Author's note: Wow, this just poured out of me. I wrote this in three sittings over the last three days and it just barely made the cut to be labelled a novella. No matter what the reaction is I'm going to be proud of that. The story is mostly non-porn or 'tame' content, right up until it isn't. Oh well, enjoy.
All characters involved in sexual activity are 18+
Prologue
My husband and I had our first date on Easter Day 20 years ago. We met at an after-mass outdoor potluck. He had just helped himself to a plate full of potato salad and looked ecstatic about soon eating it all. He sat down at a picnic table to eat, and his first bite was too large which caused some bits to stick to his face. I couldn't help but laugh, which caught his attention. We locked eyes for a moment over his heaping plate of slop, then I took the initiative.
I sat down beside this teenager and folded my Sunday dress properly underneath me. I reached up my then 16-year-old hand and wiped off the mayo from his cheek. He turned red with embarrassment but never turned his gaze. He was likely too stupified to react. I introduced myself as Erinn and eventually got a response from him.
He sputtered the word, "Freddy" and caught my arm with some debris and spittle.
Eventually, I would marry this man. Somehow, even through his sloppiness, I never stopped being enthralled with him.
It turned out Freddy was the same age as me, but attended St. Mary's Secondary School my rival high school. His family was strict with their beliefs and would attend every mass at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church. My family was only at St. Joseph's because we only attended mass on Easter and Christmas; and down the street at The United Church. That year a water main had broken, preventing the church from being operable.
Freddy and I eventually hit it off, and his parents allowed him to "date" me. We were only ever allowed supervised visits, usually at his home. We were allowed to study on Thursdays and Fridays, then go out on supervised dates on Saturdays to approved locations. There was absolutely no touching, not even holding hands. There were a lot of rules, but Freddy still felt worth it.
Freddy's parents told me I could go to church with them on Sundays but that I would have to be baptized, and confirmed. I was already in love, and I wanted to see more of Freddy so I went ahead with it.
Within the year Freddy's parents warmed up to me. They liked that I had joined their church, and was always respectful of their rules. After a year had passed I attended Easter mass with Freddy's family instead of my own. My older brother and sister were discovering their independence and became resistant to religion anyway.
At the potluck dinner after mass, Freddy grabbed a plate and proceeded to fill only a quarter of it with potato salad. I felt a little sad that he felt he needed to be conservative.
I walked over to Freddy and told him, "You can eat as much potato salad as you want. I love you no matter how much food you get on your face." I smiled and nervously stared into his gaze. It was the first time I ever told him I loved him.
Freddy was about to say something when a "mmh-hmm!" came from behind me. It was Freddy's mother and she was trying to get past me in the line for food. She had definitely heard what I said but did not disapprove.
From then on for the next year, we were allowed to hug-albeit briefly--at the end of our dates, and at the matinee we got to sit together once without a parent in between us.
Freddy did eventually tell me that he loved me too. We were allowed to be in love, and both his parents and mine could see that we really, truly felt love for each other.
The following Easter my whole family was in attendance at Mass. My older siblings were oddly quiet and my mother kept her arm around me during the sermon.
"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." The Priest exclaimed after a psalm. He went on to compare The Passion to the sacrifice made in modern-day marriages. He said that you should always give yourself to God, but never forget to give yourself to your partner.
Looking back, I now know everybody in the sanctuary knew but me.
I sat watching Freddy pick up a plate at the end of the table and grinned. He started to move down the line and I saw his gaze turn to the potato salad. Freddy sidled down the table and turned his back to me. I saw his arms work frantically at the plate and my grin turned to a smile. Freddy turned around abruptly and looked immediately in my direction, holding a plate with a massive plop of potato salad on it.
I laughed so hard that I caught the attention of people around us. Then I noticed they were all smiling as much as I was, and many faces were staring at me.
Freddy walked over to me and I said, "You can't possibly eat all that."
"No, this one's for you Erinn." Freddy grinned a big dumb nervous-looking grin.
I looked down into the pile of potato muck and saw a modest engagement ring plunged into the top of the heap. Freddy got down on his knee and the rest of the congregation were now watching and some taking videos.
"YES!" I exclaimed with a squeal.
I pulled the ring from the salad, it slipped on easily since it was so greasy. We both jumped to our feet and gave each other a tight hug. At that moment we wanted to hold on to each other forever but we were interrupted by an, "mmh-hmm!"
We spent a year engaged and decided to marry on Easter since the day had held so much significance for us. The engagement year was torturous for us, we wanted to be together and celebrate our engagement, but we started going to different colleges in the Fall. Freddy was staying in a Catholic fraternity four hours away, and I stayed at home with my family.
