Unexplored Territory

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Ann Douglas
Ann Douglas
3,164 Followers

-=-=-=-=-

By the time six o'clock on Friday rolled around, Ellie already had two drinks inside of her, having gotten to the bar a bit after five. She'd wanted to check the place out and was glad to find that it was exactly as advertised. So much so that it made her feel a bit ridiculous to have even thought that it might have been something else.

It had been that look, that silly, stupid look that she couldn't get out of her head. The one that so reminded her of the first time she had looked into David's eyes and saw him looking back at her with an intensity that made her quiver.

Why, Ellie asked herself more than once, was she making the assumption that that look, and the feeling it generated, meant the same thing now? It was even a leap to think that Audrey was into other women. After all, Ellie had never had any sense of what some people referred to as "gaydar." Back in high school, there had been one girl Ellie had been sure was a lesbian, who turned out to be as straight as they come, and another that she would never have suspected as playing for the home team. And if she was actually right in all of her assumptions, then what was she doing here? It was all so confusing.

If any answer was forthcoming, Ellie didn't have the time to wait for it, because as she turned her head she saw Audrey coming in the door. She waved to get her attention and, as the teacher worked her way through the crowd, the salesgirl quickly finished what was left of her beer.

"I didn't think this place would be so packed this early," Audrey said as she squeezed into the space next to Ellie at the bar. "Normally it doesn't get crowded until about eight, but I passed their competition a block back and it was closed for some kind of renovations. Good for the owners of this place I guess, maybe not so good for us."

"It'll be fine," Ellie assured her, now feeling a little more relaxed by the drinks she'd already had.

A bartender appeared in front of them and Audrey ordered her favorite beer, adding that he should bring Ellie another of whatever it was that she had been drinking.

"I thought I was supposed to be the one thanking you," Ellie said as the bartender went off to get the drinks.

"You can get the next round," Audrey said as she pointed out that one of the small tables against the wall had just been vacated. "Grab that table if you can, I'll be right behind you with the drinks."

Ellie barely made it to the table ahead of two guys who had also spotted it. For a moment, it looked like they might have wanted to join her but, as Audrey showed up with the drinks, a cold look from her sent the two of them off in the other direction.

"So tell me about yourself, Ellie," Audrey said as she took a sip of her beer and judged it satisfactory. "I didn't get a chance to learn that much that day at the coffee shop."

Ellie thought about it for a second, then began the same mini-biography she normally gave people at the store or school. Nothing too personal, but enough to give a sense of who she was. Not giving it a great deal of importance, Ellie mentioned that she had just broken up with the guy she'd been dating.

"He must've been a real idiot," Audrey said as she took another long sip of her drink.

"What makes you say that?" Ellie asked, surprised at her assumption.

"Because anyone that let a girl as pretty as you go has to be an idiot," Audrey smiled.

Audrey asked a few questions about the things Ellie had shared so far, thankfully none of them about David. Then she began to offer some details about her own life. In the middle of her narrative, a waitress came up to the table and the redhead paused just long enough to order another round for both of them.

"I thought that was supposed to be my round," Ellie said as the waitress moved off.

"Totally slipped my mind," Audrey smiled as she slid right back into her story. "You can get the next one if you want to."

It occurred to Ellie that if, in an identical situation, a guy had said that, she would suspect that he was trying to get her a bit drunk. After all, with the drink she'd had had in hand when Audrey had shown up, not to mention the one before that, she was already past her normal limit. Why then, she asked herself, didn't it bother her now? Was it because she wanted to be a little less inhibited than she normally would be?

Her mind wandering for a few moments, Ellie was only half listening when Audrey mentioned that she had been in a long term relationship but it had also ended a few months before. Because of her distraction, Ellie had almost missed it when, in referring to her ex, Audrey had definitely use the female pronoun. That answered one of the two questions she had been asking herself. Of course, that just made her wonder all the more about the other. Were the two of them on a date?

