Trey

When we walk into a room, all eyes turn to us. Bunny walks ahead of us, graceful and lithe as a dancer. It’s still a wonder to me that she never trained athletically. This is just how her body is: strong and graceful.

The maître d’ guides us through tables of celebrities and politicians. I have heard that there are rumors swirling around us, but no one has had confirmation. We keep to ourselves, mostly. It’s not out of modesty or some desire to hide, it’s just that we haven’t wanted to do anything but fuck for weeks.

But it seemed like Bunny deserved a night on the town, where the whole world could admire her the way that we do. Sully agreed to sacrifice part of the evening, as long as we promised to try to get back to the hotel early enough that he could still spend time with her. This is not, he told us, an authorized group night. Definitely not. Definitely still his night alone.

She looks outrageously beautiful in a glittering black evening dress, completely backless. Her spine undulates with every step as she saunters through the room, commanding all the attention. I think she loves it. She’s definitely not shy.

“Thank you,” she sighs as she sits in the chair the maître d’ holds out for her. As he slides it in under her, she gracefully places her handbag on the table next to her and gazes at each of us expectantly.

By contrast, we seem like a bunch of oafs. A pack of baboons. A fraternity of tragically smart kids. Definitely, she is the rose among the thorns.

“I can’t believe you got us a reservation at Lovecraft,” she breathes, leaning forward confidentially. “That’s Brad Pitt over there! And the mayor? And I’m pretty sure that’s Lady Gaga in a wig!”

“Probably,” Royce sniffs. “I mean, I’m not sure that’s Lady Gaga, but that’s definitely Brad Pitt. Do you want to meet him?”

“Yes! Wait, no… I don’t. Thank you for offering, though.”

“Why not?” Spencer asks. “Royce plays volleyball with him sometimes when he’s in town. I’m sure it’s no trouble.”

Her eyebrows go up dramatically. “You do? He plays volleyball?”

Royce waves his hand modestly. “Oh, we haven’t done that in a while. We had a team, kind of, when he was shooting his last movie here. He’s got a great serve.”

“I can imagine,” she smiles. “But I think I am happy where I am.”

She smiles at all of us, her cheeks pink. I’m constantly amazed that she can make us each feel loved, even when we’re all together.

And we do compete for her attention. Everyone wants to be the one who has the most time with her. I feel lucky that I got to pillage her asshole first, but Spencer got to fuck her pussy first, and Royce got the first blowjob. So I guess we all have our small, precious moments.

Still, when she looks at me I feel like she is looking right into me. The connection is real and it’s intense. She makes my heart hurt sometimes, she is so beautiful. It literally hurts to look at her for too long, especially when she is looking back.

“We are happy where we are too,” Sully murmurs, covering her tiny hand with his giant paw.

“Excuse me, sir?” Bunny smiles at a passing waiter. “Can you take a picture of us?”

Though it is a kind of touristy request, she asks it in such a charming way that the waiter immediately agrees. She pulls her cell phone out and hands it to him, then twists in her chair so that she’s surrounded by us. And though it is slightly undignified to completely act cheesy, we all gather around her, smiling like it’s senior picture day.

He hands the camera back to her and she wrinkles her nose and grins at it.

“You guys are just so handsome,” she says. “I hope we get a million pictures together.”

“We might already be halfway there,” Spencer remarks, nodding meaningfully over his shoulder. Royce follows his gesture and observes all the people with their cameras out. Looks like even the celebrities want to take pictures of our merry band of family love.

“Oh, let them,” Royce sighs in an uncharacteristically breezy manner. “It’s fine. It would be nice to see ourselves in People magazine, wouldn’t it? Maybe Time?”

“Maybe the National Enquirer?” Bunny adds sarcastically.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Spencer drawls.

“We don’t have anything to be ashamed of,” Sully replies. “We can do whatever we want. We can do whomever we want. And all we want is you. I would be happy if the whole world knew about it, to tell you the truth.”

She stares at him with light dancing in her eyes. “You know what, I almost believe you mean it,” she grins. “But the whole world doesn’t need to know all of our business. Is that what Royce always says?”

Royce shifts uncomfortably in his chair. “But I didn’t mean it like… as though you’re a secret. Not specifically. Just that it’s a habit to try to maintain our privacy.”

“Oh, I’m not complaining, Royce,” she shrugs. “I’m just happy to be here. With you. With all of you.”

She glances down at her phone. “And, we take really nice pictures together too. We should get some with Sophia and—”

Her voice cuts off as her expression darkens.

Immediately Sully is leaning toward her protectively. “What is it? Is everything all right?”

“I just…” her eyes dart around the table, glancing at each of us. “There’s something I forgot to tell you.”

“Like what?” Royce asks suspiciously.

She leans forward, then covers her mouth modestly when the wine steward comes over to deliver the Chilean wine. It takes forever for him to give Royce a sample, get that sample approved after Royce is done swirling it over his teeth like he knows what he’s doing, and then for all of us to get a glass. Finally he leaves.

