Vol. 4 Rewrite, Chapter XIII — Hangover and Homecomings

Before opening the door to my apartment, I tried spending some time fixing up my expression using the phone screen as a mirror, but to no avail. I simply couldn’t erase my expression from having made love with Violet and the fact that I had some of her underwear on.

Usually, that wouldn’t be a problem because I’d go straight to my room to pick up some clothes and go take a shower next, but today… today I’d delay bathing for as long as I could. I was super happy about Violet having gone above and beyond what I had requested her—even though she messed up a bit, so I didn’t want to let that go until I really had to.

I opened the door and walked inside, not letting out my usual greeting as I wasn’t sure where sis was, nor about her current condition. And I was glad I did that because I found her on the couch, belly up, two pillows serving as a headrest and an arm folded over her eyes.

“Hi Abby,” she greeted me in a low, gravelly voice, having noticed my presence. “Took you a while to get home.”

“Violet and I had some homework left to do,” I told her, moving around the couch to go sit with her. Not exactly a lie since expressing the love we feel for one another more physically is a form of relationship work that we did at home, right?

I gently lifted her head and removed the pillows, my lap taking their place. And there it was, Sophie’s eyes telling me that I was the younger sister, so it should be the other way around. She was even more annoying about this than Violet with her provider and care-giver mentality, but at least Violet more or less knew when to put that aside and let me take care or pamper her.

These two are similar to one another in the most annoying ways possible.

“Where’s Papa Stan and dad?” I asked. It was strange not having walked by Stan on my way home, and I was also finding it strange how dad wasn’t there too, at least having taken his work laptop and set up a workstation in the living room as he sometimes did.

“The two of them are talking about something in dad’s room,” my sister said, still giving me that weird look. Just to show her who was in charge here, I started combing her hair with my fingers. Sophie tried to make me stop, but I told her to give up already and let me ease her up and not be a stubborn mule. The sour face she made as she told me that she wasn’t being stubborn was priceless.

“Anyway, what did dad say when you got home?”

“…Nothing. He was just worried.”

What she meant by that was that he didn’t scold her as she had feared and went straight to asking how she was doing. That checked out. He probably never thought he’d have to worry about one of his daughters pulling a stunt like this. And I wouldn’t put it past him to have asked Stan for advice on how to proceed.

“Stan was also super cool,” my sister then added to her previous thoughts. “I can kinda see now why you call him ‘Papa Stan’. He’s…”

“…So nice that it feels weird?” I asked, reminding myself of my first impressions on him.

“Yeah… I guess that’s a way to put it. He really treats you like he has always known you, doesn’t he?”

“Hehe, yeah. That’s Papa Stan in a nutshell.”

“It’s also very strange how open dad is with him.”

“You think so? I think it’s just normal. Those two are best friends, thick as thieves.”

“Yeah… you’re probably right.”

Sis had a lot to adjust to now.

It’s not like she hadn’t seen dad interacting with friends before, but those people were more like “friends” than the actual meaning of the word. There had always been a certain veil between them, a certain… expectation. How to behave, what to say, that sort of thing. None of those applied to his interactions with Papa Stan. Stan never had much of a filter even when they were merely boss and employee to begin with. Stan had always been polite, of course, but from my understanding, Stan always had a freedom of attitude and talking with dad that no other employee dared to.

“Is that really how he has always been with dad?” my sister asked, still finding it hard to believe there was such a man with so apparent disregard for hierarchy. “What a strange man.”

“Oh, you’ll soon like him a lot. It’s impossible not to.”

“I wonder… Still, it’s a bit hard to believe how Violet is related to him. They have nothing in common. Well, actually… I guess both of them are very caring.”

They actually had plenty in common, but for her to know that, she’d have to deal with Violet in the same very private way I deal with her. Not that I’d want for them to get that intimate. I was a greedy girl, and there were things I wouldn’t share with nobody, not even sis. So, I kept my mouth shut about it.

“Abby, don’t take this the wrong way, but… you kinda stink.”

“As if you’re one to talk,” I retorted, having taken it the wrong way. “You stink of sweat and booze.”

“Well, since you didn’t mention puke, I’ll take that as a win.”

“You know, a bath could actually make you feel better.”

“I will, once Stan goes home.”

“What? Afraid that he’d take a peek?”

“Not intentionally, no. It still could happen on accident.”

“He’ll have to just take responsibility then. Ouchies!”

“Don’t say stupid things!” my sister said, giving a second tap to my knee before getting up.

As she walked away, she put me in charge of warning the men that she was bathing if they came out of dad’s room in the meantime while I laughed, happy for the results. She was looking much better now that I was pestering her instead of moping around. Yet another thing she had in common with Violet. Two girls who, despite being good when well left alone, sometimes needed someone around to kick their butts into motion.

And that thought led me to one I had while at Violet’s: sis didn’t have any friends, did she? It was rhetorical question as I was absolutely sure sis didn’t since she had an even more extremely controlled life than I did. It really made me worry. If she was a bit more outgoing like me, maybe that wouldn’t be much of an issue, but since she was a bit more like Violet… that would be an issue.

I know Violet would tell me to leave my sister be and figure that out by herself, but with how many things sis had on her plate, I truly wanted to help her out.

I began brainstorming for ideas, people who could be a good match, that sort of thing. According to my thoughts, sis needed someone who was a girl, about her age, and preferably, a bit more outgoing.

I did think of someone who more or less matched that description, but…

“Would that work out ok?”

That thought would have to wait because sis came back.

