Chapter 5

Sarah ended up being a lot more problematic. The phone call on Saturday had us return to Joanne’s for some more great sex. Just Joanne was there as far as adults. I met Ella, who turned out to be her daughter from Saul. It’s where I learned Saul had multiple partners. Cheryl was only one of his wives, albeit the official one, and the three shared a bed. And perhaps weirdest of all, he was seeing Joanne’s daughter as well.

After an even longer session of sex since we didn’t need to get up early the next day, and we’d started out early as well, Sarah confessed that she wanted something more permanent. More importantly, she wanted to be exclusive.

“It’s like every time I looked at a phone, I wanted to call you,” she told me. “As mind blowing as the sex is, I really like you.”

“I like you too.”

“I love you, Joe.”

“What does that mean?”

“What do you mean what does that mean?”

“Does it mean if we love each other, there can be nobody else?”

“Of course.”

“So if I’m seeing someone else, we’re done?”

“Are you?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“That’s not the point, Sarah.”

“Then tell me.”

“Tell you the point?”

“Yes.”

“The point. There’s actually two points. As far as the other girl, I don’t want to stop seeing her. And no, she’s not my girlfriend.”

“It’s just sex?”

“It’s not that either. We like each other and we like to have sex together. But neither of us want to be monogamous. She definitely doesn’t.”

“Do you love her?”

“I don’t know. Probably not. Except sometimes ... I mean the intimacy ... and not just in bed ... when we talk ... Sarah, it’s a lot like what we have.”

“How close I feel with you is how you feel with her.”

“Yes.”

“And you don’t want it to end, even if means not being with me.”

“If it comes to that, yes.”

“You want to have your cake and eat it too.”

“If that means we can somehow continue to be friends and lovers, yes I do.”

“You know I should hate you. Why the fuck don’t I hate you?”

“Not something I can answer, even if it was rhetorical. Except to say if I misled you, I’m sorry.”

“You kind of did. You kind of locked the gate after the horse left. Because that discussion after the fact, when I found out how sweet it was being here in your arms, and you tell me you don’t want to be my boyfriend ... I don’t know, Joe. It started with me being rather desperate wanting to have sex with you. And ends up with me really liking you. Loving you.”

“Ass backwards.”

“Yeah.”

“Look. If you want to call, call. Just ... I really don’t want it to be like it’s expected. Like we have to connect every day or something. That’s the other point.”

“Let me think about it. Again. Fuck, why couldn’t you have sucked in bed?”

I laughed. “I hope you don’t mean that.”

“Of course I don’t, asshole.”

Joanne decided to complicate things when we went upstairs. “Would you two like to join as at that rural mansion Saul told you about last time? And maybe bring Mel along? Next weekend? You can tell Mel that Charlie will be there and available.”

“Available?” I couldn’t help asking.

“Uhm, because Charlie and Mel aren’t serious? They enjoy each other’s company, but ... I mean Charlie has a lover, but they can’t see each other as much as they want. He’s visiting Charlie this weekend.”

“Charlie’s gay?” I asked.

“Bisexual obviously,” said Joanne. “But probably more gay than straight. His first real love was a girl, which probably made him more interested in the opposite sex than he might have been. She ended up being with Saul, but they get together sometimes.”

“Saul sounds like quite the stud,” said Sarah.

“Literally,” Joanne chuckled, gesturing her head towards the cute if pudgy eight year old.

Mel ended up agreeing on the weekend.

We left after rehearsal on Friday. Sarah picked me up at school while Mel headed to her home. Both of us had packed already, and it was a matter of tossing the bags into the back of Sarah’s jeep for me and for Mel when we picked her up.

Mel had gotten the directions and guided us to this rural mansion. It took over an hour to get there.

Once there, an older man, Jack he insisted we call him, showed us to our rooms. It was like a resort for how many rooms were available.

“Everyone’s in the basement,” he told us.

“Would it be okay if you go down without him?” Mel asked Sarah. “Joe and I have some things we want to discuss regarding the musical.”

“Uhm ... okay,” Sarah reluctantly agreed.

As soon as she and the butler who didn’t look or act like a typical butler had entered the elevator and the door closed, Mel smirked. “Let’s find a bigger bed.”

“Mel,” I muttered.

“Come on.”

Of course I did.

A corner room appeared to have what we wanted. Kings sized bed and no luggage. “Get naked Joe,” Mel ordered, stripping. Once I accomplished her demand, she nudged me to sit on the bed and kneeled and sucked my cock. It hadn’t got quite thoroughly hard until then.

“Lie back,” she ordered, and straddled my face. In the sixty-nine position, she ended up making me cum first. Only then did I take things over, turning her onto her back and kneeling between her legs and sucking her to her first climax.

I got hard again like a seventeen year old can, and replaced my tongue with my cock. And I wasn’t gentle about fucking her. Once thoroughly in, my thrusts immediately became fast, long, hard and deep.

“Yes!” she repeated with each thrust.

“I thought this was about me and Sarah. You and Charlie,” I managed to say, broken up by thrusts.

She didn’t bother to answer. Just that affirmative word repeated, gasped. And a bit of a tight smirk.

I kept fucking, aggressively abusing one nipple with fingers, and sucking the other nipple. She rubbed herself just as aggressively until she arched and stiffened and growled my name. Into her orgasm I thrust even faster until I reached completion soon after.

Once we relaxed and my penis oozed out of her cunt, she smirked again. “It’s our Friday, Joe.”

“But Sarah doesn’t know about us.”

“She thinks you’re exclusive?”

“No, but...”

“You think she hasn’t figured it out, or at least suspects as close as we are? We’re just confirming.”

“Not if we shower off the evidence.”

“And looking showered wouldn’t be suspicious?”

I sighed.

