index


Message-ID: <58144asstr$1222571420@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: Ann Douglas <ann_douglas@hotmail.com>
Importance: Normal
Subject: {ASSM} AnnD"A Turn For The Better" MF (1/1)
Lines: 1079
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:10:20 -0400
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d



      A Turn For The Better
      by Ann Douglas
      (ann_douglas@hotmail.com)

      The heavy rain continued to beat down on the windshield as Brian
Brannigan drove his well-worn pickup down Montgomery Street.  Running a
hand across his crew cut, the sandy haired nineteen-year-old took a moment to
glance at the clock on the dashboard.  The clock read ten to eight and he knew
he was going to be late for work yet again.  That this time it was hardly his fault
wasn't going to matter a hill of beans to his boss.

      Knowing it was supposed to pour this morning, Brian had left his parents'
house a good half an hour earlier than normal; just to give himself some extra
time.  How was he to know that the storm would uproot two of the large trees on
Adams Boulevard, causing a major traffic jam that forced him and just about
anyone else trying to get through onto the slower side streets.

      Most of the diverted traffic had gone up to Dover Street, so he'd done just
the opposite and cut down to Winchester Road instead.  So far, that had proved
not to be his best decision of the day as the rain was now coming down so hard
that he could barely see more than two car lengths ahead of him.  As a result,
he had to come to a complete stop at every intersection in order to make sure it
was clear in every direction.  Being late for work was bad, he knew, but getting
his truck smashed would be a lot worse.

      Coming up to the intersection of Winchester and Parks, Brian saw a solitary
figure standing under an oversized umbrella at the corner bus stop.  Normally,
he wouldn't have given them more than a passing glance, except that the bright
red umbrella that the woman was huddled under bore the logo of Harris and
Son's Construction Supplies - the same company that he drove a delivery truck
for.

       "Oh hell,"  Brian said, feeling a little guilty that he was sitting there nice and
dry while the woman was getting soaked,  "I'm already going to get my ass
chewed out for being late, might as well have something good come out of it."

      Slowing down to ease the truck to the curb without splashing the woman
standing there, Brian rolled down the window on the passenger side and called
out to her.  At first, she declined his offer of a ride, saying she'd just wait for the
bus which she was sure would be along any minute.  It wasn't until he identified
himself, including showing his company id card, that the woman, who he still
couldn't recognize under the umbrella and rain gear she was wearing, had a
change of heart.  Even so, she paused a long moment before climbing up into
the passenger side seat, going forward only when she was satisfied that she did
indeed recognize his face from work.

      After she pulled down the hood of her raincoat and turned in his direction,
Brian finally recognized her as well.  Her name was Harriet Lowell and worked in
the payroll department.  Actually, in a company the size of Harris & Son's, she
was pretty much the whole payroll department.
      As they pulled out back onto the street, Harriet explained that her car had
refused to start this morning, forcing her to walk up to the bus stop, some four
blocks from her house.  

       "You are a life saver," the fiftyish, white haired woman told him as she used
a kerchief she produced from her pocket to try and dry her short hair.  "I've been
waiting for that bus for over half and hour and I was beginning to think that it
wasn't ever going to come."

      Mentioning the traffic difficulties he'd encountered on his way, Brian further
suggested that the bus driver might've had similar problems since he knew that
route went along Adams too before turning down along Winchester.

       "Then I'm doubly glad that you came along, Brian," Harriet said,
remembering his name from one of the few times he'd come into the main office
for something or other.  "I was actually contemplating giving up the ghost and
heading back home."

       "Well if there was ever a day to just stay in bed, this is certainly it,"  Brian
remarked, reflecting his own thoughts when he'd first looked out the bedroom
window this morning.  If he'd had a better attendance record, it would've been a
serious consideration.

       "Don't think that didn't occur to me,"  Harriet replied as she stuffed her now
damp cloth back into a pocket,  "but if I didn't come in today and make sure the
payroll was put in right, you, I and a lot of other people wouldn't be getting paid
at the end of the week."

       "In that case, I'm now even gladder that I saw you when I did,"  Brian
grinned, thinking how hard it would've been to stretch out what was left of last
week's check.  Tactfully, he left out the part that if he hadn't seen the company
logo, he probably would've kept on going.

      Having made that bad decision to head in the opposite direction that most of
the traffic had gone actually turned out to be the best decision Brian could've
made.  Mr. Harris was so relieved to see Harriet walk in the door that he made
no mention of the fact that Brian was almost an hour late.  It had been many
years since the businessman had done his own payroll and he wasn't
enthusiastic at the prospect of trying to figure out the computer program that
handled it now.  He simply told Brian to check the clipboard hanging in the outer
hall for the day's deliveries.

      Doing so, Brian was relieved to see that just about every outdoor
construction site had been shut down by the weather, which left only a handful
of stops at places where the majority of the work had moved inside.  As it turned
out, his work day was done early enough for him to stop back by the office to
see how Harriet had made out with her car.  She had mentioned before he'd left
that she was going to call her mechanic and see if he could pick it up at her
house.  The garage was only two blocks away.

      Harriet thanked him for his concern but said she started to and then decided
not to call the mechanic after all.  That car had been on its last legs for a while,
she said, and it seemed like it didn't start more times than it did.  Pouring even
more money into it seemed too much of an iffy proposition.  She'd been
planning to replace it but was hoping it would last just a little longer so that she
could find something more reliable and still affordable.  The last thing she
wanted to do was just trade one set of headaches for another.

      Having bought a five hundred dollar lemon the week after he'd gotten his
license back in high school, one that also spent more time in his driveway than
on the road, Brian could well sympathize with her predicament.  The only reason
he now had the pickup, old as it was but with a rebuilt engine, was that his Uncle
Alex had developed some vision problems and could no longer drive it.

