by Hazel Keys
“Heeey!” David said. “She’s a mother now. You can’t demean her like that anymore.”
“Ahh, right. The sacred mommy oath,” Jake said with a nod. “Sustained, your honor. But oh my God that’s so magnificent!”
Jake and David hugged in giddy excitement.
**
Who was I kidding? I didn’t really need a pep talk. I knew I hurt Cammie and I knew that Dana needed Cammie’s good wishes before she could really give this thing a try. And all that really mattered at that moment was that they needed me to intervene. I had to be strong. They were counting on me to make things right.
I looked to the sky, for once no longer feeling that strange urge to jump into the sky and escape my problems. Now flying halfway across the world was pointless. I had already found what I was looking for. I wanted Dana. I wanted to grow with Dana and see where this thing took us. Could it be love? Could it be something deeper than just friends with benefits? I felt it in my heart every second I looked into her vulnerable eyes.
I was home with her. That was the day I realized there’s no longer any reason to run or fly away from what truly made me happy. All that was left to do is to make things right.
***
Chapter 6:Dana
“So…what do you think?”
Connor and I look nervously at each other and back to Cammie again. She finally had us both over and was ready to talk about the incident. Or as we call it “RestroomGate”.
I felt bad about going behind Cammie’s back but I really wasn’t sure what we were doing and if any of this was really happening…it was like a blur, emotionally speaking. Just doubt one minute to surprise and total shock…and then a nice and calm feeling that just came out of nowhere. I was surprised by how powerful it felt, to be in the arms of a friend…and to cross new taboos with him just the same. It was the kind of relationship that defied all logic. And maybe that was what we both really wanted.
I didn’t expect Connor to understand my plight. Deep down, yes, I hoped he could somehow fix everything and make everything perfect. A perfect world where we could be together and Cammie would still be my best friend. It was something worth fighting for, for sure, since they were the two most important people in my life.
“Of course I knew about it,” Cammie said. “I just knew probably way before you realized I knew. I’m pretty good at figuring people out you know.”
“We really didn’t know how to tell you,” I admitted. “And Connor…”
“Connor,” Cammie interrupted. “The truth is, I have always been so protective of you…I sometimes forget to step back and let you be who you need to be.”
“Well…for what it’s worth, you were right. None of the other women I liked were right for me. Because Dana is the right one.”
“At first I thought it was weird,” admitted Cammie. “But the more I thought about it, I realized I wasn’t angry. I was just…relieved.”
“Relieved?”
“If you two only knew how much I worried about you,” she laughed with a bittersweet smile. “You’re the two most important people in my life. I always worry about one of you making a mistake and falling for someone that’s going to treat you like dirt. So the idea that you two could be together…and look out for each other…it was a relief. I could sleep a lot better knowing that there really is no better person that either of you could ask for. This really is as good as it gets.”
“So…you’re okay with it?”
“I am. Just uh…” She laughed. “Just be careful about kissy stuff in front of me. Because my natural instinct is to scream, Hey that’s my brother, and Hey that’s my best friend! So it’s a little confusing…”
We laughed and hugged Cammie, relieved that our family unit wasn’t shrinking…just expanding. We could still be together as friends, family and trusted confidants. This was truly home…a home I would never have to leave behind ever again.
**
“So did you really say you were in love with me that one time?”
“Err, perhaps,” mumbled Connor, a bit embarrassed.
“No, don’t feel bad. I think it’s cute.”
“Are you crazy, Dana? I really like you. I’ve always thought you were beautiful. I just didn’t know all these years that all we needed was just a few nights together to fire up that spark. And once I realized that romance could be something even better than friendship…I just knew. I’ve trusted you as a friend for as long as I’ve lived.”
“I always liked you too. Maybe I projected onto you what was really wrong with me. I cared too much about what Cammie thought rather than just making a play for you. But once we took that chance…we took a risk. And it felt more amazing than I ever thought it could.”
“Yeah. And I’ve always loved you. I just didn’t realize how intensely I loved you until I found out that there are so many layers. You’re quirky on one layer…”
“Oh?”
“Smart on the next layer. Compassionate and caring on the next layer. And on the next layer…just amazing in the way you see me so deeply and intimately. A connection I’ve never felt before.”
“You missed one layer. The smoldering siren sex layer.”
“Ah, yes, that is a very important layer,” he laughed.
“So what did it?” I asked curiously. “When did you realize you liked me? You know…not just talking about the restroom incident?”
He laughed. “Well, that definitely helped . But…I think it was just when you told me you remembered what I said. About marrying someone from the ocean.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It just showed me in that moment, you really listened to me. And you were right. I always wanted to run away, swim away, fly away…I figured someone that understood that would finally get me.”
He grabbed my hand and stared deeply into my eyes, baring his soul.
“But you showed me something profound. That we owe our friends and family. Your loyalty to Cammie proved to me that you take family and friendship seriously. And you would rather hurt deeply inside than hurt anyone else. And I love that. You’re right…we don’t leave just because we can. We don’t stay behind just because we’re trapped. We want to stay where our home is. This is the life we’ve chosen.”
