Tess
THE PATIO IS located just south of the main zoo grounds beside Café Brauer, a historic Prairie School-style landmark. Overlooking the pond at the Lincoln Park Zoo, the place is ideal for lazy Saturday lunches.
Except today Fiona is on a time crunch, and I have a ton to do. That means the lazy part of our lunch has turned into somewhat of a rapid game of twenty questions, of which Nick is the topic of each and every one.
I pluck a bread stick from the basket between us and give her a look. “Really? You’ve thought we’d make the perfect couple since the day you met him?”
She toys with her salad, poking at the croutons and spearing a cherry tomato. “Yes, it’s true. I even told you that on the phone the day after, but you told me how blissfully happy you were, and to lay off. So I did.”
I dip my breadstick in the last of my soup and then chew on it, thinking back, vaguely recalling the conversation.
“Besides,” she adds, “you lived almost eight hundred miles away, so what good would it have done to try to set you two up.”
I’d devoured my own half sandwich and cup of soup, and even two breadsticks, and now I am having thoughts of sampling the brownies, solely for research purposes, of course. “And yet every time I was around him, you let me call him all kinds of names, and bad mouth him.”
Fiona lifts her chin, and smirks. “Hey, nothing you said was a lie. He is who he is. I knew who he was, and knew you really didn’t. You couldn’t though. He’s not one to open up to people. He’s complicated with a lot of layers.”
I stack my dishes to the side and look toward the dessert case. “Complicated is a good way to put it.”
“And I did suggest setting you up when you first arrived back in Chicago.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did. You just never let me tell you his name,” she laughs.
I ponder that for a moment.
She stabs her salad again. “Just be careful, Tess.”
I look over at her. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t want to, but Ethan says he has deep routed mommy issues, and he’s afraid to commit because of it.”
“And I have deep rooted mommy and daddy issues. Maybe that’s why we connect the way we do.”
The waiter comes back to ask if Fiona wants a box for her lunch that she barely touched. She shakes her head. “No, thanks. But we’ll take a dessert menu.”
I give her a look.
She raises a brow. “I’ve seen you staring at the case for the last five minutes.”
And that is why we are best friends. We both know each other too well. Which is why I know it’s time to change the subject from me to her. Something is going on with her today.
Over brownies and coffee, I can’t help but notice how tired she looks, and the fact that she didn’t eat anything doesn’t go unnoticed either. “How late did you stay up?” I ask.
She nibbles on the chocolate. “I think five, maybe five-thirty.”
“Wha-a-at?” I let the word drag out.
After she swallows a sip of her coffee, she leans closer to me. “Ethan and I were having a very important conversation.”
“About what?”
“We were discussing the idea of inviting Jace in to our bed.”
I stare at her. Nothing could have prepared me for that statement, not even after seeing the three of them together last night. “You can’t do that,” I whisper.
Her look tells me she can, and she is. “What makes you say that?”
“It’s not right.”
“Do I have to remind you of the twins that got you sent away your senior year.”
“That was different.”
“Why?”
“Because I was young and stupid, and I wasn’t married with a kid.”
She sighs. “Tess, you know me. You know I’ve always wanted to do things that aren’t considered socially acceptable.”
I press my hands on the table and my coffee sloshes onto the saucer. “Inviting a man into your marriage bed is completely different than kissing a girl on a dance floor to invoke a reaction from strangers.”
“I know that!”
“Do you? Have you thought it all through? Like what will happen to you and Ethan after. What will happen between Ethan and Jace?”
She shifts her eyes from side to side to make sure no one is listening. “The three of us sat down last night and set the ground rules. Jace and I will not have vaginal intercourse. The men will not touch in anyway. They aren’t interested in that.”
“So it will be for you?”
She shakes her head. “No! It will be for Ethan and I. For our relationship. And Jace, too. He has no one.”
I give her a doubtful look.
“Ethan and I want to do this, Tess, and Jace is the perfect guy. Not only is he lonely, but he’ll eventually find someone to fill the empty void in his life, and until he does, we will.”
I stare right at her. “I don’t understand, how did this even come up?”
“When Ethan and I were in Fiji, we talked about a lot of things we never had. Don’t forget, our relationship didn’t progress slowly. We fucked, and didn’t talk again until the day I told him I was pregnant.”
“I know,” I say softly.
Fiona leans forward, and continues. “He told me something he hadn’t before.”
“What’s that?”
“When he and Jace were seniors in college, they had a relationship with a junior named Hannah.” She rolls her eyes, “Hannah. That just sounds so goody two shoes.”
I smirk at her. “What? Unlike Fiona, which sounds so ghetto whore?”
She narrows her eyes at me, and then laughs. “So, I’m a little jealous. Don’t judge. Anyway, the relationship didn’t last long.”
“Why did it end?”
She shrugs. “As far I know Hannah ended it. Ethan didn’t go into detail. The only thing he told me was that the three of them had decided to go skiing over spring break, and Jace suggested a place in Colorado, but didn’t tell Hannah his family owed the house, until his grandmother unexpectedly showed up.”
“Okay,” I say. “And that was a problem, why?”
She shrugs again. “Jace comes from a very wealthy family, and I guess Hannah had no idea until then. When she found out, she felt duped for some reason. She called Jace a big shot, and left. Ethan tried to call her when he returned, but she wouldn’t take his calls. Neither of them saw her again after that, and a short while later, Jace met Tricia.”
“So what? Since they’ve done this thing before, you think they can do it again?”
“Yes, I do.”
I stare at her, uncertain what to say.
“Be happy for me. I want this. I’ve wanted something like this since you first told me about the twins.”
I give her a look.
“You know how jealous I was of you. How I went on about it for months after.”
I do remember that.
“I had actually told Ethan about that time in my life first, before he told me about Hannah.” She makes a face when she says her name.
My jaw drops open.
“Don’t worry, he won’t judge.”
I keep my mouth shut, knowing this isn’t about me.
As if a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, she takes a huge bite of her brownie. “Besides,” she adds, “it’s not going to be a steady thing. We said we’d try it tonight, and if any of us don’t want to do it again, we won’t.”
“Okay,” I tell her. “Start again, and this time from the beginning.”
“On New Year’s Eve . . .” she starts with a smile.
Watching the glow lighting up her face, I can’t help but be happy for her. After all, Fiona didn’t have to choose to settle down, she got pregnant and did the right thing for Max. She also learned to live within the constraints of marriage, which for her hasn’t been easy. And aside from her adjustment to staying home, she seems to be doing a good job of it.
Maybe Ethan is more perfect for her than I thought. Or maybe he’s more in tune to her needs than I give him credit for.
Either way, I have no doubts that he’s the right man for her, and that he will handle the situation with care, for her, for him, and for their son.
Besides, who am I to judge?