I recall the first week of January 1975. My New Year's resolution was shaped by a determination to challenge Ruby for Coral's affection now Josh was out of the picture.
I watched Coral eat a salted caramel slice at morning tea. We sat on orange plastic chairs at a bright yellow melamine table in the kitchenette of a church hall. We were here to help organise a jumble sale to raise funds to support those impacted by the '74 Darwin Christmas Day cyclone.
My spirits and fancies spiralled in the absence of Ruby's competition. I savoured moments combining my bestie and me. Coral polished off a second slice. I saw the remnants of the delectable, sticky caramel as she licked her fingers. The bits of gooey goodness stuck on her tips, flecked with grains of sea salt. Coral loved salted caramel slices.
She beamed straight at me, a broad smile of teeth and curved pink lips. She licked her tongue twice around her mouth's edge. Coral missed a sea salt granule on her first sweep. The tip of her tongue cleared a daub of caramel sticking to her dazzling whites.
"God, your mum makes a great slice!"
Coral complimented, completing a subtle lip smack.
I thought God made Goldilocks 'just right.'
In truth, the slice unified a divine combination of taste sensations. Coral enjoyed them, spanning the years of our friendship.
I concurred with a yes and a nod. My mother prepared the homemade slices as a treat for Coral because my bestie agreed to help me at my church hall, sorting a donated mountain of clothes and bric-a-brac.
At morning tea, I embraced a winning feeling. Coral as mine, to offer delectable treats, even if I hadn't prepared them myself.
"I shouldn't," she said.
Her golden kinks swayed in agreement. She lifted her third slice anyway. Coral nibbled at it. She savoured each bite.
"You pig, watch your shape!"
Ruby's flippant voice joined us as she entered the kitchenette through the outside hall door. The frosted glass pane in it rattled as she shoved her butt sideways to jolt it shut.
She pinched her nose and launched, "Oink, oink," while flashing her lashes at Coral.
"Enough of Moorey, moreish," the brunette added.
The girls chuckled and smacked palms in a low-five.
My bestie scoffed a bigger bite.
I pictured Ruby as the pig at Coral's trough. My head dropped, and I didn't join the girl's giggle.
"Your mum dropped me off, sunshine, don't be glum," she directed at me.
My plan to keep the sorting to Coral and myself lay tattered. I believed I secured a tentative agreement to a two-person task as I departed home.
"Alright, see how you go," my mum relented as I insisted Coral and I work alone.
Bummer, my mum changed her mind.
Ruby pinched the last caramel slice in the Tupperware container, flexing quick fingers.
"I'm the extra helper," delivered feisty after she enjoyed a decent mouthful of the slice.
My genuine fear lingered, Ruby helping herself to Coral. My bestie broke the remainder of her slice in two and gave me half. After snacking, we diligently toiled in the main hall.
My initial assessment of the minx proved harsh. Ruby beavered super-efficient. She joined me and ploughed directly into the donation boxes. We sorted and piled onto the long trestle tables, horseshoeing the parish hall. Coral arranged the tables using flair, positioning quality items of interest in eye-drawing spots.
She wore her yellow dress from the boathouse. It raised my excitement as a signal; I quickly realised it pointed nowhere. She donned the dress as a favourite; it suited the warmish day. Ruby, as per usual, wore denim and a T-shirt. The minx, the pink one she sported at the December car wash.
In due course, at one o'clock, our much-needed lunch break arrived. The women's auxiliary would cue in at two and take their turn pricing the white elephant sale items. I bundled the flattened cardboard and carted it outside as rubbish while the girls finished the last two boxes. The ones I insisted to my mum we would sort.
My mother had called it right: it was a three-person job.
What ensued as I trashed cardboard unfolded as either hap chance or deceit. My absence materialised as Ruby's cue to solicit Coral.
I returned in no particular haste to grab another load of cardboard. Maybe quicker than the brunette anticipated, or she never cared if I observed her flirting or touching Coral.
I halted, floored, and flesh, not cardboard, permeated my mind and loins. Ruby held a dildo to Coral's lips. The toy aroused me. The ribbed dildo near my best friend's mouth stretched beyond my daydreams or wet dreams!
Swaying, I tucked my hands under my arms.
Ruby claimed, "I found it in a box."
Coral twisted her hair, "Or planted it?"
"Don't be coy, sweetie; you know you want it! Cross the line with me."
She pressed the slim, contoured pink toy to Coral's lips. Ruby rushed to avoid giving her girlfriend a chance to think. I watched the lips that delighted in munching salted caramel slices, the lips I wanted to taste.
The Coral, I thought I knew; I expected her to back off.
She fixed her dainty white sneakers to the church hall floorboards. I gazed at what you don't usually get to watch: two girls on the cusp of intimacy. Ruby pressed the dildo to Coral's closed lips, watchful in her move.
A girl, I thought, using a girl's knowledge of girls.
