Chapter 3

“So cool,” Celeste agreed.

A little before ten that evening, Celeste remembered she still had a ton of homework so reluctantly called an end to their text marathon.

‘LYB’ Ashley replied.

‘LYB?’ Celeste asked even as she dug her Trignometry textbook out.

‘Love you, bye’ Ashley responded.

‘Love you, bye’ Celeste agreed.

On Saturday, Celeste did her housework in the nude. She felt so naughty, running the vacuum cleaner over the living room rug as her breasts bobbled and swayed back and forth. And, entering her Grandmother’s room, Celeste suddenly felt ashamed and guilty of her nudity.

“Bullshit,” Celeste snapped, beautiful face a mask of ugliness. “Bull. Shit. You are not here and you do not tell me how to feel, do you hear me?”

After cleaning the house, Celeste decided to go for a swim. In broad daylight, the eighteen year old girl stepped out onto the wooden deck, towel casually draped over her left shoulder. The towel dangled over her left breast and her left buttock. But when she draped the towel over the railing, her naked body was fully exposed to the late spring sunshine.

After a brisk swim, Celeste then lay, fully nude on the padded chaise lounge. Rousing from her slumber, Celeste went inside and made her first drink of the day.

Coming to nearly three hours later, Celeste drunkenly decided another swim would revive her.

“And know what? Know what? Why? Why you still in that small room?” Celeste asked herself as she wobbled toward the sliding glass door. “This, this is MY house.”

She was unable to fall asleep in her grandmother’s room, though. The bed was lumpy and uncomfortable; the miserly woman still had the same mattress that had been on that bed when Theo had been alive.

The woman’s smells were trapped in the room. It was the scent of some bargain brand lotion and the sugar free pepperments Clara was always sucking on.

The furniture had been picked out by Theo; it was heavy, dark and not very warm and welcoming. Celeste made herself another drink and decided to start the task of clearing everything out.

“Huh?” Celeste asked, finding a few dozen heavy gold coins in the top drawer of the tall chest.

She also located several dozen silver coins and her grandmother’s jewelry. Celeste was amazed to find the jewelry; she’d never seen Clara East wearing any jewelry other than her plain wedding band. But here were several thousands of dollars’ worth of rings, necklaces, bracelets and pendants and brooches.

The nightstand on her grandmother’s side revealed that Clara had genuinely loved Celeste. Celeste found a photographic history of herself from birth onward. Her Kindergarten graduation picture was in a heavy silver frame. So too was her Eight Grade Science Fair photograph.

Three drinks in, Celeste tottered back to her own bedroom and passed out. The next morning, her hangover was horrendous and Celeste vowed to never drink again.

By noon, Celeste had convinced herself that it was the whiskey sours that were to blame. So she used her phone to look up a good rum recipe.

Carl Ubelhauser helped Celeste sell ten of the gold coins, depositing that money into her account. He secured her a credit card and a debit card through Commerce and playfully admonished the girl to refrain from going wild in Vokine’s.

“Oops! Let me guess; that was your first destination,” Carl guessed when he saw his young client’s face.

“I uh, well, I mean…” Celeste stammered.

“Young lady. I told you, don’t go wild. I did not tell you that you couldn’t go shopping there,” Carl assured Celeste.

Even with cold hard cash in her hand, Celeste could not bring herself to spend the money; Vokine’s was far too proud of their merchandise. Especially when she knew her home needed new carpet, new linoleum…

“No, no, tile. Tired of that cheap ass linoleum,” Celeste said, leaving the store.

“You need to come over,” Celeste invited Ashley after the home had been remodeled. “I’ll make us some lunch and then we can go swimming.”

“Okay,” Ashley enthusiastically agreed.

“So, hmm, give me about twenty minutes,” Celeste said, finding a pair of shorts.

“Give you twenty minutes to do what?” Ashley asked.

“Twenty minutes to come get you,” Celeste said, deciding a halter top would look cute with her shorts.

