Chapter 5, Part 2 Summary: Carson becomes interested in Lily for all of the wrong reasons.

Jane’s Favorite Line: “The girl would be easier to dislike if she were a dike, but no. His wife had good taste.”

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Hello All! This is just a short explanation about the Experiment and how your comments encourage me to keep writing! ^.^

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Chapter 5, Part 1 Summary: Lily attempts to win Carson over, but ends up arguing about his morals.

Jane’s Favorite Line: “Do whatever the hell you want with my tolerance.”

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Chapter 4, Part 2 Summary: More of Carson’s lovers come to the fore, and Lily begins to wonder if Ava had alternative motives for asking her to visit.

Jane’s Favorite Line: “I can’t expect gossip to stop just because it’s about me.”

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Chapter 4 Part 2

Lily brought the baby closer to her chest and took more time to stand than she ever had in her life considering her cargo. “I should get this baby into the right arms. Help me find someone, Ava.”

“You don’t have to go anywhere for that. Nurse! Nurse!”

Lily frowned as the sleeping baby stirred. Why was this woman so loud? The baby had settled again before a nurse from behind the counter came to Lily’s aid. “Thank you,” Lily said placing the baby in her arms. “We should get to reading that last story, Ava.”

“Okay,” Ava replied with no assurance as to what she had agreed to. Her mind was still fixated on Chase’s belly and her last words.

“Don’t you two just leave me down here. Help me up,” Chase waved a hand in the air for assistance.

Lily stopped her eyes from rolling and took Chase’s hand. She braced herself to pull when-

“Do you want to end up on your back?” A nurse with a round face full of freckles stepped off of the elevator and jogged over to them. “Chase, I don’t know why you even get on the floor.” She squatted down and put Chase’s left arm around her neck. Lily fell in line and did the same with the right, though; the nurse’s medium build was better suited for the job. Together, the two women managed to aid Chase to her feet.

“I don’t want to be the lame one at the party,” Chase answered once on her feet and teased out her punk hair again.

“Your pregnant tail shouldn’t be at the party,” she took a playful swat at Chase’s behind. “Hi, Ava!” The nurse threw her arms around Ava. As they hugged, Lily saw Ava returning to her pre-Chase self.  “I told them I had to go pee so I could sneak away. Couldn’t let you leave my fort without saying, ‘hi’. Who’s the new face?” She beamed an energetic smile at Lily.

“This is-”

“You know her, Sandra,” Chase interrupted Ava’s introduction.

“Do I?” Sandra looked embarrassed. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t remember meeting you.”

Lily sensed Chase was setting them up for a ‘checkmate.’ She considered her possible moves and saw that Chase had her screwed no matter what play she made. She stepped into the line of fire. “It’s our first time meeting, but it is nice to meet you, Sandra. I’m-”

“I didn’t mean to imply you’ve meet before,” Chase said as if she had made the biggest faux pas of the century.

Here it comes. Lily thought.

“She’s the one Carson told you about. Last night. Remember?”

And, that’s what a deer in headlights look like.

Sandra’s eyes went a little too quickly to Ava’s and even more quickly away. “This morning, Chase. When he came by to quote my windows. Carson did mention you this morning. You’re Lily. I didn’t put it together.”

“My bad. I could’ve sworn you said he came late last night because he had to wait to eat dinner with Ava and Sarah first. I swear because I remember thinking you must have some really dirty windows.”

“Breakfast. It was breakfast, Chase.” Sandra’s voice was drenched in desperation. “Carson said he couldn’t come last night because of dinner. I might have said he would try if dinner didn’t run late.”

Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Lily thought to herself. She could not tell if Ava shared her thinking.

“Whichever,” Chase said in a cool tone, which let the other ladies know that she was not the one mistaken. “At any rate, Lily’s the cousin he told you about from Chicago. Although, they’re not cousins, they’re…what are you two exactly?”

“Lily’s my friend,” Ava’s voice was void of emotion. She looked defeated.

“Hum. I thought we knew all of your friends as well as we know all of your family.”

Lily wondered if it was really all that wrong to hit a pregnant woman. There had to be exceptions. “I guess I slipped through the cracks,” Lily heard the warning tone in her voice telling Chase to back the hell off.

“I guess so,” she smiled satisfied at taking the queen in this game. “You know, Ava, I will read that last book. I’ll see you tomorrow for the summer kick off meeting. You should bring Lily,” Chase left the three ladies standing and sat in Ava’s deserted spot at the other end of the circle. “What should I read for the last book of the day?”

A flurry of suggestions sprang forth from the children. Chase’s laugh sounded completely opposite of the wicked witch she truly was.

“You should come, Lily,” Sandra offered with way too much enthusiasm. Lily wouldn’t have mined slapping her as well. Not because of that moment. Sandra seemed to be as much of a doll as Ava. But she wanted to slap her because of the moment between her and Carson that Chase was all to thrilled to allude to. And how could Carson forgo Ava’s curvaceous body for one that was flat chested with no butt whatsoever.

Lily decided to play nice. “I’d like-”

“No,” Ava cut in. “I mean,” she smoothed out more invisible wrinkles in her dress, “like I said, don’t let me wear you out with my schedule.”

“It’s really no problem.”

“It’ll be fun. And we could probably use her big city ideas.”

“Lily is on vacation, Sandra. She doesn’t want to spend four hours of her Saturday morning planning a party she won’t be here to attend.”

“But what else would she do?”

“Really, I don’t-”

“Carson can show her around.”

How far did Ava reach for that answer? Lily didn’t want to be alone with Carson no more than Sandra wanted Carson spending time with yet another lady. But both women understood Ava didn’t care what Lily did as long as she didn’t come.

“That does sound more entertaining,” Lily agreed.

“Alright. Sandra, we’re about to go and you should, too. They’re gonna start to doubt you only had to use the restroom.”

“Alright. See you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Ava said and delivered the first non-hug Lily had seen to Sandra. “Tomorrow.”

*****

Sarah had said Lily’s guess of a personal chauffer was a good one because the Wells actually had a personal chauffeur. Ava remained quite during the elevator ride down from the children’s floor, but loosened with each step closer to the hospital’s exit.  By the time they slid into the back of the purple BMW, Ava was back to being Ava.

“Are you hungry, Lily? We could do brunch.”

“That sounds good to me.”

“Keith, please take us to wherever we can get brunch.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the driver replied from the front seat.

Ava faked exasperation and mouthed the word, “ma’am.” “Goodness. I’m only thirty-five. People keep making me feel old before my time.”

Lily smiled. She had to keep reminding herself that she was five years younger than Ava. Ava’s appearance coupled with her demeanor kept tricking Lily into viewing her as twenty-six or seven. Sometimes twenty-five when her accent was in overdrive.

“Ava, I’m sorry about up there.”

Ava let out a puff of air. “Don’t fret about it, Lily. I can’t expect gossip to stop just because it’s about me.”

Despite her composed response, Ava turned to look out the window and didn’t turn back the remainder of the drive.

Lily wanted to reach out to her, but being new lovers, didn’t know if Ava preferred her solitude in moments like this one. Instead, Lily looked out her own window and patiently waited for Ava to come back to her again.

*****

Buckled into his passenger’s seat sat a bundle of flowers as tall as any human passenger would have been. Carson gritted his teeth as the green sign for, “Morning Gold Lane,” passed over his head. He was half a mile away from his fork in the road.

He gritted his teeth harder as he maneuvered into his chosen lane. His knuckles change from tan to red from the force with which he gripped the steering wheel. He dug into it as if it was the car’s fault for taking this particular road. Carson knew the truth was that he would be pissed no matter which way he went.

“Skittles,” he named his car after his favorite candy because buying it was the sweetest thing he ever did for himself, “call home.”

*****

“You are something else.”

Dominic looked up from his computer, his smooth smile on his face. He held up both of his hands. “It wasn’t me. I swear.”

His boss turned to leave. “Alright. I’ll find the correct person to congratulate.”

“Whoa!” Dominic stood. “That might be me.”

Hearty laughter burst forth from Mr. Foray. “I don’t know. We may have another. Mr. Liner who presented a killer concept to Midriff Technology.”

“I assure you, that was me. Killer? That’s pretty good.”

“Slaughtered is more accurate. They brought your write-up and are running with it.” Mr. Grey slapped his hands together.

“From this morning?” Dominic leaned against his desk. “That was a first draft.”

“It was the final cut to them.”

“It’s supposed to be a two month project.”

Mr. Foray became serious. “I need to talk with you about that. Kildreg’s project could use an extra hand. Or,” he leaned in conspiratorially, “you can pack your bags and that wife of yours and go on your first vacation in three years.”

Dominic returned his boss’s smile. “Kildreg’s my boy. I don’t mind helping him out.”

“Good to know. It’s good for you to know that I don’t mind calling the police to escort your ass out of here. Enjoy your vacation.”

Mr. Foray grabbed a handful of Jolly Ranchers from Dominic’s candy bowl. “Congratulations!”

“Thanks.”

His boss left and Dominic looked at his cell phone: seven thirty pm. He couldn’t believe it. He was getting off early. And a vacation.

*****

“We’re home!” Ava called ahead of herself and Lily as they neared the formal dinning room.

Brunch had turned into lunch and lunch had turned into seven as they talked, laughed, and lightly flirted with one another. Keith treated every stop sign as a rolling yield to get them home only thirty minutes late for dinner.

Rounding the corner, they saw Claire, Sarah, and Emanuelle finishing their salads.

Ava apologized as they took their seats across from the young couple. “Time got away from us.”

“It’s fine mom. Daddy’s not with you?”

“Hm, no,” Ava had noticed Carson’s empty seat at the head of the table, but she assumed he was in the restroom.

Claire timidly cleared her throat. Probably the only timid gesture she ever made in her sixty-eight years. “I forgot Carson called. He said he ain’t able to make dinner.”

The air around them became thick with discomfort.

“No way,” Emanuelle was the first to verbally express his shock.

“Daddy never misses dinner with us,” Sarah offered as way of explanation to Lily for everyone being dumbfounded. Sarah’s own moment had not completely passed.

From Claire’s feeble announcement of the news to everyone’s reaction to it, Lily had no doubt that “never” meant never.

“Yes, he values family dinner,” Ava said with a calmness that didn’t match her watering eyes. “Excuse me.”

Out of the three remaining at the table, Lily felt most comfortable looking at Sarah and Emanuelle. Emmanuelle’s discomfort presented itself as beads of sweat on his forehead. His head was facing Lily, but his eyes were looking down and to the right. Sarah looked straight at Lily with eyes full of sympathy. Lily tried to avoid those eyes.

“So, do you two always volunteer together?” Lily asked poking at her salad.

“Yes. Sarah’s my angel in stilettos. She’s-”

Sarah put her hand on top of Emmanuelle’s as a signal to pause. “My mom’s room is on the third floor. You can’t miss it. When you get to the second floor, make a right. At the end of the hallway is another set of stairs.”

Lily wanted to play it cool. To continue to make small talk as if her heart wasn’t aching for Ava. She couldn’t. She couldn’t match Sarah’s maturity. Lily couldn’t find her voice to even excuse herself. She nodded and left.

