Her Best Friends' Son
Mid-forties woman with young man.
Author's Note:
Breaking out of a writer's block with this story. I hope you enjoy it.
MP
~~~
ο»Ώο»Ώο»Ώο»Ώο»ΏAllison stood back while her best friends, Caroline and Tom, said goodbye to the last of the adult party guests. The occasion was their son Bill's 18th birthday, and he'd left with the younger guests an hour earlier to go swimming at Stone Lake.
After the goodbyes Allison joined her friends and said, "It was a wonderful party, a perfect gathering of two generations."
Caroline nodded, and observed, "God, those kids all grew up fast."
Tom smiled affectionately at his wife and spoke to Allison. "They grew up a little too quickly for Care." Using Caroline's nickname. "She's already dreading Bill's departure for college in two months."
Caroline looked at her husband and spoke more sharply than she intended. "And you're not?"
He put his arm around his wife to mollify her and spoke softly. "Of course I am sweetie. But I'm also thinking about all the things that await him. Adventures and challenges with young men and women that are in the same shoes as him.
Allison asked the couple, "Speaking of young women, still no broken hearts he'll be leaving behind?" When they shook their heads, she added. "That surprises me. I've never met a nicer young man."
"And handsome," Caroline said of her son, "like a younger Tom here." She gave her husband a quick kiss and added, "Who I fell for like a ton of bricks."
Allison enjoyed their comfortable affection in her presence, without feeling jealous because of her own divorced status. She said, "He's doing a wonderful job around my place this summer, painting and fixing things up. You've taught him all the skills he'll need as a young husband Tom."
"Maybe not all the skills he'll need." Tom said. He shared a look with his wife that indicated there was something more behind his statement.
Caroline visibly considered how much to share with their close friend, then blurted out, "We think he's had some difficulties with girls his age." She looked to her husband to explain.
He said, "I tried to feel him out on the subject, see if there were things he needed to discuss with me or advice I could give, but he clammed up on me." He searched for the right words, then continued. "I think there are serious
confidence
concerns, but don't know why."
When Tom fell silent, Caroline continued for him. "Tom thinks it's similar to a period he went through in his teens."
When Allison asked Tom why he didn't simply tell Bill how he'd gotten through those times, he looked at his wife questioningly. They seemed to come to a silent agreement, then Tom faced Allison. "I lucked out. One of our neighbors was a woman my parents age who took it upon herself to show me what a young man needs to know about women. I don't know how she knew I was having a crisis of sexual confidence, but somehow she did."
They saw confusion mask Allison's features so Caroline said, "She became Tom's lover and showed him how to please her."
Tom nodded and said, "A real woman." He seemed to fill with the memory. "A woman," he repeated, "so different from a girl. With a woman's hips and breasts and ass and private treasures who'd made love to men and showed me how to love her like a man. So after that summer, I left for college as a man."
Caroline added, "A confident man who knew what he was doing when I met him a year later." She looked at her husband and visibly warmed with the memory. "I didn't have a chance. I didn't want a chance. All I wanted was to have him show me more."
Allison blinked. She'd not expected this conversation.
Caroline continued, "Tom told me about her and then I actually met her two years later, at our wedding when a beautiful woman I didn't know approached me as I was standing alone. She introduced herself as a neighbor of Tom's parents and said that he did a lot of work for her over his last summer before college... and just like that, I knew! I was talking to the woman who taught Tom how to be the lover he is." She beamed at her husband, then looked at Allison and said, "I hugged her and thanked her and she knew what I was thanking her for. She hugged me back, smiled and said, "The pleasure was truly mine, my dear. Young Tom only needed a little encouragement."
Tom was watching Allison's reaction and said, "That sort of inter-generational sex-ed is condemned in our society even when the young man is over eighteen, but I think it's perhaps the most effective way to help a boy become a man in that crucial sense."
"And it's so important to the fulfillment he and his partner experience through their lives." Caroline added.
Allison looked at her, then Tom, and knew why they were telling her about the older woman in Tom's past. She was opening her mouth to say she couldn't be that woman for their son, but stopped herself. Instead, she said, "I'm sure he'll work it all out, but in the meantime I'm grateful to have his help fixing up the house."
Caroline said, "He says it's the best summer job he's ever had." She smiled mischievously, "But maybe that's because he gets to see you sunning by the pool sometimes."
"I doubt that's it." Allison replied matter-of-factly. "I'm usually at the firm and have only worn my old one-piece by the pool when he's around."
Caroline got an impish smile and said "If you wore the skimpy bikini you bought for your Caribbean vacation he probably wouldn't get
any
work done!"
"You're crazy Care." Allison retorted. "I'm 26 years older than your son, older than you, his mom. And he's obviously something of a young hunk."
"Who looks at you like you're a goddess." Tom said. "I know that look from when it was me at his age. He's all eyes for you as a woman."
"Well, I'm sure everything will work out for him without intervention from me." Allison's tone said the discussion was over, but the debate in her mind had just begun.
I know young Bill is really enamored with me. I'm not blind. And I do wonder what it would be like to be with someone so young... But if anything ever happened, I can't imagine talking about it.
~~~
In bed that night, Caroline snuggled against her husband and said, "What do you think?"
"We'll see. The idea is certainly planted, and she knows how we feel." He thought silently, then added, "Now we have to leave it alone?" Looking at his wife with his eyebrows raised in question.
She debated arguing they should push harder, then reluctantly agreed. "Okay..."
~~~
On a whim the following Monday Allison decided to take the afternoon off because it was such a beautiful early summer day. She came home to find Bill cleaning up his paint supplies. "Are you done for today Bill?"
"Oh no. Just done with trim on the back. This afternoon I'm going to work on your back privacy fence. Are you home for the afternoon?"
"Sure am," Allison replied, "I want to enjoy the pool on a day this perfect. We don't get many like this."
"Will it disturb you if I work on the fence?" He asked. "I could find something else to do."