In The Grace of Liars

"Mr. Mason, I'm sorry but he's in a meeting. The best I can do is have him call you back."

Now I was getting annoyed. The normal receptionist was Bonnie. I knew her well and she never gave me any flack about putting me right through. She must have been out for the day.

"I see. What's your name, Miss?" I asked, as politely and casually as I could manage.

"My name is Rita," she responded, her tone softening just slightly at the inquiry.

"OK, Rita?"

"Yes, Mr. Mason?"

I wasn't sure this was going to work but I figured I'd give it a shot. "I've got Jesse's cell phone number but I know how much he hates being bothered on his personal line for business matters. Now, I could just call him on that line, or perhaps if I read the number back to you that would be sufficient to convince you that I have legitimate, and very pressing business?"

The phone went silent for a moment as she thought about my proposition.

"I wouldn't have his cell number if I didn't know him personally, right? Rita, I promise he won't be angry. He was a close friend of my fathers before he died and has been a close friend of mine since and I really need his help right now." I asked, prodding her further.

"Read me that number?" she asked after another moment of hesitation.

I knew the number by heart and rattled it off to her.

"Hold please, Mr. Mason."

I had to give it to her -- she was certainly professional. Not once during the conversation did she sound like she was going to lose her cool. A minute later the line clicked as the call transferred and I heard Jesse.

"Chris?"

"Hi, Jesse. Sorry to interrupt your meeting."

"Holy shit, Chris. I've always said you have a silver tongue, my boy! Fine work getting past Rita there. I've got billion dollar clients that can't get her out of her chair," he said, clearly amused by the situation.

"Hey, be nice to her. I told her she wouldn't get in trouble. Where's Bonnie?" I asked.

"Bonnie got a promotion, she's my personal assistant now."

"Oh, good for her! And good for you for finally giving that poor woman a raise," I chided him.

He snorted, "Poor woman my ass. So what's up Chris? I don't mean to rush you but I've got a few balls in the air right now."

"Yeah, um. Well, I've got kind of a situation here. I need to dip in to the trust."

"Chris you know I can't let you do that yet. What kind of situation?"

He listened quietly while I explained what was going on with the camp. When I finished he remained quiet for a moment. A long enough moment that I had to make sure he was still there.

"Jesse?"

"Yeah, I'm here Chris," he said.

"What do you think? Can you help me?" I asked.

"This camp you're telling me about -- I assume it has a dwelling on it?"

"Well, it's kind of old but yeah it does."

"OK, well here's the deal. One of the very few provisions that are written in to the trust that allow a withdrawal outside of your monthly stipend is the purchase of a residence. Meaning you have to actually buy the place from the your Aunt. You could probably get it for a song though. I know she's your Aunt but she's the definition of a motivated seller."

Victory! I thought. "So you can do it?" I asked, excited that things were working out.

"Now hold on," he cautioned.

"What?"

"Chris, the word residence implies that you're going to actually reside there. I can only do this if you're going to live there."

And there was the rub. I thought for a moment about what this would mean. It wasn't that I loved my apartment -- hell, I could take the place or leave it. My original intention was to buy the place from Marjorie and let Andi live there. She could go to school and not have to worry about paying rent. She wouldn't be living the high life there, but at least she wouldn't have to answer to a land lord. But being required to live there myself would change the dynamic a bit. I'd have to get out of my current lease and quit my job.

Then I though about Jennifer. If I moved out here I would be just about as far away from her as I could reasonably get. I wouldn't have to see memories of her every where I looked. Moving out here would make it easier to move on. A change of scenery for a time certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

"How long would I have to live there?" I asked.

"Knowing how your dad used to think, it's probably tied to the capital gains penalty cut-off. I'm guessing two years. I'd have to get back to you on it to be sure, but I think it's a pretty safe bet."

"Alright, I want to do it, but I've got to float the idea on my Aunt. It's her only way out of this mess so I'm sure she'll go for it but I need to make sure before we get the ball rolling."

"Sounds good Chris. Just let me know."

###

I went in the house and explained the situation to Aunt Marjorie. It didn't go over quite as well as I expected it to.

