Readers: The Friday Ritual

It’s time for another Wicked Wednesday Prompt, number 364 about Rituals (if I have followed things properly).

First off, thank you so much Marie for letting me pick the top 3 last week, I was terrified when I started that I would screw something up royally, and as I read, I was terrified of how great all of the content was, the real life things about friends that were in the posts, and afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do justice to all of the entries.

This week though, my entry is below, and hopefully everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Friday Night

Lena sat at her desk; she watched as people walked by and exited the building for the weekend. The clock on her computer read 10 minutes to 5. In 10 minutes she would leave fore the day. Her plan, like every Friday, was to get to the library and check out a few more books to read. Interrupted by another well wisher for the weekend.

“Have a great weekend, Lena?” One of the many men in the office asked as they walked past. Lena didn’t know his name. She would get this question asked of her dozens of times by the men that passed by the receptionist desk each day, and while the faces were familiar, their names were often an afterthought.

“Any big plans for the weekend?”

“Are you watching Game of Thrones?”

Lena heard the questions every Friday, today was no exception. 

“No, just going to go to the library, picking up a few books to enjoy a relaxing weekend,” Lena would say. This had become her Friday mantra over the last few months. She pushed for having as little in common with the men in the office as possible. Her years of experience here had proven that at least one of them would hit on her, try to take her out for a coffee or a drink. She had mastered the ability to answer with a no after the second failed experiment had occurred.

Five O’clock rolled over on Lena’s computer. She smiled, her lips spread large across her face and she slid the mouse over to the time tracking application that the receptionists were forced to use. She pushed the button to clock out, picked up her purse, and quickly exited the front door. She waved at the people who waved at her; she did her best to exaggerate that she was in a hurry with no time to talk. Something that persisted through every evening as she left the office.

Browsing The Stacks

Every Friday, Lena drove the 8 miles from her office to the library. She looked at the building, built early in the 1900s and enjoyed the aesthetic that was presented by turn of the century architecture. The large arches always made her feel educated and important as she walked through them from the parking lot. When she entered the front door, the same librarian that was there every week stood behind the desk. They nodded at each other as Lena put her past week’s books on the counter.

“Nice to see you again,” the librarian quietly said. “Your friend is already here.

“Good to know,” Lena responded in a similar hushed tone. “I’m sure I’ll find her.”

“You seem to every Friday.”

Lena politely slipped away from the desk. She didn’t want to be reminded of work and she felt like she talked only because it was the convention, not because she desired to. This felt too much like the last 9 hours of her day. Some people were just being polite, very few actually needed to say anything. She moved toward the romance section of the library; she looked for a couple of books to make her feel good and she knew that Stella would be standing there. As she turned the corner and saw her, Lena smiled a big smile. Stella stood in the aisle, her blonde hair down the middle of her back. The light from the window highlighted Stella’s tall, thin frame. The book she held looked massive in her small hands.

Stella came to the library every week; while being a few years younger than Lena, the two found that the selection of books that they enjoyed to be very similar. Every Friday, they stood in the aisle, having long whispered conversations about the books they were reading, share details about the books they had read, and have a good time.

“Hmm,” Stella moaned at the back of the book as she read.

“Does it sound good?” Lena asked. Stella jumped at the voice.

“You startled me. I wasn’t expecting someone to be over there.”

“You know me, I’m always a sneaky girl.”

“Yes, you are.”

A smile passed between them. A familiar nod.

“To answer your question, this book looks interesting.”

“You say that every week,” Lena quipped. She then turned into the book rack and panned across the various romance, and erotic novels that lined the shelves. “I’ve found that there has been about 4 times you’ve been right.” The smirk on her face, and the tone of voice she used meant for sarcasm. 

“Oh bitch,” Stella said. “I can’t believe you went there.” 

The giggles quickly broke out between the two, each of them boiling slowly from a light giggle to a full-blown laugh so loud that they could hear the librarian clearing her throat. They looked at each other and attempted to hide their giggles in their hands.

“I wonder if there is even anyone else in here,” Lena finally said. “All the times I’ve been in here, it’s the librarian, you, and me.”

“She’s just upset because she has to work on a Friday night.”

“I guess I get that. This isn’t exactly the place where strong, young men show up and take you away for a weekend.”

“College campus, maybe. I can tell you some stories about that.”

“Now those I need to hear sometime.” Lena looked at Stella and thought about the wild times she was sure her friend had. Stella had quite a past and still attracted many people to her. Lena was sure that Stella had a husband based on the ring around her finger, but not sure of much more than that.

“I love to kiss and tell.” Stella said, watching Lena. “If you really want to hear more, then I can tell you about the crazy orgy we had in the library my senior year of college.”

“You did?”

“No. Do you know how hard it is to organize an orgy with 22-year-old boys? They don’t want to see each other naked, won’t even have a boy girl boy threesome at that age.”

“Ha. I’m old enough to know that such things don’t happen in real life, all men want is 2 women.”

“That’s,” Stella said shyly, “not true. I have had a few orgies.” Her cheeks turned bright red at acknowledging this. “I can probably tell you all about it sometime if you really want to know.”

Lena’s cheeks now turned red. “Yes, please” escaped her lips, barely an audible whisper.

The two glanced away from each other in a very synchronized way. Each slowly turning back to the other, both with cheeks still glowing bright red.

The pair of women continue to giggle and whisper to each other for the next few minutes, Stella telling Lena about the many times she and her husband partook in an orgy, or a threesome. Lena wanting to know about how it felt to fuck 2 men at the same time.

Stella finally looks down at her watch and then back at her confidant. She smiles. 

“I need to check out and get going,” Stella said. She grabbed 3 of the books she had been looking at and walked toward the librarian to check out. Lena followed behind her, the couple trying to bring the conversation back to the normal conversations that 2 women would have. When they approached the desk, they took a moment to exchange phone numbers and laughed about why they hadn’t done it sooner.

As the friends walked out of the library, Lena reached her hand over and took Stella’s hand in hers. Stella stopped walking and looked back at her new friend. Her eyes twinkled a little, and she leaned in, her lips parted slightly. Lena moved closer, pulling Stella against her. Their lips touched, each of them leaned their heads to the right and Lena dropped her books.

“That was the first time I’ve ever kissed a girl,” Lena said. “I like it.”

“Are you ok?” Stella asked. “You look like you are daydreaming and you stopped walking.”

“I’m good,” Lena said. “I’ll text you later.”

Stella headed off to her left toward her car, Lena headed off to the right side of the parking lot to get into her car.