Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 13

Decisions are made on who's being added to the Rook family.

Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.

Chapter 27

For most of the next day, Andy kept to himself a bit, staying mostly in his office with the cats. Jenny had swung by to bring him lunch midday, and after he finished it, he decided it was time to talk with his best friend Xander Baker.

While Andy was a little chunky, Xander was the whole damn brick. Xander wasn't so much fat as just a mountain of a man. But also a bit fat, if people were being blunt. Xander stood some four inches taller than Andy but was at least a hundred pounds heavier, maybe more, a weird combination of muscle and blubber, much of his skin covered in tattoos. And god help him, Xander was still rocking a mullet, as out of fashion as ever. Much of the time, the back of the mullet was pulled into a rattish ponytail, but today it hung free over his shoulders.

He and Xander had grown up together, best friends since they were seven. They'd met playing Little League, something they'd both hated. The two of them had quit playing the next year, but they'd never stopped hanging out. They'd been roommates throughout college, and when Andy had moved to the West Coast, Xander had driven with him and then flown home one way. For years, Andy had been trying to convince Xander to abandon the Midwest, and it always felt like Xander was considering it, though it just never seemed to happen.

There had been a two year period where they'd stopped speaking, because Xander had gotten married and gotten divorced all within those two years. Xander's ex wife had hated all of his friends and had driven them away, insisting none of them be invited to the wedding. She'd actually been living with Xander and Andy for the last year Andy lived in Cleveland. They'd gotten married six months after he left, and divorced two years to the day afterwards. On the very day that Xander had decided to divorce her, the first person he'd called was Andy, to apologize for the two years of radio silence. Andy hadn't been mad, and had welcomed his oldest friend back into his life with welcome arms.

Xander had drifted from job to job for a couple of years until he'd seemed to find his natural calling as an auto mechanic, one specifically focused on restoration and maintenance of classic and vintage cars, although he did work on pretty much anything to keep the bills paid. Some of Xander's restorations had won awards at car shows, though, and he'd done a few special commissions for some well known people that was starting to get him a little national recognition.

For the last six months, Xander had been living vicariously through Andy, when he wasn't working on cars. Thankfully, Xander's work backlog had been more than enough to keep him occupied for a couple of years. He'd even had a 3D printer delivered to help him make molds so he could smelt custom parts when he couldn't find what he needed via mail. It had been a frustratingly solitary life, so his contact with Andy had been what kept him going. They generally talked via FaceTime for an hour every week, like clockwork.

When Andy had first gotten Aisling in his life, he'd called Xander the next day to introduce her to him first, and they'd gotten along perfectly. Since then, generally the day after someone had been added to the household, he'd called Xander the day after to introduce them, although it had been about a week or so since they'd talked, simply because between the poker game, his brother's death and all the various arrivals. It had been an overwhelming week, and for the first half an hour of the videocall, Andy had literally simply relied all the various information.

Xander had been sad to hear about Matty's death, and had also told Andy that his Xander's own brother, Randy, also passed away, along with his father. Both of them had lost a lot of family in a very short period of time. So the two of them had shared a little cry for a bit, before they'd decided to just plow on.

From there, Andy had to inform Xander that not only was he getting married, he was getting married to multiple women, including two that he hadn't even been introduced to yet, but Xander had been laughing at that point. He'd also asked Xander to be his best man, something he'd readily agreed to, even if he was a bit jealous of some of the women lined up to wed Andy. He had sent Xander the group photo shortly before the call, and Xander's immediate question was how the hell he'd ended up hooking up with not only Sarah Washington, but Emily Stevens as well.

That had turned into Andy relaying the entire poker story to Xander, who went through a roller coaster of emotions while Andy talked him through it. Xander had long been a Daggerfall Academy fan, not just of the movies but of the books as well, so he was understandably a little jealous of Andy's connection to Emily, but promised not to get too hung up on it when they finally did meet. Xander had still never forgiven him for not meeting E.F. Winston, but Andy had explained to him over and over again that she was simply too big a person to show up to conventions and do meet'n'greets.

And then, of course, Andy had needed to tell Xander that he was also going to be a father, and that both Niko and Aisling were pregnant, which resulted in the oddest moment ever, because Xander had just been grinning. Apparently, Niko had called Xander to tell him about it before they'd even told Andy, just to make sure that he'd really be cool with it.

Andy found himself a little annoyed with Niko and Aisling, but the moment was fleeting, and in the end, he also found it a little funny, knowing that Xander had had the news about the girls' pregnancies before he did.

The last thing they had to talk about was the previous day where the girls had spent hours pitching their friends and colleagues to him, and how overwhelmed by it all Andy was. That was why he'd called Xander, because while Andy had done some thinking about whittling it down, he wanted to talk it all over with his best friend, the person who knew him best in this world.

For the next hour or so, Andy and Xander had talked through all of the pitches one by one, covering all of the women, Andy's pros and cons (because of course Andy had made a pros and cons list) and where his head was at with each of them.

The call went on long enough that both men had been forced to plug their phones in and let them charge while they continued talking. Internet calling was truly a wonderful thing. It helped his state of mind, being able to talk it all out with someone. He'd thought about talking it all over with Aisling, but he felt like involving any of the girls in the actual decision making process might put undue stress on their relations, and he didn't want to put any of the girls in that kind of awkward position.

