Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 90: Family Matters
Sunday, February 2, 1986
This was the quietest day in some time. We went to church, did some chores around the house, talked to friends and family on the phone, and generally hung out.
The only really important thing was planning our trip to Houston for Valentine’s Day. We would drive down on Valentine’s Day itself, visit with jewelers on Saturday, and come back on Sunday. We would stay at Mom and Dad’s on the 15th, thus sidestepping the question of whether we were going to have sex there. We were going to have sex on Valentine’s Day, so the Nguyens’ house made much more sense.
Jas, Angie, Paige, and I planned to have dinner at Brennerman’s. We hadn’t been there in quite a while, and it would be a pretty nice setting for Valentine’s Day dinner. Nothing said we couldn’t all be each other’s Valentines, and a lot of things said we could.
Besides, that gave Cammie and Mel the house to themselves for their Valentine’s celebration. Candice and Sherry would be here, but in their apartment behind their locked door, so they really didn’t count.
I checked with Darla in the afternoon. She was doing great, was happy to hear from me, and jumped at my offer of a casual lunch date tomorrow. We would see Amy, but they were friends now and I couldn’t imagine anything bad coming from something that had, at one point, given me at least a bit of trepidation.
Candice and Sherry joined us for dinner tonight, as they often did on Sundays (and seldom on any other days). Thus, we missed the evening news and just put CNN Headline News on once they’d gone downstairs.
It took almost an hour for a thirty-second segment to come up featuring Christa McAuliffe waving briefly to the camera from orbit. I had tears in my eyes within seconds, and a glance confirmed that Angie was just as emotional. The others weren’t, but there were some high-fives and cheers. And some tears as well, but they had never felt the loss we had.
We had done it. The gamble had paid off. Seven people were alive and in orbit today who ‘should,’ perhaps, have died days ago.
Another ripple. Or, really, a large number of ripples going in many directions and at cross purposes. We would see some of them appear from time to time — I hoped to see one in a few months in Houston — but many of them would never be visible to us. They would be out there, though, changing this world from the path Angie, Laura, and I had known.
We would never truly know if it was ‘worth it.’ Not really. Anyone who saves lives must be prepared for at least the possibility that saving that life would result in something being worse down the road.
For the moment, though, it was amazing to just look up and think of seven lives not interrupted, and seven families jubilant rather than grieving, because I’d picked up a phone and spent a short call convincing one person to change one thing.
Monday, February 3, 1986
Dodging through rain, and the occasional burst of thunder and lightning, I got to Hullabaloo Cafe early enough that I could say hello to Amy, wish her well, be happy she hadn’t died, and so forth before Darla arrived. We even snuck a very quick kiss, one Trev noticed and gave a thumbs-up to.
We had no plans yet this week, but I imagined we would do something. How much something was unknown, but next weekend was out, so ... who knew? Maybe Darla and Amy would alternate weeks? It wasn’t impossible, certainly.
Darla arrived about five minutes later. We hugged and kissed, ordered, then settled down at a table.
“Before you say anything,” Darla said, “I had a wonderful time, and I have no regrets.”
“Very glad of that!” I said.
“A ... concern ... though.”
“Oh?”
“It’s ... we ... probably shouldn’t...”
She sighed, took a deep breath, shook her head just a bit, then said, “We should probably watch out for things like sleeping together too often.”
“I was planning to mention that today,” I said.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“So it wasn’t just me!” she said.
“It wasn’t. Jas and I talked. We...”
“Let me say something first, okay?”
“Happy to,” I said.
She took a deep breath, then said, “I ... really ... I love you ... Steve. Also Mister Wolf, but here, it’s you. And ... somehow I feel like I’m closer to that with Jasmine than I could have imagined. I ... don’t know? But I think so.”
I said, “I love you, Darla Winton. And Little Red. I ... we ... have to let you go, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. And, surprisingly or not, that’s also close to something we talked about. Jas is ... where you are, I think. Closer than she expected.”
“She and I need to talk,” Darla said. “Good stuff, but ... yeah. Stuff has changed. If my wolf, my Mister Right, wants to ... like ... well. Obviously, some things I thought wouldn’t work could work, sometimes.”
“I’m sure the two of you will talk. You do that.”
“We do!” she said. Then she sighed deeply and continued, saying, “The thought of letting go is scary, but ... I trust you. And ... we’re both right. I ... it’s easy to daydream about ... this, right now. You and Jas. I could do that, maybe. But ... I want ... the whole thing, with my own man. My own wolf. I really do.”
