The Weekend I’d Have My Sister to Myself

“Okay, I’d call it a day for today,” Marina suggested, closing her notebook with a satisfied look. We had made more progress than expected for that afternoon.

“Thank God,” Hugo blurted, rubbing his eyes with both hands. “My head already hurts from so many numbers that mean nothing, seriously.”

I straightened up in my chair and took the chance to stretch my neck. Carla had left quite a while ago without explaining where she was going, and honestly, her absence took a weight off my shoulders. The fewer people in the room, the more calmly I breathed.

“All right, but we need to meet once more this week. The first hand-in is Tuesday and I can’t do Monday.” I grabbed my planner and pen. “Is Saturday good for you?”

“Me, in the morning, nice and early,” Marina offered. “Until noon, then I’ve got things to do.”

“And you?” I asked Hugo.

“I’ll show up around ten and stay as long as needed.”

“Perfect, then here the day after tomorrow,” I concluded, jotting it down in handwriting I myself wouldn’t even understand later.

It was past twelve. Marina put her laptop away in its case and looked at me as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.

“Marcos, Hugo and I are going to the café to grab something to eat before class. Coming?”

“Thanks, but I can’t. I’ve got to do an individual assignment for another subject.”

“Your loss. See you later. Bye!” she said, waving.

“Enjoy,” I replied with a half smile, partly out of politeness, partly because I liked her.

I had lied to them, though only half. The solo assignment was real, but the deadline wasn’t until after Christmas. What really made me turn down the plan was the idea of going into a small place, full of noisy people whose conversation mattered to me little or not at all. In places like that my stomach knots up, I tense, and I stop knowing how to speak. So I unwrapped the sandwich I’d made that morning and ate it in front of the English book I had to pull ideas from for a review.

***

As almost always, I stayed in the university library until closing time and got home past nine, just in time for dinner. That routine gave me peace, and I liked it more than anything else.

I found Lucía in the living room with our father: she with her phone, him glued to the TV, while grandma finished frying something in the kitchen. My sister looked up and smiled when she saw me.

“Hi, I’m here!” I said. “Sorry I’m late, there was traffic.”

“No problem,” she answered at once, getting up from the sofa and coming toward me. “Dinner’s still a few minutes away.”

Before I could take off my jacket, she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me. I hugged her back and pulled her against me, as was only natural.

Then she pulled her head back a little, just enough to look at me with those lightly made-up blue eyes. She stayed like that for several eternal seconds, using that silent connection only she and I had, telling me without words everything she couldn’t say out loud in front of our father and grandma.

At last she put a hand on my cheek and gave me a restrained kiss on the other one. A chaste kiss, but deliberately placed very near the corner of my lips. It landed with a smack and she buried her nose in my face, as if she wanted to pack into that gesture all the intention her caution forced her to hide.

Our father and grandma didn’t attach any importance to those gestures. Partly because it would never occur to them that anything more than affection could exist between two siblings, and partly because they were already used to seeing us like that all the time. Nobody raised any alarm. Blessed habit.

Meanwhile, I felt Lucía’s chest pressing against mine and her mouth hitting my skin again and again. I noticed the blood starting to rush downward to my groin and a slow heat growing down there.

“I’m going to put my things away and I’ll be right back,” I managed to say, my heart racing and a desire she seemed determined to stir up exactly at that moment.

“I’ll come with you,” she offered, taking my hand and threading her fingers through mine.

I had to use all my self-control not to pin her against the wall as soon as we were out of the family’s line of sight.

We went up to my room and, as soon as we stepped in, Lucía closed the door and came closer, this time with a wide smile that gave away her intentions.

“Let me take your backpack, your jacket, everything off for you. Okay?”

“Whatever you want, but please don’t…”

I couldn’t finish. She shut me up with a quick, intense kiss that went straight into my mouth. I pulled back a little and she kept looking at me, biting her lip, with a glint in her eyes I could only describe as pure desire.

“Hey, hold still,” I tried to scold her, forcing myself to ignore the fact that I’d loved that kiss and that I was hard under my pants. “What’s gotten into you? You’re coming on very strong.”

“S-sorry,” she closed her eyes and frowned, bringing her hands to her mouth and shaking her head, as if to say, “You’re right, I messed up.” “I just really wanted to see you, Marcos.”

“I know, baby. Me too.” I moved closer again and wrapped my arms around her waist. “But we both know it’s not wise to be this affectionate when we’re not alone. Someone could see us. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but…” she murmured, head down and expression dulled. “That’s why I closed the door.”

“Yeah, but still…” and I cut myself off abruptly. She was right. I was about to answer her automatically, without thinking, and that wasn’t fair to her. “Look, you know what? You’re right, sweetheart. Nobody can see us here and I was being paranoid. Forgive me. You’ve been an angel since I got here and I’ve only given you coldness in return. I’m sorry.”

“No, no… it’s okay,” she stammered with a sad smile. “It’s me, I overdid it…”

“You overdid it? No way, baby,” I assured her, shaking my head slowly. “Lucía, look at me. Look at me.” I got her to lock eyes with mine. “This is overdoing it.”

And I gave her a kiss that left her breathless, parting her lips so my tongue could search for hers, while I held her cheeks and buried my fingers in her hair, gathered into that high ponytail of hers with a few loose strands at the sides.

