That Tammy Burt and I were friends, good friends, was a fact, but I was never quite sure how it started. Okay, a shared love of programming helped, as did the fact that Tammy and her divorced mom lived just a block away, but at the time our friendship began, Tammy was only twelve and I was sixteen. Four years in middle teens was a lifetime!
We met, I guess, in one of the high school computer labs during a free period. Our town wasn't big enough to have separate facilities for junior high and high school, and seventh graders like Tammy were allowed to use the high school labs. I was the only other one there, trying to debug a C++ routine I'd been working on, and she asked me a question about nested subroutines. By the time I'd answered the question, and we had worked out what she needed to do, she had rewritten her code, and it worked first time! She debugged my routine for me as well.
I quite often saw her in the lab after that, but if anyone else was there she'd only say 'hi' and get on with whatever she was doing. For a twelve-year-old, Tammy had a wise head on her shoulders, because she knew if it became common knowledge that we had become friends, high school would have had a good chance to become hell. No, she asked me if I would help her at home, where she had a couple of PCs and a laptop networked together. I was happy to agree, as there were things I needed a network for, to test my code, and Tammy was happy to let me use hers. I reckon that over the next few years it was as much Tammy helping me as me helping Tammy. Call it a partnership.
Tammy's mom? I think she might have been a little doubtful at first, given the discrepancy in ages between me and her daughter, but it wasn't long before Jane Burt accepted me, and I became a frequent visitor to their home. Jane's ex-husband was a wealthy man, and the ranch-style house where she and Tammy lived had a big swimming-pool out back, a pool where I'd swum many a mile now. Usually just with Tammy, but sometimes Jane would join us. On those days, I'd always have to jack off when I got home, because Jane Burt was a very good-looking lady, especially in a bikini. Not that her bikinis were particularly revealing, because they weren't. Well, no more than you'd expect from a bikini worn by a nice suburban mom in her thirties. They were certainly less revealing than Tammy's. Not that Tammy had a lot to reveal in the early days of our friendship. Beanpole just about sums up her figure. It's just that Jane seemed to ooze animal magnetism, at last to my teen-and-twenty hormone-fuelled libido she did. I tried to hide my lust for her, because she was so nice, and I didn't want to repel her, or spoil my friendship with Tammy. Tammy was a late developer, and the tomboy I first met was turning into a startlingly good-looking young woman. Taking after her mom, I think, and I found myself peopling my jack-off fantasies with imagined nude images of both of them.
It's not that I was a stranger to sex, because I wasn't. In my second year at college I'd hooked up with Lara Svenson, cool, blond, and initially intimidating, until one night we'd gotten slightly drunk together in her room-mate's absence - a family funeral, if I remember right - and Lara confided to me that what she wanted was a fuck-buddy pseudo-boyfriend. Someone to share sex with, but without a long-term commitment, just for fun, because she enjoyed it. And to keep away the unwanted would-be boyfriends as well. Well, hell, I could do that!
'I'm your man,' I'd said, and the next thing I knew she was leading me to her bedroom for our first fuck. Good, very good, and it got better as we practiced on each other. We'd graduated together, had one final night of great sex, and parted friends. I missed her!
Now I was twenty-two, I had a good degree in computer science, with a minor in electronics, and Tammy was all set to go to the same college that I had just graduated from. I was confident that her degree would probably be better than mine. Jane phoned me, the day before Tammy was due to leave.
"Bill? It's Jane Burt. Can I beg a favor?"
"Of course."
A laugh down the phone. "Without even knowing what it is?"
"Hey, I trust you. What can I do for you?"
"Doing anything tomorrow?"
"Nothing that can't be put off."
"Will you drive me and Tammy to the airport? I sprained my wrist, couple of days ago, and it's uncomfortable to drive."
"Of course. What time?"
"Flight's at eleven. Say, nine-thirty?"
"I'll be there."
We saw Tammy off, slightly late, and at eleven-thirty Jane and I were back in Jane's SUV. When I reached to turn the ignition on, she stopped me. I glanced across at her, curious. She gave me a faint smile.
"Any plans for today?"
"Like I said on the phone last night, nothing that can't be put off." I studied her for a moment, curious. Jane was usually very decisive and she seemed to be unsure of herself. "Something on your mind?"
She shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I'm missing Tammy already."
I laughed. "After fifteen minutes? I thought it would take at least until tonight."
"Yes, I know, I'm being silly, aren't I? Mom's privilege, worrying when her chick flees the nest. I worry about my little girl, except she's not so little, now, is she?" She gnawed her bottom lip for a moment, then took a deep breath. What she said next almost stopped my breath. "Bill, have you ever wanted her? I mean, sexually?"
I stared at her, seeing her bright eyes, her flush, a flush that deepened as I tried to frame a reply. I sensed, somehow, that unless I answered honestly, our friendship might be over. I nodded. "Yes, I have."
"When? How?" No anger in Jane's voice, which relieved me, just honest curiosity.
"Only since I finished my college course and graduated. Coming home and seeing my little tomboy friend Tammy suddenly a beautiful young woman. Well, I'm male. I have hormones." I shrugged and gave her a rueful smile. "I've never touched her. Not that way."
"I know," said Jane. "I will say, I would trust you with her, Bill. I don't mean to keep your hands off, I'm not that stupid. If she wanted you, what chance do I have of stopping her, short of locking her up? I mean I'd trust you to make her feel good. Not do anything to hurt her."
I was feeling slightly stunned at this, but rallied. "Thank you for that."
She shrugged. "I've tried to tell her everything she needs to know about the man-woman thing, but she needs to find out for herself before it's real."
"Yeah, I guess she does."
She nodded, giving me a faint smile. "Enough about Tammy, at least for the moment. Any ideas what we might do today? I say 'we' because I have elected you to the post of Jane Burt official cheerer-up for today, while I get used to the big hole in my life of Tammy being away."
"She'll phone, surely?"
"Of course she will, Bill. I'm just feeling lonely and selfish."
"Never that, Jane. Come on, think! What would you like to do?"
She shrugged. "Just play, I think, something silly."
"Something silly, eh? How about we drive down to the cove, have a walk along the cliff path, get a burger and fries and a soda, maybe some ice-cream, and just be kids for the day?"
"Yes!" She pointed. "Tally-ho!"
Midweek, kids mostly at school, it was relatively quiet, and we headed off along the clifftop path. At one point I took Jane's hand to help her over a steep step and when she was safe I moved to release her, but she kept my hand in hers. It was a nice feeling, and I was happy to hold the hand of a lovely woman, even if she was fifteen years older than me.
When we got back to the concession, it was almost one o'clock. I turned to Jane. "Burger and fries, Mrs. Burt?"