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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Love stories / Romance
- Subject: Aging / Maturity
- Published: 07/30/2022
She smiled over at him. He must have felt her look even though he was reading at the time. For he looked up, glanced over, and smiled back. Then she spoke.
“Honey, do you remember when we were young?”
He set his book down on his lap, turning slightly in his chair so he could face her.
“That depends. Do you mean when I was young and didn’t know you? Or when we were both young and had started our life together?”
Her eyes twinkled back at his.
“I will take either…or both. “
He puffed out a soft chuckle. It was apparent she wanted to talk about fond memories of some sort. But who’s? And when?”
“Well, my earliest memories, the ones before I met you, are of no consequence…without you in them…they seem empty. I didn’t really start to live until I met you.”
She blushed, even as old as she was. She knew some people would think what her husband of over forty three years just said to her was just corny : ”That’s what you wanted to hear, right?”- placating words. They would be wrong. Her husband literally believed that before her…was nothing.
“Surely there was a girl or two in there somewhere…I mean we were in our late twenties when we met.”
His smile grew a bit bigger. He knew what she needed to hear now. She was searching for what made her so special that she wiped his memory of all but her. So he could reminisce at will.
“Well, I did kinda like this short girl who worked the Perfume counter when I was a stock boy.”
“Did you ask her out?”
“Well, yeah. It took a few months but I finally got up the courage. I took her to a High School football game.”
“What a romantic.”
They both laughed.
“It was her old High School. We just sort of wandered around the stands, watched a bit of the game, and ran into quite a few people that she either knew, or she knew their older brother or sister. We got some pop corn and hot dog.”
“Did you go out again?”
“Yeah, a couple of times.”
“Why did you stop seeing her?”
“Well, I didn’t like kissing her.”
“What? Why not?”
“She had a mustache…and it tickled.”
She laughed out loud. A girl with a mustache at seventeen painted a picture that just tickled her funny bone.
“So who was next in this parade of beauties?”
“Well, none of them were as pretty as you. No one is.”
She reached over and patted his hand, blew him a kiss, and felt that old familiar tingle that his words often brought to her. He really did think she was the most beautiful woman in the world, inside and out. It was one of the reasons she loved him so much.
“I bet you said that to all the girls.”
He shook his head, suddenly serious.
“No. Just you.”
Her heart did a little cartwheel. She was enjoying the conversation…so she twinkled a little bit and let some mischief leak out in her next question.
“Surely you dated some hot girls before me?”
He looked over again. He knew he could stretch out a few other memories to make her chuckle.
“Well, I did date a girl who became a Playboy Centerfold.”
This time the surprise on his wife’s face was real.
“You never told me that before!”
“You never asked.”
She threw a wadded up tissue at him. He ducked. But since he was sitting down, well…it hit him anyway. He tossed it back at her…laughing.
“Well, you dated a Model!”
She laughed.
“Yes, but he was gay!”
“So was she!”
“What?”
“Well, actually, I think she was bi sexual. I never knew if her female companions were friends or …girl friends.”
“Why did she go out with you?”
He closed his eyes for a minute. How much should he tell her about something that happened way before they met, and more than fifty years ago.
He looked over and saw that his bride of more than forty years was leaning in to hear more. He sighed.
“Because I was a dork.”
They both laughed again. She rolled up another tissue, making a threatening throwing motion with it. He lifted his hands in fake surrender.
“Allright, alright. I will tell you.”
“You better!” (Waving her wadded tissue ammunition wildly in one hand)
“We met at the old Cedar Park hill. It was winter time and we were all sledding down the hill. Her little brother was on a sled and lost control. I was already at the bottom of the hill. I could hear her screaming: “Stop! Stop! Stop!” It only took me a minute to realize she was yelling at the kid with the dark jacket who was barreling down the hill …right towards the river.
“There was a river at the bottom of the hill?”
He could see the concern in his wife’s eyes…and the glint of what she thought about people who sled near icy rivers was there too.
