The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson Read Free Book Online Page B

maybe a Spanx midriff hold-all whatever. Leo knew about Spanx. He had invested in them. Pauline was going to pull off her thick tights and rub her hundred and fifty tons—OK, pounds—of untoned middle-aged flab over his wife’s pussy. Her saggy tits on top of MiMi—was Pauline a Top? All Leo knew about lesbian sex came from porn sites but he was pretty sure there had to be a Top and a Bottom. But MiMi was eight months pregnant—she couldn’t have sex on her back. If she couldn’t be a Bottom—and she couldn’t be a Top because, damn it, she was still his wife—then she must be a Side. Do lesbians have Sides as well as Tops and Bottoms? They must do. He would look it up. His naked wife was about to lie on her side and…
    Pauline took off her shoes, put her feet up on the bed and started rootling around in her vast handbag—what did women keep in those things?—and then Leo realised: it must be her dildo.
    Pauline was getting out an eight-inch purple silicone dildo with a harness. The Big Knickers were coming off. The strap-on was being buckled round her hips, her belly spilling over the top of her moth-eaten German teddy-bear pubic hair, poking out in grey wires underneath.
    Pauline was, in fact, still searching through the inscrutable contents of her handbag. She took out her glasses, her iPhone and…a long, red leather object appeared in Pauline’s hands.
    VIBRATOR THE SIZE OF A SUBMARINE, YOU SEX-SHOP SLAG!
    It was a pencil case. Pauline settled down to do the
Guardian
crossword.
    JEWISH MARXIST!
    The bedroom door opened. A pretty woman Leo had never seen in his life before came in holding a zip-up plastic suit-carrier.
    GET OUT OF MY FUCKING BEDROOM, RENT-GIRL!
    Xeno took the suit-carrier from her.
    SEX PARTY WITH NURSE UNIFORMS!
    Inside the suit-carrier was a sharp-cut blue linen man’s suit with a tight white rhinestone V-neck T-shirt. Xeno put the clothes on the bed and started unbuttoning his shirt. Leo had a dry mouth. His friend’s boyish, slender chest and back. The scar on the shoulder still visible from where he had fallen. Pauline was looking at Xeno’s torso. The tiny gold ring through one nipple. The tiny gold ring in his ear.
Pauline’s pelvis was lifting. Her hand was on her crotch, up her skirt. Xeno went towards her and straddled her on the bed. Then MiMi came out of the dressing room and went over to the bed and pressed her body up against Xeno. He turned round and put his tongue down her throat.
    But MiMi was still in the dressing room—and when she reappeared she was fully clothed in a black sleeveless micro-outfit that made her bump look like she was going to give birth to the world.
    Xeno put his hand on the bump.
    MiMi put her hand over his hand and sat down suddenly on the dressing-table chair. Xeno brought her water.
    Pauline got up, said something. MiMi nodded and went to the bed. She lay down. Pauline propped her head up with a pillow.
    Xeno came and stood by the bed, his tight crotch on a line with MiMi’s head.
    SUCK HIS BIG DICK!
    MiMi’s hand cupped Xeno’s bulge. She unzipped Xeno’s jeans and let out his cock. He wasn’t wearing boxers. She lay on her side, pregnant, towards him, kissing the head of his cock while he stroked her hair. Then she took him in her mouth.
    Leo realised he was hard. He stood in front of the screen and unzipped his fly, working in quick, brutal strokes. He sprayed himself over the image of his wife resting on the bed, his best friend standing gently beside her, offering her a glass of water.

MiMi, Xeno and Pauline were on their way to the Roundhouse.
    The building had been a tram shed and now it was a theatre and music venue.
    Xeno had been persuaded to stay.
    “What’s got into Leo?” he said as the car moved past London Zoo. “He’s like a bear with a sore ass.”
    “He’s meshugener,” said Pauline.
    “What’s meshugener?”
    “He’s crazy! He’s got his own way all his life so he can’t control his emotions, desires,