Summer Sabbatical

"No, well, I don't think so. My hair just looks so - so - frumpy. I want to look hip and fit and attractive."

"Okay, how about we soften these bangs, then we'll remove these curls and what's left of this limp perm in the back. We'll make it all uniform length and straight cut the back, like this one," she said pointing out a famous model, with something similar to what she was describing.

"Well, my hair is dirty blond. That works for her but she's a brunette. You think it'll work for me?"

"Yes, you have fair skin with warm undertones, so I was thinking we should transition you to a full blond. Today we can get it colored and cut and when you come back in a couple weeks, we should follow that up with a maintenance treatment to really bring out your shine."

"You really think blond instead of brown?" I asked hesitant for the change.

Kiki pulled her phone out snapped my picture and proceeded to put a virtual wig on me. "Have you ever gone blonde like this?" she asked showing me the result.

"No, but my goodness, that's sexy," I said aloud. "Okay, you sold me on that blond version of myself."

Kiki went to work getting my hair ready as we chatted about whom the man was. I told her he was a summer visitor and she quickly deduced that he was a college student. Admitting that she was right just led me to talk about him more, although I kept the fact that we were related to myself. Once she'd gotten everything ready, she worked painting and combing the mixture of lightener and protection into my hair placed between Styrofoam strips throughout.

The foam sheets formed a veil about me as she flipped through each section applying and reapplying the concoction. It had a little smell, but it wasn't really bad. Periodically she moved them back and forth to apply more goop. When she finished, I was put under the heat for about fifteen minutes. Then finally, she washed it all out and applied toner in my hair as I was leaned back in the basin. She followed that with another special product to treat the hair that felt like a conditioner. It smelled really nice and it was left in for another fifteen minutes. When she rinsed all of the product out, my hair had been completely transformed into a golden blond with some highlights.

When she blew it dry, I couldn't believe how great it looked, but then she started trimming the dead ends and making the subtle changes to soften my hairlines. As I looked at the completed work in the mirror, I swear I looked younger and more vibrant.

"The hair is amazing," I told her as she turned me, so I could see all sides. "I guess I'm ready for the painful part," I joked.

"Oh, it's not gonna be too bad. You've had a bikini wax; this is just a little more than that."

"Okay, I hope it's worth it like you said."

"Ava, I promise, you'll never want to go back."

I stood up from the chair and she took me back to one of the private rooms. She asked if I wanted to do it nude or partially covered and I opted to just go nude. It was true that I'd had bikini waxes before, but this was my first full frontal. When it was all done, I told her she was right. It had hurt a little more, but I thought it was worth it. My skin was so smooth that I wanted to rush home, show it to Tim and have his clean-shaven lips eat mine. It was nearly noon, by the time I headed home.

Candy and I walked along the beach for a long time talking about ourselves. It was a little awkward to me, but I tried to keep an open mind. After what Ava said Sunday afternoon, I felt like I had to put in an honest effort to see if there was anything to what had been a crush. There were a couple times, as we spoke that I thought maybe there was, but it was fleeting at best. She was certainly a lot more like her mom than Ava had indicated. I guess I'd have said she was coarse, but sometimes I was too, so that felt like a double standard. In any case, she frequently jumped into risqué subjects like Sibyl and I started to think she was simply interested because I was a virgin.

As noon neared, we reached one of the fishing piers and went up to look at some of the stores. She went right for the head shop and I got an odd feeling in my stomach. She looked at some papers and hinted that she might have some pot. I guessed that she's still pretty wild, although the old Candy would probably have stolen the papers, so at least that'd changed. The next stop we looked at was a swim shop where she modeled a string bikini for me which of course got me at full mast and I wanted to leave. She seemed unconcerned and played on our jokes in the pool telling me to give it ten minutes.

"We don't have any money," I said when we were back outside. "Why don't we head back and get a bite to eat?"

"Yeah, okay. I think Mom's out somewhere, we can go to my house," she offered and bit my shoulder softly.

"Down, girl," I teased. "We still barely know each other."

She took my hand and walked with me along the road, "I won't really bite you, unless that's what you want, alright?"