       "You know, I was just thinking,"  Brian said as he sat on the edge of the
desk.  "Why don't you ride in with me until you get your new car?"

      Actually he hadn't been thinking, but the words just seemed to come out of
his mouth.  No sooner had he spoken them than he wished he could've taken
them back.  It wasn't that the side trip was really out of his way, but did he really
want to commit himself to picking her up and driving her home for however long
it took to replace her car?

      Harriet didn't answer immediately, the look on her face saying she was
considering the proposal.  Trying to keep his own expression neutral, Brian was
frantically hoping she turned it down.

       "That's it really generous of you, Brian,"  Harriet began, an opening that
could go either way,  "and I think I'm going to take you up on it."

      Brian felt his heart drop.

       "But only on two conditions,"  she added.

      Brian felt his heart jumpstart, hopefully at least one of those conditions
would turn out to be a deal breaker.

       "First, that we give it a two week trial run, just to see how it goes,"  Harriet
said,  "and if one of us finds that it's too much of a problem, then that will be it."

      Nodding his head, Brian thought that was pretty sensible, especially since it
gave him an easy out.  Two weeks wasn't that long after all.

       "And secondly,"  Harriet continued,  "I'd like to contribute something to help
pay for the commute, say the cost of what gas I would've used anyway getting
from my house to the office and back."

      That definitely wasn't a bad offer, Brian thought.  Having someone else
putting gas in his tank certainly did a lot to reduce his reluctance to his own
hastily made offer.  Doing a quick calculation, he figured her  contribution would
cut his travel expenses to work by over half if not two thirds.

       "Fair enough,"  he heard himself say.

       "Fine,"  Harriet replied,  "I'll see you in the parking lot at five-thirty then.
Now you better make yourself scarce before Mr. Harris sees you and decides
he's not paying you to sit around and watch raindrops fall."

      Having been on the receiving end of Mr. Harris's idea of busy work before,
Brian was quick to follow that advice.

                        -=-=-=-

      The end of the day finally arrived and Harriet was waiting for Brian by his
truck in the company parking lot.  It turned out to be a lot easier to chat on the
way home, due to the skies now being clear and the ice between them now
being broken.  Harriet, much to Brian's surprise, turned out to be quite
personable.  Not at all what he thought a woman her age would be like.  Then
again, it wasn't like he knew a lot of women her age, other than relatives and
friends of his parents, to make a comparison against.

      Over the two week trial period, they learned quite a lot about each other.
Harriet, Brian learned, had been with the company a little over ten years now,
having started there soon after she'd divorced her husband of twelve years. She
hadn't mentioned why they had split, but did say that it had been her second
marriage.  Evidently, she had also married her high school boyfriend right out of
school.  An ill-considered action about which a divorce less than six months later
said all that needed to be said about it.

      She in turn learned that Brian had originally planned to go to Northern State
University on a baseball scholarship, but had done permanent damage to his
left ankle during the last semester of high school.  His injury had pretty much
healed, but the award had been withdrawn.

      Brian also, somewhat reluctantly admitted that he didn't have a steady
girlfriend, preferring instead to date around.  Harriet had laughing asked him
didn't he mean "sleep around", a question that had left him too stunned to
answer it.  Still, she grinned, he hadn't denied it either.  Given his admittedly
cute looks and athletic build, Harriet guessed he had no trouble keeping his
dance card filled.

      Brian had been surprised at the end of that first week when Harriet handed
him a twenty dollar bill to cover her share of the gas.  Even with the cost of gas
rising as it was, that was overly generous.  When he protested that it was too
much, she countered that the rest was for his inconvenience.

      Two weeks turned to four, and then six, until their daily trip had become so
routine as to feel amiss on the few days that they hadn't traveled together.
Then, at the end of that sixth week, just as they parked in front of Harriet's
house, she told him that she was picking up her new, at least to her, car over
the weekend.  Even though he knew it was going to come sooner than later, the
announcement left Brian with a keen sense of disappointment.

      It wasn't just the extra money in his pocket, although that had been nice
when he went out on the weekend.  He had genuinely developed a sense of
affection, he guessed he would call it, for the older woman, looking forward to
their daily commute.  Having a woman to talk to, one that wasn't related to him
or wrapped up in the games that went with dating was a new experience.  As
hard as it might have been for him to have imagined on that rainy day, they had
become friends.

      Not that the friendship hadn't come without some cost.  It hadn't taken that
long for people to take note that the two of them came in and left together.  Of
course no one really believed that there was anything to it but car pooling, but
that didn't prevent a few jokes, some of them even off-color, to be made about
the odd couple.

      Most of them had been laughed off with a grin, but only two nights before,
one joke went over the line.  A driver on an earlier shift than Brian had come
back to the parking lot to pick up his car after downing a few at a local tavern
after work.  Seeing Brian waiting by his truck for Harriet, who had been delayed
by some last minute paperwork, the driver had made a raunchy comment that
not even a few too many beers could excuse.

      Reacting before he could consider the implications, Brian decked the drunk
with a powerful right cross that carried all the force of his five foot nine, one
hundred and eighty pound frame.  Thankfully, his target was so inebriated that
all he got out of it was a bloody nose.  A friend of the drunk, who had  been the
designated driver for the duo was quick to get him up and into his car, telling
Brian it would be better for all concerned if they just forgot what had happened.
Evidently, the first man had gotten in trouble drinking before.

      Of course an incident like that wasn't going to stay private and by the middle
of the work day, just about everyone had heard some version of what had
happened.  The only people not talking about it seemed to be the people that
were actually involved.  Harriet heard about it during lunch, but didn't say
anything to Brian until they were almost at the end of their homeward trip.

       "I really wish you hadn't lost your temper with Johnny Drake,"  she said.

