Ashley pulled the last weed out of the garden of this mansion & reached up to wipe the sweat from her forehead with the wrist of her gloved hand. She looked to her right to see her husband, Scott, on the other side of the driveway, planting the last of the small trees in the yard.
The two of them had finally been able to quit their office jobs to work full time at the landscaping company they'd started a few years before. It was just the two of them & it was a lot of hard work, but it was so worth it! She'd never been happier!
As she leaned back onto her knees to stand up, she could see her client, James Pendleton, standing on his front porch smiling at her with his yellow teeth & chapped lips. He was holding a glass of lemonade out to her with his big flabby arm. The man had to be around 300 pounds.
Ashley smiled back at him & took the glass. She didn't feel any red flags go off from the old man. At 85, you couldn't expect him to look like a heartthrob.
She took a sip from the lemonade & thanked him, explaining what all they had done that day with his landscaping. She was usually the contact for the clients. Her job history with HR made her more slightly skilled at that than Scott.
Ashley didn't notice how Mr. Pendleton was looking at her, but that wasn't unusual for her. At 37, she assumed her prime years had passed her by. Little did she know that her husband was the envy of every male that had ever seen her. At 5'5", with long, thick, wavy brown hair, perky B cup breasts, and legs to die for, she was the subject of every teenage boy's fantasy and a name on every married man's "list." With children at the ages of 11 and 7, she was officially the town milf. She was, simply, beautiful.
But her real gem was her butt. It wasn't big by any means, but it was perky & tight. She worked out every day--mostly cardio & legs--and her butt made sure everyone knew that. Her morning runs in her leggings drew the head of every man within eyeshot. And after all these years, she still had no idea. But in her defense, it's hard to see men ogling you when they're standing behind you.
The real reason she's never noticed the attention she gets from men is because she's only ever had eyes for one. She'd been in love with Scott for as long as she can remember, as early as five years old. Sure, she had some boyfriends in high school, but she didn't do anything more with them than kissing--not for their lack of trying--because she was saving herself for marriage. And something inside her always knew that she would marry Scott. They reconnected in their early 20s & got married months later.
"Well thank you for doing such a good job," Mr. Pendleton said, startling her from her reminiscing about her love story.
"We're not quite done yet. My husband has another yard to start on, but I'll be here tomorrow to finish up this last flower bed for you."
"I look forward to seeing your lovely face tomorrow then. Thanks again, Ashley." He smiled a sweet smile at her and stepped forward to shake her hand.
As he stepped forward, Ashley could barely keep her face from showing how revolted she was at the smell of Mr. Pendleton's breath. Fortunately, Scott had already warned her about this.
Geez, does he just eat onion & garlic for every meal? She thought to herself while smiling happily at him.
"You know," Mr. Pendleton said, "I don't want to freak you out, but you look just like my wife did when she was younger."
Ashley couldn't help but blush. "Really?"
"Yes. You're the spitting image of her! I really couldn't believe it when I came out here and saw you earlier. You brought back a lot of fond memories of my life 40 years ago."
"That's so sweet. It sounds like you really loved her."
"I still do. She's been gone 12 years this past February & I still expect to see her every morning when I wake up."
Ashley's heart just broke. She couldn't imagine loving someone for almost your entire life just to have them gone forever in an instant. She couldn't help but to get misty-eyed at his story.
"Well," she said, "just let me know if there's any way I can help. We always have extra dinner if you'd ever like us to bring you some. Every man needs a home cooked meal!"
"Thank you very much for that offer," Mr. Pendleton smiled with his yellow teeth again. Is one of them black? "I may just have to take you up on that offer sometime. And I'll let you know if there's anything else you can do."
At that moment, Ashley heard the work truck honk, telling her Scott was all packed up and ready to leave. She thanked Mr. Pendleton for sharing his story, gathered up her gloves and few tools, and walked over to the truck.
As she got in, Scott looked at her. "Thanks for taking one for the team there. I'm not sure I can get within ten feet of that guy's breath."
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop it. He's a sweet old man. He's not bothering anyone."
"He's bothering me! Did you not smell his breath?"
"Of course I did."
"And you didn't think it was that bad?"
"It was obviously a bad smell, Scott, but I don't want to judge him based on it."
"Well I will. It's disgusting."
"He's 85 years old. Is he supposed to smell good?"
"Better than that!"
"Well I think he's a sweetheart. You know, he told me I look just like his wife did."
Scott laughed. "Sounds like he just wants to get into your pants."
Ashley scoffed. "That's not true!"
Scott laughed again. "Right. His dick probably wouldn't even work anymore."
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Not everything is about sex. He really loved his wife & she died. Seeing me reminded him of her. And that made me feel good."
Scott relented once he saw that she was serious. "I'm glad you were able to make him feel better." He reached out to grab her hand.
~~~~~~~~~
Ashley was knocking on the door of Mr. Pendleton's house the next day around 10am when she finished her work. This was her favorite part. After all the sweat & elbow grease, she gets to watch the customer admire the finished work.
Mr. Pendleton eventually opened the door wearing his robe.
"I'm sorry, dear. I was just stepping out of the shower."
Now that he mentioned it, Ashley could see the few wisps of grey hair in their usual combover were slightly wet.
"You're fine," Ashley replied. "I just got the last of the flowers planted and I wanted to show you the finished product!"
"Oh, lovely! Let's go take a look!"
He followed out in his robe and his bare feet. Ashley led him to the flower bed in front of his house & showed him every tree that had been planted. When they got to the rock bed next to his front porch, she bent over to grab one of the rocks to show him the quality. She looked over her shoulder expecting to see him admiring the rocks. Instead, she found his eyes pointed elsewhere.
Is he looking at my backside?
Ashley felt mortified. She suddenly regretted her outfit choice. It was 90 degrees out, so her black tank top & white shorts seemed appropriate when she got dressed that morning. The shorts were fingertip length, so she thought nothing of it. Were they too tight though? She has always hated the way her butt would try to eat whatever pair of pants she wore, even her jeans rode up into her buttcrack slightly. At this moment, she was hyper-aware of the wedgie that had been crawling up into her derrière during her walk around the yard. She wondered how much of that wedgie's creation Mr. Pendleton had witnessed.
There was another part of Ashley, however, that was proud that her butt was worthy of looking at, even if the only viewer was an 85 year old widow.
That part was far to small to matter and her mortification won out. She stood back up and turned around toward Mr. Pendleton quickly enough to watch his eyes dart back up to her face.
"It looks great, dear!"
Ashley hesitate, not knowing if he was complimenting her work or her butt.
"Thank you, Mr. Pendleton," she replied, deciding to not even acknowledge the lewd comment if that's even what it was. "That's just the kind of quality service we love to give!"
"Come inside and let me write that check," he said as he started walking toward the door. Ashley followed behind him.
