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Chapter 11 The Water Boiled
Chapter 11 The Water Boiled
Sunday had nothing scheduled. Zhang Xue had meant to go to the supermarket, and the rain kept them in. Lunch was noodles Li Gan boiled. The water boiled twice. The first time he watched the pot. The second time he did not see it, because Wu Ziyi came up against his back, set her chin on his shoulder, and said, "Zhang Xue is on the phone on the balcony. She said ten minutes if it's short. She allows us to kiss in these ten minutes, and she does not allow us to get halfway through something so that when she comes in all she can do is watch the pot boil over. Do you want to kiss?"
"Was that her exact wording?" He turned the flame down.
"The original was meaner," Wu Ziyi said. "She said if you want to warm up, warm up, and don't boil the noodles into paste. My translation was the civilized one."
He turned and kissed her. The kiss had the taste of daytime at home and the heat of noodle broth. It did not have the all-or-nothing of night. Her hand went inside his sweatshirt and touched his waist. He got hard. She felt it, and when the pot was about to boil over again she pushed him off and lifted the noodles out. "Eat first. I'm thirty-eight. I can forget a meal for sex. I don't want to scrub a burnt pot for sex again."
When Zhang Xue came back the three of them still finished the noodles. By the end, anyone could see whose foot was touching whose under the table. Zhang Xue set her chopsticks down. "I don't want to go out this afternoon. I want to redo that light in the kitchen. Last time it was white light, a fright, sleep pants. This time I want all three of us knowing what we're doing. Do you want to?"
Wu Ziyi looked at the counter. Her eyes stopped on that stretch of surface. "I do. I think I still want to sit there. But this time not the big light. The range-hood light is enough. Li Gan, if you feel that doing it there will remind you of being cursed at, say so and we'll change places. I don't need the same location to prove we've passed."
"I want it there," Li Gan said. "Not to prove anything. I want to keep the two of you in the place where I once lost you. Zhang Xue, you decide who gets put on the counter first."
"Her first," Zhang Xue said. "Last time she was the one sitting there. I want to see that picture done again with my agreement. Then I want you to come in from behind. I'll bend beside her legs. The condoms are in the drawer. I put them there yesterday. Don't look shocked. I just don't want anyone running back to a room to look for one."
The range-hood light was warm. It only lit that one piece of counter. Outside, the rain tapped the kitchen window fine. When Wu Ziyi sat up, the surface was a little cold and she flinched. Li Gan stood between her legs, kissed her first, and went in under the hem of her house clothes to hold her breasts. Zhang Xue stood at the side and watched. She took her own underwear off, kicked it aside, and asked Wu Ziyi, "May I lick your chest? While he kisses your mouth."
"Yes," Wu Ziyi said. "Lick. Li Gan, your hand down. I'm already wet inside. You don't have to inspect it for anyone. Touch my clit directly."
His fingers parted her, found the point, and rubbed slowly. Zhang Xue took one nipple in and circled it with her tongue. Wu Ziyi's head went back against the cabinet. Her legs opened. Her heels pressed the small of Li Gan's back. Her voice in the kitchen sounded more wanton than it did in the bedroom. She heard herself. The roots of her ears went red, and she did not swallow the sound. "Like that. Both of you together. It's as if you're pulling me out of last time's light. Li Gan, fingers in. Zhang Xue, don't only lick one side."
Zhang Xue changed to the other side. Her teeth grazed lightly. Wu Ziyi shook hard. Li Gan's two fingers went in to the deepest, his thumb pressed her clit, and the rhythm was steady. She came close to the edge quickly. Her hands caught his shoulder and Zhang Xue's hair. "I'm going to come. Don't stop. Let me come once on this counter. Then you switch. I can watch her being fucked by you."
When she came she was not quiet. She cried out. Her cunt bit his fingers. Wetness marked a small patch of the counter. Zhang Xue lifted her head and kissed her mouth and caught the leftover sounds in the kiss. Li Gan drew his fingers out, opened his trousers, and put a condom on. His hands still shook, and after the shaking he did the thing seriously. Zhang Xue had already turned. Her hands braced the edge of the counter. Her waist dropped. She looked back at him.
