The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Literotic asexstories – The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre by Fatdog25,Fatdog25 Squick alert: Contains incest as well as a general reference to anal sex.

All characters engaging in sexual activity are 18 or older. This is a work of erotic fiction and any resemblance between the characters or events depicted in this story and any actual persons, living or dead, or events is coincidental and entirely unintentional.

Liberties were taken with the interpretation of Wisconsin state law. I call it creative license, law enforcement may not see it that way if you do it in real life. Remember kids, just ’cause you can don’t mean you should.

Let’s get busy…

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Gossip is a fact of life. Any time you have more than two people in an enclosed space, you’re going to get gossip. It’s been one of the constants of the universe since humanity came into existence.

Our workplace was no exception to that rule. It usually took less than 24 hours for a normal piece of gossip to go from origination to public knowledge. The news that my sister Julie had broken up with her boyfriend Harley on New Year’s Eve was headline news by the next morning.

To quote Don Henley, “People love dirty laundry.” The dirtier, the better.

The three of us had started working for the company at the same time, we trained together, worked on a few projects together, and eventually were promoted to supervisor of different projects.

Coworkers having relationships wasn’t prohibited by the company but it was strongly discouraged, for obvious reasons. The informal solution when word got out was to separate the lovebirds first so they weren’t disruptive. If, and usually when, the relationship soured, we would just move one of them to another team and perhaps change their schedule. Whatever it took to separate them so they weren’t a problem. Rarely did we have to push it up the chain to the site manager. When that happened, somebody was going to end up unemployed. Herman was the site manager and he was an asshole when it came to disturbing his peace.

Julie and Harley had started dating almost immediately after we were hired. I didn’t much care for him, he was a jerk unless and until he wanted in your pants. He thought he was much better looking and smarter than he was in reality.

My sister, on the other hand, was actually much more attractive than she thought she was. She wasn’t cover girl pretty, more the girl next door type of cute. She was smart, didn’t take shit from anybody, and was able to think on her feet. Except when it came to Harley.

In the beginning, we had quite a few disagreements about her relationship. She seemed happy so I gave up trying to make her see the light. The strain on our relationship just wasn’t worth it. That was another reason I hated the fucker. He had driven a wedge between us that still hadn’t quite healed in the three plus years they had been together.

Harley wasn’t even his real name, that was Harlan. He had a bike, of course, it was a Harley, so he co-opted the name. I called him Harlan when I wanted to piss him off, meaning pretty much all of the time. Every so often, I would call him Honda in front of whatever girl he was trying to impress, knowing that would make her laugh, and then introduce myself as his girlfriend’s brother.

Julie had shown up at my apartment at 12:05 a.m. on New Year’s Day. As expected, it was colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra that night. I wasn’t happy when I opened the door. I had been asleep and I didn’t like being woken up. Especially in the middle of the night.

As soon as I realized who it was through the peephole, I opened the door and let her in. I still wasn’t happy but all she had on for warmth was a down jacket and some insulated boots. Her party dress barely came down far enough to cover her ass and she wasn’t wearing any type of hose. I couldn’t let her stand outside and freeze while I bitched at her for waking me up.

Julie was 17 months older than me, so she had the big sister intimidation thing down. She pushed past me and headed toward the couch. The only word she said was “Don’t.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t kidding. I could smell alcohol mixed with her perfume as she passed me, rum at a guess.

Once I closed the door behind her and relocked it, she shrugged off the jacket and her little bag, dropping them on the couch. She dropped the heels she had been carrying on the floor and then flopped down beside her jacket to remove her boots. She made no attempt at modesty, flashing me with views of panties that were bright blue, very high cut in the front, and made from sheer lace, as she pulled the boots off one at a time. She had gone all out for tonight, manicure, pedicure, makeup, hair, the works.

While trying to avoid staring at the upskirt display, I noted that two things were missing from her outfit. The gold “H” necklace she had always worn and the ring she wore on her left ring finger.

I sat down in the armchair across from her. “You want something to drink?”

She simply nodded. I had a bottle of Grey Goose that she had given me one year, which was her favorite liquor. I also kept some bottled iced tea in the fridge. I grabbed a few ice cubes, tossed them in a glass, brought all of it out, and set it on the coffee table. She seemed like a girl sorely in need of a stiff drink.

She poured a couple of ounces of the vodka into the glass and filled the remainder with the tea. We had learned that concoction from my maternal grandmother. It was the only way she could tolerate our grandfather and our mother, apparently. She took a large swallow and closed her eyes.

Even though I was still half asleep, it was clear to me that my sister was hanging on to what was left of her self-control for dear life. Her hands were shaking, making the ice lightly chatter against the sides of the glass. She was taking measured deep breaths in an attempt to keep her emotions in check.

I quietly got up and moved next to her, putting my arm around her shoulder. She started shaking as she lay her head on my shoulder and let out a deep sigh. I tilted my head so that my cheek was resting against the top of her head. I had no idea what to say so I kept my peace. The last thing she needed was an “I told you so” right now.

It didn’t take long to figure out that she was losing the battle to keep from crying. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen her cry. She wasn’t an overly emotional person so this was all sort of new to me. The onset was slow, as the shaking became more intense and her breath started hitching. Once that started, it wasn’t very long before I could feel the tears start dripping onto my upper chest.

I took the glass from her with my left hand and put it on the coffee table. She reached across me to grab my hand with her right hand and proceeded to hold it with both of hers while she cried quietly. Our family wasn’t the demonstrative type so she was really hurting to be this open.

After a while, her crying quieted down and then stopped. She let go of my hand and reached for the glass, taking another healthy swallow from it before returning her head to my shoulder. A few minutes later, she took another good-sized swallow and then had another good cry. When that episode ended, she finished her glass and immediately poured a stronger one.

I debated with myself about taking the glass from her. While not exactly strangers to alcohol, we weren’t professional drinkers and that was a lot of alcohol in a very short time. I decided that compassion was probably the best course of action, so I would let her have this one and then cut her off for the night. She was definitely going to spend it here, she wasn’t going anywhere in this condition.

She took a large sip from the glass and set it back down on the table. I grabbed the box of tissues off the end table and handed it to her. She pulled out a couple and set the box on the table next to the glass.

“Thanks.” The slight slurring of the “s” proved my assessment correct, she was already too impaired to be driving. She blew her nose and tried to clean up her cheeks where her makeup had run.

“I’m sorry.” That was the only response I could think of.

“We split up.” I had already figured that part out. “He was seeing somebody behind my back.” Julie started getting choked up again, reached for the glass, and downed another large swallow.

“Oh.” Sometimes my eloquence amazed me.

“Yeah, fucking Tiffany. Tiffany. Did you know she’s only 19? 19.” Another decent swallow from her drink was followed by a hiccup. This time, I removed the glass from her hand and put it out of reach. I knew when she started repeating the end of every sentence, she was drunk.

“That’s fucked up.” Julie was ten years older than Tiffany, the same age as Harlan. I wanted to ask how she found out because this was news to me. Not a single tidbit of gossip on the grapevine about that. I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

“That dumb bitch texted the entire work group on WhatsApp, asking if he was going to see her again tonight after the party. Amanda showed it to me.” Amanda was Julie’s “friend”, she worked in Harlan’s group. She was one of those people who liked to start shit and then stand back to watch it go down. I didn’t much care for her, either. The only thing we had in common was our dislike for Harlan.

“Jules, you need new friends. That’s some real bullshit right there.” And there I went, right into the minefield. I expected to get my head bitten off, going after her friend like that.

Oddly enough, she just sniffled. She continued to lean against me so I continued to keep my arm around her.

“I hope she has the clap.” I wanted to ask if she meant Tiffany or Amanda, and decided both would be okay by me. “He’s had it before.”

I sighed and hugged her tightly with the arm I had around her shoulder. That was a detail I didn’t want to know. “You’re going to have to stay here tonight. I don’t know how you got here but you can’t drive like this.”

She nodded and dropped her used tissues onto the coffee table so she could extract a couple of new ones from the box. “Yeah, I’m really fucked up. I took an Uber.” She dropped her hands into her lap and that’s when I noticed that her dress had ridden up and was now openly displaying her crotch. They were very sheer lace, leaving little to the imagination. I shifted my attention back to the table, I didn’t need to know that much about her preferences in date night underwear.

“I’ve got sweats and a T-shirt you can use for tomorrow. You can take the bed tonight, I’ll sleep out here.”

“You sure? I can –” She started to protest but I cut her off.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” I could also keep her from drinking more than she already had.

She stared down at her hands in her lap, oblivious to the display she was giving me. “I’m sorry, Sonny.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Jules. He cheated on you, not the other way around. I’m sorry you got hurt like that.” I made a mental note to stay away from talking shit about Harlan or Amanda for the rest of the night. I’d gotten away with it once, pressing my luck wouldn’t be a good idea.

“He’s not going to do it to me again.” That was good to hear, if she meant it. I had the feeling she did. That dickhead didn’t deserve her. She would eventually find somebody decent, I was sure.

“I gotta go to the bathroom.” She tried to stand up and it was painfully obvious that she was actually wearing very high-cut panties. I had seen my sister in bathing suits, some of them a little revealing, but never that small. Objectively, she had a really nice ass. Caught by surprise, it took my hand a minute to find her lower back to help push her upright. She absentmindedly pulled her dress down and stumbled to the bathroom.

I sat there on the couch, trying to erase the memory of my sister’s ass cheeks in my face when I heard something hit the floor in the bathroom. Violent retching noises soon followed. I quickly got up and went over to the bathroom, where Julie was on her knees in front of the john, gagging. I held her hair out of the way and lightly rubbed her upper back until she stopped. This was also a first for me. The only other time I ever saw her get sick from alcohol was the very first time she came home drunk. That was fun.

I helped her up and closed the lid so she could sit back down on it. She almost fell over turning to flush the toilet and I managed to catch her before she smacked her face into the shower door. I got another graphic upskirt display for my trouble.

I found a clean washcloth and soaked it so she could wipe her face when she was finished. I brought a clean glass from the kitchenette so she could rinse her mouth.

“I need to lay down. I don’t feel so good now.” She was not all that steady on her feet so I helped her to my bedroom and sat her down on the bed. I moved the wastebasket to the side of the bed, figuring she was going to need it at some point tonight.

I started to leave and she grabbed my arm. “I need you to unzip me. I can’t do it.” She leaned forward and I found the little pull. After unhooking the top eyehook, I unzipped it all the way to its end. Her bra was the same shade of blue as her underwear.

Before I could take a step to leave, she pulled the dress off over her head. The lace bra was just as sheer as the front panel of her underwear, her nipples were visible through the material. She had amazing breasts, too. I tried to maintain eye contact and I think I was mostly successful. She seemed completely unaware of what she was doing, operating on automatic.

“I’ll be on the couch if you need anything, okay? The trashcan is next to the bed if you need it.” I needed to get out of there before she realized what she was doing and started freaking out on me. She laid down, I helped her swing her feet up onto the bed, trying unsuccessfully not to stare at her crotch as the panel moved around as she shifted. I covered her with the comforter, and turned off the light as I left. I left the door open a crack so I could hear her in case she needed help.

