11: A Negotiated Peace

Alex and his sisters entered the hotel dining room the next morning with more than a little trepidation, knowing Winona would undoubtedly be waiting for him. They’d discussed her and how he hoped to handle the situation—the girls having their own opinions. They’d already decided that despite how strongly Cate felt about the matter, they’d give Winona a fair chance to either hang or redeem herself in their eyes. However, as they all knew, that was only part of the problem. Not only was Winona upset to be confronted by one overprotective sister, she’d likely chafe at two more. Plus, all three were more than aware of her desire to sleep with Alex.

As expected, she was sitting nursing a cup of tea, awaiting them. Waving broadly upon seeing him, it took her a few seconds to register the two other women were with him. Nevertheless, she was gracious upon meeting them, knowing of his propensity to draw strange women to him, but she was curious and somewhat disappointed none the less.

“Alex! So glad to see you again,” she said, getting up and kissing him hello in an apparent attempt to establish a prior claim on him. “Who are these two beauties?” she asked, glancing at the girls with a measuring look.

“These are my other two sisters, Becky and Melinda,” Alex explained, introducing them with a flourish.

“Oh, I was wondering what happened to Cate,” Winona responded, eyeing the two warily.

“She surprised me, as she often does,” Alex replied with a shrug. “She flew out yesterday with Kitty and Chalise without much warning, only explaining herself when she had to account for Becky and Melinda being here.”

“Yes, I can see how that would be a surprise,” Winona answered, looking relieved that not only was her nemesis gone but these two were clearly labeled as non-competitors for Alex’s attention. “How nice to meet you. What brings you to California? Did you come to visit Alex?” she asked, clearly trying to determine just how long they’d be competing for his time.

“Yes, we’re here to visit, but there’s a bit more to it than that,” Becky said, quickly taking charge of the situation by smiling at Winona’s obvious attempts to calculate her own position. “Mel and I are here to take over for Cate while she takes care of some business at home. She didn’t want to leave Alex on his own, and she also wanted to give us some equal time with him since she’s been monopolizing all his attention for so long,” she explained, drawing a clear parallel to Winona’s position without directly addressing it. “We’re going to be spending the next several weeks with him, doing just what Cate did; taking care of him, watching out for him, keeping track of his schedule, advising him and generally keeping him on the right track.”

“Oh, I see,” Winona responded, looking anything but pleased to be facing two doppelgangers of her mortal enemy. “You do realize Alex has plenty of women here who could do that for him quite capably?”

“Oh, we understand they’d like to take that role, but we also know there’s more to it than meets the eye,” Becky continued, even as Melinda protectively grasped Alex’s arm, molding herself to his side. “I’ve got an extensive background in genetics and was responsible for much of what was revealed in Las Vegas, so I’m well equipped to take over that role from Cate. Melinda will handle the bookkeeping and scheduling, since she’s going to be playing a bigger role in the whole organization in the future.”

“Well, knowing genetics may give you an edge in one small aspect of Alex’s life, but there’s clearly a lot more the other women in his life can help him with,” Winona countered, trying to stare both girls down.

“That may be, but I already have his schedule down and I know all his security precautions, as well as how he likes to operate. So I think I’m prepared to handle anything which might come up, whereas a new girl would have to be trained, both on his existing schedule as well as having to get used to how he operates.” Despite Melinda’s patient and deliberate explanation, the look in her eyes and her overall demeanor conveyed a ‘don’t fuck with me bitch’ attitude, even though she said it oh so sweetly.

“How about some breakfast then, girls?” Alex asked, hoping to distract them before one of them took a swing at the others.

“Sounds good, why don’t I... , “ Winona started to ask before she realized she’d been about to leave Alex alone with his sisters, just when she needed to establish herself beside him. “Why don’t we all get something,” she corrected herself.

“Good idea,” Melinda replied, guiding Alex forward and around Winona. Winona didn’t seem to appreciate that and quickly hustled to catch up and claim his other free arm.

“You do realize I’m going to need that arm if I hope to eat anything?” Alex asked with a smile, seeing the two girls each staking out their position.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Winona assured him. “I can always feed you, whenever you get hungry.”

“That might be, but I’d really rather feed myself as long as I’m still able,” he replied, though he waited for her to release his arm rather than shake her loose.

“The croissants are very good here,” she said, demonstrating she’d been here longer than the others.

“I’m sure they are, but if you don’t mind, we’re more concerned with ensuring Alex has a balanced breakfast to keep his energy at an optimal level throughout the day,” Melinda replied, trumping her familiarity card. Alex could see this getting out of hand quite quickly.

