The Floating World Pt. 06: Madelyn

"Define normal, Maddy."

"Oh no, I'd better not. Then you'll only want better."

"Best, Madelyn, I always want best."

Ahh, she thought, so that's what he wants.

She leaned back, slowly trailing her fingers along his, down onto the tablecloth, down past the edge of the knife, her index finger moving towards herself in a single dragging slide on the cloth. She watched his eyes follow her finger tip as it came to the edge of the table, pointing down towards her centre. His eyes followed her finger until it slid off the cloth and dropped down. He raised his eyes to hers, where she was already waiting for his gaze. Still sitting back, Maddy held his gaze as she dropped her finger to the high slit in her dress and eased her legs apart, finding the edge of her panties.

She eased her slow finger down the slick of her lips, wincing as she felt the hot burn from Juliette's quick fuck. Her eyes lazily closed as she anointed her finger. She dragged her finger tip over her clit, shuddering in a last reminder. Opening her eyes to see Adam's eyes still on hers, she lifted her wet finger above the table and put it to his lips.

"Perfection, Mister Cain. Always strive for perfection."

She fucked her wet finger into his mouth just once, so he knew.

"Fuuck, Madelyn...."

She didn't need to respond; he was losing it. She smiled to herself, just creasing the edges of her eyes. He knew it too, and wanted it. Madelyn was working him out, but Adam would have to wait.

* * * *

"Mademoiselle, the barramundi." Juliette placed the plate before Maddy and was rewarded with those genuine eyes, again.

"Sir, your fillet mignon. Blue, as you ordered." She placed the plate before him, and was surprised he was distracted, didn't have time for her, not this time. She glanced back at Maddy, wondering what the hell was going on between these two.

Maddy saw the questioning look, and touched her fingers to the girl's wrist, as a reminder. Juliette looked down, feeling the touch, before slowly moving her hand away.

"Thank you, Juliette." She heard Adam's voice. "It is Juliette, isn't it?"

"Yes sir, Juliette."

She glanced down at Adam, and saw the distant look in his eyes fade as he focussed back on her. She smiled down at him as a gift, and his own smile in return was gentle, so very gentle. Juliette glanced back at Maddy and was perplexed, because her smile now was real, too. After the swift business in the toilet cubicle, she didn't expect that. Juliette had wondered what on earth made the woman tick; but three hundred bucks... she didn't care, that was more than her weekend's wages.

Juliette left them to their meal, and over the rest of the evening studied them discreetly, whenever she could, trying to establish their dynamic. She decided in the end they were like a pair of wild and beautiful cats, circling around each other on silent paws, wanting to fight but wouldn't. Juliette wondered what it would be like to be caught between them like delicate prey, and decided she'd try to find out.

When Madelyn asked for the bill, Juliette processed the credit card payment, and saw the fifty dollar tip. She placed the tip in the communal drawer, like they always did, to be shared amongst all of the staff. She then dipped inside her bra to retrieve the folded up notes, which she smoothed out and placed under the card in the bill-fold sleeve. She wrote her phone number on a piece of white paper and placed it under the card, on top of the money. Her heart beat fast, but she didn't know what else to do.

She placed the bill-fold by Maddy's hand, and quickly went back to the counter, as if nothing had happened. She couldn't look at the woman, so looked down at her hand instead, remembering the creamy froth of Maddy's cunt and the grip of it on her fingers.

* * * *

"Adam, can you drive, please. I don't feel like driving down the hill. Straight back to your place, and I'll take the car from there."

Maddy closed her eyes all the way down the hill, trusting this man completely. Her hand on his leg felt the muscles tighten in his thigh each time he changed gear, the smooth up and down quite soothing. Once down the hill and in the city, she placed her hand on the back of his head, slowly stroking his hair. She sleepily opened her eyes and watched his concentration as he drove to his apartment.

"Will you come up?"

"Oh no, Mister Cain, I don't do that."

"I didn't think you would."

"Not on a first date, Adam. Remember what I said about being too fast?"

"Just as well I'm a patient man." He smiled at her, and she got a little closer, because he was waiting for the best.

Adam got out of the driver's seat, leaving the door open. He went around the back of the car, reaching down to open the passenger door. Maddy slid her long legs to the pavement, the fall of her dress revealing the creamy white flesh of her thigh and the bruised red slit of her sex. She reached up for his hand and he helped her out of the car.

