A Party for Lola Read online

  I knew better than to step in that ever so welcoming pile waiting to happen. "When your mom says it's okay, I'll give you a full makeover. But not before then. Deal?"

  She held up her pinky and I took it, wrapping mine around hers. We'd made a solemn pact in her mind. I had to be good about keeping them if she was still going to trust me with my promises when she got older.

  "Hey," Emily said, coming up to us.

  Lola's sister was subdued gorgeous. Small, perky, and managing to hold down the single mother and corporate life gig just fine without even messing up her perfectly natural hair.

  I kissed her cheek. "Hi. I promised Kiley that I'd give her a makeover once you said it was okay for her to start wearing makeup. We pinky swore."

  "So it's final," Kiley piped up.

  Emily gave me a strained smile. "Thanks. You'd be the one to show her so I'm good with that. When she's older. Like fifty."

  Laughing, I put Kiley down. She pouted, but I wanted to give Emily a proper hug. We hadn't seen her or the kids in almost eight months. That was far too long to go without seeing Lola's family. She was the only one of us that had any kind of connection to the family we were born into. The rest of us had kind of adopted Emily and the kids as our own. It helped that the three of them were fantastic about everything. Our pronouns, not asking horrible questions... everything. They made being around cis people easy.

  "Is everything set for the party tonight?" Emily asked me as we made our way to baggage claim.

  "I highly doubt it. But we'll come together in time. We always do."

  Emily laughed. "You have no idea how much I envy you all with the relationship that you have. I could never be that open, but there's so much to be said for five adults working together. It's cohesive. Your bills get paid. If the kids are sick, there's someone to take care of them. You'd save a ton in daycare costs alone. It sounds like paradise."

  Todd was only two years old, still clinging to her constantly. I took him from her while she got one giant red Hello Kitty suitcase off the conveyor belt. How she managed a weeks' worth of clothes in just one suitcase was beyond me. Whenever I went somewhere, which was rare, I always had to pay extra to check more bags.

  "Thanks," I said, unsure of what else to say. She was right, I did love the relationship the five of us shared. But it wasn't for everyone. I knew there were drawbacks. I'd known that before I'd ever fallen for any of them. The biggest drawback, for me at least, was that I couldn't legally marry the four people that I loved. We'd had a big party, but that wasn't quite what I'd wanted. But it was what worked for me. On every level possible.

  There were always going to be people who didn't understand. There would always be emergency contact forms to fill out and people who looked at us strangely when one of us asked for more forms for the rest of their contacts. I'd always been in poly relationships, but even I caught myself getting more than a little upset at someone when I caught them staring at us. We were in love and happy. We weren't hurting anyone. That should have been enough to keep people from looking at us like we were some kind of sideshow attraction.

  "Let's get you all back to the house. Unless anyone wants lunch first?" I was trying to get my mind off those dark thoughts with my offer. Food and family were both very good distractions to get my mood back up to where it needed to be. I was not normally a grumpy person. Erratic and demanding, yes. Absolutely. Any of my partners would have said that about me. But I was not the grumpy kind. I was punch a laughing bitch in her face for trying to take a picture of my girlfriend and then go back to eating my sushi kind. But I was not grumpy.

  "Food!" Kiley practically screamed at us, drawing the attention of more than a few people around our little circle. She wasn't starving by any means, but people might have thought so. It was more than about time to get them out of the airport and into my car.

  I rolled my eyes at them. The kid was always hungry. It was kind of cute, in a way, and I was damn jealous of her metabolism. "Yep. We're getting food." I was always down for some food too.

  Emily sighed and gave me another one of her tired mom smiles. She made being a parent of two little kids seem so easy but I was sure that it was anything but. I loved the kids, but I didn't want to be a parent. I was quite happy being the fun aunt with all the pretty clothes and makeup.

  "Thanks. She's been talking about that Mexican place that you all have by the house. I think she misses chocolate filled churros. We don't get a lot of them in Maine," Emily said.

