Chapter 21

The look of recognition disappeared from Gretchen the waitress’s face. I kept myself from swearing. I caught her attention. “Is it supposed to snow today?”

She looked out the restaurant’s front window. It was so early and so dark out. I missed summer. “There were flurries all afternoon, but on my last break it looked like the cloud cover was going away.”

“OK, thanks,” I said with a false smile. She smiled back. Alex rubbed my arm.

“You alright?” she asked.

“Frustrated,” I said. “The boots and all of this. I want answers.”

“And a random waitress is your guru?” she said, and shoved a forkful of waffle and whipped cream into my mouth, extending her own window for talking. “Look, I know this is all weird with how we feel about you. But we do feel it, and we want to. Besides, Max and Sam were on Team Gene all day! Progress!”

“A little bit.” I swallowed and put my coffee mug down. I bumped Alex’s shoulder. “I have all of the food. You eat yours.”

“OK.” She happily pulled the fork out of her smile. I had to kiss her. I smirked and sank back and took a bite of my first sandwich. The first one was going to be the best decision of my life. By three my stomach would be begging for death.

“There you go, buddy,” I said rubbing my belly. “Now you know what my dick feels like.”

“What does it feel like?” Alex asked. I laughed. She squinted. The redhead waitress rushed over.

“Oh my god! I am so sorry! Look, the boots will keep your girls on point. You just got to--” She blinked. “Hey, um. I’ll get you another cup of coffee.”

“ ... huh.” Alex frowned and ran her lower lip through her teeth before asking: “I have her to thank for you?”

“I suppose.” I scratched my head.

“Then we’ll leave a big tip and be done with her. She’s pretty, maybe a little flaky...” Alex said. She leaned in and whispered. “Don’t stick your dick in crazy.”

“Oh, and what parts of you are crazy?” I flirted.

“Nowhere your dick’ll go,” she said with a bright mischievous smile. The sex talk was making her bump up and down in her seat.

“What about here?” I tapped her lips. “You sure there’s no crazy coming out here?”

“Not if it’s full.” She quickly shoved another forkful of waffle in, then air-kissed at me with waffle-swollen cheeks, and rinsed down the too-large piece she had shoved in.

“I know about the boots,” I told Gretchen on her return.

“But the--” She shook her head. “Enjoy the coffee.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Thanks.”

She never made it back again. Alex watched me as I devoured my three sandwiches. I stuffed the last bite in and let myself sink in the satisfaction. I was sure it was going to be too much. Alex rubbed my arm again.

“So what do we do next?” she asked.

“I’m taking you back to the apartment,” I said. “We sort out Max and Sam. Today might not be the only day they turn on you.”

“Look, the way I see it,” she said, wiping her mouth and neatly piling her silverware and refuse on the plate, “the magic stops the love. We get rid of the magic, and this all sorts out.”

“I’m going to keep you for your brain.” I squeezed her. I needed to hold and feel her. She squeezed me back.

“I’m keeping you for the penis. Though ... We do have those strapons now, don’t we?” She steepled her fingers and looked deep into my eyes. “Can you dance?”

“Sure we can go dancing.” From the sour twist of Alex’s lips, I got the feeling I missed a joke somewhere. “Um, do you know where? I only go to places that serve food and beer. I think all the clubs I went to in college have closed.”

“Oh, well, um, yes. I know every place,” Alex said. “Max never wants to go, and until you, I didn’t hang out with Sam without Max. And the girls in theatre can get really, really passive-aggressive.”

“How?” I asked. I immediately changed it to, “Why?”

“I guess I’ve been kind of a killjoy? They’d always want to get picked up, and I’d want to get out of there when the boys got interested.” She sighed, then raised her shoulders and smiled brightly at me. “But now I don’t have to worry about that!”

“Alex? I need to let you in on a very, very important secret. You might not have realized this.” I leaned in, scanned the room back and forth, and stage-whispered behind my hand. “I’m interested.”

“Yeah, and you’re a man.” She rubbed my leg. “Not a boy. I can’t wait to see Max.” She frowned. “I shouldn’t milk too many apologies out of her, right?”

“One. Maybe two if you can get chocolate out of it,” I told her. “Otherwise you’ll be too crazy and I’ll have to stick my dick somewhere else. Oh, hey, can I get the bill?”

“Of course.” Gretchen didn’t miss a beat with what she had overheard. I grinned. I took Alex’s hand, left the cash on the table, and headed home. It was gorgeous out. I’d never hated nice weather like that before.

I was carrying Alex piggyback by the time we got to my place. The holding hands, forced cuddling she had been intent upon was driving us into traffic. It was a successful compromise. I squeezed her thighs, and slid on the deck before my apartment. The new snow most everywhere else had melted on asphalt. I dropped Alex.

“I’ll be right up, better clear the step.”

“I’ll miss you.” She swooned with a hand over her brow. I caught her by the waist. She laughed, smiled, kissed me, and went in the door.

Three short passes with the shovel and the deck was clear. Every pass, I stared at the door to One. Winter’s door. She didn’t look out; I didn’t risk looking in. I headed inside.

“Why bother, though!” Sam shouted as I shut the door. “Two of us sharing him’s more than enough.”

