'M' is For: [Ch5] The Bite of Sugared Limes - Part 1

At ten the next morning, the house was completely quiet. Entering the empty kitchen, I had half a mind to turn around and go back to bed. But I was usually up by eight, and all my senses were completely alert, demanding that I get started and do something. Opening up a few of the cupboards, I identified a box of cereal that looked promising and pulled it out. Trying not to make too much noise, I fixed myself a bowl and sat down at the counter.

The events from the night before felt hazy and dreamlike, and I wasn't entirely convinced that I hadn't made it all up. Did I really finger-fuck Kiara while Missy, Thomas, and another man had sex right in front of me? Unbidden, an image of Thomas naked came to mind. I could see before me the flush of his cheeks, the desperate desire in his eyes as he looked toward Missy in supplication. I swallowed, feeling my own cheeks warm with the memory.

As I rinsed off the dishes in the sink, I caught sight of Kiara and Danielle through the window. So I wasn't the only one up and about. They were both tanning in their bikinis by the pool, lying so still that I couldn't be sure if they were awake. That is, until I saw Kiara open her eyes and reach for a little plate of sliced limes she had beside her.

I pushed open the sliding door that opened to the pool area and stepped out.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," Kiara beamed at me. She slid the lime into her mouth, peel out, so that it looked like she had some sort of bizarre green smile. "Lime?"

I glanced at the plate, unsure. "Is that...sugar?" I looked more closely.

"Yup. I like to eat 'em this way." Kiara popped the lime out of her mouth and discarded it. She had sucked the slice dry. "We got some for the party, but I figured we had enough that no one would mind."

"Don't feel like you have to humor her," Danielle said drily without moving her head. "I've told her it's disgusting." Her eyes were obscured by a huge pair of Gucci sunglasses.

"Sure, I guess I'll try one." I took a slice in my hands. It had been doused generously with sugar, the crystals forming pale globs along the pulp. Following her example, I slid the slice into my mouth, peel out, wincing as the sour juice landed on my tongue.

"Like it?" Kiara asked eagerly.

"I..." I swirled the sugar around on my stinging tongue. As the crystals melted away, the bite of the juice eased. "I don't know. It's kind of weird."

"Yeah," Kiara chuckled. "I know. But it'll grow on you." She passed me the plate and I popped out the rind and laid it there. "Soo...did you enjoy your initiation into Missy's book club?"

"I'm sorry...Missy's what?"

"That's what Missy calls it: 'My little book club.' It's a joke," Kiara clarified helpfully. "We don't do much reading when we're all together. And the official parties...well, they can get downright sinful. I swear, you would not believe the production Missy makes out of them. Especially her birthday bash."

"I believe it," I said. I leaned back against the pool chair. The heat of the sun prickling at my bare skin warned me not to spend too much time here without any sort of sunblock on. "Do you get together often then?"

"Missy hosts her book club maybe once or twice a month. But a few of us—me, James, Adrienne, sometimes Danielle—hang out with Missy and Thomas almost every weekend."

I tried to detect any note of disapproval or reprobation in Kiara's tone and found none. "You're all, like, swingers then?" I asked, fumbling for the right word.

Danielle snorted while Kiara giggled. "Swingers. Yeah, I guess. We just like to have a good time. Most of us who hang around aren't really interested in serious dating or relationships. And Missy gets off on showing Thomas off."

"And Thomas lets her?"

"He'd go to the moon and back for Missy," Danielle said.

"Not to mention that stuff turns him on," added Kiara conspiratorially. "Kinky, right?"

I remembered how hours before Thomas had bent down so that Missy could fasten a leather collar around his throat. How he had caught her hand and kissed it. She may have him on a leash, but he was a willing captive.

"Y-yeah," I echoed.

Something in my voice made Kiara sit up a little to scrutinize me. "Babe, you better not fall for Thomas," Kiara said. Her tone was a little too kind, and I saw sympathy in her eyes. I could feel my face instantly turn crimson. "I've seen it happen before, and it always ends with a broken heart. Missy is, like, Thomas's whole world."

"I'm not falling for Thomas," I said, maybe a little more emphatically than I needed to. "I hardly even know him. Besides," I added, more to myself than anyone else, "Missy's my friend. I'd never try to steal him away or anything like that."

