I wake up the next morning and head downstairs. I don’t hear anyone else, so I assume Oliver and Scarlet are still asleep. I go into the kitchen, thinking about what I’ll make for breakfast. There’s a jacket on the floor. I pick it up and deduce it’s Oliver’s. I mean, it has to be his since mine is in my room. I hang it on one of the chairs by the island. Waffles sound good, so I grab the ingredients to make them. I turn on some music and start cooking. I turn on the waffle maker and pour in the first batter when I hear noise coming from the game room. Scarlet comes out of the room, rubbing her eyes.
“Oh, hey, Caden…” She walks over to me and takes a look at the waffle maker. “What are you doing?”
I turn slightly so I can face her and respond, “I’m making waffles… for breakfast.”
Scarlet reaches across me and sticks her finger in the batter then she licks it off, looking at me. “Tastes good.” Scarlet leaves the kitchen and heads upstairs. Not too long after, Oliver comes into the kitchen.
“Good morning, brother.” He comes over and pats me on the back. “Is this for all of us?”
“Duh.” I finish up and place the waffle stack on the island. Before taking a seat, I go and grab stuff for toppings. Oliver takes a seat next to me, and we both start eating. I point to his jacket and ask, “I found that on the floor this morning. Did you drop it last night?” Oliver puts down his fork and looks at me.
“I was going to tell you about it. Last night, Scarlet and I-” But before he can finish, Scarlet enters the kitchen and interrupts,
“Good morning!” She sits opposite of us and grabs a few waffles. It looks like Oliver is going to drop the conversation from earlier. Scarlet takes a few bites and with a full mouth says, “These are delicious! Are they from scratch?”
I nod, a little embarrassed. “Yeah. Waffles are one of my specialties.”
“Oliver was telling me last night that you’re the cook in the family.”
I glance at Oliver, intrigued by what Scarlet’s saying. Maybe that’s what he was trying to tell me. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but my mind is starting to race, insecurities in full bloom.
“Yeah, I guess I am. Oliver can cook a little, though.”
Oliver playfully punches me in the arm. “I’m nothing compared to Caden. He’s like a professional chef.” Oliver always upsells my skills, but I appreciate the compliment.
We continue to talk over breakfast and basically zip through all the waffles. Scarlet offers to help with the dishes, but I tell her not to worry about it.
“Well, I’m going to go take a shower. I’ll see you boys later.” Scarlet goes back upstairs, leaving Oliver and me alone. I begin to load the dishes into the sink with Oliver helping me.
“Did you want to tell me something earlier?” We both stop cleaning up.
“Yeah. Last night Scarlet wanted a tour of the house. We didn’t get very far, because she fell asleep in the game room.”
“Is that it?” I can tell Oliver is nervous. I don’t want him to be, but I also want to know what’s bothering him so much.
“She asked questions about the arrangement. She wanted to know if it would always be the three of us, and I think she was asking, because in the kitchen, she removed my jacket and tried to unbutton my shirt, but- I don’t know. I started to feel weird about the whole thing, because it felt like I was going behind your back, and with everything that has happened, I don’t want things to sour between us.” Oliver rarely gets this flustered. The few times it’s happened it was due to something stressful.
“Take a breath, Oliver.”
He takes a deep breath and calms down. I continue, “I trust you, and I know you wouldn’t do anything so calm down. And it doesn’t always have to be the three of us. It’s always been like that.”
“I know you know these things, but sometimes it still eats away at me.”
Even though Oliver and I look different on the surface, we can be extremely similar. When our anxieties surface up, they manifest in an almost identical way.
“Did the waffles help?”
Oliver takes a second since the question is kind of odd, but he breaks into a smile, “Yeah, they did. You are a good cook. You should let me compliment you more.” The tension leaves his shoulders and Oliver’s back to his usual self.
We finish loading the dishwasher and go in the game room. Oliver goes over to the T.V. as I sit on the couch in front of it. He finds a game for us to play and starts up the game system. We’re playing for about an hour when we hear Scarlet calling our names. I shout back,
“We’re in the game room!”
