But Is It Art?

It was, Sally conceded, a bit insensitive of her not to fill Nate in on her mother until moments before they met for the first time. But, she reasoned, he never would have believed all there was to say about Mom if he'd had any time to think about it. Besides, since he was in love with Sally herself, she knew he wouldn't be put off easily by a quirky, eccentric woman like she and her mother both were. All those thoughts roared through her head once again on that late December afternoon when they clambered up the stairs to the loft apartment where Sally had grown up.

"Is there a lie you've settled on as to how we met?" Nate asked.

"No, because I told her the truth," Sally revealed with a nervous grin.

"What?!" Nate stopped dead halfway up the stairs, his suitcase hanging limply from one hand and he looked ready to drop it. "You told your mother you went nude on the beach with all your friends -- and my friends?!"

"Relax, Nate," Sally said, her voice more conciliatory now as she recalled that none of her friends ever really appreciated her mother until they met her. "My mom's a real bohemian, artistic type, very free spirited, and she always encouraged me to be the same way. In fact, she was really impressed with me, and very happy to hear what a lesson I taught Grace and the others. 'Every woman is beautiful, and now all your friends know that so much better,' that's what she said. And she was really impressed with everything I told her about you, too, Nate!"

"I hope you didn't tell her everything we did that day!" Nate said.

Sally laughed. "Of course not! We do have some boundaries. But I warn you, we have fewer than most mothers and daughters do."

"I remember," Nate said.

"Ah yes, I know what you're thinking, Nate," Sally said, recalling how she had told Nate of the time her mother had caught her masturbating and had encouraged her to embrace it, which she had gone on to do in no uncertain terms. "She made me the hornball I am, didn't she?"

"Thank heavens!" Nate agreed, and they shared an awkward one-arm embrace on the stairs. After a quick kiss, he relented. "Okay. If you say she's okay with the truth about us, so am I."

"She is, and we're only staying the night anyway," Sally reminded him. Her mother had gotten a job painting portraits for tourists on a Caribbean cruise, and she and Nate would be off to spend the holiday in some sort of artists' colony her mother had recommended. She didn't know the details, but it beat sitting around the apartment all Christmas day, she figured.

The door to their apartment opened into the kitchen, and Nate was greeted with bright lights and the smell of tea and cinnamon as Sally threw it open. "Hi, Mom!" she said, dropping her suitcase gratefully just inside the door.

"Sally! Nate! The train was right on time for once, huh!" Sally's mother jumped up from the kitchen table, where she had been working on a watercolor painting, and buried her daughter in a fierce hug. "I didn't think I was going to see the two of you for hours yet, darling!" Nate had just enough time to wonder about the vintage of the checkered men's dress shirt she was wearing -- as a dress over black tights -- before she let Sally go and greeted him. "Nate, lovely to meet you at last. May I give you a hug?"

"Uh, of course!" Nate said it, but the older woman already had her arms out for him, and he thrilled to her tight, welcoming embrace. "Nice to meet you too," he said, his head still swimming at the new awareness that she knew all about how he and Sally had met, and approved of it all.

"Sally, why don't you get our guest settled in the living room?" her mother said. "I'll put on some more water for tea or cocoa. Nate, I've been dying to get to know you better!"

"Same here," Nate said a bit nervously, but he saw no cause for complaint as Sally took his hand and guided him through the kitchen to the living room.

It was tiny but well-kept, with a view of the inner city avenue below them. "There's been a lot of gentrification since I was a kid," Sally told him as they looked out at the snowy urban landscape. "I wish you could have seen what it used to look like out there, quite a change!" Standing guard by the window was a wonderfully garish aluminum Christmas tree. "Mom's had that since before I was born," she told Nate. "Oh, we should put our presents underneath, shouldn't we?"

"No need, Sally," her mother replied from the kitchen doorway. "We're going to open them tonight anyway, remember?"

"Of course I remember," Sally said, squeezing Nate's hand in anticipation of their trip out into the country for the big day. "I hope you don't feel we're rushing you by celebrating tonight, Mom."

"Rushing me, Sally? I'm the one who's going to be spending Christmas in the tropics! Who am I to complain?"

"Good point," Sally admitted, snuggling up to Nate on the couch. "Wow, this time tomorrow you'll be on the plane, huh?"

