She felt better having made this decision; like a responsible, rational adult. But she could not help but notice that her vagina was absolutely soaked from sexual excitement. Well, that was just a byproduct of turning the memory of that night around in her head. It was a natural biological response and nothing more. She was pondering whether she should slip into the bathroom for a few minutes to relieve the pressure. It would be easy enough to do. She was wearing a white and yellow summer dress and a frilly pair of panties underneath. It would be a simple matter of pulling up the dress, pulling her panties down a bit, and going to town. The way she felt, it wouldn’t take but two minutes.
Alas, this was not to be. The doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of their guests.
Elsa opened the door for them and the couple entered the house. With another deep breath to gather her courage, Laura stood from the couch and went to greet them.
As always, the dress code at Jake’s house was informal-casual. Gordon was dressed in a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt. He carried a portable electric piano in his hands. Neesh had adhered to the dress code as well. She had on a denim miniskirt that fell to mid-thigh and a sleeveless blouse. The top two buttons of her blouse were undone, allowing a fair amount of her cleavage to show. Nothing trashy or risqué, but quite alluring. She carried a bottle of expensive tequila.
The two musicians greeted each other warmly, sharing a complex handshake and a bro-hug. Then Gordon came over and gave Laura a big hug. She returned it affectionately. She really did like Gordon—a healthy chunk of the guilt she felt came from the fact that it was Gordon’s fiancé she had enjoyed ‘girl-time’ with.
Jake, meanwhile, was getting a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Neesh.
“I guess now that you’ve seen me naked, we’re on hugging terms, huh?” she asked him.
“That sounds like a good rule,” Jake agreed with a chuckle.
And then Neesh turned to Laura. She had a smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes. “Hey, Teach,” she greeted. “Tripped over any sea animals lately?”
Laura laughed and held out her arms. “Not lately,” she told her.
They embraced. She felt Neesh’s body against hers, felt those wonderous breasts pushing against her, smelled the intoxicating smell of her skin. Neesh kissed her lightly on her cheek, patted her back a few times, and that was it. A normal, everyday hug of greeting between two female friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while.
But Laura felt herself flushing all the same. Her resolve, however, remained firm.
Neesh gave no hint whatsoever of what had occurred between them the last time they were together. The four of them sat down and drank a few margaritas before dinner, chatting about such things as the upcoming wedding.
“I’ve chartered a Gulfstream to fly us direct to Kauai the day before the wedding,” Jake told the couple. “You two are more than welcome to fly with us if you want.”
“Who is gonna be on the flight?” Gordon asked.
“Well, Laura and I, obviously,” he replied. “Greg and Celia. The Nerdlys. Coop and whoever he brings as a guest. Pauline and Obie and Tabby. And Elsa, of course.”
“What about that tranny-fucking motherfucker?” Gordon asked.
“Charlie? He’ll be at the wedding—him and his boyfriend presumably—but they’re flying in out of SFO. So are my parents, Nerdly’s parents, and Jill, our accountant, and her parents.”
“You invited your accountant to your wedding?” Neesh asked.
“She’s a good accountant,” he said with a smile.
“There is a lot to be said for a good accountant,” Gordon said seriously.
“Besides, she’s my twin. I’m pretty much obligated to invite her.”
“Your twin?” Neesh asked, confused.
“It’s a long story,” Jake told her.
Gordon turned to his fiancé. “What do you say, baby?” he asked. “You wanna fly private with all these whities and their long-sufferin’ help to the hoedown?”
“Sounds good to me,” she said. “It’s not like we aren’t always the only people of color in the cabin when we fly first class.”
“That’s the truth,” Gordon agreed. “Save us a couple of seats, homey. We’ll take you up on your offer.”
“It’s gonna be a fun flight,” Jake said.
At the dinner table, the two couples sat across from each other. Elsa served the food and then retreated, as usual. Her chicken enchiladas were divine, and everyone had at least two helpings of everything, washing the food down with more of Jake’s margaritas (made with the tequila Neesh and Gordon had brought) from a pitcher on the table. Jake and Gordon spoke about the song they were going to be working on, dominating most of the conversation. Laura spent a lot of the time looking at Neesh, searching for any kind of hint in her eyes, on her face, in her mannerisms, any kind of teasing light, any kind of flirtation.
She saw nothing of the sort, just the eyes and face of a dinner guest here to visit with friends.
After dinner, while Elsa was cleaning up the dishes and putting the kitchen and dining room back to its usual immaculate self, the four of them stepped out onto the back deck, fresh margaritas in their hands. Jake fired up a fat joint he’d rolled earlier and they passed it around until it was but a roach, snubbed out in the ashtray.
“Pretty good shit, homey,” Gordon remarked, his eyes half-lidded.
“Naturally,” Jake said.
“It puts me in the perfect mood for a little composition. Shall we go in and see what we’ve come up with?”
“Let’s do it,” Jake said, standing up.
As they headed for the house, Laura, feeling her nervousness kick up a few notches, looked over at Neesh. Now would be a good time to have their conversation, to lay down the rules. “Do you want to stay out here for a while?” she asked her. “Watch the sun go down over the city?” She steeled herself a little. “Catch up on things?”
“How about we go watch the boys for a bit?” Neesh suggested instead. “I’m kind of curious to see what they came up with.”
“Oh ... sure, of course,” Laura said, feeling mixed emotions. On the one hand, she was anxious to get the serious talk over with. But on the other, she was not terribly good at confrontation and was kind of relieved to put it off for now. Maybe a few more drinks would help her along.
They went into the entertainment room. Gordon set up his electric piano on one of the tables while Jake disappeared to the composition room to retrieve his guitar. Neesh and Laura sat next to each other on the couch across from Gordon, a respectable amount of distance between them.
“Do you have any white wine?” Neesh asked politely, holding up her margarita glass. “I think I should probably quit with these things or I’m gonna have a sour stomach later on.”
“You bet,” Laura chirped brightly. She walked over to the bar and pulled a bottle of Inglenook chardonnay out of the refrigerator. By the time she had opened it and poured two glasses, Jake had returned and sat on a chair next to Gordon.
The song Jake and Gordon were working on did not have a name as of yet. Jake had apparently been working on the chorus, both melody and lyrics, and he sang out what he’d come up with so far, strumming in the key of G major. Each chorus he sang started with the same two lines but then ended with different variations of the theme for the second two lines.
“I like it, homey,” G told him after hearing him run through it twice. “Now let me show you what I got.”
Gordon then played a melody on the piano. His, however, was in the key of E major, and at an entirely different tempo than Jake had been utilizing. He sang out three verses, all of them in the theme of some malevolent and ignorant entity taking advantage of him and treating him like a possession. There was a clear analogy to slavery in his words. But he wasn’t singing about the slave trade. It was clear he was singing about record company executives and their contracts.