Comfort in the New World Ch. 04

Just a note, there's no sexual content in this chapter - it's just build-up. Sorry to disappoint.

Chapter 4 - Charlie

After about a week of Les staying with us Jock and Linus calmed down a bit. Their new toy wasn't as exciting anymore, I guess. For a while it seemed I couldn't get away from the sounds and occasionally the sights of them and Les and it made life very awkward. I spent some time out of the house to get away from it. Father spent much of his time away, too, though that was hardly unusual.

Les' room was next to mine, so I often got to hear a lot whether I wanted to or not. Whenever Jock or Linus would come over I would put on headphones and play music and try my best not to listen. But of course sometimes I could hear. Les' would make these sounds and... she was extremely attractive, like I said. But even if I wanted to... be with her, it would be too embarrassing, especially with my brothers acting the way they were.

Then the second week there came a day when Jock and Linus left the house. Father was gone, like usual and so it was only me and Les.

It took a little while for me to notice, if I'm honest. I was relaxing in the sofa downstairs when Les came down. She was casually dressed in a black tank-top and jeans. She smiled as she walked down and I instinctively smiled back.

"Hello Charlie, mind if I join you?" she asked, already sitting down in a chair next to the sofa. She leaned back and closed her eyes. "It's nice to have the house more quiet, isn't it?"

"What's the matter, my brothers too... boisterous for you?" she laughed a little, then opened her eyes briefly to look at me.

"Let's just say they're not exactly my type."

"Really?" I said, "Then why have sex with them?" I asked, bluntly. If Les took offense she didn't show it.

"It's my duty. Just because I do not like them is not a good enough reason for me to refuse them. It's the way of the Guild."

"Some guild" I muttered.

"It really is." I was quiet for a moment before continuing:

"How old were you when you joined the Guild?"

"Twenty-two."

"So you've spent six years doing... this?"

"No." she smiled, and explained. "I joined the Guild of Humanity at twenty-two, with a desire to be allowed into the Order of Comfort, but they don't just let you in. I spent two orderless years in the Guild before they allowed me to take the entrance exam."

"What does the entrance exam consist of?"

"Psychological evaluations, mostly."

"Oh." I said, not sure what I had expected. "What did you do during those two years then?"

"What the guild does with most of its time and resources; clothing and sheltering the poor, feeding the hungry, tending to the sick and dying. Mostly on other worlds."

"Oh, wow!" I said, impressed. "What was that like?"

"The most rewarding experience in my entire life." she said, reverently. "One day, when I feel done with being an Agent of Comfort, I think I shall go back to doing that. You know" she added, a little accusatory. "I would expect an educated man like you to know that the Order of Comfort is only one of many facets of the Guild, and far from its only contribution to society." I felt myself properly scolded.

"Of course I knew that" I said, a little put-upon. "it's just, erm, well, the-"

"The Order gets most of everyone's attention, I know." she said, mercifully.

"Well, yes."

"The Guild's Army of Whores." she said and I looked embarrassed.

"That's- people who say that are being ignorant."

"That's nice of you to say. But it's also a bit of bullshit, isn't it, coming from you? You think I'm a whore, don't you?" I was shocked, and for a while I really didn't know what to say. She kept her voice calm and level and she didn't even look upset, but still, her statement reeked of a challenge.

"Well" I finally began. "aren't you?"

"What's a whore?"

"Someone who has sex for money."

"I don't."

"You don't?" I asked, incredulous. "Our father paid the Guild-"

"The Guild, yes. Not me. I've been housed, clothed and fed by the Guild since I joined it. When I leave the Guild a retirement fund that's been building since I joined it will be mine. That fund is based only on how long I've been in the Guild and the Order. And unless I violate Guild rules I cannot be dismissed from either. There's absolutely no financial incentive for me to behere or to have sex withyou. And there's no punishment or bad consequence whatsoever were I to turn you or either of your brothers down or break my contract; the Guild doesn't operate like that. It can't." She paused, while I tried to think of something to say. "Want to try again?" she finally asked.

"Okay, you... but shouldn't intimacy be more... well, intimate?"

"Intimacy is subjective. I've been intimate with people in a crowded room, and on a lonely mountaintop. I've been intimate with people holding hands, and I've been intimate with people doing... other things." She smiled softly. "Perhaps you mean that you want intimacy to be more than just a transaction; a viewpoint which I understand, but that's only your own subjective taste and hardly reason to judgeme or my choices."

"Sex should be something you do with someone you're romantically involved in." I said.

"A sweet sentiment, but hardly how people behave and not a realistic option, at least not as an ideology. Sex -- physical intimacy -- is aneed: Perhaps not as dire one as food or water, but one that needs fulfilling for a person to live a healthy life. Shelter, security, physical intimacy; they're all needs that the Guild is dedicated to providing for the good of all mankind."

"Well... that's... not how I feel."

"I understand, and while I am in this house I am yours to do with as you please, one of the things I willnever do is tell you I have feelings for you, unless I do. If that means you will not be intimate with me that is your choice, and I shall respect it." she smiled, sadly. "Which is a shame, because I would very much like to have sex with you." With that bombshell, she got up to leave. I sat in silence, thinking.

"Hey," I called out and she stopped halfway up the stairs. "can I ask you something else?"

"What?"

"Is it true about the other order in the Guild?" she smiled serenely -- god she was pretty.

"There are eleven orders of the Guild. Which one do you mean?"

"The Order of Guidance." Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and she gave a little chuckle.

"Really Charlie, you shouldn't believe things like that."

"That's a no, then?"

"It's a no. There is no secret order of assassins in the Guild. Good day." With that she left. I remained in the sofa, thinking back to the conversation we'd just had. It was the longest talk we'd had since she came to the house. I thought about what she told me, but one thing more than anything kept echoing around in my head:

One of the things I will never do is tell you I have feelings for you, unless I do.

I would very much like to have sex with you.

One of the things I will never do is tell you I have feelings for you, unless I do.

Unless I do.