       "I hadn't intended to,"  Brian said.  "It's just that every time I turn around,
someone seems to be making one of those stupid comments, and this time
what he was saying something that I just couldn't just let go by."

       "Care to share what he'd said?"  she asked.

       "Not really,"  Brian answered, actually turning a little red at the thought.

      Harriet chucked at his embarrassment, saying that she didn't know if he had
noticed, but she was a big girl now and there probably wasn't much that she
hadn't heard before. In fact, there was little that she probably hadn't done
before.

       "So come on, spill it,"  she said, sounding much like his mother did when he
was a little boy and had done something to get himself in trouble.

       "He, he suggested that you and I were,"  he started to say,  "he insinuated
that there was an intimate aspect of our friendship, but he put it in a lot more
graphic manner."

       "Is that all,"  Harriet laughed.

       "You think that was funny?"

       "Honestly,"  she replied.  "I think some of those jokes are sort of flattering."

       "Flattering?"

       "Well yes,"  Harriet explained.  "The very idea that a good looking young
man like yourself would be interested in an old lady like me.  It actually its also
quite laughable when you think about it, I mean the idea that someone might
seriously think that."

       "Why would you say that?"  Brian asked in turn, not really seeing it as
having been humorous in the least.  "I think a guy would be pretty lucky to have
a pretty woman like you interested in him."

       "I didn't say that a woman my age wouldn't be interested in an attractive
younger man,"  Harriet clarified.  "What I said was that there was no reason for
him to be interested in her.  Not when there are so many other younger and
more attractive women around for him to pick from."

       "You don't think you're attractive?"  Brian asked.

       "Oh maybe twenty or so years ago,"  she replied, exaggerating her
response.

      Truth was, Harriet was still quite happy with the image that looked back at
her when she passed a mirror.  If asked to give a quick description of the
woman in the reflection, the phrase that she looked good for her age was the
first thing that came to mine.  Harriet Lowell would never fall into that  category
of women who looked ten or twenty years younger than the calendar said they
were, but that had never been her goal.

      Standing a good six inches shorter than Brian, Harriet weighed less than
twenty pounds more than she did in high school.  Her hair had turned
prematurely white between marriages, some said it was the result of that first
misadventure.  Rather than spend the rest of her life hiding it beneath a store
bought substitute, she had instead embraced the change.  Not everyone
could've carried that off at such a young age, but she did.  Wearing it cut quite
short, the absence of color made her face look striking rather than old, a
condition that had continued to this day.  Men still looked at her when she
passed by, but given who was usually doing the looking, she seldom looked
back.

      Their arrival at her house had cut short their discussion of the parking lot
incident and by the next morning, it seemed best to leave it in the past .  Now,
despite her laughing it off, Brian couldn't help but wonder if the incident had led
to her sudden rush to replace her mode of transport.

       "I guess that come Monday you'll be riding back and forth by yourself
again,"  Brian said, more a statement than a question.

       "Well, that was our agreement, wasn't it?"

       "I guess it was,"  he answered, hiding his regret.

       "Well then, that is that,"  she said as she reached into her purse and handed
him two twenty dollar bills. "I realize that  I'm giving you short notice and you
might've made plans based on having a little extra money, so I want to put in for
next week's gas too."

       "No, I couldn't take that,"  Brian insisted, refusing to accept either bill until
she took one back.

       "Are you sure?"

       "Yes."

       "Okay,"  Harriet relented, putting a twenty back in her bag.  "If I can't repay
you that way, then maybe I have another idea.  Why don't you come by
tomorrow night and I'll make you a nice dinner.  I've lost track of how many
times you've complained about the food at your house and believe it or not,
cooking is one of the few things neither of my husbands ever had reason to
complain about."  She paused a few seconds to let him consider the idea, then
added,  "That is of course if you don't already have any plans."

      She could see he was considering the idea.  If there was once thing she'd
learned Brian loved, it was good food.  It wasn't that his mother was a bad cook,
it was that the menu in his house was usually made up of the five or six simple
dishes that his father enjoyed and no matter how good they were, having the
same thing week in and out got old pretty fast.

       "Dinner sounds like a great idea,"  Brian finally said, ignoring the fact that he
already had a date with Sally Quinn tomorrow night.

      He knew that Sally would be really pissed off when he canceled, especially
at such short notice.  Most guys would've thought he was crazy giving up a night
with Sally for some old lady's cooking, but if there was one thing he'd learned in
his short life it was that there was no shortage of girls who were great in the
bedroom, but women who were great in the kitchen were a rare commodity
these days.

       "Would a quarter past six be okay with you?"  Harriet asked.

       "That would be fine."

       "Good, then I'll see you then,"  Harriet smiled as she got out of the truck.

                        -=-=-=-

      Just over twenty-four hours later, Brian was pulling his truck back into the
same spot in front of Harriet's small house.  Checking the clock, he was glad to
see that he was five minutes early.  Especially since he had been sure that he
was going to wind up being at least ten minutes late.

      He'd started the morning as he did most Saturday mornings, at the crack of
nine-thirty.  That was his usual practice even if, like in this case, he hadn't gone
out the night before.  First thing on his agenda, once he visited the bathroom
was to call Sally and cancel tonight's date.

      He'd honestly tried to call her last night, only to be told that she was out for
the evening.  Her parents were also out and it didn't seem right to leave a
message with the fourteen-year-old babysitter that was watching the two
youngest Quinns.  Of course he had her cell phone number, but calling a girl
while she was on a date to cancel the one you had with her seemed pretty
wrong.  Texting it would be downright tacky.

      To say that Sally was furious when he finally got her on the phone would've
been quite the understatement.  She spent the better part of ten minutes yelling
at him, not realizing that he had the phone on speaker and was getting dressed
while she ranted. Finally, she told him he could go fuck himself, a physical
impossibility even though he was agreeably endowed, and hung up.

