Chapter 36: The Visitors

August 4, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

“How did you want to celebrate tonight?” I asked Liz as we left the office.

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked with a soft laugh. “You stay over once every two weeks! What do you think I want?!”

“So that’s all I’m good for?” I teased.

“No, of course not! But as I have the opportunity...”

“Are we going to eat? Or just ‘adult’ all night? Or did you have something else in mind?”

“You know I’m happy with ‘adulting’,” Liz said softly, “but if you wanted to do something different...”

“Not at all, though a bit of food would be a good idea!”

We decided on Star of Siam for dinner, and then headed to Liz’s apartment, where her roommate gave us a knowing look as we went straight to the bedroom. Ten minutes later, Liz and I were adulting, my rock-hard shaft embedded in her hot, silky folds, with her nipples tracing lines on my chest as she moved. We kissed softly the entire time, simply savoring the pleasure, with Liz having a series of small orgasms before a larger one set off by my release. When her orgasm had run its course, she put her head on my shoulder and sighed deeply.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too,” I replied.

“You have no idea how much I’ll miss this,” she said, and I felt what had to be a tear on my shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, guessing that I was going to hear from Liz the same thing I’d heard from Maria Cristina.

“I was asked on a date,” she said with a hitch in her voice.

“And you want to say ‘yes’?”

“I think I need to,” she said, sobbing softly. “You can’t marry me. Or give me children.”

“No, I can’t,” I replied, keeping my voice soft and loving.

“I knew, eventually, this would happen. I’m sorry I’m crying.”

“Crying is OK.”

“Will you do something for me?”

“Name it,” I replied.

“Take me to Rochester so we can spend those nights together.”

“Absolutely,” I replied.

I held her while she cried, and then we adulted again and again.

August 5, 2000, Chicago, Illinois

“«Du blir stor!» I said to Kristina Sundström when she and her parents walked out of Customs and Immigration into the International arrival hall. (“You’ve gotten big!”)

I had come straight to the airport from Liz’s apartment. She’d stopped crying, though I could tell she was still very emotional, and I totally understood why. We’d both known this day would come, and I wondered what Fate had in store, given what amounted to a ‘double whammy’ with Maria Cristina and Liz. It hadn’t surprised me, when just before I left, as we were ‘adulting’ for the last time, she’d said she wouldn’t be at the joint Guys’ and Girls’ Night.

“Thanks, Uncle Steve!” Kristina replied in lilting English.

I hugged Katt and shook hands with Mikael, while Jesse greeted Kristina. Jennifer, who had driven Kara’s minivan, then greeted the three of them.

“Karin, Kristian, and Kjell are right behind us,” Katt said.

True to her word, about thirty seconds later Karin and her family walked towards us.

“«Hej!»” Karin exclaimed.

We hugged, and I shook hands with Kristian while Birgit hugged Kjell. Jennifer greeted them as well, and then the ten of us left the terminal and went to the parking lot. We loaded the luggage into the van, and Jennifer rolled her eyes when Katt and Karin both elected to ride with me in my BMW, with the others riding in the minivan.

“Your husbands are OK with this?” I asked.

“So long as we don’t stop along the way for a threesome,” Katt teased. “Well, actually, Mikael would be fine with that, but Kristian isn’t quite so open-minded!”

“Two hot Swedish girls?” I grinned. “Tempting.”

Karin laughed, “That part of our relationship is SO far in the past, I can’t believe you still think of me that way!”

“And you don’t think about Steve that way?” Katt asked. “At least occasionally?”

“I put all of that aside after my visit here before he married Kara and Jessica,” Karin said. “I love him very much, but no, I don’t think about having sex with him. Those memories are beautiful, but they are in the past.”

“There were some pretty rough times, too,” I replied.

“We were teenagers,” Karin said. “And young ones at that. We both made mistakes. And we both have very happy marriages and wonderful kids.”

