I dated several women over the last couple of years and got laid a few times but there was never that spark inside that told me, “this is the lady I want to spend the rest of my life with.” By now I was pretty much resigned to being single and alone the rest of my life.
CHAPTER TWO
After getting dressed I called the Rosewood Inn and made our reservation. I picked out the clothes I’d wear and decided I’d need some new shoes to go with them. Seeing my little sister again after all this time was a special occasion and I wanted to look my best from head to toe. Besides, maybe we’d even get up and have a dance and I didn’t want to do so in worn out shoes.
Friday came and after getting ready I walked over to meet my sister. I arrived a few minutes early and waited in the lobby. Around 6:05 I saw the front door open and in walked Jenny, just as cheerful and bouncy as ever. She hadn’t aged a minute since I’d last seen her and her smile and demeanor were as infectious as ever.
Jenny was always a looker and turned heads wherever she went. I’m sure at that exact moment there were a few men at the bar ogling her and having impure thoughts. At five foot three and a hundred pounds she is rather on the petite side. And even though I’m her brother it was impossible not to notice the great looking ass lurking beneath her tight fitting black dress pants. Her long auburn hair spilled over her V neck sweater and tumbled half way down her back. Her slender build was accented by the high heels she wore, making her slender figure look even more so. She doesn’t have overly large breasts, in fact they’re rather on the small side, but they were the kind of perky little tits you could hang your hat on. Again, I’m her brother but it’s pretty hard not to notice feminine attributes like that. Her warm smile, fiery green eyes and perfect smile could melt a man’s heart. And I was sure sure she’d melted more than a few.
We rushed together with open arms. She put hers around my neck and hugged me as I put mine right around her waist, picked her up and gave her a couple of twirls. We both laughed as I set her back down. I gave her a quick peck on the cheek and said. “Hi Jenny, you look great.”
She replied, “I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”
“No,” I chuckled. “Seriously, you really do. That asshole Ryan must have had rocks in his head to mess around on a little hottie like you.”
“Well,” she said in a sullen voice “He fooled around on me so many times I lost count of them all.”
As the waiter escorted us to our table I took her hand and assured her “Better days ahead.”
She looked up at me with her patented heart melting smile and said, “if tonight is any indication, they’re getting a lot better already. And by the way, you’re looking pretty good yourself.”
After a bit of small talk about our jobs and the beautiful summer weather the waiter brought us the wine list and we pored over it, eventually deciding on a semi dry red wine that piqued our interest. We both preferred the same kind of wine, the same types of food. the same types of music and apparently we both attracted cheating, lowlife spouses.
We’d always been close as brother and sister. I remembered when I was five and my precocious little three year old sister and I were playing down by the river, despite our parents warnings. Jenny fell in. I dove in after her and after a fierce struggle, managed to pull her to safety. After that I was her hero and she followed me around like a puppy dog. Mom and dad often commented on how well we got along and how fortunate they were to have such a great pair of kids.
Mom and dad themselves were loving and kind and supported us in every way possible. They attended every PTA meeting, enrolled us in any sports or school activities we desired and in general were the type of parents that other kids would envy. With their loving and nurturing we both blossomed into happy, well adjusted straight ‘A’ students.
When we were thirteen and eleven our world came crashing down. My dad, who was a truck driver, was killed instantly in a head-on collision with another big truck. My mom was so devastated that she had to be sedated. She was never the same after that. She took to the bottle, started neglecting her house and kids and became a reclusive shell of her former self. She eventually died of liver failure when Jenny and I were in our late teens.
Somehow through it all, Jenny and I still managed to maintain pretty good grades in school even though they were no longer the straight ‘A’ students we had once been.
After graduating high school I was accepted into a nearby university where I majored in architectural drafting. I commuted back and forth from home in order to save money and took a job as a delivery driver on nights and weekends to help pay my tuition. It was a grueling schedule but in the end I graduated at the age of twenty three with a bachelor’s degree. Because architects were in extremely high demand I quickly and easily got a job in my home town and embarked on my career.
After Jenny’s graduation she went to vocational school and took a course to become a legal secretary. She also remained living at home and I gave her a ride to and from school almost daily. With her stunning good looks and pleasant, easy going demeanor she had no problems getting an after school job as a waitress to help pay for her schooling. Actually she did have one small problem. Guys were always hounding her for dates and she had to constantly tell potential suitors to leave her alone and that she wasn’t interested in that sort of thing until after she graduated. She eventually did graduate at almost the same time I did. She got a job at a legal firm and only then started going on occasional dates. Of course as her over protective big brother I never approved of anyone she went out with. Looking back I know it was more a matter of jealousy than anything else.
It seemed as though our lives continued to move in parallel with each other. When I was twenty five I met the love of my life, Rhonda. Or so I thought at the time. After a whirlwind courtship we tied the knot.
About the same time Jenny met the two timing. back stabbing skunk that she’d marry less than a year later.
After careful consideration Jenny and I decided to sell mom and dad’s house and split the entire estate right down the middle. That gave me plenty of money to buy a decent home for my new wife and I. Jenny also put some of her money towards the purchase of their new home but, unbeknown to me at the time she also invested a good sum of money into the stock market.
We were both busy beavers with our new marriages and though we talked and saw each other quite often, that tapered off when Ryan and Jenny bought their home in far off New Britain. No longer could we meet for a weekly coffee and talk about the twists and turns in our lives. Eventually even the phone calls ceased when both of us started having marriage problems. It wasn’t that we didn’t love each other. We were both too embarrassed and ashamed of our failing marriages to talk about it.