Summer Surprise Pt. 01

"Nothing that would cause me to refuse a second date, that is if you're not turned off by how I got you to notice me in the first place."

"That was pretty sneaky and underhanded."

"It was, no question."

"If I put half the blame on Chloe, I guess I could go out with you again. She did say I needed a kick in the ass."

"Yes, she did. I'd look forward to it."

"Tomorrow night, then?"

"Fine. Two conditions. First, we can't spend money like this every time we go out, so I'll make something for supper. Just bring a DVD movie you want to watch. I don't really care what. I can watch almost anything but pure smut. Second, tomorrow night is the last night for a week. I'm serious about my education and I want to save my goofing off for the weekends."

"I can agree to that."

"What time should I expect you?"

"Six."

"Supper will be on the table at 6:15. Don't be late. Being a ex-military wife, I appreciate promptness."

"Yes, ma'am."

Dianne smiled at him. At her apartment, she wished him good night, kissed him on the forehead, and entered the dwelling.

Walking into the living room with her arm around her most recent girlfriend, Chloe asked, "How did the first date go?"

"It went okay for a first date," Dianne said. "We got through most of the awkward stuff okay. Tomorrow is movie night. Want to come?"

"What movie? Something good?"

"I have no clue. I told him to bring whatever he wants except smut."

"You do know he's a guy, right? Probably some superhero, action stuff. By the way, good smut is highly underrated. It can put you in a really good mood, if you know what I mean." Chloe kissed her girlfriend to emphasize the point.

"I don't want to be in a good mood yet. Too early for good moods."

"Suit yourself." Chloe patted the girlfriends ass. "How about you, Charmaine? Are you in a good mood?"

Charmaine. Dianne had stopped trying to keep track. They changed about twice a month.

"I'm in a great mood, Chloe," Charmaine said. "Let's fuck."

Charmaine might not last the week. Chloe liked more mystery than Charmaine had. It didn't stop her from pushing Charmaine into the bedroom and closing the door behind her. Mystery only went so far.

******

Dianne prepared a salad and giant hot dish of chicken, stuffing and broccoli that was big enough to feed everyone tonight and perhaps have leftovers for Sunday. Matt arrived a little before 6 PM with a bottle of wine and a movie.

"I didn't know whether to get a white or red, so I split the difference and got a rose. Is Chloe going to eat with us?"

"I don't know for sure. It might depend on which movie you brought?"

"Love Story, with Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal. Have you seen it?"

"No, before my time. Have you?"

"I saw part of it on a late night movie channel."

"Is it any good?"

"It has its moments. I'll tell you why I thought it was worth watching at the end."

"If you'll help me by setting the table and opening the wine, then I'll see if Chloe will join us."

Dianne knocked on Chloe's door.

"What is it?" Chloe said, voice muffled.

"Movie night. You in?"

"What's the movie?"

"Love Story, with Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw."

"Neither are notable actors, but at least I haven't seen it and it doesn't sound like a gore fest. I'll be there as soon as I get dressed."

"Will that be one or two additional place settings?"

"Just one. Charmaine is history."

Matt had opened the bottle of wine and set the table for four.

"We only need three tonight. Chloe is alone."

He nodded and removed the fourth plate. Dianne put wine and water glasses on the the table, while Matt added the silverware. Five minutes later, Chloe walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes.

"Damn, Charmaine was insatiable. Kept me up all night long."

"What was wrong with her?" Matt asked.

"Too vapid. The only things she talked about were clothes and make-up. She could sure lick pussy though. If I didn't need her to talk once in awhile she'd have been fine. Dianne would be the perfect girlfriend for me if she'd just loosen up on her no pussy restriction."

Matt laughed and Dianne smiled. Chloe put an arm around Dianne's shoulder.

"What about it, mon cherie? I can show you pleasures you've only dreamed about."

"Sure. As soon as Matt leaves, we can have a rug munching fest," Dianne said, kissing Chloe on the cheek.

"No! Chloe, you're not going to try to steal this one from me, are you?"

"Relax, cowboy. Dianne's about as gay as you are. You haven't been hiding anything from me, have you? Some cock sucking talents I know nothing about?"

Matt laughed. "What you see is what you get."

"An open book, Dianne. Just what I told you," Chloe said, plucking a carrot slice from the salad and crunching it.

