It's Not Always Love at First Sight

I won't say I was upset when Charlie and Sara told me that her sister would be moving in, I liked Gwen just fine and all but it would have been nice to be asked. I mean yeah, yeah, yeah it was their house. My brother and his new wife had full ownership of it, their name was on all the paperwork and mine was on none. But I was paying a share of the bills! I deserved a say, at a minimum a heads up besides asking if I had anything going Saturday. Instead I just got Charlie coming down Saturday morning to tell me we had ten minutes to get going over to Gwen's place. So we could help her move out of her asshole ex-boyfriend's place, into the basement of Charlie and Sara's. The basement where I was staying!

Yeah, let that sink in. I was a roommate, I wasn't staying there for free if anything I was paying a good part of the bills. No, I wouldn't have said no! But... But it had been a lot to handle on a Saturday morning not long after getting my ass dumped!

Okay, so yeah, anyways. My name is Josh Young, at that time I was twenty-eight years old. I'd taken the offer to stay at my sister in law and brother's place because at that time I had no place to go, or the places I could afford I didn't want to go and vice versa.

The basement was divided up into four rooms, the laundry room was to the right off the end of the stairs. I had put a door on it just so I didn't have to hear the machines in there working when Sara did their laundry or I did mine. There was a fairly big main room where I had put my couch, that I had luckily put into storage instead of throwing out because my ex-fiance had kept all the new stuff we bought together when she kicked me out. I did get a new large screen TV, which kinda defeated the purpose of this being, "Your own space!" because I would often find Charlie and Sara (More Sara as Charlie was rarely home.) down here watching it as the one upstairs was small and old. Not to mention not connected to all my streaming services, so the entertainment was a lot better down here but it was already not "Your own space!" as they'd promised, got WAY less so once they moved Gwen into the storage room turned bedroom.

As a guy it would obviously be a lie if I didn't say the thought of Gwen hadn't crossed my mind since she'd moved in. She was not as hot as her sister, they were both redheads, both pale-skinned, and both freckled but Sara was far away the better looking of the two sisters. No, contest. Still, Gwen was pleasant enough looking, I always had a thing for gingers but had never really gotten to scratch that itch as the only gingers I ever encountered were not interested in me or I wasn't interested in them. Gwen had been the former, I thought was the former still at moving in. She had made it clear early on that that was not gonna happen.

You see Charlie and Sara had been dating since they were thirteen, Charlie was five years older than me, mom and dad had worked a lot back then, so Charlie was always watching me. Which meant if his girlfriend had wanted to see him she'd have to see a lot of me, either by coming over to our place or by taking me to her parent's place. That meant her sister, older by two years, had to too just by the fact that I was there fifty percent of the time. These sisters were best friends so that guaranteed I Gwen got her reasons. The reason was what Gwen had made clear to each boyfriend when she introduced me. That I was like a little brother to her because, as she said, "I practically helped raise him."

If it wasn't that she would go on and on about how I was a young Charlie, how I looked just like he did, acted just like him. She always said it both like they were not good things, although I couldn't take it as an insult, my older brother always seemed pretty cool to me back then. For sure I'd be glad to be even half as good looking as him. Most times she'd leave it there, sometimes she'd go on and on about. "Oh I could never date you! You're so much like him, it would be like dating him. It would be like going back in time and taking him away from my sister!" Followed by a lot of headshakes and nopes.

So while a fantasy or two rolled around in my head, I didn't think too much about it. Not to mention she was seven years older than me, halfway into her thirties, while I was still (Just barely!) in my twenties. So there were a lot of reasons I had to keep telling myself no. This was a woman who had gotten dumped for pestering her boyfriend not only to marry her but to give her kids before she got too old. I knew I was ready for marriage but kids seemed so fucking scary.

"Don't get any ideas, okay?" She asked late one night when she came out from her room a few minutes after getting home.

"I won't." Sure she was in a halter top, with no bra, and her panties but that was not an uncommon outfit. Usually I'd see her in that in the morning, on a trip to the kitchen for coffee or the bathroom for her morning shower. This was a bit different in that she wasn't all mussed up from a night of sleep, and came over to the couch to join me. "You okay?"

