy I like doesn’t really think of me that way.” She thought of Tristan, so kind to her, but so out of her league. If she had to guess, he probably thought of her with the common decency some men would show a stray animal. Maybe he had a vague inclination to want to make sure she was okay when they were occupying the same space, but it didn’t mean he spared her a thought when he walked out of Q’s studio.
“Well, then he’s an idiot.” Elodie flicked her hand dismissively. “You have a kind nature, Tess. You’re smart and even tempered, hard working. If men can’t see past that disguise you wear, it’s their loss.”
Elodie’s words hit home and Tess bit her lip and tried not to cry. She’d often thought how nice it would be to go through life with a partner, but she didn’t have the first clue how to find one.
They went through the checkout and a man magically appeared to carry their bags out to Elodie’s flashy, lime green sports car. Tess was willing to bet she never had to carry her own bags when there were men around. How different life would be if she’d been born Elodie instead of plain old Tess.
They buckled up and Elodie drove out to the road. There was a quick stop at the hipster sandwich shop down the street, where Elodie ordered lunch for the two of them to eat when they got back to her place.
“Can I tell you a secret?” Tess blurted when they got back in the car. Shit. She searched her brain for something that could plausibly be a secret that was less personal than what she’d almost said.
“Of course.” That interest was there again, keener than the simple kind politeness of an employer. Maybe Elodie would be a friend, like Q, Cross, Winter and Saya. Her bosses tended to like her.
What the hell. Friendships were built on oversharing, right? And hadn’t Elodie told her that she and Lock were into kink? That meant it was her turn to give up one of her secrets. “I...uh...don’t have a lot of experience.”
“Cleaning? But you’ve only come a few times and the house is already so much cleaner!”
“No, no. I know how to clean.” Tess winced, but plunged on. “Before, when you were saying that I wear a plain disguise? It’s not really a disguise. I’m pretty boring.”
“If you don’t realize that it’s a disguise, then you’re hiding from yourself too.” Elodie’s mouth twisted sympathetically. “I used to dress ugly and get ugly haircuts so that I would draw less attention, but then I realized that punishing myself for looking like this makes no sense. It’s not my fault my hair is crazy and men stare at my tits. I think you’re hiding, like I used to.”
“I’m not beautiful, like you, Elodie.”
“Bullshit. Every person is beautiful if you know how to see it. And you, Souris, are only lacking confidence.”
She sounded so sure of herself, but Tess didn’t share her delusions.
“You’re nice. If I really was worth looking at I wouldn’t be –”
“What? Alone?” Elodie pulled into the driveway and put the car in park as she arched a perfect red brow at her.
“A virgin.” Instead of hiding her face in shame like she did when she’d told Q, months ago, she owned it. Her friend had lectured her often enough on not being ashamed of it.
Elodie’s second brow rose to join the first, her surprise evident but not judgmental.
“For religious reasons, or...”
Tess laughed. “No. I was just a really awkward kid. My parents were very vocal about wanting me to save it for marriage, but I don’t know if they realized no one wanted me anyway. Then by the time I was through that terrible gawky stage, I was too old to have no experience at all. It was too embarrassing. I always half hoped some guy would take the lead, you know? But the guys who I’m friends with just want to be friends. I get an automatic friendzone.” She took a deep breath then prattled on, feeling like she was at confession or something. “A few months ago I managed to get myself alone with one of the new roadies when he’d been drinking. He wasn’t totally interested, but he was bored and willing. We got interrupted, and he found out I was a virgin. Apparently men are allergic – who knew?
“How far did you get?”
“He kissed me and undid my bra, but that was about it. So I think that’s first base, right?” Tess gave a self-derisive laugh.
“I can tell you right now, in the kink community if people found out you were a virgin, you’d have an unruly line up of men and women waiting to defile you.”
“Women?” She hadn’t really considered that. Although she knew a lot of bi women, it hadn’t really seemed like an option to her. No one liked her at all, so men was the default.
“Do you like girls, Tess?”
“Umm. I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”
Elodie chuckled to herself. “Merde, you could auction yourself off to the highest bidder. You could be a rich woman.”
“I don’t want to auction off my virginity. I just want to throw it at someone and get it over with.”
“You don’t want it to be special?”
Tess snorted. “I’m too far behind in life to get hung up on making things sentimental. If I could tolerate someone touching me without hitting the roof, it would be nice. I just need some experience and a makeover and I might be like a normal person.”
