Autumn's Chores and Pleasures

Many thanks to my editor for helping me to be a better writer.

*****

Two hundred thousand leaves. A mature maple tree has roughly that many, and in the part of the world where Marla lives, they all end up on the ground in October. She couldn't believe it when she read the number. "I've got over a million leaves in my yard!" she said. There was no one there to hear her but her cat, and Twinkles was unimpressed. "I've got to hire some help!"

She was looking out her window at the colorful carpet of fallen leaves on the lawn of her big back yard, out behind the little house she'd moved into a few months before. It was nice quiet country property, her reward to herself for surviving a messy divorce from a man she'd despised for the past few years. Her life had been a tangled mess for a while, but it had finally sorted itself out. She was looking forward to peace and quiet, and maybe a man now and then for some carnal pleasures but nothing more. A friend with benefits. She loved that idea.

Marla was forty-nine, dreading the coming birthday with the five and the zero, angry at herself for spending the best years of her life with a jackass. She hated the anger. Her two best friends were divorced and quite bitter about it, so she'd reluctantly cut back on the amount of time she spent with them. More alone time meant more quiet time with Twinkles, and she found it was just what she needed; lots of meditative peace and quiet.

She found her fun at weekly auctions that offered estate sale items and antiques. It was an enjoyable way to slowly fill her house with treasures, most of them inexpensive, with the occasional splurge on a wonderful mid-century couch, dresser, or chair.

Getting a job was on her agenda but it wasn't a priority. The divorce settlement was sizable, enough to keep her going long term if she was wise about her spending, but she thought a job at an antique store might be fun. There was always the University if she needed a more serious job, her alma mater, looming on a hill just six miles or so from her quiet home. She knew they liked to hire alumni, and with the town being relatively small she thought she might have a good chance at a job up there.

University Hill. It was a campus full of memories for Marla. She studied biology when she was a student there, went to all the sporting events and concerts, and lost her virginity in a cute boy's dorm room when she was a freshman. She ended up dating him for a year, and then another boy when she was a junior, virtually living with him in a dingy apartment just off campus. They were formative years in the best kind of way, freewheeling and full of laughter and good times. A year after graduation she met the man she'd marry, and it was all downhill from there.

A million leaves on her backyard lawn was definitely a step in the right direction. It was her lawn, and they were her leaves, and she could do whatever she wanted about the situation. Let them rot, rake them up, or hire some help.

"What do you think, Twink?" she asked her purring cat as she scrolled through Craigslist ads. "Here's a college boy looking for yard work. Should we take the chance?"

Marla replied to the ad and texting ensued. The boy, Jesse Summers, corresponded quite maturely, so Marla threw caution to the wind and gave him her address. She lived on the bus route between the campus and the next town to the East, so transportation wasn't a problem. Jesse said he'd have to use her tools, so Marla went and bought a rake. While she was at the store she bought some hedge clippers, and a shovel, and a pruning saw. If the boy did a good job with the leaves she had some other projects for him.

—

Jesse arrived right on time and first impressions were made, as they usually are. Marla, standing just outside her front door, saw a confident looking nineteen-year-old walking up her driveway. It was hard to judge his height but he was shorter than she expected, with dark brown hair styled trim and neat. Long, baggy shorts hung to his knees and he wore bright white sneakers that she feared were going to get dirty.

As Jesse approached the house he saw a woman his mother's age, or maybe a few years older, taller than he expected. Her hair was sandy brown, close to blonde but not quite, hanging thick and slightly wavy down just past her shoulders. Feathery bangs concealed her forehead, with just a hint of eyebrows peeking through. Her black jeans were tight and her t-shirt loose. She looked leggier and leggier the closer Jesse got.

"You must be Jesse," she said as he approached. "I'm Marla."

Her suspicions were confirmed when she reached for Jesse's hand for a handshake — he was a good three inches shorter than her stately five-foot eleven-inch height, and he was a very handsome young man overall. Jesse's first impression was also correct — his new employer's legs, shown off nicely in her tight jeans, were kind of awesome. One of his mother's friends has a very nice older ass, and he was pretty sure he was going to enjoy looking at Marla's. She had a nice face, too, kind and welcoming, with crinkles around her eyes when she smiled, just like his mom.