For that good deed, I spent most of the night listening to her cry. She would stop for a while but it would start back up soon enough. I think I slept a couple of hours, eventually.

New Year’s Day dawned cloudy and cold. I was up before dawn, discovering that the floor was no more comfortable than the couch, which hadn’t been comfortable at all. Sticking my head inside the door, Julie was asleep, one foot sticking out from under the comforter that was otherwise pulled up to her neck. Even in her sleep, she looked heartbroken.

I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and bumped up the thermostat a little. I was certain Julie would be hungover and she didn’t like being cold. I couldn’t fix the first one but I could try to avoid the second. I had cereal and coffee for breakfast since I could do that quietly.

While I waited for her to get up, I found my little bottle of aspirin that I used for hangovers. The expiration date said they were still good to use so I put it on the counter next to the sink in the bathroom.

She woke up around 9:30. I could hear her stirring so I pulled the bedroom door closed after telling her “Sweatpants in the bottom drawer, T-shirts in the drawer above it. Socks are top left if you want a pair.”

I heard a mumbled “Thanks,” and the sound of drawers opening and closing. Ten minutes later, the door opened and Death Incarnate appeared, carrying her underwear in one hand.

“You got a bag? I can’t carry these like this.” As she waved her underwear around, her breasts swayed under the T-shirt. I had a very hard time maintaining eye contact. Between the movement under the T-shirt and the way my sweatpants were stretched across her hips, it was disturbingly distracting. Growing up, our rooms were on opposite sides of the house and we had separate bathrooms. I had never seen her dressed like this before.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” If the stammering didn’t give away my embarrassment, my red face probably did. I wasn’t used to seeing my sister that way and my brain was failing to cope appropriately.

I pulled a plastic store bag from under the sink and handed it to her. She stuffed the bra and underwear in the bag and tossed it on top of her jacket in the armchair. “Aspirin is on the counter in the bathroom if you need it.”

“I do, thanks.” The view of her walking away was just as entrancing as the front view had been. I forced myself to look down at the table before she turned and caught me. She had enough trouble without her brother going all creeper on her.

“There’s some girlie stuff under the sink and a spare toothbrush in the top drawer of the vanity.” My last girlfriend had neglected to take her spare supply when she moved to Milwaukee last spring. I held on to it, I’m not really sure why. I was glad that I did now.

A muted “Thanks” came from the bathroom as the door closed. She was in the shower for quite a while. I could hear the couple next door obviously taking turns barfing their guts up in the bathroom. They had come in a little after two this morning and they weren’t quiet about it. They made slightly less noise fucking their brains out before apparently passing out. Julie had apparently slept through it all. Lucky her.

When Julie came out, she looked somewhat more human. Her hair was still damp since I didn’t own a blowdryer and her eyes were clearer. She found a cup and poured herself a cup of coffee before sitting down at the little table I had in the kitchen area.

“I hate to ask this but –“, she spoke reluctantly, eyes down on her cup.

“Whatever you need, Jules.” We had always been independent, both of our parents worked for as long as I could remember. We took care of ourselves and asking for help was something we just didn’t do without cause.

“Can you help me find someplace to stay? This is the last month on the lease and I can’t afford the rent by myself so I’m going to have to move.”

“Yeah, we can do that. They have a couple of vacant apartments here, if you think you might be interested.”

“Maybe.” The pause between us was uncomfortable. “Would you consider sharing a place? I know it’s a little steep here.”

It was expensive. When my ex-girlfriend lived here, it was manageable because we split the rent evenly. After she left, it took a pretty big chunk out of my paycheck. I stayed because it was close to work and stores. I liked living here, despite the new neighbors.

My lease wouldn’t come up for renewal until the end of February. We could see about renting a two bedroom, half of that rent would still be less than what I was paying now and I could afford to buy some new furniture.

“Yeah, that sounds like a decent plan. I guess we need to go get some of your stuff and your car until he clears out?”

“In a little while. I still feel like shit.” She started choking up again. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. I really thought we were going to get married eventually. Instead, he’s fucking some barely legal kid just because she’s got bigger tits.”

I reached across the table and put my hand over hers. “I know it sounds like bullshit, but it’s his loss, Jules. You didn’t do anything wrong. God knows, it happens.”

Julie looked up from her cup, her face almost expressionless. She looked at me for a few seconds before speaking. “I don’t need a lecture, Emerson.” Emerson was my given name, although pretty much everyone called me Sonny.

“Wasn’t going to give you one. I’ve been on this ride. It sucks, you live through it, and hopefully you learn something from it. I’m going to get in the shower. When you feel up to going, we’ll go get your stuff and stop at the store. I don’t have much in the way of food.” I stood up and headed to the bedroom to get some clothes, and then headed for the bathroom.

When I was finished, she had straightened up the bed. On the table was a list of things from the store that she had started. I added a couple of things I needed to it. Julie was sitting on the couch, doing something on her phone.

“If you’re ready, I am. He says he’s not going to move out, he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Do you think I could stay here? I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.” It sure sounded like it killed her to say every word of that.

“Sure, I don’t mind the couch, really.” I was lying through my teeth but I did my best to sound sincere. Going back to live with our parents was out of the question, they made being homeless look good. Staying with me was the lesser of all available evils. Plus, I could use a break on the rent.

Julie gave me a weak smile. It was the second to last one I would see all day.

It started as a trickle, a Facebook notification here, a WhatsApp notification there. Each one seemed to drive a dagger into her heart just a little more. By the time we reached the apartment she shared with Harlan, she was in tears again and the notifications were pinging regularly.

I finally grabbed the phone from her and took a look. The Facebook group for the employees was engaged in an all-out flame war, most of the group were on Julie’s side but a very vocal minority were defending Harlan. Accusations and counter-accusations flowed back and forth.

On WhatsApp, Amanda was crossposting shit Harlan was saying in his workgroup and friend group to Julie. The fact that Amanda was in his friend group, despite her claims she hated him, sickened me. What made it worse was Harlan’s claim that it was Julie who had given him gonorrhea, more than once. She was sleeping around on him, leaving him no choice but to end the relationship. She didn’t bathe and didn’t shave except when he made her, she was terrible in bed, just about everything you could find fault with in a person he listed as a reason for breaking up.

On his personal Facebook page, he had just posted a picture with Tiffany at a bar, with the status of “New love, new lease on life” with a bunch of heart emojis. The son of a bitch had the balls to tag her in the picture so she would definitely see it.

Since he wasn’t at the apartment at the moment, I decided it would be a good idea to just go get her stuff and get out. Once we were there, Julie stopped crying long enough to get up the stairs and unlock the door.

Less than ten feet inside the door, a pair of obviously worn panties lay on the floor. A matching bra was on the back of the couch along with a dress. I guided her toward the bedroom so she could get her things and we could get the hell out. The bed was a mess and in the middle of the mattress was a fairly recent wet spot. The whole scene was obviously staged to upset her and it worked.

My sister completely decompensated, collapsing to the floor and sobbing loudly. Her clothes were in a pile on the floor in a corner. I found some large garbage bags under the sink and started jamming everything I could into them. I filled her suitcase with her personal care stuff from the dresser and the bathroom. I carried everything down to my Tahoe, managed to fit all of it in the back, and went back upstairs. Julie was still sitting on the bedroom floor, almost totally cried out at this point. I dug her keys out of her purse and removed the apartment key.

I managed to get Julie up and out through the door, locked the doorknob, and tossed the key onto the pair of panties lying on the floor before closing the door. I made sure to take pictures and video of everything before we left, including the key sitting on top of the panties, just in case.

The original plan had been to go to the store after picking up her things and her car but I couldn’t take her looking like she did now and I didn’t trust her to drive. We went back to my apartment, I parked her on the couch with the tissues while I brought her things up. I left everything in the bedroom, she could sort it out when she felt up to it.

During my trips back and forth, she had made herself a drink but it looked untouched. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into me again. She gave every appearance of being defeated.

She mumbled something and I had to ask her to repeat it twice before she said it loud enough for me to understand. “I can’t go back there.”

“Where?” I knew where before I even finished saying the word.

“Work. I can’t go back. I just can’t.” The heartbreak and despair in her voice almost made me cry. She was good at what she did, Herman often left her in charge of things when he wasn’t going to be there. He had aspirations of his own and he had been mentoring her to take over for him when he moved up the ladder. Her world was coming apart at the seams and there wasn’t much she could do about it at the moment.

I held her and let her cry. Speaking low and confidently when she stopped crying temporarily, I tried to give her a little pep talk, “Jules, listen to me. Harlan is a piece of shit. You dumped him for cheating. He’s doing this because he lost. You made him look bad and he’s trying to get even. That’s what people like him do. They try to drag you down to their level.

“Don’t let him win. I know it’s not easy but you can’t let him see that he’s getting to you. You can’t ever back down. Right now, he’s on the offensive and he’s going to throw everything he can at you to try to break you, make you give up. Don’t give him the fucking satisfaction.”

“Sonny, I can’t.” She sounded like she was going to start crying again.

“Jules, you can. I’ll be right there with you, every day. You have real friends, they’ll be there for you. Amanda? She’s not your friend. You need to cut her off completely. She’s feeding this shit to you but she’s also feeding it to everybody else too. Get rid of her.”

In high school, I played varsity football as a safety and second-string running back. It seemed that every year, there would be at least one game where we would have our asses handed to us in the first half. Coach pounded into us every practice and every game that no matter how bad it was, never let the other team see you quit. You may not win but you’ll never lose, unless you quit.

“I know you hate sports metaphors, especially football ones, but you know I’ve been there, Jules. Embarrassed, beaten, humiliated, people screaming all kinds of shit from the stands at us because we sucked. Sometimes we didn’t win, they were the better team but we could walk off the field knowing we never gave up. Sometimes they just got lucky early. If we had quit then, we would have lost. Instead, we continued to do what we did best and beat them in the end.

“Harlan has you down early right now but that’s okay, we can handle that. We’re going to walk in to work tomorrow with our heads up. We’ll do our jobs and ignore the stupid people who want to start shit. We’ll walk out at quitting time with our heads up. We’ll do the same thing the next day, and the day after that.

“Rumors spread fast, I get that. I know they’re not true, your friends know they’re not true. You need to believe in yourself, Jules. People like Harlan can’t help but fuck themselves over, it’s in their DNA. You need to play to your strengths and you’ll break him instead. But you can’t quit.”

Julie continued to lean into me but at least she had stopped sniffling. “I’m scared, Sonny. I don’t know if I can face him after all the shit he said.”

“First, Herman won’t tolerate any bullshit on the floor so I think he’ll stay away from you. We’ll block his messenger address on your work accounts so he can’t message you privately. If you have to look in his direction, don’t look directly at him, look over his shoulder at something behind him. If your eyes do meet, don’t look down but look up, give him that eyeroll and headshake you give me. I know he hates that as much as I do.”

That actually made her snort laugh. “Yeah, he does.”

