Chapter 58: Aren\'t You Curious?

December 6, 2002, Chicago, Illinois

🎤 Steve

"Were you surprised none of the girls wanted to come along?" Kara asked as I turned onto Hyde Park Avenue to head for the Dan Ryan early on Friday morning.

"No," I replied. "They have their own lives, and they'll see everyone over Christmas break. The boys all have things going on this weekend, though they're usually less likely to go with us than the girls. Not to mention Matthew was just in Cincinnati and saw Grandpa A and Jake."

"Did you let Sheriff Emmy know we're going to be in town?"

"When I called, she said Mike had let her know and invited her and her daughter to dinner tomorrow with Mike and his family."

"His colleague, Clarissa Saunders, will join us as well," Jessica added. "Along with her wife, who runs the Emergency Communications Center for the City of Columbus. Clarissa's son will be there as well."

"Not 'their son'?" I asked. "I thought her wife was a long-term relationship."

"They don't handle it the same way Jennifer and Josie do," Jessica replied. "It's Mike's son."

"Innnteresting!" I chuckled.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Tiger!" Jessica said mirthfully. "He was conceived artificially."

"He has three girls with his wife, plus his son?" Suzanne asked.

"Two with his current wife. His first wife died the day she gave birth to Mike's eldest daughter."

"Jesus," Suzanne breathed. "Complications?"

"She suffered an intraparenchymal bleed due to a congenital arteriovenous malformation," Jessica replied. "That's a vascular anomaly where an artery and vein are directly connected, rather than via capillaries. Without the capillaries, there is no dampening of the pressure of blood moving from the artery to the vein. That deprives the surrounding area of the usual function of capillaries, which can lead to a buildup of carbon dioxide, and a lack of nutrients to cells.

"Over time, it grows into a nidus which has no capillaries and is extremely fragile. His wife's blood pressure went up, which caused the AVM to expand and bleed due to the abnormally direct connections between high-pressure arteries and low-pressure veins. It was within the medulla oblongata, and that's routinely fatal due to damage caused to the vagus nerve, which is crucial to circulation and pulmonary function.

"He raised Rachel, his eldest daughter, as a single dad for about sixteen months, then married Kris. Kris adopted Rachel, and is the only mom Rachel has ever known, but they did explain the circumstances to Rachel when she was five. Mike and Kris had two girls together, Charlotte and Noémie, and then he and Clarissa had Aleksandr, who goes by Alexi. Alexi calls Mike 'Dad' and Clarissa 'Mom', but calls Tessa, Clarissa's wife, 'Aunt Tessa'.

"French and Russian?" I asked.

"Mike is half Russian, half Dutch, Kris is French, and three of her four grandparents were Russian. Clarissa calls Mike 'Petrovich' and decided on a Russian name for their son."

"Not quite as complicated as our situation. Mike's Orthodox; how does that work with church?"

"You'll have to ask Mike that question," Jessica replied. "I honestly don't pay any attention to that."

"You mentioned he served his Residency in McKinley. How did he end up in Rutherford?"

"When he completed his Fellowship, the Medical Director at Rutherford Regional Hospital called and offered him the Chief Attending spot. Mike's originally from just outside Rutherford, so he took it, on condition that they hire Clarissa, which they did. She's Chief of Internal Medicine."

"Out of curiosity, why is Mike not Chief of Emergency Medicine?"

"He is. As a smaller, regional hospital, they just don't have a formal position the way UofC does. Mike reports directly to the Medical Director. They're working on their Level I certification. Mike and Clarissa started the Residency program at the hospital two years ago. That was a condition of accepting the job."

"How does that work?" Suzanne asked. "If you aren't a teaching hospital, you don't have Residents, right?"

"Correct. Everyone was an Attending, but they were small and were a Level III center until right before Mike was offered the position."

"How old are the kids?" I asked.

"Rachel is fifteen, Charlotte is twelve, Noémie is ten, and Alexi is seven. Mike's sister and her family are joining us as well."

"How many kids do they have?" Kara asked.

