Chapter 9
noah
Cynda was the stay-at-home mom of our polycule. She was the main reason kitchen table polyamory worked so well in our house—because that kitchen table was always full of delicious food. If Cynda wasn’t such a good cook, I wasn’t sure if I could stand to hang out with Darth every night. He was an acquired taste, to stick with the food metaphor.
She had a crockpot going with a roast of some sort, and the savory aroma of meat, onions, potatoes and carrots wafted into my nose as soon as I opened the door. I found her sitting in the living room with her feet propped up on the ottoman, engrossed in something on her e-reader. Interrupting her while she read something that appeared to be quite titillating seemed like a dick move, but I needed to iron out the arrangements before Aris showed up with his girlfriend.
I guess that’s the right title for her?
Cynda’s dark eyes popped up from her e-reader as I made my way into the room and collapsed on the sofa. A huge gust of air blew out of my lips as I sank into the comfortable worn cushions and kicked off my shoes.
“You look like you had an exhausting day.” She set her e-reader on the table next to the chair.
“No, don’t stop reading on my account.” I offered her an apologetic smile. “You looked as though you were enjoying that.”
“Well, you look like you could use a friend,” she rather astutely assessed.
I shrugged. “Well, who couldn’t use a friend?”
“What’s going on?” She sat up straight and leveled her gaze on me, letting off a distinct “and don’t fuck around and try to hide it this time” vibe.
Cynda was loving, caring, and empathetic. But she also valued her time, and she didn’t tolerate having it wasted.
“Aris had a bit of an accident today,” I shared.
Her brows flew up into her hairline. “What? Is he okay?”
“He’s at the hospital being checked out right now, but I think he’s fine. The problem is that his girlfriend might not be okay.”
“Girlfriend?” Leave it to her to focus on that part.
“Aris is seeing someone,” I clarified. “And she was involved in the accident too.”
“Well, fuck. What happened?”
“Aris ran into her, wrecked his bike, and he and the bike ended up on top of her leg.”
“Shit. That sounds horrible!” She shook her head and reached for her ever-present coffee mug. This one said Polyamory—join the party and had a Dungeons and Dragons-esque logo that also looked a bit like an infinity symbol. Well, it was certainly an appropriate mug for what I was about to ask her.
I pushed the topic forward in the most logical manner: “She’s getting x-rays at the hospital now. But we have a problem…”
Her brow quirked. “What kind of problem?”
“She lives in a third-floor apartment.”
Cynda immediately stood up and set her mug back on the hand-painted coaster she’d picked up last fall in one of the little shops in Nashville, Indiana. “Say no more.” She held up a hand and then started to head out of the living room.
I stood up too, following her down the hall. “Wait, what are you doing?”
“Clearing out the office,” she said. “There’s only a futon in there, but she’s welcome to it. Or we can move Darth’s bed in there for a while, and he can sleep with us. We have a king-sized bed in the master.”
“Oh, I couldn’t ask you or Darth to do that!” I folded my arms over my chest. “Really, I just?—”
She stopped moving and turned to face me, a faint smile teasing the corners of her lips. “You were going to ask if she could stay here, right?”
“Well, there are only two steps to get up on the porch,” I rationalized. “And we could keep an eye on her if she’s here. Aris feels responsible for her since he caused the accident.”
“Will she be here in time for dinner? Molly, Lachlan and Poe are joining us, so I made plenty of extra. That’s a big-ass roast in there.” She flashed a proud smile. “We’ll work out the sleeping arrangements later, if you’d like, after I’d had a chance to talk to Darth and Jason.”
“Are you sure? I?—”
She grinned. “Noah, how many times do I have to tell you? You don’t have to take care of everyone and everything. I can shoulder some of that burden.” She cleared her throat. “Now, does that help alleviate some of your stress?” She looked me up and down as if she knew the situation with Danielle wasn’t the only matter I was dealing with.
I mustered up a smile. “Yes, that does alleviate some of it.”
She stepped over to me and rose up on her tiptoes to cup my cheek. “How long have we known each other, Doc?”
“I don’t know, a couple of years?” We met at the gym, where we both took a yoga class.
“I know you well enough to know when something is bothering you, Noah. Now I mentioned it the other day, but my proverbial door is always open. My shoulders are always available to you. Ever hear that song, ‘we get by with a little help from our friends?’”
I nodded slowly.
“Right, well, it’s true. We have no chance of survival on our own, Noah. I know you think you can do everything yourself—and you have accomplished a great deal in your young life, to be sure. But we can lean on each other. I know you’d do the same for me if I needed you.”
“Well, if you ever have an ear-nose-throat emergency, I’m your guy,” I joked.
“I know your family is…gone,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper on the last word. “But we’re your family now. And family takes care of each other. Understand?”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“Now, help me get this place cleaned up. When will you know about this mystery woman’s leg?”
As if on cue, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my jeans pocket and took a gander at the incoming text, a frown twisting my lips downward as I absorbed Aris’s message. “Well, fuck…looks like it’s broken…”
It hurts. Fuck, it hurts.
When the doctor came in and told me it was fractured, I wanted to cry. Okay, so I actually did cry. Raine and Aris were on either side of me, each squeezing one of my hands in theirs.
“How is this happening?” I whimpered.
“The good news is it’s a simple fracture,” Aris pointed out, oh so helpfully. “So you don’t need surgery. Just a cast and rest, and you’ll be good as new in a few weeks.”
“But the play…”
I would have to talk to my advisor. I wasn’t sure I could even graduate without performing a role in the spring musical. My whole MFA thesis was based on that performance. I was to write it on how I prepared for the role, how I performed the role, and a self-reflection on how I would improve my craft for future roles.
But how could I do that without having an actual role?
