My phone beeped loudly and vibrated on the veranda table. When I checked, it was the doorbell app. The screen showed Alison, my daughter's friend, smiling at the camera.
The two girls had been inseparable as children, but they drifted apart when Alison was sent away to a posh boarding school after her parents divorced. I hadn't seen the girl for years, and now she was a remarkably pretty young woman.
"Is Helen there," she said when I answered. "I want to wish her a happy birthday."
Today was Helen's eighteenth birthday, and I had just driven my daughter to her first riding lesson. She had been nagging me for months, so besides her main present, I had booked her lessons at the local stables.
"She's at a riding lesson and won't be back for hours," I said.
When I dropped her off, Helen had shooed me away, afraid of embarrassment. I was to return at five, not a moment earlier; I couldn't wait for her to pass her test so she could drive herself.
The girl looked disappointed. "Okay," she said. "But really, I don't mind waiting, if that's okay?"
I laughed. Alison only lived next door, but the blue-eyed girl was very pretty, and I'd never been averse to female company. "Sure, I'll come and let you in."
I walked through the house to the front door. When I opened it, a tall, buxom redhead stood there, her hair in two braids that hung over her shoulders. She was obviously the same girl I'd known when younger, but what a transformation!
"Hi Alison, it's been a very long time, but come on in," I said.
The girl smiled prettily. "Call me Ali; everyone else does now."
"Nice to see you, Ali," I replied, carefully emphasising her name. "It's a shame you and Helen lost touch."
She wore a skimpy, strappy top that showed off her enormous boobs and a tiny pleated skirt that barely covered her arse.
We shook hands awkwardly. "I'm working out on the veranda," I said. "You can come and sit out with me if you like."
I had arranged to work from home for the week because my daughter was at home all week, supposedly for pre-exam revision. Helen was revising for her A-levels, but with the excitement of her eighteenth, I'd seen scant signs of study.
"That would be lovely," Alison said, "though I'll have to be careful of the sun, as I burn ever so easily."
I nodded. Alison had the pale skin typical of redheads.
The buxom teenager followed me through the house. "Tea or coffee?" I asked as we passed the kitchen.
"Fizzy water?" Alison requested.
A few moments later, I was carrying a tray with glasses and two bottles of San Pellegrino.
I set the tray on the large veranda table. My laptop was set up under the sun canopy, so the screen was well-shaded. I gestured at the chairs scattered around. "Wherever you like, I guess."
Alison sat down at a chair at the side of the table. She turned the chair to face me and checked that it was still in the shade.
"I daren't sit out," she said. I've no sun stuff with me."
"I can find some if you like?"
She shook her head, smiling. "I'm quite comfortable here." She paused. "Unless I'm distracting you from work?"
She was, but I didn't care. I just tried not to glance at her luscious body too often.
I smiled and shook my head. "No. It's a quiet week."
I'd made sure I had plenty of straightforward stuff I could do from home - for anything creative, I needed people around me, so I pulled up a design review, which is exactly as tedious as it sounds.
I'd hardly started when I noticed Alison was checking me out. I looked up from the screen.
Alison smiled. "You've not changed at all."
I took advantage of the excuse and looked her up and down. "You have. You're all grown up now!"
The last time I'd seen her, she'd been a bratty thirteen-year-old and inseparable from my daughter. They were in the same class at school. Helen was one of the youngest in the class. She'd been heartbroken when Alison moved away after her parents' ugly divorce.
Alison leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. I couldn't help glancing down her top at her cleavage.
She noticed my gaze. "Yes, I'm a big girl now," she grinned.
Ignoring the double meaning, I ploughed on, "What brings you back after all this time? It must be five years."
"Oh, I've been back a few times to visit Dad, but you've always been away." She beamed. "It's great to see you again."
Her father had remarried, but I didn't know his new wife and hardly saw them, as I disliked her father, John.
"Likewise," I said more enthusiastically than intended. To cover myself, I continued, "What are you doing now, Ali?"
It was a stupid question. Like Helen, Alison would be in the run-up to exams.
She had the grace not to laugh. "Exams are coming up, obviously. I've no idea what I'm doing over the summer, but hopefully, University in the autumn." She grinned. "Physics, before you ask. Not very girly, I know, but I love it."
