Page 19 of Her Dragons

“That’s new for us,” Jake agreed.“It’s a first.We’ve never had something like this.The way we’ve been with women…”

“Fuck ‘em and enjoy it, and don’t look back.That’s all we’ve ever done.”

“Not with Lily.”

“No, not with Lily,” I agreed.“She’s not a woman you ‘don’t look back’ from.She’s a woman you want to look ahead with.”

“But ‘look ahead’ to what?” Jake wondered.

“I don’t know, man,” I said with a shrug.“It’s just…I don’t know what my own life is gonna be.But I can’t see not having Lily in it.In bed and otherwise.”As seriously as Jake, I wondered, “What do you think she’d think about that?”

“She likes us,” Jake said, as confidently as before.“Lily really cares about us, I can tell.She’s grateful — and it’s more than just being grateful.I think Lily has feelings for us, like we’re starting to have for her.What kind of life do you think that would be for the three of us?”

I started to see a picture in my head and it made me chuckle.“Maybe we’d be part of her…what’s that word for the people who follow movie stars and TV stars and rock stars around?”

Jake cracked a little laugh and said, “Her ‘entourage’.”

Slapping Jake’s shoulder, recognizing the word, I said, “There you go.We’d be her entourage.Wherever she went, we’d be there, between her and the public, like her buffer.”

The smartest friend I ever had was now wearing the stupidest grin.Jake said, “Her ‘handlers’.That’s what they’re also called.The star is always followed around by their ‘handlers’.”

That made me laugh out loud, and I caught myself so as not to wake Lily up from her nap.More quietly, I leaned slightly over to Jake and said, “Well, we’d sure as hell be ‘handling’ her, all right.When she wasn’t playing or practicing we’d be ‘handling’ her boobs, ‘handling’ her ass, ‘handling’ her…”

He laughed again, and caught himself like I did, and gave another look towards the bedroom.Slapping me hard on the shoulder, Jake said in a hush, “Shut up!She’s right in there!Do you want her to hear?”

“Tell me we wouldn’t be,” I said in a hush of my own.

“All right, yes, we’d be her ‘handlers’ in more ways than one.”

I said, “And she’d know we would be too.She’s been handling us and we’ve been handling her since the morning afterwe brought her home.Think of the three of us checking into some hotel in New York, like the Plaza or something.We’d have to get a suite with a bed big enough for three.And think what’d be going on in there.”

“True,” said Jake, nodding and looking off in a way that told me he had the same image.“The three of us would be ‘performing,’ all right.”

“Hell yeah, we would.”

We had a long beat of silence then.Now we both looked off in the direction of the bedroom.I imagined her lying there without us.I pictured her taking off her swimsuit and stretching out naked on the bed we’d left unmade from the morning, waiting for us.Jake looked over at me and saw the growing bulge in my thong to match his own.He took me by the arm, cautioning.

“We promised we’d let her get some rest,” Jake said.

“I know, but it’s hard, man.”I quickly caught the double meaning in my words and corrected, “Tough.I mean it’s tough, right?Knowing she’s just lying in there while we’re out here…”

“Later,” said Jake, raising a finger at me.

“Yeah.Later,” I said, shrugging.“There’s actually gonna be a ‘later’ with Lily.And a tomorrow.And on and on until…what?We’ve never thought that far ahead before with a woman, and now we’re actually thinking about tomorrow, and the future.”

“A future we want with just one woman in bed,” Jake said.

“One woman who’s too good for us,” I reminded him.

“And wants us anyway,” Jeff reminded me.

“Like we want her.”I paused, then asked thoughtfully, “What’s the future, Jake?What’s it really gonna be?”

“We’ll know when we get there,” said my friend, confident as ever.

I could only nod at that.Jake was right.The future, I thought, would show us what it would be.

CHAPTER 7

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