Dinner

Everyone moved to start eating. “Too many, unfortunately,” Viv sighed.

“None have lasted long since Dick,” Riko sighed, cutting through her meat. “Zabby, where did you get those?”

“The fridge, you forgot to put them out,” the redhead said with her fingers in a pickle jar.

“I didn’t forget, they don’t go with tonight’s meal,” Riko set her utensils down, and reached across the table for the jar.

Zabby pulled the pickles away, a bit of juice sloshed over the rim and down her wrist. She licked it before resorting to her napkin. “Will you two stop,” Viv said.

“Who’s Dick?” Adam asked.

Viv sipped her wine, “Richard Coleman was my husband, and the first head of our harem.”

The women’s faces all dropped a little. Adam wasn’t sure how to move forward. Fauna broke the silence, “Covid,” their voice barely a whisper.

“I’m sorry,” Adam said reaching out and taking Viv and Riko’s hands, they proceeded to take Zabby and Fauna’s hands in turn.

Viv sniffled, “Anyway, I stepped up as head for a while. Kept us all going, until we were ready to date.”

“Love you, Viv,” Zabby leaned over onto her shoulder.

“Love you,” Fauna squeaked.

Riko coughed, and under her breath said, “Love you.”

“What was that Riko?” Viv teased.

Riko stuck her tongue, “Whatever, just eat your poison already.” She stabbed a green bean pushing it in her mouth.

Viv continued her story, “For one reason or another, the new heads left, or we had to dump them.” Adam took note that he could still be dumped.

“Riko was most of the reasons,” Zabby bit into another pickle.

“Hey!”

Viv rested her hand on Zabby’s shoulder, “Quit it.”

“Thank you,” Riko said, sticking her tongue out at Zabby.

“After all we don’t need a reminder of how many heads Riko has scared off,” Viv said.

Riko gasped, “Hey!” She pouted, “I take back my love you.”

Viv reached across the table, “Oh no you don’t, we love you Riko.” Riko took Viv’s hand, “If those heads couldn’t handle you, they don’t deserve any of us.” Fauna rested their head on her shoulder.

“Fine, I love you all,” Riko said, freezing and glancing to Adam.

Adam chuckled, “Don’t worry, I know what you meant. We barely know each other.” Riko relaxed, “But I do love this mutton. I think you may have gotten off easy for stealing it during our date.”

Riko stiffened, “Well, to be fair Julio made that one, so it wasn’t nearly as good as this.”

“So Adam, the girls have told me a lot about you, but I’m sure they haven’t told you much about me. So do you have any questions?” Viv asked while cutting her meat.

“Oh, um, I guess what do you do for a living? It’s got to be something fancy to afford everything.”

Viv laughed, “I am CEO and founder of Coleman Industries.”

“Wow,” Adam said.

“Right?” Riko cut in, “Viv’s a boss bitch. And she gets that bag, so that Fauna doesn’t starve as an artist, not that they actually eat anything.”

“Riko!” Fauna howled.

Adam smiled, “I guess the other big curiosity is how you all met. How the harem came to be.”

Viv wiped her mouth, “Well, Coleman Industries was established and doing very well. Richard and I were set, but there was this feeling like something was missing. Then we saw this documentary about polyamory and well it kind of clicked. So we started looking for a third.”

“We dated a little, had a couple threesomes, but we were looking for something longer term. That’s when we found Zabby, aka Ginger_Deep,” Viv continued.

“Ginger Deep?” Adam turned to Zabby.

“I was a camgirl, and I couldn’t ignore it when Viv and Richard made a big, and I mean big, donation. We met up and really hit it off.”

Adam said, “A camgirl, huh?”

“You should see her OnlyViews now,” Fauna took a small bite of the food.

“Oooh yes, I’ll get you a subscription after dinner,” Zabby beamed.

“Who was next?” Adam looked to Fauna and Riko.

Viv continued, “It was what their 3rd year at State Art Institute, where we went to an art show that featured our very own Fauna Gray. Zabby and Richard fell in love with one of their pieces,” Viv pointed to a painting on the wall. It had a shattered mirror effect where different shards showed masculine and feminine views of the same person. “They weren’t going to sell it, but they revealed that due to,” Viv coughed, “Um, family reasons, they were going to be dropping out at the end of semester. Richard offered to pay their tuition for the rest of their schooling for the painting. Luckily the relationship didn’t end there and eventually they joined us.”

“Which just leaves Riko?” Adam suggested.

“Well, of those of us still in the harem. We had a couple others who joined and left, but yes, Riko was the last of us. Zabby had just graduated and Fauna was on summer break before their last year, Richard took us out for a celebratory dinner. He wanted to compliment the chef,” Viv said, Adam smiled knowing that Riko was obviously talented. “So the head chef came out, followed by a very high strung sous chef. Evidently him taking credit was the last straw for the sous that had ‘been running the whole damn kitchen for months.’”

“He got off easy, I should’ve stabbed the mother fucker,” Riko growled, her fork stabbing into her mutton.

“Needless to say, Riko was fired that night. But Richard took a liking to her, and by the end of summer we were shopping for locations to open our very own restaurant.”

By the end of the story, they were all mostly done with their meal. “Did the girls give you a house tour?” Viv asked.

“No, we just played Smash, and Riko was cooking. I would love to see the place though.”