Tiffany’s school got out sort of late for winter break, so Mom and Tiffany came up that Friday to spend the holiday weekend with us. Grace had begged off coming for Christmas, saying that things were going really well with Rosalie and the two of them were going to visit Rosalie’s family for Christmas, but then come to Los Angeles for the New Year. This meant that there would be no overlap, which was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, fewer people to entertain. On the other, Grace really got along well with Mom and Tiffany, and all three were a bit disappointed that they wouldn’t see each other.
I think Grace promised to stop off in Fallbrook on the way back to Flagstaff for a visit, even though it was out of the way, just so they could have dinner or something.
Tiffany was knocked off her feet by the new house, especially the big lagoon pool, the sound stage, and the secret entrance via the elevator. Mom liked the deck quite a bit, and the feeling of privacy despite being in the middle of a city of ten million people.
Of course, Tiffany was excited that one of the bedrooms was specifically hers, and not just a guest room. Emmy had made it very clear that she was welcome any time, and if Mom ever wanted to simply drop her off for an extended stay, she was perfectly welcome to do so.
Tiffany loved that idea, and I could see that Mom thought there might be some very real advantages to the arrangement, too. It had been over twenty years since Mom had had any sort of time alone, without one or more girls to take care of, and she could use a break.
“Maybe spring break,” she mused. “It’d be nice to have my own vacation, for once.”
“There’s only one problem with that,” Angela cautioned.
“What’s that?” Mom asked.
“When you get back, you might find that Emmy and I have spoiled Tiffy rotten.”
Mom laughed, and asked, “Isn’t that what relatives are supposed to do?”
We went out to dinner that night to a restaurant that had gotten a lot of press, but personally, I found their Asian fusion a bit too hipster and not really solid on the fundamentals. My brisket yakisoba was a bit overcooked, but Tiffany enjoyed her satay tacos and Mom liked her bulgogi with truffle sauce, so I guess the meal was a hit. The conversation was light, and Mom seemed to be in a really good place in her life in general. Tiffany’s school was going well, Mom was enjoying teaching part-time, things like that. Mom mentioned that uncle Bob was doing well and wanted to expand the nursery, and I suggested that I’d be happy to bankroll whatever they needed.
Later, while Emmy was singing lullabies to get Tiffany to sleep, Mom, Angela and I sat down to drink some wine at the kitchen counter. “This is from Emmy’s family’s vineyard in France,” Angela said proudly as she poured us each a glass. “2013 was one of their best years in memory,” she explained.
This surprised me, not so much because of the information, but rather the fact that Angela and Emmy had clearly been discussing the subject and Angela found it interesting. It was another one of those little reminders that although the three of us were in a relationship, we each had our own way of relating to each other. Upon a bit of momentary analysis, I was pleased to realize that it wasn’t jealousy I felt, but a sort of little thrill. I guess I was harboring the (maybe egotistical) suspicion that Emmy was simply going along with the program that she thought I wanted, because she wanted Angela for my sake. These tiny revelations of Emmy’s relationship with Angela helped dispel those doubts, which, oddly, make me feel a wave of affection for both of them.
“I’m not much of a red wine drinker,” Mom said, taking a sip. “This might be wasted on me.”
“Nonsense,” Angela scoffed. “All that matters is if you like it or not. If you do, then it’s not wasted at all.”
“My father sent us ten cases,” Emmy said as she joined us and Angela poured her a glass. “That is one hundred and twenty bottles. We have plenty to share,” she said with one of those tinkling laughs that sounded like bells.
“Are you serious?” Mom asked, amazed.
“Ten cases,” Emmy confirmed. “Please, take some home with you when you return to Fallbrook.”
“I guess you need the room- that many cases… what would you even do with that much wine?” Mom asked.
“I guess you haven’t seen our wine cellar, then,” I replied. “It’s huge. I think it must have room for five thousand bottles or something.”
“What.”
“Come on- let me show you,” Angela said, standing up but not putting down her glass even as she reached for Mom’s hand to help her up. To my surprise, Mom took Angela’s hand and let herself be guided (wine glass in hand) to the elevator so Emmy and Angela could show her the wine cellar.
Bemused, I poured myself another glass of the Lascaux wine and pondered life’s mysteries. Well, at least the mystery of how my sister and mother seemed to like my wives better than me.
