“Hey, querida!” Angela said when I got home. “Did you get everything you needed done?”

“Yeah, I did. Looks like I’m buying that restaurant and the apartment building,” I said, giving her a kiss. “Where’s Em?”

“She’s in the studio with Lee and Jackson,” Angela said. “They’ve been working on that new song of hers for a couple of days now.”

“Hey, are we having people over tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah, Jenna and Andy are coming. They’re going to bring Darius and his girlfriend, too. Jen is out in the studio with Em and the boys, and they’re going to stay for dinner. Lacy is bringing cookies,” Angela added.

“So, a good crowd, then,” I said, carrying my bag to the bedroom.

“But not too many,” Angela said, following me.

I dropped my duffel bag on the floor in the closet, then turned around and pulled Angela into my arms.

“I missed you, baby,” I said, giving her another kiss. “Even though it was just two nights.”

“I should have stayed up there with you,” Angela said, snuggling up against me, laying her head on my shoulder.

“No, it would have been boring for you. I had a bunch of meetings, and had dinner over at Donny and Sana’s house, and you don’t even know them.”

“You’ve told me so much about them, I feel like I do,” Angela said, in no hurry to move from her cuddly spot in my arms.

“I made them promise to come down for vacation, so you’ll get to meet them soon,” I said.

“Will they bring their little boy?” Angela asked, hopeful.

“I told them they couldn’t come without him,” I said with a chuckle. “He’s adorable. Real quiet, but not because he’s shy. He’s just like a little sponge, watching and listening to everything everybody says or does.”

Thinking about it, Angela said, “I think that is what Emmy must have been like when she was little, too. She still does that- she watches everything all the time. She never misses anything.”

“You’re absolutely right,” I said, with a chuckle. “She really doesn’t.”

Angela finally let me go, then took my hand to lead me out of our walk-in closet. “You need a shower, then we need to find Emmy and get her to stop for lunch.”

“Will you help wash my back?” I asked, hopeful.

Angela made a thoughtful face. “Well, I already had one shower today after my workout, and I don’t want my skin to dry out…” she objected. “If I scrub your back, you have to promise me you’ll help me apply more lotion when we’re done.”

I let out a deep, theatrical sigh. “O.K., I guess I can do that, if I really have to.”

“Fair is fair,” Angela said, poking me in the chest.

It took us quite a while to get showered and then lotioned up, but I can’t say that I regretted even a moment of the lost time.

“I went shopping yesterday,” Angela announced as she brushed my hair.

“Yeah?”

“I bought you some things. Some clothes. I was thinking about what you said, about Mia, and her ‘bois’,” she said. Kissing my shoulder.

“And this led you to buying clothes?”

“Yes, it did,” Angela confirmed. “I bought myself some clothes, and some for you, too. I want you to wear what I bought you tonight.”

“Am I gonna hate it?”

“I don’t think so, but you might be a little bit… uncomfortable? I hope you do not hate it,” Angela said. “If you do, you don’t have to wear it. But I would like you to, if…”

Now really curious, I said, “If you want me to, I’ll do it, Ange.”

With a happy smile, Angela bustled off to the closet. I watched her walk away, enjoying the way her hips swayed and her firm bottom moved with every step. I briefly thought of back when she’d announced she was going to go naked around the house, wishing those days would return. Watching her walk, statuesque in her nudity, was one of the greatest joys to be found.

She came back with a few small scraps of blue cloth and handed them to me, a nervous but hopeful look on her face.

A pair of thong panties was obvious, but the two other pieces?

Angela took the three pieces back, then handed me the undies. “These first- unless you want to skip them?” she said with a saucy smile.

I laughed and put them on. I had other thongs but rarely wore them, so I was unaccustomed to the feeling, but if it was for Angela, I’d do it.

Next she handed me one of the pieces of blue knit fabric. “It’s a skirt,” she explained.

I pulled it on, wondering where the rest of it was. It was just about the shortest skirt I’d ever worn in my life, which honestly wasn’t saying much. On Emmy or Angela it would have been reasonably conservative, but on me it seemed very risqué. Looking in the big full-length mirror, I could see that objectively it wasn’t micro, since it came down to slightly above mid thigh, but still… Like I said, it was probably the shortest skirt I’d ever worn.

Next up was a top in the same blue knit. It was a spaghetti-strap bandeau, cut high to show off my belly. I pulled it on and adjusted my boobs just right, then rotated my shoulders to settle the straps. Angela made a little noise, so I glanced over to see her wide-eyed, her hands over her mouth.

“Ay, Dios mío! Que guapaza!” she said.

Amused, I looked in the mirror. It wasn’t the sort of outfit I would ever have chosen for myself- in fact, it was the kind of thing that Angela would wear for her fast fashion photos on social media, but far, far from anything I would normally wear.

