Chapter 5: Panties from the Past
I could not have been more surprised at what I was looking at. It was a picture of Jenn bent over our kitchen island. What the hell? It was the picture that I had taken of her the night we fooled around in the back of the Uber! She was bent over the island with her ass clad in those white and black polka-dotted panties with the black stockings and nothing else. She had a sly smile on her face as she was looking at me with the nail of her index finger playfully placed on her lips. She was everything in that one picture. What the hell was Justine doing with it? A strange mix of arousal, anger, and sadness was washing over me.
"What the hell is this Justine? How did you get this?" I was as close to yelling without yelling at this point, and there was a tinge of rage to my voice.
"Look, I know this is weird but hear me out!" she stammered. "She gave me these, Matt."
"These! These? You have more?" I snorted.
"A couple, but that's not the point," she was reeling now.
"The hell it isn't!"
"Matt, Matt! She got off on me having these. She knew I had a thing for watching and out of the blue one late night after one of our talks, she gave me these."
There was a bit of sorrow in her cracking voice now, "I loved her so much, Matt. I loved that she loved you so much. I loved that you loved her back with all of that and more," she wailed breaking into tears.
Through the tears she fought to continue, "She knew what I needed, and she stoked that for me. I've been lost without it. It's a hole that I can't fill and I can't even imagine how you feel. I worry that you hurt far worse than me and it makes me sad, sad and afraid."
I got up and took her hand to help her out of the chair and we embraced. She ended up crying on my shoulder for what could have been a minute or an hour. Time just seemed to stop. Finally, she looked at me through the tears.
"I'm sorry to bring all this up, but I just can't hold it in anymore. All this stuff that happened in the last week just broke the dam. I tried to bottle it all up like you do, but it's eating me alive. I felt alive again this week."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it isn't fair." She returned to sobbing into my shoulder.
"OK, look, stop. Pull it together J." I put my finger under her chin to look up at me. "It's OK. It's OK. I don't understand and there's a lot of things running through my head right now, but we can figure it out." I moved forward and kissed her on the forehead.
"I think I need some time. We both need some time to sort this out." I smiled at her then hugged her once again. Breaking the embrace, I turned and started walking towards the door.
"Wait," she said meekly. "There's one last thing, Matt." I nodded at her. Something was in her hand that I hadn't noticed before.
"I think you should have these." She held out her hand and in her hand was those white cotton panties with the polka dots from the picture. She grabbed my hand and opened it then put the underwear in it and closed my hand around it.
I was dumbfounded. The look on my face must have been one of absolute shock.
She broke the silence after a bit. "You can stay if you want. We can talk about it?" She said that with a sly smile that was implying something that I couldn't get my head around.
"Uh, no. I think I need to go home and get some sleep J. Thanks for dinner."
I turned and walked out the door and turned down the street to walk home with my head swimming from the last few hour's events.
I got home and put the panties on the island. The very same island Jenn had been draped over in the picture. It was after 11:00 and the night had just disappeared. I sat on my couch staring at our wedding picture on the opposite wall and started to cry. I cried for a good long time. Everything was just flooding out of me. All the emotions I kept packed deep inside of me. The sadness, the loneliness, and that empty feeling, and on top of all that I was still a little horny from the events of the night. I missed Jenn so much.
I had a moment, and got up and went to the island staring at the panties. They were hers, it was a little piece of her, a piece of us still left. I went back to the couch like a zombie.
After a while, I had this thought to call the on-call number for Amanda. It was well after midnight and I hesitated, but did it anyway. That was what she was for right?
I grabbed my phone dialed the number and talked to the operator who said I'd get a call back within fifteen minutes.
My phone rang three minutes later. Amanda was on the other end.
"Is everything OK, Matt? It's almost 1:00 in the morning. Tell me what's going on."
"I miss her. I miss her so much. I just..." I was at a loss for words and the crying started again.
"Alright Matt, did something bring this on?" she asked.
"I was over at Justine's tonight and a lot of things happened and it just brought up these memories. The last week has brought up so many of these memories of her and it hurts. It hurts so much." I was choking back my tears again not being able to pull it together.
"Did something happen with Justine, Matt?"
"No, well, yes, but I didn't have sex with her if that's what you are asking. Nothing happened physically. It was just a sexual, and then, emotional rollercoaster tonight. After I came home, I was lost, Amanda." I had started to pull myself back together now.
"Look, it's late. I shouldn't have bothered you. We have an appointment tomorrow anyway. I'm sorry." I felt embarrassed now for bothering her this late at night.
"That's fine Matt. That's what I'm here for. Are you going to be OK tonight? I need to know that before you hang up, Matt."
"Yes, I'm exhausted and need to go to bed. I'll be better after sleeping." I was hoping I could just get to sleep more than anything.
"Matt, if you need to call again tonight it's fine. Just call this number," she spoke out a number that I wrote down.
"I'll listen, Matt. I promise. It's alright to feel this way. You haven't allowed yourself to feel anything since she died. I know this feels awful, but you'll get through it and be better on the other side. It won't be easy either, but you'll get there. Go get some sleep and I'll see you in my office in the afternoon if you don't call sooner."
"Thank you, Amanda." I hung up and was quickly asleep on the couch.
*******
I woke up the next morning and went about my usual business. I went to work, put on the happy face, and got through it. After work, I headed to Amanda's office for the last of my "required" sessions. As I was let in, I noticed a distinct difference in her. She was wearing a nice fitting but professional dark blue dress past her knees with nude stockings and closely matching blue heels with the stupid red soles. I had bought a pair for Jenn that she had lusted over. The damn things were crazy expensive. Amanda also had a casual tan button-down sweater that was fully open over the top of the dress which left a little hint of cleavage which was right above a long pearl neckless.
This was completely unlike her. She always looked a little stodgy and stiff even frumpy, but this was very cute in a demure way. Her hair was down and there even seemed to be a hint of eyeshadow, lipstick, and makeup. The whole ensemble was working for me.
I almost forgot the silence thing, but I was eager to talk today so I started right out after sitting down.
"Sorry to have called late last night. I should have waited for today. It wasn't an emergency," I paused and then continued. "That outfit completely works for you by the way."
"Oh, why thank you," she started. "I didn't want to seem frumpy again today," she said with a crooked smile. Ouch, she was throwing that back at me from our last session.
"I took no offense, Matt. Tell me what happened last night."
I spent the next forty-five minutes recounting everything from Justine watching Renee, Renee and Josh sexting Justine, and Jenn's photo and panties. Amanda to her credit was stoic throughout letting me talk through the whole sequence of events. I, on the other hand was not so stoic and had a raging hard-on from going through this again.
After I had finished Amanda started in. "Well, there is a lot to unpack there. First of all, let's talk about Justine. She is setting you up to have the relationship go to a physical place. She wants you to be dominant with her in front of Grant. I believe they call that a bull. I mean the video, and her showing it to you, and your interaction with Grant made that pretty clear."
"What the hell is a bull?" I reflexively retorted.