  That was easily done. Taking them to get Mexican food might have just been the simplest part of my day today. "Then that's where we're going. I just have to send a quick text to Micah before we go. He's at home right now and he was worried that I wouldn't get here in time. Like I'd ever be late to pick up you three." I rolled my eyes.

  I took out my phone and sent a fast message off to my boyfriend so that he'd stop being so anxious and worrying about me getting them. Got the fam. Going for lunch. Kisses.

  "How is he doing?" Emily asked as we left the airport. Sure, we'd been together for years, but it always made me just a bit more happy when people used the right pronouns for the people I cared about. It was the little things, and Emily, as far as I could remember, had never once slipped up with any of us. She had always asked when she'd met each of us the first time, and she'd been so nice and loving with us since.

  "He's good. Anxious as always, but he's working on getting better. There is hope for him yet." We piled into my car and then it was off to get us all some churros, and also some actual food too because if anyone found out that all I fed the children after a long plane ride was sugar and fried dough I worried I'd never be able to babysit them again, even though Emily was right there with me.

  *~*~*

  I was more than a bit surprised to see Sasha sitting there at the counter. I had thought that they would have gone right home to help Micah with the decorations after getting off of work, but there they were, eating tacos.

  "Sasha! What are you doing here?" I called over to them as the hostess took us to a table.

  They turned and looked at me, their eyes going wide for a moment, before they picked up their plate and drink and followed us over to the big round table toward the back of the restaurant.

  "Hey," Emily said, giving them a hug before they joined us at the table.

  They kissed my cheek as soon as Emily had let go of them and then I was stealing tacos off their plate. They had gotten the fried avocado kind which was the best because it always came with extra cheese and lots of lime wedges.

  "I thought you'd have gone straight home to see Micah," I teased them.

  Sasha grinned at me. "I had to get more streamers. Six packs just weren't enough. We've got a big house to decorate for tonight."

  I could just imagine how very little Micah was going to enjoy putting up decorations. He kept a clean house and disliked anything that made it messy. He made an exception for the kids though. They got a pass on making messes that none of us would have gotten away with.

  "I want churros," Kiley demanded.

  "You need lunch first. Then you can have dessert," Emily said. Her voice was firm, but it was mom firm and not an ounce of mean.

  I caught Sasha's little grin and knew that they'd probably started with fried ice cream before moving on to tacos. I kissed their cheek and took their hand.

  "Since the house isn't decorated yet, why don't you four go to a movie or the zoo or something?" Sasha offered.

  It was a great idea, and I was glad that they had thought of it as Kiley started chanting that she wanted to go see the lions at the safari park again.

  Micah

  I didn't mind being the one to stay at home to be able to clean at all really. I didn't work out of the house. My contribution was this: making sure that the family I loved had a clean place to live and relax. This meant they didn't need to worry about cleaning and cooking and doing laundry when they got home from work. That was what was important to me. When they got home I w
anted my time with them to be stress free and relaxing. I wanted curling up on the couch and I wanted hugs and kisses. I loved those things. So I didn't mind the cleaning that came with taking care of my family.

  What I did mind though was that everyone seemed to hog the washer when I really needed to do some laundry from the kitchen. I had three hours before Lola would be getting home and we could really get moving on the party. I was excited for it. Keeping Lola from finding out about the party had been so hard these past few weeks, but it was going to be so worth it. Our usual routine was dinner and a movie for our birthdays. Or dinner and a trip to the aquarium or the wildlife sanctuary. Or something. But there was always dinner. Sometimes we ordered in. Sometimes we went out. Tonight we would be going out.

  We had reservations for seven o'clock tonight. I'd been the one to secure the reservations for the hot new Thai place last minute because I had a friend online who got us a good spot because he knew the owner.

  My phone started ringing. The Imperial March. Perfect cleaning music, or anytime music really. I'd left it out in the kitchen to charge while I'd been stripping the beds and tossing the sheets into the wash.

