by Kot, Eleyne
“As for new ideas it seems we have just inspired you. That melody that you played just after Jack Daniels’ slave was beautiful. I don't know it...” Yasmin is looking as if she was searching her memory for the song.
“I don't know it either...” I also rake my mind but it doesn't seem to ring a bell...” is it something that is unreleased or did you just improvise it?” I look at him quizzically. He just smiles and avoids answering my question by changing the topic.
“I'm starting to be hungry, and Colin, Ted and Jim will be back soon, too. It's almost 1 p.m.”
“Of course, hun,” I purr, “we'll have the lunch ready for you. Making chicken farritas doesn't take much time.” We’re still next to him, caressing him and just enjoying the closeness. “Certainly we have to make sure that you’re all well fed and can regain your strength,” I lick his ear playfully.
“Oh yeah, just like in that joke,” Yasmin laughs.
“What joke, gals?” he sighs.
“Well, there's this joke about what a man should do to make a woman happy and as an answer there goes a long list of things that often contradict each other, then there's another list what a woman should do to make a man happy and it includes only two things...”
“What things?” he asks curiously.
“Food and sex,” Yasmin and I explode in wicked laughter, Tony chuckles, too, “for sure you can't complain you’re not getting any of those.”
“I can't,” he confirms, still laughing.
“Ok, Yasmin, let's go and prepare food for the hungry beasts; we have to make sure they have enough energy for more sex tonight,” I wink, “meanwhile you can munch on those biscuits.”
We both get up and start looking for our thongs and skirts; it seems that they got somewhere behind the sofa in the heat on our screwing. We get dressed and go out of the studio. But I just remember something and come back.
“Tony,” I look at him, he's still on the sofa just relaxing.
“Yeah...”
“How much tabasco do you want in your farritas? I know that you like Indian food, which can be really spicy...”
“Don't exaggerate with tabasco. Those of us who like it can always add some more to our portions...”
“OK. No problem,” I send him a kiss and close the door.
Before we walk up to the kitchen we hear noise coming from the gym, curious, we look inside. It seems that Babette had decided to go on with my idea of a workout. She's running on the treadmill with her headset on her ears, and she waves at us and says.
“I'll be done in several minutes,” she looks at the display, “yes, 10 more... then a quick shower...”
“It's almost one and Tony’s getting hungry,” I tell her.
“What? I can't hear you,” she removes one of the earphones. “Can you repeat?”
“It's almost one and Tony’s getting hungry. And the other guys will be back soon too,” I say.
“I'll help you as soon as I finish, just give me 20 minutes more,” she asks us.
“OK,” Yasmin replies, “we should wash a bit, too, don't you think?”
“Not a bad idea...”
So we just go up to our bathrooms to take care of our business there. I decide to do a little make-up either. We meet again on the stairs a few minutes later and go down to the kitchen.
“The chicken seems not to be fully defrosted,” says Yasmin touching the bird's tit. “Please, Eleyne, help me with this recipe. I’ve never done this before!”
“No problem, I can help you with it, it’s very easy to do,” I finger it, too. “It's soft enough for us to cut it and it can defrost on the pan. What do you prefer to cut? Chicken, peppers or onions?”
“Let's just cut the chicken first,” she answers
“OK, let's just chop it into the smallest pieces possible, it will cook faster.”
When we’re done with cutting the meat Babette enters the kitchen.
“Oh, I see you have finished with cutting chicken... So now it's just cutting onions and peppers...”
“Yeah, it took you more than 20 minutes... Did you want to weasel out of cutting things here?”
“Well,” Babette winks, “I hate cutting onions. Is it so strange? By the way, don't we have any more of those frozen chopped ones?”
“Oh, shit! I almost forgot about them,” I open the freezer. “Yeah, we still have some, but it's not enough. I think we’ll have to chop one onion more.”
“Ok,” Babette sighs, “if it's just one I can do it.”
We prepare the rest of the ingredients. Now it's just a matter of frying them, which normally doesn't take more than 10 minutes.
“I think we'll have to use two big pans, all of these won't fit into one,” Yasmin frowns.
“Oh yeah, that's the beauty of cooking for seven or more people...” I answer. “Do you think we should already start frying it? I don't know when the guys are coming.”
“I'll go down and ask Tony. They may have called,” Babette volunteers. She comes back after five minutes. “We still have at least half an hour till they’re back, they’ve just paged him that they’re leaving the centre. If there are no traffic jams it's about half an hour drive,” she announces.
“Well, let's just have some coffee then,” Yasmin suggests. We pour ourselves a big mug of coffee each and go outside to sit at the pool. The day is beautiful. We just sit on the deckchairs and chat when we see Tony walking out of the house with a mug in his hand. He joins us.
“They’ve just paged me again. They'll be here in 10 minutes.”
“Ok, ok,” we laugh, “we understand the hint. We're going back to the kitchen. I think everything will be ready in 15 to 20 minutes.” We leave him sitting in his deckchair.
Yasmin’s Story:
Cooking the mix that we prepared a few minutes ago is not time consuming indeed. I see that our men will get their food as soon as they arrive. I suggest.
