Acting 101 Ch. 06: Shaving

Our three friends are settling into a groove now, so let's take time for a quick full-circle romp before everything starts to get thrown into a cocked hat. This story should be fun on its own, but to understand what is actually happening, I really recommend starting with Chapter One.

As with all my stories, should you be looking for 'Realism', just move on. I aim for 'Ridiculously Plausible'.

—————

Tuesday. Final performance day.

I walked into the small theater where Acting 101 was held. I meandered up to the row behind where Steff sat, and sat down behind her. Idly, I gave her shoulders a quick massage. Then I extended my efforts because her shoulders were tense in anticipation. We had decided not to tell anyone in class that we had started dating in the time since we had all chosen our final performance scenes. Half the class assumed we were dating all along. The other half, who had also assumed that, but who we had told vociferously that we were not, would only fill the air with "A-Ha!"s and "I knew it!"s. Also, our scene was sexy and romantic, and we'd look like better actors if no one knew we were fucking now.

Just before class began, our friend Tony hustled in, his scene partner and girlfriend trailing behind. He plopped down next to Steff and without preamble, began to beg. "Friday night, guys. Please! You know you want to," he wheedled. He had been after us to join his and Kimmie's improv team since before they first competed themselves. A new series of performance competitions would begin in the new year and Tony was desperate to get us up to speed with the detailed ins and outs before then.

Steff and I were saved from saying no right then, an answer we both privately were finding it harder and harder to give, by the arrival of our professor. Time for performances!

Tony and Jimmie were in the first half hour, and they did great. Tony was unable to resist and ad-libbed a line. It got a huge laugh, but it derailed Kimmie a little bit. And after they were finished, it got him a scolding from the prof about the inadvisability of rewriting a scene in front of a live audience.

Steff and I were third from the last to go. I suspected the professor had manipulated the supposedly random order of performances because he knew our particular scene well and was convinced we would either kill, or crash and burn spectacularly. Either way, we wouldn't screw up the whole class that way.

We killed.

The scene isn't a comedy, but it has some laughs. All my funny lines got appreciative chuckles, along with a few raunchy hoots at the dirty ones. Steff had fewer comedic moments, but she delivered one so well it got a reaction that made us have to pause for our classmates to finally shut up. The sad and angry parts were met with strained, appreciative silence. The outright sexy parts got plenty of gratifying rumbling from the audience. The final kiss that we ended the scene with resulted in a lot of audible "Whoa!"s from the crowd, along with tons of applause.

That kiss was not in the original script, but I had spontaneously kissed Steff when we finished our first really good rehearsal, and we'd decided to keep it in. I'll admit that when the time came, I chickened out from kissing Steff as long and hard as we had rehearsed, but it did the job.

I knew we had killed for sure when, as the applause died, I heard Carson Williams, hands down the best actor in the class, and whose pairing went next, say loudly, "You mean I have to fucking follow that?"

He needn't have worried. His timing is impeccable, his partner was good, and they were doing a Marx Brothers skit.

When the unfortunate pairing who had to go last after Carson had finished their honestly quite serviceable performance, the professor announced that there would be no class Thursday, since we had gotten in everybody that day. We all cheered and filed out of the theater for the last time... at least until most of us returned for 102 in the Spring semester.

Tony descended on us as we left. "You two were like Hanks and Ryan up there," he exclaimed before immediately returning to the subject of us doing improv in front of strangers for (almost no) money.

On a post-performance high, I look at Steff. She nodded and we gave in, agreeing to give a try Friday night.

Since we had no class Thursday afternoon, and we both had nothing else going on except studying for a couple of finals, Steff and I decided to hang out together instead. And since Atlanta was is the midst of a crazy warm late Fall heat wave, Steff finally invited me over to enjoy her pool.

I arrived about one-thirty as promised, and rang the bell. I was wearing my baggy blue board shorts and a faded, ridiculous Garfield t-shirt. I had a towel and a bag of regular clothes to change into if the water was actually warm enough to get in. I also had a text book, under the pretense that we might actually study.

Steff answered the door in a bikini. In fact, it was the red bikini she had (mostly) worn in the photo shoot that had accidentally brought us together in the first place. We exchanged a quick kiss and she danced back into the house. "I stuck a foot in the water. The sun and the heater has it feeling perfect! Honestly, it is cool to be treating and heating the pool this week, instead of draining it for the Winter." she said excitedly, as we went through the house.

