Scene Two

"You must be parched, darling. Do you fancy a cup of tea or coffee?" George charmingly asked at last in her best drawing room manner.

"I would love a cup of coffee to wake me up a bit," sighed Alice. Her concentration was starting to fade after their lack of sleep last night.

George slid out of bed and wrapped a thin negligee round herself as a token concession to modesty, while displaying enough of her physical charms to the dark haired woman. Alice lay back in a blissful state of sleepy contentment. She had raised the past miseries and strains in her life from their unquiet graves, but her present state of mind promptly banished them to where they belonged. That was then, this is today. She was content to listen to the sounds of clinking chinaware as George busied herself in the kitchen. She could hear her lover softly singing to herself and although she couldn't see her lover, she knew she was there.

"Coming, darling," George called as she brought through a tray with two finely carved bone china cups and saucers. Her negligee made an even more transparent attempt to cover herself up and she smiled saucily as she put the tray down on a side table. She carelessly flung aside her garment on the bed and slid back into bed next to Alice.

"We'll have an early morning drink first, Alice and then, who knows?"

By now, Alice had thoroughly woken up, her desires starting to grow inside her. Instinct told her that her lover was only mildly teasing her and would deliver at least as much as she promised.

"I think I know, but in the meantime… I wouldn't mind the traditional English breakfast," she said lightheartedly, accepting the coffee that was offered.

"Hardly that," said George with a wicked grin." A full stomach is hardly suitable for what I have in store for you."

She took a sip, greatly pleased that it was freshly ground coffee, with a creamy tinge to it, that was certain to drive the lingering cobwebs from her mind. They laid up in bed , side by side and George's persistent half smile showed her awareness, that her dark haired lover's attention was not wholly directed to her cup of coffee and that George's visual delights was part of the treat.

Both women were highly aware of the feelings of desire, rising up inside themselves.

Surprisingly enough, when George turned to kiss her lover after placing the cups and saucers on the side, her kisses were soft and delicate and the touch of her lover was soft and gentle. She was embracing the woman who she was beginning to know so well and physical gratification was only part of the picture. Their tender lovemaking, felt divorced from time and petty duties as if they were in a slow moving dream.

*********

"So how did you get to know about Chix, Alice?" George asked out of curiosity, as they finally lay there satiated. She was curious to hear more of that magical world that she'd stepped into only the other evening. It had that magnetic power of abolishing anything that had happened before in her life or at the very least, shifting it away to a different dimension that was aslant from her present.

"I knew Nikki and Trisha even before they had set up Chix. When they eventually got Chix together, it became the place to go to, where one felt comfortable…."

"Curiously enough, I hadn't a clue about what I was letting myself in for… but it felt like home, the second I set foot in the place," added George thoughtfully.

"You can understand now, how much a lesbian would want the one place where she can be herself. You'll come across that one as you go about your ordinary life anyway."

"I'll take notice of what you say," came George's dry response without a hint of irony.

"You couldn't help, going around the 'lesbian scene' without becoming aware of them. Nikki is an extraordinarily compassionate woman and in love with life in all its forms while Trisha is the quiet and organized one. Their lives were going smoothly, no cloud on the horizon…until that dreadful day when that animal tried to rape Trisha. The word ran round the lesbian community like wildfire. Everyone was in a state of total shock and disbelief. I mean, everyone knew that Nikki had a bit of a temper, if some idiot pushed her too far, but a bad temper is a million miles away from killing someone. I can tell you that everyone who went to Chix knew what that man was like. He gave off bad vibrations as soon as he came into the club, but nobody thought he would go that far."

"Why's that?"

"I suppose that ingrained feeling that the police couldn't be that bent," Alice answered with a shaky laugh at her naïve absurdity." Once everyone woke up to what had happened, we were outraged at the way the trial progressed. It was more of a mediaeval witch-hunt. It was one of those horrible moments in my life, watching the trial from the visitor's gallery. I felt so helpless to do anything…..Nikki didn't want anyone to visit her even though I desperately wanted to. I heard through the grapevine that she and Trisha had split up. When she got her freedom, I was at 'Chix' when Helen came into the club. You could sense the spark jump between them. I found it easy to accept Helen as Nikki's new partner as I made friends with Helen straightaway. They look so good together……I guess that after all these years, there is still enough of the romantic in me."

