Phoenix Rising

Chapter Four

“Please tell me you didn’t say that to her,” Sal said to Nick. The fellas were having their weekly gathering.  They had decided to get together at Daniel and Vixen’s new house so that Daniel could be close to the boys. Vixen had gotten a “9-1-1” call to come to Phoenix’s aid last night and had called this morning and said she would not be home until tomorrow. Now he knew why. They were all in the game room having drinks and playing pool. Since he knew that V was not going to be at home, he had decided to stay close to home for the babies although they had two nannies and his mother and father there around the clock. Vixen did not want her mother anywhere near the boys and from what Daniel knew neither did he.

“I know it was harsh, mate but I could see she was getting too involved.  I had to stop that nonsense in its tracks,” Nick said to them.

“Look, I get trying to slow things down, Nick but that was downright disrespectful,” Randy said leaning over to take his shot.  Nick looked around the room for a little support they all shook their heads.

“Hey, I am King Asshole when it comes to getting rid of women but I can say that you need to apologize, Nick,” Sal said to him. Gavin was very quiet; he had been all evening.  He was leaning over to take his shot and Nick looked at him. “I still have not heard from Father Time over there,” he said.

Shaking his head, Gavin said, “First, f**k you. Second, you know you are wrong.   You don’t need us to tell you that.”

“Nick, let me ask you a question,” Daniel said from behind the bar as he was warming the babies’ bottles. “What makes you not want to have a relationship with Phoenix? The drinking? Do you feel it’s that bad?” he finished. 

“Will you get your ass over here and act like a man, Mary Poppins?” Randy said to Daniel.

“Leave him alone. It’s cool watching him be a dad. Besides I am going to need pointers,” Sal said. Slapping Sal’s shoulder, Gavin laughed and said, “Nya really put it on you, didn’t she? Next, you are going to be skipping through a field of lilacs singing ‘I feel pretty’.” They all started to laugh as Sal pushed him away saying, “f**k you!”

“Say what you want, Gavin, but when was the last time you had a blow job you didn’t pay for?” Sal said. All the other men in the room were saying “OOOHH.” Gavin went to give a reply and Sal held up his hand saying, “AH! You had to think too long.  It was this morning for me,” he finished.

Randy looked at the ceiling like he was having a dirty dream.  “Ahh, blow jobs; how I miss them,” he said like he was having a wet dream.

“WAIT!  TIME THE HELL OUT! You don’t get blow jobs?” Sal said pointing at Randy.

Looking at his brother, Randy said, “No, do you?” Daniel shrugged his shoulders, “I am married; of course I don’t.”

“AH!  Stop, mate, I am not going to let you put that on Vixen” Nick said “Phoenix told me that she has been upset you don’t have s*x with her,” he finished pointing at Daniel with his pool stick.

“WHAT??” all the men in the room said in unison.

“Hey, Vixen is my sister-in-law and I love her to bits but she is sexy as hell. What is wrong with my brother?” Randy said.

“I am revoking your man card! Give it up!” Gavin said walking toward him.

Walking on the other side of the bar with the bottles in hand Daniel said, “Hey I almost lost the love of my life to her having my sons. If that isn’t a way to prevent a hard-on, I don’t know what is,” he said as he walked into the nursery that they had built off the “man cave” now called the “baby man cave”. When he turned around to leave the nannies to tending to the boys, he found all the men in the doorway smiling like goofballs.

Shaking his head and laughing as he closed the door behind him, Daniel said to them, “Let’s face it, fellas, none of us are the men we used to be,” before he took a drink of his beer.

“I don’t care how much you love your sons; you not giving it to Vixen is criminal and… GAY!” Gavin said.

“Yeah, man, what is up with that?” Randy said. They all were looking at Daniel now. Nick was glad because at least they were off of the ass he had made of himself with Phoenix.

“Nick, don’t think we are not going back to you,” Sal said turning back to Daniel. “But what the f**k is your problem?” he finished talking to Daniel.

Sighing he replied “Look, you all know that I love my wife and, yes she is sexy as hell. Oh, we will address all of you ogling her later,” he pointed at all of them. “But I almost lost her, the boys, my life!  I would be nothing without them. I can’t help equating that to her being pregnant. Whenever we try to be intimate, my baby head starts listening to my big head and I can’t get it up,” he finished.

The room was silent for a minute.  The other men did clearly not understand the problem. “Soo, you don’t f**k your wife because you are afraid to get her pregnant?” Randy said.

Taking a second to think, Daniel said, “Well, it’s not that simple but yeah,” he said. His friends all looked around at each other and started to laugh at him.

“Ummm…D?” Gavin said “You do know what a rubber is, right?” he finished.

“Yeah, those are not really water balloons!” Sal said as they all continued to laugh at Daniel.

“All of you can kiss my ass.  You have no idea what I went through,” Daniel replied.

“You know what?   You are right, we don’t know. But what are you going to do? Never have s*x with your wife again? Dude, if you are meant to lose Vixen, you will lose her. You can’t control that. So would you rather stand at your wife’s side with blue balls or at her funeral with s*x stories that can put most pornos to shame?” Gavin said.

“I vote pornos,” Sal said laughing when Gavin slapped him on the back of the neck. “What? I love Nya like I never thought possible to love a woman. But if she almost died giving birth to our babies, she would have to beat me off with a stick. s**t, I orgasm just thinking about her, see hmmm…ummm!” he said closing his eyes and shaking his right leg like a dog.

Shaking his head, Daniel said, “You need to be medicated.”

“I need to be medicated? You are lying in bed with a sexy ass woman EVERY night who is horny as hell for you and I need to be medicated?” Sal said to him.

“Alright, I will have s*x with my wife!” Daniel yelled. “Jesus can we stop talking about this?” he said taking a shot on Nick’s turn at the pool game.

“Well, if it’s that much of a hardship, I will gladly take your place,” Gavin said.

“Gavin, don’t make me kill you,” Daniel said.

“So we have addressed Daniel’s episode in Adventures of Being a Big p***y so we are back to you, Nick. What’s up?” Sal said pointing his pool stick at Nick.

“I am not talking about this,” Nick said dismissively.

“What? Why? We do this all the time,” came from Randy, Sal, and Gavin respectively looking at Nick like he had lost his mind. These fellas shared everything; a lot like the women, I guess you could say but they usually talked about things once and ended it. Looking at Nick, Daniel knew what the issue was with him and Phoenix and he knew that Nick was not about to talk about it here and now.

“Huh, yeah, guys I think that we should talk about something else,” Daniel said trying to change the subject.

“No, why should all of us lay it on the table, so to speak, and Nick gets to sulk in the corner and give advice but not get any? What’s up? Is it that Phoenix is a better woman than your first wife and you’re feeling guilty?” Sal said walking up on Nick giving him s**t, but everyone in the room, including Sal, knew he was pushing it too far. Taking a deep breath, Nick screamed and threw the glass he had in his hand against the wall stepping toe to toe with Sal.   He whispered, “One of these days, mate, you’re going to go too far.”  He turned and grabbed his suit coat and stormed out of the house. Gavin and Randy sat their pool sticks down on the table shaking their heads as they went into the baby man cave to help with the babies. Nick had startled them with his outburst.

Shaking his head and looking at Sal, Daniel said, “Why do you always have to be such a d**k?” as he walked away