Author: therubyone
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em – wish I did! I'm only borrowing them for entertainment purposes with no profit motive. Please don't hurt me.
Warning: The theme of this story is a love triangle involving 2 men and 1 woman; adult situations are explored and discussed. Rated T for Teen to be safe.
Chapter 7. – Alliances
Mindy unloaded the dishwasher and handed the clean dishes to Drake to put away.
"I think that went very well, don't you? Josh ate more than he usually does when it's something he hasn't prepared himself," commented Drake.
Mindy replied, "It went better than I thought it would. But when Josh gets back, I think we should tell him the truth about what happened."
"Well, I don't. What if he starts to flip? Although we were both in therapy for a while during high school, neither of us has any training in this area."
"He's confused and rather suspicious about this sudden change in our behavior. That's why he went for a run. 'To clear his head.'"
"Oh, alright. I guess he deserves to know. But let's not tell him everything, the worst of it, that is. I don't want him getting all upset and we don't know what to do to help him."
Drake handed Mindy his cellphone. "Put your numbers in. I'll call you and leave mine. In case either of us has any insights, or if anything unusual happens. I'll let Josh get in touch with you about the sessions with Dr. Stein."
Mindy did as Drake had asked and was handing off the phone to Drake when they heard the sliding glass doors from the patio, then the bathroom door shutting, followed by the sound of the shower. Drake put his phone back on the charger. They finished in the kitchen and sat down in the living room, waiting for Josh to emerge.
"Hey. What up?" asked Josh, toweling his hair, freshly dressed and groomed.
"We're trying to decide what to do with the rest of our day," answered Mindy.
"I'd like to go back and see if I can find my other shoe. That was one half of a $250 pair," Drake said, sadly.
Mindy gasped. Drake's shoes had cost more than hers did!
Drake noticed the puzzled expression on Josh's face. "You probably don't remember, but my shoe, uh, sort of, um, ended up going out the car window."
"Vaguely. But why –"
Mindy cut to the chase. "Josh, the reason you've got some blanks in your memory is because somehow you ended up drinking something at the reception. We think it was gingerale tainted with a drug called Ruhypnol."
"How?" Josh's eyes opened wide and he looked shocked, gazing in turn at each of them.
"Maury, you know, Eric's nephew," Drake said. "He doctored up some drinks, trying to make a move on a girl."
"Okaaaaay." Josh took in the information and tried to process it. "That explains a few things."
"Maybe you can explain something, if you don't mind," said Mindy, gently but firmly, as though she was picking at a splinter. "What was your original intention when you got both of us to agree to be your dates at the wedding?"
"I thought it would be a safe place for all three of us to go out together, a happy occasion. I mean, most of the guests were old friends who've known us a long time, people who'd think nothing of seeing us arriving together, dancing together. Nobody who would question or judge. This was an important milestone for Craig and Eric that I thought none of us should miss, despite our . . . situation."
"What outcome did you have in mind?" probed Mindy.
"I didn't think that far ahead, to be honest. I was too stuck on the image of the three of us, dressed in our finest, and doing it up, and hopefully none of us getting injured in the process—except maybe me," Josh admitted, laughing half-heartedly, "since it was my idea in the first place."
"Let me rephrase that," Mindy said, keeping her tone as neutral as possible, "whom did you think you'd go to bed with at the end of the night?"
"I fully expected I'd end up sleeping alone on a couch – but that it would be worth it. And when I woke up and I wasn't, it was like a dream come true, finding the both of you sleeping with me at the same time! I mean, I thought I WAS dreaming. Then later, I came out here and you were actually talking to each other, cooperating, not constantly nitpicking. It's a miracle! Way more than I'd ever hoped for. It's a shame I can't remember. I would have liked to have seen the process, sort of like watching the Berlin wall come down: historic."
"So you feel good today? Happy?" prompted Drake.
"Happy? I guess so. Mostly I feel very relaxed and surprised at how things are turning out. I feel kind of blank, too. I don't like the thought that maybe I was dancing on the tables without knowing, saying things I can't remember."
Mindy chuckled. "Do you remember dancing?"
"Yes, but it's kind of blurry. Did we do the hokey pokey?"
"I did the hokey pokey with you," Drake responded. "And Mindy was with you for the birdie dance."
"What about the hora?"
"We all did that one!" answered Drake, with a laugh.
Josh was sitting on one end of the couch, Mindy at the other, legs curled beneath her. Josh was like magnetic North on a compass and Drake unthinkingly always oriented himself, like that compass needle, to be near Josh, as he absent-mindedly gravitated to a standing position behind the sofa.
