Love in the Time of Corona

by Elena Graf

  “My bedroom. It’s a mess, though. I wasn’t expecting company.”

  “How about the living room? We can close the drapes.”

  Brenda sat on the sofa while Cherie took out her instruments. She took Brenda’s temperature again. It was still slightly elevated but not much. Cherie gave her a quick visual evaluation. Brenda looked tired but otherwise healthy. “Maybe you don’t have it, or you might get a mild case like I did.”

  “We have so few cases in Maine, so maybe I don’t have it.”

  “My father has it, and I have it. What are the odds that you don’t have it?”

  “Not good, I guess.”

  “That’s right.” Cherie tried to assess whether she could hear properly through the bulky Yankee’s sweatshirt. “Do you mind taking off your shirt?”

  “I don’t have a bra on,” said Brenda, reaching for the hem of the shirt. “It’s the first thing I do when I get home.”

  “I’ve seen your breasts before.” Behind the mask, Cherie managed a little smile. “But I’ll try to ignore them while I listen to your chest.” She placed the diaphragm of the stethoscope on Brenda’s back. She noticed for the first time that it was sprayed with faint freckles. The sight touched her, and she realized how dear to her this woman had become.

  Cherie pushed the thought aside as she listened to Brenda’s lungs. They were slightly congested, but not so much that Brenda’s self-diagnosis of seasonal allergies didn’t apply. Cherie closed her eyes to concentrate on the sound of the blood rushing through her heart and the steady rhythm of the valves opening and closing. No strange sounds. No murmurs, just a strong, steady beat.

  Cherie hung the stethoscope around her neck while she felt the nodes and glands in Brenda’s neck.

  “You have a very gentle touch,” said Brenda.

  “Thank you, but I can finish faster if you don’t talk.”

  “Sorry,” said Brenda, looking contrite.

  “You’re a little congested,” said Cherie using hand sanitizer. She wiped down her instruments with an antiseptic towelette. “But otherwise, you look pretty healthy. So far, so good.”

  Brenda wiggled into her sweatshirt. “If I was going to get it, wouldn’t I have caught it by now?”

  Cherie shrugged. “Who knows? We know so little about this virus. It would depend on the viral load during exposure, the strain of the virus. Your immune response. It’s like any virus, some people get mild symptoms, some get none at all. Other people get hammered.”

  “But I’ve been exposed.”

  “Yes, definitely.”

  Brenda looked pensive as she considered what Cherie had said. “If I’ve already been exposed, why can’t you take off that mask?”

  “Better safe than sorry,” said Cherie.

  Brenda pouted, which made Cherie laugh. She bent down and through her mask, gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

  “Be patient.”

  “But I want to kiss you so much.”

  “I know. So, do I, but let’s not right now.”

  Cherie put away her medical bag. When she returned, she found Brenda waiting with the TV paused at the start of the next episode of Happy Valley.

  “I thought we could watch me playing a heroic British cop.”

  “Now, you think she looks like you.”

  “I’m better looking,” said Brenda with a quick smile.

  “I agree.”

  Sitting at opposite ends of the sofa, they watched three episodes, pausing only for a tea break, during which they sat on opposite ends of the room. Cherie was so happy to have company after a week of isolation that she would have done anything, even stared at the walls with Brenda. Finally, in the middle of the fourth episode, Brenda’s eyes began to close and her head nodded forward. Cherie turned off the TV and nudged her with her foot. She woke with a start.

  “Time for bed.”

  “Okay.” Brenda sat up and tried to focus.

  They trudged up the stairs and reluctantly headed to separate bedrooms.

  “Can I have a hug?” asked Brenda with a forlorn look.

  “No,” said Cherie. She blew a kiss. “Good night, sweetheart.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Brenda stepped out of the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel. After she dried her body, she put on a terry cloth robe that went to her ankles. Ordinarily, she’d head down to get coffee, but with Cherie in the house, she decided to make a good impression and dress first. She ran the dryer on her hair for a few minutes and tied back her damp hair with an elastic band.

