Long Reliever
Copyright© 2009 by Tony Stevens
Chapter 8
Romantic Sex Story: Chapter 8 - Arlie Stone, a forty-seven year old widower with two kids at home, didn't see himself as a candidate for romance. All he wanted was a mature, reliable nanny to care for his children. While Susan Munger seemed reliable, she was barely twenty-five years old. Their association would change her life -- and Arlie's too.
Caution: This Romantic Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Consensual Romantic Heterosexual Slow
Dan was still at the house when Arlie came home from his date. Dan and Susan were both eager to hear how it went, but Arlie had very little to say.
"Was she nice?" Susan asked.
"Very nice," Arlie said.
"So, how'd it go? Did you have a good time?" Dan wanted to know.
"We had a pleasant evening. No stress. It was ... fine."
"Fine?" Susan said, mimicking Arlie's tone perfectly. "That's all we're gonna get? It was 'fine?'"
"We got along great, okay? She's a real nice woman. What do you want? Did I kiss her goodnight? No, of course not. People in my generation don't do that."
"Don't kiss? Really? How old are you, Grandpa Stone, sir?"
"You know what I mean. On the first date."
"Jeez, I'd hate to tell you what Dan and I did on our first date!" Susan said, grinning.
"It wasn't our first date," Dan said.
"Well. It sort of was."
"Never mind," Arlie said. "I don't want to know."
"He is a lot older than we are," Dan told Susan. "They used to do things a lot differently back in Arlie's day."
"Were you in The Big One, Arlie? W-W Two?" The teasing was getting entirely unmerciful now.
"Was Warren Harding still president when you were born, Arlie?"
He ignored them. "She was good company," he said. "You were right about Orlie. She put some thought into it. This woman she lined up for me, she was ... a real nice woman."
"Give it up," Dan told Susan. "That's all we're gonna get."
"You going to ask her out again?" Susan said. "If you want to, for God's sakes, don't let worries about me staying with the kids stop you."
"That's right, Arlie," Dan agreed. "Susan and I, we can just stay here at your house with the kids while you're out. We promise we won't even start fooling around until they're in bed and sound asleep!"
"Her ex-husband is a symphony conductor," Arlie said. "And I'm a broken-down old ballplayer. What could we have in common?"
"Widows of symphony conductors can't go out with old ballplayers?" Susan said. "Since when? What's wrong with old ballplayers? I kinda like mine!"
"She's not a widow," Arlie said. "She's divorced."
"Well, see there?" Dan offered. "She divorced her symphony-phony. Maybe she's looking for a more earthy type man. Somebody less ethereal."
"Ethereal!" Susan said, feigning outright awe. "Listen to Dan, here, tossing around his fifty-dollar words!"
"We didn't talk about our exes that much," Arlie said. "Even I am aware that that's a no-no on a date, talking about your dear departed wife, or your ex-husband."
"It's okay, as long as you can say something bad, " Dan said. "You wouldn't have minded, would you, Arlie, if she'd told you her ex-husband was a no-good, wife-beating bastard?"
"We didn't get into that kind of stuff," Arlie said, taking the question seriously. "We kept it, y'know, cool and light."
"She know anything about baseball?" Susan asked.
"We didn't talk much baseball, either," Arlie said. "She seemed to be, you know, a fan, maybe. A little bit."
"Orlie probably gave her a few pointers. Maybe summarized your career."
"She's too intelligent a woman to talk about stuff like my career," Arlie said. "She'd know right off that if she brought up details of my time as a pitcher, I'd smell a rat and know she'd just gone and done the research for the occasion."
"Anyway," Dan said, laughing in advance at his own wit, "You talk about Arlie's career, and then five seconds later you need to come up with another new topic."
"She good-looking?" Susan asked.
"Yes. She's very attractive," Arlie said.
"You gotta give this woman another shot," Dan urged. "She sounds great to me. What's your alternative? Pick up a dancer in some tittie bar in St. Pete?"
"I've been in this league since Susan, here, was in the eighth grade," Arlie said, "and I've yet to pick up a topless dancer in a bar."
"He hasn't done it in St. Pete, he means," Dan told Susan. "That's because he was mostly in the National League, and they didn't play there."
It wasn't even true that Arlie had spent his career in the National League, and Dan knew it. But Arlie ignored him. Eventually, his friends stopped kidding him, because he wasn't laughing much at their jibes. Finally, Arlie sighed a little and told them he was going up to bed. "I don't think I'll be going out with her again," he said. "She was a real nice woman 'n all, but it just didn't, y'know, feel quite right. For her, either, I don't think. I figure if I don't call her back, she won't be upset. She'll know why."
That same week, on Thursday afternoon, Arlie received an email message a couple of hours before it was time for him to leave for that night's game.
To: "Arliss Stone" ahstone@knox.net
From: alissamunger@yahoo.com
Subject: Seeking reassurance
Mr. Stone:
My name is Alissa Munger. I'm Susan Munger's mother.
Susan gave me your telephone number and email address just so that I would have someone in Baltimore besides her with whom I could communicate in emergencies.
This is not an emergency, but I decided to write to you anyway because, according to my conversations with Susan, you are well-acquainted with the young man she's been seeing, Daniel Preston.
