by
Jequiche

"I don't know why you wanna hang around these fuckin dykes all the time Bee." "Look this is my choice, these are my friends and if it's a problem then- like I always say, whatever! alright?! Gloria?!" "Listen, Bee, u my girl but I'm just saying, one of these days something crazy is gonna happen trust me."

Belinda takes in a deep breath, lets go of Gloria's hand and walks briskly across the lawn to the coffee house. Gloria just stands there, rolls her eyes, and turns around to return to her car.

Coffee Dregs is packed and Nia's sitting in the corner with her possee as usual, waiting on Belinda, Nia spots her... "Hey Bee girl what's up? whatcha got for me?" *big grin, "Hey everybody,"Belinda says. The other ladies give their sorry hellos. "I ain't everybody, don't u know u supposed to greet me first? Bee baby, I got love for u (she takes a swig of her hot chocolate and licks her lips slowly) and u should have love for me baby,"Nia says in that naturally seductive raspy voice of hers. Belinda returns the sweet smile and takes her usual seat next to Nia, thinking, "ah to be in the company of family again."

Belinda paces in front of the coffee house doors, one hand on her hip and cell-phone swinging in the other. "Damn it's been an hour already and Gloria ain't here, fuck!"she says as she speed dials the number on her cell again. "Hey Bee, come on babygirl I'll take you home, it's on the way,"Nia offers. "Well I could stay and try her again, it don't close for another hour anyway, but hell, I got shit to do.. alright,"reluctantly Belinda hops in the car with Nia. "U off of 8 mile right?"Nia says. "Yea,"Belinda says sinking into the chair, "I'm so tired of her shit I can't believe she didn't come." They pull up to the complex and Gloria's car is still parked outside, Nia shakes her head "I told u so, some friend u got there." Belinda waves her thanks and goodbye, stomping up to the 2nd floor condo. Her keys barely turn in the knob before Gloria comes to the door, she moves past Belinda and walks down the stairs. "Hey!!!... Gloria where are you going? you know I'm mad at your ass right?!" As if she didnt hear her, Gloria keeps right on going, moments later the car pulls away from the parking lot as Belinda leans over the banister fighting back her irritation and anger.

"Hey, hey!!! what storm blew u in?"a well dressed 20 something aged man says as Gloria approaches his car. "My favorite sister dun came down to see a brotha, what's going on?" "Nuthing umm, I just came to get away from all the shit out south ya know, what yal on tonight?" Gloria says. "You know what's up- the usual, don't tell me you forgot already." "No no I haven't just umm, hoping we could chill or something, go clubbing." "What?? what have u been smoking girl? You must really be trippin we ain't been clubbing in so long together, do u even know how to dance still?"he laughs. "I was just wondering if you could maybe go ahead and call ole dude up from the other day, the one you were telling me about, what's his name off 104th- we could all chill tonight." "My guy? U straight up? but u said u weren't interested, you always so-called busy at work, what's up with you now?"he frowns. "Nuthin, I've just come to my senses alright?! So what's up big bru?" "Nuff said lil sis, It's on."

Early morning greets Gloria as she creeps into her apartment, she almost walks past Belinda's room before she decides to wake her up. "Hey, Bee, wake up"... "Mmmm, whhhhat?"Belinda murmurs... "What time is it?" "It's really early, hey, ummm I'm sorry about earlier, I was just upset about the whole thing, I thought u were over this gay thing." Rubbing her tired eyes Belinda sits up, wetting her lips that were dry from the heat, she says, "Gloria I told u I was takin' a break not reforming myself, I can't help the way I am ok? and besides you know what happened with Steven he is just such a... Damn it's hot in here!"she says as she pulls back the covers exposing a thin white tank top and joe boxer underwear, she's wide awake now... there is a film of sweat on her chest and her nipples are so hard that you'd think she was cold, Gloria notices the protruding nipples but quickly looks away. "Whoa, hey"... Belinda says, she noticed the abrupt way Gloria turned her face away from her, as she cups Gloria's chin in her hand, looking at her, turning her face to look into her eyes, "What's wrong?" Belinda frowns. Gloria swallows hard holding back the urge to kiss her best friend of 9 years, remembering the soft look of Belinda's lips, each and everytime she wets them. Holding back the erge to tell her why she gets so upset everytime Belinda hangs with her dyke ass friends. She wants to tell her how much she likes the way Belinda's breasts stretch against her shirts. She wants to tell her how bad she feels that she always wanted to kiss her, to hold her close, closer than usual. "Gloria!"Belinda says. "What?"Gloria says, seemingly coming back to reality. "Is there something bothering u? U look so... I dunno know how u look... umm, this is a face I've never seen, what's that all about? did something happen?" Gloria slowly pulls away from Belinda's bed, "Nothing I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about earlier, but next time u want to go there u have to drive yourself,"she says, tossing the keys on her bed, "there's the keys, I have an extra set." With that Gloria walked out of Belinda's room and straight to the shower, she was perspiring immensly.

