Her face lit up like a kid at Christmas. “Oh my god, this looks incredible.” She happily took a seat at the table. “Was this all in that package from the guy this morning?”
“Yeah. Look’s good, huh? We wanted to make the effort since we know you’re stressed right now.”
“Well, that’s really thoughtful,” Muriel said, and my heart swelled at her approval.
“Don’t be shy, now. Dig in,” Hugh said and passed one of only two serving spoons to her.
“Everything, every ingredient we put in for maximum nutrition and to boost energy levels.” I winked.
Muriel laughed, took the spoon, and cast her eye over the offerings. “It all looks good; who’d think emergency rations in a storm would be as great as this?”
“If this looks good, wait and see what we’ve got you for dessert.”
I did not intend to sound so suggestive. We hadn’t placed the pecan pie out on display, so she took my comment for innuendo and eyed me suspiciously before reaching out to pick a plump grape which she held aloft. “Are you getting fruity?” she asked and then giggled.
Hugh chuckled and then forked a mound of potato salad into his mouth.
“Aw, I do appreciate the effort y’all have gone to here. And look, I know it was unfair of me to storm off earlier, I’m just—my head is swirling with a million thoughts right now.”
“We understand,” Hugh said, and I nodded in agreement. “This is a weird situation for all of us, but even stranger for you being back in your home town for the first time in years. Have you missed it?”
Muriel gratefully seized the opportunity to talk about something other than our relationship, and we chatted easily for a while about California versus Georgia. I couldn’t see the appeal of California compared to our home state. We had everything here, from beautiful beaches to great sports teams and even a thriving movie industry, and everything cost about ten percent of what it would cost out west.
“So yeah, most nights it’s just me and my cat Claws, sitting around watching TV, the same thing people do all over the world, I guess.”
She explained how life in LA wasn’t anywhere near as glamorous as we’d assumed. “Sometimes I’ll get together with Poppy, if she isn’t away modeling somewhere, or Jasmine if she isn’t busy with a new commission, but that’s about it, really.”
“No guys, then?” Hugh asked.
If I’d asked that exact same thing Muriel would have climbed out the window for sure, but Hugh had that journalist’s knack of asking a question in just the right tone so it sounded casual and encouraged her to answer.
“There have been guys,” she began to explain, and a flare of jealousy ran up my spine. “But not many, and it’s never lasted long. Like I said yesterday, nobody compares to you two. And no one presents a cold lunch with quite your flare either.”
“We worked with what we were given,” I said modestly, but my heart soared to hear that she had been pining for us as we had for her. I still didn’t understand why she was so determined to live in LA, or to live a lie where she pretended she didn’t want to live as a throuple, but it was comforting to know that at least she cared about us. I began clearing the plates away and sealing the lids on the leftovers ready to place them in the fridge that had no electricity.
“Well, if you ever change your mind about the whole California career girl thing, you know where we are,” I said, and I meant it. I knew I spoke for Hugh too. Both of us would wait a lifetime for her if that was what we needed to do.
“You’ll be my first visit, but in the meantime—”
Hugh was busy testing his phone, it still didn’t connect, and I was tidying up, so it took a polite little cough from Muriel to make us turn and look at her. When I did, I almost dropped the pile of plates, and Hugh did drop his phone on the hardwood floor. He didn’t even bother to check whether it had smashed.
Muriel was mid-way through lifting up her thin white nightgown, and she was still wearing despite the time of day. She had nothing underneath. She somehow looked even more stunning through my sober eyes than she did last night.
As she tossed away the nightgown and stood proudly naked in front of us, I took in every inch of her pale skin, from her knees to her thighs and from her soft stomach to her perfect breasts with pink, pebbled nipples. She’d had me convinced I would never see her naked again, yet here we were.
“We might not have a future, but we’ve got the present, so why not have some fun with it?”