Grieving Time Pt. 05

Please read from part 1 first.

Hope you enjoy the story.

From Part 4

Carefully and slowly he spoke as his eyes went from one to the other in the room, "Um hello Patricia. What a surprise, I never expected to see you again."

His eyes went to fix on his sister, expecting an explanation which seemed to be forthcoming as she rose from her seat. He was partly pleased as she looked unsure of herself, which was really unusual in anything concerning her little brother.

~~~~~~

#1

Brian stood in the doorway looking from one woman to the next as he tried to ponder what and why this was happening. To give himself more space to get his head around whatever this was he said, "Perhaps you can just give me a minute. I need a shower and get changed," and with emphasis that he was trying to give Ashley a poignant message, "Dinner smells especially yummy, are we expecting company. You didn't tell me earlier we were having visitors."

He left them as they were without a backward glance, feeling peeved that his sister had obviously concocted this situation. He got more riled as he went through the motions of showering and dressing as his mind went over what was happening, "How could inviting a woman here help anything, one who had made it plain she wanted nothing to do with me. Why the heck would Ash do this. Have I upset her somehow and this is her way of getting back at me. I'm buggered if I'm going to sit here tonight to be put down for something over which I have no idea what I did. I know she is trying to fix me, but this is too far. Some things in my life need to be controlled by myself. Only one thing I can do, I'll go out. I'll apologise that I forgot to say anything earlier that I already had plans for tonight."

Feeling more in control he changed his clothes to better ones to show he was in fact going out and returned to the kitchen. The three were still there talking but all went eerily quiet as he walked in.

"Sorry Ash, I forgot to tell you before, I got invited out tonight when I bumped into an old friend. So iIll have to love and leave you. Nice to see you again Patricia, have a good visit with Ash as I guess you came to see her anyway. I'll be late. Night all."

To stunned looks, he turned and left the house. He was pulling off when he spotted Ashley running out the front door waving to him. He pretended he didn't notice and drove away, wondering to himself what he was going to do for the night by himself. It was just after he turned onto Main Road that his phone started ringing. He ignored it and let her leave a message. just at the moment he was too pissed off at her shenanigans to want to even talk to her.

Ashley hung up on the call after leaving a pleading message to her brother when Patricia stood and said goodnight herself.

"I'll be off too. Thank you for calling me and inviting me over. Seems it was for nothing. He gave me back exactly what I did to him, but at least he said goodbye first. I don't blame him, I didn't even have the decency to tell him what he did wrong. Nice to meet you Ashley and Diana. Good night."

Diana responded, "Bye Patricia, nice meeting you."

Ashley just stood there with her phone held idly in her hand, not understanding what had occurred. Unable to say anything with her mind in a jumble she watched, open mouthed, as the woman left the house and drove away.

She mutely turned to her daughter, who shrugged and said, "Hey, don't look at me. This was your plan. I just live here," then she stood and went to the cupboards to grab a few things and set the table for dinner, "I guess it's just the two of us tonight. Bon appetit mother."

Brian called into a small Italian restaurant not too far from home. He wasn't hungry but knew he should eat and this would fill in a bit of time. He was early enough to be seated straight away and ordered a light beer as he looked through the menu. He had a good spot to observe the few patrons in the cafe. He was the only single person. The blackboard on the wall highlighted the specials for the day and he was considering which one he would order. He was deciding between a couple of nice sounding dishes when a woman with long black hair entering through the front door caught his eye.

She was talking to the waitress when she looked around as though deciding where to sit until she saw Brian. Both he and she stared as though mesmerised by the sight of the other. The waitress who wanted to hurry the new arrival to a table interrupted the stare. A few words were passed between the women and Brian was being approached. One had a determination in her look and body language while the other followed holding a menu.

"Well, Brian fancy seeing you here. I never expected to find you here. Are you, by chance, early for your date?"

"Hello Patricia, no I am here right on time. If you have followed me to harangue me over whatever I did to you, then please find another table. I am just wanting a quiet meal, then I thought I might catch a movie with my date, who you can see is currently sharing my table."