"Two," I replied. "Michael is fifteen and Jordan is twelve. And Emmy's daughter Carrie is twelve as well."

"The girls should have come along," Kara said. "It would be good for them to meet all these kids."

"I believe Matthew has met some of them," Jessica observed. "Mike mentioned his daughter and some of her friends, along with Mike's adopted niece, went to the zoo with Matthew and Chelsea."

"Small world," I said. "Matthew never mentioned that, but I'm not surprised given the Orthodox kids who visited him likely know the Loucks family."

"Just so you know, Kris goes by her maiden name, which is traditional in France, and their three kids have Korolyov-Loucks as their surname, and Mike's son has Saunders-Loucks as his surname. Of course, in Russian style, his kids all have patronymics similar to what you did with the boys."

"What else are we doing besides lunch today at Joyce's house, lunch tomorrow with your other friends, and dinner with Mike and his family?" Suzanne asked.

Those other friends were Martin, Vickie, Cecily, and James, and James was going to spend some time with Jessica discussing an Attending position in Chicago, as Cecily was planning to attend IIT. She wanted to work for me, which was a slightly tricky problem, given the rule Liz had made about girls I'd been with, but I could easily point to James being Jessica's colleague and Cecily being his wife, which, by then, she would be. It was subterfuge, but I didn't feel Cecily should be punished for asking me for sex lessons.

"Spending the rest of the weekend in bed!" Kara declared. "What else?!"

Jessica and Suzanne both laughed, and I just shook my head.

"She does have a one-track mind!" Suzanne declared.

"Are ANY of you complaining?" Kara asked.

"Not me!" I declared quickly, causing all three of my wives to laugh.

"Tiger knows on which side his bread is buttered, that's for sure!" Jessica declared mirthfully.

"Tiger is not always a «jävla idiot»!" I declared.

"Did you decide if you were going to contact Danielle's friend?" Kara asked.

"I hadn't really given it much thought. I only mentioned it as a possibility, given our general agreement."

"You aren't at least a little curious about her 'dark fantasy'?"

I chuckled, "No, but YOU are!"

"I'd bet it's a 'daddy' fantasy," Jessica said.

"Gee, thanks," I deadpanned. "Because I'm old, so what else could it be, right?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Jessica declared.

"He's messing with you, Jess," Suzanne said. "It's the same thing he does with Penny!"

"Penny deserves it!" Jessica protested. "What did I do to deserve it?"

"Be born?" I suggested.

"TIGER!" Jessica growled.

"Oooh, I like the feisty tigress!" I declared.

"You can't win, Jess," Kara said. "He's perfected his teasing with Birgit, Jesse, and Penny."

"Hmph!" Jessica grumped.

"Do you have a problem with the 'daddy' fantasy?" Kara asked.

"Birgit sure doesn't!" Suzanne declared mirthfully. "And I suspect that would be what ultimately led to Steve not wanting to do that."

"On the contrary," Kara countered. "He wanted to, but knew he shouldn't, so he didn't."

"Actually," I said, "I never had the fantasy and never thought about it, except in the sense of knowing Birgit was going to ask. I didn't actually try to imagine what it would have been like. So I'm not sure 'wanting' is the right word, unless you're referring to wanting to make Birgit happy. But I drew that line and knew I'd say 'no' even before it was discussed."

"I know you don't do 'What if?' Kara said, "but might there have been circumstances where you would have?"

"Not that I can think of, because in that alternate reality, who knows what else might have happened? You would have to posit a world where Stephanie and I either were never together or it hadn't ended so badly, and one where Birgit was very different from the Birgit we know."

"Which is his exact problem with those kinds of speculations," Suzanne observed. "Back to Danielle's friend, it could also be bondage or S&M or some kind of cosplay fantasy."

"Or a rape fantasy," Jessica added. "Those are perversely very common."

"And strange," I replied. "Because rape is about violence and control, not about sex."

"I think you're conflating the reality with the fantasy," Jessica countered.

