Naked Portraits Pt. 01

As all that went through my head I said, "Do you think it's a wise idea to take the Fernandez boys to a winery?"

Betty laughed, "They'll be fine."

She picked me up and we drove up to San Francisco to meet up with the lost Fernandez boys at their hotel. From there in the boy's rental, we drove up to Sonoma to the Billano's Vineyard. As we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge I turned and looked at Aaron and Nicky in the backseat, bickering as they passed a Nintendo DS back and forth.

Tired of their squabbling, Betty shouted at them, "You guys are fuckin' rich! Why not just buy another DS?"

"Still think it's a good idea to take these clowns to a winery?" I asked Betty.

"It's important to my mom that I make a good impression and no one is better at schmoozing then Aaron and Nicky. All we have to do is keep Aaron away from the wine table for an hour and we'll be fine."

I shrugged and kept my feelings of impending doom to myself.

Surprisingly, things went well at the winery and even turned out to be fun. Along with the other guests, Betty, the Fernandez boys and I got a nice tour of the vineyard and winery. After the tour, we attended an extravagant reception at the owner's mansion atop the highest hill on the property.

With a glass of red wine in my hand, I watched Betty work the room. She was fearless, poised, totally at home talking to the millionaire owners of the winery and the other guests who stunk of money and power. She looked stunning in her strapless thigh length black dress, her dark, long hair stylishly up, makeup impeccable. Betty had a thing for offbeat silver jewelry and wore a choker around her pretty neck that consisted of hundreds of tiny silver skulls. It was a subtle thing and you had to get very close to her to see the skulls for what they were. Betty's mom would flip if she knew about the choker. "Throw that Goth crap away," she would always say to Betty. And it always annoyed me that Camille was looking at me whenever she said it. Hey bitch! I'm a bohemian not a Goth, I always wanted to bark at her but never had the courage to.

I wore a clingy dark green dress that I had borrowed from Betty. In fact, all of my good clothes were borrowed from Betty. Anyway, I loved the dress because it magically made my chest look bigger and I mentally worked on an elaborate scheme to steal it and keep it forever.

Aaron Fernandez's familiar loud laugh made me turn my head. I quickly deduced that he had had that crucial glass of wine that officially put him in the realm of social liability. Betty clearly heard the laugh too and both of us materialized at Aaron's side at the same moment. Betty went to the head butler, majordomo, whatever rich folk call guys like him, and asked him to call a cab. Next I went looking for Nicky who I assumed had had just as much to drink as his cousin. I found him sitting with a drunken older man who seemed enthralled with Nicky's charms and exotic, boyish good looks.

"Sorry buddy," I said to the inebriated fellow and whisked Nicky away.

The taxi arrived and we poured the Fernandez boys in it. We dusted our hands and gave each other smug smiles, proud at avoiding a social disaster. Back at the party with a fresh glass of wine in my hand, I shadowed Betty as she made a circuit of the large room making polite conversation as we drifted.

"Look, it's the Aryan Brotherhood," Betty said, indicating a pair of big blond bookends. "They've been eying us up all evening."

I looked at the pair and assessed them. "They stink of trust funds."

Betty laughed and said, "Your liberal class envy is showing. Oops, you looked too long, stupid head," Betty said as the pair headed our way.

Betty fended off her trust fund blond with a few polite choice words but the bigger of the two kept at me. The idiot just wouldn't pay the fare to get on the clue bus. Finally I had to tell him to go fuck himself in very graphic detail.

"You pissed him off," Betty said holding back a smile.

"Not my fault he's so fucking stupid," I said and Betty laughed.

An hour later, Betty deemed that we had stayed long enough to suit her mother and said, "Let's get the fuck out of here." I followed her down a side hallway to a door that popped out onto an ally between the mansion and a side building. "Need a cancer stick first," she said as she pulled out a pack of Marlboro lights from her small handbag. Betty's smoking was a big secret, something she didn't want getting back to her mother, hence the clandestine location.

"It's sad that at your age you still hide that you smoke from your mom," I said.

"What can I say? I'm pathetic." She lit up.

The door we stepped out of suddenly opened making us both jump. We turned to see the trust fund blonds enter the ally.

"Want a smoke?" Betty said calmly to the pair.

