Chapter 7

It was still in early May when I finally figured out how difficult it was going to be to get Tina to go over to her parent's house. She had hundreds of different ways and excuses to thwart my various efforts to put her and her parents together in the same room again. It was frustrating, but our relationship was going strong in every other regard. Sherry was doing her utmost to quietly re-infiltrate herself back into her old bedroom at my house. Every visit she made to us, two or three new articles of clothing were left, and I noticed that more and more of her toiletries were being left in the hallway bathroom that she mostly used when she was visiting.

July nineteenth was the girl's birth date, and I was absolutely determined to get things settled between Tina and her parents before that date. I knew that, unless things changed, Tina could and would delay the reconciliation with her parents to well beyond the deadline I'd set to get the matter accomplished.

Tina and I had reached an accord about including Sherry in our lives. Neither of us had bothered with including Sherry in any of those discussions. She had no knowledge of what we'd planned out for her. Neither did her parents.

I got this idea in my head, mostly inspired by my growing frustration with Tina's reluctance to get things done and over with, as far as her serious rift with her mother and father went. It had gotten to be some kind of contest with her, one where she and I were competing to see which one of us would have enough force of will to overcome the other's. It began to seem to me that it wasn't getting back with her parents that Tina was worried about, but rather, having me able to force her into doing so. She was protecting her role as the most dominant one in our relationship.

I had read enough psychology to recognize that I had some strong passive/aggressive tendencies. Mostly though, I was passive by nature, in most of my social dealings with people, other than with my brother and his wife. I'd been forced to adopt an aggressive, no nonsense, manner with them, in order to try to impose some discipline and order to our relationship. If I'd remained passive with them, they would have kept me down where they were in life. I had to push back at them to avoid being co-opted into the chaos their lives had become.

With Leslie, I'd been able to be more passive, outside of my business role, and she had made most of the social decisions for us when we were together. It was probably my passivity that had given her the idea that she could get me to accept her behavior when she decided she wanted to be with other men. She must have believed I'd accept her actions. I know she seemed shocked when I refused to give in to the changed terms she was seeking.

My idea, to force this reconciliation between Tina and her parents couldn't succeed as long as I allowed myself to remain passive in Tina's presence. She was so used to dominating her sister, and to getting her way with other people by being aggressive towards them, whenever they wouldn't give in to her demands right away. In my own mind, I'd seen many signs that being dominant wasn't a natural role for Tina. It was something she'd conditioned herself to being. Her relationship with Sherry was a good example of this.

Sherry, by inclination and sexual orientation, was gay. Being submissive though, she had been with members of both sexes who used their own natural dominant nature to impose their will upon her. She preferred sex with women, but had been with several men and boys over the years, mostly because she didn't have a strong enough will to overcome their desire to be with her. Her rape had simply reinforced her passive and submissive nature. Added to all this was the obvious masochistic tendency she had that produced sexual pleasure in her when she was being either physically controlled or humiliated in any way.

This wasn't her strongest tendency, but it was the one component of her psyche that was, for some unknown reason, totally heterosexual in nature. Sherry only got off by being controlled or humiliated by either males, or, for some other reasons, her sister. I'd confirmed this with our three way sex play, and by some of her reactions during that time we'd spent at Danny and Kaitlyn's. With these things in mind, her having a threesome with Tina and me, with me being the one feeding her masochistic needs, became nearly the ideal sexual situation for Sherry to be in.

What I'd mainly noticed about Tina was the fact that she was far more into sex with Sherry than she ever would admit to being. She had been the one to first seduce Sherry, and the one who always initiated their lovemaking sessions. Tina had bragged to me, several times, that she'd only been with one girl or woman, her sister. She also seemed to have some resentment each time Sherry went off with yet another of her female lovers over the years.

"I'm thinking about asking Sherry to go off the pill. I think it might be time for us to start a family of our own."

Tina and I were sitting at the counter in my kitchen, drinking our first cup of morning coffee. I had come right out and told her what I wanted, directly, and without any preamble. I noticed she put her own cup down before answering me.

"We aren't even married yet. What's with the big rush? Have you even talked to Sherry yet about what you told me, about us each having three babies?"

"Sherry will do what I tell her to. You know she will."

Tina picked up her coffee cup and left the kitchen without saying anything more. I left her alone to think about what I'd just told her. I was working on some business stuff on my laptop, a couple hours later, when she came into the living room where I was sitting. She resumed our earlier conversation, as if the pause had been for a few seconds, rather than a matter of some hours like it actually had been.

"I know what we said about both of us having babies, but won't it be a difficulty for Sherry, her not being married, and everything that goes with things like that?"

"Sherry wasn't likely to ever get married anyway, considering her sexual orientation. She'll want to have children though, especially mine, because she knows it will permanently connect the two of us. She's right too, it will."

"I'd rather you wait, at least until after we're married."

"I'd planned on doing that, but you know we won't get married until that other thing gets taken care of. Since you seem to be dragging your feet with that, I figured I'd just go ahead with Sherry right now."

