Chapter 9

They both ate the popovers, neither having tasted them before. A woman from Maine had taught me to make them, among other goodies. Cynthia said, "Damn, Charles, I'm glad you don't make these all the time. I'd never stop eating them."

"Good. I won't make them often, but this is a celebration. It's too early for champagne, although I could have made mimosas."

Laura said, "No. Coffee's fine. This is a celebration. I hope everyone feels as good as I do."

We agreed that the night had been a great first start on a shared relationship. Cynthia asked, "Are you two happy with our situation?"

I said, "Well, I am, but what do we do about Alyssa?"

Cynthia said with an evil grin, "Charles, do you really think that you could handle another member in the group?"

Laura laughed. "I think he's worried that she'll find out about him and walk around struggling with a secret."

After a long pause, Cynthia said, "Okay, Charles, are you going to tell us?"

"What?"

"The answer to your parsley question?"

"Of course. Hardly anybody eats parsley."

Both of them growled. Laura said, "Cynthia shouldn't have asked. We could have waited and maybe you would have forgotten."

I grinned and then asked, "Cynthia, what's on the agenda today?"

"I had a fantastic time last night. This morning, I feel liberated, partially satiated, and positive. How about you guys?"

Laura said, "Ditto. Once the anxiety was dissipated, I felt good about the relationship. I don't know how rare such arrangements are, but I feel quite close to both of you."

I joined, "I have to admit that I was worried the first time Cynthia suggested that I sleep with you, Laura. But, the other shoe didn't fall and she seems to be as happy with it as I do. How could I complain?"

Cynthia said, "Good. We're all in this together. So, sometime today, I want us to do a round robin where we are all involved at the same time. We'll play it by ear. However, when we work out the details, I think it is time for each of us to make our desires known. I don't want to be in charge all the time. We just have to be straight with each other so that no one is going along out of expectations."

I said, "That sounds good, but I need to go to the gym and get other muscles exercised."

Cynthia said, "Oh, yeah. I've been cooped up in an office all week. I hope I can find a gym up there."

Suddenly, I realized that Laura couldn't go without a student ID. I said, 'Cynthia, we have to do something about Laura. Can we take a guest?"

Cynthia said, "I've never tried. I'll call them."

Laura said, "Look, you guys go ahead. I don't want to stand in your way."

Cynthia was on hold on the phone and said, "We'll figure it out. Just hold on." Then I heard her ask the person the question. Then, "Okay. We'll have to pay a guest fee, but it is no problem. We can take only three guests per month." Then, she brightened, "That's three for you and three for me."

Laura said, "Thanks, Cynthia. I'm out of shape and I won't try to overdo it."

After returning from the gym and having lunch, that afternoon, we tried two options. First, I jumped Cynthia while she was eating Laura. Later, I did Laura while she ate Cynthia. Between fixing the lunch and doing some work on our computers, we'd managed to fill the afternoon with pure excitement. At night, we watched an erotic video and retired afterwards.

While I was snuggled between the two of them, Laura said, "My life is so much better since you moved in, Cynthia. First, you encouraged me to sleep with Bradford, and then you brought out my taste for you. Now, we're all sleeping in the same bed, just like we belonged here."

Cynthia said, "My life started getting better when Charles kissed me on the dance floor. After I emerged from my psychotic state during the divorce, life here makes me happy every day."

I said, "I'll hate it when the girls come back and we can't do this very often. Any man would be thrilled to have either of you in bed anytime. To sleep with you both makes me wake up fulfilled. I'm much attached to both of you and I appreciate the way you treat me."

We slept comfortably spooned or embraced throughout the night. I had expected to be awakened in the night for play time, but sleep was quite welcome. In the morning, Laura was gone when I awakened. When I went to the kitchen, she had coffee made and was working on some egg dish that smelled scrumptious. I kissed her on the back of the neck and put my hands under her apron to stroke her breasts and belly.

She turned for her kiss, but as she looked up at me, she said, "I hate to think it, but they come back today. I have to do something to change my situation." She sniffled, "Until you guys came into my life big time, I was manageably content. Now, I feel terribly constrained by my agreement with Tyler. I just have to do something."

I said, "Cynthia believes that if we all lived in this house and paid our rent and you rented the apartment, you would be able to make it. We'd gladly buy the groceries and incidentals. That would let you use your childcare money for the girls' clothes and other needs."

She appeared to be shocked and sniffled, "You'd want to do that? Why?"

"We love the girls. We love having you in our lives. The situation seems comfortable."

She cried again. Cynthia appeared, yawning and saying, "Well, I guess the party's over. No one brought me coffee this morning." Then, she saw Laura's face and went to give her a full body hug. "Laura? Can you tell me?"

