Chapter 3: The End

huge thanks to toesucker1 for help with beta reading and editing!

Chapter 3: The End

"How many of those have you had?" Allie was standing behind me pointing to the shot in front of me.

"Not very many?" I tried, meekly.

"Give me your keys. You're not driving tonight."

I didn't argue, I gave her my keys. She gave the bar tender an icy glare, "Only water for her." And she stalked off again. I stood stupidly at the bar wondering what was next.

A half an hour later she came back in and slapped a key card down viciously in front of me and left again. I picked it up and looked at the number printed on the envelope: 412. Then I paid my tab and went upstairs.

It was a room with two queen beds in it. Allie had brought all of our luggage back up and she was in one of the beds, head barely visible under the covers. My pajamas were laid out on the other bed, and the blanket turned down. I never wore pajamas actually to bed, they were just for lounging around in. The message was very clear.

---

The drive home the next day was torture. I was supposed to have been working today, but that was the least of my problems. If Allie was going to hate me now, I might as well crawl into a hole and die; no point even living, let alone having a job. I tried talking to her once.

"Allie, please let me explain, that was all before I got to know you. But I love you, please believe me."

"Did you lie to me, Jenny?"

"Well, at first, a little. But not anymore. Not since we became friends."

"I've told you Jenny, I can't tell when people are lying to me. I can't tell if you're lying to me right now. And now, I don't know if anything you ever told me is true."

And that was the end of that conversation. Allie was in charge of the music for all road trips of course, so she pulled out all the most heart rending selections you can possibly think of. One in particular had a line:

... if this is really you, then you're not all that you make yourself out to be.."

I swear she played that song 10 times during the drive home.

And when we got home, she moved out. She didn't move completely out of our house, I think that would have killed me. But she took everything of hers from what had been our shared bedroom and moved into another one.

The next morning coffee was ready and Allie was waiting for me in the kitchen when I came down. She didn't say anything. I wanted to say something, I wanted her to say something, the silence was killing me.

After an excruciating silence that lasted at least a million years, she finally said, "I'm trying to figure out how to tell when you are lying, Jenny."

"Allie, I promise, I will never lie to you again. I'm so sorry I ever did but I had no idea we would end up together, so I thought it didn't matter. Please, I'll never do it again."

"The problem with that methodology, is that the value of your promise is predicated on your integrity. There is no mechanism to prohibit you from lying about whether you are lying. It's the fundamental flaw with self-certification."

----

The next morning, Wednesday, coffee was ready and Allie was waiting for me in the kitchen when I came down. This was killing me. Even though I'd hurt her badly, and she didn't trust me, she still did all the things for me that I loved about her.

"Allie, how can I prove that I really do love you? I'll do anything. OK, you can't believe what I say, I don't blame you for that. But I'll do whatever, can I do something...?"

By now I was on my knees in front of her with my hands on her calves, I didn't dare put them higher. I have no idea how other people who identify as ace approach sex; I personally do not desire it for myself but I want to give it to someone I love. I wanted to give Allie anything, my body, whatever she wanted. I know that the desperate pleading in my eyes and voice made it abundantly clear that I was offering sex, for her forgiveness. It would have worked on anyone else.

"No Jenny, you can't. I don't want to have sex with you unless I already know that you love me. That's the chicken and the egg paradox."

-----

Thursday morning coffee was ready and Allie was waiting for me when I came down to the kitchen. I had nothing else to try.

The following week was excruciating, Allie would barely talk to me. She still made coffee and we sat together, but we didn't talk. One morning as we were sitting there saying nothing, and I was dying, her phone rang.

"Hi Mom," she answered and then listened for a few minutes. "OK," she said, and handed me her phone. Then she walked out of the kitchen.

"Jennifer? This is Courtney, Allison's mother. I want your side of this story, what happened?"

I took a deep breath and told her everything, starting three years ago when we met. I told her how we had competed for two years and Allie apparently had no idea who I was the whole time. I told her how I'd been resentful that Allie is so much better. And most of what I'd said to my friends and family about her. Not everything, that would have taken way too long; but enough so she understood the depths of my deceit. She let me talk.

"All that was horrible, Mrs. Zembrovitch, I know that. But I thought Allie hated me too and I had no idea about her...... peculiarities. I'm sorry, that doesn't make it OK and I know I'm a terrible person. But what I said, the first day we met? It's true now, I love her more than anything. I hate that I did it, and I hate that she found out, but.... well.... it's true."

She sighed. "I've always had my doubts about you Jennifer, and quite frankly the only thing that surprises me is the degree to which you have taken your little "Insidious Plot", as you termed it. I told you, my primary concern is the happiness of my daughter, and I keep a very close watch on her friends. And Allison has been happier in the last year than she ever has been. So I think now, the question is not about the past but rather about the future. Please put Allison back on."

"Yes ma'am," I answered and went to find Allie.

---

That evening I called Tammy. She had never really told me, but I suspected that she also might be 'on the spectrum,' as they say. She and Allie were alike in so many ways. And she was about 10 years older than us, so I trusted her advice. Her interpretation was very much the same as what Allie had told me, there wasn't a damn thing I could do. I was just going to have to wait until Allie worked through the problem for herself and found her own answer. There was some hope in that, at least we weren't done for good. It was just going to be painful for a while. Tammy promised to call Allie and talk to her, I felt that Tammy might be able to understand Allie better than anyone.

---

We didn't practice together anymore now. Allie didn't need any practice, so what I'm really saying is that she didn't help me to practice anymore. She still played by herself, but she played fast - way too fast for me to keep up. It was clear I was not invited to join. So I stayed out of the conservatory while she was playing.

But when she was in her computer room working, I'd get my dobro and practice. I was working on 'Orange Blossom Special.' The old timey, classic version was done with a fiddle, but the more well known version recorded by Johnny Cash has the harmonica playing the part, which has become legendary. I wanted to play that part on the dobro, so I'd found some YouTube videos and bought the tablature for it. It was a struggle. But since I wasn't trying to keep up with Allie, I went slow and struggled through it.

We did still exercise together. Or at least I accompanied her. She didn't really invite me to join her. But if I made a point of announcing when I was working that day, she would arrange to do her workout at a time convenient for me to join. She didn't invite me, but she didn't push me away either. It was something.

Weeks had passed and it was now late January; I was making dinner for us, and she sat at the kitchen table behind me.

"Jenny, I've been considering whether to move back to my apartment. My lease will expire in about three weeks and I need to make a decision whether to renew it."

Oh, fuck. It's all over, she really is moving out - all the way out. I fought back the tears. I'm waiting for the final blow, but she isn't saying anything...... just get it over with.... just kill me and be done with it.......

"What would you like me to do? This is your house Jenny, do you want me to move back to my apartment?"

"No, Allie, please stay! I want you to stay. Remember when we went to Alex and Tammy's wedding and you told me we would be okay as long as we are together? That's what I want. I want us to be together." Maybe the world isn't coming to an end, I hoped.

"I also want to live here with you." She paused thoughtfully for a while, I could feel a 'but' coming on. "I've come to the conclusion that I must be in love with you Jenny, I cannot identify any other explanation. There is no plausible explanation for this desire to stay here, other than that I must be in love with you. OK, I will cancel my lease. We will need to go over and clean it out then."

"Does that mean I can sleep with you again?" I blurted.

"I wouldn't be comfortable with that. I guess I must be in love with you, but I don't think I trust you, Jenny."

I wanted to be ecstatic, she had just told me she loves me. The words I had been waiting 8 months to hear. But she still kept me away, wouldn't let me close to her. It was hard to be ecstatic.

----

We went to Asheville the weekend before her lease expired and cleaned her apartment. Everything she really cared about, we had already moved to our house months ago. What was left we either gave to a thrift store or 'tossed over the side'. That phrase, 'toss it over the side' was some quirk she got from her dad; eventually I figured out that it means throw it in the trash. Cindy and Kevin were there on Saturday to help carry out the stuff we couldn't manage on our own.

Saturday night we had pizza and Redd's, the four of us sitting on the floor like a bunch of kids. When Cindy and Kevin went home, we spread out sleeping bags on the floor and crawled in. I arranged mine as close to hers as I thought I could get away with; she didn't object. At least we were sleeping in the same room tonight.

Sunday morning we cleaned up the trash, wiped everything down one last time, vacuumed the floor, and we were done. I'd adopted her habit of not eating breakfast, but we decided to have brunch before getting underway back to Gatlinburg. As we were waiting for our food; I was chatting about stuff, nothing serious, but things she would normally be interested in talking about. I didn't want to sit there in stony silence even if she was. It wasn't really stony silence though, more thoughtful - she does that a lot.

