by Amanda Wals
"Go for it."
"Where have you been all this time? Where did you go?"
" At first I stayed at Jeff... er... Dr. Miller's art studio. Once I was able to, I tried to find you and couldn't figure out how to reach you. I used to sneak by our parent's house and watch for you, but you were never there. After a while, I just kind of fell apart. Everywhere I went reminded me of you. And it hurt to be around. I was so fucked up by it all. I just couldn't stay anymore. After about a month or so, I got offered a job as Theron's personal assistant in Greece. I took it as a chance to try to get myself together. I've been living on an island in Greece ever since."
"Holy shit. Greece? Really?" She looked at me wide eyed, forgetting she had a fork full of shredded potatoes in her hand.
"Yeah. Milos, Greece."
"Wow. That explains your tan. What's it like?"
"It's fucking beautiful. The water is an amazing shade of blue and crystal clear. There's these incredible rock formations along the beach and all kinds of natural caves. It's really something." I told her as I glanced down at my hands. Tan? I hadn't realized.
She smiled wistfully at my description. "It sounds amazing."
"You like Portland?"
"It's okay. Rains a lot. Humid."
"I didn't exactly plan on Greece." I explained. "Well, I guess I kind of did, only because it was somewhere besides Austin and it was the first opportunity to come up. I would have gone anywhere. I could have been offered to go to Nigeria and I would have gone. As long as no one knew me. Somewhere without memories."
Amy nodded and looked out the diner window at the cars driving by out on the street, taking in the sights of London. I watched her, still trying to wrap my head around the idea that she was here. It blew me away that she had come all this way just to find me. I would have done the same if I knew that she wanted me as badly as I wanted her. But Amy had done flown here blindly after not seeing me for three years. It suddenly occurred to me that she was a braver, stronger person than I. But I had always kind of thought so.
"When do you head back to Greece?" She asked.
"Our flight leaves Monday afternoon. Yours?" It was Friday. I hadn't thought about it until this moment. There was no way in hell I was going to lose track of her again.
"I'm supposed to fly back day after tomorrow, but I don't think I'm going. I don't really care if I ever go back to Portland. I don't want to be away from you again." She looked at me with a hopeful expression in her eyes, as if she needed to hear that I wanted her to stay.
"Fuck Portland. I need you with me, Amy." I replied taking her hand again for emphasis.
Amy's whole face lit up in a beaming smile and she looked like she was about to launch herself over the table at me. Instead, she darted around the table and wrapped me in a huge hug, squealing in delight like she was a little kid again. I couldn't help chuckling at her. For a moment, she was my adorable little sister. And the woman of my dreams. Even now, years later, my brain sometimes hiccuped over those strangely stitched together bits of data.
"Oh god, Adam. I'm so fucking excited!" She gasped, as she tried her best to crack a few of my ribs in her embrace. I was hugging her back, of course. But I wasn't trying to inflict bodily harm. I happened to glance over the top of her head and noticed our waitress standing next to a couple of other staff grinning at us. I didn't care. I never wanted to let her go.
"I love you so much, Adam." She cried, tears of happiness sliding down her cheeks.
I held her to me, stroking her hair softly. "I love you too, beautiful. I love you with all my heart."
Finally, her arms gave out on her, and she settled in on my side of the booth with me. I pulled her plate across from her side for her and passed over her coffee. She finished her meal half sitting in my lap. I didn't mind. Although, I did have to chuckle when a bit of shredded potato went rogue and slipped down the cleavage of her dress, sending her on a flustered trip to the bathroom.
We spent hours sitting in the booth catching up about what had happened over the past couple of years. Amy brought me up to date on family matters, in as much as I cared to know. Brad had finally proposed to Brenda and they were married. Amy had attended the wedding as a bridesmaid, and endured a number of questions about my absence. She told me about attending UCLA and we compared our experiences in Rome. Between the time change and the long, emotional evening, Amy's adrenaline and excitement about our reunion finally lost the battle to fatigue and she suddenly seemed about to fall asleep next to me in the booth.
