A Gift in Disguise Ch. 16

Wednesday morning my phone rang at my bedside. It was Kim, Dr. Kim Geiler-Callaghan, my research partner and mentor. The clock read 8:38 a.m.

"Good morning, Sunshine," she said far too cheerily.

"Mnng Km," I mumbled. Hey, at least I recognized her voice.

"Ah, I've obviously awakened you," she said observantly while stifling a chuckle.

"It's time I got up anyway," I said a bit more coherently. "What's going on with you?"

"I called and talked with Jamie last night. I had a couple thoughts about the prosthetic phallus. I also asked her what she had in mind when she offered us the guided tour of her lab."

"So, what did she say?" I asked.

"Well, she knew that would get our undivided attention while still sounding perfectly normal and professionally acceptable to the others at your thesis presentation.

Actually, she would like to talk with both of us soon, today if possible. Since you're finished with classes, I wondered if you would be free sometime today to meet."

"I've got an appointment this afternoon," I said, "So it would have to be this morning if it's going to be today. I'm open all day tomorrow and Friday, though."

"I can do 10:30 today," Kim said. "Let me call Jamie back and see if that works for her."

Five minutes later Kim called again.

"Meet me at 10:25 in the reception area of Jamie's lab."

I rolled out of bed, fixed some breakfast, and got dressed. On the way to Jamie's lab, I dropped off my one and only business suit at the dry cleaners. Monday afternoon with Kim had definitely taken its toll on my suit.

When I walked into the reception room of Devlin Laboratories at 10:25, Kim had just arrived. Barely a minute later, Jamie came to get us and take us back to her private office.

"First of all, Tom, I apologize for catching you off guard on Monday showing up for your thesis presentation. Judging from the comments of your committee members and the guests, they were blown away by your thesis and the discussion of it. They're really impressed with the planning you both have done for your joint research. I was, too, but knowing you both as well as I do, I wasn't surprised.

Which brings me to why I'm glad the three of us could talk privately today.

Tom, while you're working on your PhD dissertation, I'd like to offer you a job as a consultant here at my lab.

After reading your thesis and having to do a lot of research into nanotech in hopes of catching up with you, I better understand that the nanotech interface between the human living body and the mechanical world is going to exert greater influence on prosthetics design and function for the foreseeable future.

What I'm proposing is that for some amount of time every week, you'll assess the lab's operations and design with the idea of identifying where we need to not just catch up but lead in the application of nanotech to prosthetic design and application.

In addition to compensation for your time and knowledge, you'll be getting some practical work experience in a functioning lab. And beyond that, you and Kim will have access to the lab's facilities when you need 'hardware' and a place to conduct your research and experimentation."

I started to speak, but Jamie held up her hand to stop me.

"Tom, I don't expect or even want you to answer today.

Obviously what I'm proposing would be beneficial for Devlin Labs and for the University, both the double-E and medical programs. However, there are some ethical and intellectual property issues that play a huge role in determining if and how we can properly do this.

This is a fairly complicated proposal, so what I would like to do is set up a meeting among the three of us with Drs. Keller and Klein. As a starting point rather than anything close to a negotiation of details, I'd simply like to have an informal talk among all of us to see if and how this can be done ethically and lawfully. Your personal and professional reputations, my lab's reputation and continuing eligibility to bid on government contracts, and the university's reputation for the highest integrity in research and medical development are too important to put at risk."

Kim and I talked with Jamie for a few more minutes, then concluded that we should all talk as Jamie had suggested. Overall, Kim and I were generally enthusiastic.

Kim headed back to the hospital, and I drove back to my apartment. When I arrived, it was past the time the mail is usually delivered, so I checked my box. The usual junk mail was on top of one of the package box keys. I retrieved the package and took it inside my apartment. The junk mail made it only as far as the green recycle barrel next to the mailboxes.

The package was my order from the condom company Kerri Kavanaugh had recommended. I opened it to quickly check and make sure I had received everything ordered and paid for on my credit card. Everything was there exactly as ordered, but there were some extra condoms with different numbers than the ones I had ordered. There was also a letter of transmittal.

