by Sable Sylvan
As Goldie started to drift to sleep, she heard something rustling in the trees or the bushes outside, and then, she heard a roar. “What’s that noise?” asked Goldie, getting out of bed to look out Cliff’s bedroom window.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” said Cliff, reaching back out to Goldie. “Get back in bed.”
“No, I wanna check, it sounds like two animals, and I hope they aren’t hurt,” said Goldie. She got up from the bed, wrapped in one of the sheets, and looked out the window. She wasn’t prepared for what she saw next.
Chapter Seven
Outside the window, there were two bears, one black, one brown, fighting on the backyard lawn, which opened up to the forest, surrounded by pine woods. In the shadows, it was hard to tell who was winning, but Goldie could see the bears making swipes at one another and occasionally, she could hear one roar at the other, and the other would roar back.
“There’s two huge bears fighting on your lawn,” said Goldie.
“What?” said Cliff groggily. He got up from the bed and looked out the window. As soon as he saw the bears, his Siberian blue eyes turned darker. “It’s Brian and Glen. Of course.”
“How did they know I was here?” asked Goldie.
“Because they can track your scent,” said Cliff. “I told you, shifters have stronger senses that humans...and bears have a very strong sense of smell. I’ll handle this.”
“Cliff, don’t – “ started Goldie, but it was too late.
Cliff jumped down and out the window, and before Goldie could grab his hand, he was shifting into his bear form: the form of a polar bear, covered in white fur from head to toe. Goldie hurriedly went to the bathroom and slipped on her clothes before heading out, downstairs to the living room that opened up onto the lawn, and she opened the door.
Cliff entering the fray had only served to make things more messy, more complicated, and the large lawn seemed too small for the three bears who were roaring between rough tumbles with one another,
Goldie turned on the porch light which lit up the rest of the lawn, which had inset lights, and the bears kept fighting as if they hadn’t even noticed Goldie turning the lights on. She’d hoped that the sudden light would shock them, but it hadn’t.
Goldie shouted, “Stop! Stop it!” The bears didn’t listen, and kept brawling, snarling at one another and clawing, not hard enough to bleed, but pushing hard enough to make one another slip and fall in the muddy patches that were forming as it started to rain.
“That’s it,” grumbled Goldie, walking around the side of the house until she found what she was looking for: a green, coiled up hose that was hooked up to a faucet. She turned the hose on full blast and walked to one end of it, unfurling it as she tried not to slip in the mud, making her way to the wooden deck overlooking the lawn. She picked her target: Cliff had been the one who’d pissed her off the most recently. She hit him with a spray of water, using her thumb to guide the blast, and it hit him square in the eye. The big white polar bear, so muddy he practically looked like a brown bear, turned to her and snarled, but Goldie snarled right back at him, making big bear gestures at him, pawing at the air before spraying him with the water again. The black bear and the brown bear took this as an opportunity to gang up on the snooty polar bear shifter, but they put themselves right in Goldie’s line of sight. Finally, Goldie had all three bear’s visual attention and they stopped fighting, absolutely soaking wet.
“Stop this! Stop this at once!” ordered Goldie, and the three bears looked at her, with eyes so guilty it was as if they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar (or the honey pot, as the case may be). They all looked at one another, and Glen was the first one to revert back to his human form, the body shifting first, leaving him with a bear’s head and paws, and a layer of fur, before he turned back into a human from head to naked toe. Brian was next, and then, finally, Cliff.
Three naked, naughty men, sitting in the mud as thunder cracked and it started to rain. It was a sight that belonged on a male modeling calendar’s “April” page, not in Goldie’s love life. They’d all been so caught up in their fight that they’d lost track of what was really important, what they were fighting over in the first place: Goldie’s heart. They were all so different in so many ways, but they all share a love for Goldie, and a golden yellow mate mark of a lock on their chests, on the same spot, right over their hearts.
