Rules of the Road

by K. Aten

  “Oh my freaking word, this is amazing!” Jamie took a seat and started dunking her own sandwich corner. Kelsey looked up at her between bites. “Where do you get your soup? This is nothing like the canned stuff!”

  “I made it.”

  Kelsey paused, sandwich halfway to her mouth and dripping creamy pink soup back into the cup. “No way!” Jamie just nodded. “Wow.” She ate another bite, savoring the flavors of the homemade tomato bisque, the tang of the sourdough bread, and the richness of the dill Havarti cheese. “Have you always liked to cook? What got you into it?”

  Jamie shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I started cooking when I was young and just stuck with it. I like food so I’m always up for trying new stuff and experimenting.”

  “Did your mom teach you to cook?”

  The blonde started laughing. “Uh, no. It was my aunt actually. My mom was a terrible cook. She’d over-season, over-cook, or just cook way too much and we’d end up eating it for days on end. The only thing worse than eating terrible food, is eating the same terrible food for lunch and dinner for a week straight!”

  Kelsey shot Jamie her dimpled grin. “Yeah, I didn’t have that problem at all. Probably the opposite, actually. My mom was a great cook and could make just about anything. When my abuela stayed with us she even complimented Mama on how fast she picked up the knack of making authentic Mexican food. I think that’s why I never learned because it’s not something that interested me and I didn’t have to cook for self-preservation.” Kelsey finished the first half of her sandwich and took a break for water. “So did you grow up around here?” Jamie shook her head. “Does your family live nearby? It seems weird that I’ve told you all about my family over the past few months but I know nothing about yours.”

  Jamie set her sandwich down and wiped her mouth with a paper towel. “There’s nothing to tell. My mom lives a few hours north and I haven’t seen her in a long time. She didn’t take it well when I got a divorce, and she wrote me off completely when I came out to her.”

  Kelsey’s hand covered Jamie’s. “Oh, James, I’m really sorry. We don’t have to talk about it.”

  Jamie shook her head. “It’s okay, it was years ago now. The only family member I have contact with now is my half-sister in Wisconsin. I moved to St. Seren to start new. I wanted to live somewhere a lot more liberal than the little town I was raised in, up north.” She shrugged. “So here I am.” She grabbed another grilled cheese corner to take a bite but froze when Kelsey brought up the subject of her hair again.

  “So you never did say why you color it. Jenn has never once mentioned that you had dark hair either.”

  “Jenn doesn’t know.”

  Kelsey dropped the last bit of sandwich into her soup. “Seriously?”

  Jamie nodded. “Yeah. I’m guessing not many people remember me from before I started coloring my hair. I wasn’t living down here very long when I began going to Richard.”

  “So why did you start coloring it?”

  The blonde shrugged and looked down at her soup. “I don’t know.”

  “James.” Kelsey’s voice was low and quiet and Jamie’s eyes were drawn back up to her. “We may not have known each other very long, but I consider you a close friend. Now there will be moments when one of us doesn’t want to talk about something and we will respect that because friendship is about trust and we both deserve our privacy. But I don’t ever want lies and bullshit between us.”

  Jamie’s emotions rose within her and she closed her eyes to swallow them back down. When she finally had control again, she looked up into the dark green irises in front of her and nodded. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. The decision involves my ex and I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”

  Kelsey smiled and gave her hand another squeeze, then changed the subject in an effort to lighten the mood. “So you mentioned once that you had some hilarious stories?” The other woman looked confused so Kelsey elaborated. “We were messaging a while back and I told you I didn’t want to hear your kinky stories but you said you had some funny ones.”

  “Oh! Yeah, I do have some funny ones. But you realize if I share you have to share too.” Kelsey thought about it, then nodded. She figured it could be fun to get a little glimpse into the lighter, naughtier side of Jamie.

  The blonde deliberated which story to tell before settling on a recent one. “Okay, so I was down visiting a friend in Indiana for a weekend, and she had this damn cat that got into everything.”

