Serendipity by Rocky
CHAPTER 4
A warm breeze that heralded the distant spring moved through the branches of the tall birches, causing them to sway, gently sweeping the sky with their long out-stretched arms. The late afternoon sun pulled a long shadow from the tall woman who stood on the back step. She took a full angry drag from her cigarette and blew it out quickly to be snatched by the breeze and carried away. Staring out at the trees at the end of the yard, she tried to ignore the loud irate voices that were coming from the other side of the closed door.
"…I will not calm down, it's none of your business what I do; or who I do it with!" Amy's voice rang clearly from the kitchen.
"God, I don't believe you. Here I was worried about you and what do I find? Aunt Christen's bed turned inside out and the whole room reeking of sex… and you and that tramp naked…"
"…Don't you ever call her that again, Sherri, or I swear you'll be eating through a straw."
"Good Grief Amy! It's just sick, you and that… woman. Have you no shame?"
"Since when have you worried about me or my shame? Shit Sherri, this is the most you've talked to me in six years. Where do you get off telling me how to live my life when you have made abundantly clear that you want to have nothing to do with me."
"Look I didn't have to come out here to see how you were doing, you know."
"Bullshit! You came here to poke around and you thought I wasn't here. While we're talking about it …Just where did you get the key Sherri?"
"What Key?"
"Don't play stupid with me, that door was locked, I locked it myself."
"So what if I have a key. I'm not the one who was fucking in Aunt Christen's bed and God knows what else. I can't believe it. Her funeral was less than a week ago… How could you?"
"Listen Here Sherri, I loved Aunt Christen, and I know she would be happy for me. You on the other hand haven't been in this house since Uncle Paul died. So I'm only going to ask this one more time… Where did you get the key?"
"Mom gave it to me."
Amy gave out a moan of exasperation. "Agrh! Where did Mom get it then?"
"It was in Aunt Christen's personal effects."
"What!" 'Crash!' The sound of breaking braking glass exploded from the kitchen.
Rory had heard enough, and stormed back into the house. She entered to find Amy clutching a bleeding hand and glaring daggers at her sister, who cowered on the far side of the kitchen table.
"I think, for your sake, you had better leave… NOW!" Rory said as she approached Sherri with all the menace that came from years staring down adversaries in the boardroom.
Amy's sister backed up a few steps and then all but ran from the room. "Mom and Dad are going to hear about this!" They heard her shout from the front door.
"Fine! Just get out! You… you ghoul!" Amy called back, her anger giving in to large tears that threatened to spill from her eyes at any second.
The echoes of the slamming door still haunted the air as Rory turned to catch Amy before she slumped to the floor. "Oh Honey, what happened? Are you Okay?" She asked softly, leading the small woman to a chair. Blood ran freely down the young woman's arm, as freely as the tears that now ran down her face. She sat there dumbly allowing Rory to inspect the jagged gash that ran the full length of the back of one small hand.
"I hit the cupboard." A quavering quiet voice finally admitted.
The tall woman turned to look at the smashed glass in the door above the sink and then back at the tear filled green eyes. She rose without comment and came back with a dishtowel to wrap around the injured hand. "Come on, I'm taking you to the hospital. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure you're going to need stitches."
The throbbing of her hand woke her up. She was lying on the small bed in her room with a blanket wrapped around her. Looking around groggily she wondered how she had gotten there. A soft light came from the hallway and a distant noise of someone banging on something came from downstairs. Cradling her injured hand she walked down to the main floor to find out what the noise was.
Rory tapped the P-trap back into place and tightened the nut to hold it together firmly.
"Hi." A quiet voice said from the doorway.
"Hey, how's the hand?" The tall woman asked as she slid out from under the sink.
"Sore, it woke me up."
"Yeah, those pain killers they gave you zonked you right out. You fell asleep on the way back in the car." Rory looked at her watch. "You can have more now if you want. The doctor said you could take them every four hours."
"Four hours! I've been asleep for four hours?"
"Well actually it's closer to five hours now."
"Baby you should have got me up sooner. You must be starving."
Rory rose and walked over to the smaller woman. "No that's Okay, you needed to get over your shock." She gathered her into a loose hug careful of the injured hand. "Are you ready to talk about it yet?"