"And then hopping around to half a dozen beaches to paint the scenes for rich tourists on holiday," Sally's mother added. "It's a dirty job, but some artist's got to take it." She looked at Nate with a naughty glint in her eyes. "Of course, I don't expect any of my clients will take to the beach quite like the two of you did last summer!"

"Mother!" But Sally was laughing unapologetically as she said it. Nate, though he could feel himself blushing, figured it was okay and joined in. Sally noticed as much. "See, you're making the poor thing blush!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Nate," Sally's mother reassured him with a quick kiss on the cheek before retiring to her easy chair next to the tree. "I really am fine with what you and Sally did. In fact, I'm very proud of her. It sounds like she taught everyone a lesson and you helped out a lot."

"I guess you could say that," Nate conceded.

"That college of hers was always kind of uptight," she continued. "I was delighted when Sally got in, but I worried someone from a background like this would struggle to fit in, and..."

"Mother!"

"And I was wrong, really. Sally toughed it out, and in the end she got through to...what was her name, Sally?"

"Grace," Sally reminded. "And Cindy and Keisha, but it was Grace who was the worst."

"She was the one you taught to masturbate, wasn't it?" Sally's mother asked, shocking Nate once again. "I'm sorry, Nate, are we making you uncomfortable?"

"Not as long as Sally's okay with it," Nate said, though he still couldn't hide his surprise at the intimate turn in the conversation. "I don't think I ever heard the whole story either," he admitted, looking over at Sally.

"That's right, you were already gone by then," Sally said. To her mother she added, "Remember, we only get together every few weeks, so there's not a lot of time for reminiscing." Sally had just finished the first semester of her master's degree at a university just over a hundred miles from Nate's college. They had managed to get together for many weekends, but each visit was quite fleeting. Their Christmas vacation together was to be by far the longest time they had ever spent together to date.

"Of course," her mother agreed. "It is only that I was so very proud of you when you told me about Grace. She sounds like a little snob, actually."

"She was," Sally agreed. "Anyway, the rest of the summer went a lot more smoothly once I had taught her that. She was very apologetic for everything, even some stuff I wasn't upset about in the first place. It's really so sad that she got to be twenty-two and never really came to terms with something that basic, isn't it?"

"Lots of people never do, Sally," her mother reflected. "Nate, I'm sure Sally has told you her own story about that."

Now it was Sally's turn to blush and Nate's to laugh. "She has, and I remember having the same kind of guilt about it," he said. "Right down to the praying to God to help me stop."

"Thank God He didn't stop you," Sally quipped.

"I agree," her mother said, looking remarkably comfortable given the topic. "With all that teenagers have to go through these days, sex is just really better left until later, but we still teach our kids that the safest alternative is shameful. I'm convinced that's why these friends of Sally's looked down their noses at her the way they did. And meanwhile, look how uptight they were about their bodies! But you both taught them a lesson, didn't you?"

"It was really nice of her to ask permission to hug me," Nate said later that evening while washing Sally's back in the shower. "Of course I wouldn't have minded if she had just hugged me, but not everyone ever even thinks there'll be a problem."

"That might be my fault," Sally admitted. "I mentioned to her that your family was a lot less affectionate." She turned around and lifted both breasts with her hands. "Don't forget to wash under these!"

"A lot less open, too," he said. "I can't imagine talking with them about...about all we talked about there. But you know, it was actually really nice once I realized it was okay with her." Having finished his soaping up under them, he now set about washing her breasts, teasing her nipples with his gentle touch and causing her to wiggle in pleasure. "God, this feels so good, too, Sally! It's enough to make me glad my folks went off on their own for Christmas."

"I know!" Sally agreed, taking him in her arms. "Do you think this ever becomes routine if you're in love long term?"

"I sure hope not," Nate said. Both of them being scarcely five months removed from their virginity and having mostly been together only on a stolen weekend now and again, the simple thrill of undressing together had not lost a bit of its magic.

Sally reached down and stroked Nate's hard cock playfully. "Okay, wash my hair and then let's get out of here. I want to play more with this!"

