In the Beginning – Part One

I would like to thank everybody that read, voted for and appreciated my first story along with the kind comments as how to improve my writing. I was nervous about making my story public as I didn’t think I would have the nerve to do so. If it had not been for a small incident at breakfast a couple of weeks ago, I would never have done it and now I take a guilty pleasure in telling you what started it all.

This may not be to some peoples liking but I think it needs the background behind that which caused it. Women are different, we want narrative as well as action!

Part Two will compensate you!

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I had just finished dressing in the morning and had come down stairs to have some breakfast before I went out to do some shopping and meet my best friend Elayne for lunch, this was one of my days off from my part-time job and on my days off I do what I want as I deserve them! My husband, Doug, was always up first on those mornings and usually could be found reading the online version of one of the broadsheet newspapers or having a look at Ebay for guitars.

I came into our kitchen and he was sitting drinking coffee and reading the news, “Do you want coffee, Honey?”
“Yes, please, I am still half asleep here”
He chuckled and got up to make me coffee as I sat down in his seat to look at the headlines. It was the usual guff about rising costs, oil prices and a woman who had just given birth to sextuplets. I shuddered at the thought of having six screaming mouths with six fully functioning digestive systems to cope with and was glad that our two had flown the coop, our daughter at university and our son happily settled down with his partner.
My husband put my coffee down next to me and kissed the top of my head, “Here you go, watch you don’t spill it”
“Hah! I don’t believe that you are still going on about that!”
A couple of weeks ago I was reading an Email and drinking coffee when I clicked on an attachment from a friend and was looking at the scenic photographs when the screen flashed, the speakers blared and the image of an ugly old man ‘gurning’ appeared on the screen. It gave me a shock and I spilled coffee into the keyboard. My darling husband thought that it was hilarious despite the fact that we no longer had a working computer and would have to buy a new keyboard that day and he has had a little dig at me since about it.

“I am meeting Elayne later today and need to send her some photographs for Karen to take to school with her so I will just send them from your side of the computer”
Our computer was split in two and you had to sign in to access your side, it was something that we both agreed on that we would have privacy on what we kept and sent via the computer.
“Go ahead but don’t close the paper, just shrink it down as I am not finished reading it yet”
I shrunk the page and had the mouse over the Email symbol when I noticed a little icon next to it with ‘XNX’ on it. I paid it no attention and wrote my Email to Elayne and attached the photographs from the portable drive my husband had added to store stuff like that. I put back his newspaper and got up from the computer to make some toast for myself.

It was nearly 8 am now and my husband got up to get ready for work as he was in the local office today instead of being out to customers premises, he worked for a company that made electronic machines and was one of the senior commissioning engineers meaning that he could be away for a couple of days at a time depending on the customer’s issues..
I hugged him as he got to the door and he lifted me in his arms to kiss me and held me off the ground for a few seconds before putting me back down and saying that he would be back for 6 pm tonight.
I closed the door behind him and sat down with the rest of my coffee and toast thinking about what I needed to do before meeting Elayne for lunch.

I got rid of the usual daily things, stuffed the dishwasher with the supper and breakfast things, filled the washing machine with the laundry and vacuumed the floors. I made myself another cup of coffee and sat down at the computer to browse the internet. I was looking for some craft supplies so I was using the search to find what I wanted in the local area. The letters ‘xnx’ came up in my mind from this morning and I typed them into the search line.

Up popped links for Utube, a sex movie site and lots of references to electronic component structures, as this was related to what my husband did for a living I was not surprised that he would have a link to reference materials for his work. I cleared the search and got back to mine when a thought occurred to me, I would learn some of his ‘jargon’ and surprise him when he came home tonight. I entered the ‘xnx’ again and as I hit enter I noticed that it was not ‘xnx’ I had typed but ‘xnxx’ I tried to stop the page but it was already opening and I was about to hit the back key when I saw that the first entry had the ‘used’ look to it. I thought that maybe my husband had done the same as I had just done and had clicked on it automatically in mistake for his reference materials but then I saw the record of visits to the site. There were seventeen of them with the last one being six days ago.

‘Six days ago?’ I thought, ‘six days ago?’. Our wedding anniversary had been six days ago and we had made love that night with an intensity that had left both of us panting and sweating in each others arms. My husband had made me come four times and had had me so horny that if he had not have put his cock in me after the third orgasm I had had then I was going to scream. My thoughts snapped back to reality and I sat there stunned.