“Celeste, its right around the corner. I’ll just walk,” Ashley said.

It had been a few weeks since that evening when Celeste had driven the young receptionist home. And, even though the young lady lived just a few streets away, Celeste worried and fretted as she watched through the living room window for the guest.

Once again, Celeste was struck by Ashley’s beauty and was impressed with Ashley’s abilities as the young woman arrived, tapping the ground ahead of each step. Swinging her cane in a slight arc, Ashley located the walkway from sidewalk to front door and confidently approached the small porch in front of the house.

“My God, them is some mighty white legs,” Celeste teased as she opened the door after Ashley’s knock.

“Oh. Shut up,” Ashley giggled, sending her mother a quick text letting her mother know she’d arrived at her friend’s house.

“L. Y. H,” Celeste said, pulling Ashley into the house.

“LYH?” Ashley asked.

“Love you, hi,” Celeste giggled happily, impulsively hugging her new friend.

“Love you hi,” Ashley agreed, giggling. “You smell like garlic.”

“Uh? Been cooking?” Celeste defended. “There was this I don’t know what you’d call it; a concession stand at Heart’s Bend? Had the best, I mean the absolute best sausage rolls with this kind of like garlic parmesan spread and that’s what we’re having.”

“Yum!” Ashley enthused.

Before dropping the two smoked pork sausage into the cast iron skillet, Celeste gave her friend the fifty cent tour of the home. Ashley could tell that the carpet and the paint was new; the odor still clung to everything. Celeste admitted that she could not smell it anymore.

“I mean, it’s not bad, but yeah, you can tell it’s new,” Ashley assured Celeste.

“And the bed? My old bed is still good,” Celeste said, showing Ashley her new tempurpedic mattress on what had been her grandmother’s bed.

“Oh! I, I want one!” Ashley whined, sitting onto the soft, plush mattress.

After cooking their sausages, complete with green pepper and grilled onions and garlic parmesan spread, Celeste made Ashley a Tom Collins. She made herself a Cuba Libre; her new favorite drink. Ashley made the comment that it was nice to have peace and quiet; Bruce was constantly blaring his heavy metal music, her dad, who had a hearing loss but would not admit to having a hearing loss blared Fox News at an intolerable volume and her mother was constantly yelling at her dad and her brother to ‘turn that noise down.’

“My Dad listened to Country music all the time; God! So depressing! And my Mom listened to nothing but Christian Talk Radio,” Celeste agreed. “Then after they died and I came to live here, my grandmother forbade televeision in her good Christian home and was always listening to that Gospel music. So, yeah, I enjoy peace and quiet.”

“I like this; what is this again?” Ashley asked, taking another sip of her drink.

“Tom Collins; made with gin,” Celeste said.

After thirty minutes, Ashley agreed that swimming sounded like a good idea. Reaching into her huge floppy canvas bag, she produced a can of spray-on sunblock. Standing in what had been Theo’s den, Ashley stripped off her tee shirt and loose cargo shorts, exposing a modest bikini underneath. The top stretched over her very pale breasts and the bottom was very snug over her hips.

With a smirk, Celeste dropped halter top and shorts to her recliner. She agreed to spray Ashley’s back for her as Ashley thoroughly coated her front with the chemical spray.

Grabbing two towels from the linen closet in the hall bathroom, Celeste allowed Ashley to grab her arm as she guided the girl to the sliding door. Both girls gasped as the hot air assaulted them when the door was opened.

“And watch,” Celeste assured Ashley. “We get back in? We’ll be freezing in a matter of seconds.

Dropping the towels onto a chaise lounge, Celeste gave a general description of the layout of the back deck. Ashley smiled when Celeste guided her to the one chaise lounge that had an umbrella protecting it.

“Yeah, my Grandmother was constantly worried about Melanoma,” Celeste said as they then went to the pool.

