I never expected this to happen—not so soon anyway, but there she was, in his living room, chatting with him and playing with Oliver belly-side up on her lap as she fiddled with his soft paws. 

“I invited her over,” Stan told us as we took a seat by her. “She keeps saying she loves playing with him, but she only comes once a week, and Oliver gets a bit lonely when it’s just the two of us, so I decided to give her a call.” 

He really wasn’t aware, was he? Did he not notice how much effort my sister put into her appearance just to come over and play with a cat? 

“Are you going somewhere after this?” I asked her, laying the bait. I already knew she was going to say no, what I wanted was for Stan to step up. 

“Huh, I thought you were,” he told her after she answered me. 

“Why?” 

“Because you’re all dolled up. I thought you were going to meet a boy or something.” 

Not a boy, a man, damned thick-headed man. He and Violet really were related, no DNA tests needed to prove that. Still, that afforded me some more room to further make him aware of her. 

“Don’t you think it’d be a bit bad if she was and you still invited her over?” 

“Am I not too old for her though?” 

“I don’t think so. Our parents are thirteen years apart.” 

My sister hit me with her elbow to tell me to stop. Fair, I went a bit too far with that one. Well, whatever. I was already done anyway. 

“How old is William anyway?” Stan wondered out loud. 

Fifty-seven, old enough to be my grandpa instead of dad and old enough to also be Stan’s father, now that I thought about it. My dad really was a bit of an old man, wasn’t he? 

I noticed a slight change in the way Stan was holding his posture. That, and how he was looking at Sophie. He was thinking about something, but I wasn’t able to tell what it was unlike how I do with Violet. I could only tell that he looked a bit uncomfortable. 

“Yes?” my sister asked once she noticed his stare. 

“Don’t mind me, I got a bit lost in thought,” he told her with a head shake. 

That only made me even more curious, but a tongue click from Violet made me shift my focus. She was holding a bunch of open envelopes and reading their contents with a frown. 

I asked what the matter was, and she leaned in closer showing me what got her in a sour mood. Despite her explanation that the water, gas and electricity bills had risen in cost, I had no window of reference of how much of a raise it was, only that it was absurd by her account. 

“Don’t fuss about it, starting next month, your dad will earn enough for it to not be a worry anymore,” Stan assured her as he stretched in his seat. 

“Well, yeah, but were it not for that...” Violet grumbled. 

“You make it sound like I barely earn any money at all,” Stan laughed. “Hmm, maybe I should sign up for a gym membership? Get some exercise done?” 

Violet told him not to go splurging all of the money away, but I agreed on him doing some exercise. If he got a bit leaner and got some more muscle in him, he’d look even better. 

“Don’t you think so sis?” I asked, this time not aiming to give her a push. I only thought about it after she gave me a look. Fortunately, she saw I didn’t mean it in that way, so her glare softened up rather quickly. 

“Well, I’m not saying he looks bad as he is now, but... I think women in general prefer fit men,” she said in half a mumble. 

“Yeah, I remember that back when I started playing basketball in high school, girls started paying me more attention. Much to the annoyance and jealousy of Violet’s mum.” 

I looked at my sister to see what her reaction was at the mention of Charlotte. She was looking at Violet before looking back at Stan and asking if she looked like my girlfriend. 

He told her that Violet was the spitting image of her mother, the only exception being the glasses. He then added that Violet could be slightly taller too, but her mum tended to walk a bit slouched due to being constantly tired in her final years. 

“Are they also the same personality-wise?” 

“Hmm... I think Violet might be more of a firebrand than her mother, although it might just be her acting rebellious. She’s a teen after all.” 

“I’m also still here.” 

Stan grinned, delighted in having annoyed her daughter. I think he was partially right in his assumption of Violet being in her rebellious phase, but there was also a large contribution from him in leading to that behaviour. 

Feeling like the conversation had run its course, she got up and told me we should get to doing our homework. 

Once we were alone in her room, our backs against the wall with pillows protecting us from its coldness and feet dangling outside the bed, I asked Violet her thoughts about the way Papa Stan acted after he asked about my dad’s age. 

“Dunno,” she said as she took out her schoolbooks. “It certainly is strange how serious he got all of a sudden, that’s to be sure.” 

Yeah, even when he was serious, it wasn’t to that degree. Did he perhaps finally take notice of Sophie’s feelings and didn’t like it? 

Violet shrugged before telling me there was no point in worrying about it until we had more information. Was she not the least bit curious? 

“I am, but I can’t read minds and we have a test coming,” she told me. “Look, honey, I know you want to help your sister, but right now, all we can do is worry about stuff that might not be there yet. And didn’t your sister tell us she still needs to figure it out herself? Why are you in such a rush?” 

“Because I feel like if I don’t give her a push, it will be too late when she finally does.” 

She stared at me while propping her chin on a bent knee as she thought about what to tell me next. She was considering each and every word I said, comparing it to her own thoughts and readying her answer after that careful analysis. 

“You might be acting a tad too pushy,” she told me in the end. “Maybe you should try a subtler approach with Sophie alone? You can always cheer her up if things don’t work out in the end. And if it’s like you said about my dad having noticed, the ball is on his side of the field right now. I doubt there’s anything you can do to make him change his mind if he decides not to play along. And you just saw how he looks when talking about my mum too.” 

That all was true, and as frustrating as it was, I had to agree with her. It was all up to Stan if my theory was right, and even with a positive result, even then, there was little I could do. 

Seeing me getting all droopy, Violet chuckled and pulled me into a tight hug, whispering that I was a very nice and sweet girl, the best person she knew. That wasn’t much of a compliment, seeing how little people she knew was the joke I threw back at her, but she took it in stride with another laugh and told me that was because I filled all the boxes in her heart. Seriously, how much of a silver tongue could she be in these situations, huh? 

