Apples bobbed up and down in the water. Four women and one man knelt in front of the pool.
"Would you hold this for a second?" Lisa handed me her saber.
Nikki pushed Lisa down between two of the women, and someone tossed her a pair of handcuffs, which she snapped shut around Lisa's wrists, shackling them behind her back.
"Is that really necessary?" I asked, still watching Lisa. "If she or one of the others falls in ..."
"Oh, don't worry." Nikki pointed at the guests standing directly behind the contestants, hovering with their hands just above the kneeling people's shoulders. "They will keep an eye on them. And I'll keep an especially close eye on Lisa." She winked at me.
It seemed Lisa's relationship with Nikki wasn't all in the past.
"Ready?" Nikki asked, looking at the six contestants.
They leaned forward with their hands cuffed behind their backs and bent over the swimming pool.
"Go!" Nikki shouted and clapped her hands. Chaos broke out.
Water splashed. A few drops hit me in the face.
All around me, women screamed and whistled, each rooting for a friend or girlfriend.
Jesus. I took a step back.
A few of the contestants tried to snag an apple without getting their faces wet, but Lisa dove in with her whole head. She caught an apple between her teeth, but when she tried to lift it out of the water, the apple slipped out of her grasp.
"Deanna!" someone shouted next to my ear. "Come on, you can beat her!"
I nearly whacked her with the saber. "Lisa!" I shouted in encouragement.
Lisa came up, a green apple clenched between her teeth.
A loud cheer erupted from my mouth, and I pressed my hand against my lips.
The other contestants battled for second place.
Hands still bound, Lisa stumbled to her feet and spat out the apple. Her bandana dripped with water.
Someone handed me a towel, and I stepped up to Lisa without hesitation.
"Come here. You're a mess." I pulled up Lisa's eye patch, untied the soaked bandana, and rubbed the towel over Lisa's hair, which fell into her face in wet curls.
Lisa bent her head and held still.
"You're really competitive. Did anyone ever tell you that?" I shook my head. "I don't think you're supposed to dive in with your entire head."
"It's the best technique," Lisa mumbled from beneath the towel. "You need to push the apple against the bottom of the pool to get a good grip on it."
"Did you at least win some great prize?" I asked.
The towel swung back and forth as Lisa shook her head. "Nope. No great prize. Tradition says that the first one to snag an apple will be the first to marry." She snorted. "Big chance. Oh, and I get a victory kiss from our esteemed hostess."
A picture of Nikki's nearly bare breasts pressing against Lisa as Nikki kissed her flashed through my mind, and I frowned.
Lisa didn't seem upset at the thought of Nikki kissing her. Was there still something going on between them?
"Something wrong?" Lisa asked from beneath the towel.
"No, everything's fine." I gave Lisa's head one last good rub and then hung the towel around her shoulders.
Lisa shook her hands, making the handcuffs rattle. "Where's Nikki with the damn key?"
No matter how much I craned my neck, I couldn't find Nikki in the crowd around the swimming pool. When I turned back toward Lisa, I laughed out loud. Her eyeliner had run together, making her look more like Zorro, and her painted-on goatee was dripping down her chin.
"Come with me, Blackbeard. We need to clean you up." I grasped her upper arm with both hands and guided her through the crowd in the direction of the bathroom I had seen earlier. It felt good to take over and be the one to help Lisa for a change.
The bathroom door was closed and locked. The sound of a flushing toilet came from the other side of the door.
A muscle twitched in Lisa's face. "Shit. My eyes are starting to burn."
I rubbed her arm. "I'll take care of it in a minute."
The door opened, and a woman stepped out. A hatchet seemed to be buried in her head, and fake blood was running down her face. As she stepped past us, her gaze fell on Lisa's cuffed hands. "Ooh, kinky. Have fun."
Cheeks burning, I held open the bathroom door for Lisa. "She thought ...?"
"Yep." Lisa grinned broadly. "She probably thinks the Federation has some very pleasurable torture methods when they capture space pirates."
Someone had replaced the lightbulb in the bathroom with a red one, so at least the lighting hid my blush.
"Going to a party with you really is an adventure." I said.
"Is that a bad thing?" Lisa searched my face, all hints of laughter now gone.
I felt my expression softening. "No." I answered.
With Lisa by my side, the adventure didn't feel as overwhelming. I tugged Lisa over to the sink and wet the end of the towel hanging around Lisa's shoulders.
"Close your eyes," I said and smiled when I remembered that Lisa had told me the same thing at the wine tasting.
