Disclaimer : Characters and situations are all from my imagination.
Warnings : Sex and love between women
Feedback : Constructive criticism and feedback are both welcomed after the contest.
Copyright © 2012 Geonn Cannon
An endless supply of taxi cabs jockeyed for position in front of the airport. Even more regular cars were wedged in here and there, with the trucks lifted to remove luggage during final goodbyes. Planes seemed to rise and fall from the sky constantly. Jacqueline Norris sat in the back of the taxi she hailed in the city and watched all the people moving. Strange how people always seemed to need to be somewhere else. Any day of the year, any time of day, you could find someone just arriving or waiting to leave. Where were they all in such a hurry to get to?
When she saw her terminal, she leaned forward and tapped on the partition. "This is fine. You can just let me out here."
She paid, hefted a bag onto her shoulder, and stepped out into the melee of her fellow travelers. She flew often enough that security and check-in were almost second nature to her, and she made her way to the gate without expending much energy. She sat down and, for the first time since arriving in Chicago, allowed herself to relax. She took out her phone and dialed, rubbing her thumb across the fingers of the other hand while the other end rang.
"Jack, if you're not calling from the airport--"
"Hello to you, Nat. That's a fine greeting."
"Just tell me you're calling from the airport."
Jack heard an announcement begin and, instead of answering, held her phone up to the ceiling. When it finished and smiled and pressed the phone to her ear once more. "Satisfied?"
Nat sounded much more relaxed when she spoke again. "Sorry. I've just been anxious about this whole trip. You could have asked for some extra time off. You could have taken the whole week..."
"I could have. But you know this isn't exactly a nationally-recognized holiday."
"I guess. But people ask off for their anniversary all the time. This is basically the same."
Jack sighed longingly. "Yeah. You know I would have much rather driven up there with you--"
"I know. I'm just being bitchy."
Jack heard the weariness in her voice and took pity. "Poor baby. Is everything okay?"
Nat said softly, "I miss you. We miss you. It's not the same when you're gone."
"I know." She looked out the window at the planes crossing the runway. "I'm about to board a plane and then, in about three hours, I'll be there with you. You have my word on that. And you know my word is gold."
"I do. Oh, hey, hey." She held the phone away from her face and whistled. "Diane is almost to the house. She'll kill me if I let you hang up without saying hi. She's on her way. Listen, don't mind my sour mood. If I had my way, I'd keep you tied to the bed all day and night."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Well, we do have the whole weekend ahead of us. Make sure we have ropes in the garage."
"Pervert. Diane! It's Jack on the phone. Jack? I'm about to hand you over. Love you."
"Love you, too." She waited until she was handed over. "Hi, Wynken."
Diane chuckled. "Nod. Please tell me--"
Jack rolled her eyes. "I'm at the airport! You guys are the biggest worriers ever. Have I ever missed this day in the past five years?"
"No, but you've also never been halfway across the country on the day before, either." Jack looked down at her hand, feeling the guilt. She was about to sincerely apologize when Diane said, "Don't apologize for doing your job, Jackie. Just promise us you'll be here."
"I'll get there tonight. Cross my heart."
"I love you, Jack."
"Love you, Diane. See you soon."
"Want me to put Natalie back on?"
"No, that's okay. Give her my love."
"Sure, sure. Fly safe, sweets."
Jack smiled and hung up, looking around the gate to see if anyone had overheard the call. Everybody nearby seemed lost in their own worlds. She checked the time and took out her laptop, intent on losing sense of time with emails and work. Her background image was a photograph of her, Natalie and Diane sitting on a dock, their feet in the water, and their arms linked around each other's shoulders. Jack smiled at the faces.
They were a trio of opposites; Jack's skin was tanned and her hair was wavy and dark while Diane was a tall, lithe, blonde with bright blue eyes. Natalie was Iranian on her father's side, and she looked the least comfortable in the cold air in just a bikini. Separate, they were odd puzzle pieces. Together, somehow, it worked.
The picture had been taken by a fisherman who happened to be at the lake on their third visit there. No, their fourth. The first had been... She smiled at the memory. The first year they were at the lake together was Natalie's birthday. She had just started dating Diane, who knew Natalie from work and insisted it would be fun. When they arrived, Natalie had hummed the first few bars of the John Mellencamp song. Since then, Jacqueline had been just plain "Jack," a name she minded less and less as the years went on.