“Shall we start with our homework?” she asked after smooching my forehead. 

“Erm, there’s still something else...” 

Before homework, I wanted to talk about my therapy sessions. 

It’s been a year since I started going to it and quite a few months since I reduced the number of times I went, so now, I wanted to ask her if it was all right if I stopped going altogether. 

I no longer had nightmares, I didn’t write in my sleep diary anymore, I didn’t get super stressed when remembering stuff about how mum treated me, and quite frankly, now I felt pity for mum instead of hate. Would Violet approve of me stopping it, however? 

“Is it about therapy?” she asked. “If it is, I think it should be ok now if you stop going.” 

“How did you know that was what I wanted to talk about?” 

“I had a feeling.” 

I curled up against her, nodding and thanking her for being so supportive and understanding. She told me of course she would, she was my girlfriend after all and that she loved me a lot. She made me know how much she admired my growth in the past year too. My therapist helped me through a lot, but even more so was having Violet always by my side, always listening and supporting me, never letting me falter and give up. 

“Do you want to snuggle before we start working?” she asked me softly. 

“No, a kiss will suffice,” I told her sweetly. 

“Just one?” she asked in a hushed tone, her lips almost touching me. 

“...One at a time,” I admitted before closing the small gap. 

 

An hour later, after having done all the homework and some flirting, my stomach was demanding to be fed. 

“Where’s sis?” I asked once we arrived in the living room and I saw Stan in the kitchen. 

“She already left. She didn’t want to disturb you two, so she went quietly.” 

That was a shame, I had wanted to have dinner with her. At least this way dad would have some company. We could have also invited him over though. 

Stan did try to convince her to stay, but she didn’t want to overstay her welcome. Not even Oliver managed to convince her to stay. Did she perhaps get sad and/or worried after seeing how Papa Stan talked about Charlotte? I still remember how I felt just thinking about Violet getting interested in somebody else. Worst still, my sister had to compete with someone who’s no longer among us and that did have a long-lasting relationship with him. 

“Why don’t you give her a call if you want to talk?” Violet suggested. 

“Do you think I should?” 

Violet shrugged, not knowing the answer beyond stating that I knew Sophie best. 

I decided to make the call. If I noticed something in her voice, I’d try to cheer her up, otherwise, I’d just pester her about leaving without saying goodbye. That was the plan, but the first thing my sister did once she picked up the phone was apologise for leaving without saying anything and asking if that was why I was calling. There was only one thing left to do, and that was being frontal, were it not me remembering what Violet told me about being subtler. The problem now was, how to be subtle about asking her if she was ok. 

“Please don’t get mad, but I called because I was a bit worried about you,” I told her, concluding that there really was no way to be subtle in this situation. 

“Yeah, I figured as much... I’m fine. Frankly, I’m a bit envious, but not for the reason you’re worrying about. It’s amazing how different their relationship was in comparison with our parents, isn’t it?” 

“Is that really it?” 

“...I guess it also makes me worry a bit about how much of a good partner I could be to anyone.” 

What she just voiced were familiar thoughts to me. Both are a result of living in a dysfunctional family and the latter is something that only life experience could solve, along with me sharing some of my life experience. 

Simply put, I told her that to be a good partner you need to treat the other the same way you’d like to be treated while respecting their personality and balancing your own needs. It’s a lot easier said than done, but again, it was something that only life experience could teach. 

“Makes sense... Claire more or less told me the same once, when we talked about my inexistent love life.” 

“Right, we should do an all-girls meet-up. You, me, Violet, Claire and Mathilda.” 

There wasn’t much else I could do for my sister, so I’d go with proposing something she could look forward to. 

She chuckled and said that it sounded like a nice idea but reminded me that there were exams I should be worrying about before going off to have fun. Such a party pooper, but that was sis being sis. 

“Oh, come on! A bit of fun will only make me perform better!” 

“No means no baby sis. Let’s see... if you get a perfect score in one of your subjects, I’ll treat you to cake.” 

“When you say cake, do you mean a slice, or...” 

“Nope, a whole cake. Just remember to share it.” 

I’m way too easy. With just that, I was convinced about doing my best. Well, not my best, just put in a bit more effort. I could probably score perfectly on more than one subject. Would I get my sister to spoil me more if I did so? Shame that the thought only occurred to me after I ended the call. 

“So, how did it go?” Violet asked when I sat by her. 

“Sis says she’ll buy me a whole cake if I score a twenty in at least one subject.” 

“Hmm, that’s nice of her.” 

“...” 

“...I already spoil you every day, what do you want me to tell you?” She asked as she poked my sides. 

Actually, I was thinking about what I was going to do for Violet if she scored a twenty. Was there anything she’d like in particular? 

“A full body massage perhaps?” she wondered out loud. 

“I’d do that for you anytime if you just asked.” 

“Yeah, if I just asked.” 

Violet still got embarrassed over the strangest things. After everything, she still couldn’t find the courage to ask that? At least now we knew what we’d be doing after dinner. She was adorable as ever, but that still left me ignorant about her reward. 

“I don’t need a reward,” she told me as she made me sit between her legs and pulled the blanket to cover us. “If I ever get a full score, let’s just go have lunch or dinner somewhere nice.” 

“Hehe, and you’re the person who wonders if they are nice or not,” I teased as I rubbed my nose on her neck. “Not self-serving at all.” 

“...” 

“...What?” 

“...It just occurred to me that I should have said that I don’t need a reward because I have you.” 

“Pfft, hehe! Stop it! Hehe!” 

She was looking rather red, but I was that too plus a thousand-fold. How could she say such things and be embarrassed about asking for a massage to the point of not asking? Silly, silly girl, but that was part of the reason why I loved her so much.