An Accidental Adventure

"So all I have to do is show up and have a drink?" Dana asked cautiously.

"Well, there is one other little thing," Gail smiled.

"Here it comes," Dana thought.

"What I want you to do, as you go about doing whatever it is that you have to do between now and then," Gail said, "is wonder what it might be like to actually be with another woman. How her naked body would feel against your own, or how soft her lips might be. I want you to imagine the sweetness of her breasts and what it might be like to have her tongue caress your clit in a way that no man ever could. If you can ask yourself all of those questions and not want to find out the answers, well then, just leave after that drink and that will be just fine with me."

With that, Gail rose from the table, dropping a five-dollar bill onto it that more than covered the cost of the two coffees. As she walked out of the shop and across the parking lot toward her car, Dana sat totally stunned. It wasn't until the waitress came back over to inquire if she wanted anything else that she remembered that she had to be at work in less than a half hour.

-=-=-=-

Traffic was with her and she arrived at Sally's Sandwich Shop just off Washington Square only fifteen minutes late. Even so, she went around back and slipped into the store via the rear exit. Quickly donning a plain white apron over her t-shirt and shorts, Dana slipped into the public half of the store as unobtrusively as possible. Her belated appearance didn't go unnoticed by the similarly clad girl already behind the counter, but there were enough customers waiting for service that it would be almost an hour before the brunette could say anything about it.

"Alarm not go off again?" Karen Payne asked as she used a wet towel to wash off the countertop. "Or did Jack wake up and want an early morning encore?"

The two girls, aside from their similar apparel, looked enough alike to be mistaken for sisters. As it was, they were closer than most biological siblings, having been best friends since grade school. One of the few things they did disagree about was Dana's current boyfriend, for whom Karen made no effort to hide her dislike.

"I'll have you know I didn't even spend the night at Jack's," Dana said as she wiped down her half of the counter. "I was in a... I was just delayed this morning, that's all."

"Well you were lucky that Mrs. Goldman picked today to go to the bank before coming in," Karen pointed out. "You know how she feels about people showing up late for their shift."

Sally Goldman was the proprietor of the small sandwich shop, which, since it had opened thirty years before, had proved both popular and profitable. Located within walking distance of NYU, where both Dana and Karen took classes, it was the perfect part time job. More so since Sally was such a firm believer in higher education that she was quite willing to employ a number of college students, working around their class schedules. Of course, that didn't mean that she would put up with any nonsense such as being constantly late.

Karen waited a few moments to see if there was more of an explanation forthcoming, and when none was, let the matter drop. At least until they'd taken care of the new customers that had just walked in.

"So how are things with you and Mr. Wonderful these days?" she asked Dana once the last customer had been taken care of.

"Things are fine," Dana said, her answer lacking conviction. "As good as always."

"That good, huh," Karen snickered.

"I've never understood what it is you have against Jack," Dana retorted.

"Oh there are a number of things," Karen said, "the list being topped by the fact that it appears, at least to me, that the two of you spend more time fighting than fucking, and that's never good."

"Wasn't it you who told me once that "makeup sex" was the best kind," Dana grinned.

"It has its limits," Karen replied. "Seriously, Dana you know I love you, and I hate seeing you make some of the same mistakes I've made with guys. God knows that I went out with some real winners," she added with a heavy touch of sarcasm, "before Roger, of course."

Karen had met Roger Parsons at her sister's wedding two years before and had fell head over heels in love, or at least lust, at first sight. Fourteen months later, they'd announced their engagement. Dana had been overjoyed for her friend, even if she also felt a bit envious.

Dana found herself deliberating whether she should tell Karen about what happened this morning and get her advice. It wasn't that she considered the brunette any smarter than herself, in fact the opposite was usually true, it was just that it might help having a view from an outside perspective. She didn't get the chance, however, because Mrs. Goldman finally arrived after having finished her mid-morning errands. That put a definite crimp on any personal conversations for a while.

Lunchtime came soon enough and the two girls retired to the back room while Mrs. Goldman staffed the counter. The understanding had always been that if it got busy one or both of the girls would cut their lunch short and come out to help. Today was salad for the both of them and as they ate, Dana asked Karen a question.

