by Luke Young
“I’m trying to help them. Obviously, they are hurting.”
“She’s telling you about my father’s masturbation schedule?” His eyes bugged out of his head.
“Look, they haven’t had sex in more than a year and—”
“I don’t want to hear this.” He covered his ears.
“You’re being a baby.”
“Look…” He put his finger in the air to quiet her for a moment. “Hold on.” He opened the door, gazed out to the empty hall, then closed it. “I never told you this, but right before I met you, Jillian and I were locked in a closet outside of their sex room, and we overheard them, them…” he cringed, “… doing it.”
“Oh, what kind of sex room?” She perked up.
“Never mind that.”
“What the hell were you doing locked in a closet with Jillian?” She held back a laugh.
“And that’s not important right now either. What is important is that they are into some freaky shit.”
“Like what?” She folded her arms and frowned.
“They had this sex toy head harness thing and they are in this freaky church and praying to this higher power before they, um, um, fornicated. I mean, who uses the word fornicate anymore?”
“Well, they left the church.”
“Good.”
“And they stopped having sex.”
“Even better.” He scoffed.
“I think your mother came here looking for my help.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “I think she hoped your father would follow her here and he has.”
“Please don’t get involved with this.”
“Helping people is what I do.”
He sighed. “Can’t you just refer them to someone else?”
“Let me do this for them,” she pleaded. “I want to.”
Closing his eyes, he let out a long, slow breath. “I’m begging you. Some couples should not have sex and they are one of them.”
“Every couple should have sex.”
“And you call yourself a therapist.” Gazing at her scowling, he shook his head.
She folded her arms. “I’m helping them and you cannot stop me.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Just don’t tell me anything about it and for the love of God, if you watch them doing it in your little sex viewing room, I swear I’m moving out.”
“I promise I won’t watch them.” She stepped to him and put her hands around his neck. “Look, it will be fine. Just relax.”
“You don’t know what it was like growing up with them. It’s a wonder I wasn’t scarred for life.”
“You seem fine to me.” She kissed him on the lips. “Now, go out there and say a proper hello to your father.”
29
After a rough couple nights of sleep due to twin overexcitement, Brian was exhausted. It was his first day working again with Amanda Jo at the tennis club and he was dragging. After reaching the court early, he warmed up a bit then relaxed on the bench. The back court was sealed off and Miss Joseph snuck in through the side entrance wearing a sweat suit, sunglasses, and a baseball cap. She discovered Brian asleep on the bench near the net and she walked up to him smiling and shaking her head. “Brian?”
He didn’t move so she repeated his name and still no response. She tapped him on the shoulder and startled him. His eyes opened and he ran his hand over his face. “Sorry, I, um—”
“I take it being a new parent is exhausting.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” He rose to his feet and took a deep breath forcing his eyes open wide. “Hey, Amanda.”
“It’s good to see you.”
“How’ve you been?”
“Good.” She dropped her bag and gave him a hug.
“So, have you been playing much?”
“Not as much as I’d like. Since the wedding, I’ve been crazy busy.”
“That’s right.” He smiled. “Jillian told me you and Jared were getting married.”
“We had the ceremony in Italy.”
“Italy, wow.”
“It was beautiful.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” She unzipped her sweat jacket and exposed just about the smallest, tightest, white T-shirt Brian had ever seen. Her abundant cleavage was on full display and he had to tear his gaze away from her.
“And how is the baby?” Her eyes brightened. “Wait, you had twins, right?”
“Yes, boys, Dylan and Griffin.”
“Those are great names.”
“Thank you.”
“How’s Jillian holding up?” She pushed her sweatpants down exposing an equally short skirt.
“Um, she’s good. Didn’t you meet with her last week?”
“No. I think I was on the west coast that day.”
“Well, she’s busy, but hanging in there.”
She sat on the bench and pulled her foot up to tie her shoe. While taking a sip from a water bottle, Brian glanced down and his eyes bugged out of his head when he could clearly see she was not wearing underwear. Her tiny landing strip was visible above her otherwise completely shaved lady parts. He broke into a coughing fit, shooting water from his mouth.
“Oh, sorry.” Noticing where his eyes were looking and evidently feeling the breeze, she quickly returned her leg to the court and cringed. “I just remembered I’m not wearing any underwear.”
He bent over with his eyes watering and cleared his throat. “Oh, no, I, um… I didn’t see anything, I swear.”
“I got the idea from Jillian’s book.” She shrugged. “I actually like the way it makes me feel. I feel, I don’t know… free.”
“Um, yeah…” He avoided eye contact with her. “Free is a good word for it.”
“I wanted to try a little method acting, you know, where you get into character early and stay that way.”
“She normally wears underwear now when we play,” he replied nervously.
“I’m sure she does.” Amanda chuckled. “But back then she didn’t, right?”
