Jordan was imitating her stare, and she nodded her complete agreement. "Without a doubt."
Jamie and Mia exchanged aggrieved looks, each of them rolling her eyes. "Jocks," Mia said.
"Well, it is kinda cool," Jamie had to admit, but I think I’d get tired of it."
The foursome stared for a few more minutes, watching a lithe, graceful woman glide up and down the tower via a system of pulleys; her athletic body secured by a nearly invisible harness. The lovely sylph wore a headset, and was obviously being given instructions by the sommelier. Up and down the tower she went, barely pausing long enough to slip a bottle from its cache and return to the ground. "I could do that for 24 hours straight," Ryan said, transfixed.
"Easy," Jordan agreed. "I’d do it for free."
"Let’s go, you two," Jamie said, tugging on her partner’s hand. "You’re goofy enough to try to wrestle the poor woman out of that harness."
That comment got Ryan’s attention, and she leaned over and whispered, "You have no idea how many times I’ve wrestled a woman out of a harness."
Jamie swatted her on the seat, no longer caring if people saw her. "Big talker," she whispered back. "I think you’ve made up half of your supposed debauchery."
Not rising to the bait, Ryan waggled her eyebrows, "Wanna bet?"
"No thanks," Jamie said, smiling up at her. "I don’t want to lose my shirt like that poor old chicken farmer did."
"Chicken farmer?" Ryan asked, scratching her head as Jamie tugged her over to their table.
Leaving the restaurant, Ryan clutched the complimentary box of handmade chocolates to her breast, leaving no doubt that they were hers alone. Deciding to walk their dinner off, they began the long stroll back to The Bellagio.
On the walk along the crowded Strip, they passed a near-constant stream of young Latin men, handing out full-color ads for prostitutes. The men were respectful, doing their best not to give the ads to children or women. But there wasn’t one who did not thrust one of the ads into Ryan’s hands. After the twentieth such encounter, her friends were laughing helplessly; and the look on the dark beauty’s face was as funny as the situation. "Do I look like a guy? Or can everyone tell I’m a big dyke looking for a woman?"
"Neither honey," Jamie assured her. "It’s your height. They don’t look at your face; they see that you’re a foot taller than they are, and shove a flyer at you."
Ryan stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, giving Jamie a scowl. "Jordan’s a half inch taller than me, and she hasn’t gotten one."
"Hmm … I guess you look like a big dyke then," Jamie said, giggling, "’cause you sure don’t look like any man I’ve ever seen."
"Thanks, I think," Ryan said, and shrugged her shoulders, only to have another young man put a particularly lewd picture in her hand. "I don’t have to pay for it!" she shouted, waving the picture at him.
"I’d pay you," Jamie said, pulling her down so that only she could hear. "Any price, any time."
"That’s more like it," the brunette sniffed, her dignity somewhat restored.
When they reached The Bellagio, they walked past the throngs of people waiting to enter the theatre to see "O." Ryan walked over to the ticket window while Jamie paused to regale their friends with how much they had enjoyed the performance, and moments later she was back, beaming a grin. She extended a pair of tickets to Jordan and said, "Eleven o’clock tonight. Be there."
Jordan gaped at her. "Jamie said they were sold out! How did you …?"
"They had some cancellations," she said. "Never hurts to ask."
"Ryan!" Mia cried. "You didn’t have to do this!"
"I enjoyed the show so much," she said, "that I want you to see it, too." Her face grew serious and she said, "I love winning money – but it’s like a gift – it doesn’t feel like mine. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to share it with my friends."
Mia wrapped her in a hug and grasped her hand as they walked towards the elevators, the pair a few steps in front of Jordan and Jamie. "You know," the curly-haired woman said thoughtfully, "I used to worry about Jamie. I honestly never thought she could find anyone as generous and loving as she is – and I thought she might not be able to share that part of herself with her husband. It’s so nice to see her with someone who’s as kind as she is. You two deserve each other, Ryan."
Ryan leaned over and placed a kiss on the crown of Mia’s curly head. "Thanks. I appreciate that. Being compared to Jamie is the nicest compliment you could give me."
