by Julie Cannon
“I’m going to be nosy and ask why you’re on a beautiful beach by yourself. If none of your friends wanted to come, you should dump them.”
“I was bringing my girlfriend, but when she decided she’d rather fuck my best friend than be here with me, I rescinded my offer.”
“Ouch,” Matt said, grimacing.
“Surprisingly, I’m not broken up over it.” Kelly had realized that was true shortly after discovering them. “I traded her ticket for one in first class, I already had the time off, and the room was paid for, so here I am, sitting next to the hot woman from the plane on my first day.” She lay back in her chair, her legs outstretched, and caught Matt looking at her breasts again. She put her sunglasses on, but not before saying, “Don’t run off.”
Matt’s heart skipped a beat or two. She was flirting. She hadn’t done that in what felt like a lifetime ago. Actually, it had been a lifetime ago, her life with Andrea. She took another long look at Kelly. She had, what Sandra once called, curves in all the right places, and she wanted to trace them with her fingers, memorize them with her hands, and taste them with her tongue. And there was the same sizzle she’d felt when she saw her on the plane. Was that only yesterday? She suddenly felt a little light-headed.
Maybe what she was feeling was the vacation high. It was kind of like the fact that you spend money more easily when on vacation than you do at home. Was that it? Besides invigorating, what was she going to gain from this experience? Did she intend to mess the sheets with her? That thought excited and scared the hell out of her, even though that had been her intent on this trip. However, this opportunity with Kelly was very appealing. At home she was under the constant eye of either Andrea’s parents, the Medal of Honor office, or Jordan. Each had their own agenda for her, and after six years she was weary of the personal invasion.
Matt knew Andrea’s parents didn’t care for her. They were polite but never went out of their way to make her feel welcome or part of their family. After Andrea was killed, they went so far as to actually buy the house across the street and move in. They were intrusive and tried to hide their over-vigilance under their inquiry about Jordan. She had often been questioned about a car in her driveway late at night, or was that a babysitter playing in the front yard with Jordan yesterday? In their minds, if Matt moved on with her life, she would be cheating on their daughter. They’d made that very clear more than a few times.
The Medal of Honor office was using Andrea’s death to prove how progressive they were by awarding the medal to an openly out lesbian. The ceremony was weeks away, yet she received a call or email from them almost daily. They’d been subtle in their conversations with Matt and never went so far as to say she shouldn’t date again, but their message was also very clear. They expected her behavior to equal the brave sacrifice of her wife. What did they think she was going to do? Post a video on Facebook of the widow of a Medal of Honor woman fucking some other woman during an orgy?
And then there was Jordan. Their nine-year-old son had his mother on a pedestal so high no one could get anywhere near the shrine he’d built to her. Last year when Matt had approached Jordan with the idea that she might start dating again, he was almost hysterical. He cried and screamed at her that she was forgetting about his mom and begged her not to. It was an awful scene and had shaken Matt more than she realized.
How do you explain that life goes on to a child who had lost the mother he idolized and had died a national hero? When she agreed to let Jordan attend camp, she knew her in-laws believed she was doing it to get him out of the house so she could carry on with her depraved lifestyle, as her mother-in-law Cynthia considered it. They’d had an ugly fight about it, but they quieted down when Jordan had convinced them it was his idea. So here she was for the next two weeks, where no one knew her and she didn’t need to keep up appearances. She would be crazy to pass up this opportunity. And she wasn’t crazy. At least not yet.
Kelly’s phone ringing interrupted any further conversation. She glanced at it and swore.
“Work?” Matt asked.
Kelly frowned. “Ex.”
“Girlfriend or best friend?”
“Best friend,” Kelly replied, hitting the bright-red hang-up icon. She turned off the ringer and put her phone facedown on the table between them. “Right now, it’s neck and neck as to who’s left the longest voice mail.”
“Have you spoken to either one of them?” Matt asked, not sure why, but curious, nonetheless.