“Yes, but there was a huge fifty foot or so of flat flood plain before you got to the river. Most folks stopped well short of the river. But this kid was just flying and didn’t know how to stop his sled. So I ran across the snow, picked him up off his sled just before it flew into the river. We both plopped down and rolled a bit. We were laughing hysterically, covered in snow, with that left over hyperness from the adrenaline rush. His sled was gone. It had passed the few feet of ice on the edge of the bank, and sunk (or was washed away by the current) in the deep water.
If he had stayed on his sled, he might have drowned or been washed under the ice shelf.”
Her eyes were wide. Her she was still learning things about her hubby a half century later.
“You didn’t tell me you were a Hero.”
“I wasn’t. Just lucky and in the right spot to help the kid out.”
She held up the wadded tissue again.
“Okay, maybe I was a bit of a hero. I was just young and quick. Anyways, she came running down the hill. She was wearing one of those puffy winter jackets with a white snow hat on her head. She ran all they way down the hill. When she got to us, she ignored me and snatched what turned out to be her little brother into her arms. Tears were on her face.
“I told you, Bobby, just let your feet drag in the snow. That will slow you down enough to just fall off your sled, or turn it to stop. You could have gone in the River!”
He kept telling her he was sorry. But every time he looked at me, he laughed. So did I. She was furious but starting to calm down enough to laugh.
“Boys, stupid boys. You think this is funny?”
We couldn’t help it.
“Yes!”
And we both laughed again. She threw some snow at us both.
“Then she thanked me. So did he. I helped him up. He must have known how close he was to crashing into the river, because he gave me a big hug. Then he introduced me to his sister. We talked as we got his sled- and mine, and trudged back up the hill. I knew she was pretty, I could see her face all flushed from the cold and running down the hill in deep snow.
But she was dressed in old sweat pants and that puffy jacket that hid her curves. So I had no idea what her body looked like.”
“When did you see her body?”
He could hear the slight edge in his Wife’s voice. He would have to be careful.
“Six years later…in Playboy.”
That broke the tension. The wadded up tissue bounced harmlessly off of his chest.
“You mean you dated a Playboy Model and never saw her naked?”
“First, she wasn’t a Playboy model then. She was a Senior at a High School one village over from mine. It is hard to date a person going to a different High School. At least it was for us. We went out a few times - and she loved telling the story about how I saved her little brother. Her parents wanted to give me some money for saving him. We laughed about that. I told them a Pizza would be reward enough.
It wasn’t until that summer, when I bumped into her at Wildwood Lake, that I saw what a terrific figure she had. By then tho, we had become friends and it didn’t really matter.”
“Just friends?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
“Well, once in a while. You met her once or twice.”
He watched as his wife scrunched up her face. He loved that look. He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind as she thought hard.
“I don’t remember any Playboy Bunnies.”
“Well, you remember Eric, the genius Programmer who set up our computers for us?”
A light went on. Both her hands went to her face.
“Eric?! Eric was the little boy you saved?”
“Yep. We kinda bonded that day. Even though he was a good ten years younger. That’s why he was at our Wedding.”
She shook her head and wadded up some more tissue.
He kept a wary eye out for that wad to come flying.
“You never told me you saved Eric’s life before. Or that his sister was a Playboy Bunny!”
“Well, she was only twenty two when she posed. She told me it was the biggest mistake she ever made. She said after a few months of putting up with all kinds of harassment …she decided that LA wasn’t the place for her. I think her experiences out there kind of put her off men too. She thanked me once for never trying to hit on her. She told me I was a real gentleman. She just wasn’t my type. “
“Oh, so you are telling me that pretty girls with great figures aren’t your cup of tea…so you married the old wallflower plain Jane?”
This time it was him that threw a wadded up bunch of tissue.
“Don’t you twist my words. You are way more sexy than she ever was.”
