Chapter 3 -- Wednesday Lover
The walk back from Geoffrey's Gambit to his house wasn't that long, but it felt like miles and miles and miles, as he considered all the things that Merlin had told him. He took his phone from his pocket and put a marker on the 3
rd
, which was a few weeks off, marking it "Midas Day?" He wasn't at all sure what that meant, but the look that had been on Merlin's face convinced him it was going to definitely be a mixed bag. The name Midas Day wasn't doing it any favors, Kev thought, since that story was supposed to be a cautionary tale.
As he returned to his house, he saw that Kerry's beat up Honda Civic was parked in his driveway, looking one step away from death as it had for as long as he'd known her. There was something reassuring about that, some single detail that had refused to change despite all the sweeping edits his life had gone through in the past week.
Kerry called her car Lady Godiva, because the Civic was about as naked as it could possibly get. The paint had probably been green at some point, but now it was mostly rust colored, and pretty soon, the old girl would need to be laid to rest for good. Kev sort of hoped that he'd be able to pay her enough for her to get a new car and not have to worry about it.
He headed up to the front door and as soon as he stepped into the house, he could hear Kerry's boisterous laugh from down the hall. It was a comfortable and familiar sound, even if he hadn't heard it much as of late. She'd laughed a lot when the band had gotten started, and it brought a warm feeling to his heart to hear it again.
Kev walked down the hall and entered the dining room, where Elizabeth, Ashley and Kerry were all seated, enjoying cocktails. He suspected Natalie was in the kitchen finishing off dinner. "Three of my favorite ladies, all enjoying each others' company," he said, moving to sit at the head of the table, which they'd intentionally left unoccupied for him. "Glad to hear everyone's getting along."
"So you go from banging nobody to living the polyamorous dream, Kev?" Kerry said, leaning her chair back onto two legs, keeping it precariously balanced there. "I mean, I get it, if we'd have ever gotten groupies as hot as Ashley here, I'd have been all over that shit, but you never struck me as the kind of guy with that level of game. Props to you, my man!"
She'd modified her look a bit, but Kerry still looked like Kerry. Last time he'd seen her, she'd been rocking an undercut, but now she had what looked like a mohawk that hadn't been put up, a single stripe of long dyed purple hair down the center of her head, swept back and dangling down her back. She was short and ripped and butch, as she'd always been, and her face was covered in shrapnel -- her septum had a large ring through it, each side of her nose bore a large stud, each of her eyebrows sported three silver rings, and her ears had enough piercings in them that he'd never bothered to count. Also on her neck, she bore a tattoo of a mermaid wielding a machine gun, Rosie the Riveter style.
Like she always did, she had on a pair of jeans that were more holes than denim, and tonight's t-shirt of choice was a Ozzy Osbourne t-shirt that said "No More Tours" on it, from his first farewell tour back in 1992, the image on it more than a little faded. Her heavily spiked leather jacket was draped over the back of the chair. Her bottle of Heineken looked like it was mostly empty already, so she'd likely arrived almost immediately after he'd gone out for a walk.
"Yeah, well, I sort of fell into it," Kev said, as Natalie poked her head in.
"Dinner'll be ready in ten, sir. Get you a drink?"
"I'll have what she's having," he said pointing at Kerry.
"Oh, and bring me a second, will ya doll?" Kerry said to Natalie, giving her a little wink.
Natalie smiled, nodding. "Sure thing. One sec."
"So you're really banging all of them, Kev?" Kerry said, finishing off her first beer. "I mean, I don't blame you. All three of these ladies are rockin' but don't you feel a little greedy, keeping 'em all to yourself?"
"They chose me, Ker," Kev laughed, "and it would be rude to turn any of them down."
Kerry looked over at Ashley. "I mean, c'mon, girl, he's gotta be too old for you, yeah?"
Ashley smirked at her, flipping some of her platinum blonde hair back over her shoulder. "The first time he fucked me, I came so hard my eyes rolled back into my skull. If he can always do that, I don't give a fuck how old he is, m'kay?"
Kerry let out a little whistle and looked back at Kev. "Shit, it's a shame I'm not into dudes at all, otherwise I'd take a hit off that," she said, laughing, as Natalie reentered the room, setting a beer down in front of Kev, then in front of Kerry, picking up her bottle.
"I'll be right back with dinner, sir," Natalie said, starting to head towards the kitchen.
"Make sure to dish yourself some out to join us, Natalie," Kev said to her.
The Asian woman stopped at the doorway, looking back, a bit of surprise on her face. "Are you sure, sir?"
Kev grinned a little bit at her. "Don't make me have to tell you twice."
Natalie blushed a little and returned the grin. "Yes sir, thank you sir. I'll be right back." Then she slipped back into the kitchen.
"Doesn't she normally eat dinner with you?" Kerry asked, arching a collection of eyebrow piercings at him.
"This is actually her first dinner here," Kev said, as Natalie brought the first round of plates in, setting one in front of Kevin before anyone else. "She just joined the family yesterday, didn't you, Nat?" he said, giving her butt a friendly squeeze.