"Hello?"Gloria says answering her cellphone. "Hey Gloria baby it's me Rodney, your brother told me to hit u up." "Yea? and?"she says in a tired voice. "Yea baby what's up with us?"he says with urgency. "What's up with us? Rodney get a life I'm not interested ok?" "Whoa but umm... babygirl u..."Rodney stumbles, shocked by the hostility- just last night they both fit together on the dance floor like a hand and glove; Gloria seemed so interested then. "But umm what? what DON'T u understand?"she snaps. "What about last night, I mean we were dancing and..." "Look Rodney I ain't got time for this,"Linda snaps. *Click*

Pissed waaaay off, Gloria throws her cellphone into the back seat continuing down the street on her way to the coffee house. Today is yet another thursday night and she has agreed to pick up her best friend Belinda again. This time Gloria doesn't park across the street on the other side, she finds a spot right out front- and this time instead of waiting patiently she grabs her purse and goes inside. Her red leather boots hug the floor like a tapdancers and it seems all eyes are on her. It seems everyone there was checking her out in her tight jeans, tight red leather jacket, tank top and long wavy hair, Gloria didn't know it but she was beyond just stunning; a gorgeous creation of woman. A few studs walk past her and smile, although her face had a no-nonsense look to it. She spots her game, there she is in the corner hugging the ever famous Nia.

Belinda doesn't see Gloria as she walks over to them, but Nia does, she's facing Gloria, eyeing her with a wicked smile as she deeply kisses Belinda. For a second their eyes meet and are like flames of seperate burning houses licking at each others core. Those eyes hold so much- Gloria's... envy, and Nia's... lust- if only Belinda knew. Breaking the embrace Gloria pulls her friend by the hand holding it until they are out the door, "Bye ladies!"Gloria says loudly- like she's someones mamma throwing out kids who are over too late in the evening. As the two leave, the remaining gang giggle. "I told yal she was a dyke,"Nia says amist the group, "she just doesnt know it yet."

Laughing wildly Belinda opens the car door and hops in, turning around to face the frustrated, beautiful face of her best friend she says, "Gloria, why u gotta be so mean? you know u are too dayum funny." "Funny? what are u talkin about?!"Gloria snaps. "Whoa boo, I'm just saying, u crack me up!" Belinda says. "Oh,"Gloria says. Frowning Belinda looks at her friend again, "What's wrong with u? u are acting all weird and shit, what did u think I meant?" "Nuthin,"*sigh* "lets go get a drink,"Gloria says she speeds down the street on the way to the nearest bar. "Un, un lets not go here,"Belinda says. "Why not? we just going to get a drink doesn't matter where we go, I need to get toasted," Gloria sighs. "Well I've been to this bar before and I don't exactly want any guy older than my granddad hitting on me." Belinda actually cracks a smile and laughs, "No, what u mean to say is.. U dont want any guy hitting on u, grandaddy or not!"she laughs outloud. They both giggle as Gloria continues to drive, "So where u wanna go? Name it, its on me." "Are u sure u want to get drinks? I mean the only places I know of are..." "Will u just stop it! I said u name it, u act like I'm always trippin, u gotta always ask me if I'm sure or not, is it ok or not, shit!" Gloria snaps. "Ok dayum, u ARE always trippin!"Belinda shoots back, mimicking her friend, "No Bee we can't go here and we can't go there- becus of this, becus of that!" "Fine, fine, fine - where the hell u wanna go? a gay bar? a lesbian bar? I don't care anymore I just need a fuckin drink, ok?"Gloria yells. Settling back into the chair Belinda grins slyly, "OK...... well keep driving, turn left on Belmont."

The bar is small and dimly lighted but it smells nice, even with the cigarette smoke in the air, there's something familiar about the scent, different from any clubs or bars Gloria's been to. Gloria is amused when she realizes it must be the scent of women. After her 2nd Long Island iced tea, Gloria realizes that she's totally comfortable in the tiny bar. Sure there are women who look tougher than her ex boyfriend here but they didn't scare her. Sure some girls came over asking her to dance, slightly touching her shoulder or hand but she hardly cared- and she could have sworn that stud across the bar got a free feel when she brushed up behind her the 3rd time that she asked her if she knew so n' so. Looking down in her long glass she realizes there's nothing left, fishing around in her purse she opens her wallet and notices the all too familiar picture of her and Belinda that they took last spring at the beach party.