We chatted for a few minutes more. Alison's list of universities was similar to my daughter's.
"You never know; you might end up in the same place as Helen."
The next hour or so passed pleasantly. I tried to work but achieved little, distracted by the sexy teenager sitting nearby, browsing her phone. She was aware of my interest, occasionally glancing at me or pushing out her chest.
Unlike my daughter's other friends, Alison seemed mature, a fully developed young woman. The others were still puppy-ish or gawky and colt-like. Stop it, I told myself. She thinks you're a nice old man, that's all. And she's the same age as your daughter. Six months older.
I glanced at the time. It was nearly five. "It's almost time, Ali," I said.
The nickname grated on me. I shook my head.
"Do you mind if I call you Alison?" I asked. "It's a nice name, and I prefer it to Ali."
"Oh yes, please!" she said enthusiastically. "I love my name, but everyone at school calls me Ali." She smiled at me. "It would be nice if you used my proper name. No one else does."
When she smiled, the girl looked radiant. I beat back improper thoughts. The girl is far too young!
"I'm off to pick Helen up, Alison," I said. "You might as well come with me and surprise her."
Alison smiled. "What a good idea."
She stood and stretched, throwing her head back and her arms wide. I stared open-mouthed at her chest.
I tore my eyes away before she could notice. Stop it, you idiot. She's young enough to be your daughter.
"Sorry," she said. "I was riding myself this morning for the first time in ages, so I'm feeling it now."
The girl writhed sinuously. "Yeah, I'll ache in the morning."
"Helen is just learning," I said after giving myself a stern talking-to. "Her very first lesson today."
Alison smiled. "You already told me that."
I shook my head. "Sorry. Anyway, let's go."
Alison followed me until the path to the garage widened, and then she walked next to me, so close her hips brushed against me. Another stern talking to was needed.
Irrationally, I wanted to impress the girl, so I was drawn to the 911. But common sense prevailed. There would be three of us, and given her family, impressing her would take more than a fast car. Instead, I unlocked the Range Rover.
Alison sat on the passenger seat next to me. Her knees were primly together, but her tiny skirt revealed her pale, freckled thighs, almost as far as her crotch.
Alison rummaged around in her handbag. Finally, she pulled out a lipstick. She leaned forward to pull down the sun visor, giving me a great view of her impressive cleavage inside her tight top.
She dropped the lipstick, and it rolled into the footwell.
"Damn," she said.
When she bent over to retrieve it, her right hand was on my thigh, sliding slowly towards my groin.
My dick was instantly and painfully erect. Her stray hand touched it. Alison straightened up, brandishing the lipstick. Her hand massaged my crotch.
"Got it," she said triumphantly. Glancing down at her hand, which still rested in my massive boner, she giggled. "You really are glad to see me, aren't you?"
I stammered an apology. Alison's hand massaged my erection again before she pulled it away.
She laughed. "Don't worry, I'm used to it," she replied.
Her hands lifted her enormous breasts. "It's these puppies; all the men notice them. But they are really inconvenient; they're always in the way."
By then, I had decided the girl was an outrageous flirt. I tried to ignore it and treated her as if nothing had happened.
My dick had other thoughts, so my arm moved to hide the boner that still tented my trousers.
I carefully kept my eyes on the road and answered her attempts at small talk with monosyllables, intensely aware of her sexuality.
We parked in the stables' car park and walked towards the main building. I was conscious of Alison, close by my side--so close that her hips occasionally brushed against me.
Helen stood outside, chatting with Ken, her instructor, looking flushed and dishevelled. As always, her current best friend Kim - Kimiko Oneda - stood a few paces away, wearing a sloppy sweatshirt, looking at the ground.
My daughter turned when she heard the car pull onto the gravel. She waved, moving slightly away from her instructor. Kim glanced up at me and smiled.
The two childhood friends hugged and started chatting, animated and running over each other's sentences. I grinned, hoping this meant I'd see a lot more of Alison.
I turned to Kim, "Do you need a lift?"
The girl beamed. "Oh, yes, please. My car is in for it's MOT."
I nodded. Kim had passed her test a few weeks ago, and, breaking out of her usual crippling shyness, she had told me all about it and the car her father had bought.