Xander had proven to be an excellent sounding board, as he always was, and Andy was able to talk himself through all of his decisions over the course of their conversation. At least a couple of times, Andy had joked that maybe it would be better if he didn't invite anyone in, to which point Xander had threatened to phone Niko, so she could slap Andy in the head for him, since Xander was still in Cleveland. He didn't doubt that Xander would do it in the least, and Andy joked that his friend was getting too reliant on one of Andy's soon to be wives to do his dirty work for him.

Which, of course, led Xander into dropping a bombshell of his own on Andy. As it turned out, once the quarantine was lifted, Xander was likely going to be moving out to Fresno, a city about an hour away from the Bay area, which meant the two best friends would be able to hang out and see each other regularly, something that made Andy cry a little more.

Xander also said, however, that there was also a decent chance the relocation might happen much sooner than that. One of the women he was getting paired up with was a Major in the Air Force, and so she was leaning on people to get him safely relocated across the country, where she could protect him. He'd laughed, saying it was weird to be treated as such precious cargo when just a year ago he was getting turned down by nearly every woman he approached at a bar.

Xander, like Andy, had lost most of his roots, especially after the deaths of his brother and father, so he didn't really have much keeping him in the Midwest. In fact, he'd actually been told to pack all of his things immediately, so that if the relocation came through, he'd be ready to move. That was why he felt like the relocation was going to happen much sooner than the "after quarantine" he'd originally been told to expect. If anything, Xander seemed a little annoyed by his lack of information or control in his own relocation, but Andy gave him just enough information to make it all make sense, and after that, Xander seemed a lot more prepared to get to safe ground as fast as possible.

Andy had asked to see pictures of the women Xander was getting paired up with, but his friend didn't have those yet. Once he did, though, he would inform Andy and the two could hash it out then. Xander had originally been marked as a level 1, but what with the incredibly high male mortality rate in the country, even level 1s were suddenly moving up in terms of importance for protecting.

His friend had some excellent points about some of Andy's initial thoughts and in a few cases, was able to help Andy put his finger on what had been bothering him about a few of the pitches, as well as helping him get out of his own way on a few personal quirks.

The thing Xander had stressed to him, above all else, was that he needed to trust his instincts about whether or not the women would personally get along with him, and that if they wouldn't, that he would be doing them a disservice by mixing them into his family. He already had a couple of women whom he knew weren't very much into him beyond their needs, and the last thing he wanted to do was compound that problem.

His friend tried to settle his worries about disappointing some of the women, noting for him yet again that any of the women who didn't want to come would have the option of declining his invitation, something that Andy had to keep reminding himself of. The last thing he wanted was to be someone like Covington, abducting women against their will for his own desires. He didn't need any of that shit.

With the list finally settled on, and Andy caught up on all the news that Xander had to share, his best friend had asked him if he'd given much thought about who he was going to use his one personal choice on, which had made Andy smile. Andy pointed out that he suspected his invite would be turned down, but that he would be kicking himself if he didn't extend it to the one and only obvious choice, which made Xander punch the sky and cheer.

"She's going to say yes," Xander told him, the grin from ear to ear, while he danced around in his bedroom in Cleveland. "You know this. I know this. Everyone knows this. Why are you pretending to yourself that she won't?"

"Because," Andy said, in between laughs, "she and I haven't spoken in, what, ten, fifteen years? She could be married for all we know."

"Liar!" Xander cackled. "You and I both know you're lying, because we are both Facebook friends with her, and if she had gotten married, we absolutely would have been invited to the wedding, or at the very least heard about it! She's the kind of person who would've had that all over her social media, but she hasn't, which means she isn't, which means she's going to say yes to you, because she's still pining for you like you're still pining for her! I fucking knew you weren't over her, you goddamn liar! How many times did you tell me you were okay with it? How many times did I tell you that you were full of shit? She's going to say yes to you, my most righteous dude, "

"It's not just me she would have to say yes to, Xan! She's been living in DC for a decade now! I'm sure she's put roots down."

"She's hated living in DC for a decade now, you mean. She would hook up with a lemur if it got her out of DC. I doubt she's put any real roots down so that if she wanted to bail on that shithole cesspit of political vipers, she could."

"She works in DC. Her entire job is in DC. She's a political reporter. She may not be working at the White House any more, but she's a congressional reporter. She needs to be in DC to do that job."

Xander rolled his eyes. "She will take another option if there's one available, and if she moves out there with you, she'll just get into some other kind of reporting. Or maybe she'll just start writing political books. Or historical novels. Or fucking anything else. I never understood why you two didn't stay together in the first place."

"She wanted to be a White House reporter, and she actually got the job with the bureau, so she moved out there, and I got the job writing for Netflix and had to move out here," Andy said with a shrug. "We talked about trying long distance, but it was the entire length of the country, and I didn't want to be a burden on her."

"You two have unfinished business, Andy," Xander said to him. "Extend the invite, and then we'll see who's right in the long run, huh?"

"That's what I'm going to do, Xan," Andy said. "Let her make her own mind up. My money's on her still being upset with how we ended things."

"Willing to make a little wager on that?"

"Sure, what did you have in mind for stakes?"

"Since you're mister moneybags now, when I win, you buy me a Tesla."

Andy laughed and nodded. "And if I win?"

"Then I owe you one complete restoration of a car, no matter what the state it's in, but it's never gonna happen."

"I'll remind you that you said that when you're having to completely rebuild a Ferrari from a busted frame."

Xander waggled a finger at him. "We'll see then, won't we?" He sighed a little bit. "Shit, brother, we've been talking for hours. You should probably get your list done and tell your girls so you can start that whole process, since your buddy Phil seemed to think you should get it started as soon as possible. How much shit are we going to be in next week?"

