The Tick Tock Diner Tales - Episode 3: Laura Finally Meets the Woman of Her Dreams

 Written by Ali Naro

Monday afternoon, July 11, 1955
Walking to the Tick Tock Diner with Debbie
(fictional) Arnett, Florida

Laura and Debbie walked downtown to the Tick Tock Diner since Debbie had to go back for the dinner shift. Debbie lived within walking distance of the restaurant so she usually walked to work instead of driving. Laura's new home was also walking distance away from Debbie's place and the diner, plus Laura had no car and no driver's license for that matter, having never been able to afford a car much less learn how to drive so she just walked everywhere whether it was walking distance or not.

On the rare occasions that Laura and Debbie did walk together in public, both of them did whatever they could to seem as least interested in each other as two people could possibly be. Laura had a couple of pockets on the front of her dress and she kept her hands in them during the entire walk so she wouldn't accidentally grab one of Debbie's hands and hold it while they were walking. She always put her hands in the pockets of her dresses when they walked in public together. Debbie did her own version of the same thing every time too, she always had one arm and hand occupied with keeping her purse on her shoulder and the other hand holding onto her cigarette while she smoked away on it at record speed then lighting up another one immediately as soon as she finished the last cigarette to keep both hands occupied always. Most times she would chew gum as well.

No chances were taken just in case even for a moment they forgot that they were no longer in the safety of Debbie’s home, because one slip of forgetfulness, one kiss, one intimate touch between them out in the real world, and that very real world could very well beat them or rape them or send them away to a mental hospital or even possibly kill them or just plain ole run them out of town with dirty looks and mean words and harsh accusations if anyone ever found out what their true relationship was.

Just a few hours ago they had walked the exact same way from the diner to Debbie’s house with at least a foot of space between them, Laura’s hands in the pockets of her dress, Debbie occupying her hands with her purse and cigarette, neither a word between them. But as soon as they had walked into Debbie's house and the door was closed, pausing for only a moment before they heard the click of the lock, then like a Pavlovian reaction, they immediately were in each other’s arms desperate for each other’s touch, desperate to just be themselves.

“I swear, I was going to catch up with you about your trip to St. Augustine before we got into this,” Debbie said as they slammed up against the closed front door, clawing at each other’s clothes, frantically trying to be rid of them. 

Debbie had been referencing a recurring conversation that she and Laura often had about how they always ended up having sex immediately upon entering her house. Debbie would sometimes tell Laura afterward that she had sworn that this time they would sit and talk and catch up first, maybe have a bite to eat or a drink at least before making love, but that never happened. They always ended up immediately in bed or on the couch or on the floor, although the floor was becoming less and less of a habit simply because their bodies were tired of the bruises and the pain that always followed a love-making session on the hard, unforgiving surface.

Debbie and Laura made it to the diner without a word spoken or a touch between them. Laura started to say goodbye since she needed to head back to that enormous house she now lived in to interview the new maid, but Debbie stopped her, actually daring to touch Laura’s wrist, grabbing it and pulling on Laura, asking her to walk with Debbie to the alley at the back of the diner, the alley where sometimes they would meet up for brief moments of physical contact when Jack was in town. There were a set of walls in the alley that made no sense being there other than being the perfect place to keep out prying eyes if you wanted to get physical with someone right there behind the diner without anyone ever seeing you.

Debbie pulled Laura into the corner of the walls and just stared at her for a moment before finally speaking,

“Look, I’m sorry about earlier. I’m sorry that I kept saying ‘fucking’ about our lovemaking. I’ve had a lot of experience with fucking and what we are doing is not that, not at all. You are always so sweet and attentive and loving when we are making love because we are making love. You wouldn’t know how to fuck someone if you tried because you actually give a shit about the person you’re with. Well, sometimes when we first see each other after weeks apart we are fucking because we’re just so desperate for each other, but still, it’s nothing like what I said. I kept saying we were only fucking on purpose because I know you hate it.”

“Why? Why would you say something to me that you know would hurt me?” Laura asked confused by Debbie's confession.

“Because I was mad at you about marrying Mark even though I told you to, and so I suddenly decided to convert into an immature, spoiled twelve-year-old and pick on you. And because I was too embarrassed to admit that the last three days you were gone, I spent every one of those nights getting drunk and crying myself to sleep thinking that I was going to lose you, about how lonely my life would be without you. And I couldn’t help but think about him, you know, your new husband...touching you. I’ve never had to share you before. I now understand what it’s like for you when Jack is home. It really is just awful being on that end of the relationship,” Debbie said as tears fell from her eyes.

“It’s certainly no picnic,” Laura replied, wiping away Debbie's tears with her fingers.

“I got jealous because I wanted to be him. I wanted to be the one spending three days in St. Augustine on a honeymoon with you. When I first saw you walk in the diner this morning, there was nothing more in this world that I wanted to do than to run to you and wrap my arms around you and tell you how much I missed you. But we can’t do that, we can never do that. So I did what I always do when I first see you after Jack goes away and we’re in public, I acted like it was no big deal. But it is a big deal seeing you, always, whether it’s been weeks or days or hell even hours. Did you know that the day you went out on your first date with Mark was exactly two years to the day that we made love for the first time?”

“Oh God, I had no idea…,” Laura said, upset with herself for not knowing the date or even thinking that such a date would be important enough to remember.

“See, me knowing little things like that and you being unaware of them are why I’m scared of losing you.”

Laura dried more of Debbie’s tears and then held Debbie for a few moments, but the whole time fearful someone would come into the alley and see them. Laura knew Debbie was worried about the same thing too because, despite the tears, she kept turning her head to make sure no one was there.

“You’re not going to lose me,” Laura said as she turned Debbie’s eyes away from the invisible person that wasn’t there watching.

“Oh, one day I will. One day you’ll find someone who is better suited for you than me.”

“Who? Who is this mystery woman that you keep randomly bringing up lately that I’m going to leave you for? Debbie, there’s no one else,” Laura said throwing her arms up in despair.

“It’s my own fault. It’s what I get for walking into this relationship with only the intention of getting laid, but instead, I got way more than I wanted or have a right to want. I just missed you so much and now I know how it’s going to feel when you leave me for good and then I’m going to have to sit down and make some hard decisions about my own life, decisions that I have spent far too long avoiding.”

“I’m back, Debbie, okay? I’m not going anywhere. I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?” Laura said as she looked into Debbie’s eyes, trying to convince her lover that she was worrying for nothing.

They both then looked around automatically once again to make sure no one was around and couldn’t suddenly see through walls, then kissed briefly, and then both automatically looked around one more time to make sure no one saw them, and then finally they parted.

Laura made her way back out to the street and began to walk to…she still couldn’t think of it as home, so she decided to start calling it, only in her head, of course, The Big House, because wasn’t her new home already beginning to feel like a jail?

As Laura walked she thought about her relationship with Debbie. She didn’t know where the endgame was for them. Debbie having a husband was grating on Laura's conscious more and more lately and Debbie didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave her husband, and even if she did, Laura wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue her affair with Debbie. And if she was being honest with herself, Laura was beginning to feel the spark she once had for Debbie slowly fading away. But the thought of being utterly alone scared her as well and so whenever the thought of ending their relationship would creep into her mind, Laura would quickly brush it away because being with Debbie was still better than being alone.

Laura did still enjoy Debbie’s company when she wasn’t mad at Laura for not loving her back. Their relationship had slowly grown into a friendship or at least a friendship of sorts. Debbie in many ways was the sister Laura never had and the mother Laura had always yearned for. Debbie always made time to teach Laura about life and sex and how the world really worked. Debbie and Laura could spend hours talking when they weren’t spending hours having sex, so why wasn’t she enough? Why wasn’t Debbie enough? She didn’t want Debbie gone from her life completely. She very much wanted Debbie to always be a part of her life, but maybe not as a lover. Then again if their relationship changed into just a friendship then Laura would no longer have access to Debbie’s wonderfully wonderful naked body and she couldn’t help but feel a bit selfish about not wanting to let go of that particularly wonderful pleasure just yet.

And then there was that whole marriage thing that Laura had going on with her life now. Shouldn’t she be planning a future with her husband and not what her future with and without Debbie would be like? But Debbie bluntly, as always, stated the obvious, Mark was gay just like Laura, just like Debbie, and doing what he has to do in order to survive in a world where people like them are not allowed to exist as anything more than a disease no one wants. Mark was not really Laura’s husband any more than she was really his wife. Legally, yes, but otherwise they had joined the great game of rouse. Look over here so you won’t look over there. Debbie had taught Laura all about the rouse and how to play the game, so Laura was thinking of herself as a fool for not picking up on Mark being a player of the game sooner.

