A New Lease on Life

"You have an interesting taste in music."

"Yeah, it's sort of a potted history of my ever-changing likes, from heavy metal to classical. Of late it's been more classical in keeping with my slowing down."

We sat on the sofa and she picked up her cup and took a sip. "No sugar required, this is nice coffee."

"Only the best for my guests."

"She was very pretty."

"Who? Oh you mean Connie? Yes she was, right up to the end."

"You miss her very much, don't you?"

"Yes, but not as much as yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?"

"I hadn't met you. Don't get me wrong, this isn't me coming on to you, it's me remembering her and comparing you to her, you could have been sisters you're that much alike, your personality that is."

"Thank you, I wasn't at my best this morning."

"There was enough of your best to shine through. When you said that it wasn't anything that a trip to hospital wouldn't fix I knew, Connie was just like that, playing down any problems."

"Do you have any kids?"

"Three, two daughters that I love dearly and a son."

"That you don't love dearly? Is there a problem there?"

"Yes, he wants me to sell up and move into a Retirement Village. I'm resisting for all that I'm worth, the girls are supporting my decision."

"If it's any consolation, I'd support you as well, speaking from experience, they're not my idea of fun."

After some three hours of conversation, getting to know you type conversation, I reached the moment that would make or break my self-confidence. "Emily, it's getting very late and time that I should be offering to drive you home, or at the very least, calling a cab. I'm tired and don't trust myself to stay awake long enough to get to your place and back, and I'm reluctant to call a cab because . . . . . . "I took a deep breath. "Because I want you to stay here, tonight, with me, well not actually with me as in sleep with me, but here in my house with me." She put her finger to my lips to shut me up.

"I want to stay as much as you want me to. I don't know about the sleeping with you, I need to know your motivation. Do you want me to sleep with you as a companion, or is it more than that?"

"A companion will do for a start. I don't even know if I'd be able to get it up, I could do it with Connie, but then I knew her and she knew how to arouse me. I suggest that we play this by ear. I don't even know if I'm ready for a relationship, but let me tell you, you're the first woman since Connie got sick that I'd given more than fleeting consideration to. As far as I know I have normal urges, but I think a lot will depend on the time and place as well as the person."

"Okay. I say let's do it. One thing that may have slipped your mind is that I have nothing to wear to bed."

"I'd probably be able to come up with something, will a tee shirt do?"

"Looking at your size, I'd say that it should be able to hide the interesting bits."

"I usually sleep in tee shirt and jocks so I'll find one of mine."

I let her do the ablution bit first and, while I was scrubbing up, she slid into bed and was snuggled under the doona with just her head showing, exactly as Connie did. I slid into bed and turned to her. "Don't take this the wrong way." I leaned over and kissed her lightly on the proffered lips. "Goodnight Emily."

"Goodnight Les." She kissed me and held it for longer than I'd held mine. It felt good.

I got out of bed at sparrow fart, (the real phrase is 'before sparrow fart' signifying very early. Just 'sparrow fart' is a shortening of that phrase) syphoning the python, (Having a leak, pissing) and when I returned to the bed Emily was awake. "Good morning, I thought for a minute that I was dreaming."

"More like a nightmare I'd say, waking up to find you've slept with me." I clambered into bed. "Good morning, how are we this morning?"

"I feel fine, better than fine. I don't want to appear too forward, but I could get to like this."

"You could, could you?" I kissed her. Her hand reached out and held my face to hers.

"Again, I don't want to appear too forward, but, at my time of life I don't give a toss what people will say, I say 'carpe diem', seize the day, why do we have to wade through the preliminary bullshit? I want to see if you can get it up, I want to feel once more a cock inside me and I want it to be your cock. Is that forward enough for you?"

I surprised myself by getting a half-way decent erection with just a small amount of stimulation from her. Her pussy was open to receive him, and the result was for me very satisfactory.

"You haven't lost your touch. It mightn't have been the bucking and screaming orgasm of my youth, but I did get there, and you obviously did as well. If you'll excuse me, I think I should go to the toilet and clean up before I dribble all over your sheet."