"Dear Mr. Connors:" the letter began. "Thank you for your order.

Your first-time order was completed with condoms selected based on measurements you provided. Because the measuring process can be a bit tricky and because we want your complete satisfaction with our product, first-time customers also receive extra condoms that are one size larger and smaller in both length and girth. Of course, there is no charge for the extras.

Before you place your next order, please try the additional condoms we've included just to ensure that the ones you order will fit you perfectly. We also urge you to check your measurements al least twice yearly to ensure proper fit and your continued satisfaction.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me or a member of my staff.

One final note, Mr. Connors, thank you for noting on your order form that your interest in our products was based on a referral from another customer, Kerri Kavanaugh. Our company depends primarily on word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied customers. We encourage all our customers to give us constructive feedback so that we can continue to improve our very personal health and hygiene products."

The letter was signed by the company president.

In addition to the condoms, the shipment included the spermicidal/germicidal lubricant I had ordered. It also included a complementary nylon zipper bag for the condoms and lube. And, of course, there was the obligatory packet of "all our other products" literature.

After showering, I retrieved Misako's photo book box from my bedroom closet and headed for the door.

I pulled my car into Sharon's parking lot a few minutes before two. She had requested I call ahead to her, and as I gathered my photo box and approached the unmarked commercial back door from the lot, Sharon opened it from inside.

Sharon greeted me in an attractive and somewhat revealing sundress. The white with tastefully colorful floral print dress was a sexy and appealing contrast for her evenly tanned and very smooth skin and dark hair. Her strong, perfectly shaped black eyebrows her moist bright red lips, and the tasteful earrings gave her an unmistakably glamorous look.

Still, something was not quite right. Her usual, radiant pre-sex smile wasn't quite as radiant as usual. It seemed almost forced today.

"Let's go right upstairs to the apartment," she said. "I'm done working for the day." She is the real estate business's owner after all.

Once upstairs in her nicely furnished private apartment, I put the box on the table.

Instead of being her usual comfortable self, she very formally offered me something to drink. I politely declined. It had been some time since we'd been able to spend time together, so Sharon's sudden attention to social formality was strange. Clearly something was on her mind.

Even after we were seated, Sharon's uncharacteristic formality continued. She asked how my thesis committee meeting had gone. Her question would have been a perfect polite conversation starter at a neighborhood cocktail party, but it was definitely out of place here and now. Worse, her distracted expression indicated complete disinterest in my answer. Hoping she would get to whatever bothered her, I gave her an abbreviated answer.

Then she asked, "Will you be bringing your mother over for the graduation ceremony?"

"Yes, but that's months away," I said. Then for no particular reason, I added, "But now that my course work is done, I should be able to get home more often to see her. I may be getting a part-time job with a local engineering firm to get some experience and earn some extra money, but that won't keep me from seeing her more often."

Sharon's face immediately brightened as if a massive door had just opened to admit her.

"I'm so glad that you'll be able to spend more time with your mother. Rather than your just going home to visit, why don't you invite her over here occasionally? A change of scenery would do her good. It will really help her to see more of you."

"Help her? Help her how? Is something wrong with Mom?" I asked. "Other than her grief at Dad's passing?"

"Well, not exactly. No, not really. She's not really sick, she's just ..." Her voice just sort of faded off to an uncertain and uneasy silence.

Too many qualifiers, I thought. The normally confident Sharon now seemed hesitant and a bit unsure. That did nothing to reassure me.

One thing was now certain: As horny as I had been anticipating the afternoon with her, my desire to get Sharon out of her dress had quickly been dampened by concern for my mother.

"C'mon, Sharon. Please tell me what's going on with Mom." She obviously knew a good deal more than she was telling. At the same time, I knew both of them well enough to be confident that one of them would have called immediately if it was something urgently serious.

After Dad died, I had gone home several times and had also talked with Mom on the phone more often than before. During my visits home and phone conversations I hadn't seen or heard anything more than Mom's understandable grief and concerns.