Although,

She had.

Hadn’t she?

Didn’t Mark’s strange behavior and suspicious mannerisms that Laura had witnessed long before he had said two words to her make her wonder about Mark?

Make her wonder that something about him seemed awfully familiar.

Laura had heard some of the guys from the printing press make fun of Mark’s feminine voice and feminine mannerisms long before he asked Laura out on a date. And even though she didn’t like the insults they made about Mark, still, she would find herself agreeing with their observations that he had a feminine quality that made him suspicious.

And wasn’t her immediate thought upon seeing him for the first time that he was such a pretty and effeminate man that it was a pity he wasn’t a woman instead?

Laura then wondered how hard it was to get a divorce. She had an aunt who got divorced years ago and caused such a scandal that she was forced out of the family even though she divorced her husband because he was cheating on her. Divorce just wasn’t something people did unless they lived in Hollywood and Laura was a long, long way from Hollywood.

So, with no other options, Laura decided that for now, it was best to just keep things as they were; stay married to Mark and continue seeing Debbie.    

But then from around a corner, she came...

The woman Laura had been secretly admiring from afar ever since she moved into town a little more than two years ago. The very first day Laura was living in Arnett, she saw her and immediately fell in…

Infatuation?

In like?

It couldn’t be love because you can’t fall in love with someone you’ve never spoken to, right?

But Laura had fallen in love.

In an instant, she had fallen in love with someone she didn’t know, had never talked to, didn’t even know her name, and probably never would.

Some days when Laura was walking around town she would suddenly see her in the distance and it made everything in Laura’s life seem possible for a moment. Sometimes Laura would find herself walking around town with no other purpose but just hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Laura had no idea where the woman lived or where she worked or anything at all about her. Laura was too scared and shy to approach the beautiful woman, so she only ever admired the pretty lady from afar; that is if she were lucky enough to have caught sight of her.

A couple of years ago, soon after first spotting her, Laura had figured out that the older woman shopped for groceries every Saturday morning at 9:00a.m.; and so every Saturday at 9:00a.m., Laura would find herself hanging out around the grocery store.

For almost two years, everything in Laura’s life revolved around Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. It was the one thing in Laura’s life for a time that she looked forward to. It was the one thing in Laura’s life for a while that kept her going.

Saturdays at 9:00a.m.

Laura would find herself counting down the days and then counting down the hours and then counting down the minutes for Saturdays at 9:00a.m. Laura’s father had given Laura his pocket watch just before he died and she would carry it in her dress pocket and found that it was her lucky charm because it would tell her when it was 9:00a.m., and as 9:00a.m. got closer and closer, she would stare at Daddy’s watch, urging time to move just a little faster, please.

Laura found herself always unavailable on Saturday mornings to meet up with Debbie. Instead of spending her time making love to a beautiful woman, Laura would stand across the street from the grocery store and pretend to window shop at the radio/TV store just so she could catch a glimpse of her. Laura could see the reflections of people coming and going from the grocery store in the radio/TV shop’s window and so she would stare at the window waiting for the woman to enter the grocery store and then she would wait to catch a glimpse of the woman as she was leaving. It never took the woman more than ten or fifteen minutes to get the two bags of groceries she always came out with. Laura would only stare at her via the store shop window until she had passed her by, too shy and in awe of the woman to see her in the flesh. Laura would only turn to look at the real woman instead of her reflection once she had passed by and the woman’s back was to Laura, only then did it feel safe to see her in the flesh instead of as a reflection. Laura would follow the woman with her eyes until she turned onto a different street and walked away from her life until next Saturday at 9:00 a.m.

When Laura had to wait weeks at a time until Debbie was free because Jack was in town, Laura wouldn’t dream of Debbie, but of the older, mysterious woman instead. Without uttering a word to Laura, without even knowing of Laura’s existence, the older, mysterious woman had somehow made Laura’s life worth living.

But then a couple of months ago the pretty lady stopped showing up at the grocery store on Saturdays at 9:00a.m. Laura was crushed the first Saturday she never showed. Laura stood in front of the radio/TV store window for over an hour before the man who owned the store finally came outside to see if she wanted to buy a radio or television. Then the next Saturday came and still no sign of the woman. After a couple of more Saturdays, Laura finally gave up and she was still mourning this loss in her life.

Laura had worried that maybe the pretty lady had moved away and she would never get to see her again. Laura didn’t know why, but she always had a feeling, a fear that the woman was going to move away and Laura would never see her again. But here Laura was finally seeing the older, mysterious woman for the first time in two months and Laura’s heart leapt. The older, mysterious woman hadn’t moved away after all, at least not yet.

The pretty lady was walking away from Laura, a purse in her hand, a simple blue dress on, and simple black shoes. Laura was never sure what it was about the woman that had first caught her eye and continued to over two years later.

A strength she had.

A sadness she always wore.

A beauty she possessed.

It was all of these things, yet it was so much more.

Debbie was currently worried that Laura would leave her one day for someone else, yet Debbie had no idea that Laura had found someone else before she had even met Debbie. But Laura didn’t and probably never would have the courage to do anything about it.

How could she?

The older, mysterious woman Laura had fallen in love with at first sight over two years ago and continued to love from afar was black.

If two women being together was nearly impossible, then two women from different races was definitely in the category of never.

Laura was curious enough to contemplate following the woman to see where she was going, afraid she might never see her again now that she didn’t know what the woman’s grocery shopping schedule was, but the great clock on top of the bank was chiming the hour. It was 4:00 p.m. and Laura was going to be late if she didn’t get going right now and so she ran in the opposite direction of the woman hoping her legs would be able to move fast enough to get to The Big House on time for her meeting with the new maid.

Laura ran down the street as fast as she could, turning the corner down the long driveway of The Big House too sharply, causing her to trip and skid her right knee across the hard path. Laura stopped for a moment to assess the damage to her knee. She was pretty sure if she didn’t have to wear stupid dresses she wouldn’t have fallen. Why couldn’t she wear pants instead? Kathrine Hepburn wore pants and Laura had long been suspicious that she had more in common with Kathrine Hepburn than the movie star let on or as Debbie once told her thanks to her costume designer friend in Hollywood who worked on a couple of Kate’s movies,

“That bitch is queerer than a three-dollar bill.”

Most of the skin on Laura’s knee was gone and blood was already rising to the surface as her brain began to catch up to the fact that her knee was in tremendous pain, but she couldn’t stop now, she was officially late for the meeting, so she ignored the injury and got up and went right on running, slamming through the front door. She suddenly came to a halt when she got inside, her breath so loud she couldn’t hear anything else for a moment. It was two minutes past four, but no sign of the maid. Maybe she was late too then? Laura looked out the window next to the front door, but there was no sign of a woman walking up the driveway.

There was, however, a slight noise that Laura could barely make out coming from somewhere else in the house.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Went the noise.

Or was it a knock?

Laura opened the front door to see if the new maid was indeed there, but just knocking quietly.

Nope.

No woman.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

There it was again.

It was a little louder now, so Laura began to move toward the noise.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The noise continued.

Laura hobbled through several rooms totally lost once again in The Big House, trying to ignore her throbbing knee and the blood she could feel dripping down her leg and soaking through her sock, trying not to get frustrated and cursing silently that no one should have a house so big that they can get lost in it.

Finally, Laura found her way back to the living room, and then after getting lost a couple of more times, she found the kitchen where she was sure the noise was coming from, so she looked around for a few moments until she saw a door at the back of the kitchen. The door had a few window panes at the top of it and she could see through the window panes that someone was moving just outside the door.

Laura hadn’t noticed the door at the end of the kitchen before, so she was surprised to see that the kitchen even had a backdoor. Then again she had been in the kitchen only once before and that was just this morning when she was trying to find something for breakfast only to discover that the enormous kitchen, which was bigger than any house or cramped one-room apartment for that matter that Laura had ever lived in before, only had molded cheese and a few slices of molded bread, so what exactly was the point of all this ridiculous largeness if the giant kitchen had less food in it than the cramped one-room apartment that she had just recently spent the last couple of years living in.

At least the grand kitchen’s lack of food had given Laura the excuse she needed to go to the diner this morning to see Debbie. Laura had been contemplating seeing Debbie since the moment she got back from her honeymoon, but once she had assessed the breakfast situation this morning it was all the excuse she needed to go to the diner to see her lover, knowing that when she saw Debbie that she was never going to be able to resist sleeping with her even if that meant she would now be committing the sin of adultery too.

But she had to have breakfast, right?

