Quaranteam Ch. 43

Chapter 43

There was something amazing about the ease with which Aisling had made evening dinner a regular tradition around the house in just a few weeks. With so many people in one living place, there was a need for everyone to have their own space, to go off and do their own things now and again. Giving everyone a place to call their own was important, but just as important was making sure everyone was forming familial bonds.

While the girls had their daily "brunch if you wanna," it certainly wasn't mandatory, and different girls had different schedules, so it wasn't a guaranteed "everyone be here" and more often than not, Andy was starting to revert back towards his more night owl tendencies, which meant he was rarely around for the brunches.

(It seemed like the girls sort of preferred that anyway, as it gave them all time to gossip without him around. Not that he wasn't welcome, but that it was nice to guarantee they had a chance to talk about him some. His birthday was only a couple of months away, and the girls seemed like they might have already been scheming to give him an epic birthday party.)

Dinner, on the other hand, was generally a "be here unless you're not here" tradition, at least most nights. Mondays and Fridays were a little more loose, but Tuesday through Thursday, the big dinner was a ritual with mandatory attendance, or at least Ash was trying to make it into one.

One of the things Andy had insisted upon, however, was that there was no regular seating assignment, and certainly no head of the table. People were encouraged to regularly mix it up, to sit next to people they didn't normally sit with.

It had taken some convincing, but Andy had also convinced all of the staff to join them on Thursdays for dinner. The demarcation line between staff and family was important for most of the staff (much more than it was for the family) so they generally preferred to eat on their own, or in smaller groups of just staff. Andy had seen Whitney and Nicolette often hanging out when they weren't needed, the same for Katie and Jenny. Still, he didn't want them to feel left out, even if he had to push to get them to socialize a bit, at least at first.

With so many people gathered around the table, it was never just one conversation at the table, but always multiples, little pockets of discourse, people talking about this thing or that. Andy and Emily had been the last two to arrive to dinner, and it seemed like several discussions were already in full swing. The last two open chairs at the table were together, between Fiona and Taylor, so the two of them went to take their seats.

Jenny started to get up, clearly planning on dishing out for Andy and Emily, but Andy raised a hand to wave her back to her seat, dishing out for Emily first before putting some out on his own. People had already started eating a couple of minutes ago, because with the large volume of people, waiting for everyone to arrive and have food felt like a bit of a lost cause.

"Thank you, kind sir," Emily said to him as he set a plate in front of her, moving onto dishing out on his own.

"Okay ladies, can I have everyone's attention for a minute please?" Andy said, tapping his glass of ice water with his fork, the little clinging noise still just shrill enough to get the group to quiet down some so that he could speak. "I know this whole family is pretty new to one another, but it's our family now, yours and mine. I'm sure there's going to be growing pains, as everyone sort of learns how to cohabitate with each other. When all of this started in July, I thought I was the luckiest man in the world when I walked into my room and saw Aisling for the first time. She wasn't just out of my weight class; she was, well, is a thousand times better than I felt like I deserved. But my whole world changed in that instant. I suddenly had half the space and ten times the joy."

"Jaysis, we was packed in there, wasn't we?" Ash giggled.

He nodded in agreement. "Hell, most of you have only even seen pictures of that little condo that me, Ash, Lauren and Niko had to share originally, not to mention Eric and his partners, but let me tell you, it absolutely was not enough room for all of us. That condo was built to handle four occupants, at best, and it had seven when we moved out. We were practically sleeping on top of one another."

"What do you mean 'practically?'" Lauren added.

"I love sleeping on top of him, personally," Niko countered. "It's like having a furry heating pad keeping me warm all night long."

"Anyway, when we moved to this new mansion, I remember thinking, 'what the hell are we going to do with all this space?' And since then, the family has continued to grow and grow. Now I'm engaged to four amazing women, with more engagements likely on the horizon."

"You can't count, can you?" Fiona teased.

"I haven't asked you yet, because I wanted to be-"

"Andrew Ian Rook," Fiona interrupted, mock exasperation plain on her face, "will you marry me already, you big lunk?"

