Sweet Wine and Apple Pie

Tony came in and slid into my lap, giving me a big kiss.

"What do you think, missy?" Papa Henry was talking to Tony. "Do you want to be forced to compete against boys?" He was so sure of the answer he was going to get.

"Well, Papa Henry, I'm going to be a chef. I'm the only girl in my class and most of my classmates are sexist pigs, so I compete with boys every day. If they don't mind me kicking their asses, I'm good." You could have heard a pin drop. "Oh, and Mama Ruth said lunch is ready."

We all got in line and my mom slid in next to me, whispering in my ear. "You're going to marry her, right?"

"Yes, ma'am," I smiled.

Tony got hugs and quiet thank-you's from my aunts for the rest of the day. Her spot at my grandmother's table was secure, regardless of what Papa Henry thought. I don't think anyone could remember Papa Henry ever being shut down so completely and so eloquently during one of his rants. He sat quietly and watched whatever game was on for the rest of the day.

Christmas morning at my parents' house was chaos. My nieces and nephews got spoiled rotten, destroying the gigantic pile of presents around the tree in record time. My mom gave me and Rick and Ashley a handwritten cookbook of her favorite recipes. Tony gave her an enormous hug, thanking her for my gift like it was hers. It kind of was. I just laughed, knowing I was the ultimate beneficiary.

The day wound down. Rick and Ashley gathered up their families and headed home. That left me, Tony, my mom, and dad to spend the next two days together before Tony and I headed back to Utah for New Year's Eve with her parents. I had an appointment with Anthony, after all.

It was nice. My dad and I watched every bowl game we could find, and my mom and Tony hung out and talked girl talk. I took her to meet some of my old college and high school friends, even running into Rachael. She had moved home, leaving her now second ex in Nevada. The look on her face when she saw me with Tony was worth everything she had put me through. The way Tony said, "oh, so you're Rachael," made it even better.

That night, Tony chased my mom out of the kitchen, adamant that she was making dinner. My mom tried to protest, but I put my hand on her arm. "Trust me on this, mom. It will be worth it." Tony heard me and gave me a big smile. My dad had found another game to watch while my mom and I busied ourselves setting the table.

"I'm so happy for you, Jeff. She's amazing." My mom had the best smile.

"I can't argue with that. She is everything Rachael wasn't and so much more."

"But tell me, she's not like other women, is she?"

"Of course not. That's why I'm going to ask her to marry me. She's one of a kind," I smiled.

"No Jeff, that's not what I mean." She put her hand on mine. "I think I saw more than I should have when I called you guys down to breakfast this morning. She's not, LIKE, other women."

"That's not for me to tell, mom." I could feel my ire rising, of all people, my own mom. "But would you be any less happy for me if she were a brunette like Rachael instead of blonde, or would you expect me to love her more if she had your dimples? She's the woman I love and I'm marrying her!" I turned to walk away.

"Jeff, I'm sorry. That's not why I was asking."

"Then what, mom, do you want to know about the affair I had with Alex, my college roommate? How about the time Rachael brought a man into our bed and asked me to suck his cock, and I did because I wanted to? Those are all parts of me you never knew about. Does it matter? Do you still love me?"

Fuck, I had just made my mother cry.

"Jeffrey Warren, just what the hell was that?" My dad had seen her storm upstairs with tears streaming down her face. For the first time in my life, I was afraid he was going to hit me.

"He was defending me, Mr. Porter." Tony slid up next to me and put her hand in mine.

"Tony, no, you don't have to..." I could feel the tears welling in my eyes.

"Jeff, you know I do." She squeezed my hand and looked at my dad. "Maybe Jeff can go make sure Mary is alright, and you and I can sit." She let go of my hand and gave me a melancholy smile.

I kissed her and made my way upstairs to make things right with my mom while Tony talked to my dad. She had heard the entire conversation and didn't leave anything out. When my mom and I came back downstairs, my dad was helping Tony in the kitchen. My mom had been trying to tell me it was OK. She and dad had already talked about it and even knew about me and Alex in college. I had overreacted and made my mom cry. I felt like shit.