  “Hey, watch how you talk about our feline friends!”

  Jamie held up her hands. “No, seriously, he was a demon. He would steal her toothbrushes out of the holder and leave them in the litter box. The first night I stayed there I didn’t know about his thieving ways and sure enough, that’s where we found my missing toothbrush the next morning.”

  Kelsey laughed. “Eww! That sounds just like something Pierre would do, which is why I keep my toothbrush in the medicine cabinet.”

  “Yeah, well did Pierre ever steal the handcuff key and lose it down the heat register?”

  The other woman had just fished the last bite of sandwich out of her soup with the spoon and dropped it again when she heard

  Jamie’s words. “Did you just say handcuffs?”

  Jamie grinned. “Yup. Nikki was a wild one.”

  A little tiny bit of unexpected jealousy took up residence in Kelsey’s gut and she did her best to ignore it. “So who was in the cuffs, you or your friend?”

  “Nikki, of course.” Jamie gave her a look that said the answer should be obvious.

  “No, not of course.”

  Now Jamie just looked confused. “What do you mean?”

  “What do you mean, what do I mean? I suppose you’re one of those big bad butches who’s never on the bottom.” Kelsey scoffed at the notion of all big bad butches refusing bottom status.

  The blonde made a face at Kelsey’s assumption. “No actually, but I’m usually expected to be the top. I’m typically the more dominant one so, eh.” She shrugged then looked at Kelsey and Kelsey looked back at her curiously.

  “You don’t seem too happy about it.”

  Jamie looked away and sighed. “Eh, it is what it is I guess. I just go with what’s expected of me. It’s all fun, right? And what about you?”

  Kelsey smirked. “What about me what?”

  Jamie shook her head. “You’re such an ass! I mean, are you a top or a bottom?”

  “Neither.”

  The blonde’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “What?”

  “You heard me, I’m neither. I like both but I guess my problem is similar to yours in that the women I’m attracted to usually expect me to be certain way. You asked me once why I was single and I think that’s one of the main reasons why. I guess I just haven’t found someone I really clicked with on multiple levels.” She leveled a playful glare at Jamie. “See, I’d like to be the girl in the handcuffs, then I’d want to be the girl with the key.”

  Jamie got warm envisioning that very same scenario. No one had ever put her in handcuffs before, or even suggested it. But she’d always had a fantasy about someone topping her. While she liked some butch and androgynous girls, she was still too dominant for most of them and she had a hard time giving up control. But if she could find the right woman, mmhmm.

  “Where did you go? Because your face just got all pink!” Kelsey pointed at the other woman’s warm cheeks and grinned wickedly.

  Jamie slapped her finger away then scrubbed her own face.

  “Seriously, Kels? You shouldn’t pick on me over here, I’m practically a nun!”

  Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Practically!” She grinned, showing off that pesky dimple and Jamie knew her crush had gone full-blown. “You know, if you can’t handle the conversation you can always tap out.”

  The blonde gave her a perplexed look. “Tap out?”

  Kelsey nodded. “Yeah, like with tag team wrestling or sex.”

  Jamie had taken a swig from her water bottle a
nd spit the entire mouthful halfway across the living room. “Oh my God, you did not just say that! And what does it even mean?”

  “You know, when one guy gets tired of beating up his opponent he can go over to the side and—” She never got to finish because Jamie made a time out motion with her hands.

  “No, no, no, I’m talking about the sex reference! What does tap out mean?”

  Kelsey giggled at her friend’s antics. “It’s when someone is uh, not doing such a good job, and you just kind of reach down and tap them on the shoulder. Like, come up here and let’s do this for a while...” Her voice faded out but the implied meaning was there.

  Jamie cracked up laughing and pointed across the table. “No, you have not done that!”

  “Yeah, yes I have.”

  A look of disbelief washed across Jamie’s face. “But only like, once or twice, right?”

  Kelsey blushed and idly scratched at her temple. “Eh, I’m kind of a hard sell. So, more than once or twice. Why are we even talking about this again? We should totally change the subject.”