Those words dripped across her mind like warm syrup. He meant them. Even though they didn’t have sex anymore. Her Arthritis and his bad back…and age itself, took that form of intimacy away from them. Strangely enough, neither of them missed those sweaty romps in the bedroom. Spooning was more than enough now.
She tried to place Eric’s sister in her mind. But the woman she kept seeing sure didn’t look like a Playboy bunny. So she told him that.
“I think I remember meeting Susan a few times…but I thought she was just a friend of Eric’s.”
He nodded.
“Yes, she is his friend. Eric and Susan have that same bond that Twin’s do. Except they aren’t twins. Susan is a very private person…you can imagine. So she doesn’t dress to attract any attention at all. Besides, she is our age now…and time makes us all look like dead grapes at seventy or so.”
She laughed. Her husband always made her laugh.
“Anyone else interesting in your past?”
“Isn’t the Inquisition over?”
She laughed again. God, he loved her laugh.
“Not quite…answer the question!”
“Okay, well, I did date the runner up for the Woman’s body builder of the year.”
This time his wife let out a little gasp.
“What was she like?”
He closed his eyes and looked back in time.
“Intense. You wouldn’t believe the discipline and will power it takes to be a Body Builder at the National Level.”
“Do tell.”
“Well, she used to weigh her food.”
“Weigh her food?”
He nodded. Chuckling at the memory.
“Yeah, I took her out to eat on our first date. She pulled a little scale out of her purse and weighed her salad, one slice of bread, and the steak when it came.”
“Wait, are you telling me a girl ordered steak on her first date with you?”
“Oh, yeah. She needed red meat for muscle mass. She took out a little notebook and did some sort of calculation to figure out what the calories count was on the salad and bread. Then she checked to see what nutrients she got from the things she was about to eat.”
“Sounds like she had some sort of OCD.”
He nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. I think anyone super successful has some form of OCD. How else could you stay on track? She reached over that first date and pulled the salt and catsup away from me.
“No condiments, those are wasted calories. And salt isn’t good for your body or blood pressure.”
I laughed and grabbed the catsup back from her. I told her it was unAmerican to eat fries without catsup. She relented, but told me that condiments would be my down fall. Or sodas. “
He put a wounded hound dog look on his face. Knowing his wife would catch that catsup and sodas were indeed the reason he didn’t fit in his old pants. It made her smile.
“Did you sleep with her?”
“Yes. Once. After that we kind of drifted apart.”
“What was that like, sleeping with a professional body builder?”
He could tell his wife was genuinely curious…so he told her the truth.
“It was the closest to a homosexual experience I ever had. That girl was all muscle and ripped.”
He had to get out of his chair and reach over and pat his wife’s back. She was choking with laughter. He got her some water. She gave him a sweet kiss, right on the mouth - and those were to be cherished. She gave him a long lingering hug. He cherished that too.
She picked up her needle point and went back to work. He picked up his book, felt something brush his thigh. It was one of the bundles of wadded up tissue she had flung at him. He settled in his chair and flung it over at her. She looked up in surprise. Smiled at him and they both settled down in their own chairs.
You could almost hear both their hearts humming at the sense of oneness.
On the floor lay a few wadded up tissues. Their work done for the night.
Wadded up tissues.(Kevin Hughes)
She smiled over at him. He must have felt her look even though he was reading at the time. For he looked up, glanced over, and smiled back. Then she spoke.
“Honey, do you remember when we were young?”
He set his book down on his lap, turning slightly in his chair so he could face her.
“That depends. Do you mean when I was young and didn’t know you? Or when we were both young and had started our life together?”
Her eyes twinkled back at his.
“I will take either…or both. “
He puffed out a soft chuckle. It was apparent she wanted to talk about fond memories of some sort. But who’s? And when?”
“Well, my earliest memories, the ones before I met you, are of no consequence…without you in them…they seem empty. I didn’t really start to live until I met you.”
She blushed, even as old as she was. She knew some people would think what her husband of over forty three years just said to her was just corny : ”That’s what you wanted to hear, right?”- placating words. They would be wrong. Her husband literally believed that before her…was nothing.
