Both Families
Wednesday, June 10, 2026. Maplewood, New Jersey. – 6:42 pm
The bottle slid around in Mia’s sweating hands as her mother Joan rang the bell. Mia thought it would be perfect, in a way, if she smashed a fancy wine bottle on Ruby’s lawn, in addition to having an affair with her husband.
Had she not taken creative writing courses? Had she not talked her way out of a hundred invitations to a hundred different things she wanted to avoid? She still couldn’t get out of this dinner?
Who was she kidding? Scared or not, Mia wanted to know what came next. If only she could find out without both families present to witness it.
The door opened to show a smiling Ruby, the light behind her making her outline shine. Mia’s forearms burned, gripping the bottle.
“I made ziti!” Joan said, instead of any kind of greeting. “Emilio says it’s the best he’s seen a new student do.”
“Beth’s going to jump on that like a starved dog,” Ruby said, as she kissed Joan on the cheek and motioned her inside.
“Beth!” Joan yelled. “I got ziti, sweetie!”
Mia’s face contorted in second-hand embarrassment, even though the Dauwalters had known the Taylors for too long to be surprised by their personalities.
“Ziti! Sweetie!” Ron said, emphasizing the rhymes, and then pausing before forcing out an over-the-top laughter. Then he also exchanged a cheek kiss with Ruby.
Mia loved her father. She did. And despite all her rationalizations, she still wanted to step into traffic.
Mia saw what her dad could never: the tiny wince in the corner of Ruby’s eye. There and gone before Ron finished laughing.
“Look at that dress!” Ron said. “Ooooh-weeee!”
He wasn’t wrong. Another sundress, this time emerald green, low at the chest and slit high on one leg.
Ruby looked down at Ron standing a few inches shorter and faked a whisper with a lean. “I’ll let Joan borrow it, dear!”
Joan fucking wishes! Mia’s mom would not fit in it. She wasn’t fat or anything like that, but for Ruby’s dress she was too short and had a little too much going on around the chest and other places. Mia felt guilty and odd. Her mother was a perfectly fine, pretty lady, no reason to compare her to Ruby. No reason at all.
“You coming?” Ruby said. Everyone inside, just the two of them now.
“Hi!” Mia entered and handed Ruby the bottle. With Ruby’s eyes on her now, Mia wondered if Ruby knew she had changed six times, each outfit making her feel like an idiot freshman playing dress-up, before ending up in this fitted white tank top and short, dark, flowy skirt. It made her feel pretty a little more than it made her feel ridiculous. The little strip of bare skin across her middle was good for the heat, at least.
“Oh, thank you!” Ruby took it. As she did, she leaned down to give Mia a kiss on the cheek. The dress fell loose around Ruby’s chest and Mia found her eyes darting. Not quite seeing anything explicitly forbidden, but somehow feeling that all the forbidden places were as near, threatening and alluring as they’d ever been. Ruby smelled like fresh, cold pine and coconut. Fuck. The kiss, like the last one two days ago at the town square, went on a little long. Nothing anyone else would notice, perhaps. “Welcome.”
“Thank you.” Mia couldn’t quite tell if there was anything else in Ruby’s look. She could no longer tell with her at all. All she knew was that Ruby’s attention was undivided.
“Let’s go on inside,” Ruby said.
“Thank you!” Thank you? She’d said that already. What was wrong with her? She had to keep it together.
The house looked exactly the same, which felt obscene somehow.
Same dark floors. Same warm kitchen light. Same smell, clean and expensive, never bleachy, never fake lemon, never like the detergent aisle at Target. Same hallway Beth used to drag her through when they were thirteen and late to everything. Same stairs, family pictures. Same big shallow bowl by the door where Ruby kept keys and sunglasses and whatever else women like Ruby dropped in bowls. Mia put her purse next to the bowl.
It had always been Beth’s house. Now it was Ruby’s. Jack’s. The hallway had doors she had never thought much about before. Upstairs was not only Beth’s room, but Jack and Ruby’s.
A nonsensical idea gripped her: she wanted it to be her house. But that—
“Mia!” Beth yelled. Coming over from the kitchen, already reaching for her.
Mia smiled because Beth was smiling.
“Come on,” Beth said, grabbing Mia’s hand. “I have insane tea.”