My husband of eighteen years had been watching porn on our computer sometime that day before making love to me on our wedding anniversary. To fully describe how I felt at that moment would take me for ever to write here. To say I was shocked would be the understatement of the century. I felt everything at once, I felt ashamed, humiliated, used, I was so utterly shocked and confused that my brain seemed to be stuck in a loop with it jumping from six days ago, to now, to six days ago and back to now.

It was not that he had been looking at porn on the internet but that he had needed to before we had made love. We had made love twice since our wedding anniversary but it was the nice gentle reassuring love making where you melt against each other and afterwards fall asleep in each others arms. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against pornography as long as it does not involve anything illegal. We had watched pornography together when we were younger and at the time although it was stimulating, we found most of it hilarious with the women’s orgasms winning an Oscar for overacting and the staying power of the men akin to that of an elephant on novocaine. I thought that we were adventurous and varied enough in our lovemaking that we did not need it to enjoy what we did. Was I wrong?

I don’t know how long I sat there but when I put my coffee cup to my mouth, it was cold. I got up and splashed my coffee furiously down the sink and rinsed my cup. After filling it again I held it in both hands against my chest and breathed in the smell as I felt it warm my sternum.

‘Am I overreacting?’ I thought, ‘have I gone off the deep end about this?’ I sipped more coffee and I went back to the computer to look at the internet link again.
It’s different colour now made it stand out like a neon sign, it glowed at me and I stared back at it wondering what is there that my husband looked at to make our wedding anniversary night so memorable but now tainted with the stigma behind that link.

I sat down at the computer and put my coffee down, I moved the mouse over the link and I clicked it open.

‘XNXX.COM’ was across the top of the page and below it a lot of links and thumbnails displaying various porn scenes with the times on them. I thought that it was just like any other porn site that I had seen in the past and moved the mouse across the page to hit the close button when I saw the image change when the mouse went over it. I stopped the mouse and moved it back over one of the thumbnails and a slide show started showing scenes from the video. I had never seen this before and I moved the mouse onto another one to watch the same thing happen with different actors.

I knew that computers had come a long way, my husband? but was amazed at the quality that was now displayed compared to those poor, grainy videos that I had seen years ago.

I was curious now instead of being angry and I looked at the various thumbnails to see what was there. A woman’s view of pornography is different from a man’s view and I did not mouse over the videos that men would go to first but looked at the amateur ones and clicked on an innocuous looking one.
It was obviously a home made one but the quality was good and you could see the couple very well. I watched as the guy in the video positioned his girlfriend so that the best view of her cunt was facing the camera and he must have been watching a monitor as he shuffled a bit with his cock in his hand before placing it at the lips of her cunt. I gave a little giggle at this thinking that his girlfriend was probably bored with the waiting and losing interest or soaking wet wanting to be fucked!

I kept watching the video and as his cock moved in and out of her cunt I could see that shaft of it was wet from her secretions. When he was fully inside her you could see his balls against her ass cheeks and the dark cleft between his then he would pull out and her cunt lips would slide along his shaft. My earlier thoughts about my husband had now dispelled as I watched and I felt the heat and wetness of my own cunt that the action on the screen had aroused in me involuntarily. Here I was getting horny after being shocked to the core and I wanted to make myself come!

I squeezed my thighs together and felt the vee of my panties wrinkle up against my sex. Holding my thighs tightly squeezed I slowly rubbed then together from the knees until my thighs crossed and then did the same again until my legs were fully crossed on the other side. I felt my crushed up panties pull across my pubic hair and outer lips as I could feel the insides of them slide against each other with my now soaking wet cunt. I tried to keep my rhythm to that of the guy on the screen but he must have been too aroused as he thrust hard into her a couple of more times and groaned. The video stopped and I paused my thighs as I back spaced the screen and looked for some thing else to click on so I could finish making myself come.

