Giving Thanks for Lingerie
Matt and his sister's Thanksgiving wknd with extended family.
"Hey, everyone!" called out my sister Erica as she entered my parents' house. "We're here!"

"Oh, that's wonderful," said my Aunt Rose as she moved toward the front door.

Erica stayed at the door with her boyfriend Aaron as the family gathered around. She and Aaron made a good-looking couple. Erica had blue eyes and wavy dark brown hair that stayed close to her head as it tumbled down to her shoulders. She was wearing a thin black leather jacket, a white cotton blouse, and a long, gray wool skirt. Aaron had light brown eyes, dark brown hair that was cut fairly short, and a full beard and mustache. He had gold wire-rimmed glasses with small lenses and was wearing a tweed driving cap, a tweed jacket, a light blue business shirt, and gray wool pants. They were both dressed as if they had left directly from work, which they probably had. They both looked smart and professional.

Erica was introducing Aaron to everyone. "You already know my brother Matt."

I stepped forward and gave Aaron a firm handshake. Erica kept introducing our family. There were my mom and dad, Aunt Rose and Uncle Steve, their kids William and Alexa, and Aunt Nicole and Uncle Grant.

Once that was done, Mom asked Aaron, "Can you stay for a while?"

"No, I'm sorry to say. I really wish I could stay longer, but I've got five more hours to drive. And that's assuming good traffic. No idea how long it will take me to drive to my parents on the day before Thanksgiving." Aaron waved at everyone. "It was nice meeting you all. I'll be back Sunday!" He kissed Erica before slipping out the door.

"He seemed nice," said my Aunt Rose.

"He's very nice," said Erica. "I've always dated bad boys, so he's the first nice guy I've dated. Very sweet and caring."

My cousin William asked, "Why isn't he staying for Thanksgiving?"

Aunt Rose rolled her eyes. "I told you. We'll discuss it later." She turned back to Erica. "So how are you liking your job?"

Erica and the parents moved toward the dining room. William headed back to his video game, and Alexa picked up her book. I sighed and joined the parents in the dining room.

This Thanksgiving was supposed to be when my extended family would meet my and Erica's significant others. Last year, Mom had hosted Christmas for just our family, I had brought my girlfriend Hailey and Erica had brought Aaron. In March, Erica had proposed that Mom host Thanksgiving, so she could spend Christmas with Aaron's family and I could spend Christmas with Hailey's family. At that time, it looked like Hailey and I would eventually get engaged, and Erica and Aaron would eventually get engaged. Mom had invited the aunts, uncles, and cousins to spend Thanksgiving with us. It had been almost three years since I had seen them. Then a month ago, I broke up with Hailey, and Aaron backed out on spending Thanksgiving with my family.

I found a corner to stand in and quietly nursed my beer as my aunts and uncles quizzed Erica about her life.

Uncle Grant at one point asked, "Your mom told us that there was a change in plans, and that's why Aaron didn't stay?"

"Yes. The plan was for Aaron and I to spend Thanksgiving here and then spend Christmas at his parents. But two months ago, his parents announced that they were going to Australia and New Zealand for Christmas. They're taking an eighteen-day cruise. It's been their dream for a long time, and things fell into place for them to go this year. So naturally they wanted Aaron and I to spend Thanksgiving with them. I said that Mom had a big Thanksgiving already planned with family coming in from out of town. Eventually, Aaron and I decided the best thing would be for us to each spend Thanksgiving with our parents."

Erica said that in a positive and upbeat way, but Mom had told me that Erica had been pissed about Aaron changing Thanksgiving plans after everyone had bought plane tickets to come here for Thanksgiving.

"So tell us about how your apartment is decorated," said Mom, discretely steering the conversation to a more enjoyable topic.

I had gone through a similar grilling when I arrived a few hours ago. Well, not quite as in-depth as Erica was getting, as people already knew and respected that I was still getting over my breakup with Hailey. It sucked to be twenty-seven and starting over again on the relationship front, particularly after Hailey and I had been so crazy about each other initially. I sighed. Fortunately, no one noticed as they were focused on Erica. She talked a lot about Aaron - at twenty-six, he was a year older than her and worked in accounting at the same company as Erica did. He was a nice guy who didn't drink or do drugs, which made him quite the contrast to the other guys Erica had dated. Erica spent a lot of time telling the story of their cat Greckle. He had been a great cat, but then they discovered that Aaron was allergic to cats, and they eventually gave him back to the shelter.

I wandered back to the living room, where William was playing a football game on the Xbox Mom asked me to bring. William, at twenty-three, was four years younger than me and three years older than Alexa. He was a football fanatic. He had played in high school, and it was all he talked about, even though he hadn't been very good. Then he went to Alabama for college just because it was a great football school. During those years, all he talked about was Alabama football. Now that he had graduated and had a job, I had hoped that he'd talk about something besides football, but no such luck. His job was typing numbers into spreadsheets all day, and he didn't want to talk about that. So football continued to be the only thing he wanted to talk about.

"What game is this?" I asked.

"Madden NFL. Do you want to play?"

"No."

"Let me show you my team."

William showed me his team. It would have been just as interesting if he had done it in Chinese. After I had all I could take of football, I went to the dining room. The women were working on dinner for tonight. Dad said, "There's four of us, Matt. How about some Hearts?"

"Sounds great."

Dad fetched a deck of cards and was soon dealing. Dad, Uncle Grant, Uncle Steve, and I played Hearts until dinner was ready. Dinner was a chuck roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions and a salad on the side. The roast was really good, and I put away more than my share. After dinner, the three parents started a game of Trivial Pursuit, with each couple a team. The four kids passed on the opportunity. William resumed playing on the Xbox, and Alexa resumed reading her book.

I said to Erica, "I'm going upstairs to check out where I'm sleeping." She followed along as I made my way up to the office. Aunt Rose and Uncle Steve were staying in my old bedroom, Aunt Nicole and Uncle Grant were staying in Erica's old bedroom, William and I were going to camp out in the office, and Erica and Alexa were going to sleep in the living room.

I entered the office with my day bag and my travel duffle. Two cots were each set up with a sleeping bag and a pillow. Not bad. I dropped my stuff next to the cot farthest from the door and sat down in one of the office chairs. Erica sat down in the other and asked, "So what happened between you and Hailey? You two seemed so happy last Christmas."

I shrugged. "We were. We really hit it off initially. But like so many couples, we hit money problems. Or more specifically, we couldn't agree on how to spend our money. Problems accumulated, and, eventually, we decided it wasn't working anymore."

Erica waited for a few moments for me to say more, and when I didn't, she said. "Okay. You've told me what you've told Mom and Dad. Now tell me the real scoop."

I laughed. "The real scoop?"

"Yeah. The gory details. Things aren't going great between Aaron and me, and I want to compare notes."

"Ah, okay." I put my chin in my hand and thought about what I would say. Finally, I decided 'fuck it' and to be honest and blunt. "From the very beginning, Hailey and I really hit it off. It didn't take long until we were regularly spending the night together. It wasn't the sex, though that was great, it was that we both really enjoyed hanging out together. We liked doing the same kind of things and had fun doing them with each other. We got an apartment together, and we were happy as can be in our little love nest. We had issues, but nothing big, certainly nothing that threatened our relationship. And then...how do you and Aaron handle your finances?"

"We have a joint checking account and our own credit cards. Is that what you mean?"

"Yeah, that's what I mean. For a long time, Hailey and I kept our finances separate, and everything was fine. I had bills that I paid, and she had bills that she paid. If there was a surprise expense, we'd each check our balances and decide who could handle paying for it. But once we started discussing marriage, it made sense for us to get a joint checking account and a joint credit card account. And our relationship crashed and burned."

A confused look came over Erica. "What caused it to crash and burn?"

I sighed and then thought about how to describe what happened. "We didn't fight over money, but we made each other miserable over how the other spent money. Hailey would go over every little expense I made and ask me why I had made it. I get where she was coming from. She wanted us to save money for our wedding and our house. But her bugging me about every little expense drove me crazy. I started harassing her about her purchases. 'Did we need another candle?' Hailey was big into candles. And scented soaps." I shook my head. "It hadn't mattered when our finances were separate, but it became a big deal once we merged our finances." I leaned back in my chair. "I think we'd be engaged by now if we had kept our finances separate. We had been so happy up until then. And merging our finances had seemed the right thing to do. It was something we'd have to do eventually. It's just..."

My heart ached so much that I couldn't say anymore. Things had been so great for so long with Hailey that it was still a shock to me that it was over.

After a few moments of grieving, I asked, "Gory enough?"

"Yes."

"So what's going on with you and Aaron?"

Erica leaned forward. "I don't really know. Aaron's a great guy. So easy to get along with. And yet...He doesn't have the fire I wish he'd have. He doesn't push back; he just rolls over. If his boss asks him to work late, he works late. His parents asked him to come visit them at Thanksgiving after I thought our travel plans were set, so he's spending Thanksgiving there. I guess...I don't know...perhaps he's too nice? I'm not really sure. I've never dated a nice guy like him. Now, I wish there was more bad boy or at least more backbone to him. That he was more demanding and less easy to push around. I don't think anyone sees him getting promoted from his current job, whereas I feel like I'll be made a manager soon. It'd be weird to make more money than him."

"Hey, it happens. We're no longer a society where the man is always the breadwinner."

"I know," Erica said in a way that indicated she knew what I said was what she should believe, but she didn't. My sister looked down for a few moments. "In college, I thought I'd be fine with making more money than my husband, but it's not sitting as well with me as I thought it would."

I decided to move on to another topic. "Bummer about Greckle."

"Yeah," said Erica sadly. "We have some fish now."

Erica sounded less than enthralled with the fish, but I decided not to pursue it. "Let's go back downstairs and see if anyone missed us."

* * * *

Early the next morning, I was in my parents' backyard, raking the leaves. Erica came out, walked over to me, and said, "Good morning, Matt."

"Good morning to you too."

Erica was holding a cup of coffee and sipped from it while she watched me work. "Your proposal didn't go over well last night."

"I hadn't expected it to." I pitched to my parents, aunts, and uncles that the US government should take the penny out of circulation. If you bought something and paid cash for it, you'd round up or down to the nearest nickel. That would free up a slot in the change drawer, so the US government should take the dollar bill out of circulation and replace it with the existing dollar coin. As that would free up a slot in the bill drawer, the US government should encourage banks to have their ATMs give out fifties instead of twenties. "It's my job at family gatherings to pitch crazy ideas so everyone will have something to discuss. Everyone seemed to enjoy shooting it down."

"I thought your idea made a lot of sense. The main argument they made against it was that they are used to the way things are. But as you said, they would probably quickly adapt to the new status quo if those changes were made." Erica took another long sip of coffee. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Slept great. I asked William to tell me Alabama's football team's strengths and weaknesses. He enthusiastically launched into an incredibly boring monologue, and I was snoozing in no time." Erica laughed. "How about you?"

"Uuuuh...not so much. Alexa claimed the couch, so I slept in a recliner. Didn't really suit me. And once we were lying down for the night, she told me about the book she's reading, Andrea Dworkin's Intercourse."

"Never heard of it."

Erica sighed. "Not my cup of tea. The central thesis is that heterosexual intercourse is a central part of men's subordination of women and defining their status."

I raised my eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. I should say heterosexual intercourse as depicted in books, movies, and pornography. I've known some women who've read that book for one of their classes, so I'm familiar with the arguments. Dworkin has a lot of evidence to back it up. But it's not a subject I want to discuss when my relationship is going through a rough patch."

I chuckled. "I can see that." I raked some more leaves into my pile. "Is Alexa a lesbian? It's hard to imagine her having a boyfriend with that kind of attitude." Alexa was average height, a little chunky with brown shoulder-length hair and black glasses. Average looking. Would probably have a tough time finding a boyfriend even if she wanted one.

Erica opened her mouth, but no answer immediately came out. Eventually, she said, "I think she's probably asexual. I can't remember her ever discussing a boyfriend or a girlfriend."

I looked down at the leaves and said, "What she really needs is for someone to fuck her senseless. But she's probably too sexually repressed for that to work."

"You're a therapist," said Erica in disgust. "That's a terrible thing to say."

"I agree. It's terrible that she's too sexually repressed for someone fucking her senseless to straighten her out."

Erica gave me a dirty look. "Why do you always think about sex?"

"I don't always think about sex," I said indignantly.

"Is fucking women senseless something you do in your drama therapy sessions?" I was a drama therapist.

"Oh noooooo," I said while making a big 'O' with my mouth. "People already think drama therapy is a bunch of crazy nonsense, and that's with us keeping our sessions very tame. I'd never do anything remotely sexual."

When Erica didn't reply, I moved over to another part of the yard and started a new leaf pile. After a few minutes, Erica asked, "Why does it always have to be about sex?"

I shrugged. "We are designed to have sex. And to make babies. Falling in love is this crazy thing our mind tricks us into doing so we'll have sex, make babies, and then raise the babies until they're old enough to survive on their own."

"You and Hailey didn't make any babies," said Erica with relish as if she was enjoying pushing back on my argument. "Were you two not doing it right?"

