The Muse: MMF Bisexual Romance

by A. Anders

  Mars sprang up when he saw his father grab his mother. They had been arguing but now his father had her by the shoulders and was shaking her. What the hell was he doing? Mars was craning his neck to see when his father reeled back and struck is mother across the face.

  Mars gasped in horror. What was he watching? Before he had a chance to react, his father struck his mother again.

  Rage bubbled within Mars. As if possessed, Mars flung open his car door and rocketed towards the house. Knowing how he was going to get in, he lowered his shoulder and steamed forward. Hitting the door he bounced back. Incensed, he repositioned himself and hit it harder. The lock exploded through the door frame, and the door sprung open.

  In a blind fury, Mars searched the room for his father. Finding him still violently clutching his mother, Mars shot towards him. His father, staring at his long lost son in shock, didn’t move. That didn’t stop Mars. With all of his strength, Mars grabbed the much bigger man and wrestled his mother free.

  Though momentarily stunned, his father quickly gathered himself and retaliated. Mars’ father squirmed and struck at his son. Mars replied by dragging his father around the room eventually throwing him onto a wall.

  The move staggered the older man. But no stranger to a fight, the larger man gathered himself and lunged after Mars. Grabbing Mars by the torso, he pushed Mars until he was backed into a table against a wall. Mars coughed robbed of breath.

  Quickly regaining his bearing, Mars focused his sights on the gray-haired man and struck. Striking him downwards across the shoulders, his father couldn’t react. Hitting him again and again, the memories of his childhood surfaced. The coldness, the verbal abuse, being thrown out of the house, it all fueled Mars as he beat his father off of him and then violently threw him to the ground.

  Lost in a maelstrom of rage, Mars let loose with everything he had. Hitting him again and again, he thought about everything he had gone through at the hands of his father and for the resulting life that Mars couldn’t now escape.

  As his father reacted less, Mars began to realize that he was going to kill his father. That hadn’t been what he had planned to do, but there was no containing his fury now. Helpless to moment, Mars landed his blows like a club. Just wanting it to be over, Mars swung harder and heavier until out of nowhere, someone stopped his arm and wrapped his body in an embrace.

  “Let me go,” Mars screamed. “Let me go. He deserves this.”

  “What are you doing, Mars?” The voice boomed inches from Mars’ ear.

  “Let me go. You don’t know who he is,” Mars explained.

  “This isn’t you,” the now familiar voice replied.

  “This is me. I am the man he made me.”

  “Listen to me, Mars. This isn’t you.”

  “This is me.”

  “No, it isn’t. Because this isn’t the man I love.”

  Hearing those words, Mars relented. Who was this? Slowly searching his mind he put a face the voice. “Brik?”

  “It’s me, Mars,” Brik confirmed.

  Stunned, almost all of Mars’ rage drifted away. He twisted his neck trying to see Brik. Seeing Mars was calmer, Brik let him go.

  Free, Mars spun around to see his lover. Confused, he stared. He couldn’t straighten things out in his mind. How was Brik standing in his childhood living room? How had his two lives converged?

  “What are you doing here?” Mars asked befuddled.

  “We were worried about you. We came looking for you,” Brik explained.

  “We?” Mars asked before scanning the room.

  Spotting Cara, Mars had no idea what to say. What was she doing there? None of this made any sense. What the hell was going on?

  “How did you know to come here?” Mars asked desperately.

  “It was Cara. She remembered you telling her that this is where you would come to think. It was the only place we knew to look.”

  Still not understanding what was going on, Mars shook his head trying to get clarity. “But, what are you doing here? Why did you come?”

  Brik stepped forward and grabbed Mars by the shoulders. “I made a mistake the way I treated you. I treated you like you don’t matter. You are all that matters to me. I’ve done things that hurt you. I know I have. But I need you to know that I love you. I’m not perfect, but I do love you. I needed to tell you that.”

