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  Without further adieu, here's this week's chapter.

  Briar Rose

  The first thing I did the next day was text my doctor’s office and set up a consultation for a vaginopsty. The option might not be avaible to me soon, but if I got the ball rolling now I might be able to get it done before the worst case scenario happened (assuming it happened). Plus… I wanted to have a vagina before my wedding.

  The second thing I did was text Ruth asking her to meet me for coffee before I went to work, because I needed to tell her the news (both the good and the bad).

  The third thing I did was admire the way the rays of dawn piercing through the window blinds above my bed sparkled off the diamond Kyle had put on my finger. His arms were wrapped around me, his hands cupping my breasts as he slept. I smiled as I felt his breath on the back of my neck and the warm expanse of his body folded around me. He was mine. He was really mine. I was going to be his wife! I had a fiance! Holy fucking shit, I was fucking engaged!

  The fourth thing I did was wake him up with a blow job again- he’d agreed to it again before we went to sleep st night- savoring the taste of his cock in my mouth as I worked my teeth over his foreskin, my lips around the rim of his head, my tongue around his shaft. I took the entirety of his length in my mouth, and he slowly roused from his slumber with a groan of pleasure. He put his hand on the back of my head, pushing me down and pulling me up while I worked his cock with all my talent and all my love. Morning wood was truly a Godsend. I was just grateful I didn’t get it anymore. And soon, hopefully, I would be grateful about not having anything obstructing Kyle from entering between my legs. Anal was great, and we could still do it on occasion, but God, I really wanted to feel what it was like to do it the traditional way.

  Kyle’s moans were music to my ear as one of his hands pyed with my breasts and the other delivered a series of satisfying smacks to my ass. I squealed on impact each time, squeaked as he tweaked my nipples like knobs on a radio, pleasure shooting through me in my mouth, chest, and rear. It was like waves washing over me, carrying me deeper and deeper out to sea. I knew I would float safely on top of it, though. No matter what happened, Kyle would do everything in his power to protect me.

  Precum trickled out of his cock, and I eagerly swallowed it while I continued deep-throating him. He kneaded my breasts expertly, two-handing it now, as he came in my mouth and I drank every st drop like it was the very nectar of Olympus.

  Through hooded eyes and with a dreamy smile, I licked my lips and purred, “Good morning, love.”

  “Good morning, princess,” he said, eyes burning with the pleasure I provided him, voice growling in that husky, manly way that drove me crazy. “So, is this gonna be a thing from now on? You gonna wake me up with blowjobs every day?”

  “Kyle Duggan, if you will let me, I will happily suck you off every morning,” I said, kissing his neck greedily.

  “Holy shit, Briar,” Kyle said with a giddy ugh. “Most guys only dream about this, you know? Literally, this was the kind of thing I had wet-dreams about as a teenager.”

  “Why Kyle, are you saying I’m your dream girl?” I said, batting my eyeshes at him.

  “Naw, you’re way better than that,” he said, cupping my chin. “You’re the girl I wake up to. Though admittedly, the red hair is something out of my dreams.”

  “Wait, seriously,” I said, wrapping my legs around his torso.

  “Oh, hell yeah,” he said. “I used to have a huge crush on Amy Pond.”

  I nodded. “Good to know. Especially for Halloween costume ideas.”

  “You don’t have to-”

  “I want to,” I said. “I get off on driving you crazy. It’s like… One of my favorite things.”

  “And again we come back to the point of ‘how do I get this lucky.’”

  “You didn’t,” I said, wrapping my arms around him now too. “You were just… You. And that was all you had to be for me to fall for you.”

  “Good to know,” he said, kissing me lightly on the lips. “Want me to make us breakfast?”

  “No, I’m meeting Ruth for coffee, figure I’ll eat there,” I said. “Wanna come with?”

  “I would love to, Briar Rose,” he said. “I would absolutely love to.”

  “Good.”

  “I’d also like to shave your legs for you before we go,” he smirked. “Feels like a good way to repay you for my wakeup call.”

  I gave a mocking gasp. “Kyle! Did you just compare me to a whore?”

  “... Depends. Do you like that?”

  I shrugged. “We can py around with that. I mean hey, I figure we got the rest of our lives.”

  He picked me up in his arms the way he always did, the way I always loved. “That we do, princess. That we do.”

  ***

  “So, good news and bad news,” I said as we sat across from Ruth and Nathan. We found ourselves once again in the coffee shop we’d come to know and love, a stack of breakfast burritos between us.

  “Does the good news pertain to the huge rock on your finger, by any chance?” Ruth said with that smug older-sister smirk she wore so well.

