Full chain & introduction can be found
at this link
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Chapter Four: My Brother's Crazy
I think David has finally gone around the bend. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother. He's a good man, but this… This thing he's got going with Sandy. It borders on the obsessive.
I've just finished my first full week of work at Eddings Consulting. It's been a tough start, but I think I'm finally beginning to understand the way start-up corporate financing works in Silicon Valley. My boss, thinks I have the potential to run the department, but I don't know if that's for real or just him trying to blow sunshine up my skirt. In fact, I'm so new to everything and everyone here in the Bay Area that I don't really know what is real yet.
I mean, back in Chicago, you met someone, you dated them and after a while, if nothing went too crazy, you committed to the relationship. That is real. David tells me that Sandy and he screwed the first time they met, and that seems to be the whole of their relationship -- nothing but sex! Okay, okay, look, I'm no prude. I've had my share of guys in bed. Heck, I even went to bed with my roommate and her boyfriend in college. Well, I was a little drunk and didn't know he was there, but… The point is, I like sex. I think it's great. But all things in moderation, right?
Look, last Monday night; I was at home, making dinner. David's home from work, gone to his bedroom, and chaning into some comfy clothes. I finished dinner, washed my hands and started getting some plates out. But still no David.
"David?" Not a sound.
"David, dinner's ready. Get in here." Still nothing. So, I went to his door and knocked.
I heard some jumping about. "Yeah?"
Finally, a voice.
"David, dinner's on."
"Okay, give me a sec." I shook my hands and went back to the kitchen.
Whatever.
I finished getting out plates, silverware and started serving food when he finally walked in.
He placed his hands on my hips and kissed me on the cheek as he passed to grab a plate. "Thanks, Gretta, you're the best."
I turned towards him, smiling, but noticed that he's sweating along his brow and breathing heavily. "What's with you? We're you working out or something?"
He filled his plate. "What? No. Why?"
"Well, your forehead for one…"
He touched his brow and felt the sweat.
"…and you're out of breath, like you've been running."
He gave me this "what the fuck are you talking about" look which slowly melted into a big grin. He finished getting his food and followed me into the den, chuckling.
"What's so funny?"
He sat down and looked up at me with a Cheshire Cat smile. "Sandy."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, I might have known."
"You won't believe this."
I stopped and looked at him. He's so happy, he's bursting to tell me his news. "Okay, what is it this time? More phone sex? Cybering?"
He wagged his head, then looked up suddenly. "She sent me a video."
I knew I really didn't want to hear this now.
"Great. That's great. Uhm, and how was your day?"
"No, no, really she did. Through the mail. It was just like she was here. Like a living letter or something."
"Nice."
I really wanted to change the subject.
"Do you have any plans this evening?"
He smiled lecherously and took a big bite of the potatoes.
I stammered forward, trying to leave Sandy behind. "I was thinking that you and I might go see a movie, catch a drink, visit a club or something like that." I waited as he finished looking out the window, obviously trying to think of what to say.
"Thanks, Gretta, but I think I'll just stay in tonight. It's getting' kinda cold out at night, and…"
"And you're going to stay inside with Video Sandy tonight?"
"Hey, it's not like that."
"Oh, and how is it, then?"
"She's been gone almost a week. I miss her."
Yeah, right.
"You miss her… Face? Her conversation? Her wit?"
"Now, cut that out. You just don't understand."
"Well, there's not much to understand. Is there? You guys fuck like rabbits when you're together and when you're apart, you think about fucking like rabbits. Pretty simple!"
"Goddamnit, Gretta! You don't know shit about us. Sandy is the most incredible woman I've ever met. She's turning me into a better man."
I stood up and yelled back. "What? Is she teaching you how to be a better slave in bed? Look, you are already a wonderful man. No one can change that. And Sandy had better not try!"
He looked really upset, but he didn't say anything. He just sat there. I didn't know what to do. Back home, David would have probably at least chased me around the house or yelled at me, but he just sat there.
"Gretta, please sit down." He spoke in this really quiet tone. His face looked worried, bugged, but his voice said calm.
I sat and waited. I half-expected him to slug me.
"Gretta, I think I… I think I love Sandy. And no, not for just her body, not for the way she treats me, and not for what she tells me." He reached out and took my hand across the table. "I love her for what she is. She has managed to see past all the bullshit in her life and find the stuff that's important and make that important in her life. I think… I know I will love her for what she is, even if our relationship were to end tomorrow."
Now, I looked worried. "Aw, David. Just…"
"No, no, I don't think that it will. In fact, the video she sent just makes me feel that much closer to her. Can you understand that?"
I sighed. "Yeah, of course I can. I'm just… I'm just worried that you might get hurt, that's all."
He smiled, still holding my hands. "C'mon, I'm still the big brother, right? I can take care of myself."
