(Thanks again to Kenji Sato who has been my editor for all my stories...)
Fiona...In her own words:
That morning, after I had said my goodbyes to Gail, Joe picked me up in his Prius for the drive to Karen's. This was to be a different situation; I would no longer be a 'charity case.' I could, and indeed needed to, pay my own way. Karen needed the money; her place in the hills was a new adventure for her also, and there was a lot she needed to do, to make the place her own.
To help with expenses, she had converted an outlying building to rental space. I was going to pay five hundred dollars a month, to live in a former stable; but, a stable with a bedroom, a bath, and even a small kitchenette. For the area, that was a remarkably cheap rent. It was understood that Karen would need help with some of the chores, and I was okay with that. I was in pretty good shape, but some manual labor wouldn't hurt in toughening me up.
When I had the office job 'in the city,' I trained for triathlons. My debauched life with Maisey (see the first of this series, "Fiona Betrayed") did not make me fat in the sense of being overweight; but, severely diminished by muscle tone. Alcohol and junk food were not healthy; but, at least, our marathon rounds of sex kept the weight off me. Maisey was a bigger girl to begin with, and she ballooned in our brief time together... long story.
Now, I planned to train for the mountain running that is popular in this area -- real trail running -- sometimes, cross-country. It sounded like fun and would get me outside, when most of my work would be sitting on my ass at home gazing at the computer screen and keyboards.
I got a look at some of the terrain that I would be covering, at least in training, on the way to Karen's. It was an almost continuous climb into the hills for the three-quarters of an hour drive; Joe said we gained about a thousand feet of elevation from the valley floor where Gail's place was. We turned off the state road about a mile from Karen's onto a local road; paved, but narrow. Forest and ravines lined both sides of the road until we saw a tree-lined, overgrown field to our left. An overgrown gate faced the road.
"Technically, that is Karen's driveway to her house. At least the town thinks so; but, it was never a practical route for passenger cars, so most people approach her property from the side road -- but even that, is too rough for the Prius. That is why Karen drives that old SUV."
Joe carefully pulled off the narrow road and parked. After he locked the Prius, we hiked up the lane which was named Lily Pad Road. I guess there was a pond at the end of the road at one point, but it had followed a kind of natural progression from pond to swamp and marsh; and was now, just a dried out depression, except for time of heavy rain or after the spring melt, when it would revert to a 'vernal pool' giving it official protected status. Not likely anyone was going to build around Karen's house.
The lane was lined with trees -- maples, ash, birch -- all second or third growth trees. They were mostly smallish and slender, but enough of them in with spring foliage that they screened Karen's property from anyone who might chance down Lily Pad Road.
I heard Karen before I saw her; or rather, I heard her working on her property. Someone was wielding a chainsaw, near the small house that was just visible down the path Joe and I were taking through the boundary grove. A short woman, a little taller than me, with *ahem* a robust physique was dressed more or less appropriately, in the kind of protective gear folks donned when using a chainsaw. A hard hat, protective face shield, hearing protection, gauntlets, heavy boots and chaps, worn over baggy overalls that apparently were worn over... nothing. The top of the bib overalls did a poor job of containing her big floppy tits, which were sunburned along with her thick exposed arms, which were browner than her boobs, which still tinged with pink. She apparently sensed, rather than heard, our approach because she lifted her head before she turned off the saw. Her face mask could not conceal her broad smile or the sunburned round cheeks; her face was covered in freckles, and her blue eyes twinkled with the enjoyment some people squeeze out of every second of their existence.
"Karen, this is Fiona... Fi for short."
Joe was making the assumption that Karen and I would be friends... and from my first impression of Karen, I was pretty sure he was right.
"Hi Fi. That sounds like 'high five,' a good omen," Karen laughed.
I was to find out that laughing came as easy to Karen as breathing did.
"What do you say, Fi, how 'bout we work out our own nicknames?"
"Yeah, that sounds fine." I don't believe it. I actually lowered my eyes and shuffled my feet shyly, like a little girl meeting a beloved elder -- what is going on?