"No, I prefer sushi," said the big idiot who had given me a hard time. I officially added racist to the asshole's growing list of unsavory attributes.

"Come on Dick, don't do this," the slightly smaller blond advised with a hand on his friend's shoulder.

Unfortunately, the wine in my system prompted me to say hostilely, "Listen to your friend big Dick. Go inside and have a glass of wine." I thought it clever how I made his name sound like an insult.

Dick said pointing a finger at me, "You've been giving me the eye all night long and I think you want a kiss." The idiot reached out for me.

Betty slapped the guy's hand down firmly before he could touch me. Her quickness and strength took him off guard. I saw fear in the eyes of Dick's friend. I was scared too and wanted to scream at his big idiot friend that Betty knew karate. And I'm not talking about white collar, earn a black belt after breaking a board in half kind of karate. I'm talking about the art of seriously maiming another human being.

Looking at Betty, big Dick said, "Why don't you give me that kiss and I'll think about going away." He reached out for Betty with his right hand. She grabbed him by the wrist and twisted. Dick cried out in pain and if he had been a little bit smaller (and a touch smarter) he would have gone down, but the dumb ass managed to keep his feet and tried to grab Betty with his other hand. Betty swung out with her free hand and smacked him in the face with an open palm then jabbed his right thigh with a knee. Big Dick dropped like a sack of rice on his side on the graveled ground, clutching his face. He wanted to clutch his injured thigh too but his damaged face took priority it seemed.

Some of Betty's styled hair had shaken loose, a long strand spilling down the left side of her face. She stood over Dick's body in a defensive stance bristling with menace. Surprisingly, her cigarette still dangled at the corner of her mouth. The sight of my beautiful and dangerous best friend standing over fallen Dick sent an odd thrill of excitement through me that was disturbingly sexual.

"Fuck!" Betty barked as her face twisted with disgust.

Shakily, I said to Dick's friend, "Go get help." The guy dashed away, probably happy to put some distance between himself and Betty.

"My mom's going to skin me alive," Betty said glumly, the cigarette bobbed up and down at the corner of her mouth as she spoke. "I guess I don't need Aaron and Nicky to fuck things up, I can do it all by myself." She took a hard last drag of her cigarette, exhaled the smoke, dropped the cigarette and snuffed it out with her elegant black pump inches from moaning Dick's head.

Soon the narrow alley was filled with people. Dick was taken inside and tended to by another guest who was a doctor who soon reported a broken nose and an ambulance was called.

Betty, Dick's friend and I, gave our stories to the vineyard's private security chief. Fortunately, Dick's friend backed us up saying that Dick was drunk and a racist pig to boot. The guy was being fair and honest or perhaps afraid that Betty would hunt him down and beat the crap out of him too. Betty looked visibly relieved when everyone agreed that there was no need to call the local police.

Later, as we stood outside waiting for the parking attendant to bring around our car, Betty's cell phone rang. She looked at the incoming number and sighed. It was her mother of course.

"She knows," Betty said with a fatalistic sigh and took the call. Three minutes later she hung up, blinked dramatically and said, "The deal with the winery and the Honolulu city council is a go. Mom called to thank me for giving such a good impression."

We laughed all the way back to the city. At the Fernandez boys' hotel, Betty called Aaron on his cell from the lobby. After talking for a couple of minutes, Betty closed her phone and said, "The assholes are in Berkeley at a bar."

"I don't wanna go to Berkeley," I complained, tired from the long day.

"Me neither," Betty said. She reached into her bag and held up a room key card. "I lifted this from Aaron when we dumped him in the taxi. Let's go have our own party and charge it all to room service."

Five minutes later we were in Aaron and Nicky's luxury suite at the Braddock Hotel. We called room service and ordered a feast along with two bottles of Billano's Merlot in honor of Betty's success at the winery.

As we gorged on the hotel food, Betty said, "Aaron claims that he stays here at the Braddock only because of their sushi chef. This stuff is great."

I nodded my approval too.

We were on the second bottle of wine when Betty said, "I have a new business plan. I go into AT&T, Microsoft, Face Book, Google whatever and start breaking some noses until they make me president of the company."

"Brings a whole new meaning to a hostile takeover," I said and bit into a piece of sushi, savoring the grilled jumbo shrimp and rice. With a full mouth I said, "I can't believe Dick called me sushi." I frowned at the remains of the sushi in my hand trying hard to get my drunken head around the moment's possible irony but it eluded me.