The plane boarded and Jack settled into the seat by the window. Only when they began taxiing did she let herself relax. She played off their worries and anxiety, but the truth was she felt a little itchy being so far away from them so close to the ninth of June. The past five years they had all taken a week off and spent the days around the holiday together, but she had been trying to land this client for months. He could only meet in Chicago, and his very narrow window gave her an hour on the eighth.
Diane and Nat both told her to go; there had been no guilt on anyone's part. But the closer they came to the date, the more all three of them started to get itchy.
"Going home or leaving?"
Jack looked at the woman beside her. "Uh. Neither, really. Vacation, but... near home. It's a, uh, tradition."
"That's nice. Going to meet your husband?"
The ring on her left hand was two ropes of gold twined together around a silver band. "No." She never knew how people would react, so she tended to keep quiet. "No, this is, um. No."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried."
Jack smiled and rubbed the ring with her thumb. The woman seemed to take the awkward response as a sign that conversation wasn't wanted and opened a novel. Jack was relieved and closed her eyes as the plane lifted skyward. The ring was technically Natalie's. She and Jack were married five years ago at the house in Kennebunkport, the afternoon of the day Diane and Natalie had married each other in a small civil ceremony at city hall. That evening, Jack and Diane said vows in front of Natalie, who had become ordained over the internet for the event.
So to answer the woman's question, she was going to Maine to meet her wives.
#
Natalie rubbed sunblock on her upper arms and neck. She had changed into a pair of overalls and a tank top, and she didn't want to spend the holiday week sunburned. She looked through the back door at the rocky beach outside her parents' house. Technically her own house now, but a lifetime of calling it theirs wasn't going to change easily. Diane was on the couch napping. After Jack's call, they had both felt the adrenaline crash that came with relief. Jack was at the airport. She was probably already in the air, winging her way to them. Nat worried easily. She opened the back door quietly and walked barefoot across the wooden deck to the steps.
The rowboat was pulled up to the house and covered with a tarp. She looked down at it and smiled at the memories it stirred up. Those first anxious days, the shyness that had overcome all three of them when they realized what they had done. Who would have thought it would go this far? She looked at the gold and silver ring on her left hand and felt that same old thrill she got whenever it caught her eye.
Married. She wanted to laugh at the idea. But married to Jack and Diane? That wasn't quite so humorous. She had known Diane for years, but only met Jack at her birthday party six years earlier. It was still the best birthday present she'd ever gotten. So urbane, so tall, so gorgeous, Jacqueline Norris... and so unfortunately taken. She was jealous of them both at the same time.
Later they had ended up in the rowboat, just the three of them. Jack sat in the bow of the boat with the oars, reclined with her long legs stretching out in front of her. Nat and Diane were at the stern, one in each corner, talking about mutual friends and inside jokes from work. Jack enjoyed their conversation without understanding it, and rowed them out past the breakwater.
As they drifted, Jack relaxed. Soon she was dozing, and Nat was speaking softly to keep from waking her. "I have a confession to make. It's kind of a bummer that you're here with someone. I was looking forward to seeing you outside of work so we could... get to know each other better. I don't want to cause any problems, but..."
Diane had seemed stunned. Jack had chosen that moment to reveal she wasn't as asleep as they thought. Jack sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Look, you guys have known each other longer. We've just started going out. I don't want to get in the middle if there's a chance you two could..."
Natalie scrambled to make amends. "No! God, no, you guys are together. I should have just kept my mouth shut."
Diane had stopped them both by raising her hands. "Can you stop fighting over me like I'm the last drumstick? I'm sitting right here." She tucked her blonde hair behind her ears, blinking at the brunettes drifting with her. She looked shell-shocked. "I don't want to break up with you, Jacqueline. We just started out. I don't know if it's going anywhere, but I'm not going to drop you just to see how things go with Nat." She looked at Nat, and everyone in the boat knew that things would go well indeed.
