After the Ball

Jodi came into the lounge, took off her wrap and flinging it onto a chair pirouetted round the room singing a song she remembered her grandmother singing:

"After the ball is over, after the break of morn/After the dancers' leaving, after the stars are gone/Many a heart is aching, if you could read them all/Many the hopes that have vanished after the ball." She heard Roland come in from putting the car away and suddenly self-conscious she stopped her gyrations and singing. He entered the room taking off his jacket and dropped it onto Jodi's wrap, his tie quickly followed.

"Phew, I hate formal dress," he complained.

"But darling, you looked so handsome in it, and it's been such a lovely evening."

"Mmm, perhaps we could do it again some time," he said, trying to sound offhand.

"Oh come on Roland, you only took me because that girl got a virus, so why would you..."

Roland grinned and teasingly said, "Aha, but you didn't hear what the other guys said about you."

Jodi had heard some of it, and that was part of the reason why she had been so animated when she'd entered the lounge, but she wasn't about to admit she'd overheard, and anyway she wanted to hear it again.

"What did they say, darling?" she asked coaxingly.

"Well, they wanted to know where I'd found you and they said I was a lucky sod. You could see how they felt; look at how many of them wanted to dance with you, and my God, the CEO."

Jodi extended her arms to Roland and took his hands in hers.

"They didn't get much chance, did they; I danced with you most of the time."

"They thought you were my girl friend and..."

Jodi laughed and said, "You mean some old woman you just happened to pick up on the way there."

"No truly, they thought you were my girl."

"Well that's lovely darling, and it's just as well we didn't disabuse them."

"You looked terrific; I was so pleased to be seen with you. I hope all those guys go to bed green with envy. You know, I felt jealous when you danced with them."

********************

It had certainly been a night to remember for Jodi. Pure chance had led to Roland inviting her to his company's annual ball for its employees, the chance being the girl who was to go with him being struck down by a dreaded virus.

At first Jodi had demurred, telling him it was years since she had been to a dance and probably forgotten how to do it; and anyway why would he want to take his mother.

Roland had countered by saying that dancing was like learning to ride a bicycle; once you'd mastered it you never forgot how to do it.

In a rather unflattering manner he said that he couldn't think of any girl he was able to invite at short notice, and if he had to go alone he wouldn't go at all.

Despite his somewhat uncomplimentary way of putting it Jodi had protested he must go, since it was during the ball he was due to receive his certificate, and rather than him not go she would accompany him.

She had prepared herself very carefully, and when Roland saw her she knew he was impressed even before he said, "Mother, you look...look absolutely stunning."

She knew she did, but said, "Ah, surprised are you?"

"Well, yes, I didn't..."

Jodi smiled and said, "That's because you never normally look at me properly. I'm here to cook your meals, clean up after you, try and make peace between you and your father and...Oh, I'm just someone who happens to be around, aren't I?"

"Come on mum, you know it's not like that."

"Yes I know, I'm just joking. So you might be pleased to be seen with me?"

"I...I...er...yes, you look very...er....very..."

"Sexy? I know I've made sure of that. Now come on, take poor old Cinders to the ball. Who knows, I might lose a glass slipper at midnight and the a handsome prince will come looking for me."

She certainly did look sexy. She had brushed her long auburn hair until it shone. She had even rushed out and bought a dress for the occasion, a brocaded fabric consisting of silk interwoven with metallic threads that rivaled the shine of her hair. It was, she thought, not really sexy; no breasts popping out of it, and no revealing of thighs, but somehow it looked sexier than something designed to look sexy. "Understated" she told herself.

It had cost her a fortune but she was determined to look her best for Roland and the occasion.

"Understated" is perhaps a word that well describes Jodi. Her face was in the classical mould; her nose was a little longer than was currently fashionable and her mouth not as wide, but her lips were deliciously full, with her lower lip projecting ever so slightly out from her upper lip. On the night of the ball that lower lip, after the judicious application of some lipstick, looked moist and shiny.