*****

“You’re distracted.”

Carson set down his airport burger. “I’m not.”

Kate’s chubby hand brushed against the leaves of the flowers he brought for her as she reached for his. The flowers were in their vase on the floor, but some foliage still reached and flowed onto the edge of their table.

“It seems to me you rather be somewhere else.”

“I’m happy to be here with you.”

The wrinkles under Kate’s eyes deepened when she smiled. “Your response didn’t answer my question.”

Carson constantly found it peculiar that he could view someone as unattractive as Kate as beautiful. But Katie has such a kind manner behind everything she said and did. The quality was beautifying.

“You did not ask a question.”

“Touché.”

“How sweet!” A passenger hurrying to her gate took the time to holler their way. She was the eight one to do so.

“These flowers are getting a lot of attention. There is no way I’ll get those on the plane.” Kate plucked a white one with three big floppy petals and red sprinkled in its mouth. “I’ll take this one and you can give the rest to your out-of-town guest.”

Sometimes, Carson felt something similar to love for this girl. He took her hand back in his, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “They are for you or no one.”

*****

Ava’s room was easy to find. It was the only one on the entire third floor.

Lily knocked on the only door she saw. No answer. “Ava?” She called pushing one of the double doors open.

The grandness of the room astounded her. Lily didn’t have time to take in the acres of land visible through the wrap-around, floor to ceiling windows. Ava’s sleigh bed was placed upon a platform in the center of the room facing the window. Upon it sat Ava, not crying, but staring blankly out of the windows. She was at the bottom edge of the bed, feet planted on the floor, both arms beside her like two pillars holding her upright. Lily went and stood in front of her.

“Ava, are you okay?” Lily thought there should be a book with better questions to ask in tough situations to avoid the stupid one she asked that had an obvious, negative, answer.

Ava gave a sad smile and shifted her weight onto her right arm. “I think his goal is to sleep with every female in this town before I do. The last hold out must have opened up.”

There wasn’t a response for that and any question, even out of a book, would be inappropriate. “Ava, we’re going to lie down and hold hands. Friends do that.”

Ava nodded. Lily climbed the four steps onto the platform and then the two scooted onto the middle of the bed in silence. They lay facing each other. Ava put one hand under her head and the other she reached out to Lily. Lily mirrored her friend’s position.

Ava felt comforted by the silence and Lily’s company. But the silence gave room for her painful thoughts to talk.

“Lily, I may have over-did this. Seventeen years gone in an instant.”

“This?” Lily thought. Am I “this?”

Lily tried to ignore the question, but couldn’t. “Ava,” how could she word it? “Am I here out of revenge?”

It was a fair question. Ava had to give her that. But it wasn’t one she had the emotional strength to deal with. She was drowning. And she wanted to drown in peace. But Lily was drowning now too. Although Lily had sounded so brave with her voice so steady, her eyes were shut while she asked the question. Her eyes were still shut as if awaiting the sharp sting of a needle before she could open them again.

“No,” Ava said softly. Lily’s face wrinkled with tension now. ‘No’, apparently was only the needle breaking the skin. Ava needed to pull it out before Lily could relax. Ava squeezed Lily’s hand. “Look at me.”

Lily hadn’t realized her eyes were closed. It was painful to open them, but when she did, she did to the view of Ava’s kind eyes.

“Despite everything, Carson has provided wonderfully for me and Sarah,” Ava exhaled. Oh, good Lord, was she tired. “But he’s moved on from seeing me as his wife. It’s time I move on, too.”

Ava’s heart began to race.  The first part was easy to say. Like telling the story of how you got a bad scar that as been healed for years. This next part, she felt like she was putting herself out there. “You’re here because I want you to be a part of my life. I would like to move on to you, Lily. Though we’re together, Carson finds his love in other places, I need a place to find mine.”

Ava lifted herself up and placed the softest, closed mouth kiss onto Lily’s lips. She lay back down and closed her eyes.

The kiss had been one hundred percent a-sexual. As innocent as placing a kiss on a newborn baby’s cheek. The reassurance the kiss provided, though, put a craving inside of Lily for another one. Before she knew it, she made her way over to Ava, who, in response to Lily’s movement, rolled onto her back. Ava looked up at Lily who had paused in the air over her.

Ava laughed softly after a few seconds of nothing-no move on Lily’s part. Her laugh would have sounded refreshing if it hadn’t been intertwined with her words. “Isn’t this ridiculous? Carson is sleeping with my best friend and here we are weighing the sin of a little kiss.”

In that moment, Lily understood Ava: Ava laughed to keep from crying.

Lily pushed a strand of hair away from Ava’s face. Ava locked soft eyes into Lily’s, pleading for something Lily knew she shouldn’t give her. Not yet. She allowed her hand to glide down the side of Ava’s face. To trace Ava’s jawline softly and bring it to her other cheek. Ava pressed her cheek to Lily’s hand in the delicate manner a kitten nudges against its owner. Lily brought her hand down Ava’s neck and willed herself to stop before it came in contact with the top of Ava’s breasts, sitting upon her chest like a mountain waiting to be conquered.

“You’re better than that,” Lily said with a control she didn’t feel. She leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Ava’s cheek. She gave herself a second to close her eyes and inhale the scent of her.

Get up now. She warned herself.

Lily moved from over Ava and both girls turned onto their sides, facing each other once again. They reached for each others hand and held them together between them. “Lets get some sleep,” Lily said and immediately closed her own eyes to block out further temptations. Out of sight, out of mind.

Ava smiled and closed her eyes. She realized this would be the first time she slept in the middle of her bed in a very long time. And it didn’t feel like drowning. It felt like being rescued.

Chapter 4, Part 1 Summary: We learn why Dominic allows Lily to date women. And, it’s a bad day all around for Dominic, Carson, Lily and Ava.

Jane’s Favorite Line: “I don’t have to ask. I’ve seen porn before.”

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Chapter 4 Part 1

Dominic did a quick calculation in his head. He arrived at the conclusion that today was not going to be a good day for him.

“I hope to have sex way before then.”

Those last words of Lily’s sparked a slow burning fire of irritation inside of him that Dominic knew would simmer all day long.

“Thank you,” Lily murmured. Her body had ceased shaking thirty seconds ago. Her eyes were still closed and, if Dominic had to guess, her fingers were still inside of her, but motionless.  Both rooms – his and hers – had become comfortingly quiet after Lily’s last few verbal expressions of pleasure faded. The proof of this was displayed by Rusty’s reentering the room and lying down at Dominic’s feet. Anytime Lily’s voice hit a certain octave, it worked better than any dog whistle or shock collar would at causing Rusty to tuck his tail between his legs and dart out of range.

Lily was overly relaxed now. Dominic knew she would drift off to sleep within the next few seconds. Without saying goodbye, he logged off. The scene of Lily, her head becoming heavy with sleep and starting to droop to the right, was cut off. The picture of the two of them at Navy Pier took its place.

Dominic became nostalgic for that moment in the picture. Just the two of them. But in reality, he knew it had never been just the two of them. He had gotten Lily pregnant when she was sixteen and he was twenty-one. They had always been at least three. But he married Lily out of love, not because of Nathan. Nathan, however, was the reason he agreed to let Lily explore her bisexuality.  Generally, where Dominic came from, the women were the ones who trapped men with a baby. In their case, Dominic didn’t want Lily to feel trapped. He didn’t want her to feel she had started life too young and never got the chance to experience life the way she wanted to live it. But Lily never stopped wanting to live it this way. With both a male and a female in her life romantically. Dominic didn’t know what to do except to continue to love her. At least she had never talked of wanting more than one of each. And Dominic filled the male quota.

Rusty’s head shot up.  A split second later, he hurried to legs and dashed out of Dominic’s office.

“What’s up, Rusty? Daddy’s been gone too long?” Dominic could hear Nathan rubbing the dog’s head and the dog in turn washing Nathan’s face with its tongue.

Damn it. Dominic sighed. If he had sped up his sexy time with his wife by two minutes, he would have left the condo in plenty of time to avoid having to interact with his son for another twelve hours at the earliest. How ridiculous would it look if he slid under his desk until his son passed by the open office door?

“Lets get you fed.”

Dominic stood his ground. He would not hide from his seventeen-year-old son. Well, actually, he stayed seated.  He decided the massive glass desk acting as a barrier provided the best protection for his son’s life.

Nathan had halfway cleared the opening of his dad’s study before he noticed Dominic was inside of it. Dominic pretended to shuffle through a stack of papers, giving his son the opportunity to pass unnoticed.  The moment of truth had come…and Nathan hesitated. He couldn’t decide if he should rush back out the front door or quicken his pace to his room before he caught his dad’s attention. He made the decision to push on when Rusty, impatient with hunger, barked his command to be fed.

Damn it. Both boys thought. Dominic had no choice but to look up.

“Hey, son. Didn’t hear you get up.”

“I just got in.”

“Explains why Rusty’s hungry.”

Nathan squatted down to the dog and rub both of its ears. In the animated voice people only use with dogs, and no other animal he said, “Rusty’s always hungry. Aren’t you, boy? Plain greedy.”

The dog licked Nathan’s face in agreement. Nathan stood. “I’m a go get him feed.”

“Alright.”

“Don’t work too late.”

“You sound like your mom.”

Shoot! Slip of the tongue. Dominic almost made it home free. “She says, ‘hi’.”

“ ‘Hey’,” Nathan replied dryly and turned to leave.

Common sense said to let him go. To let it go. But, perhaps, misery does love company. “Don’t you want to know how she’s doing?”

Nathan turned to walk away from the door.  “I assume she’s having a blast.”

The disgust dripped from his son’s tone. It was an unsavory ingredient added to the simmering irritation his mother sparked earlier. “You don’t have to assume, you can ask.”

“I don’t have to ask. I’ve seen porn before.” Damn it. It was too early to deal with this mess. Why hadn’t that last red light caught him? He could have just missed his dad and avoided him for another twelve hours.

It was pointless to hope that his dad hadn’t heard him, but he could keep walking towards the kitchen as if he hadn’t heard his dad call his name. Nathan decided to go with that plan. The golden retriever followed him, happy to be one step closer to breakfast.

Nathan hadn’t heard his dad call his name, because Dominic hadn’t called it.  Dominic had known Nathan would reply to his question with the same smart mouth he inherited from his momma. It was his fault for egging him on. That and the desk had done its job. A bruise was developing on each of Dominic’s thighs from slamming them against it when he shot to his feet at his son’s words.

**********

Carson wasn’t having the best day either.

“How long will you be here?” His back was to the phone on his desk. He sat with his chair facing the window, watching the leaves on the weeping willow blow in the wind.

“It’s just a stop-over. Seven till ten,” Kate’s voice sounded full and happy. “Plenty of time for dinner, if nothing else.”

Seven. Carson never missed dinner with Ava and Sarah. Never. Come hell or high water, the three of them sat down at that table together Monday through Friday.  The one thing didn’t change after Ava decided to become a lesbian. It was the one thing Carson would not let change.

A laugh that sounded as young as the adult intent behind it filled Carson’s ears. Kate no longer had him on speaker. He could picture Kate lifting the phone to her ear as if she had an important secret to tell. “If nothing else.”

