Taking Her Place Read online

  TAKING HER PLACE

  by

  Jean-Luc Cheri

  AMAZON EDITION

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Eradygm Publishing on Amazon

  Taking Her Place

  Copyright © 2016 by Eradygm Publishing

  Amazon Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Note: This story contains sexually explicit material, and is intended only for persons over the age of 18. By downloading and opening this document, you are stating that you are of legal age to access and view this work of fiction. All of the characters involved in the sexual situations in this story are intended to be 18 years of age or older, whether they are explicitly described as such or not.

  Book description:

  An erotic novella

  Eighteen-year-old Beth is still trying to get over the loss of her older sister Cheryl, who died suddenly a year and a half ago. Sharing the loss is Cheryl’s husband Julian, whose perfect life is now in ruins because of his overwhelming grief. Gone is his once-successful career and expensive house, and he’s living in a squalid apartment while working as a stock boy in a grocery store.

  Following her mother’s urgings, Beth visits Julian, and the two form a small bond. As time passes the bond between them becomes stronger and stronger, and the two in-laws realize they’re caring for each other more than they should. Julian begins to turn his life around, and the sexual chemistry sparks between him and Beth.

  Will Beth be able to go the distance and take her sister’s place in Julian’s life? Or will society’s pressures keep them from finding happiness in each other’s arms?

  Contains graphic descriptions of sex. Adults only.

  45,587 words, or 183 standard pages, in length. (Not including supplementary material)

  * * *

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  “I’d rather not,” I told my mom.

  “I’m not asking,” she replied firmly. “Julian is still a part of our family.”

  “He’s so weird now. Completely different than he used to be. I’m not comfortable around him.”

  From her expression, it was clear she was disappointed in me. “Beth, Cheryl’s only been gone for a year and a half. They were in love. Have a little compassion. Unless you’ve experienced it, you don’t know what he’s going through.”

  I frowned. “I did go through it. She was my sister. I grieved too.”

  “As did I. But it’s not the same. She was his wife. They had their entire lives to be together. Cheryl was pregnant, and they were planning on having more children after that. And then to have that all ripped away in a single moment. I’m surprised he’s doing as well as he is.”

  “But he’s not doing well at all. He got fired from his accounting job, and now he’s stocking shelves at the grocery store. He lost their house, and his apartment is a messy shit hole with trash everywhere. And have you seen him lately? I hardly recognize him. He doesn’t shave, he’s gained weight, and I don’t think he’s had a haircut since Cheryl died. Not to mention he smells like alcohol all the time.”

  “He’s still recovering. It takes time. But right now he needs our help the most. We’re his family. We can’t turn our backs on him.” Her voice softened. “Beth, think about it. Cheryl would want us to help him. If not for him, do it for her. Please?”

  I sighed, realizing I had no argument against my mother’s trump card. She knew exactly where to stick in the knife of guilt and twist it.

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll visit him. But I’m not staying long.”

  She smiled softly. “Thank you.” She glanced at the clock. “You’d better take your shower and go over there, he’s leaving for work in a few hours.”

  I rolled my eyes and left the kitchen, heading through the living room towards the stairs. But I stopped at the mantle and stared at the large framed photo hanging on the wall over it.

  It was a picture of my sister and me, taken at a professional studio almost six years ago. I’d been twelve at the time, and Cheryl was eighteen, my current age. Her long, curly dark locks spilled down over her shoulders, just like mine did now. But my hair in the photo was much shorter and goofy looking – one of our mom’s home jobs.

  I stared at my sister’s face. It was almost like looking in a mirror. We had the same features – full lips, small noses turned up at the end, blue eyes, and high cheekbones. She’d been a cheerleader in high school, and so had I. We’d both been on the swim team, and we’d both dated the most popular guys.

  Popular guys like Julian, who’d been the quarterback of the football team. They started dating in their senior year, and were together ever since, going to the same college and then getting married a year after graduation. He parlayed his football scholarship into an Accounting degree, and was hired by one of the top firms in the city. His future was set – great job, beautiful wife, nice house in the better part of town, and a baby on the way. Then the unthinkable happened.

  The accident occurred less than a mile from their house. She was driving home from getting a sonogram at her obstetrician’s office, when a teenage girl swerved into her lane and hit her SUV head-on. Cheryl died instantly, and it was determined later that the girl had been texting while driving. The sonogram photo was found in the wreckage, and was placed in Cheryl’s hands as she lay in her casket.

  “Beth, I told you to take a shower. Stop delaying.”

