by Carmen Faye
She leaned into them and kissed them both, and then got out of bed and headed for the shower. Up until then, she had felt the need to share Neil equally. If Sydney got a kiss, she wanted one too, and if Sydney got laid, well, she wanted to be laid as well. But this morning, all that changed. Last night was wondrous. Far more satisfying than she believed sex could be. She had no doubts in her heart that if she asked, one of her lovers would satisfy her needs. Right now, though, she was still glowing from last night.
After her shower she found them snuggled in bed together and she took another kiss from both before she went to her closet to get dressed. Shayla browsed through her garments, noting several she would probably never wear again because they were too slutty for a woman with a man in her life. She finally picked out a nice pant suit that had power written all over it with a lot of sexy in there as well. Then she picked out some lingerie and dressed, noting in the mirror that Neil’s eyes were all over her. She looked over her shoulder and gave him a smile.
“Morning, lover,” she offered. “It’s only about eleven. You can sleep a few more hours if you like. I’ll wake you at one.”
He climbed out of bed to the murmuring protests of Sydney and came over to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and kissing her neck. She purred and leaned back into him.
“You know Neil,” she told him, “This is the first time in my life that I’ve had a man in my bedroom I didn’t want to see leave.”
He fondled her breasts and rubbed his hands down her sides and across her abs. It felt so good, so perfect to be in the bedroom with him in the morning.
“This is the first time felt this way myself.”
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“Not really sure. Blessed comes to mind however,” he offered. “I’ve never been good with emotional vocabulary.”
“I’m going to clear out a spot in the closet for you, so bring over some clothes you can change into in the mornings,” she told him.
“Isn’t that moving kind of fast?” he asked.
“Baby, I already have ten-year plans going on in my head for the three of us. I’m in. Very, very in,” she told him, and turned around to give him a full lover’s kiss.
When Neil went into the shower, Sydney followed him, throwing a wink over her shoulder at Shayla as she passed. Shayla returned a smile, more for the humor of Sydney’s sashay than for the intention behind the wink. After a few moments Shayla poked her head in the bathroom and asked if either of them wanted breakfast. Getting a negative response and not being a breakfast person herself, she left them and went into her office. Friday was their largest delivery day, and she had kilos which needed to be parted out for her clients.
After lunch, Sydney decided to do some shopping, and said she would bring home sushi for dinner. Neil seemed content to continue working on his music in the living room. Shayla kissed Sydney goodbye and went back to her office to check over possible classes and order books. Nearly two hours later she came out with a mirror lined with cocaine and set it down in front of Neil, and asked if he wanted a beer.
“Sure,” he answered, and she noticed that he shut down his laptop as she was walking away.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your work Neil. I’m sorry,” she said from the kitchen.
“I was waiting for you to come out.”
She came back to him and handed over an opened bottle of beer. “Something on your mind? Sex, maybe? I hope?”
He smiled, and offered her his hand, which she took and allowed him to guide her down to sit beside him. “Advice.”
“Advice from me? I hope I can help, but why me?”
Neil took a pull from his bottle, and leaned back into the couch. “You run things. You’re the one who makes the calls, and makes the hard decisions. Sydney is no slouch, she’s your equal on many levels, but she defers to you, and follows your lead. She’s known you for many years—I feel that’s a strong recommendation. Besides, I like the decisions you make.”
“Hmm,” she mused, “I’ll bet you know more about us than we know about you.”
“Probably true, but not enough about the important things,” he told her.
“Important things?”
“Yeah, like what your favorite color is, your family, and your opinions on so many issues we’ll need years to go through them all together,” he said.
She bit her lip and looked at the dark TV screen. “Blue. I know it’s not very original, but I like blue. We’ll talk about my family some other day. Those memories could curdle sunshine.” She looked back to him. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
He frowned with concern but held back whatever question was on his mind. His expression changed to one of thoughtfulness. “I’ve been working with Blu Rayne since January. We hooked up at that New Year’s party you two put together for the Knights. Since then I’ve been messing with their mixes and adding in some of my own stuff, and of course the guitar work you’ve already heard.”
“Amazing guitar work I’ve already heard,” she corrected.
His eyes twinkled but his expression didn’t change. “After the gig at Beats and Drums, Joey asked me if I had come to a decision, and told him I haven’t. But they deserve an answer from me soon. They’ve been waiting for six weeks.”
“Answer to what?” Shayla asked.
“Commitment,” he told her.
