The Empath Cycle: 2013 Two To Tango

"When we were in high school, I thought she was doodling instead of taking notes in class." Jean told her. "It's only later that I realized she was teaching herself what we see now."

They strolled through the exposition, discreetly listening to the comments while Carole peeked through their eyes and ears from the office where she was sitting with a wastebasket between her knees, overcome by an acute case of stage fright.

At one point, Jean had been tempted to intervene when she heard two men comment on Carole's creativity as they looked at the two 'Variation in Red' paintings. She was beaten to it by a woman who was passing by. After one look at the pieces, she had burst out laughing, only managing to gasp "Ah, men!" before walking away. They were renderings of pictures of hers and Carole's vaginas.

Anne-Marie slipped between the women and wrapped her arms around their waists... mostly.

"This showing is certainly a success." Jean told her, taking her hand from her ass and putting it back to her waist.

"I know she'll never sell any of these." Anne-Marie sighed. "So, my next step is to convince her to agree to limited runs of numbered signed lithographies. Imagine the money she could make with the one of us as sirens."

"Forget about it, you money-grubber." Kayla said firmly. "Carole says she can make one of you being reeled in by a fisherman with a nasty hook through your boob. You can sell that one if you want."

"I get the 'point'." Anne-Marie groaned, instinctively putting a hand to her breast. "Still, her art shouldn't just be collecting dust like it is now."

""By the way, Carole says she never gave you permission to take the nude of me." Jean told her. "That one is private and it should have been obvious."

"I know. I'm sorry, but it's so beautiful. And you saw the reaction of the people. Patricia's friend from the women's magazine gave me a message for Carole. She said she'd give her whatever she wants to make one of her."

"Wrong approach." Anne-Marie." Jean said. "If she wants a nude of her in the commercial medium, I'm sure it can be arranged, but Carole's art isn't for sale or by order."

"Can you ask Carole to meet her, at least? She's a real nice lady. She's been making all the women laugh telling us how men can't even recognize a vagina when they see one."

"She's the one?" Jean laughed. "Carole wants to meet her. Bring Kayla with you and stay with them. I'll go talk to Anderson, from the office, but I'll keep an ear into the meeting."

Jean walked over to stand beside an older gentleman who was looking at a painting of a cat sitting regally and looking at the viewer with an air of supreme confidence in its superiority.

"Evening, Anderson. Are you enjoying the exposition?"

"Good evening, boss..."

"Jean, please. We're not at the office. We're only two people who appreciate art."

"It's Andy, then. I can't thank you enough for inviting me here tonight. I wish my wife could have come. She's the one who taught me to recognize great art when I see it. Would you believe I had a poster of 'Dogs Playing Cards' in my apartment when we met?"

"I'm sure you had other good qualities." Jean laughed.

"Did you know that you can get a woman through her stomach too? She could barely make mac'n cheese back then. The first time I invited her to my place, I prepared a gourmet meal. She declared then and there that I was hired. We were married six months later. That was twenty-seven years ago."

"I wish you had told me. She would have been welcome to attend, but I'm sure there will be more showings like this."

"The artist, she's the one who made the painting in your office, isn't she?"

"Yes she is, but how do you know it's a woman. Aren't most great painters men?"

"You're kidding, right? The emotions practically jump out of the canvases. Like your nude. I mean, you've got a good body, but anyone can see that you were in love with the person painting you. Is she an ex-girlfriend?"

"Something like that and so much more. I didn't know at the time the painting was made that she meant so much to me."

"Well, she did."

They stood silently, admiring the painting.

"The painting in your office..."

"Yes?"

"You shouldn't leave it there. If you want, my wife owns an art supplies store and she makes lithographies. I could ask her to make one for you."

"Funny you should mention that. Do you have a business card of hers? Thanks. I'll get back to you on that."

Jean and Kayla sat on the couch with a glass of wine, watching Carole pace back and forth. Once in a while, she stopped, threw her arms in the air and resumed her pacing.

"Who knew? Who fucking knew?"

"Obviously Anne-Marie and Patricia did, love." Kayla told her gently.

"Most of them got it! They actually got it!"

