                              
     Chapter 253
     
     
     
     
     Laura had been so upset by running into Shontay in the
hallway outside the door to her own apartment, from which
she and the gorgeous Taneesha had just emerged after hours
of the most thrilling sex, that she had completely
overlooked the fact that she might also run into Deshona-or
worse, Charles, or even Taneesha's mother-while delivering
Taneesha back to her aunt's house in Burlingame.  But, as
Taneesha reassured her, Deshona had not yet returned from
her business trip.  And, fortunately, Charles's black
Corvette was nowhere to be seen.
     
     That left only Taneesha's mother.  The mere thought of
this made the slut in Laura rise to the surface.  After all,
Taneesha was gorgeous, Deshona, whose sister Taneesha's
mother was, was also gorgeous.  Laura had now slept with
them both and could still tingle and quiver all over at the
mere memory.  She must be just beautiful too, Laura thought.
How could she not be beautiful?
     
     "Want to come in and meet my mother?" Taneesha asked
innocently, as if reading Laura's mind.
     
     "Oh . . . I don't think I'd better.  She might get the
wrong idea."
     
     Taneesha smiled sassily, knowingly.  "She would never,
like, ever believe what we've been doing."
     
     Laura could not contain her curiosity.  "What did your
Auntie say that day . . . after I left?" she asked in a low,
conspiratorial voice, even though they were both inside the
car.
     
     Taneesha's expression turned devilish, mischievous.
Then she put on a face of perfect innocence.  "I can't
remember."
     
     "Of course you can."
     
     "She said . . . to forget anything I heard or she'd
kill me.  I don't think she meant it, but she looked like
she would."
     
     Laura didn't know why this was sexually exciting, but
it was.  She knew Deshona would not `kill' Taneesha.  The
thought that she herself had exuberantly screwed them both
made her shiver, and the thought that one had overheard her
screwing the other made it even more exciting.
     
     "Just don't brag about us, okay?" Laura said, hoping
she wasn't groveling to this little schemer.  "I mean, what
we did is between us."
     
     Taneesha got suddenly all starry eyed.  "Oh god, I
know.  Like, I would never tell anybody.  I promise."
     
     Laura got two business cards out of her purse.  She
gave one to Taneesha and made the girl write down her home
phone number, for Laura, on the other one.  Then Taneesha,
popped out of the car and into the house, pausing only
momentarily for a brief but significant wave before
disappearing inside.
     
     Laura had a lot of time on the drive back to think
about Shontay.  She could still see the tears slowly sliding
down Shontay's cheeks, there in the dim hallway, and the
stricken look in her odd, wonderful eyes.  Yet she knew
Shontay was not in love with her.  Or is she? Laura
wondered.
     
     Being herself the one who always fell in love too
easily, Laura was always a little surprised when the tables
were turned.  Goodness, don't they know what a little tramp
I am? she wondered.  Don't they know I can't keep my hands
off any of them?
     
     But she had to acknowledge that Shontay had been
shocked and devastated to catch her with Taneesha, who
looked like anybody's fuck-dream.  Shontay seemed to have
fairly low self-esteem anyway, especially in the sex
department, since she freely admitting having `given it up'
before her affair with Laura and was very self-conscious
about being tall and thin.  Laura had awakened in her a
complex of feelings, physical and emotional, that were
fresh, and new, and very intense.  The idea that Laura might
do the same thing to someone else had apparently never
crossed her mind.
     
     That, at least, Laura realized, accounted for the shock
on her face.  But the deep dismay and sadness she saw in
Shontay's marvelous eyes had to be a reflection of a feeling
she had for Laura that Laura had not suspected, or at least
had ignored.  Even remembering it made her feel like an
absolute worm.  She cares about me more than I ever
realized, she thought.
     
     Or should I say `cared' about me?  I'm sure it's all
over now.  Poor darling, I never meant to hurt her.  I would
do anything not to hurt her.  She is so cold and imperious
when I see her at work, but I know how vulnerable she is.
This must have cut her to the quick.  How do I patch it up?
What can I say to her that will make it all right?
     
     When she got home, she discovered that Taneesha had
left a message on her voice mail.
     
     "Hiiiiiiii, Laura.  I didn't get to say thanks."
Taneesha's voice was hushed, conspiratorial.  "I hope you
can hear me . . . I have to talk low.  Like, I'm in Auntie
Deshona's bedroom, using her phone.  And like I'm sitting on
the bed where you two did it . . . remember . . . when you
[here was a raucous little laugh, quickly stifled] spanked
her?  But then, I'm sure you remember that.  Like, seriously
now, Laura, I wanted to tell you thanks.  I never had sex
like that in my life.  You are one awesome person, I really
mean it.  I hope you get to Michigan real soon, like.  I
can't wait.  I will never forget this afternoon.  I know I
didn't get to tell you . . . it all happened so fast . . .
so I wanted to tell you now.  Oh . . . one last thing.  Next
time, if you don't spank me like you spanked Auntie D., I
will definitely call the New York Times and tell them about
what a, like, pervert you are.  [Another raucous giggle.]
Only kidding.  [Now very serious, almost solemn.]  No joke,
Laura . . . you really opened me up.  I . . . like, I never
came like that before.  I can't wait until next time.
Really.  Okay, bye."
     
