Keeping Her Love

by Tiger Hill

  His mouth fell open and he stared, wondering if he was imagining what he was witnessing. He had been drinking… and they had… and perhaps it was just sibling affection?

  He stayed where he was, watching and waiting. They continued to hold each other for a time—what seemed to Rhett to be an age—until they broke the contact to stare into each other’s eyes. Some words were traded between each other, words that Rhett couldn’t make out in any form, and Max’s hand reached up to touch her face. Before any more could happen, and before Rhett could do anything stupid, Layla’s crowing came up from the beach:

  “Hello? Is there anyone there? Where is everyone?! Rhett? Tula? Max?”

  Tula and Max jumped from each other like a pair of spooked quails. Rhett just exhaled, not sure if he was relieved or disappointed. When the two of them came walking down from the top of the trail, Rhett about to be discovered in his spot, he decided to make his presence known. He didn’t know how else to play off the fact that he’d been up there.

  “Hey, where you guys been?” Rhett asked calmly, trying to dislodge attention away from himself.

  Tula’s eyes widened. “Um, we wanted to check out the view up here. We’d heard that there was a lighthouse located around here somewhere.”

  “Did you find it?”

  “Not this time,” said Tula. “It’s too dark right now to go searching for it, we found out.”

  Though it was dark, Rhett did his best to hide the suspicious expressions on his face. “Maybe we can check it out tomorrow when there’s more light.”

  They began to descend the ridge together. When they saw Layla, Rhett handed the water to her. She groggily took the bottle with one hand and then grabbed Max’s arm with the other. Leading him to their tent, they collapsed in a tangled mess inside. Seeing that they were more or less gone, Rhett wanted to begin his inquires on what had happened between Tula and her brother. She looked tired herself, though, and he had promised to not bother her with discussions she didn’t want to get into. He decided to instead take a breath of fresh air, lead her into their own tent, and try to make her happy.

  “So how has the birthday been so far for you?” He asked, pulling his shirt off.

  “Okay,” she responded, yawning. “Not the best one on the books, but I don’t have too much to complain about.”

  “Well, it’s not quite over with,” he stated, a feisty grin on his face.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  He dipped to kiss her on the lips, gently wrapping his arms around her waist. She pulled back from him, her expression full of excitement.

  “We can’t!” She said in a hushed whisper. “They’ll hear us!”

  “So what?” He whispered back. “We’ll be quiet. They won’t know what’s going on over here at all. And if they do, then so what? It’s not like it’s a mystery that we’re in love with each other.”

  Something about it caused apprehension in her, but also happy excitement. She didn’t stop him when his fingers graced towards the bottom of her shirt and sweater. He pulled them up and over her head, tossing the clothing to the side. The temperature had dropped, and he wasted no time in wrapping his arms around her and pulling her down to the sleeping bags to warm her up. They got to some deep kissing right away, their instincts taking over as they tasted and eventually consumed one another. They both hadn’t had much sexual contact in the last few months, and aided by the fact that they were both quite drunk, they went into things with a kind of recklessness. Wanting to pleasure his girlfriend on her special day, Rhett peeled her jeans off along with her panties, taking in the smell of her arousal. Spreading her thin white thighs, he lowered himself to her pussy.

  “Rhett, Tula?” Called Layla’s voice.

  They both groaned, choosing to ignore her.

  She continued to call them, and they continued to ignore her. Wanting to dispel any chance of her presence ruining the mood, Rhett added the use of his fingers, giving Tula a little shriek of pleasure. As much as they ignored it, it did no good—the screaming pull of the zipper sounded, and Layla had a bright flashlight pointed at them.

  “Hey guys, I know—“

  Rhett swung around, wetness on his face. “LAYLA, FUCK OFF!”

  She gasped, then tried to appear indignant. “How dare you—“

  “—Don’t you understand English, you nitwit? Fuck off!”

