Rhapsody Suite
Seventeen
SATURDAY MORNING, after Pilates, I was delegated to pick up Sandra, Amy, and Kate and then ordered to drive all five girls to the mall for a beauty treatment. Yeah, I make it sound like I was really put upon, but just having those five in the car with me… Well, the temperature was rising. The teasing kept me red in the face.
When we got to the mall, Lissa sent me to her store and told me to ask for Rose. Rose would dress me. I was not to ask about prices since the purchase was going on Lissa’s employee account and Rose knew the limits. I would not be allowed out of the house tonight unless every item of clothing on my body was new. Well… they would let me wear my good shoes as long as they were freshly polished. I dropped them off at the mall’s shoeshine stand to have a professional job done.
When Rose was done with me, I went to QuickCuts and got my hair trimmed. The gal who cut my hair talked nonstop and wanted to know all about my date tonight, where I was going, and who I was taking. When I told her that I actually had five dates for a big party tonight she almost shaved my head.
Accidentally, of course.
Instead, she called one of the guys who worked there over and told him I needed special treatment. That made me nervous, but this guy was more of a traditional barber than a hair dresser and he wrapped a hot towel around my face and then proceeded to give me a shave.
“Howard, he has five dates for a party tonight.”
“So, you want me to give you a shave or just slit your throat now?” he asked.
He actually used one of those straight razors you see in gangster movies just before somebody gets their throat slashed. I didn’t breathe for twenty minutes. The result, though, was that my face was baby smooth and felt pleasantly tingly. I left a big tip for the two of them.
After four interminable hours at the mall, I was hungry, cranky, and loaded down with boxes of clothes for both me and the girls, including a new pair of slacks, a sport coat, and my shoes. The jacket was a deep maroon and was actually a pretty good match for the SCU school color. The shirt, tie, slacks, underwear, and socks were all chosen to match “the ensemble,” as Rose kept referring to it. I even picked up a new pair of black loafers to go with the gray slacks.
Back home, I fixed a sandwich as girls in various stages of dress and undress ran from bathroom to bedroom to bedroom to bathroom as they got ready for the evening. Eventually, they all moved into the master bedroom to do makeup and put their dresses on. I was told to use the guest bath to shower and dress. I’d been waiting in the living room for forty minutes wishing Drew and Damon were there to read to when I was told to get ready to meet my dates. Well, I had a little surprise for them as well thanks to my collusion with Lissa. Only she knew what everyone was wearing and she’d stocked the refrigerator with flowers to match each girl’s dress.
It was worth the wait.
Kate came out first. I might not have mentioned how exotically beautiful Kate is. She hides it at school wearing bib overalls and a t-shirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She’s a couple inches shorter than me, which would make her taller than everyone else but Lissa. She wore a purple dress—her favorite color—cut about four inches above the knee. Her open toed heels raised her to eye-level with me and showed off her purple toenail polish. I was used to seeing her hair pulled back, but it was piled high on her head in a ballet dancer’s bun that highlighted her facial features. I’d never asked Kate what her ethnic background was. Her surname is English or German, I think, but the vision in front of me was anything but. Having her hair piled on top of her head accentuated her long bare neck—and shoulders—and back—and cleavage… Damn! She couldn’t have cut that dress any lower and been legal in most states.
I’d never seen her legs before. I mean naked. I mean in a skirt. Shit! She was wearing high heels and her bare legs were…awesome!
“God, Kate! You’re gorgeous!” I couldn’t think of anything else to say, though I was still just staring at her. She walked up to me like a model on a runway and then turned to walk back by the fireplace and stood facing me. Then she opened a piece of paper and read.
“Your dates this evening will arrive in order of seniority, newest member of the posse first to first member of the posse last. We’ve dressed for the occasion. Purple is for passion, royalty, bravery. It is the color I have chosen for our first date. You may kiss me now, but don’t mess up my lipstick… too much.” Kate was blushing and I was guessing that she hadn’t read what Melody had written before she was sent out to face me. However, I wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity. I stepped in front of her and looked into her bright hazel eyes.
