Sure enough, that Saturday found Angela and me in the M6. I was wearing the blue two-piece ensemble that Angela had bought for me, and she was wearing her jeans and T shirt, just like at the dinner party.
I knew I was going to get a ribbing from Jimmy at the very least, and probably from Stein as well, but what the hell. My Angela wanted me to wear that skimpy outfit, so I was going to do it for her.
“Whoa, baby!” Jimmy catcalled when I climbed out of the BMW. “Lizzie, you’re looking hot today!”
Stein had been facing away, but at Jimmy’s reaction he turned around to see what the fuss was about. The look of shock on his face was priceless, well worth the possible mortification wearing next to nothing would bring.
“Did you two get dressed in the dark this morning? Grab each others’ clothes?” Stein asked after a moment of disbelief.
“Something like that,” Angela said brightly.
"Dang, Liz,” Jimmy said. “Somehow you look even taller than usual.”
“Jimmy, it’s the legs. Just look at those things. They go on and on and on until they get together and make an ass of themselves,” Teddy Bear said, giving me a wink to let me know he was just teasing.
“Har har,” I said. “Babe, you want anything from the store?” I asked Angela as I headed for the mini mart.
“Maybe a Perrier?” she replied.
“Dang! Look at that walk!” Jimmy said as I made my way to the store, but I ignored him, and Teddy Bear’s wolf whistle, too.
Geoff arrived while I was inside, and obviously the others had mentioned I was wearing something atypical.
He looked me up and down and shrugged. “I don’t know what the big deal is,” he said.
“Look at her!” Jimmy urged. “Look at that top! Look at that little skirt!”
Geoff shrugged again. “I’ve seen her in a bikini,” he said. “She’s wearing a lot more than that right now.”
“You’ve seen Lizzie in a bikini?” Jimmy asked, astounded.
“Yeah, Linda and I take the girls over to their place to swim every now and then,” Geoff explained. “They love going over there.”
“It’s a treat having them visit,” Angela said. “Ginnie and Eileen are always welcome.”
“You and Linda, too,” I said to Geoff.
“I guess this means you’ve seen Angela and Emmy in bikinis, too,” Jimmy said in a woeful tone.
“Now that you mention it, why yes, I have,” Geoff said with a big grin. “Very, very small bikinis.”
“Why?” Jimmy demanded of the heavens. “Why do you hate me?”
Since it was Jimmy’s turn to lead, we did the usual route through the Malibu Hills, which was always fun but sometimes a bit slow when we hit traffic. During one of the slow times Angela rested her hand on my thigh, sliding the hem of my skirt up a little with the edge of her hand. As she grew bolder, her hand slipped higher and farther to the inside. I glanced over when she stroked even higher, seeing her mischievous grin.
Next thing I knew, her hand had slid all the way up and she was teasing me through the thin cloth of my thong.
“I’m beginning to understand why you like me in short skirts so much,” Angela said as she rubbed me with the edge of her pinky. With her right hand she pulled my knee towards her, opening up some more room for her left hand.
When we stopped at a light on the PCH she said, “Take off your panties, Lee.”
“What?” I asked, surprised.
“Do it. I want you to take them off.”
I was going to protest, but when I saw the look on her face, I gave in. I raised my butt a little off the seat, reached up under my skirt to my hips and pulled the tiny little piece of clothing down to my ankles, slipping my feet out of them just as the light turned to green. Stepping on the gas, I tossed the thong onto Angela’s lap.
“Good girl,” Angela said approvingly, patting my bare leg. She kept her hand on my thigh as we drove south, commenting, “I love the feel of your strong muscles, Lee.”
Heading uphill on Murphy Way, Angela slipped her hand back to where it had been earlier, only now there was no cloth barrier in her way.
“I’m gonna have a hard time driving like this,” I said after a few moments of her touch.
“Then find a spot to pull over,” Angela commanded. “A nice, private spot. I want you now, Lee.”
“I’m just going to ditch the guys and take us home,” I said.
“Drive fast,” Angela demanded.
We had just turned off for the drive back to the house when both of our phones chimed with text messages. Puzzled, Angela pulled out her phone and checked.
