Chapter 3

She removed the wax paper, chose one at random, and brought it slowly to Mel’s lips, finishing her thought with a provocative arch of the brows. Mel was charmed. The corners of her mouth rose as well. She proceeded to close her eyes and open up.

Sara watched as Mel cracked it in the middle and let the filling ooze over her taste buds.

“Which one do you think it is?”

“Mmmm…” said Mel, keeping her eyes shut for the moment. “Uh…hmmm…”

She opened them and leaned over to look down and see the label in the box.

“Ah—hey!” Sara giggled, putting her hand over top. “No fair looking!”

“I just wanna see if I was right,” Mel cooed.

“Well, give me your guess, and I’ll tell you if you’re r—”

Sara stopped as a brilliant inspiration struck her.

“Ooooh…” she thought excitedly. “I know!…” She sat the box on the table and stood. “Still don’t you go anywhere—I’ll be right back!”

Sara jaunted to her bedroom again. Mel peeked. Yep, she was right: raspberry.

Sara opened a drawer in her room, where certain “toys” and other items of recreation were found. Shortly after Mel arrived, it had started drizzling. When 5:00 rolled around, the outside temp dipped to 30°, and the rain crystallized into flurries. Of course, it was a nice, warm 73° inside Sara’s house. In fact, Mel was feeling warm enough that she took off her sweater and draped it on the couch with the folded afghan. Sara returned a bit later with two items. One was a homemade compact disc, which she popped into the DVD player and turned on the TV to play. An early ’90s pop ballad filled the speakers.

“What’s that?” she heard Melleny ask.

“A CD I made myself,” Sara told her proudly. “Just some nice mood music. ‘S kinda one of my specialties. I have tons of cool music to choose from, and at the risk of sounding immodest, I’m also really techno-savvy. I love technology. So doing something like making my own compilation CDs’s a snap. These are some of my favorite love songs.”

Mel smiled at her. “You do know how to make a girl feel charmed, don’t you?”

Sara reddened once more, glad Mel couldn’t see her face.

“Well…” she said, adjusting the TV volume, “I’m just going with what feels right. Trying to be a good hostess, and a good date, and…”

She sat back down with Melleny. “All right, now, I know this wins me the Miss Pitifully Trite Award,” Sara explained, “But I still thought it’d be really really fun.” She showed Mel the other object she’d brought with her, a silk scarf. She tied it over her own eyes. “See? Now you feed me, I’ll guess what it is, you tell me if I’m right, then it’s your turn.”

“Oh, I get it,” Sara heard. “Well, I don’t think that’s so trite, and I certainly don’t think it’s pitiful; I think it’s actually kinda sweet. And romantic. So, we’d just go back and forth?”

“Right! Right. Besides, if we have one sense cut off, that heightens all the other senses to balance it out. So this’ll also make it taste better. Go ahead.” Sara opened her mouth. Mel picked up the box, selected one and slipped it in. Sara slowly cracked the chocolate shell, savoring the thick flavor as it burst open, and her tongue signaled to her brain—

“That’s a cherry!” she declared.

“Yay!” Mel confirmed, giving her a small round of applause.

Sara pulled the scarf up off her eyes, handing it over. “Okay, your turn!”

Mel slipped it over her own baby blues. “Oh, I see what you mean,” she nodded. “Well, I don’t literally see what you mean…but, I can already smell that candle better now.”

“It’s layered,” she heard Sara say. “It’s called Sweet Nectar, Flirty Fruit and Berry Bliss.”

“Wow…well, how appropriate.

“So what does the winner get?” Melleny asked.

“Well, y’know, I mean, whoever guesses the most right would be the winner, right?”

“Oh…well, I guess I didn’t think of it as like a ‘winner’ thing…I guess a ‘winner’ thing to me’s more like…oh, I dunno…”

Scarf over Mel’s eyes, Sara gave her a series of playful pokes in the belly and ribs.

“…A tickle fight?”

“He-ey!” Mel giggled. “No fair; I can’t see!”

“Exactly!” Her impish side coming out, Sara lifted up Melleny’s T-shirt and raspberried her bare tummy. Mel laughed like crazy, reflexively squirming away and putting her foot on Sara’s thigh. So, Sara naturally went next to tickle her also bare foot, until Melleny giggled, “Okay, please stop, I’m gonna pee!”