“No. I have nothing to say to them now, or ever. But the gist of their long, expansive messages is basically that it’s not what it looked like.” Kelly turned and faced Matt. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Matt answered, curious where Kelly would take the conversation but, surprisingly, eager to go anywhere with her.
“If you walked into your bedroom and saw your best friend fucking your girlfriend with a strap-on, what would you think it was?”
Matt choked on her mouthful of water. She sat up and coughed several times.
“Are you all right?” Kelly asked, taking off her sunglasses and looking her way.
Matt couldn’t talk but nodded. Finally, she said, “Yes. I’m fine. Just went down the wrong way.” She coughed a few more times. Kelly was waiting for her answer.
“Not much room for interpretation in that case.”
Matt regained her breath and tried to keep her eyes on Kelly’s, but the lure of cleavage at the top of Kelly’s bikini top was too tempting. Matt’s gaze dropped for just a second, and when it returned, the knowing look on Kelly’s face made Matt blush.
“Thank you,” Kelly said. “Any girl in my situation likes to know she’s still attractive.”
Matt’s heart rate spiked. “That’s definitely not a problem.”
“Obviously Suzanne didn’t think so.”
“Obviously Suzanne is an idiot,” Matt said. “Other than what you must have gone through, I’m glad you’re here.”
Kelly studied her for so long, Matt started to get nervous.
“Shit. I’m sorry. Here you are, a woman who’d been planning a romantic getaway with her girlfriend and recently found out said girlfriend was cheating on her with her best friend, and I’m hitting on you. That’s not cool,” Matt said apologetically. Kelly smiled, and Matt’s heart skipped again.
“Actually,” Kelly said, just before sliding her sunglasses back up her nose and settling back in her chair. “It is.”
Chapter Nine
“Wait,” Becca said, grabbing Sandra’s arm.
“What?”
“Look.” Becca pointed toward the rows of white beach chairs. “First row from the water, about ten over. Under the green umbrella.”
“Don’t point.” She slapped Becca’s arm down.
“Hey, that hurt. They can’t see me. They’re not even facing this way,” Becca said.
“Who?” Sandra asked, still not seeing whoever Becca was referring to.
“Mattie.”
“Jeez, Bec. They’re all green umbrellas. How am I supposed to find her?” Just then Sandra saw her. A woman in a red bikini was leaning in, saying something that made Matt laugh.
“For someone who didn’t want to go on this trip, she sure isn’t wasting any time,” Becca said, almost in awe. “Good girl.”
“Maybe they’re just talking.”
“Yeah, right. Like you were just talking to the little cutie in the itty-bitty yellow bikini a few minutes ago.”
Becca and Sandra watched Matt and the woman for a few minutes before Becca said, “I’m not going to stand here all day while Mattie makes time with Miss Red Bikini. I’m going in the water. We can spy on them better from there.” Becca kicked off her flip-flops and dropped her towel on top of them.
The water was cool, but not so cold it was unpleasant, and Sandra quickly caught up with her. “Let’s swim out to that buoy.” This time she pointed to a round yellow ball about thirty yards offshore. “We can hang onto that and watch from there.�
�
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Sandra asked, a little out of breath from the swim to the buoy.
“Hopefully not the weather,” Becca replied.
“If Mattie doesn’t make a move on her, I will.”
“This trip isn’t about you.” Becca enjoyed teasing her.
“The hell it isn’t. This island is crawling with lesbians. If that part isn’t about me, nothing is.”
Sandra wasn’t a player, but she didn’t spend too many nights alone if she didn’t want to. Becca had always admired Sandra’s viewpoint that sex was no more or less complicated than fulfilling any other natural bodily need. She, on the other hand, didn’t need happily-ever-after before she got naked, but she did need to know a little more than just a name.
“Mattie looks tired,” Sandra commented seriously.
“You would too if you had the same shit going on in your life that she does. I don’t know how she deals with Harrison and Cynthia,” Becca said, referring to Matt’s in-laws. “They have their noses so far up into Mattie’s life she can barely breathe. Did you hear the latest?”
