Continuing chapter in this saga... Important to read the previous chapter(s)
*****
"Davey was good," Nellie confided to her sister over dinner. "Really good. But he's so young. I mean, I've always gone for older men, that's why I married Jack, and I felt sort of strange with Davey. Like I was fucking my brother or something."
"We don't have a brother," Kerri informed her.
Nellie scowled at her and said, "You're no help at all."
"If it's help you want maybe I should be reminding you of what you got when you married Jack."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means he was fifteen years older than you and he dropped dead ten years after you got married, that's what. Not to mention the fact that he was no better in bed that your precious Charlie."
Nellie sighed mournfully.
"I know he wasn't," he said, "but that doesn't help me any. I still keep falling for older men. Besides, it isn't a man's age that makes him good in bed, it's his enthusiasm."
"And you always pick the ones that don't have any," Kerri remarked rather unkindly.
Nellie looked at her in surprise. It wasn't like her to be sarcastic.
Kerri gave Nellie's arm a sisterly pat.
"I'm sorry, baby," she told her gently. "But I get so frustrated with you sometimes. Why don't you take Davey up on that invitation to visit his apartment? Maybe he isn't your type. But if you hang around the college long enough you just might find yourself a guy who's more your age and who hasn't turned into the kind of workaholic that leaves all of his enthusiasm at the office."
"I don't know-"
Nellie gazed down at her coffee.
"Can't you just see me with a bunch of sweaty wrestlers?" she finally said, sounding a bit more cheerful.
"Big, hairy, sweaty wrestlers with big, hairy, sweaty cocks," Kerri said. "Climbing between your legs and sucking on your tits."
"Davey is bald all over," Nellie told her with a giggle, "Only because he shaves all over. Maybe you can fuck him into letting his hair grow back."
"You're terrible."
"Uh-huh. Take your big sister's advice, Nellie. Go visit Davey. You're never going to meet Mr. Right sitting around here waiting for Charlie to toss you a bone."
After her sister left, Nellie slipped into a pair of jeans and a tank top and looked herself over in the mirror.
"Not bad for thirty," she told her reflection. "Maybe Kerri is right. Maybe I should give Davey a call."
She picked up the telephone and started to dial.
I don't know, she thought. I'll look a lot older surrounded by a bunch of college students. In fact, I'll probably look downright ridiculous.
She replaced the receiver. She just couldn't bring herself to do it.
"So go work in the garden," she told herself irritably. "Bury yourself out there in your petunia patch. Maybe you'll come across a cure for sex this morning."
She stomped out the back door and threw herself into her gardening.
Nellie's garden consisted of one narrow strip of dirt running between the big redwood deck with its built-in spa, and the tall redwood fence that separated her apartment from the one next door. She was down on her hands and knees in the dirt, digging the weeds out of her flower bed, when a strange male voice coming from somewhere high above her said, "Hi."
She glanced up, surprised. The fence was eight feet tall, purposely built to insure privacy. She couldn't imagine how anyone could be talking to her.
A man's head was sticking up above it.
He grinned a friendly grin and said, "I'm Larry, Your new neighbor."
"What the devil are you doing there?" she asked sharply. She wasn't at all sure she liked the idea of having a neighbor peek over the fence at her, friendly or not.
"Putting up hanging baskets so I can have some flowers out here. I like your flowers. Would they grow in a basket?"
"Yes, but-"
"Good. What kind are they?"
"Petunias. But-"
"Can I see them?"
"What? I guess so."
She moved back out of the way so he could get a better look at hers.
He shook his head and said, "I mean, up close."
"What?"
"Never mind. I'll be right over."
Larry's head disappeared, then there was a knock on the gate. She unlatched it and he strode into her back yard.
"Yours looks just like mine," he commented as he glanced around. "Except mine doesn't have any flowers. Just dirt. Maybe I should put them in the ground instead of in those baskets."
"Why don't you do both?" she asked in a bored voice.
