Friends like These

"One thing?"

"Making money. We're not out to change the world. We're out to serve our customers. Every now and then we make a product that we think is useful but the customers know better. And then, you know what happens?"

"It doesn't sell."

"Exactly. It doesn't sell. Why is that so hard for these college types today to understand? Customers tell us what they want by giving us their money when we provide something useful to them and withholding it when we've misunderstood their needs. Do you follow me?"

"Seems pretty simple."

"And I need a man up here who understands that. So what do you say?"

"Uh, to what exactly?"

"Don't want to jump in blind. I understand. On Monday you're going to move to that office over there. Just a shirt and tie is not good enough. I need you in a suit."

"A suit?"

"But don't let the dress code fool you. We're lions up here. This is going to be more difficult than you can imagine and if you show me that you can't handle it, I'll bust you back down to clerk. Understand? These are the big dogs up here and we never rest. Maybe you thought you were giving 110% before but I'm going to need an order of magnitude more from you. So the question I have for you is, do you think you're up for it or should I leave you on three?"

"I can do the work, sir. I mean Hank."

"Good to hear it. I need you at your desk at nine. We have a meeting at half past."

"Thank you. I won't let you down."

"Here's my card. You're going to have to get some of your own made like that."

Charles took the card and in yellow ink on the back there was a hand drawn symbol that Charles knew well.

Charles looked up with a question in his eyes. The older man just nodded but didn't say anything. Of course nothing needed to be said. Mgtow brothers kept each other's secrets. Mgtow brothers helped each other out.

"They'll have your new contract ready on Monday. For now, you can have the rest of the day off. Have a nice weekend."

...

As Charles was going up to the front door of his building he had a spring in his step and he let out a whoohoo as he got the door open. In the lobby he was silently dancing for his own enjoyment as he waited for the elevator. Up on the seventh floor he found that Regina, as usual, was not home yet. He had to tell someone. He had to.

He went across the hall and knocked. Lisa answered and before she could even say anything Charles took her in his arms and twirled her into a dance.

"What are you doing?"

"I got a promotion."

"You did. That's great. To what?"

Then Charles realized he hadn't bothered to ask what his new job title would be. "I don't know but not a clerk anymore."

He spun her and then suddenly pulled her close to him.

"Let's go to dinner." he said.

"On Friday? But Mona ..."

"It's ok. Just us. Me and you."

"Ok. Where to?"

"I don't know. Anywhere. Pick a spot."

"I heard about a little Chinese place near the army base."

No more needed to be said. She got some shoes on and then they were out the door while Lisa was till only wearing sweats.

The little Chinese restaurant was staffed with Vietnamese wait staff. The 'Chinese' music being played on the speakers was something Charles recognized from a Sega video game for the Dreamcast that Regina owned. Half the items on the menu were typical Chinese dishes but the other half looked like Thai food.

After they ordered Lisa looked at her brother. "I have been wanting to apologize for that day."

"Apologize? I should be thanking you."

"I guess I just went too deep into the acting thing and it took a while to clear my head."

"Well, I'm glad you did cause at least part of this is thanks to you." He took her hand and kissed it. Then he looked up at her and there was a sparkle in her eyes. Then Charles happened to see who was sitting behind her and he wanted to duck.

"Oh shit." he whispered.

"What?" Lisa said as she started to turn around.

"Don't look. It's Janice."

"Here?"

"Don't look."

"Which one is she?"

"I said ... Great. Here she comes."

"Relax. I'll just say I'm Regina again."

"Just get rid of her. I'll go to the bathroom. Of all the fucking places. Fuck."

Charles tried to get away but Lisa grabbed his hand and forced him to sit back down. Too late. Janice saw him and then came over to their table. She wasn't alone either. She seemed to be on a date with some guy. The guy didn't know why Janice wanted to come over here.

"Chucky. Long time no see." Janice said.

"You must be Janice. I've heard so much about you." Lisa said as she stood up to shake hands.

Janice smiled. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage."

"Regina. I'm Charlie's fiancée."

"Fiancée. Goodness me. You hear that honey, they're getting married."

"Congratulations." her date said.

"It's funny, though, cause I've been hearing conflicting reports."

"About what?" Lisa asked.