"Come in," she said. "From behind. Go in only halfway first. Let me adjust to this angle. Ziyi, look at my face. I want your hand on my back. Don't talk so beautifully. Right now I only want to be filled."
He held her waist. The head pressed into her. This position went deep. Her fingers curled on the counter. He stopped at halfway. "Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't. Come in farther. All the way. Then move. Harder. I don't want slow and orderly today. Ziyi just came. I watched her come. I've been empty all morning."
He sank in to the root and began to thrust. The sound in the kitchen turned bodily: the dull knock of impact, the panting she lowered and could not keep down, a leftover of water in the pot shaken into a light sound. Wu Ziyi's hand moved from Zhang Xue's back to her hair and lifted her face. The two of them looked at each other. Zhang Xue's eyes lost focus under the thrusts, and she still looked at her. "You see. I'm not only like this in front of him. I can be like this in front of you too. If you want to kiss me, kiss me."
Wu Ziyi kissed her. While they kissed, Li Gan hit the deepest point, and Zhang Xue's hum went entirely into Wu Ziyi's mouth. Wu Ziyi's hand reached down, touched the place where the two of them were joined, then touched Zhang Xue's clit and rubbed lightly. Zhang Xue's legs went soft at once. Li Gan felt her clamp suddenly inside and asked, "Is this all right? She's touching you. I'll keep going."
"Yes." Zhang Xue was almost crying it. "Neither of you stop. I'm going to come. Li Gan, come inside, in the condom. I want you with me. Ziyi, look at me. Watch me come."
When she came her whole body went forward. Her forehead pressed Wu Ziyi's knee. Her cunt tightened in waves. Li Gan swore low under the grip, thrust deep a few more times, and came into the condom. He lay on her back and did not put all his weight on her. His hands braced the counter. He panted. Wu Ziyi's fingers were still between Zhang Xue's legs and only left when she flinched.
The three of them held that awkward shape for a good while. The range-hood light hummed. The rain was still falling. Li Gan pulled out, tied the condom off, and suddenly felt his own legs were soft too. Zhang Xue laughed first, and the laugh shook. "At least the noodles didn't get boiled into paste again. We've improved."
Wu Ziyi laughed too. Laughing, she helped Zhang Xue up off the counter, then jumped down herself. Her legs were too soft to stand steady. Li Gan put a hand out to hold her. Zhang Xue held her from the other side. The three of them bunched into a knot in the narrow kitchen. Each person's sweat had that person's smell. Nobody said love. The word was too big, too big for them to pick up in the moment just after sex had gone. Zhang Xue only said, "I don't hate that light from last time anymore. I'll still remember it. Remembering is all right. Remembering means this is home, not a hotel."
Li Gan put his forehead against the top of her hair, then turned and touched Wu Ziyi's temple. "Then I'll cook tonight. Really cook. Not boil noodles. You two go shower. I don't mind who goes first. I need ten minutes to pick my soul up off the counter."
"You said that in the parking lot last time too." Wu Ziyi patted his face, very lightly. "Go pick it up. When you've picked it up, wipe the counter. No getting hard again before it's wiped. That's the kitchen's new clause."
Zhang Xue made a sound, picked up her underwear, walked two steps, and looked back. "Clause invalid. If I see him wiping the counter I may want it again. But let him rest tonight. If his waist goes first, there'll be nobody to drive the car."
They went to shower. When the water started, Li Gan stood alone in the kitchen and wiped that stretch of counter clean. Halfway through the wiping he got hard, the way Zhang Xue had predicted. He did not call them. He took the clause as care underneath a joke, endured it, and started going through the refrigerator. Eggs, tomatoes, half a box of tofu left. Enough to make a hot meal.
The rain outside had lessened. He felt, with a sudden clarity, that this old three-bedroom was no longer only a solution to sharing rent. There would still be jealousy, red lights, sentences said wrong. But the kitchen light could be turned on again. After it was turned on, nobody had to hide in the dark.
