Wendy: 4:40 PM

“Okay, Okay, hold your damned horses,” Wendy yelled at the door. After ringing constantly for half a minute the door buzzer finally relented. Fresh out of the shower and dripping water all over her apartment, Wendy checked the time as she ran for the door. Andy was twenty minutes early. Wendy jabbed the intercom button, “That better not be you, Andy.” Jerking her finger off the button, she added, “because I’m getting tired of your fuck ups.”

“It’s me, can I come up?”

“Alex?” Wendy cheered up, it wasn’t Andy after all.

“Yeah, can you buzz me up?” asked Alex. She sounded weird.

“Are you crying?” Wendy grimaced.

“Wen-dy!”

“Oh, right.” Chagrined, Wendy pressed the door button. She’d been living here for three years, but still didn’t know how long to hold the button down. She leaned on it for ten seconds, just for good measure. Andy only rated a one second buzz.

Wendy walked back to her bedroom to put something on. There was plenty time before Alex made it up, the building's geriatric elevators were on the critical list. But Alex banged on the door before Wendy could get more that her bra and panties on.

“Coming,” she yelled. Alex knocked again. “Jesus, Alex. Hold your damned horses.”

Wendy got to the door and threw it open. Alex stood in the hallway huffing air exactly like she’d run up twelve flights of stairs at a sprint. Apparently she’d done it in four inch heels. Impressive. In addition to the strappy heels, Alex wore a choker and a chic collarless black leather coat cut short to reveal a miles of pale leg. Alex clutched the coat closed with both hands, preventing Wendy from seeing her dress. Tears distorted her heavy makeup.

“Wow,” said Wendy, “I don’t know whether to comfort you or lick you,” she teased. Alex teared up, looking pathetic.

“Aw, ba-by. Come here,” Wendy said, opening her arms.

Alex unclenched her coat as she ran into Wendy’s arms. The distraught woman simply held her friend in a death grip, pressing Wendy’s head against her chest. Alex’s bare chest, Wendy noticed. Even smothered, she could tell Alex wore nothing underneath her coat.

“I didn’t realize flesh tones were in vogue.”

“Ha ha,” Alex hiccuped. She sniffled. “I need a tissue.” 

Alex untangled herself from Wendy and walked to the kitchen for a paper towel. Wendy kicked the door closed and tracked Alex’s movement, worried, but also unable to take eyes off her beautiful, upset friend and some-times lover.

“Nice jacket though,” said Wendy, softly. Alex came back out into the living room and sat on the loveseat with a huff. “Want to talk about it?”

“How about some wine?”

“I can do that,” she said, going to the kitchen. Wendy opened a bottle of red and poured two huge glasses sensing it was no time for moderation. She sat down next to Alex, handing her one glass and drinking from the other. Wendy noticed the sparkle on Alex’s left hand.

“Oh, is that what I think it is?” She eyed the ring like it might bite.

“Yeah, HE proposed.” Alex extended her arm and looked at the ring set with a green gem. 

“I can’t say I’m completely happy about that, “ confessed Wendy. 

Alex put down her glass, twisted off the ring, and throw it on the table. “Happy about that?”

“Um, maybe?” Wendy said. “You look miserable. Aren’t you supposed to be thrilled?”

“I was until about an hour ago,” said Alex. Picking her glass back up, she took a heavy gulp.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“Good wine,” Alex said, taking a sip, which she savored. “Thank you. He proposed last Saturday.”

“When I was in Boston,” said Wendy. 

“Don’t be hurt I didn’t tell you earlier, I wanted to tell you face to face.”

“It’s okay, Alex,” said Wendy bitterly. “You had the ring, so...”

“I accepted. And I told him everything about my history...”

“Uh. Before or after the proposal?” Wendy asked, cautiously.

“Some before, some after. I told him the worst stuff this morning. Stuff even you don’t know about.” 

“So he freaked?” Wendy gave Alex a calculating look, certain she knew everything about Alex. 

“No! He fucked my brains out. I thought we were great, but he went out early today and when he came back, everything went sideways.”

“Ok, but why are you here? In that,” she pointed to the coat.

“He came back. Said we couldn’t get married. There was lipstick on his cuff and what looked like a cum stain on his pants. He smelled like sex.” Alex teared up, “I just. I just ran out. I guess I grabbed a coat and the wrong car keys.”

Just then Wendy’s cell phone rang, playing I’m a woman.