When the waitress returned, Ellie suggested that they order some snacks to go with the round that was just delivered. Audrey thought that a great idea and said she had only hesitated in suggesting it herself because she wasn't sure how long Ellie planned to stay. Saying that she was in no hurry to go, Ellie then offered the thought that they should order burger plates or something more substantial than chicken wings. A full stomach, she reasoned, would go a long way in countering the beers she'd drunk much too close together.

At one hour gave way to two, Ellie decided that if this was a date, and she still wasn't sure if it was or not, it had been one of the nicest first dates she had ever been on. The conversation had been both lively and interesting, and there was no feeling of pressure at all. When it finally came time to say their goodnights, Ellie had felt a genuine sense of disappointment.

Audrey lived only a few blocks from the bar, and it turned out that the bus Ellie needed to take the few miles to her own place had a stop just across the street from there. The two women continued their conversation as they walked, smiling and laughing almost all the way. When they reached the bus stop, Audrey mentioned that a friend was having an exhibition of her photographs in the village next week and that she had an extra ticket. Would Ellie like to go?

Ellie said she would love to but before she said yes, she needed to know something. Audrey replied that she could ask anything she wanted..

"Would that be a date?" Ellie asked.

Audrey smiled for a moment, then said, "Sweetheart, it can be anything that you want it to be, or feel comfortable with it being."

Then, with the bus just coming into view about a half block off, Audrey leaned over and kissed Ellie on her cheek, promising to text her all the details about the show.

Sitting on the bus and giving a last wave goodbye as the bus pulled into traffic and Audrey disappeared from view, it suddenly occurred to Ellie that her question hadn't been answered at all.

-=-=-=-=-

The information about the exhibit was waiting for Ellie when she checked her messages the following day after work. Evidently the show was a dress up affair and Audrey wanted to give her plenty of time to make sure she had an appropriate outfit to wear. For not the first time, Ellie was grateful for the store's employee's discount.

Audrey had also said in the message that she'd really enjoyed spending the previous evening with Ellie and looked forward to going to the exhibition with her. At the end, she had signed the short note with a smiley face.

Ellie had stared at that emoticon for a long time, wondering how much meaning she should apply to it. Was this all a game, or was it something she should take seriously? Finally she decided that she should just go with the flow, as her little sister was always telling her, and just enjoy it for whatever it was.

That didn't mean that she was about to tell anyone, including Carmen, that she was going on a date with a woman. Or at least what she was now going to assume was a date. The funny thing was, the more she thought about it, the more she appreciated the fact that Audrey had continued to leave it vague. As she'd noted before, this was definitely unexplored territory, and it was nice to have some wiggle room if she decided it wasn't somewhere she wanted to go.

The next day, Carmen was more than happy to give up her own lunch break to help Ellie shop. The older Hispanic woman had known the salesgirls up on the sixth floor a lot longer than Ellie had, and it didn't take much convincing to get them to make sure that every possible reduction was taken off her outfit, even before the standard employee deduction kicked in. Without her efforts, the dress they finally decided on would've cost almost half a week's salary.

"That dress is impresionante," Carmen said as she watched Ellie admire it in the full length mirror, "and I'm so glad that you're getting back on the horse and moving on."

Ellie shot a look back over her shoulder towards Carmen, then back to the two salesgirls who had been helping them, looking to see if they'd reacted to what she'd said. Even of they had heard her, it was doubtful that they knew that know that "getting on the horse" was Carmen's favorite way of referring to "fucking a guy, just for the sake of fucking him." It was an expression she claimed she had learned from her grandmother.

"No one said I was getting back on any horse," Ellie said in an almost whisper. "I'm just going to a photo exhibition with a friend."

"You're not still hung up on that asshole, David, are you?" Carmen asked in an equally low tone, the possibility suddenly popping into her head.

"No, no, I'm not," Elle said as she turned her attention back to the image in the mirror.

The funny thing was, she really was over David, and had been for weeks. She never would've thought it possible before she had walked in on him and Lola, but whatever they'd had together had been wiped clean in an instant, like one of those drawing pads she'd had as a kid. The kind where no matter how much effort you put into a picture, it would all vanish in an instant when you pulled up the plastic covering.

"Is he at least cute?" she heard Carmen ask.