"Okay," I said and fell quiet.

She was cute, and she was attempting to push all of the right buttons. It just wasn't working. All right, I'd have definitely had a male response if she attacked me, but everything felt forced and contrived. When we got to her house, it had a similar layout to Ava's. She took me in through the garage and her room was at the end of the hall like mine. Sibyl hadn't done any improvements on her place and the den and guest rooms were swapped, but it had this odd sameness about it.

In the kitchen, Candy pulled out bread, lunch-meat, lettuce and mayo to make sandwiches on the Formica counter. I toasted bread and she spread the mayonnaise. It was simple, but it would do the trick. When they were made, and everything put back away she put the sandwiches on napkins and set them on the peninsula.

"You want a beer?" she asked.

"Sorry, that's the one thing I promised Ava," I told her. "I can drink a few beers there with her, but not outside her home."

"That's cool," she said and kind of rolled her eyes. "Want some tea or soda?" she asked popping a beer open.

After lunch Candy was restless. She wanted to do something and kept pressing me to fool around. She'd had three beers that I'd seen and was acting a little odd but didn't seem drunk. I suggested we go swim or play pool. She countered with beer pong or truth or dare. The first one wasn't really an option, so I figured nothing too bad could go wrong with this old make out game and I might learn something about her. She insisted I go first and she chose dare. Maybe I should have known, but there I was trying to think of something safe for her to do.

I was sorely tempted to turn her dare in to a 'I dare you to tell me' question, but that didn't seem in the spirit of the game. Finally, I decided and said, "I dare you to kiss me for one minute." She did, and it was kind of nice. It's where she'd been pressing to go, and her lips were soft, although she did taste of beer and something else.

For my go I picked truth and she asked, "Did you like my mom's tits?" It took me aback a little, but I answered honestly that they'd been nice but a little big for my taste. We carried on the game for a while. She took mostly dares and I took mostly truths, until she asked, "How far have you gone sexually?" I told her I'd eaten pussy and had my dick sucked, but I worried her next truth might ask who was the most recent and I changed to dares.

One dare I gave her was to call her mom and tell her the worst thing she'd done. She declined and took a truth instead, so I asked her how many guys she'd been with because I was certain her next dare for me would be to eat her out. She said she'd only been with five and some of those didn't count, because she'd only given them oral and they didn't return the favor. I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth, but it seemed plausible.

On my next dare she said, "I dare you to bring me to orgasm with your mouth."

"It's our first day together, are you sure?" I asked.

"Well, I don't want to take your virginity on the first day, but I could see if you're any good," she retorted.

"How will I know if you're any good?"

"Well, honestly, I'm not and that's partially why my count is so low."

"Is five really the count?" I asked.

"Okay, it might be seven or eight if you count blowjobs and handjobs," she insisted. "But only a couple got into my pants."

"But you want me to on the first date?"

"You're different. What if we changed the dare to doing sixty-nine?" she asked. "Then you'd know, besides it's just foreplay."

"Yeah alright," I decided to go through with it. "Let me have a little head start, though alright?"

"You think you might go off too quickly huh," she asked licking her lips suggestively and stripping off her suit.

"Could happen?" I admitted as she spread her legs and lay out on the floor. "What if Sibyl comes in on us?"

"She texted me she's over with Ava and I told her to stay there."

Realizing they both knew we were here pushed me to just do this. Candy's clean-shaven pussy was very attractive, and she didn't smell like a fish, as I knelt between her legs. I looked up at her face to watch what happened when I first kissed it and then licked lightly around it. As I kind of expected, her eyes went shut and I focused on what I was doing. She tasted neither like Tammy nor like Ava. It was similar, but different and I definitely liked it.

Her lips were wet before I'd even started to lick her and seemed to be getting wetter as I traced my tongue between them. Although, I couldn't help exploring her hairless cunt, the dare had been to bring her off, not to titillate her slowly, so I didn't spend as much time as I had on Ava. When I eventually sucked all of her into my mouth, Candy moaned loud and raised her hips toward my face. I worked gently teasing her clit indirectly as I swiped my tongue from side to side without focusing directly on it. Her breathing was becoming more noticeable and she began squeezing my head a little with her legs as she flexed them together. Soon she was fully excited, and her clit was hard as could be but much smaller than Ava's. She reflexively pushed it against me as I began attacking it directly with my flattened tongue. I moved my hand to pull back her lips, so I could have better access to stimulate it.

