"I remember being in my bedroom late at night and sitting on the sofa when Annabelle's flirting went to a whole other level," Simone volunteered in an animated fashion in the middle of a lively conversation.
By this time, they'd eaten and drank together and the brilliant golden rays of the overhead sun had mutated so that a gentle reddish glow was pitched at a sharp angle into the front room. They'd got to the point when keeping up a guard was a ridiculous notion so getting round to talking of more intimate matters was as natural as putting one foot ahead of the other.
"Tell us more. You've heard me explain how Nikki first started to lure me off the straight and narrow, a daughter of the manse and all that. That's Scottish for rectory," Helen responded, a mischievous glint in her eye. The religious parallel struck home for Simone.
"My thoughts were a million miles away, all over the place when who should politely knock on my bedroom door but the one person about whom my thoughts had been really swimming around in ever decreasing circles. Of course, I daren't admit it to myself but my insides felt some funny little sensations as the crack in the door opened. I told her she shouldn't be there but I didn't even convince myself."
As Simone made her final confession in her appealingly wry sense of humour, it was right up the street of the two British women who warmed to her while Annabelle looked on lovingly.
"I know how it feels. It's like learning a whole other language of life," laughed Helen in sympathy with Simone's pretty flush of embarrassment at her former naivety.
"Then this cheeky woman made up this story to ask me questions about what's 'appropriate behaviour on a first date, including a girl girl type date, you know, just to check I was interested. Of course, I , being the older woman of the world was nervous and flustered especially when Annabelle said that Cat Pegrum had kissed her but she wasn't Annabelle's type."
"Leaving open the every interesting question as to what is your type," grinned Nikki, a spark of mischief in her expressive eyes."Definitely ten out of ten for style, Annabelle."
"I was fiddling with this crucifix I used to wear round my neck and of course, this sharp-eyed one had to comment on my 'nervous habit' so her next words were 'Do I make you nervous?' as she ran fingers along my collarbone."
"Oh God, how sexy was that?" Helen said in her full accented voice, her green eyes glinting with mischievous as was her perfect smile.
"And then I turned round and went back to my dorm. I'd pushed her far enough. I wouldn't be fair otherwise," Annabelle said in a small voice and downcast eyes, her words quickening as she sought to justify herself from her own unspoken thoughts.
"Don't worry, we can see and feel what you did," stepped in Nikki's warm sympathetic voice which answered the other woman's uncertainties. She knew instinctively that their friends had never revisited this scene in what she gathered of their problematic courtship.
"I had been seriously not getting how Nikki felt about me so she had to express it in ways that I couldn't overlook so I, shock horror instant revelation time went into wing governor mode and told her some rubbish about Nikki going out of her way to make me feel uncomfortable. Lo and behold, I needed to look her up in the library so the dialogue ran something like this.'This is difficult for me as I think you know,' I said. Of course I bloody well knew what the matter was but couldn't verbalise it. I couldn't talk straight but Nikki knew what I was thinking,"Helen answered in reflective tones.
"'So what do you want? Sorry, am I making you feel uncomfortable' this smartarse said. I felt sorry afterwards for twisting the knife but I had got so sexually frustrated by that point. I had a really bad habit of being tactless and generally shooting my mouth off."
"You were always a real softie under the surface as I started to realise when Nikki dropped her guard. Of course, I know what a real romantic she is," Helen said tenderly to which Nikki responded by squeezing her hand. The mood was soft and mellow and Simone and Annabelle felt uniquely privileged to be drawn into their world.
"Formal institutions are really picky about titles, not that there's any reason for them. They really want authority figures to come over as tin gods. I suppose you find the same thing,"Nikki said in soft reflective tones as she reached for a cigarette.
"So, I guess by then you called her Helen, not Miss Stewart," Annabelle answered, holding her lighter to the cigarette end.
"Like she started calling me Simone, not Miss Bradley. I remember when she first called me that on the beach outside when she took that picture of me on that spring holiday break."
Helen and Nikki could see the glowing happiness radiate from the photograph which was true for her then as it was now as she was draped around Simone. They could feel how much in love these two women were and from the moment they stepped through the front door, the atmosphere felt warm and welcoming and totally right.
"You know we have to become part of the Chico's scene- and everything that goes with it," Annabelle said a little sadly as their conversation meandered wherever the four of them lazily guided it. The shadows were gradually lengthening by then.
"I know exactly what you're getting at. I've probably told you before that I ran a lesbian club with Trisha, my ex and our very good friend," put in Nikki as a wealth of memories flooded back to her of another time, another place.
"What do you mean?" Simone said, her brow furrowed in puzzlement.
