“You’re just gonna be working again, right?”
“Yeah, sorry. I had an idea for a piece. Wanted to at least get a start on something, see where it goes. We could do something after that if you wanted to stick around.”
I smiled to myself. “Ky, I know you have difficulty with time, just generally, but you know you’re gonna be hours before you come up for air again, right?”
“I… well… but…” Kylie turned and offered an apologetic expression. “You’re probably right. Sorry.”
“No worries. It was nice to hang out a bit anyway.” I nodded at the canvas. “What’s it gonna be?”
“A sexy pirate ship.”
“A sexy… pirate ship? Like, with naked ladies on it?”
“No, silly. The ship is sexy. Not the crew.”
“Oh. So it’s got boobies?”
Kylie laughed melodically and shook her head. “It’s a good thing you never tried to be an artist, Ty. You just don’t get these things.”
“I’d like to be offended by that, but you’re basically correct. I truly do not get a lot of this stuff.”
She turned back to her unstarted painting, still picturing things in her head. I watched a moment, and was just about to leave when she called out again.
“Hey, Ty?”
“Yeah?”
Kylie said nothing, but reached down and flipped up the back of her shirt, giving me a quick, tantalizing flash of what lay beneath.
“Pain in the ass,” I said loud enough for her to hear.
She giggled like a school girl.
I had to drive home with that last image of my sister’s butt stuck in my head.
****
Kylie texted me about a week later. I immediately assumed that something was wrong, but she assured me that everything was fine, she just wanted to take me up on my offer for clothes shopping after all. I continued to assume something was wrong.
I drove to Kylie’s place right after work, still questioning what could have possessed her to seek out human contact. It couldn’t just have been a whim. She wasn’t good at those, unless they involved paint.
“Ok, what’s wrong?” I asked as I barged in to Kylie’s studio.
She gave me an annoyed look and kept working for a moment. She had on a long button-up shirt, with panties flashing from beneath when she stretched. It was modest enough clothing for her that I didn’t give the outfit a second thought.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Kylie said.
“You texted me.”
“I’m allowed.”
“Out of nowhere. To do a thing. In public.”
Kylie glared at me, then relented. “Fine. I need pants.”
“You need… pants?”
“Yeah. I need more. I only have one good pair left.”
“What do you mean ‘left?'”
“I mean I had two pairs with hardly any paint on them, and then…”
Kylie grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor and held them up. She poked a finger at the crotch and it went right through. One of her ‘good pairs’ of pants had worn out to the point that unsightly holes were developing. That sounded about right.
“Ah,” I said. “I see. So it was something.”
“Yes, alright. I didn’t just decide I wanted to go shopping with you, ok?”
“Very ok, actually. I’m much happier knowing you’re just being pragmatic and not spontaneous. You had me worried there.”
“Laugh it up. Let me know when you’re done.”