Aor is the first on scene.

Piya and I get to the sliding glass door separating her cool air-conditioned house and the sunny backyard at almost exactly the same time as Aor who is pushing a pram. Aor is absolutely gorgeous, in no way what I’ve been picturing the entire time she has been gossiping about these goings-on. Her hair is a lighter shade than the other girls, cascading down over her curvy breasts. I cannot believe she is a recent mother as I look at her wearing a very light white linen sundress thrown over what I assume is her bathing suit.

The door is opened with warmed greetings and then with Piya saying to Aor, “I thought you weren’t going to bring the baby,” pointing to the pram.

“I didn’t, he’s with his dad and his grandparents,” Aor answers, “this is special mommy gets drunk with her friends time.” She reaches down into the pram and pulls out three large bottles of booze and a baggy full of pre-rolled joints.

“And I’ve been looking forward to this all week!” handing the baggy and two of the bottles to Piya she holds onto the third bottle. On the label are Thai characters that I cannot read but once she pulls the cork from the bottle I know instantly by smell its the rum Dawn had in her flask last night.

Aor starts to drink directly from the bottle to Piya’s objection, “Jeez! Aor, wait let me get you a cup with some ice in it for you! We aren’t schoolgirls any more.”

With that Piya takes off for the kitchen, my eyes transfixed on the hypnotic sway of her ass as she leaves.

“Do you think it’s the pattern on her bikini or is it just her ass that you like so much?” Aor asks playfully. “Hi I’m Aor,” her eyes rolling up and down my body, the zipper to my pants still undone from the quick recovery Piya and I just attempted.

We exchange pleasantries, “nice to meet you Aor. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Not as much as I’ve heard about you,” Aor says with a wink and casually points down to my unzipped zipper.

Piya comes rushing back to join us with a red solo cup full of ice and hands it to Aor, “now-now, be nice. I really like this one.”

“I’m always nice,” Aor says as she pours herself a stiff drink, “I was just curious where his bathing suit is.”

It was at that precise moment I realize I forgot mine.

“Text Yui,” Piya says nonchalantly. “I’m sure she’s still at your house and I bet she’ll grab it for you on the way.”

I notice a dramatic eyebrow raise and a smirk from Aor that she tries to hide behind her cup before I go and send off a text telling Yui where to find my suit and to come on over whenever she’s ready. While we wait we all take a seat in Piya’s cool living room. Aor sits by herself in a chair while Piya curls up right next to me, her head on my shoulder and hand on my knee as we all chat.

“Where is the lovely La-la?” Aor asks Piya looking around, “I thought she was with you tonight.”

“She is off trying to get in one of her big runs in before the party. You know how seriously she takes that.” Piya explains. “You also know she doesn’t like you calling her ‘La-la’ Aor, be nice.”

“I was just saying I heard Lawan was staying with you after the school dinner last night,” Aor clarified.

My mind quickly flips through what Piya and I were just doing not 15 minutes ago, astonished at the idea that Piya’s little sister could have been in the house for any part of it.

Sensing something Piya leans in to whisper into my ear, “don’t worry she goes off for hours at a time,” then loud enough for Aor to hear it, “she is running a half marathon soon, she’ll be back before the rest of everyone gets here.”

I can feel Piya’s leg rubbing against mine as we cuddle on the couch.

“Good for her, I ought to take my big ass running more often,” Aor says before getting up to go get a refill of her drink. “Do you have any pineapple juice for this?” Aor shakes her glass above her head

“Aor! Stop, you look amazing. Yeah, right at the bar, you can’t miss it,” Piya objects to her, “you’ve gotten your body back and more!” Piya smacks me on the shoulder, “doesn’t Aor look great? she had a baby seven months ago and look at her now!”

I agree. “You do, You look amazing Aor.”

She rejoins us on the chairs, “I just wish my husband saw it that way.”

“Aww sweetie, is that still not what’s happening?” Piya asks with an earnest, nurturing tone in her voice.

“Yeah, I guess he just sees me as a baby factory now,” Aor says, “he wants another kid already but doesn’t want to fuck me just to fuck me. And I’m like, 'how do you think babies get made?'."

“What does he say to that?” I ask her trying to join in the conversation.

Aor and Piya just giggle at each other before talking back and forth in Thai. I take that as a cue to go grab a drink for me and Piya.

The conversation is free and easy from there, returning to English when I return. It is all pretty typical getting to know you stuff until we hear a knock at the door and in walks Holly and Jessica, both wearing jean shorts and their bikini tops, introductions are made and drinks are poured. They both express such profound gratitude to Piya for sharing their gift “Best. Fucking. Anniversary. Ever.” Jess exclaims before turning to Aor and asking her had she ever tried the root they were talking about. Aor confesses she hasn’t since the baby was born. Both Holly and Jessica are stunned that Aor has a child.

“You have to tell me how you get in that kind of shape!” Holly says, forcing her way to share the seat with Aor.

“My friend Yui, she has been training me, helping me try to get back into shape,” Aor boasts as she straightens her white sundress.

