Chapter 23

Everyone, including Julian and Liv, returned to the Cube. Those two only stayed through dinner, deliciously created by Maria. Surprisingly, Anna went with them back to their ship. She said she needed to do some cleaning. But Joe noticed Liv flirting with her. He thought that a good thing. Anna and Julian loved each other. But sex seemed to have petered out between them. He hoped adding Liv might restore their sex lives.

He decided to wait to talk to Victoria and Charlie until after dinner, figuring things could get intimate following the discussion.

Joe went to Liana’s office where everyone reviewed what they’d done. Joe was impressed. “So you’re ready?” he asked.

“Saturday we’re bringing in cameras and equipment,” Jonny said. “Their owner will be here to make sure we treat it right, but just him. Rachel thinks Eddie will figure out the sound recording.”

“He’ll show Lionel as well,” Rachel said.

“I know the rest pretty well, but the guy’s good at lighting, so he’ll advise. We’ll shoot Eddie in the studio, and let Liana take over after that.”

“You’ll follow her around?”

“The guy’s got a nice steady-cam, which I’ve worked with before.”

“Extras?”

“Linton will invite his ... uhm ... friends. Expensive, but it shouldn’t take long. They’ll be attractive, and he promises to make sure they stay low key. Except for Cynthia and Victoria, you’ll all be a little too well known.”

“The kids?”

“If everyone’s cool with it, they can be in the background too. Especially the pool.”

“And Linton’s friends?”

Jonny sighed. “I don’t know, Joe.”

“You chickening out?” Cheryl asked.

“I told Maria about it.”

“Oh,” said Joe.

“She wants to participate.”

“Oh?” said Joe.

“And she thinks you should handle the steady-cam.”

“Be the first person cock?”

“Yeah. I really do need to lose some weight.”

“You’ll be involved still?”

“Uhm, if you want.”

“Of course we want, Jonny,” said Cheryl. “I think you’ve got a better body than the biggest male porno star in the business, and you do have a nice cock.”

“Thanks?” he chuckled, shaking his head.

“The kids?” Joe asked.

“They’ll be at the pool. The underage older kids can watch them.”

“Esther’s going to be pissed,” Joe said.

“She’ll be okay with it Joe,” said Moe. “Too many strangers.”

“True. You going to get involved, Liana?”

“I need to go to the Island Fantasies Boutique and get me some slave costume tomorrow. I’ll pick up masks there as well.”

“So...”

“You’re my master. I’ll come in later.”

“Maria wants you,” Jonny sighed. “At least to get her started.”

“Then I’ll take over,” Cheryl said. “Me and Moe.”

“Then you get me,” said Cynthia.

“And I’ll finish you off,” Liana giggled.

“Oh man,” Joe said. “How long will this be?”

“As long as it takes,” Cheryl giggled. “It’s an orgy, Joe.”

“True,” Joe chuckled. “What about Eddie?”

“He’s actually going to be playing in the studio,” Rachel said.

“By himself?”

“Yeah,” Rachel chuckled. “We actually talked about some hot girls vamping like in the Robert Palmer video, but he nixed it. He’s got this synthesizer and some loops and he’ll just solo. He’ll be in the background, both him and the music.”

“Showing the view to the studio.”

“Exactly,” said Jonny.

“And Melanie?”

“We’re not telling her,” Cheryl giggled.

“You’re kidding. You know she’s a reporter.”

“So?”

Joe could only laugh and shake his head. If she wrote about it, he imagined the notoriety might even be a selling point. And if she joined it, she might even have some fun.

“Dinner should be starting anytime,” said Liana.

They gathered things and put them away. Joe asked, “Any plans for Melanie here?”

“I thought you and Eddie could perform the new song for her and maybe talk about plans?” Cheryl said.

“Getting the old band together, meaning me and Eddie,” Joe chuckled.

“It’s Eddie’s story now. Starting over. Any new songs?”

“Probably, but we’ve been working on the musical.”

“Maybe he can whip one out.”

“Again like where it started. Him coming up with another surprise and us working it up.”

“No one ever saw what you did, just the two of you. I can’t even imagine creating punk out of that.”

