Road To Me

by Erica Andrews

  “Damon?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Who’s Camille to you?”

  Right for the jugular, this girl went. I meant when she asked a question, she asked. You had to admire that. I just wished I wasn’t on the receiving end.

  Placing her hands on each side of her on the couch, she continued before I could answer. “I mean, I’m not stupid. I know she’s your ex. But what happened? What did she do that was so bad, and I know it was bad by how you acted at the movie theater?”

  I didn’t really want to have to have this conversation now. Not because of Kelly, but because of the nasty taste it left in my mouth. But once again, I couldn’t say no to her. So I did the only thing I could do.

  “A few years ago, I met Camille at a motorcycle expo. We had a one-night stand type thing. Exchanged numbers just in case and slowly started texting each other. Turned out she lived in Daily where we lived with Kasper for a while.” Looking at her I asked, “Kasper told you we lived with him for a while, while we finished school after he divorced Nicole?” At her nod I continued. This was the part of the story that I hated. “Well we started seeing each other constantly, every chance we could. What I didn’t know was when I wasn’t there she was making passes at Dean every chance she got. She was hoping she could have both of us but not let the other brother know about it. I didn’t find out till I caught her over at the house when I came home early from work.”

  “You mean Dean…”

  Shaking my head to cut her off. “No, Dean would never but that didn’t stop her from claiming they had, because she was pissed when I broke it off. Later, I found out I wasn’t the only guy on her list or harem.”

  After my story, I shouldn’t have been surprised by what she said, but I was.

  “I don’t think she had a harem.”

  She always surprised me. “That’s what you get from all this?”

  Waving her hand in the air like I misunderstood. “No, I mean she’s a bitch, but she didn’t have a harem. People in harems know about each other and from what I hear can be very beneficial or very bad. They say it is a lot of work.”

  I shook my head, not understanding how we got on this conversation. “Where do learn this shit?”

  Very calmly, as if this was an everyday conversation she replied, “I use google.”

  “Why do you know this?”

  “Because I like useless trivia that I may never use again, that’s why. Totally useless trivia, all up in my head, movie quotes, the average height of people and reverse harems.”

  “Reverse?”

  “Yeah, that’s one-woman multiple men. Like I said, useless information.”

  Why did I get the feeling she was lying about the useless part.

  Standing up, I noticed Duchess had moved to the door as a clear hint of wanting to go out. Torn with heading back to the garage and staying to make sure Kelly was okay. I wouldn’t leave if she still wanted me to stay, but I needed to clear my own head after the story with Camille. Knowing I never read women well about what they wanted. I just asked.

  “So are we good? Can we table this discussion for when we go out to eat with the guys?”

  She nodded quickly but smiled, almost letting me know she knew how uncomfortable this conversation made me.

  “Okay, well I need to head back to the garage and finish work.”

  I made my way to the door. Lifting my leg I went to nudge Duchess out of the way, but she growled, not wanting me touch her. I swore, what was with this dog. “Duchess move, vamonos, go.” I heard Kelly giggle at me and Duchess. “Darling, a little help here?”

  Instead of answering, she smiled and slid from the couch to get on her knees. Patting her knees, she called Duchess. “Duchess, come to Mama. Who’s a pretty baby? Come to Mama.”

  Duchess, who saw Kelly on the floor, raced to her, almost trampling her in the process. I watched as the two played around, on the floor, content with just each other. Opening the door to leave and not wanting to stop their playtime, I went to quickly leave.

  “Oh, and Damon?”

  I stopped with one foot out the door.

  “Yeah?”

  “Come back soon, okay? Duchess and I miss you when you’re not here.”

  I coughed to clear my throat of the unexpected emotion her words had on me.

  “Yeah, I think I can come around more often.”

  Closing the door softly behind me as I left, I almost missed the words Kelly whispered.

  “Miss you already.”