“Kate, I am honored that you would consent to be my date this evening.” Melody had written the script for me, as well, and I’d taken the time to memorize it. I surprised Kate and pulled a flower from behind my back. The purple orchid accented her dress and makeup perfectly. I tried not to embarrass either Kate or myself as I pinned the corsage onto the limited fabric that was available, but she didn’t seem to mind the backs of my fingers pressed against the soft flesh of her left breast.
“Decided braless was the right choice?” I asked with a bit of a smirk.
“I don’t own one,” she answered. Well, that confirmed that. I wanted to leave my fingers where they were, but I decided I’d better move on.
I leaned in to kiss her softly and she held her lips against mine without moving away. They were soft and slightly open and I fought the urge to press between them with my tongue. When I pulled back, she stayed in the same position with her eyes closed and the exposed portion of her chest rising and falling deeply. When it was apparent that I wasn’t coming in for a second helping, she straightened with a sigh and looked into my eyes, smiling. She was going to be hard to resist. In fact, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. A month ago, I’d hardly noticed her. Tonight, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
She turned away from me and I saw a little bell on the mantel. She took it down and rang it and then moved aside.
Amy walked in. Damn, she cleans up nice. She was wearing her version of the LBD—Little Black Dress. It was cut directly from the choker collar down beneath her armpits, leaving her shoulders bare. Her long, dark brown hair fell straight to the middle of her back and her brown eyes were lined darkly. She had impossibly long eyelashes. The dress was skintight down to the middle of her thighs and then flared out in a ruffled edge. In a way that only Amy could pull off, the finishing touch was black patent leather army boots. She paraded into the living room, sashayed up to me, paused, executed a perfect turn, and walked away from me to stand in front of the fireplace and face me. She, too, unfolded a sheet of paper and proceeded to read.
“Black is the darkness of your soul, the mystery hidden within, the place where the sun doesn’t shine.” She stopped reading and looked back down the hall. “Geez, Melody! Did you really make me say that? I’ll kill you!” I heard giggles down the hall. She turned back and read through the rest of her script silently, determining whether she was going to read it out loud. Apparently, the rest wasn’t so bad, but as she read, she adlibbed. “It’s the color I’ve chosen for our first [and probably last] date. I’m your second date tonight [since all the rest of them have already undressed in front of you]. You may kiss your date [but keep your damned tongue in your own mouth].” She puckered up her lips tightly, closed her eyes, and thrust her face forward. She yelped when I touched her chin and her eyes shot open.
“Amy, I am honored that you would consent to be my date this evening.” When I showed Amy the red sweetheart rose that I had for her, though, her whole attitude softened. It was a little awkward pinning the flower on because I’m right handed and in order to hold the flower in place over her heart I had to pin it with my left hand. I was extremely conscious of the fact that I was pressing against her left breast as I struggled to get the flower pinned on. There was a little color rising beneath Amy’s skin.
“Uh… you know I’m a lesbian, don’t you?” she said when I’d finished. I nodded.
“Yeah. Me, too. Girls only. Doesn’t stop me from appreciating your… um… beauty,” I said.
She slammed her lips against mine and pulled my face hard against her with her left hand. I kept my tongue to myself, though I was sure I felt hers brush my lips. When we separated, I wiped my lips, checking for traces of lipstick and bruises. Amy reached to the mantel and rang the bell, then moved over to stand beside Kate. In spite of the fact that she’s got almost no butt, she managed to swing it pretty enticingly. I turned in time to see Sandra coming down the hall from the bedroom.
The strawberry blonde’s dress was fire engine red. It had a scoop neck over a generously cut bodice. The skirt was full, but was pulled up on the left side and tucked into its belt so it was below her knee on the right and upper thigh on the left. Her hair was done to match the dress, all swept up off her neck on the left and hanging below her shoulder on the right. Sandra has lots of curves—most of them in the right places—and she pulled off sexy to the max. When she swings her hips, you’d better duck. She marched up to me, looked me in the eyes, and licked her lips. Then she spun around and walked back to the fireplace. I was wondering when the girls had practiced all this runway stuff and decided they must have waited until I was in the shower. Lissa had to have coached them on their model walk. They acted like professionals. Sandra opened her note and started reading in a dramatic voice.
