Chapter 37: Millie

“Who are you?”

“I’m Alice.”

“Are you on the project?” Millie asked despite assuming that everyone there was part of the project.

“No. I’m Andrew’s mother.”

Not expecting that answer, Millie stared at Alice trying to think of something to say. Finally, she managed, “This is awkward.”

“You’re about my age, aren’t you?”

“Probably,” Millie said.

Being less than helpful, Cat said, “According to Andrew, Millie gives the best blowjob in the world. You might want to take some lessons from her, Mrs. King.”

Millie looked around like she wanted to crawl into a hole but was unable to locate one nearby. Cats in rocking chair factories tend to have the same expression as she did at that moment.

“I’d have to contest that. Maybe you can visit us sometime. I think it would be fun to let Andrew’s father decide who gives the best blowjob. I have to warn you that Andrew’s father thinks I give the best blowjob in the world.”

“You’ve got to be kidding about inviting Millie to your home,” Scarlet said.

Alice said, “Not at all. I know Al would enjoy a good blowjob a lot. Besides, I’m not afraid of competition.”

Cat said, “You little tramp.”

Rolling her eyes, Alice said, “These kids think they invented sex.”

Millie said, “They may not have invented it, but they took it to a whole new level of casualness.”

“Is it casualness or indifference?” Alice asked.

“That’s hard to say. My daughter treats it like it is no big thing. She says that a blowjob is about the same as a goodnight kiss at the door.”

“How old is your daughter?”

“She’s twenty-seven.”

“Single?”

“Yes. I don’t think she’ll ever get married. She’s not mature enough to get married.”

Scarlet said, “I was shocked the first time my husband suggested that I give him a blowjob. It took more than a year before I ever got over the feeling that I was doing something exceptionally immoral.”

“Were you dating at the time?”

“Yes.”

Cat said, “How can you say my generation is indifferent? Your son is banging women left and right, yet you act like it is just a normal kind of thing.”

Alice said, “My son is a completely different matter. His activities are just the universe balancing things out.”

“What do you mean by that?” Cat asked.

She didn’t have to ask. She was well aware that Alice believed that all young women should desire men like Andrew and that it was out of sheer stupidity that most women ignored men like him. She was asking more for Millie’s sake.

“Karma. Andrew was dumped on by women for years. Now he’s making up for lost time. I say, good for him.”

Cat said, “You’re the weirdest mother I’ve ever met.”

“I don’t really care what you think,” Alice said. “I know exactly what kind of girl you are. You’re the kind who will marry for looks, situation, or money only to discover that being a wife to that kind man is marching on the path to suffering. Just like that ad for the vegetable juice, one day you’ll do the palm flat thing on your forehead and declare, ‘I could have had an Andrew!”

Scarlet giggled. Cat frowned.

Millie said, “I do have to say that after experiencing Andrew for the past few months that I agree with you, Alice. I think a lot of young women are missing out on a good thing by ignoring the nerds.”

“My son is definitely a nerd,” Alice said.

Millie said, “I’d tell my daughter, but she wouldn’t believe it. She’s more interested in how others perceive her man than on how he treats her.”

Scarlet said, “I’ve been guilty of that. I had a neighbor who was married to a geek and I always wondered what she saw in him. I figure now that she sees a loving caring man who will put her ahead of everyone else.”

“That’s my Al,” Alice said.

Driving from the office to the house, Andrew was thinking over all of the news that had been delivered that morning. Cat was leaving, Millie was renegotiating her role, and they were considering adding a man as a guest actor. The most disturbing was the last item. He wasn’t sure how he would feel with another man around. He wasn’t even sure if he could perform. Wouldn’t that be a real kick in the mouth?

His mother visiting the house was causing some problems. Cat was getting irritated that she wasn’t making as much money as she had wanted to earn over the past week. She complained about have lost nearly two thousand dollars because his mother’s presence was putting a halt to the sex activities in the evening hours.

His mother could solve one problem for him. He’d like to know what she thought of that whole cuckhold fantasy that Raven had laid out. The only good thing was that he wasn’t playing the role of cuckhold. That would have been out of the question entirely.

The situation about bringing in a male actor came at a very awkward moment. It was right after Dave had reminded him that the whole purpose of the project was to get Andrew laid. Some how, and he wasn’t quit sure when it happened, he had become convinced that he was actually living out a porno lifestyle. Marrying Raven would eliminate the whole need for the project.

