A/N: Thanks for all the love on my last chapter...this one has a lot of fun and also leaves a lot to the imagination...hope you all like this one...we get to see some Cal and of course a lot of NSFW Vauseman because that's the point of living, right? lol
I was still half asleep in the den of our new home that we had been in for just over a week now when the doorbell rang. Cal was late as always. Alex and I had a shared pet peeve when it came to punctuality and all our staff knew it. We didn't care what the excuse was, we figured if we could commute twenty-five miles from the Long Island suburbs to the Village with a toddler then they had no excuse. If you weren't five minutes early, you were late and if you were six then you were worse than late. The only exceptions were Nicky and Cal, when it came to them we accepted that particular quirk and didn't even tell them an earlier time then what we meant. Mostly because they would usually still be late anyway so it wasn't worth the effort. I decided to give it a moment and let Alex get the door. I heard Alex's feet on the stairs followed closely by a tiny set and giggles followed by loud thumps every time her feet stopped. He loved having steps he could play on more than anything else about our new home, even the two story loft-style fort in the back corner of the play room he had been so excited for when we were renovating the house.
"Let's go say hi to Uncle Cal," even though I couldn't see her, I knew by my wife's tone and the way her steps suddenly slowed that she had lifted him onto her hip.
"Can I get the door," Geo asked with a squeal of childish delight.
"You know Mommy doesn't want you figuring out the front door," Alex responded and I could see her pull on his shirt just below his ribs because that's what she always did when she gave him a playful warning.
"But you're not Mommy. You're Momma," he challenged.
"Yes, but you see I have to deal with Mommy when she's moody and when she's grumpy it makes me sad."
"Cause you love her."
"That's right, bud. I love your mother bigger than the universe," I could imagine her smoothing her fingers through his curls and leaving a red lipstick stain on his forehead and when I heard their giggles I knew she had done just that and they were now embroiled in a nose kiss fight.
"What about me," I eventually heard Geo cry.
"I love you beyond comprehension," a big word most preschoolers wouldn't know but the curious, intelligent boy who worshipped the ground his Momma Alex walked on without her ever asking, let alone demanding, did. I didn't hear anything but careful bare feet on the white and black marble tiled grand entry way with its silver and black chandelier and windowed cathedral ceilings, I still couldn't believe it was not only in my house but one of my favorite features of the house, that and the view of the grounds and across the Sound from the customized 1000 square foot master suite. The next thing I heard was Alex open the door and Cal's hearty chuckle as I'm sure he used the lack of my presence to check my wife out. No matter how many times I admonished him and he acknowledged that she was his sister, he still couldn't resist checking her out.
"Hey, bro. Just what do you think you're doing? Something you would like to mention in front of your nephew?"
"Uhm, uh, uhm no, Alex. Nothing. It's just some things are hard not to notice, especially when they look like that," he declared softly but louder than our son should have been around to witness.
And it was true her breasts had been popping out of her shirts a little more lately, especially now that the weather was warmer and as she said when nobody else was around, "the girls could breathe." And now that my body was preparing for the Herculean task of breastfeeding twins, I knew exactly what she meant. Everything was sore and there was always somebody pressing on my bladder and someone else using my kidney as her consolation prize.
But it was still amazing every time I felt them both and realized, 'shit, I'm making two beings who used to be one not that long ago.' I could have my hand on my belly feeling one dance while Alex had hers on the other side feeling the same thing from the other baby, it's the most magical thing I've ever experienced and probably always will just purely because of the layers of improbabilities and technological advancements that came together perfectly to create that moment.
"So did you have any trouble finding the place," Alex asked Cal and judging from her tone she shifted Geo's weight on her hip midway through.
"Not exactly. I just couldn't believe my GPS was saying what it was when I started to see some of these houses," Cal answered with a gasp of pure shock and awe.
"Well, where else do you expect a queen to live with her princess," Alex asked.
"And her prince! Don' forgit me," Geo exuberantly declared.
"Never baby boy. Never," I could tell by the way he giggled that Alex had kissed him after she said that. Well, that and I had observed that moment and knew if Alex wasn't on a conference call or in a meeting, Geo could never truly interrupt her. Even then, she typically didn't get angry or punish him for wanting her attention. I got in more trouble for interrupting her than our son ever did. At first, I hated it but now I was glad that she seemed to love my son more than she did me. It was the complete opposite of what you imagine when you meet the potentially perfect significant other and have to tell them you have a kid in diapers. I knew one day Geo would realize she didn't have to be the loving, attentive mother she is and I hoped he would be full of love and gratitude towards this amazing woman. My friend at Vanderbilt had developed an appreciation for country music and shortly after I told her Alex and I had gotten married and I was pregnant with her daughters had sent me a song called "He Didn't Have to Be." I bawled and then played it for Alex and we both cried, which was extremely rare for her. Of course she blamed it on her hormones being crazy from my pregnancy, I just chuckled and rolled my eyes.
