Chapter 77

Phil and Katelyn were straightening the house when Tiffany and Hailey came back downstairs. Hailey was topless and she ran into the apartment to grab a shirt. She emerged and started in on mopping the dining room floor.

They finished in plenty of time and were sitting in the drawing room well before Bob arrived.

“Sorry I was a bitch,” Katelyn said when she pulled Phil aside. “It just hits home for me when I see you guys doing that. I think of how easy it would be to give in, to let go. I just can’t. I’d want more and I know it. This can’t really work out, you know. I’m not into sharing like the others. I’d be jealous of them or of you and I know it. I need someone who can focus on me all the time.”

“I know,” Phil said, putting his arm around you. “And I’d probably want to give you all my attention.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Katelyn said. “You’re meant to be with Hailey and she’s meant to be with you. You know the funny part? I think Molly and Tiff are supposed to be with you, too. I really can see all of you making a home together.”

“Only with you,” Phil said. “And your husband, of course. You’re a part of this family. You’re my sister.”

“Does your mom know?” Katelyn asked with a smile. It always warmed her heart when Phil referred to her as family. She had her own family but she had grown apart from them. They had different goals for her life and different ideas of how she should live it.

“They would adopt you in a heartbeat,” Phil told her. “Hell, they’d trade me for you and toss in some cash to seal the deal. If you find a steady boyfriend, we’ll find a way to make it work for you. We’ll swap the apartment or something.”

“There is going to be time,” Katelyn said. “I know you have plans to expand my room to an apartment next summer. I’m not going to get into something serious for a while. I mean, I plan to take it slowly.”

“Take it whatever speed you need,” Phil said. “And we’ll tone it down – at least in the public areas.”

“It’s fine,” Katelyn replied. “I got a little frantic because Bob is coming out. I like him. We had a lot in common – a lot more than I figured we would. I don’t want to fuck this up – and I don’t want him to think we’re just a bunch of sluts fucking you anytime you get a hard-on.”

“He doesn’t think that,” Phil said. “He is interested in you, too. He isn’t interested in a sexual relationship; he’s interested in getting to know you and working up to that if that is where it leads. He’s a romantic. I could see that even when we were kids. He wants a nice wife, a couple of kids, the picket fence...”

“That’s what I want,” Katelyn admitted.

“I know,” Phil said, hugging her with the arm he had around her shoulder. She put her head on his shoulder.

“Sometime I wish I could be like them,” she whispered where only he could hear.

“You’re perfect just the way you are,” Phil repeated. “You’re my best friend, Katie. I’m in love with Hailey and I love Tiffany and Molly in some way I can’t figure out right now, but you’re the one I consider my best friend. I know that will change as you get closer to whoever is lucky enough to land you but you’re always going to be like a sister to me. I don’t ever want that to change.”

“No,” Katelyn said. “I don’t want that either. I want all the dreams we’ve talked about – working together, living next door, taking our kids to preschool in a carpool. I just can’t be like the rest of them. It never could have been that way as much as I tried to pretend it could be.”

“Bob knows that,” Phil said. “He knows about my unique relationship with Tiffany and Molly, too. He might have been surprised if he had walked in while we had her on the table but it wouldn’t have shocked him. I’m not saying I think he’s the one for you or even that you should go out with him. That’s up to you. I won’t interfere and I’ll do what I can to keep the others from butting in.”

“Good luck with that,” Katelyn said ruefully.

“I said I’d do what I can,” Phil agreed with a chuckle. “I didn’t say I was a miracle worker. He is going to ask you out – unless he chickens out. He planned to ask when I left him but I also figured he’d be here by now. We’ll find something to keep us occupied if you want some time to talk to him.”

“We’ll see,” Katelyn said. She heard the telltale sound of the gate opening and gave Phil a kiss on the cheek.

Hailey had watched her man share a tender moment with their friend. A part of her lamented that Katelyn wasn’t going to be a part of their sex lives but a bigger part of her was warmed by the tenderness Phil showed to her. She gave him a hug when he sat down beside her.