Sue Ellen was also correct in her reminder that at one time he liked the idea of having a male actor or actors on occasion for threesomes. He remembered how excited he was at the thought of making a woman airtight. It was just that as time went by, he had become rather attached to the women and didn’t want to share them with another guy. At the time he and Sue Ellen had talked about it, all of the women were nameless faceless people to him. Now they weren’t.

He was very bothered by Raven’s desire to humiliate a guy. It sounded like some deep seated need on her part. Did it extend to him? What was really behind it? He wasn’t sure of the answers to those questions. All he did know was that her ex had really done a number on her.

Raven was having similar thoughts while driving home from work that evening. She was rather shocked at herself about her desire to watch a guy be humiliated by having to clean up after Andrew. She wasn’t sure of where those feelings were coming from.

She arrived home a few minutes after Andrew. She wondered when it had become home rather than place to hide from her ex. It was strange that the other women in the house were just as much a part of making it a home as having Andrew there. She was going to miss Cat. She had gotten used to having Scarlet around. She was kind of looking forward to integrating Millie into her life.

All this made Raven wonder if she wasn’t just a fucked up woman.

Raven walked into the house discovering that dinner was on the table. It was just a large salad with slices of grilled chicken. She missed cooking dinner for Andrew. She went into the living room to find everyone waiting for her.

Alice said, “I’ve heard that we’re going shopping.”

“That’s right. I figured you and I would go to a couple of the stores and prepare a registry.”

“That’s a very good idea.”

Scarlet said, “I’ve heard that you should either go high end with china, crystal, and silver services or practical with appliances and things for the house. If you mix and match, you might not get a full set of anything.”

Andrew said, “We can afford to make up any shortfalls.”

“I guess you’re right,” Scarlet said. “Speaking of affording things, I finally caught up on my mortgage!”

“Congratulations,” Cat said. “I remember how I felt after paying off my last bill.”

“Two credit cards to go and I won’t have creditors calling,” Scarlet said.

“You’ve been making some payments to them, right?” Alice asked.

“Yes. I get calls even if the payment is one day late because of the mail.”

“I remember those days,” Alice said. “My landlord would knock on the door first thing in the morning on the day that rent was due. He was an obnoxious bastard.”

Millie said, “I never went through that until my husband divorced me. All of a sudden, I didn’t have money. It was months before the lawyers got things straightened out so that my ex was paying some of the bills.”

“My ex didn’t pay for squat,” Raven said.

“Your ex is a total asshole. In fact, he gives assholes a bad name,” Cat said.

“You can say that again,” Scarlet said.

More than one person in the room privately entertained thoughts of her ex-husband getting his just desserts one day. Having him share a cell with Bubba the Butt Lover was a common theme for the form in which revenge should occur.

Changing the subject, Alice said, “Cat told me she was leaving the project next weekend. She mentioned something about having signed a lease on an apartment today.”

“I didn’t know you did that,” Andrew said. This news made Cat’s leaving seem even more real.

“I have to live somewhere,” Cat said.

“I didn’t even think about that,” Raven said.

“Monday, I’m moving my stuff from storage into the apartment. It’s going to be a very busy week with getting the business ready and establishing an apartment.”

Scarlet said, “I’ll be glad to help.”

“That would be nice of you,” Cat said.

“I’ll take a day off,” Raven said.

The offers took Cat by surprise. She hadn’t even thought of asking anyone for help. That just wasn’t something one did. After months of living with everyone, she still thought of Raven, Scarlet, and Andrew as coworkers and not friends. The fact was that Cat hadn’t had a friend since her parents died. Her life had been spend making sure that she didn’t owe anyone any personal favors since that could have been used to coerce her into the gang.

“That would be nice. I’d really appreciate it,” Cat said.

Alice listened to the conversation around the table feeling a little sad. It seemed to her that everyone at the table was damaged in some deep critical way. Raven had been abused by a husband. Scarlet had tragically lost her family. Cat had grown up not trusting anyone or anything. Millie had been abandoned by her husband of twenty eight years.

She had to admit that even Andrew was damaged. He had been mocked and humiliated by women almost his whole life. Men hadn’t treated him any better. He’d been bullied through school and even into the workplace. There had to be an element of wanting to even the scales in his psyche.

Even she was a little damaged by the time spent as a part-time prostitute. She didn’t suffer from a deep guilt or shame over it, but she recognized that it had affected her outlook on things at times such as this. Some said it was a sin. She didn’t feel that way. She saw it as a high paying job. Someone had once told her that men could earn money with a strong back while women could earn money on their back. She took away from that statement that the key word was earn.