"Yeah, using food as a racial slur? It's like calling someone potato salad or a hotdog or something," she said with a laugh and refilled our glasses with more Billano's Merlot.

We raided Nicky and Aaron's suitcases for comfortable clothes. I put a pair of bright red silk boxer shorts and a wife-beater. Betty had on one of Aaron's button down shirts that ended high on her thighs and a pair of black boxer briefs that I thought was Nicky's.

"Don't take this the wrong way but I got wet when you busted that guy's nose," I said

"I got wet doing it," She said. "My sensei would slap me silly if he heard me say this but it was fun in an uncivilized, brutal kind of way." She took a sip of her wine. "Did I ever tell you about my graduation day at karate school?"

"Yeah, a million times" I said, "but tell me again. I like that story."

Betty cleared her throat.

"Back in high school, I showed an interest in martial arts. As you know, my dad finds me the best karate teacher on the island. With this guy, there were no clean white ghis or colored belts, just lots of endurance exercises and meditative focus."

"Like Mr. Miagi in Karate Kid," I said. "Wax on...wax off," I added with the proper movements.

Betty giggled and continued.

"One day, about a year later, the instructor told us advanced students to stand and wait in the training room. We all stood quietly for close to an hour, unmoving. We were always doing shit like that to test our focus. The first time I was asked to stand still for a long time it felt like three hours but it turned out to be only ten minutes. Anyway, after a full hour of standing and waiting, two of the teacher's assistants entered the room and without warning, attacked us. In less than thirty seconds, everyone was down including the two assistants. I was the only one left standing. I sensed movement to my right and in my hyped state I lashed out taking the person down with a leg sweep. Instinctively, I threw an elbow to the side of his face as he went down. Then to my horror I looked down at the bloodied face of my sensei. I freaked, grabbed my gym bag and ran from the building in total panic. I was openly bawling as I fumbled to get the key in the ignition of my car.

"Betty Nagata," Betty said imitating a stern commanding male voice then continued in her normal voice, "It was my teacher; the left side of his face was red and swollen, blood smearing his upper lip and chin. My sobbing turned to hitching gasps as I lowered the window of the car. The teacher said with a deep bow, "You have graduated and it would honor me if you continued to take my instruction."

I laughed. I loved hearing that story.

"I felt that he was going to attack me so I lashed out on instinct," Betty said.

"What were you thinking about before the assistants attacked?" I asked.

"Shoes, black and red ones from France."

I rolled on the bed laughing.

"What would you have done if I hadn't been there back at the winery?" Betty asked.

"I wouldn't have been at the winery if not for you," I said drunkenly.

"Come on, hypothetically. What would you have done?" Betty persisted.

I thought for a second them said, "Pretend to let blonde boy kiss me then knee him in the balls."

Betty laughed.

"Guys expect that." She stood up, put down her wine and waved me toward her. "Come try this." I put down my wine too and stood up. She stepped in close. "Guys are always ready for the knees to the balls so you use that to your advantage. Okay, put your arms around me then force a kiss. I'm going to kick you in the balls." I giggled and dropped a hand between my legs. In a blink I was on my back on the bed.

"Hey! You said you were going to kick me in the balls!'

Betty smiled down at me.

"Just like every male on the planet, you were protecting your precious jewels so I took you down with a simple leg sweep."

"Let me try," I said getting back to my feet. We got in position and Betty moved in for the kiss. I did the move like she said but she didn't go down and her mouth covered mine. I made a muffled sound and pulled away from her. "You didn't go down!"

"You were broadcasting and I anticipated. You shouldn't do that," she scolded.

"Of course you're anticipating! You just showed me how to do this!" I said in drunken exasperation. "Okay, again," I said taking a stance. Seconds later Betty's lips pressing against mine again. I made a sound of frustration then kissed her back for real as pay back. Betty pulled away quickly and looked at me with utter bewilderment. I smiled in triumph for I hardly ever one up her like this.

She squinted at me and said, "Oh yeah?' then plowed in and covered my mouth with hers. I made a muffled squeal and kissed back jutting my tongue into her mouth in defiance. After five seconds we both pulled away at the same time. Betty held a surprised look. Her eyes locked with mine and her look mutated into an evil grin. I knew that grin, it had gotten us nearly jailed a number of times in high school.

