Soul Sisters

It put our faces closer together. I was calm but my heart beat fast. I brushed my bangs out of my eyes.

"A man that understands cognac knows how to be deliberate," I said, "How to coax out all of the flavors and aromas. That's what I want, not just a drink."

I sipped, again. My lips were close to his. John was a handsome man. He was well mannered. He had soulful dark eyes and thick powerful looking lips. I wanted to know what it was like to press mine to his. I was aching to touch him.

I forgot about anything but trying to entice him into doing something I didn't ever want to do. It was thrilling being in so close to him, being vulnerable and submissive but bold at the same time.

"We need to go to the ladies," I heard Lori say as she touched my elbow. "Put on your shoes, Jan."

Lori's tone snapped me back to reality. Lori was worried.

"Please excuse, me," I said to John.

"Erin called me on her cell phone from the bathroom," Lori said as we circled around to the hallway. The thug Erin was with earlier was standing out in the hall.

"We've got to get out of here unless you want to raise a black baby," Erin said as soon as we found her in the bathroom. "Wayne had two fingers in my pussy out on the dance floor. My flirty cockteaser routine doesn't work here."

"It's late," Lori said. "Let's say you got your period and get out of here."

My wife was trembling. I held her and reassured her. There was a huge rough looking guy in the hallway waiting for her. Whether I was in high heels or not, Erin wasn't going to be afraid. I walked out directly to the guy in the corn rows and politely but insistently said, "I'm sorry but we're going home now."

When I turned, John was standing in the VIP area where he could see down the hall. I hugged John and Dane and said our goodbyes to everyone.

Erin was broken and crying on the drive. She stayed curled up and stuck to me. Lori followed us inside then headed toward her room. "See you in a few minutes," I said.

That was why I loved Lori so much. She never entered my relationship with Erin unless invited.

I got Erin undressed, cleaned up and in bed. Erin cuddled into the middle of us because that's what she needed.

Chapter 14

Dane really liked me. He acted like he didn't notice me pulling into the parking lot at school. He'd been waiting. He was wearing one of those workout shirts to show off his muscles.

"Wow, you must work out," I said to him as I closed in. "Am I blushing?"

Dane picked his training gear bag up off his shoulder so I could his huge bicep flex. "Jeans and a pink Guess t-shirt?" Dane asked feigning disappointment. "I walked all the way over here for that? Where's that shirt from the club?"

I was in the middle of hugging Dane when Professor Lito walked around the building. Dane didn't have his hand cupping my ass, but let's call it a little beyond the center of my lower back.

I greeted her with a hug. Professor Lito shied a step back from Dane. I understood her reaction. It had been mine before I'd met him.

"Coach Jeffries," Professor Lito said then offered and official looking handshake. "Jan, if you don't mind, please stop by my office this morning to talk over our project."

"Shit be starting now," Dane said after Lito walked off. It was the first time I'd ever seen a negative reaction from him.

"Your chasing after me seems so much tawdrier after she called you Coach Jeffries," I teased but he wasn't up for teasing any more. Could people in a university setting care if a non-employee black strength coach was fucking a white male professor?

"How's your girl?" Dane asked. "I'm sorry about that Jan. Wayne was waiting on her because he was worried after she ran off."

Now I was blushing.

"Thanks for walking across campus to check,

Dane," I said. "Erin and Lori were giggling all the way inside work this morning. It was a misunderstanding. It was so loud in there."

Dane hesitated a moment to hug me goodbye but then shook it off. "I like you, Jan," he said. "You handled your business at the club, but there was no doubt in my mind you would."

Upstairs, Professor Lito was lurking holding a cup of coffee as I approached my closet-sized office. I followed her down the hall to hers. She introduced a few subjects then tried to appear casual and non-committal about inviting me to a gathering at her home that night.

"Well, my wife Erin, and our girlfriend Lori, usually go out clubbing on Fridays," I said before my mouth could hit the brakes.

Professor Lito had to close her eyes and put her teeth to her bottom lip before asking, "Lori's the other woman living with you and your wife?"

I'd explained the situation fifty times so she knew damn well Lori was our roommate.

"Now that it's out there, that sounds like too many," I said. "You probably weren't expecting an army with your invitation."