“I’m your third date tonight and I’m red. Red is for fire, lust, and emergency vehicles. [So, if your heart stops, I’m your paramedic.]” She grinned toward the hallway. “I’ve chosen red for our first [Mmm, let’s call it second…] date. I’m girl number three tonight and you may now lay one on me.” I was pretty sure that wasn’t what the end of the message said. I approached her and she closed her eyes and opened her mouth, tilting her head toward me. There was nothing demure about this offer.
“Are you going to kiss me or eat me?” I asked. Her eyes popped open and she started to pout, then she saw the pink carnation in my hand. It brought a quick smile to her lips and she thrust out her chest for me to pin the flower on. The scoop neckline made it easy to get a grip on the fabric and insert the pin through her corsage. “You opted for a bra, I see,” I chuckled.
“Honey, these babies don’t go anywhere without support.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” I said. While her eyes shifted to Kate and Amy, I leaned into her and gave her a nice soft kiss.
“Hmm,” she sighed. “I hope that’s not the only kiss I get tonight.”
“I hear the whole football team will be at the party, so I wouldn’t worry if I were you.” She slapped my face, but did it so lightly that it was just a tap, then turned for the bell and walked over to join Kate and Amy. I turned to face the hallway and watch a goddess approach.
Lissa’s cocktail dress… I could hardly see it for looking at her eyes. It was a cream tunic that flowed as she walked and clung to her curves when she stopped. In her spike heels, she was easily four inches taller than me and her bearing was so regal that I couldn’t help myself. I knelt on one knee and bowed my head to her, my script forgotten. No matter how she might have instructed the other girls on how to move like a model, Lissa walked in owning the place. Well, she did own the place, but… Fuck!
The dress wrapped up over her left shoulder and plunged halfway to her waist after it crossed her right breast. I wanted to stop her right there and paint the diaphanous folds the way they draped and clung to her body. She stopped before me and held out her hand. I took it and placed a kiss on the back of her fingers. She pulled me to a standing position and then without waiting for a speech, just bent her head and kissed me.
Really kissed me.
When she stood away from me, parts of my body were following her. She stood at the fireplace and faced me, but without reading anything she rang the bell and looked toward the hall.
Another goddess appeared.
Melody’s dress was a perfect match for Lissa’s, but in a teal that accented the dark mahogany tones of her hair. The fabric swished around her and if her walk was not as professional as Lissa’s, the brightness of her smile made it unnoticeable. I knelt again. She came to me and I kissed her fingers as I had kissed Lissa’s and Melody pulled me up into an embrace. I realized that she was wearing a flat sandal that emphasized the difference in their heights. Melody drew me to her and the kiss she gave me sent chills down my spine. When she pulled away from me, she whispered, “I love you,” and went to join Lissa. Instead of standing next to each other to say their lines, though, my two girlfriends turned and gave a kiss to each other that was every bit as steamy as the ones they had given me. There was more than one gasp from my left where Kate, Amy, and Sandra were standing. The two girls parted and turned toward me.
“We’re your last date tonight,” they said together.
“Cream is the color of my skin, the texture of silk, the warmth of flesh,” Lissa whispered, just loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. “I’ve chosen to wear cream on my gazillionth date with Tony and Melody.”
“Teal is the color of my lovers’ eyes,” Melody said. “Its depth knows no limit like the love we share. I’ve chosen to wear teal on my gazillion-and-oneth date with Tony and Lissa.” I had tears in my eyes as I stepped toward them. In one hand I had a simple sprig of baby’s breath to pin on Lissa. In the other hand the blue bell flowers of freesia for Melody. I pinned on Lissa’s flower and then Melody’s, noting with satisfaction that both had chosen the braless look—and feel.
“Melody and Lissa, I am honored each time you consent to be with me. I love you both.”
We moved forward together and all three kissed. This time I know all three of the other girls gasped. It was probably a first for any of them to see.
“I feel like I’m a bridesmaid at a wedding,” Kate said.
“Ah, but you’re dancing with the groom tonight, sweetheart,” I said. “Let’s go to the party before Bree sends the football team after me.”
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