Self-Realization - The Cabin

Sofia was a wreck after that, but she had her friends. They slowly patched her up and she got her life back together. She realized she had a minor in psychology, so she studied some more and got her degree in that as well. Being barred from the public sector, she turned to the private sector and got hired as a workplace therapist. The betrayal from her parents and then Sigrid and Magnus left her emotionally scarred and she hadn't had a serious relationship after that. She gets paranoid after a while and ends it "Before they can betray her".

"Damn, I feel sorry for her," I admitted.

"Well don't mention it to her, she'll deny everything and then cut you out of her life," Lisa warned.

We all fell silent again and at that moment Sofia announced that lunch was served. She had prepared milk stewed elbow macaroni with meatballs, a common comfort food in Sweden. It all looked fine, but I saw the apprehension on Lisa's and Maria's faces. We sat down and filled our plates, ravenous from this morning's activities. With the first bite, the truth revealed itself and we all spat out our food almost simultaneously.

The meatballs were of the frozen kind that you just defrost and then pan fry, but Sofia had probably just skipped the defrosting step because they were still frozen in the middle. The stewed macaroni however was vile. You normally just slowly simmer the macaroni in full fat milk until they become tender and creamy, then you add a pinch of salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Sofia had apparently forgotten about the "Pinch" part and replaced it with a tablespoon, because they made our eyes water. There was also a bitter aftertaste that I just couldn't fathom how it got there from just macaroni and milk.

"You burned the milk again, didn't you?" Maria commented.

"...Yeah..." Sofia admitted.

"And you didn't measure anything?"

"It's just so boooring to cook! I had other stuff to do."

"Like what?"

"Uhm...stuff?"

"Did you masturbate while cooking again?"

"...Maybe..." Sofia admitted with a blush.

We all chuckled at that and let her off the hook.

"I'm sorry Sofia, but this is inedible," Lisa ascertained.

"Yup." I seconded and Sofia looked a bit crestfallen.

We all looked at Maria as if she'd magically have a solution, but she quietly shook her head, just like the doctors do when they answer if a terminally ill patient will survive.

"Go out, I will fix," she just said and shooed us out.

"Give me 10 minutes."

We all shuffled out and laid down in the fort again, looking at what was left of the armchair and chuckled again.

"You reckon Maria's gonna solve this?" I asked.

"The armchair? No, that one is fucked, literally," Lisa giggled.

"The meal? Yes, without a doubt," Sofia filled in.

"You seem pretty confident in her abilities."

"Yup, she is annoyingly good at everything she sets her mind to. Just imagine her potential if she didn't have that moronic slug for a husband," Sofia said with a frustrated sigh.

We fell silent for a while and somehow all three of us started kissing. It was not hungry, passionate kissing like before, more like a cosy makeout party. Time seemed to slow down as we laid there kissing in front of the fireplace, but we were interrupted by a discreet cough from the doorway to the kitchen.

"Hi Maria, wanna join us?" Lisa asked languidly.

"Maybe later, but right now lunch is served."

We all filed out into the kitchen and sat down in front of some glorious looking noodle dish with a brownish red sauce and some kind of mincemeat topping. Where did those ingredients come from?

"Damn Maria, where the hell did you find this food?" Sofia asked incredulously.

"It's just Dan Dan noodles, basic comfort food from the Sichuan province in China. The noodles are instant ramen I found in the cupboard, the sauce was made from stuff I found in the fridge and pantry, like soy, chili oil, vinegar, peanut butter, sugar and the flavour packs from the noodles. The topping is made from some chopped preserved vegetables, as well as Sofia's meatballs that I smashed, chopped and refried with some ground cumin and lots of black pepper."

"And you did this in 10 minutes flat. That's fucking annoying Maria."

Maria stuck her tongue out and smiled.

"Now eat!" she ordered.

We all tucked in and it was surprisingly delicious and unfamiliar. Spicy, tangy, sweet, nutty, moreish, a perfectly balanced dish. I was awestruck as I gobbled everything down in no time. When I looked up from my plate, I saw that all of us had the same appetite and we laughed.

"I guess fucking takes a lot of energy," Lisa said to renewed bouts of laughter.

We cleared away the dishes and I volunteered to do the them since I felt so completely pampered with all the food, sex, and company. Besides, the girls might have some talking to do.

"I'm putting on my noise cancelling earphones, ok?" I yelled to the girls.

"Okay!" I got back in a chorus.

The mound of dishes was surprisingly large, but I guess two separate meals produced a lot of dishes, especially if one of the "Cooks" was Sofia. I smiled, shook my head, and went back to the dishes and the sweet tones of Hellsongs (look them up). When I was done, I cleaned the rest of the kitchen and then packed most of my things in the bunkroom since we'd be leaving when Anders got here.

