A Wedding and a Funeral Pt. 02

"What do you mean you had a one night stand? When did this happen?"

"Three nights ago, she met me on one of my days off and we went back to her joint, we were going to talk about it a day or so later but she's just texted to say sorry, she can't."

"I'm sorry, how do you feel?"

"Hurt, disappointed, pissed off, depressed but it's Christmas day."

"Do you want me to come around? I just got home but I can..." I left the rest unsaid.

"It's cool but thank you. Are you still picking me up after work tomorrow?"

"For sure, of course. I might even crash the night at your joint rather than drive home."

"No worries, there are plenty of spare beds there."

We talked a little more and then ended the call, but as I took the camera and a bottle of perfume to my room I felt a slight shift in the atmosphere. It wasn't what Emma had said earlier, it was the way she'd said it.

The last thing I did that night before having a shower was call Saoirse.

"Merry Christmas."

"And a merry Christmas to you too, how was it?"

"It was cool, and weird."

"Why was it weird?"

"Dad gave me his digital camera as a second present. He loved that camera."

"That is weird," she replied, "but there's nothing as queer as folk... by the way, are you still coming to this women's meeting? The next one is Sunday the first of January."

"I thought they met the last week of each month?"

"They do, but it's a more laid back meeting, we're having a barbie at Zara's place because we didn't have any meetings this month due to Christmas. You're more than welcome to come along and get to know the girls, it'll seem less intimidating when we meet at the end of the month."

"Okay, sure. Where does Zara live?"

"Just come to my joint and you can come with me, casual dress, bring meat or whatever you eat and if you drink then I'll run you home afterwards, okay?"

"Okay, sure," I replied.

I spent the rest of the night checking out all the settings on dad's digital camera and in the end I had to get online and ask the great god Google, which was where I discovered that this camera was a lot more expensive than I thought.

I took it up to Warburton with me when I picked Emma up from work. She was a waitress out at a Thai restaurant in Ringwood North. The house was on a twenty-acre block of land, her boss even had a horse along with a few sheep, hens and a dog.

"A neighbour is looking after the horse and sheep. The only thing I have to do is collect the eggs and feed the dog, thank God."

The house had obviously been renovated judging by the difference between the ground floor, made of hardwood planks and the first floor, which was western red cedar. The first floor also extended past the ground floor at the rear, there was enough space for four cars under the first floor at the rear of the building. A huge shed was located nearby, next to a stable.

"She must have money," I commented.

"Paula bought the place dirt cheap about ten years ago because it used to belong to a drug lord. The courts seized it but couldn't sell it, as soon as prospective buyers discovered it used to be Vlad the Impaler's house they changed their mind."

"The name's vaguely familiar," I stared up at the balcony overlooking the front rooms.

"He was gunned down by a rival drug dealer fifteen years ago in the main street of Belgrave, when the cops searched the place they uncovered a stash of cocaine and heaps of guns."

"Why was he called the impaler?"

"I checked it out on the Internet, he used to nail rival dealer's hands to the table until they told him where they'd hidden their money or drugs."

"Nasty," I shivered, "so, who is Paula when she's not at home?"

"Paula is the big boss, she's got a dozen restaurants all over the eastern suburbs. She was out the back talking to the manager when she said she was looking for someone to house sit the place, the manager called me into the office and asked if I'd like to stay here for a week."

"Wow," I took a few steps forward, "this place is beautiful."

The ground floor had been opened right up, joining the front and back living rooms and kitchen, two sets of stairs, one at each end led to the upper level where I was told she had bedrooms, a gym and a second living room slash cinema. There were two more bedrooms and an office on the ground floor, Emma was sleeping in a ground floor bedroom. The kitchen and dining room looked out onto the carport and the paddocks out the back, it had a granite island bench along with other benches, also granite. She had a dishwasher, two wall ovens and outside, she had a huge pizza oven made of fire bricks, there was also a barbecue built into a brick divider between the carport and house. The front living room though was very cosy. It had two L-shaped sofabeds facing a huge wall screen tv and media centre. A second lounge suite was located in the rear living room and in between them was a billiard table and more seating.

