Chapter 7
We walked into the living room, still hand in hand. I was instantly aware of the odour of sex and the sight of female flesh exposed before me. Both Ms. McCrae and Sydney were lying on the floor, but neither of them seemed to be aware of us, until Paula giggled. That did it, I couldn't help but snicker, even if I was uncomfortable and blushing. Then both of the nude figures scrambled to their feet and the unthinkable happened, both of them were blushing deeply and looked like they wanted to cover up. Paula and I glanced at one another and our mirth broke free, both of us laughed whole heartedly.
"We thought you two would be involved much longer." Ms. McCrae said in a flustered tone.
"Perhaps even all night." Sydney said quietly, then began to giggle, but was obviously trying to fight them down.
"Oh shit, I've got the giggles." She declared, giving in to them.
"I told you, on you giggles look good." I snorted, breaking into renewed laughter. "I've never seen a black woman blush before and I've never seen anyone who looked like you when you giggle. It's exceedingly sexy. Paul will probably thank you tomorrow."
"Oh dammit." Ms. McCrae started to laugh. "Now you've got me laughing."
"Well, catching you guys on the floor was funny, Mom." Paula snorted. "Besides, Sydney does look great when she giggles, she sort of 'becomes the giggle', all over, from head to toe. I've never seen anyone jiggle like that either. I think her kneecaps are jiggling."
Sydney was now giggling even more than before.
"You're being a little bitch and making her giggle even more." Ms. McCrae snickered.
"Who taught me everything I know about that?" Paula asked, then grinned wickedly. "If seeing her jiggle puts CJ in the mood for more sex with me, I'll do my best to keep her giggling too. She does the work and I reap the benefit."
"Smart ass." Ms. McCrae walked over and hugged her. "We were sure you two wouldn't be able to walk, let alone march out here holding hands to catch us being childish."
"Oh, since when is it childish to make love in the middle of the living room floor?" I grinned at her.
"And you're supposed to be shy." She spun toward me.
"Sorry, but since I seem to have caught you with your pants down." I said and then realised I'd opened a can of worms. "Oops."
"Too late, Lover." Paula laughed. "You opened that door yourself."
"Oh, he's yours, dammit." Ms. McCrae laughed. "If he was mine, I'd strip him so everyone could see the organ that made me scream so loud though."
"Oh, that's easy. I'll do that." Paula laughed. "CJ, please open your mouth and waggle your tongue at her for me."
"With his tongue?" Ms. McCrae stared at me. "You're kidding me?"
"No, Mom." Paula chuckled and grabbed my right hand, lifting it up. "I'm going to have to register his tongue and his hands as dangerous weapons. When we were having regular sex, I was quieter, because a lot of that time we were kissing too. Well, except when we were both hollering our heads off."
Now she was blushing too.
"Okay, enough." I laughed uneasily. "I'm feeling way out of my depth."
"Oh, Honey! That's one thing you don't have to worry about." Ms. McCrae smiled at me. "I think you can handle yourself quite well. Sydney was telling me a bit about her talk with you and you certainly seem to have impressed her!"
"Hey! You never told me anything about the talk you two had." Paula spun toward me.
"I never had much time for talking." I grinned at her. "You seemed to be interested in other things."
"Oh, I love what you do to each other." Ms. McCrae laughed. "Hasn't Paula changed Sydney? And CJ's changed too, he was so shy when they showed up at the door. Now they're acting comfortable with each other, almost like they've been together for years."
"Well, we aren't exactly acting normally ourselves." Sydney sighed, finally having gotten her giggles under control. "There's something about Paula's young man . . ."
"I get the feeling that everyone wants to change the subject on me." Paula said sharply. "I want to hear about this talk that CJ had with you, Sydney. What's the big secret?"
"There's no secret." I said quietly. "She got me irritated, so I told her off."
"Actually, I don't blame him one bit for being annoyed." Sydney said quietly. "I stuck my nose where it didn't belong, but he caught on and made me feel foolish. He convinced me that I had to make a decision. I was being torn between being loyal to my lover or loyal to my patient and I had to decide which role I was going to play with you. He explained in very simple words that I shouldn't advise you about your sex life when I was actually being influenced to give you a modified version of your mother's opinions, and he was perfectly right."
