"Do you want Samantha to be faithful to you?"

“Not precisely."

Mother folded her arms over her chest. "Please... be precise."

"I... I don't know how to explain it. What I want most is for Sam to be happy, and if that means being with someone else, that's fine. I guess

I just got caught off guard by Zofi telling me Sam had gone out with another guy last night. The sudden jealousy hit me HARD, and I was all prepared to go charging off to her house to confront her about it, her parents be damned.”

“A good indicator that your feelings for her are quite strong.”

"I love her... I think. But... it's different. I mean, I have strong feelings for all of the girls, in different ways. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it. In a way, I feel like I love ALL the girls, but then that can't be right. Aren't we supposed to only be in love with one person?"

Mother shook her head.

“That's never been the case and will never be the case. Love is not limited in such a manner. Fidelity can be expected of a partner, yes. But feelings are feelings, and love is not a simple binary emotion that can be turned off when inconvenient. Your love for each of the girls following the increased intimacy of your relationships is perfectly valid. Don't try to minimalize those feelings, because I assure you, the love each of those girls feels for you in return is quite strong indeed.”

That made me sit up straight.

“How much do you really know about the love they each feel for me? Or do you only have what Sam's told you?"

Mother exhaled and pursed her lips.

“I must admit that having Samantha as my primary source for information Lends itself to a certain bias

However, I've been able to observe firsthand the love each of those girls feels for you in the mornings when they would come downstairs after spending the night with you. I was in the van for the entire drive up to and back from Tahoe. And while again, I'm pretty old, I still remember what it was like to be a young woman in love with a handsome young man, and the markers are pretty clear.”

“And what have you noticed?"

“Merely confirmation of what Samantha has already told me: that

Mariangel always talks about how safe she feels with you... Zofia too, actually. That Belle talks about how she can always depend on you.

Alice talks often about trust. Naimh has... well... to be honest every time I've seen Naimh she basically just wants to fuck you. Even AFTER she's just fucked you."

I found myself blushing and rubbed my forehead a bit, most especially because of this being one of the rare times Mother used the f-word.

"And don't take this the wrong way," Mother continued with a bit of a smirk, "but Samantha says she loves how obedient you are for her."

I chuckled, and with a shrug, conceded that Sam was probably right.

“And while the words they often choose to use may differ slightly, all of them actually come back to essentially the same meaning. All six of them feel SAFE with you. They trust you, they depend on you, and yes they want you to be obedient, because at the end of the day, all of those things have been making them feel safe around you for years. And believe me, as a woman in today's world, I can readily understand how difficult it is to feel safe around a man."

I thought back to what now felt like forever ago, even if it had only been about two months. And with a little smile, I recalled, "Sam once said what she loved most about me was that she knew I'd never do anything she didn't want me to do, and had never felt that way with other guys."

“Samantha feels safe with you. She trusts you. She still does." Mother eyed me carefully.

“Is it so much to ask you to trust her in return?”