Read Letters to the Baumgarters for Free Online

as she
passed.
    “I’m embarrassed to admit it.”
    He smiled, looking back at me. “Confession is good for the soul,
remember?”
    “Okay… the truth is…” I cleared my throat, glancing first at the
disappearing shape of the blonde and then over to the waiter, as if someone
might overhear. “Before yesterday, I was under the impression that you were
gay.”
    He laughed. “Why would you think so?”
    “When you dropped me off at the post office, you were talking to a man,”
I explained. “Well, not just talking…”
    “Ohhh!” His eyes brightened with understanding. “Well, then I guess I
have a confession to make as well.”
    “You really are gay and I was just a fling?”
    “No.” He smiled. “I’m bisexual.”
    Well that explained everything, didn’t it?
    “Does that bother you?” he asked.
    “Actually, no.” I sat back in my chair, making yet another confession.
“So am I.”
    He looked surprised. “You have been with both men and women?”
    I nodded. “My last committed relationship was with both a man and a
woman.”
    “Interesting.” He went back to working on his cheeseburger, already
halfway through, chewing thoughtfully. “I’ve been with men—and women—but never
both together.”
    “You should.” I grinned. “I highly recommend it.”
    “So how did this happen?”
    I considered not telling him—I’d kept my relationship with the
Baumgartners a secret, not something I was ashamed of, but more like something
precious that might be spoiled by sharing it—but he looked so curious and
interested and open that I confessed that too.
    “I met Carrie and Doc about a year before I left for Italy.”
    “Tell me about them.”
    And so I did. I told him about meeting Carrie and Doc, about their slow
seduction and my ending up in love with them both. It had been an amazing year
of my life, something I’d fallen into while my marriage to Mason fell apart.
They weren’t the cause of the end of my relationship with my ex, but they were
both there to pick up the messy pieces, and I would always be grateful to them
for that.
    “Both of them? You loved them both?” Nico cocked his head at me.
    I nodded. “I did. I do.”
    “But they are married?”
    “Yes, and very much committed to each other,” I explained. “They loved me
and included me, but it was always clear that theirs was the primary
relationship. And I was okay with that.”
    “Fascinating.”
    Of course, I left out the part about being in the middle of a messy
divorce from Mason at the time. That didn’t seem relevant. Or maybe I was just
kidding myself.
    “You are a mystery, bella.” He was done with his meal, leaving a few fries
on his plate, an afterthought, and he leaned over to take my hand.
    “Nico…” I looked down our hands twined together on the table, remembering
the way our bodies melded, dissolved, becoming one. “I can’t help feeling like
we’ve opened Pandora’s Box.”
    “Yes, perhaps we have,” he agreed, rubbing his thumb against the crease
in my palm. “But the thing is, you can’t close it once it’s been opened.”
    “Do you want to?”
    “Me?” He grinned. “Hell no.”
    We both sat back as the waiter appeared, refilling water glasses and
asking if we needed anything. We dismissed him as quickly as we could, wanting
to keep our focus on each other. I could feel the energy between us, hotter
than any sun, and I couldn’t help but turn my face toward it.
    “Do you have to go back to class this afternoon?” Nico inquired, leaning
in again.
    “No.” I met his eyes, full of wanting. “Do you have to go back to work?”
    “I should.” He shrugged. “But I don’t want to.”
    I bit my lip, tracing the wet rim of my water glass. “What if I asked you
to come back to my room?”
    Nico half stood, waving at the waiter. “Check!”
    * * * *
    “Shhh!” I begged him to be quiet. Cara Lucia was home and while she was,
thankfully, hard of hearing, she wasn’t completely deaf.