The Perils of Paula Pt. 03

"But to answer your question, it's just like it is with men. Some you like and some you love, and then there are men you wish you'd never been involved with," I paused as she finished removing the blouse and undid her skirt.

"Did you find those two women attractive?" Adele rose and let the skirt fall over her hips.

"I did," I admitted, "Trixie was cute and Donna was too in a butch way."

"So you don't like the butch ones?"

"I do but I find them a little too over the top, but then again some are quite feminine," I pinched my nose, "God, listen to me, I sound like a fruitcake."

"You're not a fruitcake," she replied, "I understand, life isn't black and white," she turned around to look at me.

"Can I trust you?"

"Of course," I stared at her in her bra and knickers, "I'm wearing a nightie because I always wear one in bed."

"I sleep naked normally," she undid her bra and let it fall to the floor, "but tonight I'll keep my panties on."

"Fine, the nightie is there if you want it."

Adele did look at it and then slid beneath the duvet. She was lying on her back staring at the ceiling with a curious look on her face.

"Well, this is different."

"What? Lying in bed with a bisexual woman or getting rescued by two lesbians?"

"Both," she rolled onto her side, "I shouldn't have even been there in the first place."

"Why were you there anyway? It's the last place I'd think of looking for you."

"I wanted to experience life on the other side, it might sound strange but I've only been in three pubs since I turned eighteen, including the one I was in tonight. It's funny that I can survive the Amazon rainforest but I have to get rescued in an Australian pub."

"By two lesbians," I reminded her.

"I preferred Trixie," she replied, "she might have pink hair but she's got a cute face."

She rose slightly and leaning over, brushed her lips across my cheek.

"Good night," and then she rolled over onto her side with her back to me and went to sleep. I remember staring at the ceiling and thinking about Rainnie because she wouldn't have wasted her time sleeping. Eventually, I too fell asleep and woke up a couple of hours later to find she'd rolled back over and moved up closer to my back. One hand was on my side and the other was tucked behind a pillow, I half contemplated moving it but then changed my mind and drifted off to sleep.

I awoke in the morning with the distinct impression that she wasn't there and then I heard the toilet flushing and a few moments later she exited the en-suite bathroom. She was wearing her blouse and a pair of panties and I raised an eyebrow as she knelt on the bed.

"Can I have a shower?"

"Sure, go right ahead. If you want to brush your teeth use the blue one, it belongs to my husband and what he doesn't know can't hurt him."

She did laugh at that.

"It's okay, I don't have any infectious diseases."

"Do you have to work today?"

"I've got an afternoon shift but I have some shopping to do in the morning. Um, I can get a taxi back to the car though."

"No, I said I'd take you back and I never break a promise, get showered while I get the kids ready," I sat up, "I've got to get them to school and then I'll drop you off."

Getting kids ready in the morning is like a military campaign in miniature. First, you have to wake them up and then you have to get them showered, dressed, fed, make sure they've got their bags packed, make their lunches and somehow manage to squeeze in a shower and breakfast along the way. It's something I'd been doing for years, even before Robert started spending days away from home but Adele seemed somewhat bemused by the exercise, and when she offered to help I simply told her that everything was under control.

"It might look like chaos but everything is going according to plan."

Nevertheless, she threw a spanner into the works when I dropped her off at the pub nearly an hour later, we were sitting in my car when she angled herself towards me.

"Thank you for helping me yesterday, I don't know how to repay you."

"You don't," I replied, "Christians aren't the only ones capable of charity, you didn't eat that much and you don't snore in bed. You're welcome to drop in any time, just call before you come in case I'm out or busy."

"I'd like to do that, you seem like the kind of friend I need. Most of my friends are Christians and just lately I've felt like I'm missing out on life in general."

"No worries, how'd you like to come to the Westie First Wives club next Friday night? You can crash at my place afterwards and being married isn't actually a requirement, it started out that way but the girls kind of got sidetracked along the way."

"Okay, um, I'm actually on holiday from Thursday night onwards, two weeks without having to clean up after patients."

"Are you going away anywhere?"

"It's kind of hard on my pay," she grimaced, "I'm saving my money for a trip to the UK next year so I have to sacrifice a real holiday this year."

