She delivered plates and bowls to the kitchen table.
I set a plate of melon slices in the middle and joined her.
“This is actually my second breakfast,” she said.
I chuckled. “You’d make a good hobbit.”
“What’s that?”
I blinked at her.
“What?”
“You’ve never read
“Uh-uh. They’re books, I know, but that’s about it.”
“They’re only the greatest fantasy stories ever written!” I told her about them as we ate. She followed most of it and acted interested, but her eyes glazed over a couple of times. I finally stopped and laughed at myself.
“What? I was enjoying it. What happened with Frodo and the ring?”
“You want me to spoil it for you? Never mind. There’s no way you’ll read the books, is there?”
“Sorry, probably not.”
“That’s okay. Frodo and Sam make it to Mount Doom. Then Gollum attacks and bites Frodo’s finger off, along with the ring.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Gollum falls into the fires of Orodruin and the ring is destroyed. The End. There’s actually lots of other stuff that happens after that, but it doesn’t matter.”
“It sounds very interesting.”
“It is, but you probably couldn’t care less.”
“I care that
I was struck by something similar that Gina had said.
“What’s the matter?”
“Random thought,” I lied. “Then again, maybe not so random.” I brushed away some crumbs. Then I stacked the dirty dishes. I was stalling and knew it. “Okay,” I said at last, “here goes. The talk I promised you.”
“I’m ready.”
“Right. So, you remember Kendall?”
Her eyes tightened.
“Ah. Got it. Well, this is going to be about her.”
“Okay,” she said cautiously.
“And… during my run I thought about what I wanted to say. I went back and forth: PG version or the R-rated one?”
“Which did you decide?”
“At first, the PG. But just now I changed my mind. The R-rated version is why it’s important. In case you haven’t guessed, it’s about sex. But I’ll clean things up from the X-rated version. Something tells me you don’t want a blow-by-blow account.”
“I guess it depends. I grew up with older brothers. So I overheard all kinds of stories.”
“Probably not like this one. So let’s stick to the R-rated version. If you want to know more, ask. But be careful. I’ll tell you the truth. Some of it might get… let’s say ‘interesting’ and leave it at that.”
She nodded.
“Okay, so… Kendall.” I drew a deep breath and marshaled my thoughts.
“I have to start a bit before her, with Gina. She was my first serious girlfriend. We started having sex when we were sixteen. Then we met Kendall, and we were both interested in her.”
“Wait… both?”
“Mmm hmm. Gina likes girls too. So did Kendall.” I looked at Christy.
“Now you understand why I wasn’t shocked when I met you and Wren. I mean, I realize that most women aren’t bisexual, but I seem to attract the ones who are. Not surprisingly, I’m attracted to them too.”
“I’m not really like that,” she said. “You know… bisexual. I like guys.”
“Oh, you’re bisexual, all right. And that’s okay. Better than okay, in fact.
I don’t think I’d be interested if you weren’t.”
Her protests died in a hurry.
“Seriously,” I said. “Remember I told you that Gracie and I broke up because we weren’t compatible? Well, she was
Christy nodded.
“Back to the main story. Some of this you know, some will be new. But I’m gonna tell it from the beginning just in case.”
“Okay.”
“So… Kendall was lonely when Gina and I first met her. We both liked her, so we asked her to join our relationship. It was a lot more complicated and emotional than that, but that’s the gist of it. In retrospect, I think Gina went along because she thought she might lose me. I was thinking with my dick at the time. Big surprise. I loved both girls, but we were young, and none of us knew what we were getting into.”
“And you were all… um… having sex? When you were sixteen?”
“Yeah. It was… pretty wild.”
“You can say that again. No, don’t! I get it.”
I grinned. “Right. So, Gina and I went to high school together, but Kendall lived in Chattanooga. Gina and I were mostly normal boyfriend and girlfriend, but Kendall was always in the picture. I mean, she was my girlfriend too.” That was a gross oversimplification, but I wasn’t ready to go into my history as a swinger just yet. Baby steps, I told myself.
“Kendall was two years ahead of us in school,” I continued. “She came to UT first. Then I fell in love with the School of Architecture here and decided to come too. Gina came by default. She really wanted to go to UCLA, where
she is now, but she didn’t want to break up with me. Not at the time, at least.
I thought things would be great with all three of us together. Once again, that was more wishful thinking by the little head.