"Jenny, I talked to Cindy yesterday, they are coming over next weekend," she announced abruptly.

"What? Next weekend?" I squawked.

"Cindy said she thought they should come visit sometime, so I told her to come next weekend. Is there something wrong about that?"

"Not exactly, I just didn't expect that." I was nervous though, I felt like there was something going on I didn't know about. And with the current situation between us, I wasn't thrilled with having her family around for the weekend. But I knew that was my own fault, and the last thing I was going to do is fail to support Allie when her family comes to visit us. I would do it regardless of my discomfort. "It's going to be really nice having them visit, Allie! Do you think that they will want to grill out again? If they do, then I should get some meat for that."

We talked for a few minutes about plans for the next weekend until our food arrived. It felt like she was starting to warm-up towards me. And on the drive back we talked a bit more about the upcoming weekend. It was February, and the weather was too chancy to plan on anything much outdoors. So we thought it would be fun to see some live music, and decided to look at the options when we got home. Since it was a cold, drizzly day, the drive took longer than normal, and it was dark when we finally got home.

Allie went to start up her computer to look at our options.

"Should I get us something to drink? We have wine and Redds," I asked.

"It's kinda chilly tonight, how about something hot. Green tea?" Allie suggested.

"Yeah, I think we have that. I'll brew us some."

We don't drink tea much, so we don't have any fancy tea service. I made it the same way we make iced tea: boiled the water in a pot on the stove, let the teabags steep in that for a bit, then poured it into coffee mugs. I know that kind of behavior would get me shot in a lot of places, but in Tennessee, sinning against tea is not a crime.

I carried the mugs in to where Allie was. I handed her one, and pulled the other chair as close to hers as I could get it. Then I sat down and leaned in close to her. It could be interpreted as just trying to see the screen better, or me trying to lean against her. She didn't pull away. This is progress.

-----

We got Cindy and Kevin settled into the room they always stayed in when they visited us. I still suspected an ulterior motive for the two of them coming, but Allie was excited for them to be here. I wanted to be optimistic, but still I was nervous.

"I really like what the two of you did with this space. You are really turning it into a home together," Cindy just threw that right out.

We were sitting in the conservatory, a space that didn't exist in this house six months ago. This was the room in the house that felt the most like Us. We hadn't done much with the rest of the house, beyond standard maintenance stuff. But this room we had really put our time and passion into. Last time Kevin and Cindy had been here, it was a basic drab living room. Now we had books on shelves everywhere (mostly Allie's, but I had added a few to our collection also), our instruments were on their racks, and a cozy little gas fireplace kept the chill off.

"Thanks," I glanced at Allie to see her reaction, but I couldn't tell what she thought about that.

"I haven't heard you two play together since the night Jenny bought her dobro, you two must be getting pretty good together by now."

I looked at Allie sheepishly, I wasn't going to be the one who confessed that we hadn't played together in over a month. Allie's expression was inscrutable, clearly she had no intention of giving it away either and she was so much better than me at masking her thoughts. But I wasn't going to just cave in, so I put on my best unconcerned attitude.

"Oh, nothing special, probably mediocre. Not worth talking about. Allie is really good, I just try to keep up."

But Cindy wasn't giving up easily, "Kevin go bring out your mandolin."

Now I was convinced that their visit hadn't been just the random event they had portrayed it to be. Cindy had Kevin well trained, and soon he was sitting next to Cindy tuning his Mandolin. A moment later he was plucking something I recognized, but didn't know the name to.

"'Soldiers Joy,'" Allie muttered, and went to get her banjo.

One minute later, Allie was tuned up and playing along. "OK. 'Under the Double Eagle' next," she looked pointedly at me, "dobro." And I obeyed.

She very deliberately waited until I was ready and situated before she led us in. I knew she had picked this one because I'd practiced it a lot with her. It's a bluegrass standard, after all, so one of the first ones that anybody would start with.

We were pretty rusty - no, absolutely rubbish. But after we mangled our way though that first one, we started to get it together. Then we did 'Katy Daly', that was merely abysmal. We followed with Rocky Top, (a Tennessee classic) and by then we were advanced to horrendous. That made us all feel much better. Allie had picked these because they were the ones we practiced together the most.

"Now I want to pick one that I want to sing," Cindy declared. She looked at Kevin, "The one that goes like....." and she proceeded to sing a few lines.

"'Missing You', Desert Rose Band. Yeah, but Jenny doesn't know that one."

"She can play it!" Allie interjected (rather forcefully, I thought). And considering I had no idea what song they were talking about, I felt it rather presumptuous that Allie would decide for me what I knew how to play.

But then Allie looked at me intensely. "Listen, Jenny. Kevin will play a 4 bar intro, then Cindy will start singing. You come in with Cindy, light touches around the edges. Remember, you are the dobro, you're not carrying the tune, Cindy is. Just listen to what she is doing and add notes around the edges. It's an easy song, you will anticipate the changes; don't think about it, just play. I will come in on the second verse, ignore me. Remember? You're not playing a song, you're playing music. You can do this."

Somehow I believed her. Allie always seemed to have more confidence in me than I did in myself. I had never played with anyone other than Allie before tonight, so I was nervous. But over the last several months, well I guess almost a whole year now, I'd learned to trust her judgment - about some things anyway.

"Ready Kevin?" Allie looked to each of us. "Take it away."

I adapted to Kevin's beat, counted 16 and Cindy started singing. Cindy had such a beautiful voice that I almost forgot to play. I tried to do what Allie had told me, add some notes around the edges like Jerry Douglas. I was focusing on Cindy, trying to stick with her, watch her breathing and see where to drop in a lick or highlight a note or two. Then I realized I did know this song, Allie listened to it all the time. When Allie came in on the second verse, her banjo sounded different, more mellow, subdued, less brassy; she wasn't wearing finger picks. I wasn't sure if I did it right, but when we got to the end of the song Allie was grinning at me.

"OK, your turn to pick one," Allie was looking at me expectantly, I knew what she wanted me to pick.

I wasn't sure I was ready for this. I'd been practicing, but that was alone. This was my first time playing with anyone besides Allie. "I want to try," I took a deep breath, "'Orange Blossom Special.'"

Allie had a huge grin. "Lead us in with a train whistle!"

So I did. I led us in, then Kevin picked up the tune on mandolin for a while. I followed along, letting my nerves settle. Allie was doing a slow eighth note drop thumb rhythm, just keeping the beat.

"Ready for the dobro break?" Kevin called to me.

I nodded. Here we go. I got through, and didn't mess it up too bad, no train wreck (pun intended). Cindy sang the last verse, and Kevin wrapped it up with a flourish.

"You were perfect, Perfect Girlfriend!"

I was beaming. "Thanks Allie." Then she kissed me and I cried.

We played a few more songs together as Cindy sang. We didn't actually sound that bad and I was starting to get the hang of playing with others. Cindy leaned close to Kevin and said something I couldn't hear. Kevin replied quietly back to her.

"OK, another Desert Rose Band," he looked back and forth between me and Allie. "This one has an 8 bar intro. Follow Cindy." Then he said to Allie, "You'll want to frail instead of playing Scruggs Style. We're going to do it in D, do you want a capo?"

Allie had explained capo's to me, so I knew I just needed to shift everything up one full step. Translating the theory to practice would be the trick.

When Cindy sang the first three words I knew that this was 'Undying Love.' Cindy was singing to Kevin, but Allie was looking straight at me while she sang harmony. Allie couldn't sing as well as Cindy, but it didn't matter. She was singing to me. We both had tears in our eyes on the final notes.

And then Cindy abruptly announced that they were tired from the drive over and she and Kevin were going to bed. Allie put our instruments back in their racks then sat down again on her stool.

"Jenny, I need to ask you some questions. Sit here on my lap."

I did so, and put my arms around her waist. Allie put her hands on my shoulders and closed her eyes.

"Jenny, you've bought me a lot of clothes since we've been living together, do you think I look good in them?"

I had no idea how this was relevant, but it's an easy question. "Of course Allie! You really are beautiful and I'm not the only one who thinks so. I'm really happy you let me buy you cute outfits, I want everyone to know how beautiful you are."

"Jenny, do you like being vegetarian?"

Again, I didn't see the relevance, but, "Um, I agree with you about all the problems with animal agriculture, and not encouraging that." It was true enough.

"OK, does it annoy that I don't have a drivers license and you have to do all the driving?"

Well yes, it did. I squirmed a bit before answering, "It would be more convenient if you had a license, but I don't mind that much." I'm pretty sure she could feel it with me sitting on her lap this way, that I wasn't telling the whole truth about that.