  She found Cherie in the kitchen making coffee while she listened to a phone call on speaker. Brenda instantly identified the Liz’s voice.

  “Cherie, you need to know, three strikes and you’re out. This is number two. I can’t have my PA disobeying my orders. I need to be able to trust you.”

  “You can trust me, Dr. Stolz. You know you can.”

  There was a long silence.

  “Yes, Cherie, I know your heart is in the right place. But I have more experience than you. You need to listen to me.”

  “Yes, Dr. Stolz.”

  “All right. Let’s start over. How’s Brenda?”

  Cherie looked up and noticed Brenda. She nodded to her.

  “She’s a little congested, but so far seems okay. Would you like to talk to her? She just came in.

  “Good morning, Liz,” said Brenda crossing the room to get two cups down from a cabinet.

  “Brenda! I see you found a way to get a house call.”

  “Yes, I have connections.”

  “You’d better take good care of her, or you’ll have me to answer to. I need her.”

  Brenda glanced at Cherie. “I think she’s the one taking care of me.”

  “I have another question for you, Doctor,” said Cherie. “I’ve already exposed Brenda to the virus. Can I take off my mask while I’m with her?”

  “Cherie, you know the answer to that. Until the test results come back, no, you shouldn’t. We have no idea whether antibodies to the virus confer immunity. If you both have it, or one of you had it and recovered, you could still infect one another. Oh, hell. What do I know? None of us knows. Cherie, do what you think is best, but I would wait a few days for the test results. And if you relax social distancing, I’m going to ground Brenda too.”

  Brenda silently mimed clapping.

  “Now that we’re on Telehealth,” Liz continued, “you can go back to work. Make sure you bill for the time, Cherie. Even Brenda.”

  Cherie laughed silently and pointed to the phone.

  “Can’t I extend professional courtesy?”

  “It’s on your time, but the department pays for her insurance, and the practice can use the revenue.”

  “Okay. Thanks. Talk to you later.” She tapped the call off.

  “Good morning, you sexy woman,” said Brenda, approaching. “So, what are you going to do?”

  “You want to stay home with me for fourteen days?”

  “Are you kidding me?” asked Brenda.

  Cherie pulled the elastic straps from her ears and took off the mask. Brenda’s eyes instantly went to her full lips. What a luscious mouth she had! All Brenda wanted to do was kiss it. She leaned over and fell on her like a woman dying of thirst. The soft lips parted, but she hardly needed an invitation. She probed with her tongue until she became short of breath. “Oh God! I missed that!”

  Cherie’s eyes were smiling along with her mouth.

  “Let’s go to bed,” said Brenda.

  Laughing, Cherie gently pushed her away. “Let’s have coffee first and then we can go to bed.” She began pouring coffee into a cup. Brenda, meanwhile, kissed the back of Cherie’s long, graceful neck, thinking of the exotic water birds she’d seen in the marsh.

  “I can’t wait,” murmured Brenda, he
r lips nibbling the soft skin.

  “Yes, you can. Come on. It will help me wake up. Then I’ll be more responsive. I promise.” Cherie handed her a cup of coffee. She let out a groan of protest, but she took the cup and sat down at the table. Cherie sat across from her, smiling over her coffee cup.

  “Did you sleep all right?” asked Brenda.

  “I would have slept better if I wasn’t thinking of you when I was falling asleep, but I dreamed of you.”

  “What did you dream about?” asked Brenda, leaning forward.

  “What do you think?” Cherie wiggled her brows suggestively and gave Brenda an intense sidelong look.

  “I want you to tell me. You know, like how you’d talk to me when we were apart.”

  “You want to have phone sex before we have real sex?” asked Cherie with a little chuckle.

  “Something like that. It turns me on to hear what you want to do to me.”

  “Want to hear what I dreamed last night?”

  Brenda nodded.

  “I dreamed you finally let me go down on you.”