And if Debbie just so happened to be working at the diner as well then…that wasn’t so wrong to seek her out just a day back in town after getting married, right? It wasn’t like she had showed up at the diner on the exact same day she had come back to town from her honeymoon. She had waited almost an entire 24 hours before seeing Debbie.

Maybe that was why Laura had felt so defensive when Debbie said she was surprised Laura had gotten back into bed with her because Laura had been lying to herself and Debbie when she said that she had no plans to stop seeing her. But she did, way in the back of her head, when she had all of that time alone during her honeymoon to think, she had begun planning how to leave the relationship.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Went the noise loud and clear this time, waking Laura from her daydreaming mode. 

When Laura looked through the window panes at the top of the kitchen door, she could only see the top of the person’s head, but she realized immediately that it was indeed the maid at the backdoor.

But why would she come to the backdoor instead of using the front…oh…wait…

Laura suddenly remembered one of those rules that blacks and whites had with each other, but no one ever really talked about unless someone broke the rules. There were so many of these ridiculous rules that Laura would try her best to stay on top of them, but most of these rules seemed so nonsensical that she would often have a hard time grasping the whole point of them and then would somehow lose track of them.

Until she had moved into town a couple of years ago, Laura had never really needed to know the rules anyway because she was just rarely ever around black people. She had lived on her parents’ farm out in the middle of nowhere so she wasn’t around black people very often. Once a month when they went into Arnett to get supplies or during harvest time when the sharecroppers would come to the farm were the only times she ever saw or was around black people. Daddy could usually only afford to hire three or four sharecroppers when it was time to pick the potatoes and cabbage for harvest and they were always black and usually always male, but sometimes a woman would be hired as well. Laura found herself fascinated by these people, especially the women. Since she could remember, she was always hearing all kinds of awful things about these people, but only to discover when she spent any time with them that most of what she had heard, if even any of it, wasn’t actually true.

Spending time with them really meant that Laura mostly just looked at them from afar, watching, waiting. Mamma had told Laura to be cautious of them and so that is what Laura did at first, she kept a cautious distance, waiting for all of these awful things that she was told that these people did to happen. But all of that waiting was for nothing because all she ever saw was people who worked just as hard as her and Mamma and Daddy did to get the potatoes and cabbage picked. They were always overly polite, even weary it seemed of Daddy and Mamma and even her.

Why would they be wary of me? Laura would wonder. I’m just a poor girl trying to survive in this harsh world, just like them.

And wasn’t it she who was supposed to weary of them? That’s what Mamma was always telling her.

When Laura got a little older and a little more confident, she did try talking to some of the sharecroppers when they were out in the field together. But they would barely mutter a “yes, ma’am” or a “no, ma’am” to her and they seemed so uncomfortable and scared of saying just those two simple things that Laura decided maybe it was best to just leave them alone because she was only making a bad situation worse, although she didn’t really understand why.

Laura could only see the top of the woman’s head as she looked through the panes of glass at the top of the back door, but she could tell that the woman knocking on the other side of it was black, and so it finally started to make sense why the woman interviewing to be a maid was at the back door and not the front door. It was one of those ridiculous rules that Laura had forgotten about. Black people were never allowed to enter the front door of a white person’s house. If they were allowed to enter the house at all; it was always at the backdoor.

Laura hadn’t even thought about the maid being black, basically because Laura didn’t think about the new maid at all other than she didn’t want one. But as Laura began to open the door, her heart suddenly began to beat rather fast and loud. Laura thought at first it was because she was nervous, maybe from all of the rules she had forgotten? But when she opened the door and began to let the woman inside, Laura suddenly understood that her heart had known before she did who was on the other side of it.

“Oh God,” Laura thought the moment her eyes realized that the woman on the other side of the backdoor of the kitchen was the older, mysterious woman she had spent the last couple of years secretly watching from afar.

It took Laura a few seconds to wake up from her dream and open the door all the way to let the woman inside.

“Hello ma’am,” the pretty lady said as she stepped into the kitchen, “I’m here to interview for the position of maid and cook. Mr. Downing sent me and…Oh my, ma’am, are you okay? Your leg is covered in blood.”

Just then Laura suddenly realized that she was in tremendous pain. She had been so caught up in finding the thumping noise and being late for her meeting with the new maid that she had completely forgotten she had blood dripping down her leg and into her sock and shoe.

Oh, God!

Oh, God!

Oh, God!

How embarrassing!

How awful!

Why of all people did it have to be the pretty lady who was on the other side of that stupid, stupid door?!

Here Laura was finally meeting the woman of her dreams and she was covered in blood from being so clumsy.

“Please ma’am, sit down in this chair,” The pretty lady said, pulling a chair out from the kitchen table as she put down her purse and took off her hat.

The pretty lady then took a kitchen towel and wet it with the water from the kitchen sink before she bent down in front of Laura and began gently wiping away the blood. Laura just sat there watching the pretty lady, amazed and confounded that she was touching Laura; that she was taking care of Laura’s clumsy wound.

Once the wound and the rest of Laura’s leg and foot were cleaned, the pretty lady took another dish towel and ripped it into strips to make a bandage that she then wrapped around Laura’s knee to help stop the bleeding.

Laura’s knee was perfectly cleaned and bandaged in a matter of just a few minutes as if the pretty lady was meant to be a nurse or a doctor and not a maid and a cook.

The pretty lady then handed Laura one of the strips from the ripped-up dish towel that she didn’t use as a bandage so Laura could dry her eyes because she had started crying the moment the pretty lady began to nurse Laura’s wound.

How many different ways had Laura fantasized about meeting the pretty lady? So many scenarios she had come up with while lying in bed at night waiting, waiting, always waiting for sleep. Laura had thought of so many ways of meeting the pretty lady. From movie-worthy introductions to just mundane everyday ways of meeting her, Laura had thought of them all –

 Saving the pretty lady from a speeding car just in the nick of time as she tried to cross the street;

Offering to help her carry the groceries;

Accidentally bumping into the pretty lady and then somehow being able to strike up a conversation with her.

But never had she come up with the scenario of not being able to figure out where the woman was, but then greeting her with a knee gushing blood.

And then, why oh why did she offer to shake hands hello with the pretty lady after she was done bandaging her knee and Laura didn’t know what to say but to introduce herself?!

Oh, God!

Even that stupid rule Laura knew about because that was one of the nonsensical rules that people actually never shut up about because there were signs everywhere that said, “Whites only” from water fountains to public restrooms to the public library. Laura knew all about being separated physically from the other race, yet what does she do when she finally meets the pretty lady who is black? She puts out her hand as a giant offer of touch me, touch me!!

Well, didn’t Laura want the pretty lady to touch her?

Oh God, yes she did.

But it was such an automatic response to put out her hand when meeting someone for the first time. She was just doing what she had been taught. Mamma was a stickler for manners and this was one of those manner situations Mamma was always teaching, when you meet someone you tell them hello and your name and you shake their hand. Ugh! Why did Mamma have to teach her that?! She had barely taught her anything about life, but this she teaches me, Laura thought, completely frustrated once again at her mother’s serious lack of parenting skills.

And to make matters worse, greeting the pretty lady with a giant slab of skin missing from her knee and a gallon of blood that went with the skin, covering the lower half of her right leg because that was certainly the perfect way to meet such a perfectly beautiful woman.

And then what does Laura do as soon as the pretty lady begins to clean up her leg? She cries. Oh yes, that was brilliant. Just cry and bleed in front of the pretty lady. That’ll make her hot for you, Laura thought in anguish. Laura just wanted to dig a hole, curl up in a ball in it, bury herself, and die already.

Laura didn’t mean to cry and certainly not so much. It was just all too much. Lately, things had just been too much. Her whole life had felt like too much. Daddy and the way that he died…and then getting married to someone she didn’t know and didn’t love, and then coming home finally to Debbie only to get her jealous anger…it had all been too much and Laura had finally hit a wall when she had gotten back to The Big House and everything had gone so wrong.

But hadn’t the pretty lady been brilliant? Hadn’t she been just as wonderful, if not more so in person as Laura had imagined the last two years in her head? The pretty lady actually took the time to take care of Laura’s embarrassing wound. And in a way, wasn’t that better than any scenario Laura had ever thought up over the last couple of insomniac years’ worth of nights. The pretty lady saved her, just like in romance novels, except it’s usually the handsome man who saves the injured girl, but still, it wasn’t like Laura was ever going to find a book about a romance between two women, but if such books were written then no one could have made up a better saving the damsel in distress scenario like that.

