By the time I left the shower and dried, Gary had already disappeared downstairs. I brushed my teeth and flossed, trying to rid myself of the feeling that Gary's semen was detectable on my breath. I felt I was being irrational, paranoid in fact; but I could not help fearing that somehow my sin could be detected, discovered.
I really did not want to talk much about what had just happened, so I was slightly relieved that Gary was not lurking about. I suspected he needed some distance too. I believed we were both afraid to try to talk about it, fearful that if we looked at this too closely, one of us would decide we needed to stop, retreat, and atone for our sins, etc.
I put on my normal sleeping attire: a tee shirt over my panties, and donned my robe as I typically would. However, this was only 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night. It was far too early to go to bed. I went downstairs to watch some TV.
Mom was still awake, but not quite alert. She seemed surprised to see me in my robe. "Are you staying in tonight?"
"Yeah, I am pretty tired. I have a lot of homework too." I tried to avoid any doing anything that would raise any suspicion on her part. Today's events needed to remain just between Gary and me; no one else ever need know about any of this, I reasoned.
Gary was already in the TV room, also dressed for an evening in. He was wearing a pair of sweats that he had cut into shorts and a tee shirt. If I had thought about it, I would have realized that having Gary and I both dressed for bed at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night would raise some suspicions from Mom; but obviously, I was not thinking too clearly today; far from it.
"So both of you staying in tonight?" Mom shouted from one room to another at Gary.
"Yeah, I just don't feel like going out tonight." He replied.
"Are you two feeling sick? This isn't like either of you."
I jumped in, "We're fine, just tired. Going to take the night off."
Mom looked skeptical, but said nothing more as she finished another vodka and orange en route to her nightly stupor. Mom sat with us for 15 minutes or so before retiring to her bedroom with her next drink.
Gary and I watched TV, mostly in silence for the next hour or so. He was lying on the couch; I was sitting in the recliner. I was tempted to join him on the couch and cuddle a bit, but I knew that was a bad idea. We did not need to move our intimacy into the living area where we could easily be discovered. It was unlikely that Mom would come out of her room again tonight, but it could happen. No, I needed to remain in the recliner away from this temptation on the couch.
I decided to retire about 11:00 p.m. I stood up and gave Gary a kiss on the forehead before heading upstairs. "Good night Gary."
"Liz, thank you for today. It was wonderful," Gary said as I started to leave the room. "I love you; you know that, right?"
"Yes, I know you do. And I love you too. We should not have let today happen; but we did. I don't know what we should do going forward. It is wrong to continue like we have been. But I do not know if I can stop. I know we should stop; I just don't know if I can." I reflected both to Gary and myself as I stood there.
"Why should we stop? Who are we hurting?" Gary was trying to ward off my thoughts that we needed to end this intimacy.
"I guess we are hurting ourselves," I responded honestly.
"Bull shit," Gary answered with passion. "I have not felt this good about myself since before Dad died. In fact, for the first time in nearly six months I do not want to go out tonight and get stoned or drunk. I wanted to stay in. I really just wanted to be near you."
"Thank you for saying that, but what we did is still wrong."
"How can something that makes me want to quit smoking weed, and stop drinking be wrong? For the first time in 6 months I am thinking about getting my grades up." Gary seemed a little fearful that I was coming to my senses.
"Gary, that is wonderful. I worry about you and where you have been heading lately."
"Liz, I think I can straighten myself up if you help me. But I know I won't do it if you decide to end what we have. I know I will just slide right back down..."
"I understand what you are saying, Gary. But you need to do the right things for you, not because of me. But I do understand." I needed time to think, and I was tired. "I am going to bed. I have not decided to end this. Gary, I don't know if I could stop, even if I tried. I enjoyed today as much as you did. We'll talk more later. Get some sleep yourself. Goodnight."