Amy didn't answer immediately, she simply chose to bask in the security that the warm hug offered. After a long moment she looked up into the clear blue eyes that were looking back filled with love and concern. "I want you to know that I don't usually lose it like that. If anything I've learned to expect that sort of thing from my family so I've been rolling with the punches, so to speak."
"So what made you start 'punching' back?" Rory asked, reaching up one slender finger touch the tip of her lover's nose. She found it hard to believe the gentle person in her arms was capable of any sort of violence in spite of the bandaged hand that lay between them.
"It was just the last straw, I suppose. When I got here I called Larry Twist, Aunt Christen's Lawyer, and he came out to the airport to pick me up. He said that everything was taken care of and that I was to stay here at the house until the reading of the will."
"Sounds to me like she knew this was going to happen."
"I never knew she had a bad heart. I guess she didn't want to worry me. If anything I believe she died of a broken heart, she wasn't really ever the same after Uncle Paul died and the estrangement of her family couldn't have helped." Amy paused and played with the loose edge of the bandage on her hand. "As executor of Aunt Christen's will I was supposed to care for the estate but when I went to pick up her things I was told they had been called for. I guess I just assumed that Larry had picked them up. Now I find that my Mother has them."
"So you decided to smack the cupboard instead of your sister."
Amy leaned her forehead against Rory's chest. "Stupid thing to do huh?" Preferring not to see the reaction to her statement in her lover's eyes.
"Actually Honey, if someone screwed me around like that they would be nursing a mouthful of loose teeth, family or not." She looked down into the wistful smile this produced. "Enough beating yourself up, sit down and I'll show you some thing." Amy dutifully parked herself on the hamper.
Rory turned and tested the faucets, first the hot and then the cold; both brought forth water on command. She turned back to Amy, her face beaming. "Ta - da!" She sang, and then added with a snicker. "Any time you want I'll help you break it again."
"I never knew that plumbing was a pre-requisite for big business, I'm impressed!" Amy reached out and captured Rory's hand, giving it a small squeeze. "Thank you, …you didn't have to do that."
"Shucks, t'warnt nothin' maam." The ersatz plumber said, tipping an imaginary ten-gallon hat. "Come on I'll show you what else I've been doing while you were asleep."
Amy allowed herself to be lead down to the kitchen, where all indications of her previous little indiscretion had been removed without a trace. A new pane of glass shone from the cupboard above the sink. "My goodness you are full of surprises aren't you." She stood on tiptoe and rewarded Rory with a kiss on the cheek, which rapidly devolved into a longer version involving the full participation of two pairs of lips. "Mmm… Anything else I should know about 'Ms. Fixit'?"
Rory reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a ring containing two brass colored keys. "I saved the best for last… I changed the lock."
"You are my knight in shining armor aren't you?" Amy nudged her savior into a kitchen chair and cuddled into her lap. "You take all the dragons in my life and make them disappear." With her good hand she began tracing the features of the face she was falling so deeply for. The vivid blue eyes and delicate arched brows. Strong smooth jaw and high-sculpted cheek bones. Had any of these features been missing Rory would only been described as handsome but this perfect combination that glowed under her tender touch was the union of beauty made flesh.
Rory looked into the deep green eyes that threatened to well up with tears again and kissed each of them in turn. "Please don't cry. It was nothing, just a quick trip to the hardware store. I only wanted to chase away the cloud that was hovering over the best day in my life and bring the sun shine back into your eyes." She was rewarded with a radiant smile that was joyfully covered in warm kisses.
The knocking from the front door brought them back up for air. Amy frowned in the direction of the knocking, her whole body tensing with anger.
"Relax." Rory said setting her beautiful blond back on her feet. "It's probably just the Chinese Food I ordered. I decided that I'd cook tonight." A cock-eyed grin plastered on her face as she left to answer the door.
"So where'd you learn how?" Amy asked as she dug into a container of 'Chicken Fried Rice'.
"It's easy, you go to the yellow pages and look under 'Chinese'."
"No silly, how'd you learn to fix sinks and stuff? It's hardly something I'd expect to see on your resume."
"Oh that. I learned that on the job when I was in college. I managed an apartment building in exchange for free rent. It was kind of sneaky but instead of calling a professional I'd do the repairs and keep the money, that way it kept my fridge filled with beer and TV dinners." Rory leaned across the table for a tin-foil dish and peeked under the lid to see if any of those dumplings, with the red stuff in the middle, were still left. "I managed to keep that dilapidated building and it's cranky old boiler in one piece until I finished law school."
