Chapter 30

“Can we wait and not have sex, until we’re married? Too many kids rush into their first time and end up regretting their decision.”

“Absolutely Charles, that’ll make it that much more exciting, when we finally do make love to one another, for the very first time.”

Of course, that was exactly when Sarah walked in, knocking and saying, “I want the two of you to know something about love. There’s lust, and it is a very powerful and strong emotion, that can break up friends forever. It can ruin relationships and break up marriages, unless you can control your desires.”

“I know that dance tonight may have gotten you all worked up, but you two have something extraordinarily special going on, so don’t ruin it, for one night of passion. Thirty minutes of sex never helped anybody, except for those who have never really loved anyone before.”

“You two are so young, and I want to tell you both that you are really special kids ... excuse me, young adults, so please -- wait a little longer; wait for, at the very least, the point in Claire’s cycle when she’s least likely to get pregnant.”

Attempting to calm her down, I said, “Sarah, chill ... what you heard us talking about, was that we’re going to wait until we’re married, to have sex.”

She heaved a great big sigh of relief.

I added, “I agree with everything you just said, and we love each other, more than enough to wait. You are just as special to me as Claire is, so, we plan to come to you and Annie, to help us get through and learn the mechanics of love and sex.”

Clare got up and said, “I’ll leave, so my mother can rub her hands all over your back, until you ‘pop’. Goodnight bad boy. You too Mom, Behave! Remember, he’s my boyfriend, and not your ‘Boy-toy!’”

She left but was giggling all the way out of my room and made a point of leaving the door ajar.

Sarah started right up by saying, “Charles – Do you want me to do this naked, or with clothes on?”

Now that’s just not fair, her saying that, knowing what my immediate reaction would be. Should I call her on it – or just leave it alone? I got an idea.

“Turn around for a minute, Sarah? I am gonna strip down to my boxers, so you can give my legs a good massage as well. Is that OK with you?”

She was thinking about it. I saw the gears working. She must have talked herself into it, because I saw her turn around. I quickly took off my sweats and lay face down on the bed.

“OK, Sarah – I hope you didn’t peek, or you may be the one in therapy, and not me?”

She broke into a fit of laughter, and I joined her as she started with my feet. Although Mom usually does this for me, Sarah was actually working on my arches, and she made them feel better than they’d felt in quite some time.

She moved to my calves, which were much sorer than I realized, probably due to all the routines the girls and I have been getting ready. She found a spot, just behind my knee that popped, just like my back.

“Wow, Sarah – That was something! That leg feels ten times better already. Do the other one?”

“I am not through with this one yet. To really relax your upper leg, I need to actually start on your butt, OK?” she smiled.

“You are going to rub my fanny?”

She laughed at the noun I used, “Not rub it, massage the gluteus maximus, or your larger butt muscle, then I’ll work down your upper leg until I get to your knee, is that OK with you? You can say no, at any time.”

“Oooohhhhhh, Sarah – If you weren’t so important to C-Cask, you could be a professional masseuse, and make a lot of money, Awww, humph; you have such a wonderful and tender touch, my dear.”

I tried to not make any noise so she could rub harder. Eventually, I heard, “Done with that leg. Turn around and face the other way, so I can get to your other leg.”

I did, and she went through the same sequence of events, including the back of the knee popping.

“Change and get to bed, and we’ll do your back tomorrow, Loverb ... sorry Charles. I got used to calling you that, I’ll stop – just remind me. You and Claire have made a smart decision today, goodnight. I love you.”

“Goodnight Sweetness,” I said to her. She smiled as she left my room.

The next morning, my feet, calves and legs never felt better. I need to reward Sarah, but I was unsure what to do so I went downstairs and saw the gang having breakfast.

As I got a bowl and put some cereal in it, I said, “We’re through making new routines for now girls. I just want to polish what we have learned, fine-tune and re-record ‘For Good,’ and just enjoy ourselves. We have four days until Labor Day, and we deserve to just ‘chillax’ a little bit.