“Speaking of marriages,” Katt interjected, “did Kara come back from California?”

“She wanted to,” I replied. “But flying back and forth from California in a span of less than forty-eight hours is pretty rough. She sends her love.”

“And Albert is in England, right?” she asked.

“Yes. He comes home the day after you guys leave for Florida. On the plus side, Josh, Mary, and Sandra arrived this morning.”

“Awesome!” Katt exclaimed. “I haven’t seen him in a long time and hoped they could make it.”

“Sofia, Stavros, and Alexa are at the house waiting for us. And we’re doing a joint Guys’ and Girls’ Night tonight.”

“Can I get on your dance card?” Katt asked.

“I suppose,” I replied with a grin.

“See, Karin, he still thinks of me that way!” Katt squealed with glee. “But there’s a more important request.”

“You STILL prefer cuddling up in his lap?”

“Well, given he’s not going to fulfill the OTHER fantasy, I’ll take what I can get.”

“Did you two have any other agenda besides troublemaking?” I asked.

“No!” they both exclaimed.

“Mom and Dad send their greetings,” Karin said.

“My parents as well,” Katt added. “And an old friend said to say ‘hi’ - Petra.”

“Wow, now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. How is she?”

“She has a son, but she’s between boyfriends at the moment. She works for «Skatteverket».”

“Ugh,” I replied.

“You can’t have all these roads and things without taxes and somebody has to collect them!”

“At least your system is rational - you get a notice from the tax authorities with all the calculations done. That beats our crazy system where my tax returns run six to eight pages and are a complicated mess. And don’t even ask about my business tax returns!”

“Is your Swedish still good?” Katt asked.

“I’m a bit rusty, but it comes back pretty quickly when I use it. Sofia and I make a point of speaking Swedish to each other, and Tina and I write exclusively in Swedish. I also try to read at least one Swedish novel a year.”

“What’s the last one you read?” Karin asked.

“Pyramiden, by Henning Mankell,” I replied. “Sofia has her parents send me his novels when they’re released.”

“And to think that it was twenty years ago we met,” Katt said.

“And all because my sister ended up in a small town in Ohio,” Karin added.

“Wouldn’t it be interesting if her namesake got together with her nephew?” I asked,

Karin laughed, “They’re still a bit young. We’ll have to come back in a couple of years to see if the chemistry is still there.”

“Unite our families?” I asked, chuckling.

“I think my parents would be happy. They always wanted us to make it work.”

“I know, and it sure wasn’t for lack of effort on your part.”

“It’s not all your fault, Steve. As I said, we were young and we both made mistakes. I don’t blame you for anything. If there’s blame to be assigned, blame the universe.”

“Fate,” I replied. “Fortunately, when I was in Japan, I managed to wrestle her to the ground.”

“And fuck her brains out?” Katt teased. “I mean, that WOULD be par for the course!”

All three of us laughed hard, interrupting the conversation.

“That trip to Japan was when I think I finally got my shit together,” I said. “Or at least came close.”

“You’ve turned into a good man,” Karin said.

“Thanks.”

“You have your own room now, Birgit?” Kjell asked me when I showed him my room.

“Yes, but I’m sleeping with my sisters so your parents can sleep in here, and Katt and Mikael are sleeping in Albert’s room. You and Kristina have the guest rooms.”

“Your room is almost as big as the apartment we lived in before we moved to our house!”

“You should see my parents’ room. It’s huge! Let’s go find Jesse and Kristina.”

“Where are your other brothers?”

“Matthew and Michael live with Aunt Elyse and her boyfriend now, but they’ll be here later. Albert is in England visiting his girlfriend.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

I laughed, “No. Do you have a girlfriend?”

“There’s a girl I like at school, but she’s not interested.”

“We’re only twelve and Dad says lots of kids our age aren’t interested in having boyfriends or girlfriends.”

“Do you want one?”

“When I meet a guy I want to kiss, yes!” I declared.

