The End of Summer

by Alex M. Smith

  “You go straight and then right.” I replied with both words and hand gestures, to make sure he understood. I watched him walk away while thanking me with the traditional bow and saying, “Arigato”.

  I kept walking, with every step getting closer and closer to Lyn’s house, and I knew I had to make a decision soon. I had to go up there. I had to see her mom. I didn’t look up as I passed Lyn’s building slowly. I wouldn’t dare go up. Really what was I thinking coming here?

  “Richard…Richard.” I heard someone call my name. I stopped and looked back. Behind me there were a couple of guys delivering furniture, and I was sure that the voice I heard was a woman’s voice.

  “Richard… up here,” I looked up and it was Lyn’s mom calling me from the bedroom window. She had a lit cigarette in her hand. “Lyn doesn’t let me smoke inside. Where are you going? Come up.”

  Her elbows rested on the window sill, and she was leaning forward. Her breasts were squeezed together, and their top half was exposed. Her hair was wet and laying on her right shoulder. I was looking at her with a desire that I had never felt before. Her light blue eyes glistened, and her smile was so sensual and exciting. Everything about her was attractive, even in the way she held her cigarette, in the way she blew out the smoke out of her lips. For me, the most sensual thing was the way she looked at me. It was not the look of the mother of my friend. It was a look that I have never seen in the eyes of Joe’s mom or Vanessa’s mom or any of my friends’ mothers. Mrs. Brooks was different in all ways possible.

  My fantasy lasted a fraction of a second and I said, “I was going to grab a coffee.”

  “Great, I’ll come with you.” She put out the cigarette and called to me. “I’ll buzz you in. Come up I need a minute to put something on,” and she went inside.

  With Cream on Top

  “I just came out of the shower,” Mrs. Brooks said as she closed the door behind me. “Lyn just went in; make yourself at home. I will be back in a minute.” She went inside the bedroom and closed the door. Her blond long hair was still wet, and she was not wearing a bra under her robe. Her wet breasts clung to the satin fabric, and they looked perfect. As I was about to sit down, she opened the bedroom door just enough to tell me that there was some beer in the fridge if I would like some. I told her that I was fine, and I sat down. She opened the door again and said, “By the way, call me Becca,” and went back in and kept the door slightly open. From where I was sitting I could see the bedroom door, and I was able to see Becca moving inside. I wanted to keep looking and get a glimpse of her naked body, but I reluctantly looked away, and tried to concentrate on something else.

  I loved Lyn’s apartment. It was an open space with the kitchen open to the living room, and on the other side, there was a door leading to a bathroom and a bedroom next to it. The bedroom was big enough for a double bed and a ‘woman grade’ wall closet. There was even a wood-burning fireplace in the living room, but I am not sure if Lyn ever used it.

  Becca was fast. She came out wearing a navy blue V-neck dress, the same kind of dresses that Lyn wears, but on her mom, it looks even better. Becca had fuller breasts, and her cleavage pushed up above the neckline of the dress, revealing her ample curves. She stood in front of me like little girl and swirled. As her dress lifted slightly as she spun, she turned and asked me, “What do you think?”

  “You look magnificent,” I replied, my throat dry and barely able to contain my lust.

  “Let’s go, handsome boy. Oh! One minute. Let me tell Lyn that we are going out.” She walked towards the bathroom door, knocked and opened it a little bit. “Honey, Richard and I are going for a coffee.”

  Lyn came to the slightly open door and obviously didn’t know that I was there because she opened it some more. I was able to see her thighs and her right breast dripping wet. Still not knowing that I was there, she asked her mom, “Who’s Richard? My Richard?”

  “We will be back in an hour. Bye now,” Becca quickly said, not answering her daughter’s question.

  I turned to go to the door when Lyn saw me. I didn’t see her, but I heard her shout at her mom. “Ma! What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me that Richard was here?” Lyn shouted as she closed the door a little bit and held her hand over her breasts.

  “Who comes out of the bathroom naked?” Becca asked.

