Innocent Milf Ch. 19

Chapter 19

It was still dark outside when I woke up. Cary was still draped over me, but she was now also tangled in the sheets somehow, and smiling to herself in her sleep. We had left the dimmed lights on, and the sounds of the radio that I had completely forgotten still filtered through the air. The music had changed from light jazz piano to classic 60's rock.

I had to pee.

Slowly, trying not to wake Cary, I disentangled myself and crept towards the bathroom, pausing to turn off the lights and radio on my way. Once I had finished, I started back towards the bed, suddenly wondering if I had gone too far in my last round. Cary had been smoking hot--volcanically hot. It didn't seem as if she had been alarmed by it. And she sure seemed to have enjoyed it as much as I did.

I wondered if that was what my past girlfriends had meant by "enthusiastic."

The glint of dimmed lights reflected off the gold-plated faucets and spigot of the recessed tub in the bathroom, and I had an idea. Moving as quietly as I could back to the main bedroom, I looked at the clock. Not quite 5:00 am. Perfect.

I closed the bathroom door and turned on the water, hoping it wasn't so loud behind the door that it would disturb Cary. I cracked the door and stole a glance towards her. She was stirring slowly in bed, her beautiful wavy auburn locks falling over her face and her graceful limbs stretching out from under the sheets.

"Matt?" her voice was muffled and sleepy.

"Here," I answered. "I'm here." I left the bathroom, closed the door behind me, and padded over to her, touching her hair. It felt like a dream. It still felt like a dream. Cary Bernham had chosen me, and we had screwed like horny rabbits only a few hours ago. Cary's fingers closed around my wrist.

"Cold," she murmured. "Come back."

I chuckled, not completely awake myself, but amused by her groggy demands. I slipped back under the covers and stretched out beside her. She promptly wriggled up against me and stuck her feet against my legs--they were colder than I had expected. I twisted over towards her, my slowly-stiffening penis against her lower back, and her feet planted on my lower thighs.

She made a happy sound and ground back into me. Then, after a few minutes tossing and turning, she sat up, pulling the sheets with her. "I, um... I'll be back," she said apologetically. I smirked in understanding. It was amazing watching her lithe, naked form moving across the room, trailing the sheets she had pilfered.

After a few minutes, the door cracked. Cary's tousled head poked out of it. "The bathtub is filling up," she said, her tone making it nearly a question.

I sat up. "I figured it would be nice for us," I answered. "And I'm not tired anyway."

Even in the dark, I could see Cary's pretty, radiant smile. She dropped the sheet at her feet and walked towards me, hips moving back and forth with unconscious sensuous rhythm. "I'd like that. Come here, handsome."

We made a pretty big mess. First we made love in the bathtub, and then again on the edge of the bed, with Cary leaning forward on her hands while I stood behind her and held her hips. I almost fell asleep again, but by then it was nearly 7:00, so we reluctantly rinsed off again in the shower, and then climbed back into our clothing from the night before. I gave Cary my jacket to wear over her dress.

Breakfast was paid for with the room, as was the shuttle back home. While we ate, we talked.

Cary was shy at first--it seemed kind of silly to me after we had seen each other naked and repeatedly had sex in multiple ways. But as the sunlight filtered through and the sense of timelessness that had started with Ty's party started to fade, we found ourselves sitting next to each other in a booth in a sun-dappled resort restaurant, munching on excellent but ordinary breakfast.

"Are you alright?" I asked after a bit. "You're quiet, even for you."

Cary smiled nervously. "Just thoughtful. We had... we had an amazing night." She looked over at me with shrewd, clear eyes. "It's the best night I've ever had with a man. And I want to have more of them."

I grabbed her hand. "Me too," I replied.

Her smile was huge and relieved. "Good. And you know, in the heat of the moment, I understand if--"

"Was it too much?" I asked, my concerns suddenly sharp in my chest.

She shook her head. "No. No, are you kidding? I just meant that if you said some things that you didn't really mean--"

"I love you," I interrupted her. Her mouth snapped closed, and then open again. And then closed. Her smile was so genuine and unguarded that I found myself grinning like an idiot. But I repeated it. "I love you. It wasn't just the moment. You're great, and I want to be with you." I was so happy I wanted to get up and run in circles like a little kid. Cary, on the other hand, seemed to relax even further.

"I love you, too," she said.