“Surely there was a girl or two in there somewhere…I mean we were in our late twenties when we met.”
His smile grew a bit bigger. He knew what she needed to hear now. She was searching for what made her so special that she wiped his memory of all but her. So he could reminisce at will.
“Well, I did kinda like this short girl who worked the Perfume counter when I was a stock boy.”
“Did you ask her out?”
“Well, yeah. It took a few months but I finally got up the courage. I took her to a High School football game.”
“What a romantic.”
They both laughed.
“It was her old High School. We just sort of wandered around the stands, watched a bit of the game, and ran into quite a few people that she either knew, or she knew their older brother or sister. We got some pop corn and hot dog.”
“Did you go out again?”
“Yeah, a couple of times.”
“Why did you stop seeing her?”
“Well, I didn’t like kissing her.”
“What? Why not?”
“She had a mustache…and it tickled.”
She laughed out loud. A girl with a mustache at seventeen painted a picture that just tickled her funny bone.
“So who was next in this parade of beauties?”
“Well, none of them were as pretty as you. No one is.”
She reached over and patted his hand, blew him a kiss, and felt that old familiar tingle that his words often brought to her. He really did think she was the most beautiful woman in the world, inside and out. It was one of the reasons she loved him so much.
“I bet you said that to all the girls.”
He shook his head, suddenly serious.
“No. Just you.”
Her heart did a little cartwheel. She was enjoying the conversation…so she twinkled a little bit and let some mischief leak out in her next question.
“Surely you dated some hot girls before me?”
He looked over again. He knew he could stretch out a few other memories to make her chuckle.
“Well, I did date a girl who became a Playboy Centerfold.”
This time the surprise on his wife’s face was real.
“You never told me that before!”
“You never asked.”
She threw a wadded up tissue at him. He ducked. But since he was sitting down, well…it hit him anyway. He tossed it back at her…laughing.
“Well, you dated a Model!”
She laughed.
“Yes, but he was gay!”
“So was she!”
“What?”
“Well, actually, I think she was bi sexual. I never knew if her female companions were friends or …girl friends.”
“Why did she go out with you?”
He closed his eyes for a minute. How much should he tell her about something that happened way before they met, and more than fifty years ago.
He looked over and saw that his bride of more than forty years was leaning in to hear more. He sighed.
“Because I was a dork.”
They both laughed again. She rolled up another tissue, making a threatening throwing motion with it. He lifted his hands in fake surrender.
“Allright, alright. I will tell you.”
“You better!” (Waving her wadded tissue ammunition wildly in one hand)
“We met at the old Cedar Park hill. It was winter time and we were all sledding down the hill. Her little brother was on a sled and lost control. I was already at the bottom of the hill. I could hear her screaming: “Stop! Stop! Stop!” It only took me a minute to realize she was yelling at the kid with the dark jacket who was barreling down the hill …right towards the river.
“There was a river at the bottom of the hill?”
He could see the concern in his wife’s eyes…and the glint of what she thought about people who sled near icy rivers was there too.
“Yes, but there was a huge fifty foot or so of flat flood plain before you got to the river. Most folks stopped well short of the river. But this kid was just flying and didn’t know how to stop his sled. So I ran across the snow, picked him up off his sled just before it flew into the river. We both plopped down and rolled a bit. We were laughing hysterically, covered in snow, with that left over hyperness from the adrenaline rush. His sled was gone. It had passed the few feet of ice on the edge of the bank, and sunk (or was washed away by the current) in the deep water.
If he had stayed on his sled, he might have drowned or been washed under the ice shelf.”
Her eyes were wide. Her she was still learning things about her hubby a half century later.
“You didn’t tell me you were a Hero.”
“I wasn’t. Just lucky and in the right spot to help the kid out.”
She held up the wadded tissue again.
