She lived in an apartment complex at the north end of town, what would have been the wrong side of the tracks if there were a railroad. The buildings needed paint, the trash needed picking up, the outdoor lights were in tough shape. It was the kind of place where you worried about who might be waiting in the stairwells at night.
I followed her up the narrow steps to a second floor unit. The door opened with a creak and we stood directly in the living room. A young woman with short blond hair looked up and said hi before she saw me. Sandra grabbed my hand and pulled me close to her side, "Ally, this is my friend, Jeff." There was silence as the woman looked me over.
Sandra asked, "How is Willie?"
Looking down at the book in her lap, Ally said, "He's been good, like he always is." A few seconds later, there was a cry from a back room. Sandra looked at me and smiled, "He hears my voice and wants me to give him some milk." Ally chimed in, "Yeah, he's a regular lunch mouth, he is."
Sandra said, "Jeff, make yourself at home, I'll be right back. There's beer in the fridge."
I looked at Ally and said, "Would you like me to get you something?"
"No, thanks, I have to watch the snacking. I'd have a sip of your beer if that's ok."
I helped myself to a beer, walked back into the living room, and sat on the sofa apart from her. I was surprised to see the TV off and papers next to her. Holding out the beer, I said, "Homework?"
She took a small sip, then a larger one, and handed it back. "Yes, damn it. It's an algebra problem set and I'm not getting it." She looked up at me with large blue eyes under her bangs, "You know any algebra?"
"Some."
She handed me the book and a sheet of quadrille homework paper. "Number 4."
The question involved equations in three variables and wasn't easy. "What course is this for?" I asked as I looked over the partial answer she was working on. There was an exponent error about halfway through that made the result come out wrong.
"I'm taking the hardest courses I can at the community college so maybe I can transfer to Berkeley in a year. My mom and my sister never went to college and that's why they're waiting tables. That's why Sandra let herself get knocked up by that asshole Ralph. She thought he would take care of her and the baby."
She stared at me, unblinking, waiting for some asshole guy comment back.
I shrugged and said quietly, "I think I can show you where you are having trouble with this one," my finger on the line of her homework with the error.
She slid over closer and looked down. "This is a quadratic, not a cubic function. If you change this, then the rest of it is correct."
Ally looked up at me in surprise. "How come you know this stuff? How come somebody smart like you is going out with my sister? Are you just here to give her a roll in the hay?"
I sensed a shadow out of the corner of my eye, but kept looking at Ally and said, laughing, "That's too many questions at once. Your sister is a very nice person and I'm not here to just have sex with her. You seem to have a low opinion of her men friends?"
Ally squinted at me, smiling herself, "You know the saying, 'unlucky in love'? That's my sister. You know what her problem is, she gets lonely and horny and lets the next guy she meets take advantage of her!"
"You think she brought me home just because she was lonely and horny?"
"Well, I don't know anything about you except you are very good looking and you know about my algebra. She's never gone out with anyone like you before, at least that I know about."
Sandra came back into the room, holding Willie unselfconsciously to her breast. "Ally, stop giving Jeff the third degree. He's a wonderful dancer and didn't make any moves on me tonight. And, for your information, he helped me get the dumb old car started the other night at work and asked me nicely if he could have a date."
Sandra sat down with us and handed Willie to me, "Make yourself useful while I change sides." She wiped her leaky nipple, put some tissue into her bra cup, and then let the other side down. It was full and pink and beautiful and leaking. Willie was squirming and about to cry when she took him back and gave him her generous breast. She smiled up at me, "Still happy about dating a single mom?"
I smiled back and leaned over to kiss her cheek. Instead I got her lips, warm and soft. After almost a minute, Ally said, "Hey, no making out in the living room, I'm doing my homework."
I turned and looked into those blue eyes, which were getting to me, and leaned in to kiss Ally too, and also got the lips instead of the cheek. Now Sandra said, "Hey, who's stealing my date?"
Ally pushed her algebra book and papers onto the table, then jumped into my lap, straddling me and pushing me back against the cushions. She put her hands into my hair and kissed me on the lips, holding on for a long time. Before Sandra could complain again, Ally said, rubbing herself on me, "Sis, can we keep this one around? He looks nice, he smells nice, he feels nice, and he helps with homework!"
Sandra's eyes drilled into Ally, "All right, just for that, you can put Willie down."
She looked at me as she hitched up her nursing bra. "Another beer? Want to
share one? It's good for my milk but bad for my waistline."
I nodded and she got another from the kitchen, then walked up to me, pulled her skirt up around her waist and sat down across my lap. "If Ally can jump into your lap, so can I."
I pulled her into me, kissing her neck and massaging her back. She grabbed my hair and started kissing me as Ally had. "I heard her asking you if all you wanted was a roll in the hay, but I didn't hear the answer."
I silently asked myself, "Are you going to let yourself get tangled up in this family? Is the sex worth it?" A little voice said, "You don't even know whether sex with her is any good."
I kissed her again and said quietly, "I haven't been this hot around a woman in a long time, but if you want me to leave, I will. I'm not sure it's fair to your sister to just disappear in the bedroom."
A face appeared next to mine from behind the sofa. "No, it's definitely not fair to disappear into the bedroom with Sandy. Either you take both of us to bed, or neither of us," she hissed, and then bit my ear.
Sandra looked a combination of startled and angry, then reached behind me and pulled Ally over the back and in between us. She had changed into a nighty with skimpy boy shorts under it, and fought back as the two of us pinned her down. My hand accidentally slid up her thigh into her crotch, which was warm and damp. Sandra noticed, and put her hand in the same place, making sure to rub hard into Ally's mound.
Ally sat up and put her arms around both of us. "Hmmm, this is nice." Then noticing a spot on her sister's blouse, she said, "Sis, you're leaking again," and started to unbutton the blouse. She smiled at me and said, "You and I can help her with her problem."
Sandra jerked back and said, "Ally! You're not going to do that in front of Jeff."
Ally kept on undressing her sister and said back, "Yes I am, and he's going to help."
Her hands working fast, Ally had the blouse and bra off before Sandra could react and quickly latched onto the nearest nipple. I could see the other nipple was also leaking, so leaned in and started gently sucking.