Desert Trading Post

by Marilyn Foxworthy

Dotty was so like her sister, but maybe an inch shorter. And maybe a bit slimmer, but not by much. I wanted to hug both of them all the time. But I dreaded the thought that they might hug me if we were sunbathing. I knew that it would feel great, both physically and emotionally. In a way, I wanted to do it very much. To be naked, being hugged by a woman that embodied femininity in its purest sense, to feel the feminine envelope me in a way that a younger woman couldn’t. What would that be like? It wouldn’t be sexual, at least not at first, but I knew that if I truly gave into just being held like that, against a woman like that, how could it not be erotic at some level. I could just imagine how good that must smell.

  I shook myself out of my thoughts and tried to stay with the people who were here. Yeah, that was a wonderful fantasy, to experience that kind of sensual envelopment, but it was just a fantasy. I determined at that point to see how I could cultivate that with Courtney and Jett. Maybe we could learn to have whatever it was that I was looking for in that area. Why not? Yeah, we could do that. We could learn to be the best huggers we could be. Maybe Dotty and Milly could actually coach us or something. But now that I had a vision for it, I was sure we could work it out on our own. I knew the feeling I was looking for, and I’d show the girls what we wanted to cultivate.

  Before bed, we talked about a plan for the next day. We all wanted to go back to Vegas and have weddings for Milly and Jett. We couldn’t use the same chapel that Courtney and I had gone to. Well, we could if we didn’t care what they thought, but even if we didn’t care, it would make the ceremony awkward, and we wanted to avoid any awkwardness at all costs.

  Oddly, neither Milly or Jett cared at all about renting a wedding dress for the occasion. Jett and Courtney had talked to each other about Jett throwing out all of her old clothes and starting over, like Courtney had. Jett loved the idea. When Milly heard about it, she was all in favor of doing the same thing. It was decided that Dan and I would buy them all new wardrobes, from the skin up. Jett suggested that she would get “half-married” in one of her existing outfits, take a short break and change into something new, and then finalize the ceremony as a different person. She came up with the idea on her own; go to the wedding as Jette Noir Von Helstorm, and be pronounced husband and wife as Jeannette Raskin. When she asked Dan if that was OK and would he buy her a new dress for the occasion, he told her flatly, no. Jett was surprised, but when her dad pointed out that from now on it was my responsibility, not his, she smiled excitedly and leaned over and kissed me hard. Name changes would happen at the courthouse here in town after we got back. Probably the next day.

  We’d leave before dawn and make it to Vegas by nine. There was no paperwork related to licenses, just the chapel ceremony. The women didn’t even want to make reservations at the chapel They wanted to just walk in and have a double ceremony in the simplest way possible and get on with the adventure.

  After a lot of planning, Jett suddenly yelled, “I can’t stand it! It’s too stupid. This isn’t honest!”

  Dotty said, “What do you mean, Dear? How?”

  Jett looked beyond frustrated as she said, “It’s too much planning. We don’t need it. Daddy just threw Milly over his shoulder and carried her away. And Courtney got to just jump in the car and race off down the highway. It isn’t supposed to be like this!”

  I said, “How is it supposed to be Jett?”

  I could see again how much Jett was changing and if she had an idea of what was supposed to happen intuitively, I wanted to hear it and get it for her.

  Jett said, “We are supposed to just throw on a shirt or something and get in the car and drive. Right now. Who cares about all this stuff? We’re pretending it matters. It doesn’t. It hardly matters that we do it at all. Daddy and Milly are married. Me and Dave are married. We need to go on an adventure to seal the deal, but we don’t have to figure it all out, do we? We just get in the car and go! Find an all-night wedding chapel. They have those, right? I’m not waiting anymore! I’m going to the car!” and she stood up and walked toward the garage.

  I said, “I’m OK with that, but moreover, I have to do what Jett wants in this case. If she wants to leave right now, I’ll take her right now.”

  Dan looked at Dotty and Milly and said, “We can take the big SUV. It will fit all of us. We need shoes.”

