Chapter 15

Sunday 29 May 2022

Julian’s alarm went off in her ear at 6:30am, and Larissa dragged herself out of sleep. She was lying against Julian, still all sticky, and there were people on either side of her. She kissed Julian awake, and then they carefully threaded their way through all the bodies, trying not to tread on anyone. As they were doing that, two other friends stood up. Sarah and Lucy, who followed them up the corridor into the wet area.

“Do last night’s rules still apply?” Sarah asked. “We’d love one last shower with you before we go.”

“Of course,” Larissa said, though she hadn’t intended to. But for these two? They squeezed under the shower, and kissed each other.

“How are you doing?” Larissa asked them. “We didn’t get to talk to you last night.”

“That’s why the shower,” Lucy said. As they hugged and washed each other, Sarah and Lucy told them that they were having a lot of fun. They were doing enough massage that they could live on the road indefinitely, they had a network of friends travelling the same path that they saw regularly, Lucy was fully healthy again, and their relationship was better than it ever had been.

“That’s great,” Larissa said. “How are you getting on with your families?”

“Sarah’s family are great,” Lucy said, “and we stayed at their place Friday night, and had breakfast and lunch with them yesterday. It was lovely.”

“And today,” Sarah said, “we’re having brunch with Lucy’s mum and dad.” Her dad!?

“Really?” Julian said. “How do you feel about that?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since that party where we first kissed you,” Lucy said to Julian. “I said to Sarah after that night, I’m not wasting my time with him now that I’ve met some genuinely nice guys. Sarah’s dad’s been my goto dad.”

Julian kissed her gently under the water. “I have mixed feelings about that,” he said. “Of course you shouldn’t waste time with dead relationships, and I want you always to be safe, because you’re super special to us, and Sarah, but it’s still sad that you have nothing to do with your dad. I mean, we know why, but still. Like you said to us, dad’s are important. So are you OK with meeting him?”

“Mum says dad’s going to apologise, and he wants to rebuild his relationship with me. And she’s sacrificing her chance for close time with her daughter for it, so I have to respect that. But of course, I’m pretty nervous about it.”

Julian nodded. “Right. Well, if it’s not working, and you’ve given it a decent chance, and you need to, we say you can walk out. Don’t be afraid of causing a scene, we want you to be safe.” He kissed Lucy gently again, and then Larissa kissed her too.

“Thanks, both of you. You’re so good to us, and we love you deeply,” Sarah told them. “You look after us so well.” Then she pointed at her phone over on the shelf. “Can you take a photo of us kissing in the shower? She did, a photo of the two of them kissing, Julian in the background looking down and smiling at them, with water everywhere.

“Today’s kissing photo?” she asked, and Sarah nodded.

When they stopped kissing, Sarah said, “We have a question for you. There’s been a couple of guys on the road, really gentle loving types, and Lucy’s actually thought about us doing a threesome with them, she wants to blow my mind. But both times, she’s backed out because she doesn’t want to cheat on Julian. We don’t want to do that, he means way more to us than those guys do. Not that you made any promises to us, but you’re both just so special, you know?”

“Oh, Lucy,” Julian said, “that’s lovely, but you don’t need to worry about that. If you like a guy enough to feel like letting him love you both the way you both deserve, you should go for it!”

Lucy turned to Larissa. “He’d say that anyway because he’s so nice. Should I believe him?”

“Of course, he would only tell you that if it was true. You should do it. It won’t change our opinion of you. You’re picking up girls for a threesome regularly, right? So why would picking up a guy be any different?”

Lucy pursed her lips. “I don’t know. It just is. I’ve only ever been in bed with a girl being thoroughly banged by a guy once, and it was you two. Watching you get it from Julian like that from underneath him...”

“It’s lovely that was so special for you,” Larissa said to them, “but I get that pretty regularly. Or I’ll go nuts.” They giggled for that. “So if you meet a guy you want to lie underneath while he does that to Sarah, you really should let that happen.” Bingo, she scored a hit with that one. “Just make sure you kiss Sarah really hard while it’s happening, so she’s totally overwhelmed.”

