Nothing Left to Hide Pt 10

Kelly stayed one night.

Then another.

The first morning, Megan insisted it was temporary. Kelly agreed so quickly that I knew she was worried about overstaying her welcome, and I stayed out of it because I was reasonably certain anything I said would make the situation worse. By the second morning there was a toothbrush beside ours in the bathroom, a bottle of shampoo in the shower that neither Megan nor I had purchased, and a carton of almond milk sitting in the refrigerator like an act of aggression.

I discovered that last one when I opened the refrigerator.

"What the hell is this?"

Kelly looked over from the kitchen table. She was naked, drinking coffee and scrolling through her phone as though she'd been doing exactly that in our apartment for years instead of approximately thirty-six hours.

"What?"

I held up the carton. "Almond milk."

"I can read."

"Congratulations."

"Why is it in my refrigerator?"

"Our refrigerator," Megan corrected from behind me.

I turned around. She was naked too, carrying a basket of laundry against one hip.

I stared at her. "Whose side are you on?"

"The side that doesn't have a meltdown over milk."

"It's not milk."

Kelly lowered her phone. "Here we go."

"It's nut water."

"That's not how almond milk works."

"That's exactly how almond milk works."

Megan put the laundry basket down. "Do you even drink milk?"

"That's irrelevant."

"So you're defending a beverage you don't drink against another beverage you also don't drink."

"I'm defending principles."

Kelly looked at Megan. "Is he always like this?"

"Unfortunately."

They smiled at each other.

That was happening more often.

I didn't like it.

Not because I was jealous.

Because alliances were forming.

Kelly had been in the apartment less than two days, and already I was beginning to understand that two women who had originally viewed one another as romantic competition had discovered something far more dangerous.

They both enjoyed giving me shit.

The night Kelly arrived, she'd slept in the spare room surrounded by boxes. The next morning she'd apologized for taking up space until Megan finally threatened to charge her a dollar every time she said the word sorry. By lunch, Megan was helping her unpack. By evening, they'd rearranged half the room because Megan decided the bed was on the wrong wall and Kelly agreed.

I made the mistake of asking why it mattered if Kelly was only staying temporarily.

Both of them went quiet.

Kelly looked down at the shirt she was folding. "He's right."

Megan looked at her. "No, he's not."

"I'm not staying forever."

"I didn't say forever."

"I know."

Something about Kelly's voice changed. It was subtle, but Megan caught it.

So did I.

Kelly had spent the previous night being told she wasn't wanted somewhere she'd considered home. Now every time she referred to our apartment, she seemed to remind herself that it wasn't hers.

Megan sat down on the edge of the bed. "Kelly."

Kelly kept folding. "What?"

"Stop."

"I'm folding a shirt."

"You know what I mean."

Kelly looked at her.

Megan gestured around the room. "You have clothes in the closet. You bought groceries. You're cleaning things neither of us even knew needed cleaning, and you've already reorganized my kitchen."

"Your spices were chaos."

"They were alphabetical."

"They were absolutely not alphabetical."

"Fine. They were emotionally alphabetical."

I laughed.

Megan looked at Kelly again. "If you want to stay, stay."

Kelly stopped folding.

The room became quiet.

"Even with..." She glanced toward me.

"Blake?"

"Yeah."

Megan thought about it before answering. I appreciated that. She didn't pretend the situation was simple.

"Yes."

Kelly studied her.

Megan shrugged. "It's weird. I'm jealous sometimes. You're jealous sometimes. He's confused basically all the time."

"Hey."

"But none of that means you should be homeless."

Kelly smiled faintly.

"And," Megan added, "you pay your share, you cook, you clean, and apparently you're the only person in this apartment who knows how to load a dishwasher correctly."

I leaned against the doorframe. "There is no incorrect way to load a dishwasher."

Two heads turned toward me.

Apparently there was.

Kelly looked back at Megan. "You really mean it?"

"Yeah."

Kelly swallowed. "Okay."

That was it.

No lease.

No meeting.

No grand decision.

Kelly stayed.

