“Does Gordon know about your girl-time encounters?” Laura asked her.
“No,” she said without hesitation. “Gordon is a good man and I love him dearly, but I don’t think we’d see eye to eye on girl-time.”
“That’s what’s wrong with it,” Laura told her. “It’s deception and lying.”
Neesh simply shrugged. “All couples deceive each other and lie to each other about something. We don’t live in a seventies TV show here.”
“True, but...”
“Did you tell Jake about what happened between us?” Neesh asked her. “I’m assuming you haven’t since he’s acting pretty normal around me.”
“I didn’t,” she said. “I didn’t tell anyone about it.”
“Is that because you’re ashamed about what we did?”
“Well ... no,” she said. “I’m not ashamed, just ... guilty. And I don’t think telling Jake about what happened would help anything.”
She nodded. “I think I agree with you there.”
“But we can never do that again,” Laura said.
“No?” Neesh asked. “You didn’t enjoy it?”
Laura sighed. “Actually, I enjoyed it quite a lot,” she admitted. “Too much.”
“No such thing as enjoying something too much,” Neesh proclaimed.
“Oh, but there is,” Laura said. “And this is one of those things. I told Jake about what I did with those women in South America and he understood. He wasn’t upset with me about it. But what you and I did was different than that.”
“In what way?”
“I know your name,” she said. “You’re not an anonymous groupie that I’ll never see again. You’re the fiancé of one of Jake’s best friends. That puts this on a completely different level.”
“I suppose,” Neesh said thoughtfully. “Tell me something though, are you sad that we didn’t get to finish what we started that night?”
Laura nodded. “Yes,” she said.
Neesh smiled. “And do you think about what would have happened if we hadn’t lost our clothes, how it would’ve been, how it would’ve felt?”
“All the time,” Laura said.
“Me too,” Neesh said. “I think back about how you told me not to tease you. I should’ve listened. If I wouldn’t have teased, I could’ve had my mouth on your pussy and you never would’ve thought about those clothes, right?”
Laura licked her lips, feeling wetness seeping into her down below despite her resolve. She resisted an urge to touch the nipple on her breast through her dress. “Most likely,” she said, in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.
“But you don’t want to have girl-time with me anymore?”
“I can’t,” Laura said. “I really can’t.”
Neesh nodded. “Well, all right then,” she said. “I guess I have to respect your wishes.”
“Thank you,” Laura said, relieved (but also disappointed?). “I hope this whole thing doesn’t alter our friendship. Because I really do enjoy having you as a friend, Neesh.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Neesh told her. “Friendship is more important than girl-time. One should not impact the other.”
“That’s good to know,” Laura said.
They talked no more of girl-time or what had happened between them. Instead, they talked of the upcoming wedding a little more, and then of Neesh and Gordon’s wedding in April. They finished their wine and did not pour any more.
“Well,” said Neesh. “You suppose we ought to go back in and see how our menfolk are doing?”
“I guess so,” Laura said.
They went back into the house. Gordon and Jake were still strumming guitar strings, playing piano keys, and singing verses and choruses. They hardly noticed the two ladies returning.
They sat and watched for a few minutes and then Neesh stood up. “Excuse me for a few,” she said. “I have to go pee.”
“You know where it’s at,” Laura said.
“Yes, I do,” Neesh concurred. She headed out the back of the entertainment room to the half bath in the hallway that led to the living room. She disappeared inside and shut the door behind her.
A few minutes went by. Laura watched the two musicians play—it seemed they were getting the basics of a tune dialed in—and thought about how her conversation with Neesh had gone. She had spoken plainly and stuck to her guns. She was quite proud herself, actually. And Neesh said they could still be friends! Even better.
She heard the bathroom door open up again. She then heard Neesh whispering her name.
She looked up and saw her standing just outside the bathroom door, gesturing to her.
What is this about? she wondered. Did she just start her period maybe, and doesn’t have any supplies on her? That seemed the most likely possibility. Even though Neesh, like Laura, was on birth control pills and her periods should have quite predictable, things still happened.
But that was not what this was about.
“What’s up?” Laura asked her after walking over to her.
“Nothing much,” Neesh said. “Just curious about something.”
“What’s that?”
She pointed to a door near the end of the hall, the last door on the right before entering the living room. “That room right there,” she said. “I don’t remember going in there when you gave me the tour the first time I was here.”
Laura furled her brow in confusion. She seemed to remember showing her everything in the house, but then again, that had been a while ago. And that was not exactly the most memorable room in the house. “It’s just a guest room,” she told her. “And not even one of the bigger ones. We don’t even really use it.”
“Can I see it?” Neesh asked.
“The guest room? Uh ... sure, if you really want to.”
“I really want to,” Neesh told her.
Laura shrugged and led her over to the door. She opened it. It was one of the smaller rooms in the house, only twelve feet by twelve feet. There was a twin bed in here, neatly made up and with recently laundered sheets thanks to Elsa. Next to it was a small nightstand and a dresser. The air smelled fresh and clean—again thanks to Elsa.
“It’s pretty much just your basic room,” Laura said, leading Neesh inside. “Nobody has slept in here in all the time I’ve lived here, although Elsa told me that her grandson used to stay in here on the nights he would...”
There was a click as Neesh shut the door behind them.
Laura turned and looked at her, seeing the smile on her face, the hungry look in her eyes. “Neesh,” she said carefully. “What are you doing?”
Neesh locked the door and then took a step closer to her. “I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to do,” she said softly.
“Now wait a minute,” Laura said, feeling a little jolt of adrenaline going through her—and a little jolt of lust as well. “We agreed that nothing would happen between us, remember?”
“I remember,” Neesh said. “I’m just not sure you were being truthful with me.”
“I was, Neesh,” Laura insisted, feeling herself trembling a little now. She was not sure, however, if it was from fear or arousal. “We can’t do anything.”
“I’m not going to attack you, Teach,” Neesh told her. “I would never do something like that. What I am going to do is walk up you, take your face in my hands, and then kiss you. If you don’t want me to do that, all you need to do is put your hands up to my shoulders and gently push me away before my mouth makes contact with yours. If you do that, I will turn around and walk out of this room and never try anything with you again.”
“Neesh ... I ... we ... uh...”
Neesh walked over to her until they were standing almost chest to chest. “I notice you haven’t pushed me away yet,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to ... I mean we shouldn’t ... I mean...”
But Neesh knew what she meant. She put her hands to the side of Laura’s face. They were soft hands, feminine hands. She then leaned in and put her lips to Laura’s lips. Laura brought her hands up, but she did not push Neesh away. Instead, she put them around Neesh’s waist and pulled her closer.