Chapter 2: Ruby

After a tough week of exams, and studying, Julian and Larissa gave themselves a night off, and went out for dinner on Friday night, at the house of the guy who hosted that party. It was the first of three big nights for them – dinner party tonight, the party at their family house the next night, and then they were thrilled to be invited to Dave and Kat’s place for dinner on the Sunday night.

She’d worked that day, another half day of training and then half the day on the road with Ruth. No disasters that day, just lots of rewarding animal rescue, and Ruth had let her take the lead on cleaning up a dog wounded in a fight, so Larissa felt great that night, though she was a little late after a messy last call.

There were twelve people there for dinner, and they were mostly seated by the time Julian and Larissa arrived. Larissa recognised the faces, vaguely, they’d all been there for that party. The host graciously welcomed them and introduced them around the table. The last couple he introduced was a very good looking one, Taman and Ruby. Immediately Larissa knew: he was Asha’s brother. She shot a glance at Julian, and yeah, he knew too. She could see the family likeness, but they were clearly cut from a different cloth; Taman was a good-looking guy, dressed to make the most of it, someone she would’ve done her best to get with last year. And Ruby was a good match, beautiful and dressed to make the most of her assets. Honestly, dressed like that, no male would talk to her face. And they were sitting opposite them, Larissa realised. “Well, this will be interesting,” she said to herself. She hadn’t thought that they might run into him again, but she probably should have realised he might be there at the dinner. Well, she had all night, so no hurry.

The food was very nice, though all they could drink was water, but she was used to that; it was lovely that Julian supported her in that. The company was good; the host was skilled and kept conversation moving along, and let it break up when that was OK, and skilfully pulled it back to a single group on a regular basis. They talked about the party, obviously, and about current events, and politics, and the way the women’s rights issue was undermining Scott Morrison, and the weather, and the football. Though it all, she paid close attention to Taman and Ruby. Yeah, no surprises, really, Taman was all bloke, and not in a good way, and Ruby was a bimbo. All bimbo, in fact, and Larissa was trying to figure out how much of a role it was, or whether it was real. And knowing that Taman had seen the video of them: she didn’t like the way he was looking at her. As Asha said, a pig.

The subject drifted from football onto strength, and some of the guys around the table got to measuring their dick size. Well, at least, their shoulder strength – how much could they deadlift and so forth. Taman was right into that and preening like a rooster. Julian, of course, had no part of that, and she spotted Taman giving him the once over at one stage. She laughed to herself. Julian would wipe the floor with him if it came to it – she’d seen him in action at a competition. It did give her comfort, that she was with the most dangerous guy in the room if it ever mattered.

Suddenly, Taman was talking about his sister, and how she’d fallen in with a bad crowd, and was being corrupted by their bad morals. Shaking his head, he said that she’d been a good girl until now, but suddenly she was sleeping with this guy, and she was just a kid. Larissa was listening to it in amazement – he was weird, and stupid, and at first, she was going to sit the conversation out, like Julian had on the strength one, but then she decided to give him some rope.

“So, she shouldn’t be sleeping with a guy until she’s married, is that what you’re saying?”

Yeah, it was, that was clear. “She won’t get no respect if she gives it up,” he said. Larissa was surprised – not a lot going on up in this head for sure, but maybe she should have known.

“Oh, yes, that’d be awful,” she said, “imagine a girl sleeping with a guy before she marries him.” Yeah, she heard some quiet giggles on that one. “What else have they done to corrupt her morals?”

Well, actually, he didn’t know of anything else. “But she’s my sister, man. I’m going to have to talk to her.” Larissa almost laughed aloud at that. She’d love to see him try that. But she let it go; he’d done enough to disgrace himself, she figured. But what did Ruby think of that? No way to tell; she hadn’t appeared to have any opinion other than agreeing with everything Taman said.

A few minutes later, Ruby got up to go to the toilet, and Julian poked Larissa. Then he stood up and took Ruby’s seat, so that he could talk to the guy next to Taman. Game on, she knew. When Ruby came back and found her seat taken, Larissa offered her Julian’s seat.

For a few minutes, she asked Ruby about herself. Yeah, Ruby was keen to actually talk. She was a student at another Uni, doing occupational therapy. And no bimbo, when Larissa dug into that. She had a happy family and claimed to get on well with them – she loved her sisters, and their dog. So what was she doing here, bimbo-ing for Taman? Larissa asked her about what she thought about the women’s rights issue they’d talked about before. Ruby shot a guarded look at Taman and saw that he was involved in the discussion with Julian, and then proceeded to lay out a fairly strong endorsement of the woman’s rights marches, which she’d taken part in.