We finished our food, and as we sipped our tea, she raised an eyebrow at me. "You certainly got excited, didn't you?"

I flushed, but made myself raise an eyebrow in response rather than chortling like a dummy. "You gave me some pretty specific instructions," I said. "You have no idea how hot you were when you said that. I'm lucky to have lasted as long as I did." Now it was her turn to blush, and I smiled widely. "How are you still so shy?" I asked. "You always seem so innocent."

"Just how I was raised, I guess," Cary murmured, waving her hand as if to dismiss the question.

"I like it," I said. "It makes everything with you so much fun. Like you're discovering things for the first time each time. Whether it's knife-fighting or hiking or strip poker."

"Shush," Cary giggled, smacking me. "There's people here."

"I guess this can't be every night," I murmured, glancing over the opulence that was usually far beyond my reach. A handful of hours each week at a secondhand CD store wasn't going to get an experience like this again.

Cary stared into the distance. "We have weekends," she said. "And whatever time we can grab in between." She heaved a sigh. "Oh, Matt. What are we going to tell Jack?"

"I don't know yet," I sighed as well. "Probably nothing until your divorce is finalized in a couple of weeks. We don't want to add any complications to the process, right? Gotta get you legally free and clear of Eric."

I glanced over at Cary, and she was deathly white and shaking.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" I grabbed her hands, and they were ice-cold. I pulled her close to me.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "I'm an adulteress."

I couldn't help but smile. Even after a night of sexy partying and everything we had done with, to, and for each other, she was still hung up on a piece of paper. I placed her teacup into her cold fingers. "It's okay. You haven't done anything wrong," I said. "You've been separated for months. Your promise was made to somebody who had no intention of honoring it himself, and the actual paperwork--which is mostly a formality--is just a couple of weeks away." I cupped her face in my hands and looked into her eyes. "Do you feel like you cheated?"

Tears welled up in Cary's eyes, but she shook her head slowly. "No. I feel like this is right. I love you."

I breathed deep. "Okay. Let's head back home and act normal for a few days. I'll talk to Sascha and Liss and ask them to keep a lid on things until you have all the I's dotted and the T's crossed, just to make sure this doesn't mess up any custody."

Cary flung her arms around me and squeezed me tight. We sat like that for what seemed simultaneously like forever and no time at all. Then we got up, talked to the concierge, and got our shuttle back home. We rode together most of the way, talking about everyday stuff like who was driving to the next knife practice, how many hours I'd be picking up at work over the summer, and what we'd need to do to get ready for the Rendezvous next month.

As if we hadn't spent hours luxuriously making love and frantically fucking.

As if everything hadn't completely changed.

* * * * *

Mom and Dad were putting the dishes away from breakfast when I arrived home.

"I understand we done had a visit from our local lawmen last night," Dad said in a faux-Western drawl by way of greeting.

It took me a moment to follow him. It was his way to speak in a sort of detached ironic cowboy mode when he wasn't sure how to approach things. Ever since I'd learned nobody else's dad talked like that, I'd found it incredibly weird. And truth to tell, I had nearly forgotten about Eric's appearance at the party.

"Oh, yeah." I jammed my hands in my pockets. "He didn't do anything dangerous. He was just sort of drunk and grumpy. He doesn't like how much time Cary spends with Jack and I."

Dad looked at me keenly. "And...?"

"And I told him to get out of here, or we'd call the police. He had no business here. I don't even know how he knew this was our house. There must be a dozen Bakers in town." As I said it out loud, the question bothered me even more. I had just assumed that he somehow rifled through some of Cary's personal papers at one point. "Liss called the cops to be safe, and they said that since nothing really happened, they couldn't do anything."

Mom snorted. "Typical. They'd need to a be watching an actual murder happen in front of them before they did anything." She'd never really trusted police since her college days in the sixties.

Dad didn't disagree. Instead, he nodded slowly. "Okay. That's what Liss said happened, too. What were her exact words, Joyce?"

Mom put her hands on her hips. "Sent that abusive prick packing, I believe. I didn't know Cary's husband was abusing her. Why didn't you tell us?"

"It's barely my business," I said. "And I didn't think she'd appreciate me making it your business. She can handle that jerk. I don't think he hits her--he's just a controlling asshole. Anyway, their divorce is final soon and hopefully she doesn't have to worry about him much afterwards."