"Yes they did, Baby Girl."

"I still refuse to sell my art. The only paintings that left here, I gave away."

"Yes you did."

"That woman friend of Patricia. She's really nice. I like her. She said the painting was for her partner. She's in New York right now and she wanted her to have something to remind her of what's waiting for her here. She says they visit each other often, but she misses her terribly. It's so sad."

"I couldn't live that far away. My trips are bad enough."

"When I asked her to stand up so I could look at her, she didn't bat an eye and stripped right there. I mean, I just wanted to look at her proportions. She's in great shape for a woman of her age. And that skin tone."

"She is indeed very beautiful."

"She even let me touch her. I wonder what she does to have such a satiny skin."

"I imagine she can afford the best skin care products."

"She showed me a picture of the two of them together. Talk about a study in contrasts. I want to do this. I really do."

"That's great, Baby Girl. Is she going to pose for you?"

"No. What are you talking about? The two of them. I'll have to buy a large canvas. I have to do them life-size. Nothing else will do. Do you think we could borrow one of your grand-dad's trucks? It'll never fit in your SUV."

"I'm sure we can, but why don't you have it delivered?"

"Can I? I've never done a painting that size. Now I'll have to find a store which sells or makes them."

"I have an idea. Do you know a store called Athena's Art?"

"Of course. Everyone in Montreal knows Rhonda. She has the best quality art supplies. I buy a lot from her. She's really nice too. She even thanked me when I pointed out that she had a picture of a famous statue of Aphrodite next to her store's name in the front window."

"She's the wife of my friend from the office. He suggested I make a lithography of Kayla's painting and not keep the original there. He says Rhonda makes them."

"I wonder if she's there on Saturdays. We could go tomorrow and ask about the canvas and the litho."

"Do you think we could invite Anne-Marie to come with us?"

"Who? Oh, yes. Sure. She was right about the people. She's probably right about the lithographies too."

"I didn't expect to see you so soon, ladies. I thought you were in New York." Carole told the short plump black woman.

"I was, but this beautiful woman can be very persuasive. So I jumped on the first plane I could and here I am."

"There was no rush, really. I only got the canvas this morning." Carole told them, gesturing toward the seven by five foot canvas leaning against the wall.

The two women gasped.

"That's not what we expected. We thought you'd do a three by five painting like the nude you had at the showing."

"I know, but after seeing your picture together, I got to thinking about the contrasts between you. I mean, you're a six foot buxom blonde and you're a five-one plump black women. One has satiny perfect alabaster skin and the other is so dark as to be almost black with a skin that shows the hard life you've led. One holds herself unconsciously with an aristocratic air and the other has an inviting cheerful face that says 'come talk to me'. A smaller canvas would have shown your contrasts by proportions only. Life-size, they will jump out of the painting and take the viewer by the throat, daring him to make a comment about your couple."

The women stood there, awed by the painter's passion and vision.

"Here's what will happen. My process is a little different than most, I imagine. I will examine you very closely, literally from every angle. Don't be surprised by anything I do even if it seems strange or shocking. I will look at you, touch you, smell you and I may even taste you. Since there are two of you, I may pose you together and do it all over again. I don't know at this point. This is my first experience with a couple. My partner is here to protect me since when I begin, I'm not really aware of anything but what I'm doing. When I'm done with this part, she will ask you to leave. I don't know how long it will take to do the painting, what it will look like or even when I'll start working on it. Do you have any questions?"

Mona, the shorter woman, looked at her partner with a pleading look. Taking her in her arms, Amanda looked at Carole.

"Do we both have to be naked?"

"Sure. If it helps, I'll undress too. I often work in the nude anyway."

"It's not that. You see... May I ask you to keep what you will see confidential?"

"Of course, but what could be so terrible?"

"You see." Mona explained. "I'm different. I'm..."

Before she could finish, Jean barged in the studio.

"What's wrong? Kayla? Are you all right?" She ran to her and glared at the stunned visitors.

"I'm fine, love. I was surprised, that's all. What she said..."

"I was going to say that I'm intersex. I know it sounds..."

She stopped when Kayla started crying and both Jean and Carole embraced her.

