CONNIE AND CLAIRE

  “Can we go to your room and talk?” Connie asks.

  “Is this about Tanner?” Connie takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders, “Yes.”

  “Okay, come on,” Claire leads the way to her room. “Let us sit where we can talk,” Claire offers. As both girls sit facing each other, Claire sits with calm and Connie fidgets, holding both hands and looking everywhere but at Claire.

  Connie settles her gaze in Claire’s direction, but at her feet. With a deep breath, she says, “I know we talked about this before and we all decided to wait and not rush into anything, but I want more now, not later. I love Tanner. He hasn’t even kissed me and I want to sleep with him.”

  “I know.”

  “You do?”

  “Your pretty obvious.”

  “Oh, well it is more complicated than just that, I love you too. I also love you both as a couple. I want to pursue this more and faster. I want to sleep with you too. There I said it.” Connie gives a relieved sigh and her shoulders slump, relaxing for the first time since she and Claire walked to Claire’s room.

  After a few seconds of silence, Claire says, “I get so jealous of other women that flirt, or seem to talk to him too long. Not once have I ever gotten that way with you. I have found myself attracted to you and sometimes you and Tanner as a couple. I know we have talked about this before and my feelings have only gotten deeper.” After a brief pause for thought, Claire stands and moves to sit on the couch with Connie. With an automatic reaction, the girls both snug in close, shoulders and hips, touching.

  “The same, something about the dungeon run really made me take a hard look at things. Should we talk to someone?”

  “Me too, I wanted to take thing slow, but after the delve, I want to do more with you both, more time together all of us. I think we need to talk to someone else and get our feelings in order before we talk to Tanner.”

  Connie nods her head, “That makes sense, this way if something goes wrong we don’t jeopardize our friendship or the party. But first I am going to kiss you.” Connie turns and puts her arms around Claire. Claire grips Connie's arms and leans in. Lips briefly meet. Two women lean deeper into the kiss. Tentative at first, but soon hands touch cheeks and necks. After letting the kiss linger to a gentle close, the couple lean back and smile. “That was nice, we need to do that more.” Connie says as she snuggles into Claire’s embrace.

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  With a sigh of contentment, Claire agrees. “We should have done that much sooner.”

  Connie, smiling into Claire's chest, mumbles, “We didn’t really have much time for things like this.”

  “In the future we make time.” Claire giggles, “I just had a thought, of Tanner in between us like this, I think his head would explode.”

  Connie looks up at Claire with a naughty smile. “That could be fun.”

  “Look at me, the second time I kiss someone and now I am a total slut.” Claire says, giving her own naughty smile.

  Connie, turning serious, asks, “Claire are you a virgin?”

  Claire looks at Connie’s face, her expression becomes worried. “Yes, is that bad? Are you?”

  Connie moves to sit a little straighter. “No, it’s not bad, but it is important to know if it is your first time. It can hurt if not done right. No, I am not a virgin. I had a boyfriend before the Attunement. We were going to marry anyway, so I figured why not? I found out why not. He hurt me when he stuck it in me. He never seemed to care he just kept going never paid any attention to me or my pain, just kept going. Then he stopped, pulled out and walked away.”

  Wide eyed, Claire hugs Connie tighter and rocks her, both girls with unshed tears hanging. Connie hugs back just as tight and continues, “I went to my oldest sister. She made me a tea, so I didn’t get pregnant and helped fix me up. I was a mess, She told mom and dad, daddy went straight to Mike’s Dad and canceled the betrothal. Mike just sneered and said he already got what he wanted, told all his friends I was an easy target, but just laid there and did nothing. I was so humiliated, then I Attuned, the only one out of my village. They all stopped laughing and talking behind my back after I marched straight up to Mike and kicked him in the balls so hard he lifted a few inches off the ground. Then suddenly I had everyone of the jerks kissing my ass. Thank the Goddess the Darton recruiter showed up. She offered a change away from the two faced assholes, and an opportunity for a much better life.”

  Claire kisses Connie’s residual tears away and says, “I knew none of that, I am glad you shared that with me.”

  “Sorry, I just... I. When you're with Tanner, let him know so he can be gentle with you.”

  “I will Tell him about your terrible first experience. He can show gentleness towards you as well.”

  “Tanner doesn't worry me. He's unlike Mike in all aspects. His touch, his way of talking, everything he does. The way he treats me and you, and the others. He makes me trust men again. There are good, decent men in the world. I want him in my, our lives.”

  The two share lingering kisses for a while longer, then sit up. “Connie, this is fun, and I want more of this. We need to hold for now and figure out how we as a trio are going to work. We need to talk to a councilor, or someone.”

  “Who do we talk to?”

  “Not Penny, and not my mother. They would both try to be understanding and be supportive, even try to help, but I don’t think they will intimately understand.”

  “Well my mother is out, she would be the same way and my father would have a heart attack.” She giggles.

  Claire laughs, “So would Daddy he would understand but I am not sure if he would be so casual about me like this. Rory would assume the throne early.” Claire gets a surprised look.

  Connie still smiling says, “So Eunice, she maybe able to help us sort this out or send us to someone who can.”

  “We can talk to Rory, too.”

  “Your oldest brother? Oh right, I forgot he has two wives.”

  “Eunice first, besides we need to start working on her other gates and chambers. We can talk while we work with her.”