“I’ll grab the juice, you grab some fresh fruit and Alex can pick out his own breakfast,” Becky said, trying to get control over the bickering. Melinda merely nodded, accepting her sister’s nonverbal advice, surrendering her position by Alex’s side to chase down the items for Alex. After all, they were here for more than just their own entertainment and they had to keep that in mind, whatever mind games one of his girls might try to pull.

Winona didn’t immediately close in on Alex, although she did move closer as they each picked out their own breakfasts, even as she kept her eyes on his sisters.

“They aren’t going to be like Cate, are they?” she asked, trying to make it sound as non-catlike as she could.

“What, nonprotective or nonargumentative?” Alex asked, knowing exactly what she was asking.

“I certainly don’t object to you spending time with your sisters, but you’re well aware Cate didn’t like me, so if they’re here to undermine my position, then we’re going to have a very difficult time of it,” she warned him.

“Look, I know this can be difficult, but there’s absolutely no reason we can’t all get along,” Alex replied, trying to play the role of peacekeeper, a role he wasn’t particularly good at, since he’d never been involved in any form of high school politicking.

“I’m just saying, I don’t object to your sisters, but if they try to pull what Cate did, then I’m not promising anything,” she assured him.

Nothing more was said as they got the rest of their breakfast. They returned to the table where Alex’s juice and grapefruit was already waiting for him. His sisters returned a minute later, Melinda sitting at Alex’s other side while Becky sat directly across from them.

“Look, pardon me if this sounds a little rude, but we know you and Cate didn’t exactly hit it off,” Becky said, trying to steer the conversation away from a direct confrontation. “We’re not Cate, and we’re not going to assume she was correct in her evaluations. We’re not going to make any judgments about you until we see how you handle yourself. As long as you don’t pose any potential harm to Alex, I’m sure we can get along fine.”

Winona looked up, surprised by this direct approach to the problem.

“But, that said, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of us. For everything Cate did, she chose to do things her own way, but we’re not her and we have our own agenda. Quite frankly, we’re only partly here to assist Alex, although we will do that as well. Basically we’re here to spend time with him before anything ... unfortunate might happen. But we’re also looking for the same thing you are. We want to spend time with him before it’s too late, and part of that involves some intimate contact,” Becky explained in a no-nonsense tone of voice, making their intentions plain without having to spell it out for anyone nearby to overhear.

Winona, though, was clearly shocked by this revelation, because as far as she was concerned, Cate was simply a bitch. She’d never considered her a rival.

“You and ... Alex... ?” she tried to ask.

“Exactly. We plan on spending as much time with him as we can, and like Cate, that extends to taking care of him at night as well,” Becky answered. Melinda wisely chose to take a backseat in this latest round of verbal sparring, deciding jumping on the bandwagon wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Did he and Cate... ?” Winona asked, only now making the obvious connections.

“What he and my sister did or didn’t do isn’t any of our interest or purview, all I’m telling you is what Mel and I are planning. Now, we don’t object to who he sleeps around with. Clearly that would make no sense, whatsoever, but just bear in mind wherever Alex goes, we’re going to be there, including during the night. If he wants to spend time with you, we won’t object or stand in his way. But just be advised that, once you’re done, we’ll be there to ensure he hasn’t overextended himself and to cuddle up beside you.”

“You ... she... , “ Winona struggled to respond, still having trouble figuring this all out.

“As I said, we have no qualms about letting Alex take the lead. If he wants to spend time alone with you, he can. If he wants us there with him, we’ll be there. In anything that happens, Alex’s choices are paramount and his interests are our interests. But we want you to be aware while we’re not as opinionated as Cate was, we’re not going to meekly step aside for you either. If we can be friends is entirely up to you. So think about what I’ve said and decide whether you can deal with it or not, because we’re not going anywhere for several weeks.”

“You certainly don’t beat around the bush,” Winona conceded, finally finding her voice again. “That was the thing with Cate, I always had the opinion she wasn’t forthcoming, always hiding exactly what she thought, so I never quite trusted her.” She was silent for a while after that, eating her Spanish omelet as she debated her stance with herself. But finally she responded.

“I never expected to have a normal relationship with Alex. After all, with all the women he draws to him, that’s simply not an option; but I never anticipated anything quite like this. Still, if you can be this forthright and not judge me like Cate seemed to, then I’m willing to play along. Just as long as you realize I don’t plan on being frozen out of Alex’s life either. He’s tied our lives together fairly intimately for the rest of this tour. That was his own choice and I’m not about to second-guess his decision. If we can get along, then fine. But if either of you try to get between us... , “ she warned, not bothering to explain how she might retaliate.