"First, Jeffrey Warren Porter," I knew where this was going. It had just been a long time since my dad had talked to me in 'that,' tone. "If you ever talk to your mother like that again, I don't care how old you are. I will take you across my knee and make you regret the day you were born, understood?"

"Yes, sir."

He nodded and made that face. The one he made letting me know he considered the issue resolved.

"So, you're bi and Tony has a few 'remnants', is that about it?" I nodded. "You and your mom, you apologized?" Another nod,

"Mary?" she nodded, too. "Well then, let's eat. I snuck a taste, and this is delicious." Like that it was done. Everybody on the same page and all forgiven. I still felt like shit.

Tony had pulled out all the stops and dinner was by far the best meal I had ever eaten. My mom and dad spent most of the meal filling Tony in on all the things I had done that I had convinced myself they could not possibly know about. Their versions were far funnier than mine. I was not nearly as clever as I had thought I had been, and was more than willing to accept my penance.

"Remnants?" Tony giggled as she slipped into bed with me. "I love your dad, your mom, too."

"Pretty sure the feeling is mutual, but I still feel like crap. The way I talked to my mom, especially finding out she was on our side all along."

"Maybe I can make you feel a little better." She smiled at me as her hand started fondling my cock, coating it with lubricant. I was clueless about how she had managed that. I kicked my boxers off and just laid back and enjoyed what came next. Tony climbed on top of me and guided me into her gate, sliding slowly down my shaft, completely burying me inside her. Pulling her nightshirt up over her head, I gasped. Her body always took my breath away.

My hands slid up her sides to her perfect little breasts, massaging them gently and using my fingers to tweak and pinch her nipples. I moaned as she squeezed me deep inside her, using her thighs to move slowly up my aching hard on until just the head of my shaft was still inside her. Bending down to kiss me deeply, she slid her tongue across my cheek and nibbled at my ear. "So, you think you're going to marry me, is that it?" She took me all the way inside her ass once again in a single thrust.

"Uh, huh," was all I could manage.

It went on like this forever. Her riding me, torturing me, teasing me with her perfect ass, bringing me to the brink, showing me the prize only to yank it away, leaving me aching for release. When I couldn't stand it anymore, I pulled her lips to mine and shoved my tongue deep into her mouth, rolling both of us over and taking control.

"My turn, little girl." I smiled a devilish smile and thrust in and out of her as hard as I could. I'm sure my parents heard the resulting explosion as my orgasm followed hers, her sweet cum coating my stomach and chest and my seed filling her bowels.

"You lasted a lot longer than I thought you would." She laughed as we collapsed into a heap of sweat and cum.

"You were just waiting for me to take over?" I looked at her in disbelief.

"Are you complaining? I thought it was pretty wonderful. In fact, I'm pretty sure your parents heard us." We both laughed at the thought.

Tony skipped to the bathroom and came back with a washcloth to clean me off, again taking her sweet time and making sure she got every inch, at least three or four times. Once satisfied, she swallowed me whole, holding my cock in her throat until it was completely hard again. Slowly pulling me free before driving me insane with the most amazing blow job I had ever experienced. Teasing my glans, sucking my balls, kissing, and caressing my shaft, tracing intricate designs up and down the sides from the tip to my balls with her tongue; she accented it all with deep thrusts into her throat. It was both heaven and hell, the pleasure as intense as her repeated denials of that same pleasure.

This time, I let her stay in control. I relinquished myself to whatever she wanted to do, letting her tell me the story she wanted to tell with her mouth, her lips, and her tongue. When she finally let me cum, she caught it all in her mouth, kissing the tip of my softening cock, and kissing him hard, sharing her bounty with me.

It occurred to me she had had an orgasm too, but this was all about her pleasing me. "That was amazing, but I'm curious. What brought this on tonight? I thought we weren't going to do this in my parents' house." I kissed her again.

"You mean other than protecting me from your own mother, I can't think of a thing?" She nestled under my arm. "There's a lot more where that came from whenever you want it."

It hit me what I had done. It wasn't just that I had challenged my mom. I had made it plain to her I would choose Tony over her every time, and Tony had seen it. The first time we had been together, she had said she needed to be sure; I guess this was her way of telling me she was.

