The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

He was too tired for a battle to the death and so, while he would never say that he thought this thing they had done was right, he would not argue it, either.  He wasn’t even sure there was a point to the arguing.  It was clear that Tyler would not be swayed in his thinking about the morality of the thing.  There was no way they were going to see eye to eye on that front because Caleb saw these poor girls as people and Tyler saw them as a commodity.

He wasn’t sure the thing could be undone, anyway, wasn’t sure if they could stop the thing that had been put in motion.  The women had been bought and paid for.  For all Caleb knew trying to take it back could put either him and Tyler or the girls themselves into a dangerous situation. 

“So how is this supposed to work then?  Can you explain that much to me?”

“Does that mean you’re done fighting with me now?”

“Tyler, don’t press your luck, man.  OK?  I’m asking you about it because I don’t see that there is anything else I can do.  Don’t make it worse.  There’s no honor in kicking a man when he’s down.”

“Fine, whatever.  Such a sensitive man.”

“Do you want to go?  Do you want me to throw you out of this place?”

“No.  Jesus, you need to lighten up.  So what is it you want to know exactly?  How this is going to work?  What do you mean by that?”

“I mean,” Caleb spoke through gritted teeth, trying with everything he had to hold onto the tenuous grip he had managed to get over himself, “we’ve got two people moving from a foreign country to live with us.  We don’t even know if they’re going to know how to speak English, do we?  We don’t know what they’ll be like.  Where are they going to live? 

“They can’t stay out on the streets, can they?  No, they can’t.  Because we’ll be the thing that brought them here, which makes us responsible for them.  I realize you may not give a sh*t about a thing like that, but I sure as hell do.”

“OK, calm down.  First of all, who cares if they speak English?  That’s not why they’re coming here.  Or at least I’m not planning on having a lot of conversations with mine.  You can do what you want with yours.  The same goes for what they’ll be like.  Why does it matter? 

“What’s the point in worrying about it?  It won’t change anything.  They’ll be how they are and if there’s something about it you don’t like you can either live with it or change it.  Hell, if you decide you don’t like the girl altogether you can just let her go, can’t you?”

“Let her go?  It’s not like letting an animal into the wild, OK?  She’s a person.”

“Sure, whatever.  That’s up to you.  And what are you worried about where they’re going to stay for?  Are you trying to tell me this place isn’t big enough for one little Russian chick to live in with you?  Sh*t, this place is nicer than most people will ever get and my guess is that it’s a whole hell of a lot nicer than where they’ve been living up to this point.  Or is it just that you’re afraid of having a real, live woman in your bed?”

“No, not afraid.  And I don’t want to talk about it anymore.  I just want to know when they’re supposed to get here, since there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to stop their coming all together.”

“Should be about a week from now.  Maybe a day or two before, maybe a day or two after, but that’s the time frame we’re looking at.  That sound OK to you?”

“Doesn’t really matter if it does or not.  That’s been established.  So are we done?  Is that all you needed to say?”

“Looks like it.  So now that we’ve gotten through all of that unpleasantness, what do you say to getting some grub?  I’ll even get the tab this time, seeing as I pissed you off so bad.”

Caleb looked at Tyler feeling profoundly dumbfounded.  It was unbelievable to him, the way that Tyler was able to compartmentalize his life so effortlessly.  Only a couple of minutes ago the two of them had been close to coming to blows and now here he was, wanting to go out and celebrate the impending arrival of women Caleb was ashamed of ever having looked at in the first place.  He didn’t seem to understand that just because Caleb wasn’t tackling him didn’t mean he was OK with what was happening.  All of a sudden, Caleb felt very, very tired and much more sad than he could remember feeling in a long time. 

No, it was worse than that.  He wasn’t just feeling tired, he was feeling like it all might just be a little bit hopeless and he feared that there might be more to it than just the depression he associated with a hangover.  He felt this great fracture forming between him and his would be brother that had not been there before and he had a feeling it would never close up again, at least not completely.

At the moment it hurt to even look at Tyler, made him sick and sad and angry.  There was no way he could sit down and have a meal with him.  He just wasn’t the kind of man to shrug things off that way.  Maybe he just wasn’t as good at getting rid of feelings as his more aggressive partner.

“Nah, I don’t think so.”

“You what?  Since when do you turn down a free meal?  Come on, brother, that’s just the hangover talking.  You’ll feel better about it all once we get something in your belly.”

“No, I don’t think so.  At least not today, OK?  I’m sorry, Tyler.  I’m just not up to it today.  I need some time.”

“Some time for what?  What are you, a chick?”

Even with the grin plastered on his face, Caleb could see beneath Tyler’s joking comment.  He could see his friend trying to bait him, to bully him into behaving the way he thought he ought to.  Usually he would cave, too, but not this time.  He couldn’t go out and laugh with Tyler, pretending that this thing had not happened between him.