I plowed into my bowl of cereal, stopping to refill and have some more. Mom had made some toast, which I enjoyed as well. I took my bowl to the sink and went over to the sofa and sat down.

A couple of minutes later, Claire plopped down and said, “Hey there, Loverboy – can I have a kiss please? It’s been too long between kisses, and I need a fresh cup of Charles.”

I chuckled at that, saying, “That sounds like something your mother would say to me — it’s cute coming from you.”

She leaned into me, and we were really making out on the sofa, until I heard an ‘Ahem’ from behind us. Claire pulled away saying quietly, “They are just jealous, because I am the only one who is allowed to kiss you now?”

I got up and saw both Annie and Sarah standing behind us, with their arms crossed, but smiling. I announced, “Is everyone ready to record ‘For Good,’ people?” Claire was cleaning up my lips and mouth. I pulled her up off the sofa and gave her one more kiss.

“Yeah,” said Kalista and Claire.

“What should we wear, Charles?” asked Claire.

“I know Claire has a white dress, do you have a green outfit K?”

“It’s dark green, but yeah, I do?” K replied.

“Wonderful, change and remember either ballet shoes or barefoot will work. I have to change as well, Excuse me, ladies?”

In less than five minutes, we were all back downstairs — Annie and Sarah had their smartphones in hand. There was a knock on the door. Annie got it.

It was Brian and Susan, along with Brian’s Mom, Shirley.

Shirley said, “Sorry for dropping in unannounced, but we haven’t seen you guys, since you all moved in here — Oh, we’re interrupting, aren’t we?”

“No Shirley,” I said. “Come on in and be the first to see our initial professional routine? Bring a chair out with you; we’re recording it to put on YouTube. Our Tour rehearsals start in four days, so you may be the last to see us for free for two years?”

Everyone giggled at that, even Brian! He came up to me and hugged me saying, “I am really proud of you Charles, my best friend; a professional dancer.” He was actually tearing up.

“I am probably all through getting anymore Merit Badges at this point Brian, so schedule your Eagle Court, I’ll do my very best to be there.”

I saw Susan getting a tissue for Brian. He took it and dabbed his eyes a little.

We all went outside and got set, turning ninety degrees from before, to keep the sun from causing too many shadows.

I saw Brian and Susan snuggling and kissing each other. Shirley was watching us, so they took the moment. I am proud of my best bud. I have practically abandoned him, and he shows up to congratulate me on my success. From the look on his face, he’s been successful himself.

.”Everybody ready?” I asked. I looked around and I got a nod from all of my girls ... ladies.

I nodded to Sarah, and we started.

Kallie was breathtaking with her jetés and toe work.

She went limp; Claire came to life and did much of the same during her portion.

I walked up to Claire and we snapped to close, and started the ballroom portion, which was perfect.

The rest of the song, and the exchanges between the girls and I, were spot on. It was like the first time I danced with Claire, but the three of us were together, like never before.

They were doing head and neck rolls, and their Pas de deux was astonishing. I am so very proud of them, and we walked together in perfect unison as the song ended. Having an audience makes a significant difference.

Shirley, Brian, and Susan all stood up, waiting for the music to completely end, before they started whistling and cheering. Annie and Sarah joined them, as the girls and I bowed to our appreciative audience.

“Wow!” Brian said. “That was fantastic, you three. Wow — Will you get to do that on your Tour, or will Mr. Bublé mandate only his music?”

“I expect we’ll be doing exclusively his stuff, but we’ll have some time to ourselves, to go out and do our thing.”

Susan walked up to Annie and Sarah, giving them a hug and noticing their rings. “Charles isn’t engaged to all of you, is he?”

“I wouldn’t put it past my best friend,” said Brian. “But there are laws against more than one, aren’t there?” Susan glared at Brian, but giggled nonetheless.

“Let’s all change into something comfy girls?” I said. “Can you guys stay a while?” I asked Brian and his gang.