“No, but I can only imagine. If they were my in-laws, I’d have told them to go fuck themselves a long time ago.”
“It’s not that easy,” Becca said. “She wants Jordan to know his grandparents. It’s what Andrea wanted.”
“Not if she could see them now,” Sandra commented. “Anyway, what did they do?”
Becca told Sandra the latest round of meddling Andrea’s parents had inflicted on Matt. Andrea had been their only child, and when she died, they had literally erected a shrine on a large table in their home, complete with burning candles. As far as Becca knew, it was still there.
“Like I said…” Sandra held up her hand to stop Becca’s comment. “I know, I know. It’s not that easy.”
“And it’s none of our business,” Becca added.
“Yes, it is.” Sandra was still watching Matt and the woman. “We’re her best friends, and we need to poke and prod her until she does what’s good for her. We’ve always had to do that.”
“But not in something like this. This is her life, and we need to be careful with what we say, or she’ll think we’re just as bad as they are.”
Sandra frowned and shook her head. “No one will ever be that bad.”
“Harrison is pressuring her to go on that speaking tour.”
The Medal of Honor committee was trying to convince Matt to join several medal winners on a cross-country speaking tour to, in their words, “showcase the heroic actions of our armed forces.”
“She isn’t going to, is she?” Sandra asked. “It’s nothing but a recruiting tour to sign up more strapping young men and women to eagerly go to places we don’t belong and fight for something that’s none of our business.”
“Your personal politics aside, I don’t think she’ll do it.” Becca and Sandra often disagreed about our military’s role in world affairs, but their differences never infringed on their friendship.
“They’re doing it to show they’re not still a bunch of homophobes.” Sandra continued. “I know how proud Mattie was of what Andrea was doing, but they’ll parade her and Andrea’s memory around for their own agenda. Jesus, she lost her wife, for God’s sake, and they want her to relive it every day in front of a bunch of strangers?”
“She told me she hated Andrea for a long time after she was killed.”
“What! You never told me that!” Sandra let go of the buoy and got a mouthful of water. She came up sputtering.
“She told me only a few weeks ago. I haven’t had the chance to talk to you about it.”
“What did she say?” Sandra coughed a few more times, clearing her lungs.
“She was having a hard time with Jordan and Harrison and Cynthia, and out of the blue she said she hated that Andrea loved the army more than her family. How she chose to re-enlist over staying home with her and Jordan. Andrea knew she’d be deployed again, putting her life in danger, and she did it anyway.”
“I thought the same thing but kept my mouth shut.”
“That was a first,” Becca said. “You never keep your opinion to yourself.”
“I know it’s shocking. But somehow I managed.”
“She was angry for a long time.”
“Do you think she still is?” Sandra asked.
“No. I think that’s passed.”
“She’s getting up,” Sandra said, nodding in the direction of Matt and the woman. “Looks like she might be going to the bar.” The woman was walking away but had left her towel and beach bag on her chair.
“Quick. Let’s get over there and find out what’s going on.”
Chapter Ten
Matt watched Kelly walk away. She was just as attractive from this direction as she was sitting beside her.
“Keeping yourself entertained?” Sandra asked.
“Don’t act like you don’t know what we’re talking about,” Becca added.
“Jeez, ladies, pounce much?” Matt asked, her attention yanked away from watching Kelly walk across the sand. She hadn’t seen her friends in the water, but it was obvious that’s where they’d come from.
“Were you spying on me?”
“No. We were watching. Spying implies something clandestine, and we were anything but. Now spill,” Becca said, sitting on the edge of Matt’s chair.
“Where were you?”
“Doesn’t matter. Spill.” Becca waved her hands for emphasis.
“Her name is Kelly.”
“Is she here with anyone?”
“No. She’s by herself.”
“A knockout like that does not come to a place like this alone. What’s wrong with her?”
“Jesus, Sandra. Sometimes you’re a real pig,” Matt said. “There’s nothing wrong with her. She caught her girlfriend with her best friend and traded her ticket for a first-class trip.”