"Not at all," Lito said. "It's a progressive crowd, very fun, like us. We'll have an eclectic mix. I have a large outdoor space. I'd love to meet your wife and her girlfriend." Lito said. She nodded out the last two words to make sure she properly designated the relationship.

"Thank you," I said without giving any assurance that she had it correct. After Lito's incident with Dane and the probing into my relationship, I was a little upset about her questions. "Should I call them right now and see?"

I dialed Lori's number because I knew how she'd answer. "Hey beautiful, did you just miss me too much?" Lori asked. I used the speaker so Lori would know what was going on.

"I'm with Professor Lito," I said. "She just asked us to a party at her house tonight. It will be pretty great. Professor Lito is excited to meet you and Erin. It's you and Erin's night to party and I know the house is a mess and the laundry needs to be done. It would mean a lot to me. But your night is so important so..."

"Jan," Lori interrupted after letting me play it up by babbling. "Do you think you can get the housework done before we go?"

"Sure," I said and this time I didn't have to manufacture the excitement. I really wanted other people to see how the three of us were together.

"Ok, then," Lori said. "Make sure to get all the details. Find out the attire, what to bring, the time, the location. Be sure to write it all down. This is a big deal Jan. It's important to your career. Understand?"

"Yes, Lori," I said. "I love you."

"I love you to, sweetie," Lori said.

Chapter 15

Knowing the limitations of our wardrobes, I kept asking Professor Lito questions until she landed on a style of clothes we had. The girls wore cute hip hugging capris length pants, tank tops and sandals. I wore a pair of Ralph Lauren plaid Bermuda shorts my mom gave me, a pink polo and boat shoes.

"Quit pouting," Lori said. "You look like Russell Crowe."

Erin ran a stop light almost wrecking the truck she laughed so hard. Erin declared herself the official chauffer in our relationship from this point forward when we were walking to the truck. Erin loved to drive though Lori and I spent most of the trip wincing at our thousand brushes with death.

Practically everyone in Tucson had landscaped backyards with pools. Professor Lito's was packed with twice as many people as she told me were coming. We had no problem with socializing in a new crowd since people lined up to talk to us.

They were all nice people, except for a gay guy that kind of got up in my face and said I was in denial. It was a crowd only comfortable with labels. The more they tried to assign one to us, the less we said. Our avoidance prompted volumes of dialogue and references to 'the definitive research.' One professor got a little drunk and hinted that we were polygamists. Gay, lesbian, gender confused, gender role experimenters, and transgender people were 'ok' but bisexuals were deniers and polygamists were bad.

The food was good. I was searching for something else to nibble on when my phone rang.

"Did the girls go to the club yet?" Dane asked. "Come hang out over at the hacienda."

"We're at a party," I said.

"It sounds boring," Dane said. "It smells like white people."

"I'm white," I said. "How can you smell over the phone?"

"We're going to be swimming," Dane said. "I know how you white people are. Bring something to cook for the boys...Got to have something to offer to

roll with me."

We made a graceful exit at ten. When Erin stopped at the driver's door out in front of Lito's house, I remembered she was going to have the truck.

"Are you taking a cab tonight?" I asked.

"Give me your phone," Erin said. She saw Dane's number and the time and held it up at me. "You're so hot to get fucked by Dane that you don't even care if we go out."

"If one of my dresses is missing, I'll kill you," Lori said. "We should ground him."

"We'd never hear the end of his whining," Erin said then threw the phone in my lap. "I'll drop you off on the way back to the apartment but you better be home by two."

"Well," I said, "First, it's a swim party and it's customary for an invited guest to bring..."

"Are you cooking for your man?" Lori

interrupted. "Then just say it."

"There's going to be a lot of men," I said. "I'm cooking for all of them."

Dane's friends were coaches and players. These were all ultra-macho guys unlike Roger who was a big douche. I had no problem admitting these were bigger bulls and they never tried to make me feel like their bitch. They hung out in team jerseys and track suits and I got to wear leggings and a pink yoga top and walk around with bare feet and painted toes to match the pink top. Black guys had a thing for skinny white feet with long toes and painted nails.

When we went swimming in Dane's pool, the deal was that I wore skimpy bottoms, Lori's string bottoms. On the way to Dane's house I pumped up my ever growing little tits so the guys could pretend not to look at them. That was my role and I loved it.

