CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
“Gabe...can you hear me? Gabe…?”
He heard giggling. He felt very distant.
“Wow, he’s really out of it, huh?”
“Yeah...we might’ve been a little too, um...encouraging last night.”
“With the sex?”
“...yes. And the weed.”
“Ah. Come on, handsome. You know I’d love to let you sleep, but we’ve got business together today.”
He felt a soft, warm hand on his arm. That seemed to anchor him, bring him a lot closer to the surface. He’d been drifting, his awareness vague.
Gabe opened his eyes. He looked up at Sadie, who smiled down benevolently at him. Ellen and Krystal stood to either side of her, looking somehow both embarrassed and amused.
“What...time is it?” he managed.
They all laughed.
“It’s about noon,” Sadie replied.
“Oh, shit...my alarm…”
“You slept right through it,” Ellen said. “So did Krystal. Honestly, I’m shocked she’s up before you are.”
“I have had a lot more practice at building up my tolerance,” Krystal replied. “And I’m actually going back to sleep.”
“Fine, but Gabe has to get up,” Ellen said.
“Right,” he muttered. Slowly, he sat up, pushing the blanket away. He blinked a few times and rubbed lethargically at his eye. “Um...so what’s happening today?”
Sadie laughed again. “I’m taking you to a spa, Gabe.”
“Oh. Um...thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I think you could do with a shower and an energy drink.”
“I can provide that second one, at least,” Ellen said, walking away.
“I...yeah, shower,” he managed. “Fuck, I’m tired.”
“Let’s wake you up,” Sadie said, offering her hand.
He let her help him up off the bed. He paused for a moment, looking around.
The room was something of a mess. A lot of clothes scattered around the floor, the camera was still upon the tripod (when had they put that up?), they’d clearly spilled some lube on the carpet at some point.
Chloe was still in bed, passed out completely.
“Have fun, you two,” Krystal said as she climbed back into bed.
“Oh, we will,” Sadie replied.
She led him into the bathroom, got a shower going, and got him in. After a moment, he realized she was lingering out there.
“Um...what’s up?” was all he could generate. Fuck, how much had he had last night? He didn’t think it had been that much.
He supposed the Path of Totality was as powerful as it was claimed to be.
Sadie giggled. “You are very hungover, Gabe. I’m going to shower with you.”
“Oh. Wow. Cool.” A moment passed. “Wow, you’re actually in my house.”
“Holy God,” she muttered, pulling back the curtain, “you are still stoned, clearly. Thank God I’m driving...what?”
She had stepped in with him and he found himself staring at her.
“You are...even hotter than I remember,” he replied.
Sadie laughed and glanced down at herself briefly before grabbing a bar of soap, lathering it up, and beginning to run it across his chest. “Well thank you, Gabe.”
“You’re welcome...you know, I can do this myself.”
“I’m sure you can. But do you want to is the real question.”
“I suppose that’s a very good point.”
“Hopefully you aren’t feeling a little awkward about having a woman twice your age washing you. Although I kind of get the impression that ‘awkward’ isn’t the right word to describe how you’re feeling about it.”
She glanced down at his erection.
“Uh...yeah. That’s...morning wood.”
She snorted. “Oh, I’m sure it is, young man. Can’t have that, though. How would you like me to take care of it?”
“Oh, um...if you’re offering, then the thing I want to do most right now is bend you over and fuck you.”
“That sounds quite nice to me,” she murmured.
He was still feeling slow, but that seemed to cut through a not-insignificant portion of his lethargy. Stepping forward, he wrapped Sadie in a hug and kissed her for a long moment. She felt incredible against him. Then he turned her around, reached down, and began rubbing her clit.
“Oh! That’s...mmm...very nice, Gabe.”
He chuckled and began kissing the side of her neck.
She moaned and leaned against him, letting him finger and kiss her until he’d brought her to orgasm.
She had to be keyed up because it didn’t take long.
Either that or his sense of time was still fucked up.
