Triptych
Part III
Thirty-seven
WENDY DID HAVE US BEAT. She wore a tuxedo-printed T-shirt with a v-slash cut-away at the bottom that just exposed her pussy. We all got a good laugh and persuaded Wendy to drop the servant role and sit and have breakfast with us. And what a breakfast! There was baked apple-cinnamon French toast that was unbelievable. Sausages. Bacon. Melon balls sprinkled with goat cheese. More coffee. Hot cinnamon rolls. And Mimosas. We were at the table eating, laughing, joking and staring at each other’s naughty bits for an hour and a half. We might have stayed there even longer if it hadn’t been for my phone.
Wendy grabbed it.
“Tony, Melody, Lissa, Kate, and Wendy speaking,” she said. “With which birthday boy would you like to speak?” We all cracked up laughing. There was only one person who’d call me this morning and I was going to have some explaining to do. Wendy handed me the phone.
“Hi, Mom,” I said. I laughed and both Mom and Dad wished me a happy birthday and asked who I was entertaining. I promised to introduce them to everyone at Thanksgiving. I didn’t exactly want to try to explain Kate over the phone and when I started to mention her she shook her head. We would have to talk about this before the holiday.
We had the newspaper torn up and lying all over the living room when Kate turned to Wendy.
“Miss Martin, were there any deliveries this morning besides the newspaper?”
“Why yes, Miss Holsinger. With all the birthday festivities I forgot about them. Shall I bring them in now, ma’am?”
Okay. I get it. When you’ve got lines rehearsed as well as these, something big is about to happen.
“Kate? What are you up to?” Melody asked. “Remember, we still haven’t given you your birthday spanking!”
“Oh no! Please don’t spank me, Miss Anderson. I promise I’ll be good. And I so want you to lick my pussy,” Kate said in her best little girl voice. We all howled.
“I think that we should change the rules,” I said.
“Yes,” Lissa joined in. “Instead of a birthday spanking, you’ll get a birthday licking.”
“Mmm! Do I have to pass out again?”
“Only if we do a good job,” I assured her. “Now what’s going on?”
Wendy had just returned with a large flat box. She left again and soon arrived with another and left again. A minute later she struggled in with another box and flopped down on the sofa, spreading her legs in a most unladylike way. Damn! I hadn’t seen quite that view of Wendy before. It was worth the look. Lissa elbowed me.
Kate stood in all her glory in front of the fireplace. It’s not that Kate’s perfect—not like Lissa is. Nobody else in the world could be that goddess-like. Maybe Kate’s eyes are a little wide-set or her mouth is a little big. Her areola are slightly oval instead of perfectly round. But—oh my god!—she is perfect when you put it all together. She reached up on the mantel to where we keep the little bell. When she rang it, I could almost see her entering the room in that purple dress she wore to the party just five months ago. It was the first time I saw her legs and I was almost speechless. Now I could see her legs, her tummy, her breasts, her pussy. Only her hands and the top of her head were covered.
“Melody, Tony, and Lissa,” she began. “I thought you were all strange when I first met you. A model-turned-athlete. A bouncy girl from out East who could never sit still. A boy who never looked at me and always seemed so sad. Then I saw Tony paint Lissa and Melody, and I fell in love,” she said. I was already feeling a prickling in my eyes and could see that Melody and Lissa had tears nearly ready to escape.
“I didn’t know what love was until that day. I could see it in each of you from that point on. And you reached out and included me. You made me feel wanted—loved. I love the three of you. The sun rises and sets in your eyes. I love being with you. But I discovered something else, and last night and this morning, I really figured out what it means,” Kate said. She looked at Wendy with her eyebrows raised and Wendy rushed out of the room, returning a moment later with a glass of water and a hug. Kate took a big drink and then went on.
“I love you, Melody. I love the way you get excited and bounce. I love your sense of humor. I love your smell and taste. You are so beautiful. You didn’t send me away like I thought you would. You let me into your life and into your family. I love just holding hands with you at school. I love you so much!” Kate rushed to Melody and wrapped her arms around her. The two girls kissed with tears running down their cheeks. Lissa melted back into my arms, but we just watched.
Eventually, Kate recovered herself and returned to her position in front of the fireplace.
“I still want you to lick me,” she giggled. Then she turned to Lissa. “Lissa… my god, you’re beyond beautiful. If I believed in religion, I’d worship you. I love you. You were so gentle with me. You showed me what strength was all about. You showed me that women are strong—even women who are unspeakably beautiful. And you turned your mirror on me. You made me beautiful. All I had to do was look into your eyes and I could see me as you saw me. And I was so lovely and loved and lovable. And you have the best tongue in the world!” We all laughed through our tears. “I love you, Lissa. I will always love you.” Lissa was sitting in the middle of the sofa and barely got her arms open before Kate was in them, smothering her face with kisses.