"Those poor kids," my mom murmured. But then her jaw clenched. "But good for her. Now, let's take a look at you." She swept a critical eye up and down my slightly rumpled tuxedo and general appearance and then crossed her arms. "Well, I would have expected you to look worse after a night of carousing," she said. "No drugs, right? Nothing we need to be worried about?"

I shook my head. "I had a couple of drinks," I admitted.

Her eyebrows shot up. "Well, at least you're admitting it. What else did you guys do?"

I thought over things; most of them could be sanitized. "We played a superspy game with Nerf dart guns in his parents' hedge maze," I volunteered. "The winner got take a helicopter ride."

"Did you win?" Dad asked, poking his head out from the refrigerator.

"No. But I did pretty well. We played poker. I didn't win anything, but I didn't lose either." I thought things over. "Ty had a bunch of James Bond movies playing on TVs through his house. People danced and played trivia games."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," Mom said suspiciously. "What aren't you telling us?"

I laughed. "Nothing terrible, and nothing you'd be happier knowing. No drugs, nothing dangerous and nothing irresponsible or illegal. It was just a rich kids' graduation party. I thought I'd feel like the poor cousin, but tuxedoes have a way of evening the playing field." I thought about Miles and his flawlessly-fitted tux. "Well, mostly."

Dad came close and looked at me. "Well, you don't look high, and you don't smell drunk. I'll admit we were a little concerned when your car came back without you in it last night."

"I thought I'd take advantage of the chauffeur," I answered. "And I planned to be up most of the night, and figured driving home so tired would be a bad idea."

Mom frowned, her bullshit detectors clearly registering a small hit. "That's unusually forward-thinking for somebody your age," she said guardedly. Without pursuing it further, she changed tacks. "I assume you and your friends already had breakfast somewhere."

"Yep." I pulled my bowtie off and unsnapped my cummerbund. "Ready to get out of this thing," I said. "And take a quick nap. Are there plans for the day?"

Both my parents smiled in cautious relief now that it didn't appear that I had been shooting up heroin. I felt a little guilty thinking about how they might have reacted knowing the rest of the story. "We knew better than that," Dad said. "If you're awake later, I assume you'll want to go hang out with your other friends and brag about the rich kids' party."

"I might want to just hang out here for a bit," I said, suddenly realizing how comforting the normalcy of our house was after the wonderful, crazy night I'd had. Uncle Liam and Grandma Baker were still going to be in town for a few days as well, and I felt like I should spend some time with them, too.

"Okay, now I'm worried," Mom joked. I waved at them and went up to my room. As perfect as it had been to fall asleep next to Cary, I knew that only a few hours of sleep was going to catch up with me at some point. I nearly walked directly into Liss as I turned to head to my room. She caught me by the shoulders and halfway body-checked me aside.

"Hey," I said. "Talk later?"

She gave me a hard look. Not angry, but cool. "Sure. Get some rest."

I barely remembered stumbling into my room, peeling off my tux, and collapsing into bed. I woke up around noon, hungry and full of a sense of anticipation. I stretched, yawned, and did some quick sit-ups and pushups. Then, throwing on a shirt and jeans, I went in search of food and my sister.

Liss was sitting out on the back porch. At first I busied myself picking up some of the detritus from the night before. My party may not have been as impressive as Ty's, but it had been my party, and I would remember it for a long time. Liss watched me for several minutes in silence, and then walked over, holding a trash bag.

"Trash patrol," she announced. We had done this countless times as kids, so I knew the drill. We walked to the back of the yard and would zig-zag back and forth in a pattern, picking up any trash we found and throwing it into the bag. As we reached the back fence, Liss put her hands on her hips. "Out with it. What happened last night? And don't bother telling me 'nothing.'"

I picked up a half-crushed Pepsi can. "How much did you hear what I told Mom and Dad?"

"Pretty much everything." Liss opened the trash bag for me to toss the can into. "How much of that was actually true?"

"All of it!" I said indignantly. "There was some sexy truth-or-dare, and the poker was strip poker. Otherwise, it was what I said."

"No drugs? No excessive drinking?" Liss frowned. "What are you hiding? How did things go with you and Miss--with Cary?" A stupid grin worked its way onto my face, and Liss swore. "Fuck. I knew it! You didn't wait a single day, did you? Just let your endorphins, hormones, and alcohol do the thinking for you. I thought she might know better, at least."

