Friends like These

"Wait. Ok. Just wait."

"Listen to me. You act like you like her flirting with you and then ..."

"What good would that do?"

"I'm telling you. Just listen."

Sigh. "Ok. What? Tell me."

"You act like you're falling for her and they'll see that they've gone too far and they'll have to back off."

Charles thought about it for a moment. Putting aside the strange way Regina had been making him feel recently and the danger to his own emotions, it was in fact a good plan. If it was true that Regina didn't actually feel for him that way and she was just trying to catch them then it was indeed a good plan. "I see. That could work. Yeah. That could work."

"I can't wait to see her face when we do this. And then she'd feel like it was her own fault too."

...

Regina was at work when she noticed a text. She thought it might be Mona texting to tell her the next part of whatever plan she was trying to cook up but instead it was from Charles.

Charles - What did you mean this morning?

Regina - Nothing. Just being friendly.

Charles - Really? Come on. It's me. Tell me the truth.

Regina - That is the truth. What are you implying.

Charles - Nothing. Forget I asked.

Regina - Do you have something you want to say

Charles - It would sound stupid so nevermind

Regina - I'm listening. I'll listen to whatever you want to say. It's not supid.

Regina - Charles? Charles, are you there?

Regina - Charles?

Regina - Hey, you there?

Regina - Charles?

...

Charles had already been yelled at twice. Once by some other guy who thought he was a hot shot and once again by a manufacturer when Charles had been ordered by his boss to call them back after they declined an offer. Charles had to stay on the phone with the angry woman and listen to her use all the shaming language the mgtow guys on the forums talked about, only she was doing it at the top of her lungs.

Charles wanted to hang up on her but his boss was standing there looking at him and with eye movement and a gesture let Charles know that ending the call was not an option for him.

Then the woman seemed to calm down all on her own and sounded like she was crying. But Charles was still not allowed to get off the call. He listened and consoled her and then to Charles' shock she agreed to at least look at the specs and asked Charles to send them over. The boss heard that and grabbed another guy to go do that but Charles had to stay on the phone. He was not allowed to hang up until she did.

As they were still talking the woman said the specs had come and she was looking them over. She was just about to hang up without giving a definite yes or no but then she just relented and blurted out a yes. The boss smiled and then snapped his fingers to get the other guy to send a runner with contracts to be signed.

"Thank you so much." the woman said near the end of the call.

"Thank you." Charles repeated back to her.

"May I have your name again?" She asked.

Charles gave it to her and she must have been writing it down because she asked him to spell his family name.

"I'll make sure to ask for you in the future." she said.

"I'm looking forward to it. It's always a pleasure."

Then she hung up and Charles could finally put that receiver that hurt his ear down.

"Good work."

"I think she damaged my eardrum."

"Oh, don't worry about that. You just did a forty million dollar deal."

"How much?"

"How does it feel?"

"Good, I guess."

"It hasn't sunken in yet. It will. Mrs. Melrose is one of these people who likes to make rope."

"Rope?"

"She takes all her anger and fear and insecurities and she makes this big fat rope out of them. A lot of times, she uses that rope to beat back the competition and brutalize people until they do things her way. But not you. You heard her shit test coming a mile away and you stood up for yourself which was why she hung up on you. When I saw that, I knew we had her. All we had to do was take her rope, cover it in gasoline, put it outside in the burning sun and put a big glass over it making a laser at one end. Oh, my boy, it was a huge glorious fire once we got it to ignite. And we don't want to put it out. No way. Let that sucker burn all the way down to embers. It puts on a nice show but in the end she has no fuel left to feel angry or sad or anything. After all the screaming and yelling and pounding her fist her rational mind finally takes over. At that point, yes or no isn't an emotional decision. All she has left to rely on is her own intellect and logic. She's a smart woman. She knows this is a good deal."

"Well, we are the ones who gave her the numbers."

"Doesn't matter. The numbers are accurate. You didn't think she was stupid enough to not double check them, did you? She will. You can bet your bottom dollar she will. But that's good. Once she does, she's even more invested personally in this project than before. Now, I need you to run on down there and get that contract back here with her signature on it."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You're her little confidant now. By passing her shit test you showed her that you have value and in turn the company has value. She doesn't want to deal with a little pion that would go down there. She wants to deal with the man in charge and on this deal, that's you."