"Okay, well it's a costume party, it's not compulsory but I'm going in a Blues Brothers uniform, you get a free bottle of bubbly if you turn up in costume."

"I'll see what I can put together," she smiled.

This where Tayla comes back into the story because as I've already mentioned, she and I were having an affair. Now I wasn't courting Adele in any way but when I turned up with her at a First Wives night it changed the dynamics between Tayla and me when the old green-eyed monster emerged because I hadn't told Tayla anything about my new friend.

The costume party was held at Meredith's house in Pascoe Vale. Meredith was a forty-five-year-old, twice married redhead with a wicked sense of humour. She was an actress and had appeared in several plays as well as a few television shows but Adele didn't know her face because she'd been overseas for half her life. Hence when I introduced Meredith as one of her tv characters, Georgie she actually thought that was her real name and Meredith had to correct me.

"But at least you came in costume," she ran an eye over Adele's outfit. She had stipulated fancy dress as the preferable attire, it wasn't mandatory by any means but she'd recently received a crate of wine bottles from a winery she was part owner of and anyone who turned up in costume got a bottle of wine. Oddly enough, Meredith didn't drink a drop of alcohol in all the time I knew her but she'd been a wild child when she was younger. She didn't smoke or do drugs either but with all those vices taken care of she was a voracious lover. Meredith swung both ways and I knew she was checking Adele out all night.

I was wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie, I'd borrowed a black hat and bought a pair of black sunglasses for my Blues Brothers costume but Adele's outfit really outdid mine. She had come as a schoolgirl and she'd really put effort into it, right down to the tartan skirt, matching tie and white blouse, she even had the white socks and black shoes. The blazer was actually her old school blazer but she confessed that the rest of the clothes weren't the real deal.

"I mean I wore something similar at school but it was a grey skirt and blazer."

It wasn't just the outfit that turned heads, it was almost like she was in character and to make it more entertaining I was the only one to know the truth that Adele really was a virgin amongst a bevvy of sexually mature women. Perhaps that explained why Meredith was so interested in her, apart from the obvious, as an actress she was trying to peer beneath the innocence to see the woman underneath. Because of Meredith's interest, I tended to stick closer to Adele than necessary and that was what got Tayla's back up, I felt her resentment building but typically for Tayla she masked it behind a veneer of respectability. Tayla if nothing else was a lady but the odd catty remark still managed to slip out.

In the end, I decided to call it a night earlier than normal, feigning an excuse that the kids had a full day ahead of them the next morning. Seeing that I was leaving, Adele decided then and there to leave as well. I didn't know she'd left because I was calling Rachel to let her know I was on my way home and when I looked up Adele was coming down the driveway. She reached my car and I wound down the window.

"Did I forget something?"

"Um, I was just leaving, it's late."

"It's only half past ten, the party's just getting started."

She smiled tightly.

"It's not really my thing, to be honest."

"Well, maybe not but you lasted until now."

"Can I ask you something about Meredith?"

"Yeah," I replied, "she's a swinger, she likes men and women but she and I have never done it."

"So it wasn't just me," she exhaled, "I thought I was going to faint in there, she kept looking at me and I had the feeling she was but you're the only one I know."

"What're you doing now?" I asked her.

"I was going to go back home."

"Wanna come to my joint? Robert was supposed to be back tonight but he's got to stay on for a few days in Canberra, he won't back until Tuesday."

"Um," she looked down the street towards her car, "I really shouldn't."

"You're on holiday, and you don't have to crash in my bed, there's a bloody comfortable couch and you don't even have to spend the night."

For a moment I thought she was going to refuse but then she nodded.

"Okay, you're right and it's not like I'm going to stay the night."

Thus, when Tayla saw her following me down the street it signalled the death knell for our little affair. To be honest though, despite the obvious appeal, I had no intention of sleeping with Adele that night or any night in the future but fate has a curious way of rearranging our lives. It certainly didn't start out that way because as any mother knows, you're always thinking about your kids even when you're not. My first port of call was Rachel's place because that's where they were staying the night and Rachel did a double take when she saw Adele.

