Family and Friends

"But he enjoyed it, you enjoyed it and now we're enjoying talking about it. You are enjoying talking about it, aren't you Rebecca?" Her nipples said I was right. She squirmed in her seat and I took that as further confirmation. I knew just how she felt: wet.

"Yes. I..."

"You've never talked about your sex life with another woman. I know."

"How... How did you know that?"

"Just because. It is fun though, isn't it? Secrets are so much better if you have someone to share them with."

"Aren't they just?" It was the most confident response Rebecca had made so far. She was really warming to the idea of sharing the details of her sex life.

"And I suggest you tell this Adam that you've told your boss everything. He'll get turned on by that too."

"You think?"

"I know it, dear. You can tell him your boss got as aroused as you did too, when you told her how hard you fucked yourself with that dildo and how sore you made your pussy." I deliberately got explicit; wanting to gauge her reaction to the news she was turning me on.

"You're aroused?" she looked shocked. I'd guess she never thought about another woman that way. Though I could be wrong. My daughter was a lesbian a long time before I knew about it.

"Of course. I like women that way. Parry doesn't mind me 'cheating' with other women because he says its not as if he could ever satisfy my taste for pussy." Again, I was improvising. Parry really doesn't mind, but the stated reason has nothing to do with it.

"Oh." Rebecca looked like a deer in the headlights of a pickup truck.

"Relax dear. I'm not hitting on you." Like hell I wasn't! "But be honest: You're aroused right now too. Yes?"

"...Yes." It was barely audible.

"Good. Now is it because you've been telling sexy secrets or because you know I'm turned on listening?"

"...er...both."

"Better. See? It's no big deal. You'll go home tonight and turn on Adam with stories of lesbian lust in the work place and, maybe, this chat will add a little spice to your own orgasms. I'll certainly be thinking about you tonight, while I'm playing with Gorgeous George. But that's for tonight. Right now, we both have work to do."

"Thank you, Meg."

"For what?"

"For... I don't know... Just thank you."

"You're welcome, Rebecca... I think." I winked at her.

* * * * *

[Meg]

There was no Gorgeous George, no Brad and Angelina, no Mr President, no sex toys at all. There was only Eric and Moby, his wonderful, enormous penis. I told him everything of course. I told him how Rebecca had reacted to the idea of turning me on and that I didn't think it would ever go any further than girl-talk.

He was pleased that I'd tried anyway. He thought it was good for me to be taking the initiative even if there was no real outcome.

* * * * *

The next morning, Rebecca blushed as soon as I walked in.

"What?" I asked as she reddened.

"Can we talk?" She whispered. I don't know why she whispered: there were only two of us in the office.

"Of course. How do you take your coffee?"

"I'll get it."

"No. It's my turn. You go and wait in there." I waved at my office door. "You don't want everyone seeing you right now, do you?"

"Thanks Meg." Rebecca got up and went towards my office.

"Rebecca?"

"Yes Meg?"

"Coffee? How do you take it?"

"Non-fat creamer, no sugar... Thanks."

"No problem." I went and got us both coffee. Rebecca was still red in the cheeks when I got to my office. "What's wrong?"

"Not wrong... That's the wrong word... Last night I..." She stalled.

"You spoke to Adam again?" I prompted.

"No... Well, yes, but after that..."

"Oh." I was getting an inkling of what she was leading up to. I cautioned myself against wishful thinking and let her continue at her own pace.

"I dreamt about you." She looked really scared.

I wondered why? Because she thought I would dyke up on her and she wasn't ready for that? Because she'd never had sexual thoughts about another woman? Because she may have misunderstood yesterday's familiarity and could be offending me? All of the above? Maybe.

"Was it a good dream?"

"I think so... I woke up very horny... I had to touch myself in the shower, just to calm myself down."

"Because of me? I'm flattered. So why did you blush?"

"Because..."

"I'm teasing you. Haven't you ever thought about it before?"

"With a girl? Yes... I... there was this girl from High school... but..."

"Did you ever do more than think about it with her?"

"Yes." Rebecca's hand shot to her mouth. I guess she'd never owned up to that before.

