Taking In Strays

The bustle of the bar kept her away from me, but my stare never left her. Jax seemed to feel my eyes on her as she worked at a frenetic pace to fill orders. Even when talking with a customer, her gaze would drift my way. What her eyes said when they found me was indecipherable. My paranoia told me I had creeped her out. It worked to convince me that I had pushed her too hard and now would be when she pulled away.

I watched as she leaned across the bar, talking to a younger blonde woman intently. They both glanced down my way before resuming their conversation. I felt insecurity begin to crawl up my spine, sure that Jax was telling her cute customer about the sad married woman at the end of the bar that was stalking her.

But when the two separated, Jax looked down my way and winked at me while giving me a smile that instantly dispelled all the anxiety that had clouded my mind.

"Maizie?" I heard a young feminine voice say. Tearing my eyes away from Jax, I looked to my left and found the pretty blonde girl that my obsession had been talking to moments ago.

"Yes," I said, trying not to sound as confused as I felt by her sudden appearance.

The little blonde pixie beamed at me as she held out her hand and said, "I'm Delilah."

Still unsure of what was happening, I took her hand.

Grasping it as she tugged me away from the bar, Delilah said, "Jax said you were feeling down and needed somebody to get you out on the dance floor."

As the diminutive blonde pulled me along, with confusion reigning in my head, I tried to resist her pull.

"No, really, I don't feel like dancing," I said as my eyes sought out Jax in desperation. When they found her, she gave me a determined look and pointed towards the dance floor as she mouthed the word go.

Delilah laughed and said, "Jax told me that would probably be your response but that I wasn't to take no for an answer. She said the way you were looking at her was giving her tingles that made it really hard for her to concentrate on her job."

I stopped resisting but was no less clear on what was happening. I was thrilled to hear that I still had an effect on Jax's arousal, but was she pawning me off on another girl because she had already given up hope of us ever being together?

As we reached the dance floor, Delilah began to sway her waist as she backed up against me, taking my hands and placing them on her hips. Looking back towards the bar, I saw Jax watching us. She rolled her right hand as if telling me to go with it, only feeding my irrational fear that she was trying to pass me on.

Leaning down closer to Delilah's left ear, I said, "Is Jax trying to get rid of me?"

Spinning around, so she was facing me and wrapping her arms around my neck, the petite blonde laughed and said, "Yeah, but only because you were making her mad horny with those smoldering looks you were giving her. She just wanted me to show you a good time and make sure she got you back at the end of the night with your virtue still intact."

I relaxed a bit at her explanation and tried to let go of my concerns and flow with the music. We danced several songs with me, actually beginning to enjoy myself. Delilah's delightful body and erotic dance moves helped serve ample distraction to the chaos that had previously occupied my mind.

We both felt the need for a drink after the third song. Delilah took my hand and carted me off the dance floor in the direction of a booth. A couple sat there deep in discussion as the tiny blonde slid into the side opposite of them, dragging me in behind her.

Delilah introduced me to the pair, who were obviously a couple, and then suggested they go get some time on the dance floor while we watched the table.

When they were gone, my pixie dance mate smiled my way and said, "You know, I was starting to believe she'd made you up."

Seeing my confusion, Delilah said, "Jax and I go to GSU together. We have a couple of classes in common, you know, the ones they make the entire freshman class take. In between classes and when we grab lunch together, you're all she ever wants to talk about."

I blushed, my heart racing at Delilah's words.

"She means a lot to me, too. Probably a lot more than she knows." I admitted.

Delilah rolled her eyes and said, "You two really are clueless. You're both totally in love with one another but too afraid to act on it."

Her words hit me like a brick.

"Wait," I said, "what makes you think Jax is in love with me?"

Delilah laughed as she shook her head. "I think it was the part where she said, "I'm so in love with her Delilah. What am I going to do?"

My heart swelled as my head turned towards the bar, my eyes searching for Jax.

"No, no, no," Delilah said, grabbing my chin and turning my head back towards her. "Bad girl. You're talking with me, so no trying to steal looks of longing with your girl toy. You asked about her, but you didn't admit whether I hit the mark about you."