"What?"

"This friend, the one you're going to this art show with," Carmen expanded. "Is he at least cute?"

Ellie paused for a moment, a picture of Audrey forming in her mind. "Yes," she said as she concentrated on the image, "quite cute indeed."

As she took one last look at the dress before heading back into the changing room to take it off, one final thought came to Ellie. "Now that I think about it, if this isn't a 'fuck me' dress, I don't know what is."

-=-=-=-=-

Adjacent to the sixth floor changing room was a second room not open to the public. It contained lockers, a few showers and a row of makeup vanities. A holdover from the days when the store used to hold fashion shows, it was a boon to girls going out after work, especially those who lived in the outer boroughs. It gave them a place to clean up and change in comfort rather than having to make do in the ladies bathroom, or head all the way home first.

On the night of the exhibit, Ellie was just about to head up and take advantage of the model's room when she got a last minute text from Audrey. Once she saw "I'm sorry" in the first line of the message, Ellie was afraid that Audrey was cancelling for some reason and that thought made her feel sadder than she ever imagined it might.

To her relief, the apology was because Audrey was going to be unavoidably delayed at school and therefore might also be late for the opening. Would Ellie mind terribly, she asked, if she met her at the gallery rather than where they had originally planned? Her name was on the guest list, rather than just being a "plus one" so she wouldn't have any trouble getting into the private event.

Quickly texting back that she wouldn't mind at all, Ellie's smile grew even brighter when she read Audrey's response, "Thanks, you're a love."

-=-=-=-=-

Both the photo exhibition and the gallery it was being held at turned out to be a lot more high class than Ellie had originally imagined, and she was glad for the outfit she was wearing. Basic black, with a neckline just deep enough to show off her breasts, it also dropped two thirds of the way down her back, with her bare skin visible through a fine mesh. She'd also had her hair done during lunch at the store's salon and one of the other counter girls had helped her with her makeup. Ellie couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten this dressed up to go somewhere, but it certainly hadn't been for any place David had taken her.

Sipping a flute of champagne, Ellie found herself spending almost as much time looking at the other attendees as she did the photographs on display. The tuxedos most of the men wore were hardly the rent-a-tux that she normally saw at weddings and such, and, as nice as her outfit was, it was on the low end of the scale when compared to what most of the other women were wearing. Ellie was sure that few of them had to consider where else they might wear their outfit as to justify their cost.

There were even a few famous faces in the crowd, and Ellie had to remind herself not to stare too long at any of them, hard as that turned out to be. At one point, she found herself practically speechless when the star of one of television's top rated shows asked her opinion of a photograph that both had been admiring. It was a nude of a woman about Ellie's age that was both tasteful and highly erotic at the same time. A description that might be considered contradictory, but one that was the only way she could describe it. The expression that the television star had used in describing the image turned out to be one that could never be used on his network show.

Moving upstairs to the second floor of the gallery, where other photographers' work was also on display, Ellie noted again how much more diverse the crowd around her was, at least as compared to those at the sort of gatherings she normally attended. Age and ethnic backgrounds were only the beginning, followed right behind by the number of intergenerational pairings she observed. Of those, in at least one out of three the senior partner had been a woman rather than a man. She even came across three same-sex matches, one with two men and the rest women, with one of them falling among the intergenerational as well. It was certainly a long way from the Saturday night parties at her father's Knights of Columbus post back in the old neighborhood.

"Wonderful, I finally found you," Ellie heard a familiar voice say behind her. "I've been searching for the last fifteen minutes."

Ellie turned to find Audrey standing behind her, her short reddish-brown hair in an elaborate styling and wearing a sleeveless white dress with a blue sash across her waist. Not exactly what one thought of when one pictured a grade school teacher, was Ellie's first thought. Then again, she reminded herself, she doubted that few of her customers at the cosmetics counter would recognize her in this setting either.

"God, don't you look stunning," Audrey said once she got a good look at her guest.

"I was just thinking the same thing about you," Ellie admitted, hopping she hadn't stared at the older woman too long.