Steff and Meredith live in a large house in the suburbs. There isn't a lot of land, but the backyard was large enough to more than accommodate a small but very deluxe pool and nested hot tub, their surrounding patio, and a stretch of grass. The back was also surrounded by a thick hedge of high yews, which were standard issue for most of the backyards in the development, apparently. They provided some excellent privacy, I reflected as my gaze slipped inexorably from the hedge to Steff's tight, red bikini-clad ass.

"Beer?" asked Steff, reaching into a small cooler and grabbing a Coors. I said please and she tossed me the can, before grabbing a second for herself. We cracked open our beers and toasted to the "A+"s we had received in our emails that morning for our performance. Yep, we had killed.

"The only problem about Tuesday," I mused, "was my letting Tony seize the moment to rope both of us into joining the improv team."

"Oh, come on," reassured Steff, "we were both going to give in eventually. I know I'd already given up internally."

"Me too," I said. "Although I'm glad to hear you say that I didn't involuntarily draft you." I fumed just a little bit before going on, "I'm just grumpy that we didn't take the opportunity to make them bribe us into it. Dinner at some place like Trader Vic's on Tony's dime would have hit the spot."

"Yeah, that is true," agreed Steff, a little crestfallen. Then she brightened, "Hey! You really suck as a negotiator, you know that?" I cheerfully flipped her off and reminded her that she could have held out for a price also.

Steff stickler tongue out at me and shrugged. "Alea iacta est."

"I took Latin too, Steff," I said acerbically to hide my nervousness. "But we don't actually cross the Rubicon until tomorrow night, and I'm worried that things might go well."

"You are worried that they might go well?" asked Steff with a bark of laughter.

"Yeah," I shrugged. If they went too well, I might start to like it too much. "If they go too well, I'll have to hang out with Tony a lot more," I finished with a mock shudder.

"Heaven forbid," said Steff, taking a sip of beer. "But that is for worrying about tomorrow. This afternoon is for drinking a beer or two, jumping the water if I get the chance, and studying hard so I don't need to tomorrow."

She seemed entirely serious about all the studying. My lone text book suddenly seemed like it was going to be a lot less sufficient for my needs. "You are really going to study that much?" I asked. "I mean, you just got an A+ in the only class you haven't seemed convinced that you were going to ace."

"Stephanie is convinced that she is going to ace the other classes because she studies so hard for them, Scott," said Meredith from behind us. We both turned and saw Meredith, in full Alpha-Lawyer suit and get up, briefcase still slung over her shoulder.

"Hey Meredith!" called Steff. "What are you doing home at two o'clock on a Thursday?"

Meredith and I simply exchanged glances. My gaze said wordlessly, "What she asked." Among other things...

Meredith sighed. "I find myself scheduled for a dinner later this evening with a family that are among my best clients," she said a bit distastefully. "We are to celebrate a recent good fortunate, and to plot how to screw over the other, even more odious, half of their family. I've already billed eight hours today, so I thought I'd take the afternoon off to steel myself."

"Would a beer help your blackened, shriveled, litigator's soul," asked Steff cheerfully, pulling another Coors from the cooler and holding it up.

"Please."

Steff didn't even get up. She just tossed the beer to Meredith, who caught it easily, without looking. She cracked it open and took a long pull with her always alluring crooked lips.

I returned to my question. "Come on Meredith, Steff is going to get into whatever law school she wants."

Steff muttered, "Ha!"

Meredith calmly replied, "I believe that you are probably right. But when the school she most wants to get into is Harvard Law, it pays to take every precaution."

"Well, aren't you fancy?" I said to Steff. "How have you never told me that you were hunting the biggest of game?"

"I'm highly competitive, remember," Steff replied with a smirk, and returned to her Advanced Statistics text.

Meredith looked up at the sun and asked, "It is totally gorgeous out here today, isn't it? Would you two mind if I joined you for a while?"

"Sure! Come on," said Steff. I had learned almost from the start that I was unlikely to be consulted about much of anything when the two of them were together.