Jack was the one who came up with the solution. "You don't have to cut ties with me. If we're all honest with each other, and grown-up about this, then... maybe you could see how things work out with us at the same time."
Diane's eyes widened. "You mean date you both? At the same time?"
Jack shrugged. "I would be okay with it. What's the alternative? We get together, it's going great, and a year down the road you start wondering what may have been with Natalie. It wouldn't mean you're unhappy with me. Just that you're curious about the road not taken. I can understand that. Natalie's beautiful." Natalie had batted her eyelashes accordingly and her hair covered her face like a curtain. "If we were in a more serious relationship, it might make me more jealous. But we're at the starting gate." She looked at Natalie, then at Diane. "It's up to you, babe."
Diane looked at Natalie. "Would... you be okay with that?"
"Mama always told me it was better to share..."
They had "mutually dated" for almost four months. Occasionally they "double-dated," which involved buying three tickets to a concert so they could all go. It was after a Modest Mouse concert that Natalie and Jack ended up alone in Diane's living room while Diane prepared a late dinner. They talked and realized that far from feeling like rivals, they actually liked each other. Jack made the first move, and Diane returned from the kitchen to find her two girlfriends making out. They noticed her at the same time and broke the kiss, and the apartment was utterly, deafeningly silent. Finally, Diane put down the plates and walked over to them.
"I guess that saves me from having to make a decision."
They went to bed together that night. In the morning, Diane revealed she had decided to not make a decision. "I like you both. I think I'm falling in love with you both. So I'm not going to decide." She held her coffee cup with both hands, looking into the liquid instead of the women she loved. "So if either of you can't deal with that, then you should be the one to go."
Jack had covered one of Diane's hands while Natalie covered the other. Diane brought them both to her lips and kissed them both in turn.
"Well. That's settled."
Natalie still couldn't believe how easily it had happened. She curled her toes in the sand as she looked at the water. Everyone at work knew she and Diane were married, but no one knew Jack was anything more than a friend. People at Jack's work knew she was married, but they didn't know any details. It was easy to keep her personal life a secret when she was on the road most of the year and only went into the head office for the occasional staff meeting or evaluation.
Five years. They had been married for five years, together for six.
"Nat!"
She turned to see Diane standing on the deck. She waved.
"Jack just called from the air. She'll be here around six."
"Okay! I'll be up in a second."
Diane nodded and turned on the ball of one foot. She disappeared back into the house, and Natalie looked out at the ocean again. Jack was on her way, and she'd get there with six hours to spare. They would be together on Poly Day. Relief washed through her, and she turned to walk back up the beach to join Diane in the house.
#
Diane showered in anticipation of Jack's arrival, while Natalie took control of the barbeque. She turned her face into the spray and let the water wash over her cheeks and down her neck, reaching up to help it push through her thick blonde hair until it was the color of wheat. She and Nat hadn't been idle waiting for Jack to arrive; as soon as they got to the beach house, they began preparing for their weekend. They didn't take Poly Day lightly.
She had been the one to discover Poly Day in the first place. It was early 2008, and the three of them had just moved in. They were still a few weeks away from their wedding. Jack and Nat were in bed, Jack reading while Nat slept, and Diane was surfing the web at the desk. She was on a bulletin board they frequented that offered advice and support for "non-traditional relationships" when she saw that the next event was fast approaching.
"Jack, you awake?"
"Yeah." Jack looked down at Natalie and slipped her shoulder out from under her head. Natalie murmured and shifted, rolling to hug her pillow as Jack crossed the room. She rested her hands on the back of Diane's desk chair and kissed the top of her head. "What's up?"
"Poly Day. It's coming up on the third."
According to the blog entry, Poly Day was an American holiday celebrating polyamorous couples the same way Valentine's Day celebrated couples. England had its own celebration, but the American holiday took it a step further. The date of the celebration varied. Every year there was a "concrete" Poly Day, which was celebrated on the third of March (or 03-03), but the "true" Poly Day only happened once every three years.
"Are there parades or...?" Jack was now kneading Diane's shoulders as she read the screen. "How do you celebrate?"
"Private and public gatherings."
Natalie stirred, her hair mussed and tangled over her eyes as she sat up. "If you guys are looking at porn, I want in."
