An Ordinary Bloke

Her eyes fluttered and opened, her smile widened, her hand reached out to my face and a deep throaty chuckle emerged from her lips. "I've been dreaming, an impossible dream, one where this handsome man has made love to me several times during the night. The man looked exactly like you, and by the feel of my pussy and my matted pubes, it was no dream. Just to be certain, would you make love to me again." I had heard this term years ago, where prostitutes would charge less for what they called a 'stand up start', in other words there was no foreplay involved. Why this came to mind was that, as I watched her smiling face come to life, he came to life. I kissed her lips good morning, I told her good morning as I descended to her pussy, my tongue licking the remnants of last night from her lips. As I positioned him at her entrance and slowly pushed him into her, her smile brightened. "Don't you ever leave me, I want this for the rest of my life."

"I have no intention of going anywhere in the foreseeable future. Do you have any plans for today?"

"I have to go see Erica, she's my daughter. I want her to meet my new man."

"You aren't wasting any time, are you?"

"I have no time to waste. Don't worry, I have no intention of going anywhere either, it's just that my life to now has been wasted, totally wasted. The last two years of my marriage may just as well not have happened, for all the good it did me. Now I'm just going to join you in making love. You can push a little harder, I won't break." I pushed a little harder until the dam broke and her insides were flooded."

After breakfast we climbed into my car and drove to Erica's house. "Hi Mum, I wasn't expecting you this morning, and who's your chauffeur?"

"Erica, this is Roland, and he almost literally swept me off my feet yesterday morning."

"Almost, what does that mean?"

"Our trolleys collided in the supermarket, and we got talking and I have found my perfect man."

"No, don't tell me that you and him have been, you know? It's not possible for things to advance that fast, is it?"

"Yes it is." I said. "Mary is an amazing woman, you are lucky having a mother like her."

"So what happens now?" Erica asked.

"You are going to make us a coffee and we'll talk about this and that for a while, and then we are going to leave you and go home to Roland's place, I want to road test his bed."

"Mother! I'm shocked. I have never heard you speak like that in my entire life."

"You'd better get used to it because my man makes me feel so sexy. For an old sheila like me, who's had a rough trot over the past couple of years, I need to do a bit of catching up. I need to feel like a woman again."

"Don't let me stop you. I have never seen you as happy as this." Erica kissed Mary and me and pushed us towards the door. "Go, go home and crew your hearts out."

We did as we were told, and it was a sublime experience. In the early hours of the morning with Mary's soft breath beside me, my mind drifted back to my previous life. I didn't have an ex-wife who tossed me over for a new man. I had a now deceased wife who left me devastated. The doctors told me that it was unusual for a woman that young to have a stroke, and to have one as massive as the one that Jill had was almost unheard of. The one redeeming feature, if you could call it that, was that she wouldn't have to suffer through the paralysis, or the slurred speech, or the lop-sided face because the muscles on one side wouldn't work. But that didn't help me. I lost the plot there for a while, and it took a massive jolt to get me back on track with my life.

I made the decision that I would not put myself in that situation again, I didn't want to go through the loss of a wife again. I was a coward. I didn't shut myself off totally from the world around me, I had casual friends that I talked to, like Janie at the supermarket. But none of them were visiting friends, I didn't get invites to dinner from any of them, and I didn't invite anyone to have dinner with me. I did think that I could invite Janie and have my ego boosted if she accepted, but I was too much a coward to even attempt that exercise in futility.

My reverie was interrupted, I had just reached the point when Mary and I collided, by a hand sliding up my leg and caressing him into life. "I want him inside me now." She leaned over and kissed me. "You do realise that I have had more sex in the past forty-eight hours than I had in the past three years." She climbed on top and fed him into her wet pussy. "Oh my god that's good. Never let it be said that us oldies don't appreciate lovemaking."

"I know that I do, I don't want this to stop, ever. But then if we don't at least slow down we will wear ourselves into a frazzle, and we can't have that now, can we?"

