From Jenny to Mei Ch. 24

Philip heard the derision and jealousy in the question but chose not to let it bother him. "Neither. It started simply with meeting Mei Chun and being smitten by her. Then she met Karla and I met Ai and it just seems to be snowballing out of control."

"Poor guy," Tim said in mock sympathy, then, after a pregnant pause, started to laugh. Philip joined in, seeing that it was genuine. "You really are one lucky motherfucker. You know that, Philip?"

"Yeah, I won't deny it. What would you do with the money?"

"Big houses, fast cars, start a foundation to make me feel better. Then I'd take a trip around the world with Karla and my folks. I'd propose to her on top of a mountain and get married in some cathedral in Italy and fly in all our friends."

"Sounds nice," Philip said, and he meant it.

"So why do you live in an abandoned hardware store and drive an old Range Rover?"

"First cause it's a great car and second because I like my place. It's a bit cold but it has some personal meaning to me and I've got lots of space."

"Are you going to let the girls change you?"

Philip knew what he meant. "Sure. I need changing, my life hasn't been that great recently. Before meeting Mei."

"Oh?"

"Don't sound surprised. You can't think that money really makes you happy right? Like you can roll in a mattress covered in hundreds and you'll be filled with joy."

"Philip, that suite makes me feel great, the room service and how polite everyone has been. It's a lifestyle that is conducive to a certain happiness."

"It doesn't last. It's an illusion. A pleasant one on occasion but when you realize it's an illusion it takes the fun out of it. Like knowing how a magic trick is done."

Tim felt, for the first time, that he knew what Philip meant. It made him seem more human and despite himself, he felt some measure of sympathy. "Thank god you're not famous."

"I know... I couldn't take it. I don't know how actors stand it. Can you imagine being Tom Cruise? I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Tim ordered another beer as Philip hit the halfway mark on his and declined. Tim talked about buying the Forty-Niners or a yacht and cruising down the pacific coast. Philip knew this kind of talk and it didn't interest him, but for Mei's sake he kept mostly quiet while Tim dreamed. When he had enough he asked, "But what does it do to you? What kind of person do you become when you let spending your dad's money define you."

"I know, I guess. I've heard the tales about sports stars and lottery winners. I always told myself if I were to win the lottery, like a big one, four-hundred million, that the first thing I would do is get a good financial advisor and lock up half of it."

"Like owning a real-estate trust?"

"Yeah, just like that. Going from poor to rich must be great but declining from opulence to poverty must suck."

"Yep, it would, and I'm not going to go that way."

"Mostly because you don't spend anything. Or is that hardware store filled with Rembrandt's?"

"Nope, mostly machine tools."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I have a thing for tinkering, one of my indulgences."

Over the next couple of beers he told him about tinkering as a child, about building the machine and meeting Ai. He told him of the business they started today.

"You'd better not let that get out."

"What?"

"The fuck machine business. It would be right there on your Wikipedia page and covered in the gossip column in a minute. 'Billionaire Makes Fuck Machines.'"

"Yeah, you're right. I'll talk to my lawyer and make sure we get a PO box. Thanks for the reminder."

"No problem."

It was eleven thirty and Philip wanted to go but Tim didn't. He was just shy of drunk and was enjoying himself. They agreed on one more.

#########

Even though her mind was thinking about Mei her hands were thinking about the naked lovely body they were stroking. Ai was indeed, to Karla's experienced eye, perhaps even more iconically the slim, pretty Asian girl that had drifted past her mind's eye for so long. And her face, so haunting and captivating. Were that she herself had a face like hers, the Irish equivalent, of course she would have gone into modeling or films. Not that she didn't have offers but none that were more than a horny guy with a camera. No, Ai had that money face, the one Vogue would go into debt to have on their cover. And such a tight little ass, so fucking squeezable and just right there, right in her grasp: the perfect little Asian ass.

"Karla?"

She nearly leapt backward at the interruption that had traveled from her hands and invaded her mind. She felt Ai's message immediately. The tone of her voice was the one used to reject an advance as gingerly as possible. She had used it herself on many occasions. Her hands had stayed too long on her behind or perhaps it was the caressing of the front side of her hips.

"I know. I'm..."

"No, it's not that... and for heaven's sake don't say sorry. I was just hoping that, well, that we could..."

