Rainy fall afternoons and evenings with close friends are the best. There is something special about the Fall season. I guess it makes people want to find places that are warm and cozy and that you can share with friends and lovers. The biologists call it “denning” when wild animals do it. We human animals call it “cocooning”.
I look forward to rainy afternoons with my two roommates. Actually, we’re more than roommates. We met, one day, a few years ago when we all started work for a major company. Two of us were recently hired college graduates. Fresh out of school. Eager to please and eager to show the world. And totally naïve to the ways of the business world.
We quickly learned two things. We were at the bottom of the corporate pecking order. We were lower than whale poop on the ocean floor. And, in the City, none of us was going to be able to survive and live, by ourselves, on the salaries we were being paid.
We couldn’t do anything about the pecking order except to help each other climb higher. And that usually didn’t work because we were all looking out for ourselves. We could do something about survival in the City. We tried to find one or two people who seemed to be compatible to ourselves. We’d pool our money and rent a decent apartment. We could also pool our money for utilities and food. This only worked, if you were really lucky. And I was really lucky.
On the first day of work, I met Ted. He had a Masters Degree in Financial Management and Accounting. I’m Kelly and I had a degree in information technology and security. Thank God for corrupt businessmen and accountants. The heat was on and Ted and I were both new honest, but untried, faces. Accounting and computer fraud were hot button items.
We were still getting oriented to our roles in the corporate world when we met Tim. Tim was about ten years older than me and he was about three or four years older than Ted. He had worked, after college, as a bank examiner.
With the combination of computer fraud, banking fraud and accounting fraud being in the forefront of the latest scandals and with Corporate’s desire to appear to be on top of it, we were all hired for one thing – to keep the company out of trouble and to keep them honest. Or at least make them look honest. A case of being in the right place at the right time.
But this isn’t about Corporate. This is about Ted, Tim and me. We worked together for a few days. We got along well and we found out after work and over drinks that we were all struggling to find a decent place to live that was within reasonable commuting distance from the office. We had a lot of interests in common, such a fitness and working out, which helped our friendship.
We decided to pool our money and rent a three-bedroom apartment. It worked out well. We also learned that we could live together as friends and roommates. We were some of the lucky ones who could pool our resources and remain friends. After a year or so we decided to stop renting and invest in a house.
We found a nice place with four bedrooms and four baths in a part of the City where people were renovating and re-selling large older homes. It was great. Each of us had their own bath and bedroom so that eliminated a couple of the bigger aggravations right at the start. We drew up a contract where, if one of us left, the others could buy and split that share of the house.
We all liked to cook so the care and cleaning of the kitchen was no problem. All three of us are somewhat anal when it comes to picking up after one’s self and in generally keeping things neat and tidy so upkeep and cleaning of the house was not a problem either.
One would think that problems might arise when close friends slept over or when one of us brought a date home, but it was always cool. That didn’t change when we three became more Lovers than roommates. Sometimes our friends or dates joined us in foursomes, fivesomes and even sixsomes.
One of my favorite memories is of the afternoon Ted, Tim and I became Lovers.
It was a rainy Saturday afternoon in the late Fall. The whole previous week had been rather gray and dreary, but the rain had started Friday afternoon and it was still raining. It was a slow steady cold rain - a soaker that gardeners, farmers and foresters world-wide relished. The three of us were snug in our home.
To help combat the dreariness, and so we wouldn’t feel alone in the cold and rain, we had gathered in front of our fireplace. There was soft music playing, each of us was reading and we were sipping warm mulled wine. Although the gas logs don’t crackle like a wood fire, the fire was especially cheerful. Ted put down the magazine he was reading. He stood and walked over to the patio door.
“I’m glad I’m not outside. Just thinking about being out there in the wet and cold, maybe with no place to go, gives me the shivers.” He pulled the drapes closed then walked over and stood in front of the fireplace. “We’re warm and dry and now the cold is shut out.”
Tim looked up from his book, “My, you’re in a pensive mood. You need to do something to take your mind off the weather.”
“Such as?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Being with a Lover comes to mind.”
“Tim, if you were with a Lover, would you make love here or go to the bedroom?”
“Uh, We’d probably go to the bedroom.”
I put my book down. “I’d like to have a bedroom with a fireplace. Then I’d have the best of both worlds.”