Some time later she had her orgasm, shortly before mine, and climbed off and out of bed, and headed for the bathroom to clean herself up. I lay in bed for another minute or two just luxuriating in the afterglow of the most amazing time that I've ever had.

"Come on lazybones, get out of bed, the shower's lovely and I want you here."

Another new experience for me, whoever coined the saying; 'save water, shower with a friend' obviously had this in mind, although this definitely wasn't a two minute shower, so we probably ended up using more water. But we both enjoyed it, taking turns to lather the other up and rinse off. "What are you thinking about?" Mary asked.

"I was thinking that we've been behaving like a couple of randy schoolkids, not responsible adults."

"And this is a problem, how?"

"No problem, just an observation."

"Well observe this." She dropped to her knees and took him into her mouth.

Breakfast occurred sometime later, and then we sat around and talked for a couple of hours. I learned something of the train wreck that was her previous life, and she learned more about me than anyone other than me. "I can understand why you decided to withdraw from the world, and being selfish, I say thank you that you did, otherwise some other lucky woman would be doing what we are now, and not me. Now what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

"I usually go for a walk along the bike trail. You run the risk of being mowed down by feral cyclists, but the scenery's good and there's a good café at the end of it, where you can replace your past and future calorie consumption."

"Sounds Idyllic, but I haven't come prepared for such an activity."

"Well, I could take you home to change."

An hour later we began our walk. Okay, so we made love again when we got back to her place.

The following week there was no trolley collision, we shared a single trolley and Mary was with me as I pushed it towards the express lane, Janie was on duty again. She smiled as we approached. I began to unload the trolley. "Hey Mister, can't you read?" Pointing towards the sign that said 15 items or less.

"These aren't all mine."

"Okay, I'll let you through this time but don't make a habit of it." She turned her attention to Mary. "I'd watch out for this dirty old man if I were you, no good can come of this." If I didn't know her I would have been offended.

"Don't I know it." Mary told her, "I need a vacation already. Insatiable he is, he wants it all the time. You should count yourself lucky, if it wasn't for me he'd be hitting on you."

"Don't I know it. I've had to threaten to report him for sexual harassment over some of the things he says to me."

"Do you two mind?" I looked from one smiling face to the other. "I'm offended by this talk." I had decided to play their game. "I'm the innocent party here, you two are talking about me as if I'm not here. I say enough is enough, okay?"

"Since when did he get so touchy?" Janie asked Mary.

"I don't know, he's probably entering that time where he becomes old and cranky. He might be feeling his age because he's having problems keeping up with my demands."

"If that's the case then he'd be no good for me, at least five times a day, and I can get pretty hard-core."

"That's it! I'm out of here, and Mary, you can pay for all this, I'll meet you at the car." Mary stood in front of me so that I couldn't leave and then she kissed me. "Oh all right, I'll pay, but I expect you to repay me when we get home."

"That wouldn't even get you a blow job." Mary whispered to me.

"We'll see about that." I whispered back.

"Ahem." Janie interrupted, "That all comes to forty-seven dollars and thirty cents."

"Pay the girl." Mary said as she hoisted the bags into the trolley.

"Any cash out?" Janie asked.

"Yeah, give me ten dollars, I'll have to pay the lady for her services."

Janie gave me the ten dollar note. "I won't tell you to enjoy the rest of your day, because it's obvious that you're going to. You two are great together, and Mary, don't lose him, he's a great guy."

"Don't worry, I won't." She smiled at Janie, then looked at me. "Come on slave, don't just stand there, let's go home while I'm in the mood."

A pattern was soon established. I would spend a couple of days a week at her place, and she would spend a couple of days at mine. That way we could spread the load on our beds and bedding. We discussed whether or not to sell one of the houses but decided against it. This was partly because Mary had this impression that Erica was in the process of making up her mind as to whether she should persevere with her marriage. If she decided to end it she would move in to Mary's house and Mary would move in with me. "Having you around me has made me realise how much living I have left in me. I want to be there for Erica, and while I love her, I can't make love to her." Mary and I had just finished a performance test on my mattress.

"Don't look at me. I'm not going there." I had to remove my tongue from her pussy to reply.