I saw her fingers give the toy a slight corkscrew twist to entice her girlfriend's mouth open. My mouth opened wide because Coral took the tip.
Sexual bait!
Ruby could snare.
Coral looked hot.
"Lick it, lick it, my girl," Ruby's voice combined seduction and a commanding tone.
Coral complied.
Ruby's fingertips snuggled the dildo. Coral's appealing, rosy, sweet tongue swirled its magic. She layered a glaze of saliva on the business end of the toy. Ruby retrieved it fast. Coral gasped, her mouth caught in a perfect open—O.
The brunette snared the tip of the dildo in her mouth. Ruby appeared to savour the most heavenly of tastes, Coral's saliva in her mouth. The brunette, unabashed, let the toy pop out between her lips.
My feet slid cardboard sideways, and my hands held the edge of a trestle. Ruby whirled the toy between her hands, poised, minx sure more mischief would follow. She proffered the dildo to Coral, lubricated moist by her mouth varnish.
"Nope," my bestie shook her head, and her bountiful locks swayed and joined her defiance.
I loved Coral when she countered —sometimes, it unravelled her.
My bestie's confidence rose, "We both want control, and I know you won't give any, Rubes."
Her feet planted wider and her arms crossed.
Ruby loved the chase, and she enjoyed tit for tat. My fingers tapped the trestle on tenterhooks.
I wondered: what next?
A complete shock!
Ruby's mamma called out as she burst into the main hall through the front double doors.
"Ruby, Ruby, where are you!"
Lucky, she shouted; otherwise, the brunette, dildo in hand, faced explaining away the impossible.
Ruby squirming and likely her mamma fainting in disbelief – Coral and I would have liked to have seen that!
Coral and I knew the little minx expressed her lack of faith around us. She dodged her renunciation of belief near her mamma. We knew Ruby no longer partook in the sacraments or attended confession. Since her early teens, she had a father's permission to sidestep mass.
"Ruby, Ruby, dear, quick, get your things; I need you at the restaurant. We are short-staffed."
Her mum acknowledged a polite greeting towards Coral and me—her strict focus on her daughter.
"Quick, you also need the practice for your licence test next week!"
Arianna also mixed Italian phrases, such as 'lesto' and 'pronto.'
The back pocket of Ruby's jeans hid her sexual support of choice.
"Oh, it's fine. I'm ready to go!"
Ruby, thumbs in pockets, downright casual and ready for everything in the world, so it appeared.
"Are you sure you've gotten everything?" mocked Coral.
"Oh, yes, honey," and she whipped her ponytail, matching her mother's pivot.
"Fine, fine, the car is running, venire, venire," Arianna agitated.
She waved her arms and directed Ruby to follow her as she left the hall.
The petite minx swung and eye-balled Coral.
My bestie stole the lead, "Oh, you will keep, on my terms, tennis next week."
"Can't wait! Can't come quick enough!"
Ruby smug to Coral as she tucked the dildo into her bra. It nestled under her boobs. The brunette wriggled, jiggled and stuffed it 'till it snuggled. Ruby's lips curved up at us as high as I imagined her G-string atop her hips.
"Snug fit!" Coral fired.
"Oh, wouldn't you like to make sure, petal?"
The brunette skipped out of the hall.
In a mix of fluster and delight, Coral told me Ruby claimed the toy fell out of wrapped clothes in a donation box.
She started picking up cardboard boxes as she clarified her thinking; "Well, Luke, what do you think? Did she find it or plant it?"
"Coral," I emphasised, spreading my hands, "We know she's not an open book; she combines lucky and crafty. Let's go to lunch after we tidy the hall."
"Yes," responded my bestie, followed by a stress-relieving laugh.
We piled the remaining cardboard, checked the hall and locked it.
We split lunch at a nearby café, where I rested an empty Tupperware container on my knees. I ate chips in a packet. Coral salad on a plate. We shared a carton of flavoured milk, a new variety, egg-flip. Coral introduced me to it. The milk slurped smooth and sweet, a creamy golden colour. We shared a straw while I daydreamed of sharing her lips.
I prompted Coral to spend the rest of the afternoon accompanying me. To go to the park and hang out, even if I needed to babysit an awkward plastic container slipping off my thighs. My daydream expanded to holding her hand. She slurped the last of the milk and burped behind her hand.
"I'd love to, but it's my driving lesson in an hour."
We left the café, and I walked Coral to her driving school allotment nearby. Here, we said our goodbyes. I wished her good luck!
She stalled as she pushed the office door and fretted, "I do so want my licence before Ruby."
I gave the thumbs-up, and she smiled. I crossed the road to the bus stop and studied the timetable. A ten-minute idle till the bus arrived. Waiting delivered a perk as I chilled on the bus bench, drumming the container's lid. I spied Coral drive out of the lot opposite, in total concentration. I watched her showcase excellent driving skills as she turned the corner.
My parents taught me well when I learned to drive in 1974 and early '75. I forgot these good driving habits in my early twenties.