I found another amateur video but it was not good so I clicked on one of the porn ones, something about twelve minutes long. They were not wasting time as the porn actor held the girl’s legs apart and just pushed his big cock straight into her gaping cunt. Her groans were so fake I turned the sound off and started to roll my thighs together again as I watched him fuck her.
My panties had been so wrinkled up they had now parted my outer lips and I could feel them dragging wetly against me. I put my hand in the waistband of my skirt and I found the top of them and pulled it tightly against my belly. This pulled the material of my panties into the valley between my ass cheeks and into my wet cunt to press my clitoris in a wedgie fashion. I wriggled the waistband as I rolled my thighs and I could feel my clitoris get engorged and the friction against it was delicious. The porn guy was now fucking her from the back and I was wetter than ever now. I could feel my juices slipping between my cheeks and wetting my skirt. I slid forwards on the chair causing my skirt to be left behind and my ass cheeks felt the warm leather of the chair. I pulled up the front of my skirt and put my hand between my thighs, I was soaking wet! My panties were a wet rag between my outer lips and I pulled them to the side with my left hand. Opening my thighs as wide as I could in this position I could feel my outer lips part and the cool air on my exposed wet hole. I could smell my muskiness from my secretions and it was heady, I never smelled bad, I never tasted bad either! How do I know? The same way as all women know how they taste, by licking their own fingers tentatively the first time to find out!

I placed the tip of my middle finger between my now swollen lips and found my clitoris right away. My lubrication let it slide from side to side as I watched the ‘stud’ pummel the girl’s cunt with his hard on. I could feel my nipples erect and push against my bra under my shirt. I could feel fine sweat on my upper lip and my lips parted to get more breath. I was sliding my finger tip over my clitoris and revelling in the warm feeling emanating from it through my body. I let my finger slide further down each stroke passing over my wet lips of my cunt and pressed against them in turn. The tingles from this went to my inner lips and I slid my finger between my outer lips to caress them too, feeling my wetness oozing out of me. I started to press harder on my clitoris as I slid my finger up and down and the intensity increased with every stroke. I curled my finger and it slid over my clitoris and straight into me, making me shudder in delight. My legs started to tremble after being kept apart for so long and I closed my thighs over my hand and let go my panties. My middle finger was still slipping in and out of me and over my clitoris in time to the thrusts on the screen but now the added pressure of my thighs was making the sensation boil.

I was going to come! I curled my finger tighter and it touched onto my G spot. It was fantastic! The change in texture from the smooth lining on my cunt to the rough feeling area in the roof of my vagina was so different. I closed my eyes oblivious to what was happening on the screen and I undid the top two buttons of my shirt and slid my left hand under my bra cup to hold my right breast. My right hand was stroking my clitoris, inner lips, cunt walls and G spot as I squeezed and rolled my nipple between my thumb and forefinger.
My heart was pounding in my ears and my chest heaving as I gasped for air. I was finger fucking myself and I wanted to come.

I opened my eyes as my orgasm started to rip through me. My legs shook, my nipples ached, my cunt was on fire and my hand a blur as I thrust my finger into me still rubbing my clitoris. I saw the guy on the computer pull out and jerk off onto the girl’s pussy and belly, groaning silently like a pro!

Groaning like a pro? I wasn’t groaning, I was almost screaming as the ferocity of the orgasm I was having exploded over me. Wave after wave rushed from my pulsating cunt and throbbing clitoris. I felt my vagina walls contract and ripple, wetness oozed out of me in little dribbles to trickle between the cheeks of my ass. My nipples were as hard as corks, sweat ran from behind my knees, my brow, under my armpits and in the small of my back. I was trembling so much that I did not notice that my hand was being crushed by my thighs with each spasm of my orgasm. I tried to open my legs but they would not do what I asked and started to shake uncontrollably. My cunt was just fluttering now and the intensity of the orgasm started to ease off, I was spent!

My thighs stopped their vibrating dance and I could open them slightly. My hand felt mangled as my finger fell out of my faintly pulsating cunt and I also let go of my now tender nipple. The last trembles of my orgasm subsided and I was still gasping air as the ringing of the phone jarred me back to reality. I quickly closed off the internet as if to hide my prying and hastily pulled my clothing together and went for the phone.

It was Elayne!

I answered the phone still breathless, saying Hi!

“Hi? Sounds more like you’ve just done a marathon. I didn’t call at an awkward time did I?”

‘No, Elayne, I was outside dumping the trash and ran in to answer the phone”, I lied.

“Just as long as I did not interrupt you at it, nothing worse!”

“Doug’s at work and I would not have answered if he had been here and we were doing ‘it’!’

