My Sister's Best Friend Ch. 01

"Cindy, this is my best friend from work, Tabitha. Tabby, this is my sister, Cindy." I heard my sister say as I was looking into the most amazing pair of ocean blue eyes that I have ever seen. Surrounding those eyes was an angelic face and long honey blonde hair. She was about an inch shorter than me, had a really nice set of C cup breasts, narrow waist, flared hips, and long legs, and a really nice ass that her dress seemed to enhance. Oh. Momma.

"Hi, Tabitha, or do you prefer Tabby?" I inquired.

"Hi, Cindy. Nice to meet you, and you can call me Tabby." She replied.

"OK, Tabby. So, what do you do? Katie says you work with her?"

"Yes, We're both tellers at the bank. Katie says that you are studying to be an engineer?"

As we talked for the next 15-minutes, an idea struck me. (Usually, this is the point where my warped sense of humor takes over my mind with 'I immediately struck back and a lively fight ensued'.) My sister wanted to set me up with one of her friends? Fine. I could do that. Only this time it would be the friend that she had no idea that I would be interested in. This would be fun, and, as a bonus, it should get her to stop meddling in my life. Besides, she is a lot more interesting that the boring guys that Katie is always trying to hook me up with.

The rest of the evening was quite hilarious to me. Tabby and I pretty much stayed together talking about almost everything. She was very intelligent and charming. I was laughing on the inside as I watched Katie getting more and more frustrated as she kept trying to interject the guys between us. Of course, we were polite and included them in our conversations, but it was pretty obvious that they were intruding on OUR conversations. I could tell that Katie was practically seething by the end of the evening, yet still putting on a good front as hostess. I decided to twist the knife in her guts a bit before I left. I waited until Katie was near enough to hear.

"Hey, Tabby. I have a couple of friends that are in a band that's playing at the music festival next weekend, and they gave me a couple of free passes. Would you be interested in going? It should be a nice day outside, and we could just hang out and listen to some good music."

"Oh, that sounds like fun. Can you pick me up? My brother is going to be using my car that day, so I won't be able to drive there."

"Of course. Let me have your phone number and we can work out the details later."

"Great!" She said happily.

I entered her number in my phone, and I texted her so she would have mine. Thankfully, for my sister's blood pressure, the party wrapped up soon afterwards. I followed Tabby out and gave her a quick hug telling her that I was glad to meet her, and that I thought that we could become good friends. We then got into our respective cars and left.

Tabitha:

I had become fairly good friends with one of my coworkers, Katie. I got the job working as a teller after divorcing the cheating slimeball that I married right after I graduated from high school. We had dated throughout our junior and senior years. Thankfully, we didn't have any kids. I caught him with some barmaid that he picked up one night.

Katie seemed very friendly, and we got to know each other very well. We would occasionally meet for coffee and do a little shopping on Saturdays. One day, she invited me over to her house for a dinner party she was having that Friday night. Being unattached and not having anything else to do, I accepted. Boy was I in for a surprise.

I arrived at the party and was immediately introduced to all of the single guys there. SET-UP flashed through my mind. Seriously? I had just gotten rid of one cheating asshole, and she wanted to set me up with one of these guys? There were also a few couples and one other single girl there that I was also introduced to. I was about to slyly text my brother to call me with some fake emergency so I could get out of there when another girl walked in. She was kind of tall, 5' 10ish it looked like. She had a really great figure and a rather pretty face, green eyes and long auburn hair. Yep, Katie also introduced her to all the single guys first, then the other couples, and finally to me and the other single girl as if it were an afterthought.

Cindy, Katie's sister it turns out, had a slight smirk on her face throughout the introductions, as if she knew the punchline to a joke that no one else knew about. As I looked at her while we were being introduced, I realized that this wasn't the first time that this had happened to her, and she knew what was going on before she even walked in the door. I also realized that her sister didn't think that Cindy had figured it out, and Cindy wasn't going to let on that she knew. She was keeping it to herself and having fun with it. OK. Let's see what Cindy's plan is and see if I can have some fun with it too. There was one other thing about her that had something in the back of my brain flashing.