Mia let herself be dragged. Halfway past the kitchen island, she saw Jack. He was standing with one hand in his pocket and the other wrapped around a glass he had not lifted to his mouth. Their eyes met for a second.
“Hi, Mr. D,” Mia said, waving with a shrug.
“Hey, kid.”
Kid. Where the butterflies had been in her stomach, there was now a motherfucking elephant.
“So this girl, Amanda, right? Absolute disaster. Like, they should have this bitch in a conservatorship or something. Don’t let her near hot liquids.”
Mia nodded. Beth had had her first trial shift that day, at “Sleepy Cat,” a coffee shop by the town square.
Through the screen door, Mia caught pieces of the kitchen: Joan at the oven, operating the space like she owned it, narrating her culinary class war stories; Mia’s dad with his hand on Jack’s shoulder telling him he’d been salivating over that bottle of Macallan 18 since the moment they’d put the dinner on the books; Ruby opening a drawer without looking, pulling the right thing from the right place with no effort; Jack asking if Ron had really been saving himself for two weeks; Ron going, “Not myself, just the bottle!” and exploding at his own joke.
Mia was surprised Jack laughed too. He usually didn’t.
“Are you listening?” Beth stopped.
“Yep.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Amanda, hot liquids, public safety, conservatorship.”
Beth narrowed her eyes. “Okay, maybe you can just also look like you’re listening?”
“No chance.”
Beth continued and Mia’s attention kept wandering back to the kitchen. She did her best to listen, but… Jack. Ruby. Her mom and dad. Jack and Ruby pretending it was just a normal Wednesday. Mia pretending she didn’t know the taste of Jack’s cum. Pretending she didn’t know Ruby knew. Or knew something, anyway. How the hell had she gotten here?
“By being a dumb whore,” Beth said.
Mia’s attention snapped back. “What?”
“I mean, clearly! How else could this moron of a girl be the supervisor? She’s blowing the manager. For sure!”
“Oh.” Mia laughed, relieved. “Right! Totally.”
Beth studied her. “You’re being weird.”
“My parents are just being embarrassing.”
Beth looked back through the screen door. “Our parents are always embarrassing.”
“I guess.”
Ruby called from inside.
“Girls! Food!”
Beth looked at Mia, squinting. Then she shrugged and they went inside. Mia was thankful it was dropped so easy.
As they came back in, Mia noticed Jack’s face, looking at her, then Beth, then Ron or Joan, she wasn’t sure. He was trying to be harmless and casual so hard it almost made her laugh out loud. At least she wasn’t the only one sweating bullets.
About 10 minutes later
Ruby sat at one end of the table, nearest the kitchen island. Jack sat at the other. Mia had Ruby on her left, Beth on her right. Joan was next to Jack on his right and Ron between Joan and Ruby opposite Mia.
“This is actually insane,” Beth said, pointing her fork at the ziti.
Joan clasped her hands under her chin. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
“No, I mean, I’m mad at how good this is.”
“Emilio says I’m a natural.”
Ron made a sound.
“Who’s Emilio?” Ruby asked.
“My instructor.”
“Ah.”
“I told you, right?” Joan looked at Ruby, then Jack. “I tell him, I say, Emilio, I swear to God, I’ve never so much as boiled an egg before. He says, Joanna!” Joan did a thick, excellent, borderline offensive Italian accent. “This is impossible. It’s-a like-a my nonna came down from heaven and-a she cook-a through you.”
Beth looked at Mia. Mia looked at Beth. They did not laugh. Somehow.
Jack said, “It’s very good. Right, sweetie?” Jack turned to Beth.
“That’s what I said, yeah.” Beth had her mouth full, reaching for bread.
“Yeah, no, it’s good,” Ron said. “So, girls, are you excited about embarking on your higher education journey next year at Fairleigh?”
“Dad, not everything’s a journey,” Mia said.
“I’m actually so excited, Mr. Taylor. I can’t wait.”
“Good, good. I know you girls will do us proud.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Very proud of you guys.” Jack chimed in, looking at the girls and making eye contact with everyone in a way that seemed to Mia like checking off items on a to-do list.
Mia was happy to see Beth excited about something. She could tell she was finally clawing her way out of the heartbreak hole Christian had put her in.
