Radclyffe - Turn Back Time

"Then I made tea."

"Sorry. We were taking a bath."

Mina sniffed and murmured appreciatively. "I just love the smell of baby powder."

Wynter laughed. "I actually feel fine. I slept some this afternoon.

Besides, I've been looking forward to this all week. There's no way I'm not going."

"You look nice," Mina observed as she took in Wynter's brown leather pants, matching boots, and forest green silk blouse. Small square emerald earrings set in gold glinted through the strands of her red-blond hair, which she wore loose and down to her shoulders.

"Thanks."

Mina turned at the sound of a shout from below. "That's Ken. The kids were getting ready to watch a movie, and they're probably getting impatient."

"Stay there, I'll bring Ronnie down." Wynter collected Ronnie and her coloring books and led her by the hand from the room. A few minutes later, she returned. "Thanks for watching her tonight. You've got her all week and then--"

"Kids are like dogs," Mina said. "After two, what's one more? You might as well let her sleep the night and just come over in the morning to get her. If you don't sleep in, you can have breakfast with us."

"That sounds great." Wynter made a few final adjustments to her hair.

"So," Mina said as she made her way around a pile of unpacked boxes to the bed and lowered herself with a sigh. "Is this a date?"

Wynter grew still. "I'm going with Pearce."

"I know that, but that's not what I asked."

"We're friends."

"Uh-huh." Mina sipped her tea. "Do you remember when you and Ken were medical students, and we invited you over to dinner for the first time?"

Wynter smiled. "Yes."

"That was my idea."

"That was really nice of you."

"Not really."

Wynter studied Mina curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I wanted to get a look at you. You were Ken's study partner, and he spent hours with you every day--more than he spent with me. He talked about you all the time. I wanted to see if you were competition."

"Me?" Wynter's eyes went wide. "You're serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. Men and women don't usually form simple friendships, not if they're both straight. The sex thing gets in the way."

Mina set her tea aside as the sentence hung in the air.

Shocked, Wynter protested, "But I never ...Ken never once--"

Mina laughed and held up her hand. "I know that now. But I didn't know that then. I wanted to see if there was a situation brewing that I needed to take care of."

"Is there a reason you're telling me this story now?"

"Pearce is a lesbian, sweetie. You might be thinking of her just as a friend, but chances are she's not thinking about you in the same way. If you went out on a Friday night with a single man, you'd at least be thinking about it being a date--or that he might consider it one, wouldn't you?"

"Well, yes. Probably." Wynter remembered the look in Pearce's eyes the previous evening. She remembered how easily their bodies had fit together. How naturally. "What are you saying, Mina?"

"Pearce is probably thinking the same thing, or at least wondering.

So sooner or later, you're going to have to be clear with her."

Wynter picked up a small glass prism and turned it between her fingers, studying it as if there were secrets hidden within the rainbows trapped inside. At length she looked up to find Mina watching her. "I almost kissed her once."

Wynter had rarely seen Mina surprised by anything, but the expression on her face now was one of total incredulity. Finally Mina managed an intelligible word.

"When?"

"Match Day."

"Almost four years ago?" Mina shouted.

Wynter nodded.

"And you're just telling me about it now? If I thought I could catch you, I'd get up and thrash your butt."

"You couldn't catch me even when you're not pregnant."

"Don't you try me." Mina crossed her arms beneath her full breasts. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Wynter set the prism carefully back on her dresser. "It was all over in a few minutes. A few minutes that I couldn't even explain myself. I just didn't want to ruin them by trying to." She lifted her hands and let them fall helplessly. "We met by accident, and it was as if there was a connection between us that had always been there. Being with her felt totally...right."

"What about now?"

"It still does."

The doorbell rang.

"That will be Pearce," Wynter said.

"We're not done with this," Mina warned.

"I know," Wynter said softly. She grabbed her full-length dark brown leather coat from the back of a nearby chair, hurried to Mina, and kissed her cheek. "Good night."

"Have fun, sweetie."

Wynter smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

Once downstairs, Wynter rushed to the front door, gathering her keys and wallet from the sideboard in passing. She felt irrationally happy, excited, as if the evening held endless possibility. All she knew for certain was that she was going out with Pearce, and she was going to have fun. She was going to listen to Patti Smith rage, and feel her blood stir, and not think about a single thing that life demanded of her.

She pulled open the door and instantly forgot everything she had just been so sure of.

Pearce wore black. Tight black jeans, heavy black motorcycle boots, a black T-shirt, and a black motorcycle jacket cut in at the waist and wide at the shoulders that accentuated her powerful build. Her thick black hair was slicked back, her high cheekbones knife-edged above an angular jaw. This was not the Pearce Rifkin she was used to.

This woman exuded something exotic and dangerous and alluring.

"Hi," Wynter said, feeling suddenly bereft of normal speech.

Pearce smiled. "Hi." She reached out and fingered the blond strands that were trapped between the collar of the leather coat and Wynter's throat. "Your hair looks nice down like this."

"Thanks." Wynter's vision narrowed until all she saw was Pearce's face. Then just her mouth, lips parted and intoxicatingly full.

Neither woman moved. The very tips of Pearce's fingers rested against the pulse that beat erratically in Wynter's neck. Wynter leaned ever so subtly into her caress.

Pearce traced her thumb along the edge of Wynter's jaw and let her eyes drift downward, taking in the leather duster, the long legs sleekly encased in softer sheaths of leather, the hint of green silk calling to her like a cool mountain glade on a hot summer day. She'd barely slept the night before, the memory of Wynter in her arms tormenting her all night long.

Mina came up behind Wynter, her gaze traveling between them.

"If you all don't want those tickets, Ken and I will take them, and you two can stay here and babysit."

"Not a chance," Wynter said, her eyes never leaving Pearce's face.

Pearce smiled and gently moved her hand away. She looked past Wynter. "Hi. How are you doing?"

"Other than the fact that I'm getting too big to get out of my own way, I'm just fine. Now, if you two could move along, I'll close up over here and go find out what trouble my husband has gotten himself into with those children."

"All set?" Pearce asked, unable to keep her eyes from Wynter's face for long. Looking at her was the only thing that eased the ache that had set up permanent residence in the center of her chest.

Wynter put her hands in her pockets before she touched Pearce somewhere, anywhere . And she couldn't. Not when there was so much she didn't understand. She cared about Pearce too much for that. "Yes.

I'm ready."

"My car's around the corner."

Wynter followed Pearce down the stairs, Mina's question resounding in her mind. Is this a date? Of course it wasn't. Was it? v "There they are," Wynter said, pointing into the crowd that milled around on the sidewalk in front of the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street.