  Dotty smiled and said, “Only for driving. You run up and get yours and we’ll start getting in the car.”

  Dan shrugged and hurried into the house.

  I yelled, “Jett, give us one minute. Just one. I promise!”

  Then I said, “Courtney, run upstairs with me. I need my wallet. Can you grab ID for you and Jett?”

  We ran to the rooms and I found my wallet and Courtney found Jett’s purse and pulled her driver’s license and then grabbed her own. We didn’t change clothes or take anything else with us at all.

  Racing down to the driveway, we found Jett leaning against my car impatiently, and Dotty and Milly beside her. Dan was just starting the bigger car and backing it out of the garage. As soon as it was outside, I opened doors for the ladies and we climbed inside.

  The SUV seated seven. We had six. Dan drove, Dotty sat in the front passenger seat, Jett and Milly sat in the middle seats, and Courtney and I sat on the bench seat in the back.

  Dan said, “So, we’re doing this?”

  Dotty said, “We are…”

  But Jett broke in and exclaimed, “Daddy! Get in gear! We’re doing it. I am anyway. Drive or let someone else do it.”

  Dan looked in the rearview mirror and I could see him smile as he pulled away from the house.

  He said, “As you wish.”

  About 30 minutes into the drive, Dotty told everyone that she wanted to sit with me for a few minutes and we shuffled around until she and I were sitting together on the back seat.

  She talked very quietly as she said, “Dave, I want to talk to you about something. You and Courtney apparently didn’t need much time to feel comfortable with each other. But you and Jett are still changing. Especially her. Normally, there would be some kind of courtship. It might take months as your initial desire for each other grew into something more solid and substantial. You understand foreplay, right? And how important it is? Jett is acting like her motor is running and she’s ready to go. And she is. But she’s also all mixed up and she’s a virgin. Sweetie, an engagement is like foreplay that takes months. I know that a lot of people skip this nowadays, but maybe they shouldn’t. If you and Jett had a couple of months of foreplay before the wedding night, by the time she got to your bed, she’d be ripe and ready. She would have been anticipating it a long time, dreaming about having you and dreaming about being touched and seen. But you just met. Yeah, she’s horny, but she may not be ready. She may look like the pie filling is hot and bubbly, but the heat needs to work it’s way all the way through so that the whole pie is ready to eat. And yes, I am fully in favor of eating pie whenever you get the chance. And by pie, I mean pussy if a girl likes that. And if she doesn’t, that’s just weird or you must not be any good at it. Anyway, you need to heat her up at the right speed. You have to let her simmer. And you have to know when she’s really ready. Not when she says she is, when she really is. For your sake, take the time required for the foreplay. And that means days or weeks if necessary. Just like a pie, stick a toothpick in it and see if it’s cooked all the way through.”

  I thought that the toothpick comment wasn’t really the most accurate, but I decided to be respectful of the moment and not make a joke right now.

  The way that she explained it, it made sense. I had been worried about this as well. How would Jett and I make the transition to being real lovers, without it being as awkward as that normally was for people? I wanted to avoid that, if possible. Dotty made sense. It was a long game of foreplay that would make the endgame comfortable and happy for both of us. Jett might want to be hasty and jump right in, but that might not be best. And then again, since I hadn’t even seen her naked yet, despite the most surpris
ing oral experience and some petting on my lap, maybe she was nervous and not quite fully cooked, like her mother was saying.

  I said, “Mom, I love you so much. Thank you for talking to me. But more than that, thank you for taking me in. I would have never had these kinds of talks with my own mother. Did I tell you that she dies a few years ago in a car accident? I love you so much. You already mean the world to me.”

  Dotty patted my leg and said, “Good. If Dan dies first, Milly and I will need you to look after us when we get old. You’re a good son.”

  We rode on quietly after that. I must have fallen asleep. I woke up because we were pulling into a gas station for a rest stop. Dotty was cradling my head against her breast and hugged me when she felt me stir.

