Chapter 40: April 25 - 26

April 25

Today was supposed to be the perfect date but I was stuck at home without a place to go, since Katie is at her dad’s this weekend. In the past I would have spent the day with Becky, but she’s decided to stop doing things with me and move on. She has started dating a guy she met at work. They had their second date last night. I’m a little jealous, I suppose. Becky and I met every other weekend and fooled around for about four months, after all. She admitted she was falling in love with me. I guess I was falling for her, too.

Even though I know it’s better for things to have ended, I still miss her. She and Katie will still be coming over for Sunday dinners, but the reality that I won’t be spending any more Saturdays in bed with Becky hadn’t completely sunk in until today and now I was more than a little depressed about it. Dad had been invited to go to a Major League Baseball game with one of his clients, so it was even harder for me to hide my mood from Mom. She finally cornered me to see why I was so sad. First, she asked if Katie and I had broken up, but I assured her it was all good between us.

“She’s at her dad’s place today,” I said.

“I see,” Mom nodded. “So, you miss her.”

“Yeah,” I shrugged.

“Or maybe you miss Becky,” Mom smirked as my head jerked up. She stayed calm, but her smirk gave way to a more serious look. “Becky and I had a little talk earlier this week. She admitted to me that Katie spends every other Saturday with her Dad. She also admitted that she never had any handyman stuff for you to do and that she had given you ‘lessons’ so you’d be a better lover for her daughter. She told me that it continued until she called it off during the trip to the cabin a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh, god,” I groaned. I was sure this was leading up to a police investigation.

“Breathe, son,” Mom said. “My only concern was whether Becky forced you to do anything, but she reassured me it was all consensual.”

“No, Mom, nobody forced anyone to do anything.” I assured her. “Are you angry?”

“No, John, I’m not angry at all. I’m just a little concerned,” Mom said. “I see you moping around today and I worry that you might be missing Becky more than you’re missing Katie. I just want to be sure you don’t break a little girl’s heart. Or your own.”

“I miss both of them today,” I admitted, “but I know Becky has to move on. At least my head knows. My heart is having a little difficulty.”

“I think you’ll be fine,” Mom soothed, “but we need to do something to get you out of this funk you’re in. Now, if you were a girl, I’d just take you shopping, get you a makeover or a pedicure or something, but you don’t need a haircut and I just don’t see you as the type to get your toenails painted.”

“Me, either,” I chuckled, “and I might object if you make me start trying on dresses.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Mom laughed. “I do think you need to get out of the house and stir around, though. How about we go have lunch somewhere? Then, since it’s a nice day, we can go to the Botanic Gardens and walk around. Everything’s just starting to bloom and I think the sunshine, fresh air and flowers should perk you up quite a bit.”

That’s what we did. Since the Botanic Garden is on the opposite side of downtown from our house, I suggested to Mom that we have lunch at the deli where I’d eaten with Becky and Katie last week. I pointed out the condo building to Mom as we passed it while trying to find a parking place. We eventually found one a couple blocks past the deli. It wasn’t a big deal since the weather was so nice. The deli wasn’t really busy, so we got our food pretty quickly once we decided what we wanted. I had a pastrami on rye this time and Mom tried their turkey club sandwich. We both thought we’d had a great meal by the time we were done.

It was a good thing that our plan was to walk all over the Botanic Gardens, too. Our lunches were huge and we were both feeling pretty stuffed. Mom’s prescription of sunshine, fresh air and flowers was right on target, too. Mom likes going there because she loves flowers, which is funny because she doesn’t like to garden much. I like them too, I guess, but what I find most interesting is seeing where things come from and trying to guess what their botanical names mean. I think I’d have to study Greek for some of those names to mean anything to me, though.

Like I said, it was good just to be outside for a walk on such a pretty afternoon and the gardens were the perfect place for it since everything seemed to be in bloom. It’s harder to be depressed with all the sunshine and flowers. Mom and I got a chance to talk as we walked around, too, and I told her how the sex lessons from Becky had gotten started.

“Katie tricked you into coming over, even though she wasn’t going to be there?” Mom asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “Becky told me what was going on, gave me a note Katie had left for me and then had me call her so she could tell me that it was really what she wanted to happen.”

“What was the first lesson?” Mom prompted.

“Becky and I made out for a while and I got lessons on taking off her bra,” I said. “I got to suck on her nipples that day and rub her pussy through her panties. She gave me a hand job, too, but the important point she made about the lessons was to take my time and learn what my partner wanted. That day was when she started teaching me the five rules I told you about.”

“And then you got to use what you learned the next week with Katie?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “Becky would teach me one week, taking things just a little farther each time, and then Katie and I would do that much the next weekend.”

“So, Katie wasn’t your first?” Mom asked. “Becky had you that weekend before Katie’s birthday?”

“That’s right, Mom,” I replied, “are you disappointed in me?”

“No, I guess not,” Mom shrugged. “I’m amazed at Becky, though. She really did everything with you before you got to do it with Katie?”

“Pretty much,” I admitted. “I was surprised after Katie’s birthday that Becky wanted to keep the lessons going. I think that was where I should have noticed things were getting weird.”

“The whole thing was weird from the start, John,” Mom sighed, “but I don’t think any lasting harm was done. In fact, Becky says it helped her break out of her shell and start dating and, in the end, that’s a good thing, really.”

“I know,” I nodded, “but now we adjust to the new normal and it’s not easy.”

“I think your father and I raised you right,” Mom said as she hugged me. “You have a good head on your shoulders.”

Mom and I continued to talk as we walked around the gardens and I think we saw every flower there before we decided to quit. By then it was late enough for an early dinner, so we stopped at one of our favorite local places and had a leisurely meal. We’d pretty much exhausted the subject of Becky’s lessons, so we talked about band and school. There are auditions coming up for our placement in the band next year, which was something I was a lot more concerned about than any finals or the state achievement tests. I thought I had a pretty good chance at moving up to Wind Symphony. Two of the three horns were graduating but that didn’t guarantee me anything if a really good player came in from the middle schools. I already knew the auditions were to play scales in the random keys they’d call out, a prepared piece Mr. J handed out last week and then some sight reading.