I flagged down our new waitress, as there had been a shift change in the interim, and got our bill. I made sure to tip our new waitress well, and gave her a second tip, requesting that she pass it to our former waitress. I had long had a soft spot for what I considered to be an unjust pay system for wait staff.
Amy climbed out of the booth and took my hand as soon as I stood up. I couldn't help noticing that one of my ass cheeks had fallen asleep. I freed my hand from hers to stretch a second, only to have it snatched back the moment I lowered my arms. As we walked out of the diner, I noticed that it looked like the sun might be coming up and checked my watch.
"Holy shit. It's almost five." I commented.
"No wonder I'm exhausted," Amy yawned. "Where's your hotel?"
"Whoa now... I'm not sure that's proper." I attempted my best poker face.
"Oh? Um.. Okay, I can-" She began, looking a little crestfallen.
I pointed to the tall hotel, almost directly across the street from the gallery. "It's that one."
"Don't do that to me. I'm tired, damn it." She whined, with a hint of amusement in her voice.
We walked back to the hotel, the movement causing her to wake up a little along the way.
"You shouldn't have listened to mom." She said as the elevator doors closed in the hotel a few minutes later.
"I know. I'm sorry." We both knew she was talking about the letter.
"That's why you didn't keep trying to find me, right? After the first year, I mean."
I nodded, feeling guilty. I could have tried harder, and I knew it.
"It's okay. I get it. I saw the letter. It would have screwed me up, too." Her hand reached over to take mine. "But she's not us. And she doesn't know how strongly we feel about each other. She was wrong. Hell, she probably even realizes that by now. Not that the she isn't too stubborn to admit it. It doesn't matter anymore. You're here now."
The elevator doors opened a moment later and we walked down the hall to my room. I fought with the lock a moment, listening to her snicker softly as I did so. Mercifully, the damned lock finally disengaged and I let her in the room.
"Wow, that gallery must love you." She exclaimed as she looked around the room. While not lavish, it was a rather nice hotel room with a large living area in addition to the tiny kitchen and bathroom.
"This was Theron's doing. I never spoke to them." I replied.
She looked down at herself as if something had suddenly occurred to her.
"Do you have a shirt I can borrow? I can't sleep in this dress." She asked. I briefly considered suggesting she sleep nude, but found myself too shy to suggest it.
I walked to my luggage and pulled one of my shirts out for her. She took it from me and kissed me on the cheek.
"Thanks, baby." She smiled as she entered the bathroom and closed the door.
Feeling only the tiniest bit of disappointment at her lack of exhibitionism, I flopped on the sofa in the living area of the hotel suite. So she didn't want to get naked in front of me. Big deal, I told myself. She's back in my life, that's what matters. I didn't get much further in my thoughts than that before I was fast asleep.
I woke on the sofa, still in my dress shirt and slacks from the night before, with a hell of a sore neck from the angle I'd fallen asleep in. The sun, coming in through the windows was bright and I checked my phone to see what time it was. Holy crap, I thought to myself, when I realized it was already past noon. Suddenly, I remembered the night before an
d scanned the room. I spotted the lump bundled up on the bed and walked over to it.
Amy lay fast asleep, curled up in a fetal position under the blanket. Only her face, a bit of shoulder, and one hand could be seen under the wad of blankets she'd piled on herself. I guess it had been chilly when we came in the room, I couldn't remember. I noticed her dress carefully draped over a chair at the desk in the corner. Oh yeah, she'd borrowed a shirt. I leaned against the wall and folded my arms, just watching her sleep for a few minutes. Just being in the same room with her made me feel better than I had felt about the world in a long time. I marveled, not for the first time, at her angelic beauty and how peaceful she always looked when she slept. I thought about going to take a shower, but that might wake her up and I didn't want to do that. She looked too beautiful and peaceful to disturb.
"What?" she asked, snapping me back into focus. She stretched a long, full body stretch with both arms far above her head. The blankets shifted down her body a bit, revealing the way my old Cure shirt hugged to her body. I could make out the swell of her breasts beneath the shirt.
