Chapter 10

When Paul showed up at Paul and Karine’s place on Friday night the second week of August, they were heavily into a discussion in the living room. Since she’d come back from her week-end at Mélanie’s inn, Karine would peel off her clothes as soon as she came in and not get dressed again until she had to go out. At the beginning, she said it was because of the heat wave but, since a week, the temperature had dropped to settle at below 30°and the humidity had eased off to a much more comfortable 50% and still she continued. Paul noticed she seemed particularly bright and sprightly in spite of the apparent seriousness of the discussion.

Roger seemed to have become five years younger, if not ten. Paul chided himself about thinking that way about a guy that was not even twenty-three years old but it was true, the same. Since last May, he had seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and even more so since Karine had spoken to them about Sherwin’s Falls. Paul did not know what had happened but that load wasn’t there anymore. Roger walked around with his shoulders back and, for once, he too was nude.

“Hey, guys. I’m not interrupting anything, I hope?”

“Not at all,” answered Roger, “Karine and I were discussing our future. Grab yourself a beer if you’d like and make yourself comfortable. There’s towels in the linen closet.”

Paul’s chin dropped to the floor.

“ ... What?!” Then Roger looked at him with an embarrassed smile and said “Well, Karine has been teaching me naturist etiquette ... by liberally applying her boot to my ass, sometimes.”

“I see. While I’m at the fridge, can I bring you two something?”

“A glass of cold water, please,” said Karine. “Me, I’ll have a beer,” added Roger.

A few minutes later, Paul came back with the towel, a glass of water and the two beers and, after handing out the drinks, spread his towel and sat down facing them. “So, what’s up? You both look like the proverbial cat that ate the canary.”

“Well, first... /I’m preg...” said Roger and Karine at the same time and started to laugh. “Go ahead, Roger; you first,” offered Karine.

« All right. Well, first of all, I want to apologise to you, Paul. For a while, I was convinced you were doing it behind my back and I was jealous...”

“But, I never...” protested Paul.

“Let me finish, would you, please? This is difficult for me. I was all twisted up inside about what I thought happened at those naturist resorts and I thought that you were insisting I go with you so that we would go back to that trio thing we did at the beginning. I love Karine but I can’t see her going at it with other guys and even less so taking on multiple partners. That’s why I didn’t want to come along.”

“But, Roger, since that time, I’ve never done it with Karine...” Said Paul.

“I know that ... now. After you came back from over there, Karine and I had a long talk and managed to clear up a few things. You’re my best friend and I wanted to apologise for having misjudged you.”

“Come off it. You did nothing wrong so there’s nothing to forgive.”

“Phew! I’m glad that’s over.” Turning to Karine, he said “Go for it, Love; your turn.”

“As Roger told you, we had a long talk after we two came back from our week-end. I managed to convince him that, even though we loved each other as friends, it was him that I wanted as the father of my child and no one else. I told him all about Mélanie’s kid and how he was super bright and well brought up and I said that I was convinced that it was the environment in which he was living that made him so. You can take my word for it; my mother ran an illegal daycare centre when I was young and I’ve changed more than my share of diapers! Anyway, to make a long story short, I didn’t have my period last week and I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant.

As soon as he heard that, Paul jumped up with a rebel yell, pulled Karine up from the couch and hugged her so hard that Karine thought he’d break her back. Letting go of Karine and turning to Roger, who had risen up in the meantime, he hugged him just as ferociously. Roger, visibly uncomfortable at the idea that two naked guys would hug each other that way, tried to break free of the strangle hold.

When Paul finally let go, he kept repeating “Congrats, Pal. My compliments to both of you; it couldn’t happen to a better couple! God, but I’m happy for you!”

Karine watched her man’s discomfort and smiled; she would have her hands full with breaking him out of his shell. She thought of several ways to accomplish this but that would be for later. Right now, she had more urgent things that needed to be taken in hand.

“As a matter of fact, Paul,” said she, “when you came in, we were discussing that very thing. With those lay-offs at Liberty Packers, there’s no guarantee that Roger will keep his job. As for me, I might be able to continue at the shop for maybe six months ... But when the baby is born, I’d like to find a job where I can keep it next to me like Mélanie does at the inn. On top of that, I want to leave the city, or at least ‘The Point’ – I’m more and more convinced that living here is a dead end. So I was wondering if you would feel like going back to Sherwin’s Falls this week-end? Roger and I could look around to see what kind of jobs could be available around there and you, well you could hang out with your sweetheart...”