See Manual for Operating Instructions
Julie returned home from work completely drained. She had more or less driven the entire circumference of Greater Manchester in the course of her day, stopping off at various police stations along the way and giving the each MIT syndicate the benefit of her authority and experience. Syndicate Four had some more challenging personnel issues so she was set to return tomorrow but for now she was looking forward to having a couple of hours to herself. She had spotted Gill's car already parked on the driveway so was expecting to find the house occupied.
"I'm home!" She called out as she walked through the front door. Surprisingly it hadn't taken Julie long to get into a new routine and call Gill's place home. She had kept her own house on so she and Gill could have a break away from each other every so often but they'd recently spoken about the prospect of her moving in officially and letting out her place. Those who needed to know about their living arrangements already knew but she hadn't changed any official documents or next of kin details yet. The fact that they were making long term plans was a sure sign that things were very much serious between them.
"In here love." Gill called out from the living room and Julie hung her leather jacket on the peg by the door. She could hear the muffled sounds of music coming from upstairs and surmised that Sammy must also be home. She was too late for dinner but she vowed to make an effort to at least say hello during what was left of the evening. Julie headed into the living room and saw Gill looking very comfortable on the settee. She had her legs curled up beside her, heels kicked off haphazardly on the floor in front of her, glasses perched on the end of her nose and she was reading a book. Half a glass of wine sat on the coffee table beside her, along with what was left in the bottle.
"Been home long?" Julie asked her best friend-turned-girlfriend and leaned over her on the settee to greet her with a kiss.
"A couple of hours maybe." Julie caught a few words of the book Gill had been reading out of the corner of her eye and with her curiosity piqued, she brought the cover up so she could see it properly.
"The Joy of Lesbian Sex? Please tell me you're not serious?" Julie looked mildly amused but Gill appeared to be deadly serious.
"Why ever not?" Julie sighed aloud and realised that it was going to be one of those conversations. So much for a relaxing couple of hours chilling out after her long day at work. She lifted Gill's legs up from the settee, sat herself down in their place and put the stocking-clad legs back in her lap.
"Where do you want me to start?" It was a rhetorical question.
"I just thought… I saw some videos online…" Julie's eyebrows shot up into her hairline in complete surprise at that bit of news.
"You've been watching lesbian porn over the internet?!" Gill looked at Julie and was surprised by her surprise. She had needed something to use as point of reference in her new found sexual orientation, whatever that might be. She still wasn't certain how to label it, or herself, and wasn't entirely sure she felt the need to either.
"I was curious!"
"No wonder you've got a performance complex." Julie seemed to be exasperated by their conversation before it had even begun.
"I haven't got a performance complex." Gill was halfway to pouting and Julie's heart skipped a beat or two in response.
"Then why are you reading a manual? Have I ever made a complaint about our sex life?" As if to emphasise her point, Julie's hands began to wander up from Gill's calves to the hem of her skirt. Her fingers danced in random patterns over the material of her tights and Gill shifted unconsciously on the settee.
"No. But isn't it all a bit vanilla for you, given your experience?"
"You make it sound like I've put myself about a bit!" Simply through different circumstances and experiences Julie hadn't had one or two long term relationships like Gill and instead had a number of more casual, shorter term affairs. There were a couple of women whom she had felt great affection for but they hadn't felt quite the same way about her, others had been up front about the fleeting nature of their entanglement from the beginning.
"Well…" Gill was well aware of Julie's sexual past and although she was by no means a floozy, Gill still felt slightly intimidated by it.
"You cheeky sod! Is this because of something you've seen on the internet?"
"Sort of, that and I found your box of toys." Julie couldn't help but chuckle and Gill had the decency to blush.
"Gill, every woman I've slept with has been different. Some have been very vanilla and others have been more adventurous. Some of my battery operated and silicone friends are for my sole use and others I have shared with my partner at the time. Of course if you wanted to experiment you only need to say but don't feel it's something I expect of you."