"Hi, I'm Rachel," she held out her hand, "and you must be Adele."

"Pleased to meet you," Adele shook her hand briefly. Her eyes shifted to a picture of the Pope on the wall, "are you Catholic?"

"Heaven forbid," she chuckled, "my husband is a Catholic but I was raised a Protestant, neither of us has been to church in years though. The last time we set foot in a church was to exchange vows and I've regretted it ever since."

"She's joking of course," I smiled, "um, I'll just say goodnight to the kids," I moved away, "talk amongst yourselves."

When I returned Adele was sitting with a glass of wine in her hand and Rachel was sending a text to one of her sisters.

"Still breathing?"

"Yeah," I collapsed into a seat, "I think I could drain the fucking bottle."

"Well if you throw up you clean it up," Rachel snorted, "so, how was the party?"

"It was fun, Meredith had her dominatrix outfit on, full leather catsuit."

"Ouch," she winced, "now if that woman stepped into my bedroom wearing one of those I think I'd send Lewis to the couch for the night and lock the door."

I burst out laughing at that but Adele did raise an eyebrow.

"Is Rachel bisexual?" Adele asked me about an hour later as we walked back across the road to my place.

"Yeah, but she's not the cheating kind. Mind you, I think she has the patience of a saint because her ex husband is a fucking nightmare. Lewis is one of those alpha males who think that women have only two uses, making babies and cooking dinner. She had her affairs with women before she met Lewis though but she's still got that look in her eye."

"That makes three bisexual women that I've met this week, anyone would think it was a sign from God," she glanced over her shoulder, "my church is really anti gay in a big way."

"And what do you think?" I took out my keys.

"I used to agree with them but the people I've met this week don't seem the types to unleash some kind of apocalypse on the world, you all seem so normal."

"We are, at the end of the day it's just love, and sex. You have sexual desires and if you find yourself doing it with your own kind the world won't descend into anarchy, people would be too busy fucking to kill each other."

A moment later I came to a halt as a huntsman spider crawled down the flywire door.

"Fuck," I reached for the deodorant spray in my handbag but when I pulled it out she moved in front of me and took a handkerchief out of her handbag.

"Allow me," she murmured.

I was frozen to the spot as her hand snapped out, the handkerchief enveloped the tarantula and she spun around at the same time and flicked it out like a whip, the spider sailed through the air and landed on the path. I exhaled and she managed a sly smile.

"I've never seen anyone do that."

"They're harmless," she replied, "where we lived the spiders are much more dangerous, we had the Brazilian Wandering spider. It's bigger than a huntsman and if you're bitten you'll die if you don't get to a hospital in time."

"I'd be freaking out in the jungle," I inserted the key into the lock, my hand was still shaking and she put her hand on mine and turned the key.

"Relax, it's normal to feel on edge but a huntsman is really quite harmless but they look dangerous. Some people have an allergic reaction and you get swelling around the bite but no one has died from a huntsman bite."

Because of my close encounter with the huntsman my first stop was the kitchen to fix myself a good strong drink, Bundaberg rum and Coke, commonly known as a Black Rat or just Black Bundy. You can't drink it straight without losing control of your facial muscles but mixed with Coca-Cola it goes down quite smoothly. It was the first time Adele had ever tasted anything so strong and I could tell it had an effect on her because she shivered slightly and put a hand on her chest.

"It's quite heady."

"It's opened my legs a few times in the past," I grinned, "but too many and you won't be able to raise your head off the pillow in the morning, it gives you a killer hangover."

"I told my mum about you."

"You did, huh?" I loosened my tie slightly and undid the top button, "and what did she say?"

"That I should be careful around you."

"Did you tell her that you slept in the same bed as me?"

"No," she took another mouthful of Bundy, "I didn't dare tell her that, and if I told the people at church they'd be praying for my immortal soul."

"Okay," I leaned forward and put my drink down, "I'll take that as a compliment, seeing as you're sitting here drinking Bundy with me."

"I envy you," she replied as I leaned forward to put my glass on the coffee table.

"Me?" I glanced over my shoulder, "I've got a cheating husband, three kids, and I'm having an affair with another woman, when I'm not working cutting hair I'm doing housework and raising three kids."