“Ah,” she said with a nod.
“They want to know how much they can depend on me. We started with two songs, and that changed to the single album. The response has been better than expected. They want to know what to expect from me. We’ve already started work on the next CD.”
Shayla became more attentive. “Alright, so what is the question?”
“Joey and the guys want to know if I’m going to stick around after this. Am I going to commit to the band? Or am I moving on?”
“And since you take commitment seriously,” she suggested. “This has been bothering you for six weeks.”
“Well,” he started, and then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Shayla took contemplative sip from her beer. “What’s stopping you?” she asked after a few moments.
“Mostly ignorance. They’ve told me their expectations, but I know I’m unaware of what those expectations truly require, and I don’t know enough to ask the right questions. I have no experience with this.”
“Is it financial concerns, or time concerns?” she asked.
“Time. Money is the worst reason not to pursue a dream,” he told her.
She leaned her shoulder into the back of the couch and curled her legs up against her. “Is that what this is? A dream?”
After taking a drink and mulling her question over, he admitted, “Yes. I have to say it is. Until now I hadn’t thought about it that way, but that’s the way of it.”
She put her hand gently on his shoulder. “Then you go for it Neil. None of the rest is important. You have the desire, and right now, the opportunity. You obviously take commitment seriously, but you do your best. The outcome isn’t half as important as the journey.”
Neil scratched some of the saturated label from his bottle. “Trouble with commitments and time is that they are limiters.”
“You mean that if you commit to one thing, you are giving up other things you might want to do,” she said.
Neil nodded.
“Well,” she said, “If you are concerned about us, don’t be.”
He glanced up at her. “Blu Rayne could take a great deal of my time with studio work and performances.”
“Not doing it would take you away from us even more. Have you thought about that?” she asked.
“How’s that?”
After setting her bottle on the coffee table she scooted a little closer to him. “I don’t know much about relationships Neil. I also don’t know much about being an artist of any sort. But I do know something about dreams. Sydney and I both have them. We’re committed to ours. They’re a huge part of us
. This dream is a large part of you. Wednesday night, you were in heaven. I could see the joy in your eyes when you were up on stage. So if you take that away from yourself, you are taking a large part of you away from us. Maybe you would be physically around more often, but I would miss seeing that joy in your eyes. I can’t give that joy to you. Sydney can’t either. It’s homegrown—part of your chemistry. It is part of you, just like your eyes or your lips. It’s a vibration that Sydney and I can feel—we just didn’t know its source until Wednesday night. Your music. I don’t want to lose that because of this choice, and certainly not because of us. So, if you really want my input—I want you. All of you. So my choice would be to commit right along with you.”
“Yeah?” he asked, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close.
“Yes,” she told him and kissed his lips.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Neil pulled his trike up to the curb in front of his parents’ house on Saturday morning, attempting to firmly place Shayla and Sydney out of his mind. As soon as his two blond haired, blue-eyed sisters came running out of the house to greet him, they popped right back in again.
“Neil!” Jill and Sandy screamed as they ran across the grass and down to the curb.
Neil got off the trike and swooped them both up in his arms, kissing one and then the other before setting them back down, where they giggled and bounced.
“That’s a big bike, Neil!” Sandy said. “Can we go for a ride?”
“I hope so,” he said. “I need to talk to mom first, though.”
Amanda, his step-mom, came out on the small porch and gave him a smile. “Come on in, I still got some coffee cake left,” she offered.
“That sounds really good,” he agreed, offering her a smile in return. His sisters took his hands and pulled him toward the door.
They talked and visited for close to an hour before he brought up the trike and the custom seat he had made for the girls. Amanda came out and looked it over, then decided that it looked safe enough.
“You don’t want to try it out yourself?” Neil asked.
“No, I’m good. And it looks safe to me. You three have some fun. Be back for lunch though. About one?”
“Alright,” he agreed, and then to the girls he said, “Go get your helmets and jackets.”
They screamed and ran into the house, then came out running with leather jackets and airbrushed helmets his dad bought for them. Once they were on board and settled in, he started up the engine and they squealed again.
They spent the morning running up to the north coast of Miami and then back, spending most of the time on the freeway. Through his mirrors he could see they were smiling all the way, and waving to people in cars and on the sidewalks. Most of those people waved back or honked their horns for them.
They were back by twelve-thirty and Neil helped with lunch, then cleaned the dishes after. He talked to them about soccer practice and asked when their games were going to be, putting the dates and times into his cell phone. They both had a game next Sunday—the first of their season.
