Alia looked up from the computer and smiled. She had just finished reading Stephanie's rather long and rambling email. Her bubbly personality even came through in her letters. The basic gist of her letter was that she had finally gotten Aoshi into bed. Apparently it had reached the point where Stephanie flat out asked him if he was celibate or gay. His negative response was met with a quirk of an eyebrow and he seemed to entirely miss the point of her questions and response. However, at their next stop he casually suggested they share a room, to help ease her budget. That was enough encouragement for Stephanie and she had jumped him that night. He was quite good in bed, according to Stephanie 's excessive descriptions. Alia had made some mental notes while reading it for things to try with Jason.
Thinking about Jason reminded Alia of her slight problem of how to inform Stephanie that she and Jason were dating. Since she had neglected to mention when he first asked her out, such a news would come as a shock to Stephanie and no doubt bring a lecture on keeping her best friend in the dark and prying questions into their sex life. On the plus side, Alia felt she likely could avoid telling Stephanie about their previous arrangement. That was one conversation avoided at least.
Alia braced her self, trying to figure out a way to write this email. She stared blankly for a while, before glancing at the clock. She sighed in relief. The email would have to wait for another day. Her date with Jason definitely took priority, she thought with a grin. Stephanie would agree with her on that. Probably. If she were ever to find out. She was so screwed…ason
Biting her lip, Alia sent off a quick email to Stephanie, before she could back out:
Congrats! Enjoy yourself. No time for a real response – have a date!
Giggling to herself she hit send. At least she could drive Stephanie crazy a bit before bringing her wrath down upon herself. Alia wondered how long she could drag this out. She figured she might be able to get a few weeks, given that Stephanie would likely have spotty net access in the region they were planning on backpacking though.
Looking at the time, Alia yelped and hurried away. Time to test Jason's claim that he really didn't care what she wore on dates. And perhaps afterwards she could try that technique Stephanie had described. Fun should be had by all.
Alia looked at her computer and shifted uncomfortably. Her spur of the moment impulse to tease Stephanie by only giving out piecemeal information about her date had worked well. Stephanie's current travel itinerary had made email the only real way of communicating lately, since time zones and schedules had basically ruled out any real time contact. Which meant there was no way for Stephanie to pin her down as to exactly who she was dating. She had been slowly giving of bits of info with each letter, but since the emails had slowed to one a week, that didn't add up to much. While remote mountain monasteries might have inspiring views and interesting architecture, they usually didn't carry high speed internet access.
Still, it had come to the point where Alia was starting to feel quite guilty about leading Stephanie on. She and Jason had been officially together for almost a month now and she had only told Stephanie that she'd been on a few dates. Granted she had (eventually) admitted they were all with the same person, and that Stephanie knew this guy. However, it was past the time to come clean to Stephanie. Moreover, Alia would really like to have her best friend to talk to about relationship things and give advice. After all, Jason's birthday was next month and Alia had no clue what sort of gift would be appropriate. Next email, she promised herself, she would completely answer all of Stephanie's questions and explain the situation.
Alia laid in bed early that morning, contemplating last night. Thankfully Jason wasn't awake yet, so she had a bit of time to think. She was really regretting not having told Stephanie about their relationship – having someone to talk things over with would be nice.