He laughed, nodding softly. "I asked for that. And yes, Fiona, I will."

"Good, then that's settled," she said, rolling her eyes with a smirk. She flicked her fingers in his direction dismissively. "Go on, carry on with your little speech."

"So here am I," Andy started again, "with five fiances, and maybe more on the horizon. I even have a couple of little ones on the way, something that I would have told you was an absolute impossibility, had you asked me in January. Who the hell ever saw me as a father?"

"I did, but maybe that's just me in my head calling you 'Daddy,'" Sarah teased, and all the girls laughed at that.

"We're all still a bit in the honeymoon phase, but I think we're all reasonable enough adults to be able to tell when people need space and when people need to be held tight, and to do the right thing as often as possible. But there's going to be cliques in a group this big, and that's just part of life. Still, I want each and every one of you to know you're part of my heart now, and I will carry you with me wherever I go, even if you may eventually choose to leave."

The girls started looking at each other in confusion, but Andy continued.

"So this may be nothing, but I'm trying to be as open and honest about everything as I can with all of you, so I want you to know that there may be a way for people to be reassigned on the horizon, and that may even include assigning women to women or men to men. Now this is just speculative right now, but we will know more within a few days. If it's true, I just want to reiterate what I think I told all of you at the start - nobody's being kept here, and if anyone wants to go or be reassigned, I will respect and honor that decision 100%, no questions asked."

"I would rather be struck dead than removed from your heart, Andrew," Emily said, placing her hand on his hip.

"Fuckin' A!" Sarah echoed.

At that point, Aisling stood up, on the other side of the table. "Look, Andy, we know, okay? We get it. We all know that if we want to leave and that option's available, we can, but I think you need to remember that almost all of us are here entirely by choice, and even those of us who aren't have pretty much come to find our roots here. That about right, Pipes?"

"They can take Andy from me when they pry my cold dead fingers off his arm and not a fucking millisecond sooner," Piper said, her eyes focused hard on Andy. "Every time I read your letter, I tear up, because nobody my entire life has given that much of a shit about me. Not my friends, not my Olympian teammates, not even my fucking parents have been willing to give up that much for someone they don't even know, so there's no fucking way I'm leaving you, Andy, okay? Get that through your fucking skull before I have to pound it in there." She was both laughing and tearing up a little, smiling as the girls on either side of her put their hands on her shoulders.

Andy smiled, turning a little red, looking down, nodding, trying not to tear up himself. "Yes. Well. Ah. All I wanted to say is that if it turns out to be true, the option is there. The staff has one completely confirmed lesbian on it..."

"Like, 99.9% lesbian," Katie said with a shy smile that was very unlike her. "Maybe my 0.1% is people named Andy Rook."

That made a bunch of the girls at the table giggle all over again.

"Fine," Andy laughed. "All I'm saying that is that if it's true, the option will be there, and I won't put up a fuss if anyone wants to use it."

"And I think all we as a family are saying, Chuckles," Fiona said, a wry grin on her face, "is that we, to a woman, don't have any plans on using it, even if it is true, so stop talking already."

"Okay, Peaches, okay," Andy said, nodding with a broad smile. He was a little embarrassed by how much the girls were willing to put their foot down and not even consider the matter. "I'll stop talking then. Enjoy dinner everyone, and don't forget to thank Jenny for the amazing food as always."

"Be sure and tip your waiter, folks, and try the veal!" Jade added, and the whole table erupted into laughter as Andy sat back down.

"Actually, before everyone gets back to eating," Fiona said, standing up. She was lifting her glass of white wine into the air. "I want to offer a toast. When Moira and I came here, I at least knew a little about what I was getting into, because I'd spent a couple of years living with Andy, and so I understood what his strengths and flaws were, but the rest of you... You crazy bitches were leaping headfirst into the unknown, doing what you thought you needed to in order to survive. All of you got lucky, but as the saying goes, fortune favors the brave and the bold, and all of you ladies are both. So let's toast to the ladies of House of Rook. May the sun ever warm our cold days and the may the rain ever keep the sun from burning us too badly."

