“Bliss…” He paused, squeezed his eyes shut as though his own words pained him. “Oy gevalt,” he muttered. “I can’t believe I’m going to ask this, but after what you told me about your troubles with your… well, with your previous attempts at intimacy… I wanted to be sure… that is…” He visibly pulled himself together and just blurted it out. “Bliss, was it good for you?”
Sera paused a beat.
“Honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” she deadpanned, then burst out laughing when she saw the look on Asher’s face.
Asher growled, tickling her sides mercilessly until she shrieked.
When she could breathe again, Sera stretched up and kissed his chin, mirth fading from her eyes. “Asher, ‘good’ doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. You’ve given me a gift—one I won’t ever forget. You’ve… I don’t know… freed me, I guess. And it feels amazing.”
Asher looked pleased with himself. He stroked one finger along her spine, sending thrills down Sera’s back and all the way down to her toes. “You have freed me as well. I was frozen in the past for such a long time, but now I’m very much looking forward to my future. And…” He looked uncertain. “I know it’s probably too soon to speak of such things, but… Bliss, I very much hope you will be a part of that future.”
If there was a better feeling than orgasm, Sera had just discovered it. Screw chocolate. Screw winning the lotto. This was the jackpot.
“I am going to bake you such a babka,” was what she said.
Chapter Thirty
Monday evening after work, the Back Room Babes piled into Bliss, took one look at Sera, and shrieked with delight.
“He’s done it!” howled Aruni.
“That’s our boy!” squealed Syna.
“Hurrah for the hot landlord!” Janice did a little dance, pumping her fists over her head.
Pauline plopped down on one of the shop’s overstuffed armchairs, letting her minions settle about her with pastries and hot cups of joe. “I take complete credit, of course,” she said. Her smile was pure smug.
Sera tried to take the ribbing with grace, topping off cups and handing out napkins for her friends as they made themselves at home in the shop. After all, for the past three days, she had spent every waking moment not otherwise occupied with hot ovens over at Asher’s house learning just how hot and steamy he could be. The BRBs weren’t the only ones who wanted to crow over Asher’s prowess. Sera just wanted to do her crowing privately. And she preferred to think of it as “expressing her passionate delight.” Decorously, of course. Never mind that she’d been expressing her delight so passionately since Friday night that Silver had taken to howling in solidarity from his kennel halfway across the house.
“Everyone got what they need?” she asked, scanning the women who’d been able to make it tonight. Bobbie, Syna, Janice, Aruni, Hortencia, and Pauline made a comfortable sextet (or sex-tête-à-tête, as Pauline had quipped) in the now-empty bakery. Sera was touched that, with only a phone call, so many of her new compadres had mobilized in her defense—and they didn’t even know what was up yet. Pauline had simply said Sera needed them, and they’d dropped everything. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a group of friends so fiercely loyal—even if they did insist on embarrassing the hell out of her.
“We know y’all got what you need, mama!” Janice joked. “One look at your face, and I can tell you’re a changed woman.”
“Yeah, sister, you glow.” This from Syna, who was beaming rather brightly herself.
Sera suspected they were confusing “glow” with “mortified flush.”
“Tell us everything, girl!” Aruni folded her legs lotus style, her slight figure barely making a dent in her armchair. “Was he gentle? Or did he go all Israeli commando on you once you hit the sheets?”
Friedrich, who’d been polishing counters with a rag as he helped close up shop, dug his ear buds deeper into his red-tinged ears and spun the dial on his iPod until Sera could distinctly hear Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung leaking out. He kept his eyes downcast, but Sera caught him sneaking glances at Aruni. And though the yogini tried playing it cool, Sera definitely saw Aruni peek back at the barista from beneath her unruly curls when she thought no one was looking.
A little young for her, but hey, Sera thought, smiling inwardly. The kid was reliable, diligent, and as far as she knew, not at all a putz like Aruni’s ex. Maybe mine’s not the only romance that could bloom around here, given a little attention. Hmm, maybe if I can get those two together, the BRBs will drop the topic of my love life…
Sera perched gingerly on the edge of the coffee table around which the BRBs had gathered. Beads of sweat formed at her temples as she pictured Asher overhearing the Babes’ raunchy conversation. Things between them were so new, so extraordinary, she didn’t want to sully her memories of their time together with graphic girl-talk. “Guys, thanks for the vote of confidence, but, um, I’d really rather not go into our private business…”
She clapped her hands over her ears against the wave of boos and hisses that washed over her.
“All right, all right! Listen up, ladies,” Pauline hollered, waving a chocolate éclair like a conductor’s baton for silence. “Much as I regret my niece’s continuing reticence in all matters carnal, I didn’t call you over here to congratulate her on her initiation into the Big-O Society. Fact is, women, we are at war, and we must gird our loins for battle!” She bit off half the éclair in one ferocious bite. “Bls’s brstid e-byfred’s oofer bld, ah we gorra schtup ’m.”
Blank looks met her pronouncement.
Hortencia harrumphed, tossing a look of mild disgust at her partner. “What this glutton over here’s trying to say is, Sera’s rotten ex-boyfriend is in town, and he’s trying to ruin her life—and not for the first time. We’ve got to figure out how to stop him before he succeeds.”
Pauline swallowed the bite of gooshy pastry, choking a bit. “Right. What Horsey said.”
Sera handed her aunt a glass of water, addressing the ladies en masse. “It’s true,” she said glumly. “Blake’s back, and he’s up to his old tricks.” She explained, in as few words as possible, what Blake had done a year ago, and what he was up to now. “Anyhow,” she finished, “he’s here in Santa Fe and he’s already started the smear campaign.” She handed around a copy of the Chile Paper’s article. “So, if you guys have any ideas about what I should do, I’d love to hear them.”
There was a silence as the four women who were new to the situation huddled close to one another to read. Hortencia and Pauline sat back, waiting for them to finish, while Sera rubbed her temples, where a headache was starting to set in. Asher was coming to pick her up in a little while, and she just wanted to forget what had happened with Blake last week and enjoy her lover’s company. Yet she knew she couldn’t let Blake’s perfidy gain momentum—the longer she let it lie, the more time he had to prepare his next salvo. She needed help, and the Back Room Babes were her greatest allies. They had deep roots in the community. They knew people; owned businesses, some of them. Hopefully, they’d be able to come up with some creative solutions to counteract Blake’s slurs before they could cut into Sera’s business.