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The oldest of the five was the one that closest resembled Sera: blonde hair and brown eyes, still different than any of her sisters. Harper could have been Sera’s own daughter, except for the five years in age that actually separated them. In reality, Buzz was only ten years younger than Sera, so having any of them as a real daughter was impossible, but she had gotten them through marriage, so they were all hers anyway. They might be stepdaughters, but the step was very small, just how Sera liked it.
“What’s so funny?” Harper pulled Sera’s second drink towards her and took a sip.
“Sera having sex in the conference room,” Lucy stated, straight-faced.
“Doesn’t sound comfortable, but to each his own.” Harper looked at the drink and shook her head at the taste but took another sip anyway.
Buzz did a stage whisper as she leaned into her older sister. “She says it wasn’t her.”
“Too bad. She hasn’t been getting lucky lately. We all know how crabby she gets when she isn’t getting laid.” Harper pointed at her with her glass, not noticing the evil look her mom was sending her.
“I will have you all know I got laid just last weekend,” she said loudly enough that the table heard, and maybe the next table over.
“Tell me you did not sleep with that douchebag.” Harper shook her head at her.
“I did not.” Sera laughed as she tried to grab her extra drink back .“I ditched him and met this guy at the bar.” Okay, so she lied. It had been a while, but if the girls knew that, they would set her up tonight, and she didn’t want that.
Yes, at work, she pretended to be married and had been when she had first started her job. In fact, she had been married until she was almost thirty, but her actual marriage had lasted around a month. That was when Bradford Lovely had gone from teaching English at the university across town to teaching at one in Peru.
The sudden transfer had surprised everyone, including his new bride and his five preteen-to-teenage girls. At nineteen, she watched the backside of her spouse as he headed to his assignment that was supposed to have only lasted a few months, and she hadn’t seen him since. Once a year, she got a phone call from him to check on his girls. That was fifteen years ago. Six years ago, when Buzz had graduated from high school, she had finally divorced him. He hadn’t contested it, and she hadn’t used a lawyer from the firm she worked at.
So, she was now happily divorced and had custody of her five stepdaughters, who were all adults now. But at this point, they all lived at home with her, so she got to see them every day.
“Proof!” Buzz demanded from the corner.
“I have none. It was a one-night stand,” Sera replied. What proof was there?
“You should find someone tonight! I mean, that was last weekend. A long time ago,” Lucy said in all seriousness. “I’ll keep my eye out for someone. I think you want someone fun and adventurous.”
“And how do you pick out the adventurous ones?” Sera asked her. Lucy did usually find adventurous ones from what she had noticed over the years, so maybe there was a trick to it.
Sera know that at least two of her children had been sexually active when she met them, and at the time, they were all under fifteen. But with an absent-minded father and an actually absent mother, the five girls had no supervision at all. No way was a nineteen-year-old getting them under control, so she did her best, and now they were all sexually active. But it didn’t interfere with school or jobs, and condoms were handed out like candy since they were young.
“You look into their eyes and wink. If they wink back, you’ve found one. That’s the signal. I can’t believe you haven’t heard that before.” Lucy stated, all serious.
“I call bullshit, Lucy Maud.” Sera called her out on her joke.
“Actually, I’ve heard that also,” Harper said with a straight face, still drinking Sera’s second drink.
“Et tu, Harper?” she snapped at her oldest stepdaughter.
It was times like these that she loved being their mom. She loved being in the middle of this mess of women. They made her shitty day go away within minutes with laughs and smiles.
