The Summer House (6 page)

I called Jan on my drive home, and she was sleeping off another night of drinking and the debauchery of Sin City.  I told her I was heading to my parents’ house a day early, and to stash a key just in case things didn’t go so well and she was stuck at work.  She readily agreed, and I called the house to let them know they’d be seeing me in a couple of hours.

“Hello?” my mom answered.

“Hi, Mom, how are you feeling?” I asked, trying to keep things on neutral territory.

“Better than usual, Caroline, are you coming home?” she asked, and I could hear the hopeful tone she was using.

“Yes, Mom, is that OK with you?”

“Yes, dear, I want to talk to you; I want to apologize, but not here, not on the phone.”

“OK, Mom, I’m looking forward to it,” I told her and we said our goodbyes.

My heart was soaring; after twenty-five years of tension and misery, my mother was finally trying to communicate with me, not preach to me.  I hoped this worked out; I really, really did, especially if what Dad had told me was true.  I didn’t know if I could live with myself otherwise.

Pulling into my parent’s driveway, I stretched a moment, giving my cramped muscles a chance to unwind.  The door opened and both of my parents were standing there; my father had his arms around Mom, and she held her arms out for a hug.  I ran up, and suddenly everything was all right in the world.  A mother’s hug when it’s truly meant is always warm and welcoming.  That’s how it felt that day.

Later on that evening, as we were eating dinner, we finally broached the subject of our argument the previous week.  Mother agreed that she had been out of line, and I apologized for being disrespectful and cussing her out.  I did point out I felt justified for standing up for myself and my beliefs.  Before my mom could object to that, Dad said the matter was put to rest.  I just nodded and we finished dinner.

As my mom was heading to bed my cell phone buzzed, and I checked it to see what it was.  A text message from Janice.

WTF?  Everything ok?

Yes, we all apologized, mom has chilled out

How is she?

Dad says her cancer’s back. Sucks

Ya, it does.  I got home and you weren’t here so I wanted to check in with you.

Things are good here, mom is going to bed, and I think dad is too.

Want to go out and blow off some steam?

Yes, that sounds great, and I haven’t heard from you in forever!

Great!  Should I invite some male type company?

You can invite your boyfriend.

I meant for you silly, Caroline, I have a hot friend I want you to meet.

How hot?

HAWT

??

Hugh Jackman hot!

What should I wear?

Anything, meet me here and we’ll figure out where to meet him.

K!

I laughed and headed to my bedroom, a smile on my face.

“Who was that, baby?” my dad asked, seeing me walk by with a grin.

“Janice; I’m going to go over to her house, she has a guy friend she wants me to meet, so it’ll be like a double date, but it’ll be a blind one for me,” I told him.

“Are you sure that’s how you want the world to see you?” he asked me and my heart dropped.

“You and Mom had an arranged marriage, Daddy, it worked out for you,” I pointed out and he grimaced for a moment.

“Yeah, but things with the church were different back then, and this has nothing to do with the church,” he said.

“Daddy… you promised this stuff was over,” I told him, starting to get pissed.

He held his hands up, palms out. “Sorry, sorry, old habits.  It makes me feel old to think of you dating; pretty soon we’ll be grandparents,” he said ,and I laughed out loud.

“Grandpa Smith, I kind of like the sound of that.  Someday when I find Mr. Right and settle down, we’ll worry about grandkids.  OK, Dad?”

“Just make sure that when you do settle down, you bring him here to meet us before you tie the knot,” he said simply.

“Daddy, you know I would,” I told him, confused slightly.

“A week ago, I never could have imagined that we’d drive you away, possibly forever.  I’ve been dealing with that reality shift, and I’m an old man; change is hard, and I’ve done a lot of soul searching.  We’re part of the reason you’ve been unhappy over the years.”

I threw my arms around him in a hug, trying not to cry, “You’re not old, Daddy.” And I left the rest of it unsaid.  If Mom went back to the way she had been, I would leave again, in all probability.  With nothing else to say, I let him go and ran to my room to look for something to wear.

Slutty or classy?  I pulled out my cell phone after looking through the clothing I had unpacked.

“Caroline, please don’t tell me you are backing out on tonight already?” she asked me with a smile in her voice.

“Oh hell, no!  I have a wardrobe question.” I was slightly miffed she’d even think I was going to flake out on her.

