Triptych
Seventeen
AFTER WE FINALLY GOT AROUND to having breakfast, we spent a lazy Sunday morning and early afternoon. None of us really wanted to do anything but sit around and make out. Unfortunately, we had company coming and felt that we really needed to get dressed. I had to run to the store to get ribs for our barbecue with Wendy and then we all invaded the kitchen to cook. Being ‘the man’, I got control over the ribs and grill. Don’t ask how that ever got started. It had nothing to do with being a great hunter or accomplished chef, but the girls all thought that it was natural for a guy to want to play with fire.
I had news for them. With the three of them running around all morning in their T-shirts shirts and panties, I had all the heat I could handle. Lissa, Melody and I had been on our best behavior in the morning, not wanting to risk another embarrassment when Kate came in with our coffee, so we were all a little on the horny side. There was a lot of kissing, rubbing, and brushing against each other in the kitchen among all four of us, even after we got dressed.
Wendy arrived and, as promised, went straight to the shower to clean up after work. We noticed that she took long enough to take care of more than getting clean, but Kate reprimanded us and told us to be nice. By the time Wendy was out of the bathroom and dressed in a pair of shorts and tube top, I was out on the deck getting smoke in my eyes every time I opened the cover on the grill. I could see the girls through the patio doors as they poured glasses of iced tea and nibbled on Kate’s deviled eggs. That was all the inspiration I needed. I went inside.
“Hey! Doesn’t the caveman get a deviled egg and a drink?” I asked plaintively. Melody pushed an egg in my mouth and shut me up. I’m not much into iced tea, so I poured one of my ginger ale and cranberry juice cocktails. When I could finally speak again, I raved about the egg—one of my favorite dishes of all time—and kissed Kate. I finally got around to greeting Wendy.
“It’s good to see you, Wendy,” I said as I approached and gave her a hug. I swear, I did not intend to kiss her, but I only realized it was happening when I heard three other people clear their throats behind me. “Um… wow… that’s some greeting,” I mumbled.
“Yeah. Well, I haven’t seen you in a long time either, remember?”
“But at Carmine’s…” The play on words suddenly dawned on me. Well, maybe sometime she’d get to see me again…
I was interrupted. Lissa turned me to face her, scowling.
“You got something and have to share,” she said.
I grinned and kissed her. Then Melody. I turned to Kate, but she turned away and looked at Wendy.
“Mmm… I think I’ll get mine from the source,” she said. Wendy’s eyes shot wide open when Kate kissed her. She didn’t pull away, though.
“I see things are just as crazy here now as the last time I visited,” Wendy said. “I’m so glad I accepted your invitation.”
“Tell us about your summer,” Lissa said.
I suddenly realized I’d left the ribs on the grill and ran out the door, so I didn’t hear what else was said.
We ate until we were all groaning. Ribs, deviled eggs, potato salad, and my newly-popular grilled zucchini and asparagus. I started shuffling around putting away leftover food and clearing the dishes. Melody and Lissa came in from the deck and Mel helped me while Lissa started getting ice cream out for dessert.
“Do you really think anybody is going to be able to eat more?” I asked. “I’m so stuffed I can hardly breathe.”
“I’d like ice cream!” Melody said.
“And I’m definitely having some,” Lissa responded, “with chocolate syrup. I’ll ask Kate and Wendy what they’d like.”
She turned toward the deck doors but I caught her arm before she could move forward.
“Mel,” I whispered. She looked up from the dishwasher and came to join us.
From where we stood in the kitchen, we could see out onto the deck through the French doors. Kate and Wendy were leaning against the far railing and seemed to be in a very intense discussion about something. Wendy was shaking her head violently, but Kate put her arm around our friend and leaned in to her face. Wendy seemed frozen in place for a moment; then nodded her head. Kate turned Wendy toward her and hugged her. Wendy seemed to collapse against Kate for a moment and then straighten up. They turned toward the kitchen and we all got busy doing other things. I don’t think they suspected we’d been watching them.
“Who’s for ice cream?” Lissa asked as they came into the kitchen.
“Mmm. Yum,” Kate said.
“Sure, I guess so. Thank you,” Wendy added. Lissa started dipping.
“Say guys,” Kate said, “would you mind if I did a load of laundry before I go back tonight? I’d really appreciate it.”
“Of course, Kitten,” Lissa said. “You know you are always welcome to use the laundry. You shouldn’t even bother to use the coin-ops any more. Bring your clothes over every weekend.
“Thanks, sweetie!” Kate said. She surprised Lissa with a hug from behind. “Hey, Wendy, do you have any laundry you need to do? I probably don’t have a full load with me.”
“Um… yeah… I kinda do. I was going to hit Kwik-Kleen on the way… uh… home tonight.”
“Bring it in; we’ll see if we can get our undies mixed up,” Kate said.
She headed down the hall to the guest room to get her laundry. Wendy hesitated a moment.
“Do you mind if I toss some of my clothes in with Kate’s?”