Laura had been so embarrassed though when the pretty lady lifted up Laura’s dress a bit to clean and bandage the injury. She was embarrassed because she had rather enjoyed that part of the saving. The pretty lady’s hands had felt so soft and warm on Laura’s leg and she couldn’t help but wonder, despite all the pain and embarrassment, what one of those hands would feel like if they had continued to move higher and higher up her leg until they had reached…

But the pretty lady couldn’t even shake Laura’s hand without disapproving stares. If they couldn’t even do that, then what was the point of wishing or hoping or praying endlessly for something to happen that never will, never can, never unfortunately must…

After the mending of the wound was done and the pretty lady had cleaned up the mess and put everything away, she had come back into the kitchen and sat down next to Laura and then asked her something Laura had only dreamed about before,

“So, what would you like to know about me?”

Laura had been so embarrassed and flabbergasted and overwhelmed by all of it, she forgot completely that she was supposed to interview the pretty lady. That is what all of that stress of getting back on time and running around getting lost in The Big House, falling and scraping every last bit of skin off her knee had been about.

But because of all of that she had completely forgotten about the interview, so she answered instinctually without thinking, just saying the very first words that came to Laura, and embarrassingly what true words they were,

“Oh, everything,” Laura had said, the words coming out like a long sigh.

Laura did want to know everything, anything, all things about the pretty lady. But that was not the question the pretty lady had asked and then she had to remind Laura of that.

“I meant about the job. Would you like to know my qualifications and experience?”

Oh, God. Had she known? Had the pretty lady known that Laura was so smitten with her that she just blurted out that she wanted to know everything about her because she was in love with her? Oh God, please don’t let the pretty lady have figured that out. Laura prayed to God to please let the pretty lady think instead that Laura was a dimwit because of all the blood she had lost, not because she was in love with her.

But despite all the bad, embarrassing things that had happened, Laura finally at least had one answer to a question she had been asking herself for over two years – what was the pretty lady’s name?

Kathy.

Her name was Kathy and to Laura, it was the most beautiful name in the whole wide wonderful world.

The End...

For now...

Although, I have no idea when or if I will ever be able to finish this series. I got no time now that I'm a mom, which is the best reason ever not to finish a short story series.

The Tick Tock Diner Tales - Episode 2: Laura Commits Adultery Just Four Days Into Her Marriage

 Written by Ali Naro

Monday afternoon, July 11, 1955
In bed with Debbie at Debbie's home
(fictional) Arnett, Florida

Laura was so close and she knew that Debbie knew it, but what Laura didn’t quite know for sure was if Debbie would let her cum now or would she stop kissing her other lips and stop sucking on her clitoris and stop slipping her tongue in and out of her at the very last minute to prolong the pleasure and in a sense the pain as well.

Teasing was a large part of the game that Laura and Debbie played while making love, and although Laura usually enjoyed that particular part of the game, at the moment she just wanted to cum already. It had been several days since she had been this close to an orgasm, and her soul, even more than her body was crying out for it.

The three-day honeymoon had been anything but that. Laura had spent most of those three days alone in the hotel room while Mark was off…well she never knew where he had spent his days during their honeymoon because he had never told her. He left first thing every morning and didn’t return again until late every night. He would then immediately lie down on the couch in their honeymoon suite upon his return and go to sleep. Laura had been confused, scared, and lonely the entire three days. Mark barely said more than “hello” or “goodbye” to her. She didn’t even leave the hotel room because she wasn’t sure what exactly she should be doing.

Waiting for her husband?

Going off on her own like he did all day long?

She had never been in a hotel before, much less one so large and fancy. She didn’t know the rules. She didn’t know the etiquette and so was afraid of doing something wrong. And she didn't know St. Augustine at all having never been there before, so she just stayed in her room and read Gone with the Wind all day long and well into the night. She had purchased the Pulitzer Prize novel at the used bookstore in Arnett a few days before the elopement and so had only just started reading it when her honeymoon that wasn't began, but she was already hooked just a few chapters into it so she saw the honeymoon that wasn't as the perfect opportunity to lose herself in the book that she couldn't seem to put down because it was so damn good.

Laura ended up finishing the over 1,000-page novel by the time the three days of her honeymoon that wasn't was over. She thought it was the best book that she had ever read and was so upset that she couldn't go to the theater to watch the movie because the Oscar-winning film had come out some 15 years before and so was no longer playing at any theater anywhere anymore. She had seen the film when she was four years old when the movie had first premiered, but that had been so long ago and she had been so little that the only thing she could remember about the film was that she liked it very much, especially the character Mammy who she couldn't help but wish had been her mom because Laura never had a mother who loved her.

At least the honeymoon that wasn't was finally over and she was finally back in Debbie’s bed, and even though they constantly had to be separated for weeks at a time when Jack was home, Laura had never missed Debbie’s bed or Debbie’s body so much before. 

And now finally she was a second from being right there and Debbie knowing Laura’s body so well and Laura knowing Debbie’s teasing ways so well, she was more frustrated than surprised when Debbie pulled away from Laura’s other lips and began kissing her stomach instead, Debbie’s breath the only thing now grazing Laura’s throbbing, yearning, swollen other lips.

“I love kissing your lips…,” Laura suddenly remembered Debbie saying to her that very first day they had made love...

They had only made it as far as the kitchen table that day when Debbie had spoken those memorable words to Laura. Laura had managed to get off of the living room floor first and was resting against the kitchen table trying to rub out the pain in her knees from the hardwood floors, but always keeping her eyes on Debbie simply because she couldn’t bear to take them off of her gorgeous naked form. Debbie, who was beyond beautiful in all of her naked glory was slowly making her way from the floor to Laura who couldn’t stop wondering how she had not only gotten so lucky to be looking at this gorgeous naked woman in the flesh, but she had also just made love with this amazing woman as well. 

When Debbie had finally been able to get up off the very hard hardwood floor, she walked over to Laura, grabbed her face, and began kissing her with a passion Laura had never known before, and soon she was matching that passion, her body crying out for more. But Debbie suddenly stopped the kisses and looked at Laura and asked her,

“You didn’t really get a chance to cum much, if at all, did you, honey?”

Laura had been shocked and embarrassed by Debbie’s bluntness. She had never heard anyone talk about sex so matter-of-factly before. Laura struggled for a few moments as she tried to admit that she had never really experienced an orgasm before, even while they had been making love on the floor, but she never could get the thought to come out in words, so eventually she shyly just shook her head no.

“Too busy making sure I came…and came…and came some more?” Debbie asked as she repeatedly kissed Laura.

“You just seemed…so…so…,” Laura began, but she was still too shy and shocked by the frank and casual way Debbie spoke about sex to complete the thought.

“Desperate? God, I was,” Debbie laughed, completing Laura's thought herself, “It’s been years since I’ve cum like that…,” Debbie then paused for a moment, staring off into space and Laura swore the look on her face made it seem like Debbie was thinking through all of the moments in her life when she had had sex, and then suddenly Debbie said to herself, “If ever, actually…,” and then continued to stare off into space a few moments longer until suddenly she turned back to Laura and began devouring her lips again, telling her between the kisses,

“Selfless lovers like you are so rare…Now it’s my turn to make you cum….and cum…again…and again...”

And the next thing Laura knew, Debbie had Laura sprawled out on the edge of the kitchen table arranging Laura’s body with the skill of someone who had done such a thing many times before and Laura would later learn that Debbie’s expertise in all things sex was quite extensive.

Debbie took one of Laura’s long, thin legs and placed it on one of the chairs for the kitchen table while Debbie placed Laura’s other leg over Debbie's shoulder then suddenly there was Debbie on her knees sucking and licking and kissing Laura to the most explosive climax she had ever had at that point in her life before.

It had felt so good. Laura had wondered during the entire experience, was it supposed to feel that good? Maybe it was bad feeling that good? It had felt good the few occasions she experimented with her own body, but never ever, oh God, never that good. Laura’s brain had gone on with the contemplation until the next orgasm came and then the next one and then she lost count because the orgasms just wouldn’t stop until Debbie stopped kissing Laura’s other lips because she had realized even before Laura that Laura couldn’t exactly breathe anymore.

Afterward, Debbie had Laura sit on the same chair she had just used as leverage because Laura found that she couldn’t stop shaking, the ripples and aftershocks of the orgasms kept attacking her body as if Debbie were still pleasuring her even though Debbie was in the kitchen getting Laura a glass of water.

“It wasn’t like that when you fiddled with yourself, was it, darling?” Debbie had asked as she handed Laura the glass of water. Laura shook her head no to Debbie’s question as she engulfed the water. “What a shame you never knew that sex could feel that good before.”