     It was a sweet call, and Laura found herself instantly
wondering how she could get to Michigan.  But then her
thoughts returned to Shontay.  Oh god, she looked so hurt!
     
     She tried calling her, but Shontay did not answer, if
she was there.  She too had voice mail, and when it came on,
Laura abruptly hung up, too confused about her motives to
leave a message.  Did she want to apologize?  Explain?
Reassure Shontay that she still cared about her?  What am I
going to tell her, it was just a passing infatuation?  I
have one just like it three or so times a week?
     
     You have done this kind of thing before, Laura.  You
coax some sweet, vulnerable thing out of her shell, turn her
into a hot little hellion of fucking, then show up
unexpectedly with some thrilling little coquette to crush
her ego for good.  You are scum.
     
     
     She was unable to shake this feeling.  At work, she
went out of her way to avoid areas of the building where she
might run into Shontay.  And since she didn't see her once,
she figured Shontay was doing the same to avoid her.
Meanwhile, as if in penance, she tried to toe the straight
and narrow, living a life of chaste indifference to sex for
three whole nights, forcing herself not to hanker after
April, or Shavon, or Randi, or any of her other thrilling
sex partners, and trying to forget that Dawn was attending
college each day with other attractive men and women, then
sleeping each night next to Robert.  After doing god knows
what, Laura thought, feeling her stomach curdle.
     
     But she knew Dawn loved her.  Small comfort.  Evidently
Shontay had thought Laura `loved' her, or something like it.
Look what good it did her, Laura thought.
     
     In this mood on Thursday evening after work she ran
into Chanitra as she was coming out of the building.
     
     "Hey, girl . . . I was afraid you weren't never gon'
come out of there," Chanitra beamed, rushing over from
beside the swinging doors and grabbing Laura's shoulder.
     
     Laura broke into a huge grin.  She had not seen
Chanitra for months.
     
     "You darling girl.  Where have you been all my life?"
     
     "Quick . . . over here," Chanitra said, pulling Laura
over to a corner of the building, into the shadows.  "Came
here to see you . . . not that stuck up phony-ass sister of
mine.  Now she an Executive Director . . . whatever the fuck
that is . . . she act like she Miss Negro America of the
twenty-first motherfucking century.  I can do without it.
Anyways, she hates you and me being together."  She jabbed
Laura in the ribs with an elbow.  "Wants it all for herself,
I think."
     
     Laura grinned.  Chanitra, though she spoke ebonics
impressively well, was not really a `hood-rat or homegirl,
having come from a lower middle class family along with her
sister Yvette and several (Laura did not know how many)
brothers.  In fact, their father was a crane-operator, a
rare and coveted skill, as Yvette had told Laura, and they
had grown up comfortably.  But it was part of Chanitra's
image to talk trash, just as it was to wear her hair in
enchanting beaded braids-short, shoulder-length braids, very
unlike Randi's long ones, or Taneesha's very long ones,
though a lot like those worn by Venus Williams, whom she
physically resembled, except that Chanitra was prettier.
     
     It was also part of her style to wear excruciatingly
tight pants, and, weather permitting, midriff blouses that
showed off, depending on her movements, large smooth areas
of her beautiful dark back and stomach.  Laura wondered if
she didn't have a whole closet full of midriff blouses.
Today she was dressed in a bright yellow one, and her jeans
looked like they were about ready to split.
     
     "You are a sight for sore eyes," Laura said, taking her
all in.
     
     Chanitra squint-smiled at her, a common expression with
her but so close to the way Dawn also did it that Laura
quailed inwardly at the resemblance.  Chanitra was also very
black, blacker even than Yvette, and very close to being as
black as Dawn was.
     
     "You just like looking at my fantastic booty," she
teased Laura.  "You and about five hundred other people,
mostly men of course, on my way over here."
     
     "I can't deny that I love to look at it," Laura
murmured to her, under her breath, hoping there was no one
nearby to hear them.  "I could look at it for hours."
     
     She had long thought it was the Ass of the Century, one
that only a few others-Tiffany's, Jane's, now Dawn's-could
even come close to.  And now that they were in a new
century, it was the Ass of the 21st Century, still a
peerless masterpiece of round, high, firm flesh, shapely
beyond belief, an ass that made you believe there was a god
after all, and that he (It?) loved young girl's beautiful
round bottoms just as much as Laura did.
     
     "You want to do more than look at it," Chanitra said,
eyes flashing.
     
     The last time they had been together, both now recalled
at the same instant, had been the near-rape in one of
Rhonda's spare upstairs bedrooms during the party for
Yvette's promotion.  Oh god, that was hot! Laura remembered,
seeing the sparks glimmering in Chanitra's eyes too as she
remembered the same thing.
     