Patricia made a show of looking at the empty chairs where he was sitting, and with a show of being a smart-arse she arched an eyebrow at him, "Ah, you like cheap dates then. Though she looks like she could do with a decent meal into her. Do you think she would mind if I joined both of you for a moment. I really would like to have a quick chat, then I'll leave the two of you to enjoy your evening. Don't worry, I'll be nice."

Brian was quiet for a moment, then with a sigh acquiesced to her request by waving his hand to the chair opposite him. The waitress had become impatient although she kept this to herself in respect of customer relations, dropped the menu on the table and left them alone. She decided to come back in a moment to get their order, although if she had to make a bet then they would probably both leave. It was decidedly an icy atmosphere at the table as the pair obviously had an argument recently.

"Look Brian, your friend from work spoke to me after you left the hotel that Friday, and set me straight on a misconception I had. I apologise for my behaviour, but I honestly thought you were married and wanted to fool around with me."

Brian opened his eyes wide and had his mouth agape before saying, "Why would you think I was married?"

Patricia pointedly looked at his left hand ring finger where his wedding band still resided. He looked down and with a grimace played with the band with his right hand.

"Sorry, I haven't removed it yet. I guess Dan let you know my wife died a while ago," getting a nod in response, "You could have said something to me, but I got the message you were pissed off about something. I was going to call you next week, Dan only told me near the end of the week about you leaving your number. I have been a bit preoccupied with Ashley's problems."

"Yes, Ashley told me some of her worries of the past week. It's a horrible thing to go through. She is very lucky to have you to help. I wasn't going to harass you any further, I only wanted to apologise for my behaviour. I should have told you why I went so cold towards you at the time. It just took me by surprise to meet a man that I wanted to see again, only to find he was married and I thought I had met his wife already. It made me feel icky inside and quite dirty. I now know the truth, so maybe, if you're agreeable, we could try again? We've only talked a couple of minutes, but it was a nice time. Just short. Perhaps we could try for a bit longer this time, and I promise not to go off in a snit without explaining why first."

He laughed at her last comment to be joined by her. As they settled from the laughter he stuck out a hand for a handshake and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Brian. Pleased to meet you."

She smiled, shook his hand in response, then replied, "Hi, I'm Trish. Really pleased to see you."

The waitress had been keeping a wary eye on the pair in case things got heated, and she would have to intervene and ask them to leave. Seeing them laugh and obviously overcome their problems she smiled and approached the table for their orders. Brian asked for a bottle of wine and ordered the Parmigiana with a salad, Patricia took the easy way and asked for the same.

"Now that we are talking, perhaps you could explain why you are following me around?"

Patricia laughed before answering, "After you left I didn't feel like staying with your sister, it was a bit awkward. Although her cooking smelt delicious. I was driving home when I saw the restaurant and decided I may as well eat here instead of getting home and cooking something. It wasn't till I was inside that I saw you."

The wine arrived, then their meals and they spent a pleasant evening at that table. At the end of the meal they officially shared phone numbers and made tentative arrangements to see each the following weekend. They shared a kiss, to the cheeks, before driving to their own homes. Both were a bit more cheery than before accidentally meeting, again.

On his way home Brian contemplated events out loud, "Well Jenny, that was a change. I guess you did approve of her after all. I can certainly feel your hand in bringing us together to meet up again. It is really a strange feeling to have you engineering my social life with help from your sister-in-law. I love you Jenny, I always will," and with moist eyes he made his way home.

#2

It was much earlier than expected when he pulled into the garage. The noise of the garage door brought Ashley out of her room, where she had been wallowing in a self pity party. She was in the centre of the kitchen feeling very dismayed and sorry for herself when Brian entered. She knew she had overstepped in controlling her brother's life. Her only hope was that he would forgive her for trying to force too much on him.

He stopped to look at his sister, she looked upset like she wanted to be swallowed up by the earth. He could never hold a grudge against her, he loved her too much. With an ease of familiarity he stepped to her and put his arms around her, holding her as tight as he dared.