"What have you guys said about me?"

"Only that you don't like your girlfriends gay," Chloe responded, "but otherwise you're not bad boyfriend material."

"She also mentioned you have excruciating taste in movies," Dianne said. "She asked why I let you pick out the movie."

"Why did you let me pick out the movie?" Matt asked.

"To see what it said about you. What kind of movie you'd show me on a second date."

"What does 'Love Story' say about me?"

"Don't know. Haven't seen the movie yet."

"Mmm," Chloe said. "Interesting. I might have to try that one on prospective girlfriends. Might show me how much substance they have."

"By the way, Chloe, I have a bone to pick with you."

"What would that be, Matthew Sanders?"

"You set up that whole river boat cruise thing?"

"No I didn't."

"You bought me a ticket."

"Yes I did. You needed to get out of your apartment again. You were too pasty. Doesn't he look better with a little tan on his cheeks, Dianne?"

"Definitely does."

"Then you told Dianne to buy a ticket."

"I did, but that was after I got yours. I didn't think Dianne was ready to start dating again. If I'd plotted the whole thing out, I'd have purchased both your tickets and at the same time."

"Well, you did tell her I'm a rescuer."

"Self evident, Sanders. You're here and she's here. You saved her from leaping to a watery grave."

"She wasn't going to kill herself."

"You didn't know that." Chloe smiled. "Get over it, Sanders. I haven't seen you this perky in months. I'm glad Dianne could drag you back into the world from whatever pit you fell into."

The timer on the stove went off.

"Dinner's done," Dianne said, pulling the hot dish out of the stove. "Pour the wine, Matt."

Chloe held out a glass. "Yeah, pour the wine, Matt. You should be thanking me. I've given up trying to seduce her because you're finally showing an interest in something."

Matt laughed and then he hugged Chloe before pouring her some wine.

"Welcome back, dickhead," Chloe said, raising her glass. "My thanks to you, Dianne, for bringing my friend back to life. Try not to break his heart again. I don't know how many more cracks it can take."

"We'll see," Dianne said. "I'm not promising anything yet. He shouldn't give his heart away until he knows I'm ready for it."

Matt looked at her, smiling.

"Don't eat too much. I have popcorn," Chloe said.

******

Dianne and Matt sat on the couch, Chloe taking a seat on the floor in front of Matt. They each had a soda over ice and shared a big bowl of popcorn between them.

"If your hands are otherwise free, big guy, use your magic fingers on my shoulders and neck, please and thank you," Chloe said.

During the first half of the movie, Matt sporadically massaged Chloe's neck and shoulders.

"Come on," Chloe said, "what a load of crap. Love means never having to say you're sorry? Loved ones are the ones you should apologize to the most. Who cares if you never apologize to some dickwad you flipped the bird to. Can you imagine if Georgina never apologized to Elaine for not believing her husband was molesting her? They still wouldn't be speaking. You owe the people you love apologies more than anyone else. I even apologize to you."

"It's a nice sentiment, but I agree," Dianne said. "Eventually everyone says, or does, something to someone they love which they need to say they're sorry for. Failing to do so means you don't care about their feelings, and won't care if you do it again."

"See, Matt," Chloe said. "If you use this as a guideline for love, you will seriously be pissing two gorgeous women off. Don't do it."

"That's not why I got the movie. Don't worry about it."

"Why did you get the movie?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Dianne, switch places with me. You have to feel Matt's magic fingers do their work."

"Okay. Switch."

Chloe and Dianne switched places and Matt began working on Dianne's neck and shoulders. She could feel herself start to melt. They felt so good.

By the time the movie reached its inevitably sorrowful conclusion, Chloe and Dianne were openly crying and Matt wasn't dry eyed either.

"Pure schmaltz," Chloe said, "but they yanked on every single heartstring they could."

"Is that why you brought this movie, Matt. You wanted to see me cry all over again. I would have thought you'd had enough of my crying on our boat ride?"

"No, that isn't the reason either."

"So what was the reason, Sanders?" Chloe asked. "This isn't your usual movie fare."

"It was a selfish one," Matt said. "Dianne only wants to see me on the weekends because she's serious about her schoolwork, and I wanted to show her it was possible to simultaneously spend time together and be studious by simply studying together."

