by Archer, Kiki
Maria smiled. “He is. Let me jump in the shower so I can put on the Elsa nightie that Alice bought me.”
“Ha. She did not.”
Maria nodded. “Just you wait. But why don’t you go out instead? Make the most of me babysitting since you’re looking so gorgeous with your straight hair and funky checked shirt.”
“It’s just in a pony,” she looked back at the den, “and even if the film wasn’t Frozen there’s still not enough room for all of us.”
“We’ll just have to have our own pyjama party in the other suite then.” She smiled. “I won’t be long. Just off to slip into my nightie.”
Connie watched as Maria walked out of the room, unsure of the appropriate course of action. They had successfully managed to return the pedal-cart to its owner without being caught by the scootering menace in mauve: a feat that had taken time, effort and even more hiding. But they’d managed, and their giggles had continued throughout the evening as they ate delicious burgers at the Five Guys restaurant on the seafront and then as they’d walked back to the hotel with lots of child hand holding and one-two-three swings.
Maria had offered to watch the children so Connie could make the most of the hotel’s spa facilities, but Connie couldn’t accept her kindness. It was late and Noah was flagging so they decided to bath the children together, which only served to give both little ones a new lease of life, hence Connie’s quick jump in the shower. She was sure she’d emerge to a sleepy Noah who’d be begging for bed, but instead she was faced with a gorgeous little boy and a gorgeous little girl tucked up together watching their all-time favourite film.
She crouched next to her son and whispered into his ear. “Shall we go to bed now, Noah?”
Noah shook his head.
“I’ve got our Frozen DVD in my bag. We could watch it in our room?”
“No. Noah happy here.” He yawned. “Noah sleep with Liss.”
Connie kept her voice low. “This is just a den, Noah. You’ll need your own bed soon.”
Her son shook his head once more and moaned quietly. “Noah comfy.”
Connie went to lift him from out of the covers. “Come on, big man, you’re falling asleep. Let’s get ourselves to bed.”
The piercing squeal was one of the loudest she’d ever heard emerge from his little lungs. She dropped him back into the den and hushed him quickly. “Okay, okay. But we’ll have to go back to our room soon.”
The answer was short and sweet. “No.”
Connie had no option but to take her wine and retire to the leather sofa in the corner. What was the harm in letting them snuggle down there? Sleep there even? It was their adventure. Their final piece of excitement. Why should she be the killjoy? She peeped between the closed curtains at the dying evening sun. She knew why. Smuggling him away would serve as the perfect excuse. The excuse to hide. The excuse to ignore. She wouldn’t have to confront the growing chemistry. The tension that was fizzing under the surface every time she found herself close to Maria. She’d done it last night and praised her decision, albeit after a long period of lying awake and questioning that decision, wondering why she even felt the need to make it in the first place.
She took a long sip of the chilled white wine and closed her eyes, enjoying the delicate flavour. Everything tasted better. All weekend her senses had been in overdrive. The taste of the food and the wine. The warm glow of the sun on her cheeks. The sound of the seagulls. The touch of Maria’s arm each time it brushed her own. How wonderful to be with someone who makes life taste better, she thought. Connie blinked and sat up straight. She found her phone lying on the bar and opened up the notes app.
‘Be with someone who makes life taste better. Someone who strengthens your senses. You’ll see more. You’ll feel deeper. You’ll hear the truth … and the truth is love. Taste love and you’ll taste life, in all its glorious splendour. I’ve found the one who’s opened my eyes and I’m never letting her go.’
“Hey, would you like a refill?”
Connie looked up to see Maria crossing the room in a pair of low slung pyjama bottoms and tight white vest top. She couldn’t help but stare; Maria wasn’t wearing a bra.
“Umm…”
“You’re almost empty,” Maria said, leaning over the small table in front of the sofa and reaching for Connie’s glass. “We have to make the most of our last night here.”
“I…” Connie couldn’t ignore the effect the perfect body was having on her own. “Where’s your Elsa nightie?”
“Would you prefer me in an Elsa nightie?”
“No, you look…”
Maria returned the bottle of wine to the fridge and placed both glasses on the table. She moved the single leather chairs out of her way so she could sit next to Connie on the sofa. She smiled. “So do you.”
“No, I…”
“Was that Karl checking in?”
“Hmm?”
“On the phone?”
“The phone?” Connie still couldn’t find the words. Maria’s tanned skin was so close and her smell so intoxicating.
“Sorry, I wasn’t prying.”
“No I…”
“It’s fine. I had this girlfriend once who insisted on checking my phone every evening and I always swore that I’d never make anyone surrender their right to privacy.”
“I… I was typing. My notes app. A paragraph popped into my head for my book.”
Maria snuggled in closer. “Ooo, well that’s different. I’ll definitely be nosey with that.”
Connie handed over the phone on automatic pilot, unable to regain control of her movements. She should be shifting herself upright, moving further away, yet here she was with the world’s most gorgeous lesbian snuggled into her side like it was the most normal thing in the world.
“Am I okay to read it?”
“Sure.” Connie swallowed on a dry mouth.
