Chapter 2

It was Saturday morning and Claire had a good night’s sleep. She was sitting down with her first cup of coffee when Michael came down and poured himself a cup. Claire owed her good night’s sleep to Michael putting her to bed and felt she should offer some form of an apology, “Hey, I am sorry I overreacted last night. I was upset and tired from work.”

“No Mom, you did not overreact, I should have known that you would want to go right to bed at that late hour. But your queen size bed is so much better than my twin bed.”

“Remind me the next time I get a raise to get you a bigger bed. You took Penny home before you put me to bed and undressed me didn’t you?”

“No, she helped.”

Then Claire remembered that there was a second person in the bedroom with her last night. “Oh, shit, she saw you undress me?”

With a devious grin on his face, Michael replied, “It’s okay Mom, I left your panties on this time.

Claire was suddenly worried and asked, “You didn’t do anything foolish while she was here?”

“No, of course not.”

Occasionally, when Michael put his mother to bed she allowed him to take certain liberties when he undressed her. A hand on her boob. A kiss on her nipples. She knew he masturbated at times as she lay there naked before he put the t-shirt on her and tucked her in. Claire rationalized that she was just too tired to care or to stop him. It never went any further than that and if she were, to be honest, she liked the extra attention. Claire also liked sneaking a peek when Michael played with himself.

Claire was twenty when she got herself knocked up at a frat party and had to take a year off from college. Thank god whoever his father is had good genes. Michael is a handsome five foot eleven boy and a very bright straight ‘A’ college student with grey eyes and brown hair. He weighed in at about 180 pounds at his last physical.

Claire will be turning 41 this September and has never married. She dates hoping to meet ‘Mr. Right’ but so far it’s not happening. Occasionally Claire will bring a man home just for the sex. When she was in her 20s men were reluctant to permanently hook up with a woman with a kid. Now that she is over 40 with a kid, eligible single men are getting harder to find.

Claire feels she has a lot to offer. A college degree, a well-paying job, a matching 401K plan, a nice home with lots of equity and a healthy bank account. Her five foot eight frame may be a little thin for some men’s taste and her tits are not the biggest. Claire is a brunette that tried going blond to see if that would change her luck with men. Michael laughed and started telling blond jokes so she did not do that again. She knows she can’t be too bad to look at judging by the number of men (mostly married of course) that hit on her. Hell, she can even turn on her son.

Tonight Penny and her parents Ruth and Bill Collins would be coming over to Claire’s for their bi-monthly card game. Claire became friends with Ruth and Bill when Michael and Penny started dating and found out they all liked low stakes poker. They each made sure they had two rolls of quarters for game night. That put $100 on the table. If you lost your $20, you were reduced to serving drinks, keeping the snacks refilled and gossiping with the other losers until one winner was declared or the clock struck midnight

Ruth is around the same age as Claire. Bill is a couple of years older. Ruth has dirty blond hair, is around five foot five tall and a bit curvier than Claire. Bill is a very handsome man standing about six feet tall and two hundred pounds. They have some well-used gym equipment in their basement so they are both in great shape. Claire, on the other hand, was lucky if she can get down to the club to do laps in the pool twice a week. But with her metabolism and work schedule, she is not in any danger of gaining weight.

The poker game started right on time. Claire had bluffed a couple of times too many and was out of the game after only an hour and a half, Penny and Michael fell to the wayside not too long after. That left Ruth and Bill to fight it out. Even though the money would go in their family’s pocket they fought it out tooth and nail. They were all very competitive, so it was the principle and not the money. It took Claire an hour and a half to clean Michael out one night after everyone else dropped out so she could gloat and be called champ for the next two weeks.