Apparently, her plan was to hang out with me and pretty much ignore the guys. I could work with that. Besides, I actually found Cindy to be really intelligent and witty. I could actually see us becoming really good friends. I enjoyed her company all evening. Of course, I noticed that Katie was becoming a bit frustrated that Cindy and I weren't more engaging with the guys. I also noticed that Cindy got a bit of a wicked smirk every once in a while, after glancing at her sister and seeing her consternation. Yep. I think Cindy and I will get along rather well. Of course, I agreed to go to the music festival when she offered. I also made up a story about my brother needing my car so I could get her to pick me up Like an actual date.

Oh! Did I forget to mention something? [giggle] That's OK. I'm sure that you will figure it out in time.

Cindy:

I really connected with Tabby at my sister's house that evening. She seemed to be very friendly, and I thought that it would be a lot of fun if I could manage to sort of steal her away from my sister as a BFF. Although not opposed to the idea, I really didn't have much hope of actually getting her to be an actual girlfriend and lover because she is straight and I didn't really think that I could turn her. Besides, that would also lead to a whole lot of other issues. First and foremost, I would then be 'out' to my family. After what happened to Linda, that was something that would require a lot of thought. If it actually looked like it would happen, I decided that I would make a trip out to Las Vegas to talk to Aunt Gail about it.

Over the next week, Tabby and I texted back and forth. We mainly discussed the plans for the music festival, but there were also some texts about more personal stuff as we got to know each other better. We also talked for a while on with phone calls. We seemed to be building up a really good friendship.

Saturday morning finally came around. I arrived at her apartment just before 10:00 AM. The festival kicked off at 11:00. I had just cleaned and washed my Z that morning. Yeah, it still wasn't very pretty, but I wanted to make as good of an impression as I could. I was dressed in a nice light blue tank top and cargo shorts (love having all those pockets). I wore my cross trainers with ankle socks in deference to the festival being held outside and serious walking was expected. Tabby answered the door, and I was stunned by what I saw. She was gorgeous! She was wearing a red halter top (braless), a flowery light skirt that ended at mid-thigh, and strappy wedge sandals with 2-inch heels. I was further stunned when she pulled me into a tight hug and kissed me on the cheek.

"Wow. You look fantastic." I said as I finally found my voice again.

"And you look amazing too." She replied. "Let me just grab my purse, and we can go."

It was a half hour drive to the festival grounds, but the drive seemed to be over quickly. We chatted throughout the drive, and I had a classic rock station playing softly in the background. We got there just as the gates opened, and found a good spot before the music started. Our conversation came naturally as if we had been friends for years, but the subjects were more getting to know each other better. She told me about her life growing up, getting married at 18, catching her ex-husband with another woman and getting divorced. I told her about my family, school, and my decision to go to college later in life than usual. (I decided to go to college and study engineering when I was 23-years old after getting tired of low paying jobs with no future).

We sat and listened to the music between conversations. Occasionally, we would get up and move to another stage to watch another band. I bought us burgers for lunch, and she bought a couple of beers for us in the afternoon. My friend's band played in the late afternoon, and we made sure that we were up front for them. They smiled as we waved to them, and Janette grinned at me and winked when she realized that the blonde cutie beside me was my 'date'. I did blush a bit at that, but, thankfully, Tabitha didn't notice. Uuummm, you remember me mentioning my 'friend' that I would hook up with occasionally? Yeah, that would be Janette.

Tabby and I danced right in front of the stage as the band played. We had a lot of fun bouncing around to the beat, laughing and cheering. Eventually, their set ended, and I took Tabby around to the back of the stage to meet my friends. As Tabby was talking to a couple of the band members, Janette came over and gave me a hug.

"Looks like you found yourself a keeper there." She whispered in my ear.

"No." I responded. "She's straight. We're just friends."

"Uh huh. Sure." She responded as if she was unconvinced.

