Cherrywood Circle

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Elaine jerked her eyes back up to Nala's face. "I... yes! We can invite some of the other ladies from church and-"

"I was thinking just you, Elaine," Nala said, cutting her off gently. "You seem amicable enough. I don't know how many of these other ladies would really like the idea without you giving it a test-run first."

Before Elaine's mind had caught up with her mouth she said, "Sure!"

Nala brightened. "Awesome. Friday, six-thirty sound good?"

"I..." Too late to back out now. "Sounds fine to me."

"Alright, then. Take it easy, Elaine." Nala ran her fingers along the metal of the car as she did a half turn and sashayed away. Elaine's eyes lingered on the back and forth motions of her ass until she got in her own car, then hit the gas and peeled out of the church parking lot far quicker than was appropriate.

Later that night, Elaine dreamed again.

She was no longer in an opulent central chamber of a palace, but in a large bedroom looking out over a glittering city of sand, ivory, and gold. Heat rolled through the window, the breeze stirring thin silk curtains, blowing them back so their hems almost touched the rumpled sheets of the massive bed that sat near the windows. The inside of the bedroom was filled with tropical plants, their leaves strong and green. Water splashed over a small fountain filled with rocks, filling the space with a crisp smell.

Her body was slick with sweat, her cotton shift sticking to her body in the most lewd of ways. It clung to her chest, hugging the curves of her breasts and the jutting nubs of her nipples. The belt was wrapped around her small belly and full hips, and the fabric of the garment hooked tight between her legs, sweat and feminine passion mingling into a slick cocktail that slickened the cleft of her thighs.

She rid herself of the offending garment, letting it fall so it puddled around her feet. The heat rolled across her body, sweat springing free of her pores and rolling down her skin. Elaine licked her lips, tasting the salt there, along with a tinge of something else. It was like meat, flavorful and rich, and she realized her whole mouth was full of the taste.

A body pressed up against her back, hands the color of tree bark reaching around to cup and squeeze her breasts. Elaine moaned and arched her back, feeling another pair of breasts touch the small of her back. The other woman's sweat mingled with her own, and the heat and the scent of their meeting filled the room.

"Drown with me," an achingly familiar voice whispered in her ear. Elaine turned, and caught a flash of aquamarine eyes before everything went dark and she woke up.

Her body was drenched in sweat, her nightgown clinging to her skin, so coarse and rough compared to the smooth silk of the dream. Her heart thundered in her chest as she looked around her bedroom. Vincent was gone, as per usual, and she was all alone.

Elaine felt a slickness between her legs again. She rubbed her thighs together, her body knowing what it was but her mind refusing to acknowledge it, stymied by years of religious conditioning.

"It's that woman," she whispered to herself in the darkness of her bedroom. She was tempting Elaine, testing her, a challenge sent by the Lord made manifest in brown skin and taut curves. She would rise to meet it, and would prevail.

She just had to cancel the dinner plans first.

After the afternoon service the next day, Elaine was gathering up the hymnals again, humming a song to herself, when someone rapped a knuckle on the wooden side of the pew.

"Elaine!" came Nala's smooth voice.

Elaine stood upright as if she'd been shocked with a cattle prod. Nala was wearing even more casual clothes this time, a low-cut shirt and jeans accessorized with a beautiful necklace of turquoise and navy blue beads that drew Elaine's eye to the hollow of her throat, and then, almost naturally, lower to the line of her breasts before she snapped her gaze upwards. "N-Nala, hello!"

Nala clapped her hands together. "So I totally forgot to get your number yesterday and I wanted to ask you something about dinner on Friday so I figured I'd come find you here! Are you allergic to anything? Any nuts or things like that?"

"No," Elaine replied automatically before her mind caught up with her and she remembered what she was supposed to be telling Nala.

"Great!" Nala said. She fished around in her pocket for a moment, then passed Elaine a folded piece of paper. "Here's the house address and my number if you need to reach me. I have to go, have to hit the store and get cooking! Seeya Friday!" Before Elaine could respond, Nala spun on her heel and hurried out of the church, leaving Elaine to stare after that heart-shaped behind as she left.