“It’s Emmy,” she said, concern in her voice. “She says to come home as soon as possible.”
Suddenly concerned, I asked if she’d said why.
“No, just that,” Angela said, her thumbs working overtime on her phone’s touchscreen keyboard.
“Tell her we’re on our way,” I said, sexy times completely forgotten.
Emmy was waiting for us in the Batcave when I pulled the BMW into its spot.
“What’s the matter?” Angela asked, out of the car almost before it stopped moving.
“Nothing is the matter,” Emmy said, her face lit up with happiness. “In fact, things are perfect!”
“Why did you text us to come home?” I asked.
“We got an email from the lab in Korea- they have fertilized eggs for us to implant!” Emmy said, practically vibrating with excitement.
“Are you serious?” Angela asked, stopping dead in her tracks.
“Yes! Very serious! It is finally time!”
I swooped in and grabbed Emmy in a giant hug, lifting her up off the ground. “That’s wonderful! We’re gonna be parents!” I set Emmy down and did the same with Angela, lifting her up and spinning around.
Somehow the idea that all that stress, all those visits to the fertility clinic, all that money- it was all going to come down to this, and soon. Less than a year from now and we’ll have two babies crawling around the house, and in just a few more years our girls would be going to their prom…
Angela grabbed my hand when I set her down, then took Emmy’s and dragged us into the house.
“Come on!” She said. “We need to celebrate!”
To my surprise, Angela dragged us to the nursery, where we all sat down on the floor and just looked at the empty room.
“Soon this will have two, what are they called, the little baby beds?” she said, gesturing to where she imagined they would go.
“Bassinets?”
“No, those are for little bitty brand new babies. When they are in their bassinets they’ll be in our room,” Angela said decisively. “No, I mean the ones that are like little cages.”
“Cribs,” Emmy said.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
“Yes, cribs. And there will be two dressers, and a changing table,” Angela said, pointing out where they would go. “But we will not buy any of it until the babies are born. It’s bad luck to buy these things too early.”
I didn’t believe in bad luck, but I was perfectly willing to humor the mother of one of my children in this. If it made her happy, it made me happy.
My children. It was really going to happen. Somewhere in Seoul was a lab with a couple of eggs that my DNA had fertilized. I was really going to be the father in a sense to two little girls, little Emmy, Jr and Angela, Jr. It was really going to happen.
Overwhelmed by the emotions swirling inside me, I wrapped my arms around the shoulders of the two women I loved and just held them close. Our family, our ‘household of three’, would soon be a household of five.
I was burning with desire to call Donny, Mom, anybody to tell them the good news, but really, we didn’t actually have good news to report yet. This was just another step on our journey to parenthood, after all.
We must have spent at least an hour in that empty room that was going to become our nursery, not really saying much other than vague ‘I love you’ noises. Somehow, though, that hour of just sitting there made me feel closer to Emmy and Angela than I had before, and made the dream of a family with kids that much more real.
At some point it occurred to me that Emmy and Angela had already had this moment with each other, that time I found them cuddled up together and sleeping in that empty room. The bond they shared was fundamentally different than the relationship I had with either of them, I knew that, but sitting and holding the two and daydreaming about our little girls brought me closer to understanding it.
We went out for dinner that night- Emmy called and got us a table at the new restaurant at the top of of the US Bank Tower, seventy-one stories up. It was very reminiscent of the restaurant we’d gone to in Chicago, when Angela first found her way into our bed.
I don’t know if Emmy had planned for that coincidence, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out that she had. If there was ever anybody who would plan things like that, it was her.
The food was good and the views were magnificent, the timing with the setting sun only adding to my suspicion that Emmy had intended it to be a subtle reminder of the first days of our ménage à trois.
Angela and Emmy were both radiant, their impending motherhood already giving them both a certain glow, and if I wasn’t mistaken, a sort of serenity. They were relaxed in a way I hadn’t seen them be for a while, presumably because the worry that the whole process would get us nowhere was now gone.
