CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
“You aren’t drunk are you?” Gabe asked.
“I’m not,” Sadie replied as they stepped back out of the bathroom. It had taken a bit, but they’d managed to clean themselves, clean the washing machine, and get properly dressed again. “I’m dizzy from how intense our sex was. God, I knew it was going to be hot but I had no idea it’d be like that.”
“Yeah.”
They started walking down the stairs, holding hands and feeling marvelously connected.
Gabe was still a little surprised by how little distance there seemed to be between him and this fifty year old cougar.
She got him and he got her on some unspoken level, a unity that evidently transcended ages and generations.
“Where have you two been?” Ellen asked with a broad smirk as they came downstairs.
“Doing some laundry,” Gabe replied, and Sadie, who had already begun to shade red, began laughing.
“Yes,” she managed when she stopped. She cleared her throat. “Something like that.”
“You’re corrupting her,” Ellen murmured with an amused smirk.
“And I’m very thankful for it,” Sadie replied.
“I’ll just bet.”
“How’d your conversation go?” Gabe asked as they began heading for the kitchen.
“Great. She was very curious about how our relationships all worked out and issues of jealousy. Pretty typical stuff. Where’s everyone gotten off to?”
“Last I checked Krystal, Chloe, and Holly were gaming and Liz was by the bonfire.”
They came into the kitchen and found quite a spread of BBQ and pizza.
“Oh my fucking God ribs,” Gabe whispered as he grabbed a plate and started snatching up ribs.
“I am pretty hungry,” Sadie murmured as she also grabbed a plate.
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Ellen replied, laughing. “I have to admit, Sadie, I’m surprised and pleased to see you doing things like this. I wasn’t sure you had it in you. And I mean that in the kindest way.”
“I understand. And I didn’t know if I did, either. But Gabe...is like...it’s like he walked out of my fantasy. It’s crazy. He’s basically exactly the kind of ideal man I began lusting after when I was a teenager. And that faded away over the decades, but clearly it didn’t die.”
“How would you describe this dreamboat boyfriend of yours?” Ellen prodded.
“I mean...tall, dark, and handsome. A little scrawny. Shy. Sensitive. Creative, a writer, most preferably. Respectful, but he knows just when to be a bit of an ass. Not for real...I’m sure you understand.”
“I understand quite well,” Ellen murmured.
“A loner type, but a real one, you know? Not the...oh, what was that term your generation has? Edgelord. Not a poser. An authentic loner who could be coaxed out of it under the right circumstances.”
“The right circumstances being your vagina?” Gabe asked.
Ellen snorted.
“That right there,” Sadie said, smiling at him. “Just the right amount of being an ass at just the right time. Dark hair, dark eyes, pale, likes to dress dark...where did this shirt come from, by the way? I’m just now really seeing it.”
“You can thank Krystal and Chloe for that. They made me wear it. You’ll have to see their own shirts as to why,” Gabe replied.
“Well, shall we then? Now that I’ve been satisfied sexually and am about to satisfied hunger-wise, I’d like to mingle and I’d like the two of you two join me.”
“We would be delighted,” Ellen said, and off they went.
…
Time passed.
An hour went by, then two, then Gabe lost track.
More people showed up. At some point he became aware that there had to be over fifty people in the house, and then closer to eighty. It never got too loud, though. No one was yelling, no one was arguing, music wasn’t blaring.
At some point, though, something pinged Gabe’s internal radar.
He wasn’t sure what, and for a while, he didn’t even realized it had happened.
But a slow awareness began to fill him, like he was forgetting something, or there was something he should probably go do.
It was like he’d had an idea he knew he should act on, but not a particularly pertinent one, and someone had distracted him for a moment, and the idea had disappeared like smoke on the wind, leaving on its vague emotional need behind.
He was playing an old retro sidescrolling shooter with Krystal and Chloe and had just lost his last life when he realized the emotion was not just still lingering, but stronger.
“You all right?” Krystal asked.
“Yeah...I think so,” he murmured, looking around the room uncertainly.
“You don’t seem like it, what’s up?” Chloe asked.
“I’m not sure. I think...I’m missing something. I should be doing something and my brain’s trying to get me to remember, but I have no idea what.” He frowned, considering it for a moment, then stood up. “I’m going to tap out for now. Unless you two can think of what I might be forgetting?”
“I can’t,” Krystal said, turning back to the screen.
“Same,” Chloe agreed, doing the same.
He laughed. “So glad I have your support in this issue.”