The door closed behind Nala, the click echoing through the church. Elaine looked down at the piece of paper in her hand for a moment before unfolding it. Nala's phone number was written in neat, tidy digits, below which was her address on Cherrywood Circle. She held it in her hand for a moment before walking over to the smattering of candles that burned at the small offering shrine to the Virgin Mary. Gingerly, she took the paper in her hand and held it just out of reach of the candle flame.

Lower it, she willed herself. Lower it and be done with it.

But it wouldn't be the end, would it? Nala knew where she was most of the time, and it wasn't like she could just not go to church. There was no way to ghost her. She was hooked into the dinner.

Slowly Elaine stowed the folded paper in her purse. Well, it would probably be a nice dinner at least. Just dinner. Nothing more.

Elaine dreamed of the desert palace that night and Thursday night. Both dreams were more abstract, a series of discordant images of sand, ocean water, and glittering gold. She woke up with that taste in her mouth again, and found it growing more and more pleasant.

Friday came, and after the afternoon service Elaine drove back home. To her surprise, Vincent's motorcycle was in the driveway, and she heard an upbeat radio rock track blaring from the speakers in the garage. She walked up the concrete and ducked under the door.

Her husband has lost weight in the past couple months, some of his belly disappearing. He was leaner, his hair grown out a little more and touched up with some highlights. He looked up as she entered. Briefly, she saw a flash of affection in his eyes, the part of him that still loved her coming surfacing for a brief moment. Then it was gone, replaced by a careful, guarded look that had become the norm for their frosty interactions. "Elaine."

"Hello, dear," Elaine said. "Not busy this evening?"

"Yeah, just... thought I'd work on the bike a little bit."

She nodded. "I'm going someplace this evening. Will you be okay on your own for dinner? There's chicken and vegetables in the freezer."

Vincent leaned on his workbench, slowly wringing a cloth between his fingers. "I think I can handle that, yeah. Where are you off to?"

"I've been invited to dinner by a young woman from the church."

One of Vincent's eyebrows rose. "To a restaurant."

"No. Her home for dinner."

"Just the two of you?"

"Just us."

He nodded slowly. "Well... that's nice. Good to know you're socializing."

"Indeed." They stood there awkwardly for a moment, neither of them knowing what to say after that. So much of the energy had gone out of their relationship, and they both knew it, but neither of them were willing to take the steps necessary to fix it, be it them separating or actually working out their issues.

So Elaine simply muttered, "I'm going to go get ready," turned on her heel, and walked up the steps into the house.

She picked a dress from the back corner of her closet, a deep purple one with a slightly racy neckline. To her surprise, it still fit. Elaine turned to and fro in front of the mirror, admiring the way the dress hugged her curves, before chiding herself. Now was not the time for sinful behavior.

She was back outside in less than five minutes, her heels clicking on the walkway down to the driveway. Vincent had turned his music up, and Elaine struggled not to look inside his garage domain as she got back in her car and backed up out of the driveway. As she drove away, though, she saw Vincent lean out of the garage and watch her go.

Cherrywood Circle wasn't too far from Orchard Street, and Elaine picked out the deep green house quickly. The driveway was occupied by Nala's sedan, as well as a big SUV and a red truck. Elaine parked on the street and got out of her car slowly, pausing to adjust her heels and straighten out her dress before she walked up the driveway to the porch and the front door.

"Coming!" Nala called from inside the house after Elaine rang the doorbell. A moment later, Elaine heard the lock click and the door open. "Hello!" Nala said in a singsong voice. She blinked and looked Elaine up and down. "Oh, wow. You didn't have to dress up just for me, Elaine, this is super casual!"

"I..." Elaine said, looking down at herself and feeling incredibly awkward. "I didn't want to presume."

"Oh, you're fine," Nala said, taking a step back. "Come on in!"

The moment Elaine stepped over the threshold she was hit with a cornucopia of delightful smells - cinnamon, sweet potatoes, something spicy entwined with the savory aroma of broiling meat. She caught herself inhaling deeply. "Heavens, it smells wonderful in here."

"I timed it just right for you to get here," Nala said, closing the door behind Elaine. "Here, I've got your purse."

"Oh, thank you." Elaine looked around the foyer as Nala squared her things away. The walls were a soft brown color like beach sand, with framed pictures hung at regular intervals of Nala and her family. A staircase led up to the second floor. To her left was a sitting area, to her right was a den, and in front of her was a hallway from which the smells were emanating.

