"Well…" Teela smiled over her shoulder as she headed on through the back door, employing an overly exaggerated swivel-hipped stride, "Maybe dunking yourself in the pool will keep your dork from shredding your swim trunks…"
"Why, you… !" Rick took off chasing her at a run, and Teela, laughing, kicked up her heels, headed for the pool.
Jean watched this from the bedroom door, smiling faintly. Teela still had the weapons left that all women wield…
Lon and Sally had been in and out of the pool two or three times; Lon, of course, was an accomplished swimmer — but Sally did quite well, too. "Why haven’t you gone out for swim team?" Lon asked, while they dangled their legs in the water, side by side.
"I’m too big," Sally replied. "Specifically, THESE are too big." She indicated her breasts.
"Oh." Lon didn’t know where to go from there; they were marvelous, as far as he was concerned, but did they have a purpose he could point to? No. Nothing he could say would get his point across without sounding crass…
Sally moved on. "I heard something — second, or maybe third hand. I think it was supposed to be helpful, but it raises a lot of questions…"
"Oh?" Lon blinked. "What?"
"Teela said that Rick told her that you weren’t just trying to use me for sex because it wasn’t necessary; she said that he said that you already had a steady supply of no-strings sex, so that wasn’t an issue…" She turned to face him. "Is that true?"
Lon blanched. "He said that?"
"Is it true?"
Lon shoved his hair back from his face. "I suppose you want to know all about it…"
"Yes. I deserve to, don’t I?" Sally asked.
"Do you? You’re putting me between a rock and a hard place here," Lon replied. "You don’t trust me, and you don’t believe me when I tell you how I feel about you — but you want me to drop a dime on other people. Is that fair?"
"Well…"
"If I rat out somebody else, does that make me trustworthy?"
"Well, no…"
"Exactly. I need commitments from you before I can do something like that," Lon insisted.
"What kind of commitments?" Sally asked carefully.
"Well, maybe I should ask YOU some questions — do you like sex? Here I am, trying to get into a relationship with you and I don’t know if you like sex…" Lon pressed.
"I really don’t know…" Sally replied, dazed.
"You don’t know? Does that mean you’ve done it and can’t decide, or you haven’t done it?" Lon demanded, on a roll.
"I haven’t done it."
"No shit?"
"No."
"Well, what about masturbating — you do THAT, don’t you?"
"Lon!"
"C’mon! Everybody does!"
"Okay, well, yes…"
"How often?"
"LON!"
"Well?
"Come on! This is PERSONAL!"
"You bet it is! If I tell you what you want to know, it’ll be personal for more people than just me!"
"What do you want from me?" Sally whined.
"I want you to trust me!" Lon replied. "Have I done ANYTHING that would lead you to believe I’m jerking your chain?"
"No…"
"Come here!" Lon reached out and drew her in. Sally thought about fighting it, but that really didn’t square with her basic feelings on the matter. Lon’s strong arm around her shoulder felt GOOD! "So why do you mistrust me?"
"Everybody says I should?" Sally supplied tentatively.
"But what do YOU think?"
"Well, I’m fine until you say something silly like I’m beautiful…"
"WHAT?" Sally was going to continue with, ' … and you ruin your credibility, ' but she found herself flat on her back on the tiles with Lon hovering above her, pinning her shoulders. "That’s SILLY? That’s God’s honest truth!" Lon roared.
Sally eyed Lon in amazement. How could anyone with that look on his face be lying? "But nobody else…"
"Fuck 'em! Fuck 'em ALL!" Lon ranted. "If they don’t see what I see, who gives a shit?"
"Calm down! You’re scaring me!" Sally wailed.
"Well, WHAT does it TAKE?" Lon whined. "Do you REALLY think you’re ugly?"
"Well, maybe not ugly…"
"What’s going on out here?" Candace yelled from the patio door. "Lon, get up off her! Honey, are you all right?"
Lon went to hands and knees and Sally came up on her elbows. "Mama. Sally thinks she’s ugly!" Lon growled, outraged, "and she won’t believe anything nice I say about her!"
Candace blinked and turned her attention to Sally. "Honey, when he told me about you, I expected God knows what — but there’s nothing wrong with you that I can see…" She spread her hands. "I was pleasantly surprised!"
"But I’m big…" Sally protested.
"We come in all shapes and sizes, Hon — and for yours, you sure fill a bikini…" Candace shrugged. "Besides, it seems to be a drawing card with Lon…"
"Surely, you’re not…" Sally began. Was Lon’s mother backing him up for some nefarious reason?
Candace showed her teeth. "Honey, if I didn’t think you might be okay for Lon, I’d be doing everything I could think of to see you walking home, watering the sidewalk with great big tears — but, hey, it looks like he might have his head on straight, so…" She shrugged. "Different things set off different guys; I’m an acquired taste for some, and totally uninteresting to others — and a different group will chase me, drooling, on sight! Why should you be any different? There are gonna be guys out there that lust after you, Honey — it’s a statistical certainty. Given that, if a boy DOES tell you he thinks you’re hot, why not believe him?"
"Well, what if he’s lying?"
Candace cocked her head. "There are a lot of fish in the sea, Hon — why would any guy go to a lot of work to get into the panties of a girl he considered to be disgusting?" She shook her head disparagingly. "A woman might play a trick like that, but men are WAY too simple…"
"Simple?" Lon glared.
"As in direct, Hon — not as in stupid." Candace shifted her attention back to Sally. "Boys are more direct than we are — and less patient in getting results. You guys have been out once and you’ve been HERE, looking like THAT — has he groped you?"
"No."
"Well, then." She shrugged, turned away indifferently. "There is such a thing as being overly paranoid." She disappeared into the house.
Sally flopped back on the tiles. "So why haven’t you?"
"Why haven’t I what?"
"Groped me?"
Lon rolled his eyes. "Aside from the fact that it would confirm your worst suspicions and probably end any chance of us having a relationship? Gee, I dunno…" He grimaced, shaking his head.
"So you want to…"
"DUH!"
Sally’s mouth quirked. "Daily."
"Huh?"
"I masturbate every day, just about — generally more than once." She smiled lazily. "Lately, there’s been one certain boy in my fantasies…"
"FUCK!" Control went out the window. The next thing Lon knew, they were kissing; he was cradling Sally’s head, sliding his tongue through her lips, and she was rubbing his flanks with both hands — not exactly fighting things…
Not EVEN was more like it! She knew what she’d triggered when she saw that wild look in his eyes — and the results? Wonderful! THIS was something she’d waited for a LONG time!
The spent the next fifteen minutes kissing and hugging — but she could FEEL him fighting with himself, keeping it clean…
Enough was enough! Pushing on his shoulders, she gasped, "Okay! NOW I need to know!"
"Huh? Oh!" He rolled off her and sat up. "It’s complicated."
"Uh huh." She wasn’t arguing — she was prepared to accept the statement.