Unsuitable Obsession - Part One (16 page)

First kid, swing! Missed! Another swing! Missed
again! Another, and another, swing, swing, swing! Miss, miss, miss.
Gee, Hector is good
,
Amber thought. Two
more kids, two more misses, five more kids, five more misses.
This is turning out to be good.
Finally, after the twentieth
child, it was Adrian’s turn, the Birthday Boy. Amber tied the
bandanna around his head to cover his eyes and got out of the way.
Adrian was a good baseball player and she knew he would have an
accurate swing. One swing was all it took and the piñata burst open
with the kids all darting towards the cascading candy falling from
the sky.

Amber felt another contraction.
Oh no, not
again!
She ambled back into the house and tried to disguise her
pang as she pushed on into the den; she laid her head against the
wall and closed her eyes and waited patiently for the tightening to
recede.
You can do this Amber, you can, you have to…It’s for
Adrian, it’s his day…you can wait to have this baby until The White
Ranger comes…you can wait…please wait baby, please wait…

“You OK?”

Amber reopened her eyes—what a surprise, her
brother-in-law was worried about her and followed her into the den.
How nice of him to be so concerned.

Eduardo went to reach for her but stopped short. He
couldn’t stand to see her in so much pain.

Inches apart, their eyes embraced. He didn’t touch
her; he didn’t dare. What the hell was wrong with him and what kind
of carnal pervert was he anyway? Even when she was about to give
birth he was
still
sexually attracted to her?

“Yah—I,” Amber tried to find the words, “Had another
contraction.”

“Maybe you should sit down, I’ll go get Victor,”
Eduardo expressed turning the corner.

“Eduardo!” Amber yelled at him bringing him back
into view.

“What?” Eduardo asked with baited breath.

Amber grabbed hold of the allusion in his eyes,
mouthed out the words ‘
thank you’
and Eduardo noted it, gave
her one of his amazing half grins and sprinted back around the
corner.

Amber tried to calm herself down; the mixed emotions
were driving her crazy. Lust and strong muscle contractions
do…
not… mix!
She practiced her breathing once more when she heard
the earsplitting screaming of youngsters from the backyard. The
next thing she heard was Adrian running around the house calling
out her name.

“Mom!… Mom!
MOM!
Where are you? MOM!”

“I’m in here!” Amber screamed back at him.

“Mom, Mom! The White Ranger is here! The White
Ranger! Thanks Mom thanks!” Adrian gave Amber a big hug and kisses
and then ran back outside.

Amber closed her eyes again.
There… it’s done…My
son is happy; I can have this baby now
. And just when she
allowed herself to relax, her water broke.

Victor rushed in from behind the corner and spotted
the water on the floor. “Now?” He asked anxiously.

“Now.”
Oh God, not now!

Lust Makes You Do Foolish Things

After Valentina was born, routines halted. Victor
and Amber were much too busy to be driving over to The Family’s
house every Friday night, Eduardo and Leticia were busy too with
their little girl, Kyra. The two girls were born weeks apart from
one another and drawn out hours turned into days and weeks, and the
weeks turned into months of predictable days of diapers, bottles,
powder, and lotion, spit up, bibs, pacifiers, crying and restless
evenings.

Amber dragged herself away from the crib. Up late
one night, Valentina had been crying mercilessly with a stuffy
nose. It was Amber’s shift, Victor had already given the baby six
hours of his attention and Amber told him to lie down already. He
was a good father, just like she thought. Beyond the call of duty
father and just as he had been a doting husband, he was just as
equally giving to the children. And oh how he loved his new
chestnut-haired baby girl! Cooing at her, kissing and holding her
constantly. If he wasn’t Valentina’s birth father, she would have
to take him in for questioning.

Amber walked through the dark house, not switching
on any lights; it was that kinda night, nothing bright, please. She
sat herself down on the couch and wanted to go to sleep, but
couldn’t. Her endometriosis was getting serious. Every three months
she would miss menstruation. Her condition becoming so severe she
suffered terrible stomach cramps. Her period was extreme that
night, the pain bringing her to her knees. Now that she had her
second child, her gynecologist suggested that she should seriously
consider having a hysterectomy. But that important operation was
not on her mind, something else had consumed her.

