The Visitor
"I have to tell you something."
I didn't know if I wanted to hear it. We'd just finished dinner, the latest in a series of elaborate isolation feasts, and we hadn't even gotten to dessert. The last few weeks had been as perfect as was possible in the middle of a global disaster, but I had a feeling whatever she was about to say was going to blow it all apart.
"It's about Matt."
"Okay."
Matt was her half-brother. They'd been raised together on and off, throughout her mother's and their father's tumultuous relationship. Esther had pretty much cut contact with both him and her father after she graduated from college and moved out here. I'd hardly heard her mention Matt until the other day. He and his girlfriend had split up, he was out of work. Could he stay with us for a few weeks until he got back on his feet? I saw no reason to refuse. We had an idyllic existence out here, dyke paradise. A cosy cabin at the foot of the mountain, jobs that we could comfortably do from home. Our relationship was still hot, but easing from that "sex round the clock" feel to a slow burning comfort. She knew how I liked to hold her face against my tits until she was struggling for air, I knew how she liked her pussy slapped just before she came. We had good neighbours who left baskets of apples and fresh made bread, but didn't intrude upon our privacy.
"Matt and I lived together for a bit," Esther tells me now. "I never mentioned it, because I kind of just wanted to forget it. But I was 19, he was 22, and there was this weird tension between us, that ended up making it impossible to keep living together."
"Like, a sex tension?"
"Yes," she says, her voice cracking a little with shame. "Like that."
"Okay."
"I need you to know that it's not a big deal. I was young, figuring out my sexuality. He's the only man I've ever really fantasised about. I don't want to get all Freud about this, but it's probably tied up with not having a stable male figure in my life, and you know, he's a very gentle, but very manly person. I felt safe, or whatever. Safe enough to think of him in that way. And I guess he felt the same. Staying in the same house together, my cunt was throbbing just knowing that he was in the next room. I'd press my ear up to the wall, listening for sounds of him."
She paused, looking for signs of my reaction. I didn't want to let on that when she said "cunt" my own pussy had twanged in response and I was very aware of the seam of my jeans pressing near my clit.
"Nothing ever happened," she said. "One night he let me give him a back massage, because he was working in orchards at the time. I took my shirt off and lay myself against his back. The next morning, he left. Later he emailed and said it was too much temptation for him, he had to go. I felt so ashamed, Naomi. Even more than me, he's searching for a stable family. I should have been able to give him that. Now's my chance to make it up to him. Please say it's okay."
"It's okay, Est. It doesn't really bother me. I get that these things are complicated. It's fine, we'll be a happy little family. Wholesome mountain living."
"Thank you, my love." She tips her tear blotched little face up to mine. I kiss her lightly, resisting the urge to lay my hand on her throat the way she likes, suck on her tongue. I don't what her to know I'm turned on by what's clearly a traumatic story for her. While she does the dishes I go to the bathroom, lean myself against the door and quickly unzip my jeans. In less than a minute I've come, thinking of my sweet girl at 19, obsessed with her big, strong brother.
Matt arrives the next day, and we're all very polite. He's friendly and engaging, quickly unpacking and making his room his own. He's brought a couple of bottles of good whisky and a box of some excellent New Zealand Pinot Noir. "Just happened across it," he says, with a wink.
I watch them for signs of unnatural affection, but maybe they're too aware of their last meeting. A brief hug. I let them spend the afternoon catching up, taking my laptop up to our bedroom to work. Our room is at the top of the house under the eaves. There are windows at each end, one overlooking the small yard, the other filled with the stony face of the mountain.
I've just put my laptop aside and am about to take a quick nap when Esther appears. She's got that lightly flushed look she gets when she's excited.
"Good catch up?" I ask.
"Yeah, it was nice. I think it's going to be okay. He's doing really well. He's happy that I'm so happy with you. Thinks you seem 'cool'."
"He's got good taste."