“You’re kidding? So how are we going to get around?” Lillian piped up, taking a gulp of her coffee but also smiling at the handsome young Englishman with the film star accent. He would do just fine for her daughter, maybe even help her get over the slump she’d been in since that treacherous leech had dumped her.
“People here usually hire a car, but obviously you didn’t. The other option of course is to hire a couple of bicycles. They’re perfect for the country lanes around here.” Ben told them as he lowered himself into a seat at the garden table.
“But, we have to get to town, I suppose, to find somewhere to hire these bikes? I don’t think I’ve been on a bike since I was a child,” Lillian said, her voice warbling at the prospect.
“I know you need to buy groceries and the like, so I’d love to drive you into town. I’d rather drive you there than have you walking. Jenna really should have told you,” Ben replied, a look of irritation clouding his face for a moment before it quickly disappeared. “I’ll show you around the area a little bit too. It’s a fantastic place, but you’ll need some way of getting around it.”
“That’s so kind of you, Ben. We really never thought we’d be stuck in the middle of a foreign country with no way to get food. Silly really, don’t you think?” Mary chipped in, watching him for a reaction. She didn’t like the idea of appearing to be little more than a silly woman to the handsome man sat with them. “Would you care for coffee? At least there was some of that here for us, and it doesn’t taste bad at all.”
Ben accepted a cup of the rich dark coffee, promising himself he’d get to work soon, he just needed to make sure these two didn’t starve to death. He had his “don’t get involved rule” to think about, but preventable starvation would eat away at his conscience. “No problem at all, and you’re not the first guests here to have been caught stranded. Just give me a yell when you’re ready to leave and we’ll go meet the natives okay?”
“Natives indeed!” Lillian chided and smiled at the same time. She was totally smitten with the handsome, much younger man. Ben gave her an amused smile and got up from his seat.
Ben left Mary and Lillian to get themselves ready as he went back to his courtyard and apartment. He was smiling, despite the interruption to his day. He’d been planning a day of work but the daughter of the pair was far too lovely to turn down. He didn’t know enough about her yet to guess whether he could get her into his bed for a night or two but her mother certainly seemed to be pushing it.
In his time at the villa, he’d become used to occasionally guiding newly arrived visitors around, something he’d taken up with Jenna more than once because of her flighty approach to giving people information about the place. He’d take them around to the shops, give them a few maps and offer directions, but that was usually about all. Unless they were female and alone, of course.
For some reason this was different, and he had to admit Mary was the reason. She was beautiful. He loved her rich, warm, gentle accent as much as they seemed to like his. He shrugged it all off as nonsense for the moment, and went into the house to make himself a pot of proper tea. An Englishman cannot face a day of any kind without a decent cuppa. He knew the two women wouldn’t be ready for a while. More than enough time to sit and contemplate the universe over a cup of tea.
He’d barely taken a sip of his hot tea before he heard the jingle of the bell hanging at his gate. He smiled and got up to let them in to the courtyard.
“Please ladies, come into my humble home,” Ben said with a sweeping gesture as Mary and Lillian walked into the cobbled courtyard.
Ben’s gaze flicked to the wall where only a few days before he’d first felt the pleasures Arabella had to offer. He looked Mary over as she sat down, instinct telling him that pretty little Mary might just have the same precocious approach to sex as the beautiful Italian.
“Oh my, Mary, it’s like walking into a fairytale or something. Look at all the beautiful flowers,” Lillian said, astonished at the array of plants and blossoms that adorned the tiny courtyard.
“I like to keep it nice, thanks. Glad you like it. It’s small, but it’s home,” Ben answered, feeling a little embarrassed at the attention.
“Home?” Mary asked, “You mean you’re not on vacation then? Like us?”
“Well, living here is always a vacation, but no I’ve lived here a couple of years now. I work on the internet, so no real need for an office back in rainy old England. I prefer the sun,” Ben said making his way back to the gate. “Shall we go then?”
