Monday morning. Crappiest day of the week. Thankfully for me Mondays started as late as I wanted them to. On this particular day that was round about midday.

I was just getting out of a lovely, long, hot shower when the phone rang. Double crap.

Grabbing a towel and absent-mindedly rubbing myself off I went through into the bedroom and sitting down on the bed, picked up the extension.

'Amber McGregor.'

If it was my agent pushing for proofs I would wring his scrawny neck.

'Umm Amber?'

'Yeah speaking.' I recognised the voice from somewhere but couldn't for the life of me place it. It had a slight tinge to it, an accent, and sounded terribly familiar.

'Hi, it's…er..it's Daniel.'

'Hi.' I relaxed and slowly began to dry myself off again, leaning back against the headboard. 'How are you? How's Darren?'

'Umm nervous.' Came the reply accompanied by a little chuckle. 'His new album is out next week and he is sweating over it's reception.'

'I'm sure it'll be fine.' I knew he hadn't called just to give me prior notice of the release date.

'So, we were, er I was wondering….whether….we could…ermmm.'

'Daniel, would you and Darren like to come up for dinner tonight.' I smiled putting the poor guy out of his misery.

His relief was tangible. 'Yes, if we may, that would be lovely.'

Of course we both knew that we weren't really talking about dinner, well not just dinner anyway…

'If you are not busy tomorrow why don't you stay over. I always think it's such a shame when you start chatting with friends and then the evening has to break up.'

I heard a sharp intake of breath and then a deep chuckle. 'Yes why not, that would be nice.'

'Okay pen and paper handy?' I enquired.

'Yep - shoot.'

I rattled off a set of instructions as to how to get to our place and then after a few minutes more of general chit-chat he rang off and I hit one of the autodials on the handset, starting to drag my fingers through my wet hair as I did so.

'Hi babe.' Richard's cheery voice came down the line.

'Hi, what you up to?'

'Nothing much, I…' I held the receiver out at arms length as a shrill burst of feedback hurtled towards me. 'Watch it you muppet.'

A mumbled apology was followed by the sound of a door being opened then closed.

'Spud?' I asked rhetorically.

'but of course, who else would be stupid enough to stand that close to the foldback.?'

Spud. Lead guitarist of the band that Richard was currently working with. Lovely person, fantastic musician but completely hopeless when it came to anything requiring even a modicum of common sense.

'Look the reason I called, other than to hear your beautiful voice of course,'

'of course.'

''is to tell you to be home nice and early tonight as we are having guests for dinner.'

'Oh yeah,' his interest was piqued, we rarely entertained 'guests' we had friends come over, we had people crash, but we never had 'guests, 'what kind of guests?'

'the playful kind.'

‘So they called then?'

'yep, Daniel called a few minutes ago, apparently Darren is stressed out over his new album and Daniel wondered whether we couldn't perhaps help him relieve some of his tension.'

'Oh I think that can be arranged.' Richard's voice dropped low and seductive, sending tingles up my spine just at the sound of it.

'That's what I thought. So see you about six then?'

'No problem, I'll be there….No, not that one…' A loud crash followed by some rather choice expletives. 'Gotta go, see you later.'

'Bye hun.'

Laughing I hit the 'end call' button and set about pulling on some clothes.

*****

To give him his due, Richard did manage to make it home by six-twenty, which was pretty good going for him. He was still upstairs showering when there came a knock at the door.

Wiping my hands on a nearby tea-towel I went and opened it to find two beautiful boys standing there, both wearing very cheeky grins.

'Hi ya, come in.' I opened the door wide and ushered them inside. They both embraced me warmly and dropped polite kisses on my cheek.

'Richard.' I yelled up the stairs, letting him know that our company had arrived. 'Come through, he'll be down in a bit.'

Cautioning them to watch the small step down I led them into the main part of our open-plan living area.

‘Make yourself at home.’

Smiling they flopped happily into the large comfy sofa, their hands immediately seeking out each others’.

Footsteps sounded on the wooden staircase and Richard graced us with his presence, dressed casually in a pair of faded blue jeans and a pale grey t-shirt, his feet bare, his hair still damp from his shower.

More embraces and kisses all round.

'I'll give Darren a hand with the bags.' Richard quickly volunteered not even bothering to see if they had already brought them in, which they hadn’t.

Darren was up like a shot, following him back out the front door.

‘Eager little thing isn’t he?’

Daniel nodded. ‘Like you wouldn’t believe.’

Laughing I directed Daniel to help himself from the drinks cabinet, instructing him to also select and open a bottle of wine then excusing myself I walked over to the kitchen to check on our meal. I heard ice clink into a glass as he prepared a drink and then the cork go on a bottle.

Darren and Richard reappeared from the car and headed up the stairs in the direction of the guest bedroom.

'So what's for dinner then?' he asked coming up behind me and draping his arms round my neck. I continued preparing a salad as I replied. 'Vegetable lasagne, hope that's alright.'

'Sure,' his breath was warm against my skin. 'kinda got used to rabbit food when we were sharing the flat, and even now Darren will eat it if he thinks he can get away with it.'

He began to gently kiss the nape of my neck, his hands taking the salad servers from my own and encouraging me to turn in his arms, his lips finding mine as I put my hands round his waist.

A good ten minutes passed before our respective other-halves reappeared and when they finally did they both looked a more than a little flushed in the face.

They came over to where Dan and I stood, Richard's fingers reaching out to stroke Dan's face, while his other hand snaked round Darren's waist. Daniel returned the favour by kissing deeply first Richard and then Darren.

All three turned to look at me as I cleared my throat. Their expressions clearly said that their thoughts were elsewhere.

'No,' I stated firmly, 'food first, sex later.'

Wordlessly their expressions changed, Darren pulling one of his best puppy-dog eyes pout.

'No,' I repeated and grabbing Darren's hand led him out onto the deck where the table had been laid. Glancing back I saw Richard and Daniel reluctantly follow, their arms wrapped loosely round each other's shoulders.