This isn’t one of those fake incest stories where we’re step-siblings or in-laws or godparents. Sasha IS my cousin, it’s just that she’s like, my third cousin, twice removed, blah blah. So, we’re technically related, but … it goes back quite a ways.
She’s also 10 years older than me. She’d babysit, tell me to stop being a nerd and kiss more girls. She’d tell me to dress cooler, less like my mommy dressed me. That sort of thing.
When she went to college, I was bummed. I liked Sasha. We had a ton of fun together.
Then, life interrupts and I didn’t see her for a long, long time. Until I got her wedding invite in the mail. I went. It was awkward. She hated the guy she was marrying, but her parents had been pushy about wanting grandkids and they were traditionalists, so … Sasha got married.
A few months later, they took a break and things remained like that for almost five years. Married, but not. She eventually settled one state over – just 20 minutes from my house – and we got dinner.