  “It does indeed,” Kyle said as he put his arm around me before using his spare hand to take a breakfast burrito.

  “Hey! Congratutions,” Nathan said, holding his son in his arms while staring at his coffee longingly.

  “Thank you,” I said. “It’s… Well, it was a long time coming.”

  “Yes,” Ruth monotoned.

  “Oh don’t give me that,” I rolled my eyes. “Just be happy for me, how about?”

  She chuckled. “I am very happy for you, Rose. If also a little amused by the course of events that brought you to this point.”

  Nathan chuckled as well. “I’ll say. I could hardly believe half the stuff Ruth was telling me about you two until I saw it with my own eyes.”

  “Not an unfair reaction,” I sighed, leaning against Kyle.

  “So,” Ruth said, “what’s the bad news?”

  I took a sip of coffee and gave her the highlight reel of yesterday. By the end of it, Ruth’s face was contorting with a level of rage I’d not born witness to in years.

  “Hon, don’t curse,” Nathan said, gesturing at their baby.

  “I didn’t say anything,” Ruth growled.

  “You were about to.”

  “I was not-”

  Nathan quirked an eyebrow at her. She exhaled and gave a light pout. “Right. Well then, shaving cream fiddlesticks mother-forking ash-hole, I am upset! There, how’s that? Better?”

  “Yeah,” Nathan said with a goofy smile and a thumbs up.

  Ruth poked baby Caleb on the nose and said, “You better not wind up with a potty mouth, or I’m gonna be real mad.”

  “He appreciates your efforts.”

  I was tempted to ugh, but honestly, the whole thing was sweet, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Kyle and I would dote on our kids like this. Kyle’s smile indicated to me that he was on the same page.

  “So,” Kyle said, “Nathan. What do you think? Can you help me out?”

  “I should be able to,” my brother-in-w nodded. “I’m between cases right now, and this is more or less the exact kind of w I practice. If we can obtain evidence that Mallory or Sarah was the one who got you fired- or furloughed indefinitely, in your case- then we’ll be in good shape.”

  “So the question is, how do we get evidence?” Kyle said.

  “We start by getting your bosses at Overton on the witness list,” Nathan said. “Under oath, most people fold like origami. Though it would help if we can get a confession out of-” “Out of whom, exactly?”

  I groaned as Sarah approached, her bnd, tacky gray-on-gray pantsuit that she’d probably gotten out of Mallory’s closet a harsh contrast to the warm hues of the coffee shop and the natural spring light filtering in through the windows.

  Caleb started crying as Sarah pulled up a chair and sat with us. Smart little man, that one was. Sarah- who I wanna emphasize, had two kids of her own via her terrible husband- just looked at the baby with disgust. I barely knew my niece and nephew on Sarah’s side of the family, but God, my heart broke for them having to have the parents they did. I hated to think what kind of poison their mom and dad and grandma were putting in their minds. I wish they could have gotten the version of Sarah I’d known before Dad died. “Hi,” Sarah mugged.

  “Get. Away. From us,” Ruth hissed, turning to face Sarah, trying to obstruct our sister from her husband and son.

  I took a deep breath in through my nose. “Sarah,” I exhaled, “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for my coffee order to be done,” Sarah shrugged.

  “Not what I meant.”

  “Fine, I was coming to see you two and wanted to get some caffeine first. I mean, I need all the help I can get when dealing with you, Brian. But imagine my surprise to find all my least favorite people gathered here already. Saves me the walk up to your dumpy little pce.”

  Kyle’s hands gathered into fists, but I put mine on his shoulder.

  I continued, “And what, exactly, did you want to see us about?”

  Her eyes narrowed in on my hand resting on Kyle’s shoulder. My own flickered over, and I realized she was staring at my ring, like she’d only just now registered I was wearing it. “I came here,” she said through gritted teeth, “To try one st time to get you to see reason. But based on that gaudy ring on your finger-”

  Kyle flipped her off at that point.

  “It would seem that I’m already too te,” Sarah said. “Or perhaps I’m needed now more than ever. Now please. I am begging you. Stop this nonsense before it gets any worse. Mother is furious enough already-”

  “Sounds like a you-problem,” Ruth rolled her eyes.

  Sarah grimaced, and for a moment, I saw something unexpected in her eyes: fear. Overtaken by fury mere moments ter, but regardless, it was there. She was afraid. She’d always been afraid. And for another second, something else unexpected pulsed through my mind: pity.

  Sarah continued, “Maybe it is a me-problem, Ruth, but that’s only because someone has to deal with it. With her. One of us has always had to deal with her. The only reason you and your oily husband here get to py house unobstructed is because I have dealt with her your entire life, and you have consistently refused to show me even the tiniest scrap of gratitude.”