  I turned from the picture to see my mom standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

  “I miss her,” I said softly.

  “So do I, honey,” she replied. “So do I.”

  Chapter 2

  I pulled my car into the parking lot of Julian’s apartment building. It was an ugly-looking place that’d been built out of concrete and brick. It might’ve been okay when it was new back in the Seventies, but now it was just tired and worn. Several abandoned cars sat in the parking lot, and the once grass-lined walkways were now surrounded by dirt.

  I couldn’t help but compare it to the house that Julian had bought with the bonus his company had given him for signing on with them. It was like something out a home and garden magazine, with vaulted ceilings and curved staircases. My favorite part had been the beautiful blue pool in the back, with its very own waterfall. My sis
ter had hosted several family summer picnics back there, and my cousins and younger brothers had so much fun in the water.

  Julian’s company had been understanding when Cheryl died, giving him time off to grieve. They even forgave how he showed up for work a few times smelling like beer, or how he let his appearance slide, only shaving when he felt like it, and putting on weight so that his expensive suits no longer fit him properly.

  The straw that broke the camel’s back was when one of the firm’s more exclusive clients showed up for a meeting with his teenage daughter in tow. The girl sat at the other end of the long conference room table focused on her smart phone as Julian went over the details of her father’s account.

  Then, out of nowhere, Julian began berating the sixteen-year-old, telling her that she was rude and inconsiderate for texting when she should be focused on more important things. When he called the tearful young girl a ‘selfish little cunt’, her father had had enough, and his large right fist knocked Julian unconscious with one punch.

  When Julian woke up, he was out of a job, and a few months later he was also out of a house, having to move into this dump of an apartment after accepting a bagger and stockboy position at the local Krogers.

  After exiting my car and making double sure it was locked, I went up the walk to the apartment entrance. Last time I was here, the buzzer wasn’t working, but the front door wasn’t locked. I pushed on the door and it swung open. Nice security.

  The elevator didn’t have an ‘Out of Order’ sign on it like it usually did, but I took the stairs anyway. Even when it was working, the elevator made all kinds of weird noises, and I got the feeling it was going to crash into the basement at any moment.

  I exited the stairwell on the third floor, and headed down the hallway to my brother-in-law’s apartment. There was a new stain on the decades-old carpet, and I convinced myself it was grape juice and not blood. When I got to his door, I didn’t even try the doorbell, and instead knocked on the wood.

  I waited. When the door didn’t open after a minute, I knocked harder.

  “I’m coming,” came Julian’s growl from inside. A second later the door opened.

  “What the fuck do you wa–” Julian said, then stopped when he saw it was me. He seemed confused for a moment, then said, “Beth?”

  “Hey, Julian. How have you been?”

  He blinked and stared at me. He was dressed in a pair of gray gym shorts and white T-shirt. Neither of them looked like they’d been washed recently. His dark hair was down to his shoulders, and he had about a week’s worth of scruffy beard on his face. Gone was the lean and muscular athletic body he’d kept fit since playing football in college, and I guessed he was at least twenty or thirty pounds heavier, with none of the extra weight being muscle.

  “Doing okay,” he said. “Why are you here?”

  “I was driving by, and thought I’d stop and say hello. Can I come in?”

  He glanced behind him. “The place is a mess.”

  Yeah, no kidding. What else is new?

  “I don’t care,” I said. “Just for a few minutes, okay?”

  He sighed and stepped back, pulling the door open wider. I stepped inside, and he closed and locked the door behind me.

  Oh my god, it was even worse than I remembered. There were old pizza and Chinese takeout boxes everywhere, and from the smell of the place, some of them still had food in them. Dirty clothes were strewn about, including some underwear. From the look of the carpet, I wasn’t even sure he owned a vacuum cleaner.

  “Looks like you fixed the place up a little,” I said, my tongue firmly in my cheek.

  He ignored my joke and said, “You want something to drink?”

  Eating or drinking anything was the last thing on my mind while standing in this pigsty.

  “No thanks. I just ate,” I lied.

  “How’s school going?” he asked.

  “I graduated two weeks ago.”

  He seemed puzzled. “Really? I thought you were only a junior.”

  One way to get on a teenage girl’s bad side is to tell her she looks younger than she is. I bristled. “Yeah, a year ago. Maybe you just weren’t paying attention.”