Jack smiled. "Come over here. Natalie found a holiday."
Diane smiled as she remembered her two lovers crowding around her at the computer as they read all about Poly Day. Then, as Nat suggested, they found some porn and used it to inspire what turned into a very late night.
Tomorrow, 06-09-12, was their second concrete Poly Day since the beginning of their relationship. They celebrated every year, but there was something special about making it "official." She and Nat were excited to make it a celebration to remember.
She finished washing and left the shower. She could smell the barbeque smoke drifting in through the open window as she toweled off and dried her hair, her stomach rumbling at the thought of eating soon. She dressed in shorts and an oversized T-shirt and went out to join Nat on the porch.
As such, she was the first to see the airport shuttle pull up in front of the house. She smiled and called for Natalie as she left the house, trotting down the steps as Jack started up the drive. She had her bag in one hand, and a mixed bouquet of red and white flowers in the other. When she saw Diane coming, Jack dropped her bag and held her arms out to catch her. She grunted when they collided, and kissed Diane after a quickly exchanged, "Hiya."
Diane, the taller of the two by a handful of inches, lifted Jack's feet off the ground and spun her around as Nat came out of the house.
"Hey, stranger," Natalie said. She cupped the back of Jack's head and kissed her passionately, Jack's arms still wrapped around Diane's waist.
When the kiss broke, Jack handed the roses to Natalie. "Now that's what I call a greeting. Happy Poly Day." She turned to Diane. "Happy Poly Day." Diane scooped Jack's bag up off the driveway as Nat sniffed the flowers and led the way back to the house. The door was shut, and Diane had deposited Jack's bag on the couch, Natalie handed the flowers to her. She inhaled and sighed.
"White roses. My favorite."
"And red are mine," Natalie said. "Our wife is pretty amazing."
"Yes, she is," Diane agreed.
Jack hid her blush by looking around. "Well, something smells amazing, and it's not the flowers."
"Burgers are almost ready," Nat said. "If you want to take a shower to wash off the plane ride, Diane probably saved a few drops of hot water."
Diane shrugged and pressed against Jack from behind. "I tried. If not, I could hop back in with you and keep you warm."
"Tempting, but I think I'll just take a quick shower." She stroked Nat's cheek and then kissed Diane again. "I missed you guys so much."
Diane smiled and nuzzled Jack's cheek, while Natalie wrapped her arms around them both. For a moment they just held each other, soaking up the fact they were all together once more. Finally, Jack pulled back. Ever the realist, she said, "Shower. Diane, put the flowers in water. Nat, finish up with the burgers. I'll see you guys in a second."
She went down the hall, and Diane put the flowers in a pitcher before she followed Nat outside. Smoke rose from the grill in great white plumes, and Nat waved it away as she checked on the patties. Diane put out the plates with the buns lying open-faced on them. She moved like a teppanyaki chef with the condiments, adding mustard and ketchup to two buns, while another was slathered with mayonnaise. She unwrapped slices of cheese and handed them to Diane, who let them melt on the meat before transferring them onto the buns.
"Chips?" Diane said.
"By the cooler."
Diane surrounded the burgers with chips and carried two of the plates to the table in the corner of the deck. They had just sat down when Jack rejoined them in a button-down shirt and sweatpants. She kissed them both a proper hello, and then put the roses in the middle of the table.
When she sat between them, facing out toward the beach, she took off her sandals and put her feet up on the railing. The sun was setting behind them, and the sky over the water was a spilled box of crayons.
As they ate, Jack talked about the client she had gone to Chicago to see. She revealed she had landed the account, which prompted a high-five from Nat and a kiss to her cheek from Diane.
"Great job, Jack," Diane said. "I knew you'd knock it out of the park."
"I think I was just so anxious to wrap things up so I wouldn't miss this that I didn't have time to be nervous. I laid out the plan, told him what was what, and let it be known I was ready to walk out the door without negotiating if he didn't like it. So he took what I offered."
Nat smiled. "Let that be a lesson to you. Eagerness can look like confidence in the right situation."
Jack laughed. "Amen. So what did you guys do while you were waiting for me to show up?"
Diane pointed into the house. "I was pining at the window with a lock of your hair wrapped around my fingers."
