A trip over memory lane

The concrete floor wasn't as cold as Kate would have thought. The two women padded into the dark room. "I haven't gotten around to fixing the lights," apologized Della as they approached the shelves stacked precariously high stacked shelves with DIY supplies. "Can you hold the flashlight please?" She held a light up to Kate's mouth.

Kate gripped the device horizontally between her teeth like it was a pirate dagger, or a horse's bit. It made more sense than deepthroating the tool.

Assisted by her friend's illumination, Della began foraging through her supplies. After several minutes, she hadn't found anything, and Kate decided to help a little more hands on (figuratively speaking). Spotting some sealant, she swung her flashlight higher up."Futt vabut fat?" she asked around the tool in her mouth.

"No that's not what I'm looking for," answered Della, easily understanding Kate with her mouth full. "That's concrete sealer. Now point that flashlight over here, please." She gripped Kate's chin and redirected the beam to the lower shelf.

Kate grumbled. She wanted things to hurry up; the cement floor was getting really chilly. It was like the blizzard wove under the house to deliberately tickle all ten of her toes.

"Quit squirming," complained Della as her fingers strolled through the haphazard shelves. "I still got duct tape don't you know." She held up a roll of the stuff, calming Kate temporarily. "Alright, they're not here. Check that shelf one to the right."

Kate turned sideways and started stepping backwards in an attempt to keep her circle of light on the shelves. This proved to be to her detriment as her heel snagged on a cardboard box and she landed on her ass with a loud slap.

"Oh my god," exclaimed Della as she spun around. "Are you okay? Shit, sorry, I forgot I left that out." She moved quickly to recover the flashlight, which had tumbled out of Kate's mouth and was rolling away.

"I'm fine," winced Kate. The concrete spank had been loud, but not overly painful. All the same, the bound nudist liberally rubbed her backside. Her towel had slipped from her shoulders when she fell, and she now grabbed it, tugging it under her to give herself a barrier to the winter chill that seemed intent on gripping her rear. "What's in this anyway?" She asked as Della spun the flashlight's beam toward her.

"Oh, just some keepsakes," Della answered reservedly.

Kate groped through the long shadows with her bound hands, trying to consolidate the scattered contents. "Hey," she announced, as her fingers settled on the jagged edge of a half heart. "I recognize this." Even in the sparse light, she knew it had "4 ever" written on it. "I didn't bring mine," she said, half joking but feeling a nagging guilt.

"You don't seriously think I expect you to carry your necklace around everywhere you go? I keep mine in a box in my garage, for goodness' sake."

Kate conceded with a weak laugh. "Oh and I recognize that too," she said, pointing her chin to a technical drawing that had un-scrolled itself in the shuffle. "I still can't believe you paid money for that crappy thing."

"Hey," Della playfully slapped Kate's shoulder with the back of her fingers. "I had that done by a professional graphics designer, I'll have you know."

"I wasn't a professional back then."

Della's brilliant counter argument was to stick out her tongue. It was her turn to catch sight of a memento; she snatched up a simple blue ribbon and showed it to Kate. "What about this? Do you recognize this?"

Even though it clearly wasn't intentional, Kate felt like a woman being interrogated by the police, largely because the naked woman's hands were still trapped behind her back. "Yeah," she said after peering at the dangling blue strip for a second. "You didn't think you'd get that scholarship; you weren't even going to apply." Kate smiled fondly as she retrieved the memory. "So I got it in my head to give you a preemptive award. I think I even set up a ceremony and everything."

"Yeah," Della's grin was equally reminiscent. "You always knew just what I needed. Remember when Troy dumped me? I was inconsolable until you gave me this." She rummaged through her trove until she dug out a homemade card. Its cover featured a fish made from painstakingly placed rose petals.

Despite the vulnerability of being naked and bound, Kate felt overwhelming pride at her work. She turned away bashfully. "I just wanted to remind you there were plenty of other guys out there that were way better for you."

"Lots of them," blurted out Della, her expression getting a little sheepish afterwards. "Keeping things casual is a lot of fun."

"I told you Troy didn't deserve your tears." By way of a victory lap, Kate swung her shoulders just like she was taking overly pompous strides. Her ziptied hands puffed out her bare chest, adding to the excessive effect of her humorous posing.

"You were so right," giggled Della. But her cheeky grin faded quickly. It curled as she nervously nibbled her lip the way she always did when getting sincere. "And so wrong," she countered flatly. "You get me, even more than my family. You went with my weird ziptie idea. You haven't crowed about me for being into casual dating. You've always been there when I needed you. Being in a different city doesn't change that."

Tears of bittersweet joy prickled in the corners of Kate's eyes. Feeling overwhelmed, she lunged in for another nuzzle. She hadn't realized how much the surrounding chill had seeped into her until her best friend hugged her tight. "Thanks for reminding me," she said, her face buried in Della's naked shoulder."I don't know what I was thinking."

"No problem, Kitty. I got things mixed up too. The important thing is we figured it out."

Della put the flashlight back in Kate's mouth and together they cleaned up the little box of mementos, and returned to the sauna with their repair supplies.