  “I’m sorry, I…” His voice trailed off, and he seemed to lose track of whatever thought he had. I had a flashback to one of our family gatherings – Christmas, I think – where we were sitting around the kitchen table playing Trivial Pursuit. It was obvious that Julian was the smartest of us all, winning every game and seeming to know every answer, regardless of the subject. I couldn’t believe it was the same guy standing in front of me, fumbling for words and trying to maintain a coherent thought.

  I felt my anger flare. “Just stop it!”

  He stared at me in surprise. “What?”

  “Just stop it. All of this. You’re better than this.”

  He seemed confused. “Beth, are you angry at me?”

  “She’s dead.”

  He stared at me. “I loved her so much.”

  “So did I. But she’s not coming back. Never.”

  I watched as his eyes welled with tears.

  “I can’t help it,” he said.

  “Do you think she’d want this? You living like this? You’re not even you anymore. You need to fix this.”

  Tears ran down both of his cheeks. “I can’t.”

  “Yes you can! Just stop acting like this! I want the old Julian back!”

  He stared at me for another long moment, then said, “I have to take a shower before going to work. Make sure you lock the door on your way out.”

  With that, he turned and walked away, heading down the hallway. A moment later, I heard the bathroom door close and lock, and the water come on.

  I stood there clenching my fists, the anger flowing through me. What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just get over her? The rest of the family has finally put it behind them, why couldn’t he?

  Yeah, it hurt me too. It took me six months before I stopped thinking about Cheryl all the time. I thought about her when I woke up, hoping it’d just been a bad dream that she was gone. I thought about her all day, when little things would remind me, like seeing the heart necklace she’d given me on my sixteenth birthday, or when I put on my favorite perfume, which was her favorite too. I thought about her at night while I drifted off to sleep, wishing I had one more moment with her, so I could tell her how much I loved her.

  I realized I was crying too, and as I stood in my brother-in-law’s apartment, I felt my heart melting. All of my anger for him was gone, replaced by understanding. He’d loved her more than any of us, so it was natural it would take him longer to get over her.

  I decided it would be my mission to help him. I wasn’t sure how I could do that, but the first step was staring me right in the face. I knew what I had to do.

  It took me a few minutes of searching to find it – a spare key to the apartment. Then I looked through all the rooms, deciding what I would need. Then I slipped out as I heard him finishing in the shower, making sure I locked the door as I left.

  Chapter 3

  I came back the next morning, after making a stop at the store and picking up a few items. I was wearing my grungiest old clothes, and knew I had almost the entire day to get this done, because Mom had told me Julian would be at work all day.

  Sliding the spare key into the door, I was afraid it wouldn’t work and my plans would be thwarted, but the lock clicked open and the door swung into the room. Sweet!

  I began to work, placing the smelly boxes into garbage bags. It took numerous trips down to the dumpster to get rid of them, and then I turned to cleaning. It turned out he did have a vacuum cleaner hiding in the corner of a closet, and I used it to suck up god knows what was embedded in his carpets.

  I worked my way through the rooms, doing my best to make each of them clean. After gathering up all of his clothes, I took them down to the laundry room and put them in washers, leaving them there as I went back up to continue cleaning. When I
returned, I was afraid the clothes had been stolen, but I guess no one thought they were worth it. I put them in the dryers and headed back upstairs.

  It was now afternoon, and the place was looking a lot better. I scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floors, then went back down to get the dried clothes. Then I pulled the bedding off his bed, and took that down to the laundry. Looking at the clock, I saw I only had a few hours before he was due home. I was hungry, but pushed that aside and focused on my remaining tasks.

  After putting away and hanging up his clothes, I went down to the laundry and moved the bedding to the dryers, then came back up to dust the furniture. Yes, the place was looking very livable now. It was nice enough that he could bring a girl home with him if he wanted.

  That thought disturbed me for some reason. It was hard to imagine Julian with any other girl than my sister. They just belonged together. I knew he’d dated a ton of girls before he and Cheryl hooked up, but once they did, it was obvious they were meant for each other.

  So no, the thought of him in this bed with some strange woman wasn’t something that made me happy. It occurred to me that if I did help him get over my sister, the natural result of that would be him eventually finding someone new. Maybe I was doing the wrong thing?

  No. He deserved to be happy. And if he found that happiness with someone other than Cheryl, then I had to live with that.

  After I retrieved the bedding from the dryers, I hauled them back upstairs and began to put them on the bed. But as I reached under the mattress to get the fitted sheet on, my fingers bumped into something.

  Curious, I reached underneath, and stared in surprise as I pulled out a small stack of porn magazines.