Amber sat on the couch and began to cry. Sobs so
hard, she had to shove a pillow in her face to muffle away the
sound.
God I miss him...How could I have let this happen? I’m in
love with him…I’m in love with Eduardo…What do I do? How can I stop
this? Do I wanna stop this? Oh God I want to see him so bad…How do
I see him without making it obvious? The Sanchez house…I would have
to see him at family gatherings…Thank God for family events…I could
see him out in the open and no one would ever know that I was in
love with him…But how do I get myself over there? How do I invite
myself over to the Sanchez house? Would he be there? How do I get
him there? God, I think I’m gonna have to wait till another
holiday, when’s the next one? Fourth of July? Will he be there? He
should be. Oh God, this is absolutely insane, INSANE! In love with
your brother-in-law. This is terrible, taboo and unforgivable. No
one would ever understand. And oh God, Victor’s so good to me, so
thoughtful all the time, so caring. It would devastate him if he
ever found out, trusting in me. Trust, what’s that? Oh God, how
could I have let this happen? This is so wrong. All I want to do is
be with him. In the same room, same area, same anything…

Amber suddenly had the stupidest idea; she was going
to call their house. One o’clock in the morning, and she was going
to ask for Leticia. Confide in her about the baby and how it was so
strenuous to put her to sleep and if Leticia was having the same
problem with Kyra...and if...and if he was there (she knew he would
be) and maybe...maybe he would be the one to answer the phone, she
could talk to him? Ask him sort of matter-of-factly if they were
going to the house for the Fourth of July? That would be OK,
wouldn’t it? She could pull that off, couldn’t she?

Amber walked over to the phone and stared at it for
a long second. Lost in her tears, her drowsiness, she dialed their
phone number. Wiping away her tears she cleared her nose with a
tissue. One ring, she was getting nervous. Two rings, Eduardo
answered.

“Hello?”

His voice was clear, he wasn’t asleep. What was he
doing up at one o’clock in the morning? Was Kyra up all night as
well? Was he as delirious as she was? Amber hung up the phone and
started to cry again, anguish so deep, she slid to the floor with
the phone in her lap. Suddenly, it rang on its own. She answered it
immediately. “...Hello?”

“Amber?” Eduardo asked curiously, “Is that you?”

Amber was still on the floor. Good Lord, should she
tell him? Should she confess her love for him? “Eduardo—I’m
sorry...I wanted…I wanted to speak to Leticia, but I realize it’s
late, I’m sorry.” She was about to hang up, but Eduardo kept
talking.

“What’s wrong Amber? You sound like you’ve been
crying. Is it my brother? Did he hurt you?”

Why would he think Victor would hurt her? Victor
couldn’t hurt a fly! “No…I, no...I was just up all night with
Valentina, she’s had a cold.”

“Yah, Kyra was sick last week, I think it’s going
around.”

Then suddenly, she didn’t care to talk to Leticia
anymore. She just wanted to talk to Eduardo, continue to talk to
him period. He is whom she wanted in the first place, never mind
about her sister-in-law!

“Amber, you still there?”

“Yes.”

“Amber, get some sleep, it’s late.”

“Eduardo?”

“Yes?”

“Are you...are you going to your Mom’s house for
Fourth of July?”

Eduardo hesitated, “No, my firm is sending me out of
town to settle a case, but Leticia and Kyra are going, why?”

Tears fell from Amber’s eyes. That was
not
what she wanted to hear! But keep him on the phone Amber—don’t let
him get away! “What are you doing up so late? You don’t sound like
you’ve been sleeping.”

Eduardo could still hear the moisture in her voice,
“I haven’t been sleeping at all lately.”

The line goes quiet. A confession of some sorts—what
was he trying to say?

“Me either,” she confessed as well.

“My job is tough.”

Figures, why would he be sleepless because of her?
“I bet.”

“The media—the constant battle of trying to upscale
our cases.”

“I can imagine. I’m still having problems with my
attorney. I can’t do anything right by him. My work is never good
enough.”

“Well, we can get a little annoying at times,” he
laughed.

“You think?” She gives to him, chuckling as
well.

“Why don’t you find another job? You’re constantly
complaining about one or more associates there; you don’t get any
respect Amber. You should look somewhere else.”