Her question brought a smile to my face because, for the first time in my life, I could answer that question without hesitation.

"I love her so much that it hurts, Delilah. I'm miserable at the thought of never being able to have the relationship with her that I want to have."

Grabbing my hand, Delilah said, "What's stopping it from happening, and don't tell me how complicated your issues are. I plan to spend an absurd amount of my parent's money on an English Lit degree, followed by even more of their hard-earned cash to earn a Masters in the same thing. All simply because I fell in love with the classics when I was a teen, particularly classic romances. And one thing every great romance in those stories have in common is that the events surrounding their love were complicated."

"I'm married, Delilah," I said, holding up my left hand.

"You say you love Jax, do you love him?"

I froze momentarily, and then with resignation, I said, "No, but I do care about him."

I watched as Delilah shook her head in disbelief.

"Apparently not enough, because otherwise, you wouldn't be here chasing Jax. You either need to fish or cut bait, Maizie. If anything else, you're doing the woman you love a disservice by giving her false hope that something could one day come of it."

Her words left me speechless. She was right; it really was that simple. I could have my marriage to Darren, or I could have Jax. There was no in-between.

Grabbing both of my hands and looking at me intently, Delilah said, "If you honestly love her as much as you tell me you do, and I believe you do, then everything else is just background noise. The love you two have for each other is like a beautiful symphony. Your marriage and her qualms about not wanting to be the reason it ended are discordant notes. Remove them from the equation and allow the music to flow."

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I hung around with Delilah for another couple of hours, with us alternating time between dancing and talking in the booth. She finally hugged me goodbye about an hour before closing time. Before walking away, her last words were to encourage me to go make beautiful music.

I had Ubered to the club, so I waited at the bar as Jax finished her shift. To my discomfort, I was actually approached and hit on several times during that hour. Each time it happened, I caught Jax watching with keen interest. Only when I had managed to discourage my Sapphic suitor would she turn her attention elsewhere. Each time, she did so with a little smile of satisfaction on her face.

When her night was done, we made our way out into the night air. It had gotten noticeably cooler since the time that I'd arrived. As a result, we huddled together as we walked to where her car was parked, our arms interlinked.

"Delilah just had to leave early tonight, leaving you open to all the horny late-night lesbians," Jax teased.

I laughed as I blushed. "Why Jax Taylor, were you jealous?" I responded in kind.

She grinned and held up her index finger and thumb, holding them an inch apart as we arrived at her car.

"Maybe just a little. How'd you get rid of them?" she asked me.

With a serious look on my face, I softly said, "I told them I was holding out of the caramel-skinned beauty behind the bar."

Jax's eyes lit up at my words. Standing there next to her car beneath the streetlights, she had never looked so radiant. I wanted to kiss her more at that moment than ever before, and I believe she would have let me.

But remembering Delilah's advice, I held back. There was background noise I still needed to attend to.

As we made the drive home, our fingers interlaced and resting on the console, I knew it was time to start silencing some of those discordant notes Delilah had spoken about. If Jax and I ever had any hopes of having the harmony I desperately wanted, I knew I had to act now.

"I don't want to be married to Darren anymore," I announced with no preamble.

I felt Jax's hand stiffen momentarily, and then relax. She kept her eyes on the road, but I could tell she was patiently waiting for me to go on.

"My sister, my cousin Grace, and meeting you, have all played a big part in making me realize I shortchanged myself by being willing to settle. Carolyn got me thinking about the possibility that maybe I did deserve more. Then Grace came along and spotted something in me even I was unaware about myself. It was her dragging me to Lisa's that first made me question my sexuality."

"And me?" Jax asked breathlessly.

Knowing this was the moment I'd been building towards since the day she walked through my front door, I said, "It took you walking into my life to show me that I'd been wrong all along. I could fall in love and have that great romance that all those sappy stories get written about."

Jax cast a quick glance my way and then turned her eyes back to the road. Her grip on my hand tightened noticeably.

"Do you mean that, Maizie? Please don't play with me. I don't think I can handle it if you're not serious," Jax said, her voice conveying how dire she felt about my answer.