"You don't have to do that, I was going to wash them this morning anyway. Let's just wallow in our sexy mess for the time being."

Wallow we did, and I for one enjoyed every minute of it. I hate to say this but this reminded me so much of my early life with Connie and I realise that I am somehow going to have to forget that or else I will have no hope of a meaningful relationship with Emily.

She helped me make breakfast, it wasn't all that hard, What I usually did was to put some home-made yoghurt in a bowl along with about a handful of muesli, then cover it with milk and let it soak while I took the dogs for their morning walk and toilet break. (This way they did number two's on the beach where it was easy to pick up rather than on the grass, plus I dumped the 'poo bags' in the bin thoughtfully provided by the local council.) When I get home I slice a banana on top of the muesli, crank up the coffee machine and voila, a tasty and nutritious breakfast.

I got the dogs into the car, strapped them in and headed for the beach. Emily came with me, and when I met the usual suspects on the beach, fitted in quite nicely with our conversations. "This is nice." She said as we walked back to the car. "There's quite the little community on the beach, it's almost as if you know everyone."

"Not even close, there are some that I talk with, and sometimes walk with, while with others, we just throw each other 'good mornings' in passing."

"The people in my village rarely speak to each other, I don't even know my neighbour's name and I've been there six months, it's as if we are scared of making friends because we're afraid of getting hurt when they die on us."

"That's so sad, and one of the reasons that I don't want to end up there."

"I only wish that my husband had never gotten so sick, I might have been able to hang on a little longer in my old place. At least I had him." She seemed so down.

"What I would like is for us to see if there's a possibility of a relationship between us. If there is I would like you to move in with me. At this stage I'm not prepared to make any guarantees, but I would like to try."

"I'd like that too." She stopped me and when I turned to her she kissed me. If there were any people around they would have thought it strange that two old farts like us should be carrying on like a couple of school kids.

After breakfast I would have driven her home but decided against it, so we sat around and talked. Sometime during the morning, at her request, I got out the family photo album. "You really loved each other, didn't you?"

"Yes. She was the only woman that I ever loved. I'd known her since we were kids, we lived next door to each other and we just fell in love with each other."

"It shows, I'm jealous of you. My husband and I started off in love, but it sort of dissolved into a comfortable companionship. He had a problem with the horses, which was why we didn't have our own home and lived in a rental all our married life. It was a bit unsettling when, from time to time, we had to move because he lost so much money that we couldn't pay our rent. It wasn't a settled life at all."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But enough of this depressing conversation." I said as I closed the album. "I'm going to put this away and not take it out unless we don't make it. If we don't I'll take it out and pour my soul out to Connie, she'll understand."

"So I'm not under any pressure here, is that it?"

"Not at all. Now what are we going to do for the rest of the day, we can't just sit here dribbling on about our sad lives, we should be out there having fun." I stood up and dragged her to her feet. She came into my arms and we kissed.

"We could always go back to bed."

"Much as that is tempting, I thing we should take it slow in that department until we're more comfortable with each other. If we're to have any relationship it must be based on friendship and mutual understanding not sex, not that I've got anything against sex, and if this morning was anything to go by, that has the potential to be great as well."

"Oh all right, we forget about sex for the time being, but let me tell you, I'll not forget about it for long because it was the best sex that I think I've ever had." She kissed me softly, and her hand drifted down to my cock.

"No fair, stop that."

"Why? Don't you want it?"

"Of course, but at my age there is a thing called too much of a good thing."

"You can never get too much of a good thing." She saw the look in my eye and let go of my cock and stepped out of our embrace. "All right, what do you suggest that we do for the rest of the day?"

We had as much fun as a couple of geriatrics could manage until we arrived back at my place. "What do you want to do for dinner? We can stay in and I'll cook you something, or we can go to the pub again, what do you want to do?" I asked her as we pulled up in my driveway.

"We could always go back to my place and I'll cook you something." She said tentatively, as if she was hoping that I wouldn't take up her offer.

