“Oh man, dial down the love,” Coop said with a gasp. “You’re going to make me blush.”
Frankie laughed, and for a split second, I forgot we were in the middle of this group session. It was just us, hanging out, figuring things out.
That was how we would make this work.
Even when we struggled, we’d find a way to talk and to laugh.
When all else failed, yelling worked too.
Ian
The session went on that way for a while. Erin would poke us with a question and get us talking. It took a little time, but everyone—especially Frankie—relaxed. I supposed that was the best time for the psychologist to ask her next question.
“What do you think will be your biggest challenge over the next few months?” Erin looked at Frankie, and so did I. Honestly, I thought our biggest struggles would be keeping Frankie from vanishing into college academia. She loved a good challenge, and it had been a while since she really faced one. College was going to provide her with so many opportunities.
I was both hungry for her to discover them all and worried about how fast she’d burn out trying to balance all of us, the singing, the classes, business with Archie, and that was just off the top of my head.
“Finding a new place to live,” Frankie said slowly. “We’ve talked about living together for college forever, even before we were dating.” The corners of her mouth tipped up a little higher. “And before we wander back down the garden path of Frankie is dense, I know part of that was because you guys wanted to keep me safe as much as anything, but now it’s like we’re moving our whole household.”
“We are,” Archie pointed out. “We’ve all been living in the apartment, more or less, for months.”
“Except,” I pointed out, “here we can go back to our parents’ places for a night or two. We can create privacy for Frankie or for Frankie and someone else.” Like they had for us last night.
“That’s gonna be harder in New York,” Frankie mused. “Places are so expensive there. I mean, the apartment here is a tight fit for five of us, how hard does it get when all five of us are jammed into a smaller place?”
Coop chuckled. “Archie is not gonna let us get stuck in some cramped apartment, Frankie. Seriously, have you met him? He’s going to find us a really swanky place, then convince you it was a fantastic idea, and you’ll argue, we’ll harass him, and in the end, we’ll move into it because we need the space and he can afford it. Even if the rest of us are going to have to find a way to add to our portion.”
“Actually,” Archie said, tracing a finger against the back of Frankie’s hand, “I’m not the only one who can afford it. Besides…this isn’t about money.”
“Yes,” I agreed with him. “It isn’t specifically about the money. But at the same time, we have our pride, Arch. We want to be participants. It’s not just Archie takes care of Frankie and we bum along for the ride.”
“I know that.” Archie scowled. “I have the money to make things more comfortable. You guys bring as much to the table.”
“Yeah, but when it comes down to providing—” Jake began, but it was Frankie who cut us all off.
“We’re not doing this part,” she said and then looked at Erin. “There are sore points. Money is one, and it has been between Archie and me before. He is one of the most generous people I know, but supporting myself is important.”
“But you just came into a great deal of wealth,” Erin offered.
“And I have no idea what to do with that,” Frankie said, and she glanced to us. “That’s something I still have to figure out. The point is, we’re a team. Maybe someone has a little more money and someone else knows how to cook.”
“Not Archie,” Coop sneezed with a grin, and Archie flipped him off. The rest of us laughed. But well, Coop wasn’t wrong.
“I think we all push each other in different ways. But I don’t ever want to get tied up over the money.”
“You just want to be tied up over other things,” Jake teased, but I stared at him until he spread his hands. Right. Teasing her was one thing, but Frankie barely noticed it.
I did.
“I think what we’re all saying here is that each of us takes point on something. Sometimes we’re content to go with the flow, sometimes we want to drive. Archie fixes things, we all know it. In this case, finding a place for us to live together, and if it costs a little more, he’s going to fix it. But I’m keeping a tab going. I want to be a partner in this, and if that means I pay more in later to cover today, I’m okay with that.”
Archie locked gazes with me for a long moment, then he nodded. He didn’t like it. He didn’t have to like it. The point was to make sure we were all partners. That meant sometimes one got a little more and that was okay. It all evened out in the end.
“What I want to know,” Coop said almost too idly, “is if I’m tackling more than my fair share of the cooking since some of us don’t, does that help even it out too?”
“Absolutely,” Archie said. “And you can do all the cooking you want. I’m down for the laundry and the cat litter boxes too if you want those. I think that’s equitable.”
Frankie groaned, but the comments had perforated the tension, and if my read on Erin was right, she was pleased with what she saw amongst us. We weren’t perfect.
Far from it.
But we were good for each other.
Frankie was good for us.
Best of all…we