"Oh, we were doing it right. Sex with Hailey was the best I've ever had. Best she's ever had. But no babies because Hailey wanted to line up permanent shelter first. Meet a mate, get permanent shelter, have babies - that's what humans are designed to do. The more we force young people to not do that, the more messed up they are."

"And the more they need drama therapists," Erica said as a light barb.

I shrugged again. "There's only so much we can do." I stopped and leaned on the rake. "The average age of first marriage for a woman dropped after World War Two, eventually reaching twenty-one in the sixties. The average age for men has been about two years higher than that for women basically as long as they've kept statistics on age at marriage. Since the sixties, the average age for marriage has gone up and up, and now it's thirty for women and thirty-two for men. I think it's because the price for starter homes has gone up and up during that time. People are waiting to get married until they are in a position to get married, buy a house, and then start a family; boom, boom, boom." I went back to raking.

After a while, Erica asked, "Where did this all come from?"

"I...my relationship failing with Hailey really hurt. I'm still hurting from it. Things were so good between us for so long. But I think what tore us apart was that we had gotten set in our ways in terms of how we spent our money. When we tried to start saving for our house, that caused each of us to push the other to change their spending habits. And it wasn't a change either of us were willing to make. So this absolutely wonderful relationship crashed and burned."

"Why didn't you go back to how you were handling your finances before?"

"The damage was already done. The magic was gone. I talked to Hailey about us seeking counseling, but she preferred to move on. Find some guy that makes as much or more than her." I stopped and leaned on the rake again. "Here's my latest crazy idea. The government should give young couples who marry after they are twenty-two, the money to buy a two-bedroom residence. Young people will start marrying again. And having kids when they are in their twenties. And they'll get along better with other people their age as they'll all have kids. And parents won't spend years and years after the kids go off to college with not much happening in their life as they'll have grandkids." I went back to raking.

"Will you propose that tonight to the rest of the family?" Erica smiled tauntingly.

"Oh no." I chuckled. "Mom, Dad, and the rest would just reject it flat out. There wouldn't be any discussion." I stopped raking again. "Do you remember Jerri?"

Erica thought for a moment. "The girl you dated your senior year of college?"

"Yes. We never seriously considered the idea of us dating after I graduated. I was going to another college to get my master's in Drama Therapy." I resumed raking. "But what if we could have gotten a starter place if we married after she graduated?" Jerri had been a junior my senior year. "We could have long-distance-dated for a year while we made wedding plans, married after she graduated, and started our post-college lives together. Then we wouldn't have gotten set in our ways before we married. It would have been exciting taking on the working world together."

Erica chuckled. "You've got marriage on the brain." It was a gentle rebuke.

I raised my hands. "What can I say? I'm ready to settle down." I raked a couple of times. "Speaking of marriage, have you thought seriously about marrying Aaron?"

"Yes." Erica stood pensively for a while. "He's the first guy I've seriously thought about marrying. I think that's why I started dating him. All the bad boys I dated earlier definitely weren't marriage material. From the beginning, I could see Aaron being a faithful loyal husband and a loving father. I still do."

Despite her doubts last night, Erica now sounded quite committed to Aaron. Had last night been about the frustration and embarrassment of Aaron not being here to get to know her family and she was slowly getting over it?
"Yep-yep," I said. "Find a mate, get married, buy a house, and then make some babies. It's what we're designed to do." Before Erica could respond, I added, "You know, I can definitely see you making a great manager."

Erica gave me a look like she couldn't quite believe my compliment. "Oh yeah? Why?"

"Because you've been quite content to supervise me the whole time you've been out here." Erica laughed warmly. "Go get some leaf bags and help me bag up these leaves."

* * * *

After Erica and I had bagged the leaves, we went in. She got sucked into helping with the Thanksgiving meal. We were going to have a late lunch of turkey and all the trimmings. The three husbands and I resumed playing Hearts.

Then it was time for the feast. William made a beeline for the front of the line. I grabbed him and pulled him back. "We're going last."

"But..."

"We're the clean-up crew. We can have as much as we want, and we won't hurt anyone's feelings."

"Well, okay," said William in a tone that implied he was only partially convinced that going last was a good idea. Mom gave me a grateful look.

Uncle Steve was in line with a plate and asked me, "So tell us about your most interesting patient so far."

"'Client' is the term therapists use. We aren't medical doctors diagnosing someone's illness."

"So, tell us about your most interesting client so far," said Uncle Steve in a slightly annoyed tone as he started down the food line.

"I can talk about my clients in general, but I don't like trying to determine on the fly how much information I can say and still be general. So instead, let me tell you about them in general. Most of my clients are someone whose spouse or parent or boss or HR department has told them that they need to spend some time in therapy. They pick drama therapy because it sounds kind of fun. So I have to make it fun for them or else they'll quit and say, 'Therapy didn't work for me'. It takes a long time for the client to change from participating in any kind of therapy, so it's critical that I keep them from quitting too early."

I looked around the room, and everyone was paying close attention to me. "The next biggest group is people who are okay but want help to be even better. I love this type of client. They are very open to what I'm trying to get them to do. But sadly, they are less likely to get results than the first group as they either coast or have some deep, massive problem that they've learned to cover up well that's really hard to address. The first group, because they are in crisis, usually see lasting improvement quickly."

Everyone appeared to be enjoying me discussing my clients, so I continued. "The last group that I want to talk about is small but not insignificant, and they're people I never expected to provide therapy to. They are women in their thirties or forties who are living the American dream. They are well-educated, financially very successful, highly respected, married to a loving husband, and have two point three kids, all of whom are amazing. And several times a week, they start drinking and can't stop until they are sloshed. Or succumb to some other addiction. They come to drama therapy because they can't admit to their friends that they are in therapy, so they tell them they are taking a drama class. They are a trip to work with because they want a timeline for when they'll achieve certain goals, they want me to assign them homework, and they want me to come to their house for one-on-one sessions. They are very driven and task-oriented, which is how they've gotten everything else in their life, and can't see that that approach won't get them to happiness."

Aunt Nicole asked, "Are you able to help them?"

I felt frustration flowing through me. "Very little. You have to understand that people are like icebergs in that what is visible as an issue is only the tiny tip of their dysfunctionality. They want me to stop their out-of-control drinking. What they really want is a weekend seminar that will transform how they feel about themselves, without changing how they live. What I do is teach them a process for releasing pent-up emotions and achieving more self-awareness. I have no idea how that will impact them. It may not stop their drinking, but it might make them enjoy being a mom more."

Uncle Grant said, "They don't sound pleasant to deal with."

I shook my head. "They are the warmest, funniest people. Whip-smart. An absolute joy to talk to. When we do improvisational scenes, they'll crack their groups up. They are such a challenge to help as the only problem they seem to have is that they're miserable."

Aunt Rose asked, "Are you over Hailey and ready to start dating again?"

"I'll never truly be over Hailey. I'll always occasionally think about her. I still think occasionally about girls from high school. When Hailey and I broke up, I had some anger and a whole lot of grief that I needed to process. Now, most of the anger and grief are gone, and what I mainly feel is loneliness. But as Hailey and I broke up over money, I can't help feeling that I should wait until I'm a little more financially sound before I start dating again."

Uncle Steve said, "Only date for fun."

"I'm thinking of that. Brush up on my social skills while I'm searching for Ms. Right."

I was being polite. I spent all day talking with people. I've been trained to pick up on the littlest cues people give. This whole family gathering, I had been noticing power dynamics, relationship triangles, where people choose to stand/sit, facial reactions, body movements, and even things like how certain people affect the vibe. But no one came here for me to be their therapist. Similarly, no one came here for me to ruminate on the deeper problems in my relationship with Hailey like the dysfunctional communication, the underlying attachment issues, the lack of spontaneity in our sex life, and her wanderlust. I've found that people have a much better time around me when I play dumb.

When the parents didn't say anything more, I moved on to the Kids Table in the living room. The Kids Table was a folding card table that Dad had pulled out. William and Alexa were already seated, and Erica was right behind me with her food. As we ate, William spent half his time with his neck twisted to watch the football game that was on the TV. Alexa, Erica, and I didn't say much for a while, until I tossed out what I hoped would be a conversation starter. "I'm in a new apartment, and I'm torn. Should I spend a lot of money decorating it? Show off to potential girlfriends that I'm a somewhat successful professional? But if the girlfriend moves in, she'll probably want to redecorate. Or if I move into her apartment, I'll have to sell almost everything in my apartment. What do you think I should do?"

Alexa and Erica offered suggestions. To my surprise, Alexa gave me a lot of great advice on how to decorate my apartment with a minimum amount of furniture while having it still attractive. "Get a shelving unit that is lots of squares. Have the first square be a picture of you and your family when you were a kid and have each ensuing square tell another chapter in your life. That kind of shelving unit isn't very expensive and is easily reused if you move in with someone later." We then discussed ideas for what each of my squares would be. It was a surprisingly enjoyable conversation.

After we had all stuffed ourselves silly and then stuffed ourselves even more with dessert, we all collapsed in the living room and watched the football game. Tryptophan soon worked its magic, and people nodded off. I went up to the office and laid down. I felt like a python that had swallowed an antelope. I quickly drifted off to sleep.

* * * *

Much later that afternoon, I was again raking leaves in the backyard. Erica came out to join me. "What are you doing out here?"

"I love my family. I really do. But I feel like I need to pace myself in terms of spending time with them. Four full days with them is overwhelming for me."

"I understand. Do you want me to go back inside?"

"No. You're fine. Actually, it's nice talking with you. It's the rest of the family that I feel like I have to work extra hard to keep the conversation flowing, and I don't want to wear myself out."

Erica started bagging up the raked leaves. "So, what were you thinking about before I came out here?"

"What do all young men think about? Baseball." Erica laughed. "Or is that what we think about in the spring? I can't remember."

"Do you even know who played in the World Series?"

I hung my head a little. "No. No idea at all."

"Okay. So, what were you really thinking about?"

"I was thinking about growing a beard. Now, that I've broken up with Hailey, I could try a new look."

"Didn't you have a beard before?"

"When I was in grad school. I thought it'd make me look more intelligent and sophisticated. I don't think it did, as I didn't have a serious girlfriend during grad school. But this time, I'm thinking of going for the bad boy look. I hear that drives professional women wild." Erica rolled her eyes. "Or maybe I'll do the mustache and goatee combo."

"For the evil therapist look?"

I laughed. "Yeah. Probably a bad idea." I stopped raking and leaned on the rake. "What do you think? Would I look better with a beard and mustache like Aaron?"

"Aaron never trims his beard on his own. He always waits until I tell him he needs to trim it. It's so annoying."

I was surprised by the sudden change in topic. "What's the big deal about that? Does he complain or pout when you tell him to trim it?"

"No. It's just...I didn't sign up to be his beard monitor," said Erica with her voice full of frustration. "He can tell when it needs trimming. He should take care of trimming on his own."

"Then don't tell him. Let him notice it needs trimming and take action on his own."

"I tried that. And he let it get more and more unkempt. I feel he wouldn't do anything about his beard without me prodding him. He needs me to prod him on lots of different issues, not just his beard. And I'm getting tired of always having to prod him."

"Don't prod him. I think the 'wild man who just put his finger in a light socket' look would suit him well."

Erica frowned at me. "You know, you don't act like a therapist."

"You're right," I said brightly. "Therapists are notoriously bad at acting. Can't put any zing into their lines. Not good at emoting either. With a BA in Theater, I should act far better."

Erica put her hand on her hip and said, "You know what I meant." She waited for me to give a better answer. I declined the opportunity by continuing raking. Erica broke the silence by asking, "Do you have a tattoo?"

"Ah...no." I resumed raking. "I thought a lot about getting one. In undergrad, having a tattoo could be a problem for some roles. The director might not want to risk that I could consistently cover it with makeup."

"You could have gotten one where it wasn't visible."

"What's the point of that? If you're going to get a tattoo, I think you should proudly display it." I raked a couple of times. "The summer after I graduated, I was making decent money as a mover. I was thinking of getting a tattoo at the end of the summer once I had some money saved up. But then William got his 'ROLL TIDE' tattoo. That made me rethink getting a tattoo. Everyone in the family would say I got it because William got one. Did I want to be like William? No, I didn't. When William got the Alabama elephant tattooed on his other shoulder, I thought it looked ridiculous and didn't consider getting a tattoo again."

Erica smirked at me. "No point in growing a beard and mustache then. You'll always be a bad boy wannabe. Real bad boys have tattoos."

I stopped raking for long enough to say, "You have a point there."

"I should know. Aaron is the first guy I've dated since senior year in high school to not have a tattoo."

"Is Aaron a bad boy wannabe with his beard, mustache, and no tattoo?"

"No, because he's not trying to look like a bad boy. He's trying for the bohemian intellectual look, and I think he nails it."

I was glad to hear Erica say something positive about Aaron. "Particularly with the tweed jacket and the tweed driving cap."

"Yeah. I thought he looked very nice yesterday." Erica scooped up some leaves and put them into the yard waste bag. "I have a tattoo."

That shocked me. "You do?"

"Yes."

"Show me." I had never seen a tattoo on her.

