Katey's Cootchie
Twelve Months - Friday December 31, 10:30 p.m.
"I'm in love," Katey announced.
Mitch glanced at the other three members of their little New Years Eve party. He didn't see any indication from the two women of knowledge as to what she was talking about. But his long-time friend Zander looked uncomfortable. "And?" he ventured.
He assumed his girlfriend of just over one year wasn't talking about her love for himself, or she would have phrased it differently. Or, at least, she would have preceded the remark with some kind of physical contact, sitting beside him as she was. So there had to be something more to her semi-drunken comment. The multiple recent encounters between her and his own best friend, which he had decided to tolerate in the interest of tranquility, seemed the likeliest scenario.
"No ands, baby," she replied. "It just seems like you have a plan for midnight, like you did last year. I thought I'd better say something first."
Zander spoke up at last. "You sure you want to bring this up now?"
Katey gave him a look from across the coffee table. It wasn't withering contempt, exactly, but not warmth either. She looked next, beside him, at Zander's girlfriend of several years. "I'm not talking about him," she assured the redhead.
"So just say it," Mitch said, relieved. "A boy band?"
Diminutive Katey scooted away from him and cuddled in closer with the much heavier woman seated next to her on the couch. "I'm in love with Lana," she said.
Mitch relaxed a little more. "Well, yeah," he said with a bit of a smile. "Aren't we all?"
Big-titted Svetlana put her heavily tattooed left arm around the younger woman's shoulder. "Don't take this the wrong way," she said to the younger woman, "but everything I do with you, is because he tells me to." She put her other hand squarely onto Katey's t-shirt, directly on her left breast, giving it a gentle squeeze for an awkwardly long moment.
"I know," bleach-blonde Katey said, doing nothing to impede the contact, "but I can't help it. It's two months now. I've developed feelings."
Lana scoffed. "Yeah. And I've got feelings for your boyfriend, too. I'm on the right path now, for the first time since, well, ever. And he's why. But I don't go around, you know, messing up a good thing, saying dumb stuff." It was true that, in the two months she'd been living under the same roof with the two of them, she had learned to dial back on her unfiltered comments. Mostly. And it was also true that for the past month, she had followed Katey's lead and completely given up on anything stronger, or less legal, than alcohol. She no longer complained about wanting to move out or to have a different arrangement. She even was open to discussion about reuniting with her son, who was in foster care -- at least, eventually.
"Hold on, hold on," Zander said to Katey. "Feelings? What about me? For you? Didn't we just talk about that?"
It was his tall girlfriend's turn to protest. "Zander? I know you haven't been yourself lately. But shouldn't you come to me - talk to *me* - first?"
"I tried. You don't listen."
"You know I love you. Are you talking about moving out? We can still make this work."
Mitch, nominally the host of this party, held up a hand. "Wait. Am I hearing this right? Robyne, I know you love the Z-man. Of course. But Z, are you saying you're in love with my Katey? I mean, actual Love kind of love, with a capital L?"
"You sort of pushed us together, man. And now that I've gotten to know her, well, you know." He left off the completion of his thought.
Mitch made a small wave of conciliation then put his hand back down. "I'm not angry, man. Jealous, I mean. Or anything. Really, I'm not. I mean, I've known all along you and she were sneaking around behind my back, but it was my own fault, what with the Bad Boys and everything. Mixed signals, mixed messages. At least it was out in the open, now, this past month. But I thought it was just physical, between you two."
"Sneaking around? You didn't tell me either? While it was happening? And who's the Bad Boys?" Robyne demanded of Mitch. "Zander, are you mixed up with, well, I don't even know who they are? Whoever they are, it doesn't sound good."
Mitch didn't answer that and addressed his girlfriend. "Katydid, are you saying more than I think you're saying? Are you thinking of moving out?"
"With Zander? No. I just said. I'm in love with Lana, not him. She's here, I'm here. But I have feelings for you too. I just, I don't know. I decided it was time to be totally honest with you." She took the woman's hand out of her lap and held it. "Honest with you both," she said to her. "I love you. I never thought I would. But something just clicked."
Lana looked over at Mitch. "I didn't know about this, I swear. If I'm in love with anyone, it's you. Not that I believe in love. I told you from the start, I'm not lesbian, but I do things when the circumstances say to. So maybe she's got the wrong idea. I'm a changed woman, or at least I'm changing, and you're the reason. Maybe that's love."
Mitch started to smile but suppressed it, only partially successfully. "I'm not sure love is the right word, either, is it? I mean, I bought you from that guy, but that's just because he's a sleazebag."
"And I'm glad you didn't sell me right away, when I asked." Lana looked over at the redhead and added, "no offense. You're really nice. But I was afraid of him at first, being all dominant and shit just like the others. I see now how wrong I was."
"It was just talk that first night, honey," Robyne reassured her. "I got over-enthused. Once I had time to think it over, it didn't make sense, on several levels. He's got the funds to do that kind of thing. I don't. You're better with him." She was still quite embarrassed about asking him to get her high a month earlier, setting a precedent for intimacy that she found it difficult to modulate now, all with the purpose of convincing him to sell Lana to her. At least, as far as she knew.
Mitch interrupted. "I'm glad you like it here, Lana. But just because I'm going to pay to have braces for you and her both - I mean, what else is money for? - it doesn't mean you love me. Love? Really?"
"I've dropped little hints, right? It's not just the things you pay for. Don't worry, I'm not talking about marriage. I mean, come on. I don't expect diamond rings out of life. I'm not the type who's ever gonna get that. But I never was with someone who says what he means, and then means what he says. I don't even usually use the word love. I said *if*. But if I did," she said, and then stopped.
Mitch looked at Robyne. "Well, this is a mess, isn't it?"
"Maybe we should just go," Zander's girlfriend agreed.
"No, no, don't. I don't mean that. We're all friends, right? We can talk this out."
"I've heard of triangles, but this is five sided. A love pentagon? Next thing, you're going to tell us you're in love with me."
Mitch gave her a smirk. "Well, actually," he began, then paused and grinned.
"Oh, no. No, no, no. Don't you say it."
He continued, "after the last time we all got together, before the three of us went to Cabo for Christmas, I just couldn't help thinking..." His puckish smile was difficult to interpret.
"Oh shut UP," Robyne said, more in embarrassment than in denial. "It's just sex, and that's all it's been, since that night a month ago. You said so, yourself. You promised. Good lord, I knew it was a mistake. I said so too, remember?"
"So suck my cock," he invited, still with an impish look on his face.
"I'm not doing that tonight. I told you at the start. It always seems to come down to that, anymore."