That was clearly a thing that happened when he was really stoned.
Once she was finished, he gently bent her over until she had her hands against the wall, took a moment to admire her hot, round ass, and then slipped inside of her.
“Holy fuck,” he groaned as her wet, hot pussy accepted his length.
“Mmm! You sound surprised,” she murmured, then gasped as he settled his hands on her hips and pushed the rest of the way in.
“I somehow forgot how fucking amazing your vagina feels,” he replied.
She began to respond, but the words were lost as he started fucking her.
She cried out, hands firmly against the wall, pushing back against him each time he thrust into her.
A sudden wave of lust swept over him. It felt like he needed to be fucking her, like he absolutely had to fill her up with his seed.
Gabe kept going, fucking her hard and fast, making her cries of bliss turn to screams of ecstasy.
Their sex didn’t last long, but it was as good as it was fast. When he began coming inside of her, it felt like an eruption, like an eclipse that briefly encompassed his entire self. The pleasure blasted through him and he rode the shockwaves of rapture for as long as he could.
When it was over, he hugged her from behind, both of them panting heavily.
“Jesus,” Ellen said from nearby, and Sadie let out a small shout of mild surprise. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, just...I didn’t realize you’d come in,” she murmured.
“I brought Gabe’s energy drink.”
“Thank you,” he replied, sticking his hand out between the edge of the curtain and the wall.
The cold can was pressed into his grasp and he brought it back in, cracked it open, and began drinking. He upended it and drank half of it before setting it aside on one of the shelves.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Ellen said. “And that was really hot.”
“Yes, it was,” Sadie murmured, still leaning against the wall.
Gabe picked back up the job Sadie had started, cleaning himself off. After a moment, she straightened up, pulled down the showerhead, and began doing some cleaning of her own.
…
“Hey, so, um...we never really talked about...us,” Gabe said.
Sadie began laughing. It started as a small laugh, but evolved into something much more intense. It went on for almost thirty seconds before it subsided.
“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “It just occurred to me all at once how...unlucky we are, when it comes to finding time to talk. I was actually going to talk with you about this today, on the way out, but I became uncertain when I saw how out of it you still were.”
“I’m here,” he replied. “My head’s still a little swimmy and I’m going to be a little slow, but I’m present. I can have a serious conversation. And I want to, if you do.”
“I do, and I appreciate that, Gabe.” She stopped speaking for a long moment.
He let the silence play out, more content to than usual with how he was feeling.
She was no doubt gathering her thoughts.
He joined her in staring ahead of them as the highway disappeared beneath the wheels of her car.
She was bringing him to some kind of fancy spa place, though he wasn’t entirely sure what ‘spa’ actually meant.
A sauna almost certainly. A massage? Maybe.
He wouldn’t mind another one. A...pool? That didn’t sound quite right.
Well, he’d find out. And probably enjoy it a lot.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since we had sex the first time,” Sadie said finally, and he heard a surprising solemnity in her voice.
Was that good or bad?
It seemed good.
She shifted in her seat. She was smiling.
Definitely good. “I mean that I really thought about a lot of things. I asked myself a lot of questions. I looked at my life, at the life I’ve lived that led me to where I am now.
I began to realize something that should have been very obvious.
And, I suppose, it was. I am in a time of great change, and I’m pretty sure I missed this fact because I have this idea of myself.
That I have basically...settled into the rest of my life.
I’m probably going to live another thirty years, maybe forty.
Provided I’m not irresponsible and nothing massive comes up, I should have enough money to survive for that long in relative comfort.
“And, the truth of the matter is: I’m not upset about this fact.
I’ve always been an introvert, always more enjoyed curling up with a book and some candles than going out and being social.
But the thing that I have come to see since you and your ladies entered my life like a tornado, in a good way, to be clear, is that I want more.
And a big question I asked myself was... how much more?”
She fell silent and seemed to think for a moment longer. Gabe found himself curious, yet not cautious. It occurred to him abruptly that he was not waiting for the other shoe to drop. That seemed rather significant.
