Chapter 10: The Relationship Unravels

Katherine was a little tired, but pleased with her effort when she returned home from work on Friday afternoon. She had insisted on taking the bus into Civic, so that she could have some independence. She welcomed Stephen fussing over her, telling her to rest while he got her a drink. It was nice to come home from work and not have to immediately start dinner and do housework.

Once again they enjoyed home delivered pizzas, being a Friday night and a few glasses of wine as the two adults sat and talked in the lounge room. Chloe had homework to do and preferred to get it out of the way as soon as she had finished eating.

Katherine went off to work again on Saturday morning, while Stephen took Chloe for her third riding lesson. He watched as she rode around the grounds, already displaying a confidence that belied her little experience. By the time she rejoined him she was bubbling with enthusiasm.

"Perhaps we'll have to think about getting a horse of your own one day" he mused.

Chloe squealed with excitement and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him full on the mouth before exclaiming "you wouldn't, would you? Don't think mum would be too happy though as she'd be worried about the longer term."

"We won't worry about that at the moment, besides I only said we might have to think about it, not it's going to happen and certainly not straight away and you're right, I will certainly talk to your mother before I do anything like that" he counselled, aware that he had probably raised expectations he shouldn't have, at least not without consulting Katherine first. He realised that even if he paid for the horse, she would be worried about maintaining it longer term as horses were expensive to keep.

After lunch, Stephen sat out on the patio, relaxing, reading a magazine. He'd finished his book and now needed to go to Sydney to see a publisher he knew of to see what could be done. He'd been able to get an appointment for next Tuesday morning. He didn't really care if it was published or not, as writing had been therapeutic and fun. If it couldn't be printed he would just publish it online, because even if he couldn't make money from it, he'd be interested in others reading it and providing feedback; hopefully even praising it.

He also realised that he needed to see his financial advisor, who was based in Sydney, so emailed off a request to see him on Tuesday afternoon or preferably Wednesday morning, in case he got tied up with the publisher. He'd let Katherine know tonight. She and Chloe would be alright here by themselves for a couple of nights.

Chloe came out a while later, having showered and changed into her swim attire after she got back. She joined him, removing her wrapper to display her very attractive teen body covered, if it could be described as that, just by a miniscule bikini.

"I'm going to do some sunbaking if you don't mind" she stated as she spread her towel on the lawn and sat down, before proceeding to put suntan lotion on her front. Then she lay on her back, her sunglasses covering more of her than her bikini, he thought.

Stephen tried to concentrate on his magazine, but every now and then he couldn't stop his eyes from glancing at her, seeing her pert breasts straining against the taunt material of her tiny thin top, her nipples striving to pop through, while further south the small triangle of material, presumably dampened by her perspiration, was sticking closely to her, outlining her womanhood in detail.

"Would you mind putting some lotion on my back?" Stephen was startled to hear some time later. He must have dozed off, because now she was lying on her tummy, with her bikini bra undone, holding the bottle out to him with one hand, which displayed the side of one well developed young breast.

Although a little concerned that his actions might be misconstrued, he decided that he had no real reason to deny her, so got up and kneeled alongside her, taking the bottle from her hand. He commenced applying the lotion to her shoulders and back, studiously avoiding getting too close to the sides of her breasts and then started on the back of her legs. Again he tried to avoid getting too close to any area that might be regarded as sexual, but that bikini bottom left most of the cheeks of her bottom exposed and she reminded him that she didn't want to get her bottom burned or she wouldn't be able to sit down at school.

"Did you really mean it this morning when you said about me getting a horse?" she suddenly asked.

"Well I'll talk to your mother about it, but don't expect..."

Shrieking with glee and thanking him, Chloe turned over, facing him, displaying her nubile breasts fully. She pulled his head down so she could kiss him and wrapped her arms around him as he overbalanced and fell on top of her. Stephen was too startled to resist.

"What are you doing? Get off her, you pervert. Chloe go to your room this instant" a very distraught and upset Katherine demanded as she chose that moment to walk out to the back patio, having just got home. Chloe scrambled from underneath Stephen and, not even bothering about her top, flew inside the house to her bedroom, her breasts visibly bouncing up and down as she ran.

"I thought you liked me and here I discover that you're seducing and making out with my daughter" she cried at him disappointedly.

"It's not what you think. I..."

