Bittersweet Homecoming

He was silent for a while then said, "I don't know. I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like I'm cheating on him."

"It doesn't sound crazy at all," she said. He looked over at her and smiled. Then he took her hand and laced it with his.

"Come for dinner Sunday night," he said.

She groaned. "Connor..."

"We're just friends, Lovie. I don't know what all went down between you and my family when I left, but I'm back and we're friends. So I'm inviting my friend over for dinner."

She sighed. "Okay."

He squeezed her hand and smiled. "6 o'clock sharp."

~~~~~~

Afia came to the McIntyre home at 5:40pm that Sunday in a dark pink sweater, a high waist, knee length black pencil skirt with pink tights underneath, and complimented her face with natural looking makeup. Connor answered the door in jeans and a regular shirt.

"Wow!" he said looking her up and down. "You look fancy." He touched the pink jeweled clasp holding the side of her hair up.

"I just wanted to look presentable," she said. She was nervous but didn't want to show it.

Connor sensed it anyway. He kissed her cheek and led her inside. "It will be fine."

"Here," she handed him the blueberry rhubarb crumble. "Give this to your mother."

"Why don't you?" he said slyly, and brought her inside past the living room and dining room to the kitchen.

Katherine McIntyre was preparing the pot roast for the table. She looked up as they walked in and greeted Afia. "Hello Afia, it's been a long time. I would hug you but-" She held up her hands.

Afia smiled. "Hello Ms. McIntyre. Here, I brought over dessert for the table."

"Oh, that looks good," his mother said. "Did your mother make it?"

"No, I did. My mother works late shifts at the hospital so my dad and I are the chefs in our house."

"Well, isn't that... something," she said with a smile. "It's nice to know that you're traditional, though." Afia smiled widely and Connor who made a confused face. "You can place it right here on the counter, dear, and we'll bring it out in the end. Thank you for thinking of bringing it."

"You're welcome, Ms. McIntyre."

They went back into the hallway and Connor said quietly, "Traditional?" he snorted, making her laugh.

They walked into the living room and Angela, Connor's 14 year old sister was there watching The Hills on MTV. "Wow, she's all grown up now," Afia said quietly as they sat down.

He nodded, then spoke to his sister. "Say hi, Angie."

She looked at them. "Hi Angie," she joked.

"Don't be rude, smug," he called her.

"Don't call me smug, turd," she retorted, making him laugh. "That's pretty," Angie said, pointing at Afia's hair.

"Oh," Afia said as she touched the jeweled clasp. "You want it?"

"No," Angie scoffed, but kept looking at it.

But Afia stood up, took off her clasp and reached out. At first Angie backed up, but then allowed Afia to stand her up and touch her long blonde locks. Afia walked around her, straightened out her hair with her fingers, then pulled it up in a loop behind her and clasped it in her hair. She moved aside the strains from the front of her face so that it fell to the side instead.

"It looks better on you. You're beautiful," Angie told her.

Angie scoffed again. "I'm not beautiful. Mary Kate is beautiful. I'm the Sasquatch sister," she joked and poked her own side.

"I don't think that's true at all," Afia said to her softly.

Angie smiled at her. "Thanks," she said back softly.

"You're welcome." Afia went to go sit down and Angie asked, "Hey, do you know how to do makeup? I just bought all this stuff and Mary Kate said she was going to teach me but didn't."

Afia smiled. "Sure. Where is it?"

"Upstairs in my room. C'mon," the teenager said excitedly.

Afia turned to Connor, "I'm going to go hang out with your sister, okay?"

He chuckled. "Have fun, Lovie. Just be back downstairs before 6 o'clock, okay?" He watched Angie take his friend's hand and drag her up the stairs, and grabbed the remote to watch Psych instead.

Afia entered the typical teenage looking room, posters of her favorite artists and models on the wall, clothes everywhere from the floor to chairs to hanging on the closet door. Her dresser was full of makeup palettes, like she couldn't decide on which one to buy so she bought them all.

She turned to the older woman and said, "I know, it's a lot, right? I don't even know which one is my color. This?" She held up a foundation. "Or this?" She showed Afia a similar foundation with a slightly different undertone.

"Well, it depends on what you're going for," Afia said.

She sat her down at the chair in front of her mirror and went through the different ways to contour her face with makeup, then choose the foundation that closely matched her ivory skin tone but gave her a natural glow. She added a barely visible eyeshadow, eyeliner and blush, then lined her lips subtly and added a pink lip gloss.

"So you see, it's natural looking but still shapes the areas of your face, highlighting your features."

Angie was in awe of herself. "I've never looked this nice, ever."

"Well now you can, everyday," Afia said. Then she asked, "How is Rockville High treating you?"

Angie scoffed. "I hate everyone there. I hate the cool kids, including Mary Kate. Everyone there is so fake. No one wants to take about real issues like climate change and this stupid war that took my brother away." She stopped herself before she said more and looked away.

Afia sat on the edge of the bed. "I was scared too, when Connor left," she told her. Angie looked at her. "I was afraid of losing my very best friend in the entire world. I couldn't even imagine how you must have felt all these years, waiting for him to come home." Angie's eyes pooled with tears but she shrugged them away. Afia reached over and touched her leg. "But he's back now. And he's not going away again, he told me that."

"Yeah, but he's not the same," Connor's sister said sadly. "He's so sad and... The war changed him. I hate it."

"I know, he is a little different. But he's still your big brother. He's still going to hang out with you and be there if you need to talk about boys, just like he did for me when we were your age."

