Yeah, right. I was a total loser, and Chen had probably been a camp counsellor as a teenager. I was the weak link on the team, but neither she nor anyone else held it against me.
I wouldn’t have been so lucky if I had been on Cavaco’s team. Cavaco was a handsome blonde with some anger management issues. She constantly challenged the refs and socially excluded the women on her team who weren’t jocks. She liked to win, and her team often did. She usually played center. She ran fast and was an outstanding shot, but her real talent lay in rebounding. She swooped up for the ball like a seal, always catching it.
I can’t remember why I criticized Cavaco to Chen, but I do remember her response: “Guess you don’t think she’s hot?”
I shrugged. I was more attracted to Chen, but I had heard she had just gotten out of relationship and wasn’t looking for one.
“Everyone else does,” Chen continued.
“The problem is she knows it,” I said. If I had been more honest, I would have admitted I did find Cavaco hot. She was solidly built, all muscle, a fact she flaunted in ribbed T-shirts and tight, faded jeans. And she wore a black leather jacket and drove a motorbike. Any one of these factors was enough to make me swoon, but Cavaco didn’t seem to like femmes. The women she dated were butch and androgynous, and one evening in the locker room after a game she made it clear to me just how little respect she had for girly-girls.
I was one of two women in the league who wore bikini underwear; everyone else had on boxers or big, plain white underwear. I was also the only woman who bothered to put on makeup and perfume after a shower. Along with a few hair-gel queens that tended to include Chen, I was inevitably the last woman out of the locker room.
On the night of my conversation with Cavaco, I was standing in front of a mirror applying lipstick. Beside me, wearing only a towel, Chen was slicking the front of her hair back with mousse. In the mirror, I noticed Cavaco standing behind us, dressed and fidgeting. Her motorcycle helmet was tucked under her arm, and she seemed to be waiting for Chen, who asked me if I was a member of the Y.
“I thought I saw you there the other day,” Chen said.
“Must have been someone else.” I smudged my lips together. “Working out is so boring, and I hate having straight men hit on me, which always happens at gyms.”
Cavaco curled her lip. “It’s not like you look like a dyke.”
Later I thought of many replies, but at that moment I simply froze. Cavaco didn’t see me as femme, didn’t see herself as butch; she just thought she was an out-and-proud dyke, and I wasn’t. She would have been surprised to learn that I was as out in my life voluntarily as she was forced to be by virtue of her masculinity.
Chen rolled her eyes at me in the mirror. “People can be so stupid with their assumptions. This woman I work with once asked me if I didn’t wear makeup because I was a Christian. Can you believe it?”
I laughed.
Cavaco ignored me and growled at Chen. “Would you hurry up?”
Chen turned around and gave Cavaco a cheeky grin. Then she began to ever so slowly put the cap on her bottle of mousse. Cavaco picked up a wet towel someone had left behind on the floor and flicked it at Chen.
“You jerk.” Chen grabbed at the wet towel and as she did, the towel covering her body slipped, revealing her small breasts. I stared at her. She had a pretty body, and I wanted to throw her onto the floor and lick her pale nipples. Then I noticed Cavaco was also watching Chen with a predatory expression. That’s when I realized that they were involved with each other. I grabbed my makeup bag and slunk over to my locker.
Everyone else in the locker room had left, either to go home or to the bar. I slipped on my clothes, waiting for Chen and Cavaco to pass me on their way out. But they didn’t leave. What was taking them so long? As I laced up my boots, I heard a muffled moan. Were the two of them having sex in one of the bathroom stalls?
I knew I should leave, but I had to know. With my heart buffeting against my chest, I crept back to the mirrors where I found Chen naked, pinned by one of Cavaco’s sturdy muscular legs to the cool, damp tiles of the wall. Cavaco was fully dressed, and the two of them were kissing with the same fierceness they showed on the courts, dipping their whole heads into each other. I was totally jealous, but it also gave me a thrill. I stared, wondering why they hadn’t just slipped into a stall. When they noticed me watching, they immediately broke apart, their cheeks crimson.
“Sorry, I lost my mascara, but I don’t see it here,” I murmured. I scanned the sinks to make my lie seem authentic, observing Chen’s mousse tipped on its side next to Cavaco’s motorcycle helmet. With a swish of my long coat, I left them. Naturally, I practically collided with the wall in a failed attempt at nonchalance. When I got outside the gym, I walked quickly to the subway station.
On the subway ride home, I could not stop thinking about the two of them. I was hurt, because I had a crush on Chen, but I had been so turned on by watching them. I had seen Cavaco naked in the shower, so I could easily imagine them having sex: grappling with each other, their skin moist with sweat. Chen would surrender first. Cavaco would strap on a big silicone cock and place the tip of it into Chen’s liquid cunt. Then she would taunt Chen by taking the dildo out. She would fuck Chen slowly, agonizingly, until Chen would grab Cavaco by the shoulders and yell, “Make me come!” Cavaco would adjust her cock so the ring of her harness pressed against Chen’s clit, and she would fuck her until her cunt crested in orgasm.
That night in bed at home, I made myself come about five times replaying this scene in my head.
