Chapter 221

Work, it turned out, felt way better with more distance from the Joy situation. Not only was it simply more peaceful, but it gave you, Gemma and Sabrina time to focus on building more mentorship connections with Garrison. He had meetings with each of you, one a day, establishing new boundaries and mostly positing legal questions and giving you homework on ethics and philosophy.

What was more important, truth or loyalty? Should you prioritize short-term punishment or long-term reform? Should you value the individual or the community more when it comes to their rights?

Does mercy have a place in justice?

It was difficult stuff that ended up sparking debates among the three of you both at work and when you got together with the girls individually or in a group. And the fact that you didn’t always agree, were able to argue and always feel heard and valued at the end of each discussion, left you feeling light in the chest and head.

Eric was back from his trip and raved on Monday morning about going on his little podcast tour, showing you three and Andy a bunch of pictures of him as he rattled off the names of people you had never heard of like they were major celebrities. By Tuesday he was planning his own podcast and you had to turn him down about co-hosting, but offered to help him research what he needed to get started equipment-wise - it turned out it wasn’t much more than a smartphone with a decent plug-in microphone, but of course that wasn’t enough for him. Eric wanted top-quality equipment so he would look professional.

The flip side of things was that while he was getting excited about the podcasting (which also kept him distracted from asking questions about the mentorship thing with Garrison), he was also left feeling a little hollow because by mid-week he wasn’t getting nearly as many shout outs and likes on his social media platforms. The connections were drying up.

You worried he was going to get hungry for more content and chase the endorphin dragon.

Sabrina took you out on Tuesday for a quiet date night at the movies, and you held hands and made out in the theatre and couldn’t tell Gemma a single thing about the movie the next day. Then Gemma took you out on Wednesday night to the same movie and made you sit and watch it, and it turned out it was really good - then the two of you fucked back at your place, and she fell asleep with your cum on her face and woke up in a panic the next morning needing to shower badly.

Thursday night you’d been hoping to spend time with both of them, but they apologized because they needed to do a Girl’s Night with Becks because apparently her ‘situationship’ had broken up and Gemma and Sabrina wanted the cheer her up. Eric, catching wind that Gemma was ‘blowing you off’ for a Girl’s Night, cornered you in the kitchen and went on a mini-rant about how you needed to be careful because guys who let their girls go out without them were asking to be cheated on.

You realized quickly that it wasn’t a discussion, and he was repeating some sort of talking points he’d picked up from somewhere, so you just let him talk himself out, thanked him for his concern, and went back to work.

The fact that Gemma and Sabrina both kept you up to date with pictures from the bar all night, including both of them crashing at Becks’ place that night for a slumber party and then sneakily taking a picture of Sabrina eating out Gemma in the bathroom of Becks’ apartment late at night, had you very much not worried about your girlfriends cheating on you.

Friday, finally, you could be your unit together. Gemma had arranged your plans and brought you out to a little hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant that turned out to be run by a lovely Polish family. The place was only half-full despite the fact that the food was delicious and you had to guess it was because of the kitschy decor that looked like it hadn’t been updated since at least the 80s.

The three of you had been happily debating Garrison’s latest ethical dilemma he’d set up based on current events - whether Parents had the right, legally, to dictate what schools taught or didn’t teach their children. The three of you weren’t really that far apart, mostly landing somewhere in the centre of the issue, and found yourselves hopping the fence back and forth in the discussion as you talked each other around with one point or another. You all agreed that it was too nuanced a case to come to a decision that night as dessert was served by the cute Polish waitress.