  She gasped once more, causing her mouth to widen to what seemed like an unnatural width. Rhett took it upon himself to zip the tent closed on her. She stood there for a moment, the beam of the flashlight unmoving before it bounced off towards the other tent which was stationed a few feet away.

  “I can’t believe you did that!” Whispered Tula. Rhett couldn’t tell by the tone of her voice if she was expressing disapproval or her blessing.

  Feeling that he needed to respond, he said, “Well, she had butted in where she didn’t belong. To be honest, I wish more people told her off when she acted like a brat.”

  She paused, as if contemplating the comment. “I love you, you big bear! I’ve felt the same way since she moved in with us. Now you get back between my legs—you have an important job to do.”

  “Whatever you say, birthday girl.” He knelt, lowering his tongue to the soft, silky pink of her womanly parts. She moaned in pleasure, filtering her fingers through his hair.

  At least the end to her birthday could be nice, he thought as he licked.

  Chapter 5

  As much as Rhett would have liked to discuss in detail what had happened the previous night between Tula and her brother, it couldn’t really happen. Max and Layla were always hanging around, from the time they had to break down the tents in the morning to fitting everything back into Tula’s hatchback that afternoon. Talking about it in the car was out of the question, of course, and by the time they got home Tula had passed out on her bed. She was off to work nice and early the next morning, too busy to answer her phone, and Rhett had his own work to do.

  When they both got home, Rhett wasted no time in inviting her out for a nice dinner at her favorite restaurant. When she asked why he was taking her to such a nice place—a fancy French place with a delicious scallops dish—he mentioned that he wanted to treat her one last time for her birthday. Not questioning too thoroughly on a pleasant invitation, Tula got herself all dolled up for the night on the town. She looked stunning in a tight red dress, her hair curled, and bright red lipstick on her pert lips. Rhett almost felt bad about having to discuss such dark topics.

  A woman’s weapon is an effective one, thought Rhett. She doesn’t even know that she wounds me with her beauty right now.

  She took his arm as they headed for the door, announcing to the house that they were leaving. No one confirm that they had heard the call, but Tula didn’t seem to care.

  They arrived at the French restaurant twenty minutes later, were seated, and then they ordered some drinks. Tula had a rum and coke while Rhett chose a pint of beer. The conversation started jovially enough, with the both of them just going over how their days went. Apparently some of the weekend bakers had messed up the croissants she had prepared on Friday, causing her to have to improvise and use the dough for something else. The dough produced some of the best tarts she’d ever made, and it all turned out to be a happy accident in the end. Rhett talked about some of the cars that had come in, knowing that it probably bored her to hear about having to replace a main relay and repair some frayed wires in someone’s passenger door.

  After ordering the entrees, Rhett decided that the pleasantries were over with—they had to get down to discussing what was on his mind.

  “So,” started Rhett, finishing off the beer. A waiter noticed immediately and brought him another one. “About last night. It was an interesting time, huh?”

  She sipped at her tiny red straw. “Yes. Not the usual cake and ice cream, I guess.”

  He decided to get right to the point. “I saw you and Max, on the ridge.” He let the words sit in the air, and observe
d how she reacted to them. She looked at him more intensely, he thought. But then, he did address the issue with an air of accusation. “What was going on with that?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Is this a form of denial? She must know what I’m talking about. Maybe she’s waiting for me to spell out exactly what happened. Maybe I don’t know everything that transpired between them. “I mean that I saw you both hugging each other. It looked like it was a little more intimate than innocent sibling affection. Especially considering that you and Max barely trade more than a few words on a daily basis.”

  She bit on her straw. “Max is… in a bad place right now. I mean, you know him. Him with a girl like Layla? He was also drunk that night and needed some affection. It wasn’t anything more than that, I swear.”

  Rhett didn’t know what to make of that answer. He wanted to believe her, and her explanation sounded entirely reasonable, but something about her words seemed strained. “So there wasn’t anything else that happened that night that I didn’t happen to see?”

