by Rainey Daye
“Okay, sorry to bother you with this,” Jess said, feeling miserable.
“It’s okay, man. I’ll see you soon.”
Jess reentered the classroom to find Molly glowering from being abandoned and Maggie watching him with her brow furrowed. Uh-oh. The rest of this class was gonna be a bitch to get through.
* * * *
Maggie had felt a moment of pure surprise when Troy walked by their classroom window. She truly hadn’t expected him to show up again. She really didn’t. Not after questioning her mom about him whenever they were alone the past week. She had half convinced herself that he and her mom had concocted some type of plan involving him flying in for a surprise visit, prior to the holiday, but had pancaked at the last minute.
Her mom’s enthusiasm about Troy and happily relating how wonderful he was doing at school, even if he did miss Maggie terribly, only lent credence to her supposition that she had imagined him prior to actually seeing him. But here he was again, plain as day, and Maggie could no longer deny that it was really him.
Which meant that she had to tell the guys. It was only fair. She protected their reputations just as stringently as they protected hers. They kept people from finding out that she was living with and sleeping with two men, and she kept people from finding out that those two men were bisexual lovers. She would only be dealt with society’s censor and endure comments of “slut,” but the guys would be thought of as perverts or worse. The fact that no one was hurt by their lifestyle wouldn’t matter. Just the fact that their lifestyle was different from the norm was all that would matter to most people.
All these thoughts had flashed through her head in an incoherent mess upon spying Troy walking by the window. She had turned away and made unintentional eye contact with Jess and had her “holy shit” moment when she realized that the only surprise Jess was registering was Maggie spotting Troy. He hadn’t frowned and sounded perplexed, saying, “Was that Troy walking by?” He hadn’t made a lame-assed joke about Troy stalking her. He hadn’t gone rushing to the window to look after him to either confirm or deny his suspicions. Rather, he had simply said “not here” and looked grim, as if he was ready to murder someone. And then he had started to look panicked and uncharacteristically paired off with Molly, the same Molly whom Maggie hated with a passion, ever since she had caught Jess fending off her advances and threatened him with grave bodily harm if he ever thought about surrendering.
At least Jess had realized the danger he had put himself in by partnering with the man-eater and had stepped outside almost immediately. But the panicked, wild-eyed look on his face didn’t ease Maggie’s doubts or suspicions about Jesse’s uncharacteristic behavior. And when class was finally over and she saw Alex leaning against the opposite wall, her suspicions were confirmed. Whatever was going on with Troy, her lovers were fully aware of it!
She stood there quivering with anger and just stared at her lovers as fellow students flowed around them in the hallway. Finally, “How long have you known?” was the only question she could force between her clamped teeth.
“Let’s talk at home,” Alex said softly as he looked up and down the hallway.
Maggie almost started to argue with him, irrationally spoiling for a fight, but common sense finally reared its head and took tight rein on her wildly spinning emotions. She gave a short, brisk nod and stalked off down the hall toward the nearest exit, well aware that they would follow.
Not even thinking about the fact that they were blowing off their afternoon classes, Maggie stormed across campus and toward Jess’s car, the men about three feet behind her the entire way, their heads bent together and whispering frantically. She didn’t care if they were trying to concoct some line of bull to feed her because she would have the truth out of them come hell or high water!
Maggie stood beside the car, tapping her foot impatiently as Jess unlocked the doors. She then climbed into the backseat without a word and proceeded to drill holes in the back of their heads with her eyes the entire trip home. She couldn’t fail to notice both men shooting frequent glances toward the side and rearview mirrors, but she didn’t care. She was going to rip a strip out of their hides, so help her she was!
By the time they had pulled into the four-car garage, Maggie was practically vibrating with emotion. She slammed her door and stalked past them, through the utility hallway, dropping her purse and backpack on the dining room table as she stormed into the living room, where she spun around and leveled her finger at both of them. “How long?” she demanded. “How long have you known?”
Jess made the mistake of trying the innocent act. “Known what, Mags?” he asked, trying to look befuddled but only succeeding in looking guiltier.
“Cut the crap, Jesse,” she snapped.
“Well, if you spelled it out for us,” he tried, obviously trying to suss out what she knew before admitting to any knowledge of his own. But he wisely shut up when Maggie let out a scream of frustration, and he looked at Alex helplessly.
“If Jess hadn’t blown it so badly in class, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we?” Alex said mildly.
“Well, he did blow it, so spill. What the hell is going on? What do you know? And how long have you known?” Maggie demanded.
Alex motioned for her to take a seat. Maggie wisely chose the only recliner in the room, knowing that if she sat on the couch they would bracket her and try to distract her with touches and whispers and kisses. So she was keeping her distance until they revealed all.
The two men moved toward the couch, but only Jess sat, looking miserable. Alex proceeded to pace, running his hands through his dark hair and leaving it spiky, a sure sign of his own agitation.
“Okay,” Alex began and then took a deep breath before he ceased his pacing and faced Maggie squarely. “Do you want to know how long we’ve been positive or how long I’ve suspected?”
“What?”
“Or maybe you should tell us how long you’ve known that Troy has been hanging around campus,” Alex continued.
