“You’re not being a very sociable host,” Paul announced as he rested his forehead against Gina’s.

“I’m not?” she asked, a bit out of breath and wishing he hadn’t broken the kiss. “What do I have to do to please you, strip naked and let you eat dessert off my bare stomach?”

“Yes,” Paul grinned. “Later. What about the lovebirds?”

“Oh, they’re happy where they are, leave ‘em alone.”

“And listen to them have sex on the counter?” he cringed.

“We weren’t caught,” she cooed, pulling him down for another kiss. “And if we can do it quietly, they can.”

“Mm, but if we keep this up, we’re gonna get caught here on the couch, and I have enough problems keeping Fen off me without her seeing me naked,” Paul chuckled as he pulled away from her again. “Let’s do something, all of us, it’ll be fun.”

“Something like what?”

“Let’s have a look, shall we?” Paul chimed, getting up off the couch and dragging a reluctant Gina towards the closet.

“Look what we’ve found!” Paul cried as he leapt into the kitchen.

Brad jumped and Fenny fell off the counter and into his arms, trying to look nonchalant, but they couldn’t hide the fact she’d had her legs wrapped around his waist, and her hair did little to disguise the burgeoning mark at the base of her neck. “Hi,” Fenny gasped. “We’re, um, you’re, what?”

“Twister?” Brad grinned as he hastily wiped his mouth and straightened his shirt.

“I tried talking him out of it,” Gina smiled as Paul nodded enthusiastically.

“Why would you do that?” Brad asked as they followed Paul out into the living room. “It sounds like fun.”

“You’ve never seen him play Twister,” Gina said with a laugh.

Brad and Paul picked up the coffee table and moved it against a wall, giving them plenty of room to spread out the mat.

“Who spins the thing?” Fenny asked as she pulled the dial out of the box.

“We can take turns,” Paul shrugged.

“If I play, someone’s gonna get hurt,” Fenny continued poignantly.

“Just aim for Sherwood when you fall,” Gina advised as she kicked off her shoes.

“I think we all should,” Paul piped up. “There’s enough cushioning there to break the fall,” he laughed.

“That’s good coming from the cute little pixie,” Brad teased.

“Now boys, play nicely or there’ll be no dessert,” Gina said.

“There’s dessert?” Fenny perked.

“Is it chocolate?” Paul asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Later,” Gina said and gave the arrow a spin. “Right foot green.”

It didn’t take long for the four to find themselves in a terrible mess on the mat. Paul’s method of play seemed to be to make it as difficult as possible for himself and everyone else, while Fenny took to bending the rules a bit to keep her from falling and hurting people. Gina managed to position herself close to Paul at all times, and Brad was just trying not to break out in a dangerous fit of laughter that would certainly ruin the game for everyone.

“Whose turn to spin?” Brad asked.

“Yours,” the others chimed.

“Shit,” he giggled, contorting his body to try to reach the cardboard spinner.

Gina looked up at Paul. “My boobs are not the green and blue dots,” she declared.

“But they’re all I can reach,” he countered with a sly grin.

“Fen, is your hand on my ass?” Brad queried.

“It’s the only way I can keep balanced,” Fenny said coolly. “Besides, your face isn’t exactly in the most charming spot.”

“You think that’s bad,” Paul interjected, “if Genie gets any closer she’ll be choking.”

“Ohhh McDermott,” Gina chided.

“Ohhh, warm air,” he breathed, closing his eyes.

“I can’t hold this position much longer,” Fenny said, an edge of panic in her voice.

“I’ve heard that before,” Brad chuckled.

“Just spin the damn thing,” Fenny demanded, giving a short laugh and a small swat on his rear.

“Do that again and I’ll spin it for you.”

“Brad,” Gina warned.

“Okay, alright,” he laughed as he carefully balanced himself and reached out to spin. “Left hand—”

A knock at the door startled everyone and they fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs, obscenities and giggles. Gina managed to disengage herself first and, after pausing a moment to snap a photograph of her friends on the floor, she headed for the door. Ignoring the threats on her life and her camera from Fenny, Gina threw the front door open and stopped, dumbstruck.