"She must be loaded but, and she's not married?" I stepped over to a picture of a woman with long blonde hair beside a horse, she looked to be in her forties or fifties.

"Is that her?"

"That's her mum, apparently," she pointed to a much smaller picture of a blonde-haired woman in a student gown and cap, a second picture beside it showed her as a high school student.

"That's her there."

"And she's single?"

"I heard she was married once, but I didn't ask. She's gone to be with her family in Queensland," she turned around, "they own a lot of real estate here and in Queensland."

"What's she like?"

"Really nice, very easygoing. She must have a dark side though, most rich people do, she had me up for dinner a couple of days before she flew out and it felt as if I was talking to someone on my own level if you know what I mean."

"Cool," I sat down at a breakfast bar, "is that a real coffee maker?"

"Yeah, she made me a real cappuccino when I was here last, not sure I'd know how to drive it but, it's got more buttons than a space shuttle."

"Fair enough, so it's instant coffee tonight."

"Yeah, although I could Google the answer," she glanced over as her phone rang, "excuse me," she took it out of her handbag and swiped the screen, "hiya, Paula," she stepped away.

"How are you?"

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation because Emma walked into the front sitting room. I stared at the two cars under the carport. One was a Nissan four wheel drive but the other looked like one of those American muscle cars, but I couldn't identify its make.

"No worries, and thank you so much, have a great holiday," Emma came back into the room. She ended the call and put the phone down.

"Fucking Jesus," she exhaled.

"What?" I looked at her.

"I told her that I'd gotten you to take me up here after work and she told me to borrow the Toyota," she nodded at the carport, "she then said I should take my car to get fixed and she'll pay the bill."

"Wow," I nudged my glasses, "just like that?"

"Yeah, blew me out of the water, and I thought I'd heard it all," she glanced over her shoulder.

"She said there's a house sitter's manual on her desk, I'll just go and get it."

I was still trying to process this information when she returned with a folder with instructions for just about everything from the washing machine to the coffee machine.

"Looks like we can have real coffee after all," she grinned.

Her phone beeped again as she was making coffee and she squinted at the message. It was a series of numbers.

"It's the account code," she explained, "I give that to her mechanic when I take my car there."

It was like something out of a fairy tale and that probably explains why she and I got on together a couple of days later as you'll see.

***

Seduction, according to the Oxford Dictionary definition, is the act of convincing someone to have sex with you and I know there are other meanings too, but sex is what I'm talking about here. It had been on my mind since I was a teenager, but at the age of twenty I was still a virgin and that had a lot to do with my Christian faith. However, it was also influenced by a friend from school, who got herself pregnant and had to quit school, it was all hushed over at the time. Fortunately she did get to finish school at Tafe, but it was a couple of years later and back then she was struggling to raise her daughter and study at the same time. Sex education has been a mainstay in Australian schools since the AIDS epidemic hit in the '80s, well the government schools at least, private schools are funded for the most part by churches and God hates sex, apparently.

However, seduction was never talked about in those classes, it was all quite practical, condoms and contraceptives, along with other things. It was talked about outside school though and I'd seen the seduction scenes on tv. Mum was always pretty relaxed when it came to what I saw on tv, but those scenes are seductive in themselves, for dramatic effect of course. There are camera angles, lighting and makeup, along with music too.

As a result, I'd conjured up various seduction scenes for myself, usually involving some hot guy like Brad Pitt or Emma Watson, the latter had become a more recent addition to my fantasy world. It usually had me lying on a bed half undressed while someone went down on me, as to how I got to that stage was unclear.

However, my recent conversations with Annalisa, Saoirse and Robyn had added a more realism to my idea of seduction. The idea that it started with kissing and gradually became more intense until you finally reached the point of no return. All of them had stated there would come a point where I wouldn't be able to stop myself, they talked about letting go, which is a good way to set the scene for the next part of my story. Emma and I were best friends at Tafe, but that'd lapsed somewhat when she moved in with Valerie. But when they broke up, she fell on me again, and this time things had changed for both of us.