"Maybe," I replied. "And the only person to ask me to do that in the last twenty years was Alicija Czerwinski, and I turned her down flat."

"If you don't want to answer, it's OK, but you did do that for Jennifer in High School. Why then?"

"I was naïve and hadn't fully thought out my position," I replied. "I don't have a problem with light bondage, but that's different from a rape fantasy."

"Going back to the 'daddy fantasy'," Kara said, "you did a 'brother fantasy', right?"

"Yes, and while the sex was amazing, it led to problems between Suzana and Peter."

"But that was him, not her, right?"

"Yes. She was fine, both with the pretend and with the reality. He reacted badly afterwards."

"I think you should at least find out what her fantasy is," Kara encouraged.

"Of course you do!" I chuckled.

🎤 Birgit

"What are we doing after pizza tonight?" I asked Jesse.

"The guys all want to see Die Another Day, the Bond movie," he replied.

"Of course they do!" I declared. "They all have fantasies of drinking martinis, shaken, not stirred, killing bad guys, and banging Bond girls!"

"Halle Berry and Rosamund Pike are hot!" Jesse declared.

I rolled my eyes, "You don't need Bond girls! You have your choice of basically every girl at Kenwood Academy or The Lab School! Well, minus the lesbians."

"And you don't have your choice of any guy?" Jesse countered. "What about Pierce Brosnan?"

"He's OK, but the younger Sean Connery was to die for! And he's still good looking!"

"Mom One says a tuxedo makes just about any guy look hot!"

"Which Bond girl, if you had to choose?"

"Either Agent Triple X from The Spy Who Loved Me or Honey Ryder from Dr. No."

"Which actresses?" I asked.

"Barbara Bach and Ursula Andress. Barbara Bach is married to Ringo Starr."

"Let me guess, Tomás wants to see the movie."

"He said so, but knowing you, I'm positive you'd be able to convince him to do something else!"

"I haven't even been on a date with him!" I protested.

"And?" Jesse smirked.

"What-ever!" I replied, rolling my eyes. "I'm going to take a shower and get dressed."

I left the coach house and went back to the main house, then went up to my room. I opened my walk-in closet and thought about what to wear. I decided on royal blue underwear, navy chinos, a light blue blouse, and a navy blue scarf. I added white socks, a white belt, and white loafers. I put everything on the bed, then stripped off my clothes and checked myself in the full-length mirror.

"Birgit Adams, you are still sexy!" I declared.

I needed to trim my pubes, and also shave my legs and under my arms, so I got the electric razor and correct guide to make my blonde pubic hair the perfect length, then used a razor and gel to shave my legs and under my arms. I finished by using the razor to perfectly shape my pubes, then got into the shower. I washed my hair with cherry blossom shampoo and my skin with cherry blossom body wash. When I was clean and fresh, I got out, dried my body, then used a blow dryer on my hair.

"No man can resist you, Birgit!" I declared when I checked myself in the mirror before getting dressed.

I dressed, then went downstairs to let Natalie and Yuriko know I was leaving, then walked to the coach house so Jesse and I could walk to Giordano's together.

"Who's the lucky girl tonight?" I asked with a silly smile as Jesse and I left the coach house.

"Since CeCe left for college, I usually don't have a Friday night friend," Jesse replied.

"What about Zahra?" I asked.

"I'm having lunch with her tomorrow, but she wants to see the movie tonight and you know she has an 11:00pm curfew, so it's cutting things close already."

"We all have the curfew," I complained. "It's just that Dad doesn't enforce the city's curfew. We just have to be careful."

"Which means I might have to borrow the car to take Zahra home after the movie, because her parents won't accept her being even one minute late. Is Zaida joining us?"

"Just for dinner, as usual. Fangsu will be there, of course, and you know Missy has to be at her dad's house."

"We're going out a week from tomorrow."

"When do the playoffs start? I didn't check Dad's calendar."

"January 11th."

"You finished first in the league, right?"

"So long as we at least tie one from our two remaining games, but we plan to win both."