     "To what do I owe this wonderful surprise?" Laura
asked.  "Look, I'm just going to my car.  Come on, I'll give
you a ride."
     
     Chanitra cocked her head playfully.  "How you know I
don't have a date?  You be thinking since I dropped by to
say hello that you can drag me off and do nasty things,
right?"
     
     Laura smiled indulgently.  "Well . . . I wouldn't put
it exactly that way.  I am kind of fond of you, though."
     
     Chanitra crinkled her nose.  Then she stuck it high in
the air, giving her head a theatrical tilt.  "I guess I can
think it over for a few minutes while you giving me a ride."
     
     They had almost reached the garage where Laura's car
was parked when they ran into Laura's old boyfriend Rob
heading into the same garage.  He was dressed in an
expensive, tailored, navy blue, pinstriped suit and looked
pretty sharp.  Laura had not seen him for months, and her
feelings about him had been ambivalent for even longer than
that, but she could not deny that he looked pretty good, and
she smiled back at him as he walked up to them, giving
Chanitra an appraising glance at the same time, clearly
liking what he saw.  As who wouldn't, Laura thought.
     
     Though they had shared some fairly stirring sexual
experiences, Laura had not slept with him for a long time.
Moreover, their last encounter had involved a night spent
together in bed with Randi, a moment of bad judgment that
had haunted Laura ever since.  Randi had long been jealous
of Laura's other girlfriends, and she took this opportunity
to hurt Laura by beginning a torrid affair with Rob, who
obligingly gave her his full attention, since he knew Laura
would never focus exclusively, or even heavily, on him.
     
     In effect, she had lost Randi to Rob, and yet it was
not the end of the world for Laura, who had grown a little
tired of Randi's possessive needs anyway.  But the true
folly of it became clear when Rob returned to his wife
Camille, leaving Randi in the lurch.  Laura had spent
several scintillating hours in bed with Rob and Camille,
too, and with Camille alone, and she felt entangled by now
in a soap opera imbroglio of major proportions.  She felt
sorry for Randi, felt somehow responsible, and they resumed
their relationship, though now on a more sporadic, less
intense basis.  But Rob . . . irrational though it seemed,
she could not forgive him either for leaving Camille in the
first place, or for thrusting Randi aside so unceremoniously
when Camille beckoned him back.
     
     She herself had long borne a small grudge against him
too for joining his brother Eric, long ago, in trying to jam
both of their huge hard dicks up into her pussy at the same
time.  It had been painful and shocking, and she had half-
hated him ever since for acting so cavalier about it and not
apologizing.  Even Eric had apologized, but Rob . . . never.
     
     And so she was reserved and skeptical now whenever
their paths crossed, unwilling to be drawn into any more
complications.  But Rob was friendly and relaxed.  Laura
introduced him and Chanitra.  Chanitra, all brass and sass
with Laura, was now almost demure and faux cultivated with
Rob as she gave him her slim, black, shapely hand.  Laura
would not have been surprised to see her curtsey.
     
     "What a beautiful name," he said, all charm, staring
straight into her eyes.  "Chan . . . tell me how to
pronounce it again?"
     
     "ChanNEEtrah," she coached.
     
     He actually kissed her hand.  Oh, brother! Laura
thought.  He wants that delicious little black pussy of
hers.  And how could I blame him.
     
     Laura found that she was wanting it a lot at this
moment herself.
     
     She turned in the direction of the parking garage,
trying by her body language to coax Chanitra away.  He's
evil, she tried telepathically to send brain waves to
Chanitra.  He just wants to fuck you.  He only wants your
delicious body.
     
     "Say hi to Camille for me," she said off-handedly to
Rob, tugging Chanitra's elbow.
     
     "Oh . . . that's over," Rob said.  "Finally.  We split.
I'm living on my boat, down in the Marina.  Say, if you two
aren't busy you should come down and we'll take a little
spin out on the bay before dinner.  Have a couple of
drinks."
     
     "Just what we need, to go cruising with a drunk
sailor," Laura cracked.
     
     "Ooohhh god, that sounds wonderful!" Chanitra said,
looking like she might wet her pants with excitement.  "I
never been on a boat like that.  Out in the bay.  Just see
them all the time and wonder what it's like."
     
     Laura could feel herself weakening too.  Despite her
experience with Rob and Randi, she was very tempted to
yield.  She could remember screwing Chanitra together with
Karen, which had been an event that could very well lead off
the `highlights' film of her sexual career, it had been so
hot, so perfect.  The thought of pressing Chanitra's
wonderful young body between her and Rob and fucking the
dear thing until she screamed, all of it out there on the
bay in Rob's boat, was almost too much to resist.
     
     And, she reasoned, Chanitra was not looking for `love,'
like Randi had been, but for kicks.  Did it make any sense
to refuse her?
     
     Chanitra could almost sense that Laura was weakening.
"Pleeease, Laura!" she                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         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