"Right." Kiara lay back down in her lounge chair, but even I could detect her amused skepticism. "To be honest, I'm a little surprised Missy invited you out. You're not her usual type."

"What's her usual type?" I asked warily.

"She likes to go for the really confident people. No offense," Kiara said quickly, but her words still stung. Thomas had thought pretty much the same thing. Was my lack of self-confidence that obvious? I found myself both embarrassed and annoyed.

"That's what you think," I said defensively. "I can be a real tigress in the bedroom." Realizing how ridiculous that sounded, I raised my hand in a clawing motion and gave a cartoon growl. Kiara gave a startled laugh and Danielle's lips twitched.

"If you're going to hang out here, you should probably put on some sunscreen," Danielle said casually. "Want some?"

"Oh, thanks," I said gratefully, accepting the bottle of sunscreen she offered me. I wondered if Danielle was finally coming around to me hanging out with her and her friends. I hoped so. We sat together companionably after that, lapsing into a comfortable silence. While Kiara and Danielle tanned, I read on my Kindle.

It took nearly a couple hours, but eventually the others stirred themselves from their bedrooms. James emerged first, hair tousled, looking like he was still feeling the effects of the alcohol from the night before. I could see him through the glass sliding doors as he beelined the OJ in the fridge, downing nearly half the jug before coming out to say hi.

"That was some night," James declared, throwing himself down into a chair, half-empty jug in hand. "I'm exhausted."

"Take a nap," Danielle suggested sweetly.

Through the open sliding door, I heard the mingled voices of a conversation bubble up from the kitchen. Missy was awake, and Thomas was with her. My eyes went to the leather collar around his neck, both surprised and not to see him still wearing it.

"Hey, girls," Missy called, coming through the doorway, Thomas and James trailing in her wake. "Wow, but you must have gotten up early."

"I was up at six," said Danielle with a shrug. "Running got me into the habit."

"I've just been hanging out," I said with a little laugh. "Got up around ten, I think."

"What's on the agenda for today?" Kiara asked Missy. "Lunch in town?"

"Yeah, sure," Missy said. "We've got options. There's the cafe that opened up downtown that does the acai bowls, or we could always do Balto's. They have special deals if you come with a crowd."

Both options sounded good to me, but it seemed that everyone else had an opinion. In the end, after some back and forth, we wound up going to Balto's.

Balto's was a dimly-lit American restaurant with deep-seated booths, which afforded us some privacy from the other restaurant goers. I watched Missy get into a flirtatious conversion with our waiter, and he promised to stop by the house later in the evening.

"See you all later," the waiter said to our group, flashing his perfect white teeth in a smile. It seemed he knew how Missy and her friends rolled.

"Who is that?" I asked Kiara as he turned and sauntered his way back to the kitchen. I couldn't help noticing he had a very well-sculpted ass beneath his khakis.

"Todd," Kiara answered, biting the maraschino cherry in her drink off its stem. "One of Missy's local boy toys."

"We like Todd," Missy declared, eyes gleaming. "He's fun."

"Oh?" The skepticism must have shown on my face because the group laughed at me.

"Sweet, sweet Mallory." Missy turned to Thomas, nuzzling into him. "We're corrupting the poor girl, aren't we?"

"Most definitely," Thomas replied with a smile. Our eyes met for a moment before I quickly looked away.

We wandered around downtown afterwards, ducking into thrift stores and exploring some of the boutiques that lined the brick sidewalks. Kiara and Danielle tried on different dresses and kaftans and exclaimed enthusiastically over the local handicrafts. Missy discovered a silk magenta patterned shirt that looked positively horrendous on the rack, but after making fun of it with Thomas, she ended up buying it and putting it on then and there. Somehow on her, the shirt became effortlessly chic. I enjoyed browsing alongside the others, though the steep prices made any joke purchases like Missy's completely out of the question for me. We all laughed at the long-suffering look that began to come over James's face as the afternoon wore on.

We made it back to the house with enough time for everyone to go for a swim before dinner. I reapplied my sunblock and ducked into the water just to say that I did, but pools had never been my thing. After less than an hour of bobbing around with the others, I was glad for the excuse to retreat into the kitchen and start making dinner.