  Nineteen

  Kelly

  1. Damon was a gentleman.

  2. Kickboxing was fun, especially with Ben there as my teacher.

  3. I thought I had a crush on way too many guys.

  Suck in that tummy. I paused and adjusted my dress. Turning from side to side, I looked in the mirror, critiquing my outfit, hair and jewelry. Exhale. I stood there and tried to gather my confidence and strength for the talk I was going to have with the guys tonight. I looked again at myself in the mirror, doing the repetitive ritual every girl did before going on a date. Smoothing my dark green knee length dress down on the sides, to double check to make sure all the wrinkles were gone. Double checking, I twisted my ankles to the side to make sure my shoes were void of scuffs and scraps. Duchess, lying on the bed, watching my whole process, stared at me, bored.

  “So, what do you think girl, will I turn heads? Well at least three heads.”

  “Arrhhhhooo”

  Smiling, I walked over and rubbed her head and down her neck. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Blowing her an air kiss good bye, I grabbed my purse. I allowed myself a small grace at knowing that Duchess, would be fine tonight. Since that week of taking her to the guys’ house, I had been working with her these past few weeks, trying to get her used to me being gone. Thankfully it seemed to be working. Though I did like the idea of the guys babysitting her.

  Almost to the living room, the doorbell rang, and I knew it was them. Already nervous, my nerves frazzled at the sound of the doorbell. How was I going to do this? What would they think? What would they say? A million in one questions and scenarios ran through my head the short distance to the door. And then they vanished when I opened the door.

  The three men before me took all worry and reason from my mind. Men weren’t supposed to be beautiful, but here they stood. The epitome of beauty. Kasper with his dark eyes and silky hair hanging down, grazing his white shirt. With his sleeves rolled up, showing the beautiful tattoos on his forearms. He was the perfect mixture of good and bad. Dark and light. I had never known I was a tattoo person until I caught a glimpse of his. Next was Dean, he made me wish I was more Barbie to his Ken. With his golden red locks and easy smile, he turned my legs to goo. Dressed in a green button up shirt that perfectly matched his eyes, he was the prom date you wished for in high school. Then there was Damon. With his massive body and massive personality, he could grab the attention in the room. Even though he never wanted it. Dressed in all black tonight, he looked like the bad boy who crashed the party. The one you secretly hoped picked you to take home for the night. Three different types of men, and they all wanted to be here with me. Wow.

  Realizing that I was staring, I went to fill the silence but movement from Kasper stopped me.

  “Butterscotch, you are stunning, absolutely stunning.” Taking my hand, he gathered me close, wrapping his arms around me and kissing the top of my head.

  I smiled up at him, “Back at ya, Superman.”

  Not to be out done, Dean offered his hand for me to take. I winked at Kasper, and took Dean’s outstretched hand. “Fancy meeting you here, princess.”

  I laughed. “Yes, fancy meeting you here.”

  Bringing my hand to his lips, I felt his breath right before the kiss upon my fingers. Who knew these guys could play the prince so well. “Kasper was right, you are stunning. And I would be proud to be at least one of your suitors.”

  Before I could dissect his statement, Dean was tu
rning his head and yelling at his brother.

  “Damon, tell her she’s stunning.” Damon glared at his brother but quickly turned his attention back to me. Pinning me with his stare. “She’s not stunning.”

  Wait, what? Not now.

  Not giving me time to reflect much on what he just said, he continued to hold my stare. “Stunning doesn’t do her justice.”

  Not waiting for anyone else he walked away, leaving me with that statement.

  Rollercoasters and layers. Rollercoasters and layers.

  As I watched Damon head to the car with the sun setting, I was pulled from my nostalgia when I felt Kasper tug on my hand. “Come on, Butterscotch, let’s take our girl to dinner.”

  With Dean and Damon up ahead, Kasper shortened his steps as if to give us a few more minutes of privacy. “Damon was right you know. You are more than stunning, you’re everything.”

  Everything? Everything to who? To him? To them?

  Without letting me process let alone comment, Kasper picked up the pace, where I saw Damon was waiting by what I assumed to be where I’d be sitting for the ride. Not pausing, Kasper quickly handed me off to Damon and quickly jumped into the backseat where Dean was already waiting. What was it with these men and dropping bombshell comments and then not letting me say anything? Truth be told though if asked what I thought. I’d probably not know what to say. So this might actually be better, let them stew on how I felt and let me process.