Andy shrugged slightly. "Let's just say if they show up to move you soon, Xan, let them. The sooner you can get settled in your new home, the better off you'll be."

His friend nodded. "Yeah, most definitely. Hey, you think you've got enough clout that you could get me and my ladies to move into New Eden with you guys?"

Andy rolled his eyes. "I doubt it, but shit, I can ask Phil. What's the name of the Major you're getting hooked up with? Maybe Phil can get her reassigned to the base here."

"Okay look, I'm gonna tell you, and you're gonna laugh, so get all your laughing done now, get all your jokes off your chest, and then do not tease her about it when you meet her, okay?"

Andy shot his best friend a dirty look. "C'mon. I'm usually above that kind of thing. You really think I'm going to take pot shots at her name?"

Xander looked at him dead on and said. "Her name is Captain Betsy Ross." While he waited for Andy to say something, he lifted both hands into the frame of the camera and flicked his fingers inward in a 'come at me' gesture.

Andy did his stoic best to hold as long as he could, but finally he couldn't hold it back any more. "Does that make you Xander Washington? Is she going to wear a flag for your wedding? Oh my god, are you going to take her last name and become Xanderous?"

"Finished?"

"Yeah, 'kay, I won't say shit about it to her, but I will talk to Phil and see if I can get all of you brought here. She's stationed in Fresno you said?"

"I assume so, considering that's where they're relocating me."

"Got it. I'll give you a call in a couple of days when I know what's going on."

"Cool. Cool cool cool. Anyway, congrats on all the things,  the engagements, the pregnancies, the sudden wealth and the influx of beautiful women. Your life is such a struggle."

Andy chortled at the serious tone with which his friend Xander had delivered that. "Fuck you too, buddy. Hopefully I'll see you in person soon."

The two hung up and all that left was for Andy to write up the list. So he opened up a fresh document in Word and started typing.

At the top of the page he made a clear note that anyone he hadn't chosen would be recommended over to trusted friends, to see if they could be brought into the community at the very least. He also stressed that just invitations were being extended, and that if anyone didn't want to join the family, they certainly were not going to be compelled to on his behalf.

Beneath that, he wrote that the names were in alphabetical order, not in order of preference. The list did include one alternate, in case anyone said no. If multiple people said no, well, then they would have less people than originally planned.

He also said that anyone who was a friend of someone listed below had until tomorrow morning to craft an invitation video for their friend that would be delivered, along with a video invitation from Andy himself, to the women in question. Phil would be by for lunch tomorrow, so the deadline on recording an invitation video was hard set and non negotiable.

Finally, if anyone was upset by his decisions, they could come and talk to him about it, and he would explain his reasoning to them, but he also hoped the girls would trust in his judgment on the matter and not try to convince him to change his mind, because as he wrote on the sheet, his decisions were final.

The List,  staff

• Alexis Coleman (security)
• Dr. Morgan Fitch (pediatrics)
• Whitney Wells (technical support)

The List,  family

• Fiona Smith
• Larissa Cotton
• Maya Summer Steele
• Tabitha Jefferson
• Tala Jordan

The List,  alternate

• Jade Dillon

Andy looked over the list on his screen for a few minutes, making sure all of his decisions were final in his head, before he finally muttered to himself, "Yeah, fuck it." He hit Control P print, and a minute later, his laser printer hummed to life. As the printer vomited its single page, he considered for a moment the people he hadn't chosen.

He'd decided to pass on Olivia because she just felt like she and he wouldn't have had anything in common. He'd never say it aloud to Asha, but her friend struck him as a little vapid and self centered, at least for his tastes. She did, however, seem like someone his friend Eric's first partner Lily could whip into shape, or at the very least would mesh well with Lily's friend (and another of Eric's partner) Jenny, who was not to be confused with his own chef, whom was also named Jenny.

Piper's friend Brooke had practically been tailor made for his best friend Xander, and since Xander was on his way out to California anyway, Andy was going to see if he could maneuver the two of them together. Their mutual love of classic cars would be an instant tie binding the two together. Of course, he hadn't told Xander about that, but he figured it didn't hurt to put some good into his friends world when he had the chance.

Taylor's friend Natalie had seemed nice enough, but she was also young, and Andy had to be honest with himself that he needed at least a few more women who were closer to his own age, people whom he could relate to a little better.

He also fully suspected at least one or two of his invitations would be declined, and that Jade would end up being extended an invitation in the end. He'd put her as an alternate simply because he liked the other options slightly better, but if (or rather when, he figured) someone said no, Jade would be invited and no one would ever mention that she hadn't been a first choice. Although, if he thought about it, considering Jade's relentless positivity, she might not even care.

All of the staff pitches had made sense, and while he was a little nervous about how Dr. Fitch had been described as overly blunt, he had hopes that they could make it work, or if they couldn't that she would decline the invite. Lexi and Whitney had been slam dunks from the second they'd been presented.

Once the sheet was printed out, he opened the sheet of paper that Aisling had given him with her predictions, not having looked at it before then. It read: "In: Maya, Tabitha, Lexi, Jade, Whitney, Natalie. Alternate: Tala."

When he came out of his office with the paper in hand, he couldn't see anyone around, but was fairly certain he heard someone shuffling around a corner behind him as he started to walk down the hall towards the stairs.

He strode down the stairs and then down another hall before entering the downstairs living room area, where Aisling was sitting watching TV. She'd clearly been waiting in the room for him, to his amusement. That meant he still had the ability to surprise her, and he found himself delighted by that. However confident she'd pretended to be in her predictions, obviously she hadn't been that confident if she'd rushed to look at what the list said.

