Triptych
Forty
MELODY GOT TO THE STUDIO with the boys right at one o’clock. They were excited to have an afternoon working with Tony and Meddy. Melody’s loom was set up on one side of the studio now and she was doing an intricate, loosely-woven hanging.
“I’m still not sure this is going to work,” she said as she sat down at the loom. “I think I’m actually going to have to stretch it on a frame when it’s done in order to display it.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” I said. “You are a constant reminder to me to get out of my shell and not be so focused on one kind of art that I look down on or ignore any other.”
“Is that a danger?” she laughed.
“Really? Yeah.” I was serious. “Think about Rhapsody Suite. Bowers focused on my painting and Kate’s charcoal. But you and Sandra and Amy rounded it out in such a way that it included all kinds of art. None of your contributions are inferior to Kate’s or mine. But it felt like your work was discounted. And think about all the musicians, sculptors, potters, jewelry makers, dress designers, actors, set designers… Can we ever have a truly have comprehensive view of the arts?”
“At least you recognize that there are other arts and you are open to them, unlike some people I know.”
“Have you talked to your dad lately?” I asked.
“Yeah. We talk every couple weeks. It’s always about mundane things, though. How’s the weather? Am I studying hard? Who’s his latest client? He seems so distant. It never used to be like that,” she said.
“Feel free to remind me not to act that way when I reach my mid-life crisis,” I said.
“We’re going to be there one day,” she said thoughtfully. “I don’t mean you’ll walk out on us and turn into my father. But we’re going to get old together, aren’t we? We’re going to be together for thirty years.”
“And then some, I hope, my love.” I leaned over her at the loom and kissed her. It’s funny. I could talk to Melody with the boys happily painting alongside me while I sketched in the picture of the Singhs on the three foot by five-foot canvas that I’d stretched. My zone was expanding.
“Look Tony! See what I made?” Drew was covered from head to toe in finger paints. There was almost as much on his paper.
“Wow! Look at all that color,” I said as I started mopping him up with a wet cloth. “Tell me about it.”
We’d all gone through our reviews of each other’s work when the buzzer on our door sounded. I figured we must have a door-to-door solicitor showing up at this hour on a Saturday afternoon. I opened the side door and saw a huge delivery truck backed up to our garage door.
“We’ve got a delivery for Ice Queen Sportswear at this address,” the driver said doubtfully. “Is this right?”
“Wow! Yes, this is Ice Queen. Let me open the door.” I raised the garage door and the guy opened the back of the truck. Of course, we didn’t have a forklift, so moving the pallet was out of the question, but he gamely tossed me the boxes that only weighed about thirty pounds each. Twelve boxes. Melody signed for the delivery after checking the bill of lading against the delivery and verifying that we had everything. I’d have never thought to do that. In twenty minutes he was gone and we were opening the first box of sportswear under our own new label.
“We need to call Lissa,” I said.
“Um… huh-uh,” Melody responded. “It’s exciting and we want to share it, but it’s going to be just as exciting at eight o’clock as at four o’clock, and I really don’t want to interrupt anything. Just let me find one that’s my size and I’ll put it on. Then when we get home we’ll see how long it takes her and Kate to notice. I’m guessing they’ll have their eyes glued so tightly on each other that it will take an hour before they see what I’m wearing! Except they’re so wrinkled. Ooo.”
We found the box of green outfits and Melody unceremoniously stripped and put on the new clothes. It was nothing the boys hadn’t seen before. The outfit looked great, even if it was wrinkled.
About five-thirty, we finally left the studio and headed for Red Robin for dinner. We can get good food there for a reasonable price. By the time we were done, the boys were getting antsy to get home and even though it was only six-thirty, we decided we had to go. I sent a text to Lissa and Kate warning them, but didn’t hear back.
“You go in first,” Melody said. “I’ll delay the boys a minute while you go warn them we’re here.” I entered the house from the garage.
“Kate? Lissa? Are you home, lovers?”
“Tony?” The voice came from the living room. I went in and stopped dead in my tracks.
Lissa was sitting in my big recliner and Kate was curled up in her lap. Both girls were naked. At first, it looked like they were just making out, but I saw Lissa’s hand buried in Kate’s pussy and Kate’s hand covering Lissa’s left tit.