I also got to cook stuff they wanted but couldn't admit to wanting without sending off a gay flare. The guys were running over me to get to my blue cheese topped ginger sesame Ahi burgers when Erin sent me a message that she was about to head home early.

"Let her fuck you over here. Dane's got extra rooms," the guys offered.

"Should I ask?" I said it looking at Dane to make sure I read all of his cues. I did that kind of stuff when I had on string bikini bottoms.

"As long as she's eye candy," Dane said to ensure that if any of the others wanted to stay overnight, they brought a hot girl. He also said it to keep people from thinking I was his favorite.

There were other women at Dane's house, but when Erin walked in wearing her club dress, all conversation halted. Erin was just drunk enough she wasn't intimidated.

"Uh oh," Dane said. "Pretty lady, let me show you the spare bedroom."

Dane was gone a while. He must have been trying to explain the rules to Erin. Another little while after Dane came back, Erin emerged in a tiny bikini and came alive flirting and teasing, touching and hugging. Honestly, I didn't know she had it in her. She was so repressed growing up I couldn't figure out how she learned it.

Then somebody played Back That Azz Up and Erin shamed all the black girls with her dancing. Erin had ass. From that point forward, all eyes were on her.

Every time she came out of the water and adjusted her top there was a flurry of "damns," "shits" and "fucks." Girls said it too. It happened all over again when she put her finger inside the back of her bottoms to straighten them.

I sat off at a distance with a beer and watched. She'd get real close to a guy and when the guy said something funny she'd tilt back her head and laugh then glance over at me. A guy would ask her if she wanted to swim and she'd hold his arm to put her toe in the water. She'd let him know she was going to do it then make him keep working. Finally, she'd make him go in first. She'd jump in and have him catch her. She'd hug him and press her chest against him and thank him for keeping her hair from getting wet.

By the time the party was winding down, the sun was shining. We picked up Lori and all went straight to bed. Before we went to sleep, Erin whispered, "I'm finished searching. I know what I want now, baby."

"Is it me?" I asked.

"Yes," Erin said, "Only you but only after."

Chapter 16

Saturday started out as a lazy day except with Lori around. I made breakfast at three that afternoon and put on some music. The conversation meandered and somehow landed on Lori's wild sex the night before. Out of nowhere Erin cut her off.

"Are you ever going to give your heart away?" Erin asked in the most confrontational tone I ever heard from her.

"I've given it to Jan," Lori said then laughed to deflect the question.

Erin sighed, rolled her eyes then stared at me. It was the beginning of something that had been brewing all morning that I hadn't noticed until it erupted. I wanted to run. That's what guys did in those situations.

"Jan, I'm divorcing you and moving back home," Erin said to me. "I have the papers in the other room."

"I thought we were talking about dating," Lori said. She stood up and backed herself against the wall. "When did you decide that? Are you fucking crazy?"

"Why are you running away?" Erin asked. "You should be overjoyed. Now you, and the person you gave your heart to, can be together...Or did you just give it away because you knew Jan couldn't accept it?"

"Jan, you know how much I love you," Lori said looking at me. "Tell Erin."

"Should I go make us some tea?" I asked.

"I thought you wanted to be a girlfriend," Erin said. "Be a fucking girl. Or do you just want to prance around like some confused sad wretch pretending that panties and making tea does it...Have the balls to tell your girlfriend to quit hiding in cock, and give her heart to the person she knows will treat her right."

"Erin, are you saying that you want to treat Lori right?" I asked. "Do you want to marry Lori?"

"No!" they screamed in unison.

"I said I was sorry for what happened at the club," Lori shouted. She was still amped up from yelling at me. "Now that you mentioned it, I think you should divorce Jan. Then he can find someone he can cum in."

Erin's mouth gaped open. This time Erin was the one who got off the bed. She backed into the corner and folded her arms. "I can't do it," Erin

said. "I love him too much."

"Love him? I thought you were divorcing. Where are the papers?" Lori asked. "Bring them here so he can sign them. I'll drive Jan's ass up to Las Vegas and we'll be married before dawn."

My mind shut down. Instead of trying to figure out what was happening I started wondering about the cross-border civil procedure issues with divorcing in Arizona after being married in Connecticut and then applying to marry an Arizona resident in Las Vegas. Well, technically, I was also an Arizona resident even though I had a Connecticut driver's license and was registered to vote in Fairfield County.

