Annie: Valentine Mine

I already knew Jill would be taking over my closet and dresser. Single nerd equals not a lot of clothes. So she got two-thirds of my closet and half my dresser. She borrowed a drawer from Annie and we merged our kitchen stuff. She staked out the dining room table for a workspace and amazingly, all the pieces and parts started to fit together. She and Annie worked out the bathroom and by 7 o'clock, I was ordering pizza for the four of us.

"If ever there was a group of people who could handle a plural marriage," Abby told us as we sat eating pizza, "you three would be it." She held up her wine glass in a toast. "Aux nouveaux amis... Bonne chance!"

"Nouveaux amis!" we echoed.

"And for the record," I added, "we've got quite a ways to go before we start talking about marriage."

"Oh, I don't know..." Annie smiled that impish smile. "You seem well on your way..."

"What's Onat doing for New Year's?" Jill asked Abby, sort of changing the subject.

"The usual knock-down, drag-out orgy," Abby smiled. "Dr. Lyndhurst is hosting this year."

"That means her place will be packed," Jill decided. "Maybe I'll just hunker down here in my pink flannel jammies, chenille robe and bunny slippers. Maybe put a dent in a gallon of Carlo Rossi."

"Are you serious?" Annie asked. "You'll pass on an ONat New Year's Eve party?"

"I was joking, mostly," Jill told her, "but seriously, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe celebrating quietly at home isn't such a bad idea."

"How about we play it as it lays?" I suggested. "I'm working, regardless of what you guys decide to do, so I won't be home until after the ball's dropped."

"Well, that's a bummer," Annie decided, then turned to Abby. "Is the party really that bad?"

"If you don't have an escort, for a pretty young thing like you, it could be. You'd get hit on six ways from Sunday, and some people can get pretty obnoxious before they're thrown out. Guys and girls. It isn't only ONat people that show up to these... you get a cross-section of just about everybody. If you're with somebody who can run interference, it can be worth being an observer. If Jill's not going, I'd probably take a pass on it, if I were you."

"Wow..." Annie mused. "That bad..."

"Oh!" Jill suddenly jumped up. "I forgot!" And she headed off towards my room. She was back almost immediately with a nicely wrapped gift box, which she handed to Annie. "Your Christmas present," she told her as Annie looked surprised.

"I, uh... really?"

"Yep," Jill smiled. "I remember the Bears jersey."

That got two raised eyebrows from Annie, who asked, "may I open it?"

"You'd better," Jill kept smiling. "I can't wait to see your reaction."

Annie turned her attention to the wrapping and pretty soon opened a plain white box, pulling something colorful out of it. In fact, it came out in multiple pieces.

I turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous sapphire blue sarong, with matching bikini briefs and a halter, all fairly diaphanous. Annie didn't wait. She just stood up, stripped off and put it on. The blue was perfect for her strawberry blonde hair and turquoise eyes.

"Oh, my God! This is so beautiful!" Annie gushed.

"Don't go Valley on me," I told her. She just gave me one of her looks and went on with Jill.

"I mean, this is just perfect! It's like that color spray you were wearing at the pig roast, except you only had on the sarong part, but it's still beautiful. Definitely have to give it a work out..."

Jill laughed. "Maybe you should bring it out to next summer's campout," she suggested. "You will definitely get noticed!"

"No shit!" Annie exclaimed, twirling in front of Jill and then going over to her, bending at the waist and pulling her into a deep, deep kiss. It went on long enough that Abby turned to me.

"So, what are you doing tonight?" she asked with a slight smile.

"Whatever the bosses tell me to do," I told her, pointing to Annie and Jill.

"Smart man," Abby grinned. Breaking the kiss but not looking back at us, Annie chimed in.

"Sleeping with her, if it's okay with Jill, and I'll take Jill. Or sleeping with me if Jill wants you. Or toddling off home if she really needs to, but where's the fun in that?" Jill looked over to Abby.

"You take her, I'll take him?" she asked. "And whoever's up first starts the coffee?"

"Works for me," Abby told her, and thus began the pattern of our lives going forward. The girls were in charge, but always accounted to me. It turned out to be pretty amazing.

* * * * *

We spent the rest of the Winter Break settling into living with each other. Jill didn't have very many prickly points and Annie was learning to adjust to being the Third to Jill's and my Couple. My work schedule kept me away most evenings, so the two of them had a chance to have several long talks.

One result of that was Jill usually sleeping with me, but one night a week she'd take Annie's bed and Annie would be in mine. On another, I'd be alone while the two of them shared. They decided to skip the New Year's Eve bash and just sit around our living room, watching old movies and drinking that gallon of Carlo Rossi Jill had mentioned. After I got home from work, we toasted the New Year and finished the celebration with a three-way rut that had all three of us crashed out in my bed come morning.

Term started shortly thereafter and again, we fell into the routine as if made for it. It was almost too seamless to be true, from my point of view, but it was working. We fell into a natural division of labor and Jill kept helping Annie with the academics. We three were growing closer and closer together without realizing it was getting as intense as it was. It was near the end of January when Annie put it in my face.

"So when are you going to propose?" she asked. "Valentine's Day?"

