Enticing An Angel by Leo Charles Taylor

but
decided to consider it.
    "Which brother is having a birthday?" she
asked.
    "Joshua, he's turning twenty-five. He's also
the youngest."
    "And he's the one that can't stand women?"
she asked.
    Michael pulled away. "Oh, you'll be fine.
You're not trying to date him, and he wouldn't want to date you.
Besides, my mother will keep him in line."
    Melanie kept her eye on Michael as he began
to massage his neck again.
    "So, why does he hate women?" she asked.
    Michael paused for a second and stared at her
blankly.
    "That's personal," he replied. The levity had
gone out of his face. Melanie didn't buy it and shook her head.
    "Uh, huh," she said. "You see, this is what I
mean. You invite me to your meet your family, drop a bombshell
about a brother hating women, and then say it's personal. That's
not really fair now is it?"
    "I'm not sure I should say. It's his
life."
    Melanie shook her head and came to Michael.
She patted him on the chest while sporting a patronizing smile.
    "Now do you understand why inviting me to
meet your family is a big deal? Is it possible that sometime during
this party I might actually find out why he hates women?"
    Michael opened his mouth to speak and then
quickly shut it again. The movement was comical, but Melanie
refrained from laughing. He was thinking about her words, and she
believed he needed to consider them carefully. After a moment,
Michael hung his head and spoke carefully.
    "Her name was Jessica," he said as he slumped
his shoulders and turned dour. "They were high school sweethearts
with no big plans; at least not initially. Josh was set to go to
college, but she wanted to stay home. My brother promised her that
he would stay in contact and even promised to visit, but it became
a moot point. She magically got pregnant."
    Michael walked over to the kitchen and began
to fumble about for a glass. He found one and then began to search
for something to put into it.
    "She told us that she lost the baby. We found
out later that it was a lie; she was never pregnant. But by then it
was too late. Josh had given up his college and his scholarship. Do
you have any idea how few people get a full ride scholarship?" he
asked Melanie.
    Melanie shook her head. She could quickly see
where this was going and without hearing another word about
Jessica, she hated the bitch.
    "Well, it turns out that marriage wasn't to
Jessica's liking. She overspent rapidly, and Josh had to take two
jobs. Jessica wouldn't get one herself. When it came to a place to
live, she insisted on living with her mother. That woman was a real
piece of work. Divorced three times, living with a loser of a
boyfriend, and she'd been on welfare for years."
    Michael found the tea and poured a glass.
    "Well, eventually Jessica got pregnant, and
that made matters worse. Josh was upset because he always wore
condoms; he was too afraid to raise a kid in his current
situation."
    "Oh, God," Melanie said. She could predict
very quickly where this was going.
    "Yep, it took all of us as a family to insist
on a paternity test. At the end of one particular argument, Brian
knocked him out; it was that bad. But, we'd heard stories about
this woman, and Joshua's firm admittance to always using condoms
made us suspect. Do you have any idea what it's like to ask your
kid brother if he knows how to use a condom?"
    Melanie shook her head again. Condoms weren’t
that difficult use, but she knew people did misuse them.
    "It practically tore the family apart, but my
mother finally convinced him to get the paternity test. Wanna guess
the results?"
    "Not his," she said.
    "The mother's loser boyfriend," Michael
stated.
    "Oh, damn," Melanie exclaimed with emphasis
on the last word.
    "Yep, while my brother gave up a scholarship
and worked two jobs to pay her bills, she was sleeping with her
mother's boyfriend. Apparently, her mother knew all about it and
had convinced Jessica to keep Joshua around to help pay bills. When
we went to move his stuff out, we learned that