"Humm?"

"I was thinking that maybe we could make a night of it. You know, like, dinner and a maybe go somewhere?"

"I..."

"Cause it's been, like, kinda.. well for me lately... being, you know, my job?"

"Oh!" Karla remembered at that moment that until a couple of days ago Ai had been fucking for money in one hour shifts. "I am so sorry, Ai."

"Yeah, well it's just that I'd like it to be slow and not rushed. Y'know. Not some quickie."

"I didn't think. God, I am sorry. I didn't remember and of course you're right."

Ai relaxed her muscles again.

"It's just," Karla said with relief that she was only being postponed and not rejected, "you have such a cute little butt."

"It is adorable, isn't it?" she giggled.

"Then you know how pretty you are?"

"Yeah, I'm really lucky that way. And you do too."

"I guess," Karla said digging in her shoulder again.

"Listen. We would both be playing a game if we thought or said otherwise and games like that don't do anything for me. I'm grateful for being attractive and I really like it. Y'know, the way it makes you feel? It's nice and I always make sure I don't abuse it. There is nothing I can't stand more than a pretty girl who uses her looks to take advantage of a guy, like, make him treat her special."

"Didn't you toy with your food a bit. Y'know, as an escort. Something to keep it fun?"

"Oh, it was almost always fun. But I had a serious job to do."

Karla cocked her head at that, 'Serious? Hooker?' "Explain."

So Ai did, telling her basically what she had told Philip the night before about being a guy's outlet and his object, if only just for an hour."

"Damn," Karla sighed, "you make it sound so good, and yes, serious at the same time."

"Loved it. Nearly every time."

"Did you ever fake?"

"No way. At first I was so keyed up I came, like, when the guy ate me."

"They went down on you?" For some reason that surprised Karla.

"Each and every one."

"Black guys too?"

"That is so totally a myth."

"And the huge dicks?"

"Mostly myth but a few were more salami than sausage."

"Really?" Karla said, the forthright fascination in her voice causing her a bit of an embarrassment.

"Yeah, really and I felt sorry for them and had to hide how uncomfortable it was. At least a first."

Karla pictured the big black dildo her massage partner had when she would visit her place after class. She imagine it swinging before a big strapping black man while he lined it up to sink into this little girl.

"Then?"

"Awesome, really. I was tempted to give them their money back."

Karla briefly considered a change of career which left her mind too busy to ask another question.

"But I'm glad that's all over now."

"Philip?"

"Oh yeah. He is totally the one. Know what I mean?"

"Fuck!" she huffed in frustration, "when am I ever going to get his dick inside me? You girls make him sound like fucking God's gift."

"He is. He's God's gift to me at least and he's Mei's savior. Which is the same thing, I guess."

The massage continued and Karla tried to make up for the failed sexual advance but her thoughts didn't help. She wondered what kind of girl she was becoming and what this new sexual freedom was going to cost her. She had once, not long ago, been more restrained in her desires but now she looked at people and judged them first on their sexual potential. She found herself watching the members enter the gym and instantly sum them up looking at this woman's hips or that guy's legs. She felt the approaching nymphomania as one would a warming dawn and it concerned her for just a moment. 'Fuck. Might as well dive in head first,' she figured and refocused her attention on the body beneath her.

##########

"So, this is her," Tim said as he handed his phone for Philip to see.

"Wow... nice," he said then selected another picture of the statuesque blond. "Tatiana huh?"

"Yeah, great reviews."

Philip turned the phone sideways to get a better look at the escort splayed out on a bed, her hair artfully cascading to the floor. "She looks like a model." He noticed her breasts riding high on her chest and knew they had to be fake, not that he would comment.

Five minutes previous the conversation had reached the point where Philip had asked him who he thought his first girl would be and Tim had confessed that he spent an hour at lunch googling for escorts in the Bay Area.

"I didn't know it would be so easy. I mean, just a few searches and, like, a whole new world opened up. There are, like, agencies and independents and review sites... did you know that?"

"The internet changes everything."

"Yeah, no shit."

"So she's going to be your first?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Email me the link and I'll have Ai do whatever she does and get you an appointment."

"Shit," Tim said, "I can't believe I'm gonna cheat on Karla."

"Well..." Philip began but Tim interrupted.

