CHAPTER SIX
They waited outside on the front porch.
Ellen and Krystal ended up getting into a debate about a TV show they both liked and wandered off to one side, and Gabe found himself standing with Holly.
“How are you doing? I feel like you’ve been quiet today,” he asked.
“I guess I have been,” she replied. “But I am okay. I think I’m just...
enjoying life. I don’t know, it’s like there was static playing constantly for most of my life–maybe all of it–and then when we officially started dating and I moved in it just...
stopped. I used to deal with all these awful emotions and they’re just gone. I mean, for the most part.”
He smiled and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. “That is really, really good to hear.”
“It’s ridiculously good to live.” She paused, her smile diminishing a little.
“But I have to admit, now that I’m with you and Ellen and I’ve seen what a...
sane relationship looks like, I’m realizing just how monumentally fucked my life has been before now.
And I can’t tell if I’m actually really resilient, or if I’m super fucked up, but just don’t realize it. ”
“I mean…” Gabe considered it for a moment.
“That’s a tough one. On the one hand, yes, obviously I’d like to say that you’re resilient, and I would be inclined to say it, based off of our interactions.
But the line between these two things is blurrier than you think...
ultimately, this is why we are getting therapy.
Specifically for you, you need to have a professional help you sort through this exact problem.
Figure out, well, basically what level of fucked up you are. ”
She snorted. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She looked at him suddenly. “You are going to go to your own therapy, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Because you’ve been kind of avoidant about it.”
He paused, considered deflecting, then sighed. “Yeah. I’m, uh...struggling. With the idea. I mean, I’ll do it, but I’m still just…” He shook his head.
“What, exactly?”
“As much as I don’t believe it, it feels like an admission of weakness. Of failure. And it’s just really hard to get past that. I spent my whole life hearing about how ‘only pussies go to therapy or take pills because they can’t handle real life’.”
“I think my father said almost that exact thing more than once,” she murmured. She squeezed his hand. “I will be here for you through anything, Gabe. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone.” She paused. “Well, you and Ellen-you get what I mean.”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t care if you get cancer or lose a limb or paralyzed or what the fuck ever, I’m going to be here helping you. You saved my life. I love you.”
He hugged her and she squeezed him tightly in return. “I love you too, Holly.”
They looked over and released each other as the front door opened up and Liz came out.
“We good?” Krystal asked as she emerged. Her mother stood in the doorway.
“We’re good,” Liz replied.
“All of you, just...be careful out there,” her mother said, a vague uncertainty still lingering on her expression.
“We will,” Gabe replied.
They said their goodbyes, and then they were back to work.
…
“I can’t believe we’re actually doing it,” Krystal muttered as they hit the highway.
“What does it feel like?” Gabe replied, running his fingers through her red, red hair.
“It’s...it feels like a few different things, I guess,” she murmured. “Let me think.”
Gabe thought Ellen would make a joke about that, but she didn’t say anything. Neither did he. It was obvious by now that Krystal was fragile, and probably would be for a bit. She was calm now, but it didn’t take much to send her down the spiral into depressive, anxious misery.
He knew what that was like.
It had taken them about an hour to wrap up after her mom’s house. The apartment was emptied, the stuff gotten rid of or given away, the moving van loaded up. Liz was driving it, while Holly had agreed to drive Liz’s car.
After a lot of debate, Krystal had ultimately chosen to get rid of her own vehicle during January. She’d used the money from the sale to finish paying it off. Gabe still wasn’t sure why this made sense, but at this point, it made sense to Krystal and seemed to make her happy, so they’d let it be.
And once free of their responsibilities, they had shot off like arrows to the highway, ready and eager to get to their new home.
“It’s kind of scary and exciting and weird,” Krystal said at last. “But mostly exciting, now that we’re actually doing it.
Oh,” she looked directly up at him from where she lay in his lap now, looking sheepish, “I’m sorry about the insane amount of neediness that I’ve already displayed, am displaying, and–dear God–the neediness that’s coming.
Like genuinely sorry. You’re a sponge for this, and I know that, and I am absolutely taking advantage of it because I am so fucking broken. ”
“Krystal–” he began, but she pressed on.
“And I wanted to end this statement with the fact that I will be offering up as much pussy, head, and ass as you can handle for the duration as way of apology.”
“Wait...we never did ass, did we?” Gabe asked.
“I was just thinking that,” Ellen replied.
“I guess I was too enamored of your vagina, and your massive tits,” he murmured.
“You do suck on them a lot,” she replied with a demure smile.
“Well, how about tonight, me and Ellen take turns getting fucked in the ass?” Krystal asked.
“That...would buy you a lot of neediness,” he replied, and both of them laughed.
“How about me?” Ellen asked.
“Yes, you as well. I mean you’re basically locked in.” He paused. “I mean, you’re all locked in. Whatever.”
“I have to admit, it is entertaining watching you navigating this,” Krystal said.
“This being…?”