That got Lucy and Sarah going properly, and since last night’s rules applied, Julian held Lucy from behind by her tits, and kissed her from behind, and Larissa kissed her from in front, and Sarah when down on her in the shower, and she came really hard.

“Wow,” Lucy said, “that was an awesome one. Sarah, your turn!”

When Sarah was done, Lucy said, “OK, your turn!”

Larissa frowned. “We really have to go, sorry. But I can go down on Julian, that’ll be quick!”

Lucy and Sarah both laughed, but it was. With them taking turns kissing him, and Larissa’s tongue on his balls, he came down her throat in no time.

“You miss out!” Sarah said.

“Oh, I had a great time,” Larissa said, smiling. “But we really need to go.”

Julian and Larissa kissed them goodbye, threw clothes on randomly and rushed out the door, home to get a change of clothes, ready for a busy day.

They met Zali at a cafe with a private room at 8am. In addition to Zali, the four of them were joined by Chez. Once they’d all said hello to each other, Joe and Layna told the story of visiting the White House, who said what. Larissa was surprised how good they were at recalling the details. Zali was good follower too, several times asking them to recall the exact words that were used. They finished the story at the point where the limousines picked them up.

Zali thought about that, and said, “OK. So first of all, well done. What happened there is typical politics, the kind of stuff I deal with all the time. But things escalated really quickly for you, and they really piled it on toward the end. Also, you’re just not used to this the way I’ve had to become. So that is more pressure than I’ve had in a single sitting. I’m really impressed you held up, and didn’t fold, and didn’t bite back.”

She got a round of smiles for that.

“Can we do a little bit more fact finding?” Sure. “What did your billionaire think?” Layna explained what he said, both before and after. “OK. That was very honourable of him to warn you. I think I’d like to meet Niall.”

“All right. So let’s talk about your options.” Zali guided them through this process - first, they listed all the possible things they could choose. Then, for each option, they listed pros and cons from their perspective, how their fans would feel about each, how it would play in the media, both best and worst cases for that. Also, how it would enable political enemies to attack them, and how they could leverage the option for more exposure or connections. Larissa watched her guide Layna, Chez and Julian to think much more broadly and systematically about their options.

When they finished, Layna said, “Wow, Zali, I wish we could pay you properly for this. That was worth much more than your dollar!”

“A dollar?” Larissa said.

“Yes. Paying Zali a dollar means that she has to declare that she advised us to the parliament register, and we can say that she did without getting her in trouble. Just means that it’s done right, but I couldn’t get her to accept more than a dollar.” She slid the dollar across the table. “Of course, her office will have to do the paperwork, so she’s losing badly on the deal.”

Zali smiled. “I’m winning big time. Money is irrelevant here. So what’s important to you here?”

They talked about what is important to them, and Zali insisted that they figure out a series of clear statements that best represented their principles, and that they all agreed with. When they’d done that, she gave them back several hand written sheets of clearly laid out hand written text that summarised the discussion they’d had. “Ok. So you make a choice, and set out to execute on it. Do you need to make any commitments to them? What commitments might they ask for, and what wouldn’t you make?” They talked about that for a while, with Zali commenting on their thoughts and choices.

“OK. Now the really hard question for you. You make an agreement with them, and then you realise that you missed something, and it’s not working for you for some reason. Or maybe you didn’t miss anything, but the fans react differently to how you expected. What are you going to do about that?”

They talked about that, and when Julian said that they’d just have to try harder, Zali said, “Right, I think this is the most difficult part of leadership. You agree to pursue a strategy, and then it doesn’t work out for you. So you do a review between yourselves, and agree that you could’ve pursued it harder. So then you do, and things get worse. Or not, right?” They were nodding. “The hardest thing in leadership is to decide when it’s time to double down on the strategy, to try harder, and when it’s time to pull back and do something different. You want an example, look at the Liberals. They got a thumping in the election, right, kicked out because of how they acted?” Yes, they were all nodding. “And what have they done since? They’ve agreed that they didn’t do what they were doing hard enough, right?” More nodding, with grins for their stupidity. “So they’re going to do all the wrong things harder, rather than change their strategy. And you can laugh at them, like lots of people are, but the question you should ask yourself is, ‘when it’s my time, why won’t I fall into that same trap?”