"Did you enjoy it?" I wanted to tell her how wet I was getting, but this was a delicate negotiation and almost totally unexpected.

"Not that much... but..."

"Maybe you just haven't met the right girl." I got up and walked slowly to her side of the desk, resting my hands on her shoulders. It was the first time I'd touched her and I wanted to see how jumpy she was. Rebecca tensed but soon relaxed. I moved close enough that my stomach was touching the back of her head. I was definitely inside her personal space now. I rubbed her shoulders gently.

"Maybe." She conceded softly.

"Do you know how arousing it is for me to know I turned you on so much?" I was going to need a trip to my own bathroom if Rebecca didn't succumb soon. I could feel my underwear getting damp.

"Really?"

"Yes. Really." I laughed. Rebecca's lack of self-assurance was really endearing. "Can I try something?"

"Try what?"

"Stand up please." I let go of her shoulders and gave her enough space to stand and turn towards me. "I'd like for us to kiss. Are you ok with that?" I moved ever so slowly to close the gap, giving her every chance to stop this before it started. "Yes... I think."

I kissed her very gently on the lips, not rushing it, but not making any moves beyond that simple contact. After a few seconds, Rebecca's eyes opened again.

"I think you can do that again." She said with a faint smile.

This time, her lips parted and we kissed properly, her tongue dodging out of the way as mine darted past her teeth. I put my arms around her and drew our bodies together. A heartbeat later, I felt, more than heard, her moan into my open mouth. Finally, she embraced me back. As our mouths parted, I kept a firm hold of her.

"This is another thing that isn't really a part of your job description."

"It isn't?"

"However, if you're so inclined... We could have lunch together... in here."

"... Maybe." Rebecca was still not sure... which was to be expected. I let go of her and went back around to my side of the desk.

"I'll settle for 'maybe'. Thank you, Rebecca, for confiding. I think we're going to get along just fine. What's on the agenda for today? Apart from lunch?"

* * * * *

[Kelsey]

"Way to go, Mom!" Helen was on her feet as Meg finished her story, hugging her and showering her with kisses. "She did come back for 'lunch', right?"

"Not exactly, Sweetheart. My day got... complicated. Lunch never happened. Maybe tomorrow."

Meg's torrid tale had been holding everyone's attention for a long time, but it was over now. I couldn't put off my news much longer. B, ever the observant one, noticed my nervousness and reached for my hand. Contact with B is always reassuring. I looked at her and tried to make her believe the smile I wore. She didn't. She squeezed my fingers in hers and looked concerned.

"I'm having a baby." It just slipped out under the pressure of B's attention. It was barely a whisper but silenced the chatter around the table faster than a gavel could have. With five pairs of eyes on me now, all brimming with questions, I repeated my bombshell. "I'm having a baby."

"How?"

"Whose?"

"What?"

"When?"

The questions came thick and fast. I let go of B's hand to cover my face and hide the tears I'd promised myself I wouldn't shed in front of my family. Silence returned, but not the silence of sudden shock. This was the altogether different silence of people who love me giving me a moment's grace. The only sound was the scraping of one chair being pushed back, followed by soft footsteps approaching around the table and Meg's motherly voice whispering. "It's all right Dear." Then, while squatting beside me and stroking my belly, "Everything's all right."

"I didn't mean to say it out loud." I sobbed through my hands.

"Too late for that now. We all heard you... Shh... It's ok." Meg eased my hands down, away from my face. I must have looked a mess: puffy eyes, wet cheeks, a runny nose and a trembling upper lip. It didn't bother Meg. She drew me gently forward and pressed my face to her shoulder, wrapping me tightly in her arms and stroking my back and my shoulder as the sobs shook me.

I don't know how long she held me, but it seemed like a very long time and I was grateful for everyone's patience. When I stopped sobbing and sniffling, Meg relaxed her hold on me and kissed me tenderly. It wasn't like the kisses we've shared so often. There was nothing sexual about this kiss. It was the loving gesture of a maternal woman towards a needy child.

"Thank you, Meg." I tried for a smile. I'm sure it looked awful but at least it wasn't forced this time. "I needed that."

"Do you want to go and wash your face?" Meg's arms were still circling me. I didn't want to go anywhere that took me away from that.

