I returned home as per usual, nothing significant having happened at work, excluding my employees noting the irony of their boss being tardy. However, I knew Katy was waiting on me, since she'd have gotten home from the campus sometime in the late afternoon, and then it'd take Miranda an hour to arrive after my own arrival. The door was unlocked and I spotted her pink Converse on the floor, then her bag on the kitchen counter. Searching for my sister, I found her on the couch, laying on her stomach with a pillow underneath, uninterestedly watching TV. She turned it off when I sat by her socked feet.
"Does it still hurt?" I inquired.
"No," she wiped a bang from her eyes, "it's a little tender, though."
"About this morning—"
"Don't," I was stopped. "You have nothing to apologize over, you know that, right?"
"How don't I?"
"I understand her," she came out of left field. "It's like we're playing a game, and I don't regret being a player."
"What are you talking about?" my confusion was genuine.
"I'm talking about Miranda. It's like we're roleplaying, and she has all these thoughts and fantasies that she wants us to participate in, and even though they might feel so crazy and real, it's just pretend."
"I don't know, Kate, this morning didn't seem like fantasy or pretend to me. It's like we were about to—"
"Rape me? Please, that's impossible. You know I love you."
"I heard what you said to her after I left," I confessed, "and I've been thinking about it all day."
"What did you hear?" she sat up and scooted close.
"When you told her that you were crying because it'd please her," I clarified.
"Because it's true, I was just exaggerating. I mean, it was easier because I'd never been touched like that before, but I wouldn't have let it happen if I didn't seriously want it."
"Really?" if this was true, a fatal weight was lifted from my shoulders.
"Yes," she touched my cheek, caressing me with her thumb lightly. "But there is one thing that bothers me."
"What's that?" I was drowning in her lively, hazel eyes.
"I'm in love with you, and even though she tries to contain and limit our time spent together in that way, I want you for myself."
"In love...?" I stuttered. "Katy, you know I love you, but we're brother and sister. Being in love is like—"
"Is like what you and Miranda have, I know. I've been certain about this for a long, long time, and now I finally have the chance to act on it," she climbed atop my lap. "Hey, how much time do we have until she gets home?"
"An hour... Why? But Katy, do you understand—"
"So it's okay for us to lust after each other as siblings, but we're not allowed to love?"
"It's wrong either way," I affirmed, "but it's different when it's more than just fooling around."
"It's only wrong because you say it is. If you agreed with me, if you felt for me as I do for you, then there wouldn't be a problem. But hey, while she's gone, we should have sex. It's the perfect opportunity to have each other before she intervenes again."
"I'm not sure, Kate, you make it sound like you want me to cheat on my wife..."
"That's exactly what I want," she leaned in and kissed me on the lips, though I didn't kiss back. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"I'm not betraying Miranda, even if you do mean a lot to me..."
"She doesn't care if we fuck. You've already got her complete permission to have your way with me as much as you want."
"Just not in this way," I included the most quintessential detail. "This is different."
"She won't know about it unless you tell her."
"I can't, Katy, and you know that."
"You know," she crossed her arms, still in my lap, "it's funny. She gives me more attention than you do."
"What's that supposed to mean?" her implication was beyond me.
"If I told Miranda that I was in love with her, she would pet, kiss, and talk sweet to me. I tell you the same thing and you reject me. When we 'fool around', she touches me more than you do. Even when we're just talking, she speaks to me way more than—"
"Okay, okay, I get it. But what's your point?"
"My point is that you're an asshole and your crazy ass wife treats me better, even and especially when she's telling me her sickest, most ruthless of thoughts."
I was offended. "That's not fair. I'm the one looking out for you while—"
"While she calls me her baby and loves on me? And how are you looking out for me when, every time things get out of control, you don't even do anything to stop her? Not that I'm asking you to, I mean."
"What do you want me to do, then? Have sex with you to show you that I care?"
"No. I'm not even in the mood anymore. But when your wife gets home, I am going to confess to her what I've just confessed to you. I don't think it was enough to say it; I am going to show you how much of an ass you truly are."
"Fine, then," I said in frustration.
"Humph, fine," she took the seat to my right.
"Good."
"Grand," my sister one upped me, fueling our childish game.
"Brilliant."
"Perfect," she used my lap as a pillow as she turned the television back on.
"Better than perfect," I covered her eyes.
"Better than perfect times infinity," she backhanded me in the chest.
"Oh yeah...? More perfect than perfect to the infinite power," I poked her in the side.
"More perfect than perfect to the power of go fuck yourself," she retorted, where I could think of nothing better to say.
After a pause, I inquired, "So what are you going to say to her?"
"You know," she flipped through the channels, "just how I'm in love with her."