“You never cease to amaze me,” she whispered. “You make sure everyone gets what they want. Are you getting what you want?”

“I have you, don’t I?” Phil asked.

“Forever,” Hailey told him.

“I got what I want,” he said.

“I meant what I said last night,” she said softly. “If you want it to be just us, that’s what we’ll do.”

Phil didn’t answer but instead asked another question.

“Did you know of Molly’s plan?”

“To get you into her bed?” Hailey wondered.

“To marry Tiffany and live with us,” Phil corrected.

Hailey’s eyes widened just as Bob came in accompanied by Katelyn. She shifted personas easily.

“Bob!” she said with a wide smile. “It’s so nice to see you again. How is the team looking this year?”

“Better than last year,” Bob answered, amazed that he wasn’t stammering and stuttering. “Where’s Molly?”

“She’s a little under the weather right now,” Tiffany answered. Phil was amazed she managed to keep the smirk off of her face. “I think she’ll be out later. In fact, I’m going to go check on her.”

“I think it’s great how you all care for each other,” Bob said when Tiffany stood to walk into the apartment.

“I don’t want to shock you but she’s sort of my girlfriend,” Tiffany said. “I didn’t want you to be offended if you see us kissing or something. I hope that won’t affect the chance of us developing a friendship.”

“No, of course not,” Bob said. “That sort of stuff doesn’t matter to me. If you’re nice, you’re nice. I think you’re nice. I have since I first met you almost a year ago.”

Tiffany impulsively hugged the startled newcomer.

“Thanks,” she said when she pulled back. Bob watched her walking into the apartment and turned to the others with a shrug.

“I’m glad you wore your trunks,” Katelyn said. “I think Phil and Hailey were just going to go out and pick up lunch.”

“Uh, yeah,” Phil said, picking up the hint. “Is pizza good with you?”

“Always!” Bob said.

“Good enough,” Hailey said. “We’ll be back in a little while. I have a couple of other errands to run.”

Tiffany had gone into the apartment and curled up beside Molly in Phil and Hailey’s bed. Molly’s eyes fluttered open and smiled.

“Jesus Lord have mercy,” Molly said. “You weren’t kidding. They turned me inside out.”

“I could tell that,” Tiffany said. “I can’t believe you squirted all over her. I did that when Phil was fucking me but it wasn’t like that.”

“He put his finger in my arse,” Molly admitted. “I went off like a skyrocket. It wasn’t, I don’t know, intimate like it is with you. I never really thought I might be gay but you have me convinced.”

“We’re not gay,” Tiffany said. “We’re just attracted to both sexes.”

“I’m attracted to you,” Molly admitted. “I like what we just did but I think I like what we did yesterday more.”

“That’s sort of funny,” Tiffany admitted. “I was happy to wake up with Phil yesterday but I was happier that you were with me. I ... I think I love you.”

“I’m pretty sure I love you,” Molly told her. “I’d have been jealous if you hadn’t asked me to be there that night.”

“It was never considered,” Tiffany told her, tears coming to her eyes. “I want you with me always but I can’t help the part of me that wants to be with him sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Molly agreed a she cuddled up to Tiffany. “I wanted to make love to him today. I wanted to feel him inside me.”

“You will,” Tiffany said. “I think our falling in love might be what makes everything work. It’s not why it happened and I would still want to be with you even if they aren’t with us. Are you OK with that?”

“I’m fine with it,” Molly said, “because I feel the exact same way. He’s got Hailey and you got me. If they leave, though, we’ll have to find someone to give us some male attention. Uh, would it bother you if I asked to spend the night with him alone once?”

“Nope,” Tiffany said. “You get one night of fucking with Phil and one night of lesbo love with Hailey. Then we’re even and we share everything from then on out. How does that sound?”

“Lovely, my love,” Molly said. “I guess I should get up and get clean.”

“I think I should get undressed and cuddle with you for a little while,” Tiffany countered. “I’m not sure we should get frisky on their bed but I don’t think they’d mind if we snuggled. It’ll give Katelyn time to put the moves on Bob.”

