Chapter 03: A Forbidden Act
This chapter makes reference not only to the previous two chapters, but to another story of mine called Ben Around Ch. 05. You don't need to read any of the other chapters to enjoy this one, but you might just want to.
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"Found it! I found an apartment," Jenna bragged as she walked through Darren's door and into the living room.
She had moved to Boston a little over four weeks ago and crashed in her brother Darren's guest room until she could find a place of her own. Darren found her news surprising, since, during her entire stay, he saw no evidence of an apartment search. Maybe his flaky older sister was changing her ways.
"What's it like?" Darren inquired about her new place.
"It's perfect," she replied. "It has everything I need. It's in a good location. It's only six blocks from work. I love it."
"That's great, Jenna," said Darren, standing up from the couch. "When can we start moving your shit out of here?"
"Har-dee-har," she replied. "Actually, you'll be happy to know that I can start moving in tomorrow. I just signed the lease today."
"Tomorrow?" said Darren. "That might work. It'll be Saturday, so less traffic. Where's the apartment?"
"183," Jenna answered.
"Great. 183 what street?"
"No," she said, "like 183, you know?" she pointed at the floor.
Darren's shoulders slouched and his head fell backward. "You moved in downstairs?"
"What!"
"Why would you want to move in right downstairs?"
"I really liked your apartment and it's near work, so I got one just like it."
Darren was ready to call his sister a flake, but he couldn't find any flaw in her logic, per se. He just knew that having her live right downstairs meant surprise visits, and he didn't have the energy for that kind of headache.
"Well," he said, "welcome to the building, I guess."
"We should celebrate," Jenna suggested. "Are you going to be here later?"
"Let me see," said Darren. "It's a Friday night, so I may have to check my schedule."
"Very funny, smart ass. Don't you want to go see your new girlfriend, Sandy?"
"She's not technically my girlfriend. Also, she's out of town."
"I thought you were having lunch with her tomorrow."
"Sandy co-owns a bakery. She got a surprise order yesterday and has to deliver a cake to somewhere in Springfield by tomorrow morning."
"Tough luck. So, bottom line, you're in?" she asked.
"I'm in," he replied.
"Great," Jenna said. "I'll run out for some supplies."
"Sounds good. See you later."
Supplies? Supplies for what? Darren had presumed they would be celebrating at a bar or something. Oh well. Trying to battle his sister's impulsiveness was tiring. It was better to just go with it.
Then again, going with it hadn't always been the best of ideas. The last time Jenna crashed at his apartment, roughly six years ago, she had walked in on Darren as he was jerking off to porn. As unpredictable as ever, Jenna convinced him to keep masturbating while she provoked him. Over the years, Darren had beaten himself up about letting it happen. He wasn't proud of what he had done, even if, on occasion, he couldn't get the memory out of his head.
An hour or two passed before Jenna returned with her supplies, a bag full of groceries. She placed them on the kitchen island and headed back toward the bedrooms.
Darren, who had been finishing up a little bit of work on his laptop, got up and went to the kitchen to see what she bought. It was just some spaghetti and sauce, nothing special, but also a couple of bottles of something clear.
Jenna's hand smacked his. "Don't touch that," she said as she walked by. She had changed into some short cut-off jeans and one of Darren's button-down shirts.
"Who said you could wear one of my shirts?" Darren asked.
"I knew I was gonna be cooking and didn't want to get any of my clothes dirty," Jenna answered.
"Oh, great," said Darren.
"Don't get all grumpy," said Jenna. "I'm cooking you dinner."
Clearly Jenna didn't think a bra was necessary for cooking either. Her nipples could easily be seen through his shirt and she had left the top three buttons undone. Darren couldn't bring himself to complain.
Jenna pulled one of the bottles, a lime and another small bottle out of the bag. She grabbed two glasses, put in some ice and mixed the rest, sliding a glass to Darren.
"What's this?"
"Gin and tonic, with extra lime, the way Ben used to like it."
"Ben," said Darren. "That was your boyfriend out in Baltimore, wasn't it?"
"Yyyep," said Jenna as she mixed her own drink. "For five years."
"I had no idea you were together that long. What happened?"
"I decided to move to Boston."
"Just like that? You threw away a five year relationship just like that?"
"It wasn't just like that. Ben and I didn't work."
"Took you five years to figure that out?"
Jenna took a sip and then shook her head. "No, it didn't." She lifted her glass and clinked it to Darren's. "To a new start," she said.
Ben drank. It was really good with extra lime. He looked over the top of his glass. Jenna was still leaning over the kitchen island. The front of the button-down shirt hung down and he could see Jenna's breasts. Not bad at all, he thought.
It didn't take long for them to make dinner. They sat and ate, talking about Jenna's new apartment. Since it had the exact floor plan as Darren's, she could point to different parts of the apartment and decide what she wanted to do with them.
Then they moved to the couch, sipping gin and tonics and talking for nearly an hour about work, Baltimore, Boston and things from childhood.
