“You got a girlfriend?” the skank asked, looking pissed.
“Many of them,” mom said, in an ominously soft voice. “I’m his wife, by the way. For now. Before I divorce his sorry ass.”
“You’re… MARRIED? You said –”
“Shut up,” dad explained.
By this time dad was scrambling to put on his clothes, while I filmed and Lucus snapped more pics.
Mom took out a slip of paper and started reading, a wee bit of irony in her voice, “Cody, my lawyer advised me to ask you this question, in person: ‘Are you ready and willing to recommit to our marriage, to beg forgiveness for your past adultery, and remain monogamous?’ ”
The question hung in the air. By now Cody was dressed, as was the skank, who grabbed her purse and stormed past us.
“For the record, Cody. Yes or no?”
“No,” he admitted in a small voice. “I — I’m sorry, uh…”
“No, I’m sorry,” Aleja said. “Sorry I wasted so many years on you.” She looked at me and Lucus. “But, at least two good things came out of the marriage. You can stop filming.”
She looked at Cody, who was blinking back tears. Remorse? Shame at getting caught? At his kids seeing this?
“You can stay in the house until we work out a divorce settlement. And don’t even think of contesting it, and running up a huge legal tab. Split it fifty-fifty. Sound fair?” An edge to her voice, a Don’t Fuck With Me tone.
Cody gave her a stunned look. Nodded.
She stared at Lucus and me. “Say goodbye to your dad, and then let’s go.”
Cody said, “I love you, Ciara,… Lucus.”
“I got nothing to say to him,” Lucus said. He walked out.
I gave my dad a disappointed look. Shook my head. “Fuck’s sake, dad. You gave up mom for… THAT? Couldn’t you at least show non-questionable taste when cheating on the alleged love of your life?” I turned to follow Lucus, mom trailing, not looking back.
***
It was a lot quieter trip back to Dallas. Lucus drove, since mom, who had stoically held it together as we walked back to the Sequoia SUV, kind of lost it when she was out of sight from the house.
Like she couldn’t bear to let Cody see her mourning the end of their life together. Crying too hard to have the calm alertness needed for rush hour Austin traffic.
Mom and I sat in the back seat. I held her. Let her cry it out. As the traffic thinned out around Round Rock, about forty minutes, she reverted to Stoic Mom Mode.
Sorta.
It felt weird. Like full adulthood had been irrevocably thrust upon me after seeing my parents being just… people. Ordinary flawed, fucked up people, same as me. That, and seeing Years Of Therapy stuff I would never be able to unsee.
***
That night, we were drinking berry daiquiris on Lucus’ couch in his apartment near Dallas, Lucus sitting between mom and me. It was a surprisingly nice and tasteful couch that Aleja had picked out for him at a Salvation Army thrift store, an understated oatmeal color with finely woven soft fabric. Mom always had an eye for quality — except, arguably, in her choice of a handsome and charming but fidelity-challenged soon-to-be-ex-husband.
But, not to brag or anything, she got, like, one-and-a-half great kids out of that deal.
Fine. FINE. Two great kids… so perhaps even there she chose well, however sucky that relationship ended.
Mom sipped on her second daiquiri, then nibbled on her lower lip, looking at Lucus then me like she had something she wanted to say, but felt like it was too big of an ask.
“Mom,” I said.
“Hmm?”
“Just say it. I can almost hear the squeaking of the wheels as you hamster-wheel about whatever the fuck’s on your mind.”
“Umm… would it be OK if I crashed on your couch for a few nights until I found an apartment here? Don’t want to be in the same city as Cody, knowing he’ll almost certainly be fucking a plethora of randos now that he’s totally screwed the pooch with our marriage.”
Lucus scrunched his eyebrows closer together with an Of Course You Can look. “Of course you can,” he said, redundantly, as if mom somehow didn’t possess the same ability to read people as I did, decades of evidence of those powers be damned. “Stay as long as you like.”
“I don’t want to interfere with the… relationship… you two have.”
“I think we’re close to Peak Surreal, mom,” I said. “What’s a teeny bit more?”
“Seriously. Maybe it’s the daiquiris talking, but… I think you and Lucus have the same chemistry as your dad and I had. You even kinda look like younger and better-looking versions of him and me. I get the attraction. I…”
I waited for her to finish the sentence. When the silence got a bit awkward, I said, “Just spit it out.”
“Phrasing?” Lucus said.
“Hush, pervert” I said. “The adults are talking.”
He stuck his tongue out at me. “Pppthhbbb!”
Aleja said, “If you two are quite done with that articulate repartee…”
“Yeesss?” I said.
“What I was getting at was… I think you two make a great couple. Taboos be damned. Go for it.” She gave Lucus a wary look. “Don’t you go fucking around on her and break her heart. If that’s all this is to you, a bit of fun — better say it now. Cause she’s a beautiful person who’s inexplicably been mistreated by men because of her luscious curves. God knows I dealt with enough of that bullshit myself.”