Then again, being next-door neighbors as well as friends, Sharon saw and spoke with Mom more often than I did. And they had always seemed to be very close friends. In addition to lusting for her body, I also respected her advice.

Sharon's suggestion to bring Mom over for a visit was good, but it would present some logistics problems. Having only a one-bedroom apartment, I'd have to put Mom up in a motel. Depending on university activities, getting a motel room on short notice in a university town can be a problem. Still, I liked the idea of giving her a change of scenery even for a couple days.

Sharon avoided looking directly at me with her crystal-clear blue eyes. She seemed to be struggling to find the right words for whatever message she wanted to deliver. She stood up and started pacing nervously around the room.

"Tom, Erika loved your dad and misses him very much. He was a good provider for both her and you. You know that. He was never unfaithful to your mother. Not once. Neither was she unfaithful to him with another man. Never."

More nervous pacing.

Finally, Sharon said, "Tom, I don't want you to take this wrong, but ..."

Uh-oh. Those are never reassuring words to start an explanation. On the other hand, Sharon seemed to be tiptoeing closer to revealing what bothered her.

"... you remember when you were in high school and Leonard and I would come over to visit your parents? Remember how I conveniently seemed to always sit where you could peek out of your bedroom and look right up my skirt?"

I did, but now that she was associating that memory with something wrong with my mother, even recalling the view looking up Sharon Madison's skirt was not making me hard. Not that it couldn't any longer; it just wasn't right now.

"Well, that seating arrangement and the view I gave you wasn't an accident," Sharon continued.

"Okaaay," I interjected rather pointlessly. I almost asked, "So what?" but wisely didn't. Still, I couldn't see what any of this had to do with Sharon's concern for Mom.

"Erika set that up intentionally," Sharon continued.

If Sharon heard a thud, it would have been my jaw hitting the table.

"That's really hard to believe, Sharon. Mom didn't even want me to look at Playboy. I think she dreaded the day I got my first hard-on and jerked it off. She was so against my having sex that ..."

"No, you're wrong, Tom," Sharon interrupted sternly. "Your mother wasn't the prude; it was your dad. Cliff was the one who didn't even want you jacking off, let alone dating very much. He expected your mother to enforce that, too."

"That just isn't so," I said defensively and probably more emphatically than I should have. "Dad was the one encouraging me to date Linda Johnson. He was the one who hoped Linda and I would eventually get married."

"That's very true," Sharon said. "But it was Cliff, not your mother, who had this idea that you had to be celibate until you got married.

As for Linda Johnson, your mother was completely against your ever marrying her.

Erika knew exactly what was going on in the car when you were dating Linda as a senior in high school. She knew you and Linda were masturbating each other under the blanket at the drive-in. She was relieved to learn Linda wouldn't let you fuck her, but she also knew Linda was using you to get her jollies and was going to dump you as soon as she left home and went to college. And she did, didn't she?

The young man Linda married was very nice, a really decent guy like you are, but your mom's sexual radar was better tuned than you realize. She recognized Linda's roving eye and easy-open legs would eventually spell divorce. Just because Linda was a pastor's daughter didn't mean either chastity or sexual fidelity were high on her list of desirable personal traits. Erika didn't want your name anywhere on what she still thinks will become Linda's list of former husbands."

I stared silently at Sharon. Something told me she was leading up to revealing something I would not want to hear.

Sharon's voice became gentler. "I'm not trying to hurt or shock you, Tom." She paused, took a deep breath, and continued.

"You know Erika and I go way back to high school as friends.

Until her junior year in high school, Erika was a real Plain Jane. She was really nice, but the boys in school didn't date her. They didn't want 'nice'; they wanted tits, legs, and ass. Unfortunately, your mother's tall and rail-thin development in those departments was slower.

But between her sophomore and junior year in high school, the hormones kicked in with full force. Your mother began filling out, and she developed into a very sexy young woman. Toward the end of her senior year, the high school boys began to realize what they had overlooked. Before they fully realized what they had missed, she was graduated and enrolled in college.