"You're a Lawyer?" Amy said looking up from the cardboard container in surprise.
"Was. Contract law, but after two years with the company I discovered that I had a flair for marketing, so I left Legal and transferred to Sales. I just kept going up and up the corporate ladder… until of course my 'fall from grace'."
"I still think that was a crock of shit; the way they treated you"
The tall woman popped the last dumpling into her mouth and grinned across the table. "Yes… But I never would have gotten to meet you if it hadn't happened. Now I thank the Gods for all the things that let me wind up in that airport that night."
"No regrets?"
"None… Well maybe one." Rory admitted as she placed the last of the meal into the fridge and put the remaining empty containers into the trash. She walked back to the table, bent down and looked into Amy's eyes. "I wish I'd slapped your sister silly the minute she started screaming at you back in the bedroom."
Amy giggled. "I thought she was going to plotz right there when you asked her to 'please go and wait for us, or was she going to help us get dressed?"
"It got her to shut up and leave the room, didn't it?" Rory said with an evil glint in her eye."
"Yes, but did you have to drop the towel first?"
"I'm sure she must have seen a naked woman before."
"Are you kidding?" Amy laughed. "I don't think she's ever seen herself naked before."
Rory rocked back on her heels smiling. "That would explain why she left the room like a scalded cat."
Amy chuckled as she remembered the horrified look on her sister's face with her mouth gaping like a suffocating goldfish just before she'd fled to the safety of the kitchen. "C'mere you." She said softly, reaching out and sliding her good hand behind the other woman's neck. In the back of her mind she smiled knowing this was the reverse image of their first kiss, where they first felt the hunger of two souls fated to meet.
"Mmm…" Rory purred, "If this is what I get for dropping a towel, I can't wait to see what I'd get for mooning your entire family."
This statement caused Amy to lose hold of the ear lobe she had been nibbling on, dropping her head to the other woman's shoulder she shook with little shivers that slowly escalated to peals of laughter. She laughed 'til her sides ached. Holding tight to Rory she gasped to suck in more oxygen. The image of her mother grasping her pearls wide-eyed at the sight of her lover's lovely white derriere was rapidly diffusing all the hurt and anger caused by the scene with sister. When she finally slowed down to small panting chuckle all the tension was gone, even her hand felt better. "Every time I think I can't fall more in love with you go and do something like this and I fall all over again. What did I ever do to be so lucky?" She asked smiling into her lover's eyes.
Rory's eyes searched the younger woman's face; it's honest love pouring back at her with warm intensity. "I'm the lucky one." She whispered burying her face in the rich golden curls to hide the tears that threatened burst forth at any second. "I was dying a slow death of lonely bitterness until I met you. You are my salvation from becoming a miserable old bitch. I feel young again… I mean your love makes me young again." She sighed frustrated in her inability to convey all the feelings that were slamming around in her heart. Pausing for a moment, she finally said simply, "I love you too."
The dulcet tones of Brahms floated out from the stereo and draped themselves loosely around the two women cuddled together on the sofa. Rory had her head leaned into the wingback and was slowly stroking Amy's blond curls where her head lay softly between her breasts. They were both half-asleep, basking of the warmth of each other's company, letting the music swell over them. Finally the Tragic Overture spiraled away leaving them in a ghostly silence. Rory placed a gentle kiss on the soft blond head. "If we keep this up, we'll wind up sleeping in our clothes again."
"Not if I can help it, we won't." Amy began pulling the free the snaps on Rory's shirt and slid her hand into the opening. "Oh yeah, right where I left 'em." She said with a satisfied grin. "…And nothing in the way this time either."
A lazy smirk tugged at the corners of Rory's mouth. "I dressed in a hurry if you remember. We are wearing the last of my clean clothes." She plucked at the over large sweat suit the younger woman was wearing. "I wasn't kidding about the dirty laundry."
"Right laundry…" Amy circled her fingertips over a hardening nipple, and turned her head to kiss the sweet spot between the two breasts through the opening in the shirt. "We'll wash your clothes in the morning, there's a washer and drier in the basement."
