Summer 2024 was a great time for my business. I was finally catching up with all those Covid affected bookings and had managed to get 90% of my students through their theory and practical tests.

I wasn’t just glad to be able to announce I could take on new students, but relieved. The last 2 years had been a little stagnant with kids that I could actually get along with and have a laugh with. I was hopeful for some bright and energetic student drivers to guide from their L plates onto the roads. And I was not disappointed.

Another couple of years and I could finally hang up the keys to my dual control Ford fiesta. It was a great car to learn in but it was so boring. I yearned to be spending my days in the driving seat, with the roof down on my convertible. The wind in my now grey hair. I didn’t think I looked bad for my age, my sense of humour had always kept me young and being around teenagers all the time was a blessing in disguise. I had managed to keep up with the changing slang, the music, and I thought I was pretty cool. Perhaps I was wrong.

I pulled up to 428 Holland Drive at 11am on that Tuesday that I will never forget. It was mid August and hot. The fiestas air con was just not cutting it and so I had all the windows down. A little beep beep outside as arranged and my new student came to the car.

“Hello”, I reached out my hand, “I’m your driving instructor, nice to meet you.”

“Hi.” She said shyly looking at the floor, gently taking my hand like I was holding out a wet fish for her to pet.

She was 18 and this was her first lesson. I was already nervous of how her first attempt at clutch control was going to go. Her attire was definitely not appropriate and I was struggling to know where to look.

The trainers were a good start, appropriate driving footwear, but maybe due to the weather, her very short grey shorts and tight white tank top left very little to the imagination. For a teen, she was already well developed.

I motioned her to the passenger seat to start so we could start somewhere much more safely.

As I drove along the high street, aiming for the large disused council car park the other side of town, I tried to build some rapport. She was short in her answers but I learned she was at college, studying beauty and that her dream was to be a singer. She definitely had the lungs for it, I thought to myself with an internal smirk.

I glanced over to her when we stopped at the lights on the entrance to the car park. My eyes were immediately drawn to her chest. The seat belt cut tightly through the middle of them accentuating her breasts.

“Erm, nearly there.” I stammered.

A pang of guilt came over me. Working in a position of trust with teenagers I had always vowed to never put myself in any position where I may be tempted. In my 30 years I had had a few close calls and I was starting to worry that this was another.

I shook my head as I reminded myself I was nearly 54. Not only would this 18 year old never look twice at me; but as a man three times her age, I should not be even looking at her that way.

I pulled into the car park and reversed into a space. As another instructor had a student practicing emergency stops, this was the perfect chance to start with the very basics.

“OK; are you ready to get into the driving seat?”

As soon as I sat in the passenger seat I felt the warmth she had left behind. I batted away another intrusive thought and we began the lesson.

As I taught her the layout of the car and explained the purpose of each feature from how to start it, to the position of the pedals, I was repeatedly catching myself staring at her chest. The hot sun was causing my mind to fry but I was also starting to convince myself that was not wearing a bra. What girl with breasts that size does not wear a bra to a driving lesson with a bloke you’ve never met before? I asked myself.

I was starting to find it really hard to concentrate, her low cut top was moving further down each time she practiced turning the wheel and changing gear.

“OK, let’s give starting the car and driving in first a go” I said and as she tried to move off the car stalled, lurching us both forward, her breasts jumping as we did.

“It’s OK, it happens to the best of us. Even after passing your test, we all stall from time to time” I consoled her.