He escorted them to his small Renault car, which of course got more comments from Lillian.
“Oh my!” Lilian exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything so cute! Are we all going to fit in it?”
“I’m pretty sure we’ll all fit in,” Ben said as he opened the doors. He opened the large wrought iron gate that secured the small gravel car park and returned to the two giggling women who were now sitting in the back seat.
“I think we’ll go topless, don’t you? You’ll enjoy the sun better,” Ben said, standing beside the car.
The two women in his car looked at each other shocked and then at Ben.
“I beg your pardon? Topless?” Lillian stammered, her hand resting at the top of her chest.
Ben laughed as he rolled back the foldable roof and fastened it at the back.
“The car. The car will be topless today.” He laughed as he climbed in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“Well, that’s a relief. Mary might be young, pretty, and liberal but I might be a bit old for scaring the locals. Did I mention she’s single?” Lillian replied, before grinning at Ben in the rear view mirror.
Ben saw Mary jab her mother in the ribs before she glared at the other woman.
“Mom, please!” she said, turning a deep beetroot shade. Ben thought it was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen.
He drove onto the winding lane they’d driven on the night before in the taxi. As they drove he pointed out various farms along the way and what they grew. Most of them had oranges, but also vineyards and other fruit orchards. Lillian and Mary sat in disbelief as they passed the beautifully painted houses nestled in olive groves and fruit orchards. The smell wafted by, enfolding them in a constant haze of orange scented wonder.
“This is like being in a scene from “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, it really is,” Mary exclaimed.
“Oh they have chocolate here too, sort of anyway,” Ben replied steering onto the main road.
“He’s kidding, Mary, I’m sure.” Lillian laughed, a little confused.
“Oh no, not at all. Those trees there are carob trees,” Ben said, pointing to a couple of old, gnarled and twisted trees hanging over the road. “It’s not your usual chocolate, but it’s what they use for dog chocolates and for people too.”
“But it’s all hanging over the road. How come nobody comes along and steals all their fruit? There’d be some guy with a shotgun and barbed wire guarding it back home,” Mary exclaimed, looking back at the trees as they drove past.
“No, not here. You can help yourself to the odd overhanging fruit just fine. Just don’t go loading up bags of it or they might get upset at you,” Ben laughed, his gaze travelling back a time or two to look at Mary. Well, to look down her top under the guise of checking the traffic behind him.
They arrived in the little fishing village and Ben was heading for a parking space near the beach. He wanted them to see the best of what the town had to offer, but he’d decided on the ride that he also wanted to spend some more time with Mary.
“Are you ladies up for a bit of a walk? Nothing drastic, but the best way to see a place is by walking and taking plenty of stops for drinks, if that’s okay?” he asked as he helped them out of the car. The perfect opportunity to spend a bit more time with the delightful Mary. She had him curious and he wanted to satisfy it a bit.
“I’m guessing you’re both hungry, so how about a coffee and a sandwich at the beach bar?�
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“Lead on, sir! I could eat a horse.” Lillian laughed as they followed Ben towards the beach.
He guided them to a bar just off the golden sands and gestured to a table for them to sit. They obligingly sat and gazed around at the beautiful beaches and the turquoise waters. Boats were moving from the harbour out to the islands on the other side of the lagoon.
A waitress soon appeared and welcomed them and asked for their order.
Ben confirmed they would all take a coffee and a ham sandwich. Lillian and Mary gazed in admiration as Ben rattled off the order in Portuguese and thanked the waitress.
“Wow! I never heard anyone speaking Portuguese so well. You must have taken forever to learn it.” Mary said, her appreciation of his skill obvious.
Ben watched her, seeing a naïve young woman, but one that made him think of exploration, seduction, and far more things than he should probably think about with a woman that was staying with her mother.
“To be honest, I probably sound like a total idiot to them, but I get served and that’s all we care about, right?” Ben replied smiling, liking the way Mary responded to his smile.