It gave me a lot of time to think about things, but I still couldn't make up my mind about what I thought of the girls, as a group or as individuals, and I was still processing the feelings I got from helping Lisa with her problem. Could I help Maria as well? Should I avoid them after this and let this be a onetime thing? Part of me thought it might be best, because this could get really complicated and messy real fast, but another part of me felt alive and happy for the first time in ages. Hell, I hadn't even given Sofie a thought since...well since Sofia had her way with me, I guess. I smiled to myself, took off my headphones and headed to the common room.

The girls were lying in the fort in a cosy pile, embracing and caressing each other softly. They all had puffy eyes as if they'd been crying but they looked up at me and smiled. They shifted around a bit and made room for me between Sofia and Lisa. Maria was spooning Sofia but reached out and stroked my chest.

"Thank you for taking care of the mess in the kitchen," she said softly.

"No worries. It felt like you had some things to talk about this weekend and I wanted to give you the time before Anders comes to save us," I replied.

"Thanks, you have helped more than you know, but maybe complicated things for some of us," Lisa chuckled.

"Well, I can safely say that Sofie is pretty far from my thoughts now, but now I have other things to think about. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved our time here, exhausting though it may have been, but I kinda don't want to go home and break the spell," I confessed.

"I know what you mean Peter," Maria sighed, and I think we all felt a pang of sympathy for her.

"But it doesn't have to end here, right? We can still maybe meet up after this? If only for a fika, dinner or something?" I begged.

"Or something," Sofia smiled and started lightly dragging her nails down towards my groin. She only got halfway when we heard a loud honking outside.

"Oh, thank you Anders," I whispered in mock relief. The girls laughed and we all got up and scrambled for our outdoor clothing.

Chapter 11

Once dressed we had some problems opening the door due to the snow build-up, but some well-placed tackles from me and Maria opened it enough for us to get out. Anders had borrowed a big tractor with some very bright lights, heavy snow chains and a plough attached to it and was making short work of the snow in the yard. He ploughed as close as he dared to my car and I could finally see it as some snow fell away from it.

There was still almost two feet of snow covering the whole car, but I'd seen some snow shovels with plastic blades on the porch before, so I excavated them from the snow. Maria and Lisa helped me dig my car out and when Anders was done clearing the yard, we'd cleared most of the snow and ice off the car. Sofia was nowhere to be seen, but I guessed that she'd gone back in to clean up after all of us and prepare to go home. Anders parked the tractor and put it in idle, probably fearing that it wouldn't start if he shut it off and climbed down to us.

"It's snowing a bit, isn't it?" Anders chuckled.

"If by a bit you mean you mean a fuck ton?" Lisa replied testily.

"Hehe, I see you've made some new friends Peter."

"Yeah, and you had nooo idea that they were gonna be here as well?" I accused him.

"Thought you might need some company, all of you actually. Where's Sofia?" he asked.

"Probably inside by the fire, dodging work as usual," Lisa said with a smile.

"Hey! I heard that," Sofia shouted from the porch. She'd put on her outdoor clothes now as well and was walking towards us.

"I was packing because I figured we'd want to leave quickly so that the roads didn't go to shit again while we were getting our stuff together," she shot back.

"Good thinking, thank you Sofia," Maria said soothingly.

"At least someone values my hard work," Sofia smiled and hugged Maria.

"By the way, the armchair kinda broke," I confessed.

"Yeah, it's completely fucked," Lisa filled in giggling.

"Literally," Sofia said with a wicked smile and we all started laughing. Anders looked a bit perplexed but then I saw him catch on and then he laughed as well.

"I will replace it as soon as I can, it's the least I can do," I told him as the laughter died down.

"No worries. Let's just get you out of here and we'll talk about it later." He replied with a wink. I was not looking forward to that conversation, but I think I owed him that.

The plan was to see if I could start the Volvo and get out of the snow myself, if not, Anders was there with jumper cables and a big tractor to pull me out. We shouldn't have worried though, Ol' Betty coughed to life and got out after rocking a bit back and forth. I left it running and got out of the car to meet up with Anders and the girls again. The girls had all fetched their packs while I was getting the car unstuck.

"So, do you girls want a ride home, do you want to go with Anders in his tractor or maybe hike to the road again?" I asked innocently.

"Fuck that!" Lisa said as she barged past me, opened the luggage space, and shoved her pack in there.

Sofia and Maria followed suit and they all got into the car. I went inside to get my stuff and then turned off all the lights and locked the door on my way out. As I stuffed my pack in the luggage space, Anders came over.

"I'll drive in front of you on the way out to the road, ok? It might be slow going but much safer."

"Yeah. And Anders? Thanks again."

"No worries. Got Sofie out of your mind yet?"

"Sofie who?"

Anders chuckled and we both went to our respective vehicles. The girls were whispering as I opened the door but fell silent immediately. Maria was sitting in the front seat and Sofia and Lisa in the back seat.

"You guys ready to go home? Who should I drop off first? And where?" I pulled out on the small road and got behind Anders' big tractor.