  Brenda’s eyes grew wide. The last time Cherie had brought this up, Brenda had fended her off because she hadn’t taken a shower since morning and had had a busy, sweaty day.

  “I dreamed you opened your legs really wide, so I could get really close and kiss you. I used my tongue gently at first, and you jumped a little because it felt so good. Then I licked you wide and soft, making you so wet. You kept saying you wanted more. So, I licked your clit and put my fingers deep inside you…first one, then two, then three! And in no time at all, you came.” Cherie snapped her fingers. “Just like that!” Cherie wiggled on the seat of her chair. “Oh, I’m getting wet thinking about it.”

  “Sure you want to finish your coffee?” asked Brenda.

  “No, let’s go to bed.”

  They left their coffee to get cold and ran upstairs. Trailing clothes on the way, they catapulted themselves onto the bed. Brenda nudged Cherie on her back and slipped her hand between her legs. Cherie had been right about being wet, amazingly wet and open. Brenda’s fingers quickly found their way inside.

  “Everything about you is always so soft and open,” Brenda whispered, gazing into Cherie’s eyes. “I love that about you, and the way you come so fast and so many times.”

  “You make me so hot,” Cherie whispered back. “Go deep. Fill me up, woman!” Her eyes closed and her hips began to dance to the rhythm of Brenda’s hand. She raised her legs to get more. Brenda watched her face change. Her lips parted and her whole body began to move to the pace of Brenda’s strokes. She came out to tease her clitoris. Cherie made a little moan of protest, but then her back arched and she held her breath. Her eyes flew open and she gasped. She moaned, then let out a little cry. After panting for a moment, she reached down to grasp Brenda’s hand. “Enough now. I’m too sensitive,” she said between breaths. “Let me calm down.”

  “Okay,” said Brenda, reaching up to caress Cherie’s cheek. She kissed her. “You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever been with.”

  Cherie opened her eyes. “That’s because you make me feel sexy.”

  “I do?” Brenda liked that idea.

  “But now, I want to make you feel good. Will you let me go down on you? Maybe I can make you come.”

  Brenda felt herself tense. She hated that her body wouldn’t let Cherie give her a climax. A few times, she’d gotten so close and strained to push herself over, but then she would hang there, and it wouldn’t happen, no matter what Cherie did. It had taken months for Marcia to figure out how to make her come. After the first time, she was fine. She worried that Cherie might not be patient enough to wait.

  “I don’t know…” Brenda began.

  “Let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.” Her green eyes gazed intently into hers. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Brenda in a doubtful voice.

  Tugging on Brenda’s shoulder, Cherie rolled her on her back. As Cherie leisurely explored Brenda’s mouth with her tongue, she allowed her weight to rest on Brenda’s body. She was slight so it wasn’t oppressive. Cherie’s knees nudged her thighs open. Brenda opened them wide as Cherie had described in her dream.

  “Good girl,” said Cherie with a grin. “You’re getting the idea.”

  Cherie bathed her gently with her tongue, beginning with her ear, working down her neck, her collar bones. Her sensual lips found one nipple while her fingers worked the other. Brenda felt her clit pulsing with anticipation. It actually twitched. Brenda tightened her muscles to increase the pleasure. She hadn’t even been touched yet, but she felt nearly ready to come. Maybe it would happen this time!

  Cherie gave the other breast attention, circling the nipple with her tongue until it was hard as a pebble. She rubbed her cheek against Brenda’s breast. “I love your breasts,” said Cherie. “They’re beautiful. Did you know that?”

  “Thank you,” Brenda murmured because she felt it was expected, but Cherie gently pinched her nipple, and it was so distracting.

  Cherie made a little sound, a laugh of pleasure. “I could suck them all day.” The tongue bath continued. Cherie kissed her belly, explored her navel. Her lips followed the downy trail of blond hair leading to the springy pubic hair. It was torture to have all that pleasure and no focus for it.

  “You’re driving me crazy,” said Brenda.

