Carpooling With My Sister

"You're my brother and all that, but you're also the guy I talk to the most." She paused there, and I felt like she had more to say, so I stayed bent forward. Mia also bent forward as she stirred the contents of the wok. As I waited, my eyes were drawn to her chest. Mia was wearing a polo shirt that was tight enough on her that it emphasized her tits, and she had enough buttons undone at the collar to show an appealing amount of skin. If she bent forward a little more, I'd be able to see her bra.

I moved back and turned to face the entrance to the break room. I felt guilty for ogling my sister. I hadn't meant to and even though it had just happened, I knew Mia would have been disappointed if she had caught me. My sister was attractive, and it was easy to admire her good looks, but I had slipped into the habit of admiring her nice body far more than a brother should. I needed to do a better job of keeping my mind from wandering when I was around her.

Should I have called my sister a heartbreaker? What kind of brother tells his sister she's a heartbreaker? It seemed wrong, but at the same time, what was wrong with telling her the truth?

Then I had a sudden thought - Mia was a conservative dresser. And yet, she had on a polo shirt that was tighter on her than anything she wore to work, and she had it fully unbuttoned. She hadn't intended for me to get a good look down her shirt...had she?

That was craziness. I needed to pull myself together. Too many long days at work. I was too easily distracted now.

Mia continued cooking. By her posture and how she was moving, I could tell she wanted me to say something. But what?

She had just told me that I was the man in her life. I guessed she wanted me to reciprocate in some way. Was Mia the woman in my life? She was the woman I spent the most time with and the woman whose opinion I valued the most. Still...it wasn't a phrase I'd feel comfortable saying. But I felt like I should say something that expressed how I felt toward Mia. I reached out and gently pulled on her shoulder. She set down her spatula and turned toward me as I pulled her into a hug. I said, "You're the bright spot in my life right now. I'm glad my opinion means a lot to you. Your opinion means a lot to me."

Mia leaned hard into me as she let me hug her. She said, "I enjoy spending time with you. Before I started commuting with you, I never thought about doing anything with you when I had free time. Now, I regret how little you were in my life."

"I think we had to grow up enough that we could interact as adults instead of siblings for us to enjoy being with each other. And I do enjoy being with you."

I felt odd hugging my sister. That was not how our family behaved. We were the stoic type that never complained and rarely showed emotion. I couldn't remember my parents telling me that they loved me or Mia that they loved her; they were the types to let their actions show their love. I had told only one girlfriend that I loved her, and that was after dating her for almost a year. I never told Ginny that I loved her. I wouldn't be surprised if Nathan was the only man that Mia had said I love you to. Yet here we were, hugging like this was perfectly normal for us.

I gave Mia a quick squeeze and then released her. She went back to cooking. I said, "I've got big news to tell you on the drive home."

My sister gave me a questioning look before saying tentatively, "Okay." I hoped she realized my news was something I didn't want overheard.

Mia changed the subject by saying, "Maria is having a party tonight. I don't like being home during her parties."

"How come?"

"It's mostly friends of her boyfriend. I feel like they spend all night hitting on me."

Given how good my sister looked, I wasn't surprised the guys would hit on her.

I said, "You could stay in your room."

"That's what I do. But regularly a guy will knock on my door and tell me to come out and join the party. I'm getting tired of making polite excuses for not doing so."

"I can see that getting old."

"Could I please stay at your place tonight? I'll sleep on the couch. I'd much prefer a quiet evening to having to listen to Maria's party."

I asked in fake outrage, "Are you saying that my Friday nights are boring?"

"Well, uh...

I winked and said, "Sure you can stay. It'll be nice to have some company."

"Great! Thanks so much." Mia bounced happily a couple of times and then gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll drive home after we get to your apartment, grab some stuff, and drive right back." She poured the contents of the wok onto two plates. "Let's eat!"

* * * *

Later when we got into my car, Mia asked, "So, what's the big news?"

I started the car and began driving. "We had a departmental meeting today, and Janice announced we're going to get low-wall cubes next month to foster teamwork and improve communication."

After a while, Mia said, "So."

