#79: A Lot of Stuff

Alicia awoke, her face buried in what she thought was Yumi's shoulder, but was really her armpit. The clock on the nightstand read 9:58 AM. She'd gotten around five hours of sleep. Percy would arrive to pick her up in two hours, and they'd likely miss the breakfast buffet. A quick glance under the covers confirmed she and Yumi were (still) naked.

Alicia took in every detail of the moment: the sweet scent of Yumi's vanilla body spray, the prickly burn of the fresh tattoo on her left side, the looping Star Driver DVD menu music, the lingering flavor of the best pad see ew she'd ever eaten, and the wall across from her where someone had scrawled '#aliciyumi' with violet lipstick.

Looking up, Alicia saw the canopy railing above the bed was bent in the middle. There were several indentations in the wall above the headboard. Alicia giggled, recalling exactly how both had happened. On the dresser next to the TV were three mostly-empty catering trays of Thai food, at least a dozen empty bottles of Ramune soda, and the remaining two-thirds of a sheet cake that read 'I want to lick you between your thighs in Japanese'...in English.

"VMAJアワードを受賞した以来、同じくらい悲鳴を上げていません。" Yumi said, startling Alicia. "ごめんなさい"

Alicia chortled. "You're quite welcome, though I feel like I should apologize to you. This is gonna be crazy expensive."

"Don't worry about it," Yumi said, retrieving her glasses from the nightstand. "My management covers one of these per year. It's in my contract." Both of them hoarse, Yumi and Alicia took long swigs from their water bottles. They hadn't had any alcohol the previous night, but that didn't stop them from spending several hours at the arcade, getting tattoos, not missing leg day, returning to J-Pop Importium to re-stock up on snacks and buy a karaoke machine, and hosting a late-night catered karaoke party that raged for hours—all before the sex.

There was a knock at the door. "Room service!" a young woman's voice announced. "I have your breakfast."

"I forgot! I texted my manager last night before we went to sle—bed." Yumi said. "I hope you like Dungeness crab benedict."

Alicia squeaked and nodded.

Room service knocked again. "May I come in?"

"Hold on!" Yumi and Alicia shouted, scrambling to find clothing. Yumi snagged the polka dot bra hanging from the ceiling fan, tossed Alicia a set of her NEKO FIT gym wear, and slipped into a workout bottom for herself.

Both of them acceptably clothed, Yumi let in a smiling young brunette who, remarkably, ignored both the state of the room as well as the two massively muscled titanesses in skimpy gym gear. Alicia moved the sheet cake to the second bed, making room for the breakfast burrito, crab benedict, large pot of green tea, and mozzarella sticks. While the waitress did not mention the mess, she offered to take the catering trays. Yumi tipped her $50, sending her away smiling.

Alicia clapped her hands. "Okay, first: thank you SO much for the food."

Yumi bowed slightly. "I understand it is customary in the United States to buy breakfast the morning after."

"Also, it is SO awesome you have your own freakin' fitness line!" Alicia tugged on the fabric. "It's super-comfy and I love the design."

Yumi sat at the table and prepared the tea. "You can have any ones you want, as long as you tag me when you wear them. I bet the brand manager would pay you for the exposure."

Alicia's jaw dropped. "Are you offering me a paid sponsorship, like, right now?"

Yumi nodded. "Of course. You have a lot of followers."

"847,433, as of this morning."

"Would you be interested in your own line?"

"Are you serious!?!? I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!"

"Awesome! I'm not really a designer, so they just showed me sketches and I told them what I liked."

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Alicia shouted, Dungeness crab falling out of her mouth. "Your life is so cool!"

Yumi laughed. "I have heard that many times."

"I would seriously drop everything and move to Japan to be with you."

Yumi froze, her eyes wide. "What?"

Alicia suddenly took hold of Yumi's hand. "I would move to Japan to be with you."

Yumi gasped. "ほんとに？"

"There's nothing I do here that I couldn't do there. Can you imagine? Every day could be just like last night!"

For a moment, the two of them could have burst with excitement, but Yumi's elation faded. She set down the remaining half of her burrito and stared vacantly at her teacup. "Ali-chan, how do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Where is your line?"

It wasn't the question Alicia expected. She shrugged. "I don't really have one."

Yumi smiled softly. "I didn't think so." Alicia waited as Yumi took a sip of her tea, still looking down. "When I first trained to be an idol, they told me I was too muscular. Instead of giving up, I kept practicing singing and dancing and worked out twice as hard. I got huge, but I was too good for them to ignore."

Alicia flexed her pecs. "Sounds familiar."