“Okay, maybe I was a bit of a hero. I was just young and quick. Anyways, she came running down the hill. She was wearing one of those puffy winter jackets with a white snow hat on her head. She ran all they way down the hill. When she got to us, she ignored me and snatched what turned out to be her little brother into her arms. Tears were on her face.
“I told you, Bobby, just let your feet drag in the snow. That will slow you down enough to just fall off your sled, or turn it to stop. You could have gone in the River!”
He kept telling her he was sorry. But every time he looked at me, he laughed. So did I. She was furious but starting to calm down enough to laugh.
“Boys, stupid boys. You think this is funny?”
We couldn’t help it.
“Yes!”
And we both laughed again. She threw some snow at us both.
“Then she thanked me. So did he. I helped him up. He must have known how close he was to crashing into the river, because he gave me a big hug. Then he introduced me to his sister. We talked as we got his sled- and mine, and trudged back up the hill. I knew she was pretty, I could see her face all flushed from the cold and running down the hill in deep snow.
But she was dressed in old sweat pants and that puffy jacket that hid her curves. So I had no idea what her body looked like.”
“When did you see her body?”
He could hear the slight edge in his Wife’s voice. He would have to be careful.
“Six years later…in Playboy.”
That broke the tension. The wadded up tissue bounced harmlessly off of his chest.
“You mean you dated a Playboy Model and never saw her naked?”
“First, she wasn’t a Playboy model then. She was a Senior at a High School one village over from mine. It is hard to date a person going to a different High School. At least it was for us. We went out a few times - and she loved telling the story about how I saved her little brother. Her parents wanted to give me some money for saving him. We laughed about that. I told them a Pizza would be reward enough.
It wasn’t until that summer, when I bumped into her at Wildwood Lake, that I saw what a terrific figure she had. By then tho, we had become friends and it didn’t really matter.”
“Just friends?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
“Well, once in a while. You met her once or twice.”
He watched as his wife scrunched up her face. He loved that look. He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind as she thought hard.
“I don’t remember any Playboy Bunnies.”
“Well, you remember Eric, the genius Programmer who set up our computers for us?”
A light went on. Both her hands went to her face.
“Eric?! Eric was the little boy you saved?”
“Yep. We kinda bonded that day. Even though he was a good ten years younger. That’s why he was at our Wedding.”
She shook her head and wadded up some more tissue.
He kept a wary eye out for that wad to come flying.
“You never told me you saved Eric’s life before. Or that his sister was a Playboy Bunny!”
“Well, she was only twenty two when she posed. She told me it was the biggest mistake she ever made. She said after a few months of putting up with all kinds of harassment …she decided that LA wasn’t the place for her. I think her experiences out there kind of put her off men too. She thanked me once for never trying to hit on her. She told me I was a real gentleman. She just wasn’t my type. “
“Oh, so you are telling me that pretty girls with great figures aren’t your cup of tea…so you married the old wallflower plain Jane?”
This time it was him that threw a wadded up bunch of tissue.
“Don’t you twist my words. You are way more sexy than she ever was.”
Those words dripped across her mind like warm syrup. He meant them. Even though they didn’t have sex anymore. Her Arthritis and his bad back…and age itself, took that form of intimacy away from them. Strangely enough, neither of them missed those sweaty romps in the bedroom. Spooning was more than enough now.
She tried to place Eric’s sister in her mind. But the woman she kept seeing sure didn’t look like a Playboy bunny. So she told him that.
“I think I remember meeting Susan a few times…but I thought she was just a friend of Eric’s.”
He nodded.
“Yes, she is his friend. Eric and Susan have that same bond that Twin’s do. Except they aren’t twins. Susan is a very private person…you can imagine. So she doesn’t dress to attract any attention at all. Besides, she is our age now…and time makes us all look like dead grapes at seventy or so.”
She laughed. Her husband always made her laugh.
“Anyone else interesting in your past?”
“Isn’t the Inquisition over?”
She laughed again. God, he loved her laugh.
“Not quite…answer the question!”