"Wow! Does that mean I need a new gynecologist?"
"Oh, I'll still give you advise if you want, but as a family friend. I'd like to pass your treatment on to one of my associates. You see no matter how I try, Aileen's opinions are still going to influence me and that will affect my advice."
"Well, after all these years I think I can detect Mom's opinions from yours. But, I do appreciate your honesty and I will swap doctors. It makes sense not to put you under pressure." Paula grinned "See Mom, I told you he was smart."
"And you're being a smart ass again." Ms. McCrae laughed. "Not that I don't like it, not at all. CJ, can I hug you?"
"Huh?" I was astounded. "What did I do?"
"Well, you seem to have proven to my daughter that she has a backbone to start with. Then, I think you've helped my best friend and sometime lover by reducing the conflict she's probably been struggling with. And, besides that, I just plain like you." She laughed. "You are a very loveable young man."
"I am?" I stared at her.
"Yes, you are." Paula giggled in delight. "Why do you think I ran a bloody marathon in order to be able to seduce you, you silly twit?"
"What are you talking about?" Ms. McCrae asked.
"Didn't I mention that? I was sure I did." Paula giggled even more. "After he swept me off my feet and after we'd shaken hands and exchanged names, I P'd him off too, so he did his temper thing. You know, sounded off and walked away, so he wouldn't get into a fight. It took about half a second and I'd made up my mind I wanted to make love to him, so I followed, clear across campus. When I caught up to him, he'd secluded himself in this lovely little glade hidden away in the center of a copse of trees and I was almost completely out of breath. That's where I seduced him."
"You made love to each other outside? Out in the open?"
"Oh, Mom. I don't think ten people on the whole campus know that glade exists. It was very romantic. We even got rained on to cool us down after the second time."
"So you met because he slid across the floor, knocking you on your butt and then he got angry and you seduced him."
"No, no, no. It wasn't like that at all." Paula giggled. "He did fall down and slide into me, but it was an accident and it was spectacular. He must have slid fifteen or twenty feet on his belly. I saw that he was going to hit me and instead of getting out of the way, I bent to try to catch him. When CJ knocked me on my butt, it was so funny. His head was under my skirt and I was trying to catch my breath and laughing really hard at the same time. I knew neither of us were hurt badly because I was okay and his head was right up under my skirt, so I could feel his breath on my inner thighs and . . . Oh, I wasn't going to tell you that part." She broke into giggles. "Actually I could feel his nose and mouth, right . . . well, down where he could smell me."
"Oh, DAMN!" Sydney gasped, catching on instantly and staring at me, then suddenly she was giggling again.
Ms. McCrae was just staring at me, then she slowly started to grin.
"Fate sucker punched you." She laughed. "You didn't have a chance. I'm not arguing about the two of you any more in any way. It's probably not safe. Maybe Mother is right, maybe there are fairies and leprechauns? Something certainly seems to have thrown you two together."
To my absolute astonishment, she walked forward and wrapped me in a hug. I couldn't help it, I hugged back, but that brought on another reaction. I got hard. Very, very hard.
"Oh my!" She whispered in my ear, pulling me even tighter and pressing her thigh against my groin. "I'm envious."
I didn't know what to say or do. This was Paula's mother and she was sexy. Suddenly my body was being totally traitorous. It liked the feeling of Ms. McCrae's totally naked body rubbing against it and it was reacting. I was feeling ashamed of myself, then I glanced at Paula and saw that she was grinning at me. She saw me catch her looking and she winked. That did it, I knew that she knew. Somehow that changed everything.
Ms. McCrae . . . NO dammit, Aileen shifted her body slightly, then I realised she was moving herself, grinding herself against my thigh.
"Hey!" I growled and without thinking I swatted her butt and pulled back. "Aileen, be a good girl. Enough of that."
She pulled back and stared at me in surprise, her mouth open. I had to grin and Paula laughed softly.
"Dammit, now you've got me blushing." Aileen sighed.
"You deserve it." Paula said behind her. "Actually, he should paddle your butt good for trying to make time with your daughter's boyfriend. Sydney, what do you think?"
"Actually, I can't say I blame her one bit." Sydney grinned. "In fact, I'm a bit jealous."
