Camila was taken back. She hadn't expected that response and had to think about it for a second.
"Not sure. Just instinct, I suppose," Camila shrugged
"There you go." Lauren tipped her beer in Camila's direction. She couldn't have summed it up better.
"Well, okay, sure," Camila conceded the logic. "But at least you had to have had something where you realized you were outside the norm."
Lauren thought about it. She was surprised a little by the intimacy of the conversation, but there was something about Camila that just brought it out of her.
"Best I can do, I guess, is years back, when I was just starting to work in my dad's shop and some of the other guys brought in a girly calendar. Hung it up, you know?" Lauren said, remembering something from years back, "My dad saw it and said to the guys, you know, 'not around Lauren' and all that and I was like 'doesn't everyone like looking at pictures of girls?'"
Camila laughed. Lauren joined her.
"But that's, you know, not really it though" Camila continued, "I mean, I can appreciate the female form and I can look at a girl and say, 'wow, hottie.'"
Lauren wanted to point out the differences between admiration for the form and being turned on by it, but caught herself. She saw an opportunity to do some of her own digging.
"And you've never been curious?" Lauren asked slyly.
Camila gave a non-committal shrug. "Curious about being with another woman?" Camila inquired.
"Yup," Lauren said, trying to hide her interest. She very much wanted to hear Camila admit to an interest. A burning one. One she'd always had and wanted to act on, maybe in art college, but had never gotten the chance and maybe Lauren could help her realize it?
Lauren smiled to herself as she let herself get a little carried away with her imagination. Camila, however, looked fairly disinterested although contemplative.
"I mean, maybe? But I'm curious about lots of things," Camila said matter-of-factly. "What's it like to shoot heroin or eat ostrich or go walk for a walk in space. So, yeah, what's it like to bang a chick? You could say I'm curious about that. Not to the point of I gots to have it though."
"Fair enough," Lauren admitted, her hopes mildly dashed
"Besides," Camila said, hopping down from the bar and giving Lauren a terrific view of her bouncing chest. "Lesbian sex always strikes me as so random,"
"How's that?" Lauren asked, not sure if she should say anything about her friend downstairs.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's super," Camila said quickly. "But like with a guy it's pretty straight-forward. We fool around, maybe I go down on him, maybe he goes down on me but sex is pretty clearly the tab-A into slot-B act. With chicks, sex is going to vary, right? Like maybe it's that you two go down on each other or 69 or it's just fingers or it's toys. But sex can mean anything and it seems like it would take a while to get on the same page."
"Sounds like you've thought about it a lot," Lauren teased. "But that's the fun of it. It can be anything. You and your partner can work out what you like with each other and develop your routine together and eventually you find what works for the both of you."
"And that, right there," Camila said, "is one of the biggest reasons I stick to the menfolk. Because this here,"Camila's hands waived over her body, "is a relationship-drama free zone. I do not get attached and I do not find things out eventually. This machine hits and quits."
"That would make guys the safer bet, I guess," Lauren smirked, drawing back on her own experiences, had to concede that no-strings attached sex would be easier to find, especially for a gorgeous girl like Camila, among guys.
The day passed with the two women talking extensively about whatever happened to cross their minds. Lauren grew very impressed with Camila's wit, self-confidence and openness. The conversation occasionally veered into the realm of flirtatiousness but the two kept it light and fun. Lauren had to admit that she was losing track of her troubles. In just two quick days, she had gone from feeling completely alone to feeling like, at the very least, she had a regular bar and a good friend.
Again Lauren stayed at O'Flaherty's the entire day and, when she made her exit, promised to return the next day. She knew, as she took one last look at the girl behind the bar, that she'd be there on both of her last days of leave.
"C'mon, seriously, Daddy?" Camila asked.
As expected, Lauren had returned the next day to the pub and had immediately gotten back into her normal rhythm with Camila. Lauren drank and the two of them traded stories and jokes. For the first time, Jim was not occupying the seat at the other end of the bar and the two women were the establishment's sole occupants. Because of this, their conversation had turned far more personal. They had been trading stories of particularly memorable sexual encounters when Lauren had started one of her own, one designed to highlight how incredible sex could be with the right person. Lauren had not yet given up on the idea of bedding Camila and wanted to tell a story to put Camila on the spot.
"Yeah, a few times." Lauren shrugged. "Get a girl hot enough, fuck her well enough, sometimes she calls you daddy."
"Huh, weird," Camila said as she threw her bar towel over her shoulder.
"You've never heard of a girl saying that during sex?" Lauren asked. She knew it wasn't the most common thing in the world but she knew it shouldn't have shocked anyone as seemingly open as Camila.
"No, I've heard of it before," Camila said, "I've just never heard of a woman calling another woman it. Doesn't that, I don't know, contravene the lesbian/feminist bible? Attach masculine terminology to a feminist act?"
"Reclaimed as gender-neutral I suppose," Lauren said, sipping her beer with a sly smile. If she didn't know better, she'd have sworn she saw a twinkle in Camila's bright brown eyes as the topic was discussed,
"It's a powerful thing," Lauren continued. "An acknowledgement of submission or, I don't know, just how completely a strong woman can rock your world,"
"And you like that, don't you?" Camila asked turning towards the beer fridge,. "I don't seek it out or anything," Lauren said, finishing her beer. "But, hey, I can fuck as well as any guy. I certainly don't mind the admission of just how solidly I rang a girl's bell,"
"Ah, so that's it," Camila said, putting the beer down in front of Lauren.
Lauren looked at her quizzically as Camila leaned in towards her. Camila was close enough for Lauren to smell again, that same heady rush of vanilla and what she had placed as jasmine. Camila was close enough for Lauren to reach out, grab and kiss. She had to fight the urge with everything she had.
"You picture picking up some straight girl," Camila's eyes narrowed as she continued, her voice softening to a breathy purr, "seducing her to your wicked ways with your lesbian wiles, then, in the throes of her unbelievable ecstasy she calls you daddy."
Lauren had to hold back a lump in her throat and grip her beer tightly. The slim, stacked barmaid's seductive tone and look was easily the sexiest thing that Lauren had ever seen. When Camila had practically moaned the word 'daddy,' Lauren had worried she'd completely lose control.
"Acknowledging that you've fucked her better than any man ever has or even could," Camila finished, her face almost looking as if it were in the throes of the very ecstasy she was describing.
"Something like that," Lauren managed to get out. Camila's large, soft lips were just inches from her face now. Lauren wanted to bite them, to suck one into her mouth as she wrestled the girl to the floor and gave Camila some first hand knowledge of the subject. As she was lost in the fantasy, however, Camila leaned back from where she'd been leaning over the bar, her look and tone reverting to usual.
"Nah, I just don't buy it." Camila shook her head definitively. "I mean, it strikes me as something a little hot to say if you're trying to get a guy to knock you up maybe, but not a chick."
Lauren had to catch her breath. She caught a wink from Camila and had to collect herself. Lauren had told the story intending to get Camila to contemplate how great sex with Lauren could be and, as she typically did, Camila had completely turned the tables on her.
Camila caught the look on Lauren's face and laughed. "Jauregui, I gotta say," Camila chuckled, "it's been a blast having you around,"
"Yeah, a blast." Lauren nodded, still feeling the hard on between her legs and heat in her chest.