Falk Clan Tales - Chapter 56: Chapter 56

Jozette opened the front door and stepped aside before the whirlwind that was her BFF could knock her on her ass. Again. Unfortunately, Marissa was not only strong for someone so petite. She was also as graceful as an elephant in a china shop most of the time.
“OMG, Jozette! Your parent’s new house is so big! And right on the water!”
“Come on in,” Jozette said.
She shook her head and closed the door while Marissa zipped from room to room like a fly on crack.
“OHMYGAWD! Look at that view! Super nice.”
“Hmm?” Jozi turned toward the woman who had been her best friend since she was seven.
Marissa was pointing at the view of the intracoastal behind the house. That was the waterway that ran parallel to the ocean and stretched from Manasquan to Maccon City, Caster’s Corner, and all the way down to Cape May.
It was pretty. She had to give her parents that. Even in winter. Jozette nodded as she padded across the kitchen floor to start a pot of tea.
“Yeah, it’s great. Got the intracoastal right back there. Perfect place for me to sit and write,” she replied.
“How is your History of Maccon City book coming, anyway?”
“Well, I mean it’s odd really,” she hesitated. “Do you know we have a history around here of strange sightings and unexplained phenomena? I’m fascinated, truly, but I just can’t seem to narrow things down. I think maybe I should just scratch the whole thing⁠—”
“No way! You always wanted to write, Jozi. But maybe it’s the topic?”
Jozi shrugged, taking in her words. Marissa was not mean, just blunt. She sat down at the breakfast nook while Jozette grabbed the small wooden box holding a variety of teas and the honey from the shelf.
Every Saturday, like clockwork, no matter where Jozette was living at the time, the pair of them got together and shared a pot of tea. There was nothing better! Tea paired with whatever goodies Marissa had whipped up, and a good dose of honest conversation with someone Jozette respected and cared about.
“If only you were a man,” Jozi murmured.
“You couldn’t handle me,” Marissa replied with a wink.
It was a running joke since college. Marissa had kissed a girl once. She liked it too. But alas, she was still attracted to men. Usually, men who started out okay. But somehow, they all seemed to turn into lazy asshats who wanted her to wait on them hand and foot while they complained about the size of her ass.
“We sure were smart kiddies starting this little tradition,” Jozi remarked, as she gathered some napkins.
They had started this routine as kids after Jozette had a minor crisis over needing to wear reading glasses at the age of ten. At the time, getting glasses was devastating. She’d had several dozen pairs since, often losing or breaking them, until she eventually had corrective laser surgery.
“Okay, truth?” Marissa asked, choosing lavender citrus tea to go with the almond biscotti she’d brought.
“Always,” Jozette replied, choosing a plain English breakfast tea for herself.
“I think you should write whatever the fuck you want. Stories you want to read. Not some history your parents said would be a ‘cute project’ for you. And,” Marissa continued.
She was not going to hold anything back. Going for broke, as always, Jozi figured.
“I think you need to start dating again, Jozi. Like now.”
“What?” she asked, almost spilling the hot water onto her hand. “No way. It’s too soon.”
“No, it’s not. It’s been three months, almost four, since that loser dumped you and ran off with that exotic dancer he met in Manhattan.”
“Must we go over that again?” Jozette moaned.
She lifted her steaming cup of tea. If anything could soothe her battered soul, it was this. Time with her bestie and some top notch noshing.
“These are really good,” she said, crunching on another excellent cookie.
Jozette did not want to talk about her jerk of an ex. The truth was, her ego had been badly wounded by the awful cliché that was the way her last relationship had ended.
Heck.
Not only had that cheating moron kicked her out of their shared apartment, but now she was here! Living in her parents’ new house, which they’d bought only six months after she’d officially moved all of her things out of her childhood home.
It was like they couldn’t wait to get rid of any evidence they’d once had a child. Not the most loving of parents, Henry and Darla Keeper, were currently on an ornithology expedition in Europe.
“Thanks,” Marissa replied. “Seriously, Jozi, why not go out on a date?”
“Um, my parents, for one,” she replied.
Both retired Math teachers from the local high school and junior colleges respectively, they were also avid bird watchers. They’d gone on this extended trip for two reasons. One, because it was a good excuse to do something they both had in common. And two, to avoid having to live with their adult daughter.
“What do they have to do with this?”
“Marissa, do I even need to say it again? Mom and Dad are more than disappointed in me after this fiasco. If I date someone new, they will really freak out!”
This was just another one of a series of choices she’d made that they did not approve of. They blamed her for the failure of her relationship and her current living situation. Never considering her boyfriend had not only lost his job one month after she’d moved in, but he also cheated on her. According to them, that was her fault, too.
But that wasn’t all. Jozette’s desire to be a writer, and not a teacher, after she’d ‘wasted time and their money’ by getting her degree in English Literature was another point of contention between Jozi and her parents.
So, to hear them tell it, Jozette was a total failure who couldn’t keep her man interested. They also acted as if it had been her plan all along to get thrown out of the apartment she’d shared with her ex and move back home.
How humiliating!
Her current temporary home might be a new house on the water with a dynamite view, but it would never be cozy and warm like Marissa’s family’s home. But hey, at least the water was always pretty to watch.
“I think it is safe to say I am not made for relationships,” Jozette replied confidently.
“You don’t need a relationship to have sex⁠—”
“Mar! You know how I feel about that,” she replied with a faux shocked expression.
Marissa could be bawdy as hell when she wanted to be. Sometimes it was for shock value. Other times, she didn’t think the woman even realized it. Sex always was easy for her best friend, but for Jozette, not so much.
“Jozi, you’re thirty-one years old. Sex is not taboo anymore. It’s a part of life!”
“Easy for you to say. Look at you,” she nodded at her stacked blonde hottie bestie.
Not that Jozette was a dog. But, reality check, thirty-one was looking a little plumper on her hips, and less chipper in the boob department than twenty-one. Of course, Marissa still looked toned as fuck.
Beyotch.
“Oh, shut up! Look, it’s time to move on. You don’t need to find Mr. Right to enjoy a little sucking and fucking,” Marissa insisted.
“Ew, Mar. What next? Are you going to say the m word?” she asked, shivering noticeably.
There was nothing more disgusting than listening to Marissa go into gory detail about sex. She’d heard it all over the years. The cum stains on her prom dress.
The bulging veins on the underside of her jock boyfriend’s cock. How she thought spraying rosewater on her pussy made it more appealing.
Jozi could go on, but this particular trip down memory lane was too much for breakfast. Make that forever. She never, ever wanted to talk about these things. But did that stop Marissa? Nope.
“Yes, I am going to say it. When was the last time a man got you⁠—”
M
arissa’s eyes glinted in the sunlight like gold coins as she slapped her hands on the table and leaned close to Jozi’s face and yelled the word she had been dreading.
“Moist!” Marissa yelled, with a satisfied smile on her face.
“Ugh! Why? Why would you say that?”