“That’s your phone calling me,” Wendy said. Alex did have her purse. The two friends sat looking at each other awkwardly as Peggy Lee extolled her virtues and the phone buzzed angrily around on the bar.

“I dread listening to that voice message,” said Wendy after phone stopped ringing.

“I’m a woman?” asked Alex with a smile. “My ring is I’m a Woman?”

Wendy nodded, smiling. Unable to contain themselves, both women burst out laughing like they were back in college. The phone rang again. This time a generic ring.

“Ugh, I bet that’s Andy.” Wendy got the phone. She didn’t recognize the number, “Hello?”

“Wendy? This is Kevin.”

“Hi, Kevin,” said Wendy, looking to Alex for direction. “What’s up?”

“Is Alex OK?”

“Alex?” Wendy asked.

Alex turned white as a ghost. She shook her head violently.

“I don’t know Kevin. We texted earlier today, but I haven’t heard from her since then.” Wendy rolled her eyes at Alex. This was juvenile.

“So she’s Ok, then?”

"I just said…”

“I have her phone, she didn’t text you. I know she’s there, Wendy,” he interrupted. “Just tell me if she’s okay.”

“Fine,” Wendy sighed, “she’s fine. Just a broken heart.”

“Um, can you... Look. Just, can you tell her I really want to talk to her? When she’s ready.”

“Whatever,” said Wendy, hanging up.

“You know, he’s awfully sweet for someone who just cheated on you. Good actor, I guess. Who knew?”

“I don’t care who he fucked, but he said we couldn’t marry!” Alex cried, leaning into her friend, hugging her.

“Why don’t you tell me about it, then we can plot a just revenge. Also, tell me about the streaking,” she said, pointing at Alex’s half nude body.

Alex smiled, inhaled, held it, then exhaled.

“The night ended great. Well, with great sex anyway. Amazing, spectacular sex.” She smiled. “And stories from my college years.”

“You made that clear already. It’s not the important part.”

“Okay, when Kevin woke me…”

Alex: 10:15 AM

Kevin sat on the bed. His weight pinning Alex under the soft warm sheets. She sighed, content to stay in her pleasant dreamworld.

“I need to go out for a while,” he whispered. His warm breath tickled Alex’s ear. She wiggled against the covers, trying to burrow in further. “But I was wondering...”

“Hm?”

“Why did you stop?” he asked.

“Stop what?”

“Working,” he said.

“Mm, law school is hard,” she said. “Disbarment. Not worth the risk.”

“Would you keep doing it if it was legal?”

“Nuhuh,” she shrugged lazily. “Trying to sleep.”

“Okay, okay. I love you. I’ll be back in a before one.”

Perversely, Alex couldn’t make it back to unconsciousness once Kevin’s warm weight left the bed. She snuggled in under the covers, but sleep evaded her. It was a rare Saturday where Alex and Kevin had nothing scheduled.

“Fuck,” she said softly, getting up.

Alex rolled out of bed, looking at the clock. 10:21. She looked outside. Overcast and misty. No workout, then. Instead, she threw on a robe and walked to her office. About a hundred pages of patent filings waited to be reviewed.

At 1:45 she got a text from Wendy confirming their run tomorrow. Alex put the phone down, picking up the filing. 

Later she texted Kevin wanting to know his whereabouts.

Alex picked up the filing to finish her review, but she couldn’t focus. She put the paper down and reclined, looking up at the ceiling. Absent-mindedly reaching under her robe, she rubbed her labia and clit gently, thinking about events of the last few days. She wanted more than fingers.

She picked up the phone again and urged Kevin to speed up. He texted back about picking up food.

Alex ambled into their walk in closet, rummaging for something to tease him with, but nothing seemed provocative enough to suit him. Her fetish gear, costumes, and whoring outfits were all packed in her mother’s attic. In the meantime, she had nothing to wear. 

Nothing. 

Alex smiled to herself.

After a shower, she spent time putting on heavy slutty makeup because Kevin had complained about not seeing her in it. Then she put on the stilettos and the choker from last Sunday. Alex appraised herself in the mirror, feeling deliciously slutty.

“Alex?” yelled Kevin from the kitchen. “Food.”

“Just in time,” she yelled from the closet. Walking out into the dining area, Alex’s stomach growled and her mouth watered at the savory aroma of chicken and spices.

“Mm, that smells good.”

