Keeping Faith

by T J Vertigo

  Cori jumped on the phone as soon as it rang. She had been waiting for it, actually, she had been waiting for the door bell to ring with either one of her friends in various stages of anger on the other side. "Faith?"

  "Cori, you're not going to believe this!"

  "What happened? I'm dying here!"

  Faith shook her head in disbelief even as she conveyed the message.

  Cori raised an eyebrow. "That's it?" She didn't believe it.

  "I swear! It didn't bother her a bit, in fact, she just crawled under the covers and, well... let’s just say I can't walk all that great."

  "I don't know Faith. Something's up." Cori was very skeptical. "Was it different sex? Was she possessive? More than usual?"

  "No! It was normal, and it was great. Hey, why fix what ain't broke! I'm not complaining."

  Cori narrowed her eyes. "I don't like it." It was too weird.

  "I'm telling you, she was fine." Faith assured.

  Cori hung up the phone and pursed her lips. Reece? Reece Corbett? Hmmm.

  Reece grunted as she lifted the heavy barbell over her head. The exertion felt good, she felt good. She woke up in a great mood, followed it up by a very satisfying quickie after a night of slow love making. You couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. Faith wasn't ignoring her, in fact, she was really attentive, and this just made the club owner glow. She did puzzle briefly over how worried Faith looked about the script, but Reece wasn't dumb. She had already figured Faith's character to have a lover. Hell, who would believe a woman like Faith could ever be single?

  Reece smiled and replaced the barbell to its rack and began stretching.

  The only thing that bothered her now was the notoriety she was soon to face all over again. There was a lull for a while since Faith's last movie, and she was enjoying the semi-privacy. Sure there were pictures and phone calls, and people asking for autographs, but if that didn't bother Faith, she could do nothing more than stand and watch. Faith was already a bit of a photographer's commodity, not just because she was a new actress, but she was a gorgeous, outspoken lesbian. They were always trying to accuse her of being romantically involved with any woman she stood next to. She was a tabloid curiosity too. Being a lesbian, married to the mysterious owner of a titty club was more than they could take. The lesbians either hated her or loved her and the women's libbers wanted her blood.

  Reece smirked. Let anyone touch my woman...

  The club owner silently wished someone would fuck with Faith, just so she could show them who's boss. Faith, Cori and Violet didn't seem fazed by any of it and continually told Reece to mellow out and go with it. Sure occasionally Reece would be playful enough to allow a paparazzi to stalk them and get some pictures, but not often. The girls loved to tease the paparazzi and give them silly pictures. Reece would rather just break the cameras and poke their eyes out. However, she bit her lip and tried to bear it all. This was Faith's career, her dream and she didn't want to do anything to hurt that, even if it meant sitting on her temper. Yeah, she felt jealous, insanely so sometimes, that the movie business was taking Faith away from her, but she kept that inside too.

  Not wanting to keep that train of thought any longer, Reece shook her head clear and stalked the leg machine.

  Faith was thrilled with Reece's constant attentions, but was glad just the same when she went to the gym. She sat down with a glass of wine in her hand and Smudge on her lap and got comfy in the cushy couch to continue reading the script. Picking up where she left off, Faith got lost in the role of Meredith.

  Meredith was a strong character, a cop with a mission and a killer attitude. Faith knew she was going to enjoy playing her, but she wasn't so sure about the sex scene though. In fact, it made her a little queasy now that she thought about it. Flipping back to it, she read it, and re-read it again, then looked away altogether. When she skimmed through it the first time, she was pretty surprised and missed a few things. Not only is the scene hotter than hell, Meredith was a bit of an exhibitionist, who liked her handcuffs more than most, and spent the better part of three pages naked from the waist up. Faith didn't like that at all. It wasn't that she was shy, but in reading it, there was no other reason for her to be naked that long other than just to show her tits.

  A little bit put off, she went back to where she left off last and continued to read. Eventually, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. In the squad car? Reading it again, it made sense why it happens, and Faith herself was guilty of molesting Reece a few times in the car, but this time, the sex was more graphic. Meredith is getting oral sex, although her parts are not visible to the camera, the back of "Jessie's" head is, and it's very apparent what she's doing.