With that enticement at hand, Nate washed her long hair even more quickly than he usually would have done with his own short locks. After patting one another dry in the steamy bathroom, they put their robes back on and returned to Sally's bedroom. Nate hadn't even bothered asking if she was sure her mother was okay with them sharing Sally's bed; anyone could have seen she was.

Nate flipped on the light. But Sally, two steps behind him, turned it back off just as quickly. "Let's stick with just candlelight for now, shall we?" she asked.

"I like that idea," Nate admitted, pulling off his robe to hang on the door.

Sally did the same, and then went to her dresser and lit a scented candle she had received in a secret Santa exchange among her classmates. "The minute I opened this, I imagined it would be perfect for our first night here," she explained. The tiny flame came to life and cast a warm glow about the room that blended perfectly with the stray lights from the street that filtered through the open curtain in the room's lone window. "Beautiful," she added, admiring Nate's bare body and the winter night just outside. "God, Nate, it's even lovelier than I imagined!" She walked into his waiting arms, and they held one another in joyful silence for a time. Nate kissed her, and she responded in kind. Just as he was about to bring his hands around front, Sally pulled back. "Wait, come here," she said, and she led him to the window. "All those times we talked about coming here, this is what I wanted you to see most of all. Preferably with both of us nude, too; it's so much more intimate that way!"

"No wonder you wanted the lights off," Nate said as Sally sat at one end of the window-seat and invited Nate to sit at the other end, facing her. There was a slight draft through the old window and it was a bit chilly on their bare skin, but the sharp contrast only heightened Nate's arousal as he admired Sally on full display before him.

"If you can take your eyes off me," she teased, "Look out the window." As Nate did as she directed and admired the bustling street scene below, she continued. "This was my refuge when I was a kid," she told him. "No matter how nasty the kids at school got, I always knew I could feel safe up here watching the world go by down there. Remember how I said this used to be a rough neighborhood, but that only made me feel that much safer in here. And at Christmas..." she didn't finish that sentence, and Nate didn't need her to: the vivid twinkling of red and green all along the avenue spoke for itself to the sense of goodwill in the chilly night.

"Beautiful," Nate said. "I have to confess, this is what I always imagined all kids on the East Coast got to see at Christmastime, as crazy as that sounds now."

"They should all be so lucky," Sally said. "I'm sorry, Nate, but I can't imagine growing up in a plain-jane suburb, I just can't."

"Cedar Rapids isn't a suburb," Nate corrected, "But I see what you mean." Turning back to Sally now, he asked, "But tell me, what did you mean about preferring if both of us were nude?"

"Can't you see, silly?" Sally asked, shamelessly reaching over to take his cock in her hand and stroking it playfully. "It's that much more beautiful if we're admiring the cold, hard world out there when we're at our most vulnerable. Just inside the window, stark naked, yet safe together -- it's all that much more intense!"

Nate laughed agreeably. "That's what I love about you, Sally, you have such an artist's mind for these things."

"I had plenty of time to think about it, growing up in this room," Sally reminded him. "And, you know, this is where I always masturbated back then. So there was plenty of fantasizing about my crush of the week here with me, with the wide world just outside but no one knew our delicious little secret."

"And now your crush of the week is indeed here, isn't he," Nate said, struggling to catch his breath now as Sally had proven to be a fast learner when it came to pleasuring him.

"More like my crush of a lifetime!" Sally corrected, leaning in for another kiss.

Nate scooted forward to reach her, and in soon they were entwined in one another's arms on the window-seat, the mild draft only serving to intensify the heat of their embrace. Sally continued with her slow, luxuriant strokes, and Nate followed her lead and tickled her vulva enticingly. "Oh, God, you're such a tease!" she said, spreading her legs just a bit wider.

Feeling she was wet and ready, Nate slipped two fingers inside, drawing a gasp of pleasure. With his free arm around her back, Nate caressed her inner flesh in tight circles. Sally rocked back and forth to the small extent their position allowed, and moaned without inhibition -- it was not, Nate knew by then, as though her mother would disapprove. Though she continued playing with his cock, her strokes were becoming more haphazard by the second as he worked her into an intense lather. As she neared her orgasm, at last she gave up any pretense of trying to reciprocate and used her hands to balance herself as she felt the loss of control washing over her.