“Hey, go do what you gotta do, man! I gotta do this video game!” Krystal fired back.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too,” they both said without looking away from the screen.
Gabe chuckled as he walked out of the room. Maybe Sadie and Ellen had a point. Just enough of an ass at just the right time.
For a moment, he stood in the foyer, undecided. He checked his phone, maybe he’d gotten a text or a call, but no, that wasn’t it.
He should probably track everyone down, make sure they were good.
Maybe it was just his brain worrying over nothing, unhappy with the fact that he hadn’t made actual contact with all of the women in his life in the last hour.
Normally it wouldn’t bug him so much, but they were all here and this was a party, which was a lot more active than just sitting around at home.
He poked his head downstairs and spotted Liz playing a board game with a group of others. She seemed fine and happy, so he left her to it. He went back upstairs and poked around until he found Holly shaking out some crushed red pepper flakes over a slice of pepperoni.
“Hey, you doing okay, love?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. How about you?” she replied with a casual ease that told him whatever it was, it wasn’t her.
“Not sure. Where’s Ellen? Sadie? Or Abby or Em?”
“Um...I think they’re all out by the fire now. Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know. My brain is bugging me, like I’m forgetting something. Just covering my bases, I guess.”
“Well, let’s go cover them together,” she replied.
They walked out onto the back deck and he looked down at the bonfire.
It was still going and there was a big group of people around it now, some twenty or thirty gathered in small groups in a loose circle around the flames.
He spotted Ellen’s tall frame amongst the crowd.
She was talking with Sadie. Their body language spoke of relaxation.
As they came down off the back deck and drew closer, he saw Abby and Emily together, talking with their hostess.
(He had finally learned that her name was Melanie.)
They seemed fine, too.
So what was it?
Something seemed to spark excitedly as he approached Ellen and Sadie with Holly.
It happened as he was scanning the crowd.
What did that mean? He felt that irritating sensation of something dancing along the edge of his perception, like trying to remember a word and you almost, almost had it several times in a row, but it wouldn’t catch.
“Hey, you,” Ellen said warmly as they came up. “You beating Chloe’s and Krystal’s fat asses?”
He snorted. “It was a co-op game, and no. Krystal was beating both our asses in terms of points. She’s really good at those retro games...everything cool out here?”
“What? Yeah. Why?”
“Dunno. Just got a weird feeling, like I should be doing something or forgot to do something,” he replied, looking again at the crowd. “Like I’m missing something...probably it’s nothing.”
“Maybe you saw someone familiar,” Sadie suggested.
That struck a huge spark. “Oh shit, I think you’re right.”
“Maybe your crazy ex,” Holly murmured.
“That would be kind of fun,” Ellen said.
“Probably not fun for her,” Gabe replied, scanning the crowd of faces again.
It was possible he’d just seen someone merely resembling someone familiar, but who would he be looking for that he was interested in talking to here at this point?
Maybe Isabella. That was possible. Actually, that seemed likely.
He kept scanning the crowd of faces. They could be inside or even have left by now…
Maybe if it was Isabella he could suggest she try to enjoy her more daring fantasy here, just like Sadie had.
Gabe froze.
“Oh shit,” he said.
“What? You find them?” Ellen asked.
“Yes. Wow. What are the odds?” he murmured.
“Who is it?” Holly asked.
“Boxer chick. Kim is her name.”
“Really? I want to see her, where?” Ellen asked.
“Who’s boxer chick?” Sadie asked.
“She was my roommate a while back. She was really cool and she showed me some fight moves. She’s half-Japanese.
She’s also a bit of a hardass. I always wanted to ask her out but it was pretty obvious that wasn’t on the table so we were just friends instead, and then she moved away.
I mentioned her earlier on to the others and you all kinda latched onto her,” Gabe explained.
“She sounded hot as fuck,” Ellen replied.
“Which one is she?” Holly asked.
“I didn’t even describe her. There, standing with that frat bro looking guy.”
“She doesn’t look too happy,” Holly murmured.
She didn’t. In a way, he was reminded of the first time he’d met Chloe, when she had been talking to some guy and looking increasingly irritated.
Kim looked more than irritated though. She looked pissed off.
She was wearing some sleek cargo pants and a t-shirt that showed off her trim physique.
Shit, if anything she was in better shape than before.
She’d cut her black hair shorter and her pale skin seemed to shimmer in the firelight.
The guy she was talking to, or really being talked at by, said something. Kim said ‘No’ with a small but firm shake of her head.