Elayne and I had grown up from childhood together, parting after we graduated from university and then meeting up again when we both moved to the same town after getting married. We had no secrets from each other but did not go into detail about some things though. We had double dated, gone to concerts together, holidayed together, roomed at university and experienced each other’s joys and sadnesses. We did not live in each other’s pocket but had the uncanny ability to restart a conversation that we had had a few weeks before about some diverse subject rather that the usual ‘How’s the kids, old man etc’ we were lucky in that we did not need that side of things.

“Can you make it to lunch earlier, that is why I am phoning. I have to see a customer in the afternoon that might put some money our way and we could do with it’ Elayne and her husband were not poor but sometimes things were a bit tight and Elayne’s business that she ran from home helped out a fair bit in that respect.

“No problem as I have just a few things to take care of and have a shower. About ninety minutes?”

“Great, Liz. I’ll see you there”

I put the phone down and thought about this morning, it was not one of my usual mornings and I wondered what else would happen.

I stripped off my clothes on the way to the shower and dumped them in the laundry. I had not even gone out in them since putting them on fresh this morning but there was no way I was going out now, smelling like a bitch in heat!
I stood under the shower as the water fell on me and tried to gather my thoughts about what had happened this morning.
‘What was different? You found out that your husband looked at some porn from time to time. OK he looked at it the day you got fucked so well on your anniversary. Had you not known would it have been any different?’
I realised that instead of feeling dirtied by this I should feel better about it because I had benefited from it, my husband had benefited from it too but that was neither here nor there.
‘What is the difference from him watching it and giving you a great night compared to what you have just done? You just fingered fucked yourself looking at some porn star stud screw an actress on video?’

I felt a little bit ashamed as I let the water run over me. A ‘Wake up and get ready!’ thought went through my head and I reached for the sponge and shower gel. I stepped out of the water flow soaping myself all over and worked shampoo into my hair. I stepped back under the shower head and let the water stream all over me rinsing the suds away. I smoothed the natural sponge over my body, pushing the foam from the shower gel down my body. I lifted my breasts to wash under them and then washed down my belly before rinsing out the sponge and gently wash my vagina. I dropped the sponge in the rack and twisted the temperature handle to cold. I stood there as the cooling water tightened my skin before getting cold enough to erect my nipples. I shut off the shower and wrapped myself in my towel as I headed to our room. I blasted my hair dry and looked at myself in the full length mirror.

I was only 10lbs heavier that what I used to be when I was eighteen. My breasts were a little fuller and not as perked up as they used to be, not that they were saggy by any means. I had sort of pinky brown coloured nipples that stuck out about a quarter inch and were surrounded by paler areola about an inch in diameter. I could still go topless on the beach and see men’s eyes, from behind my sunglasses, turn to look at them. When I was aroused or my nipples were cold they would erect to twice their unaroused state and they were extremely sensitive to touch or mouths. I had a slight belly and a little bit on my hips and thighs but no stretch marks or cellulite yet. Thank God!
I had a slight tan with the only white triangle mark being over my sex which was topped with my little tuft of pubic hair shaped into a small triangle so that the tip of it just met the top of my outer lips and a slight faded tan line on my belly.
I was glad that I was still in one piece and at five feet six, not too bad at all. (OK self opinion!)

I pulled a white, lightweight bra and matching thong styled panties from my drawer followed by a pair of wide legged shorts that looked like a mini skirt when your legs were together and a tie dyed top. Looked at myself in the mirror and didn’t like the look so I changed the top for a semi-transparent shirt that I tied below my breasts leaving my belly exposed. A little pair of white Nikes and my shoulder bag finished the fashion show. I looked at my watch, Shit! I was going to be late! I grabbed my keys and sunglasses and fled for the car.

I managed to get to the restaurant and parked only five minutes later than agreed to find Elayne, half way through a glass of wine, sitting at one of the tables on the terrace.

“Ah! The lately departed has arrived at last!”

“Sorry Elayne but I got caught up with some stuff and just made it”

“Never mind, you’re here now. Drinky poos?”

“I have the car with me and Doug will be home by six so I had better not”

“OK, then it is soda water and lime for the teetotaller then!”

Elayne laughed knowing full well I would never be a teetotaller ever. When we were at university I could hold my own with most guys we knew in the bars frequented by us students.

Let me put it straight to you guys out there and see if you can see the truth in this.

‘Guys go out with the hope that they can get fucked, women go out deciding if they want to be fucked or not.’

I digress, sorry!