"Speaking of your princess, where is she," Cal asked.
"Tired of looking at me already," she deadpanned as she turned her attention back to Cal.
"No, never. Just I haven't seen my sister since she became your wife. I used to see her at least twice a month. Now she never comes to family dinner and she skipped Easter."
"It's not really a thing in our house. It was never a thing in my house growing up. Even if my mom could afford eggs, she certainly couldn't afford to waste a single one by boiling it and coloring it pink or whatever. She would usually bring home extra candy on a Monday in early Spring without any explanation but that was it. Besides, we aren't Christians. When you die, you're just gone and it's forever. We only celebrate Christmas because we like the spirit of the season. And it's harder for her to move around these days."
"Doesn't explain why she's been to Northampton twice in the last almost three months and barely been to Connecticut in the past year."
"Uhm, compare Carol and Diane. She has friends there. And we run a company in the city. What does she have in Connecticut other than her parents? We talk to Celeste all the time and have lunch in Manhattan once a month. Who would you rather spend your limited free time with?"
"Yeah. You have a point, I guess. I just miss her."
"Hey, you are always welcome here and you know that. And if you can't afford the trip then I'll send you money. Just none of your magical herb in front of my kids. I know I've done worse but that's the past. I've been clean for almost seven years."
"Wow. I can't imagine. So Piper?"
"Hiding from the evil queen's latest dictate throughout the queendom. Those who cannot carry boxes can still unpack them. The princess disagrees. Luckily she has such a cute face so I don't say off with her head."
"Yeah, you probably just sit on it."
"Callum Michael Chapman! The K-I-D is H-E-R-E and does not need to K-N-O-W about his mommies alone time. As far as he knows, we eat popcorn, catch up on our shows and maybe cuddle when we tell him it's grown up time."
"But you do, don't you?"
"Act like your average teenage girl at a slumber party or the other thing? Kid, ask yourself if you really want to know. I already see that image and call it a memory. And I have enough trouble sitting across the table from her at dinner. Maybe later I'll finally tell you how to connect my personal laptop to the projector in the home theater and where I hide my good stuff."
"You have a theater? Is there anything this house doesn't have?"
"It has both an indoor and an outdoor swimming pool and a three-bedroom guest house plus a studio we have no use for, so, no."
"Why do you need all this stuff?"
"Cause I can have it. I worked hard and did some things I'm not proud of and even more that I am to get to this point in my life where I can have a castle. Besides, a member of the medical and financial communities of my stature has certain expectations to show their wealth and inspire awe."
"Sometimes I wonder how my sister ended up with someone with your mindset when it comes to money."
"She didn't know and by the time she did, she loved me for me. And not my bank account. And it's so damn refreshing, it makes me want to spoil her that much more. Then at the same time she reminds me that all the fancy and flashy things I have or can do don't matter at the end of the day. A custom-made California King was never meant for one. She gives me everything money can't buy."
"Good answer, sis. You want me to take Geo? He must be getting heavy."
"This little ball of sweetness? Never. I never understood how or why a mother would carry a child perfectly capable of walking on his own. Then a kid who reminded me of everything I was falling in love with when it came to his mother asked me to pick him up. Piper told him to stop and to be a big boy, but it just felt so wrong. I could feel my heart being ripped apart and the talons of whatever beast was torturing me slowly reach my soul. I told her it was okay and if he wanted me to carry him I would. She told me that if I gave him the idea then he could convince me to pick him up on command he'd never stop. As if I didn't already know. I just didn't care. And now it feels so natural. I've completely adapted to carrying him on my hip to the point there's nothing I can't do with one hand whenever he asks to be picked up or cuddled. Lately, he's started saying he wants to write an article too and he just created his first PowerPoint presentation. It was on robot dinosaurs. He researched it and found pictures and everything. It's really pretty cute. I'll have him give you his presentation later. He wanted to do a lecture like Momma and I couldn't say no to those dimples. I thought his mother had some serious dimples but his have really come in over the last year and I'm a goner. He's a little genius just like his Momma," she stated and I couldn't tell which of my favorite guys she was addressing as I heard Cal's feet on the tile and the door close softly. I knew that was Alex. Because even after nearly twenty-three years, Cal still didn't care about waking me up from a deep, satisfying sleep.