I felt lighter, too, I must admit. I’d almost gotten to the point where I was ready to throw in the towel and write it off as a hopeless fantasy, the crazy idea that I could actually father Emmy and Angela’s babies, but all of a sudden it seemed to be on the verge of actually happening.
We made love that night, the three of us in a very touchy-feely mood. It wasn’t the hot and nasty sex I was expecting earlier in the day when Angela was rubbing me up. No, it was tender, slow, and all about the emotional connection, even more than the physical. We kissed, we held each other, we made it very clear through our actions that we loved each other very, very much.
Of course I was the first one to wake up in the morning, but I didn’t get out of bed. I stayed where I was, enjoying the memories of the night before. Besides, it was Sunday. I had nothing to do, anyhow.
Eventually I felt Angela stirring. When she glanced over and saw that I was awake and watching her, she gave me a shy smile.
“Good morning, querida mia,” she said quietly, to not wake Emmy.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I replied, keeping my voice quiet, too.
“I’m going to be a mamá,” Angela said in an amazed tone.
“And you’ll be the best one there ever was,” I assured her with a smile.
“I hope our babies are born on the same day,” she said. “That way they would be like twins.”
“They’re going to be the most loved little girls in all the world,” I said.
“You are going to spoil them,” Angela said, reproachfully. “I can already tell.”
“That’s gonna be my job,” I said with a shrug.
“What is going to be your job?” Emmy asked, just waking up, her voice still very groggy.
“Spoiling our little girls,” I said, giving her a kiss.
“I am certain you will be good at it,” Emmy said with a smile.
We stayed home that day, all three of us. We didn’t really do anything in particular, and it wasn’t by any spoken agreement. It seemed as if we just all wanted to be with each other, even if it was just listening to music on the hi-fi and lounging on the couch.
Amusingly enough, Angela took some selfies and posted them on her socials, with the caption, “Lazy day at home. No makeup, no workout, nothing but comfy pajamas all day long.”
I guess that meant that Angela was working even on her day off, but in a low-key way. I had made it clear a while back that she never needed to work another day in her life if she didn’t want to, but she had insisted that she wanted to continue modeling and doing her influencer stuff.
“It isn’t about the money any more,” she’d said. “It’s about doing something that I’m good at, and something that I like doing.”
I couldn’t argue with that- I wanted her to have her own thing, a sense of her own agency and not feel as if she was some sort of ‘kept woman’ or something. I liked that she wanted to continue and even expand her career, even though she had no need for the income any longer. I don’t think she knew that I knew she was sending a good chunk of her earnings to her family back home, and another decent chunk to a scholarship fund for poor kids there in Cartagena. I’d toyed with the idea of creating an endowment in her name, but ultimately came to the conclusion that I’d just be co-opting her initiative.
Working out the next morning, I regretted storming out of the fight gym the way I had. Our home gym was excellent by home gym standards, but I missed having people to spar with and to spot me when I lifted heavy. Determined to swallow my pride a bit, I stopped by on my way to work.
“Long time no see, stranger!” Eddie said when I walked up to the counter.
“I hate to admit it,” I said, “But I kinda miss this place.”
“It can’t be the smell,” Eddie said.
“No, it definitely isn’t that,” I agreed.
“You know Jody doesn’t work here anymore, right?” Eddie said.
“Yeah, I know. He works full time for me these days,” I said. “He’s in Portland, Maine right now, actually.”
“Really? Doin’ what?” Eddie asked.
“He’s helping train my paramilitary death squads,” I said as casually as I could manage, and the look on Eddie’s face made it worthwhile. Of course Eddie had heard all the rumors and speculation about what I did for a living, and so he was ripe for a gag like that.
He recovered after a moment, laughing. “You had me there for a hot minute,” he said.
“So, anyway, I think I want to re-up here. I won’t need the early start, though,” I said.
“That’s too bad,” Eddie said with a sigh. “I kinda liked the money. So I guess this means it’ll, uh, all be above-board? No ‘special techniques’?”
“Yeah, just standard MMA sparring with whoever, and of course, weights and that stuff,” I agreed.