I urged her to her feet, “Go get fixed up, we need to go to the store so we can feed you. You haven’t eaten all day and that’s not good.” Tomorrow was going to be one of the hardest days of her life, she needed a good meal and the best possible night’s sleep. I could handle the first part, I didn’t know what to do about the second.

She disappeared into the bedroom and closed the door. She came out a few minutes later dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. They were a little wrinkled but they were clean. She had tried to do a little touchup and her face didn’t look so puffy. She had also apparently put on a bra, which was helpful and much less distracting.

The grocery store would be our first test. I figured we’d meet somebody we knew, I always ran into people from work there, no matter what time I went. We needed a win, even a small win would be good for her confidence.

We got what we needed, in every possible way. The two people we saw that we knew from work were sympathetic, offering encouragement to Julie about the breakup. It seemed to brighten her mood a little, although I still couldn’t get much of a smile or a laugh from her. Still, it was a small victory and I took it.

Julie insisted on making sausage and potatoes for dinner, without my help. In return, I cleaned up after dinner and ran the dishwasher. She seemed to eat well. At some point during the day, she had finally turned the sound off on her phone. I hadn’t noticed, my phone rarely went off for any reason so I was used to the quiet. I jumped when she turned it back on. The pinging had subsided considerably since earlier this afternoon, at least.

I sat down on the other end of the couch, since she had put some of her stuff in the armchair temporarily. She scooted over to lean against me while she went through her social media accounts, blocking people and responding to messages. I gently reminded her to block Harlan and Amanda on everything, as well as everybody who chose to take their side. I only had WhatsApp for work, I had no use for the rest of it.

I wasn’t sure what to make of her need for physical closeness. Growing up, we had gotten along about as well as most siblings. We weren’t super close but we weren’t mortal enemies, either. We sort of looked after each other, since our parents were too busy to bother with it.

I hadn’t liked Harlan before he started dating Julie, he acted like a dick and too many girls avoided him in school. I had lost track of him after they graduated until we were all hired together when the call center opened up. I couldn’t see where he had changed any during the interim, but Julie still fell for him. After that, our relationship had been somewhat strained although I felt it was still friendly.

More than likely, she just felt the need for some sort of protection, I was family so I was safe. I felt bad for her. It was tough having to break up with somebody, especially when you had been blindsided and on a major lover’s holiday to boot. I had been single for almost a year so having another human being voluntarily want to touch me felt good. If it would help her feel better, then I could do that.

When she finally put down her phone, we talked about how things would work for us during the week. We decided I would shower first so I would get a chance at hot water, then it was her turn. We needed to be there by seven in the morning, it only took about ten minutes to drive on bad roads but usually less than that, so I would get up at 5:30, she would get up at 6:00 for tomorrow to see how it worked out. We should be all right as long as we left the apartment no later than 6:45.

We would go get her car after work tomorrow. My apartment came with a two car garage, my ex had used the other bay for her car. There was a place to plug in the block heaters and it was insulated. I really didn’t like leaving her car at her old place but she wasn’t in any shape to drive safely at the time so we left it there. I didn’t think he’d be dumb enough to do anything to it. After her meltdown, I didn’t feel that leaving her alone to go get it myself was a good idea, either.

We discovered that Julie needed just a few extra minutes to get ready in the morning, since she didn’t have a dedicated place to keep some of her personal care things. It wasn’t a major issue, we weren’t late for work, but the extra time would have been nice.

She was quiet on the drive to work and spent most of her time looking out the window. I didn’t say much, since I had no idea what to say to reassure her. It wouldn’t have helped.

Pulling into the parking lot, her car was parked next to Harlan’s, in her reserved spot. I parked in my spot and we walked into the building. Fortunately, her group was located next to mine, and Harlan’s was on the other side of the room. He couldn’t help but know when we walked in, because you could hear a pin drop in the sudden silence.

I’ll give him credit, he didn’t turn around until after Julie had made it to her workstation. I locked eyes with him momentarily and then he quickly looked away. It took a few minutes for the noise level to get back to its customary dull roar as calls were answered. Of course, everybody turned to look at one of us whenever they had a moment of downtime.

The morning went by quickly. I managed to catch Harlan in the hallway as I was leaving the men’s room and he was headed that way.

“Keys. Today.” He started to stammer something out but I interrupted him. “You can give them to me today or we can have the cops get them for us. Whichever way you want to do it is fine with me.”

“Look, Sonny –” He held his hands up in front of him as if I was threatening him with violence.

I took a deliberate step backward, keeping my hands down to my sides. “Fuck you. I want those keys. Don’t make me ask again.”

I knew what he was trying to do. My family’s ancestors were German farmers, built low and wide. I’m built like a fire hydrant. After I graduated, I continued to work out like a football player until my ex left. Making up for her half of the rent meant some expenses like a gym membership had to go, but I still did a lot of bodyweight workouts.

He was one of those fucking Instagram “gymbro” types, the kind that works on sculpting pecs and biceps, totally skipping leg day and any form of cardio to save his “gainz”. He wanted it to look like I was threatening him physically in the hallway but I didn’t bite.

The rest of the morning until lunchtime wasn’t too bad. Julie stayed busy handling escalations and exceptions. Nobody on her team gave her any problems. If anything, I think they went out of their way to be supportive.

I did notice that Tiffany was unhappy with Harlan about something, I suspected it was the keys. Julie’s car was a Subaru Outback AWD that she had bought new last year. She loved that car, it was her very first new one.

When the different teams started to break for lunch, I took Julie out to get lunch instead of eating in the breakroom like we usually did. When we came back, her keys were on my desk. Tiffany still looked unhappy and she avoided making any kind of eye contact with me for the rest of the day.

At exactly 2 p.m., Herman called Julie and me into his office. He pointed us to the chairs and he sat behind his desk.

“I don’t want any problems, Emerson. You understand me?” In true Herman fashion, he got right to the point. Usually, he called me Sonny but when he was pissed, he used Emerson.

“There’s not any problem. I told him to return my sister’s keys to her car. His name’s not on the title, he has no business lending it out.” Julie nodded when he looked in her direction.

“You need to stay away from each other, all of you. It’s bad enough response time is down with all this bullshit, any more impact and I’ll get rid of all of you.” I didn’t ask whose response time was down, I knew it wasn’t my team. Julie’s team seemed to be on top of things.

He turned his direction to Julie, “If you need some personal time, please take it. Don’t bring it to work with you.”

“I’m good, Herman.” She looked him straight in the eye when she said it. He couldn’t see the white knuckles hidden under the edge of the desk, though.

“Glad to hear it. Besides the call response time, everything else looks good so far today. Keep it that way.” That was our dismissal. Unfortunately, we had to walk by Harlan as he headed toward Herman’s office and we were headed back to our teams. Even though I had suggested to her that she shouldn’t lock eyes with him, she stared him down, her face expressionless. He couldn’t maintain eye contact.

Her sigh of relief was shaky. “Okay, I can do that.”

Lightly placing my hand in the small of her back, I leaned in and whispered so only she could hear it, “I knew you could.” The smile she flashed was brief but genuine.

At 3:30, the shift change was almost complete. Tiffany had apparently screwed up the nerve to approach Julie at her desk. Their conversation was short and sweet.

“You had better not mess up Harley’s car.” To her credit, she was brave. Not real bright but definitely brave.

“It’s not Harlan’s car, it’s mine. My name is on the title, not his. I’m making the payments, not him.” I recognized the tone of Julie’s voice. Somebody was about to get their feelings hurt. Better her than me.

“He said –”

“I don’t give a fuck what he said. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, he’s a liar. Did he tell you he’s going to have to move out of that apartment at the end of this month? No? Aww. My name is the only one on the lease and I’m not renewing it. He doesn’t have the credit to get a lease on his own.”

The look on Tiffany’s face told the world that was all news to her. She tried to bullshit her way through it, though. “You’re lying.”

Julie’s laugh was loud enough to get a lot of people’s attention. “Nope. Bye.” She finished zipping her jacket and turned her back on Tiffany.

We left Tiffany standing there by Julie’s desk. From the look on her face, I couldn’t tell if she wanted to get mad or cry. Herman scowled at me from the doorway of his office. I just shrugged my shoulders in feigned helplessness. She came looking for Julie, we didn’t do anything wrong.

Tiffany had taken the liberty of decorating the inside of the car, hanging shit off the rearview mirror, and moving the seat. Julie removed her stuff carefully and I put it on the hood of Harlan’s fancy Mustang. I followed her back to the apartment and we locked the cars up in the garage.

After working on sorting some of her things, we made a run to the nearby dollar store so she could pick up some plastic storage containers for her clothes that she couldn’t hang up. She sorted what she wanted where and then ironed some stuff for the rest of the week. I stayed out of her way, she was just a little mad about this afternoon so I let her take it out on inanimate objects instead of me.

Julie again made dinner, running me off when I offered to help. “I need to do something around here.” I wasn’t going to argue, she was a better cook than I was, that was for sure.

After I cleaned up, we started watching TV from opposite ends of the couch. She tried to bring up Netflix to watch something but that had been another casualty of cost-cutting to afford the rent. I could get plenty of over-the-air channels if I was in the mood to watch TV. She quickly changed the login information, reset the allowed devices, deleted all but her profile, and authorized my TV. By the time the movie was over, she was back to leaning against me. I read an ebook so I had no idea what she watched.

I wanted to ask her exactly what Harlan paid for in that relationship besides part of the rent but decided that was a question better left for another time. She was still a little down at times, after all, they had lived together for a couple of years and that takes some time to adjust to. She picked up her phone and started doing stuff while I went in to collect my clothes for tomorrow. Even with all of her stuff, the room was still neater than when it held just my things.

When I came out, she gave me a triumphant grin. “He’s not going to have anything to watch now. I removed him from my accounts and changed all the passwords.” I suspected Tiffany would probably be more upset than he would.

It didn’t take long for one of them to retaliate. Her Facebook pinged and somebody had sent her a picture of Tiffany’s head and chest with the little “H” necklace charm visible. Julie teared up a little but she didn’t cry. She deleted the message and blocked the sender. I didn’t see who it was.

We went to bed shortly after that. The next morning, I woke up at 5:15, grabbed a shower, and was done by 5:45, when she took my place in the bathroom. She actually had time for a cup of coffee before we had to leave.

Today, we were there before Harlan and Tiffany. From her demeanor, she was still not happy with Harlan about something. He glared at Julie and she gave him the eyeroll and headshake. It didn’t take long for the rumor mill to get going, especially after those who missed yesterday afternoon’s episode got caught up on it.

The newest one was “Julie was a closet lesbian.” Apparently, a couple of actual lesbians disagreed, but it was enough to keep some people entertained for a while. Julie came over during one of their breaks to remark, “It’s just like high school all over again, isn’t it?” It was and it was bullshit. We were supposed to be fucking adults.

Their day didn’t get any better. Tiffany was moved to a different project after lunch. Via the grapevine, Harlan blamed us. It actually wasn’t our fault, I think Herman did it on his own. When the Key Performance Indices were posted for yesterday, Harlan’s team was in the basement. Everybody knew Herman was very protective of his KPI numbers. His bonus depended on them to a large degree. Our bonuses were entirely dependent on them, that was half of our employee evaluation. So when numbers lagged, changes were made immediately. If you didn’t take care of it, Herman would and he didn’t give a shit about your feelings.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Harlan was not happy, his team was not happy, and Herman was going to be even more pissed tomorrow when he saw the numbers. The chatter was more about how bad things were there than it was about Julie and Harlan.

