The Journey Ch. 03

"Worth it," I replied with a grin.

The next couple hours passed quickly, talking, laughing and drinking. I decided I really liked Mindy. She was pretty funny. And hot.

The two D's were nice. One of them worked with Mindy in an office, the other was a high-school teacher. Connie was a project manager for a software development company. I pretended I understood what that meant. The whole time Mindy kept scooting her chair closer and closer to me. By the time our third round arrived, her hand had taken up residence on my thigh under the table.

I was pretty excited about the possibility of going home with her, but also it was nice to hang out with a group of women, having a good time. My circle of friends had narrowed in recent years. Dramatically, in fact, to more or less my bowling team. And now I'd given up my place with them in order to go to school.

But I was certainly having fun tonight. During our third round Connie started a lesbian joke-off. "It's so expensive being a lesbian. We're always eating out."

"Hear about the new lesbian sneaker they came out with? It has an extra-long tongue and only takes one finger to get off," Dee said, cracking us up.

"You know why I can't diet when I get dressed up for the office?" offered Mindy. "Because it's hard to eat Jenny Craig when I've got Mary Kay on my face."

"We've been wanting to get a double-ended dildo," said Deborah, "but money's so tight right now, we can't make ends meet."

"What do you call a lesbian with long fingers? Well hung," I offered.

I felt Mindy grip my hand under the table. "Your fingers seem pretty long to me," she whispered in my ear. I smiled and squeezed her thigh as I drained my glass.

"You want to get out of here?" I ask her, "We could share an Uber."

"Yes, please."

"Sounds good. You want to order it while I hit the head?"

While I was washing my hands, Connie came into the bathroom.

"You guys heading out, huh?"

"Yeah. I never asked, how do you know Mindy?"

She grinned sheepishly, "We hooked up on Tinder a few years ago. The sex was good, but we didn't click romantically and we somehow ended up becoming friends."

"Not sure I've ever been friends with a hookup afterwards before."

"It was pretty awkward at first."

"I bet."

"Anyhow, I came in here because I wanted to give you this." She pulled a cardboard beer coaster out of her pocket and handed it to me. I saw there was a phone number written on the back.

"Uh..."

"Don't worry, I'm not hitting on you behind my friend's back."

"Good. Because I can be a shit, but I'm not sure I'm that big of a shit."

"I wouldn't hit on you anyway, we're obviously both tops. It'd be closer to a UFC fight than sex. I just think you're funny, and you have good taste in booze. If you ever want to go drinking sometime, shoot me a text. Strictly platonic. Maybe we could wingman while hunting girly chicks."

This might have been one of the weirdest offers I'd gotten during a meet-up, and not even coming from the girl I was here to meet.

"I'll keep it in mind. It was nice to meet you." I stuck the coaster in my pocket and headed for the door.

"Hey, be careful not to let Mindy hurt you."

I paused, my hand on the door. "What?"

"She got out of a pretty serious relationship about four months ago and she's been doing a string of hook-ups. Haven't seen her do more than a second date with anyone in a while."

I eyed her for a long moment, a feeling of disappointment in the pit of my stomach. I had really grown to like Mindy over the course of the evening. And she didn't seem... out of my league. "I appreciate the heads up."

"Make sure you pull her hair."

"What?"

"You heard me," she said with a smirk, "Trust me, you'll know when." She went into a stall and closed the door behind her.

Definitely the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me during a meet-up.

Mindy and I settled our bill, said our good nights to Double D and met our Über out front. As soon as the door closed, she was practically in my lap, much to the obvious amusement of our driver, who not so subtly adjusted his rear-view mirror more than once.

We kissed a little, but I wasn't one for giving a dude a show. It took maybe ten minutes to get to her apartment.

"Want to come up?" she asked a little breathlessly. "Or you can have Mr. Eyes up there take you home." The driver cleared his throat in embarrassment.

I didn't answer. Instead I opened the door and got out, holding out my hand to help her out of the car.

As soon as the door of her apartment closed behind us, Mindy dropped her bag on the floor. I started to follow her, but she put her fingers on my chest and pressed me back against the door.

"Stay there."

"Okay."

