I would like to thank Randi for the invitation to participate. And for her editorial assistance. Please look out for the other stories in this event. You are in for some real treats.
Ryan O'Shaughnessy's life was absolutely awesome. At least, that's what he told anyone who was silly enough to ask.
But jokes to one side, he had every reason to be happy with his lot in life. His parents Bridey and Mick O'Shaughnessy loved him, as did his fiancée, Coleen Murphy.
Although their sharing an apartment before entering holy wedlock caused a frisson of angst amongst some of the older members of their families, their parents didn't mind and Father Kenneth, the parish priest, was a wise enough old bird to know when to hold or when to fold.
They were saving for the downpayment on a house a couple of miles from the area of town in which they currently lived.
The development they were looking at was going to be an absolutely stunning home, with amazing appliances, well-finished rooms and garden areas both front and back that looked as good as those shown in House Beautiful, Fine Gardening magazine and Home Gardening magazine.
Ryan deliberately chose "was going to be an absolutely stunning home" because although Ryan and Coleen had put a reserve on their new property no actual construction work had commenced and probably wouldn't for another six months or so. The photographs were all AI generated.
All seemed well in the world of Ryan and Coleen until someone breached a dyke, or perhaps it would be more apposite to say that a dyke had breached something, but more on that anon.
Ryan worked for a major office management software company. If you are in business to any degree, lesser or greater, then you'll more likely than not have used software designed and implemented by Müll-Computer-Unternehmen or MCU as it was more widely known.
What MCU did was to provide what is known as white label products for major business concerns with accountancy suites, communications systems, control systems, Virtual Reality systems, HR systems and the like. But the client could pretend that it was their own software that was running. Which was why MCU charged more than their rivals did, but the clients were always happy to pay the premium rates.
One of the advantages for Ryan, apart from the fantastic salary, was that he didn't have to spend time tied to his desk (to coin a phrase) and could work from anywhere he chose. Including the apartment he and his fiancée shared.
Due to a delay in the dental office Ryan had his teeth cleaned and polished late in the morning, so he decided to phone the office, tell them he'd be in later and drop in at home and grab a bite to eat.
He didn't bother to tell Coleen about his change of plan as she had told him she'd be out all day with his mother in a small city about 100 miles away to look at some wedding dress designs.
When Ryan opened the apartment's door and walked through into the living area, he had the shock of his life when he witnessed his fiancée and his mother indulging in what he later learned (courtesy of Bing) was known as scissoring, or tribadism.
When they realized that they were no longer alone together (to coin another phrase, I feel I'm on a roll here!) in the room, they disengaged their vulvas and slid away from each other, wearing shocked expressions.
They were stunned into silence, looking at Ryan almost as if they hoped he might vanish from their sight. But they both knew that wasn't going to happen. Swiftly, they began covering themselves with random bits of clothing and cushions from the large couch they'd been canoodling to the max on only moments before. "Not gonna rest my head on those cushions any longer," Ryan thought, barely able to keep his dental office coffee down.
"Mother... Coleen... just what the fuck is going on? I didn't know either of you were lesbians!"
Bridey shook her head. "Coleen isn't a lesbian, as such. I'd guess you could call her bi-curious, and I was helping her to explore that side of her personality, sort of."
Ryan frowned. "That's bull, mother. You were helping my fiancée cheat on me. That's what you were doing. And since when were you gay, Mother?"
"I wasn't cheating on you, Ryan," explained Coleen, interjecting. "Like your mom said, she was just helping me work through my feelings."
"What feelings? The feelings that you wanted to cheat on me?"
"But it's not cheating, not really. Because if you'd have caught me with a man, well, yes, that would have been cheating. But I'd never do that, Ry. I love you too much to do that."
"Just not enough to stop you having sex with my mother. Anyway, 'exploring that side of your personality'? What if you'd have realized you were totally into girls and that you didn't want me in your life any longer?"
"I wouldn't have done that. I love you too much, honey. You know that."
"Actually, I now know no such thing."
He turned to his mother. "What would Dad say if he knew what you'd been getting up to with my ex-fiancée?"
She shrugged. "Your father and I have an arrangement. He knows I'm bi-sexual and he's okay with me having my silly little dalliances, unimportant events in the scheme of things, so long as they don't interfere with our marriage, the core things that involve us, affect us."
Ryan happened to notice that the expression on his fiancée's face, ex-fiancée, now, had suddenly shifted to one of hurt and anger when she had realized that Bridey only thought of her as being a silly little dalliance and an unimportant event.
He then realized that the participants in the affair had radically different views on their affair and what they'd expected from it.
Without another word Ryan glanced down at the occasional table by the door and grabbed the two cell phones he saw there, stuffed them in his pockets and ignoring their shrieking protests, left the apartment and firmly, but quietly, closing the door behind him.
Without their phones they wouldn't be able to call his father to spin him a yarn, and although there was a phone point in the apartment the last time it had been connected to the phone network was probably during the Bush 1 or Bush 2 administrations.
He took the elevator to the ground floor and once outside the building he phoned his father. "Hi, Dad. I just had a fucking hell of a shock. I went back to the apartment unexpectedly and I found Mom and Coleen in bed together having sex." He heard his father's gasp of horror.
"Mom told me that you and her have an open relationship and that you didn't mind her having sex with women. Is that true?"
His father sighed. "Not... not entirely. Rather than you come to the house and risk your mother trying to blindside us with BS, I'll meet you at Monty's Sports Bar in a half hour. Is that okay, Ry?"
"Sure, Dad. I'm not expected at the office for a while, so Monty's sounds good to me."
When Ryan had parked his car in the parking lot and walked into Monty's, the screens were playing some European soccer games and his father was sitting at one of the back booths with a pitcher of beer and two pint glasses on the table.