  “So I’m supposed to be grateful that you’ve taken mom’s side in everything our entire lives?” Ruth spat. “Grateful that you’ve helped her ruin our family time and time again?”

  “How dare you?! I am the only one keeping this family together! I am the only one keeping us on the right path and keeping her worst moments contained,” Sarah said. And something inside me… Something inside me physically hurt when she said that, reverberating with the memory of every time Mom had put hands on my eldest sister.

  Ruth reached for her earrings and started taking them out. “Nathan, take Caleb and get out of here. I might need you to bail me out of jail in a few hours-”

  “Don’t,” I said quietly. That spark of pity kept getting brighter and brighter. Maybe she didn’t deserve it, but… Part of me wanted, part of me NEEDED to try. “You don’t have to do this, Sarah,” I said in my softest voice. Kyle looked at me with shock, but I could see the gears turning in his mind. He was probably thinking the same thing I was. I didn’t expect him to forgive her for what she’d done, but he was willing to let me try to. To at least see if maybe she could be worthy of it one day. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

  “I could say the same thing to you,” Sarah said, trying again with her smug smile. It didn’t reach her eyes, though. “Look at how far you’ve fallen-”

  “And look at how far you’ve fallen,” I cut her off. “You used to be so amazing, Sarah. You were warm and beautiful and kind and gentle. You were everything I wanted to be. But Mallory broke you. Don’t you see that? I know you think that you let it happen, that you had to in order to protect me and all of us from here. Heck, I can tell you still think that’s what’s happening here. But I’m not confused, and I’m not being maniputed, and I’m not doing anything wrong-”

  “The hell do you mean you’re not doing anything wrong?!” Sarah snapped. She was pushing back, hard, but the way her face was contorting with confusion and sorrow, I was getting through to her. And her voice… She wasn’t mimicking Mallory’s speech patterns. She was inflecting again, emotion and intonation injected into every sylble.

  “I’m not hurting anyone,” I pointed out. “And I’m happy. God wants us to be happy, Sarah. He wants us to live as our true selves. It’s His will. And it was dad’s will as well. He never would have wanted me to make that stupid promise. If he could see me here, today, finally living as myself, engaged to the most wonderful man I’ve ever met, he would be thrilled, and there’s nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise.”

  Her hands bunched and unbunched, confusion and terror pouring off of her face and her posture. Maybe… Maybe there was a chance I could get through to her-

  “Order for Sarah! Tall bck coffee, hot!” a barista called from the counter.

  Sarah pressed her eyes shut, drew a deep breath, and stood up. “This is clearly going to be an unproductive discussion,” she said, dusting off the legs of her sterile pants, audibly struggling to keep the emotion out of her voice. “If you’re truly determined to incur Mother’s wrath as you walk the path downwards to Hell, then I can’t stop you. Just know that you can’t stop us. We’ll take your company, and the only way you’ll be able to keep your job is if you detransition and leave this overgrown dumb jock you think you’re in love with. Do I make myself clear?”

  I heaved a beleaguered sigh as I stared at her. “Crystal. Thanks for crifying, Mom.”

  She flinched. “Do not call me that-”

  “Why not? You were the one who actually raised me. Mallory was hardly ever around. And with the ten year age gap, we’re practically different generations. Besides, what could be more motherly than helping me become the woman I am today?”

  “Shut up!” she spat.

  At which point, Caleb’s cries ignited once more. And for a brief moment, Sarah actually looked ashamed of what she’d done.

  “You should probably get going,” I said. “But know this: I admired you. And I loved you. And honestly, in spite of everything, I still love you. Mom.”

  Her hands… Her hands were trembling. Her face scrunched up, tears starting to leak out.

  She turned on her heel and left, storming out without another word.

  The five of us remained sitting at the table in retive silence. Emphasis on ‘retive’; Caleb was still crying, after all. “Want me to do the thing?” I said, looking at Ruth and Nathan.

  Nathan said, “What thing?”

  “Yes, please,” Ruth said, as if she was only now remembering to breathe. “Nathan, give my sister the baby.”

  He nodded, and I took the baby in my arms and hummed to him while bouncing up and down gently in my seat. And slowly, slowly the crying child began to smile.

  Kyle, still with my arm around me, held us close. “That was beautiful, Rose.”

  “Thanks,” I said, not taking my eyes off of the little guy, but still leaning on my big guy.

  Gradually, I climbed to my feet and handed Caleb back to his parents.

  “Come on,” I said, offering Kyle a hand up. “I think we’ve got work to do.”