There were no further confrontations on the floor. We went home, Julie made dinner again but allowed me to help, she helped me clean up afterward, and she watched TV until bedtime while I read, resting her head on my thigh while stretched out on the couch.

Sure enough, Herman hit the roof when the numbers for Harlan’s team were even lower than the day before. Harlan snapped, almost yelling at Herman in his office. The team meeting that Herman held privately with that group seemed to straighten some things out but Harlan was definitely upset about getting his ass chewed. He and his buddies kept glaring at us. Julie ignored them, I stared back.

The weekend came and went. Things settled into a predictable routine. Tiffany broke up with Harlan publicly in the breakroom a couple of weeks into January and then Herman subsequently terminated her for causing a disturbance. We weren’t there, we had taken to eating at a different time to avoid those two. The newest rumor was that Harlan was the victim of Julie trying to ruin his reputation and that was why Tiffany had broken up with him. He was still maintaining that he had done nothing wrong, Julie was only playing the victim.

To be clear, it’s not like we were going around looking for gossip, people talked and you heard things. Both of us made it a point to never say anything negative about either one of them. If their name came up, we just changed the subject. I thought of it as taking the high ground. We didn’t bother people, we did our jobs, and we went home at the end of the day. What other people decided to do was on them.

By this time, we had settled into a comfortable routine ourselves. I bought an air mattress that stowed under the couch so I was getting a better night’s sleep. Julie’s grief had stabilized, her mood was usually more up than down.

After work, it was usually dinner then spending the evening on the couch, her watching something while I read. Sometimes, she would be leaning up against me, sometimes she had her head on my thigh, and sometimes she would stretch out with her feet in my lap when she wanted them rubbed after a busy day. A lot of weekend nights were spent the same way.

It didn’t bother me that she wanted so much physical contact. I had felt lost when my ex left, we had done much the same thing at night and I definitely missed the feel of a warm body against me. Hell, I understood it. It’s not like there was anything weird going on between us.

At the end of January, Harlan moved out of the apartment and moved in with a couple of his “gymbro” friends. It didn’t take long for that to go sour, either. Eight days, to be exact. He was staying in a motel, paying by the week, until he found a place that would take him.

The company always liked to do something for Valentine’s Day, just like most of the other holidays. They catered lunch for the call center, did some employee recognition stuff, the usual corporate things. They had a montage for all the Valentine’s couples that would play on one of the TVs in the breakroom. Some of the regional managers would come down and eat with us, that sort of thing.

Each team left a skeleton crew of part-timers to cover the calls during lunch and the other team members would go eat, get their awards or whatever, and we would sit around and bullshit for an hour on the clock.

There was no real way to tell who made the switch of the USB drives that were used for the montage. People were milling around, serving themselves food and drinks, and just generally bullshitting. It went from people talking and laughing to complete silence. Julie turned white as a sheet staring at the TV screen. I had my back to it so when I finally turned around, it was just picture after picture of Julie, ranging from partially nude to totally nude, posed with and without huge dildoes. Her private parts and the dildoes were pixelated but you knew what it was.

Harlan and his buddies were smirking in the corner until they saw me looking at them. Herman yanked the drive from the computer and turned it off. Julie sat silently, face in her hands and sobbing. Herman walked over, took her arm, and walked her out. The murmuring started immediately after she left with Herman.

One of Julie’s CSRs sat down next to me. “Don’t, man. Not here.” Somebody from one of the other teams, I didn’t know his name, sat on my other side.

I was beyond mad now, I was ready to tear someone’s head off and shit in their neck. I was also worried about Julie. Herman came back a few minutes later and brought me to his office. Julie was practically in shock. Herman told both of us to go home and not to come back for a few days. He would look into what happened and talk with Corporate about what steps they could take to punish whoever was responsible. Julie didn’t hear a word of it, she had completely shut down.

“We’re going to find out who is responsible for that, Sonny. Corporate is going to pursue this to the fullest extent of the law.” They were going to have to, there were too many witnesses not to.

“I already know who did this, Herman.”

“We all know but I need to be able to prove it. HR isn’t going to take my word for it.”

“HR is the least of their problems.”

“Don’t do anything dumb, Sonny. There are state laws against this shit, let the police and courts handle it.”

“I don’t want this shit in court, Herman. This is bad enough. To have that in front of even more people? No.”

“Take Julie home. Take a few days of PTO and take care of her. Let me do what I need to. You’ll only make things worse taking things into your own hands.”

When we left, the people from Corporate filed into his office and they closed the door. Harlan flashed a shit-eating grin at me from across the room. Elliott, one of the other team supervisors, intercepted us on our way to the door and escorted us out. He helped me get Julie into the car. After I closed her door, he spoke quietly but forcefully. “If I hear anything, I’ll let you know. If you need help, you know where to find me.”

I thanked him for his help and we shook hands. This was something that needed to be handled personally. I did appreciate the offer.

Julie sat in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead at nothing. She got out of the car under her own power and walked upstairs to the apartment. It wasn’t until we were inside and she was sitting on the couch that she spoke.

“That wasn’t me.”

“I know.” I really didn’t. It didn’t matter if it was or not. It took a real piece of shit to humiliate somebody that way. It was none of my business if she had posed for those pictures, they were meant to be private.

“No, you don’t. I can prove it to you.”

“I don’t need proof, you said it’s not you and that’s good enough.”

“I need to know you believe me. Look.” She stood up and unbuttoned her pants. Sliding both the pants and panties down over her right hip, she pointed to a spot just above the leg crease. She had a small tattoo of a dolphin, not far from the cleft. She was keeping her pubic hair well trimmed, from what I could tell.

“I’ve had this for years. I can prove that too.”

I couldn’t recall seeing a tattoo or hair on the girl in the pictures but I was also in shock at the time. I was in shock now.

If there was one thing our parents absolutely railed against, it was tattoos. They were low class displays of poor genetics and worse parenting. Of course, I had a couple. I never expected Julie to have one, though.

“Okay, okay.” I made a show of covering my eyes. She readjusted her clothes and sat back down.

“That wasn’t me.” She was starting to come unglued now. Sitting down next to her, I put my arm around her. She turned toward me, threw both arms around my neck, and broke down. Most of what she said was incoherent ranting mixed with tears but what I could make out wasn’t good.

She was more than devastated. She had been slowly getting back to normal from the breakup and now this. I could only sit and hold her until she ran down. She wanted to quit, leave Appleton, crawl into a hole, and die. All my life, I had never seen her back down from a fight, until now. This shit broke her spirit. We had a few days off, maybe I could get her to rethink what she wanted to do.

I tried to get her to eat something but she just pushed it around on her plate. All she wanted to do was sit on the couch wrapped in a blanket and stare at the wall. When I sat down to read, she laid down with her head on my thigh. When I put my hand on her shoulder, she covered it with her hand so I couldn’t move it.

I was past the point of being angry. I wanted that fucker’s head on a stick. Deep down, I knew Herman was right, I would only make things worse by getting physical.

I wanted Harlan to pay for this. I just needed to figure out how. There had to be a way.

My first concern was getting Julie back to being functional. That first evening was quiet, she stayed on the couch with me until bedtime. She changed into her usual sleep outfit, did her nightly routine in the bathroom, and quietly went to bed.

I stayed up for a while, trying to think but was just too pissed off to get very far. I finally gave up and got ready for bed.

No sooner had I gotten settled than the bedroom door opened and Julie shuffled across the room and stretched out on the air mattress next to me. Thankfully, she was wrapped in a blanket.

“You okay?” She hadn’t said a word during the entire process.

“Don’t want to be alone.” Her whisper was barely audible. She rolled onto her side and pushed back into my side. I moved my arm so it was draped over my chest where it was comfortable. If I tried to move, she would move with me so I gave up trying to give her some space.

We both eventually fell asleep, her first. When I woke up, I was spooning her, my arm draped over her side and her hand over mine on her stomach. My other arm was dead under me, meaning I had to move to free it.

As I shifted, she shifted with me but my dead hand dragged itself across her ass before I could get it free. She just sighed, apparently still asleep.

The scents brought back some painful memories. She was still using the leftover stuff my ex had left behind and with our position, my nose was buried in her hair.

I really needed to go but I held out for a little bit before I woke her up getting untangled from my blankets to get up. She slept for almost an hour before she got up on her own.

While she was in the bathroom, I folded our blankets, placing mine on the mattress and hers on the couch, and slid the mattress back under the couch.

Julie came back out and collected her shower stuff. She was in there for nearly 90 minutes. She had dressed to stay in.

After I showered, I tried to get her to eat something. All she did was nibble at it. Conversation was almost impossible, all I would get were single word answers or grunts.

Herman sent our PTO requests for the rest of the week. We approved them and sent them back. Julie spent most of the morning curled up on the couch, gazing at nothing.

The afternoon went by slowly. She refused lunch. I finally got her to agree to go lay down but she was back in less than an hour, saying she felt cold.

She did eat dinner, though. The rest of the evening was spent in silence. I read while she stared off into space, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

I finally gave up trying to keep my eyes open so I shuffled her off to bed. She had fallen asleep at some point, her head using my leg as a pillow. Thankfully, she stayed in her room all night.

The next day was a carbon copy of the day before. She spent most of the day napping, the only time she ate was dinner because I nagged her into it, and the only alone time I had was when she was in the bathroom.

We were part way through day four when the detective showed up to interview us. By the time she was done, I was worried about Julie. She answered all of the detective’s questions in a zombie-like manner. It was hard to tell if she couldn’t or wouldn’t make eye contact, she either stared at the table or the wall. She didn’t cry, not one tear.

The detective thanked us for our time and promised to keep us informed about the investigation. Julie remained seated at the table as I showed her out.

I sat back down after she left. I knew this was going to suck but we needed to have this conversation.

“Jules, we need to talk.”

She lifted her head to look at me, dead eyes in an expressionless face.

“You need to talk to a professional. I’m worried about you.”

“Unless they can make this go away, there’s no point.” As weird as it sounds, I wanted her to get mad. When she didn’t, I knew it was serious.

“Please. I’m begging here, Jules. I’m really worried about you.” I felt helpless. I didn’t have any answer for her.

She sat silently, just staring at me. When she finally spoke, it was just one word but it was the best one. “Okay.”

The detective had left her some literature and she called the number to get a couple of local referrals for a therapist. The first one she called had an opening for the next day.

I also managed to get her over to the complex manager’s office to sign the lease for a two bedroom unit. On the way back, she grabbed my hand and didn’t let go until we were back inside.

Since the new unit was already empty, we could start moving in whenever we wanted to. I didn’t have much and Harlan had gotten rid of most of the furniture from their apartment, so it was mostly clothes and personal items.

I decided we would start over the weekend. The entire conversation was one-sided, she just nodded her head at any suggestion I made.