"That the list?" she asked him, as he strolled over towards a highly exposed section of the wall.

"It is."

"How'd I do on my predictions?"

"75%, so very well," he said, as he taped the list up to the wall, hearing the sound of some footsteps near the entrances of the room.

Aisling scooted over quickly to read it, as other girls were standing in the doorways, not yet ready to rush into the room. She nodded, then started walking with Andy out of the room, as the room was suddenly flooded behind him, various members of the house swarming in to read the list.

"Passed on the stripper, huh?" the redhead teased, as they headed back up to his office. "I suppose I'm not surprised, just a little disappointed. I wanted her to teach me some of those pole tricks."

Andy smirked. "I needed to make sure some of these women I can have a conversation with, Ash, and I just don't know that me and girls barely out of college are going to connect on that much. I'm going to recommend Natalie over to Eric, or, let's be honest, I'm going to recommend her over to Lily, and Lily will decide whether or not to bring her over for Eric."

The Irish girl snickered, nodding fiercely. "I'm sure Lily will bring her in, if for no other reason that to see Eric get all bashful about it. I wasn't sure if Tala's kink might have been a bit much for you, so I put her in as an alternate."

He waved a hand in the air. "I don't care about that one way or another, but she's a musician, she makes puzzle boxes and she's got a wicked sense of humor. How did you not think that would be a shoo in for me?"

She grinned, shrugging. "I guess I gave a bit more weight to the virgin sacrifice, although I did see she was an alternate."

"Yeah. I'm betting either Tabitha or Larissa, or maybe both, will pass on joining the family, for whatever reason, and that Jade will get an invite in the end, but I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about the idea of being someone's first and only male partner."

"You'll do fine, love," she said, as they stepped into his office and closed the door behind them. "So now you have to tell me: Who's Fiona?"

Andy moved over to his arm chair, picking up the cat that had settled there, sliding in to sit down. He was about to put the cat into his lap, when Ash slid to sit on his lap, then took Huginn from his hands and set the black cat atop her own lap. "Fiona's my choice. She lives in Washington D.C."

"But who is she, Andy?"

"She's my ex. My college ex. So you know that Xander and I were roommates all five years of college, but for the last half of it or so, both he and I had girlfriends living with us. Annie was living with Xander  "

"Wait, psycho bitch 'I found her cheating on me with two guys on my birthday' Xander's ex wife Annie? That Annie?"

Andy laughed and nodded. "Yep. Annie never much liked me or, hell, anyone Xander was friends with. But she's gone from his life now, so thankfully you'll never meet her, because she's insane. Did I tell you that she tried to argue, in court, that Xander's lack of attention to her forced her to cheat on him with those two dudes?"

"What a cunt," Aisling groaned. "Awright, so forget her. Tell me about Fiona! Why haven't you ever mentioned her before?"

"I haven't talked to her in at least a dozen years!" he chuckled. "She going to say no anyway, but if I had any major regrets in my life, it's that Fi and I split up, even though I don't see any way my life could've gone in which we didn't. We met as sophomores in a political science class together, and she was dating my boss at the newspaper at the time. She dumped him like two weeks after that, and just after I got back for Christmas, she asked me out and we started dating."

"Awww!"

"About a year and a half or so later, her two roommates bailed on her like two weeks after the spring semester started, and she couldn't find someone to take their places. With no roommates she couldn't afford the rent on the three bedroom house she was renting, and breaking the lease was going to put her hard into debt, so she invited me and Xander, who were renting out a shitty apartment month to month, to leave our place and move into hers."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing of any of this?"

"I didn't think it was important! It was a long, long time ago!" he sighed. "Anyway, when we graduated, Fiona had gotten a job offer to work in the DC Bureau of the Associated Press as a reporter, and I had gotten the offer to come out here for Netflix. I visited DC with her, and she visited SF with me, while we tried to figure out what we were going to do about it. Neither of us really liked DC all that much, but she very much wanted the job. I loved the Bay. I asked her to move out with me, but she insisted she wanted to give the DC job a chance, and so we parted ways."

"What? Just like that?"

"Well, we tried having a long distance relationship for a few months, but this was like fifteen years ago, and after about six months, we agreed it wasn't working, and sort of fell out of touch. About three months later, I started dating Erin, and you know how that worked out, and she started dating some cop named Sam. After that, we basically just stopped talking to one another, although about two years ago, both Xander and I got Facebook friend requests from her, which we both accepted, although neither of us has had a conversation with her yet."

"Why not?"

"Shit, Ash, I dunno. How do you even start that conversation? 'Hi, remember me? I know we were talking about getting married at one point, but we didn't and then we moved across the country from one another. I'm getting married to at least four women now and wondered if you might want to join us. Oh, how've you been?'"

"You have to start it somewhere, Andy."

"Well, she's not married, at least she doesn't have herself marked as married on Facebook, and Xander's done a little internet stalking of her, I'm sure on my unwilling behalf, and says she doesn't even seem to have a regular boyfriend, and that she's spent most of the last several years bitching and moaning about how she hates living in DC, although considering she's more liberal than I am, I'm not all that surprised."

"Do you think she's going to accept your invitation?"

"Ye ” n  , I really don't have a fucking clue, Ash," he said with a laugh, which made her laugh as well. "I guess we'll just wait and see."