"I love you little girl, with all my heart."

"Oh Brian, I'm really sorry I pushed you. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just thought it was the right thing to do."

"I know you meant well sis. Perhaps in future let me sort things out in my own way. I'm not mad at you, okay. I'm sorry I threw a tantrum and stormed out like I did."

Feeling better with his forgiveness her devilish nature returned, "Yes, you did a bit. I haven't seen you throw a snit like that since mum made you invite Teddy whatshisname to your tenth birthday party."

Brian laughed as he agreed with her, "Well he was such a dork that nobody ever wanted him around. I was teased and laughed at in school for weeks after that. Then he wouldn't leave me alone at lunch and recess for ages thinking I was suddenly his best friend. I eventually got rid of him, but who would have thought that he'd invent that thingamajig and become a billionaire at twenty five. I guess there's a lesson in there somewhere."

"So little brother, where've you been hiding out?"

"I just had a nice meal at Luigi's over on Main Road."

"You sat there for hours by yourself. I don't believe it, you must've really been in a bad mood with me to be gone all this time on your own."

He was getting himself a drink of water when he teased her with, "Who said I was alone?"

"What, you actually did have a real date tonight. I thought that was just you bugging me because of my interfering."

"No, I did have dinner with a lovely girl, and we arranged to get together again next weekend."

"No way. You had a real date, with a real girl, and another one next week. Who is it? Do I know her? When do I get to meet her? Come on bro, give it all to me."

She was now smiling like the cat who got the cream, and holding him against the bench so he would have to tell her something. Diana had heard them talking and came out so she could hear better about what was happening.

"Well you have met her. She was here earlier at the table with you."

He tried to get clear and out of the kitchen, but Ashley held him in place and tried to tickle him to get him talking. Seeing the fun mood Diana joined them and added her tickling fingers to her mother's.

With a big smile she added her plea, "Yea, come on Brian. You gotta give details."

Brian wriggled and squirmed as he tried to dodge the digging fingers without success, although he didn't try very hard. He loved when his family played and had fun together like this.

"Okay, okay. Just let me get my breath and I'll spill it all."

He grabbed cold drinks from the fridge and handing one to each as they sat at the table, "I left here in my snotty frame of mind as you know and just drove off, but decided to stop at Luigi's for a meal. They always have nice food, and thought I'd go see a movie afterwards hoping to have enough time to calm down. I was checking the menu when Trish walked in. Seems she was a bit uncomfortable staying here and rather than go straight home, she would stop for a meal. Just by coincidence at Luigi's. We had a little talk to air the problems and then we had a pleasant meal."

Ashley stood there with a huge smile as she beamed her delight at her brother. It got too much emotion for her to handle and pulled herself in to give her brother a full body hug as she cried tears of joy onto his chest. Brian was not certain what was happening but went along with it and tried to console her with a gentle back rub. Their hug was joined by another smiling woman as Diana wrapped the pair in her arms.

She tried to explain to him, "Brian, you realise this was what your silly interfering sister has wanted to happen for so long," and seeing she had his attention, "She has been so worried about how you have been hiding away from life since Aunt Jenny left us. We all loved her so much and we all grieved when we lost her, but you never overcame that grief. It had consumed you totally. We had no idea how you even managed to hold on to your job, you were so vague and lacking any life in you. Mum here tried whatever she could think of to get you living again. She's not expecting you to up and marry anyone, but just to go out, have a social life, laugh and be happy. Meet some women and have a few dates, just to live again. Tonight, you coming home and saying you had a date, and you are going to have another next week is an answer to her prayers."

"Oh, I got the idea Ash was trying to get me out and about, and I have been doing that lately. I didn't realise it was just so important to her," and he looked down at his sister who looked up at him in response, "Important to you Ash. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble for you. I didn't mean to be a nuisance. Just got lost in my own world. I will always love Jenny, and I could never ever let go of her. We didn't have long together but I lost a big part of myself when she went. I promise to try and not pull away again, okay. I love you sis, and you Di. What would I do without the pair of you."