Maria scrolled up and studied the words carefully. “You wrote this? Just now?” She took a deep breath and raised her eyebrows. “It’s lovely.”
Connie hid herself behind her wine glass.
“Is the novel in the first person?”
“Yes, she’s called Bonnie Blythe.”
“Oh.”
“What? You’re going to laugh at the name and tell me how similar it is to Connie? Then you’re going to question whether the novel’s all about me?”
“No.”
“What then?”
“Not many non-lesbians write lesbian fiction.”
Connie grabbed the phone. “What? What have you just read? You’ve not been on my search history have you? I had to Google lesbian sex because Ryan was teasing me. He said—”
Maria laughed. “I wasn’t reading your search history. But I LOVE the fact you’ve Googled lesbian sex. You cannot, however, believe what you see on the internet. Lesbians do not have long nails. They do not enjoy giving blow jobs to dildos. And they do not perform for the pleasure of men. Lesbian sex is slow and intimate. It’s one of the most nerve tingling sensations you’ll ever experience. You’re taken to a place of complete fulfilment where you can’t quite believe what’s happening to you. What you feel. How it moves you.” She smiled. “How you come.”
Connie realised she was staring and that her mouth had dropped open. “I…” she gave up.
“So in your book it’s Bonnie who’s thinking these thoughts? Feeling these emotions? The ones you just wrote down.”
She nodded.
“You’ve confused me then. Why does she say: I’ve found the one who’s opened my eyes and I’m never letting her go?”
Connie fumbled with her phone, quickly looking at the screen. “Her? That should say him.”
Maria paused. “But it says her.”
“It’s about Mark. A him. A boyfriend.”
“What’s Mark like?”
The wine glass was once more serving as her hiding place. “He’s perfect.”
“And does Mark feel the same way about Bonnie?”
“
I think so.”
Maria waited for the averted eyes to return to her. “I think he does. All good stories have that happily ever after.” She turned her attention to the makeshift bed. “Oh bless, they’re fast asleep. Let me switch off the film. Shall we make the most of our adult time and watch something in the other room? We’ll keep the doors open so we’ll hear them if they wake.”
Connie’s eyes tracked Maria’s body as she turned off the TV, and again as she bent to find more wine in the fridge, then once more as she turned with a smile to beckon her out of the room.
Connie suddenly found her own body following without hesitation.
Chapter Twenty-Four
From her position in the bedroom doorway, Connie could see the two little ones snuggled up in their homemade den in the suite’s main living area. She looked back at the super-king sized bed behind her, double checking the distance between her and her son. It was only a matter of metres and she’d definitely hear him if he stirred.
“They’re fine,” whispered Maria over her shoulder. “Come and help me choose a film.”
“I should have brought my monitor.”
Maria laughed. “They’re just there! You’d never be one of those parents to leave them with the hotel’s nanny-cam, would you?”
“God no.”
Maria tapped her on the shoulder. “Actually…” She walked to one of the large cupboards and pulled out the boxed piece of technology. “Here. We can use this.” Creeping back into the living area Maria plugged one monitor into the wall and faced it towards the den. She sidestepped Connie and held up the other, placing it on their bedside table. “You can give this one to the hotel’s nannies and they’ll keep an eye on your children for you.”
“Is it a video monitor?”
“Come onto the bed and have a look.” She smiled as Connie edged onto the plush quilt. “Video, audio, temperature, CO2 emissions. You name it, it’s got it. So you should be okay to relax knowing your son, who is in actuality only two metres away, is fine.”
Connie studied the full colour monitor and smiled at Noah who she could now hear snoring softly. “Is there anything this hotel doesn’t have?”
“Good lesbian films - the adult channel’s full of those fake ones I was talking about earlier.”
“You do not watch the adult channel,” she said, laughing and pulling her legs up onto the bed, relaxing against the headboard but unable to resist one final glance towards the monitor.
“Don’t you?” asked Maria.
“I’m lucky if I get a TV in the hotels I stay in.”
Maria reached out and squeezed Connie’s thigh. “You’re so sweet, and I know it’s wrong, but I have this overwhelming urge to mother you and shower you with all of the gifts you’ve never received and all of the experiences you’ve never experienced.”
“Mother me?”
“No, maybe that’s the wrong word. In fact it’s totally the wrong word.” She laughed at herself. “Yes, it’s not a motherly feeling at all.”
Connie picked up her glass of wine and angled herself towards the beautiful body that was now stretched out next to her own. “So what kind of feeling is it?”
“I’ve finally got you into my bedroom, I’m not scaring you off now.”
“You couldn’t.” She held her breath, wondering where on earth her bravery was coming from.
“I think I could.”
“Well yes, maybe if you make me watch those lesbian films of yours.”
“They’re not mine. Mine would be realistic. Mine would be sensuous and romantic, but still really steamy.”
Connie coughed and picked up the remote. “How about Pretty Woman? This hotel reminds me of the Regent Beverly Wilshire.”
Maria nodded. “Ooo, go on then, I bet they’ve got it.”
“You know that bit where Richard Gere snaps the necklace box down on Julia Roberts’ fingers and she bursts out laughing? That wasn’t in the script and was totally improvised but the producers loved it so much they kept it in.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Richard Gere did it as a joke. I think her reaction shows what a totally wonderful woman she must be. I love it when women laugh so spontaneously like that.”