Drake continued telling Josh about the hora. "Practically everyone there was in on that. Eric said he'd be posting photos on his website soon, so you'll be able to see for yourself." Drake smiled and put a hand on Josh's shoulder, near the base of his neck. Josh had been right; neither he nor Mindy would have wanted to miss sharing Eric's and Craig's celebration, despite grousing about having to tolerate each other's company and share Josh for the event.
"I don't remember that. I don't remember leaving the reception. Or driving." Josh shook his head, as if that would cause everything to fall into place.
"After we left the hotel," Mindy went on, "we drove down to the beach and had some pizza—"
"Pizza? But I don't eat pizza. I stopped eating pizza a long time ago." Josh seemed to be getting agitated.
Drake picked up the narrative, spreading his fingers out, trying to soothe Josh with his touch. "It didn't agree with you. So you puked."
"Because you got sick, and we didn't know about the drug, we thought it best to get you home," added Mindy, carefully choosing her words.
"How did you find out about the roofies?"
"I called Eric," Drake told Josh. "To see if the shrimp was bad. That's how we knew." Drake started to massage the taut muscle under his hand, using his thumb and forefinger.
Sensing Josh's disturbed reaction about the pizza, and hence the beach, Mindy followed Drake's cue and turned the conversation. "Guys, I really think I should be getting home. It's after 5. I'm on a tight schedule at work tomorrow. I don't have any clothes over here. I have to say I'm feeling the worse for wear after our big weekend. I'm not accustomed to hangovers." Mindy did look tired and a little puffy.
"Right. We'll take you home. Drake, let's see if we can find your shoe on the way back."
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Drake sat in the driver's seat, his restless fingers drumming against the steering wheel, ready to move the car from the loading zone in case anyone else pulled up in front of Mindy's building. Josh was walking Mindy to the door. Barefoot and in her formal dress, now wrinkled, she looked tiny and bedraggled, clutching a bag containing her shoes and wrap. Normally it would have made Drake feel ten kinds of awful seeing Josh hugging and kissing Mindy. It had taken him a long time, when they were younger, to realize that the feeling was jealousy. Maybe he was just tired, but it didn't bother him quite as much today. It was almost a good thing to have someone else to share this problem with. He couldn't fathom why Josh would be talking or thinking about suicide, if that's what his cryptic words had indicated. If Mindy was part of the problem, all the better, because then it wouldn't be something that he - The Drake - was the cause of, at least not all of it. Upon reflection, Drake concluded that sharing Josh couldn't be anywhere near as bad as losing Josh.
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Drake paid the delivery man and took the paper bag into the kitchen. Josh was in the living room with the TV on. Drake carried a tray with open cartons of steaming Chinese food and set it on the coffee table. Josh seemed to be dozing. Drake ran his hand down Josh's arm, saying "The food's here."
Josh roused himself to consciousness, and rubbed his eyes. "I didn't even hear anyone at the door." He took a container of wonton soup from the tray. "Everything smells good!"
Drake was pleased that Josh seemed to have an appetite. He sat down and slathered some spring rolls with Chinese mustard and duck sauce. "I'm amazed we found my shoe."
"You've always been the one with the lucky star! It was still there on the center line."
"I know! It didn't get run over and ruined!"
"That's one less shoe on the road to wonder about."
"You mentioned that last night. That seeing those lone shoes made you feel bad."
"I wouldn't say they make me feel bad, but I do wonder how they got there and where their mates have gone."
"That's the storyteller in you."
"I'll have to add that to my list of writing topics," Josh said wistfully, as he set down the empty plastic soup container, "for sometime in the indefinite future."
"I know Mindy and I kind of blindsided you about meeting with Dr. Stein. But if it helps you get over your writer's block and makes life easier for all of us, that has to be a good thing, right?"
"Yes. I'm hesitant, though. I don't like opening up to strangers. We aren't what's considered 'normal' and that makes me want to keep it private. Plus, you know he's going to have to ask us a lot of very personal questions. And we'll need to answer honestly, or there's no point in going."
Drake remembered how he used to make up things sometimes – most of the time, actually - during his sessions with Dr. Stein. That was different. His mother had forced him to go. She thought he had some deep-seated reason for not doing well in school. She couldn't accept the fact that it bored him and he just wasn't as academically-inclined as his sister Megan. Or Josh. But because of Josh, he'd try to cooperate this time.