Getting her to eat dinner was a chore. We spent the evening the same way we had the previous ones, silently.

We went to bed early, she kept yawning after ten o’clock. After that first night, she had spent the following nights in her room.

Not tonight. I hadn’t even turned off the lamp before she came out wrapped in the blanket and waited for me to shut off the light and lay down. She lay down next to me, draped her blanket over me, and rested her head on my chest.

“Will you go with me tomorrow?”

“Sure, if you want.”

“Thanks.” She fell asleep a few minutes later. I didn’t sleep much at all.

It was difficult extracting myself from Julie’s full body embrace in the morning. I was painfully stiff from being on my back all night.

We followed our usual morning routine, getting her ready for the therapist’s appointment. We moved some of our summer things over to the new apartment.

Driving to the therapist, she held my hand while she looked out the window. At the office, she only let go to fill out the paperwork required for the insurance.

Julie had chosen this therapist first because she was a woman. She was very friendly and reassuring. She did a lot of work with trauma survivors.

The therapist had Julie tell what happened in her own words while I filled in the occasional detail. I described how she was doing now as compared to before the breakup and the incident in the breakroom. Julie never let go of my hand the entire visit. The good news was that Julie had been thinking about work, she liked the job, and she really didn’t want to quit unless she had to.

The therapist was able to get Julie to promise she wouldn’t do anything rash. At the end of the session, the therapist recommended seeing her once a week to start. She really didn’t want to start medication unless it was clinically indicated. Julie agreed.

They again talked briefly about going back to work. The therapist suggested that she try it and go from there. Julie decided to take another week before doing that.

After the session, we called Herman to let him know. He didn’t object, asking that we let him know if she needed more time.

Julie actually ate dinner without an argument. We went to bed at a reasonable time and she spent the night in her room.

We were fully moved in by the next appointment. She was a little more interactive with the therapist this time. She still had a death grip on my hand anytime we left the apartment.

On our weekly trip to the store, we ran into a couple of people we knew. They were supportive and hoping she would be going back to work soon. Julie had tensed up when they approached but she relaxed after a while.

I should have expected it but I didn’t. Although we had moved in, we still weren’t quite settled. Julie was setting up her new room when I heard her phone ring. The second I heard “Hi, Mom”, I knew the shit was going to hit the fan.

I could hear our mother’s voice clearly on the other side of the apartment. Thankfully, our new neighbors weren’t home or they probably could have heard it too.

“What were you thinking, posing for those nasty pictures? They’re going to be all over the internet. How are we supposed to look people in the eye now? Your father had to go to the emergency room because he almost had a heart attack when he heard. People will think I raised a slut –” I was a split second too late grabbing the phone and disconnecting the call.

Julie just stood there, trying unsuccessfully not to cry. I dropped her phone on the bed and hugged her tightly while she started wailing into my chest. Her phone rang again and I silenced it.

When my phone rang, I sat her down on the bed and closed her bedroom door behind me.

I knew who it was before ever seeing the screen. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I tried really hard not to lose my temper. It didn’t work.

“I’m your mother, don’t talk to me that way.”

“Fuck you. Those pictures were fake, she’s traumatized, and that’s your first thought? ‘What about me?’ You fucking make me sick. Calling your own daughter a slut without even hearing her side.”

“Your father –”

“My father what? I bet he’s looking for them right now so he can jerk off –”

“Stop saying things like that. We didn’t raise you that way.”

“You barely raised us at all. Why are you calling me anyway?”

“Tell your sister she needs to have those pictures taken off the internet before people see them.”

“Yeah, if they’re on the internet, it’s a little late for that now. Now, unless you have any other unrealistic requests, I’ve got things to do. Goodbye and never call me or Julie again. You’re getting blocked. ‘What about me’ my ass.”

She was yelling as I disconnected. I immediately blocked all the numbers for my parents. Turning around, Julie was standing in the doorway, phone in hand.

I had her unlock it and I blocked all the necessary numbers on her phone. She still had tears running down her face.

I just held her for a while. She stopped crying after a few minutes and just held on to me.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Sonny. I don’t think I can.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. “I’m here and we’ll get through this, I promise. You’re not going through this by yourself.”

She just hugged me tighter. “She’s right, people will think I’m a slut.”

“Not the ones who know you. Everybody else can go fuck themselves.”

“That’s not how it works –”

“It kinda is, Jules. Look at it this way. There are eight billion people on this planet. Almost all of them will never know those pictures even exist, if they actually get put on the internet in the first place. Harlan doesn’t have the balls to do that. What happened on Valentine’s is one thing, he could call that a prank that went wrong somehow. Putting it on the web is deliberate. He’s not going there, it’s too hard to talk his way out of.” I tried to sound confident.

“I’m scared. I don’t know what to do.”

“I can’t imagine how you feel, Jules. But I’m here, I’ll always be here.”

“Thank you. I mean that.”

“You’re welcome and I mean that too.”

The rest of the day was spent quietly. She ate surprisingly well. For the first time since Valentine’s, she watched TV while I read.

It took a while for me to realize that the way she acted toward me had changed. Pre-breakup, she had been snarky, sarcastic, and sometimes totally dismissive. After the split, I thought she was just heartbroken and trying not to be ungrateful for letting her stay with me.

It wasn’t just that, though. We were looking after each other again. It was a side of my sister I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

The police closed their active investigation, saying there wasn’t conclusive evidence to charge anybody. The letter the company sent Julie said basically the same thing. There were too many people around the computer to determine who was responsible. They were working on policies to avoid such events in the future. That’s what they called it, an event.

The two people Harlan tried to blame, Elliott and Herman, were cleared. Neither of them were near the computer at the time. Unfortunately, blaming an innocent person is not an admission of guilt so they couldn’t do anything to him.

Julie elected to take one last week of her PTO before going back to work. The therapist went over some things she could try if she felt overwhelmed. I made her practice them every day until she was doing them on her own when she felt an episode coming on.

In what had to be a first, Herman stopped by to see how she was doing and talk about her return. The company was anxious to have her return, probably to avoid liability issues.

When the day of reckoning came, Julie was a wreck from the time she got up. She locked herself out of her computer twice in the first hour. She slowly started to get back in her groove though.

Harlan and what friends he had left steered clear of us. There was a distinct change in the atmosphere on the floor, he wasn’t as cocky as he had been. I was surprised at the number of people who made it a point to stop by Julie’s desk and tell her they were glad to see her back. I think she was surprised too.

By Wednesday, things were as normal as they were going to get. Julie avoided the breakroom, she told me she couldn’t bring herself to go in there. Most of the time, we ate by ourselves in the small conference room. Nobody complained.

We settled back into a routine at home. She had slowly relaxed her dress standards until it was not unusual for her to wander around in an extra-large T-shirt and underwear, usually without a bra. Even with the extra space, she would still gravitate toward the couch at night, watching TV either leaning against me or laying with her head on my leg while I read. I would sometimes watch TV with her, too.

For the next month, things stayed the same. We would go to work during the week, come home, eat, then stay in. On weekends, we cleaned, did laundry, went to the store, and ran other errands. There were no more nighttime visits.

It all changed in May. One of the district managers retired and Herman finally received his coveted promotion. He lobbied hard for Julie to get his job. She interviewed for it and thought she had done well. Herman was optimistic too.

Unfortunately, so did Harlan. He had to have known he didn’t have a chance in hell, but it didn’t stop him from trying.

The hiring committee went with an outside candidate. Ronald, “not Ron”, started shortly thereafter. He waited until Herman officially left before showing his true colors. It was, to say the least, disappointing.

He became best buddies with Harlan. It wasn’t long before the word got out that he liked dating his subordinates. He didn’t let a little thing like being married stop him. He asked Julie out a couple of times, I suspected at Harlan’s suggestion, and she somehow politely and respectfully declined. I managed to let him know, without crossing the line into insubordination, that I was not impressed. This did not endear either one of us to him.

Harlan became a little more bold with Ronald in charge. He had apparently learned his lesson from Valentine’s Day as far as what he could safely get away with. He began strutting around like he was king of the floor, since Ronald would usually take his side in any disagreements that arose.

The turnover rate at our call center was generally on the high side. It’s not for everyone and some people only did it while looking for a better job. Ronald quickly assumed the primary responsibility for the hiring process and his hires were the people he liked. Whether they were a good fit or not didn’t matter. Most of them were young, female and single.

By Thanksgiving, we were a fucking mess. Most teams lost their best performers, either through attrition or transfer to one of his favored supervisors. The replacements we were getting were all over the place in quality. Most of us were struggling to meet the baseline KPI numbers now but he didn’t seem to care as long as his friends were still friendly and Corporate wasn’t breathing down his neck.

Leading up to the week of Thanksgiving, Ronald was on edge. Corporate was coming for their usual catered feast that week. A lot of the district managers would be in attendance, including Herman. There were almost always questions about the whys and hows. The drop in the KPI numbers was sure to invite even more.

Harlan and his friends now spent most of their time hanging out in the breakroom. I didn’t realize the significance of this until Elliott caught up to me the Monday of Thanksgiving.

“Hey, Sonny. You might find this interesting.” He then told me and Julie what he had overheard them discussing while he was calling his wife while on his break. It seems that Harlan was banging one of his CSR’s girlfriends on the side.

Elliott’s comment that “I wish I had recorded it so you could hear the shit he said.” made Julie pull out her phone. She typed some notes and seemed a little distracted all afternoon.

That night, Julie spent a lot of time on her phone, doing searches. I let her be, sensing that she was on a mission.

During the visit by Corporate, everyone was on their best behavior. The following Monday, a quick visit to the breakroom netted overhearing Harlan talking shit about one of his “friends”, the whole group having a good laugh about it. When I mentioned what I had heard to Julie, she perked up.

She explained to me that Elliott had given her the idea of setting up a hidden spy camera. Her research had indicated that Wisconsin had no laws against recording in a public place, such as a hotel lobby. Since the breakroom was open to all employees, it could be argued that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy and it met the requirement of a public place. I wasn’t too sure about that interpretation but I also knew it wasn’t going to stop her at this point. Her mood had improved since that initial conversation with Elliott and I was happy with that.

During our next trip to the store, we bought a cheap black lunchbag. Ordering from everyone’s favorite online retailer brought a nice high definition spy cam and a small external battery.

After a little surgery on the bag, we had a workable spy cam. The mesh on the side of the bag hid the camera lens so that it couldn’t be seen from a distance. The camera would store 36 hours of audio and video, which was more than enough for what we needed, since it would be pulled for download every night when we went home.

I lucked out on figuring out the perfect placement. The bag was noticed by Harlan’s crew but it wasn’t messed with because they saw me put it there. We didn’t get anything usable the first day. However, we did get great video and audio, though.

The bag went back in the same spot the next day. We caught Harlan bragging about banging the guy’s girlfriend again. Julie was ecstatic at the quality of the recording. I felt kind of bad about what we were doing. Harlan and his friend had it coming but she hadn’t done anything to us. Hell, we didn’t even know her. Julie justified it as bad decisions have consequences. She had to know what her boyfriend and his friends were like.

