Christine drove home on autopilot, her mind churning over the events of the last two hours. Boy, I can't believe it! I'm so overjoyed at everything that just happened, but I feel unsettled too. I'm weak. Weak! I shouldn't be putting up with this "harem" bullshit. But I can't deny my feelings for him.
What choice do I have? It's not like I can stop, not after what happened tonight! Instead of being so ashamed, I need to look at this in a practical way. It's like what Aunt Kirsten once told me about that song lyric: he's using me, but I'm using him too, and we're both benefiting. We'll be "friends with benefits," so what difference does it make it he has other lovers?
The house was still dark when she got there. She was very grateful, because that was a good sign that her parents still weren't home. She parked in the garage and entered through the kitchen. As she dropped the keys on the counter, she saw the phonebook sitting next to the phone. Hmmm, I wonder what store he called. As she looked at the phone, her eyes fell on the redial button.
Hmmm. just one little push of a button and I can find out. Wait. I promised not to snoop. Darn it! It's not really snooping though, is it? I mean, he didn't call one of his "harem" beauties, did he? No, it's just some store. There's no agreement preventing me from looking into that, right? Plus, this is my house, darn it. I'm allowed to know where calls go from our own phone, aren't I?
Grrr. Come on, who am I kidding? I know he'd be mad.
She sat down and stared daggers at the phone. Then she got up, picked up the receiver, and then banged it down again. Stalling, she put the phone book away. Too bad he closed it; I could have gotten some idea where he called from that. Well, it was the yellow pages, so he did call some store.
She sat and stared at the phone a while longer. Again, she got up and picked up the receiver. Her finger hovered over the redial button, as she continued arguing with herself. Finally she closed her eyes, punched out some numbers at random, and then hung up. There, no more temptation. I was a good girl, Alan, more than you deserve.
Christine went to her room and flopped down on her bed. She was emotionally and physically exhausted.
But she had only been lying there for about a minute when there was a knock on her door. "Christine? Honey? May I come in?"
UGH! Just what I need. Christine sat up. "Sure."
Olga walked in and closed the door. She was wearing typical hanging-around-the-house clothes. She smiled significantly at her daughter, fanning her face suggestively. "Phew! Talk about a scorcher!"
Christine stiffened and got a sinking feeling in her stomach. "What do you mean?!"
Olga kept on fanning herself. "I'm talking about what happened in the backyard tonight."
Christine bolted upright, a horrified look on her face. "Oh no! NO! Tell me you didn't see any of that!"
"Honey, how could I not?" Olga finally stopped her fanning. "You must have been at it with him for a loooong time. I live here too, you know."
"NO, no, no!" Christine buried her face in her hands.
Olga put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I didn't see much."
Christine removed her hands to look at her mother's face with alarm. "Just how much DID you see?!"
"Like I said, not much. I could have seen much more, but I wanted you to have your privacy. So I just peeked enough to get the general gist." That was true, although it had been more than one brief peek.
Christine was relieved to hear that, but she still paced around her room in agitation. "But... but... the lights were off the whole time!" She remembered how she'd periodically checked to make sure the house was dark, and once even went inside and looked around to make sure it was empty. But she had grown lax later on, even as the odds of her parents returning increased.
Olga pointed out, "I didn't want to turn the lights on and have you freak out. Then you would have stopped immediately, and I didn't want that. I'm really rooting for you two, you know. You make an ideal match."
Christine thought, For the thousandth time, Mom, if you only knew the full story! I couldn't have picked a worse match if I'd tried! She suddenly froze in her pacing as a disturbing thought hit her. "Oh no! What about Dad?!"
Olga waved a hand dismissively. "Fortunately, he's still not home."
PHEW! "But you were supposed to be out with him!"
"True, but I came home early." In fact, curiosity had driven Olga to "accidentally on purpose" return early. She figured, correctly, that she could see for herself how Alan and her daughter were getting along. She waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that. These things happen sometimes when you don't have a place of your own. But anyway, isn't this great news? We should celebrate with some bubbly apple cider!"
"What?! What are you talking about?!"
"What happened with you and Alan. You'd only kissed a little bit until today. Obviously, this is a big, big breakthrough for you two. There's no going back now. Isn't that GREAT?! This other girl he's dating - Amy - certainly she must be yesterday's news after what happened today."
Christine wanted to scream, because she knew that wasn't true. Alan wasn't going to give up Amy for anything. Instead she stepped forward and gave her mother a big hug.
Olga was happy to hug her daughter and give her emotional support, but she was slightly puzzled by it too. When the hug finally ended, she asked, "What was that for?"