After Jordan and Mia dropped off their bags in the room Jamie and Ryan had vacated, they prevailed upon their friends to do a little gambling with them before returning to the team hotel. The found a bank of slot machines in a quiet corner of the casino, so they could talk while they gambled. Ryan and Jordan were sitting on the cushioned, brocade chairs, while their smaller girlfriends each perched upon one of their athlete’s legs. "We made our reservations for Sydney this week," Ryan said. "I’m so damned excited about coming to watch you. I don’t think I’d be any more excited if I were going to compete."
Jordan gave her one of her most luminous grins. "It’s gonna be so great to have you all there. Do you remember what flight you’re on?"
"We’re on Quantas, and we get in the day before the opening ceremonies," Jamie said.
"Oh, good. You won’t be on the same flight with my parents," Jordan said, obviously relieved.
"Both of your parents are coming?" Ryan asked.
"And my brother and my grandmother," the blonde said, looking unenthused.
Mia rolled her eyes, and Jamie could tell something was up, but she didn’t want to pry. Switching to what she assumed would be a safer topic, she asked, "What does your brother do, Jordan? I don’t think I’ve heard you talk about him much."
Jordan pursed her lips, her brow knit into a frown. "He’s kind of an actor."
"Kind of?"
Jordan turned to Jamie and shrugged her shoulders. "There’s a breed of people in LA who manage to live with no visible means of support. He claims that he’s an actor, but I’ve never heard of him appearing in anything. I think he’s still in Actor’s Equity, but last I heard he was in danger of losing his card since he hadn’t worked."
"And he doesn’t do anything else?" Jamie asked.
"Not that I know of. He has an apartment in Brentwood, and he always has a nice car, but I don’t have a clue how he pays for it."
"Maybe your father …?"
That got a laugh from Jordan. "Not hardly. I don’t think they speak."
"Oh." Jamie knew this conversation had run its course, but she didn’t want it to end on such a down note. "Maybe he takes jobs here and there that you don’t know about."
"I’m sure that’s true," Jordan said, smiling enigmatically, and letting the issue drop.
"This game is too dull," Ryan declared. "Let’s play blackjack together."
"I don’t know a thing about it," Mia insisted. "I’ll go broke in two minutes."
"No, no, no, it’s fun. Let’s find some good blackjack slot machines, and I’ll explain it to you," Ryan suggested. "You’ve gotta play a few hands of a real game on your first trip to Las Vegas. Come on."
She confidently led the way, and her friends dutifully joined her when she’d located the right type of machine. A cocktail waitress came by, and Ryan gave her a charming grin and said, "If you’d bring us a bottle of water every time you come by, we’d sure appreciate it." She slipped the woman a five dollar bill, and received a warm, friendly smile in return.
"I’ll be back in a minute," she said, and Jamie could see a brief flash of connection between the women.
Leaning in, the blonde asked, "You could get her if you wanted her, couldn’t you?"
"Mmm … I’m not sure," Ryan said thoughtfully. "You can never tell with women who work for tips. Most of them have a very well developed sense of people. If they pick up that you’re gay, a lot of them will play with you, to make you think you can get them."
Jamie gave her
a curious look, and asked, "Do you ever want to try to pick a woman up to see if you still have the magic?"
Ryan smirked at her, shaking her head. "Nope. No interest." At Jamie’s pleased smile, she added, "I know I’ve still got it."
Ryan launched into a rather detailed explanation of her usual strategy, but quickly realized that she had lost both Mia and Jamie. Jordan was paying rapt attention, however, so she kept going, figuring that she’d think of another way to keep the stragglers involved.
Mia had disconnected so thoroughly, that she didn’t notice when all eyes turned to her.
"Uhm … Mia, why are you staring at that couple?" Jordan asked when she caught her attention.
"Oh!" The brunette actually blushed – not an easy thing to make her do. "Uhm … I was … thinking."
"About what, baby?" Jordan asked. "You look like something’s bothering you."