She hadn’t expected it and her eyes flew open. From the shiver that ran through her, I’d say her heart lurched. She sighed in relief and answered with the same intensity.

It got to the point where we opened our mouths so wide that we weren’t kissing anymore: all that existed was the brushing of our tongues. I got bolder, grabbed her ass and pulled her against my groin, and we both moaned from the contact and from feeling how hard I was.

“Ah… little brother… mmm… I’d love to keep going, but they’re waiting for us for dinner… we should stop,” she whispered.

I watched her calmly. Her eyes searched mine, asking permission, doubting; she was nervously biting her lip, as if she wasn’t sure what she was doing. Without saying a word, she was telling me two things at once: how badly she wanted to continue and, at the same time, how much she needed me to be the one to hit the brakes. To decide for both of us.

“I’m with you,” I replied, nodding slowly. “Let’s go. But, Lucía… I love you,” I said at last, savoring every word.

I brushed my nose against hers, a slow Eskimo kiss that made her smile and close her eyes, almost blushing. I finally took off my backpack and outer clothes, and we left the bedroom together.

***

I dipped the spoon into the soup bowl absentmindedly, just like she did with her toast and salad, while we watched an episode of a crime series, sharing the blanket and pressed together on the sofa.

Under the thick dark red fabric, Lucía had her legs stretched over my lap, putting a warm pressure right on the least appropriate spot. Needless to say, I felt amazing. The mere brush of her body was enough to turn me on completely, and if she noticed the bulge, she’d give me a knowing smile and maybe a wink, pleased to know she was desired.

“Andrés,” grandma said suddenly to our father, “so how are we settling Saturday in the end?”

“I’ll take you to the doctor, Mom,” he answered without taking his eyes off the TV.

“But weren’t you going to the mountains Friday afternoon? I’m leaving in the morning for Auntie’s place and sleeping there, so on Saturday the clinic is closer.”

That sentence snapped me alert. I glanced sideways at Lucía, who was doing exactly the same, and both of us made faces like we didn’t understand anything.

“Didn’t I tell you?” our father asked. “Tomorrow, after lunch, I’m going to a country house to spend the weekend. I’ll be back Sunday afternoon, almost certainly.”

“I see. And you, grandma, what are you doing about the doctor?” my sister asked, with a calm that only I knew was fake.

“I’ve got an appointment Saturday morning and I’m going on my own. Friday I’m sleeping at my sister-in-law’s place, she lives next to the doctor’s office.”

They spent a good while discussing the details, and we exchanged a look of complete complicity. We were going to have the house to ourselves for at least a full day, assuming grandma wouldn’t be back until Saturday afternoon. In the end our father insisted on taking her himself — he wanted to make sure she wouldn’t lie to him afterward about what the doctor said — and grandma eventually gave in reluctantly.

***

As every night, after tidying up I locked myself in my room to copy my university notes neatly. It was the last thing I always did, something mechanical and simple, because by then my head couldn’t take much more.

After a while I heard a light knock on the door and Lucía poked her head in, slipping inside like a satisfied cat and coming straight over to me.

“Hey, we understood that right, didn’t we?” she asked, resting a hand on the back of the chair. “Tomorrow afternoon we’ll be alone until the next day.”

“Yes, yes, crystal clear,” I confirmed, turning toward her and taking her hands.

“I have to… admit something,” she whispered, lowering her head. “I got really nervous earlier.”

“Fuck, me too,” I admitted with a smile. “Tomorrow I’ll slip out for a bit and buy condoms.”

“Didn’t we have some left from last time?”

“Lucía, baby…” I looked straight into those blue eyes. “I guarantee we’re going to need more.”

I wasn’t expecting the kiss she gave me then. She lunged at me, held my face with both hands and slammed her lips against mine, slipping her tongue in and straddling me, her knees on either side of the seat.

She gave herself over so completely that I had to lean the chair back, risking tipping over. For a second I feared our father or grandma would open the door without knocking and find us like that, but the snores coming from the hallway calmed me completely.

Seeing there was nothing to fear but ourselves, I let go and enjoyed her mouth and her body while I ran my hands down her back. I joined my tongue with hers and pulled her in even closer, feeling her firm breasts press against my chest. The heat she gave off set me on fire, and a slow tingling started climbing between my legs.

A most pleasant tingling. Too pleasant.

We should stop.

I knew we should stop, because this was madness with people in the house. But neither my body nor the bulge growing between my legs agreed.

“Lucía… sweetheart…” I tried to get her attention. “I’d love to, but not now… you know we can’t now…” the words came out broken, choked by the movements she made on top of me, rubbing herself exactly where I felt her most.

“Mmm… just a little longer, Marcos,” she begged, pouting. “Just a little… since we’re at it.”

“I know, baby… I swear if we were alone I’d pick you up off this chair right now and make love to you until dawn. But you know as well as I do that we can’t.”

She tried to run her tongue over my lips and I stopped her by gently holding her at the neck, separating our faces with all the resolve the heat left me.

In the end she gave in. She made one of those little annoyed-girl faces, brow furrowed and mouth twisted, and shot back:

“Party pooper!” She stuck her tongue out at me and got off my lap.

I watched her leave the room, swaying on purpose, knowing I was looking. And as she closed the door behind her, I thought there were only a few hours left before I’d have her all to myself. Twenty-four hours, an empty house, and all the time in the world. That night, for the first time in weeks, it was hard to fall asleep.