Erica gave me a smirk. "It's someplace only Aaron gets to see."

"When did you get it?"

"In college. I was dating a bad boy, and we got matching tattoos."

"Do Mom and Dad know?"

"No. And you better not tell them."

I made a zipping gesture over my lips. "My lips are sealed."

* * * *

That night, Mom made her turkey salad. It was like an upscale chicken salad with grapes, almonds, green onions, and celery, but with turkey white meat. For dinner, we had turkey salad sandwiches and Thanksgiving leftovers. After dinner, the parents remained at the table and talked. Erica and I pulled up chairs to the corner of the tables and joined them, though I didn't say very much.

Much later, that group broke up, and the parents headed toward bed. Erica signaled for me to stay behind. She served herself a cup of coffee and had us sit down at the bar.

I asked, "How do you sleep after drinking that much caffeine?"

Erica chuckled. "My body is used to it. I keep my caffeine level high all day. You never learned to drink coffee?"

"No. I drank a lot of soda in college. In grad school, I started putting on weight, so that was an easy source of calories to cut out. Now, I drink beer at parties, wine at nice dinners, and water the rest of the time."

"Probably wise." Erica took a sip. "You were very quiet tonight. That's unlike you."

"I...uh. People were talking about shopping tomorrow, and it hit me that I had no one to shop for this year."

"You've got me, Mom, and Dad."

"Mom and Dad I've already got planned out. This weekend, I'll have someone take a group portrait of the four of us. I'll get an 8.5 by 11-inch print of it, have it framed, and give it to them with a bottle of wine. I think they'll be thrilled."

"Damn. That does sound like a good idea."

"Wine is always a good idea." I winked. "It's a great gift because I can give it every year. But I can't give you wine this year," as Aaron didn't drink and Erica only drank now when she was out without Aaron, "so I'm stuck. What do you want?"

"I...err. I haven't really thought about it," said Erica. I rolled my eyes. "Let me look around tomorrow for something I'd like."

"I'm warning you that right now, you're getting the best non-alcoholic repeatable gift idea I could come up with - a box of each size of Ziplocs and two rolls of paper towels." Erica gave me a don't-you-dare look while chuckling. "It'll be nicely gift-wrapped." She laughed.

I thought about going to bed, but Erica seemed to want to talk more. I said, "I wish I could say that I was excited about going shopping on the day after Thanksgiving because it'd be the first time I'd hear Christmas music in the stores, but I've been hearing Christmas music for weeks now."

"I know what you mean."

"At the beginning of September, I was in a store, and they had all their Halloween candy out. There's zero chance of any Halloween candy I'm buying at the beginning of September makes it to Halloween."

"Aaron and I ate all of my initial buy of Halloween candy."

I made a fist and waved it around. "I showed them for putting out their Halloween candy so ridiculously early. I bought only one bag."

Erica chuckled. "You did show them." Her face turned more serious as she asked, "How is your rent-a-dungeon-master business doing?"

"It's doing fine. And I continue to make good money at it." I sighed. "It's funny - for a long time, considering what I paid for office space and professional expenses, I cleared a lot more providing dungeon master services than I did being a drama therapist. Running D&D campaigns still provides a big chunk of my income. However, people always give me a you-must-be-a-weirdo look whenever I tell them that I'm a professional dungeon master. I get judging looks when I tell people I'm a drama therapist, but nothing as harsh as when I tell them I dungeon master."

"You have to admit, it's unusual."

"Drama therapist is unusual too, but it doesn't get the same strong negative reaction." I raised my hand. "I don't like discussing it." I started to get up. "Time for bed."

"Stay. I'm not sleepy yet."

I rolled my eyes and sat back down. "You might be sleepy if you didn't drink that much caffeine."

"Or I might not be sleepy because I want to talk to my brother, who I haven't talked to much in a while. I'm thinking of going for a jog tomorrow morning. Burn off some of the Thanksgiving calories. Join me?"

"I didn't bring any jogging clothes."

"Neither did I. I won't be jogging very fast. More to get out and see the old neighborhood."

"Okay." I thought about getting some water to drink but didn't want to commit to spending that much more time up. "What's Aaron getting you for Christmas?"

"I don't know. I'll probably order something online and have him give it to me." Erica said that like she was fine with that, but I couldn't help hearing a hint of annoyance.

"Do you guys have a standard gift you give each other? A memento of your first date or something?"

"No. Did you and Hailey have a standard gift you gave each other?"

"I always gave her lingerie and something else. Lingerie was a gift I gave her that I also enjoyed."

"Let me guess. She modeled it for you, and then you took it off her and fucked her silly."

"Why do you always think about sex?" I said, mimicking Erica's tone from when she told me that earlier.

Erica rolled her eyes.

"Yes, she'd model it for me," I said. "And I'd tell her how sexy and beautiful she looked in it. But we wouldn't have sex afterward."

"You wouldn't?" said Erica as she gave me a disbelieving look. "Your girlfriend is wearing this sexy lingerie, and you wouldn't try to persuade her to hop into bed?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I can't think of any time we made love after she wore sexy lingerie. On a lot of Fridays and Saturdays, she'd put on nice lingerie and a sexy dress, and we'd go out to a concert or a party or a club. When we got home, she'd change into a nightshirt and cotton panties, and we'd go to bed."

Erica continued looking at me disbelieving.

"Let's get up decently early, have breakfast, and go for a jog," I said before standing up. "Goodnight."

* * * *

The next morning, a tap on the door to the office woke me. I got up, dressed with the warmest clothes I had brought, went downstairs, and found my sister, to my non-surprise, drinking coffee. I got myself some water, and, once we had polished off our drinks, we went to the closet by the front door and got caps and gloves. We then went outside and started walking briskly.

Erica said, "It's cold this morning."

I gave her a dubious look. "You were expecting something different for an early morning in late fall?"

"Well, no..."

"Actually, it's the perfect temperature for a brisk morning jog. It makes you want to go fast enough to warm yourself up." I increased my pace. "Look over there. They cut down the big tree that was always in their front yard."

"You're right. It makes the house look a lot different."

"It was a nice tree. I'm sad that it's gone."

Erica pointed to another yard. "Look at all the leaves in that yard. I'm glad they are there and not in Mom and Dad's yard."

"Maybe the homeowner is hoping we'll get a good breeze today, and they'll all blow down to Mom and Dad's."

"They better not!" Erica said brightly. "You seem in a better mood this morning."
"I am. I came up with a plan for the day."

We jogged on for a while. Eventually, Erica asked in a slightly annoyed tone, "Which is?"

"To have a fun day with family."

I could almost hear Erica's teeth grinding. "Do you enjoy being intentionally vague?"

"With you, yes. I know you're so curious that you'll always ask me to tell you more."

"Okay. So what exactly will you do to have a fun day with family?"

"I'm not saying. It might not work out, and I don't want you to make fun of me if it doesn't."

Erica said almost petulantly, "I won't make fun of you."

"Yeah, right."

As kids, I was the bigger and stronger, and Erica had always retaliated to my bullying her by making fun of me.

Normally when I was with someone, I regularly tossed out conversation starters, but not this morning. I knew Erica was curious about our conversation last night, and I waited for her to ask me about it. Jogging gave me an excuse to wait.

Finally, Erica said, "Last night, you said that you couldn't think of any time that you and Hailey had made love after she had worn lingerie. But you said much earlier that sex with Hailey was the best you've ever had. And you said you bought Hailey lingerie regularly."

I smiled inwardly. "I did. I loved seeing Hailey wearing the lingerie I bought her. I'd always tell her how sexy and beautiful she looked whenever she modeled it for me. But those compliments wouldn't have been as effective if Hailey viewed them as me trying to get her into bed. So, by not having sex with her after she had worn lingerie, that actually encouraged her to wear lingerie more often."

"How often did she wear lingerie?"

I blew out a long breath, which turned to fog as soon as it left my mouth. "It depended. She rarely wore lingerie when we first started dating. In the stretch before we merged our finances, maybe two or three times a week. The number dropped after we merged our finances. How often do you wear lingerie?"

"What? Me?"

"Yes, you. You're the only one I'm jogging with."

"That's personal."

I looked at Erica and rolled my eyes. "Moments ago, you asked me a couple of questions about Hailey's lingerie-wearing habits, and it's too personal for you to discuss?"

"Why don't you act like a therapist?" said Erica sharply. Before I could answer, she added, "Behave. Why don't you behave like a therapist?"

"I do behave like a therapist. I'm a therapist. Ergo, concordantly, vis-à-vis, I behave like one."

"Will you stop bullshitting me and give me a real answer!" said Erica angrily.

I laughed. "Okay. A real answer. If you tell me how often you wear lingerie."

"Agreed."

"All right. When most people think of therapy, they think of a person talking about their mother to someone holding a pen and a pad of paper. That 'expert' would then diagnose them and treat them. And that was how therapy worked until a man named Carl Rogers came along. He developed client-centered therapy, a non-directive therapy allowing clients to deal with what they considered important at their own pace. This method involves removing obstacles so the client can move forward, freeing him or her for normal growth and development. By using non-directive techniques, Rogers assisted people in taking responsibility for themselves. Are you with me so far?"

"Sort of. Close enough."

"The times I've tried to come across as a traditional therapist, I always felt that people resisted me; that they thought I was going to make them do things they didn't want to do and get them to say things they'd prefer not to say. So I tried being me, and it's worked. Now when I start a new group, I tell them 'We are going to have a lot of fun together. We are going to do exercises similar to what they do in the best acting schools, and then we'll hopefully have some good discussions afterward.' I then get them to stand up and do warm-ups like in PE while I tell them a monologue I stole from the late-night shows. My clients are pretty loose by the time we start our first exercise. I get really high participation in my exercises because my clients think they'll have fun. And I think the exercises are fun because acting is fun. When we have our discussion afterward, I still get good participation because people like talking about something fun they just did. So I do act like a therapist because that's how I do therapy."

"So you purposely don't act like a therapist."

"Yuppers. I know a lot of therapists who act like a therapist 24-7. I find them creepy. I feel they're analyzing me the whole time we are talking, and, when we are done, they are going to go update my file. I very much try to not act that way, and sometimes I go overboard like when I first talked to you about Alexa."

"Had you heard of Intercourse before this week?"

"How often do you wear lingerie?"

Erica paused for a few moments and then said, "Not very often at all."

"How many pieces of lingerie do you have?"

"A couple of satin slips. They feel very nice, but they aren't practical."

"A satin slip is great when you are spending the evening cuddling on the couch while bingeing a show. And I was lying when I said that I hadn't heard of Intercourse. I've read it; great stuff. Feminism has made a huge positive impact on society. But slightly sexist jokes are still the most reliable way to make people laugh."

We jogged on in silence after that. Discussing Erica's lingerie habits had made her uncomfortable, but had given me a lot of pleasure. Yes, she had Aaron, and I had no one, but my relationship with Hailey had been very satisfying for most of its course, and I wanted my sister to envy that level of satisfaction.

"Okay," said Erica. "How was sex with Hailey so great if her wearing lingerie was so important to you, but you didn't have sex after she wore lingerie?"

"I think that's kind of obvious. We had great sex before she put on the lingerie."

We jogged on some more. I knew Erica was furiously churning over my last bit of information and would eventually break down and ask me for more.

"You'd have sex, and she'd put on lingerie afterward?"

I chuckled silently. I decided I had stretched this out long enough. "Let me guess. When you and Aaron reach the end of the day and are getting into bed, you start the dance about whether you'll have sex or not, right? Or Aaron might tap your shoulder while you're both in bed and ask for some fun?"

"Yeah. Mostly."

"That was what Jerri and I did." I had lived with Jerri during my senior year of college. "Hailey never wanted to have sex at the end of the day. She was tired, and she wouldn't have the energy to enjoy it. Asking her for sex once we went to bed annoyed her." I let Erica process that for a bit. "On the other hand, Hailey was great in bed earlier in the day when she felt fresh and energetic. So on Saturdays, we'd do something fun and physical like going for a hike or walking around a craft fair, and then we'd go home and make love. Later on, Hailey would put on some lingerie and a short, clingy dress. I'd tell her how sexy and beautiful she looked before and after she put on the dress, and we'd go out for the evening. At the end of the evening, we'd come home, change into night clothes, go to bed, and go to sleep."

"So seeing Hailey in lingerie or a short, clingy dress didn't make you want to have sex with her?" I felt like Erica was trying to find something wrong with what I had described.

"Oh, it did. But I quickly learned to postpone acting on that feeling until the next day. Let those juices simmer, as it were. During the week, I'd cook a very nice dinner for her on Tuesday and Thursday nights, we'd drink quite a bit of wine during dinner, and once the dishes were put into the dishwasher, I'd hug her and nibble on her neck. She'd be in the mood, and most of the time, we'd only make it as far as the couch. After we were done, we'd get all cuddly while we watched TV. I found it much easier to be cuddly and lovey-dovey after having sex and with no agenda of trying to persuade her to have sex again."

"So you had sex three times a week?"

I smiled. "Four." I had loved having sex that often every week. "Before lunch on Saturday and Sunday; after dinner on Tuesday and Thursday. Hailey liked having sex scheduled and was almost always up for sex at the scheduled time."

