“What are you ladies talking about?”
They both shrieked and jumped in their seats. They hadn’t heard Luke sneak up behind them.
He looked adorable with his dark hair wet and his brown eyes twinkling, but Elise tried to look mad that he had scared them when she really wanted to kiss him.
Before either of them had to come up with some lame topic to disguise their real conversation, Elise’s front door burst open, and Sean came rushing in. He was wearing a suit, minus his jacket, with his tie askew, and he had sweat spots on his armpits. He stopped when he saw the three of them, and then he bent over at the waist to catch his breath.
“You okay, man?” Luke asked.
Sean stood, breathing hard. “No. Someone told me she was going to wait to confront Elise but then snuck off when I was in the shower and busy getting dressed. Then, when I realized she was gone, I found out my keys and my spare were missing, too.”
“Holy shit, did you run all the way here?” Luke asked.
“No, I had to ride my bike,” he said accusingly at his fiancée.
Elise stifled a laugh.
“Be right back,” Luke said.
“Rach, did you really leave and take Sean’s keys?” Elise asked.
Rachel stuck her chin up. “Yes, I did. I didn’t want him to stop me from coming over here.”
Sean shook his head. “You’re going to get it later.”
“Ooh,” Elise said to her friend. “You’re in trouble.”
Luke returned with a bottle of water for Sean.
Sean drank half of it in one gulp and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “So, what did I miss? You all looked pretty serious when I walked in.” He lifted the bottle to take another drink.
“Oh, I just caught the ladies—and I use that term loosely—talking about our dicks.”
Sean started coughing on his water, practically spitting it across the room. “Holy shit.”
“Luke,” Elise said.
But he continued on, “Yeah, what you saw was guilt on their faces because I’d busted them.”
“That’s not true,” Rachel lied.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elise protested.
Sean shook his head in mock disappointment. “You two are dirty, dirty girls.”
“Yeah, you’re a bunch of perverts,” Luke said, grinning.
Elise and Rachel turned back around, facing away from the guys, and smiled at each other.
“Then, I guess you’re never going to find out whose is bigger,” Elise said.
“That’s easy,” Luke started.
“Mine is,” both guys said at the same time.
Rachel rolled her eyes, and Elise laughed.
Over the next couple of days, Luke and Rachel took turns in going to the Mayo Clinic with Elise. She had a great friend and boyfriend. Now that everyone knew about her and Luke, she had no problems saying boyfriend, and what was even better was that Luke had no problems calling her his girlfriend. If someone had told Elise when she moved back to Minnesota that she’d be dating Luke Long, she would have laughed in their face, but here she was.
Elise’s dad was making a slow recovery, but he finally got well enough to go home, and so far, he was doing pretty well. Thankfully, Elise had already taken time off work to move, and she had explained about her father before she’d taken the job, so they understood that she might need time off at the last minute. She could never thank her former boss enough for the recommendation.
Today, Elise was meeting her sister for lunch, per Kristen’s request to talk. They were going to have dinner tonight with their parents and Kristen’s husband, and Elise had a feeling that something important was going to happen.
While waiting for Kristen and an available table, Elise stood in the entryway of their favorite restaurant when her phone began belting out “Kung Fu Fighting.” Everyone turned their heads to look at her, and she laughed nervously while she cursed Luke out. He’d changed her ringtone for him, which had made her laugh. But he was forever turning her volume up to the max because he’d found the loudest recording, so when she was out in public, everyone would hear her phone and look at her.
Elise got the hostess’s attention and pointed to the front door, so she would know that Elise hadn’t left.
After she stepped outside, she answered her phone and greeted Luke with an, “I’m going to beat you.”
Luke laughed in her ear, and she tried to not smile at the musical sound.
“What’s wrong, Lise?”
“I told you I was going out to lunch with my sister, and I know you turned my ringer up and waited to call me when you knew I’d be at the restaurant. Sometimes, Lucas, I question your real age.”
“Babe, if you haven’t realized that there is a ten-year-old little boy in every man, lying dormant until the time is right, then you’re in for a big disappointment.”
Elise sighed. “Yeah, I know.” At least, that had been her experience with men. “What did you need?”
“Nothing.”
Nothing? “Then, why did you call?”
“I thought we just went over this.”
Elise rolled her eyes. “I really am going to beat you.”
“Sounds kinky.”
Elise smiled. “What am I going to do with you, Luke?”
“So, you’re not going to beat me? Damn.”
“You know I’m not going to hurt you, no matter how mad you make me.”
“You could tie me up and ride my cock until you came.”
Elise’s vagina clenched deep inside at the thought, and she struggled to keep her voice straight. “That doesn’t sound like much of a punishment.”
He lowered his voice. “It is if you don’t let me come, and you get yourself off over and over again.” He groaned in her ear. “Trust me, watching you use my cock as your own personal sex toy would be the ultimate punishment.”
Elise stepped farther way from the entrance even though she was the only one outside. “Stop talking like that. I’m getting turned on.”