"No. It's out there now. I should explain." I glanced around the table. I had everyone's attention.

"You don't have to... Not right now." Meg moved a little, getting more comfortable beside my chair.

"Yes... I do. I stopped taking the pill a couple of months ago... The same time I stopped going through your little black book, B... This isn't an accident..." My hand was on my belly now. "I... I wanted to have a baby... but..." I started to well up again. I guess I wasn't as ok with telling everyone as I'd thought.

"Wow!" Eric was the first to have an opinion. "I'm going to be a father." He sounded shell-shocked.

"Not necessarily." Parry said, and he was right. I've spent a fair few nights with him too. But, in my heart, I knew it was Eric's baby that was growing inside me.

"I just really wanted a baby." My voice was quiet and croaky. Meg's arms were still comfortingly wrapped around me but, now, so were B's as she knelt on the other side of me. Helen was behind me now, holding me too. It was crowded, clumsy, and inelegant but it all made me feel really cared for.

"When did you know?" B asked me.

"I did a home test last week but I only got the proper test results yesterday morning. Eric? I'm sorry. I should have asked you first."

"Why? Nobody else ever bothers to ask my opinion in this mad house." Eric was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. "Parry runs my business, Meg runs my household and you girls run the rest of my life. I can't remember the last time I had any say in anything. I probably won't even get a say in the baby's name." He was joking, of course.

"So you're not mad at me?" I tried to shrug off the arms that held me now.

"I'm just worried how we're going to be able to afford a baby." Eric's boyish, practically juvenile grin helped calm me down more than anything else.

I succeeded in standing up. Eric took his cue from me and stood too, reaching a hand out to invite me into another embrace. I do love the girl's very much and Meg is more of a Mom than my own Mom is, but Eric's arms were the arms I wanted to be held by right then. His strength and the hard muscles of his chest and his shoulder were as reassuring as stone walls around a castle.

"So I'm going to be a father." He murmured against my hair.

"Probably." I whispered, conscious that I couldn't be one hundred percent certain of the paternity.

"I don't care about that. The baby will be mine, no matter what. Ok?" Eric's voice was pitched just for my ears. I think we had as much privacy as is possible in a roomful of lovers anyway: B and Helen were having a cuddle of their own and Meg had perched herself on Parry's lap and was in hushed conference with him about something.

"Oh Eric." What I really wanted right now was to be alone with him.

"Come on." Eric is sometimes telepathic, I swear. He picked me up bodily. "Say goodnight."

"Goodnight." I looked around at my dear 'family' through teary eyes and was happier than I could ever express to them.

Eric is a strong man. He made it seem effortless to hold me for the brief time it took everyone to kiss me goodnight and whisper their individual reassurances, then he carried me off to 'my' room, set me back on my feet and made two things very clear.

First, he wasn't at all mad at me for 'trapping' him, as my mother would have described what I'd done. Second, his plans for tonight didn't include a whole lot more talking.

* * * * *

[Parry]

'Well I didn't want to be the first to leave the party but that settles it. I am officially bushed. Meg?' Still on my feet from saying goodnight to Kelsey and Eric, I really didn't want to sit down again because that early night I'd promised myself just wouldn't happen if I did. Sitting down again would mean hours of debate about Kelsey's announcement and I just couldn't do that tonight.

"Yes Dear. You go ahead. I'll just help the girls clear this lot away, then I'll come join you." My wife has always been domestic, in spite of a very successful career. She makes juggling both roles seem effortless: I'm sure it isn't, but her grace under pressure only increases my admiration for her. I nodded and turned to bid goodnight to two naked girls who I can honestly say didn't tempt me at all tonight: I was that tired.

"That's ok, Mom. B and I've got this covered." Helen relieved Meg of her burden of dishes and promptly set them back on the table to free up her hands for proper goodnights.

"Get a good night's rest, Parry." B was hugging me while Helen and Meg exchanged kisses. "I want you fit for action tomorrow night. No excuses."

I adore B and, objectively, I have to say she is the most beauty I've ever seen in one place. Of course, nobody is totally objective about beauty and my vision is usually adjusted by my love for Meg and Helen, but lovely as they are, B takes the gold. Why then, would I even try to offer excuses?

