Chapter 24

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
- Ben F.

It appeared that Traci and I had become uncoupled during the early hours on Monday morning. When I awoke, I was on my back and alone in the bed. After I yawned and stretched, one of the first things that I noticed was that my genitals were not sticky. I lifted up the sheets and confirmed that I was surprisingly clean. I had expected the combined juices of our lovemaking to have caused some discomfort in the morning. It appeared that while I had been sleeping, my love fetched a washcloth and cleaned off my nether region. My cock twitched slightly at the thought of her using her talented tongue to bathe me instead of a washcloth, but I knew that I was far too clean for it to have been her mouth (at least, not her mouth alone).

I got up and went into the master bathroom. After a very satisfying piss, I decided that a quick shower would be wise. I do not think more than five minutes passed from when I entered the shower and when I exited. I then thoroughly brushed my teeth and went into my walk-in closet. I opted for a polo shirt and khakis (which meant I also had to wear underwear) and after finishing getting dressed, I headed to the kitchen.

When I entered the kitchen, I found Traci, Pollyanna, and Fran making breakfast. When Traci spotted me, she rushed over to give me a kiss. I think the conversation we had about not rubbing our relationship in other people's faces was still fresh in her mind because it was a somewhat tame one. When we broke our kiss, I kept her in my arms and inquired, "Where's Rose?"

"Why?" asked Fran, "Do you usually get the same treatment from her, as well?"

Picking up on Fran's joking question, Pollyanna said, "He had better not or this will happen." She then took the knife that she had been using to slice a carrot with, brought it high into the air, then quickly brought it back down, chopping the carrot into two. I could not help but to wince in sympathy for the poor defenseless carrot.

I think my balls were starting to drop back down when Traci said, "Pollyanna Huntington, if you 'Bobbit' my boyfriend, I'll never forgive you." All three girls laughed while I tried to figure out what 'Bobbit' had to do with chopping off one's penis.

Pollyanna finally answered my original question, "Today's Monday, so Mrs. Caspar drove Rose to Albertsons."

I nodded in understanding. Rose was convinced that the reduced price bakery selections at the grocery store were more bountiful during the weekdays instead of the weekend. A week ago, Rose had made plans with Lori to hit the store Monday morning, but it appeared that Rose asked Marge to take Lori's place.

"Anything I can do to help?" I asked.

"Nah, we have it under control," said Traci. "Why don't you go sit down and have a cup of tea or go outside for a smoke?"

I blinked at Traci in surprise. Her words were not lost on Pollyanna, either; she stopped her slicing and turned to look at her friend in disbelief. Fran, despite the fact that she had been unaware that I smoked, did not seem to think it was that big of a deal that my girlfriend was suggesting that I have a cigarette. I wondered if Traci figured out that part of the argument that we had had was fueled by nicotine withdrawal or if she just wanted to keep me happy. I gave my beloved a quick kiss on the nose and said, "I think I'll just have a cup of tea."

I let go of my girlfriend and started to move towards the hot water pitcher when she stopped me and nudged me towards the breakfast nook. Traci said, "I'll get it. You just sit down and relax."

Fran watched in amusement as Traci fawned all over me. I doubted that Traci was aware that she was doing it, but I did not stop her. She seemed so happy trying to appease me, that I did not want to spoil it. I had just about drunk half a cup of tea when Mike came into the kitchen.

"How did you do?" I asked my Japanese-American friend.

He grinned and answered, "Cleaned them out. I doubt they'll ever play with me again."

He joined me at the breakfast nook, and Traci brought him a cup of coffee. Mike had stayed the night plenty of times before, so she knew his morning preference without having to ask. After Mike took a swig, he asked me, "Who all's here this morning?"

I shrugged. Pollyanna answered Mike's question, instead. "Besides us, there's Chuck, Michelle, her mom, Lori, Vicky, and I think Jenny. Mrs. Caspar and Rose should be getting back shortly. I am pretty sure everybody else left early this morning, but I could be wrong."

"Should I get out the leaves for the breakfast table, or should we eat in the dining room?" I asked.

"Neither," replied Traci. "I think you can fit a couple more chairs at the table without having to open it up, and the remaining people can eat at the kitchen's island counter."

"Breakfast sure smells good, Rose," Chuck said as he came into the kitchen. He drew to an abrupt stop when he did not spot the redhead and asked, "Where's Rose?"

"Why?" asked Fran, "Does she run up to you and kiss you in the morning, too?"

