Forever Yours
36
What Does Forever Mean?
BY THE END OF AUGUST, everyone had returned to school. Lisa and Josh cut their work time to ten hours a week, and that highlighted the need for two more full-time developers. Henry was taking only ten hours of classes, the minimum required for full-time status and preservation of his grant and scholarship. It looked like he might still manage to graduate at the end of the school year, since he had accumulated so many extra hours with heavy loads and summer classes. He was still putting in well over forty hours a week at the office.
Luke and Isobel were back to school full-time, though they’d transferred their programs to the local university. They were still in the office ten hours a week. Chastity dropped all her classes but the last two classes she needed for her AA online. She spent the full day every day at the office. She was the full-time operations manager. Nancy, at the front desk, found Chastity leaned on her more and more for support.
“Labor Day plans?” Chastity asked Henry as she perched on the corner of his desk.
She had carefully shut the door behind her and locked it. Henry’s hand went immediately to her bare leg and he kissed it. Chastity had become a regular visitor to the row house about once a week to crawl into bed with Henry and Lisa. As far as going out, however, she only went out with Lisa. Henry understood. She was Lisa’s girlfriend, not his. They still had a glorious time in bed with the three of them.
“Hmm. I’d like to make a plan,” he said, sliding farther up her leg.
“You know we’ll do that!” Chas laughed. Her legs, however, parted a little more.
“How about the five of us hanging out on the patio and grilling something or another?” he asked.
“I’ll get the message to Izzy and Luke,” Chas said as Henry moved his kisses to the inside of her thigh instead of the outside.
“Is it quitting time for today?” Henry asked.
“Everyone but Conrad has left the office,” she answered. “I thought you might want to get home before Lisa gets back from class.”
“Yeah.” Henry managed to get his hand to Chastity’s bare pussy and she spread her legs wider. “Let’s go home,” he said, standing to give her a peck on the lips as he stroked through her moistness.
“Okay, but you need to finish what you just started when we get there.”
“You know it.”
“Henry, I’m home!” Lisa called when she got inside. Not seeing anyone on the first floor, she ran up to her room to drop off her books and then continued to the third floor. Henry’s door was unlocked, so she opened it. “Henry?”
“In the bedroom, love!” he called. She headed to the bedroom and found Chastity stretched out naked on Henry’s bed. He was between her legs licking her to peak after peak.
“Oh! That looks like fun.”
“Let me have you, Lise!” Chastity called, holding her arms out. “Don’t you just love what Henry does with his tongue?”
“I sure do. Is he better than I am?” Lisa asked.
“Oh, it’s different,” Chastity said. “He just has a magic touch.”
Lisa stripped and joined the two in bed. Chastity pulled her on top of her mouth and began getting Lisa’s motor running.
“Slide down and kiss me,” Chas said, pulling Lisa off her mouth. “Let Henry do what you like most.”
Lisa scooted back and began kissing her own juices off Chastity. Henry pulled back and gave a lick up his girlfriend’s slit, then moved up behind her. He pushed into Lisa as she continued to kiss Chastity more frantically.
“This is the best of all worlds,” Lisa said.
“Yes,” Chastity agreed, playing with her girlfriend’s breasts, pressed up against her own piercings.
“I love you two like crazy!” Henry declared as he picked up his pace.
“Oh! Yes!” Lisa called out. “What a welcome home this is.”
They built to a peak together. Chastity had already had hers on Henry’s tongue multiple times.
“The office is so empty without you guys!” Chastity said. “Henry was there today because he doesn’t have classes on Monday or Friday. But you and Josh and Izzy and Luke were all missing. I had to just go into Henry’s office and spread my legs before he finally got the hint and brought me home.”
“I’m glad he did, sweetheart,” Lisa said. “Having you here at home is exactly what I want. Why don’t you move in with us?”
Henry gave a powerful thrust as she said this and both of them came.
“That’s… a great… idea!” Henry said breathlessly. “You aren’t really entertaining at home anymore, are you?”