She took his face in her hands, studying him intently for a long moment. She kissed him softly on the lips, holding the back of his neck as she did so, just a soft, gentle touch. She could love this man, if he let her.

"I'll call you, Adam. I promise."

He didn't need to say anything. Madelyn always delivered on her promises, in her own time, when she was ready.

* * * *

Back at the restaurant Juliette was tidying the restroom and saw an envelope with her name written on it. Inside she found Madelyn's knickers, neatly folded, the three hundred dollars given back, and a note.

She read the note. "It's not payment, it's a promise. Buy yourself something beautiful and wear it next time. Madelyn."

Juliette stood, breathing the woman's animal smell deeply in. "You're still fucking crazy," she whispered.

She then realised Madelyn had her number, but she didn't have Madelyn's. She looked in the booking diary, but there was no number there, just Jean-Claude's immaculate writing.

8.00 pm. Table x 2. Madeline.

Jean-Claude had spelt her name wrong. It was Madelyn.

Her partner had called her Maddy.

* * * *

"Juliette, hi, it's Maddy.

"Yes, from the restaurant last month.

"That's right. How could I forget?

"You washed them? You're a darling... listen, did you buy something beautiful?

"A gift, that's right. You didn't? Weren't sure what to get?

"Okay, how about this..."

Maddy made arrangements to meet Juliette in town the following week. She then rang Adam to let him know he wasn't forgotten, and would he like to get together the weekend after this one?

"Oh no, Mister Cain. I don't do that. I'll come and pick you up, like before.

"No, no. I'll bring everything. Just yourself." She laughed at his reply. "Of course you will, you delicious man.

"Early afternoon. I'll confirm a time later. Bye."

* * * *

"Juliette, there you are. I'm sorry I'm a little late." Madelyn wasn't sorry at all, as it was her way to set little tests where time was concerned, just to gauge reactions. She smiled as she remembered Adam's finger tapping on the dashboard clock in her car, <i>See, I'm right on time.</i>

Juliette looked up from the bench she was sitting on and put her phone away. "That's okay, I was just flicking through some catalogues -"

"To find something beautiful?" Maddy asked. "That's good, I want you to look beautiful. Wrapped up with a bow; what do you think?"

"You make me sound like a gift. Is that what I am? Someone's present?" Juliette stood up and faced Maddy. "What's going on, anyway? I gave you my number a month ago, and you've only just called."

"Oh, darling, you weren't waiting by the phone all that time, surely not?" Maddy laughed. "Silly girl. But that's very sweet."

"But I thought -"

"Do you know, that's exactly what Adam said. I said he should stop thinking."

"Who's Adam? Your partner at the restaurant? You're not a couple though, are you? You're not together."

Juliette was curious, remembering the attention she'd received from them both, wondering what it would be like to be tangled up between them. She remembered his admiring eyes and Madelyn's kiss, the raw passion of their sex. Juliette felt a weight in the base of her belly, picturing Madelyn's creaming froth on her fingers, seeing the woman before her now. <i>Next time.</i>

This was the next time. Juliette was more than curious, she was fascinated by this crazy woman who'd fucked with her mind in a toilet cubicle, then called her out of the blue. That night, after she'd got home, Juliette had relived the time with Maddy, and she'd come too. Not as fast as Maddy; she savoured the memory and took her time. She didn't quite believe that she'd done it, fucked Maddy fast with her fingers, but the envelope with its contents proved she'd been awake.

"Not a couple, no. How could you tell?" Maddy asked.

"Well, you arranged it all. You made the booking, picked up the bill. Your car, that's not really a man's car, is it? A little sports car like that. I saw you arrive. You were driving."

Juliette went on, pointing out something else: "And you in the bathroom, that was all about you, wasn't it? Seems to me, that night was your night. Like you'd arranged a date or something."

She stopped talking for a moment, thinking, then asked Maddy, "Is that what this is, some kind of a date? You and me?"

"Do you know, darling, I think it might be," Maddy replied.

"Well, where are we going then, you and I? To eat a peach?"

"To eat a peach?" Maddy didn't get the reference.

"Let us go then, you and I,/ When the evening is spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherised upon a table..."

Juliette narrated the lines of the poem, and as she did so, they started walking. "And later, the narrator says, 'Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?', and there's a line about flannel trousers and walking on a beach, but I can't remember exactly how they go."

She looked up at Madelyn walking beside her. "It's a T.S.Eliot poem, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'"

"'Etherised on a table.' I like that," said Maddy.

