Chapter 3

Monday/Wednesday were late days for me. Peter still swam every morning at 5am but I didn't do that kind of crap. My first class Monday was at 11:45. Still, that Monday seemed unusually long with everything dragging on. I was just glad when I got home and had the house — and the TV — to myself. Even that got old after a while and I called Peter just to bug him. He didn't answer. Tuesday was more of the same until 3:45.

I got to class late — mostly 'cause I didn't want to meet her at the door — and sat on the opposite side of the room. I got started talking with the girl next to me, Maya, who was cute — very athletic looking — and asked her out after class. By the end of class, I figured it was safe to look in Ame's direction.

It was not.

She was looking at me. Cold. Closed. My throat went dry and my heart raced. Her head tilted slightly.

She could not want to speak to me. Luck like that I did not deserve.

When everyone else had left the room, she was still waiting. I thought fast. She liked strength, it seemed. I turned back to my desk and packed my stuff as if I didn't want to crawl over on my knees and beg for her forgiveness. I tried to settle my nerves as well as my books. When I walked over to her, I hoped I looked calmer than I felt.

"Uh..." I couldn't think of the first word to say.

"I didn't get my water today." She looked away from me and slowly, methodically, put away her books. "You were late."

"Uh, yeah, I, uh..."

"I dislike late."

" ... uh..."

"Don't be late again."

A second chance! She gave me a second chance. She liked me — enough to give me a second chance. "Yes, Ma'am." I tried not to grin; tried to be as cool as she was but I knew I was failing miserably. I didn't care.

"Alex!" Peter burst in which was a surprise as much for the 'who' as the 'how'. "Alex, dude, you are not gonna believe--" He stopped short when he saw Ame. My cousin's a bright boy and it only took a few seconds for him to regain his usual composure. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Alex, may I see you in the hall for just a moment?"

He was all but bouncing. He wasn't this jazzed about the damn Olympics. "What? Peter, you 'bout ta burst!"

"Yeah, yeah, hey is that Ame?" He was grinning.

"Yeah, so what up?"

"Cute. Very cute." He was actually fidgety.

"Peter! What the fuck is up?"

"Ok. So I haven't discussed this with you yet - totally unexpected - so if you don't agree, it's not a problem..."

"Peter, you don't have ta ask me anything." I stepped forward to be sure we were out of Ame's view. "I'm the sub. You want it, do it."

He turned serious for a moment, "I know you say that but what you want counts. And this is big. Gwen's dorm's closing at the end of the semester."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, so how would you feel if she moved in with us?"

Like someone had just hit me with a lead pipe - and not in a good way. Things ended badly when we tried that with Yvette. I tried to smile anyway. "You master uh the house an' all. You want uh mistress uh the house, ain't my place ta say."

He pushed me against the wall, reminding me of just how long it had been since he'd had me. "This is not about you an' me. She didn't get any 'rights' to you just 'cause she's living there. She an' I are together and I wanna live with her. If you object to living with her, that's fine, ok. But you are not some toy that I just pass around 'cause someone else in the house. We clear?"

Clearer that he knew. He couldn't do this. He couldn't with Yvette; and I knew he wouldn't pull it off with Gwen. He couldn't hide how he feels and that kills it every time. I didn't think he knew that. "Clear, Sir." I kept my voice low and his eyes darted to the classroom.

He let me go and cleared his throat. "Come on. We're meeting Gwen at Legal's."

I got my books. Ame was waiting and although her face was composed, I knew she wasn't waiting patiently. "Uh," I glanced back at Peter who had already crashed from his emotional high — thanks to me — and looked back at Ame. "Uh, look, I gotta go..."

"Yes." She lifted her eyebrows. "You have a date."

"Well, dinner anyway. Peter's — oh yeah, you haven't met Peter -"

She cut me off, "You're meeting Maya at the student union in —" she looked at her watch "45 minutes."

I had forgotten her that fast. "Oh shit."

Peter groaned and shook his head, "You uh walking hazard."

I found my cell and canceled the date. She wasn't too upset so I suspected going out with me wasn't a high priority thing - which was good. I hung up in time to hear Peter invite Ame to dinner with us.

"It sounds lovely, thank you. What time should I meet you?"

She and Peter worked out the details and I watched them with this weird sense of seeing double. She said goodbye to Peter, picked up her bag and left without so much as a glance at me. Like the old song said, 'hate to see her go but love to watch her leave.' That was an ass.

Peter's fingers pulling my hair got my attention back quick. "Now, tell me the truth. Do you mind about Gwen?"

"Peter, agh, look, I don't wanna fuck her an' I don't care if-n she gives orders. I'm cool."

"Are you sure?"

"Peter, if-n the girl I was bangin' wanted ta move in, you'd find out when she got there."

"That's because you..." he leaned in and kissed me " ... are a shithead."

"Asshole." I whispered; I was flirting with a suspension.

"Careful..." His lips teased mine again. He must want me almost as much as I want him. I started to wonder how far we could go in a classroom.

"Eh-hem." An unfamiliar voice caught our attention and we looked up to find people coming in - a few giggling - "Get a room. Another room."