  Lyn told her, “Just don’t take the key with you. It’s the only one I got, and don’t be late. We are going for dinner,” then she shouted to me, “No crazy ideas, Ricky boy, or my dad will cut your nuts off.”

  “Just one kiss, I promise.” I said laughing.

  She threw a bar of soap at me, but it missed me and hit the door. Becca laughed through all this and ran to the door, and we ran down the stairs. We went out to the street, still laughing and pretending that Lyn was running after us, naked and armed with a shampoo bottle. I didn’t know that Becca was this cool. Lyn and I had never talked about our parents, although we were very close. She always said that her mom was a teenager wrapped in a grown up woman, and that Lyn sometimes feels older than her mom.

  Becca looked gorgeous walking beside me. I never had such a beautiful and elegant lady walking down the street with me. I gave her my hand, and she took it, and we crossed to the other side of the street. Walking hand in hand in the streets of New York was simply enchanting.

  She asked me about school and if I like my major and all that stuff. She asked about summer and what I’m doing now and what would I want to do after I graduate. She asked me about if I was seeing someone and how I find girls my age. She navigated very well around Vanessa, and she never mentioned her even though I knew that she wanted to ask me about her.

  We crossed another street, and this time she put her arm around me as we walked to the other side. As soon as her hand touched the small of my back, I felt heat rushing to every extremity of my body. My heart beat a little faster, and I felt warmth spread to my cheeks in the cool evening air.

  We arrived at Starbucks, and we went in. There were 2 girls and a guy ordering in front of us. She stood so close behind me that I could feel the heat of her body on my back. All the time we were standing there, she touched my hand and put her hand on my shoulder, on my back, and on the top of my hips. Very soft touches and it gave me a great feeling that I hadn’t felt before. It was one of those rare moments that you wish that you could stand in line all day long.

  The baristo was looking at us, and when he saw me looking at him, he looked down and concentrated on his work. He was a young college student, just like me, working summers to help pay for his studies. We were both the same, except that I was with the most beautiful woman in town.

  We were next in line, and Becca was now leaning against me, setting her chin on my shoulder. Her hair was brushing against my neck electrifying my spine and sending signals to every part of my body. As I turned to ask her what she wanted to drink, she moved her head back but not fast enough because our lips almost touched. I wanted to kiss her right there and then, but I didn’t. Her breath was a mix of strawberry and almonds, and it was intoxicating. Our eyes met and when I was about to kiss her she said, “Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino, with cream on top.”

  “What size?” asked the barista who was taking our order.

  “Tall,” Becca replied.

  “I’ll take a Grande iced coffee,” I said.

  Incense & Vinyl

  We walked slowly up the crowded street, sipping our drinks and avoiding tourists as much as we could. Becca started asking me again about college and what was I thinking of doing after I graduate. I told her that I really didn’t know. I was not sure what to do next. I was majoring in political science, and I might go to law school.

  “I applied to law school many years ago,” Becca said.

  “You never went in?” I asked.

  “Lyn was still three or four, and I thought I could handle it, but Miles talked me out of it,” she then added unconvincingly, “I’m glad he did.”

  “Why don’t you reapp
ly? Lyn is a big girl now, you know,” I suggested with a smile.

  She let out a mild laugh and said, “We will be classmates then.”

  She reached out and put her hand on the back of my neck and pulled me towards her. She gave me a peck on the cheek and a light slap on my neck. She then looked at me and said, “Come. We have to go pick up something from Bleecker Street.”

  We walked towards Bleecker, and all the time she was talking to me and touching my hand, my face, and my back. Every time she touched me, I felt the warmth of her hand and the softness of her skin warming and caressing my soul. As she came close to me, her scent filled the space between us and engulfed me with bliss. “Here we are,” she said and stopped in front of an old record store.