"So there was no spontaneity?"

"None." I pointed at a house. "That's an interesting paint job." I felt like I had done enough bragging to my sister about my sex life with Hailey, so I kept the conversation on more mundane things for the rest of the jog.

As we jogged, I reviewed in my mind what I would say to Alexa when we got back to my parents' house. In the past, I had always ignored Alexa at these family gatherings, much to my parents' displeasure. She had given me decorating advice that was intriguing but that I couldn't quite picture. I'd ask her to go shopping with me for things for my apartment. Now that I had actually talked with her, I was interested in learning more about her. If we got along well enough, I might spend some time just talking with her.

* * * *

Around two, I announced, "Hey, everyone! We're back," as Alexa and I entered my parents' house. We had left the house before nine. "We had a good time. I bought a lot of stuff at Hobby Lobby for my apartment. I eventually took Alexa to La Madeleine for lunch. So what has everyone been up to while we were gone?"

Aunt Rose said, "We weren't expecting you to be gone that long."

"Hobby Lobby was packed. It was hard to move around. We wanted to look at a lot of different things, and it was hard to do because people kept getting in our way. And since Alexa gave me so much help in picking out stuff for decorating my apartment, I felt that taking her to La Madeleine was an appropriate thank you. They were packed too."

I looked at Alexa, and she seemed content to not add anything more. All the parents seemed mildly unhappy. Erica seemed very unhappy. Alexa wandered off to the living room; I assumed to read her book. I headed to the kitchen to get some water. "What did you have for lunch? More turkey salad sandwiches?"

I didn't get much of a conversation from people. Finally, Mom asked in a perplexed voice, "You and Alexa had a good time together?"

"Yeah! Very good time."

"But you've never done anything with her before. You don't have much in common."

"She's seven years younger than me!" I said with a little heat. "Of course, I didn't have much in common with her when we were kids. That was why I never played with her despite you nagging me to do so." I calmed down. "We're both adults now, and she had lots and lots of good ideas about decorating. You should ask her for some advice on redecorating your house." I chugged the bottle of water. "I've got the leaves in the backyard mostly bagged. Time to start working on the front."

After I had raked leaves for ten minutes, Erica came out and joined me. "Everyone was concerned about you and Alexa."

"Why? We weren't going anywhere dangerous."

"It's just...You had talked about dating for fun and brushing up on your social skills. You had told me that you thought Alexa needed someone to fuck her senseless. Then you drove off with Alexa right after breakfast and were gone half the day. And when you get back, you're all vague about what you did, and Alexa doesn't say a word."

"Did Alexa look unhappy when we got home? Did she have any negative body language?" I knew she had been smiling and had had an air of happiness when we got back.

"No, but..."

I waited. When Erica didn't say more, I asked, "Are you asking me did I fuck Alexa senseless?" I was enjoying that I had managed to do something that had shocked and worried the whole family. "No. No such luck. But we did have a good time together. And I did brush up on my social skills. I knew when I asked her to go with me to Hobby Lobby that it'd be a challenge to keep our conversation going, but I managed to do so."

"Did you try to fuck Alexa senseless?"

"What? No. I should have been clearer when I said that. I think that Alexa would benefit greatly from someone who thinks she is wonderful and special to fuck her senseless. That's not me. I think all she wanted was to have a fun conversation with me, and we did."

"Going to Hobby Lobby and having lunch shouldn't have taken that long."

"After we shopped at Hobby Lobby, we went to a park and sat on a bench for a while. It was a nice day to do that. Lots of people were out and about. Quite a few families. After that, we went to La Madeleine and had lunch. And then we came back here."

"What did you talk about for that long?"

"Stuff." Erica gave me a disgusted look. "Lots of stuff. Probably the thing we discussed the most is stories from my being a dungeon master. I suspected she wouldn't want to talk about herself, and she didn't. Occasionally I'd ask her a question about herself, but nothing too invasive."

"Such as?"

"If she could have any pet she wanted in her apartment, what would she have?"

"And what would she have?"

"You ask her!" When Erica frowned, I added, "You're talking to someone who has had it pounded into their head that you always respect the privacy of those you talk to."

"So you talked and talked, you bought her lunch, and then you came home."

"Yeah." I crooked my head. "I was really grateful for her helping me buy stuff to decorate my apartment. It's been depressing that my place has looked like I'm just passing through, but the idea of decorating it by myself has made me feel very lonely. It was great having a woman help me make the decisions on how to decorate. And hopefully, by next weekend, my apartment will, for not a lot of money, look like a home. So when we were done shopping at Hobby Lobby, I didn't want to take her back to Mom and Dad's and have her go right back to her book. Instead, I took her to the park for a while and then bought her lunch at La Madeleine."

Erica didn't seem convinced. Or whatever. It wasn't any of her business what Alexa and I had done. Did Erica think I was so desperate for sex that I'd try to seduce my much-younger cousin?

I said, "If you don't like me spending time with Alexa, you could go shopping with her tomorrow morning."

"Are you thinking of going shopping with her again?" Erica asked me suspiciously.

"Yes. I had a good time with her this morning, so why not do it again? But I'll defer to you if you want to spend the morning with her."

Erica thought and frowned. "Neither of us would enjoy going shopping together. I don't have your skill at making small talk. There'd be lots of uncomfortable silences. Will you and William go somewhere tomorrow morning?"

"I'm not going anywhere with William. I was fine with doing most of the heavy lifting of keeping the conversation going with Alexa. With William, he'd be always bringing the conversation back to football, and that's something I find very unappealing." I was doubtful I could convince William to leave the TV. "Back to you and Alexa. I can see you two having lots of uncomfortable silences because neither of you wants to talk about yourselves."

"What? Are you saying I don't want to talk about myself?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"I'm fine about talking about myself."

"You asked me several questions about my and Hailey's sex life, and you didn't reciprocate by telling me anything personal about you and Aaron. And talking about Hailey should be painful for me because I'm still not over her and I've not found anyone new. But I'm far more comfortable talking about Hailey than you appear to be talking about your life with Aaron."

Before Erica could respond, we heard the front door open, and both of us turned to it.

Mom said, "Come inside, please. We are about to order dinner and need you to say what you want."

* * * *

Mom was ordering pizza and wanted us to work with our other family members on what toppings to order. William and I quickly agreed on a pizza with all the meats. Dad and Uncle Grant said they'd like a slice. Erica and Alexa agreed to vegetarian pizza. I volunteered William to go with me to pick up the pizzas. On the drive there and back, sure enough, it was all football, all the time.

When we got back, everyone got their slices, and we once again split up into the Parents Table and the Kids Table. When Erica sat down, she said to Alexa, "It sounds like you know a lot about decorating."

Alexa looked down at her plate, slightly embarrassed. "I don't know if I know a lot, but I know more than Matt."

"That's not hard," I added.

"Do you watch HGTV?" asked Erica.

"Not really. The budgets for remodeling on those shows are ridiculous. I'll never have hundreds of thousands of dollars to remodel a home."

Erica persisted. "Do you watch decorating shows other places?"

"I do." Alexa had the look on her face that she had been caught. "I've found some non-HGTV decorating shows that have much smaller budgets. I enjoy watching them." She smiled. "They are my guilty pleasure."

"That seems pretty minor for a guilty pleasure," said Erica reassuringly. "Aaron and I have about a dozen fish. What pet would you have if you could have any pet?"

Alexa flashed a look at me before answering Erica. "A cat."

"I'd have a dog," said William.

"A dog?" I asked. "What kind of dog?"

"What do you mean?" asked William gingerly, like he was worried that I would make fun of him.

"A German Shepard? A poodle? What size of dog would you like?"

"Definitely not a poodle. Probably not as big as a German Shepard. Something in between."

"Like a Border Collie?" asked Erica.

"What's that?" replied William.

"A breed of dog," said Alexa in an are-you-that-stupid? tone.

I jumped on William finally talking about something besides football. "Your parents never had a dog. What has been your experience with dogs?"

"Some of my friends had dogs." With a little encouragement from me, he told stories about him having fun with dogs.

Alexa said, "I've told you before, you should start a business where you take care of dogs."

William snorted. "My complex won't let me have a dog. How could I start a business taking care of dogs when I don't own one?"

"You could start a dog walking business," I offered. William shrugged dismissively. "Hey! Don't write off side gigs in this economy. I would not be able to afford my car or my apartment if I didn't dungeon master for money."

"How would I get customers for such a business?"

I told everyone about how I got started earning money as a dungeon master. "The big thing was accepting that I could demand people pay me money to DM. I viewed it for too long as something I should only do for the fun, and it'd be wrong to charge money for doing it." I then went into how I find new customers and followed that with how I manage the finances of my business. As I talked, I saw the parents occasionally checking on us. They seemed surprised that the four of us were having a long conversation together.

"You know," said William, "I've never played Dungeons and Dragons. It's never appealed to me. But now I'm curious. Could we do a D&D game tonight?"

"I'd be up for that," said Alexa brightly.

I turned to Erica, who said, "What? Would you want me to play?"

"You've played before. It'd be good to have a veteran player."

I had the impression that Erica didn't want to do it but didn't want to let her family down. "Okay. I'll play."

The rest of the evening, I researched what campaign to run and then helped William, Alexa, and Erica create their characters. William rolled up a Ranger and Alexa a Cleric. As I was working with Alexa, I got a hard-on. Alexa wasn't my type at all, but she was definitely enjoying attention from me, and I hadn't jacked off since I got here.

When I was done with Alexa, I helped Erica roll up a Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Thief. The whole time, I thought about how my sister had reacted to my spending so much time with Alexa. Was she jealous? I didn't think she was, but why else would it have bothered her so much?
"So you want to be a bad girl," I teased Erica.

"Yes. Of course," Erica said in a way that implied she didn't want to talk about it.

* * * *

The next morning, Erica and I went for a jog again. She asked early on in the jog, "Are you doing anything with Alexa today?"

"Maybe. Any ideas on what I can get you for Christmas?"

"No. I had forgotten you had asked me that."

"Perhaps if I go shopping with Alexa this morning, she can give me some suggestions."

Erica seemed displeased with that answer and was kind of distant for the rest of the jog. I reviewed the rules of D&D with her so she could lead William and Alexa tonight.

After breakfast, Alexa sought me out. I asked her, "Would you like to do some Christmas shopping with me today?"

"Sure."

Mom said, "Be back before lunch this time."

"Sure."

We got back around 11:30. Alexa came in with a wrapped present, which she sneaked up to her room without William seeing it. After I checked in with everyone, I went up to the office to review everything for tonight's D&D session. As I had the office door closed, I thought about jerking off, but decided it was far too risky. This weekend, I hadn't gotten anywhere close to enough privacy to comfortably jerk off. A few moments later, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," I called.

Erica came in and sat on the edge of the desk where I was working. "So what did Alexa sneak in?"

"A coffee table book of dog breeds for William. My suggestion."

"Did she give you any suggestions for me?"

"No. She asked if I knew how your apartment was decorated, and I said no. If I had, I think she could have given some good suggestions."

"Did you have fun shopping with her?"

"Yes. Though we didn't actually shop much. We found the book, she bought it, then we talked in the bookstore cafe while she sipped one of those stupid mocha latte things."

"That sounds yummy," Erica said with a taunting smile. "What did you talk about?"

"Stuff." Erica frowned, and I chuckled. "She opened up a bit more. She's in a stage where she's fixated on how unfair life is to women. Women are always judged for their looks. Women are always either dressed too sexy or not sexy enough. Men are always objectifying women, seeing them as things to conquer. Women never feel safe alone, which guys don't understand. Women are still paid less than men for the same job. The ideal employee for most corporations is a man with a wife in a supporting role, and they push women to act like those men." I raised my hands, palms up. "The usual stuff."

"And what did you say to that."

"First, I let her talk. Get that all out. Then I told her that I agreed with her. All of those things were unfair. Modern American life is unfair to women. I followed that with had she considered how modern American life is unfair to men?"

Erica raised her eyebrows. "And had she?"

"No. I pointed out that women objectify men in that they are not interested in short men. How can height be important in today's society? Yet, short men are turning to expensive, painful surgery to make themselves taller to get women to pay attention to them. I also pointed out that more women get college degrees than men, and more women get advanced degrees than men, yet women continue to only want to date men who make more than them. That results in there being not enough acceptable men for well-educated women to date, but they refuse to lower their standards. I told her I felt a huge amount of pressure to live above my means to impress women of a similar education level as me. And as for corporations wanting employees that act like men with a wife in a supporting role, what does that mean for a man whose wife makes as much or more than him?"

"And what did she say to that?" asked Erica in a casual manner that I felt hid some serious interest.

"Not much. I think she was quite gobsmacked. And I'm not surprised. Society still assumes that men have a serious leg up over women. Most colleges have a department that specializes in looking at the unfairness that women face, but there's nothing like that for men. Now, I get that at the top levels of this country, it's still very much a man's world. But down at my level, I'm seeing both men and women facing unfairness, but no one talks about the unfairness men face."

Erica sat frowning for a while. "Did Hailey make more than you?"

"Yes."