“He’s nice,” Molly said.

“But I don’t think I’ll ever want to sleep with him,” Tiffany said. “Maybe I will but it’ll take a lot of time before I’m ready for that.”

“Katelyn won’t share,” Molly said. “Hailey gets off on watching and helping out. She might be kinkier than all of us put together.”

“Lucky for us,” Tiffany said as she stripped down to bare skin and wrapped herself around her lover.

As Tiffany was curling up with Molly, Bob was entertaining Katelyn with stories of his childhood and his home life.

“My mom is crazy,” Bob said with a laugh. “She is completely spastic but in a great sort of way. My junior year our uniforms didn’t arrive until a day before our opener. She grabbed some people and sat up for 24 hours sewing the letters for ‘Westmont’ on the fronts. Except for mine, that is. I went out in a jersey that said ‘Wets most.’ It wasn’t until a year later that she told me she did it on purpose. She said it was because I broke her favorite necklace when I was 10 and that she had more in store for later.”

Katelyn chuckled along with the memory.

“My mom is the opposite,” Katelyn admitted. “She is almost humorless. She worked as a beat cop in Baltimore and saw a lot of stuff. My asshole father didn’t help anything. He turned out to be the typical man you hear about in the inner city. He got into drugs and then just walked away one day. He was dead for almost a month before anyone found his body. My brother was two years old and I was five. He’d overdosed on heroin. His wife is a freakin’ cop and he ODs. The thing is, I loved him. I can still remember him carrying me on his shoulders and letting me walk up his legs until I could do a flip as he held my hands. I think it was the stress of Mom’s job that did him in.

“The job here opened up when I was in elementary school. Suddenly I went from a place where the only white faces I saw had badges to a school with no one the same color as me. I adjusted. I’m like you. If you’re nice, you’re nice. My family didn’t adjust as well. My brother is into Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. It drives me crazy.”

“Those men are important no matter what color your skin is,” Bob cut in. “They showed that real change is possible if you stand firm.”

“You can revere them but you can’t emulate their methods,” Katelyn said. “I’ve read almost everything they ever wrote and it’s moving. They also failed to speak out against violence. I’m sick of being referred to as an African-American. I’ve never been to Africa! Until I came to college I’d never met a single person who had ever seen the continent. I’m an American. I was born in Baltimore and I live here. I’ve never even been to Canada or Mexico. I don’t like the way our government works but I don’t think we need to march on Washington with guns. I don’t think we need to maintain a separate culture. I’m not saying we all do the same things. I’m saying that we assimilate like the Irish and the Poles and the Germans and Scots have done.

“I don’t think we should have a separate culture for Hispanics or blacks or British immigrants. I think we should all speak the same language in public dealings. I think students should be taught English as a first language in schools. Since I met Phil, I’ve become more acutely aware of something I’ve always known: there is too much generational welfare in our society. It’s not a black problem or a Hispanic problem or a white problem. It is an American problem. If we would stop all the ‘group-think’ mentality of every ethnic group or minority group we can make real progress. But, no, everyone is special so no one is special.”

“You’re whiter than I am,” Bob joked.

“I’m just willing to think for myself,” Katelyn said. “I’m willing to work for what I get. I don’t expect handouts and I don’t expect anyone to give me anything I’m not willing to fight for.”

“That’s me to a T,” Bob admitted. “Everyone thinks I picked Heilman because it was small, I could play regularly and they gave me a scholarship. That’s not the reason. As soon as I learned I could afford to come here I was coming here. People who graduate from Heilman get jobs – unless you study something totally stupid.”

“Don’t mention that to Molly,” Katelyn said with a smile, “she’s studying for a fine arts degree.”

“If you’re talented, you’re fine with that,” Bob said. “If you’re just good in your own head, then you’re screwed.”

“Uh, would you maybe like to go out this evening?” Katelyn asked. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you and I’d like to know you better.”

Bob gulped but found the strength to nod.