Full Moon Over Tulsa

"Nice to meet you. What can I do for you?"

Ophelia and I both laughed at his obsequiousness.

"I was kind of hoping for some reaction to what I said," Ophelia confessed.

"I don't really want to get in the middle here, but just 'cause you're not the ugliest doesn't mean you're not the prettiest.

"Either way, if you have a daughter that's as pretty as you, I'd love to meet her."

"Thanks...um, Scott," she said, leaning forward to read his name tag.

I was trying not to laugh while she struggled to maintain her smile until he got back to cleaning the nearby table.

"I think he just called me old," Ophelia groaned.

**

Ophelia swayed slowly back and forth, like she was slow dancing to some music, but there wasn't any.

I couldn't come up with a reason to complain. I was enjoying the show already, and she was still scrolling through the list of movies she had recorded in her entertainment system's hard drive.

She still had on the black leggings and white cashmere sweater, but her boots and socks were piled on the floor where she had kicked them off.

"I think the remote probably will still work from here, if you wanted to sit down," I told her with a chuckle.

She neither stopped her movements nor looked away from the television on the wall.

"I've got a song stuck in my head, and I have to let it play out before I can even think about sitting."

"I hate it when that happens. What song?" I sympathized with my sister.

She continued swaying her hips while searching for the movie, but shrugged her shoulders.

"It's even worse when you don't know the song," I agreed,

"You have no idea..." Ophelia mumbled.

I realized I was staring when she turned and started toward me.

I tried to pretend she hadn't caught me looking at her butt in her skin tight leggings, but her grin and the laughter in her eyes told me she knew.

"Dance with me, And," she pleaded, reaching her hands toward me.

She made no effort to hide the scars on her outstretched arms.

My sister wasn't short, but the top of her head was still just a tiny bit below eye level for me.

"There's no music."

"I'll lead," Ophelia whispered into my shoulder as she pulled me snugly against her body.

We started with her moving her hips and shoulders against mine, but eventually I got the beat, and we were moving together.

Eventually she slowed, then stopped with a sigh. Her hands slowly unwrapped themselves from around my neck and trailed down my chest with her fingertips.

"Thanks, And."

"You're welcome?"

It was intentionally a question. I enjoyed slow dancing with her, but it was a little weird without music.

"It wasn't an earworm, And. It was a song that wanted me to write it."

I raised my eyebrows at her.

"I know," she sighed. "But I have to indulge them; if I don't, they won't go away. I can't write them, not down on paper anyway. If I try that, I obsess until they're perfect, so I just let them play in my head until they feel right."

"You never wrote them down? Aren't you curious to hear them? What if they're good?"

She gently laid her palm on my chest and looked in my eyes with a grin on her lips.

"They're good. I just have better things to do than obsess over making perfect music."

Then she pushed me backwards hard.

I landed, awkwardly, on the couch behind me as my dear brat of a sister laughed.

The first of the Matrix movies was good. I actually remembered some of it.

The second one seemed only vaguely familiar, as if I might have only seen parts of it, or someone had described it to me.

I was struggling by the time Ophelia started the third one. I had only slept about three hours the night before instead of my usual seven, and had been awake for over sixteen hours.

I was sitting on the couch next to Ophelia and she had been curled up leaning against me under a blanket she had insisted on sharing with me, but when I realized I was waking up, I was reclined on my back with my legs on the couch.

My head was propped on the arm of the sofa looking down at my sister's red hair and freckled face, on my chest.

I could see her eyes were open and watching the movie that I had slept through.

It took me a few seconds to realize she was holding one of my hands against my thigh and the other one was covered by soft, fuzzy material.

I could tell my little finger was resting on a rough cloth material, but the rest of my fingers and palm were against something warm, exquisitely soft, and silky.

I moved my hand down onto the rough material, and the fuzzy material covering it slipped away.

"Hey," Ophelia whispered.

I focused my eyes on hers. She had shifted a little bit to face me.

I felt my blush rise when I realized my hand, the one that had been against the bare skin of her lower back, was now stopped square in the middle of one of her butt cheeks.

She was smiling up at me without revealing that she even noticed my hand on her soft butt.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"For what?"