“His Yui?” Holly asks then pointing to Piya.

Feeling an urgent need to step in, “no, this is Piya,” I say holding Piya’s hand, “she is the one hosting this get together.”

Jessica shoots Holly daggers, a non-verbal reprimand for screwing that up. I’m sure they’ve talked through, studied as best they could, my situation in the hopes of not fucking it up for me.

Aor flies into the rescue though, “they get confused for each other all the time! We’ve been the best friends forever. When you see them both together you’ll be able to know who’s who. When Yui gets here we’ll introduce you. Yui is the school teacher fucking him. Piya is our host here, who is fucking him, easy mistake.”

“Aor!” Piya gasps.

“Oh, so this is the one you were pulling for,” Jessica says to Holly as she indicates towards Piya.

Holly hushes her and I look over to Piya who has an undeniable grin on her face and she squeezes me tightly at the news that Holly is in her corner.

“Oh, so you’ve talked about Piya and Yui?” Aor asks as she chews on a bit of ice from her now empty cup.

“You’re one to talk!” Piya steps in and keeps Aor from saying more on the subject.

The front door opens and Dawn enters, the hellos and introductions start up all over again. Dawn asks where Lawan is, then asks where Aor’s baby is. She frowns slightly despondent at the fact that the baby isn’t here, Aor tells her he will come to pick her up with his father to which Dawn seems excited at seeing the baby all over again. “It’s been seven months and I still haven’t seen him, I can’t wait.”

Holly turns over to Aor, “seven months and you look like that? Yui must be some kind of trainer!” Everyone agrees and Dawn asks if she can have a drink. Piya tells her she can but only if she fixes everyone else up a drink too, which she eagerly does.

As she returns from the makeshift bar, full of drinks Jessica says The Loft is always looking for servers and someone who looks like Dawn could make great money at it. Dawn responds enthusiastically to the idea but when it comes time to give me my drink she can’t stop blushing and won’t make eye contact. I think it’s probably best not to push the issue.

A few minutes later Lawan comes through the door, sweaty and gasping for breath, her clothes clinging to her body from sweat, she says quick hellos to everyone before announcing she is going to go shower and get into her swimsuit before asking me where my swimsuit is.

“Yui is bringing it for me.” She accepts my answer and goes off to shower.

We continue the conversation as we hear the shower running and some singing coming from the bathroom. Piya brags to everyone about her little songbird and we get back into sharing stories of how we all met.

Aor goes into a great story about how she met her husband through a guy who both Yui and Piya were attracted to. “We were all about the same age as Dawn and Lawan,” she starts off, “Yui and Piya could not possibly be more into this guy, I guess somethings never change, and my husband was a good friend of this guy at the time."

"Anyway, they bickered and fought over who should be with him, and it turned ugly,” Aor explains

Piya agrees, “it was not our finest moment sure.”

“The three of us were inseparable,” Aor goes on to say, “so naturally I got along well with the friend. It started to turn out that the guy in question, Jin, probably was going to go for Piya here and it broke Yui’s heart.”

“Which I hated,” Piya says.

“Which Piya hated but it is what it is. Yui took it pretty well from what I can tell,” Aor looks to confirmation from Piya which Piya gives, “but Jin was a dirtbag weasel. When Yui acknowledged it wasn’t going to work out for her and him she stepped away, and this is the part she doesn’t know…”

Aor leans in towards the crowd to share this bit, “he started making fun of Yui to Piya.”

At this point Piya takes over the story, “he was saying things like she is too prudish, she isn’t sexy enough he would never be with someone like that. Naturally, I couldn’t let that stand. I love Yui, we all do.”

So anyway, his parents asked me to throw him a surprise birthday party, you know, be the distraction while they set up. So I did,” Piya smiles mischievously.

The entire living room, myself included are intrigued, silent until I finally ask, “what does that mean?”

“On his birthday, I took him out, just like his parents wanted. When the night came to an end and we were supposed to take him to his surprise party, I did that too.”

Laughing, trying to anticipate where this is going, “And?”

“And instead of just walking him inside, I blindfolded him, convinced him to strip and then walked him inside, shutting the door behind me and never looking back. Now that is the part Yui doesn’t know. She has no idea why I stopped seeing Jin.”

Everyone is howling in laughter at the thought of it, naked blindfolded, walking into a surprise party.

The laughter is cut short by Yui announcing herself, “hey everyone! Hi sexy!”

“Hi” I respond

“Not you silly!” Yui says as she walks to the couch and gives Piya a big hug, then Aor, then she does the rounds of introductions before coming to me, kissing me on the lips and handing me a bag with my swim trunks in it.

“Okay, I’m going to go throw these on and let's all get to the pool!” I say as I kiss Yui then kiss Piya and head up to Piya’s bathroom to change, “I’ll meet you out there.”

When I get to the bathroom I open the bag and see a pair of tight spandex briefs decorated green and yellow with a kangaroo over where my dick will go. They’re from an Australia day celebration and were nowhere near where I told Yui to go get my trunks.

I’m pretty sure she did this on purpose.