“And we want you to have all of that,” I said. “It’s sweet of you thinking of doing this with us, but it would be unfair to ask it of you. For one thing, your mother would never understand, and that matters.”
“It does,” she said, sighing again. “I’m not living my life for her, but ... yeah. I want a man I can bring home and have her understand. There’s a lot mixed up in that. And ... I know I’m almost as much in ‘infatuation’ as real love right now. I feel like we might crumble in a few years when the longing to be with my guy overwhelms me, and the thought of us ending up in a crumbling used-to-be-great-but-now-sucks relationship is just lousy.”
“Awful,” I said, nodding.
Just then, Trev brought the small pizza we were sharing along with our iced teas. We thanked him, and he gave us each a mock salute, then headed off.
Darla took a bite of pizza, swallowed, then said, “Being clear: we’re not done. Not you and me, not the three of us. Jas and I ... I think that only works if you’re there. I’m considering the idea that I’m wrong there, but ... eh.”
“It certainly doesn’t have to work without me there,” I said, after nibbling a bit.
We kept eating slowly as we talked.
“And it’s probably better if we don’t test it,” she said, nodding. “But we’re not done. There are things I really, really, really want to do with you that we just haven’t. And ... things with Jas, now, I think. Which embarrasses me a lot. But, we’re clear — I get turned on when I’m embarrassed.”
She blew out a breath, then said, “Anyway! I just ... we have to start drawing some lines, or we will get hurt. Or more than we should have to.”
“I agree.”
“So ... maybe not every week, and not sleeping together even that often?”
“Those both seem reasonable,” I said.
“Again ... part of me seriously wants to just say ‘To hell with it’ and offer myself as a third wheel to both of you. I feel like ... like I could be seriously happy doing that. Maybe forever. But I really ... well. I want to seriously look for my own guy, which means I have to stop. This semester, or so, like we said. If absolutely nothing works, and I can’t find a guy who works for me — I have some damn high standards now! — then we can rethink it if you two are still where it might work.”
“That makes a lot of sense.”
She sighed again, smiling, and said, “There’s so much that’s invaluable about what we’ve done so far, Steve, but the biggest — the truly indispensable thing — is that I know what I need. I need to be a full partner outside of the bedroom and ... a very junior partner in the bedroom. Utterly respected in either place, but that respect is just different when it’s ... not just sex, but anything that’s ... couple time, maybe. Even, maybe, when we’re at home just having dinner. The idea of my guy saying, ‘Clothes off when you get home’ if he wants is ... I want a relationship where he can say that and I’ll be happy to oblige. He might not, but it’s being able to — no hesitation, no worries about anything beyond maybe some discussion with grandmother — that matters.”
“I get it,” I said. “That really is a big step, Darla. I agree, completely. But I also agree: it seems to really be who you are, not just a game we made up to make the chase work.”
“Oh, it is!” she said, smiling. “But it means I just plain can’t settle. The wrong guy, and life could just plain suck. With you, I know every second that you respect me, even when you’re teasing me a lot and I’m being totally naughty. I have to have that. Which means, really, we’re an equal partnership every second of the time, but we agree that sometimes my equal share is handed over to him to do what I want him to do with it. If that makes sense.”
“It makes a ton of sense,” I said. “The Wolf is in charge, but he gets swatted on the nose and told he’s a bad dog if he starts doing things you don’t want him doing.”
“Exactly!” she said, giggling. “And the thing is: I never want to swat him, and he doesn’t want to get swatted. But he shouldn’t be basing what he does on avoiding getting his nose swatted, not if we’re really right. The thing he wants to do should be close enough to what I want him to do that we’re in sync. Oh, ‘communicate, communicate, communicate,’ but still. Obviously, no one can be perfect that way. Sometimes I’ll have to say ‘A bit less of that’ or ‘A bit more of this’ or whatever. But, if we’re talking, it should just come out. Him pulling me naked into his arms and having a heartfelt conversation about where we are in sync and where we’re not would be bliss, I think.”
“He’ll be a very lucky man. What you said before is true in reverse, I think. We could do this and make it work. And love how it works, really. But we can’t do it as long as you want Mister Right, and both of us think you need that, not just want it.”
She sighed and nodded.
“The thing is, I think I don’t. Meaning, I don’t need it. But I want it. A lot. Really ... a whole lot! But ... like I said, I can’t settle. He’s gotta meet some seriously high standards. He doesn’t have to be you, ‘cuz that’s unreasonable and ridiculous, but he has to be up there, all around. Smart, respectful, handsome, loving, kind, sure of himself, adaptable ... all of that.”
