That First Night Ch. 02

Author's Note: Welcome back around everyone for the next chapter in my little story. This chapter is actually a compilation of 3 "parts". Parts 1 and 2 are highly modified versions of ideas I had for the story when I first started writing. Part 3 is a retrofitted and somewhat expanded version of a part of the original story.

With that in mind, here we go again.

*****

For a few days after I first had sex with my cousin Ashley, not much happened.

She teased me, I teased her, while my parents seemed to be none the wiser.

The first thing she did was start looking for excuses to be closer to me. When I would do a small favor for her, she would hug me, pressing her body into mine. She did this unabashedly, sometimes right in front of my parents.

I responded by upping the ante. Just two days after our first time together, we noticed that the air mattress she had been sleeping on so far for her visit had a gaping hole poked into it...

Now, I had nothing to do with that hole. I did not take my Swiss Army Knife to the air mattress. I had nothing to do with it. Do you understand? Write it down!

But after this... incident... I, being a gentleman, offered to share my bed with her. I pointed out that my bed was big enough to comfortably fit both of us.

My parents bought that excuse and Ashley moved her pillow onto my bed, all the while looking at me with a look that said "well played".

Ashley also teased me at work by calling me on my breaks and sending me seductive texts when I was working. Either fortunately or unfortunately, I had time to look at all of these texts on the job.

I work as a security dispatcher at a fancy high rise apartment complex in the heart of downtown Dallas. Think of it as the kind of place that's paradise in a building. All the features and amenities you could imagine and more, with rent starting at $2,200 a month for a basic apartment.

Rumor has it that you can't even see the penthouse, much less alone move in, unless you are very rich or you know someone.

One selling point for our apartments is that we have security guards doing walkabouts on every floor. All guards are equipped with Tasers and two-way pagers that communicate with the dispatch desk that I am a part of.

Ordinarily, when a guard presses the panic button on a pager, or a pager hits the ground, it sends an alert to the dispatch desk so we know to sound an alarm to send more guards and/or call the police.

That's what's "supposed" to happen according to management... But false alarms are a part of being human. So protocol is that we communicate with guards through their pagers to ask if everything is alright before we sound the alarm. If we are convinced it was a false alarm, we don't do anything.

Because of this leniency, the security department has been wildly unprofessional when we are out of public view.

I am the one who is the most anal about guards dropping their pagers, to the point where guards started calling me "annoying pager guy" when I had to contact them. I have a feeling that some of the guards intentionally drop their pagers just to get a rise out of us at the dispatch desk.

And after the fourth time I have to contact guards because of dropped pagers, I freak out from having to do too much work on one day and I sound the alarm regardless of what the guard response is.

For the most part, work became my safe harbor. I couldn't stand Ashley's teasing any more, but my parents were still around most of the time.

I lost my safe harbor about 4 days after my relationship with Ashley changed when she decided to pop into my workplace for a surprise visit.

Indeed, it was a surprise when I saw her walk over to my cubicle... Just walked right into the office with no one at the front desk letting me know. Yeah, security... isn't it great?

Today she was wearing a red sundress and blue jeans. The blue jeans hugged her lower body neatly, accenting her long leg by simply leaving them to the imagination... Or maybe it was my imagination.

As for the red sundress, she had worn it on a previous visit and I had complimented her on it. If she didn't know back then why I had to go to the bathroom shortly thereafter, she certainly did now.

Her footwear wasn't too remarkable; she was wearing a pair of purple flip-flops. Although I suspect she knew that my favorite color was purple.

I stood up as she approached me and I was about to say something when she ran for me, pulling me into a tight hug.

"I missed you," she said out loud. "I miss you when you've been gone all day."

This whole thing was just another tease, I could figure out a way to throw her off her game...

A quick scan of the room and... Nope, not gonna work. Eyeballs around my cubicle shifted over to Ashley and me, the most interesting thing going on at the moment.

I responded in kind to Ashley, telling her I missed her too.

She then proceeded to lean her head very close into me and pressed her lips very close into mine. I could almost feel those beautiful lips touching.

"Hey"

"Hey look"

"What's up?"

I started hearing people in loud whispers. Hopefully no guards started dropping their pagers right now.

I couldn't take it any more... she was just so beautiful. I made my move and kissed her the way I wanted to kiss her.

In that moment, I was lost. I knew we were the only two people in the world for that very moment.

After what felt like too short a moment, I had to come to my senses and disengaged from her, lest I take her right here at my cubicle.