"Are you ready to rake a million leaves?" Marla asked.

"Sure," Jesse said.

Marla walked him around the house and the scope of the big project came into view. "I realize it's going to take you a while. Just work steady, and ten dollars an hour should add up pretty good. When you get some piles made I'll help you get them onto an old sheet and we can drag them way out back."

Marla got Jesse started, and then she went in the house. She sat at her kitchen table, sipping coffee, watching him work. He raked like he'd done it before, probably at home, she thought, or maybe other folks had hired him for the same task.

It wasn't long before he took his shirt off, tossing it casually onto freshly raked grass. Marla sat up straighter in her chair when he did it, and thoughts of the lamp she missed out on at the auction the night before disappeared from her mind like a puff of smoke. It was the first attraction she'd felt for the boy; a pleasant, full-body jolt that made her fingertips tingle a little.

"What do you think, Twinkles?" she said to her purring companion. "Cute, huh? If you and me were back in college..."

Marla watched Jesse rake. He was a little ways away but she could see his muscles flexing, arms and chest working in harmony, with assistance from a flat stomach that was perfectly adorned with a happy looking bellybutton. She sipped her coffee and hardly blinked at all.

—

"I guess I should have bought two rakes," Marla said. She stood next to an old bed sheet that she'd spread out on the grass, watching as Jesse flicked rakefuls of colorful maple leaves onto it. It was a new kind of thrill being close to him while he worked, her eyes darting around nervously, trying to glean the close-up details of his topless body without him seeing her doing it. His muscled arms and chest were just as smooth and perfect up close as they were from a distance; even more so, with more twitching, flexing life in them. His skin had a subtle sheen of perspiration that looked like satin paint in the most perfect shade of 'flesh' imaginable. The sheet filled up quickly with leaves. "Wow, this is going to take awhile, isn't it," she said. "I'll drag and you rake. How about that?"

"Okay," Jesse said.

Marla smiled. "You're a man of few words, huh?" she said.

Jesse blushed and smiled shyly. Marla was amazed at the shift in skin tone — his entire upper body, neck and face turning a pinker shade of that luxurious looking satin. She gathered the corners of the big flat sheet and dragged the huge, bulbous mass of leaves away. It was Jesse's turn to watch without being seen, his eyes on the middle-aged woman's ass, tightly packed in her jeans; an ass that's a little big but nicely proportioned for her statuesque, long-legged body. It was definitely worthy of a thumbs-up, if a friend had been there to give one to.

He kept one eye on his work and one eye on Marla, watching as she dragged the leaves out through a gap in an old hedgerow at the back of her property. She was out of sight for a half a minute and then she returned, walking toward him with the empty sheet in one hand. The front of her was more of a mystery than the back of her, the loose t-shirt she had on hiding her true shape. There was definitely some shape there, though. Quite a bit of it, nicely proportioned, it seemed, just like the rest of her. Breathing harder when she returned, she snapped the sheet with a quick flick of her wrists and let it settle to the ground like a dirty white parachute, right next to one of Jesse's neatly raked piles.

After another round of muscle-watching as Jesse raked and ass-watching as Marla dragged, she parachuted the empty sheet into position again, and then she took off her t-shirt. Another top was under it, a smaller one of ribbed cotton that fit tighter to her body. Cut straight at the top, with little spaghetti straps holding it up, it wasn't a garment that showed off her cleavage in a deep V kind of way, but it did show the tops of her nice breasts, smooth skinned ones that were firm enough that she got away without a bra most days at home, always with a tight shirt under a looser one. Stripping down to just the inner layer wasn't something she'd thought through; it was the oddly humid day and the sweat of work that had made her do it. Once the quick, thoughtless movement had been made she realized her predicament. She'd given Jesse a peek at her bellybutton, a happy-looking one much like his, and she was shocked that her body was giving away her arousal, complete with goosebumpy arms and nippley breasts that hadn't come to life in front of the opposite sex in years. A few things to say crossed Marla's mind, but she decided on silence, standing there more titty than she wanted to be, watching Jesse scoop another pile of leaves onto the sheet.