"Some people tell me little Chucky ..."

"He's not little. Don't call him that."

"Well, excuse me. No offense meant. I just happen to know he's not as big in certain areas as ..."

"I'm sorry." Lisa interrupted. "Was there something specific you wanted?"

"I'm just trying to know the truth. Believe it or not but I care about him. But not like that. You don't have to worry. I see him as just a lost little puppy who needs a good mommy to watch over him."

"Do you often go out of your way to force lost little puppies to date you?" Lisa demanded.

"Janice, they don't want us here." her date said.

"Quiet. Give me just a minute. Now, who ever told you I wanted to date Chucky? Far from it. You don't have to worry at all. He's not even in the same league as me."

"Well, now that that's settled, don't let us keep you." Charles said.

"Now, some people tell me that Chuck is getting engaged but others tell me he's trying to date every woman in the city. And most disturbing, I hear he's going to these meetings where little nothing losers all get together to talk about how terrible women are and then all promise never to get married as if any woman would ever want any of them. I actually believed that one for a while and I was going to go to my little lost puppy and show him the way. But now I see it's not true. I'm so thankful. I only hope you haven't let his lies get the better of you."

"It sounds to me like you're stalking him."

"Whatever do you mean? Me? A stalker?"

"I'm going to go." her date said. "Are you coming or not."

"Just a minute." Janice replied to him.

He walked off and Janice was torn between continuing her verbal combat with Lisa or running after him. In the end she ran after him and Lisa was finally left in peace.

"I can't believe you." Lisa said. "How could you just sit there and leave me to handle her?"

"The cops said they'll put me in jail."

"You're going to meetings? What meetings?"

"Nothing special. Just guys talking about guy stuff."

"What guy stuff? Women? You get together to talk about women."

"Don't women get together to talk about men?"

"That's not the same."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is. You women are just as bad as men only you want us to treat you like you act like angels."

"It's sexist for a bunch of guys to get together and objectify women."

"We don't objectify women."

"Nice ass, hun. Nice tits, hun."

"You know I'm not like that. We talk about how there are no battered men's shelters."

"Oh, so you don't want there to be any battered women's shelters."

"No. I very specifically didn't say that. Battered women need a place to go. I support that. That makes sense. What does not make sense is when a man is battered he has nowhere to go. Women have a place to go and that is great. Men need a place too. A safe place. Is that too much to ask? Why is it sexist to see an issue that needs addressing and want to address it? Nobody can explain that to me."

"Bettered men's shelters." she repeated incredulously.

"Fifty percent of the victims of domestic violence are men."

"That can't be true."

"Those are the statistics. Is the city lying? Is the federal government lying?"

"I'm sure it was men who collected the data."

"Ok, but you're saying there are zero cases of men being abused in this country? In this city?"

"They probably deserved it."

"For what? Being male. That's a crime all by itself now."

"I didn't call it a crime. But you don't see men with black eyes and broken arms walking around from getting beat up."

"If you don't see that, then you need to get your contacts changed. Everyone just assumes a guy with a busted lip got in a fight with another guy but that's not true. But even if it was true, if those two guys are living together, where is the victim supposed to go? Nowhere. He has to just go back and hold his own until the situation spirals out of control and somebody dies."

"And you go to meetings for this?"

"People in this city go to meetings for all manner of craziness, but this is what you object to?"

"I didn't say that. I just didn't know that kind of thing existed."

"We keep it quiet. If anybody besides us knew about it ahead of time they'd show up to protest us."

"Protest?"

He nodded. "Yeah, they say we're trying to turn women into chattel and a bunch of other nonsense we never said."

"What's with the not getting married thing, though?"

"Well, the marriage laws suck. The divorce rate is over eighty percent now. Eighty percent. I'm sorry but from my point of view it isn't even a gamble anymore. It's a guarantee. Marriage is where you have a live in girlfriend for a couple of years and then when you find out she's cheating on you she gets to keep half your stuff and has a claim on half your salary for the rest of your life. If guys were doing that to women, you all would ban marriage tomorrow."

"It can't be that bad. If it was, why are people still doing it?"

