Bryan & Carla after the Supermarket Ch. 04

"But they are so ... old and wrinkly. Gross! Eughh!"

"You can be too young for a bit of lovey-doving, Cass, admittedly, and I do mean to speak to you about that later, but you're never too old for romantic love, as clearly demonstrated by my family every chance they get. Anyway, they are not really that old, and they are only demonstrably proving that they are nowhere near past it, yet."

"Well, they look about 60, a bit older than my Mum anyway. So, actually, how old are they, then?"

"Not certain. I think they're both about 70. They celebrate their gold wedding later this year, and Mum's been planning the event of the century for the pair of them for ages, but don't say anything, it's supposed to be Mum and Dad's secret."

"I'd never put them down as 70! I mean, your Nan's lovely, always smiley, and your Granddad looks fit even if he has lost all his hair."

"Well, Granddad only retired from his building business a year or so ago, but found it hard to stop popping in every day instead of letting my uncles get on with it. He found it hard to let go, but Nan packed up shortly after we moved down here, so she was free to babysit as Mum and Dad tried their best to cram this place full of cots. Anyway, you should be careful about how you judge people, they are my sweet grandparents and I actually lived with them full time until I was about three years old."

"Whatever. So what are they doing here, anyway?"

"Babysitting," Brie replied.

"But you could be-"

"-doing babysitting? Sure, and I would normally, but I couldn't get these images of Dad while minding all the kids, could I?"

"So where are your Mum and Dad, and why are you presumably hacking images of them?"

"Ah, it is while Mum and Dad are at the Palace ... hold on, looks like I'm in!"

"In? In what?"

"Ha! Ha! I'm getting images through!" Brie shouted in triumph, her fingers flying over a keyboard, "and just in time, too!" She started typing on one of the tablets, too, and carried on a conversation not aimed at Cassie, while automatically touching an ear bud for a moment. "Hi, Uncle Arthur, are you getting these pictures? ... yes? ... good ... right-ho."

Cassie was intrigued with what Brie was doing. She stepped off the bed and moved closer to Brie and her computer. She seemed to have an old fashioned flat screen computer that she had seen on display in an antique shop once, plus a laptop to one side and a couple of large format tablets on the other side. The flat screen showed a view looking down a hall, dominated by a red carpet, with an Army officer in full dress uniform marching down the carpet. As the man drew nearer the camera, Brie moved her fingers on the touchpad of the laptop and the camera panned around to show the-

"Oh fuck!" Cassie exclaimed, "that's the King! if that's being broadcast on the TV, how can you be controlling the camera?"

"Ah, that's because it is CCTV, not a TV broadcast camera." Brie's fingers flew, and another camera popped up to the main screen from a tablet where it was stacked with a number of other images, one of them showed a close-up of the King. "There's only us, the TV in the lounge, the den where the kids are watching, oh and the Fighting Cocks pub, that are seeing this."

"How the fuck?"

Brie grinned and polished the fingernails of one hand on her blouse, "Being my Army Cadet squad's Comms Specialist Sergeant, I am expected to be able to communicate electronically at all times, wherever we need to be."

"So where did you need to be today?"

"Buckingham Palace. I've hacked into the Palace security system and as far as their control room is concerned, these two cameras have gone off-line, so they can't see me controlling them. They'll investigate and shut me down, but ten minutes is all I need. That's why I had to monitor the system without them knowing I had access and had to leave it until the very last minute before pulling the plug and taking control, and couldn't therefore look after the kids." Then she touched her ear plug again and spoke, "Nan, you getting this? ... good, OK ... yes, bye."

Cassie was standing behind Brie now, looking at the screens. On the laptop to the left was a split screen showing a screen divided into four images, two of them showing the red carpet scenes she'd seen on the big screen, plus an image out in the sunshine of the Palace garden, and the final image the inside of a pub taken from a tablet propped up behind the bar, with the sports TV on the bar wall showing the Palace scene for the regulars that were packed in like sardines.

With her prep work done, Brie turned to address Cassandra, the girl she had invited along to speak to. She had arranged the time earlier in the week, before Dad announced that he was getting the medal and that the King was presenting it to him. He was only allowed three guests, usually a spouse and parents, so those three places were a given. Brie decided that she needed full coverage and multi-image recordings of the event for posterity, hence the hacking operation and arranging the logistics of getting her grandparents down to take care of the kids. Now she was free for a moment to address Cass.