Hmm ... that put a different perspective on things for them.

“Zali,” Layna asked, “where does us working with the Americans stand with regard to the Australian government?”

“I have no idea right now. I’m not even sure who’s going to be climate change or energy minister right now. The PM just got back from Japan today, so we expect that the full cabinet will be announced tomorrow. I’m meeting with the other independents through this week, and we’ll be making our plans. Can I tell them about this?”

“Yes, sure. We’re releasing a video this week, and I’ll certainly be saying something about going to the White House on it. I’m not sure how much, but you’ve clarified our thinking a lot on this, it’s been great. So you can talk about it, and tell them more about it. And ask if they want us to be involved with the group. We certainly want to support you, and we’re concerned that the government here will do what they’re doing in USA, a whole bunch of trivial things that make it look like progress is being made, but it’s not real enough.”

“Yes, that’s our primary concern too. I’ll raise the subject and see what they say. While I’m here, Larissa, I heard from Deanna this morning. She told me about last night.”

“Oh? What did she think?”

“Well, she really liked the way you worked through it with your friends, and the discussion that you had. She feels really good about that, and we’ll work on it in Canberra this week. And then she loved the dancing, it really moved her a lot.”

“Yes, she said she wished she was young again. I said she wasn’t too old, but she didn’t let herself go like that. Maybe next time.”

Zali grinned at her. “Only you could say that. She did tell me what you were all wearing. But maybe next time, sure.”

“Hey, it was all my friends, and we all enjoyed it.”

“I heard that you did. Anyway, I’m really glad that you’re on board.”

When they finished talking to Zali about her own experiences in Canberra, Larissa and Julian took off to church. They actually arrived a bit early, and when they walked in, Tinky saw them. She rushed over and hugged Larissa. “Oh, thank you so much for looking after Steph. Are you OK now?”

“Oh, lovely to see you Tinky. Sure, I’m fine. Really, I was happy to look after Steph, and she’s doing as well as could be expected, so I’m fine too.”

“I saw you in the magazine too. You looked great.”

“Thanks. I had lots of help.”

Then Tinky asked her about the war on alcohol thing in the magazine, and when Larissa said she thought it was going to be a public campaign, Tinky found Vicki and the Vicki found Tim, and they ended up out the back talking about it.

“I’m really pleased you’re going to do this,” Tim told her after she described the plan. “We can’t say much about it, but alcohol is such a problem even in the church, let alone the general community.” Even in the church? “Sure, Jesus’ followers should do better, but they don’t always. Anything you can do, we’ll support for sure.”

Larissa frowned. “Willow said last night that she thought it would be a problem here, because it’s quite pro-sex, and because I’ll explicitly say that even a pick-up, specially a pick-up, we should demand performance from the guys, and give it back. She thinks that won’t sit right with some people.”

Vicki nodded seriously. “I’m sure she’s right.”

“Will that be a problem for you? Or for me?”

“I don’t think it should be,” Tim said. “You’re not encouraging people to do it more, right?”

“No, and maybe they’ll do it less. I’m not saying that, but the kind of girls stuck in that drinking pickup culture, if they have to decide to not do both at once, they’ll hopefully pull back a bit from both, and build better relationships, a more stable life. I would’ve. Maybe.”

“We should get in front of it, then?” Vicki asked Tim.

“Maybe. Do you have any timeline?” He asked Larissa.

“No, I mean, I would’ve thought it would take weeks to set up, but they’re in a tearing hurry because people are already talking about it, and acting on it, and to do with the post-election dynamics. Oh, and because I went to the White House, which has brought its own kind of fame. Well, and that shooting. So I have no idea. But it’s kind of already out there - copies of my talk are running around, and the magazine ran with the core of the idea.”

“OK. Thanks Larissa. I’ll think about it. Vicki, can you talk to as many of the women’s council as you can?”

After that, Larissa went out and hung with the teenagers, who all wanted to talk about the White House and the shooting, of course.