Once Charles got down to their offices everyone was all smiles and Charles was very surprised to see Angela working in that office. She smiled at him and then left her other duties to take over from the receptionist to escort Charles to see Mrs. Melrose. Angela briefly described Charles as just the best guy in the world when she introduced him to Mrs. Melrose in person. As Angela left she looked back at him and she had a sparkle in her eye.

Even though Mrs. Melrose was surprised Charles looked so young, that didn't alter her respect for him and she kept a professional attitude the entire time. The contracts were signed and sealed into the envelopes an Charles was ready to go.

"Oh, and tell Hank that we all need to go and have drinks one weekend." she said.

"Will do. Looking forward to it."

On his way out, Angela took the opportunity to come see him off and she passed him a note with her contact details on it.

"Call me."

...

Regina was getting home from work and right as she was checking the mail Charles came into the building.

"Anything?"

"Just junk." She turned to face him. "Do you have a problem answering your texts?"

"I'm not supposed to do that at work."

"Oh, no. Did you get busted?"

"No, I got caught up in a really long telephone call."

"With who?"

"It's work stuff."

"Oh. How was it?"

"I did a forty million dollar deal today."

"How much?"

"Forty million."

"Are you kidding? How much of that is yours?"

"Mine?"

"Yeah."

"Um ... I don't know. I wasn't thinking that I'd get any of it."

"Well, that's not fair."

"I'll ask tomorrow."

They got into the elevator and she leaned in close to him. "Was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"Um ... well, I wanted to ask about this actually."

"About what?"

"This hugging and stuff you've been doing recently."

"You're my cousin. I can hug you."

He watched the numbers change and then the doors opened to their hall. They walked the short way to their apartment and Charles started to remember the plan of action.

"So you don't really mean anything by it?" he asked.

"By what?" she tried to say innocently.

"Ok, nevermind."

"Don't do that. If you want to say something I'm listening."

"Ok, but is it really me who needs to say something? What are you trying to tell me with asking me to wash your back and your cryptic messages yesterday?"

"Well, I don't know. I was just thinking that I haven't really met the kind of ... guy I'd really want to go out with here in the city. The only one who really seems compatible with me is you. But of course you're my cousin so I don't know what I was thinking."

"Oh. Right. Ok."

Regina swallowed and then made the conscious decision to push forward the plan. "Not that it would necessarily bother me that you're my cousin."

"What do you mean?"

She thought about Mona. Then she found a way to make her voice sound like she was telling the truth. "I wouldn't be bothered. I'd be ok with it." Then she turned from him. "Oh, I shouldn't have told you that."

"Hey, it's ok. You can trust me."

"Can I? Can I really?"

"Yes. What do you want to say?" he demanded.

She almost felt sad. She did have something she wanted to say. Everyday she looked at him and she wondered to herself if this would be the day she told him. And now he was asking. But this wasn't her day. This was his day. "Well, sometimes I wonder if maybe one day we could go to dinner and just that one time we didn't have to go as just cousins or just friends. Maybe just once I want to just throw caution to the wind and see what happens."

"You mean a date, a real date."

"Oh, now you think I'm psycho."

"No, I don't. Relax. Thanks for telling me. It's strange but sometimes there are times when ... um ..."

"Yeah. Go ahead."

"Well I sort of had the same sort of thing cross my mind."

"You have? Tell me about it."

"Well, I was thinking, why do we need to go anywhere."

"I don't follow."

"Dates are for getting to know each other. We've done that. We've been on lots of dates in a way. Maybe we can just stay here and bring this to the next level."

"Next level."

"Yeah. Like you said. Throw caution to the wind and see what happens."

"Uh, wait. Not yet. We need to ... first we need to ... go say hi to your sisters."

"Ah. Of course. Sensible. We don't want to tip them off by doing things out of the ordinary."

