5/7/2440 6:15 AM
Chamomile never tasted so good as it did on her lips, Eric thought as they stretched and snuggled on the couch he was glad he hadn’t tossed over the railing. He let the lights fade to nothing after they quit detecting movement.
Those had been his last conscious thoughts before some dumbass came knocking on the doorway way too early.
Eric realized his right arm was numb and the other one was pinned. He decided to playfully bite her neck.
“Someone is at the door.” Tell did not want to get up. She very much didn’t want to answer the door.
“Hi, have you seen my dad?”
“No, she hasn’t, Maddison Lynette,” Eric called, finally sitting up as Tell let his eldest in. “Neither have you. It is his day off.”
“Did you two have sex on Jule’s old couch?”
“No, and even if we did, it is none of your business. I didn’t ask about you and Billy Dale or you and Kendra Kyle, either. You have been a legal adult and a citizen of The Freehold for six months. Why are you still living at home?”
“I have been meaning to ask about that, but I… it isn’t my business, except I care about my family.”
“Fine, good answer. What is the problem that brought you looking for me?” he asked, stretching, wondering how many years it had been since he just made out with a woman on the couch. He thought probably not since he was about Maddie’s age and the women were girls. He suddenly felt old.
“You did not come home and left us no message. The boys, by the way, have twenty-five kids sprawled across the living room floor because you didn’t tell them to go home. I only know the half-dozen human ones by name.”
“Okay,” he grumbled, thinking he had never told her friends to go home either, not that she had twenty-five friends to step over and maneuver around. “Go home and make a pot of coffee. We will be down shortly, and I don’t want this spread around.”
“Tell, if you marry him, can I have your apartment?” Maddie asked, walking back through the door.
Eric had made it all the way back to his apartment with no more than a few polite nods and found way more than coffee. She was correct. There were about twenty-five kids lying sprawled across the floor. He assumed a few were only pretending to be asleep.
Piles of leftover burgers steamed on top of the rice still in the baskets. Bitter melon sauteed with spice salsa waited patiently for the plate of fried eggs.
A bottle of Mang Tomas, another half-empty bottle of Jufran, a squeeze bottle of suka, and another bottle of soy sauce rounded out the table. He knew the drill and would wait for her to be done before he seated Tell.
The kitchen corner had a full set of proper Filipino plants, including four dwarf calamansi, a five-foot-tall potted moringa, several potted lemongrass plants, and several siling labuyo among a few other herbs. He pointed them out and let the expert examine them at her own pace.
“Pam wants me to come down too this afternoon. You can manage without me?”
“You answer the door on my day off and remind people it is my day off. I think I can manage that, darling daughter of mine.”
“What time did you come home?” KC asked.
“Late,” Maddie told her sister.
Eric and Tell stood leaning against the counter as if they were golems meant to guard the coffee.
Eric, with partial caffeination, realized that Maddie was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, and hadn’t mentioned five extra girls in the king-size bed she and her sister shared because she hadn’t come home either. He could let that pass, as she also covered neatly for her father.
He took another sip of coffee and grinned at his eldest daughter, who had just proven she was ready to be an adult. As her father, he wasn’t sure he was ready for that.
The parade of twelve- and thirteen-year-old girls made their way to the standing adults by the coffee maker, each in turn taking an outstretched right hand for morning Mano po.
“We are due back for more interface time,” KC said in V’ren as six girls became two, the others heading back to their own homes to shower and change.
The calls of Jim Magsaysay could be heard through the window as he pedaled into the parking lot with his taho wagon, as well as the voices of the newly absent girls.
KC snagged two towels from the dryer and tossed one to Sera, whom he noticed had fresh henna tats, as the girls headed back down the stairs. He looked to Tell and decided what was cutely rebellious on his daughter would be rather sexy on the tall woman next to him.
Had Sera also sported a bellybutton piercing? He thought about where she might have gotten it and when. He didn’t need pheromones to get parts of his body thinking about what Tell would look like with one.
“You are supposed to fold all of it after you open it, not just dry and dash,” Maddie half snarled at her sister, capping the volume as she remembered twenty-five kids in the living room that she didn’t want interrupting her breakfast, or thinking she had made any of it for them.
