An Affair To Remember

Gimme My Caffeine And No One Gets Hurt (Thirty-Two)

Dedicated to Journey64 because that number in her screen name must stand for sixty-four shades of fantabulous ;-D Thank you for being the incredible and warm-hearted person you are. You're the true treasure, darlin'.

Someone would have to vacuum all of the popcorn from the carpet tomorrow, and each woman in the room wondered which one of the others she could cajole into doing it. The majority deemed that they could get Briana to. One, it was her bedroom, therefore, she should be solely responsible for keeping it in order. And two, she was the youngest which meant that she might be the easiest to manipulate. Sure, they felt the slightest bit guilty about planning to manipulate their little sister, but who in their right mind truly wanted to vacuum?

After the quartet finished a rousing game of Monopoly and were just settling in their sleeping bags on the floor to tell ghost stories, Melanie's stomach started to gurgle. The pickle smothered in peanut butter she'd consumed earlier had long been gone. Since Sonny was directly to her left, she slipped a hand out of her sleeping bag and tapped the younger woman on her shoulder. Looking toward her sister quizzically, Sonny remained silent, listening as Melanie asked if she would do her a favor. Slowly nodding, Sonny waited for her to explain what this favor would be and nearly pouted when she found out.

"You mean you're gonna make me go out at," glancing at the clock on the wall, Sonny continued, "nearly two o'clock in the morning because you have a craving for vanilla ice cream and olives? And you're in your ninth month, so aren't you supposed to be over the cravings by now?"

Melanie shook her head. "That doesn't always have to be the case. When I was pregnant with Jayme, I craved until I gave birth to him." She graced her sibling with a super sweet smile, which she knew would be difficult to deny. "Please, Sonny? I can't get it out of my head and it sounds so delicious!" Keeping her eyes riveted to Sonny's, the pregnant blonde ignored the dramatic gagging sounds stemming from Briana and Candace. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't need this treat so very badly." Melanie fluttered her eyelashes for good measure.

Playfully rolling her eyes, Sonny nodded. Reaching toward her, she gently pinched her sister's cheek, a grin showing. "How could I possibly say no to that face?"

Melanie grinned in return. "Thank you, Sonny." Watching her start to extract herself from the sleeping bag, Melanie reminded her to get the green olives, not the black ones.

Quickly nodding as she stood up, Sonny repeated, "Right. Green olives not black ones. I've got it, sis." Her eyes traveled to Briana when she heard the teenager calling her name. "Yes?" she managed to draw out the word as though it had four syllables instead of just the one.

"Could you get me something too?" Briana pasted the most charming smile onto her lips.

"Since I'm apparently the designated store flunky, sure," Sonny good-naturedly replied.

"Awesome. I need tampons. Preferably O.B. because that's my favorite brand." As an afterthought she added, "Oh, and just regular absorbency please. I'm almost done so the flow is very light."

"T.M.I., sweetness," Melanie stated, a slight smile directed toward Briana. "I know we're siblings, but we don't need to know the details of your menstruation cycle."

Looking a bit sheepish, Briana apologized.

Sitting up, Candace crossed her legs as she thoughtfully looked at Melanie. "Oh, but everyone loves to hear how much you adore ice cream and olives, pickles and peanut butter, cottage cheese with Bacon Bits tossed in it...I could go on for days." Candace arched a challenging eyebrow at the pregnant woman. Out of all four sisters, she and Melanie were the most likely to get into an argument. On the occasions that they did argue, most of their disagreements pertained to either Sonny or Briana.