  Mars looked around trying to understand what he was hearing. Brik loved him? Could that mean what he thought it did?

  Mars then looked at Cara seeking her explanation for being there. Cara saw the yearning in his face and gave him an answer.

  “From the moment you two left, I felt like my heart had been ripped from me. I tried to get over it. I couldn’t. I was no longer alive without you two.

  “But then I received your package, this shirt. You didn’t write who it was from, but I had to come to Los Angeles to find you two. I found Brik, and now here we are for you.”

  Mars staggered around the room. He felt as if he had been punched drunk. All of this had been too much. He looked around capturing the gaze of his startled mother. Barely recognizing the woman, Mars turned his attention to his fallen father. His rage bubbled up again.

  “Did you hear that, dad? He loves me. He loves me!” Mars shouted. “Why couldn’t you love me? Huh? Why couldn’t any of you love me?”

  Neither of his parents replied.

  “Figures,” Mars said as his mind cleared. “Come, Mom. I’m getting you away from him.”

  With a new sense of purpose, Mars took hold of his mother’s arm and pulled her towards the door.

  “Wait,” the older woman’s soft voice squeaked desperately. “Wait, I can’t go with you.”

  Startled, Mars stopped and stared at her. “What do you mean you can’t go with me? How many times has he done this to you? You can’t stay here? You have to know he’s a monster. I won’t let him do this to you again.”

  “You don’t understand. You haven’t been here,” his mother said sorrowfully. “He hasn’t always been like this. You know that. He had his faults but this isn’t him.”

  Mars looked at his mother stunned. “What are you doing? Are you defending him? Are you defending him after I watched him hit you?”

  “But, you don’t understand.”

  “What I understand is that he threw his sixteen-year-old son out of the house with nowhere to go all because I was in love with someone. Are you going to defend that too?”

  “No, son. And neither would he. And that man that you saw is the result of doing that horrible thing he did to you. But, it wasn’t just him who did it. I let him. I let him do that to my loving baby boy. How could I do that?” His mother asked reaching up and holding Mars’ face between her hands.

  Feeling the touch that he had longed to feel for so long, he reached up and wrapped his hands around her wrists. “How could you do that, mom? I was just a kid in love.”

  “Because I’m a monster,” she said heartbroken. “And your father, your father is a monster. We both did this to you and we deserve each other. But you don’t deserve us. You deserve so much more.

  “Leave us to our hell, son. It looks like you have your own family now. I’m so happy that you found it. My boy is being loved. How could I ask any more than that? It’s more than I deserve to know.

  “I’m so sorry, son. I’m so sorry about what we did to you. You didn’t deserve it. You deserve them,” his mother said looking behind her at Brik and Cara. “Go be with them, son. And if you could ever feel it in your heart to forgive us, the both of us, then please come back.”

  Mars watched as his mother broke down into tears overcome by her guilt. Unsure if he should feel abandoned for a final time, Mars looked over at Brik. He had been in love with Brik for a long time. He had been in love with Cara too, but not for nearly as long.

  As a final plea for recognition, Mars pointed at Cara’s flannel shirt and turned back to his parents. “I made that. Do you see what she’s wearing? I designed that. I beca
me a brilliant clothing designer and I did all that without you.”

  His mother, who had made her way to her husband’s side, tightened her lips in acknowledgment. Mars couldn’t tell for sure, but she seemed impressed.

  “I made that,” Mars said again before giving up and turning towards the darkness of the night.

  Chapter 13

  Mars

  As the cold air hit Mars, he felt two arms wrap around him. Turning to look, he found Brik on one side of him and Cara on the other. He still wasn’t sure how either of them had found him or what they were doing there, but he was certainly glad that they were.

  Brik loaded Mars into his car and the three of them drove off. Not wanting to go too far, they pulled in when they spotted a twenty-four hour diner. Parking and going in, the three slid into a booth.

  “I’m sorry,” Brik said. “I had no idea.”