By way of an unspoken promise, Drake used his chopsticks to feed Josh a sweet and sour shrimp. They turned their attention to the movie, a sci fi action feature, and continued eating, laughing and commenting on the flickering images on the screen. By the time the credits began to roll, Josh was yawning nonstop. Prodding him, Drake said, "Go on. Go to bed. You can't keep your eyes open. I'll put everything away."
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Mindy didn't indulge in bubble baths very often. That was Josh's thing. She looked under the sink for some bubble bath or bath salts he'd given her. There it was, in the back: Tropical Nights. She shook the box and poured. Perfumed, purple powder began to suds up as soon as it hit the hot water coming from the flowing faucet. She hoped she could soak the toxins out of her system. She took some pain reliever, maximum strength, and tried to relax in the tub, as she sipped cranberry juice. Her sluggish mind wouldn't be still, though. The weekend had sapped her energy. First there was the forced proximity with her long-time nemesis: Drake Parker. Nearly everything about him annoyed her. But mostly it was the fact that he held a large part of Josh's heart. She was sorry she'd gotten wasted, but the situation had made her so tense. And all of that was nothing compared to - after the wedding.
Mindy recalled how Drake responded to Josh in need. He'd been thoughtful, supportive, and protective. Mindy knew that Drake had frequently been callous and cruel to Josh in their youth so it was a real eye-opener juxtaposing that memory with this side of Drake, the caring partner. Frankly, it was even scarier, now that she could see the strength and the depth of the bond between the two of them. Her stomach felt like it was full of hot bricks. Of course, she'd been at an awful disadvantage the whole time, being on Drake's watch, on Drake's turf, and tipsy to boot.
Was she crazy to even think she had a future with Josh? Maybe this therapy would help Josh sort things out. She had to think that being torn between two people was the source of his misery. If someone could help him clarify his feelings—Mindy wished with all her might that Josh could be hers alone, but she also desperately cared about his well-being, and that had to take precedence right now. That was the only thing that both she AND Drake wanted. They could make themselves work together to help Josh.
Starting to read the book Josh penned had been a revelation for Mindy. She was ecstatic that he'd portrayed the character he'd based upon her so favorably. Why hadn't she read it before? She'd been afraid to see how she stacked up against the Drake influences on the story. Well, if she had to swallow her pride now and continue to be a part of a love triangle, it had to better than the alternative: NO Josh.
The violet-tinted water in the bath had gone cold, all the bubbles flat, and Mindy was turning into a prune. She got out and slipped into her most comfortable pajamas and robe. She wondered how Josh was doing. She was tempted to call him but knew that would be an infringement on Drake's time. She jumped when she heard the phone ring.
"Josh?"
"It's me, babe. I can't keep my eyes open, so I'm turning in. I just wanted to see how you're doing."
"I'm still a little fuzzy. But I'll live. I'm glad you called. I was thinking about you. And missing you."
"Thanks for going to the wedding with me. And everything else. It means a lot."
"I'm sorry if the fighting spoiled your fun."
Josh laughed. "Drake's sorry, too. He told me when we found his shoe." Josh yawned. "But the 360-turnaround between you two? That makes up for it all, so much. I love you, princess. Good night. Talk to you soon."
"I love you, too, Josh." Mindy felt her eyes filling with tears. She wasn't even sure why. "'Night." As an afterthought, a tiny part of her was miffed that Drake had managed to retrieve his shoe. If Drake Parker dropped toast on the floor, it would land butter-side up!
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When Drake made his way into the dimly lit bedroom, Josh was completely zonked. Josh was facing the window, on the alarm clock side of the bed. Drake turned off the bedside light that Josh had left on for him. As Drake lifted the sheets to get into bed, the lingering smell of Mindy's exotic perfume assailed his nostrils. It was a good thing Josh had a king size bed, or all three of them would never have fit at the same time. Drake had been too tired and too upset to object to Mindy's presence. After all they had gone through that long, strange night, it was as though the two of them had been guarding Josh in their sleep. But from who or what?
Drake quickly slid himself across the distance from the empty edge of the bed over to Josh and pressed himself against the length of the warm, solid form. Drake planted multiple kisses across Josh's broad back and slid his arm tightly around Josh's waist. Drake had wanted to be alone with Josh since the moment he'd seen the man all dressed up in a tuxedo for the wedding. Drake then banished all worrisome thoughts from his mind as he listened to Josh's slow, steady breathing and heartbeat. He sighed and gave himself up to sleep, glad he was in this place - instead of Mindy.
Continued in Chapter 8