I grabbed my books and we left in a rush.

"You know any of them?" Peter asked as we feign nonchalance down the hall.

"Uh-un. You?"

"Nope. Just glad we never got carried away like that back home."

"No shit."

We looked at each other.

And laughed all the way home.

We picked up Gwen and Ame at their respective dorms. The conversation in the car and as we settled in at the restaurant was mostly the two chicks deciding if they could got along. I could never read those things but Peter seemed happy, so whatever. After we ordered, there was a lull so I figure it was as bad a time as any to jump into the conversation.

"Hey, Gwen, you moving in fo' summer or you gonna wait 'til fall?"

Three things happen.

Peter hit me - sharply - in the back of the head. That was the official non-verbal 'suspension' sign.

Gwen's jaw hit the floor. Belatedly, I wondered if Peter had actually asked her yet.

Ame sipped her water and said quietly, "I detest that red-neck jargon. Speak English or I'm going home."

"Ok." I looked around the table; that was not what I expected. I cleared my throat and thought for a second or two. "Ok. Gwen. I'm sorry, I, uh, thought Peter had discussed moving in with you already. Since we have extra space, you're welcome to use it." I glanced at Ame; she nodded slightly. First down.

Gwen stared at Peter and me while Peter, who at first was hyperventilating, was simply holding his breath.

"Is that what you were trying to ask me at lunch?" she asked.

"Basically." He cleared his throat. "I had more intended to ask if you would move in with me."

The difference in phrasing and intent was not lost on any of us. Dinner was pretty silent for a while after that.

"You're right, Peter," Ame pronounced.

"I'm sorry? About what?"

She tilted her head at me. "He is a walking hazard."

The three of them got a good chuckle at my expense.

"Funny." I shrugged, "Well at least it's been asked now. So, if she'll just answer, Peter can breathe again." And I could go back to worrying about impressing Ame.

"The downside about the house," Peter said casually, "is that I can't actually throw Alex out, so you'd be stuck putting up with both of us."

Gwen looked at me then at Ame, "A girl could do worse than live with the two of them."

"True. At least they look good." She took a bite of her salad, "Have them both is like having two little black dresses — you always have something cute to parade around." They both found the comment terribly funny.

I found myself smiling over the fact that Ame thought I was cute. Then I tried to get a grip — what was I, still in high school?

Over dessert, Peter pointed out the fact that we wouldn't actually be in the house over the summer but in Reedville working the family fishery.

"Oh, yeah," I agreed. "We don't actually have much of a choice 'bout that. About that."

"Really?" Ame looked me in the eye and I almost forget to respond to her question, "Why is that?"

Her eyes were gorgeous. Dark brown and just slightly almond shaped. Her face was gorgeous — her skin a pale almost peach color, her lips small and delicate — I wondered how I missed how delicate she is. Peter kicked me under the table and I coughed to cover the half-yelp. "Excuse me. Sorry. Uh, why's that? That's because the rules on Davidson shares haven't changed in two hundred years."

"Literally, two hundred," Peter threw in.

"You get 10 shares at birth, everything else, you earn."

"Boat, dock or office," Peter nodded, "although, Uncle Marcus signed off on my education outreach plan so if your Dad can budget it, I'll be teaching this summer."

"Very cool." We talked about home for a while. Filling the girls in on what it takes to run the fishery and what kind of work we usually wind up doing. "Last couple years, I've been in the dock house more than on the boats. Letting my Grandmamma take some time off for once."

"I usually work the commercial boats," Peter grinned, "like to insure I always out-rank Alex."

As if there's any chance of that changing, I thought but I didn't say.

"So is that the split; guys on the boats, girls in the office?" Gwen asked.

"No." Peter chuckled as I said "Hell, no."

"It's like anything else." Peter said, "Some stay in the office — Alex's sister for one — some stay out on the boats, some do both."

"Beth." I nodded.

"Yeah, my sister would rather do the office than the charter boats but she works the commercial boats every chance she gets."

"She also sleepin' with the first mate on one of 'em."

He laughed, embarrassed for her, "Ok, true, but that's not why she's out there. And she's better at the helm than you are."

"I'd be better at the helm if I were sleepin' with the first mate." I countered.

"Would you sleep with the first mate?" Ame asked.

I paused. "I'll sleep with anybody you tell me to." I didn't mean to say that over dinner but there it was.

"Really?" Peter's voice fairly dripped with innuendo and I thought fast to try to recover.

"Of course," I chuckled, "I slept with half my high school so really, I'll sleep with pretty much anybody."

"Female, male," Peter began listing as Gwen giggled, "dog, cat, panda, gold fish, lamp post..."

"That would be novel," Ame jibed.

" ... soft serve ice cream..."

"Too cold," offered Gwen with a shiver.

" ... dry wall, bricks, other construction materials..."

"Dry."

"Scratchy."

"Enough!" I could feel my face flush not entirely from the embarrassment — some of his suggestions might make it to my next wish list. "Ok, I have a healthy sexual appetite. We don't need to make a public spectacle of it."