“Yah, it’s just that easy,” Amber smiled, and then
suddenly dropped when she squinted in the darkness to see her
husband filling the doorway. “I have to go now.”

“OK...goodnight then, get some sleep.”

Amber hung up the line and walked over to
Victor.

“Who were you talking to?” Victor asked questioning
her acting peculiar.

It was the first time Amber ever felt guilty. All
her flirting had been a game, a test of sorts to see how much she
could get Eduardo’s attention, and now she felt she had been caught
in the act of sex. “Eduardo,” she acknowledged.

“Why did Eduardo call?”

“Oh—he didn’t—I did, at first, I was calling
Leticia. She wasn’t up; Eduardo answered the phone, so we started
talking about work.” Amber felt herself gasping for breath. She
didn’t want to hurt Victor, and this was truly the first time she
felt like she had.

“Oh,” he gave out, turning around and walking back
to bed.

Oh?
Amber thought, letting out a sigh of
relief.
Just oh?

There’s that acceptance thing again, that bizarre
tolerance that walked hand-in-hand with The Title.
Sister-in-law
slash
Brother-in-law
upmost and always.
That instantaneous fondness that supposed to be present the moment
you put that wedding ring on your finger. That risk-free partiality
that’s there for every in-law, free of charge.

Torment Is All The Rage

Eduardo tapped his gold-tipped pen speedily on top
of the binders he was working on.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap!

The weightless eerie sound surrounded the barely lit
room. It was nearing three o’clock in the morning and he had still
been working. Not because he was forced with the drudgery, but
simply couldn’t sleep. His mind raced with thoughts of Amber
again…How to be near her, how to get her to his parents home. She
called the house? What for? She was still up late? Why? She said
she wanted to talk to Leticia first, but then decided to talk to
him. She asked if
he
was going to his parent’s home for
Fourth of July. Did she want to know about him exclusively, or was
it collectively? Valentina was sick, was it true? He only offered
that Kyra was sick because he simply wanted to keep her on the
Goddamn
phone! Good God this was getting bad. He really had
to get it under control. Constantly worrying about her, wanting to
be adjacent to her, the feeling was so tremendous, what could he
do? Restrain himself and keep his distance, be preoccupied for
once. Dive into work, achieve another goal. What goal? Find one
dammit
, and find one fast.

He opened up a law book, read just a few words then
gazed over at the phone again. Could he call her? Would she still
be up? Why did she hang the phone up so quickly? Was Victor there?
Victor was there, he realized, shutting his eyes. Good God what was
he doing? Panting over his sister-in-law; how truly egotistical of
him and how utterly disgusting.

Fatigue was getting to him now, as he closed his
eyes in heartache. Instantly feeling Amber’s arms around his
shoulders; small caresses inching their way down around his chest.
It was a sensual feeling, it was exhilarating...it was
real.

It was Leticia.

Eduardo grabbed her hand and whipped his body around
in the chair. Leticia looked at him cautiously at first and
wondered what he was about to say. Eduardo began to mouth out the
words
stop
but fell short of doing so. She reached over and
took his face within her hands and gently kissed him on his lips.
He didn’t kiss her back and she instantly withdrew her hands from
feeling unwelcome.

Eduardo stood up; she backed herself into the wall.
He simply stared at her. What does she want now? What
else
does she want?

Leticia was breathless and eyed his body up and
down. Eduardo was practically naked under his silk robe, wearing
only his boxers and a frown. By the look in her eyes he knows what
she wants, but is he prepared to give it to her? Knowing full well
they could get pregnant again? Does he want another child with this
woman, when he really couldn’t stand the sight of her?

But Eduardo was prepared though, having been a
bachelor most of his life and carried several packets of condoms in
his desk no less. It had been almost a year since he had sex and he
was loaded. He wanted to feel Amber so much; all he wanted to do
now was clearly handle skin. He didn’t dare kiss her on her lips,
kissing on the lips was far too intimate for him, and all he wanted
from Leticia now was intercourse. He began slowly breathing on her
neck, softly at first, then sensually diving down to the tips of
her breasts and nipples. She was more than willing this time he had
her, it was what she wanted and hunted him out for. He pushed her
body up against the wall, caressed and kneaded her small mounds in
his mouth. She grabbed onto his hair and tried to pull his face up
to her lips, but he didn’t budge.