Moments later, I heard their footsteps in the room, "And this is the den," I saw her smile when my head popped up from the couch, "And this little messy-haired sleepyhead is the angelic princess of the manor."
"I don't know. If she were the angel of this house, she'd be doing the tour with her son in her arms not you," Cal huffed with a tinge of sarcasm.
"We have different skills," Alex replied without even a moment of hesitation as she winked and smiled warmly at me.
"She doesn't cook, neither of you cleans, you handle the finances and you spend more time with the kid then she does. So what does she do," Cal asked as if I weren't right in front of him.
"Well, right now she's busy making two strong little ladies, so there's that. She reminds me of beauty and to not be so serious all the time. That life is not just about this chaotic blur of work and sex to the point they become one in the same, and neither are enjoyable. And she's excellent company, well once she figured out that I liked having her in my orbit when I'm doing solitary activities. Piper had to learn to appreciate the silences between lovers. And she's not the only one. I always wanted a lover who didn't always have to fill every space with noise. But I didn't know how to teach that though nor did I ever find someone who made it worth trying."
"Yeah, Piper likes to be alone when she's alone. Like when she used to take off and spend all morning running through the forest. Who goes on a five-hour run on a Saturday morning by choice? I barely comprehend running for five minutes let alone five hours."
"She went running with other girls," Alex chuckled as she licked her lips and I was certain she was imagining all the stories I told her when I finally told her exactly how I learned to kiss a chick like I did at the restaurant the night we met in person for the first time after she figured out running her tongue along my neck while massaging my breasts and making me ride her leg made for an extremely compliant Piper Chapman who would give up the keys to Fort Knox if you asked her to.
"She wasn't really with them," Cal argued, somehow he had grown up with me but couldn't figure out how teenage Piper snuck around with chicks and found herself making out with Danny's girlfriend in my bed when she snuck in through the wrong window. If he ever decides to talk to the Chapmans again, I'll be sure to tell him that little nugget and how many girls kissed me after kissing him and said I was way better at it. Well, after I rub it in his face that I'm married to a Harvard educated doctor/professor/board member at NYU.
"Oh, she was. And there's a reason those runs took all morning long," Alex responded as she set Geo down and sneakily rubbed up my arm and around to my breast, which she then massaged gently.
"No, she wasn't," Cal exclaimed in complete shock as he figured it out.
"Piper, babe, would you like to tell him or should I," she asked as she ran her thumb over my nipple.
Alex let my breast go and helped me scoot up a little before I sighed, "I'll tell him. I was making out with girls deep in the woods where nobody would find us. And nobody ever used the word practicing unless it was in reference to our run and crushing our rivals at the next meet. We knew what we were doing. Some girls even put on quite the show."
"You mean," Cal asked.
"Yeah, I do."
"If you saw that then why were you raiding the box under my bed, cause if I could have seen that show regularly I wouldn't have needed the box."
"Oh, I needed it because I was left wanting still."
"I used to want to come to blows with people who called my sister a dyke, now I'm not so sure they were wrong. I guess pretty, well-raised blonde girls with a strong paternal role model can be gay," Cal responded as my revelation about my adolescent extracurricular activities and how it affected his own younger years settled in his mind.
"Hey, if that's what it takes to come to that realization then I'll take it. We aren't mannish swamp monsters who burn every symbol of the patriarchy they can and practice witchcraft," I responded as I played with her fingers in mine.
"We aren't," Alex asked me playfully as she rubbed my palm.
"Okay, we also do other things. We're normal. We take our kids to sports, haggle over vegetables and spend the better part of our days keeping them entertained and from killing themselves. Or we choose not to have any and find other things that give our lives meaning. Either way, at the end of the day we find ourselves cuddling against a landscape that manages to be both familiar and not all at once."
"Yeah, you're definitely the worst kind of Smith educated lesbian," Cal chuckled sarcastically.
"Well, at least I didn't use a penny of my college fund on tuition and books, so Bill and Carol didn't pay for me to become a queer feminist. As if I wasn't one before I got there. I've never met a chick who left the school as one who didn't come in as one. Case in point, Polly," I added with a groan that made Alex rub my wrist soothingly.
"She still MIA? Do you ever hear about her? You must still know some of the same people," Cal asked, sounding more like our parents then probably even he knew.
