This is the sixth story of my series about my post-marital sexual journey. Read the first story (Babysitter Lauren) or my profile, for any background needed. You may see references to prior stories/people, but for the most part each story stands on its own.
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Bella
The house that I moved into after my wife and a split up was a smallish three-bedroom duplex home on the other side of town from where I had lived with my wife. This house shared a common wall with an identical space next door.
I was renting it from a local businessman that I knew until I found a permanent place that I liked.
Right around the beginning of the year, when I was still seeing Debbie, in moved a young couple with a newborn infant, about a month old. And when I say young, I mean really young, and I came to find out that they were both 19 and right out of high school.
The building was built kind of like a shared hotel room -- where there was a door opening connecting the two sides. It had two doors, one controlled by each side. The lower level connecting doors were located just outside of the kitchen in a small dining room area. On my side, the lower door was blocked by a bookcase, and unless you knew it was there, you might not know it was there.
Upstairs, the connecting door was in the hallway between the hall bathroom and one of my daughters' bedrooms, just a few feet from my bedroom.
Bella and her husband Brian had gotten married right after high school and immediately had a baby. Smelled a lot like a shotgun wedding. They were very nice and we got along great from the get go.
Brian was a bit of a pussy, but I chalked it up to being young and probably overwhelmed as a new father. Bella was smokin' hot; Brian had clearly outkicked his coverage.
We became very friendly, and I saw that life was not as rosy for them as they thought it would be. Being young, with only high school diplomas and no work experience, made getting by tough. They had borrowed every penny for the house since they had very little cash, and with Brian working as a grocery store clerk during the day and Bella as a waitress in the evenings when Brian was home, they had very little money and spent very little time together.
I helped them out as much as I could. If they needed a plumber or some handy work around the house, I always offered so they could save money, and tried to show Brian things so that he could have the knowledge for later in life. He wasn't real bright with that kind of stuff, but he was eager to learn.
They did have some family in town, but they didn't talk much about their families. I never saw anyone come to the house to visit the baby or help out in any way. So, I had become a sort of father-figure to the both of them.
Several months after they moved in, they invited me over for dinner one night and sprang on me that Brian was going to join the military. With good pay and benefits, he could support his family remotely while he went through basic training and wherever his first assignment was. Bella could quit working and stay home with the baby, then join him wherever he was stationed when that option became available. He was hoping to get involved with technology because he was a bit of a computer nerd.
They asked very kindly whether I would continue to look after Bella and the baby while he was gone. Since I had no immediate plans to move, and my kids absolutely loved the baby when they stayed with me, I assured Brian that Bella was in good hands.
Brian left a week later and would be gone initially for eight weeks. I gave him a hug as he drove away and told him again not to worry about his family.
A week or so after Brian left, I heard frantic banging on the door behind the bookcase, and Bella's voice calling my name. I moved the bookcase and disengaged the lock that appeared to not have been unlocked for many years. I burst through and found Bella in the kitchen with a small fire going on the stove and she frantically trying to put it out with water. I quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher from my kitchen and put out the fire.
Bella hugged me tight when the fire was out, sobbing hysterically. When she calmed down, she told me that she had just put the baby (now about five months old) down for a nap and was making dinner for herself when the fire started. She wanted to grab the baby and run but then she was afraid the house would burn down and she panicked, throwing water on it, which seemed to make it worse. That's when she banged on my door.
I explained that water will not put out a grease fire, and that I would buy her a fire extinguisher the next day to keep in the kitchen. She was so relieved and she finally calmed herself down all the way. I made dinner for her and spent the evening with her and the baby until bed time.
Two weeks went by without incident. Then one Friday evening, when we were both out on the front porch, Bella asked me if we could keep our connecting doors unlocked and unobstructed so that we could come and go freely, mostly so that my kids could go in and out to help with the baby, and in case she needed me in a pinch.
I told her that would be fine, so long as she respected my privacy if/when I had female company. Bella blushed a bit, as she was aware that I had had several female companions since they moved in several months earlier, although by this time Debbie and I had split up.
Bella commented, "That's fine, and I'll know when someone is there, I can hear what's going on through the wall that separates our bedrooms. It sounds like a serious jack hammering!"
She quickly covered her mouth when she realized what she said, and she turned even darker red.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I just blurted that out!" she said, embarrassed.
I laughed at her embarrassment.
"Please, don't worry about it. It's impossible to offend me. And I'm sorry too, I knew the walls were thin because I can hear you guys knockin' boots on occasion, but I didn't realize it was so loud."
"You must be quite the stud-muffin," she said. "It sounds like quite a party over there, and they always leave with a really satisfied look on their faces."
Now I blushed a little, this young nineteen-year-old commenting on the sex I'd been having over the last year that she could apparently hear.
"Well, you know what they say, always leave 'em wanting more," I joked.
"But don't worry," I continued. "I'm not involved with anyone at the moment, so I won't be hanging a towel on the door any time soon."
I assumed she didn't understand this reference since she had never been to college, but she laughed anyway and said, "That's too bad, someone should be enjoying you."
Now it was me who spoke without thinking, and I said, "You're welcome to come enjoy anytime."
Those words hung in the air as Bella processed them, and her skin flushed again.
"I'm sorry Bella, that was inappropriate," I said apologetically. "You're married and young enough to be my daughter."
"Don't apologize," she countered. "I started it. It's a tempting offer. Brian has been gone three weeks and I'm not sure I'll last another five. And besides, I am NOT your daughter."
She winked as she said this to me.
Bella had the baby monitor on the porch with us, and she heard the baby fussing a bit, so she excused herself and went back inside. I did the same, before things went any further.
The next night, around 9:00 pm, I was sitting in my kitchen looking over some work, when I got a text from Bella.
"Can I come over?" she asked.
"Sure," I answered. "Everything OK?"