Two Days

Chapter 1-2

“Dinner could be arranged,” she mused, “but I would pay. This will cost you time only, it is only fair that I pay for the dinner and any travel expenses.”

“Okay,” Lindsay looked at her phone, “we should get going then.”

She glanced down at Melina’s heels.

“You’ll do a bit of walking. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the hotel and get some flat heels? Or I could take you to a shoe store, a cheap one.”

“What are we waiting for?” Melina stretched, “let’s go and buy some shoes.”

Melina’s idea of flat shoes was a pair of flats from a store in Melbourne Central, where the tour actually started.

“I come here a lot just to browse, it used to be a bullet making factory years and years ago but they kept that brick tower as a reminder. I used to meet a guy by the tower when I did my university course at Melbourne uni. We used to have lunch and just sit talking about all kinds of s**t. Adam was as camp as a row of tents, it means he was really gay in a big way and didn’t care who knew about it.”

“It’s a very picturesque language,” Melina eyed the tower, “can you take a picture for my i********: please?”

It was the first of many pictures as they left Melbourne Central via the subway and got out at Flagstaff station. At first Lindsay felt a little bit awkward, not having done this before but thankfully Melina either didn’t notice or didn’t care as they wandered along to Spencer Street station. The tour was a somewhat haphazard one, meandering along wide streets, down alleys, through part of Chinatown and up into Carlton where they had a late lunch in one of the many cafés.

“There must be hundreds of restaurants here,” she commented, “Thai, Greek, Chinese, Mongolian, if you ate at a different one every night you could pretty much eat your way around the world in a few months. Every year they have the Lygon Street festival. I kissed my first lesbian there.”

“Your first lesbian?” Melina took out her lipstick.

“Yeah, but don’t get me wrong it wasn’t a full on tongue kiss. The gay community were part of the parade and there was this one group of girls called dykes on bikes. I was just standing there with a couple of girlfriends and my boyfriend when this woman rode past and yelled out, kiss me and I’ll give you five bucks.”

“And?”

“It wasn’t bad for a five dollar kiss although I think she was hoping I’d at least tickle her tonsils.”

“So you short changed her.”

“No, I kissed her. My boyfriend was shocked and my girlfriends were even more shocked but I had five bucks and that was enough for my lunch.”

“How old were you then?”

“Nineteen, old enough. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t a slut but I did like to f**k but these days I’m a little more selective.”

“I know,” she replied, “I’m very selective too. I get offers from some very nice women but I don’t take them up on it. I had a long term relationship with a woman for three years but it ended when I signed to a new agency and started doing more overseas work. The travel, lonely hotel rooms and she was just sitting there waiting for me to call, sometimes I was just too tired to call. It’s a shame, we had a good thing going but it’s the price you pay.”

“Will you ever settle down?”

“Oh for sure, but I think maybe another five years. I want to start my own agency.”

After lunch they hopped on a Lygon Street tram and headed down to St Kilda for an hour before making their way back via tram to the Yarra River and a park bench. On the way, because it was the Anzac weekend, Melina wanted to see the cenotaph.

“Because history is important. If we don’t learn the lessons of history we will repeat them. We in Germany know that only too well. It is drummed into us at school.”

“It was so long ago.”

“But it could all happen again if we are not careful.”

Sitting by the Yarra brought back more memories of parties, and a wild chicken and champagne breakfast the weekend before she graduated from high school.

“It was the first time I got seriously shitfaced.”

“s**t faced?”

“Drunk, very drunk. I lost my shoe in the river and had to go home in my bare feet. My mum hit the bloody roof when I got home and tried to ground me for a month, it lasted until next weekend and I was out the bedroom window and into Robbie’s Holden Commodore. That was the night I lost my virginity.”

“Oh? Tell me more,” Melina nudged her, “how was your first time?”

“Well it wasn’t glorious. I didn’t hear a choir of angels while we were in the back seat. He got his c**k inside and started pushing and grunting. I just lay there thinking what the f**k? It hurt because he went in too hard and too far, I had to tell him to pull out because he was hurting me. Eventually I had to jack him off and he came on my belly. He told me I was wonderful and I felt dirty.”

“Did it ever get better?”

“It did but not with him. I went through four more guys before I got with an older guy, Tim the builder. He’d just broken up with his missus and he was much more mature. The first night we did it, I was just lying there like this,” she spread her legs.

“I was stark naked because he’d gone to the toilet. He came back in and looked at me and kind of shook his head and said, let’s just go slow. I’m like, what? I’m not good enough? He asked if I’d ever heard of foreplay and I was like four what?”

She fell silent and looked past Melina.

“Sorry, you must think I’m a slut.”

“No,” she touched her shoulder, “I think you’ve been with some very immature men who didn’t take the time to ask questions or explain anything. In Germany we are much more open about s*x, it is not such a big deal with us. Don’t get me wrong, we love s*x but we’re not embarrassed about it, s*x is just a normal bodily function. I masturbate regularly and I love sex.”

“So what was your first time like?”

“With a man or a woman?”

“With a woman,” she replied.

“It was pleasant, relaxing. Her name was Inga from Sweden. We were signed to the same agency and did a shoot in Stockholm. We went back to the hotel and she was flirting with me, we started kissing and before I knew it we were naked on the bed,” she smiled.