"That's it, point the finger at me," Erin said. "Then race out and get fucked. Lash out because you don't have the balls to date someone you know is right for you."

Lori stared at me again. "How much cum have you dumped in Erin's cunt, Jan?"

This time my mind temporarily veered from civil procedure long enough to glance at my underwear drawer, the one with men's underwear in it. That was my backup plan if the tempest swirling around me invaded the imaginary deflector shield I erected. At that moment I realized that some genius intentionally constructed boxer briefs to prevent men from ever being in this position.

My plan worked. Erin screamed, "The same amount as the number of real dates you've ever been on...none!"

"You just don't have the balls," Lori said. "Go ahead. Spoil your precious virgin pussy with someone else's cum. Be a bad girl just once and fucking get over it. Come on, say I have a cunt. I dare you."

When it got quiet, I just shut the fuck up and sat on the bed and sang pretty songs in my head. Once I let my mind wonder if Erin was divorcing me, then I pinched the inside of my thigh until I stopped thinking.

We were silent so long my legs started getting numb. "Should we keep talking until we can work this out?" I asked.

"Are you doing it?" Erin asked Lori.

"Yeah, right after you lie down and open your legs," Lori said. "Jan, get a hard on and fill up that cunt."

"Ok," Erin said. "You go on one date with him and I'll stuff my cunt full of Jan's cum."

"Great!" I said ecstatic that there was a way to end the shouting. "I think it will be fun to take Lori on a date and show her how a nice guy will treat her."

Lori and Erin exchanged questioning and accusatory stares that worked themselves into a non-verbal negotiation resulting in Lori asking, "When?"

"Right now," I said then took off for the comfort of my boy clothes. "We'll go dancing...Give me five minutes to run to Basha's. Put on your hiking shoes and your pretty smile."

Chapter 17

I tore off out of the house before anyone could argue. In line at the grocery, I sent Lori a sweet text message telling her I was excited to see her.

After paying, I went in the bathroom and cleaned off all my nail polish and make-up with wet wipes. I dampened and styled my hair with gel to create a clean cut look.

I knocked on our front door to make it seem like a date and to avoid any chance of getting into the middle of another fight.

Lori answered ready to piss Erin off and make me pay for running to avoid conflict.

"It's the little woman playing boy," Lori said. "How cute is that?"

From behind my back, I whipped out a bunch of Lori's favorite wildflowers that I'd stopped and picked from the side of the road. She hated store bought flowers.

That shut her up.

Erin knew where I was taking Lori because we'd already planned the date for Erin and me. Erin handed over a small bag with the few items I was missing and slammed the door.

It was tense at first but Lori got comfortable with me on the short drive to Sabino Canyon. Her second strategy was to make it a 'girlfriend' date. We verbally positioned each other as we took the tram up to the first stop, but she let me hold her hand.

"We're climbing the creek?" Lori asked. She took off down the ledge to the center of the creek and stepped up on the biggest boulder so she was above me. I let her stand but didn't offer to help her down.

It was a tricky climb of all different sized and shaped rocks. The recent rain kept a narrow stream snaking through a much wider wash. It created another obstacle to cross if we didn't plan our route well enough.

Lori wanted to lead and I let her run. At first she got far ahead but when I didn't chase, she slowed. Over time she kept letting me get closer. Finally, she got herself stuck on the wrong side of the water. When I reached out for her, she let me help.

"Thanks, Jan," she said. "I love you."

I didn't say it back.

We stayed close with her trading off the lead with me. To help each other we started holding hands and touching. The contact and camaraderie made the climb fun. We teased and laughed and I kept complimenting her and telling her she was pretty. We got wet a couple of times crossing the creek. Then Lori slipped a step because of her wet sole and I caught her and her face ended up close to mine.

The creek was shaded at that spot and we were holding each other. We were sweaty and Lori could feel the strength in me. She brushed a stray hair out of her eyes and bit her bottom lip.

"Thanks," she said.

It was quiet from then and I led us to a severe, rocky bend in the creek where the water pooled under a big tree.

I set down my pack and grabbed Lori's bikini then asked, "Ready for a swim too cool off?"

I nodded at a secluded spot for her to change.