"It would be embarrassing for me if she were already pregnant at my wedding. People would be talking about her at the wedding. I don't want to be put through that."

"I'm planning for us to be married sometime this Summer. She wouldn't even be showing by then. The only way people will be talking about Sherry being pregnant at our wedding will be if you force me to delay it by stalling with you getting back with your parents. I'm definitely expecting your father to walk you down the aisle to give you away to me."

"You never said I had to let him do that."

"Why wouldn't you want to, if you were truly reconciled with them? Keep going the way you are, and you'll just build this thing up in your mind to where you'll make it seem worse than it is."

"I told you I don't like being pressured. You never told me you'd treat it like you're doing."

"I love you, and I'm definitely getting married this Summer. I hope it ends up that you're the one I end up marrying."

"Is that supposed to be some kind of threat?"

"I'm not going to play these games with you anymore. I've put a lot of work into talking sense to both your parents. I've explained to them why you're still very upset with them. They've both agreed to try to be more like you'd expect normal parents to be. You're almost twenty five years old, so it would be unreasonable for you to demand they go back in time and read you some bedtime stories, or always come to tuck you in at night. They aren't exactly what you'd call 'touchy feely' kind of people anyway. They both are reserved people, even somewhat cold and distant, but they both love you, and they always have. Their way isn't what you would have preferred, but it was what they had in them to give you. Instead of always moaning about what you didn't get, you should try to appreciate all you were given."

"It all comes back to the money, even with you, doesn't it? I've heard that same argument from them, all my life, and I'm sick of it. I know you had it a lot worse economically than I did growing up, but at least you had real flesh and blood people to talk with, to share laughter and joy with. Do you really think having a beautiful bedroom all to yourself makes up for all that? Sherry and I both grew up very lonely, except for having each other."

"Think about what you just said for a minute. You can't seriously be comparing my childhood to yours, and then claiming that mine was better? You had parents, and you still do. Mine are dead, and have been for more than twenty years now. Talking with Danny and Kaitlyn can be funny now, but I sure don't remember that much joy and laughter when Danny was going out gambling all his money away every week, and Kaitlyn was getting drunk, and giving guys blow jobs, just to get herself a ride back home before Danny got back to the trailer from work. They were flesh and blood people all right, but I'd have traded places with you on any day of the week."

"You can't have a wedding without me anyway."

"That's another thing you're wrong about. I can, and if you force me into doing it, I will. I've already got a plan that wouldn't necessarily need to include you. I'm trying to explain to you how tired I am of constantly having to push you to finally do something we both know needs doing."

"If you think marrying Sherry would work, then go right ahead. She'd leave you as soon as another woman came along, or even I could take her away from you. Did you forget what your sex life was like when it was just the two of you living here?"

"I told you I had a plan, and it wouldn't just be the two of us living here. I know you think it's you that brings Sherry's sexual response up to a boil, but I don't think it really is. I've been watching her with us, and my opinion of it is that almost any attractive, bossy bitch of a woman could do the job just as well as you do it. Luckily, I just happen to know one, and she's a woman who'd appreciate having all the things you say don't really matter. Unlike you, who's so adamantly perfectly straight, except with Sherry, of course, Delilah is totally bent, bi-sexual to her core, and a real sex maniac. A woman who never seems to tire of doing it with other women. I've personally seen her eating pussy for five straight hours. Three different woman have assured me that Delilah is absolutely the best at eating pussy. She also happens to be a woman who doesn't seem to get P.M.S. either."

"You wouldn't dare. If you even tried doing something like that, I'd put a stop to it. Sherry listens to me, and we'd both end up leaving you forever."

"Go ahead then. I have something I need you to do, and you aren't ready to do it. Without that, we have no future together anyway. You're throwing away the one unique advantage you have, just like you did back when you were eighteen, and were all pissed off because nobody loved you like you wanted them to. I can make a good life in many ways. How many ways do you have? Not very many, I think. Maybe, you only have the one way. Think about that."

"What advantage am I throwing away?"

"The fact that I love you, and you're my first choice, to marry, and to make my future with."

This time she left the room without making any final comment, or without again trying to push forward her own preferred agenda. The lines were more clearly drawn now. She had been issued both a warning and a challenge. She was on the clock now, as far as her needing to make a decision.

I pretty much expected that she would resist. That was her usual method of forcing people to give her what she wanted. I wondered how many ultimatum's her family had met, before she finally found one they couldn't meet? I loved the woman, a great deal too, if I was being completely honest. One thing I'd learned though, from my early life dealing with Danny and Kaitlyn, is that you have to set a limit, then stick to it. Tina was pressing against that limit with me already.

Tina came back a few minutes later, still upset with what I'd told her.

"Which one were you saying you'd marry, Sherry, or that other woman?"

"Sherry, of course. She'd make a great wife, if everything was in place to meet all her needs."

"You'll see. I know Sherry much better than you do."

