CHAPTER 28
Carrie
“I don’t like her,” she stated.
“Come on; I’m sure she’s fine. She’s young, though, I think,” Debra said before taking a sip of her tea. “I’d guess mid-twenties.”
Carrie looked over at Gage again, who was clearly wearing something under her jeans, walking around the backyard and not talking to anyone.
She seemed to be more interested in the pool and the hot tub than the women she was here to meet, but she didn’t get in either and just walked around them, checking things out.
Carrie found herself looking down more than she should have, but she couldn’t believe Gage would be so brazen as to walk around packing like that when they were all supposed to be getting to know each other.
“Gage is here for something, but I’m not sure it’s love,” Jennifer said as she sat down at the round patio table. “Morning.”
“Hi,” Carrie replied.
“Morning,” Debra added.
“And what do you mean?” Carrie asked.
“Gage, right? That’s who you’re talking about?”
Carrie nodded.
“Gage wants sex. At least, that’s my hypothesis.”
“Don’t we all?” Debra joked.
“I think she’s primarily here for that. The other part is a nice bonus if it happens. And she’s packing right now, isn’t she?” Jennifer asked as she looked at Gage, who was on the other side of the long pool and couldn’t hear them. “Yeah, looks like it.”
“Is that bad? Don’t some people just do that?” Carrie asked.
“Yeah, it might just be her thing. Who knows?” Jennifer replied. “Looks good on her, doesn’t it?”
“Okay. Let’s gather round, ladies,” Nia announced, interrupting their conversation.
When everyone joined around the table, sitting or standing, including Gage, who stood opposite her, Carrie couldn’t take her eyes off her.
She didn’t like Gage’s standoffish attitude, and if Jennifer was right and Gage had only come here for sex, that would mean she’d lied to Nia during the application process.
Carrie didn’t like that, either, but she couldn’t help the fact that Gage was sexy as hell to her physically.
Her short brown hair and dark-brown eyes went well with her tan skin, and her overall demeanor told the world that she didn’t care what it thought of her, and Carrie liked that a lot.
Hell, she could probably use a little bit of that herself.
“Here’s where things will begin to get a little interesting,” Nia told them.
“You’ve been paired with two different people now, and there might be a third different person tonight.
Remember, if at any time you’d like to spend another night with someone you’ve already been with, please let me know as soon as possible, and I’ll confirm with them myself.
If you’d like that for tonight, please tell me after lunch at the latest so that I can make plans.
For today, we’ll continue the no talking about sex, love, or anything pertaining to relationships rule.
We’ll also be playing some games. Specifically, I’ll ask you to play charades, where you’ll use non-verbal communication, Pictionary, where you will draw something out and work additionally on your communication, and lastly, a guessing game, where one person will have a clue but won’t be able to use that clue to get their partner to guess, focusing on verbal communication. ”
“And competitiveness,” Becky added. “You want to see how your possible future partner acts when they lose a game before you put a ring on it, right?”
“Right.” Nia laughed. “We’ll be rotating, and you’ll play in the group. One hour for each game. We’ll take a break for lunch. Then, cocktails and dinner. Tonight, you should focus your cocktail and dinner conversations on your family lives.”
“Why can’t we talk about sex and relationships?” Gage asked, clearly irritated. “That’s what we’re here for.”
“All in good time, Gage,” Nia said, brushing her off.
Gage crossed her arms over her chest then, and Carrie did her best to forget about her altogether, but it was difficult because she knew what Gage had in her pants and its purpose, and she’d always wanted a woman to wear one of those for her.
Well, always being since she had figured out that she was attracted to women.
Maybe if Gage really was here just for sex, she could give Carrie what she wanted, and Carrie could give her the same.
No, she told herself silently as they rotated through the games she didn’t really want to be playing.
She wasn’t here only for sex. She wanted more.
If she’d just wanted sex, she could’ve had it by now.
At cocktails, she noticed that Gage wasn’t there, which was odd because everyone else was.
Carrie checked the backyard and saw her on one of the chaise lounge chairs, staring out into the backyard and the view behind it.
Gage seemed contemplative, and Carrie found herself wondering what she was contemplating exactly.
She stared at Gage for a while before she decided not to draw attention to herself and went in search of a drink.
During dinner, Gage was quiet, not saying anything at all that Carrie remembered, and Carrie would remember because she wasn’t saying anything, either.
She was too focused on Gage, who was sitting diagonally from her and looked like she didn’t want to be there at all but had to eat something, so she was enduring dinner with everyone.
“Thank you all again for a great dinner,” Nia said when they finished eating.
“Now, it’s time for our third night pairings.
Tonight, we have Becky with Helena, Sharon will be paired with Debra, Jennifer will be with Kristina, and Gage will be with Carrie.
You all know the rules by now. I’ve placed your cards on the table, and you can, of course, choose anything you’d like from the den.
There are some other interesting things in there that just came in today.
Feel free to take a look before you head back to your rooms if you’d like.
I’ll leave you here now, but feel free to find me if you have any questions. ”
Carrie had been paired with Gage. She knew it would happen at some point; they were supposed to rotate and be paired up with everyone.
She just hadn’t expected it to be tonight.
Gage looked up and over at her, so Carrie gave her a shy smile.
Gage actually smiled back at her, which surprised her.
Then, they all stood, and the caterers began clearing the dishes from the table.
“I can get the cards,” she offered.
“Sure,” Gage said, not sounding enthusiastic about that at all. “Do you want to check out the den first? We can maybe go in and look at the new stuff, at least.”
“Not right now,” Carrie replied. “Maybe later, though. Is that okay?”