  I knew the place. It was David’s, a guy you have to know to hate, but he knew his music, and he catalogued every record that has ever been produced since the dawn of time. We tried to enter, but David was sitting at the counter with stacks of old records and pointed to the almost empty containers in our hands. I took the cup from her hand, and she went in. I walked a few steps down the street and found a trash can. As I walked in, David was handing her a package. She opened it and said, “Perfect. You are a genius, David.”

  “I hope that these young kids keep me in business a little bit longer,” he said and pointed at my iPad. “These days they get their music online and their movies online, and also they get their women online.”

  A laugh escaped Becca as she took out her credit card to pay for a package that cost her a full one hundred and fifty bucks. That made me wonder, “What’s in that package to cost that much and if it was a record why didn’t she download it for two ninety nine?”

  “Don’t touch anything please,” David commanded as I was roaming around looking at records.

  I showed him my empty hands and continued looking around. Becca finished paying and, while still holding the package, came closer to me. It was a very dark store, and everything was in the way. You had to navigate your way around boxes of old records that, to me, looked arbitrarily placed, but apparently, to David, it was all done according to a system.

  I reached the back of the store, and I was looking at a record by a sixties band called The Mamas and the Papas. I looked behind me just in time to catch Becca tripping over a box and falling right into my arms. We both fell to the ground without making too much noise or disturbing anything around us. David looked our way and looked back to whatever he was doing. Our eyes met, only a couple of inches from each other. I was holding her with both hands, afraid that she would fall back and wanting her close to me. I didn’t want to let go, and from the look on her face, neither did she. My body gathered all the determination it had stored inside it since I first met her, and at the right moment, I kissed her.

  My lips crushed into hers, and she parted her lips to let my tongue slide between them. She met my tongue with hers, and my heart was pounding heavily, the blood in my veins boiling. I released her arm, and I slid my fingers in her hair behind her neck. Her delicious breath was intoxicating, tasting faintly of her peppermint mocha Frappuccino, and I wanted this moment to last forever.

  “Is everything ok back there?” David shouted, and our lips parted.

  “All is well, David. Just looking at some rare gems here, dear,” Becca’s voice was very convincing.

  We both stood up, and Becca checked her shoe to see if it was broken, but it was ok. I helped her up. She then motioned to me for us to leave the store. I didn’t want to tell her anything, but I had to. I pointed to the bulge in my jeans. She smiled and grabbed my t-shirt from the sides and put it over my jeans, then handed me the package that she just bought, and I carried it in front of me. That helped a lot, and the look on David’s face as we walked out took care of the rest.

  “Wait a minute, where’s that cute little store I used to buy my incense from?” Becca wondered aloud as soon as we were out of the store.

  I didn’t want to answer because I felt a little bit disappointed. After all we just kissed passionately, and now she wanted to buy perfume as if nothing had happened? All I wanted is to do was to take her to a dark place and continue what we started. She looked around again and said, “It must be there,” and she pointed to a shop that was being renovated.

  We walked towards it, Becca leading the way. A couple of guys were doing some work inside. She asked one of them about the store that was here before, and he didn’t have any idea about what happened to it. As she turned towards me, shrugging to say “I don’t know.” An old man sitting on the bench next to the store said, “They moved to west Thirteenth Street a couple of months ago.”

  Becca turned towards the old man, smiled, and thanked him. She then came and stood right in front of me. Her face was a couple of inches in front of mine. I was only two inches taller than her. She took my hand in hers and looked deeply into my eyes. I waited for a kiss and I was dying from anticipation.

  “Let’s go eat. I’m hungry,” she said and kept looking into my eyes. I kept looking at her and didn’t want to go anywhere. My palms were sweating, and all I wanted to do was to give her a deep kiss right there in the open. She knew what I wanted. The quiet moment was broken when I heard a familiar voice in the distance.

  “Here you are. I thought you went for coffee?” Lyn said, as she and Joe were coming towards us.

  A Summer Quartet

  I wondered if they suspected anything, and if they did, they were doing a great job hiding it. We were supposed to meet and go for dinner at eight, but I guess we lost track of time. The four of us walked towards August, a nearby restaurant.

