Audrey's Road Trip

by Susan Bella Ikin

  “Look, I know it’s cowardly, but the last few days have left me drained emotionally. Dad was really unimpressed when Emily started living with her last boyfriend, saying that men and women should be married first, he is really old fashioned. Or maybe Dad just didn’t like the jerk, I don’t know. I think the only reason he hasn’t said anything about Richard is because they are getting married anyway. I’m really not up to listening to a lecture from him tomorrow, so if he asks, you slept on the sofa bed, ok?”

  I could tell that James wasn’t really comfortable with the lie, but he accepted that I was pretty emotional right now, as well as dealing with Emily’s kidnap and safe escape, he and I had entered a very intense relationship which had already been tested by one misunderstanding. There would be plenty of time for letting my parents know of the true nature of our relationship, they weren’t stupid and would figure it out soon enough anyway. We weren’t that good at acting I was sure, and I thought that Richard and Emily had already worked it out, but just for now, we would keep our relationship to ourselves. So we made up the bed, gathered up all the clothes and shoes that were scattered around the room that would give the lie to our pretence, and headed to the bedroom where we quickly dispensed with the clothes we were wearing and continued with our exploration of each other’s bodies.

  The next day, Richard had to spend a bit of time on the phone, and it became apparent that he was going to have to return to LA shortly. We kept to the hotel, alternating between Emily’s room and the pool, ordering room service for meals during the day, and only going out of a night when everyone in Las Vegas was busy concentrating on their own amusement, which meant that Richard and Emily could go unnoticed. My parents were amazed by the size and scale of everything in Las Vegas, and for a couple of days they spent time with us, Emily and often went out exploring on their own.

  As we had only arranged to stay for a week, James’ phone rang one day when we were sitting with Emily, and it was Andrew. He wanted to know when we would be returning to them, as we were due to leave Las Vegas the next day. James said he would call back, and quickly explained to me what the call had been about. My face must have fallen, as Emily asked what the problem was.

  When we had been alone, I had told her about how uncomfortable I had been when I heard the noise of Andrew and Kerry’s lovemaking in our shared hotel room. I had since spoken to Emily, in private of course, about my growing relationship with James, so she knew I had a double problem. I was having too much fun with James, to have to pretend that we weren’t sleeping together if we had to share a room with Andrew and Kerry again. But what if we were put in a room where we had to share a bed? It would be impossible to go back to our old platonic relationship now that we were enjoying having sex with each other as much as possible!

  Emily rose to the occasion in grand style. She told Mum and Dad why my continuing with my holiday was such a problem – playing up the embarrassment of having to listen to another couple’s lovemaking, my Mum appeared horrified and my Dad appeared embarrassed. Emily then said she had a good idea – Richard had a couple of spare rooms in his house, so instead of continuing on with our friends for the last few days of our holiday, we could stay with them instead. Emily also said that we would be good company for her on the drive back to Los Angeles. Our parents agreed to this, and so we arranged that after we put them on their flight to Melbourne, we would drive to Los Angeles with Emily.

  Later that day Emily took me aside and told me that she and Richard had been talking about my situation, and how they could help us. She said that the whole thing about staying with her was just her way of covering for me with Mum and Dad, that she knew what it was like to be just starting a relationship and not wanting to have to explain everything to everybody. So although she would appreciate our company back to Los Angeles, she would drop us off anywhere we liked, and book and pay for a nice hotel so we could enjoy our last few days in California.

  I was very grateful, but initially declined, knowing also that James wouldn’t like to take a favour he wouldn’t be able to return soon. Emily laughed and said that we could owe her one, so I laughingly accepted.

  Emily asked where we had liked best near LA, and I remembered Seal Beach. Emily then logged onto the net before Mum and Dad returned to the hotel room, and booked us a really nice hotel. Much nicer than the one we had stayed in that first night.

  The morning that we left Las Vegas, I shut the hotel door room one last time. It was a lovely hotel, and James and I had enjoyed staying there. I now felt very confident with James, he had made me very aware on numerous occasions that I gave him great pleasure, and I knew that he gave me just as much, maybe more, so I was looking forward to some time completely alone with him, away from both family and friends, where if we wanted to stay in our room all day, we could, and I hoped that we would.

  We drove Mum and Dad to the airport, with all our bags squished into Emily’s little car, it reminded me of that time almost three months ago when we had started our road trip, and after we delivered them safely to the airport, we continued on our way to Los Angeles. James offered to drive to let Emily rest, but Emily said that she needed the practice of driving on American roads as she was going to be doing a lot of it in the future.

  Emily dropped us off at our hotel, and we felt a bit out of place standing in the fancy lobby with our backpacks, but soon got over that self-conscious feeling when we saw the room. Wow. This was all ours for the next few nights.

  James

  I felt a bit awkward when Audrey first told me what Emily proposed, but then I warmed to the idea. So I would owe Emily, and Richard, a favour, but hopefully I would one day be in a position to return that favour. In the meantime, I would get Audrey all to myself, without having to put on a show of mere friendship for the benefit of her parents. I doubted they were believing it anyway, after the initial intense emotions they felt on their arrival had faded, I had seen them looking at me. Probably wondering why this man was hanging around their daughter, and trying to decide whether they believed that he was sharing a room with her, but not a bed. If they had suspicions, they had kept them to themselves, but I was happy to not be under that level of scrutiny for a while.