"Uhm … no, I’m okay." She looked uncomfortable, but all three women were looking at her, and she swallowed and said, "I was thinking about attraction and … stuff."
"Huh?" Jordan cast another glance at the extremely attractive couple playing the nearby slot machines. The dark haired man looked Italian or Spanish, and his fair-haired companion appeared to be a typical California actress/model. They were beautifully dressed and both oozed sex appeal. The man was playing the machine, with the woman leaning on a column, watching him intently. She gave off a vibe that said she was waiting for him to finish so that she could take him to their room and have her way with him.
"I was thinking about sex appeal and sexual orientation and things like that," Mia explained vaguely.
Jordan’s look was still blank, and Jamie and Ryan’s exhibited similar confusion.
"Okay," she explained, knowing she’d painted herself into a corner. "When you look at a couple like that, who do you notice first?"
Jordan scratched her head and said, "I don’t look at other people very often. If I don’t know them, I hardly notice that someone’s there."
Mia knew this was true, even though she didn’t understand it. She loved to look at people, and she noticed nearly everyone she encountered on a given day. Jordan, on the other hand, seemed to glide through her own little world, concentrating on something or other that only she was aware of.
"What about you?" the blonde asked Mia. "Who do you notice?"
"Mmm …" she said, wishing she hadn’t gone down this path. "It depends."
Jordan grasped her hand and gave it a squeeze. "It’s okay, Mia. Who do you notice? It won’t hurt my feelings. I’m interested."
She nodded and told the truth. "I see the guy. I always see the guy. If the woman’s extraordinary I notice her, too, but it’s the guy who catches my eye." She shrugged her shoulders, looking slightly bothered by this fact.
Trying to take the spotlight off Mia, Jamie piped up. "I see them both," she said. "It’s like my mind looks at them as a couple, like I’m trying to assess their chemistry – then I check out the woman ... thoroughly." She was blushing a little as she said this, but Ryan thought it was adorable, and gave her a little pat to encourage her to be honest. "What about you, Ryan?" she asked.
Ryan took in the scene, letting her mind assess it as she normally would. The man was giving off a powerful vibe, his attention fixed on the spinning reels, his fit, muscular body beautifully displayed in a tight black T-shirt and black slacks. The woman was very much in the background, most of her energy fixed upon him. He pulled on the handle with gusto, thrusting his hips with each forceful yank. Ryan noted that he was playing 3 coins in a ten-dollar machine, tossing away thirty bucks with each unsuccessful spin. Satisfied with the information that her brain had registered, she shrugged and said, "I see a really hot woman leaning against a pillar." That drew a hearty laugh from her friends, but Ryan wasn’t trying to be funny. She didn’t notice men most of the time – unless there weren’t any women around to capture her attention. "I’m being serious, guys," she insisted. "It’s how we’re programmed and how we’ve trained ourselves."
Still looking concerned, Mia turned to Jamie, and asked, "After you came out, did the way you look at people change?"
"Mmm … to be really, really honest," Jamie said, drawing out her answer, "no. It didn’t. I’ve always noticed women. I used to try to convince myself that I was checking out their clothes, or their style, but in reality I was looking at their asses," she said, giggling. "I’m more honest about it now, but nothing has changed."
Ryan loved to hear her partner talk about her still-developing sexual personae, so she encouraged her to continue. "What do you look at when you see a nice-looking woman?"
"Hmm …" Jamie turned her attention to a lovely brunette standing at a slot machine. She cocked her head and let herself look at her like she normally did, then relayed the process. "I start at the top and think, ‘Ryan’s hair is much nicer’." She shot a grin at her partner, and continued, "Then I think, ‘Ryan’s face is so much prettier.’ I go down her body, comparing her bit by bit. And let me tell ya, not many parts ever beat yours out, tiger."
"That is absolutely adorable," Ryan said, leaning it for a kiss. "I had no idea that you did that."
"Do you do that, too?" she asked, a hopeful look on her face.
Oh boy! "Well, I uhm … I guess that I kinda …"
"Never mind," Jamie said, shaking her head in disappointment.
