Chapter 22

Winter was too high-class for this neighborhood. I had learnt that so was I. Still, I didn’t own a sofa with gold inlay. The tiny one-bedroom was decorated in antiques. The beautiful Persian rug spread over the shitty and uneven hardwood floor was beautiful.

Winter smiled graciously and stepped back from the door. She closed it behind me.

“I’m going to put on something a bit more appropriate for guests,” she announced and strode into the bedroom. I shook my head, walked over to the couch, and sat down by the left armrest. No TV. There was a bookshelf, decorated with silver and full of thick leatherback tomes. There was a silver tray out with a steaming pot of tea and a plate of cookies. Smelled good, but I had overeaten with Alex so I ignored them. I tapped my foot. The girls would be ready quickly. As quickly as girls got ready, at least. I looked at the bedroom door.

“Where’d you go?” Alex texted.

“To get answers. Be back as soon as I can.”

“Don’t let her make us play Ascension again!” Sam made me smile.

“As soon as I can.” I texted back.

“If it’s more than half an hour, I’ll come find you. Max has laid out your clothes. Do you smell OK?” Sam fired off in three successive texts before I could even type “Soon.” back at her.

“You took a seat?” Winter noted disagreeably. She stepped out of her bedroom while I had my collar pulled forward and was sniffing my raised armpit. I failed to look reasonable as I lowered my arms and effected a politic smile. “No tea?”

“I’ve had my fill,” I said. “Look, you need to stop. Whatever game you and Faye have started, you’re done.”

“I’m done?” She raised an eyebrow and swept out her long translucent white skirt from her butt as she sat down. She had put on a light brown sweater.

My girls were gorgeous, sexy. Winter was more delicate and elegant. She was thinner. Her features were more angular. I had her pegged for her late twenties. The way her nipples tented her sweater, and advertised how high her unsupported breasts stood, suggested younger. Her face was timeless, I couldn’t find age in it. Yet despite the skinniness and her height, she didn’t look coltish or girlish, but womanly. I met her ice-blue eyes.

“Done. You said it yourself, she fucked up,” I said. “My life isn’t your problem. Your managerial skills are.”

“You’re brave enough to place this on my shoulders?” The lower unit didn’t shake like my second-story apartment. The girls upstairs were being rattled.

“I don’t need bravery to deal with you. I need from you what I aim to give you,” I said.

“An even trade?” She frowned. “You have no idea how much you have already cost me. Very well, make your case. What do you have that is what I want that is what I have that is what you want?”

I took a moment to parse her sentence. I smiled. “Neglect.”

“Neglect?”

“That’s all. Leave us well enough alone,” I said.

“And you’ll leave me alone?” She crossed her legs. I realized how close she was sitting in the middle of the sofa. I moved my calf out of the path of her bare foot. “You might not believe this, but I might desire your company.”

“It’s too pricey for you,” I declared. Her gaze turned flat. I was sure she hadn’t been wearing makeup but her eyes looked darkly shadowed now. The wind started up again.

“I don’t think you understand what happened.” She smiled. “Consider an allegory. Imagine you checked your bank account and discovered there was a million dollars more than was supposed to be there.

“Elation, you can’t believe it. You immediately go out and have a nice dinner before you even think about it. But as you’re eating, you’re not too stupid to realize that you are spending someone else’s money. That those resources are not yours.

“You immediately Google the bank’s number so you can point out the error. You’re a good guy, you would do that. But you haven’t hit ‘call’ yet. It’s a lot of money. Someone could lose their job over this, maybe even their family and freedom.

“Should altruism prove not be enough of a motivator for you, there’s always risk. If you keep it, if you spend it, you’re a thief. Someone else’s money and work that you didn’t do. Plus, it is a lot of money: you return it, you can imagine that the relief you facilitate will be worth a not-insubstantial reward. By doing what’s right, you’re richer for it, and no one’s fucked over.”

She paused.

“You’ve been drawing on other people’s good fortune. You are smart enough to know that those three girls belong in three happy families. Let yours be one of them. I chose Samantha for you. Perhaps you’d prefer Maxine or Alexa?”

“Yeah, no, I play board games.” I smiled.

Winter’s face twisted. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Bank error in your favor, collect $200.” I smiled harder.

“The metaphor--”

“No.” By interrupting her, I pissed her off. Smirking made it worse. “Your insult of those girls will not be taken idly. My girls, my risks, my life going forward. You were a Community Chest card and now you’re in the discard pile. The game goes on.”

I don’t think I’d seen a woman that angry since my brother and I played near a surging river. Mom is a woman who could scream. Winter had that quality. She froze, her shoulders perfect and square. Her eyes looked down at me. That she kept her cool was a miracle.