Kevin, looking her over appreciatively but with a sober expression, “we need to talk. Probably before things get sexier.”

Kevin leaned against the counter, as if for support, barefoot with windblown hair. He wore black slacks and a wrinkled, untucked white Oxford she had never seen before. The slacks also had wrinkles and by the looks of it, some small stains in the lap area, as if he’d spilled some cream and tried to wipe it off.

“Hey, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you look ‘just fucked’,” she said. “What have you been up to?”

Kevin blushed.

“Kevin?” Alex tittered nervously.

“We need to talk, Alex.” he said, glumly.

“Talk?”

“We can’t get married,” he blurted.

The sour feeling welling up in Alex’s stomach matched the look on Kevin’s face. Alex closed the distance to him in three strides of her long legs.

“What do you mean…” Words failed her as she spotted and a smudge on his right sleeve cuff . She grabbed his arm, inspecting the smudge.

“Is that lipstick?” she asked. It was lipstick. Red. And she could smell perfume now. Something vaguely familiar, citrusy with notes of ginger. Not vanilla, like hers. “You smell like another woman.”

“Yeah, I do. It’s complicated,” he dissembled. “Look, we need to talk. We need to break it off.”

“YOU keep saying that.” She turned and ran for the door, heels clicking furiously. “Fuck you, Kevin.”

Alex grabbed car keys off the counter and a coat off the hook on her way out. She ran out of the house, putting on the coat as she stumbled down the stairs, toward the carport. The brisk February wind did nothing to cool her anger. She ignored the young jogger, stopped dead in the street, gawking at her exposed form.

The handles of Kevin’s Model S extended as she approached her car. She’d picked up the wrong keys. Alex couldn’t face going back to the house. She accepted the Tesla’s invitation.

The jogger stood frozen directly in her path. She blared the horn and mashed the pedal. He dove to the right. Alex juked to the left to avoid him and sped off, the acceleration pinning her head back against the headrest.

She drove recklessly around traffic, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Somehow she managed to get to the top of Mount Tam. Alex pulled off at a fogged in scenic overlook and settled back, trying to collect her thoughts.

Her pert breasts peeked out from behind the coat’s lapels. The coat divided around her legs, exposing her pussy and legs to anyone who cared to look. Ordinarily, Alex would feel deliciously slutty. If Kevin were here, she would crawl over the console and sit on him, letting him do whatever came to mind. A sob of grief escaped her.

They couldn’t get married? Who had he fucked? And why?

Alex sat in the gray fog, feeling sorry for herself until an SUV pulled up. Not wanting to be seen, she backed up the car and took off again, eventually finding her way to the city and Russian Hill.

Wendy 3:55 PM

“So he definitely cheated on you,” said Wendy.

“Admitted it,” replied Alex.

“I guess that’s why he called off the wedding?”

“No,” Alex said, rolling her eyes and bowing her head.

“Alex?”

“Remember, I told him everything about my past.”

“So?”

“So maybe I scared him away.”

“You told him about working with Fawn?” Wendy gulped.

“You knew?” Alex looked dumbfounded. Wendy nodded, pursing her lips guiltily. “How? I was so careful.”

“Yeah, but Fawn knew. So there is that,” Wendy sighed. “You can accuse Fawn of a lot of things, but being discrete? Nope.”

“Oh, come on. Even she didn’t talk about that, Wendy.”

“Well, I might have wheedled it out of her in the middle of a fight.”

“You fought?”

“Yeah, I was pissed at you. Jealous. You were out with some guy, I thought. Fawn defended you. She let it slip you were working. This was news to me, so I asked where. She wouldn’t say. But I wore her down. She confessed everything,” said Wendy. “She seemed relieved to get it off her chest.”

“A lot got off on her chest,” cracked Alex, unable to resist the pun. Wendy groaned. “You never confronted me about it.”

“I figured you’d tell me when you wanted to,” said Wendy. “Honestly, right now I’m more pissed at Kevin for getting you to talk than about anything else.”

A loud knock on the door startled both women. Wendy checked the time. Minutes to Four.

“Fuck,” she whispered. “It’s gotta be Andy, picking me up. I’ll get rid of him.”

“Oh, no,” said Alex. “Don’t on my account. I’ll borrow some clothes and leave.”

“Tsk,” said Wendy. Leaving Alex on the couch, she walked to the door.

“Who’s there?” she said.