Christine stepped back and flopped her hands up and down in frustration. "I don't know. I guess I'm just a bit emotionally drained after everything that happened today. You're right; this is good news." She wiggled her eyebrows, with her eyes opened wide. "It's all so crazy! Honestly, I wasn't expecting that! But it was like we couldn't keep our hands off each other!"
Olga nodded and smiled. "I know. I saw. And he couldn't keep his hands off your bryster, specifically."
Christine slapped her own face, covering it. She spoke enough Norwegian to know that "bryster" was the word for "breasts". "MooooOOOooom! Could you make me any MORE embarrassed?!"
"Probably. I am a mom, after all." Olga chuckled at that little joke to herself. "But seriously, I knew that would happen before long. Guys simply can't resist a figure like yours."
Christine narrowed her gaze with renewed concern. "Just how much did you see, exactly?!"
Olga held her hands up defensively. "Less than a minute in total. Honestly! But it was a VERY steamy minute! In the future, if you want total privacy, Lars and I will be glad to respect that. But you need to be clear: 'be gone from exactly this time to that time, at least.' You assumed we would be out until a certain hour based on our habits, but you assumed wrong."
Christine flopped back on her bed. "Ugh! You can say that again! I think I'll curl up in a ball and die of shame right now, thank you very much."
Olga sat down next to her daughter and put a hand on her knee in a supportive gesture. "Why? I never raised you to believe that sex is a shameful, dirty thing. You seem to have picked up that idea all on your own somehow. Sure, if Lars saw too, that would have been unfortunate, but it was only me. Anyway, forget about what I saw. The important thing is that your relationship with Alan is coming along nicely! Amy is TOAST; I can guarantee you that!"
Olga dramatically thrust her chest forward, emphasizing her sizable bust. "We Anderssen women always get our man. We seem to have certain genetic advantages that help. For one thing, the Boob Fairy has been very generous to you." She winked knowingly.
Christine rolled her eyes. "Mom, I don't doubt that, generally speaking. But unfortunately, Amy is genetically blessed too. The Boob Fairy was just about as generous with her, for starters."
"You do have a point there." Olga slumped her shoulders, but then brightened again right away. "Don't you think that how you and Alan were going at it so passionately... doesn't that put you in the lead in the war with Amy for his heart?"
"Mom, first off, I don't like to think I'm in a war. I'm not going to try to stab Amy in the back or anything like that. I'm not going to take a 'win at any cost' approach, especially since it was my waffling that created this problem in the first place."
"That's very noble of you, but you know the saying: 'All's fair in love and war.'"
"Please. Don't meddle, okay? This is my quest. I'm going to take the high road and keep on being myself, and see if that's good enough for him. But don't you go underestimating Amy. She's his next-door neighbor, you know. They've been friends since they were in diapers. Amy's got a lot going for her, more than you know. I've got a really tough challenge there, maybe an unwinnable one. How can I compete against the deep bond they share? The way I figure, I'll be lucky just to keep the status quo, and not have him get exclusive with her."
Christine said that because she knew that her best scenario was to have Alan agree to date both her and Amy - as well as continue with his other lovers. There was no realistic chance he'd drop everyone else to be with Christine alone. So she was trying to lower Olga's expectations.
Olga kept her chin up. "Don't you worry. Perhaps it may take some time for him to see the light. But I've got a very, very good feeling that Alan could be, well... someone very special for you. Very long term. Call it a hunch."
"MoooooOOOOoooom! I told you to lay off the wild speculation already. That doesn't help me AT ALL."
"Sorry. I'll try to control myself. It's just that I see how you look at him and how he looks at you. You can't deny that there's a special spark there."
"Maybe so," Christine grudgingly admitted. "But don't get my hopes up, okay? Today's the first day we really got intimate like that, so it's way, way too early to say anything about anything. Agreed?"
Olga nodded. "Agreed. But still... you can't blame me for getting all excited. You're my only daughter. This is exciting!" She smiled widely with a twinkle in her eye.
Christine chuckled. "Okay, Mom. Enough, already. I need some time to chill out, please."
Olga left a short time after that. Clearly, she was still tickled pink by everything she'd seen and learned. She really did have a strong feeling that Alan could be "the one" for her precious daughter.
Christine couldn't help but pick up on her mother's enthusiasm, and it energized her. But once she was alone again, she lay on her bed and grew more contemplative. Oh boy. As if I don't have enough trouble already. Mom was already practically fitting me for a wedding gown. After today, she's going to be a hopeless case! I'm tempted to pop her bubble by telling her more of the depressing truth about his other lovers, but I just can't. She's so happy for me. It's kind of cute.
Although... it's pretty damn annoying too. Like when she said "There's no going back now." Is that really true?! God, I don't know. I must admit that I DO feel a special spark. Hell, it's more like a raging inferno! But what am I supposed to do?! The more my feelings grow for him, the more troublesome things get!