“Ouch.” Becca grimaced. “Some girlfriend.”
“Some friend,” Sandra added.
“So, what have you two been talking about? Are you going to have lunch together? Dinner? Maybe a sleepover?” Becca asked, interrogating Matt.
“Jeez, Becca,” Matt protested, putting her hand up to ward off Becca’s barrage of questions. “We just met.”
“And your point is?” Sandra added.
Matt looked at both her best friends and shook her head. They meant well. They could be a bit intense individually, but together they were overwhelming.
“We just met,” Matt said again, as if that was her answer to their past, current and future questions. “The topic of a meal hasn’t come up, and if it does, I think I can handle it.”
“She’s hot,” Sandra said, as if Matt hadn’t noticed. “If you don’t move on her, Mattie, I will.”
“Jesus, Sandra. Do you think you could be a little louder? I doubt if the group of twenty-year-olds down the beach heard you,” Matt said, glaring at her. “I’m surprised to see you. Aren’t you supposed to be chatting up some sweet thing at the bar?” Matt hoped she could deflect the conversation away from her and Kelly.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” Sandra said in mock anger. “I get laid pretty regularly, and don’t you change the subject.”
“I am not the subject.”
“Oh yes, you are,” Sandra added firmly, in her district-attorney voice. “This is just what you need. No-strings sex, out from under the prying eyes of your in-laws and Jordan’s disapproval. This place is crawling with lesbians. You might not get another opportunity.”
“You’re contradicting yourself. If this place is crawling with lesbians, how could I not have an opportunity?”
“I mean with Kelly,” Sandra said. “Every woman that walks by is checking her out. You’re going to lose your chance.”
When Matt hesitated, Becca said, “What are you afraid of, Mattie?”
“What are you talking about?” Matt knew exactly what Becca meant but needed a minute to figure out what to say.
<
br /> “I mean, what are you afraid of?” Becca repeated her question, putting space between each word. “Don’t overanalyze this. It’s not like you’re interviewing her to be Jordan’s stepmother. It doesn’t have to mean anything. Christ, you probably don’t even know where she lives. She’s perfect.”
“I’m not afraid of anything.” Even to her own ears she sounded lame.
“Bullshit.” Becca always called it the way she saw it, and Matt knew it.
“Hi.”
Matt jumped. She hadn’t seen Kelly approach until she was almost right in front of her.
Matt prayed Sandra didn’t say what she was obviously thinking. Sandra was polished and sophisticated, but when it came to her friends, she could be a loose cannon. Sandra looked at Matt, clearly waiting for an introduction.
“Kelly, these are my friends Becca Tresome and Sandra Howser.”
“The ‘best friends that brought you on this trip’ friends?” Kelly asked, removing her sunglasses and shaking Sandra’s outstretched hand. The movement caused her top to gap, exposing more flesh for Matt to gawk at.
“Yep, that’s us,” Sandra replied.
“Can I be your best friend too?” Kelly asked jokingly. “Matt told me what you did for her.”
“It was nothing.” Sandra shrugged. “And I’m tempted to say no, because I don’t want to be your friend, but I may be a bit late.”
Matt flushed with embarrassment at Sandra’s blatant flirting. She wanted to walk into the blue water and keep walking, but that would allow Sandra to be alone with Kelly. Who knew what she’d say next?
“Come on, Sandra,” Becca said, standing. “Let’s go for a swim.”
“We just got out,” Sandra said, not taking her eyes off Kelly.
“Well, we’re going back in,” Becca said, tugging Sandra to her feet.
“I hope you get caught in a rip tide,” Matt said, joking, as Becca pulled Sandra back toward the water. Sandra flipped her the bird.
“I like her,” Kelly said.
“The Morris County judicial system hates her,” Matt replied. “She’s the founding partner of the most successful lesbian law firm in the city. You wouldn’t know it, but she’s very buttoned up nine to five.”