Then Steph and Xander turned up, and she tried to hold both Steph and Rachel at the same time. She discovered that this was Steph’s first time back at church because of covid and the other mums wanted to tell Steph how much they were feeling for her, and thinking of her, and they all wanted to hold both of them so she let go and then discovered that it wasn’t just the younger teenagers who wanted to talk about the White House. It was a relief when she finally got to sit down for the start of Church.

Church was normal until announcements time. After he’d done the normal announcements, Tim said, “A couple of extra announcements today, everyone. Firstly, this went out on a normal channels, but Steph and Xander suffered a very sad loss the week before last, and Steph had a little stillborn boy named Daffy. Steph asked me to thank you all for your loving words and support, it really did make her feel better. She also asked me to tell you that Jesus has gifted her with a very close family who looked after her with lots of love, and that in particular, we should all give a prayer of thanks for Larissa and Julian and the bottomless love they have for everyone, because during her loss, while Xander was stuck in Sydney for a day, Steph benefitted from that love greatly. So we’ll be doing that at the close, thanks Julian and Larissa.”

Well, that was very nice.

“While we’re talking about Larissa, can you and Julian please come up on the stage?” No doubt this was about the campaign. She grimaced and dragged Julian up to follow her up there. “Thanks, Julian and Larissa. I brought you up here to thank you for something else, but also, I think we need to explain it to everyone. Everyone, the week before last, Larissa must have been busy, because somehow, while looking after Steph, she also found time to appear at a women’s dinner in Canberra where she spoke about the violence too many women suffer.” A big photo of her and Layna on the carpet appeared above her. “Larissa, tell us what you proposed about alcohol.”

Larissa give a very quick summary of what she said.

“Thanks. And then this week, Larissa agreed reluctantly to be part of a public campaign encouraging just that: that women only agree to sleep with men who haven’t had more than a one drink, with the idea that it will move our culture away from mixing drinking into relationships. Before I go on, I want you to know that this is a problem for all of us, inside and outside the church. The amount of violence out there breaks my heart, and it should break all of our hearts. Particularly sexual violence. When Jesus talks about being loving to each other, well, it’s pretty much as far as away from that as you can get. So we want to thank Larissa for putting herself forward to do that, it’s very brave. I’m sure you can imagine but she’s going to get lots of attention, and some of that could be pretty bad. James and Sophie tell me that you might hear pretty bad stories about Larissa from the past, but she’s chosen to not live like that anymore, and that’s what Jesus’ forgiveness is about, and that’s why you’re doing this, right, Larissa?”

“Very much that’s exactly why we’re doing it.”

“Thanks. Some of you might find it uncomfortable because Larissa will be telling people to enjoy sex, to do it well. Even if it’s a pickup, a one nighter. I understand how you might feel, but keep this in mind: she’ll be telling them to drink less when they do it, to build better relationships. And if they do that, over time, they’ll do it less. But whether they do it less or not, their lives will be better, a step closer to what Jesus wants, and we’ll all be better off. So I’m going to ask you to think about the big picture, and to think about what Jesus wants from us, and to focus on the positive part of the message, and accept the other part as a necessary step to reach out to little lost lambs that Jesus loves very much. And I’m asking you to support Julian and Larissa, which means, if people ask you about her, and they very much might, please tell them about the bottomless love they have for everyone, because that’s why they’re doing it, and that’s the Julian and Larissa that we know in this church, right?”

Larissa wasn’t sure whether Tim expected it, but Cheryl immediately called out, “That’s right!” and that started a chorus of people supporting it and then someone started it, and it turned into a applause for them. Well, that was very nice.

When it stopped, Julian said, “Thanks everyone, we really appreciated that show of support. Larissa didn’t want to stick her neck out for this, but too many women are hurt, and we just don’t see how we can’t. So we appreciate your support, and thanks, Tim and Vicki.”

And really, Tim and Vicki were on top of their game - they’d pulled that together pretty quick. She gave them both appreciative smiles and then Julian dragged her back to their seat.