Audrey leaned close and gave Ellie a friendly kiss on the cheek, coupled with a quick hug. At the same time, she apologized for being late and asked Ellie if she had been enjoying herself.

"Very much so," Ellie replied. "Everything, everybody, is just so interesting."

"I'm glad," Audrey said as she reached out to a passing tray and picked up a pair of champagne flutes for the two of them. "I was really hoping you would like it."

With a gentle touch against Ellie's bare arm, Audrey led the younger woman back along many of the exhibits she had already seen as they worked their way back down to the main floor. This time however, Ellie was treated to a fascinating narration about the background of many of the photographs, both those of Audrey's friend as well as those that had been on the second floor.

A few people recognized and came up to say hello to Audrey, and then were in turn introduced to Ellie. After the third or fourth time, she began to get the impression that she was being shown off as much as any of the exhibits on the walls. Normally, Ellie hated having that done; but strangely, tonight she didn't seem to mind.

"This is all just so amazing," Ellie said to Audrey after the woman they had been talking to excused themselves to say hello to someone else. "Do you get to attend things like this often?"

"Now and then," Audrey said, "Often enough to no longer be in awe of it all, but not so often as to treat it as commonplace."

They were just moving out of one of the tiny alcoves that divided the large display area when Ellie heard someone call out Audrey's name. She turned her head in the direction of the voice and saw a woman in her mid-forties moving toward them. With short hair a light brown, Ellie immediately recognized her as the senior half of one of the lesbian couples she had spotted earlier.

"Audrey, darling," the woman said as she came to a stop in front of the two of them, "I'm so glad that you were able to come. When I didn't see you earlier I was worried that you hadn't been able to make it."

The two women exchanged a friendly kiss on the cheek and a brief hug, after which Audrey introduced the woman as Dorothy Malone, the photographer whose work everyone had come to see.

"Dorothy, this is my friend, Ellie Travis," Audrey said.

"My, aren't you the prettiest thing," Dorothy said as she took Ellie's hand between the two of hers. "I hope you're having a good time."

"We're having a great time," Audrey answered for the two of them. "It looks like the show is a great success."

"Who'd have ever thought it back when we were living in that little room over in Tribeca?" Dorothy laughed. "I know I didn't."

"I think your work is spectacular," Ellie said, wondering as she said so why Dorothy went out of her way to point out that the two of them once lived together. Did she think Audrey hadn't volunteered the information that she liked girls?

"Why, thank you," Dorothy replied, turning her attention to the younger woman and giving her a look that could easily be described as predatory, suggested as she did so that perhaps Ellie might like to pose for her sometime.

"I don't know," Ellie said, surprised by the suggestion. "I've never thought of myself as a model."

"None of my subjects ever are, my dear," Dorothy offered, "and if you did pose, then I'd have a matched set."

The look on Ellie's face said she didn't understand the comment.

"Both you and my darling Audrey," Dorothy explained. "Didn't she ever tell you that she was once one of my favorite subjects? In fact, my favorite shot of her is the jewel of the exhibit." She paused for a second as she looked around at the photo lined display walls before adding, "In fact, it's right over there."

Ellie turned in the direction Dorothy indicated and let out a light gasp of surprise. The photograph in question had been the nude she had been admiring with the television star.

"Dorothy, Robert Burton is looking for you," a young, long haired blonde woman, who seemed to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, said.

It only took a moment for Ellie to realize that of course the woman hadn't really appeared out of nowhere, but rather had walked up to the three of them while she had been distracted, looking back at the photograph on the nearby wall. Once she looked at the blonde, she recognized her as the woman who had been with Dorothy earlier in the evening. What was also now apparent, now that she saw her close up, was that the girl was even younger than she was.

"May I introduce my lovely Cassandra?" Dorothy said as she took the girl's hand in her own and brought it up to her lips. "Both my muse and taskmaster, who makes sure that I'm in the right place at the right time. And in this case, I was supposed to meet Robert, who is the owner of the gallery, some fifteen minutes ago. So, if you both will excuse me..."

Ann Douglas
Ann Douglas
3,164 Followers