"Dunno," Rick frowned. "Candace? Maybe Toby. I HOPE it’s Toby…"
"I do, too, Dear…" Jean worried. She looked at the clock; by now, Beth was undoubtedly at work… "I think I should talk to Toby."
"Yeah, maybe." Rick’s expression was guarded. HE wanted to talk to Toby FIRST — and convince him that Mom needed some more monster dick — for her own good, of course…
"Do you have his number?"
"Yeah." Shit! Rick grumbled to himself; now he wouldn’t get a word in first…
Toby knew Rick’s home number by sight when it came up on caller ID. "Hello." It would be Rick — or, more likely, Jean…
"Toby?"
Jean. He wasn’t quite ready for Jean. "Hi."
"Dear, we need to talk about today," Jean said carefully.
"What do you know about it?" Toby asked.
Jean sighed. "I guess I’m the only one that didn’t participate."
Toby grimaced into the phone. "Yeah." What effect would the knowledge that he’d been with Candace have on their relationship?
"I’m hearing about pictures, and you and Candace…"
Toby scrambled to cover his ass, "That’s not all as it seems."
Jean paused. Yes, she was jealous — which she shouldn’t be; it wasn’t as if they had a romantic relationship. But it WAS a tool, and Toby DID appear vulnerable to it… "I’m hearing that from Rick, too — but no details. Besides, wouldn’t you say that, anyway?" she asked, just the slightest bit waspishly.
"Well, maybe — but that doesn’t keep it from being true." Toby replied.
"Maybe," Jean murmured, then sighed. "I thought you had better sense…"
"There were … extenuating circumstances." Toby replied.
"I’m sure there were," The tone of Jean’s comeback indicated that she was certain that they were generally related to Candace’s willingness to have sex with him.
"Umm, more than the obvious — really!" Toby sputtered. "I agree — I think we SHOULD talk! For one thing, I need a second opinion…"
"You haven’t paid much attention thus far…" Jean again flipped the jealousy card, turning up the disrespect one in addition.
"You really, REALLY need to get the whole picture!" Toby argued. "Why don’t I come over tomorrow, after Ma gets home? There’s a LOT you don’t know…"
"All right," Jean groused. "What time? I don’t want to cut into your beauty sleep — and I don’t necessarily want you cutting into mine!" Why am I so bitchy? she wondered fleetingly. Maybe it was the whole idea that she’d tasted the good life again — and then Candace had horned in. Even given the fact that Jean had denied herself, having Candace take advantage of the situation and go after Toby rankled … Actually, it went deeper than that; Jean’s body was giving her Hell for providing it with unprecedented amounts of pleasure, then shutting the whole thing off.
"Nine-thirty?" Toby offered.
"Fine. I’ll make coffee." There was nothing left to say, so the conversation ended at that point.
But fifteen minutes later, Toby’s phone rang again — same number. Reluctantly, he picked up.
"Dude!" Rick’s voice sounded in the earpiece.
"Hey." Toby acknowledged his friend. "Bad over there?"
"Yeah. Mom’s all wound up. We’re all going to jail, and dragging her with us. Nobody has any sense — she shit a brick over the pictures! Who has them, anyway?"
"I do," Toby grinned tightly. "Candace isn’t even sure there are any — I did this sleight of hand thing with the memory card and told her the camera was empty."
Rick grunted. "Camera won’t do a damned thing without a memory card in it…"
"YOU know that and I know that — but Candace doesn’t, and I bet Lon doesn’t either!" Toby replied. "I won’t bullshit you because you know better — but Lon’s too close to his Mom, and I want her off-balance, so…"
"So I should not let on to Lon, huh?" Rick chuckled. "How does this keep Candace off-balance?"
"I’m sure she suspects that there really ARE pictures — but she’s not sure, and if she even asks, it tips her hand. I wanted to make sure that she didn’t get Ma in too deep — although, with Ma, I’m not sure there IS a too deep." Toby sighed.
"So your Mom likes dick," Rick replied. "That’s bad?"
"It could be," Toby mused. "She likes a LOT of dick! I’m worried that now that things are wide open, the three of you won’t be able to keep her busy enough!"
"Huh!" Rick snorted. "Well, I’m happy to try — and Lon is, too, obviously. Bragging about it is probably uncool, but she’s … incredible!"
"Better than Candace?"
"Totally different attitude, Man. Fucking Candace is about Candace — which is okay, but you know how she gets. Fucking your mom is about fucking — or maybe about whoever is doing it — but it isn’t REALLY about Beth; you get the feeling she’s grateful for every stroke. And she gives head like…" Rick caught himself. "Sorry, Man."
"Hey, you were being nice," Toby waved it off. "I can get past that Me first! thing Candace has — but it doesn’t go as far as how Ma gets. Candace can be a pretty good fuck…"
" … But you liked Mom better…" Rick hazarded.
"Yeah."
"Well, I think you ought to work on riding Mom again, anyway," Rick related. "She’s made this decision to lay off — but she’s NOT happy about it — especially since nobody else has followed her out and Candace has inherited YOU!"
"So you think I should press?" Toby asked, of two minds on the subject.
"Yeah," Rick agreed. "I’m being selfish, but … She grounded me to keep me from seeing Beth or Candace."
"Shit. Figures."
"Yeah. The pictures, in particular, have her running scared," Rick amplified. "She’s sure they’ll surface somewhere and get everybody arrested."
"She’s not in any…"
"No, but I am — and if it happens, SOMEBODY will talk and ring her in — you know that!"
"Well, they’re hidden," Toby said. "I’ve encrypted the files, too. And as of right now, you’re the only one besides me that is SURE they exist! We’ll leave it that way — but I need a handle on Candace, and this is it!"
"It looked to me like you had Candace pretty much under control," Rick hazarded.
"Yeah, but … Candace isn’t like Ma; normally, she’s the other side of the coin. How long — or even how — I can control her is anybody’s guess." Toby replied. "I need something besides the ability to tell her what to do, based upon — what? — pure force of will? — to keep her in line…"
"Yeah, but Mom’s right — if those things surface…" Rick grunted. "Too bad, too! I’d like to see 'em…"
Toby laughed. "Yeah, that’s a problem! Everybody wants a set as a keepsake — and that will DEFINITELY put them on the street! Maybe I can crop a set so nobody can tell who you’re fucking, but everybody can see that funny look you get on your face when you cum…"
Rick snorted. "No blowjob pics then, I guess."
"Guess not. See you in the morning, Man." Toby chuckled.
"Later."