“I’m sorry,” said Glen, wiping mud from his brow and looking over Goldilocks, who was an absolute mess, covered in so much mud that the blonde looked like she’d gotten a bad dye job and become a brunette. “It’s just, Brian said –”
“Well, Glen said –“ started Brian, getting up from the mud and slipping, not quite used to his human legs yet.
“Stop. Stop it! Enough!” shouted Goldie, and the guys shut their traps. Goldie rarely shouted and when she did, she meant business and people listened. “The only reason I talked to any of you tonight was because I thought that maybe you’d grown up, maybe you had finally become men. Well, you may have become bears, but you’re far from being men, because I can’t even come back to Port Jameson for one night, for my frikkin’ high school reunion, without us all revisiting this old drama like a bunch of, well, high schoolers!”
“Goldie, please –“ started Cliff.
Goldie shot Cliff a glare. “No, you know what?” said Goldie. “I’m done. I’m not done with men, or with bear shifters, I’m done with you three, and this bullshiz drama that we’ve been dealing with for the last five, six years. We’re all supposed to be adults, but you all keep treating me like I’m a toy. I didn’t ask to be your fated mate, and I didn’t ask for three men to be interested in me, and the other thing that didn’t get asked? What I want. Nobody has asked what I want, and that’s why I’m going home. Keep fighting: I don’t care. It’s your lives you’re wasting, don’t waste mine, not any more. I’m done. Cliff, take me back to the reunion.”
“But Goldie –” started Cliff.
“Take. Me. Back,” ordered Goldie. “I don’t want to talk on the ride, I just want to be taken back to the high school, get my car, and go home and take a long hot bath. Oh, and my outfit’s ruined. So get me a towel to sit on.”
“Okay,” said Cliff softly. “Give me a minute.” He walked up the porch, still nude and covered in dirt, and as he got ready, Goldie went inside and made herself a cup of tea: she knew where everything was after having spent countless winter afternoons here with Cliff and the guys studying for exams. She fingered the familiar electric kettle, the mug she’d always been partial to, pink with purple flowers. She’d picked it because it was so ugly at first but it had a certain charm to it that kept her coming back to it...just like Port Jameson, and all this drama.
She found the tea and by the time she had finished her cup, Cliff had gotten cleaned up, in a clean white button-up shirt and jeans. “You ready?” he asked stiffly, holding back the bear inside of him that still wanted to fight for the woman who had made it painfully obvious she wasn’t interested him after the antics of that night.
“Yeah,” said Goldie softly, and she followed him out to his grey sedan and got in. She sat down on the towel he’d brought for her and
The drive back to the high school was filled with awkward silence and as Goldilocks watched the familiar view out the window, a panoramic mix of nature and small-town cozy buildings, she wondered if this would be the last time that she saw the town of Port Jameson from this route again: after tonight, there’d be no reason to ever go see Cliff again.
“Which car is yours again?” asked Cliff as they entered the high school parking lot. It was the only thing he said to her during the whole ride.
“The red four-door over there,” said Goldie, pointing. “Thanks for the ride.”
“You’re welcome,” said Cliff curtly, resisting the urge to do something, anything stupid to keep Goldie from leaving. The bear inside him told him to chase after her, to not let her leave the car, to drive with her to Canada or to
Mexico or across the damn Atlantic Ocean to England, but the man held the bear back.
As Goldie walked away, part of her was disappointed that Cliff hadn’t chased after her, but another part was glad, because the last thing she wanted was for him to see her cry again. She fingered the towel she’d borrowed, inhaling and smelling Cliff for one last time before using the towel in her own car to protect her seats on the ride home. She turned on the radio but didn’t care what was on, as long as it was something that could protect her from the numbness she was feeling inside. All night, she’d wanted for things to be simple, and now, they finally were.
And now, she was alone, and there was no longer any hope of figuring out which of the three guys was meant for her because it didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered any more, and the drive home felt longer than any other drive she’d had in a long time.