She laughed. "I am not talking to Connor about boys. He's not one of my girlfriends."

"You'd be surprised how good he is at being a girlfriend," Afia laughed. "Why do you think his three best friends are all women? He even recently gave me really good but unsolicited advice about my current boyfriend and I just might have to take it."

"You should be his girlfriend, you know. You guys are perfect for each other," Angie said assuredly.

Afia smiled. "Not quite. But I'm glad we're still bff's."

Angie rolled her eyes. "Please don't say 'bff's' You're too old for that now."

Afia laughed out loud. "C'mon, let's not be late for dinner."

She stood up and so did Angie, but Angie wrapped her arms around her and hugged her first. "You're so beautiful and perfect, Afia. I mean it. You should be his girlfriend, and then his wife so you can be my sister."

Afia patted her back. "C'mon, kiddo. I gotta hang with my bff later tonight."

"Ugh," Angie scoffed again, making her laugh.

By the time they made their way downstairs everyone was seated at the table except Connor. His face was stone and she immediately knew something was wrong as he stood in the entryway of the dining room. "What's wrong?" she asked him quietly.

But she did not have to wait for a response because she heard his brother's voice before she saw him. "Hey guuuuul," he said in a mocking voice. "When did the two of you start hanging out again?"

She turned to look at him and said void of emotion, "Hello, Matthew."

There were very few people in this world that Afia hated with every nerve in her body. It just so happened that the one person at the top of that list was the older brother of the one she loved the most in this world.

Matty smirked. "Hello Afeeeeeeya. It's like Africa, without the "Kah", right?"

Connor gave his brother a look of disdain. "Can you go fuck off, please?"

Matty laughed again. He cocked his head to the side as he surveyed Connor's friend. His eyes lingered on Afia's body then back up to her face. "Hmmm." He walked into the dining room to sit next to his wife, Stephanie.

Afia turned to Connor. "What the entire fuck was that? Did you see how he...leered at me?" She shuddered.

Connor shook his head. "Yeah, that was creepy as hell. Sit on the other side of me, next to Mary Kate and away from that asshole."

"Gladly," she said, following him inside the dining room.

Connor's father came up from his den in the basement last. He paused upon seeing Afia and then looked at Connor, but did not say anything as he sat down at the head of the table with his wife to his right and his oldest daughter to his left. That made Connor breathe a little easier that his father was more annoyed than angry.

Matty sat at the other end of the table with his wife Stephanie to his right, who was holding their third child Fredrick that had just turned one year's old. Their other two daughters, four year old Deann and six year old Madeline were eating in the living room having their nuggets for dinner.

Owen McIntyre held out his hands to hold and they all followed him, holding hands with the next person. He said grace and the food was passed around. Katherine made small talk with her daughter in law about her grandson when Mary Kate said loudly, "You're wearing makeup?"

She looked across the table at Angie whose rosy cheeks got rosier under everyone's watchful eye but she held her head up and said, "Yeah? What of it?"

"Nothing, I'm just surprised. You're not really the makeup type."

"Well I am now. Afia taught me. She did my makeup."

Afia smiled at her. Mary Kate scoffed. "That's surprising," she mumbled.

Afia turned to her and asked. "Why is that surprising, Mary Kate?"

She shrugged and stayed quiet. Stephanie spoke instead. "It's because you're different skin tones, so it's surprising that you did such a great job on her."

"What does having different skin tones have to do with my ability to apply makeup?" Afia asked. "I used what looks good on her and matches her skin tone, just like I would do for anyone else. My best friend Winter taught me how to do that, and she's a completely different skin tone than myself or Angie."

"Well she's probably still white," Stephanie said factually.

Afia double blinked. "So are you saying that only white people-" Connor reached over and patted her leg.

"It looks great, Ang," he said. "You're right, Afia did a great job. Glad she could teach you some things." He smiled at his sister, trying to defuse some of the tension.

It got quiet for a moment, then Matty spoke. "So you didn't answer me, Connor. When did you two start hanging out again?"

Afia returned the favor and patted Connor's leg. He said to his brother coldly, "Am I allowed to resume friendships that I had before I left, Matty?"

"Oh, just friends? I thought you were more than that," he said and looked over at their father.

Owen looked at Connor for an answer as well. "Afia has a boyfriend," he said.

"It's true, I do," she said with a smile. "Connor and I are just friends."

Owen made a small noise in his throat and looked down at his plate. But Matty kept going. "Really? That must be really hard for you, Connor. Having a beautiful woman as a friend. I know I couldn't do it. The desire would be too great. Especially after being around just men for the last four years."

Connor glared at his brother. "It wasn't prison, Matty. I was able to meet other people."

"And did you? Because I don't remember you talking about any girls while you in the Marines. Maybe you were waiting to come home and rekindle what you left behind." He smirked at his brother who did not smirk back.

Afia squeezed his leg to keep him calm. Connor replied, "Well if I did, it would be none of your business, now would it?"

Matty smiled at him, then looked at their father again. "It's none of our business, Dad. Did you hear that?"

Connor looked at his father who was interested in the conversation again, feeling his anxiety build up, so Afia said, "Well again, we're not together." She smiled at everyone at the table.

Owen made the noise in his throat again. Matty smiled smugly at them and said sarcastically, "Right."