  I was also happy to not be sharing with Kerry and Andrew again. I had more respect for Audrey than to make love to her with other people in the room, or within earshot, but did not want to have to stop making love to her for any reason, so being alone with her was my preferred option.

  We were fast coming to the end of our holiday, and even though I had a wonderful time with Audrey at Seal Beach, I worried about the future. Of course we enjoyed swimming, walking, eating at nice restaurants (since we were now not having to pay for the hotel room, we could afford to splurge a little and avoid the usual cheap diners) and of course spending a lot of time in the hotel room making each other moan in ecstasy.

  There was one time that was etched in my memory and which made me both smile, and aroused me, whenever I thought of it. We had been swimming in the hotel pool late one evening, there were a few other people there so I had no intention of starting anything which we could not finish. Audrey, on the other hand, with a wicked smile on her face, paddled over to me, and while keeping up an ordinary conversation (about what, I couldn't remember even as it was happening) rubbed herself against me, and put her hand in between us and slipped it down the front of my shorts. I was instantly aroused by her behaviour and her touch, and wanted to rush back to the hotel room to finish what she had started. However, I couldn't, I couldn't get out of the pool with my shorts sticking out so far in front of me! Audrey knew exactly what she had done, and leaned in even closer to say, "See you in our room, big boy".

  Before my brain even realized it, the words were coming out of my mouth, "You're going to pay for this".

  Audrey smiled at me and paddled to the side of the pool, grabbed her towel and the room key and headed off. I had to wait for a while, pretending that I was still interested in swimming, until my erection
had gone down and I could get out of the pool. As I walked to the room, I formulated a plan and consequently I was hard again by the time I knocked at the door. Audrey opened the door, now fully dressed, and asked exactly what I planned to do to punish her for her misbehaviour. Oh, so that was how she wanted to play?

  I then showed her what I thought she deserved for arousing me in a place where I could not make love to her as I wanted to. I quickly dispensed with her clothing, and picked her up, walking to the bedroom and dumping her on the bed unceremoniously. I then climbed onto the bed with her, and while holding her eyes, proceeded to arouse her to the point where she was begging me for release. I started first by touching her in all the places I knew she loved to be touched, then followed up with my mouth and tongue. Each time I sensed she was getting close to orgasm, I would stop, and return to her side, whispering in her ear:

  "Tables are turned, eh?" or something to that effect.

  Audrey tried everything she could to get me to take off my shorts and enter her, but I resisted for a very, very long time. I was actually getting a lot of pleasure from watching Audrey writhing, and hearing her moan, and every time I touched the area near the apex of her thighs, I could feel the heat and the moisture. Finally, when I could stand it no more, I flung off my shorts and entered Audrey, hearing her sigh. To my shame, I had also managed to arouse myself to the point where our frenzied coupling was very brief, however Audrey didn't seem to mind, as within a couple of thrusts she was already convulsing in orgasm. It was the knowledge of close she had been, and how quickly and hard she came, that was my undoing, and I spilt myself into her much quicker than I would have expected.

  Afterwards, I turned to her, and said, "Next time you start what I can't finish, remember this".

  Audrey then rolled over so she was above me and said:

  "James, I am never going to forget this", and with a smile she started to touch me again, and within a very short time we were making love again. The intensity of sensation when Audrey touched me, and when I was inside Audrey was like nothing I had ever experienced before, and I could not get enough of her.

  However, in only a few days we would board a plane that would take us home to our old lives. I would return from my extended leave to my old job, and Audrey had a permanent job lined up. We would probably fall into a routine of only being able to see each other after work or at weekends, and it would be difficult to adjust after having spent three months in each other’s company virtually 24/7.

  To further complicate matters, Audrey was still living with her parents, which only left my flat available for lovemaking. Although it was serviceable, it was very small, so if Audrey wanted to leave a few things there, I was going to have to tidy up a bit and clear some space for her in my wardrobe. But I put our return to normality out of my mind, we would deal with it when it was time, for now, we would just enjoy every day we had together.

  The day finally came when it was time to go home. Emily came to our hotel to pick us up, and to then see us off at the airport, which involved a lot of hugging and crying between the two sisters. We met Kerry and Andrew at the airport, and as Kerry raised her left hand to wave at us ostentatiously, I couldn't help but notice the ring on her finger.

  "We got married in Vegas!" Kerry shouted at the airport. Ever the extrovert, it appeared she didn't mind telling everyone within earshot her news.

  Even though I knew there had often been tension between the two women, Audrey rushed over to hug Kerry and congratulate them both, I reached over to shake Andrew's hand, joking with him that he would have to decide whether he or Kerry was going to move in with the in-laws. Andrew pulled a face. As we had plenty of time before we had to board, we went to the food court for a coffee. When I had a moment alone with Andrew, I asked why they had suddenly decided to get married, I had known them for years and they had always expressed sentiments suggesting that they weren't interested in marriage, particularly Andrew as his parents had divorced only a few years before, and I know it had affected him.