“Clothing?  Oh, shoot!”

“OK, so I know we’re meeting at your house, where are we going from there?”

“Does it matter?” she asked me.

“I want to know, slutty or classy?”

“OMG, what’s gotten into you?” she gushed.

“I want to know if I should wear some ‘Fuck Me’ clothing, or are we going somewhere classy, say a piano bar,” I told her with a grin.

“Wear the ‘Fuck Me’ clothes.  Oh my God, you have to fill me in on what happened.”

“I will.  Talk to you later, babe.”

“Bye, hon,” she told me and we both hung up.

I checked myself out in Janice’s mirror.  My blouse top was low-cut, showing off enough cleavage that even I was impressed, and the skirt I put on wasn’t a little short leather mini like I’d wanted, but it was tight and came down mid-thigh, showing off my trim waist and hips.  If I was a guy, I’d want to fuck me, just saying!

“Girl, I don’t know what’s gotten into you!” Janice told me after I’d filled her in on the past week.

“Well, it was two fat cocks, about this big,” I told her, holding my hands apart to what I figured was about a foot.  She was taking a sip of a hastily made martini and rewarded my response by blowing it out of her nose and mouth at the same time, coughing.

“Damn, Jan, you should really be careful with your drinking,” I told her, pounding her on the back.  Damn, the gin must have burned getting blown out of her nose.

“Fuck you, slut,” she told me, and I privately was thrilled with the label.

“Fuck you, you wish you had two hot brothers doing you at once,” I told her with a leer.

“For two hot brothers, I would fuck you,” she told me and laughed when I sputtered, out of quick retorts for once.

“But you don’t do girls?” I said, half question, half statement.

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” she said whispering into my ear, squeezing my tit as she walked out of the bathroom.  Good thing, because it caused a shiver that left me in goose bumps.  I’d been friends with her forever, but how much did I really know about her?  Part of me started tingling with that touch, and I fought the urge.

“What do you have to drink around here?” I asked her when I finally got the courage to leave the bathroom and confront her.  Her squeeze, her hand, had felt like the first domino being flicked over, in an intricate pattern that I couldn’t quite make out yet.

“Tequila, here, have a shot,” she said, pulling two shot glasses out of the cupboard. She pulled a bottle of Cuervo from the cupboard over the fridge and poured two shots.

“To a crazy night,” she said, handing me one of them.

“To getting laid,” I told her, clinking her shot glass and grinning at her shocked expression.

“Michael thinks that… Wow.  He thinks you are still… uh, not you,” she told me, trying not to crack up.

“You told him I’m a proper, Catholic school girl?”

“Something like that, but I know you’re not Catholic, and he isn’t going to be expecting all this!” she said, motioning to my outfit.

I downed the shot, trying not to sputter and cough.  It wasn’t that it was bad, but straight-up hard alcohol wasn’t something I’d ever gotten used to.  My eyes watered as I swallowed it.

“Damn,” I told her, wiping my arm across my mouth. “So how did you meet Michael, and why did you think to set him up with me?”

“I ran across him a long time ago back at the casino.  He was playing blackjack, and I thought he was cute, and had the potential to give me lots of dirty sex.”

“Uh-huh, go on?”

“So I slid him my phone number and before he left that night he stopped me and asked me my name.  I told him, and he said, ‘Janice, you seem like a nice girl, you don’t have to look for love this way’ or something like that.  I told him I wasn’t looking for love; I was looking for a fireman’s pole to slide down later on.”

“Noooo…”

“Um, yeah, I know, I’m bad… He told me he wasn’t all that huge into anonymous sex, and hoped I wasn’t offended, but he wouldn’t mind getting to know me better.”

“So you stayed in touch?”

“Yeah, and the other day he was talking to me about something that happened in his church, and I realized that he was looking for someone more like you.  Well, maybe the old you,” she told me with a grin.

I punched her in the arm, called her a slut, and poured two more shots.

“So, Jan, who’s coming out for you?” I asked her, and I was curious because it wasn’t something she’d mentioned yet.

She dug around in her purse and pulled out a string of Trojans and just grinned wickedly.

“What does that even mean?”

“Oh, it means I’ll find one or two to make me happy tonight,” she told me with a wicked grin.  I must admit, part of me absolutely loved the idea.  Getting the tinder lit, hot random sex, letting the fires of lust burn bright, even if only for a time.