I realized then that my one book would be sufficient to my needs after all. I was unlikely to be able to pay much attention to my work, not with Steff's hard, perfect body in that barely there bikini and Meredith in that gorgeous peach-colored suit dress with the deceptively high hem and just more than a skosh of cleavage.

Yeah. Poor, poor, pitiful me.

"Let me get rid of this," said Meredith, indicating her briefcase. "I may actually read for pleasure for a bit," she added, mostly to herself, and headed back into the house.

I figured there was an inevitable hard-on or two in the offing this afternoon, especially with the two of them out there, so I decided to save my forays into the water for when I need to hide those. I picked up my book and tried to study. At least it was an interesting subject; interesting enough to keep me from constantly peeking over the top to gaze at Steff's shapely tits in that bikini top and imagining her out of said top. My first view of Steff's naked tits had been in those photos of her in and half out of the same red bikini. The pictures would always have a special place in my mind. So, yeah, I peeked. A lot.

But not constantly.

I was in a rare moment of actual immersion in the text, finally puzzling out an obscure point that had escaped me before then, when I heard Steff practically shriek, "Meredith!" I jerked my eyes up to Steff and she was sitting bolt upright on her chaise. Her expression was half amused, but fully scandalized.

I swung my eyes to Meredith, who was strolling back out on the patio.

I was bummed to see that she had not only ditched her briefcase, but had changed out of that glorious, sexy business outfit.

Bullshit.

She moved onto the pool patio carrying a paperback novel. She was wearing a high-cut, french-style bikini bottom in brilliant white, and a gauzy black pool coverup. The cover up was almost completely sheer, which didn't matter since it was completely open. You will note I haven't yet described her top. That's because she wasn't wearing one. She looked at Steff with an expression of utter, sincere puzzlement on her face. "What?"

I made a note to never play poker with Meredith Chisholm.

She just casually walked past me, favoring me with just a bland smile, then grabbed the cushioned chaise on the other side of Stef's from my own. She tugged it into a slightly better angle, slid the coverup which was not covering anything up anyway off her shoulders and sat on the side of the seat.

Steff was still staring at her. When Meredith looked back, Steff visibly shifted her gaze back and forth between Meredith's bland face and her exposed chest. Meredith pretended to finally understand what had Steff so shocked. "Come on, Stephanie!" she scoffed mildly. "When was the last time either of us recently lay out here with a top on? I'm honestly surprised you are wearing yours."

'Recently', I had sussed out in recent days, was code between the two for: Since Meredith had been widowed and Steff made an orphan.

In reply, Steff just wordlessly indicated me.

Meredith just crossed her arms in opposition, a gesture with the added benefit of pressing her breasts upward. "Please," she said firmly. "Are you telling me that you have anything Scott hasn't seen... in detail?"

Steff just stared at Meredith in disbelief that they were having this conversation front of me. I didn't believe it either, but I was getting used to being utterly bemused whenever I was around these two at the same time. "No..." Steff admitted finally. "But I really do have a lot of work to do this afternoon!"

Meredith just sighed. "Your father I really should have tried harder to get you to take a gap year and wander Europe like I did," she said with a soft shake of her head. "Then you would have spent enough time on topless beaches to realize that men are actually quite easily capable of seeing naked breasts and not turning into slobbering, uncontrolled beasts."

Steff stared at her for a moment longer, then reached back behind her to tug at the ties other bikini top. She paused and looked over her shoulder at me. "I'm serious. No slobbering beast?"

Oh. I was suddenly allowed to speak, huh? "Cross my heart," I said somberly, deliberately taking my hungry eyes off her, off both of them, and looking down at my textbook. "Heaven forbid that I do anything to chance the appearance of tan lines on the torso of anyone in this household," I muttered quite loudly.

I heard no laughter, and worried I might have spoken more than was allowed. I looked up again quickly and briefly met two pairs of twinkling eyes.

Steff tugged her top loose and laid it aside. She grabbed a can of aerosol sunscreen and calmly coated her now exposed tits. She grabbed her textbook and tossed the can to Meredith, who caught it with a thank you.

I really, really, wanted to volunteer my services with the sunscreen, but thought it best not to press my luck. Besides, that fucking aerosol stuff was way too easy for Meredith to apply by herself, rendering any help I could have offered transparently unnecessary.