Eyes became very wet that night as tears flowed as three family members hugged each other, sharing the love they felt.

That night Brian was having a lovely dream of his encounter earlier that day with Christina, to find Patricia taking the place of his FWB. He had not been sure where a relationship with Patricia could head but his subconscious had no doubts. He was really enjoying a bit of spooning as he plunged his cock between her legs and was about to shoot his load when a groan intruded into his dream state. Opening his eyes, he panicked to actually be spooning a woman with his cock between her legs rubbing against her pussy. Like an independent observer he noted how big and firm her left boob felt in his right hand, and her butt cheeks fitted into his groin like they were made for him. With as much speed as a scared sleepy person can move, he backed off making certain he had a large gap between him and this mystery woman, even rolling onto his back. His movement brought a moan of disappointment from her, which soon became the rhythmic sound of soft gentle snoring. At least he was able to identify his companion as his sister, and glad she had not awoken with him in the motion of fucking her. He was even more pleased he was able to stop when he did before his dream led to the ultimate wet finale. His thoughts were that would be really embarrassing. Thinking back to what Christina had told him, gushing cum onto his sister's pussy would have been overboard in showing that her femininity is appreciated. His consolation was that she had obviously been enjoying the dream as well.

#3

Sunday found Christina and Veronica both doing duty time in the shop. During a lull they were chatting as they tidied a display.

Christina was talking, "I notice that Brian is more outgoing now than he used to be. It's really good to see him looking and acting so much better. I talked to him on the phone on Friday and he seemed quite well, although possibly a bit worn with Ash's worries and her living with him."

Veronica looked up sharply at her friend at the reference to a phone call from Brian on Friday and she made a point of saying, "That's funny, because I got a call from him as well on Friday. He did sound a bit stressed out."

Christina noticed her tone was a bit peculiar, and also got her reference to the Friday phone call. She knew she had a great time with him Saturday and had a funny feeling that Veronica may have something special to do with Brian as well.

Christina made an indirect reference, "Well I happened to see him yesterday and he seemed a lot better."

"Oh, did you see him? I'm afraid I was too busy this weekend to make time for him. I hate to see him all stressed out if I can do anything about it. Did you find time yesterday to give him the help he was needing to relax?"

Christina was smiling as she now guessed that her friend was digging for information, "Yes I did, and I was really happy with the results. I found him very stressed to start with, but after a few hours he seemed much more relaxed. Have you found that spending time with Brian to be a very relaxing time? Perhaps it might be better to say it's exciting at the time, then relaxing afterwards."

"Hmm yes, I would definitely call my time with him very exciting. I found he really appreciated that night of dancing we all went out for, and he has shown that appreciation to me since then."

"Oh dear, Ronnie, it looks like we have been getting excited with the same person then. Yes he did like that night out and he can get energetic when he tries to show his appreciation."

Veronica laughed quietly as she decided to get to the point, "He has a good tongue too, and I get a good filling out of him."

Christina smiled as she agreed, "Ooh yes, that tongue is sinful. I find I get quite gushy before the end of our being together."

Just then a customer approached and they had to stop their little discussion, and both were grinning for the rest of the day. It wasn't until they closed the store that they had a chance to continue their comparison of Brian's good points.

Before they departed to go home, Veronica mused, "I wonder if Ashley realises how far things had progressed. Do you think she should know about her horny little brother? I would hate it if she objected, because then it might have to stop."

Christina thought for a moment, "I would hate to not be with him privately again. My life has improved since that dancing night. I am wondering at how we are so blase that we are sharing the same guy. Anyone else and I thought we might have both dumped him as a two timing dipstick."

Veronica smiled at her friend, "I think it best we keep it all to ourselves. After all, what Ashley doesn't know can't hurt us," to which they both chuckled, "I know what you mean about the two of us, but I'm not thinking of him as a possible husband. Although if it happened I wouldn't say no, he is a great person and a girl could do a lot worse. Very few guys would be better hubbie material than him. I like the term 'friends with benefits'."