"See." I winked at Paula. "I told you I needed clothes on."
"I still think you'd have been better off completely nude." She argued. "I expected us to get into an argument over the morning after pill, instead they're acting like this is a party. If it's a party and the women are nude, you should be too."
"I'm going to argue with you." Sydney laughed softly. "On both counts."
"What?" Paula stared at her.
"Unh huh." Sydney grinned. "I will not recommend that you take the morning after pill. Not this month, but that's only because of the way you two act toward each other. You've got what, ten or twelve days until your period starts? If you take the MAP, then you'll effectively have a period right away and you wouldn't be able to have sex for five days. I wouldn't want to do that to your relationship. Or did you think of that?"
"I didn't really think about it; in fact, I didn't know that." Paula admitted. "I don't want that either."
"Well, what I will recommend is that we sit down and figure out which day of your cycle you're at and start you on that day's pill. At the same time, I think CJ should start using a condom, maybe not tonight, but tomorrow at least. Either that or you go without the pill completely and whether CJ uses a condom is up to the two of you."
"Oh, you're really helping." Paula snorted. "Actually, you're screwing with my head. I was all set to hear your argument and then give in. Now I really don't know what to do. CJ, help me, please?"
"Well, let's hear from your mom. Aileen, what do you think, now that Sydney has thrown everyone a curve? Have you changed your mind too?" I grinned at her.
"You would want me to go first, would you not?" She laughed. "You keep this up and you are going to convince me that she would be silly not to have your babe."
"Oh, the crazy accent is back." I grinned.
"That only shows up when she's a bit uncertain with herself." Paula laughed. "I'm surprised you caught it. I don't really notice it myself."
"You would be uncertain of yourself as well if you were in my situation." Aileen flushed slightly, then took a deep breath. "CJ, would you have a seat please and perhaps Paula could sit on your lap."
"Oh, a case of putting a barrier in the way of temptation, Mom." Paula grinned at her.
"Absolutely correct." Aileen sighed. "In all honesty, I am attracted to your boyfriend and although he may not want to be, his body reacts to mine. The temptation is extreme at the moment."
"That's why I was thinking he's better off in shorts than he would be nude." Sydney smiled as well. "I think your taste in men is absolutely impeccable, Paula, and I think your mother agrees."
"Wow." Paula looked at me for an instant as I stared at the two older women in astonishment, then she shoved me back into a chair and crawled into my lap. "There, is that better?"
That's when I broke into laughter. I couldn't help it. This state of affairs was simply too strange for me. I knew in my heart that I was a hopeless klutz with women, but here I was in a room with three women who in one way or another had let me know that they found me desirable. It made no sense at all, in fact in a way, it was almost scary. It seemed to me like this whole situation was similar to one of those jokes that cause you to feel like you have to laugh or you'd break into tears and cry.
"Ahh." Aileen sighed, then walked over and wrapped an arm around Sydney's waist and drew her close. "She knows me well, this woman."
She paused to turn her head and stand on her tiptoes as Sydney bent down so they could kiss lightly. Then both of them sighed and moved to the couch to sit side by side.
"Paula, and CJ, I admit I am truly wrestling with this. In one way, I would love to have a grandchild and CJ, I think I would love to have you be the father of my grandchild. But, on the other hand, Paula is in the third year of her four-year course at the University. Since CJ is similar in age, I would imagine that your education is about the same. If Paula were to become pregnant now, I believe her education would suffer and yours might well suffer as well." Aileen looked me in the eye.
"Why?" I smiled at her.
"Time and money alone would be a big factor." She said flatly.
"Well, I can't do much about the time thing." I grinned. "But I'm certainly not worried about the money part. I can afford whatever we'd need."
"You can afford to support a woman and a child, as well as supporting yourself, while both of you are attending University?"
"Yes." I said flatly. "And every dollar is totally legal."
"You don't act rich." Sydney said quietly.
"Do I need to act rich?"
"No." She laughed. "It's just that you seemed to be quite impressed with my car and . . . well, I got the impression that you were feeling out of your depth with me."
"Oh, that." I snorted. "First, you are impressive, all on your own. Secondly, you were a woman and somehow I was expecting a man, not a sexy woman. Third, you drive a car that suits you. Most people don't. Fourth, you are black and Victoria doesn't exactly have a huge black community. And fifth, you deduced who I was as I was walking down the street with no more clues than the fact that I might be walking along that sidewalk and called me over by name."