Over the rest of the day and into the evening, the girls all came to thank him, even if he hadn't chosen the girl they'd put forth, and to see how he was doing, making sure he hadn't been too stressed out by the whole process. The rest of the time, everyone was recording their invitation videos. Each of the girls made a video for their friends, although a few of them recorded multiple videos, one for the person they'd put forth and one for someone they also knew. Andy himself recorded a unique video for each and every invitation, and also made sure to record one for Jade, in case it was needed.

The next day, Phil showed up for lunch, and had a bit of a grim look on his face.

"Why the dark cloud, friend?" Andy asked him, as the two walked out onto the back patio, where Jenny had set up a nice lunch for them.

"So we had our first death in New Eden yesterday," he sighed. "And it was absolutely unnecessary."

"I thought only vaccinated people were allowed into New Eden?"

"They are. A woman decided she didn't believe all the warnings we give them at the base about not partaking of a man's cum that she isn't paired with."

"Wait, what?"

"So some woman decided she wanted a bit of strange, so she was fooling around with some guy other than the one she was paired with."

"What the fuck happened? I thought there were early warnings that would've discouraged her."

"Apparently they were using a condom, and they were convinced because that seemed fine that everything we told them must be utter bullshit."

"Goddamn it."

Niko had filled him in on some of the details of how the vaccine paired people just after they'd arrived in New Eden, at least as how she understood it. If a woman came in contact with semen from a man other than the one she was paired with, it would cause her to break out in a violent rash. The rash happened almost immediately on skin contact, so even a tiny bit of precum would be enough to discourage anyone from going further.

"So she took off the condom right before the dude popped, and then swallowed his load, and it ate her open from the inside."

"Fuck, Phil!" Andy said, wincing a little. "I hate to say it, but you may need to show pictures of that to people so they understand what kind of danger they're in if they're unfaithful."

"I so don't want to, but it's up to the mayor now, and he's considering it."

"Who were the people?"

"Don't think it's anyone you know. The guy's name is Brian Morrison, a banker. He's in custody right now, because he might be guilty of manslaughter or murder, nobody's really sure."

"And who was the woman?"

"Veronica De La Cruz. She was part of that bastard Arthur Covington's house."

"Oh shit," Andy muttered. "I met her, briefly. She was supposed to be the dealer at the poker game. I thought it was particularly in poor taste that Covington made her be topless in front of a bunch of strangers, but I didn't realize she was quite that unhappy there."

"This new world is so utterly fucked up some days. Oh, also Audrey's pregnant, so I've apparently picked the best time to bring a new life into the world."

"You and me both, friend. Ash and Niko are both pregnant as well."

Phil grinned a little at that. "Well, at least our kids will grow up with good friends nearby. Anyway, you get your list and videos done?"

Andy slid across a thumb drive to him. "All on there, including contact information for everyone we have, or at least general location for the ones we don't. I'm not going crazy and asking for a bunch of celebrities like Covington did."

"Seemed like his requests worked out pretty well for you, though."

"Can't blame me if the dude's a shit card player."

"Well, I can but I won't, because fuck that guy. Anyone I might recognize on the list?"

"A couple of people. And, uh," he said before lowering his voice to almost a whisper. "Fi's on there."

"What was that? I believe your pride was stuck in your throat, or maybe that's just your foot," the Filipino engineer laughed.

"I'm sending Fiona an invite, okay?"

"Good for you," Phil said, as he finished his sandwich. "I've been telling you to reach out to that woman ever since she added you on Facebook, but you just kept avoiding it. Nothing like an apocalypse to get you to get off your ass, huh?"

"Yeah yeah, Phil, go fuck yourself."

"Anyway, tell all your girls about the death, and prepare them that they may be shown some rather graphic autopsy photos in the near future if the mayor decides to go ahead with his discouragement campaign. I don't think any of your girls would fool around with other guys, but I think they're just gonna show everyone."

"Oh, you know Xander, right?"

"Your friend from Ohio? Sure."

"Apparently he's paired up with Captain Betsy Ross," he said, raising a finger. "No jokes." Phil was struggling not to laugh, but managed. "He was wondering if maybe you could relocate them to New Eden."

"I'm not a goddamn genie, Rook."

"You know you'd like having him around here. Besides, I've got a few recommendations for you and Eric on that thumb drive as well, so don't say I never gave you anything. There's also one in there who might be a great match for Xander. Plus, look at it this way,  you get him out here, and he'll probably build you a classic car as a way of saying thank you."

Phil smirked for a bit, picked up the thumb drive and walked away humming the "I Dream of Genie" theme song.

Chapter 28

As Phil had promised, things moved incredibly quickly from there. The next morning, Andy got a call from Xander, informing Andy that Xander was being relocated to New Eden, and that he would see him in just a few short days. He also told Andy that he'd heard Andy had lined up some kind of welcoming present for him, and that he hoped he'd enjoy unwrapping it. It was clear that Xander didn't actually know what was waiting for him, but Phil had already sent word that Brooke, Piper's friend, had accepted the offer for her to be paired up with Xander, all without Xander's knowledge. It would make for a hell of a surprise when Xander showed up. Andy intended to make sure he was there to greet his friend upon his arrival, and it was nice to help his best friend out.

Andy was quickly learning how to trade in on favors, so having Xander owe him a few was bound to pay off sooner or later, even if he wasn't sure quite how. But it also just felt good improving his friend's life.

Later that day, Andy also found out which of his offers had been accepted and which had been rejected. He was surprised to find that he'd been rejected not twice, but three times, which Niko teased him not to take personally.