“Like what?” Brock asks this time.

“When we were in Nantucket,” she begins, her eyes cast down, “I took Sophia into town to do a little shopping, remember?”

My stomach tightens with dread.

“I remember,” Spencer chimes in. “That was the day we signed the paperwork, right?”

She’s talking so quietly, I have to lean forward to hear her.

“When I was in town, in addition to discovering that the general store does not accept the Black Card—”

“I’ll have to take care of that,” Sully mutters.

“Let her finish,” Brock says.

“I am letting her finish,” Sully objects.

“Guys? I’m trying to tell you something serious here,” she interrupts, her eyebrows raised.

I can’t tell what’s in her expression. Remorse? Embarrassment? Guilt?

“Okay, so what I’m trying to say is,” she begins again, “I ran into… Nina.”

“Where?” Brock asks, alarmed.

“In Nantucket,” she repeats, confused.

“What? How?” Brock says.

“She lives there,” Spencer explains in a quiet voice.

“She lives there?” Royce repeats, his voice rising. “How did we not know that? Right there? By our family home?”

Spencer shrugs. “Well she has to live somewhere, doesn’t she? She took the settlement and moved to Nantucket.”

“All this time, and you didn’t tell us?”

“Tell you what? That she is still alive?” Spencer shoots back irritably. “What’s the big deal? That’s the first time we’ve been there in fifteen years. I thought her being there was fine, and probably a good way for us all to avoid each other. I didn’t know that this was going to be an issue.”

“Of course it’s a fucking issue!” Sully says, dropping his hand on the table so hard the wine glasses teeter dangerously.

“Is anyone going to listen to me?”

Bunny looks around as we all grind our teeth and try to stifle our emotions. I’m not sure if we feel defensive or angry or just shocked. Perhaps this is something we should have protected her from?

“Well, she was nice, sort of,” she continues. “She held Sophia for a minute. She… talked about you guys, but just a little. She’s very pretty.”

Her eyes go from brother to brother, almost beseeching.

“She basically told me the same thing you guys told me. That she wasn’t cut out to be a mother. She wanted to be an actress. She didn’t know how to be a… wife, is the word she used,” she finishes uncomfortably.

We sit in silence for a few moments. Spencer is the first to speak.

“That’s why you asked me about her? Well, I’m glad our stories all line up, at least. We don’t have anything to hide from you, Bunny. We want everything to be on the table, right, guys?”

We all murmur affirmation, but realize we haven’t really put everything on the table until just now.

“Why are you telling us this? Why now?” Sully asks with a pained expression.

She glances at him, startled. “Because… she’s here. In the restaurant. With us.”

My heart stops. As if on cue, Nina materializes in front of us. Her green dress hugs her ample curves. Her hair is half hiding her face in a sort of Jessica Rabbit hairdo.

Placing one hand on her hip, she holds the back of Royce’s chair as she nods at each of us in turn. Royce keeps his gaze down, but I can see the muscle in his jaw clenching.

“Hello, Nina,” Spencer says politely, automatically taking on the duty of spokesperson. “What a pleasant surprise to see you here. I didn’t realize you were in Chicago.”

She rolls her shoulders back proudly and raises an eyebrow. “I’ve got a part on Chicago Criminal Background, have you seen the show? Probably not. I’m the new lead detective.”

I see Bunny duck her head, holding her phone in her lap. I actually feel bad for her. She looks like a puppy who’s been told she’s done something wrong. But this isn’t her fault, not at all.

“You’re looking well,” I force myself to tell her.

Her green eyes slide over to me. Even though we used to be lovers, I can barely remember her. She looks like a stranger. Analytically, I understand that she’s beautiful. But there is no room in my heart to find her attractive anymore, apparently.

Reflexively, I want to take Bunny away from the table. It’s not that I think that Nina is dangerous in any way, it’s just that she doesn’t belong here with us. No one else does, besides us. There is no room in our life for anyone but us and Sophia anymore.

The silence grows longer, until even Nina seems uncomfortable. She glances around again as though expecting more positive feedback for her dress and hair. But we are all closed off. There’s no connection anymore.

And it’s sad. I know it’s sad, or at least it should be. But I don’t have room to be sad anymore either.

“Well, ahem,” she continues with a haughty toss of her hair. “I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be shooting scenes in town from time to time. Maybe you’d let me come by to say hello to little Sophia if I get a chance to take a break. I’ll be very busy, of course. Very busy.”

Actually, I have a hard time remembering what we ever saw in her. Was she always this self-centered?

“Just shoot me a text,” Bunny offers, looking up and smiling with more sincerity than I think I could manage at this point. “We could get something arranged. She should be sitting up pretty soon. I bet you’d like to see that.”

“Don’t all babies sit up?” Nina asks distractedly. She’s looking over her shoulder, smiling for someone who’s got their cell phone out.

