Chapter 9
“So…who are they?” Vi said, tapping the steering wheel as she drove along the interstate.
“Who?”
“Your friends…Emma, I know the kinds of friends you keep, so, who are these two…Monica and…” Vi grabbed another sour gummy from the bag perched in the center console and popped it into her mouth, neon sugar crystals clinging to her lips.
“Hinako and Monica, I mean, I’ve talked about them before, I’m not sure if there’s a lot more to say?”
“I don’t ask questions that I don’t want answers to…” Vi said, doing an impression of me that would have been offensive to me if it wasn’t absolutely accurate.
“OK, yes…Hinako and Monica…” I said. I didn’t know where to start.
“This is weird, Em.” Vi swung the rope of candy around as she pulled another out of the bag, a quizzical look on her face.
“You’re being bashful about telling me stuff about someone from your past, and you’re the least bashful person I’ve ever known.
We’re going to be staying in their house for three nights, Em, I’d like to know at least a little about them. ”
Ok, it’s…” I rolled down the window and was greeted by a rush of mossy, damp air.
Once you got far enough north out of LA, things started getting more verdant, more calming to my mind.
“They’re…we have a lot of history, and, I feel like they’re kind of from a different section of my life that I never really talk about. ”
“Emma, unless they’re serial killers, I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’ll be cool with whatever you did with them in the past.” Vi took another bite.
“Honestly, even if they are serial killers, that would both not surprise me that you have a casual friendship with a sapphic serial killer duo, and I could probably be convinced to like them too.” Vi flashed me a smile and then tapped her hand on my leg.
“Come on, you know how much I like people by default, Em.”
“Well, they haven’t killed anybody as far as I know, but it’s been a bit since I checked in with them, so…” I shrugged. “Maybe I just want them to be a surprise to you.”
“You’re no fun…” Vi pouted playfully.
“That, my dear, I know is not true, because I’m quite sure you found me fun this morning.”
Vi giggled, “alright, fair point.”
---
We made our way down the more narrow and narrow roads as the city disappeared behind us.
Monica always talked about wanting to live in the middle of nowhere…
it was actually one of the things that we drifted apart over as college ended, and we were thinking about our future.
For as much as city life can get to me, I feel an enticing energy to it that I can’t really get away from.
There’s too much of a void when you get out this far…
when I’m in a city, I know I’m not more than a couple hundred feet away from another person at any time, but out here it could be miles.
Not to say it wasn’t beautiful this far out, though, and as we crested a hill and Monica and Hinako’s house came into view, I did feel a little spark of comfort in the idea of this kind of quaint isolation.
In the times we’d caught up since I moved to LA, Monica would always talk about how proud she was of this house, and for good reason.
She and Hinako had designed when they returned to the US from Japan, their little cabin in the woods…
well, not really little by any means, but, definitely in the woods.
“Oh, this is cute!” Vi beamed, and for good reason.
The facade was made up of dark grey blue slate that contrasted perfectly with the rich orange and reds of the exposed pine, the house sprawling across one floor to allow Monica easier navigation for her wheelchair.
The ramp that lead from the driveway to the front door was flanked by lush, perfectly trimmed juniper bushes, and a few trees formed a backdrop, framing the house against the verdant landscape.
When we rolled into the driveway and pulled up behind the sleek black Nissan parked in front of the garage, Hinako emerged from the front door wearing a black crêpe shirt and a red skirt that hit right at her knees.
Whenever Monica talked about her wife, she could barely contain herself, and for good reason.
But, I would always let her know that I had a crush on Hinako before she did, back when Hinako was a very mousy and very shy Japanese exchange student, a universe of difference between that and the striking and vivacious woman that was bounding down the ramp to greet us.
“Let’s get you settled in.” Hinako said, grabbing one of Vi’s bags and leading her back into the house. “I imagine these two have some catching up to do.”
I looked at Monica with a smile as she rolled toward me, and Vi and Hinako disappeared from the room.
“Hey…” she said, the wheels of her wheelchair gliding along the hardwood floor.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but I don’t do well with reunions.
I always get caught up in wondering how far back I should go to check in on someone’s life.
It would be annoying and exhaustive to have them recount every single thing that’s happened since I last saw them, but it’s what my organized mind wanted.