  Inside the attached convenience store, Courtney asked for a key to the restrooms and I don’t think that either of us gave a single thought to whether the clerk would notice us going in together. And in fact, I didn’t notice until I had already held the door so that Jett could come in that she was joining us. I wasn’t really surprised, it just felt curious.

  Courtney was already slipping down her underwear and sitting down when Jett said, “So, how does this work?”

  I turned toward the door and said, “I usually turn my back and close my eyes. Unless we are in a hotel room or Courtney’s room.”

  Jett stood next to me and said, “Good. That works. I kind of like this. Being together.”

  I heard Courtney say, “Jett?”

  Jett smiled and said, “OK, I really like it! I absolutely like it. It’s so truthful. Here we are, and we love each other, and we live together, and we eat together, and we are just even in the same bathroom together. I guess I figured that when I got married that we’d, you know, share a bathroom and all, but this is even more just really real with no games unless we make them up.”

  The toilet flushed and Courtney said, “Who’s next?”

  Jett said, “There’s a urinal. Dave, just go ahead and I’ll use the toilet. So what if you see my shorts around my knees now?”

  I did as Jett suggested and we finished about the same time. As we left the restroom, Dan and Dotty and Milly came and took the key from us and all of them went in together.

  When they came out, as Dan was paying for the gas, Courtney said to her mom and Milly, “So, together, huh?”

  Dotty said, “It was actually pretty cool. I was surprised. Milly and I just wanted to see what it was like.”

  Milly said, “I liked it. It was so…”

  Jett said, “It was easy. That’s what it was. It was easy. It was easy to not care about stupid things. It was easier than taking turns. What would happen if from now on, we did more of what was easy unless we had to do something hard?”

  Dotty said, “That’s a really good way to put it, Jett. It was emotionally easy. Just not having to consider or care about things that don’t matter. You are so right. I like that. What else would be easier?”

  Jett said, “Being nude.”

  Milly said, “Being nude?”

  Jett said, “Yeah. Like when I got home and you guys were all at the pool naked. I was so offended. Like a weird prude or something. But why? I haven’t even been naked in front of Dave yet, or any of you really, but so what if I am? If there’s no reason to, why not just not bother putting on a swimsuit? It’s easier to just drop the dress and not care. But, I do care. Now that I see it, I do care that Dave is naked with me and that I make that easy for both of us and not play a game that isn’t really fun. I don’t want to play, ‘You better not be looking at me’. I want to play naked Marco Polo in the pool.”

  Jett went suddenly quiet. She was clearly thinking something over.

  After a few seconds, she said, “Dave, you told me that I was pretty.”

  I said, “Of course I did. I have to tell the truth, don’t I?”

  She said, “No. You don’t. You choose to tell the truth.”

  I said, “Jett, I think that you are very beautiful, inside and out. I can’t believe that you’d marry me like this. I love you. And the very thought of you naked makes my heart race. But everything about you makes my heart race. Well, not when you insult me and say that you don’t want me around, but when you are Jett, not Miss Von Hellstorm.”

  She went quiet again for a minute and then said, “Oh crap! I get it! I’ll tell you about it in the car.”

  Dan was finished paying for our gas and we climbed back in the car and pulled onto the highway again.

  Once we were on our way, Jett said, “You guys, you get this, right? I just figured it out. This is the only way. If I was with Dave, no matter how great a guy he is and how much I loved him, I would have screwed it up eventually.”

  She went on to talk about how she understood that without Courtney being part of our relationship that she could never have made it work. Dan and Dotty and Courtney all assured her that they were fully aware of it and that was the reason that Dan and Dotty had been in favor of it and why Courtney had thought of it in the first place. And Jett got even more excited and comfortable with what was happening.

  Dotty leaned toward me and said, “She’s so much closer to ripe now than she was a few hours ago. Do you see what I mean? She would have been OK, but after this, she’s ready, willing, and able.”

  Jett said suddenly, “Daddy, buy a limo.”

  Dan laughed and said, “A limo! Why?”