We also eventually found out that he still held a grudge against Julie, me, and Herman. He hated Ronald because he wouldn’t get rid of us, and he had a lot of shit to say about Corporate because he felt he should have been promoted.

That was on top of all the talking he did about his “friends” when they weren’t around. Most of his badmouthing centered around Amanda, Julie’s former friend. I felt no guilt whatsoever over what this would do to her. They were apparently friends with benefits, as he put it, although she seemed to think they were exclusive.

Julie also let slip that Herman had confided in her that Corporate was less than impressed with Ronald. If it bothered him in any way, he didn’t show it. Harlan still strutted around like he owned the place, his buddies still hung out with him in the breakroom, and our struggle to meet baseline still continued.

Once again, Ronald didn’t get antsy until Corporate announced they were coming in for Christmas again. Herman wouldn’t be in attendance this time, he was headed to another facility, but he let Julie know the schedule before Ronald knew.

By this time, we had serious dirt on everybody in Harlan’s friend group and harem. Harlan’s friends were just as enamored of him as he was of them, which is to say not much. Turns out, Amanda got around, too. Julie laughed at me when I admitted I had no idea girls were just as nasty as guys were, if not more so. Some of these people were about to get their ego murdered. I knew things about people’s private parts I definitely never needed to know.

Corporate’s Christmas catering was uneventful. We didn’t get much in the way of incriminating footage.

The facility Christmas party was held off-site. Julie bought a cheap clutch purse which we modified for a camera. All in all, the party was a definite success, in more ways than one.

While we knew Ronald was married, he didn’t have any pictures of his family in his office. We had no idea what his wife looked like until the party. Truth be told, she was actually kind of pretty, a little on the heavy side for some guys but nothing extreme. It didn’t take long before she and Harlan were friendly with each other.

By the end of the evening, they were the best of friends. Ronald was too busy flirting with all the single girls to notice how much time those two were spending with each other. Amanda obviously wasn’t thrilled but she did more than her fair share of flirting with the boss. We had it on video, all four hours worth of it. We couldn’t get much audio, between all the ambient talking going on and the music, it was too noisy to get anything useful. The video more than made up for it.

I had planned on staying in for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I don’t like drunks in public, but Julie coerced me to go to a party some of the people from work were throwing. I was a little concerned about Julie, since this was the time of the year when she found out about Harlan and all of her troubles started. She was really upbeat about the party though, again going all out in preparation.

The night of the party, she looked incredible. We had started going to the gym shortly after moving into the new place so she had toned up in a lot of the right places. I noticed it because I lived with her. The rest of the guys had no idea what she was hiding under her work outfits.

When we walked in, jaws literally dropped. Harlan did not look happy for a while, since his buddies seemed to be giving him a lot of shit about it. Ronald took his shot a couple of times and got nowhere. A lot of guys took their shot, come to think of it. They also struck out.

I spent a lot of time turning down invitations to dance. I was never a fan of it and I was too preoccupied with looking for video opportunities to spend time on the dance floor. We sat with Elliott and a couple of other married supervisors after a while. It was a great vantage point.

As the party was winding down, Julie and Elliott spent some time talking quietly. His wife was also privy to most of the conversation, so I wasn’t worried that they were hooking up. Whatever it was they were talking about, it seemed to make everybody happy so I left it alone. If I was supposed to know, Julie would tell me.

Neither one of us had any alcohol at the party, although it was available. When we returned to the apartment, we went to our rooms to get ready for bed. I had just turned out my light and gotten settled when my bedroom door opened and she quietly entered. She invited herself to lay down next to me, nestling her head on my chest.

“Sorry, felt lonely.” She did not sound either sorry or lonely. She felt nice and warm, and obviously braless.

“It’s okay.” It was, really. It had been almost two years since my ex left and the only sex I was having was with my right hand. Any company in bed was good company. Even if it was my sister.

Despite having a top quality mattress and box spring set, I was still stiff and sore when I woke up the next morning. We were spooned, my hand being held to her now bare stomach by her hand. There was no mistaking the fact that my erection was securely jammed in between her ass cheeks. At least, we were both wearing underwear.

The only thing she said was, “Good morning,” as she got up. She smoothed the T-shirt she was wearing but not before I managed a really up close and personal look at her ass in the smallest pair of panties I’d ever seen. Compared to the view of it in her underwear the previous New Year’s, this was infinitely more aesthetic.

For some reason, it made me incredibly horny. I was aware that we had grown emotionally closer over the last year. We no longer baited each other verbally like we used to, we hugged frequently now and were generally much more physical when expressing ourselves. I didn’t think anything of it. This morning was the first morning I had stroked one out while thinking of Julie. The orgasm was amazing, the guilt aftewards not so much. I blamed the celibacy.

I don’t know if it was just me or it was the both of us, but we kept a little bit of distance from each other for a couple of days after that. Slowly but surely, by New Year’s Eve, we were right back to our usual behavior.

Again, I had planned to stay home but a call Julie received at about four in the afternoon called for a change in plans. She wouldn’t tell me what was going on, only that we had to dress up and play nice for another evening. I suspected I wasn’t going to like it when she gave me a big hug and promised to make it up to me later.

I was right, I didn’t like it at all. We had been invited to Ronald’s New Year’s Eve party, along with Harlan, Amanda, his crew, and some other people from work. Even Elliott showed up, which was kind of unusual. He usually avoided these things because he preferred to spend his New Year’s Eve with family.

Once again, we spent the evening hanging around with the older married couples, watching the young guys try to get laid, the girls avoiding certain disaster, Ronald hitting on single females, and Harlan and Mrs. Ronald getting very friendly whenever Ronald wasn’t around. Amanda appeared to be having a lot of fun, disappearing for a few minutes with at least three different guys. Judging from the length of time they were gone, they won a blowjob for their dancing prowess. They seemed happy with their prize, anyway.

I also spent quite a bit of time avoiding having to dance. Julie thought it was really funny for a while, until Amanda started bugging me. Then it pissed her off.

For a day I thought would cause her some emotional discomfort, she didn’t seem all that upset by it. Harlan stayed away from us, he knew we were there but he ignored us for the most part. His friends generally stayed away from us. All in all, I had had worse times on New Year’s Eve.

While walking back to the car, Julie grabbed my hand. It wasn’t like there was treacherous footing or anything like that. She again took my hand when we walked back up to our apartment, even though it wasn’t necessary for personal safety.

Once inside, she gave me a long hug and a kiss on the cheek before thanking me for going with her. All of a sudden, I felt like a teenager again. I felt myself blush as I started getting hard, she blushed and stammered out a “Goodnight, Sonny,” before disappearing into her room. I ended up stroking one out so I could go to sleep, I was so wound up.

We were awkward around each other the next morning. It took a day for us to get back to our usual level of comfort around each other. I noticed that she was much more relaxed now about her comfort wear around the apartment. On several occasions, I suspected she wasn’t wearing anything at all under her T-shirt.

Slowly but surely, I realized that her leaning up against me had gone from occasionally to nightly, many times my arm finding its way around her while we sat on the couch. Her hand started making its way to my leg while we sat there, sometimes uncomfortably close to my little friend, who was more than happy at the prospect of some attention.

I suppose if I had thought about it long enough, I would have realized there was something going on with Julie. While her therapy had been going well, the sudden uptick in her mood was due to something else going on in her life.

The reality was that I was just glad we had made it through the holidays without a meltdown of any sort. Our parents left us alone. No surprise there.

After the visits from Corporate over the holidays, Ronald had been alternately upbeat and depressed, especially after conference calls from Corporate. He had started getting a little hardcore about some procedural things, pissing Harlan off in the process because it affected him the most.

I began noticing that Julie was texting somebody a lot, usually where I couldn’t see what was going on. While it was none of my business, I had gotten used to not having secrets between us, so it was just a little annoying. She was single and she was entitled to a private life, whether I liked it or not. I did sort of worry that she might be getting involved with another loser like Harlan but again, it was not my business. She was an adult and it was her choice to make, not mine.

One afternoon toward the end of January, we were leaving work when she received another text. I managed to see it was from Elliott. Whatever he had to say, it made her really happy. She waited until we were in the car before she dropped a surprise on me.

“We’re going out tonight.” She was grinning like the Chesire Cat.

“Yeah, no.” Two-year-old me decided to pitch a fit. “Not happening.”

“Please?” She really turned on the charm. It didn’t help.

“I really don’t feel like it, Jules. Why tonight?”

“Because I want to thank you.” I knew she was lying to me, which rubbed me absolutely the wrong way. There was obviously another reason and she didn’t want to tell me. I figured it was Elliott.

“No, you don’t. If you want to see Elliott, do it on your time, not mine.” The lie hurt me more than I wanted to admit.

“Sonny, I swear it’s not like that. Really.” Her hand on my arm was soft and gentle. Gone was the giddy, happy-go-lucky Julie. “I’m sorry I wasn’t completely honest. I promise I’m not seeing Elliott. I really need you to go with me. Please?”

I put up a bit of a fight but like always, she won in the end. I wasn’t happy about losing and I had no problem with being passive-aggressive about it. It did not appear to bother her in the least, which just made me even more unhappy. What good is a tantrum if nobody notices?

We went to one of the nicer restaurants in town for dinner. I noticed that she brought her spy bag instead of the really nice clutch purse she usually carried when we went out. I tried to pretend not to notice but she eventually called me out on it.

“Yeah, it’s the camera. Don’t look around, Sonny. Just pay attention to dinner and our conversation, just like we were at home. You’d make a shitty spy, you know that?” Her teasing was good-natured.

Once I had figured out she wanted to come here for a specific reason, I was in a little bit better mood. “Maybe if you had just told me why we’re here –”

“Because you would have been looking all over the place trying to see where they were. I wanted it to look like a coincidence if they spotted us, but if you’re constantly turning your head around, it’s hard to pull off. You suck at spying.” I was left with a dilemna. I could fight the urge to swivel my head around looking to see why we were there or I could fight the urge to keep looking down her shirt. She had gone with a low-cut blouse that was loose in the front. It would sag open when she leaned forward, giving me a fantastic view of her cleavage and the now familiar blue lacy bra she wore.

Cleavage won. I actually wondered if she had chosen that blouse on purpose, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to resist looking. Yes, she was my sister. But boobs are boobs and hers were very nice. Besides, all I was doing was looking. It wasn’t weird if I didn’t make it weird.

We were almost done with the entree when she slid her spy bag from the table to her lap. From that point on, I wasn’t fighting for her attention. She ordered dessert, which I ended up eating half of, and a glass of wine. Since I was driving, I stayed with iced tea.

Walking back to the car, her hand found mine. It struck me that this was now a common occurrence when we went anywhere. If we weren’t holding hands, she wrapped herself around my arm while we walked. At first, I had just assumed it was because of the breakup and how she felt. Now I wondered if it was just habit. Again, it wasn’t weird if I didn’t make it weird.

It was much the same when we got back to the apartment. The stairs had been de-iced recently but she made a production out of walking carefully up the stairs holding my hand. We hung up our coats, she got comfortable, and we watched some TV before bed.