⸻

By the end of the week, nudity had stopped being the most unusual thing about our living arrangement.

Sometimes all three of us were naked. Sometimes one of us was dressed while the other two weren't. Megan had become strangely attached to her cooking apron. Kelly occasionally wore one of my T-shirts in the morning and absolutely nothing beneath it, mostly because she enjoyed watching me realize it.

But most of the time at home, clothes simply weren't part of the equation anymore.

The strange thing was how quickly bodies became background.

Megan could walk through the living room naked carrying laundry and nobody stopped talking. Kelly could sit cross-legged on the floor sorting paperwork without anybody thinking twice about the fact that she wasn't wearing clothes. I could shower and walk back to my room without bothering with a towel.

We still looked at one another.

Of course we did.

The fact that nudity had become normal hadn't magically erased attraction.

Megan caught me watching her constantly.

Kelly did too.

One afternoon Kelly bent over to pick up something she'd dropped beside the couch, and my eyes followed before my brain had a chance to pretend otherwise.

Megan saw me.

"Blake."

I looked at her. She was sitting on the other end of the couch.

"What?"

"You were staring at Kelly's ass."

Kelly straightened.

I considered lying.

There didn't seem to be much point.

"Yes."

Kelly turned around. "Was he?"

"Absolutely."

Kelly looked pleased.

Megan looked less pleased.

Not angry. Just that tiny flicker I'd learned to recognize.

Kelly saw it too.

That was new.

Instead of teasing Megan, she looked at me. "Limited staring privileges."

I frowned. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Since when?"

"Since now."

Megan looked between us. "What does that mean?"

Kelly shrugged. "Work thing."

"What work thing?"

I already knew this was going badly.

Kelly smiled. "He looks. I catch him. He gets embarrassed. It's fun."

Megan's eyebrows rose.

"It's not like that," I said.

Kelly looked at me. "It is exactly like that."

Megan crossed her arms.

Kelly noticed.

Then something clicked in her expression.

"Oh."

Megan looked at her. "Oh what?"

Kelly looked at me, then back at Megan.

"He gets boners at inappropriate times."

I closed my eyes.

Megan burst out laughing.

Just like that, the tension disappeared.

"You know about that?"

"I work with him."

"Oh my God."

"Megan."

She ignored me.

Kelly sat down beside her. "And at work that stupid pouch makes it worse."

"I know!"

"Because it technically covers everything--"

"But conceals absolutely nothing."

"Exactly!"

They were laughing now.

I stood up.

"I'm leaving."

Megan looked at me. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere I'm respected."

Kelly nodded toward the hallway. "Bathroom's that way."

I hated both of them.

Not really.

That was the problem.

⸻

The idea of going out naked was Megan's.

Of course it was.

It happened Saturday afternoon while the three of us were trying to decide what to do that evening. Kelly wanted to go somewhere. Megan wanted to get out of the apartment. I wanted to watch a movie and avoid becoming the subject of another Human Resources investigation.

"We should go out naked," Megan said.

I looked at her.

Kelly looked at her.

Megan was sitting cross-legged on the floor eating grapes.

"What?"

I pointed at her. "No."

"Why?"

"Because laws."

"I'm not saying we walk naked through downtown."

Kelly leaned forward. "What are you saying?"

Megan smiled.

That should have been the second warning.

The first had been the almond milk.

"We find somewhere we can."

That turned into forty minutes of research because I refused to be arrested over Megan's latest social experiment. Eventually we found an adults-only venue hosting a clothing-optional social night. It wasn't some secret sex club, which had been my immediate concern. It was essentially a private social event where adults could dress, partially dress or not dress at all within the venue's rules.

Megan looked triumphant. "See?"

"I see nothing."

"You were wrong."

"I wasn't wrong. I was cautious."

Kelly was reading the event information over Megan's shoulder. "We can actually do this."

"Apparently."

Megan looked at me. "Scared?"

"No."

"That sounded scared."

"I'm not scared."

Kelly smiled. "He's scared."

I pointed at both of them. "I hate this alliance."

They high-fived.