"So, Cass, what do you think of Aaron?"

Cassie looked from the screens to stare at Brie. Now, she thought, we were getting to the reason for the invitation she had received out of the blue earlier in the week. She knew it wasn't an offer to join "The Elite", who everyone at college regarded as Brie and her entourage. They were all of the smartest and a large number of the most attractive people in the college. Cassie thought of herself as reasonably bright and pretty, not beautiful but just above average, but just not quite good enough to be one of the select few, who were forging friendships that would affect their careers and relationships for years to come. Aaron? He was Brie's gorgeous younger brother, an Adonis that every girl Cass knew had the hots for. She hadn't realised she had attracted the attention of Brie and this probably meant that she was going to be warned off. These Taylors were beautiful people, open and generous in their social lives but could close ranks and pull up the drawbridges if any one of them felt under threat. Honesty, that's what always came across from the Taylors. Look at how her grandparents expressed their love fully and without embarrassment. No point in lying, she thought, no point at all.

"I love him, Brie. I think he is beautiful, smart, kind, everything I would ever want or desire in a life partner. I couldn't imagine settling for anyone else, only ... I can see that his family, and probably Aaron as well, think I'm a right dork and completely out of his league. I ... I just can't help how I feel."

Brie smiled. It was a warm, compassionate smile that somehow, impossibly, held out hope for Cassandra. That was a good sign, Cassie thought, at least she hasn't told me to piss off yet.

"You say you love him, yet you sleep around with boys like a slut. Am I correct? There's no sanitized way to say this Cass, but you're a slut. You'll sleep with anyone."

"Yeah, but sex is totally safe now."

"Aaron won't go out with a slut, plain and simple." Brie said quietly and firmly. "You see, Cassie, my Mum and Dad were sexually active without losing their virginities until they were certain they had found their soulmates, only then did they surrender their precious gift to one another, forsaking all others."

"Nobody does that any more, Brie, with guaranteed chemically-targeted birth control, plus the complete eradication of STDs, sex is 100% safer now than it was in our parents' time."

"Well, we still do our best to hold onto our virginities, it has become a tradition now in our family for three generations, and we've kept it by being open and honest-"

"Huh! Brie, may I remind you that you have the reputation of being a bigger slut than me!"

"Yes? That right, Cass? And what do you base that reputation on?"

"Well, you see a lot of boys on dates, more boys than me. I mean, we are both 19 nearly 20, so it's not illegal to fuck around, especially knowing it's absolutely perfectly safe, is it?"

"True, but sex is not always love and we see a value in preserving ourselves until that right person comes along. We maintain our resolve by concentrating on using foreplay to satisfy our dates, and being perfectly frank together in our weekly family sex education talks."

"Fuck! Family sex education talks? Every week? What the ... I shudder to think-"

"I simply sit down with Mum, once a week, or sometimes more often if I've had a spectacular date or a memorable BJ to recount-"

"What, you talk to your Mum about actual details, like BJs?"

"Of course. We have no shame when it comes to love and ensuring the security of our relationships, Cass. Take my Nan downstairs. She never knew her father, because her mother was a slut. Her mum did get married two or three times but never for long, bad choices of husbands or because she couldn't stop still putting out for strangers. Nanny Myra's mum was never happy, so Myra resolved to stay pure and make the right choices."

"That's where your Granddad comes in?"

"Yes. My Nan went through a lot of casual dates with boys, giving them hand and blow jobs, allowing them a little groping but no further, restricting them to as many as a handful of dates before rejecting them all in turn. She kept each short relationship faithful until she terminated it, and she ensured that she was always in the driving seat. Then she met this shy building apprentice who she liked the look of."

"Your Granddad?"

"Yes, Barry Brown. He had a shocking head of ginger hair then, Nan says, but I just can't see him with hair at all! She thought he was nice, bright, honest, hard-working, and he was ultra fit, keen to get on in business for himself and had little spare time for girls and dates. He dated seldom so he was awkward with girls and shy. He thought with his hulking build he was intimidating and his rough work hands meant that he didn't have much going for him. But Nan and Grandad got on well together, with Nan building his confidence over their first couple of dates. As he relaxed more, he became less uncomfortable around women, he started to recognize that he was getting hit on by bored housewife customers and he fucked a couple of them, and caught an STD from one."