"Jenny, do you love me?"

"YES! God yes, Allie. Please believe me. I am so in love with you. Yes, I do... I am." I buried my head in her shoulder and I felt her arms come around me, pulling me closer.

"OK Jenny. I believe you. Do you want to go to bed now?" She led the way to our room - what had used to be and was now again - our room.

"In case you're wondering what that's about. I knew that there isn't any way that I can tell if you lie to me, so I talked to Cindy last week when we were in Asheville. She is sure that you do love me. Cindy didn't know you before the Championship last year but she guessed it was just as likely that you were lying to yourself as lying to me.

"That was the same thing my mom told me after she talked to you a few weeks ago. Then my dad gave me his acta non verba speech again, you know, deeds not words. You can't go by what a person says, you have to look at what they do. And I thought about all the things you do for me now, and maybe that's more important than what you said a year ago.

"And Tammy called me too. She explained things. And I realized, I don't need to be able to tell every time you lie, I just need to be able to know if you're telling me the truth about something important. And now I know how to tell if you are telling me the truth."

It was humbling listening to her dissect my character like that, but I guess I deserved it. At least she was taking her clothes off the whole time she was talking. And so was I. I still felt guilty though; now it was more of a feeling that Allie had forgiven me but I had done nothing to deserve it. It's strange how circumstances will twist your thinking. I surprised even myself by what I said next.

"I'm so sorry I hurt you Allie, and I feel so guilty about that. I feel like you should punish me."

Allie looked at me impassively for a moment. "Punish you, Jenny? Like a spanking?"

I nodded shyly.

"I don't think you need a spanking. I forgive you Jenny. I understand you were upset and said some stupid shit."

"I know, but it was really mean of me, and I feel so bad about hurting you."

"So you think if I spank you that will atone for it. Sort of like a penance? OK, we can try it. Lay down on the bed."

Allie looked around the room for a minute, then got my hairbrush from off my dresser. "You're sure about this?"

"Yes, spank me."

Crack! "Ow!" I squawked and jumped a bit. "Harder."

The second one was a lot harder, and I flinched but managed not to squawk again. "Harder!"

The third one was a bit harder, not much. "Harder, Allie, make it hurt!" I begged.

"No, that's enough Jenny. I don't like this. I don't like hurting you. Come here." She sat on the bed next to me and held me.

"Then what?" I asked. "What can I do?"

"If you really think you need to atone for your crimes. You can grovel and kiss my feet. How about that?" She grinned at me.

'OK!" I slid off the bed and kneeled at her feet.

Her feet were dangling off the bed, a few inches above the floor. I kissed first one, then the other. "I've been such a bad girl. I'm so sorry for all of my sins and iniquities." I kissed her feet again. Allie has really cute feet. I've never had a foot fetish, but I could see myself getting one real quick here.

"And you have been so good to me Allie." I kissed her feet again. Then I licked them. I felt a little thrill run up her leg. Oh, so she liked this! I licked them again. I slowly kissed up her foot to her ankle, then licked the inside of her ankle. I repeated that on her other foot.

"Ah, Jenny!" she gasped. "That is strangely erotic!"

OK, I can do this. I licked each of her feet again, slowly, sensuously. I kissed the bottoms of her feet. I slowly ran my tongue along the bottom of her toes, that little spot where they joined her foot.

"Oh god that feels nice. You can keep doing that."

I sucked her big toe into my mouth, swirled my tongue around it. I sucked it like sucking on a nipple. I looked up into her eyes while I was doing that and saw her face clouded with lust. This was really turning her on.

"Allie, are you going to masturbate while I suck your toes? I want you to."

Without a word she slid a hand down to her pussy and started sliding her fingers up and down her slit. I took her other big toe into my mouth, washed it with my tongue, watching her fingers play around her hole. I brought her two feet together and sucked in both big toes at the same time. She plunged her fingers into her cunt and started pumping them. Her breathing was ragged, she was staring at me but her eyes were unfocused. I swished my tongue around her toes, first one, then the other.

I drew her feet out of my mouth slightly, then licked between her toes, working from big to little. Taking each toe into my mouth, sucking, licking between them. She was gasping, her hand was moving furiously. She was getting close, I could feel the muscles in her legs start to tighten. I placed my hands behind her ankles and pushed both of her big toes into my mouth again. I sucked as hard as I could. The air leaking in around my lips was making a loud slurping sound. Her fingers pounding into her pussy were making a wet slurping sound. Then she clenched, shuddered, and let out a gasping, moaning cry and fell backwards onto the bed.

I crawled up between her legs, still clenched tightly around her hand that was still buried in her sopping snatch. I pried her legs apart, and pulled her hand out, sticking her slippery fingers into my mouth and sucked off her juices. She let me. I stayed there, hands on her thighs, sucking her fingers until she pushed herself back up to a sitting position.

"Have I earned the privilege of eating your pussy now?" I asked her.

"You're a good girl, Perfect Girlfriend. You may eat me out now." She smiled down on me.

I dove in. First I licked up all the juices that were leaking everywhere. Then I slowly worked around her lips, avoiding her clit. I knew how sensitive she is, I have to save that for last. I took my time, building her up again. I wanted this one to last. She had come very quickly while I was sucking her toes. But all the built up tension from the last several weeks was gone now. This one wasn't about release, this was going to be pure pleasure.

Twenty minutes later I was wrapped in her arms, where I belonged. Allie was sleeping softly. I kissed her forehead, closed my eyes and drifted off.

----

In the morning I helped her move all her things back into our room, and life was good again.

Allie and I decided to go out and celebrate Our Reconciliation. We went to my favorite place, the same place where Allie and I had first started dating. And we picked a day when I knew my friend Sue would be tending bar, she had been tending bar that night too. I always felt a little more at ease when the bartender was someone I know.

It was a Tuesday night, and not very busy. When we walked in a blonde woman was at the bar, it looked like she was hitting on Sue. I chuckled to myself, that isn't going to work. Sue is straight and she is very happily married. But when Sue saw us she waved me over.

"Jenny, tell her." Sue pointed at the blonde.

I turned and looked at her. I hadn't seen her in nearly a year, and then it had been only for a minute, but I was pretty sure I was looking at Heather. "What?" I asked.

"Molly doesn't do one night stands," Sue stated. "She doesn't believe me."

"No, she doesn't," I told Heather. "Is that why it didn't work out? You thought you could just fuck her and leave? Wow are you wrong."

"You're Jenny? You used to be her girlfriend. You were with someone else that night we were here, weren't you?" Heather asked, eying Allie suspiciously.

It felt like Heather was trying to stir something up, "I was with Allie, that was the night we started dating."

"You don't look very much like the girlfriend Jenny had that night," Heather said it in a voice oozing with sex.

I couldn't guess at her game, but evidently she was trying to come between me and Allie. I'm sure she had no idea that I'm ace, and that the thought of sex with her was repulsive to me. And Allie would be oblivious to Heather's come on.

"I remember that conversation quite well," Allie stated. "What I told Molly was: 'Jenny is awesome. And I don't even need sex from her to keep me happy. She's a lot more than just a great fuck; she is my best friend.' In case that helps you remember who I am."

I guess Allie wasn't as oblivious as I expected. Heather looked stunned. Sue burst out laughing. Allie and I went and sat down at a table together. A minute later Sue brought over two bottles of Redd's.

"I figured you wanted one of these Jenny, I don't know what Allie drinks."

"That will be fine, thank you," Allie took the other bottle from Sue.

"She's your friend?" Allie asked me when Sue returned to the bar.

"She's actually Molly's best friend. They went to school together since they were kids. But yeah, she's my friend too, sort of. Her name is Sue."

Heather left a while later, just about the time we were ready for another one. I signaled to Sue. She brought over two more. The place was empty now, except for Allie and me.

"Pull up a chair Sue, join us for a bit," I offered.

"I can do that, at least until someone comes in. How've you been Jenny?"

"Well you kinda met Allie, we started dating, that night Heather was talking about. You were working that night too."

"Yeah, I remember that. You were wearing the outfit Molly bought you for her 25th birthday party. She was pretty upset about that. That and flaunting Allie at her. It was kinda childish Jenny, not your best move."

"God, I know. I'm so sorry. I had no idea she would even be here. I was still upset with her, and then when she came in with that tramp, I just... no, that was really childish."

We were silent for a while, before I asked, "How is she?"

Sue looked at me thoughtfully, "Not great, Jen. She will survive, she's tough, but it was really hard on her. I know you know that, but I'm not sure you appreciate how much she really cared for you. It had to happen, we all know that, the two of you just were not right for each other. I've never seen two people work so hard at making a relationship work as you two did - but it shouldn't have to be that hard."