Her golden/brown long lidded eyes, which she had always thought one of her best features, needed no makeup.

Her figure, of which she was justly proud, was slender but swelled out in all the places the female figure is supposed to swell out. Her breasts, although concealed, were moulded by the dress that seemed to raise them into delightful mounds. Her bras, had they been visible, were less modest than the dress, being of flimsy lace. These allowed her nipples to be seen, albeit only under the cloth of the dress, sweetly adorning the aforementioned mounds.

Before presenting herself to Roland she surveyed herself in the long mirror, and felt satisfied. "Yes, I do look good," she decided.

When Roland saw her she was left in no doubt that she really did look good.

********************

Jodi's story up to the night of the ball is not an unfamiliar one; there are plenty of women who could identify with it, in general if not in detail.

Smitten by her handsome English teacher at high school, and finding that he was equally besotted with her, she was frequently asked to stay after school "Just to go over your essay with you; I'll drive you home when we've finished."

The upshot was that on one of those drives home the teacher, Randall, took an extended detour, pulling up at a secluded spot. Jodi was so enamored of him it took little persuasion to inveigle her into the back seat of the car. There Randall rather painfully deflowered her.

After that there were many drives home and covert meetings. Jodi became pregnant and they married.

Randall had a narrow escape. He was eight years older than Jodi and she was under the age of consent. Had Jodi's parents decided to make a fuss Randall would have at least been dismissed the teaching profession and would most likely have ended up in jail.

Her parents, rather than expose their daughter to the sort of publicity that might be involved if they revealed what had happened, agreed to the marriage. Whether this was the best thing for Jodi is arguable, but the first two years of their marriage, especially after the birth of Roland, had been passionate.

It is a moot point whether a woman who has a passionate nature is blessed or cursed. No doubt much depends on her partner. If the partner's libido matches hers, then all may be well. At first Randall and Jodi seemed well matched in this respect.

It was during the third year of their marriage that things started to become shaky. For reasons Jodi could not understand Randall seemed to lose sexual interest in her. She was still very young and Randall had been the only man in her life, sexually speaking.

Therefore youth and limited sexual experience left her rather naïve and certainly baffled by this fall off in their sex life; from almost every night their love making fell away to eventually arrive at close to nil.

When she could bring herself to tackle Randall about it he either eluded her questions or made comments like, "It happens in every marriage, you can't go on fucking every night indefinitely."

There was an aspect of Jodi's character that worked to her disadvantage in this situation. Some women might have sought gratification elsewhere, but not Jodi. She was an "all or nothing girl," and from the start it had been "all" with Randall.

That it had not been "all" on Randall's part was something she did not consider until long after there sex lives went into decline. Another thing that in her naivety she did not consider was that Randall was still a teacher, and there were other attractive girls in his classes. Jodi also failed to understand the possible implications of Randall's desire to have a vasectomy soon after Roland's birth.

As is often the case, especially with mothers and sons, there was a strong bond between Jodi and Roland. Perhaps this was a way of siphoning off some of her sexual frustrations, and certainly Roland as a child responded to her love for him.

When Roland reached the age of five he started to attend school, so on top of Randall's increasing neglectfulness, Jodi found she had time on her hands – time to mull over her discontent.

Feeling she had to do something with her life she decided she would try to enter the workforce. Here she found herself to be at a considerable disadvantage. Because of her early marriage she had failed to finish high school, and having had no work experience, employers were reluctant to take her on.

To overcome this problem Jodi attended a college that specialized in training girls for reception work. Completing the course, and armed with a certificate, Jodi launched herself once more into seeking employment.

In this search she found herself with a distinct asset; she not only had the certificate, but she had that which had attracted Randall in the first place, undoubted good looks.

She quickly discovered that employers wanted to have decorative girls or women at their reception desk. Perhaps they felt that at the reception desk, usually being the first point of contact for clients, the attractive young lady might give a suitable ambiance to the organization.