“I’ll probably make that. It will be fun to see you two play.”
“Jill is really good,” Sandy said solemnly. “She might get a scholarship.”
“Really?” Neil asked, looking to Jill and then to their mom.
Amanda nodded. “There was a scout at one of their practices that came there to see her. He talked with me afterward and asked if we planned to keep her involved in soccer. Jill says she wants to, and he told us he would be watching her through this season.”
Neil smiled at Jill and said, “That’s amazing! That would be so cool.”
Jill looked a little melancholy. “Dad would have loved it.”
“He still will, Jill,” Neil told her seriously. “Don’t doubt that for a minute.”
At six, after dinner, and while doing the dishes with the girls, his phone rang.
“Hey Shay, what’s up?”
“We picked out a movie and got some popcorn. Think you’ll be interested in coming over? Late will be fine,” Shayla asked.
“How about eight?” he offered.
“Eight would he fantastic for us, but don’t rush your visit with your sisters,” Shayla told him.
“It won’t be. I’ll see you then.”
“Bring some clothes,” Sydney yelled in the background.
“Will do,” he laughed.
After he broke the connection Jill and Sandy were both looking at him.
“Girlfriend?” Sandy asked first.
“Ah, yeah. Girlfriend.”
“Serious?” Jill asked.
“I think so, yeah,” he answered.
“When do we get to meet her?” Sandy asked.
“Ah, hmm,” he murmured. “Maybe a couple of weeks. See how things go first.”
“You could bring her to our game,” Jill proposed.
“Maybe,” he offered, trying to figure out which girlfriend he would bring, or how to explain that both of them were his girlfriends.
“What’s wrong?” Jill asked. “Is she black or something? There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“No. And you’re right, there would be nothing wrong with that. She’s actually blond, and a little young for me, but we get along good. She took some time off from college but she’s going back this fall to finish up. She’s a business major.”
“How young?” Sandy pounced.
“She’s twenty-four,” Neil told her.
“Oh,” Sandy said disappointedly. “That’s not very young. That’s actually kind of old, isn’t it?”
Neil laughed and gave her a tickle. “Anything over eighteen is old to you, pixie.”
After hugs and goodbye kisses he started walking to his bike when Amanda caught up with him.
“Neil?”
“Mom? What’s up?” he asked, seeing that the girls were inside.
“I was listening to you talk about your girlfriend. You sounded confused. You want to talk about it?” she asked.
He looked at his feet and then around the neighborhood, “Well, I am confused, and I do want to talk about it. I would say something silly, like ‘I don’t think you’ll understand,’ when I don’t really understand myself. But it’s getting serious fast, and already there are deep feelings and connections.”
“Try me, Neil. We’ve always been able to talk, even when you felt like you couldn’t tell your father, you talked to me,” she pressed.
Neil nodded, recalling many times that had happened. So he told her about Shayla and Sydney and how they were really good friends. How they loved each other deeply, and even had a sexual relationship between them, and how they both wanted him.
When he was done, he peeked up at Amanda. “So, what do you think?”
Amanda looked him in the eyes. “I don’t think you ever really got this, you simply accepted it, but your father was forty-five when he married me. I was twenty. I wasn’t even old enough to drink at our wedding. My dad was furious about this man, who was close to his age, seducing his daughter. He refused to give me away. My uncle gave me away and my dad didn’t talk to him for six years after that. But I loved your father. I loved him with my whole body and heart, and he loved me the same way. It worked too. We had wonderful years together.
“Anyway,” she continued. “Yes, what you’ve got going is unusual, and some will say it’s immoral. But don’t be ashamed about being in love. Alright? They’re both welcome here if you want to bring them over.”
“You sure? I mean, with the girls—”
“You let me worry about the girls. I hope I’ve raised them well enough that they’ll have an open mind to their big brother’s love.”
“Thanks mom,” Neil said, and kissed her cheek. “Thanks a lot.”
CHAPTER NINE
Sydney opened the door and Neil came in with a large duffel bag full of clothing and a smile on his face. He also had a laptop case with him.
“Think you’re going to have time to mix some jams, do you?�
�� she teased.
“No,” he told her after he kissed her. “I brought this one over to keep here. So, when you two have to run out to do your thing, I’ll have it here to do my thing.”
“Oh,” she said with a surprised look. “That’s a good idea. So, you’re planning on hanging around a bit more? Please?”