"I know. I mean, I know, but it still... I'm still gonna have sex with another woman and, I dunno... it feels weird that she knows it's gonna happen." He looked Philip dead in the eye and said, "And... in a way... really fucking hot."

##########

Mei was down on her front, face in the pad enjoying her first real massage at the spa listening to Kenisha's mea culpa. She was right. She spoke much more loquaciously with her hands on someone's body. She had left her panties on, not quite sure what real people did in a massage like this and not wanting her to think she was too much of a slut.

"So, I didn't mean to hurt her," Kenisha said, "I never would have gotten her fired."

"Then why d'ya do it?"

"Revenge."

"What?! Revenge for what?"

"Oh, I don't want to talk about it really."

Mei lifted and turned and saw Kenisha look down briefly and glance at her breast. "Spill it Kenisha, it's just getting interesting." She turned back and saw her glance again.

"I don't want to bother you with it and it's private."

"You heard me coming on that recording you made and me tell her I loved her. You owe me."

"Yeah. True. Ok... Don't tell her ok?"

"Ok. For one week my lips are sealed."

"Not a week."

"Yep. Remember you owe me and things are moving fast around here. A week's like a month for me right now. Now start talking and keep rubbing. Revenge for what?"

"For you."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, well. I... well, kinda..."

"No!" Mei spun around again, "you too?"

Kenisha looked embarrassed. "Not like full time or anything. Really it's just been a hobby... no, not a hobby, I mean, like, a curiosity." She stepped back from the intensity with which Mei was looking at her. It had always been her secret. "I've never..."

"Does she know?"

"No. No one does. I've never actually done it."

"Are there any straight women in San Francisco anymore?" It was, obviously a rhetorical question. "Well shit, Kenisha, there's an easy fix for that problem. Just start stroking her ass one day or slide her a note to meet you in the massage room to check the towels."

"I couldn't do that. I'm too shy."

"You blackmailed her for god's sake!"

"Yeah, but that's different."

"Get back to rubbing me and tell me how it's different."

For a couple minutes they spoke of her girl crush on Karla and how her with Mei had made her jealous. Mei could tell she was thinking about Karla and Ai in the next room over.

"Don't feel bad Kenisha. Listen. You need to tell her. She'll understand; it's kinda romantic."

"Ya think so?"

"Hell yeah. That's how Philip got me."

"I can't. She won't talk to me about anything but the schedule. She doesn't trust me. I've fucked everything up."

"I guess, so but you can fix it. You can't stay angry at someone licking your pussy."

"Yeah but I probably won't do that well either."

"Never done it?"

"No, I told you. I've watched enough porn to go blind but I've never had the chance."

"Hmmmm," Mei hummed, pondering the new information and thought, 'We don't have a black girl yet.'

Kenisha, now that her hands were busy and the worst was revealed, gushed on and on about her history as a maybe, sometimes, only for Karla, kind of lesbian. And as she listened with interest she discovered that, for some reason she didn't understand, she had no interest in sex this evening. It wasn't a first but it was unusual. She wondered, in an uncomfortable moment of self-reflection, if she was responding to some hitherto hidden racism. It wasn't that she didn't find Kenisha attractive; from her first visit she had admired the black girl's body, but racism was subtle and insidious, or so she was led to believe.

Perhaps it was that she had finally, with two lovers and a third in Paris, had as many as was practical and had no need for more. Maybe it was the recent anger with her at blackmailing her friend or maybe she was coming down with the flu. Whatever the cause she simply had no desire other than to receive the wonderfully sensuous strokes to her skin, the kneading of her muscles and to listen to her story.

Kenisha had to admit to her own reluctant conscience that she was relieved to be confessing to the slim prone woman with the lovely skin. She was glad to discover she wasn't the bitch she had assumed she was, or rather, that her jealousy had convinced her she was. She was actually kind of sweet if rather brusk. She found her attractive in that way Asian women were but didn't find herself compelled to think of her sexually. She wondered if it was racist of her to not find the desire to have sex with her as she did with Karla. Was it racism if you didn't want to lick a naked Asian girl with the same intensity you wanted to with a pale-skinned, redheaded white girl? She would have to ask someone; the algebra of racism was too complex to calculate at the moment.

"So she started me thinking about girls, which was way too weird, and then it just sort of grew and grew."