That got me teary-eyed. I stood up, pouting and ran around the table, pulling him up from the sofa.
"No, Gretta. It's okay, we don't…"
I threw my arms around him and hugged him. His big arms settled around me and I closed my eyes, just feeling his warmth envelop me. I could feel his hard chest pressing into me, his soft breathing on the side of my face, and… A long, stiff cock pressing against my thigh. My eyes flew open.
Oh, my God, he's hard!
I backed off suddenly, and pushed him away, staring at his lap.
He looked concerned. "What? What's wrong?"
In a panic, I pointed. "You… You've got… You're erect!"
"I'm wha…? Oh." He rolled his eyes and sat back down, smiling.
"What are you laughing at? Did I… Did you? Did I make you get…?"
He laughed, waving his hands back and forth. "No! No, you didn't. No, this… Uhm, this… You don't want to know, I think."
"I don't want to know? What are you talking about? What has you so… So excited?"
"That's just it. I'm not excited."
"You're not, but your… Your…"
"It's called a penis."
"I know it's called a… a penis!"
"Relax, will you? I took something. It makes me get this way. It's nothing. It'll go away in a few hours."
My mouth moved, but nothing came out. I must have looked ridiculous, like a fish out of water. I flopped back down in the chair and tried to get my brain back on the tracks.
"Look, you've been asking, so let me just tell you. Sandy sent me a video, yes. And along with the video, she sent a few other things, including these pills that make me get… Erect, okay?"
"But… but why?"
"It's… difficult to explain. It's like a game. On the video, she does some things, then I do some things and back and forth like that until we get to the end. It's fun. It's just like she's here, playing along with me. Then, afterwards, we call each other and talk about it."
I didn't have an answer. My brain was blank. "A regular Romeo and Juliet, you two." I got my dishes and walked to the kitchen.
"Now see, there you go again. You don't understand."
"No, it's okay. I don't need to understand. It's fine. You want dessert?"
See what I mean? He's nuts. Sure, I know it's a long distance relationship, but sending Viagra to your boyfriend when he's alone? What kind of crazy shit is that? And he thinks that he loves her!
So, I decided to forget about his problems and start concentrating on my own. I just left the Sandy issue hang in the air between us for a couple of days. I finally finished unpacking "all my crap" as David calls it and organized my work clothes into some kind of professional look for the office.
Besides, I was a little concerned with some of the stuff David and I had been getting ourselves into over the last little while. I didn't really want a repeat of the depravity we had let ourselves sink to when we were younger. So, I decided not to think about it, put it out of my mind. He has his own problems, and doesn't need a freaky sister to compound them.
I'd started work the day after I arrived two Mondays ago. My first day was mostly filled up with company orientation, finding my office, understanding the phones, computer and email, junk like that. I had a huge binder that I had to memorize cover-to-cover before I could wait on my first client. Not only was it filled with by-laws, rules and rulings of the State of California, but also a similar set of guidelines from Eddings Consultants, Inc. I spent the rest of that first week, just trying to understand the scope of what my new job entailed. The good news was that the company was doing well in spite of all the public suicide by similar firms in the press lately. The not-so-good news was that it was going to take a lot of hard work and focus on my part to do the job.
My officemate is Constance Merriwether. She's been at the company for two years and has been a huge help so far, getting me to understand the job and the place. Eddings has four floors in a high-rise just south of Market and over three hundred employees in this one location alone. Being my first job, I felt not a little intimidated.
Constance is British, originally from Manchester, but went to university here in the States. "I've always had a dream of living in San Francisco and now, here I am, living it."
She's a delightful woman, but has told me a great many things about the people with whom I've been working. You see, she keeps track of the office politics and romances. It's kind of a hobby with her.
She was particularly interested in something I told her after my first Friday lunch with some of the other employees. Fridays is the one day in the week that work tolerates and expects its employees to be casual, let loose a little. Not really the martini lunch of my Dad's era, but a beer or a glass of wine is encouraged and a suitable "letting down of the hair" kind of goes along with it.
I've noticed several handsome men just on my floor at Eddings. Once of which was at our table that first Friday. His name is Tommy… Thomas Jenner. I'm still not sure what he does at Eddings, but he's always well-dressed in a suit or jacket, and he's got the most amazing pair of blue eyes -- just a perfect skyblue pitch to them. Rest those above the dimples and a rather rugged jaw line and… Well, you get my drift. This guy made my knees weak.
I'd seen him around the office a few times. The first time, I was talking with Constance on a break outside and I noticed she had lapsed into a coma.
"Constance? Hello, Earth to Constance."
Constance's cigarette smoke wafted out of her mouth like she was trying to taste every swirl. "S'what did you say?"
I turned and for the first time, saw Tommy. He was walking with an attractive red-haired woman down some stairs out of the lobby. I think my mouth fell open. It was like his every move was in slow motion. He moved with such grace, like a dancer.