  Jett said, “It would have a privacy screen. I could ride in the back and conduct business, with Dave, and Courtney, of course, and you could drive. While we do business.”

  Dan laughed, “Oh, business! I see. Tell you what, I’ll think about it.”

  Jett said, “No lies Daddy Dude.”

  Dan said, “Oh, it’s no lie. I am thinking about doing business with your moms in the back of a limo while you drive us around. I’m not going to buy one, but I am thinking about what it would be like to have one. Milly, turn around in your seat and pretend you are looking out the backseat of a limo so that I can see what doing business that way would look like. Dotty, pretend that we have the air conditioning on high and blow her dress up around her waist and…” he paused.

  Dotty said, “Having trouble coming up with an explanation for why her panties would drop spontaneously?”

  Dan said, “I’m sure it would make perfect sense in the moment.”

  Jett sighed and said, “Yeah, but just yanking them down, or just not wearing any to start with would be easier. I’m planning to do things the easy way from now on. How much farther?”

  It wasn’t that far. I was looking forward to it. Not to the wedding per se, but to what would come after this. I knew that it was only the beginning. Again, I hadn’t even seen Jett naked. Come on! And we had so much to work out still. I was really glad that Jett was more interested in getting the formality out of the way than creating an event. She’d had enough fantasy events; her life had been made up of them. Yeah, there was a lot more ahead of us. Wow, seven days. And today hadn’t even started yet. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

  End of Book One

  We will end the first book of our Honest Attractions here. The story continues in the next volume. I don’t really know what will happen next. If you read on, it’s up to you.

  The world has changed in the past week. And so have Dave, Courtney, Jett, and their parents.

  But before we take a break, let’s summarize. All that really needed to be said might be something like this:

  1. A lot of our lives and occupations and relationships aren’t really honest.

  2. Being honest might not get you what you want, but it gets you what’s honest.

  3. Sacred conversations come if you make a place for them.

  4. Sometimes, the easy way is the truthful way.

  If you choose to read on, I hope you enjoy it. I’m going to keep writing the story, whether you read it or not.

  END OF BOOK ONE

  About the Author

  Marilyn Foxworthy lives a peaceful life s
tudying classical mindfulness, practical philosophy, and martial arts. A prolific writer of fantasy and adventure in the style of the twentieth-century pulp writers of the ‘Golden Age’ of fiction, she enjoys what she calls ‘Tom Swift for Adults’. Often blatantly and graphically sensual, her epic stories appeal to the adolescent parts of us that still enjoy a good vicarious adventure liberally sprinkled with interludes of boisterous romping in the hay.

  Ms. Foxworthy describes her writing process this way: “I never know what is going to happen. The characters tell me their stories and I write them down the way I hear them. A character comes to me and sits down for coffee and starts talking. I’m as surprised as anyone by what they tell me. If I like the story, I publish it. If you like the story, you read it.”

  Other Series by The Author

  Series by Marilyn Foxworthy (without giving away too many spoilers):

  * The Nogud Legacy. What if you wake up on a road with no idea who you are? The place seems medieval, but is it the future or the past? The population is low and good men are at a premium. A smart guy like Joshua knows how to make a new life, even if he can’t figure out how he got here or what the rules are at first. And what's with these girls in the hoods and tunics?

  * The Guardian Maidens of Sturgil's Mark. Ronin is a novice Adventurer Monk out to kill some monsters and make a name for himself. The elven girls who join him don’t like wearing armor very much but overall, they’re a great team. Monsters beware. We’re coming to kick down doors and take your loot.

  * The Sea Nymphs. Robby is established now and wants to share his good fortune with his older brother Tom. Tom adjusts to Robby’s lifestyle quickly. He has his own way of doing things but he’s Robby’s brother for sure.

  * The Shrine Maidens of Barsoom. The “Red Planet” of John Carter’s stories is real but not quite the way we were told. The Great White Apes are real, and the princesses really are naked, but a lot of the details a hundred years later are different.