Sara immediately stopped. Mel wasn’t bluffing, but could’ve fooled Sara had she been.

“All right, well,” Sara pondered, “I hadn’t thought of a prize, but…you have any ideas?”

“Hm…” Melleny smiled. She lifted the blindfold just enough to see Sara’s right socked ped on the floor, then dropped her bare ped beside and brushed it over Sara’s.

“Maybe a…foot rub?”

Sara became more excited. The feel of Melleny’s warm tootsie touching hers gave her a tiny tingle. Even though her feet were incredibly sensitive out of their socks, she decided to hold off on unveiling that information for the moment.

“I like the way you think, masseuse girl,” Sara smiled back, letting her paw mingle with Mel’s. “And, I do have some lotion that makes skin feel about as soft as a teddy bear…”

Melleny smirked, lightly shaking her head, enjoying their first round of footsie. “Wow…Sara…when I asked you if you maybe wanted to date me…I had no idea you’d have thought of everything to make the evening so…” She shrugged. “…Enchanting.”

Sara couldn’t help but balloon up with joy at this remark. It was true, once again, she’d barely been on even a dozen dates in her entire life, and couldn’t believe how terrifically this one was turning out. She figured she must be doing something right, and she didn’t want to think too hard and mess up. She found her brain repeatedly telling her heart, Take it easy, take it slow. It’s still only your first date. Don’t move too fast, don’t get carried away. But…her heart wasn’t listening as closely anymore.

Still, she forced herself to stay cool and under control. “Oh…I…think we just happen to be hitting a lot of the right notes together,” she finally mused, plucking another chocolate from the box. “Okay, now, open wide…”

Saturday, December 14th, 2013, 6:14 p.m.

Six chocolates later…

“Oh, dear. I think maybe we should make this the last one and quit while we’re ahead, so to speak,” Melleny suggested, rubbing her stomach. “Before this stuff really does start wreaking havoc on our bellies.”

“Okay,” agreed Sara, setting the box and scarf down. “So…who won?”

“You weren’t keeping track?”

“Well, not really so much…” Sara elusively fibbed. The truth was, she remembered Melleny had correctly identified four of the chocolates Sara fed her, and she had only got three. But while she thought she knew what the others were as well, she’d half-intentionally guessed wrong, to “let” Melleny win. She hadn’t been totally “throwing” the game, as it were, but when Melleny’d suggested the foot rub, she got excited at the idea of soothing Mel’s piggies with her hands, and the reaction(s) she could evoke.

And then there was that other reason she wanted to rub Mel‘s feet, and not vice versa.

“…But y’know, I think you got more right than I did,” Sara added. “So, uh…looks like I owe you a little foot rub, huh? Guess I’ll go grab that lotion!”

When she returned with the lotion and a small towel, Melleny thought she might switch things up a little. She threw out another suggestion.

“You know, Sara, being that I am the, well, ‘professional’ and all…if you want, you could take off your socks, gimme your feet, and we’ll call it a tie and do each other’s.”

“Oh…oh, well, yeah, that sounds like fun, but, um…”

Well, she’d just have to tell her the truth now, sheepish as she felt about it.

“Melleny, I, uh…I know I should’ve said this earlier, but…I…kinda…can’t have my feet touched. By someone else. Not…the bottoms, anyway. They’re not gross or anything, but…” She looked down with a bashful chuckle. “…I swear, even if you just rub ’em, it doesn’t even matter; my feet are SO deathly ticklish, if you touch ’em at all, even by accident, I’ll…kick you right in the nose. Obviously, I won’t mean to; it just happens.”

“Oh-ho-ho,” Mel poked her back, also in the belly and ribs. “I get it…so you can dish it out, but ya can’t take it, huh?”

Sara giggled. “Well, up here’s not as deathly as down th—…um…as my feet are, but yeah, you’re right; I suppose I shouldn’t give unless I’m willing to get a little back.”

“Yeah, I get that pretty often, being a masseuse. You’d be surprised how sensitive people are, in the funniest spots on their bodies.”