Goldilocks parked her car at the house and went right to her bedroom to strip out of her outfit. The crimson red top, the tight black slacks, and the black heels and red bag that she had considered her “power outfit” before were now cast aside under her bed, not that it mattered as they were all absolutely ruined. Goldilocks didn’t want to see the outfit ever again: like Port Jameson, it was associated with too many memories, and if she never saw that outfit or the town again after that night, she would have been ecstatic.
Goldilocks ran the bath while she looked at herself in the mirror. She’d gotten just as muddy as the bear boys during their tussle. That long, blonde, curly hair of hers and that curvy body was what had seduced the men, not the outfit, and while her body couldn’t be changed, she had half a mind to visit a barber and get her hair shaved off if it would mean starting fresh. Heck, she even considered changing her name, but she realized how crazy it was to let the three bears worm their way even further into her psyche.
Goldilocks added her milk bath powder and turned the dimmer switch low, letting herself slowly sink and melt into the bath. She couldn’t melt off the face of the planet, but this was the next best thing. There was no way she could show her face in town again: by now, word would have gotten around that Goldilocks had done three bear shifters in a night, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if there were whispers of how Goldicocks had seduced three bears at the high school reunion.
The last few hours of her life had been the craziest ever, and as she washed herself, she thought to herself, How could I be so stupid? She’d come back to Port Jameson to put her past behind her, but she’d only succeeded in causing more trouble for all the men.
After half an hour of soaking, Goldilocks heard a knocking sound: staying by herself in the house, a shudder went down her spine at first, before she remembered that she wasn’t in Seattle anymore, and that the crime rates in Port Jameson were so low that people often left their doors unlocked at night. She wrapped herself up in her white terry robe and slipped on her slippers as she took off her shower cap, and she went downstairs to see who had knocked at such an ungodly hour.
Goldie regretted opening the door as soon as she’d unlocked it, because as soon as she did, before she could slam it shut, Glen blocked the door with his foot, “We need to talk.”
“The last person I want to talk to right now is you,” said Goldie, glaring at Glen. “You have some nerve coming here, and at this hour.”
“Goldie, listen,” said Glen, still standing on her stoop. “The last time this happened, you left town, and when you came back, it all happened again. We can stop this.”
“What, by me marrying you?” asked Goldie with a raised brow, her arms crossed in front of her ample bosom. “I felt something with all three of you tonight: that’s why I have to leave. Expecting me to pick one of you is unfair to me, and to yourselves.”
“What if...you didn’t have to pick?” asked Glen. Goldie looked behind him: his sleek black pickup truck wasn’t parked in her driveway, nor was Brian’s red chipped truck, but Cliff’s silver sedan was, and Brian and Cliff were exiting the vehicle.
“Can we talk?” asked Brian. “All of us, inside, out of this ungodly weather.”
“Fine, come in,” said Goldie. “You know where the living room is.” They all walked to the common space where Goldie sat in an armchair and the men took the large sofa across from her.
“So, what do you need to tell me? What’s so important that you came out here, after what happened, in this godforsaken weather, at this ungodly hour, disturbing my bath?” asked Goldilocks, glaring at the three men, her arms still crossed.
“Well, when Cliff came back...he rounded Glen and I up and sat us down to talk,” explained Brian.
“And what exactly did he have to say for himself?” asked Goldie. “What, you guys figured out among yourselves which of you I’m supposed to be with?”
“Not exactly,” said Cliff. “We all love you, Goldie: we all have, ever since high school, and the mate marks just proved what we all knew. We all knew that all three of us had feelings for you, but we didn’t know how to deal with it. That’s why the day before you left, we all told you about the mate marks we had developed for you over the summer...but none of us knew that the others had the same mate mark. Communication has always been an issue for us, and it wasn’t a big deal when we were teens, but you’re right, we’re adults now, and we need to learn to talk to one another and get along. We’re bear shifters, Goldie, and that’ll never change...but neither will our love for you, and I know that these guys love you as much as I love you. They feel the same thing I feel, and although it’s hard to admit it, I’m sure any of us would be a suitable partner for you, and they’re the two most decent guys I know...and no matter who you pick, I want us all to be able to go back to being friends, or at least, try to rebuild the friendship we used to have.”