“You’ll have to talk to your advisor,” Raine tried to soothe me, only I wasn’t soothed at all because my brain had already traveled down that path, and there weren’t any clear solutions.
As much as my leg hurt, my heart hurt even worse.
Aris looked down at his phone after the doctor left my discharge paperwork on the bed next to me. “Noah says he spoke to Cynda, and you’re staying at our place until you can get up the stairs again.”
Raine patted my hand. “Give me a list of what you need, and I’ll bring it by later. I’m so sorry this happened, sweetie. It sucks beyond belief. But we’ll be here for you; we’ll help you get through it.”
Aris grinned. “I’m not going anywhere!” he promised.
Was he being so helpful and nice because he felt obligated to after plowing into me earlier, or did he really like me? It was hard to be mad at him, especially with his beautiful wavy hair flowing over his shoulders, the slight dimples in his scruff, and those glittering hazel eyes.
Damn it, he was just too cute for his own good.
For my own good was more like it.
I sucked in a breath and nodded, resigning myself to my fate. I mean, it was a little bit of a bonus to get so much time with him, but I didn’t want to impose on his relationship with Noah. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but I supposed we’d be finding out soon…
* * *
I was glad my pain meds had kicked in by the time we made it to Aris’s house. My leg was no longer throbbing, which was a plus, but the pills had the bonus effect of taking the edge off my nerves. And it was a good thing because there were half a dozen cars parked in the driveway and on the street by the large ranch home.
“I know it looks like we’re having a party,” Aris remarked as he came around to help me out of my car. Raine had driven him over to get it from his work parking lot since I never actually made it back myself, and now I couldn’t drive anyway.
“Our polycule is just five people,” he explained, “—me, Noah, Jason, Cynda and Darth, but we have company for dinner tonight. It’s Jason’s sister, Poe; her girlfriend, Molly; and Molly’s boyfriend, Lachlan. Lachlan is also Darth’s former roommate, and Poe and Molly used to live here, in the room Noah and I now live in. Oh, we have a cat too now! Sushi is her name.”
I waved my hand in the air. “Thanks to the meds, I only absorbed maybe a quarter of that.” I giggled—feeling almost drunk. Sober Dani would be freaking out at the prospect of interacting with that many people, but Medicated Dani was kinda like, “Bring it on.”
He grinned. “No worries. I’ll go slow when I make the introductions, and if you forget anyone, well, you have a damn good excuse.”
“Fuck yeah I do.” I hobbled to where he held out my crutches for me.
“There’s only two steps, and I can carry you up them if you want,” he offered. He walked slowly beside me as I tried to maneuver on crutches, a skill I apparently didn’t excel at.
I looked him up and down. “I know you go to the gym and all, but you have no business lifting me. You’ll throw your back out. And then we’ll both be on the injured list.”
“I’m even stronger than I look,” he insisted, flexing. He was still wearing his scrubs, and his biceps strained against the cuffs of the blue shirt.
I rolled my eyes. “I can probably do two stairs with some help. But definitely not the two flights of stairs I’d have to do at my apartment. They’re steep too.” I shuddered at the thought.
“Well, no, of course not. That’s why you’re here.” He grinned, flashing those damn dimples once more. “It’s the least I could do after what happened.”
“Again, it was an accident.” A fortifying breath inflated my lungs before I grasped the handrail and hopped on my good leg onto the first step, my cast feeling like a dead weight on my other leg. Then I did the second step, utterly relieved there were only two.
“I’ll get the door.” Aris swung it open and waited for me to hobble into the house. It smelled like slow-roasted beef and hot yeast rolls, and I was pretty sure I’d just crossed the Pearly Gates. Laughter bubbled up from the room to my left, and a sea of faces stared back at me. The only one I recognized was Noah’s.
Wow, so this is a little overwhelming, even on drugs.
On the sofa were a Black woman and two white men. She wore her hair in tiny corkscrews on top of her head and dangling earrings with multi-colored glass beads. She had an ample build and looked to be in her forties. One of the men looked tall and lanky, even sitting down, with longish mousy-brown hair, glasses and pale skin that appeared to have never seen the sun. The other had sandy-colored hair, a full beard with a reddish tint, and a shorter, broader build.
“That’s Cynda, Darth and Jason,” Aris introduced. “Guys, this is Danielle.” They all waved at me. “On the loveseat is Jason’s sister, Poe, and her girlfriend, Molly. The big guy there in the recliner is Lachlan.” Jason’s sister had long honey-colored hair and a pixie face, while Molly was petite but curvy with pink hair and black combat boots. Lachlan lived up to his name with his burly build, thick auburn hair and a matching beard. A striped cat with a white chest and paws was perched on his lap. I’d already forgotten the cat’s name.
“And you know Noah already,” Aris said just as a knock sounded at the door.
I was nearest to it, so I turned toward it in time to see my roommate through the small glass window. “Oh, it’s Raine. May I let her in?”
“Of course,” Aris encouraged me.
“Now we have to do intros again,” Darth groaned.
“I’ll take care of that,” Cynda said, standing. She welcomed Raine into her home with a smile and went around the room once more. Finally, she threaded her fingers together and addressed everyone, “Follow me into the dining room please. Dinner is served.”
As we gathered around the table, I looked around at each face. This was Aris’s family, essentially. These people were all part of his support system. I had Raine, of course. But I was the only child of two older parents who had me in their early forties. They put me on stage at age five or six. I couldn’t remember a time that I wasn’t in some show. They basically let the community theater people raise me on nights and weekends, but I spent my weekdays tiptoeing through a silent house where nothing could be touched and voices were never raised—unless I was belting out a showtune.
I couldn’t imagine living in a house with this many other people my age.
It seemed wonderful and scary and foreign and wild all at once.
This was going to be quite the adventure.