“Then, you’d better get your ass over here later.”
Elise saw her sister walking toward the building. “Deal. I’ll try to come after dinner tonight. Gotta go though. Kristen’s here.”
“Okay. Later, babe.”
Elise hung up the phone and waved at her sister. She could see lines of stress around Kristen’s eyes.
Elise hugged Kristen, hoping she would realize that she could trust her sister with whatever was bothering her. They entered the restaurant, and thankfully, they only had to wait a couple of minutes for a table.
After they were seated and the server brought their drinks and taken their orders, Elise was over the small talk. The longer Kristen waited to say something, the more worried Elise became. While she figured this had to do with her sister’s marriage, Elise couldn’t help but think of other bad things. The worst possible scenario would be that Kristen or Jennifer was sick, and if that were the case, Elise didn’t know what she’d do.
Right before Elise was ready to tell her sister to spit it out, Kristen said, “I asked you to lunch because I really need your support tonight at dinner.”
Elise didn’t know what for, but she didn’t have to. “You have it. One hundred percent.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say yet.”
“I don’t have to. You’re my sister. I love you. I’m here for you.”
“Still.”
“I can guess. Things aren’t working out with James.”
She nodded. “He filed for divorce.”
Elise leaned forward and took her sister’s hand. “I am so sorry.”
“Me, too.”
“Why did you think I wouldn’t support you? We’d already talked about this a while ago, so it’s not like you’re taking me by surprise. And I know Mom and Dad will be disappointed, but they will get over it. Eventually.”
Kristen withdrew her hand from Elise’s. “There’s more.”<
br />
More? How could there be more? “Are you pregnant? Because having a baby out of wedlock might give Mom a heart attack. But just a mild one. She’d recover.”
Kristen chuckled at Elise’s joke but only for a few seconds. “No, James says he doesn’t want to live a lie anymore. And, if I don’t tell Mom and Dad the truth, then he will. To be honest, I don’t want to lie anymore either.”
Elise ruminated on the words. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Elise thought about it some more.
“He doesn’t want to live a lie.”
“Wait, does this mean that…” Elise sat back in her seat. “Does this mean, James is gay?”
Kristen swallowed. “Yes.”
“That makes so much sense.”
“What?”
“You know, I have never seen James check out a woman. And he was blushing around Luke and Nate when you guys helped me move. I’m not that surprised really.”
“Huh?”
“I’m so sorry, Kristen. It must be awful to be married to someone you love who doesn’t love you the same way.”
Kristen just stared at Elise.
“What’s wrong? Why are you staring at me?” Do I have something on my face?
“You don’t think James is a bad person?”
Elise tilted her head to the side. “In what way? The fact that he’s gay? No, not at all. The fact that he married a woman when he’s into dudes? Then, yes, he should have never led you on.”
Kristen looked down at her hands and muttered, “He never led me on.”
“What?”
Her sister looked up at her. “I said, he never led me on.”
Elise was confused. “I don’t understand. Then, why did you get involved with him? Why would you put yourself through that?”
“One, he was my best friend. Nobody got me like he did. We were each other’s cover,” her sister said.
And the light bulb went off in Elise’s head. Suddenly, all these little details began to fill her mind. James was the only guy she’d dated, her super-close relationship with Ashley, and why she didn’t look at guys, like James didn’t look at girls.
“Oh, Kristen, you’re gay, too.”
Kristen nodded as tears began to roll down her face. Elise grabbed her sister’s hands this time.
“You’ve been living with this inside you all this time? You must have felt so alone. Sweetie, I am so sorry.”
Elise could not even imagine what it was like for her sister to live with hiding a big piece of who she was like that. Especially with their parents and their old-fashioned ways.
“So, this is why you want my support?”
Kristen looked so sad. “Yes.”
“You still have it. I would never leave you to face Mom and Dad alone in this. That’s what big sisters do. They protect their little sisters.”
Kristen let go of Elise’s hands and wiped her tears. “Thank you.”
“Of course. But can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“How do I have a niece?”
Kristen laughed through her tears. “James was my best friend. We both knew what the other one felt like because we were the only homosexual kids at church, and we thought, if we tried to have straight sex, maybe we would like it, and all our problems would be solved.”
“Oh, Kristen.”
“Yeah, needless to say, our little experiment failed miserably. We both hated it, and we couldn’t look each other in the eye for, like, a week. When I missed my period, it was the icing on the cake. Honestly, back then, I was kind of relieved. I knew our parents and James’s parents would force us to get married. And, since I’d be married to my best friend, I figured everything would be great. I knew his secret, and he knew mine. And we got a beautiful daughter out of it. But the older Jennifer gets, the harder it is to hide stuff from her. She knows we don’t have a normal marriage.”
“Uh, yeah, I think she said something about how you’ve never shared a bedroom and how, lately, you’ve been going to Aunt Ashley’s and James has been going to Uncle Adam’s quite a bit.”
“See! We’re horrible parents.”
