Of course the second it was over, someone shouted that we were making out and my cheeks turned bright red. Robert threw something at him. I forget who it was but I remember laughing. I remember feeling loved.
“And then she said, ‘You know the one good thing about being pregnant is that you get to avoid a lot of sex,’ and my jaw just hung open.” Autumn’s statement snaps my attention back to the present.
“Oh my God, your aunt said that.” Renee’s expression of mortified shock is echoed on all our faces.
“RIP her sex life.” Sharon somehow appears right on time with the perfect comment and a glass of red for Renee.
“I know!” Autumn’s eyes are wide with emphasis while flipping back her cropped hair. She just got it cut and dyed blond last week. She may have just had a baby, but she’s looking like a bombshell. The slouchy drape of her shirt certainly adds to that, even if she is only in burgundy flannel PJs.
The baby monitor lights up and steals the show before I can ask who they’re talking about.
Tucking my left leg under my bottom, I get comfy on the wicker love seat. Renee has the other half of it, while Autumn and Sharon occupy two of the three seats that form a semicircle around the other side of the stone firepit.
“Who’s the other chair for?” I ask Renee when Autumn shows Sharon the monitor with proof Cameron is sound asleep.
“Brianna just got home.”
It takes me a second to realize Autumn’s talking about her younger sister. Just as I’m about to comment I didn’t know she was back from college, Autumn addresses her via the monitor. “Do you need me, Bri?”
I can barely hear her response, but whatever it is, Autumn doesn’t move from her seat. From what I gather it was something to the effect of: take a chill pill and let me hold my nephew.
“So …” Autumn lengthens and draws out the short, single word until I peek up at her from behind the rim of my glass midsip. She orders, “Update.”
“About what?”
The group’s collective sigh is far too extreme for the situation.
“You’ve got to have some goods to share.”
Renee stays mum but I don’t have to peek at her to know she’s eating this up.
“Well, in short,” I say then pause for effect, “I’m an absolute mess.”
“So same old, same old,” Sharon says, holding up her glass in cheers and I let out a good laugh.
“For real, though,” I say then hesitate and lean over to a matching wicker basket full of throws to grab one to hide under. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing or how things got to be such a mess.”
Sharon initiates the interrogation, asking, “So … which one are you dating?”
“I don’t think she’s actually dating them … are you dating them?” Autumn half answers for me, then backtracks.
“Well, let her answer and we’ll know,” Sharon mock scolds Autumn and then all eyes are on me.
I have not had nearly enough to drink to get into all this.
“You have been seeing Robert, right?” Sharon’s eyes are narrowed like she’s trying to remember. “Like recently? Or no?”
Renee knows everything, on a weekly, daily, and even sometimes hourly basis. But Autumn and Sharon have their shit together and a million things constantly going on. Occasionally they ask if I’ve seen Robert and sometimes I give them the details, and sometimes I just shrug. I suppose the main deciding factor is how much I’ve had to drink and how I’m feeling at that very moment.
“We’ve been off and on for a while.”
“Right, but what about the sex?” Sharon isn’t beating around the bush and judging by Autumn’s expression, she’s surprised she’s being so blunt.
I’m not. She’s a few cups deep, mellow and ready for gossip. To give it and to get it both. If one thing is true about her, Sharon is honest and shameless.
“Also off and on, but like … more on than off, up until Brody.”
“’Cause you’re having sex with Brody?” Sharon guesses and Autumn purses her lips before she smacks Sharon with a teal paisley outdoor pillow. It just barely misses Sharon’s glass.
“Not the drink,” Sharon jokes and raises it above her head. Renee lets out a small laugh.
“Let her tell you what she wants to tell you,” Autumn mutters and then focuses on me when she adds, “You don’t have to tell Miss Nosy a damn thing if you don’t want to.”
“I feel like I should, though,” I confess as a bundle of nerves slowly tangles in the pit of my stomach. My fingers find the hem of the chenille throw blanket and I tell them, “I’ve slept with Brody. I’ve slept with Robert in the last month … and I don’t know if I’m dating or if it’s casual.” My throat gets tight and a little dry, so I take a sip. The girls are quiet so there’s only the crack and snap of the firepit to break up the tension. With a deep breath out, I add, “I think I’m seeing both of them. Robert in a more serious way than before, because he’s wanting more when he hasn’t before. And Brody in a … I don’t even know what way.” I have to set my glass down on the side table in order to pull my hair back. “It’s getting a little hot over here,” I comment as I fan myself and Sharon laughs.