      Hitting the disconnect button, Brian actually felt a little guilty about it all.
Then he realized that there was no way that a girl like Sally Quinn was going to
be sitting at home on a Saturday night unless she was gravely ill.  Undoubtedly,
she was already on the phone with one of her other admirers, telling him that
her plans for the evening had unexpectedly changed and if he were free, she'd
love to go out with him.

      The odds were that Sally being Sally, and if the guy on the other end of the
phone was anything short of engaged, he was saying yes and already trying to
come up with a really good excuse to give when he broke his preexisting date.
That he already had a date would be a given because if she wasn't popular, she
wouldn't be looking to go out with him.  No mercy dates for Sally Quinn.

      Putting Sally out of his mind, Brian rummaged through his closet for a
minute until he found his long gym bag.  If Saturday nights were for partying,
Saturday mornings were for getting together with the guys to play baseball.  The
former All-City might no longer be scholarship material, but he still loved to play
the game.  Of course the game didn't start until noon since the Little League had
the field until then.  Which suited the guys that played just fine since a majority
of them probably only got home a few hours ago themselves.

      The Little League game had run late, as had the one between the older
players, so it wasn't until after three-thirty that Brian got back home.  The long
list of chores his parents expected him to take care of, which would've been a
lot shorter if he wasn't constantly putting them off until the weekend, took
another two hours and it was all he could do to jump in the shower and change
into a clean shirt and slacks before heading back out.

      Standing on the small porch of the single story house, he rang the doorbell
and waited for a response, thinking it funny that he'd sat in his truck out in front
over the last month and a half and never thought to just come up and ring the
bell rather than simply wait for Harriet to come out.  Okay, she was usually very
punctual and he was never waiting for more than a minute or two, but still it now
seemed funny for some reason.

      The door opened and there stood Harriet in a casual summer dress, a
simple blue and white floral print with short sleeves and a hemline that stopped
just below her knees.  All in all, a lot more comfortable look than the outfits she
wore to work every day.

      "My don't you look dashing,"  Harriet said as she invited him in, having used
the few moments that Brian had been looking at her attire to do the same to his.

      Brian glanced down at the light blue polo shirt he'd tossed on and the tan
slacks that went with it.  It was his normal weekend attire and he didn't see
anything special about it.  Then he realized that just as he was used to Harriet in
the plain conservative outfits she wore in the office, all she had ever seen him in
was t-shirts and jeans.

      "I brought this,"  he said, handing her the paper bag he suddenly
remembered he had in his hand.

      Taking the package, Harriet lifted a bottle of wine out of it, pausing to read
the label.

      "This was very nice of you,"  she said,  "but you really didn't have to spend
this much money.  Any table wine would've been fine."

      The look on his face told her he had no idea how expensive a bottle he had
brought.

      "You did buy this, didn't you?"  she asked, worrying for a moment that he
might've gotten it another way.

      "Well,"  he replied, his response a little hesitant,  "I sort of took it from home.
I can't go into a liquor store to buy anything yet, at least not legally."

      That answer surprised Harriet, prompting her to ask him how old he was.
The look on her face said that his answer wasn't what she had expected.

      "Really, I was sure that you were at least three or four years older than that,"
she said, then again glancing at the bottle added, "Well, I won't tell anyone if you
don't."

      Brian wasn't sure if she was talking about his still being a teenager or his
theft of the bottle of wine.

      Leading Brian into the living room, Harriet told him to make himself
comfortable while she put the wine on ice.  Taking a seat on the couch, Brian
glanced around the room; taking in its simple but comfortable d�cor.  On a small
end table sat a double frame, in each side of which rested photographs of a
younger Harriet and a man.  It didn't take lot of thought to realize that the men in
each were the former husbands that she had mentioned.

      "I see you've found my rogue's gallery,"  Harriet said as she stepped back
into the room, holding a small tray of sliced meat snacks and cubes of cheese.

      "Your husbands?"  he asked, just to confirm his assumption.

      "That's them all right,"  she said, setting the tray down on the coffee table
and herself next to Brian.

      "The one on the right is Rick,"  she explained as she popped a piece of
cheese in her mouth.  "We dated our last three years of high school and back
then we thought we would be together forever.  So much so that we got married
before graduation year was over.  People assumed that I was pregnant because
of the rush, but the simple truth was that neither of us really thought it out.  We
just foolishly assumed that being married would be just like one never ending
date."

      Also sampling the treats on the table, Brian listened in rapt fascination to her
story.

      "But real life is never like that we soon learned,"  she continued,  "especially
when you have to come up with things like the rent, the utility bills and so on.
Both of us were working, but with the jobs that we could get with only a high
school diploma, there never seemed to be anything left over.  We spent more
time arguing over money than anything else."

      Brian nodded his head.  Even living at home, with few bills of his own, he
always seemed to be short of cash come the end of the week.

      "And then,"  she went on,  "about five months into it, it looked like I might
actually be pregnant.  Back then of course, you couldn't just walk into a drug
store and buy a home pregnancy kit.  The week while we waited to see a doctor
at the local clinic was the longest of my life.  Faced with the prospect of losing
half our income, on top of the expense of having a baby, we finally realized what
a mistake we'd made.  When the test came back negative, we couldn't get the
divorce papers drawn up quick enough."

      As she had been telling her story, Brian couldn't get over the thought that the
Harriet in the photograph was actually a year younger than he was now.  She
definitely had been a hottie.  Then again, shifting his attention to the second
photo, taken about a decade later, he decided that if anything, Harriet had only
gotten better with age.