“Genie, Fen’s groping me again,” Paul laughed from the other room.

“Not true, your ass just fell on my hands,” Fenny giggled.

“Admit it Fen, you were groping him,” Brad chuckled.

“Can you blame me?” she asked.

“Not at all, I’d probably do the same if I was in the position you are,” Brad laughed. “Speaking of which, when did you take up yoga?”

“It’s not yoga, it’s a dislocated hip.”

“You’ll have to get in line behind Genie and Fen to get your paws on me, Sherwood,” Paul mused. “I’m just beating them off with a stick tonight, I thought that was your shtick, Fenny.”

Gina smiled at them as she entered the room again. Brad was crawling out from under Fenny, Paul was just getting around to standing up, and Fenny was on her knees behind him trying to catch her breath from laughing. “You’ve got to get over my husband’s arse,” Gina chastised.

“Buns of steel,” Fenny nodded, giving him one last pat for good measure, and he jumped away with a look of mock horror. “Who was at the door?”

“It’s for Brad,” she said, looking pointedly at him.

With a confused look, Brad wandered to the doorway. “Ritza,” he gasped.

“Hi,” Ritza said with a weak smile. “I tried, um, tried to call before I just came over, but I think you gave me the wrong phone number. All I got was some body piercing studio.”

“Sorry about that,” Brad smiled.

“Well, I wanted to give you your jacket,” Ritza announced, “you left it at my place the other day, and wouldn’t normally have risked interrupting things, but it’s just your passport is in the pocket, and I didn’t know when you’d be needing it.”

“Thanks,” he chimed as he took the jacket from her. “Look, why don’t you come in for a while.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t,” she argued, “you were having fun with your friends, I don’t want to bother you.”

The three in the living room held their breath as they eavesdropped on the pair at the door. Gina knew that Paul was still a bit frightened by the woman, and, more significantly, that Fenny was having real issues with the woman, and that Brad was over the woman and was just trying to be friendly because he felt maybe just a little guilty. Gina herself knew that things needed to be worked out, and since no one else was jumping at the opportunity, took the chance to help things along herself. “Come on in Ritza, we need someone to spin the arrow.”

“Well, um…” Ritza allowed herself to be dragged into the apartment by Brad and led to the couch, where she couldn’t help but smile at the Twister mat laid across the floor. Her eyes then fell upon the three sitting around the mat, and her mood sunk. Gina, the woman she’d last seen threatening, justifiably, to shoot her; Paul, who she’d ordered to be killed; and Fenny. Fenny who she’d taken out all of her pain on, who she’d kidnapped, tortured, and nearly killed. Ritza was overwhelmed with shame, and didn’t know what to do.

“You remember everyone, right?” Brad asked stupidly.

Ritza nodded. “Yeah, I, um,” she took a deep breath, “I know sorry doesn’t even begin to—”

“Don’t,” Fenny began, and everyone flinched. “It was a long time ago, I don’t think anyone wants to think about it anymore.” Without thinking she rubbed a finger over the fine scar that lay on her cheek.

There was a stunned silence for a moment, everyone waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Here,” Fenny finished, handing the cardboard spinner to Ritza. She looked down at it, deciding that this had to be the most surreal experience of her life, being asked to play Twister with a bunch of people who had every right to want her drawn and quartered. She looked up at Brad next, who nodded encouragingly, then to Fenny, who was chewing nervously on her bottom lip. Not wanting to be a bad sport, she spun the arrow.

“Right foot yellow,” she smiled.

The game moved stiffly at first, no one really prepared to stick their rear end in the air in front of Ritza. But when Brad managed to sit on Gina’s hair and she retaliated by kneeing him in the head without moving off of any of the colored dots, the tension was broken a bit with a giggling fit. Fenny wasn’t entirely sure she was comfortable with taking orders from Ritza again, but attempted to be amiable.