“A woman knows how to treat a woman’s body, we don’t treat breasts like mounds of dough, we don’t rub each other’s p*****s like we’re trying to start a fire and we don’t treat the c******s like a little p***s. I had my first orgasm with Inga and when it was over I knew I couldn’t go back to men again. I did try once with a man but it wasn’t the same and I ended it.”

“What happened to Inga?”

“Inga is bisexual, she got married to a guy but then the marriage ended. I see her now and then but she’s either with a woman or a man.” she took out the voucher.

“I think our tour is over,” she held it out, “you have been a very educational guide.”

Lindsay looked down at the voucher and frowned.

“Aren’t you going to take it?”

“How about we have a bite to eat, before you go back to your hotel?”

“Dinner,” Melina glanced at two canoes making their way down the river, “we discussed this before, I will pay.”

“No, I’ll pay,” Lindsay took the voucher from her and stood up as she put it into her bag, “or as we say in Australia, my shout,” she held out her hand, “you up for it?”

Melina took her hand and stood up. Lindsay smiled and looked down.

“Not turning you on?”

“A little but I can cope.”

“Sorry,” Lindsay released her hand, “instinct.”

“Instinct is good,” Melina replied as they started walking towards St Kilda Road, “where are we going for this dinner?”

“What do you fancy?”

“Something Australian.”

“Well you can’t get more Australian than a counter tea.”

There were a few men at the bar of Young and Jacksons that evening who saw the two women enter and disappear into Chloe’s restaurant and Lindsay was at pains to show her the pub’s most famous feature, the nude painting of Chloe.

“It hung in the National Gallery in Melbourne back in the 1880s but only lasted three weeks before the God botherers had it taken down,” she looked at Melina’s quizzical face.

“God botherers are born again Christians, they don’t believe in s*x because,” she put a hand on Melina’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “it could lead to dancing.”

A few people glanced up as Melina burst out laughing at the subtle inversion of an old phrase and not long after they were sitting down to a meal.

“No expense paid,” Lindsay eyed the waitress, “spoil her rotten.”

A hard thing to do on a budget but thankfully, Melina wasn’t in the mood for expensive fare and the conversation shifted from subject to subject, seemingly at random and Lindsay found herself almost picking topics at random in an attempt to prolong the meal. Eventually however Melina looked at her watch.

“It is half past seven, I should be getting back.”

“I’ll walk you to the hotel.”

Melina propped on her palm and studied her for a few moments and then reached across the table and tugged at the collar of Lindsay’s shirt.

“It is a nice blouse, or as we say in Germany, es ist eine schöne Bluse,” she let go of the collar, “so, you want to make sure I make it to my hotel?”

“Unless it bothers you, I mean if you want some privacy I’m cool with that. I’m just trying to do the right thing, us girls have got to stick together.”

“It is a long walk,” Melina looked down at the remains of the meal, “and we have both had a few beers,” she picked up her beer and drained it.

“We could get a taxi and I could see you to the hotel and then come back.”

“I have a better idea,” Melina took out her phone, “it is one of the perks of the modelling business, and trust me, I make use of the perks,” she tapped the screen and opened her phone book. A slight smile nudged her lips as she looked at Lindsay.

“You have shouted me a meal, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“I will show you my room and we can have some room service and watch a film.”

“Okay.”

“And afterwards the driver will take you home to Ringwood.”

“That’s too far, the petrol costs too much.”

“My shout,” Melina put the phone to her ear and dragged her foot up Lindsay’s leg, “yes or no?” Her foot reached Lindsay’s knee and the younger woman winced.

“Deal.”

“Hello,” Melina smiled, “yes, this is Melina Wendel, I’m a guest on the eighth floor. I would like a car brought around to Young and Jacksons to take me back to the hotel,” her eyes locked on Lindsay, “yes, I’ll wait.”

“Tell them Federation Square, just opposite the taxi rank.”

Melina nodded and a moment later gave her details and ended the call.

Lindsay was half expecting a stretch limousine and was almost relieved it was just an upmarket sedan. The driver greeted them with a smile and they settled into the back seat. The drive took some fifteen minutes with the Saturday night holiday traffic but Lindsay took it all in through new eyes, the lights of St Kilda Road. Sirens in the near distance, people walking along the side of the road with neon headbands and she was sitting next to a gorgeous model just taking it all in.

The hotel was a familiar sight and although she’d seen it many times in the past, this was the first time she’d actually been inside.

“At least this far anyway,” she looked at the elevator and smiled crookedly.

“You know what’s on my bucket list?”

“s*x in an elevator?” Melina put an arm around her shoulders, “it is hard in this elevator unless you want an audience, there is a man inside.”

“Well maybe not this elevator.”

“Any particular preference for this intimate encounter?” Melina released her.

“No,” she looked at her and smiled, “I never actually got down to the nitty gritty of who, it was just s*x in an elevator.”

“It could be arranged,” Melina slipped an arm around her waist, “if you want.”

Lindsay chuckled and bumped her hip against Melina’s.

“Stop it, now you’re getting me horny.”

Nevertheless, they rode the elevator to the eighth floor in relative silence, as Lindsay replied to a girlfriend’s text message. She was still messaging as she followed Melina to her room but stopped the moment she entered the room.

“f**k me drunk, what a room.”

“It is a hotel room and you are a little drunk.”