It Was More Than A Trivial Pursuit
The Thompsons had become a dysfunctional family, but as an adopted kid he was used to disruption before better times came along.
That was what Archie thought of his mother, Donna, and father Frank. The two of them had fallen into arguing all of the time, or so it had felt. The mayhem had only been brought to an end when the two of them had agreed to live separate lives but not to get a divorce. It seemed that money was involved, what they each had, and that they did not want to put at risk.
So, an arrangement had been reached that meant that he and his sister, Olivia, stayed on and made the best of the hand that their lives had dealt them. It sure wasn't easy, far from it, his beautiful and feisty sister living in an attic bedroom and he having to study through the boom and thump of her music choices below that eerie of hers.
He often wondered if Olivia did it deliberately and if it was an excuse to bond tighter with him as life became a mess. He would hear a soft knocking on the door to his room and she'd enter, an apologetic smile on her beautiful slender face. She had much of what he assumed had been Donna's looks when she had been her age, nineteen going on twenty. The girl was slim compared to the fulsome and shapely figure of Donna, and she preferred to have her sandy-blonde hair hanging down to her shoulders, whereas Donna's was blonde and worn in a bob-cut.
"Sorry, Archie. I heard you throwing shoes up at the ceiling down here."
"Yeah, I was," he replied more in exasperation than anger. "How many times do I have to do that before you take any notice, Livy? You're through with studying and I'm not. Just give me a break, will you?"
"Sure." She said it as she came to stand by his shoulder and draped her arms around his neck. She gripped his arms and felt the strength in them. Her bond with him was getting close to becoming infatuation; her adopted brother was always willing and ready to have fun and neither of them caring how it might look to those that did not know them. "We could go out later and meet up with the others. What do you think?"
He leaned back against her and gazed at the framed picture on the chest of drawers that stood close to his bed. The colour photo was of the two of them, on a family holiday, and she with her arms draped around his neck as she nuzzled a kiss to his cheek. On his iPhone, he had so many others, the two of them on a beach and where folks took no notice of what you were wearing, or not. He hadn't dared to follow through on the feelings that she had aroused in him, even then; two pubescent kids with their hormones raging and with the mayhem that was to erupt between Donna and Frank only months away.
Livy grabbed his arm as he raised it to look at his watch.
"Give it an hour...give me an hour, and I'll be with you."
"Great! I'll go and get ready."
"And I'll go downstairs and tell Donna."
The word 'mother' had been forsaken some years ago, at her insistence, but it had not lessened the bond between them. If anything, Frank's decision to leave them had only tightened it and she had soon turned to him as an understanding emotional prop when everything got too much for her to bear.
Jeez! It was difficult to live under the same roof with these two women sometimes, even now, and some months later, after things with Donna had gotten out of hand for a while. He couldn't forget the first time when loving affection had exploded and had been fanned into a red-hot heat and only too-physical intensity.
Memories of that time took hold of him as he rushed down the stairs to find her.
♥
Archie heard the front door slam shut and wandered from the kitchen into the hall.
"How are you, Donna?" he asked. "Did the day go okay?"
"I got through," she replied with a shrug of the shoulders.
Donna was seen to put her bag down on a hall chair before she gazed at her reflection in the mirror for a moment. The wrap-around shift dress she had chosen to wear to work shaped her fulsome figure but was not a provocative garment that would set tongues wagging. Donna wouldn't know that she still got to him, sometimes, when she wore something as stylish as the dress he now saw her wearing.
Even if Frank had run out on them all, she was not going to let everything go, at least not in front of him. With Livy, it might well be a different story but she would tell him, and so far she had not.
"I've poured out some of your favourite wine," he said to break through the strain that was to be seen on her face. Donna flicked a hand at her hair and took the glass from his hand.
"Thank you," she said with a wobbly smile. "You haven't been cooking supper as well, have you?"
"Yes, I have. I thought it would be of help."