Hailie and Joel (my older sister and brother) had during my seventeenth year each had children with deadbeat partners. Hailie got knocked up by a guy claiming to be a "traveling salesman", but was only just a night-shift stockboy at the local department store. He got a transfer after she told him about the baby, and according to his social media profile, lives in West Virginia now.
Joel had an angry prostitute show up at the house one day and drop off his newborn son. The prostitute was furious that it had been so hard to locate Joel and accused him of dodging her calls. She handed him the infant, then walked away to get into a car that was waiting for her, and drove off.
Joel kept the baby at Mom's behest and as a result, there was fighting and chaos in the house for a few days. On the third day of expressing disappointment and crying, the arguments and stress started to build, and Hailie went into labor.
Another little boy joined the family in the same week as the first and neither Hailie nor Joel had the means to look after their children alone. The house had four bedrooms, which meant my siblings shared a room with their respective sons. It felt like a very small space, and because my siblings weren't the most responsible parents, it was always dirty and usually smelled like shit.
Despite my home being a circus, when college started I wasn't ready to leave it. I spent seven very long months living without my fiance.
When March finally arrived we were reunited on Good Friday. It was tearful and we hugged until his mother gave us a second, louder, "mmh-hmm!" We held hands when no one was looking, and I touched his ankle with my bare ankle at Saturday supper.
Every few minutes I would look over to Freddy, who was always sitting beside me, and say quietly, "I love you". He would always say it back.
We had the ceremony in the late afternoon at St. Joseph's. The day was a blur of tears and cheers, everyone was so happy for these two nineteen-year-old fools falling forever in love. We said our vows and kissed for the first time in front of all our loved ones. It was explosive and worth it.
When we were about to step down from the podium the priest gave his own "mmh-hmm", and turned our attention. He shook Freddy's hand and congratulated him with a small blessing, then turned to me and whispered something in my ear:
"An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones."
That night we conceived our first son, Joseph. He was born later that year on the 25th of December.
Part One - Christmas
"So what did you get Joe this year, Fred?" I came out of the ensuite bathroom flossing my teeth and flicked off the light behind me.
"An Xbox and a drone," Fred replied without taking his eyes off his tablet. He wore reading glasses at night now and had put on a lot of weight in the last couple of years. I wasn't finding him to be unattractive yet, but lately, I found myself wishing he would make more of an effort.
I loosened the belt on my robe and revealed my nightgown underneath. It was full-length and fully opaque with frills at the bottom hem and flowers embroidered across it. I threw the floss in the bedside trash and slid into the covers next to Fred.
He won't use that drone. You know that right?" I opened the drawer next to the bed and got my moisturizer out as I spoke. "He doesn't like to draw attention to himself when he's outside," I rubbed the moisturizer over my hands and across my collarbone.
"Yeah, he's so into electronics but never seems to meet any new people doing that stuff. Just parties up with his cousins online and then yells the whole night about shooting people in some video game," Fred sounded disgusted.
"Who would he meet flying a drone?" I put away my moisturizer as I inquired.
Fred locked his tablet and turned it over, placing it on the nightstand at his side. He turned back over to face me, "Other drone enthusiasts I guess. I hadn't given it that much thought. I was just hoping he might meet a girl. That might give him some of the confidence he seems to be lacking."
"He has never met a girl?" I asked.
"Of course, he has met girls, but I know he hasn't gotten any 'experience' under his belt," Fred paused for a moment and giggled. "Unintentional double entendre."
"Wow. Things sure have changed since we were teenagers."
"I don't think so. I think there are all kinds of parents out there trying to protect their children in different ways. We are doing our own thing, and my parents be damned if they don't like how we raise our son," Fred sounded so confident and liberated when he spoke about us as parents. After we married he wanted us to be more modern and less strict in our methods.
"So he has never had sex?" I asked my husband assuming he might have inside knowledge.
"I think he kissed a girl once, he said her name was Kelly. He also said he kissed a different girl when he was younger. Y'know, that Amber girl from down the street. But I think she tells a different story."
I sighed and felt sorry for Joe. He was turning eighteen tomorrow and despite our lenient approach to physicality, he was as inexperienced as his parents were at his age. The Xbox will give him one more way to play with his cousins I guess, and maybe they will all get together and fly the drone into a lake and destroy it. Of course, neither of those things involves girls.
I sighed again and Fred kissed me on the cheek. He knew that I was feeling the same disappointment he was and he threw his arm around me as he leaned in and rested his face against my bosom.
"It's okay," Fred mumbled. "Eighteen is a good year to become an adult."