Nat smirked and playfully swatted Diane's arm. "She sleeps in your nightshirt when you're not here."
Jack smiled as Diane ducked her head. "What? It smells like you."
"Honestly," Nat said, "we were getting ready for Poly Day. Concrete ones need to be more special."
"I agree," Jack said. "So what have you got planned?"
"After dinner," Nat and Diane said at the same time.
Jack shuddered. "Okay... I have to stop leaving you two alone so much."
Her wives only smiled at her in a way that made her more determined that she was about to be a very willing victim to something they had cooked up. She couldn't wait to see what it was.
#
Jack helped Diane clean up after dinner while Nat disappeared into the back of the beach house for a shower and "to get ready." Jack looked at Diane for a clue, but she was curiously close-lipped. They stood side by side at the sink scrubbing plates and glasses. Jack bumped Diane's hip with hers. "You really wear my T-shirt when I'm not home?"
"Every night. That time when you were in Albany and Nat was working the night shift, I wore your shirt and hugged Nat's pillow all night." She chuckled at herself. "I used to crave sleeping alone. I wouldn't let anyone spend the night. Now when I have that whole big bed to spread out on, I'd give anything to have someone holding me."
Jack stepped behind Diane and wrapped both arms around her waist. Her hands, wet from the dishwater, spread blotches of moisture over the front of Diane's shirt. She kissed Diane's neck, and Diane groaned low in her throat.
"Nat will be mad if we start without her..."
"Not starting without her," Jack said. "Just making up for lost time."
Diane turned in Jack's arms and kissed her. Jack pressed her against the sink, letting her frustration from being deprived of her lovers take over. She pulled at Diane's thin clothes, sliding her hands under the shirt to touch her stomach. Diane curled her fingers in the collar of Jack's shirt and growled through the kiss. She bent her knee and rubbed the soft, inner curve of it against Jack's hip before she broke the kiss.
"Maybe I'll go see if Nat's ready."
"Maybe you do that," Jack said. She playfully swatted Diane on the ass. "And hurry."
Diane hurried out of the kitchen, and Jack finished washing the dishes with trembling hands. She managed to fight the desire all afternoon, but once she crossed that line it was hard not to tear down the hall and tackle them both whether the surprise was ready or not. Her patience was rewarded a scant few seconds later.
"Jacqueline? Your presence is required in the boudoir."
Jack left the dishes in the sink and hurried down the hallway. Diane was standing in front of the bedroom door with a red ribbon tied around her right hand. She held it up and said, "Happy Poly Day, sweetheart."
"Happy Poly Day. What's the ribbon for?" The door was ajar, and she could see candlelight beyond.
Diane held her hand up. "For you. Close your eyes."
Jack did as she was told, and Diane stepped forward. She tied the ribbon loosely over Jack's eyes, smoothed both hands over her hair, and bent down to kiss her neck. She linked her fingers with Jack's and led her forward.
"Right this way..."
She was aware enough of her surroundings to know when she was in the bedroom even before the door shut behind her. She heard Nat climb off the bed, and four feet moved around in front of her. When she heard Nat and Diane kissing, Jack lifted her hands and reached out blindly for them. One of them took her hand and lowered it.
"No, no," one of them said, speaking just soft enough Jack couldn't tell which it was. There was a moment more of kissing, and then one of them kissed her. Hands went around her waist and pushed under her sweatpants to cup her ass. She kneaded the soft flesh as Jack's other wife circled behind her. The buttons of her shirt were undone, and the material was plucked off her shoulders and left to fall to the floor.
Four hands undressed her, and two lips explored her body. Whenever she thought she knew for certain who was touching her in a certain spot, her lovers would withdraw and shuffle again. She heard the soft drum of Diane's stride, the slide of Natalie's bare feet, but Jack was too aroused to expend much mental energy on trying to solve the puzzle.
"Love," Jack whispered.
"Love," Diane whispered against Jack's neck, and Natalie echoed, "Love."
