“Huh?” she asked.
“Your hand is now inside my jeans,” Gage pointed out.
“What?” She looked down and saw that she had somehow, without realizing it, unbuttoned and unzipped Gage’s jeans. Her hand was inside them, massaging the toy between Gage’s legs through her boxer briefs. “Oh, shit.”
She went to remove her hand.
“No, keep it there. It feels good.” Gage’s lips moved to her neck. “You areverysexy when you’re jealous.”
“I am not. And I’m not jealous.”
“Yes, you are. You know I was with Sharon on the first night.” Gage licked her neck. “It was just sex.”
“I know. I just… She looked at you.”
“She does that sometimes. I look at her sometimes. It’s polite to look people in the eye when you’re talking to them.”
“She wasn’t looking into your eyes, Gage.” She rubbed harder. “She heard us having sex. She heard your sounds before that, and she was looking at you.”
“She’s already in love with Debra. Can’t you see that?” Gage whispered. “If she’s not, she’s at least well on her way. They can’t take their eyes off each other. In fact, I bet Debra is about to follow her into that shower. They’re probably just trying to pretend that they’re not about to get it on in there, like Helena and Becky tried to get away with last night.”
“Okay. Iamjealous.”
“Yeah. And I’m lucky.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I have no one here to be jealous of,” Gage replied and pulled back a little to look into Carrie’s eyes. “You weren’t with anyone the first two nights. If you were, I’d beveryjealous right about now. God, I’d be throwing eye daggers around this house. You have no idea.”
“Oh, yeah?” Carrie laughed a little. “Eye daggers?”
“Yes. Aimed at whoever got to touch you and hear your sounds.”
“Doyouwant to hear those sounds right now?”
Gage nodded.
“Then, let’s go.”
CHAPTER 47
Gage
Helena and Becky had left for the airport after lunch. Gage hadn’t spent much time with either of them, but Carrie had gotten to know Becky, so they’d hugged goodbye, and Gage had stood at Carrie’s side very much like the doting girlfriend supporting her girlfriend saying goodbye to a friend, which wasn’t something she’d ever done before. She’d liked it, her hand on the small of Carrie’s back while they all talked about Helena and Becky’s plans. Then, Carrie had taken her hand after hugs were exchanged and she’d wished them well. Helena and Beckyhadlooked happy, and it had been clear that they’d planned on staying together after this week, which they’d cut short for themselves. Had Carrie lived anywhere close enough, Gage would’ve suggested they leave, too.
The event had served its purpose for her: she had met someone. Nia’s rules could grate at times because they limited what she could do, and Gage was an adult who didn’t like being told what to do. She’d lost her parents young and had been forced to grow up and take care of herself before most people. On top of that, she was the boss at work and was the one who gave the orders. Having someone else dictate what she could talk about or what she could do and when was an adjustment, and not one she wanted to last for much longer. Then, there was Carrie and the fact that they hadn’t yet talked about how to makethis work beyond the week here, so she would stay until the last possible minute to have each of those minutes be with her and to give them time to do just that.
“This afternoon, we have what I think is a pretty fun activity, but itdoesrequire everyone to behave themselves,” Nia said as they all sat around the great room.
“Behave? Haven’t we allbeenbehaving?” Kristina asked.
“It involves your phones. I’m going to ask that you take ten minutes to check them for anything you might need and then close out of all those apps before we begin. You’ll also need the headphones I told you to bring. Grab those things and come on back here.”
Gage stood and followed Carrie, as well as the others, to where they had stowed their phones. She picked up hers, and the rest did the same. Her headphones were still in her backpack, so she retrieved them and headed out to the great room, where she sat back down next to Carrie on one of the large chairs, choosing to be as close to her as possible because she could now and because soon, this week would be over, and she wouldn’t have that option.
Once everyone was back, Nia flipped the blank sheet of flip chart paper up to reveal instructions on a page beneath it because, of course, there were instructions.
“Today, we’re going to listen to music together.” Nia nodded as if that explained something. “Music is an important part of our lives. Think of the best movie you’ve ever seen. If it didn’t have a soundtrack, would it have landed the same way for you? Think of an important emotional memory. It’s likely you heard a song later that hit you so hard and brought that memory back into your mind. Maybe the song was playing while the event was happening. This afternoon, you’ll share your three favorite songs with your partner. You’ll share the headphones so that you can both listen at the same time, and while you listen, I’d like youto either be silent because your partner hasn’t heard the song before and needs to listen to it first, or if they’re familiar with it, I’d like you to answer these questions for them.” Nia pointed to the flip chart that had questions written on it. “What does the song remind you of? Which feelings come up while listening to it now? When do you usually listen to it? Describe your mood when you do. What is important about this song that you want your partner to know? You can discuss each song for as long as you like, and if you have a top-five song list instead, feel free to keep going. After that, you’ll change roles, and your partner will do the same with their top three songs. Really try to open up to your partners with this exercise. Be completely honest, even if there’s pain in your memories. It’s a way for us to practice listening, sharing, empathy, communication, and so much more, using music as a vehicle to do it. Now, normally, we’re doing our afternoon activity with the whole group in one way or another, but today, I’d like you to find a quiet space, or a space where you would feel comfortable, and go there with your partner. The only thing I’m going to insist upon, outside of only using your phones to play the music, is that you do not have sex or fool around in any way. This is still our daily group activity, so please follow the rules. Since you’ll be leaving this room, you can take a picture of the questions on the easel here and pull that up as you need. Everyone understand? Any questions?”