"Karen, how long do you have to report an accident?" she said, trying to make the question as causal as possible.

"Oh God, don't tell me you got into another accident on the way to work today," Karen said, quickly drawing the obvious conclusion.

"No, of course not," Dana lied, "someone asked me and I didn't know, that's all. I just thought that maybe you might know, that's all."

"Okay," Karen said, unconvinced, "I'm not sure but I think it's within twenty-four hours if no one is hurt. Why don't you call and ask Jack? He should know if anyone does since he works in a repair shop."

"He doesn't go to lunch until later. I don't want to bother him while he's working," Dana said, knowing that she wouldn't call him later either.

"Hey, with the amount of time you've been spending over at his place, I would think that he'd be happy to hear from you anytime," Karen commented while she forked a bit of salad into her mouth.

"Well, to be honest, we had a fight last night and I think I should let it cool down before I call him for something so unimportant."

"What were you fighting about this time?" Karen asked as she put down her fork.

"I'd rather not say," Dana replied.

"Don't tell me he's still on your case because you don't want to try anal sex?" Karen asked. "I tell you girl, there are few things I wouldn't try, but having a cock up my ass is one of them."

"No it wasn't that," Dana said. "And I wasn't aware that there was anything that you wouldn't try

"There are a few," Karen grinned.

Dana suddenly saw an opening to get some advice without, hopefully, having to explain why.

"Karen," she said, moving closer as she dropped her voice a bit lower, "have you ever wondered what it might be like to do it with another girl?"

"That was what the fight was about, wasn't it?" Karen replied, a look of certainty on her face. "Jack couldn't get you to give up your ass, so he falls back on every guy's fantasy."

"Every guy's fantasy?" Dana repeated. "Does that mean that even Roger ..."

"Of course," Karen laughed, "but I told him right off that there had better be a ring on my finger before he ever asked me something like that again."

Dana glanced down for a moment at the engagement ring on Karen's hand.

"Yes," Karen simply said, answering Dana's unspoken question.

"Did you like it?" Dana asked.

Karen glanced over her shoulder, as if to confirm that Mrs. Goldman was still busy out in the front of the story. Then, bringing her head next to Dana's, she spoke in an almost whisper.

"I wouldn't admit this to anyone but you, and I'd never want Roger to know it," she said, "but I think I would've liked it even more if he hadn't been there. If it had just been me and her."

"Really?" Dana said in surprise. "Who was she?" she added out of curiosity.

"I'd rather not say," Karen said, the expression on her face telling Dana that if she had said a name, it would've been one that she would've recognized.

Thankfully for Karen, a reminder from Mrs. Goldman that lunch was now over prevented any further questions that might've proved embarrassing to either of them.

The afternoon proved much busier than the morning and the two girls didn't have much time to chat. This now suited Dana as it gave her a lot of time to think. When it did finally quiet down about a quarter to five, Dana had a new question to ask Karen.

"Do you think you could cover for me if I left a little early?" she said.

"Come in late and leave early," Karen replied, "I don't think that's going to go over too well with Mrs. Goldman..

"Well, she doesn't know I was late this morning, remember," Dana pointed out.

"Well, maybe it doesn't go over too well with me then," Karen said, thinking of how many times the request had been made in the past. "Unless of course you have a really good reason for asking."

"I'm supposed to meet someone for a drink later on in midtown," Dana said, thinking that the truth, or at least part of it, was the best thing to say. "I can't really go dressed like this, so I wanted to run home and change."

Karen looked at her friend, thinking she had a similar excuse all too often. Then she remembered something even more important.

"Wait a second, I thought Jack works late on Thursday nights," Karen said.

"He does," came Dana's reply.

"Well, well, well," Karen said, a broad smile filling her face at the thought that her friend was finally wising up. "I guess I could cover for you, but I'm telling you, this is going to be the last time, okay?"