“Not since the first of August,” Chas said. “But you both know I couldn’t live with either of you. I just can’t wake up next to someone in the morning. I’m sorry.”
“Lisa and I could… uh…” he looked at Lisa and saw her eyes widen. “We could maybe live together. I mean, move in with me, Lisa. I love you so much!”
Lisa gasped and rolled to the other side of Chastity.
“Maybe… we could get a bigger bed?” Lisa asked.
“Yeah,” Henry agreed. “We don’t take much space in it when it’s just the two of us, but it’s nice to have room to roll around a little when there’s three of us.”
“Okay.” Lisa said. “Okay.”
It seemed both of them had forgotten about Chastity or why they’d made the suggestion.
“Wait! You’d move in with Henry so I could have your suite?” Chastity asked, amazed.
“Absolutely, babe. Well, not just so you could have the suite. I’ve been thinking of moving in with him for a while,” Lisa said. “I understand you don’t want to wake up with someone. And I understand you don’t want to be any man’s girlfriend—even our Henry. But we love you and we’d love to have you closer.”
“What about my cats?”
“Probably better keep them in your suite for a while until they get acclimated. Then, why wouldn’t they be welcome, too?” Henry asked.
“I love you two,” Chas said, hugging them both.
Labor Day found the five of them—Henry, Lisa, Chastity, Isobel, and Luke—relaxing on the rooftop patio. Lisa had spent the weekend moving in with Henry and now her suite was pretty much empty.
Over the summer, they had changed the fourth floor of the row house from an office to a lounge. It had new casual furniture and a TV. The patio door had often been open during the summer as they extended their casual space onto the rooftop. Lisa and Henry spent most nights in one or the other’s bed, but both had maintained their separate suites until this weekend.
Henry had ordered a new and larger bed for his bedroom, moving his bed to the second bedroom of what would become Chastity’s suite. Chastity declared that she’d be happy to get rid of the bed she’d ‘used for work’ when she moved to the suite and was happy to have Lisa’s bed in one bedroom and Henry’s in the other.
“So, something tells me things have changed,” Isobel said. “There’s a new vibe in the house.”
“We’re just… consolidating a bit,” Henry said. “I’ve asked Lisa to live with me and she said yes.”
“And we asked Chas to take the second suite. She said yes,” Lisa said.
“Are you living over here now, Chastity?” Luke asked.
“Not yet. I had to give thirty days’ notice I was moving out,” Chastity said. “I’ll move at the end of the month.”
“Wow! This is a real celebration, then,” Isobel said. “Dear Henry has been tied down.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Henry said. “Liberated is more like it.”
“Aww. Newlyweds,” Luke said. He looked at Isobel and they both broke up laughing.
“Yuck!” they said together.
“So, is this a forever thing?” Isobel asked.
“We… haven’t really looked down the road very far,” Henry said. “I think we’d like it to be, but we just haven’t talked about it yet.”
“What’s ‘forever,’ anyway?” Lisa asked. “It’s just a whole string of todays, isn’t it?”
Luke had brought some beer and some weed, compliments of his father. They were being moderate, but all had a little buzz. Even though Chastity didn’t drink any alcohol, she did indulge in a little smoke.
“Is that what the new software is? Should we be calling it ‘Yours Today’ instead of ‘Forever Yours?’” Isobel asked.
“What’s on the web is there forever,” Luke said. “Isn’t that what we’ve always been taught? You can never erase something completely.”
“I think we know different than that these days,” Henry said. “With the new search engine and a little tinkering with its range, I think we could find, retain, and eliminate every occurrence of something.”
“Really?” Chastity said. “That sounds dangerous.”
“Who said computing was safe?” Lisa responded. “I’d tend to agree that nothing is permanent. I know Dad has a fireproof safe full of huge forty-megabyte discs that fit in an external drive. When he stored them, he had to extract and store a board for his computer called a SCSI port. He’s not sure even now if he could install the board on a contemporary motherboard. And it’s almost impossible to find a driver to install as well.”