When she bent to gather the corners the next conundrum was immediately apparent: her weighty breasts overloaded the little shirt's ability to support them. It was a barely acceptable 'bra' when she was upright and it was under another shirt, but when worn alone it was no match for gravity.

The bend for the first corner was the eye opener, Marla's eyes and Jesse's. When she straightened back up there was only two or three seconds for her to decide how to handle the situation — squat at the remaining corners, or bend at the waist each time and give the nice boy a show. Squatting seemed ridiculous. She knew he'd know why she was doing it, and that would be just as embarrassing, so she did a bit of a squat and bend combination. Jesse liked it. Tight black jeans pulled even tighter on her nice thighs, crotch and ass, and a healthy dose of healthy breasts on display with each bend. He was suddenly really happy Marla had hired him. As she gathered the four corners of the old sheet together, twisting them together so she could get a solid hold of it, her breasts wiggled and jiggled and looked even more aroused than before, the out-of-control nippleyness threatening to turn the work session into a soft-core porn. All that was needed was a beer pitcher full of ice water to pour on her little shirt and it'd be Girls Gone Wild.

Marla was glad to be heading away from the situation, pulling the big awkward satchel behind her. She'd noticed how Jesse had looked at her, his young eyes taking in all of her womanliness, and she wondered if he was still looking at her as she dragged the leaves away, watching her ass as she made her way to the hedgerow. She looked back to see if she was losing any leaves and sure enough, Jesse had been watching. His head swiveled back to his raking, but not before she'd caught him looking.

Out behind the hedgerow, where he couldn't see her, she quietly scolded herself and pulled the front of her shirt out to have a look at things. Her nipples were more aroused than she could ever remember and she didn't know what to do about it. She couldn't slap them into submission, and she couldn't just hide there for five minutes. She realized she was stuck looking like a horny old broad in front of a nice young college boy. She had to roll with it and hopefully have a laugh about it with Twinkles over a glass of wine later that evening.

She dragged the empty sheet back to Jesse's freshly raked pile, feeling his glancing eyes on her again. It did nothing to soften her arousal. If anything, it firmed things up even more. It surprised her that her predicament didn't bother her as much as she thought it would. It was oddly exhilarating.

"Looks like we'll be here all afternoon. Are you all done with classes today?"

"Oh, yeah," Jesse said. "Nothing 'till morning."

"Just girls tonight, probably, right?"

"Nope. Nothing...this year...yet."

"Really? How about last year's girls; nothing worked out?"

"No, there was just one. That ended."

"The same thing happened to me when I was your age," Marla said. "I had a boyfriend my freshman year, and then nothing sophomore year. I moved out of the dorms junior year. That was a better boyfriend. We shared an apartment with some others over on Glenn Street."

"Oh, really?" Jesse said, watching as Marla spread the sheet again, her breasts moving softly. "I went to a party over there a few weeks ago."

"That neighborhood was party central back in my day," Marla said. "Is it still?"

"Yeah, I think so," Jesse said, raking another leaf pile onto the sheet. "I was there on a Saturday and there was stuff happening all up and down the street."

The sheet was so damp and dirty it had become a tarp. It got caught in Jesse's rake so Marla went to her hands and knees to fix it up. Her breasts were hanging and swinging gently. She knew Jesse's eyes were on them. Her nipples had softened a little due to the nice conversation, but down there on her knees she was hit with another dose of sexy juice and they swelled up like a porn star's again. She wouldn't have minded so much if they'd just picked an appearance and stuck with it, but the back and forth thing was more than a little noticeable, and the way she was showing herself off was more than a little surprising to her. It crossed her mind that topless wouldn't have been a whole lot different — the little shirt seemed almost pointless — and then she snapped back to reality; leaves needed to be moved and the nice boy helping her wasn't interested in her mid-life, post-divorce reinvention. She gathered the corners and dragged a few thousand more leaves out beyond the hedgerow.

Back at Jesse's perpetually huge pile, she stood still, breathing hard. "How come you're so clean and I'm filthy," she asked. Her pretty, slightly crooked smile made Jesse smile, too. He shrugged his shoulders and loaded up the tarp with more leaves.

"I'll drag a few loads," he said.

Marla watched him go, his strong arm pulling his dragging load, his bare shoulder and back muscles flexing with more power than Marla had expected to see. Five foot eight but strong, she thought to herself. I'll bet he could hold me down.