"Oh! Ohmigod! Nate!" After a long, husky exhalation, she collapsed in his arms and gazed out the window. The great urban outdoors of her youth had never looked so beautiful before, even at Christmas.

"Is that the sort of thing you envisioned for yourself when you masturbated here?" he asked.

"Sometimes," Sally said. "But usually I was more focused on what I'd do to his body than what he'd do to mine, since I was already so very good at getting myself off. Besides, I don't think I realized men would, you know, do that. With their fingers."

"Can't imagine why we wouldn't," Nate said. "It feels so beautiful, and I love what it does to you."

Sally threw her arms around him. After a fond squeeze, she got to her feet and took him by the hand. "Come to bed," she said. "Your turn."

Far from the drafty window, the bed felt warm even with the covers pulled down. There was no need for foreplay, but as Nate climbed on top of Sally he couldn't resist suckling her breasts one by one, to her further delight. "So unfair!" she grunted. "All this for me, and what about you?"

"It's the season for giving, isn't it?" Nate replied, and he resumed kissing one nipple and teasing the other by hand.

"That's just how I always imagine you doing it on the phone," Sally said.

"I know. You always tell me, remember?"

Sally laughed. "Yes, of course I do. Silly!" They had gained a great deal of experience in phone sex over the course of the semester, and Nate had become just as voracious a masturbator as Sally already was. "But it feels so much better for real than when I imagine it!"

"For me, too," Nate agreed, although Sally could only guess that was what he had said as his mouth was full of her flesh.

At long last, Nate knelt up and tried to push his way in. As usual, he missed his mark and Sally took him in hand and guided him in. They enjoyed a comfortable laugh at the still-awkward moment that seemed to happen every time they made love, and soon Nate was humping her into a tizzy -- which also happened every time. Thanks to the end of semester crunch, it had been three long weeks since their last visit and there hadn't even been time for the marathon phone conversations that had so often turned steamy. All those weeks of burning young love with no release were palpable between them as Nate flailed with wild abandon, once again wondering how two so inexperienced lovers had come to be so very good at it so quickly.

"Just come," Sally gasped between moans. "I just want you to come for me!"

"Soon as you do!" Nate replied.

"No need..." but even as she said it, Sally could feel the limits approaching. She gave in and threw her arms around Nate as he drove her to another orgasm. The intensity of her embrace and her yelp of pleasure pushed Nate over the edge as well, and he collapsed atop her with a joyful sigh.

Nate broke the silence of the afterglow, as he so often did. "Do you think more experienced guys don't get lost on the way in like I always do?"

"I don't see why they would," Sally mused. "All the experience in the world isn't going to give you eyes in your penis, is it?"

Nate burst into laughter that was a great deal louder than any of the noises they had made during the sex. "Yeah, I guess that is what it would take, isn't it? Anyway, I'm sorry I always miss."

"Don't be sorry, Nate!" Sally reassured him. "It's perfectly natural, and really it's kind of fun for me, guiding you in. It makes it just a little more special, you know, another way we're sharing one another."

"That's sweet," Nate said. Sliding off her and snuggling up close beside her in the narrow bed, he added, "That's why I love you so much, you always put me at ease about these things."

"And there I thought it was because I went nude on the beach," Sally quipped.

"That too." They laughed together, and after Sally got up to blow the candle out, they drifted off to sleep together.

They were awakened in the morning by a knock at the bedroom door. "Sally? Nate? Are you up?"

"We are now, Mom," Sally said with a yawn. She sat up, letting the blankets slide off her, as her mother opened the door.

"The taxi's waiting outside," she explained. "I've made coffee for you, and there's plenty for breakfast. Merry Christmas!" She leaned down and hugged Sally, who showed no sign of minding that her breasts were exposed; and then she looked expectantly at Nate.

"Merry Christmas to you as well," he said, and he leaned up and let her hug him goodbye as well, thanking his lucky stars that the blankets were too heavy to betray his erection.

As soon as she had shut the door, Nate pulled the sheets back to get up. Sally noticed immediately what he had managed to hide from her mother. "What inspired that, exactly?" she asked, though she suspected she knew the answer.

Nate fell back on his pillow and laughed. "Your mother is just amazing! And you're amazing for feeling so comfortable with her."