Laurel looked at Vixie over Jerry’s supine body. “Should we wake him up?” she asked.

Vixie shook her head. “Let the poor man rest. He came what, three times? And gave us how many orgasms?”

“Lost count,” Laurel said. “Although it wasn’t all him.”

Vixie grinned. “So, what do you think? Men, worth it or not?”

Laurel shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t know about men, Vixie. But Jerry, yes. Perhaps we should talk about this where he can’t hear?”

“I think he’s out cold,” Vixie said. “But you’re probably right. He’ll probably have dreams about the mean girls gossiping about him if we talk while he’s sleeping.”

Quietly, they slipped out of bed and got dressed. Laurel found a piece of paper on the desk and scribbled a note. She placed it just inside the book Vixie had left on the chair, which had been hidden by their clothes, and made sure it stuck out more than the bookmarks Vixie had put in the book. She thought about moving the book to the desk, because books did not belong on chairs, but decided that because it didn’t belong Jerry would notice it and therefore read the note.

Vixie didn’t bother to put the swimsuit bottom on. She just pulled on jeans over bare flesh, put on the crop top that rode up so delightfully, in Laurel’s opinion, and carried the rest.

They made it one floor down. “So?” Vixie said, stopping her. “You looked like you were having fun.”

Laurel nodded and blushed. “It’s really different from the dildo. Warm. Fleshy.”

“Well, yeah.”

“I liked putting it in my mouth,” Laurel said. “I liked tasting you on him. You and him, together.” She paused, wanting to hold nothing back, but there was a lot she had a hard time putting into words. “All good,” she said, finally. “Would do again. With him.”

“Just with him?” Vixie asked.

Laurel nodded. “Just with him. Unless he doesn’t want to again. But … do you need more, um, variety?”

Vixie harumphed. “What kind of slut do you think I am?”

Laurel shook her head. “No judgment, Vixie. I love you. I want to know that you’re getting what you need, no matter what it is. If you want to –”

Vixie kissed Laurel. It was a good kiss, full of passion, and Laurel responded. She’d meant every word she was saying, but did the kiss mean that Vixie wanted to find other guys? Other girls, maybe? Because Laurel didn’t want to have Vixie out there doing that on her own, and she didn’t really want to do it with her, either. They’d found Jerry. That was enough.

Vixie pulled back, sensing something. “Are you okay?”

Laurel nodded. “I just wanted to know what the kiss meant.”

“It meant I love you.”

“Yes, but did it mean you need more? Others?” Already, Laurel realized she was feeling attached to Jerry. As if what once was her and Vixie now included him, too. She’d known right away with Vixie that she was the one, and now she knew it about Jerry. Maybe it was a fox thing. She knew someone would claim that she was just being impetuous, but she really wasn’t an impetuous person. Vixie was.

“No. You really want to do it again with him?” Vixie asked.

“Yes.”

“Then that’s enough.”

“Sure?”

“Absolutely sure.”

They made it down two more stairs before Vixie stopped her again. “All together, every time?”

“Well,” said Laurel, feeling like teasing. “I was sort of hoping you’d still want to make love to me just the two of us.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Vixie said, and then she caught on. “You knew what I meant, you little vixen.”

“Let me think about it,” Laurel said.

They made it down the rest of the way, and Laurel started dinner, a simple meal of beans and rice that would keep and could be reheated whenever Jerry woke up. She didn’t feel like making anything ambitious, and with the spices she added, beans and rice tasted pretty good anyway. The beans had been soaking much of the day.

Vixie didn’t bother to change, and she hung around the kitchen rather than doing her own thing like usual. She kept stretching, and then pulling the crop top back down. It was very distracting, but in a good way.

The idea of Vixie and Jerry getting intimate together made her jealous. Jealous? Envious. But then she imagined it a little more, and in her mind’s eye she saw Vixie spasming with pleasure, the way she did. She imagined Jerry tensing just before his release, and then the unguarded look she saw in his face in the moment of climax.

And what about her and Jerry? Jerry would take the lead with her, she was sure. He would show her what he wanted. He seemed to like it when she had her mouth on him, and she wondered what it would be like if he came while she was sucking him off. She bet he’d like that. She wasn’t worried about the orgasms he could give her; he’d proved he could do that, and in any case she loved giving pleasure as much as she liked getting it. More, sometimes.

She’d been joking about her and Vixie together without Jerry. Of course that was happening.

“It doesn’t seem quite fair,” she said at last.

“What doesn’t?” Vixie asked. She stretched.

“That you have bigger boobs than I,” Laurel said. She was trying to say something serious, and Vixie was showing off.

“You can play with them anytime,” Vixie said. “And without the wear and tear on your back. I just carry them around for you.”

Laurel refused to be distracted. “It doesn’t seem fair if Jerry doesn’t get alone time with us. We get alone time with each other.”

“You’re talking like he’s an equal part of this.”

“Yes. What else could he be?” Laurel liked being submissive in bed. She didn’t want equality, per se, there. But people were equal.

“Our boy toy?” Vixie suggested.

“Somehow I don’t think he’s the boy toy type,” Laurel said. “Besides, he’s older than we are. Older than me, anyway.” She paused but couldn’t resist. “More mature than you.”

“Man toy, then. A good fuck when we want a fuck.”

“Is that how you see it?” Laurel asked, stirring the beans. The air filled with the smell of garlic, cumin, and thyme.

“Not really. Just saying there are options. I like Jerry, but I’m not in love with him. I’m in love with you. If this all goes sideways, you’re my priority.”