"Hey, there’s a very good reason that I don’t compare you to other women," Ryan said, trying to rescue herself. "First off – it’s not a fair comparison. I love the whole you – not only your beautiful face or fabulous body. I don’t know the women I see on a daily basis, so it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’d lose before the comparison could even begin."
"Hmm … should I accept that answer?" Jamie asked her friends.
"Yeah, give the poor thing a break," Mia urged. "She’s been very nice to us tonight."
"Okay," Jamie said, sparing a glance at the puppy-dog look on Ryan’s face. "I accept your rationale."
"I’m being serious," Ryan insisted. "The women I look at are merely bodies and faces. They don’t touch me or move me. They’re only assemblages of protoplasm."
"Wow!" Jamie gasped as a woman with a massive assemblage of protoplasm arranged on her chest walked by. "Were those real?"
"If you mean real versus illusory, then yes, they were," Ryan teased. "But if you mean real versus manufactured – no, they weren’t."
"How can you be so sure?" Jamie asked. "Maybe she got in the breast line twice when God was handing them out."
"Nope. You can tell. Look at the movement," she instructed. "Breasts that large have to move when you walk, and hers don’t. They’re far too firm and rigid to be real."
"Have you ever … sampled a surgically enhanced pair?"
Ryan shrugged and said, "Only partially."
"Explain," Jamie insisted.
"Well … at my old gym, one of my clients had hers done. She told me I could feel them – so I did."
"A client let you feel her tits?" Jamie gasped in surprise.
"Well … I think she suspected that I was an aficionado," she said. "She’d recently had them done, and she asked if I’d like to give her some feedback. So, we went into the locker room when we were done with our session, and I felt them."
"Amazing," Jamie said, shaking her head.
"They were kinda weird," Ryan revealed. "Not bad weird – different weird. They had a very, very different feel – much more resilient than natural breasts. I’d have to get used to them before I could enjoy them."
"Not to worry," Jamie said. "I won’t be having mine done in the near future, and we’ve agreed that you don’t get to sample anyone else’s."
"Not true," Ryan said. "We’ve agreed that I don’t want to sample anyone else’s. Small, but vital difference. You don’t force me to want only you. It’s the simple truth."
They walked over to the blackjack tables together, with Jamie asking Ryan a few detailed questions about the enh
anced breasts. She knew she’d never experience any, but she was a more avid aficionado than Ryan was, so she felt it mandatory to live vicariously through her partner.
Finding an empty table, the foursome took their places, Mia and Jamie agreeing that Ryan would signal them when she wanted them to hit. They played for quite a while, and managed to lose only about a hundred dollars among the three of them. Jordan, however, was on a roll – even though she’d never played before. She didn’t ask for Ryan’s help, and she proved that she didn’t need it – getting up to $500 before she cashed out. "What a rush!" she moaned to Ryan when they stood in the cashier line. "That was hot!"
"It does feel good, doesn’t it?" Ryan asked. "I think gambling is one vice I could easily become addicted to. Thank God I’m too cheap to be able to tolerate losing money!"
Jordan peeled off $200 and extended it towards Ryan. "Let me pay you back for the tickets to ‘O’."
Ryan firmly pushed the money back at her. "Nope. Use it to buy a plane ticket to come home. Mia misses you something fierce."
"I know. It’s hard to tell which of us is more miserable."
"I think it’s a tie," Ryan said. "We’re gonna head home now. You two have a great time tonight, okay?"
"We will. We’ll try to get to your game tomorrow …" she began, but Ryan hushed her.
"Please don’t come. I’d like it if you stayed up late and made love until dawn. You need to spend your time together."
Jordan nodded and gave Ryan a kiss. "I would have had a best friend years ago if I could have had one like you."
"You’ve got one now," Ryan promised, wrapping her in a hug.
After their friends left, Mia and Jordan went to another quiet bar to have a drink before the show began. The smaller woman sipped her Cosmopolitan, deep in thought.
"What’s going on behind those pretty eyes?" Jordan asked.
"I didn’t hurt your feelings when I said I noticed men first, did I?"
Monogamy Page 32