Elodie
shrugged. “Normal is overrated. I know what you mean, though.” She collected her handbag and their lunch. “Come eat with me. We’ll come back for this other shit later.”
When they were in the kitchen and settled at the clean table with their lunches in front of them on actual plates, Elodie picked up where they’d left off.
“The makeover is no problem. I can help with that.”
Great. Had she gone past friendly sharing straight to becoming a charity case? Sometimes she didn’t know when to shut up. “I don’t want to be any trouble. I’m just supposed to be cleaning your house.”
Elodie’s laugh burbled up and made Tess smile. “You’ll have to forgive me. I hardly have any friends here. I work from home all day, as you’ve seen, and don’t really talk to anyone other than Lock and the people we role-play with on the weekend. I might end up latching onto you so that I don’t go completely mad.”
Maybe she hadn’t screwed this up so badly after all. Tess nodded. The line between being the help and being a friend seemed to blur in most of her jobs, which made things easier. And she really liked Elodie.
“I have lots of cute dresses too, from when I was skinny. I was going to give them away, but if there’s anything you like, you’re welcome to them.”
Clothes that didn’t come from the thrift store? She didn’t have anywhere to wear nice things, but it would be cool to have some presentable outfits. “Really? I’d love that. I’m not in a position to get fancy haircuts or anything, though. And I need to keep it long for my other job.”
“Do you play Rapunzel at kid’s parties, or something?”
“Shut up!” She laughed, hiding her mouth with her hand.
Elodie grabbed her hand and pulled it away from her mouth. “Don’t hide your laughs, adorable girl. The world wants to see them.”
Watching Elodie’s narrowed, intense eyes, Tess’s smile faded. Elodie was still hanging onto her hand and there was an odd look on her face that Tess didn’t know how to interpret.
After a long moment, Elodie let Tess’s hand slip from hers and she went back to eating her fancy sandwich.
Tess ate too, ravenous as always, but wondering what all of the long looks from Elodie meant.
When they were done, Elodie cleared their plates then urged Tess back down when she would have gotten up to start cleaning.
“Let me see.” Her hands went to Tess’s hair, and when she didn’t object, Elodie plucked bobby pins out of her bun until her hair fell in long, heavy sheets around her shoulders. “It’s such a rich brown. Is it your natural color?”
Tess nodded and Elodie let skeins of her hair slide smoothly through her fingers. “So beautiful. I always wished I had straight hair, but straight just doesn’t suit me.” Her eyes glinted with amusement but Tess wasn’t sure what was funny. Maybe Elodie’s hair had looked bad when she’d straightened it? “If you trim it just a bit, and maybe gave yourself a long side fringe, it would look softer on you. Sultry. Guys dig that shit. Wait here.”
Elodie ran up the stairs and came back moments later with a makeup bag. “May I?” she asked, brandishing it.
“Sure.” It was pretty sad when Tess’s first experience with normal makeup rather than photoshoot makeup was at twenty-two instead of at a sleepover with a bunch of other pre-teens. Tess had never experimented with the stuff, and only wore it when Q put it on her. She always washed it off immediately afterward.
Her boss opened the bag and lined up a few things on the table. “Your skin is flawless, so I’m not going to bother with foundation or anything, not that I have any. If I covered my freckles, Lock would cry. With your pretty brown eyes you could work so many different colors of eye makeup. Let’s do a smoky eye.”
Tess had heard the term before, but it sounded silly. Didn’t getting smoke in your eyes hurt? Why name a makeup style after something unpleasant?
Elodie dragged a chair closer to Tess then seemed to realize she wasn’t close enough. After scooting the chair nearer, she nudged Tess’s knees apart so she’d have somewhere to put her own knees. She leaned in and Tess realized that getting her makeup done meant letting Elodie into her personal space. They were so close that she could smell the Coke that Elodie had with her lunch. Curls of Elodie’s long hair swung forward to trail over the bare part of Tess’s arm as she started to work with the brushes.
“Don’t move, or I’ll make a mess.” She ran her thumb under her eye to wipe away or smudge something, and the light touch made Tess flinch back. “Wow, you weren’t kidding about needing to get used to people touching you. It’s just your face, Souris, not your pretty tits.”
Did she just say I have pretty tits? Tess had always thought of herself as kind of flat-chested, unless she was wearing a corset for a photo shoot. But seriously, she’d never had many female friends that were her age. Did friends just say things like that?