  “That’s the idea.” Cherie sat up between Brenda’s legs. She parted her lips with her thumbs. “What a sweet, pink pussy you have, and it’s all nice and wet for me. All sweet and wet, like a little flower covered with dew.” Cherie parted the inner lips.

  “I feel like you’re giving me an examination.”

  “I am,” said Cherie, sounding amused. “But not the medical kind. This is the first time you’ve let me see you. I’m surveying the geography, so I know where I’m going.” She stroked with two fingers on both sides of her clitoris. Please. Touch me! thought Brenda, but Cherie continued the leisurely stroking. With her other hand, she penetrated her deeply with her fingers.

  “How’s that?” she asked. “Feel good?”

  “Good,” agreed Brenda, almost unable to make her mouth form the word.

  Finally, Cherie withdrew and lay down between her legs. She kissed her inner thighs and trailed her tongue along the sensitive skin there. Then she blew gently on her clitoris, and Brenda thought she would jump out of her skin. Cherie’s breath came again, warm and soft. Finally, she felt her tongue touch her gently, barely a suggestion of what might come next. Then she felt the flat of Cherie’s tongue trail fully from below to above. It settled delicately on her clitoris and began to work it cleverly, creating a slightly off rhythm that was driving her insane. Cherie’s tongue let off for a moment, and her fingers went inside. Brenda longed to feel that soft tongue on her again. Please! She begged in her mind, hoping to convey the urgency of her need through telepathy. She opened her legs wider. That was the signal! Cherie’s tongue came back and found a rhythm that worked with the pace of her fingers.

  Brenda felt the tension building, the sensation unfocused, both inside and outside out at the same time. She was confused about which one to follow, and then her body made the decision for her. It was both! She’d never had an orgasm like this before. She stopped thinking about it and let the pleasure wash over her like undulating waves. Her face burned, and her skin, up and down her chest. She was still throbbing after it was over, and the warm tongue let her go.

  Cherie climbed back up Brenda’s body and rested her weight. “Did that feel good?” Brenda could hear the smile in Cherie’s voice.

  “Oh, my God! What did you do to me?”

  “What I dreamed about. Did you like it?”

  “Did I like it? I thought my head would explode or my clit or both!”

  “You came on the inside too. I could feel it with my fingers. You squ
eezed them so hard!”

  “That was amazing,” said Brenda.

  “I’m glad.” Cherie sighed. “I could go right back to sleep now. I feel so calm and relaxed.”

  “So let’s. I don’t have to report until noon. I’ll call in later and tell them I’m grounded.”

  “Okay. Can you sleep with me on you like this?”

  “Probably not,” Brenda said honestly. “Come here and lie in my arms.”

  Cherie adjusted her position. Brenda kissed her forehead.

  She was dozing lightly when she became aware of a sound, a phone ringing in the distance. The ringtone was unfamiliar.

  “I think your phone is ringing.”

  “Let it ring,” said Cherie. “I’m off duty.”

  The ringing stopped. After a minute, the ringing began again. Brenda nudged Cherie awake. “Your phone again. It might be important.”

  With a sigh, Cherie got up. She pulled on her nightgown. Brenda heard her footsteps on the stairs. She tried to listen, but the urge to sleep was overwhelming.

  The footsteps returning were rapid. Cherie was running up the stairs.

  “That was the hospitalist at Southern Med. My father is in bad shape.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Cherie, can you hold on a minute? I have to get off another call.” Lucy tapped on the call on hold. “Tom, can I call you back later? I have a situation I need to handle.”

  “Sure, Lucy. Call me when you can.” Lucy ended Tom’s call. He made such a wonderful partner in ministering to the parish. He’d already been the rector in a high-profile church in New Haven, Connecticut, so there was no need to prove himself or push for advancement. They were collaborative in everything. As a result, there was no competitive tension, and neither was burdened or overworked.

  Lucy tapped back to Cherie’s call. “Now, please tell me again. I’m sorry. I was distracted because I was on two calls at once.”

  Erika, who was reading on her iPad beside her, looked up. “Is everything okay?”