  “There is nothing to be sorry about,” Mars told him feeling drained.

  “There is. I treated you like you were my possession. I was the one who kept you and Cara apart.”

  Mars looked up at Brik confused. “What are you talking about? You were the one who forced the two of us together.”

  Brik looked at Cara. “Perhaps. But I think I was also the one that kept you two from being together. It was clear to me how much you liked her and I was jealous. So I used her to get what I wanted from you, and I told her that she shouldn’t sleep with you again.”

  “You did what?” Mars asked stunned.

  “I made a deal with her so that she would become your muse, but I made the condition that she couldn’t have sex with you.”

  “You two made a deal?”

  “Yes, but she didn’t agree to it. She fought me every step of the way. It wasn’t her fault that you two weren’t together. It was mine.”

  “Wait, you two made a deal about who would have sex with me?” Mars asked disgusted.

  “But, she fought for you. She inspired you. Don’t blame her for anything I did. And it was me who did this.

  “I haven’t treated you right. Be angry at me if you want, I deserve it. But please don’t take it out on Cara. I believe she loves you.”

  Mars looked at Cara bewildered. For a moment it looked like he would embrace Cara giving her no blame in where it had all ended up, but that’s not what happened.

  “So, was everything that I felt for you in my head?” Mars asked Cara. “Was it all just pretend? Were you just using me too?”

  “No, I liked you. From the first time we were together, I liked you so much,” Cara explained.

  “Then, what did you get in turn for making me fall in love with you? What deal did you two make? Don’t lie to me anymore. Tell me. What did you get for toying with my emotions?”

  “I got a contract for my family’s brewing company to distribute beer in the resort,” Cara said lowering her head.

  “I see.”

  Mars fell back onto his chair and looked down. His heart ached. With a lifetime of betrayal swirling around in his head, he couldn’t take anymore.

  “I want you two to leave me,” Mars said calmly.

  “But…” Brik began to say.

  “Please, just leave,” Mars insisted.

  Both Cara and Brik hesitated.

  “Just go. Please! Go!” Mars begged.

  “Let’s go,” Cara said softly touching Brik forearm.

  “But…” Brik began again.

  “No. He’s right. We should go,” Cara said looking sadly into Brik’s eyes.

  Without another word, Brik and Cara excused themselves from the table and walked away. Mars watched through the window as the two got into Brik’s car and drove off. Again feeling very alone, Mars rested his head on the table. And with the weight of the world on his shoulders, Mars cried.

  Chapter 14

  Cara

  6 AM the next morning, Cara and Brik were back at the hotel having breakfast. Neither had said very much on their drive back. Cara wasn’t even sure if there was anything to say.

  Pushing the eggs around on her plate, she looked up when Brik broke the silence.

  “Would you like a job?” Brik asked surprising Cara.

  “I already have a job.”

  “I know, but do you love it?”

  As exhausted as she was, she had to smile. No, she did not love her job. She never had. Her lack of motivation for it was what gained her the reputation of being a screw-up.

  “What did you have in mind? Is there someone else you wanted me to muse?”

  Brik didn’t react. “How would you like to run a clothing company?”

  “Wait, what? Are you… Are you gonna replace Mars?” Cara asked distressed.

  “Replace? No. There is no one who could replace Mars at what he’s good at. No. Our plan always was that once it was set up, we would bring in someone to run it.

  “Mars is a clothing designer. That’s what he loves to do. As much as it hurts that he’s stepped away from us for now, his part in setting up the company is done.”

  “So you’re just gonna get rid of him?”

  “No. Of course not. But I have invested a lot of money into this project. I can’t just abandon it because Mars is going through something. Besides, you saw how proud he was when he told his parents that he had designed your shirt. I’m sure he wants the company to succeed as much as I do. At the same time, we need to give him the space that he needs.”

  “But, what do I know about running a clothing company?”

