Chapter 22: Homeward Bound

The trip back home took a lot longer than the trip to Hawaii. Adding to their woes, their plane had been delayed and they arrived at home two hours late. They had gotten used to Hawaiian time and the time change was unsettling. In Hawaii, it was only eleven, but here it was one in the morning. It was extremely cold and, with the overcast sky, it was very dark when they stepped out of the airport.

Andrew pushed the cart loaded with luggage out to long term parking. His car was parked way the hell in the back. The temperature was only in the low forties, but the wind was up around twenty miles per hour. The trio trudged along through the dark parking lot feeling cold, tired, and hungry.

Cat and Raven were well past the point of getting irritable. In fact, they were downright surly. The food on the plane had been indigestible with the result that they had upset colons on top of being hungry. In addition, the foul air aboard the plane had given them headaches. Andrew had not eaten so his digestive track wasn't upset, but he was famished.

They finally reached the car and loaded the bags into the trunk of the car. Rather than returning the cart to get the dollar deposit back, they left it there in the parking lot. It was just too far to go to take it back just to get one measly dollar. It wasn't the only cart left out there. They decided that there was probably some guy who went around collecting carts from the parking lot to get the dollar deposit.

They were almost home when Andrew spotted a fast food place that advertised that it was open twenty-four hours. Without even discussing the matter, he pulled into the drive-thru. The woman expressed their thanks at getting some food, even fast food. They super-sized three burger meals and drove off eating French fries.

Ten minutes later, they pulled into the driveway. Andrew parked the car. He turned off the engine and slumped down in his seat. He was tired.

He said, "I'll unload the car tomorrow."

"That's a good plan," Raven said not wanting to go through the hassle of dealing with her luggage.

Cat said, "Let's get in the house and eat. I'm starving."

"That's a good plan," Raven said wanting to fill her stomach.

"I'm going to go bed right after I finish eating," Andrew said.

"That's a good plan," Raven said feeling tired.

Cat asked, "Is that all you can say?"

"No," Raven said, but she was too tired to say much more than that.

After fumbling with his keys, Andrew got the front door unlocked. He went into the house followed by Cat and Raven. Cat was carrying the large bag with burgers. They went directly to the kitchen and demolished the burgers. They didn't talk at all.

Andrew went to bed and slept the night through. He woke that morning and went into the kitchen. Raven was there looking through the refrigerator shaking her head. There was absolutely nothing in the house to eat. Someone, she figured it must have been Sue Ellen, had cleared out the perishables from the refrigerator to keep it from spoiling.

"What's for breakfast?"

"Nothing. There's nothing in the fridge."

Andrew said, "We have to go out for breakfast and then grocery shopping."

Raven thought about how Amber took care of all of those little details while she was there. The refrigerator was always full of food, meals were on the table when it was time to eat, and the kitchen was always immaculate. She wished Amber was here to teach her how to be such a good housewife.

Raven said, "I'll take care of the shopping. You and Cat can relax today."

"I'm going into the office today and talk to Ken. He arrived last week and I wasn't here," Andrew said.

"I'll get dressed," Raven said.

Cat came stumbling out, wiping the sleep from her eyes, and asked, "What's for breakfast?"

"We're going out for breakfast," Raven answered.

Cat whined, "Oh God. I just want to sit here. Can't you just fix something?"

"We're out of food," Raven said.

"I didn't think of that," Cat said. "I'll get dressed and we can go."

It was a slow moving crowd that left the house. They went to a nearby place that served breakfast. Fortunately, the waitress delivered coffee before they had a chance to order their meals. The coffee helped get the blood moving and forced them awake. They ordered and polished off the first cup of coffee. Almost as soon as the empty cups hit the table, the waitress refilled their cups without asking. With a good solid breakfast in their stomachs, their mood improved.

After finishing his breakfast, Andrew said, "I've always heard that you need a vacation to get over a vacation, but I didn't believe it."

"This was my first real vacation," Raven said.

"Mine, too," Andrew said.