Even as she said it, Karen knew it wouldn't be, and in her heart didn't really care. That was what best friends were for. -=-=-=- Traffic during rush hour being what it was, it took Dana almost an hour to make what should've been a fifteen-minute drive home. After a quick shower, she changed into a dark blue dress more appropriate to a place like the Charlton Arms. Then, after leaving a note that she wouldn't be home until late, which her parents had come to know as meaning not at all, she headed for the subway station a block away. Coming back above ground in midtown, it took her a few moments to get her bearings and remember where exactly the hotel was. She had a general idea, but had never actually been there.

When she finally found the old hotel, she was greatly impressed. The date on the cornerstone read 1925, and it looked like every effort had been made to restore it to what it looked like back then. Entering the lobby and searching around for the bar, she felt like she had suddenly been transported into her great-grandmother's day. One of her first boyfriends in high school had been an architecture major, and he was always taking her to look at classic buildings. Looking around her, she decided that Timmy would've really loved this place. It only took a minute to locate the bar, and checking her watch to make sure she was on time, Dana headed for it.

It wasn't until she was in the bar that Dana noticed what she failed to back in the lobby. All of the hotel guests seemed to be women. An assortment of different ages and types, but all well dressed, which made her very glad she'd gone home to change. The outfit she wore to work might've been fine for the local pub, but in a place like this she would've stuck out like a cheap hooker.

The left side of the room was dominated by a long, highly polished oak bar, at which stood a crowd of women almost two deep. Across from the bar was a number of small tables for two or three, and behind that sat a few booths against the far wall. She carefully looked back and forth for Gail, finally finding her in deep conversation with a similarly dressed black woman over by the last row of small tables. It took a bit of doing to work her way over there, but once she did, Gail was quick to spot her.

"Oh, there you are, darling," she said, as if Dana had merely gone to the ladies room and not just arrived.

"Hi," Dana said, suddenly feeling as if every eye on the place was on her.

"Natasha, this is my friend, Dana," Gail said, turning her attention back and forth between the new and old arrivals. "She's a new friend actually, but one that I hope will be a dear one."

Natasha said hello and that she was glad to meet any friend of Gail's. Dana took a moment to take in the woman she had just been introduced to. She was about the same height as Gail, if perhaps both a little heavier and older. Her bearing projected authority, and Dana wasn't surprised when Gail added that Natasha was a partner at a law firm that she had never heard of. From the way the blonde stressed the name of it, she assumed that it was a rather important one.

"Natasha has been handling my divorce," Gail went on.

"Your divorce?" Dana repeated, a bit surprised.

"Yes, official as of, what is it now, 'Tasha, two hours?" she laughed.

Tony had indeed been quite upset about the car when she brought it back with a damaged rear panel. His dismay, however, was quickly put aside when Gail announced that as long as she was there, why didn't she sign those annoying divorce papers and get it all over with? The car had been instantly forgotten.

"I've got to get going, Gail," Natasha said. "It was nice meeting you, Dana."

As the black woman left, Gail suggested they grab a table, one of which had just become available to their left.

"What kind of place is this?" Dana asked after they had sat down.

"What do you mean?" Gail asked as she tried to gain the attention of one of the waitresses.

"This place is filled with women only," Dana stated.

"Well, what else would you expect in a hotel for women?" Gail replied as she finally caught a waitress' attention.

"I don't understand," Dana said.

"I thought you knew," Gail replied, "when you said you knew where the Charlton was."

They were interrupted by the waitress, who took their orders and then disappeared back into the crowd. Once she was gone, Gail explained that the Charlton was one of the original "hotels for women" that had been built in the city back in the 1920's. A place where young single women who came to the city to work could live in safety away from evil men; at least, that was how it was viewed back then.

Dana had heard of such places but never believed that any still existed.

In the late '70's, the hotel started to be considered something of an anachronism and began to fall on hard times, Gail continued. At that point it looked like it would be converted to traditional housing or simply torn down. Instead, it was bought by some company named McMurphy Industries, which decided that instead of tearing it down, it would instead restore it to what it was when it first opened, and use it for the purpose it was originally intended.

"That must've cost a fortune," Dana said, looking around at all of the detail work around her, most of which had to have been done by hand.