Mia herself could barely remember why she’d wanted to go to Fairleigh. A gymnastics scholarship? OK. It was a reason. She wasn’t sure it was a good one. She had been excited about college until… Last week. Well, right, that did make sense now that she considered it. No Jack in Fairleigh.
“There’s nothing more important than a good education, I always say.” Ron tore open a piece of bread, spreading crumbs over his plate.
Jack nodded, measured, listening.
“I mean…” Joan gestured with her wine glass to Mia and Beth. “It’s also very important to seize and experience your youth while you have it. It’s summer, for Christ’s sake, you guys gotta enjoy that too, right?”
“That’s a good point, girls, yeah! Well said, Joan,” Jack said.
Mia contained a laugh at that, failing to keep the tight-lipped smile inside completely. Jack’s placation of her parents was hilarious to her. She looked around the table, everyone carrying on, chewing, small talking, and ended up on Ruby. Ruby seemed to have the same look on her face. If Mia had it right, they were both sharing a laugh at Jack’s expense. But of course. Ruby knew too. Mia felt she should stop smiling, move on—wouldn’t their shared amusement imply an admission of guilt?—but the way Ruby looked at her made her realize how alone and isolated she’d felt that evening.
Just then she felt much less alone.
“Jack, you’re still giving my girl a ride?” Ron said.
What looked like panic to Mia flashed somewhere in Jack before he turned to look at Ron. She was too surprised and frozen to panic herself.
“Fairleigh. Next week right? Mia’s still OK to tag along with you and Beth?” Ron asked, chewing bread.
“Oh!” Jack said. “Yes, of course, that’s the plan, so that’s what we’re doing. Right?” he asked toward the girls, snapping a tiny look at Mia as well. A rare one at that dinner. Mia was acutely aware of the absence of any extra eye contact that night between her and Jack.
“Correct!” Mia said.
“You know Jack, babe,” Joan said to her husband. “If he says he’s going to do something, he will.”
“Very dependable, Mr. D is,” Mia said. And looked at Jack nod, stuff his face with a piece of asparagus and wash it down with about two fingers of whiskey. She felt something. Making a big man squirm made her feel powerful and tingly. When it was already too late, she caught herself turning to Ruby, going “isn’t that right?”
“Correct!” Ruby said, mirroring Mia. Without waiting, she turned to Mia’s dad, “Ron!” she put a hand on him.
He made a startled noise and looked at Ruby.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Hmm?” he chewed, a puzzled look on his face.
“Why are you drinking out of that glass?”
“Ooh, that’s right, Ron, we got these—” Jack was getting up, but Ruby stopped him.
“No, no, I’ll get them.” Ruby turned to Ron to explain, “We bought these whiskey glasses and haven’t had the cause to use them yet. Your… what was it?” She pointed at the bottle.
“Macallan 18, dear. Old enough to order its own Macallan 18!” another Ron-splosion shook the room, Roscoe waking up, looking around for trouble.
“Your of-age whiskey deserves proper glassware. I’ll be right back.”
A step into leaving, Ruby turned back around and said to Mia, “Sweetie, any chance you could help me? I need some cloth napkins from the linen closet.”
“Of course,” Mia said and got up.
“You’re a doll! They’re in the linen closet upstairs next to the master bedroom, under the shoe rack in the corner, I think they’re in a sort of brown chest down there,” Ruby said, as she herself went behind the kitchen island and opened a cabinet, rummaging around inside it.
Mia was feeling better about the evening. The silent exchange with Ruby about Jack’s behavior had settled her nerves a little. It all felt more like play now. She was almost completely certain, thinking back on it, that Ruby had probably pretended not to remember what her dad’s fancy whiskey was called. She was so quick and calm and, if you paid attention, very funny. Everything seemed to be going…
Well, shit. It was going alright.
But her battery was depleted, this dinner draining it. So going up the stairs, she took the opportunity to slow down in the dark stairway and hall leading to the walk-in linen closet. She took a few breaths and felt her body. It calmed her down and energized her. A trick she’d learned from a sports medicine book.
She passed the master bedroom and managed to suppress the urge to peek inside.
In the closet she found the cloth napkins with no trouble and as she closed the chest she heard the closet door open and close again behind her. She stood up. Ruby watched her now, one hand behind her back, still on the doorknob.
Mia wanted to tell her she found the things, what are they called? She wanted to say she was about to come down. To ask Ruby if she forgot something, or…? To say something, to scream or even whisper.