"Chris, I can't let you do that. That's your money, sweetheart. I couldn't take it."

"Aunt M, you're not taking my money. It's a legitimate transaction, I would be buying the camp from you. It would be mine, but it would still be in the family."

Marjorie slowly nodded her head. Her eyes were distant and she seemed to become slightly detached. "OK," she said.

"Alright. I'll have Jesse call you. He'll take care of everything. Don't worry Aunt M. We can fix this."

Finally she looked at me. "Chris, you've always been such a good boy." She gave me a half-smile but there was no cheer in it. "It's not the money I'm worried about. No one has been to the camp since your mother died."

"You've been keeping me away from the camp for years. Why, Aunt M? And why did everyone stop going there when Mom died?" I asked.

She shook her head in reply as fresh tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't talk about it with you sweetheart. I'm sorry. I just can't. You have Jesse call me. We'll do the paperwork and then I'll give you the key. Then you'll have all the answers you want."

"Aunt M--"

"No. No, Chris. That's all right now, OK? You two should go now. I have some things I need to do." She rose from the table and started shooing us out the door.

###

On the ride back to Andi's apartment, I made a few calls. If I was going to be staying here for a while I needed to tidy up a few loose ends. I called Jesse back and told him to get started with the purchase and gave him Aunt Marjorie's phone number. I told him to work into the purchase price a little extra so that she could walk away from the deal with something and have some spending money. I also told him that we were on a tight time line and I needed the deal done inside of a week. He didn't like to be rushed but he told me he'd do his best.

Then I called my boss and let him know that I wouldn't be working for him anymore -- at least not for a while. He was sorry to hear that I was leaving but understood once I explained everything. The last phone call I made was to my landlord. My lease had been on a month to month basis since my original six month lease ended. As long as I kept paying rent, I got to stay in the place. I let her know that I wouldn't be staying after the first of next month and that she should start looking for a tenant.

After my last phone call Andi asked, "So, are you going to explain to me what the fuck just happened?"

I grinned. "Well cousin, it's like this. I wanted a change of scenery, you needed a place to live, and Aunt M had some property that she needed to sell quick. So if you're up for it -- that makes us room mates."

"You want me to live with you?" she asked.

"Why not? I mean that solves everyone's problems, doesn't it?"

"We're going to live at the camp?" I guess she was still trying to wrap her head around the whole thing.

"Why not?"

"No, I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm just surprised. You just snapped your fingers and just like that it's done?"

"Well, its going to take some time to get all the paperwork done. Jesse will take care of that though. I'll just need to be there to sign all the final documents. Once that's done we need to make getting your stuff moved a priority. That's the smallest time line that we have to deal with now. Jesse has worked miracles for me in the past but to get this thing finished inside of a week is going to be tough. After that, I'll have to go back to my place and make arrangements for moving all of my stuff. But after that, yeah, it's done."

It was hard to tell with the wind blowing the way it was in the Jeep but I thought I saw Andi tear up. "Thanks, Chris. I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. Just tell me where you want to eat, I'm starving."

###

Andi and I had a passable lunch and decided to spend the evening in. Still recovering somewhat from our cheap whiskey binge we opted for a couple of bottles of wine and finger-food for dinner. She changed into an outfit similar to the one she wore the night before but her t-shirt didn't cover nearly as much. Had it been any shorter I'd have easily been able to see her belly-button. Though her flat, smooth stomach was nice to look at, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes off of the rest of her. The way her ass filled out a pair of panties just had me mesmerized.

Of course the wine wasn't helping me keep my eyes pointed at something that wasn't her, but I kept thinking of the comment she'd made earlier in the day. "Look all you want," she had said. I was certainly doing that but I was also aware that I might be making her uncomfortable. I didn't want to come off as a creep but I kind of felt like one with the way I was leering at my cousin.

"So what was Jennifer like?" she asked, abruptly.

"What do you mean? I've told you a lot about her. You probably know her better than any other person who's never met her."

"No, I know. You've told me a lot about her but there are some things you've never really talked about."

"Like what?" I asked. I couldn't for the life of me think of anything that I'd kept from her regarding my relationship with Jennifer.

"Well, was she a good lay?" she asked.

