Chapter 9: Dinner at Lesa's, Part Two

Lesa arrived home well ahead of the others. She asked Sara to listen for the doorbell as she headed upstairs to change out of her business suit. In the hope that the crowd would be delayed long enough at the pizza parlor, she took a quick shower and reapplied some light makeup.

She was coming down the staircase in a sleeveless white tunic top, matching drawstring pants and straw sandals when she heard the front door open. Everyone had arrived together.

Susan looked around the foyer and breathed, "This place is a mansion!"

"Okay, Jake, give," Toby grabbed Jake's bicep to delay him on the sidewalk. When Jake turned to face him added, "When did you start getting away with hugging cheerleaders, and how do you know the woman who lives here?"

Jake shrugged his shoulders, "I spend a lot of time at the library, and she's a librarian." Jake just smiled and headed up the walk and into the house with a very puzzled Toby in his wake.

"Lesa!" Jake raised his voice loud enough to carry across the foyer.

When Lesa got within comfortable conversation distance Jake introduced her to his roommate. "Lesa, I hope you don't mind that I brought my roommate, Toby O'Malley? Toby, this is my good friend Lesa Crews."

Lesa took his hand as she looked him over. Toby was not as tall as Jake, but weighed a good thirty pounds more, mostly in his broad shoulders and barrel chest. His rusty brown hair and swarthy complexion made him appear older than his twenty-two years. He was every bit as shy as Jake and would not maintain eye contact. The promise of intelligence in his light blue eyes had Lesa hoping she had time for another project if the current one fizzled.

The small crowd filed through the house and into the kitchen. No one other than Lesa wanted to use the dining room. The breakfast nook couldn't accommodate eleven, but with some people milling around or sitting on the barstools at the kitchen counter, everyone was quite comfortable. After all, pizza is portable, casual food eaten with the fingers, right?

When Janet was unable to pin Sara or Leslie into a corner, she tried cornering Jake. "So, Jake. What did you guys end up doing last night?" When his only response was to take a bite of pizza and shrug, she loudly cajoled, "Aw, come on. Somebody tell me what went on, please! I'm going crazy here!"

"I guess you should have stuck around if you really wanted to know," Lesa said as she kind of strutted across the kitchen smugly to get a wine glass. The younger group was drinking soda and beer, but Lesa preferred Chianti with Italian food. Turning back after getting a glass, Lesa cocked her head, "You guys left early last night. Why was that? You and Misty were going to stop by Ralph's for something, right?" Tapping her forehead in mock concentration she caught Janet glancing around trying to check out everyone in the room at once. Smiling, Lesa said, "Oh yeah, you two were going to jump his bones. How did that work out for you?"

Toby dropped his slice of pizza onto the floor. No one noticed because beer came spraying out of Susan's mouth and nose. She had just tipped the glass up and couldn't believe what this matronly librarian had just said. When her coughing subsided, everyone's attention went back to Janet.

"Nice girls don't fuck and tell, right Misty?" Realizing she was hoist on her own petard, Janet pulled her top up over her face, effectively hiding it, but exposing her melons.

"And just when did you start being a 'nice girl'? You hardly gave me a chance to sit on him last night." Misty complained loudly over the howling laughter in the large room.

Jake added to the mirth with, "Come to think of it, has anybody seen Ralph today? Is he in the hospital, or did you guys just fuck him to death?"

"He was fine when we left his place this morning." Misty replied nonchalantly and then broke out laughing as hard as everyone else. Recovering, she added, "He said he'd be in the computer lab until seven this evening. Really, he's fine, Jake."

"Your turn to fess up, Jake." Janet shouted from the far side of the breakfast table, clearly recovered from her faux embarrassment.

"Like you said, nice guys don't fuck and tell." Turning to Misty he said, "It's after seven now, let's call him and see if he's interested in some cold pizza and stale beer. I could use some help. There's a real testosterone deficiency in here." Turning to Franklin he added, "Right, buddy?" But Franklin was too dazed by the unprecedented level of activity in the kitchen and just kept chewing his pizza.

"I don't have his number," Misty replied with wide eyes. Had she really had sex with someone without even exchanging phone numbers!