Across the hall they found the twins playing scrabble and Lisa actually had the upper hand so Mona was not happy. There were a few moments of everyone just trying to be normal but then Regina contrived a way to speak with Mona alone in Mona's bedroom.

"He wants to take it to the next level."

"Good. You've almost got him."

"No, not good. What does that mean?" Regina knew but wanted to actively avoid thinking about it.

"Maybe it means he wants to open up."

"Yeah, or it could mean he wants to bend me over the back of the sofa."

"Oh, it won't get that far. You know him. You know he won't."

"I don't know. I'm not so sure at the moment."

"Hey, this was all your plan. You and your dumb articles. So just commit. If you have to show him a little something and do a little touching, go with it."

"Easy for you to put things on the line. It's not your vagina."

...

While Regina was speaking with Mona Charles and Lisa went by the door to her room.

"We got her. I told her I wanted to move things to the next level and she totally backed down."

"She did. That's great. But stay alert just in case. They're up to something in there. They may try to try again."

"Try to try?"

"You know what I mean. Just be vigilant and if she makes another pass at you, up the auntie."

"Ante." he corrected.

...

Mona cooked a light dinner for everyone and after they all ate Lisa was charged with clean up while Mona and Regina went to the hall for a conference.

"It's so obvious that they're planning something." Lisa said.

Charles nodded in agreement.

Then Regina was the only one to come back in.

"Where's Mona?"

"Oh, she said she wanted to go for a walk." Regina answered.

"It's raining." Lisa pointed out.

Then Regina came to the table and sat next to Charles. "I think I'm ready for us to take things to the next level."

"Uh ..." gulp. "You are?"

Regina made a sexy face and seductively nodded. "Come on."

"Right now? You want to do that right now?"

"Sure. Unless there's a reason not to. Is there any reason you want to tell me about?"

"No. Now is fine. Sure."

Regina got up and pulled him by the arm. He looked back at Lisa as he left and Lisa watched them go.

Over in Charles and Regina's apartment the two sat on the sofa and it was awkward.

Won't this just traumatize him more, Regina thought.

I can't cheat on Lisa, Charles thought.

She was the first to reach out and take his hand again. Of course she could just take his hand. There was nothing wrong with that.

"So, we're alone." she said, partly for his benefit but also as a message to Mona to stop peeking through the crack in the bedroom door and keep it closed. This was already hard enough without an audience.

"Indeed. It's so convenient that we share an apartment." he said while wondering if Lisa had her ear up to the front door to listen. He looked down at her hand and then raised it up to his lips. He kissed it and then looked at her with his imitation of a charming smile. Was that enough to scare her?

She swallowed. "Is there anything you want to say?"

"You keep asking me that."

"I just want to know you. I feel like I know so much about you and yet, you're so deep. What's your deepest secret?"

Just then his recently faltering mgtow status came to mind. "You wouldn't really understand."

"If I do or not, you know you can trust me to tell me anything."

"Really?"

"Of course. And I'll prove it to you."

"How?"

She swallowed again. Then she started to put her hand on his neck but pulled back momentarily before going ahead and putting it there to draw him in for a kiss.

He saw the kiss coming and figured she'd chicken out before it connected so he went for it, stopping right before her lips. Then, there they were, each one just a millimeter away from the other.

"Here we go." she said.

"I hope you're ready."

She swallowed and then she pressed the kiss to connect.

He was surprised. He had honestly thought that she'd pull out. But now he was here so he had to up it to eleven and not let her get away with just a peck. The only way to scare her off was to go all in like it was a real kiss.

Regina's eyes popped open as the kiss started to make her feel like she was floating and the THX sound was playing in her head. Then her body relaxed and she closed her eyes, put her arms around him and just enjoyed herself.

It is a well known fact to some that telemarketers are instructed by their companies to smile while talking to a customer on the phone. It is alleged that the customers can hear the smile. What is actually happening is that the physical act of smiling causes a feedback loop in the employee's brain sending in positive stimulus. Then the brain begins to believe that it must be happy even though it was the thing that consciously decided to smile in the first place and might have been very unhappy before that decision due to the fact that the brain's human was stuck working as a loathsome telemarketer for a company that was little more than a thief bilking elderly people out of their life savings with crap products that are all scams.

