Season 3, Episode 1: The New Normal

It was getting toward the end of February 2023, and I was at Erica's house.

I was at Erica's house a lot.

We'd agreed on a friends-with-benefits type of relationship. At least, that's what we called it. It wasn't really friends-with-benefits, though. Anybody paying attention would have said we were lovers.

I saw her every day. I'd arranged it that way. I'd told Erica that part of my consulting contract with Stafford Oil, the company she'd inherited from her dead husband and was now the chair of the board, was that she'd get Amber as her personal assistant every afternoon.

Erica took her time taking me up on it, but for the last month she'd been making full use of the opportunity. And what that meant was every day after lunch, or maybe at lunch, I'd hand Amber off to Erica. And every evening around dinnertime, Erica would hand her off to me. Even on the days I wasn't sleeping over at Erica's house I was seeing her twice a day.

Erica knew exactly what this arrangement did. She didn't offer a word of complaint. In fact, it seemed like she was highly amused by it.

I'd always been able to amuse her. That was, I guess, my greatest skill.

Anyway, I woke up just before dawn. I'd never been an early riser, but lately I was popping awake at six every morning with a head full of ideas and a heart full of passion. I leaned over and kissed Erica on the back of her neck.

"Mmmmm," she said. "I was wondering when you were gonna do that."