Double The Ache(6)

“Do you ever think about having sex. With the same girl, at the same time.”

I look over at him and he looks at me. For a beat there’s an understanding between us, and I nod.

“Does that make us freaks?” he asks, and I can hear the fear in his voice.

“Does it matter?” I grunt and toss my line again.

Silence passes again and I hear him let out a breath. “I guess not. It’s just…I think about fucking a girl and then I think about you. I don’t want to fuck you, but I love you.” He shrugs and I can tell this was a big confession for him.

“I love you, too,” is all I say. We’re a family.

We had a couple of conversations like that throughout our lives, and in college we tried it out. We were star football players and had girls beating down our doors, but there was never the right one. They were always more hung up on one of us more than the other, or they didn’t want to do it full time. It was a fantasy for them, a one-off. We were a circus act and they just wanted their turn at the freak show. After a couple of times we hated the way we felt and decided not to do it anymore. Not until we found someone who wanted us both and was in this for the long haul. Trying to divide us hurt our relationship, and we learned that we weren’t willing to settle.

I get out of the shower and towel off as I go to the sink and grab my razor. I look down to see the blade is dull so I go to the other side of the sink and grab Dean’s. We share a bathroom and bedroom just like we did in college. Our mom says we must have been conjoined twins in a past life and we don’t disagree. If we’re not in the same room, we usually go find the other one so we can hang out. Some people might find this weird, but we usually just keep our private life private.

There’s a knock at the door and I walk through the bedroom into the living room to see Dean answer the door. Cassie and Emma come in and I nod in greeting before going back into the bathroom. Cassie is Dean’s older sister and Emma is his younger sister. They’re my sisters, too, to all intents, and they’re in town for the weekend.

They know about our living situation, having grown up with the two of us always together. I guess looking back on it, it could have seemed weird to outsiders, but in our family it’s just the way it was. I got real lucky Dean’s family welcomed me and never made me feel different.

Cassie comes in the bathroom and opens the cabinets under the sink. “Do you guys have any tampons?”

“No,” I say, as I rinse off my face and go to the bedroom closet. Emma comes into the bedroom with Dean behind her.

“You guys still haven’t had a chick in this place. Whatever, I’ll just get some on the way out tonight,” I hear Cassie say from the bathroom.

“No chicks. But I think we’ve found the one,” Dean says, falling onto the bed and lying across. It.

“What!?” our sisters squeal at the same time.

I close the closet door and get dressed, but I hear Dean mumbling to them. He’s telling them about Amelia and our flight home.

Amelia.

I rub my eyes and take a deep breath. We didn’t talk about it when we got back. I knew what Dean was thinking the whole time without having to say a word. He’s always thinking and planning. She’s the one. We’ve been waiting for years thinking we might know when the time came. Turns out we were right.

I put on a pair of jeans and a polo before I exit the closet. Dean is lying on the custom bed we had made when we bought the place. We share it, but it’s big enough that I could roll over three times and still not touch him.

Cassie and Emma are sitting at the end of it hanging on every word he says.

“Didn’t I buy that shirt for Dean?” Emma asks as she shakes her head.

“It looks better on me,” I say as the material stretches tight across my chest.

“So you’ve found her,” Cassie says, smiling from ear to ear. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“We haven’t even met her,” Dean says, and I shove my hands in my pockets. “It’s complicated, but she’s it.”

“Wes?” Emma asks, waiting for my confirmation.

I nod and she does a little excited clap of joy as she bounces on the end of the bed.

“We should celebrate. You guys have anything to eat?” Cassie says as she gets up and walks towards the kitchen.

We have a nutritionist who stocks our fridge twice a week, so she knows good and well we’ve got food in there. Cassie is like us when it comes to food and she’s not going more than an hour without a snack.

We all go into the kitchen and I grab a drink of water while Dean and Emma make food. After about an hour or so Cassie tells us she and Emma are going to a club, something they often do when they come to Vegas to see us.

“I’m out,” I say, and all three of them roll their eyes.

“We know,” Emma says, and she and Dean laugh.

Dean’s phone chimes and he reaches into his pocket to grab it. I take a sip of my water, but I feel the energy in the room change. I glance back at him and watch as his face turns white.

“What is it?” I ask, and I’m beside him instantly.

He doesn’t speak, he just turns his phone towards me. There on the screen is a picture of Nelson and Amelia together in a Vegas club, the two of them laughing and holding drinks. There’s another chime and it’s a text from Nelson.