I had expected her to disapprove, but it still hurt. I took a deep breath--she was trying to look after me. "This was hardly a last-second development," I said. "We've known each other for nine months. It's been a long time coming, to be honest. Just neither of us wanted to admit it to ourselves."

Liss huffed and jammed an ice cream sandwich wrapper into the trash bag vehemently. "Sounds like a justification to me," she said. "I was about to say that I can't believe you didn't have more sense than this, but I can believe it."

"What's got you so angry about this?" I nearly snapped. "It's not like I haven't had girlfriends before. And it's not like you haven't had relationships, either. Is it the age thing? Because I seriously don't care about that, and it's nobody else's business."

The expression on my older sister's face moved between angry and troubled, but came to finally rest on the latter. "No. Not really. She has kids, and I'd hate to think that you'd be part of screwing up their lives. But I know your heart is in the right place, and you'd probably be better than any number of older guys who could have been in the same position."

"And what position is that?" I asked, working hard to keep the heat from my voice.

"The rebound guy," Liss said flatly. "You might not realize how cliché it is for a divorced woman to have a fling with a younger guy to prove to herself that she still 'has it.' Cary doesn't seem like that sort of person, but who can tell?"

"I can," I answered confidently. "Cary is special. And getting into a relationship just to 'prove that she still has it' would be so out of character for her that I really can't even imagine it." Something didn't fit. "It's not just that, is it? What's bothering you?"

"The ex-husband," Liss growled. "You have no idea how dangerous guys like that can be."

"Did he come back last night?" I asked, suddenly concerned.

"No. At least, I don't think so. But if he were to find out somehow that you two... that you spent the night together yesterday... I think you're playing with fire, here." Liss looked as if she might actually break into angry tears.

So that was it. She wasn't angry at me--she was worried. Worried that Eric would do something dangerous. "He's a spineless, abusive backstabber," I said. "I don't know what he could do to me. He doesn't have any power over me. He's just a mid-level manager for a business downtown. He'll probably just use anything he suspects as a reason to go sleep around with somebody else, anyway."

Liss looked doubtful. "People who are used to getting what they want can get pretty shitty when they get pushback," she said. "He might be a backstabber type with Cary, but who knows how he'd react to another guy moving in on 'his' territory. Be careful. And don't be stupid and obvious about it."

"If I get in trouble, I'll just ask you to beat him up," I smirked. "It'll be like kindergarten all over again."

Liss barked a surprised laugh. "That little jerk had no idea what hit him!"

"As I recall, you didn't give him time," I grinned. My first bully had appeared when I was only six years old, and my righteously indignant sister had stormed onto the playground and pounded the absolute snot out of a terrified Leo Bosko who had been shoving me into the ladder leading up the school slide.

We picked up trash in silence for several minutes until the yard looked almost respectable. I found two missing mandolin picks, cracked and dirty beyond usefulness. Finally, I looked at Liss. "I do love her," I said. "And if I were you, I'd tell me that I'm just eighteen and horny and infatuated. And that all might also be true. Is definitely true. And what you said last night isn't wrong. There's history. But we'll work it out."

Liss nodded slowly. "I believe that you want to," she said. "So... what?"

"We're going to pump the brakes a little bit until her divorce is fully finalized," I said. "She's probably going on vacation with her kids pretty soon anyway. We talked about it, and we don't want anything jeopardizing custody talks."

"Smart," Liss answered. "So, is this your way of asking me not to tell Mom and Dad?"

"Yep." I took a deep breath. "Or Jack."

Now Liss frowned. "Keeping a secret from your mutual best friend isn't a great way to start things" she warned.

"I know. But we need to figure out how we're going to break it to him. You know Jack. He can be sort of... close-minded sometimes. Not prejudiced, but super convinced that his way is the best way, and that everybody else is wrong. His first answer to a lot of ideas is 'no' until he's thought it over." I frowned at myself. Describing my best friend this way sounded like character assassination. "Normally none of that is a big deal, but I feel like this time we need to have a plan."

"Let's see how having a plan helps you," Liss replied cynically. "This is a big enough deal that it might be better to just rip the Band-Aid off right away."

I surprised Liss with a hug. "Thank you. I know it's not really fair, dumping all of this on you and asking you to look after things last night."