Then Larissa said, “So, what Taman was saying about his sister. He said that no one would respect if she gave it up, right?” Ruby nodded. “So ... I was wondering, does he respect you?” Yeah, that one hit Ruby, she saw, and not in a nice way. She gave Ruby a sad smile. “Have you met any of his family?” Hell no, Larissa saw, even though he still lived there, so she continued, “I happen to know Asha; she’s being very careful, working really hard to have her own life without blowing up her family. But her Dad, and Taman ... they don’t care about her, or respect her, cause she’s a girl. So, can I ask, why are you with him?”

“Well, he’s damn good in bed.” But the look in her eyes said something else, and Larissa knew that she’d said that as a defence.

“Ah, well, that’s the thing!” She smiled at Ruby. “Julian does it for me. Without that ... Hah! But if you ever want to talk to me about how you feel, I’m here.” Then she led the conversation way from subject, and they talked about Ruby’s dog, and then Larissa told her a couple of the easier stories from being a rescue vet helper.

A few minutes later, the dinner party broke up, and the host put some music on, for dancing, if anyone wanted. Taman asked Ruby to dance, and off they went. Yeah, Taman had the moves, no doubt about it. And so did Ruby – really very good. Then she realised that the host was looking at her. Oh, so that’s what it was – they wanted a repeat session of dancing in her underwear. Nah, under these conditions, not at all. But she could dance, and Julian did it with her, holding her tight. No underwear, no, but she could make out with him as they danced, and she did. How far could she go without getting her clothes off? Let them have another kind of show. Though no way they were going to the lawn this time – she was sure now that some were waiting for that.

They did that for a while, with breaks to talk to other guests. One of the other girls asked her about the underwear thing, and hinted she’d be up for it. “You turn, then,” Larissa said, but they didn’t.

Eventually they decided they’d had enough of what increasingly felt like a trap and said their good nights. Suddenly, Ruby was there as they were leaving. “Can you give me a ride?” she said.

“Well, of course,” Julian said.

They were out the front door when Taman called out from the behind them, “Hey, Ruby, where are you going?”

“I’m getting a ride from Larissa, thanks. Goodnight!”

Nah, Taman didn’t like that at all. “No, you’re with me, so you leave with me. If you wanted to leave, just tell me!”

“Thanks, but no, I’m leaving with Larissa.” Yeah, he really, really didn’t like that. “Go hit a club and find another sucker,” Ruby said. “I’m done with you.”

No, Taman wasn’t OK with that. He walked up to Ruby, visibly angry, and went to grab her and drag her off, Larissa could see. Suddenly, Julian was holding his wrist. “You’ll leave Ruby alone,” Julian said quietly.

Taman tested Julian’s strength as he said, “Who are you, that you’re going to stop me?!”

“I’m a black belt and I say you never lay a hand on any woman.”

That, and the test of strength that Taman clearly lost, was enough, and Taman wilted in front of them. Yes, he was sure done with Ruby now, he could see, so he walked off without another word.

Julian and Larissa took Ruby to a nearby café, and she couldn’t thank them enough. She was super impressed with what Julian had done, but he shrugged. Facing down a vain, weak bully – nothing. Walking out on a guy the way she did, that was guts. That opened Ruby up, and her story was just more of the same, disrespected by the all the guys around her. And her father. Larissa took her in her arms, and they had a deep and meaningful, and Julian was as much part of this as she was. She smiled at him – he’d come a long way. The outcome? Ruby was going to sign up for Taekwondo at her uni, stop dating for a while, cut back her drinking, and build better actual relationships with her sisters and flatmates. And one more thing: she was going to drop by their family’s home the next evening for a while, to meet their family, and to talk to Asha’s parents, since they’d be there. Taman wouldn’t be, of course, though he’d been invited.

The next night, there were lots of people at their family home, testing the Covid limits. Julian’s grandparents were there, she was meeting them for the first time. Some families that were friends from church. Not her mum, though she’d been invited; too far for her to come, she said. And Asha’s family, except for Taman. Asha’s dad was named Bam; he looked a little uncomfortable, but he was there, which was good. Mega was just as cute as Asha said, and wanted to hold her Lissa’s other hand. Why ‘other hand’? Because once visitors started arriving, Julian had stood her in the kitchen with the whole family watching, and handfasted them with their red silk tie. So that was how they did the evening, handfasted together, to everyone’s entertainment.