‘Wives,’ I thought bemusedly. That might have been the first time I even thought that word to describe Emmy and Angela, and I found it felt both appropriate and very strange at the same time. Emmy was my wife, and had been for years now, but we had both told Angela that we wanted her to have the same kind of relationship, and she accepted. We told her that made her our wife as far as we were concerned, and so, here we were. Wives.
I wasn’t going to use that word for Angela outside our little family, but sooner or later I would have to explain our relationship to people, and I was still at a loss how to do that.
I was distracted from these problems by a buzzing in my pocket. Checking my phone, I saw a text from James Atherton, asking if I’d ever driven Inde Motorsports Ranch.
“In Tucson?” I responded. “No, never”.
“It’s a country club track”, he sent back. “I’m thinking of signing up, but want try the track out first. A day rental of the full course is cheap. Want to go in?”
“When?”
“TBD”, he sent back. “When works for you?”
“First week of January, or after mid February. We have lots of in-laws visiting.”
“How’s your new place?” he asked.
“Everything we could have hoped for. Seriously. You guys need to come down and visit.” I replied.
“Imogen has been pestering me about coming down. It seems like we only get to see you at the club any more.” he wrote.
“I know. Life has been hectic lately.”
“So lets go to Arizona and get our winter zoomies out. I’ll see what I can do for dates and let you know asap.” James responded.
“Sounds great to me. Give Imogen a kiss for me and you two have a very merry Xmas,” I sent.
“You do the same for Emmy and Angela! TTYL”.
Resolving to download Inde’s layout on my sim rig, I poured myself another glass just as Mom and my two wives returned from downstairs with a couple more bottles.
Mom and Angela made Christmas dinner together, chatting like old friends as they shared the work, making cooking seem like fun. The rest of us had been shooed out of the kitchen, so I took Tiffany out to the big pool to while away the warm December afternoon.
“I’m not sure I understand what’s going on with you and Emmy and Angela,” Tiffany said, sounding very grown up.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I laid our towels down on the chaises.
“You still love Emmy, right? But I’ve seen you kiss Angela. And all three of you are sharing the same room.”
“Yes, of course I still love Emmy,” I replied as I made my way gingerly into the water. It was heated, sure, but still felt cold on entry, so it took me a few moments of acclimation before I could submerge myself. “I love Emmy, she loves me, same as always. But here’s the new thing- we’ve both also fallen in love with Angela, and she loves us both, too.”
Looking skeptical, Tiffany stood on the side of the pool, contemplating her options. “Is it deep enough to dive?” She asked, straightening the shoulder strap of her suit.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Yeah, it’s deep enough on that side, but over there on the other side it’s a beach- no diving,” I said, indicating the wide north side of the pool.
Emboldened by the news, Tiffany did one of those half dive, half crouch, almost bellyflops into the pool, rising to the surface almost immediately.
“Do you remember my friend Stephanie? From high school?” I asked after Tiffany dunked her head to sweep her long blonde hair back.
“Was she the one with brown hair?”
“Yeah, her. She was on the cheerleading squad and did a lot of gymnastics when she was little. She had a pool at her house, and we used to go over and swim all the time. Well, she taught me to dive correctly, and I think now it’s time I taught you,” I said as I climbed out to stand on the edge of the pool. “Watch this!” I called as I jumped high into a pike, then extended and slipped into the water smoothly.
“That was awesome!” Tiffany said when I surfaced, and with that I knew what we’d be doing for the next hour or so.
We were both pretty chilled after our diving lesson, so some time in the jacuzzi was a must.
While Tiffany and I relaxed in the hot water, she returned to the earlier subject.
“If you guys both love Angela and she loves both of you, how do you share? I mean, if Angela is your girlfriend, what does Emmy do?” she asked.
“Angela isn’t just my girlfriend. She’s also Emmy’s. We all share our love,” I tried to explain. “It isn’t nearly as complicated as it might seem.”
“Right,” Tiffany agreed sardonically. “Sure.”
Tiffany, swaddled in one of our big terrycloth robes, led the way back to the house when we were done. “Why does your house have a tower?” she asked, pointing up at the structure in question.
“That’s my home office,” I said. “I don’t know why it was originally built that way, though.”
“Later, can you show it to me? Emmy skipped that on the tour,” she said, again sounding more mature than I was used to. I guess in my mind she was somehow still the age she’d been when I left home, and the intervening five years hadn’t even happened. At twelve, she was squarely astride the transition from little kid to world-wise teenager, and could veer either way at any given moment.
Back in the house, Angela and Mom were still going strong while Emmy sat at the counter and chatted with the two cooks.
