CHAPTER TEN
SIMON
Karen sat up with a jolt. "What is that noise?"
"Damn I should've put my cell on silent." Cedric bent over to find his cellphone.
I shrugged. "Lucky he didn't call a few minutes ago. That noise would've ruined the mood."
"You know who it is?" Karen asked.
"Yes, it's Decker," I answered.
"Typical." It rang off when Cedric was rummaging through his pants on the floor. "It's not triplet magic. We know who it is because that's the unique and annoying ringtone that I've given him."
And then it rang again.
"Deck," Cedric answered. A silence in the room followed as Decker talked.
"We never had a photography session today."
We couldn't hear what was being said at the other end of the call, but Cedric seemed to listen while Decker talked and talked. Saying nothing more than, "Okay," and not encouraging Decker, but not cutting him off either, Cedric paced the room while the conversation went on. Holding the phone to his ear, Cedric walked over to my window and peered out, not that there's much of a view. "No, we packed the studio away."
I preferred to watch the woman in the room. Rather than settling in for a cuddle, as I'd hoped, Karen sprang to life. She got off the bed and stepped into her clothes. Bras looked complicated to me, but she had hers on and done up in no time as if she'd been wearing one for years. Then she stepped into her dress.
"May I use your bathroom?" Karen whispered.
"Yes." I pointed to the door. Each bedroom had its own bathroom in this apartment. Then I got up and accompanied her into my bathroom. "I'll get you a clean towel. Feel free to shower if you want.
When I returned to the bedroom and shut the bathroom door behind me, I heard Cedric say, "Where am I?" He had a puzzled look on his face. "I'm at home." After a short pause, he added, "In Simon's room."
Seconds later the door opened.
Not the bathroom door, but my bedroom door.
Decker looked in on us. His expression was priceless as it went from the usual to momentary shock to a big grin. "What have I come home to?"
Of course, we were both still naked, clothes abandoned in a hurry on the floor, and the bed a crumpled mess. If those things weren't incriminating enough, there were a few condom packets on the floor, Cedric was prepared for anything. And I didn't want to think about the screwed up tissue paper.
"Hey, it's just another day in Simon's bedroom." Cedric waved his hand at the room as if it really was just another day. "Kidding, bro. But it's not what it looks like." He indicated to the bathroom.
Decker's eyes went wide as his mouth went into the shape of an O and he backed out of the room.
Cedric looked at his iPhone as if this were all just another day to him. "I've got a message from Dad," he said.
I went and pulled on my pants. I wasn't bothered about being nude in front of my brothers, but any second Karen would come out of the bathroom, and that would've felt weird.
"Oh shit. I gotta sit down," Cedric seemed to go visibly pale.
"What wrong?" I sat on the bed next to him.
He shook his head and handed me the device.
Dad: Those portraits are excellent. I showed Penny. Do not use that girl in your erotic art. She's Penny's daughter.
I sat down and looked across the table at my brother in shock.
He was oblivious.
Karen hadn't told us her mother's name was Penny, but she had told us her mother had recently married in Vegas. My mind whirred as I thought that must be the reason dad wanted a family dinner. To tell us in person that he'd married.
We now had a step mom.
Penny was Karen's mom. That made Karen our stepsister.
My brothers and Karen didn't know yet, but this changed everything.
CEDRIC
Leaning toward Simon, as close as I could get without kissing his cheek, I whispered, "Before any of this happened I had a good idea of what shots I was going to use in my portfolio and which ones I was going to enter for the exhibitions. But now we're being told what to do by Dad, and we've got to think about what Karen wants." I sighed.
Making my own decisions was an essential part of the process. I didn't need to add that I didn't like being told what to do with my art. I welcomed input, of course, but when I asked for it.
"She'll be out of that bathroom any moment, and we need to own up that we're her step brothers."
"Step brothers?"
"Keep up. Dad's girlfriend is Penny, and Penny is Karen's mom. Don't you remember, Karen told us her mom is on a honeymoon after marrying in Vegas with no guests? Our dad is 'traveling for business,' as usual." He clawed his fingers scratching speech marks in the air around traveling for business.
Before I could process any of that fully or say anything further, the bathroom door opened and Karen stood before us. Dressed and ready to go, you'd never guess she'd been the filling in a sweaty threesome within the last half an hour. "I'd better go before Decker gets here. I'm supposed to be going out with him for dinner."
While I'd had plenty of experience of women getting dressed and leaving like it was all no big deal, her neutral tone made me cringe for Simon's sake. Honestly, for my own too. I wanted this to be a big deal for all of us. It had meant a lot to me, and I knew it meant a lot to Simon. For us, it wasn't ever intended as a casual sexual encounter, and I hoped she wanted more too.
She bit her bottom lip, and her gaze fell to the floor, it was a subtle sign of her unease with the situation.
In her way, she was just as detached as when she dressed and left our apartment after each modeling session. I could imagine how much her cold manner shocked and hurt Simon. I knew what we had shared meant a lot to him, and he wouldn't do that with just any woman.
Standing up, I knew we had a situation on our hands. I had to do something. Say something. I had no idea what, but I opened my mouth, anyway.
"I suggest a change of plan. For a start, Decker's already home. He's out there somewhere." I waved my hand at the door. "For seconds, we kind of got sidetracked, and I don't think we came to any conclusions about our work."
As soon as I said it, I regretted bringing up business. It made me seem unfeeling when underneath I wanted to resolve our relationship issues. The only problem was, our relationship wasn't at all what I wanted it to be.
I didn't want her to be our step sister, for fuck’s sake.
I wanted her to be OUR girlfriend.
And she didn't even know about the parents we had in common.
"Third. Well, look if you were going to dinner with any other guy I wouldn't stand in your way. And it's not a problem if you want to date Decker. But we can't keep this a secret from him, so there's no point in trying to sneak out without seeing him. If you want this to be a one-off, then we'll forget about it and never mention it again."
"It's not that." She gasped and her face flushed with color. "I'm sorry. I want to talk too. I like you all, but I wasn't expecting any of this. I've got to go."
And she went. She walked out of the door, and I followed to see her move through the apartment at great speed. Decker was nowhere to be seen. He must've discretely gone to his room to spare our guest from the walk of shame.
She didn't yet know that no matter what she chose to do about us triplets, she was our step sister.