~~~~~~

After dinner Connor grabbed the rum and a quarter gallon of fruit juice and led Afia back out the front door to the room over the garage. He turned on the heat to warm the room up and she made full glasses with more rum than fruit juice. As they settled in with their fruit cocktails on the couch, Connor took a sip and groaned.

"Wow, that was kinda awful wasn't it?"

Afia took a sip of her own and agreed. "Yeah it was. And I kinda hate your brother."

"I kinda hate him too, so..." he took a sip as she giggled. "Wanna go out tonight?"

"I don't know, where do you want to go?"

"I don't know, where do you want to go?" he replied.

"I don't know. I did tell Derek I would meet him for breakfast so I can't stay out too late."

Connor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Okay. But you're drinking, Lovie. You're planning on spending the night?"

"Oh." She put her glass down. Then she picked it back up and said, "I'll just leave my car here and you'll call me a cab. In fact..." Afia stood up and zipped down the zipper on the side of her skirt, then took it off, leaving her pink tights and pink sweater on. "Might as well get comfortable."

She lifted her feet onto the couch and tucked them underneath her. "Tell me about Aiden."

He smiled. "What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Everything you didn't tell me after your date on Saturday."

"It wasn't a date. Just two people hanging out."

"You didn't kiss him at the end of the night?" she asked.

"Nope." He sipped some more and watched her. She shook her head skeptically. He laughed. "We didn't kiss."

"Okay, if you say so." She took a sip of her drink.

He let a moment pass, then confessed, "He blew me in the parking lot."

Afia spit out her drink all over both of them and doubled over in laughter. Connor laughed too and it took a while for them to recover. When they did, she said first, "Holy shit, that didn't take long, did it?"

"What?" he said with a smile.

"For you to resume your man-whore ways."

"Why, because I let one dude suck my cock?"

She looked at him. "Didn't you let another guy suck your cock in the back room of that lounge Jack took you to?"

"Yeah, but that was nothing. Aiden wasn't some rando stranger," Connor told her.

"Are you planning on seeing him again?"

He hesitated, then said, "Maybe. Probably not."

"See? Man-whore."