The first to decline his offer to join the family was Dr. Morgan Fitch, Katie's friend and ex girlfriend. Dr. Fitch had said in the video message she'd sent back that she appreciated Katie thinking of her, but that living in a house with one of her exes simply did not appeal to her, and that she had sworn off men regardless.

Katie seemed more bothered by it than Andy did, but Andy assured her that if Dr. Fitch had been having reservations about it, it was best for her to decide that now than after she was locked in, to which Katie reluctantly agreed.

The second to pass was Larissa Cotton, which came as no real surprise to Andy. As it turned out, Larissa had in fact gotten married years ago, and she and her husband were doing well in lockdown. The complaint she'd had to Sarah about not having gotten laid recently months ago had stemmed from an accident that Larissa's husband had endured, which left him temporarily impotent, but which he had thankfully recovered from since then. She also mentioned that she didn't always think to put on her wedding ring, so she admitted she might not have been wearing it the last time she'd video chatted with Sarah, so she could see where the misconceptions might have sprung from. Larissa also offered Andy her sincerest congratulations on his partnership with Sarah (as well as all the others) and insisted he call her up some time so that they could gossip as only colleagues could. Finally, she promised to be more thankful if he would give her another first edit pass in the future.

His final rejection of the day came from Hannah's former cheerleading instructor Tabitha Jefferson. She had also declined to take the Rook family up on their offer, not because she wasn't intrigued by the idea, but because in the past two weeks, she had relocated up to Portland, where she had moved in with her former lovers Dom and Mike. With her mother no longer around, Tabby had simply decided California no longer held any sway over her, and she reached out to her previous partners, who had welcomed her back with open arms. The two men had been living in virtual isolation, and had taken their quarantine deathly serious, so they'd both remained completely uninfected. Tabby also sent along a message just for Hannah, encouraging her to make the most of her new situation, and giving her a contact number so they could remain friends moving forward.

Hannah had been a little saddened at first, but after hearing that the reason was that Tabby was now reunited with her throuple and extremely happy once more, she brightened immensely and skipped out of the room to go and call Tabby so the two could catch up.

There had also been one more call for the day, a complication that only intrigued Andy even further.

Late in the afternoon, Phil called to inform Andy that the women who had accepted (which included Jade) would be arriving in a few waves, with those who were already local being delivered to his house tomorrow, and those who lived further out coming in one or two more separate waves. But that hadn't been why Phil had been calling.

The videoscreen suddenly split into two, with Phil on the left, and the still achingly beautiful Fiona on the right.

"Hey Andy," she said, that sly, lazy smile he was all too familiar with on her face, the smile he knew could hold a thousand different meanings in its subtext.

"Hey Fi." He stopped there, because for once in his life, Andy was at a complete loss for words.

"So, about this offer of yours," she said, trailing off a little. She didn't just look good; she looked fucking great. Despite the fact that it had been fifteen years since they'd been a couple, she had shrugged off the signs of aging far better than he had, only a few scant wrinkles around her distractingly deep green eyes, the shade of newly clipped summer grass. Her brown hair still had reddish highlights in it, as it had when they'd been dating what felt like lifetimes ago. It currently hung down to her shoulders, like it might have been a bob when the pandemic started and she'd just let it grow out. She'd grown up in Georgia, and while she'd lost almost all of that southern accent, Andy could still hear very faint hints of it, just around the edges, like she'd never quite been able to shake it fully. It was certainly less prominent than it was back in college. "I have a couple of questions, and that'll determine my answer, if that's alright."

"Yeah, sure, go ahead."

"Hi Fiona!" Niko chimed in, poking her head into the camera's view, giving an enthusiastic wave. "I'm one of Andy's partners, well, one of his fiances, actually, so you can ask me anything as well."

Andy wasn't sure, but he felt like he saw Fi try and stifle a slight smile, but whether that was at Niko's interjection or Andy's blushing in response to it, he couldn't tell.

Fiona didn't choose to acknowledge Niko's comment, and instead focused intently on Andy. "Alright, first, why haven't you reached out to me before now Andy?"

He sighed and shrugged, a sheepish smile on his face. "I wasn't sure what to say, or even how to start, Fi. When you sent me that friend request a couple of years back, I assumed there was something you wanted to talk to me about, so I accepted it, and then, nothing."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I wanted you to make the first move?"

"You know me pretty well, Fi, or at least you did," he laughed, arching one of his bushy blonde eyebrows at her. "Did you honestly think I'd come to that conclusion on my own?"

She openly smiled that time, nodding. "Alright, you've got me there. I suppose that's fair. Second, why didn't you ask me to come with you when you moved out to California, all those years ago when we graduated from college together?"

"I did ask, Fi. You know I did."

She scowled at him, shaking her head a little. "You gave it one half assed try at best, Andrew," she said, the use of his full name definitely feeling like it was meant to belittle him a bit, or at the very least scold him. "You asked just the one time, I said no, and you never brought it up again, which isn't like you at all. Why didn't you really try and convince me to come out west with you?"

He bit his bottom lip for half a second, but decided too much had gone unspoken between him and Fiona for too long now, so he came to the conclusion that he should just be upfront and direct. "Because I was afraid I would've gotten you to say yes." She started to speak, frustration plain on her face, Andy could see, so he raised a hand to silence her for a moment longer and continued. "And that would've made me the happiest man in the world, Fi, I promise you, it really and truly would have. But I knew that it would come with dire consequences you couldn't see yet, things that I could. I knew, I mean really knew, that if you moved out to California with me, it would've been preventing you from chasing your dreams, the ones you'd had since you were a little girl. I would've always been worried that you resented me for keeping you from that life, even just a little bit. It probably would've eventually led to us breaking up over it, and you wouldn't have known why, and I wouldn't have been able to fix it, no matter how hard I tried. You wanted so desperately to work in the White House; I didn't want to give you any excuse at all not to go chasing after that dream. I felt like you were trying to use me as an excuse not to go and do the thing you really wanted."