“It’s Eddie we’re talking about. His guitar could fill in just about anything. And my style tended towards the percussive as well. But yeah, our only witnesses were future band members. Belle and the first two brothers. If it’s about starting over, maybe she could talk to them about what they saw and heard. I don’t know if I have much perspective. I was in it, just trying to be good enough for what Eddie deserved.”

“Did you know how great he was?”

“He’s always been great. But the songwriting, I knew it kept getting better, but again I was in it. I think the first time I realized the Monsters were going to be more than a couple guys in the basement trying to get into girls’ panties via rock and roll was the rehearsal with the twins.”

“And me,” Rachel smiled. “Yeah, that was ... I don’t know. I just didn’t expect it to be that fucking great. And of course afterwards was pretty fun too.”

“It was,” Joe muttered. “Before the consequences.”

“Before I became Rache the Bache. Admit it, you enjoyed it.”

“Both Belle and I were amazed we were fucking the hottest chick in our class.”

“I don’t recall fucking you until later, although I wanted to then.”

“You gave me my first blow job. I might as well have fucked you, how immense that was in my sexual life.”

“Brief, I remember, with Harry being rather needy. But I think it was the first time I actually enjoyed it. If you hadn’t just started with Freddy that night...”

“If? It’s impossible to say.”

“I wanted you.”

“And if you had me?”

Rachel sighed. “I don’t know. The spoiled little rich girl not getting what she wants? Maybe that’s what made me obsessed. Enough to be with Eddie.”

“That’s how it started.”

She nodded. “And created my entire path after. But I guess I’m stuck with the idea that I wanted you like I’ve never wanted anyone before or since. Even Eddie, although we’ve grown into our love.”

“The problem was friendship, Rachel. Yes, I wanted into Frederica’s panties, but we became best friends simultaneously.”

“Then I brought the wrong lure to catch the fish that got away.”

“I guess you did.”

Cheryl laughed. Joe and Rachel realizing everyone else had left the office. “You guys should talk about all that with Mel.”

“You mean our sordid sex lives?” Joe asked.

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“But I kind of already did it with No Contest.”

“All the better. Reality has a happier ending doesn’t it?”

“For me, definitely,” Rachel grinned. “It was worth the sore ass I got out of it.”

“And Joanne’s here too,” Cheryl said.

“Wait,” said Joe. “I thought this was supposed to be about the Cube.”

“She can gush about that,” Cheryl giggled. “But she’ll have a nice drama too. And like I said, the story is Eddie starting again.”

“I don’t mind,” Joe decided. “I’ll ask Joanne.”

“And I’ll ask Eddie,” said Rachel. “He might not want to air his, uh, deficiencies.”

“We could always angle it against Joe,” Cheryl suggested. “Have him the villain.”

“To tell the truth, I never had the problem with Eddie,” said Rachel. “My thing for Joe never had to do with Eddie not being enough. In fact, I didn’t know the details until recently.”

“Then what was the split between them?” Cheryl asked. “According to Eddie.”

“Joanne. Sam doing her manipulative nudging. Mostly just drifting apart I guess. If Eddie had a problem with me wanting Joe, he got over it.”

“You were definitely the exception,” Joe said.

“A strange one considering everything else,” Cheryl added.

“I think it had to do with a couple things,” Rachel explained. “Joe’s antagonism towards me made it unlikely I’d go run off with him. And me being Rache the Bache, nagging poor Eddie.”

Moe poked her head in. “Come on, guys. People are starving.”

Another delicious dinner of roast beef prepared wonderfully by Maria, with sides mostly of Barbadian origin. The matron provided Moe with a swordfish steak from the freezer. A gift from a visiting dignitary via Linton, though he never clarified if the visitor had ties to gangsters or the local dignitaries Linton had formed companionable relationships with. Fish was the go to meal for Moe, and being on an island, that wasn’t a problem. But the next evening’s meal would be an eggplant Mousaka with Moe and Maria collaborating.

After the dinner, everyone agreed to go to the studio afterwards where Eddie and Joe and whoever wanted to join them could play and sing Christmas songs. Jonny brought out his zither. Maria had a rich alto voice. But Charlie’s acapella rendition of Silent Night stole the show. Nothing could follow it, and the way Victoria gazed at the beautiful young man, at least one person didn’t want anything to follow.