"You don't think there's something missing?" Julie went cold at the implication of Gill's words and her hands stopped their movements. Perhaps she was having second thoughts about their relationship after all? It wouldn't be the first time a straight woman had realised that she was still straight after sleeping with her. If anyone should be having a confidence in performance crisis it was her. Julie had never taken these things personally as she had never been truly invested in a relationship quite like this one before.
"Do you?" Julie hadn't even contemplated that Gill could be dissatisfied with their sex life. They had been together romantically for more than six months and they still switched between hot fucking, intense sex and emotional love making. Some days they could be tender, others downright quick and dirty but every single time their coupling was satisfying, at least it had been for Julie.
"No, god no! I just... I saw your box and then watched the videos and they all seemed to need something more than just what we've been doing."
"For one thing, and you should know this from work, those videos are generally made by straight men for other straight men to wank off to. It's their own idea of what lesbians do in bed and usually involves some kind of phallic object because of course deep down we can't possibly orgasm without a man in the bedroom. Secondly a manual isn't going to tell you how to turn me on. It will give you some ideas of things we can try out together but only I can tell you what works for me or doesn't." Julie should have known that Gill would tackle the unknown with her usual 'need to master' attitude.
"I just… I don't want you to get bored with it, with me, and then leave." How could Gill possibly have gleaned that from anything she'd said or done about their relationship? Julie was in seventh heaven with Gill by her side, surely the younger woman knew that by now? But it just went to prove what a bastard of an ex-husband Dave Murray was if she was still hurting after all this time.
"Like Dave you mean? I might have had my fair share of sexual encounters but I'm not him. The difference this time around is that I love you, that I'm in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Julie hadn't intended to say that and Gill certainly hadn't been expecting to hear it. There were several beats of silence that resonated between them.
"Was that a proposal?" Julie couldn't quite decipher Gill's tone but didn't want her to get the wrong idea.
"No! I mean, no it wasn't, not that I wouldn't consider it. Did you want it to be?" Gill found the usually confident and imposing Detective Superintendent adorably cute when she was flustered.
"I'm just joshing with you!"
"Thank Christ for that! Oh Gill, I didn't mean it to sound… I just meant if I did… ask that is… I'd do it properly. I think I'll just shut up now." Gill lifted her legs off Julie's lap and swung her body round so that her backside was now in their place. Julie let out a mock 'oof' at the additional weight.
"You know, there were some interesting things in the book that I hadn't considered before…" Gill's hands had found their way to the open neck of Julie's work shirt and had slipped the next two buttons undone. "We could, if you wanted to…" One hand was now cupped around a heaving breast. Julie grinned and bit her lip, tilting her head back against the settee as Gill's fingers worked their magic on her nipple.
"Gillian Murray! You're most definitely not as innocent as you like to make out." Gill removed her hand from inside Julie's shirt and pulled the tails free from her slacks. "What about Sammy?" They both looked up at the ceiling and took in the faint sounds of his music coming through from upstairs.
"Shit, I forgot!" Gill leapt off Julie's lap, took her hand and proceeded to guide/half drag her upstairs to their bedroom. Julie chuckled loudly and eagerly followed her girlfriend's lead.
Sammy padded downstairs barefoot in his pyjamas to get a glass of water to take to bed with him. He saw the light on in the living room and popped his head through to say goodnight to his mum and Julie. They didn't appear to be there so he gathered up the glass and bottle from the coffee table to take through to the kitchen with him. He saw the discarded book and turned it round so he could read the title. An embarrassed flush came over him and he hurried out of the room in a fluster. He wasn't naive and understood that his mum and Julie were in a relationship in every sense of the word, he just hadn't wanted to think about it in those terms before. It was bad enough having a father with a well known reputation for sleeping around, let alone realising that his mother also had a sex life of her own too. He crept past his mum's bedroom with his fingers in his ears, which were swiftly replaced with his headphones once he was back in the safety of his own room.