Lucus looked exasperated. “First you tell me, date other women. Now you say the complete opposite.”
“Don’t deflect,” I said.
“I don’t want other women. I love YOU!” he said, not quite shouting.
In daiquiris, veritas.
“Awwww. I wuv you too,” I said in a squeaky little girl’s voice, because saying it straight felt too emotionally risky.
Lucus raised his eyebrows, like he was trying to figure out if I was being sarcastic or… something.
“I love you, too,” I said oh so softly. “You have no fucking idea how much I’ve loved you, ever since I was a kid.”
There. Finally. The truth, I thought.
Lucus and mom both stared at me, in the stunned silence.
Finally, Aleja nudged him at me. OK, more like shoved. “Hug her already, you idiot. Kiss her.”
It started off as a semi-platonic peck of a kiss, then quickly escalated as Lucus got a semi in his shorts.
Mom quietly cleared her throat. “Umm, a private word, Lucus?”
He reluctantly extricated himself from our decidedly non-platonic embrace, then scooted over to the other end of the couch, next to mom.
She started whispering in his ear. Like I didn’t have great hearing and could pick up on everything they said at such close range, no matter how low and discreet they whispered.
Or maybe that was Aleja’s intent, to pretend privacy while ensuring I overheard everything. She could be kinda devious. One of her better qualities, yeah?
“… ’cause you know Ciara’s a bit insecure about her figure, even though she’s a beautiful and sexy woman,” I heard her whisper to Lucus. “So, kiss every part of her body you find sexy — but don’t fucking lie, skip over anything you’re not as enamored with — starting with her hair and down to her feet.”
“Might get distracted midway down,” Lucus whispered back.
“Keep it moving, Bucky, all the way to her feet.”
” ‘K.”
Mom nudged-shoved him back toward me.
“Hey, Ciara…”
I raised my eyebrows and gave him my best faux innocent look, ’cause I knew for a fact he didn’t… yet… know about my Secret Superpower O’ Great Hearing. “Hmmm?” I tilted my head up, as if to resume our earlier kiss.
He ducked my lips, and kissed through my curly black hair to the top of my head. “I love your gorgeous hair. Like, lots of women must suffer Hair Envy.”
Hmmm. A decent start. “Thank you, kind sir,” I said in a squeaky girly voice, to deflect from the adoring look I was giving him.
He kissed my forehead. “And, despite your frequent insolence to your long-suffering brother, I love that wicked smart brain under all that lovely hair.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and gazed up at his handsome face. “Go on…”
He interrupt my loving look by kissing my right eyelid, then left, as I closed my eyes just in time. “Ohhh, and those perfectly symmetrical beautiful brown eyes of yours… I could look into them all day long.”
He kissed my nose, startling me, since I’d always wanted a narrow button White Girl nose. “Such a cute nose.”
My heart was hammering in my chest, said breasts I suspected would be next on the List O’ Desirable Attributes.
Except he kissed my lips, softly. “And those beautiful large pillowy lips you can just sink into all day long… mmmm.”
“Keep that up, sir,” I whispered, “and I might kinda sorta start liking you.”
“Specially when I sink my cock into thos–”
Aleja cleared her throat in warning, as I gave him a gentle warning slap on the cheek and shut him up with an extra helping of kisses. Even while admiring his boldness, in stand up comedic timing, not afraid to take risks for his craft. “Moving briskly along…” I said, my breasts tingling, ready for attention next.
He surprised me… again… by planting a flurry of light kisses on my cheeks, my dimpled chin, my ears… “You have a gorgeous face. So beautiful.”
He worked his way down over the next few minutes, kissing everything — shoulders, neck, arms, hands, breast and nipples (kinda had to nudge him away at that point before things got derailed), my belly (to my surprise and delight — thought if he’d skip anything, it’d be that)… and so on. Chastely detouring around my pussy — (which made me feel a bit insecure — the fuck?), and seemingly ending at my toes, after sliding down between my thighs, parting them to kiss the inner part en passant as he kneeled on the floor.
Before I could formulate a delicate inquiry about what the fuck was his problem with my pussy, he revealed his strategy, quickly rising up and burying his face in my by now sopping wet pussy. “Mmph’st da grtst puh-y ‘ver,” he said while yanking down my panties.
I moaned and grabbed his head with both hands, forcing his tongue inside me while spreading my legs wider apart. He responded by licking and sucking and tongue-fucking me.
I risked a sideways glance at Aleja.
She was staring at Lucus enthusiastically servicing me, biting her lower lip then parting her plump beautiful lips, a sorta glazed look in her eyes. She caught my eye. “Should I… uh… give you two some… privacy?”
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