My Soul - Mi Alma (Ongoing)

31 Saturday in West Village

Finally! Carlos and I were alone. The poor guy was totally spent, we said good night to Mick and Stuart, and went down to my bedroom.

Mi Alma," Carlos kissed me passionately, as we crawled into the bed. What we had lacked in time during our morning quickie, we definitely would make up for now.

He eased himself on top of me and suckled his way down my collarbone, over my breasts and down to my sweet point. I just groaned. It had been an eventful week since I last felt his body on top of me.

"Alma – now we are free to be together. I was afraid it would take years; I'm so happy that I can call you mine," he mumbled. We made passionate love before Carlos went off into a deep sleep. That man has a severe snoring problem! I had problems falling asleep, I was so happy feeling his strong arms around my body, and the thought about this being forever -oh my god! All the years of thinking of him, hoping we would be together again, had finally come to an end, it had been well worth the wait.

I woke up with Carlos's arms tightly around my body. We were perfect for each other. We shared the same interests, we could be quiet together, and we could talk our heads off. We were Yin and Yang – a match made in heaven. Yes, I was worried about the future. I was concerned about meeting his sons. I was worried about him being faithful – after all, he was my masculine, controlling, Latin male chauvinist lover, who had been with tons of women, but I would deal with that later. For now, I was just genuinely happy.

I released myself of his arms and went down to the kitchen to get some coffee. Rosa was already there.

"Rosa! Thanks for everything you did yesterday, shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I'm too old to sleep longer than 7 am, Alma, and I wanted coffee. Good thing you are here. We need to discuss the dinner tomorrow, and also, are you guys eating in or out tonight? I have ordered the salmon and the duck breasts to be delivered this afternoon – but what about the desert? And the veggies ?" Rosa asked

I had a good sip of my coffee. "Rosa – I think green beans, pomme noisette, and mushrooms for the duck, and we need oranges for the sauce. Did you take a wine count? I have a feeling we drunk a lot of wine last night. Should we order more? As for the salmon pate's side dish, and dessert, I have no clue – do you have any ideas?"

"I do" Carlos just entered the kitchen – and I felt aweful, I was going downstairs to get coffee for him and bring it to him in bed, and ended up discussing menus with Rosa instead.

"Carlos," I threw my arms around his neck.

"Mi Alma, I thought that you had run away when I didn't find you by my side when I woke up," He mumbled as he kissed my neck. He was only wearing  sweatpants and an old t-shirt, my god that man looked hot -with or without clothes!

Stuart was the next to arrive, "Mick is on his way," he said

"Stuart, will you and Mick go downstairs to the wine cellar and see if we need anything for the bloodbath tomorrow?"

"After my coffee Alma" I'm not good for anything before I had my coffee. Give a slightly hungover man a break. In a few minutes, Mick showed up with a bad case of bedhair. We all had coffee on the kitchen island. I felt so fortunate, being here with the people I cherished the most in my life.

Mick and Stuart went down to the wine cellar to take a count and decided we were fine on red, but some more white would be needed. I called the winestore and ordered a few boxes of white.

"So, Carlos, you had an idea about deserts?" Rosa asked

"Why don't we just order strawberry pies and homemade ice cream?" Carlos looked at us, we are all going out to the exhibition today, and Rosa was working overtime with the party yesterday. We all agreed. The menu for Sunday's bloodbath was settled.

Rosa excused herself; she wanted to take the dogs for a walk in the park.

The boys and I were sitting on the kitchen island in silence.

"It worked out pretty well last night with Kelly and Steve – didn't it" Stuart grinned after a few minutes. We all started laughing at our success. Hope it's not just a one night stand," Mick filled in.

"I was watching them, and unless he's impotent, I think this is definately more than a one night stand. Their chemistry was hot, Carlos added."

I guess we will see in a few hours. We're meeting up for lunch at noon over in West Village.

"Should we walk down or take the car?" The walk is about 45 minutes.

"We will walk," All the three men agreed, "and maybe take a cab back if we get too drunk," Stuart added.

We walked down Fifth Avenue. It was a nice walk, and we had a great time guessing what Steve and Kelly got out of their first night together.

Before noon, we arrived at the lunch restaurant; Mama, Francis, and Brett were already there.

"I need a glass of wine; I'm sure it's 5 pm somewhere in the world," Stuart exclaimed.

"Well, since it's almost six pm in Spain, I'll join you," Carlos hummed.

"Besides, it's Saturday, so normal rules do not apply, mama said – let's get a bottle" Normal rules never applied to mama.

The lovebirds  finally arrived, hand in hand. They looked as infatuated as people who just met and hit it off big time can look. This was the first time I saw Kelly in jeans, trainers and a ponytail – I liked this Kelly a lot more than the one in formal business suits and heels. Stuart just had a silly grin on his face.

We had a wonderful lunch, where Brett told us about the artist, Matt Grice was his name. Matt was also Bretts student at The Guggenheim Academy. He meant this was a painter with colossal potential, and someone to look out for. We all walked over to the gallery that was just a block away.

I had seen the picture on the invitation for the opening, but I was not prepared for what I was about to experience; this was spectacular! His use of human forms in a semi-erotic way set in a nondescript landscape – huge canvases and beautiful classical strokes in a non-classical setting. He had some inspiration of surrealists like Dali in his art, but his style was truly unique.

"I love this," I hugged Carlos. "We should get one," he said, "for our New York bedroom – that will make it ours, not just your" he kissed the top of my head lightly.

Brett brought Matt - the painter - over and introduced us. A sweet kid in his mid-twenties. He was a bit starstruck being introduced to the Met's director, a curator from Guggenheim, and the director of the Prado. Sorry kid, that is who your fan club is.

Carlos and I bought a 6 feetx 6 feet painting, and we saw a lot of the other paintings had red dots as well, meaning they were sold – this was just awesome!

We were invited to the afterparty, but declined the invitation and went home. Mama went with Francis and Brett to the party. Steve and Kelly came with us.

Seated in the roof-garden, Kelly pulled me aside and wanted to talk. "Thanks for bearing over with me Alma, this has been the best two days of my life. I thought you would all be like snobbish upper-class people, but you're not. Can you forgive my prejudices about you? By the way, Carlos is hot, but not as hot as Steve," she had this silly grin on her face.

I hugged Kelly, and welcomed her into our slightly eccentric world. Why hadn't I done this earlier?