"I've never been more serious about anything in my life, Jax. These last few months have been both the happiest and most frustrating of my life. I think I've been in love with you since the moment I first laid eyes on you. I just had a lot of baggage and pre-conceived notions that prevented me from understanding what it was I was feeling."

Jax burst into tears while laughing at the same time. Her conflicting emotions, both confused and concerned me, considering she was driving. Fortunately, we were less than a mile from home.

I waited and watched. Jax was clearly happy to have heard my words, but she'd yet to reply with the response I was desperate to hear.

"Jax," I begged, "please say something."

My pleading only drew more laughter and tears from Jax, who held up a finger as if begging for another moment. The young beauty turned into our driveway and wiped at her eyes as she pulled the car into her parking spot.

Taking the car out of gear and shutting it off, Jax turned my way lunging towards me. Her arms surrounded my neck, pulling me in as her lips found mine, her body continuing across the console as she straddled my hips.

This was it, the thing that had held my almost singular focus since that Friday morning in May. Despite my monomania having seemed the desperate act of a despondently bored and depressed housewife with no real hope of coming true, it had.

I moaned into the kiss as my arms wrapped around Jax, sliding down to her shapely hips and drawing them in tightly against mine. Jax followed my lead, grinding and gyrating her crotch into me as she slid her tongue across my lips. I opened my mouth slightly to accept her offer, our tongues twisting together in a dance. An erotic tango of lust and desire.

"I love you too, Maizie," Jax said in a groan, almost heaving the words from within her as she swept my hair aside and began to kiss my neck. Shivers ran through my body with a virtual hot spring of womanly juices springing up from within me and soaking my panties.

"You've had me so fucking wet all night long," Jax said as her hands slid from around my neck and down to my breasts. They cupped both, her thumbs seeking out my erect nipples.

"Oh, God, Jax," I cried out, arching my back as my ethereal beauty found both sensitive nubs and began to pinch and caress them through my top.

Jax's mouth worked its way up my neck, kissing, nibbling and biting as it went. Her lips found my earlobe and seized it, sucking and pulling possessively. I slid my hands down her hip and around behind her, capturing hold of her supple ass. Compressing both in my hands and feeling the globes separate.

"I want to take you upstairs to that big bed you gave me. When I get you there, I'm going to make you cum like you never have before." Jax whispered into my ear as she twisted my nipples.

My brain was in near overload, every nerve ending in my body on fire and receptive to the slightest touch. My very skin cells infected with arousal, Jax's touch, the only cure.

"I want to taste you," I said, stating my need. All the fantasies that had coursed through my mind in recent months suddenly within touch of my fingertips. "I've thought of little else since meeting you, baby girl."

"Ooooh, fuck," Jax cooed, "I want to cum on that pretty little face of yours. I want to do it over and over."

Reaching for the doorknob, I pulled it, throwing the door open. "Take me to that big bed, baby girl," I told Jax demonstratively.

Jax squealed at my assertiveness. I recalled her words again about how she loved it when her lovers took control. I had no idea what it was I was doing, having never been with a woman before. What if I screwed this up? Jax was gorgeous, young, and experienced when it came to women. I knew my expectations and had no doubt she would be able to live up to them. I only hoped I could live up to hers.

Jax had made her way out of the car and stood there looking back down at me while insecurities ravaged my mind. Whether it was my facial cues or the sudden stiffness my body held, she seemed to sense my worry.

Jax squatted down beside me, her sea-green eyes capturing my worried orbs and holding them captive with her gaze. In that hypnotic ocean of green, I saw the love and passion she held for me.

"What's wrong, Maizie?" Jax asked, with concern.

"I've never done this before," I said, the uncertainty in my voice ringing in my own ears. "What if I'm bad at it?" I asked her.

Jax's laughter wasn't meant to make fun of my insecure state, that much was clear to me. My first instincts were still to take offense as if she was patronizing me. But she looked so cute, squatting there with her cheeks flushing as she held my hand with one hand and squeezed my thigh with the other, that I couldn't help but begin to giggle a little myself.