"Is that what you think caused you two to break up?"

"No. Yes, she was making more money than me when we broke up. But my practice is growing...I don't want to say quickly, but quickly for a therapy practice. In five to ten years, I'm hopeful it'll be decently lucrative. So it wasn't clear that Hailey would always make more than me." I sighed. "What I think killed our relationship was that I didn't discuss my financial situation with her until we merged our finances. Then she saw that I had no money saved for retirement or a house and had lots of student loans and a large amount of credit card debt."

"Which you ran up while trying to give her the impression that you made more than her."

I shrugged. "Regardless, my finances were an unpleasant surprise to her, and she lost a lot of respect for me. It seemed without that respect, things that had been fine weren't anymore, and things fell apart."

"What kind of women are you looking to date?"

"Someone a lot like Hailey. Good-looking, fun, smart, has their shit together, makes more money than me, and likes being physically active."

Erica looked away. "I'm envious of how clear-eyed you are about your relationship with Hailey. I don't know what's going on in my head about Aaron." She looked down at me. "Yes, I've not been talking about myself. Or more correctly, me and Aaron. We're happy, and I could see us being happily married for a long time. But at the same time, I have this feeling of future disappointment now whenever I think about him. I'm very confused." She sighed. "Maybe it's the money thing."

"Have you thought about seeking counseling?"

"About what? We're a happy couple. Most days, I see a happy future being married to Aaron. But since we had to take Greckle back to the shelter, I've had this vague feeling that something is wrong. I'd need something specific to talk to a counselor about. What do you think the issue is?"

"Me? I'm not a marriage counselor."

"You're a therapist. You've thought a lot about what makes relationships work. I'd like your opinion."

I took in a big breath. "I have an idea of what the issue might be, but I need more information. I know this is a really personal question, so you don't have to answer. How often do you have sex?"

"If I don't answer it, you won't give me your opinion?"

"Yeah. I don't want to give you my opinion. I don't want to be your therapist. But I'll give you my opinion if it's important to you. But I want to make sure it's important to you. And that it's a good opinion."

Erica's shoulder's slumped. "Okay. Probably every week or every week and a half. Often enough."

I nodded. "Does he ever ask for sex, and you tell him no?"

"Occasionally. He always takes it well."

"You know," I said as I shifted in my chair. "I've been repeatedly told to never say, 'Aha! I know what my client's problem is.' I see them in a very artificial setting. I don't have them tell me their deepest feelings. I'm really counting on them to figure out their problems on their own." I shuffled my feet. "That being said, I'm going to say 'Aha! I know what your problem is.'"

Erica gave me a small smile. "What is it?"

"You've always dated bad boys. They were very exciting but constantly did stupid things. When you began to think about settling down, you decided - and I think quite wisely - to date someone besides a bad boy. Aaron is a good guy who doesn't do anything stupid. You have a very pleasant life with him. You can see yourself having a pleasant life with him until you're old and gray. But he doesn't excite you. When he asks for sex and you tell him no, that's saying he hasn't sexually excited you enough to put you in the mood for sex. And he's accepting of that. He's probably very accepting of the fact that he's not an exciting guy. But you're not happy about already being in a rut with him, and you don't know if you want that lack of excitement for the rest of your life." I stood up. "I was thinking of making lunch today. At least for a few people." I moved around Erica. "My opinion was worth every cent you paid for it. I have no problem if you ignore it."

"It's something to think about," said Erica in a gloomy tone.

To brighten things up, I decided to tease Erica. "Maybe after lunch, I'll take Alexa shopping again." I gave Erica a wicked grin. "I could take her to Victoria's Secret and buy her some lingerie as an early Christmas present. Then we could get a motel room where she could model the lingerie for me." Erica frowned. "Lingerie is a gift for both the woman and the man."

"You wouldn't actually do that," Erica said in a disapproving tone.

"Of course not. Because I was planning on taking you shopping at the mall. Maybe if we walk around together, you can come up with an idea of something I could buy you for Christmas. Are you up for that?"

"Sure!" Erica said with a smile. "Anything to keep you from constantly bugging me for Christmas present suggestions."

This story was written by 8letters and published on Literotica

* * * *

"So where do you want to start?" asked Erica as we got close to the mall.

"The problem I see is that almost anything you want, as soon as you want it, you hop on Amazon and buy it. There's nothing you really want that you haven't already bought. I was going to buy you a blouse or a sweater. You don't need another blouse or sweater, but you'll wear it occasionally if it's in your closet, which is more use than if I bought you a coffee table book."

"Okay. Just like you have me always buy you a funny T-shirt."

"Exactly." I pulled into the mall parking lot and headed toward a big department store. "And I wear whatever you buy me even if I don't find the T-shirt funny."

Erica said in a good-natured jab, "But someone with a better sense of humor than you will find it hysterical."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "So you pick out a blouse or sweater that you like. I'll buy it, gift wrap it, and put it under the tree. And then you act surprised when you open it on Christmas."

Erica and I went in and walked to the women's clothing section. Erica started looking at sweaters. "Any price limit?"

"Whatever is the average price of a sweater or a little more. Don't pick the most expensive one in the store."

"Okay."

I pulled out my phone and began playing a game while Erica perused. Occasionally, she'd ask my opinion of a sweater. After a while, Erica grabbed a few sweaters and took them into the changing room.

A short while later, she came out in a gray sweater. "What do you think?"

"It's nice."

Erica frowned. I was sure she wanted me to show a little more enthusiasm. "Sweaters don't excite me. Hailey shopped for sweaters and blouses by herself because I found shopping for them boring. But I went with her when she shopped for dresses for going out with me. I enjoyed that."

"Dresses cost a lot more than sweaters. Any would be over your price limit."

"True."

That seemed to satisfy Erica. She went back in and came out a little later with a new sweater. She got another 'It's nice' from me. She changed into a third sweater, and got another 'It's nice'.

"Which one did you like best?"

"No preference. Whichever you like best."

Erica put her hand on her hip. "I want you to buy me something that you like. You're giving me the feeling you don't like any of these." She had a good point.

"Let's look at what dresses they have on sale. Maybe they'll have a dress that I like for a price comparable to a sweater."

Erica and I went over to the sales rack in the dresses department. We couldn't find a dress that was in my price range and that either of us was excited about.

"I'll make you a deal," I said. "I'll buy you a nice party dress if you buy the lingerie to wear underneath it."

"What kind of lingerie are you talking about?" asked Erica suspiciously.

"A bustier, a garter belt, thong panties, and stockings."

Erica shot me a disgusted look. "You aren't serious, are you?"

"Sure, I'm serious. My going shopping with you kept me from taking Alexa to buy her lingerie." I winked at Erica. "There's no harm in me watching you buy lingerie." Erica still looked dubious.

"Why aren't you going to buy me the lingerie?"

"Oh, no, no, no," I said as I raised my hands. "It would be very bad for me to buy you lingerie. No way can you explain it to Aaron or Mom and Dad." I dropped my hands and leaned forward. "When Aaron picks you up tomorrow, you can tell him that you've missed him so much that you decided to buy some sexy lingerie for him. Maybe that'll give him a hint to do something aggressive that will get you excited."

Erica stuck her lips out in a pensive gesture for a little bit and then asked, "So we're going to Victoria's Secret?"

"No." I shook my head. "They don't sell the fun stuff anymore. This store has bustiers and corsets. Victoria's Secret has only corset tops, which is a contradiction in terms."

"What do you mean?" Erica looked confused.

"Bustiers boost your bust, and corsets constrain your waist. If it's only the top of a corset, there's no constraining of the waist." I grinned. "I've done a lot of research on this."

To my surprise, Erica turned and walked toward the lingerie department. I hadn't expected her to agree to look at lingerie. I quickly caught up to her.

As Erica looked around, she asked, "A bra and panties aren't enough?"

"Nope. A full set of lingerie. I want you to look sexy and beautiful before you put on the dress I buy you."

When we found the bustiers, all they had were white. I said, "Bridal lingerie. The bustiers I see online for big department stores frequently have their model wearing a bridal veil."

They had three types of bustiers. "Which one do you prefer?" asked Erica.

"Isn't what's important is which one Aaron would prefer?"

"Aaron's not here. Aaron's not the one talking me into buying this. Which one do you prefer?" Erica glared at me. Maybe a dare for me to give an opinion on what bustier my sister would look best in?

I grabbed the three packages and carefully looked over the pictures on the front. Eventually, I showed one to Erica. "This one. I like all the lacework in the front and the bottom of the bra cup. With the way the cup is shaped, I think it will give a nice boost to your bust." I pointed to the bottom of the picture. "I like that it has its own ribbon straps so you don't need a garter belt. If you're rocking this, I think you'll look very sexy and beautiful."

Erica looked down and blushed.

"Is this your size?" I asked as I pointed to the '34B' in the upper right.

"Yes."

I handed Erica the package and went to the unmanned sales desk in lingerie. I looked around.

"What are you doing?" asked Erica.

"Oh, nothing." I found a pen and pulled one of my business cards out of my wallet. I wrote '34B' on the back of it.

"Why are writing down my bra size? You're not planning on buying me lingerie are you?"

"Oh no." I gave Erica my best innocent smile. "I'd never do that. I'm your brother. But if you and Aaron do get married, Mom may want to buy you some wedding night lingerie, and I'll be able to tell her what size to buy."

It was a flimsy story, but it was the best I could come up with. I just wanted to have Erica's bra measurement, and I wanted her to know that I had it. And it had felt good writing it down in front of her. The mean big brother once again does something to annoy his little sister.

I asserted dominance again by saying, "Time to buy the thong panties and stockings. You'll want both to be white to go with the bustier."

I watched Erica closely as she looked through their thong panties. She held up three different packages and asked, "Which one?"

"That one," picking the one I liked best. Its front was lace in a pattern that matched the bustier. I used the stolen pen to note Erica's size. We did something similar for the stockings.

"Is someone finding lingerie shopping exciting?" I said. Erica looked a little confused, so I pointed to her nipples that were prominently pointing out.

"What? No. It's just cold in here."

I nodded my head in agreement, all the while enjoying her discomfort. "Let's head back to the dresses."

"Okay. I think I saw a dress in the sale rack that would go well with white lingerie."

"You don't have to pick a dress that goes with that lingerie. You're getting the lingerie to wear tomorrow, and you won't be able to wear the dress until after Christmas. You'll probably want a black dress."

"Who's picking the dress, you or me?" said Erica, asserting her dominance.

I hung my head and said in a defeated tone. "You are. You did what I asked, so you're free to pick what you want."

Erica smiled and handed me the three lingerie packages. We walked to the sale rack, and, after a quick search, she said, "Here we are," as she pulled a dress off the rack. She held up against her. "What do you think?"

The dress was a simple cocktail dress with a small amount of material on the shoulders, a plunging neckline, and falling to mid-thigh. The material of the dress was unusual, white cotton with a blue shiny material worked through it. And then from the waist, lace hung down with flowers embroidered on it.

"On sale for half off. What do you think?" Erica asked as she showed me the price.

At half off, it was still well more than the sweaters we had been looking at. "That's fine."

"I'll go try it on then."

Erica took the dress into the changing room. I waited outside of it as she changed. It felt awkward standing alone while holding the lingerie packages. I was perfectly fine buying lingerie, but that was always a quick grab-purchase-leave thing. Standing in the women's department holding three packages of what was obviously lingerie as many other female shoppers moved around me was a completely different experience.

I felt relieved when Erica came out in the dress, but that quickly turned to awe. "Wow! You look great in that dress." The top hugged her body tightly and nicely showed off her tits. From there, it flowed down to her narrow waist and then flared out over her hips. The dress showed off a lot of her nice legs. I stepped close to Erica so people around us couldn't overhear. "You in this dress with this lingerie underneath will be spectacular. It'll knock Aaron's socks off."

Erica smiled warmly for a moment and then frowned. "You'd probably tell Alexa she looked spectacular in lingerie if you had gone shopping with her instead of me."

"No." I shook my head. "I've learned that you can be a little generous when complimenting women, but only a little. Much more than that, and they'll know you're stretching the truth. Then, they'll be insulted. 'He couldn't think of anything nice to say about me, so he told me that corny line?' With Alexa, if I had bought her lingerie like what I'm holding and she had modeled it for me in a hotel room, I would have said something like, 'Ooh, white really suits you' or 'I never imagined my little cousin Alexa would look so good in sexy lingerie'." I gave Erica a little smile. "Stick to the truth, but be selective in the truth you tell."

Erica still looked unconvinced. "I wouldn't look spectacular. I'm not big enough on top to look spectacular. How big was Hailey? D cup?"

"She was." I thought quickly about how to sell what I was telling Erica. "Hailey had a body like a porn star. You have a body like a movie star. A porn star body is great to watch in porn videos, but I prefer a movie star body in real life. I stand by my comment that you'd look spectacular in that dress with this lingerie."
Before Erica could respond, I added. "Alexa was absolutely right when she said that women are judged by their looks. To me, women are always insecure about their looks because it is how they are judged. As a boyfriend, I felt it was my job to make my girlfriend feel secure about her looks. I told Hailey all the time that I thought she was sexy and beautiful. I wanted her to know all the time that I was firmly in love with her because she was special, wonderful, and very attractive to me. Aaron is very lucky to be dating you. If he's not appreciative of how great a catch he has, if he's not telling you regularly that you're gorgeous and amazing, then you need to find someone who will."