"We figured that it would be smartest to drop off Sofia first, then Lisa and then me last," Maria explained.

She entered a route on my phone's GPS and put it in the phone mount. We were all silent for a while, all of us looking out into the darkness and seeing the snow fall in great white clumps.

"So, this weekend happened," I started.

"Yeah. Feels like some kind of porno that happened to other people," Lisa admitted.

"Kinda, but not really. It wasn't just the sex, right?" I asked a bit apprehensively.

"No," Maria admitted, and I saw Lisa and Sofia nod as well.

"I don't know what started here, I just know I want to see more of you. All of you. I just don't mean for sex either, although I wouldn't say no to it, but I want to get to know you better. I don't have that many friends right now and... damn...I'm blabbing now. Shit!" I cursed silently.

"Acting like a desperate teenager, smooth," I thought to myself.

The girls burst out laughing, just like the first time they saw me. My face turned red with frustration.

"Of course we want to see more of you Peter, all of you," Sofia said with a warm smile and my heart almost leapt through my chest in joy.

"How, where and when is another question altogether though," Sofia sighed.

"On the bright side, I'm currently unemployed, have an apartment in the city centre and lots of cafés, pubs and restaurants nearby. I think we'll find some time together somewhere," I said cheerfully.

The girls agreed and we all exchanged contact information. By the time they'd updated my phone and put it back in the phone mount, we were out on the main road again.

The trip home was uneventful, and we soon pulled up to Sofia's apartment complex. Sofia and I stepped out and I helped her extricate her pack from my luggage space. She put it on and then looked at me hesitantly. I pulled her in for a hug, that turned into a passionate kiss. We kissed for a bit and then I broke it off lest I bent her over the hood and fucked her right there. We pressed our foreheads together and got our breath back.

"You know you're welcome any time, right?" I whispered.

She broke off the hug and nodded, waved to her friends, and then hurried inside. I got back into the car and both Maria and Lisa were grinning at me.

"Oh, shut up!" I murmured as I pulled away and drove Lisa home.

She lived in a small but beautifully maintained house in a nice neighbourhood. I looked at her in the back mirror and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Yeah, it's mine," she said with pride. "When I bought the house, it was a mess. The previous owner had delusions of competence when it came to renovations. He gave up and sold it to me quite cheaply. I pulled some favours and got some guys from work to do the electrics and plumbing, the rest is my work."

"And the guys that did the electrics and plumbing were mostly there for show and the right permits, because you insisted on learning that as well and do it yourself," Maria filled in.

"Well...yeah," Lisa admitted with a smile.

"Damn. Impressive. I'll give you a call if I ever need to renovate," I promised.

"Or if you just want to be ravaged by a vixen," Lisa shot back with a smile.

We got out of the car and Lisa got her own backpack out of the luggage space. After she put on her backpack, she gave me a fierce hug.

"Thank you again for giving me my freedom again. I will repay you somehow and I will try to get a hold of more of the girls and tell them the good news."

"I think you thanked me plenty at the cabin," I chuckled.

"Oh no, mister, I haven't even started thanking you yet," she said with a wicked smile as she started stroking my dick through my pants.

I gave her a deep kiss, then pulled away and cleared my throat.

"Have a nice wank now," I joked and waved her goodbye.

"Oh, I will," she said, looking longingly at my growing dick as she walked towards her house.

I got back into my seat and had to adjust myself a bit. Maria looked on amused.

"Yes, she's a bit of a tease," Maria admitted. I didn't comment and drove away instead.

Maria lived in one of the worst parts of the city, which made sense I guess since her husband was a criminal. Before we entered her neighbourhood, Maria told me to pull over and shut off the car. We sat there in the darkness and I could see Maria looking all around us, but we were alone on this street. She pulled out a note and gave it to me. On it was a long sequence of letters and numbers.

"If you somehow get the chance to get his banking information, I'll be forever in your debt," she begged.

"This is some serious shit you know? I will need a photo of his computer desk and maybe of some other places where he likes to sit. Any other information that you could compile on family, interests and history could help as well. Is this really what you want?" I asked.

"Yes, I need to be free of him. Meeting you made that painfully clear. I will not live a lie any longer, but I will uphold it for as long as I must."

I nodded. I didn't understand exactly what she meant, but I really wanted to help her. She leaned forward and we kissed softly.

"Stay here, I don't want you to be seen. The walls have eyes around here and I don't want you to get in trouble," she explained.

She got out of the car, got her pack, and walked off without a word or a wave. I sat there for a while staring at the note. I'd need some help with this one I thought.

I drove home in silence and parked Ol' Betty in the underground garage. I took the elevator up to my floor and walked around the corner towards my door. I was startled when I saw someone sitting in front of it, but then a large smile spread on my lips as I realized it was Sofia, still with her backpack on. She saw me as well and matched my smile.

"You said any time."