We got up. I spied into the hallway. No one there. Jack had pointed out the bathroom, so we both grabbed our clothing, and with her giggling, rushed to it.

She sat at the toilet, pissing and cleaning herself off with tissue. I used some to clean off the evidence as well.

We still looked and probably smelled well fucked.

In the basement I sat beside Sarah watching rehearsal. A sort of avant-garde musical. Charlie appeared to be the lead. He was extremely good.

“Melinda?” Sarah whispered.

“Sorry,” I whispered back.

“I thought it might be her. Reason enough not to be exclusive.”

“She gets horny,” I said.

“And I don’t?”

“It was ... quick relief.”

She chuckled quietly. “It wasn’t your usual lengthy fuck.”

“I promise the weekend is ours now. Mel has Charlie.”

She sighed. “I guess I’ll take what I can get,” and she took my hand.

“Isn’t that... ?” I asked. The older, shorter man dueting with Charlie looked familiar.

“Eddie Mange. The rock star. I remembered reading about him when his bassist and writing partner died and Eddie stopped playing for a while. Apparently Saul was his original bassist and is playing with him now. Saul’s like a famous poet.”

“Saul Loman,” I realized. “He’s got this writing workshop every summer where he teaches. Hunter College.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“Later.”

I felt like a mischievous student whispering in class, getting disagreeably noticed.

She must have felt the same, because she nodded and we remained silent watching rehearsal.

I noticed Mel sitting beside Saul, at least when Saul sat and wasn’t up on his feet directing, and felt weirdly jealous. The man had Cheryl, a noticeably curvaceous cutie sitting on his other side. He had Joanne, and apparently Joanne’s daughter, who, being Charlie’s twin, must have been a beauty. The man was obviously a successful womanizer. A collector of gorgeous women. And Mel was a gorgeous young woman. And of course free to do what she wanted and be with who she wanted. So why was I worried? Probably the idea that the man just wanted another conquest, and I worried Mel being his next notch on the bedpost would hurt her. He had wives. And a girlfriend who obviously adored him and had been with him at least nine years, considering Ella’s age. It wasn’t just a notch for Saul. It seemed always long term. He must have been quite the lover. Was I worried for Mel or envious of Saul? Maybe both.

When rehearsal ended, I felt compelled to talk to Saul.

“Where are you going?” Sarah asked.

“I want to talk to Saul,” I told her.

“Not Melinda?”

“No.”

“What about?”

“Writing.”

Which was true, but maybe the timing made it an excuse.

“I’m tagging along,” said Sarah.

“Sure,” I said, taking her hand.

He stood, as tall as me, and was talking to Mel. “Excuse me, Mr. Loman,” I said.

He turned to me and smiled. “Call me Saul. You’re Joe, right? I remember you at Joanne’s.”

“Uhm yes. I ... uhm ... am a writer, too. Dumb little short stories first. Poetry more recently. But I’ve been writing plays lately. More dialogues and monologues actually.”

“Really?” asked Mel.

“A little different from my trajectory at your age,” Saul said. “Started with poetry. Plays came next. Then prose. But I’ve never had quite the success with that. So I guess I do what I do best. Are you asking for my advice?”

“I guess I am. I know you run that workshop at Hunter.”

“Are you interested?”

“I would be if I could afford it.”

“It’s not all that expensive being at a public college. But you’re talking about expenses, being in New York.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have some samples?”

“Uhm, yes.”

“Let me show you where my office is,” Saul said.

“You’re willing to read my work?”

“Is it any good?” Saul asked.

“Uhm ... I think it’s okay. A teacher at school has been encouraging.”

“Who?” Mel asked.

“Miss Draper,” I told her.

“Our director?” Mel exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Uhm ... I was going to when I could show you something I thought worthy of you.”

She laughed. “Worthy of me?”

“I mean ... for an audition piece. It’s kind of what I’m writing. Monologues and dialogues.”

“Interesting,” said Saul.

I shrugged. “I call them fragments.”

“Come on then. Show me these fragments. And your poetry?”

“I have some too.”

“It helps to have some maturing,” he warned me.

“Except Keats and Rimbaud,” I reminded him.

“True,” he laughed. “And I did publish when I wasn’t much older than you.”

We were in the elevator by then. Both Sarah and Mel joined us. Saul didn’t seem to mind, especially Mel. Oh well. I hoped Charlie might pluck her away, but he was off taking some kind of break or something.

Saul showed us where his office was located, and I rushed off to grab my shoulder bag, a leather satchel with a long strap with shorter straps so it could be worn as a backpack too. I had a fondness for its unique nature.

I pulled out two sheathes of paper and placed them on the desk where he sat. Sarah and I sat on a futon while Mel sat on another desk chair close to Saul. “Mind if I read over your shoulder?” she asked him.

“Not at all,” he smiled.

He read through the poems first. “Good, if a bit sophomoric,” he decided. “I have an exercise for you.”

“Go on,” I requested.

He pulled out one of my longer poems. A page and a half of typing. “I want you to look at each stanza and expand on it. Looking deeper into the images. Detailing them.” Pulling out another poem, about half a page, “And this one I want you to edit it. Make it as small as possible while keeping its intent.”

“Sure,” I smiled.

“Think you can work on them this weekend? Show me what you’ve got by the time it ends.”

“Okay.”

“Good.”

He began reading the fragments, stopping after a couple. He had one of the dialogues in front of him. “Tell me what this scene is about?” he asked me.

“It’s about a couple. Or they were a couple in high school before the girl went off to college and the boy stayed home. They’re both quite intelligent, but the boy’s family doesn’t have the resources the girl’s does. And the boy decides to study something practical, HVAC, instead of wasting his time taking humanities classes and so forth. This is them reuniting.”