Growing up I was always close to my sister. There were no secrets between us. That lasted until we hit high school. That is when Eve started to shy away from me. After graduation, there were no more late-night calls into the wee hours in the morning. Gone, were the Sunday brunches we used to love. It’s like she was purposely avoiding me, but I didn’t do anything wrong. At least not that I know of.
I was driving home from work on Friday when I passed a damsel in distress. I pulled over to see if I could help her. She had a flat tire and seemed really upset.
“Hey there. I’m Bret. Are you all right? Can I do anything to help you?”
“My cellphone died, and I don’t know how to change a tire. Plus, no one will stop and help me. I’m so sorry. No one besides you, of course” she sobbed. I’m sorry. Thank you, Bret. I’m Cassie”
“Do you have a spare, Cassie?” I asked.
“I think so,” she said as she popped open the trunk. I looked in and pulled the spare tire and jack out. I loosened the lug nuts and jacked the car up to change the tire. After I was done. I wished her well and headed to my car.
“Bret, wait. I want to take you to dinner to thank you for helping me tonight. Please say yes. Please”
“Ok, ok. We can go to dinner. There is a nice little Italian restaurant down the street. Is that ok with you?”
“Yes, it is. I love Italian.”
We had finished our meal and were walking out together toward our cars.
“Thank you for a wonderful night as well as dinner, Cassie,” I said as I leaned towards her and kissed her on the lips. It shocked her, to say the least.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, it’s just that I had a great night and I would like to see you again. I guess I jumped the gun a little bit” I said embarrassingly.
“I’m flattered and you are handsome but I’m afraid I can’t do that. My girlfriend wouldn’t take to kindly to me going out with you. Besides, I am happy being with her”
“OK, Cassie. I didn’t know you were in a relationship and I don’t want to ruffle any feathers. I hope we can still be friends and get together sometime.
“Bret, you helped me out when I needed it. Yes, we can be friends. Here is my number. Give me a call sometime. Thanks again” Cassie hugged me and we left.
I got home and showered. I was just sitting down to watch a movie when my phone rang. It was Eve.
“Hey, sis. Long time, no see. How are you doing?”
“Bret, I’m good. I know it’s been a while, but can we get together like we used to. I was thinking about our meeting for brunch on Sunday. What do you think? Are you up to see your little sister again? I’ve been missing you.”
“Eve, I’d love to have brunch with you. I’ve missed us being together like we used to. I will see you Sunday”
I was on autopilot all day Saturday. All I could do was think about getting together with Eve. I had so many questions, but I also wanted more than just brunch. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on her. I kept myself busy and got through the day as best as I could. I got up early Sunday and showered. I made it to brunch about ten minutes before Eve did. I had been looking around for her until a pair of arms hugged me from behind. I turned around and saw it was Eve. I pulled her into a big bear hug and kissed her.
“Eve, you look great. I’ve missed you so much”
“I feel the same way, Bret. I’ve missed you too. Let’s sit down so we can talk and eat. I’m starved”
We got our table and headed towards the buffet. We got reacquainted in between trips to the buffet. After we had eaten, Eve looked at me like a scared little girl.
“Eve, what’s wrong? That’s why we’re here today, isn’t it? To talk about things?”
“You’re right, Bret” she sighed. “OK. Here goes. I was jealous of you. Growing up, you always had a girlfriend. She wasn’t just cute. She was always gorgeous. I started to resent seeing you. That’s why I slowly stopped talking to you as much and why moved away”
“Jealous, why? You had your choice of boyfriends” I said. Just then, a lightbulb went off on my head. “You were jealous because they wanted me and not you”
“Yeah, big bro. I thought you knew. I hated the way I felt about you. Especially since you weren’t the problem. It was my choice of girlfriends. They always seem to break my heart. Not as much as missing you, bro. I need your help. I don’t want that to ever come between us again. I need your help though. I want you to help me find someone. You’ve always had great taste in women. Would you mind using those charms to help a girl out?”
“Sure, little sister. Whatever it takes to get back to where we were. I’ll do it. Just give me some time to look around.” Hell, what was I thinking? Lately, my luck with women has sucked. It’s been a couple of months since I had a date. I told Eve I’d try to do my best and that is what I will do. We talked more about everything in our lives. I used that to get some ideas on who to look for. The only problem I had was that I didn’t know any women who were lesbians. Or even bi-curious. Or did I? We decided to have brunch every couple of weeks and I’d fill her in on my quest.
It was a couple of weeks later. I was getting ready to go to brunch with Eve when my phone rang, it was Cassie. It had been a while since we talked. I figured she was just being polite to me when I helped her with her tire.
“Hey, Cassie. How have you been?” I asked. I could barely understand Cassie. She was hysterical and crying to me on the phone. “Cassie, calm down. Take a deep breath and tell me what’s wrong”
“Bret, I need your help, again. I was in an accident and I don’t have anyone else to call. Will you help me, please?” Cassie begged me.
“Ya, sure I’m leaving now. Where are you?”
“I’m down on Main Street going out of town. Another car ran a stop sign and hit me. Please hurry, Bret”
I grabbed my keys and I was out the door in minutes. I called Eve to tell her I would be a few minutes late and not worry. A friend needed some help. I’d explain when I saw her. I picked Cassie up and she was still shaken from the accident. She ran to me and hugged me. The police gave me their report with numbers for Cassie to call about picking her car up from the impound yard.
“Come on, Cassie. Let’s go see if we can get you calmed down. Do you need to call someone? Your girlfriend?” I said as I took her by the hand and led her to my car.
Cassie started crying again. Then, through her sobs, she told me that her girlfriend broke up with her days after we met. She thought Cassie was cheating. It was just an excuse because her girlfriend was doing the cheating. Cassie caught them later that week. I was shocked. We arrived at the restaurant. Eve was waiting outside for me and walked over to my car as we got out.