Chapter 10

Andrew fought traffic getting back into London but made it home before Jim and Freya arrived at the house. What he wasn’t expecting was for both Ara and Suzanne to be so giggly and excited.

“You are not to encourage Jim and Freya to stay late, okay?”

“It is a Tuesday night, I doubt they are going to stay late anyway, but why?”

“Our ‘present’ from Geert arrived yesterday as it wasn’t stopped by Customs. We want to watch at least one of them with you.”

Andrew smiled.

“So did you watch one last night?”

Their faces gave it away.

“Suze was terribly naughty.”

A large number of visuals flashed through his mind. The two of them were incredible. And seemed determined to torment Andrew in the hour before Jim and Freya arrived. They were flirty and touchy and generally just completely captivating. As a way of distracting them from telling the first ‘grown-ups’ it worked. But then the doorbell rang and the butterflies started to flutter. When they saw both Suzanne and Ara waiting to greet them their faces were a picture. Jim looked surprised but Freya’s look was more calculating. Andrew got them both a glass of wine and sat facing them. He figured it was better to just rip the plaster off.

“Ara, Suzanne and I are going to be living together from now on. And not just as housemates but together in every sense. There are no couples, we are a three.”

They had tried so many different ways of saying it but what was the alternative? Andrew didn’t want to just blurt out that they were a threesome. That made it sound just sexual. They each took a turn.

“I have been friends, and much more than friends, with both Suzanne and Ara for many years. They met at Christmas and figured out that I loved them both.”

“Ara and I have both been with other women and knew that it was a facet of our personality, not just a passing fad or some university experimentation. We got to know each other and so the three of us are going to make this work.”

“We know that it is extremely rare but we think that it is best for us. It was because of the attraction between Suze and I that this is possible. This is not Andrew and his harem, this is us as a three.”

Jim needed a top up of his wine but Freya looked the three of them over.

“Do you have the guts to stick it out, make it work?”

Andrew knew they were all surprised at Freya’s question. They all responded in the affirmative.

“Jim dear, would you mind helping Andrew in the kitchen.”

Well that was them told.

“I am not going to say all the clichéd things like ‘do you know what you are doing?’, ‘have you thought this through?’, you are all too smart for that. What you are trying to make work is tough. Why this? Well other than the obvious of not having to choose between two beautiful women.”

Andrew did a 10 minute recap of the last couple of years, lots of parts glossed over, but the key thing for him was that it came back to Suzanne and Ara approaching him, this was their idea.

“I don’t know why I am surprised when I stop and think about it. You have been, and are, ferociously supportive of the women in your life, hell I saw it at my own wedding. And here I thought your modelling was the most outrageous thing you would do.”

And with that he dropped it. Baron Barnes, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, Andrew’s friend, mentor and surrogate father Jim Barnes, just shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

“This term seems to have been really hectic, tell me about Selection.”

Andrew did another quick summary of the four days.

“Do you think your finger impacted your performance?”

“It did a little on the obstacle course but they are looking for determination, overcoming adversity, sucking it up and moving on, so in that sense it demonstrated some of that. I think it was Rollie told me on his course one of the guys broke his ankle and so couldn’t carry on. This was trivial compared to that, particularly as it was my own stupid fault. So a couple of obstacles were harder but other than that I don’t think it had much of an impact. In fact it was most obvious at the course dinner when I was holding my fork.”

“When do you find out?”

“The letter should be here waiting for me when I get back.”

“Where are you off to?”

The three ladies joined them before Andrew could answer.

“We are doing the grand tour, telling the families. My grandfather in York, Andrew’s grandmother and Suze’s parents in Edinburgh, and in amongst all that Suze has her graduation next Monday. We told you first.”

The implications of that statement hung in the air. Freya’s smile was proud but at the same time sad.

“When do you graduate Andrew?”

“A week on Thursday, the 25^th.”

“Are Arabella and Suzanne going to be there?”

“No, I am just going up myself.”

“Why?”

“We haven’t figured out how to, I don’t know what the right way to say this is, present ourselves maybe, to the outside world. To our friends and family we are going to be open and truthful, discreet but truthful. I don’t want to have to lie to people that we are going to tell the truth to later and I don’t want to tell the truth to a few people when there are lots of others around. It is going to be the same thing at Suzanne’s graduation. She will be there with her parents.”

Ara chimed in.

“Think about it in the context of tonight, you are as close to Andrew as anyone and we struggled to explain to you how we are living our lives without embarrassing either of us. In a year I am not sure this would be an issue, but we are all worried it is going to overshadow Andrew’s day. Plus, to be honest, we all know graduation ceremonies can be pretty dull. Mind you that won’t stop me expecting the two of them to be at mine in December.”

They laughed if only because they all knew it was true. Andrew was plating the dinner when Jim looked over at him.