"He does," said Erica defensively.

"How often?"

"Often enough," Erica said in a tone that implied she didn't want to discuss it anymore. "I'll go change back, and we'll make our purchases."

* * * *

Erica and I were quiet for most of the drive back to my parents. I felt bad. I felt like I had crossed several lines that I shouldn't have crossed. I shouldn't have talked my sister into buying lingerie. I shouldn't have bought her a sexy, expensive dress. I should have stuck with my original plan of buying her a nice sweater or blouse.

I pulled into an empty parking lot, turned off the car, and told Erica, "I'm sorry. I crossed some lines that I shouldn't have today. I seemed to push for you to break up with Aaron. That's not for me to do. If you want to talk to me about Aaron, I'll listen. But I should keep my big mouth shut about how Aaron should treat you."

"It's okay," said Erica in an I'm-not-really-here tone. "Everything you did at the mall was okay." She straightened up. "You're so open and honest about your love life, it's made me really think about mine. When I'm with my girlfriends, they bitch about the stupid things their boyfriends have done. I've always felt smug around them because Aaron doesn't do anything stupid. But I've felt far from smug talking to you." Erica folded her arms. "I feel like I'm one of the women you counsel, who has everything but is miserable. I see that as the 'Yes, but' trap. They have all these great things in their lives, but instead of enjoying them, all they can think is 'Yes, but someone else has more'. I have a job I enjoy, I've got a promising career, I'm living with a wonderful guy who loves me and doesn't do stupid things, and I've spent this whole weekend thinking 'Yes, but'."

Erica unfolded her arms and pointed to the lingerie. "On this car drive, I realized I'm a chronic fixer. When I dated all the bad boys, I knew at the beginning that they were hard drinkers, fighters, and not trustworthy. But I thought I could change them. A little love and a lot of sex, and they'd straighten up and fly right. They never did. I finally gave up on trying to find a bad boy I could fix and started dating Aaron. And again, I find myself trying to fix him. 'Oh, if I just buy some sexy lingerie and a tight dress, that will put some fire in him.' That's what I kept thinking today. And it's not going to make any difference in how he acts. I'm not going to fix him."

"Aaron does sound like a nice guy."

"Yes, but.... Am I making myself miserable by wanting too much? Is the person who needs fixing me instead of Aaron?"

"Good question. Damn good question. All of us need fixing, but it's a matter of how much."

"In many ways, I feel like I'm back where I started this weekend. I'm still disappointed enough with Aaron to be on the fence about staying with him. But I have a much better idea of why I'm feeling that disappointment."

"And you have some nice lingerie and a nice dress that you didn't have at the start of the weekend."

Erica laughed. "True! There is that."

* * * *

When Erica and I got home, I brought the bag of items we bought into the house.

"What did you buy?" asked Mom.

"Boxes of Ziplocs and a couple rolls of paper towels," I said as I took the bag upstairs. The lingerie and the dress were in one bag. Erica and I had agreed that I'd slip her the lingerie the next morning after most people had left, and I'd wrap her present then.

When I came back down, Mom was working in the kitchen. I asked her, "What are you making?"

"Turkey vegetable soup." She had a recipe on the table, and she and my two aunts were cutting up vegetables. "We're using up the last of the turkey."

I was not thrilled about having turkey again. "How about I make grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids."

Aunt Rose snickered. "Aren't you a little old for grilled cheese sandwiches?"

"I may be getting older, but not necessarily more mature." That brought out more snickers.

Mom said in a disappointed tone, "Check with William, Alexa, and Erica. William will probably want one, but don't count on Erica or Alexa."

"Okay. Will do." I went into the living room. William was up for a grilled cheese, and Alexa and Erica gave me a 'you're crazy' look.

I checked out the fridge and then ran to the store to get the sliced cheese and a few other ingredients. When I got back, I pulled out a frying pan and started cooking up six slices of Canadian bacon.

"What are you doing?" asked Mom in a shocked tone.

"Cooking up Canadian bacon for the grilled cheese sandwich," I said matter-of-factly.

"You don't use Canadian bacon for grilled cheese sandwiches."

"I do."

When the Canadian bacon was done, I slid them onto a plate and opened a can of pineapple slices. I melted butter in the frying pan, tossed in the pineapple, sprinkled brown sugar over them, and then poured soy sauce on top.

People wandered into the kitchen to see what I was doing. "What's that?" asked Uncle Grant.

"Dinner for William and me. We're letting you and the rest of the family polish off the last of the turkey." I couldn't help chuckling evilly.

"That smells good," said Dad with a hint of envy.

When the pineapple was done, I slid them onto a plate. I built the sandwiches by putting a slice of sourdough buttered side down onto a plate, putting two slices of Havarti on the bread, the Canadian bacon on next, then two slices of gruyere, then one and a half pineapple slices, two more slices of Havarti, and then finally another slice of sourdough. I made a second sandwich like the first and then popped them back into the skillet.

Almost all the adults were watching me cook at this point. "That looks really good," said Uncle Steve.

"It's quite yummy and sticks to your ribs."

The soup was ready, and everyone but William and I lined up to have a bowl. Alexa and Erica watched me do the final bit of cooking with bowls in their hands.

"That looks delicious," said Alexa enviously.

"If you want, you can have half of my sandwich."

Alexa's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Sure." I turned toward Erica. "You want the other half?"

Erica eyed my grilled cheese longingly for a moment. "And then what will you eat?"

"I bought enough fixings to make two more." I smiled. "I hoped you and Alexa would change your minds."

"Okay," said Erica as she moved to put her bowl away.

I cooked up two more gourmet grilled cheeses. When I joined Erica, William, and Alexa at the Kids Table, William said, "This is really good."

"And a nice change from turkey," added Alexa. She gave me an adoring look.

I pointed to the extra sandwich. "Do you want another half?"

"No. The half I had with the side dishes your mom made filled me up."

I looked at Erica, and she was frowning. Jealous of Alexa fawning over me? "Do you want another half?"

"Oh, no. I'm fine with this."

William and I ended up splitting the leftover sandwich. While I ate, I gave the three of them the background briefing on the D&D campaign we'd be doing tonight.

After dinner, I played Hearts with the men for a while. At eight, I gathered up Erica, Alexa, and William for our session. We commandeered the dining room table. I set up my DM screen on the table and set the folder with my notes on a chair next to me. Erica sat on the opposite end from me, with William and Alexa to her right and left. They were close together, creating a space between them and me. They had their player sheets in front of them.

As I had already covered the campaign background with them, I immediately jumped into role-playing. I adopted a scared man's old voice and said, "Who are you? Why are you talking to me?"

Alexa and William looked at each other and chuckled over me changing my voice.

Erica said in a bold voice, "We are three adventurers who have heard that your village is in trouble, suffering from constant goblin raids. We have come to end those raids and to earn what we can in the process."

I had the group do a lot of talking to non-player characters at the beginning to establish the setting of the adventure. In between talks, they had some small battles to introduce them to D&D combat. I didn't have any miniatures to use to show where the players and their opponents were on the battlefield, so I used colored paper clips from the office. As the campaign progressed, Alexa and William got more and more into it. Erica did a great job as party leader, prompting Alexa and William for suggestions, proposing a plan based on their suggestions, getting their agreement to the plan, and then guiding them in the action.

Eventually, the party discovered the secret entrance to the final dungeon. They fought their way through the cobweb-covered passages until they finally reached the goblin's hideout. In the final battle, Erica backstabbed the villager who had been giving the goblins information to plan their raids. Shortly thereafter, William rolled a twenty and critically hit the goblin chieftain, killing him. Alexa took down the last goblin with her magic mace. The three of them high-fived each other while whooping and hollering.

"That was fun!" said Alexa in a slightly surprised tone.

"It was," said William. "A lot more fun than I was expecting."

"I had a great time," said Erica. "It's been a while since I've played D&D with you, and I had forgotten how good you are at making it fun for the players."

William looked at me. "Do you think we can play again?"

"No. It's already past midnight, I don't have anything prepared, and all of you are leaving in the morning."

"Oh," said William. He and Alexa looked disappointed.

"You know," said Alexa. "I wasn't looking forward to this weekend. You two would be showing off your future fiancées while I'm not dating anyone, and you'd be ignoring me. And it started that way." She gestured in my direction. "But then we talked about decorating your apartment, and it's been a lot of fun since."

"It has been a lot of fun," I said, feeling warm inside.

"I felt the same," said William. "I wish now that I hadn't talked so much about Alabama football and had instead talked about something that was interesting to everyone."

"But we did talk about dogs," said Erica reassuringly. "And we all had a great time with you tonight."

There was a sad silence for a while. "Maybe at Christmas?" I offered. "I don't have any Christmas plans. Mom and Dad haven't discussed anything with me. Maybe we could spend Christmas at your parents?"

William and Alexa's faces light up. "That would be great!"

I looked at Erica. "What do you think?"

"I'd love to go. Let me talk to Aaron about it."

* * * *

The next morning, Erica and I went jogging again. After we had jogged a while, Erica said, "I've been thinking..."

"Uh oh. I'm in big trouble now."

Erica punched my shoulder lightly. "I've been thinking that, as much as I love that dress, it's not an appropriate gift for a brother to give."

"Okay." Did she want me to take it back?

"I'll keep it, but I'll gift wrap a sweater that I never wear and put that under the tree for Christmas from you. Only you and I will know you gave me that dress."

"That'd be fine, as long as you wear the dress for me sometime."

"Sure."

After the jog, I took a shower. When I was done, I felt like slumming around the house for the morning, so I pulled on my sweatpants instead of my jeans and headed down to breakfast.

Around ten, Aunt Rose, Uncle Steve, Alexa, and William left in their rental car. Shortly thereafter, Mom and Dad left with Aunt Nicole and Uncle Grant to take them to the airport. There hadn't been space in Aunt Rose and Uncle Steve's rental car for Aunt Nicole and Uncle Grant.

"I'm going to take a shower," said Erica. "Aaron will be here in an hour."

A few minutes after she closed the door to her old bedroom, I went upstairs to the office. Once I heard the shower water running, I stripped naked, fired up a porn video site, and quickly found a stepmom-stepson-stepdaughter threesome. The stepmom was a big-tittied blond, all obviously artificial. The daughter was a brunette with smallish tits and several big tattoos. She made me think of Erica's tattoo again. Where was it? What was it of? I continued stroking myself, but I wasn't in the mood to finish myself. Erica would be leaving soon, and I'd have enough time after she left and before Mom and Dad returned to beat off. I checked that the shower water was still running, got dressed, and went downstairs.

I was playing a game on my phone when I heard Erica come down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, I minimized the game and turned to talk to her. "Wow!" I said as I stood up.

Erica was wearing the dress that I had bought for her. And she was also wearing the stockings and high heels. She was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. I walked over to her. When I got close, she announced, "I've decided to break up with Aaron."

"You have?"

"Yes. I was leaning that way last night after the D&D session. I had a great time, and I want to do it again with Alexa and William. But I can't see Aaron playing D&D and enjoying it. And this morning in the shower, I decided to wear this and see how I felt about it. I loved putting it on and how I look in it, but I'm not excited about having Aaron see me in it. I don't think he'd react positively. I think he'd be more focused on the cost and feel it was too sexy to wear out in public."

"It is sexy all right," I said. I started to walk around Erica but stopped because she made a slow circle in front of me. "Spectacular. You look spectacular in that outfit. Are you wearing the rest of the lingerie you bought yesterday?"

"Yes." Erica's cheeks flushed, and she looked down.

"Show me some of the bustier."

"What? No. That'd be too much."

I moved close to Erica. "No, it wouldn't be. I've seen what it looks like in the package. I want to see what it looks like on you."

"I shouldn't," Erica said coyly.

"I've seen you in bikinis. Your bustier wouldn't show nearly that much."

I felt like Erica and I were playing a game. If all she wanted to do was to show me the dress while wearing the lingerie, she had already done that. But she was making no signs of leaving. It was like she wanted to show me the bustier but wanted me to ask in just the right way.

"Will you wear that on the drive back to your apartment?"

"No."

"So you'll show me some of the bustier and then change into boring clothes?"

"I'll change soon into boring clothes," said Erica without moving.

I moved closer to my sister. "But you'll let me have a peek of the bustier first?"

"You're such a bad boy," said Erica as she didn't move away from me.

"But you find bad boys exciting," I said as I lifted a strap on her dress to give myself a view of the bustier. "Nice. Very nice." I continued holding the strap away from her chest and admiring the shiny whiteness of the top of the bustier.

"What are you doing?" asked Erica in almost a growl.

"I'm looking for your tattoo."

Erica laughed low and sultry. "You won't find it there."

I looked down and noticed that Erica's nipples looked rock hard again. "Someone is excited."

Erica took a step back, ending my peek. "Maybe. So what?" She gave me a sly look.