But the next morning I felt sad, because I really liked Chen. I knew I had to put aside my feelings for her. Three’s company is hot in fantasy, but in my experience, triangles too often took the isosceles form with the lines of desire being unequal. Besides, I enjoyed playing basketball and wanted to have a good time during the season. Wilting with jealousy would ruin my game. And I had one talent that Chen had pointed out to me: when I actually caught the ball, I knew how to hold on to it. When someone tried to grab the ball from me, they got a pointy elbow in the ribs.
The ensuing month on the league sped by, and in the final game, our team placed second overall in the playoffs, losing to Cavaco’s team. Neither Cavaco nor Chen got most of the baskets, which was unusual. Cavaco didn’t hog the ball for a change and let her teammates do the scoring. And Chen, generally so unflappable, couldn’t sink a thing. Fortunately, the rest of our team played together with perfect affinity. We played tough D, didn’t flub any passes and we all got baskets. I got an unheard-of three baskets. Despite Chen’s poor showing, after the game our team voted her our Most Valuable Player.
When I walked into the locker room to change, I felt like a winner, even though I was on a losing team. I was excited about going to celebrate at the bar. I took a long shower, dried my hair and put on fishnet stockings and a short red dress to wear with my Doc Martens. One woman asked if she could touch my stockings, and I let her, feeling like an exotic animal being petted. As usual, I was the last woman left in the locker room. I was about to leave when Chen stormed in and slumped down on the bench in front of the lockers.
I went over and touched her shoulder. “Hey.”
“Oh, hi, Sky. You were great tonight, three baskets, wow.” Chen gave me a grin that immediately dissolved.
“What’s up? I know we lost, but who cares? We had a great season. And you’re MVP.”
“That’s just it. I let everyone down.” Chen put her head in her hands. After a moment, she looked up at me. “I broke up with Cavaco last weekend. I felt so guilty about it that I lost my killer instinct. Then after the game, I found out she’s already seeing someone on her team.”
I sat down on the bench and put my arm around Chen’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”
Chen sighed. “Cavaco’s the first lesbian I’ve dated. All of my girlfriends have been straight.”
“Why do you think that is?”
Chen shrugged and began
to look a bit more self-assured. “I guess I like to take risks.”
“Take risks?” I slipped my arm away from Chen’s shoulders. “I call that playing safe.”
“Why are you yelling at me?” Chen asked.
I hadn’t realized I was, but I went ahead and told her the truth. “Because I’m interested in you and I have been for a while.”
There was this excruciating pause, and then we looked at each other and started kissing. We both got into it right away, gasping and breathing hard. Chen stopped kissing me to unzip my dress from the top of my neck to the small of my back. She stared at my breasts that were barely contained in a shiny, silver bra. “Lucky me!” She drew down the cups of my bra, leaned over and sucked my nipples until they were raw, red buds. Then she put her hand into my underwear.
She stated the obvious: “You’re so turned on.”
I was an active volcano. Chen was perhaps the most beautiful butch I had ever been with, and I had wanted her for ages. And she seemed to find me equally hot, even though I was bigger and taller. At any rate, she was soon on her knees and pulling down my stockings and underwear to eat me with gusto. She paused to ask if I preferred “circles or up-and-down strokes.”
I had to think about it for a moment: I had never had someone ask me for such specific instructions. “Up-and-down, right on my clit.”
Chen followed my suggestion perfectly. I suppose she was used to being coached. I was about to come when she abruptly withdrew her tongue.
“Not so fast,” she murmured.
I held off for a bit more exquisite torture before grabbing the short ends of her hair and coming in her face. She smeared her wet features against my large thighs.
“Your turn,” I said, as I struggled to pull my panties up and my dress down.
Chen looked a bit sheepish. “Don’t you think I should take a shower?”
I laughed. “I don’t want to wait that long.”
Chen picked up my hand and examined my fingernails, which had black polish but were cut short. I got the message; she wanted me to fuck her. When she let go of my hand, I pulled her sweaty T-shirt over her head and slid her gym shorts and boxers down to her ankles. She leaned back with her naked butt against a locker.
She was not big on foreplay. I licked the soft, salty surfaces of her body, but she kept whining for me to put my fingers in her, so I got on my knees and began to touch her. I slid my hand in up to my knuckles and began to fuck her. “Harder,” she insisted, until I was banging her butt against the wall. “That’s it, that’s my G-spot. Keep doing that.” She began to wail, and I was so intent on pleasing her that at first I didn’t realize we had an audience.
The expression on Cavaco’s face was one of horrified fascination. But she managed to sound composed when, with a jerk of her head, she called out to Chen. “Buddy.”
Chen opened her eyes, which had been screwed shut, and looked completely mortified. “Oh, my god.”
Cavaco said, “I came to see how you were doing. Someone said you were really upset, but it doesn’t look that way to me.”
My hand was still inside Chen, and I am afraid I did something rather wicked: I rubbed Chen’s G-spot. She gasped, and a bit of juice sprayed out of her onto my wrist. I looked over at Cavaco.
“Enjoy the show?” I asked her coolly.
“Yeah, I did,” she said, her voice cracking uncertainly. Then she turned on the heels of her motorcycle boots and left.