Lisa closed her eyes without hesitation.
Very gently, I wiped away the smeared eyeliner, careful to avoid putting too much pressure on her eyes in the process. With the dry end of the towel, I dried off the upper part of Lisa's face and then started removing the beard.
I laid one hand along Lisa's jaw to rub at a stubborn spot just below her full lower lip.
"All done." I stepped back. "You're a clean-shaven pirate now."
"Thank you." When Lisa opened her eyes, our gazes met. Lisa's eyes looked darker in the reddish light.
"You're welcome," I murmured. The door opened behind us.
"Hey, why are you hiding out in here?" Nikki's voice echoed through the bathroom. "It's time to award the big prize." She grinned and pulled Lisa away from me.
Lisa sighed. She turned her back with her cuffed hands toward Nikki. "Unlock these things, will you?"
"Oh, I don't know." The fluffy ears on top of Nikki's head flopped to one side as she tilted her head. "Maybe I like you better this way."
Jesus. I narrowed my eyes at the annoying woman. Why can't she leave Lisa alone? Or is Lisa still interested in her too? I wasn't sure, but something about that thought bothered me. From what I had seen of Nikki so far, they just didn't seem to fit together.
"Nikki." The handcuffs rattled. "Unlock them. Now." Lisa snapped.
"Okay, okay."
After Nikki unlocked and removed the handcuffs, Lisa rubbed her wrists. Reddish lines had been carved into her skin where the metal dug into it.
I glared at Nikki. "You call that keeping a close eye on her?"
Nikki reached for one of Lisa's wrists and rubbed it. There was an easy familiarity in her touch that spoke of their shared history.
"Shit. I'm sorry. I didn't know they were that tight." She turned to look at me. "You're awfully protective of her. Are you sure you're straight?"
"What, a straight woman can't worry about a friend?" I replied.
Friend, I repeated to myself. When had Lisa become a friend? It had been a long time since I had made one of those, but I admitted that Lisa had gone from being simply my partner in crime to becoming a friend.
"Of course," Nikki said, "but —"
"Leave her alone, Nikki," Lisa said as she stepped between us. "Just because you switched teams doesn't mean the whole world is gay."
Nikki raised both hands. "Okay, okay. Guess my gaydar isn't in full working order today. Must be the Zombie Punch."
Gaydar? I furrowed my brow but decided not to ask. Nikki opened the bathroom door, and we followed her out.
When Lisa stopped abruptly, I ran into her. I clutched two handfuls of Lisa's shirt to regain my balance.
"Shit!" Lisa hissed. "What's he doing here?"
I peered around Lisa.
Rob, Jin's best friend and business partner, was holding court in front of the buffet table, regaling half a dozen guests with one of his stories.
"Oh, Christ." I pulled back my head and ducked to hide behind Lisa. "I thought Jin didn't know most of your friends?"
"Well, apparently, someone knows Rob. What do we do now?" Lisa asked.
"Want us to beam out of here?" I suggested.
Nikki gripped the wide sleeve of Lisa's shirt and tugged to get her attention. "What's going on, guys?"
I glanced at Lisa and then at Nikki's fingers wrapped around Lisa's sleeve.
"I thought you liked Rob?" Nikki let go of Lisa's sleeve and glanced toward the buffet table. "He's a really nice guy. Seulgi and I started taking rock-climbing lessons with him and his partner last month."
"I like him just fine," Lisa said, "but ... it's complicated."
"Ah." Nikki crossed her arms over her scantily clad chest. "Now I understand. I thought Jennie's last name sounded familiar. She's Jin's sister, right?"
I nodded, but Nikki ignored me. She was staring at Lisa instead. "Rob is a blabbermouth, and you don't want him to tell Jin that you're fucking his sister."
"Christ, Nikki! Stop it!" Lisa's voice grew louder. "I'm not f —"
"Lisa!" I nudged Lisa to lower her voice.
"I'm not sleeping with Jennie," she whispered. "We just want to make Jin believe that there's something going on between us."
"Why would you want to do —"
"Oh, no!" Now I was the one to tug on Lisa's sleeve. "I think Rob has seen us! What do we do?"
Rob had stopped in the middle of his story and was staring at us.
"Relax," Lisa said. "This is our chance. Like Nikki said, Rob is a blabbermouth. If we can convince him that there's something going on between us, he'll run to Jin and tell him what he saw. That should be a nice preparation for Thanksgiving."
She's right.
Still, I wasn't sure I could pull it off. We had no time to practice or to talk about what to do and what not to do.