Scarlet comes in a little while later and takes a seat between Oliver and me. Her hair is still wet from a shower but it’s up in a bun. She’s wearing an oversized T-shirt, either one of mine or Oliver’s.
“Can I play?” Scarlet’s looking at me, and I can’t quite read her expression. It’s not per se blank, but she’s planning something. Oliver gives me a signal to go along with her, so I say,
“Yeah. We’re almost done with our game. You can take Oliver’s place.”
“That’s not quite what I had in mind.” She takes the controller from my hands, pauses the game and places it down. Oliver and I exchange confused glances. She straddles my lap and starts to kiss me. I run my hands up her back and into her hair, taking it out of the bun. I grab hold of it and intensify the embrace. Scarlet is tugging at my shirt, eventually pulling it over my head. She breaks the kiss and places her mouth on my neck. I’m super into what she’s doing, but I’m still at a loss. Lately, it’s felt like I haven’t been connecting with her well. I turn and look at Oliver, but he isn’t paying much attention to me; instead, he’s gazing over Scarlet’s body. I can see he’s pretty hard, and my erection is growing harder. Scarlet moves her mouth to my ear and whispers,
“Do you want to fuck me?”
I’m completely surprised to hear her say that. She’s being more aggressive than expected. Over the past couple days she’s been pretty subdued. But I like this side of her – more direct and demanding. Scarlet’s looking at me, waiting for an answer,
“Are you going to fuck me?” She shoots me a mischievous smile, and her hands travel down to my boxers. She unleashes my cock and rubs it with her hand.
“Yeah, I think I am.”
Scarlet gets up on her knees and removes her underwear, tossing it to the floor. She rests her forehead against mine as she eases herself down onto my penis. She goes slowly, to the point where it’s almost excruciating, trying to keep myself from losing control. She has my entire length completely inside of her and begins to gyrate her hips, riding me with ferocity.
“Jesus, Scarlet.” I can’t believe this is happening right now. I put my hands under her shirt and massage her breasts. She throws her head back and holds onto my shoulders for balance.
“Oh dear god, Caden! You feel so fucking good!” I can feel her pussy tightening around me. “I’m getting close…” When she reaches her peak, Scarlet puts her forehead back on mine and comes. Following her lead, I grunt out my release and lean back against the sofa, exhausted. Scarlet has fallen onto my chest, resting her head there. I can feel her shaking and start to feel worried, but then I realize she’s laughing.
“What is it?”
Scarlet lifts her head up and looks at me to say, “It’s nothing. I’m just- I think I’m still getting acclimated to the situation, and laughing at weird moments is how I deal with things sometimes. Also, this is all a bit out there.” Our arrangement is, indeed, out there, but I don’t want Scarlet to feel uncomfortable. “But I think I like it.” She gets off my lap and pulls her shirt down. We all rearrange our clothes, putting things back on. It looks like Oliver got himself off while Scarlet and I had sex. Once we’re all dressed, Scarlet picks up the controller, hands it back to me and sits down between us again. “You guys can get back to your game. I’ll watch.”
I’m kind of stunned. I know she said she’s still unsure of her place with Oliver and me, but all the moves she’s making are in sync with both of us. Scarlet looks at the screen, waiting for us to play, but neither Oliver nor I have totally grasped the situation.
“Well, come on guys, we don’t have all day. Or we do, but let’s not waste it.” She looks between the two of us, suggesting we resume the game.
I un-pause it and we continue our game. At one point, Scarlet lies down, placing her head on Oliver’s lap and her feet on mine. It’s an innocent gesture but a significant one. The majority of the day is spent in the game room, leaving occasionally to get snacks. We end up teaching Scarlet how to play pool, which led to Oliver fucking her on the pool table.
• • •
At the end of the day, we put on a movie. This time Scarlet puts her head on my lap. I’m not one hundred percent sure what we’re watching. It’s some kind of comedy. I’m about to ask her about it then I notice she’s asleep.
“Hey, Oliver. Look.” I motion with my head down at Scarlet.