"No." Charlie and Sara were gone, some band they liked was playing several towns over, they may or may not have been coming home after. I had heard Gwen calling out for Sara upstairs, she looked sad on going to her room, looked ready to cry now. "I had a really bad date."

"You had a date?"

Surprised at the stir of jealousy in my stomach but also the slap of betrayal, the jealousy was just my stupid man brain. Still, I thought we had become friends enough to hear about a date. Worse had everyone in the house purposely kept it from me? Maybe Charlie had an excuse because he didn't care but that Sara hadn't said something either? And nobody had even mentioned it since whenever the date was made?

"A bad one, I should have known better with it being one of Charlie's friends." One of Charlie's friend's too! It had to be a conspiracy that nobody had mentioned it around me. Pointing at her arm, from the middle finger's first knuckle all the way up to where the halter strap was. "I wish I could have these fucking freckles removed. He said he didn't mind redheads, but he never liked freckles. Why would they hook me up with a guy who didn't like freckles? Why would he go on a date with me? You know he looked me up before we went out, I looked him up. And for sure he's met, Sara! Sara my redheaded semi-freckled sister! Ugh! Men!"

"Yeah, we suck." I agreed.

"Well, you don't suck." She said, giving me a look that said the world wasn't all that bad. "It's too bad you're my little brother." I might have been LIKE her little brother, but I wasn't actually her little brother. She took my arm and put it around her shoulder, after some of our long talks we'd sat like this down here before. This time she scooted up next to me, pausing my show, using the controller to find the show we watched together and dropping it back to its place. After a minute she took hold of one of my fingers. Tracing it over her freckle covered forearm. "You don't mind girls with freckles do you?"

"No, I think they're cute." I thought hers were cute, I thought she was cuter for having them.

"A lot of guys don't." She would know more than I would. "You may be as smug looking as your butt head brother but you're good to have around."

"I don't mind old ladies with freckles too."

"What?" Coming up from her cuddle to look at me, not understanding.

"I don't mind old ladies with freckles too. You said girls, I just wanted you to know that even though you're in your forties and not a girl I still don't mind that you have freckles." After a shocked second that earned me a swat across the stomach, but she still nuzzled back into me.

"For that I'm gonna make you do this until I fall asleep and you'll have to carry me to my room after I do." She was slender and not too tall, it wasn't too bad carrying her, I'd done it a few times. She thought I was being sweet, I really just wanted my TV, then or in the morning, without any risk of waking her up. Now it had sort of become a ritual. Especially one if she had a bad day. "Old lady! Way you stare at me is not how anyone stares at an old lady."

She did fall asleep, a few episodes before she was softly slumbering. Since this was the first time she was setting out to do it she'd gotten more comfortable than usual, laying her head down in my lap. I paused the show, moved back over to the one I'd been watching, but instead of watching it or carrying her off, I let her lay there. Once I pulled the red hair from her face she looked too peaceful to bother, plus I could run my fingers through her long locks, it was calming. She was always attractive but I really saw her beauty then, as she slept. I went into a sort of trance, stroking her hair and staring at her sleeping face. Remembering the times I'd done this with my ex, how I wished Gwen and I didn't have such a "like a brother" "almost a sister" history. I don't know how she was in a real relationship but what we had was so fucking easy. Would have been so nice if it were real.

I fell asleep, I knew I did because I'd woke up a few times. First time to grab a cushion and support my head. Second time to put the pillow back, the third time because she got up to go to the bathroom. Would have gone to my own room but she had said she would be right back, had shaken me until I acknowledged that she was coming back.

It wasn't a dream, it was one of those things where you dream about it but it's not part of the dream. Somebody calling your name turning out to be a spouse trying to wake you up. The buzz of an alarm sounding like a police siren for a few seconds they're chasing you in your dream, only for the sound to chase you awake.