"Jeez, now I'm the one who is impressed." She shook her head. "Aileen, I'm sorry to hijack your conversation. Now that I've been educated, we'll see how you do."
Paula was giggling as she snuggled back against me as if she were delighted.
"Paula, what's so funny?" Her mom asked.
"I don't know. It's just that suddenly you two seem to be trying to give CJ a rough time and he's not having any. It's like he's totally relaxed and you two are the ones who are all wound up. When I brought him over here, I was worried and he was shy. Now the tables are turned and it's like he's in control somehow. I really can't explain it, but I do find it funny."
Aileen seemed to relax and she smiled. "I can see the irony in the situation, but I'm still curious as I can be. I simply haven't connected al the dots."
"Mom, he told you earlier. He and his family were prospectors, do you know what they do?"
"No, not really." Aileen shook her head. "Run around in the trees, looking at rocks and things I suppose."
"They live out in the bush on their own with no one else to support them. They have to be totally self-reliant. They don't have a way to call 911, if they have a problem they have to deal with it. I just realised that if you put pressure on CJ, he goes into his tough guy mode and deals with it. Period. He's already shown us that he doesn't want to fight and he'd rather be alone than crowded, but when push comes to shove, he shoves back. Everything he's done has impressed me more. And, I'm not talking about what he does in the bedroom, that's something else and our business, just between the two of us."
"Well, he's an enigma." Aileen shook her head. "I've watched him change."
"Don't worry about it." I let the smile come that I'd wanted to let out. "Paula has done a lot of that and so have you and Sydney. Up until today, I haven't been able to apply my . . . well, call it my field education to people. Paula is right about being alone out in the bush, we were. We dealt with problems and emergencies every day. It was part of life. I haven't had to do that here in town. And, she's right, when you put me under pressure, I deal with it."
"Okay, so you are admitting that you're changing right before our eyes."
"I guess so." I was still smiling. "Mom will sure be happy. She's tried to push me into all sorts of things to get me to change and it hasn't worked. Which reminds me, I should really call her and tell her I've got a girlfriend."
"Do I get to meet her soon?" Paula turned to me and smiled.
"Of course you do."
"Is she here in town?"
"Yeah."
She rolled across me and reached out, pulling the phone back and handing it to me with a grin. "I'd like to talk to her too."
"But I was talking to your mom and Sydney. I don't want to be rude."
"Forget about us. We're already reeling and need to get back to solid footing." Aileen laughed. "We'll go talk in the kitchen for a bit and let you make your call in privacy."
"Hey, no way, I'm not chasing you out. Mom will want to talk to you anyway. She's going to want to say thank you."
" Trust me, I think she'll want to meet Paula first." Aileen smiled, then she and Sydney stood and moved to the kitchen.
I was tempted to whistle, but then felt stupid about it and just grinned at Paula. Instead of getting myself in trouble I dialled the phone and Mom answered it on the first ring.
"Hi, Mom, it's CJ."
"Well, this is a surprise. I was hoping on a nice day like this that you might be out with you friends." Mom answered.
"Well, I sort of am." I grinned and hugged Paula. "I've got a gorgeous girl sitting in my lap."
"Oh, sure." Mom sighed. "I suppose you're going to try to tell me that this is a girlfriend?"
"Yep, she says she is anyway and I sure like the idea. I think her mom likes me too."
"CJ, quit teasing."
"Would you like to talk to her? Her name is Paula McCrae and she's in one of my classes at the University."
"CJ, if this is a joke, I'll wring your neck."
"Cross my heart, Mom."
"Really, you've found someone special?" Her voice was climbing like it always did when she grew excited.
"Unh huh, she's one in a million." I grinned and gave Paula a squeeze.
"So, how did you meet her, just in class?"
"Sort of. Actually I tripped and fell, then slid into her and knocked her down. She fell on top of me and the instructor kicked us out of class for the disturbance and so we could go get checked out that we weren't badly hurt. We've been together since."
"So she even knows that you have clumsy times?"
"She does too, only we seem to cancel each other out somehow."