Unbidden, a visual of Elodie running her thumbs over Tess’s nipples rose to mind. Tess felt her nipples harden in response and her cheeks burned, but she didn’t dare bolt while Elodie was trying to be nice to her. Did she want Elodie to do things like that to her?
The other girl was so close that if she leaned a little, their lips would touch. She had full, sensual lips that drew the eye. If Elodie kissed her, would it be like it had been with what’s-his-name? It was hard to picture Elodie being a sloppy kisser.
Crap! She was thinking about kissing a girl?
“Are you looking at my mouth?” Elodie murmured, her tone low and suggestive. “Do you want the same color of lipgloss?”
“Uh...sure?”
Elodie finished the eye shadow and put down the brush, but instead of grabbing the gloss from the table, she leaned forward. Her mouth hovered in front of Tess’s, and Tess forgot to breathe. Softly, Elodie brushed her lips against hers, back and forth for a moment before pressing once and pulling back. Every nerve in Tess’s body sparked and a breathless whimper escaped her. Her groin felt heavy and she rolled her hips forward to push her clit against the seam of her jeans.
“There. Just press your lips together. I had enough gloss on for both of us.” Elodie winked, her gaze as heated as Tess felt.
That was a kiss, right? Or was she misreading things. Maybe French girls were just less uptight than English girls and she was making a big deal about nothing? Even if it hadn’t been a big deal to Elodie, Tess’s whole body buzzed.
She did as she’d been told and pressed her lips together while Elodie quickly applied mascara. She dropped the mascara back onto the table and leaned back to survey her work.
Tess’s body was on alert, waiting for Elodie to do something else. Instead, Elodie rose and pulled Tess to her feet.
“Come on. You’re too tempting sitting here looking at me like that. We’ll get the bags out of the car, then I’m taking you to my hairdresser before we get ourselves into trouble.”
What did Elodie mean by her being too tempting?
Tess sighed, allowing herself to be led out to the car. She didn’t like girls. She’d never really thought about them in a sexual way, so that meant that she was straight, right?
After that kiss, though... If Elodie never kissed her again it would be a damned shame.
Chapter Five
For a man who sold toys, Richard Stanley was boring as hell. His brother, Irving, was no better, but his chronic forgetfulness was entertaining, at least. This meant that at the painfully wholesome company picnic there was nothing for Locksley to do but chat politely with the extended Stanley family, watch other people’s kids play the organized games, and make secret wagers with his coworkers about whether the company that was supposed to deliver the soda was late, or if Irving had forgotten to arrange it altogether.
Knowing Elodie, she’d have been bored within the first three minutes and would be in the lake, swimming in her sundress. A white sundress that clung to her as she came out of the water, and left little to the imagination. He shifted in his plastic chair, trying to pay attention to Richard’s dumbass son
as he prattled on about sales figures he knew nothing about. The idiot might be his boss one day, though so he had to be polite. It was a crime to be stuck doing work shit on a Sunday morning when he could be at home fucking his sweet girl.
He could have dragged her out to this – it would have made him look good to have his partner attend – but wasting her time wasn’t fair. She also had a really hard time being appropriate in social settings. Usually he found it charming, and sometimes hilarious, but when it came to his career, he didn’t want to fuck around. His bosses were old-fashioned men in their early seventies, who often lectured them on the importance of Caper Toys maintaining an unblemished reputation. Bringing his hot, sex-crazy submissive, who didn’t fit in with the women who attended these functions, wouldn’t advance his career any, even if it would have kept him from nodding off. She knew it too. He’d discussed the picnic with her and she’d insisted they were both better off if she stayed home.
They needed to talk when this Walton-esque morning was over, though. She’d been in a strange mood for the past two days, and he was getting the impression she was holding back something important.
“Locksley, are you having a good time?” Richard had snuck up on them, clapping his son on the back. “I hope RJ hasn’t been talking your ear off too much. This is supposed to be a day for relaxing and breaking bread together, not talking shop.”
“Not at all, Richard.” Your son is a boring, uninspired idiot and the company is going to tank when he takes over. “Margaret’s cello performance was flawless.”
“Not too bad for a sixty-eight year old, am I right? Spryest lady in her yoga class too. Good thing we met in high school or I’d never have had a chance.” He smiled and shook his head at his good fortune. “No date again for you? Shame. You’re not going to be young forever, my boy. If you don’t find a good woman soon you’ll be marrying another man’s leftovers, you mark my words.”