Give & Take Among Friends Ch. 09

She smiled mysteriously. "I don't want to tell you all my secrets." After a pause, she added, "What I'm saying is that some people just aren't disposable. They occupied a serious niche at some point in my life. I'll feel that way about you too if ever things change -- if you should move or decide to concentrate just on Lila, or whatever."

I patted her thigh, and probably squeezed a little.

"Is that an indication you want me to pull over on the state forest land up ahead?" she asked, smiling. She phrased it lightly, but I felt she would comply in a second if I said yes. I had another vision of Mike -- this one of his fat dangling dick bobbing around as he walked into the parlor in the nude.

"No, I have a headache," I said, with a straight face.

She looked at me dubiously, then burst out laughing. In a moment she got straight-faced herself.

"You said before you felt a tiny bit jealous. Does your headache result from my doing it with Mike?"

"A little," I admitted. "Those stars you referred to a moment ago just aren't right for me at present." She looked a little pensive. I decided to change the subject, and told her Mike was not the entire reason for my subdued libido -- that I was also concerned about Lila, who had gone to the city for shopping and was not answering her phone.

"That's not like her," Rachel agreed. "She's usually compulsive about taking calls. Maybe she forgot to charge it."

"There's a charger in the van. She could charge it from the utility plug."

"Maybe she doesn't realize she forgot to charge it, and that's why she hasn't," Rachel said.

"Maybe," I agreed. I had assumed the phone was turned off and not thought about that possibility. However, it did not change what I knew from the digital tracking program, which I did not want to talk about with Rachel.

"Or maybe she's turned the phone off because she's having an affair," Rachel suggested, with a straight face. I looked at her stonily, and she laughed. "I'm just joking. Super-straight Lila having an affair? At most, she just decided to stop at the university and shag Eli."

Bingo! And Rachel had not needed a GPS digital tracking program to figure it out. I also reflected on her definitions of "super-straight' and "affair." Apparently boffing someone in our polyamorous ménage did not negate straightness or qualify as an affair, even if done outside our usual group setting. Rachel saw it as socially-acceptable, and Lila as still straight and faithful.

Rachel pulled into our drive and stopped at the house. We got my bike out of the back. I thanked her for the lift and told her again I would not say anything to Eli about her adventure with Mike.

"I'm coming in with you," she said. "Try phoning Lila again, and if we can't get her we should make some calls to the police or whoever monitors accidents." She looked serious. "We should also call Eli. If he hasn't seen her, he can check from that end."

I found this touching, and hugged her. The nympho with a heart.

Just then, there was the sound of another car's tires crunching on the gravel and the glare of headlights as our van came up the drive. Lila pulled in next to us and got out with a bag of market goods. She smiled, while seeming a little surprised to see Rachel.

"You had us worried," Rachel said, before Lila could say anything. "You haven't been answering your calls."

Looking even more surprised, Lila handed me the bag and took the phone from her purse. It showed a dead battery. "Guess I forgot to charge it," she said. "Why were you guys trying to call me?"

"I wanted to ask you to get me something from the mall," I said. "It doesn't matter. Everything's fine, long as your okay."

"Well, nothing more I can do here," Rachel said, pecking Lila on the cheek and getting in her truck. Before closing the door, she added, "By the way, I just gave your boyfriend a ride home because he took a long bike ride trying to work out his anxiety over your incommunicado status, and lost track of time. Bye." She waved at me, turned around and was gone.

"I bet she did give you a ride and you lost track of time," Lila quipped with a sour smile.

"You have a suspicious mind," I said, as we walked to the house. "Well, how did your day go? You were gone a lot longer than I thought you'd be."

"I'm sorry about missing your call. Actually, I found what I was after very quickly, and since I was already halfway there, I thought I'd go talk to the music department at the university. Eli said last weekend he might be able to wangle some financial help if I go for my master's degree."

"Oh? How could you manage that and still be teaching?"

"Eli said I could work out a night schedule for classes. It would be hectic, working, commuting and all, but I could manage it."

"So, how did it go?"

She shook her head. "Not so good. The right people weren't there. I found Eli just as he was winding up a class."

"I bet he was glad to see you." She looked at me vaguely. Why did I phrase it like that? I hoped my voice did not betray any of my emotions.

"Well, he wasn't hostile, but he said I should have called first. He couldn't find the guy in the music department who he wanted me to talk with. We went to his office, but I didn't stay long." She began putting away the items she had purchased into kitchen cabinets. I tried to think about a tactful way to express my curiosity about what had happened in her short time in Eli's office, but Lila continued the narrative without prompting.

"His office is tiny, between the desk, book shelves and the couch where he sleeps, which must take up a good part of the room when it's folded out." She smiled, "I asked if that was where he did the 'special instruction' we had heard so much about. He confirmed it and said he would love to give me a sample of that instruction if I wanted it." She arched her eyebrows. "I was about to tell him I would take a rain check, and talk about a fortuitous coincidence, just then a very attractive co-ed showed up for an appointment, which he had apparently forgotten about." She paused a moment and laughed. "Eli has such nerve. He actually tried to reschedule with her, saying something had come up with a friend, indicating me. It was so funny. The girl was looking at me openly hostile and jealous. I told him to keep the appointment, that it was getting late and I had to start back home. And I left."

"You didn't take him up on the 'instruction' offer? You gave up your time for that girl?"

"Yeah," she said, in an "of course" manner. "It just wouldn't have felt right. Maybe it's silly, considering all that's happened lately, and how close he and I have become, but..." She paused a moment. "Somehow, it would have felt like I was cheating on you. I told you I was going shopping. I didn't say anything about seeing Eli. It's one thing to... be with him when you're around and know about it, but it seemed like this would have been doing it behind your back."

Wow, I felt touched at this, as well as relieved, and kissed her brow.

Also," Lila continued, "and this is really stupid -- after I left, I actually felt a little of what that girl probably did. I didn't like the thought of Eli doing with her what he does with me. It was almost as if he was cheating on me. I actually got a little angry." She laughed again. "I was surprised at myself for having that feeling."

Wow, I was about to say I knew exactly what she was feeling, but how could I tell her that without implicating Rachel and her dalliance with Mike.

"Maybe I still take it all a little too seriously," Lila continued. "You didn't tell me you were going to see Rachel today. I felt another little tinge of jealousy seeing you two together when I pulled up; you hugging her. I know that's stupid too, all things considered. I suppose the four of us should just declare open season on making it with each other at any time. It seems like the three of you are there already. As usual, I'm still catching up." She looked pensive.

"If it makes you feel any better," I told her, "as Rachel said, she and I didn't do anything. She really just gave me a ride home. If I had been able to contact you, I wouldn't have been restless and probably not even taken my bike out today.

"Really?" She brightened, and looked tenderly at me, then kissed me.

"Yeah, and I have a confession to make. I knew you were at the university. When I couldn't get you on the phone, I used the GPS to get an idea where you were. Then I wondered whether you'd ditched me today to shag Eli, and went out on the bike to pedal away my frustration. I wasn't even aware how far I'd gone until I wound up near Rachel's, and she only gave me a meal and a ride home."

"You beautiful, caring man," she said. "So, I'm not alone in my insecurity, and you didn't make a big cycle excursion just to screw your other woman?" She kissed me again, deeper this time. We held it for a while before unlocking our lips.

"You know," she said, "considering how we both deprived ourselves of sexual gratification today, perhaps we owe it to ourselves to make up for that, right now."

I had a vision of diving into the deep pools of those dark eyes, even as I stiffened below. We went up to the bedroom.