“Look at you! You’re so hot!” Angela said as I tried to pull the hem of the skirt a bit lower. She slapped my hand away, saying, “It’s perfect! Lee, you have the longest, firmest legs in the whole world. You need to show them off. Show them off for me, baby.”

“Is that what this is about? Me showing off for you?”

“Claro! Emmy and me, we know you’re the most beautiful, sexiest woman there is, right? But you always wear clothes that hide your amazing body,” she said, drawing out the word ‘amazing’. “Wear this tonight, and all our friends will get some idea of what Emmy and I get to sleep with.”

“You know, a lot of our friends have actually seen me naked,” I joked.

“It’s different,” Angela countered.

She disappeared into the closet, quickly coming back wearing a pair of loose jeans and a baggy BMW T shirt, Chuck Taylors on her feet. She handed me a pair of sandals to go with my outfit, thankfully with fairly low heels.

“And now you’re dressing like me?” I said, amused.

“You know what? I want to go driving on Saturday, the two of us dressed like this,” Angela said, her eyes bright and her smile wide.

“Yes, your highness,” I said with a little bow. “I aim to please.”

“And we’ll take the M6, not the Porsche,” Angela said decisively.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t be able to reach over and feel your leg in the Porsche. The thing,” she said, making some sort of strange gesture to indicate something about elbow height, “It’s too much in the way.”

Laughing, I pulled her into my arms to give her a kiss, only to feel her hands on the back of my thighs slide up under the skirt to squeeze my butt.

“This time I get to be the one groping you,” she said, kissing my collarbone.

“You groped me plenty in the shower,” I objected.

“It’s never enough,” she said, lowering her voice to a throaty growl. “For a beast like me.”

We found Emmy and the boys in one of the practice rooms in the studio part of the building. I was pleased to see that two of the other practice rooms were occupied and briefly wondered how the recording studio was doing, business-wise. It wasn’t my concern, though, and I didn’t want to step on Jackson’s toes, so I determined that if the subject came up I’d ask, but I wasn’t going to push it.

Angela waved at Emmy though the soundproofed glass window, getting a smile in return. Emmy said something to Jen, who opened the door for us.

“Holy shit, Leah!” Jen said, eyeing me up and down. “Lookin’ good!”

“Hey, you guys ready for a lunch break?” Angela asked, looking around the small group.

“I could eat,” Jackson said. “We’ve been at it for a while.”

“Yeah, O.K.,” Lee said, leaning back against his keyboard. “It’s actually a pretty good point to stop at,” he added. Still, even after knowing Lee for years, his SoCal surfer accent still made me want to laugh, since it was so unexpected, looking at him.

It took the three a few minutes to get their stuff sorted, but soon enough we found ourselves in the kitchen.

“I love the fact you guys have a chef make all your food,” Jen said, eyeing the Thai chicken salad. “You guys eat really well.”

“Worth every penny,” I agreed.

“I kind of miss cooking,” Angela said.

“You do cook, every now and then,” I countered.

“Maybe once a week, that’s all,” Angela replied. “I don’t do it very often.”

“But seriously, it must be nice to not have to worry about what to make for dinner,” Jen said.

“It isn’t just that,” Jackson said. “What your cook does make is always amazingly fresh and healthy, too. When’s the last time you guys ate anything fried in grease? You guys need to get yourselves some carnitas tacos from that place over on- hey, Lee, where is that place you took me?”

“Highland,” Lee said. “Just north of Melrose.”

“Yeah, that place. Damned good. And the birria!” Jackson added.

“Yeah, their birria is awesome,” Lee agreed.

“Maybe we should try it?” Emmy suggested.

“Just don’t go late on Friday or Saturday night,” Lee cautioned. “The place gets really busy and the line can get really long.”

“Stoners,” Jackson said with a laugh.

“One hundred per cent,” Lee agreed.

“Why were you there then?” I asked.

“We were stoned,” Lee admitted.

Andy and Jenna were the first to arrive that evening (if you didn’t count Jen, since she was already there).

Andy gave me a big hug and handed me a bottle of wine. “We went wine tasting down in Temecula on Monday, and this was our favorite.”

Jen and Jenna were doing their silly hand shake thing, but when they finished Jenna said, “We saw your mom and your sister there!”

I turned back to catch Andy looking me up and down. “That’s kinda a different look for you, Lee.”

“Angela’s idea,” I said with a shrug.

“Well, you look good- I mean, seriously good,” he said.

Darius introduced his girlfriend Shelly, who seemed a bit star-struck at meeting Emmy.

“Uh, Leah,” Darius said when the group wandered off into the kitchen. “I wanna talk to you about, um, investing and shit. I been thinkin’ a lot about it, and I’m pretty sure I am gonna retire after this season.”

“We can do that,” I said. “You want to talk tonight?”