“No one is going to be at your graduation?”

He shook his head.

“What about Freya and I?”

Andrew nearly dropped the plate he was holding.

“I thought about it a while ago, but pretending to ignore all the deeper reasons, it is on a Thursday and I didn’t think either of you could get away.”

That it was on a Thursday had nothing to do with it and they all knew it.

“Is it too late to get tickets?”

“Er, I have no idea. I can call first thing in the morning.”

“Assuming you can get tickets what is the plan for the day?”

“I was going to get an early train to Cambridge, have breakfast at the College, collect my robes, all that sort of thing. Then we march through the streets to the Senate House for the ceremony. Trinity is second up, so mid-morning, before lunch anyway. Then it is back to the College for a lunch reception. I figured I would be done by 3.00 and would get the train back.”

“Okay. Assuming you can get tickets, leave a message with the time we need to be seated for the ceremony. We will time our train accordingly and then come back with you in the afternoon. Then we would like to take the three of you to the Club as our guests for dinner.”

The dinner that night was not anything fancy, but it was relaxed and all three of them basked in Jim and Freya’s acceptance of their situation. The coming week was going to be full of moments like that and it was good that the first one had gone so well. After dinner Freya opened the door out onto the little courtyard and stepped out into the space. Andrew was all but pushed through the door by Suzanne and Ara. Subtle they were not.

“Come and sit with me for a moment Andrew.”

She patted the seat beside her.

“Is this what you want?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Are you sure?”

Freya was pushing hard.

“Yes, but tell me why you are being so questioning?”

“I am worried that this is not what you want. I think that Arabella and Suzanne are getting much more out of this relationship than you are.”

“Materially maybe, but everything else I think is much more even.”

“Explain yourself please. Make me understand.”

“There is a lot about me that is difficult for someone to deal with. I am secretive by nature, have difficulty slowing down, doing nothing. And I have some obsessive or compulsive behaviours. Who better to be with than two of the three women who know me better than anyone. They know about the degrees, they know about the modelling, they know about my nature, they have joined the dots as to my career and have just accepted it and moved on. And I have known them for more than a third of my life already. So sure, they get to live in Mayfair and accept positions where money is not an issue. But they are passionate and determined to make their mark on the world. They want to be treated equally by the people they work with, the people they meet. Not better just equally.

“I have talked about making a difference far too much, but it is part of me now. I can’t stop the way I think, the way I want to act. And so on a personal level I want to make a difference with, and for, Ara and Suzanne. I can do nothing but try and level the playing field for them. What they do with it is up to them. The change in me since the Easter break when we acknowledged our feelings is amazing. This was my house, now it is our home. Three months ago I was debating renting the place out again and now it seems so ridiculous. And the three of us want to start living our lives, individually and collectively. I am a slave to routine, you know that, but all three of us are to an extent. I think you have to be to do well at university. So there you go, that is how I feel?”

Freya smiled.

“I was pretty sure that was how you felt but I wanted you to be sure yourself, to be able to explain it, not just to me but to the others over the next week. Jim and I are going to head home soon and they will tell you what I said to them, asked them, but I will tell you this. I asked them if they had considered that it would take two of them to deal with you.”

With a kiss on the cheek Freya stood and went back into the house. Andrew sat there stunned for a moment. It took both Suzanne and Ara to deal with him? Freya was already organising Jim to go but the way she hugged both Ara and Suzanne left them in no doubt about her opinion. She might have asked some awkward questions but she was happy for Andrew, for them all. The three of them slumped down in their seats in the living room once her and Jim were gone.

“Only three more of these to go.”

Suzanne’s comment resulted in laughter that was more nervous than heartfelt.

“Okay then, let’s share stories. Andrew, what did Jim say?”

“His final comment was that I had always been ferociously supportive of women so this didn’t surprise him and that he had thought my modelling was going to be the most outrageous thing I ever did. Then he shrugged his shoulders and we chatted about Selection and the last three months generally.”

“That was it?”

Andrew nodded.

“I am guessing from my conversation with Freya that the two of you got a lot more.”

Ara looked at Suzanne and indicated she should start.

“She pushed us hard, made us explain what was happening. From what I saw I think the most important thing was how we felt about you. She was pretty blunt a couple of times, she all but called us gold-diggers at one point. She was, perhaps the best way to describe it is she was acting mean rather than being mean. But she also asked about the two of us, was this really what we wanted. You have seen how Nikki and Fran have to live their life, the sense of living their life in the shadows. We were announcing to the world that we were living a very unconventional life. Had we thought about the impact on our children? It was tough at times but motherly at the end. What did she say to you?”

“A variation of the same thing. She told me that she thought that the two of you were getting more out of this relationship than me.”

Andrew recapped his conversation with her.

“Did she really ask you whether it takes two of you to deal with me?”