Sara draped the towel over her lap and patted, urging Mel to put her feet up. “Well, I’m no pro myself,” she admitted, “But I’ll do my best.” She rolled up Mel’s jeans, pushed them up to her calves, pumped out some lotion, put the bottle down and started rubbing.

“Mmmmm…” Melleny moaned a few moments in, serenely closing her eyes as the lotion warmed up. “That’s nice…”

Coming from an expert, this was another big compliment to Sara. It wasn’t terribly difficult to flatter her, and her ego was riding a pretty nice high about now. On top of which, giving this attractive guest-date such a soothing sensation via her size 8 peds was starting to turn her on. Mel was about as tall as Sara, 5’6″ or so, and her feet were just half a size bigger. As Sara studied them, they almost looked just like her own. She considered taking off her socks and pressing her feet to Mel’s to see just how similar they were. But taking another look at the tranquil expression on Melleny’s face, Sara decided to stick with the massage.

She didn’t stop rubbing, but spent a few moments taking stock and assessing the situation. It seemed almost surreal. This was the second time she’d seen the girl—the first being so briefly, besides—and now here she was on her couch, working out the tender spots in her feet, smearing them with warm moisturizing skin cream, getting herself a bit worked up in the process. Melleny did this for people she’d only just met all the time, but that was a professional relationship. It was her job. She was actually almost astonished Mel was letting her do this. Hell, she’d suggested it, no less. How many first dates involved foot massages? Or any kind of massages?

Maybe, thought Sara, it was her plan all along to get me to give her a massage. Maybe she just wanted to enjoy one herself, for a change. Whatever her motives, Sara was really getting into it. She slathered lotion all over the tops and soles, arches and insteps, balls and heels, pressed in just a little harder…tightening and loosening her grip, tracing circles with her thumbs, spreading the toes apart to ease her fingers between (which made Melleny giggle a little herself), lifting her ankles to get under her heels…and gazed back at Mel’s lovely face to see how she was doing.

Melleny’s eyes had fluttered closed—almost. She was staring through her lashes at nothing. She looked even more restful and at peace than before. Wow, I must be pretty good at this. Sara couldn’t help grinning at her newly discovered skill. She was sure she wasn’t anywhere as good as Mel, but she must have had at least some talent.

Sara thought she had put the softly moaning Melleny to slumber, until a few minutes later, when another new song on the disc started. Mel’s eyes popped back open.

“Oh my God, I love this song!” she told Sara, pointing to the TV. “That’s…that’s…” She snapped both index fingers alternatingly, trying to recall. “…Shoot! What is that? I know I’ve heard it, but I can’t recognize it.”

“‘Miss Chatelaine.'”

“Right! Of course!” Melleny said. “And…oh, God…who sings it again?”

“Kathryn Dawn Lang.”

“Oh—” Melleny pretended to smack herself in the face. “Duh!! k.d. lang! H—…how in the hell could I not remember that??”

“And you call yourself a lesbian!” Sara teasingly chided, poking Mel’s soles, making her snicker. She was of course just kidding, as she was sure there were lots of (particularly younger) lebbis who didn’t know her favorite singers. But because her knowledge and love of pop music was so expansive, it was hard for her to imagine others didn’t feel the same. Plus which, Melleny had just told her she loved this song.

“I know,” Mel groaned with a grin, playing along. “Demerits, Melleny!” she admonished herself. “Then again, I am also about to hit my 30s…God, maybe I’m just getting old.”

They finished unisonously laughing and started singing along.

“Just a kiss/Just a kiss/I have lived just for this…”

At which point Sara grew more energetic.

“IIIIII…can’t explaaaaaain…why I’ve becoooooome…Miiiiiiss Chatelaine!…”

She took a deep breath and belted out, “Just a smile!/Just a smile!/Hold me capt—”

She stopped as she looked back over. Melleny, whose feet Sara’d temporarily stopped rubbing, was staring at her, with wide eyes, arched brows and an amused expression.

Sara was caught in the “act,” as it were. She piped down and cleared her throat.

“Sorry,” she said matter-of-factly. “That’s another thing about me, I guess you can tell: I love singing, and…really really loud, too. I mean, I couldn’t do it professionally, but I still consider myself pretty good at it, and it just makes me feel so great inside.”