"No, we don't. We live in two different worlds. As New Yorkers, as Smith alumni. Our worlds are parallel adjacent, they never meet," I answered while Alex looked on with a mix of concern and comfort that only she could muster.
"You miss her," Cal asked as if any answer other than yes would be unacceptable.
"Not as much as I thought I would when I broke away from her. Some minds just will never be changed and I don't have the energy to try. Some people do but I have a career I'm passionate about, a wife and I'm going to instantly go from having one kid to three. I don't have time. I just want to live my life, love who I love and raise my kids to be good humans."
"So when you two go out in town are you like the weird heathen lesbos? Do people wonder how two women can afford a five-acre fortress without a man's help? Or why they'd want to, cause from what I saw this is where the obscenely wealthy Manhattan titans go to breed. It's either here or Greenwich," Cal asked and not in a teasing little brother way. He was lucky Alex was petting my fist or it would have connected with his face in that moment.
"Some have figured out that we're a family. We don't broadcast it but when a kid is hollering 'Mommy! Momma Alex! Mommies,' they do the coming out for you. And that's what a lot of the moms we've met have told us. Kids don't know not to out you, outing isn't a concept they understand nor should they. It's normal, adults are the ones who make it abnormal. They are the ones teaching their kids otherwise. We just go to the store and the park and raise our child to be kind and loving. That to ask for acceptance he must accept others. We just moved in and he hasn't started school yet so the neighbors haven't become overly interested in what goes on behind closed doors just yet," Alex volunteered when she saw just how emotional the turn my conversation with Cal had taken was making me.
"Makes sense. I hope when I have a child she'll be able to look to her aunties and want to be just like you two. Except for your need to own multiple homes and have more money than you could spend in a lifetime and still choose to hoard more," he added with a sigh as the brother I considered one of my closest confidants and wingman in our crazy ideas from the time my parents told a six year old me, "meet your new baby brother. Be gentle, Piper," returned.
"We donate five percent of our assets every year," Alex and I both added simultaneously but in perfect time with each other.
"That sets you back, what, three million? How ever do you survive on what, fifty million dollars? You're wealthier than Grandma even. Then any other Chapman has ever been. I thought you and I were going to dismantle the patriarchal system of wealth. The incessant need to build wealth and power to make yourself feel important that brought the Chapmans to this country after an opulent journey when they traded one island for another in the first place was supposed to end with us."
"I still am. But I don't think it's so bad if another system rises in its place. I say let the women run the economy and the world as a whole for a while. Give us a chance to do it better than the boys like we do with everything else we try," I argued.
"Okay, sis. I should know by now there's no use arguing with you once you have your mind made up. And it's obvious you are in love with someone who loves you the way you deserve. Even if that person is nothing like what I imagined your life partner would be."
"Yeah, I have curves and boobs," Alex chuckled in a barely audible tone as she looked at Geo trying to get his uncle's attention.
"You do, I wasn't aware," Cal responded with a playful gasp as Alex and I both rolled our eyes.
"So, what has Alex showed you so far?"
"Not much. Showed me the library first," he answered with a certain disgust, as if he were a teenager who didn't understand why anyone would choose to read.
"It's her favorite room," I replied as Alex shot me a commanding glare, "well, after the one room that will not be on the tour," I teased as I wiggled my fingers from her death grip and found the underside of her breast after a stop along her curves where I dug my nails into the spaces between her ribs. Normally, I didn't dare pull such a trick in front of anyone but she couldn't punish me in front of Call and Geo. Could she, I wondered as I looked at her poker face until the tremble of her lip and sucking in of her breath gave away her arousal.
"Then she pointed out the office, extra bedroom and full bath and mentioned that the kitchen/breakfast nook and Piper's sunroom were on the other side along with a powder room off the mud/laundry room. And then she paused the tour cause she 'wanted her Piper,'" he added with more disgust, "on our way she pointed out an empty room that she said was the dining room. Guess it's not a priority. What would Carol think," Cal teased.
"Well, then why hasn't she kissed me yet," I asked as I pouted my lips and softened my eyes then when she still didn't respond adequately I nibbled my lip like I wanted to do to hers. I wanted that tongue in my mouth. No, I needed it but if she wanted to bluff me then I would bluff her back.