I stepped back as well and folded my arms. "Your legs in those stockings look amazing." I smiled at Erica. "That's why you came downstairs in that outfit? To hear me tell you how great you look in it?"

A slightly embarrassed look came to Erica's face. "I promised to show you the dress."

"You did." I stepped closer to Erica. "But you chose to do it now when no one is in the house but us, while wearing the sexy lingerie I told you to buy, because the idea of showing it off to me excited you, didn't it?"

"No," said Erica as she turned partially in the dress. She turned some more, letting me see her delicious backside. She then slowly finished the rotation. "I did it strictly because I wanted to fulfill my promise." Her face lit up as she smiled, pleased at lying so boldly to me.

I felt that Erica wanted me to take another step. She had let me know that she was a single woman now and had greatly upped her flirting with me. I felt she wanted me to give her some excitement now that she had said 'so long' to boring Aaron.

"So, let me get this straight," I said as I stepped close to her. "You don't want me to do anything more to excite you?"

Erica batted her eyelashes at me and said coyly, "That's right. If you do anything more, it's not because of me."

Erica wanted me to be a bad boy. What would a bad boy say and do in this situation?

"So you don't want me to touch you?" I said as I reached out and put two fingers below her left nipple, which was proudly protruding.

"Matt," Erica said in a slightly shocked tone as she looked down at my hand while not moving. "I'm your sister."

I had been ready to apologize profusely if Erica reacted negatively, but she didn't. If anything, I felt like she was giving me the green light to do more. I began to move my fingers in a circle around Erica's nipple. I kept the pressure of my fingers very light. "I'm just seeing what the material of this dress feels like. It's technically still mine until Christmas."

Erica closed her eyes, tilted her head back slightly, and partially opened her mouth. Touching Erica like this was a crazy thing to do. I knew it was wrong to do, but at the same time, it was exciting as hell, and both Erica and I wanted some excitement in this small window of privacy before we went back to our respective sad apartments.

"Very nice material," I said soothingly. "Very pleasant to touch."

"You're making fun of me and the fact that I don't have big breasts."

I was about to reassure Erica about the size of her breasts, but I stopped myself. "I told you earlier that I liked the size of your breasts, but I'm not so sure now. I think more research is required. If you took off the dress and let me see you in only the lingerie I picked out for you, I could make a definitive judgment."

"I shouldn't, Matt," Erica said without a lot of conviction.

"Why not?"

"Aaron will be here soon."

With Erica saying no, should I stop? What the hell was I doing? What was my goal? We had moved beyond mere teasing. I was curious how far Erica would let me go, but at the same time, I didn't want to press my luck too far.

I dropped my hand from Erica's breast. A small pout came instantly to her face. I decided to keep going. I took a step to my left and said, "Time to check the material on the other side." I brought my fingers to her right breast and began circling her hard nipple there.

"You're so bad," said Erica. She didn't try to stop me or move away.

"I really like the feel of this material," I said as I varied how I made the circles. I'd go fast for a couple of rotations and then go slow. I stopped and reversed direction for a while before returning to make clockwise circles. The whole time, Erica closed her eyes, tilted her head back slightly, and partially opened her mouth. "Does someone like having their nipples played with?"

"You're not playing with my nipples."
Which was true. I tried again. "Does someone have sensitive breasts?"

"No." Erica looked at me and rolled her eyes. "They're little rocks attached to my chest. They don't feel anything." She went back to having her head tilted back.

I decided to try to convince Erica to take her dress off again. "Touching this material makes me wonder how the top of the bustier feels. It looked very pleasant to touch."

"You just want to make fun of how little the bustier has to boost."

"Show it to me and see what I have to say."

Erica frowned. "Aaron will be--"

"You have to take that dress off and change into something boring before Aaron gets here. Why not take it off in front of me? I'll tell you my honest opinion of how you look in only your lingerie. You know that it'll be a glowing one. And imagine how exciting that would be - wearing just lingerie in front of your brother in your parents' house."

That seemed to have hit a weak spot. Erica didn't rebuff me and instead opened her mouth a little more as if to take bigger pants.

"Here, let me help you," I said as I reached with my left hand for the zipper in the back of her dress. I grabbed the pull and waited for a moment to give Erica a chance to say no. When she didn't, I slowly pulled down the zipper. About halfway, I stopped rubbing on Erica's breast and stepped fully behind her. I finished unzipping the dress, slipped the straps off her shoulders, and began pulling it down. When the top of the dress dropped below Erica's panties, I saw that she was wearing a cotton black pair instead of the G-string she had bought yesterday. I didn't say anything as I continued sliding the dress down until it was on the floor. Erica stepped out of it, picked it up, and placed it over the back of the couch.

Erica turned to face me and began modeling her lingerie. I stood six feet away from her with my arms crossed. I did my best to look serious. Erica struck several poses while facing me, turned sixty degrees, struck another pose, and turned to face away from me while striking another pose. I would have loved to have seen her ass in the G-string, but no such luck; the cotton panties covered all of her ass. Erica continued turning to give me a side profile, struck a pose, and then turned to face me.

"You're gorgeous," I said as I moved closer to Erica. "You are just so gorgeous. You look amazing in that bustier, stockings, and high heels. I love how that bustier looks on you; the lace front and the shiny satin of the cups. The small amount of tummy it shows above your panties is really sexy. Being able to see the ribbon straps attached to the stockings is so hot. And your legs look so great in those stockings and high heels. Just...take-my-breath-away gorgeous."

Erica was a curious cross of beaming and being embarrassed.

I stepped close to Erica. "Oh, and I forgot to mention your breasts." I reached out with my two fingers and placed them a little below her hard left nipple. "The bustier shows off so well what you have. You have wonderful curves." I began slowly circling her nipple with my fingers. "I'm enjoying tracing these curves very much."

Erica again closed her eyes and tilted her head back, though she tilted it back even further this time.

"You're loving this, aren't you?" I asked. "You love hearing all these compliments from me. And modeling that lingerie really excited you. All here in your parents' house with your boyfriend Aaron not far away."

"I'm breaking up with Aaron."

"But you haven't yet. And here you are, proudly showing off your marvelous body to me in sexy-as-hell lingerie and letting me touch you inappropriately. You're such a bad girl. And you love being a bad girl."

"You're the one who's being bad. You took the dress off me. You're the one who's touching me inappropriately."

I smiled. It was all my fault. "Why didn't you wear the G-string panties you bought yesterday?"

"It...it would have been too revealing."

"Would I have seen your tattoo?"

"Yes."

I dropped my hand and stepped back from Erica. "Don't break up with Aaron. At least, not today. Spend the next few weeks preparing to break up with him. Make lists of all your joint accounts. Look for a place to move to. Plan what you will take and how you will take it. Then just before Christmas, break up with him. And we'll resume these fun and games at Aunt Rose and Uncle Steve's house."

Erica seemed shocked. She stood still, a blank expression on her face.

"Now, go upstairs," I said, "Pack up, and put on something boring."

Erica sighed, slowly grabbed the dress, turned, and headed up the stairs. We had gone far enough. Erica had a line, and we both knew at some point, I would try to cross it, and she'd stop me and make fun of me. Better to stop at a point of my choosing.

I moved to stretch out on the couch but straightened my rock-hard cock first. I lay down on the couch and pulled out my phone, but I had no interest in doing something on it. All I could think about was Erica. I had touched enough girls' breasts to know Erica had responded very strongly to my touching hers. She, of course, had dodged my questions on whether her breasts were extra sensitive.

Damn, that had been hot. Insanely hot. My heart had been pounding in my chest. That whole time, I had no idea how it would go. How would Erica react to each advance? I had to have given Erica enough excitement to last her a few weeks, long enough for her to ditch Aaron in an organized manner. She seemed to be signaling for me to do more, but what if I had read her wrong? Just touching her tits seemed monumental. With Hailey, touching her tits had been a minor thing as I had been certain she was spending the night.

I looked at my hands. They still tingled with the feel of Erica's tits.

How far would Erica have let me go? That was the question that filled my mind. I didn't think much further. Yes, we had done some petting, but I hadn't seen her bare breasts or cupped her tits. Would she let me do that? Would she let me squeeze her ass? I didn't think she'd let me take another piece of clothing off her.

How far did I want to go? Was I a sicko for touching my sister like that? Would I think constantly of touching her tits the next time I saw her? Would I think constantly of touching her tits, period? There wasn't anyone's tits I'd likely touch in the foreseeable future.

What would we do at Christmas? Had I been serious about continuing the fun and games there? I...wasn't sure. It'd be tough to get any privacy. But we might. I shook my head. There was no point thinking about it. We hadn't discussed going with Mom and Dad. Aunt Rose and Uncle Steve hadn't agreed to have us. Arranging it would be tricky with Erica planning on dumping Aaron just before Christmas.

I smiled. I was thankful for what little touching of Erica's tits I had done. And I was thankful for seeing her in the dress I bought her. And in the lingerie I talked her into buying. Regardless of what happened in the future, this was my most memorable Thanksgiving.

I heard Erica start down the stairs. I pulled my phone in front of my face and acted like I was deeply involved with some game. I didn't want Erica to know I had been thinking about her the whole time she was gone. I kept my head down until I heard Erica discretely cough. I looked up, and, to my surprise, Erica was still dressed in only her lingerie.

"Aaron's about fifteen minutes away." Erica held up a red flannel shirt. "Here's the shirt I'll wear on the ride home." She tossed it over the back of the couch. "And here's the pants." She held up a pair of jeans and then tossed them over the back of the couch as well. "The shoes I'll wear are right here." She was still wearing her high heels.

I got off the couch and walked around it to Erica. She was standing at the foot of the stairs, just like she had earlier when she came down in the dress. I could see beyond her that her suitcase and day pack were by the door. "You're not changing out of that?" I asked as I pointed to her lingerie.

"Not yet. When we stop at a gas station for a bathroom break, I'll change then. I've got a boring bra and some socks in my day pack." Erica's face lit up. "Now, didn't you have more to say to me?"

I took Erica's hands. "You are so gorgeous," I said as I admired her again in her lingerie. I could feel electrical energy flowing through our hands. I pulled on her left hand slightly, getting her to twist a bit in front of me. I then pulled on her right hand to get her to twist the other side of her body toward me. "You look so amazing in that bustier. That white goes so well with your skin, giving some extra color. And it marvelously boosts your bust." I pulled harder on her left hand, and Erica spun in place until her back was toward me. "You have such great legs, and they look amazing in those stockings and heels. And the heels make your ass look so perky."

Before she went upstairs, Erica had her panties under the ribbon straps, so they tightly hugged her delicious ass. Now, the ribbon straps were under her panties, and they kept her panties from hugging her ass. But this way, Erica would be able to later strip off her panties quickly once she got some privacy. I decided to not say more about Erica's ass. "I like the little peekaboo of skin above your panties. And the bustier looks so good in the back. Not as great as in the front, but the white satin looks great on you. I like that the bustier has no shoulder straps, so I can see all of your strong shoulders. And I love your hair; the way it tumbles down past your shoulders."

Another tug and Erica spun around to face me again with a big smile on her face. I gave her another look over, smiled, and tugged her hand again. This time when she spun so her back was to me, I stepped forward and brought my hands upward. Her hands were still in mine until I brought my fingers to a little below her nipples. Her hands were on top of mine. I waited, giving her a chance to stop me, but she didn't. I made circles around her nipples with two fingers on each side lightly pressing against the satin of the bustier. I heard Erica sigh contentedly, and she tilted her head back until it was resting on my shoulder.

"You love having your breasts touched, don't you?" Erica said nothing. "Your breasts are sensitive, and the excitement of your brother touching them in our parents' house with Aaron on his way here has them feeling extra sensitive." Again, Erica said nothing. If anything, she leaned harder back into me. "Does Aaron touch you like this often?"

"Never. He's never touched me like this. When he's touched my breasts, he's always groped."

"How about cupping gently?" I shifted my hands to cup Erica's breasts through the bustier. I squeezed them gently while slowly pinching her nipples between my fingers.

Erica hissed. "Not from the back."

"Then he's never done this." I pushed Erica's hair aside with my nose and nibbled on her neck. I kept up playing with her tits, sometimes rubbing my fingers in circles around her nipples, sometimes gently squeezing her breasts. I listened to Erica's breath change as I did; she was now taking deep, ragged breaths. This felt so amazing. Electrical. I had nibbled on Hailey's neck from behind after dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it had never felt as awesome as this felt.

I stopped nibbling and stood straight up again. I resumed just circling her nipples with my fingers. Erica put her head back onto my shoulder. "Well, it's a good thing you're dumping him. You need to find a guy who's worthy of you." A few moments later, I added, "I love you, Erica. I've had a great time with you this weekend. You're fun to talk to and to be with. I've loved teasing you and being teased by you. It was great playing D&D with you. You've made what could have been a very sad long weekend very happy for me."

Why had I said that? I didn't really know why I told Erica that I loved her and everything after that. It suddenly flowed out. Did I want her to think I wasn't just using her for my jollies?

I waited for Erica to respond, but she didn't. If anything, she leaned back on me even more.