Seven. Carson had never missed a date with Kate either. Out of all of them, Kate was his favorite.  She passed through the town half a year ago and happened to pass right by Carson. Nothing attracted Carson to her more than the fact that she knew nothing about him. Nothing about his work, how much money he made, his reputation around town and she sure as hell didn’t know about his and his wife’s shared preference for females. Her ignorance of that last detail alone made it easy for Carson to over look the woman’s flaws. He purposely decided she was big-boned versus fat. Her hair was bone-straight versus thin.  Her being forty-seven and him being only thirty-five made her mature versus old. Her voice was unique instead of annoying and so on and so on and so on.

“You there?”

“Yes, Kate,” he exhaled extremely annoyed at having to choose. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to change my schedule around for tonight.”

“Really?” There wasn’t a hint of disappointment in Kate’s screeching voice.  “What’s going on tonight?”

“I have out of town guests visiting. I’m not sure if I can trust them to behave on their own.”

Kate laughed. “Well, we can look at this one of two ways. It’s only three hours. Nothing to lose sleep over. I’ll see you next time. Or, it’s only three hours. How much damage can they cause?”

An image of Ava and Lily in a lip lock flashed before Carson’s eyes. His eyes narrowed and his fist tightened. “That is the million dollar question.”

“Not at all,” Kate lowered her high-pitched voice to the point she sounded like a whispering chipmunk. “The million dollar question is how much damage can we cause?”

**********

Lily was having a great day. She sat crossed legged on the hospital’s floor mixed in with Ava’s circle of children. In her arms, she held a beautiful, sleeping crack-baby.  The nurse who handed the baby to her used a medical term for the condition that Lily didn’t quite catch, but she knew it meant crack-baby.

Initially entering the room, Lily had felt a wave of sadness for the children. So much so that she preferred to leave than face the reality that sometimes, life sucked. Even for the very young.  Before she could make her exit, a fragile little boy pulled his wheel chair beside Ava and hugged her legs.

Ava lifted him out of his chair. She spun as she hugged him. “Do you have your books all picked out for me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good! I can’t wait to read them. And…” she switched the boy to her right hip and turned to face Lily, “I can’t wait for you to meet my best friend in the whole wide world.” Ava touched her forehead against the boy’s and whispered, “Other than you.”

“I’m Lily.” Lily willed her smile to look happy and not sad. The boy’s legs were in braces and dangled lifelessly in the air. Ava had to be using all of her own strength to hold him on her hip, because he was unable to lock on. His legs couldn’t be his only health problem because he was also extremely thin. Lily didn’t know how to further her introduction. Shaking hands wasn’t something you did with kids and pats on the head are for pets. But, he was sick. Lily didn’t want him to think she was scared to touch him.

The boy solved her dilemma. “I’m Roberto.” He held both of his arms out and leaned from Ava’s hip towards Lily.

“Whoa!” Ava quickly readjusted and smoothly guided Roberto into Lily’s arms. “Here you go.”

Once draped around Lily’s neck, Roberto squeezed for a big hug.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re huggers in this part of the country.”

“I’ve noticed,” Lily said returning the hug and feeling a deep sense of contentment.

Lily, Roberto, the baby in her arms and about eight other kids sat in a tight circle listening intently to Ava read a book from Dr. Seuss, another from Maurice Sendak, and back to Dr. Seuss. The kids in Ava’s circle were all mild in temperament. Most were naturally so, but a few were made that way as a side-effect of their medications or were simply worn out from battling with their respective illnesses for so long. The more energetic kids were in Sarah and Emanuelle’s circle, who acted out the stories they heard. The two contributed one hundred hours a semester to volunteer work. The small town’s power couple, Lily nicked named them.

Forty minutes into story time, a ready-to-pop pregnant woman noisily entered the room. She nor her two young boys nor her toddler-age girl spoke a word, but the woman’s very presence was loud.  Her orange jumper outfit wasn’t too quite either. She was truly ear-splitting in contrast to her youngsters. They were dressed as if they represented the president of the United States. Their mom, her blonde hair with ends died purple and tattoos peeking out from every exposed limb, look like a perfect representation of a Suicide Girl model. Lily liked her. Or, Lily would have like her if the way the female smiled and made a beeline straight for her hadn’t caused Lily to think better of it.

Three boys from Sarah’s group ran over to the newcomers while they were in route to Lily and circled the boys. “Sit with us!”

The popular youngsters looked to their mom for permission.

“Sure they can sit with you. Take Kaliey for me boys,” she spoke with the excited tone of the children as she placed the girl down on her thick, unstable legs. Without a hint of complaint about the wobbly tag-a-long, the girl’s barely-older-than-her brothers each took one of her hands and steady the girl as they made their way to the group.

The woman stood back up, teased out her half purple, half blonde hair using her fingertips and started for her target again.

“Hi. Can I sit with you?”

Lily looked up. If the girl told Lily she was pregnant with sextuplets, Lily would believe it. “Can you make it?”

“Yeah, I can handle it,” she reached out to steady herself on Lily’s shoulder. “Getting up is the hard part.” She did manage to sit down gracefully on the floor next to Lily. “There. All good.”

Lily let a smile flicker on her face and then pretended to be concerned with whether or not the baby in her arms was comfortable.

“I’m Chase. What’s your name?”

Even her whisper was loud. The kids didn’t seem to be distracted, although Lily thought Ava had picked up her reading pace. She couldn’t be certain.

“Lily.”

“Is that your baby? Mine are right over there. Bailey, Nick, Kaliey, and unknown,” she said waving her hand over her belly. “Five, four, two, and eight months in the oven.”

“She’s not mine.”

Ava didn’t read faster, she skipped pages completely. She’d read the kids another book, but she wanted to separate Chase and Lily as soon as possible.

“Do you have any kids?”

“One.”

“The end!” Ava’s raised voice caused both Lily and Chase to look in her direction. “I’m gonna take a short break and I’ll be right back to read the last book. Okay?”

“Okay,” the children replied in unison and immediately turn their attention to playing with one another. Ava walked over to Lily and Chase’s end of the circle, but remained standing. The two on the floor tilted their heads up towards her.

“Good morning, Chase,” Ava wore what Lily assumed was her, “smile and bear it,” grin that she had told her about earlier.  “Would you like to read the next story?”

Chase smiled back. Hers was more of a, “show your fangs” smile. “You go ahead. I’m having a good time learning all about your cousin.”

The word “cousin” burst through Ava’s ears and shattered her eardrums. That was the only possible explanation for how a room with thirty kids could fall silent in an instant. Not completely silent. Her heart was beating inhumanly loud and each time she swallowed the noise amplified louder than Niagara Falls.

Lily wouldn’t have introduced herself as her cousin. She learned in the last twenty four hours how impossible that is for anyone to believe. Ava glanced at Sarah. She lay on the floor with her eyes closed. Emanuelle leaned over her for a kiss. Sleeping Beauty.  Ava saw the kids laugh and mouth the words, “Gross!” and “Disgusting!” and “Ewe!” but no sound. Still no sound. Ava dismissed the thought. Sarah is a discerning child and Emanuelle is completely loyal to Sarah. Lily’s reason for visiting was safe with them.  Then…where would she get that idea? Ava knew she needed to say something. Something. Now! What?

Ava’s smile didn’t waver, but the seconds ticked by. Lily’s heart went out to her. Ava hadn’t lied. She was not quick on her feet. Lily, fortunately, was.

“Based on the saying I thought it was black people who are suppose to look alike.”

Chase crinkled her nose in judgment. “What?!?”

Lily smiled her sly smile. The offensive approach always worked. Now to play innocent. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. My husband is black and we have all of these ‘crazy white people’ versus ‘crazy black people’ jokes. It’s all in fun.”

“Oh, got ‘cha,” but she sounded uncertain.

Satisfied at leaving Chase stunned, Lily looked up at Ava. “Nice reading.”

“Not much to saying, ‘Green eggs and ham,’ fifty times. I’m was a pro by page two.”

Lily skillfully and gently wrapped her sentences around Ava like a rope in order to pull her back from whatever devastating place Chase’s words had took her to. Although Ava replied in her upbeat manner, part of her mind was elsewhere.

“But I had them asleep by page two. Proof is in the pudding,” she slightly lifted the sleeping baby as evidence.  “Really, your good with kids, Ava.”

“You two don’t look alike at all,” just hearing Chase’s voice made Lily cringe. Hearing her make her way back to her relationship status with Ava made Lily want to put the baby down and take a swing. “I was only going by what Carson said.”

Did she place her hand on her belly? Was that on purpose or did the baby kick? Ava didn’t know. Her hands were starting to sweat.

Lily tried to speak before Ava took the bait but didn’t make it on time.

“Carson?” Ava’s dependable smile was on her face despite the slight tremble in her voice. “When did you speak to him?”

“I-” Chase slid her hand over her belly, “Good, Lord, this baby is strong! I bet it’ll be another boy. Another girl is unlikely. We were lucky to get Kaliey. Not a soul in Chad’s family ever had a girl.”

Ava’s smile trembled. Why could she hear Chase, but no one else?

Chapter 3, Part 2 Summary:  Ava meets Lily’s husband, Dominic. Lily learns what Claire really thinks of her relationship with Ava.

Jane’s Favorite Line: “Ouch.”

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Chapter 3 Part 2

“I’m not sure if it’s them knowing that’s shocking or their approval,” Lily confessed after Claire was out of sight. It felt surreal. Ava’s daughter reacted to Lily’s purpose for this visit as if she truly were no one other than Ava’s cousin. And now her housekeeper was just as welcoming. Standing naked wrapped in a towel while they held the conversation did not help calm the parallel universe effect.

“Oh, Claire doesn’t approve, she accepts. She told me she wouldn’t be much of a Christian if she didn’t at least warn me that my soul was in a compromised position for doing things to a woman that I should only be doing to a man. That was her kind-hearted way of letting me know I’m going to hell.”

Ava laughed. “Lily, you do have the most vivid facial expressions. Don’t be shocked. We’re a hop, skip and a jump away from the Bible belt. What did you expect?”

Lily wrapped her towel around herself tighter, although it hadn’t shown any signs of coming loose. The concept of same-sex-anything-but-friends being sinful hit too close to home. Her parents had barely spoken to her in the last nine years because of that mindset. She only heard from them twice a month when they made plans to pick up their grandson, Lily’s only and now seventeen-year-old child, Nathan.

“I guess I expected her not to say that to you.”

“Don’t be silly. That’s one of the reasons I hired her. Interviewing for housekeepers is torture. Claire was the only one who called me by my name instead of “Mrs.” as if I were someone important. She felt like family right off.  And she’s felt that way since.”

“Yeah, but practically telling you that you’re going to hell…that sort of flies in the face of ‘going along to get along’, don’t you think?”

“That’s what you do with people you don’t have to put up with for long. I should know. I work with all kinds of people for different charities. Most are real nice, but a few, whew! I have to keep telling myself to smile and bear it and it’ll be all over in a few hours. At home, it’s nice to be able to disagree and move on without expecting the other person to change. Isn’t that what family’s all about?”

