And how was it?
He he! That implies it only happened once…
…Did it? That would be telling. After all, what happens between a husband and wife in the sanctity of the marital bed…
Let's just say Derek was Derek - and I didn't get a lot of sleep. (I wasn't complaining.)
"Casey. Answer your door." Derek mumbled against my neck. He was trying to make out he was asleep, but he'd been awake five minutes ago…or his roaming hands had been anyway.
It was 9.30am the morning after our impromptu wedding. I'd called into work and told them I was taking the week off. Derek also had the week off with only a guest appearance at some talk show to promote the charity he was patron of. So we had hoped to spend sometime together. I guessed that Derek probably hoped to spend it all in bed. He certain seemed keen for me to be the one to get up and answer the door.
"Not a chance, Derek. I'm worn out. And as that is largely your fault…you can answer the door – or I'll be too tired for anymore "entertainment" today. And I suggest you do it soon because I'm getting sick of the noise."
He groaned, and recognising he was losing the battle, swung his legs out of bed. He grabbed boxers and a t-shirt from my chest of drawers, and I wondered just when exactly he had started leaving clothes here…I hadn't noticed.
I heard him cross the apartment to the front door but I couldn't tell if he checked the spy-hole. I really wouldn't hold out much hope for a home invader who picked on Derek. His hockey training had left him with an enviable physique.
He opened the door and then all I heard was silence.
After several seconds, it freaked me out. I grabbed my robe to cover my own naked body and followed him into the living room.
Derek was still holding the door open, and a very shocked Edwin was still standing outside.
"Ed!" I correctly identified. "I wasn't expecting you."
"Evidently." Edwin said, looking his elder brother up and down and, no doubt, noting his half-dressed state. Ed turned to look at me. I suspected I looked as though I had just spent the night having lots of sex.
Derek stepped back and Edwin entered the apartment.
He didn't look too impressed.
"I called your office, Casey and they told me you had the week off so I thought I'd see if you wanted to do something…but now I can see you already are."
He didn't sound impressed either.
Derek shut the door.
"Nice to see you, bro."
"I'd say the same, but I'm afraid I can't be too happy about seeing so much of you in Casey's apartment when she's wearing so little. Did you sleep with her?"
Protective Edwin…bless him.
Derek sighed. "Ed…"
"You promised me when you started this pseudo-friendship thing that you wouldn't hurt her. You promised me that you wouldn't start anything."
"I know."
"The trouble with you, Derek is you never keep it in your pants. You spare no thought for the girl."
"Ed." I tried to intervene.
"Casey. Let me finish."
Derek straightened. "Ed. You have no idea what my love life is like, so drop it okay. I don't sleep around… I didn't sleep around." He corrected himself.
"I'm not going to let you hurt her. Brother or no brother."
"I'm not going to hurt her."
Edwin didn't look convinced. I stepped forward and Derek put an arm around me.
"Casey. We talked about this. We agreed you seeing Derek was a bad thing."
"I know. But, I'm not seeing him."
"Oh. This is fuck-buddy time is it?"
I almost laughed. Edwin was so not the type to know much about fuck-buddies. Mind you, neither was I. I glanced at Derek who was also trying hard not to laugh.
"Ed. You've got the wrong idea."
"So enlighten me."
Derek grinned. "Casey is my wife."
Poor Edwin. I could see all his thoughts passing across his face: disbelief (that it was true), suspicion (that it was a Derek prank), surprise (because Derek was now holding up his left hand and mine, as well as passing him our marriage certificate), and hurt (because he realised he hadn't been invited.).
I dealt with the latter emotion first.
"Ed, hun. It was a sudden thing. We had witnesses and that was it. Even I didn't know about it until I was saying 'I do'."
"You married Derek." He stated. I nodded. "Why?"
"I have a thing for hockey players. He was conveniently around so I thought 'what the fuck!'"
Derek looked away and he was biting his lip…hard.
I relented. "Ed. Come on. You know why. Because Derek and I should have never have ended our relationship all those years ago."
Edwin glanced at his brother. "You still could have told me." he said accusingly to Derek.
"First I need to convince myself, and then I had to convince Casey. It's only now I'm getting around to convincing everyone else." He scratched his head. "Please Ed. I'm hoping you, of all people will understand."
Ed who was in love with his step-sister.
Not me! The other one!
Edwin took a deep breath. "Come on then. Tell me the whole sorry tale."
So I disappeared into the kitchen to make coffee while my husband-cum-step-brother entertained my brother-in-law-cum-step-brother. Was it me or was the back of my neck red?
"So." Ed asked an hour later, after we had explained how we had grown close enough again to get married. "Did I interrupt something with my visit?" He waggled his eyebrows.