"They don't know what they're getting into. They think a prenup will save them. It's not going to. The best thing that can happen to a woman is she gets married. The worst thing that can happen to a man is he gets married. A few years ago the city allowed it so that if the woman was the one with the higher salary she'd be the one who had to pay. But then they banned manimony."

"Well why can't he go out and get a job?"

"Exactly. Why can't she go out and get a job?"

"Maybe she can't."

"Oh, so maybe she can't but we're going to just guarantee that all men are able to get jobs even when the unemployment rate is almost thirty percent thanks to Madame President ruining the economy. And you don't see any women in the lines at the soup kitchen, do you?"

"Ok, maybe I can kind of see your point a little bit but I don't know how I feel about a bunch of guys getting together to talk about women's issues."

"We don't talk about women's issues. We trust that women are mature enough, adult enough, and competent enough to take care of their own issues without our help. We talk about men's issues and there shouldn't be anything wrong with that."

"Well, I don't know. It just seems so off putting."

"Oh, I get it. You want to break up."

She made a funny face at him. "What?"

"If you want to break off the engagement, there's the door."

"And let you go running back to that gold digger. No. I have to protect my little lost puppy."

"You going to start with that too now."

"You never told me she was so delusional."

"What guy wants to say the woman he's with is crazy?"

"Every guy in the city."

After they had finished their meal, instead of going directly home they went for a walk through that big park and for some reason they got to walking arm in arm.

"If we did get married, where would you want the ceremony?" she asked.

"I have to find the right woman first, if she even exists."

"No, I'm asking, if I really was Regina and your girlfriend and we were really getting married and I was the right woman, your narwhal; where would the ceremony be?"

"I don't know. That big church on 5th maybe."

"Can you just imagine, everyone there, me in the white gown, you in a tux. Wouldn't it be just perfect?"

"Only if you promised to never divorce me."

"Ok. I promise never to divorce you."

"If only I could believe you."

"You can believe me."

"There are websites where women get together to plan how to trick a guy into marriage and the best way to blindside him with a divorce."

"Those are gold diggers. Not me. You know me better than that."

"Why did you break up with Tommy?"

"Tommy? Um ... That was a long time ago."

"You broke up with him to date Jerry."

"Oh, I remember. What's your point?"

"If I marry you and you have the chance to go be with a richer guy, you'll take it."

"No I won't. Marriage is a sacred vow."

"Not these days. Marriage is women winning the lottery, only instead of two dollars from everyone in the country, they get half of some idiot's earnings. With enough ex husbands a woman would never have to work again."

"Do you have to just kill every nice fantasy? Let me dream of a wedding day."

"With your brother?"

"Fine. I'll drop it. I was just thinking it would be fun to stay in character a bit."

"You should have been an actress. You moved even me with that performance of yours and I knew you were faking."

"Thank you."

When they got back to the apartment building they found a note from Mona and Regina saying that they had gone to see a movie and would be back later.

"Movie, that's a good idea." Charles said. "My tv or yours?"

"Something's wrong with ours."

"Oh. Like what?"

"I don't know. It's been getting darker and darker. Nothing I do seems to change it."

"Ok. My tv."

She sat with him in his apartment on the sofa and he flipped through the options on the streaming service.

"See anything interesting?" he asked.

"Those are all old movies."

"So. Have you seen this one?"

"No."

"Then it's new to you."

"You're not seriously going to make me watch a black and white movie."

"It could be good. Give it five minutes." Watching old movies was something he and Regina liked doing. Oh, now he was thinking of her. What was she doing with Mona?

Even as soon as the movie was started and the lights were turned out so they could see the picture better, the fact that a film was playing seemed to fall into the background. There was a strange electric energy between Charles and his sister. They couldn't keep their eyes off of each other and it was becaming a kind of visual chess match to see who could move first. She gave in and shifted to be a little closer to him. Then she had a confused look on her face and was going to pull back but then he moved a little closer to her.

She adjusted her posture a couple times and took a deep breath. She told herself to just look away and watch the movie. But then she reached for his hand and he let her hold it. She looked down at it and wondered at his skin. It was like she was in a daze or a dream.

He moved a little closer to her and she took that easy opportunity to do the same.

It was strange how she both knew and didn't know what was happening. She looked up at his face and he seemed to be normal. Not confused. Not panicking. Not lovey dovey. Just normal.