  Without a word, Damon opened the car door, helping me inside.

  Not wasting his time, he ran around the car, hopping in quickly and slamming the door. Turning his head, he asked, “Ready?”

  I nodded. Hearing the sound of the jeep, I knew we were on our way. Where the future of this relationship would be dissected like a frog on a biology table. Lord, help me through this dinner.

  Parking at The Chalet was horrendous. Damon was cussing and fuming the entire time at the other drivers and how the world was against him finding a parking space. I could say I understood, and was even slightly irritated on his behalf, but all was forgotten when we opened the door and stepped in. The name of the restaurant I thought was just a euphemism. But stepping inside, I quickly realized the inside was exactly that. A giant chalet. Gorgeous exposed beams ran closely across the ceiling with a transparent roof. Looking up at the high vaulted ceiling, I could see the stars in the dark vast sky. It was beautiful. Taking in the rest of the place wide eyed, I quickly discovered the giant stone fireplace sitting at the end of the building and beautiful rustic chandeliers hanging from the exposed wood. I suddenly felt like I’d stepped into a movie set. All I needed now was snow for a blizzard that would snow us in, but it was summer, and I doubted that would happen. But I could dream.

  Coming up to the podium to the right gracefully, a woman with red-hair wearing a form fitting black tailored suit came up to us. I realized she must be the hostess. A beautiful hostess.

  Looking at the three men with me, she smiled and asked.

  “Name?”

  Dean stepped forward, with a charming smile, which caused the hostess to blush, leaned against the wall and adjusted his invisible cuffs.

  “It’s Timbers, Dean Timbers” Rolling my eyes at his corny joke, I dropped my amusement quickly when I saw her hand.

  Touching his arm, she giggled. Giggled. What grown woman giggled? “If you’ll just follow me.”

  As we followed the hostess to our table, and she continued her flirtation with Dean, my little devil perked up. Dropping all sorts of delicious ideas of what to do to a certain hostess. But that was why we were here. To talk about this sort of thing. So maybe I wouldn’t have to watch women flirt with them and get myself in trouble when they did. Because surprising myself I found that I was a very jealous person. At least with these three.

  Coming upon a rustic round table, the hostess decided to take a time out with trying out flirtation skills on Dean. Though I would admit, he never flirted back, if he had this would be a very different scenario. Showing us to our seats, I took the one off to the side slightly, making the boys sit together. I didn’t need them to be so close where I couldn’t think straight. Now was when I needed to keep my wits about me. Plus, having them all sitting close allowed me to be able to see each of them at the same time. And I needed all the advantages that I could get. Not wasting time we ordered our drinks, sending the flirtatious hostess on her way.

  Slowly, I sipped my lemonade, building up the courage to start what I figured would be an awkward conversation. How did one start a conversation about three men dating one woman? I didn’t know, all I could do was wing it.

  “So, this is a nice place, who picked it out?”

  Coward.

  Dean, who seemed to know of my cowardly ways, grinned, leaning forward. “That would be me princess, though I will admit to getting a little bit of help from these two here.”

  Returning his smile, I said, “Well you did a wonderful job. All of you.”

  The conversation quickly dwindled as we all waited for one of us to get up the nerve to start talking about the topic that we all came here to have. The coward that I was picked the safest topic I could think of.

  “So, how’s the garage, super busy?”

  Damon, putting his elbows on the table and leaning forward ,decided to take mercy on me and answered my question.

  “The summer is actually the easiest cause Kasper helps out. When school is out we have a third set of hands for a few months.”

  I cut my eyes over at Kasper, who looked in no hurry to talk but more like observing us and the conversation at hand. So I decided to pull him into the conversation. “Kasper do you do this every summer? I didn’t know you liked to work on cars just as much as the other boys.” With a smirk, he pushed the hair from his face, which only seemed to be vain as it slid slowly back down his face. “I’ve actually been helping in the garage since I was sixteen. I do like to work on cars, but books were always my favorite.” Running his fingers through his hair, made me wish that it was my fingers, he winked. “It was a tough call, books or cars, I figured they had the car thing down, so I’d do the book thing. I think it worked out pretty well.”

