A Wedding and a Funeral

There were a few women at Penny and Robyn's house, two cars were parked in the driveway and three more were parked in the street. As we walked down the steps leading to the house, we heard music and laughter, and Saoirse paused in mid-step.

"Maybe we shouldn't, sounds like they've got a party happening in there."

"What're you afraid of?" I stepped onto the verandah, "we're two hot chicks."

Penny answered the door and at first I baulked, I'd only met her briefly when I got measured up. The second time I'd been here to pick up the clothes, she was out.

"Hiya," she looked at Saoirse, "oh, Saoirse. What a surprise, what're you doing here?"

"We were in the area, I was going to order some more clothes, but if it's a bad time?"

"Nonsense, come on in, we're having a barbie," she stepped back for us.

"Any particular reason?"

"Nope, we've had a loose arrangement to get together once a month at someone's house and this time it was my turn to host the girls. We all belong to the same women's group."

"I'm in Nicole's group," Saoirse remarked.

"Lovely woman," Penny agreed.

Penny led us into the living room and introduced us to the 'girls.' Melanie and Elke, Sigrid and her partner Louise, Josie and Annabelle, and their two foster daughters, Sokha and Jorani, they were in their teens then. The two sisters had lived in a refugee camp in Cambodia, but Josie and Annabelle had fostered them. They were sitting with another teenage girl, Carolyn, Susan's daughter. Susan was on the back verandah with her partner Alana. Two older women were off to one side, and they were introduced as Cindy and Mary.

It was somewhat disconcerting to learn that they were all lesbians and yet I felt no discomfort, they were all very friendly and made me feel at home. Even when I inadvertently admitted I'd been at church that morning it didn't seem to worry them.

"Whatever," Melanie shrugged, "we're open minded here."

That Sunday afternoon at Penny and Robyn's place has long stayed in my memory.

It was the first time I'd sat with older women, and not felt as my opinions didn't hold as much weight as theirs. It's odd, my colleagues were all older, but I was at a disadvantage because of my Christian faith. I could talk about TV shows, music, fashion and the like, but when it came to other subjects such as sex, my lack of experience was telling. The only one who hadn't shown a negative reaction to that was Annalisa and, to my shame, I'd thought at first it was because she might have had her own reasons. Despite the fact she was in a relationship with Rachel, I suspected she saw me as some kind of conquest. Looking back, nothing could be further from the truth.

The other women listened to me when I confessed my inexperience of my lack of experience in the bedroom and then related their own early experiences, some of which were hilarious. Cindy told of the first time she tried to give a boyfriend a blow job and thought it involved blowing air onto his penis! She'd been married and discovered after a few years and two children later that she was gay. Melanie had a similar story, three children and an alcoholic husband who gassed himself in the garage of her home, had a very interesting take.

"I decided that while I might not be gay, because that involved making major changes, I was in love with Elke, and so I took the advice of an A. A member who'd been helping my ex to love her one day at a time. It took a lot of the drama out of the situation, and for a couple of years that's how I played it even after she moved in, but these days I know I'm gay."

Towards the end of the afternoon, Robyn invited us up to the upstairs sewing room. It was smaller than the basement one, but it had been the original sewing room. Whilst Saoirse selected the next few outfits she wanted her to make, I flicked through the website on my phone. I was able to check out the website whilst Saoirse was on Robyn's laptop. Once she'd chosen her outfits for next month, she let me browse on the laptop. The vast amount of patterns was mind-boggling. I could have been browsing for the next twenty-four hours.

"See anything you like?" Robyn moved closer to me.

"Plenty," I glanced at her briefly, "but there's so much there, but I'll have another look at home, I've got to keep within my budget."

"I get it," she nodded while I kept scrolling.

"Tell you what," she continued a minute later, "how'd you like to be my next model?"

"Huh?" I nudged my glasses, "what do you mean by model?"

"I usually have a woman who becomes my model for twelve months, it was something Cindy used to do when she was running the business. But basically, a model gets her pick of as many clothes as she wants for free. All you have to do is wear the clothes whenever you go out and tell your friends where you bought them. There's no pressure either, you're not forced to wear just my creations, and there's no selling, it's all word of mouth."

"Oh," I straightened up, "shit, you're serious?"

"Absolutely, I was supposed to ask someone back in January but one thing led to another, and I just got too busy, so here I am now, offering you the position. If you don't want to that's fine, and if you want to go home and think about it that's okay too, but you've already passed a few women onto me in the last couple of months."

"I have? Who?"

"Georgie and Roberta both mentioned you."

"Oh, right," I blushed, "I didn't think they were serious."

"So, what do you say?" Robyn asked me again.

"It sounds, almost," I stopped.

"Too good to be true? It's not, as I said. Don't feel obligated to sell our creations, you're under no pressure to parade around the office or up and down the street. If a woman compliments you then just mention it's a handmade item or items, and tell them where you bought it. I'll also give you the pricing schedule too, it's fairly simple."

"I see," I looked at Saoirse, and she gave me the thumbs up.

"Take it," she told me.

"Okay, I'll take it then. Thank you, I hope I can live up to your expectations."

"There are no expectations, some women bring in lots of new orders and others hardly any, it's a way of giving back and having a bit of cheap advertising. A lot of my custom is word of mouth, so you'd simply be choosing items every month and wearing them. We have a twelve month limit on it because you'll wind up buying a second wardrobe just to contain your new clothes. Alana was the model years ago, about the time I started helping Cindy out so you're in good company."

"Alana," I glanced at the door, "she seems like a lovely woman."

"She's my best friend," she replied, "a very centred woman.

It was an act of extraordinary generosity and it had a direct impact in more ways than one but I'll get to that later.

I seriously needed suits and so I chose two three-piece trouser suits in black and dark blue, a white skirt suit, complete with waistcoat. I chose a risqué black pinafore dress that stopped six inches above my knees, it was open at the sides. Next were two silk polyester dresses in white and red, a double-breasted silk blouse with blue and white stripes, a grey shift dress with a zipper up the back and a pink ruffled blouse with three buttons at the side of the collar. Saoirse found a roll of black satin with red dragons and I chose two blouses in that material. The first had eighteen buttons and was in an Oriental style with loops instead of buttonholes and a mandarin collar. The second one was a standard blouse and Robyn said she'd attach silk-covered buttons, I also ordered a black, buttoned skirt. The last blouse was a pink silk one with a strap attached to the mandarin collar that buttoned at the front and side. I felt as if I'd somehow won the lottery, an odd sensation considering I've never bought a ticket.

"You won't get them until after Christmas, I'm sorry about that," Robyn entered the last item into her list on the laptop.

"That's cool, I almost feel guilty taking all this for free."

Robyn chuckled at that.

"That's completely normal, most of the models we've had say the same thing. I'll refund you half of the fifteen hundred you paid for your plan, okay?"

"Okay, thanks," I nudged my glasses.

"No worries," she touched her own glasses and then extended her hand, "here's to the next twelve months."

We shook hands and Saoirse patted my back.

"Come on, let's get you back home before you order any more clothes."

And with that I have to get going, it's late and I'd better shut the laptop down and get ready for bed, I will write more tomorrow though.

To be continued...