Two for the Road

“I really, really do not want to do this.” Rebecca stood in the dark doorway, looking out into the night. It was warm outside, but very black. The stars were unadventurously hiding behind sheets of cloud and the moon just barely made its presence known. Who knew what lay beyond the screen door?
“If I have to suffer through this, so do you,” replied Jaime, who wore the same grim expression that Rebecca did.
Suddenly Jaime’s mother appeared from around the corner, holding her purse. She was a beautiful woman. Well, at first glance. She looked young for her age (thanks to countless years of wrinkle creams and skin treatments imported from various parts of the world), with smooth skin, shining blonde hair held up in a fabulous up-do, and make-up applied just so. She donned a stunning plum-colored designer evening gown that fitted her form just enough to show off a body dieted and shaped into what a fitness magazine editor would consider putting on his cover, but did not give the impression that she was looking for a man to appreciate it. She was not one for love, after all. “Would you two stop whining like little children and at least attempt to act like mature ladies, just for one evening?” she said impatiently. “Stop pretending you are being led to slaughter.”
“I wish,” Jaime chuckled under her breath. Mrs Bennet threw her a look but said nothing.
~*~*~
A woman in a sequined black dress approached the three. “Well hello, Margery!” she exclaimed. “It’s been too long, dear!” She then noticed Jaime and Rebecca, examined them, and asked “And who might these young ladies be?”
“Oh, you remember my daughter, Jaime.”
The woman gasped dramatically. “Jaime? My goodness, you’ve grown! Why, the last time I saw you, you were just four feet!” Jaime forced a smile.
“And this,” Jaime’s mother said, waving to her left, “is Jaime’s…friend, Rebecca.”
Jaime and Rebecca exchanged glances and grinned.
She examined Rebecca again. “You have marvelous features, darling. Just look at those cheekbones!” By now she had her long, veined fingers cupping the girl’s chin and moving her face around as though she were a doll. Jaime stifled a laugh.
“Yes, she’s a pretty one,” said Jaime’s mom. After a moment, the two moved off to mingle with the crowd, leaving Rebecca and Jaime to shake off the encounter.
Jaime laughed first, covering her mouth after she attracted a few looks. “’Darling, she’s right- your cheekbones are absolutely to die for!’” She giggled, her voice mocking the strange woman’s.
Rebecca laughed sarcastically. “Who the hell was that?”
“No idea,” she shrugged. “Doubt my mom does, either.” Her hand dropped down to Rebecca’s bottom and squeezed. This was accompanied, of course, by a wickedly flirtatious smile.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Rebecca snapped in a low voice. “There are people everywhere!”
“I like a bit of exhibitionism every now and then!”
She knocked Jaime’s hand off. “This is a fancy place, with lots of conservative people, and I-”
“Oh, girls, there you are!” Mrs. Bennet approached the girls, apparently losing interest in the people around her rather quickly. “Our seat at the table is over here.” She led them to some chairs near the end, situated directly beside the cheek-pinching woman from the moment earlier.
“Would you like some chicken, Rebecca?” she offered, waving her wrinkled hand towards the plate.
“Oh, uh, no thanks. I’m-”
“She’s a vegetarian,” Jaime explained.
Cheek-pinching lady looked shocked. “A what?”
“She doesn’t eat any meat. Or fish, or chicken.”
“Well, why on earth would you do such a thing? No wonder you’re so thin! You have no protein, dear! It’s not healthy!”
“Actually, vegetarians are less likely to get cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and lots of other diseases.”
“That can’t be true. It’s just preposterous!”
Rebecca felt heat rush to her face as Jaime put her hand on top of her girlfriend’s to calm her down. She was a relatively easygoing person, but was not so patient when it came to topics she really cared about. “Well, I haven’t eaten any animals since I was eleven. I just think the way they’re treated in the slaughterhouse is unnecessarily cruel, not to mention that the damage to the environment is atrocious.”
“Well, that’s just silly,” she replied. Rebecca and Jaime’s eyes widened at the blatant, rather rude statement, but before either could respond, the woman changed the subject. “Jaime, you look just like my niece did when she was your age. Actually, I may have a picture of her in my purse somewhere…” As she dug through the silver clutch she held in her lap, Rebecca and Jaime exchanged looks once more. “Ah! Here it is!” She pulled out a wallet photo of a girl, about Jaime’s age. However, age was seemingly the only thing the two had in common; her niece wore clips in her highlighted hair, had nicely-tanned features, and wore a light pink cardigan- about as far from Jaime as you could get. “See? You two have the same eyes!” the woman insisted.