I knew what she meant. "Yeah, it was hard. I tried... I couldn't..." I didn't know how much Molly had told Sue, probably everything.

"I know Jen. You can't change who you are. Neither can Molly. You two were never going to work."

"She'll find someone better..." I trailed off and then a thought came to me. "What's with Heather anyway? Why is she still sniffing around? Molly told me last October that it didn't work out with her."

"Heather!" Sue snorted. "Well for one thing, nobody has ever said 'no' to her before so she can't get over that. But I think she might have a bit of an actual crush on Molly too. I was at a few archery meets last summer and Heather was there. I don't go very often, 'cause my kid has T-ball most Saturday's, so I don't know how often she shows up. And then she comes around here every once in a while, like tonight, trying to get me to help her seduce Molly. You know, you hear things as a bartender. Here especially, where you all come a lot.... Heather has something of a reputation. How true that is, I can't say. I've never seen her with anyone else, but everyone seems to have a story. And Molly isn't like that."

"What is Molly like then?" Allie asked suddenly.

Sue and I both looked at her in surprise. Of course Allie doesn't know Molly at all, we had both forgotten that.

"Molly is... " Sue started, thoughtfully.

"She's kinda... introverted I would say, but also... " I added.

"Intensely private. I think that's the best description," Sue summarized. "She has only a few close friends, and they are very close. She is loyal, to the point of death practically. Like I could totally see her murdering someone who messed with one of her friends."

"So then why is Heather not suitable for her?" Allie asked again.

"Because she's a tramp!" I spat.

"I don't like putting labels on people, Jenny," Allie gently admonished me. "I get labelled a lot."

I remembered her saying that before, "Sorry, you're right. I actually don't know what Heather is."

"I don't know her well," Sue observed. "From the couple times she's been here I'd say she's friendly, warm, outgoing, easy to get along with. I get the feeling she's a bit shallow, doesn't take life very seriously. But she's young..... not like me," Sue ended that sentence with a groan.

"Oh shut up Sue, you're only 32," I shoved her arm playfully.

"33, and like Indiana Jones said, it's not the years, it's all the kids," she grinned. "Or something like that."

"So Heather is a lot like Jenny then, except she likes sex and Jenny doesn't?" Allie asked.

Sue burst out laughing. "Yeah, you could say that. I think that would be pretty accurate."

I wasn't happy about being likened to Heather, but Allie wasn't wrong. Heather probably was a good fit for Molly. She was much more Molly's type than I had been. I felt a twinge of jealousy at that, but that is stupid I reminded myself. I have Allie, I should be happy if Molly finds someone too. And I would be happy, I truly did want her to find someone. Maybe Heather could be it. Molly was the strong, silent type; she liked the other person to do most of the talking. In public, social situations she wanted the other person to take the lead. But in bed, she was very much the top. Nor had I ever known Molly to be judgmental about a person's sexual history; I didn't think that would be an issue for her.

"I could totally see Heather on her hands and knees and Molly fucking her brains out with a strap-on," I mused thoughtfully, momentarily forgetting my company.

"God Jenny, I did not need that mental image of my best friend."

Allie was laughing, "do people really do that?"

"Well, um, not me," I blushed furiously, thinking about the night Molly had suggested that.

Wanting to redirect the conversation, I added, "I mean, I could see her and Heather together. If Heather was really serious about it. Molly spends a lot of time in her own head, she actually doesn't ask for much."

"That's strange hearing you say that. You used to say all the time that Molly didn't appreciate everything you did for her." Sue looked at me puzzled.

"Because she didn't. She totally didn't care whether I made dinner for her, or did all the laundry, or anything else that I did. And if I hadn't done it, then she would have just done it herself and still not cared. It's not like she expected me to do any of that, it just didn't matter to her when I did do it."

"No, you're right, she doesn't care about any of that. And you think Heather...?"

----

And then six days later I was tending bar at Applebee's when Heather plunked herself down in front of me.

"Hi Jenny."

"Heather? What can I get you?" I asked, shocked.

"Rum and coke, and could I get a menu please?"

I got that for her, and looked around. It wasn't very busy, it being a Monday. And I had a bad feeling that she was here specifically to see me. What ever she had been trying the other day, to get between me and Allie still really bothered me. She was looking at the menu, I was pretending to be busy at the other end of the bar. After a few minutes she laid the menu down.

"Are you ready to order?" I asked.

I put her order in. Then she looked at me very deliberately. OK, here it comes, I thought to myself.

"Jenny, you are really attractive. Even hot." She paused, seemed to be thinking.

I cringed. Now she's going to start hitting on me. I guess I was totally wrong thinking she could be right for Molly.

"Heather stop. No. I'm not even the slightest bit interested. Just stop."

"What? I was going to ask why you and Molly broke up. I get it if you don't want to talk about it though."

I breathed a sigh of relief, she's not going to try hitting on me. This is about her obsession with Molly.

"What did Molly tell you?"

"She didn't. She refused to talk about you at all."

"I really don't want to talk about it either. Except to say that I'm also pretty sure you don't need to care about any of that."

"So then what do I need to care about? Molly seems pretty hung up on you. And I get it, you're hot as fuck. Is there something else I should know?"

Heather was hot as fuck too, and she knew it. But she's young, has some growing up to do, thinks she can get by on just her looks. She hasn't learned that there is a lot more to a relationship.

"You want my advice, is that it?" I tried to keep the impatience out of my voice but I think I didn't. "OK. If you want her to take you seriously, you need to be serious. Stop fucking around, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Molly will know if you are fucking every girl in town, she's not stupid. And if you think you can rely just on being 'hot as fuck', well you can't. You got her attention once with your looks, but if you want to keep her attention you need something real. Try making something respectable of yourself and then there's a chance she will respect you. If you want her to be interested in you, then be interesting."

"Serious? Respectable, is it?" Heather suddenly looked very serious. "How about being an ER nurse, is that respectable enough for you? How about saving people's lives and shit, is that serious enough?"

"Ah, you're a nurse? I didn't think..."

"Right, because the slutty blonde bimbo with big boobs can't possibly be a nurse, says the bartender."

Oh shit. It had never crossed my mind to question all the gossip and rumors about her. I had made that age old mistake, just like every other person since the beginning of time. Even after Allie had scolded me for labelling people.

"I'm a teacher, normally. Bartending is just..." I attempted.

"So I don't know what your problem is with me, Jenny. But I'm telling you that I intend to date Molly. Now you've just proven yourself a complete twat, and I don't give a shit what you think about me. Your girlfriend made it abundantly clear that you are out of the picture. I was hoping that this could be a friendly understanding. Molly seems to still care about you and I don't want to make this uncomfortable for her."

"Excuse me for a second, I'll be right back," I dodged. Someone at the other end of the bar looked like he might be thinking about wanting a refill, and I definitely wanted a minute to recover.

After getting him another beer, I was back. "Sorry Heather, I shouldn't have assumed anything about you. I still care about Molly too, and I want her to be happy. We were not right for each other, that was painful, but I do want her to be happy. I don't want to cause trouble with you."

"Good," she smiled and relaxed. "Because if I would have been forced to send you to the ER, then they would have called me in to save your life."

I laughed. I think she was joking. "So then you didn't want just a one night stand, like Sue said? Not that it's any of my business and I'm probably being a twat again."

"No, I did. Then, at least; but not anymore. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I like sex. I mean, who doesn't, right?"

Well me, I don't, but every normal person does I guess. I didn't say that. "So then why the change of heart now?"

"It's not a change of heart, so much as a change of circumstances. I've always wanted a life partner, someone I could know would always be there when I get home. But... I was a traveling nurse, when I got out of school. It pays very well, and I needed the money, didn't have any reason to live in any particular place, it was good for a while. I was always moving around, never in one place for more than a few months, a serious relationship wasn't practical. That's how I ended up here. But I like it here, so when a permanent position opened up, I applied and got it. So now I officially live here, and I intend to stay here."

"So does Molly know all that, about you being a nurse and stuff?" I asked.

"We never got to that part of the conversation," she answered wryly.

"Ah, I think your food might be ready, I'll go check." I escaped, I did not want to know.

---

Since I wasn't seriously competing anymore, it made sense for me now to be a member of the Organizing Committee. We divided up the duties, and to me fell the responsibility of Public and Member Relations. Which meant it was my problem to find a venue for this year's Championship. I was happy with that. I think I'm pretty good at public relations, it fits with the recruiting of new contestants and reporting on contests which I have always been doing. And teaching the workshops is something I've come to enjoy even more than the actual competing. It was a great job - well, except for that it paid nothing.