Everyone at the dispatcher desk was now in attendance of this spectacle, even my supervisor. Being as unprofessional as we all were, every single person had this gawker look on their face. My supervisor looked Ashley up and down and then looked at me with a look that said "You lucky dog".

As luck would have it, an alert came in at that very moment and I set down to talk with whatever guard had dropped their pager this time.

"This is dispatch: What's your status?" I said into my headset.

After getting no response for a few seconds, I began to get impatient.

"Cory, get off the toilet and answer the pager!" I said in a louder voice.

This caused Ashley to break out into a small giggle as the gawkers looked on... They knew exactly where all this was going. And not just with the pager alert, which they had seen far too much.

Finally, Cory decided to pick up his damn pager and reported in.

"Sorry dispatch. That Mexican food I had for lunch gave me gas... I accidently hit the alert when I was..."

The call went silent for a few seconds.

"...Yes?" I asked.

"...Sorry." Cory replied in a strained voice.

"Okay... well, um... everything looks fine. Just... You know, don't let that happen again."

I ended the pager call and marked the alert as a false alarm.

I looked over at Ashley, who flashed a megawatt smile... Now she knows what I do all day... perfect.

"Well now I know why you can read my texts all day. I'm going to start sending more."

Oh boy.

"Yeah, that'd be great Ashley."

"See you back at home handsome."

She started to walk away and stopped to blow me a kiss while the onlookers just did what they do best... look on.

A bit after Ashley exited the dispatcher desk, I called down to reception in the lobby to make sure she had made it out okay and everything was fine. Those guys handling the lobby can be a bit flighty at times.

A hush had fallen over the dispatch desk as people just went back to work, trying to fully process what they had just seen. A beautiful girl with someone like me.

After about 10 minutes, Jim, my coworker in the cubicle right next to mine broke the silence.

"Is that your girlfriend?"

I had to pause for a second to wonder what exactly Ashley and I were... We both knew now that we loved each other and we were attracted to each other, and we did consummate our relationship recently...

"She, uh... Yeah, she is."

"Damn man... Does she have a sister?"

"Yes, and I know for a fact she's taken." I said with a smug look on my face.

"There's no way you're..."

I left that question open in his mind as I got back to work.

At 5:00, my shift ended. I knew Jim was staying for overtime today, so I told him goodbye.

"You relish every moment, you lucky S.O.B. Because once those two figure you out, they're going to drop you like a stone."

Knowing that Jim wouldn't believe me, I decided to toss in a shocker.

"Yeah, kind of tough to do that with family."

The only response I heard from him was the sound of him spitting coffee all over his computer monitor as I departed the dispatch desk.

***

For a few days thereafter, not very much happened between my cousin and I. We couldn't really do anything since my parents were around most of the time.

Oh we continued our teasing of one another, turning it into a game of sorts.

One thing we did stage was a slight revival of our years old prank war with one another. On every visit we had with each other, someone pulled a silly little prank on the other that was more annoying than anything else.

The "prankee" would then respond in kind to the "pranker" by pranking them back.

The series of pranks would escalate quickly, becoming all the more serious with each prank.

At the end of our visit with each other, we could consider the pranks we pulled on each other, factoring in elements such as who pulled the first prank, and who pulled the last prank.

After we had done this, one of us would concede the prank war for that visit to the other, recognizing them as the winner of the war.

So far, five of these prank wars had taken place between us, with each of us winning two wars. The Great Prank War of 2013 ended in a tie when we realized that we were simply going to keep one-upping each other until someone got hurt.

For this, the later portion of The 2015 Prank War, I decided to start the war with an old classic that reflected the change that happened during this visit: The ole Water Bucket trick.

In the master bathroom upstairs, I set a plastic bucket filled with water over the door a few minutes before Ashley said she was going to take her shower.

Once she opened the bathroom door wider, the bucket would tip over, dumping its contents all over her.

As she was wearing a white t-shirt and cutoff jeans today, this would make her top half incredibly transparent.

I waited in the master bedroom for her to walk in. The smile she gave me was quickly followed by her narrowing her eyes a bit... She knew something was up besides me.

"Hey, how are you doing?" she asked.

"All good... Thinking about UFOs mostly." I replied, trying everything possible to keep a straight face.

"Riiiiight... Okay..."

Somehow it did not occur to her that she should check everywhere to make sure I hadn't set something up. She opened the bathroom door wide, with the following bucket tip giving the expected results.

