In the Warm and Cozy Pt. 02 Ch. 01

The first part of In the Warm and Cozy introduces all of the characters. It's a bit long but then their romances are pleasingly complicated. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Comments are appreciated. All characters are 18 or older.

In the Warm & Cozy, Part II Literotica

Chapter 1

With a half dozen bags and Janie's inimitable rolling cart at their feet, the girls impatiently wait for the train. The big silver double decker rumbles in: At last, the train! Almost there! Snooky thinks, excited by the newness of their huge move, of the cooking school where she will test her skills, of Janie and she being together, friends or lovers, any which way they want to be, of... Well, she sighs, the waiting now at an end, so to begin their fairytales--their stories of adventures with unknowable endings.

"Let's go girlfriend!" She says aloud, reaching for Janie's hand.

In the backward seats, faces pressed to the window, they wave to the loved ones left behind: Wistful Nellie, her blond hair frilly in the breeze, a 'wish you well, wish you'd stay' look sad-sweet upon her face. Bad, bad Irma, her hand on Nellie's hip, winking at the girls through--could it be?--glistening eyes. There stands Snooky's mother, Dessi, mouthing a single word at the older Janie, her if-only lover, a word on behalf of her beautiful virgin daughter: "care..." uttered on the curve of her cautious smile, careful do not break my daughter's heart; the other a mother's wish, care for her. Papa Roscoe, his arm snug around Dessi, nodding, goodwill wide upon his open face. Goodbye! Goodbye! They all wave, bittersweet, but bright in the sunny promise of the girls off on own: big city Boston, here they come.

As the train moves down the track, Snook says, "Us...finally!"

"Finally?"

"You know what I mean, Janie. Now you can turn all of your attention on your girlfriend. Your undivided attention. My Mom will not be at the cooking school to distract you."

"Dessi and I were only flirting." Janie says a tad defensively.

"I was there behind the couch listening. Who knew Mom was that hot."

"Your aunt, of course...and Irma. There's a list." Janie giggles.

"And you."

"Only a little...in the moment, but Roscoe hired me off the streets, a stranger. I didn't want to risk messing everything up. Nellie gave me a place to stay and you made me feel so...so accepted, like I was a long lost sister."

Snooky looks thoughtfully at her best friend and potential lover, "You are part of everything now, part of me, part of my family, part of the Bella Rosa Bakery, and someday part of the team of hot girl chief's in the Bella Rosa Bistro.

......

Together they stare at their new digs in the 'dorm' of the Masterson Culinary School. Unfortunately, dorm is a misnomer, but as their benefactor reminded them it is rent free. Gazing doubtfully through cobwebs, they step over piles of discarded kitchen equipment. Like a warehouse, it is a big room filled with a sea of boxes. In the eerie half light from windows blocked by unrecognizable stuff, it is a spooky panorama ready to sweep them away into kitchen chaos.

"A little gloomy," Janie says.

"Ya think!" Laughs Snooky.

"Well," Snooky says, "it is on the top floor--kind of an attic--and you know how much we love attics," and hugs Janie, who is still looking skeptically at the clutter everywhere.

"We might be able to use some of this stuff," Janie says. "We'll have to do some rearranging. Mr. Masterson said we could relocate as much as we can fit into the other rooms on this floor."

"At least we have a big stove, and gobs of pans and, hmm, dinnerware--lots of dinnerware" or so the labeled boxes stacked in a narrow row along the wall advised.

Following a goat trail lined with stuff, they discover the bathroom--well a shower and toilet, anyway.

"What happened to the sink?" Janie asks.

"I guess we have to use that metal monster in the kitchen," Snooky giggles. "You can have a sponge bath while you wash the veggies with your toes."

Under a tarp in the corner, they find an old cracked leather couch and a rocking chair, its seat sunk low.

"Our own little 'horny couch,' "Janie laughs. "Want me to pull it away from the wall so you have a place hide, Miss Sneaky Snook?"

"Careful with the nick names, Miss Virgin Vamp. Don't we want to start fresh in the big city?"

"Yes," Janie says, looking closely at her best friend. "We do want to start fresh--sorry."

Snooky wraps her arms around Janie and burrows into her warm neck, murmuring, "Fresh start!" Freeing herself reluctantly, she adds, "So we have most of the day to find a place to sleep in all this junk. Let's check the other rooms. We need a bed.--And a frig. Maybe, there'll even be a little space somewhere to shift things around..."