"And you never did anything about it?"

"I'm shy."

Her new fascination with women, in particular Karla, had been disturbing to her. She did think lesbianism was wrong; she had been taught from kindergarten that same-sex relationships were every bit as valid as mixed-sex ones, but still she thought it kinda strange in the 'not good' way. After all it was self-evident that men and women had parts designed perfectly to fit together. It was just that, until the fascination took hold, she thought it mildly gross. Then again, the joys of getting a dick shoved inside her body wasn't unambiguous at that point in her life either.

Contrary to most of the accounts she had heard from friends, Kenisha's first sexual experience was wonderful. It was at the hands of her older brother's best friend and he had been gentle, polite, concerned for her enjoyment, in short a real gentleman. He took the time to eat her out, which was fantastic, and then, when the time was just right, inserted himself in slowly, constantly asking for feedback. It did hurt a bit and she didn't come from that first penetration but his slow movements and reassuring words allowed her nerves to quiet. She remembered getting tremendous emotional enjoyment and self-validation from the encounter and as he was gently rocking himself into her, felt really warm and good. It was a hurdle that was cleared and behind her, she felt more mature and desired.

She rewarded the tall, skinny Calvin with a summer full of sex; great sex, sex that was emotional and fulfilling for both of them. But it ended when he went back to college. Oh, they kept in touch and he had prepared her for the separation with sweet reminders that things were going to change. He even urged her to find his 'replacement' and gave her a gift of a vibrator, teaching her how to use it in one of their more memorable sessions. And although she had dated plenty of guys, she had never found his equal since.

"So," Mei Chun said, turning over for a rub on her front, "do you think it's a phase... this crushing on Karla?"

"Probably. I mean, I don't fantasize about getting married or anything like that. I mean, I want kids and all but..." She tapered off until Mei prompted with a "hmmmm?" "Well, I think it's physical. I just get so damned.... 'ummmphf'" she grunted a sound that she figured would express what she could not find words for.

"I know exactly what you mean. Like, 'damn that ass of hers!'"

"Right! Like what I wouldn't give to feel my hands slide down that smooth white skin."

"I hear ya," Mei said, "So you have a week."

"No, please!"

"Please nothing. I'm gonna force you to come clean and see what happens." She saw the pleading look in Kenisha's eyes, so white against her dark black face. "C'mob, Kenisha. I mean, it's not like the rest of us wouldn't understand."

They finished the massage a few minutes later and both felt better about one another.

##########

"I will, and thanks for the massage," Ai said after a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Don't mention it. I'm always good for a rub." She winked at Ai who giggled and punched her in the shoulder.

The massages were over and the four women stood together a few feet from the entrance. They exchanged light and friendly goodbyes. Mei and Ai turned to leave but the moment they stepped over the threshold Mei Chun let go Ai's hand and strode with purpose toward a young woman leaving with a gym bag over her shoulder.

Karla, who was only a step beside her, walked forward two steps to stand beside Ai. "What's she doing?"

Ai watched Mei and knew exactly what she was doing. "Part of project Philip, I suspect."

The two watched, Ai with detached curiosity and Karla with a mix of admiration and jealousy, as Mei, her best smile making the overhead lighting unneeded, spoke with the young woman.

"She looks like your little sister, if you have one," Ai observed.

"I've never been happier that I don't," Karla replied noting the girls red hair.

Mei had, it seemed to Ai, chosen well. The girl was fit, like swimmer fit and a bit shorter, probably five-three. But the reason Mei went for her in a shot was how beautiful and young her face looked. As she grinned with Mei's approach and subsequent banter she displayed the kind of openness everyone liked.

"What's she saying?"

"Oh, probably just, 'Hi, haven't seen you here. Where did you get that purse?' kinda thing."

"Not, 'Come and join our harem. Master's got a magic tool?'"

Ai chuckled, more because it was expected than for the humor. "Could be. I have a feeling she is saying whatever is most effective."

The girl nodded several times in quick succession and said good bye with a smile that seemed to reach out at its intended recipient.

Mei walked back with a pep in her gait and a grin on her lips.

"Saw her last week and had to say 'hi' again."

"Candidate?" Ai asked.

"You bet. See how gorgeous she is? Names Kiki, from the Netherlands. Sexy little thing."