The Dragon’s E-Mail Order Menage

 Trouble or not, she defied anyone to say that the two of them did not look regal that way. They could have put the characters of Austen and Brontë to shame. She smiled, having learned long ago that it was important not to take the small pleasures of life for granted. Sometimes accumulating those small pleasures was the best, or maybe only, way to be happy.

***

“Well, you sure do like to make a mess of things, don’t you?”

“Just put the dishes down by the sink, Cali. Maybe go and check if there are any stragglers in there.”

“I already checked, Maggie. I know how to clear a dinner table. I’m usually the one who does it, after all.”

Maggie, thankfully facing the dark window that overlooked the vast family property and therefore not fully visible to her sister, bit her lip, willing herself not to speak the things that immediately came flying through her head. She had a quick wit and a quicker tongue and, coupled with the fiery temper of the Irish, she could really do some damage. But she didn’t want that.

 This was her sister, for god’s sake, and she had the vaguest memories of times when the two of them had been close. Or maybe not close, but a hell of a lot closer than they were now. She really wasn’t aiming to get into some kind of a knock-down drag-out with her now over… over what, exactly? What the hell would they even be fighting about? For the life of her, Maggie couldn’t figure out what had Cali so annoyed, so riled up.

It wasn’t like any of this had a thing to do with her. Sure, maybe Maggie hadn’t pulled her weight quite the way she should have with doing the dishes, but there were chores she had taken care of around the property that Cali would never have wanted to do. As far as she was concerned it was a tradeoff.

But from the way Cali was talking to her, looking at her, you would think she had killed her dog or something. It was the reproachful look she so often got from her mother, the look that made her want to do something crazy just to get some kind of reaction other than distaste. Instead she just took a deep, slightly shaky breath before turning to face Cali, who was still standing with her hands on her hips and face waiting for an explanation.

“What’s on your mind, Cali?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re standing here looking at me like you want me to answer some kind of a question, I just have no idea what the question is. Believe me, if I knew I would answer it. It would have to be better than doing this.”

“Doing this? Doing what, exactly? Talking to your sister?”

“Are you kidding? Talking to your sister? Is that what you think we’re doing? I’ve got news for you, sweetheart, this isn’t the way people talk. This isn’t a conversation because you aren’t really trying to talk to me. I mean Christ, Cali, this is just your bizarre version of a fight. It’s like the way normal people engage in foreplay.”

“God, Maggie, don’t be gross.”

“Well then why don’t you just come out and say it, already?”

“Say what?”

“I don’t know! That’s the point! I don’t know what you’re thinking, Cali. I have no idea what’s going through your head. All I know is that if I have to get one more judgmental look from you, my head is going to actually blow up. So please, for the love of god, could you just say whatever it is you need to say?”

“You! You’re just so selfish, so blind it makes me want to puke. There, I said it. Feel better now?”

By this time, the two girls were facing each other in a combative stance, both sisters’ chests heaving with strangled breath and god only knew how many years of built up resentment. On the one hand, Maggie was floored by the venom dripping from Cali’s words, stunned and wondering where exactly that had come from.

On the other hand, though, the one that was far more honest and much less attractive, she wasn’t surprised. This had been a long time coming for the two of them. At least now it was going to be out in the open, something they would really talk about instead of dance around in some sick imitation of a ballroom dance.

“You’re jealous.”

“Excuse me?”

Her sister’s response was spoken in low, menacing tones that would have made most people think twice about continuing down their chosen path. That was how Maggie knew she was right. She knew that what she had said was true and that Cali was dangerously jealous of her, she just couldn’t say for what.

Cali was a very pretty girl in her own right and she had none of the baggage that came from being the black sheep. Sure, dating was something she hadn’t had a lot of luck with (she had none of her current fire when she was around a man she might like; on the contrary, she struggled to even speak a full sentence), but that was bound to change. She was still very young. Honestly, they both were.

Still, the fire that had been fueling her dissipated with the realization of her sister’s hurt. It hadn’t ever occurred to her that her perfect sister could want anything that she had. In fact, she could easily have convinced herself that she was crazy and that there was no jealousy there at all, but looking into Cali’s eyes was all she had to do to know that she had been right.

She looked incensed and humiliated all at the same time and she took on the stance of a caged animal with no choice left but to strike. It wasn’t something Maggie was accustomed to seeing in any of her family members. Yes, they had varying personalities as did the members of any other family, but this was not a part of any of them; it was weak, or something very close to weak, and seeing it in her sister made Maggie feel squeamish, uncomfortable the way she would have been back when she was small and walked in on some kind of intimacy she wasn’t supposed to see. The sight of it took the fight right out of her.