"To the Rookies!" Niko said, grabbing her glass, shoving it skyward with pride.

"To the Rookies!" everyone said, raising their glasses in cheer.

A little bit later into dinner, Taylor nudged him. "We're still on for tonight, right?"

"Absolutely," Andy said. "I always try and keep my promises. You said you had something specific in mind, so what do I need to know?"

"After dinner is done, give us like half an hour, then come to Hannah's room. We, uh, we want to do it all in there, if that's cool?"

"I did say whatever you wanted, Taylor," he chuckled. "Did you think I was exaggerating?"

"No no," the platinum blonde said, shaking her head. "I just wanted to be sure nothing had changed, and that you weren't having cold feet or whatevs."

"I mean, you're not planning anything on the no-fly list, are you?"

The 'no-fly list' was the collection of things that Andy had put as definite 'will not do' items in terms of sexuality. They were pretty few and far between, but Andy felt like it was only fair that since he was willing to respect the girls' no-fly lists, he be allowed to have one of his own.

She giggled fiercely, shaking her head. "Nah, I know better. But we're gonna tucker you the fuck out, Daddy, all I'm sayin'."

"More than the morning that Fi and Moira arrived?"

She shrugged her shoulders with an impish grin. "Maaaaaaaaybe?"

"Then I'll sleep well tonight, and you'll all be satiated before I'm through," he said, grinning back at her. "Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do..."

"Well, a man's got three bitches to do tonight," Hannah joked from across the table, "so he better have his game face on."

"And nothin' else!" Asha cackled.

"No no no," Taylor said, shaking her head. "We want him dressed, at least for a couple of minutes."

"Yeah, awright," the Indian-Brit teen sighed in feigned defeat.

The rest of the dinner carried on without too much incident, although Andy did notice that Taylor, Asha and Hannah finished first and scurried off almost immediately. Emily nudged him with a smile. "You certain you'll be able to keep up with them, Andrew?" she asked. "They do have youth on their side."

"And I've got experience on mine."

"And he's got chemically rewired bio-physiology," Niko added with a chuckle. "And I'll put science up against teenage girls' egos any day of the week, and twice on Sundays."

"But today is Thursday, Niko," Emily countered.

"So I'll only put it up once instead of twice then."

It looked as though Nicolette was making a point to get Whitney talking with other women in the house, and Alexis wasn't just talking to Jenny but also Ash and Sarah. Jade, Tala and Sheridan were still sort of their own pod, but tonight they'd made a point to interspersing themselves between Maya, Lauren and Moira, making sure to keep the crosstalk going as well as they could.

That made Andy happy, because his big fear was that his family wouldn't be one family, but several, each of the cliques keeping to themselves, and he had stressed to all of his partners how much it would sadden him if that happened. They'd clearly taken what he'd said to heart.

"So, do I get an engagement ring of some kind?" Fiona asked Andy. "I mean, not right away, naturally, since I did put you on the spot, but I notice none of the other fiancees are wearing ones yet."

"I've been trying to think about what to do in terms of rings, mostly because I want each of you to feel special and not, y'know, just another notch in my belt or whatever," Andy grumled. "But I definitely need to get a handful of engagement rings soon. Is it wrong of me that I almost want each of you to pick out your own?"

"Let me tell you what, Andrew," Emily said, matter-of-factly. "I will have each one of your brides to be pick out five different rings, and you can simply pick one from each lady's list, and we'll have them all made and sent here as soon as possible. That way there's still some sense of surprise in the matter, but things are designed to fit and you aren't fretting about getting everyone's ring size right, or picking out something they may not enjoy. In fact, it's another thing I can have Mali bring over for us when she comes."

"Mali?" Fiona asked, arching one of her impeccably slender eyebrows. "I thought we weren't adding anyone else to the family."

"That was my thought too," Andy told Fiona with a laugh. "Then Emily asked me if I really wanted to let Nathaniel Watkins' money manager control all our newly gained wealth, or if I should have a financier inside of the house we could trust."

"Ah, so the count goes up to twenty-one."