"You were having some brother-sister time, I didn't want to interrupt," Alex teased as she took my face in her hands then bent down and kissed me until I kissed her back and we vaguely heard Cal tell Geo, "Why don't you show me where the food is. We'll find the least healthy snack in this house!" Geo, of course, responded with great glee as he pointed out the 'Gray Room' (Better known as the great room with its wall of windows, grand fireplace, built in shelving and sliding glass door leading out to the deck, the backyard was one of the multitude of areas that were still a work in progress.
The yard had a pool and acres of green grass with a pool house where the indoor Infinity pool and three-quarter bath were on one side and the two-bedroom, one bath guest house with its own full kitchen and combined living/dining room. Oh, and it had a small powder room off the entryway. We had plans to put in a playground complete with playhouse and sandbox and a garden with a chicken coop. We also had a tennis court that we planned to add a track and basketball hoop to and make useable for volleyball because I had hopes that one of our daughters would inherit the right combination of height and athleticism to play the sport.
But I wasn't thinking of any of those things right now.
All I could think about was the woman pressing my back into the couch and working her leg between mine without breaking our kiss. She worked her hand into my shorts when she felt me starting to moan with pleasure, noises she captured with her mouth so she could keep them for herself. After all, she deserved them for what she was doing to me. She knew the perfect moment to stop before things grew too heated but to not leave me longing too much. I knew by the way she tucked a kiss and lock of hair behind my ear that she was saving me for dessert later.
"So should we show him the basement or upstairs next?"
"How can you go from doing what you just did to talking about the minutiae of our married lives?"
"Cause I'm just that damn good," Alex replied as she grabbed my puffy lower lip in her teeth and massaged my breast in gentle circles in between flicking my sore nipples. Damn, it hurt so good. I could lay there and let her do that all day long but we had a son and a guest in our home, so I savored it for as long as possible[LC1] .
"I think we should show him the bedrooms first. Then if we want to hang out in the rec room for a bit we can."
"You wanna prove to your brother that a woman heavily pregnant with twins can still play a decent game of pool?"
"Yup, pretty much. Now get off me you fool before the guys catch us."
"As if both of them haven't caught us in this position more than once?"
"Doesn't mean it needs to happen again. I already have your little she-devils squishing my internal organs, I don't need the mother of the demons to do it too."
"Okay but later, you are mine."
"What if I have to pee? Cause, Vause, I really don't think you are into that kind of play and if you are I want an annulment cause you gotta disclose that shit before you get a chick to agree to sleep with only you for the rest of your life."
"Uh, no. Anything involving sex and showers is not my thing. I'm into some crazy shit but that's where I draw the line. It's beyond degrading."
"I figured but just gotta make sure," Alex got up and then helped me to my feet before we found Cal and Geo having a snack at the kitchen island. Cal had found a beer and Geo had a kid sized bottle of strawberry flavored water. I quickly swiped a snack and Alex grabbed herself a glass of water before we headed upstairs after I tousled Geo's hair and then Cal's cause he teasingly cried, "what about me, sissy?"
"Can we show Uncie my room first, mommies? Pwese, pweeesssee, pretty please?"
"Of course, bud," Alex answered as she nervously watched him hop over the last step.
Geo led Cal to the suite next to our suite's balcony. His room was the smaller of the two suites but it didn't share a wall with our room so that was a plus and he liked that he could see the 'wawer owzide.' Next to Geo's room was an extra room that had no access to a nearby bathroom, the relator had called it a 'potential craft or school room' but for now was an extra play space until we got it set up as my office while I was recovering from giving birth to the twins so I wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs all day long. Across from Geo's room was the other suite, the room that would hopefully one day belong to baby number four but for now was just an extra bedroom for when our friends visited.
At one end of the hall was a linen closet outside a jack and jill suite, the feature that had sold us on this house over all the others that also had a waterfront view, library, sun room and plenty of both work and entertainment space. It was the number one thing on our dream list once we learned we were expecting twins. For now, we had one half set up for sleeping and the other for caring for the babies but eventually, they would each get a room. The nursery was painted in shades of blue and teal with white accents in a mermaid theme while the baby care room was styled after an old Hollywood dressing room with white, grey and black accents. The defining feature of the room was its silver and crystal chandelier and black and white posters of Hollywood starlets from the 50s and early 60s. We also had a few strategically placed stuffed lambs, textured pillows and cozy taupe cashmere throws. On the other end of the hall was our master bedroom that was larger by a few hundred square feet than the Brooklyn apartment I lived in when I met Alex. We showed Cal most of it, the grand ceiling with its skylight and our new four poster bed complete with new custom designed mattress. As much as I loved Alex's bed at the penthouse, we both agreed that we needed to start our marriage with a bed that had never had another woman tied to it. Our room was all in shades of mahogany and red with brick accents and pictures of island landscapes with sweet smelling white candles and a iPad on one nightstand and a stack of books and a black eyeglass case on the other.