Dianne laughed. "The scenes where he's studying for law school and she's grading her kid's papers or reading a book. That's the reason you wanted me to see this movie?"

"I figure if they can do it; there's no reason we can't either."

"You do realize it's a movie, right? They can make it seem possible to do anything."

"It looked possible."

"Fine. I'll give you a Wednesday evening, but it's the last weekday night you get if we don't study.

"Put me to the test. I like it."

"You do know you made me think of my husband again, and how little time we got to spend together?"

"I don't ever expect you to forget Robert and the time you had together."

"Ooh! Good one, Matt. Brownie points out the wazoo for that one," Chloe said. "What's the one thing you've ever done you most needed to apologize for? I'll start."

"Okay," the others agreed.

"The worst thing I've ever done was letting Matt walk in on me making out with a girl, instead of explaining to him that I'd started having feelings for women and breaking up with him. It wasn't intentional, by the way, I lost track of the time, but it never should have happened that way. It was a nasty way to find out about me. Matt was such a good sport that I ended up feeling like a horrible person. It would have been better if he screamed and raged about it. I know I said sorry like fifty times, but I apologize all over again because it was an extremely shitty thing to do."

"Unnecessary, but thanks."

"I'll go next," Dianne said. "I actually thought about this during the movie. When I met Robert, I was living in Georgia near Fort Benning where he was attending basic training. It was Memorial Day and the large military community surrounding the base was hosting an ice cream social and barbecue for the soldiers. We hit it off right away and immediately started dating. We'd gone out two or three times and arranged to meet up again one evening, when I ran into an old flame from high school. This was a guy I'd had sex with, but he was never the overwhelming passion of my life and so we'd parted as friends.

"Anyway, I spent a few hours catching up with this guy and got so wrapped up in talking to him that I lost complete track of time and missed my date with Robert. When Robert came to my house to see why I hadn't showed up for our date, he arrived just in time to see me kissing my old flame goodbye on the porch. It was nothing special as far as kisses go, but it was on the lips and right in front of him.

"He could have to tried to beat this ex-boyfriend to a pulp or he could have seen me, turned around, and walked out of my life forever. He did neither. He walked up and introduced himself. 'Hi, my name's Robert? What's yours?' My old flame replied, 'Robert, you must be the fellow Dianne's been going on and on about. My name is Kenny. Dianne and I used to date in high school. We ran into each other a few hours ago and have been catching up on everything that's happened since we graduated. She couldn't stop talking about this guy named Robert she was thinking was the one for her. I'm pleased to meet you.' Kenny stuck out his hand and Robert shook it and responded, 'Pleased to make your acquaintance. Ex-boyfriend you say.' Kenny nodded and replied, 'Yeah, the kiss. Sorry about that. It was actually a good bye kiss. Dianne told me she planned to follow you wherever you're headed next, so I knew I wouldn't be seeing her again.'

"Kenny left soon thereafter, and I profusely apologized to Robert for missing our date and kissing Kenny. Robert blew off my apologies and told me, 'The only thing of any importance to me was the part where you said you planned on following me anywhere. Is that true?' I told him I was pretty sure that I wanted to, despite us having only known each other for such a brief time. He kissed hell out of me, picked me up, and carried me into my parents house. We made love for the first time on my bed, quickly followed by a second time. Thankfully, the rest of my family weren't there at the time; though, I'm not sure it would have stopped us even if they were. He bought my engagement ring the next day and we got married before he got transferred to Fort Bragg. He invited Kenny to the wedding. Said he owed Kenny a debt of thanks for not snagging me himself."

"Oh, God. How sweet was that? No wonder you fell in love with the guy. You don't mind if I use that someplace in my writing, do you?" Chloe asked.

"Use away. Matt, you're next."

"Mine is kind of two pronged," Matt said. "The first part of it is not recognizing Dad was having sex with Elaine when I caught him at it during that thunderstorm. I've regretted that a thousand times since I found out what he'd been doing."

Dianne looked confused. "I'll explain it later," Chloe said. "Go on, Matt."

"Anyway, it put Elaine through a lot of hell because I didn't know and didn't say anything."

"What's part two?" Dianne asked.

"That I couldn't let go of Elaine easier and sooner than I did."

