When Fannie arrived home, she saw that Nate was no longer on the couch, so she went from room to room, calling his name, and it wasn't until she reached the kitchen that she found him. He was wearing an apron around his waist, holding a rag in one hand, and a mop in hand. Fannie looked at him, and she was confused. "What are you doing?" she wondered. "I better not have come home for nothing!"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Nate hissed. "This house is a mess, and the mess is all yours. There are make-up and bottles all over the place!"

​​

Fanny picked up a bottle and laughed in his face. "This isn't garbage," she said, "It is a beautiful art. Postmodern. You wouldn't understand."

"Don't make a joke about this!" Nate snapped. "This is not funny. Some of your cosmetics contain lead, which can be poisonous."

"Alright," Fannie said. "I will check my make-up, but I will not clean up!"

"All make-up is poison!" Nate growled.

Fannie's face turned red as her good humor turned to anger. "You don't know what you're talking about!" she shouted. "All women wear make-up. It is not poison. You should see how beautiful Kylie looks with her make-up on. Her skin is smooth. My skin is dry, but she is showing me what to do so that my skin is moist too!"

"Where did you learn this nonsense?" Nate cried. There was an underlying context to her words that he did not appreciate hearing about from his sister.

"Nonsense?" Fannie chucked. She was half-drunk, and her inhibitions were mostly gone. Suddenly, she embraced Nate and kissed him on the mouth. "If you want," she chuckled. "you could moisturize my skin in the way that God intended a man to moisturize a woman's skin. If you do that, maybe I won't need Kylie to show me anything at all."

Nate felt like he was going to throw up. "Get away from me," he said.

Fannie did not let him go through. Instead, she looked him in the eye and said, "If you are worried that I might fall in love with you, don't. I won't!"

Hearing her words, Nate's heart began to beat fast. Her words were completely unexpected. Surely, there were times when he'd gone out of his way to peek in on her when she was changing or bathing, but that had been pure fantasy, upon which he'd never hoped to act.

"It would be mechanical, but pleasurable," Fannie added. "We don't even like each other that much, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't get off on each other and get some practice in for when we find true love. Can't you see how good this could be for both of us?"

Without waiting for a response, Fannie went up on her tippy toes and kissed him again; this time more passionately than the last, and once he started kissing her back, she forced her tongue into his mouth and sucked his tongue into her mouth.

As Nate kissed Fanny, his eyes noticeably drooped, his head became dizzy, and he found himself lost in the moment, a moment that suddenly meant more to him than any other that had come before. He had his hand on her back, but as they kissed, it slipped down under her pants and panties, and he cupped her soft buttocks in his hand; gave it a good squeeze.

Nate pulled Fanny closer to him until he could feel her pert breasts pressed against his chest. After a few more minutes, Fanny pulled away. Nate was about to protest, but then he saw the intention in her eyes. He smiled as she took his hand and led him to her room. His cock was as hard as a rock and any inhibitions he'd had quickly wasted away.

Once they'd reached the top of the stairs, Nate scooped Fanny up in his arms and carried her over the threshold that opened in her room. He gently laid her out on the bed, and then he went back to close and lock the door.

***

Hours later, as Kylie and Ethan were watching television, she suddenly realized that he was still in a foul mood. She turned to him, took his hands into her own, and said, "Something is bothering you. Won't you tell me what it is?"

Without saying anything, Ethan picked up the documents that had been sitting on the end table. He shook them in her face and put them back where they'd been. Kylie frowned as she tried to think of some way to help him out of his funk. Without warning, she kissed him.

Ethan's scowl deepened. "It is late," he said, "and I am not in the mood. Just watch the TV."

"We don't have to have sex," Kylie admitted. "Could we at least talk? You told your dad today that if he rejected me, that you would leave him and take the family business with you. Did you mean that?"

"It is bound to happen eventually," Ethan sighed. "Garcia entertainment is almost done. Eventually, I will have to take the reins and negotiate a merger between our company and Peak Pictures. Let's not talk, though, ok? Why don't you rest your body against mine, and we can simply enjoy each other's company?"

Kylie adjusted her body, and Ethan wrapped his arm around her.

"Shouldn't you have spent some time with Dora today," she suddenly wondered. "Your three days with her must be nearly over…"

As soon as she'd said it, she regretted saying it. In retrospect, she now knew that he hadn't spent the day with her because of his foul disposition.

Ethan sat up suddenly. He looked at Kylie and said, "Why don't you go to bed? I will have a cigarette on the balcony, and then I will join you."

Kylie watched Ethan as he stood and walked out onto the balcony. The moonlit up his body, and his outline oozed confidence and strength. He hadn't lit a cigarette yet, though, which Kylie found somewhat odd. After a few minutes, she went to bed, and not long after that, he joined her.

By then, Kylie was already asleep, but as hard as he tried, it took Ethan hours to fall asleep. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened between him and Dora. He wanted to tell Kylie all about it, but he didn't dare. He didn't want Kylie to be hurt.

He hadn't wanted Dora to undo his belt, and yet she had. He wanted to vomit at the thought of someone other than Kylie touching him. He knew, though, that Dora made her nervous. She didn't understand their relationship, and so she saw it as a threat.

***

The next day, everyone was back to work as normal. After being shut down for two days, though, everyone was specially prepared for long days. Kylie, though, after everything that she'd been through, was one of the few people who'd been commanded by the boss to do it easy. When she was too tired to work, she lay down in the staff lounge, texted Ethan, and had Dinah massage her shoulders. Occasionally someone would suggest that she should just go home, but she was a trooper, and she refused to go. "If you can stay and work," she'd reply as Dinah hand-fed her grapes, "then so can I!"