“You found ‘em?”
Mia nodded yes. She was now acutely aware of her surroundings and what she was wearing. A survival thing, maybe? She didn’t know, but she knew she was thinking about equal parts ‘I hope this skirt won’t make it harder to fight’ and ‘please, be here to fuck me’.
Ruby came closer at the same steady pace, making Mia look up more with every step. Ruby put one hand on Mia’s wrist, the other on her side, as she gently kissed her. Mia kept her eyes open. The kiss was short. Ruby leaned back and looked at her. Mia was more certain now she recognized what she’d been seeing in Ruby’s eyes before, at the door, at the fountain. A little bit of vulnerability. Ruby’s demeanor had shifted. She was still in charge, but she either failed to hide or showed on purpose that she had something to lose. She had the look of a girl who hoped to be chosen - Mia knew the feeling well.
Mia didn’t know what she was going to do until her hands were already moving. She grabbed Ruby by her arms, pulled her down and kissed her. This would never happen again, she was sure. Ruby was an icon. Being here in the closet, being chosen by her, she felt like a rich and famous movie star had somehow sought her out and plucked her out of obscurity. Mia had to use this opportunity while she had it.
After a second’s delay, Ruby’s hands searched out and found Mia’s hips. Could it be? Could Mia have taken Ruby by surprise? Mia pushed Ruby’s arms back a little. Not away, God forbid, she did not want her to leave, but just enough to tell her to pause.
“Hey,” Mia said. She wanted something to ask or say, but couldn’t think of anything.
“We can stop,” Ruby said. Mia saw she meant it, but didn’t want to.
She wanted to ask why Ruby was doing this. What she knew. What she wanted. But she still couldn’t speak, so she pulled Ruby down again and they connected in another kiss. Ruby was so effortless. She seemed to know exactly where Mia’s tongue and lips were going to be before they got there. Was she guiding them there? Did Mia care?
No.
Some sane part of her tried to step back. The rest of her stepped forward.
If this really was her only chance, she wanted to make it count. She pushed Ruby against the shoe rack. Ruby’s face was surprised but inviting. Mia bunched up Ruby’s dress, holding her eyes. She saw fear, hunger, excitement. Mia felt drunk and empowered. Her hands finally got under the flaps of the dress and were shocked to find no panties at Ruby’s hips to hook into. “Oh!” she said.
Ruby’s eyes were surprised. Mia knelt down as Ruby said, very quietly, “Oh my fucking God.” Ruby’s leg went up on the opposite wall as Mia went low and licked her pussy. The first time her tongue touched her pussy lips, Ruby grabbed the sides of her head, digging her fingers through Mia’s thick, dark hair.
“What the fuck,” Ruby whispered, her legs trembling a little. Ruby had been so dramatically altered from the composed ideal woman, wife, mother she had been just seconds ago. How did this happen? And was Mia really the one responsible for this change?
She had never made out with a woman, certainly hadn’t licked a pussy. She had expected it to feel stranger than it did. Instead it was soft and warm and intimate, and the fact that it was Ruby made her feel like she was having an out-of-body experience. She told herself to focus. Find the clit. She did and she licked it, back and forth, slow.
Loud steps were stomping up the stairs. Ruby put her leg back down, stepping toward the door and moving her dress down all in one move, zero hesitation. She said in a low whisper “Watch out, sweetie. Open that brown chest. Make like you’re looking.” Ruby stepped up on a stool on the other side, pretending to look for something. Beth yanked the door open.
“Where’s the Bluetooth speaker?”
“Our bedroom, I think?” Ruby answered.
Beth moved on to the master bedroom next door.
Ruby looked down at Mia, stifled a laugh. She motioned for them to go. Mia followed behind. Before they left the closet, Ruby turned around, her hand on the door, and planted a single wet kiss on Mia.
“What are we going—” Mia started but Ruby stopped her with a simple look.
Mia had gotten a taste of the kind of power she didn’t think she could ever have. And now it was gone. Ruby didn’t need to ask for it back. She just had all of it. Again. Just like that. What?
She had to follow Ruby down the stairs. Pretend she had anything on her mind other than the taste of her.