“What are we doing tonight while the adults have their party?”

“We’re having our own party next door! My friends, Jesse’s friends, my other two brothers and my sisters, and some of their friends. Our old babysitter, Summer, will chaperone, but she’s totally cool.”

“Why do we need a chaperone? Jesse is fourteen, right?”

“And Matthew is thirteen, but because people are dumb, if somebody got hurt or sick and there was no adult, they’d try to put my dad in jail.”

“Why?” Kjell asked.

“Like I said, people are dumb. They think we can’t take care of ourselves.”

“I’m home alone after school all the time! Nobody would try to put my dad in jail if I got hurt at home.”

“Dad says Sweden isn’t crazy like here. If we tried to leave baby carriages outside a store or café, we’d get arrested. Dad says that’s normal for people to do in Sweden.”

“It is. What’s a baby going to do? Run away? And their mom or dad is close, and so are other parents!”

“I know, but they treat everyone like babies here, or worse! The dumb government says I can’t decide to have sex before I turn seventeen!”

“How old do you think you should be?”

“When I decide! It’s not anybody’s business but mine! Well, and the boy, of course!”

Kjell laughed, “Of course!”

We found Jesse and Kristina in the living room at the coach house, then went to the basement of our house to hang out with Alexa and Sandra until it was time to go to Amber’s house for dinner and our party.

“Tiffany, Rachel, this is my friend Kjell from Sweden. Kjell, these are my best friends.”

They all said hello, and I introduced Kjell to everyone, while Jesse introduced Kristina. The pizza arrived a few minutes later, and Jesse, Matthew, and I helped Summer get the pizzas from the delivery guy while my sisters and Michael helped Amber and Andy get the plates and other stuff from the kitchen.

After we ate, we went to the basement and Amber turned on the stereo and put in a tape so we could dance. It was mostly fast music and we all had a lot of fun dancing together. I wished I could dance with my dad, but he was at the adult party. I saw Jesse and Cynthia leave the basement together after talking to Summer, and wondered what was going on. They came back a few minutes later and I went over to talk to them.

“Trying to sneak out?” I teased.

“Cynthia was calling her mom to see if she could come over to play Super Smash Bros. tomorrow,” Jesse said. “We’d go play now, but I think there are probably people in the living room. That happens all the time when the ‘parental units’ combine stuff.”

“Video games? Ugh!” I said, rolling my eyes.

My brothers loved them but I thought they were mostly dumb. Most of my friends didn’t like them, but Cynthia did. I went back to where Kjell and my friends were standing.

“Is that your brother’s girlfriend?” Kjell asked.

“Cynthia? No. He’s seeing Kelly. Cynthia is a friend.”

“And he really wants Francesca, anyway,” Rachel said. “But her mom is such a bitch!”

“They aren’t allowed to date?” Kjell asked.

“They’ve been together since Jesse was a baby. When they started fooling around, her mom completely wigged out and they moved away.”

“No way!” Kristina protested. “Because they were kissing and stuff? That’s crazy!”

“I know, right?” Tiffany said. “They are totally in love, and have been like, forever!”

“So they can’t see each other?”

“Her bitch of a mom even changed their phone number!” Rachel said.

“That’s just dumb!” Kristina said.

“Let’s dance!” Amber said.

Everyone agreed so we all started dancing together.

Katt curled up in my lap and purred softly as I wrapped my arms around her. We were sitting in a chair on the patio, enjoying the warm summer evening.

“If there’s one thing I miss, Steve, it’s this,” she sighed a few minutes later.

“You always did like curling up in my lap.”

“Mikael gave his absolute permission for anything we wanted to do,” she said quietly.

“And we’re doing that,” I replied gently. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why, after all these years?”

“Why not? You certainly aren’t exclusive with anyone and you know Mikael has always been OK with you and me. And I don’t mean just accepting it, but agreeing it was fine if it’s what I wanted to do. Heck, he wanted you to father our baby when we were afraid he couldn’t!”