We neglected to show him what had been the sitting area before we removed the windows, built a wall and turned it into a burlesque-themed pleasure room, I called it a dungeon once and Alex was pissed so I never made that mistake again. It was complete with red and black striped walls and early pornographic black and white photos of partially clad women. It had all sorts of things that I had no desire to explain to my brother, like the sex chair, bench or stool that had last been used a few hours ago nor did I want to explain to him why I liked it when my wife paddled me or tied me to a spreader or what that weird cross in the corner was for. Or as Alex teased me our first night in our new suite, "So many places to tie you up, my dear, after I send these girls their eviction notice." I also didn't want to explain why there were two beds in our master suite when he knew full well that we always slept in the same bed. Maybe if he looked at it long enough, he would notice that it was black steel with waterproof sheets and attachment points. There was also had a small walk-in closet with costumes and Alex's safe.
We did show him our large bathroom with its wall to wall counter that wrapped around the corner, double sinks, jetted hot tub, clawfoot tub, glass walled shower with three heads and in a own contained area the toilet complete with bidet. The master bath had a small walk in closet on one side, that for now was the shoe, bag and accessories closet and on the other a small hallway that led directly into the dressing and extra laundry room then the humongous master closet that for now we were attempting to share. It had a counter running along the center and extra drawers, perfect for 'a lesbian couple' the relator had told us. At least she was the first to not once call us a 'couple with unique needs,' as if all families and couples didn't have a certain uniqueness that was solely their own.
Downstairs was another bedroom suite, that could potentially be Geo's bedroom when he became old enough to reside two stories from his parents if his younger half siblings got too annoying. There was a storage area, a room we planned to turn into a home gym complete with a bike and spaces for boxing, soccer and golf. Then there was the home theater with a recording studio across from it, the two main spaces that exposed this home's previous owner, a successful film and theater sound producer/composer. Between the two rooms was a second powder room. Finally, we showed off the large game room, complete with an arcade, darts, pool and poker tables, an antique slot machine and a bar that led to a large wine cellar with a small wooden table and stools made from old bourbon barrels, the feature Cal found most impressive about the house.
"So what do you think," I asked him as we took a seat at the bar.
"Mom is going to hate this place. You are now the sort of family she looked through the blinds at with disdain because they had a better house."
"And my wife doesn't sleep with her secretary, instead she uses her to help set up a trap for the girl she's slowly falling for."
"I'm sure dad wasn't always an adulterer," Cal added as I rolled my eyes but I understood why a boy would want to defend his father while at the same time hoping my boy never would.
"Yeah, but before Piper, I always was. Now I could never imagine having any other woman in my bed. Well, unless she bares a strong resemblance to me and is nursing a broken heart while I tell her every reason it's not worth the tears. All I've ever wanted was somebody to love me by choice. Somebody to promise never to leave or break my fragile heart. I thought I could only find that person if I made them myself. But then I found my soulmate. And I know this house is insane and if you had told me when I was a kid watching my mother knock on our neighbors' doors cause we got evicted from a place that was unihabitable to begin with that this would not just be mine but bought with cash I would've told you to fuck off in my gutsy five-year-old way."
"Wait, you don't have a mortgage?"
"Nope. I haven't had a mortgage in twenty years on anything. I got a mortgage on my first two flips and business loans to help with my first Harlem and Queens properties but other than that I've always just reinvested my profits from other properties or rental income," Alex told him proudly.
"Wow. Maybe I need to get into real estate and construction, get on top of this tiny house craze," Cal declared as Alex paused and raised her eyebrow.
"I'd gladly get you a foot in the door. That and smart investing in stocks is how I got so wealthy. Real estate is hard work but it's an easy dollar and something people will always need. That gives people a sense of pride and stability."
"Thanks, Alex."
"You want a bourbon, baby brother? Piper, ginger ale with lime," she asked as she looked over at Geo practicing bowling on our miniature lane.
I smiled, then rubbed my belly to savor the moment of perfection a little longer before I answered, "yes," and watched as Alex played bartender and looked hot as hell doing it as she flirted with me like I was a sexy blonde coed and I was the prettiest thing she'd seen all night. I don't know what Cal was doing while Alex and I were shamelessly flirting and showing off our cleavage to each other but I hope it was taking notes.
[LC1]
