Vol. 6, Chapter VI — The Weight of the Fold

My body felt like lead, and yet, I felt like I’d float away were it not for the fact that Violet had her arms around me. My face was squished close to hers, our chests pressed together, our hearts beating against each other at the same time, our breaths evenly matched. Those were the only sounds heard in our bedroom at her place, aside from Oliver’s snores, our furball all curled up on our discarded clothes with his tummy up and a paw covering his eyes so the light wouldn’t bother them.

“This was dearly needed,” I breathed as I rubbed my nose on her cheek.

She let out an agreeing hum, one of her hands travelling from my back to my hair, following my spine and giving me a bit of a chill. Her fingers were as cool to the touch as always.

“I just hope we weren’t too noisy.”

“Oh, who cares?” I laughed, propping my face above hers, moving my arms to frame her head and my hands to caress her face. “It’s not like there’s anyone home, and when was the last time we got to let loose?”

“Hmm, true,” she said, her face growing a bit rosy, her fingers drumming my sides, making me feel a bit ticklish. “And you were making such cute noises too.”

“Because you kept teasing me!” I whined. “You were being so mean!”

She laughed and pulled me in for a kiss. We almost rolled out of the bed then as we began to wrestle one another. Despite all the noise, Oliver kept sleeping, not even twitching his ear once.

Silence then fell, and we got back to simply enjoying that feeling of “oneness” between us, our limbs a complete mess of a tangle.

“Pfft, hehe!”

“Pfft, fufu. What?”

I explained to her, while rubbing my feet on her shins, that I always found it amusing in these situations how, with us being face-to-face, we don’t seem to have that much of a height difference. If we were with our eyes levelled, my hips ended just slightly above hers, my feet closer to the mid-length of her shins. If, however, our hips were levelled, my eyes were more in line with her mouth, and my feet were closer to her ankles.

“Well, yeah, I’m mostly legs after all,” she told me with a chuckle. “I still—”

“Beautiful, gorgeous legs, I might add!”

“Fufu! Thanks, honey. Anyway, as I was saying, I still remember how strange it was to me how you seem to grow when we sit side by side and then shrink when we get up.”

Hearing this, I pulled myself up and made her sit up. I followed that with preparing a backrest for her against the headboard. Once she was settled, I squeezed myself against her in my spot between her legs. The clink our rings made when we wrapped our arms and fingers together was incredibly satisfying. Like this, I had to look just a slight bit up so my eyes met hers, my feet now able to touch the back of hers before we curled our legs together, cradling me in her limbs.

“We fit way too well together,” I sighed as I rubbed cheeks with her, looking for the perfect fit to settle down and continue enjoying our oneness.

“Indeed, we do,” she sighed back, doing the same I was doing. “We still have chores to do, but I really, really, don’t feel like leaving this cocoon.”

I was in complete agreement with her. Ever since we got married, things have been more demanding, and with the start of the school year, it has only gotten even more so. This was also our last year as high school students, so there was a lot riding on this one. Moments like this—that had been the norm most of the time during summer, I might add— were now the exception.

We had woken up, done just some light kissing and petting before getting out of bed, and then, we started going through our day. It was a bit surprising to me that my responsible wife Violet, hugged me from behind after we were done doing the dishes and suggested we take a break for couple-bonding time when what we had planned after lunch was more house chores and homework. Instead, we made love and were now procrastinating like crazy because we were way too comfortable in each other’s arms.

“Fufu! You’re doing your happy noises again.”

I was about to tell her that I was her ruin when our phones rang. She reached out for one of them, grabbing the first one that her hand came in contact with as she was saying that it was most likely Mathilda wanting to talk about her date with Stephen.

It was my sister instead. She texted us asking if she could bring Claire for a visit, and that Claire kept pestering her that she’s been bored lately and wanted to play with us.

It has been a long while since the last time we saw her— since our wedding day, to be exact, so we agreed to it. We had to get up and dress eventually, so that house call came in handy, otherwise, it’d be dinner time, and we’d still be doing nothing other than existing for one another.

And for that, we had to get our clothes back, something we were finding very hard as we looked at our peacefully sleeping kitten.

“I feel so bad for disturbing him,” I said as I picked up Oliver. He was giving us the sleepiest questioning look as to why we had woken him up.

“Please, stop,” she told me with a troubled look as she sifted through which were mine and which were hers. “You’re only making me feel worse.”

◊◊◊

Sophie and I needed a second to process what had just happened, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

To begin with, after we got dressed, Abby in my clothes and me in hers, we got to folding laundry to pass the time as we waited for Sophie’s and Claire’s arrival. Their arrival was as expected: Abby retreating behind me, her nose fearing an assault from Claire’s perfume, me taking off my glasses, Claire squishing our faces against her bust, me putting my glasses back on, and Abby sighing in relief that Claire’s perfume wasn’t aggressive this time. Claire made the expected comments about how Abby looked like a doll with her sunflower hairpin, choker and the shirt that belonged to me that she had on, while she commented on how hot I looked in my choker and with clothes that revealed a lot of skin, my midriff partially showing with the tiniest move of my arms, my legs almost fully exposed. Then, I didn’t even have time to remind her that we were married before she handed Oliver to my wife and picked her up in the air like the doll she is.

“All righty then,” she huffed with Abby dangling in her hold the same way Oliver was in hers. “You two need to have a chat, so we are going to be playing somewhere else, so ciao! Buh-bye!”

And with that, she stormed off, carrying them away from the living room and into our bedroom, Abby squeaking for help while Claire cackled like a madwoman. The only thing I could really think cohesively then was that I was thankful Abby and I had the foresight to change the sheets and make the bed before they got here.

“That girl, she’s so nosy!” Sophie sighed, although it sounded more like a growl.