After church, lots of people wanted to tell that they supported her, and she was doing a good thing. She knew the ones that wouldn’t approve, they were the ones not talking to her, but that was OK. Tinky asked her to come to youth group to talk about it, and she said she’d do that on Friday night.

Once things had slowed down, they had a family lunch on the grass in front of the church, just the family, since they missed out on their normal Saturday evening, and they did it with Xander’s family because of Steph’s loss. Their first family get together since Steph lost the baby. Each of them talked about how they felt about it, so they could share their grief, and their strong feeling for how the families pulled together to deal with it. Steph still felt sad for her mum and dad, missing out on their holiday, but that was their part of the sacrifice.

Then discussion turned to Larissa’s decision to do the campaign, and the whole family’s commitment to it, which Larissa very much appreciated. She was surprised to find out that Amelia’s parents were just as supportive too. They’d had words after church with Amelia’s aunt, who was still very unhappy with Larissa, but they were on board. Sweet.

Well, time to head off to Traralgon. Their first task was to meet with Louise and her two daughters at a cafe near the centre of town. Louise introduced her daughters Charlene and Amara, and Larissa introduced Julian. Both daughters were almost star-struck to be talking to both Julian and Larissa, and said that they were huge fans of both them. “Oh,” Larissa said, “why are you fans of Julian? What’s good about him?” Louise laughed for that, and Charlene and Amara started talking about all the things Julian had done. They were serious fans of Layna’s project, and definite fans of Julian, and she enjoyed herself for a few minutes drawing them out on that. Let Julian be the one getting the attention this time. Then Julian managed to switch them to talking about Larissa, and they’d watched all her videos too. Definitely fans.

Once that was over, Louise gently moved the subject around to alcohol and sex. Larissa soon saw why Louise had wanted to move back home - even her younger daughter had friends who were drinking, and the older one had friends dragging her into a destructive lifestyle. And Amara was never going to do well academically, had trouble focusing, so it was extra relevant to her. Here was a chance for them to reset, and Larissa focused her full attention on helping them adjust their expectations, and to be strong to reject alcohol and bad relationships. She understood why Louise had wanted her to talk to them, and reading between the lines, she could see that Louise’s involvement with Bob back before the girls hadn’t left her in a good place. Well, she could only work towards healing for her now.

Larissa wondered what Louise’s daughters made of her relationship with Bob and Mary, but she soon found out when Charlene asked her how she fitted in with them. Larissa explained her mum’s love story with Mary, and what happened in her own family, and now where they fitted in. When she finished Amara frowned and asked, “So how do you go with the rest of the family?”

“Well, it hasn’t been easy. At first, their kids didn’t like us, and they tried to ignore us and avoid us. Really, they weren’t sure how to act toward us, and they were a bit anxious about that.” Both Charlene and Amara were nodding for that. “Have you met my brothers and sisters?” No, they hadn’t. “They’re really nice, actually, but they do like things to be easy. So it was up to us to keep trying, and now we’re pretty good friends. Want to hear a funny story?” They certainly did, so Larissa told them about the holiday to the beach, which they did find pretty funny. When she finished that, she asked Louise, “Would you like me to introduce Charlene and Amara to them?”

“I think that’d be great. We’re definitely planning to stay here. The girls have started school here, and my parents are loving having us back. What’s going on with Bob and Mary and your mum won’t last very long, but it would still be good.”

“OK. I’ll work on that. How’s school going? Got any friends yet?” They talked about school and friends for a while, getting to know the girls.

Suddenly Julian said, “Babe, I’m feeling like a coffee.” He turned to the girls. “You two want coffees?” When they nodded, Julian turned back to Larissa and said, “Babe, get me a coffee please. Louise, can you help her? The girls and I are going to fan-girl about Larissa.”

Charlene and Amara burst into laughter, so Larissa stood up, and said, “Guess we better do that, Louise. Come on.”

As they walked away from the table, Louise said, “What on earth was that about?”

“Well, my man understood that I wanted to talk to you one on one, and he wanted to set it up in a way that your girls didn’t realise.” Ah, Louise got it. “Because what we heard is concerning. Given your history with Bob, and what you said to us about coming home, and now you’re having a temporary affair with Mary, and given Bob and Mary’s power and influence here ... you can see why we might be concerned for you.”