      "By the time I met and married Robert Lewiston, I obviously had grown a lot,
both physically and emotionally, and we were of an age where we were also a
lot better suited financially for setting up house together.  And for the first ten
years we did pretty well, with the normal bumps in the road that every married
couple has to expect. Yet, after that, things began to change and to this day, I
really couldn't tell you exactly why.  To say that we just fell out of love seems too
simple an explanation.  There wasn't anyone else involved for either of us, it
was like we woke up one morning and discovered that we were two people
living together for no reason other than we'd been doing it for so long."

      That, Brian thought, could describe a lot of people he knew.

      "Oh we gave it a go for another year or so,"  she added,  "but finally we
decided what was the point?  We never had any kids so it seemed better to just
admit we were at an end and take it from there."

      "Wait a second, your last name is Lowell, right?"  asked Brian.

      "Yes, after the second divorce I went back to using my maiden name,"  she
explained.  "A whole new beginning so to speak."

      "Did you ever hear from him after that?"  a curious Brian asked.

      "Actually yes,"  Harriet smiled, as if recalling a pleasant memory.  "He moved
out west to start over and married a woman he met there.  I still get a Christmas
card from them every year."

      "But you never..."

      "Married again?"  Harriet said, completing the question.  "No, twice seemed
quite enough.  Oh it's not like I've been living a cloistered life, but I think I'm a
little too set in my ways now to try it a third time."

      A timer going off in the kitchen brought the story to a close and Brian
followed Harriet back into it.  Living alone, she saw no need for a dining room so
the plates were set out on the kitchen table, which was actually the sort of
breakfast nook that you might find in a restaurant.  The service was Correll
dinnerware, set out for two.

      "Well, what do you think?"  Harriet asked ten minutes later after Brian had a
chance to sample her Chicken Marsala.

      "This is incredible,"  he managed to say between bites.

      "Would you like some more?"  she asked, seeing that he had already
finished most of the portion.

      "Yes, please,"  Brian answered.

      "It's been a while since I've really had the chance to cook for someone,  I'm
glad you're enjoying it so."

      In the end, Brian enjoyed it so much that there were only scraps left on the
stove by the time he was finished.  The garlic potatoes and sweet corn that had
accompanied the chicken also disappeared just as quickly, as did the bottle of
wine that he'd brought.

      "I hope your parents don't miss that bottle too soon,"  Harriet commented as
she drained the last of her glass,  "but it was delicious."

      "It was a gift from my Dad's boss last Christmas,"  Brian replied as he
soaked up the last of the gravy and mushrooms with a slice of bread.  "He'd
never even taken the wrapping paper off so I doubt he'll even notice it was
gone."

      "He doesn't like wine?"

      "Nah, he's pretty much just a beer drinker."

      "I see."

      The meal over, Brian helped Harriet clear the table and put the dishes in the
dishwasher.  She commented that this was the first time in a while that she'd
had enough dirty dishes to actually use the machine.  Usually she just washed
her plates by hand and left them to dry in the rack.

      "I made dessert too,"  she said as she turned and the closed the washer and
set it for delayed start.   "Do you want to have it now or would you like to wait a
while?"

      "Could we wait until I digest what I've already eaten?"  Brian asked.

      "Of course,"  she replied, leading him back into the living room.

      They talked for a while, covering a range of topic, which just reminded Brian
just how much he was going to miss their conversations on the road.  Few of his
friends seemed interested in anything other than sports or the latest music.
Dwelling on that fact, he didn't notice when the topic of discussion changed.

      "Excuse me?"  he said.

      "I asked how your game went this morning,"  Harriet repeated.  "You did play
this morning, didn't you?"

      "Yes I did,"  he finally answered, remembering telling her that he played
every week.  "I got a few hits but I had to drop out of the game after the fifth
when I hurt my shoulder.  I think I pulled something when I slid into third."

      "Oh you poor thing, does it still hurt?"

      "A little,"  he replied, trying to make light of it.

      "Which shoulder?"

      "My left one."

      Standing up from the couch, Harriet walked around it and came up behind
Brian.  She put her hands on his shoulders and applied a gentle touch to his left
one.

      "This one?"  she asked as her fingers pressed against his muscles.

      "Yes."

      "Hmmm, it is a little tight,"  she noted, applying a little more pressure.

      Before Brian could say anything, Harriet brought both hands to bear on his
sore spot and began to work her fingers around it.  Quicker than he would've
thought possible, it actually began to feel better.

      "I guess I should've mentioned that Robert was a physical therapist,"  Harriet
smiled as her hands continued to massage Brian's shoulders and back, moving
outward from the area he had hurt.  "He taught me a lot about it while we were
married."

      "I think you're wasting your time doing payroll,"  Brian said as, with eyes
closed, he leaned forward just enough for Harriet to reach his lower back,  "your
fingers are magic.  This has got to be the best massage I've ever had."

      "Robert used to tell me I was a natural,"  Harriet laughed as she worked her
fingers along his spine.  "He even used to say that he'd rather have one of my
massages than a blow..."

      She stopped herself just in mid-word but even though she'd  substituted
something more innocuous, her original meaning was clear.  Brian felt himself
becoming more and more relaxed, thinking that her ex-husband had certainly
known what he was talking about.

      "It seems like you're really enjoying this,"  Harriet said, bringing her head
close to Brian's.

      "Oh yeah,"  he practically purred.  "This is really great."

      "Better than being with whatever girl you broke a date with to have dinner
with me tonight?"  she asked unexpectedly.  "And don't tell me you didn't
already have a date for tonight because I know better."

      "Okay, yes I did have a date,"  he admitted.

      "And you broke it to have dinner with me?"   she repeated, pointing out the
obvious.

      "Yes,"  he practically moaned, enjoying the massage too much to detract
from it by talking too much.

      "Was she cute?"

      "What?"