Not Lily’s. “Do you want to meet Dominic? I promised him we’d Skype everyday and it’s about that time.”

“Why, of course,” Ava didn’t pick up on Lily’s change of topic, but she did notice that the wet spots on her dress from hugging Lily had already dried. Good! She didn’t want to meet Lily’s husband for the first time looking disheveled.

Lily went to her open laptop sitting on the secretary desk. The desk faced a window that looked out into the neighborhood. Lily could see every house in the cul-da-sack as well as a few beyond. Millionaires need not apply. Dominic earned enough as a consultant to own a three-bedroom condo on the lake in the heart of downtown Chicago. He had more than enough left over to support Lily and Nathan without Lily ever needing to join the workforce herself. Needless to say, she was no stranger to higher living, but this was ridiculous. Every house was big enough to reintroduce the concept of extended families living together down to the great, great, great grandkids. Spouses and all.

Lily jiggled the mouse until the screen came to life. Her Skype window was open to Dominic’s profile by default. She smiled at his chosen photo. It was of the two of them on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. It was one of those fun, in the moment photos. Their heads were pressed together and tilted up to look at the camera Lily was holding above them. They both had the biggest smiles on their faces to mask the fear of heights they both shared. But it was a fear they had finally tackled together after years of being able to see the ride from their living room window , which was ironically located on the forty first floor. They both loved that moment.

She positioned the mouse over the “Call” button and pressed it. As the generic ringtone filled the air, Ava smoothed out those pesky invisible wrinkles in her dress and pushed back those unruly strands of hair that constantly fell towards her face.  She had just finished when the ringing stopped and Dominic’s face filled the monitor.

“Mmmm, good morning, beautiful,” Dominic’s voice filled the room like soothing music.

“Good morning to you, too,” Lily didn’t have the same high school crush like grin that she had on for Ava earlier, but her smile was just as happy, but there was a different kind of energy to it. A calmer one. A familiar one.

It was only day one and she already missed him like crazy. Just looking at his creamy, peanut butter complexion made her want to lick the screen for a taste. And those light brown eyes. And, oh, God, his smile. The way his thin goatee perfectly framed his tempting lips.

“Why the towel?”

Why was she wearing the towel? Oh! Lily realized that Ava was standing too far to her right to be picked up by the computer’s camera. She waved Ava closer. Ava shyly stepped into view, embarrassed to have witnessed such an intimate conversation. One that would have been much more intimate had she not been there.

“You must be the reason my wife left two boys to fend for themselves for a month.” Dominic was a charmer. He delivered the sentence in a way that was nothing more than a kind “good morning”, but it carried more friendliness to ease Ava’s apparent embarrassment.

It worked. Ava lifted her head and quickly pulled the strands of hair that fell over her face back behind her ears once again.

“She is!” Lily jumped in in order to use the moment to get a little harmless revenge. “This is my cousin, Ava.”

Ava’s mouth fell wide open.

“Now who has vivid expressions?” Lily teased.

“Lily, don’t poke fun at me.”

“Who me?”

“Yes, you!”

Lily paused.

“‘Not me!’” Ava aided her.

“Right,” Lily cleared her throat and began again. “Who me?”

“Yes you!”

“Not me!”

“Then who?”

The couple laughed. Dominic felt like an outsider. But he smiled as if he had just witnessed the most adorable scene. And really, he had. The two were practically standing on top of each other in order to be seen by the camera’s limited field of vision. Their physical closeness coupled with the emotional closeness their playful call and response game presented did make an adorable scene. He wondered how they had come up with it. Had they been saying it for months? A few weeks? Dominic waited for their laughter to die down a bit.

“Inside joke?”

“You could call it that. Everyone inside this house seems to know it’s a joke,” Lily laughed again and Ava barely had time to finish her last set of giggles before a fresh batch rolled out.

Dominic braced himself without letting his smile waver. He even laughed along. He knew how to handle feeling left out for a few moments or days when Lily was caught up in a new love interest. He had some practice over the last nine years. Reminder number one: it was just a feeling. Lily never truly put him second. He had formed a bulletproof plate over the front of his heart to keep that feeling from stabbing at it. Unfortunately, in some moments like this one the, “you’re second best”, feeling crept in from the back and did some damage.  The current damage was no more than a scratch. He would work to keep it from getting worse over the next few weeks.

Ava was the first from the couple to recover enough to speak. She held on to Lily as she did to steady her weakened knees from the lack of oxygen their non-stop laughing had caused. “It’s just…I was a bit nervous when my husband met Lily and I introduced her as my cousin.”

“He believes my wife is your cousin?”

Dominic managed to ask the question without a single hint of the concern that Lily knew he was feeling. She managed to rush out a sentence between chuckles. “Oh, they don’t believe that at all. Apparently, Ava is the worst liar south of the Mississippi.”

More cryptic messages. He knew Lily wasn’t talking in circles on purpose. She was just caught up in the moment, but he did know when to bow out. He wasn’t going to be able to have a real conversation with the two of them while they were high on their “new relationship energy.” “New relationship energy,” was the term Lily used to explain this part of the dating new people process to him years ago. Most people probably know it as, “the honeymoon stage.” The only difference was that it could be hard as hell to swallow the fact that your wife is having a “honeymoon anything” with someone who is not you.

Dominic forced chuckled. “I’ll let you two young ladies get your day started.”

Those words snapped Ava into full hostess mode. Where had her manners gone? So much for acting like herself and not like a giddy school girl. “Not at all! I’ll have Lily all day long. You should have her for a few minutes at the very least.”

Ava’s diplomacy impressed Dominic. Nothing was plastic about his smile this time. “I hope we have a chance to talk at a later time, Ava.”

“You can count that egg before it’s hatch,” she smiled.

“Ava, don’t go,” Lily was still struggling to get her breath back under control, but she was managing. Slowly, but surely.

“Hush. You just come downstairs when you’re finished and we’ll head out. Nine thirty is the latest we can leave and still be on time. You have an hour,” she kissed Lily on her cheek. “Friends do that,” she said before Lily could protest. She turned back to Dominic. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“Likewise.”

Ava left and Lily watched her go. What’s that saying? “I hate to see her go, but I love to watch her leave”. Yep. That was it. When she turned back around to face Dominic, her lower lip was in her mouth.

“Isn’t she a doll?”

“From what I can tell, yes. But-”

“Dominic, don’t start,” Lily warned. If she had pointed her finger at him and waved it up and down, the gesture would have complimented her tone nicely.

Dominic’s deep soothing voice had no fear of faltering. As long as he stayed calm and spoke on logical terms, not emotional ones, Lily would listen. “I’m not starting, Beautiful. I am concerned that your relationship with Ava hasn’t been made clear to her husband.”

“It’s clear. I spoke with him this morning,” she sat down on the leather chair and readjusted the camera to her new height.

Dominic waited for the screen to stop shaking. “And he approves?”

“Not exactly yet.”

“Lily-”

“Yet. The key word is ‘yet’. Give him a few days to sleep on it.”

“Lily, I don’t want you down there causing problems in their lives.”

“You’re starting.”

Dominic rubbed the back of his neck to ease the tension starting to form there. “Beautiful, I just want to make sure everyone is onboard before you pursue this much further.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’m doing.  As you know, I’m not brand new at this.”

“Lily,” Dominic paused to make sure is next words would come out calm and even, “we are brand new to this. Your past girlfriends were single and childless. You never dated a married woman with a husband and a child before.”

“The word ‘married’ indicates ‘husband’.” Lily claims this is her “dry wit”, but everyone else calls it, “smart-mouthed”. She knew they were probably more accurate.

“Lily-”

“Look! There is a first time for everything.”

“And firsts come with trials and errors. I don’t want that error to result in an affair and a broken home.”

“Wow. You are making a mountain out of a molehill, Dominic. I won’t touch Ava unless he says it okay. You know that. She knows that. And he knows that. Lets drop it. Where’s Nate?”

“Nowhere to be found,” Dominic had no choice but to go with the flow when Lily jumped topics like this. To get her to jump back was an impossible task. “I came home last night to an empty condo and a hungry dog, but I expected nothing less, did you?”

Lily didn’t expect anything less and Dominic knew it. With Lily off chasing her castle in the sky dream of a wife holding her left hand and a husband holding her right, Nathan was bound to disappear like Houdini.  Dominic didn’t mind. Nathan was a good kid who graduated high school six months early. And, quite honestly, Dominic was relieved not to have to deal with his son’s disapproving side remarks right then. Not after the long workday he had yesterday. And not when he was trying to wrap his own mind around Lily’s ever evolving ideal romance. He was grateful for the happy golden retriever who greeted him with a wagging tail and a wet tongue at one in the morning.

“I bet you missed me,” Lily fished for a compliment.

“You always make bets you know you’ll win.”

“Yet, you didn’t call me.”

“I wanted to. I tried to get home by ten before you passed out, but-“

“I know. I checked. Only because you said you would get off early.”

“I’m sorry. I-”

“No need for ‘sorry’s. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for ten years and I’m a damn fool.”

Dominic looked hurt. Lily felt guilt.  She loved that man. And she loved that he worked so hard to provide for her and Nate. She hoped she showed appreciation for this fact more often than she showed irritation because of his eighty plus hour workweek. But comments like the one she just made was more salt on an old wound that would more than likely never have the chance to heal. She hurried on.

“Besides, you know me. I’m asleep by ten like clockwork. I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t even eat dinner. At six I crawled in bed to relax for five minutes, but was out for the rest of the night.”

This was true. Even if Lily had been home, she would have left a home cooked dinner on a warming plate for him. She would have set the dinning room table before going to bed so he could eat comfortably. After he ate, Dominic always slid out of his suit and into bed next to his eccentric wife. His kiss on the back of her neck would have awakened her enough for her to snuggle into him and ask how the rest of his day had gone since they had last spoke. Depending on the night, she would be able to stay awake long enough to hear the answer.

Dominic rubbed the back of his neck once again in the silence. Lily glanced at the time on the bottom right hand corner of her screen. It was awkward. Lily never managed to back pedal successfully out of the, “you’re never home because you work too much” accusation. She tried another route.

“Looks like we still have forty minutes. I think I know a way to kill the time.”

Lily stood up and a second later Dominic watched the white cotton towel whoosh passed his screen.  The screen now showed Lily’s belly button down to mid-thigh. Dominic followed Lily’s right hand slide from her waist to in between her thighs and pause there for a moment. He smiled. He pushed his chair away from his desk until his lap had cleared it. Lily heard the sound of his zipper coming down. Now, she had succeeded at backpedaling.  She sat back down with her petite breast and above in view.

“You’re not going to let me see?” she playfully whined. That poor bottom lip of hers. She was going to draw blood from it before the next five weeks were up.

Dominic held her gaze. Sex always shifted the upper hand from Lily to him. She craved it and would all but literally sacrifice her first-born son, Nate, to have Dominic satisfy her. Dominic enjoyed the power exchange. Even if it did only last as long as they were wrapped in each other’s arms. “We should store up this sexual tension until we see each other again,” he taunted her. “After a few weeks, it’ll be explosive.”