Chuck stood there confused, while the three girls all began to chuckle. He joined Mike and I at the table, and I filled him in on Rose's whereabouts. Traci poured Chuck a cup of tea, but Fran intercepted her and brought the mug to Chuck. Before she handed him the cup, she asked, "Just how often to you stay over here?"

Chuck shrugged and answered, "I don't know. I guess maybe three or four times since we started playing poker."

"Why didn't you tell me about it? Maybe I might have wanted to play."

I came to my friend's rescue and said, "It's my fault, Fran. I didn't want word to get around school that I was living alone and asked everybody to keep my housing situation on the low-down. Now that the Caspars and Rose live here, it's not that big of deal anymore, but Chuck was only keeping his promise to me."

The explanation seemed to satisfy Fran, so she nodded. When she went back to dicing potatoes and was out of earshot, Chuck leaned towards me and muttered, "Thanks, Chad."

"No worries," I replied in an equally low tone. It looked like Chuck was going to say something else when we all heard the sound of the automatic garage door opening. I got up from the table and went into the garage.

When I reached Marge's car, she turned off the ignition and got out along with Rose. Rose had a wide grin on her face and appeared giddy with excitement. I discovered the source of her mirth when Marge opened the trunk.

"Sut mine rådne løg", I said. "Didn't you just go shopping Saturday morning?"

"Yeah, but I hit the mother lode today. I have something to ask you after we bring all this in," said Rose.

When I brought in the first four sacks of groceries, Chuck and Mike scrambled to help with the rest. It only took us a couple more trips to gather up all of the purchases, mainly piling them on the kitchen counters so that Rose could put them away in their proper places.

After Rose had turned on the oven and put some cinnamon rolls that she had bought on a cookie sheet to heat up, she came over to the table, content to let Traci, Fran, and her girlfriend finish up breakfast. Marge had joined Mike, Chuck and I at the table, and Rose pulled up a seat next to Marge. "Chad, can I buy a deep freezer? I think I can get a used one for under a hundred dollars, either by searching the classifieds or stopping by the thrift shops. It would pay for itself if I am able to buy things in bulk and freeze them, instead of what we are currently doing."

Rose gave a disappointed look when I shook my head. "No, I don't want you buying a used freezer. I'll go ahead and buy a new one since it would be more energy efficient than an old used one."

Rose started to protest, but Marge overrode her by loudly correcting me, "WE will buy a new one, since it will apply to everybody."

"I insist on paying for a third since it was my idea," Rose stubbornly said. Mike and Chuck looked at Rose in surprise at her willingness to pay for an appliance, but Marge and I knew it was a lost cause to try to talk her out of it. Slightly uncomfortable talking about financial matters in front of my friends, I asked "Anything else?"

"Just two more things," Rose quickly replied, emboldened by the knowledge that we were getting a deep freezer. "I want to get a Costco membership and a subscription to the Central Coast Times."

"You don't need one," pointed out Marge. "I have a membership and Lori's on it, too, so either one of us can drive you down to Costco whenever you want to go."

Rose looked at Marge in such disbelief, it took her a few seconds to recover. "How come the two of you never told me that you had memberships?"

Marge shrugged and said, "I guess it slipped my mind."

Costco was a warehouse store that sold bulk items. It required an annual membership fee to be able to shop there, and I had considered getting a membership once I got my driver's license. As for the newspaper subscription, I was unsure what Rose wanted that for so I asked, "Why do you want to subscribe to the Central Coast Times?"

"Coupons and grocery ads," answered Rose. "I know I could just look at their ads online, but it would be much easier to look through them on paper. Also, there are more coupons in the newspaper than I can get online."

I nodded in understanding and said, "Okay, but I-," at Marge's glare, I quickly amended myself, "We will pay for it."

Rose grinned wide and said, "Too late! I already paid for the subscription. It will start on Wednesday."

"Oh," I returned the smile and asked, "What if I had objected to the slaughter of poor trees just so that we can save a few bucks in groceries?"

Rose rolled her eyes at my stupid argument and said, "Then I would have cancelled the subscription, and you would be none the wiser."

"If ya'll done yapping, the grub's ready," Fran announced in a Southern accent.

I had heard enough stories from Fran and Chuck to recognize that Fran was imitating Chuck's grandma. Chuck just rolled his eyes at his sister's shenanigans.

Pollyanna began to set the table, and Rose went off to see if anybody else was hungry. I retrieved a couple of chairs from the dining room and brought them to the kitchen table. When Traci returned, Michelle and Jean followed her in; less than a minute later, Lori, Vicky, and Jenny joined us. It appeared that the three breakfast preparers had planned to eat at the island in the kitchen and have everybody else settle around the table.