I withdrew my hand from Chen, who pulled up her boxers. Then she placed her hands on my cheeks and kissed me. “I think we should skip the party.”
I squeezed her hand. She was my girl now. Like Chen was always telling me, when I caught the ball, I knew how to hold on.
TREE HUGGER
Catherine Lundoff
The park ranger who found me was the most beautiful thing I’d seen in three days of tree-sitting. Of course, that might have been because I was lying on a ledge where I’d fallen two hours earlier. I was all tangled up in my harness and I could barely move, so she could have been bright blue with tentacles and I would have been overjoyed to see her.
As it happens, she wasn’t. No, she was brunette and curvy with dark brown eyes and lips that I would have wanted to kiss under other circumstances.
I still took a moment to appreciate the view, because I’m just that kind of gal. Not only was she hot, she was wearing the uniform. That was my dirty little secret, something I’d never share with the other members of “Save Our Forests,” my affinity group: I had a thing for women park rangers. It might have been the hats. Or maybe those nice snug shorts they wore during the summer. Or the way their shirts hung over their breasts. I’d even admit to liking the belts and the radios and the whole butch persona, at least when I had a shot or two in me.
Right about then, I was longing for anything that might boost my courage as she climbed down and stood over me. “Damn. How the hell did you get yourself this tangled up? Anything feel broken?” She knelt down and started checking my arms and legs.
When she got to my ankle I gathered that rolling my eyes back in my head and turning green was almost as good as a verbal answer. “Sorry.” She gave me a charming grimace. “Okay, then. No walking down the mountain for you. I’ll go up top and radio for help. Back in a minute.”
I had just enough energy to reach out through the webbing and grab her wrist. “Don’t.”
She stared at me for a few seconds and then followed my glance up the trunk of the breathtakingly huge old tree I’d been sitting in. My little platform was just visible from the ledge. That and the hazard tape I’d wrapped the tree in to mark it. “Crap,” she said at last. “Look, I’ll cut you out of the harness, but then I have to call this in. I think you’re hurt and it’s my job.”
“I’ve got to save the tree. If you call in, they’ll just arrest me and cut it down.” My voice was raspy what with how dry my throat was, but I knew I had to make her understand.
She stared at me for what seemed like five minutes, but probably wasn’t. Then she leaned back on her heels and looked up at the tree. Or, it occurred to me as I looked up with her, maybe she was looking at the massive storm clouds above it, the ones that seemed to have blown in out of nowhere in the last hour or so.
At last she sighed. That was when I registered the name tag on her uniform. It said SANDRA RICK. I met her eyes, “Ranger Rick? Really?” I asked. “I thought you’d be shorter and furrier.”
She rolled her eyes. Apparently that joke had already made the rounds of the department a time or two. “Yeah, yeah, very funny.” She scowled and looked away down the hill.
“You could help me get out of this first, then decide.” I pulled at the various nylon harness straps with my free hand.
“Or I could leave them on so it’d be less trouble to bring you in.” Her dark eyes glinted with an amused look that got my juices going.
My juices must have been doing the talking, given what I said next. “Oh, I could think of lots more fun things you could do with me, seeing as I’m tied up already.” Then I blushed, just to show how sophisticated I was.
Ranger Sandra (I couldn’t bring myself to call her by a raccoon’s name) looked a little startled, then intrigued. “How about you introduce yourself first?”
“Cassie Williams.”
There was giant clap of thunder, like nature was giving me some accompaniment. We both jumped about a foot.
“Okay, that does it. I love the tree too, but we need to get out of here.” She stepped out of my reach and grabbed her radio. Lightning flashed overhead and the radio crackled. We could hear bits and pieces of transmission before the static took over. “This is Rick checking in, over.” She was yelling into it and the antenna was stretched out as far as it would go.
There was lots more crackling, but that was about it. She groaned as the first raindrops splattered down on us. “All right, let’s get you up and moving.” I heard something click and then there was a flash as she opened her knife and start
ed sawing through one of the nylon straps. She followed it up by cutting another, and then I could finally move my other arm. The pins and needles screamed through it while she cut away another strap.
Then the rain hit us. In a moment, it was pouring so hard I couldn’t see the trees, mine or the others, anymore. That was when I started crying. This would be what the hill would look like after all the trees got cut down: just a gray bunch of wet nothing. And it was all my fault. If I hadn’t fallen asleep and fallen off my platform, I’d still be up there protecting them.
“Hey, come on. Let’s get you up top and we’ll find some shelter. Can you stand?” Her voice was surprisingly gentle, her breath almost caressing my ear. And she had her arm around me, pulling me close to her warmth.
I sobbed into her shoulder, unable to ignore how good she smelled. It was a combination of flowers and the outdoors and a little sweat and a lot of rain. I wanted to stay there forever, with my face planted just above her breast and her arms cradling me.
She pulled me to my very unstable feet, doing it as slowly and carefully as she could. “Listen, Cassie, I need you to climb up with me. We’re in a lot of danger here, and we’ll be safer higher up. Can you put your hand here?” She placed my hand on an exposed tree root.
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