***All characters are over 18 and are fictional. Any resemblance to any real-life persons or situations is purely coincidental.
...
Chase woke up from the sound of their laughter. He had had a good night's sleep and was annoyed at having been woken up that way. He looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand and realized he should be getting up anyway. He tossed away his blanket and forced himself out of bed. It took a moment for him to realize he was still naked from the night before. He grabbed a few things from the closet, got dressed and left the bedroom.
He walked into the kitchen and found them at the small kitchen table drinking their coffee. His girlfriend, Amber, was a beautiful and smart blonde woman, and all of his friends were envious of him for having her in his life. She was already fully dressed and getting ready to leave soon for work. And then there was his sister, Nikki, who moved into his two-bedroom apartment last summer. She was wearing small pajama shorts and a t-shirt.
When Nikki moved in, he wasn't sure how things would work with Amber occasionally sleeping over. He was concerned that they would find it awkward to see each other in the mornings after Amber would sleep over and Nikki knowing full well what they were doing the night before. To his surprise, it didn't seem to bother either of them. In fact, they became very friendly and would often have morning coffee together, gabbling away and joking around like they were sorority sisters.
They all said their good mornings to each other. He was about to get his coffee when Nikki told him she had gotten his cup ready. He sat down next to Amber and took his first sip of the wonderful coffee his sister always made. Nikki may not have contributed much to her share or the rent, but she did make a good cup of coffee.
"What thought-provoking conversation have I interrupted this time?" he asked sarcastically.
"Oh, the usual," said Nikki. "Bras, naked men, being on our periods, that sort of thing."
"Oh, so the usual stuff. I thought you were talking shit about me again."
"Oh, we were," said Amber. "If you came in a few minutes ago, we were saying some very nasty shit about you."
"As long as it was funny," he replied.
He moved in close to Amber and gave her a good kiss on the mouth, while Nikki jokingly gave a fake barfing noise that made him and Amber chuckle.
"I gotta get going to work," said Amber as she stood up. "I'll see you tonight. Don't be late picking me up."
"Yes, boss," said Chase.
She gave him another quick kiss and said her goodbyes to Nikki before she left the apartment.
"What are you planning for her tonight?" Nikki asked with a big smile.
"I have no idea what she's talking about," said Chase. "I guess she wants to go to the movies, or something."
"WHAT?!" Nikki yelled at him. "Please tell him you're joking."
Chase laughed at her.
"Of course, I'm kidding. I know it's Valentine's Day," he assured her. "And I've got some good stuff planned for tonight."
Nikki breathed a sigh of relief. She liked Amber and didn't want to see her brother screw things up with her, as he sometimes does with women he has previously dated. Every time she meets a girlfriend of his that she truly likes, she gets excited at the prospect of eventually having a fun sister-in-law to hang out with, and then Chase goes and screws it all up.
"Good, now tell me what you're doing for her so I can tell you if you're doing it wrong or not," said Nikki.
Chase decided to go on a classic Valentine's Day date. Several weeks ago, he made reservations at a very fancy restaurant that Amber loved going to. He also had a bouquet of roses to give her when he picked her up and got her an expensive bottle of perfume and a necklace, which he was sure she would love. To top it all off, he had reserved an expensive hotel room to spend the night in. Nikki seemed to approve of this since she had no Valentine's date and at least got the apartment all to herself.
Before anything else, he is also sending a couple of gifts to her office. Another bouquet of roses in a vase and a teddy bear holding a heart-shaped pillow. This was done with the intention of both impressing Amber and to help make oworkers jealous of her. Nikki smiled and nodded in approval of this move.
"Sounds all good so far," said Nikki. "Let me see the gifts you're giving her."
"You'll hear about it from her the next time you see her."
"No, please let me see it," she pleaded. "I could let you know if it's any good or not."
"I guess I could use a second opinion."
He went to his bedroom and rummaged through his closet where he hid the bag containing the gifts and came back to the kitchen with it. He handed the bag to Nikki and she first pulled out the box the necklace was being held in. She got all excited about opening the box, which soon turned to disappointment when she saw the necklace.
"What the hell is this?" Nikki asked. "Is this a joke gift you're planning to give before you give her the real necklace?"
"No, that's the necklace. What's wrong with it?"
"It's tacky," she replied. "I thought you liked this girl."
"I do."
"Then don't give her this crappy necklace if you want to keep her," she snapped at him.
