"Open together?"
Amy nodded. "If we're open, it's together. Sometimes that could be literal, so we physically both experience it together with someone. But sometimes that can just be emotional if we're apart or even if we're not, complete honesty about what we might each be doing with someone else, making sure the other of us is engaged and is comfortable with it. Complete honesty between us.”
Luisa's breath caught, because she realised that it was exactly what she'd wanted and hadn't realised. Not something that replaced what her and Amy got from each other, but something that built on it and allowed them to explore. Together.
"How would that work in practice?" asked Luisa. "Like, do we each need to give each other permission?"
Amy thought for a moment. "We can work out the details over time, I think. But no, not permission... that would feel weird. I guess, more giving our blessing? And trusting in each other, that is the most important thing. So, for example, you mentioned last night your sometimes have... I guess... professional entanglements where you might appreciate some openness?"
Luisa nodded. "Yes... really not often, not often at all. But sometimes, well, there's a situation where I like someone enough to want something to happen and the professional benefit maybe tips the balance… but only if the chemistry is there already." She paused and looked at Amy with slight scepticism. "You'd be ok with that?"
Nodding thoughtfully, Amy replied, "Yes, I would. If you told me that it was something that you wanted to do, then of course I'd trust your judgment and give you my blessing. Ideally before rather than after. I mean, something like that is essentially how me and Sarah got started..."
Luisa thought for a moment. Blessing rather than permission sounded good. "Open together," Luisa agreed. Two simple words but it felt like an enormous step. “But us above anyone else, most important of all.”
“Us above everyone else.” Amy raised her glass and Luisa tapped hers against it, both women smiling with a mix of excitement and relief.
***
"So... Bel."
They were walking back to the hotel after dinner, hand-in-hand, and Luisa glanced at Amy when she said it.
"Yes...?" Luisa replied, though she was pretty sure she knew where Amy might be going with this. When she'd come down to the hotel bar fifteen minutes after receiving a hard-to-believe message from Amy that she was having a drink with Bel, she'd found them getting on like they were old friends, talking about a country house that Amy had visited as a child and that, it turned out, belonged to Bel’s grandfather.
It had been uplifting to see, even if she was surprised that Amy had been able to get past Luisa's past with Bel so quickly. But maybe that was just Amy, not wanting to overthink, keen to get on with life and see the positive in everything. She liked that side of Amy a lot.
"Do you think she'd be interested in... I want to put this right… helping us to be open together?"
Luisa stopped and looked at Amy. "You're blushing," she teased, and laughed as Amy went redder.
"Well it's not a question I've ever had to ask before!"
Luisa flashed her most reassuring smile. “Don't worry, you look cute when you blush." She paused to think. "I think she would be. But we'd need to approach it in the right way." Luisa liked the idea of it. Obviously she liked sleeping with Bel or she wouldn't have done it over the years, but involving Amy too... she could think of some possibilities, and all of them were good.
"Which is?"
"Bel wants what she can't have. With me and her, there's always a pretence of nothing beforehand, it's never acknowledged and that's the trigger for her. Right now, she definitely thinks that both you and I are unobtainable. For obvious reasons. So... we do nothing to change that. We don't approach her. Nothing different in how we interact with her tomorrow from today."
"Ok... then what happens?" Amy looked confused.
"Then... we approach her tomorrow evening. There'll be some sort of party, there always is. Leave it to me, I'll know what to say. Or I might tell you what to say." Luisa hesitated. “You’re sure about this? It could get quite intense quite fast. With three of us I mean.”
Amy shrugged. “I’ve never done… that. Well, that’s not true, there was one time that James and I and one of his teammates, we got very drunk and…” Amy trailed off. “You don’t need to know the details. Let's just say the three of us had fun."
Luisa nodded. “I can fill in the gaps! I’d imagine it would be very different with all of us women.” Her own thoughts went to a few months before, the launch of Cimarron, and an Austin hotel room with Solana's friend Kelly and her boyfriend Colt.A crazy but fun night. "I've done it before, with a man and a woman. It'sfun. You just have to leave your ego at the door." She paused. "I've done it with just guys too."
"Too many people trying to put things places?" Amy was grinning.
"Yeah… enough said." Luisa wasn't about to go into detail there, but during her wild period when she first moved to Mexico City the footballer she'd dated hadn't been shy about boundaries with his team mates… which Luisa hadn't minded at all.
“This open together thing is fun!"
Luisa laughed as they carried on walking. "Not as fun as what I've got planned for you when we get back to my room." She leaned over and whispered in Amy's ear. "I borrowed the black bikini with the gold chain..."
Amy
Amalfi