  “Brooks. Reservation for four. I talked to Ed.” Lyn said to the hostess.

  “It will be only a couple of minutes. You requested the garden, right?” the hostess asked.

  “We can sit inside if it’s gonna take time,” Lyn said.

  “No, no, just a couple of minutes,” the hostess said and went in to check.

  Lyn turned towards us and said, “So what were you up to, you two.”

  “Nothing much,” I said. We went to my place, opened a bottle of wine …” I answered teasingly, when Becca cut me off and said, “Richard, don’t spoil the surprise,” and she laughed. Lyn was not taking this as a joke, but she smiled and shook her head in disapproval. Joe was busy taking a call outside when the hostess came back and lead us inside.

  I sat next to Lyn and facing Becca. A few moments later, Joe joined us and sat next to Becca, but he looked worried. I planned to ask him later about it. As we were looking at our menus, I felt a nudge on my foot. I looked up, and Becca peered over her menu at me and smiled coyly.

  “Ready to order?” A waitress asked, and my eyes left Becca’s. “Richard. Hi.”

  We all looked up, and Becca raised her eyebrows at me, wondering who this girl was. “Hi, Caroline. How are you? Working here now? Oh, you know Joe and Lyn and Mrs. Brooks, Lyn’s mom.” I looked at Becca and said, “Caroline is in my study group at NYU.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Becca said while looking Caroline up and down.

  “Listen, I’m going to Zinc at around ten if you would like to join me for a drink,” Caroline said to me, lowering her voice.

  “We’ll see. I’ll call you,” I replied casually.

  After Caroline took our order, I thought of shifting the focus away from me, so I asked Joe what was wrong after his phone call. He just nodded and took a sip of water and said that it was nothing.

  “The company lawyer called you again,” Lyn asked Joe, already knowing the answer.

  “For the third time today,” he replied in a disgusted tone.

  “He still wants you to sign those papers?” Lyn asked.

  “He wants me to meet him tomorrow to discuss the merger. I don’t trust him,” Joe summarized.

  “Honey, if you need any help, I will tell Miles’ lawyers to take a look at it,” Becca said while she put her hand on Joe’s shoulder reassuringly. I watched Becca’s hand go from Joe’s shoulder to his ha
ir as she said: “You’re like my son, sweetie,” and she gave me a sultry look as she nudged my foot again.

  We were almost through with our dinner when Becca said, “So Richard, are you going out with Caroline tonight?” I looked at her as if to say, why did you bring up the only subject I want to avoid? I was about to tell her no, when Lyn looked at me and said: “I think you should go out with her. She’s nice.” I wondered if she noticed the looks between her mom and me and was trying to push me onto Caroline instead.

  “And hot. Wasn’t she dating that guy, Simon something?” Joe said.

  “Andrews, Simon Andrews. They broke up a couple of months ago.” I clarified.

  “Then she is not seeing anyone, and you are not seeing anyone,” Becca said sarcastically.

  “But I am seeing someone,” I countered.

  Lyn then leaned forward and whispered: “Isn’t that Sarah Jessica Parker sitting at the table on the far left?”

  Becca didn’t hear what Lyn said, so she leaned forward to me, and I leaned forward almost touching her ear and whispered, “You look so beautiful I could eat you right now, and Sarah Jessica Parker is sitting somewhere around here.”

  Becca turned, and while looking at SJP and smiling, she rubbed her foot on mine.

  “Is everything ok? Can I get you need anything else?” Caroline asked as she passed by our table.

  “Does SJP come here often?” Lyn asked Caroline quietly.

  “I dunno, really. First time I saw her in my section.” Caroline answered Lyn and repeated to all of us, “Can I get you anything else?”

  “We are fine, the food was great. Can we have the bill please?” Becca said. When Caroline left, she said, “I have an idea, let’s all go to Zinc.”

  While everyone expressed their approval, I was confused. What was Becca trying to do? It was my turn to give her a nudge from under the table. She smiled cunningly, took out her credit card, and said, “This dinner is on me.”