“Mmh! You really smell nice sis,” I said, scooting closer to her to better catch her scent. Indian rose and rosemary. Floral, slightly spicy like pink pepper, a bit sweet too, but the rosemary helped balance the sweetness with its earthy-ness, adding a nice layer of spice and green, almost tea-like. Feminine and… sophisticated, like my sister, but still grounded, and a bit calming. Not as calming as Violet’s lavender scent, but in my girlfriend’s case, I’d say it was both feminine and nurturing.

“Wish I could say the same about you, baby sis,” my sister said, waving her hand in the air to further drive her point home.

“Once Stan goes home.”

“What? Are you the one afraid now?”

“Nope, I just don’t want to leave you all alone and sad,” I jeered, leaning on her.

“Urgh! Go take a bath already!”

“Fine,” I hummed, getting up from my seat.

And like clockwork, the door leading inside dad’s room opened and soon enough, Stan and dad were in the living room.

“Hi dad!” I cheered, going to give him a hug.

He gladly accepted it but he also commented on my smell… and mosquito bites around my neck and shoulders. Oops.

“I’m not surprise,” Papa Stan said, giving my hickeys a good look. “Just last night, I killed about half a dozen before even going to bed.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the ones responsible for my bites took off with Oliver in their grasp,” I joked, trying to assess if he was covering for me, or if he was oblivious to the nature of my marks. The results were inconclusive. “Anyway, bath time for me. See ya around Papa Stan.”

In the bathroom, I stood for a bit considering putting on Violet’s underwear after taking the bath. There was no point, I decided. With how much I had sweated since I had put them on at her place to now, their “essence” was now more me than Violet’s. Still, it had been a valuable experience. I now knew how much closer I felt with her doing this, and how I didn’t seem to miss her as much. The latter, while not something I had thought about before, was an excellent bonus feature. It certainly would make our time apart—and forced periods of celibacy—much more tolerable.

I still would have preferred to keep them on though.

And after I was done taking a bath, now smelling of sea breeze and summer flowers, I stepped out of the bathroom to find Stan waiting in the corridor. I thought that maybe he had been waiting for me so he could use the toilet, but as soon as I opened the door, he gestured me to be quiet.

I could hear some words coming from the living room. Dad and Sophie were having a quiet conversation about something I couldn’t quite hear.

“Your father was worried that he might have put more stress on your sister, so I told him to make things as clear as possible to her and listen to what she has to say,” he whispered to me. “If I understood correctly, he’s telling her that he wishes for Sophie to not worry about getting a job for at least a whole year but that if she wishes, or if she thinks she’d feel better, she should look for one regardless.”

“I don’t know if that’ll be enough to put her mind at ease.”

“I know… Don’t tell her this because I don’t think she remembers, but Sophie cried a lot about it last night. It must be overwhelming for someone to go from a very structured and controlled life to one with absolute freedom.”

My sister cried in front of Stan? Yeah, I couldn’t possibly tell her about it, and I hoped she’d never remember doing so.

“Well, looks like it’s my chance to leave,” Stan commented once dad appeared at the entrance of the corridor. “See you around Abs.”

“‘Abs?’”

That was a new one.

“Hey Abby? Could you keep company to your sister for today? I’d do it myself, but I really can’t stay home today.”

“Sure thing dad!” I told him with a thumbs up. “I’m not leaving her side even when she needs to use the bathroom.”

“I know you’re joking, but please, don’t go overboard.”

“Gee dad, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

But leaving jokes aside for a moment, he was right in reminding me to keep it under control. Sis was still not in her prime, and I’d have to be mindful of that.

As I was re-joining sis, Stan stood behind the couch, one hand on Sophie’s shoulder as he did a final check on her. As he left, she kept following him with her eyes, looking lost in thought.

“Have you fallen for him?” I asked, already forgetting not to tease her too much today.

“Oh, come on!” she said with a scow. “I barely even know him! And he’s the father of your girlfriend, how would that even work?!”

“I was only joking.”

“Not to mention the age gap!”

I tilted my head to that. Everything she said before? Yeah, I agreed to it. The age gap however? Our parents had thirteen years of age between them while Sophie and Stan had… about fifteen. It was strange to me that she was raising an issue with that under our family circumstances. Unless she had always found the age gap between our parents strange?

“I mean… not really?” she said, now getting defensive. “And aren’t women usually attracted to men who are slightly older than them, and men attracted to younger women in turn?”

I shrugged, not having the experience to comment on that. Before Violet came along, I had no interest in romance for many reasons, and after Violet, well, since I fell in love with her, that kind of subject completely fell into irrelevance.

“…Besides… he saw me black-out drunk, crying my eyes out and vomiting… there’s no way I could fall for a man who saw that ugly side of me. And I doubt a man would fall for a mess of a girl like me either.”

So, she did remember crying in front of him, huh? And there it was too, that down-to-earth attitude that easily turned into negativism.

“Do you have any idea how many times Violet saw me being a complete mess, and I her? And yet, somehow, we still fell in love with one another. Don’t sell yourself so short just because you’re a bit unexperienced and shown some vulnerability. Even if we weren’t talking about Papa Stan but of men like him, I don’t think they’d never fall in love with you if you showed them your many good sides and willingness to grow. And please, don’t be so stubborn by refusing to fall for someone who saw some of your… less-than-perfect sides. What do you think happens when you enter into a relationship with anyone?”

My sister mulled it over, but I could see that was like trying to make a bicycle run with a stick stuck through its spokes, as in, that wasn’t happening at all.

I suggested us go take a nap so she could rest her head a bit.

She got up and went ahead while I fetched us two water bottles from the fridge.

Then, it was the struggle of making me fit in her bed and snuggle up to her due to how her chest got in the way.

Violet really was made for me, huh?

And I was made for her. Just as there’s someone out there who’s made for my sister to meet some day.