That surprised me. I hadn't really been thinking about proposing to Jill and I told Annie that.

"Then why did you buy that wedding band set we saw at Richardson's?" she asked. "I thought you were going to propose."

Okay, so it was true that I had bought the ring set... an engagement ring for the woman and wedding bands for the couple. I had really, really liked the set and after Christmas, they'd had a massive jewelry sale. I hadn't really been thinking about proposing... something in the back of my mind kept telling me it would be a good investment at those prices... but maybe part of me had been.

"I thought it would be a good investment, what with the after-Christmas sale and all," I told Annie. "I'm not thinking about proposing."

"The hell you aren't," she told me. "You just aren't doing anything about it."

"Okay, so I'm not doing anything about it," I admitted. "I don't want to be rushing anything. Maybe by end of term we'll have bumped into each other enough to know if it would be a good idea or not."

"You love her as much as I do, Brian," she told me. "Maybe more. She's right for us and you know it. So get your beautiful ass in gear and propose. We don't have to get married right away..." She suddenly stopped, as if actually hearing what she was saying. "I mean, you don't have to get married right away... it can be one of those long engagements..." She let her voice trail off.

"We will have to see," I told her. "I am absolutely sure that I don't know what I'm doing. But I'm not going to worry about it now, especially when I have to leave for work in fifteen minutes."

Annie backed off and I got out the door. I hadn't decided anything one way or another, but Annie did succeed in getting me thinking. If Jill felt the same way I did, we could get engaged and not have it screw anything up. We could continue on until Jill gradated and I got my Master's. It wouldn't be much different that what we were doing now, except for blowing open the fact that we had come to love each other and were willing to make the commitment, and in a very short time.

And now the idea was stuck in my head. That, and the fact that Annie seemed to think it was all three of us getting married. That could present its own set of problems.

It was a few days later that Annie hit me with the Victoria's Secret thing.

"So buy her flowers and chocolates," I told her, a little facetiously.

"Is that what you're doing?" she asked rather pointedly.

"Honestly, I'm screwing up like most guys," I told her. "I haven't planned anything yet and I'm probably going to get caught flatfooted."

"Typical," she muttered as she kept scrolling through the site.

"How about I treat us to dinner at the Arches?" I asked, teasing.

"Lame," she informed me, not looking up. "Dinner at Hamilton's wouldn't be bad, though..."

Hamilton's was about four orders of magnitude out of my price range.

"I can't do Hamilton's," I told her. "But I could do Luigi's, if Italian is okay."

"Hey, she your girlfriend," Annie came back. "What do you think she'd like?"

"Fair enough," I told her, "but you're my lover, too, and your opinion counts." That seemed to bring her up a bit short. I could see the wheels spinning as she turned over my statement.

"Luigi's is nice," she finally decided. "But don't you work that Sunday?"

"I'll get Skip to swap with me," I decided. "He's single and he owes me one, anyway."

"Excellent," Annie decided. "Now go do whatever you were doing while I figure out how to rescue my part of this whole thing..."

* * * * *

Which is how, on Sunday, February 14th, I had 7 o'clock reservations at Luigi's for Annie, Jill and myself.

I had also heard via the grapevine that several couples of our acquaintance were going to be there as well. Apparently, a moderately priced Italian restaurant with excellent food and large portions was a hit with those of us living on a tight budget. Which meant it should be impressive enough to save my reputation with the girls.

The three of us were standing in the living room, putting on the finishing touches before heading out to dinner. Annie and Jill both looked awesome and I knew I was going to engender some jealousy issues in other males of the species tonight. My ego was loving it.

Annie, for some reason, was looking more and more agitated and I wasn't sure why. Even Jill was giving her quizzical looks as her energy bounced off the walls and ceiling. Finally, she burst.

"Okay, he won't do it... so I will." She sped off to her room and came back moments later, walking straight up to Jill, taking her left hand and dropping to one knee. Jill and I were hugely confused.

"Jill," Annie asked her, "will you do me the great honor of being my lawfully wedded Sister-in-Law?"

She held up a plain silver friendship ring I'd seen her wear before, obviously expecting an answer.

Jill looked over at me with a What do I do now? kind of look and I looked back with a shrug and a How the Fuck Should I Know? look.

"Um..." Jill turned back to Annie, still waiting. "I, uh... I...?" she stalled with another look back over to me. That's when I decided to stop being stupid.

I didn't say anything. I just bolted for my room and the top right-hand drawer of my dresser, under the socks. I grabbed the box and hurried back to them, fumbling with the box a little but managing to get the engagement ring out.

"Gimme," I muttered to Annie as I knelt next to Annie and took both their hands. "Let's do this right..."

"Ms. Jill Morgan," I asked, looking up at her, "will you do me the great honor of being my lawfully wedded wife?"

Jill looked down on both me and Annie, I'm sure thinking we were out of our fucking minds, but a small smile showed as she let out the breath she'd been holding and told me, "yes, Brian, I will. And yes, Annie, I will." I slipped the ring on Jill's finger to Annie's heartfelt "Thank God!"