“Hi.” I managed, understating my excitement.
“Emma, it’s been six years, you don’t get away with just ‘hi’.
” Monica said, wheeling herself closer to me, bumping the frame of her wheelchair against my shin, an annoying habit she knew would always get focus directed at her.
I told her long ago to join one of those wheelchair basketball leagues where stuff like that was encouraged instead of bruising the shins of her friends, but…
well, Monica was as stubborn in her ways as I was, so I can’t blame her.
I knelt down and kissed her, cradling her face. It was like we had last talked yesterday, all the years of separation not mattering anymore, we were the same as we were back in her dorm room all that time ago.
I guess the way I dealt with reunions was to just never let someone go completely. But why should I have to?
Monica and I kissed for a while, the memories stirring, her hand rising up my thigh. I batted it away gently, holding it as I pulled back from her.
“I really missed you.”
“Same…” Monica said, her eyes heavy-lidded and full of nostalgia.
“Let’s take it slow…” I said with a grin. I settled down onto Monica’s lap, keeping us close. She secured the wheels of her chair to prevent us from drifting backward into the wall. “I need to know about wedded bliss with Hinako.”
“Says the girl who couldn’t make it to our wedding.” Monica brushed her chin against the nape of my neck.
“Says the girl who eloped in Okinawa and told me two weeks before it was happening.” I returned the affection, sliding my hand under Monica’s shirt, feeling the familiar softness of her. She was so warm, so pleasant.
“Alright, fair.” Monica looked down at my hand and raised an eyebrow, but didn’t do anything to cease my progress. “It’s great…Hinako has just been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. She…” Monica toyed with a plastic clip on my pants, then pulled the attached strap taut.
“…completes you?” I said.
“Clichéd, I know, but when it’s true…” Monica touched my waistband, the intimacy we once shared not missing a beat. “God, Em, I forgot how hot you were.”
“No, you didn’t…and stop with the compliments, you’ll give me a big ego.”
“Oh, yeah…this little interaction will give the genius engineer with a magna cum laude an ego…” Monica’s hand slid up my stomach and over my breast. “A genius engineer who isn’t shy to talk about how amazing she is in bed…”
I leaned into Monica’s touch, her hands finding the spots she’d loved years ago, once again ready for her. “I mean, I am objectively good in bed, I’m practically a walking kink encyclopedia, my brain doesn’t let me let it go.”
“So humble…seems to me like you haven’t been tamed in a while.” Monica’s hand tightened quickly onto my breast, her fingers clutching the soft flesh while at the same time her index finger and thumb pinched down on my nipple, hard.
“Oh, you haven’t changed a bit.” I said.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Em, because I’ve gotten far worse, and far better, since we last did this…”
In a move that shocked even me, I reached over to Monica’s wrist and pulled it away. “You and Hinako can ruin me later.” I leaned in and kissed Monica’s ear. “I’m craving sweetness.”
“But we’re done taking it slowly…something you’ve never been capable of anyway, right?”
I nodded, then wrapped my arms around Monica’s shoulder. “Yeah, I held off like a whole ten minutes before needing to fuck you, so that feels like enough growth for the day.”
“Good.” Monica flicked her thumb across the button on my pants, sliding her fingers into the gap it created.
“Mmm…” I moaned, Monica’s hand descending.
“You’re so wet already.” She said.
“Did you expect anything else?”
“No…never”
I put my left foot on the ground, opening my legs enough to allow Monica’s hand in.
Her fingers parted my labia and found their place, her touch familiar but new at the same time.
Monica may have been hesitant to start being amorous when we first started dating, but after her confidence built, and we learned together how to make this all work, she became someone never concerned about waiting long to get into things, and it was one of the things I loved about her.
I grabbed her hand through my pants, shoving her in deeper, my body releasing tension through the sudden burst of movement and uninhibited sex.
“Your…f-fingers feel so good, fuck.” I shuddered, feeling Monica move inside of me. I reached out and grabbed her breast through her shirt, and she was quick to assist me, lifting the shirt to allow me to not have to deal with clothes between us.
“I missed you so fucking much.” Monica said. I leaned down and kissed her, our passion becoming raw and needy.
“I missed you…” I said, wincing, the pressure from her fingers inside me just on the edge of overwhelming, exactly where I needed it to be.