The Palmist Ch. 05

Lila was not merely amused; she seemed thrilled! Absolutely thrilled that I'd suffered such devastating humiliation during what I'd expected to be a time when my friend could distract me from my feelings of loserness. "Instead, he amplified them for you. How wwwwonderful! And then, after teasing you like he did, and watching you carrying his cummy tissues out of the room, he slept comfortably in *your* bed, above you, while you slept on the floor. Hahahaha! Ohhh, David, hun, that is just priceless! Ohhhh. You lead a charmed life, hun. Do you know that?"

"I do?"

"Yes. You have no idea how lucky you are to have a friend like Derek. Does he have a nice penis?"

"Um. I mean, I don't really..."

"Oh, come on, David, you know if he has a nice penis or not; it's a simple question. Do you think most girls would think his penis is nice?"

"I guess so. Yeah. I guess."

"So let me ask you something. When you were sitting there beside him, and you two were watching those girls on cam, did you feel like you wanted to help Derek get pleasure? Like did you feel like you wanted to suck him off for him?"

"What?? No!!"

"No?"

"No! I'm not *gay*."

"Well, that's not what I asked, hun. I'm asking: Did you feel like even though you weren't allowed to have pleasure, maybe you could at least help your friend to improve his pleasure, like maybe by putting your mouth on his beautiful penis?"

"Ewww. No."

"OK. Well... I'll see you boys at 11. Oh, listen, hun, give Derek the 60 dollars before you get here, so he can pay it to me and act like it's his money. And I do want you to come in with him, and I've got something for you to do while I'm giving him his reading? OK?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Ohhh, very good. I said 'OK' there on purpose to see if you'd also say 'OK'. I guess it's good you didn't, because I doubt you'd want to have to set an alarm for 4 AM when Derek is there in your room with you. OK, hun, see you shortly."

I had told Derek about Lila the night before, not long after he'd arrived. I told him I went to see a palmist I thought was very insightful, and told him I'd treat him to a session with her if he was interested. He scoffed a bit, and didn't seem interested at all. I pressed the matter a little, because it seemed like Lila had really wanted him to come in. He was still dismissive. I said, "Come on, you can ask about you and Megan, just to see what she says. Aren't you curious?" He shrugged. "Come on, just as a lark. What do you have to lose? It'll give us something to do tomorrow during the day." He suggested driving up to the lake where his relatives were, to go boating instead. I almost gave up at that point, thinking fortune-telling couldn't possibly compete with boating in his mind. But when I happened to mention that she was a very pretty woman, he said, "Aw, what the hell. Sure."

When we entered Lila's place, she glided toward us in her flowing dress, making a bee line for Derek, and said, in a rich and, I thought, especially sultry voice, "Helloooo. You must be Derek." She gave him a hand-over-hand reception, smiling broadly and making warm eye contact, while apparently ignoring me. "Come sit." She gestured to her low table, then said, "I'll be *riiiight* with you, hun. And hello again, David, come with me, hun."

To be safe, I responded by saying, "Yes ma'am." But it wasn't in my usual sort-of-meek way; it was more like a tone one would use playfully, like faux respect. I was conscious of Derek hearing and thinking it weird if I responded in a ... sort of ... loser? tone.

Lila installed me in the same corner where I had stood a few days before. This time she strapped one sandal to my face, while the other was positioned right in front of my crotch. She leaned on my shoulder and whispered, "You get to stand here, like a loser, being a good boy while I give *your friend* [which phrase she drawled in a mischievous, sultry way] some attention. While you're in here, I want you to think of nothing but him jerking himself off on your bed last night, while you sat beside him like an idiot. I want you to think about how good he felt when he came, too, and how much he surely appreciated you carrying his cum away for him. Ha ha. Try not to get too excited," she mocked, "or you'll come out of here with a big ol' spot of pre-cum showing on your pants. And if you get any of it on my shoe, you'll be sucking it out. Oh, and by the way, I'm able to take as much time with Derek as needed, because the shop isn't actually open right now. This is a special appointment. So you may be here a while."

Then just before leaving me alone in the corner, she leaned in once more and whispered, "Loooooooserrrrrrrr".

I'm sure at least an hour passed, during which I couldn't hear anything that was going on in the front room, except now and then I'd hear one or both of them laugh. Each time, it made me self-conscious. Were they talking about me? Were they laughing about me? If they were, I couldn't imagine why. Well, that's not true. I could *imagine* that Lila was exposing secrets about me to him, and that my "loserness" was being revealed, much to the amusement of both. But... I thought that was highly improbable. That just seemed beyond what even Lila would think was appropriate. Didn't some kind of confidentiality apply? Then again, she wasn't bound by some professional ethical code, so far as I knew, and she was full of surprises. But in the end, I decided that when two people converse for an hour, occasional humor is to be expected. People laugh. It's not always about me, for Pete's sake.

When Lila re-entered, she removed her sandals from my face and crotch and examined the one for pre-cum, which I'd managed not to deposit. Then, before allowing me to turn around, she made me promise just one thing: To always be a good friend to Derek. "Do you know what 'good friend' means, hun, in your case?"

"Um. Well. Maybe not, ma'am?"

"It means any time he asks you for anything, you say yes. It means anything he wants you to do, you do it. OK?"

"Yes ma'am."

"It means you're lucky to have a friend who's not a loser, but you *are* a loser. Therefore, what he wants is always more important than what you want, and so whenever he tells you what he wants, you do it for him. That's what it means for *you* to be a good friend to Derek."

"Yes ma'am."