“Well, no. But pretty soon,” Bunny answers, but Nina isn’t listening anymore.

I watch Sully as he glances between them, his eyes narrowed shrewdly. All at once, he seems to make a decision, and his expression shifts. It’s a remarkable thing, because Sully had some very strong feelings about Nina before. But all of a sudden, he looks calm.

“Or you can text me too,” he offers with a nonchalant shrug. “Just let us know what’s going on, Nina. It’s good to see you.”

She flashes him a brilliant, practiced smile and shrugs girlishly. Her hand drifts up to a strand of her hair that she toys with, twirling it around her finger.

“Well, that’s really big of you, Sully. Thank you! I guess I’ll get back to my table. I just wanted to say hello, to touch base. I hope we can all be the best of friends, since we’re practically neighbors again.”

With that, she swoops away, swishing her hips suggestively. But no one’s looking at her. We are all looking at Bunny.

“Also, I invited her to dinner when we were in Nantucket,” Bunny admits in a rush. “I figured I should just get it all out there. But she didn’t want to come then. I wonder why she wanted to come today?”

“Today there are photographers,” Spencer explains simply, jerking his chin toward the two men with expensive cameras at the bar.

“Oh,” Bunny scoffs. “I guess that makes sense. She does seem to like to be looked at. And Sully, it’s really nice of you to offer to chat with her.”

He leans back, folding his arms over his boulder-sized chest. “It’ll never happen.”

Bunny squints her eyes, confused. “Then why did you agree to it?”

“Why make a fuss about it, if it’s never gonna happen?” he explains. Then he looks around at each of us with his eyebrows raised. “Absolutely nothing, am I right? Like, a very serious amount of nothing?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it,” Brock shrugs. “I didn’t feel a thing. She’s like a stranger.”

One by one, we all add in our agreement and I watch Bunny’s smile widen as her cheeks go pink.

“Oh, you guys,” she chides us, “you don’t have to say that. I’m not jealous, I promise. She’s really quite beautiful.”

Sully squeezes her hand again. “She doesn’t hold a candle to you, princess. You’re the only woman in the world to us.”

Bunny puffs up, sighing with relief. Then she glances down at her phone and her brow furrows again.

“What’s wrong? Is she coming back?”

“It’s a message from Nina,” Bunny affirms, as her fingers drift up to cover her mouth. “She says we look very happy. She was glad to see us. And I’m pregnant.”

Her eyes are wide with shock. I can’t take my eyes off her.

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Brock scoffs.

“She really has a flair for drama,” Royce adds wryly.

Spencer leans forward, taking Bunny’s hands in his. “Bunny? Is there anything to what she said?”

I can see her pulse in her throat and the way her neck moves as she swallows several times. She blinks over and over again and her chest heaves with her rapid breathing.

“I don’t know? I mean…”

“Bunny?” Royce growls protectively.

She swallows. “It’s just that… I mean, how long have I been in Chicago?”

“Thirty-eight days,” Spencer answers immediately.

He flinches when he sees us all staring at him. “What?” he adds defensively. “Somebody needs to keep track of things around here, right?”

“I’ve never gotten a period here. Not since I’ve been to Chicago,” she whispers hoarsely.

Slyly, Sully reaches out and takes the wineglass away from her place setting, replacing it with a crystal goblet of water. “Drink this, you’ll feel better,” he suggests.

Wrinkling her nose, she presses her lips together and I finally realize that she is smiling. A secret, excited smile. When she looks up at me, I can see the light in her eyes.

“I haven’t been keeping track,” she confesses. “I mean, I’ve just been having so much fun!”

“Have you been keeping track?” I ask Spencer pointedly.

Spencer shrugs and averts his eyes. “Well… I mean, I didn’t have a baseline to compare it to, but I did know that the cycle was quite long.”

“I suppose I was fertile in Nantucket,” she muses, her voice vague. “You know, when it was all of us that first time? Somewhere around there. So… it could be a little bit all of you, I guess.”

“That’s not exactly how that works,” Spencer remarks.

“Shut up, killjoy,” Brock tells him. “She does have that magical pussy. Maybe she mixed us all together made a Worth super baby. I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“Is it all right?” she asks all of a sudden. “I mean, I know you’re trying to preserve your legacy and all… and there’s already Sophia…”

“You can make as many heirs as you want, Bunny,” Royce rushes to answer.

“Yeah, now that we know how fertile you are, we’re going to be trying to put a baby in you all the time!” Brock crows.

And then we all just sit there and stare at her. She does seem different. Maybe just a little brighter around the eyes. Maybe her breasts are larger. I know that every time I am with her I find her more intoxicating than the last time, but I just thought that meant I was falling for her. But maybe there’s some secret perfume to it too.

But she seems to glow. I know that is a cliché, but it’s true. She’s the brightest thing in the room. The only thing we can see.