"Shall we?" Nala breezed down the hallway, and Elaine followed, fighting to keep her eyes from straying down towards the younger woman's rear. Memories of the dream pressed in on her, and she pushed them back. She would be strong.

The kitchen was warm, the fragrances even stronger. To her left was the prep area, with black marble countertops and sleek, modern appliances. In the center of the rest of the space was a big oaken table with six chairs tucked away neatly underneath it.

A couple dishes were already on the counter, and Elaine wandered over to inspect them. "Sweet potato casserole, green beans, good heavens, you didn't have to go this far."

Nala snickered. "I like to cook and I don't have the occasion very much. Indulge me." The stove buzzer went off, and she donned a pair of thick oven mitts to pull a pork roast out of the broiling heat, the pan around the meat clustered with various kinds of peppers. Heat warped the air above the meat, and the thick spicy smell came much stronger to Elaine's nose. "The pork is a bit of an experiment, I'll admit," Nala said. "But I think it'll be good."

As the food cooled a little, Nala got out plates and cutlery for the two of them and Elaine set the table. She started to set them up across from one another, but then reasoned that since it was just the two of them, why not be a little closer? So she set one plate in front of the chair at the head of the table and another to it's right.

"Hot hot hot, 'scuse me!" Nala brushed past her and set down the sweet potato casserole on a wooden coaster. Her hip rubbed along Elaine's, sending tingles down the older woman's leg. "Almost dropped that, shit."

The expletive made Elaine flinch. "It's alright, you made it."

"That I did!" Nala flashed her a winning smile. "Let me get the rest and we can chow."

Elaine quickly dropped into a seat and folded her hands on the table as Nala moved the rest of the food from the counter to the table. "One last thing." She vanished into the hallway, and Elaine heard her fumbling around in a closet. A moment later, Nala returned with a bottle of wine in her hand, the liquid within a deep black. "Dad never told me I couldn't dip into the good stuff," she said with a conspiratorial wink.

Nala kneaded her fingers together. "I'm... not much of a wine person."

"Oh, come on, a little won't hurt you. Besides, this is vintage stuff." Nala grabbed two big glasses out of the cabinet and brought them and the bottle to the table. She sat down in the chair at the head of the table and popped the cork off the bottle, then bent the stem towards her nose for a sniff. "Ooof, heavenly." She offered it to Elaine.

She hesitated for a moment, then sniffed cautiously. Heavy grape notes flooded her sinuses, heady and strong. "Wow," she said. "Well, one glass can't hurt."

"That's the spirit!" Nala poured out two glasses of the wine and set the bottle aside. With several deft motions she cut off a slice of the roast and slid it on Elaine's plate, spearing a few thick chunks of pepper and setting them on top of the meat. "Again, the flavors should compliment each other in theory." Her voice grew faux-serious. "In theory."

Elaine snickered. "We shall see." She paused - she could hardly remember the last time she'd actually laughed honestly.

They added spoonfuls of green beans and sweet potatoes to their plates, and Nala took her wine glass in hand and held it out. "Cheers, Miss Elaine. Hopefully this is a suitably good first impression."

Elaine stared at Nala's slender arm for a second longer than was really necessary before catching herself and holding up her own glass. "So far, I think it has been." Nala's smile made her whole body feel warm.

Then, a few moments later after her first bite of pork, her whole body felt even warmer. Elaine coughed, then reached for her wine glass and took a deep sip. The thick vintage smothered the heat crackling on her tongue almost instantly. "Oh... oh my, that's..."

Across from her Nala was doing the same. "Mmmhmm!" She set her glass down and exhaled loudly. "Think I laid the rub on a little too thick. Or maybe the jalapenos in the pepper mix were a bit much." She coughed too, and took another sip of wine. "Maybe we cut it with the potatoes a little?"

Elaine gathered up some of the potatoes on her fork, speared a cube of roast, and popped it in her mouth. The spice blended with the cinnamon in the casserole, the combination filling her mouth with an addicting flavor. "Oh, yes, that works quite well."

"Awesome." Nala ate with a will, taking long sips from her wine glass.

"So what is your plan for the future, say the next six months or so?" Elaine asked, taking more measured sips from her glass to bring the heat back to bearable levels whenever it became too much.

"Well, I'm looking for work right now," Nala said, setting her fork down for a moment to refill the wine glasses. "Watching the house, obviously. Just trying to get my feet under me as best I can, you know?"