"So...one of my coworkers said he had worked someplace which had low-wall cubes before coming to us, and that you heard every conversation and every phone call going on around you. He found it impossible to seriously think with so much noise. I added that I speak to people outside of our department and outside of the company much more than people within my department, so improving my inter-departmental communication isn't going to help much. All my coworkers agreed with me."

"And what did Janice say to that?"

"People's voices aren't going to be a problem because they're going to pipe in white noise."

Mia said with a hint of amazement, "They're going to solve the noise problem by adding more noise?"

"Oh, yeah. Makes a ton of sense, doesn't it?" I could feel my frustration rising. "I think it's all about control. Janice wants to be able to stare down our row of cubes and make sure we're all busy." I forced myself to relax my hands on the steering wheel. "Janice is a terrible manager. She doesn't inspire me in any way. Everyone hates working for her. She hasn't done a thing to make us more productive. All she's done is make us work more hours. That doesn't take any skill, any talent. All that takes is being cruel and heartless with no life." I took a big breath to calm myself. "I've had it. I really like my coworkers, I enjoy my work, but I can't take Janice anymore. I'm going to update my resume this weekend and look for a new job."

Mia was quiet for a while, and then she said in a small voice. "I love my job. I've been learning so much, and I feel really appreciated there. I can see myself building a career there. If you got a job someplace else and stopped driving downtown, I don't know what I'd do."

We were quiet for a while, and I eventually said, "Would you like me to find another job downtown?"

"Would you?" Mia said excitedly.

"No promises, but I'll make downtown my primary search location."

"Oh, that'd be awesome!" My sister twisted in her seat, leaned over, and hugged me. "That would mean so much to me."

I hadn't thought about how a new job might impact our carpool situation. But now that Mia mentioned it, I definitely wanted it to continue. When I drove to work on weekends, I found the drive so boring and empty. It was like the commute with Mia was all bright color, so full of life; but without Mia it was lifeless, all drab grays.

Mia said, "We'll work on your resume tonight." She added excitedly, "Tomorrow, you find some job openings you're interested in, and I'll help you with a cover letter. I'll do whatever I can to help you find a new job."

* * * *

I jumped up from my computer when I heard Mia put her key in my door lock. By the time she got the door opened, I was there to help her with her stuff. My sister dumped her stuff on or next to the couch and then walked over to my Pez dispenser collection.

What had convinced me to get this apartment was that it had three long shelves on one wall. The bottom shelf had my Star Wars Pez dispensers, the middle one had my Marvel Pez dispensers, and the top one had the rest of my Pez dispensers. I really liked how the shelves displayed my collection.

When I joined Mia in front of my collection, she asked, "Which ones are new?"

I pointed out the three I had purchased since the last time she had been over. She picked each one up, examined it, and put it back. My collection would be more valuable if I kept the dispensers in their original packing material, but I enjoyed playing with them too much to care. Mia picked up one of my Princess Leia dispensers. Those were her favorites.

I said, "Ginny could never understand why someone would have a Pez dispenser collection."

"It makes you happy. What's there to understand?" She set down the Princess Leia dispenser, turned to me, and said, "I'd like my boyfriend to have a collection of some sort. Then when he had a bad day at the office or was grumpy because I had nagged him to do something he had promised to do, I could talk about his collection to put him in a happier mood." Mia walked toward my computer. "How's the resume going?"

"Pretty well. I've got down what I want to cover. Now, I need to fine-tune it."

For the next hour, Mia and I worked on my resume. She helped me with the wording and the formatting. Around ten, I said, "I think that's good enough for now. I may make some more changes after looking at job openings tomorrow."

Mia said, "I'll go change into my bedclothes, and then let's watch some TV."

"Okay."

My sister grabbed her daypack, went into my bedroom, and closed the door. I had no idea what she would change into. I guessed something fairly conservative which wouldn't show a lot of skin, something comfortable, but not baggy. When she came out of my bedroom, she was wearing what looked like a light pink, women's cut T-shirt that went down to almost her knees instead of her waist. Not overtly sexy, but she looked good in it. She was also wearing pink and white striped socks that came up past her knees, which gave her a youthful, fun look.

Mia joined me on the couch. She lovingly stroked the cushion between us. "I'm glad you bought this from us. It was my favorite piece in our apartment. I'm glad I'm able to come visit it."