  Faith swallowed hard and closed her eyes. There was no way on this earth that Reece was going to allow this. None. In fact, Reece's reaction didn't make any sense at all. Reece Corbett was not going to sit idly by while her wife has a strange woman sucking on her nipple. Faith smacked herself in the head.

  "GOD!"

  It was too good to be true. Reece misunderstood and Faith allowed it to happen. Avoidance, plain and simple. She needed to talk to Reece and she needed to do it quick, before she figured it out on her own. This, wasn't going to be pretty.

  Reece was sitting at The Lounge, waiting for a big delivery. It was hours before the club opened, and she looked around the quiet club restlessly. She sighed, wanting to be home with Faith, and not sitting in the empty club.

  I wonder what she's doing now? What the script says? If she likes it or not?

  Bored, Reece began to twirl herself around on the bar stool until the room was spinning, then got an idea. She ventured to the DJ's booth and searched through the selections until she found what she was looking for.

  Cori nodded when she saw the Harley parked outside of the club. The gate was half-open and she lifted it high enough to scoot under. She was surprised to hear the loud music pumping from the club and was eager to investigate. Taking the stairs two at a time, she was stopped dead in her tracks when Reece came into view. There she was, in the brightly lit club, standing on the bar, playing air guitar on a mop. Cori covered her wide open mouth, even though Reece could never hear her laugh over the pounding music and screeching guitars. The dancer worked her way over to a bar stool and fished a dollar out of her bag. Reece dropped the guitar and suddenly beat invisible drums, singing loudly and gyrating to the beat.

  "Beg for me, crawl for me, down on your knees.. You're a sex junkie you'll do as I please..."

  Cori, unable to contain herself any more, stood up, threw her dollar at the startled performer and began applauding. "Brava! Encore!"

  Reece turned beet red, and jumped off the bar, mortified. "I must have told you a million times never to sneak up on me you freak!"

  Cori disappeared to the DJ booth and when the music was cut you could hear her giggling in the microphone. "Priceless Reece, simply priceless. is this what you do when no one's around?"

  "Fuck off." Reece was about to go grab Cori by the brow ring when the delivery guys yelled for her. "You just got really lucky."

  Cori snickered some more than followed Reece, helping her count in the boxes. "What the hell was that anyway? I think my ears are bleeding."

  Reece hoisted a box. "That... was The Plasmatics. The world’s greatest rock and roll band."

  Cori tried to budge a box. "Them? Didn't they make an entire album about maggots?"

  "Please. Chuck Berry sang about his ding-a-ling and they worshipped him." Reece watched Cori struggle with the box. "What are you doing here anyway?" she disappeared into the store room.

  Cori looked offended. "What? Can't I help?"

  Reece laughed on her way back. "You? Manual labor?"

  Cori harrumphed. "I have you know, I hung a perfectly good picture last Tuesday." Cori began dragging the heavy box, then gave up and sat on it.

  Reece lifted Cori and the box. "I'm impressed., coming from the freak who can't even paint on fake eyebrows straight. "

 
"You love me and you know it."

  They carried and dragged boxes into the storage room, bantering and arguing the whole time, until Cori decided to come out with it.

  "So, Faith tells me you guys were discussing the script?"

  "Yeah, well, I don't know anything really, but she told me about the girlfriend part."

  Cori watched Reece carefully. "And, you're okay with that?"

  The tall woman shrugged. ""Yeah, why shouldn't I be?"

  Cori narrowed her eyes. Reece didn’t have a clue and she wasn't going to be the one to tell her. "Oh, no, of course you'd be good with it. So, has she told you much about it?"

  Reece stopped what she was doing and stared at Cori. "Spit it out Freak. What are you getting at?"

  "Nothing!" She smiled weakly. "Just asking."

  After finishing the script, Faith paced the house, waiting anxiously for Reece to come home. She thought to call her, but decided against it, knowing she had to face Reece with it. Sure, there was going to be a war, but it had to be done. The thing she couldn't figure out was how to tell her. Lead up to it gently? Come right out and say she's going to be having hot sex? So, it's simulated and assumed, but it sure was close enough. There was lip to lip, tongue to tongue, breast grabbing, and of course, the ever popular orgasms. Faith groaned out loud. This was going to be the hardest thing ever.