“What, that it could kill me?” Laura said taking a quick break from engulfing her water before she returned to it. Normally, she had a hard time sweating, but there she was soaked in sweat and now all her body wanted to do was get all of that water that it wasn’t used to losing back.

“Well, lesbian sex is definitely not for the faint of heart, sweetie.”

Laura had wanted to tell Debbie that she had never experienced such ecstasy before, but she was too busy hungrily downing the water to speak when Debbie, still stark naked, as was Laura, suddenly straddled Laura’s right leg as she still sat on the chair. Laura immediately stopped drinking the water even though the glass stayed fixed to her lips as her eyes became glued to Debbie. Debbie sat for a moment, staring at Laura, probably waiting for Laura to finish the water, Laura realized later, but when Laura continued to stay motionless and only stared back at Debbie even as the glass was still attached to Laura’s lips, Debbie calmly took the glass from Laura while still straddling her leg and put it on the kitchen table and then turned her attention back to Laura.

“The thing about two women making love is that we have no limp cock to wait on. When women first cum, that’s only just the beginning for us and you’ll soon discover that once you cum that first time, you’re going to want to keep on cumming until you can’t breathe anymore, and right now, sweetie, you’re still breathing and so am I.”

Debbie had then began to rub herself against Laura’s leg as she took Laura’s left hand and placed it on her back, pushing it firmly against her skin and whispering,

“Make sure I don’t fall.”

Then Debbie took Laura’s other hand and began sucking on her index and middle finger all the while her movements against Laura’s leg never stopped, never slowed while Laura continued her imitation of a statue, staying static except when Debbie moved her, Laura's eyes never once leaving Debbie’s gloriously naked form. And the next thing Laura knew, Debbie had guided Laura’s fingers inside of her, stopping her rhythmic movements for only a moment before returning to the same slow, methodic motion, but instead of moving her clitoris against Laura's leg, she was now moving her body to rub herself against Laura's fingers inside of her. 

And still, Laura just sat there not moving, barely breathing, only staring. All she could do was watch in wonder and awe at this beautiful woman, still trying to figure out if this was real or a dream until Debbie woke Laura with the words,

“Are you just gonna sit there all day and have me do all the work?”

And with that something awoke in Laura and she decided to become a full-fledged participant in what was proving to definitely not be a dream. Laura slowly dug her fingers deeper into Debbie who immediately responded to the touch as Laura slid her fingers slowly…slowly…slowly…up and down…up and down…up and down…deeper…deeper… deeper…inside of Debbie trying to find that one spot that Debbie had seemed to love so much while they were on the floor earlier…Debbie had let out a cry as she rocked against Laura’s fingers while Laura continued to slide them slowly…slowly…slowly…up and down…up and down…until…

Afterward, Debbie had whispered between kisses in her low, husky voice that always sent chills through Laura,

“I love kissing your lips…and I don’t just mean just the ones on your mouth…I love the way your other lips taste…I love the way your other lips smell…I love kissing the lips on your face after I have made your other lips cum…I love tasting your mouth while I still have the taste of you in my mouth…God, I love eating from the honey pot and yours is the most exquisite one that I’ve ever had the pleasure of dining on.”

Laura had thought it quite shocking and quite wonderful when Debbie talked to her like that. Debbie seemed to be a master at seductive talk; talk that Laura found even more gloriously sexy than seeing Debbie’s gloriously beautiful naked body.

Laura had been so fascinated that first day they had made love by Debbie's bold, loud, anything goes lovemaking. Laura had found a freedom in making love so boldly and loudly and unabashedly. Laura didn't know she had such an animal within her, but once she was with Debbie that first time, Laura began to discover that she had intense carnal needs and Debbie knew just the buttons to push to awaken those animalistic desires.

As Laura lay in her own bed later that night after she and Debbie had made love for the first, second, countless times that day, Laura relived the events of the day in her head as she waited for sleep that rarely ever came for her anymore.

She couldn’t believe how many times she had said God’s name, Debbie’s name, Jesus’ name, and all in the cries of pleasure and passion. The grunts and moans and demands for right here or right there and please don’t stop that had come from her completely shocked and even embarrassed Laura. She even worried about seeing Debbie the next day like they had planned.

What would Debbie think of her?

Was Debbie now recalling the day too and thinking that Laura had gone too far?

But then Laura remembered how far Debbie had gone, even further than Laura and she had even more moments of crying out God and Jesus and Laura’s name, she had moaned and groaned and grunted even louder, even longer, she had made much more demands of right here or right there and please don’t stop.

If Laura couldn’t get enough of Debbie, then Debbie certainly couldn’t get enough of Laura, so maybe there was no need for embarrassment and regret because Debbie seemed just as desperate and hungry for another woman as Laura was. Debbie had told Laura as they hungrily kissed on the couch before they had torn off each other’s clothes and wound up on the living room floor to make love for the very first time that it had been over 5 years since the last time she was with a woman.

“Oh God, I forgot how much I absolutely love being with women. Their soft skin. Their curves. Their full breasts,” Debbie’s throaty voice whispered into Laura’s ear causing a tsunami of shivers to attack Laura's skin and Laura to suddenly need her and Debbie’s clothes off - NOW!

And later that same day when they were up against the hallway wall, Laura rubbing Debbie with her right index and middle finger as she stood behind Debbie while grinding her own pleasure center against Debbie’s left butt cheek, something she had no idea could even be done by two women while making love until suddenly she was instinctly doing it. 

They had finally been on their way from the kitchen to the bedroom with the goal being the comfortable bed to make love when Laura surprised herself and Debbie with her impatience and suddenly pushed Debbie up against the hallway wall; Laura biting at Debbie’s ear, running her tongue across the back of Debbie’s neck and then reaching around to touch Debbie’s other lips with her fingers. And then she quickly discovered the joys of rubbing her own other lips against Debbie’s butt cheek. The gnawing and biting of Debbie’s ear and neck continued as Laura’s hand began to move faster against Debbie’s other lips and Laura’s hips moved faster against Debbie’s bottom.

Laura’s rubbing and grinding became more and more aggressive as they both grunted and moaned, sweat pouring from them and making their naked skin slip and slide against each other, and then Debbie suddenly cried to Laura that she was cumming and Laura cried back that, oh God, she was too, and then quite suddenly they did at the same moment, same second, both leaving the planet at the same time, flying up to touch the heavens and then coming back to Earth again. 

And then as they heaved and gulped for breath while holding onto each other for dear life, Debbie told Laura that no woman or man had ever made her cum so hard before. She then took Laura’s hand and escorted her finally into the bedroom, falling onto the bed and continuing to make love until the sunset and it was time for Laura to go home...

As wonderful as those memories of Laura’s newfound freedom to lovemaking were the very first day she and Debbie had made love, Laura tore herself away from the addictive memories because she really needed to get Debbie back to this current session of their lovemaking...

Laura could feel her body getting beyond the painful point of yearning and her breath became quick and desperate for Debbie’s lips on her other lips, Laura's hips moving on their own accord, searching instinctively for Debbie’s mouth to return to her other lips, but Debbie would not budge. Laura desperately needed Debbie to stop the teasing, stop the taunting, and stop pretending that she suddenly found Laura’s stomach so fascinating and to just get back to those other lips of Laura's that Debbie said she loved kissing so much.

But Laura knew what she had to do to get Debbie back to the mission at hand. Debbie loved when Laura begged while they were in bed and Laura had to admit to herself that she quite liked begging herself and so realizing that it wasn’t just Debbie’s game of teasing, but her own game of teasing also, so Laura decided to do what Debbie had wanted all along and Laura did as well.

“Please, Mama...” Laura said, lifting her head off the bed and grabbing Debbie’s face with her hands, forcing her to stop paying attention to Laura’s stomach and instead look at her lover, “it’s been so long for your baby since she last came…I can’t…wait any longer...I need you to make me cum…Please, Mama, please...make your baby cum...”

The nicknames that Debbie had come up with for herself and Laura were only ever used while having sex. These nicknames always turned Debbie on and her dilated pupils in that moment gave her an air of being a conqueror. And Debbie was a conqueror of Laura’s body. Every single time they were together, Debbie conquered Laura’s body and then some. 

Debbie didn't abide to Laura's begging at first and instead had returned to kissing Laura’s stomach, so Laura lifted Debbie’s head once again, looking directly in her lustful eyes so she could convey to her that the game of teasing had reached its absolute peak and it was now time to take the game to its ultimate conclusion.

“Please…Mamma…make your baby cum now...,” Laura begged.

