CESAR -- Puerto Rican male, 45yo, 5'10", 160, black/brn, med comp, truck driver/handyman, attached, 2 kids, player
ROMA -- Cauc Russo-Gypsy female, 65yo, 5'0", 140, DD bust, gray/blue, light comp, ret corp exec, widowed, no children.
Married 30yo, marriage 30 years when husband passed of complications of covid.
DECLAN -- Cauc male, Irish, 70yo, 6'2", 250, gray/brn, retired corporate security, presently separated, 2x divorced, Roma's companion and lover.
1
Roma. It had been several years since her husband passed. The marriage was not storybook and Roma had been quite shutout and lonely for the better number of years the marriage lived, or better defined, existed. Her husband had not been loving and due to PTSD from military service, he was married in name only, Roma his trophy wife. He was initially a fun, loving mate but after some happy years of marriage he became a very bitter and unhappy man after certain personal life experiences and Roma suffered from his disregard, treatment, and lack of love and companionship. She hadn't had sex in over twenty years and thought herself now wasted, unable to enjoy herself. She felt discarded and dead, merely living to work at her career where she was happy and well respected and highly paid. Roma had a serious medical event herself and was forced to retire from her beloved work and associations and friends to become a stay at home with occasional visits from and with old workmates, medical assistants, friends from youth. Within just a few short years her husband became ill and was gone quickly. Roma felt empty and missed his presence, but she didn't mourn.
Three years passed and Roma now wanted to live again! Get out and meet people, go places, see things. After all, she was a senior citizen now and that's what seniors do! No bingo hall or altar society for Roma! Her ancestral Gypsy blood began to flow again, prickle for excitement, touching a man, a lover, being made love to! She missed the emotional connection as well as the physical, the thrill, the sex, orgasm. Could she still do it? After all life's obstacles and upsets, Roma had her health again, and she still had a nice body and attractive face, eyes and smile. She decided one morning over her first strong cup of coffee to find out if she could, or when it came to it if she really still wanted to. It had been so long.
Cesar. Cesar lived in the middle-class neighborhood near where Roma's home stood. He was a truck driver and delivery man and moonlighted with doing handyman work to make extra money to fund his 'fun' lifestyle, and his women and two children. He was very good to all of them, supported them almost extravagantly, and also supported his mother. He was a handsome Puerto Rican guy, well-built from his years of hauling and heaving heavy boxes in his work, and then doing physical labor as a handyman. His delivery route for a large corporation included Roma's neighborhood and since Roma was the consummate online shopper, they eventually met at Roma's front door over a delivery of landscape lights. They would meet frequently this way because of Roma's buying habits. They became friendly, Roma invited him in on occasion for a drink of water, coffee or juice, especially on stifling hot days, or icy cold days. They got along fairly well and talked a lot about many things. Cesar spoke of his children, grade school age, and Roma decided to invite them to her home to enjoy the swimming pool that was maintained but seldom used by anyone. Cesar grew very fond of Roma and she was a very alluring mature woman with a great body and pretty eyes and Cesar felt sexual energy in her.
Declan -- Meself, writer of this chronicle. I'm retired a number of years now from my career in corporate security where I worked for a number of East Coast corporations or agencies for thirty-odd years. It was an enjoyable career filled with mostly enjoyable people, but times they were a-changin', as the song goes, and conglomerate politics and attitudes had changed, not to my liking. You cannot secure a business or its people when they absolutely loathe restrictions and rules and are offended at being told what they are and are not permitted to do. Two and a half years after I retired one of the 'associates' in my last employment, one whom I'd flagged as unsafe, appeared in the office one busy morning and executed eleven of the other employees before terminating himself. And that's the way it was.... Heartbreaking. Wasteful. I knew those folks.
I was not successful at marriage and three crashed and burned. The demands of my work played heavily into those disappointments, but so did my free-wheeling "personal interactions" with other women who appealed to my desires for fun and excitement. Why is it when the words "I do" are spoken, they don't anymore? Well, at seventy my quota of fun seems to finally have been used-up and I lost interest in my younger pursuits, and my libido and given equipment seemed worn-out as well, non-functioning when needed, quota expended. I even tried the "magic pills" out there with no success. My issues seem more serious and in need of a good mechanic, whom I have yet to find. I was disinclined to being a Macy's parade balloon and having "prosthetics" sliced into my genitals.
As many retirees will agree, a lot of leisure time is spent on the Internet, the source of more entertainment than any broadcast or streaming television programming, and a world of social interaction, education, and communication, all without the need to put on shoes or pants! I live in a renovated post-WW2 apartment complex in a large community. It has all I could ask for and is convenient to everything and everywhere, including all major roads and means of public conveyance. I also have several neighbors with whom I've become familiar and friendly and 'lonely' never plays into my mind, except on the occasional days when I miss close female companionship, and not just the bedroom kind.
It was the Internet that brought me to Roma. Roma and I had, in our youth, dated and had a relationship over forty years ago when she was working in a customer service job. I was deeply in love. But Roma was studying in a Master's program and beginning her climb into a fantastic career. I wanted forever but she wanted to get a career launched first. I was young, dumb, in a hurry, and I walked away. The biggest mistake of my life that is my only true regret in this life. I lost track of her and never saw her after we parted. Suddenly, while wandering The 'Net one day, HOLY SHIT! There she was! A regular OUT OF THE PAST moment! She saw something I had posted, recognized my name and simply sent "Hello. How have you been all these years?" I damn-near had a stroke and almost fell out of my chair! I had a whole body hot flash and my heart took-off like a machine gun! For a second I thought this was it, the big one! With trembling fingers I typed my "scholarly" response, "Hi Roma. I'm fine. How about you?" I read it back and put my head in my hands. Sweet jeezis! You asshole!!
A second hot flash seared through me when Roma sent, "I'm doing pretty well. I had a physical calamity and had to retire early, and then my husband passed away a couple years later. I still live in Carterville though, not far from where you might remember I lived with my family when you knew me."
My hands were shaking and sweaty now as I tried to type without hitting three keys at once. "Really? Wow. I'm living in Wooding here, town next to Carterville!" I reminded myself to breathe.
"That's great!" Roma wrote. We could maybe get together sometime for coffee?"
The room spun, my computer screen got cloudy. "Yes! Yeah, I'd like that." I sent.
"Are you busy tomorrow morning around ten?" Roma asked.
"Retired me!? No," I replied.
"Good. Perfect. Why don't you meet me at Henderson Park tomorrow morning at ten? I'll bring the coffee. How do you like yours?"
Oh my God! I felt like a nerd teenager again talking to the head cheerleader at school! She's asking me to meet! To see me! My head felt like it was pressurized, a wind noise in my ears.
"Light no sugar," I answered. "Where do we meet at the park? How will I know you?"
"Park in the lot behind the tennis courts. I'll be driving a silver Mercedes SUV, plate letters RAS. How about you, what kind of car?"
"Ford Crown Vic, bronze. Old cop car," I said.