A few minutes later
Mia envied Ruby being able to snap out of it just like that. She figured she must be doing OK herself as well, seeing as no one had cornered her demanding an explanation yet. But Ruby wasn’t just managing. Ruby wasn’t just normal. Ruby was pouring wine, passing around bread. Laughing. Asking questions. Keeping the room moving. Mere seconds after her daughter’s best friend had licked her pussy. She was still walking around with no underwear. Right. Ruby had come to dinner like that. Just like Mia had, the night Jack drove her home. Except Mia hadn’t had a plan. Not that day.
But as much as she was envious of Ruby’s ability to move on and compartmentalize, she also found herself being more and more attracted to her. To Jack’s wife. Mia looked at Jack. Did he know? He didn’t seem to. But then again he was so deep in method acting tonight, who could tell? If she sat closer to him, would he smell his wife on her?
She felt that if she didn’t orgasm in the near future, she would lose her mind. Fuck it. Maybe at least then she’d be in the right mind to fully inhabit this situation she’d created.
The music played. Beth had put on some jazz playlist.
“You good?” Beth asked Mia.
“Mhmm.” Mia nodded. “Just enjoying the music. What’s this song called?”
“No idea.”
The food tasted weird now. She wasn’t hungry anymore. Not for fucking ziti, anyway.
About an hour later
Jack and Beth were cleaning up in the kitchen, as Ruby escorted out the Taylors. Joan and Ron stepped out and as Mia left, Ruby handed her her purse.
“Get home safe, sweetie,” she said, and then quieter, “And breathe.”
Mia looked at Ruby. She was scared someone would see something weird about the way they behaved. But there was no such fear on Ruby’s face. Didn’t she have more to lose than Mia?
“Goodnight, Ruby,” Mia said, knowing only Ruby could hear her. They exchanged a little peck. Perfectly innocent. Mia’s soaked panties would disagree, though.
The half-block walk to their car seemed like eternity to Mia. She couldn’t wait to… Could she maybe make an excuse and just run and hide somewhere so she could touch herself, so she could think again. Her body burned. She felt like she was going to evaporate in a fine mist.
Ron and Joan engaged in absent-minded bickering in the front seat. The back seat was completely dark, save for the street lights going by, casting rays on Mia’s thighs. They were too self-absorbed, right? She could probably just…
Mia tentatively slid a hand under her skirt, using the other hand to cover her lap with her purse. But every time they passed by a street light, it was clearly visible that Mia’s hand was under her skirt.
But her parents were not paying attention, come on. It was OK.
Her heart raced. She was on the verge of orgasm since before she even sat down in the car. Under her panties, her pussy was soaked and sticky. Oh my God, what if they can smell it? Or hear her? Is she breathing loudly?
She pressed her finger against her clit and froze.
“—could say that in terms of just the look of the thing?” Mia had no idea what her mother was saying.
“Mhmm,” her dad might have been in the same boat on that.
Whatever they were saying, they didn’t pay attention to her. She rubbed her clit. Light, rapid circles. Fuck! She was going to cum. She begged herself and God to just let her cum and not make a noise.
Mia had all but fucked Jack. Jack had made her cum so good. Ruby had kissed her. Mia had gone down on Ruby. She was now… Oh my God! Could they really want her to–
“Mia? Do you want ice cream?” Ron asked without looking back.
“Nothankyou!” Mia answered way too quickly, her eyes down on her lap, wide in panic. Waves of pleasure making it nearly impossible to stay composed. She could keep her body from convulsing too hard, but could not force herself to stop touching.
As her parents went back to talking at each other, she rubbed herself until she was finally done.
Afterward, shame and sobriety hit her fast and hard. What was she doing? Masturbating next to her parents? Was she losing her mind? This is not OK!
Alright, she had to get it together. She pulled her panties back over her dripping pussy, certainly a wet stain on the back of her skirt, no doubt about it. Thank God it was late and the skirt was dark. She licked her finger clean. It tasted so good and she still wanted to cum more, but had to put herself together.
She pulled down her skirt and opened the purse to check messages. A little note fell out.
It said “I’d love to return the favor.”
Same night, around 3:00 am
Mia woke from a dreamless sleep with a thought. She didn’t know where it came from. It didn’t matter. The thought was loud and clear and she couldn’t believe how in the hell it took her so long to notice the importance of it.
Jack was going to take Beth and her on an overnight trip to Fairleigh next week.