Lily closed her eyes, leaned back into the leather chair and slipped three fingers into her moist opening.  “I hope to have sex way before then.”

Ouch. That comment left a wound deeper than a scratch on the back of Dominic’s heart. He knew she was referring to sex with Ava. Not a thought he wanted her to be considering in this moment with him. He quietly re-zipped his black slacks and placed his papers for work inside of his briefcase while simultaneously describing to Lily exactly how he would make love to her if they were together. Lily didn’t notice Dominic hadn’t joined in on what was supposed to be a mutual masturbation session. Her eyes remained closed during his entire narration. She listened to his soothing voice and moved her fingers to produce the movements Dominic was saying he would make if he were inside of her.

Chapter 3 Part 1 Summary: Ava wakes up eager to see Lily. She brings a friend along to meet her.

Jane’s Favorite Line: “Ava was sitting on the bed with her tiny waist and full breasts packaged inside of another adorable dress.”

Chapter 3 Part 1 Note:

Because one of my final outputs for my novel will be broadcast on podiobooks.com, I separated Chapter 3 into two parts. Podiobooks recommends that we keep the length of the episodes consistent. My chapters are around 19 -20 minutes in length. Chapter 3 is doubled that length, so it will be released as Part 1 & Part 2.

Click here to listen to Chapter 3, Part 1 on this blog:

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Chapter 3, Part 1

Ava was in that space where the best part of your dream fuses with the best part of your reality before you fully wake up.

She slept on the far right side of her California-king sized bed. The far, far right. If she moved an inch, she’d drop straight to the floor. A strange risk to take given all the space she had, but Ava had stopped sleeping in the middle of the bed twelve years ago when Carson had stopped sleeping there with her. He had tried. She knew that. For a week after he learned of her and Carly, he still slept with her every night. The second week it was touch and go. The third, their nights together became even more sporadic. The fourth week…he moved into his own room. One on the first floor. Now, not only were they rooms apart, but also three floors. Might as well throw in the emotional distance. It was the greatest between them.

All alone, the bed was too vast. Sleeping alone in the middle of it made Ava feel she was lost at sea destined to be drowned by waves of white silk sheets. So instead, Ava slept on the far right side of the bed with her back to the edge.

At this moment, Ava was coming into reality, but part of her mind was still asleep. Although she could now feel the firm pillow she was hugging in her arms, her lingering dream state told her brain that she was hugging Carson. She smiled to herself and hugged tighter. The pillow caved in too much to accurately represent Carson’s muscle-filled frame, which caused the delicate balance between dream and reality to topple over and take her heart’s comfort down with it.

Ava opened her eyes. She pushed the pillow to the side and rolled onto her back. She felt her heart turn into a dead weight and the heaviness    of it held her hostage against the mattress.

No. She told herself.

Ava had spent too many years feeling helpless. Staying in bed all morning and recounting her mistakes. Playing the “what if” game. It was a bad place for her. One morning, years after her one-night stand and a few dozen of Carson’s mistresses later, she shook herself loose of her guilt. Not completely free, but loose enough to function. Every morning without fail the emptiness started to make its way through her soul, but she had become apt at stopping it at the first inkling of its appearance. She busied her mind with other things.

Today’s things? Let’s see: ten o’clock is reading to the children at the hospital. That only lasts until eleven. But between then and dinner…she could spend the day showing Lily-

Lily! Ava sat straight up in her bed. How had she forgotten Lily was in her home even for a moment? Especially when last night she thought she would never fall asleep due to thoughts of her. Although Ava woke up this morning thinking the pillow was Carson, she went to sleep pretending it was Lily. She hopped out of bed to get dressed.

Just before eight Ava was fully dressed and rushing to tuck in the last corner of her comforter. She knew she would get an ear full for doing this in five, four, three, two, one…

A knock on her bedroom door. Ava ran to open it, but was still a few seconds away before it opened on its own. Claire began to step into the room as she spoke. “Good morning, Deary.”

Ava made it to the door and placed her body between Claire and the rest of the room, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

This was a pointless maneuver. Claire is over three feet taller than Ava and simply looked over her brown wavy hair and spied the made bed. “Why did you bother to have me come so early if you’re still just gonna do every thang yourself? I thought company might slow you down a tad.”

“I have a bed for you to make. Come on.”

Ava’s perfectly polished pink toes were inside of the cutest size seven, white sandals and scurried down the hallway. They added a half skip in between every sixth or seventh step. The skip may have been overly youthful, but it was all Ava could do to keep from running full speed to Lily’s room. Which, if it hadn’t been for the black sneakers following at a creeping pace behind her, she may have done.

Claire didn’t mind that Ava sped off without her. She didn’t see why Ava and her visitor hadn’t share the same bed like they both knew they wanted to. They already crossed a doozy of a line by introducing Lily to Carson in the first place. But Claire guessed there was always one more line to cross even scarier than the last. Crossing the first line was a good thing in Claire’s eyes. It was good to see Ava happy about someone for a change. Even if it was this particular someone. Yeah, Ava was always smiling out of excitement for one charity or another she was running, but those were thing. Lily was a person. A person her Ava was happy about seeing. As far as Claire was concerned, Ava could sprint down those stairs she just reached and she’d be right along behind her in two minutes.

Ava stopped at the top of the third floor stairwell, but her heart had already leaped out of her body and down to the second floor where Lily’s room and, more importantly, Lily resided. She looked behind her. Claire was still forever and a day away from the reaching her at the stairs. Okay. Maybe she wasn’t that far away. Twenty seconds at most, but twenty seconds was a long time. Had Claire always walked this slow? Fourteen, thirteen, twelve…

“Claire, I’m going to wait on the second floor…incase Lily is on her way down to breakfast. I don’t want to miss each other.”

Claire smiled and waved Ava on. Nothing had been wrong with her walking pace for the last five years. She was happy for Ava, but she didn’t have enough excitement to add any more pep to her step than she had already done. “You go on ahead, Deary.”

Ava was gone.

When she reached the outside of Lily’s bedroom door, she realized that she now had nothing better to do than to hurry up and wait for Claire. Ava traced back a few steps to the bronze hallway mirror.  Smoothing out invisible wrinkles from her flawlessly pressed dress, she started fretting about whether or not she looked believable. It was nonsense, of course. Ava always emerged from her room ready for the day and today was no exception. Sure, she may have spent more time agonizing over which dress to wear, but that’s nothing to nail her to a stake for. Overall-so far-she had managed to be herself. Not too giddy and not too anxious. But to Lily, would she look overly made up in her pink sundress for eight in the morning?

An hour later, Claire’s reflection finally stood next to Ava’s. An hour may be a slight exaggeration. But it felt that long to her.

“You look fine, Deary,” Claire assured her. “Let’s get the day started.” The pair turned towards Lily’s room. Ava’s damp with sweat hand grabbed Claire’s as they neared the door. Claire gave it a loving squeeze as she opened the left side of the double wooden door with her free hand.

“Good morning, Lily!” Ava sang out as Lily emerged from the pathway connecting her bedroom to her private bathroom.

“Heeey, Ava.” Simply laying eyes on Ava caused the silliest grin to form on Lily’s face.  Oh, do we ever really grow up? Ava was sitting on the bed with her tiny waist and full breasts packaged inside of another adorable dress. Ava looking like the perfect, sexy little housewife didn’t help ease Lily’s excitement.

But you would have never been able to tell how excited, or embarrassed, Lily truly was. Other than her pitch being a little off and her Titanic-sized grin, she stayed collected. Way more collected than your average person wearing nothing but drops of water fresh from the shower would have been. Lily had been outside with Sarah and Emanuelle for less than three minutes, yet the dry heat caused a thin layer of sweat to cover her entire body. And it was only seven a.m. at the time. She didn’t know how these people survived.

Lily removed the softest towel she had ever touched from around her wet hair and moved it to its new location around her body. As she did this, she quickly surveyed the scene. Her bed across the room had been made with perfectly tucked corners that reminded her of military precision. An older lady, possibly late forties, paused arranging the fresh flowers on the nightstand to place her eyes on Lily. The scent from the dozen red roses filled the room as if she were in a garden.

Ava hardly took note of the fact that Lily had been naked just seconds ago.  She had started bouncing up to Lily the moment, “Heey, Ava,” had left Lily’s lips. She gave Lily a big hug. And a strong one, too. Otherwise, Lily would have been knocked over.  She was in mid-step when Ava threw her arms around her. Lily’s first thought was to hold the towel in place. Her hands went to it instead of opening up to Ava, which made the hug a bit stiff from her end.

“Well,” Ava teased when she saw the dark wet spots form on her dress, “thanks for the cleaning.”

Before Lily could give a witty reply, Ava leaned in and gave her a quick, “thank you”, kiss on her left cheek. When she pulled away, Ava was beaming at the seams. The kiss was nothing. Ava had delivered it so lightly that her pink lipstick didn’t leave the slightest trace that her lips had been on Lily’s cheek at all. Still, Lily was stunned and reacted with more shocked than she had when caught off guard in her birthday suite. It didn’t help that the woman across the room was smiling at them. She smiled as if she had played the matchmaker and was now watching her two candidates hit it off right from the start.

“Ava, we can’t-”

“Oh, Lily, what? It’s just a friendly little kiss on the cheek. Friends do that. Don’t they?”

“Yes, they do, Deary,” the woman offered and completely left off tending to the flowers to make her slow shuffle over to them.

The word “deary” aged the woman a bit more. It caused Lily to look at her more closely. She could now see that Claire wasn’t a plump forty-something-year-old mom who was possibly working part time just to fill in her days. She was older. In her sixties perhaps.

Lily extended her hand, “You must be Claire.”

“None of that here,” she corrected by pushing Lily’s hand to the side and giving her a hug the moment it was out of the way. Hugging, Lily concluded, must be the South’s preferred way of saying, “hello”.

It was also another hug Lily wouldn’t have expected based on the woman’s appearance. Her extra weight didn’t make her seem jolly, but solid like a football player. The lines on her face were split between her forehead and running parallel down both sides of her lips. The effect of this made her face look stern. Corporal in the army stern. She looked like the type of woman whose house kids would avoid even on Halloween and make her the mean old lady in their ghost stories instead. A former principal who ate the bad students is how the story would be told. But her speech and friendly hug obliterated that not-at-all-close-to-the-truth image.

Claire released her. Lily quickly stopped her towel from sliding down and retied it. No one seemed to notice.  “Alright, then. I’ll be here every mornin’ to make your bed, put out fresh flowers and warm towels. Tidy up, you know? If you need somethin’ personal like a bath drawn, ironin’, a cup of cool tea, page me. My number’s in the night stand drawer.”

Lily shook her head in an attempt to let this particular type of southern hospitality sink in.  She didn’t know how to reply to it other than to politely refuse it.

“Thank you, Claire, but really, I can handle it. There’s no need to wait on me.”

“Don’t be like that. This is a privilege. You being Ava’s long lost cousin and all.”

Although Lily felt like the butt of this joke once again, Claire’s sparkling eyes had actually turned towards Ava.

“Claire, don’t poke fun at me,” Ava playfully whined while giving the old lady a gently nudge.