When I look at Elayne I see the same girl, teenager, young woman, woman that I have known for most of my life. She is one year older than me, three inches taller, natural golden blonde hair that stylists would kill to work on, weighs a shade under 125lbs, has a 36C bust that tops an hour glass waist over a firm tight ass that sits on beautifully proportioned legs,. Her face is what stops most guys in their tracks. She has a classical beauty that is not immediately apparent when you look at her. At first it seems that her nose is too big, her soft blue eyes are too wide but when she smiles the effect is amazing and I have seen guys jaws drop straight open.
Her smile transforms her into a goddess with a halo of gold around her head.
Putting it mildly, Elayne is such a fucking stunning looking woman! Other women are in the shade when she smiles and for some strange reason she has never used her looks to get anything in her life.

Guys look at Elayne and their minds all go the same way but here is the joke! There is only one guy that Elayne has ever had eyes for and that is her husband Andrew. He is a quiet, slightly balding fifty year old in moderately fit condition who works for the government. When seen out together people sort of wonder if Andy is some kind of sugar daddy when they see Elayne with him, her arm around his as they walk to a bar or restaurant.
When they see Elayne and Andy with their four daughters then it is really funny! Each of their daughters is a younger version of Elayne and it is like looking at a sequence of photographs of the same person!

“Spill the beans”

“What?”

“Tell me what’s wrong or I’ll hold my breath”

“There is nothing wrong Elayne”

“Yes there is and you know that I know that there is and that is that you know that I know that you know, I know.” “That there is, that is.”

I spluttered my drink as I listened to Elayne mangle up the quotation deliberately. She always could tell from my face no matter how much I tried to hide something from her and I should have not denied it as she always managed to wriggle everything out of me.

“Sod it! I need a real drink first then.”

I called the waiter over and asked for a long tequila and soda and another glass of wine for Elayne.

“Mind the keys, dopey!”

The waiter smiled as he heard this and I dug my car keys out of my bag and he put them on his tray and went to fill our order.
We had been coming to this same restaurant on and off for about three years and one of the services they provided was secure car storage for drivers who had been drinking. You gave your waiter your keys, you got a coded card back, they moved your car to the secure car park, you get loaded, go home in a taxi and return when sober to pick up your car for the princely sum of fifteen dollars.
It was about a year after we started coming here that we found out about this and were surprised that the restaurant owners had nothing to do with the money side of it. They owned the secure plot and let their staff gain from the parking by adding it to their tips fund and the total was split equally amongst all the staff even to sending out proportionate amounts to any staff who had left in that year for any reason. As you can guess, they had a very loyal and expert staff that gave the restaurant a good reputation that supported their excellent cuisine.

I took a long pull on my tequila and felt it warm and cool my throat gently at the same time. I took another sip and put my glass down to see Elayne with her elbows on the table and her head in her palms looking at me.

“So?”

So? Typical Elayne, straight and to the point, So?

“So, Doug is looking at porn” I said.

“So?”

“He was looking at porn on the day of our wedding anniversary. “

“So?”

“Elayne! You know how good that night was, I told you that it had been fantastic.”

“So?”

“Will you quit with the So? I am trying to tell you about it”

“Well get on with it.”

“If I didn’t love you, you wouldn’t be hearing this.”

“So?”

“AAAAAARGH! You make me nuts!”

Elayne’s smile flashed at me and I knew that she was taking the piss out of me.

“Doug looked at porn, Doug made love to you, you came, you came, you came, you both came, you fell asleep. End of story.”

“Elayne! It’s not like that at all, it’s the fact that he went to porn before making love to me.”

“Liz, wait a minute. Doug looked at porn and then gave you a night to remember. Did he do anything strange? Was he wearing the Marigolds with strawberry jelly in them? Did he have his Black & Decker rechargeable drill fitted with the bottle washing brush handy? Or did he get dressed up in his Wonder Woman costume again?”

“You know it was nothing like that, it was just great erotic sex.”

“Well I don’t think that you have anything to worry about then. Mind you if he comes home one night with a paddling pool filled with cold baked beans, let me know, I’ll get a sitter and be right across!”

“It’s not like that, you plonker, it is just that it took something away from that night.”

“Liz, it took nothing away from it, if anything it added to it and had you not known about the porn you would not even be mentioning it again. Anyhoo, how did you find out about the porn, I thought you two kept things apart on your superbrain?”

