The weeks between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break were hectic ones, both at college and home. My sporadic fuck-buddy relationship with Alissa continued, including some essential stress relief quickies during studying for finals.
On the home front, the main conflict was between Angie's parents, Jake and Debra McDougall, over Debra throwing Angie out of their home. Things got so heated between them that Jake moved out and it looked like the couple were headed for divorce, particularly because Jake moved in with his former foster sister Wendy, in the same apartment building where Angie's sister Pat lived.
Angie settled in with my parents, trying hard to stay focused on her own studies. We fit in video chats where we could, but were both pretty busy between term papers and finals.
My parents were not overjoyed when Angie let them know about her father's intuition that she and I were involved with my mom, but came to the same realization I did that Jake was going to keep it a secret. They were more concerned about Angie's mom Debra reaching the same conclusion.
The Sunday morning before finals, Angie called me. "Derek, you're not going to believe this."
"What could top the past month, hon?" I asked.
Angie answered, "I told you about our plan to de-emphasize my relationship with your mom, right? Well, Jessica and I went to the swing club last night, as part of that. Get this, my Dad and Wendy were there, too!"
"What?" I exclaimed. "Why were they there?"
Angie answered, "They were guests of Doug and Barb Cohen, the same couple who saw me at the club the first time and told my parents. They both apologized, they thought Mom already knew I'm bisexual. Anyway, my dad and Wendy are definitely a couple again and he's intending to file for divorce after the holidays. I did manage to avoid seeing him have sex with anyone. Jess and I went into a private room with the same two guys your Mom and I were with the last time, then we left early."
"I'm sorry to hear about the divorce, sweetie. Have you been able to talk with your mom about it?"
"No, she still won't accept a phone call from me," Angie replied. "Something about the way she's reacting, overreacting really, doesn't make sense to me, but I can't figure out what. She won't even talk with Pat about it. The only upside is that Pat doesn't blame me for the split, but she doesn't get Mom's reaction, either. I'm going to try and talk with Pat again after finals are over. I may be hard to reach until then, you know how it goes."
"I do. Knock them out of the park, honey," I said. "Talk to you when they're over. Love you, bye."
~~~~~
After my last finals on the Friday before Christmas, I drove south and swung by Norfolk's airport to pick Tommy up from his flight from Chicago. He had the time between Christmas and New Year's Day off, but would have to fly back on New Year's Day to work the next day.
When we got to my parents' house, Jessica greeted us at the door, but nobody else was home. After hugging the breath out of both of us, Jessica said, "Our parents are at my mom's house tonight, making the final decisions about merging households. I think Mom is leaning toward a yes, but she wouldn't confirm it to me. Angie said she was stopping to talk to her sister Pat on the way here after her last final. Dinner's keeping warm in the kitchen until she gets here."
When Angie did arrive, she was clearly upset. "What's wrong, hon?" I asked, after a hug and a kiss.
Angie took a deep breath, then said, "Remember that I said I was going to talk to Pat about the situation with Mom? I got over to her apartment and saw her car in the lot. When she didn't immediately answer the door, I decided to let myself in with my key. Only to walk in on her having sex, with both Wendy... and my dad."
"Holy shit," I muttered.
"That's exactly what I fucking said," Angie responded, shaking her head. "Apparently, it's not even close to something new for them. I only got a quick explanation, but the gist is that Dad has been sneaking off to see Wendy throughout most of his marriage to Mom. About four months after she moved into her apartment, Pat spotted Dad sneaking out of Wendy's apartment. Pat confronted Wendy, only to wind up in her bed, too."
"How?" Jessica asked.
Angie answered, "I didn't ask how that seduction happened but it also resulted in Pat confessing that she is attracted to Dad. One thing led to another and Dad made love to Pat the next time he visited and any other times that his visits to Wendy coincided with Pat being in town. Looking back, I saw Pat often enough at our house that I rarely went to visit her at the apartment or I might have caught them before now. Here I was, thinking I was keeping my trysts with Tommy and Jess a secret and my dad not only knew about that but had an even bigger secret he was keeping. No wonder he was so ready to conclude that you and I were involved with your parents."
"Jeez," Tommy muttered. "When the fuck did he figure that out?"
I said, "He hit me with it the morning I went over to get his blessing to marry Angie, before our orgy, claiming he had figured it out because of signals Angie was giving off. Since it was clear that he was going to stay quiet, I only told Angie, at first. Then her mom threw her out of the house the next day and it didn't come up before we left. She told Mom and Dad after that and they agreed that we didn't have anything to really worry about."