“OK, a better allegory,” she said. “Imagine you’re sitting at a table. Other players come to this table and start dealing out the cards. A pile of chips is donated to you by your neighbor. You pick up the cards, you play. You are in the game.”

“I was in the last hand,” I said. “I’ll cash out and leave you to it.”

“Then you must be willing to fold what you have in the pot,” Winter sneered.

“Metaphors may not be your thing. Perhaps I can explain it for the room.”

She reclined, her legs reaching out and her breasts rising. She revealed a dark and dangerous smile.

I stood up.

“Fuck off. Fuck this. Fuck you.” I showed her my teeth. “I have no interest in some petty tax collector.”

“Wow, now there’s a metaphor!” She grinned. “Politics! You can have no interest in us, while we have a deadly interest in you.”

“Winter doesn’t last forever.” I shrugged. I was heading for the door.

“And it comes around again. Every year.”

“Then, I guess my next purchase is a gas-guzzling hummer.” I met her eyes. “Choke on global warming, cunt.”

I pulled the door open and stepped into the deathly still night. I looked back. She was approaching me. I almost didn’t register the clicking beep beep of a car door remote-locking.

“What?” I asked harshly.

“I’ve never loved a man like you,” she hissed breathily. I sneered at her but she stroked my cheek. My instinct was to slap her hand away. The same lifelong chivalry that had stopped me from slamming the door in Winter’s face, now blocked my attempts to lay a hand on her. I tried to back away but the porch railing bumped my spine. She rose on her tiptoes and kissed my lips with a loud, needy, sensual moan.

I was scowling when she stepped back.

“Enjoy those college girl playthings of yours, lover, and you can tell me all the tales tonight when we’re in bed,” she purred, and retreated behind her closing door.

“Good evening.” A well-dressed balding man nodded at me; I could feel his distaste.

“Evening,” I said. My apartment door flew open carrying a beautiful ecstatic brunette out onto the ice. The neighbor’s cat had been resting on the railing; the sound of Sam clomping down the stairs sent her fleeing. The man and I both stepped forward to take one of Sam’s hands. I smiled. “Careful now.”

“Daddy!” Sam slammed a hug into the balding man. I lost my glee. “This is Gene!”

I had thought Winter looked furious. The balding man withdrew his hand sharply. Sam was oblivious.

“Run up and grab a clean shirt and a proper coat. You’ll freeze to death.” She slapped my chest. “Daddy, I know I said it’d be me, Max, and the boyfriend. Do you think it’d be terribly difficult to change the reservations? Our friend Alex--”

“Sam, let me have a word with Gene. Here are the keys.” He pressed the Mercedes keys into his daughter’s hand. I think Sam wanted to kiss me and run to the car, but she only smiled. She was too skittish to act affectionate under the eyes of her father.

“Gene,” Sam’s father said. “You’re a little too busy tonight. You’re a little too busy for the rest of your life.” He patted my shoulder. The wind kicked enough to slice right down to the bone. “If you had any decency in you, you’d send Max down too.”

He turned on me before I could say a word, and marched down to his warming car. I didn’t speak the words I thought. My teeth chattered. I was about to head inside. I heard the vehicle pull away. I rushed to the railing instead, watching Sam’s silhouette drive off through the frosted side window.

I shivered, numb from more than the cold. After a minute, my phone buzzed. Sam’s texts were begging for forgiveness for her fucked-up Dad. No, her dad wasn’t fucked up. Lots of shit was fucked up, but her dad was trying to do good by his daughter.

I turned around, stepped over Mrs Rabinovich’s cat, and stormed up my apartment stairs. I skidded to a halt as Alex and Max looked up at me. I was about to rant and--Winter had kissed me! How did I explain that to the girls?

“Come back to us.” I texted her. I hoped that was enough. It was all I had at hand.

“Gene?” Alex looked up from her phone. “Sam’s dad just took off with her?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. I dropped into my computer chair and nervously swiveled until Max caught my legs. Alex leaned over my shoulder to hug me. “Look, I’m going to tell you everything I think I know.” I frowned. “You girls are smarter than me. Maybe you can find a way through.”

Max nodded. Alex slipped down into my armchair while Max sat sidesaddle across Alex’s lap. I took a deep breath and I told them everything: the red-haired girl in the green dress, the other red-haired women, and all the rest.

“She knew Sam’s dad was there so she made up some shit about how I was taking advantage of you girls, and how we were gonna laugh about it later. Then she kissed me in front of him. Sam was out the door and introducing me to her dad a couple of heartbeats later.”