“True.”

“It’s not something that you’d like to do?”

“That’s actually an interesting question,” I said. “I’ve had a number of conversations on this topic recently. I told someone last weekend I was in a ‘transitional period’ and I think that’s true.”

“Dialing it back, so to speak?”

“Maybe. A number of things are changing now and I’m trying to work out the best way forward.”

“Getting old?” she teased.

“No! I certainly don’t feel old!”

“Twenty years, can you believe it?”

“At times like this, it seems almost like yesterday,” I replied. “Sitting in your room in Västra Frölunda, cuddling in your chair with your cat padding around.”

“After having screwed ourselves silly! Speaking of which, I heard from Laura Thornton last week. She’s pregnant.”

“That’s her second one, right?”

“Yes. She’ll have a C-section just like with the first. I think you know why!”

“She was such a tiny thing, she must have looked like she swallowed a watermelon!”

“I have a picture, but it’s back home.”

“Do you keep up with anyone else?”

“No. Most of the skaters were so totally full of themselves that I never wanted to know them beyond the skating interactions. Laura was one of the exceptions.”

“As were you.”

“True, but given how things turned out, I sometimes wonder if I should have shifted my priorities.”

“I would not have been the right husband for you,” I replied softly.

“I suppose not, though you made me very, very happy. And curled my toes!”

I chuckled, “Something you told your dad, which he did NOT appreciate!”

“And right after I said that, you carried me inside, threatened to spank me, and then pounded me HARD in the butt! You told me you were addicted!”

I chuckled, “I’m in recovery. I never met another girl who enjoyed that as much as you did.”

“Once I convinced you to get into my bed! Talk about difficult!”

“I recall you cursing me out for being so difficult.”

“You being difficult cost me several months of amazing sex!”

“I believe we tried to make up for it!”

“We were ridiculously horny, weren’t we?”

“I was sixteen and you were fourteen! Of course we were! We should probably go back upstairs.”

“Two more minutes, please.”

I started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“That’s Birgit’s usual demand when I say we need to get up from cuddling. I promise there will be more time for this later in the week, too.”

“Thanks,” she said.

Two minutes later she gave me a soft kiss on the lips, and then we went back upstairs to join everyone who was dancing. I danced with Jessica, Maria Cristina, and about a dozen other girls including Kathy before the end of the night.

The party broke up about 1:00am, and after everyone left except our Swedish guests Jessica, Katt, Mikael, Karin, Kristian, and I went to the sauna. The kids were sleeping next door at Penny’s, so we didn’t have to worry about them. After the sauna, Jessica and I said ‘good night’ and went up to the master bedroom to shower.

“Liz was asked on a date,” I said as Jessica and I stood under the cool spray.

“Whoa! She told you Friday night?”

“Yes. And given how hectic it’s been since then, I didn’t have a chance to tell you. I’d have told you on the way home from the hospital, but Karin chose to walk with me to get you.”

“So it’s over?”

“Almost. She’s going to go to Minnesota with me when I go to Mayo so we can have a few nights together.”

“Are you OK?”

“I think so,” I replied. “Liz cried when she told me, and I felt a serious pang of sadness, but I’m happy for her, even if she’s sad. Does that make sense?”

“In your world? It does. Did she tell you about the guy?”

“No, and I didn’t ask. She’ll tell me when she’s ready. I’ll put odds on a law student or lawyer, though I make it a point to stay out of her life outside the office except for when I spend the night with her, so it could be anyone.”

“So now what?”

“Good question. Obviously, there’s Suzanne, but that’s not really going to begin in a serious way until she moves to Chicago in a year. And other than Annette’s offer to visit, there really isn’t anyone else. And I don’t think it’s a problem. Right now everything is nice and calm.”

“Right. NIKA is being sued and your two closest girls besides Kara and me just broke up with you!”