I realize that Susan is twenty-five years old and no longer subject to Mama's control, but I still worry about all my children, even my oldest daughter, and I was hoping you could reassure me about this Preston fellow. From what Susan has told me, he's a professional baseball player, and he's considerably older than she.
Susan, as you may know, is coming off a disappointing relationship with a man she at one time had expected to marry. I can't help but worry that she may have gotten involved with this Preston fellow on the rebound, and that she again could be heading for a troubled relationship.
Since you're right there on the scene, and since you know this man, I was hoping you could reassure me that he is reliable and a decent sort. I don't want to come over as an interfering mother, but I'm more than two thousand miles away and a little worried.
Please don't let Susan know that I wrote to you to bring up this delicate matter with a stranger. I'll be hoping to hear back from you at your earliest convenience.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Alissa Munger
Arlie didn't answer Alissa Munger's letter right away. He wanted to give it some thought. He didn't want to be a "spy" on Susan's private life, but as a fellow parent, he could understand and appreciate a mother's concern.
"How would I feel," he reflected, "if Christy were living on the other side of the country, just out of school, and I heard she was hooked up with some professional baseball player -— or football player, maybe —- who was considerably older than she was and a complete unknown quantity?
"Or maybe, since I'm a former professional athlete myself, I should divorce myself from the 'athlete' thing. How would I feel if Christy were twenty-five and hooked up with a rock musician, say? Or maybe some actor out in Hollywood?
"I'd feel shaky as hell, that's how I'd feel!"
Arlie didn't answer Alissa Munger's email that afternoon, but he did resolve that he would answer it, and promptly.
Late that night, after returning from the 7-3 Oriole victory over the Tigers, Arlie checked his sleeping children, stopped by Susan's bedroom door to tell her he was home, and fired up his laptop.
To: alissamunger@yahoo.com
From: "Arliss Stone" astone@knox.net
Subject: Reassurance Supplied
Dear Mrs. Munger:
First, let me congratulate you on what a fine young woman you've raised in your daughter. Susan has been a godsend to me and to my two young children, because (as I'm sure you know) I, too, am associated with professional baseball, travel constantly, and rely heavily on her in my absence to care for my children and our home.
But getting to your immediate concern, let me give you my most complete assurance that Dan Preston is a fine, responsible young man. He is, I suppose, technically an "employee" of mine, just as Susan is. But, also like your daughter, our association has been much more that of friends. And, in Dan's case, I have known the man for many years and have worked with him steadily for the past four.
He and Susan seem to me to be solidly attracted to each other and they currently have what I think is an exclusive relationship.
Dan is a divorced father of a fifteen-year-old boy. As you have said, at thirty-six, he's considerably older than Susan, but there is no indication from either of them that age is any kind of a factor in their relationship.
Dan has always been a stable, reliable person. His relationship with his ex-wife and son (who lives with his mother, who has long-since remarried) seems to me to be amicable. Dan visits with the boy often.
In short, I don't think you have anything to worry about. I suppose relationships like the one Susan currently has with Dan Preston can end badly, and often do. But you can be confident that if it ever does end, it won't be because your daughter has been mistreated or otherwise deliberately hurt by Dan Preston. I know him well enough to be confident about that.
If it's possible for you to travel this distance at some point, I would certainly encourage you to come to Baltimore and meet Dan Preston for yourself. I think it would be reassuring. You could also see the circumstances in which Susan is living, and see first-hand the great progress she's making on her book. We have a large house and two guest rooms, not even counting the one Susan occupies. We would be most pleased to have you come for a visit at any time, and stay for as long as you are able. (You should consult with Susan, however, before coming, to assure that Dan and I are not "on the road" for the entirety of your visit.)
Arlie Stone
Arlie was sure that Susan already had provided her mother with photographs of Dan Preston, so he instead attached an attractive photograph showing the exterior of the Stone residence, and two computer scans of school snapshots of Christy and Toby. The photographs, he thought, ought to afford Susan's mother with additional assurances about the stability of her daughter's situation in Baltimore.
Alissa Munger wrote back the following morning:
Mr. Stone:
Your email (and the photographs) were immensely reassuring. Your home looks lovely. Thanks for including the indication of where Susan's bedroom is located on the house picture. It helps me to envision her inside, in that fine Victorian house, typing away on her novel.
I heard from her about the assistance she received from another member of the team, Mr. Taylor, when she was looking for a publisher. She was so thrilled about that visit to New York that I was able to share her excitement even from this long distance!
Thanks for calming my nerves about Mr. Preston. I hope you understand why I felt the way I did, and worried about what might happen, were the two of them to break up. As you noted, it could happen, of course, but at least I have your assurance that Dan Preston will never treat Susan badly.
I discussed earlier with Susan the possibility of visiting her in Baltimore very soon, and I'm pleased that you've seen fit to invite me to stay for a short time as a guest in your home. I won't pretend that reducing the cost of the trip isn't a welcome help to me in planning for it.
I have been considering a trip back to Ohio in late June for my (thirtieth) high school reunion. I've never attended any of the previous reunions, and now that I'm finally about to become an "empty nester," I thought it might be fun to re-connect with my old classmates. Susan and I discussed extending my trip east by flying on to Baltimore for a few days thereafter.
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