Did he finally, actually trust a situation not to turn into a nightmare at the flick of a switch? It could be because he was stoned, but something deep in him said it was not just that. Something had changed in him, too.
“I want to travel a bit more. I want to go out more. On my own and with you, or with your wives. I want to try some new things, like the VR place you brought me. But, something really important that I realized was that I don’t want more romance or sex in my life, beyond what you are giving me.
I had already decided that I only wanted to involve myself with you, and then just kind of left it at that.
But then I began poking that notion again and I realized...
I don’t even want anyone else. I’m straight, so I don’t want to have sex with other women. Although…”
“Yeah?” he prompted when she trailed off uncertainly.
“I might...possibly...want to experiment, at some point. I must admit, watching you have sex with your wives and reading the things you’ve written has...
made me feel some things. But that’s not really a part of this conversation.
That’s for later...or never.” She paused.
“Could you, um, not mention it? I just don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, if that makes sense. ”
“That makes perfect sense, and I will not tell anyone. We can move at the pace you’re comfortable with, even if that pace is zero.”
“Thank you, Gabe. I really do appreciate that. I’m so grateful that you never try to pressure me.
It didn’t occur to me until after I met you just how many people tried to pressure me into things in my life.
Not just sex stuff, just...in all ways. I never have to worry about that with you or your friends.
And it’s just so...freeing. Not to have that subtle worry constantly gnawing at me that I’m going to be asked to do something I might not want to do, and if I say no or don’t commit, the person will get angry, and then it will be a whole thing… ”
She sighed. “I’m getting off topic. What I really wanted to say, what came out of all of this thinking and considering and pondering is...I want to be your girlfriend.”
He felt his eyebrows raise. That was not what he’d been expecting. Honestly, he hadn’t been sure where she was going with this, beyond just a generally good direction.
“Um, wow,” he replied.
“That doesn’t sound like a bad wow…” she replied cautiously.
“It isn’t,” he said, making himself focus. “I’m happy with this. I would like to know precisely what that means.”
She chuckled awkwardly. She was actually blushing a little now. Though with her light tan skin, it was harder to tell, so maybe she was blushing a lot.
“I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it won’t look that different, really,” she said.
“I like where we are, and I like where we seem to be going. I also like the pace, if I’m being honest. Something else I realized is that, for better or for worse, I am the most significant person in my life right now.
And I’m not sure that’s entirely going to change.
It would be a different story completely if you were single when we met.
But you aren’t. You have so many women in your life you practically need a calendar to keep track of us all. ”
“I actually am in the process of setting up a digital calendar we all have access to. You included. It will make planning so much easier,” he replied.
“That’s amazing, and yes, it will. But as for what it means, basically, I want to do more of what we’re already doing. More dates, more hanging out, more sex. More fun. More intimacy. Also…”
“Yes?” he prompted when she trailed off again.
“Would you be averse to publicly being my boyfriend? As in, I can introduce you as such? Or is that too much?”
“That is absolutely not too much, and I would be very happy to do that.”
She smiled, looking relieved. “So, you’re just as happy to have a fifty year old cougar on your arm as I am to have a twenty-something writer on mine.”
“I’d say that’s accurate. Plus, I mean, I’ll be your boyfriend.”
“So you’re comfortable going ahead with it?”
“Yes.”
“What about your wives?”
“I’ll need to have a formal chat about it, but I can’t imagine it’ll last longer than thirty seconds. All of them are, in their own ways, rooting for you, I think.”
“...really?”
“Yeah! They think you’re so awesome and kind, also really wicked hot. They like you, and they want you to be happy. And they especially want you and me to be dating. They know I make you happy and they definitely know you make me happy.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me. Although, yes, I would like to have a proper sitdown with everyone involved.”
“It’ll happen very soon, in that case.”
She smiled and nodded. That seemed to be enough for her for the moment, and the two of them drove onward in companionable silence.