Juice Whirl, then home to Bernie's pool

Lil put away her little mobile phone after getting her plans for tonight with "Aunt" Nicky set up.

"You still up to get our cards read?" Lil asked Bernie.

"I take that sort of thing too seriously," Bernie replied. "How about we go over to my house and just splash around in the pool."

Lil smiled at her brother's girlfriend. "Okay, we've already done a little shopping, so let's declare victory," she said. "Floating around in the pool sounds like just the thing. How about let's get some fruit shakes and have Gary pick us up."

Lil and Bernie left the women's room.

Lillian was smiling, looking forward to taking her godmother Nicola to the Women's Circle at Bernie's tonight. Nicola had helped teach Lil how to masturbate, and now they were going to get to do it together with other women.

Bernie was pleased that Lil was feeling better, and hoping things would go well tonight.

At Juice Whirl, Lil got a Strawberry Cheesecake Whirl, and Bernie chose a Lite Orange Protein Burner Whirl, extra ice. Lil paid and called her brother Gary to pick them up. The slim blonde and the shapely brunette walked across the bridge from the mall to the parking garage and waited in the shade, sucking on their drinks.

"What d'ya think, 96 degrees in the shade?" Lil asked, fanning herself.

"Not quite," Bernie said. She adjusted the straps on her short overalls.

Lil asked Bernie, "So what do you think of the new Billy Royce album...?"

Lil and Bernie chatted about everything other than each other, Gary, or tonight's plans. Absorbed in conversation, they were startled to hear the first phrase of the theme from "Peter Gunn" blare from an auto horn.

"Eeeek!" Lil screeched. "Stuart is CRAZY!"

Gary stopped Stuart's Super Surf Van at the curb. "Give you babes a ride?"

Bernie put a hand on her hip and said, "On any other day I would pickle you with a word, but you have A/C and your sister needs a ride. And I need to tell you about plans for tonight. So let's go."

Gary listened as his girlfriend outlined tonight's plans, then reviewed them. "OK, let's see if I have this straight. You and Lil are going to play mermaids this afternoon. Nicky is picking Lil up for dinner, and you and me, we're having barbecue with your mom. Then I clear out from seven to eleven while the Women's Circle is on. Right?"

Bernie smiled and kissed Gary's cheek. "Right. You want to come swim with us this afternoon?"

"Birthday suits?" Gary asked. "That's your mom's usual rule."

Bernie looked back at Lil. "It's your day, Lil, really."

Lil laughed. "Sure, no big deal," she said. "We all sauna together and mom and dad take us to nude beaches."

Bernie smiled. "There's your answer," she told Gary.

"Then I'm in," he said.

"Anything else I should know about your family?" Bernie asked.

Gary shrugged. "You know pretty much everything I know," he said.

Bernie looked into the back seat. Lil's face was pink. Gary's sister looked nervous, maybe embarrassed at holding something back. Bernie looked back out the windshield, not wanting to pry when Lil was feeling fragile about her recent breakup. After all, today, from mall to Women's Circle, was about helping Lil feel better. And maybe she was imagining that look in Lil's face.

The three of them spent the rest of the hot afternoon in the pool at Bernie's house. Bernie's mom Joyce came out after a while with a pitcher of lemonade and a tray of chilled fruit. She took off her straw hat and her batik-print wrap and joined them in the pool.

Bernie watched Gary's eyes follow her mom's heavy buttocks as she descended the ladder into the pool. She glanced to Gary's penis and saw it swelling under the rippling water. Maybe I don't have much to worry about, she thought. If he thinks Mom's butt is sexy, mine sure must be.

Lil didn't think anything much of her nude brother. She would have teased him if she had noticed his erection, but she was looking at Bernie and Joyce Bernstein and imagining the mother and daughter masturbating, strumming their fingers in their dark-haired clefts until their full, golden-skinned bodies arched with pleasure.

At five Nicola collected Lillian for dinner.

Joyce took skewers of pineapple, sweet peppers, tomato wedges and shrimp from the fridge and popped them onto the gas grill. In a few minutes they were eating on the patio, licking their fingers from the juices.