She kicked off her shoes and walked to the other side of the small living room to stand in front of her couch, turned to face me and pulled her shirt over her head. Then she put her hands on her hips and looked at me with a little smile.

"Keep going," I said.

Her smile grew wider and her white satin bra followed. Her boobs were really nice.

"You're not done." I leaned back against the door and reached down to pull off my Doc Martens.

She unbuttoned her jeans and shimmied them down her legs. The lace string of her thong caught on one side and half pulled the hip down as she did. She stepped out of her jeans, then pulled the sides up with a thumb hooked into each string, tightly framing the vee of her legs in white lace for my viewing pleasure.

"Keep going."

"You want me naked when you're still fully dressed?" she said with an impish smile.

"I think that's what you want." I growled.

Her mouth opened with a tiny gasp of anticipation, as she turned away from me and slowly slid her panties down to her knees, bending over at the waist as she did. I could see she was freshly shaved, not the tiniest trace of stubble. Yum.

I pulled my own shirt over my head as I walked towards her. She started to straighten up, but I put my hand on her back and pressed her forward. She put her hands on the couch to keep her balance.

"I want to put my face... right... here." I said, as I knelt behind her, leaned forward and ran my tongue between her lips.

She gasped, "Yes!"

I licked her with gusto, and soon there were rivulets of moisture running down the inside of her thighs. She started to straighten up and again, I pressed my hand on her back pushing her face towards the cushions. I brought my other hand up and slid two fingers inside her. She widened her stance and moaned loudly.

"God yes!"

I knelt lower so I could keep a steady rhythm with my tongue on her clit, while I fucked her with my hand. It didn't take long.

"Oh, Jesus! Oh yes! Yes! YES!"

Her knees trembled as she came and she spread her feet out wider to keep from falling, stretching her panties until I heard the sounds of fabric ready to tear.

I stood and pulled her upright, turning her around to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around me, her hands running over the stubble on the back of my head.

"Bedroom! Now!" she moaned into my mouth.

"Lead the way."

She stepped the rest of the way out of her thong, leaving it on the floor then she took my hand and led us into her bedroom. She made a bee line directly for her bedside table, rummaged in a drawer and pulled out a thick, fluorescent pink dildo and harness.

Hell yeah, I thought to myself.

"You need to be more naked now," she said, as she started tugging on my jeans. I pulled my sports bra over my head while she worked my pants and boxer-briefs down my legs. In moments I was naked as she was, and she knelt down in front of me to hold open the harness while I stepped into it. She stayed on her knees, tightening the straps around my hips, then she looked up at me as she took the end of the silicone cock into her mouth, coating the end with her saliva.

Fuck yes, this girl is my kind of freak.

I pulled her to her feet and roughly shoved her onto her back onto the bed. She winced as I guided the fat head into her, so I took it easy at first, giving her short, slow strokes, letting her body accept it at her own pace. As I slid deeper and deeper into her, I leaned down, so that our faces got closer on each thrust. I finally sank completely into her and she wrapped her legs around me as we kissed.

She held me tightly to her, one hand around my back and the other stroking the back of my head, as I rocked my hips, thrusting in and out of her. Her breathing grew quick and shallow. I leaned away so I could get my hand in between our bodies to rub her clit, but she grabbed my wrist.

"No," she said, pushing at me.

"No?"

"Get off." She pushed me harder and the dildo pulled out of her with an obscene slurping sound. She quickly flipped over, getting on her knees and arching her butt in the air, her face pressed into the mattress.

"Great ass!" I said, giving it a sharp smack with my palm. She moaned as I took the head of the dildo and slid it in. Gripping her hips with both hands, I started roughly thrusting into her, my hips smacking into her ass with meaty slaps.

Mindy was making guttural grunts and moans as I ran one hand over the muscles of her back. As my hand slid up between her shoulder blades, she raised up on her arms and tilted her head back towards me.

I recalled what Connie had told me and grabbed a thick handful of Mindy's hair, pulling hard, making her back arch even more.

"Yes!" she cried out. I quickened my pace, watching the delicious jiggles my pounding was sending rippling through her ass as I pounded into her.

"Fuck! Fuck yes! Yes! Pull harder! Fuck..." After several minutes of fucking her, she held her breath for a moment, then her legs started shaking. "Yes! Yes, oh fuck yes! Goddamn, I'm coming! I'm c-o-m-i-i-i-n-n-n-g-g-g!"