“Of course not,” Lissa smiled. “By the time you get the wash started, Tony will have coffee made, won’t you dear?”
Oh, guess what! I’m making coffee. I left Melody to finish loading the dishwasher and filled the kettle. Wendy left to get laundry from her car. As soon as she was out of the house, my wives turned to me.
“What was that all about?” I whispered.
“I’ve got no idea,” Melody said.
“Neither do I, but Kate was really intense when she was talking to Wendy outside,” Lissa said. “What do you think?”
“Do you think Kate was asking her out? What was that bit about getting their undies mixed up?” Melody asked.
“No,” I said firmly. “Kate is ultra-sensitive to other people’s needs. I told you what happened with Bree. I think Wendy’s in trouble and Kate is trying to help. I’m sure she doesn’t have more than this weekend’s laundry to do.”
We could hear the girls laughing downstairs.
About eight, Wendy said she really had to leave, but that she’d had a great day.
“Thank you so much for inviting me over. I know I’m kind of odd when it comes to your friends, but it’s so nice to see you guys. And I bet I’ll see you on Thursday for your weekly meeting,” Wendy said to me.
“You know my schedule so well?”
“Oh, I get to know who Clarice is meeting with on a regular basis. It’s almost like being her secretary. ‘Wendy! More coffee!’ You know.”
“Does she meet all her clients there?” I asked.
“I don’t even think she has an office,” Wendy said. “Anyway, I just love seeing you guys and someday I’ll have you over. Maybe I can get Carma to comp us all a dinner one night. That would be fun.”
“Carma?”
“Oops. Carmine is really Carma. She knew no Italians would come to an Italian restaurant with a woman’s name unless it was ‘Mama Something.’ She’s back in the kitchen nearly every night. Next time you all come in, I’ll introduce you,” Wendy said. “Okay, now I really have to get going.”
“Can I get a ride?” Kate asked. “I need to get back to my dorm so I can go to work tomorrow.”
“Um… sure… um… if you’re sure,” Wendy said.
I was about to jump in and offer to take Kate home, but Lissa squeezed my hand and I just smiled as they each kissed us goodnight and then left. Maybe Kate’s kiss felt a little more reserved than usual. I wasn’t sure. But you can bet we didn’t talk about much of anything else the whole time the three of us were in the hot-tub and getting into bed.
Mortgage approved. Lease approved. Fabric ordered. Ventilation installed. And practice, practice, practice. Lissa and I were getting better at not falling over each other when we were playing together instead of against each other. John kept a steady stream of doubles opponents coming in and we weren’t losing all the time anymore.
I stopped by Coach Jacobson’s office on Wednesday to talk about what we needed to do for the club and when things would get started. Classes don’t start at SCU until the 20th of September, unlike PCAD that start the day after Labor Day. Of course, I was only taking one class at PCAD and it only met twice a week. I didn’t know what I was going to do once Melody started back to school. Maybe Lissa and I would find a way to entertain ourselves. Hmm.
“Did you check if it’s okay if for Lissa and I to compete at Opens?”
“There’s nothing against it in the rules. Other Intercollegiate players play in Opens as long as they aren’t playing in the Pro Division. We’ve already discussed your absence during Opens with your professors. Of course, you’ll need to do the same thing at PCAD. I think it’s a good idea.”
“We’ve got a mini-tournament scheduled the 27th. I haven’t heard how registrations are coming yet. I expect to talk to John this afternoon,” I said.
“Let’s get some of the new team members over. It will give them a chance to see you in action.”
“Tony, Lissa. I’d like you to meet George and Nicole. George and Nicole, welcome to Seattle Racquet Club. This is Tony and Lissa,” John introduced us.
“Lissa, you’re my idol,” Nicole said. “It’s so nice to meet you in person.”
“Thank you, Nicole. I have a feeling you and George are going to show us what mixed doubles is all about. We’re still trying to keep from falling over each other.”
“It takes a little time,” George said. “When we were first training, Nicole and I spent more time lying on the floor than we did hitting the ball.”
“You’ll find out just how big his feet are, let me tell you,” Nicole laughed.
They might have been an inch or two shorter than us, but George and Nicole looked like a matched set. It was going to be interesting finding out how to play against a really experienced team. John had told us they were in our mini-tournament and were top seed of the teams that had registered so far.
We got set and the first game was a blow-out. We only scored four points. We did a little better in the second game, but were still way back. We talked about the match afterward and George and Nicole were kind enough to take us through some of the moves they made and how they decided who was going for the ball.
“It takes a lot of practice to work as a doubles team,” George said. “I’ve watched videos of both of you and if you can pull that kind of playing together as a team, you’ll be unstoppable.”
“Are you going to opens?” I asked.
“No,” George said. “It’s expensive to pay for your airfare, hotel, registration, and meals. Then there’s time off work. We’ll live vicariously through you. So we’d like you to represent us well. Okay?”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. “I’m glad you’re willing to help us.”
“Now that we’ve got that out of the way,” George said, “let’s talk about the game.”