“Who me?” Claire asked a little too innocently.

“Yes, you!”

“Not me!”

“Then who?”

The two women laughed at the end of their familiar refrain.

“Honestly, Claire. I told you, I had gotten so nervous. It’s the first thing I thought of.”

“Say the second thang next time, Deary. Back to you,” Claire said turning towards Lily. She smiled at Lily as if she had been in on the recent banter.  “Two hundred extra dollars daily to make you feel like a queen. Don’t be a demandin’ one if you don’t wanna be, but cleanin’ and flowers are part of the deal.”

Lily smiled. “Daily, uh? I’ll sleep in that bed every night.”

“Good! Most of the house don’t get up and about until eight or so, but the kitchen’s ret to go with breakfast ‘bout six.”

“But I just saw…” Lily realized she didn’t want to mention she had seen Carson. It felt like an unnecessary omission, but omit it, she did. “…Sarah off to school at six fifty.”

“I meant the most of the house you’re interested in,” Claire took in Lily’s reaction.  “Don’t go lookin’ shocked. The whole house knows who you’re here for. Page if you want somethin’ specific. I’m a go wipe down your washroom and change out the towels.” Claire gave both ladies a quick hug and a knowing smile before she began making her slow crawl from the room.

Chapter 2 Summary: Along with breakfast, Carson finds Lily alone in the kitchen. She tells him she wants his permission to date his wife. Has hell frozen over? The conversation quickly becomes heated. The argument may not be the only thing making them hot.

Jane’s Favorite Line:  “Rocking the boat was not Ava’s style and bringing her lesbian lover home for a month practically flipped the damn thing over.”

Click here to listen to Chapter 2:

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Read Chapter 2 below:

Chapter 2

Before Lily stepped away from her bedroom door, she made a mental, “You Are Here,” dot in her mind. She noted that there were three closed wooden doors on her end of the hallway. She just didn’t know which end she was on. Her sense of direction was lost at some turn last night when she stopped paying attention to anything other than Ava’s lovely bottom in front of her as she led Lily to her room. Lily smiled at the memory of Ava’s skirt swishing from side to side and her own desire to get a peek under it. A few seconds later, Lily shook her head to refocus on the task at hand.

To the far right of the door across from hers sat a deep brown, wooden console table that was placed underneath a huge horizontal mirror hanging on the wall. The mirror’s frame was easily seven inches wide. It was bronze in color and full of detailed carvings. Searching past it she saw that this decoration was not repeated on the other end of the hallway. She had found her point of reference. Lily tugged up her black, loose-fitting sweat pants. They were hanging low exposing her hipbone and a thin layer of flesh between them and the bottom of her white tank top. She knew she would have to yank them up after every other step she took.

By the time she reached her destination thirty minutes later, she wished she had left breadcrumbs instead of settling on a point of reference. There were so many nooks and crannies to the home and Lily explored almost every open door. Each room possessed its own life. Each one was decorated in a way completely different from than one beside it. Even the most modern room, however, still had a country charm. Every room felt like home.

The last set of stairs Lily descended brought her to the back of her destination. The first thing Lily saw was everything. Especially, the basketball gymnasium space, which was the kitchen. It took her breath away. Welcome to Lily’s playground. The second thing she saw was nothing. All of the appliances were flawlessly hidden. Even the oven was disguised as a painted country-white, wooden drawer complete with the rustic iron handles to match the rest of the cabinets. Lily only spotted it at all because it sat below the seven-burner stove top. And it wasn’t a wussy electric stove top. This house cooked with fire. The back splash was shiny, but resembled distressed wood. The counter tops had the same effect. You knew you were touching marble or granite, but the design was wooden in appearance so as to not distract from the country feel of the space. It was a kitchen Lily both wanted to make homemade jam in and a five-star meal.

The only thing that disappointed Lily about the kitchen was the fact that breakfast had already been prepared. There were three long wooden islands in the middle of the kitchen. They were designed like tall tables, with all of the drawers and cabinets of a useful island. These were a darker wood to balance the whiteness of the rest of the space. The first island closest to the stove was for prepping and complete with a small rinsing sink. The second held a small breakfast buffet. Fresh fruit overflowed from one basket. Pastries were arranged on another platter. Stacks of fluffy pancakes waited under a glass display. And of course, the scent of fresh coffee filled the air.

Lily picked up the coffee pot and one of the mugs next to it. She passed by the third island that had a row of wooden high top chairs for eating in a more casual setting and sat down at the nook on the far side of the room under the bay window. The view of the massive backyard wanted her attention but the kitchen kept it.

She looked up at the stainless steel pots and pans hanging from their rack on the ceiling. The early morning sun from the skylights reflected off of them and the resulting beams of light added a soft drama to the space. Lily’s eyes followed the crisscrossing, exposed, wooden beams from one end of the kitchen to the main entrance. As if on cue, Carson walked into view. He was dressed to kill in another suit made for his body. Once he saw Lily, the look on his face made Lily feel he just might.

Carson’s temperature rose as thoughts of how Lily and more importantly, Ava, spent last night flowed through his mind. Another deep breath. After relieving some tension by climbing on top of one of his mistress last night, Carson spent the car ride home deciding if he was going to throw Lily out.  He decided to ignored the girl and let this thing play out. He was pissed, but he was also intrigued. Rocking the boat was not Ava’s style and bringing her lesbian lover home for a month practically flipped the damn thing over. He wanted to know why this skinny little thing in front of him was so special. He also wanted to know how she imagined this would work out. He noticed Lily had a ring on her finger during their introduction last night. How could she be too cowardly to bring Ava home to her husband, but ballsy enough to parade around in front of someone else’s husband?

Carson decided to stick to his plan and ignore her at this moment as well. He placed his briefcase down at the entrance and walked over to the buffet. He went directly to the coffee machine, turned one of the upside down mugs right side up in his left hand and reached for the coffee pot before he noticed it was missing. He looked over at Lily.

“Does your husband know you’re here having sex with my wife?”

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Lily replied with the lead-by-example cheeriness she would use to demonstrate manners to a five-year-old.

She picked up the coffee pot from the table and walked over to Carson. She took the mug out of his hand and began to pour his drink. “And, yes, he does know.” She handed the cup to him.

Liar. He conveyed with one disbelieving cock of his head.

Lily laughed and softly nudged his hand with the cup. “At least he knows I want to. We haven’t actually, “did the do” yet,” she teased.

Carson straightened his head. She wasn’t lying. He took the cup from her and studied her as he took his first sip.

“Why haven’t you?”

“We’re waiting for your permission.”

Lily realized this may have been the first time she actually heard someone scoff. She had read, “So-and-so scoffed at this or that,” all of the time, but she had never actually heard it. Carson ’s scoff was followed by a smirk.

“Ava hasn’t needed my permission up till now. She’ll screw anything in a skirt,” he purposely looked over and down at Lily’s sweat pants ensemble. Without desiring it to, the thought entered his mind that her pants may give up their fight of hanging on to her hips and slide off completely.  “Figure of speech, of course.”

“Of course. And are you the pot or the kettle in this illustration?”

Somehow, Carson managed to stand straighter as he put his coffee down and turned to face Lily directly. This, of course, was not possible. Carson’s posture was perfect. Everything about the man-minus his attitude-was perfect. “The pot, and I’m starting to boil.”

This close, Lily had to raise her head to look Carson in his eyes. She refused to take a step back. Sure, she was intimidated. She imagined she looked like a spirited little chiwawa barking at a bulldozer. Not a fight anyone needed to see to know the outcome. But she wasn’t scared of him. She had already noted that his palms were laying flat against his sides. Despite what he was saying and how threateningly he was saying it, the fact that his two fists hadn’t formed proved he wasn’t truly upset by this little exchange of theirs.

Lily, however, was truly upset and trying not to let it show. Lily cared for Ava and didn’t like Carson dragging her down to his level. “Despite what you believe, Ava doesn’t cheat on you. With anybody. Male or female.”

Carson’s scoff and smirk were simultaneous this time. “I guess your little southern bell didn’t tell you everything.”

“I didn’t say she hasn’t cheated on you. I said she doesn’t. You’re projecting what you do onto her. Carly was twelve years ago. Ava was young and drunk and sorry. And your bruised male ego-”

Narrowing brown eyes caused Lily to glance down for a second and catch a glimpse of Carson ’s fingers twitching.

Stop talking, Lily. She thought to herself, but didn’t.

“You can’t get over the fact that she found something in a woman that you-”

Full fists now. Just stop talking.

“If you had gotten over yourself and had just forgiven her instead of becoming the town’s tramp you’re marriage would be fine.” With the last words gone from her lips, Lily felt the full weight of her stupidity for saying them. She quickly hurried on, “Would you like some more coffee?” Without waiting for an answer she picked up his mug and began to refill it.

Lily was nervous now. Carson could tell. The little girl ran off at the mouth and now she didn’t know what he would say or-what he knew she was really worried about-Lily didn’t know what he would do as a response. She immediately started talking one hundred miles per hour about how beautiful his kitchen looked and how much she loved to cook. The eye contact she had defied him with only seconds ago was now nowhere to be found as her eyes darted this way and that, but mostly down.

Part of him wanted to pick up her thin little body and toss it out of the bay window. Part of him wanted to continue to watch her sweat. None of him wanted to consider what she had said as true. He was sure Ava lied to Lily about the number of her indiscretions. Why would she admit to anything that would taint her new interest’s image of her? Though, Lily clearly knew about Carly and not from him obviously. Why hadn’t more names come out of her mouth?

Carson decided it was a well thought out ploy of his wife’s. Confess to something extreme to appear more trustworthy. And why you’re at, tell the story with enough tears in order that you may appear to be the victim. Carly was a good choice to confess. She was the only lover of Ava’s that Ava knew Carson was one hundred percent certain of.

Lily handed Carson his cup of coffee without looking up. He took it and a sip. “You’re welcome,” she corrected him.

Carson felt his eyes narrow once again. This little girl did not know when to quit.

Lily got the message and quickly pushed on. “Did Ava make all of this?”

“Jeff.”

“Jeff?”

“One of our chiefs.”

“‘One of’, uh?”

“Yes, ‘one of’.”

“Hey daddy!”

Thank God! Lily thought as the girl who bounced into the kitchen threw her arms around Carson. When she turned to face the buffet, she noticed Lily.

“Lily!” The girl beamed and threw her arms around Lily as well. Lily didn’t expect such a warm gesture from her. For one, most teenagers are not so forthcoming with adults. Secondly, the girl didn’t seem like a hugger. She was dressed in a way that can only be described as, “sharp”. Nothing was out of place on her. She wore a black A-line skirt that hugged her hips and, although slender, she did have some weight on her, but it looked good. Seven more pounds would push her over to the heavy side, but no one would care. She would be pretty at any size. Pinching her waist was a three-inch wide red leather belt. It contrasted nicely with the black skirt and added flare to the white, V-neck blouse with three-quarter sleeves she was wearing. Her black pumps brought her up to Lily’s height of five-eight.

“I’m glad I caught you before class. We missed you last night at dinner. I was so anxious to meet you.”

