Bedtime was Joni’s favorite time of all. But it could be awfully frustrating as much as it was fun. She loved being close to Nadirah, who ended up practically on top of her most of the time despite making a conscious effort to start off as far away from her as the full-size bed would allow. She loved waking up to find either her arms around Nadirah or Nadirah’s arms around her. It was as if they weren’t at all afraid to show their feelings in their sleep. No, in their sleep, they were completely uninhibited.
One time, after Joni had gotten up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and then slipped back into bed, Nadirah started rubbing her back. She slowly and methodically circled round and round her back with the palm of her hand, then she slowly gravitated downwards toward her buttocks. Becoming increasingly aroused, Joni shifted onto her side. Her back was now pressed up against Nadirah’s stomach. Nadirah’s hand found her breasts. Her fingertips slowly traced each nipple, which quickly became erect with pleasure. Her hand moved lower and lower still. Then Joni lifted the leg she wasn’t laying on and hooked it over Nadirah’s hip to give her better access. But just as she was about to slip her hand beneath Joni’s lacy panties and seek out the place she was most desperate for, she felt Nadirah jerk awake.
Awake, conscious, and not about to give her wife the orgasm she could really use.
Damn!
A few hours later, Joni emerged from a cool shower, not feeling much relief and not at all afraid to parade around naked in front of Nadirah and show her what she was missing.
Nadirah sat propped up on the bed reading, her cat curled up by her side.
Joni flopped down on her stomach next to her and said, “It’s Sunday. Let’s have some fun.”
“I am having fun,” Nadirah said, keeping her eyes on her book and making a conscious effort not to look at Joni.
“We almost got some last night. How about we get some right now?”
“How about you be nice enough to put your damn clothes on and not get me horny?”
Joni laughed. “Horny? You? How could I make you horny? You said you weren’t interested in me when I was young and skinny, so why would you be interested in me twenty years later, even if I’m not exactly old and fat just yet?”
“You’re not funny, Joni,” Nadirah said, glancing at her for a split second.
“I’m not trying to be. Do you really think you’re going to simply be able to go out and find someone else after I’m gone who’s just as crazy to get with a bitch like you? At the risk of sounding conceited, most people would agree that crazy or not, most ladies my age don’t have a body like mine. In other words, opportunity’s knocking right now, and it ain’t necessarily gonna knock again, Officer.”
“Joni, stop!” Nadirah said in a voice that told her the matter would no longer be open for discussion.
“Fine,” Joni said, pissed off. “I’ll get dressed in the bathroom. Wouldn’t want to fire up that old libido of yours from its happily dormant state anyway.”
Nadirah threw her book down and jumped up off the bed.
Uh-oh!
Just when Joni was wondering if she was going to hit her, she grabbed her phone instead and went out back with it. Despite all the seclusion and privacy around them, Joni wasn’t about to run out after her in her birthday suit just to see who she was calling. Instead, she quickly dressed and waited for Nadirah to return.
Nadirah looked at her coldly when she did but didn’t say anything.
“Who’d you call? I know it had to do with me.”
“You’ll see soon enough,” Nadirah said, sitting at the living room table.
“Well, I’d like to know about it before I see.”
Nadirah’s cell phone rang, and she began chatting with a female friend Joni had never met until the knock on the door came about fifteen minutes later.
Nadirah hung up the phone and Joni’s heart began to beat faster. She almost felt like a child all over again, awaiting punishment for nothing at all. Nadirah stood up, crossed the room, and opened the door.
There stood Gifford and Joe.
“Here we are,” Gifford said. “The marriage moderators.”
“What?!” Joni shrieked.
“I guess we’re the marriage MODs today,” Gifford said.
“Marriage MODs, my ass!” Joni screamed. Then she turned on Nadirah. “You asshole! You major league asshole!”
Nadirah simply gazed at her with a mixture of expressions Joni couldn’t quite make out. Anger? Hostility? Even some sadness?
Joni got right up in Nadirah’s face and continued screaming at her. “You fucking shithead! What happened to all this crap about you acting like my husband if you were going to be my husband!”
Nadirah didn’t flinch.
Joni turned to Gifford. “You told me this bitch was old-fashioned. How old-fashioned is her dumping me on you?”
Gifford shrugged and said, “I’m sure it won’t be for more than a day or two.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“Oh, but it’ll be fun,” Joe said, trying to lighten the mood. “We’ll order pizzas…”
“Screw your pizzas! Do you really think I woke up today hoping to go to your place for pizza?” Joni screamed. Focusing back on Nadirah, who had never seen her this angry before, she continued screaming. “You can’t do this to me! You can’t treat me like I’m some child, you damn control freak! What, do you think you’re God just because you’re some hotshot forensics cop and I’m a nobody? I’m sick of you always bossing me around and telling me what to do! You think I don’t have feelings just because you’re some inhuman, mean, cold-ass bitch? Well, I’ll show you what it feels like to really be hurting!”
“Whoa!” Gifford said, catching Joni as she lunged toward Nadirah, who still had yet to so much as move an inch. “Calm down, little one. I hate to break it to you and make your bad mood even worse, but you wouldn’t win against her.”
“Oh, I doubt she’d have done that if we were alone,” Nadirah said confidently.