  "Hey honey," I said as soon as I picked up Lola's call. It was good that none of the others were around yet. If she heard anyone else in the house with me at two on a Friday afternoon she would know that something was up. If she heard the kids though, yeah we'd be screwed then. She'd know absolutely that there was going to be a party when she got home and then I would lose the element of surprise. We liked our parties.

  "I miss you." Lola sighed. She sounded tired.

  I wished that I was there. I would have rubbed her feet. I would have started her a bath. Anything to ease the suffering I heard in my girlfriend's voice.

  Going to the couch, I pulled my socked feet under me. My binder was starting to bug me. I should probably take it off early tonight. "I miss you too, love. Can I do anything to help?"

  "Tell me about your day maybe? It's been chaos here. Three people out sick. No one knows what they're supposed to be doing. It's like, since it's Friday, everyone has just lost their minds. I know it's a three day weekend, but there's still work to do."

  I instantly wanted to be there to help her in whatever way I could. I knew that my biggest way of helping was to keep the house clean but I wanted to do more. "I wish I could help you there."

  "I know. I wish you could too. I'd love to have you for a day in this office. You give the best massages, among other things."

  I chuckled a bit and felt my cheeks heat up with my blush. "I love doing those things for you." She'd asked me about my day, so I came up with some lies. "Today has been really quiet. I cleaned mostly. I saw a cat on the back fence. A pretty orange tabby. I hope it doesn't scare away the birds. I like seeing them come to the feeders all day. Hmm, I used a new combination in my floor cleaner concoction. It's lavender and lemon. Reminds me somehow of that trip that we took to Key West that one year. Remember? Right after Charlie had started on T?"

  Lola sighed wistfully. "I remember. The water was so warm. I miss it. Let's resolve to go on a trip like that again. Maybe we can go to Paris or something. We'll go somewhere beautiful and peaceful, just like that water was when we rented that beach house for two weeks and swam every single day."

  In that moment I wanted nothing more than to do that with her and all the other people I loved. "Let's do it."

  "Getting that much time off at this job is not going to be any easy feat, but I'll try."

  "Thank you." I knew she would. But I also knew that it would take a lot for her bosses to be able to say that they didn't need her for a few weeks. "I know we'd all love to see you for that long again. Those two weeks away were so special. And we really haven't taken a trip like that since and it's been three years. We're definitely overdo for some time away. Once you get a time that you could maybe do it the others will get that time off too."

  I shouldn't have said the rest of us, since I didn't actually have to get permission to have time off, but I'd said it anyway.

  "I think you're right. Actually, I know you are. I'll work something out when we're back at the office on Tuesday. What's for dinner? I barely had time for lunch between meetings today, though the salad you made me was lovely. Thank you for that."

  I was glad that she'd been able to enjoy it. I'd brought a little brightness into her otherwise dreary and taxing work day. "You're welcome. I was thinking about spaghetti tonight." I wasn't. It was a complete lie. But spaghetti was cheap and it was an easy meal to make to fill a crowd.

  "Do we have parmesan? I can pick some up on the way home."

  That was a good question, if we were actually having that for dinner. "Nope, we're good. You just come straight home. Be careful driving though. Obey speed limits."

  "And stop at all railroad crossings. I know. I'll be careful. I love you, Micah. You be good until the rest of us get home."

  "I will. I promise."

  "I have to go. I wish I could talk to you longer. I love you so much."

  "I love you too." I always had.

  "Bye, honey."

  "Bye." I hung up and kept my phone on my chest for a few moments as I fought back the urge to leave the house and go down to the bus stop and take the 15L across town to Lola's work. I could be there in thirty minutes. Maybe less this time of day since it was before people really started getting off work.

  But I had work to do at home. I still had cleaning to do. And I didn't want to get in trouble for leaving the beds stripped and no clean sheets put back on them. Giving Lola a foot rub would have to wait until tonight.