“Andy,” a voice announced through the door, “I tailgated in.”

Wendy opened the door. Andy held a red heart shaped box of chocolates. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt with ‘Marlboro’ written on it in a bold red font. Disappointed, Wendy kept her arm on the door, effectively blocking Andy’s view of Alex and preventing him from coming in.

“Wow, are you planning on wearing that?” he joked, looking Wendy’s underwear over. “I mean, they’re really nice underwear. But it’s a bit cold...”

“I’m downright overdressed compared to some,” Wendy laughed, looking over at Alex who grinned. “And it’s better than a T-shirt and jeans, don’t you think?”

Andy looked down at himself, confused.

“First you spaced the reservations, so I had to make them. Now you show up like you’re going to a kegger . I get the feeling you’re not taking this seriously at all.”

“Look, if we’re going to fight, can we at least not do it in the hallway?”

“No, I have a friend over. She’s had a bit of a day and I’m consoling her,” Wendy said. “Maybe we should fight later.”

“Friend over. Hm, now who’s not taking this seriously?” he asked. “Let me in.”

Wendy checked with Alex, who tilted her head and shrugged.

“Yeah,” said Wendy sharply, “you know what? Fuck it. Be my guest. Come on in.” 

“Hi,” he said as he noticed Alex on the loveseat. Andy did a double take, his eyes scanning down her nude form. Like in the car, her breasts were hidden but her sex was bared for all to see. “Um, Hi. I’m Andy.”

“Alex,” said Alex, waving lamely. She opened her legs enjoying the look of delight and uncertainty on his face.

“Andy, this is Alex, my best friend,” explained Wendy, slamming the door. “She’s just found out Kevin, her fiance of one week, cheated on her and wants to call off the wedding. She’s a bit upset.”

“Uh,” said Andy, unable to fashion a response. Wendy had no such trouble.

“Tell me, Alex, did Kevin forget reservations for Valentine’s Day or go dressed like… this?” Wendy crossed her arms and hitched her hip out.

“Nope. It was a limo to Chez Panisse. He wore crisp slacks and a button down. We caught some Jazz and then danced at a club until two in the morning. Then fucked me properly. A regular one man gangbang,” she said. An evil grin spread across her face. “What did you have planned for tonight, Andy?”

“Uh,” Andy had backed up, not able to process her frank aggression.

“Look at me,” commanded Wendy. Hesitantly, Andy pulled his gaze away from Alex.

“Hm?”

“When your girlfriend is standing in front of you, in her underwear no less, and you’re having a fight. You look at her. Not her friend.”

“But,” Andy pointed to Alex. “She’s naked, in your living room!”

“I don’t care if she’s being gangbanged by black triplet midgets with foot long cocks. You look at me.”

Alex giggled, she couldn’t help herself. Andy’s expression was priceless. Wendy opened the door and waved for Andy to leave.

“This is over. I was pretty sure before. But, now I’m certain.”

Andy helplessly walked through the door, turning back to Wendy in the hallway, clutching his red heart shaped box.

“Bye,” she slammed the door. “Have a nice life, Andy.”

Wendy turned to her friend who sat wide eyed on the couch.

“Well, he’ll remember me for the rest of his life. Bet he thinks about what could have been with you and me and him until he’s in the old folks home.”

“You’re brutal, Wendy,” she said. “I’ve never seen you break up with someone. Is that how you normally do it?”

“Shoot!” said Wendy yelled. “I should have grabbed the chocolates.”

“Heh, I could use the calories. Haven’t eaten since breakfast,” said Alex.

“Thai?”

“Sure.”

After Wendy ordered, the two friends sat around the kitchen bar and continued their talk.

“Sorry about the timing, Wendy,” said Alex. She put her nose in her wine glass and inhaled deeply, closing her eyes.

“Sista, please!” she replied, flipping a hand. “I would have decided to end it sometime over dinner. Then I would spend the rest of dinner deciding if I should fuck him one last time or release him back into the wild, right there on the spot.”

“The wild?”

“Craigslist.”

Alex smirked.

They chit chatted until the food arrived. They ate in silence. Alex devoured her Crispy Basil Chicken and Tom Yum, looking up only to sip wine. She waited silently while Wendy delicately consumed the last of her Spicy Green Beans and Chicken.

“That looked good,’ said Alex as Wendy swallowed the last bite.

“Mm hm ,” she confirmed.

“Let...