Gina was first to drop when Paul worked an arm between her thighs (“It’s the only way to get to the blue dots, darling!”) and Fenny’s heel worked its way into her spine. Paul was next to lose when, in an attempt to prove his dexterity and prowess over the fine art of Twistering, he threw his right leg over Brad’s hips to get to a red dot beneath him. A few suggestive thrusts of Brad’s pelvis while Gina and Ritza debated what to do when the arrow lands on the line led to Paul shrieking that his back was going to go out or Brad was going to have to be counted among his sexual partners if they didn’t do something quick. So they dragged it out even farther until Paul collapsed on Brad.

With just Brad and Fenny left, Ritza and Paul took to making up positions instead of spinning the dial, just to complicate things and see how tangled the couple could get. Brad eventually won out when he took the opportunity to lick Fenny’s neck, which was all it took to make her crumble. “That can’t be allowed,” she giggled from the floor beneath him. “When did anyone say ‘tongue to left clavicle,’ huh?” She tilted her head and looked up at the upside down forms of Paul and Ritza on the couch.

“It was Paul, I heard him,” Brad said.

“What’d you do to Gina?” Fenny asked, then realized as Ritza’s face fell that the implication could be a bit bad. “Um, I mean…” Shit. The tension was growing by the second. Her collarbone still burned from where Brad had touched her; maybe if Brad was willing to be so demonstrative in front of Ritza there really wasn’t anything going on between them as she’d feared. Fenny looked up at Brad, who smiled wickedly down at her and finally lowered himself to the ground to steal a quick kiss.

“I’ve got chocolate,” Gina cooed from the kitchen.

“Oh, I should go,” Ritza announced, placing the spinner in the box on the floor.

“No, I’ve just cut you a piece of mud cake,” Gina protested.

“Stay for dessert,” Brad said.

Well, they hadn’t formed a lynch mob yet, Ritza thought to herself, so she nodded and joined the others at the table.

“What is it you’re doing these days?” Gina asked her.

“Oh, I’m a fulltime mother,” Ritza said, smiling in spite of herself. “My son, Gus.”

“He’s a great kid,” Brad announced.

“And Rona?” Paul asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Still in prison,” Ritza sighed, “where she belongs.”

“I’m gonna go make some tea,” Fenny announced suddenly and jumped up from the table. The others watched as she hurried from the room, no one sure what to do.

“Maybe I should help,” Ritza said after a tense moment. She abandoned her cake and followed the path Fenny had taken to the kitchen. She found her moving awkwardly around the kitchen, fumbling through a cupboard in search of the tea.

“Fenny, look,” Ritza sighed.

Fenny turned to face her and scowled. “What do you want?” she demanded in hushed tones.

“I know what happened in the past…” Ritza began gently.

“You held a fucking gun to my head,” Fenny snapped.

“Yes but…”

“No ‘but’ – you tried to kill me!!” she hissed, voice lowering dangerously.

“I was going through a hard time.”

“So was I, but I didn’t hold a gun to your head.”

“You slapped me,” Ritza pointed out.

“You kidnapped me,” Fenny countered.

“You choked me with a metal rod.”

“I was saving my boyfriend.”

“You tied me up.”

“You shot my boyfriend!”

“I was scared for my son,” Ritza said sadly.

“Yeah, I’m scared for your son too,” Fenny spat, “having a mother like you.”

“Don’t tell me I’m not a good mother,” Ritza growled.

“Someone who has no respect for human life shouldn’t be responsible for—”

“I was trying to get a good life for my son.”

“Through lies, violence, threats and pain, that’s so noble of you. What’s three or four lives ruined or ended because your kid doesn’t have a daddy? Should have thought about that before you fooled around with some other man—”

“You’re not exactly the poster child for faithfulness in relationships either,” Ritza countered.

Fenny found herself wondering if she could get away with pouring the boiling water over Ritza, or maybe hitting her over the head with the nearest frying pan.

