*Author's Note: Two things:
One: I recently broke down and bought a new car. The guy who sold it to me mentioned he was in his mid-40s and his wife in her early 20s. He showed me a few pics and she was a very attractive young woman! I didn't mention my May-December love stories or my own personal experiences, but I did actually meet a real couple separated by more than 20 years. Well, half a couple anyway.
Two: A reader emailed me a couple of months ago and graciously informed me I was a good writer. He was kind of enough to also point out (I just the love 'pointer outers'—see my story entitled Literotica) how I would never be a great one unless I did two things. First, I had to write shorter stories. Evidently, only shorter stories are 'great'. Second, I had to stop letting my (fictional) characters fall in love so fast. That doesn't happen in real life so allowing it to happen in a (fictional) story must also be a bad thing. Maybe even a very bad thing. Ummm...my bad?
Since this one has two couples falling in love on a truncated timeline, I guess I'm content to stay a good writer rather than strive to be a great one. (Dang it!)
I've written a few stories with sad endings, but I much prefer happy endings between couples who meet at a time when they're ready and willing to fall in love again after either death or divorce. Oh, and they're often way too far apart in age to be realistic. You know, like my car salesman and his wife.
Ah, shucks. Who knows? Maybe I'm really only an average writer. Oh well. C'est la vie, no?
I hope you enjoy it. :-)
*****
"I don't even know what to say."
"Say you'll meet him, Mom. Please?"
"Savannah, I don't think I can."
"Mom, you raised me with good values. You've always trusted me. I've never betrayed your trust even when my friends were acting out. Can't you at least agree to sit down and just say hello? I really like him, Mom."
"Honey, he's my age for goodness sake! If your father was still alive he'd be this man's age, too! How can you even think about being in a relationship like this? How, Savannah? How?"
"I know it seems...unorthodox. But once you meet him you'll understand. He's smart and funny and...."
"Rich?" her mother said filling in the blank with what she thought was coming next.
"No. He's not rich. He's just...very attractive. In fact, he's freakin' gorg...."
"Don't say it! Please, just don't even say it, okay? Did I mention this man is your father's age?"
Her daughter came over and sat next to her mother and put her hand on her mom's.
"Daddy's been gone for four years, Mom. I loved him with all my heart, and I still miss him every day. But this isn't some...daddy thing. I don't see Michael as my father. I see him as my...."
Again, her mom put up her hands and said, "Savannah? Can we please talk about something else? Your last semester of college maybe? Where you want to work? Anything but...this?"
"Mom? I think I love him and pretending it will just go away won't make it happen."
She put her arm around her mom then said, "Please don't make me beg, okay? Just agree to meet him for dinner or maybe even drinks."
Her mother sighed then finally said, "I'll...think about it, okay?"
Her daughter hugged her and tried not to squeal with delight.
"Thanks, Mom! You know I love you, right?"
Her mom cut her eyes toward her 21-year old college senior and said, "I love you, too. But just barely."
Both of them laughed when she used the line her late husband used to say when Savannah had done something to severely test his patience. He'd always smile then say, "Savannah? I still love you but just barely."
"I miss your father too, honey," Sarah Winter said finally softening her tone.
"You really should be more open to finding someone, Mom. Daddy would want you to, you know."
"It sounds easy, honey. But actually finding someone isn't. It's just such a pain in the a...you know."
"I think I'm old enough to hear you say 'ass' now, Mom. I'm not your baby girl anymore, remember?"
"You'll always be my baby girl, Savannah. But yes, you are all grown up now. So smart and so beautiful. Smart enough to know that dating a man twice your age is crazy!"
"Ugh! Mother! Please!" she said as the battle continued.
******
"She's not one of my students, Tyler. She never was. In fact, I didn't know she attended the university until we met. She was applying for an internship in another department, and I actually voted 'no'. She was bold enough to ask me why once the vote was taken and I found that admirable. We talked for a while, and I found her to be charming and well spoken. So it wasn't like this relationship was planned let alone something...nefarious."
"Dad, I'm not trying to tell you whom to date or fall in love with. I'm just asking you to be careful. The way Mom hurt you was inexcusable. She'll always be my mother and I'll always love her, but I find it incredibly difficult to respect her because of what she did. It still angers me and I'm not the one she did it to."
"In a way you were, son. Her actions affected all of us, but please try not to be overly harsh. If anyone has a right to hate her, it's me. I don't. I...I pity her. I'm not letting her off the hook. She did it and she's responsible. I just can't bring myself to hate the mother of my only child."
Tyler Turner deeply admired his father. He'd been his hero and role model all his life. A tenured professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, he'd been a part of a lot of cutting-edge research into quantum mechanics. To an outsider it was less interesting than watching paint dry. But to a recent graduate of the physics department of MIT like Tyler, it really was the stuff dreams are made of. It was beyond interesting. It was inspiring, and Tyler's dream was to build on his father's work and take it to places where, well...no man had gone before.
He'd grown up watching reruns of the Original Star Trek series with William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock. The show had allowed him to imagine things he later used in his studies, especially the acceleration of particles beyond the speed of light which was often called the 'speed limit of the universe.'
Hypothetically, nothing could travel faster than the speed of light because it would take an infinite amount of energy to propel anything with mass beyond the speed of light. But what if objects with mass could be rendered massless via the laws of quantum mechanics? What if space-time could be curved around on itself allowing a modern-day Starship Enterprise to move through a 'wormhole' in time, covering unimaginably large distances in the blink of an eye?
Tyler's thesis had been on the former possibility and had garnered widespread support in the arcane world of particle physics. His father was not only impressed, he'd pulled out all the stops to bring in funding for a university-led program which worked with the U.S. government to develop the capability of one day traveling at 'warp' speed. Tyler had come home to Seattle to work with his father on just that.
He'd been too busy at MIT to pay much attention to the new love interest in his father's life even though his dad, 43-year old Dr. Michael Turner, had mentioned her numerous times. He'd even told his son she was only 21, but none of it had really registered until they'd sat down back at their home in upscale Bellevue, Washington.
"I appreciate your concern, Tyler. Frankly, I'd be even more concerned if it didn't concern you," the older Turner said. "Did I use the word 'concern' enough to give you concern?" he joked.
Tyler forced a laugh then said, "It's not a son's place to tell his father how to live his life. But as your friend, your best friend, I have to tell you I am, well...concerned."
"She's willing to sign a pre-nup, Tyler. Does that help?" his dad told him.
"A pre-nup? You're not seriously considering getting married to this girl are you?" Tyler said with utter incredulity.
"It's crossed my mind more than once," his father told him truthfully.
"Why her, Dad? What's so special about this girl? And she is a girl. You understand that, right?"
