The following morning I felt the difference before I even left my room. 'The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife,' as the old saying goes. Quietly, I entered the kitchen and found Naomi sitting there, her eyes red and her face covered with tears.
"Sonya knows," was all she said before getting up and walking to the master bedroom.
I had been aware that Sonya knew about her mom and I for several months but the events of the past night had brought it all to the forefront. I knew I needed to deal with it by being totally honest.
I left the kitchen and found Sonya sitting in a chair next to the pool. "Sonya," I called. "I think we need to talk."
Spinning, she glared at me. "BULLSHIT!!" was all she said before diving into the pool.
Not to be deterred, I dove in after her and surfaced beside her.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she yelled. "I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU."
"Well, I want to talk to you," I replied.
"I DON'T CARE!" she screamed and tried to swim away.
Without even realizing what I was doing, I grabbed her ankle and pulled her back.
She surfaced and yelled, "LET ME GO!"
"And what if I don't? What are you going to do? Hit me?"
As if that were all the incentive she needed, she slapped me as hard as she could. My head snapped sideways and the entire constellation appeared before my eyes, but I continued to hold her.
"Now let go," she growled, no longer yelling.
"No, we need to talk."
"About what? The fact that you've been fucking my mother for months or the fact that you and I have been spending so much time together and I thought maybe it meant something or maybe it's about the fact that you told my mom you loved her last night?"
"All of it."
Trying to pull away again, Sonya fumed, "Well, I DON'T want to talk about it."
Quickly, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against me, her back against my chest. "In that case just listen. You and I both know what this is actually about. It has nothing to do with the fact that I've been making love to your mom. You've known about that for months. It does have EVERYTHING to do with how you and I feel about each other and what you heard or think you heard last night."
Spinning in my arms, Sonya glared up at me and spoke quietly, "Fuck you. I know exactly what I heard last night. You told my mom you loved her."
I loosened my grip on her and looked into her eyes before replying. "You're right. I did. Your mom is an extremely beautiful, intelligent, and passionate woman ... and I do love her but ...,"
I didn't have the chance to finish before Sonya pulled from my grip and tried to knee me in the balls.
"Fuck you ... and fuck her," she continued as she fought to rapidly walk out of the pool. "Oh, that's right ... you already did."
Refusing to fall into her trap I continued, "... but, I'm not IN LOVE with her," stressing the words 'in love.' Then in a softer, gentler voice I finished, "I'm IN LOVE with you."
She stopped as if she had suddenly run into an invisible brick wall. Then she slowly turned, asking, "What did you just say?"
I knew that just like in all the romance novels I had ever joked about, this was probably the one and only time I'd have the chance to tell her how I felt and about what had been going on between Naomi and I. "I said, I'm IN LOVE with you."
She stood there looking at me and then down at the water, thinking, before looking back up at me again. "But you said you loved her and the two of you have been f ... mmm ... together for months," she continued.
I could hear the questions in her voice and took the 'leap of faith' that people joke about in situations similar to this. "Could we get out of the pool and talk? I think there's a lot I need to explain and a lot of questions you need to have answered."
She turned and headed for the stairway leading out of the pool before stopping and in a joking manner asked, "Well ... are you coming?"
She and I talked for the next two hours. We talked about how my dad had disappeared and the notes he'd left Naomi and I. We talked about her mother's grief and hopes of having a family with my dad and how everything seemed so natural the first time her mother and I made love. We talked about the frustration of not getting her mom pregnant and our continued attempts to do so and finally we talked about how the night before was to be our last time because of the feelings growing between her and I.
Sonya fell silent as she thought about what I said and at just that moment, I saw Naomi looking out the kitchen window at us, smiling and tears running down her face.
"So let me get this straight. Your dad disappeared or more probably killed himself because he was terminal with prostate cancer," then more quietly to herself, "which is probably why he couldn't get mom pregnant," before continuing, "and you ended up in bed with her trying to comfort her due to her grief. Is that right?"
"Yep"
"Then the two of you end up doing 'the nasty' together before she shows you the letter from your dad. In the letter he tells you what he's doing and why and that it's your responsibility to take care of her, including becoming her lover and getting her pregnant. Also, that the two of you have his blessing to do it. Did I miss anything so far?"