      "I asked was she cute,"  Harriet said,  "although if she was going out with
you I'm going to assume she was."

      A lack of response confirmed that as well.

      "Well then,"  Harriet whispered into his ear as she moved even closer,
"anyone who made a sacrifice like that should definitely get the full treatment."

      "Full treatment?"  he asked, his eyes opening at the words.

      Rather than respond verbally, Harriet leaned forward and pressed her
breasts against the back of his neck, her hands moving down his chest at the
same time.  That felt even better and never one to turn down a good thing; Brian
just closed his eyes again and let his head rest against her soft flesh as if it were
a pillow.

      Pleased with Brian's acquiescence, Harriet brought her hands all the way
down to his waist, then skirted just below his belt for a moment, curious to
gauge his response as she broached forbidden territory.  Pleased when not a
word was raised, she took hold of the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up out of
his pants and then high enough to expose his lightly haired chest.  Slender
fingers worked their way across his skin, caressing the flesh and rubbing against
his nipples.

      "Mmmmm,"  Brian moaned softly, enjoying the press of her fingers.

      Harriet gently nudged him forward, just enough so that she could ease off
his shirt.  Then she began to work on his bare shoulders, moving down his back,
then coming around to his chest once more.

      "Oh man, that feels really good,"  Brian said as she again let the tips of her
fingers drop below his belt.

      "You know, I could make it feel really better,"  she whispered into his ear, her
face practically pressed against his.

      Brian had a good idea what she was suggesting, but hesitated in
responding.  On the chance he was wrong, the last thing he wanted to get out
was that he'd made a fool of himself hitting on a  woman old enough to be his
mother.

      Harriet, however, was totally sure of herself as she once more ran an
outstretched hand down across his chest and stomach, again crossing the line
of his belt.  This time, her fingers closed around the now quite visible bulge in
his pants, massaging it gently for a few seconds while she used her other hand
to tilt Brian's head just far enough to allow a kiss.

      Much to Brian's surprise, Harriet's kiss was just as sweet, if not more so than
any he'd gotten from girls his age.  Then again, he realized as he felt her tongue
brushing against his own, she'd been doing this before any of them had been
born.  What else, he wondered, was the white-haired woman better at?

                                -=-=-=-

      It didn't take long for him to start to find out as Harriet stood up from behind
the couch and told him to follow her.  Brian assumed that she was leading him
into the bedroom.  A prospect that excited him more than he could've imagined
only a short time before.  Instead, to his momentary confusion, Harriet guided
him toward the bathroom.

      The bathroom was on a scale with the rest of the house, with a commode, a
pedestal sink and a phone booth sized shower.  Standing alongside the metal
enclosure, she instructed Brian to remove his shoes and socks, which he quickly
did, placing them just outside the door.

      As he turned back into the room, Harriet took hold of his belt and pulled him
to her.  She kissed him again, this time more deeply then before.  The thought
that she was more than twice his age no longer came to mind, only that she was
a sexy and exciting woman.  One that was making no secret of the fact that she
wanted him.

      Undoing his belt, she let his pants fall to the floor.  After Brian stepped out of
them, she picked them up and carefully folded them before putting them out by
his shoes and socks.  Now Brian stood only in his boxer shorts as Harriet
stepped back for a second to admire his near naked form.

      Then, with a broad smile on her face, she bent down and, with a quick jerk
on his underpants, pulled them all the way down to his ankles.  Abruptly free of
restraint, Brian's cock, already quite erect, bounced upward with surprising
force.

       "Oh my,"  Harriet laughed as his cock bobbled only inches from her face.
"You are feeling good aren't you?"

      Sliding her right hand up from beneath, Harriet carefully cupped his erection,
running her fingers up and down its length.  With her other hand, she picked up
a clear plastic bottle filled with green body wash and poured a small amount
over Brian's sex.

      It didn't take much effort to produce an enveloping lather and Brian's
manhood was quickly covered with suds.  Harriet continued to slowly work her
fingers back and forth, causing the young man to softly sigh.

      Still holding him in her hand, she guided Brian into the shower, then used a
wet towel to clean off her hands.  She took a long step backward and, after
undoing the zipper on the back of her dress, carefully slid out of it.

      Brian had his eyes locked on her as, now clad in a simple white bra and
panties, she placed her dress with the rest of their clothes.  It could hardly be
expected, he knew, for her body to have been as tight and compact as other
women he'd seen in similar situations, but still she was captivating.  Real
women have curves was an expression he'd often heard, and to use another
expression his father often used when referring to women his age, Harriet's
body had character.

      With a casual ease, Harriet reached behind her back and undid the clasp of
her bra, sliding it down the length of her arms.  Not as concerned about it as she
was her dress, she simply tossed it over into the corner.  Her panties followed
just a moment later, giving Brian an anxiously awaited view of her in the all
together.  Idle curiosity had made him wonder if the rest of the hair on the older
woman's body had also turned white.  That turned out to be a question left
unanswered because when he looked between her legs, there wasn't a hair to
be found.

      Picking up the bottle of body wash and a small cloth, Harriet climbed into the
shower with Brian, pulling the curtain closed behind her.  It was a tight fit; the
shower really hadn't been built for two, but neither seemed about to complain.
Reaching behind Brian, Harriet turned on the water, keeping it almost to a
trickle, just enough to wet the cloth in her hand.

      Saturating the wash cloth with the contents of the bottle, Harriet ran it all
over Brian's body until he was covered in foam almost from head to toe.  Then
she handed it off to him and invited him to do the same.  An invitation he
accepted with enthusiasm.