I stood up, took Jill in my arms and we kissed... long and soul-deep. Somewhere in there, Annie put her arms around us in a hug and the three of us just got lost in each other and in the moment.

Eventually, though, we had to come up for air.

"Wow..." she murmured. "We're going to surprise a lot of people tonight..."

"Not the least of which will be us," I smiled. Then Jill surprised me by turning and kissing Annie.

And Annie kissed her back, I think pouring everything she was feeling, and not saying, into the kiss. When they finally eased up, I thought they might need to go change underwear. Jill looked directly into Annie's eyes as she took a breath and let out a sigh.

"Abby's going to kill me," she told Annie, "but when we make it that far, you can have dibs on Maid of Honor, if you want it." For a moment, I thought Annie was going to cry. But she straightened up and got practical.

"We've got a lot of TD&H breaking in to do first," she sort of smiled, "and... thank you. It will be an honor."

"If you ladies are ready, we should leave for our reservation," I pointed out. I'd just noticed the time.

The two women looked at each other for a moment, then Jill reached out and took the friendship ring Annie was still holding, slipping it on her right ring finger. Annie swallowed, hard.

"I think it should stay there," Jill told her. "Just like Brian's."

Annie just hugged her again, hard.

"Ladies?" I prompted them again. "Luigi's?"

They got themselves together and the three of us headed out for what should have been a quiet, relaxing, intimate Italian dinner.

Fat chance.

* * * * *

On the way over, I brought up my expectations that although the engagement was important to me to do now, for the commitment, that getting our lives in order first -- my degree, Jill's degree and a solid plan for the future -- was more important that the wedding. I was pleasantly surprised to find out Jill felt the same way. She was okay with the idea of an extended engagement.

Annie was all bubbly that we'd made the commitment at all, and even more bubbly that Jill was including her in our relationship. I pointed out that Jill and I still needed to inform our respective families before Annie took off bragging or anything. She reluctantly agreed that she needed to cool it.

We got to Luigi's to encounter what I was going to start calling the Jill factor -- everything was going right. They had our reservation and a table -- booth, actually -- ready even though the restaurant was crowded with celebrants. And in following our hostess to our booth, we passed several couples and groups of friends we knew through the ONat group. The two big ones that stood out were Becca and Jimmy, and Abby and Steve, both enjoying dinner and both pleased to see us. Until the girls saw the ring.

Jill smiled and waved to them as we passed by and in both cases, I could see a look of pure disbelief descend onto Becca's and Abby's faces. We actually made it to our booth and got seated before their curiosity got the better of them. Jill and Annie had decided I should be between them, do I was in the middle of the booth's semicircle, Jill was on my left and Annie was on my right. From where I was sitting, I could see both Becca and Jimmy, and Abby and Steve, whispering intently and the women casting furtive glances our way.

We had our water, wine and bread and were perusing the menus, when Abby and Becca got up and walked over to us. I kept my head in the menu and tried not to gloat. Jill had her hands on either side of her menu and wasn't hiding the rings. Annie was squirming, but keeping her mouth shut.

"You look pretty happy," Abby told Jill as she got to the table. "And sparkly." Jill was trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably. She did kind of wiggle the diamond at Abby in confirmation. Becca was a bit more direct when she reached us.

"You're shitting me," she stated. "Him?" She was referencing me.

"Yep," Jill smiled. "Him. And an awesome sister-in-law comes with the package."

"Lucky bastard," Becca nodded. "You don't deserve her."

"I'll take that in the category of Nobody Deserves Her," I smiled. "I understand the sentiment."

"You take good care of her or we'll hunt you down and do indescribable things to you." Becca turned to Annie. "And you... you are one very lucky lady. I hope you know that."

"Oh, I do!" Annie told her. "She's been special to me since the day we met."

"Have you set a date, yet?" Abby asked.

"Sometime after I graduate," Jill told her. "We've got a lot to do between now and then. Right now, we're having a nice dinner and then heading back to the apartment. Why don't you guys come by a little later and we can talk?"

"Sounds good to me," Abby told her, then leaned in to get a hug. Becca moved in right behind her. Jimmy followed Becca with a light peck on the cheek and a handshake with me. Steve followed Jimmy in the kiss and handshake.

"Make it somewhere between nine-thirty and ten," I told them as they started to go back to their tables. They agreed and we turned our attention back to our menus. I was only half there, since part of my mind was working on breaking it to our parents.

* * * * *

Telling our families turned out to be easier that I'd feared. My folks were easy... Mom had already been hoping Jill would be the one for me. Dad sounded pretty happy, too. Especially when we told them we'd already started working out how Annie could live with us while she finished school. If she wanted to and nothing else interfered.

Jill's parents were quite a bit more surprised. Apparently, the concept of their very independent daughter willfully binding herself to a marriage was a foreign concept. Jill and I had taken a long weekend to go visit them and tell them in person. They were pleasant people and I figured they'd get used to me, just like I'd get used to them.

We did get their congratulations and best wishes, and we promised to keep them apprised of future happenings. We left Annie out of it.

So now the three of us are looking the future dead in the eye and not flinching. Somehow, we're going to make this work. There is, as they say, a long road ahead of us...

~Finis~ (for now)