“Brian and I stayed in town and tried to forget about you by working and, uh, sleeping around,” admitted Glen. “And obviously, that didn’t work.”
“I poured myself into my studies,” said Cliff. “And after I went to med school, I travelled the world...which is why what I saw in Russia is what inspired me to come back to the states for the reunion.”
“Russia?” asked Goldilocks. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued...go on.”
“After the second World War, the Soviet Union was severely lacking in terms of men,” explained Cliff. “And so, to encourage population growth...women were shacked up with multiple men. Arrangements involving a single woman with two, three, or even four men were not uncommon.”
“What are you getting at, Cliff?” asked Goldie. “Are you suggesting that I’m some sort of...bear shifter baby machine?”
“Not at all,” said Cliff. “But...surprisingly, although the women were with multiple men, the relationships were stable.”
“Cliff...if you had the solution this whole time, you really should have just told me what you thought the solution was from the start,” said Goldie. “You could’ve frikkin’ emailed me, but you didn’t.”
“You’re right, it was a shitty thing for me to do,” said Cliff. “I wasn’t upfront with you tonight when I should have been, and I apologize for that. I’m sorry that I let my anger at you stop me from doing what’s clearly the right thing for all of us, but, I’m not sorry I didn’t email you. It’s not exactly the most orthodox of requests for any man to make, least of all a bear shifter, and it’d be pretty weird for me to shoot you an email about one of these arrangements. What would I write, ‘Hey, Goldie, haven’t seen you in years, but I think you, me, Glen, and Brian should all shack up, after all, we’re all adults?”
“But you aren’t just adults: you’re bear shifters,” said Goldie. “And there’s no way you’re going to be able to share me. You couldn’t even let each other look at me back in high school without getting into fights: how do you think we’d all be able to have one of these... ‘arrangements’?”
“It’s simple, really, and honestly, I’m beating myself up for not coming up with this solution before...but the bear inside of me is possessive, and I
know I’m going to have to learn to control that, to control my bear better,” said Brian, taking one of Goldie’s hands into his. Even though it had been cold and wet outside, Brian’s hair was already close to dry and his hands were warm and dry. “Let us show you that we can get along, Goldie...and if after tonight, you don’t think that this is the absolute best arrangement possible, that you don’t want a life with three bears in your house and in your bed, we’ll all walk.”
“But we at least have to try,” said Glen, holding Goldie’s other hand.
“Come on, Goldie...how bad could it be?” asked Cliff, whispering into Goldie’s ear as he rubbed her back with isr big, strong hands.
“Fine, so what do you suggest, we play board games or something?” asked Goldie sarcastically, attempting to hide the fact that this was something that was sexier than any fantasy she’d had about the men separately...or any experience she’d had with them one on one that night.
Brian chuckled. “I’m sure we can find something a lot more fun to do, Goldie,” said Brian, leading her up the stairs to the guestroom.
Chapter Eight
Goldie hadn’t been to the large, unorthodox guest room in years. It had three twin beds in it, one for each of the men, back when they were boys and they all had sleepovers at the house. Her surprisingly liberal parents hadn’t stopped the sleepovers when Goldie was a teen and so the beds had remained in the house past graduation.
“Those sheets aren’t the cleanest,” admitted Goldie, flipping on the lights. “I haven’t changed them in months...”
“It doesn’t matter if they’re clean or not, because they’re going to get real dirty by the time we’re done with them,” said Glen. “Brian, Cliff, push the two side beds to the center.” Glen fluffed pillows while the black bear and polar bear shifters moved the beds to the center of the room so the three beds, with their mismatched sheets, were like one very large bed, bigger than a king sized bed.