In what was becoming something of a habit, I was hugged and kissed on the cheek. “Thanks, again. I promise I’ll tell you why soon but the less you know, the less chance you’ll accidentally give it away.” I still blushed a little when she kissed my cheek like that. I had been kissed before, obviously, but the kiss on the cheek was intimate in a way that kissing while trying to take DNA samples wasn’t. I wasn’t used to that feeling.

“No problem.” Yes problem. Every time she did that, I would get a boner. Especially if she did what she did tonight, which was hug the hell out of me while doing it. I had gone from masturbating every few days to every other day, sometimes going through a stretch of yanking it every day during some periods.

It was symbolic of the conversation that I didn’t want to have with myself. I could call what I was doing whatever I wanted, be it not interested in dating at all, not wanting to date while Julie healed, or the girls that seemed interested in me weren’t my type. The truth was, it really felt like I was already dating. I missed the sex, obviously, but I liked spending the evening in with Julie. I liked the hugs and cheek kisses, I liked the sight of her wandering around the apartment in a well-worn T-shirt with or without panties and a bra. I liked going out, most of the time, with her on my arm.

If anybody else had described to me the things I was doing, I would tell them they were in love. I told myself I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. Eventually, she would begin dating again, find somebody she loved and loved her back, get married, all that good shit. I would too, when she finally left. I had no problem with conveniently ignoring the part of me that didn’t want her to leave.

As Valentine’s Day drew closer, the texting became more frequent. We were still getting footage from the breakroom, since the longer Ronald was the manager, the more relaxed Harlan and his friends became with their behavior.

Seeing that Julie still had an aversion to the breakroom, I was the one who placed and retrieved the bag daily. I had lost interest in the details a while ago, Julie would sometimes listen with her earbuds and text back and forth, I assumed with Elliott. I didn’t ask, not because I didn’t want to know but because I didn’t want my feelings hurt.

I was also beginning to suspect that there was something else going on between them. Before New Year’s, she might have gone to the gym by herself once a month or so on the weekend. She would be gone about an hour and a half, come back looking frazzled and sweaty, eat a little bit, and then take a nap. Between New Year’s and Valentine’s, it became early every Saturday morning and sometimes one or two nights during the week after work.

She was still friendly, still physically close, and nothing had really changed in the way she acted around me. I tried to look at it as spreading her wings, getting back into having a life of her own, and creating a little distance while getting me used to the idea. It wasn’t working out too well, though.

Every time I saw Elliott, I couldn’t help but wonder why he would choose now to cheat on his wife. She wasn’t that much older than Julie, I thought she was attractive, and she kept herself in shape. I managed to stay civil when I dealt with him, but that was something I tried to avoid doing more and more. If he was aware that I was trying to stay away from him, he gave no indication of it.

Other than my jealousy, work was pretty routine now. The Monday before Valentine’s Day, Julie announced we no longer needed the spy bags. For the sake of continuity, I continued to carry it for lunch. It was while packing the lunch bag with our lunch that I noticed her keys on the counter next to it. When I picked them up to move them, that was when I noticed that in addition to the little “J” charm she carried on it, there was now an “E”.

The feeling in the pit of my stomach was worse than being kicked in the balls. I did my best to hide my disappointment and pain but she knew something was wrong. I gave her the excuse that I was just feeling down because of Valentine’s Day, it had been a while since I had a girlfriend and I was just feeling “off”.

Everything she did to try to make me feel better only ended up making me feel worse. We had just renewed the lease for another six months, which would be six months of hell waiting to see if she was going to leave. I had no idea how I was going to pretend to be okay with it. She had put all kinds of effort into healing from Harlan and she turned around and hooked up with a married guy who may or may not actually leave his wife when Julie put her foot down. I could tell myself I wasn’t going to help her pick up those pieces but I knew I would, if I stayed here.

When Valentine’s Day dawned, it was a cloudless sunny day. It wasn’t bitter cold, not much of a breeze, just a totally beautiful day. For some reason, she seemed excited, in an understated sort of way. She was bubbly, all smiles, and in a hurry to get to work. I was none of the above.

Corporate of course had come in, Herman included, for the catered lunch buffet and social. The groups broke at 11:30 for lunch, leaving the part-timers to cover, and we all made our way to the breakroom. As my group slowly made its way down the hallway, Julie grabbed my arm and walked with me. I assumed it was because we were headed to the breakroom on the anniversary of one of the worst days of her life. I was having a totally shitty day.

Everybody served themselves from the buffet, groups were scattered all over the room at tables or standing in small clusters while they ate. When the TVs flashed on, I expected Julie to react but she didn’t. She continued eating normally, talking with a couple of other supervisors.

The customary Valentine’s photo montage started running, cute couples, the married employees and their families, the usual pictures. The music stopped and Harlan’s voice filled the room. When I looked up, it was footage taken in this very room, I had no idea when, but the things he was saying about Corporate … oh, shit.

Silence. A clip of Harlan dancing with Ronald’s wife, his hands all over her ass. The two of them at the restaurant, hanging all over each other. It faded to a clip of Harlan bragging about how he fucked her up the ass during the New Year’s party at her house. Ronald was violently jabbing at buttons on the remote, attempting to turn off the TV. It was mounted high up on the wall, too high to turn off manually or unplug.

Harlan then started on his friends, bragging about fucking their women behind their back while they were too stupid to figure it out.

People were staring at the screen the same way they stared at car wrecks, forkfuls of food hanging in mid-air. Some were holding their hand over their mouth in shock, eyes wide. It was graphic, it was vulgar, and it was totally captivating all at the same time.

Ronald started yelling to cut the power. Somebody shut the laptop off but the video continued. Harlan started talking shit about Ronald, Ronald talking shit about Harlan to his wife on the phone, his friends mocking Harlan’s sexual prowess according to Amanda and vice versa.

I glanced at Julie. She appeared to be just as shocked as everybody else at what was happening, except for the little smile at the corners of her mouth when she caught me looking at her. Finally, the entire room went dark as somebody found and tripped the circuit breaker.

A scuffle broke out in the dim light of the emergency lighting. When the lights came back on a few minutes later, Ronald and Harlan were being restrained, both bloodied. A couple of Harlan’s former friends were surrounded by their friends, presumably to keep them from finishing what Ronald started. The only way to describe Harlan’s expression was cornered and desperate.

The folks from Corporate were beyond angry. Harlan and Ronald were escorted to the large conference rooms separately while Amanda and “friends” were taken to the small conference room. Herman cornered the two of us in the breakroom.

“Please tell me you didn’t have anything to do with that.” Herman was not a happy man.

“Nope.” Julie was emphatic. “They did that to themselves, Herman.” I don’t think Herman believed a word of it.

Herman looked at me and all I could do was just shrug my shoulders. I had naively assumed that the video and audio collected would be sent only to those jackasses so they would turn on each other. I had no clue this was going to happen. I still felt guilty, I helped collect that footage.

Herman looked at us both for a few moments. “If you were involved, Corporate is going to find out and you’ll both be out of a job. For your sake, I really hope you’re telling me the truth.” His phone buzzed with a text and he left.

Everybody was instructed to return to work. As expected, the rumor mill was working overtime. At intervals, people would be called into the smaller conference room to meet with Corporate. At 3:15, Herman messaged us not to clock out at 3:30 but to come to the small conference room for our turn.

What struck me as strange about the entire process was the fact that we were never directly asked if we did it. They wanted to know what kind of network access we had, if we had ever found ourselves somewhere on the network where we didn’t belong, if we had file sharing access, that sort of thing. Basic stuff that IT should have been able to answer. They obviously asked if we knew or had heard anything about who might be responsible. We denied any involvement with the video and promised to let Herman know if we heard anything.

Herman again warned us that we would lose our jobs if they found out we lied about having anything to do with what happened and that IT would almost certainly find proof of our guilt if that were the case.

We had to provide IT with our logins and passwords so our computers could be examined. Since there was nothing to find, it didn’t take long. By the time we left at 4:30, the people from Corporate were still angry.

On the drive home, Julie kept trying to start a conversation but I didn’t feel like talking. On top of knowing she was in love with somebody else, even though we could never be together, I felt misled about what the stuff we recorded was going to be used for. I wasn’t kidding myself, I knew revenge was involved and I had been all for it, just not that way. As much as I disliked Harlan, Ronald, Amanda and their friends, I had seen firsthand what shit like that did to somebody.

She was still trying to get me to talk through dinner, which I barely ate, and sitting on the couch. I pretended to read and she watched whatever it was she had on. By bedtime, she had stopped trying to engage me in conversation, seeming to be content to lean against me.

When we stood up, she gave me her usual hug and kiss on the cheek. I felt nothing but sadness and I gave her a half-assed hug in return. She gave me a funny look and quietly said “Goodnight,” disappearing into her room and shutting the door.

I had finished up in the bathroom and climbed into bed when my bedroom door opened and Julie quietly came in. She sat down on the edge of the bed and asked, “What’s wrong, Sonny? You haven’t said much of anything all day. Did I do something?”

I lay there for a minute or two, thinking. “The stuff we recorded. I didn’t think you were going to do that.”

She sighed. “I wanted justice. I wanted to hurt them just like they hurt me. But that’s not the problem I’m talking about. You’ve been like this all week. Why?”

What could I say? “I’m just having a hard time with Valentine’s Day this year. I’ll get over it.” Maybe. Someday.

It was her turn to sit quietly while she stared at her feet. “I need to tell you something, Sonny. I’d like for you to hear me out first, please?” Her hand found my leg under the blanket and she squeezed.

“Okay.” This was going to be the news I was dreading. I tried to steel myself for it.

“I’m in love with somebody I shouldn’t be. I don’t know how to tell them because I don’t know how they feel.”

“You’re asking the wrong person, Jules. I don’t know shit about love.” I didn’t want to hear about Elliott. Not tonight. Not ever, really.

“Who should I be asking?”

“I don’t know, maybe Elliott.” That shot out of my mouth before I could even think about stopping it.

“Elliott? Why would I ask him, Sonny? Is that who you think I’m talking about?” Her tone sharpened and I knew I hit a nerve. This was the part where she was going to defend him.

“Why not? You’ve got his initial on your car keys. That’s the only person whose name I can think of that starts with ‘E’.”

She laughed. She sat right there on the edge of my bed and laughed at me. “Elliott is not the only name that starts with ‘E’, Emerson.” I hadn’t heard that sarcastic tone in a long time.

If you have never had your brain do a hard reset, thank your favorite deity. I couldn’t believe my ears and it took me a minute to make my voice work, “Wait, what?”

A soft smile spread across her face. “I wasn’t talking about Elliott, Sonny. He’s a nice guy and all, but he’s married with a couple of kids. Allie’s been my friend for years. I’m talking about you.

“When I showed up here a year ago, you helped me no questions asked. You slept on the fucking floor for me, put up with me while I went through hell, and you never complained once. There were days where I wouldn’t have gotten through it without you.”

Julie turned and leaned toward me, her arms on either side of mine. She definitely wasn’t wearing a bra as her breasts swung with gravity, her nipples tenting the fabric. “I remember going to your games in high school, even after I graduated. I loved watching you play because you never quit. I think I knew when I came here that night that you wouldn’t quit on me, either. And you didn’t.