  Jamie grinned. “No, this is great! I’m learning so much about you! But apparently now that the shoe is on the other foot you want to tap out of the conversation.” She thought for a second then lobbed another question at Kelsey since her friend seemed so open to sharing. “What was the weirdest encounter you’ve ever had with a woman?”

  “Oh jeez!” Kelsey thought for a minute. “Ah, it was totally my friend Tam’s fault. We were roommates back in college and for whatever reason Tam has always taken it upon herself to look out for me. So a few years ago, after I split with the girlfriend I had at the time, they invited me into town for the weekend because they were having their annual costume party. That year’s theme was prom. Anyway, what she neglected to tell me was that they had another friend who was staying at the house. And because Becky had admitted to liking girls, they thought she could use a friend. Well, we were all drunk that night and Becky was all over me every time I found myself in a room alone. One thing led to another and we ended up sleeping together. I wasn’t ready to date anyone yet and the woman said she was totally all right with just the casual one-time thing.”

  Jamie nodded when Kelsey paused to get a drink. “Okay, sounds all right in theory but something went wrong huh?”

  Kelsey nodded. “When I told Tam what happened she was surprised because her friend was newly divorced and had only expressed interest in women before. But she reassured me that Becky wasn’t interested in dating and would be cool about it. Then Becky started calling and texting, asking when we could hang out again. I told Tam and Shell about what she was doing the next time I came into town and they didn’t believe me.”

  Dregs of her soup forgotten, Jamie leaned over her bowl intently listening. “What did you do?”

  “Becky happened to call when I was sitting at Tam and Shell’s kitchen table. Tam told me to give her the phone and she answered it for me. She asked Becky what she was doing then spent about five minutes on the phone with the other woman before eliciting a promise from her to leave me alone.”

  “Did she say what was up with Becky?”

  Kelsey nodded. “Yeah, apparently our night together had pushed her right off the queer cliff. The best part about the entire experience is that Tam bought me a toaster oven for my birthday that month. She thought it was a joke but I loved it. That thing is hella useful!”

  Jamie laughed. “That’s awesome!”

  She stood and began gathering the dirty dishes but Kelsey stood too and stopped her. “You cooked, I’ll clean up.” Then she nodded at Jamie. “What about you? What is your weirdest moment?”

  “Let’s see, well I have this, uh, I really like jewelry.”

  Kelsey gave her a strange look. “Really?”

  Then Jamie elaborated by making vertical circles in the air in front of her chest. “You know, rings and studs.”

  “Ohhh! Go on.” She gave Jamie a funny little smile but waved her on.

  “So, I was with this cute baby butch and she had both nipples pierced, which was totally amazeballs! Well as I moved further down I discovered that her clit was pierced as well. Which was a new one for me but still pretty cool. So anyways, I’m totally loving the lower post and she can tell. Then while I’m down there she proceeds to inform me that she did it herself with a needle and some ice. Totally blew my mind. I mean my tongue was still going but my head was all like ‘˜what the fuck!’ and well, anyways, that was a definite one and done. She too got a little weird after.”

  “Holy shit!”

  Jamie nodded. “Yeah.”

  Kelsey shook her head. “No, I mean holy shit I slept with her too! She told me the same thing.”

  Jamie gave her a look of surprise. “Really? That’s weird. Are you sure? Short, cropped blonde hair and pixie-like face? Her name was—”

  “Bailey. Yeah, I’m sure. And yeah, that poor girl had some real issues. We actually went out a few times before we slept together and she seemed cool and all, but after?” Kelsey shuddered. “Yeah, issues.”

  In that moment, the strangeness of coincidence hit them both and they started laughing while Kelsey rinsed the dishes in the sink. They talked for a little while longer then Kelsey had to leave to go do her laundry and Jamie went back to her couch. She was confused and a little sad. Kelsey had officially reached further inside than few other friends before. She intrigued Jamie, and attracted her more than any of the women the engineer had slept with in the past. But she wasn’t sleeping with Kelsey. She couldn’t sleep with her and maintain their friendship. The problem was, she wasn’t like any of Jamie’s other friends either. She was just more, and Jamie was in a little bit of trouble.