Early in their relationship they had decided they wouldn't say "love you ," during sex unless one of them was absent. Jack kept her lips parted as someone's lips slid across her breasts. Her nipple was teased with a soft tongue and gentle nips. She immediately identified the technique as Nat's, but she made herself forget. The whole point of the game seemed to be confusion, so she kept her hands to herself and ignored the tell-tale signs that gave away their identities.
Jack was quickly naked, and Diane untied the ribbon to let the blindfold fall away. She blinked, and her eyes widened when she saw what had been done to the beach house's bedroom.
The sheets were pristine and white, visible under turned-down red sheets. A vase of vividly red flowers stood on one nightstand, while white roses that seemed to glow stood on the other. The bed was littered with petals of both bouquets from the pillows down to the foot of the bed. Natalie, standing in front of Jack, kissed the corner of her mouth.
"Don't worry. We didn't destroy your bouquet for it..."
"I wouldn't have minded if you did. It's gorgeous."
Hanging over the bed was an oversized wedding portrait that showed all three of them. It was from their third wedding, when Natalie had officiated to marry Jack to Diane and complete their circle. To one side was the same picture Jack had as the background on her computer. To the other was a picture of their hands stacked on top of one another with Diane's on top, the gold and silver of her ring seeming to leap through the glass.
Diane had her arms around Jack's waist, pressing against her from behind. Nat was standing with her hip against Jack's turned to look at the room as Jack examined it. Finally Jack noticed their attire: Natalie in red lingerie and, when she turned around, she saw Diane wore white. "My girls."
She kissed them both and stepped out from between them. She took Natalie's left hand in her right, and Diane's right in her left, and pulled them to the bed. She sat down and ran her hands up their arms. She let go of them and leaned back.
"Undress each other."
They smiled at each other and kissed, their hands beginning to roam. Jack moved a hand between her legs as she watched them. Her largest concern upon embarking on this relationship was that she was sure she would eventually feel stronger for one woman than the other, that her love would soon be lopsided. But as she watched Nat bend down to take one of Diane's pink nipples into her mouth, and as Diane watched Jack with heavy eyes, Jack knew she couldn't bear to part with either of them.
She loved them both more than she'd ever thought she could love even a single person.
The lingerie was quickly disposed of, and Diane was the first to join Jack on the bed. Natalie crawled past her, pulling Jack down as Diane kissed her. Jack ran her hands over Diane's hips, down her thighs to her knees, and then turned her head to watch Nat get settled near the pillows. Nat smiled and crooked her finger, and Jack crawled on her elbows until she was completely on the bed.
Nat straddled Jack's head as Diane settled on her right thigh. Diane stroked Jack's hips as she positioned herself, her thigh pressed tightly against Jack's sex as she settled her weight against Jack's upper thigh. Nat put her hands on Diane's shoulders for balance and her knees sank into the bed above Jack's shoulders. Jack turned her head and kissed Nat's thighs, grinding down against the firm presence of Diane's leg as Diane and Nat met in a heated kiss.
Nat ran her hand down Diane's body to cup her mound, using her fingers on Diane's clit as she rolled her hips on Jack's thigh. Jack, meanwhile, wet her lips and lifted her head to press a kiss to Nat's labia that made her whimper plaintively.
The three of them worked together well, having long ago learned the choreography of trying to focus on two people at the same time. Diane's preferred position was to have Jack and Natalie lying next to each other while she used her lips and hands on them at the same time. Nat's favorite was the sandwich, and she didn't care who was in the middle. This, however, the pyramid, was Jack's favorite. She pressed her foot into the mattress to apply more direct pressure to Diane's sex, and Diane moaned into the kiss with Nat.
Jack came first, unsurprisingly to anyone. Nat and Diane had been at the beach house for two days and Jack had been abstaining. She shook and groaned through her orgasm, her lips wet with Nat's juices as she dug her fingers into her firm thighs and rode out her orgasm. She turned her head and licked Nat's thigh and continued to move her lower body against Diane's.
Diane finally came and, once she recovered, she and Jack assaulted Nat as the last woman standing. With Diane between her legs and Jack at her breast, she didn't withstand the assault for long. She trailed her fingers through their hair as she shook and chuckled at herself, her own dark hair stuck to the sweat on her forehead as she drew her wives to her.