The bucket hit the top of her head, making for a perfect drop.

"Oh! My God!" she exclaimed. "...Ow!"

I couldn't help it, I just busted out laughing at the completion of the prank... simple but effective.

She turned around and I detected a small smile that she was trying to hide. Of course, she was embarrassingly transparent, so she probably kept that in mind.

"You little motherfucker..."

"No Ashley, I have not fucked my mother, nor do I have any plans to."

She just lost it at that remark and started laughing and I quickly joined her as we took in the absurdity of the entire situation.

"I'm gonna wet my pants." She warned.

"Go ahead, that would be funny."

Right then, dad picked a great moment to walk into the master bedroom.

"I hear laughing, what's going..."

He looked at both me and Ashley and he realized out what had happened.

"Oh god... Again you two?" he remarked as he started laughing with us.

"Y'all... y'all get out of here, I'm going to take my shower."

Dad and I then left the room, trying our best to calm down.

"A water bucket?"

"Respect the classics, dad."

"Yeah, you're right... And I can't say I didn't pull the same stunts on your mother back when we were dating... Either way, nice work."

"Thanks."

He looked at me with a look that said 'Why would you even do that?' before he walked off.

***

The next morning, I awoke once again to my beautiful cousin clad in her pink, fluffy jammies and on top of me. Her deep, blue eyes were wide open and looking into mine. Among us, I was usually the first awake. And as such, I was usually the person that woke her up with a sweet kiss. I lingered on this thought for a moment and thought about how beautiful she looks while she's asleep.

I heard the sound of a ratchet closing and I felt cold metal around one of my wrists... no way.

Ashley leaned over and gave me a gentle, loving kiss as she saw my eyes open fully.

"Good morning," she whispered "how did you sleep baby?"

"I slept like an angel," I whispered back "Or with an angel... Whichever."

My reward for being so sweet was another one of Ashley's big smiles that just melted me.

"I am in love with your smile... The way it just lights up your entire face."

"I love you, I don't care that it's wrong. I don't care that society says we should be together."

"I love you too Ashley... I've loved you for 8 years."

Her entire face started turning a very rosy shade of red as my words sank in.

I think I knew why I felt that cold metal... but I still wanted to know.

"Why the handcuffs? My parents are still around."

"I don't want you to leave the bed yet, so I decided to handcuff us together. Since we can't do anything... could you just snuggle with me for a while before you go to work today?"

"I'd like nothing more than to snuggle with my beautiful cousin... You just had those handcuffs though?"

"They're yours."

My mind flashed back to when I was a young child. When Ashley visited, we would play Cops and Robbers. We would take turns handcuffing each other, arresting each other, and reading each other our Maranda rights.

We wouldn't stop at simply handcuffing the other's arms to each other. We would handcuff each other to chairs, to branches on the oak tree in the backyard of my then home, we would cuff each other's legs together, and a few times we actually handcuffed our hands together. When we did that, we joked that cuffs would keep us together.

"Are these the same...?"

She nodded as she leaned in and kissed me, launching into a mockup of those Maranda rights.

"You have the right to remain silent... although I do not recommend that. You have the right to cuddle me and hold me. You don't have the right to an attorney, because... let's face it, we're both guilty here."

I put my arms around her and pulled her very close to me... Oh it felt so good.

"Mmm... this is better than the sex... This feels so good. Do you feel the same, handsome?"

"Yes. You feel so nice Ashley. It feels so right having you in my arms like this."

"Really?" She asked with a catch in her voice.

"Truly."

I wasn't just trying to make her feel good. She felt damn good, cradled up in my arms, us in a lovers embrace. You know how when you're resting with just the right person, you just have this feeling of total bliss, tranquility, and happiness that comes over you? That's how I felt. Sure, one could argue about the sex... Society, the law, and my parents could say whatever they wanted... but whatever could be wrong with this?

We snuggled up to each other closer, kissing each other, whispering little endearments and telling the other how much we loved each other.

The 15 minutes we spent like this felt like an eternity, yet far too short. I felt her hand slide across mine as I felt that cold metal moving on my wrist. She showed me the key as she placed it in the keyhole and unlocked my handcuff.

"I'll be thinking of you at work," I whispered.

"I'll be thinking of you all day hot stuff," she whispered back.

I kissed her forehead and started to get ready for work, hoping that this would not be the end of our beautiful story together.