“I mailed those photographs from Doug’s side this morning and saw a shortcut. It was an accidental spelling thing as I looked for Doug’s reference stuff. When it opened I saw the used link to the porn site”

“And you went off the deep end. Liz, it’s porn, it’s not the end of the world. What was he looking at? Bestiality? Lesbian? Big cocks? Twinks? S&M?”

“No! I did not see anything on that page that had been used. It wouldn’t be anything like that apart from maybe the Lesbian thing.”

“Well what are you worried about? It is not as though he has a subscription to German Shepherd Dog Lovers Monthly or constructing his own replica Spanish Inquisition Rack with genuine wrought iron implements in the garage. I’d get worried then if that was the case!”

The waiter arrived with the menus and refreshed drinks so we made our choices and sat back again. Elayne proffered me a cigarette. At first I refused and thought, ‘Fuck it!’ and took one from her packet and let her light me up. I drew heavily on it as a former smoker always does knowing that I would get hell from Doug again when he smelt the smoke from my clothes and hair. Huh! Not like that when he has his occasional joint at the weekend, mind you I smoke most of it if I am there!

I stubbed out the cigarette after smoking half of it as I did not want to have a whole one because I can always squirm out of Doug’s chiding by saying I did not smoke a whole one! Big deal!

“Got a grip yet?” said Elayne as she blew out smoke and extinguished hers.

“I wasn’t losing it. I was just surprised about it.”

“What’s to be surprised about it? Andy watches porn too and I’ll watch it with him when the kids are out of the way. There is nothing wrong with it.”

“I know that. It is just that he was there and used it”

“Jeez Lizzy! There was nothing wrong with that night or with Doug looking at porn beforehand. You are getting your knickers in a twist for nothing!”

I do not know what it was that gave me away? The mention of knickers in a twist or that I felt my face warm up but Elayne honed in on me.

“You were looking at it yourself, weren’t you? That is why you were out of breath! Trash on a Tuesday? More like ‘trashed’ on a Tuesday!”

She leaned over and hugged me as my face went scarlet.

“Don’t worry, you were not the only horny wife around this morning. I nearly raped Andy this morning. For some reason I woke up horny as hell and I jumped Andy in the shower as he was cleaning his teeth. I didn’t even let him rinse the toothpaste out! The kids were banging on the bathroom door and shouting ‘Get a room!’ at us as they were trying to get ready for school.”

“I wasn’t horny! It was accidental after discovering that website, I just got aroused watching them fuck.”

“What would you have done if Doug had been there? You would have dragged him onto the bed and had you wicked little way with him until you were satisfied, wouldn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

Our frankness about sex stems from being together through all of the discovery stages of teen sex, sleepovers at each other’s home and rooming with each other at university when we had boyfriends that would stay over. Paper thin walls do not hide passionate cries and there would be nights when I was sleeping alone in my room and I could hear Elayne orgasming where I would try to ignore it and end up masturbating myself to sleep. The same would apply to Elayne when I had one of my boyfriends back too.
We were not promiscuous but had a healthy sex life and a good few lovers while we were at university. Elayne met Andy there at the beginning of her last year and no other guy got a look in. All the jocks wondered what this ordinary person had that could captivate a woman like Elayne. They might like to think that women like brawny hulks but the truth be known they prefer guys like Andy who are kind and sensitive and don’t have to put on shows of testosterone laden territorial behaviour to reinforce their caveman attitudes. Guess what? I hate Jocks!

“Maybe indeed, Liz. look, if you tell Doug that you have just masturbated yourself as you watched some dick fuck a cunt what would happen? Would he pack his bags and leave? Would he never touch you again? He used it as a sex aid that night just as you would use a vibrator sometimes when you are making love. It does not detract from it but adds to it!”

“I suppose I have put too much into this and I shouldn’t get worked up about it. It is just that it is there in the background.”

“Oh God! God, if you re listening, hit this stupid cow with a lightening bolt to clear her mind of all impure thoughts.”

Elayne looked around at the clear blue sky and then at me.

“See? God was listening and nothing happened to you. Come on now, here’s lunch and I am starving!”

The waiter served our lunches, me with a ham salad and Elayne with a huge cheeseburger and fries that she grabbed right away and chewed off a big lump.