It was a nipple tingling thought, and her ribbed-cotton-covered breasts were in full display mode when Jesse returned. Marla was raking, but it was mindless. Jesse's presence was affecting her, and the surprise of it was scrambling her thoughts.

"You have a roommate probably, right? Does he have a girlfriend?" she asked, hoping to get back to casual conversation.

"Yup."

Marla smiled at the short answer. "She cute?"

Jesse smiled a little. "Yup," he said.

"Does she flirt with you? I used to flirt with my boyfriend's roommate."

Jesse looked happily surprised. "You did?"

"Sure," Marla said. "It was harmless. Although these days, with your friends with benefits and your porn and everything, maybe it's different. Does she flirt with you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not surprised."

"She's older. A junior," Jesse said, finally opening up a little. "She thinks our dorm building is too noisy, but she's there all the time, so she must like it."

"Does she spend the night when you're there?"

"Yeah, a lot. She said she'd rather be...in front of me than her roommate's boyfriend."

"In front of you? You mean, like...sexual? With your roommate?"

"Yeah. She was real quiet about it at first, under the covers, you know? But now...sometimes I wonder if she gets off on it or something."

"Wow. Showing off in front of you, you mean? Yeah, she might get off on it. I knew a girl like that when I was at school. Do you mind it? You could always say something."

"No, I don't mind," Jesse said, smirking.

Marla smiled and kept raking. As she loaded up the sheet for Jesse she wanted to ask more questions about the exhibitionist girl and what types of things Jesse had seen, but she didn't ask.

She handed him the rake when he got back and she went to her knees to spread the sheet. She caught herself arching her back a little to show off her ass and scolded herself for it, but the situation with Jesse was just so sexy she felt like she wanted to enjoy it while it lasted, because she knew it wouldn't last. Her breasts were moving freely under her and they'd gotten all tingly again, and they were fully aroused when she stood up. She wondered why it all seemed so new, why she'd never noticed how much that little ribbed cotton shirt tickled her. Had she never had hard nipples while wearing it before?

The conversation turned to the more mundane topics of school work and majors and job prospects. After dragging a few more loads to the hedgerow, Marla was sore and she could tell Jesse's arms were tired. They decided to finish the job another day. Jesse turned down an offer to wash up in the house, rinsing his hands under the outside spigot instead. He pulled on his shirt, Marla paid him and he was gone, on a bus back to campus.

Marla made a cup of coffee and sat for a few minutes in her kitchen; her clothes dirty, her muscles sore. Twinkles was sprawled on the table with a magazine under him, purring. "I met a boy, Twink," Marla said to him. "God I wish I was younger."

That night, Marla watched the news on tv as she lay in bed. It was bad news — ugly politics, wildfires, shootings. Twinkles purred at her side and she petted him. Her other hand was under the covers where it was warm. She thought about how badly her breasts had behaved during the day, in front of a guest she barely knew. Her nice warm hand slipped inside the oversized t-shirt she slept in and she touched a nipple. They'd always been easily aroused, but she couldn't remember a time when they'd been so out there, so flagrantly show-offish in front of someone before. She touched them both as she lay there in bed and they came right back to life again, tingly, triggering deeper, nearly orgasmic impulses that were more electric than she'd felt in years. She closed her eyes and a vision of Jesse was suddenly there, his mouth where her fingers were, his tongue and teeth playing with her nipples like an experienced man.

Her other hand left Twinkles' warm fur and tunneled under the covers. She found her own fur, soft and warm between her legs. She was wet where her fingers wanted to go, slippery, and her fingertips slipped into the warmth, squishing through the fleshy cleft, quickly going deep. Marla moaned and Twinkles rolled, pressing his body tighter against hers.

She pinched her swollen nipples and the fingers between her legs moved at the speed of her heartbeat. Her hips began to move, matching the rhythm, and Twinkles rolled again, unhappy with the quiet commotion. Marla's exhales came in sharp huffs, with a whispery but excited "Oh yeah!" floating on each one. She was close, and her body was rocking and rolling like a hormonal teenager. "Ohh ffuuckk!" she huffed. "Ohh ffuuckk!"