  "Well, it was because we had such a good time on holiday. No, not just that" - he said as I rolled my eyes - "the reason my parents always gave for getting divorced was that they married young and had kids straight away. When my older brothers and sisters left home, and I was at Uni so much, they looked at each other and realized that they had nothing in common. I stayed at home with Mum, and often thought of what she could have done with her life if she hadn't spent it all on us kids and Dad, and I didn't want to end up like that. I really love Kerry, whether you believe that or not, and I didn't want us to fall into that pattern, and end up divorced when we hit our forties and the kids were grown. But because for these last three months we have spent every day and night together, and not ended up fighting or bored with each other, I realized that we do have a lot in common, and what happened to my parents, probably won't happen to us. So, we thought, since we were in Vegas, why waste the opportunity? We’ll sort out the details of where we’re going to live later, we can both afford to get a place of our own, we've just been living at home to save money. But I don't want to do that anymore, I want to wake up each morning next to Kerry, and sit at our own table together to have dinner, that sort of thing".

  Andrew broke off then as Kerry returned from where she had been buying some snacks, and he put his arm around her in a way that I hadn't noticed before - it was more tender than sexual. It was a big change for them both. I think their relationship had previously focused on sex because that was all they thought they had in common, but now they knew there was something else.

  It made me think, and when Audrey returned from the bathroom to sit at my side, I quietly sidled my leg up next to hers and we played footsies under the table. I thought that probably a lot of what Andrew had said applied to us too - we had spent a lot of time together, and our biggest fight had been over the misunderstanding between us after that first time we had made love. I had already had misgivings about going back home and not seeing Audrey every day, I knew I would miss her, and not just in my bed. Maybe I should be thinking about something more permanent than just taking things "one day at a time" as we had agreed to do.

  When we boarded the plane, I tucked Audrey into the window seat next to me and prepared for our long flight home. I knew that Audrey was already feeling the loss of her sister, although Emily would make it back to Melbourne as often as she could to be with her family, it was clear that Richard was now her priority, and LA would be her home, at least for the next few years, so Audrey would miss having Emily around. I resolved that maybe we should each set aside money from each payday, so that we could holiday in America maybe once a year, so the sisters could catch up. Then I found myself thinking that it was interesting how I was now planning in my head for things that we could do together, a long way in the future.

  Audrey

  It was lovely to get back home to Melbourne, but a bit bittersweet as well. The worst of winter was over, and there was a hint of spring in the air, but it was so difficult saying goodbye to James when my parents met me to pick me up. I couldn't say goodbye properly as I wanted to, as not only were there a lot of parents there, all of us were getting picked up by family, but I didn't want to confirm Andrew and Kerry's suspicions about the nature of my relationship with James. It was all too new, and I wanted to keep it to myself a bit longer.

  I bid goodbye to James awkwardly, promising to send him a message when I got home safely. My farewell with Kerry and Andrew was brief, I was genuinely happy that they seemed to have moved on with their relationship, but I wasn’t going to miss them either. I thought it all looked a bit awkward anyway, they were both getting picked up by family, and as their families obviously hadn't been told the 'big news', there was explaining to be done!

  I sank back in the backseat as we drove home, Mum chattering about the few things she had researched for the wedding since she had gotten home, about a week before me. She had certainly been busy! Mum had made good friends with Richard’s mother, and the
two of them had been busily planning guest lists and venues, Mum kept up a steady stream of conversation with idle complaints such as how she couldn’t plan what flowers there would be at the wedding if she didn’t know the time of year, where on earth we were going to find a matron of honour dress for a heavily pregnant Sarah if the wedding were to go ahead in only a couple of months, and it went on.

  I caught Dad’s eye in the rear view mirror, and he smiled at me.

  “Tired, Pumpkin?” he asked, using the name he had used for me as a child. I was Pumpkin, Emily was Possum Pie. It had always been that way and I smiled at the memories it evoked.

  “Yes, I don’t like these long flights much”, I complained. That started a litany of exclamations from Mum. Apparently when Richard had booked them a flight over, and Emily had booked them a flight home, they had flown business class, and both were very impressed with the service they got, and more importantly, the way the seats folded down to proper recliners. They hadn’t been able to get much sleep on the way over due to the worry over Emily, but had enjoyed the extra room on the way home.

  “Lucky things”, I said, “We had already booked our return flight, and it was discount economy for us! No recliner chairs in our class, I’m surprised they didn’t make us get out and push!”

  My parents laughed, and before much longer we were driving up the driveway, and Dad insisted on picking up my backpack and carrying it into my room. Just before he closed my door, he gave me another hug, and said:

  “Glad you’re home, Pumpkin. It’s still early, so I wouldn’t nap right now, not if you want to adjust to our time zone, but if you want to freshen up, your Mum has made your favourite chocolate cake to welcome you home. See you in the kitchen shortly?” and he left me there.