Steven
I went directly to the kitchen for brunch, sitting and waiting patiently while my erection receded. By the time I was done eating, it was safe to tuck my shirt tails and start looking for the nearest beer, but I found Mum instead.
"Oh, there you are, hon," she called.
She was at the rear of the first floor main hall, looking like she'd just come in from out back as she struggled to see in the diminished light of indoors. A black, loose but form flattering dress covered her curves less than halfway to her knees, the square necked collar unbuttoned at the top to show a bit of pink lace bra. I watched its contents jolt and bounce as she approached on confident high heels to stand before me with a friendly, if careful smile.
"I'm a little bothered by how fast I got used to sleeping in," she confided.
Adopting the same careful, but friendly attitude, I replied, "The lifestyle of the rich and famous grows on me quick, I must admit."
"Especially Ashleigh's vision of it, huh?"
I smiled, thinking of the night before with my forbidden aunt and the audience of off duty staff.
"We should probably talk about some things," she said. "You think?"
"Yeah."
"Your place, or mine?"
"Doesn't matter. Yours."
In a way, it wasn't like dealing with Mum as I sat on her couch soon after, she going to the kitchenette to fix herself a drink and get me a beer. It was almost as if she was a stranger and I really was the detective/agent. The thing of it was that I was supposed to be
her
detective/agent.
She came back, passing me the bottle with a smile as she bent low enough for me to see down her top, on purpose I knew. I smiled back and took a drink while she sat beside and slightly turned towards me on the edge of the couch with her knees together.
"We haven't really had much time together since we've been here," she commented.
"No, I guess not. But then, maybe it just seems that way after Saint John and that little room."
"Yeah, could be. I miss you sometimes, even though I know you're in the house or on the grounds somewhere."
"Remember when you told me that you thought that all our big house back home ever did was keep us apart?"
"Uh huh," she said, hissing a short laugh and adding, "Now we're in a house eight times the size. And to think, we were going to get a small apartment."
"We did, in a sense," I observed with a glance around us.
"Yes, in a sense. ... Sweetie pie... I'm sorry about what happened. Not so much about Kitten, although I'm sorry if you feel badly about that, but I mean what I, uhhh... tried with you afterwards. I'm sorry, I just..."
She took a long drink from her glass, regarding it thoughtfully for a minute as she held it in her lap, then went on.
"I wanted you to know how I felt. I also wanted us to... connect. Like I say, we haven't been seeing as much of each other as we used to and... You know, that experience we had together? The first time we had sex? We've never done it again and lately you don't seem interested. I was just trying to make you see how I felt, not just about Kitten, but to reconnect with you and... feel you."
I believed it. Sure I did. But I couldn't be sure if those were her only, or ultimate reasons for attempting the Jedi spell with me. Half truths are the trickiest lies of all, and I oughta know.
"Okay."
"You forgive me?"
"Yeah," I truthfully said with a little grin.
"I love you," she said with her own smile, kissing my cheek.
"I love you, too."
"Uh, I hate to ask, but is it going to bother you with me and Kitten?"
"She was supposed to be mine," I said.
I wasn't even planning on saying that, it just came out of me without accusation or doubt, just a matter of fact.
"Uh... we- Honey, I'm sorry. I understand that there's something between you two, but how was I to know that? And I hate to say it, but it's not as if you were showing any interest and you still aren't. You two haven't even really spoken yet."
"We were actually kinda hanging out earlier."
"Oh?"
"I remember what I said out on the balcony a few days ago, it's just that... I don't know. I can't help it. I don't want to have these feelings for her, but I do and it's more than just
feelings.
It's the parasite that really wants her."
After a pause, Mum offered, "She speaks much the same way about you and I definitely got the impression that there's a lot more to it than just boy-meets-girl. She's quite serious about you."
"Oh, I know.
"Well, that's good."
I raised my brows in doubt at that and took a slug of beer.
"Isn't it?"
"Mum... I was talking to her and at one point she smiled. It was this great big smile that should have been adorable, but..."
"But, what?"
"Her... It was... Mum, she's crazy."
"That's absurd."
"Uh, no it's not. This is one reason why this whole thing about her bothers me."
"I don't see that about her at all."
(But she wouldn't, would she?)
"Does she have it? I asked."
"'It'?"
"The parasite. Have you ever seen her... you know."
"I hate that term, but no, I've never noticed it in her. She's too young."
"Are you sure? I'm younger than she is."
"She has that Burchell presence, a lot like Sheila has, but I've never seen any evidence of it in her, no more than I did in myself when I was her age."
I nodded, taking my turn to stare thoughtfully at the drink she held in her lap until I could work up the nerve to ask, "Mum... have you two done what you and I did that first time? Have you had... that experience with her?"
"No. Why?"
"I just wanted to know," I replied.
This was another half-truth. Of course I wanted to know, the unsaid reason being that I now knew for sure that sex with another Burchell kick-starts the parasite. Whether or not Mum was aware of this, I had no idea, but it was her who taught me to never share what could be sensitive information for no reason and, since I was now a double agent, I had to be careful of that stuff.
"I wish we could do it again," Mum pointedly stated.
"We will. I want to."
She took my hand and gave me one of those old motherly smiles that I returned the way only a mother's child could.
"So, are you going to pursue Kitten?" she asked after some long moments.
" ... What I know is best for me is battling with what I want."