I almost spit out my wine but choked it down as best I could. I wiped my mouth with a napkin and cleared my throat, buying a little time to formulate an answer. "Uh... why do you want to know that?" I asked.

"Because I'm curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat," I quipped.

Andi smiled her devious little grin that I just loved. "Maybe so, but I'll bet hard cash that it licked that pussy first."

I almost lost another sip of wine. "You gotta stop doing that while I'm drinking!"

She giggled but quickly got serious. "So c'mon. Spill it. Did you guys have a good sex life? When you were still having sex, I mean."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I just don't understand why you would want to know that kind of stuff. We're almost like brother and sister, you know?"

She sat back in her chair and hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin between them. She was quiet and her pensive expression didn't indicate that she would reply any time soon. I must have said something wrong. Maybe she was upset that I didn't want to share? It didn't matter. If she wanted to know that badly, I'd share.

"It was good." That got her attention and she seemed to perk back up a bit when I started talking. "I mean, she was OK I guess. It wasn't the wildest sex I've ever had but she was sexy and pretty much always willing. At first anyway."

"Did she go down on you a lot?" she really wasn't pulling any punches. She wanted details. I wasn't sure how many details I wanted to share but she was my best friend after all.

"At first she did it all the time. I thought I was in heaven. After a while though, she'd make excuses. Her jaw hurt. She just brushed her teeth. One time she told me she had a dentist appointment and wanted to be 'fresh'. Didn't take me long to get the picture. That honeymoon was over before it started, you know?"

"Maybe she was just waiting for you to return the favor."

"Oh, the favor got returned, trust me!"

"So you ate her pussy a lot?" I couldn't believe how Andi was talking! This was really out of character for her but she was certainly having an effect on me. Talking about this stuff was making my cock stiff -- as if her outfit wasn't doing enough of that. I wasn't fully hard but things were starting to get tight in my jeans.

"Oh yeah. She tasted great, I used to love going down on her." Then I realized that I really was going to miss that. Not Jennifer herself, but she did have a great pussy. Tasted great, smelled great, and damn sure felt great.

"So what's going on here? You've never asked me these kinds of questions before. In fact I remember you telling me out-right that you didn't want to know these kinds of details. So what gives?" I asked.

"I dunno. I guess it's been a while for me too. I'm kind of wound up," she said.

"How long?" I asked.

Without hesitation she responded, "Eight months, two weeks and three days." She tipped her head back and drained her wine glass, then refilled it.

"Holy shit, Andi. Was that when you and Tom split?"

"The day after. I pretty much attacked one of my co-workers after close one night. I just kinda went crazy and jumped him."

"Things didn't work out with him?" I asked.

"No, he was terrible in bed. I wasn't looking for anything steady anyway, I just needed a fix. Unfortunately he didn't get the message that it was just a one night stand. He's been hounding me for a date ever since."

"So, what, you don't ever..." I trailed off, hoping she would get my meaning.

"What?"

"Well, you know... there's ways to get a fix even when you don't have a partner."

"Christopher Mason, are you asking me if I masturbate?" she teased, obviously thoroughly amused by my sudden timidness.

"Well?" I prodded.

"I'll answer your question because you've been so good about answering mine. But you have to say the word first."

"Fine. If you need a sexual fix, why don't you just ma-stur-bate?" I asked, making a show of saying the word.

"See, that wasn't so difficult. And I do. Frequently. But it's not the same and you know it."

I nodded in agreement. "You got me there."

"So what about you?"

I arched my eyebrows at her, "What about me?"

"Well, do you?"

My face turned a furious shade of red as she inadvertently reminded me of my incestuous little fantasy from this morning in her shower. I could never tell her about it. She would never speak to me again.

"Oh my God! You're blushing! When was the last time you did it?" she asked, clearly excited and by my way of thinking, overly amused at her discovery.

"I don't really like this game anymore." Now it was my turn to drain my glass. I did so and she quickly refilled it with the remainder of the first bottle of wine.

As she turned the corkscrew on the second bottle she forged ahead with her line of questioning.

"C'mon Chris. It's me. You can tell me anything, I won't judge you. You know that, so c'mon. I wanna know!"