“…She’s right, tough,” I said, resting my hands on a pillowcase I had just folded. “We do need to talk, don’t we?”

Sophie looked at me, her voice softening up into one of worry and… I think “endearment” would be a good word.

“Let me help you with that,” she said, putting her bag on the couch and stepping up to my side. In any other circumstance, I’d have found it odd, maybe even a bit funny, seeing her in a business-casual attire folding clothes, but the mood was far too serious for that right now.

For a couple of minutes, we folded clothes in silence until I noticed how she was folding one of Dad’s t-shirts.

“Wait, don’t fold them like that, fold them like this,” I told her as I showed how I did it.

“Was I doing it wrong?” she asked as she redid the shirt.

I felt a bit stupid then because it’s not like she was doing it “wrong”. She simply wasn’t doing it my way, and saying that made me feel a bit petty.

Silence fell between us for a couple more minutes after that, my mind swirling with embarrassment and the need to bring anything up as an ice-breaker before the main topic.

“It bothers you a lot that I like him, doesn’t it?” she said, her voice so quiet that it was barely heard over the rustling of fabric.

I looked at her, Sophie’s face sullen as she kept looking down at her working hands.

“…I wouldn’t say a lot,” I admitted. “And… ‘bother’ doesn’t feel quite right to describe it… ‘weird’ is a bit closer, I think…”

“…I’m really sorry for all this,” she told me, now looking at me. “After how things started between us, and now that we were getting along so well… I’m really sorry.”

“…You know, when I told Dad that I was in love with Abby, I apologised to him for that. He told me to never be sorry for liking someone. It took me a while to understand, but I understood why he told me that a bit later, after I thought about it a lot. We don’t really get to choose which person we fall in love with, so…”

“…Thanks, Violet,” she told me with a yellow smile. “That means a lot, hearing that coming directly from you.”

The folding of laundry continued a bit longer, no other sound being heard. That gave me plenty of time to think about what I wanted to say or ask next, not that I hadn’t done it a thousand times before, but somehow, under pressure, my thoughts seemed more cohesive than ever.

“What are you planning to do about it?” I asked her.

“…I’m still not quite sure,” she admitted. “For the first time ever, I feel like I have a proper, working family, even if the people in it are a bit… quirky.”

“Hmm… Yeah, I’d be terrified of messing that up too,” I hummed out loud without meaning to. “Well, as far as I’m concerned… I already told Abby that I’d give you my support.”

“You… you will?”

“Yes, but… not like, I’ll be giving you tips or hints about how to… date my Dad, more like… I’ll lend you an ear or a shoulder… if you need it.”

She was back to looking at me with that expression of endearment, only now, there were also tears forming in her eyes. That had a huge impact on my core, as her face was way too similar to Abby’s for me to keep my nerve.

“…Well… I guess I could give a hand once or twice… withing reason, of course… like for a birthday gift… stuff like that…”

That was the last straw for her, as she let out a sob and pulled me into an unexpected hug. Outside of Abby, Sophie was the person I had the most physical contact with, but even so, hugs weren’t something we did that often. That, allied with the moment we were having, made it very uncomfortable for me, but it was needed, so I soldiered on and returned it the best I could.

“I’ll do my best not to ruin our relationship, I promise,” she told me with a cracking voice.

“Hmm… I know you will,” I told her, trying to remember how I went through this kind of stuff when it was Abby I was comforting.

When she finally let go, her eyes were a bit puffed up from crying, but she had this relieved, tired smile. I, too, felt a bit more at ease. Truth be told, I think it bothered me more that we were being awkward around each other than the fact that she liked my Dad. The latter didn’t mean they’d start dating, and even if they do, it will take time, so I’ll have time to prepare and get used to it if it were to happen. Dad is also a responsible adult, and so is Sophie, even if she’s been a bit sheltered her whole life, so it’s not like any of them will mess things up. William might be the one who kicks the bigger fuss about it, but even then, he calls my Dad his best friend and has shown multiple times that he fully trusts him, so it’s not like he’ll also say or do anything that might ruin how things are in our family right now… I think. Well, there’s also the fact that he feels like he failed as a father towards Abby and Sophie, and likely doesn’t wish to “overstep” their freedom of choice, so there’s also that.

To sum things up, now that Sophie and I talked, I think things, no matter what turn they take, won’t turn horribly wrong. People might get a bit hurt or sad, but that will be the extent of it… hopefully.

“Should we go check on them?” I asked.

“We should, yeah,” she agreed with a nod. “It’s not like Claire can’t be trusted when things are serious, but still, we are a bit worried, aren’t we?”

Abby loves attention and being pampered, but mostly by me, and there was only as much of that she could take before it became even too much for her — although, frankly, I never experienced that, even when she huffs that I’m being too much.

As we stepped away from the laundry basket, I noticed how Sophie had folded some of her share. I said nothing, smiling instead, telling myself that there’s more than one way of doing stuff that isn’t necessarily wrong, even if I decide for myself to do it only one way, and to be thankful that someone put in the effort to help me.

“There you are!” Claire cheered as she raised a hand that she wiggled towards Sophie, demanding that Sophie go grab it and sit by her side on the floor. She sat cross-legged, Oliver nested on her lap, chin on her knee. “What took you so long?”

“Our awkwardness?” Sophie asked, sitting by Claire and diving in to pet Oliver’s head, him turning on his turbo purring.

“Definitely our awkwardness,” I agreed, pulling Abby into her own nest between my legs and into my arms. That felt so right, even more than usual, since I just had a very awkward hug session with her sister.

Abby and I shared one silent look. She saw the exhaustion in me, but also a sense of lightness. She gave me a soft smile and an even softer kiss on my cheek.

I sighed and buried my nose in her hair, letting her existence heal my exhausted soul.