"Tomorrow night. I promise." I reluctantly relinquished my hold on her in favour of Helen, who stands beside B, aesthetically, much as her namesake, Helen of Troy, must have stood beside Aphrodite. "And goodnight to you, Sweetheart." I briefly, but not too briefly, hugged Helen then took Meg's arm under mine and headed for the lobby.

I should explain, Meg and I don't officially live in Eric's apartment. He has the top floor of the building and we have the next floor down. It keeps the rumours under control and gives us our own space. Tonight, that meant I had far further to go to find my bed than I would have liked, but that I was assured the privacy a night with Meg merited.

And I made no good use of that privacy. Meg helped me to bed but I don't recall her joining me. By the time she'd shed her lovely lingerie and visited the bathroom, I was fast asleep.

* * * * *

[Meg]

Well, what a dinner party! I'd have bet money that the almost seduction of my new assistant would have been the hot topic of conversation, but a baby trumps everything.

I think I'm a little relieved. I'd been worrying about Kelsey for a few weeks. She'd been, not moody -- that's not quite the right word -- let's say she was preoccupied. A mother notices these things and I do feel like the mother of four in this family, even though only one of them is truly mine.

Anyway, Kelsey's pregnant. I'm not sure how to feel about that. Happy, I guess. I can't think of a down side right off. I'm sure, in time, I will, but for now it seems fine. Practically, we have no financial worries, Kelsey's apparently healthy and it's not an accident that she's knocked up: She wants this. That is the bottom line, isn't it? She wants it, so why the hell not?

Of course, it could be Parry's. I'd have liked to talk about that but the poor dear is asleep. The morning's soon enough for that then.

* * * * *

[B]

"You ok, Helen?" She hadn't said a word since Meg and Parry left us to clear away the dishes.

"Eh?... Oh, sure. Sorry, B, I was just thinking..." Helen's smile was reassuringly cheery, even if she wasn't exactly making a point.

"Thinking? Thinking about babies?"

"Yes."

"Who d'you think the father is?"

"B! From anyone else that would sound just too bitchy."

"You know what I mean. Did Daddy do the dirty deed?"

"I figure it's about 4 to 1 against. Eric has had a lot more opportunity for one, and Kelsey said she wanted to have Eric's baby so let's assume she was careful who she fucked and when." That sounded more like the Helen I know and love.

"You know what I'm thinking about?"

"Sex?"

"Doh! I'm thinking about the first time Parry had me, back in that motel room. I'd much rather be pregnant because I was made love to gently, lovingly, like Parry does. Moby's fun, but Parry's..."

"Romantic?" Helen knew what I meant.

"Exactly!"

"I know." Helen looked suddenly solemn.

"Oh, Helen! I... shouldn't have mentioned that." I should really have known better. Helen loves her Father more than anyone else and absolutely cannot do what Kelsey may have done and I've just suggested doing myself. It's about the only taboo that Helen recognises the sense of not breaking.

"Silly Honey B." We kissed and made up. Helen forgave my insensitivity and the dishes were going to have to wash themselves... or wait until morning.

* * * * *

[Eric]

"You awake?" I nuzzled Kelsey's shoulder in the dark.

"Hmmm?"

"I just want you to know..." I'd been thinking this over for maybe an hour, unable to sleep right now, "I hope I am the father, but if I'm not, it doesn't matter."

"Why?" Kelsey rolled over. I couldn't see her face but she didn't sound happy to hear that.

"I just meant it'll be mine, whatever... When you first contacted me, it was because you were looking for that special someone... I don't say it often enough, but I'm more proud of that than I am of anything else I've done. Now you want me to be the baby's father so I will be, come hell or high water. If Parry snuck one past me, that doesn't matter. You're having my baby. Ok?"

"Thank you."

It's a good job I know the difference between crying and crying happy. Kelsey was sobbing and sniffling and trying to lick my tonsils all at the same time. Who knew that being a sensitive guy could be such a turn on for women? Ok, so I already knew that, but that's not why I said what I said.

I'm gonna be a daddy!