  Sasha

  I knew Micah was going to be home when I got there. And I also knew that I'd only have two very short hours with our sub before Lola would get home. I really needed more than that with him. We all went out together a lot, but I liked having smaller dates too and it had been weeks since just Micah and I had been out together. I had to get the decorations up, but also, I wanted some time with him. I dropped the bags of decorations right inside the front door and then I went in search of him. I really wished that we had more time together before the others got home, including the kids, because I was definitely interested in more than just decorating with him that afternoon.

  "Micah?" I called out.

  "Upstairs. This bathroom is filthy!"

  Five people shared it, even though we had a guest bath. It was the nicer, and larger, bathroom. I wasn't surprised it had gotten dirty since the last time he'd really scrubbed it clean. Which, if I had to guess, was probably just last week. He was great at keeping things clean, generally, and the best part was that he truly enjoyed it. We didn't ask him to get a job and he didn't need to. He contributed to our house by keeping it clean and beautiful.

  I found him on his hands and knees scrubbing the tile in the shower. He'd taken off his shirt at some point, leaving him in just his binder. "Hey you."

  He glanced back at me and smiled. "Did you get all the decorations?"

  "I did. They're downstairs. Wash up and come join me in the bedroom for a moment. You're done cleaning for right now. If you need to go back to something, you can do it later. But, Micah, the house is gorgeous and spotless. Any dirt won't be something that someone but you notices anyway."

  I walked away before he could argue with me. I was sure that there was probably something I was missing. There usually was. There'd be a speck of dirt or some smudge or something that bothered him enough to go clean it and that was fine. But we had other things to do right then.

  I went into the bedroom and to my section of the closet. I'd been wearing jeans, but even though they were nice jeans, they weren't what I wanted to be wearing for the party. I tossed my clothes in the dirty hamper and stood there in just a bra and panties. I'd only just picked out which dress I was going to wear that night when Micah came in.

  I caught the little lick of his lips as he looked me over. "I wish we had time too, believe me, but we don't." Not for anything fun the way I wa
nted to at least. "On your knees by the bed."

  He didn't question me, though his eyes did get a bit wider. I could guess where he was going with it, and that wasn't where I needed his thoughts to be. We had a little jewelry box on the dresser and I went to it. Simple, black, and made of hand carved wood. I ran my fingers over the simple celtic design on top before opening it up.

  "With the kids here tonight, we need to change your collar into something a bit less noticeable."

  I pulled a thick silver chain from his jewelry box and turned around to find him touching the simple nylon one around his neck.

  He didn't look happy about it one bit, but he had to know that it had to be done. "I know we need to. But I like my everyday collar," he quietly said.

  Rubbing his short hair, I sat down on the bed beside where he knelt. "I know you do. And I like it too. But the kids are a little young to start understanding that dynamic of our relationship. I'm actually really surprised how cool they are with five adults being in love." I slid my hand down his cheek to his neck. "I'm going to unclip it now. The other collar, your silver one, is going to go right on. You'll only be without a collar for a few seconds, if that, and you can hold your everyday collar while I put your other one on okay?"

  He nodded and leaned forward, resting his forehead on my thigh as I unclipped the little plastic buckle on his collar. It had been his first one with us. No wonder it was so special to him. It was to all of us too. He lifted his hand for it and I gave the collar to him instantly. It was his. He could hang onto it for as long as he wanted to.

  I was quick to slip the cool metal around his neck and then clip it together at the nape of his neck. He breathed again. We'd never once withheld a collar from him, but the feeling of being without the collar wasn't about that. I ran my hands through his hair and I was glad that we'd done this first instead of focusing on the decorations. They could wait. This was my time with Micah and that was more important right now.

  We stayed like that, with me running my fingers through his hair, for a good ten minutes. It was time I was glad to spend with him and it wasn't wasted at all. When he was ready to get up again he handed his everyday collar back to me and then he sat back on his heels. I leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss. I lingered on his lips, happily taking his affection as he gave it.