"No, I get this feeling that you're a little embarrassed about your accommodation. You feel that you have to invite me but aren't comfortable with it at all. I want to, at some stage, have dinner with you, but not until you're ready for that."

"Thank you for that. I will be ready soon, I promise."

"And I'll hold you to that promise. I need to explain something, I'm not a snob. Having worked in the building trade all my life, I have a good idea how the other half live and, while I mightn't swear like a trooper like some of them, I don't look down on them as inferior human beings. The same goes for the people I meet in my social life, condescension of the poor by the rich is a trait that I cannot abide."

"That's something that I love about you. I want to find more things to love, and that's going to take time and a lot of research. Will you let me find out more?"

"Of course, and I want to find out everything that there is to find out about you." I kissed her and we got out of the car and headed for the house. "I'll cook us something simple but nutritious." As I headed for the kitchen.

"Can I help?" Emily asked as I grabbed the ingredients.

"I could be nasty and ask you to chop the onions, but I won't. Could you open that can of diced tomato, and get me some oregano, basil, tarragon and thyme from the spice rack." I busied myself with the onions and garlic, chopping them and chucking them into the bowl of my electric pressure cooker. This was followed by the tomato and herbs, I stirred them all together before grabbing some chicken pieces from the fridge. I opened a bottle of red from my collection and poured a generous splash into the bowl and put the lid on and locking it in place. I set it for 'Chicken' and turned it on. "That will take about twenty minutes, what we need now is pasta." I took the microwave rice cooker out and poured water to the depth of around 75 millimetres before a pinch of sea salt and then a couple of handfuls of spirelli noodles. Into the microwave it went, push the 'dry pasta' setting and set it cooking. "As you might have gathered, to me cooking is an in-exact science, after a while you get a feel for how much goes into a dish. I hope it tastes okay."

We sat with a glass of red while the pressure cooker and microwave did their thing. "You seem to have had plenty of practice at this."

"Yeah, cooking was an important part of our day, Connie and I took delight in working our own form of culinary magic together, the dishes mightn't always been successful, it was the process that mattered. I made it a habit of not working late so that I could be home for what had almost become a ritual. Trudi and Jenny became part of it when they were old enough, but Warren showed no inclination to get involved. That was probably the beginning of the rift between him and the rest of the family, he didn't want to get involved in the ordinary life of the family and felt more and more isolated from us. We all tried to get him involved, but the more we tried, the more he withdrew."

"That's sad."

"It is, and his wife hasn't helped, she's an Accountant like him, and her focus is, like his, the acquisition of wealth. Connie and I were always happy to just have our modest needs met, with the occasional treat, like holidays away. After the kids left home we treated ourselves to a couple of overseas package tours, one to Alaska and the other one of those European river cruises. Both of them were wonderful experiences but we couldn't wait to get home."

The pressure cooker beeped its completion within seconds of the microwave switching off at the end of its job. I grabbed the noodles out and chucked them into a colander to drain while I released the pressure in the pressure cooker so that I could open it. Emily got plates out of the cupboard and cutlery from the drawer. I served up and we sat at the table to eat. "If I might say so, this doesn't taste bad."

"It tastes very good. You do realise that you're spoiling me, don't you?"

I spoiled her some more especially in bed, my cock had found a new lease on life and was enjoying it, not to mention that I was enjoying it.

"I'd better make an appearance at home or some neighbour will get the impression that I've dropped dead in my unit and call the police,"

"You can wait until after breakfast, can't you?"

"If you twist my arm hard enough I suppose I can." I didn't twist her arm, there are other forms of inducement that are more fun.

A couple of days without her and I was feeling bloody miserable. I wanted to be with her so much it hurt, and I was on the verge of getting into my car and driving over to her place when my phone rang. It was Emily. "No arguments from you, you're coming over to my unit for dinner tonight, I want to talk to you."

"What time do you want me?"

"All the time, but I'll expect you at seven." With that she hung up.

On the dot of seven I was pushing her door bell. At 7:00.0000001 the door opened and she was in my arms. "Come in Les, dinner will be ready in half an hour, and that will give me just enough time."

