We'd known Jane and Guy for a few years, they seemed like decent folks. He was some kind of architect, a kind of smooth-faced, hard-working, ambitious guy who was able to bring in a lot of money, at least for just getting started. Jane was the funny, outgoing one, she was busty and athletic and noisy, a short little chatterbox that simply could not be ignored, no matter what. My wife and I used to party with them quite a lot, drinking beer and yacking and we had other friends in common who would stop by. Life seemed to be going smoothly and everything was hopeful and happy.
Then, in a move that nobody saw coming, Jane declared she was a lesbian and they broke up. Just like that. I heard about it from Guy, who was quite shaken by it all -- they had been a stable, loving couple and then boom. Jane moved in with another woman, she stopped hanging around with us, and Guy started keeping to himself more, working more. He still came to some of the parties but he wasn't able to keep up without his sidekick, and after a while we just didn't see him much.
I ran into Jane once downtown and it was weird. I did not know how to take her change in sexual orientation, if that's what it was. Maybe she had been faking it with Guy, shit I didn't understand any of that or how it works. I still don't. I saw her on the sidewalk and said hi and we exchanged pleasantries, then I very tactfully said, "So you're a lesbian now, huh?"
And she said, "Yeah, I am." Then we talked about some other stuff and went our ways.
Jane was better friends with my wife Shania than with me, and it was not real surprising a few weeks later when Jane called the house and the girls chit-chatted for an hour or so. I was busy and didn't hear most of it.
When they got off the phone Shania filled me in on the gossip, of which there was a lot that went in one ear and out the other. It seems Jane is happily in love with some lady and they bought an old house in the historic district. "So here's the thing," Shania said, "Here's why she called. She said the house is sort of falling apart, there's weeds and the grass is growing like crazy, things are broken, and they wanted to see if they could hire you to be like a maintenance man for them. You'd take care of the yard, fix things, it sounds like there's a lot to do there. Apparently they have money, neither one of them works but Jane said they were 'very comfortable.' Those were her words."
Well, you know me, I was "between jobs," between shitty jobs that is. The pay would be hourly and it was near minimum wage, cash with no taxes taken out, but Jane thought there would probably be a lot of hours and I could pretty much make my own schedule. It seemed kind of perfect. The girls had agreed that if I wanted the job I should show up around nine the next morning. Shania had gotten the address, I knew that part of town. It wasn't far, I could bicycle over there. All was good.
I showed up at nine and knocked on the door. Jane answered it and gave me a friendly hug in the doorway. It was a hot June day and they had an evaporative cooler running, which in the desert will actually cool your house because there is no humidity. When it gets real hot out you have to stand right in front of the vent, but it is much cheaper than air conditioning and works well enough in the right climate. It's what most of the older houses have, and the smaller ones. If you're too hot you just take your shoes off, wear shorts, people adapt.
"Doc, this is my roommate and the love of my life, Dina," Jane said. I shook Dina's hand and wow. These two were like night and day. Where Jane was the petite one with knockers that don't quit; Dina was taller than me and slender, with no tits to speak of. She was wearing faded jeans and a t-shirt with her belly-button showing and her blond hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, which is sensible in Arizona in the summertime. She had creamy-white skin, shining teeth, stunning blue eyes. Both of them were what I think of as the "au naturel" type, they did not seem to wear any makeup and I imagined they ate a lot of vegetables and maybe did yoga or something; they just threw off that vibe, you know? Pretty much not a lifestyle I was very familiar with. But then, I'd never met a lesbian either, as far as I knew. They seemed pretty ordinary to me, nice-looking but whatever, I was married and they were not interested in men. No problem. Just another day at the office.
Jane handled most of the talking. She said, "We got a great deal on this house but it needs some work. Some of it, we'll need a contractor, but a lot of it is just little stuff that needs fixing. We don't know anything about that, and thought it would be fun to hire you to do maintenance." She walked me to the back of the house and opened the kitchen door to look out. "Like, look at this grass," she said. "We have a lawnmower but neither of us can really push it. That faucet over there seems to drip all the time, that's going to cost us in water bills. There is paint, inside and out, and some bookshelves that are falling apart, a hundred little things -- this place'll be really cool if you can fix them."
This sounded ideal to me. "When do you want me to start?" I asked.
"Can you come tomorrow?"
"Sure, what time?"
She hollered over her shoulder, "What time tomorrow, Dina?"
"I don't care," Dina said, and she reappeared behind Jane. "Tell you what, come whenever you want."
"Right," Jane said, "I mean, it needs to get done but come when you want to." They had a spare key which they gave me, and they sent me off. I bought some beer on the way home, steering my bike with one hand and holding a twelve-pack in the other. Shania and I celebrated that night. I grilled some hot dogs and we drank some beer and listened to music.
The next morning I showed up at about nine again and knocked on the door. It took a minute before Dina appeared. I could see Jane in the background. "Oh," Dina said, "Hi. Hey look, you don't have to knock, okay? Just come in when you get here."
Jane came out. "We made a little list for you, for starters," she said. "Let's post it here." And she tacked a piece of paper to the wall beside the door. It was mostly stuff they had shown me already, but there was lots of room on the page to add things. She also put up a sheet to keep track of my hours. They had a shed with tools in it and I got to work.
The next day the door was locked so I used my key and opened it and went in. Jane and Dina were sitting on a love seat in the living room, talking, they nodded as I came in but it was apparent that this was how they wanted it, they would go about their business and I would go about mine. Later when I came through the room they were snuggled together, reading. I said good-bye when I left and felt that a pattern had been established.
I tried to keep regular hours, showing up at nine, leaving in the afternoon. Several times when I came through they would be kissing or cuddling, and I sort of got used to that. They didn't make a big show out of it, it seemed to me that a straight couple would act the same way. They were, after all, in their own house.
Friday morning when I came in Dina was stretched out on the love-seat reading a novel, naked. Her long legs stretched the length of the seat and her B-cup boobs were snow-white and hard, with little pink nipples -- I couldn't really stop and stare, so am short on vivid details, but I saw what I could. I said "Good morning" as I walked by, and she looked up from her book.
"Oh, hi," she said, and her eyes went back to her reading. I could hear Jane moving around in another room. My work was in the back yard, and I went out.
Through that day Dina never did put any clothes on. She read, she chatted on the phone, she ate lunch naked. And you know what? After a while it's not a big deal. An important part of a strip tease is the tease, and actually a naked lady who isn't teasing is just a naked lady. I mean, I feasted my eyes on her amazing slim body, and I had a hard-on all day, but I learned to take it in stride.