“Mom,” Tiffany said. “The big pool is awesome! It has a beach, a cave, and even its own little place to sit at, like, a bar, while you’re in the water!”
“Does it have a water slide?” Mom asked, looking up from grilling some vegetables.
“No, no slide,” Tiffany said, looking serious. “It’s a pool for grownups, not children.”
Suppressing the urge to laugh, I gave Emmy a kiss and told her I was going to take a quick shower to get the chlorine off.
“Then you’ll show me your office?” Tiffany asked.
“Sure. You should probably shower, too,” I suggested, pointing her towards her own room. “And get dressed.”
Tiffany made a frowny face at me and looked as if she would object, but went to do as I’d suggested. I gave Emmy a little kiss, telling her I’d be back in five.
I showered and dressed in my Cardinal T shirt, which I found draped over the side of the laundry hamper. It smelled like Emmy, and as far as I was concerned that made stealing it back a double win. I threw on a pair of comfy jeans to go with the shirt and was back at the kitchen counter in hardly any time at all.
“Here- put this on the table, would you?” Mom asked, handing me the big blue glass salad bowl that Angela and Jenna had bought two days before. The salad inside looked good- more artistic than I was used to from Mom’s efforts in the kitchen.
I continued to ferry things to the dining table, amazed at the quantity of food that the two had made.
Before long were were all seated at the table, waiting for the signal to begin diving in. Raising my wine glass, I proposed a toast.
“This is the very first meal we’ve had in this room,” I began. “We’ve only been living in this house a week, and we’ve just eaten our meals in the kitchen so far, so this is the first of many family gatherings that I hope will be held here. Thanks, everybody, for helping make this come true.”
Everybody clinked their glasses and drank. Angela had bought a case of Martinelli’s sparkling Rosé cider specifically for Tiffany, so she could feel included. Well, that and the fact that it’s tasty, too. Angela had actually bought white and dark red versions as well, so Tiffany could coordinate her drink to ours. Seeing Emmy refill Tiffany’s glass, I felt a little flash of warmth, and a renewed conviction that Angela really was what Emmy and I needed.
When Angela had asked for my help unloading the incredible amount of groceries she’d bought the day before, she replied to my unspoken question.
“We’re having family over the next few days, so I got stuff to cook, but also, the house is basically empty. We don’t have baking soda. We don’t have sea salt. We don’t have balsamic vinegar, or brown sugar, or any of the things you only buy once in a while to replace what you’ve used up. I had to buy all of that stuff, and things like shampoo for the guest bathrooms, and Q Tips, and…”
“No, it makes sense,” I agreed. “But three cases of Martinelli’s?”
“We have twenty-seven cases of wine in the cellar, and room for a hundred more. A bottle or two in the fridge, and the rest go down there for when we need them. Or maybe, if we have a wine party down there and we have a non-drinker, we’ll have something for them,” Angela explained, showing me that she’d been giving these things a lot more thought than I had.
Angela had done such a complete job on her mega shopping trip that when she and Mom had started working up the menu for dinner and evaluating what they had on hand, the only things I needed to run to the store to get were croutons and diced black olives.
Dinner was great, and in the tradition of such holiday meals, I ate way too much and felt like resting on the couch when it was over.
Emmy, Tiffany and I cleaned up, though, even as much as we might have wanted to just pass out. Well, I wanted to pass out, anyhow. Emmy had eaten her typically tiny portions, and Tiffany had quite a buzz going from all that cider and the cheesecake we had for dessert.
“Lee, you promised me you would show me your tower office,” Tiffany said, her hands on her hips as she stood next to the couch I had draped myself on.
“Five minutes,” I replied. “That’s all I ask first. Give me five minutes to let dinner settle.”
She looked down at the Apple Watch on her skinny little wrist. “Five minutes,” she agreed, and I just knew I wouldn’t get five seconds more.
Sure enough, she was back at the exact specified time, pointing to the watch to show me that it had been, yes, exactly five minutes.
“Alright, alright,” I said, getting up and grabbing myself a sparkling water from the fridge. “Let’s go.”
When we turned the corner and she saw the bizarrely long hallway, Tiffany asked, “Seriously? Who puts a thing like this in a house?”
“I know, right?” I agreed. “We’re going to use this as a gallery or something eventually, but right now, it’s just the way to get to my office.”
“It’s kinda creepy,” Tiffany said, looking out the right side, which was all glass.