This was like that, I had a dream that there was a hole in my pants. I kept getting this alternating pattern of cold-ish air when I'd slap the hole closed, or warm when it opened back up. I was walking with a group of friends in high school, the girl I liked kept almost seeing my erection. I had to pee, I had to pee that's why I had an erection. The fact that I never got one while awake started me coming around, the way to realistic and vaguely uncomfortable changes of temperatures finished it. I wasn't walking with my friends home from school. I was on the couch with Gwen, my erection was going down the leg of my shorts. Gwen was lifting up the bottom, looking at it. Letting the material snap from her fingers, closed it up, causing the breeze. Not cold, just felt that way compared to her hot breath flowing up my pant leg.

"I told you don't get any ideas." She said when she saw I was awake, blushing some but not as much as she should have considering what she was doing.

"I... Oh god, it's morning wood. I gotta pee." Trying to slide out from under her but stopping when she lifted it again, the only thing that stopped me from thrusting off the couch to 'offer' it to her was that I did have to pee.

"It wasn't that." She said as if that was supposed to mean anything. Seeing my confusion she shook her head, rolled her eyes, dropped the cloth, and got up off me. "Your thingie, it wasn't the size of that that she left you over."

"What?"

"It's a nice... It's a big one, it woke me up, I was having a dream that Harry Potter thought I was Ginny and I kept telling him it wasn't his broomstick I wanted pressed at my face. So... yeah, it's fatter than what I dreamed Harry Potter's dick to be, adult Harry Potter of course." She did blush then, I scooted out from the couch adjusting myself so that my brother and sister in law wouldn't also scope my morning wood on the way to the bathroom. "I'm only saying, it was probably your personality that made her dump you, not your body or you big... thingie."

"We're going to talk about your sexual attraction to a fiction young adult fantasy series character when I get back," I announced, because as much as I wanted to be embarrassed she had given me a HUGE compliment. One of the most complimentary compliments she'd ever given, without an instant slap of some kind of insult. Okay, there had been the personality thing but I knew that was just play.

"Adult! It was him as an adult!" She called as I hurried up the stairs.

I peed but I also brushed my teeth, tamed my hair (I didn't go crazy, I wanted her to think I hadn't bothered.), then got some coffee, the box of our favorite breakfast cereal that we'd been taking turns buying, bowls, spoons, and of course Rice Milk in a large cup on the side. Because we'd determined that was the best milk for cereal, we were losers and had done a taste test while all the cool kids had been out having dates and otherwise not being dumped.

I stopped right before going down the stairs as it hit me. Gwen had been looking at my dick! For how long? She'd been lifting the leg of my shorts, staring at my erect penis which had been wedged down it. Opening and seeing it close enough that she could have touched, that she could have given it a little kiss! Maybe not but all I could think of was that I would be in jail if the situation was reversed, I had been lifting her shirt or panties to peek her privates. There was a little whisper that told me to get all up in arms about it but instead my dick actually stirred. Not just at the idea of peeking her no doubt ginger pubed pussy, her small tits, but also her looking at my junk.

"Oh, where did it go?" She asked when I got to the bottom, her eyes on my crotch.

"I shouldn't have to explain male anatomy to you." Giving a big shake of my head, a sigh.

"You yerked one off." Yeah, she used a Y instead of a J, I could never tell if it was an affect that she thought was cute, or just something that nobody called her on. I thought it absolutely adorable. "Should I worry about the milk?"

"When would I have had time to... Nevermind, you know I didn't." Shaking my head, putting out our spread of breakfast we always ate together when we didn't have anyplace to go.

"Thanks." She said as I plopped her bowl and spoon ahead of her, giving her first go at the cereal and milk.

"For the view of my dick or getting breakfast?" Realizing I'd been coming off all prudish.

"Hmm, both I guess." Staring straight ahead, trying to be cool, but her cheeks pinked.

"Well I think that means you owe me." Ready to retreat to 'You get breakfast tomorrow' if there was even a hint of anger.

"What?" But she knew glancing my way quickly. "You're the one who was so hard you were practically peeking out of the top of your shorts."

"Practically is not actually. You did the old lift and look, open and ogle, prop and preview, hoist and hanker." After each she shook her head, rolled her eyes, got a little more pinker of cheek.

"Alright!" And she stood taking a quick look to make sure nobody was coming down the stairs then pulled her panties aside to give me a view of her vagina. It was not pube covered as I just assumed Gwen would be, there were some red locks visible at the top, a landing strip or something. Otherwise it was an absolutely hairless pale mound, with maybe ten freckles on it, a sliver of bright pink down the middle that seemed neon it was so vivid. Covering it back up all too quickly. "Happy?"