“Sorry,” Lily searched for words. “Yesterday’s flight exhausted me. The bed was calling my name a bit early. You’re Sarah?”

“That’s right.” Sarah glanced at her dad and Lily missed the secretive smile she tossed at him. Carson gave a dismissive shrug. She turned back to Lily. “We hardly get company passing through for so long and not only are you company, you’re family! How close were you and my mom growing up?”

Lily froze. She had no intentions of lying to a sixteen-year-old girl, but did she really want to tell her the truth? Lily didn’t think it was her place to do so. Unbelievably, she actually looked to Carson for help.

“They were practically kissing cousins, if you let your mom tell it.”

The shock on Lily’s face at Carson’s words said it all. Sarah replied to it with a laugh that was full and friendly. “Don’t I know it. I was just teasin’, Lily. I know you’re not cousins.”

At this point, Lily realized that she definitely did not have the home court advantage. She wanted to know just exactly how embarrassed she should feel. A degree she couldn’t possibly begin to calculate without knowing how much Sarah did know.

Sarah apparently read her mind.  “Just so you know how bad of a lie you being my mom’s cousin is, she only has like five family members. And they all live around the corner.”

Lily couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with a sixteen year old. Talk about mature beyond your years. Sarah’s haircut didn’t help matters. It was also mature, not the flow down to your back length she knew it must have been once. Sarah had it dyed dark brown with light brown highlights and cut to chin level. She looked as if she were going to manage a fancy hotel for the rich and famous in L.A., not going to high school in the boondocks.

Lily found herself trying to mimic the young lady’s casualness towards the situation. “I thought our lack of resemblance gave us away,” she joked.

“It doesn’t help you none-any. It doesn’t help you any.” Sarah corrected herself. “I suggest she introduce you to everyone else as a friend.”

“I’ll let A know.”

“‘A’, uh? I didn’t think ‘Ava’ could get any shorter. It’s cute.” Lily blushed at her slip of the tongue.  “Don’t worry. Really. It’s cute,” Sarah reassured her and gave her another hug. “Well, I’d love to catch up, but Emanuelle will be pulling up to take me to school soon.”

They had a chief who made breakfast before six a.m., so why not? “Personal chauffer?”

“Boyfriend. Good guess, though.” She grabbed a banana. “Would you like to meet him real quick?”

“Sure.”

“Come on. He’ll be here before we reach the front door.”

True to her statement, the moment they opened the front door, not only did the full ninety-five degrees of heat hit them, so did the sound of music that could only be described as Spanish rap.

Emanuelle literally jumped out of his completely uncovered dark blue Jeep and headed over to the two ladies. At first sight, the pair appeared mismatched. Sarah stood next to Lily looking completely sophisticated in stockings and all despite the “you-should-only-come-outside-naked” heat. Emanuelle was dressed nicely, but in a younger fashion: baggy khakis and a blue sports jersey with a white t-shirt underneath. However, when he spoke, he did so with the same friendliness and warmth Sarah had. Lily smiled.

“Hey babe,” he gave Sarah a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “And, hello.” Right away Lily found herself in her third embrace of the day. Emanuelle was chubby and the bear hug he gave Lily totally engulfed her tiny frame. The temperature rose an uncomfortable twenty degrees more until he released her.

“Hey, sweetie. You just squeezed my mom’s cousin nearly to death. Meet Lily.”

The fake smile Emanuelle used to cover over his real confusion was apparent to both ladies. Sarah shot a quick “Told you so,” smile at Lily.

“Good to meet you. Where you from?” Emanuelle asked quickly recovering from the illogical information he had just received and returning to his warm self.

“Chicago.”

“Really? What’s it like?”

Sarah turned Emanuelle towards his jeep. “We don’t have the time. Sorry, Lily, no time.”

“No worries. Later.”

“Yep,” Sarah called over her shoulder.

Lily re-entered the house as the couple headed to the jeep. She was thankful to escape the heat and return the wonderful invention called, A.C.  She decided to avoid the kitchen as well as the rest of the house until she knew Carson wasn’t in either. She exhaled and prepared herself mentally to relocate her point of reference. She accepted that it would take longer to find since she refused to go back the way she came, which was through the kitchen, which possibly still contained Carson. She tugged back up her steadily dropping sweat pants and started up the grand stairwell in the foyer.

Carson smiled to himself as he drank the last of his coffee. Hearing the sound of footsteps on the foyer’s stairs after the front door reopened and closed again meant one thing: he was right. He didn’t fully understand what it was that Lily or Ava wanted to achieve with this little stunt of theirs, or even if their end goals were the same, but neither of them would be brave enough to succeed.  The fact that Lily didn’t rejoin him to finish their conversation combined with the fact that Ava was nowhere to be found all morning proved it. Carson could tell that Lily was serious about wanting his permission to have a relationship with his wife. A fact he couldn’t wrap his mind around, but it didn’t matter. Hell didn’t have plans to freeze over the last time he checked. And Ava wasn’t crazy enough to have a lesbian love affair under his roof. Either way he looked at it, Lily was bound to leave in a few weeks sexually frustrated if she didn’t give up and make her exit before then. Carson would enjoy watching the two make fools out of themselves in the meantime. Women.

Carson walked over to the kitchen’s entrance in a few long strides to pick up his briefcase. He straightened up and looked back into the kitchen as if watching the scene between him and Lily replay before his eyes. He smiled as he recalled the fire in her eyes and her hands on her bare hips as she defended Ava. Silly girl. She reminded him of Sandra’s, the woman of choice last night, little chiwawa. The damn thing barked at his heels every night he went to see her. It thought it was so badass when in reality, one tiny kick and Carson could send it sailing across the room. That would be the end of its good intentions to protect its owner. Yet, it was ready to fight against all odds. Admirable. And a bit sweet. And a bit humorous in a way that caused him to yield to his first instinct to kick the thing and put up with its yapping instead. Those were the reasons he never kicked the dog and they were the same reasons he didn’t haul Lily out of his house right then and there. Good intentions in a small package. Lily just might be Ava’s little chiwawa. Carson laughed out loud and left for work.

Emanuelle placed both hands on the steering wheel and paused before driving off. “Your mom’s cousin, uh?”

Sarah fastened her seat belt. “Yep.”

“Her cousin?”

“Yep.”

“Cousin?”

“Yes. Cousin.” Sarah stressed the two-syllable word to the point it lasted for twenty seconds.

“Babe, your family is freakin’ awesome.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“Y freakin’ loca.”

“Don’t I know it. Now let’s go, sweetie,” Sarah ran her left hand through his black, slightly wavy, slightly curly hair. “Let’s not break our perfect attendance record.”

Emanuelle kissed the palm of her hand when it reached his lips. They both smiled as he put the jeep in gear and drove off.

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Chapter 1 Summary:  When Carson arrives home, his wife attempts to pass off her new girlfriend as her cousin. Carson is not fooled. Nor is he happy about it.

Jane’s Favorite Line:  “His lips were currently pressed together in disgust but their fullness was not compromised.”

Click to listen to Chapter 1: 

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Read Chapter 1 Below: I’m new at podcasting. While we work to improve narration and sound, I’ll post the written chapter below the podcast until all of the kinks are worked out. ^.^

Chapter 1

“Finally!” Ava grabbed Lily’s hand with a mixture of obvious nervousness and hidden dread. Ava had spent the last five minutes trying to calm her fluttering heart by distracting it with one meaningless topic after another with Lily.  Still, Lily could feel the damp sweat on Ava’s hands when Ava stopped in the middle of her sentence and all but yanked her to her feet when Carson stepped into the living room. “Honey, I would like you to meet my cousin, Lily.”

Carson allowed himself an undetectable deep breath while his piercing, dark brown eyes became fixed on the two women. As he exhaled, his fingers relaxed out of the fists he had made when approached with the insulting word, “cousin”.

Ava had spent the day planning how to make Carson’s and Lily’s introduction as pleasant as possible. You would never guess how much work goes into making something that was planned to the tee appear to happen naturally. Ava succeeded, of course. To the naked eye, the moment had the promise of a cozy family reunion.  The plush, brown leather sofas beckoned them to sit and learn all there was to know of each other.  A sparkling silver tray of ice-cold tea and Carson’s favorite oatmeal cookies were placed within arms reach on the marble coffee table. These refreshments also tempted to lure them into familiarity. Ava even had one maid or another light the fireplace for the simple ambiance of it. Carson noted this detail as a damn waste of money. Oklahoma was a hundred and ten in the shade and it was only April. His wife is the only person alive that would order a full blazing fire just for the smell of it while having the A.C. on blast to counteract the heat. All of these little efforts of hers went unappreciated by him as the three of them stood on opposite sides of the room. Lily and Ava on the west side, Carson on the east.

Lily convinced her facial features to return to normal before Carson could register her shocked expression from Ava’s introduction of her.  She resisted the urge to let her sly half-smile form on her lips as she stood calmly under Carson’s gaze as he eyed her from head to toe. All the heat of hell would fail to melt the ice-cold daggers coming from his eyes as he sized her up. Still, Carson was turning Lily on.  Oh, so slowly, her lower lip began to curl into her mouth and her top teeth came down to nibble on it. The man was absolutely stunning.

Carson stood no less than six-foot three and exuded an extremely powerful, no-nonsense presence. His lips were currently pressed together in disgust but their fullness was not compromised. His body absolutely begged you to take off the custom-made Italian suit he was wearing to get a better look at the muscles underneath. Every detailed about him screamed, “clean cut”. Lily couldn’t decide if he was the walking definition of “man” or “Greek god”.

Lily did decide to break the all too literal ice forming with a “hello”, but as soon as she parted her lips, Carson’s eyes darted from her to his wife. “You don’t look like cousins.” His voice was firm, stating a fact and confirming an accusation. Lily guessed that a man as rich as he was couldn’t afford to be stupid.

Carson was neither stupid nor blind. Other than being white females, the likeness between Ava and Lily ended before it began. Although she was all American, Lily had a Parisian look to her. Her skin was so pale that her lips appeared red without a trace of lipstick added. She was skinny with not much body fat to speak of. Her white, off-the-shoulder shirt stayed on her tiny frame by sheer force of will. Yet, even though she didn’t have the full breast most men wanted on a woman, her delicate features were inviting. Her black fitted jeans and thin legs gave the illusion that she was taller than five eight. Her hair was jet-black and cut in a bob style that hung just above her collarbone. Her face was delicate and beautiful.

Ava, although thin and a petite five-five, had “something to hold on to,” as Carson use to tease her back in the days when he couldn’t get enough of her. The little fat she had on her body went directly to the right places. When their marriage had been sexual, he could spend hours sliding down every one of her curves. Despite her voluptuous body, Ava possessed a wholesome, girl next-door persona. The hint of a southern accent added to her charm. Her light brown hair was long with deep waves that constantly fell in front of her face giving her a little girl’s appearance. Her skin was rosy and always glowed adding to the illusion of youth.