She froze for a second, then tousled my hair. "Forget it, Shrimp. You're like a factory for bad ideas, but Cary is a good catch. Like I said, too good for you. I hope it works out. I really do." She pushed me at arm's length. "But let's get this straight. I'm not going to cover for you with Mom and Dad. I won't tell them, but I'm not going to lie about where you are and what you're doing, either."

I shook my head. "I won't ask you to. And I won't lie to them. I hang out with Cary all the time anyway. I don't tell them every single thing we do normally: I'll just be leaving more out from now on."

My big sister regarded me critically. "Be careful," she reiterated. "And let me know if you need somebody to be punched."

* * * * *

Sascha met me at the mall. She looked furious.

"You better have a fucking good reason for doing what you did," she snarled. I was so taken aback, I sat still, stunned. I had never seen Sascha angry before.

"I--what?" I stammered. "What did I do?"

"I talked to C," she said, slamming down at the food court table across from me. "She said you were making nice with some hot college chick named Jane you'd just met. What the fuck was all of that with Miss Bernham, then? Were you just leading her on?! I thought you two were heading towards something."

The situation was so absurd, I actually laughed. "Funny, that's what Cary said about you and me several months ago. Wait--C? Your friend C who gives you good advice about men?" The pieces snapped together. "C for 'Carla!'"

Sascha nodded, eyes narrowing. "Talk."

Relieved, I sat back. "No secret. The hot college girl was Cary. I put in a fake name for her on the guest list and told everybody that she was a recent college graduate so that none of this would ever get back to her sleazy ex-husband." My smile stretched across my whole face. "You should have seen her. She was a total knockout. Everybody there said so."

Sascha uncrossed her arms and gave me a quizzical look. "For real? No kidding on this? Because if you break that lady's heart, I am never hanging out with you again, Matt Baker."

I held up my hands. "Easy with that last name, there! Them's fightin' words." But my smile didn't slip. "But yes, for real. Cary and I are going out. I hope for a long time. A really long time. I actually wanted to talk to you to ask you not to tell anybody until her divorce is finalized on paper."

A look of relief washed over Sascha as she blew out a long sigh. "Sorry, Matt. I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I figured you wanted to meet me to brag about all the naughty fun you had yesterday. C told me that your plus one had won a vacation to Puerto Vallarta, and that you two were absolutely adorable around each other."

"What made you think I was with somebody else?" I asked.

"Who would expect Miss Bernham to get all dressed up and go to a sex party?" she asked, throwing her hands up in the air. "I don't know her as well as you, but she seems kind of tight-laced about stuff like that."

I almost answered Less than you'd think, but decided that Cary would rather I not correct Sascha. Instead, I said, "Neither of us knew it was a sex party until about halfway through. They kept saying 'play' and we totally thought it was something else. I think if I'd known what the assumptions were up front, I would have been too embarrassed to even be there."

Sascha looked back and forth, and then back at me, as if seeing me for the first time that day now that she wasn't mad at me. "Hey, why aren't you eating?" she asked.

"Uh... I kind of gave my last cash to a limo driver," I said. "And I don't get paid until next Friday. So, I just came here to talk to you."

Sascha stood abruptly. "Let's walk and talk. I'll buy you a snack." As I opened my mouth, she help up a hand. "Spare me your male-dominated notions of chivalry. Also, I won a little bet because of you, so in a way, you've already sort of earned this."

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked.

"It means that once you told me that you were going to Tyler Salinger's graduation party, and that I knew that my friend C and her boyfriend were also going, I made a bet." Sascha gave me a mischievous elfin grin, and I was suddenly reminded that she had once thought nothing of bringing a guy she'd just met into the deep woods to seduce him for sex magic.

"Whopper with cheese, no onions," I said. "And fries. And Coke. And then you can tell me how you manipulated me again."

Sascha looked hurt. "I didn't manipulate you this time! I just counted on knowing you pretty well. It turns out I was right."

We paused our conversation to grab food, and then wandered towards the fountains in the middle of the mall, near the Disney Store and across from Sam Goody's.

"All right," I said through a mouthful of fries. "Want to tell me what your bet was?"

"Mmmm." Sascha took a bite of her Frosty. "So, I asked C to snoop around a little with your friend Tyler. I didn't realize that he was the bass player for your bluegrass band. Once I knew you were invited to his party, I had already heard from C that there was going to be a big James Bond themed sex-party just for special guests within the bigger party, and that you were on the tentative guest list."

