All characters are at least 18 years old.
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I stood naked at the sink, looking at my reflection. A contemporary woman's worst enemy, the mirror. I sighed, shaking my head. What did Drew see? I was pushing forty. I wasn't young. I wasn't exciting. I'd been a mom for half my life, for crying out loud. Nagging and scolding, being the killer of fun.
What was I even thinking? I thought I'd matured past this. Instead I felt like a teenager, worrying about the boy I liked liking me back. Was it because I was a sexual creature again? I'd been in limbo this whole time, and now the insecurity was back. I touched my hips and breasts. Did Drew like them?
Before I even noticed, Drew strolled in and wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing the side of my neck. I moaned and turned my head, and he kissed me passionately, a hand gliding up to cup a breast. "You're beautiful, mom," he growled when he pulled away, and I looked back at the mirror uncertainly. He stared along with me, then blinked slowly. "Hm. Looks like you needed to hear that."
"Nonsense," I croaked, voice breaking halfway through a two-syllable word. Christ have mercy.
"You're not feeling--"
"No, of course not," I rushed. I scrunched my eyes up. I couldn't have known what he was asking if I hadn't already been thinking it myself. When I looked at him again, he was wearing a smug expression, which gradually shifted to one of warmth. I sighed. "I don't understand why you're doing this. We're doing this. You don't think I'm too... old?"
He watched me calmly in the mirror, as if lovingly stripping my soul bare, and suddenly spun me around to look him in the eye. "You take that back, mom."
"I'm being serious," I said shyly, absently watching my hand as I ran it across his chest.
"So am I. Do you think I have bad taste?" I shook my head emphatically. "No, right? Because in fact I have the best taste." I couldn't help but laugh, until he leaned in and touched his nose to mine. "And I chose you, mom."
I blushed furiously. Words failed me utterly, my heart skipping so many beats that I probably should have at least lost consciousness. He smiled at me, kissing the top of my head, then tipped my chin up so I was looking at him again.
"It's a crime how pretty and beautiful you are," he murmured, and I could hear the restraint in his voice. I was quite sure he was ready to drag me back to bed at any moment.
"Saying pretty and beautiful is redundant," I mumbled, sounding a bit husky.
"Is it?" He raised an eyebrow and took a step back, looking me over again. "I guess most people would agree. But to me, prettiness isn't a lesser form of beautifulness. Nor is cuteness just a quaint reference to beauty."
"I sense you have a whole model of categorizing beauty?" I giggled.
"The Flavor Theory," he admitted with a grin. "Cuteness legit means 'cute.' More youthful features like rounder eyes, cheeks with baby fat, just an overall shorter face. Stuff like that." I nodded, following his train of thought. "Prettiness is subtle. It has a certain grace, and is a more nuanced form of beauty. Then you have beautifulness. It's striking, with piercing eyes and a somewhat daunting aura. Pretty girls are generally more approachable than beautiful girls."
I mulled it over. "Then what if you say a girl is hot? Where does she fit in?"
He hesitated, probably choosing his words carefully. "Hotness is brash. It has the same 'look at me' factor as beautifulness, but without as much of the substance. A lot of girls try to go for being beautiful, but miss the mark and end up being hot, which they think is the same thing. So hotness ends up coming off as feeling a bit cheap too. Not to say that being hot is bad, but... I dunno, maybe it's just not for me."
"Hm. So why did you say flavor just now?"
"Because each of these types of attractiveness is like a flavor: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. They don't necessarily correspond to certain ones, the point is that they're distinct. Being extremely pretty doesn't mean you're beautiful. They're separate things. And women's looks are often varying combinations of these flavors."
"And you said I'm a mix of pretty and beautiful?" I asked coyly, and he nodded with a wide grin. "Interesting. So what would you say Brie is?"
"A mix of cute and pretty," he answered quickly.
"I see. And how about somebody like... Cherish?"
"Cherry?" He took a brief pause to contemplate. "Cute and beautiful. At a pretty exotic ratio, too."
"Drew!" I laughed, shaking my head.
"That's right, I've empirically determined you to be the best, mom," he joked, backing me out of the bathroom and onto the bed. "Man, so glad it's Christmas break now. 'Cause now I can spend all day with you."
He locked his lips around one of my nipples, and I gasped, arching my back to push my breast closer to him.
"Drew," I panted. "I need to go meet Sasha for coffee. We can't spend all day in bed together."