"I'm, well..." I stumbled over my words.

"Falling asleep on you?" I finally asked.

It wasn't intentionally a question, but that's how it sounded.

Ophelia laughed, but I still wasn't convinced I needed to move my hand.

"More like under me. I hope you don't mind that I made you a little more comfortable."

"It's fine."

I had quickly considered that meant I might not be fully clothed now under the blanket, but I was pretty sure I could still feel pants between our bodies.

"Mmm," Ophelia moaned softly as she pushed herself up on my body and kissed my lips.

Her lips were warm and wet against mine. I didn't know if I was disappointed or relieved they remained closed for the several seconds that she, then we, kissed.

I was now acutely aware of the fact that my penis was firmly wedged between my belly and her crotch, and was completely erect.

"That was wonderful practice. I think I can convincingly be your girlfriend now...whatever comes up."

I wasn't certain, but it seemed she pressed her hips just slightly harder against me.

"Ophelia, I should go...I didn't..."

"I'm sorry, And. I forget sometimes how little I sleep compared to normal people."

She's pushed herself up into an upright position kneeling between my spread legs.

"This may have been the best day ever, even if I never see you again."

"Ophelia, you're going to see me again."

"I know. We work together."

She was beaming.

"I'm your boyfriend, too, so yeah, we'll be seeing a lot of each other."

"When?" she asked without hesitation.

"Let's go out Saturday night. A date? You wear a dress and I'll wear a tie..."

"I'm not being seen with you in public...not unless you wear more than a tie!" she squealed.

"Anyway," she continued, still laughing at her own joke.

"I play MTG on Saturday, but you can come. It'll be fun to have my boyfriend there."

"Okay, Saturday, but when are you going to put on a dress and go on a real date with me?"

"I don't look...um, like dresses, And."

I didn't miss that she had avoided expressing her opinion of how she looks in a dress.

"You have dresses though?"

She nodded. She actually looked frightened.

"I'll come here straight from work, pick out the one I like best, and wait patiently while you get ready."

"Promise you won't tell me how...pret...how I look. Please?"

"Cross my heart," I promised.

She giggled at my childish expression.

"What if I don't...you know, want to wait?"

"What do you have in mind? My calendar is pretty open."

"Tomorrow? Dinner, here?" she whispered.

"You're cooking?" I asked sarcastically.

"No," she laughed, "I'm warming up, but I pinky swear you'll love it."

"I'll be here."

"Bring clothes for Tuesday so you don't need to break my heart again and leave me."

I thought she was joking, until she raised her face to look me in the eyes.

"I'm terrified you'll walk out that door..."

She was trembling when I pulled her into my arms and hugged her.

"I'll be here tomorrow, the next day and as many days as you need me to be. I'm not making the mistake of letting you walk out of my life again."

She forced a smile at me, then walked me to the door with her arm around me.

I could see she was trying her best to not let the tears in her eyes overflow.

She opened the door for me.

"Today really was the best day ever, And. Good night."

She pushed herself onto her toes and gave me a quick kiss.

"I agree Ophelia. Cya tomorrow at work."

**

I pulled up at the curb in front of my house and parked.

I couldn't help it, but my sigh seemed to echo in the interior of my car.

I looked around, at my drab little house, my drab street, neighborhood, life.

Even my job was drab, now that I thought about it.

There didn't seem to be anything drab about Ophelia's life.

That life, that I had spent almost a full day living, invited into by the stranger that is my little sister, already seemed like it had been a dream.

I was planning on deciding if her life seemed so much better than mine because of the condo, the car, the luxury of it, or was it because of my wonderful sister herself.

I didn't get the chance. I was so exhausted I must have been asleep before my head landed on the pillow.

My alarm woke me.

"Wow, that was..." I said, louder than to myself as I reached to silence the irritating noise.

I couldn't finish my statement; I didn't know what I needed to say. I knew I remembered what my dream was when I started the sentence, but it was now completely gone from my memory.

I turned quickly to see if I woke her, but the bed beside me was empty. No red hair or freckles were there to greet me, and I was disappointed, though I knew there was no reason for me to expect her to be there.

I really wished I remembered the dreams I had just woken from.