He touched his finger to my forehead, stroking my hair away from my eyes and captivating me in a moment that I never wanted to end.
“For my whole life, I’ve always been hooked on what everyone said I should want. What my mom or dad told me I should be looking for. What Cammie thought I should go after. And all along…I never actually gave any thought to what I really wanted. It felt invigorating to take a chance. To go against all reasoning and just kiss someone with no expectations except random chance. Inexplicable attraction. And I was so happy I took that chance.”
“To be completely honest, I really didn’t think I could ever nab your attention. You know how hard it is for nerds to attract the jocks, right?”
“Nerd…” he laughed. “No way. You’re a beauty queen, Dana. It was an experiment that ended wonderfully. And now…you’re the one I want. I want to date you. I feel something real for you. And God woman, I’ve gotten every last person’s permission on god’s green earth to pursue you. Cammie, Stephanie…who else do I need to apologize to? Jake? The woman selling funnel cakes at Six Flags?”
I laughed. “You can’t blame me for celebrating a little bit. It’s always nice for a girl to hear when a man is SO devoted…so determined…he’s willing to jump hoops and run the track just for a chance to take a girl out.”
“I am,” he answered with a smile. “As a matter of fact, I owe you a real date for a change. We made out on a roller coaster and consummated our relationship in a restroom and a car. Maybe a nice dinner would be the craziest idea we have left.”
We both cracked up. He waited until I stopped laughing, reached out with his hands slowly and kissed me. He kissed me like a man on top of the world, and nowhere to land but in my arms. I was his happiness, I w
as his prize at the end of the race.Connor is an absolute gentleman and is able to console the woes of the world on his enormous shoulders. He is the hero I love…the hero I have always loved.
**
For our next rendezvous Connor gave me my lifelong fantasy to join the mile high club in the bathroom. Of course, like many people I was confused at how difficult mile high bathroom sex really is. First of all, Connor couldn’t really stall the plane in mid air just to take a sex break! Second, even if we rode on a commercial airliner, almost no one actually has sex in that little cramped compartment. The ones that do are usually fined or arrested and embarrassed beyond belief when they’re caught and shamed in public.
But Connor, being the cool guy that he is, did manage to pull a few strings with his pilot buddies. He rented a mile high club private jet and had a pilot buddy of his to take us up a mile into the sky to celebrate our love.
It was an amazing experience, to be intimate with a pilot while the actual plane flew so high and so turbulently. That rascal pilot buddy of Connor’s even gave us a few swoops and harsh turns, just to help our mile high club feel properly air bound. Every thrust his warrior cock gave me coincided with the deep shifts of the plane itself—the very movement of the sky, the winds—free as a bird I was. In my lover’s arms, I held on tight, at this moment not really caring whether we were in the air or nose-diving into oblivion. Because this is where I wanted to be—forever in his arms. The last memories of my life with him, him inside me, the two of us breathing for each other, trapped in ecstasy. Finally, his eyes focused only on me and nowhere else. In the air, on top of the world…
**
The room was lit semi-dark with just a few candles. We all felt it to be a romantic evening, and one that we would all surely remember. Not just because of the blissful feelings of love in the air, but also because I managed to get all six of us cruise tickets sailing the great Atlantic Ocean.
I took my date Connor, the tallest and most good looking man in the room, though I admit I’m a little biased. He brought with him his sistersCammie and Stephanie, and Stephanie’s boyfriend Jake. Jake brought along with his BFF (or the guy equivalent of a BFF, whatever that is) David and his wife Amelia, who was now preggers.
The whole lot of us talked all night, trading memories of childhood, growing up, mistakes, crazy shocking moments of romance, and of course, how our friendships defined all of our lives and the loves of our lives. Cammie was the only odd woman out but I figured her time would come soon enough. No one can escape love forever…it’s far too powerful and positive a force to resist. Love is a warming glow in a cold and biting world…we need more and we need to give it more freely. Beyond romance, even in the everyday interactions we have among our fellow humankind. Kindness and cooperation is what keeps the world turning.
The guys eventually started chatting among themselves, right about the time we decided to speak on good fashion sense, with Cammie leading the way and showing off her knowledge.
“Love means falling in love with your best friend,” I heard David say. “Whether you know them for a few weeks or thirty years…there is a bond there that can’t be broken.”
“Yeah that’s all well and good,” Jake added, “But to me love is also about mystery. About surprise. Sometimes when we least expect it we find what we’re missing in life. How about you, Connor?”
“I believe life, love and happiness are all the same thing, just different clouds in the same sky. Sometimes we just have to look out the window, shut up for a while and see the beauty in our own lives.”
As good an answer as I ever heard, and to this day, still enjoying our ten-day cruise, it is still how I define all of what’s happened to us thus far. Even today, as I look into the morning sky, its reflection glistening on the waves below, all I see is opportunity. An open canvas of time, space and activities. But we’re all home, because we’re all safe in each other’s hearts.