Laura knew it was only a matter of seconds now, but seconds that felt like wonderfully painfully pleasurable years…decades…centuries…

Debbie gave Laura a wicked grin and a wink and then just like that Debbie complied and within seconds Laura’s body was shattered into a million pieces from the violently pleasurable climactic conclusions that seemed to last forever.

As Laura tried to catch her breath, Debbie moved her kisses up Laura’s body, her lips grazing Laura’s stomach, moving up to Laura’s breasts and circling her tongue around Laura’s nipples, sucking and pulling on them long enough for Laura to cum once more before Debbie continued her journey upward until she found Laura’s mouth, her tongue seeking out Laura’s until she caught it and began sucking on it.

They could lie in bed just kissing forever...

Kissing…

Kissing….

Kissing…

Tongues circling, lips consuming, passions rising…

Bodies pressing closer…

Closer…

Closer…

Laura could taste herself on Debbie’s lips, mouth, and tongue, and it always surprised her how passionately her body responded to her own taste as it mingled in Debbie’s mouth, as it became a part of Debbie’s taste.

Shivers of pleasure consumed Laura’s body and the kissing became more and more intense. Laura lifted her leg slightly as Debbie straddled it and began to rub herself back and forth on it as their breaths grew louder and louder and their kisses became more hungry, more desperate.

Debbie then took Laura’s right index and middle finger and placed them in her mouth, sucking on them for a few moments to make them as wet as possible before taking them out and began guiding them to her own throbbing other lips below, but just a moment away from Laura’s fingers touching Debbie’s throbbing core, Laura stiffened her arm and wouldn’t allow Debbie to move it any further, giving Debbie a teasing look that basically said without the need for actual words,

“Oh, I had to wait to cum, but you don’t?”

They were always playing this teasing game and Debbie knew exactly what she needed to do to get Laura to do her bidding, so she looked right into Laura’s eyes, lowered her voice an octave and gave it a hoarseness that she knew would set Laura’s body on fire and whispered,

“Please, I need you to fuck me.”

Laura hungrily obliged, releasing her arm so Debbie could guide Laura’s fingers to Debbie’s other lips, letting go just as Laura’s fingers reached the outside of her opening. Laura delayed her fingers from reaching inside, holding onto the pleasure of teasing Debbie for a moment, allowing Debbie’s own ravenous core to hungrily reach out for Laura’s fingers, trying to pull them in until Laura finally allowed her fingers to slowly slip inside.

Laura absolutely loved being inside a woman. She found that she impatiently longed for that feeling just before it happened and always when it had been too long and basically every other moment in-between her life since the first time she had ever been inside of Debbie and realized that it was probably the most amazing experience she had ever have in her whole life, and every single time since that first time, it still continued to be.

Laura had discovered that it was a crime that women had been sold the bill of goods that they had to be ashamed of their sexual desires and constantly guard and maintain their virtue at all costs because if they only knew what sexual power they really had because, my God, women had such beautiful, hungry sexual cores that would throb and convulse and then collapse around her fingers, wanting her over and over again and Laura took in every moment whenever she was inside of Debbie wanting to remember every throb, every convulsion, and every orgasm as if it were food that fed her soul.

Debbie immediately had an orgasm, Laura’s fingers barely making it inside of Debbie before her body responded, but Laura knew that sudden reaction was only the beginning because orgasms came easily and often for Debbie and the first one only ever got her warmed up for the many more climaxes they knew she would soon have, needed to have. Debbie began to rock back and forth on Laura’s fingers as Laura maneuvered them to Debbie’s favorite spots applying pressure with one finger here, while teasing with the other finger there, causing Debbie to orgasm again and again and again, the fluid first dripping from Debbie, but then pouring out of her, soaking Laura’s hand and arm and stomach and the sheets and the bed.

But with every orgasm Debbie had, at the last minute, like always, Laura found herself closing her eyes or looking away from Debbie, like what was happening to her lover was too intimate, too private for Laura to be privy to such a personal moment. But Laura brushed off the reason why she did this, like she always did, with promises of thinking about why later, although she knew, like always, she wouldn’t.

“God, how do you always know what my body wants even before I do?” Debbie asked after one particularly intense orgasm before she went back for more.

Then suddenly after Debbie had yet another orgasm, she stopped her movements, but Laura’s fingers stayed inside of her, waiting for Debbie’s command to either quit or keep going. Debbie and Laura stayed exactly where they were, frozen except for their exacerbated breathing, but once Debbie caught her breath, she moved her thigh so it reached in-between Laura’s legs and then leaned down and kissed Laura before whispering,

“I want you to cum with me.”

Laura said nothing but instead began moving her fingers inside of Debbie at the same time that she began to slide herself up and down Debbie’s slippery leg. Faster and faster their movements became, holding onto each other tighter and tighter, Debbie’s grunting and moaning becoming more and more intense, drowning out Laura’s quieter vocal cries of pleasure. Faster and faster their bodies moved until suddenly they both came together, but they never stopped, they just kept going through the orgasm, knowing their bodies were not ready to quit just yet.

Then this sudden visceral need they always had for each other’s bodies took over all thought and emotion and Laura could no longer tell where her body ended and Debbie’s began, she could no longer tell when the orgasm was hers or Debbie’s, they felt like one body devouring the pleasure that came again and again until their bodies finally gave in, their breathing becoming too labored, their bodies beyond exhaustion and so with one final orgasm together, they stopped.

They held onto each other for a few moments, trying to catch their breath as they kissed each other first tenderly and then voraciously, their bodies beginning to demand more again, but their breathing was still so labored that Laura abruptly ended the kissing that was a moment away from bringing them back into the cycle of pleasure again. She looked into Debbie’s eyes, asking if she wanted more, although Laura wasn’t sure if she could even comply if Debbie answered yes.

“Always, but if we keep going right now, I think you just might kill me,” Debbie said, still struggling to catch her breath.

Laura then slowly and a bit reluctantly slipped her fingers from inside Debbie. She always felt a little lost and alone whenever she had to leave Debbie after she had been inside of her. It was like saying goodbye to a part of herself because it always felt like she left a little bit of her own soul behind every time she made love to Debbie. Would it feel that way if she ever got the chance to make love to another pretty lady? Laura quickly pushed the thought away. If she was making love to another woman that meant she was no longer with Debbie and Laura just wasn't ready to quit Debbie yet even though she knew instinctively that eventually, she would have to.

Debbie rolled onto her back desperately trying to catch her breath as she grabbed for a cigarette on the nightstand and lit it up and began smoking it despite the fact that she was still practically breathless. But now that they had finished making love and with Debbie’s mouth suddenly free, she had to find something new to occupy it. She never picked gum to occupy her mouth after they made love, Laura always noticed, only a cigarette.

“My God, you’ve got magical fingers,” Debbie said as she blew smoke from her cigarette, lying flat on her back as she reached out to touch Laura, rubbing Laura’s breasts and then moving her hands to Laura’s stomach and then suddenly screamed,

“Jesus Christ! You’re soaked!…And the sheets!…And this entire side of the bed! Is that all from me?”

“Some of it is my sweat…I think,” Laura said, looking at herself and the bed, trying to assess the situation.

Debbie got up and walked into the bathroom saying to Laura that she was going to get a towel to help clean her up. Laura could hear Debbie turn on the water for the tub and was thankful that she was going to have them bathe before leaving because Laura didn’t want to get back to Mark’s house smelling of sex and sweat. Wouldn’t that make for an interesting interview with the maid?

Debbie had the half-smoked burning cigarette pursed between her lips as she came back into the bedroom and sat on the bed next to Laura and began drying her with the towel and said,

“I’m not going to have a chance to wash these sheets today. I’m sure the neighbors are always wondering why I wash my sheets practically every day while Jack is gone.”

Again with the neighbors, Laura had thought to herself, figuring she just never would get the fascination everyone had with worrying about what other people thought.

“Don’t you mind always being soaked in so much cold and wet while we make love?” Debbie asked.

Laura never minded the fluid that came from Debbie when they made love, in fact, she relished it and the smile on her face made that obvious to Debbie who then asked Laura why she looked like the cat that ate the canary.

“I love it when you...,” Laura could do and say all manner of things when making love to Debbie thanks to Debbie’s openness and vast experience with sex and her willingness to teach Laura anything and everything about it, but Laura was always so shy afterward, a shyness that made her so embarrassed that she had a difficult time talking about what she had just been doing moments ago.

“Love it when I what? Come on you have to say it. Come on you shy little thing. Your fingers certainly weren’t shy just a few minutes ago,” Debbie teased.

