The three of us laughed at that.
Mr. Proilet left the room, and I spent about ten minutes explaining to Sam about some songs I wanted to do as sort of “improvisations” but to let people such as Toby, Sam, Derek, and the other to be ready for them.
That afternoon, Kristen drove me to her house, and reminded me that Patty and Camille were coming over. Kristen promised Patty that she could borrow some clothes for the party on Saturday.
“Oh great,” I said in mock indignation. “Another couple of hours wasted while girls try on dresses.”
Kristen looked at me and smiled when she saw that I was smirking. “Poor baby,” she said.
When we got to the apartment, I headed straight to the kitchen. I figured that dinner was a couple of hours off, and I was a bit hungry. Kristen discovered one of my weaknesses—making Jiffy Pop—and stocked about a dozen or more of them in the pantry.
I put the gas stove on a low flame, tore the cover off the top and started heating the snack.
Kristen called out to me to pour her a glass of the white wine we kept in the refrigerator. Since the kernels didn’t start to pop yet, I took the foil pan off the flame, poured a glass for the Goddess, then put the glass on the pass-through that led to the living room.
Once again, I started shaking the pan over the stove when the doorbell rang.
“Can you get that for me, Oogie?”
Of course, the kernels were starting to pop.
I once again put the pan on an unused burner and ran out to open the door. It was Patty and Camille. I welcomed them in, and ran back into the kitchen to try to resuscitate the popcorn.
“What are you doing in there?” asked Camille.
“Trying to make Jiffy Pop,” I said.
Camille saw the glass of wine on the pass-through. “Is that for Kristen?”
“The wine?” I asked. “Yeah.”
“You mind if I have some, too?”
“As long as you come in here and pour it. I don’t want these kernels to burn.”
Camille and Patty both came into the kitchen. Patty sniffed a bit and turned on the fan over the stove. “They’re burning, Jim.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Burning things seems to be my specialty.”
Camille poured two half-glasses of wine for Patty and herself.
The foil wasn’t even half inflated when the popping slowed down.
I shrugged, and put the pan into the sink (it was too hot to put into the garbage as it was), and went into the pantry and retrieved another Jiffy Pop.
“How many of those do you have, Oogie?” Patty asked.
“Twenty or thirty,” I said, grinning.
I started a new batch of popcorn.
Kristen called out, “Oogie, can you bring my glass of wine into the bedroom?”
I looked at the Jiffy Pop and the two girls laughed.
“I’ll take over the popcorn for you, Jim,” Camille offered.
“Thanks.”
I went into the bedroom, and found clothes all over the place. “What’s going on, Kris?”
“I’m not sure what outfit Patty will want,” Kristen said. She emptied almost her entire closet—and it was a large, walk-in closet, believe me—on her bed, on her dressers… everywhere.
“Patty and Camille are here, love,” I said, handing Kristen her wine.
“What burned?” Kristen asked, sniffing the air.
“My first batch of Jiffy Pop,” I said.
“You always set the heat on too high.”
It was more like I’m always interrupted when I make popcorn, but saying anything would make it sound like I was angry, and I wasn’t. Well, not really. “Yeah. Cammy took over while I fetched your wine.”
“You’re sweet,” Kristen said, sipping her wine. “Cammy won’t burn the popcorn. You always cook it too high.”
“Yeah. Guys like me need to learn how to cook. Maybe next year I’ll take a home economics class.”
Kristen heard the sarcasm in my voice, and dispelled any argument with a kiss that tasted of Chablis.
“Hmmm,” I said. “That wine is sweet. Or was that you?”
My Goddess ignored the compliment and picked up a smart outfit. “What do you think? Think the green matches Patty’s hair?”
“Patty’s hair is red, not green,” I pointed out.
Kristen rolled her eyes and sighed.
“I need to get back to the kitchen and collect the popcorn,” I said.
“Sure thing. You don’t mind Patty trying on outfits, do you?”
“No. I have Cammy to keep me company,” I said.
“Oh? Do you think I can trust you with Cammy?”
“I’ve been to Lake Shore Point with her already,” I said. “She kisses nice, but she’s not you.”
Kristen smiled at me. “You’re truly sweet. I promise we won’t take too long.”
“I trust you.”
“How about this… I give you permission to snuggle with Cammy. I promise to make it fun for you.”
Kristen was giving me permission to snuggle with Camille? “Um, that’s not necessary…”
“Of course it is,” Kristen said.
She bounded out of the room and I followed her.
Camille ripped open the top of the foil and took a handful of popcorn in her hand. So did Patty.
“Hey, Patty, Camille!” Kristen said happily. “Jim said you were here.”
“Hi, Kristen,” the two girls answered.
“You know how Jim here doesn’t like fashion shows,” Kristen said. “I suddenly got an idea to make it more interesting for him.”
“How?” asked Patty.
“First, Cammy… can you keep Jim comfortable in the living room?”
“Of course,” Camille said.
“I mean, really comfortable,” Kristen said, giving Camille a look. “Almost to be point of being… uncomfortable?”
Camille looked surprised at Kristen and then a big smile grew on her face. “Of course, Kristen.”
“Cool. Patty, I have some outfits in the bedroom. Come with me!”
I looked at Camille. I know that Kristen gave me permission to “snuggle” with Camille, and she just gave an even more open invitation to the blonde.
“Looks as if our job is to retire to the living room, Jim,” Camille said.
“Cammy, you don’t have to…”
“Oh, Jim, I’m not going to fuck you! I think Kristen just wants me to keep things interesting for you.”
“All right, but if Kristen starts to act funny…”
“I know,” Camille said. “I have no interest in losing her friendship, or yours.”
“All right.”
I have kissed Camille before, and I know that she is quite capable in the department. However, she seemed to have lowered her wattage in the living room. It was a romantic kiss, but I got much steamier kisses from her in the past, so I knew she wasn’t really trying.
Kristen and Patty came into the living room to model what they were wearing.
Actually, the expression should be rewritten. They were modeling what they weren’t wearing. Kristen wore a matching set of pink panties and a bra with embroidery hearts knit on it. Inside the hearts there was no material at all. Kristen’s nipples stuck out of a couple of intentionally placed hearts in the bra cups, and the holes in her panties left no confusion as to whether she was a natural blonde.
Patty, for her part, was wearing an emerald green lingerie set. The panties looked like bikini bottoms, and the top was a camisole that covered most of her top, but left her belly button exposed.
“Wow!” was my reaction to the two of them.
“Killer outfits!” Camille said appreciatively. “Patty… you look good enough to eat!”