Juliette looked at her, and wondered if the woman was all there.

"Where do you get this from?" Maddy went on. "Your poetry?"

"English Lit degree," Juliette replied. "It's why I work as a waitress."

"Really? English Lit? You'll get on with Adam, then. That's what he's got. English Literature and Double History. Quite what it's got to do with his work, I don't know; but there you are."

Juliette digested this new information and they walked on, turning a corner into an alley with a range of boutique shops on both sides. "Is that why you want me to be beautiful, to be a gift for Adam?" she asked.

Madelyn stopped, and Juliette walked on another two steps alone, before she too stopped and turned to face Maddy. She couldn't interpret the look on the other woman's face.

"Actually, no." Maddy replied. "I like my own beautiful things. Adam might be one of them eventually, but I'm still figuring that out, how to do that. He's wilful, and I'm running out of 'no's' for an answer." She laughed, as much at herself and her self-made dilemma, as at her continued saying no to Adam. <i>Oh no, Mister Cain, I don't do that.</i>

Juliette crossed her fingers to remember a point. Maddy was showering her with concepts and revelations, and she had to take them one at a time or completely lose her way. By a tacit agreement, they stood still in the street, Maddy having ushered Juliette out of the flow of pedestrians with a guiding touch on her arm. Perhaps Maddy needed clarity in a still place too, from time to time.

"So," pondered Juliette, "I'm a beautiful thing, but I'm to be your beautiful thing, is that it? Not for him?"

"I guess," Maddy replied, "since I'm paying; yes, that makes you mine, doesn't it?"

"I guess it does. But you're not paying. I'm volunteering." Juliette said it, stepping into the panther's den, her head held high and her throat exposed.

Madelyn looked at her, astonished at what she'd just heard.

"And at the moment, you're trying to snare Adam by not letting him pay for anything, either, but you're paying him attention, is that it? You're making <i>yourself</i> the prize, but it's early days. So he's dangling?"

"Clever girl. Yes, I suppose that's it." <i>What Madelyn wants, Madelyn gets.</i> "He's no puppet though, he won't always do what I want." She paused. "He's rather delightful, really. Quite a challenge."

Juliette digested all this, and Maddy watched her do it, fascinated by the speed of the girl's thought process, realising that she might not be so totally alone, after all.

"So," Juliette concluded, uncrossing her fingers, "why don't we, you and I, eat a peach with Adam and have twice as much fun?"

"My sweet god, you're ruthless. 'Etherise him on a table,' is that it?" Madelyn looked at the girl with a sudden new appreciation.

"Something like that," Juliette said, and started walking.

"Fuuck," said Maddy in admiration. "You're quick off the mark."

"I beat you up a hundred bucks, remember. And we'd only just met."

"You did. Nobody's done that before. I'm impressed." Madelyn walked along beside the girl.

"Let's go buy me beautiful things," said Juliette, "if I'm going to be your prize."

* * * *

They turned into a narrow doorway and made their way up a flight of stairs. Juliette stepped ahead, with Madelyn admiring the sway of her ass under a long flowing skirt. The girl wore a pair of Doc Martens, surprisingly small and somehow quite delicate. One of the stairs creaked as she stepped on it, startling Maddy from her delight.

At the top of the stairs there was a small landing, with several closed doors leading off it. Maddy pushed open one of the doors, and a discreet buzzer sounded at the back of the shop.

"I buy all my frillies here," said Madelyn, as they entered the shop. "It's like a little Paris."

Juliette, who could only afford Target, stopped inside the entrance and was spellbound. The shop was crowded with racks of clothing down one side, shelves of lingerie, soaps and scents down the other; and near the back, a floor length mirror reflected a wide display space. Juliette saw a pretty girl in the mirror, and recognised herself standing there. She reached out to caress a skein of soft fabric beside her.

"My god," she whispered, "I didn't know this place was here. It's beautiful, so luxurious." She breathed in the scents of the shop, looking around, up and down. "It's wonderful."

"Oh yes," replied Maddy, "it's quite divine."

"Madelyn, my darling, my beauty, who DO we have here? Let me see her!"

A flamboyantly camp man in his late sixties or early seventies emerged from the back of the shop with his hands outstretched in greeting, a beaming smile on his face. Immaculately dressed in pin-striped trousers and a silver brocade waistcoat, with pomaded hair, he air-kissed Madelyn on both cheeks before turning to Juliette. Taking both her hands in his, he stepped back to see her properly.

