29. It’s a Threesome
29
IT’S A THREESOME
CALEB
M y muscles strained as I finished doing the kettlebell swings with the one-twenty pounds kettlebell. I exhaled through my mouth, sweat dripping from my face to the padded floor.
“Spot me.”
I went over to the bench-press as my dad rolled his shoulders and started his last set of five. I was glad he had inspired me to do strength training at an early age, and seeing him age, I knew my ancestors had good genes. I patted his shoulder when he sat up, drinking water from his bottle.
“You seem relaxed,” Cillian commented when I started doing my cool-down exercises with a deep runner’s lunge, stretching my tightened hams and hips.
I did a poor job hiding my wince when I felt the soreness in my right knee. I had torn my ACL just before the last match in my senior year, and even after the surgery, I still felt the sudden tightness sometimes. Especially after waking up.
“Still having a problem, kiddo?” Dad asked, sitting beside me on the mat and doing his stretches.
Emma, his wife and my ex, was on a business trip in Los Angeles for a couple of days and he had come over to workout with me on a weekday. I didn’t have a lot of work to do, and after a few days of ‘dating’ Kyle and Anna, I felt confident in taking things further with them.
“Sometimes it feels weird, that’s all.” I didn’t want him to worry about my knee of all things, but his stern gaze and the scar on the corner of his lips made me continue, “I’ve a great Pilates instructor, so I will ask her to check it.”
“ Good . Since when you started doing Pilates?”
It was hard not to hold back my smile, and since my dad was an ex-veteran and ex-CIA, he noticed it and paused doing his stretches and raised his brow at me.
Damn. Busted .
“I am dating her.”
“That’s good to hear, son.”
“And a guy who’s tall and cute and works in finance.”
Cillian paused, tilting his head at me. His hair was still black, with silver peppered on the sides. Now that I thought about it, Anna was closer to his age than mine, and Emma was the same age as mine. Huh .
“You’re dating a man and a woman?” Dad asked, his eyes narrowing. “Are you stringing them along and hoping?—”
“Dad,” I interrupted him, knowing he was getting the wrong idea. “We’re all dating each other. We all like each other.”
“I’m too old for this.” He closed his eyes and opened them, shaking his head at me as he stood up. “Explain it to me in simple words, Caleb.”
I stood up, wiping sweat from my face, and said, “I like Anna. Anna likes Kyle, her widow neighbor. Kyle likes both of us. Anna was my celebrity crush, and me and Kyle had a bit of history, and it seems like Anna and Kyle had a crush on each other, so we all just… you know .”
“It’s a threesome,” my dad deadpanned.
My cheeks felt warm as I avoided his gaze, sipping water from my bottle, and nodded. “Yep.”
“And how did this threesome develop? How did you guys meet? In college?”
I choked on water and coughed. Wiping my mouth, I said, “We met at Aaron’s wedding.”
“Aaron? The kid you kissed when you were dating Emma?” His stern voice was back. He was still disappointed that I had done that, and rightfully so. I regret nothing in my life except that kiss and the practice match before finals, where my knee popped.
“Yeah, that Aaron.” I decided to tell him the truth. “We were dating in college for a while, then he met his now-husband and started dating him. I didn’t know at that time but… Anna turned out to be his mom.”
Dad was putting back the weights when he stopped and turned around to fix me with a stare. His words were slow when he asked, “His mother, Caleb, really?”
I pouted. “I didn’t know at the time!”
“If you had known she was Aaron’s mom, would you have flirted with her?”
“Yes.” I thought about it and said, “She’s hot.”
Dad sighed, putting away the weights, so I continued talking to his broad back. “And she’s my teenage crush. I couldn’t just let the opportunity go. Anyway, then I met Kyle, who turned out to be her neighbor, so we all… talked . And we are dating.”
“Talked. Is that what Gen Z is calling it these days?” Dad asked, his deep voice sounding funny as he continued saying all the Gen Z slang, “Netflix and chill, IMAX and climax, ramyeon meokgo galrae?”
“Dad. Stop.” I covered my face and groaned hearing my dad say hook-up lines. “ Please .”
He huffed and made his way upstairs to the kitchen as I followed him. He opened a cabinet where I put my protein powder and oats and started making two smoothies, while I pulled out six eggs to make scrambled eggs for us.
“I’d like to meet them if you’re that far in the dating stage,” he said after a while, handing me a glass of smoothie.
I took it and served the eggs on two plates. He added a handful of cherry tomatoes to both the plates and sat down at the island. Would Anna and Kyle mind meeting my dad? Probably not. I had already met Jem, Kyle’s sweet grandma, whenever she came over to ‘babysit’ Alice but wanted to spend time with her, and she once even cooked delicious lasagna for us.
“I’ll ask them about it.” I swallowed food before adding, “Anna has a six-year-old daughter, Alice. She’s very sweet.”
“Strange,” Dad said, finishing up his food before leaning back on the stool. “Never thought you liked kids.”
I shrugged. “Alice wants me to be her mom’s hot boyfriend, so I like her.”
“What about Alice’s father?”
If I had known I was going to get interrogated like his previous clients, I’d have prepared more before telling him about my relationship.
“She divorced him and he’s out of the picture. Alice spends time with him once or twice a month, but she likes me and Kyle more.” I cleaned the dishes and continued, “Although Aaron’s dad was present at the reception, and he’s someone I’d look out for further trouble. He didn’t respect Anna.”
Cillian hummed and said, “Send me his full name. I can run a background check on him.”
I smirked. “Already one step ahead of you, Dad.”
He nodded. “Good. Send the file to me, I’ll ask Elena?—”
“Also, ahead of you.” I wiped my hands and leaned back on the counter. “I sent it to her IT, but I doubt they found anything more than I did.”
He seemed pleased but said, “Stay on the legal side of your work, kid. I don’t want you to go to white collar prison.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes internally because if I did it in front of him, he’d ask for a taekwondo match, and even though he was twenty years older than me, I’d lose. He had broader shoulders, and his scar and tattoos made him look mean, like a predator, when he was serious about the match.
“Yes, Dad, I’ll be careful.”
“I’m sure you already ran a background on Anna and Kyle, but let your heart guide you about your feelings. Not your head.”
I hid my surprise and blinked at Dad, his obsidian eyes soft before he went upstairs to take a shower in his room. I stayed there thinking about the folder saved on my computer and the secrets they had that they hadn’t shared with me, but I still knew since I was a nosy motherfucker, and… I should follow my dad’s advice.
Let my heart guide my feelings.
And right now, my heart wanted to eat out Anna when Kyle filled her mouth.