“…When you…you know…

“Cum all over you…”

 “…and…it...you know…”

“Soaks you wetter than an afternoon rainstorm in July?”

Laura knew without having to look at herself that she was bright red.

“It gives me a wonderful ego boost,” Laura managed to answer through her intense embarrassment.

“So is that why you always have a little cock to your walk after you leave here. I thought it was from all the orgasms that I give you.”

“Well they certainly help add to the…what did you say, ‘cock to my walk,’ but really it’s more about the fact that I can’t believe that I can do that to a woman.”

“You know, it would happen to you more often if you’d let me fuck you more.”

And there it was. 

They always ended up having this discussion. 

Debbie always wanted permission to go inside of Laura more often when they made love, but Laura was always hesitant about giving so much of herself to Debbie. Laura loved having the outside of her pleasure center pleasured and never hesitated when Debbie wanted to play with that part of her body for hours and hours and days and days. Laura wasn't sure why exactly, but she just didn't like having Debbie inside of her most of the time they were making love other than it simply just didn't seem to be her thing. There were the rare occasions that she did want Debbie inside of her, but most of the time during their lovemaking she just didn't.

Debbie didn't go inside of Laura until the second day that they made love. She had told Laura that she had been hesitant that first day because she had been so horny and so was too impatient to help out a virgin, so had decided to only play with her a little on the inside that first day. But the second day Debbie wasn't quite so horny and so had wanted to explore Laura more. And Laura had allowed her but quickly discovered that she didn't like Debbie being so deeply inside of her like Debbie wanted Laura to be. 

Laura didn't mind Debbie slipping her tongue in and out of her or putting the tips of her fingers inside of Laura to tease her a bit, but when Debbie went inside of Laura any further, she just didn't seem to find it as pleasurable as Debbie did.

Debbie put out her cigarette in the ashtray that sat on top of the nightstand next to Laura, quickly lit up another, and then went into the bathroom where Laura could hear her turn off the water and then get into the tub.

Laura’s eyes welled with tears for a moment. Debbie had a blunt way of talking that usually turned Laura on or made her laugh or made her see life in a way that she never realized existed before which always fascinated her, but sometimes that bluntness would hit too close to home, and instead, Laura would find herself crying at Debbie’s words, and the crying and hurt always made her feel like a big fool.

Laura pushed the tears back and walked into the bathroom, but Debbie immediately noticed the unfallen tears.

“Shit. Lord, honey. I’m sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. Dammit, I'm too good at doing that to you. It’s just that I…God, I really love fucking you, but you hardly ever let me and…”

Laura cringed a bit at the word “fucking” and again Debbie noticed, but this time the noticing only frustrated her.

“God, I do not understand you sometimes. Not a half-hour ago you and I both used that word while we were in the middle of fucking and you’re nothing but turned on, but after we’re done fucking, I use that word to describe what we had just been doing and you cringe up like you have virginal ears. You're not a virgin anymore and you haven't been for over two years now thanks to me.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I love it when you say it while we are...,”

“Fucking,” Debbie said filling in Laura’s long pause as she looked for the right word. Laura couldn’t help but cringe again but decided to ignore Debbie so she could get the rest of her thought out.

“…but when we’re not and you refer to our lovemaking as…,”

“Fucking.”

“Debbie, please!”

“Well, what we do is fucking and you need more of the actual fucking part. I mean barely slipping my tongue in and out of you when I’m going down on you is not the same as when I can reach all of you inside with my fingers. And you are so beautiful inside and I’m sorry that I get so impatient that you don’t let me in very often. I understand why you don’t, some women just aren't into that, but still, I can’t help but yearn for that part of you that you rarely let me have.”

Debbie may understand why Laura didn’t often give her permission to go inside her, but Laura certainly didn’t understand why she said no more often than not and had Debbie pleasure her mostly on the outside instead. It felt so much more real, more intimate, more invasive of her soul whenever Debbie was inside of her. She enjoyed the physical pleasure of it, but emotionally she found it draining and exhausting because every single time Debbie was deep inside of her, she wound up weeping uncontrollably and she just didn’t have the emotional energy always for such a reaction and she just didn’t like Debbie witnessing such an intimate, private reaction from her.

The tears began to swell again in Laura’s eyes and this time she couldn’t stop a couple from falling. Debbie immediately saw the error in her approach to this tired subject.

“Come on, sweetie,” Debbie said patting the water in the tub, “Let’s not fight. I’m sorry. I'm jealous and angry right now at you and other things going on in my life and it's not your fault I feel this way. I shouldn't take my anger and jealousy out on you. Come on, get in. We both got to get going soon anyway. You got a maid to interview and I got a second shift at the diner to get to.”

Laura obliged and Debbie put out her cigarette and immediately lit up another. Debbie had cigarettes and gum in every part of her house. Even though it was a small house with a main room that was both the living room, dining room, and kitchen, and then a short hallway that led to the bedroom and a bathroom, still despite it taking maybe ten seconds to walk from one end of the house to the other, Debbie had cigarettes and gum stashed everywhere. Kitchen drawers, bathroom cabinet, on both nightstands next to the bed, on both side tables next to the couch, the coffee table, the kitchen table, everywhere you were in the house, you were no more than a few inches away from cigarettes and gum.

Debbie pursed the newly lit cigarette between her lips as she grabbed a washcloth and a bar of soap and soon had Laura covered in suds.

“It’s not just for selfish reasons that I want to fuck you,” Debbie began as she handed the washcloth to Laura so she could scrub Debbie, “I also worry about you because when I fu…sorry…when we are making love and you allow me to go inside of you, it’s the only time that you ever completely let go. You always hold on so tight to your fears and anger and tears because you never want to inconvenience anyone, including yourself, with your sadness and pain.”

Laura had begun soaping up Debbie’s breasts and despite the very serious discussion Debbie was having with Laura, she couldn’t help but suddenly find herself distracted by Debbie’s enormously supple, freckled breasts, but Debbie was having none of that.

“My God, you are worse than a man sometimes when it comes to being hypnotized by my big tits,” Debbie said as she put her finger under Laura’s chin and lifted her head, forcing Laura to look into Debbie’s eyes instead of at her breasts before she continued.

“Listen, you can’t hold onto it all when your body is letting it all go and by letting go so you can feel such pleasure means that you’re also going to feel all of that pain you hold onto all the time so the world, and especially you, won’t see it. It’s why you cry so afterward. You spend so much of your time on the verge of tears, but always fighting them from falling. You just need to cry sometimes and it’s okay. Crying is good for you and you should do it whenever you need to.”

Laura wanted to point out that Debbie didn’t seem to like it much on the few occasions she had cried when they were making love, either pretending she wasn’t or keeping her face hidden from Laura until she got the tears under control, but instead she said,

“All that crying I do…when you’re making love to me on the inside of my body, it…it embarrasses me…”

Debbie stopped scrubbing Laura and put her half-smoked cigarette down, which Laura knew meant business because Debbie never put down a cigarette until it was smoked to the nub unless she had something serious to say or do. Debbie then pulled Laura into an embrace.

“Oh sweetie, please don’t be. The crying worries me, but I never mind it. Never.”

It had been a couple of months since Laura had given Debbie permission last to be inside of her. She had wept and wept that time like she had never wept in her life before and Debbie had held her the whole time, caressing her, telling her to just cry all she wanted, no one but her was there to see it.

Debbie could be very gentle and sweet with Laura when she was so vulnerable, but then there were those couple of times that Laura allowed Debbie inside of her only because it had been so long and Debbie had gotten to the point of begging Laura to please let her go inside of her before Laura felt so bad about denying Debbie that she finally gave in.

Debbie had been drunk those couple of times that begging had come into play. Laura's father was an alcoholic. A kind one who didn't mean to have the illness and was so embarrassed by it that he did it in quiet and in secret, but still she had been exposed to his alcoholism enough that she never found herself interested in partaking in alcohol so she never quite understood why people drank alcohol in the first place. It never seemed to make them happier, it never seemed to take away the pain, which was always the two reasons Laura ever heard people say why they drank. Instead, it either made them angry or sad or just plain ole pass out and for the life of her, Laura just didn’t get the big deal of drinking.

Debbie always had a glass of bourbon every afternoon, usually not before five o’clock because that seemed to be some kind of unspoken rule, but occasionally she drank in the middle of the day too. 

“Thank the good Lord, it’s time for some release,” Laura had heard Debbie declaring on more than one occasion when five o’clock hit and she was having a crappy day.

