The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college was interesting to say the least. As the growing season started Rita made a proposition to me. She told me to figure out how many hours a week during the summer months I worked on other houses and she'd employ me for the same amount of time. I loved the sound of the idea but something about said I should refrain from taking her up on her idea, at least not entirely. Our compromise was for me to keep two of my smaller jobs outside her house and she'd make up the difference. She assured me that the amount of actual work I'd do for her would go up but that I'd also have more "free time."
It was too good of a deal to pass up plus I really didn't mind her motivation of course. It was nice too because she'd have some work she wanted done on the house, something older houses need a lot of, and when they guy she'd contract to do the job would show up she'd make me the point of contact and leave it up to me to see that the work was done the way she desired. I balked at it a little at first because as I told her I had no idea how to do the work involved. She assured me that she'd tell me exactly the way she wanted something to turn out and then it'd be my job to see that that happened. Rita was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and there were a couple of times I'd said the job was done and she'd come in behind me and say it wasn't exactly what she wanted. Then I'd have to bring back the guy who'd done the work and see to it that it was fixed. That caused me a little anxiety at first but I got through it all right.
In early June she wanted me to attend a rather formal affair at the country club with her. She told me she wanted certain people to see a young man on her arm that evening and make them jealous. I can't say that I was all that interested in going to a party where there were a bunch of "old people" and have to listen to elevator music all evening but there was something appealing about it too. My town's country club was a huge status symbol and since my parents and Rita's friends ran in entirely different circles I didn't expect to see anyone there I'd know.
Rita had me rent a tuxedo. She wore an evening gown that a woman of her early 30s might wear, low cut in the rear and low enough cut in the front to show off her ample cleavage. The thing was, she looked really good in it and quite elegant.
Back then the drinking age was 21 so this was before the legal age retreated to 18 for a number of years. But when you are at a private club with someone like Rita it's unseeming to question a person's desires so when Rita asked me what I wanted to drink I immediate said California Port Sherry. The waiter returned with it without question. The evening was ostensibly so raise money for the town's "Garden Club" which was ostensibly to town beautification but which Rita told me was simply a euphemism for the town's rich busy bodies to gossip and strut. Rita informed me that as distasteful as she found such an event because it was so contrived she was always able to use it as leverage for other items she had on her agenda. I never asked, nor did she offer, what that agenda was mostly because I really wasn't interested. Years later, however, I found out she was a heavy weight in the town's historical commission and worked rather tirelessly on getting ordinances passed dealing with the preservation of the town's history.
Mostly I sat and listened in on the various conversations she had and said a lot of "nice to meet you" sorts of things but didn't offer much else. It was around 10:30 when Rita said she wanted to talk to someone in was sitting off in a corner and asked me to accompany her. She put her hand lightly on my upper arm as we walked over there and saw to it that her breast pressed into me any number of times along the way, more than enough to arouse me. The effect would have been complete when we got there but I was surprised by who was sitting there.
"Well good evening Peter," the man said. "I didn't expect to see you here."
That was a real understatement for me. The man sitting in the corner with his wife was our family physician, Dr. Julius Feldman. He was a man in his mid-60s then. He was part of the dying breed of general practitioners and had been the doctor who'd delivered me at birth and then acted as both my pediatrician and our family's doctor. I was sure this would get back to my parents and I'd be answering to my mother the reason I was at a country club event that I hadn't bothered to inform her of. That never happened though.
As it turned out Rita and Dr. Feldman were of a mind and I'm pretty sure had much the same agenda. When we were returning to our table Rita said to me, "You know, ten years ago he wasn't allowed to be a member here."
I couldn't imagine why a man I'd always thought of as a prominent member of the community would be desired membership in anything. Rita explained, "He's Jewish and time was Jews and Catholics couldn't join a lot of things around town."
I expressed my surprise at this revelation and Rita assured me that small town politics could be rather nasty. She told me that if you kept your ears open to what was going around in time you could figure out what drove people and why they did certain things. "I want you to meet a dear friend of mine." She said this just before we got back to our table and took me to another table where a woman was sitting alone."
"Helen, I'd like you to meet Peter." We exchanged greetings and then Rita said, "Helen's my partner in crime so to speak." I looked at her not understanding and she saw this. "Listen, why don't you talk to Helen while I go powder my nose."
Rita didn't wait for a response and left immediately. I was about to sit down when Helen said, "this is one of my favorite songs. Will you honor me with a dance?" The event had called for a small band that mostly played songs from the 40s that I'd never heard of. Curiously the song the chose to play at that moment was the first I'd know as it was rather recent, "Moon River," a song from the movie "Breakfast At Tiffany's" Helen was much like Rita in that she didn't wait for an answer. She got up and took my hand almost leading me to the dance floor. There was absolutely no one dancing nor had there been for most of the evening so my level of self-consciousness rose greatly.
Helen, Rita's "dear friend" as she called her, was a woman some twenty years younger than Rita and actually quite stunning looking. I guess you'd call her a slight woman, standing maybe five four and weighing all of 110 pounds but a beautiful face, long brown hair that she was wearing up that evening and a mouth that looked absolutely seductive.
As we started to dance I said, "won't your husband mind us dancing?" I assumed everyone who was even a few years older than me was also married.
Helen smiled and said, "I'm a widow."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said feeling I'd spoken out of turn.
"You don't know do you?" Helen said still smiling. "You must be about the only person in town who doesn't then. You see, I married a man quite a number years older than me," she paused briefly and then said, "a lot of years, and he died two years ago from emphysema. We were only married for a little over 5 years and everyone had said I'd married him for his money."
Then something came to me and I said, "You're Mrs. Bradford?"
"That'd be me," she replied with a smile. "So you have heard of me?"
"Um, yeah."
We had been dancing at arm's length until then and she pulled me very close to her and whispered in my ear, "Well, don't believe everything you hear." It was then I felt Helen's leg press between mine and into my crotch. "But you're everything Rita's told me about you."
I thought what was between Rita and I was secret but could only express my shock with a response of, "Really?"
"Don't worry," she breathed heavily into my ear, "your secret's safe with me. Besides, Rita and I are best of friends." I felt Helen's hand on my back press a little more firmly into me and I thought I felt her kiss me next to my ear but I've never been certain. What I did know is our little dance had been extremely arousing and by the time the song had ended I was totally erect.
When we headed back to her table I saw Rita sitting there waiting for us. I felt like I had been disloyal and became nervous. When we sat down Rita said, "Peter, I was talking with Helen yesterday and told her how helpful you've been to me." Now from my conversation with Helen I wasn't sure Rita hadn't told Helen of our relationship. "I was thinking maybe you could help her out a little too."
I stammered, "Well, I guess so." It was at that moment Rita put her hand on my thigh and ran it up to my crotch. Her hand covered my erection. She rested it there for only a second before removing it. Rita gave no indication that she was bothered by what she had found and continued having a light conversation with Helen.