  Chapter Twelve

  JAMIE’S DAY WAS not going well. Not only was she in the middle of a major revamp of one of her own lines, but it was also her day to cover the old line because they still hadn’t hired an engineer to take “Dave the Dick’s” place. The line was one of the very first ones in her building, and being older than Methuselah it ran poorly on a good day. The supervisor had called Jamie for an issue with one of the big in-line coaters. Unlike the other departments though, the two openings for the machine were on opposite ends of the line from each other. So if there was an alarm, you had to run from one end to the other to shut it off, then run back and see what was causing the alarm. Jamie was tired of running. About forty-five minutes before quitting time she was ready to be done. Her own line had called her with a tester issue so she called Bill to see if he was available to look at it.

  “Sure, James. I’m smooth sailing ’til the end of the day since my lines had to go home early.”

  She grabbed him before he could hang up. “Hey, if you get that figured out can you come help me with the dinosaur?”

  “Yeah, let me just go check your tester and I’ll come over.”

  The worst part about the layout of the dinosaur line was the fact that you had to exit the door at one end and immediately duck under an eight inch diameter steel pipe in order to get to the alarm controller. There were strips of plastic sheeting hanging down across the doorway so you didn’t see the pipe unless you were all the way out.

  Jamie had just made an adjustment and went back into the plastic enclosed clean room to cycle a tray through. There were two line operators in the room with her, Jill and Sue. When the alarm blared again she spun in place, dodged around Jill, and ducked down to plow through the plastic door, anticipating the pipe. Unfortunately she misjudged the height of it and plowed headfirst into the steel like a charging bull. The loud “bong” sound drew Jill and Sue out of the room to see what happened as Jamie staggered and reeled from the blow. Jill caught her as she nearly fell and Jamie clapped a hand to the top of her head. “Holy shit, Jamie! Are you all right?”

  Jamie righted herself and gingerly reached around the controller to shut off the alarm. “I just literally saw stars. Like real blinking, twinkling lights swirling around my head just like a freaking cartoon.�
� She moved her hand from the top of her head down to rub the back of her neck. Both were killing her. Her other hand stayed clutching the controller.

  Jill watched her for a second. “I think you should sit down for a minute, that rung your bell. Do you feel dizzy at all? How is your neck?” Jamie looked at her curiously and Jill shrugged. “My daughter is a paramedic and I was always helping her study at night when she was in school.”

  Before they could go anywhere, Bill walked up. “Hey, what’s going on, James?”

  Sue chimed in. “She just plowed into the coater pipe headfirst like a bull! She probably concussed herself.”

  Jamie shook her head slowly. “I’m sure it’s not that bad. I’m just going to have a headache for a while.”

  Her fellow engineer looked at her. “Seriously, dude? How often have you ducked through that door? You’re such a klutz!”

  “Bill, we’re just going to help Jamie into the office over there so she can sit down. Can you take a look at the dinosaur for us? It’s saying the coater value is off, just like last time. I think the sensor is probably bad again. You know maintenance never changes them when they’re supposed to.” Jill had worked on the line a long time and knew nearly as much about the coaters as the engineers did.

  He nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Let me run a couple test sheets and check the log book.”

  Jamie looked relieved. “Thanks, man.” The two line operators helped Jamie into a nearby office so she could sit down. Then Sue called the nurse over from the main building. Thirty minutes later she was sitting in the nurse’s office sporting a massive headache and stiff neck.

  “Do you have someone you can ride home with? I’m not saying you need to go to the doctor because your pupils look fine and you have a full range of motion, even if you’re sore. But I don’t think you should drive right now, and it would be good if someone could stay with you overnight to monitor you. Do you have someone you can call?”