“Sure,” said Shirley, “We’re on our way to get Brian some new pants. He had another growth spurt, hopefully his last, so he asked Susan to come along for moral support.”

“Brian, come on up and we can talk, while I change?” I suggested.

“Just a second, Charles,” he said giving Susan a quick kiss, before he joined me.

“It looks like she has you wrapped around her little finger, Brian?” I joked.

“What’s wrong with that? We hardly go anywhere these days without each other,” Brian said with a chuckle. “But I only have one. You got four, you lucky duck.”

Brian and I went upstairs talking about dancing, Scouting, girls, and a lot of other stuff. It was really great to see him again and catch up a little.

“So, how many different dance routines do you guys have these days? Thirty? Forty?” he asked.

“Brian, you won’t believe it, but we have twenty plus routines not counting anything from Michael Bublé, but when you add his songs to it, we have close to one hundred dance routines. Can you believe it? Remember, when we were heading to that first Cotillion?”

“Yeah, Charles – We were both scared spitless. Susan and I still go to Cotillion, and the kids there are always talking about you. Both Susan and I got a complete set of your posters. My favorite is the two Moms, but don’t tell Susan I said that, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“I noticed Claire has ‘sprouted’. How is it, dancing with her like that? Susan is patiently waiting for hers, but she and I are really getting along quite well. We’re Jimmy’s new demonstrators.”

“Wow, that’s awesome Brian. How’re you getting along with her family?” I asked deflecting his question.

“Her father is the owner of Williams Electronics, and I am learning how to fix stuff that’s broken, like TVs, Cell Phones and other stuff like that. He pays me, so I can take Susan to the movies and other stuff. Right now, I am saving up to take her someplace nice to eat and give her a Promise Ring, like you did with ... everybody.”

We laughed at that – gosh, when was the last time I laughed like that? Well, I was changed, and we headed downstairs, noticing Susan and Claire were huddled together, discussing something very quietly.

Shirley was in the kitchen with Mom and Sarah, catching up as well. Everyone turned as Brian and I came down the stairs.

“Come on, kids – we need to get going, and let them get ready for their Tour,” Shirley said.

“Just a minute, Mom – Charles, would you and your ‘Harem’ please autograph this poster?” Brian asked. Susan, Claire and K all giggled.

It was the five-heads poster, each of us signed. Each of us gave them a hug as they all left.

That was nice.

“Let’s Dance,” I said.

I thought, for the heck of it, that we should go through our Non-Bublé dance routines, starting with ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ which Claire remembered quite well. K wanted to do ‘Marry You’ with me, so we did, and she performed it very nicely, using the promise ring. We went down the list, spending over an hour and a half, adding some Rondés and Developés to keep them fresh.

I heard the beginning strains of ‘All I Do is Dream of You,’ and grabbed Sarah, and danced with her. She still has that glimmer in her eye that I love so much, but she also has some pretty good dance skills, I raised my hand and she did a Tango Spin. You should have seen the look of satisfaction on her face.

She gave me a nice peck on the cheek, and smiled, looking as though she wanted to ... have done more.

I heard Mom yell, “K, find and play ‘Save the Last Dance’ please?”

“Mrs. Newman, may I have this dance, please?” I said.

There was no music yet, but we started to dance anyway, and Mom was an angel to dance with. She has such an effervescent personality; she really deserves much more then she’s gotten over the last couple of months. Our dance ended, and Mom gave me a nice peck on the cheek as well.

“Why don’t we stop dancing for the night and take an early evening spa, everybody. Go get your suits on and we’ll take it nice and easy?” I said.

Everybody went to his or her room with Sarah lagging behind. I stopped her and asked, “Conservative suit, please?”

She tweaked my nose, and said, “Thought you might want me naked in the Spa, Loverboy?”

“Behave,” I said looking straight into her eyes as I felt some pressure in my pants.

After we were all in the spa, together, I announced, “In the middle of this first leg of our SST Tour, we’ll be in Florida, specifically on October Fifteenth, we plan to spend a day or two in Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista.”

