Here's the backfill from earlier stories, in case you haven't read them. A girl named Gabby and I had met during a crisis when she was facing certain bodily injury. As chronicled in my earlier stories, we became lovers and friends. We hadn't declared more, but people seeing us in a restaurant would assume we were an item.
Gabby became a caretaker for a wounded vet named Alicia. After a month or so, Gabby shared me with this person, which turned out to be enjoyable for us both. During that frolic, we were observed by her older sister Trish. She later met me in the kitchen for a few awkward moments. I was jaybird naked and she took it upon herself to bathe my member at the sink. I could tell right then things were going to get more complex.
****
It did, about three weeks later.
It was a Saturday noon, crisp and clean, with a fall feel to the air. I was sitting on a low wall outside Okie Doke Joes waiting for my order of egg rolls. I was reading stuff on my phone when a woman with long brown hair in a ponytail came out carrying a small bag. She had on sunglasses, jogging attire, (nice legs!) and a well filled elastic stretch top with some insignia on it.
She paused to tighten her shoe lace, throwing her foot up on the wall and looking over at me. She smiled, "Well, hello Billy, short time, no see!"
It was Trish. She looked my age with her shades on, her body tanned and trim. As usual, I was at a loss for words. Surprised I was and suave ain't me. She nodded her head, imploring me to speak.
"Oh, hey Trish! I didn't recognize you for a second. Wow, you look great!"
She chuckled, "I love your enthusiasm, it's cute. You waiting on an order?"
Just then Joe yelled my number. "Not anymore, BRB."
She was leaning over rettying her tennis shoe as I returned. Another guy was staring at her astonishing bottom. His wife punched him in the arm. Anyway, she could have modeled thongs for a living, at least bent over like that. She straightened up as I drew near, (durn!) and picked up her bag.
"I'm going home with this. I'm starving. Would you like to join me?"
"Sure." I looked around. "Where's your car?"
"Oh that." Trish grinned, perfect pearlies. "I jogged over. I only live a block or so over." She peered dubiously at my van. "If you have room, I'll catch a ride."
****
Trish lived on a quiet boulevard lined with nice Prairies built in the 1920s. She directed me to a well kept brick one with leaded windows, then around back to the carriage house.
I shaded my eyes after I got out, looking up at her home. "Nice digs, Trish, really nice. You and Alicia both have incredible houses."
She nodded. "Our grandmother had the other house. I got this one because my ex had to give it to me. He chased skirts and got caught."
We walked up the brick path flanked with butterfly bushes towards the back door. Hummingbirds abounded, oblivious to our nearness.
"That's old timey. Skirt chaser." I looked up at the stained glass on the back porch. A MARTA bus grumbled by out front.
"Yes, that's true. And Marc got old fashioned results. Luckily, he's a responsible dad. Not so much of a husband."
I looked Trish up and down. "I bet he regrets it."
She pulled off her sunglasses as we reached the shade. She regarded me solemnly with her dark brown eyes. "Thank you Billy. You're so sweet. Don't ever change, ever." She got out her key and unlocked the door.
We ate in the kitchen looking out the window at a row of wildflowers still thriving by the fence. Trish ate vegetable fried rice with chopsticks. I just had egg rolls, so I didn't have to ask for a fork. She rose to get more tea and I got to watch her prowl across the tiled floor. I had to just not eat for watching.
We talked about her kids, (twin boys, fourteen) her work, (AT&T media advertising) and about my work, (airplane washer and aspiring pilot) and nothing about my upcoming twentieth birthday.
She got up when the mail came, donning glasses to leaf through the flyers and envelopes. They were horn rimmed and behind them I saw the crows feet around her eyes more distinctly.
She caught my look. "Oh, I forgot. I'm wearing my Mom glasses, don't look at me!"
I laughed, "No problem. Where are your boys?"
Trish glanced over at the grandfather clock by the door. "Ponte Vedra. Marc took the boys golfing today and then there's charter fishing tomorrow. Like I said, good dad."
"Do you play golf?" She looked the sort, upon closer inspection.
"I used to play more. Marc and I met at Cabo in fact. He's been on the PGA tour for twelve years now."
Time took a beat, Trish stared out the window, another day, another world.
She put the mail down, a smile brightening the gloominess away. "Lemme give you the tour before I forget."
The living room was filled with seemingly authentic Stickley woods, the furnishings echoing the house and times. There was a sofa in damask and an actual daguerreotype of a woman and child viewing a steamboat hanging near a vintage telephone table in the hallway. Upstairs eschewed the forgone eras below, save the marbled bathrooms and clawfoot tubs.
We stepped into her room, spacious and white, expensive rugs on oak hardwoods. A frilly queen bed stood across from an antique mirrored bureau between open windows. The afternoon breeze trifled the sheers and a mockingbird sang outside from a dogwood. I felt vaguely uncomfortable seeing her boudoir, yet she treated it all so casually.
To my relief, she drew me out, taking my hand. "Can I seat you downstairs for a few minutes? I need to freshen up after my jog. I won't be long, promise."
I found myself on her deep front porch, filled with 'outdoor' furnishings usually featured in Southern Living. My mom woulda had a duck. I sank into a chair and checked my work email. Middle age guys on carbon fiber bikes pedaled by, chatting and laughing, possible aircraft owners, I surmised. Not all neighborhoods here have been ruined, some survive, thank God. A man across the street loaded a lectern into a Mercedes wagon and drove off about the time a renewed Trish appeared.
She wore a wrap skirt, a loose long sleeved blouse. Her hair was down and her makeup was off. What I saw was a middle aged gal with beautiful skin, a compelling smile, exuding calm. "I wondered where you were! Aww, look!" An elderly couple went by carefully on the sidewalk, arm in arm. We watched them and smiled at each other. Some things don't need explaining.
She curled her legs up under her on the divan. She studied me for a moment before she said, "I should probably explain a few things to you. You know what I'm talking about, right?"
I nodded, reluctantly changing gears.
"I have children, they come first. I have a demanding job that I love. Since Marc and I parted, I haven't had a romantic interlude in my life. I'd turned it off, until I saw you and my sister. I had no right doing what I did to you. I'm sorry..."
I broke in, "You did nothing wrong at all, really, it's.."
Trish was waving her hand, "Hear me, let me say this before I lose my nerve, Ok? There's more and after that you can laugh at me or leave, whatever. I just want to get it said. I need to. Watching you take Alicia was like feeling you take me, does that make any sense?" She looked around. "I need a drink. Can I get you something?"
My head was spinning, trying to understand her. "My tea's still in the kitchen, I think."
A man smoking a pipe ventured past, walking a Labrador. Two crows cussed from the power lines and a neighbor lady began watering her roses. Trish came out the door with my tea and a tumbler clinking in her hand for herself. She flopped down and took a long draught. She sighed, braced.
She began anew. "Anyway, I woke up. Then touching you...oh God, I could have just eaten you alive. I was literally shaking, I wanted you so bad. I was surprised. I was ashamed. I came home and that night when the house was finally quiet, I thought of you and...touched myself, again and again. And now what slumbered in me is now wide awake and here you are, quite by accident or design."
She turned her head away and almost inaudibly she spoke, "And now I have to decide some things."