"No fucking way," I said holding out a hand to slow her down.

"Chicken?" Betty said using the magic word that always got me to do the wrong thing. To obviously one up me, she hastily unbuttoned her borrowed shirt and shrugged it off and stood before me in just the black boxer briefs, her long dark hair pushed over to one side covering her right breast.

The underwear company would sell truckloads of their product if Betty would advertise for them just as she was, my wine soaked brain mused. Then it hit me that I had just kissed my best friend with mucho tongue not to mention that she stood near naked in front of me.

Operating on drunken dare mode, Betty said, "Your turn, lose the shirt."

A delirious warm thrill rippled through me, the wrongness of the moment seriously overshadowed by several glasses of Merlot. But there was something else driving me too, something new from deep down that was sparked by Dick's beat down back in the ally at the winery. I slipped off my shirt and stood before my friend topless in a man's silk boxer shorts. We were physical mirror images; the same height, same long black hair, wide shoulders, small perky breasts, slim waists, nice hips, slim legs and nice curvy backsides. The major difference was muscle tone. Betty's arms, legs, and abs showed her passion for the martial arts. We eyed each other, and then with matching wicked smiles we stepped into a hot, forbidden kiss.

This is so wrong, my head screamed but the wine made the scream faint and distant. A part of me screeched in panic Oh-my-god I'm a lesbian! I loved the way her breasts felt crushed against mine, the feel of her tongue in my mouth, the feel of her hands on my silk covered ass. One of my hands found its way to Betty's breasts exploring them hungrily. Betty quickly returned the greedy, wicked favor.

Then a loud knock came at the door.

"Fuck!" I yelled and the two of us scrambled to put our shirts back on. I sat on the bed as Betty hastily buttoned her shirt and looked through the peephole at the room door then seconds later opened the door. It was the Fernandez boys.

"You took my door card." Aaron said drunkenly.

"We got thrown out at Berkeley. Wanna hit the Tenderloin with us?" Nicky said.

Betty sat back down on the bed at a respectable distance from me. "Yeah sure," she said with a sideward glance at me.

"Good there's this real cool lesbian club called A Smile From A Veil I discovered. You're gonna love it." Aaron said.

Betty and I screamed with laughter and the Fernandez boys simply looked befuddled.

My mind returned to the overly hot classroom and I quickly looked away from my best friend's black panty covered ass and hoped that my sudden blushing would be attributed to the heat. Why the hell I was suddenly thinking of the forbidden kiss was beyond me for in true proper Japanese fashion, Betty and I buried the incident in a dark, dry place in our minds and have hardly spoken of it since.

It's Red here and her wandering lesbian eyes, I reasoned. Somehow the chick has rekindled my latent attraction to my best friend. Then the unspeakable happened. The door to the painting studio opened. My heart moved up to my throat and my skin crawled with panic, the muscles in my legs twitched with the need for flight. Then like a wild animal caught in headlights, I stood stock still hoping that the intruder wouldn't look my way and prayed that it wasn't anyone I knew. No such luck though. The newcomer was Betty's new boyfriend.

"Hey, got your text," he said to Betty and gave her an unguarded, lustful grin. "Love your outfit." Then he looked at the painting on the easel. "This is great. That looks like your friend Gwen."

Betty pointed up at me on the platform.

Shamefaced, I smiled weakly as I willed my clothes to fly to me magically. The only reason I didn't rush to my clothes was that I didn't want to look like a wimp in front of Betty or the lesbian redhead.

"Hey Gwen," he said casually, doing a great job of pretending I wasn't standing naked before him although I did see a hint of the same smile he had given Betty just moments before. Stupidly, I wished again I had trimmed at least once this month.

"The name's Hawk," he said in introduction to the redheaded model. Absurdly, he extended his hand and they shook. If I hadn't taken a half step back, Hawk's arm would have brushed my breasts. Modesty and shame took hold and I crossed one arm in front of my breasts and covered my pubic area with a hand. Red gave me a small smile probably thinking me cute and quaint.

"Is Hawk really your name?" the redhead model asked.

"Yes," Betty answered for him. "His parents named him after the famous physicist Stephen Hawking."