"Yeah, seems likely," Andy shrugged. "I mean, she's not wrong, in that we definitely need to separate our house's finances from his, and make sure that whoever is keeping day-to-day tabs on it has our best interests in heart. I just sort of wish she'd have thought of it like two weeks ago, when we were adding people to the house."

"It was one of those things that bothered me, Andrew, but I couldn't put my finger on why," Emily said. "So I wanted to give it a thought before troubling you with it."

"Besides," Sarah added, "everyone in the household is right where they're supposed to be. One more person is just one more person."

"And she most likely would be staff rather than partner," Emily added. "At least for the first several months, to be certain. She is still grieving the lost of her fiance. They were childhood sweethearts and that sort of long-established love leaves quite the hole when it is gone. She will need time to heal, to decide how she wants to live moving forward."

"That's rough," Aisling said. "I can't imagine having someone in your life for that long and for them to suddenly be gone. We'll give her a new home, even if it's not as familiar as the old, lost one."

"Don' dawdle," Lauren told him. "They might've told you ta wait a bit, but ya wait too long, an' they'll get impatient, an' it'll only get worse for ya."

"Anything I should know?"

"Jus' one thing," the giant Aussie told him. "Taylor's a smidge older than Hannah an' Asha, but she's about the same as them emotionally. She's not capable of hidin' her feelings, so whatever she says she wants, that's what she wants. Just go with the flow."

Andy nodded. "I'll do my best to remember that."

Moira giggled, shaking her head. "Ya are nae goin' off tae war, lad. Get in there and have a good time! A good time!"

He rolled his eyes with a grin, standing up, preparing to bus his own plate before Nicolette reached across the table, holding the plate as she shot him a dirty look, not saying a word, so he let it go and shook his head, laughing quietly.

The trio had something in store for him, and he knew Taylor had actually been refraining from any sexual contact with Lauren since she'd been released from her punishment, eager to have a time with him where they were on equal footing. She'd confessed to Hannah and Asha that she yearned for a more soft sexual encounter, something the younger girls had told him about, but along with that, Taylor had also told him that Asha and Hannah both wanted him to be a bit more aggressive and dominant with them, so he wasn't entirely sure what he was walking into. It seemed like the girls were at cross purposes.

He headed to the stairwell, ready to head up to the second floor where Hannah's room was, and he found Huginn, his black cat, sitting on the stairwell, looking up at him in recognition. He crouched down and pet his friend for a minute or so, the pudgy cat leaning into his touch, purring heavily. At first, the cats had been intimidated by both the change of homes and the influx of people, but since everyone made it a point to stop and pet either of his two cats whenever they saw them, both of them seemed to have decided that the increase in affection was worth the inconvenience of so many people around. After half a minute of affection, Andy stood back up and headed up the rest of the stairs.

Asha and Hannah had been growing particularly close over the last few weeks, and Niko had told him that she'd even caught the two of them fooling around with one another, not that he minded. If the girls were exploring their sexuality together, it would ease the pressure off him, and let the two of them do some bonding.

As he arrived at Hannah's door, he found the room was closed, but that a single sheet of paper had been taped to it, with a handwritten note on it. "Come on in!" Taylor's handwriting, he thought, but he still couldn't fully recognize each of the girl's handwriting on sight.

He opened the door and stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself on habit, as he turned to face the three girls standing in the center of the room before him. Each of them was dressed in a variation of the same thing, each with a navy pleated skirt that hung down to mid thigh, a white Oxford shirt and a navy blue tie around their neck. Each of the girls had on white stockings, although they hadn't seemed to agree on how long they should be, Hannah and Taylor having them up just past their knees and Asha to just below her knees. Taylor had chosen to also wear a navy blue sportcoat, to complete the illusion all the way, and Hannah's tie was loosened and the top button of her shirt undone, as if she was the most rebellious of the three.

"Professor Rook!" Taylor said with a smile that could melt icebergs. "We know the three of us have been problem students for you this semester, for entirely different reasons, so we're..." She looked down, feigning shyness, before looking back up at him. "We're here to strike a bargain, one that will guarantee all three of us pass, and you end up a satisfied man."