“After what happened in the breakroom, when I came back, all these women kept telling me how lucky I was to have someone like you looking after me. Then they wanted to know if you were seeing anyone. That’s when I noticed how you treat everyone. Harlan was never, ever like that. I couldn’t help what happened next. I kept getting closer and closer to you. I woke up one morning and realized I was in love. With you. And you were acting like you might feel the same way.”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to admit she was right but it was still wrong.

“I know you would think what I did was wrong. That’s why I didn’t tell you what I was actually going to do. You would have tried to talk me out of it and probably given it away.”

She looked at me expectantly. This was something I could give an opinion on. “I don’t agree with the way you did it. That fucked you up hard and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. I understand why, I just don’t agree with the how.”

“I know. But to get back to you, I was afraid to say anything to you about how I felt because of what might happen if I was wrong. I knew something was eating at you all week. I thought it might be me. Maybe because it’s Valentine’s and I’m cramping your style.”

“I thought you were having an affair with Elliott. The initial on your keyring, the taking off to go to the gym more and more, the texting back and forth. It all made sense to me.”

She blushed a little and began stroking my arm, hand on top of the blanket. “The gym? Oh, no, that was something else entirely.” She gave my biceps a hard squeeze. “I was taking care of a personal problem.”

“Okay.” I was clueless about what kind of personal problem required a special trip to the gym.

She laughed again. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

“No.” I suspected I was going to feel pretty stupid in a minute or so. I wasn’t wrong.

“I needed to get something out of my system. I’m just a little louder about it than you are.” She wiggled her fingers at me. “I had a lot of pent-up stuff I needed to get out so I’d go work out, get all sweaty, then do what I needed to do in the car before I came upstairs. Sometimes you made me so horny I wanted to scream. Lately, it’s been unbearable.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

Her hand went from my leg to my arm draped across my stomach. “No. I’m sorry. I was going to tell you tonight at first but the way you reacted this morning, I thought I should wait. Then tonight — I can’t do this anymore, can’t live like this anymore. I love you, Sonny. Really with all my heart love you.”

“I love you too. I have for a while.” A strange sense of calm surged through me. “I can’t explain how or why. I’ve been waiting for you to tell me you were leaving. That’s what has been driving me nuts lately. I love you, I knew I couldn’t ever have you, and then I was going to lose you to some asshole who was willing to cheat on his wife. I didn’t know what I was going to do with you gone. And I knew that when it ended badly, you’d be back and we’d do this all over again.”

A tear ran down her cheek, she sniffled and leaned over, her face close to mine. “I’m not going anywhere, Sonny.”

The next thing I knew, our lips were pressed together as I pulled her over on top of me. When we parted, we just stared at each other for a moment. Then we kissed again, slower this time. One of her hands cupped my face as both of my hands found the hem of her shirt and slid underneath it to feel her skin of her back. She was so soft, warm, and definitely not wearing underwear.

We parted and she whispered, “I do have a nice ass, too.” She wiggled against me and we went back to kissing, slowly adding parted lips and teasing with the tips of our tongues.

“I noticed.” I slid a hand down and gently cupped her ass cheek before giving it a small squeeze. “It is nice.” It felt perfect.

“If you like that, you should see me without a shirt.” Her wiggling slowed and became deliberate. I gladly took her up on her offer, she even helped get it off over her head. Turns out she had matching dolphin tattoos on either side of her pubic area.

We somehow managed to get the blanket and top sheet from in between us and she straddled me while I paid close attention to her breasts. She hummed in approval as I slowly teased and squeezed her nipples with my thumb and index finger.

“Now these — these are nice.” She leaned forward so I could slowly take each nipple in between my lips and slowly pull on them while flicking them with my tongue. I was starting to get painfully erect, her weight keeping the elastic band on my boxers from giving way to my hard-on.

She straightened up and looked down at where our bodies met. “Oh, did we wake that up?” She swung off of me and helped me get my underwear off. The head of my cock glistened with precum and she stroked it slowly. She dropped my boxers and her shirt onto the floor next to the bed. “We don’t need these, do we?”

“No, I don’t suspect we do. Where were we?” I pulled her back over onto me, the warm wetness of her outer lips centered over my shaft. She slowly rocked back and forth, eyes closed, as I continued to tease her nipples. It wasn’t long before I raised her hips so she wasn’t grinding against me, I was getting close to cumming.

“Sorry, that just felt so good.” She smiled down at me. “You feel good.” There were a few strands of precum sticking to her pubic hair. I pulled her back down when the sensation passed.

“Not as good as you feel.” There was absolutely no way anything felt better than Julie on top of me. She was sliding freely back and forth along the length of my cock, her wetness and warmth felt incredible.

We kissed again for a while, slowly teasing each other a little bit at a time. When we eventually broke for air, we were both breathing heavily. She reached down between us, grasping my shaft as she lifted her hips. “I’m pretty sure I know where this is supposed to go.”

She slowly lowered herself onto me, gently working my length inside her until she was fully against me again. “Umm, yeah, that’s it. Oh, God, that’s so good.”

I slid my hands over her hips as she slowly started rocking back and forth. Occasionally, I would let a hand drift up to her tit to tease her nipple. “God, you look so beautiful.” I loved her smile back at me.

As she continued to rock, her “oh” continued to get progressively louder. She leaned forward and started grinding into me hard. She whispered, “Oh, God Sonny. I’m gonna cum, I’m gonna cum.” A few seconds later, her mouth was plastered over mine as she moaned loudly while continuing to ride me hard. Her shudders slowly abated and she whispered, “Okay, baby. Your turn.”

What happened next was the single most intense orgasm I had ever had. She slowly rode up and down, occasionally flexing something inside her that drove me insane. She took her time and it seemed that the closer I got to cumming, the slower she went.

When it hit, my orgasm tore through me violently, my back arching to thrust myself as deep inside Julie as I could get, all the while she was encouraging me, “That’s it, just like that, baby.” I’m pretty sure I popped joints I didn’t even know could be popped.

She spread herself over me, resting her head on my chest. I put my arms around and held her tightly. She sighed deeply. “This has now been the perfect Valentine’s Day.”

So I farted. We laughed so hard we cried for twenty minutes. That’s what brothers are for, right?

We eventually moved over to her much larger bed for the night. After “Happy Valentine’s Day” and “I love you” were exchanged, it was the best sleep either one of us had had in a long while. I woke up to her spooned into me, squeezing my already hard cock with her ass cheeks.

We made love nice and slow, I came inside her again with her arms and legs wrapped around me tightly, lips locked together. She came in the shower while being fucked nice and slow from behind, her fingers doing the walking to get her there. We were almost late for work. It wouldn’t be the last time, either.

On the drive to work, Julie checked the Facebook group and the WhatsApp chats. They were alive with theories about what was being called “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.” A surprising number of people had no problem with what happened. There were a handful who felt like I did, that there were other ways of doing it. Nobody wanted to take Harlan’s side, not after all the shit he said. I was amazed that nobody mentioned us as suspects.

By the time we got home, we had barely closed the door behind us before we were tearing each other’s clothes off. Leading her to the bed, I took my damn sweet time eating her pussy. It was every bit as wonderful as I could have hoped for. She was already aroused by the time I lay her back and slid my arms under her thighs. I slowly examined every fold with my tongue, with her softly giving me guidance when it came time to pay attention to her clit. By the time she had her second orgasm, she was mostly just making fun noises into the pillow.

She understated how loud she could get, even her howling into the pillow while she came sounded loud. We also learned that she was definitely multi-orgasmic, she was pulling my hair and begging me to stop after her fourth one.

Dinner was in the nude. She put on a movie but we ended up in a 69 on the couch part way through it, followed by another slow fuck when we went to bed.

Julie was too sensitive the next morning for any kind of fun except for the best damn blowjob I had ever had in the shower. Unfortunately, I am not multi-orgasmic. She tried, though.

Corporate was still around and Herman took over temporarily for Ronald until they could hire a replacement. They poked around for about two weeks. According to Herman, they were unable to determine who was responsible. The police were called, there was an official report made, and as far as I know, the case was closed for lack of evidence.

First, the actual videos had been altered by zooming the image and then cropping it to fit, making it impossible to determine where the camera had been located exactly using mathematics, which rendered the onsite security video footage useless. It also succeeded in making it impossible to determine a date for the video clips, as there was nothing visible to figure out when it was taken.

Since everybody incriminated claimed the videos were faked, nobody would admit to having a particular conversation on a particular day, not that any of those geniuses would remember anyway.

Most importantly, IT couldn’t find a trail. As Herman put it, nobody had any idea how the video ended up on screen. There was no evidence of the guilty file anywhere in the system. It wasn’t uploaded to any computer onsite. The original montage file was present and unaltered, right where it was supposed to be. They could find no evidence it was streamed directly to a device plugged into the TV, as the security video didn’t show anybody in the vicinity of the TV immediately after the incident. When powered back up, it was on the correct HDMI port.

There were a few threats of legal action but they were empty. You can’t sue a ghost.

Ronald and Harlan were terminated for the physical altercation in the breakroom. Amanda quit at the end of the pay period. Supposedly, Ronald and his wife filed for divorce but you know rumors. Harlan was thought to have moved to Milwaukee looking for work. Amanda also left town, bound for God only knows where.

As far as we were concerned, our work days stayed pretty much the same. Nights and weekends were filled with love and incredible sex. We had to institute a “no touching” rule outside of the apartment. It was that or get arrested for public lewdness or whatever they called it.

The only real downside was Herman’s disclosure after they announced the new site manager. The night before he left, we met him for dinner and he told us that, in his words, “given the nature of the incident, its timing, and the previous incident the year before, Corporate was ‘not comfortable at this time’ with considering us for any kind of promotion.” In other words, they were sure we had something to do with it, even if they couldn’t prove it. There was nothing in writing, of course. We both knew that was always a possibility as a potential consequence.

Julie confessed that night as we lay in bed that one of the IT guys was Elliott’s brother-in-law. She didn’t tell me his name and I didn’t ask. She swore she had no clue how he pulled it off. She thought it might have been something personal between him and Harlan because he didn’t even blink when she told him what she wanted done. Elliott had never said it directly but it kind of sounded that way.

At the beginning of July, Julie received a call from Herman. He had a contact with another call center outfit and they were looking for an assistant site manager and an experienced project supervisor. The job was in Northern California, the pay was good, and the benefits were very similar to what we had now.

We filled out the online applications, submitted resumes, and went through the telephone interviews. They were willing to wait until September, when our lease expired, so they sent the paperwork and we signed it.

The new manager wasn’t happy to learn we were leaving but he understood why. We made sure our replacements were trained as fully as possible. Corporate even allowed us to have a nice little going away party. No videos were permitted, in case you were wondering.

Since we really didn’t need two cars, we sold my older SUV. All of our stuff fit into a 12-foot U-Haul box truck. On a rainy day in mid-August, we said goodbye to Appleton, Wisconsin and five days later, said hello to Redding, California. It didn’t take long for us to settle into our new place and work.

Life’s been good to us so far…

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