For my part, I'd become aware that my celibacy was not ideal. I worked beside women who were all sexually mature, which was in opposition to my faith. I was caught between two worlds, and just lately I'd openly questioned my faith. Why was I even going to church? I had less in common with them the older I got and then there was my friendship with Emma. I'd been the sensible one. She once called me her conscience. It's significant that she didn't actually have sex with a woman until mum and I went to Ireland on holiday. To summarise, Emma looked up to me, and I used her as a shield against guys at Tafe who would have asked me out.

What was different this time though was that I stayed most of the week at Paula's palatial palace in Warburton, because despite Paula's generous offer to pay for car repairs, the garage couldn't fit her in until the last Friday in December. She had to have upper and lower wishbone bushes put in and an oil change. It didn't make an awful lot of sense to do a full day at work and pick her up after work later at night, drive an hour to Warburton, and then drive back home in time to crash out in bed. It was mum who suggested I just stay there, but she was more worried about me falling asleep at the wheel.

Thus, I packed a few clothes in a small suitcase along with toiletries and just relocated for the short term and that was different. We were both living under the same roof, sharing cooking duties and cleaning duties, watching telly together or surfing the Internet and in general, chilling out and that was where the seduction started. Bear in mind of course, Nathan and I had broken up and that had affected me more than I thought. He'd been my only serious boyfriend since high school and it felt almost as if I'd fallen short in a way.

Emma was in a similar situation with Valerie and now Roxy. Valerie had decided that it was pretty much over, she just hadn't said the quiet part out loud but she wasn't returning her calls or texts and Roxy was, in my opinion, a dead horse. You could flog it all you wanted and it wouldn't move, thus we spent a lot of time over the week talking about our failed love lives. Add to that, the fact that we were best friends, and the results were predictable. The odd thing was that neither of us saw it until it actually happened.

Friday December 29th was similar to other Fridays in previous years, everyone was gearing up for the big night. Emma had the night off on New Years Eve much to her disappointment because they were paying triple time. She had to pick her car up from her mum's joint and take it to the garage that day and I followed her to the garage because our office was closed. I wasn't due back at work until the following Tuesday. The car was dropped off in the morning and wouldn't be ready until late afternoon, which gave us a few hours to kill before Emma started her shift at the restaurant at two in the afternoon.

"We'll go up to Robyn and Penny's joint, I've got to pick up my next order and we can go to a tearoom in the hills."

"Sounds good to me," she checked her watch, "and you're sure you can pick the car up when it's been fixed?"

"Already done," I replied, "Stan will drive me there and follow me back, you can pick it up from my joint after I get you from work."

"I really appreciate you doing this," she patted my leg.

The traffic on Mt Dandenong Tourist Road was busier than normal because many people were off work until next week and it was a relief to pull into Robyn's driveway. I parked behind Penny's car and glanced at the house.

"Is this the house? Fuck me drunk, it's a fucking palace."

"Yeah, and you should see the view from the back verandah."

The door opened just then and Penny stepped outside with a large brown dog, it strained against her, wagging its tail and she jerked on the lead and then waved at us.

"Who's taking who for a walk?" I asked a few moments later.

"Good question," she replied, "this fucker has a mind all his own. Are you here for Robyn?"

"Yeah, is she free?"

"She's in the living room," she made the dog sit, "just go in."

Robyn was in the living room with another dog, this one was much older and he looked up and his tail thumped against the floor slowly.

"G'day," she greeted us, "you're here for the clothes."

"Pretty much, this is my friend, Emma, and this is Robyn, Penny's partner."

"Nice to meet you," she stared out the window, "fuck me, what a view."

"Everyone says that," Robyn grinned, "come on up, you stay here, Baljou."

"How old's Baljou?" I asked her.

"Fifteen and a half, he's in the twilight of his years. He was our first, we had a choice, children or a dog," she paused in the doorway of the first floor sewing room.

"Dogs don't live longer than twenty and they're easier to look after, children on the other hand," she stepped inside, "are another matter entirely."

I didn't reply to that as she fetched my new clothes and laid them out on the cutting table. Emma's eyes widened as she moved closer. She'd already seen some of Robyn's creations because I'd worn them religiously. Today I was wearing one of the first blouses she'd made me, a white silk blouse with a princess collar and a pair of grey trousers with a side zipper.