Outside of that short period of time after making the sale of his packaging concept, Andrew hadn't ever taken time off of work. Upon getting his first job out of college, he didn't have any vacation time for a year. After working for a couple of years, it seemed that he was always too busy to take time off of work. Even with his own business, he worked hard at developing the game although he didn't do the late nights and weekends that were common on his old job.

Thinking back over the past two weeks, Raven said, "I really had a good time in Hawaii."

"Me, too," Cat said.

"Same here," Andrew said. "Maybe we ought to go somewhere else sometime."

"That would be nice," Cat said.

Raven was taking a sip of her coffee and didn't answer. The fact was that she didn't want to voice an opinion about the matter. To her, the whole vacation had been like a dream and she didn't want anything to spoil the dream. Even the weary trip back had the effect of making the vacation seem even more dreamlike to her.

Andrew said, "Let's get to the house, let me unload the car, and get to work."

"Okay," Raven said.

Andrew paid for breakfast. They were walking to the car when his cell phone rang. He answered it to find that it was Dave. They talked for a bit and then Andrew hung up.

"There's been a change in plan," Andrew said.

"What?"

Andrew said, "We go to the doctors, get our blood tests, and then go home."

"I forgot about blood tests," Cat said tiredly.

She had been hoping to catch a little more sleep. She still hadn't gotten over the plane trip of the previous day.

Andrew said, "Let's get in the car."

It was a short trip to the doctor's office. In fact, it was located about halfway between Andrew's home and his office. He had selected that doctor primarily because of the location. He figured with everyone getting monthly blood tests, there wasn't a good reason to have to travel far.

The three of them sat in the waiting room of the doctors office waiting to be called for blood tests. Like doctor's offices everywhere, it seemed as if all of the magazines were at least six months old. They each picked up a magazine and leafed through it, none of them spending any time actually reading the articles.

The door to the patient examination area opened and Eve stepped out. She froze upon seeing Andrew, Cat, and Raven sitting there. They looked up at her. Andrew looked disappointed. Cat looked angry. Raven was sadly shaking her head.

Eve stood there for a couple of seconds without saying a word. Finally, she said, "I really am sorry. I didn't know you could get Syphilis from oral sex. I made him wear a rubber for everything else."

"You can," Cat said.

"I'm very sorry."

Cat said, "You can get a lot of deadly diseases if you aren't careful."

Taking the high road, Andrew said, "You're forgiven."

"Can I come back?" Eve asked.

There was forgiving and there was forgetting. He was willing to forgive, but not forget. Andrew felt that she had endangered their lives. Who knows what diseases she could have come home with her.

He answered, "No. You lied to us. When we asked if you had sex with anyone in Aspen you told us no. You denied it the whole time until you learned you had Syphilis."

"I'm sorry," Eve said.

"Like I said before, you're forgiven," Andrew said.

She looked at Cat seeking some sign of forgiveness. The young Hispanic woman had her arms crossed tightly below her breasts. Her legs were crossed and one leg was swinging out and back. With a tight face, she pointedly looked up at Eve and then looked away.

Eve's attention turned to Raven. The dark haired beauty looked back at her without showing any expression. Her face was a blank.

"It was nice to see you all," Eve said and then fled from the doctor's office.

Cat muttered, "Bitch."

"Idiot," Raven muttered.

The nurse came out and called Andrew for his blood test. He went into the patient examination area.

Cat turned to Raven and said, "I thought we were friends, but friends don't do that to you."

As a result of their work, Cat and Eve had sex with each other nearly every day. Even though they were doing it for pay, Cat felt that there was an emotional connection as a result of the intimacy of the act. There had to be some level of trust between them. She felt betrayed.

"She had a good thing and blew it," Raven said.

She felt that Eve was getting far more out of the job than she was putting into it. Eve had been given shelter away from a domineering father who was trying to control every facet of her life. She had been given a lot of money with which she could have maintained that independence. Having lived under the control of a dominating man, Raven understood just how much Eve had been given.

So far the project had been pretty good for the women participating in it. Amber had put away a ton of money while working for the project. Although she didn't really know Bambi all that well, she knew that Bambi was close to achieving her dream. Cat had paid off her debts and was saving money to start her own business. For herself, she was being sheltered from her abusive ex husband.