George's smile started to spread wide as automatic instinct prompted her to scoff at such naivety until her conscious thoughts cut in. What was she laughing at? Since when did being hard and cynical do her any good? Hadn't it kept her away from what she might love and sentence her to be with people that at heart, didn't do her spiritual insides any good? Hadn't those fleeting moments of tenderness in the past pointed her way to another way of living and wasn't her lover with her right now, that embodiment?

"A penny for your thoughts, George."

"You can have them for free. I was just thinking of all the years that I've wasted," came the response.

"How do you mean, sweetheart?"

George felt a few tears start to trickle from her eyes and automatic gesture made her impatiently sweep them away. She was conscious that Alice's soft, sharp eyes hadn't missed anything. It made her feel both embarrassed and relieved at the same time. She had never placed herself under such close scrutiny.

"Obviously, why in hell did I even look in the direction of that sad, inadequate man, that stuffed shirt of a politician? It says something about me, mostly bad. Yet I actually lived with him, AND entertained his shallow heartless friends AND acted as the government's legal fixer for cases. I was completely immoral…I must have been out of my mind." George replied in tremulous tones, shaking her head in disbelief. "At least you haven't anything to reproach yourself with. You fell in love with a woman who didn't meet your needs but you tried.

"Hey, honey, put your head on my shoulder," Alice's soft, incredibly warm voice murmured.

George laid down next to her lover and buried her head in that mass of dark hair as Alice's lips brushed her forehead, she felt her arms wrap themselves round her and press her close. From out of nowhere, she let her sobs rack her body as all the suppressed emotions came pouring out, everything she had tried to suppress behind that bright, glassy, sophisticated persona that she had constructed. She knew all to well that she had said and done a lot of things that she now regretted. At the back of the outpourings of feelings, she could feel those delicate fingers stroke her back and her lover's voice whispering soothing sounds into her ears….'it's all right, darling, it's all right…' until she gradually swam her way through the riptides of emotions into calmer waters. She raised her head and saw with huge relief that Alice had been with her all along.

" I swear to God that I've not cried for a very long time. Why on earth should I cry when I'm so happy?"

"Perhaps… you've opened yourself up to feelings that you've not let yourself feel? It's so easy to tell yourself that you're too busy. It's easily done."

George bit her lip and then nodded emphatically. That was precisely what she'd done in surrounding herself with rituals that didn't really mean anything, in organizing a social life. Since she had lived on her own and broken free of her ex's political cronies, she had thrown herself into her work and simplified her life outside it. She had never remotely chosen the path she had set herself, but now she was here. While the tears still trickled down her face, she didn't feel so desolate as her past had come back to haunt her. She had felt deeply for Alice's wasted love, but at least her feelings were genuine.

"I want to be different. I am different from who I used to be. I need to work out who I want to be," exclaimed George, her thoughts and feelings whirling out of control.

"I can see that everything is all new to you but trust to your instincts. They won't let you down."

"My instincts used to be all wrong. I was instinctively hard and selfish. If you'd met me, say, six months ago, you wouldn't have liked me."

"So I didn't meet you then and you've changed. I'm in love with the Georgia Channing of here and now. Don't forget, I've had other lovers besides Becky… so I feel sure in my mind that this is no blind infatuation."

The certainty behind those words finally brought the blond haired woman back to some sense of certainty. Alice was right. The here and now was lying in her soft bed, that had been magically transformed by her lover who embraced her. She kissed Alice's neck tenderly and gradually slid her way down to Alice's breasts where she wrapped her arms round her lover. The taller woman felt an incredible surge of loving protectiveness for this woman who she clutched to her heart in more ways than one. In turn, George felt that blissful sense of completeness as they lay together and planted soft kisses on the skin that she lay on. This high level of emotional intensity felt like a cousin to their rapacious sexual desires of the night before.