"You boys have fun tonight. Let's hope this girl Megan brings doesn't try to seduce you, because it'll be pretty awkward if she has sex in mind but you're not allowed to cum. And imagine how disappointed she'll be, and embarrassed you'll be, if she makes you have an accident in your pants. Hahaha. Well, whatever happens, I want you to call Lila tomorrow. I want to hear all about it."

"Yes ma'am."

Well, as it turned out, there was no opportunity that night for such an embarrassing incident. Megan showed up at Remo's with Ashley, the girl she'd been with the night Derek was in town before. I don't know if Ashley remembered me, but it was clear that Megan had taken seriously my indication that she needn't find a companion who might like me, because Ashley obviously didn't. Derek had chosen a booth in which we could await the girls' arrival. We sat on opposite sides so Megan would sit next to him, and her friend would sit next to me. But before they sat (right after saying a quick and perfunctory "hey" to me), Ashley said, "Let's sit over there at a table. I hate booths."

When we did move to a table, the girls chose one with two chairs on either side, rather than one on each of the four sides. The girls sat next to each other on one side, but Ashley sat diagonally from me, instead of across. So the whole time we were at Remo's, Megan and Derek chatted with each other, their line of conversation more or less blocking the path between me and Ashley.

I couldn't help but appreciate the ingenious social maneuvering of a girl who was aware that she was having dinner with her friend, a guy her friend was interested in, and some loser.

As if that wasn't enough, some guy came over to our table at one point, whom Ashley greeted with a friendly, drawled, "Heyyyyy", and she turned to talk to him for a while. I munched my pizza, and breadsticks, and sipped my drink, while I listened to Derek and Megan talk and flirt.

Like a loser.

A few minutes after we finished eating, Ashley asked if she could use Megan's car to leave. "You're leaving?" asked Megan. "I thought we were all gonna go to a movie." Ashley turned her head so it was kinda directed behind Megan as she answered, so Megan's head blocked me from being able to hear what she was saying. Then Megan said something, her tone making it seem to me that she was trying to talk Ashley out of such a rude and premature exit. Ashley interrupted, and pulled Megan away from the table so they could talk out of our earshot.

Derek took the opportunity to express some sympathy: "Aw, dude. I'm sorry this is so awkward. This Ashley chick seems like a real bitch, dude, sorry."

"It's OK. I wasn't expecting anything."

"Well, that's good. Hey, at least you don't have to worry about what I was talking about last night: going into a hook-up with a loaded gun, if you know what I mean."

"Ummm. No, I don't. What DO you mean?"

"Well, remember last night I said you should rub one out so you wouldn't-"

"Ohhh," I interrupted. "OK, now I know what you mean."

"Yeah. Then again, if you *were* expecting something, looks like it's blue balls again tonight. Hahaha. Sorry, dude. I couldn't resist. Ha ha."

I thought that Lila would probably tell me a loser shouldn't expect anything anyway. And this newfound tendency of Derek's to tease me over my lack of sexual fulfillment (and he didn't know the half of it!) was not something I would have welcomed, if I'd never put myself under Lila's therapy. But in that moment, knowing he was enjoying the teasing (even if he was simultaneously apologizing out of the other side of his mouth) I thought of Lila's admonition to always be a "good friend" to Derek. At that moment, he was enjoying teasing me. It was what he wanted to do. Per Lila, I was to let him. I was to consider his fun to be more important than my pride.

So my only response was to say, "It's OK."

Megan returned to the table alone, and sat across from Derek. She reached over to touch my forearm and said, "David, I'm so sorry about Ashley. I didn't know she was gonna do that. I know that's really rude, and I'm really sorry."

"It's OK," I said.

"We can all still have fun tonight, right? Can we still go to the movie?"

"Sure", Derek and I answered in unison. And off to the theater we went, in my car, with Megan and Derek sitting together in the back. When we got there, Derek said, "I'll pay for the tickets, and how 'bout you pay for the snacks, David?"

I started to say "OK", but then I remembered getting up in the middle of the night to write "I will not say OK. I will say yes ma'am and yes sir" 50 times. But... I just couldn't say "yes sir" in this situation. It just seemed too weird. So... maybe I kind of cheated, but I said, "All right."

Then after we went inside, Derek asked Megan what refreshments she wanted, whereupon he told me what he wanted, and asked me to get the snacks while they went in to find seats. Again, I said, "all right", and then got in line. I realized Derek's move was designed to get a few minutes with Megan without me there, listening, or observing. Not that I expected to find them making out in the theater when I went in, but still... when else during this evening would he get one-on-one time with Megan? I also realized that I was fortunate that it was Megan, *and* Derek, that I was there with, since neither of them would have attempted to cut me out of the evening. If I'd insisted on going home to just let the two of them go out, I'm sure Megan would have tried talking me out of it. She was just too sweet not to make sure someone felt included, within her power to do so. For his part, Derek also would not have attempted to sideline me. I was sure enough of his friendship to know that. So, if he was going to get some semblance of time alone with Megan, it would have to be under these circumstances.

While in line, I realized I wouldn't be able to carry all the popcorn, candy, and sodas in one trip, so I decided I'd order theirs first, take it in, and then come back to order my own. When I found them inside, I saw that Derek had saved me a seat beside him, with Megan on his other side. I handed them the snacks, then said, "OK, be right back."

Derek said, "Where you goin'?"

"Well, I still need to get mine. I knew I'd need two trips anyway."

"Oh, OK. So you got ours first."

At that point Megan said, "Aww."

Derek said, "You make a fine chauffeur and butler. Haha." Megan also giggled, and again said, "Aww."

In a flash of inspiration, I said, "Thank you sir." I hoped it would be taken as a somewhat comical reply (the sort of faux respect I mentioned earlier). It seems it was, as Derek and Megan both chuckled. I turned from them quickly and hoped they couldn't detect the erection under my pants.