That settled it.

⸻

Getting ready to go somewhere naked turned out to be considerably more complicated than getting ready to go somewhere dressed.

Megan still needed shoes, a purse, her ID, money and everything else she normally carried. Kelly spent ten minutes deciding between two pairs of shoes despite the fact that those shoes constituted half her outfit.

For the venue, I did have to put the pouch back on. Their rules required genital coverage in certain common areas, which meant Human Resources had accidentally supplied me with the perfect accessory for exactly one situation in my entire life.

Megan stared at it while I adjusted the drawstring.

"You realize how ridiculous that looks."

"I've been saying that for a week."

The pouch covered my dick and balls and absolutely nothing else. The drawstring cinched around them at the base, which meant there was no waistband, no straps around my hips and nothing connecting the thing to any other part of my body.

In theory, it couldn't fall off.

I'd become suspicious of any sentence beginning with in theory.

Kelly came out of her room carrying her purse. "Ready."

Megan looked at her.

Kelly looked at Megan.

Then both looked at me.

I suddenly felt underdressed despite being the only person technically wearing anything.

"Let's go before I regain common sense."

We made it as far as the hallway.

Mr. Henderson from two doors down was locking his apartment.

He was somewhere around seventy and had always struck me as a man who had seen enough of life to be surprised by very little.

He turned.

Saw Megan.

Saw Kelly.

Saw me.

His eyes dropped to the pouch.

Then returned to my face.

"Evening."

"Evening, Mr. Henderson."

He looked toward the elevator. "Cold out."

"Apparently."

The elevator opened.

He stepped inside.

We followed.

Nobody spoke during the ride down.

When the doors opened in the lobby, Mr. Henderson stepped out, looked back at me and said, "Good luck."

Then he walked away.

We made it outside before all three of us lost it.

⸻

He'd been right about one thing.

It was cold.

Not freezing, but cold enough that the difference between wearing clothes and not wearing clothes became immediately obvious.

Megan wrapped her arms around herself. "Okay. This was stupid."

Kelly laughed. "Your idea."

"I know."

"Want to go back?"

"No."

The cold air had already raised goosebumps across both of them, and their nipples had tightened noticeably.

I smiled.

Megan caught me.

"Bodies are stupid?"

"No."

She looked at Kelly.

Kelly laughed.

Megan shook her head. "Planning is stupid."

The car seats were worse.

All three of us yelled in slightly different ways when bare skin hit cold upholstery.

"This is terrible," Kelly said.

"This was your idea," I told Megan.

"I have already acknowledged that."

"Just documenting it."

"Drive."

⸻

The venue was nothing like I'd imagined.

That surprised me.

There were naked people, obviously, but there were also people wearing dresses, shorts, underwear, robes and combinations I couldn't begin to categorize. Some people had apparently decided nudity meant completely naked. Others had decided it meant taking off one thing.

More importantly, the bodies were normal.

Old bodies.

Young adult bodies.

Thin bodies.

Heavy bodies.

Bodies with scars, stretch marks, tattoos, surgical marks, sagging skin, body hair and every other feature people spent their lives trying to hide.

Nobody looked like a magazine.

Within fifteen minutes, my brain simply got tired of caring.

Megan noticed it too. "This is weird."

"What?"

"I'm not noticing anymore."

Kelly nodded. "Me either."

A completely naked woman walked past carrying a plate of nachos.

Megan watched her.

"That's confidence."

"What?"

"Hot cheese."

Kelly burst out laughing.

"She's risking everything."

We found a table.

The chairs were cold.

Megan sat down and immediately stood back up.

"No."

Kelly touched hers cautiously.

"Absolutely not."

I sat.

Both women looked at me.

I pointed at the pouch.

"For once, I win."

Megan narrowed her eyes.

"Don't get comfortable."

⸻

There was music later.

Not club music exactly. Just enough that people started dancing.

Megan grabbed Kelly's hand. "Come on."

Kelly resisted for approximately two seconds before going with her.

I watched them move into the crowd.