Erika has never been promiscuous, but with the right person she goes wild, a real screamer when she cums. You're her son, so it's understandably hard for you to even think of her that way."

"And how do you know how Mom sounds when she cums?" I asked with undisguised defiance.

Rather than being flustered or offended by my question, Sharon reacted as if she had expected it from me. She knew she had my complete attention now.

"Tom, you may not be comfortable hearing this, but as a young woman, your mother had very real sexual needs and cravings. Yes, even as a senior in high school. But her 'nice' reputation was well-earned, and it scared a lot of boys off.

I knew even then that I was bi, Tom. At the risk of losing Erika as a friend, I told her about it. I wasn't trying to seduce her. I just needed someone I could talk with about my own sexuality. And your mother was remarkably open and comforting. Rather than shunning me and gossiping about me like some of the boys and girls did, your mother reassured and comforted me.

In college your mother met Cliff. I started dating Leonard. Still, Erika and I remained very close even after she married Cliff and I married Leonard.

Before she got pregnant and you were born, your mother and father had a very active sex life. Unlike your father's sex drive, however, Erika's sexual needs didn't diminish at all after you were born. In fact, your mother's got even more intense. She needed sexual variety, and she needed it even more frequently after you were born.

Cliff's fading sexual desire and his inability or unwillingness to address Erika's needs left her sexually frustrated. To her credit, she steadfastly refused to seek out other men, though. She also worked very hard to hide her own sexual needs from you. She was concerned you might think it was hypocritical for her to discourage your sexual urges while trying to satisfy hers.

Before she got pregnant and you were born, your mother and father had a very active sex life. Unlike your father's sex drive, however, Erika's sexual needs didn't diminish at all after you were born. In fact, your mother's got even more intense. She needed sexual variety, and she needed it even more frequently after you were born.

Sharon paused as if to make sure I heard what she was saying. When I made no response at all, she spoke up to make her point.

"Do you understand what I'm getting at, Tom?"

Her accompanying expression said more than her words. Even then their discreet message took a few seconds to sink in. Once they did, all I could do was nod. My mother and Sharon Madison had been having sex with each other for many years. I had not seen it then, maybe because I hadn't been paying attention.

Sharon went on, "Leonard was and still is the same way Cliff was. After Cody and then later Teddy was born, Leonard's interest in sex with me or anyone else vaporized. Poof!Coincidentally, so did Cliff's after you arrived. It wasn't that they couldn't get hard; it's just that they didn't seem to want sex any more. Their male pride wouldn't allow either of them to seek either medical or psychological attention which might have helped them restore their interest in your mother and me.

Erika still wanted an active and varied sex life after you were born, but to her credit she adamantly refused to be unfaithful to Cliff. She had plenty of chances, but she completely rejected sex with any other man. She took her marital vows very seriously. She understood my reasons for being unfaithful to Leonard and she completely supported me, but letting any other man touch her was just something she could not bring herself to do to Cliff.

Consequently, your mother and I turned to each other more often for the sex that our husbands weren't giving us.

Because we were such close friends with so much trust for each other, Erika and I had become very comfortable sharing our sexual needs and fantasies with each other. We still are. To the extent we were able, we happily helped each other live out our respective fantasies. We could experiment, do things with each other that neither Cliff or Leonard would have ever considered doing with us."

Sharon seemed intent on telling me the entire story on her terms. It was therapeutic for her, and I was admittedly more interested than shocked learning about the hidden side of my mom. I was not quite titillated, but definitely not shocked either.

"I'm not exactly sure when I first admitted to myself that Cody and Teddy seemed attracted to boys as much as girls. I probably wrote it off as just teenage boy curiosity.

Rather than upsetting me, their sexuality actually excited me. For some reason the thought of my two boys ... together ... getting each other hard and ... was so damned exciting that ...

Well, I've told you before that I used to watch Cody and Teddy masturbate. Eventually they graduated to kissing and fondling each other, and finally they discovered frottage, then fellatio and anal sex. I shamelessly masturbated while watching them.