“This is marvellous!” Elayne spoke through the mouthful of pattie, cheese and bun and when she swallowed it, said, “They make great burgers here. None of that ground to paste shit. Real dead cow! You can’t beat it”

Previous boyfriends were astonished by Elayne’s eating capability and wondered where she put it all as there was never a spare ounce of fat on her at all. She had a very high metabolic rate and consumed stored body energy almost twice as fast as anyone else. When we were at university Elayne took part in some trials for the biology department as it meant she got free food during the experiment. They gave up on her as she never gained or lost weight on the trials.

Elayne cleared another mouthful of her burger and dabbed her lips with the napkin.

“You do it.”

“What?”

“You go look at some porn and then give Doug a special night.”

“WHAT?”

“If it is good for the gander then it is good for the goose as well. Liz, you are a good looking woman and I’m not just saying that. You know you are and that sex is something that you like. Why not do it yourself and then everything would be equal.”

Elayne put down her cutlery and said, “Remember what they said in university? You have to broaden your mind to accept diversity. You cannot go through life as though it was a tunnel. Learn and expand, young Luke Skywalker, learn and expand.”

“Yes, Obi Wan. I hear and obey.”

“OK, now here is something for you. Amanda wants to be a sex therapist.”

Amanda was Elayne and Andy’s second oldest daughter at the age of 21. Her older sister Julie was 24, married and had a 2 year old, her younger sisters, Alisha and Karen were 16 and 14 respectively.

“I thought she was doing a doctorate in research biology and was going to qualify this year?”

“She was but decided to jump course and become a sex therapist. It will take her another three years to qualify and get her supplementary psychiatric degree. We are going to be the bank of mum and dad for longer than I thought but I would rather she did what she wanted to do instead of ending up doing something that she didn’t want to do.”

“Poor you, want some hand me downs?”

Elayne laughed and lit the place up with her smile again.

“It is not as bad as that now. Andy is getting his promotion and that will make a difference for us and I am getting more work as well now.”

Elayne had been an architect before getting married and there were a few house and extension designs in our town that bore her stamp of being out of the ordinary. She got commissions by word of mouth and at first they were few and far between but now she was doing about four a year that gave them the income to sponsor their daughters education without them going into debt over it.
I knew how tough it had been with two and back then Andy was on a good salary compared to the norm. We made it but we cut back all the frills for the kids benefit and when they were out of the house we were able to start saving for us. Elayne and Andy still had another two to support through college and university but it was getting better for them.

“Who is the poor sod requiring your services this afternoon? Going to steam roller your designs on him as usual?”

“You would never guess! It is one of your ex’s from university, Bill Morton.”

“Bill Morton? Oh god, that was a while ago now and a mistake too!”

I had dated Bill for a couple of months when I was in university and he had ended up in my room one night when there was a full blown student party going on in our place. He was not much of a lover but he did make me happy until he dropped me, the university, his folks and life here to go do voluntary work in the townships of Africa. He was with the W.H.O. and was often written about in our local newspaper for his work with the organisation.
I never thought I would have anything to do with him again but here he was popping up in our town to establish his home here.

“He’s married now and got three adopted kids as he can’t have any. He married a Dutch girl who was working there with him from another charity lot and they adopted three of the orphans from one of the refugee camps.”

“There was nothing about him doing that in anything I had read. Three kids?”

“Yup and he told me that he and his wife did not want reporters or sympathy stories written and kept it really low key. Unlike that twat, Madonna.”

“So what is he wanting done? Am extension for more?”

“Nothing like that, one of the kids was a landmine victim and he wants the house to be more friendly to her than it is by replacing the stairway with a spiralling ramp to make things easier for her.”

“Bill is a better man than I thought he was, it takes a lot of guts to do that. Three kids who hardly speak English and one of them disabled. His wife must be a saint as well.”

“She is and then some more. Do you know she was kidnapped by rebels and held for ten days before being released before Bill met her?”

“You have to respect people that do that work, they don’t seem to care about the risks to themselves as they help others. I couldn’t do what they do.”

“Me neither but they love what they do and they seem to be happy together with the kids. Anyway, I’ll see them later on this afternoon, want me to pass on your regards to Bill?”

“I think I’ll pass on that if I have the choice. I’m not in the habit of digging up old ex-boyfriends, besides, he could not have cared for me as much as I thought because he dumped me.”

Win some, lose some, I say. More tequila?”

I nodded as I finished of the rest of my drink.

“Please, Elayne.”

The lunch ended with us kissing each other goodbye and I took a taxi for the fifteen minute journey home.

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