Everyone but Eddie, Rachel, and surprisingly Cynthia, left the studio. It seemed one Eddie fan, Anna, was being replaced by another. Perhaps Anna sharing Eddie with his men, looking sated in the morning encouraged Cynthia to be with one of her favorite stars. She’d talked to Rachel about it, and Rachel, having the familiar situation of being with a girl who would enjoy giving her head and sharing her with Eddie, had absolutely no problem with it. Her resistance to be in any way involved with the gay side of Eddie’s sexuality, which Anna obviously wasn’t, had kept her from Eddie’s bed for too many nights. Cynthia couldn’t have chosen a better time to ask.

Finally the situation with Victoria and Charlie could be dealt with. When Essie let them know she would come too, Victoria suggested, “Let’s use the room my dad stayed in. It’s got the bigger bed.”

The young couple sat hand in hand near the head of the king size bed. Joe sat a couple feet away on the same side. Essie remained standing and started things.

“I want you to know, Vic, that I think you’re a strong and beautiful woman. We both know I had been a sort of gatekeeper, but I think we’ve become friends out of that, whatever its intention might have been. Do you agree?”

“Yes Essie. You’re an amazing woman. I have to keep reminding myself that you’re younger than me,” Victoria chuckled. “But getting to know you has been a delight, and I hope we remain friends.”

“Me too. Of course there’s the problem we’ll be leaving here all too soon and returning home, miles away. Charlie even farther away.”

“Vic and I have discussed this, big sister,” said Charlie.

“And what have you concluded, little brother?”

“Let me,” Victoria smiled. “For me, meeting the man you call Uncle Joe changed things. Like Joe knows, I have never been comfortable with men. Not trusting them really. A part of that is living here. Where, for instance, I could meet some guy just passing through and have a brief fling. Maybe he’s charming or funny or cute. Maybe he’s a playa and knows the way to a girl’s loins. Or maybe he’s clueless but intriguingly shy. And then there’s the local boys. Barbadians are an attractive lot. Many are pretty damn smart as well. Quite a pool of choices really.

“But every single one of them has the same agenda. One they never spell out, but it’s obvious what they’re thinking. ‘Hey, you hard body blonde babe, wanna fuck?’ No thanks. Even my ex. He’s one of my best friends, because he’s a nice guy despite himself, but I’ll never fuck him.

“Then I met Joe. I met your eyes. Yes you wanted to fuck me. But I could see I intrigued you. And that intrigued me. And then you told me you wanted to fuck me. Not just fuck me, but love me. In all the senses. Getting to know me. Wanting to know me. Nothing hidden. Complete honesty. Trust. Finally. And I knew, absolutely, that loving you would be extraordinary. That you’d be with me as if nothing else existed but us. And you’d do everything you could to make sure I had the best time any girl could have. Even delivering me to your wives before we spent our night together couldn’t have been better. And you Essie. Beautiful wives. Beautiful Essie. Where it could be fun and insanely pleasurable. Being with the women Joe loved. Being one of them. The best night ever. Until the next night of course.

“God it killed me, in a good way, when you pierced my hymen. The way you worried. You wanted it to be all about my pleasure, and there was that cursed hymen. I don’t even know if you were sure when I said it wasn’t so bad. Not until I cried out in passion I don’t how many times instead of pain did you know that all was good. I know it thrilled you that you thrilled me. Well it thrilled me that I could thrill you like that. Making you cum was as good as you making me cum. Not being selfish is what making love is all about, isn’t it Joe?”

Joe nodded and smiled.

“So what has this to do with me and Charlie?”

“Let me guess,” Essie smiled. She had sat beside Joe and taken his hand like the other two. “Joe opened you up, literally and figuratively. And Charlie, my beautiful brother, acted even less like the usual boy, and more like his Uncle, wanting to know you more than just wanting you. You were attracted and you were ready. Problem is, I don’t think Charlie is ready.”

“I don’t know either,” said Charlie. “But I don’t see it as a problem.”

“But if you end up rejecting Vic...”