Of course, government legislation forbade discrimination on grounds of gender, age, appearance and sexual orientation, but this was easily got around.

After a couple of interviews Jodi got a job as a dentist's receptionist. There her looks no doubt helped the patients, especially the male patients, to be distracted from what in their imaginations might follow when they entered the surgery.

She noticed that the men in the waiting room tended to gaze at her, rather than read the generally awful magazines provided.

Some of the stares were frankly lustful. Others were more wistful, and if Jodi happened to catch a yearning eye, they looked quickly away, only to return to gazing at her when they thought she wasn't looking.

Soon after she started work there arose a problem, that problem being he dentist. A handsome man in his early fifties he started to regale Jodi with his marital troubles. Nothing specific was ever said, but the drift of the talk became obvious, usually along the lines, "I'm going away this weekend and my wife won't come with me; I wish I had someone to take with me."

Given her impoverished sexual life Jodi might not have objected to a bedtime weekend with her employer, but a number of factors came into play.

First she recognized the dangers of philandering with one's employer. Second, she had met the dentist's wife when she came in for treatment; a formidable lady who, from what Jodi could gather, held the strings of a well filled purse, the contents of which were mainly hers. Third, there was that all or nothing aspect of Jodi's character.

The dentist would have liked to have had weekends away with Jodi, and perhaps when business was slack and his penis hard, a quick hump on the chair in his surgery, but that was all.

Jodi was aware of her all or nothing character, and had resolved that eventually she would strive to overcome it. She might leave Randall, set up in a place of her own, and take a lover, or even several lovers. She had heard that there were young men at the height of their potency seeking the company of older women; this was an exciting prospect.

"Eventually," however, involved Roland. It would be after he had completed his electrician's apprenticeship and was able to stand on his own. That moment had arrived on the night of the ball.

As part of the evening events there was the presentation of certificates to those who had completed their apprenticeships. For Roland, and for Jodi, this was a special occasion because Roland had come out as Apprentice of the Year. He received not only his certificate, but along with it a gold watch and the plaudits of the management.

Jodi knew that the time was near for to make her choice; to stay with her less than satisfying spouse, or, leave and carve out a new life for herself. She was thirty nine at this turning point, and she knew she had to choose soon.

The apprenticeship! This had for once stirred up in Randall some interest in his son.

"An electrician...a bloody electrician; you've topped the final year of high school and you want to be an electrician, over my dead body."

Jodi thought that this could be arranged if necessary, but it didn't come to that. Randall, having done his foaming at the mouth act, soon lost interest and refocused his attention of more engaging matters to do with school and teaching – or so we might assume.

Roland, in taking out an apprenticeship, was in fact behaving shrewdly. For many years the universities had been pumping out lawyers, doctors, accountants and managers. Young people had felt this was the way to wealth and status. Roland saw it otherwise.

For many years, decades in fact, a neglectful government had ignored the training of skilled trade people.

What some had seen coming for a long time fell upon others – apparently including the politicians – like a bolt from the blue; the country was starved of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, fitters and turners and a whole host of other trade people.

Panic arose, and these trade people could virtually name their own price; hence Roland's choice of an apprenticeship.

******************** For all their closeness during Roland's childhood Jodi noticed that during his teen years Roland seemed to grow away from her. She accepted this, however regretfully, as being in the nature of things. Children grew up, left home, and if all was well established a new type of relationship with their parents.

She got some pleasure seeing him at first spurt upward to become a lanky gangling figure, and then begin to fill out and show all the signs of both physical and intellectual maturity.

There was one aspect of his maturity that gave her some misgivings. Learning from her own experience she made sure that Roland understood the methods of contraception that were available, and that he understood the possible consequences of not using one or other of what was available.

Things had changed significantly since that night in the back of the car with Randall. Mother's were getting their girls on the contraceptive pill, "Just in case." "Just in case" had most commonly become, "Most certainly."