The door across from them is locked. None of the keys on the big ring Mr. Masterson lent them fit. So they go down the hallway to the rooms at the back of the building, where they find the right key only to reveal--yuck!--more junk, lots more junk. A light switch adds a little depth to the piles and there they spy--way in the back by a window that overlooks the alley--an old wooden bunk bed.

"A bed?" Snooky says dubiously, she had dreamed of a queen bed--one big enough to share comfortably with her Janie.

"Maybe we can take it apart to maker one big bed," Janie tickles Snooky. "Anyway, wasn't the bed at the Bella Rosa about the same size?"

"I guess..." Snooky pouts, then smiles, "hmm, you can sleep on the top, especially when it's cold and you hog the covers, although I will miss your warm bottom!"

"Yeah that'll happen, but our bigger problem is going to be moving this heavy thing," Janie says as they get closer. Then she giggles. "It's still neat, like living in a giant yard sale where everything is free for the taking..."

"And we have a week before school starts." Snooky adds, starting to widen the path to the bed. "If we stack the boxes more neatly, we should be able to slide it to that door, but it looks too small. How did they get it in here?"

Rummaging through another path, they find a box labelled tablecloths, "Sheets!" Janie points. "I hope they don't smell greasy." Then along the side wall they see a double door. "Ha! We can get the bed out through there."

After moving the boxes blocking the doorway, they turn the handle. The door squeaks like something caught and soon to be put out of its misery. Warily, they peak in. The room is pitch black, no windows.

"Ok, Miss Vamp, your territory, I think. Hope your relatives are friendly," Snooky laughs, as they pat along the wall looking for a light switch. "I don't want to go in there without a flash light."

"I'll go get one. You can stay here and guard the spooky door. I hope you're alive when I get back!" Janie grins, poking Snooky in the ribs.

"Ow!" Snooky says, "You are such a bitch. Wait..." and searches her pockets, until she pulls out a phone, "the flashlight app!"

Into the dark, down a path created by the silvery beam, they find a room filled with shelves of books, a few more boxes, and an antique chaise lounge. A desk and a light sit in the corner and there on the opposite wall another set of double doors and a light switch.

"Ha!" Snooky says as she flicks the switch.

In the mellow light of a dusty chandelier, they find a half-habitable room, a room that looks used. The desk is neat and not dusty and on its blotter an open book rests. "Want to check out your master's reading list, Miss Vamp?" Snooky asks.

Janie is looking at the titles of the books, many are classics, formally bound, sometimes in what looks like leather, old, without colorful jackets. Several shelves are full of large half-folio illustrated cookbooks.

"Look at all these great cook books, Snook!" Janie points. "We have our work cut out for us."

"We better get permission before we move anything in here." Snook says. "I think that chaise would be neat to study on."

From behind them then comes a deep voice: "I always thought so, too, until I feel asleep on it too often."

"Oh!" Janie says as Snooky jumps to her side. "You scared us."

"How could I scare you, Miss Vamp!"

"Yes, well...maybe by eavesdropping...you and Snooky might have something in common."

"Sorry! I'm Ernie--Ernie Holmes, I live on the other side of the hall. I just got here or I would have said something earlier. I wanted to see what you thought of the library."

"Hi Ernie! This is Snooky and I'm Janie."

"Please to meet you, I hope!" Ernie laughs as he smiles at the girls. He is a handsome boy with dark eyes and curly locks. Despite the deep voice he is thin and gentle looking, standing there in cutoffs. He looks sensitive but anything feminine is countered by his broad shoulders and strong, capable arms. Janie smiles when she spies Snooky admiring his body.

"You look like you could use some help." Ernie observes. The two girls are covered in dust and their hair is disheveled, but Ernie can see two beauties, smiling through the grime at him.

"We do! We want to move that bunk bed down to the room at the end of the hall. Did you say you live up here, too, Ernie?"

"Yep. Just across from you, if that open door down the hall is yours. Hope you're not into loud parties.

"No worries, we will be too busy studying. So, is this cozy library open for everyone to use?"

"I think so--at least the kids that live up here: that would be just the three of us so far." Ernie says and goes on to admit that many of the boxes in Janie and Snooky's room were from his efforts to make his own room habitable. "That means you have my services for the week to clean up the mess I helped make."

For the next hour they dig out the big wooden bed. Some rollers help to glide it through the library and down the hallway, like a beast lumbering along with its human trainers. Then another hour of junk removal and Janie and Snooky's room is with bed, a big bunk bed in waiting.