My parents took us to the airport, my mom making sure Tony had the cookbook. Tony pulled it out of her carryon. "I need something to read on the flight." She smiled and accepted the massive hug my mom gave her.

"Take care of my boy." I heard my mom whisper.

"I will." Tony hugged her again. "And thank you for everything."

Just like Thanksgiving, Anthony and Mary met us at the airport when we got back to Provo. This time it was Anthony that gave me the enormous hug. Evidently a little mouse had talked to her mom, who had talked to him.

"So?" I smiled at him as he let me go.

He just nodded, patted me on the shoulder, gave me a broad smile and helped me with the bags.

New Year's Eve was at Anthony's country club. They had a massive buffet, a live band, and enough champagne to make sure everybody celebrated the New Year appropriately. We all went outside in the cold and snow to watch a huge ball of lights slide down the flagpole in front of the club.

I grabbed Tony and kissed her as hard as I could when it hit the bottom and the clock had set up hit midnight. Our own miniature Times Square in the mountains of northern Utah. The crowd died down and headed back inside as I dropped to one knee. I heard a rush of whispers run through those who were still outside, and suddenly everything was quiet. Just Tony and me. Tony and me, and a few hundred onlookers. I looked up at her, her eyes full of anticipation, biting her lip, waiting for what everyone knew was coming. I pulled her ring from my pocket. "Tony... will you..." I had a little speech prepared, but the words wouldn't come. I reached up, offering her the ring.

"Yes." She smiled and nodded, offering me her hand. I slipped the ring on her finger.

Suddenly, the crowd was cheering again, pressing forward to congratulate us. I pulled Tony into my arms and found her lips with mine.

We danced until the band quit. Everyone congratulated us, and a few even let me know how proud they were of me for not letting Tony's past get in the way. I guess they had known her before.

I was so ready to get home, to sleep in our bed without worrying about making too much noise. Tony nestled next to me, her head on my chest while she played with her ring.

"You really want to marry me?"

"Yup. No backing out now. Your dad would chop me up into little pieces and feed me to the bears." I laughed. "Besides, there's no way I'm ever going back to cooking for myself. You've spoiled me."

I had another day off to decompress, and Tony had another week before classes started again.

When I got to work on the second, I went straight to Craig's office. It was empty. Going to my desk, I set up my computer and started it up, preparing to go through an insufferable number of emails. I hadn't been logged on for two minutes before Michael, Craig's boss and the director of our division pinged me, asking me to join him in his office immediately.

Great. Craig was gone. I was probably next. The big mystery re-org was beginning.

Well, I didn't get fired. In fact, he promoted me to take Craig's place. I was going to spend the rest of the week in an orientation program for new managers with a dozen other people.

The first step of the re-org had been to purge middle management. It didn't make any sense, unless we were all making a lot less than our previous bosses. A quick call to Craig at lunch confirmed that, but it didn't seem like enough to warrant the drastic change. There had to be something else going on.

Craig wouldn't tell me. Something to do with his severance agreement, but he reassured me to just ride it out and it would be worth it.

It was a nice raise from my developer's salary, and it came with stock options that vested after ninety days. My team had been gutted. All the best talent assigned to other teams, and the backfill people I wouldn't have hired on a dare. Our job, ongoing maintenance, and bug fixes. The last day of the training focused on managing people through performance improvement plans.

Fuck, they hired me as a manager to fire everybody that worked for me. My job for the next ninety days was to document reasons to get rid of everybody 'for cause.'

Tony had been out grocery shopping and found me on the deck well into my third or fourth drink when she got home. I told her what was going on and she took my drink from my hand and curled up in my lap.

"Maybe it's time for you to look for something else."

"Craig said to ride it out." I hugged her. We stayed there until the sun went down.

The Domino's delivery guy knocking on the door finally brought us inside. Tony and I ate pizza and shared a bottle of wine, watching some cheesy romantic comedy she wanted to watch. Then we took a bath together and made long, slow, delicious love until we both passed out.

"This is totally fucked. You know that, right? How am I supposed to ride this out?" Craig and I were out on the deck while Tony and Craig's wife July put the finishing touches on dinner Saturday night.