"Just watching you sleep." I replied.
"Mm... I did a bit of that last night myself." She yawned and scratched at her rib cage. "When I got out of the shower, you were dead to the world."
"Never even heard the shower turn on. Damn." I had been exhausted from nerves before the show, combined with the adrenaline of our reunion and the long night, I hadn't stood a chance of staying awake. "Speaking of showers... Back in a bit."
After I showered and changed clothes, she got up and took her dress into the bathroom with her to change. I couldn't help but be appreciative of her long, sexy legs sticking out from under my shirt as she vanished into the bathroom.
While she was changing, her phone began chiming from the nightstand. I glanced at it, reflexively and saw it was Courtney. For a moment, I considered answering it, just to mess with Courtney's head, unsure if she would recognize my voice, but thought better of it. It went to voicemail.
"Can you zip this for me?" Amy asked as she emerged from the bathroom holding her dress up. "Was that my phone?"
I couldn't help and admiring the curve of Amy's spine as I zipped it up in the dress, taking the liberty to wrap my arms around her from behind and plant a kiss on the side of her neck when I was done. She purred softly, and melted back into me, framing my arms around her with her own. She rocked back and forth for a few moments with her eyes closed, until she started trembling slightly. I moved to release her and ask what was wrong, but she snatched me back to her fiercely as soon as I shifted away.
"Don't." She said, softly.
"Okay," I replied, a little uncertain.
"I've missed you holding me so much. Just.. hold me, okay?"
"As long as you like." I replied, more than content to oblige. "Are you okay?"
"I'm perfect. I missed you is all. This feel so right." Her eyes were still closed as she leaned back against me, still rocking lightly. "Don't let me go."
"I won't. I promise. Never again." I tightened my grip around her a little, and meant every word.
A short while later, apparently satisfied for the moment, she collected her phone from the night stand. As she was putting on her heels, she asked "So what's the plan today?"
"Lunch, for certain. I don't need to be back at the gallery until this evening. Probably should check in with Theron at some point. What do you have in mind?"
"I'd like to go to my hotel and change before lunch, if that's okay. After we eat, maybe go see some of London? We may never be here again." She gave me a hopeful smile, one she knew was hard to resist from a lifetime of practice. I flashed on a memory of using that smile on our father when we were kids in order to score a dollhouse she'd had her eyes on for months. It had worked then, just like it working now. Hopelessly wrapped around her finger as always. Damn it.
We caught a cab to her hotel, where Amy changed into a simple black dress that extended almost to her ankles but had a fascinating habit of clinging to the curves of her body when she walked. For something that left so little flesh exposed, it was looked very sexy on her. After lunch, we went to see the royal palace and took a walk through St. James's Park along the lake. As we walked, she told me about her job and the friends she had made since living in Portland. I told her more about Milos and the nearby islands. Over the last couple of years, I had become acquainted with a few locals on Milos, mostly shopkeepers that I frequented and neighbors. Ever the introvert, my only true friends on the island were limited to the Cains.
Amy insisted we pester a female passerby to take a photo of us on the blue bridge that crossed the lake in the park, and I obliged her in the name of not spoiling the mood. She was well aware of my disdain for having my photograph taken and took advantage of my generous mood by asking the kind woman to take a few more pictures than seemed necessary. When we resumed our walk, she took my arm in hers and planted a kiss on my cheek. We had just enough time to check out the Churchill museum before going back to collect her things from her hotel and transporting them to mine.
I had to meet Theron at the gallery shortly after to take care of a couple of minor press interview type things that Theron's agent had set up. They went pretty much as I expected, only asking me a couple of minor questions and then focusing on Theron. I was basically a tag along for this show and I was perfectly comfortable with that. Honestly, even if they didn't ask me a single question, I was still pleased. Never, in my wildest dreams, would I have expected to have my paintings hanging in an art gallery in London. Throughout the interviews, Amy continually smiled at me from the bench that she shared with Margaret. They seemed to chat quite a bit among themselves and have a decent time of it.
