[https://i.imgur.com/yEQYowO.jpg]

Part 3 - Welcome (cont.)

After a silent moment, she continued, "I mean... It's hard to explain I guess. But, again, you've been an awesome friend. I said that already and I'm just repeating myself but thank you. It's just...well. Do you remember a thing once where a guy posted a video of himself flying?"

Vaguely. What she said pretty much encompassed all I could tell anyone about it. She elaborated, "His name was Brian F-something with some long online handle. He had gorgeous, frizzy long hair and this surfer sheen and a playful smile. But everyone thought he was able to fly due to a very clever bet. That was his story. The government even looked into it. Eventually, it came out it was all faked, but the fakery was due to a bet."

Her cards in her lap, she gestured a little for emphasis. "He made the video but bet some friend he would be able to convince people it was real. As part of his win reward, some people who saw the video became convinced they had actually witnessed the flight as it happened. And there was evidence at the scene and all sorts of stuff. The government really got interested then. But everyone just thought they knew what actually happened."

Dipping my head slightly, I asked, "And?"

With a deep breath, Lina rubbed one of her bracelets and stated, "And I remembered that when you showed me your video yesterday. You believe it. You remember stuff that happened. You know you saw it, but bets can do all sorts of things. Heck, they're crazy enough...you could secretly be Greg and maybe I'm Babs and that hobo was the real Babs and John is a Canadian goose? No one can know for sure." 

Even with her earnest tone, we both succumbed to giggles. After responding with my own jack, I admitted, "Sure, all sorts of stuff is possible."

She held her card hand close to her and nodded. Her smile waned. "All sorts of things. But, at the same time, my head tells me you went out of your way to check on John, your co-worker. But, with the guy you love...with Greg, you didn't even consider checking out his place. No matter what rationalization, thinking about that chills a part of me deep inside."

I leaned forward. "Lina..." 

She turned away slightly and looked down at her cards. "Maybe. Maybe not. If I'm not Lina... Not the original, not the permanent one. Then that means I'm on an unseen, ticking clock."

She rocked a little on the couch. I wasn't sure what to say or do for her, so I just listened as she continued. 

"Well, everyone is on a clock they can't see. And there are those actively dying day by day, minute by minute and I should be grateful I'm not suffering but fuck that! I don't want to stop! I don't want to end. Because if I am here because of a bet then I, like all bets, am finite. Sickeningly finite. I have just days. Every minute that passes is one less minute. Every day gone is gone forever..."

She looked like she was about to start hyperventilating but she steadied herself. "So many games I never played. So many unrealized little moments. So many thoughts and shrugs with, 'Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow'. I should be running through the forests, I should be flying to Anaheim, punching the other me in the face, and grabbing every swag bag before security hauls me away. I should stand before those surreal hills in the wild lands of China. I should slide down a snow-capped peak. I should see the sunrise on a crystal-blue sea. But, as I sit here, I'm thinking about what card I want to try next and what card you'll play next. This moment, no matter how mundane, is part of my life too. This is the moment I exist in. I want to see untold and unimagined games beyond measure. And I want to be your newbie secretary in pink scrubs. I want to laugh, cry, play, and work. But I'm also utterly terrified about what might happen to me when I reach the finite limit of all known bets. I don't want to die. Please...whatever, whoever will listen. I don't want to die. Please..." She clenched a fist to her forehead so tightly it trembled. Tears would've been understandable but there were none. 

There was nothing to say to that. There was no answer. No kindly assurance. Saying it would be alright would just hurt more because I had no place to say that. Instead, I scooted closer and asked, "Soo...you never googled a dick pic before?"

Her eyes blinked and she released her fist. With a bemused expression, she asked, "Huh?"

"You said you were unclear on how dicks look. Dive into the dicks and answer the mystery while there's still time. Let me be your guide. I have a lot of bookmarks on my phone."

Her mouth dangled slightly before a grin slipped out. She let loose a high burst of giggles. It seemed more like a bout of hiccups with how they flew out of her control. In a lull, she excused herself to the bathroom, but I could still hear the bursts of laughter through the walls. My neighbors would say something tomorrow but fuck them. 