Roland was a nice looking young man and he had no difficulty finding girls to copulate with him, but like many mother's Jodi felt a twinge of jealousy when she knew Roland was enjoying the body of this or that girl. This jealousy was no doubt exacerbated by her feelings of sexual deprivation.

Given Roland's ability to attract girls it had surprised Jodi that when the girl he had been intending to take to the ball was unable to go with him, he had resorted to her, even if he done so in a slightly unflattering way. His way of asking her she put down to the generally casual manner in which he had related to her as his teen years advanced. That he said he couldn't think of another girl to ask surprised her even more..

She wondered if he had really wanted to take her all along. His father took no interest so perhaps it was because he wanted her to be there when he received his certificate and gold watch. Whatever the case, and no matter how the invitation had been expressed, she was glad she had gone.

She had been delighted and embarrassed when the company CEO had opened the ball by taking her onto the floor, leaving a spouse fuming on the sidelines. She had danced with a few other younger men and this had been exciting. She even considered them as possible candidates for her bed if and when she left Randall.

Most of the evening though she had danced with Roland; he held her very close and much to her surprise this had sent thrilling little shivers down her spine that seemed to end up in her clitoris, giving it a strange ticking sensation. She in her turn had held him even closer.

He had been right, dancing, like learning to ride a bicycle, once learned, is never forgotten.

********************

Now it was over, and after the ball were there hearts aching? As they stood holding hands and looking at each other, hers was aching.

In the instant way it sometimes happens the past years rolled out before her. The back of Randall's car, her marriage, Roland's birth, his childhood and the affection they had shared, then the fall off in her love life with Randall and Roland moving away from her in his teen years.

It was one of those pivotal moments in life. She felt she was at the parting of the ways. Soon, she believed, Roland would leave home and of course her. Could the past have been different? She felt the tears prickling at the back of her eyes, but she fought them off; there must be no tears tonight, not after the ball. And there was the future...

Roland had said, "Perhaps we could do it again some time."

What did he mean by that? The company ball again next year, or something more, and did he really mean it anyway?

As she looked at him she wondered what he was thinking.

"What happens after the ball?" she murmured.

Jodi hardly knew she had spoken the words out loud.

"What?" asked Roland.

"Oh, just some words of an old song darling. 'After The Ball Is Over,' my grandmother used to sing it; it's about what happens after a ball."

"Oh."

"If it hadn't been me, but that girl what would have happened after the ball?"

"But it was you."

"Yes, but imagine, if you'd taken that girl, what would you have done?"

"I would have..."

"Don't tell me you'd have said goodnight to her on the doorstep and come home, because I won't believe you."

"No...no, I suppose I'd have kissed her goodnight."

"Only kissed?"

"Well it would have depended."

"On what?"

"How she...er...how she responded to the kiss."

"The people at the ball thought I was your girlfriend."

"Yes."

"Well kiss me goodnight then."

"Mother, I..."

"It's been 'Jodi' all evening, so why mother now?"

"Jodi, please, you don't understand."

"I only asked you to kiss me goodnight."

"I...I can't..."

"Oh for heavens sake I only asked for a kiss, and don't worry, I won't poison you."

Jodi drew close to him, there bodies touching as they had during the dance. She stretched up and pressed her lips softly to his. The kiss lingered for a few moments and Jodi flicked the tip of her tongue over his lips.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Mother, please, I...you're making me..."

Jodi kissed him again. The ticking sensation in her clitoris that had been mildly present for most of the evening grew more insistent. She was trembling but not with cold for she felt hot. Her heart seemed to be racing and opened mouthed she kissed him again and thrust with her tongue into his.

She felt him tensing and there was a pressure against her lower abdomen and she needed no telling what it was.

Wickedly she knew what she was doping to Roland and herself, and suddenly Roland exploded into action. She felt his hands reach behind her and start to fumble with the zip of her dress. Then the zip was down; Roland drew the dress from her shoulders and it slithered down her body to lie at her feet.