"So this was like a long while ago before they cured all that shitty stuff?"

"Yes, over fifty years ago, some diseases were killers, and for preventing pregnancies and safety from infections men and women wore rubber sheaths covering the man's penis or bags inserted into vaginas."

"Gross!"

"So Nan sucked a lot of cocks, but rejected a few unsavory ones too, so she saw the early signs on their date and she told Grandad to go to a clinic and sort himself out. She was really disappointed in him. They had had a few dates over a month or so and were close to her five-date decider. In fact she'd already made up her mind that he was the one she wanted."

Cassie nodded, and breathed, "Yeah, I get it. You know, you just know."

"Granddad did too. He took the pills prescribed, but he also swallowed the pill that Myra was not only the best giver of hand and blow jobs, but great at everything, kissing, cuddling, listening, talking. They had fun. Most of all, she talked about what they did as they did it. He was extra gentle with his work-rough hands, often stroking her with the backs of his hands. He even took to wearing gloves at work, putting up with the jeers of his tough workmates who rarely dated, for being a sissy. But he knew he pleased her, they pleased each other and he begged her that if they ever went out again they would be exclusive. Eventually she gave in and they're still together."

"OK, Brie, I didn't mind them petting now. I wondered if it was a test," she laughed, "I bet they're watching this now. But what about the screening at the pub?"

"That's Nan Taylor's pub, only she's Mrs Campbell now, run by her husband who we call Uncle Arthur. Wait, Dad's about to get his medal."

"Oh my God! IT IS your Dad! I never ... oh, he looks so yummy, I've always thought he looks a lot like Aaron."

"Yes, that's why I wanted to speak to you about Aaron."

"Ah, is this because he has noticed me at last? Where is he now, anyway?

"He's watching this elsewhere. You see, Dad kept quiet about holding sex education talks with the boys, similar to what us girls have done for three generations. Dad told Mum that, for a while now, he has taken up the sex education talks with Aaron, probably since puberty and he thought I should have a word with you about what he had discovered. Cassie, you are nineteen, nearly twenty, the same as me, yes?"

"Yup."

"Cass, did you know that Aaron's two years under age?"

Cassie sat down on the bed, white faced, "No! He can't be, but your Mum had you kids every two or three years, I thought he was maybe seventeen, coming up for eighteen, or even eighteen already. I mean, he's so mature and he is out with friends, including girls all the time."

"The girls are Army Cadets, they are out in social groups having fun, they are not 'dates'."

"Look, I know you're his sister an'all, but you gotta admit he's absolutely gorgeous."

Brie laughed, "True, Aunt Ann says Aaron's already sensational."

"I like your Aunt Ann already, who is she?"

"She's our Great Aunt, Dad's Mum's sister, but she would flip if we called her 'great'. She's an alcoholic, but fantastic fun. Dad says she hasn't had a drink since she became Aaron's God Mother, but Mum whispered to me that she actually gave up drink when they bulldozed her favourite boozer."

"I still can't see why he's too young."

"There was a big gap between Aaron and me, he's nearly fifteen, Nell's twelve, Jimmy's nine, Jack's six and Toby's five."

"Why the gap?

"Best laid plans, or something like that, going wrong. Mum controlled the sex in her dates so she remained a virgin, but met someone, our Dad, with better technique than her at avoiding sex."

"If they were both avoiding sex...."

"It turned out that they had both had the hots for each other, like forever, and I was the result. It was three or fours years later they got together again and married in their home town, hence the delay before Aaron was conceived."

"I'll never have a chance with Aaron now, will I, Brie?" Cassie groaned in anguish and buried her head in the pillow. "For one thing my virginity boat sailed long ago and by the time he's ready to courting, I'll be too old for him. I'll died an old maid or an old slut!" She began to bawl and Brie handed her a tissue.

"Well, if you carry on doing what you are doing, then no, you won't have a chance with him, Brie admitted sadly, before the screen took her attention, "Ah, the King is pinning the medal on Dad now."