I had just locked my front door behind me when I got a new text message.

"hey where r u" Ophelia asked.

"Front porch. Leaving for work."

I was about to give up and walk out to my car. It had been almost five minutes without a response.

"thank god promise u wont laugh @ me"

"OK?"

"regrettable fashion decisions ull c"

"Quick change before you leave?"

"2 late here 4 hrs missed u last nite xoxo"

I knew, right then, that I needed to make her relationship with punctuation more intimate, but that would need to be later or I'd be late for work.

**

Whether I was early, on time, or late for work was really a function of my own thought process more than anything else. Starting times were more of a suggestion than anything else, so at 8:30 in the morning, the parking lot was about half full, and would be significantly more so in half an hour.

My mind wasn't made up yet whether I would stop by the Engineering department to see Ophelia first thing, or wait until later. I knew I was trying to hide the grin on my face as I made my way through the line to go through security.

"Anderson, morning," Steve's greeting interrupted my thoughts just as I pressed my thumb into the scanner.

He was obviously waiting for me on the other side of the turnstyle.

"Hey, Steve," I returned his greeting, just slightly more enthusiastically than a groan.

He was a coworker, an attorney, but most of his time seemed to be spent socializing rather than working. He was that guy, the one that was friendly with everyone, and everyone mostly just put up with him.

"You seem chipper today," he continued. "You must have recovered from that train wreck you were in Friday night."

He made no attempt whatsoever to disguise his mirth at what he must have considered my discomfort.

"Um, yeah...old news, Steve," I told him, looking past him to the solitary stationary figure in the area at the elevators.

The four elevators in the building were overkill. More than half the company's employees worked on the first floor: engineers, coders, support techs, all part of Engineering.

Like myself, most people that had to go up used one of the two stairways next to the elevators. I only rode up if there was a car waiting already when I got there.

"Have a good day, Steve. I have to talk to somebody," I told him as I brushed past him on my way to my waiting sister.

She was wearing a red and green plaid, mid-calf, pleated skirt and a white, button up oxford shirt with a bow at the buttoned collar. Her brown penny loafers and white bobby socks completed what she must have meant by a "regrettable fashion decision". Her white-framed eyeglasses were a little bit of a surprise, but added favorably to her look.

She was wrong. She looked amazing.

The shy grin on her face went well with the blush of her cheeks, and she spread her skirt with one hand and shrugged her shoulders as I approached.

Her other hand held a large, insulated paper cup.

She stepped forward, then rocked to her tiptoes to give me a generous, wet, closed-lip kiss.

"Mm," she hummed through our kiss before she settled back on her heels.

"Good morning, babe."

I felt like my face matched the bright red of hers while I waited the heartbeat or two for her eyes to open.

"You were waiting for me?" I asked.

She nodded without breaking eye contact.

"I needed that kiss, and I thought you might need this," she explained, holding up the cup between us.

"Is that..."

"Kopi luwak, yes, I thought..."

"Thank god," I moaned. "I couldn't drink my coffee at home. I tried, but just couldn't do it."

Ophelia's eyes moved away from mine and focused on something beside us.

I was suddenly aware of the bustle and noise of other people around us, and turned to see what she was looking at.

"Steve?" Ophelia asked.

"Miss Smith..." Steve muttered without changing his slack-jawed expression of surprise.

Ophelia scowled harshly at him.

"Good morning, Fifi," he said, a little too loudly for the situation.

"That's better."

To me, she sounded condescending.

Without looking, my sister stepped away from me, and stuck her hand between the closing doors of an empty elevator car.

"We've been summoned," she explained with a smile, then stepped inside.

Steve followed us. I wondered a little why Ophelia didn't object, but was immediately distracted when I noticed my sister's hair.

"Ophelia, your hair..." I began a question as I reached my hand for her head.

"Don't, And. I had to put a ton of hairspray on to keep the curls like this, and if anything touches it they're going to all fall out."

I smiled, and looked from her hair to her green eyes.

"You look absolutely adorable today," I told her.

"Really?"

She was blushing again, but grinned instead of the scowl I expected at the compliment.

"I missed you last night," she whispered loudly before giving me a tight hug.