  “What did I know about running a hotel? Smart people figure these things out. And you, Cara Reeder, are very smart. Besides, if you run it, we’ll be keeping the company within the family,” Brik told her with a gentle smile.

  Cara looked away and thought about it for a second. She did already have a job. Whether or not she liked it, she was the head of sales for her family’s brewery. What would they say about her abandoning them to work for someone else?

  “That really sounds amazing, but I have obligations to my parents and my brother.”

  “Cara, I want you to be my family. And, whether Mars wants to be or not, he’s my family and we’re his. Besides, if you take this job, it means that you can stay here.”

  “Where? The hotel?”

  “If you want. But, what I meant was Los Angeles. Maybe it’s time for me to stop living in hotels and buy a house. I’ve never done that because the thought of residing in an empty space always seemed lonelier than I could bare. But, with you here, the house could be a home. Our home. All of us.”

  Cara considered it. Running a clothing company wasn’t something she had dreamed of. It did seem exciting, however. And doing it would allow her to be with at least one of the men she loved.

  “What do you think Mars would say about this?” She asked suddenly remembering the heartbreak in his eyes as he realized that she and Brik had made a deal behind his back.

  “To be honest, I don’t know. But we know that he liked you. We know that you two work well together. And I can guess that he doesn’t want the designs that he created to just go away.

  “And, don’t forget, this is my company too. I can say that this was always more of my dream than it was his. Having said that, I’m now telling you that I need someone to run the company. With your background in sales and the magic you seem to work with Mars, I think you should be the one to do it.

  “And, of course, there’s also the fact that I want you. I want you in my life. I want you around me. I want everything about you. So, what do you say? Will you be a part of my family?” Brik asked humbly.

  Cara stared at Brik mesmerized by his sincerity. She wanted nothing more but to crawl across the table into his arms. It was somewhere she felt she could spend the rest of her life. But, in spite of that, she still had to think about the brewery.

  “You know, the only reason I was able to come here was because my family’s brewery paid for it. I convinced them to do it because I said that I would be able to get you to include our beer in the rest of yo
ur hotels. It was a long shot, but they believed in me enough to allow me to try.

  “If I were to do this, and I’m just saying if, then the least I could do would be to leave them with the contract to distribute in your hotel’s worldwide,” Cara told him sincerely.

  As tired as Brik was, he had to chuckle and smile. “See, that’s how I know that you would be great at running the company. Even now you’re trying to negotiate the best deal. I’ll say this, I’ll agree to distribute your beer in all of my hotels if you agree to come run my clothing company.”

  For the first time, Cara got a buzz of excitement. “And I assume the compensation will be in line with the position?”

  Brik smiled again. “Yes. You will get the title of CEO and a salary in line with other CEOs.”

  Cara fought to hold back her smile. “And you’re saying that the only way to get the contract for the brewery would be to stay here and be your CEO?”

  “That’s the only way,” Brik confirmed.

  “In that case, for the sake of my family’s brewery, I’ll accept,” Cara said beaming with joy.

  Brik reached across the table taking her hand. “I’m so glad that you did.”

  “Me too,” Cara said looking into Brik’s eyes.

  The two stared across the table at each other until Brik finally leaned forward, stretched over the table and kissed her. Cara’s tired mind spiraled as she parted her lips and kissed him back.

  To Brik and Cara’s surprise, Mars didn’t return to Los Angeles in the preceding weeks. Taking the initiative, Cara had a new lock put on Mars’ studio and she made it the company’s headquarters. Accessing Mars’s files, Cara realized there was a lot yet to do before the launch of the company. The size quantities weren’t decided on, a work order hadn’t been sent to the manufacturer, and the distribution outlets weren’t established.

  Getting started, there was one thing that Cara looked forward to doing the most. No company she was going to be involved with was only going to sell clothes for stick thin models. She was going up to 3XL. She would’ve gone larger but she was advised against it. If she could make the company a success, though, she was going bigger still.