*Note to readers: The inspiration for this story is two-fold. A colleague at work didn't know I was listening when he was 'rocking out' to a John Denver song (there's a real oxymoron) my dad used to love called Rocky Mountain High. That, coupled with a movie my girlfriend, Kay, told me about some time ago called Laurel Canyon, gave me the perfect setting for a love story with some interesting twists and turns. I put the two of them together and this is the result.
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"Oh...wow! I think I might actually like living at your mom's," she said as she basked in the afterglow. "That was the best sex we've had in...." She rolled over and said, "How long has it been?"
"I don't know. Let's see. I finished law school two weeks ago, we spent a week packing and driving out here to Colorado so...."
She flopped back down and said playfully, "I was beginning to think I was gonna have to find someone on the side to take care of my needs, you know?"
He rolled over on top of her and said with mock seriousness, "I may be a lawyer-in-name only until I pass the bar, but I would have to gut you like a fish if you fooled around on me."
Both of them were teasing, but his girlfriend of the last two years, 30-year old Trisha Graham, wasn't totally kidding. She said she loved him and assured him she really did, but it just never felt the way he thought it should feel. He'd been so caught up in school and studying and he was away so much of the time, he couldn't know she really had thought about hitting the bars just to get laid more than a few times. Even when he was home, he was studying or sleeping. She couldn't remember the last time they'd had an honest-to-God date, and even sex had become a rarity.
Elton Carlson was 37 and by far the oldest person in his graduating class from Columbia law school and he'd had to study longer and harder than anyone else just to keep up. He did just that and ended up graduating 15th in his class, no small accomplishment for someone who'd dropped out of college when he was just shy of 21 to sing and play lead guitar in a rock band his mother had long-wanted to produce.
Leigh Carlson was 53 and had been a lover of music and...men (and maybe even women—Elton never knew for sure but had long suspected as much) and drugs...all her adult life. She'd even told her son several times he was a mistake, the result of too many drugs and too much booze after an Elton John concert.
Her parents had named her after the actress, Vivian Leigh, and she in turn, had named her son after her long-time crush—none other than Elton John. That was before she knew he was gay, but it made no difference to her as she'd always been a fan of his music just the same.
Elton was now back home living with his very successful-music-producer mother in her very large home in Longmont, Colorado, in order to keep expenses down as he studied and prepared to take the bar exam so he could practice in his home state. He had a mountain of student debt and neither he nor his girlfriend could even afford their own studio apartment, let alone a single-family home.
He'd had to beg, plead, and cajole Trisha to agree to move in with his mom, but having their own little guest cottage next to the main house had sealed the deal. Trisha's hesitancy was borne of her boyfriend's repeated comments about his mother and her rather open, free-wheeling lifestyle so he had no one to blame for it but himself. Then again, his reservations were based on many years of personal experience and he had to admit he was possibly even more worried than Trisha. But money being what it was, it was the only viable game in town.
Leigh spent her days producing music in the studio located in the back of her house and/or getting high. Even though marijuana was now legal in Colorado, its legalization hadn't impacted her life one bit. She'd been smoking up since high school and had no intention of ever slowing down. The fact that weed was now legal just meant she could get more potent cannabis anytime she wanted without worrying about the occasional bust for possession. In fact, Elton was pretty sure she was not only getting high with her 27-year old male assistant, Weston Emerson, he was reasonably sure she also sleeping with him. Then again, even if she were, Weston would just be the latest in a very long line of very young men who'd caught his mother's eye and shared her bed over the years.
Trisha wasn't a lawyer or a medical doctor, but she was on the verge of completing her PhD in biomedical research. All she needed to do was get her dissertation approved then return to Columbia to orally defend it and she would be in high demand at any of the many cancer research centers around the country. For now, she could work from their cottage while Elton was spending his days at the University of Colorado Law School some 20 miles to the southwest where he was taking yet another paid course, this one preparing him for the bar.
Trisha was an introvert just like Elton, if not more so. She was good in bed and bold in her research, but otherwise shy in her personal life, content to spend her days in front of a laptop collating data or writing technical papers for her degree. Neither of them partied much and not just because of a lack of time or money. There just wasn't any appeal for either of them in hanging out in loud bars, getting drunk or high, and ruining an entire evening as well as the next morning. They were both proudly pragmatic and there was nothing pragmatic about getting drunk, high, or even just zoning out watching TV or listening to music.
With the exception of their waning love life, they'd gotten into a very good rhythm and daily routine over the last year of their relationship. Both of them seemed happy with the other, and Elton was even thinking about possibly proposing to her sometime within the next few months or so because Trisha wasn't just brilliant, she was also downright beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact.
He remembered seeing her in the main library on campus for the first time and couldn't help but thinking how much she looked like an even prettier version of a young Kate Beckinsale from her long, dark hair to her beautiful body. Elton wasn't alone in thinking she resembled the 'vampire warrior'. Once he'd gotten to know her and confessed it to her, Trisha told him she'd heard that so many times she'd stopped counting. As a couple, he'd heard at least three other people mention it and had no doubt there were incidents Trisha didn't find worth sharing. Regardless, it was true. She really did look like the beautiful actress.
Elton didn't resemble any particular movie star, but he was a very good-looking guy. He'd had no problem getting laid as often as he'd wanted the nearly two years he spent in college or the four years he'd played lead guitar for the band. Like his mom, he'd gotten high virtually every day and often combined it with vodka or tequila sometime beginning in the early afternoons (or even the late mornings) and lasting until whenever. He never thought twice about partying hardy until the third time he woke up in a jail cell having no idea where he was or how he got there. It was all petty stuff and his mom's lawyers managed to make sure none of it went on his permanent record.
That final time had had a profound impact on his life. He swore off both of his drugs of choice, got straight, and left the band. His mother was so angry she'd basically disowned him, telling him to start paying rent or get the hell out. He did the latter and after six months of being clean and sober living with a friend, joined the Navy for four years at he tender age of 26 where he served as a legal assistant which is where his interest in and love of the law began.
He left active duty, applied and got accepted to The University of Colorado and after graduating Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Political Science with a minor in English, was accepted to Columbia's prestigious school of law. And now here he was, back living at home with his mother who was still getting stoned—and almost certainly laid—day after day.
Trisha laughed at his threat of gutting her and told him she'd never actually do anything like that while refraining from telling him that even modest, little-old Trisha had a breaking point when it came to sex. "What time is dinner again?" she asked as she got up to take a shower.
Elton laughed and said, "Whenever you make it. My mom doesn't cook, remember?"
"Great," Trisha said. "Me, either."
The two of them winged it after going over to the 'big house' and rummaging through the kitchen and the cupboards. "She doesn't shop either, does she?" Trisha said after finding the kitchen looked like Old Mother Hubbard's.
She found a couple of packs of Ramen Noodles and handed them to Elton. "I thought we were done with these, but evidently not." She jammed them into his hands and said, "I found them. You cook 'em."
As they were slurping their noodles, Leigh walked in smoking one of her ever-present joints and said, "Hey you two!" She looked at them and asked if they'd like to take a toke.
Elton just rolled his eyes and ignored here while Trisha politely told her 'no thank you.'
"Wow. I knew my son was a buzz kill, but not you, too. Please tell me you have a little fun once in a while, hon," Leigh said imploringly.
"We have all kinds of fun," Trisha said defensively.
"Oh, really?" Leigh asked taking a big hit. "Such as?"