“We’ve talked a lot, Essie,” said Victoria. “About his confusion. About his uncertainty about sex. About getting intimate. Not just with a boy or a girl, but with anyone. I told him about my own discomfort with intimacy. It’s different, I admit, but the difference is actually encouraging. While I make friends easily, and am close with three or four boys and girls, and I’m a bit of a leader of my little group, Charlie hasn’t ever really had a best friend. In the end though we realized his lack of friends and my discomfort with becoming sexual stems from the same thing. I can be pals with someone without thoroughly opening up to them. The physical is a wall. Being bisexual, both my male friends and female friends could breech it, but I’m uncomfortable with that. For Charlie, that wall has a great deal more importance in how he reacts to someone who might become a friend. Not thoroughly sharing a life, which to him means mind and body, because he always sees those who want to be friends as wanting him that way...”

“Even before adolescence?” Joe asked.

“I don’t find kids my age all that interesting,” Charlie explained. “They seem all too silly and capricious. Any bonds have been for the sake of the stage, and end as soon as the show’s done. Most of my stage partners get it. It’s an artificial relationship in the sense of artifice. They’ve either worked with me before, or have experience with it. Occasionally even one of those sort of professional kid actors take a liking to me too, but usually it’s some talented young novice who wants things to continue post show. But I’m not interested and it upsets them because I guess I come off as a nice guy, but suddenly I’m a stuck up shithead. And maybe I am, but I’m just not interested in hanging out with them. I’m not comfortable with their wanting my friendship, and how is that supposed to work?

“On the other side, the adults, often fascinating and eccentric, not to mention full of experience, knowledge and wisdom, people I know would be interesting as friends only see this youngster. I’m rejected because of my youth, or I reject them because of it.”

“Because they want the physical,” Joe said.

“Yeah. So I’m either not interested or too interesting. I have people I consider friends. You, Joe. You, Essie, and Eddie. Family. But also the only people I completely trust.”

“So I’m hearing this, and it makes me smile,” said Victoria. “Because we have become friends. And there’s an intimacy to it, an openness, which looks a lot like the beginning of a relationship.”

“When she pointed that out,” Charlie nodded, “I realized it was exactly what I was looking for. Where we care about each other, are interested in each other, both in who we are and physically. Being completely open and honest was the key. No pussyfooting around, trying to impress. We accepted each other, warts and all. Not that I’ve seen any warts.”

“Me neither,” Victoria chuckled.

“But we could just say whatever we wanted, including our mutual attraction.”

“I think I’m to blame for this,” said Essie.

“What’s to blame?” Victoria asked.

“Maybe nothing. Hopefully nothing. I did want to get to know you...”

“Being Joe’s gatekeeper,” said Victoria matter-of-factly.

“Because Joe didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I understand, Essie. Being young and a virgin.”

“I needed to know how strong you are Vic. I probably know as much as anyone, except maybe Moe and Cheryl, how overwhelming his love can be. Unfortunately, because I really like you, as a person and as a lover, which Joe can tell you makes you fairly unique among women, and Joe really likes you, and obviously Charlie, it’s not something that can continue.”

“At least for a time,” said Victoria.

“You’re willing to make your decision on your future based on its vicinity to us?”

“Yes Essie. I want to be as close as I can be. Whether it’s New England or Baltimore or hopefully somewhere even closer. I know it sounds crazy, and maybe you’re worried that that you missed an insane obsessiveness. But I don’t just really like you. You or Joe or Charlie, however things work out tonight.”

“What exactly do you see working out or not working out?” Essie asked her.

“Charlie and I want to be with each other completely. But it’s possible it won’t work for him.”

“And you’d be okay with that?”

“Yes. I made it clear to Charlie that our friendship or love, which is what it is for me for all three of you, doesn’t need the physical if it’s an issue. I’m hoping it won’t be, but I want nothing to intrude on our friendship and love that would in any way make him uncomfortable.”

“You love us?”

“Yes Essie. Joe knows. Charlie knows.”

Essie nodded. “Enough to change your life.”

“Yes. I’m smart. Smart enough to be tops in my school and score high enough in the SATs to attend any college I wish. Daddy’s money will pay for it, so scholarships won’t be a problem. And I’m decisive enough to know what I want, and to pursue it until it’s accomplished. And I’m stubborn enough not to let anyone stop me. I want to be with Joe and am willing to share him. And, not incidentally, enjoying those I share him with, including you. And I don’t want my relationship with Charlie to be another tourist encounter, because it most certainly is not, and however it becomes, whether we’re lovers or best friends, hopefully both, I won’t let it end when you leave here. I promise,” she smiled lovingly at Charlie.