  PART 7

  WHILE NERVOUSLY AWAITING the rumble of Reece's Harley, Faith jumped out of her skin when the phone rang. Not wanting to be on the phone when Reece came home, she let the machine pick up. Cori's stern voice did nothing for her anxiety.

  "Faith, I know you're there, and I won't hang up until you talk to me."

  The actress walked slowly to the phone while Cori hummed the theme from Jeopardy. "What is bad timing, Alex."

  Cori chuckled despite the seriousness of her call. "What exactly did you tell Reece about the script?"

  "Not enough. Shit, Cor, this is bad! There are things in this movie I love, but then there are things I don't exactly feel comfortable with."

  Cori's eyebrows went up. "Elaborate."

  "The story is great. Meredith is a fantastic character, but the sex is just short of the Playboy Channel."

  "Well, like I said, they wrote it for you. and if you like the rest, you probably have the clout to change the smut factor."

  Faith grimaced, at the word smut. "I hope, but in any case, I have to tell Reece and I'm expecting her any minute. I'm just about ready to have a panic attack!"

  "I just left her, she should be there any second, and the good news is she's in a pretty cool mood."

  Faith's eyes widened. "Really?"

  Cori screwed up her face. "Yeah, but then again, I don't know that there's any thing that could help break that kind of news to her. Good luck and if you need me, I'll be holding my cell in my hand all night."

  Faith grumbled. "Great, now I'm scared all over again!"

  "Aw hon, now you know she'll blow hard, but after hearing that you aren't comfortable with it, and are going to fix it she'll most likely mellow down a little bit."

  "Oh god I hope." The sound of the Harley driving up put Faith into full panic mode. "Cori! She's here!"

  "Relax! You're gonna be fine!"

  Reece walked in just as Faith hung up the phone and she went right over and kissed her wife. "Did you finish the script?"

  Faith watched silently as Reece went to the kitchen, grabbed a fork and opened the fridge. She pulled out a container of left-overs and began eating.

  "I'm starved." she said between mouthfuls.

  Faith, though nervous, decided it was now or never. "Reece, I need to tell you something and you're probably gonna want to put the food down."

  Reece quirked an eyebrow and stopped chewing. "What's this about?"

  "The script."

  The club owner shoved another forkful into her mouth. "What about it? Don't you like it?" she asked between chews.

  "Well..." Faith shifted her feet. "Yes and no."

  Reece, getting tired of the stalling, put the food on the table and stared at her wife. "What is it you don't like?"

  Faith swallowed hard. "The sex." she said, barely audible.

  Reece's eyebrow went up and she cocked her head. "The what?" she asked carefully.

  "The sex." Faith repeated, with a grimace.

  Reece's chest seemed to expand and she lifted her chin. "The sex." she repeated, her jaw clenching tight. "What sex?"

  Faith took stock of her extremely tense wife and thought for a moment how to reply. "My character, Meredith, has a love interest, Jesse, and they ... "

  The fork Reece was holding bent into itself and her nostrils flared. "Really." she said through her teeth. "Are we talking about a kiss... or what, Faith?"

  Her wife's barely controlled temper was just about to explode, and Faith couldn't answer this question without fireworks. "Um, naked sex. Reece there's no reason to fly off the handle..."

  Reece slammed the bent fork down and gripped the counter with both hands. "No reason to fly off the handle?" she shouted, "My wife is going to be naked on the big screen with another woman, having SEX and there's no reason for me to fly off the handle?"

  Faith winced, expecting it and seeing it were two different things. "Yeah, but Reece.."

  "NO, that's fine! I mean it's all in the name of acting right? How many times do you have sex?"

  "Three, but that's not the point..."

  Reece stormed around the kitchen waving her arms wildly. "THREE? Fuck, Faith, WE don't even have sex three times in two hours!"

  "If you just listen to me..."

  Reece interrupted Faith again with another tirade. "Wow! Fantastic! Super! This is wonderful! You're going to be fucking some other woman for entertainment! I'm thrilled!"