Lina returned with the last wave of laughter cresting and smiled gleefully as she finally managed, "Yes. Show me. Hehe."

The first set was pretty standard. Still, her mouth hung open. 

Dicks for days [https://i.imgur.com/LeyYSmp.jpg]

"Ohmagosh, that is a whole lot. You know, I don't think what I had in my head was that far off. Sorta." She chuckled but didn't blush too much.

I zoomed in on one in particular. A flash of wide shock across her face shifted into attentive curiosity. "That. Wha...it's so swollen around the...middle. It makes the tip look small. Also, uh, does he have small hands, or is it as big...as big as it seems?"

She had her legs crossed. I shrugged and asked her, "What do you think?"

Lina let out a faint sound between a grunt and a chuckle. "I don't have any joysticks like that in my collection." Immediately, her feet retreated, and her head dipped in hot embarrassment hidden by a proper chuckle. 

I paged through several similar and said, "Bananas are the best cheap practice tools. You can warm them up decently too."

There was actually one left in my pantry, but it was browning. It became our visual aide. I nearly questioned myself, but I kept going. I taught her some basics she'd never picked up in passing. She had a sensitive gag reflex. Still, the banana rested nicely against her cleavage before she carefully ate it. 

Shaking her head and swallowing, she remarked, "This has been a weird night. But show me...a few more."

I noticed her stretching her mouth a few times as I switched over to another full, saved page. The card game might as well have been a thousand miles away. With her hands in her lap, Lina remarked, "I'm not gonna look at mushrooms in the grocery section the same way again. Also, there are things in movies, shows, and games I'm now wondering about."

I fanned my hand and winked. "Yes. Now you know the Way of the Dicks. They are absolutely everywhere." 

She grinned and brushed her hair back. A few more "bulgers" caught her eye. Then, she made me pause. She took my phone in her hand and zoomed to fit the whole screen.

"Do we have a winner?" 

I tried not to notice the touch of drool on the side of her mouth, which she quickly wiped away before breathlessly saying, "Holy fart. The description says nine inches but that looks like an arm!"

Looking at the phone, I noticed it was a familiar one for me. "It's the angle, pointing up like that. But not bad."

Still marveling, Lina mused, "How could you get that in a pair of pants? Or in...anything else?..." She trailed off as she passed the phone back to me.

With a shrug, I offered, "Well, there are showers and growers. Showers bend and can tuck themselves in and it all goes inside a good bit. Growers can definitely look like not much in the package but keep giving and giving once you get them out." Greg was a bit of both. Fun to feel and a surprise to boot. 

And, at that moment, I was teaching her all about dicks instead of learning more about that missing joy-meat. Oh well. I pulled up another page. "Now, ready for foreskin?"

Her reaction was more muted. She remarked, "That must be why the ends looked weird. They had their coats taken off." Which is about the cutest way she could've put it.

Lina still had her legs crossed and hands firmly in her lap despite less of a reaction on her face. When I got to the end of that page, she pondered aloud, "It's crazy to think of what parts look familiar, only closed and grown out or shifted. I'm sure if I had a proper sex-ed class in school or anywhere I wouldn't be so surprised."

I wasn't too sure. My school was shit there (and in other ways) but I did my own research. Lina went to a school which avoided sex talk altogether. 

She added, "And my parents can never be bothered. Although, mom started talking about anal beads in the car once. My mind went blank before embarrassment totally throttled me." She shut her eyes and pressed a hand to her forehead.

Enough dick for one night. We picked up our cards. 

As we finally got to the end of the game, she asked me, "Is it weird I never look at stuff like that? I mean, I knew some girls with real filthy mouths in school but pictures, aside from a racy Snapchat image or two, never really came up. It was talk and sometimes little bits of writing. But I was always more into my DS than any of that. I almost went to class without my pants on a few times because of a great game. But...is it weird to never look? Is looking weird? Not to say you're a bad kinda weird. But.."

I leaned into the cushion of the couch. It still smelled a little where I had to get a stain out a while ago.