“Okay, well, I did date the runner up for the Woman’s body builder of the year.”
This time his wife let out a little gasp.
“What was she like?”
He closed his eyes and looked back in time.
“Intense. You wouldn’t believe the discipline and will power it takes to be a Body Builder at the National Level.”
“Do tell.”
“Well, she used to weigh her food.”
“Weigh her food?”
He nodded. Chuckling at the memory.
“Yeah, I took her out to eat on our first date. She pulled a little scale out of her purse and weighed her salad, one slice of bread, and the steak when it came.”
“Wait, are you telling me a girl ordered steak on her first date with you?”
“Oh, yeah. She needed red meat for muscle mass. She took out a little notebook and did some sort of calculation to figure out what the calories count was on the salad and bread. Then she checked to see what nutrients she got from the things she was about to eat.”
“Sounds like she had some sort of OCD.”
He nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. I think anyone super successful has some form of OCD. How else could you stay on track? She reached over that first date and pulled the salt and catsup away from me.
“No condiments, those are wasted calories. And salt isn’t good for your body or blood pressure.”
I laughed and grabbed the catsup back from her. I told her it was unAmerican to eat fries without catsup. She relented, but told me that condiments would be my down fall. Or sodas. “
He put a wounded hound dog look on his face. Knowing his wife would catch that catsup and sodas were indeed the reason he didn’t fit in his old pants. It made her smile.
“Did you sleep with her?”
“Yes. Once. After that we kind of drifted apart.”
“What was that like, sleeping with a professional body builder?”
He could tell his wife was genuinely curious…so he told her the truth.
“It was the closest to a homosexual experience I ever had. That girl was all muscle and ripped.”
He had to get out of his chair and reach over and pat his wife’s back. She was choking with laughter. He got her some water. She gave him a sweet kiss, right on the mouth - and those were to be cherished. She gave him a long lingering hug. He cherished that too.
She picked up her needle point and went back to work. He picked up his book, felt something brush his thigh. It was one of the bundles of wadded up tissue she had flung at him. He settled in his chair and flung it over at her. She looked up in surprise. Smiled at him and they both settled down in their own chairs.
You could almost hear both their hearts humming at the sense of oneness.
On the floor lay a few wadded up tissues. Their work done for the night.
- Share this story on
- 3
Shirley Smothers
08/05/2022Such a sweet story. The love and warmness comes through your words. I only hope I can share many years with my Hubby. Lovely story.
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
Kevin Hughes
08/06/2022Shirley,
That is my wish for you too ( I almost wrote "two" as a pun...but my grammar and spelling are atrocious and people might mistake it for a mistake. LOL ) Hug the hunk!
Smiles, Kevin
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Shelly Garrod
08/05/2022Oh such a sweet sweet story Kevin. You can feel their love. Happy Short Story Star of the day.
Shelly
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Kevin Hughes
08/06/2022Thanks Shelly,
I didn't have to look much further than the woman sitting across from me every day to get my inspiration for this story. Smiles, Kevin
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Kevin Hughes
08/05/2022Thanks Gerald,
Even at our age, with all the water under the bridge, we still have to be careful with "banter!"
Smiles, Kevin
Help Us Understand What's Happening
Lillian Kazmierczak
08/05/2022Kevin, that was such a sweet story. Sexy in th way they are so easy with each other. Youcould feel the love between them! Congratulations on short story star of the day!
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
Kevin Hughes
08/05/2022Thank Lillian,
I think all long term marriages reach the point where talk becomes easy and silence is warm and wrapped around you too. Smiles, Kevin
Help Us Understand What's Happening
JD
07/30/2022This story is a priceless treasure, Kevin, filled with love, tenderness, and remembrances. Thank you for sharing your gift with us.
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
Kevin Hughes
08/05/2022Once again you honor me with an Award and words that seep into my self esteem and make it glow. So as trite as it sounds: "Thanks again! " Smiles, Kevin
COMMENTS (6)