"Would you like to try them on now?"

"Um, maybe one of the skirt suits and trouser suits," I replied.

"No worries," she nodded at the changing room on the other side of the room.

By the time I came out of the changing room in a white, three-piece skirt suit Robyn had gone back downstairs leaving Emma to browse through the selections on her laptop. Our eyes met and Emma gave me a crooked smile.

"Hey, sexy boots, looks good."

"You think so?" I walked over to the other side of the room where floor to ceiling wardrobe doors with mirrors gave a better view. The skirt stopped just above my knees and fastened at the front with four buttons and a short zipper, "it needs a belt though."

"You'll get them from Target," she replied as Robyn came back into the room with a tray of coffee cups.

"Get what from Target?" Robyn set the tray down.

"Belts," I replied.

"Ah, I can do a better deal, my mate, Big Al has an ongoing arrangement with me, it's on the site, but you're on my model deal so they're free."

"I didn't know that," I turned to her, "what do you think?"

"Yeah, that looks good."

The black trouser suit was next and by the time I came out again Emma was signing up to one of Robyn's pricing plans, which made me feel good. I hadn't even tried to sell her a plan and so we spent the next half an hour there, I changed into some more clothes, a pink blouse with waterfall ruffles and three collar buttons on the side, and the black, buttoned skirt. The buttons themselves were white, which made for a nice contrast.

Emma chose two white blouses, two black mini skirts, a white pussybow blouse, a red dress and two double-breasted blouses and by then Penny had come back with the other dog. He of course had to come racing upstairs to greet these two strangers properly.

My order was considerably larger. I ordered three pencil dresses with full-length zippers and three straps to cinch the waistband and bodice together, a leather midi skirt with a full-length zipper and a matching belt, two three-quarter length pleated skirts, a black dress with a buttoned bodice and a cloth belt made from the same material, two white blouses, a red trouser suit with white spirals that would never pass for office wear but would turn heads in the street. A red satin blouse with deep cuffs, a black leather mini skirt with press studs down the front, and a three-quarter length leather skirt. Robyn also added two thin belts and one wide belt.

"They'll be ready in about a week," she closed the laptop lid, "it's always quiet this time of year, it was crazy up until Christmas but the last week it's been tapering off."

"How many employees do you have?"

"Six full time, eight part time. We've got a converted warehouse in Bayswater, but I've got two of the full timers on holidays at the moment and three part timers."

"When do you get to go on holiday?" Emma asked.

"Whenever I fucking well please," she grinned, "we're heading overseas at the end of the month, London, Copenhagen and Stockholm."

"Cool," I gathered up some of my new clothes and Emma grabbed the rest, "I was in Ireland and the U.K and France a couple of years ago."

"Ireland is a really beautiful place," she paused as a car pulled into the drive and hurried over to the window to look down at it, "oh, Nicole's here," she stepped back.

Nicole Roberts was in her mid forties and sported a healthy head of auburn hair, she had good head for fashion, judging by the Oriental style white blouse, it was the same style as the one I had in my hands. It was tucked into a pair of black jeans that looked as if she'd been poured into them. It was only when she introduced her partner, Tillie that I recalled the conversation with Saoirse.

"Are you? Do you know Saoirse?"

"I know a Saoirse, why?"

I briefly described her and where she was from and satisfied that it was the same woman went on to explain that I'd be at their next women's meeting.

"Oh, right. She mentioned you now I think about it, well, we'll see you in a couple of days then."

"I'm so in awe of you," Emma said some five minutes later as I drove up the drive.

"Me? Why?"

"Here's me, trying to connect with any lesbian and here's you, supposedly straight and you've got so many hot lesbian friends it's frightening."

I didn't know what to say to that one!

***

What's in an outfit? There have been millions of words written about clothes, most of it is women's fashion. There are tips about how to look like the latest fashion icon, choosing the perfect summer outfit, wardrobe makeovers etc. Ultimately though, it's a personal choice, trends be damned, what suits you won't look good on me and vice versa. My choice of outfit that Friday night was, to put it bluntly, odd but it wasn't the only strange decision I made that day.