"But I'm completely unprepared. What if I freeze and ... Oh, great, now Rob is coming over!"
Rob strode away from the buffet table and would be with us in a few seconds.
Lisa grasped my hand and rubbed it. "Do you trust me?"
For a long moment, our gazes connected. I nodded, my throat too tight to speak.
"Just follow my lead," Lisa said out of the corner of her mouth.
Itook a calming breath. "Okay."
"Hey, would you look at that!" Rob stopped in front of us. "If it isn't Jennie Kim, out and about on a Saturday night!"
Lisa slid one arm around my waist and turned toward Rob with a smile. "Hey, Rob."
Rob blinked. Even in the dim light, I could see that his eyes were glassy, probably an effect of the nearly empty cup of Zombie Punch in his hand. "Oh, hey, Lisa. Jin told me that he introduced the two of you."
His snickering made me clench my teeth as I imagined Jin and Rob laughing about my blind-date with a lesbian.
"But I didn't know you still hang out with each other," Rob said and turned toward Lisa. "How did you manage to drag Ms. Jennie to a party? She hates parties."
"Guess it depends on the company," Lisa said and pulled me closer. Nikki snorted.
Sweat broke out along my spine. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nikki smirk at me. The guests who had been in Rob's group of fans were looking over at us too. Oh, God. This was a bad idea. I'm not ready for this.
"Sorry, Rob, I need to steal Lisa for a moment. She won first prize in the bobbing-for-apples contest," Nikki said and again took hold of Lisa's sleeve.
This time, I was glad about it.
When Nikki dragged Lisa to the middle of the room, I followed, not wanting to be left alone with Rob and the questions he might ask.
"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" Nikki shouted over the din of the party. "It's time to award the prize to the victor. Lisa here was the first one to snag an apple. We all know she's got a talented mouth."
The guests whistled and hooted.
I rubbed my cheek while Lisa just rolled her eyes. Why am I the one blushing?
"So she won one kiss from the second-best kisser in the room. Which would be ..." Nikki paused dramatically and then patted her nearly bare chest. "Me."
More hoots and whistles.
I bit my lip. Who's the best? I remembered Nikki's comment about Lisa's talented mouth and swallowed.
Rob clapped, spilling the rest of his Zombie Punch in the process.
"Unless ..." Nikki turned and looked at me with a smirk. "Unless you want to do the honors."
What? Me? My mouth went dry. No, I ... I can't kiss her.
"Scared?" Nikki asked in a low voice. "Hmm, maybe you are straight after all."
I met Nikki's challenging gaze. This is our chance, I mentally repeated Lisa's words. Rob is well on his way to being drunk. He won't notice subtle glances and little touches. We need to do something big.
"Want me to kiss her?" Rob asked. He roared with laughter. "I could do it."
"No, thanks," Nikki said. "We want it to be a reward for Lisa, not a punishment."
Someone nudged me from behind, and I took a stumbling step toward Lisa.
Lisa stared at me. "Jennie."
Her lips moved almost inaudible. Lips that I would kiss if I went through with this. I couldn't look away.
It's just a kiss. The thought did nothing to slow down my heartbeat or my breathing. Just a kiss. You've kissed some of your dates without feeling anything for them. You can do this. Just one simple kiss.
I took another step closer. My gaze darted from Lisa's lips to her eyes. The double-time beat of my heart hammered in my ears. When a wave of dizziness swept over me, I steadied myself with my hands against Lisa's shoulders.
Even through the fabric of her pirate shirt, Lisa's skin felt hot. Lisa stood stock–still.
"You don't need to —" she started.
I didn't let her finish. If I did, I knew I would lose my courage. Quickly, I leaned forward and bent her head.
For a moment, all I saw was Lisa's startled expression; then my eyelids fluttered shut as our lips met.
A tingle raced through my lips and down the rest of my body.
"Slip her some tongue!" someone called behind me, but neither of us tried to deepen the kiss.
Lisa's warm lips moved gently against mine, then retreated.
I stumbled back and pressed my hand to my lips. My breath came in quick bursts. I did it. I kissed her. And it felt ... Oh, God.
"Hey, you okay?" Lisa whispered next to me.
"Yeah." Come on. Snap out of it. It was just a kiss.
Lisa looked at me, her brown eyes darkened to almost black. "Want to get out of here?"
I nodded and glanced at Rob, who looked just as shell-shocked as I felt. With any luck, he would think we were hurrying off to do more than just kiss.