"I'm really excited for you to meet my family," Emma said, as she turned off the highway. "I know they'll love you -- almost as much as I do," she said with a laugh.
I looked at her as she stared straight out the windshield. She was gorgeous, and I knew I was a lucky guy. We started dating only nine months ago, but we fell in love very quickly. Our interests were the same, we had similar tastes in music and literature, we both enjoyed live theater, and she, at least, was super smart. She was in her junior year at Northwestern studying Biomedical Engineering; I was in my second year of law school there. She had a fantastic sense of humor, though I'd LIKE to think I'm just a little bit funnier. She laughs at my jokes, so how could I not love her.
She had a long face with straight, black hair that fell past her shoulders. Her large, brown eyes always looked inviting, but when she added just a touch of makeup, they became completely irresistible. She had a cute nose and simple mouth with thin lips. I found her face incredibly attractive. But her body was a showstopper. She danced throughout high school and kept it up at college, meaning she had slender, strong legs and a thin torso. Her breasts were perfect for her body -- on the small side, but not too small. I loved her body, but I really loved her as a person.
Except for one bathroom break, we had been on the road for just over five hours when we pulled into her driveway in suburban Detroit.
"Oh, good, my sister is already here!" she excitedly said. "You're gonna love Katy."
I grabbed our two bags from the trunk and followed her up the front walk. As soon as she opened the door, she yelled, "Katy, we're here!"
I heard footsteps coming from the left side of the house, and Emma ran to the hallway to meet her sister. She threw her arms around her and gave her a big hug.
"I'm so glad to see you," Emma said.
"I'm happy to see you, too, Emma. It's been a few months."
"C'mere," she said, "I want you to meet my boyfriend."
As the two of them turned and started walking towards me, the blood drained from my face. Emma's sister, on the other hand, smiled.
"Katy, this is..." But before Emma could finish, Katy cut her off.
"Hi, Nathan," she said, expressing something between a smile and a laugh.
"Hi, Katherine," I managed to squeak out through my shock.
"Wait," Emma said, "Did I already tell you his name? And why'd you call her Katherine?"
"Umm, Katherine and I met at U of M," I said, referring to the University of Michigan, where we both went for undergrad.
"Oh, you knew her then?" Emma said.
Katherine stood there smiling but saying nothing.
"Uh, yeah," I said.
Emma looked at Katherine.
"Why are you smiling?"
"No reason," Katherine replied.
Emma kept looking back at me and then Katherine, and then back at me. Suddenly a lightbulb went off.
"Wait a minute," she said, sounding a little animated. "Did you two date?"
Neither of us said anything. Then a larger lightbulb seemed to go off.
"Holy shit!" Emma shouted. "Did you two fuck each other? Oh my god!" she said, looking at me, "I can't believe you fucked my sister! How could you do this to me?"
Katherine was quietly laughing by now, but I was not. With Emma glaring at me and yelling at me, laughing was not on my mind... even though I thought the whole situation was kind of funny.
Emma got louder.
"Answer me! How could you fuck my sister? Did you get off on knowing you fucked both of us?"
"Okay," I said quietly, "there's a perfectly legitimate explanation."
"Really?" Emma screamed at me. "I can't wait to hear this."
"First of all, I didn't even know you when I dated your sister," I said calmly.
"But you didn't think you should tell me when you DID meet me? When we dated? When you fucked me?"
Katherine was really enjoying this. She was holding one hand over her mouth to control her laugh, as she knew Emma would explode if she noticed how hard she was laughing.
"I didn't know you were Katherine's sister," I said, again remaining calm.
"Oh, really?" Emma replied. "You knew my sister's name, you knew my sister was your age, and you knew she went to Michigan the same time you were there. But you didn't know we were sisters? Want to explain?"
"Yes, I'm trying to," I said, getting a little more frustrated with Emma's tirade. "First, you always said your sister's name was Katy. I only knew her as Katherine. I didn't even think about it as the same name."
"Oh, sure," Emma fumed. "NO ONE would know that Katherine could be called Katy. That's a hard one."
"But you NEVER called her Katherine, and I NEVER heard her called Katy."
"C'mon," she said, "THAT'S your excuse?"
"No," I said, "there's more."
"I'm waiting!" Emma replied, folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot over and over.
"Okay. Second, she didn't even live in the same city as you," I said.
Emma stopped tapping her foot and looked at Katheine. For the first time during this scene, Katherine spoke.
"That's true, Emma, Mom and Dad moved here the year after Nathan and I dated."
Emma thought about it and calmed down a little bit, but she was still pissed.
"I still think you should have known," she said.
"But there's one more thing, Emma, and this is really important."
For some reason, this seemed to get her upset again.