Jaime plastered on a smile. “Yeah, we do look kind of similar! I love her shirt…”
“I think you would look absolutely stunning in it! As a matter of fact, if you let your hair grow out and got rid of that red dye, or lost maybe twenty or thirty pounds, I’m absolutely positive we could make you look like a model! Oh, I have some earrings that would be…” This is how it went for the next twenty minutes. Rebecca could do nothing but smirk at her suffering girlfriend the entire time. Eventually when Jaime agreed to buy something pink (not likely to actually happen, of course), cheek-pinching woman turned away, satisfied, and began conversing with her husband. Everything in the room was coated with sparkles, crystal, classical music, and an air of superiority. It was clean and elegant. It was high-class and exclusive. It was the last place on earth either girl would choose to be.
“I have to use the washroom,” Jaime announced, standing up from her seat. Just as Rebecca was about to cast her an ‘I can’t believe you’re leaving me here alone with them’ look, she added “Rebecca, will you come with me? I wanted you to make sure the zipper on my dress is okay.”
They left the ballroom and entered the darkened hallway that led to a washroom.
“What did you-” Rebecca was shocked to find herself being pinned against a wall and kissed roughly.
“Fuck, I hate it in there,” Jaime whispered, before pulling her girlfriend’s body against her own and planting another kiss on her.
Rebecca pulled away. “What are you doing?! Jaime! If we get caught…” Her hand was grabbed and before she could resist, she realized she was being dragged towards a door. Jaime opened it, revealing the inside of a coat closet.
“We won’t.”
The music from the ballroom was muffled, but still audible through the closed door. Everything was dark as Jaime kissed Rebecca’s neck and brought her hand under the girl’s shirt. Rebecca bit her lower-lip, trying to keep silent. Within one minute, her top was completely off and wrinkled on the floor, and Jaime was working deftly to get into her skirt. Suddenly, the doorknob creaked and the door swung open, exposing the hallway light and a very embarrassed, very shocked couple standing behind the coat-check man. Both girls froze.
~*~*~
“Get out of my car,” Mrs. Bennet said as she pulled up in front of their house. “Jaime, one time, one time I expect you to be civil, to not humiliate me, and you go and pull this. Get in the house. Don’t expect to be around at all any time we have any sort of social event.”
Jaime and Rebecca climbed out of the vehicle. As she closed the door they could hear Mrs. Bennet mumble in disbelief “It was a charity benefit, for Christ’s sake! Charity!”
The two girls stumbled in the front door to Jaime’s house, stifling giggles that were drawn up partly by champagne and partly by what had happened in the closet. Jaime rushed over to the sound system once they arrived in the bedroom, flipping a switch that turned on a flow of Indian sitar music. Rebecca smiled as the girl walked over to her and, taking her hand, led her to the bed. She lit a few candles that were scattered throughout the room and switched on a dim lamp with a pink scarf laid across the top of the shade. Rebecca had always loved this room. Any time they wanted to set the mood, it took only a few seconds to transform it into paradise. Jaime pushed her girlfriend onto the bed, giving a sexy smile as they looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then she slowly kissed Rebecca’s neck and shoulders, traveling down her chest and stomach with ease. She slid the girl’s violet-and-amber skirt gently down, before tossing it to the floor and, with another grin and a look in her eyes that told Rebecca exactly what she was thinking, she kissed her indulgent lips.
The song rambled on, but no longer was it simple background music. Now Rebecca could hear every tone crisp and clear as an October morning. She could feel each vibration, each strum of the sitar, each tap of the tabla. She was caressed by each string of notes played so perfectly. The hands of her lover roamed her flesh, daring to explore every inch of her being. When Jaime’s fingertips brushed against and then lingered in the soft curve of her waist, Rebecca shivered with delight. Tiny sparks of electricity were sent from the touched skin, through her stomach all the way down to the tips of her toes. The music seemed to grow louder, the beat pulsing in her head, as Jaime’s fingers delicately journeyed elsewhere. A deep moan escaped her throat. She clutched the soft, night-colored bedspread, as her breathing grew increasingly labored and fell into beat with the music.