      Warm flesh slid up against warm flesh as eager hands explored the other's
body.  Standing behind Harriet, Brian wrapped his arms around her and pressed
his hard cock between the cheeks of her ass.  His hands closed around her
rounded breasts, squeezing them as his fingers played with her pert nipples.
Sliding his left hand down across her soapy body to the soft mound between her
thighs, his fingers brushed against her it.  He wiped away the soap, and then
washed it off his hand as well.  The way now clear, he gently bushed the tips of
his fingers against her clit.

      Now it was Harriet's turn to purr as Brian increased his attentions, continuing
to play with the excited nub while at the same time directing one, then two of his
fingers past her smooth folds and deep inside of her.

       "Oh yes,"  Harriet said as she pressed her body hard against his, sliding
back and forth as tiny waves of pleasure raced across her.

      His hands excitedly engaged, Brian pressed his equally soap covered cock
between the cheeks of her ass and pumped it tightly between them.  It wasn't as
good as being inside of her, but it wasn't bad either.

      Reaching out with a free hand, Harriet increased the water flow so that
steady streams now rained down on both of them.  Beads of sweat mixed with
the cleansing flow as both their bodies began to quiver and quake.

       "Faster, faster,"  Harriet cried out, grabbing his hand and adding her
motions to his own.  "Fuck me with your fingers!"

      It didn't take long for Brian's persistence to pay off as only a few minutes
later, he felt Harriet's body tremble in his grip as a series of small but powerful
climaxes shook her.  Evidently, the fifty-two-year-old was one of those mythical
multi-orgasmic women he'd always heard about.

      His own reward came but a short time later as his cock exploded all over her
ass, sending bursts of whiteness across her rounded cheeks, only to be instantly
washed away as if they had never been there.  The immense delight he felt was
not no easily erased.

      Warm water still washed across their bodies as Harriet turned in his arms
and gave him a quick kiss, then reached up and ran her hand across his short
cropped hair.

       "Did you enjoy that?"  she asked.

      "Yes,"  he said.

       "Not exactly what you're used to, was it?"

       "Not really,"  he said honestly,  "but it was fun nevertheless."

       "Well, sometimes it's nice to have a little variety for a change,"  she
laughed.  "something more than the old wham, bam, thank you ma'am."

       "I guess so,"  he smiled back, realizing that his own experiences, while of a
quantity to be proud of, had pretty much been of the stick it in and hammer away
variety.  What had just happened had given him something new to think about.

      "Oh not that there's anything wrong with a little old fashioned fucking,"
Harriet laughed,  "it's just that it would be such a waste if you went through life
thinking that was all there was."

      "I can see your point,"  Brian agreed.

      "Well then, speaking of points,"  she smiled as she ran her hand down his
body, coming to rest against a cock already coming back to life.

      "It seems that at least part of you wasn't totally satisfied with our little
encounter,"  she said, her hand closing around his emerging hardness and
stroking it slowly.

      Brian's look now turned to one of embarrassment.

      "I guess we'll just have to do something about that, won't we?"  Harriet said,
pausing to give him a quick kiss on the lips.  "Think you could manage another
round?"  she added as she looked up into his eyes.

      The look in those eyes gave her all the answer she needed.

                        -=-=-=-

       "Give it to me baby,"  Harriet cried out, loud enough to have been heard
outside of the bedroom,  "give me that big cock, hard as you can!"

      In the few seconds that he allowed himself to think about it, Brian wondered
what his friends would say if they could see him at this moment.  Standing
naked alongside Harriet's bed, his hands wrapped tightly around her thighs and
his cock buried in her pussy.  Looking down at the equally naked middle-aged
woman, bent over on her knees on the bed, he quickly decided he wouldn't
have cared a shit what they thought.

      Slamming his hardness deep inside her once more, Brian instead marveled
at what an awesome fuck Harriet was turning out to be.  It was certainly true that
her body was hardly as tight, inside or outwardly, as the girls he usually took to
bed, but that shortcoming was more than made up by her no holds barred
approach as far as sex was concerned.

      Only fifteen minutes before, she had led him from the bathroom to her small
bedroom and with wanton abandon had practically shoved him down on the side
of the bed.  Then, without a word, she had dropped to her knees and taken him
totally in her mouth, demonstrating a skill in that area unmatched by any girl his
age.

      Brian was hardly porn star material as far as his manhood went, but he knew
from discreet observation of his fellows that he was on the high side of average.
Large enough, at least, for girls to only usually get half his length inside their
mouths.  Harriet, without hesitation, had deep throated his entirety until she felt
his balls slap against her chin.

      He watched in delightful amazement as her head bobbed up and down on
his cock, her tongue washing over his flesh as her lips caressed the sensitive
skin.  In no time at all, he felt the familiar rush of an approaching orgasm, only to
have the sensation suddenly recede as Harriet pressed her thumb against the
base of his cock, applying enough pressure to subdue his eruption.  Twice more
she brought him to the edge of the summit, only to apply her dampening touch
once more.

       "Don't worry sugar," she said as she let his hardness fall from her mouth,
"you'll come soon enough, and I promise it'll have been worth the wait."

      Rising back to her feet, she leaned forward, slipping a hand behind his head
and pressing it between her breasts.  Brian needed no urging to bring his own
hands up and cradle her mounds, his eager mouth closing first around one
nipple, then the other.  Nipples grew hard against his tongue, bringing forth soft
moans of delight from Harriet.

      Her outstretched hands now resting against his shoulders, Harriet pressed
forward, using the weight of her body to force Brian flat against the mattress.
Not that he needed much forcing.  She climbed on after him, kissing him softly,
first on the mouth, then his cheek, then all across his neck and chest.  An
unfamiliar yet delightfully pleasing sensation fluttered across Brian's chest as
she glided her tongue across his own nipples and took them into her mouth,
much as he had hers.  Up until this moment, Brian had never considered how
nice that could feel, the mere mention of such a thing previously falling into the
too gay area.