Allie and I decided to check out some possible venues in Branson for our next Championship. I still really wanted to expand away from this being just an eastern seaboard event and start to live up to our aspirations of having national interest. I intended to have a selection made before summer solstice so that everyone would have time to make plans. Also, we didn't want to be there in the summer tourist season. I had spent a lot of time on the phone, screening the possibilities, until we finally had reduced the options to four. And we planned to visit those four in person.

I had insisted that Allie get her license before our road trip, I wasn't doing all the driving. (that was a whole story, she wouldn't let me teach her and insisted on having a 'real' instructor) And then she decided that she should get a car too and it had to have a CD player. (that was another whole story; damn this woman drives me crazy - good thing I love her) It was difficult to find a car that had a CD player, and was still new enough to be in decent condition but eventually we did. My old car was a falling apart rattletrap, so even though I was exasperated at the end of car shopping, I was also glad we had something more reliable for the trip.

We decided to take the long way, via Memphis - the Home of The Blues. It doubled the driving time, but with her doing some of the driving we could split that up, I didn't need to do it all. And for Allie, this was as much about the music as it was about the Championship - or maybe it was more about the music. But I still insisted on using our driving time to study. I was NOT going to let Tammy win again.

We had spent the first two hours with me driving and Allie studying for the upcoming competition. She had scanned an insane number of text books on every imaginable subject into my laptop, and during the drive she scrolled through and wrote questions into a notebook. I knew that this was all me, neither Tammy nor Allie cared all that much which of them actually won. They just liked the idea of having someone who could seriously question them. If I had to guess, I'd posit the hypothesis that the two of them considered themselves to be in an exclusive society, one not attainable by 'normal' people. (listen to me with all these words, I'm starting to sound like them now) Brain back on the road now, I think it's time to switch drivers.

The next two hours we spent with me reading her notes and asking questions while she drove. About 100 miles past Nashville, we stopped at a rest area. I was starting to get a headache from reading in the car, and we both needed the bathroom.

We were walking back out to the car, "Jenny, are you disappointed that you don't win anymore? I'll quit, if you want. You like this game a lot more than me."

"No Allie, I don't want you to quit because of me. You're just a lot better, I'm OK with that." I got in the car and put on my seat belt. It was my turn to drive.

"Really? Because you hated me after I won. I don't want you to hate me. I guess the rivals to lovers trope worked for us though."

"It was friends to lovers, remember? Cindy figured out that I'd been lying to myself about hating you and that I never really did. I was probably in love with you the whole time."

"No Jenny, that is exactly the plot for the rivals to lovers trope: they were never really rivals to begin with."

"Only in some of them though, in most of them they really are rivals."

"Jenny? Why are you arguing the friends to lovers side this time, you always argue for the rivals to lovers."

"Why do we always have this argument at all, Allie?"

"Oh, my God Jenny. This is it!" Allie started laughing crazily.

"What?"

"The thing we argue about. Remember our first morning? When we were arguing about what we would argue about as a couple? It's this!"

I started laughing too. "So our argument is about what trope we are?"

----

We got into Memphis later in the afternoon. After checking into our hotel we went out to a little place named Don't Know Don't Care. It's a bar as much as a restaurant and apparently it's legendary in some circles. The food was amazing, and they had a local band playing that also was amazing. For Allie, this trip was about visiting all the musical landmarks she had always heard and read about.

We left our hotel in Memphis late morning, it was about a five hour drive to Branson. Allie and Tammy were planning to meet us Friday night, so we had a few days here before they would arrive. We checked into our hotel and decided to go spend some time at the outdoor pool before dinner. I asked Allie to wear that magenta bikini that I love so much to see her in. We spread sunscreen all over each other and had a lot of fun doing that.

I'm not sure if I spent more time looking at Allie's ass, or her toes. Ever since that night of Our Reconciliation, I've been thinking a lot about her toes.

"Hey, Allie, we've been out in the sun for a while now and I'm not sure I really did a good enough job putting sunscreen on you. We'd better go back up to our room."

"Now that's a transparent fabrication Jenny. We both know you just want an excuse to feel me up some more."

"Still, it is a good excuse. Anyway, we should get ready for dinner soon."

When we got back to our room I pushed her down into the chair by the window.

"Allie, I'm really worried that the tops of your feet got sunburned, I might not have put enough lotion on them." I pulled off her swim shoes and brought her feet close to my face, as if inspecting them.

She watched me, amused.

"I think maybe they are, a little bit." I kissed the top of one foot. Then the other. "We might have to do a lot of walking tomorrow. I better make sure they are OK."

"Maybe you'd better lick them then, Jenny."

"Great idea!" I agreed. I licked the tops of her feet. Then up her lower legs. Then the inside of her calf. Then I opened my mouth and tried to suck on the inside of her ankle, swirling around that bone - I used to know the name of that bone at one time but right now I cared more about licking it. "Is it feeling better now? I'm kinda worried about your toes too, I'd better check them."

"Yeah Jenny, you'd better check my toes," Allie agreed huskily.

I took Allie's feet and put them together, the soles pressed flat against each other. So now her knees were spread apart, but I could take multiple combinations of her toes into my mouth. I started with just her big toes. I sucked, swirled my tongue around, between, over, around, in, out, sucked hard, nibbled gently.

"Aaaahhhoooohhhh..... fuck. Jenny that's nice."

I looked up from her feet to suggest that she start fingering herself; she already was. I kept my eyes on her hand working her hole, as I worked her toes. Down to the next ones, I sucked them in. Tonguing, licking, swirling, sucking, licking, nibbling; moving down to the next ones. I held her feet tight together and pushed closer to her, forcing her knees further apart and opening her wider, stretching her thighs further. I wanted to suck her fingers, smothered with her juices, but I didn't want to stop sucking her toes.

Now her eyes were glazed over; I was so in love with her. I moved down, taking her smallest toes - god! They are so cute! I sucked them individually, I sucked them together, swirling my tongue around, between, sucking hard. I licked up the top of her foot, to her ankle, her glorious, slim, beautiful, bony, graceful ankle. I sucked it, licked it. Her breathing was ragged, rough. She was making all those cute groaning whimpers that I love so much. God, she is beautiful. FUCK I love her!

She exploded and yanked her legs together, throwing me backwards onto the floor. I scrambled up and crawled between her legs. I need to taste her, I wanted her so bad, her slippery fingers in my mouth. I pried her clenched thighs apart and squeezed my head up to her core.

"Please Allie."

She let me have her fingers to suck clean. Her breathing started to return to normal so I put my mouth to work on her pussy. She hadn't come all the way down from her orgasm yet and I was building her up to the next one. I sucked up all her juices, and then shoved my tongue as deep as I could looking for more. I stayed away from her clit, it would be too sensitive now. So I tongue fucked her. Then pulled out and nibbled at her labia. And slowly licked at the inside crease of her thigh, teasing her. I blew gently on her swollen clit and she shuddered - very sensitive! Her juices we flowing from her pussy, I buried my face in the cunt and lapped for all I was worth. She was writhing and groaning, whining and pleading with me to go faster. Both her hands were on the back of my head pulling me tighter into her center. I couldn't breath, I didn't want to breath, I wanted to feel her cum against my face. She ground my face into her, fucking herself with me, I felt her body tense and her thighs clamped tight. I couldn't breath, couldn't move, I heard muffled screams through her flesh trapping my head. I was desperate for air but I greedily licked up the streams drowning me. When she pushed me away I fell on my back, dizzy and panting for air.

Allie slid out of the chair and snuggled against me, laying on the floor. She pulled me tight and kissed me, long and hard. We lay together like that, kissing, holding each other close, for a long time.

"I love you, Perfect Girlfriend." She kissed me more. "You are the best girlfriend ever, you are so awesome Jenny. I love that you brought me here with you, so we can go to all these concerts together. You're incredible, and thoughtful, and so caring."

I was insanely aroused already and now I was dripping. Allie continued whispering to me, driving me crazy. I wanted to finger myself, but I needed her to tell me. "Please, Allie. I need you."

She rolled us over so she was on her back and I was on top of her. "Do you need to get fucked, Jenny?" she whispered in my ear. "Put your left hand on your pussy, gently massage, no fingers yet. Give me your fingers of your right hand."

I did as instructed. She sucked my fingers and I rubbed my mound. Our pelvic bones were mashed together, my hand pinned between us. I so wanted to insert a finger, my hand was covered in the combined fluids leaking from both of us, I needed her to tell me. "I need to get fucked, Allie."

She sucked my fingers hard, "These are my fingers now Jenny. Mine." She sucked them harder to make her point. 'Now put my fingers in you, as many as you want. And give me your other hand."