“You know the matchmakers are just itching to help,” I said.
She giggled.
“I know! And I’m going to want every bit of help. I really am!”
After a second, she said, “There’s one other thing.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve decided something. Kinda ... big. It took me a lot of thought.”
“I’m very curious,” I said, because I was.
“It’s ... he doesn’t have to, not at all. Not a requirement, and not really a request either. But ... I think I’m where you are. Maybe I always was and just didn’t understand it. If he can’t share, I’m perfectly happy with that. But, if he can, I’m perfectly happy with that, too. I’ve realized that I can share as long as I’m his number one. Just as you and Jasmine are for each other. For my part ... well, for this to work, he has to be able to decide how I’m shared, but that’s ... not the same. Like, he can’t share me with anyone I don’t approve of. The flip side has to be true, too, because that’s this weird part of me that thinks he should just be in charge, but I think I would explode if he was with someone I didn’t approve of.”
“I agree,” I said, nodding. “And you’re right. It’s very big.”
“I really had to think it through. Seriously! It’s ... I actually came to that conclusion while thinking about Jas. If Mister Right wants a threesome, and I like and trust the girl, I’m there, I think. Once I can share that much ... and he can, I guess ... it just became, ‘Okay, Darla. You can share. Now figure out the rules for it that make sense to you.’”
“I guess we’ll see,” I said. “You know me.”
“And, yes, I meant you, too. Guys are harder for me, honestly. You’re definitely not the only one, but I think I would have that same high hurdle for any guy. Really, I would want him to have it. A threesome with another girl is a much lower hurdle. I’m not running off with another girl, and that makes it easier for me. A guy could — perhaps — be a temptation. Obviously, I have to trust him not to run off with another girl, but ... if he’s my Mister Right, his promises are golden. Unless we have that ironclad ‘We are each other’s number one and nothing will change that,’ nothing works, but I think it wouldn’t work even if we had a no-sharing rule. If I can’t trust a promise like that, it doesn’t matter if he says we’re exclusive, because people cheat.”
“I get that, too. That’s the counterintuitive advantage of what Jas and I have. We don’t cheat. We can’t cheat on each other — except, honestly, we could — and we won’t help other people do it, either. If I started talking to a girl about ditching Jas and running off, that’s ‘cheating,’ so we can. And, if I ever do that, someone might as well put me out of my misery, ‘cuz that guy isn’t me anymore.”
She giggled and nodded.
“I see that, and I agree. You’d probably need a lobotomy to do something that mindbogglingly stupid! So would she! And that’s really ... it’s ... if I trust my Mr. Right with my heart, my body, my love, all of that, then I trust him when he says I’m number one and always will be. If I can’t trust any of those, he just can’t fit. The bar is way too high for doubt.”
“Tough, but you’ve got some good matchmakers on your side.”
She grinned.
“I’m seriously worried, really, ‘cuz the bar is so high. But it’s not worth it any other way. I’ll take all of the help I can get!”
We’d finished the pizza, and she said, “I should run. You should, too. So ... let’s skip this weekend. My horniness hates me for saying that, but it’ll be good for me. I know you’re gone Valentine’s weekend, but maybe a Wednesday or Thursday thing? No sleep-over, but maybe ‘sleeping together,’ if I can tempt the Wolf? Either your place, mine, or ... we haven’t actually done it in your car.”
I chuckled and nodded.
“One of those is going to work. I do love you, Darla Winton, and I can’t imagine not seeing you close to Valentine’s. ‘Hearts and flowers’ is allowed, and you deserve some of both. You are...”
“Don’t you say it!”
“A very good little girl.”
“Dammit! I said my horniness was already hating me!” she said, giggling.
“I’m not going to get wolfly about your horniness this week, either,” I said. “Be a good girl and give yourself enough but not too much, though.”
“Great!” she said, sarcastically. “I’ll do that. Sure! Once I figure out what counts.”
“You’re smart. You’ll figure it out.”
She giggled a bit and nodded.
“You said this week?”
“Maybe part of your Valentine’s present will be the Wolf giving you some assignments? If you like that?”
“I ... could definitely like that.”
“He might be a very mean Wolf and up the bar on a few,” I said.
“Such as?”
“Well ... so far he’s mostly let you stick to your dorm room...”
She gulped and turned red.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.