I was happy that I'd already gotten Tina to give up her converted garage apartment. This greatly reduced the options she'd have if she again decided to leave me. I knew she'd already run through most of her money, including all the money I'd paid her for the King Richard picture.

The art gallery in New York hadn't called her to say that they'd made any sales with the three paintings of hers they were then displaying. It occurred to me that they'd have had a hard time contacting her, since her only phone was sitting down at the bottom of a gallon of water, in the water tank of what used to be her toilet, back at the vacated hovel she'd moved out of. Thinking of this gave me an excuse to go find her to tell her about the gallery having no contact number for her. When I found her, she was moving her things out of my bedroom and into Sherry's room.

"I just thought of this, that gallery with your paintings can't contact you now."

"What makes you think that?"

"Sherry told me what you did with that phone I gave you, and you never asked me to buy you a replacement phone."

"I called them and left your phone as my new number. I'm not stupid, you know?"

"I'm just trying to help you. I'm sorry I disturbed you. I'll let you get back to your move."

"Sherry has half her clothes in my closet, and in the drawers. I won't have enough room for all my things now."

"You could clean out the spare room and put your stuff in there."

"Why should I have to use the storage room? Why not Sherry?"

"You know what? Just do what you want to, okay? I'm going out for a couple days anyway. You want me to call home and check in with you, or not?"

"Not. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, but I know I'm mad at you."

I left on one of my buy/sell trips, happy to get away from all the stress and tension I was under. I had a fairly exciting trip, picking up quite a few nic nac's and trinkets that I was sure Glenn could find a good home for. I bought up over fifty old mink coats from a guy who'd been buying them with the idea of using the fur for a line of doll clothing he and his wife had been planning to manufacture and sell. A divorce had ended those plans, and he was anxious to get rid of all reminders of his ex. For fifty dollars, I'd gotten all of it from him, five bags worth of ratty looking old mink coats and stole's. I had no idea where I'd find a buyer for any of it, but I couldn't pass up such a good deal.

When I got back to my house, all my clothes and personal things had been moved into the storage room, or else along with Sherry's toiletry things she kept, in the hallway bathroom. I was now displaced from my own bedroom. I remembered telling Tina to do whatever she wanted, but I hadn't meant this. Since there was no bed or futon in the old storage room, I slept between two king sized sheets, on top of a bed of very soft mink and silk lining. To tell the truth, it was exceptionally comfortable too, and easy to put back in their bags and store away in the morning.

I was in the kitchen whipping up some scrambled eggs for myself when Tina made her first appearance since I'd returned back to my house.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Like royalty, how about yourself?"

"I slept well too, thank you. Did you sleep in Sherry's room then? I looked there but didn't see you."

"No, I slept in the storage room. I'm going to go out and buy another bed and a couple of new clothes chests today. I take it you've decided to take my old bedroom then?"

"Only until I decide what I want to do. You don't mind I hope? You did tell me to do whatever I wanted, right?"

"Absolutely. Did you hear whether Sherry's coming over today or not?"

"She said to call her when you came back. Do you want me to ask her to come over when I call her?"

"That's okay. I'm going up to New York later, and I thought she might enjoy a little time away from your parents. I'll swing by there on my way, to see if she does. Would you like some scrambled eggs?"

"No thanks, just some of the coffee. You're talking about just you and my sister going?"

"I'm sorry, did you want to go too?"

"No!"

"I didn't think so. I guess it will just be the two of us then, unless your sister has another friend of hers she wants to take along on our little trip."

"Will you be late?"

"I'm really not sure. If we finish up in New York early enough, maybe we'll swing by Atlantic City to do some gambling. I haven't done any gambling for a long time. I guess that million I got for those two painting's of yours is burning a hole in my pocket. If we decide to spend the night somewhere, do you want me to call you, or maybe leave you a message?" She made a face at me, then told me not to bother.

My eggs tasted quite good. Tina sat at the little counter area beside the coffee pot, watching me eat but saying nothing further to me. When I went over to the Axelbland's to see if Sherry wanted to take a trip to New York with me, she was right in the middle of a phone call with her very angry sister. They stayed talking for another fifteen minutes. Tina doing all the talking, with Sherry just standing there, listening to her. When the call finally ended, Sherry came over and tilted her head up expecting to have her nose kissed. Instead, I kissed her like I usually only kissed Tina. A wet one, with a lot of my tongue in her very surprised mouth. Sherry finally broke our kiss, looking at me nervously as she did so.

"What was that all about? What did you say to Tina to make her talk so crazy about things?"

"She's still dragging her heels on making up with your folks. I've decided to light a fire under her ass, that's all. I bet she really laid down the law to you, didn't she?"

"She said you've changed your mind about her, and now you're going to marry me instead of her. Is it true?"

"Probably not. Possible though, so don't give up all hope of it happening. Did she tell you that I was coming to take you away from all this too?" Sherry giggled nervously, shaking her head up and down to confirm that Tina had.