      Harriet continued her journey across his body, applying pressures light and
heavy, both bringing a different set of pleasures.  Her warm mouth again found
his cock, but for a much more fleeting envelopment for now it was but a
waypoint on the road to ecstasy.  Moving downward, she took his balls in her
mouth, one at a time and then together, educating him in yet another unexplored
source of gratification.

      Finally, she lifted herself up once more and dropped down on the bed next
to him, laughingly whispering into his ear what she wanted him to do.  Without
skipping a beat, he hurried off the edge of the bed, even as Harriet rolled over
into the space he had just vacated.  Even as Brian was standing erect, in more
ways than one, the white-haired woman was already on her knees, lifting her
ass high in the air over the edge of the bed.

      "Oh yeah!"  Brian thought as he felt his cock slip past the fold of Harriet's
mound, the moist walls of the tunnel beyond wrapping tight around him.

      He was surprised at how wet she was, having once heard that older women
sometimes needed help in that area.  He remembered his mother's
embarrassed look when one of the paper grocery bags that had gotten wet in
the rain had ripped, spilling the things she had bought at the mega-store's
pharmacy all over the kitchen table.  Sitting in the center of the mess was a
small tube of lubricating gel.

      He quickly decided that conjecture about his mother's sex life might be
somewhat inappropriate while he had his cock buried in a woman just about the
same age and banished it from his mind.  As the old saying went, there were
two groups of people who never had sex, parents and their children, or so each
liked to imagine of the other.  While it really wasn't shocking to Brian that his
father and mother still went at it on occasion, the fact that that gel was intended
for an area not naturally lubricated might well indeed have altered that
perception.

      His thoughts now totally on the woman beneath him, Brian quickly settled
into his familiar rhythm, the one that had satisfied every girl he had been with so
far.  Unlike most of them, Harriet made no attempt to act like she wasn't totally
into it, that she had to have been seduced into surrendering her virtue.  That silly
illusion that girls didn't like to fuck as much as guys did.  If anything, she loved it
even more than he did.

      "Come on baby, bring it home!"  Harriet cried out as Brian slammed his cock
hard into her once more.

      Brian didn't think it possible to fuck her any harder than he already was, but
that didn't stop him from trying.  Beads of sweat covered both their bodies as
they decoupled just long enough for Harriet to roll over onto her back, her legs
quickly spreading outward in renewed invitation.  One that the young man
wasted no time in accepting, dropping down to slide his manhood back inside of
her, even as her legs closed around him.

      "Oh yeah, baby, that's even better,"  Harriet panted into his ear as she held
his body tight against hers, his strokes reduced in length but not in intensity.

      Familiar sensations built deep inside of him, matched by those growing in
Harriet as well.  His chest pressed against her breasts, feeling both the warmth
and vibrations of her excitement.  Two had indeed become one, riding the rocky
road to bliss.

      A road that came to a sudden crashing end as what had started as a muted
melody in each of them rose to a rousing crescendo, the effects of which
reverberated across both wet, naked, bodies. Words were impossible, not that
any were needed.  The short gasps and moans more than sufficed.

      Then, almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over.  Leaving in its wake a
feeling of both exhaustion and elation.  A combination that testified to a job well
done.

      Brian laid atop her, even as his cock slowly softened and slipped from within
her.  He was too tired to move, his body wrapping around her like a blanket.
Harriet relaxed her grip, but not completely, her arms and legs resting gently
against his legs and back as she enjoyed the still radiating warmth of his flesh
against hers.

                        -=-=-=-


      "What did you think?"  Harriet finally asked, stoking her fingers against the
back of his neck.

      "I think that was fantastic,"  Brian said, his head resting on her breasts, his
eyes closed.

      "Better than it would've been with the girl you were supposed to be with
tonight?"  she asked.

      Brian opened his eyes and lifted his head to look up at Harriet.  It didn't take
a second to see that she wanted the real answer and not just the one that most
women wanted to hear.

      "Without a doubt,"  he smiled.

      "So I guess you'll be giving up all those young girls now,"  Harriet said, her
hand brushing against his cheek.

      She only let the look of alarm that flashed across his face sit there for a few
seconds, then let him off the hook, saying she was only kidding.

      "I'm not so mean that I would deprive all those young ladies the benefit of
your company,"  she laughed,  "not as long as I get to teach you a few things
that I'm sure they'd appreciate as well."

      Brian was quick to agree to that arrangement, but a small look of concern
still remained on his face.

      "Is there something wrong?"  Harriet asked.

      "I was just wondering,"  Brian said,  "if it would be okay if I still picked you up
in the morning and gave you a ride to work?"

      That caused Harriet to laugh louder than she had in a very long time.

      "Honey,"  she said as she pulled him close enough for a kiss,  "you can take
me for a ride anytime you want."

      Realizing how silly his request had been, Brian laughed as well.

END
   
(c) Ann Douglas 2008

Comments are the life blood of any amateur writer,
the currency in which they are paid.  It only takes a few
minutes to send off a few lines, which is little to ask for
in exchange for hours spent creating a story.  So be sure to
take those few minutes, it can only result in more and
better stories in the future.

ASSTR Donation Page

http://www.asstr-mirror.org/donations.html

Ann Douglas Web Page

http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Ann_Douglas/www/


_________________________________________________________________
Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn "10 hidden secrets" from Jamie.
http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008
<1st attachment begin>

<HTML removed pursuant to http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/erotica/assm/faq.html#policy>
<1st attachment end>

----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------
Notice: This post has been modified from its original
format.  The post was sent as an email attachment and
has been converted by ASSTR ASSM moderation software.
----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ------ send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com>|
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html> Moderators: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|ASSM Archive at <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org>   Hosted by <http://www.asstr-mirror.org> |
|Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d; look for subject {ASSD}|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+