“Is she asleep?”
“I think so.” I move the hair off her face and she is fast asleep. I stroke her cheek with my finger. Her skin is extremely soft. I look back at Oliver. “Should we move her?”
“Nah, she looks so peaceful.”
We keep watching the movie, which is pretty funny but I was too distracted in the beginning. When the credits start rolling, Oliver turns to me, “I wanted to let you know, Dad called earlier.”
I let out a heavy sigh, “Is that when you left the room?”
He nods.
“What did he say?” I let my head fall and hang towards my chest.
“He asked if we were in the house in the mountains, if there was a girl here, what we’ve been doing the past couple days and how the sale’s going.” Dad must’ve checked in with the pilot and drivers.
“Why did you answer? I thought we were ignoring our problems for a few days?” I know my voice sounded angry, but I’m not mad at Oliver – just our father and his constant meddling.
“You know that if I didn’t he would’ve shown up here. Like you said, he probably knows everything that’s going on, and the only reason he hasn’t inserted himself too aggressively so far is because we’re cooperating with him.”
I know Oliver’s right, which only makes me angrier. For years, I’ve been silently accepting the way our father treats us, but lately it’s been bothering much more. He treats people as commodities, and right now that’s how he’s treating Scarlet. I remember when he called us about Rachel’s death. His main focus was about how it would be “so much easier” to get the house now. I’d been getting sick of him even before Scarlet reappeared, but she’s made me want to stand up to him even more.
“We need to do something about him, Oliver.”
Oliver stays silent but contemplative.
I make my voice more stern, “Soon.” I want to make sure the gravity of the situation is understood. I need Oliver to know how serious I feel about this topic.
“I know, I know.” Oliver rubs his palm on his mouth. “But what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know, but we should at least start talking about it.”
“Okay. We can do that later. When we’re alone.”
I nod. I don’t want Scarlet waking up to us talking about our dad. There would be too much explaining to do. Oliver moves Scarlet’s feet off his lap and maneuvers his way off the sofa. He helps me with her head, and soon we’re both standing. He asks, “Do you want to get something to eat?”
“Yeah. I think there’s a frozen pizza in the freezer.”
The two of us go into the kitchen, leaving Scarlet to sleep in the game room. Indeed, there is a frozen pizza, which I place in the over and we stand around waiting for it to cook.
“Frozen pizza? What a step down from homemade waffles.”
“Ha ha. Very funny.”
When it finishes baking, we take our seats at the island. We’re eating for a couple minutes when the game room door opens.
“I smelled pizza.” Scarlet comes around to the island. “Can I have a slice?”
I motion for her to go right ahead and she takes one.
Her hair is back up in a messy bun. “Did I fall asleep during the movie?”
“Yeah. We didn’t want to wake you up, so we left,” Oliver explains.
“Were you guys talking about your dad?”
Oliver and I make eyes at each other. Did she overhear our conversation? That would not be a good thing. We’re going to have to be more careful from now on. This time I pipe in,
“Why are you asking?” I don’t think we said anything too revealing, but some of what was said would be hard to explain.
“I had a weird dream. Your dad was in it… and I could hear your voices, so I thought maybe I was dreaming about what I was hearing. It’s kind of weird to have an out of the blue dream about your father, right?”
I start laughing and Oliver joins me.
Scarlet stops eating and narrows her eyes at us, “What?”
“Nothing. We were talking about our dad. He called and Oliver was letting me know. No big deal.”
“Thank goodness. I was worried I had some subconscious desire for your dad.” She says it so casually that Oliver and I do a spit take. I’m straight shocked for a few seconds, but Scarlet starts laughing then Oliver and I join in. When our laughter dies down, we all take a deep breath. “Sorry about that. That was really weird of me to say.”
“No, don’t apologize. We needed that laugh.” We really did. Even though Oliver and I decided to ignore our problems, it’s easier said than done.
“Is everything okay?” Scarlet looks worried, putting her pizza down with wider eyes.