"You never know, Matt. Sometimes things happen for a reason," Chloe said. "Maybe it wasn't time yet."

"You believe in fate, Chloe?" Matt asked.

"I have to. It's the only reason I'm not a star already. It just isn't my time, yet."

"That's it," Matt said. "It's the only reason you're not a star. That and the fact you're a college student in La Crosse, Wisconsin, who is seen by maybe a hundred people at a time, none of them movers and shakers on Broadway or Hollywood."

"Exactly. It's not my time yet, but it will be."

Matt kissed her on the cheek. "I love your unbridled optimism."

"I guess I know what our next real date is going to be, Matt," Dianne said.

"What's that?"

"Going to Chloe's one woman show."

"That's a date," Matt said.

Dianne kissed him on the cheek before he left. It was slightly longer than the peck he'd gotten on the forehead last night, so this was progress Matt could live with.

******

Wednesday night, Matt and Dianne got together to study. The majority of the evening was devoted to completing their respective homework; though, they did take a brief break midway through to drink a soda. After all their homework was done, they sat on the couch and talked for a half-hour before deciding to call it a night. As Matt was getting ready to leave, Dianne squeezed his hand, in addition to giving him a peck on the cheek.

Friday, they went to the opening night of Chloe's one woman show at the Community Theater. It dealt with the vicissitudes of a lesbian student at college. It was funny, charming and educational. Matt recognized the scene when he'd walked in on Chloe and her first woman lover. It was amazing she could do it as a single character, missing the other two principals, just talking to them as if they were there. Dianne recognized the fight with the potential roommate who'd obsessed about Chloe being a lesbian. It ended with a monologue of Chloe talking about the pressures of growing up different.

"If your child ever comes to you and says he or she is gay, take them seriously. Don't think they haven't thought about the ramifications of their homosexuality. Your child did not choose this life. It's the way we're made. We don't want to disappoint you by choosing to be different. We don't want to live with a lifetime of vilification from narrow minded people who hate us because we're different. It would be so much easier for us if we fit in with everyone else.

"I wish the friends I had in high school hadn't been so narrow-minded that they dropped me as a friend once they found out I was gay. I would love for people to not pull their children away from me like I'm a disease they have to be protected from. I'm not a disease. I'm not a pedophile. I'm not going to seduce your children and try to make them like me.

"I'm not a vampire. I can't create others like me. I can't bite someone's neck and make them gay. Those feelings exist in people already. I can't compel someone to like me or be like me anymore than you can compel someone to like you or be like you. I'm a normal, ordinary, human female, who just happens to find herself attracted to other females. I eat the same, drink the same, love the same, as anyone else.

"Don't cut your child off if they're like me. Instead, cherish them and hold them closer as they will need more of your love because of the hate they'll receive from others. Don't make them choose between their family and their sexual identity. They deserve to be loved, like any other person. Thank you."

The stage went dark to a standing ovation.

"That was wonderful," Dianne said. "Does she get along with her family?"

Matt replied, "She does now. At first, they didn't accept that she was a lesbian. They thought she could be deprogrammed and turned heterosexual if they just put enough pressure on her to conform. I think I helped them see it was okay that Chloe was different. When I didn't dump her as a friend, even though we broke up, it enabled them to see that she was still the same old Chloe and therefore didn't deserve to be treated differently just because she was a lesbian. It took them about a year to completely come around and welcome her back into the fold. It helps that she doesn't rub their faces in it. To date, I don't think she's brought any girls home to meet the folks; though, that's partly because she hasn't found someone she's really interested in.

"The other part of it is her career goals. She is driven to succeed at this show business thing. She's focused on that instead of romance, so it's not necessary to bring someone home. When the time is right, it will happen."

"Listening to her practice her lines really doesn't give you the impact of how powerful they are and how good she is, does it?"

"No, not really. Getting the lines down is just memorization. It isn't until she's got them memorized that she starts playing with intonation, stressing some words more than others, and creating the emotion behind the words. Chloe said she sometimes changes things in the middle of a scene because she's reacting to what her costars are doing with their lines. If they're moving in a certain direction emotionally, she'll go with that flow, even if she doesn't agree with it. She says that's better than creating internal discord between herself and what the others are projecting. The next performance can be different in feel from the last one for that reason. The lines are the same, but the feel of it is different. She really is very good."