“We’re distant,” Lily replied before Ava could respond. This time, Lily couldn’t stop her teasing smile from coming to the fore. She took note of Carson’s strong fingers curling up once again at either side of his body. She knew she was a fool to tempt a man who could knock her unconsciousness with one blow and afterward sit down to his cup of tea before the ice melted and diluted the flavor. Yep. It was definitely foolish, but she couldn’t help herself. Carson seemed to be a man of great self-control. Lily wondered if that little gesture was the only tale-tale sign of aggravation Carson would let come to the surface. She wanted to find out.

“They say,” she said locking arms with Ava, “‘God picks your family. Thank God you can pick your friends’. Ava and I lucked out on both. You’ll see.”

Carson tilted his head to the left. “Will I?”

“Yes,” Ava chimed in. Lily’s touch made her relax. Sure, to say the moment was tense is to say nothing at all, but Lily’s smile and cheerful voice must mean that Lily did not feel the quiet rage flowing from Carson. “Lily’s planning on spending her vacation with us.”

This time Carson’s chest visibly raised and lowered as he took his third deep breath in a two-minute time span. “And how long is that?”

“Hm, two, three weeks. Four or five tops.”

Carson lowered his voice and added a fierceness to his tone that was strong enough to strike both ladies down. “I suggest you remember our agreement, Ava.”

With that, Carson walked pass both ladies as if the last five minutes hadn’t happened. It wasn’t until he disappeared around the corner at the top of the staircase that Ava could clearly recall breathing.

“Well!” she exclaimed clapping her hands together. “Let’s get you settled in!”

Lily allowed Ava to grab her arm and guide her through Ava’s maze of a home. Upstairs, around corners, down hallways, Lily smiled to herself as she assumed this is exactly what falling down the rabbit hole felt like. And Lily couldn’t have picked a lovelier rabbit to follow. The skirt of Ava’s white with black polka dots dress swung from side to side as she took quick little steps to their destination.  The dress was reminiscent of a 1950’s sundress, which fell just below her calves. It was a cute, modest length. However, due to the fullness of her bottom, the material in the back raised to mid-calf.  As Lily took in the view, her lower lip once again found itself getting nibbled.

Ava chatted the whole way, filling Lily in on the details of one event or another she had plans to attend or host or both. The schedule ended with, “You’re welcome to join me. Whatever sounds interesting you can do and whatever you rather skip, that’s fine, too. But don’t let me wear you out…at least not with parties.” She turned to face Lily and attempted a devilish smile, but she delivered a blush of deep embarrassment instead. She turned back around and pressed on. One of these days, Ava promised herself, she was going to grow the hell up. Lily thought she was adorable.

Ava pushed open the double wooden doors to Lily’s bedroom. Small apartment would be more accurate. Small, romantic apartment. If this is what the guest room looked like, Lily couldn’t wait to see Ava’s master bedroom. The walls were painted a soft nude with the accent walls a shade or two deeper. Recessed lighting was hidden in the cathedral-height, wooden ceiling. The only exposed lighting was a stunning, twelve-bulb golden chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. About ten steps inside of the room and to the left sat a king-sized, four-poster bed in between two double wide windows.

The bed. It called Lily’s name. It wasn’t until that moment that Lily realized how tiring flying really had been on her, but it was barely six o’clock so she resisted the urge to answer the bed’s call and continued following Ava’s tour of the room. As she did, Lily wondered if the designer had been fired for even suggesting a home in Oklahoma that contained so many fireplaces. Her condo in snow-up-to-there Chicago only had one. This room had three, which thankfully, were all unlit.

“I had Claire unpack your things. Fresh everything is in the bathroom for you. Even an extra toothbrush in case you forgot yours. You’re all set to go. But if you think of anything you need, don’t you hesitate to ask.”

“Claire? Your daughter, right?”

“Oh, no. Claire’s a housekeeper. Sarah’s my daughter. She’s at drama practice right now, but she’ll be home for dinner at seven.”

“Right.  Sarah. Sorry. She’s…sixteen?”

“That’s right. And don’t you fret about it. It’s a lot to take in,” Ava walked the two hundred feet and one step down that separate the living area from the sleeping area. She sat down on a burgundy, heart-shaped sofa. To Lily’s amazement, it looked completely elegant and not unbelievably tacky as she figured any heart-shaped piece of furniture would look.

The goal behind the design of the living area seemed to be to kick up the sexual ambiance a few notches above the rest of the room. A hard task, but mission accomplished. The dark brown walls of this section curved into a cozy semi-circle, which seemed to trap Ava in the space for safe-keeping until Lily could reach her.  Ava waited nervously with her legs tucked underneath her.  She tried not to fidget with her hair as she wondered how close Lily would sit to her if she sat down at all. She succeeded in leaving her hair alone, but fidgeted with her dress instead. She positioned the bottom of it in a perfect circle that completely covered her legs underneath it.

As Lily neared Ava, the black sheepskin rug under her feet felt as soft and as tempting as Ava looked as she sat bathed in the soft red accent light reflecting off of the glass bar. The only other lighting for this part of the room came from your choice of the candles sitting upon golden sconces or the fireplace, neither of which were lit. This lonely red glow cast a very romantic flair.  And an extremely sensual one.

Lily sat intimately close to Ava and gave the devilish grin Ava wished she could conjure up. “I figure a cousin would know this stuff already.”

Ava blushed. “So, I chickened out. And I’m not too quick on my feet.”

“Clearly.”

Ava gave Lily a playful push. She felt herself become giddy at the realization she was touching Lily in private. “Unlike you, Miss, “honesty is the best policy,” and all that jazz. You’re a pretty good liar.”

“Bold faced lies don’t count. You might as well have told him everything. He knows we’re not cousins.”

“Well, we’re not exactly lovers.”

“Yet,” Lily said placing her hand on Ava’s thigh.

“Ever,” Ava said but slid closer to Lily, causing Lily’s hand to move higher up her thigh.

Lily lowered her head until her forehead touched Ava’s. She whispered in an attempt to keep the excitement from her voice. “That’s not true, A. We just need to get his permission first.”

Ava’s ears echoed Lily’s nickname for her causing her heart to race. The two first met online around three months ago. Ava thought it was such a silly little thing to try, but the anonymity online dating allowed a girl seeking girl relationship was alluring. Plus, she had been lonely romantically for sometime by then. The option literally opened the world wide-web for her. Even without posting her photograph, Ava received no less than twelve emails a day. Eleven of them weren’t worth a cube of ice in the desert’s sun. Six would be from women requesting their first, same-sex hookup. Four would have the nerve to ask  for a threesome as a present for her boyfriend’s or husband’s birthday. At least one email would be from a female best categorized as “butch”. Nothing wrong with that if that’s your thing, but Ava is most definitely of the lipstick lesbian variety. The one plausible inquiry generally faded on its own within a week of emailing back and forth.

Lily had been different. Instead of shorter, the emails between the two became longer. They were practically writing novellas to each other. When the obvious time to exchange phone numbers had come, Lily realized she didn’t know if Ava pronounced her name with a long or short “A”. Out of desperation not to butcher Ava’s name, Lily started that first conversation with, “Hello, A,” and it stuck.

It stuck so deeply that hearing it in the flesh caused certain muscles of Ava’s located between her thighs to contract with longing. Lily’s red lips, which just finished whispering her pet name, were so close to her own. Her hand so warm on her thigh. “He practically knows,” she whimpered. “You said so yourself.”

Lily’s sly smile returned. Ava didn’t notice. Her eyes may have been opened, but they were hazed over with desire. Forget a kiss. Ava would settle for a simple, accidental brush of their lips at this point. Lily knew it. And she played it for all it was worth. Practically stepping on the line without even a toe crossing it. Their lips were so close that if Ava had an ounce of courage, she could simply tilt her head up to get what she desired. But she wouldn’t. They both knew that.

“Knowing and giving permission is not the same thing. You’re aware of that.”

This statement fulfilled it purpose. Ava’s mind conjured up all of Carson’s mistresses. She knew each one by name. Permission, however, that was a joke.

“Fine,” she pouted.

“Don’t pout. It’ll work out. The worst he can say is, ‘no’, right?”

“Possibly, ‘hell no’.”

Lily laughed and pulled away before she ended up caught in her own seductive trap. “Okay, ‘Hell no’. But I’ll wear him down and get him to come around. You’ll see.”

Ava shook her head. This was crazy. Carson went around humping every girl who looked hotter than the weather without any regard for Ava and the one woman Ava falls for is a woman with the weirdest principles.  Lily is a married, bi-sexual who is allowed to date women because her husband says it’s okay. “The best of both worlds.” It sounded ideal. And Ava loved the honesty surrounding their relationship. She admired it. But could it really work? Sure, she had a real life example of this, “it’s not cheating if everyone agrees,” scenario sitting to her left, but that didn’t mean Carson would follow their lead. Actually, Ava knew her husband wouldn’t. Yet, Lily talked her into at least asking. Well, sort of talked her into it. As she said, she chickened out.

“It’ll be okay,” Lily promised.

Ava’s lips curled downwards despairingly although she managed a reluctant and drawn out, “Okee dokee.”

“Okee dokee!” Lily mimicked with a smile so reassuring that Ava smiled herself. “So, what’s this agreement the two of you have?”

“Agreement?” Ava tilted her head in the same manner Carson had earlier. Lily wondered if one had picked up the habit from the other.

“Your husband said to remember your agreement.”

“Oh,” Ava said rocking her head from side to side in an all too cute, dismissive manner. “It was something along the lines of, ‘if people find out I’m a lesbian he’ll kill me’.”

Lily’s smile was uncertain, but she decided to treat the statement as joke as Ava seemed to be doing. “And you accepted this agreement?”

“Oh, why not? High stakes are so exciting. Besides, no one will find out I’m a lesbian. I’m bi.” Ava’s sarcasm was lost in the all too convincing laughter in her voice.

“And what will he do to me?”

“Nothing, I think.”

“You think nothing?”

“I know nothing,” Ava arched her back, clutched her heart, tilted her head to the ceiling, and raised her arm to her forehead in a perfect, overly dramatic fashion. “What’s worse than you living with the guilt that I’m dead because of us?” she teased and playfully leaned in for a kiss.

Lily smiled from the inside out. How had she been so fortunate to have found Ava? The woman was an absolute doll. Lily fought for her own bad acting award by holding out both of her hands with an exaggerated sense of urgency. This maneuver prevented Ava’s faux kiss when their lips were only seconds away from meeting for the first time.

“Oh, A,” she sighed on an airy breath. “We are definitely getting Carson’s permission first.”

Take Our Poll

Lily believes it is possible to have a romantic relationship with more than one person. This is a belief she acts on even though she is married. But Lily is no cheater. Nothing happens unless all parties agree. That is, until they don’t all agree.

Through a chance meeting, Ava is excited to have potentially found happiness in Lily after years in a difficult marriage. Equally thrilled, Lily flies across the Midwest to spend a month with Ava. However, Lily has one big challenge: remain platonic until she is able to convince Ava’s husband, Carson, that love does not have to be limited to two.

Lily’s presence in their lives stirs up arguments and secrets which Ava and Carson haven’t faced in years. It also causes issues in Lily’s own marriage that she never knew existed to come to the surface. Forced under one roof, Lily, Ava, Carson, and Dominic try to abide by their own rules of what is right and wrong. But when unintended passions rise, no one is able to walk away.