"I worked with the management and we created 筋肉猫."

"Kin'niku neko!" Alicia said.

"'The muscle cat.' Her personality was close enough to mine, and the company told me NEKO could get as buff as I wanted and party as hard as I could handle. I accepted their challenge."

Alicia licked Hollandaise sauce off the back of her hand. "So, NEKO isn't you?"

"NEKO is a big part of me, but she's not all of me. She's impulsive and wild. When I'm her, I don't consider boundaries, proprieties, or consequences. It's an incredible feeling, but once you're done, you feel drained and a little bit guilty."

"Like the Hulk," Alicia said. "Or an orgasm."

Yumi giggled and picked at her burrito with a fork. "Ali-chan, I partied twice as hard last night as I did right before I swore to myself to stop partying half this hard, and we didn't even drink."

"My roommates call it the Alica-bender."

"How do you manage relationships?"

Alicia considered it for a moment. "The people in my circle give me a long leash, but reel me in when I get to be too much."

Yumi nodded. "And there's the problem. I can't do that for you. Not the way you make me feel. I'm in love with you and I would drop everything and be with you, but it would be...unhealthy for both of us."

Alicia nodded slowly. "I know."

"Besides, what about that little cutie I saw you with him at the bookstore? I don't need NEKO ruining any more relationships."

"Percy-kun." Alicia sighed, regret seeping in. "I'm not looking forward to explaining this to him. It'll be a rough talk, but we'll make it."

Yumi touched Alicia's hand. "Are you going to be okay?" 

Alicia shook her head. "I'm going to burst into tears the second I walk out of here. I’m going to ugly-cry in the elevator, and then sob in the downstairs lobby bathroom until Percy picks me up."

"Ali-chan..."

"But that's later," Alicia said, smiling. "Right now we're still together, so I'm happy."

Yumi grinned back at her. "So you have an hour?"

"Two. Want to play video games?"

"Then go to the gym?"

"Chest and triceps!"

"But first, I'll finish this burrito!"

"And I'll eat the mozzarella sticks!"

Alicia and Yumi kissed, opened PUBG on their phones, and grinned as they returned to their food.

Alicia burst into tears the second she closed the door to Yumi's suite, ugly-cried in the elevator, and sobbed in the downstairs lobby bathroom until Percy picked her up. As per her warning, Percy left room in the back seat for two overnight bags (one full of workout clothes), a mini-cooler full of chow mein, and a karaoke machine. In the car, Alicia cried for still another half-hour, interrupted by occasional bouts of incoherent blubbering before settling into a still, sniffling quiet.

"Do you want to talk?" Percy said.

Alicia wiped her nose and snorted. "Percy-kun, can I be really super honest even though I don't know how it's gonna end?"

"Sure, I mean, not that that’s ever stopped you in the past."

"I don't feel bad for what I did. I want to, but I don't regret it."

"Okay."

"Me and Yumi did a lot of stuff last night. A LOT of stuff."

"I'm aware. I saw your Instagram stories before your account got suspended."

"Probably for the strip karaoke."

"Or licking sheet cake off each other. Either way, it was difficult for me to watch. Incredibly hot, but difficult."

"I understand if you're mad."

"I'm more hurt than mad that you didn't consider me or my feelings."

"I thought of you several times, actually."

"That's almost worse. Alicia, I love you, but you can be extremely selfish."

She nodded. "I know."

"What's the point of a polyamorous relationship if I can’t have a threesome with two famous women that can bench a combined 600 pounds between them?"

Alicia wiped fresh tears from her eyes. "645 actually. Her arms were heavenly."

"I forgive you," Percy said, cracking a smile. "And I'd be more hurt if I didn't understand. I knew how you felt about her before I bought you the tickets. Of course I knew this was a possibility."

Alicia laughed, still choking on her sobs. "Predictably unpredictable."

"Exactly. Now, hurry up and post. Krysta keeps bugging me. Says you're up next."

"What?"

"Have you really not checked your messages?"

Alicia switched her phone out of 'do not disturb.' 

Alicia snorted. "'Hashtag-ordinarygirls.' Not bad. It's a little long though."

"I've enjoyed your guys' content so far."

Alicia jerked her head towards him, eyes narrowed. "You knew already? Did you report me too?"

"I would never."

"No, you wouldn’t. You're too good." Alicia leaned across the cab and kissed Percy on the cheek. "I don't deserve someone as perfect as you."

"Oh, I'm hardly perfect."

"You've proven it so many times, I could never believe you aren't."

"I paid your brother Scottie to throw the arm-wrestling match against you last Christmas."

"Stop this fucking car."