Chapter 8

After a painful talk with Kevin, Simone decided the best course of action was to try and get some sleep, then figure out in the morning what was next. She wanted more than anything to follow Kevin to the guest room and sleep the night in his arms. But that clearly wasn't an option given the current occupancy of the house. It was something of a relief when the baby awoke wanting to be changed and fed.

Simone sent Kevin back to the guest room and encouraged him to try and sleep, while she tended to the baby. After the changing was completed, Simone brought her little one back downstairs and nursed her in her favorite recliner. When the baby was satisfied and Simone's breasts were relieved, mother and baby fell sound asleep in the chair and neither stirred again before morning.

As predicted, Greg was still asleep after Simone and Kevin had eaten breakfast (relatively free of more painful conversation). After the baby's needs had been tended to once again, Simone packed her into the car and drove Kevin home, in silence. When they reached their parents home, Simone brought the baby in and visited for a short time. She told her parents that Greg had returned, but completely avoided any talk of the extreme tension she was feeling.

Kevin had gone immediately to his room upon returning home. Simone wanted terribly to be alone with him so they could talk and be close. This of course, she also kept to herself. Her only solace was that this was Saturday. She was glad Kevin could be alone and that he didn't have to face school just then.

During their visit, Simone and Kevin's parents told her that they had seen a significant change in Kevin since he had been spending so much time with her and the baby - positive changes. They said Kevin had suddenly seemed more responsible about his chores and school work. And he seemed to them to have matured a great deal in just a few weeks. And he just seemed happier overall. They credited Simone for taking such an active role and showing so much interest in her little brother. She said she was really the one on the receiving end, since Kevin was so helpful with everything and that having him as company had done wonders in battling her loneliness. She also thought about how her brother had been maturing greatly in other ways and how she had been on the receiving end of that as well. Once again, these thoughts of Simone's remained unspoken.

After a while, Simone asked her parents if it would be O.K. if she left the baby with them for a while so that she could do a few things before Greg got up. As she anticipated, her parents were only too pleased to spend time with their grandchild and they told Simone to take her time. She told them that whenever Kevin reappeared, they should tell him that she would check-in with him later.

As soon as she was in her car, Simone was on her cell phone, checking in with someone else. "Are you available for coffee, maybe?" Simone said into the phone. "I understand if you're not. I know it's Saturday morning and everything. But if you can, I really need to talk. I'm really in trouble."

Twenty minutes later Simone was pulling her car into Monica's driveway. She hadn't thought anything would be looking up for her in her current cursed state, but the fact that Monica had said her hubby had taken the kids on an outing for the morning let Simone see a little light through the dark clouds she believed were hovering over her. Five minutes later she was seated at Monica's kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of her.

"Oh, Mon," Simone began, "thank you so much for having me over on such short notice."

"It's no problem, Simone. Hubby always spends time with the kids on Saturday morning anyway. We just got lucky that he took them out and left us with the house to ourselves."

"Lucky for me, that's for sure. I really do appreciate it, Monica."

"Anytime, Sweetheart. But you have me a little worried. What's going on?"

"Ohhhh..."

"What, Simone? Tell me."

"Greg came home last night."

"Really? Wow. Were you expecting him?"

"Nope. He just texted and said he was at the airport and wanted to be picked up."

"Well, that's good news, right? You've been saying how lonely you were without him."

"I know. But things have changed. And he was ... different. Or, I'm different. I'm just not sure. But it was all very weird."

"Wait a minute, Simone. Is this about Kevin? Have you guys moved things forward ... gotten more involved?"

"I ... a little. But it's not REALLY about Kevin. I can't deny that he has something to do with it. But it just feels much bigger than that."

"What do you mean, Honey?"

"Uuugghhhh," Simone grunted. "He was ... Greg was ... an ass. He was a total ass."

"Really? How?'

"I won't give you all the details. But from the second I picked him up, he didn't show the least bit of interest in how the baby or I had been, he didn't seem the least bit glad to be home, he was distant, and he had been drinking."

"How is he normally when he returns from his trips?"

"I don't know anymore. I want to say that he's better than this; that this was outside the norm. But I'm not sure. Now that I've been thinking about it, I don't know if he's ever glad to be home."

"Simone, are you absolutely sure this isn't about Greg intruding on your little 'arrangement' with your brother?"

