Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

What Do Men Want?

I served Carol and Jessica some freshly made tea and went back to working on a kitchen deep clean. I have the industrial stove apart and am getting all the spills and carbon removed. I am not anal about it, but I can smell the slightest off-odor these days, so cleaning is as much about my and Morgan's comfort as anything.

Jessica and Carol are sitting at the big table looking at wedding magazines as I clean.

Weddings are in the air. Weddings for Angel and Vera. Carol and DeWayne. Jessica and I really started something, although so far ours is the only traditional Vampire Poly setup. Angel and Vera's will be open, so I suppose that is pretty Poly.

I don't know this for a fact, but I think that the openness is mostly about Vera. I am pretty sure Angel would be happy with only Vera. Since Vera wants men in her life, Angel stays engaged with others as well. For Angel, it's all about love and who she loves, not a need to feed her libido with a gender flavor. Nor is staying more open a burden for Angel, I believe. She is happy to have others in her bed. She in particular likes it when it is Helen and I. Angel once compared that to Neapolitan ice cream. That way she gets all the flavors of loving. As an Astral, flavors of loving are to some degree a distinct thing for her than Vera.

As if all the weddings are not stressful enough, there is the Siren situation with Wyatt and Ginger. I am glad we squashed the HOA thing so fast. The last thing I need is someone saying they can come onto our land and have a look around. Tell me I can't have medical clinics, monster car workshops, and such.

I wonder how Ricky is doing? If I had to guess, the two women got joint ownership, and he is on a schedule now. Maybe even wrote up a covenant. The 'Ricky Owner Association', and it defines things like 'If my husband is home, you can have him, but I get a makeup day' type of things.

Vampire Poly is actually a lot easier, now that I think about it. The long-term point of view calms a lot of garbage down.

"It is amazing how much money you can spend on a wedding these days. " Carol said to Jessica as she flipped pages. "You would think that if you did not pick the perfect dress and the perfect cake, and the perfect invitation and on and on, that you are somehow a failure as a bride. I like your way better."

"All three of them were great. The one in the botanical garden was nice, just us three. Same three committing to each other right over there, in the living room. Morgan's was nice. Naked. In a pool, in front of witnesses and with Diana involved. We were going to have a big wedding for the family, but now it's not going to happen. Too many just would not understand a groom and three blushing brides. Poly has a bad enough name around humans, without adding marital aspects." Jessica was looking at a page with a dress.

"I never really thought about that." Carl agreed absently. "I am just marrying one man right now, so I do not have to deal with that. Why are you looking at that particular dress?"

Jessica shot a glance at me that I detected, so I looked at what I could see of the page from the kitchen. I am no expert on wedding dresses, but it looked a bit old-fashioned to me for some reason. Not sure why: I know nothing about fashion, other than I like it on the floor. I asked Jessica, "Does that look anything like the dress you wore the first time, when you were human?"

"A little.: Jessica nodded. She tapped part of the picture with a finger. "The bodice and waistline. I remember mother having to work so hard to get my plus size body poured into the thing. All to marry a jerk so I would be out of the way for my sister."

"All the wedding trappings are nothing but a dreadful memory for you?" Carol asked her.

"More or less. When Adrian and I were talking about the big wedding, I had images in my head of expunging the memories of the first wedding with the joys of the second one. Silly, I know."