Jazz and Steam

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jasmine shrugged.

“Well, you have a lot of choices, Flower. You can go clubbing. I know a few around here that you might like. They’re a bit easy on the new and unsure there. You could try the personals. There are hundreds of sites online but a lot of them are crap. You also got a big decision to make. You don’t have to make it now or anytime soon, but you will have to make it. Do you tell everyone? Do you tell a few select people? Do you tell no one... well, other than me?” she said with a flirty grin.

Smiling I nodded then started to think about it. Would I lose friends? How about family? There were a few that would scream ‘unclean’ from the pulpits when they heard. I could already hear their sermons.

I let my eyes drift as I think. I found myself focused on the golden locket around her neck. The fact it was hanging in that dark valley of cleavage might have had something to do with my eyes going there.

“That’s beautiful.”

She looked down and ran a finger across the metal. I saw a half-smile, half-sad look cross her face.

“Yea,” she whispered softly.

“What’s the matter Jazz?” I asked.

She looked up at me and grinned at the nickname.

“Jazz, huh? Okay I’ve gone by that more than once.” She lifted the locket. “This is all that I have left of the first love of my life. Her name was Merisa. It has a small piece of her hair and a pinch of her ashes in it. I glued it shut and she’s always been there for me.”

“What happened to her? Oh, I’m sorry, don’t answer that. I’m being nosy.”

Jazz shook her head, the beads rattling.

“It’s okay. It was awhile back... hell, ten years.” She looked down and took a deep breath. When she looked back up, I could see her eyes were shining. She smiled a bit seeing my concern. “I’m good. No, she was as buck wild a person as I’ve ever met. She loved life with a fiery passion! Everything that she could do to live it to the fullest she did. Fast cars! My god, that woman could drive. She loved anything with a bit of a thrill and some danger. She used to joke that was why she was with me.”

I watched a single tear slip and drift it’s way down her dark skin to vanish off her face and into the blouse.

“She was on her motorcycle....” Jazz swallowed like saying it was a bitter pill. “...and she of course had it going as fast as it could go. She hit a scrap piece of truck tire and left the road at well over a hundred and twenty. She struck a tree. The doctors said they doubt she even felt it.”

She absently reached up to wipe away a tear.

“I’m sorry, Jazz,” I said reaching over and taking that hand. The sharp contrast in her skin tone and mine made our hands look like a yin yang. I could feel the damp side of her finger against my skin.

She gave my hand a gentle squeeze but didn’t turn me loose.

“Thank you, Flower. They say that time heals but it still feels like yesterday to me. I loved her so much. I miss her every day. I wonder what she would say if she saw me now running this place. She would have loved to come here for maybe a few hours but she would have quickly been bored to tears I think.” She chuckled and filled my flute again. “To Merisa?”

“Merisa.” I said softly and then as our glasses touched, I offer her hand a bit more pressure.

The bubbly wine was more like breathing bubbles than drinking but its sweet flavor was not lost at all.

Jazz drained hers and sat spinning the flute in between her fingers for a second then looked up at me. Her smiles reappeared.

“So! What are you going to do now?” she asked me then. “Are you coming out t**s blazing? Going to scream from the rooftop I want to kiss girls and f**k you if you don’t like it?”

Laughing, I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m ready to do that yet.”

She nodded. “Okay. Well, I can get you in touch with some of the local ladies that are like us. We’re kind of a lesbian support group. I keep telling them we need to call ourselves B.R.A. Bush Rakers Anonymous. They keep shooting the idea down though.”

Chuckling, I nodded. “I can’t see why, it sounds perfect to me.”

She nodded and lifted the bottle. I watched her pour the last drop out the bottle into my glass.

“All gone,” she said sadly. “If I didn’t have a business to run I would say to hell with it and open up another. Sitting here getting steam-soaked and plastered with you till we pass out. But alas all parties have to finally turn off the music and close the door. I’ve got to go back to minding my store...before Ramone sets some poor lady’s hair on fire.”

She got up and pulled me to my feet in front of her with a tug. The strength of her grip was surprising.

“You never answered my question by the way. What are you going to do now?”

I stood there for a half second then shrugged with a sigh. “Damned if I know. Go find a girl to try kissing...”

Her mouth was on mine in less than a heart-beat. Those lips that were so plump and luscious were also demanding. I very quickly found that all the so-called experience I’d had wasn’t worth a flip. Her mouth and then ever so slowly her tongue start me back at Kissing 101.

As the seconds passed and her hands drifted to my shoulders, her fingers caressed the skin down my bare arms, across my bare back. Her hands finally came to rest in the small of my back and in the short hairs at the back of my neck.

Kissing 101 and I wanted to be the teacher’s pet after the first moment.

“Elly did you fall asleep in here?”

My eyes went to the open doorway to Julie standing there with her wine glass slowly slipping from her fingers.

It hit the floor to shatter, the drops of sanguine heaven splattering outward. Some of them landed on the white robe that lay by my feet next to my towel.

*