The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

Chapter 7

Meena could not say where it was that she had landed.  This was not all together a new sensation for her, although she wished that she was.  She had spent so many years falling asleep in unknown, unsafe places that to open her eyes and not be sure where she was was familiar.  This time, however, it was taking her longer to get her bearings.  This place.  This place smelled different from all of the others.  There was a different light, a different energy.  This place was not one where she woke with an immediate fear of what terrible thing might happen to her while she attempted to live her days. 

This place was strange, but it was also safe to her.  As safe as anything was ever going to be to her.  It was an alien feeling but it was nice. It was something she was slowly beginning to become accustomed to.  She rolled over, ready to greet Kyra good morning as she had done on so many days over the years, but there was no Kyra there to greet. 

That was when everything began to fall into place for her again, like a person whose memory was lost and must be retrieved each and every day through the introduction to familiar objects (or in Meena’s case, the lack of familiar objects).

*   *   *

“Not Victor’s.  Never Victor’s again.”

That was one thing she could tell herself for certain every day, to remind herself that no matter what else happened, she had at least done that one thing to improve her station in life.  She did not live in Victor’s hovel and she was not pimped out to whichever man struck his fancy, meaning whichever man had the most money to throw around.  No, she was in America, in New York City, the city where people came to try and make their big dreams come alive.  And how long had she been here now?  Three weeks?  Four? 

Unlike the prison she had been in before where she had been compelled to mark each day off with a little scratch on her bedpost so that she never forgot how much she could tolerate, things were not bad for her here.  There was no need to keep a record and it never struck her fancy to do so.  There was too much around her that was new, too much around her to learn.  And there was Caleb, and there was Tyler.  Those were definitely things she needed to learn as well and it wasn’t always an easy task to undertake.

Caleb and Tyler were unlike any men she had ever met.  She knew that they were close like brothers, the same way that she and Kyra had been (the same way they were; she had to keep herself from thinking about their friendship in the past tense), but they could not have been more different had that been their ultimate goal. 

Where Tyler was gruff and loud, Caleb was quiet and considerate, a man who saw more than he spoke.  They were like oil and water together and they fought so much that she wondered sometimes if they actually liked each other.  She knew they must have at some point, but did they anymore? 

Part of the problem was that she knew so much less of Tyler than she did Caleb.  That night when she had first arrived with nothing but her suitcase and her tears, it was Caleb’s place she had come to and Caleb she had first met.  He had worked so hard to make her feel welcome and safe that she had almost felt OK about things.  That was until Tyler practically broke down the door and started asking her question after question, each one digging a bigger hole than the last. 

At the end of it all they had talked about where she should stay and it had been decided that Caleb’s place was probably best.  So him she had seen often, but Tyler, he seemed almost to be avoiding the two of them.  That was the thing that kept her feeling fearful.

She knew from the way she had heard the two men talk that he was the one who had orchestrated this whole thing and she was wary of him deciding to send her back, that he could not be content with just her being there.  She had been waiting, trying to work up the courage to ask Caleb what it was that was going to become of her.

Speaking of Caleb, the door to the large bedroom opened softly and he stuck his head inside, his hair all ruffled from his slumber and his eyes smiling when he saw her.  She smiled back, grinned actually, feeling something a lot like joy when she saw his face.  He came into the room wearing nothing but his low slung sweats and Meena blushed, unable to stop herself before she thought about how nice it was to see so much of him.  She felt like an idiot for thinking it, but she had lately become aware that she was starting to form a little crush on him.

If only she knew that she was going to be safe here.  She knew they needed to have a conversation about it.  She did.  It was just a matter of how to go about it.

“Hey, Meena.  Did I wake you up?”

“No, not at all.  I’ve always been a bit of a light sleeper but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.  I haven’t quite figured out what it is.  Maybe it’s that American air.”

“Ha!” He laughed as he walked softly towards her, sitting so close to her on the edge of the bed that she could smell the sweet heat coming off of his skin. “I’m not sure anyone has ever said anything like that about New York before.  You’re a lot more likely to hear about the American pollution.  And I was worried about the noise.  I thought it might keep you up at night.”

“No!  No, it doesn’t at all!”

She had said it with more obvious enthusiasm than she had intended and Caleb began to laugh.  It wasn’t a mean kind of laughter, though, it was the kind that was inviting her to join in.  The way he laughed made her feel like he was really just enjoying her and that was something she had never gotten from a man before.  Not any man, not from the moment she was born.  It made everything feel easier for her and it was something she would feel forever in his debt for.