We could only stay for a few minutes, because they had to pack up and make way for the next band. Since it was now early evening, we wandered over to the concession area for food. We decided on tacos. I stood in line to order, while Tabby went to get us each another beer. We managed to find a nice quiet spot on the grass away from everyone else, sat down and began eating. As we ate, we were having a rather pleasant conversation about the day; what bands we liked, the perfect weather, the beautiful park... My brain suddenly locked up! Something that I thought I heard, but couldn't have. The analytical part of my mind tried to figure it out, but the mathematics of the binary signals passing between my neurons simply did not compute properly. My higher functions could not make sense of the signals that the sound waves detected from my ears were sending. I froze.

"Cindy? Are you OK?" Finally resonated through me.

"Uuuuuh, What?" I was finally able to respond.

"I asked if you are OK." Tabby said with concern.

"Oh. Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. No, what was it that you said before that?"

"I asked you if Janette is your girlfriend." She laughed.

"Oh. Yes, she is a friend of mine, and of course she is a girl." I managed to reply. COME ON PEOPLE! I'M NOT STUPID! Of course, I knew exactly what she was really asking. Yes, this was a really weak response to that, but it was all I had at that particular time.

Tabby got a big grin on her face at my obviously bad attempt at deflection.

"Yeah, I got that she is a girl, and that she is a friend of yours. You also know what I was really asking. Now, is Janette your GIRLFRIEND?"

I could feel the heat on my face as I looked at the ground in front of me. I shook my head no as I answered.

"No. I don't have a girlfriend right now. Janette and I just kind of hook up occasionally when we want. We both know that it won't go anywhere. We're close friends and occasional lovers, but we are too different for anything else to happen."

"That's pretty much what I thought when I saw her looking at me, then turn and wink at you."

"You saw that?" I asked.

"Of course." She responded. "I noticed how the two of you were looking at each other when they began playing, so I decided to start paying attention to what she was doing."

I suddenly panicked. Here was someone that knew my secret who was good friends with another family member. Oh fuck! How could I have been so stupid!

"Oh God! Please, you can't let my sister know! Please don't tell anyone. My family can't find out about me yet." I begged her in a total panic.

"Hey, hey, hey." She began. "Your secret is safe with me. I'm not gonna out you to anyone, but what's going on here? Why are you so scared?"

I calmed down a bit then. "OK. Thanks." I paused for a minute, then let out a big sigh before continuing. "Has my sister discussed any of our family with you? Has she mentioned any of our relatives?"

"Yes, she has actually. It seems as though you have a rather large extended family here. I think that she has actually talked about pretty much all of them."

"Has she ever mentioned Aunt Gail or my cousins Robin and Linda?"

"Well, she talked about an Aunt Gail that lives in Las Vegas, and has mentioned a Robin before. She said something about Robin getting into some trouble and now living with your Aunt Gail. I don't think she really approves of Robin, but she has never mentioned anyone named Linda."

"That makes sense. You see, Robin is kind of a partier. She tends to get a bit wild at times, so she is kind of the black sheep of the family. Katie doesn't like her because Katie is a religious zealot like most of the family."

"OK. I kind of picked up on that, but who is Linda?"

I smiled, but it really wasn't a nice smile. "Linda doesn't exist anymore." I saw the look of confusion on her face and continued. "Linda is one of our cousins. She was very sweet and a really great person. She came out to her parents just after she graduated from high school. She was disowned by the entire family. Her parents kicked her out of the house that night, and no one has had any contact with her since. No one knows, or even cares, if she is still alive or not. She simply ceased to exist to the family. No one EVER mentions her name. They didn't even bother trying to get ahold of her to tell her that her brother was killed about 2-months after she was kicked out."

"HOLY SHIT! That's awful. How could people do that?"

"According to my family's beliefs, homosexuality is a grave sin, and they refuse to have anything to do with it. As far as they are concerned, if someone makes the choice to be homosexual, they are turning their back on God."

"But you don't believe that?" She asked.

"No. I believe that God created me as I am. Since I simply have zero attraction to men, but a very large attraction to Women, and I simply can't control that, God must have made me that way. Since He made me this way, it must be OK. And, believe me, I have really tried to be attracted to men."

