Chapter 3
"Well sure, plenty," I admitted. "But my first question is... where is your accent from? I've been trying the whole trip to place it and I can't, it's driving me crazy."
She giggled and smiled at me. "You like it? I've sort of developed it over the years, it's a reflection of all the places I've lived. I like to think it's completely unique and no one else in the world sounds quite like me."
"No argument there," I muttered. "You had me stumped. I guess we'll just have to call it 'Alexandrian', right?"
Her eyes lit up. "I love it! Why did I never think of that?"
"Ol' Alex here is quite the linguist himself," my dad said, grinning in the rear-view mirror. "He's actually majoring in poly-sci and language studies at the university."
I'm not sure I'd ever seen anyone look more delight than my aunt did right at that moment and I'm pretty sure I nearly fainted dead away at the sight of her. Somehow I stayed vertical and she clapped her hands together in approval.
"Wonderful!" she exclaimed. It'll be great to have someone to practice languages with! I was so nervous to be coming home, but now I feel much better!"
Be still, my beating heart...
***
Dad and I were walking in behind mom and my aunt, with us carrying the mountains of baggage she'd brought up the steps. I did my level best to not get caught staring at her incredible behind, which seemed to be poured into her jeans.
That or her jeans were painted on. Either way, I was totally mesmerized as I walked behind her and very nearly caused a collision when my mother suddenly came to a stop at the front of our little baggage train.
"Gentlemen," she declared as she fished out her keys. "Get her suitcases up to her room while I get my sister settled in."
Her room.
Even though I was newly enthralled of my aunt, hearing my room referred to in those terms still stung a little. I chose to ignore it and followed them into the house. Mom brought her into the kitchen to open some wine while dad led the charge up the stairs.
"C'mon, Alex!" he laughed. "One trip or death!"
I struggled up after him,trying not to mutter loudly. In spite of my dad being an egghead and a professor, he was also a large and athletic man with a strong build. My mother always poked fun at him for having a sexy brain inside a Venice Beach body. She didn't mean it, of course, since she was constantly talking to her female friends about what good 'breeding stock' he was.
And I'm not small either, to be honest. I'm just over six feet tall and I have a swimmer's build, whereas my dad looked more like a surfer-bodybuilder. He always cheerfully told me there was still plenty of time for me to grow into my brain. In a weird way, that was comforting coming from him.
We put everything down on the floor and then headed back to join my mom and aunt in the kitchen. They were leaning against the island, laughing and drinking red wine. Mom smiled more brightly than I had seen her do in ages and beckoned us in. she filled two more glasses and gave us each one.
"To a family reunited!" she declared, holding her glass up. "We will miss those who cannot be with us, but we'll honour them by being the best family ever!"
We all agreed and clinked glasses before taking a drink. Aunt Alexandra smiled and laughed. "It'll take some getting used to, remembering that I'm only recently legal to drink here. Back ho- I mean, back in Europe, drinking wine even as a young teen was hardly taboo."
My mom smiled and put an gentle hand on her younger sister's shoulder. "There'll be time for everything, I promise. And you might need that time, just to equate to life here in the colonies. Of all the amazing places you've lived, where you were born wasn't one of them."
"True," my aunt admitted. "Not to mention there's a lot of photo albums that need updating and amalgamating."
"I've got a really immediate question." I interjected. "How're we gonna distinguish between who's being spoken to? We both respond to 'Alex', right?"
"Hm, hadn't really thought of that in all the hustle and kerfuffle," my mom said, getting pensive. "What if your father and I just called you by your full name all the time?"
"Pass." I said flatly, causing my aunt to giggle.
"But she had the name first," my dad said, determined to give me a hard time, apparently. "Not exactly fair to let an interloper like you just come in and-"
"Dear, please," my mother said, shooting him a look. "Why do you always choose to be a part of the problem instead of the solution?"
"Well, I'd hate to deprive my nephew of his identity," my aunt said, smiling at me and making my knees tremble. "That sounds so weird, calling you my nephew. You're less than a year younger than me."
"I know," I agreed. "I'm still trying to wrap my brain around you somehow being my aunt. It makes absolutely no sense to me."
"Cognitive dissonance," she said, nodding. "Well, since you and I are the ones at issue, what do you think we should do about it?"
I looked into my wine glass and swirled the ruby-red liquid around for a moment, thinking hard. "Well, what if we called you 'Alexa'?"
She thought about the name and mouthed it silently, as if she was tasting it. She then smiled beautifully and nodded. "I love it. Okay, it's settled. You're Alex, I'm Alexa. And for the love of God, please do not call me 'Aunt Alexa', because I'm pretty sure I'll expire on the spot."
I laughed. "I promise, Alexa."
We all raised our glasses and welcomed Alexa, who'd finally come home.
***
"Okay, so here's the room," I said as we walked into what used to be my bedroom and turned on the light. "I've already evacuated everything I need down to the basement. Uh, let me show you were the wall sockets are."
I walked her around the room, showing her the places where she could plug in her devices and she made note of how many adapters she would need, since her devices were European. Once I was done, she sat on the bed and sighed happily, smiling at me.
"I really appreciate everything you've done," she said, her voice smooth as butter in my ears. "It means a lot to me."
I shrugged. "Well, I'm happy too, but I didn't really do anything. To be honest, I was initially pretty surly about having to give up my room to someone I didn't know, especially since I wasn't consulted. But, well, since I've gotten to know you a little better, I can't really say that I mind and I'm happy to do it."
"And I really do appreciate it, Alex!" she sighed, standing up and hugging me. I must have frozen for at least an instant as I felt her body press to mine, but I recovered quickly and put my hands on her back, holding her. She smelled fantastic, like nothing I'd ever imagined. Her big, soft breasts squashed into my chest but she clearly took no notice of it or minded.