“There’s twenty guys here at least who would love to spar a few rounds with you. They never got to see you actually fight, and what with Jody tellin’ everybody to not even talk to you, well, everybody’s curious.”
“Tell ‘em to take a number. I’ll spar with anybody,” I said.
“We got some heavy hitters,” Eddie warned.
“Then I’ll get my ass handed to me, right?”
“You see, that’s the attitude I like to see in a fighter. In fact, that’s the truest definition of a real fighter, right there,” Eddie said with a smile.
“Hey, Leah!” Richie said, walking up to join us at the counter. “You gonna be working out here again?”
"Looks that way,” I said, handing Eddie the filled-out forms.
“So, uh, if you need a sparring partner…” Richie said.
Pointing at me, Eddie said, “Remember- keep it cool.”
“Got it,” I said. Turning to Richie, I said, “Not today, but maybe sometime soon. I’m going to try to make it here three days a week again.”
“Cool! See you around!” he said, before returning to his weights.
I had no meetings that morning, which was probably a good thing. I found myself lost in daydreams of motherhood imagining two beautiful little girls sitting in my lap while I read them a story, or swimming in our pool. I imagined their first day at school, with their little backpacks with carefully packed lunches and snacks inside. I thought about what school we would send them to, and how maybe when they got older they could go for a year abroad with their grandparents, or maybe just summers in France or Colombia…
In other words, I didn’t get a damned bit of work done. But that was O.K., since I’d been mostly delegating my duties to various others, so I was only really involved in the top-level stuff anymore.
Really, the most compelling argument for even coming in to the office on days like that was for the face time with my staff, and the occasional work lunch just so everybody still knew I existed.
Most of the actual work I did was reviewing proposals, sending and answering emails, and talking on the phone, which I could do just as well from my home office. Still, it was important to actually be a presence, so I was determined to come in three days a week and make my bi-weekly trips to San Jose.
Two days a week, though, I stayed home until it was time to go to class. I’d grown less and less convinced the MBA degree was worth my time, but I was determined to ride it to the end. I was halfway through the program and classes were starting to cover things that were new to me, so that was good.
A knock on the doorframe of my open door brought me back to reality.
“Hey, Boss,” said Sandy. “Wanna go for a drive?”
“What do you want to show me?” I asked, quickly checking my calendar to see if I could blow off the afternoon.
“I’ve got a guy in Silver Lake, wants to open a burger joint. He said somebody gave him your card if he ever thought about starting a real restaurant.”
“If it’s who I’m thinking of, I gave him my card, but that was last year,” I said.
“Just took him a while to get around to it, I guess,” Sandy said.
“You know what, Sandy? You just go and talk to the guy. If it seems like it would work, well, you know what to do. You don’t need me to hold your hand on a simple deal like this,” I said.
Sandy looked at me for a long moment, then asked, “Am I correct in understanding that you’re giving me autonomy on this?”
“It’s about time. You’ve worked for me for almost five years now, came down to LA when I did. You haven’t steered me wrong on a single acquisition or in-house project yet. I think it’s time for you to fly on your own, Mr McGregor,” I said.
“What about the big projects?”
“Maybe on the big or speculative projects I might want to look ‘em over,” I admitted.
“Leah,” Sandy asked, “Does this come with a raise?”
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. "Talk to the other department heads. See if you guys can agree on a basic incentive structure that would work across the various divisions, and then come talk to me.”
“Are you- are you telling us to unionize?” Sandy asked, still trying to wrap his brain around the idea.
“Not unionize, per se, but maybe do a little collective bargaining? Keep in mind, though, that I pay all you guys above industry standards already, so don’t ask for too much, and keep it performance-based.”
“If you don’t mind my asking,” Sandy said, his Australian accent thicker than usual. “Why? I mean, it seems like you’re offering this out of the blue.”
“I’m just thinking that things are going really well, I’m happy with the folks I’ve got in various important positions, and I want to reduce my micromanaging,” I said.
“I wouldn’t call what you do ‘micromanaging’,” Sandy protested.
“Maybe not, but there’s no need for me to be looking over everybody’s shoulders,” I said with a shrug. “And besides, I promised I’d lighten my load.”