“Sure sounded good to me,” Lillian answered. “Your Portuguese is as sophisticated as your English, I think. I bet we sound like a real pair of hicks right?”
“Oh, good heavens no. You sound absolutely charming. You’ll pick up a bit of Portuguese, soon enough. It comes in handy, but the people here all speak much better English than we’ll ever speak Portuguese,” Ben said, laughing.
“So where are all the boats going? What’s over there?” Mary interrupted, pointing over to the large island opposite.
“There’s a small but beautiful village over on the island if you ever want to visit, and of course the nudist beaches.” Ben responded, watching Mary closely for her reaction.
“Nudist beaches? Topless cars? Are you trying to tell us something Ben?” Lillian laughed, her gaze flirtatious but harmless. The wedding ring on Lillian’s finger was obviously welded on so he knew that barking up that tree was pointless, she just liked to laugh. Her daughter on the other hand…
“Well, here on the beaches by the lagoon everyone’s topless. Just how it is here, I guess. You get used to it after a while,” Ben replied, smiling at Mary. Mary took the chance to blush again but she didn’t look away this time. The nudist beaches had caught her attention then. Maybe she thought it would be something to tell the girls back home about, that one time she’d been to a nudist beach.
Ben didn’t know a lot about where they were from but he guessed it was one of the landlocked states and probably didn’t have a normal beach let alone a nudist one.
“Good heavens, Mary. Don’t look at the beach, whatever you do! Until Ben mentioned it I never noticed. Now I’m wishing I hadn’t,” Lillian said, gazing at the beach a few yards in front of them with round eyes. She stared at three women all passing the sun tan oil for their topless bodies. Mary couldn’t help but look.
“Mom! What on earth have we come to?” Mary coughed and laughed at the same time, looking from her mother to the half naked women. “One of those women is twice your age, I bet!”
“I would look a damn sight better than that lady, let me tell you!” Lillian said. They both looked at Ben who now had his head in his hands quietly laughing.
“Well, maybe you won’t get used to it, right?” Ben asked, still trying to smother his laughter.
“It certainly isn’t what we’re used to at home but neither is the coffee. It’s wonderful, Ben, really. We aren’t stick in the muds. I think we’re going to have a fantastic time,” Mary said, her smile infectious as she gazed out at the sunbathers, most likely tourists just like her.
They sat in the warm morning sunshine enjoying the coffee and the table full of various dishes of seafood, olives and local bread.
“We’ll take a walk into the town and I’ll show you the bicycle hire shop. I think you’ll agree the journey is quite a while if you walked. A couple of bikes will do the job just fine,” Ben interrupted their reveries as he saw the time, thinking it might be best to get back home and get some work done.
“It was really kind of you to bring us today, Ben. We’re very grateful. Poor Mary needs this holiday, you know. She’s young, free, and newly single of course, and this is just what she needs,” Lillian confided, sparing a glance at her smiling daughter.
Chapter 5
The half hour or so brunch by the beach had somehow rolled into three hours of Ben telling them what he knew of the country and Mary and Lillian bombarding him with more questions. The ladies happily experimented with the different foods and sent the occasional aghast look towards the beach and topless girls. Ben tried not to get caught doing his own bit of staring, pretending to be above such things, but he noticed the bare breasts, nonetheless.
Ben guided them through the little town to the bicycle rental shop as the sun began to sink in the sky. Both Lillian and Mary were grateful to get into the cool of the dimly lit shop. The clothes they’d brought with them were more for a West Virginia spring than an Algarve summer and they were feeling it.
The shop assistant guided them to two strong Dutch bicycles. Both had baskets for carrying shopping. Mary seemed far more delighted with the idea of the bicycles than Lillian did, and she was eager to try hers out, her helmet already in place. Ben watched her, going to her to adjust the helmet’s strap under her chin.
Mary stared up at him, her lips parted as he did so, and Ben could have sworn she shivered when his fingers touched her chin. Her eyes sparkled as he paused, her beauty taking his thoughts away for a moment as his fingers smoothed over her chin. What would it be like to kiss her, he wondered.