"Bradford mentioned that you had talked about our living in this house and renting the apartment and I got all emotional."

"Emotional is fine. We did talk about it. Both of us think you're getting a raw deal. We want you in our intimate lives."

"Would you take those eggs out of the oven? I'll put the fruit out and Bradford can make the toast. I have some new multi-grain bread that's quite good." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and put the remainder of the food on the table.

As we sat, she said, "We started out thinking that the girls would be back today and our love time would be over. Then, he mentioned the plan you had worked out and it hit me in the heart."

"How did you feel about living in our own commune?"

"I struggled with the idea for at least five seconds, and then I thought it sounded like a good plan if we could work it out."

"How will you handle it with Tyler?"

"I'll just tell him that my life is important to me. I've been a good mother and will continue to be, but I'm also entitled to a life, too. I will then tell him that if he needs to withdraw his extra support, I could live with that, but that I might have to get a job."

Cynthia said, "I think being straight is the best way. We know we can make it without his money, so there's not much risk. He keeps the girls on his health insurance, doesn't he?"

"All of us. That was part of the agreement." She breathed deeply and let her shoulders down. "Now that I have my courage up, I think I will tell him when he brings the girls back. He knows that you rent a room here, so it shouldn't be a shock to him."

We had one more serious tumble in the bed before we needed to get back home. It might not look good if we were all here while she was having her talk with Tyler. She agreed to call us or come up as soon as he left.

That night, Cynthia had packed her bag to go back to her internship and we were watching some program about Martian geology when the doorbell rang. Laura came in with a huge smile on her face. She was almost giddy. "Well, you'll never guess. He's been promoted and will have to move to another state. He won't get to see the girls as often. The big news is that he promised to keep up the payments if I didn't get a job; I think he received a big raise. And ... and he said it was reasonable for me to see other men."

We both jumped up and brought her into our three-way hug. She laughed. "So, now, you guys don't have to take me on as a charity case. We can keep things the way they are and just be more involved than in the past since we don't have to hide it."

I said, "Well, I was kind of interested in the new arrangement. We'll have to talk about all our options." I hugged her tightly. "Laura, going to school is not getting a job. Maybe you don't take a full load, but it's time to start."

"You're fast, Bradford. That's exactly what I thought when I came up the stairs. I have to take charge of my life."

Cynthia said, "Well, now, we all have offices and more than one place to sleep. We can eat together and trade off on cooking. Best of all, no one has to sleep alone unless they need to for some reason."

I said, "Okay, tomorrow night, I will cook for everyone. I'll have to do it here since I know where everything is. Cynthia has to work and you need to figure out when you can start school. Maybe you can this summer, and you might not have to declare a major until you have time to decide."

Cynthia slept close to me and kept her arms around me most of the night. I had to get up to pee and when I came back she kissed me hard and said, "I love you, Charles. You comfort me with good feelings every day."

The new routine began the next day. After Cynthia went to work, I spent some time with Laura going over some of her choices and possible courses to take on one of the short summer terms. When we stopped for a while, she said, "The girls will miss Tyler. He was good to them, and for them. I hope they can visit him often."

"You shocked me when you told me he agreed to your emancipation. I'll try to help them get to see him. Do you know if he has a regular girlfriend, or just the crowd?"

She laughed. "Yes, Alyssa thinks so, and also thinks that the girlfriend might be moving with him."

Cynthia called to say that she'd be staying in her new room for the week and would return on Friday night. She felt she was too far behind the power curve on the research project and she was too proud to let anyone carry her. So, she had a lot of studying to do. I made dinner for Laura and the girls Monday night and Laura did on Tuesday.

Wednesday, Alyssa said, "I want to be a cook, too. It gets old just doing cleanup."

I said, "Fine by me. You can start by helping me tomorrow. Maybe Laura can plan some meals that you can do as you learn the ropes."

Alyssa asked, "What ropes?"

Laura laughed. "Welcome to twenty questions."

"It means breaking into a new job. On the old sailing ships, sailors had to learn which ropes to climb to adjust the sails. It became an idiom."

"You were in the Navy. Did you have to learn the ropes?"

"In fact, I had to learn a lot about ropes in the Boy Scouts and much more in the Navy. I didn't climb the rigging to adjust the sails, but we did learn how to tie knots."

She seemed pleased to have learned a new term. I said, tomorrow, if you'll come up at six, we will start our dinner. I can teach you simple meals and your mother and Cynthia can work you into many more."

