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"Do you do this for Marguerite too?" Lyda asked. "If she does, I hope she pays you well for it."
"I do," Gen said, with no little pride. "She used to do it, and now she trusts me with pretty much all of it. I even did her taxes last year. I don't have a degree yet, but--"
"You should hire out your services," Lyda said bluntly. "I know at least five other businesses who'd love to have someone handle their books rather than doing it themselves. If you ever want to hang out your own shingle, let me know."
"Oh, well... I love working at Tea Leaves, but I can always use more money." She figured she could do it at night, or on her days not working at Tea Leaves.
Lyda frowned. "Doesn't Marguerite pay you enough?"
"Absolutely," Gen said hastily, horrified at the vision of Lyda deriding Marguerite about her pay scale. "But there's only so much you can reasonably pay someone to wait tables and run a counter in a tea shop, given the profit margins. I love it there, though, and I don't want to leave."
"You're not a big spender, Gen. Do you have a lot of fixed costs?"
"No." When Lyda continued to stare at her, and she felt Noah glance her way, Gen bit back a sigh. She could say she didn't want to talk about it, but they were getting to the point it was best to put certain things on the table. "I'm in debt, thanks to my second husband. I've paid off a lot of it. In another year, I'll be clear, but getting clear sooner would be great. So if you're serious about those businesses, I'll be thrilled."
"I'm surprised Marguerite didn't loan you the money to get out from under all that." This time, there was no reproof in the tone, at least not toward Marguerite. Which told Gen that Lyda knew M enough to know she would have offered.
"I wanted to fix it myself. This is my private business."
"Because it makes you ashamed? Sounds to me like you should be proud as hell about it." Lyda leaned between the seats, bracing her hand on Noah's headrest. "Plenty of people make mistakes and get into a hole, and look for everyone else to bail them out. Government, family, friends. You picked up your own shovel, even when that hole wasn't all your doing."
Gen set her jaw. "Yes. I did."
"Then don't let questions about it embarrass you."
She sat back. Noah gave Gen a wink and squeezed her hand. "We better stop for gas," he said. "And I need a snack."
"When do you not?" Lyda said dryly.
"I need a restroom break," Gen added quickly, earning a conspiratorial grin from Noah. Truth, she could use a snack as well. When they pulled into the station, she asked her two companions if she could bring them anything from inside the store. Noah called out a request from the pump to bring him Cheetos and a Dr Pepper. Lyda was quick to lean out the window and correct him, telling Gen to bring him a bottle of water and a granola bar. Noah made a gagging noise that had Gen grinning.
Lyda rolled her eyes. "Fine, then. Bring him that junk. When he becomes a diabetic, I'll get a chance at needle play. I'm sure you can inject insulin into someone's privates."
"Cheetos and a bottle of water," he compromised, crossing his eyes. Gen laughed at both of them. At the convenience store doorway, she stopped to look back. Noah had the gas pumping, but apparently had decided to prove just how healthy he was. He was standing in front of Lyda's window, doing a stripper dance, gyrating his hips and then turning to rotate his very fine ass in a way that had the woman pumping gas behind them gawping. Lyda looked toward Gen, and rolled her eyes again. "Get his damn Dr Pepper and Cheetos before I strap him to the top of the car," she called out the window. But Gen saw her reach through the other window, give him a quick chest stroke and admonishing flick, gestures of affection.
They'd all done a lot of touching throughout the trip. Occasionally, while Noah was driving, Lyda would slide forward, stroke his hair or Gen's. Gen would hold Noah's hand or him hers. After that night, sharing a bed together, things had just grown more...connected. It had been like an official starting point, the moment where it was clear a relationship was happening, growing. Lyda of course still had her more reserved "Mistress" moments, and Gen saw flashes of that unsettling side of Noah, bu
t overall, Gen was optimistic about the turn things seemed to be taking.
Gen had hosted the dinner at her house for them. She'd shown Lyda the craft room and the back garden, as well as how good a job Noah had done on the floor and walls. Before that night, he'd come back and done the painting. She loved the fresh paint smell, which made it seem like she was in a brand-new house. Lyda had given her a couple azaleas to plant around the walkway he'd also helped her build out of some spare brick left over from a construction site.
Gen had been so nervous that night, but once they were both there, the way they settled in, piled on her couch together to watch a movie after dinner... She had a scrapbook building in her mind, not only of the amazing, erotic experiences she'd had with them both over the past several weeks, but other equally significant things. Like Lyda pulling her down on the carpet of Gen's small living room and showing her an array of horrible exercises to work her abs and glutes. Noah, escaping to the kitchen to bring them big dishes of ice cream scooped over warm brownies to save her. Then later, Lyda had put melted ice cream on Noah's bare stomach, Gen licking it off as Lyda teased her pussy with knowledgeable fingers, her other hand working Noah's cock...
Gen tuned back in to the present, a smile quivering on her lips. Yes, things were going well. When it was like this, a three-way relationship wasn't as complicated as it seemed.
It was the first time in a long while Gen had taken a vacation that was more than a day here or there, so it was even more exciting to be taking one with two people starting to mean so much to her. She hadn't really shared how much, since those feelings were advancing at a pace that scared the crap out of her, but it was still really nice to be here with them.
Once back on the road, they arrived in Gatlinburg within the hour. Noah had warned her the town was a gaudy midway carnival set in the midst of all that natural beauty. Regardless, Gen found herself enchanted by it as Noah did the slow stop-and-go traffic down the main strip in the Escalade, past T-shirt shops, fudge stores, Ripley's Believe it or Not and the Hard Rock Cafe.
"Hey, there's a tacky place." Noah pointed it out.
Chloe had told her to bring back the tackiest souvenir she could find. Gen saw a couple suitably horrible candidates in the store window Noah had indicated. "We'll go back later," Lyda interjected before another spontaneous stop could happen. "We're almost there. I want to get settled."
They turned off the main drive and started up a steep incline, a winding road that took them into neighborhoods dug into the sides of the mountains surrounding the town. They passed a gate to a resort community, and Noah nodded. "That's where Dot is staying with her friends. She said to come see her early evening. Fair warning, she likes to take walks after dinner, and this is probably the only day we'll get a pass." He glanced at Gen. "She thinks eight miles is a nice outing. And she'll give you grief if you get out of breath. Never mind the fact she's in a power wheelchair."
Gen chuckled. "I have walking shoes. I notice you didn't give Lyda that warning."
Noah stroked Gen's leg with his long fingers, then left them there, curved intimately over her inner thigh. "Don't feel bad. SuperMistress back there can wear me out too. She's Xena Warrior Princess."