They had all gone to the kitchen where Jean served glasses of wine and beers. Carole held Kayla who was smiling while tears streamed down her cheeks.

"We met ages ago when I was a young freelance journalist." Amanda told them. "In those days, there weren't many jobs for female reporters, so you did what you had to do to survive. I had heard of this group of freaks... Ouch! Well, you were in those days. So I heard about them and I thought it would make a nice fun piece that would be easy to sell. When I got there, there was this short bundle of fiery energy. She saw me coming from a mile away and got in my face before I even set foot in the place. I never got to see the group or the meeting because she spent the next two hours going up and down my pedigree commenting on all the unnatural acts they had committed. After the first ten minutes, I was so impressed that I suggested we go for coffee, but she never stopped."

"I admit that I had a wee chip on my shoulder." Mona grinned. "I had suffered my whole life not only from racism, but from ridicule and ostracism and here was this rich white chick playing at being a working girl coming to pile it up again and I lost my famous cool."

"Don't let her fool you. She was a firebrand back then. Like I said, I was impressed after ten minutes. Imagine when she insulted me for two hours without repeating herself. She was then and still is a much better writer than I ever was. That's why she got the assignment at the UN and I turned to administration and eventually got the job of editor."

"All the time I was tearing her a new one, I was waiting for her to feel insulted and start a fight. What I didn't realize was that I was seducing her. At one point, she leaned over the table and kissed me. That was one way to shut me up I had never encountered before. I wasn't a lesbian before I met her. For obvious reasons, I wasn't anything really."

"When I shut her up, we started talking. She explained to me what an hermaphrodite was -- that's what they were called back then -- and the kind of shit they had to deal with. When the sun came up, we were still talking, so I took her to my place. We teached each other what love meant and the rest is history as they say."

"She makes it sound so easy, but imagine how it was for lesbian couples in the late seventies and add to that being an inter-racial couple. Things weren't all roses all the time."

"We can only admire the courage it took to..." Jean began.

"Jean." Kayla interrupted softly, bringing her attention to Carole's glazed look.

"Do you still want to do this, ladies?" Jean asked the women. At their nods of ascent, she brought them to the studio and asked them to undress.

Kayla followed with her arm around Carole, talking to her softly. She led her in front of her models and held her until she started moving.

Two hours later, Kayla was sitting with the bewildered women around cups of coffee.

"When she said she would examine us very closely, she really meant it." Amanda said.

"If you wanted a portrait, you should have gone to someone else. Amanda, you saw some of her paintings. She paints feeling, emotions. You are now a part of her. She knows how you feel separately and together. The poses she had you take weren't sexual at all to her. She had you feel, not only your bodies, but about each other."

"That's what I thought too." Mona agreed. "When she had us together, the poses she put us in, I was going back to our history together. When she touched my penis, she made precisely the same face and sound my Amy did the first time she did it."

"Carole is what you would call a sensitive. I think she may have been channeling that exact moment. She will possibly still do the life-size painting, but I think she's somewhere else entirely. You will probably end up with a few others. She won't charge you for them. Even the large one if she does it. She only gives her paintings as gifts. We will only ask you to pay for the materials and, if you want, you can make a donation to the Lost Boys and Girls Foundation. They are trying to set up a free paediatrics clinic for their kids and any other who need it."

"I know. Patricia already told me about it. We will be running an article on the project in the magazine's next issue."

"If you're interested, we have a support group for intersex people." Mona told Kayla before they left. "Bring your partners. It will help them too."

Kayla was holding Jean's arm, her head on her shoulder as they watched Carole work at her drawing table.

"Who'd a thunk?" Jean said, awe in her voice.

"Really? These are extraordinary women."

"I was thinking about the odds of another intersex woman walking into our home."

"Me too. And also how my life could have been better if I had gotten over my fears and made a simple internet search."

"As much as it pains me that you had to go through all that, I can't help being glad you didn't. Who knows? We might have missed each other again in this life."

"I wonder. The stars were aligned for us to meet, I think."