When she arrived ready to help, she was wearing her tight jeans and a long sleeved tee shirt with a scooped neck. She wore slight lipstick, brushed her hair ou, and looked like a living doll. We set out to make the dinner. I planned chicken breasts, green beans, salad, hot bread and some grapes and chocolate for dessert.

I asked, "Do you know how to wash the salad vegetables?"

"Mom said I had to learn how you do it and then she'd show me how she did it."

"Okay. Wash your hands. Then, take each leaf off the romaine head and wash both sides good with the spray nozzle."

I watched her do each one. She was doing fine. "Okay, now, put them into the water extractor." I had bought one of those lettuce spinners at a county or state fair. It worked, but took up a lot of cabinet space. She seemed to enjoy turning the crank to dry the lettuce. "That's great. Now lay them out on a tea towel and blot them. I know it seems like a lot of trouble, but the dressing tastes better if the greens aren't too wet."

"Okay. What's next?"

I showed her how to dice the tomatoes and onions. The onions got to her and she started sniffling. Then she closed her eyes and said, "That hurts, Bradford. Make it stop."

I walked her to the bathroom and dropped some artificial tears in her eyes. I had to hold her up while I put the drops in. Pretty soon, she blinked and said, "That's better." Her eyes were all red and swollen. She looked up and said, "Will you kiss my tears away?" She wiggled closer to me.

I kissed one out of each eye and then my mouth automatically moved toward hers before I caught it. "There. You behave. I'll show you how to avoid tears sometime. I forgot about it. It doesn't bother me much anymore. Sometimes I wear my swim goggles, so next time, we'll have to find you something."

She rubbed her eyes and kept them locked on me. "Didn't you like it even a little?"

"If you're wondering if I like a pretty girl standing next to me asking me to kiss her tears and who knows what else, yes, I do. I think you know very well why I didn't do more."

"Okay, As long as you still think I'm pretty." She went back to her salad. After she mixed it suitably, she asked, "What's next?"

"Trim the ends off the green beans." I lined up several and cut one end off, then turned them and cut the other. "Think you can do that?"

"I think so. Doesn't look hard."

I noticed that she tried to line up the beans exactly so that they'd be like crayons in a box. I said, "They don't have to be perfect. It's hard to get them all alike, so just be approximate."

Soon, she had a pile of beans and I showed her how to arrange them in the steamer so that they'd be easy to grasp with the tongs to serve them. I said, "Call your mom and tell her to come up any time."

After we finished preparing the food to cook, I checked the timer to see about the chickens. I took her outside with me and showed her how to put the thermometer in the chicken to be sure it was done.

While we were standing there watching the chickens, she said, "Mom told me that she sleeps with you some time and that you make her very happy. I'm glad she has someone like you." Then she came to me and put her arms around me with her head on my chest. "Bradford, what will we do if she finds us a stepfather?"

I hugged her and said, "Well, I don't know. However, that's a long way off and we'll have time to make a plan before it happens."

"Bradford, I love you and I don't want any old stepfather. Cheryl has one and she doesn't like him at all." She clutched tightly and I could tell she was tearing.

"I love you, too princess. I believe Laura wouldn't bring anyone home that you didn't like. She is under enough pressure right now, so I think you will have plenty of time before that happens."

I held her until Laura and Ashley came up the stairs. When Alyssa stepped back, Laura could tell that she had been crying. "Come on in, sweetheart and tell me what's wrong." Ashley went to the TV and Laura and Alyssa stood by the refrigerator in a big hug. I heard them talking softly to each other and finally they ended their hug and came back on the porch.

Laura said, "I told her that there wouldn't be any stepfather for years and not to worry about it." She turned to Alyssa, "You understand? I'm glad you told Bradford, too. You can tell him anything."

Ashley entertained us at dinner with some stories about their weekend, her school and some of her friends. She apparently wasn't worried about getting a new step-dad.

We played Monopoly for a while and soon enough, it was time for Laura to take the girls home. As they were readying to leave, Alyssa whispered to me, "Bradford, Why don't you stay in Cynthia's room. Then Mom won't have to come home."

I replied, "You're getting mixed up in all of this change. Maybe I'll let her decide."

"Decide what?"

"Tell her, Alyssa."

Alyssa whispered something to her mother and Laura chuckled. "Maybe, but let Bradford and me work that out, okay?"

When I went over to their house carrying my overnight kit, I went into the den and sat down. Laura came in and said, "They would like you to tuck them in. I don't know what's come over them, but do you mind?"

I first went to see Ashley and hugged her and then tightened the covers on her. She kissed me on the cheek. "Good night, Bradford. Thank you for dinner."

Alyssa was getting too old to be tucked in, so I went in and asked, "Does your mother still tuck you in?"