Paul hated math. He loathed arithmetic, he despised algebra and geometry made him want to puke. A month short of his 19th birthday, he excelled at just about every other subject in school, but at maths he was a hopeless failure.
As he bent closer over his homework, trying to grasp just an inkling of what a co-sine might be and whether it had big tits, the doorbell rang. He heard his mother walk to the door to answer it, and two seconds later her voice rang out: "Paul, we've got an unexpected visitor."
Paul stepped from his bedroom and leaned over the landing to see who was calling. His heart leapt. Directly below him, chatting to his mother in the hallway was the delectable shape of his cousin Rosemary.
Paul had six first cousins, and was fond of them all. But Rosemary, 10 years his senior, had always been his firm favourite. When he was young, she had always looked out for him, and as he grew older, they had become firm friends.
But over the past two or three years, Paul had detected a difference in their relationship. Puberty's volcano had been welling up inside him for some time. Today, when he looked at Rosemary he saw a lot more than a friend with a laughter-lined face and a warm personality. He also saw round, shapely buttocks, broad, childbearing hips, a slender waist and, above all, the most wonderful pair of breasts on God's earth. When she was around, he often caught himself drinking in the contours of her body, longing to touch and caress those ample curves.
Rosemary, too, had noticed the change in their friendship. Whereas before, her role in their relationship had been that of tomboy older cousin, now she often flirted with him. Paul was a good-looking boy with a firm, muscular body, and Rosemary was secretly flattered by the way he looked at her.
At the school where she taught science she was regarded as something of a bookworm. She had not had a serious relationship with a man of her own age for three years, but like any red-blooded 29-year-old woman, Rosemary had physical needs and desires.
Unknown to Paul, she too desperately wanted their relationship to go further. She wanted him badly, and again unknown to Paul, that was the main reason for her visit today.
Blissfully ignorant of all this, Paul paused for a second at the top of the stairs to take in the view beneath. Rosemary was wearing a blue skirt and low-cut white cotton top. Paul gazed down her deep cleavage and felt a stirring in his pants.
He skipped downstairs, two at a time. "Well if it isn't Rosy Lee, my favourite cousin," he called out to her. "Have you come to check up on me?"
As he reached the foot of the stairs, Rosemary put a hand to his face and pecked him on the cheek. "Just tell me you're at last getting to grips with that maths, that's all."
Paul laughed and pulled a face. "Yuk," he said. "Please don't mention excrement quite so early in the conversation."
"Paul, don't be so vulgar," his mother chided him.
Rosemary interrupted. "Actually, Auntie Ruth, it occurred to me that I might be able to help Paul with his maths. As you may know, I studied maths right up to my first year of university, and although my degree is in physics and chemistry, my maths is pretty hot and I am a teacher. I was wondering if Paul would like some extra tuition during the school holidays β maybe even before."
"That's very kind of you Rosemary, but as you know money is tight and we couldn't afford to pay you much."
"Don't worry about that, Auntie Ruth. Just take me out for a nice meal to celebrate Paul getting a grade A in his maths exams. Do we have a deal?"
Rosemary was a woman used to getting her own way, and within two minutes it was agreed that Paul would attend his first extra-curricular maths session at Rosemary's house at 10am the following Saturday.
Ruth and Rosemary wandered off to chat about the progress of a dress Rosemary was making β ostensibly the reason for her visit β and Paul was left to reflect on Rosemary's gently undulating backside heading for the living room and what a wonderful world it was that he inhabited.
On Saturday, a day that Paul habitually regarded as an excuse for a long lie-in, he was up and about by eight. By 9.30 he was freewheeling on his bike down the cul-de-sac where he lived to make the five-mile journey across the city to Rosemary's house. His saddlebag was full of maths textbooks, his loins full of desire and his mind full of Rosemary.
His Auntie Gracie, his father's sister and Rosemary's mother, answered the door to the house she shared with Rosemary and her husband Basil. "My, you're early," she said. "Barely ten to ten. Basil's working today, but Rosemary will be down shortly."
Paul deposited his books on the dining room table, and sat down, pretending to read.