Bernie proposes a sleepover to cheer Lil up.

"Bernie?" Alison answered her mobile phone, leaning on the side of her car at the beach.

She'd guessed right. It was Naomi Bernice Bernstein, lapsed lesbian, whom she'd met a few years back when Alison was a counselor at Bernie's summer adventure camp. Since then, their paths had crossed many times, and they had cried on each other's shoulders during bad times and dished juicy gossip during good times. At times Alison thought Bernie had a crush on her, but nothing had ever come of it.

"Hi Al," Bernie said.

"You have amazing radar," Alison said. "My girlfriend-of-the-month just took off for Martinique with her husband-to-be. Are you gonna try to fix me up with a guy again?" She laughed.

"Um..." Bernie said.

"I'm not gonna say stop trying," Alison said, "But y'know, guys bring out my competitive streak, and they seem to have a little trouble with that." She laughed again. "Is he cute? Enough blond, built beefcake and I'll ignore my common sense for a day or two."

"Actually I'm trying to put together a girls' night," Bernie said.

"Is everything all right with your boyfriend?" Alison asked.

"Yes, sure," Bernie said. "Gary and I are good."

Alison heard a dreamy note in Bernie's voice. "Great," she said. She was a little surprised, since she'd figured Gary as having a wandering eye and a thing for tall thin blondes, none of which Bernie was.

"Actually Gary's sister Lillian just had a bad breakup and I'm trying to cheer her up," Bernie said. "I thought I'd get some girls together and we'd dish on stuff. Maybe we could have a sleepover. Gary and Lil's parents are away."

Alison laughed. "God, it's been a while," she said. "Sounds fun. Guess you have to send Gary out or lock him in the TV room. Unless he wants to stick around and play cook and waiter and run on along when he's told."

Bernie laughed. "I think he'll do fine either way," she said.

"Can he keep his hands off you the whole night?" Alison asked. "I mean, if it's a sleepover?"

"Gary can always have a date with Rosie Palm," Bernie said, laughing. "It's not like he's forgotten how to connect his hand to his dick. Actually we like masturbating in front of each other."

"Oh yeah," Alison said. "That reminds me. Do you think Lil would like one of your mom's Pleasure Circles? The time I was there, that girl Francine was getting over a bad boyfriend, and it seemed to help her out a lot."

"I don't know," Bernie said. "Lil knows about them, and she said my mom was cool and she loved her book, but I don't know what she thinks. I didn't want to freak her out by plunking her into a room full of naked masturbating women."

"Why don't you bounce the idea off her. If you can't round up enough gals for the sleepover, maybe it would do her good."

"Okay," Bernie said. "I'll give you a call."

"You want to grab lunch today anyway?" Alison asked. "You can praise Gary and I'll tell you what I've been up to. Pick you up at noon?"

"Sounds good," Bernie said.