It was a two-hour intensive lesson that went way beyond our scheduled court time. Fortunately, there was no one waiting for a court. They drilled us first on rotations and then on position and strategy. They were good—not Pro level, but as good as we’d seen in Seattle. Amazingly, by the time we were done, we were feeling more like a team.
“This is a hard thing,” Nicole said, “but if you are going to play as a team, you should probably quit playing against each other.”
“That would be pretty hard to do since we coach each other on our singles games,” I said.
“Yes, but you get used to competing against each other instead of cooperating. That’s the biggest thing that’s going against you right now. You can’t help but try to prevent the other from succeeding, just because that’s the nature of the game. You have to get past that if you want to be competitive as a doubles team,” Nicole concluded.
“You sound like you’ve had experience in that,” Lissa said.
“Oh yeah,” George said. “It used to be that everything Nicole and I did was competing against each other. We even sold software for competing companies.”
“Wow! How’d you get past that?” I asked.
“Well,” George said quietly. “Sex helped.” He grinned at me and we headed toward the locker room. Just before we got there, John caught up with us.
“Hey there! I just talked to the director and we’ve decided to cut off registrations and go with what we have,” John said. “We just got our sixth registration and that will give us a good number for a round robin tournament. Five rounds and every team plays each of the other teams. That should be fun and entertaining. We can do the tournament in about seven hours with a quarter-hour break between rounds and a half-hour lunch.”
“Man! That’s going to be a brutal day,” I complained.
“Win fast in every round and you get a longer break,” was all he said.
Clarice was at our house. So were Melody and Lissa. Lissa had begun to accept Clarice as a non-threatening professional, but was still just a little cool. Melody had no such reservations. After she heard what had happened at Sharon’s sitting, she was all too happy to have Clarice around to chaperone when I painted.
But today was important. We weren’t meeting at Carmine’s. It would be difficult to take full-size canvases into the restaurant, especially while the paint was still not completely set. I reminded myself why I prefer acrylics and watercolor to oils.
I had three pieces to show her—all large canvasses.
The first was Sharon’s portrait. It was a picture of utter elegance. I put as much work in on the surroundings and backdrop as I did on her figure. The big picture window behind her showed the Seattle skyline across the lake. Her robe dropped casually off her shoulder and the draping effects were some of the best I’d painted. Doing flesh with oil paints, though, is what I dislike most about them. The skin always turns out looking a little plastic. I’m hoping Doc will help me get better control over that next year. But the expression and innocence of Sharon’s pose made up for anything the texture might have lost.
“You captured a much more beautiful woman than I saw pose for you,” Clarice said, looking critically at the painting. “She’ll be thrilled, at least until Bob Bowers publishes a review of it. With luck, however, there will be other things at your exhibition to capture his attention. What’s next?”
I unveiled the zoo concert painting. I did a thirty-inch painting in acrylic and the colors just snapped. I loved this piece. It was a new me. Apparently, Clarice thought so as well.
“Nice!” Clarice said immediately. “This is new territory for you based on what I’ve seen before. It shows growth as a serious artist. And it still shows some of the things you love to paint in the banners snapping in the breeze. And you added something that wasn’t in your initial sketches.” Lissa and Melody hadn’t seen the painting since I finished it and were hugging each other as they looked at it.
The original sketch had been of the general setting with all the colorful picnics, costumes, and stage. But when I reworked the sketch, something just wasn’t right. The viewer just didn’t get into the picture. So, I’d carefully placed three figures in the foreground. Lissa, Melody, and Kate were leaning against each other, each in her different color outfit with their hair sharply contrasting with the bright colors of the picnic. It’s amazing that adding foreground figures hadn’t seriously reduced the amount of scenery, but rather gave it a sense of perspective and of being there. You could only see the backs of their heads and shoulders, but by moving the viewpoint back a little, I was able to bring the viewer closer into the action.
I got kisses from either side as Melody and Lissa grabbed me.
“I want to buy it!” Lissa shouted.
“Darling,” I said. “It needs to be part of our household income, not part of our expenses. We can’t keep everything I paint. And you haven’t seen what comes next.”
“You really need some other models,” Clarice said, shaking her head. “You also need more pieces like this. Do you have anything in mind?”
“Well, I was thinking that I could hit a craft fair or another music event, but I haven’t really developed things yet.”
“Just don’t do Seattle clichés. We’ve got enough paintings of Pike Place Market and the Space Needle. There might be subject matter at the waterfront, but no ferries. Be specific in choosing the subject and if there is another painting out there, don’t do it unless you truly have a unique perspective,” she said. “And get new models.”
“You’ll like this, then,” I said. I’d argued back and forth with myself for days before deciding to show this piece to Clarice. Finally, Melody and Lissa agreed that it deserved a place in the exhibition, though they would hate to lose it. I uncovered the picture of Allie in Chicago, Diva.
“Oh!” Clarice only uttered the single syllable. She stood there in silence as she let the painting wash over her. Finally, she turned away from the painting. “Sharon is going to be so jealous.”
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