"You're free though," she angled herself towards me and tucked a leg under herself, "I was raised in the jungle and brought here when I was fifteen, I found it really hard to fit in with Australian society even though I am Australian. When a girl at school asked me if I liked Acka dacka I asked her what it tasted like."

"Oh," I pinched my nose, "that must be tough, and you know now?"

"Yeah, ACDC, how was I to know? But I felt so fucking stupid."

I turned to look at her at that point, not because of the expletive, she sounded emotional.

"There's no need to be embarrassed, how could you know all these little things? You spent years in a foreign country and when you came back here you were involved in the church. I had a girlfriend who had to go to church every Sunday and she was always getting stirred about it. Mandy ended up rejecting the church because the whole Christian subculture isolates you from mainstream society. All her friends were Christians, they didn't just go to church, there were bible studies, youth groups, Christian concerts and films, they even had a community phone book for Christian tradesmen and other businesses. She felt suffocated by the Christian world and when she left it caused a split in her family because one of her sisters and a brother felt the same way but her oldest brother was one of the rising stars in the church."

"I know exactly how she feels," Adele sighed, "it's like there's two of me, the person you see in front of you and this other person hidden inside me."

"Maybe you should get out more," I tweaked the lapel of her blazer, "try things you wouldn't normally try."

"What kinds of things?" Adele looked down at my hand.

"I don't know, whatever you want, horse riding, hang gliding, go camping, it's a long list and none of it involves hanging around church people."

She took another mouthful of Bundy and closed her eyes.

"Or get pissed."

"Well I was trying to find uplifting positive things but yeah, why the hell not."

When she opened her eyes though something had changed. I was still sliding my forefinger and thumb up and down her lapel but her eyes had narrowed slightly, her face was slightly flushed but that was a result of the alcohol in her system, she'd had a drink at the party and a couple more at Rachel's joint. She put her hand on top of mine but didn't try to push it away, instead, she was staring intently at me.

A long moment passed between us and she managed another sip of Bundy before moving sideways to put it on the table, when she leaned back against the couch I slid my arm along the back of the couch to her head and she reached out to feel my jacket.

"Where did you get it?"

"It actually belongs to my husband," I replied, "it matched my black pants."

"Nice, and the tie?"

"Busted," I smiled crookedly, "but the rest is all mine."

She had hold of my tie as I spoke and I propped my head on my palm and reached out to touch her tie, her eyes shifted as I fingered the knot.

"You went to a lot of trouble tonight."

"It's a fault of mine, I always go over the top. Mum says I have two speeds, stop and full speed ahead, I'm either all for it or all against it."

I tightened my grip on the knot and used my thumbnail to pull on the knot, Adele swallowed as my thumb slipped further into the knot and her hand moved onto mine. I stopped and looked past her, trying to think of something to say, I was aware she was moving closer and when I turned back she was inches from my face.

The kiss was quick and light, a mere peck on the lips but it took me by surprise and misjudging my reaction she let go of my tie and moved back.

"Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"Why not?" I still had hold of her tie.

"You're with another woman."

"And I'm married to Robert," I replied, "and you envy me? You didn't do anything wrong, you just took me by surprise that's all."

"Oh," her eyes widened, "to be honest I don't know why I kissed you."

"That's the way the cookie crumbles," I rubbed my thumb over the knot, "I put it down to impulse," I hooked my thumbnail inside the knot and pulled down slowly. Adele exhaled slowly and leaned over towards me. She had a nervous expression on her face and it seemed as if we were inches from each other's lips for much longer than normal. I moved first, tilting my head and brushing my lips against hers. I felt a slight shiver go through her and for a split second, I thought she was going to pull back but then she locked her lips onto mine and held them there. I felt her fingers sliding up my tie to the knot. I parted my lips slightly and she went with me, her hand reached my knot and hung from it as I worked her mouth slowly.

We parted suddenly and she looked to one side, her breathing was slow and measured. When she looked back at me she had a slight smile on her face.

"That wasn't so bad."

"One of my talents."

We looked into each other's eyes and her eyes shifted slightly. I could sense the hesitation and so I brought my other hand around to touch her hair.