"I don't expect you to, you have your work cut out for you just keeping up with my demands."

"I meant to talk to you about that. I've noticed that your recovery time is a little longer than when we first got together. Is there a problem that I don't know about?"

"There is. I got the results of that check-up I had the other day. It's not looking positive. I have to have more tests in a couple of days."

"I'm so sorry Darling, come here." I took her in my arms and hugged her to me. "Look, I want you to know that I am with you every step of whatever way this thing plays out. If the other tests come back with the result that this fucking thing has reared its ugly head all over again, I am here to support you, and if that means cleaning up your vomit after chemo, then so be it. I can put up with whatever shit this thing throws at us. This is an us thing, and don't you forget that,"

"I know you will, and that is why I chose you to love, and chose to love you."

"So it wasn't my dashing good looks that did it, eh?"

"Shut up. Okay, it was that as well. And the fact that you are, to all intents and purposes, as blind as a bat."

"I'll have you know Madam, that my eyesight is as close to perfect as I can expect at my age, and a damn sight better than yours. If you could see properly you would have missed my trolley."

"And missed meeting the one man left in this world willing to fuck me?" She kissed me. "Can we get serious for a while?"

"No. I refuse to be serious in the face of this serious news. Now kiss me again and see if your passion can stir some reaction in him."

Following some more serious loving we did eventually get around to having that serious discussion. Mary would move in with me permanently, and Erica would move into her house, as soon as possible. She would tell her husband that she was moving in with her mother because of the return of the cancer. He cared so little for her that he would probably be glad that she was leaving him. I know that she would be lying to him, but he had lied to her when he told her that he was not having an affair, a fact that she knew because the stupid girl had rung her to gloat about it.

Mary and I made the most of the time that we had available to us. We managed, between visits to the Oncologist, to take short holidays. We visited seaside resorts where we walked the beaches, holding hands and wading in the water. There was an exhilaration in wading in the ocean, with water washing around our legs, the salt spray in our faces, and the sand between our toes. We visited the wine country and wine crawled through several wineries, doing no more than four a day because we found that, after that, it all tasted the same. We dined on local produce in the local restaurants, holding hands whenever possible and whispering stupid things to each other. We stayed in B&B's in the hills, walking the hiking trails and smelling the bush, listening to the birds and animals.

Each new trip was taking its toll on Mary, but she refused to give in to it, and all the time we made love. In time it evolved from the frantic, 'let's not waste a moment' lovemaking, to a slower, 'let's savour the moment' gentle lovemaking.

Mary lost her hair due to her treatment. "I can't go out looking like this, everyone is staring at me, I feel so conspicuous wearing this stupid bandana."

"Then don't. I think that you look even more beautiful now, and at least you don't have to worry about doing your hair every day." While she was resting I went into the bathroom and shaved my head complete with eyebrows. I crawled into bed beside her sleeping body and drifted off to sleep with her in my arms.

"What have you done?" She was looking at my shiny scalp.

"I shaved my head, like it?"

"I'll get used to it, in time. Did you do that just because I was complaining about my looks?"

"I've been thinking about this for some time, I'm sick of my hair, it's fine and, even though there is a fair bit on top, it looks much thinner. So I shaved it all off."

"Did you have to do your eyebrows as well?"

"They were definitely not one of my better features."

"I'll grant you that."

"You didn't have to agree with me. I thought that they didn't match the rest of my head hair, the hair was coarse, and the wrong colour, so they had to go."

"I love you, not just for doing this for me, but for being you. I should have met you ages ago, my life would have been more interesting, and I would have been much happier. If we'd met twenty years ago I could have had kids with you, even if I was married to someone else."

"You mean to tell me that you would have had an affair with me, even if you were married?"

"Yes. I would have recognised, even then, just how perfect we are together. I would have happily cheated on my husband with you."

"You are forgetting one minor detail, I was married myself back then, and I would not have betrayed my wife with another woman, not even you. I'm sorry, but that's how I am."

"I know you are. But you could have gone along with my mood, and agreed with me that we would have had an affair."