That caused a shriek and Kalista walked through all the legs of everyone to get over to me and give me a kiss, first looking at Claire, to see if it was OK. Claire nodded and K gave me quite the lip lock.

“Thank you, Charles, that’s so sweet of you,” K said.

“I have asked Sarah to see if we could get a dancing gig while we were there, but I don’t think she’s had time to contact anyone yet, have you?”

“Actually, Charles — I did already call, and they’d love Charles, Claire, and Kallie to come and dance on October Fifteenth. They are still working out which venue, but they said to bring our music with us, we’ll get free reign of the entire facility, before and after we perform. They are even willing to put us all up in one of their own hotels.”

“Wow,” I said. “Thank You, Sarah.”

“Charles,” Claire said. “Lay back and rest on me. You always work so hard. I want you to relax more. So, lay back and enjoy life for a minute or two.” I laid my head back on her chest, and she put her hand on my forehead playing with my hair a little.

“I am calling for a C-Cask meeting,” Annie said. “Everybody stay exactly where you are. This is just an update. All the items on the list that Charles Senior was removing himself from; they’re all done. He’s out of my life – good riddance.” I gave Mom a high-five for that.

“The same with my list, Charles,” said Sarah. “Besides that, C-Cask LLC has been approved, and we’re legit. I am also officially single again,” she said looking straight at me.

“Oh, same here, Charles. You are in the spa with four hot single ladies!” Annie said.

I looked around at the four of them and saw them all smiling at me.

Mom had an appointment with a Realtor, to put ‘our house’ on the Market. I’d always wanted to see how that all worked, so I badgered her to let me go with her.

We arrived back at our place, seeing the Realtor pull up right behind us. She got out; Wow – what a fox. I think Mom noticed that I noticed, and she quietly told me to ‘behave.’

“Hello, my name is Dolores Standhope. We talked on the phone. You must be Annie, and this must be the famous Charles, of Charles & Claire? I must admit, me and my daughters — I have three — all went to Pittsburgh to see your last competition, that was amazing when the other dancers refused to dance, because they wanted you to have your ‘Day in the sun.’”

“Well, I pulled the history on this house and it was built in 1954, and you are the third owners. Let’s go in and see what there is to see.”

As we were walking through, I spoke up, “Ms. Standhope, we’d like to sell this as-is with everything you see, part of the deal. We have already moved out everything we wanted to keep.”

“Is that true, Annie?” she double-checked.

“Charles has his finger on the pulse of everything going on in our lives. If he says it, it’s the truth. No need to verify or double-check,” Annie responded looking at me.

“I am sorry Charles, it’s habit that I check all info told to me. No disrespect intended. And please call me, Dolores?”

“Dolores, did you know that your name’s origin is Spanish, meaning sorrows, and is believed to refer to the Virgin Mary, and has around eleven variations, and the person whose name is Dolores, is usually flirtatious, and...”

“Charles,” mom reeled me back in.

“Sorry Dolores, I know a lot of useless information about a lot of things, including name origins. When I see a beautiful woman, such as yourself, it causes me to start spouting gibberish.”

“Well, Charles – You certainly are the charmer. I actually knew that it was Spanish, but the rest of that sounds interesting. Anyway, Annie – this home looks nice and will show quite well. Anything I should know about, specifically?”

Mom replied, “The carpet upstairs is original to when we bought the house, it may need replacing. Everything else is like Charles said.”

“All right, then – you told me that you’ll be out of town, so if I find a buyer, how would you like to deal with that?”

“Well, Dolores, we don’t leave town until just after Labor Day, so if we get someone on the hook before that, it will be easier,” mom responded.

“Mom, why don’t you fill out a contingency–based, Power of Attorney? That way, if Dolores finds us a deal, she can contact you, and you can give your approval over the phone, if necessary, to any deal,” I added.