“Sorry, lovers,” I said. “The boys really wanted to come home. I just came in to warn you.”
“Can you… give us… thirty more seconds?” Kate gasped.
“Sure,” I said. Kate mashed her lips against Lissa again and I backed out of the room and into the garage. They weren’t going to be using the thirty seconds to run and get dressed. As I reached the garage door, I heard a familiar high-pitched whine coming from the living room.
“Okay?” Melody asked.
“Not quite yet,” I said. “Guys? I need your opinion on something I’ve been thinking of before we go into the house. Come on around the outside to the back yard.”
I managed to keep them occupied outside for nearly five minutes talking about Parkour before they charged up the back steps to the deck. A glance through the French doors affirmed that at least we didn’t have a naked mom and girlfriend in the living room anymore.
We walked in and Lissa came down the hall from the bedroom to meet the boys. She was dressed in a hastily donned track suit. The boys descended on her and both started talking at once. Lissa glanced up.
“Melody, maybe you should go… Never mind. Tony, go wake Kate up in the bedroom. Melody! What are you wearing?”
Kate was stretched out beautifully naked on top of the bed and still moaning. I approached quietly and leaned over to place a soft kiss on her lips. Her arms reflexively closed around my neck and pulled me down to her in a passionate kiss.
“Oh,” she whispered when she finally opened her eyes. “You aren’t the lover I went to sleep with. Are you my wake-up lover?”
“I guess I could be,” I laughed. “Don’t tell me Lissa knocked you out with an orgasm again.”
“She teased me for an hour!” Kate said. “And then you came in and I thought she wouldn’t finish. But—oh, god!—did she finish!”
“Well, you haven’t been out long. Let’s get some clothes on you and you can go out to see what all the shouting is about.”
“I wasn’t completely out this time. I just didn’t want to open my eyes. Lissa carried me in here. Oh Tony, I’m so in love with you.” It took a moment for me to process that, but I finally figured out she meant with all of us. I found her a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and together we went back to join the others.
“Look at this, Kate!” Lissa squealed. “Look, look! The first Ice Queen Sportswear outfit. It’s here!”
“Ice Queen my ass,” Kate laughed. “You are the hottest…” she looked over and saw the boys, still excitedly jumping around Melody. “Hot,” she concluded.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Too bad Icy Hot is already a taken brand name!”
Kate and Lissa were so exhausted from their day that they tumbled into bed and were sound asleep as soon as they were dry from the bath. I grinned at Melody and the two of us ended our day much as we started it—quietly making love in the shower.
“So Kate kidnapped you last Monday and had her way. We abandoned Lissa to her today. Or her to Lissa as it seems to have worked out. When’s my turn?” I asked as I lathered up Melody’s hair and rinsed the shampoo off.
“Next Sunday.”
“Hmm? Why then?”
“Because Lissa and I will be on our way to Minneapolis. You need to look at your Daytimer again.”
“Oh man. It’s time already! I wish you didn’t have to go early, or that I didn’t have to go later.”
“Believe me; you don’t want to be with us that first day we’re there. Did you see the condition of those outfits?”
“They looked fine to me.”
“They’re a mess. They washed the fabric, sewed the outfits, and shipped them. Lissa and I have a hundred shirts and a hundred skorts to iron. We’ll be standing against matching ironing boards with soap operas on TV complaining about men who don’t do housework.”
“Hey! I do housework,” I defended myself.
“It’s a cliché, darling. If we’re going to spend the day bent over hot irons, we’re going to eat bonbons and have our hair in curlers, too.”
“You’re going to spend time bent over each other, too, I bet,” I laughed. Melody showed me what that position might look like and I happily took my part in bending over her.
“Sex Monday night. Tease on Tuesday. That’s the rule. Play your hearts out on Wednesday through Sunday and don’t be too exhausted to fuck like bunnies Sunday night before we all explode!”
“Speaking of which …”
“Go ahead, darling. I want to feel you. Explode.”
I had to isolate myself the rest of the weekend in order to get all the reading done I needed for the next week. I wasn’t able to help with the move-in for Tent City. I had to prep for my first Anatomy exam. That was the reason I couldn’t travel with Melody and Lissa on Sunday. Doctor Dennis rescheduled the exam for earlier in the week so I could take it before I left on Tuesday morning.