"Don't lie to me. I know what I saw with my own eyes; you kissing and fondling a naked teenage girl. How dare you. Ho ... how ... how could you take advantage of an underage girl; you disgust me. We'll pack and be out of your house tonight" she screamed emotionally, so disillusioned because she thought that finally things were turning out positively for her and now this had to happen; her potential boyfriend laying on top of her almost naked daughter, kissing her.

Reason deserted him as well, as he felt his new world crumbling, being turned upside down before his very eyes. He knew he was partly to blame for letting Chloe do what she did, but he was more upset with the way Katherine was jumping to conclusions and not even letting him explain.

"Don't bother; I was going to tell you that I was going to Sydney on Monday for business. I'll just go now and you can stay here and sort things out" Stephen yelled back at her, clamouring to his feet and storming off inside to pack a few things, grab his laptop and jump in the car. It all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

Katherine fell to her knees, bawling her eyes out. She was devastated. She knew she had nowhere to go tonight, so initially she was pleased that he had stormed off inside saying that he was leaving her alone in the house. But then she wondered, what was she going to do when he did come back at the end of the week?

By the time she stood up, her crying reduced to sobs, she heard Stephen drive out of the garage, the car wheels spinning as he aggressively drove away.

Katherine went upstairs, angry at Stephen, angry at her daughter who now she realised had probably encouraged him and angry at herself for her reaction, driving Stephen out of his own home.

Once she was outside Chloe's bedroom door, she could her daughter crying loudly, wracked with sobs. She knocked and went straight in; after all she was her mother and needed to have it out with her. As soon as she walked in, Chloe cried even louder, burying her head in the pillow, muttering "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's all my fault"

By this stage a little calmer, but no less upset, Katherine asked "what happened, Chloe? Did Stephen really try and molest you?"

"No mum. It wasn't his fault at all. I teased him in my brief bikini, then when he dozed off I took my top off and lay on my tummy, waking him up by asking him to put sunscreen on my back. I could tell he was a bit reluctant, but he did it, even though he was a bit tentative in his touch. Then I asked him if he was serious about me getting my own horse, because after my lesson he said something about it. He said he would talk to you about it.

"I just screamed with joy and turned around, forgetting I had my top off, so I could kiss him. Nnno that's a lie; I guess I wanted him to see me and pulled him towards me for a kiss, but he was off balance and startled, so fell on top of me, just as you must have walked out. He didn't try to do anything. The most he could be accused of was being a bit slow to realise a young girl was going to kiss him" Chloe cried out, her sobs getting even more pronounced and bordering on becoming hysterical.

"Oh darling, how could you be so stupid. You're not a little girl anymore. Do you know what I've done, because I thought he was molesting you? I've driven Stephen from his own home and now we have to leave when he gets back at the end of the week."

The realisation of what she'd done only made Chloe weep even more, sobbing out her apologies time and time again, until her mother took her into her arms and held her tight. She remembered that she had meant to talk to her daughter about what she was sure was a growing obsession by Chloe with Stephen. It wasn't his fault that just because he was so nice to them both, her daughter had developed such a strong crush on him.

"We couldn't stay here forever anyway, dear; you know we had to leave one day soon. We can't keep accepting his charity. I know it's so nice here but we have to make our own way sooner or later. I guess this has just made it sooner than we wanted. Hopefully, though, you'll learn something out of it. I know it's painful sometimes growing up, but you do have to realise that at 15 you can't use your body to tease grown men. It's a wonder he didn't take advantage of you" Katherine said soothingly.

"Mum I'm so, so sorry. I do really like him, but now I've spoiled it for you too. I actually did want you to have a relationship with him. He's so right for you. Can't you do anything to fix what I've done?" she cried again.

"It's not just you darling. I said some horrible things to him so I don't think he'll be wanting to forgive me in a hurry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that. Unfortunately I don't know where he is other than he said he's going to Sydney. Oh I wish I'd thought before I put my foot in my mouth."

Katherine too started to sob as mother and daughter clung to each other, trying to give comfort to the other as they both became mired in their disappointment.

Stephen brought himself under control after he'd driven 100 metres or so from his house. He'd been incredibly angry and upset. He realised that being booked or having an accident was no answer though. He thought he'd been slowly building up a relationship with Katherine, so was extremely disappointed with he way she went off at him. He was completely innocent ... well basically innocent. Perhaps he'd encourage Chloe to develop her crush on him and certainly hadn't done anything to prevent it. What's more, he didn't mind looking at her. She sure was a beautiful young girl. But that was the problem – she WAS a young girl, only 15, so any sort of sexual activity between them was strictly a no-no.