As the Italians -- the Sicilians -- say, I was struck by the thunderbolt... I was in love.
Karen looked at me with great affection; but, I did not get the feeling that she was hit by the same thunderbolt, or rather, that she had been hit by that thunderbolt many times before, and had learned to dodge it.
"Come, let's get out of the sun." Even though it was only late April, the sun was hot on this day; with still air and clear skies. "I have some iced tea inside."
Joe with his pale skin was always happy to get out of the sun. "Okay by me. I can't stay too long, I have to leave as soon as Fi is settled in with you."
Karen leaned over to me and whispered conspiratorially, "Joe's wife, Joan, keeps a tight rein on him. I don't think he has touched another woman in forty-five years... now, men are another matter -- that is her blind spot." With that, she giggled lasciviously, staring directly into Joe's eyes.
"Okay, I can take a hint, you all can talk freely without me around; and I really DO have to get home." With that, Joe kissed Karen on the cheek, as she held him tightly with her hands on his waist, and did she... BLUSH?!?! Having said his goodbyes, Joe turned and started walking back to his car.
I looked wonderingly at Karen. To her credit, she could read me very well for knowing me for such a short time.
"Yes Fi, you had pegged me as a shameless old lady. Why should I blush from a kiss on the cheek? Well darling, it was not the kiss... I blushed because I can still give Joe a hard-on even after almost fifty years."
"But wait, you said Joe never cheated on his wife... with a woman -- now it was my turn to blush.
"As far as I know, that is true; but, what else is true is that he only talks about sex with women. Apparently, his guy friends are all asexual; except for the guys he has sex with, but they are in another category altogether. He has a small group of women he is comfortable with, and they get comfortable with him, telling him all sorts of things."
"Oh?" I said. Actually, I had a pretty good handle on this aspect of Joe's personality because I was... one of those women.
"Oh yes, I worked with Joe long before anyone worried about being PC. We discussed everything at work; but mostly, he was interested in sex. He was pretty knowledgeable, but was still a virgin at twenty-six; whereas, I had had my baby at sixteen.
"I talked about my experiences in some detail. I think he particularly liked my story about the college basketball team, at least the starting lineup; those were some of the hottest moments!"
At that moment, I nearly choked on my iced tea. I mean I have had multiple partners at once, not very often, mind you; but NEVER five, not even four, and three only once...
Karen saw this and laughed uproariously. "Well, that is your tell. With Joe, I could see his cock getting hard in his pants, and I would tease him about it. 'You really have to get up and walk around more, the blood is pooling in your dick.' And you know, I never saw it 'for real'; but, he bulged his pants pretty impressively -- got me wetter than I normally am on more than one occasion..."
And this was just my first conversation with Karen!
As she got to know me better, our conversation grew more intimate. This was mostly in the evenings, after we both were done with work; I was still working remotely with data management. I'd get up early, have breakfast in my little stable room, work for a couple of hours, and then go for a run or a bike ride, depending what I was training for. Then, a solid four hours after lunch. Afterwards, I played on my phone until Karen got home from her job as a receptionist at the doctor's office.
She would often need to wind down with a drink, and I would listen in fascination. Her stories were interesting to me; but, I was also in love, and drank up all I could about this woman.
I think Karen sensed that I was 'interested' in her; but, she was wary of making intimate connections, after the many bad ones in her youth. Well, many bad connections until a few months before I met her.
In her own words, "I never met a dick, I did not want to fuck."
"Well, what about Joe?" I asked.
"Well damn, of course, I wanted to fuck him; to take down those pants to see what was really in them. But, I was stupid... I wouldn't date anyone who didn't drive, and Joe was taking the bus to work from Chicopee so that wouldn't work; and I told him so, 'I'd date you, if you had a car.'
"Hell... I could have been the one with the faithful husband, rather than that goody goody Joan. Of course, he might have been the one to not have had a faithful spouse.