“Are we going to ride these home? From here?” Lillian asked Ben, looking deeply apprehensive about the whole idea. “I haven’t ridden a bike since I was maybe twelve years old. I’ll kill some poor old person or myself before we got to the other side of town.”
Ben turned to her, shaking away the thoughts he’d been having about Mary. He translated to the shop assistant and they both laughed. Then Ben turned back to Lillian and smiled reassuringly.
“Not laughing at you, Lillian. Yes, we understand it can be a shock for a lot of people. The shop will deliver them to the house this afternoon. You can practice on the quiet roads there before going anywhere too adventurous. I’ll even get my own bike out and come with you if you’d like. Show you the easier routes for cycling.”
Mary moved away, examining a pink helmet with a clear faceplate. He watched her, knowing she was trying not to think about their shared moment, the same as he was.
Ben realized how much work he wasn’t going to get done if they took him up on the offer, and cringed inwardly. Mary’s look of delight made the loss of income worth it. He had a good deal of money in his savings account anyway. Fuck it.
“Oh, Ben, that would be wonderful!” Mary exclaimed, her face lighting up. “We aren’t putting you to too much trouble, are we? We don’t want to be a nuisance you know?”
Mary placed her hand on his arm, and Ben looked down at it, a tingle going all the way down to his feet. Looking up, he saw she’d felt that same spark. He smiled calmly at her, his own hand covering hers, hiding with his charming smile the fact that he was internally repeating the word “fuck” to himself over and over again. She was going to be trouble in his easy life, he just knew it. But he also knew he didn’t want to stop it.
“It will be my pleasure, Mary. To be honest the exercise would do me good. Gets too easy to jump in the car these days,” Ben replied, his face coming closer to hers for a moment as they stared at each other intently. A sound behind him reminded him they weren’t alone so he pulled away slightly. “Let’s pick you up some groceries and we’ll get back, okay?”
It was a short drive to the small supermarket and Ben pulled some way past to get parked. They strolled back to the front of the store and into the cool interior.
Ben unhitched a small shopping trolley and
they set off down the first aisle.
“We can buy food here too, right?” Mary asked, looking around in confusion.
“Yes of course, why?” Ben said.
“Beer and wine. It’s just beer and wine. Miles of it. Look, Mom. And liquor too. How can they just sell it like that?” Mary asked, pointing at bottles of spirits on the shelves.
“How else are you going to buy it?” Ben asked back more confused now than Mary.
“Well, we sure don’t get the hard stuff like that in our grocery stores, I can tell you,” Mary said. “If it’s not at the liquor store you don’t get it. We can buy beer and wine at the grocery store but that’s it.”
“You’re not in Kansas anymore, Mary” Ben said, laughing. “Europeans like a drink with their lunch. Come on, we’ve got shopping to get.”
Lillian snickered at the Wizard of Oz reference and they moved on past the long row of assorted beers and wines. She picked up a bottle of red and white and plonked them in the basket, eying Mary to defy her.
Lillian and Mary “ooohed” and “aaahed” as they examined the strange labels and exclaimed with childlike excitement when they found something they recognised as familiar or, more surprising for them, a brand from home. Soon they’d loaded two of the small trollies and were headed back to the villa.
“You’ll let us cook for you tonight, won’t you Ben? After all the running around you’ve done for us we owe you a thank you,” Lillian asked as they arrived back in the house carpark and got out.
“It was no problem, really. I’ve had a wonderful day too. Sometimes I get stuck into my work and never see outside that courtyard for days. Let’s get this shopping inside and put away. Your bikes should be here soon,” Ben replied, hauling four large bags of shopping from the car. They’d bought enough for what looked like an invasion and Ben commented as such.
“Well, it’s all so strange, Ben! We were so interested in the strange choices they had to offer that we thought we should try at least a good selection of it. How else are we going to learn about new foods and things to cook?”
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