“Sam!” Alex sounded hurt.

“But Gene asked you to! C’mon. Just put them on,” Max pleaded.

“I’ve got it for Gene. I do. That bottom’s not going to be kicked out again. We sat around here for an hour while she monopolized him. Why put up with that?”

“She’s my best friend!” Max attacked. Crap. I didn’t bother to kick off my boots or properly close the door before rushing up the stairs.

“Gene!” Alex was sitting on my bed. She hadn’t taken off her coat. Her shoulders were down and forward. It was cute, looking at her through her bangs. Her eyes were puffy, but they had been that whole time at Tara’s. Max shielded Alex and faced Sam. Sam was wearing a dress and tight green leggings, and had her hair done. She looked amazing. She was also a couple inches taller than Max because of her shoes. Sam’s butt popped right out. That’s why girls wear heels!

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Oh, baby!” Sam clicked across the apartment and grabbed me. “We - that is, Max and I - were talking about taking you out tonight.” I put my arms around her.

“What about Alex?” I said. The cold was curling up from the open door. Sam shivered in her thin clothes. I held her tighter.

“I know, she’s pretty and easy, but--”

“I’m not easy!” Alex huffed. “Why do you have to be mean?”

A short gust banged my door against the wall.

“Max, can you close the door for me?” I asked. She nodded, and rushed down the stairs. Sam meant to push off and meet my gaze. Her soft grey eyes would cut right through me, and maybe she’d have a good point or three. I bearhugged her even tighter.

“What?” Sam struggled a little but melted in my arms.

“No shoes in the house,” I said.

“Oh, sorry.” She kicked off her heels and I lifted feet from the ground. I kept her aloft. She had to bend her toes down now to touch the floor. I grinned evilly.

“Only boots,” I whispered. Sam frowned.

Max came up and touched my shoulder. “Done.”

“Thank you, beautiful.” I kissed her and smiled. “I’ve got her pinned. You and Alex put the boots on her.”

“Really!” Alex hopped up.

“Wait! Stop! Gene! I want to be with you!” Sam worried. “None of the other girls I know have to make room for their guys’ other--Hey, don’t touch me!”

Sam was a squirmer and she tried to kick Max away. I bent back, raising Sam higher.

“Max, we’ll do one leg at a time!” Alex said.

“You’re the boss,” Max nodded, and wrangled Sam’s leg.

Sam barked out frustrated pleas.”No! Stop! I’m sorry! I’ll be good!”

“You’re mine,” I told her.

“I am!” she agreed desperately as Alex zipped up boot number one.

“Alex is mine.” I frowned at Sam.

“But--”

“Are you going to deny us what’s ours?” I asked.

“No! I’ll be yours!” She shook her head. Max flinched as Sam’s knee bumped her belly.

“Sam...” Max said, and her lips blossomed into a gentle smile. “Sweetheart. Let me do this. For us.”

Sam looked at Max and then to me. She kicked. She squirmed. She wasn’t fighting. She let Max fit the second boot on her foot. I used my index finger to drag Sam’s nose back to me, and looked her deep in the eyes. “If anyone gets between you, me, or them, they’ll have to deal with me.”

“I know.” She smiled and rested her forehead on mine. Max slid the zipper up. Sam’s face shivered and her warm smile from my protection melted. She looked miserable. “Oh shit! Alex! Alex!”

“Yeah Sam?” Alex slid her grinning face up next to mine and Sam’s. Sam’s throat shook for a second but she steeled herself.

“Your face is a wreck. You’ve been crying too much today.” Sam dodged the apology. Maybe I shouldn’t have laughed. I lowered Sam to the ground and got a kiss on my big laughing mouth. Alex scrambled for a pocket mirror to look at her face. She punched me in the arm.

“Why wouldn’t you tell me that I looked so gross!” she pouted.

I obviously looked her straight in the tits. “You’ve always looked so beautiful.”

“God! Look me in the ass when you say that!” Alex threw her hair, looked down her nose, and harrumphed and shook her hips to the washroom. Sam let her hair fall in front of her face as she caught my attention.

“I’m sorry. I won’t make you get rid of your stuff like that again,” she frowned.

“Alex isn’t ‘your stuff’, she’s ‘Hot Stuff’.” Max oversold the pun as she airquoted. I chuckled and walked by them.

“Huh, wow,” I said. There was a short squat shelf that I hadn’t owned yesterday standing next to my bookshelf. The three rows held on display all of the toys and sex machines that had been delivered. “I guess it’s good all my visitors seem to be you girls.”

“You like it?” Max hopped over. “It was in my dorm room but I wasn’t using it. Sam and I brought it over and set it up.”

“Yeah, I think so,” I said. It was not how I would have chosen to decorate, but now all my toys were on the shelf next to all my games.

“All the penis-looking ones are on the top shelf. The second shelf was for the little batteries and the ground was just for the bigger box stuff,” Max explained.

“Oh, did you write up an inventory too?” I was teasing but I was a bit overwhelmed. Max’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shame.

“I didn’t! One sec!” She was rushing to the backpack she had stashed in my closet. Sam grabbed her arm.