Chase was surprised. He thought it was pretty and spent a lot of money on it.
Nikki then reached into the bag to take out the box that had the perfume in it. Chase could tell that from the brand name, she was already disapproving of the perfume. Nikki took the perfume out of the box, sprayed a little bit on her wrist, and gave it a good smell.
"What the hell, Chase?"
"Is it not good?" he asked.
"It would be good if this was cologne for a biker gang," she replied. "You need to exchange this stuff fast."
"What? There's no time for that," he told her. "The mall will be packed with guys getting last-minute Valentine's gifts."
"I'll go with you," said Nikki. "Unlike those men who will be taking their time finding gifts, you'll have me to make quick shopping decisions for you."
Chase thought about it for a moment. He thought he picked the perfect gifts, but apparently the one other woman in his life doesn't think so. He and Nikki both had the day off from work, so he had nothing else to do until he had to get ready for his date with Amber, so he figured he should take her up on her offer.
"Ok, let's do it," said Chase. "At least with you around, I won't make any bad mistakes."
"You won't regret it."
A few hours later, they got dressed and headed out to the mall. Chase was wearing a simple, long-sleeved sweater and loose-fitting jeans. Nikki changed into a tight pair of jeans and a heavy metal t-shirt that hugged her curves. Chase thought she was a beautiful woman and was surprised that she didn't have a date for Valentine's Day. She had short black hair and a good body; he was ashamed to be noticing his sister's body like that, but he had to admit she was very attractive.
When she moved in with him, not only was he worried about how she would feel about seeing Amber in the mornings after she slept over the night before, he was worried about how he might feel if Nikki had a guy sleeping over as well. But to his surprise, that only happened once since she moved in. She had spent the night at a couple of other boyfriends' places since she moved in, but not as much.
Before they headed out to the mall, Chase got his good credit card in case he found that he was going to be spending a lot more money than he planned to. He wasn't a cheap person, but he wasn't rich either, so he wanted to be sure he didn't get too much credit card debt like his sister found herself in a year ago, which was why she had to move in with him. Because of her bad spending habits, Chase had no choice but to let her move in with him and only share a quarter of the rent and very little of the other expenses.
The mall parking lot was packed and he had to park far away from the entrance. Inside the mall, there were people everywhere taking advantage of the Valentine's Day sales and getting some last-minute gifts. Chase was worried that all the good presents were going to be gone and he wasn't going to be able to get anything good for Amber.
The first place they went to was the same jewelry store where Chase got the tacky necklace. There were already several guys there looking around, and the salespeople were very busy with them.
"Don't worry about them," said Nikki. "Those men have no idea what they're getting, and those salespeople are going to get them the overly expensive stuff anyway."
Nikki took a quick look around, and it didn't take her long to find what she thought would be the perfect necklace. It cost more money, but Chase didn't care; he agreed with her that the necklace was so much better than what he wanted to give Amber. After several minutes of waiting, they finally got a salesperson to pay attention to them. Chase gave her the necklace he bought from them with the receipt and asked to exchange it for the one that Nikki chose. Chase paid the difference for the new necklace, and the salesperson handed Nikki the necklace.
"This was a good choice; this will look good on you," said the salesperson.
"Thank you," Nikki replied, with a big smile.
Chase was surprised that the salesperson thought the necklace was for Nikki, but let it slide. They left the store with Nikki putting her arm around Chase's arm as if they were together. He could see that she was having some kind of fun pretending to be his girlfriend.
They next went to the same store where Chase got the perfume. Nikki couldn't find any good perfume in the place to get for Amber, but said she knew of a better store to go to. While they were there, Chase returned the perfume for his money back, and they left for the other side of the mall to the store she was talking about. Just like with the jewelry store, there were plenty of customers that the salespeople were busy with, but Chase trusted that Nikki would find him something good.
This time, it took a little longer to find something. She had to go through several of the best brands and get the salesperson to allow her to sniff several of them. She got excited when she found the perfect one and squirted a little on her neck.
"This is perfect, smell this," she said as she leaned in with her head tilted.
Chase leaned in a little and smelled her.
"It's good," he replied.
"Just good?" she asked, annoyed. "Get in closer for a better smell."
Chase thought it was weird to get that close to her neck like that, it felt too intimate, but he went with it. He leaned in closer to her neck, his chest barely touching hers, and took a big whiff of the perfume. He took a step back and gave her a big smile of approval.