Debbie would pour herself a glass of bourbon and down it with a cigarette then pop a piece of gum in her mouth and that would usually be that. But there were those rare occasions when Debbie would have two or three or even four glasses of bourbon. Laura noticed that the third and fourth glasses of bourbon were usually downed after Debbie had gotten a postcard or telegraph from Jack informing her that he was coming home earlier than expected. The extra bourbon always caused their lovemaking to be awkward and uncomfortable, and Debbie would be angry and pitiful and then just start crying that she didn’t want Laura to go yet. That she was so horribly lonely and sad during those weeks they were apart.

The last time that Debbie had one of those rare drunken nights, she had begged and pleaded for Laura to please just let her go inside. That she loved being inside of a woman as much as Laura did and why did she keep her from that pleasure so much. Laura had felt so awful and guilty when a drunken Debbie made the confession, so she allowed Debbie to touch her inside and it was mostly just awful because Debbie was too drunk to be careful with Laura both physically during and emotionally afterward. The next day as Laura was leaving she told a very hungover Debbie that she would never make love with her again when she was drunk, a blunt statement for Laura, but she had been that serious. And so far, Debbie hadn’t even been tipsy in front of Laura, much less drunk, but Jack had also not sent a postcard or telegraph with the news of coming home early since then either.

“You know, most women have no idea that they can soak a bed when making love,” Debbie said as she and Laura got out of the tub and began drying each other off. “I know that I can soak a bed more than most women, but still women do have the ability, but most never get the chance to experience it. Probably because the spot on a woman that can do such a miraculous thing is so damn hard for a man to find because penises don’t bend…but fingers do,” Debbie then placed her left index and middle finger together and bent them a couple of times before she then separated them and began wiggling them and making her two fingers do all manner of tricks before she declared, “No man’s penis, no matter how big, can do that and that’s why no man certainly has ever even come close to being able to get my body to soak a bed, not that they even try to. They’re usually too busy getting their own jollies on to care if the woman underneath them that they’re pounding into is having any fun at all or not and trust me, mostly it is not.”

Laura couldn’t even imagine ever allowing a man to make love to her. Just the idea of it made her ill. She had thought once she married Mark then she would have to finally submit herself to such an unthinkable act, but Mark still hadn’t touched her, not on the honeymoon and not even last night in their new house together. He had slept in a separate bedroom instead of in a bed with Laura last night just like he did on their honeymoon when they were staying at the hotel and they slept separately. 

Laura had admitted to Debbie the night before her elopement that she was scared to death of having sex with Mark, especially since Debbie had told her that men sooner or later will insist on fucking you. Debbie had given Laura tips on other ways to satisfy a man so that maybe actual fucking would happen as little as possible, but all those tips seemed just as awful as the actual act itself, but thankfully Laura hadn’t yet been presented with the opportunity to use any of Debbie’s tips to,

“…quickly get a man off so you can get to sleep already and to keep yourself from being knocked up for the next twenty years…,” Debbie had explained to Laura.

Even though Mark hadn’t presented her with the opportunity to use any of Debbie’s tips, Laura figured that eventually, he would and…God, Laura couldn’t even let herself finish the thought, so decided to do a Scarlett O'Hara and wait another day to finish it.

Laura still couldn’t believe that Debbie had done such things with other men and currently to her husband. Debbie was like Laura, she loved women with all of her being, but Debbie had decided long ago to put up an elaborate pretense that she was just like every other woman in the world, only a lover of men. And now, Laura suddenly realized, she had done the same thing. Maybe a small part of her did it to save herself from anyone ever finding out who she really was because people would hate her and despise her and think she had a perverse soul if they knew. Sometimes she even hated herself for being what she was; a homosexual, a queer, a lesbian, a dyke. All names meaning deviant, despicable, unnatural, unholy.

“You know…” Debbie said as they began to walk into the bedroom to get dressed, Debbie pausing her thought for a moment to light up yet another cigarette before continuing, “…I thought for damn sure after you got married that we would never find ourselves in my bed again.”

“Why?” Laura asked as Debbie still naked except for a pair of underwear she managed to put on, walked over to Laura and helped her button up the back of her dress, “I said before I left that I wasn’t going to stop seeing you.”

“I know, but for one, you’re a rarity in this world, sweetie, you’re an honest person, honest to your core, and being with me before just meant that you had to only omit in your conversations to aquantainces about what we did when we were together, never actually lie. But now that you’re married means putting yourself through a daily dose of lying to your own husband and I didn’t think you could do it before you married Mark and I’m still not so sure that you can keep it up now because the lying builds and grows and it becomes lying about the lying, to your husband, to yourself and eventually you can’t tell what is your truth and what is your lies and all in order to keep who you really are a secret, which is the biggest lie of them all. It can take a toll, believe me,” Debbie took a big puff on her cigarette before continuing, “And also and more importantly, the thing is darling,” Debbie sighed and then hesitated for a long moment, taking another long puff of her cigarette and blowing the smoke out slowly, following it with her eyes as it drifted toward the ceiling, she didn’t continue until it had reached its destination. “…you’re not in love with me and so I’ve just been waiting for the day that you realize that and leave me.”

Laura immediately protested, but Debbie quietly shushed her as she touched Laura’s cheek with her hand, brushing it along her jawline, staring into Laura’s eyes, Debbie’s own eyes welling up with tears. She then leaned her forehead onto Laura’s and despite this suddenly serious moment, Laura couldn’t help but feel shivers of desire as Debbie’s breasts pressed against her and Laura longed for the dress she had just put on to come right back off again. And as always Debbie knew exactly what Laura and her body were thinking.

“You’re in love with my body, Laura, not me. And that’s okay because, in my 35 years of living, plenty of men and even a few women have loved my body and not me. The thing is I never loved them back, so it didn’t really matter. Or at least not much, I guess.” She took another long puff from her cigarette before continuing, “I thought with you agreeing to marry Mark that maybe it was in a way, an excuse for you to finally leave me because if you really loved me, you never would have gotten into this marriage that you never wanted and never will.”

It was true. It was all true, only Laura hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself. Sometimes in the deep recesses of her mind, she would suddenly think that what she had with Debbie was not love. Not real, total, being completely in love with someone else love.

Maybe that was why she hated when Debbie referred to their lovemaking as fucking, since Laura wasn’t in love with Debbie then maybe that meant that their lovemaking really was only just fucking.

“It’s like when you are making me cum, every time, you look away or close your eyes at the last second like you’re afraid if you saw me at that moment, you would know that you didn’t really love me. You love everything else about making love to me. You love touching me and kissing me and being inside of me. The only thing that you don’t like about making love to me is the fact that you don’t actually love me. It’s another reason why you don’t really ever let me inside of you. It’s too personal, too real, too private an act for you to just let anyone do it. I think you’re waiting for that special woman who is still out there waiting for you. That woman you are destined to spend your whole life loving. Even if you liked men instead, you’re just one of those people who can’t give all of yourself to a lover unless you are in love with them and that ain’t me, sweetie. It’s some other woman in that wide world out there. Damn, I hate that bitch.”

Laura sighed. Debbie turned away and walked over to her closet and began putting on a clean waitress uniform as she finished puffing away on her cigarette and grabbed yet another. After a minute or two, Laura was finally able to speak, but all she could find to say was,

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, darling. It’s not your fault that I fell in love with you knowing damn well sure that you didn’t love me back and probably never would. You do love me, sweetie, you do love me, just…not the way I want you to.”

They were silent for a long moment. Laura watched as Debbie finished dressing, wishing it wasn’t true, wishing that Debbie was wrong and that she was in love with her. She did love Debbie, so very much, but Debbie was right, there was still something missing. It just didn’t quite feel like what being in love should be.

“So, you never said. How was it finally sleeping with a man? Was it as awful as you imagined it would be?” Debbie asked, thankfully breaking the tension and somewhat changing the subject.

“Actually,” Laura said, “we never actually did anything. I mean he did finally kiss me after six weeks of dating, but only when the minister said, ‘You may now kiss the bride,’ and that was the briefest, most chaste kiss in the whole history of kisses, but besides that…nothing. No more kissing, no making love, not even a single hand holding, just nothing. He even slept on the couch in our hotel room every single night we were there while I slept on the bed and he did the same last night at his house. He slept in a separate bedroom from mine. He said last night that he was staying up late to work so I could just go up to bed by myself and not to worry about waiting up for him, but you know me, I never sleep and so I was up to hear him start snoring away about fifteen minutes after I had gone to bed last night.”

“Oh, honey, that’s it. We now know definitely for sure that your husband is a member of our team; as queer as a three-dollar bill.”

The End...

For now...

 Coming soon...

Episode 3: Laura Finally Meets the Woman of Her Dreams