A few weeks earlier, seeing the two women I cared about dancing naked together might have triggered every insecure thought available to me.

It didn't.

Because I understood them now.

Megan and Kelly weren't falling for each other.

They were becoming friends.

Close ones.

Potentially dangerous ones.

Kelly said something to Megan that I couldn't hear. Megan laughed, then looked toward me.

They both did.

That was concerning.

Megan crooked a finger.

I shook my head.

Kelly did it too.

I continued shaking my head.

They came and got me.

"I don't dance."

Megan took one hand.

Kelly took the other.

"You do now."

"I absolutely don't."

Five minutes later, Kelly was laughing so hard she could barely stand.

"What?"

She wiped her eyes. "You dance like a divorced dad at a wedding."

Megan nearly collapsed.

"That's exactly what it is!"

"I hate both of you."

Kelly demonstrated my movement.

It was offensive.

"I don't do that."

"You absolutely do."

Megan tried it.

Now both of them were making fun of me.

"That looks nothing like me."

Kelly pretended to pull-start something.

Megan shouted, "He's starting the lawn mower!"

I walked away.

They followed.

Still laughing.

And somehow I was laughing too.

⸻

We left late.

Nobody wanted to get dressed because there was no reason to. We walked back to the car exactly as we'd arrived, with Megan and Kelly naked and me wearing the ridiculous pouch.

Halfway home, Kelly said, "I'm starving."

Megan immediately agreed.

I looked at them in the mirror. "No."

"What?"

"We are not going inside somewhere."

"Drive-through," Megan said.

I considered this.

Kelly leaned forward between the seats.

"Tacos."

That settled it.

We pulled into a drive-through.

Everything went normally until we reached the window.

The kid working it couldn't have been more than nineteen.

He looked at me first.

Then Megan leaned across from the passenger seat to hand me her card.

His eyes widened.

Kelly leaned forward from the back seat.

His eyes widened further.

He handed us the food without saying much of anything.

Then he gave us approximately forty packets of sauce.

We drove away.

Nobody spoke for three seconds.

Kelly finally said, "I think we broke him."

Megan looked into the bag. "We got extra sauce."

"Then it was worth it."

⸻

The moment we got back inside the apartment, I took the pouch off and tossed it onto the counter.

Home was home.

We ate tacos on the living-room floor completely naked.

Megan sat on my left, Kelly on my right. Boxes still occupied one corner of the room. Kelly's shoes were by the door. Her shampoo was in our shower. Her almond milk was contaminating our refrigerator.

The apartment looked different.

Not dramatically.

Just enough.

Like it belonged to three people now.

Megan reached across me and stole one of Kelly's tacos.

Kelly stared at her. "Did you just take my taco?"

"House tax."

"You invited me to live here."

"Exactly."

Kelly reached across me and stole Megan's drink.

"Hey!"

"House tax."

"That's not how taxes work."

I reached into the bag and pulled out the last taco.

Both women immediately noticed.

Megan pointed at it. "That's the last one."

"I bought them."

Kelly shook her head. "Not relevant."

"How is that not relevant?"

"Household property."

"It became household property when you two stole everything else."

Megan smiled.

Kelly smiled.

I knew those smiles.

"No."

Neither moved.

"Don't."

They moved at exactly the same time.

Megan grabbed my wrist while Kelly lunged across me from the other side. I twisted away, holding the taco as far from both of them as I could, which only encouraged them. Megan was laughing and trying to pull my arm down while Kelly practically climbed over me in her determination to reach it.

"Give it up!" Kelly said.

"Get your own!"

"There aren't any!"

"That sounds like a planning problem!"

Kelly stretched farther, refusing to surrender even though the taco was clearly out of reach. She planted one hand behind me for balance and leaned across, putting practically her entire body over mine.

Then her hand slipped.

Her weight shifted forward and, before either of us could react, her bare pelvis came directly against my face.

It lasted maybe a second.

Probably less.

It was still long enough for every thought in my head to disappear.

There was the startling warmth of her body and, because she was suddenly that close, the musky, unmistakably intimate scent of her skin. The whole thing was accidental and over almost instantly, but attraction didn't wait around for an explanation.