I did, first one, then two, then three fingers. I was so turned on; I'd never used three fingers, two was always enough.

"I'm fucking you now Jenny. Those are my fingers in you. Mine." She slid her hands down to my butt and pulled my crotch tighter against her. "Do you like me fucking you?"

"Fuck yes," I groaned as I pumped myself. This was a new twist, Allie fucking me with my own fingers. "I love it, I love you."

"Tell me Jenny, tell me what I'm doing to you."

"You're fucking me... feels so good... curling your fingers... my g-spot... Ahh fuck!... rubbing my clit with... thumb... I'm so wet... your fingers are soaked." I switched hands and gave her my slimy fingers to suck and buried my other hand in my snatch. While I was repositioning, I spread my legs as far as I could and hunched so our clits would be rubbing together - or would have been if my hand hadn't been between us. I pushed my hips into her, grinding against my hand that was grinding against her cunt. "Your fingers feel so good Allie... fuck me harder." I increased the pace of my thrusts. "Yes... like that... harder... fuck yes... I'm getting close Allie... tell me... I want to cum... tell me Allie... fuck, you feel so good... I need you to... please let me cum now." But frustratingly Allie kept whispering how awesome I am, how beautiful I look when she is fucking me, I was ready to explode. I was holding it in with all the strength I had.

"Open your eyes, Jenny. You have to look at me when you are ready. OK. Now, cum for me, Jenny."

And then I did explode.

Some time later we managed to take a shower and get dressed long enough to go down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Our earlier plans to go out and try a different place suddenly seemed like too much of a distraction.

----

Right after breakfast we went to find the Event Coordinator. She had everything arranged for our exhibition 'Challenge the Champ' match and all we had to do is show up a little ahead of time. That gave us a chance to spend some more time at the pool, which I spent productively admiring Allie's body. I didn't fail to notice that she spent the whole entire time very obviously admiring mine too. Unhappily, we didn't have time enough to do more than that.

I started the 'Challenge the Champ' match by explaining the rules, in particular spending a lot of time explaining the difference between trivia and real information. Then some volunteers got to go a round against Allie while I judged. I relaxed the standards to a level that nearly made me cringe, but I didn't want to annoy everyone by being overly pedantic. So when someone asked an unqualified question (almost all of them) I explained it and helped them to rephrase it into one that qualified. We had a great time, and at least two of the people seemed like they might stick with it.

-----

Tammy and Alex had decided to fly down for the weekend and help us check out the options, so we picked them up from the airport Friday afternoon. After getting them checked in to the hotel we went to dinner at one of the places on our list. This was the least likely option, and we were hoping that we could eliminate it from consideration without trying too hard.

It was really fancy, and expensive. That was enough reason to strike it right there - it would be over the budget for most of us. Also, they didn't seem very interested in working with us. We had dinner there, just as a final check. At dinner, I was a bit curious that Alex had just ordered Mountain Dew, I expected her to have tried one of the microbrews they had on tap. I was driving, so I got iced tea, but Allie and Tammy both got wine.

After dinner, the night was still young so I suggested we go somewhere else (not so expensive) for drinks. I suggested we leave the car at the hotel and take a Lyft so that I could also partake.

"If you don't mind me driving your car, I'll be designated driver. I'm not having alcohol anyway," Alex offered.

"Since when do you not have alcohol?" I asked without thinking.

Alex and Tammy smirked at each other. Alex nodded. "Since she's pregnant," Tammy announced.

At that, both Allie and I erupted with shrieks of congratulations and a million questions. We had to go out and celebrate now. We toasted the new parents with champagne, and the bar had a non-alcoholic option for Alex. We didn't stay out late though, we all agreed the new mother needed to get to bed early. Tammy seemed particularly eager to get Alex to be early.

"Do you want kids, Jenny?" Allie asked me the moment we were back in our room.

"Yeah? I mean, I like kids - it's why I'm a teacher. But I don't want to go through the pregnancy. I don't even like anyone else touching my vagina. I could never deal with being pregnant. What about you?"

"I like kids. I'd be willing to have kids, but two things. First, there are so many kids in the world suffering in poor conditions - both in foster programs and in need of adoption - I would feel guilty having kids. Second, I'd not want to inflict my genetic material onto another person."

"Inflict? That's kind of a harsh word choice, Allie." I was taken aback. "It makes it sound like you hate yourself or something."

"Without doubt, I hated many of my experiences in life that were a result of who I am. I don't know if I hate myself, but I don't want someone else to go through all that. But that's not the point, we are deciding whether to adopt or to become foster parents."

"We are?" I apparently was way behind again. Allie has a tendency to skip over a lot of the intermediate discussion and go right to the decision making step. "Do we have to decide tonight? Maybe we can discuss it some more while I rub your feet."

----

With the help of Tammy and Alex, we had evaluated all the options on our list and narrowed it down to two. It was the same two venues who had hosted our 'Challenge the Champ' exhibitions. They had put some effort into promoting them and we'd had a dozen or so people at each one. We all felt really optimistic about having our Championship here this year.

Now we were back home, on a Zoom call with Meri and Justin, making the final decision on which of the two venues on our short list that we would choose.

"Oh, by the way, we have our first commercial sponsor. While you two were off vacationing, I lined up a Grand Prize for the winner." Meri was smiling suspiciously. "I had to sell your soul to get it though, Jenny. I hope you don't mind."

"What? What is it?" I demanded.

"The magazine that Allie works for wants exclusive rights to publish the story, photographs, everything that you are going to write for the Championship this year. In return for which, they are funding a trip for the winner and a plus one, to some romantic location. All the details need to still be worked out, but that's the deal."

"That's great! They didn't pay all that much for my story last year anyway, so this is a much better deal for us. We should be able to get a lot more interest now," I agreed.

----

We drove Allie's car again to Branson for the Championship, but went the quick way this time. Mostly because we needed to pick up my sister, who lived north of Nashville. I was happy, but a little surprised, that Jocelyn wanted to come along since she had only ever come to our local contests. I was still trying to study with Allie and work on her strategy. Jocelyn and Allie were both trying to change the subject.

"Stop worrying so much Jenny," Allie chastised me. "It's a game. I don't care if Tammy wins."

"OK, new topic of conversation," Jos announced. "I dumped Derek."

"WHAT? When? WTF? Why?" I sputtered.

"Three weeks ago. He was boring and was taking too long to get off his fat ass and ask me to marry him, so I dumped him," Jocelyn reported unconcernedly.

"Jos, what?? There is more to the story, what are you leaving out?"

"Leaving out... I guess that he's basically an emotional adolescent. I was talking to Mom, she said that I don't have to wait for him to propose, there is nothing stopping me. But then that made me think whether I did want to propose or whether it was about me wanting him to propose... Does that make sense? And I realized I didn't want to propose to him, which means I didn't want to marry him, and then the only sensible course of action is to dump him. So, I did."

"Three weeks ago?!?!?! And you're just telling me this now?!?"

We spent the rest of the drive with me complaining about Jocelyn keeping secrets, Allie grilling Jocelyn about the criteria for a marriage worthy partner, Jocelyn gloating about being the center of attention, and all of us arguing about who was going to drive next. We didn't argue about the music, that was unquestionably Allie's domain. But there was one other thing we argued about.

"So did the two of you ever figure out if you're the friends to lovers, or the rivals to lovers, trope?" Jos asked.

"Definitely the friends to lovers," I answered. "Allie's sister-in-law gave convincing proof that I never really hated Allie and I was just jealous."

"It's rivals to lovers, Jenny," Allie rejoined. "The entire premise of rivals to lovers is that they never actually hated each other and were just jealous."

"No that's just a subplot for some of the stories; it's not the fundamental premise. The fundamental premise requires both people to hate each other at some point and you never hated me."

"I guess you haven't, then," Jocelyn observed.

---

We got to the hotel a bit before suppertime. I sent Alex and Tammy a text letting them know we arrived, asking if they wanted to get together for dinner. I was also excited to see the baby, who would be about five weeks old now. We agreed to meet at the hotel restaurant, since we had spent all day driving. And Alex wanted the option of being able to duck up to their room with the baby, in case - of all the things that babies need.

I spotted them at a table, waiting for us. There was a friendly looking guy sitting with them that I'd never seen before.

"Tammy, Alex. So great to see you. And finally I get to see baby KipThorne! Do I get to hold him?"

"OK, but he might wake up, and then I'd better take him again," Alex didn't seem eager to let go of her baby.

"Hi everyone, I'm Jocelyn, Jenny's sister. Clearly Jenny is more interested in the baby than being polite." Jos had never met any of them before, I'd forgotten about that; no actually she was right, I hadn't even thought about it in my excitement to see the baby.