She licked her lips. Oh no. Why had she done that? What was happening? She lifted her hand and rested it partly on his shoulder and partly on the back of his neck. Then she let her fingers feel some of his hair. He responded by putting his hand on her waist.

For a few moments they were locked in that position. It was ok. It wasn't scary. It was ok. Nothing to worry about.

His move to lean in and kiss her had been telecasted for a few moments now but hadn't happened. She was waiting for it. She knew it was what he was going to do. It was so obvious. But then another part of her brain told her that obviously they couldn't kiss since they were brother and sister. That other kiss didn't count. It didn't. It was acting. Just acting.

He started to slowly move closer to her and she closed her eyes in anticipation. But then the kiss didn't happen. She opened her eyes. He seemed to have some doubt. He looked away back at the tv. It was the first time that either of them looked away.

Look at me, she wanted to say. Look. Then he looked at her and his face was troubled. AH! Don't look at me.

He looked away again and with that he started to ease away from her and lifted his hand from her side.

She started to feel an intense sense of rejection and loss. She didn't know why but she decided to commit to the moment. She brought her other hand to his face and then she jerked his head to look at her. With strength and power she swung her leg over his and she got up onto his lap. Then she brought her lips to his.

What were they doing? A part of her mind was screaming at her. Oh, and now his hands had woken up and were taking advantage of access to her body. But it was ok. Another part of her mind was very pleased by this. One of his hands was squeezing her breast while the other was grabbing her ass.

A few moments passed where their mouths were operating like a motor that was revving up more and more and more and then ... STOP!

He suddenly pulled his hands from her and turned his head all the way to the side, breaking the kiss. She was surprised and opened her eyes to see him mortified. Oh, that didn't feel good. She slowly got off of him and stood there. She backed away and got her shirt fixed.

"I'm sorry." she said and then turned for the door. Oh, she forgot her bag. It was back over by the sofa. She went back for it as he got to his feet.

"You don't have to go." he said. "It was just acting. You were working on your acting."

She stopped with her bag in her hand. She did a quarter turn to face him.

"Until we can afford to send you to acting classes, I can help you practice lines or you know, whatever else actors practice."

"Whatever else?"

"You know, within reason."

"Oh. Right. Of course." She felt a tight twist in her stomach. She looked down and tried to think of the next thing to say but when it wasn't coming to her she slowly started to turn for the door again. But then she stopped. This was stupid. Why was she embarrassed? She was mature and responsible enough to face this. She turned back to him and tried to find her resolve.

She was just about to say something. She was just about to open her mouth. Then her brother put his arms around her and kissed her all on his own. She dropped her bag as she threw herself into his arms.

A moment. A minute. Maybe an hour. She didn't know how long they stood in this living room kissing. She wasn't consciously aware of the moment when they somehow left the living room and found themselves on his bed.

Heat. The heat was building up and every single fiber of clothing needed to come off. She needed to be free of it. Off. Frantically, as she tried to keep her lips in contact with his, she pulled and yanked to get free.

That was the way of it until the moment when there was nothing left but her panties. She felt him trying to take them off and her instinct was to put her hand down there and stop him. She had stopped every other guy with whom she'd gotten this far. She wasn't ready. She had never been ready. There was always the question in the back of her mind that he would leave her or just use her or get her pregnant and then skip town. She always had this feeling like she needed to know the guy more. She needed to trust him more. She needed to know that he'd be loyal to her. She needed something more of a commitment from him before she could just do that. Then of course the guy would get frustrated and upset. He'd call her an ice queen and insult her for getting him turned on but then not putting out.

She remembered this one specific guy yelling and screaming at her that she thought her pussy was so expensive and so special that it deserved to be on a pedestal, but he could go fuck anyone else he wanted and the girls would just give it up cheap. To show her, he started to text pictures of himself fucking various women to her over the next couple of months. Every time she'd block a number he'd text again from a different number. Lisa had to switch to a different texting app and put a bunch of rules on it to keep that guy away. For all she really knew, he was still doing it and sending the texts. She had taken the position that as long as she didn't have to see it anymore, that he could do as he liked but now that he was on her mind again she wondered if there was more she could do to just stop him from even trying to contact her.