"You're right. I just couldn't tell you, or they would have fired me for cause, and I would have lost my severance."

"Severance." It finally clicked. "This is all about the severance, isn't it?"

"I can't tell you. Part of the deal, but I would suggest you read your new contract carefully, and I will send you a link where you can watch financials for companies that interest you. So, engaged, I'm happy for you. She's going to make you fat, you know that, right?"

"I'm not worried. We get plenty of exercise." I grinned. He laughed.

Dinner was excellent, as I knew it would be. Craig told us about his new job, and July told us stories about Craig. Tony told them how romantic it was when I proposed. We talked about everything except what was going on with me and my job. I guess it just had to be that way.

"Listen, it sucks, I know that. Just do your job. Take care of your people like I took care of you, and you'll be fine. I promise. Some things are inevitable, but you have more control that you may realize." Craig shook my hand.

I spent all day Sunday reading the employee handbook, my contract, and the contract of all eight of my people. By the time Tony finally convinced me to come to bed, I understood what Craig meant. I had a plan, and my boss wasn't going to like how it played out.

I spent most of the day Monday meeting with my boss and all eight of my people, one at a time. I explained their new performance plan, why they were on it, and set expectations for them to meet.

When all the meetings were over, I had a quick huddle at my desk inviting all of them to join me for a drink so we could get to know each other better. I bought the first round on my new company credit card and laid out my plan for the next ninety days, letting each of them know what I would do to help them meet their goals.

When I got home, I succumbed to another round of Tony experimenting on my stomach with the cuisine of the week for her cooking class. I like Japanese, so I was easy to please.

Tony was in a zone. Every day she got better and better, the things she cooked to practice for the class were exceptional. Variations on a theme, Italian with a Korean flair, Cajun and Tex-Mex, things I would never have imagined going together just did.

It quickly became clear that I couldn't save all the members of my team, but all I needed was one or two. Just enough to still have a team at the end of the ninety days.

It probably wasn't fair, but it was necessary. I began cherry-picking assignments. I gave them to the few developers I felt had a chance of making enough improvement to make our boss pause when it came time to fire everybody. Everybody got some of my time, but I made an extra effort mentoring my chosen few.

After the first month review, my boss pulled me aside and asked me why the reviews for the two best developers weren't worse. "I'm just documenting what they're accomplishing, how they're meeting the goals of their plan. There just stepping up."

Two developers quit, and I didn't stop them. More time to help the two I thought had a chance.

At home, Tony seemed to have gone off-script. It was almost as if she were defining her own style, and it was amazing.

As my plan slowly came together and her culinary confidence grew, everything got better, especially our sex life.

At the two-month review, I lost three more people, leaving me with the two I had been focusing on and one poor girl that just couldn't see the writing on the wall. I did what I could for her, but it just wasn't going to happen.

"Jeff, you understand the goal here, don't you?" He laid the two good reviews on the desk in front of me.

"Yes, Mike, I do. I even reviewed the training material and the employee handbook on PIPs to make sure I documented and tracked everything correctly."

"Ok. As long as we're on the same page. I expect you to do something about this before the last review." He shoved the reviews across the desk closer to me. I knew what he meant, and I also knew there was nothing he could do about what I was going to do about it.

I stepped in to make sure Rick and Gene met their daily deliverables. I documented everything they did to exceed their goals in detail. To my surprise, the things I needed to help them with were fewer and fewer every day.

Lucy finally figured it out and came to me asking for a referral. I had to tell her all I could legally do was let people know she had worked for me. I reviewed her resume for her, helping her identify the few areas she was competent in. Maybe she would make a good project tester for someone. She followed explicit instructions exceptionally well.

At home, Tony started inviting people over for dinner every day. Usually, some Italian dish with green chilis, or some other southwestern flair. It was always good. Ms. Agatha one day, Bill and Carol another, and even the couple that had rented her old apartment. The only request she made was honest feedback on what she cooked. We tasted wines, and sampled desserts. I finally asked her what she was doing.

"It's my final. I have to come up with a menu for a restaurant. One theme, at least seventy percent original, but I can use variations on existing dishes."

"When do we look for a location?" I smiled and kissed her. "It's all been amazing."