"Enough time for what?"

"This." She proceeded to undress me, with a little help from me, and we found ourselves on her narrow single bed. She took total control and the lovemaking was sublime. The meal was very nice, if a tad overdone.

"Darling," she whispered to me as we lay on her bed once more. "I've missed you dreadfully over the past couple of days, and have decided that I want to be with you all of the time. Do you think that we should try living together?"

"Was it the sex or this narrow bed that prompted this?" I smiled at her, just to let her know that I wasn't serious.

"Neither, we haven't been having sex, we've been making love to each other. Having said that, this bed leaves a lot to be desired, I certainly wouldn't want to spend the night with you in it."

"Is that a hint that you want to come home with me?"

She opened her wardrobe to reveal no clothes but a packed suitcase in the bottom of it. "Does this answer your question?"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Nothing as it turned out. She turned out the lights and locked the door behind her.

What a night! Exhaustion took hold fairly quickly, stamina not being a strong point with us old farts, and we drifted off into a contented sleep at around ten o'clock not to surface until around seven the next morning. "Good morning Darling." A voice close to my face whispered.

I opened my eyes to find Emily's smiling face in front of me, so I just had to kiss it. Normally the dogs and I head to the beach at eight thirty, but this morning we were late, all four of us. They had accepted Emily as readily as I had, and were as happy to trot along beside her as they were with me. People smiled at us as we walked, the sight of us walking hand in hand a pleasant change from me on my own. I was amazed at how easily she fitted in with me and how readily those on the beach accepted her. Life was looking up from my sadness at losing Connie, and I was now on top of the world.

Trudi rang just as we sat down to dinner. "Hi Dad, how are you?"

"Really great."

"You sound it, what have you been doing?"

"I have met someone, a very nice lady called Emily, she's moving in with me."

"Dad, are you sure that this is the right thing?"

"Yes, very sure, and you'll be sure when you meet her."

"That's it, I'm driving up on the weekend to meet her, and I'll reserve judgement until then."

"I, we look forward to meeting you, see you in a couple of days." I turned to Emily who looked a little concerned. "Don't worry, she'll love you."

"What about Jenny, are you going to invite her as well?"

"I won't need to, Trudi will be breaking the news to her right about now. I expect a call from her in . . ." I paused and then counted back from, "five, four, three, two, one." The phone rang. "Hi Jen, you've heard the good news I take it."

"Yes, and while I'm happy that you've found someone, don't you think that you're rushing it a little?"

"At my age every second of living counts, and I don't want to waste any of the time I have left for appearance sake. You'll understand when you meet her, I assume that you're coming over on the weekend too?"

"Just you try and keep me away."

"It would appear as if we're going to have a busy weekend."

"What about Warren, are you going to invite him as well?"

"Not yet. Let's get the easy part over before we attack the difficult one. I'm not looking forward to that one bit, he doesn't like me much already, I hate to think what he's going to be like when he hears our news."

The weekend couldn't have been better. Within minutes of meeting Emily, the girls were chatting to her as if they'd known her all their lives. I was talking to Bryan and Tony when Trudi signalled that she wanted to have a quiet word. I excused myself and followed her into the kitchen. "Dad, how did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Find someone so like Mum? She's perfect and Jen and I say go for it, you won't get another chance for happiness, you realise that, don't you?"

"Thank you for that, I needed your support before I announce this to Warren and . . ."

"The bitch."

"I wasn't going to say that, but I have to agree with your description of her, I've never warmed to her in all the time that I've known her."

"Did you tell him?" Jen came in.

"Yes, I've told him that we're happy for him."

"And I've just spoken to the boys (Bryan and Tony) and they agree. So I guess that it's happy families again. We all love her Dad, don't you dare lose her."

There was a congregation on the back patio, Bryan had started the barbeque and was getting steaks out of the cooler that he'd brought in from their car. "This is a celebration, I suggest that you girls go and make sure that there are enough beds for all of us because I intend to party hard tonight and I suggest that you all do the same. I won't be in any condition to drive home."