“I can’t answer that, Jim,” Patty answered. “You’ll have to ask her yourself.”
“I won’t,” I said. “If she doesn’t take my side then she’s against me.”
“That stupid and paranoid, Jim,” Patty said.
“Patty, I trust you of all people. Was leaving the apartment wrong?”
Patty paused, considering her answer. Finally, she said, “I saw you getting angry, and I knew that you were about to blow up. June and Lynette really don’t know this side of you. You are in a difficult position with many people thinking you’re nearly perfect, and you disagree with that. This blow up was destined to happen.”
“That wasn’t an answer to my question,” I pointed out.
“You were probably right to feel the way you did. You were wrong to leave. Jim, nobody knew how you were feeling. You didn’t say anything. You started to withdraw into yourself, and I saw it, but nobody else did. I didn’t want you to blow up like that.”
“I slept alone last night.”
“So did Kristen. Kristen cried herself to sleep.”
I might have thought that everybody was against me except Patty and Merry, but hearing that about Kristen put all that behind me. “She did?”
Patty nodded. “Kris is out in my car. Merry won’t let her in. Your sister protects you like a pit bull, Jim.”
“What should I do, Patty?”
Patty shook her head. “Jim, you are a good person. Trust your instincts.”
“Which means?”
“How are you feeling right now?”
“I think maybe I went too far.”
“I was there at lunch yesterday. Do you want to know why all those things were brought up? People were trying to tell Kristen how great you are. You only heard the bad things, like June explaining how you overreacted to finding her in the shower with Merry. June wasn’t telling that story to highlight your failing. She told it to highlight the ending: you fixed it. Can you understand that?”
“I thought…”
“Every time you do something wrong, it sticks in your mind. You find a solution and make things better, and at that point, the entire episode shouldn’t be a bad memory. You seem to dwell on the first part, though. You constantly dwell on how you nearly destroyed Kristen’s life, but you don’t think much about how both your life and hers have gone for the better since that time.”
There was a knock on my bedroom door. It was Merry.
“Hello, Shortcake!”
“Kristen says she’s sorry.”
“Kristen didn’t do anything wrong,” I said.
“Oh,” Merry said, confused. “Wasn’t she on the shit list?”
I looked up at Patty. “I took it out on Kris, didn’t I?”
Patty nodded.
“Tell Kris I’ll be right down, Shortcake.”
I threw the covers off the bed, not caring that Patty saw my nakedness. I found a clean but old pair of jeans and a faded T-shirt.
I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth—I didn’t want to make a bad impression on Kristen.
Patty and I went downstairs, and Kristen was in the living room.
“Hi, Kris,” I said.
“I’m sorry, Jim,” Kristen said. “I didn’t mean…”
“Let’s leave it at ‘I’m sorry,’ and I’ll add my own: I’m sorry.”
Kristen and I kissed.
The love of my life looked at what I was wearing. “How old are those jeans?”
“A few years,” I admitted.
Kristen shook her head. “Patty, could you drive us to the mall?”
“Sure.”
“Can I come?” Merry asked.
Kristen and Patty were smiling. I turned to my sister and replied, “Of course, if your dad agrees.”
Merry ran off to find her dad.
Patty suggested, “You two should find some time to be alone. I mean, really alone.”
Kristen nodded. “It’s been two weeks.”
“How is Will?” I asked.
“He’s doing great. He’ll be even better when Camille comes back.”
“I didn’t think she was coming back with you.”
Kristen looked thoughtfully at me and said, “You should talk with her.”
I looked from Kristen to Patty, who nodded.
What was going on with Camille?
The trip to the mall was to get me some “decent outfits.” I endured the three females’ attempt to force some fashion sense into me.
From there, Patty drove us to the apartment. Patty needed to leave for her job at Roman’s and couldn’t stay. She drove Merry home.
Neither June nor Lynette was in the apartment. It seemed empty.
“I slept alone last night,” Kristen said.
“So did I,” I said.
“Let’s not do this again.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon making sweet, passionate love.
Camille showed up at the apartment that evening.
When she arrived, I greeted her. “Hey, Cammy! I didn’t get much chance to say ‘Hi’ yesterday.”
Camille nodded. She was very quiet, which was unusual for her.
“I came back to give you a message,” Camille said.
“Couldn’t Kristen have delivered it?”
Camille didn’t answer me, but kissed me on the lips. It was one of the few times we did anything romantic together without Kristen being with us. Kristen was one floor down, practicing her pool.
After we broke the kiss, Camille said, “I didn’t kiss you good bye, Jim.”
Camille left, leaving me completely floored.
I went downstairs, and saw that Camille’s mother’s car was no longer in the driveway.
I found Kristen in the playroom. “Camille was just here.”
“Did she give you her message?” Kristen asked.
“She kissed me and then left.”
“Will spanked her for forgetting to kiss you good-bye. I told on her.” Kristen wore a grin on her face.
“Where is she?”
“I think she’s on her way to her mother’s house, so her mother can drop her off at the airport.”
“She came back to Illinois just to give me a good-bye kiss?”
“Would you have preferred a good-bye fuck?” Kristen asked. “I’ve heard that Camille can be as addicting as you seem to be.”
“Huh?”
“Camille is in love with you, Jim. She says she’s in love with me, but it’s not the same as when Lynette says it. You don’t think she’s in love with Will, do you?”
“Of course I do!”
“Will is her future, but Will isn’t her love. They will always have lovers, but they will share. That’s their way, and they are perfect for each other that way. We share lovers as well, but I don’t think that will define our relationship as much as it will hers. There are three other women that love you as much as she and I love you.”
I stood there, stunned.
Kristen went on. “Sherry Jordan would love to replace me, you know. She is too nice a person to actually do that. I’ve been talking to Patty and she thinks that if you were to sleep with Sherry, she’d be yours for life. I’m sure not willing to take that chance! In addition, June loves you almost as much as either Sherry or Camille, but you know and she knows that you will not fuck her because you know her future is with Archy.”
“You said there were four—three others, not two.”
“You know the fourth. She’s the one that loved you first. Even before Sherry.”
Was Kristen suggesting the person that I thought she was? “That’s crazy. That’s a silly crush. Merry’s going to have an endless line of boyfriends.”
“And Merry will sleep around, like Lynette and Camille, until she finds somebody that will love her as much as she feels for you.”