Jazz and Steam

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Why do you think that?”

“I was checking out the lady that was in here.” I tried to look away from her but she moved her head to the side

“Lots of women do that, hon. It’s kind of a game of ‘I’ve got better than you’ve got’.” She smiled. “You don’t just play that with shoes.”

I sat quietly unable to find the words I wanted to say.

She again helped.

“Do you like guys?”

The question should have been a given but it hit me harder than I expected. I thought back through them, face by face, all the way back to Timmy Benson who talked me into do it... just a little. None of them were more than a flash memory of a face and a few dinners out. Then the memories of the s*x came through and I felt...used. That was as close to it as I could think.

Slowly my head went from side to side.

She smiled and patted my arm.

“It’s okay. Coming to grips with that is the hardest part. That and the first time you tell someone. Hell,Girl,you’ve already gone over the hump! Now you sit right there and I’ll be back.”

She got up and went out in a hurry and I found my eyes following her curves. She was a stunningly beautiful woman.

She was gone but moments.

The sudden inrush of cooler air and the parting of the fog were my warning that she was back. A metal bucket hit the bench next to me and she sat down on the other side of it.

“Girl, we going to have a party up in here,” she told me with a grin.

I took the tall glass from her with a surreal feeling coming around me. She poured bubbling champagne into my glass, then her own.

“A toast to...what is your name?”

“Lavender Layton. My friends call me Elly... why are you laughing?” I asked a little hurt.

She waved her hand, dismissing my anger. “Your parents and mine must have had the same type of joke book. I’m Jasmine Jones. JJ.”

I chuckled with her.

“Well, I’m not going to call you Elly. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Did your grandmother call you Flower?”

I looked up startled. How had she known that?

“My Granny did the same, I thought yours might have,” she said with a grin. She leaned in and let her glass touch mine with a light ring. “Know what else we have in common? Well, let’s just say you’re not the only woman who checks out women in the steam room.”

I glanced down suddenly aware that I had my robe more than half off me and a towel sitting in my lap. The embarrassment however passes much quicker than if she had been a ‘He’. I looked up at her and blushing, I slowly chuckled.

“Lavender and Jasmine?” I asked with a smile.

“Hon, I guarantee the two of us would liven up any room.”

Smiling, I sipped the champagne with her, letting my thoughts drift. I felt not quite sure of what I should do next. I decided to ask, after all she had been a help so far.

“So what do I do?”

*