They all began with a knock on the door. This one would be no different.
Jenna was nearest the door, but she had to slip on a T-shirt to cover her bare breasts, enjoying being topless when at home. It was a dark blue shirt, and so, not see-through. Still, the imprint of her hard nipples in the material left no doubt. A look through the peephole gave her a familiar surprise and reduced the T-shirt issue to insignificance. She quickly pulled open the door. "Brianna! What a pleasant surprise! Come in."
"Hello, Jenna. How are you?"
When Ron heard the name, he came to the door. "Hi, Brianna. Where's Bret?" She was still a breathtakingly beautiful woman, and he fondly remembered the times spent on their sailboat.
But the sad look on her face did not foretell of happy news.
Brianna followed the couple in. She was alone and was carrying two square boxes, each about a foot square and maybe four inches deep. "These are heavy," she said.
"Let me get them for you," Ron offered.
Readily relinquishing her load, Brianna said, "You asked where Bret was. He's in those boxes."
Stunned, that caused Ron to almost drop them, but he held on.
To the questioning expressions, Brianna explained, "Bret passed away four days ago."
Jenna immediately hugged her. "Oh, Brianna, we're so sorry. What happened?"
"You might recall that he wasn't in the best of health. He had a heart attack and, well, didn't survive it."
Jenna walked her to the sofa and the two women sat.
Assuming the boxes were filled with Bret's ashes, Ron wondered what he should do with them. He didn't want to seem irreverent, but Brianna was right; they were strangely heavy.
"You can set those down anywhere," Brianna said. So, Ron reverently placed the boxes on the dining table. "He wanted to be cremated, which was actually a relief because I don't know where I would have buried him." Then their friend started laughing. "I don't know what I expected his ashes to be in when I picked them up this morning, but it certainly wasn't plain boxes."
Jenna and Ron glanced at one another not knowing what to say or do. Of course, the question on their minds was what had brought her here.
"As you know, neither of us had any family," Brianna went on. "So, there was no reason to have a service. Even though we have some friends who would have come, I just didn't feel like having to endure a somber service and listen to people . . . and, well, you know, just didn't want to go through that."
"Don't blame you," Ron agreed for lack of anything better to say.
"Aside from wanting to be cremated, his only other wish was for his ashes to be spread in the big lake that he loved sailing in. So, to answer the question that I'm sure is on both of your minds, I'm here because, Ron, you are the only other person I know that knows how to sail. So, I came here to ask if you and Jenna would take us on one last cruise on our sailboat to fulfill my husband's wishes."
Bret and Brianna had been Jenna's neighbors in her previous life. They had been very fond of her but couldn't stand her ex-husband. When her marriage ended, Jenna moved into an apartment and lost touch with them. When Ron and Jenna started dating, Ron would visit Jenna on weekends, and on one of those, they ran into Bret at the marina and he invited them to go sailing with he and his wife. It was an exciting overnight trip. Brianna and Jenna were close in age, but Bret was older. As such, and with his poor health, their sex life was virtually nothing. On that weekend sail, Bret allowed Brianna to engage in a threesome with Ron and Jenna since he couldn't accommodate his wife. Brianna enjoyed it so much that there were a couple more such weekends until Jenna moved in with Ron and she again lost touch with her friends.
Glancing at the boxes on the table, Ron didn't see how he could refuse. Jenna gave a barely perceptible nod of agreement.
"Of course, we'd be happy to," Ron said.
"Oh, thank you so much," a relieved Brianna said. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this and how much Bret would have."
"It's our pleasure," Jenna added. "When did you want to go?"
"I waited until the weekend so you wouldn't have to take off work," Brianna said. "I've had the marina prepare the boat, so it will be ready when we are."
"Tomorrow is Saturday, so that will be perfect," Ron agreed.
"Wonderful. And now, I have another question. Do you know a good lawyer?"
"As a matter of fact, we do."
* * *
After brief explanation, Tim, Rhonda and Corinne were able to come right over. Brianna needed an attorney to handle succession. As a divorce lawyer, that was a little outside of Tim's expertise, although he could have handled it, but Corinne was well equipped to handle such a matter. Bret had a willβa copy of which Brianna had brought with herβthat left everything to his wife, so the female attorney didn't see any issues in a smooth settlement.
Once the business of succession was out of the way, all were able to relax. They sent out for Chinese food, opened a couple of bottles of wine and planned the cruise. Brianna invited, the lawyers and Rhonda to come along and they all accepted. Jenna invited Brianna to spend the night and they would all get up early, drive down to the shore and set sail right away. Ron performed a quick check of the weather and found that conditions would be a good for sailing.
Rhonda offered to do the provisioning, so she, Tim and Corinne left after dinner to stop at the grocery for food and drink for the trip.
Jenna and Brianna sat on the sofa. Ron poured each another glass of wine, and then went to clean up the kitchen. Brianna took a deep breath and let out a big sigh.
"Are you okay?" Jenna asked.
"I am now," the other woman said. "I was stressing over spreading the ashes and the will. Now, that those things will be taken care of, I can finally relax. I can't thank you enough."
"I'm glad you came to us," Jenna said.
"I didn't want to be alone. I don't look forward to being alone."
"You and Bret were very special to me and I'm sorry I didn't stay in touch."
"Well, you were starting a new life in a new city. I don't blame you." Brianna smirked. "But I will confess to missing the good times we had on the boat."
Though she didn't say it, Jenna was certain her friend was referring to the threesomes they'd had. "Yes, that was a lot of fun."
"We've had no other friends that
I've
been able to, you know, share . . .
special
times with."
"You're being awfully coy, Brianna," Jenna noted. "Are you saying there is another reason you came to us?"
Nervously, hesitantly, Brianna nodded. "Sailing and legal help wasn't