I never slept with Mom's Best Friend again. Without realizing it at the time our four month fling ended with the school year. Years would pass before I found out why. Nevertheless, my busy young life raced on. At their invitation I began a training regimen at ASU in Tempe which can only be described as draconian: six hours a day split between weight room, pool, flexibility & kinestetic therapy, followed by sports massage, nutrition and sports physiology. I arrived home physically exhausted every night. It wasn't an Olympic year, but I was in training for the opportunity to spend a month at the Olympic Training Center in Boulder, Colorado. I had four weeks before tryouts.
Mom's Best Friend stopped calling me, stopped pursuing me, stopped making excuses to have me come over. Nor did she return any of my calls. For a while I wondered if her husband found out and drew the line. If so I never heard anything about it. A week after the graduation party she and her family escaped for a month-long vacation to Europe just as the usual blast furnace of 115F heat descended upon the Valley of the Sun in early June. At the same time my folks flew up to Seattle to visit mom's family for a month. Unable to take a break in training, I had the house to myself for four weeks. I hoped Mom's Best Friend might use it as an opportunity to shag as frequently as possible, but since their vacations coincided it was left to mom's Second Best Friend to look in on me, make sure I was still alive and not throwing any wild parties. As if it mattered: mom called twice daily and I was required to call them before I went to bed each night. Second Best lived just two doors down and rang our doorbell each night around suppertime to check in with me, usually finding me stuffing my face. Like her Best Friend, mom's Second Best had been around all my life and I liked and trusted her.
My high school girlfriend, Naomi, wanted to use parental absence as an opportunity to sleep together for the first time. I agreed and we did it in my bed the night my parents left. I enjoyed the freedom of getting around on my own, even if it was in mom's tragically uncool old minivan. Especially cool was taking Naomi out for dinner and a movie before returning home and getting naked. She said she was a virgin and I had no reason not to believe her. After long, warm friendly foreplay I let her be on top first. Nervous about it, nervous about what I thought of her and nervous about how she looked naked, it took her a long time to relax and she wasn't able to climax on her first attempts. Not a problem. I didn't push, she enjoyed herself, loving the passion and tension in her body and the exquisite foreplay and affection we shared. A natural extension of previous make-out sessions, it wasn't difficult for either of us to go all the way.
With my fingers between her legs, she eventually came after long, relaxing spoon fuck.
"I want you on top," she said, resting after her first ever climax with a guy.
I obliged her, working slowly to increase and extend her pleasure as along as I could before letting my body go, screwing my hips into her, liking the way she lifted her legs and planted feet on my chest, then wrapped ankles around my neck. Taking a second turn on top, she finally achieved a full climax, grunting, gasping and moaning, before collapsing on me. Still, it felt muted compared to the unbridled coupling I was used to with Mom's Best Friend. Naomi was so amped she wanted to do it the next night, too, and we did. In fact we coupled each of the first four nights my parents were away, but always I had her home well before her 10 pm curfew so I could get the sleep I needed.
Mom's Second Best was well aware that I brought Naomi home each of those nights after our date. I didn't hide the fact, pulling into the driveway, opening her door and escorting her into the house for an hour or two before driving her home. Second Best wasn't supposed to chaperone, but still managed to stop by each night after I returned from Naomi's.
One night the doorbell rang while I was playing for Naomi after our date. She sat next to me on the piano bench, her arm around my waist, her head on my shoulder. I invited Second Best inside where she found Naomi fully dressed and sipping a Diet Coke. I introduced them and offered Second Best a drink, which she politely declined. I returned to the piano and continued playing. Second Best excused herself, said she was glad I was okay and departed. Ten minutes later the front door was locked, barred and alarmed, and Naomi and I were naked in my bed, kissing.
To this day I don't know why Second Best came on to me. Had Mom's Best Friend whispered something to her? She was another of mom's friends who clearly ogled me. Had she decided she wanted me? I had suspicions: her interest in me began immediately after Mom's Best disappeared on vacation.
Second Best was beautiful. Oldest of mom's close friends, she looked like Kim Basinger only more naturally beautiful. Unlike mom's outgoing Best, she was quiet, thoughtful and introverted. Like Best, Second Best was a housewife to a career man who could afford to live comfortably in our swish Phoenix suburb. They had two children, a boy and a girl, both in middle school. At forty-two, Second Best was the oldest of mom's circle, mom being thirty-nine and Best being forty.
"I'm sorry I barged in on you and your girlfriend last night," Second Best said when she stopped in to check on me the next night. "I had no idea you brought someone home."
"That's okay," I replied. "We went out for dinner and she wanted to hear me play."
"Everyone likes to hear you play," Second Best smiled.
"Thanks."
"And watch you swim."
I smiled. "Would you like something to drink? There's a fully stocked wet bar around here somewhere. I'm not sure it was a good idea to leave me home alone with it for a month."
"You don't drink, do you?" she said. "Not with your swim schedule."
"Nah. It messes up my body too much."
"And you're too young. When do your Olympic heats begin?"
"Try outs. Four weeks."
"I'm sure you'll do well."
"If I survive till then. Training is brutal."
"I have every confidence you will succeed."
She always talked like that. I loved it.
"Only if I can unwind on this every night," I said, sitting at the piano. "Any requests? You like Chopin, don't you?"
"You know what I like. Play it again, Sam."
She sounded just like Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca only my name wasn't Sam and I was the one flirting with her. And it wasn't a tune of love lost. Without hesitating, I broke into Chopin's Polonaise #3 in A major, her favorite. After tripping over a few bars, I recovered, missed a few more notes here and there, then finished strongly.
"Bravo!" she clapped. "Now play his first waltz."
I bashed out his Waltz #1 in E flat major and Second Best began waltzing around the room led by an imaginary partner, curtseying to him when I finished.
"Bravo!" I said, applauding her graceful movements.
"Oh stop," she said, waving a hand, then sighing, "Too bad there's no one around to dance with."
"Sure there is," I said, getting up and heading to the sound system. Tracing a finger over a stack of CD's, I pulled Chopin, loaded the disc and hit play. And repeat.
Turning, I bowed to her and held out my left hand: "May I have the honor, madame?"
She blushed, but didn't hesitate to take my hand. The music started and I began the simple 1-2-3 step of the waltz, sweeping around the room the way my mother taught me (she couldn't sit still to Chopin, either, waltzing with dad or me). Only now I swept Second Best around the room, her right hand in my left, her left hand on my shoulder, my right hand on her narrow waist, pushing and pulling her around.
"You're very good," she smiled.
"Mom taught me."
"I know. How tall are you now?"