With Melody, Kate, and me all in school, Lissa ended up with the job of packing all the outfits in smaller boxes and shipping them to Minneapolis to be held at our hotel.
Wendy moved out Saturday morning and in spite of all of us volunteering to help her, she insisted that everything she owned was already in her car and there wasn’t anything else needed. She was happy to have school routine in her life again. She called in the afternoon and thanked us about a hundred times for letting her stay with us through September.
For our part, with the boys back at Jack’s Friday night, we spent most of Saturday and all Saturday night in a naked tangled mess. The very nicest mess possible.
Sunday, Kate and I stayed with Melody and Lissa until they went through security and we couldn’t see them any longer. We were quiet on the way back. When I came into Seattle, I spoke, just as Kate did.
“Kate …”
“Tony …”
We laughed. She pointed at me.
“You go ahead,” she said.
“Well, I was wondering. I know you usually go home on Sunday night—I mean back to the dorm—but would you like to spend the night? Uh… with me? Tonight?”
“Whew! I was afraid I’d sound like a tramp when I invited myself to stay,” she laughed. “Maybe I should ask what your intentions are first, though.”
“I thought we could have a little light dinner. I make a mean grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup on the side,” I said.
“Apparently fatherhood has really set your standards,” she said, smiling at me. “What a romantic meal! What then?”
“Oh, I thought I could cuddle up with you in the big chair and tell you a bedtime story.”
“Wow. The last time I cuddled up in the big chair with someone, she left me unconscious.”
“Well that doesn’t happen all the time anymore. I know you’ve stayed conscious through at least two orgasms that I’ve witnessed.” Kate really didn’t pass out every time she came, but she got so excited that she often held her breath during an orgasm and would black out right at the peak. The first time, she’d been out for nearly five minutes. Usually it was only for a few seconds.
“I had no idea that would happen to me,” she laughed. “It’s just so overwhelming I can’t breathe. So what comes after cuddling?”
“You do.”
“Oh! I think I just did a little. But what about you?”
“I’m driving.”
“I mean, later.”
“Kitten, I’m going to be happy no matter what we do. I love making love to you. I promise that if you are unconscious, I won’t take advantage of you.”
“Do you miss it?” she asked.
“Miss what, sweetheart?”
“Miss me teasing you and not letting you touch me or get any relief?”
“Mmm. Yeah, but no. With school we do plenty of going without any relief. I mean, we only see you on the weekend and it seems like I spend a lot more time studying late at night than I do making love. Melody and Lissa are usually asleep by the time I come to bed and I get up earlier because I’ve got that stupid seven-thirty class. What I guess I miss is just being with you, or Melody, or Lissa. I keep reminding myself on the weekend what a lucky guy I am, but I’m on the edge of panic all day through the week.”
“Take me home with you, Tony,” she said. “Let’s make love.”
When there’s just two people, a kids’ meal can turn out being pretty romantic. Kate and I worked together in the kitchen and had a little kiss as an appetizer every few minutes. After our early dinner, we cuddled up in the big recliner and just plain made out for a while. Oh damn! Kate’s kisses absolutely melt me.
About seven o’clock, my phone rang.
“Hi darlings,” I said. “Are you safe and sound?”
“Hi Tony,” Melody said. “We’re in Minneapolis and have checked into the Hilton. They brought eight boxes up with our luggage. One bed is covered with clothes already and we’ve only unpacked one box.”
“I thought there were only six boxes. What are the other two?”
“Hangers,” Lissa said. “It was a last-minute addition. We have to run to K-Mart tomorrow or Tuesday morning and get some kind of rack that we can hang things on. I didn’t even think of that. We’d look like Goodwill if we stacked everything up in piles on the table. In fact, it would be more like a rummage sale. We need things appropriately displayed. What are you two doing?”
“Just cuddling in the big chair,” Kate said into the speaker phone.
“Oh my,” Lissa sighed. “Melody, stop unpacking. We’ve got better things to do tonight.”
“I like the sound of that, lover,” Melody said. “You want to join us?”
“Mmm. I think we’ll just have a quiet evening,” I said.
“Actually I was hoping to stay conscious all evening,” Kate laughed. “But I do love you, you know.”
“Oh, we know, sweetie. And don’t worry. We’re not going to be selfish tonight. At least not with you two,” Melody laughed. “If this blonde goddess doesn’t get her face between my thighs pretty soon, though, I’m going to take things into my own hands, so to speak.”
