The movers were coming out of Cheri's apartment, lugging her dining room table, when a red Ford Transit micro-van pulled up and parked. Cheri was helping me fit the biggest of her paintings in my black Lexus SUV.
Cheri waved as the van door opened. "Hey, sis!"
I stared, stunned, as possibly the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen walked toward me, wide hips swaying provocatively, and held out her hand. Gorgeous smooth skin the color of dark wildflower honey, lighter than Cheri's mocha skin. Curves everywhere, a ginormous booty and large breasts on a five foot tall frame. Greenish hazel eyes shading to brown on the outside of the irises, and a mass of black curly hair cascading to her shoulders. Much bigger and thicker than I'd previously thought could be sexy -- I was hastily revising that sexual algorithm.
She stopped slightly inside my usual personal space -- not that I minded -- and held out her hand. I reminded myself to breathe, trying not to conspicuously stare. Failing spectacularly at that seemingly simple task.
Realizing her friendly gesture had gone unreciprocated an uncomfortably long time, I hastily shook her soft hand. "I... uh..."
Quit fucking staring, you jackass.
Cheri's eyes widened for a micro-second, then a grin quirked at the corners of her mouth. "That's Hunter. He's not normally quite this inarticulate. Sometimes he completes entire sentences. Monosyllabic words, mostly..."
She was still holding my hand. "Alexis." A brief indecipherable look passed between her and Cheri, like they were reading each other's minds.
Whaaat was that?
Alexis returned custody of my hand. "So. How can I help?" she said in a voice like an angel, or perhaps a siren singing and luring unwary sailors onto the rocks.
Cheri pointed at the back of the movers re-entering the house. "Why don't you take down paintings, remove hardware, and spackle, while we load the cars?"
"Gotcha." She took off, her wide hips and huge booty swaying seductively, while I gawked, expecting Cheri to whack the back of my head for ogling her sister, but unable to quit watching.
"Hunter."
"Hunh?"
"Focus. Less droolage. We're burning daylight." She held out her hand, and I took it, headed back inside with her to grab the second biggest painting. Always load trucks big to small.
***
I wedged a box full of brushes, sponges, and paint jars on top of the already packed front passenger seat on my SUV, the rear edge of the box jammed against the windshield. "That's it. No more room."
Alexis carefully shut the rear doors on her micro-van, trying not to damage the paintings completely filling the back. "Done here, too." She meandered on over to join Cheri and me.
Cheri asked me, "You coming back after you unload at your house?"
"Naw, gotta put out some fires at work."
"Do we need to pay the movers now...?"
"I've used them before at work. They'll bill my account."
Cheri shrugged. "Why don't y'all head over while I supervise loading the last of my stuff, then paint my beautiful rainbow walls some boring oatmeal version of white or beige." She grabbed my arm and tapped my wrist. "Like this skin color. Don't get much more acceptably boring than that."
I conspicuously gave Cheri a Strong Ignore, silently counting to five. "You wanna follow me?" I asked Alexis, trying not to get stuck in the vortex of her gorgeous dark eyes.
She handed over her phone. Her contacts app was opened for inputting a new listing. "Gimme your number and address. Case we get separated."
I tapped in the data, saved it.
She took back her phone. Her fingers flew over the keys, and my phone chimed in my pocket. "There. Texted my number." She leaned in, gave Cheri a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back for the remaining canvases. Need me to pick up some paint on the way back?"
"I'll be back here first," I said. "Gotta stop by the office today, but if you text me what you need, I'll bring it on by."
Cheri gave me a kiss, and then a hug. "Thank you. For everything."
I let the hug linger, breathing in her perfume with a faint undertone of sweat.
"De nada."
I gave her back custody of her body, and then Cheri embraced Alexis. "Thanks for helping, baby sis," she drawled. "Watch out for this guy. He's a known pervert." She flashed me a Just Kidding look as she broke off the hug.
Alexis snorted, in an endearing kind of way. "Yeah, he seems pretty sketchy. Really slumming here, aren't cha?"
"Hey!" I said. "I'm right here!"
Cheri narrowed her eyes, gave me an amused cool appraising look. "Oh, we're being polite now. Wait til I give her the straight skinny on you when you're not around." She thought a moment. "Well, skinny ass anyhow. Dunno about the 'straight' part..."
"Stiiiiillll here."
"Hush, Pervert Boy." She gave me an affectionate peck on the lips. "Just us girls smack talking."
I rolled my eyes. Kissed her back. Slooowly moved my hand toward her booty, pretending I was going for some public squeezage. Got my hand gently swatted.
"Down, boy."
"Boy?" I said. "BOY? Don't be racist."
Alexis hopped in her micro-van, fired it up. "We gonna leave, or what?"
***
I pulled up into my driveway and parked outside the garage, as the double bay door finished opening.
Alexis' Transit micro-van pulled up to the right of my Lexus SUV. She got out, looked up at my immense limestone clad two story house. "Kind of a tiny house, yeah?" she said wryly in her lovely voice. "You considered getting something bigger, less proletarian?"
I tugged on the rear hatch on my SUV, then looked into her beautiful green eyes as the door motor softly purred the hatch open. "I was thinking about getting something in the gated Reserve area, but five or six thousand square feet seemed a bit pretentious for a single guy," I said, deadpan.
"I admire your modesty. Such a rare trait amongst one's betters." She opened the double rear doors on her van.
As I walked into the garage, I said, "I'll go around and unlock the front door. Easier than schlepping it through the garage." I opened the door into the interior, then turned off the beeping security system.
Alexis carted a big painting up the front steps as I opened the front door. "Where you want this?"
I picked up the front end of the painting. "This way."
We went into the living room, leaned the painting against a wall. Alexis looked up at the abstract painting Cheri had hung earlier. "Hmmm. Interesting abstract..." Her eyes widened as she realized it depicted Cheri buttfucking me against the wall. "I see you and my sister started the housewarming... festivities... early."
I shrugged. "Cheri loves to party," I said, pokerfaced.
"For some values of 'party'..."
"We gonna gawk at the lone painting on the walls, or get to it?" I said, gesturing in the approximate direction of the heavily laden vehicles outside.
Which also meant I was pointing at the painting.
"I usually prefer to get better acquainted with gentlemen callers before we... 'get to it'... as you so discreetly put it," she said stiffly, a bit of ice in her tone.
"I -- I didn't mean to imply..."
"Kidding. Read the room, sir." She flashed white teeth in an exaggerated grin, her eyes crinkled in merriment at my hasty backpedaling, and headed back to the driveway.
***
Forty minutes later, carrying a box full of small acrylic paint jars, I walked into the living room. It was now crowded with paintings and supplies stacked against the walls and the two story bank of windows facing the back yard. I looked around. No Alexis. "Hey, where are you?"
"Up here."
I looked up.