"Hi, and I'm Ben," the guy sitting with Tammy and Alex introduced himself.

"So you must be Tammy, and you must be Alex?" Jos guessed correctly. "What did you say the baby's name is?"

"KipThorne," Tammy answered proudly.

"That's a fun name, is that from like a sci-fi series or something?"

"He's a theoretical physicist. He won the Nobel prize in 2017 with Weiss and Barish," Allie offered. "He also taught at Caltech."

My sister looked incredulously first at Allie, then at Tammy, and then at Alex. "You named this cute little guy after a physicist? You people are such dorks!"

Jocelyn turned to Ben, "So are you a dork too? Please tell me you're normal. How do you know these people?"

Ben stammered for a moment, until Alex answered. "He works with us. He's my boss. His family live in Illinois, and he's visiting them for Christmas. He was curious about this, and we are diving past, more or less, so we brought him with to help with the driving."

"So you've never been to one of these before?" my sister asked him.

"No."

For the next couple of minutes my sister pestered him, but couldn't get anything more than one word answers. It was pretty clear to me she was trying to flirt with him, and pretty clear it was falling flat. Alex was watching the whole thing with a great deal of amusement. Finally, it seemed she couldn't hold back any longer.

"Hey Jocelyn, you are really pretty. I'm sure you know that."

Uh oh, I knew this is a sensitive subject with Tammy, I looked over at her. It looked like she was trying to keep from laughing.

"Ah... thank you?" Jos was clearly as confused as I was.

"So Ben, he is physiologically incapable of talking to pretty women. He has a Pretty Woman Problem. It's not going to be possible for him to talk to you."

"You're a good one to talk, Avery. I seem to recall you being pretty oblivious yourself. You're just lucky that I clued you in, or you'd still be in Canada right now."

"See what I mean?" Alex asked my sister while pointing at Ben, her eyes glittering with mirth. "He can talk just fine, only not to Pretty Women. So Jocelyn, no boyfriend then, or girlfriend?"

"Nope, we broke up a couple weeks ago."

"I've tried to set Ben up like hundreds of times now, he's recalcitrant. So if you want to date him, you'll probably have to text each other or something." Alex laughed.

"That's not accurate Avery, it's been only two women you've tried to set me up with," Ben protested.

I noticed that while he had no problem arguing with Alex, he still couldn't look my sister in the eye.

"Right, two women, but at least a hundred times each," Alex teased. "So Jocelyn, just warning you, if you're interested you will need to do all the work here. He's a good kid though. Do you want his number?"

Ben was glaring at Alex, but Jocelyn was unfazed. "I'm a liberated woman," she answered. "I'm capable of working for what I want. Sure, give me his number."

"Ben, give her your number," Alex told him.

"Didn't you say just a minute ago that Ben is your boss?" I asked Alex, astonished that she would be taking such liberties with his love life.

"Yeah," she grinned at me. "But Tammy is his boss."

Tammy seemed to be really quite enjoying the show.

---

It was down to Tammy and Allie again; everyone knew it would be. Meri was judging this one. She doesn't usually judge, but she wanted a front row seat to the action. Also, she was more qualified than anyone except me, and clearly I couldn't judge this.

The score was tied at 24 - 24 and they had each asked 28 questions. So you can do that math on that, 4 correct answers each out of 24 questions asked, the chance of getting a question right wasn't good. But still they were doing better than anyone I've ever seen. The questions these two were coming up with, I'm amazed either of them knew the answer.

I was supposed to be writing an article on this Championship again this year. But there was no way I could think about taking notes. I knew this was going to happen, so I'd talked everyone into letting Justin record it. Usually we never allow it to be recorded, but I think everyone anticipated this year was going to be unusual.

It's Allie's question now. Potentially game point, and this question has to be Government & Law. I'm squirming, sitting on the edge of my seat fidgeting, my sister elbows me. I'm glad that I'm sitting behind Allie and she can't see me or I would make her nervous.

Allie wrote the answer on her score card, turned it face down and slid it to Meri. "In the 1988 case before the Supreme Court of the United States titled "Hazlewood School District v. Kuhlmeier, at issue was an alleged violation of First Amendment rights. Who delivered the opinion of The Court."

"Justice Thurgood Marshall," Tammy answered easily.

"Dammit," I muttered under my breath, "why did she ask one so easy to guess." My sister elbowed me again. Really hard.

Meri turned the card over, "Allie's answer is: Justice White, with Brennan, Blackmun and Marshall dissenting."

I couldn't see Allie's face, but Tammy was surprised, then annoyed, then she got a wry smile. "Fuck, I fell for that."

"Fact check, Jack. Do either of you object to Wikipedia as the arbiter?"

"Don't bother. Allie is right." Tammy conceded.

"OK. Point."

Allie has 25 points, enough to win. But Tammy gets to ask a question now. If Allie can answer correctly then Tammy doesn't get the point and Allie wins. But if Allie answers wrong, we go into a second overtime round. Tammy needs a point in Physical Science, it's Allie's strong subject but also the possible questions were nearly infinite.

Tammy wrote down her answer and slid the card to Meri. "According to the CIA World Factbook, in units of square kilometers, what is the land area of Costa Rica?"

I was stunned, Tammy didn't just do that did she? Come on Allie, remember what we talked about, strategy here.

Allie took a long time to answer. It wasn't like her to have to think about an answer, but this was game point. If she gets this, she wins. "The land area of Costa Rica is more than 100 square kilometers and less than 9 million square kilometers."

"Yes!" I jumped up. My sister yanked me down.

"Quiet in the audience there, Peebles!" Meri turned on me. She turned the card over. "Tammy's answer is 51,000 square kilometers. No degree of precision was specified in the question. 51,000 is more than 100 and less than 9 million so the two answers are in agreement. No Point. I believe that's match. Tammy and Allie, please hand your cards to Jack so he can verify the scores." She turned back to look at me and smiled. "OK, Peebles, now you can jump for joy over there."

Allie and Tammy came around the table and hugged and congratulated each other.

"Great game Allie. Damn, I can't believe I forgot to specify precision on that last one. Rookie mistake," Tammy laughed.

"I couldn't believe it either. I thought it must be a trick question. I was afraid to go with the obvious answer, I was sure you were setting me up. But I figured if I was wrong, then we just go 5 more. I couldn't have done it without Jenny, she drilled me on how to be sneaky. She calls it 'strategy', but I call it being sneaky."

Alex came up to the two of them at the same time that I did, carrying baby Kippy who was watching everything. "Don't worry babe, I was in Jenny's workshop, I learned all her tricks. We will kick their asses next year." Alex kissed her wife.

Then Tammy kissed baby Kippy on the forehead. The look on her face was one of pure boundless love for their child.

"Great game, both of you!" I hugged and kissed Allie. "That was crazy, 5 correct answers out of 25. That's 20% on the hardest questions I've ever seen. That has never happened in a Championship before. I was so nervous."

"We did it, Perfect Girlfriend! Thank you. If you hadn't helped me practice we could never have beaten Tammy. She's too good for me to beat without you. We are a great team." And she kissed me.

I was bursting. Allie crediting me with helping her beat Tammy, calling us a team; I've never felt so connected with another person ever before in my life.

"Congratulations Jenny!" Tammy had an evil smirk on her face.

"Thanks Tammy, but don't you mean Allie? She's the one who won." I was suspicious.

"Oh, Allie did win the trip for you, but it's your trip." Tammy was grinning at me in an infuriatingly knowing way.

"You know where the trip is to?" I was a little surprised that she knew and I didn't, since I was on the Organizing Committee. Meri had claimed that even she didn't know where it was to.

"You could say that Allie and I colluded on that. It was going to be one or the other of us who won, so we had to make sure it was somewhere that we would like. It was her company paying for it, and I was on the committee with Meridith. It wasn't hard to arrange."

So Meri had known, that little sneak. I looked at Allie, she was smiling smugly. It wasn't always easy to read Allie's expressions, but that one is definitely smug.

"I'll announce it at the victory party. In front of everyone. Right now we need to go meet with Meridith and Jack. How about you get your sexy little self over to the lounge and order some appetizers and get the champagne on ice." Allie gave me a little swat on the butt. Damn that girl is frisky, what got into her tonight? She's never been excited about winning before.

Alex walked with me to the lounge/bar. "You'll never outsmart even one of them, and when they get together it's not even worth trying."

"How do you keep up then?" I asked idly, I knew there was no keeping up.

"Oh it's easy. As soon as I get my tongue on her clit, I can wrap her right around my - two middle fingers." Alex held up her hand suggestively and grinned like a fool.