Cassie sprang up to look as Brie zoomed the CCTV in for a close look at the medal and zoomed out again, as her Dad took the salute to His Majesty, spun smartly around and marched away. Suddenly the screen went blank. Brie tapped away on this keyboard and that keyboard, pausing at one stage with her fingertip on her ear bud, saying, "Yes, Unk, it was only a matter of time before they closed me down, at least we got the money shot!" Just then the screen filled with an outside shot of a vast lawn with people standing around and Brie zoomed in on a doorway, just as her Dad emerged and was embraced by a lovely woman in a khaki uniform, who he picked up and spun around in joy. When he put her down he was congratulated by an older couple who had been over to one side standing slightly apart.

"What is the medal that your Dad is getting?"

"Military Cross, for some action in a place so sensitive that anyone outside of a secure inner circle is to be eliminated if they found out where and what for."

"So you hacked in to find out?"

"Of course."

Cassie nodded, neither of them watching the screen any more. "So you think that I've no chance with Aaron even in two years' time?"

"Well, what do you think of Aaron, now and what you think he would be like in two years?"

"Well, scrumptious now, obviously, the most beautiful man I've seen, and he'll be the same only surrounded by younger fitter girls than me who want to bed him."

"You hit the nail on the head, Cass. What you have going for you is that at the moment Aaron thinks you're cute and, if you worked at it he thinks you could be beautiful. You are bright, in a streetwise and common sense way, he likes your bluntness and sense of fun and humour, and loves how friendly you are to people you would otherwise eclipse, which is quite uncommon in girls who are as pretty as you."

"He said all that?" Cassie looked gobsmacked.

"Pretty much. But on the downside, you know nothing about him other that his physical looks, you don't know anything about or share any of his interests. That is a recipe for disaster he thinks. He is fit and hard bodied and prefers girls who are similarly fit. You are pretty and well built but soft in comparison. He mentioned that the age difference is not an issue once he is older, and thinks you have long term potential as a Taylor girl."

"Wow, where do I start?"

"Well, for a start, cut out the number of different men you go out with and stop fucking every man you go out with."

"I have needs, Brie."

"And that is his concern. The Taylors are exclusively into one-man, one-woman relationships."

"You date all the time."

"Yes, date being the operative word, I don't fuck any of them. Occasionally, I like a boy enough to thank him with a hand job, and a couple of times in over two years, I've given BJs. I am still looking for my soulmate and not come close yet. As Nan says, she kissed a lot of frogs before Grandad became her prince. If you think Aaron is someone you could settle down with, then you need to clean up your act immediately."

"I could do that. I could get rechargeable batteries, especially while Mum pays the electric...."

"And you could kill two birds by joining the Army Reserve, toughen yourself up, discover self-reliance and self-discipline and the younger Reserves and older Cadets often train together, so you could get to know each other better. Then date him knowing that there's no way he's getting into your pants until you are both sure you are each other's 'The One'."

"Where do I sign?...."

BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDENS

"Sweetheart, you look so distinguished, in your number one uniform and splendid new gong, I'm tempted to drag you off into those bushes." Carla breathed into his ear as soon as he felt they were out of earshot and his parents had already congratulated him and stood off to take photos of their son and his beautiful wife, with the Palace in the background.

"And you are gorgeous in your Army Reserve togs, Lieutenant Taylor. It's a shame the rest of our family couldn't be here, particularly the children," Bryan mused as smiled for his parents' photographs, "They'd have had a kick being here."

"Oh, actually Bryan, there is one of our children here, but he or she is quite small at the moment."

Carla smiled sweetly at her husband as she could sense the wheels turning in his head for a moment before he spoke.

"You're pregnant?"

"Yes, I saw the Doc on Wednesday but before I could tell you, you announced this secret presentation had been sprung on you and I thought it had better wait, especially as this is bound to be the last of our brood."

"Wait? Come on, get me up to speed, do you have a date yet, when are you going for a scan-"

As soon as Carla released the guard that she had clamped on her feelings, ever since he had proudly announced that he and three guests were summoned by Royal Command to attend the Palace to receive his bravery award directly from the King, and beamed at him, Bryan picked her up under her arms and lifted her high above his head and spun himself around, looking up into the delighted face of the wife he worshipped even more than he thought humanly possible.