“That’s fine,” Melinda offered, speaking up for herself and accepting Winona’s compromise. “As Becky explained, we have no intention of reining in Alex’s judgments. We’re just telling you how we plan to be involved in Alex’s life so you’re aware of it beforehand. But I think I speak for both of us when I say we hope we can all get along.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got that,” Winona said somewhat dismissively, already done with the topic. “What I’m really interested in is, do you think Cate and he had the same relationship?” As shocked as she’d been at hearing it said explicitly, she couldn’t help indulging in her feminine tendency to gossip, especially about a known and sworn enemy.

“Again, if they did or didn’t, she never said anything to us. We’re just telling you our own plans. For anything more, you’ll have to either ask her ... or Alex,” Becky responded, flashing Alex a smile, happy to once again dump this whole thing in his lap, where she felt it rightly belonged. She’d said her piece and hopefully everyone could live with it. How they all got along had as much to do with how Alex responded to each of them as any of their own actions.

“Hey, I know nothing and I’ll admit to even less,” Alex argued. “If you ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies. I’ve never gossiped about any of my girls, and I’m not about to start now. If you want to know what I did or didn’t do with anyone, then ask them yourself.”

“Cate always had a strong ‘yuck’ response to the idea of Alex’s sexuality, despite being faced with it every day,” Melinda added, speaking truthfully, even if not completely honestly.

That seemed to settle the question, for the moment at least, but Winona continued to give Alex curious looks throughout the rest of their breakfast. Gini merely snorted; glad the whole awkward discussion was done with.

“So what do you think?” Melinda whispered to Gini as everyone headed out, the two hanging back. “Do you think she’s the real deal or has she simply figured what to say to get everyone to kowtow to her?”

Gini glanced at Winona before responding. “Frankly, I really don’t know. All I can tell is what I can see, but even that doesn’t help much. She’s definitely pregnant. That much shows up around the second week. The baby’s aura looks much like its mom’s, but over time it’ll begin taking on its own attributes. But so far, there’s no sign it’ll have any of Alex’s attributes. We’ve all been watching her—even the newer girls—to see if we can detect a brighter aura, but so far it looks like any other fetus.”

“I guess we were hoping for too much,” Melinda relented. “Still, I’m nervous she might be milking this for all she can.”

“Well, in that regard, there’s good news and bad,” Gini replied. “She doesn’t seem to be lying about the pregnancy, but it also seems she’s holding several things back. Just what those might be, I have no clue. This vision of ours is useful, but it doesn’t reveal all. It’s just another tool.”

“Well, that’s more than we knew starting out,” Melinda replied, watching as Alex tried to prevent Winona from wrapping herself around him as they walked down the hallway. “Again, it’s not that I distrust her, but she acts a little weird; a little pensive, a bit distrustful. It’s like she’s afraid if she leaves Alex alone, he’ll realize what she’s up to.”

“You know, if this is a new religion, then we’re where every new believer is. We simply have to take some things on faith. What I do know is once Alex learned she was pregnant, it was like a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. He thinks he’s done enough that we’ll survive if anything happens to him. But you and I both know what’s involved here. We need more than just a single Alex if we’re going to survive as a people. We absolutely need an heir, but we need more than one or two. We need enough to survive potential disasters and to cover the globe, not just the continental United States.

“You and Becky need to keep the pressure up and ensure he keeps boosting new people and getting as many as possible pregnant. But you’ve got to be careful that he doesn’t stress himself out. The fear he might fail us was undoubtedly taking an additional toll on his health, which is questionable enough as it is. The problem is, he’s his own worst enemy. He’d like nothing else but to dedicate himself to a single woman, though he’d settle for two. Since he’s forced to do much more than that, he wants to dedicate significant time to each one to ensure there’s a ‘personal connection’. Your job is going to be to keep him active and not letting him settle for just you and Becky—and possibly Winona—like he’d like to.”

“Yeah, we’ve pretty much figured that much out,” Melinda assured her, “but it’s not going to be easy. He’s got his own ideals and can be pretty insistent when pushed.”

“We’ve noticed,” Gini laughed. “You know, it’s funny, for all the millions of guys who’d jump at a chance like this, who’d move from girl to girl, never looking back, simply assuming this was all his due, somehow we ended up with the one guy who insists on being ‘honorable’ about it.”

“I don’t think it was so accidental,” Melinda ventured as Alex and Winona grabbed a different elevator, meaning she and Gini could continue talking uninterrupted. Alex glanced back with a pleading expression, but Gini waved them on, trying to hide her grin at his discomfort. It would do him well to tell someone no for a change. “I don’t know if that’s why these spirits selected my brother, or whether he simply grew into the role thrust upon him, but I think he’s the one man for the job. I don’t think this would work with just anyone in that role. For as difficult as he makes it on the rest of us, I’m glad to do my part, even if we’re assigned to play the bad guys in this. I suspect Kitty and Chalise took the same attitude, that this is bigger than any one of us and we’re all taking one for the team.”