“Oh, yeah? You don’t think so? I’ll kick your ass to hell and back, bitch! You just wait. As soon as we’re alone, I’ll get you!” Joni screamed at her.
“Okay,” Nadirah said in a tone that said she was up to the challenge and not at all scared. “You’re on.”
Gifford laughed and said, “Relax, firecracker. Things will work out. No need to get so fired up.”
“I told you about her background,” Nadirah said to Gifford, “and that she’s disturbed.”
“Yeah, you disturb me, bitch!”
“And Joe and I are really hungry for those pizzas,” Gifford said. “Right about now, I’ll bet you’ve worked up your own appetite blowing off all this steam, so why don’t we just consider this a little time-out? Then you two can talk things through after Nadirah gets off work tomorrow or something.”
“It’s just for a day or two until we decide what’s best, Joni,” Nadirah told her.
“No, it’s until you decide. I’ve already decided, you fucktard!”
Gifford’s eyes widened while Joe let out another snort of laughter.
“You sure you want us to take this firecracker off your hands?” Gifford asked.
“You don’t have to. I’m taking myself off her hands!” Joni spat.
“Get her out of here,” Nadirah said, determined not to let Joni’s way with words, foreign or not, melt her anger and her heart.
“Come on, firecracker,” Gifford said with a laugh.
“Okay, fine. Just fine! Get me the hell out of here and away from this twisted bitch!” Joni shouted, gathering her laptop. She stomped into the bathroom for her toothbrush and a few other items, then grabbed some clothes after she stormed back into the living room.
“Ready?” Gifford asked.
“I sure as hell am,” Joni said.
“Booty!” Nadirah said, calling the cat over to her so he wouldn’t slip outside. “Come here, boy.”
“Enjoy him, bitch. He’s the only pussy you’ll ever have.”
Nadirah’s dark eyes turned black as coal as she glanced at Joni. Gifford and Joe tried not to laugh again.
“We’ll keep her well entertained,” Gifford assured Nadirah. “Anything else?”
“Yeah,” Joni said, glaring at Nadirah. “Go shove a broom handle up your ass!”
Nadirah’s expression turned surprised, undaunted, and even amused.
“Where do you come up with this shit?” Nadirah heard Joe ask Joni as the trio left the house.
Morning turned into afternoon, and Nadirah found that Joni’s absence wasn’t making her feel any better at all. She wasn’t even as pissed as she normally would be had someone else gone off on her the way Joni had. Instead, she had to admit it was kind of funny, and she couldn’t deny that the girl had guts. If she could take people twice her size, she could certainly take Joni. She hadn’t worked as hard as she had to obtain a black belt in karate just to get her ass beat.
Nadirah was surprised at the sense of loneliness that had taken over the place after Joni left. She thought she would enjoy the peace and quiet and that she would be able to reflect upon things and sort them out, but that hadn’t been the case. Maybe the girl’s obnoxious banter and non-stop questions weren’t so obnoxious after all.
She called Gifford.
“How’s she doing?”
“Been crying for hours, Nadirah. Why are you doing this to her? Why are you breaking her heart like this? Joni seems like a good girl, and like I said before, why hold her past against her? They call it the past for a reason.”
Nadirah sighed. “I don’t know, Giff. I just don’t know. Maybe it’s more than just not wanting to get burned again myself. I mean, you said it yourself. I’m not a very likable person at times. I’m mean, insensitive, too serious, and as Joni said, a bitch.”
“Then why don’t you change?”
“It’s not that easy.”
“You’ll change if you really care about her. I don’t believe deep down that you only married her for the tax thing. Besides, do you want to be alone forever? Do you really want to let a person like this slip away? Would it make you happy to know she was back in California and in someone else’s arms? I can’t believe someone like this would be single for long before she was swept off her feet. Then it’ll be too late, and you’ll have thrown away for the second time around what might’ve been a good thing had you given things a chance.”
“I guess it’s just a new experience for me that I’m not used to. She’s basically everything I would run from. She’s very feminine; she comes from what appears to be at least a somewhat abusive family, too. She’s got no set career, she’s got a driving phobia, and she’s weird.”
Gifford chuckled. “But she’s also very smart. She’s been honest and upfront with you, and she usually manages to make even a hard-ass like yourself laugh every now and then. You yourself said you like that eccentric side of her and how she’s not as boringly predictable as others have been. So what’s the problem? Are you saying you’re not attracted to her?”
“Oh, no. She’s a beautiful girl.”
“Then what is it? Your perfect woman doesn’t exist, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.” Nadirah heard some commotion in the background. “What’s up?”
“The pizzas are here.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go now, and if we don’t talk tonight, we will tomorrow,” Nadirah said, clicking off her phone.
She sat by the window and watched the afternoon fade into the evening.
Eventually, her cell phone buzzed with a text message from Joni.
Joni: Do you really like being alone? Or would you agree that every bitch needs a “disturbed” creature like me around?
A few minutes later, she received another one.
Joni: You could have been going to bed with me all these years and not just a cat. Two-legged pussies are always better than four.
And another.
Joni: Do these texts count as pranks, boss?
And yet another.
Joni: If they do, then I guess you’ll have to come and shove this phone down my throat… then you can do me. :)
Nadirah laughed, clicked off the cell, and fetched her keys.
ns216.73.216.247da2