“Why don´t we lunch in the garden? There are two big tables and, of course, chairs are everywhere. It’s a great day to enjoy outdoors.”
Tony has appeared on the kitchen's door, with a mug of coffee in one of his hand, coming close to us, he agrees.
“A great idea, gals. We can just have lunch there.”
“Oh,” says Babette, “it’s beautiful, but we don´t have any sun protector cream or oil, and we don’t want to grease ourselves with olive oil again!
“We can use long-sleeve blouses,” I suggest, “and there are umbrellas, too. We won´t be much exposed.”
“Don´t worry. We can eat in the shade, ok?” We are discussing this when we hear an engine roaring nearby.
“They are back!” I exclaim and run to the front window to see if it’s their car.
Eleyne and Babette come with me, and we see them getting out from the car, and unloading some supermarket bags. When they enter finally, Colin looks curiously at us.
“Are you sleepy, Yasmin? Were you sleeping?”
“Why?” I ask innocently.
“You look as if you were sleeping till noon,” he takes off his sunglasses and looks at me judiciously, then turns to Eleyne and examines her, too. “It seems you two are still drowsy.”
“Oh,” I stammer, “I have to sleep a little more, we have had a very intense morning, helping Tony in the studio.”
Jim bursts out laughing, while he pets my back impishly.
“What are you, gals? Roadies?”
“We have helped him to have an easy, relaxed morning,” Eleyne smiles when she receives the same treatment from Jim.
“So, did Babette help him, too?” Ted asks.
“No, she was in the gym all the morning,” I say. Babette adds, smiling seductively at him.
“I ran a few kilometres on the treadmill while listening to music. Then I had a good shower.”
Ted looks calm and convinced by his crush.
“Alright,” Jim says. “We understand, never mind, gals. ”He starts walking to the house, carrying a couple of bags, escorted by Ele
yne, while Ted is talking with Babette. Colin doesn’t add anything more, but takes two bags and tells me.
“Hope your morning activities have been pleasant but not too excessive. I wouldn’t like to be left out of your plans for this afternoon.”
I blush and laugh, shake my head and help him with the bags.
“You know it’s impossible to have you out of my plans.”
“If you say it,” he enters the house with me, puts the bags on the floor and asks routine questions about the lunch.
“What did you cook? If you have had enough time for it,” he grins mischievously, adding, “Well, you cook good, fuck well and all the rest looks quite good, too.”
Eleyne’s Story:
While we get everything ready to eat the other guys arrive with some more shopping. We go out to greet them while Tony brings some of the plates and other cutlery to the tables outside. The chicken, pepper and onion mix for farritas is almost ready, and the tortillas are warming up, too. The guys are joking, teasing us about our absent-minded looks. They must have guessed how we spent the time without them. I help Jim with the bags of shopping. It looks again as if they bought out half the supermarket. While he unpacks the bags and I get the shredded cheese on the chicken to have everything ready, Colin and Yasmin enter the kitchen. I hear his last question about the lunch. I answer.
“It's chicken farritas. Everything is ready. Just leave the bags here, we'll unpack everything later. Take the tabasco to the tables outside. Tony told me not to use too much of it. Each of you can add as much as you want to your portion later on...”
Yasmin quickly scans the contents of the shopping bags.
“Yeah, there's really nothing that won't survive another half an hour out of the fridge. Just leave the bags here, Colin. Guys, help us,” she hands out the big pan with the chicken mix, I extend mine with the other pan. “Take these outside. We'll bring the tortillas.”
She takes the plates that we warmed up especially to keep the tortillas hot. I ask.
“What do you want to drink?”
“Beer would be the best, we bought some,” Jim answers before going out.
“Check the fridge, there must be something there, they couldn't have drunk everything last night. The one they bought is probably warm,” Yasmin is also going outside balancing with two plates.
I check the beer they purchased, it is warm, indeed. Then I inspect the fridge and I manage to find a six-pack that was pushed in so deep that it’s almost invisible. I take it out, and place the new beer they bought inside. I decide to take some white wine for us. But still it requires one more round between the kitchen and the tables outside. The guys are happy to get their beer, they are already devouring the food that we prepared; the tabasco bottle is open and is being used freely by them.
“You want to light bonfires in your stomachs?” I ask.
“As you said, we do like spicy food,” Tony answers seasoning his chicken liberally.
All the guys laugh when all of them apply more hot sauce to their food. Babette and Yasmin watch them mortified.
“I wouldn't be able to eat food like this, I would die,” declares Babette.
To me, it looks as if Tony had been considerate by telling me not to add too much spice to the food, he must have thought that not all of us liked it as much as them. I put the drinks on the table, but there seem to be no glasses and no corkscrew to open the wine so I head back for the kitchen saying.
“Yasmin, make sure they leave a little portion for me...”
More laughter follows me. In the kitchen I take a tray and put some beer and wine glasses there, as well as the corkscrew, and bring everything outside.
“I put the beer that you bought in the fridge,” I tell our men, “I think we still have quite some wine and anyway we’re going out tonight.”