"I mean, it was a pretty good blow job so I just might," he said smugly.

"Just don't ruin Jack's friendship with Aiden with your whoring ways, man-whore." She gave him a knowing look.

"Wasn't better than yours, though," he said with a smile.

She turned away and blushed. "Shut up."

"I'm serious. Where the fuck did you learn to suck dick like that, Lovie?" She smiled, winked and took a sip of her drink, the effects of the alcohol starting to get to her. He laughed. "Okay. Well, you've definitely outgrown me."

"The student has surpassed the master?" she asked smugly.

He gave her a look of disbelief. "You don't suck cock better than I do girl, trust me."

That made her laugh out loud, making him laugh loudly too. They did not notice Matty come in until the door creaked open. "What are y'all two laughing about?"

Connor gasped and turned to look at his brother, praying he did not hear his last words to her. "What do you want, Matty?" he said, hiding his fear behind anger.

"Just came to say goodnight. We're heading out and the kids wanted to say goodbye to their uncle Connor. They're downstairs in the car."

"Okay," Connor said and stood up. He started walking toward the door but Matty did not follow him, instead looked over at Afia.

"You're already getting naked over here, huh? That was fast of you." Matty said to her.

She glared at him. "Nobody is getting naked, Matthew."

"Well, if he did get you naked, I wouldn't blame him. You're filling out there a little. Curves in the front. Child bearing hips. I don't know if you're wife material but you're certainly good for something," he said licking his lips.

Before Afia could react Connor slammed him against the wall and grabbed his shirt color by the neck, cutting off his circulation. Afia stood up and yelled, "Connor, stop!"

Matty grabbed his wrists with both hands, his eyes wide with fear and his face turning red, but Connor did not let go. He said, "Don't you ever in your fucking life talk to her like that again. Brother or not, I will kill you where you stand."

"Connor!" Afia yelled his name again.

Connor let go and Matty shoved his chest, although it was like hitting an unmovable stone. "I'm not afraid of you, Connor."

"You should be," Connor said dangerously and stepped closer. "Tell Dee and Maddy I love them. Now get the fuck outta here."

His brother glared at him, but quickly turned around and went back down the steps. When he heard the front door closed, Connor slammed the main door. Afia got up to walk toward him as he walked toward the couch. They spoke at the same time.

"Are you okay, Lovie?"

"Connor, are you okay?"

They met in the middle and he hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry about that," Connor said.

"Don't be sorry for him. He's a sorry ass dude."

"He's never allowed up here again when I'm here, especially when you're here. I promise you."

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. Afia lifted her head up and looked at him. He leaned down and kissed her lips softly, then kissed her lips again. She closed her eyes and allowed the kisses. The third time he leaned down to kiss her she pulled his bottom lip into hers. He slipped his tongue in her mouth and tasted the cocktail she was drinking on her tongue.

Connor reached up and ran his hands through her hair. She held onto him tighter and slipped her tongue back in his mouth. He sucked and licked her tongue, flicking his tongue back to her mouth, pulling her closer against his body. The feel of his erection on the lower part of her belly was enough to make her pull back.

She jumped out of his arms and turned around. "Fuck," she spatted more to herself. Afia was getting carried away. Between the alcohol and the aggressive way he defended her, her desire for him was vibrating through her body.

Connor hesitated, but then he touched her shoulders. "I'm sorry," he said softly. He kissed the back of her head and said, "Maybe you should go. I'll call you a cab."

"No, wait." She turned around to face him. "Since when do we have all this sexual tension between us? Lately I get around you and I just want to jump your fucking bones. That has never been us."

He was thoughtful. "I think we've always been a little... curious about each other. The other universe us. What could be. What might have been..."

"Well we can't just give into it." She shook her head vigorously.

Although a part of him agreed, he didn't like her tone. It was too definitive for him. "Why not?" he asked.

"Because it's going to ruin our friendship," Afia said. "Isn't that why you're not jumping Jack's bones? Because you need his friendship?"

"And I need your friendship too, Afia."

"Exactly and-"

He cut her off. "But Jack and I explored our curiosity with each other. We know how it feels to be together so there is no need to explore it again unless we want to be serious about each other. You and me... We've never really explored... sexually."

"Prom?" she reminded him.

"That was nothing," he said dismissively.

"That was everything to me," she said almost angrily.