“Sure,” Gage repeated, still with no enthusiasm.
They walked down the hall toward Carrie’s room, and once they were inside, Gage closed the door behind them.
“Want me to set a timer or something?” Gage asked.
“Sorry?”
“For the thirty minutes.”
“Do we need a timer?” Carrie asked.
“I don’t know. We’re supposed to be following those rules, right?”
“I meant that we could just use the cards and go for as long as we want. If we go over, we go over, right?”
“You want to go over the thirty?” Gage asked.
“No, but we could if we wanted to.”
“Right…” Gage said and sat down on the bed. “Go for it. What’s question one?”
Carrie sat down across from her and asked, “What is your deal?”
“Sorry?”
“Do you even want to be here?”
“With you?”
“In general. Do you want to be here in general? It really doesn’t seem like it.”
“I paid my money, didn’t I?”
“You’re not acting like it right now, or at all.”
“How am I supposed to be acting, exactly? At a singles’ week sex event, where I can’t talk about sex, love, or relationships unless I’m in a room with the woman Nia told me to be with?”
“It’s not a sex event,” Carrie corrected.
“It’s partly a sex event.”
“Yes, but the rules are that you want more than just sex. If you just wanted to sleep with women, I’m pretty sure you’d have options for that. Did you lie about why you wanted to come here?”
“No.”
“Because that’s messed up, Gage. The women here–”
“Hey, I want the love thing, too, okay? I just…”
“What?” she asked after Gage didn’t finish her sentence.
“I’m not good at it, okay? I’m not good at relationships. The best relationship I’ve got is a friends-with-benefits with my best friend, who has a girlfriend.”
“You’re cheating with your–”
“What? No. They’re in an open relationship.
Her girlfriend sleeps with other women, too.
I don’t cheat, Carrie. I just don’t do well in relationships.
I thought this would be a good way to have some pressure-free sex, yeah, and if I met someone, cool, but we’d be right for each other because Nia knows what she’s doing, or so I’ve been told, and it would help me feel more confident about it. ”
“Because she paired you up with someone she thought you could be with?”
“Yeah.”
“And she knows what she’s doing?”
“Yes. And don’t get me wrong, the first night was great, but we’re not meant to be. Then, last night was more annoying and frustrating, and I got scolded by Nia.”
“You got scolded?”
“I guess I wasn’t acting how she wanted me to act, so I’ve been sulking today, which is probably immature, but I’ve got a lot on my plate back home.
I took time off to come here, expecting to be able to talk about whatever I wanted and do, for the most part, what I wanted, and that’s not happening, so I’m disappointed, okay?
I’m sorry. I’m not disappointed in being here with you, if that’s what you’re thinking; just in general. ”
“What did Nia tell you that she expected you to do?”
“Participate better. I did. I tried, at least. But I’m not good at games like that. I can’t draw at all. Did you see my attempt at drawing a hot dog? It looked like a penis with like… flaps or something.”
Carrie laughed and replied, “That wasn’t great, no. But your charades thing was good. People guessed it right away.”
“I got ‘tip of the hat’. All I had to do was tilt my head down and hold on to my fake hat.”
“Still, you got points.”
“You drew a whole thing up there, like a scene.”
“Well, I am a digital artist, so there’s that.”
“You’re a what now?”
“A digital artist. Freelance. I do a lot of character work and book covers primarily, but I have a whole side thing for people who want to take a photo or something and digitize it for themselves. I recreate it with my trusty iPad.”
“That’s cool,” Gage said.
“It pays the bills, but, yeah, I like it. What do you do?”
“I own a pool cleaning company,” Gage replied. “Well, it’s pool and hot tub service, and we do saunas and stuff, too.”
“You own it?”
“I do. I have ten people on staff, and it’s hard for me to get away. I can only check my phone every so often here, and we’re really busy right now. I probably shouldn’t have even come here, but I needed it, or so I thought. Now, I’m thinking about going home.”
“You’re going to leave?” Carrie asked.
“What’s the point of staying if Nia thinks I’m here for the wrong reasons? Besides, I don’t want to cause anyone else any problems. Maybe I should just go and let everyone else enjoy the rest of their week.”
“Or, you could actually participate,” she suggested and held up the cards.
“Oh, come on. How are those supposed to help us get to know each other?”
“We won’t know unless we try. Let’s do three questions, and if you hate it, we stop.”
“Fine.” Gage laughed a little. “What’s the first one?”
“Oh,” Carrie said when she read it to herself.
“What?”
“It’s okay. We can skip this one. I think I already know the–”
“No, don’t skip it. I’m here participating. What’s it say?” Gage asked.
“Do you believe in monogamous relationships? You already mentioned your situation, so I–”
“It’s not a situation; it’s sex. Sasha and I have good sex. That’s all. She loves her girlfriend. Her girlfriend loves her.”
“But they’re not monogamous?”
“They’re not. I am,” Gage said quickly. “I’m not right now because I don’t have anyone to be monogamous with, but I only want one person.
I like sex, that’s true, and I try to have as much of it as possible, but I’d like to have it with one person one day.
I don’t care if we get married. We can, or we don’t have to, but I meant what I said: I came here for love, too. At least, the chance at it.”
“Okay.”
“What about you?” Gage asked.
“Oh. Yeah, I only want one person. I’d like to get married, but it’s a piece of paper, so it’s not a requirement if the person I’m with doesn’t want it.”
“Okay. Good. Well, that’s settled. Question two?”
“Oh, you’re eager now, huh?” Carrie laughed. “Have a timer going in your head?”
“No, actually, I don’t.”
Gage smiled and shook her head.