"Something about Miranda disturbed me," said Helen slowly, groping blindly for something she could sense but not see."She's undeniably an attractive woman, smart, abrasive but kind-heated deep down and definitely lonely. I could feel her reaching out of the soulless loneliness. She could seduce most women she set her eye on and she made a dead set at me. Big mistake."
"Helen knows that Trisha and I ran Chix as a long term commitment, in both respects and how come we broke up. The thing is that Helen and I had become ready for a long term commitment after we properly connected. We still go out to Chix but just to meet our friends."
"I've been around far less than Nikki," put in Helen."We both see those women looking out for something in their lives which gives them meaning, that gets away from loneliness and isolation in the big city. We've seen relationships break up and exes left behind go on to form new relationships until it all becomes a sexual merry go round. It looks nice and understanding or seething with hurt and hatreds. Coming from a history of straight relationships before Nikki, it can be both attractive and weird at the same time. I hope I never have to go through it."
"When you come out in your teens or whatever and move to the big city, there's a danger of acting like a kid in a sweetshop, a candy store I guess you call it. The danger is that it can lay down habits that are hard to break and that's Miranda. That's what you felt, darling," Nikki concluded, turning tenderly towards her lover to embrace her briefly before abruptly turning their attention back to their friends, their heads leaning against each other."
"What you've got between each other is so loving and precious so don't lose it. Take it from two who know,"Helen said in very clearly articulated tones which grabbed Simone and Annabelle's attention. The two women wished with all their hearts that they could share their good fortune especially as they went so well together.
"You really can't drive back all the way to your hotel," Annabelle said in slightly slurred tones. As the evening progressed, they'd worked their way down the second bottle of wine as the lighting became more subdued and the atmosphere more soporific."You can crash here if you like."
A muzzy silence descended on them all. Simone and Annabelle were lying on the sofa while Helen had climbed onto Nikki's lap and had wrapped herself affectionately around her, her lips pressed against her lips though both of them were miraculously close enough to the dining table, the bottle of wine and the glasses with which they topped up their drinks. All of them were feeling good inside, nice and affectionate but their mental machinery was more about exploring their inner universe than fast thinking and clicking into sorting out a crisis.
"If we drove back to the hotel, we'd be hauled in by the cops, cross examined and fingerprinted for violating some state law or other and the FBI would figure you out as a dangerous lesbian subversive. Besides, I really don't feel like moving," Helen said, waving a finger in front of Nikki's glassy eyes.
Simone racked her brains for all the cubbyholes, recesses and special places where the necessities of an improvised bed could be made up and finally, images seeped into her mind.
"It's possible," she said with slow deliberation, peering with concentration at her forefinger."I'll fix everything. Leave it to me."
She hauled herself perilously to her feet and, after bumping sounds from the hall, she staggered back fully laden to cheers, applauding her as a hero. The darkness was complete when Helen and Nikki were snuggled down on the floor of the living room, a soft pillow under each head and the living room furniture all around them, casting ghostly silhouettes. They were a million miles away from the luxury of their hotel suite and delightfully detached from all their cares. They knew they'd sleep like logs as everything felt like home to them.
Simone was up first as she felt dehydrated after drinking all that wine the previous night. As she tiptoed into the living room, she sighed with affection, seeing the short ruffled dark hair of the top of Nikki's head and what she could see of Helen and the shapes of their bodies underneath the quilt she'd found. She couldn't think of anything more calculated to detract in the nicest possible way from the starry eyed portrait of them in Diva.
The morning after started to feel a little strange after coffee and toast to wake themselves up. An unsettling feeling started to creep over them that time was running out on them. Helen and Nikki knew they only had so many days left to explore this part of California before they would be winging their way up into the skies to return to England and the lives that awaited them. Simone and Annabelle knew that their future was to reconnect with Erin and Diane. They sensed that once they got amped up, they'd be seeking their first gig and maybe make some money and that passively living on Annabelle's trust income wasn't for them. On the other hand, they hated to be parted from their new friends and, just maybe, they felt the same also.
"Suppose we return the compliment of your hospitality and you come over to England. We could put you up, no problem." Nikki suggested off the top of her head without any preliminary. The sidelong glance from Helen approved the idea. They were drinking a mug of morning coffee in the living room.
"We couldn't impose on you," Simone answered, her overdeveloped sense of good manners taking charge while a downcast expression settled on Annabelle's face. Their two friends knew better and felt that this charmingly complex woman really wanted it if it was at all possible.
"Just an idea. You think about it. You know how to contact us if you want to change your mind." said Helen quietly, as casually as she could frame her words. She knew that the idea needed time to take root and germinate.