Julian’s grandparents were really lovely, and excited to meet her, and they had a great chat; they said they really liked the handfasting thing; oh to be young again, Sophie’s mum said. She let Julian introduce her to the other families from church – his parent’s friends. She didn’t know them, but that was fine, and they had kids the same age as some of Asha’s siblings, so that was working out. They played a game with a group of the kids, aged eight to fourteen or so, and they all wanted to know about the handfasting thing, and whether they even did that when they went to the toilet – yuck! Larissa laughed, and said, of course, but not for the smelly stuff.

Then Ruby turned up and gave them a hug at the door. She loved the handfasting thing, once they’d explained, and then they introduced her to their family. This bit they’d talked about beforehand, and Ruby got solid respectful hugs from the guys. Yeah, Ruby knew that was a setup, she could see; she’d told Ruby about her honorary dads thing the night before, and Ruby held onto them for longer than she usually would, soaking it up. Then she told Asha who Ruby was, and they talked while Asha held Larissa tight for support. When Larissa told Asha that Ruby was done with Taman, and that part of the reason Ruby was here was to talk to her parents, Asha realised what was going on, and said she’d do the introductions, thank you very much. She could see Asha was going to enjoy that.

They went back to talking the other guests, and watched Asha walk Ruby and her parents down the back of the house. Sometime later, they came back to the room, and straight up to Larissa and Julian. Ruby was first and wanted to know if she was welcome to stay, this was great. Of course, so she went off to talk to James and Sophie. Kemala wanted to thank Larissa and gave her a big hug. “We’ll talk about it later”, she said. And Bam, he wanted to know: had Julian really faced Taman down? Sure, and he even got to test out Julian’s strength the same way. Yep, he nodded, and thanked Julian. Then he told Larissa: my boy is going to grow up and learn to behave properly; I’m sorry. Finally, Asha, who just wanted to hold Larissa and Julian tight in gratitude, and then she figured out how she could slide in between the two of them while they were tied together, and she spent a while doing that, like they were all tied together, as they talked to people.

After a few minutes like that, she turned to Larissa with a smile and said, “Actually, what I’d really like, if it’s OK with you, can you take the tie off, and Larissa, can you tie Jaiden and I together the same way now?” So, in the middle of the room, with everyone watching, Larissa knelt down in front of Jaiden and Asha, and tied their hands together. She knew what this meant, where this was going, and smiled at them. Asha gave her a matching smile. Yeah. She stood and hugged both of them, and then gave both of them a serious kiss.

Asha towed the two of them over to James and Sophie for hugs and kisses, and then they went and talked to Bam and Kemala for a while, and for hugs and kisses. Bam, even. Larissa watched that with a smile, while they talked to Ruby, who’d decided that she could do what Asha had just been doing, and squeeze in between them, even if they weren’t still handfasted. “I’m so glad I came tonight,” she told them. “I’m going to turn my life around. I can’t thank you enough for saving me from Taman. Talking to his parents tonight, and saying it all, it was like the kiss of death for the old me, I can’t be that person anymore.” They held her tight and wished her the best, and then Ruby decided to talk to Steph and Xander, so she knew all the sisters.

A few minutes later, Larissa could see that Steph was blowing Ruby’s mind. No doubt they were talking about birth plans. She laughed to herself. By then it was ten o’clock, and the friends from church said their good-byes. But not their grand-parents, or Asha’s family, who didn’t look like they were going anywhere yet.

Suddenly, Jaiden and Asha were standing out the middle of the room, and everyone was in the room, even Asha’s siblings, who’d mostly been down the back playing Xbox. Jaiden called for all their attention. Once he had it, he spoke to them all.

“Tonight, we are here to celebrate Julian and Larissa getting engaged. And we both love Julian and Larissa, and we’re so happy that they’ve gotten engaged. But we just wanted to steal a bit of their night, just like we stole their silk tie”, and he held their hands up, and everyone laughed. “So, tonight is a special night for both of us. We’re going to make love tonight, and it’s the first time for both of us. We wanted you to know that, and to listen to what we have to say to each other about it.”