"Darling," she said, putting a restraining hand on his arm, and meeting his look upon her. The young man before her, with his swept-back hair and lean, smiling, face, could so often take hold of her emotions. Gone was the pubescent boy and in his place, a handsome fellow in chinos and a blue cheesecloth shirt scarcely buttoned up. "You've got more than enough to do with your studies."
"I'm up to speed, so I can do this for you," he confided in a low voice. "Times have been tough for you, so I thought to do it. We're on our own. Livy's away on her course, as you know. It starts today..."
He strolled away and into the kitchen, and she soon hurried after him.
"So, it does," she answered. Donna leaned back against the kitchen worktop, sipping on her drink as she watched him at work. She was heard to sigh. "I'd forgotten about that. My mind's all over the place at the moment."
First, there had been his dependence upon her as the young boy grew into a man. The years passed and he was loved and cherished, the bond with Frank muted but present. Then, when he became more independent and self-reliant, the bond with her lessened but never fell away. Something else, deeper and unspoken that she had felt recently, had taken its place.
And now, with Frank stepping out of their lives, it felt as if their roles were reversed and she relied upon him and Livy to help her through the seismic change in her life. Petty disagreements with Frank had become eruptions of explosive anger and the consoling presence of Archie, male and strong, had been relied upon more and more.
"You have changed so much over recent months," she confided.
Boldly, Archie reached out to her and offered a fingertip caress to her cheek. Moving closer, he could breathe in the light fragrance of her scent. "It will get better. The three of us, you, me, and Livy will help each other through in any way that we can."
"Yes, but with you the feelings are different. I've...I've noticed, darling."
Just how was she to deal with what had been aroused in him?
When Archie had stood close to her she had felt the unmistakable press of his erection against her hip and now, as she met his look upon her, she realised that another emotion seemed to be at work in him and that she had felt in his touch. Yes, it was consoling but something deeper could also be sensed and that he might want to pursue, now that it was just the two of them in the house.
"Enough, Archie...enough," she felt prompted to say, disconcerted by the effect that his look and touch had upon her, above all what she had felt press against her thigh.
'Yes...okay, enough.' He broke free of her hold on him and stood by her side, leaning on the worktop but still gazing at her. Donna's dress flattered her figure and he resisted the urge to reach across and to touch the swell of her breasts. Only now did he notice the press of her nipples against the fabric. Was he getting to her despite what she was telling him? "You look good in your dress..."
"Thank you but don't say any more."
She had been prompted to look down and to see what he had noticed. She did not mean for her ways of speaking to sound like she was admonishing him, but the young man could not be allowed to see the effects that his few words, and his touches to her arm, his admiring glances, had begun to have upon her. She had learned, from the few words that he had uttered, that he was smitten. No encouragement had been given, yet here she now was having to deal with what could happen between them and her response to the very idea.
Archie moved away and knelt to turn off the oven. She stepped closer as he did so and reached out to brush a caress to his neck. He spoke in a distracted voice as Archie looked up at her, disconcerted by the caress that she had offered despite what had just been said.
"I made a casserole, of sorts, so we can eat when you want to." A few simple words sought to disarm her, but Donna now felt a moment's caress of his hand on her leg, a stroke of his fingers behind her knee before he stood up. Archie remained close, disturbingly close but unthreatening.
"Archie, you shouldn't touch me in that way." She felt a tremor course through her body, not one of fear but anticipation. "How long has it been since you began feeling this way about me again?"
"Since it all kicked off between you and Frank. I," he faltered, "I didn't want to listen to you two arguing. Somewhere in my memory, I knew that I had been through such times before...before I came here so long ago."
Archie said it as he put his hands on the worktop, to either side of her, and she was pressed against it. She felt his breath on her face and looked up into his stilled eyes.
"Archie? This is wrong, you know that don't you?" she asked with a trembling voice as she felt the press of his erection against her tummy as she was crushed against him.