When she gained control of her laughter, Jax said, "Maizie, just those looks you were giving me after I got pulled away from you at the bar almost had me cumming. That was why I put Delilah up to occupying you so I could actually focus on my work. Even then, I couldn't keep my eyes off of the two of you. I was actually jealous of the attention you were giving her."

Blushing, I said, "When you did it, I thought maybe you were wanting to move on and was trying to pawn me off on another woman."

Jax got a serious look on her face at hearing my words. "God, no, Maizie. I get hit on by pretty girls every night at the bar, some are relentless about it. Schools not bad, but even there, I'm flirted with a lot and have been asked out a time or two. And while my job necessitates that I flirt back just a little, I've never for a second considered taking anyone up on their offer."

"I've spent the last month or more terrified that you would move on," I admitted as she rubbed the inside of my thigh, forcing the drumbeat behind my clit to kick into overdrive.

Standing as she held my hand, Jax pulled me from the car and wrapped her arms around my neck. My hands went to her waist, holding her close as our lips came together, both of us eagerly trying to devour the other.

Breaking our kiss, Jax said, "The only way I would have ever done that would have been if you told me you no longer had feelings for me, and only then after a long period of grieving."

"I'm so in love with you, baby girl. Before I met you, I never had the slightest clue of what real romantic love was. But I fell hard for you the moment you walked through my door, and I'm not sure I could ever get over you." I told her, feeling my eyes leak tears.

Leaning in and kissing me, Jax said, "Thankfully, neither of us has to worry about going through something like that. We found each other, and now we never have to let go."

"Maizie?" a voice came from behind me. A voice that I recognized immediately as my husband's. I saw Jax's eyes focus over my shoulder, the fire in them instantly going cold as if doused with icy water.

"Fuck," I thought, "he wasn't scheduled to be home for two more days."

Steeling my resolve, I tapped at Jax's waist to garner her attention. When her eyes made contact with mine, I whispered, "Go upstairs and wait for me." Seeing the tears in her eyes, and realizing that her worst fears of being the other woman were coming true, I added, "It's okay, baby girl. This isn't your fault. He was going to find out soon anyway. Let me handle this, and I'll come to you later tonight."

I turned to Darren as Jax almost cowered behind me. I could feel her shaking and reached both of my hands back, taking her hands to try and settle her.

"Can you give me a moment, Darren? I'll be in the house right behind you so that we can talk,"

The look on Darren's face didn't change. I could tell by the shock on his face that he was as thrown off by what he was witnessing as we were at being discovered. The quivering in his voice only confirmed it.

"Sure," Darren replied, "I'll see you inside." He turned and started towards the open gate before stopping and turning back towards us. He began to say something, but stopped, seeming to think better of it. Turning, he continued on through the gate, allowing it to close behind him. I waited until I heard the French doors on the patio shut before turning back to Jax.

"This isn't your fault. You didn't force me to fall in love with you, and we've both done everything we can to deny ourselves of being together." I insisted. And then to reassure her, I said, "This changes nothing. I will work things out with Darren, and you and I will be together. Just trust me, okay?"

Jax nodded her head, but I could tell she was heartbroken. Leading her to the bottom of the stairs, I briefly kissed her, not caring if my husband was watching from the kitchen window. I now that sounds brutal, but I was tired of leading a passionless life, tired of denying to both myself and the world around me about who I was.

Most of all, though, I was tired of not being able to be with Jax.

I watched as she made her way up the stairs. After opening her door, she turned to give me one last look. I offered her a smile and waited until the door closed behind her before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

Time to go take my medicine.

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Entering through the patio doors, I found Darren in the kitchen, coffee cup in hand. He didn't look angry as he stared down into his mug, more contemplative.

"I'm sorry you found out like that," I said. Darren had been so deep into thought, that he jumped a bit at the sound of my voice.

"I guess that's twice tonight I've startled you," I joked sheepishly, not really expecting my husband to find the humor in my comment.

"Yeah," He said with a hint of a grin, but still unwilling to meet my eyes. "How long has that been going on?" he asked. His question wasn't accusatory, he could have just as readily been asking me the time, or what was for dinner.