"What kind of work are you looking for in particular?" Elaine asked.

"Just about anything I can, really." Nala chewed the last bite of her roast thoughtfully. "I think it's easier to go broad first, then once you've got something you can use that as a springboard to find the thing you really want to do, you know."

"Be careful not to let yourself get stuck in a rut," Elaine said. The words came out harsh, a brief betrayal of her inner turmoil. She took a long pull from the wine glass. The alcohol was sitting nicely in her stomach along with the meat and vegetables, her whole body pleasantly warm.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Nala said as she dragged the last of her green beans through the roast juices and chewed thoughtfully, her eyes on Elaine. "You seem to handle routine just fine."

Elaine almost laughed, but stayed silent as she finished eating and set her utensils down. This was the moment where she was supposed to thank Nala for the food, politely but firmly tell her off, and leave. But the words she'd planned to say evaporated in her mouth, and what came out instead was, "I think it's a matter of perspective."

Nala folded her hands and rested her chin on them. Those beautiful blue eyes held no judgement. "How so?"

Elaine slowly drank the rest of the wine in her glass, sip by sip, her throat bobbing with each swallow. Nala waited patiently. The alcohol gone, Elaine gently set the wine glass down on the table. The wine liberated her tongue, and she felt able to speak freely. "The line between routine and rut sneaks up on you fast, Nala, and then before you know it your husband and you barely speak." Her fingers curled in the tablecloth. "And you have no idea how to fix it but neither of you know what else to do, so you just let it happen and you grow further and further apart."

Nala exhaled, then offered her a small smile. "I mean, the whole husband thing won't be a problem for me, but I get where you're coming from."

Elaine's head snapped towards Nala. "You're...?"

The young woman nodded. "Through and through."

Elaine looked across from her chair at the cool brown of the wall. Then she held out her wine glass. "I'm already breaking so many of God's rules tonight, so might as well."

"Now you're talking." Nala poured her another glass.

Half of it was gone in one big sip. "When were you planning on telling me this?"

"It seemed appropriate," Nala said, setting aside the bottle. "I'd rather break the truth to you now than have us go a while. I didn't know how you'd react."

Elaine made a dismissive gesture with her free hand. "My son is... one of you. He's allowed to make his own choices." The wine was coursing through her now, her whole body feeling good from the food and drink.

Nala tilted her head back, her dreads brushing along her shoulders, and Elaine thought of a lioness waiting to pounce upon her prey. "Does it run in the family, though? If you and your husband as this distraught, then maybe it's a fundamental issue of compatibility."

"Oh, there was plenty of compatibility in our youth, don't you worry," Elaine said. "But such things can only go on for so long before you have to take your soul into account. Debauchery must be atoned for."

Nala clicked her teeth. "See, I don't agree with that." She got up from the chair and moved around the table corner to kneel next to Elaine. As she did, Elaine got a whiff of Nala's perfume for the first time, a rich earthy scent. "I think debauchery is a natural part of the human experience, and that God's willing to overlook some indulgences here and there."

Elaine narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying?"

Nala licked her lips, her eyes hard like chips of topaz. "I have a weakness for married women who aren't getting what they need from their husbands, Elaine. Women who are frustrated, women who are needy. And I like to satiate that need. The best place to find such women are at a church." She reached out and laid her fingertips on Elaine's thigh, rubbing slowly. Every fiber of Elaine's being screamed at her to recoil and bolt, but she remained transfixed by those beautiful eyes. Nala rolled her head, exposing her neck for a brief moment and filling Elaine with an overwhelming urge to lick and suck on the dark flesh there. "But I'm not going to force you to do anything."

Elaine's breathing was deep and shaky. "What are you going to do, then?"

Nala grinned, then got to her feet. She turned and walked towards the entrance of the kitchen. There, she stopped, her hands in front of her. A moment later, Elaine's eyes widened as Nala drew her jeans down her legs, baring her supple ass. The young woman wore a pair of frilly black panties that showed more skin than they concealed, the lacy fabric stretched to its limit to contain her. "Go upstairs and wait," she said. "You can leave, or you can join me." She looked over her shoulder and winked. "I'll be fine either way. Question is, what about you?" Then she left, and a moment later, Elaine heard her feet on the wooden stairs heading to the second floor.