Cooking was something I'd gotten in the habit of doing on my own back in my apartment, and I figured it was the least I could do to thank them for letting me crash their weekend party. After looking through the stuff we had in the kitchen, I had decided on a simple mac and cheese casserole with a side salad. I was just assembling the casserole when Danielle entered through the sliding door. She stopped in her tracks when she saw me.

"What is that?" Danielle asked. I stared at her, trying to discern if she was being funny. It seemed pretty obvious to me.

"Mac and cheese?" I volunteered. "Why, is there something wrong?"

"Oh. I guess if you want to make some for yourself, that's fine," Danielle said, sounding distinctly doubtful. "But many of the others won't eat that, you know. They're on pretty specific diets. Not to mention dairy..." She grimaced.

I stared down at the mixture of cooked pasta and cheese slathered in onions and breadcrumbs. "Oh. Missy didn't say anything about diet restrictions."

Danielle shrugged. "She probably forgot since it's been so long since we had anyone new. Anyway, maybe just tell Missy so she can figure out what the rest of us are going to eat."

Danielle left me pink-cheeked and wondering what the heck I was going to do. I hated the idea of wasting the food I'd already prepared. Unable to think of anything else, I resolved to at least finish the casserole. I had just put it into the oven and set the timer when, to my surprise, Thomas joined me from outside. His wet hair had just recently been toweled off, and it stuck up in different odd directions, giving him a distractingly appealing look of dishevelment.

"Mac and cheese?" Thomas asked, crouching down to peer through the oven door.

"Yeah," I said, embarrassed that he'd caught me. "Danielle told me about the diets, but it was too late. I figure I'll take this home later and eat it for leftovers."

Thomas smiled at me, and my heart gave a quick little stutter. "For what it's worth, it smells amazing. I really wish I could have some."

I cracked a smile. "Thanks."

"Can I help with the rest of it? Looks like you were also making a salad?"

I made a face. "Thomas, I'll accept whatever help you want to give me. Clearly I'm way out of my depth here."

Thomas laughed. "You'll get the hang of it. We're a picky lot...it's not your fault."

As it turned out, Thomas was a godsend. He seemed to have a good idea as to what everyone ate, and for the couple questions he wasn't sure about, I ran out to the pool to confirm. I couldn't help but notice how relaxed Thomas was navigating the kitchen, like he did it all the time at home. In a matter of minutes, he was crisping some Brussels sprouts in a sauté pan and had a cutting board of sliced chicken breast lined up next for the stove. I wondered what kind of food he made when he was on his own.

With Thomas's help, we turned the salad into a buffet with a variety of different toppings and protein add-ons. Looking it over with a critical eye, I decided it was a dinner anyone would be proud of.

Just as Thomas and I were putting out the plates and utensils, the shrill sound of the doorbell cut through the house. The sound had barely tapered off when a loud, persistent knocking followed. A moment later, Missy was hurrying in from the pool.

"That must be Todd," Missy told us with a laugh as she flew by. "One minute!" I heard her holler from the hallway.

Todd, I saw, had changed out of his work polo and khakis into a T-shirt and board shorts. He had tanned skin and periwinkle blue eyes, and he carried himself with just the slightest smirk, like he knew he was hot and was unsurprised when women invited him to their homes. In my private opinion, he was still leagues away from Thomas. Recalling Missy's earlier words, I decided his presence here was clearly all about sex and none of the romance.

"Mal, this is Todd. Todd, this is Mal," Missy announced. "And Thomas you've already met."

The men exchanged brief nods and Todd stuck out his hand in my direction. "Nice to meet you," Todd said, but I could tell from his gaze that he wasn't even really seeing me. He was taking in the sight of Missy, who stood casually in her bikini and magenta-spotted shirt, and Kiara and Danielle, who were splashing around in the hot tub with James. I tried not to take his dismissal personally; I had no delusions about my hotness relative to the others. Soon Missy was leading Todd back out to the pool.

It was another forty minutes before people were ready to eat. I was relieved to hear everyone clamor and exclaim over the food, even though I was pretty sure they were just being nice. I glanced sideways at Thomas, grateful that he'd spared me the ordeal of having to confess to Missy my shameful misjudgment. He caught my eye and smiled gently, like he knew exactly what I was thinking.

We'd just started to sit down at the big dining table when Missy stopped Thomas with a hand. Eyes bright with mischief, Missy said in a low voice, "Take off your clothes for me, my love."