“Something wrong?” Brad asked suddenly as he appeared in the doorway looking a bit worried. “The tea’s taking a long time.”

“Nothing’s wrong. Gina’s kettle is a piece of shit,” Fenny mumbled.

“It helps when the thing’s turned on, Fen,” Brad chastised.

“Brad, look, I really need to be going,” Ritza said sweetly as Fenny turned on the kettle and glared at her, “Gus, he’s at the sitter’s, and it’s really getting late.”

“Yeah, that’s okay,” Brad smiled. “I understand. Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

Fenny folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter as she watched the kettle boil. She heard the cheery goodbyes from the other room and the front door shutting. It was as if they were saying goodnight to a dear friend, and it made Fenny fume.

A minute or two later the others came into the kitchen where Fenny was still waiting for the kettle to boil.

“I don’t want to know why you’ve got chocolate all down the front of your shirt,” Fenny mused as she glanced up at them.

“No, you really don’t,” Gina smiled. “Let’s just say Paul wrestled the bottle away from me before I got a chance to pay him back for that one.”

“Just trying to save you from having to wash chocolate out of my pants,” Paul shrugged.

“I’ve done it before.”

“You two are bent,” Fenny announced, and Gina was worried that the statement was delivered without a smile. It was rapidly becoming apparent that Fenny was not pleased.

“Well,” Gina said, linking her hand with Paul’s, “I’m gonna go put on a clean shirt.”

“And I’m gonna go take it off her again,” Paul smirked and followed her down the hall to her bedroom. “What’re we doing?”

“We’re giving Brad and Fenny some space. They’ve got things to talk through.”

“And what do we do in the meantime?” he asked.

“We amuse ourselves,” she shrugged.

“What did you have in mind?”

“I just spent an hour with my face in your crotch and your hands all over me,” Gina said with a sultry smile, “I think you know what’s on my mind.”

“More Twister?” he asked excitedly.

Gina rolled her eyes and crawled over him to capture him in a heated kiss. “Close, but no.”

“You mean we get to do it in a bed?” Paul chuckled against her lips, running his fingers through her hair.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Gina smiled as she undid his shirt buttons, “just so long as we get to do it.”

“Fen, I’m sorry,” Brad said softly as he noticed she’d gone very rigid, moving in jerky motions as she poured herself a cup of tea, not bothering to offer one to him.

“So why’d you do it?” Fenny demanded, storming into the living room.

“Do what?” Brad asked, visibly confused.

“Bring Ritza in here like we’re all good pals. Let’s all forget the fact that she’s a sociopath with delusions of grandeur or whatever her bullshit problems are, forget that she wanted me dead, let’s have cake!”

“I was hoping you could see that she’s a different person,” Brad soothed. “A better person.”

“Oh, good, a better person. That makes it okay that you’re still hung up on her?”

“I’m not hung up on her,” Brad assured her softly. “Look, I won’t lie to you. There was a time when I loved her. And there was a time when I felt guilty for everything that happened with you and Ritza and everything else. I was the one that fucked things up. Ritza and I worked things out. She knows that I love you. She told me to fight for you. She’s on our side this time.”

“God Brad, you sound…I don’t even know how you sound,” Fenny frowned. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“What you need to think,” Brad said with a loving smile as he reached out a hand to guide her face so she could look him in the eyes, “is that I love you, and nothing’s going to stop that. Not Andy, not Lilly, and certainly not Ritza.”

Fenny opened her mouth to protest but was stopped when Brad’s lips knowingly attacked that spot under her ear, the one spot he never seemed to forget, nor did he forget its powers to melt her. She found herself moving to sit in his lap, straddling him and pulling him into a deep kiss.

“I love you too,” she panted between kisses. “But I am seeing someone else.”

“Two someone elses,” Brad countered with a mischievous smile.

“True,” she conceded.

“Third time’s the charm.”

“Or three strikes and you’re out.”

“So do you want to go back to my room?” Brad asked.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Fenny breathed.