"How excited does having your breasts played with get you?" I felt that I needed to get back onto the teasing track after that burst of mushiness. "Has any of your bad boy boyfriends played with your breasts until you begged them to fuck you?"

Erica snorted. "I've never begged a guy to fuck me. Get your head out of fantasy land."

"Okay. Did any of your bad boy boyfriends play with your breasts until you were so wet that you were ready to fuck without any other foreplay?"

"That's a really personal question."

I laughed. I took that as a 'Yes'. "I wonder if I can make you orgasm by just touching your breasts." I was cupping Erica's breasts, and I gave them a stronger squeeze than what I had been giving them. "Wouldn't that be so naughty? Your brother making you come in our parents' house with your boyfriend only minutes away?" I laughed evilly. "I'm such a bad boy that I'll give it a try. Poor girl, I'll make you suffer so."

Could I make Erica come just by touching her breasts? I had no clue. I guessed she wanted me to touch her and make her feel good until Aaron was almost here, and then she'd put on her boring clothes, get in the car with Aaron, and drive back to their apartment. She'd start planning on dumping him, put off having sex with him whenever he asked, and then make her break for freedom just before Christmas.

I was loving this. I was loving touching Erica. I was loving seeing Erica in her sexy lingerie. I was loving giving Erica pleasure. Giving Hailey pleasure had been satisfying, but not as deeply satisfying as this was. I realized that I didn't want this to be a one-time thing. I wanted to feel this level of satisfaction again and again. The chances of Christmas happening and us being able to get some serious privacy were very low, so I couldn't really see us doing this again.

Then I had an idea. "You should come visit me." A wolfish grin came to my face once I said that. "Yeah, come visit me. I'll have a set of sexy lingerie waiting for you when you arrive. Then you can model them for me."

Erica let out a little gasp like that suggestion had pushed her to a new level of excitement.

"Wouldn't that be so naughty? Regularly visiting your big brother, getting a set of sexy lingerie each time, and spending the weekend modeling lingerie and listening to him tell you how beautiful and sexy you are?" Once I said that, I realized how much I wanted that. I wanted to play games like this with my sister regularly. I wanted to spend lots of time hanging out with her. I wanted many more weekends like this one.

"I can't." A pause. "I can't justify visiting my brother right after I spent the weekend with him. Aaron wouldn't agree with me going. My friends would think it weird."

That struck a huge blow to me. I now badly wanted to spend another weekend with Erica. Soon. Much sooner than Christmas.

"How about this?" I said. "You find a job close to me. Then you could come over all the time for a fun time like this."

"Oh, I couldn't do that."

"Sure you could."

"But my friends..."

"Are any of your friends single? If they are all in a relationship, they won't be much fun to hang out with once you break up with Aaron." Erica was quiet. I reduced my touching her to slow, soft circles around her nipples. "Are any of your friends single?"

"None of the ones I do things with."

I nodded. There was a dramatic difference between being single and being in a relationship. Single people usually do things with other single people. People in a relationship usually do things with other people in relationships. I waited for Erica to say something more, but she didn't.

Should I stop? I had just dropped a bomb on Erica. Doing so had taken me out of the mood for naughty petting. I'd rather talk about her finding a job close to me. I had no idea where I was going with that suggestion, but the idea of her living close to me strongly appealed to me. I stopped moving my hands.

Erica immediately grabbed my hands and moved them in a circle on her breasts. "I can think while you do other things," she said angrily.

While you do other things. I almost laughed. My sister wanted me to touch her, but she wasn't going to say that she wanted me to touch her.

"Your big brother is so bad," I said into Erica's ear while giving her breasts a good squeeze. "Making you buy this lingerie and then wear it for him." I was back to making circles around her nipples. "Squeezing and playing with your breasts." Erica was resting her head on my shoulder again. "Doing his best to keep you from being able to think." I squeezed her hard nipples between my fingers. "You know what else your bad big brother is going to do?" I felt Erica shudder in front of me. I guessed the idea of doing even more had made her shiver in excitement. "I'm going to pull those panties down. They don't go with the lingerie I had you buy. You should have worn the G-string, but as you didn't, you're going to be wearing nothing at all." Again, Erica shuddered.

I continued circling Erica's nipple with my left hand while I slipped my right hand down to her panties. I found the elastic top and slipped a finger inside. I was giving Erica plenty of time to say no, but she didn't say anything. I pulled her panties down a bit. Still no response. I dropped my left hand down and slipped it inside her panties on the other side. I then knelt, slowly sliding her panties down. After a few moments, her ass appeared before me.

"Nice," I said.

Erica said and did nothing. I continued slowly sliding the panties down as I admired her ass.

"No tattoo here," I said as Erica's panties reached her knees. I kept sliding them down until they were at Erica's feet. When she stepped out of them, I grabbed them and tossed them close to her other clothing. I then stood up. As I did, Erica swung her arms back so I could take her hands in mine. I held them as Erica shimmied slowly in front of me like she was dancing to a song.

"Perfect," I said. "A perfect backside."

I pulled on Erica's hand, and she slowly turned in front of me. Once she was facing me again, I dropped to my knees again. Erica's crotch was slightly whiter than the surrounding area - probably hadn't tanned much in a bikini this summer. To the left of her pussy, about a half-inch below the faint white of her bikini line was a red dragon tattoo, about three-quarters of an inch high. "Nice. Suits you." I looked at her pussy. Her crotch hair had probably been trimmed to a nice landing strip during bikini season, but now had grown out some. I stood up and took Erica's hands in mine again. I admired her body, starting at her white high-heels, moving up her white stockings, and then to her crotch, which was nicely framed by the stockings and the bustier. I continued upwards, examining the lace front of her bustier, the satin cups surrounding her tits, the top of her tits, and finally Erica's face.

"Perfect."

Erica smiled at me. Her smile had uncertainty in it like she wasn't sure if she should believe me that she had a beautiful body, but not a lot of uncertainty. She then stood up a lot taller, proudly displaying her body to me.

I tugged on Erica's hand and spun her, so her back was to me when she got close to me. She then pressed her ass against my crotch and deftly moved my hard cock into the crack of her ass.

"You're the perfect woman to me," I said as I brought my hand to Erica's tits. "When I told you what I was looking for in a woman, I described you to a tee. Good-looking, fun, smart, has their shit together, makes more money than me, and likes being physically active." I began circling Erica's nipples with my fingers again. "And now, I'm going to make you come. I'm going to make you come like you've never come before - just from having your breasts touched." I squeezed Erica's tits. She rested her head on my shoulder while continuing to press her ass against my cock. "Your very sensitive breasts."
It was suddenly like both of us were taking quite seriously the goal of making Erica come. She seemed to surrender herself completely to enjoying the pleasure my hands were giving her. I didn't know if I'd ever have a chance to do something like this again, so I wanted this time to be the very best it could be. I focused on the sound of her breath as I touched her breasts while constantly varying how I touched her. When I squeezed her breasts or squeezed her nipples between my fingers, I also pressed my cock hard into her ass. Erica was panting harder now but still seemed not close to coming.

I had an idea. I suddenly moved my hands up and then slid them inside the bustier, touching Erica's breasts directly. Her skin felt soft and smooth to my fingers. I cupped and squeezed them the best I could. Erica responded by leaning forward while grinding her ass into my crotch. I pulled back my right hand, licked my fingers, and stuck it back inside the bustier. I then circled her nipple, adding the sensation of moisture and drying to my circles. I pulled out my left hand and did the same with it.

After a couple of minutes with my hands inside her bustier, I pulled my hands out and returned them to the outside of the bustier's satin cups. I felt like I had Erica close now, on the verge of coming. I moved my hands faster and pressed a little harder. I just needed to come up with something else to get her over the finish line.

"You know what I'm going to do after you come?" I had hit upon the idea of talking dirty to Erica. "I'm going to bend you over the couch and fuck you." I pressed my cock harder into Erica. "I'm going to fuck you hard from behind. I'm going to make you scream."

"We can't," said Erica. "Aaron is almost here."

Was she taking my idea of fucking her seriously? I had meant it only as dirty talk.

"As soon as you come, you're going to call Aaron and tell him to get you some coffee at Starbucks. Once you end that call, I'm going to fuck you senseless. Your bad-boy brother is going to take you right here in your parents' house with your boyfriend only minutes away. And you're going to love it. You're going to love me fucking you senseless. You're going to cry out in pleasure and joy. You desperately need a good, hard fucking from someone who excites you, don't you?" I squeezed Erica's breasts hard. "Don't you?"

Erica's breath became ragged as she began to shudder. Her body jerked randomly. I supported her by pressing her hard against me. Erica was coming.

"Oh!...Oh!...Oh!" Erica said in a tight, high-pitched voice.

I kissed Erica's neck gently as I continued to hold her. She shuddered for a little while longer, and then her body sagged. I caught her and pressed her against me.

"I love you, Erica," I said before I kissed her neck again.

Erica suddenly stood up straight and moved quickly to her purse. She pulled out her phone and made a call. "Aaron? Could you do me a big favor? Mom's coffee is okay, but I'm really missing a Starbucks. Could you pick me up one?" Erica moved toward the end of the couch. "You're almost here? I'm not quite packed yet." She bent over slightly. I moved behind her while pushing down my sweatpants and underwear. "Go get me my usual while I finish packing." Erica bent forward even more. I slid the head of my cock up and down between her pussy lips. She was very wet. "Great. Thanks." I pushed the head of my cock inside of her. "See you in a little bit."

As soon as Erica ended the call, I thrust forward, pushing my cock deep inside her. She gasped. I pulled back and thrust forward again until my cock was almost all the way inside of Erica.

"Yes!" Erica cried. She was bent over the arm of the couch with her back almost parallel to the ground. Her left arm was on the couch back to support her. As I pulled back, she dropped her phone and put her right hand on the couch cushion.

I thrust again, this time until my crotch was pressed firmly against Erica. Another cry of pleasure.

"You're mine now, Erica." I pulled back and then plunged my cock back inside of her.

"Yes!" again from Erica. Was that a response to my fucking her or what I had told her?

"You're going to break up with Aaron as soon as you get into his car." I began to fuck Erica in a long, slow rhythm. She cried "Yes" every time I slammed into her.

"And then you'll look for a job close to where I live. This weekend, you're going to come visit me. I'll have a set of lingerie waiting for you. You'll tell people it'll be to look for an apartment, but you're going to spend the weekend modeling lingerie and fucking me."

Erica arched her back. "Oh, God."

I loved the feeling of fucking Erica. The wet, tightness of her pussy felt perfect to me. But there was also the high of my awesome sister surrendering herself to me. This felt so satisfying, so right.

"And once you get a job, we'll get a two-bedroom apartment together. We'll tell everyone it's just temporary. Until we can each find roommates."

Erica was slamming her ass back on each of my strokes, wanting me to fuck her as much as I did.

"But it's not going to be temporary. You're going to be living with me for the rest of your life."

Erica was gasping loudly now while arching her back on each stroke. I loved it. She was an amazing fuck. I started fucking her faster, slamming her hard with each thrust.

"I love you, Erica. And you're my woman from now on."

I could feel it - I was close to coming. I was close to marking my sister as my own.

"Yes!" cried Erica. "Yes!" on every stroke. She was getting louder as I continued to fuck her.

I shifted my hands to a little lower on her waist so I could fuck her with a little more power. Another thrust. And another thrust. And then...

"I'm coming." I slammed into Erica one last time and began filling her with my seed. Erica dropped her head down so that it touched the couch cushions. More and more of my seed spurted into her. I held my position, enjoying the marvelous feelings surging through my body.

Both of us held that position for several moments, savoring the pleasure of our fuck. Then Erica said, "Give me your shirt."

I pulled my shirt off me, tossed it next to Erica's hand, and pulled out of her. She pressed the shirt immediately to her crotch. She then stood up straight and moved efficiently to her purse, from which she pulled a pad out and applied it to her panties. She pulled her panties up and tossed me my shirt. She quickly dressed, looking at the next thing to be done instead of me.

What did Erica think? Had I been way over the line by telling her she was mine and that we would be living together? I had no idea.

As she was tucking her shirt into her pants, her phone made a sound. She glanced at it. "Aaron is here." She finished getting dressed and moved to the door. I followed along like a zombie with no idea of what was going on. I felt like I had put my heart on my sleeve, Erica had asked for my shirt and then tossed it and my heart back to me.

At the door, Erica said, "Black." She suddenly kissed me. It was a very hard, intense kiss. "I want black lingerie Friday. And that evening, we'll go to a tattoo parlor. I'll pay for you to get a tattoo that matches mine." Erica kissed me again, this time more gently.

We heard Aaron honk his horn. "Love you," Erica said before grabbing her stuff and slipping out the door.

Author's Notes:
* A huge thanks to those who contributed to this story: AzureAsh, djrip, Jalibar62, LittleLilyCanWrite, Obliviscoris, OhDave1, Oldfart_WTMT, Old Uncle Al, RF-Fast, Tennessee Ted, TM, and Versatek
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* If you liked the story, you should read my extended Author's Notes here
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* I did not knowingly use any other Literotica author's words in this story. Matt's description of client-centered therapy came from the SimplyPsychology.org website
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