Page 69 of The Stars in the Sky
It took me a while to fall asleep. Not because I felt uncomfortable, but because quite the opposite.
Sitting in the bunkhouse office, the next morning, I finalized the plans for the activities for the upcoming week. I started thinking about what the "anything" that Will was going to do to me at the end of it.
Then I got an idea.
I found the website and ordered, assured of discreet brown packaging.
And then I joined Will and Trixie in his truck.
We drove past the rows of crops in the fields, trees in the orchards, and grapes in the vineyards, ultimately pulling into the gravel drive of the winery, with olive trees, rosemary, and lavender landscaping.
We walked hand in hand up to the corrugated metal building, decorated in industrial chic inside.
A young woman with a nose ring, dyed black hair, and a lot of tattoos stood behind the bar.
So Will employed someone else who looked like me. Maybe he wasn't as pure cowboy as he seemed.
"Hi, Mr. Thrash," she said, smiling.
"Genevieve, this is Marie, my girlfriend." He wasn't shy about using that word. "Let her have a flight."
"Sure thing, Mr. Thrash. You too?"
"Nope, I'm driving and gotta do some more work later."
She set out six wine glasses and poured a healthy amount in the first glass, a dry white Central Coast blend, telling me about it. "All of our wines are certified organic." A group of people walked in and she excused herself to go serve them. I sipped the wine, which tasted lovely.
"So you can handle two edgy female employees?"
"Yeah?" he said, wary.
"I guess I expected you to hire all country girls, but you have a thing for tattooed ones too?"
He sighed, exasperated. "She's an employee and she's twenty-two. You’re my girlfriend, not my employee." I tipped back the last of the glass in a rush.
Genevieve came over and gave me another glass of white wine, describing it to me.
A strange mood, a funk, came over me. I needed to push him now. Stop pussyfooting around. Ihad to knowif it was going to work between us. He seemed to think it would, but I wasn't convinced, and if I just tiptoed around our issues—his politics, my politics, my feminism, his anti-feminism—then we'd never get them resolved. Even though part of me just wanted to let these things go and let us off the hook, I knew that I had insisted on this period of time for a reason. And if it wasn't going to work out, I needed to know before I really got hurt. Before I really opened up my heart to him.
And I wanted to know more about his kink.
I looked at him, then I looked over at Genevieve, then I looked back at him. "Tell me more about the threesomes."
"This isn't the place, Marie."
"No one's listening."
I was right. We stood to the side of the bar as Genevieve helped the other patrons. They were noisy and there was no way that they were paying attention to us.
He looked really uncomfortable, but he started talking and I think it was because he knew that I’d bug him until he talked. "What do you want to know? There was a bar in college that I went to, a country bar, and a lot of times it was easy to pick up a woman and her friend." He paused. "You don't want to know this."
"I don't want to be in a threesome with you. I just want you. But it's hot and I want details."
"You don't want to know. That shit will only make you jealous and that's not a good idea. It's ancient history anyway."
I swallowed the last of the second glass of wine and Genevieve noticed, came over, and poured me the third glass. These were huge tastes, not the two fingers one normally got at a winery. I guess it helped if you were there with the boss.
"I don't talk about it. To anyone."