Laurel nodded. It was good to hear it, it meant she didn’t have to worry about it so much. She didn’t think she was in love with Jerry, either. She had known Vixie was her mate before she felt like she was in love with her. Now she had the same calm feeling about Jerry, like he was the one. Except they were both the one. They were both one of the two? It didn’t have the same poetry, but whatever the words were, she knew what she knew. “I want to make this work. Even if there are bumps.”

“Then we’ll make it work. I want you to have what you want.”

“It’s going to work,” Laurel said.

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve heard that tone before,” Vixie said. “Two years ago.”

“When you robbed the cradle?” Laurel teased.

“When you decided to make an honest woman out of me.”

“You still prevaricate now and then,” Laurel said.

“It’s a bad habit, I wish I didn’t. Not with you.”

“Speaking of which, what was that book?”

“No,” Vixie said. “First, we’re going to do things with Jerry? Alone, and together, both? We’re making him part of … us?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure.”

“Yes.”

Vixie breathed a sigh, as if she were relieved. “Okay, then, I’ll tell you about the book.” And she did.

“So we can help with the shields, by giving him mana?” Laurel asked.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me about this because?”

“Because I didn’t want you to be a mana battery. If you wanted to have sex with Jerry without knowing, fine. But if not, well… I wasn’t willing to have you be used. And I know you. You’d feel obligated.”

“I wouldn’t have to do it personally,” Laurel said.

“Oh, great, so you’d feel obligated to whore me out.”

“Only if it was what you wanted to do anyway,” Laurel said. “Don’t twist this. We could have helped him find someone else, too.”

“We could have,” Vixie conceded. “But we wouldn’t have.”

“And you’re saying that he gets more if we have real affection for him. If we love him.”

Vixie nodded. “Maybe I still shouldn’t have told you.”

“Do you think you could feel that way? Like you do about me?”

Vixie shrugged. “Maybe. Not like I do about you. Maybe as much, but if I do it’ll be different. We’d have to see. But I like him, I really do. And he’s pretty good in bed.”

“Is he bigger than normal? Because I don’t think much bigger would still feel good. It was… difficult at first, and I feel kind of, well, stretched.”

“He’s definitely above average,” Vixie laughed. “Besides, it doesn’t sound like we’re going to comparison shop, anyway.”

“We’re not,” Laurel asked. “But I wondered.” Partly because she’d felt him in her mouth, and in her pussy, and there was a third possibility she was curious about. “And who would I ask besides you?”

“Good point, well taken,” Vixie said. “Ask the slut.”

Laurel just glared at her.

“Ask the woman with experience?” Vixie suggested.

“Much better. For your information, I was thinking about what anal sex would be like with Jerry. So now who is the slut?”

Vixie grinned. “If you want to do that, do it. Don’t complain to me if you’re sore afterward. Anyway, sometimes being called names in bed can be kind of fun.”

“We’re not in bed right now.”

“We could be.” Vixie grinned, and stretched again.

“Someone has to stir the beans. But it should be ready in five minutes. You could run up the stairs, jump into Jerry’s bed, ask him to call you a name, and then get back in time for dinner, if you hurry. But there wouldn’t be time for any hanky panky.”

“I thought you said the beans could be reheated, whenever he came down.”

“I did.” Laurel paused, and then rolled her eyes. “I guess there would be time, after all, but I’d like company while I eat, so I’ll just reheat everything, and, I don’t know.”

“So, join us?”

“I’m a little sore, actually. And I think it would be a good thing for us to sleep on all of this, don’t you?”

“Sleep,” Vixie said, her eyebrows waggling.

“Well, that, too. I want to reconnect, you and me.”

“Sounds good, baby.”

They started eating dinner together. Being with Vixie felt the same as it always had and filled Laurel’s heart. Or maybe it didn’t feel quite the same. It felt better. Every day they were with each other, they knew each other a little bit more, and they shared more experiences. That afternoon they had shared not just an experience, but a lover. She reached a hand out for Vixie’s, and ended up meeting the other girl half way. Vixie had the same thought, apparently. Maybe not quite the same. One never knew about thoughts, she supposed, but however different Vixie was, they fit perfectly. They always had.

They both ate one-handed.

“I got your note,” Jerry said. He looked big in the doorway. Bigger than her and Vixie, but no bigger than he had been before. Still, Laurel was looking at him differently now.

She squeezed Vixie’s hand and released it to get him a bowl of beans and rice.

“So that’s the book you borrowed?” Jerry asked Vixie, as he sat down.

“Yes.”

“And you were hiding that from me because?”

“Have you read it?”

Laurel set the bowl down in front of Jerry. Even that felt different than giving him food before. All the simple things changed.

She remembered when Vixie had changed all the simple things for her. The transformation had stuck. She still got a special feeling out of watching her lover eat the food she made.

“No, I just got up,” Jerry said. “Thank you, Laurel. This smells terrific.”

“You should probably make it a priority,” Vixie said, reaching out for Laurel’s hand again.

Laurel sat down, and took it. Jerry was sitting across from them. She reached across the table, and he took her hand.

Vixie did the same, making a triangle.

“You guys are happy we did what we did?” Jerry asked.

“Fuck yes,” Vixie said.

“Yes. Would you like to do it again?” Laurel asked. Might as well find out now.

Jerry laughed. “In the words of the lovely Vixie, fuck yes.”

Laurel grinned. No one moved or spoke for a minute.

“We can’t eat this way,” Laurel said at last, letting go. “And the food will taste better warm.”