Deaths of Jocasta by J. M. Redmann Page B

her shoe up. I really hadn’t been flirting. Well, not as much as she obviously thought I was. I handed her the shoe. She took it and put it on, then walked down the steps. Having nowhere else to go, I followed her.
    Joanne turned to face me. “Do you want Alex for a threesome or would you prefer just the two of us?” she asked, looking directly at me.
    “What are you talking about?” I replied. Which was an incredibly stupid thing to say.
    “Going on an Easter egg hunt,” she retorted.
    “I’m sorry. Of course I know what you’re talking about, I’m just…I’m…” I sputtered.
    Eros was staging a three-ring circus tonight. I didn’t have the vaguest idea how to get out of this, complicated by not wanting to get out of it.
    “We’ve been heading for this. You know that,” Joanne said.
    “Yes, I know, we have, haven’t we?” I mumbled inanely.
    “Come on. Let’s go.” She took my hand and lead me in the direction of the blue cottage.
    The idea that Danny and Elly and Cordelia and whatever-her-name-was (I didn’t know for sure that they were staying in the blue cottage, but paranoia made it seem inevitable) would know, perhaps hear, panicked me.
    “Not the cottage,” I said, stopping. “Danny…”
    “Where?” she asked, as she turned to face me. Then she took my other hand in hers. Her hands were warm and strong; I could feel the slight calluses. She brought one of my hands to her lips, kissing first the back, then turning it over to kiss my palm. I shivered in the warm night air.
    “I don’t know,” I replied, trying frantically to think what my options were. Cordelia had, at best, given me an iffy maybe, the heat of a moment now cooled. Joanne left no doubts about what she wanted. My blood was pounding.
    What the hell am I going to do, I thought wildly. I desperately wanted to sleep with both these women. I will probably end up with neither, flashed through my churning brain.
    “The woods? It’s mild enough,” Joanne suggested.
    “The woods?” I repeated stupidly.
    “You’ve done it in the woods, haven’t you?” she asked.
    “No…Yes…Of course, I have,” I said, trying to remember just what I’d done in my checkered career.
    “How drunk are you?” Joanne asked, noticing that I wasn’t my usual voluble self.
    “Not very,” I replied. Not enough.
    “Have I misread? Are you not interested?”
    “Uh…No, I’m interested. I’m…I find you a very attractive woman and I want to—” I broke off, thinking aloud, always a dangerous thing for me to do. “I’m confused…” Boy, was I ever. “What about Alex?” I seized to slow events down.
    “She can join us or I won’t tell her,” Joanne answered.
    “Oh.” So much for Alex. Where was monogamy when I needed it to make a decision for me?
    Then Joanne kissed me. Oh, God, did she kiss me. Hard and penetrating, riveting my whole body to the spot. Thinking, hard before, became impossible. Concentration was spent on the press of her lips against mine, the hard curves of her tongue playing in my mouth.
    Then, for the second time of this fickle summer night, someone screamed. It had to be a garter snake, I told myself, cursing inwardly.
    The moment broken, our kiss subsided, then stopped. The scream didn’t.
    “I’ve always wanted you,” I blurted out, too disconcerted by the second interruption to be cautious, to keep desire and need suitably hidden.
    “Yeah, me too,” Joanne responded to my honesty.
    “Got to go,” I said, turning from her, trying to locate the exact direction of the scream.
    “Behind you,” she replied.
    For the second time that evening I took off across the yard running. I quickly left Joanne, in her high heels, behind. I raced toward the area of the woods where the sound seemed to come from. Someone must have gone down the path near the stream, I thought as I pounded in that direction.
    Suddenly a figure burst from the forest, stumbling in her haste. I ran toward her. It was