“Your harem,” Ellen said.
“Are you still weird about that?” Krystal asked.
“Yeah. I mean, I probably won’t stop being weird about it, at least a little. I mean it has the benefit of being both true and supported by everyone involved so...why not?” he replied.
“Very good point,” Krystal said, grinning up at him. “So what about Sadie? I kept figuring we’d hear something about her by now…”
“Ah, Sadie,” he said. “So, she went out of town around Christmas to visit family. And then that extended into a longer vacation. And then I guess that extended into something even longer because her sister had a heart attack.”
“Oh wow, shit,” Krystal muttered.
“Yeah. She’s all right now, had to spend a few days in the hospital and she’s got to make some changes, but that’s why Sadie and I haven’t hooked up. She’s back now, but I think there’s been this kind of undeclared notion to wait until after we’re in the house.”
“I’ve been trying not to involve myself any further,” Ellen said. “I’m kind of worried about scaring her off.”
“Come on, she can’t be scared off from Gabe,” Krystal replied.
Ellen snorted. “Yeah, that’s a fair point.”
“So do we have an actual, like, timeline on this?” Krystal asked.
“Soon, I imagine,” Gabe replied. “I haven’t really been pushing on it, mostly because I want her to set the pace she’s comfortable with.”
“Yeah, plus it’s not like you can’t afford to wait, you’re fucking drowning in pussy as it is,” Krystal murmured.
He chuckled. “I suppose that’s a fair point.”
“What are all the things we’re going to do once we get settled in?” Krystal asked.
“Half responsible, half fun,” Ellen replied firmly.
Krystal sighed.
“She’s right,” Gabe agreed. “We need to get a bit more serious about all this.”
“Sounds like so much fun,” Krystal muttered, rolling her eyes.
“It can’t all be fun.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“But,” he said, taking one of her hands and beginning to massage her palm with his thumbs, “doing the parts that aren’t fun will make the other parts more fun.”
“That’s what they always say...but you’re right, I’m sure.”
“Look at it this way: the unfun parts are now going to be a lot more fun–or at least tolerable–because we’ll all be there with you.”
She looked almost startled when he said that, then got an awkward expression on her face. “That...does help, actually. A lot. Um.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you.”
“I know exactly what you’re feeling right now,” Ellen said. “When Gabe cares at you really authentically, it just...it’s something else.”
“At you?” he replied.
“Yes, at you.”
Gabe’s phone buzzed before he could respond and he grabbed it and checked it.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What?” Krystal and Ellen asked at the same time.
“Chloe. Forgot to keep her updated…” She wanted to know how much longer as she was wrapping up with her family.
“Oh, yeah. Oops,” Ellen muttered.
“Guess I get rolled into that ‘oops’ now, too,” Krystal added.
He updated her and asked her how it went. “There was a lot going on,” he said.
He almost prodded about whatever it was they had going on, because they had something going on. All of them, at this point. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he knew they were planning something for him. Some kind of surprise, maybe?
But he decided against it.
Surprises were best experienced authentically.
Instead, he began reading as Chloe responded.
…
Some three hours later, they pulled into the new house’s driveway.
Next to Sadie.
She sat in her car awaiting them, but got out as their little caravan settled into place.
“I thought Chloe would be here,” she said.
“She’s wrapping up packing things at home,” Gabe replied.
He approached and went in for a hug. She smiled and accepted it warmly. When he tried to pull back, she held onto him a little. He found a curious look on her face. She leaned in and kissed him on the mouth, lingered for a few seconds, then pulled back.
“I’ve never had a relationship like this,” she said. “Also it’s good to see you all.”
“You as well,” Gabe replied, the girls smiling and smirking as they came to stand around them. “And same.”
She laughed softly. “It’s so strange being around a man I know I’m going to fuck, and he knows I’m going to fuck, but we haven’t actually done it yet...and that’s setting aside all the other women.” The others laughed. “I’m finding it to be a far nicer experience than I thought it would be.”
“You thought it’d be bad?” Krystal asked.
“No, more that there would be more tension. But this has been so very relaxed. And I...really wanted that, apparently. I didn’t know how tired I was of drama until this most recent month.
I didn’t even get to bring up that, in all the chaos, my other sister is getting a divorce.
And she’s always been rather...dramatic. And I am tired in my soul of that.”
“So are we,” Ellen murmured.
“Perhaps that’s what unifies us,” Liz said.
“That’s one thing…” Holly murmured, that small smirk on her face as she glanced at Gabe.
“That is true. We’ve all been intimate with Gabe,” Sadie replied. “And…” She reached out and slipped a finger between his jeans and his skin and gave it a small tug, which was sent a very nice thrill of lust through him. “I believe I will be ready to make love tomorrow night. How does that sound?”
“That sounds fucking awesome,” he replied.
“That’s what I was hoping to hear.” She let go of him and straightened up a little, then turned to face the house. “Now, grant me the joy of showing you your finished house.”