But the brain gets that positive feedback and starts to think that it must be happy. So it feels genuinely happy and that good mood the customers certainly can hear. It turns out that fooling the brain's emotions is super easy which is why actors say they can feel the grief of their characters when a loved one dies and two actors who pretend to fall in love in a play will often fall in love in real life if they have any chemistry between them at all.

And so it was with Regina. She wasn't the kind of girl to go around just kissing a bunch of guys. In fact, she normally wasn't the kind of person to kiss guys at all. It was a little something about herself that she'd discovered in college and had yet to really let the others know about. In the city, she'd met up with a few other people who were 'that way' but Regina hadn't gotten along with them. There was a raunchiness to the culture in the city that Regina was uncomfortable with. That was why she liked doing things with Charles so much. He was always polite to everyone and he never used bad words and he kept things clean and very importantly he never used drugs. If only he had a pussy between his legs, he'd be perfect.

For some reason she held onto that image of Charles but as a woman. Regina seemed to really like that. With that in her mind she was able to let herself go and enjoy the kiss even more. She felt heat growing in her pussy and her nipples were getting hard. Her breasts felt like they wanted to be squeezed and then the heat in her vagina intensified. She started to squirm this way and that way to relieve it but it was no good. She pulled him closer and her clothes started to chafe.

Oh, that was a hand. She felt a hand. His hand was on her thigh. Keep closed she mentally commanded but her thighs weren't listening. The heat was too intense. She couldn't help but spread for him and even arch her back as a way of pushing her breast closer to him.

Oh, no. This was too far. It wasn't supposed to go this far. This wasn't part of the plan. This felt so dangerous. Time out. Time. Just wait a damn minute. She was in danger ... in danger ... in danger of ... in danger of wanting ... him. The thought of it was almost guttural and she was so close to just ripping her clothes off and letting him fuck her.

He stopped just short of her panties but her cunt could still sense his fingers out there. How could she both want him to just go ahead and touch her and yet not want that at all? Her feelings were a tornado of contradictions that were all getting tangled up. She almost felt drunk. What was he doing to her?

Ok, she knew what the problem was. Whenever she pretended to go on a date with a guy in the past, she always knew it was pretend because of course it was pretend just to keep up appearances. It was different with Charles because she already cared about him. He was her cousin and her roommate and for the last few months, her absolute best friend. She cared a lot about him. She respected him. She never wanted that friendship to be damaged. But here she was doing this and it could definitely damage the friendship. Even so, somehow, some crazy part of her didn't care and just wanted him to do her, penis and all.

Penis. Oh, that scared her. That scared her a lot.

Fear. That was it. That had to be it.

She reached over and felt his hard on. Oh, that was a big hard on. That did it. That gave her the strength to pull out of the kiss.

"Wait." she said.

"What's wrong."

"Nothing. I ... I want this to happen."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

"It's just, I ... I need to get ready."

"It seems to me you are ready."

"What I mean is, we shouldn't do this out here. Let's go to the bedroom."

"Yours or mine?"

"Mine. But first let me ... just let me get it ready for you." She got up and moved to her door. "Just one minute."

Charles saw her go into her room and the moment she did he sprung up from the sofa and went for the door, almost tripping in the process. He opened the door to find Lisa right outside. She slipped in and quickly moved over by the table with the long tablecloth so she'd have a place to hide.

"You have to get me out of here." he said. "She's not backing down anymore. She went to get her bed ready."

...

Regina had her back to her door as she heaved air in and out of her lungs. Then she opened her eyes and looked at her room. Mona had been folding Regina's clothes 'properly' and had several stacks on the bed.

"You're folding. Really?"

"What else? It's boring in here. Hey, why do you have porn?"

"Uh ... that's Charlie's. He asked me to keep it over here because he, ah, doesn't want a date to see it if she comes over."

"Well tell him to keep that kind of filth in his room. Two girls going down on each other. Yuck."

Regina addressed Mona through her teeth. "It's fine. Just put it in the closet and forget about it. If he likes that kind of stuff, who are we to judge."