"It's not like me to want to feel protected. Oh yes, I read the usual Barbara Cartland novels when I was in my teens… but I never took them seriously," laughed George gently at last.

"What if the tall dark stranger was a woman instead of a man?" Alice murmured teasingly.

"Then that makes them right. I might start rereading them with that mental translation, and think of you all the time."

George felt Alice's soft laughter ripple through her body. There wasn't an ounce of dissimulation in this woman, she marvelled. What she said was transparently true.

"What I still can't understand is why I…why I feel as if I'm a stranger to my past life as if I'm reading a book written about another person. I must have gained some shallow satisfaction from being Queen Bee amongst all those men, the narcissistic feeling of being the centre of attention however bad the cause."

Alice hung in there. It was important for this woman to figure out who she was.

"But do you need that any more?" came that soft sympathetic question.

"You're right, I don't," George smiled through the tears in her eyes. "I'm free of all that."

"So you need something different instead?"

"Mm…you for a start," George roundly declared kissing Alice full on her lips. "It goes further than rewriting my sexuality. I feel that I'm rewriting the ideas on how to live my life, what I'm going to do for my future, how to behave, what to say, what not to say. The only certainty in my life right now…….is you."

"So you want to see more of me," murmured Alice softly in an understated fashion.

"But of course, darling if you want the same," George pronounced very firmly before continuing in more hesitant tones. "I know what I want… but I haven't the faintest idea of what it means to date you or live with you or whatever. It's all very new to me. I feel as if I was sixteen and all fingers and thumbs. To tell you the truth, I don't know what to expect. I'll have to guess my way through whatever we've to face together."

"Your guesses are good enough for me, babes," Alice articulated in a jesting and sensuous tone of voice. "I still think you must have been a lesbian in a past existence. All I know is that I can't get enough of you."

Both women heaved a sigh of audible relief. They had been skirting round the topic and had resolved it together. One mind wouldn't have been enough.

This moment had quietly sealed an important moment in history that was waiting to be written. Both women felt dizzy with excitement of what lay ahead of them. The ghosts from both their pasts could be laid to rest.

As the morning wore on, George started to feel more and more uncomfortable. She delighted in lying in bed with her lover but she was being nagged by the thought that she really needed a shower. It was one of those compulsions that made herself feel civilized and ready to face the day.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, Alice darling but I really need to take a quick shower right now. It's one of those compulsive habits of mine."

"That's perfectly natural, darling…but you're surely not thinking of taking it on your own? It might be fun together." Alice said in her smokiest, sultriest tones.

George's face split itself into a wide smile. She wondered why it had never crossed her mind before. She must be unusually slow on the uptake not to have worked that out.

"Then I'll lead the way, darling," George said, her voice arching in her most seductive fashion.

Desires started to flow through Alice as the delicious spectacle of the rear view of George's nicely rounded body, her shapely legs and her shoulder length blond untamed hair. Both women scampered in the direction of the shower, giggling like schoolgirls, George, hurriedly snatching the nearest towels to hand. Soon, warm water was sluicing down their bodies and George marvelled how her lover's presence transformed the mundane cubicle into somewhere special.

George lay back against the shower wall frantically kissing her lover in a state of delirious joy, while Alice's expert touch, massaged her breasts. Both women's breathing were ragged, as they ardently vocalized their desires for each other, in ways that they knew were physically honest. As Alice's fingers slid down and caressed the other woman's stomach, George's desires were racing away in a state of delirious joy.She was in the seventh heaven when her lover's fingers finally slid in smoothly and penetrated her. Alice writhed with ecstacy as she coaxed her blond haired lover to a climax. In turn, feelings of tenderness ran through the taller woman that George could give of herself so freely.

"You are so amazing, darling. Now it's my turn to pleasure you."

George's husky out of breath voice sent shivers through Alice, even more so, when her lover's lips and tongue worked their way down to her breast caressing her hardening nipples. If this was an indication of her life as scarily unpredictable, George thought, then she relished swimming boldly and eagerly into the full flow of her unknown future. She would not live her life in any other way for all the money in Whitehall.