Margot & Tati sunbathe in Lena's garden

Afternoon sun streamed down into Lena & Carlos’ garden, which was hot in the calm air. Honeybees flew from bloom to bloom and a magenta hummingbird whirred from the wisteria growing up the arbor shading the doorway to Lena’s studio. Margot & Tati reclined on wooden lounge chairs in a patch of grass amid the flowerbeds. Both women were topless, wearing only their bikini bottoms. Margot had on a large pair of sunglasses and Tati a wide-brimmed straw hat.

“I can’t remember it being this hot,” said Margot, looking down at the little beads of sweat on her chest.

“God, I know. I kind of love it though,” replied Tati, whose olive skin didn’t show any sign of perspiration.

“A dip in the river would feel great.”

Lena came out of her studio to inspect the pair of sunbathers. Her white cotton shirt was rolled up to the elbows as usual, but she had unbuttoned it to billow open as she walked. Her bare breasts alternately revealed themselves as the cloth fluttered. “Still baking yourselves in the sun, I see,” she quipped. “Care for something to drink? Carlos has sun tea in the icebox.”

“Yes please,” said Margot. “Then maybe you’ll come out of your cave to join us in the sun?”

Tati laughed and looked towards Lena’s anything-but-cavelike studio. She’d spent many an afternoon sitting in its soft light while Lena sketched and painted, and she knew Margot had too.

Lena walked off to the house trailing her shirttails among the flowers, the two women watching her go. Off beyond the house, Carlos carried a bundle of freshly-cut St John’s wort to his studio. He was shirtless and glistening with sweat, and Margot felt a pang of old desire return for an instant. “We’ll have to invite Lena’s garden boy along for our swim later,” she said with a smirk.

“You won’t hear any complaints from me,” Tati said. She looked over at Margot’s breasts as the woman gazed off towards Lena’s husband working in the heat. They were generous and full, reclining outwards against her arms. Her skin was fair and flushed from sun, and diligent tanning on the Celandine roof deck since spring had imparted a healthy glow. Tati was impressed with their size and shape, intrigued by the way Margot seemed to move their considerable heft around so lightly. They were lovely, she thought. Her own breasts were likewise evenly tanned (not a pallid bust to speak of here in Lena’s garden), but darker owing to the Adriatic skin tone she inherited from her Croatian mother. Her bronze nipples pointed up towards the sky as she leaned back on her elbows.

Lena returned with three glasses of chilled tea and sat at the foot of Tati’s chair, shrugging the shirt off her shoulders and tossing it in the direction of the studio. “You two make quite the picture out here. I’m tempted to grab my sketchbook,” she said, openly assessing their mostly-naked bodies. “What do you say?”

“As long as you and Carlos promise to join us for a dip in the river afterwards,” said Tati, poking Lena’s thigh playfully with her big toe.

“That sounds lovely.”

The hummingbird returned to the wisteria, vibrating the still air with its wingbeats. It flew off again as Lena slipped into the studio.