“Well, I’m glad you are there and safe. It’s nine o’clock there, so you shouldn’t spend your night in a hotel room unpacking. Have fun. Your flight was okay?” I asked. There was giggling in response.
“What are you doing?” Kate asked. She was grinning just listening to Lissa and Melody.
“Um… just remembering,” Lissa said.
“Guess who’s a member of the mile-high club,” Melody shouted.
“You didn’t!” Kate exclaimed.
“I thought for a while she was going to announce it to the entire cabin,” Lissa said. “Not with words. I had to clamp my mouth over hers to keep her from screaming.”
“I’m going to want a full explanation of this when I see you,” I said. I sounded stern, but it was all I could do to keep from choking on my laughter. “For tonight, have fun in Minneapolis.”
“Oh, we will. You two have fun, too.”
“Goodnight, lovers.”
“Goodnight, Kitten. Goodnight Tony.”
Kate wore a pair of black, three-quarter length tights with a strapless black camisole under a gray and white striped serape-style knit top that fell completely off her right shoulder, almost to her elbow. We were still cuddled in the recliner.
“Remember when I told you the story of Gawain?” Kate asked.
“Yeah. I thought I was going to burst.”
“What did you think when I put your hand here?” she asked, pulling my left hand to her bare right shoulder. That night she’d been wearing a strapless sundress.
“Having your skin beneath my fingers sent chills down my spine. I was so excited I could hardly breathe,” I said. It was the same tonight.
“When I pulled your hand down, like this,” she said, slowly guiding my hand until it rested on her right breast, “I almost lost control. It was the first time a boy—or anyone—had ever touched my breast.”
“It feels the same to me now,” I whispered. “Kitten, touching you does wonderful things to me. It always has. When my hand is on your breast, I never want to move.”
“Move, Tony. Squeeze a little. I was so new at it, I couldn’t enjoy the subtleties of what you were doing. Show me all the little ways you want to touch me, darling. I feel like I’ve missed something.”
“Did I ever show you the sketch I did at Nationals last year? I was supposed to be drawing the action on the court, but I looked down at the paper and suddenly realized that I’d sketched you—nude, like when you posed. I was using my thumb to blend the shadow beneath your breast and for a moment, I felt like I was stroking your skin—right here.” I used my thumb to trace the lower curve of her breast. She shuddered a little.
“Did you already know me so well—have me so well memorized—that you could draw me without looking?”
“No. It’s a poor rendition. Every time I look at you, I discover something new that I missed before. The slight indent here. Exactly how high your nipple rises when I touch it so lightly that I can hardly feel it. It’s like a magnet that clings to my finger as I pull away.”
“Tony, what happens when you kiss it? Does it have a special taste? Do I just taste sweaty and salty?”
“No darling. That peach body wash that you use? You still taste like peaches to me, hours later.” My hand was on the upper curve of her breast and this time as I slid lower, I dragged her camisole down with me until her nipple was fully exposed and my hand lifted her breast toward my lips. I kept my lips together as I brushed them across the tip of her nipple. She collapsed back into my embrace, opening herself to me further. I swept the tip of my tongue from the deepest valley between her breasts up to the tip of her nipple, then back again. As I moved toward her left breast, she pulled her cami down on that side to give me clear access.
“Sex is so exciting, Tony,” she whispered. “It’s so hard to believe that just two weeks ago, I was a virgin. Well, technically two weeks and a day ago. How many times have we made love, Tony?”
“I don’t know for sure, Kitten. It gets hard to keep track of when there are so many orgasms going on.”
“But just us, Tony?”
“I don’t think we’ve made ‘just us’ love,” I said.
“Yes. Yes we did. But it wasn’t in the past two weeks. I made love to you that night in the caravan when we were in Oregon after Dusty attacked me. We didn’t have sex, but I’ll always think of that as the first night I made love with you.”
“Kate, that night was the most wonderful night I can remember. It was the night that I first knew—knew beyond any shadow of a doubt—that I love you. Holding you, kissing you…”
“Trying to get your hand in my panties,” she laughed. Yes, I’d tried that, too. “Tony, can we make love tonight?”
“Kitten, that’s all I want to do.”
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