“Don’t you even think about turning this around on me, Alex,” Maggie warned him and saw his shoulders slump as he took a deep breath, acknowledging the futility in taking that line of approach.
“Okay, full disclosure,” he began and then stalled. He turned his head and looked at Jess over his shoulder and then turned back to look at Maggie. He sighed again and resumed pacing without a word.
Maggie watched him for a moment, almost feeling sorry for how miserable both men obviously felt, but then she reminded herself that she was currently furious with them and pity had no place in her heart right now.
Alex finally sat down on the coffee table in front of her and leaned forward, looking very earnest as he met and held her gaze. “Okay, Jess didn’t believe me at first, but back in late September, or maybe it was early October, I saw someone skulking around outside in the early morning hours. You and Jess were asleep in your room, and I didn’t want to disturb either of you. It was crazy of me to even think it was Troy, and I tried to convince myself that I was just feeling insecure. I almost had myself convinced that I had seen a would-be burglar or car thief, but I kept an eye out, just the same. And then the morning after the Halloween party….”
“What?” Maggie asked curiously when Alex’s explanation petered out.
“While you two were in the shower and I was downstairs grabbing a bite to eat, I saw Troy leaving the motel,” he responded in a dead tone of voice.
“What?” Maggie shrieked, jumping to her feet. Alex reached out and grabbed her hands, squeezing them gently until Maggie’s wildly beating heart settled down and she sank back down into the recliner.
“That’s why I seemed to pancake on the two of you and you were forced to take a cab home. I wanted to know for sure that it either was or wasn’t Troy, so I followed him. I completely forgot about you two ’cause I was so focused on either proving or disproving my supposition.”
“You followed him? Where’d he go?” she as
ked when Alex had nodded affirmative.
“To a no-tell motel on the other side of town. And I got a really good look at him and his car. I don’t know if it’s his car from back home or if he bought it at college, but he’s driving an older model Ford Taurus. The license plates are for the same state he’s attending college in.”
“It’s his car,” Maggie found herself confirming, closing her eyes as a lead ball settled in her stomach and bile rose in her throat.
“Well, after he went inside his room, I asked around. Spoke to some of the residents. They confirmed that he’d been living there since sometime in September.”
“Oh, God,” Maggie whispered, feeling the bile rise even higher.
“We didn’t want to freak you out, Mags. We wanted to try to find out what he’s up to, why he’s here. To protect you from him if necessary.”
“So what have you found out?” Maggie asked.
Alex sat up straight and turned his head to look at Jess. Maggie watched the two of them hold a wordless conversation but decided to interrupt before they agreed on stonewalling her.
“What. Did. You. Find. Out?” She enunciated clearly and forcefully.
Their attention snapped back to her, and Alex closed his eyes as he expelled his breath in a whoosh. “Jess,” he said softly. “Go get the lockbox from the office.”
Jess jumped to his feet and scurried out of the living room, seemingly grateful to be out of the pressure cooker that was coming to a boil in the room. He returned a couple of minutes later carrying an old metal lockbox and handed it to Alex. Alex dug his keys out of his pocket and inserted one the size of a luggage key into the small lock on the front of the box. Once he removed the lock, he silently handed the unopened box over to Maggie.
Maggie sat there for a long moment, staring down at the box that sat so innocuously upon her lap. She both wanted and didn’t want to open it. She wanted to know what they had discovered and either have her worst fears finally confirmed or dispelled. But she also didn’t want to tarnish the warm memories she had of Troy and their years together. “Do I want to know?” Maggie whispered, almost to herself.
“It’s your right to know,” Alex answered her somberly. “But if you don’t want to, that’s okay.”
Maggie looked up at him, startled to realize that she had spoken her thoughts aloud. She was drawn up short by the intense look on Alex’s face. “Whether you open it or not, you need to know that Jess and I aren’t going to stop. We are going to do whatever we have to do to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?” Maggie asked, fearful.
“That’s just it.” Jess finally spoke for the first time, sounding frustrated. “We don’t know! But it can’t be good if he’s been in town for a good three months.”
Maggie nodded slowly as she looked back down at the box. Obviously her boyfriends were clueless, so what harm would there be in opening the box? Maybe she would even discover something amongst the contents that they had overlooked.
With that thought in mind, Maggie slowly lifted the lid on the box and looked inside. She was confronted with digital photos. She left the box on her lap and pulled out a stack of pictures. She frowned as she flipped through them and then looked up at Alex and Jess, who were watching her anxiously. “Want to explain what I’m looking at?” she asked.
“The contents of Troy’s motel room,” Alex said with an apparently nonchalant shrug.
Equally nonchalantly, and trying valiantly to keep her emotions in check, Maggie queried, “And how did you manage to get these pictures?”
Alex’s nonchalance started to crumble as he said, “We searched his room last Wednesday while you were showing your folks around.”
“How did you manage to get in?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alex said sternly, giving Jesse a warning glance.
“If it was illegal, then it matters a hell of a lot to me,” Maggie said severely.
“Maggie,” Alex said fervently as he leaned forward, making and holding eye contact with her. “Jesse and I will do whatever the hell we have to do to protect the woman we love. We got in, we took pictures of what he left behind when he went home for Thanksgiving, and we got out. That’s all that matters.”