Kelly jerked backward so quickly she nearly fell.

"Oh my God!"

I sat there stunned, taco still held stupidly above my head.

"Kelly--"

"My pussy was just in your face!"

"I noticed!"

Megan had stopped pulling on my arm completely.

Kelly's face turned scarlet. "I was reaching for the taco!"

"I know what you were doing."

"I slipped!"

"I know!"

The problem was that the sensation hadn't disappeared as quickly as Kelly had. The warmth, the scent, the sheer shock of having her naked body suddenly that close had hit me all at once.

My body reacted immediately.

I closed my eyes.

Of course.

Kelly noticed almost as quickly as I did. Her eyes dropped for an instant before snapping back to my face, and somehow her cheeks became even redder.

"Oh, come on."

"I don't control it!"

"Blake, that took like two seconds!"

"Apparently that's enough!"

"You got turned on?"

There didn't seem to be much point lying about something that was plainly obvious.

"Yes."

Kelly stared at me. "From me?"

"Kelly, you're a beautiful naked woman who accidentally landed on my face. Yes, my body reacted."

For a second she simply stared at me, caught somewhere between embarrassment and the realization that I wasn't hiding behind bodies are stupid this time.

Then I looked at Megan.

She wasn't laughing anymore.

Her eyes had followed Kelly's for that brief second before returning to my face.

I knew that expression immediately.

Jealousy.

"Megan."

"I'm fine."

Kelly and I looked at each other.

We had both learned enough about Megan to know that I'm fine rarely meant anything of the sort.

"Megan," Kelly said carefully, "I slipped."

"I know."

"I wasn't trying to do anything."

"I know that too."

Megan looked at me.

"And apparently Blake enjoyed the accident."

"Megan."

"What?"

"I didn't decide to get hard."

"I know."

"Do you?"

She sighed and looked away.

Kelly's embarrassment disappeared almost immediately. "Should I go?"

Megan's head turned back toward her.

"No."

"I can."

"No." Megan's voice softened. "Don't do that."

Kelly stayed where she was.

Megan rubbed her forehead. "I'm not mad at you."

"You look a little mad."

"I'm jealous."

Kelly nodded slowly. "Okay."

"I told both of you this was going to happen sometimes. I'm trying."

That mattered.

Kelly's shoulders relaxed.

I reached for Megan's hand.

She let me take it.

"This isn't a contest," I said.

"I know."

"You sure?"

"No."

That surprised a laugh out of me.

Megan gave me a reluctant little smile. "But I'm working on it."

Kelly looked between us, and some of the embarrassment finally began to leave her face.

Then her eyes moved toward the taco still in my hand.

I caught her.

"No."

"I didn't do anything."

"You were thinking about it."

"I was not."

"You absolutely were."

Megan looked at the taco.

I looked at Megan.

"Don't."

She smiled.

"Oh, come on."

They moved again.

This time Kelly got it.

"Traitor!"

She tore the taco in half and immediately handed one piece to Megan.

I stared at both of them.

They ate my taco.

My erection eventually disappeared.

My taco did not come back.

And somehow the ridiculous accident became one more thing the three of us had to learn how to navigate. Attraction hadn't disappeared just because nudity was becoming ordinary. Jealousy hadn't disappeared because we'd talked about it. Kelly could be Megan's friend and still be a woman I found beautiful. Megan could know that and still occasionally hate how it felt.

Apparently this was what honesty looked like for us.

Messy.

Awkward.

Occasionally involving stolen tacos.

Megan leaned against my left shoulder while she finished her half. Kelly sat on my right, still turning faintly pink whenever our eyes met.

The apartment had changed.

Kelly had moved in. Megan had stopped treating her like competition every second of the day. Kelly had stopped acting like she might need to disappear tomorrow. And the two women had apparently discovered that tormenting me was the strongest possible foundation for friendship.

Home had gotten considerably louder, considerably stranger and a hell of a lot more complicated.

And I wouldn't have changed a thing.