“Dude!” Alex slapped Max’s ass. “We’re princesses in a real-life fairy tale!”

Max shook her head. “It isn’t the same girl, though, at the coffee shop and the breakfast place. And you can’t magic the weather! Water’s gotta evaporate, roll up into big clouds, until they’re fat enough to break, and snow. And wind’s all pressure differentials and currents. You can make a wind tunnel but you can’t control the wind.”

“Yeah, but it’s magic. The boots do fix our feelings.” Alex poked Max. “Aren’t feelings actually a bunch of brain chemicals and meat lightning?”

“Yeah, they are.” Max got up and paced as well as she could in the tiny apartment. She was beating a rhythm on the sides of her hips. She looked up at me. “You believe it?”

“It took me a while. Sometimes you believed too? When I gave you bits and pieces? Didn’t you?” I asked. We’d had discussions and conversations over the last week. Holy shit. We were throwing all in on this foursome after knowing each other for only a week...

“Calm down.” Alex grabbed my thighs and looked up into my eyes. “Take a deep breath. In and out. Innnn and out.”

I smiled as I relaxed

“I want Sam back,” I said. Max nodded.

“I want my boyfriend to have the whole Team Girlfriend,” Max said. “I used to think a guy who could fuck two girls was the worst of the worst.”

“Do you think they rewired our brains for that?” Alex turned and smiled over her shoulder to Max. I was petting the theatre student like a Bond villain with his cat.

“Mine, yeah, mine definitely. Yours ... dunno. And Sam’s?” Max said, tilting her head and shrugging.

“Well, yeah, Sam. Obviously,” Alex nodded. “And I dunno about me either. But you don’t seem different. How’re you different?”

“Stand up a moment.”

Alex hopped to her feet as requested. Max lunged forward; Alex’s eyes went wide. Max grinned, and grabbed fistfuls of blond hair. She kissed her best friend aggressively. Alex melted, folding over backwards, as Max dipped her. Alex’s hands slid up Max’s side as they made out. I watched with a blissful smile. Alex’s hands closed on Max’s tits. Max began to rub Alex’s pussy with one hand. Abruptly, Max stopped, let go, and stood up. Alex blinked several times and flailed to catch the edge of the bed. She struggled to stand straight again.

“Thank you?” Alex bubbled with energy.

“I can stand up for a moment, too?” I grinned

Max walked over, rose up on her tiptoes and kissed me lightly. “Nice try.”

“What do you need me to do?” I asked.

“Just listen,” she said. “I need you to know who I was, who I am, and who I’m gonna be.”

“You’re a stunning, brilliant woman,” I said. “You’re my Max. Our Max.”

“But I wasn’t always like this.”

“Stunning and brilliant?” Alex said. “You totally were.”

“I’m ecstatic that I get to love you, Gene, and Sam. Something I don’t think I was capable of in high school, or even two weeks ago,” Max said, and picked up Alex’s hands. “You were asking how I’m different now, remember?”

“Nope, I must have amnesia! Kiss me again to restore my memory!”

Max bit her lip. “Yes, but afterward, OK? We gotta talk this out.”

Alex grinned. “I’ll hold you to that. Anyway, yeah, you’re being more aggressive than you used to, but I don’t think you need your brain rewired for that. Being with Gene helped us come out of our shells, right?”

“You remember kissing practice in grade 9?”

“Mmm, yeah.”

“You chased me for twenty minutes, trying to convince me to let you try.”

“And we only tried for like three minutes, because your parents were coming home.”

“Not for another hour they weren’t. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. You were acting like kissing me was the best idea you ever had, but I wasn’t so much up for that.”

“OK, so you weren’t ready in grade 9, but look at us now. You changed your mind.”

“No, that’s my point. Changing my mind is the rewiring. Lemme show you an example. Who’s someone hot?”

“Gene,” Alex said immediately. I flexed; Alex laughed out loud. I whimpered like a puppy, and she ran over to hug me.

“OK, yeah, Gene. But I meant girls. Girls who’re hot?”

“Sam,” Alex said immediately.

“No!” Max said.

“Yes she is,” Alex retorted, and stuck out her tongue.

“Of course she is,” Max growled. “I want to fuck her so much I could scream. I want to fuck her so much she screams! I want to fuck her so much she can’t scream any more!”

Max was breathing heavily. I didn’t know what to say, or if I should say anything at all. For a long moment, nobody moved. Then Alex screamed, I jumped out of my skin, and we all burst out laughing.

“Please, work with me here,” Max said with a shoulder slump and a defeated smile.