Being outside, nude in broad daylight was naughty. Being outside, nude in broad daylight with another person was exhilarating, naughty, exciting. Celeste wondered if she dared masturbate with Ashley only a few inches away from her.

“Ooh, this, this is just lovely,” Ashley sighed as they walked into the pool.

Celeste watched as Ashley did a clumsy crawling manner of swimming. She realized, the girl was ‘measuring’ the pool, defining the parameters for herself. Watching as the girl swam back to the steps, Celeste was once again struck by Ashley’s beauty.

“God, I really, I really think I am gay,” Celeste admitted to herself.

For years, she’d had her suspicions. While she was friendly with several boys from school, from church, she just never felt any real attraction to any of these young men.

However, there were several young women she’d felt a strong attraction toward. There were some girls, some young women and even an older woman in the church Celeste had felt drawn to. Of course, knowing what the Reverend C. Thomas Little, and her Grandmother thought of homosexuality, Celeste never acted on any of these feelings.

“LYH,” Celeste giggled when Ashely’s hand came in contact with Celeste’s bare shoulder.

“LYH,” Ashley giggled happily.

They swam back and forth. In between bouts of swimming, they either bobbed in the water or sat on the steps. Celeste wanted to wrap her arms around the beautiful brunette, press her pouting lips to Ashely’s plump lips. She wanted to ease Ashley’s bikini top down, expose Ashely’s sweet breasts. She contented herself with holding Ashley’s hand as they bobbed in the deep waters.

“I’m getting water-logged,” she finally admitted.

“Yeah, me too,” Ashley agreed.

Now, underneath the umbrella, Ashley finished applying a goodly amount of sunscreen. Celeste enjoyed the sun’s harmful rays on her naked flesh. The warmth between her legs was not so much from the sun as it was from her friend’s close proximity and her nudity.

“Want some of this?” Ashley asked, holding the can of spray up.

“Hmm? No, no, I’ve got sunning lotion; trying to get an all-over tan,” Celeste admitted as she slathered the lotion into her flesh.

“An all-over?” Ashley gave an embarrassed giggle.

“Mm hmm. There’s a fence goes all the way around,” Celeste said, suddenly feeling a real rush of excitement at revealing her au naturel state to her friend.

“You, are, are you serious?” Ashley asked, beautiful mouth open in shock.

“Mm hmm,” Celeste said. “Fence goes all the way around; no one can see back here.”

“Celeste!” Ashley gasped, giggling at Celeste’s naughtiness.

“Ashley!” Celeste retorted, mocking Ashley’s scandalized tone.

“I, can I have another, what, what was that again?” Ashely asked a moment later.

“A Tom Collins? Absolutley,” Celeste agreed, getting to her feet. “Be right back.”

Searching around, Celeste found two of the twenty four ounce insulated drink cups that the local Pit Stop Convenience Store sold. Even though the mugs had ‘Free Refills’ printed on the cups, the local Pit Stop no longer honored that claim. Grandmother had loved the mugs because of their big handles; much easier to hold onto. Sometimes her arthritis made holding objects very difficult.

So, the drinks Celeste carried outside were double volume drinks. Ashley giggled happily when she took her cup in hand and realized what a monstrous beverage she’d been given.

“I get too drunk to walk, you better carry me home,” she demanded, taking a big gulp of her drink.

“What makes you think I’ll be sober enough to carry you?” Celeste giggled.

“Oh! Didn’t even think of that,” Ashley giggled again.

“I, I could…” Celeste said out loud then thought, “…listen to that giggle every day.”

“You could what?” Ashley asked, taking another sip of her beverage.

“Get Bruce over here,” Celeste thought quickly, spreading her legs wide to allow the sun to beat onto her inner thighs.

“Him?” Ashley sniffed. “He is such a butt head.”

“Yeah, but he can drive,” Celeste said.

“Yeah, yeah, mostly only when he wants to,” Ashely corrected. “And even though I walked here? I bet he’d get lost halfway here.”