“Charles, that’s a brilliant idea,” said Dolores, “I understand completely what you meant when you said that Charles knows what he’s talking about. Few Realtors, including my Broker, would have thought of a Contingency-based POA. I have got a set of signs in my car to put out, so we’ll see what we get. In this market, I would expect to put this house out on MLS starting at $325,500; how does that sound to you?”

She was talking to Mom, but that didn’t stop me.

“Dolores, we’re motivated sellers, so I would like to suggest starting at $299,500 and let them fight for it. Maybe get some earnest up-front money,” I said.

“Yes – Sir, another fabulous idea, Charles. Give me twenty-four hours; I’ll have the paperwork ready to sign first thing in the morning; including the Contingency POA.”

She put her hand out and Mom shook it, but I took it and gave it a soft kiss. Dolores pulled back and giggled, smiling at Mom and me. Annie gave her a set of keys and we all waved goodbye.

Mom gave me a thwap on the back of the head, saying, “I am not sure who would be more jealous, Claire or Sarah?”

As I escorted Mom out of the house I offered, “Sarah.”

We laughed as we locked the place up and got in the car and headed back to our new residence.

“Mom?” I said. “We’re alone now, so I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about sex, please?”

Mom put her foot on the brake, stopping the car abruptly, and turned to me and said, “What?”

“Calm down Mom, it’s not like I am asking you to demonstrate anything for me, I just had a question or two on the subject in broad sense.”

She started driving again, gripping the wheel tightly; gave out a big sigh and said, “OK honey – go ahead, ask away?”

“Well, we talked before about breasts and arousal, I understand how a woman’s breasts will show arousal, but what is it that causes the arousal in the first place?”

Mom took a deep breath and started, “It usually happens as a result of sexual desire, desire causes arousal, and arousal can stimulate desire, Charles. It takes a kind of ... erotic stimuli or a ‘turn-on,’ as you kids might say. Sarah’s breasts have caused your arousal, correct?”

“Yeah ... that’s right, hmmm. So, just looking at something or someone can cause erotic stimuli, which causes desire, which initiates arousal. It all seems very circular, with one causing the other?”

“That’s very intuitive of you honey — anything else?” she asked.

“Sarah and I have discussed a woman’s erogenous zones, what they are and where they are, and what can happen if one is inadvertently touched. I apparently have an erogenous zone four to five inches below my neck, that causes my erections, when Sarah rubs there.”

“Soooo,” she responded.

“Well, the day you caught me rubbing her back?”

“Yes, dear?” She responded, sounding especially nervous.

“She said I almost found one of her erogenous zones but wouldn’t say what would have happened if I had. I was more comfortable talking to her about all of that at the time, instead of you, worried you might worry about me. Does that make any sense at all to you?”

“Yes, but I didn’t really hear a question in all of that? What about erogenous zones do you want to know?”

“Besides the back, which is the only place on Sarah I have ever touched, Scout’s Honor, where are the other erogenous zones? Sarah said there were others, but we never got that far into the discussion.”

“Well, Honey, we have opened the door a little here, so let’s bust it wide open. Just a second, I need to pull over — There.” She let out a big breath.

I was looking at her as she was coming to grips with explaining this to me. She glanced over at me then looked straight ahead and said, “You and Sarah have discussed the back, which has points that lead ... to other parts of the body. The bottom of your feet also has these points as well. The points all lead to places deep inside the body, typically the genitals, scrotum area is usually where it all begins,” mom said with a little chuckle in her voice.

“I assume you know how babies are conceived?” she sounded so very nervous.

“Mom, yes I do, but I can tell that you have become very nervous, and I really don’t want you to keep going in this discussion if it makes you so troubled.”

“Charles, this discussion is important, your father barely understood it all, I want you to understand, OK?”

“You got it, Beautiful,” I said.

“Let’s start right there, Charles – Some women can be turned on by hearing something as simple as being called ‘beautiful’ or ‘gorgeous’ or even using the term ‘good-looking’. Words are a very strong erotic stimulus.”