"I wouldn't have resented you, Andy," she sighed. "I wanted you to talk me out of it. I did. I really, really did. DC has been nothing but a decade and a half of frustration and disappointment."

"Sure, but you only know that now, Fi. You couldn't have known that back then. There's no way you could've know that then. You needed to see it through for yourself, to have the experiences needed to make that decision. And if you really wanted me to talk you out of it, you should've said something back then. If you thought you were hinting at it, you were far too subtle for me to pick up on it. I'm not a mind reader. Wasn't then, and I'm still not now. I can't just guess that you're looking for me to help sway you one way or another."

Fiona looked like she wanted to object further, but then nodded once more, as if coming to grips with all of that in her head, like a million puzzle pieces were suddenly falling into place, and she could see the entire picture for the first time. "Okay then. I have one more thing, though. A condition. I have a condition for me coming to join your household. Well, two conditions, actually."

"Sure," Andy said, "fire away."

"The first is that you have to actually marry me. I know you said in your message said that you're marrying some of your partners and not others, but I absolutely insist I be one of the people that you do marry, if we're going to do this. You know that I'm Catholic. I also know you're an atheist, and that's fine, but my religion still means something to me, and you've always respected that, so I need you to respect that now. Because I'm going to want to get pregnant, if we do go through with this, so I have to be married before that happens. We lived together for two years, so you know we're both compatible in sharing a home and a bed together. So that's the first thing. Are you okay with that?"

Andy smiled a little bit shyly. "More than okay, but I think you knew that already, as long as you're still alright with me not going into church every week with you. I imagine you're going to have a harder time convincing the Catholic church that polygamy's okay, though."

"Are you kidding?" she snorted. "When word gets out how many American men are dead, they're going to be desperate to get every good Catholic boy and girl out there to be doing as much being fruitful and multiplying as they can get."

Niko began to quietly hum Monty Python's "Every Sperm Is Sacred" until Andy swatted her on the thigh and she stopped, although her grin had only widened.

"Hey, it's your religion, not mine," he said to Fi. "If they're cool with it, so am I. What's the other thing?"

"The other thing is that you need to agree to something, one specific thing, not knowing what it is or anything about it."

He blinked in confusion. "Er, what?" This was uncharacteristic for Fiona, being deliberately vague, and Andy wondered what was behind it.

"I have another condition but you need to agree to it without knowing anything about it. You just have to trust me and either agree to it, or I'll have to pass."

Andy paused and considered for a moment, perhaps even a moment longer than Fiona had expected him to. He could give Fiona an almost complete blank check, almost, but he decided he needed to clarify one thing. "Assure me that this condition that I can't know anything about won't harm or injure anyone. Since arriving here in New Eden, I've learned first hand that people can be capable of some truly terrible things, and while I don't think that you are, Fi, I just want to make sure I'm not getting anyone else hurt because of this. I couldn't live with myself if it was."

"The only thing that might be injured is your pride, that's all," she said, a playful smirk resting on her face. "I might bust your balls a bit for ditching me, but I'm not going to do anything you'd always regret over the long term. So what's it gonna be, Chuckles?" The fact that she still remembered her old nickname for him told him everything he needed to know. Of course he was in. He was all in.

"Fine, you got yourself a deal, Peaches," he replied, using his old nickname for her, which made her smile widen a little more on the other end of the video call.

"Great," she said. "I'll start packing and we'll see you in a few days. Later skater." She tapped the button and ended her portion of the call, leaving just him and Phil on the line.

Phil had been quietly watching the entire conversation with a bemused look on his face, like he was supposed to be doing or saying something, but couldn't tear himself away from the drama. "You're an idiot, you know that, right?" he said, rolling his eyes a little at Andy's naivety. "Based on just a few minutes worth of watching you two talk, I don't think either of you ever fell out of love with the other."

"As much a surprise to me as it was to you, Phil," Andy chuckled. "It's been a long time."

"You did hear what she said though, right Andy?" Niko said to him, poking him lightly.

"Wait. What did I miss?"

"She said we'll see you in a few days," Niko giggled. "I somehow don't think she was talking about the royal we."

"Ah hell. Well, I did agree to anything, so we'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

"Pretty sure that's not how that line goes," Phil joked. "Anyway, I'll be by tomorrow to drop off your locals. Jade, Tala and Whitney are on their way here to the base, and will get their injections tonight so they'll be ready to meet you tomorrow. You know what they're like when they're newly injected, so be prepared to take care of them for their initial imprinting within a few days. Also, you can tell Taylor her friend Natalie will be in New Eden tomorrow as well, just over at my house."

"Decided you just couldn't pass her up, huh? I thought you were going to ship her over to Eric."

"Audrey's always wanted to take pole dancing lessons, so I figured why not have an in house teacher?"

"Having an overly flexible eager teenage stripper in your bed is just a bonus, huh?"

Phil's grin spread from ear to ear. "Oh, sure, sure. I mean, I'll learn to live with it, I guess. If I have to." He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. "We all make sacrifices. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"You got it, man. Stay safe."

"You know it, brother."

"So that's the girl who took your virginity, huh? Your first true love? She didn't look at all like I expected her to look like, Andy," Niko said to him, as he stood up from the couch, stretching his arms over his head.