My sister and I were standing together at the back of the car, and Steve was standing with his nose less than a foot from the closed doors looking straight ahead.

His ears were red, like someone had tweaked them hard.

"He's the CEO's brother," Ophelia explained, in the same loud whisper. I knew he could hear her.

I nodded my head. That explained a lot about his work ethic.

The doors opened, and Steve stepped to the side with his back to the wall. Ophelia took my hand in hers, and led me out, followed by Steve.

I had only held hands with one girl other than my sister, but when she wriggled her hand in mine to adjust her grip and slide her fingers between mine, it occurred to me that she had always held my hand that way before, with our fingers intertwined. This felt immediately more intimate. This was how a girlfriend held her boyfriend's hand.

She knew it too. She glanced at me and grinned.

I would normally, on a normal day, any other day, have been at the same spot in the building, but would have turned the opposite direction to go to the Legal department, but this day, we went the opposite direction on exiting the elevator.

I had seen the large, double, wooden doors, and knew that was the executive offices, but had never been inside.

The pleats in Ophelia's skirt, besides hiding what I already knew to be a spectacular butt and finely sculpted legs, hid a pocket. I only now knew of its existence because she reached inside and withdrew two keycards, an orange one and a gold one.

I had never seen a gold one before.

She turned and smiled at me as she held the gold keycard to the scanner beside the entrance to the executive offices, and both doors slid almost silently into the walls.

Ophelia released my hand when we stepped inside. The girl behind a large desk looked up and smiled at us.

"Good morning, Miss Smith, Mr. Smith, and...Steve."

She sounded like the last greeting was added reluctantly.

"Good morning, Cindy," Ophelia returned her greeting without slowing down.

A single sofa, against the side of the room, was positioned next to a single, closed door, and that's where my sister was headed.

At the door, she paused and looked at Steve.

"Wait here. Somebody will let you know when we're ready for you."

I followed my sister through the door and found myself in a room filled mostly with a large, oval conference table. Two trays were centered, toward one end of the table. One had a water pitcher and glasses, the other a coffee pot and ceramic mugs with the Company logo on them.

I looked at the coffee in my hand. I hadn't tasted it yet.

"It's just plain coffee, And. You'll want to hold on to yours," she whispered.

I also noticed there were two leather portfolios on the table. One in front of the chair at the head, and the other a few seats down one side.

"What's going on, Ophelia?"

She moved close to me and put her hands around the back of my neck. I felt her fingers comb into my hair when she pulled me down and kissed me.

Our kiss was much longer than I expected, and I was breathing a little heavy when she finally stepped back.

"This is where you see behind the curtain, but Steve doesn't know about us."

"You don't think he knows? I thought it was pretty obvious from the kiss in front of the elevator," I countered.

"I mean that we're...um, that I'm your sister."

She whispered the last few words.

"He can't know."

"All your partners know?"

Ophelia nodded. She had a mischievous grin on her face though.

"They already talk about you as my boyfriend. Smith is a common name. It's just luck that we happen to share that. That's their words."

"This all seems like a big deal just for an NDA."

"It's not just an NDA, And. This is a big deal."

I was certain she was going to kiss me again, and I even started to lean into it, but the door opened.

Before I was hired, I had an interview with all three of the owners, the ones I knew then were owners, so I had met all three of the men.

The Head Counsel told me the executives always interview the legal team, just to get to know them.

"Oh, excuse us. Are we interrupting something, Fifi?" the CEO asked as he walked in with the two executive Vice-Presidents.

"No, we were just tired of waiting and were going to make out for a bit while we waited," my sister replied with a giggle.

"You want a few minutes? We can come back."

"Oh no. We should go ahead with this. My Anderson is one of those men that once they get started wants to make sure to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. I'm sure you want to get this business wrapped up some time today."

It took all my concentration to not jump when my sister squeezed my butt, so I wasn't able to stop what I'm sure was a bright red blush from covering my face.

"Yes, fine. Probably best to be doing your i dotting and t crossing on your own time anyway, so let's get started."

His voice sounded serious, but his expression seemed to be hiding some laughter, and I wondered how far they thought my sister and I were taking this.