Authour's Note: This is the fourth part of a longer series. To fully enjoy this chapter, please read One Week With Mr. Hansen Chapters 1 through 3 first!
*
Dan wanted to take Jenny and I out for a drink after the movie, but I politely declined and asked him to drop me off at home first. I was still feeling guilty about what had happened with Tyson, and each time I thought about how I had been acting, a slow flush ran up my cheeks. I never acted like that. Jenny was the one who slept around. Before this date, I had only slept with three other guys, one of them being Mr. Hansen. And suddenly, in one day, my total was up to five.
Jenny walked me to the door when Dan pulled up to my house, giving me a hug when we were around the corner of the garage and out of his sightline. "You really should come for a drink with us," she said.
I shook my head. "He's still your date," I said with as much of a smile as I could. "And I really just want to be home. I can't believe..." I stopped in mid-sentence, shaking my head.
"It's okay, I keep telling you!" Jenny exclaimed. I sighed, knowing that she didn't understand that really, it wasn't. "Come on," she said softly, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me close to her. "Is this about Mr. Hansen?"
"What?" I asked, frowning as she hugged me.
She giggled. "Well, don't tell me you feel like you've cheated on him or something. I mean, he had to be okay with you messing around, he let you go on the date."
Her words nearly made my heart stop beating. I had never even brought up the fact that Tyson and I had fooled around, nor had I considered that Mr. Hansen wouldn't necessarily be okay with it. In fact, now that Jenny had put the thought in my head, I had a feeling that he wouldn't be okay with it.
I was furiously trying to stop the little voice that was telling me what I had with Mr. Hansen was something more, but the pangs of guilt that were running through my body were making my efforts a lot more difficult. All I could think was that I had probably completely messed up the wonderful thing Mr. Hansen and I had. I bit my lip as I frantically tried to figure out how exactly I was going to tell him, what I could say to make him forgive me for royally screwing up.
"Claire?" Jenny asked when I didn't respond. She pulled me away from her, keeping her hands on my shoulders, and looked at me. "Are you okay?" I didn't say anything, but my face must have told her everything she needed, because she immediately let go of my shoulders. "Don't tell me... he doesn't know?" I shook my head. She didn't say anything for a moment, just studying me. "Claire, are things getting a little more..."
"Don't say it," I finally said, my voice high and rushed.
"It's about more than just sex," she stated, not paying one bit of attention to what I had said.
Tears sprang up in my eyes and Jenny pulled me close to her again. "What is wrong with me?" I gasped. "It's only been a couple days, and he's like... like my dad's age... I think I'm just overanalyzing things but..."
"There's nothing wrong with you," she said. "Christ, there are way weirder things out there. But... just don't rush into things. Just because it's more than just fucking doesn't mean you have to like, marry him or something. You can be friends, too."
I took a moment to digest what she said, and mentally kicked myself for being so ridiculous. I had known Mr. Hansen for years, and he was a good friend of the family, so it was no surprise that after spending a few days together (fucking or not) that I cared about him. Like Jenny said -- we were friends. Just friends that happened to have an age gap of over 30 years between them and that also happened to have wonderfully hot sex. I almost laughed when I realised how messed up that sounded, and did giggle softly when I realised that Jenny was right in saying that weirder things had happened. She took my soft laughter as acceptance of what she said and hugged me tightly. "Don't worry," she said. I still was -- after all, I didn't want to lose anything I had with Mr. Hansen -- but I did feel a little bit better about whatever feelings I was having.
It still took her a little while to convince me to actually go into the house, but eventually I gave her a final hug and walked up the front steps. I waited until she had gotten back into the car and Dan had honked the horn to slowly let myself inside.
It was quiet when I entered the house. I figured Mr. Hansen was sitting outside on the back patio, as the sun was just starting to set and it was still fairly warm out. My heart was pounding as I slipped off my high-heeled sandals and put my purse on the front table. I couldn't believe how nervous I was. It wasn't that I was scared that Mr. Hansen would do something to me. In fact, I would be grateful if I could just get away with a spanking -- we both enjoyed that. But I had a feeling that a spanking wasn't going to solve this.
I walked through the kitchen, my bare feet silent on the cool tile. Just as I thought, Mr. Hansen was sitting on the patio, reading a book with a beer on the table next to him. I had to stop and admire him for a moment as he took a casual sip before turning the page of his book. I had such a strong attraction to him that it seemed ridiculous to me that I was denying it. I was feeling so many things at once that my head was nearly spinning as I walked toward the man sitting on my patio.
Mr. Hansen jumped when I opened the patio door. "You're back already?" he asked, putting his book down as he stood up. "It's not even 9 yet."
I laughed weakly as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the cheek. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking at me.
"I don't think you want to know," I whispered, looking away.
He dropped his arms from around me. "Did something happen?" he asked. "Did that guy do something to you?" I shook my head and he sighed. "You fucked him." I didn't answer, and Mr. Hansen took that as a yes. He sighed again and sat back down, taking a sip of the beer on the table. "Well, I guess I should have expected that... I can't lie and say I'm not a little upset but it's not like we ever talked about it..."