Jess said, "Angie also told me. That's part of the reason why we went to the swing club together, to get her parents' friends to see her involved with me, rather than Marcy."
"Hold on, it gets worse," Angie said. "Dad had another bombshell. Mom has been aware of his affair, but didn't push him about it because she was afraid he'd choose Wendy if forced to pick and Dad made sure to be attentive to her when he was home. Anyway, she suspects that there was a second woman involved. She thinks it's me, because she isn't aware that Pat is bisexual, too. Like either of us were going to voluntarily come out to a parent we already knew is homophobic."
Jessica said, "You weren't even that sure you were bi when I was the only woman you had made love to, until you also made love to Marcy and then my mom."
Angie responded, "In hindsight, I should have admitted to Mom that you were my lover, although my Dad had already connected me to Marcy by then. Instead, Mom took the revelation that I'm bisexual and put the wrong two plus two together, concluding that I am the second woman, committing incest with Dad. When she finally accused Dad of that, he denied it, of course, but he couldn't reveal that he was involved with Pat instead or name anyone else as Wendy's lover, and Mom doesn't believe him when he says it's just the two of them. He went to the swing club to get Wendy involved with other women where the Cohens could see her, figuring that they'd tell Mom. Basically the same plan Jess and I had to get the Cohens to tell Mom that I'm involved with Jess. Except, being there the same night might now reinforce Mom's belief I'm involved with Wendy, even though Wendy and I never did anything but talk at the club."
"So, the Cohens are friends to your mom, too?" I asked.
Angie answered, "Apparently, but I'm not sure how or if they've seen Mom in the past week. I don't remember having ever met them before at the house. Mom doesn't really have proof that I've been involved with Dad, since I haven't, so my bisexuality is simply her excuse for throwing me out. She expected me to run straight to Wendy rather than here. Dad also indicated that Mom believes that her sister Rachel was intimate with my cousin Bonnie, so it's not the first time she's cut ties with someone in our family over incest. Neither Dad nor Pat is willing to confess the truth to Mom to straighten things out between her and me, because they are afraid Mom would call the cops on them and I can't blame them for thinking that. She probably would. It's when Dad hinted that other secrets could fall, implying Derek and Marcy, that I'd heard enough and left."
"Fuck," was all I could think of to say. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. How can we resolve this, without anyone winding up in jail? I don't bear your dad and sister any ill will, but I can't have him threatening Mom and me."
"Sounds like mutually assured destruction, to me," Tommy said. "Neither side can afford to confess its own incest or out the other. We're actually safer knowing that Jake has a stronger reason to keep quiet, too. Is there any way to get Debra to see that Angie isn't involved with Wendy that doesn't point to Pat?"
Jessica said, "Going to the club might accomplish that. If Debra finds out Angie is involved with me, that does double duty of keeping Angie from being linked to Marcy or Wendy. Without somehow linking Angie to you, because Debra would probably still react negatively to you being cousins."
I interjected, "Linking you to me would be worse, Jess. Angie and Tommy are legal, at least."
Angie said, "My original focus in going to the club with Jess was to keep my mom from linking me to your mom like my Dad did. Yet, even knowing that we were at the club with your parents the first time, my mom linked me to Wendy instead of Marcy, so I actually think it's unlikely that she's even thinking about incest in your family, she's focused on ours. It could also help that the Cohens witnessed me being surprised to see Dad and Wendy at the club together. If they tell my mom both of those things, she'd know I wasn't involved with Wendy, without having to expose my dad and Pat. Except, what reason could I give for asking the Cohens to tell my mom that?"
"You can't ask," I answered. "You would make them suspect that things were staged for them to see, which you and your dad both did. Asking could even make them conclude that the four of you coordinated what they witnessed, which could reinforce your mom's theory. You can only hope that they bring it up with your Mom on their own and your mom reaches the conclusions we want and no more than that."
Tommy said, "I don't think we're going to come up with any other solutions tonight, so why don't we go ahead and eat dinner? I skipped lunch to make my flight and peanuts on the plane didn't quite cut it. We can ask our parents for their advice tomorrow."
After a delicious dinner of trout and scalloped potatoes, the four of us watched a movie. Angie snuggled close to me but fell asleep against my shoulder about half-way through. Tommy and Jessica were a little friskier over on the love seat, yet stayed clothed. When the movie was over and Angie was still asleep, I whispered, "She's exhausted. I'll get her to bed and see the two of you in the morning. Good night."