A large hand worked its way passed the elastic waistband of the sweat pants and cupped the soft round bottom, gently kneading the pliant flesh. "You don't have to wash my clothes Honey. I was planning to send them out yesterday, but I guess I got packed in a hurry too."
"Was that just yesterday, it seems like a lifetime ago." The tip of a pink tongue traced the line of a collarbone, pausing while the shirt slid off of one shoulder. "Let me do this for you Baby." Amy looked up into the blue eyes that were hooded in pleasure and wiggled her eyebrows evilly. " I want to run riot through your fine unmentionables."
"No starch please." Rory chuckled as she played with the incredibly soft skin behind Amy's left ear. She was trying to decide which was softer the ear or the derriere, when a wet mouth and nibbling teeth caused her to utter a sound half way between a moan and a squeak. "Okay… Mmm… You can wash my clothes… OH… You can wash my car… Oh God… You can even brain wash me if want…" She made the little moan-squeak noise again. All thoughts of soft skin and starched boxers fluttered off to nowhere.
"Brain wash huh. I can work with that. Just how dirty is your mind, Ms. Western Sales Manager?" Amy asked looking up from the area which she had just liberally coated in glistening saliva, and kissed as if to mark her place.
"Mmm… filthy, it keeps having thoughts of ravishing young blond maidens in sweat suits that are way, way, too big."
"What are way too big? The Maidens… or the sweat suits?" Amy inquired, feigning indignation, emphasizing with a hard squeeze to a sensitive area.
"The beautiful blond maidens of course… Hey! Careful, I like that right where it is. I'm awful sure they're a bitch to grow back."
"Hell of a Souvenir though. Huh?" Amy replied bending back down to kiss the boo-boo better.
The hand that had been caressing the fleece covered bottom migrated south to capture a supple inner thigh, teasing up and down from knee up to 'down', and back again. It was Amy's turn to squeak.
"I'll give you just two or three hours to stop that."
"This?" Rory's hand stopped and kneaded the velvety muscle. "…Or this?" A single finger traced the cartilage of one delicate ear.
"Definitely the 'This', but the 'Or this' is nice too." Amy stretched trying to trick her lover into sliding her hand 'A little bit higher'. Frustrated at her failed attempt she decided that dirty pool was in order. She unbuttoned the pale blue jeans under her hip and tried slipping her hand in. "Ow!" She winced, rudely reminded of her injured hand.
"Are you Okay?"
"Yes." Amy replied, secretly fantasizing that she had hurt her hand on her sister's face. "But I have decided two things, …well three things actually."
"The first thing?"
"This couch is too cramped."
"The second thing?"
"You are wearing way too many clothes, …too many tight clothes." She added to allow for the relative freedom Rory had been having under the loose sweat suit.
"I think I can fix both of those relatively easy. What's the third thing?"
"It's more of a revelation really."
"…And that would be?"
"You're not wearing any underwear."
Rory dropped the hand that was petting Amy's ear down to her chin, tilting her head back for a long searing kiss. "Like I said earlier I got dressed in a hurry." She pulled her hands free of the warm body on top of her and scooped Amy into her arms. Rising from the sofa she carried her down the hall towards the bedroom.
"I guess this is how I got upstairs, isn't it?" Amy asked, amazed at the ease in which she had been conveyed from one place to another.
"It was either that or leave you sleeping in the car." The tall woman replied as she turned the corner into the master bedroom, careful not knock Amy's head on the door jam. "You looked too damn cute to wake up, so I put you up stairs."
"Thank you."
"Your welcome. …Now 'First thing', instead of a cramped couch, you have a king sized bed, with fresh sheets, I might add." Rory said setting the sweats clad woman on the bed. "…'Second thing', too many clothes." A shirt was shrugged off and the faded denim fell to the floor. Rory stood there for a heart beat with her arms crossed and her pants around her ankles. "…'Third thing', no underwear. …Hmm, well I guess I could put my damp boxers back on."
"Don't you dare!"
Rory had to duck as a sweat suit came sailing through the air above her head. The sight of the petite blond dressed only in a band-aide was enough to make her mouth water. Without thinking she took a step toward to alluring vision, tripped in the pants around her ankles and landed beside the bed.
A pair of green eyes peeked over the edge of the bed. "Neat! Naked Déjà vu."
Rory growled and leaped onto the bed.
(c) 1999 S. Day