Melody and I smiled at each other over their shoulders. We both felt the same way. We loved Lissa.
Finally, Kate separated herself from Lissa and looked at her longingly as she returned to the fireplace.
“And you taught me how to kiss,” she whispered. “Oh thank you!”
“Tony, I love you. I love you like the air I breathe. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I can see through your eyes. I can see—and feel—the love you have for Lissa and Melody. I can see how much you loved that rich woman in Medina, and the Indian family, and my mother and sister. I can see how much you love Allie and Beth—and Wendy.” I glanced over at Wendy and smiled at her. Kate continued. “Melody, I can even see how he loves Bree. Tony, you are the embodiment of love. There will always be women—and probably men—who just want to be near you because you love so completely. I would never have known love if it weren’t for you. I love you, Tony.”
There were so many tears in my eyes that I couldn’t see her when she threw herself in my arms. I didn’t even try to find her lips, I just held her and kissed whatever flesh was closest. I felt her lips on my shoulder and my chest. I just wanted to hold this precious woman in my arms forever.
“Happy birthday, lover,” she said as she pecked me lightly on the lips. I dried my eyes as Kate moved back to the fireplace. I didn’t have any clothes to dry them on, so I just swiped them with the back of my hand. The first thing I noticed was Wendy, sitting in my chair crying.
“Thank you for being my friend, Wendy,” Kate said as she bent toward the older girl and kissed her lightly and sweetly. That did nothing to stop Wendy’s tears, or any of the rest of us. “I love you, too, and sometime I’ll figure out how to show you.”
“I keep trying to figure out what to call you,” Kate said, looking back at the three of us. “You’ve been my ‘plus three,’ my ‘intendeds,’ my ‘loves’ and now ‘lovers.’ But one thing has always stuck in the back of my mind, and that’s what the boxes are all about. They’re your birthday present. And yes, I know your birthday isn’t until January, Melody, but you’ll just have to suffer through having your present now because you all have to open them at the same time. Only I’ve forgotten whose is whose. So just take one of these and open it and shut me up before I make any more of a fool of myself.”
She handed me one of the flat boxes. Wendy brought one to Melody and Kate brought the last one to Lissa. We tore into the wrapping paper and through the corrugated boxes that it covered. I looked at what I held in awe. Melody and Lissa had the same awestruck expression on their faces I was sure was on mine.
“Um… some assembly required,” Kate said.
We brought our panels together. Mine was a portrait of Melody. Melody’s was of Lissa. Lissa’s was of me. The three wooden panels were irregularly shaped, following our body contours like we were a big jigsaw puzzle. We laid them out on the floor as they interconnected with each other—the positions I had described to Kate and she had painted of us on our bed. The edges were scalloped and enhanced the jigsaw aspect of the art.
“They should be about two inches apart,” Kate explained. “You are my triptych.”
“Kate, it’s so beautiful,” Lissa said. Melody was nodding her head vigorously.
I looked at the pieces more closely. The triptych, interpreted in Kate’s own unique way, was a three-panel painting. Each panel was complete in itself, but you got a different—or fuller—picture when you saw all three together. That’s what was puzzling me. The whole was greater than the parts, but still seemed to be missing something. I traced the edge that cut across my side, Melody’s feet, and Lissa’s legs. I looked up at Kate and she was smiling at me, watching me as I examined her painting.
“Kate?” I said. Her smile got bigger. I adopted my best ‘Doc Henredon’ voice. “This is an interesting treatment for a triptych. Most are rectangular panels. The unusual contour of these pieces, however, suggests more to the story. For example…” Wendy, Lissa and Melody were looking at me in shock that I’d be criticizing Kate’s painting, but Kate was grinning so broadly I thought her face would break.
“For example…” I continued, “this unusual line across the lower edge of the grouping suggests something external to the painting itself. It doesn’t follow the contour of shadows or body parts, yet it creates a kind of connection among the pieces. What did you have in mind here?”
“I hope I’m not being too presumptuous,” Kate said, “but… that’s where I fit.”
I held out my arms and she rushed into them. We all tumbled back onto the sofa and Kate snuggled in with us. Lissa and Melody were showering her with kisses as I held her on my lap.
Suddenly, Wendy was back in front of us with glasses of bubbly that I suspected were the remains of the champagne and not the sparkling cider. We raised our glasses and I looked at Kate.
“Welcome home, Kitten.”
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