"I'm sure it did," Gail replied, "but it sort of became a pet project of the CEO of McMurphy Industries and no one was about to tell her she couldn't do it."

"And all that stay here are women?" Dana asked.

Gail nodded her head, then jumped ahead at what she was sure was going to be the next question.

"And no, regardless what you might think, it's not a high scale lesbian bar," Gail said. "Although, as you might have noticed, some of the women around you might indeed fit that classification."

Dana had indeed noticed that some of the women sitting around them did exhibit a more physical intimacy than might be expected. Nothing overt, but noticeable if you actually looked.

"Most of the women who come here are simply looking for a place to relax in the company of other women, to enjoy their sisterhood so to speak. It's a place where you can get away from the world of men."

The waitress arrived with their drinks and Gail signed for them, reminding Dana that she'd said she had a room in the hotel. The both of them took a taste of their drinks, then Gail paid Dana a compliment.

"I should've said this before, but you look quite lovely in that dress," she said. 'Not that you didn't look fetching in the outfit you had on this morning."

"Thank you," Dana said.

"Well, here we are having our drink ..." Gail said, letting the rest of whatever she was going to say just hang there.

"So now I'm off the hook, right?" Dana asked.

"Sweetheart, let me tell you something," Gail smiled. "You were never on the hook to begin with."

With that, she told her all about who owned the car and what had happened when she returned it.

"Then it was all a joke?" Dana asked, her tone slightly antagonistic.

"Not at all," Gail assured her.

"Then why did you do all this?" the redhead asked further.

"Because I was taken by you the moment you stepped out of that car this morning and I wanted to get to know you better," Gail confessed.

"You did all of this just to get to know me better?"

"Yes, don't you think you're worth it?" Gail asked.

Dana didn't know what to answer. She did know that she couldn't have imagined any guy she'd ever known going to such lengths. In a way, it made her feel flattered.

"So, if I just get up and walk out of here, then that's that," Dana said.

"Of course, but I would hope that you'd finish your drink at least, it is rather good isn't it," Gail said. "And perhaps you'd have another after it."

"And after that?" Dana asked.

"Let's just concentrate on the now and after that will undoubtedly take care of itself, shall we?

"Well it wouldn't hurt to at least finish my drink," Dana thought. "It is rather good."

-=-=-=-

So good had that drink been that when Gail again politely suggested that Dana have another, the short haired girl couldn't see a reason why she shouldn't. The second eventually led to a third, or at least part of one, at which point Gail commented that it was never a good thing to drink on an empty stomach and offered to take her guest to dinner. The hotel had the most delightful restaurant just on the other side of the lobby, she added. Thinking that she had to eat anyway, Dana accepted the invitation. After all, as long as she was still dating guys like Jack, it was doubtful she would get the chance to eat as a place this classy anytime soon.

The meal, which Gail had ordered for both of them, proved as fabulous as Dana imagined it might have been. She had no idea what it was that she had just eaten, Gail had ordered in French, but it had Friday night at the Suds and Burger beat all hollow. With dinner had come a bottle of wine, or was it two, Dana had lost track somewhere along the line and wasn't exactly sure. Still, it wasn't a problem, she told herself, because she knew, from experience, it took a lot more than a little buzz to impair her judgment.

Okay, she reminded herself, there had been that time with Kevin O'Rourke, but that had been in junior high, and who knew that you could get really wasted on less than half a bottle of the whiskey Kevin had taken from his father's liquor cabinet? Thankfully, none of their friends believed him when he claimed the next day that she had gone down on him in the basement playroom. No one except Karen of course, but she was more than happy to pretend that she didn't believe it either, as long as Dana shared all the intimate details, or as many of them as she could remember.

But that was a long time ago, and as they sat at the small table sharing an after dinner coffee, Dana considered herself firmly in control. So much so that she had time to dwell on the fact that aside from her confession back in the bar, Gail hadn't so much as mentioned the circumstances that had brought the two of them here. It had been the pink elephant at the table, as her mother liked to call it. A topic never mentioned but unavoidably there.