My older neighbour.
The following is fiction, any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental, all persons are over the age of eighteen.
I had been the next-door neighbour to Jane Johnston all my life, my parents had moved into the house before my birth and had become incredibly good friends with Jane and her husband Bob.
Jane and Bob were about 20 years older than my parents so Jane would have been around 40 years of age when I was born, two people who were never blessed with children of their own so it was inevitable, I suppose that they kind of adopted me.
I was about fourteen, I guess, when Bob suffered a massive coronary and Jane became a widow at 54.
Five years later tragedy struck again, both my parents were killed in an auto accident, at 19 I found myself alone.
Insurances took care of the mortgage, so I became a house owner shortly after I began work but I was far from prepared to step out into the world on my own.
I need not have worried, my surrogate mother next door stepped up and helped me navigate the sea of life.
Jane taught me to cook, until I was proficient enough she had a hot meal prepared for me every evening when I returned from work, she did my washing and ironing.
Naturally, I gave Jane a spare key to the house so she could let utilities' in for meter readings and any workers I employed on renovations.
About 5 years into this I received a knock on the door one evening, If I was in despite having a key Jane always knocked.
I let her in, and we both sat in the lounge, before she sat down she placed a key on the table in front of me, looking at my puzzlement she spoke.
"Alex," she said, "that is a key to my house which I want you to have."
"But why Jane," I started, "I am at work each day, I cannot let people in?"
"It's not for that reason Alex," she began her explanation, "I'm not getting any younger, after what happened to Bob I do not want to be left in the position of a stranger finding me dead."
"Jane, you're not that old," I began but she stopped me and continued.
"I'm hoping that you will check on me and if the unthinkable happens you, someone I love, will be the person to find me."
I could see that this was of great concern to Jane, so I readily agreed and placed the key in a drawer next to other keys.
By now I was around 25 years of age, unmarried with no girlfriend on the horizon, there was a good reason for this, girls around my own age just held no interest for me, however, their mothers and even their grandmothers were what interested me!
I had found out early that I was more comfortable around older women, I could talk to them without becoming tongue-tied as I did with girls more my own age.
I was not a virgin, I had been successful with a couple of mothers, one I had a six-month affair with, and I had even managed to lose my virginity and bed my best friend's grandmother one night after attending his birthday party, but they are different stories and hold no place here.
As I have already said Jane looked after me, my unpaid housekeeper really, but I did not take this for granted, birthday gifts and Christmas presents were the order of the day.
One Christmas eve I knocked on Jane's door carrying her present wrapped in Christmas paper.
As the door opened I spoke, "Merry Christmas Jane.," and offered the gift to her.
"Oh Alex, how kind, thank you," she took the present from me, and I was about to turn away when she spoke again.
"Alex, I don't suppose you have time to come in for a drink do you"?
"Of course, I have time Jane," I replied, "that's kind of you to offer.
I always had time for Jane, not because of all the little things she had done for me over the years, for which I was grateful, but because Jane was an attractive woman who had figured prominently in my masturbatory dreams over the years.
A little over 5-foot tall, short brown hair with a figure most younger women would kill for, for her height her breasts seemed large, she was a looker.
The only reason I had never tried in on with Jane was the respect I held for her, she had been my rock when I needed one most and to simply fuck her and walk away after was not what she deserved.
We went into Jane's lounge, and she produced a bottle of vodka from the cupboard.
"This ok Alex"? she said.
"Of course," I replied, "as long as there is something to go in it."
"How about coke."
"Perfect," I said.
We spent the next couple of hours chatting and drinking the vodka, we chatted about nothing really until Jane changed the subject completely.
"Alex, can I ask you something?" she said.
"Of course, you can, ask away."
"Well, it is a bit personal and I'm not sure it is any of my business really," she said.
"Jane, I have known you all my life, you could never offend me, ask me anything."
I was wondering where this conversation was heading, had the alcohol given Jane the courage to ask and what was she going to ask.
After a pause Jane began.
"Alex.....do you like girls......I have never known you to have a girlfriend.....are you gay?"
Inwardly I was smiling at this, Jane was showing real concern for me, almost motherly in fact, but it also proved that my discretion about the affairs I had with older women were still a secret.
I was trying, in my head, to formulate an answer to the question, Jane deserved nothing but the truth but how do I explain to her that I liked my female companions older without offending her because I had never tried to bed her.
"Jane," I began, "You are partially correct, I don't really like girls."
The look that appeared on Jane's face was one of confusion, so I continued.
"I'm not gay, I just happen to like my female companions to be a little bit older than myself."
"Oh, thank God," she said then, "how much older?"
I poured us both another drink before regaling her with the tales, without naming names of course!
"I know these women do I?"
I nodded.
"You do realise that now you have told me I'm probably not going to sleep tonight for trying to work out who your conquests have been," she replied laughing.
But then becoming serious.
"Why not me then?" she queried then, "No, you don't have to answer that, I'm not attractive or sexy or anything like that."
I simply could not leave it there, so I poured my heart out to Jane, telling her how much I respected her, how much I had grown to love and appreciate her all the years of my life.
There were tears in both of our eyes, I decided it was time to leave but not before we both held each in a warm embrace.
A few days after Christmas in the evening there was a knock on my door, it was Jane.
I invited her in and asked if she would like a drink.
"Yes please," she said, "I think I'll need one, a big one."
I gestured for her to sit and went and poured her a generous vodka and coke, returning to find Jane sitting on the sofa.
I sat myself down with a drink in a chair opposite her.