“That is correct. There were times she didn’t.”
“Yeah, so I’m trying to do a little Daniel Day Lewis kinda thing. When he played Lincoln they had to call him Mister President and he wouldn’t discuss anything current. In his mind, he was actually living during that time in the eighteen hundreds.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that.” He shook his head. “So, what am I supposed to call you?”
“How about Anastasia from the movie.”
“All right Anastasia.” He held back a laugh. “What do you want to focus on today?”
Narrowing her eyes, she walked up to him and focused her attention on his shirt. “Sorry, I must have gotten a little makeup on you.”
“Where?” He looked down.
Taking a step closer, she put her hand on his chest and brushed lightly at the stain. Then she examined the spot some more, placed her hand back on his chest and kept it there. “I think I got it.”
“Thanks.”
“We wouldn’t want Jillian getting the wrong idea, now would we?” she asked with her hand still on him.
“No.” He shook his head.
Her gaze went from his pecs to his face. “Have you been bulking up?”
“Um, yeah, I’ve been trying to hit the gym a little more.”
“It shows.”
After clearing his throat, he took a step backward out of her reach. “So, what did you say you wanted to work on, um, today?”
“I didn’t.” She gave him a sexy smile. “What do you recommend we work on? I’m completely open to suggestions.”
“Let’s see, um…” He turned away from her and bounced the ball three times while gnawing nervously on his lip. On his fourth bounce, the ball went off the side of his foot and rolled into the net.
She laughed. “Maybe you need a little work on bouncing the ball.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Backhand.” He pulled his racket back and simulated a stroke. “Ho
w’s your backhand doing? Last I remembered you were struggling a little with that.”
“Whatever you say, coach.” She walked to her bag, bent over to unzip it, and exposed her gorgeous rear end to him. He turned away and rushed to the baseline while rubbing the nervous sweat from his brow.
They spent the next two hours working on her backhand, forehand, and finally her serve. Brian struggled to keep both his distance from the perky beauty and his composure in an effort to prevent any unnecessary extra blood from rushing to his groin. While they were standing together chatting near the net, his phone chirped. He read the message then said, “I have something I need to take care of.”
“Go, I’m just going to hit a couple more serves. I can find my way out.”
“Great.”
She smiled. “So tomorrow remember we’re meeting at the court on the set.”
“Oh, okay.”
She stepped to him and gave him another polite hug. This time he turned to the side to avoid any direct contact on his slightly bulging groin area.
After checking in with Todd at the front desk, Brian returned to his office, closed the door, and slumped back in his chair, exhausted. He vowed to never tell Jillian about the events of that day. He decided to give Amanda the benefit of the doubt, because she really hadn’t done anything, on the court, that wasn’t already in Jillian’s book. In fact, she stopped short of doing all the things that Anastasia had done to Brice in the story. She was probably simply preparing for her role as she said. Or at least that’s what he kept telling himself.
30
After some discussion, Edward finally agreed to accompany his wife in a therapy session with Victoria. The three sat in her office spending the first thirty minutes or so on non-sensitive topics. They talked about what kind of babies Brian and Jim were and how they acted as children along with life back in Delaware. Beverly did most of the talking with Edward only answering two of Victoria’s questions and both with one-word replies.
After the pleasantries, Victoria said, “I want you both to know that you can say anything you want in this room. I want you both to feel like this is a safe place. No judgment here. And neither of you should judge the other as well. We can’t really help how we feel and sometimes we think the other person is feeling a certain way and we’re wrong about what they are feeling. Only when we open up and discuss what’s truly going on inside our hearts and our minds can we come to terms with it. And by accepting our feeling and acknowledging our behaviors we can examine them and decide if we want to work to change them.”
“Yes, I agree.” Beverly smiled expectantly.
Edward didn’t respond so Victoria asked, “What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Do you feel safe enough in this room to open up?”
He grumbled, “I guess.”
“Great.” Victoria rubbed her hands together. “So, Edward, Beverly expressed a concern that your sex life has been, let’s say, extremely uneventful of late, yet she found you masturbating.”
He folded his arms and sighed.
“Are you still sexually attracted to your wife?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, good. Do you have any trouble getting or maintaining erections?”
“No.” He motioned with both hands to his chest. “I can tell you that everything works fine on this side of the sofa.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Beverly asked with concern.
“You know what that means.” Edward looked to his wife.
“I really don’t.”
“I, um, really don’t feel comfortable talking about these things, in front of, um…” He sighed. “No offense, Victoria, but I just—”
“What am I doing wrong, Ed?” Beverly said with her voice cracking. “What is it?”
He turned to her. “Ever since we left the church things have been different. We stopped going in our little worship room and, um, other things changed.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go in the worship room.” Beverly looked to her husband.