Honestly, his Groucho Marx impression was toe-curling.
"Only Derek snoring, and frankly, it's one to miss."
Edwin and I laughed. Derek looked offended. "I don't snore."
I patted his hand. "You keep telling yourself that, darling."
"So…who knows?"
"You, Benny, Louisa." Derek listed.
"None of the fam?" Ed asked. We shook our heads.
"We haven't had chance. And to be honest, I think it would be better to spring it on them in person rather than over the phone."
Ed nodded. "Can I tell Liz?"
I smiled. "Just how often do you two talk?"
Edwin looked uncomfortable. "Every day."
"What does Trash think about that?" Derek asked. Trash was Lizzie's Greenpeace boyfriend. My spouse was playing with my hair where it brushed the shoulder of the jumper I had changed into. We had both showered and changed soon after Edwin arrived, and looked more respectable. And a little less like newlyweds.
"Trash got binned." I could tell Edwin relished that sentence. "Liz says he developed an aversion to washing."
"Ew!"
"You must be heartbroken, Ed." Derek added, a smirk settling on his face.
"I have to say that the air around Liz is a little sweeter right now." The younger brother also smirked. "I am really looking forward to telling Liz about your news."
"Well make sure you swear her to secrecy. We don't want the parentals to know just yet. Or Marti."
I glanced at Derek in surprise. "We're not telling Marti?"
My husband (sorry, I'm going to keep using that phrase. I still love it even now, years later!)…My husband grinned. "Of course. She's too cocky for her own good, is our youngest sister. So I think I won't bother to tell her."
"Won't she notice when the two of you turn up at Christmas?" Ed asked.
"Probably…I'm going to see how long it takes her to ask what is going on."
Edwin stayed a little longer and then left. As I saw him out the door, I put a hand on his arm.
"What are you going to do about Liz?" I asked softly, not wanting to draw Derek's attention to my question.
My brother smiled. "I was planning to spend some time doing brotherly things with my eldest step-sister. But as she appears to be busy, I guess I'll go see my other step-sister and tell her your news in person."
"And…?"
"We'll take it from there." He said.
"Nervous?"
"Very." He admitted.
"So was Derek. It made my decision a lot easier." I pressed a little kiss on his cheek. "Go get her, Tiger."
"Seriously…Case…ew!"
We chuckled and he left, still grinning.
I closed the door and walked back into the living room to where Derek was sitting. He watched me pick up my cell phone and dial.
"Who you ringing?" he mouthed. I shook my head.
"Hi Liz!!!! Yeah, I'm fine. Erm…look hun. Do me and yourself a favour. Shave your legs and make yourself look gorgeous for a couple of days."
My sister's confusion was audible.
"Casey…are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine. But you're getting a visitor so I'm just giving you a heads-up."
"Who?"
"Ed."
"Ed?? Why's Ed coming to see me?" She sounded panicked…in a good way.
"I promised him, he could tell you that. Just do as I said."
I finished the call and looked up to find Derek smirking at me.
"What?"
"Did you used to do that whenever I came over? Shave your legs I mean."
"No."
"Why not?" He pulled me down onto his lap.
"Because you never gave me any warning that you were on your way over. You just used to turn up on the doorstep."
He ran a hand down my leg.
"So how come you never had hairy legs?"
I smiled. "I shaved every day…just in case."
Two days later, I got the call from mom. She wanted to know if I was coming home for Christmas. I answered in the affirmative and then she sighed.
"Well at least that's one of you that I've managed to get an answer out of. I can't get Liz, Edwin or Derek to answer their phones. Have you seen any of them?"
"Ed was here a couple of days ago, he said something about needing a break so he was going to drop off the face of the earth. Liz has broken up with Trash so she probably isn't feeling like talking and Derek…"
I paused to swat his hand away from my breast.
"…will either turn up or not."
"I needed to know for Aunt Madge. She wants to stay."
"Oh. Say yes to her. Derek can have the couch."
"Casey! I thought you two had stopped all that."
"Mom. I'm sure Derek would say the same thing." The subject concerned raised an eyebrow. I smiled which he seemed to take as an invitation to kiss me. I let him, and closed my eyes, barely registering my mom's voice in the background.
"I guess I'll do what I always do, hope and plan that you'll all be there."
"Sounds good to me, Mom." I agreed, somewhat breathlessly.
The call didn't last much longer.
Mom's words had me thinking, though, so I texted Liz.
Is everything okay?
It was a couple of hours before I had a reply, by which point we were back in bed and my phone vibrated on the nightstand.
Perfect…thank you. ;-)
I wondered if they were in a similar position to us right now.