I hoped her apartment walls weren't too thin or her neighbors would be getting an earful. Not that I cared. She collapsed onto the bed, and pulled away from me. The dildo slid out of her as she did, a long string of sticky fluid stretching out between the tip and her pussy then breaking off to fall onto her leg with a soft splat.

"Fuck yes, that was good," she moaned as she rolled onto her side.

I climbed up onto the bed on my knees, gripped her leg and lifted it, exposing her to me again.

"Good, I'm glad you liked round one. Get ready for round two," I said as I shuffled forward to straddle her leg, wrapping her other knee around the side of my waist. I reached down and guided the head of the silicone cock back inside her.

She looked up at me with pleased surprise and lust as I started fucking her again.

~~ Alexandria, Virginia, November ~~

"Expecting a call?" Jane asked as I looked at my phone for the fourth time since we had gotten in her car.

"No, just waiting for a text."

This was the fourth week of Jane giving me a ride home after class. The amount of time and hassle she was saving me was worth the price of the class. Plus, we'd had some really interesting conversations.

"I really appreciate that I've never once seen you look at your phone during class. You're one of the few."

"I mean... if you're paying money to take a class, seems like you should pay attention."

"You'd be surprised how many people can't help themselves."

"It's a federal crime to be on your phone while driving a Metro train. That's good practice for being able to put your phone away. I always turn mine off when I'm driving. I just turn it on to check my texts and messages at the turnaround at either end of my runs."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"Yeah. I was involved in a crash a few years back. I always suspected the other guy was on his phone but they could never prove it."

"A Metro crash? When was this?"

"Do you remember about three years ago, there was a train waiting outside McPherson Square and another train rear-ended it?"

"Oh god, yes. I was on the Red Line up in North East when that happened and it was backed up for an hour. I finally got off and took a bus."

"I was driving the train that got rear-ended."

I looked at my phone again. Nothing. I'd called Mindy after class while Dr. May packed up. I'd been trying to set up another time for us to meet during our class break. She hadn't answered so I'd left a voicemail. She'd been kinda quiet on our texts since our date. I knew Connie had said she was just into hookups right now but I really was hoping she liked me as much as I thought I might like her.

"Oh my god, were you hurt?" Jane sounded shocked.

"Not really. He wasn't going too fast. No one died. I think only a dozen or so people went to the hospital."

"Still, that's terrible."

"I was a little spooked driving for the next couple months, but now I hardly ever think about it."

Well, except for the fact I ended up being treated by Addison's doctor chick. I think about that all the time. I reached up and touched the scar on my forehead, then quickly dropped my hand back into my lap as soon as I realized what I was doing.

Jane pulled off I-95 and started winding through the streets of Springfield towards my apartment. By now she knew the way without me giving her directions.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I read your outline again for your final paper and I only had a couple comments. I'll put them in Blackboard for you tomorrow."

I had decided I wanted to look at the social phenomenon of different races "passing" as white. Interestingly, I'd gotten the idea because I knew from experience that some people would assume I was white by my looks without much effort on my part. Then while I sitting in class not long after Whitey-McWhiteBread had punched me in my bar fight, I'd had the thought that while I could pass if I wanted to, Dr. May... Jane... probably would never be able to. Not that she ever would choose to. She was an incredibly proud woman, and the tawny color of her hair and her light brown eyes were so striking. But it wasn't something that would even be an option for her.

There's a good example of privilege, I thought. I wouldn't want her to try anyway. Her curly ringlets swept up over her head in her headwrap were just yummy. It'd be a crime if she ever straightened them. I shook myself. Stop thinking about her like that, she's so far out of your league and you don't even know if she's gay! My gaydar hadn't really pinged with her, so I assumed she was straight.

"So, my idea is okay?"

"More than okay. I've never had a student do a paper on the phenomenon of passing. I've seen some graduate level work done on it, but never an undergrad. I'm interested to see what you do with it."

"It's pretty cool you look at our stuff while it's in progress and let us know if we're on the right track."

"I want everyone to succeed in my class. I've known professors who think they have to fail a couple of students every semester just to show they're teaching difficult subjects."

