Jeff stared at the workstation with curiosity, his heart beating rapidly with each new erotic discovery. He was traveling down a road that needed traveling; taking a trip long overdue.
For years, he lived to convey the image into which so many had boxed him. A great husband, perfect Dad, loyal friend, competent co-worker. Totally masculine, adorable at 40, looking great, and staying fit. Turning the heads of men and women half his age. How many times had he heard, "You don't look old enough to have a 19 year old son. You must be Jamie's older brother, you couldn't be his dad."
The last two years without Julia had been a mixed blessing. Though she provided a structure of love and support, the passion between them had fizzled long ago. Jeff's midlife rejuvenation and alpha confidence had turned her away big time. Their 19 year old son Jamie was a chip off the old block. Endless softball games, endless football games, tryouts, playoffs. It was Jeff and Jamie everyone adored and loved. Julia was window dressing in this small town that had smothered her.
She couldn't cope with small town living. She remembered in her daydreams the breezy apartment on the upper East Side where she and her father had lived. He was a writer, and she was used to erudite company and intense, intelligent conversation. Her award-winning magazine work catapulted her to star status among the most sophisticated of Manhattan's elite group of academics.
Jeff's masculine small town appeal and infectious Southern charm had spirited her away from her literary circle in Washington Square Park to a small town in the rural South. Jeff came from old money and ran a successful construction business. Their chance meeting at a party in the Hamptons was the watershed moment for a new phase in her life -- marriage, and motherhood.
She had met him as he strutted confidently through a room of old New York money, his very slight Southern accent an exotic treat for all who encountered him. He was with a friend in a series of meetings to establish his business, and in his beautiful deep-set brown eyes and addictive dimples smile, she would be forever lost.
Some 20 years later, he had managed to grow in confidence, a small town hero loved by the locals, adored and deified even by the most rugged men in his social networking sphere. Jamie was his pride and joy, the latest of generations of strong intelligent men, virile, reeking of pure testosterone, working alongside his dad in tough physical labor that perfected their bodies, turning them both into icons of steamingly raw sexuality, stirring long-dormant desires in people who loved them, and desired them.
Julia's departure for New York was no surprise. She hated small-town living and was glad to be rid of the rabble that had become their friends and neighbors.
Jeff was still staring at the laptop in front of him, in the quiet of the den, late this spring night. Jamie lay sleeping in the next room. The slight ringing sound punctuated the quiet, and returned Jeff to a new reality -- he was enjoying gay chatrooms and sexually charged conversations with men around the country. Just over 40, his life was to take a turn he never expected, but drew him deeper and deeper into a new awareness of newly discovered desire.
The instant message flashed quickly across the corner of the screen.