“It sounds like you might love Julia Roberts a little bit too. Do you want me to be your Richard Gere?”
“Well you are tall, dark and handsome and seemingly rather well off.”
“No, I saved up some coupons for this stay.”
“You did not!” Connie nodded at the TV. “Here it is. Do we have to buy it? No, of course we don’t, silly question. In fact I’m surprised they don’t bring the entire cast up to our suite and act out the whole show for us here and now.”
“I told you, I’ll play Gere. What was he called? Edward?”
“Yes. Come on then, Ed, top up my wine and let’s get comfy.”
Maria lifted the bottle and smiled. “I like you relaxed. But there’s just one other thing.” She straddled Connie’s legs and switched positions on the bed. “You’re right handed and I’m left handed.”
“So?”
“So, you get to hold your wine glass in your right hand, I get to hold mine in my left hand, and hey presto, we can do this.”
Connie felt a surge of electricity fire up her arm as Maria entwined their fingers together.
“Okay?” asked Maria.
Connie nodded. “Okay.”
****
Dropping her phone into the old-fashioned handbag that was resting in the crook of her arm, Evelyn turned on the loudspeaker and started to shout. “I’ve had to turn you onto loudspeaker, Karl. I can’t unlock the door with the telephone on my shoulder.”
“Stop shouting, Mum, I can hear you. Why are you unlocking the door?”
“Because she’s not answering. Ah, here we go.” Evelyn raised her voice even louder. “Connie, are you home, dear?” She paused. “All the lights are off.”
The voice on the other end of the line exhaled heavily. “We really don’t like you letting yourself in when we’re not there.”
Evelyn waltzed herself into the kitchen. “Connie said that did she? Well that young lady lost her right to demands the minute she drove you from house and home.”
“Mother, we’ve separated amicably. That’s Connie’s home now.”
“No, son, you paid for it, it’s yours. Where is she? It’s nine-thirty p.m. on a Saturday night. She has a small child. How irresponsible of her. Where is she, Karl? Where is my grandson?”
“I don’t know. I’m in Manchester.”
“But it’s nine-thirty at night and she wasn’t answering the door when I knocked at ten a.m. this morning either.”
“Why were you there at ten a.m. this morning? Why are you even there now?”
Evelyn moved from the kitchen to the stairs, sniffing her nose in disapproval. “I was on my way to Joyce’s this morning so I didn’t come in, but I’ll be damned if I’ll walk away twice.”
“Walk away from what?”
“Whatever it is she’s up to. She’s got another man, hasn’t she? That’s why she kicked you out.”
“I decided to leave. You know about Manchester. You know how important this is for the business.”
“Don’t be so naive. She’s got another man and he’s got your son. Call her, Karl. Find out where she is.”
“Mother, stop it. I didn’t call Connie when I was away on business before, so why would I start calling her now?”
“Because she’s got my grandson and I have no idea where he is. Poor little Noah being pulled from pillar to post like this.”
“He’s been around for three years and you’ve never been bothered before.”
“Don’t you dare say that…” Evelyn gasped as she pushed open the doors on the landing. “The beds haven’t been slept in!”
“She’ll have made them this morning. Please Mum, go back downstairs and lock up.”
Evelyn continued her march into the bathroom. “The toothbrushes!”
“They’re gone! She’s left you, Karl!”
“We’re already separated.”
“Oh no, no, no, no, this is no good. I’m staying here until she comes home. Someone needs to talk sense into her. She won’t win you back acting like this.”
“She might be with Ryan, or staying with her mum. And no one’s planning on winning anyone back.”
“She stays away and doesn’t tell you where she’s going? Heaven knows what she’s been getting up to all these years then.”
Leaving the upstairs doors wide open, Evelyn returned to the lounge and planted her handbag on the coffee table. She picked up her phone and sat down straight-backed on the sofa, crossing her feet at the ankles and dipping her legs at the knee. She cleared her throat and spoke sternly into the receiver. “I’m waiting here. Are you calling her or shall I?”
****
The lights had been dimmed and the glasses refilled on at least two separate occasions already, leaving the occupants of the room in a seductive haze of enchantment. The television was glowing out of the darkness and Connie could feel her heart glowing into her soul. The film was at that critical point where Richard Gere was about to scale the fire escape and overcome his fear of heights to save his damsel in distress.
Connie squeezed Maria’s hand in anticipation. “Look at her hair!” She took a gulp of wine and squeezed again. “Look, look, look. Here it comes!”
Maria laughed. “What am I looking at?”
“Her hair! THERE! Bobble out, pony gone, and her hair’s down like she’s just stepped out of a salon. THERE!”
“Shush!”
Connie grabbed Maria’s leg in a failed attempt to pull herself into a more upright position but she missed, plunging her hand between Maria’s thighs instead. “Ooo, sorry, that wasn’t deliberate; I was trying to lean over you to show you that they’re sleeping. Look. No reason to shush me.”
Maria followed Connie’s eyes to the monitor. “I know, but we want them to stay sleeping.”