"That's fucked up."

"Right? Like, our purpose is to educate people, not show off that we can make a class so hard that people fail. That's ego triumphing over professionalism, if you ask me."

"Well... I really appreciate it. I want to do better than I did with my midterm."

"I'm looking forward to hearing you present your paper to the class."

Ugh. "I have to tell you, I'm really not looking forward to that. I've never done a presentation in front of people."

"It's an important part of the class, Vivian. Most college classes have some form of presentation requirement so it's a good skill to learn."

"I know," I sighed, "but I don't have to like it, do I?"

She laughed. "No, you just have to do it. Just follow the sample PowerPoint presentations on Blackboard for laying out your slides with your arguments and data. I can also send you a couple links to YouTube videos on public speaking if you'd like."

"Are you calling me one of the YouTube generation?"

"I know you are, because I'm one too."

"Fair point!" I laughed.

She pulled into the parking lot of my building.

"As always, thanks again for the ride," I said as I gathered my backpack.

"My pleasure. Have a good night."

As I reached my door, I stopped to watch her drive away, as I always did. She was a remarkable person. I almost feel like I was learning as much from riding home with her as I did in class.

My phone buzzed in my hand.

Mindy: Hey, sorry but the next couple weeks are going to be cray for me.

Mindy: I'll text you when things slow down and I have some time, okay?

"Right. Guess I'll take the hint," I said to myself and swiped her messages into the trash.

~~ Smitty's Bar, Springfield, Virginia, December ~~

"Another round, Jim," I said to the bartender.

"You got it, he said, taking away our empty beer mugs. My shot glass was still half full.

"This is a nice drinking place," Connie said, lifting her shot glass and draining it. "Old school. Like Barfly." Her dreadlocks bobbed as she drank. Today she was wearing them tied together on top of her head like the crest of a lesbian Roman helmet.

"What's Barfly?" I asked hoarsely after I killed the rest of my tequila.

"It's an old movie with Mickey Roark."

"Haven't seen it," I said. Jim set two more fresh drafts on the bar in front of us, then two empty shot glasses and proceeded to fill hers to the brim with Old Gobbler whiskey, mine with Cazadores tequila.

"Here's to day-drinking," Connie said, holding out her beer. I touched my mug to hers and we both took long pulls.

I'd kept the beer coaster she'd given me with her number, and after Mindy had ghosted me I'd texted to tell her that she called it.

If pressed, I'd have to admit I reached out to her in the hopes that she might talk Mindy into giving us a shot. It had hurt more than I'd expected. I don't know if it was because Connie had warned me that she wouldn't want to date and so I wanted her, just to be contrary, or if I'd really liked her that much.

Honestly, I think that maybe I was finally tired of the one-night-stand life.

In any case, Connie had not tried to sway Mindy on my behalf, but we had become drinking buddies; this was our third time hanging out. It was nice to have a fellow lesbian to get drunk with. Not that my roommate Manny wasn't a nice guy, but we didn't have that much in common besides driving trains, bowling, and watching sports.

"Want to shoot some pool?" I asked, nodding towards the empty pool table.

"Sure. Hey Jim, don't let anyone Bogart our seats, okay?"

The bartender looked around at the otherwise deserted bar and laughed.

"Can I get some quarters?" I asked, putting a five on the bar.

"Just four, or...?" Jim asked.

"All of it. Gotta plug the jukebox too."

Jim groaned theatrically, but took my bill and handed me a stack of coins.

"Can we get some nachos started? Or are you going to be too mad at me to put in our order?

"If you don't play any repeats."

"Deal."

"What's his beef?" Connie asked as I handed her four quarters.

"He doesn't like my taste in music." I said as I paged through the touch screen of the digital jukebox. She fed the coins into the pool table then started racking up the balls.

I made some selections, then picked up a pool cue and danced back to the table as Pitbull's Fireball came on the bar's sound system.

"Hate to tell you, I think I agree with Jim."

"What are you talking about? This is grade-A stuff." I made the break, sinking the nine ball. I stood analyzing the table for my next shot, my hips shaking in time with the saxophone riff.

"My hips can't do that."

"Practice, practice." I leaned over and sank the eleven, then danced in a circle around the table while thinking about angles.