Over dinner at a nearby restaurant, Theron informed me that the show had been very successful the night before. But both he and Margaret were much more interested in hearing about how Amy had come to be in London at the same time as us. He seemed pleased with himself when he learned that Amy had found out about the show from an announcement that she had found online.
"I guess I have more than one reason to be grateful to him for letting me piggyback onto his show, now." I commented to Amy, knowing that it would annoy Theron who found my self deprecation to be an irritant.
"He didn't piggyback onto my show. I invited him to share the gallery with me. The humble prick won't give himself any credit." Theron smirked to Amy, barely taking my bait.
"Adam never really has when it comes to his art." Amy replied, causing me to roll my eyes. I caught an elbow to my ribs in retaliation. That hadn't happened in a long time and my reflexes weren't up to par.
"You should hear how he used to go on about his skateboarding prowess when he was in high school, though. You'd think he was trying out for the Olympics." She added, causing Theron and Margaret to chuckle.
"Really, Amy? How many dinners did I have to sit through hearing about human pyramid this and team cheer number 437 that when you were cheer leading?" I looked at Theron, "You want to know what's truly tedious? Listening to someone spend hours practicing a cheer loudly across the hall from your bedroom."
We all had a great time at dinner carrying on, us telling stories of growing up back in Texas, the Cains telling us about growing up around Manchester. I quizzed him thoroughly about several of the bands that I loved from that area and was disappointed that he knew little to nothing in the way of interesting tidbits about them. I had hoped that he had seen them at early club shows or something before they made it big. Turns out Theron was too much of a bookworm for his own good and missed out on a lot of great concerts, for which I thoroughly berated him, much to his sister's amusement. Amy rolled her eyes at me, not for the first time, for going off into one of my long winded music nerd rants.
Throughout the meal, Amy kept her hand on my thigh, occasionally giving it a slight squeeze. She leaned on my shoulder a lot, seeming to want to keep herself in contact with me as much as possible. I wasn't complaining in the least, as I
wanted the same thing.
The night air was crisp on the walk back to the hotel, and I found myself wishing I'd thought to bring a jacket. Amy must have felt the same way because she stayed cuddled up against me for the entire walk. We parted ways with Theron and Margaret at the hotel and retired to my room.
I sat on the couch in the hotel room, flipping through channels without interest while Amy showered. I thought over the logistics of getting her to Greece. We'd probably have to ship her stuff separately, I thought. I didn't know how much stuff she had, but it wasn't going to be cheap, I suspected. Maybe I'd finally go back to Austin and get the last of my stuff out of storage while I was at it. It'd be good to sever that last tie with the place. And I'm sure Dr. Miller was sick of me sending him money every six months to renew my lease on the storage space. I was trying to remember how much stuff I had left in that storage building when I heard the water shut off in the bathroom.
Amy walked out of the bathroom wearing the shirt she had borrowed from me the night before. Her long, slender legs were bare under the shirt once again, which extended almost halfway to her knees. Effortlessly sexy, I thought, as my eyes worshiped her lovely form.
"You probably shouldn't be looking at your sister like that." She said shyly, biting her lower lip.
"I shouldn't?" I replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Not if you want her to keep her clothes on." She grinned as she sashayed toward me. I found myself temporarily without a response as she neared. Her skin was flushed a slight pink from the hot water of the shower, and I could feel the heat radiating from her body although she hadn't yet touched me.
She stood next to me, looking down at where I was sitting on the couch with a tentative expression. I reached out and placed a hand on one of her warm, soft thighs just above her knee. Her eyes closed a moment and she let out a small sigh. Hooking my hand behind her knee, I drew her closer to me.
"Come here," I breathed. She sat happily across my lap, hooking an arm around my neck. Her skin was so warm and soft against me. She gave me a delighted smile, her lower lip caught between her teeth. My little sister could be so goddamned adorable.