"I don't blame you for asking that, Monica. I've thought about it a lot. I can't deny that my feelings for Kevin have gotten stronger. And his for me, I'm sure. But I honestly think I've been able to separate that from my feelings for Greg ... at least most of the time. There was definitely a part of me that wanted him home. At least I had been wanting home, really badly. But then, his text asking to be picked up out of the blue did feel like an intrusion. I mean, Kevin and I had just..."

"Just what?"

"We had just ... tried something we hadn't done before."

"You didn't have sex with him, did you?"

"No. Definitely not. It wasn't anything that big. But we were more or less, interrupted."

"Simone, you know I felt more cool about this thing with you and Kevin after we talked the other day. But if the truth is that it's getting in the way of your feelings for your husband, then you're..."

"It's not like that at all," Simone interrupted.

"Well then what is it like? It seems like you're telling me that your husband coming home interrupted some kind of sexual interlude with your thirteen year-old brother!"

"I ... yes, Monica. That did happen. Well, not exactly. We had finished a while before and we were eating together when I got Greg's text. But I'm trying to tell you that I really don't think what I did with Kevin had anything to do with the way I felt about Greg. It was about Greg. I think we've been distant for a long time. I mean, he's barely been around since I got pregnant. And that was a year ago! It seems like just when I found out, his trips got longer and more frequent. I think I've been resenting that and getting used to him not being a part of my life all that time."

"Really?"

"That's what it feels like."

"So, what happened when you picked him up from the airport?"

"Well, I didn't want to bring the baby. And Kevin offered to stay with her."

"While you were going to get Greg ... and bring him back to the house? Kevin wanted to stay there?"

"I ... yes. But let me tell you about that later."

"O.K."

"So, I picked Greg up at the airport. And I admit, I was thinking about Kevin. But I was thinking more than anything how crazy the whole thing is and that, just like you said, it shouldn't get in the way of my marriage."

"That's good," Monica said.

"I promise you, Monica, I really put things with Kevin aside and thought about how much I had wanted Greg to be home. And I started to hope that things would be good when I picked him up. I thought at least that he would be glad to see me."

"He wasn't glad to see you?"

"He didn't seem to be glad to be home at all, much less to see me. And to this moment, he still hasn't seen the baby."

"What? He didn't see the baby when he got to the house?"

"Nope. He talked to Kevin for two seconds, then told him to go sleep in the guest room and that was it."

"Kevin SLEPT there? With Greg home?"

"It was horrible. Greg insisted he stay. Kevin wanted to go home. Greg didn't want to drive him and he didn't want me to. So Kevin stayed in the guest room."

"What happened then?"

"Then, my half-drunk, extremely distant, un-interested husband, father of my child wanted his homecoming fuck."

"Oh, my."

"I wanted to want my husband, Monica," Simone said. "I thought for sure I would be dying to get into bed with him. But he was such an ass from the moment I picked him up that I wanted nothing to do with him."

"So what did you do?"

"Uuugghh ... I did what I swore I would never do."

"What's that?" Monica asked.

"I just let him do it. I didn't want to, but I was out of energy for a fight. He was drinking, so I knew he would be a total jerk about it. He was jerk enough as it is. So, I was totally passive. I let him fuck me. It was ... It just sucked."

"Oh, Honey ... I'm so sorry."

"Thanks, Mon. He wanted sex. That's all there was to it. And that's all he wanted. He didn't want to make love to his wife. He didn't want to show me how much he missed me by holding me and talking to me. He wanted me to express my gratitude to him for being home by spreading my legs."

"That's terrible, Simone."

"Not only was it the most unpleasant sexual experience I've ever had, but he was just such an idiot."

"Like, how?"

"Well, you know that the guest room is right by our bedroom."

"Right."

"He obviously knew Kevin was there ... on the other side of the wall. I asked him to be quiet. But I swear, he was purposely loud while he was doing it. And Kevin had to listen."

"Oh, Simone ... he didn't."

"I kept telling him that Kevin wouldhear. But Greg just got louder. He said it was his house and he didn't have to be quiet in it."

"Did Kevin hear you?"

"Of course. He couldn't help it. At some point, I found out later, he left the guest room and went downstairs and put on the TV. But he could probably still hear that jackass from the living room. I came out to check on Kevin after Greg rolled over and went back to sleep. Well, after I went in the bathroom and sobbed for fifteen minutes and then took a shower. Then I went to check on him."

"How was he doing?"

"Hurt, pissed, I don't know. He wouldn't say much about it, but I could tell."

"Why didn't you just take Kevin home and drop the baby at your mom's so he wouldn't be there when Greg got home?"