"It is a very stylish piece of furniture." The couch had white upholstery with black wood highlights in the arms and across the top of the back. The back was high, and the stitching on it made diamonds of the upholstery. The cushions and back were well-padded, making it very comfy to sit on. It was wide enough that three people could sit comfortably on it. "And the end tables I also bought from you nicely complement it. It doesn't go with my other furniture, but I'll get rid of those eventually and keep this. It'll easily outlast that Ikea trash. It's very comfortable. After a long day at work, I like to lie down on it and listen to music. I never pictured myself owning a couch this nice."

"I'm glad you like it as much as I do. And it's not a couch; it's a sofa."

I decided to give Mia a little grief. "It's a couch. Nobody I know owns a sofa."

"I'm telling you, it's a sofa," Mia argued good-naturedly. "A European-style sofa."

"What's the difference between a couch and a sofa?"

"Functionally, they're the same but sofas are more stylish and elegant than couches."

Well, I had learned something new. Mia was something of an interior designer. She liked reading home decorating magazines, and the decor of her place with Nathan had been gorgeous. She had given me advice about decorating this apartment, and Ginny had been impressed with the results.

Mia asked, "What do you think about while you listen to the music on the sofa?"

"Work," I said bitterly. "I think about all the things I have to get done the next day before Janice will let me go home. I think about how miserable I am working for Janice. It takes me a while to unwind enough that I can think about something besides work."

When I did finally unwind enough to think of something besides work, I thought mainly about Mia. I'd review everything I said to her that day, and I'd think of new things to say to her for the next day. I felt uneasy about how much time I spent thinking about my conversations with my sister, but I put it down as practice for when I started dating again.

Mia frowned. "Nathan never liked this sofa."

"He didn't?"

"No. He wanted one of the cushions to fold down to provide a place to hold his beer."

"That's why you have end tables."

"Exactly!" Mia turned to face me with one hand balled into a fist. "But he didn't want to have to reach all the way to the end table, and he wanted something that had a recessed cup holder." Mia rolled her eyes. "He never said anything about wanting a fold-down cushion with cup holders while I was shopping for a sofa. He didn't give me any ideas on what to get. He just said, 'I'm sure you'll get something nice.' And then he complained about what I bought."

I didn't think I had ever seen Mia this worked up. "That doesn't seem fair."

"It wasn't! We spent a lot of money on this sofa. It has an eight-way hand-tied construction and a solid oak frame, so it should last at least 25 years. It was the centerpiece of our living room. That room had a very elegant, classic look that I was very proud of. And when Nathan grumbled about having to reach so far to set his beer down, I wanted to throw something at him. I loved that Nathan and I rarely fought. I don't like fighting. This sofa was the one thing we regularly disagreed on."

I said jokingly, "Instead of fighting, he'd just let you have your way?"

Mia rolled her eyes. "The big thing with me is don't surprise me. I like to watch TV in the evenings, and I like to pick the shows. If Nathan wanted to watch a football game, he'd say at dinner, 'Would you mind if I watched football after dinner?' And I always said yes. While he watched the game, I'd sit on the sofa with him and read, or play a game on my tablet. I'd watch the commercials with him and talk about those. We'd have a good time together. But if I was watching a show, and he was to grab the remote and suddenly change it to football, that would make me very angry. I've had other boyfriends do that kind of thing, but Nathan never did. When there was an issue, we'd talk it out and make a mutual decision. Nathan was very reasonable about everything, except this sofa." Mia ran her hand lovingly along the wood on the top of the sofa back. "I tried everything to get him to like it. When I saw ads that had similar sofas, I'd show them to him to get him to appreciate how this sofa made the living room. The few times we had friends over, I'd always fish for comments on it, and it always got a lot of praise. I even tried making some happy memories on it with him."

Mia suddenly froze, like she realized that she had said too much.

"Happy memories?"

Mia suddenly blushed. "Yeah. You know..." She held that meaningfully.

I didn't get what she was alluding to. "No, I don't know."

Mia looked down in embarrassment and blushed even more. "Well...you know...we had sex on the sofa. I thought that would get him to like it."

"You had sex on this sofa?" I asked in a raised voice.

Mia gave me an embarrassed nod.

"Several times?" I asked even louder.

Mia gave me another embarrassed nod.