  “Nothing else happened. I mean, you saw us hug, right? That was about it.”

  “He touched your face, too.”

  “That, as well.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her nonchalant attitude.

  “What do you want me to tell you?” She asked, finishing off her rum and coke with a swig. “He wanted my affection. I gave it to him. He’s never had a real girlfriend before, and he’s lonely. He puts himself in that place, you know. Max is the quiet type. He can be a very sweet, caring person, but it can be hard for him to break that hard exterior. He’s my twin, and he trusts me. He looks to me for love when he feels that everything else around him is dark and cold. Layla is hard to love, but he knew he could have her if he wanted. He needs to break it off with her. It’s brought him nothing but heartache to be with someone he has no connection with.”

  Rhett sat back in his chair, thinking about her words. “Okay. Next, your parents and Layla. I don’t have much of a problem with them, particularly your father because he keeps his business to himself most of the time. But Layla and your mother have been driving you crazy with this wedding business. You have a soft heart, and I think they’re going to pummel you with how they beat you down about this stuff.”

  She sighed, playing with her napkin. “They can be a bother, yes. They do it because they care.”

  “And because they like weddings. Let’s be honest—is your mother trying to have the wedding she wants, or the one you want? Same goes for Layla.”

  She let out a little laugh. “My mother… Her own wedding wasn’t anything fancy. My dad and her basically tied the knot in a backyard. And Layla… She loves those wedding shows. My mom is helping to pay for a lot of this, so it feels like she should have a lot more say in what goes on.”

  “How much is she paying?”

  “For the dress and the cake.”

  “The things that are highly stylized? Am I right on that?”

  “Perhaps,” she said with a smirk.

  “She hasn’t paid for those things yet, has she?”

  “No, she but sends me a lot of ‘hints.’ We were supposed to go look at dresses next weekend with Layla.”

  Rhett almost wanted to vomit into his beer. “Do you have to do it with them?”

  “Well, it would probably create some bad blood if I cut them out, yes. It’s supposed to be something you invite your close female relatives to. It’s almost like a tradition for the family to help choose a wedding dress.”

  “If you can’t disinvite them, tell your mom that she doesn’t need to pay for the dress anymore. I’m tired of those hens telling you what to do. No disrespect.”

  Instead of being offended, Tula seemed amused by his comment. “Easier said than done. My mother is a sweet woman, but she doesn’t like being trifled with.”

  Their food was served, and they paused the conversation for a moment to dig into their food. Both of them audibly let known their culinary pleasure as they consumed those first few bites.

  “Look,” began Rhett, his fork tilted towards her. “I’ll be straight with you. This whole idea to move in with your family probably wasn’t a great one. I mean, I was worried this whole time that I would make a bad impression on them, and I believe that I didn’t, which is good. But they have a habit of muddling with things, and I’m not entirely comfortable with how events have been going down the past few months. I don’t want to offend them, and I like the extra money we save every month, but I’m tired of this. I want to move back out and into a place with you.”

  She thought about this, looking down at her plate as she chewed her food. “To be honest, I agree with you. I don’t think you clash with my family at all. You’ve been a perfect gentleman, and they’ve told me in private that they like you. And, you know, my family is nice enough—even Max and Layla—but there’s some… I don’t know. Things just get uncomfortable because of their personalities. It’s just better when we’re all apart, huh? You have to keep some distance with some people because too much familiarity breeds complacency.”

  “Right, exactly what I was thinking.” And I can keep that creep of a brother of yours as far away as possible from you.

  “So you want to move out soon?”

  “Yeah, as soon as possible. It’s near the end of the month, so I think we have a good chance to grab a place pretty quickly. Are you prepared to make a fast move?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t have a lot of stuff. I’m supposed to go dress shopping with my mom at this exclusive boutique, but then, I have wedding stuff scheduled with her for the next month. I’ll just have to cancel with her, however much she gives me her grievances about it.”