"I suppose that meeting you might have changed my thinking on marital fidelity, I could have convinced her that I was capable of loving two women at the same time, maybe we could have had a threesome."

"No fucking way mate, if you think that I would be prepared to share you with another woman you've got another think coming."

"Oh, so it's a case of what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, is it?"

It was getting harder and harder to maintain our light-hearted conversation in light of her failing health. On days when her treatment really knocked her around, she was sad at having involved me in her life. "Darling,"

"Yes."

"I want you to leave me. I should never have dragged you into my misery, it wasn't fair on you."

"Mary, my love," I pulled her into my arms. "I wouldn't want it any other way. You have brought joy and happiness into my dull existence, and I'm not about to forget that, or you. :I mightn't get it right all of the time, but I'm doing the best that an ordinary bloke can do to make your life at least bearable. I want to do it because I love you more than I thought possible. If we had married I would have honoured the vow to love you in sickness and in health, until death do us part. Allow me to do what I want, because my love you can't stop me."

Her frail arms went around my neck and she sobbed, her tears running down her cheeks and dripping onto my chest. "Roland, you are the most amazing man that I have ever met. I love you, so much." She closed her eyes, a smile splitting her face.

Her phone on the bedside unit completely shattered our mood with it's impossibly happy ringtone. It was Erica. "Mum, sorry to disturb you, but we need to talk."

"What is it, what's the matter?"

"It's Gordon, look it's hard to explain over the phone, could you come around?"

"Yes, give me an hour to get myself organised and get around there."

"Great. I'll see you then, both of you. I could use Roland's advice on this."

"I was going to bring him anyway, I don't feel confident driving anymore. 'Bye."

An hour later Erica was letting us into the house. "Mum, Gordon call in this morning on his way to work."

"What did he have to say?"

"That there was no affair, there never was an affair. The girl had lied when she rang me. Apparently it wasn't the first time that she had a crush on an exec in the company that she worked for. It was all a scam, she would hit on the man, in this case Gordon, and then threaten to go to his wife with news of the supposed affair unless he coughed up money. At first it was a small amount, but then, once he had started to pay, she increased the amount until it was quite large. As soon as he told her that there would be no more money, she would ring the wife and then sit back and watch the destruction of the marriage. Gordon got suspicious, it all seemed so easy, so rehearsed, that he suspected that she had done this before, so he contacted a previous company and spoke to a previous victim. The upshot is that she is under investigation by the police."

"And you believe all of this?" Mary asked.

"I have no reason to doubt it. And I want to save my marriage. Look Mum, I've seen how happy the two of you are together, and I've come to realise that I need that sort of happiness too, and I'm not going to get it on my own. I saw how it dragged you down when you and Dad split up, and I don't think that I'm strong enough to go through all of that."

"If that's your decision, then I say go for it and I'll, we'll be behind you all the way."

"Thanks Mum." Erica hugged her. "Mum, are you feeling okay?" It was as if, having cleared up her own problems she now turned her attention to Mary and her condition.

"I've felt better, and if it wasn't for my gorgeous man here, I would be feeling much worse. You interrupted a very tender moment with your phone call, he was just about to show me how much he loves me."

"God, I hope that I'm not as randy as you when I get to your age, Gordon's several years older than me, he'll never survive. It's all that he can do to make love to me more often that every second day, I don't know what that girl thought hitting on him, he'd never have kept her satisfied."

"That's all well and good, but I can do with a coffee."

"Coming right up, and I don't need to ask Roland if he wants one, I've never seen either of you having coffee without the other. Can I interest you in some cake? It's still warm, I baked it this morning."

"I thought that I smelled a fresh baked cake. I need a sugar hit so I'll have a thick slice thank you."

"What about you Roland, cake?"

"You two have a slice and leave the rest to me, I'm famished."

"No way," Mary said. "He'll have a slice just like the rest of us."

"Spoilsport." I grumbled.

While Erica was getting the coffees and cake, her phone rang. "Yes, it's okay, come on round." She ended the call. "That was Gordon, he's coming around to talk."