"Oh my goodness, Madelyn, where DID you find her? Isn't she delicious?" He swirled around Juliette, before dropping to his knee and, taking her hand in his, kissing the backs of her fingers.

"Bonnard," he announced himself, "at your service, Mademoiselle."

"Juliette," she replied, laughing, too astonished to think straight, but with a wide smile on her face from his outrageous performance.

"Juliette? Oh my dear, HOW delectable, how it CLICKS off the tongue: JuliETTE!"

"Bonnard, you old cliché, stop it at once before you make yourself sick." Madelyn's voice was full of affection for the man. "We need your demonic arts to make Juliette even more beautiful than she is."

He looked at Juliette with a practised eye. "Of course. My demonic arts. My dear, where SHALL we start?"

Juliette knew she didn't need to answer. She watched as Bonnard went to the front door and locked it with an ancient, elaborate key.

"There," he said, "we won't be interrupted. I'm quite exclusive, it's part of my charm."

"Bonnard, it's part of your act," said Madelyn. "Don't dally. I want to see Juliette at her best. Chop chop."

"Miss Madelyn, a master at his craft needs time, as well you know. One mustn't rush." He glared at Maddy, only to be ignored.

"Ttt Ttt," he clicked his tongue. "Have it your own way. I've made you tea, it's by the chair."

He fluttered his hand to the back of the shop where there was a large comfortable chair opposite the long mirror, pushed far back against the wall. Any occupant of the chair would have a clear view of the mirror and its reflection, but be veiled in shadow themselves.

He turned to Juliette, taking her by the hand. "Come, my dear, let's sort out your sizes. Let's see you first, then we'll cover you up."

He led her down to the end of the shop and placed her before the mirror. Behind her, and she was already in shadows, Madelyn was seated in the chair, leaning back comfortably with one leg drawn up, watching the display before her. Bonnard, ever the maestro, knew what she wanted, and would wrap her gift up perfectly, tied with a bow.

But first, "Let's see what you look like, my darling. May I?"

Bonnard didn't say what he wanted to do, but Juliette stood willingly, her arms by her sides.

"Of course you may. Whatever you need to do."

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and fell within herself, into her own sensation. Nothing else existed, and she could have heard a pin drop. She placed herself in Bonnard's hands, knowing that Maddy was watching.

Once he got down to business, Bonnard lost the affectation and his <i>outré</i> campiness. His voice became a steady murmur as he started up a running commentary, but only for himself and Juliette. Maddy sat watching, not needing commentary at all, just watching. She soaked the girl up with her gaze, getting wet.

"First, these boots. Quite fine and divine for the day, let's keep them, shall we? But for openings and galleries, our evening places, high heels, don't you think? But look, such little feet, how astonishing, where did they come from? Foot up, darling, while we take these boots off; aaand the other one, good girl. A four inch heel, no more. Three might be better, such little feet.

"Oh, you sensible thing, cotton socks so your feet don't rub in those boots. Lift up, there's a darling, and let's curl them off, shall we, one by one. Hmmm. Ohh, that's very nice. How divine!"

Juliette wasn't surprised when Bonnard bought the socks to his nose, inhaling her scent like a cork. She suspected he was a connoisseur of many things, clearly delighting in her body. She imagined his hands on a perfume bottle, reading the label first, turning it over to read the back.

"Oh look, tiny tidy toes and an acceptable colour already. We'll fix you up with a pedicure next door, Katy's wonderfully quick."

He got to his feet, and took the hem of Juliette's top in his hands. "Hands up, darling, over your head. I'm not going to shoot you, not at all. Up we go."

In one smooth movement he lifted the garment up over her head and up her arms, revealing Juliette's naked torso, her high breasts, and two dark shadows of hair <i>au naturel</i> in her armpits.

"Oh my, look at you, a natural girl. How perfect."

"Smell me, if you like," said Juliette, her voice so low only Bonnard could hear.

"Thank you, my darling, but later. I mustn't get distracted. Now, your brassiere, what size?"

"I'm a thirty-two - "

"Oh darling, I was talking to myself, it's a silly habit, I know. No need to tell me, I can see you perfectly well. Sizes on labels, pah! It's all by eye, always by eye. Miss Maddy over there, even she doesn't know her own sizes, a tall girl like her? I remember them for her. A label would seem quite offensive, don't you think?"