“Oh yeah,” Tony remarks looking meaningfully at the other guys; they seem to acknowledge this kind of male signal because they exchange glances between each other. “I called to book the place for us at the Chapelle de Viande, we have a table for 10 for 8 p.m.”
“Good, it means we’re not cooking tonight,” Yasmin says as innocently as she can.
“Well, you gals were joking that what men need to make them happy is just food and sex,” Tony teases her winking at the other guys. They laugh loudly.
“But it doesn't mean we want to spend all the time here cooking for you,” I flutter my eyelashes.
Another glance exchange among the guys follows and then Jim remarks in an off- hand manner.
“So... You don't feel like screwing Steve...”
We already know that they guessed so Yasmin replies.
“We don't have the same kind of feelings for him as we have for you.”
“Ok, we understand,” Jim replies.
Yasmin’s Story:
The lunch is going on very well and the topic of meeting Steve emerges again. We already know that they guessed our preferences, so I just say shrugging.
“We don’t have the same kind of feelings for him as we have for you.”
“Ok, we understand,” Jim replies.
“No problem, girls, nobody’s going to push you into something you wouldn’t do of your own will,” adds Colin.
“Exactly. We only have friend interest in him,” I add.
“Well, it’s ok. This talk is over,” comments Tony. “We were only joking and in the case you wanted him, I think you would have asked us for him during these few days you were here,”
Babette asks.
“Should he know the truth about how we met?”
“In my opinion he shouldn´t,” Colin shakes his head.
“But one day, when he knows the truth, won´t he ask many question about them?” Jim inquires.
“We won´t be here long enough,” I say and their faces show discomfort.
“We don´t want any reminder about that,” Ted grunts, “it’s pretty clear that you won´t be here forever.”
“But in case you stayed longer,” Tony scratches his chin, “we’ll take a decision on what to do.”
“Perhaps in two years we can tell him the truth,” Jim frowns.
Babette breaks the tension with a new remark.
“I see you bought ice cream, what do you think, girls? We can prepare the ice cream with diced fruits now?”
“Yes, let´s go now and get it ready.”
We get up and go to the kitchen, chatting among ourselves, I frown.
“They don’t like it when we talk about coming back and disappearing from their lives. I won´t say anything more.”
“Do you think they got so attached to us?” Eleyne asks pensively, “I know my feelings for them but I know we can’t stay together now...” she sighs sadly. The she brightens, “At least, your dream gives me some hope of meeting them through time, through all those years that separate us... It’s more than I was counting on. I thought that one day we’d just pop out of here, like Melisa did, come back to the future and never see them again.”
“Now we know it won’t be like this. We may even meet them after we come back,” Babette smiles softly.
“I think they did. Being men they may not show it too openly, but I think they did get attached to us.” I nod my head thinking aloud. “We have to be really nice to them, we know their feelings will get hurt after we vanish anyway.”
The fruits are peeled and diced rapidly: apples, strawberries and oranges. In a moment we arrange everything to be served in bowls and we take some fruit juices with us to the table. The men are talking about their affairs concerning their job. We prefer not to take part, any way, we don´t know what we could say about those issues.
As always, the ice cream disappears in seconds.
“This sun is annoying,” Colin complains and asks Babette. “Could you make some solar filter cream for us? I heard you’re a beauty expert…”
“I can’t do much for you, I don’t have a lab here nor ingredients...”
“Well, we’ll clean all thi
s mess now and after that, you’d better be ready for being our teacher,” I wink at Jim. He gives me one of his signature impish, wonderful smiles and a mischievous look, then I turn to Colin and wink at him, too, he grins nicely to me.
Eleyne’s Story:
Yasmin suggests that Jim should get ready for being our teacher. It seems she really wants him to show her how to improve her technique. And probably not only this. I ask.
“Where are you going to do it? In the studio?”
“That’s where everything is. It’s the best place,” he answers pleasantly.
“OK, how about starting in 15 minutes?” I ask.
“It’s just fine,” he agrees.
After some clean-up we go downstairs again. He’s already down there waiting for us. He really must be impatient to ‘teach’ us. Well, sure we know how the ‘lesson’ will end. I look into his blue impish eyes and my mind starts to wander, but he says.
“So you, Yasmin, play a little and you, Eleyne don’t…”
“Exactly,” I confirm, “I have no clue…” Then I sigh, “I hope you won’t be too disappointed and that I won’t turn out to be a complete moron at playing.”
“Don’t worry, sweet,” he tells me soothingly, embracing me and Yasmin and leading us inside. “I won’t eat you… Well, perhaps I’ll just bite here and there…”We laugh hearing it. He gives Yasmin one of the guitars, it seems that everything is connected as it should be and tells her.
“Show me what you can do. Play something.”
Yasmin takes the instrument from him shyly and puts the strap over her head. She thinks for a moment, trying to concentrate, but I can clearly see she’s so nervous that everything she knows about guitars and musical theory just vanishes in the air like hot steam.
“I can´t, Jim, in front of you, I feel like I’m an absolute ass,” she murmurs, blushing, almost with tears in her eyes.
Jim bursts out laughing, and adds kindly.
“You have to get more confidence in your strengths.”