"You know, as much as we are connected, I can't follow Carole when she's in creative mode. It reminds me of when Mia and Tia 'talked' before you came along. There were times when we couldn't make sense of what they were saying to each other."

"It's like she's thinking in another language. What do you think would happen if we linked with her now? Or before she goes in her trance?"

"I'd rather talk to Ryanna about it before we experiment and even then I'd thread very lightly."

"You're probably right. Do you think we need to stay here? We felt it before she verbalized when she needed to go to the bathroom."

""Why take a chance? I'll stay here for a while. You can go downstairs and tell me later if you feel it the next time."

"I had something else in mind that we could do together."

"I had a... nghh... feeling."

Kayla nibbled on Jean's neck as she continued to run her fingers around and between her swollen lips, spreading her abundant secretions from clit to asshole. Jean turned her head so they could kiss. She loved Kayla's soft lips and the way she made oral love to her tongue once she had teased it in her mouth, her tongue with which she caressed every surface of her mouth, her teeth she used to nibble on her lip and scrape her tongue. Jean could have spent hours kissing Kayla and been well satisfied, but the woman had other ideas.

While they were kissing, Jean felt her lover dip her hand between her legs and spread the cream she collected on her abdomen and breasts. When the fingers pushed between their joined lips, she knew what to expect next. Kayla licked one side and she did the other, then the precious mouth left hers and travelled down her chest, licking the dip at the base of her throat and nipping at her collarbone before licking her breasts clean. No amount of twisting or arching her back could induce Kayla to touch her nipples until she was ready and Jean knew it would be worse if she tried to push her head where she wanted her mouth.

When she was ready, Kayla used only the tip of her tongue to tease the rock hard nipples, enjoying the whines punctuating the continuous moans. To add to the pleasant torture, she scraped her nails on Jean's taut belly as she spread her legs with her knee and pushed against her mons. By the time she finally took Jean's nipples in her mouth to lick and nibble on, Kayla's thigh was wet from hip to knee and she was using her weight to hold the bucking hips down.

Slowing her activities, her mouth descended to her slick and red streaked abdomen, slapping Jean's hands away when she would have replaced Kayla's mouth at her nipples. With the shift of position, her hand replaced her thigh, lightly, then not so lightly running her nails on the cream coated thighs, slapping the pussy when it tried offer itself for a caress which caused Jean to moan even louder

When Kayla nipped at Jean's groin, her fingers were squeezing the blood engorged lips and pushing them this way and that. When she finally took pity on Jean and her mouth attached itself to her clit, her fingers were pumping in her vagina, giving Jean her first climax, but, if she slowed a little, she never let up.

Moving to kneel between Jean's legs, she pushed her legs up with her free hand and ordered her to hold them. She grinned when she saw her cheat and pinch her nipples with the hands she used to obey the command. Curling the fingers inside Jean to caress her sweet spot, she looked at her nether hole relax and gap in anticipation of what she knew was coming. Using a single finger to tease the muscle, she kept Jean at the edge of her next orgasm by stopping all movement when she felt her ready to let pleasure consume her.

Feeling Jean about to pass out from over-stimulation she spoke to her in the most intimate way possible.

'Tell me what you want, my love.'

"I want..."

'NO!' She shouted, pulling her fingers out to slap her pussy hard. 'Tell me what you want.'

'Take me.'

'Are you sure that's what you really want?'

Jean whined piteously as she tried to form a coherent thought.

'Tell me, my love. What do you want?'

Jean concentrated. She almost had it.

'You're a mean woman, Kay. Fuck her ass already.'

"Yes! YES! Fuck my ass already."

With a shout of triumph, Kayla plunged in Jean, penetrating the waiting hole in a single thrust and sending Jean over in a glorious orgasm she prolonged by thrusting over and over again until she too erupted in climax.

As she lay on Jean, both of them spent, she looked and saw Carole grasping the edges of her drawing table, head on her sketch pad, chest heaving as she too tried to catch her breath after sharing their orgasms with one of her own, trembling from head to toe with the remnants of her spasms.

'I knew I felt you with us from the beginning.'

'What did you expect? It's very distracting to have two gorgeous women make love beside you and inside your head. Can I get back to work now?'