Suddenly she quivered beneath my mouth and shouted, "Ooohh - my - gggoddd, oohh fuck, fuck. Don't - oh um gana - cummm." She moved her hands into my hair and desperately told me, "Fuck me with your lovely tongue. Oh my god, yes."

Her breathing became erratic and her words were a jumble of sounds as she came in a wave of convulsions that rocked her against my mouth. Then she was still. I continued licking her for a time, but she wasn't moving, and I stopped. I moved up to her face and she was breathing lightly.

My hand went to her face and I softly said, "Candy? Are you alright?" a few times. I stroked her forehead and suddenly her eyes flew open. "Hey, are you alright?" I asked.

"Oh my god that was insane. Where the fuck did you learn to do that?" she asks staring up at me.

"So, you're okay?"

"I've had girls that couldn't eat pussy like that," she admitted. Suddenly I realized her count was short, because I'd only asked about guys and she saw the reaction in my face, "Just outed myself as bi, didn't I?" she asked a little sheepishly.

"Yeah, that's fine. I should have asked how many people."

"There've only been five girls that I had oral sex with. I'm still in a friends-with-benefits relationship with Kitty. She's the one who's encouraging me to go to medical school with her."

"So, it's just sex?" I asked.

"We like each other and have good sex, but she's a lesbian and I'm bi, so it causes fights."

"So, you want sex with both and a relationship with both or something else?" I asked.

"I don't know, Tim. You're nice and I'd definitely have sex with you, but I might lean more toward lesbian relationships with a man on the side to fuck," she said and grabbed my cock. "In fact, after that orgasm, I definitely need to return the favor."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," I told her.

"Oh, if you weren't a virgin saving it for someone that it wouldn't suck to be your first, I'd be jumping on this gorgeous dick. I want to unless you don't want me to."

"Go slow," I said and lay down beside her on the floor. "You want to sixty-nine?" I asked.

"No, I don't think I could take any more right now. It was great, don't take it wrong, you're amazing," she told me and slurped my dick right into her mouth.

I'd softened a bit while we talked, but she had me rock hard in moments. Her technique was nothing like Ava, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. After thinking about it for a bit, I asked, "Do you want feedback?"

She sat up allowing me to plop out, "It's that bad?"

"No, but if you want to get better you should communicate with your partner."

"Okay, I'll start again. Be kind, though," she said and began again, this time watching my face.

"I like it when you swirl your tongue like that," I said. "I'm really sensitive around the crown and neck."

She took my comments in and began doing more of what I enjoyed. She added her hand at the base of my cock and I told her that helped too. When she started putting most of me into her mouth, it seemed like she was afraid to gag, and I told her she didn't have to do that if it was uncomfortable. Soon she'd gotten into a rhythm that was working for both of us. It still wasn't great, but it was certainly working and soon I told her that I was getting close. Her eyes looked up at me to gauge how eminent my release was. I nodded and told her not to swallow unless she wanted. She kind of smiled around my glimmering cock and umm humm'd.

"Oh yeah, that's it, just like that. I'm cumming," I told her, thinking she'd take her mouth off me and finish by hand. But she kept going and watching my face. She switched to using pressure between her upper lip and tongue and suddenly, "Faaak Candy, um cumming, oh fuck yeah." Soon she was sucking me as I let lose. She was holding it in her mouth and not swallowing, but then swallowed it all at once. "That was really nice," I told her.

"Was it?" she asked suddenly less confident.

"Yeah, it was."

"You've had better though?"

"You said you weren't any good, but you were better than I expected after you told me that. You'll probably get even better by listening and observing whoever you're with man or woman. I've been reading a couple of books and they've been pretty accurate so far," I told her.

"Turns out my virgin is an expert," she laughed and moved to kiss me.