****THE END***
Passions of the Caribbean
Chapter 1: Seth
“What this means,” I yelled for the third time, trying to make myself heard over the chattering row, “is that you’ll be putting three thousand people out of work! That’s three thousand families on welfare, three thousand homes going into foreclosure, and about six thousand kids going hungry!” I stared at Wainwright and the other board members, unable to keep my fists from clenching and unclenching.
“Please sit down, Mr. Radisson,” sneered Wainwright as I walked towards my chair at the end of the huge, black boardroom table. Through the glass wall, I could see the junior office workers trying to pretend they couldn’t hear the shouting coming from within our closed meeting. “You’re exaggerating as usual, and you are missing a major point.”
I looked over each of the other men that sat around Wainwright. All of them wore expensive suits and were either overweight from expensive and excessive living, gray- or white-haired from age, or both. Wainwright was both, and his face carried a repulsively arrogant look of scorn, a take away from years of almost always being the richest man in the room. He was part of the old guard. One of my father’s longest-standing partners, and we never saw eye to eye.
I turned to the opposite end of the table, were the prey of these white-haired, dark-suited vultures sat. Mr. Clancy and his son, Robert, of boat builders Clancy & Son who, after not having their military contracts renewed, were now finding it hard to keep their business solvent in the current economic climate, building only luxury super-yachts. Mr. Clancy Sr. was well past retirement age and couldn’t hide it, yet he still wore a determined expression on his face and looked prepared to fight for the company he had spent his whole life building. Robert Clancy, on the other hand, was nearing forty and had the look of someone that could see his comfortable lifestyle disappearing down the tubes with every dollar that Clancy & Son went into the red. Both were also dressed in dark suits that, while still respectable, were worth nowhere near as much as those of my board members.
I needed a second to collect myself. Shouting at Wainwright and the rest of the board only ever served to make them dig their heels in and convince them that I was just a jumped-up rich kid not fit to lick my father’s shoes, let alone fill them. I straightened my tie, ran my fingers through my hair and, just to piss them off, chose to remain standing. “Exactly what point am I missing, again, Mr. Wainwright?”
“We are in this deal together,” he replied. “As the 51% shareholder in RHC, and the son of this firm’s founder, you are as much responsible for the job losses at Clancy & Son as anyone here.”
I opened my mouth to start yelling again when George Osborne, sitting beside me, placed a soft, plump hand on my arm and stood as well. He was the polar opposite of me. Short, rotund, balding, and pudgy-faced, hiding his brown eyes behind thick-lensed spectacles. Despite appearances, we were both thirty-eight, and graduated from Yale together. However, I stayed in shape with a vigorous work-out regimen and a love of extreme sports, while George didn’t. He was still my closest friend, though, as well as my attorney and business adviser. I nodded in response to his calming touch and sat.
“Remember, Seth,” he said, expertly managing to be loud enough for the board and I to hear, as well as quiet enough to be mostly unintelligible to the boat builders at the other end of the room, “selling off the assets and real estate that Mr. Clancy has managed to collect over the years should bring in just over a billion dollars right now. And they will most definitely be sold, whether it’s now, next year when the old man and his company go bankrupt, or the day after he dies and his son liquidates the entire concern. The only difference is that right now it will bring in five times more than next year, or whenever.”
“I know,” I hissed, “but it’s still too many poor bastards out of work.”
One of the less senior, but certainly fatter, members of the board made a predictable remark about making omelets and breaking eggs. I shot him a hateful look and he went silent. I’d like to see him try and actually make
an omelet, that lazy asshole.
“This is how it’s done, Seth,” insisted Wainwright, trying a more forgiving, paternal tone. “This is how we make our money, this is how your father made money...”
“Don’t mention my father to me!” I yelled, on my feet again and rounding on him. Mr. Clancy and his son went wide-eyed at my outburst while, outside the office, RHC employees busied themselves faster, trying to not be seen eavesdropping. “I’ll be damned if I ever do business the way he did!” I saw Wainwright pale slightly and allowed myself a little smile of victory. A moment passed and I returned my voice to its more normal range. “George, tell the board about the plan we worked out.”
George cleared his throat and spoke to the whole room this time. “If RHC were to invest in Mr. Clancy’s business, instead of selling off the assets,” he began, “it would take around $100 million right now to increase the workforce and update his facilities to the point where they could be back in profit in three years. According to our projections, that’s a return for us of $50 million on top of our original investment in five years’ time.”
“Meaning Mr. Clancy keeps his company and his workforce keeps their jobs. I’m sorry, Hector,” I smiled at Wainwright, “it’s a lot less than a billion.” Robert Clancy choked and coughed on the water he was drinking. “But it’s still profit for RHC, and I think both you and I can continue to survive without another billion dollars, don’t you?”
Wainwright said nothing, his face locked in a pain-filled rictus of forced acquiescence. I walked down the table to Mr. Clancy, who slowly and carefully stood. We shook hands. “As the majority shareholder of RHC, I have the power to green light any major decisions all by my lonesome,” I smiled, “and I say we are going to be working together, Mr. Clancy, sir. What say you?”
The old man’s voice was deep and rough. “I’d say you got a deal, Mr. Radisson.”