I suppressed the impulse to tell her about our threesome with Wren.
“So, yeah,” Terri finished, “I messed up. I’m still disappointed, though.”
“Me too. And I’m sure that’s part of why you couldn’t sleep. Because of the… um… tension.”
“You think I was horny?” she laughed. “I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation.”
“Why not?”
“Because you aren’t my boyfriend.”
“So? Everyone gets horny.”
“Well, yeah,” she admitted. “But I don’t normally talk about it.”
I shrugged. “It isn’t a big deal. Sex is a part of life.”
“Maybe for you. You’re a guy.”
“For you too.”
“Yeah, but it’s private.”
“I think we’re past that point,” I said. “We aren’t lovers, but we’re more than friends. For now,” I added. “I still want to sleep with you, and I’m pretty sure you do too. You’d’ve pushed me away if you didn’t.”
“Yeah, probably.” She thought of something and laughed darkly. “I thought this’d be so simple. ‘He has an open relationship,’ I thought. ‘He’s a cute guy, nice body. We have chemistry. Go for it.’ I didn’t think it’d turn into… this!”
“We’ll figure it out. Whatever happens, I’d still like to be friends. And I’d still like to be your dance partner. If you’ll have me.”
“That’s easy,” she said. “Yes to both.”
* * *
The next few weeks were more or less normal for the end of the quarter. Everyone had too much to do and not enough time to do it.
Wren spent the majority of her time on her thesis, but she had papers or presentations in several other classes. One night she asked me if she could move the computer and printer down to the dining room table. She needed the space to spread out her media exhibits while she worked. I agreed, of course, since I barely touched it anymore. (Christy already knew how to use it better than I did, and I’d had the thing for years!)
Trip had his own end-of-quarter rush, and not only with schoolwork. He also had to finish the estimates for Susan’s project, which mostly involved calling subcontractors in South Carolina and sending out requests for bids. I helped as much as I could, but I still felt like he was doing all the work while I was riding his coattails.
“Don’t worry,” he told me, “you’ll have plenty to do. Most of my work is on the front end, planning and scheduling. You’ll pull your weight when the time comes, especially when I get the budget approved and give you specs for the designs. Speaking of which,” he added, “do you have that info about the RV parking?”
“Not yet.” I’d been putting it off because it was boring.
“Get it to me,” he said bluntly. “I need to know if we’ll have to clear more land. Susan’s guy says we can sell timber to offset some of the cost, but I’ll still have to add it to the schedule.”
“Yeah, all right.”
“Hustle up. Time is money.”
“Yes, sir,” I snapped, only half joking. “Anything else?”
“Hand me those estimates, fix me another drink, and leave me alone. In that order.”
“Your wish is my command.”
He snorted a laugh and started scanning the estimates. “Go on,” he said. “Fetch me that drink.”
Christy spent most of her time in the A&A building, where she worked on the casting models for the Kanagawa pieces. I stopped by to check on her between my own classes, but she was in her own little world. I usually gave her a hug and a kiss and made sure she had enough to eat.
One day I showed up and found a visitor.
“Oh, hi,” Lily said.
“Hi yourself,” I said. “What’re you doing here?”
“I just got here. I didn’t want to go back to the dorm, so I stopped by to hang out. I said hi, but…” She shrugged. “I don’t think she knows I’m here. Is she always like this?”
Christy sat hunched over one of the clay models, young Sayuri. She was fussing with the sleeve of the kimono. I looked closer and realized she was adding the line of a seam. I wasn’t sure the mold material would pick it up in the first place, much less transfer it to the marble mixture for the final casting, but Christy knew what she was doing.
“Yeah, sorry,” I said to Lily instead. “Did you need to talk to her? I can get her attention.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“How’d you know where to find her?” I asked. Siobhan’s studio wasn’t a secret lair, but it wasn’t exactly a tourist destination either.
“I asked around,” Lily said. “She’s famous, isn’t she?”
“Around here? Yeah.”
“She’s amazingly talented. I can’t believe how pretty and lifelike her statues are. And she makes it look so easy.”
“It isn’t. It’s hundreds of hours of hard work.”
“Really? That much?”
I did some quick math. “She’s spent three hundred hours on this series alone. Thousands, if you count all the years it took to get to this point.”
“That’s, like, a lot. What about you? Do you have a big project too?”
“Nothing on this scale, but yes. I’m already finished with most of it, though. I have a few things left to do, a couple of models, but they’re small. They won’t take long.”
“Wow. You’re done already? You must be super-organized.”
“Something like that. I also know how Christy works. I need to have my own project done so I can help her when she’s ready.”
“That’s really nice of you. I wish Will cared that much about me.”
“I’m sure he does,” I said.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“To help Christy? Not really, but thanks.”
She shrugged and changed the subject. “She says you’re into ballroom dancing too. That must be so romantic.”
“I dunno about romance,” I said, “but it’s fun. It’s stress-relief more than anything.” I nodded toward Christy. “She has a lot of pent-up energy, especially after a day like this. She needs to wear herself out or she doesn’t sleep.”
“She said you take good care of her,” Lily said. Then she shot me a sly grin. “Especially in the wearing-out department.”
A peevish part of me wondered if Christy discussed our sex life with all of her friends, even the ones she’d known less than a week. I let it drop, though. She obviously liked Lily and was trying to get her into bed. I wouldn’t complain if it happened, but I wondered if she’d thought beyond that.
Lily brought me back to the present. “Is that true?”
“What?”
“You wear her out? Twice a day? Sometimes more?” She laughed at my expression and flitted to another subject. “I wish Will and me could do that. At least sometimes. But his parents made him live in the Vault, so he can’t even have female visitors. He can visit my room, but not overnight.”
My own dorm experience felt like the distant past, although it had only been a couple of years. Then again, a couple of years could make a huge difference. I glanced at Lily and reminded myself that she might look older, but she was only nineteen. She made me feel positively grown-up.
“I remember those days,” I said aloud. “It gets better.” Then I checked my watch and said, “Sorry, I have to go.”
“Class?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it okay if I stay here?”
“Sure.” I nodded at Christy and added, “She tends to ignore everything that isn’t work. Don’t take it personally. She does it to me too. If you don’t mind, give her these occasionally.” I handed over several baggies of snacks and added, “Pretend you’re at the zoo. Just toss in some food and stand back.”
“It won’t bother her that I’m here?”
“No, not at all,” I assured her. Then I smiled a goodbye. “It was nice talking to you.”