"OK. I understand now, and you don't have to worry about me saying anything. Just be forewarned, should we become more than just friends, it will very likely come out."

Wait! What was that? She must have seen the look of shock on my face because she started to laugh.

"Come on. Take me back home. We need to have a long conversation, and here in public is not the place to have it."

The drive home was quiet. I was lost in my thoughts wondering what the hell was going on. I assumed that Tabby was going over what she wanted to say in her mind. When we entered her apartment, she nudged me towards the couch while saying that she was getting us something to drink. She returned a few moments later with a bottle of Jim Beam Honey Bourbon and a couple of tumblers filled with ice.

"Thought something stronger than beer or wine would help." She mumbled.

Drinks in hand, first gulp downed. She looked me in the eye for a moment, then took a deep breath.

"OK. First of all, yes, I was married to a man." She began. "However, I am not completely straight. During high school, I had some sleep-overs with one of my friends. We experimented. I liked it. I should also let you know that I have fooled around with a couple of other women since I filed for my divorce. As of now, I am what might be best thought of as a lesbian leaning bisexual. That means that I haven't completely given up on guys, but my preference is definitely women. You should also know that I really find you attractive and enjoy talking with you. Based on our conversations this last week, I really would like to get to know you better, and I think that there is a good chance that it could develop into a really great relationship. Obviously, neither one of us are out of the closet, and that continues until we are both comfortable coming out. That said, I see no reason why we can't keep getting together and doing friend type things, but we keep the rest of it behind closed doors. What do you say?"

WOW! That was really surprising. What do I say? How about 'YES PLEASE!' Then, my inconvenient analytical mind began working.

"Yeah, I'm good with that. The only problem that I see is that people will probably get suspicious if we spend all our time together, go to dinners together, go to movies and really everything else together. It won't take very long for people to start talking about us dating."

"You're right, and I haven't quite figured out how to handle that yet."

The thing that I really like about engineering is that it is totally about solving problems. Got a hard problem to solve? Give it to an engineer. That's what they do. Suddenly, my engineering mind formulated an elegant solution. Not only would it solve our issue, but it would also piss off my sister more.

"We date the guys that my sister keeps setting us up with." I said, grinning.

She looked at me like I had just lost my mind.

"No, this is perfect. Let me explain..." I told her all about what I had been doing. I explained how I figured out what my sister was doing, and how I had basically been using the guys to get free dinners at nice restaurants and go to movies and shows for free. I explained my thought process to her. I saw her begin to smile as she thought more about it.

"What we will do," I explained, "is become best friends and double date. We will just think about it as the two of us are going on a date together, but we are letting the ATM's tag along to pay for everything. Of course, we will occasionally have to go on solo dates, but we can try to keep that to a minimum. We will play that by ear, depending on how people begin to react. If it looks like someone is beginning to get suspicious, we do more solo dates. We can also throw in several 'Girls Nights Out' without raising too many suspicions."

"That does sound interesting, but isn't that a bit cold to take advantage of the guys like that?" she asked.

"Perhaps, but keep in mind that they are working with my sister to try to screw with our private lives. We didn't ask for this, and they are trying to be sneaky about it. Besides, we are doing nothing to encourage them. It isn't taking advantage if they are freely going along with it. And, to top it off, they never bothered to think about whether or not we would have even been interested in any of them. Had Katie ever or any of the guys ever asked me, I may have agreed to meet them, or even gone out with a few. Bottom line, they never asked. Seriously, not to be vain or anything, but don't they think that two women that look like we do can't get dates on our own if we want them? Furthermore, if these guys want to keep wining and dining us for just a handshake or, perhaps a quick kiss on the cheek at the end, who am I to deny them? It's not like we're asking them for anything. We aren't leading them on or even encouraging it."

"OK. I like it. Then, at the end of the 'date', they drop us off at one of our apartments where we spend the rest of the night. Perhaps with a light kiss on the cheek if they have been nice. At least it will give them something for our appreciation." She concluded.