Twelve

“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?” Lissa asked. We were cuddled in the bed, hot and sticky from hours of making love, but unwilling to break the contact among us for even as long as it took to go to the shower. The two-hour time change for Lissa and Melody had worked in their favor as midnight didn’t seem late and one a.m. was still prime time.

“We could just stay like this and order room service again,” Melody suggested. She was completely relaxed and still enjoying having me attend to her right nipple with my tongue as we talked.

“We can do that,” Lissa responded, “but you know what I mean. I was crazy without you two while I was in quarantine. Now you’re headed to Boston and Tony is going to Nebraska. I have to go back home to my big empty bed. I don’t know how to deal with that. You’ve got me hooked and I want to be with you.”

“I felt so incomplete when I was alone,” Melody added. “Even with Kate for company, I felt like part of my heart was missing.”

“I think that’s part of what happened when I was with Allie,” I agreed. “It was exciting, but I didn’t feel like I was all there.”

I’d been thinking about this a lot over the past week. Being in Chicago while Melody was in Lissa’s house and Lissa was sick at Jack’s had been hard on all of us.

“I don’t know how I’m going to face a month in Nebraska without you. Long-distance relationships suck,” I continued.

“I suck!” Melody said brightly. We laughed and Lissa and I demonstrated our ability as well as Melody squealed in delight.

We were all panting and laughing, catching our breath. There was a cloud of darkness hanging near my mind and I kept it pushed back by immersing myself again in the touch of my lovers.

“Can you meet me in the middle?” I asked.

“I think I just did,” Lissa laughed.

“You know what I mean,” I insisted. “Come and spend a week in the cornfields of Nebraska?”

“I don’t think my parents are going to spring for a plane ticket to visit my boyfriend,” Melody sighed. “I can already see the chains being put on my bedroom door when I get back.”

“How are your mom and dad doing?” I asked.

“We’ll find out tomorrow, I suppose,” she said. “It might actually make it easier on me when I’m back in Boston. If they’re living separately, they can’t watch me all the time.”

“I could get a week away,” Lissa said. “Jack feels like he really owes us, even though none of the sickness was his fault. My job is flexible and with a phone and laptop the store doesn’t really care where I am. But with one of you in Boston and one in Omaha, where would I spend my week?”

“We’re going to have to tough it out and get back home as soon as possible,” I said. We kissed in pairs and together, reveling in being held and comforted by our lovers.

“Home,” Lissa whispered. “Do you really think of it as home, Tony?”

“It’s where the heart is, as they say,” I answered. “When Mom and Dad talk about us going home for the summer, it seems more like going away for a visit.”

“My mom has started packing up our house,” Melody said. “I expect it’s the last time I’ll ever go back to the place I grew up. She wants to put it on the market before the fall buying season.”

“Loves,” Lissa whispered. “We’ve talked around this before, but never put the real question in words. I think it’s my part to make it explicit.” We looked at Lissa and she kissed us both again. “Will you live with me, share my house, and move in with the boys and me? Both of you?”

I glanced at Melody and she had the biggest grin on her face I’d ever seen. I was pretty sure it was reflected on mine. She beat me to Lissa’s lips so I settled for nibbling on our lover’s neck until she squirmed from the tickling.

“Yes!” both Melody and I told her.

“But we have to share more than your house, Lissa,” I said. “It means really being a family. I know Melody and I won’t be able to hold down great jobs while we’re trying to get degrees, but I have housing and food allowances in my scholarship. I want to contribute to the cost of the household and rent.”

“I do, too,” Melody said. “We have to pay for housing regardless. I don’t want to move in and just mooch off of you.”

“Oh, sweethearts,” Lissa said. “You know I’d just say don’t worry about it, but even from my side, I know how important it is to be partners in this. We’ll work it out. I just want you with me.”

Eventually we slept, woke, made love again, showered, and met my parents for breakfast—on time.

Mom was great! She walked right past me and swept Lissa and Melody together into a hug that had ‘family’ written all over it. She didn’t hesitate trying to figure out protocol over whether to give the oldest, prettiest, closest, or friendliest girl first greeting. She captured them both and pretty much dragged them away from me toward their booth. Dad grinned and gave me a hug before turning to look at the women.

“We’ll be lucky to see any of the three of them for the rest of the day,” he said.

“But Dad, you haven’t met Melody yet.” I dragged Melody out of Mom’s grip for a minute and said, “Sweetheart, I have two parents and you have to meet Dad, too. Dad, this is Melody; Melody, Saul.”

“I’m so happy to meet you both in person!” Melody squealed, hugging my father.

“Hi, Saul,” Lissa said, coming back to him. “It’s good to see you again.” Dad gave as good as he got when Lissa and Melody hugged him and we finally got settled.

“Well, I guess I don’t have to introduce anybody to Mom,” I said. She’d positioned the girls on either side of her, leaving Dad and me to share the bench on the other side of the booth.

“Oh, we’re old friends now,” Mom said. “I talk to these girls more often than I do my own son.” My eyebrows shot up. I had no idea they were talking to Mom that often. “Now, how are the boys?” she asked.

After the Intercollegiate and our experience with Melody’s parents, we decided that we had to tell my folks about the boys right away. We’d sent them the same picture that we sent to Mr. Anderson and they were just as excited about having two little boys to dote over as at my having two beautiful girlfriends.

“I hope you don’t mind us coming for a little visit this fall,” Mom said. “I so want to meet everyone!”

“Why don’t you come for Thanksgiving?” Lissa asked. “That will give time for Tony and Melody to get settled back in school, and I’ll be done with The Open. It’s in October and things will be pretty crazy before that.”

Just that quickly it was agreed that my folks would visit us for Thanksgiving. I thought that was pretty cool. My parents were coming to visit my girlfriends and me in our home for a holiday! Wow!

Mom and Dad were pretty amazing. I’d never doubted how much they loved me and supported me, but my first year in college had left me in such a deep depression that there were times I couldn’t force myself to pick up the phone to call them. I got so caught up in feeling like I had to be independent and that calling home was a sign of my failure. With Melody and Lissa’s help, I realized that part of my depression was feeling cut off from the incredible support I’d always had from my family. I loved them like crazy and I was sure my being away at school had been as hard on them as on me.

After we’d caught up with how the boys were doing now that the illness had passed, we ordered breakfast and caught up on everything else, including my parents having to deliver a blow-by-blow description of my four matches.

“I really want to go back over for the finals tonight,” I said. I hadn’t felt compelled to sit through every match up to this time, but the Division B finals would be at 3:00 and 4:30, the women’s Division A final at six-thirty, and the men’s at eight o’clock. I definitely wanted to be there for the last two.

“How many tickets will we need, then,” Dad asked. “I’ll call over and reserve them.”

“Allison left Lissa her credentials, and Coach Jacobson left his for you, Dad. So we’ll need tickets for Mom, Melody, and the Andersons.”

“Oh, yes. And when will your parents be in, dear?” Mom asked Melody.

“About noon,” Melody said and then hesitated before going on. “I don’t know if they’ll go to the game tonight or not. My parents are ... um ... not as ... accepting as you are, I’m afraid.”