And there the three of us sat, in companionable silence. I actually studied my textbook (mostly). Steff worked away at some problems for Statistics. Meredith quietly lay back, spectacularly of course, and read whatever trashy romance novel she held. I knew it was a trashy romance because the cover featured two and a half acres of cleavage, and because her nipples were getting a little hard.

After around half an hour, Steff slapped down her pencil and declared, "There! Last Stats homework of the year done." She unfolded herself from the chaise and wordlessly dove into the pool. She immediately burst back to the surface and gasped, "Wow! The heater hasn't done as good a job as I thought!" I laughed. Meredith winced. Steff still swum around a bit before she swayed up the steps toward me.

Jesus.

Water glistened all over her body, sparkling in the sun and running down her curves in rivulets. She lifted her arms and ran her fingers through her short brown hair. That raised her beautiful tits up and I could only stare at her nipples, almost violently erect from the cold water. By the time she reached her chaise and grabbed a towel, the tent which had disappeared from my board shorts in the recent quiet made a rapid, eager return.

I considered hopping in the pool, to hide my rather inescapable condition until it subsided. Then I shrugged and told myself 'fuck it.' I could be wordlessly raunchy too. I leaned back in my chaise, read my book, and let my trunks tent up mightily. I heard one of them snort quietly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Meredith lean over and poke Steff. She pointed at me and Steff followed her gesture.

"Pretty brazen there, Talbott!" laughed Steff.

I wordlessly looked up at her, then down at her delectable tits, then past her to Meredith's graceful, exposed form, then back at Steff's boobs for good measure, before meeting her gaze again. I then just shrugged and went back to my book.

I received ten whole seconds before the shoe dropped.

"Scott, darling!" came Meredith's voice, so sugary sweet I knew something was up. Steff shifted a tiny bit at the endearment, which had recently crept into Meredith's vocabulary. "Something, I can't imagine what, makes me think to ask if you remembered."

I looked at her warily.

"Have you had a chance to take care of my suggestion?"

"Suggestion?" put in Steff.

"Suggestion?" I asked. I had a sneaking suspicion that I had wanted to forget whatever suggestion that she had made....

"Yes," said Meredith, not pleased, but not surprised that I had forgotten what she had said. "I told you that we would all be much happier if you shaved the bushes from around the base of that tree," she said, pointing an elegant finger at the erection I had so very unwisely failed to hide.

I was speechless. I was very unenthused at the sudden turn in events, but mostly I was speechless. Steff was not.

"You want him to shave his balls?" she exclaimed, her voice shocked.

"Well," replied Meredith calmly, "I'm not putting them in my mouth while they are still covered with pubes. I assume that you won't either. Or at least I wouldn't recommend it."

"Meredith!" Steff gasped.

"Are we still teaching?" asked Meredith mildly. "If you haven't tried paying oral attention to the testicles, I will tell you, men do love it. Also, a shaved man just looks bigger." She turned to me as if Steff had not interrupted her plot. "I am going with the assumption, Darling, that you have not shaved yourself and just forgot about it?"

I looked at her like a trapped animal.

"Meredith, I... Steff... I mean..." I spluttered. At last I just exclaimed, "Look, I do not want to shave my junk! The last thing I want it to wave a sharp blade around down there. It is fucking terrifying."

Now they both laughed at me. "You aren't getting any sympathy from the women present about shaving your groin, Buster," said Steff firmly.

I buried my face back in my textbook, probably blushed a little, and muttered something insincere about considering it more fully.

Meredith seemed to feel that she had made her point, and resigned to the idea that she would be making it again later. She lifted her book and resumed reading herself.

I fretted about that 'later'....

Steff was still amused at the suggestion, and at my discomfort, and grinned at me for a few minutes. She resumed reading for not much more than a moment before she leapt up and almost ran into the house. I looked after her, then shrugged. Laughter led to calls of nature with women, I'd learned.

With Steff gone, I turned to Meredith and asked, "So tell me about these maniac customers of yours."

Steff's absence also had Meredith apparently ready to converse as well. She laid down her book and told me, "They really aren't so bad. Most of the time, dealing with them is nothing more than herding cats. But the cousins screwed them once upon a time and the one thing all my group agrees on wholeheartedly is reaming them out hard with every legal opportunity that presents itself. It can get a little exhausting, and Oh Dear Lord, I am so sorry Scott!!!"