Maggie blinked in surprise at his intensity and then took a deep breath as she acknowledged his words emotionally and mentally. “Okay,” she finally said. “So what does all this stuff tell you?” she asked as she waved a handful of pictures in the air.
“Look at the pictures and tell us what they tell you,” Alex suggested and then got up to sit on the couch next to Jess.
Maggie looked down at the pictures again, and this time she paid attention to what they depicted. She flipped through them slowly and then leaned forward, spreading them out on the coffee table in a type of free-form collage. She then sat back and looked up at her lovers.
“You took pictures of everything? You left nothing out?”
Jess frowned. “We took pictures of everything left in the room, if that’s what you mean.”
“So all he left behind were scraps of paper?”
“Have you read what’s on those scraps of paper?” Jess asked angrily, and Alex reached over and placed a calming hand on his leg.
Maggie took in Jesse’s palpable fury and Alex’s actions before she nodded slowly. “You’re referring to my class schedule.”
Alex nodded as he tightened his hand on Jess’s thigh. “Yeah. Up until we saw that, we had no idea that he had gone to campus. I guess we had been hoping that he limited himself to watching the house at night, even if he’s been hanging around a lot longer than we had initially thought.”
Maggie flattened her lips in a troubled line as she glanced back down at the pictures. She then leaned forward and snagged a photo off the coffee table, holding it up. “Any idea who Maria is?”
“His girlfriend,” Jess grated.
Maggie’s head whipped around to face him. “His what?”
“Okay, ‘girlfriend’ might be pushing it. She’s more like his fuck buddy,” Jess relented.
“Jess!” Alex hissed.
“What?” Jess demanded, turning to scowl at Alex. “You want me to preserve Troy’s reputation with Maggie by not letting her know that number one, you saw him leave the motel with a brunette that morning, and number two, I followed him to her tenement and saw him giving her an oral exam in the hallway while he groped her?”
Alex looked disgusted, and Maggie looked flabbergasted. Jess simply sat back, arms folded over his chest, and glared at both of them. “Both of you, stop trying to protect him or each other. Troy had his shot with Maggie, and he blew it. And this is a piss-poor way of trying to win her back if, and that’s a qualified if, if he thinks he can succeed. I’m sorry, Mags, but you belong to us now, and neither Alex nor I are stupid enough to let you get away. And if your ex turns psycho stalker, we’re going to be there to protect you from him and beat the crap out of him. Alex hasn’t let me beat the crap out of him yet, but if you want me to, just say the word, babe. I’m been itching to make him swallow his teeth for awhile now.”
“Jess!” Alex snapped again. “Focus.”
“I am focused. I’m focused on how much I want to bash this guy’s face in.”
As the two men continued to argue, Maggie began to tune them out and focused on the pictures on the table, trying to make sense of Troy’s actions. This was not the Troy she knew or remembered. He had seemed to accept her refusal to rekindle their romance when she had visited home over the summer. There was not a deceptive bone in his body. He was a good old boy, full of charm, free of guile. All of this was so out of character for him. Had he truly had a psychotic break? What had happened after she had come back here to cause Troy to decide that spying on her was a good idea? And it had to be her he was spying on. After all, it was her class schedule written in his handwriting that the guys had snapped a picture of. So Troy was fixated on her yet had also found the time to hook up with someone. What the hell was going on?
She picked up another picture and waved it in the air to get the guys attention. Since they were still arguing, she had to speak their names, sharply and loudly, before they shut up and turned to face her. “What’s with the Bubba mask?” she asked them.
“The what?” Jess asked, confused.
“Bill Clinton. What’s with the Clinton mask?” Maggie clarified.
“Oh, we think that’s what he wore to the Halloween party so none of us would recognize him,” Alex said.
“He was at the party itself?” Maggie gulped and then kicked herself mentally. Of course he had to be at the party. How else had he wound up in the same motel that they had spent the night at? “Do you remember what we did at that party?”
“We had a good time,” Alex said. “And as I pointed out to Jess when he brought up the same exact question, we were pretty well behaved, especially considering how some of the other partygoers were behaving. Hell, at least we kept our playing discreet.”
“True,” Maggie said slowly, biting her lip as she tried to catch an errant thought.
Jesse snorted. “Remember that couple fucking at the bar? Right there in front of everyone? People were even taking pictures of them, and neither of them cared. No one caught us doing anything inappropriate at that party,” he helpfully pointed out.
Maggie jumped up with a cry and rushed from the room as the free-floating thought found purchase in her brain, leaving the two men to exchange a puzzled look before they went in pursuit of her to see what was wrong. They found her in the office, booting up the computer, the picture still clutched in her hand.
“Maggie, what’s wrong?” they asked as they moved toward her.
Maggie waved the picture-clutching hand at them noncommittally as she frowned down at the computer, mumbling, “Come on, come on.”
When the computer finally beeped, Maggie sat down in the desk chair and began to type furiously at the keyboard. She then leaned forward and peered at the screen before nodding and leaning back in the chair as she turned the computer screen around toward them.