“No, Kristen, you are not horrible parents. Yes, lying is wrong, but if you both come out now, you will show Jennifer that it’s okay to be who she is. That everyone is different, and people love who they love.”
“Man, you’re insightful.”
“Eh, maybe I should have been a psychologist,” Elise joked.
The server brought their food, and they thanked him, letting their conversation pause momentarily.
After they dug into their food, Elise asked, “So, Ashley?”
Kristen blushed. “She’s my girlfriend.” She raised her eyebrows. “Wow, I never thought I’d be able to say that to you.”
“Doesn’t it feel good to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“And Adam is James’s boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“So, why does James want a divorce now?”
“Adam wants to get married, and he’s tired of waiting. I honestly don’t blame him.”
“Why now? Same-sex marriage has been legal in Minnesota for almost four years.”
Kristen shrugged. “I think because it’s legal in the whole US now. Plus, I think Adam is sick of being the other woman, so to speak.”
Elise could understand that. It would be tough to not be able to be with the person you loved because they were stuck in a farce of a marriage.
“Kristen?”
“Yeah?” she said around a bite of food.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me all this before? Did you think I would judge you?”
Elise’s feelings were hurt because her sister hadn’t trusted her. The irony was not lost on her that she and Rachel had had almost the same conversation, and now, Elise was on the opposite side. But Elise had kept her secret for about two months. Kristen had kept her secret for years.
“I can’t really explain what it’s like to be me and grow up in our church and with Mom and Dad. And society isn’t as great as some people think it is. There is still a lot of judgment and prejudice. It’s scary to tell people. Plus, I didn’t want you to have to keep it from Mom and Dad. I didn’t want to put you in that position because I know how that feels.”
“You know I’m not a saint. There are plenty of things I do that Mom and Dad would definitely not approve of.”
“But are you a lesbian who got pregnant out of wedlock by a gay guy?”
Kristen had a point.
“Touché. You got me there. But I still wouldn’t have judged you, and I would have kept your secret.”
“I know.” Kristen smiled at her. “I appreciate it.” She sighed. “Now, I just have to get through telling Mom and Dad.”
“I’ll be right there with you.”
“I’m glad because I’m scared shitless.”
At dinner that night, Elise arrived at the restaurant after her parents. Kristen and James had chosen a restaurant where they would have some seclusion, but it was still a public place, so hopefully, it would keep the conversation civilized. James’s parents were watching Jennifer for the night, so she wouldn’t have to be involved.
Elise sat at the end of the table and noted her father looked well for having been on his deathbed recently, but he still didn’t look completely like his old self. Elise feared he never would, and she worried what the stress of tonight’s news would do to her father.
Her dad wasn’t quite as conservative as her mother because, while her mother had grown up in the church, her father had married into it. Her mother hadn’t grown up with a television in her home, and Elise probably wouldn’t have had one either if it weren’t for her father. But he wasn’t exactly liberal. He had married her mother and converted to her religion after all.
Kristen and James walked into the restaurant a few minutes later, holding hands. Now that Elise’s eyes were open, she could see that they were best friends supporting each other and n
ot lovers, like everyone assumed just because they were a man and a woman. Elise had been as guilty as everyone else, and she was ashamed for not knowing her sister better.
It appeared, now that Kristen and James weren’t fighting about getting divorced and had come to an agreement, their relationship was on the mend.
When the two of them arrived at the table, they sat across from her parents.
After their orders were put in, Elise could see how nervous Kristen was, so Elise grabbed her hand under the table and gave it a supportive squeeze.
Elise had reassured her sister prior to dinner that, no matter what the outcome, there were worse things in the world. Mom and Dad would recover from this. They loved their daughter, and they had gotten over Kristen getting pregnant before she was married. They would get over this, too.
At least, Elise hoped they would.
She knew her parents were conservative and close-minded, but they weren’t mean. She couldn’t see them disowning their own daughter or anything.
So far, her parents were making casual conversation while Kristen looked at James and then Elise. Elise nodded.
It was like a Band-Aid; Kristen just needed to rip it off.
“Mom, Dad?” Elise said.
Her parents stopped talking about whatever they’d been discussing and looked at her.
“Yes?” her mom said.
“Kristen needs to tell you guys something, and she really needs you to listen, okay?”
Their mom looked at Kristen. “Is everyone okay? No one else is sick, are they? Is Jennifer okay?”
“Mom, everyone is fine, health-wise.”
Their father looked relieved.
Their mother put her hand on her chest. “Thank the Lord.”
Elise mentally winced. Why did her mom have to bring up God right now?
When Kristen didn’t continue, their mom asked, “What is it, dear?”
Kristen looked at James again and then back at her parents. “James and I are getting divorced.”
Their parents looked more worried than mad. Okay, this was a good sign. Maybe they would take the rest of Kristen’s news better than Kristen had originally feared.
“Well,” their mother said, “we can fix this. We’ll help you go through counseling. We’ll have you talk to our pastor. This will all be fine.”
Dirty Page 19
