Ellie looked in the mirror once again, and predictably felt yet another surge of nervous flutters in her chest. It had been a long time since she'd done anything like this.
"How are things coming over there?" she called.
"Almost done!" answered her daughter, Lucy, from her bedroom down the hall.
It was a lovely, warm night in June, and the two of them were going out for a night on the town. Ellie had suggested it a few days earlier. That the two of them ought to get out of the house, do something fun together. It felt like they had been somewhat stuck in a rut lately, and a change of pace would do them good.
Ellie was forty-five years old, and had been separated from her husband for nearly a year. It hadn't been anything dramatic; neither she nor Jeremy had cheated, they hadn't been caught in any criminal act, hadn't been experiencing a significant midlife crisis. The two of them had just finally agreed one night that there wasn't much holding them together anymore.
The first several months after that had been a difficult transition from the life she'd known for so many years into something new and uncharted, but lately she was finally feeling like she'd gotten a handle on things. She had kept the house in the split, but had moved her bedroom from the one she'd shared with Jeremy to the one that had previously served as the guest room. It felt like a good symbolic gesture, a sign that she was making her life her own. Work was going well, she was seeing friends on a regular basis, reading books and watching films that had always interested her but that she had never found the time for. Her life was beginning to feel whole again.
And this evening was the next step in the ongoing process: she was going to go out with her daughter and cut loose for the first time since she couldn't remember when. Lucy's presence would lessen the awkwardness she felt, and if this went well, maybe next time she could do it alone. She hadn't been with a man since her separation, and while she wasn't truly hopeful that she'd have much luck picking up men at clubs—she was getting a little old for that—just the idea of putting herself out there was incredibly thrilling.
"Alright, I think I'm good to go!" said Lucy, stepping out into the hallway, a shy smile on her lips.
Lucy was twenty-one, and very nearly the spitting image of her mother. Both were a little on the short side, round-faced, just slightly overweight, with wavy blonde hair that they both usually wore in a ponytail that hung down to their mid-back.
Lucy had always been a bit of a wallflower, but had usually managed to surround herself with a small group of loyal friends wherever she was. This summer though, for first time in her life, she had found herself almost totally alone. She had come home from university, to spend the summer between her third and fourth years with her mother. Her university friends had all returned to their own homes, while none of her old hometown friends had made it back this year. Some were travelling; some had gotten jobs or internships in their fields that had taken them elsewhere. At any rate, she had rather disappointingly found that she had very few people around to share adventures with, during this, her last summer before she would have to truly start her adult life.
She was spending her days waiting tables at the local restaurant where she'd worked on and off since high school, then coming home and spending quiet evenings with her mother. She loved her mother; they had always been close, and it felt like they had grown even closer since her parents' split. Still, after five weeks back from school she had desperately begun to wish for something different.
Which was why, when Ellie had suggested that they drive into the city on Friday night go dancing at a nightclub, she had jumped at the chance—despite the fact the such places usually made her quite nervous. But her excitement had overcome all her fear, all her nervousness, and now the night was upon them and she was ready to go!
"Oh, you look beautiful!" Ellie gushed as she turned around and saw her daughter.
"Thanks, mom," Lucy responded with a blush. She hadn't tried to dress especially fancy, but she was wearing a red dress that she quite liked. She thought it fit her figure very nicely. "You're looking pretty hot yourself."
Ellie was wearing a surprisingly low-cut black dress that Lucy had never seen before. She didn't seem to be wearing a bra with it; Lucy imagined that her mother's ample breasts would draw quite a few stares on the dance floor.
"Oh, well, you know, it's my first time out in quite a while. I wanted to try something a little different. Now come on, let's get a move on! Time's a-wasting!" She grabbed her daughter by the shoulder and lead the way downstairs. She was practically bouncing as they left the house and got into the car.
It was about a twenty-minute drive to their destination, and at first they drove in relative silence. Ellie drummed on the steering wheel, so excited she could barely contain herself. She glanced sideways at Lucy, and saw that some nervousness had crept back into her daughter's face.
"Hey, we're going to have ourselves a great time," she said with a smile. "The boys won't be able to keep their hands off you!"
Lucy blushed again at this. She had some experience with men, but not a lot, and not for quite a while. Privately, she had been aching for some male attention, but she didn't think the best time to look for it was while she was out with her mother.
"Oh, stop it," she said. "You're my mom, you're supposed to be keeping the boys away from me!"
"Nah, that's your father's job," said Ellie with a laugh. "And besides, you're a grown woman now. You have needs. It's only natural." She paused, and thought for a moment about whether to continue. Finally, she plunged onward. "Seriously though, if you meet some guy while we're out and decide you want to go back to his place, I promise I won't—"
"MOM!" shouted Lucy. "You shouldn't be talking like that!"
"And why not?" demanded Ellie.
"It's weird!"
"Well, I say it's only weird if you make it weird!" said Ellie. "The world is changing. People aren't as repressed as they were when I was young. And I think that's great! I think you and I should be able to talk comfortably about sex. Sex is a part of life!"
"Oh, and what about
your
sex life then, hmm?" asked Lucy. "You gonna tell me about all the guys you sleep with now that you're a single woman?"
Now it was Ellie's turn to blush. Truthfully, she
did
feel a little shyer when the subject turned back to herself, but she wasn't about to admit that to Lucy. "When it happens, you'll be the first to know," she said, with what she hoped was an evil-looking smile.
Lucy looked like she was about to say something in response, but then held back. They were nearing the club now, and the two women lapsed back into silence for the remainder of the journey.
***
Inside the club it was very loud, packed with people, and filled with bright lights. It wasn't the kind of place that either woman typically hung out in, but that particular night it was exactly what they both needed. The whole place seemed alive with electricity, an infectious energy that got into their hearts and jolted them both into high gear. After a quick drink at the bar, they hit the dance floor together.
The two women danced like they'd never danced before. They seemed to have endless energy. For song after song they twirled across the floor with a truly uninhibited grace, all their worries and frustrations with life completely left behind for the night. It seemed like they were the life of the party.
The life of the party always attracts attention, and they found themselves surrounded by an ever-shifting crowd of admirers, who danced with them and cheered them on and generally had a fantastic time. Soon enough though, two young men, probably a few years older than Lucy, seemed to separate themselves from the pack. They danced with mother and daughter, more and more intimately, until finally the music climaxed and all of them collapsed in a fit of panting and laughing, the physical exertion of what they'd been doing finally seeming to catch up with them.
"What say we get a drink?" said the taller of the two men as he put his arm around Ellie's shoulders, and he and his friend lead the two women back over to the bar. Ellie was surprised by the amount of attention he was paying to her; perhaps, in the dimmed light, he couldn't tell how old she was. She felt oddly thrilled by his touch.
The men were both quite handsome. The one with Ellie was taller and broader, with short-cropped dark hair; the one with Lucy was slightly smaller and sported an immaculately styled blonde mop.
"I'm Mike, and this is Victor," said the tall one as his friend ordered shots for the four of them. "What would you lovely ladies be called?"