"What?"
"Oh man, that's been her mom's reaction too." I laughed. "Her mom can't believe that I'm clumsy and she can't believe the change in Paula."
"Well, did you say she was there with you?"
"She's sitting in my lap, want to talk to her? She wants to say 'Hi' to you."
"I'd love to."
"Okay, here's Paula."
"Get your head over here so you can talk too." Paula smiled shyly at me as if she'd lost confidence.
Once we had the phone adjusted so we could both hear, I heard Paula take a deep breath.
"Hi, Mrs. Johnson, I'm Paula."
"Well, hello. Are you really Clyde's girlfriend or was he just teasing me?"
"Oh no, it's for real and he prefers to be called CJ as I'm sure he's told you."
"Oh, Honey, you just convinced me." Mom laughed happily. "No girl, but one who thought a lot of her guy, would think of correcting his mother about his name. When can I meet you? I have a million things to tell you and you probably have a million more to ask me."
Paula shifted so I couldn't hear Mom anymore and mouthed the word 'Sorry' in my direction, then started talking a mile a minute. After a moment, she got out of my lap and shifted to another chair, but kept right on talking to Mom. In a way, I felt left out, but at the same time I knew it was something Mom would love. I sighed after a few minutes and stood up to stretch, but Paula noticed instantly.
"Oh Gee, Mrs. Johnson. I'm sorry but CJ is feeling sort of left out and . . ." Paula said into the phone and jumped up. "Okay, we'll see you then. Goodbye for now and here's CJ."
She handed me the phone and gave me a kiss on the cheek, then danced out of the room toward the kitchen.
"Hi, Mom. I'm sorry to interrupt, I was just stretching and Paula must want to talk to her mom as well."
"That's probably because I've invited them over for Sunday dinner." Mom laughed. "You're right. She sounds lovely. I hope you're serious about that girl."
"Pretty much, Mom." I grinned. "Are you going to be okay with doing a full dinner?"
"Oh, I'll be fine. Actually, Mary Joe would shoot me if I didn't call her and tell her you've found someone. I doubt very much if she'd want to miss meeting any girl you found for yourself, so I imagine she'll be here to help."
"You just darn well better let me know if she can't." I insisted. "You could always have it catered."
"Yes dear." Mom laughed. "It wouldn't be the same though."
"So the invitation is for Paula and Aileen?"
"And Aileen's lover someone named Sidney is included."
"Did Paula think to tell you that Sydney is spelled with a 'Y' and that Sydney is very black, taller than I am and absolutely stunning?"
"Oh!" Mom laughed softly, catching on instantly. "Thanks for the warning. Come to think of it, you might mention about Mary Joe. I guess about me too."
"I had planned to." I laughed. "Did you give her your address?"
"What, aren't you going to bring them?"
"In my pickup? It isn't legal to put that many people in a pickup truck, Mom."
"Well, this gives you a reason to buy a car. Besides, now that you have a girlfriend, you need something decent to drive. Get yourself something suitable for a young man for a change. Get a Mercedes or a Volvo."
"Mom!"
"I'll see you Sunday, and I want you to drive them." She laughed and hung up on me.
When I tried to dial back to argue with her, the phone number was busy. She was probably on the phone to Mary Joe, letting her know about Sunday dinner.
"Women." I growled in frustration.
"What's wrong with women?" I heard from the doorway as Aileen came back into the room.
"Oh, it's my mother. Now I have to go buy a car before Sunday." I laughed. "She insists that I have to drive you out to the house."
"We could use our car." Paula volunteered as she and Sydney came too.
"No, you and I'd better go downtown tomorrow. I wouldn't want to buy something you didn't like or Mom would shoot me."
"Just like that, we're to go buy a car I like?"
"Yeah, that's how Mom thinks." I sighed, turning to put down the phone. "But, she likes Volvos or Mercedes."
"You've got to be kidding?"
"No." I shook my head.
When I looked up at them, they were all staring at me as if I had two heads.
"Because we're going out to dinner, you and I are going to buy a Volvo or a Mercedes?"
"Unh huh. It's got to be big enough for all four of us to ride in comfortably though, because she wants me to drive everyone out there."
"See. I told you he said they had shares in a diamond mine." Sydney said quietly.