“One or two?” I asked her, shocked.

“I’ve never been naked between two brothers like my slutty best friend. I think it’s time to try it, or try to beat her record.”

“Hey,” I said, punching her arm, and she started laughing when the door bell rang.

“You better get that,” she told me, making a shooing gesture.

I ran down her hallway, pausing in front of a mirror to make sure my makeup was still good, and then answered the door.  I could make out a masculine shape in the frosted glass and opened it, butterflies in my stomach ready to take off.

“Hi there.”

“Hi, you must be Caroline. I’m Michael,” he told me, handing me a small bouquet of flowers.

“Oh wow, thank you, yes, come in,” I told him. 

Half a glance, and a hand brush, was enough to let me know that as long as he wasn’t gay, I’d definitely let him be my next conquest.  Where the boys were muscular and looked slightly unkempt, Michael was tall and lean like a swimmer, his hair cut short,
and no beard stubble.  There was something about him I couldn’t put my finger on, though; part of it was his self-confidence, I was sure.

He followed me to the kitchen, where Janice had been lining up a third shot glass and pouring a new round.  I grabbed mine, and handed a shot glass to Michael.

“To new friends,” I toasted and Jan clinked her shot to mine as we downed them.  Michael just set his glass back down.

“Sorry, I don’t drink,” he told me with a sheepish smile.  I was already buzzing from the first two shots (empty stomach; I don’t recommend tequila on an empty stomach) so I was feeling bold.  I downed his as well.

I coughed at the taste a bit, but honestly, after the first one, my taste buds were going numb.

“That’s OK, I’m probably good for the night now,” I told him, and Jan just gave me a sly grin.

“So what’s the plans tonight?” I asked the two of them; nobody had really given me much of an answer.

“I was thinking dinner, and maybe a club or two,” Janice said and Michael added, “Or dinner, and maybe a walk through the city?  So we can get a chance to get to know each other?”

The evening wore on (and yes, that was meant to sound painful) and I realized that although Michael was physically attractive, he was too bookish and too into his church to be ready for anything else than a casual conversation once in a while. I had that all figured out by the time we were ordering dinner, and I won’t bore everyone with the details, but when I went to the bathroom, Jan excused herself and followed me in.

“So what do you think?” she asked me, trying to smile, but I could spot that it was a fake from a mile off.

“I’m thinking of ditching both of you and going to find someplace to dance,” I told her with a wry grin.

“How about we pretend you’re sick, and we have to leave early?” she asked me.

“I’ll take care of it,” I told her after finishing washing my hands.

I could see that Michael was nervous having being left, and was obviously waiting for something like what Jan suggested, and he had a look of relief as we sat down at the table.

“Michael,” I opened, “I grew up in a very religious family, I’m sure you know what that’s like, by the sound of your upbringing?”

“Yes, yes ,of course, our church life is almost as important as our home life,” he told me.  Wait a second, OUR church life, and OUR home life?

“Wait, who’s this ‘our’?” I asked him

“Well, my parents and my brothers and sisters,” he said shamefacedly.

“You still live at home with your parents?” I asked him, liking the way he squirmed.

“Yes, it’s a rather large house, maybe I can get you to come out and see it sometime next week,”

“Hm…” I said, chewing on my lip for a moment in thought. “Are you committed to that lifestyle?”

“The family, the church?  Yes,” he said.

“Well, then let me stop this right here.  You are kind, charming, and probably a very good man.  I am not only running from old family business, I am fleeing the very memory of how it almost killed my relationship with my parents.  When it comes to men, I want someone who can be a little bit dirty.  Do you think you can do that?” I asked him, surprised at my monologue.

For a moment, he just stared at me slack-jawed, then shook his head no. 

“Well, Michael, lets finish our dinner, and we can keep in touch,” I told him.

“You are nothing like I thought you were, so don’t worry about it, I think we got our wires crossed,” he said, looking at Janice—who looked as if she wanted to crawl under the booth and hide.

“So it won’t hurt your feelings if we finish dinner and go our separate ways?” I asked him sweetly, and he just nodded with a relieved smile.

“You know, Caroline, that’s the quickest breakup I’ve ever seen,” Janice said, and we all busted up laughing.