However, I’m not ready to let her know everything, and I know Oliver feels the same way. She’d be out the door if we told her. I want to leave half the time, and it’s my life. Oliver takes his turn to talk,
“Yeah, yeah. Our dad just had some business to talk about with us, and it kind of took us out of our relaxed state.” Damn straight. I am no longer relaxed. “But we’re fine now. I told him we’re taking a little vacation, and we’ll take care of everything when we get back.”
Scarlet looks down, her good mood gone.
Oliver rests his hand on her arm, “Is everything okay with you?”
“I’m not taking you guys away from your work or anything, right? I don’t want to be a bother…” She sounds so guilty. It was our suggestion, and there’s nothing for her to feel bad about.
Oliver does his best to reassure her, “You are not a bother. We want to be here with you.” I rub her back as Oliver continues, “Let’s forget business and finish this pizza.”
Scarlet agrees, and we drop the conversation. We eat and talk about nothing too heavy. Scarlet says a few things about her time living in the city.
“Portland was a cool place to live. While I was taking classes at Northwest, I worked as a barista at some hipster art café, which was neat because local artists could have their pieces hung inside.”
“Did you ever have anything you painted displayed there?” I beam at her.
She blushes and looks into her lap, “I didn’t.”
“Why not?” my eyes grow wide.
She shrugs, “I didn’t think I was good enough to have my paintings there for other people to see. I was afraid they’d hate them.”
Oliver chimes in, “I’m sure that wouldn’t happen. You have passion, and that would have shown through your art. People would have loved you.”
Scarlet merely smiles but doesn’t say more.
I clear my throat, attempting to change the subject, “What else did you do while you were there?”
She perks up a little bit, “I also tried to be a part-time dog walker in between classes or days off I had!”
I tilt my head, “Part-time dog walker?”
“Yeah! Whatever days and times I was available I’d be scheduled to go to clients’ homes and take their dogs on walks or hikes. And these are people who are wealthy and don’t have the time to dedicate to their pets, which is kind of sad if you think about it, but it was a lot of fun for me,” she speaks with such fervor and enthusiasm.
Oliver crosses his arms, “Seems like you were busy, attending school and working multiple jobs. What did you do for fun otherwise?”
“I didn’t get out much in the city… Maybe that’ll change when I get back…” Scarlet gets a far-off look on her face again. I don’t want her to think about leaving yet. I try and do another quick topic change,
“You guys never finished the house tour. Would you like to see the downstairs?” I turn to Oliver and he gives a nod of solidarity.
“What’s down there?” Scarlet shifts, so she’s standing a little straighter.
“Why don’t you come down and see?” I motion for her to follow us, and we go to the door in the corner by the game room entrance. I turn on the light by the door so the staircase is illuminated, but once we reach the bottom, the room is still pretty dark. I wait a few seconds to add suspense. “Are you ready?”
I can feel Scarlet laughing against me. “Isn’t it just a basement?”
“Oh, it’s more than that.” I switch on the light, and the basement is illuminated. I hear Scarlet gasp behind me.
“Oh, my god,” she whispers. She pushes passed Oliver and me to get further into the room. “Are you guys for real?”
“Yeah,” Oliver answers and shrugs. We follow Scarlet deeper into the room.
She sits on one of the upholstered seats. “But where did you get the seats?” The seats are always a focal point. They never cease to amaze people.
“There was an old theatre that sold them to us pretty cheap. We wanted the room to feel like an actual movie theatre. We might have gone a little overboard,” Oliver said, leaning against the wall gazing along with her. This was the last room in the house we prepared. Oliver and I had always wanted something like this, a theatre in our house. “There’s a projector on the ceiling. We can play DVDs, VHS, Blu-ray, stream from the Internet, whatever you fancy.” Oliver and I are still standing, watching Scarlet marvel at our mini-home theatre.
“Well, I think later tonight we should watch something, but right now I’d like to go outside,” she shoots us a sly smile. Outside, eh? We are in the middle of nature, so it’d probably be a good idea to take advantage of it.
“Outside?” Oliver’s gears are turning. It’s pretty late at night, but I know he doesn’t want to outright say no to what Scarlet wants.