“Um, I thinkin’ that maybe we could, like, get things started soon, you know? So maybe, if it’s cool with you, if you have, like, a few minutes…”

“Tell you what,” I said. “Let’s get everybody settled in, and we can go up to my office and talk.”

“I don’t wanna make you leave the party,” Darius objected.

“I meant my home office,” I said, pointing in the general direction of the tower.

“Oh, that’s cool,” he said, looking relieved.

“Hey, Ange?” I said when we followed the crowd. “Darius wants to talk about investing, so we’re going up to my office. Give us a shout when it’s dinner time, if we’re not down by then.”

“You need me, bro?” Andy asked.

“Uh, yeah, maybe,” Darius said, looking unsure. “Yeah, if you’re cool with it.”

Andy and Darius followed me down the world’s longest hallway to the base of the tower, where I suddenly remembered I was wearing a miniskirt and thong panties.

“Hey, you guys go on up- I gotta grab something really quick,” I said. No way was going to climb those stairs with two guys staring at my ass in that tight skirt.

I bolted back to the bedroom and grabbed my laptop case, figuring it was my best excuse.

Of course, the two football players had gotten distracted when they saw the racing sim rig, and were drooling over it when I made it to the floor below the actual office.

“Dang, Lee!” Andy said from the seat. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you had this setup? I could totally rock Gran Tourismo in this!”

“And my little sister would probably smash your lap times,” I said. “She’s a freaking monster on that game, but her favorites are the rally sims. Tiffy loves that stuff.”

“This is top grade stuff, man,” Darius said admiringly.

“I’ll tell you guys what. If you want to sneak away after dinner you can race yourselves silly.”

“That would be awesome, Andy said, climbing out of the racing seat.

“Now, up,” I commanded, pointing upstairs.

The two guys looked back longingly at the sim rig, but did as I said and made their way up to the office, me following behind.

I sat down at my desk so I could fire up the laptop, not actually thinking I really needed it.

When Darius and Andy settled into their chairs, Andy said, “You know, Lee, you’re the hottest investment advisor I’ve ever seen. It’s kinda hard to think about numbers with you dressed like that.”

“Wasn’t gonna say nothin’,” Darius agreed.

“This was Angela’s idea,” I said, indicting my bandeau and miniskirt. “Something to do with me not looking so butch or something, I don’t exactly know.”

“Well, ‘butch’ is definitely not how I’d describe that outfit,” Andy said.

“Try to concentrate,” I said, but honestly, I was laughing a bit inside.

“So, like, Lee,” Darius said. “You said some things that really got me thinkin’, and I wanna do what you said, but some of it is gonna be hard.”

“Which parts?”

“Well, I’m cool with the downsizing. I already started- I sold my Bentley and got myself a Lexus. I’m thinkin’ selling the house it the next step, and I can do that, but… cuttin’ off my people… I don’t know how I’m gonna do that.”

“I can see how that could be hard, but here’s the thing. You have to make it clear that you’re retiring and won’t be making any more money, right? If you aren’t making money, you can’t be handing it out like candy.”

“Yeah, that’s easy to say,” Darius said.

“You told me you bought your mom a house, right? It’s paid off?” I asked, and with that, we really started to get somewhere. By the time Angela climbed the stairs to announce that it was almost dinnertime, I felt as if Darius had a reasonable action plan that he could make work. It involved him playing for one more year, but downsizing immediately. One idea that he’d floated was opening a hot chicken restaurant back home in Tennessee, and I told him that I could come in as a silent partner if he really wanted to pursue that path.

When we made our way to the dinner table, people were already eating.

“Get everything figured out?” Jenna asked Andy.

“Maybe. I hope so,” he answered with a shrug.

After dinner we all made our way out onto the deck, since it was a warm October evening and still in the upper seventies at eight o’clock.

Darius seemed like a man with a weight off his shoulders, smiling more than I’d ever seen him do before. I hoped that he could stick to the plan, even though it meant telling his family no, something that didn’t seem to have ever happened in the past.

Watching Angela get ready for bed that night I thought about how she really came alive when we had guests over. She loved having a full house, loved it when friends came over, loved hosting parties. She was a very social person, in a way that Emmy and I weren’t. It isn’t that Emmy and I didn’t enjoy it, but it just didn’t come as naturally to either of us as it did to Angela.

Emmy must have been thinking similar thoughts, because she said, “Angie, you make friends so easily. Everyone loves you. These dinner parties- you are the one who gives them life.”

“It’s true,” I added. “Everybody does love you. But we love you most of all.”

Angela put her earring down on her dressing table and joined us in bed. “I love you two most of all,” she said, sliding in next to me, but reaching over to stroke Emmy’s white hair. “I love it when our friends come over, but I also love quiet evenings when it’s just the three of us.”

“Soon it will be five of us,” Emmy said, capturing Angela’s hand on her cheek.

“Soon,” Angela agreed with a hopeful sigh.