"What did you expect her to look like?"

"I dunno, but under possible things this mythical mysterious ex of yours might look like, I don't think I ever considered 'a lot like a young Gina Davis' to be anywhere in the vicinity."

Andy smirked a little bit. He'd heard the comparison more than a couple of times back when they were dating, what felt like a lifetime ago. "I take it that she meets with your approval then?"

"Hell, she called you Chuckles. For that alone, the woman immediately earned a place in my heart. I'm sure there's a story behind that."

"There is," Andy said, not elaborating further.

"You gonna tell me what it is?"

"I am not," he said, smugly. "You can dig it out of Fiona yourself when she arrives." He rolled his eyes with anticipated dread. "She probably still even has the photo, knowing her,”

"Did you keep up on her coverage of politics after you two split up?"

He shrugged. His emotional state after they'd split from one another had been messy at best, and his mind had been a whirlwind of emotions. "I mean, I'd see her name on a byline from time to time, but I didn't go out of my way to find her work. After we'd split up, I figured she wouldn't ever want to talk to me again. Ending a relationship sometimes does mean things to a person, and despite the fact that I thought we broke up pretty gracefully, one day about fourteen years ago, we ended a phone conversation and she said she'd call me in a week, and she never called again."

"And you didn't call her?"

"After about a month, sure. But by then, her phone number had been disconnected, as she'd apparently moved, so I figured it was a none too subtle way of telling me to fuck off."

"Or a test to see if she still mattered enough to you for you to track her down."

"God," Andy groaned. "Maybe. Probably? Maybe. Fuck, I don't know. But that's a shitty thing to do to a guy, especially one who's always dealt with low self esteem. It's like I told you, like I've told each and every one of you who've decided to stick out your lives with me,  sometimes you're just going to have to come right out and say what it is that's on your mind, because if you're expecting me to guess it, I'm probably gonna make a few giant mistakes here and there."

Niko giggled a little, nodding. "We women can be needlessly cruel from time to time, but you have to realize, we don't even know we're doing it sometimes. It's just something we've been indoctrinated into making second nature. At least you can see that it might have been a mistake now, though."

"Yep. And then she went and complicated things further by adding me and Xander on Facebook as friends a couple of years ago, which we both accepted. But neither of us felt comfortable messaging her first, and she never messaged us either, so it's just been one long detente."

Niko shook her head in mock disappointment at him. "You can definitely be an idiot some times, you know that, Chuckles?"

"Hey hey hey," he tsked. "You can't call me that until after you get the story out of Fiona."

"You should've reached out to her, Andy," Niko said with a sigh. "It sounds like that's what she very much wanted from you."

"Should've, would've, could've. We're here now, so I'll just have to live and learn. And when Fiona gets here, I'll give her the 'speak your mind speech I gave to you, so we're all on the same starting point."

The house had mostly kept itself busy today by the girls getting all their things moved in, as well as adding some décor to the house that wasn't purely Andy's. Sure, the publicity posters for all of his novels were still hanging on the walls, but now they'd been joined by movie posters for both Sarah and Emily's movies, framed photographs that Asha had taken before leaving London, framed posters from Sheridan's Cirque Du Soleil shows, a couple of framed articles detailing Piper's rise in the volleyball community, a framed sand painting done by Niko's mother and a few original paintings that Aisling had done as a break from her more commercial work. It helped make the place feel less like his house and more like their house. He would encourage all the girls to make sure they left some kind of a mark on the house as they arrived. He didn't want any of them to feel lesser that the girls who'd arrived first.

Emily and Sarah had also converted one bedroom into a makeshift studio for them to use, lining the walls with sound dampening foam, setting up cameras and microphones, so the room could be used for them to record lines for voice overs, or to film video auditions. There was even a large green curtain backdrop that could be pulled over so they could do low level CGI work in a very desperate pinch. While there was a desk for them to record at and a couch to relax in, they purposefully didn't put a bed in the room. Both of them insisted they were never going to be sleeping anywhere in the house other than the master bedroom, acknowledging that from time to time, Andy would be sleeping one on one with some of the more traditional women he would be partnered up with, but that he would do it in their rooms, or set aside one bedroom for the more private play sessions. It wasn't like he was running out of bedrooms any time soon.

Hannah had set up a bedroom for herself, but had deliberately chosen the smallest bedroom available, as she said she wanted to have at least a little of the dorm room experience. She also made it quite clear to Andy that she would only be sleeping in it about half of the time, and the rest of the time would be in the master bedroom.. She also told him that whenever it was safe for her to be on Stanford's campus for classes, she wanted to spend her first year in the dorms, so she could make friends and establish relationships with her classmates, but that she would come home once a week, to make sure she got her medicine, as she so jokingly called it.

After some conversation, Andy had just about talked Asha into joining Hannah at Stanford. In an ideal world, Andy hoped the two might be roommates in the dorm, giving them each a leg up without tying them to someone they couldn't stand for a whole year. Andy had gotten lucky in that Xander had been his roommate for all of college, but he'd met more than enough shitheads in the dorm rooms around theirs during the two years they'd lived on campus that he knew the entire process was a crap shoot. Asha had also decided to have her own bedroom in the house, because as much as she liked being in Andy's orbit, she also admitted that she definitely felt their age difference from time to time. Asha and Hannah were getting along great, thankfully, and so if Asha ever felt like she was getting overwhelmed, she immediately went to Hannah, and things were better in a flash.

To be continued in part 14, by CorruptingPower for Literotica.