  I loved when they told me about their past. The tattoos, the garage, even the stupid exes. I wanted to know everything about them.

  Before they could continue with our conversation, the waitress returned with our drinks, and we ordered our meals. Not surprisingly, the guys all ordered steak, while I ordered the fettucine alfredo. The waitress, a cute brunette, quickly made her way around the table, taking our orders. While picking up the menus from behind Damon, she caught my eye. Raising her eyebrows, she pointed to each man in a subtle way as to not gain the guys’ attention. I knew what she was trying to ask, but I didn’t know how to answer her. How did you explain to someone it could possibly be all three with your eyes and shoulders? You didn’t. Or in my case, you turned red, trying to avoid eye contact. Healthy right? After taking our menus, and one more failed attempt at drawing me into conversation, she left after letting us know that the food would be out shortly.

  Glad that she and her infernal questions had left, I tried focusing on what I could ask next, but was thwarted by Damon. I knew he wouldn’t let me keep putting this off. Even if he did let me get away with it for a while. Out of all three, Damon was the least patience, so it was a testament that he lasted this long. “Darling I know you’re putting off this conversation, and I know these morons know too. They’re just too polite to say something and were letting you take your time. And I was too, but now I think we need to have that conversation, don’t you?”

  I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. Because once we had this conversation, we could never go back. And what if they did, what if they regretted it? With the threat of what was looming I bit back more harshly than what I intended. “I was working up to it, I didn’t think I had to dive on in, Damon.”

  Kasper who had been watching me closely the entire night nudged Damon with h
is elbow. “Give her some time, Damon, you know this is not the easiest conversation to have. That is unless you want to start with your feelings?”

  Not waiting to see what Damon said, Dean jumped in. “I don’t know why It’s hard for you two,” Turning his head to eye me and Damon, with disappointment on his face. I hated seeing that on his face, because I knew that he was right. I was being a coward. And I hated seeing him so serious; I wanted his smile back.

  Not aware of how much his words affected me, Dean reached across the table for my hand. “I like you, I think I made it perfectly clear when we talked. But I’ll say it in front of these guys, so nothing is misunderstood, I like you, I wanna date you, I wanna call you, and I want to definitely see a lot more of you.” He winked. There’s my guy. “Both in and out of those clothes. Is that clear enough for everybody?”

  I squeezed his hand and took in Damon and Kasper, seeing no jealousy or hostility. Maybe this could work. Maybe I could get my hopes up. Seeing Dean looking around, I noticed that he was probably taking in his brother and Kasper as well. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, Dean squeezed my hand one last time, and then eased back into his chair, resuming his natural carefree persona.

  Kasper, who had sat quietly during Dean’s admission, leaned forward, clearing his throat, “Well, I guess I’ll go next. I like you too. I don’t know what this is exactly, but I’ve dated. Been married even and none of it has felt like this.” He waved his hand around as if to include of us all in his speech. He continued. “This is freeing, like I was allowed to be me when I was with you. Where usually I feel the need to fill the silence to make people comfortable. That is, I use to feel like that. The only other place I’ve been able to do that is with these two noobs.” He turned slightly in his chair to consider the two brothers. “Is this okay with you two noobs?”

  Once again, I was surprised tonight as the other two “noobs” nodded their heads. Showing nothing but calmness and acceptance across their faces. The more this went along, the more I felt like this could work. I was slowly getting my hopes up, and I was too much of a weakling to tell myself not to. Kasper, taking in their calm demeanor, relaxed and sat back. Two out of the three. All that was left was mister roller-coaster-many-layers Damon. The one I was most worried about. Damon sat watching me in the silence while everybody waited to see what he would do. Clearing his throat, he started to speak. “Here it is!” Looking over my shoulder, I saw the waitress had brought the food out. Smelling heavenly, I took in my chicken fettuccine alfredo, and the guys’ steak.