“My dad said at their office, they kept all the discs they’ve used, even though they can’t read any of them today,” Henry said. “I don’t think you can buy a 3.5-inch floppy drive these days.”
“What could you store on an 800K disc?” Lisa asked.
“It’s still the whole issue of memory bloat,” Henry said. “Someplace along the line we decided it was okay to just keep adding memory and keep adding memory instead of managing the size of the software.”
“That all doesn’t answer the question,” Chastity said. “Is Forever Yours forever?”
“Is it safer in the cloud than on a disc?” Luke asked.
“I wouldn’t put anything up there, wherever there is,” Isobel declared vehemently. “All our company financials are kept locally, backed up daily, and stored off-site, but not in the cloud.”
“For being such an advanced technology company, we do have some archaic methods,” Henry sighed. “Darrel backs up and removes all the development files when he backs up the financials. The thing is, we know how at risk we are from attacks. We still repel at least one hacking attack each week on either the corporate server or Pythia Speaks.”
“The thing is, Forever Yours can be backed up wherever a user wants to put it. But the application and data reside and are accessed locally. If they don’t keep the disc safe, it’s as vulnerable as a collection of old photos. One fire and you never see great grandma again,” Lisa said.
“With the possible exception of having your data backed up off-site—whether it’s in the cloud or on a disk in a safe deposit box. Then you can re-download the data, buy another copy of the software app, and train the AI over again. And we honestly don’t know if a second app trained on the exact same content will result in the exact same extractions. I actually doubt it,” Henry said.
“To put it in the cloud means to put it on one or more remote servers, which are all subject to disaster, bankruptcy, or just the whim of a technology behemoth. All they have to do is decide they no longer support that application or file format and it’s gone,” Lisa said.
“I’ll tell you what’s forever,” Chastity said. Everyone looked at her as she looked at the others one at a time. “Now,” she declared. “Now is always now. The only time we have is now. We are always here now. Before and after are constructs we use to attempt to project ourselves elsewhere when all we ever are is now.”
“That’s deep, Chas,” Luke said.
“It’s why I don’t usually smoke this stuff,” she laughed.
“What’s my rent going to be?” Chastity asked. “I know the house rents for $3,500. I get half of it, so that would be $1,750, right?”
“I thought I’d stop charging rent,” Henry said. “I asked Lisa to live with me. So, I just figure I’ll cover rent from now on.”
“Absolutely not!” Lisa said. “I might have to move out if you try that.”
“But… how should we handle it?” Henry said.
“Thirds,” Lisa said. “$1,170 a month for each of us.”
“I have more private space,” Chastity objected.
“I might need the second bedroom on occasion,” Lisa responded. “I haven’t decided if Henry and I can stand each other all the time.”
“Well, we should at least charge the company something. We still hold board meetings upstairs,” Chastity said.
“I definitely don’t want to burden the company with any more rent than it has with the office. We’re only three months away from having that $7,500 nut to crack each month,” Henry said. “Besides, I don’t mind inviting the board to meet here, but I don’t want them just considering this an extension of the office. If you two are okay with it, I guess thirds is fair.”
“It's less than either of us were paying,” Lisa said. “Do we have enough information to just bank a higher rent payment and cover utilities, too?”
“It varies by season, but I think we have the data,” Henry said. “We’ll have to figure out food and chores.”
“Include the maid service in the rent, too,” Chastity said. “I’d have had it in my apartment if it weren’t for the cats and such a small space.”
“Okay. We’ll need to collect all the bills and tally them up,” Lisa said. “I can work on that if you’ll give me access to them, Henry.”
“Of course, I will. I don’t think I’ve been gouging anyone on the rates I’ve charged.”
“More likely, you’ve been covering expenses out of your generosity,” Chastity said. “I’ll help you, Lise.”
“Okay. That ends the family meeting except for one thing,” Lisa said. “I suggest that every important family meeting end with sex. Henry has that new big bed that hasn’t seen the three of us in it together yet.”