"Now what?" Janie says, glancing at the bed in the corner by the big window. "Maybe we need blinds?"

"Naw..." Snooky says, eyeing the urban landscape outside their window: Old buildings present their brick backs, the gutters and fire escapes trailing along their walls like rusty spiders. They are on the 6th floor and overlook most of the buildings on their block. "We'll just have to watch for lights and maybe the glint of a telescope from that tall building one block over."

"Maybe they'll put us on the Internet...two virgins exploring their better halves!"

"You aren't getting cold feet are you, Snook?" Janie says wrapping her arms around Snooky and snuggling against her back.

Snooky turns like a slippery seal to face the mischievous smile of her friend. "Well, who is this aggressive girl so warm and sweet?"

"Me?" Janie says, her arms tightening against Snooky's back. Before Snooky can lean in for the kiss she most definitely wants, they are interrupted by the boy next door who has simply walked right in to find his two new friends in hot embrace.

"Oh...sorry to interrupt?" he says, his eyes wide at the sight of these two beautiful girls, the 'red and the blond' as he secretly thinks of them, pressed together, in eager arms like a heavenly vision of male fantasy.

"Sorry Ernie, we just got carried away thinking about...you know...the future."

"Nice future!"

"Yeah!" They giggle, being the unabashed playful girls they are at heart.

"So, kind sir, whose legs my girlfriend admires..." Janie has to stop as she dodges a serious tickle from a blushing Snooky.

Ernie explains that he would like to invite them to supper.

"Supper! Are you sure you can handle the appetite of two hungry girls?"

"Pasta fills the hungry heart and warms the empty belly," Ernie smilingly intones.

This is how they find themselves, the night upon them, lounging around the big wooden table on which sit huge bowls of steaming spaghetti and meat sauce. Ernie adds a some assorted wine glasses and a bottle of cheap Chianti and brings out a warmed loaf of bread, shiny with garlic butter.

"Hmm..." smiles Janie, "a feast fit for...ah...movers!"

"Hungry movers!" Seconds Snooky.

"Thank you for your help, Ern!" Janie says, purposely abbreviating his name.

"Ern?" Ernie says, "Have you been talking to my high-school buddies? Ern is for burial. You can call me Ernest or Ernie or..."

"Ernest Ernie?" Snookie smiles, checking to see just how much of a reaction she can get from this calm boy.

Ernie smiles. It is a gentle alert smile, one that acknowledges struggle but steps away, gliding effortlessly left or right to the unseen flow of what is comfortable and at ease, but not always easy.

Snooki watches that smile and responds with a light pat on Ernie's hand, "OK, no more teasing about names. We will certainly think of a good nickname for everyone we meet, but," she pauses and pats Janie on her butt, "only for those people we like."

"I can't wait." Ernie says, watching as Janie smiles at Snooky.

"Careful what you wish for around hungry girls!" Janie says, her eyes smiling.

Ernie's space is a lot neater than theirs. It is huge, with lots of old furniture arranged in a rough arc like an impromptu conversation pit. The row of three north facing windows are free of the clutter that still plagues the girls' apartment. They gaze about them admiring the possibilities of how they can transform their own space. Jane is catty-corner to Snooky and has put a mildly provocative ankle across Snooky's thigh as she talks to Ernie. Ernie smiles and smiles, at ease in the comfort of their attention even as he suspects the girls are teasing him.

"When will the other kids arrive?" Janie asks, wondering if they have time to relocate the tons of stuff in their room.

"I hear Mr. Matterson is a little selective, so maybe there won't be anyone else. Guess you have a few boxes to move, huh?" And laughs as the girls roll their eyes at him.

"Yes, we are trying our feminine wiles on the one person with the muscles to help us...this person having contributed to our overcrowding."

"No need for wiles--feminine or otherwise--I already volunteered. Anyway your lavish, I hope, real comments about my spaghetti sauce surely are thanks enough. Let's hope I can get the same response when we start school."

Snooky laughs, "Would I trick a sweet boy like you? Just to get more of that great pasta? Hmm...maybe but it's still a real compliment for your good cooking, chef!"

Ernie blushes. To be called 'chef' by this blond-haired nymph who has suddenly come with her heavenly sister nymph to live but a few feet from his once lonely door, is more than he can hope for. The girls watch him blush and almost as one untangle themselves to sit on either side of him, pressing their curvy bodies close, giggling, as they reach out to savagely tickle his lean body and its over exposed ego.

"Chef! Chef!" they say, "Bring us an appetizer!" Ernie giggles almost like a girl as he tries to hide from their nimble fingers.