"I've got it in my cell." Jake stepped into the Sunroom to make the call.

"What's going on with you people? Is this house in the Twilight Zone? I don't believe the kind of things I'm hearing." Susan was being ignored until she shouted, "Hey, will someone please tell me what the Hell is going on?" loud enough to get everyone's attention.

"It's all about survival, dear." Lesa spoke quietly. "The Sa'arm are expected to be here in five or six years and right now there just aren't enough guns, barriers, or soldiers to stop them. The only chance we human beings have is to not be here when they arrive."

"You really believe that?" Susan asked. "Some say that the whole alien invader thing is a hoax."

"I'm convinced it's real." Lesa added in her serious voice, "There are too many independent sources of information for it to be a hoax. The concept of widely disbursed colonies to minimize losses is sound, but I suspect that many of them are going to be too small to sustain our civilization as we know it."

Jake eased in between Janet and Misty and said quietly, "Ralph said he'd be here in about twenty minutes."

"That's why they take so many women as sex partners. We need a lot more people to be able to fight the Sa'arm off," Leslie reasoned.

"Okay, but let's do the math," Janet suggested. "The kids all those baby makers produce will be no more than six years old when Earth is consumed by the advancing hoard. What can six-year-olds do against dickheads?"

"I've been working on that problem for a while as kind of a background task," Jake offered. "While it's not necessary for each colony to be self-sustaining with the capability of repopulating a planet the size of Earth, we do need diverse and duplicated facilities for research, manufacturing, and education. Some of the colonies must also have the means of sustaining our culture. It'll take the resources of hundreds of planets to produce the weapons, ships and materiel needed to halt the Sa'arm advance."

"It can't be just babies and bombs," Sara Johnson added, "The colonies need to have parks, playgrounds, and recreation facilities for adults with children; some kind of activities other than sex that are also a relaxing distraction. If everything after Earth's destruction is focused on the military, our humanity will be lost even if the human genetic code survives."

"This shit's getting too deep and depressing," Janet supplied as she wrapped her arms around Misty and slumped down. "And, it doesn't answer the question of who Jake fucked last night." Shock rippled around the room just as the doorbell rang.

Toby almost lost another slice of pizza.

"Saved by the bell," Jake said as he and the resident Sara jumped off their stools to answer the door. Jake yielded door duty to the confident thirteen-year-old and turned to face the mumbling crowd.

"I have a plan, well, more of a scheme actually, that could expand the possibilities just a bit," Lesa did her best to ignore Janet and pick up the more serious conversational thread without waiting for Sara to return with Ralph. But, as an afterthought she turned to face Janet and quietly said, "I did." Without waiting for Janet to respond she asked, "Does anyone what to hear about what I'm thinking?"

"Wait, backup, time-out ... you fucked him?" Looking at Sara and Leslie, Janet asked, "Anyone else?" They both shook their heads.

Jake and Lesa gravitated to one another and embraced. "Won't there be trouble if it gets out you have an intimate relationship with a student?" Jake asked.

"It won't be the end of the world," Lesa replied. She was interrupted by a tender kiss. Jake held her close, looking into her eyes as she continued. "My job is more of a hobby than a necessity. My late husband and I made some sound investments that have me set for at least fifty years. The kids and I are protected from everything except the Sa'arm. I'm thinking about using some of that money to provide some protection from them as well. Interested?"

"Interested in what?" Ralph asked with pizza in one hand and a beer in the other, but his full attention was on the embracing couple standing in the middle of the kitchen.

"Group sex seems to be a recurring theme," Susan said as she raised a fresh glass of beer to greet Ralph. "There's too much crazy talk going on for me to follow even half of it."

"Ooh, I like the group sex part," Ralph added as his eyes found Misty and Janet.

Lesa leaned into Jake. She kissed his neck before whispering, "Seduce Leslie ... and Sara, but Leslie first. She really, really needs your approval." Leaning back she looked deeply into Jake's eyes.

Jake nodded. He held eye contact with Lesa as he leaned back and shouted, "Quiet everyone! Let's listen to Lesa's idea." He slid his hands down her arms and stepped back still holding both of her hands in his. He finally broke eye contact and turned to the startled crowd as he released her fingertips.