“I second that motion,” Chastity giggled.
“Well, let’s make it unanimous then,” Henry said. The girls led the way from the lounge to Henry and Lisa’s bedroom.
“I love holding my lovers and cuddling after sex,” Lisa sighed.
“Mmm. Me, too,” Henry added, reaching across her to touch Chastity as well.
“I love kissing my lovers goodnight and leaving them cuddled in each other’s arms,” Chastity said, extracting herself from Lisa and Henry to roll out of bed.
“Don’t you like to cuddle with us?” Lisa asked plaintively.
Chastity sat on the edge of the bed and turned to the two of them. She had simple basic bars through her nipple piercings and they’d both treated them to a variety of tugs, twists, and pinches as they rutted together.
“You know I do, hon,” Chastity said. “I’m sorry I’m so screwed up. It’s just that cuddling with a lover is really different than sex. It’s not something I can really do afterward. When you and I cuddle on the sofa and watch TV, that isn’t sex. Even when Henry lays his head on my bare leg in the office, that isn’t sex. I love you both. But even though I’m not having sex with anyone else now, and I enjoy sex with the two of you—or either of you—it isn’t love for me. It’s just been too ingrained in my psyche to stay separate from it. When I get to my apartment, though, what makes it all worthwhile is thinking about the two of you together. That gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.”
“You know we’ll figure it out eventually,” Henry said. “If it takes a while… I don’t know. We’ll be here now, whenever you are.”
“You almost understand,” Chastity smiled. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. We need to have a fun outing for Lisa’s birthday!”
“Hell, yeah!” Lisa said.
Chastity kissed each of her lovers and left for home and her cats.
“You know, one day, she’ll break our hearts,” Lisa said sadly.
“I think I’ll be dead before she does that,” Henry said. “When she commits to something, it’s all the way. I don’t think she’ll ever even consider anything that hurts us.”
“Maybe so,” Lisa said. “She’s my girlfriend. You have a special relationship with her.”
“Sometimes, I wish I’d never had sex with her.”
“Henry! Why?”
“It was a transaction. That’s how she considered it. I promised to always take care of her and she promised to always be available to me,” Henry said. “I wanted our relationship to be built on our friendship and love, not on a transaction. And the thing is, I don’t know how to stop it. I try not to just take advantage of her, but she feels she isn’t keeping up her end of the bargain if I don’t. When she comes into my office, she still perches on my desk in exactly the way she said she would do before we even established the LLC.”
“You keep that edge of your desk clear of everything else, I’ve noticed,” Lisa giggled. They kissed each other and gently petted.
“That’s true. It’s always available for her. I don’t go around trying to get her to kiss me or let me feel her up. But I think she would be hurt if I didn’t accept her when she offered herself like that. I love her way too much to ever hurt her.”
“She loves you, too.”
“Isn’t that strange? She’s not my girlfriend.”
“No, she’s mine. But I’m also part of how you take care of her. I just don’t have the history of being with her when she was selling herself,” Lisa said. “You’ve lived through it all with her.”
“It was a long time before I figured out what was going on. How blind was I? When she put up her $1,000 as her share of the LLC, she had sex with three guys to get the money. And I didn’t even know! When we opened the corporation and put up the money we’d gotten from the sale of our first license agreement, she took me home to have sex. She said one day that money would be worth a billion dollars. What happens if the company fails? It would destroy her!”
“Henry, my love? Your heart is big and open. You can never fail her. That’s what forever really means. Do you know that if you and I broke up, I’d still be her girlfriend and she’d still be in your bed whenever you wanted? And if you didn’t tell her you wanted, she’d find a way to suggest it. I’m one of those gifts you gave her, and I take care of her on your behalf. I love you for it. And so does she.”
Their kisses became more important than their conversation, and even though they had just had sex with Chastity in their bed, they took their time to love each other and make sure each came to their fulfillment again before they finally dozed off to sleep.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