Louise gave her a thoughtful look. “You really do care about relationships, don’t you? I’ve been looking forward to finding out what last night was about.” She paused, but Larissa wasn’t going to get distracted by that. Louise sighed and said, “I could see that you figured it out, my life hasn’t been that great since Bob ended our affair. On the rebound, I married the girls’ father.” She grimaced. “Not one of my better choices. He was an Olympian too, but I discovered after we had Charlene that it really was all about him. And maybe it was all about me too, back then, so we slowly slid downhill. Alcohol.” Louise looked at her significantly as she said that, and Larissa understood. “After Amara was born, it got pretty bad, and eventually I realised that I really had to figure life out for myself, and I left him, and got a job coaching. Working and looking after the girls was as much as I could do, though I had a few flings with other coaches, working around their lives, kids and marriages. Then, a few weeks ago, my life all blew up, an affair with a married colleague was busted open, his husband found out, and I got sacked for it. Not officially, at least. And so I went to that women’s dinner wondering what the hell came next, and then you arrived in my life.”

She stopped for them to order coffee, and then continued. “So I fell into Mary’s arms very willingly. I figured that if I get some good sex and human contact that’ll be good for me, and it has a nice poetry, which is why Mary’s doing it. And of course it’s only temporary, their triangle is very stable. So I knew that going into it. All of that would’ve been enough, and you wouldn’t have to worry about me.”

“Oh, but I would, from what you’ve said.”

“Yes, no doubt you would too. But what I didn’t expect is just how healing your mum has been for me. I totally underestimated her, you know?”

Larissa nodded. “Everyone does.”

“She likes that, you know. Family is enough for her, she doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Above all, you love her, and she’s very secure in that. Anyway, I don’t know exactly where things will end up with Bob and Mary, but I know that I’ll always be very close friends with your mum, and that’s giving me real strength. What an amazing woman!”

“That’s really lovely for me to hear, and I’m glad it’s good for you. What are your girls making of it?”

“Well, they know that I have affairs, and about Mary. I’ve tried to teach them that this isn’t the best way to live your life, and I steered them away from taking sports super seriously, it’s just not good for you. Well, it wasn’t for me, anyway. And I thought they were listening to me until the last few months, and then I realised, maybe my actions are speaking louder than my words. So leaving Sydney and moving here ... I’m hopeful that I can reset for all of us.”

Larissa nodded. “But given what you’re doing with Mary, you’re not actually resetting yet, right?”

Louise sighed again. “No. I’m not. I’m not sure what to do. What do you think I should do?”

“I don’t think I’m the best person to advise you. What do I know about it?”

“Hah, you might be the best person I’ve ever met to advise me, based on what your mum says. No doubt you’ll tell me to stop drinking completely.”

“Sure. As far as I’ve seen, that’s always a good thing to do. But what are you going to do for a job?”

“Maybe I’ll work at the high school, coaching, they’re working on the paperwork. Which would be great.”

“Well, being in an affair with Mary would be a problem for that, right?” Louise nodded. “Maybe you go clean once that’s confirmed. Call it off with Mary and mum and just be friends, stop drinking, be an exemplary example for your daughters and the other students. And get me to come in and talk about drinking. I hear the stories from my friends here, it’s worse than ever after covid.”

She could see Louise thinking about that, and then their coffees were ready. They took them back to the table, and discovered that Julian was telling them in great detail about going to visit the White House. They shared the coffee around and then listened to Julian finish up by pointing out that all the crazy things that happened that they’d talked about followed from living their principles, and why they followed them without compromise. He worked those principles out with Larissa because any girl he paid attention to had to know and live to their principles. And wow, those girls, it was clear: they both had big crushes on Julian. No surprise from Larissa’s point of view. No close father, and then presented with Julian who was giving them his whole attention: how could they not fall in love with him? And from Larissa’s viewpoint, that was a very good thing for them, so she spent the remaining few minutes they had doing her best to feed it and talk about and draw out the best features of her man.