Three Sisters One: Algeria

Al held on to her desire to show how unaffected and cool she was until she got to the club. By the slightly queasy look on Sai’s face, she knew she was having the same doubts. Legs parked and hopped out of the car, and was half way there before she realized neither of her sister had actually left the car. She stomped back to the car.
“What the hell, you guys,” she said, “Get out of the goddamn car.”
“I’m not feeling too good, Legs, I think I should just forget about it.”
Al knew she was whining but damn it, she wanted to go home, be frumpy and comfortable, and eat ice cream.
“Sai, get outta the car and let me talk to your older sister.”
Sai grumbled, but got out, complaining about wasting precious study time.
“Al, listen to me, I’m your sister and I love you, okay, so it’s with a heavy heart that I say this,” Legs took a deep breath and said, “I will kill you if you don’t get out of this car and go in there and have some fun. I mean, how much fun can you have eating ice cream and listening to Within Temptation.”
“Hey,” Al yelled as she jumped out of the car, “What’s wrong with Within Temptation?”
Some hours later, after downing a few drinks, and being happily groped, both Al and Sai were singing loudly and off key to the song that was playing as they left.
“This is beginning to feel good, watching you squirm in your shoes, a small bead of sweat on your brow, and a growl in your belly you’re scared to let through…”
They both stopped.
Sai slurred, “D’ya know the rest of the song?”
Al, having almost fallen, was looking down her very high and expensive shoes.
“Um, something, something, loving. Er, blah blah soul,” she stumbled, “Ugh, whatever.”
Legs laughingly helped them into the car, and soon Sai was snoring in the back of the car. Al was fiddling with the window control, humming and shifting around in her seat. Legs was intently driving, with some low jazz playing.
“I had so much fun, sis,” Al said, a wide grin on her face.
Legs had a answering smile, “I’m glad you did Algae. Now to get you lightweights home!”
The rest of the drive was a blur, she vaguely remembered making a stop, and then before she knew it, she was home. She stumbled out and just barely made it up her stairs and into her apartment. She pushed a grumpy Charlie off the chair and fell asleep. She began to snore loudly and would have half remembered dreams in which she would wake up crying.
The next day, after a hot bath and a cup of Mattie’s coffee, which was a serious break with tradition, she went down to the shop to work on some cars and catch up with some paperwork. She had completed most of her work when she heard distant banging. She got up to investigate. Most people knew that when she was closed, she was closed. No amount of pleading could get her to open up, (however it was a well known secret that anything chocolate could do it). When she opened the door she was unpleasantly surprised.
“Oh,” she snarled, “it’s you.”
Nunzio smirked and handed her the beautiful potted flowers, her favorite flowers, orchids that smelled deliciously of chocolate. It was hard to stay grumpy at him then. Still she could pretend to be grumpy with the best of them.
“What do you want, Nunzio,” she said as she walked back to her little office.
“Al, all I want is to try again,” before she could protest he clarified, “not as lovers, although I would love that, but as friends. Just friends. Please give me a chance, tesoro.”
When they reached her office, Al took a big breath and turned around.
“Guys are assholes. I mean, really huge, gigantic, assholes. I must be an idiot for even contemplating this but,” she studied him from a moment, then continued, “but I want to trust you. You can have a trial run, but any funny business and you are out of my life for good.”
He nodded, made to embrace her but seeing her face, just stuck out his hands instead. All the while, Al was not thinking about how she was going to use Nunzio to get back at Sam, oh no, she was not thinking that at all.
For the next three weeks or so, Al happily aloud Nunzio to follow her around much to the amusement of her sisters. She treated him a little badly at first, making him her errand boy, but at the quite moments, when they were watching a bad movie at her apartment or having cookie dough fights, he was less and less like a joke, and more and more like a best friend. It was frighteningly easy to go back to how they were, invading each other’s personal space, tell jokes that only classical music artist got, and finishing each other sentences. One night after a perfect day of walking Charlie though the park and spending all day at Mattie’s, they sprawled on the couch, drinking beers and taking about there old crew.
“So Isabella comes into the room and we’re all naked and she says, in this deadpan voice, ‘I hope you at least remember the notes this time,’ and I swear, we were laughing about that for days,” Nunzio finished, and had Al rolling all over the place laughing. Tears were streaming down her face and she was snorting. When she was finally done she said, “That does sound like something that you guys would do.”
Some how she found herself with her head in his lap, Nunzio gently stroking her hair. He was humming some song to her, low and soothing, and she found herself drifting off to sleep. When she woke up the next day Nunzio was gone, she had both a blanket and Charlie on her and a crick in her next. After a spine popping stretch she made her way to the bathroom grumbling about her neck. She threw open her bathroom door and saw something that almost made her eyes pop out of her eyes. There Nunzio stood in all his naked glory. He was all wet, and she couldn’t quite stop her eyes from following a trail of water as it slid down his yummy chest down to his… He coughed and her eyes shot up into his amused face and she felt like her whole face was on fire. As she hightailed it out of the bathroom she heard, “If you wanted to join me all you had to do was ask.”
After washing up quickly in the garage bathroom where she kept a few emergency supplies, she finally felt able to deal with Nunzio, beside Charlie wasn’t going to walk himself. When she went back up he was sitting at her table with a small smile on his face.
“We are not going to talk about this. We are going to walk Charlie, get some breakfast and not talk about this, okay,” she said, going slightly pink and the amused expression on his face. They went out, talking and laughing, being silly and generally making a nuisance of themselves. By the time they got back home, Al’s sides hurt from laughing so hard.
“It is time for me to go home, Algeria, but I will call you tonight,” he said, pulling her hand out and kissing the top of it. She grinned and before she could analyze her actions, she kissed him quickly on the mouth. It was very chaste, and made her feel warm all over.
“Okay,” she grinned, pulling Charlie into the house, “bye.”
Of course as soon as she got into the house she had to call her sisters. Legs was mostly supportive, “Well you where kinda drying up down there, but if he fucks up, I know people,” and Sai was her usual sweet self, “You like him, he likes you, maybe before you guys were just to young.”
She was had to admit that she was a little torn, she wanted him in her life, but she didn’t know if she wanted him as a friend or as a lover. And despite the current circumstance she found herself in, a part of her was still waiting on Samuel. The want to see him faded a little each day, but it was still there, she was afraid that it would never go away. Still she put those deep thoughts behind her, worked on some paperwork, tinkered with some cars, and did a little cleaning. By the time she was done she was exhausted and more then a little dirty. After a quick shower, she had a beer and was definitely not waiting for the phone to ring. When he did finally call she jumped up so fast that she went sprawling to the ground. Of course Charlie took this as an invitation to lick her face and any parts of her that he could reach. By the time she got to the phone she was bruised and damp. She was a little grumpy, but just hearing his voice made the trip to get to the phone almost worth it, just to hear him laugh when she told him the story. The call ended with him inviting her out to a movie, and her being a giant dork all over her house. With the exception of one minor (really major) hiccup, things weren’t too bad. She wasn’t exactly happy happy, but she was getting there. That’s the reason she should have known that soon thing would got to shit. Her luck just wasn’t that good.