"I know I'm changing subjects, but when will you take the SAT and ACT?"

"In April. I thought about sooner, but if we go to regionals or state, I don't want to have to try to reschedule the tests when dates would be filled."

"UW-Madison with Jerry and Mia?"

"That's the plan, but it'll only be the first year, because they'll graduate at the end of my Freshman year."

We arrived at the restaurant and I went to sit next to Tomás, while Jesse sat next to Zahra.

[Rutherford, Ohio]
🎤 Steve

"The rooms are absolutely gorgeous," I said to Paul and Liz when we finished the tour. "And the suite is as nice as any top hotel I've seen."

"We'll leave you to it!" Liz said. "Enjoy your evening."

We unpacked, then went to The Yolk's On You for a light dinner. None of us were very hungry because Joyce had made a veritable feast for lunch with her and Jake.

"The one downside to the new rooms is that the six biggest rooms in the older part of the motel have the Magic Fingers beds!"

"YOU have magic fingers, Tiger!" Jessica declared.

"Yes, but the vibrating bed could be fun!" I countered. "But I'm sure we'll manage."

"What time are we leaving on Sunday?" Suzanne asked.

"I figured late morning so we could sleep in if we wanted," I said. "Anthony isn't expecting us until dinner, which gives us plenty of time for lunch with my dad."

"Did you gamble when you visited last time?" Jessica asked.

"Seriously?" Kara asked quickly. "With two college girls to blow on his 'dice'?"

"Not for money, I didn't," I replied. "And it wasn't that Aurora brought her friend Shannon, but that I feel it's too risky. You know that technically, even our poker tournaments at Guys' Night are illegal, right?"

"That's just so stupid!" Kara declared. "But that's why the buy-ins are locked in a box in your study in a locked drawer, and only chips are on the table. The same for your cash game afterwards."

"In theory, we could be caught, but that would mean someone from the group turning us in. What are the chances of that?"

"Zero!" Kara declared. "At the risk of triggering a rant, the government needs to butt out of consensual activities of ALL kinds."

"You'll get no argument from me!" I declared.

The waitress took our orders, which were salads for each of us, though we each ordered slightly different variations.

"Jess, are you going to be able to help James?" I asked.

"I think so. We'll have two Attending positions open in June, and with Mike's recommendation combined with mine, Dad will easily be able to make it happen."

"Mike is going to give up his Resident without a fight?"

"With Cecily accepted at IIT, James is leaving no matter what, so it's not as if Mike has a real choice. And he's known about this since Cecily and James began seeing each other two years ago."

"After expert instruction from Steve!" Kara tittered.

The waitress brought our salads, and we began eating.

"What will you do about your Consigliere?" Suzanne asked.

"Nothing. By the time Cecily comes to work at NIKA, she and James will be married, and six years will have passed. Cecily isn't going to say anything, and neither will I. Liz won't even ask, because Cecily will be a top student at IIT, have Dave's recommendation, and be the wife of one of Jessica's colleagues. So, unless one of the three of you rat me out, there won't be a problem, and none of you would do that.

"The main concern my Consigliere has is optics, especially since the Janice Parker debacle. But the three of you know I'm not involved with anyone who works at NIKA, with the exception of Elyse, and even with her, we haven't been together in quite some time. I have a feeling that if we are together again, it'll be on some very special occasion. It's just not who we are at this point."

"Does that bother you?" Jessica asked.

"No," I replied. "You know I've always allowed the girls to define the parameters of the relationship."

"You're really OK with that?" Kara asked.

"It's how I've been since I was fourteen," I replied. "And probably even before that. But it's also the case that together the four of us have created a very stable relationship, fulfilling what Bethany and I figured out in High School — that I was only truly stable with three women who were close to me."

"Don't forget your doses of virgin blood!" Kara smirked.

"Fewer and further between," I said. "And it's college-age girls who are interested now."

"And with the way society is going, that's not going to reduce your opportunities for virgins in a meaningful way. Not to mention the small cadre of High School girls who do find you interesting."