There was a surprising number of people in the lounge. It looked like nearly everyone who had watched the Championship had come down. That was a big change from previous years, but there was greatly increased participation this year. The promise of a romantic vacation for two as the grand prize had seemed to attract attention. None of the newcomers understood that they never had a chance against Tammy and Allie. Alex didn't seem surprised at the crowd.

"There's a lot of people here this year," I observed, fishing for her reaction.

"Seems like it," she replied noncommittally. Maybe she was being cagey, maybe she just didn't care?

We looked over the choices for apps, ordered a variety of things we guessed would be acceptable, and had the bartender put half a dozen bottles of champagne on ice.

"We better move over here to the middle of the room and put a few tables together," Alex commented, leaving the high top we'd been standing at.

OK, something was up. Something is definitely up, I thought. Alex knows something, Allie was very obviously scheming about something, Tammy had quite pointedly singled me out with her comment about the grand prize. And if there was an awards banquet planned, I should have been the one planning it, since I'm on the Organizing Committee. The only reason I wasn't really worried is because Allie always makes me feel special.

"You sit there," Alex pointed to a chair near the end of the tables we had pushed together. "I'll sit here. Tammy and Allie will sit at the top here, as the current and the previous years Champions. Your sister will be next to you, Jack can sit there, Meri can sit by me...."

Alex was seating everyone, this seemed to be inexplicably well thought out. Tammy, Allie, Meri, and Jack arrived and took the seats Alex had decided. When mostly everyone, or at least those we cared about, had been arranged at the table, Alex had the bartender bring out the champagne. It seemed like I should be the one hosting this party, since my girlfriend was the new Champion, but clearly everyone else knew something I didn't. Justin had set up the video camera and was recording this - that is really suspicious!

Tammy stood, "To the new World Champion Know-It-All!" She raised her glass and we all drank to that.

"Thank you everyone for joining us. While I'm not quite as happy as I would be if I had won, I'm thrilled that my very good friend Allie won. I seriously doubt there is any other person alive who could have beat me." That sentence was delivered in the most passionless, matter-of-fact tone possible. "So everyone, I give you the new World Champion, Allison Zembrovitch!" Tammy sat back down.

Then Allie stood, "Thanks everyone for joining us. And I know you're all eager to hear this next bit. So I think that everyone knows my girlfriend Jenny." She turned to me and lifted me to my feet. "Jenny was World Champion for three years in a row before I came along. An accomplishment that had been achieved neither previously, nor has been since. There is also some measure of debate whether we were friends, or rivals, before we became lovers. Meridith, would you like to provide some context now?"

"Thank you, Allison." Meri took over smoothly. I wondered if this had been rehearsed. "I've worked together with Jennifer since we started this organization nine years ago. At that time we were juniors in college and this whole thing was some crazy game we played in our spare time. But it's come to become an important part of our lives. It was, therefore, no surprise at all to me that Jenny was so resentful of Allie's sudden rise, her ballistic accomplishments, moving from obscurity to World Champion in one fell swoop. I was not surprised at all that Jenny hinted at plots to kill Allie" she gave me a sideways grin, "and I wasn't at all surprised that Jenny wanted to exile Allie to Guam in order to get rid of her. But it did surprise me that they fell in love. Jocelyn, I think you had a front row seat to all the action."

Jocelyn stood up. My sister is in on this too? "Yep, I certainly did. I heard all about Jenny's plot to send poor Allie off to Guam. I would say that Jen was completely obsessed with it, checking prices on plane tickets, whether you need a visa. I became sort of an expert about Guam. It has beautiful sandy beaches, romantic luxury hotels, stunning blue water perfect for swimming or snorkeling. But it would have been such a shame to send Allie there all by herself. Allie, how would you have felt about that, being all alone in Guam?"

"You're right Jocelyn, being all alone in such a romantic place would be horrible. It's so much better that as winner of the World Championship and the grand prize supplied by our favorite sponsor,.... I will be enjoying a romantic vacation with the cutest girl anywhere, and my Perfect Girlfriend,........ in.......... Guam!"

I was speechless! I was laughing, crying, blabbering, making a total fool of myself as I threw myself on Allie. I don't have the faintest idea what anyone else was doing that night. I was snogging with my girlfriend.

-----

Guam is beautiful. All the rumors about how romantic it is are true, if you are lucky enough to be there with the love of your life. I was.

Allie was looking absolutely mouthwatering in her very skimpy baby blue bikini that perfectly matched the nail polish on her toes. It also matched the nail polish on her fingers, but I was looking more at her toes, just right now. Her toes are so fucking cute! We had just gotten out of the ocean and were sitting on our towels on the sand. I looked around the beach, there was nobody near by; not near enough to stop me.

"Allie, maybe I'd better put more sunscreen on you. The water might have washed it off."

"Can I keep my bathing suit on this time Jenny?" she asked with a smirk, referring to my earlier application of sunscreen, which had taken us 45 minutes. That was fun!

I didn't answer, just sat in front of her and put her legs over mine. I squeezed out a handful of lotion and started working it into her thigh, first one, then the other. I worked up toward her crotch, slowly working closer then moving down again. Then up, and back, each time getting closer. Her eyes were getting that lusty look and her breathing was getting heavier. I moved both my hands to the insides of her thighs, thumbs lightly touching the front of her bikini bottom. Just enough to glide over her pussy. She leaned back onto her hands, groaned and subtly lifted her hips, pushing herself toward my hands.

I slid back, away from her and pulled her feet into my lap. I pushed her feet together and brought them up to my mouth. I licked the bottoms of her toes, my favorite place. I slid my tongue between her toes, as if fucking them, in and out. Each one, starting with the big toes, working outward, finishing with those cute little ones. I sucked them, swirling my tongue around, first the smallest toes, then another, then three of them, then four. I couldn't get her whole foot in my mouth but I wanted to. I wanted her to fuck my face with her foot. I gasped and pulled away, then focused on her two big toes.

I finally remembered to look up. She was laying down on her back with her hand inside her bikini bottoms, fingers buried inside herself. I watched her hand pumping into her pussy as I sucked, licked, swirled, slathered, lapped, slobbered and smeared - my mouth all over her feet, her feet all over my face. She was getting close, panting and groaning, her muscles were getting tense. Close, closer, I sucked harder, licked her feet furiously, her groans were higher pitched more strained. I held her toes in my teeth and moved both my hands up to her crotch, one on each side of her own hand, stroking her labia as her fingers fucked her cunt. She tipped over the edge with a shuddering squeal.

Somewhere along the way we had ended up off the towel and now we were covered in sand. And sometime along the way another couple had set up residence 50 or so yards away - they were studiously ignoring us. Ooops! When Allie recovered, she was far from thrilled.

"God Jenny! There's people right there! We need to go."

So saying, we grabbed our gear and hightailed it to our room.

We washed the sand off in the shower, and then accomplished a lot more too, while we were at it.

There was a nice little restaurant just up the beach from our hotel, so we walked up there for dinner. The sun was setting as we were walking back to the hotel, so we watched it for a while as it dropped into the ocean. This was our second day here and we hadn't ventured far beyond the hotel. We had three more days to do that, but really the most interesting thing on the island to me was the woman standing next to me.

I had planned to do this on our last night here, but I just couldn't wait anymore. I was nervous. There wasn't any specific reason to be, I had no reason to think this night would end any other way than absolutely excellent. But you can't stand on the eve of the most important event of your life without having to fight down a lifetime of trepidation, can you? And why the fuck am I asking you that question, dear reader?

"Allie, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Jenny, I've told you multiple times that you don't need to preface the asking of a question with a question. Just ask it." She answered flippantly, clearly not recognizing the import of the situation.

"Allison Zembrovitch, I want you to pay very particular attention to this question." The ring was in my hand, I'd been fidgeting with it ever since we had left the hotel for dinner. I pulled the little black velvet box out of my pocket and opened it. "'Will you marry me!?"

She looked at me thoughtfully for a minute (during which time I was panicked, wondering who has to think about that question) until she answered. "Of course. I think October would work fine; what do you think?"

"Allie, I seriously don't care when," I breathed in relief as I slid her ring onto her finger. I pulled her into a hug, shedding tears of joy all over her blouse.

We snogged on the pristine beach of Guam in the setting sun, until the sun had well and truly set. As I walked with my fiancé, hand in hand along the sand, I observed, "I'm really glad you said 'yes' Allie. Otherwise I might have been in trouble."

"How so, Jenny?"

"I don't want you to dump me off here and leave me in exile in Guam without you!"

THE END (of this particular story, silly; not of Allie and Jenny)

...... but I wonder what's going to happen with Molly and Heather?