Dale's Women Ch. 10

"Oh, she just can't deal with this situation."

Gloria eyed her friend keenly. "You mean you've spilled the beans?"

"I couldn't help it," Lois said, in a reversion to her earlier whiny self. Then, reasserting herself: "But she should know anyway. She has to learn to deal with it."

"Lois, darling, it's a lot for a daughter to take in—you have to admit that."

"Maybe, but it's really not her problem. It's not a problem at all."

"She obviously doesn't see it that way."

"Well, I think she—"

By this time Dale had sauntered out to the back yard, concerned that his two women were getting into an argument over him. "Say, what's going on?"

"Charlotte knows," Gloria said flatly.

Dale went pale, but quickly recovered. "Well, she had to know sometime. Is she freaking out?"

"I guess so," Lois said glumly—but not without the faintest touch of Schadenfreude.

"Maybe I should go up and talk to her," Dale suggested.

"Um, no," Gloria said decisively. "Not a good idea. I'll go."

"Perhaps we should just let her alone for a while," Lois said.

"I don't think so. We need to get this settled now—she needs to know the truth about the whole situation. Right now, she probably thinks we're having orgies every night."

Lois smiled at that. Well, let her think that! But she said: "All right, if you think it'll do any good."

Without a word, Gloria turned around and walked back into the house. She climbed the stairs with a heavy tread, not really knowing what she was going to say to a young woman she almost regarded as a niece. But she figured she'd think of something.

She rapped sharply on Charlotte's door. Then, without receiving an invitation, she marched in.

The poor girl was lying face down on the bed. Gloria knew that Charlotte was a pretty tough cookie and rarely cried, but she wondered whether this would be an exception. It wasn't. At the sound of Gloria's entry, Charlotte turned her head to look at the intruder. Her face was blotchy with emotion, but there were no tears.

Gloria pulled up a low ottoman from the nearby easy chair and sat down in front of the bed.

"Well, Charlotte, so you know."

Charlotte said nothing, but only looked bleakly at the older woman.

"I'm aware," Gloria went on, "that this arrangement seems . . . peculiar to you—as it would to most people. I understand that. But you can't judge it based on what you would be comfortable with. People are very different, and their wants and needs and expectations are very different. If I were you, I wouldn't pass judgment before you know how things really are."

"Whose idea was this?" Charlotte managed to croak out.

"I guess it was mine," Gloria said frankly.

"What part? The part about Dale, or the part about living here?"

"Both." After a pregnant pause, Gloria went on: "Listen, Charlotte, I've known you since you were six years old, and I've always considered your mother and father to be some of my best and closest friends. Ben was a great guy, and I was shocked and saddened at his passing. But what was even worse was to see Lois shutting herself up like some hermit and sealing herself off from the world. I've seen her get more and more depressed over these past two years, and it caused me a lot of pain and heartache. She needed some reason to keep on living."

"And you think this is it?" Charlotte said bitterly. "Sleeping with a man half her age—on the days when you're not sleeping with him?"

"It's more than sex—you must realize that. Your mother would never want just a sexual relationship with anyone. That's not who she is."

"But—but," Charlotte sputtered, "it's like you're passing this guy back and forth between you two like a football! It just seems so—indecent!"

"It may seem like that to you, but you're not involved. That's not the way we see it."

"He was with you first, wasn't he?"

"Yes."

"And you willingly let him sleep with Mom?"

"I thought it would do her good—and I think it has."

"But aren't you—?" Charlotte couldn't finish.

"Aren't I what? Jealous, you mean? Why, no. There's plenty of Dale for the two of us. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I want him around me all the time. Ever since Harvey left me, I've gotten rather used to being alone. Having a man in my bed every night would be a bit of a nuisance."

"Does he love you?"

"I suspect he does—but that's because Dale has a tendency to fall for women pretty easily. It's just the way he is. He's quite different from other men—he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and he's very much in touch with his feelings. He never has sex merely for the physical pleasure of it—there has to be an emotional component to it, otherwise it's not satisfying to him. I know—he's told me of some of his previous involvements."

"So there've been other women—older women?"

"Oh, yes. He doesn't seem to care for women of his age. But that may just be a phase he'll eventually grow out of. He probably hasn't met the right girls."

"And you don't care that he may not stick around for the long term?"

"I think he should be more worried that we don't stick around for the long term. Lois and I are a lot more likely to get tired of him than he is of us. He's quite touchingly loyal."

"Is he?"

"Yes. He says he's never abandoned one of his lovers, and I believe him."

"He seems too good to be true."

"Oh, he has his flaws. He can be a bit smug sometimes, and there are times when he lets his passion get the better of him." Gloria was acutely remembering that incident in Mianus River State Park, when she had fallen on that log and . . . "But he's a dear, and I'd hate to see him go."

"I just don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. Just don't be too quick to pass judgment on your mother—or on anyone. I think you can see that she's a lot happier than she was. There's a glow in her cheeks that hasn't been there for a long, long time. And, as you've just found out, she's quite a bit more assertive than she was."

"I'll say she is!"

"I think that's good too. It means she can take care of herself in the years to come."

Charlotte let out a big sigh. "I'm so confused. I just don't see this as a healthy situation. It's certainly nothing I'd want to do." Then, after a pause: "But it's her life, and if she's feeling better, even if it's temporary, then I suppose it's all right."

Gloria knew that it had taken Charlotte a lot of courage to make that admission. For once, her mother was right and she was wrong—or, at least, her mother had a right to decide for herself what was right and what was wrong. She seemed a little shaky, and Gloria didn't want to gloat and make matters worse.

"Better rest for a while," she said soothingly. "Then come down whenever you feel like it. We'll get dinner going in a few hours."

Gloria went back to the others, telling them that Charlotte was taking a long nap.

"Do you think," Lois said nervously, "she's okay with things?"

"I'm not entirely sure of that," Gloria admitted, "but I suspect she's getting reconciled. It's going to take some time."

Dale beamed at the two women, but had the good grace to look sheepish as he said, "I hope I'm not causing too much of a ruckus."

"You are," Gloria said bluntly, "but we can deal with it."