  "REECE! Let me finish one goddamned sentence!"

  All Reece could see in her minds eye was Faith naked on a huge screen having sex with a faceless woman. "NO, you let me finish! Is that what you really want to do? To me?" She banged on the counter with both fists.

  "Excuse me? To you?" Faith yelled.

  "What? You didn't think about me? How I would feel?" The club owner shook her head to lose the images. "Did you think I'd be fucking happy for you? Did you think I'd jump up and down? Yay! My wife is gonna have sex! Yay!"

  Although Reece jumping up and down and clapping was disturbing, Faith was really pissed. Reece wasn't allowing her a word in edgewise. "Would you just shut up a second and stop yelling?"

  "NO, cuz I can't do shit about it! Do you want me to sit here and say with a smile that I'm okay with this? That you are going to be naked in front of a crew of pigs, and some strange woman will be touching you and I'm supposed to stop yelling and smile? Someone else will be smelling your neck, tasting your lips and my stomach burns and my head hurts and I can't do anything about it because it’s your life and your movie?" Reece grabbed her stomach and turned away. "I have no say."

  Faith's eyes welled up. She walked to her wife and stood inches behind her, feeling the heat come off her body, not sure she should touch her. "Baby, I don't want to do it either. I don't want to make you sick."

  "Good then don't do the fucking movie."

  "Reece, you mean more to me than anything, but, I want to do this movie, it's..."

  Reece turned seething eyes to Faith. "Fine! Do the fucking movie!" she shouted, storming out of the kitchen.

  "Reece! Don't you dare leave! I'm not finished!" The door slammed and Faith screamed out of frustration. "YOU NEVER LET ME FINISH!" she yelled, throwing the mangled fork across the kitchen.

  Cori was already holding her cell phone in anticipation so when it rang she answered it in half a ring. "What happened?!" she practically yelled. Violet leaned close to hear the conversation.

  Faith, frustrated beyond belief, and relieved to hear Cori's voice, burst into tears.

  "Honey? Talk to me!" Hysterics was terribly un-Faith-like.

  Faith composed herself. "It was awful. She didn't eve
n care what I had to say, she just yelled and yelled."

  "Where is she now?" Cori asked, as Violet rubbed her back.

  "I have no idea, she slammed out a few minutes ago." Faith inspected the wall where the fork hit.

  "What did you manage to say to her?"

  "All I got out was that there was sex, that was the magic word. After that, she didn't care what I had to say. She didn't let me explain that I didn't want to do the sex either, all she heard was I liked the script and she freaked the hell out."

  Cori shook her head. "Oh man... I knew this was gonna happen."

  Violet leaned into the receiver and offered her opinion. "Maybe you should have started at the end first and worked your way to the middle?"

  "Guys, I had no idea we couldn't talk like humans. Sure, now that sounds great, but really... who knew she'd cut me off at the knees every time I started to talk?"

  Cori closed her eyes and sighed heavily. "She can't handle this. She can't handle the idea of you having sex, even if its fake, with someone else. My question is, what is she going to do about this?"

  "She said her stomach hurt, Cor. She thinks I WANT to do this, it must be killing her." Faith eyes welled up imagining what Reece was feeling. "Shit, Cor, I hurt her." Faith's voice cracked with tears.

  Cori sighed. "I'm coming over."

  "No, you have to work, I don't know what happened a minute ago, I'm not exactly the weepy type. I'm okay now. I promise. She'll cool off and I'll be able to talk to her later."

  "Faith, " Cori rolled her eyes, "Are you sure you want to be alone? I'll bring the alcohol."

  Faith smiled despite her mood. "Nah, really, I'm okay. Reece is in a bad enough mood as it is. If you don't show up for work, she'll freak out on you too."

  "Please. Pshaw. I can take her." She looked to Violet who's eyebrow Shot up in disbelief.

  "I swear I'm fine. You're the best, Cor. Now get yourself ready for work, you're going to be late. Love you too, Vi."

  Violet grabbed the phone. "Maybe I should come over? Huh? I'll bring Thelma and Louise and we can make it a family affair?"