Scarlet has gotten up and headed towards the stairs. “Yeah, where the snow is. Isn’t that why we came up here? To play in the snow?”
The sheer look of horror on Oliver’s face is hilarious. We haven’t played in the snow since our pre-teen years.
“Don’t you guys want to come play with me?” she bites her lip, and it’s evident Scarlet’s toying with us and doing such a damn good job.
Oliver and I look at each other and nod, confirming we’re on the same page. We’re both not too far behind chasing after Scarlet as she bolts up the stairs. We catch up when she stops by the front door. Her hand is on the handle like she’s about to open it. Oliver immediately calls out to her,
“Wait! You can’t go out like that. It’s too cold.”
Scarlet relaxes her shoulders and appears to take Oliver’s advice but then she does a quick turnaround and throws open the door. Cold air slaps us all in the face. Scarlet shuts the door and laughs, “I think you may’ve been right…”
Oliver shakes his head, even though he’s amused.
Shivering, Scarlet asks, “Do you have some warm clothes I can borrow?” Luckily, we do. We all go upstairs to put on jackets, hats, scarves, basically anything to keep us warm. Once we’re all suited up, we go outside, and the onslaught of cold is less harsh. Scarlet steps out into the snow while Oliver and I stand on the porch.
“What are we supposed to do?” Oliver asks with a shrug of his shoulders. We’re both at a loss for how to act. I kneel down to feel the snow. I honestly have no idea how to do snow play, either. I stand back up and continue to talk with Oliver when a snowball hits him in the face. A look of surprise is pasted on his face, as if he can’t comprehend what just happened.
“I thought you guys were going to play with me!” Scarlet is some feet away, holding another snowball. She throws it at me, but I duck and it misses me, hitting the house instead. I stand straight and find Scarlet running towards us, and when she reaches the porch, she shoves a snowball into my face. “Got you. I got both of you.”
I wipe the snow off, keeping my features immobile. Oliver is watching the two of us, not sure of what I’m about to do. Scarlet picks up on this, and her mood dampens. I take steps towards her and she backs away. We both end up standing in the snow, and I bring my mouth to her ear,
“It’s on.”
She looks at me confused, and then realization crosses her face. She smiles and puts some distance between the two of us. Oliver waltzes over and stands next to me,
“What are we doing?” Oliver is such an adult sometimes.
“We’re about to have a snowball fight.” I turn to Oliver and place a hand on his shoulder. “And it’s each man for himself, brother.” I scoot away from Oliver, leaving him to fend for himself. I form a snowball and try to find cover. An icy snowball hits my back, but I’m too slow and don’t see Scarlet. Oliver had moved from his spot. He must’ve caught on. I wander around the grounds, unable to find either one of them. I hear sounds of movement and go towards it. I’m behind a tree and look around from the trunk.
Oliver and Scarlet are on the ground. It looks like they fell on top of one another. Oliver’s on top of her, and they’re both breathing pretty heavily. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but it looks like Oliver asked Scarlet a question, because she’s nodding. He brings his mouth down on hers, and they’re kissing. Scarlet weaves her fingers into his hair and pulls him into her. While the feeling that was bothering me before isn’t as strong, it’s still there. I suppress it and get ready to launch a snowball. It hits Oliver’s back, and the two of them break apart. They both give me a huge smile.
We all move out into the open area, and now it’s become a constant barrage of throwing snowballs at one another. This goes on for a while until we’re all exhausted. Scarlet calls for a cease-fire, and we all come together. “I don’t why you were so worried, Oliver. You’re a fine snowballer.”
“Thanks. I think we should go inside and warm up. Hmm?”
I agree with Oliver, and the three of us go back into the house. Stripped down to our shirts and underwear, we hang our wet things to dry. I suggest,
“Why don’t you two go pick a movie and I’ll make some hot chocolate?”
Oliver nods and takes Scarlet by the hand, and the two of them head to the basement.
“We’ll pick something good. I promise.” Scarlet makes her declaration with enthusiasm before disappearing behind the door.