“Well, I wish you luck. Unfortunately, for as much as I’d like to help, I’m afraid it’s essential for my job that he trusts me to be impartial and only concentrate on his safety.”

“That’s what I was just saying,” Melissa concluded, “we’re each taking one for the team and we’re all accepting the roles we’ve been dealt, no matter how conflicted we might feel about it. Which is what makes everyone so nervous about Winona, she doesn’t seem to be sacrificing like the rest of us. She gives the impression she’s sneaking something past the rest of us, and it’s that attitude which seems to upset so many people.”

“As I said, I wish you luck. All I’ve got to worry about is keeping him alive and preventing anyone from shooting him,” Gini replied with a grin as they stepped into the next elevator. As much as she enjoyed putting him into a difficult position, she hated risking leaving him alone even for a moment. That boy had a way of finding trouble!

“Hold on, don’t sit down yet. I want you to meet the band,” Winona told Alex as they entered the auditorium, still under construction. He’d been about to head down to the few rows of seats remaining in front of the stage where he normally tried to hide out during her practice sessions where she could still see him.

“Are you sure? Isn’t it likely to upset people?” Alex asked, looking for a way out of what he knew was going to be an awkward situation. He’d gone through this before, but then Patricia had already been talking him up to the band and they’d witnessed him in action during his birthday and graduation parties when they’d performed. It wasn’t quite such an ordeal trying to convince them he was what she claimed. “What about the producer, Reggie?”

“Don’t worry about that,” she told him. “Reggie went to see his doctor, an ‘emergency consultation’. The guy was about to laugh him out of his office, but because Reggie carries so much clout both here and in LA, his doctor decided to humor him. Reggie had been having a mild pain under his ribs, but hadn’t thought much of it, assuming he’d pulled a muscle. When his urologist ran a CT Scan they detected the kidney stones. They weren’t quite big enough to cause much of a problem, but it was apparently well on its way there. The urologist gave him some calcium channel blockers and apparently that knocked them loose. But when he saw them come out, and the pain went away, he was a believer. But he was even more of a believer when his Shingles flared up, just as you’d predicted. So now you can do no wrong,” Winona told him, laughing about Reggie’s pain.

Against his better judgment, Alex let himself be dragged away. Becky and Melinda let them head off on their own, but Gini tagged along.

“Hey everyone, this is Alex, the guy I’ve been telling you about,” Winona said when they joined the musicians warming up.

“Alex, this is Taylor Moore, our acoustic guitarist, mainly playing the slower ballads,” she said, introducing a slight girl with long curly dark hair, dressed all in black. “The other guitarist is Guy Peters, who plays electric.” Guy had a few days growth on his face, so it didn’t look like he was used to performing in public. “The blonde is Mary Watson, and the brunette is Susan Simmons, our two backup singers. And the drummer is Steve Blanco.”

“This is him?” Steve asked skeptically, peering past his cymbals and pointing at Alex with his drumstick.

“He doesn’t look so special to me,” Mary said, giving him an appraising eye which said she wasn’t overly impressed.

“Hey, give him a break,” the other singer, Susan, insisted before turning to him. “Is it true you’re supposed to draw people into the concerts?”

“Whatever you’ve heard, it was clearly exaggerated,” Alex said, trying to downplay anything Winona had told them. Whatever it had been, if they expected something phenomenal from him they’d be disappointed when they finally heard the details, so the first thing Alex needed to do was to control their expectations. “What happens is a small subset of people can feel a certain psychic energy I give off,” Alex began, using terms practically guaranteed to make everyone think he was a new-age quack. “It only affects a small number of people, but when they feel it, it makes them curious. When they hear about Winona, or Patricia before her, the concert tag lines trigger their imagination as it describes what they’re feeling. As a result, they come to the concert just to find out what’s causing what they perceive but can’t explain. That’s how I draw people to me and the concert. However, when I do, it’s only a handful of people, hardly enough to affect your bottom line.”

“How can you say that?” Winona demanded, upset at him for misleading her people. “You electrify the entire audience! Everyone says you make the crowds go crazy.”

“Ah, but that’s the result of my effect on those few people. Those who can feel this psychic energy get really enthused, and their enthusiasm spreads to the other people.”

“Then what the hell am I doing here?” Winona asked, hands firmly placed on her hips in a general warning she wasn’t happy.