“You’re very good at your job,” I said, “and you manage the club most of the time.”
“J.J. is talking to the dance company she’s in about Jason maybe trying out for them,” Nathaniel said.
I looked from one to the other. “Wow, Jason, just wow, that’s awesome; would you be the first lycanthrope allowed in an all-human dance company?”
He nodded.
“That would really help lycanthropes be more accepted,” Envy said.
“It’s a great opportunity,” I said. “I’ll miss you like hell, but I’ve never seen you as happy as you are with J.J., so what can I do to help?”
He smiled at me, not his usual teasing smile, but the one that was just him, just our friendship. “First, we all think if you maybe had more experience with women, or could talk to someone about having female lovers, you might be able to help Jade feel more a part of things.”
I raised eyebrows and looked across the table at Envy. “Are you volunteering to mentor me?”
“Me, no,” Envy said, shaking her blond hair hard.
“Then why are you here today? Domino is the only other black tiger in our group, so he and Jade are pals, but you’re golden tiger, which makes you a totally different clan.”
“I’m a female weretiger, and the only one you have other than Jade, so she talks to me. I’m with Jean-Claude and Richard, so she sees our positions as similar: We’re lovers, but not the beloved of our lovers.”
I tried to roll that sentence around in my head, gave up, and said, “So you’re here as Jade’s friend?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Okay. But you aren’t volunteering to teach me? Honestly, I’m not offering either; nothing personal, but Jade is confusing me enough I don’t need to add more girls. Hell, I don’t even need to add more boys.”
“I’ve never actually been with another woman, so I’m not mad at you that you’re puzzled about having a female lover, but you do have sexual contact with Jade; we just thought another woman with more experience in the area might be helpful.”
I looked at Jason. “You’re not offering some fantasy where you just add me to you and J.J. for a threesome, are you? Because if that’s it . . .” I looked at him harder.
He grinned and then laughed. “No, I’m not, though if it’s on the table, I wouldn’t say no.”
“Nothing personal to J.J., she’s beautiful, but I can’t see being with her, just the two of us.”
“You went straight to sex, didn’t you? It never occurred to you to just talk to J.J. over coffee about it, did it?” Envy said.
I blushed, a little, and shrugged. “Am I supposed to have a little bisexual coffee klatch?”
“That might help, but that wouldn’t solve my problem,” Jason said.
“Which problem?” I asked.
“You can’t make Freda hate me less, or stop being jealous of J.J., but you could help me explain rough sex to my girlfriend.”
“How?” I asked, and the one word dripped with suspicion.
He grinned, and then his face sobered, happiness gone like a switch, on/off. It hurt me to see him like that.
“Is J.J. really thinking about breaking up with you over the issue?” I asked.
“I’m breaking up with Richard because of it,” Envy said.
“No, it’s not the same. I don’t try to fuck J.J. until it hurts her. She’s sort of my version of the human women Richard dates, the ones he wants the white picket fence with, but I need the rough stuff, too. I just know I’m not going to get it with J.J.”
“Explain it to her the way you told me, that you’ll die without it.” She sounded disdainful.
“You don’t believe us, why should she?” Jason asked.