"Yeah, happier at least." I said, I think she expected some other kind of sarcastic answer. Some other expression or response, blinking she sat down, went back to her cereal.

"I can't believe you made me do that." Shaking her head, her hair was all done up at the top of her head, I was pretty sure it hadn't been when I'd gone upstairs, she'd hurriedly done it while I was gone.

"It wasn't that." I quoted back at her, even though SHE had done it to me, she still didn't get it. I glanced her way, meeting her gray green eyes. "Your thingie, it wasn't anything about that that he left you over. It's one of the prettiest ones I've ever seen."

Blinking at me for a few seconds more before turning away quickly, eventually rasping out. "Well, you're probably the only guy to ever see it and think so."

"I get like ten more of those." I answered while crunching on cereal, both of us effectively ignoring the show, but we'd already watched it before so it didn't matter.

"What?"

"Lift and lusts."

"No."

"You elevated and examined like twenty times."

"It's twenty now?"

"Well I was asleep, so I don't know the exact count and do you blame me for wanting as many boost and beholds as I can get? I never seen one so pink before it was like candy and..."

"Fine, twenty, but not right now."

"Wet?"

"Shut up."

"Thinking about Harry Potter?"

"Adult Harry Potter!" Pause, it seemed important to her to specify "From the books not the movies. He was pretty much in love with Ginny, a red head, at first sight. So pardon me for liking the one guy in history who did that." After a few more moments, safely off the topic of each other's sexual organs, she turned back to me. "Books are better but you do like the movies right?"

"Love some, can't help but love hate the rest." I admitted.

"Marathon?"

"Nothing I'd rather do than spend the next..." Quickly doing the rough math in my head. "Twenty hours with you."

"You mean you've got nothing better to do than spend the next twenty hours with me."

"That too." Feeling like I was pushing my luck here, watching nervously. She'd heard, understood, stared at the screen as she dialed through the menus to get to the first movie, before that a smile breaking through for just a moment.

****

"Hey, you're falling asleep." I said, it was one in the morning and our marathon still had a whole two more movies. We'd had to take a break to go to dinner with Sara and Charlie which set us back a lot.

"We can finish tomorrow, I can't stay awake." Grabbing the remote, pausing before exiting and powering off the TV. Putting the controller down the front of her shirt. "You're not gonna finish it without me either."

"Like I would." I might have thought about it, just because it did seemed like a thing I could brag about, that would earn me a good amount of nerd cred.

"Take me to bed." Crawling into my arms, putting her head on my shoulder.

"This is a pretty one sided relationship. I bring you breakfast, I get lunch delivered, and I carry you to bed." Needing to say something because she was staring up at me with drowsy eyes and I wanted nothing more than to start kissing her. I stood up, her arms tightening on me momentarily but delight coming over her at being handled like this. "Plus I have to watch old documentaries of your boyfriend all day."

"You're a dork." She laughed as I got her into her storage room turned bedroom, laid her on her bed.

"Night."

"Stay with me." Taking hold of me as I started away. I froze, really thinking that I was having some late night hallucination. Tired enough that dreams were becoming reality. "Not like that you weirdo, you're practically my little brother. I... After last night I need the cuddle."

"Okay." I knew it was stupid, teasing myself really, she seemed to think me a completely non-sexual entity all while I was growing more and more infatuated with her. I shouldn't let this happen but... I really wanted to.

Not stopping her as she pulled me down into big spoon position, being downright mean and wiggling her butt into me until she got comfy. Pulling her arm overtop herself, cradling my forearm. I wanted to make a joke about how I was glad she was going to be comfortable tonight, but I was too. I never was big on cuddling, not for an extended period of time, but... Gwen just fit. Plus she smelled incredible, was all sexy compact softness, of course there was nowhere else I wanted to be.

"Don't worry." She whispered right when I was about to drift off to sleep. "If you get another erection we'll pretend it's a morning wood pee boner."

"And not your butt?"

"Yeah, or the rest of my sexy ginger body."