"Oh, my God." She kissed Jack, moaning as Diane sucked on her neck. "Happy Poly Day," she said when the kiss broke.
The other two murmured it in response, then kissed each other. Nat's eyes glossed over with arousal. She never thought she would get used to watching someone she loved kiss someone else, let alone that she would be aroused at the thought of watching her have sex with someone else. Of course it helped that it wasn't just "someone else"; it was someone else she happened to love just as much.
"Love," Diane whispered, beating Nat by a second. Jack smiled and repeated it to them. Diane pushed some hair out of Jack's face and said, "You had a long flight... you want to rest up before round two?"
Jack raised an eyebrow. "There's a round two?"
Nat clucked her tongue and squirmed underneath her wives. "It's Poly Day. On Poly Day, everything comes in threes."
#
The alarm quietly buzzed at 2:55am, and Jack turned it off. She sat up slowly, wincing as her sore muscles protested. She reached down to make sure Diane's new toy wasn't still inside of her and her lower body jerked at the contact. Still a little tender, but she smiled and stroked her pubic hair as she rolled over. Diane was wrapped in Nat's arms. Until Jack had woken and slipped free, she had been tucked against Nat's side with her arms around them both. She rubbed her eyes and kissed Natalie awake.
"We have to hurry."
"Hm? Oh." Nat woke Diane with a whisper in her ear, and they dressed quickly in the dark. Jack wore a loose knit sweater that hung off her left shoulder, while Nat put on a T-shirt and overalls. Jack helped her fasten the straps as Diane returned from the bathroom and put a robe on over her underwear. Nat detoured into the kitchen and got a glass of champagne and three glasses before following her wives outside.
They walked out of the beach house in a single file, Nat shuddering in the chilly air as she tripped along the sand behind Jack. They dragged the rowboat down the sand and climbed aboard, rowing out only a few feet before stopping. Jack held the glasses while Nat poured. The moon overhead was mostly full, save for a small sliver of shadow, and it was bright enough to see. Nat put down the bottle and took her glass from Jack, holding it up in a toast.
"To Diane Weaver and Jacqueline Norris, keepers of my heart."
"To Natalie Bostick," Diane and Jack said together, "keeper of ours."
They touched glasses. After their wedding(s), they debated the pros and cons of changing their last name. None of them wanted to impose their name on the other two, and hyphenation would have been a nightmare. For a while they entertained the possibility of coming up with a completely different surname that they could all share, but none of them could agree on which one they liked best (Jack campaigned hard for Earhart. Neither Nat or Diane were entirely sure if she was being sincere) so they decided it was simpler all around to keep their own last names.
On their first wedding anniversary, while drifting in the boat where their romance had begun, Diane had laughed and flipped her hair back as she pointed out their last initials - W, B, and N - matched Wynken, Blynken and Nod from the old nursery rhyme. Diane was Wynken, Nat was Blynken, and Jack was Nod. After the nicknames took hold, the three of them began arranging to spend part of every anniversary and every concrete Poly Day out on the water in their own personal wooden shoe.
Jack kept her eye on her watch and announced when the minute was almost upon them. At 3:33am on 06/09/12, the three women held a toast to each other and to other people all across America in relationships like theirs.
Diane sighed and swirled the few drops of champagne that remained in her glass. "So, the next concrete Poly Day is September twelfth, twenty-fifteen." She smiled at Nat and Jack. "You guys doing anything?"
Nat shrugged. "I'll have to check my schedule."
Jack put down her glass and reached out for their hands. "I'll make doubly sure I'm not busy." She kissed Nat's knuckles, then Diane's. "Next time, you guys get the whole week. I swear."
Diane smiled. "Good enough for me."
They watched the sky for a while until Nat stretched her arm out and pointed. "Orion's belt! I win."
Diane and Jack followed her finger to the three stars lined up overhead. That was another Poly Day tradition, and Jack smiled. "You found it first. That means you get this year's Poly Day wish."
Nat poured herself another glass of champagne and held it out to them. "I wish for twenty more concrete Poly Days with my wives. At least twenty."
Diane poured another glass for herself and Jack and they toasted.
It might be outside their power to fulfill Nat's wish themselves, but they were both going to work hard to make it a reality.
THE END.