“I never said that.”
Victoria asked, “Did you both feel more open to exploring your sexuality in that room?”
He nodded. “There was definitely more passion when we were inside that room.”
“I didn’t know you felt this way.”
“I, um, I feel,” Edward began. “No, I can’t…”
“Edward, you can tell your wife anything.” Victoria wore a sincere expression. “Remember this is a safe place.”
“Okay…” He closed his eyes for a moment then sighed. “Um, I was fine when we no longer went in the room, but I, um, really enjoy a certain type of sex that we were… and we just stopped doing it.”
“What type of sex is that?”
He refused to make eye contact with either of them as he said, “I, um, I enjoy using my mouth on her. I tried a number of times and she would always tell me to stop or tell me she was ticklish and eventually I stopped trying.”
“I had no idea that this was so important to you,” Beverly said.
“It’s not the only thing I enjoy, but yes, I really miss it. I thought you weren’t attracted to me anymore.”
“No, that’s not true. I love you, Edward.” She looked to Victoria. “Sometimes I’m too sensitive down there and I just can’t take any direct stimulation on certain… parts.”
Victoria nodded. “This is a common problem. The clitoris can be very sensitive at different points during the arousal phase and for some women it can manifest itself as being ticklish or, even in some women, as intense pain.”
“I get very ticklish and it just feels uncomfortable.”
Victoria made a note in her pad then turned her attention to Edward. “What position were you generally in when you were performing oral sex on Beverly?”
“What do you mean?”
“Was she lying on her back?” Victoria used her hands to demonstrate the positions as she named them off. “Were you on your back and she was kneeling over your face. Was she standing or were you in the sixty-nine position?”
Edward glanced nervously to Beverly then shrugged. “She was on her back mostly and I was between her legs.”
“Did you ever try any other positions?”
“No.”
“The position you employed does put a lot of focus on the clitoris and maybe if you tried one of the other positions you might find, Edward, that you get the same type of sexual enjoyment while doing it and it may reduce Beverly’s sensitivity. She might find it very pleasurable.”
“Sixty-nine?” After looking to her husband and getting only a shrug in return, she turned her attention to her therapist. “What is that?”
Victoria placed her hands fingertip to palm one on top of the other and began, “That is where the couples lie together facing opposite directions and explore each other’s genitals at the same time.”
Beverly and Edward shared a look of bewilderment.
“You can either do this while lying on your side or with the women on the bottom and the man carefully on all fours over her or vice versa.”
They still returned blank stares.
“I can see that you are not able to picture what I’m referring too.” Victoria turned around, opened a file drawer, and pulled out a DVD. “I have this instructional video you can watch that demonstrates a number of positions and techniques.”
Beverly looked to her husband with pleading eyes. “Should we?”
“I think so.”
“Great.” Victoria walked to the DVD player and inserted the disk then turned on the television. “Would you like me to watch it with you or I can certainly give you some privacy.”
“I think we’d be too embarrassed to watch it with you,” Beverly said.
“That’s fine. I have some calls to return anyway.” She headed to the door then turned back to the struggling couple. “I’ll return in about thirty minutes or if you need me sooner, I’ll be in the next office.”
“Okay. Great. Thank you.”
31
Back at the tennis club, Brian was startled awake when Amanda closed his office door. He ran his hands over his face. “You caught me again.”
“Sorry, I just thought of a question I forgot to ask you.”
“What’s that?” He ran his tongue around his dry mouth and made a face. “You want a bottle of water?”
“No, thank you.”
“Have a seat.” He motioned to the chair. She placed her bag down near the door and sat.
After grabbing a bottle from behind his desk, he twisted off the top and swallowed a huge gulp. “So what’s up?”
Frowning, she shook her head. “No, I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“No, what is it?”
She sighed. “It can wait.”
“Oh, okay.”
She rose from her seat then headed toward the door. When she bent to pick up her bag, she performed the maneuver in such a way that her tiny skirt lifted up her backside and exposed her gloriously white naked ass cheeks and the soft, pale pink lips of her pussy.
“What are you doing here?” he asked with an edge to his voice.
“What?” Turning to him, she looked almost frightened.
He rose from his seat and met her at the door. “What the fuck kind of game are you playing?”
She took a step backward until she ran out of the room and bumped into the door. “I don’t know what you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“I really don’t.” She stepped around him and moved to the middle of the room.
He slowly walked toward her as he began, “We’re supposed to be working together in a purely professional capacity.”
“That’s right we are.”
“And you promised Jillian that you had no interest in me and that you were getting married.”
“I was.” She refused to look him in the eye. “I mean, I am married now.”
“And you don’t wear panties.” He narrowed his eyes. “And you’re flashing your pussy around and bending over and teasing me.”
“I told you I’m trying to get in character.”