  “Good. I’m glad that this was relatively easy to resolve. I thought that you might be against it.”

  “Well, I am worried about the money issue. Not only are we telling my mother that we don’t want her money for the wedding, we now have to pay rent. It’s probably going to put our plans farther in the future now. At least, for the business aspect. We’ve already sent out ‘save the date’ notices, so there’s no getting out of that.”

  “But you haven’t sent the invitations, right?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “I don’t want the plans for your business to get sidetracked because of this wedding, so why don’t we extend it a few months farther into the future?”

  She gave him a warm smile. “That’s sweet of you. Yes, perhaps we will.” She laughed to herself briefly. “If I told Layla or my mother that, they’d be quite upset. Change the wedding date, what heresy! Hah. What the heck. I like being away from them already. At least if I tell them over the phone or something, I can hang up.”

  He inserted a bite of his duck a l’orange into his mouth after responding, “Exactly.”

  They finished their dinners, split a delicious crème brûlée with their coffees, and then Rhett paid the bill. They left feeling confident about their decisions, and they discussed the idea of telling the family about their plan to leave after they had found a place to move into. They wouldn’t want to carry on living in the house if there was a pessimistic air about their plans. Rhett could already imagine just how wonderful it would be to have an entire apartment to himself and his lover: afternoons spent entirely naked, making love when and where they wanted, not having to step over their words in front of their elders… Who cared about money when the tradeoff was so great!

  When they got home, they got right on the computer to look at apartment listings in the area. Using their power as a couple, they decided to split their time setting up appointments with the differing listings they wanted to take a look at. They got excited imagining what it would be like to live together as a couple, with Tula making plans on putting aside some of their savings to decorate their new space. The door to Tula’s room was closed during this whole exchange, and Tula’s father took it upon himself to make sure that it was opened when he walked down the hall.

  “What are you
two up to?” He asked after swiftly knocking on the door three times.

  “Nothing!” They answered innocently, huddled in front of the computer.

  “Hopefully nothing impure,” he responded with a wink before walking off.

  Asshole, Rhett found himself thinking after he left. Oops, I probably shouldn’t be thinking that about the father of my future wife. Still… he’s just as nosey as the rest of them, in his own way. He’s Mrs. Florian with a sausage between his legs. If he had the slightest interest in weddings, he’d be crawling all over Tula’s back about that, too.

  They went to bed soon after making some appointments. Tula was tired and had to be in at work in eight hours, so there was no time to be wasted staying up with her beaux. They shared a brief kiss, and Rhett wandered back to his room.

  Soon we’ll be sleeping in the same bed, just like man and wife. I don’t know if that spoils things any or if it’s a good prep period for when we are married. Hell, I know I want to marry the girl. I know we’ll be good together, so I don’t need to live together with her to know it. I wouldn’t have done this if things weren’t working out with her family. Oh well.

  When Rhett woke up the next morning, it began just as it did any other work day. He hit the alarm clock to shut it off, slept for another ten minutes, got up, and then washed his face off. After getting dressed, he stopped to grab a protein bar and a cup of coffee. Glancing at the newspaper Mr. Florian had already leafed through, he’d place his coffee cup in the sink before heading off for the street where his Camaro was parked. Only on this day, there was something disturbing about the way his prized car appeared. Right on the hood was a small, round dent and a few long, jagged scrapes. He gasped, tracing his finger over the affected area.

  Shit, what happened? He thought. It’s only been about twelve hours since Tula and I were driving in it. Those damn neighborhood kids… I bet it was one of them playing in the street at night with a basketball or soccer ball. This looks exactly like what would happen if some idiot dropped their toy from thirty feet up and then jumped over the car with their cleats. Little hellions. I’ll give the kids on this street a little talking to when I see them next. Christ, this really gets me angry! Another reason to move the hell away from here. An apartment complex isn’t much better, but at least my car has slightly less of a chance of being damaged. Jesus…