Everybody commented on how good the breakfast was; the warm cinnamon rolls were a nice touch. We all chatted about various things while we ate, but it was towards the end of the meal when I heard Vicky ask Lori if she had any plans for the day.

"Sorry, I'm afraid I do," Lori told her friend.

"No problem," replied Vicky. "I gathered you might be all tied up today."

I picked up on Vicky's choice of words and glanced at Lori. From her reaction, she too had noticed the particular phrase, though it appeared that she had not told her friends about her most recent developments. I shrugged it off as thinking too much and continued eating. When I finished my breakfast, I got up and took my dishes to the sink. When I started to fill the sink with hot water to wash the dishes, the breakfast girls protested, but I put up a stout resistance. When they saw that I was not going to relent on doing my part of the cleaning, they gave up.

Traci joined me and helped by drying and putting away the dishes. It reminded me of the early days of when I had first moved in, and it was something that I pointed out to Traci. She gave me a grin at that. Feeling devilish, when I finished the dishes, instead of drying my hands with a dishcloth, I took Traci in my arms and gave her a tender kiss. She purred in reply -- until she felt my wet hands using the back of her shirt to dry them. She then broke the kiss and playful pushed me away. We were both smiling at each other, the fight that we had gone through long forgotten.

Traci and I went into the living room, where we found everybody except Vicky and Jenny. Apparently, the two cheerleaders had taken their leave while I was busy with the dishes. Chuck had loaded up Azumanga Daioh in the DVD player so that Fran could see the reference we were making the previous day. Because the otakus were outnumbered, I gathered that was the reason why they were watching it with the English dub. I winced slightly at some of the dialogue, though I knew I was being a snob. ADV, the company that released Azumanga Daioh in the US, liked to reuse the same voice talent on different projects, but I could not help but think that some of their choices were not the best.

Jean saw me enter the living room and tilted her head towards the backyard. I smiled and shook my head, to which she nodded before getting up and going outside alone. Traci gave me a puzzled look, but I just smiled at her. I moved behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her against me as we watched the anime.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the cute show, but I knew that there were a few in the room, besides myself, who would have enjoyed it better if it was in the original Japanese and had subtitles, instead. Then again, it was always a pleasure to expose our hobby to those who have not seen it before, so watching it dubbed was a small price to pay. When the DVD was over, Chuck, Fran and Mike decided that they should head home.

After walking them to the door, I returned to the living room and sat down in a vacated chair. Traci joined me by sitting sideways on my lap, her legs draped over the armrest and her right arm around my neck. My left arm wrapped around her waist while my right hand rested on one of her knees. I looked around the room: Marge was sitting in her late husband's favorite chair, with Jean standing next to her; the two ladies were talking about our upcoming trip. Rose and Pollyanna were mimicking Traci and I, Pollyanna sitting upon Rose's lap, but her feet were stretched out on the couch and ended up resting on the thighs of Michelle, who was sitting besides them. Lori was sitting at the other end of the couch. I decided that it was a good time to resume my slave's training.

"Slave," I said, switching to 'Master' mode, "bring me your journal."

I think one could have heard a pin drop on the living room carpet as the room drew immediately silent. Traci had flinched slightly. While I had not spoken very loud, my voice had lost all traces of warmth in it. Perhaps it reminded her of how I spoke in the bedroom when I was angry. The flinch only lasted an instant, though, before I felt Traci relax again.

Slave, on the other hand, was anything but relaxed. "Master, I haven't written anything since you read it yesterday morning."

I frowned and asked, "What is rule number two?"

"I am responsible for keeping a daily journal covering, at a minimum, my significant activities and thoughts for each day, as well as all activities directed by Master and all thoughts related to my training or sexuality. The journal shall be kept in a form that can be shared with my master on a daily basis," Slave quickly replied. After a few seconds, she quickly added, "Master."

The sound of a quiet clapping caused me to look for the source. Jean stood there, grinning, and was lightly tapping her fingers against her other palm in what was called a 'golfer's applause'. I gave her a small smile before turning my attention to Slave.

"Well, it seems that you earned yourself a little punishment. Still, I want you to bring your journal to me. Maybe I'll have you read it aloud as entertainment for my guests."

"Yes, Master," and Slave quickly got off the couch and practically ran out of the room. When she returned, it was at a much subdued pace. When I saw fear on her face, I knew something was wrong.

Slave was practically trembling when she handed me her journal. I managed to open it up with one hand and spotted what had upset Slave so much. I passed it to Traci and said, "This is the reason why I didn't want to take pictures or videotape Slave."