“Not in the daytime,” I replied. “It’s really cool when you can see out. It’s almost like a long balcony or something.” Of course, I failed to mention how great that hallway was for chasing beautiful naked women…
The simple flight of stairs at the end led up to the floor where my sim rig lived, then continued on up to the top floor of the tower, but we didn’t get that far.
“What is that?” Tiffany asked when she saw the driving simulator.
“That’s my early Christmas present that Emmy and Angela got for me,” I said. “It's for use with driving games, so it feels like you’re in a real car.”
“Can I try it?”
“Um, sure, but it’s pretty complicated. It’ll take us a little bit to get it set for you.”
I had Tiffany get in, adjusting everything so the seat and pedals were in their correct positions for her. I swapped out the racing yoke for a more traditional wheel, then created a new driver profile for Tiffany and set everything to as easy as possible- no shifting, for example, and high traction, low response throttle, stuff like that. At first, when she realized what I was doing with the settings, Tiffany complained.
“I’m not some kind of little kid!”
“How much driving experience do you have?” I asked.
“Mom has been showing me,” she said, a bit defensively. “We’ve gone to the school parking lot after hours a few times and she’s let me steer.”
“O.K., that’s a good start,” I said. “But this is the next step. Here you’ll learn to use the pedals. Actually, this is a great thing for you to learn on, because nothing will get damaged if you do it wrong.”
After showing her how to use the gas and brakes, I started her on the tutorial and sat back and watched.
Of course she ran off the track as often as not, and slammed the gas pedal down when she meant to use the brakes, but after a while she got the hang of it.
Glancing at my watch, I realized we’d been there for over an hour.
“Hey, Tiff, that’s probably enough for now,” I said. “We should go back and hang out with Mom and the others.”
“But I’m just getting good at this!” Tiffany protested.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “We’ll leave it set up, and you can come back and do some more driving later, if you want. Or tomorrow. You guys are here for the whole weekend, so you’ll have plenty of time to drive as much as you want.”
“Promise?” She asked, getting out of the racing seat.
“Yeah, I promise.”
Back in the living room, Emmy had the stereo playing some Stan Getz while the three relaxed.
“You were gone a long time,” Mom remarked as I sat down next to Angela and Tiffany cuddled up against Emmy, who wrapped her arm around my little sister and pulled her in close.
“Lee has this thing, it’s for computer racing games, and it’s like really driving a car, Mom,” Tiffany explained. “Seriously. It was like really driving, with a steering wheel, and pedals, and everything! She said I can drive it as much as I want while we’re here.”
“I was right,” Angela said, nodding her head. At my questioning look, she explained that she’d guessed that’s where we were when we took a while to come back. “That hallway is long, but not that long.”
“That hallway is crazy!” Tiffany said. “It’s like a mile long!”
“You know what would make it even cooler?” I asked. “It’d be even cooler if it was underground, and we had those golf cart things to drive from one end to the other.”
“You’d be like a James Bond bad guy in your secret hideout, planning to take over the world!” Tiffany laughed.
Emmy got a serious look and said, “But Tiffany, Leah does already plan to take over the world. I thought you knew that.”
“Mwahahaha!” I fake-laughed as I rubbed my hands together.
Tiffany gave me ever-increasing puppy-dog looks as the evening wore on, enough that I finally gave in. “O.K., you can go back and drive some more,” I said, admitting defeat.
She got up from where she’d been snuggling against Emmy and stood by my couch, waiting expectantly.
“It’s still set up and running,” I said. “You don’t need me to get you going.” Honestly, I didn’t want to get up. I was comfy, and Angela was sleeping with her head on my lap and I didn’t want wake her.
“I need you to come with me,” Tiffany insisted.
“The hallway?” I guessed.
She nodded, looking a bit sheepish.
“I will walk with you,” Emmy volunteered. “I would like to see you drive.”
“Thanks, babe,” I said, grateful. Emmy leaned in for a kiss and said softly, “Let Sleeping Beauty rest.”
“I’m not asleep,” Angela mumbled in protest. “Just resting my eyes.”
Emmy bent down and gave Angela a soft kiss on the cheek and said softly, “Of course you are, beautiful. Of course you are.”
After Emmy and Tiffany left, Mom got up to refill our glasses. “Like I said earlier, I’m not much of a red wine drinker, but this stuff from Emmy’s estate in France is really good.”
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed as I stroked Angela’s thick, black hair.
“Best in fifty years,” Angela mumbled without lifting her head from my lap.
Mom just gave me a smile, amused, which of course made me smile, too. Life was good, and I was happy.