I raised my hands up in exaggerated outrage. "This sofa has sex juice on it, and YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

Mia didn't know what to make of my overreacting. "You couldn't tell."

I jumped up and slapped my hands to my forehead. "OH MY GOD! I'VE BEEN SITTING ON SEX JUICE FOR MONTHS!"

Mia giggled at my overreacting. "Stop being such a baby about it. I cleaned the sofa afterward."

I started walking around the sofa with my hands on top of my head. "MY SISTER IS A WILD WOMAN WHO SOLD ME A SOFA COATED IN SEX JUICE."

Mia got off the sofa and swatted me gently on the back. "Stopping making such a big deal about it."

I walked quickly to get away from her while saying "MY SISTER--"

Mia caught up to me and swatted my back again. "Stop that."

I began jogging. "--IS A WILD WOMAN--"

Mia giggled as she swatted my back again.

"--WHO SOLD ME--"

Mia swatted my back again. We started running around the sofa laughing with Mia regularly swatting me on the back. After a couple of laps, we both collapsed on the sofa laughing.

When we caught our breath, Mia said, "You're such a goof."

I chuckled at that and then replied in a slightly teasing voice, "Hearing that my sister had had lots of sex on my sofa was so shocking that I overreacted. I'm sorry." After a few moments, I added, "And I still really like this sofa." I stroked the fabric appreciatively. "When you say you don't like surprises, you mean you don't like sudden changes in plans, right?"

"More than that. Any kind of unpleasant surprise. You're really good at not surprising me. Take today. You didn't just find a new job and spring it on me. You told me before you had even started searching, so we could talk about how this affects me, and I was able to convince you to look primarily at downtown jobs."

"You're really okay with helping me find a new job?" I felt a little like I had blackmailed her into doing it.

"I am! I want you to be happy, and your current job makes you miserable." Mia touched my arm with her hand. "You've always acted like your working late is this huge inconvenience to me, and it's not. I've built it into my schedule. I started attending my aerobics class because you consistently worked late, and that's been the best place for me to make friends. I want to continue that after you find another job. And cooking dinner for you has actually been great for me. I've been able to try out a bunch of recipes I've been meaning to try that Nathan never would've touched. Cooking dinner for us is now built into the schedule. And besides," my sister poked me in the tummy a couple of times, "you were getting a little pudgy before I started cooking dinner for us. Now, you're down to a good weight."

"Well..."

"You're great about giving me a heads up if you think you'll work later than usual. When I asked if you'd give me a ride to work, you told me up front that you'd have to work late occasionally, and I prepared myself for that."

"But if I didn't work late so much, you'd have more free time to do what you want in the evenings."

Mia shook her head. "I haven't wanted free time in the evenings. I've been fine from when I left Maria's until I got back. When I got back to Maria's, I'd fall apart. Right after I broke up with Nathan, I'd bawl my eyes out every evening."

I was filled with such sadness. I reached out for Mia, and she came into my arms. As we hugged, I said, "But you're going to have a good time tonight. Whatever you want to do, we'll do."

"What I want to do is watch TV with good company."

I ended the hug and reached for my remote. "Triple D?" Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives was one of Mia's favorite TV shows. After she and Nathan had vacationed in Chicago for a week, the thing she talked about the most was all the restaurants that she had seen on Triple D that she had gone to.

"Not tonight. Let me browse."

I handed Mia the remote. She stood up and flipped through the possibilities. She said over her shoulder, "Lie down on the sofa."

"Okay." She was really taking advantage of me saying we'd do whatever she wanted. I lay down and said, "If you say it's a sofa, it's a sofa. But I think of it as a couch."

Mia pulled up the show "Too Cute!", lay down on the couch in front of me, and threw the blanket over both of us. As I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, I felt very comfortable. We watched a litter of puppies live their first few months. Mia regularly, "Awwwwed" as we watched the show. It was fun, mindless entertainment that was very relaxing.

As we watched, Mia moved back until she was just touching me. Her proximity had me thinking unbrotherly thoughts. If she had been any other woman, I'd take us lying together like this as a hint to cuddle, for me to pull Mia close to me and nibble on her neck. But Mia was my sister, and I suppressed the urge to see how she'd react if I did nibble on her neck.