I did some more connecting of dots. "That explains why Carla recognized me so quickly and knew you were my friend," I said.

"Yeah. Well, nobody knew who your plus one was going to be. To be honest, I was kind of hoping you'd ask me." Sascha gave me a mild glare. "But you proved pretty resistant to even the most persistent hints."

"Sorry," I muttered. I hadn't picked up on even the tiniest suggestion that Sascha wanted to be invited. I must have been completely oblivious.

Sascha waved a dismissive hand. "I'm over it. I've been over it for a couple of weeks. It seemed more and more obvious to me that you were going to invite Miss Bernham, anyway."

"Come on," I protested. "You couldn't possibly have known that. I didn't know it until I had the idea last night. It was a spontaneous gesture."

"You also didn't know I'd been hinting for weeks about the party," Sascha said with a roll of her eyes. "So maybe let's just accept that I'm the more perceptive one in this conversation, hmmmm?"

I was too amused to be insulted. I was also used to being the perceptive one among my guy friends, and said as much. Sascha just smiled indulgently, as if I were a toddler showing off a crayon drawing I'd made.

"Anyway," she said, "I told C that this friend of mine had fallen hard for this artsy cougar-type, and that there was no way he'd end up going to their orgy at the end of things. Not even no-strings-attached one-time sex. We bet a little money on it. She was pretty sure she could make you crack."

Carla's behavior suddenly made more sense, as did her disappointment that Cary and I decided not to join the rest of the group for 'play' after the games. "Big assumption for somebody who met me through no-strings-attached one-time sex," I smirked.

Sascha shrugged. "Not really. It was obvious even then that you liked Miss Bernham. But you'd just met her recently. It's been half a year since then, and with anybody who has eyes to see, you two have been more and more moving towards this."

"Crap." I was suddenly anxious. "We haven't told Jack yet. Do you think he--"

"Absolutely not," Sascha laughed. "He's sweet and smart in his own way--at least according to Jenna. She is melting in-love with him. But he has no idea. She told me this morning that he actually said after their sex last night that he was worried about you not having a girlfriend."

I flushed. "Hey... that sounds private. I don't think I need to hear what my best friend is saying to his girlfriend after sex. I'm not even sure why she told you that." It occurred to me that Sascha was tangentially connected to several other points in my life that I never would have guessed. I wondered if there were any other of my friends that she kept tabs on.

As if I had asked aloud, she answered. "I look after you, you know." She said it very matter-of-factly. "Jenna knows that I keep an eye on what you're up to."

I laughed a little uncertainly. "What a spymaster you are. You really should have been at Ty's party last night."

Sascha leaned forward, wiggling her fingers and hunching. "Just call me Spider-Lady at the center of my web." Then she sat back and chucked. "Mostly I just liked making friends when I was in junior high, and I keep up with them. They've all gone separate ways and to separate schools, and I'm sort of the thread connecting them."

A thought popped into my head. "Hey. Who do you talk to when you have problems? You seem to be a lot of folks' go-to. Do you have somebody to be your go-to?"

She looked thoughtful. "I guess you're probably the closest. I don't often tell other people my problems. It's not their business. And it makes me feel better to help other people. I think that the Earth Goddess would approve of the balance in that."

"Well, it's not my business what Jack says to his girlfriend after they've just... you know." I leaned back.

"Whatever. It was just to illustrate a point." Sascha took another spoonful of Frosty as she bounced a leg over her knee. "When are you going to tell him?"

"I don't know. This is sort of a big deal. Finding out two of your best friends are sleeping with each other..." I stood up. "I think I need to talk to Cary. This seems like it should be sorted out sooner rather than later. And if you ever need to talk about things, my lips are sealed. You have no idea how much it means to me that you were ready to kick my butt for Cary's sake."

Sascha gave me an appraising glance. "I hope it works out," she said. "I'm rooting for both of you. In fact," she continued, "I believe I'll go cast some good luck love-spells for you two. Every little bit helps."

I drove back home in a mix of hope and mild concern. Both Liss and Sascha were on my side. But Cary and I had to figure out how to let Jack know. I'd invite her over "to play games" this evening and we could quietly talk things over while videogames made some cover sounds.

And after that... who knew? We'd just see how the night developed.