Cat said, "You have a good thing and you're blowing it."

Raven knew that Cat was getting tired of her continued avoidance of sex with Andrew. She knew that the investor would probably give up on her soon and throw her out the door, particularly with Cat having to be the sole actress participating actively in the video. She hadn't saved up enough money to set up a new life.

"I know," Raven said.

The day of reckoning was coming. It was approaching that point of put out or get out. She knew it, Cat knew it, and she suspected that Andrew knew it. She was willing to have sex, but she was afraid. Was it really as pleasing as Cat had made it appear or was Cat a very good actress? She suspected that it was the former, but she was terrified that it was the later.

"So when are you going to do something?" Cat asked pointedly.

Raven answered, "I don't know. I'm terrified of it."

Cat said, "You're going to have to face your fears soon."

"I know," Raven said.

Andrew came out and the nurse called Cat. He sat down next to Raven.

Raven said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Andrew asked blankly.

He wasn't aware that Raven had done anything that required an apology.

"I guess I should start participating more in the project," Raven said.

"You're participating in a way. You do a pretty cool job with that body painting."

Cheering up a little, Raven said, "I like doing it. I feel like a real artist."

"You are an artist. That snake that you did with Gift was amazing. I swear that it looked like it was alive," Andrew said.

"Can I ask you something?" Raven asked.

"Sure."

Raven said, "You would occasionally send me away when doing a scene with Amber. Why?"

"We would occasionally do a role play that was a little rough. Amber enjoyed it a little rough at times. To tell the truth, I enjoyed what we were doing too. We knew that you didn't like it and wouldn't like seeing it, so we would send you away."

"Rough?" Raven asked.

She had never seen any bruises on Amber. Amber never seemed to move like she had been hurt.

Andrew said, "It wasn't physically rough. I'd say it was more degrading than rough. I'd talk nasty to her, rub my cock over her face, and have ... energetic oral sex with her. We always talked about what we would do before we did anything. We set up limits and I respected those limits. It was just role play and she knew it."

"Oh," Raven said with a worried frown.

"I don't do that with Cat and I wouldn't do anything like it with you. Amber had some issues that she was working through using scenes like that. It was mutually beneficial," Andrew said.

Raven said, "I'm going to have to think about it."

Cat came out and Raven was called in. Andrew sat there thinking about Raven and her future with the project. He felt sorry for her. She had arrived bruised from the beating her ex husband had given her. The few stories she told about her previous sex life were horrible. Any man who would do that to a woman deserved to be in jail. Still, she had signed on to participate in the video project and, so far, she hadn't. He was willing to give her another couple of weeks. That would put her there for almost three months.

Cat asked, "How much longer will Raven be on the project?"

"I don't know," Andrew answered honestly.

Tired of being the only one servicing him, Cat said, "Tell Dave that we need another woman."

"I will," Andrew said.

Nothing more was said about the matter. Once Raven returned, Andrew took them home, unloaded the luggage from the back of the car, and went to work. The women unpacked their bags and then went grocery shopping. Cat had to drive since Raven still didn't have a car.

Ken Davenport was waiting patiently for Andrew in the reception area of the office. Although he had his own office, he didn't want to miss greeting Andrew when he arrived back from his vacation. He felt that he owed Andrew a lot for having offered him this job. Others who were going through physical therapy with him didn't have a job waiting for them. Not only were they depressed about their injuries, but they were scared for the future. Many of them wondered if they would join the nameless homeless vets living on the streets. He hadn't had to worry about that.

When Andrew walked in the office, Ken said, "Hello, Mr. King."

"Hi, Ken. I've told you a dozen times to call me Andrew."

"Sure thing," Ken said with a smile.

Sue Ellen winked at him. She understood how he felt having watched Dave go through physical therapy with other wounded vets. She knew the psychological boost that having a job meant for the men in that situation. She wondered why more employers didn't try to recruit the talent that was being wasted in the veteran's hospitals.