After a while they settle. The girls tell him about the Bella Rosa Bakery and the people they love there. They tell him that sometime this year, he'll probably meet Nellie and Irma. That he'll drool at their beauty.

"Irma and Nellie are so hot!" Snooky says and then looks at him with a playful smirk, "Irma will stop your heart but never touch your body. She and Nellie are a couple."

"Like you and Janie?" asks Ernie.

Janie laughs. Snooki giggles. They turn to watch him as Janie says, "Maybe! Does that shock you, Ernie?"

"Nope! My cousin Julie says she's a lesbian, at least she was last year when I saw her in Wyoming. When we were growing up, she was a kissing cousin. Now, she flaunts her beautiful untouchable body just to tease me. Like you two."

"We are too dusty and raggedy to flaunt, Ernie," Snooky says, mischievously. "But we could start!"

Ernie watches, wide-eyed, as Snooky reaches across him, her chest pressed against his arm to undo Janie's blouse starting at the bottom. She begins to narrate, her eyes dancing between their startled faces:

"This little button down by her flat belly is like an appetizer, some chips on the table, celery sticks, or whatever, just a little low-cal nibble."

Next, she pauses, now draping her body over Ernie's lap so that she can kiss Janie's hand, which is pressed against the next button, baring her ascent. The first kiss is just a peck, apparently nothing much to persuade Janie to move her hand. The next kiss is a big smooch with swipe of tongue that lingers until the hand moves.

"Quit, you girl gone wild!" Janie says, her eyes turning to Ernie who knows they are now both into the tease and that he is their all-too-willing victim.

Snooky says, "Not much to see, better go to button number two." Which she plunks, watching it bounce against Janie's toned abs. "See the button. See it bounce? Isn't she fit, Ernie?"

Ernie nods and smiles, "We could raise money: The Masterson Culinary School All Girl Calendar!"

"Not just girls. You could bare your body, too. Like the firemen do for their boy-toy calendars." Janie says, and then adds: "We like your body. Maybe, just your body is enough to turn us away from the perils of being yummy lesbians." Then she bursts into giggles, surprising herself.

Meanwhile, Snooky has undone button number two to reveal the waist line of Janie's jeans, riding low, a tempting glimpse of bare alabaster belly. Ernie stares, unable to move his eyes from Snooky's fingers holding the top of Janie's pants.

"Now here is a more important button," Snooki says as she smiles at her friend. "If we don't undo these tight pants poor Janie's belly will be too tight, especially after all of your saucy spaghetti, Chef Ernie. Did you overfeed us starving girls on purpose, just to see us fall out of our clothes?"

Janie moves her hands to Snooky's wrist, not wanting that button to be undone, afraid of how far her excited girlfriend might go. Snooky pulls her in and kisses her lips to distract her. "Don't worry...just the button not the zipper!" her smiling eyes look at her best friend, "Just trust me!"

Then Snooki turns to Ernie, "Isn't that what all the boys say?"

"Like the check is in the mail and I won't..." Ernie can't go on, blushing like a flower in bloom, bright in the sun of these gorgeous girls. He tentatively presses Snooki's hand pushing against Janie's bare belly, "She can save the button for you and only you."

Snooki laughs, "The zipper is for me, the button is for you!" And slips her hand out from under Ernie's so that now Ernie feels Janie's tantalizing bare flesh. Feels the warm wonder of it and blushes even more.

With one hand still pressed on his, she reaches out to caress his blush. "When you were cooking we were both impressed by these rosy cheeks. They make you look so sweetly enthusiastic, like a photogenic candidate for the Food Network."

Ernie decides to push a little and says, "Maybe I'm enthusiastic for other raw food...cantaloupes and mellons, maybe even passion fruit and figs..." Now Janie and then Snooky blush as they realize what this raw food reminds their innocent Ernie of.

Janie watches her beautiful friend. Wonders if Ernie has gone too far, knowing by how wet she is down there that their little play has reached its second act. She wants to remain where possibility is temptation but not yet anything else...any what! What would her surprising Snooky really do? What would she do?

Ernie would like to move his hand along Janie's taunt belly, but he knows not to push it. This is just the first day of their time together. He thinks of them as a journey, a trip to somewhere exotic, like discovering an alluring tropics abloom in cold Boston. What to do...

"We have a light desert..." and raises himself gracefully from their web and goes to the kitchen to rummage in the big old restaurant frig with its foggy glass doors.