We talked a bit more as we got dressed back in our swimsuits. We knew there wasn't much chemistry between us, but we liked each other. She was thinking maybe she could put me on her guys-with-benefits list. I told her I wasn't sure how I felt about that but would consider it. Then she mentioned she had another bi friend who might like a threesome. I told her I wasn't into guys, which made her laugh. The woman she was thinking of, Gina, was a neighborhood friend she thought I might remember.

As we started to head outside for the beach, her phone rang, and she said, "I've got to take this call from Kitty."

"Alright, I'll see you around," I told her and walked next door.

When I got home from the stylist, Tim was out somewhere. I knew he was probably still 'hanging out' with Candy. There was a brief disappointment that I'd have to wait to show him my two new hair-dos, but I knew there'd be plenty of time.

As I waited for Tim to return, I found myself consumed with the thought he'd had planted that first awkward evening. I got on my laptop to check my bank account. My last spring semester paycheck for my community college moonlighting was deposited at midnight. My pay covered a bit more than most teachers because my house was paid off and I didn't have any kids. I saved quite a bit of every paycheck and used the rest for living expenses. Generally, I put a set amount into a retirement plan separate from the pretax employment one. The money I made from teaching at the community college, was what I'd considered my slush fund. I'd used most of it for extras like my renovations, a few vacations and a new car a couple of years ago.

Looking over the cost breakdown spreadsheet for the master bathroom remodel job, it looked like I now had about nearly the same amount of money I'd needed for the entire renovation. Considering that labor had run nearly twice what materials cost, I decided that Tim was probably right about being able to do the guest bathroom now. The materials wouldn't be quite as expensive, and the square footage was less. So, if he was willing to work on it with me, I couldn't see any reason not to go ahead with this renovation.

I didn't want to cut into his time on the beach or his ability to date, so I was hoping we could work on it together in the evenings. I knew we should start as soon as possible so we could get it done but wasn't really sure how long the process would take. I knew there would be at least a couple days of deconstruction and tile took a couple of days. I had no idea how long installing a shower or cabinets would take.

Before I got a chance to call around to some of the home improvement stores, Sibyl came by to visit. She was very impressed with my new blond hair and told me how much younger I looked while I put the laptop away. I didn't mention the waxing I'd gotten but I ran my hands over it when I'd excused myself to put on my bikini. After changing, I got us each a beer and handed her one while she texted away with someone on her phone. She didn't normally bring it over, but today she had a little phone purse on a strap.

"Well, I'd wanted to use my pool, but we should probably use yours," she said after she put it away.

"There's something going on next door?" I guessed.

She nodded her head and said, "I told her to behave. He's a nice young man."

As we lounged by the pool, we had a second beer as she told me all about the graduation and showed me some pictures on her phone. Candy had looked very nice walking across that stage and Sibyl was very proud of her. She told me she might not even stay the summer, because her friend Kitty was trying to convince her to go to medical school. Suddenly, it seemed nice that Tim might be dating a future doctor and I was happy for him. The next thing out of her was how she thought Kitty and Candy were probably 'lezbefriends'. That hit me oddly and I got us each another beer.

"You really think she might leave?" I asked her as I handed her the beer.

"I can't get a good read on her these days. She's so secretive." She fell silent for a while and sipped the beer. Suddenly she seemed determined to ask, "If she does, will you be upset if I ask Tim if he's interested?"

I managed to swallow my mouthful of beer and replied, "He certainly liked your outfit the other day." I didn't want to give her permission, but had thought she would back off with Candy here.

"It's been a long time," she bemoaned her condition.

"There were cute men at the gym on Sunday and it's been a while since we went out to a bar," I told her.

"Yeah, beer is cheaper at home," she countered.

"You never have to buy your own drinks," I told her and we both laughed. It had been quite a while since we done a bar crawl. Now, I wasn't sure I wanted to, but didn't want Tim getting overwhelmed by her sometimes-blunt approach. "You want to go out tonight?" I asked fearing she'd say yes.

She said, "No, if Candy is leaving, I want to spend some time with her."