"Dunno for sure. Don't care. It's what I like. Others can do their own thing. It's up to you. Maybe you wanna do nudes and pose with your favorite games."

Lina blanched even more than usual at the proposal. I amended, "I mean, everyone has their thing. What makes them happy, whether it's bold or subdued. What's yours?" I almost didn't ask. 

And Lina held her lips in as she sat there with my question. But, gingerly, she relaxed her mouth and took a deep breath. "Well, while all that was fun, what makes me happy is more the feeling of what those parts connect to. At least for me."

"Of course. So, what do you like?" I really resisted asking that. It hurt a little. Lina, this Lina, was the skin pulled over the man I liked, from the parts I had fun with on Friday to his enveloping scent and strong presence. She blotted him out. Maybe...

She fussed with the one card left in her hand. Her legs shifted underneath, and she cleared her throat a few times before saying, "I..it's hard to say. Dating has been, as I mentioned, non-existent. But I went to a water park up north with a male friend once. First thing, I dove in the splash zone. I felt so relaxed, so normal, so drenched. More than anything, it was fun. So that's kinda my interest baseline. Willingness to go to a water park. I like that."

I urged her on with nods. 

Lina tapped a nail against her tooth and made some indecisive noises before resolving, "Full hair with tight curls and tufts. Enough to really slip your hands into. And a subtle but strong color. He should be taller than me but still feel slight. Not too intimidating. Scruffy chin, not so short it feels like sandpaper and yet not quite a beard. Boyish. Slender and boyish. Like some art I have of...RPG guys from Japan." 

She rushed headlong through her fantasy; her arms wrapped around herself now. "He holds me and says the perfect words. Speaking from his heart to mine. He holds me and the pain wanes. The trembling settles and I am as strong as he sees me in his eyes. We kiss. A warm...uhh...excuse me."

With a blush, she hopped up and hurried over to the bathroom. She returned shortly after, announcing, "False alarm. Kinda. Uhh...well that is definitely what I like. Although you absolutely opened my eyes up to the parts...the full parts. The stuff that follows an embrace and a kiss. And other stuff."

"Definitely for boys?" I tried to keep cool. Still, I watched Lina.

The question was met with arched eyebrows. "Hmm? What do you mean?"

Deep breath. "Do you have any lesbian or similar feelings? Nothing for women?"

She wiggled her faint eyebrows in response. "Asking for a friend?"

I snickered and shook my head. "Just asking..." Aww, shit, just say it. "Well, sorta asking for a friend. Asking for Greg. Seeing if maybe something of what he feels is mixed in with you."

She cleared her throat and wrapped her hands around the back of her neck. "Ah. Well. I didn't really ask my cousin about his interests. But it was pretty obvious. He used to ask me for advice back in school. I had to avoid laughing that anyone thought I could offer advice. I told him to just be himself and find someone he enjoyed being with."

I played what I could with my remaining cards. "I enjoyed him a lot. It was a fun evening. A great sense of release. He was upset about giving me a slap on the back at the end of the day."

Lina let loose a giggle spasm before setting her final card down. "Yeah, he tenses up when he really likes someone and doesn't remember to be gentle. Big bear hugs especially. He just about suffocated a girl he liked once named Erin. Redhead, smaller than me. It's just him being him." She yawned and stretched her feet. 

I put the deck back together and tapped it. "I miss him. Wherever he is."

She reached over to rub my arm. "Me too. He's an amazing cousin. I want to give him a great big hug when I see him again and I wanna smack him good on the back too." She gave my arm a gentle tap before getting up to fully stretch. 

I could've pressed. I could've inquired one last time. But I let it go and instead asked, "You want me to send you a few favorites from tonight?"

She stammered and adjusted her arms. "I uhh...heh. I might. I well...okay. Send them. Just for...for just... I mean I didn't really get a good look at...everything."

"No problem. Hope you have a special joystick back at your place with single-player function."

She let out another burst of giggles and looked flush. She turned in place. "My gosh, Babs. I'll have so many innuendos spilling out of my head from now on because of you."

"You're welcome."