I heaved a sigh and gave in. "This morning," I said and immediately dropped my forehead to the table. I couldn't see her expression but I was imagining one of shock and disbelief.

"So that's what took you so long in the shower," she casually replied. Maybe I hadn't surprised her. Maybe she didn't care. Either way the reaction wasn't as bad as I was expecting. In fact it wasn't bad at all, simply matter-of-fact and rather flat. But now it was my turn.

"OK, cousin. Like your mother always says -- turn-about is fair play. Answer your own question."

"What? When was the last time I did it?" she asked.

I nodded.

She grinned wide and seemed to blush a little herself, though she didn't blush nearly as easily as I did. "This morning," she said quietly. Then, after a long pause, "While you were in the shower."

No way! While I was in the shower she was out here. Doing what I was doing. At the same time! My cock flew to full mast as quickly as I'd ever known it to and immediately I had to shift in my seat to relieve the pressure.

"See? We're pretty much in the same boat." She finished opening the bottle of wine and plopped back in her chair, pulling her legs up to her chest as she did before but leaving them separated this time as she rested her arms on her knees. I couldn't help but glance down at her crotch -- her pink panties pulled tight against the cleft of her pussy. Was that? A dark spot on her bright pink panties? She was wet!

I guess my eyes lingered too long as she snapped her legs shut. I made the mistake of looking up at her eyes to see if I had been caught -- again -- looking at her intimate parts. Sure enough, she sat straight back in the chair, smug, smirking, and confident.

I was starting to feel the wine by then. I hadn't had a lot to drink but I didn't want to wake up in the same condition that I was in that morning. I decided that I'd better be careful not to get there. Aside from that Andi seemed to be teasing me relentlessly now and even though she was smoking hot, she was still my cousin. She was obviously going somewhere with this but I wasn't sure that it was a place we needed to go. I needed to call it a night. I still had this raging hard-on that I needed to take care of if I was going to get any sleep at all.

"Andi, I should probably turn in. I don't want to wake up hurting tomorrow like I did this morning."

She frowned at me. "Really? Right now?"

I shot her a look that said, "Yeah, really."

"Fine. But you're not going to sleep on the couch again, are you?" she asked.

I shot her the same look.

"One of these nights you're going to get tired of punishing yourself like this, but go ahead. You think it was the hangover that made you so sore this morning. Now you'll see."

I got myself settled on the couch but not before grabbing some tissue from the bathroom. As soon as Andi disappeared into her bedroom I tore at the zipper of my jeans and reached for my cock. Sweet release was a short number of strokes away with images of pink, wet panties floating in my head. I came hard and drifted off to sleep in record time.

###

It was my phone that woke me the next morning. Well, in fairness, I probably would have ignored it if it weren't for that most eye opening of odors filling my nose with fresh brewed goodness. I reached over to the coffee table where I had left my phone the night before. Habit took over when I saw Jennifer's name come up on the phone display and my thumb swiped the screen to answer. All too late I realized what I'd done. I cringed as I put the phone to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Chris, I know you probably hate me but just hear me out, OK?"

Had it been later in the day I would have hung up the phone. Had she sounded a little less pleading I would have hung up the phone. Had any number of things just been slightly different, I wouldn't have even spoken to her. But I did.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I went by and picked up my stuff. You didn't have to leave it on the side of the road, you know?"

"I was pissed. I'm still pissed. Did you call because you wanted to fight? Because if that's the case, I'll take the opportunity to remind you that I don't have to put up with your bullshit anymore." I said. It was true. I didn't realize how angry I still was with her until I heard her voice on the other end of the phone.

"No, wait! Don't hang up!" Again with the pleading.

"Then what do you want?"

"Look, I don't know if maybe someone stole it out of the box that you left on the side of the road or if you just forgot to put it in there but I couldn't find my jump drive."

Her jump drive. She had been working on a term paper for school for months. It was one of the few things that she actually gave a shit about. She would come over to use my computer, complaining that hers was too slow. For weeks I had been looking at the back of her head while she sat, click-click-clicking away doing research and roughing out her paper. Her drive was probably sitting in the USB port on my laptop, which was on my desk in my apartment.