Gloria gets up looking around for her best friend and finds her on the dance floor, she holds up the wall as she stands there admiring Belinda's tight waist and thick thighs sway to the beat of the music. She locks eyes with her and blinks after realizing shes been staring. She quickly turns to get another drink she almost falls over the stud from across the bar- but before she falls on her face the unknown stud grabs, holds her up, and steadys her while holding onto her waist. Gloria keeps her head down, almost embarassed that she almost fell, but now she's even more embarrassed when she realizes that the stud is still holding her. She stands up straight, "Thank u,"she almost whispers, she feels like something is stuck in her throat. The stud winks at her and walks onto the dance floor only to return a short while later just in time to stop Gloria's hand from handing the bartender money for her drink. Instead the stud looks Gloria right in her eyes one hand over Gloria's and the other handing the bartender a 10 dollar bill, she grabs the drink and Gloria, walking to the edge of the dance floor to a table with two stools, "I was wondering if we could talk"she says. Gloria's hearts thumps- as she feels quite aroused by this womans' approach, but the seemingly "always on top and in control of things Gloria"stumbles over her words, shaking her head she saying, "umm, I don't..." "Shhhhh,"the woman says placing a finger gently over Gloria's glossy red lips. "Better yet, how bout a dance?"without waiting for an answer the stud guides Gloria- who now looks extremely confused- onto the dance floor, hugging her tightly around the waist. Gloria closes her eyes tilting back her head as she allows her back to be caressed by another woman, as she allows her neck to be stimulated by another womans breath, as she allows her body to press firmly against another woman. Opening her eyes she is greeted by the sexy smile, and gentle warm eyes of this stranger, they gaze into each others eyes for what seems like forever, and even though the music's tempo has now changed to a fast beat- they still sway easy and slow against each other.

"Wooo shit! I'm hot as hell!!!"Belinda complains. "Bee can u drive?"Gloria says handing her the keys. "I got my own, remember?"Bee says holding up her set, smiling. "Ok, just drive."Gloria says moving to the passenger side door. "Are u sure?"Belinda says. Gloria doesn't even answer her as she climbs into the car, she lets the seat back, closes her eyes, breathing in that all too familiar scent.

The door closes behind Gloria as she stands dumbfoundedly in her living room. Belinda had to practically push her up the stairs she was so light headed. Belinda takes Gloria's hand and leds her to her bedroom, pulling off her shirt and pushes her on her bed, "Come on Gloria, man... shit, lift your leg girl,"Belinda says as she kneels down to remove Gloria's thigh high boots, she stands Gloria up and is nearly knocked down when Gloria leans into her. Belinda removes her skirt and pushes her back onto the bed. Gloria lies there half naked wearing red silk undies, "Damn you're fine,"Belinda says outloud as she pulls the sheets over her best friend. As she turns to leave she hears... "Bee?" Belinda turns around in the dark, "Yea? what's wrong?"

Belinda stands there in the dark looking, searching but not seeing anything but complete darkness. She hears the bed move. Gloria walks toward the dark figure and stumbles into Belinda's arms... "Whoa,"Belinda says as she steadys her friend, "You know, you didn't have to get up, I could have come over there," she says as she backs her friend back into her bed, she turns on the lamp light. She looks into Gloria's eyes, "Are u ok?"Gloria looks into hers. Belinda hesitates before she says, "Umm, is there something, umm, u want to talk about?" Hestitantly Gloria whispers, "No." "No? that's ummm, *swallow* that's a shame because there's something I want to talk about," Belinda says as she wets her lips, she moves in closer to her friend. Gloria swallows hard, "What do u want to talk about?" "Well I think I want to talk about... the same thing that you want to... talk about." Gloria wets her lips and swallows hard again as she looks down at Belinda's hand on her thigh, Gloria moves her hand to Belinda's arm. Belinda moves her free hand to the back of Gloria's neck. It's so quiet that they can both hear the others' shallow breathing. Belinda opens her mouth to speak.. but Gloria puts up her finger to stop her, "I umm just want know if u saw what happened tonight." "What do u mean? u dancing with that woman?"Bee says. Wetting her lips again, *swallow,* "yea,"Gloria says. Belinda looks into her eyes, "It's ok baby, *smile* I don't mind,"she says as she moves in closer to Gloria kissing her so deeply that Gloria... *Mmmmm* moans. The feeling to kiss this woman was so electric it felt anything but wrong. The feeling to love this woman was so enormous, so great that She was scared what it would feel like to be in love with this woman- She, forgetting the others. That morning She remembered why she liked women- they were what she loved. That morning She remembered why she couldn't be at peace with herself all these years- she had discovered that she too loved women... it must have been the Scent.

THE END

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