An Aunt's Life

She did the stupidest thing. She talked all about Jeff, not by name of course. She talked all about how much she wanted this relationship to go somewhere. How much she really wanted him to notice her. She just kept talking and talking. By the time she was done, he was sitting there with a glazed look on his face.

"Look, Tory, it sounds like you're having a bit of a moment. Would you like me to call you a cab home?" he asked.

"No. I've got it." She said as she felt tears start flooding her face. "I'm so sorry I made this date suck."

"It's all right. It was nice meeting you." He said as he got up and walked off.

She called a cab a few moments later. It was a girl that came and got her. They talked about boy troubles and how awful it was sometimes to be dumped or ignored.

"Don't stay out too late dear. Please." His mom said as he walked towards the front door.

"No. I won't. Monty and the guys are just having a couple drinks."

He felt so free. Today was one of very few weekends off. Since his aunt worked a lot, he worked too. It was fun for the most part. He didn't have much of a social life though. He got into his car and drove off to meet his friends.

The boys made their way to a bar. They would have a few drinks and take a Lyft home.

"I've got a few condoms in my pocket in case any of us gets lucky." Brandon said as they all got out of the car.

Jeff hated being here. He was not comfortable in social situations. He wanted to go back home. He wished he hadn't said yes. He took a seat and started on drinks. Maybe the liquor would relax him.

"Hey." Said a voice in his ear. He looked up. "Hey." Said the voice again. It was behind him.

"Hey. You're that girl from across the hall!" he said slightly slurring his speech. It was the girl from across the hall at Tory's office building. He wasn't sure what office she worked for, but she was always bumping into him. He tried to see the arousal in this, but didn't. This was so awkward.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked looking towards the dance floor. He didn't know what to say.

"We could just sit here in silence until you want to kiss me."

"I think you're mistaking my signals." He said as she pulled him up. "Wait!"

"Come on, cutie. Loosen up." She said as she led him off.

He liked dancing with this girl. She was nice to look at. Not as nice as his aunt, but nice all the same. She had brown hair down to her shoulders. Nice tan skin. They didn't talk much. They didn't need to.

The end of the party came close. He didn't know what he wanted to do. She had been putting off signals all night that she wanted to have sex. Or he could just be imagining. But no. She winked at him, she jerked her hips at him, she danced suggestively with him. She wanted him.

"There's another girl?" she asked as he gazed at her.

"I don't know. I didn't think so. But maybe." He said confused. He thought his encounter with his aunt didn't mean anything. They only had one night. Yet he felt so guilty having fun with this girl.

"Tell you what." She said as she ground against him some more. "Let's go back to my place. You can think about the other girl there. Maybe I can help you forget."

"Oh, what the hell." He said smiling. He was drunk enough not to care. Maybe another partner would give him more experience for when he did go back to his aunt. If he did.

The next day, he woke to find his phone ringing. He gasped. He wasn't at his house. Where was he?

"Hello?" he asked sleepily.

"Jeffrey?" Tory said, voice breaking. "Jeff honey, I need to talk to you. I've been thinking about us."

"Oh. Victoria." He said as he looked around to try and get orientated. The body next to him stirred. He gasped. It was the girl from across the hall.

"Jeff, I really want you. Let's take a day off work and go someplace. I'm tired of all this hiding."

"Is that your girlfriend?" Oh my god he was so in trouble. Was he at her place? Yes. He was.

"Jeff?" Tory asked softly. "You there?"

"Yeah. Listen. Let me call you back. I'm at Monty's. I can drop by your place if you want."

"This is your boss that you wanted to have sex with?"

"Stop talking!" he hissed.

"Jeff?" Tory gasped as she heard the noise. "Who's that with you?" she asked.

"No one. Monty." He said as he felt his face flush. "Listen, I'll call you back in a moment. Please." He begged. "Please! Let me call you back in a moment. I really want to please work this out. Please!"

He hung up and rapidly started to get dressed. He couldn't remember anything about last night. By the sounds of it, he didn't want to.

"I really hope you and your girlfriend patch things up."

"I do too. Please. Please don't tell anyone."

He rushed home and took a quick shower. He wanted to call her and see what the deal was. He got out and found his mom and one of her friends there. They were having tea.

"In other news!" her friend said as she looked over at jeff. "I heard Mr. Jeffrey's getting around with the ladies! He met someone at Tory's convention. He met someone at a bar."

"Wait!" Jeff gasped. "It's only ten in the morning. How the hell did you find out?"

"Mal is Stephen's mom. Stephen was bragging about how great it was and how it was your second girl."

"Who was he bragging to?" Jeff groaned.

"He was bragging to Tony. I don't know why he was bragging like he was there. ... He wasn't there, was he?"

"Martha!" he said feeling his face get warm.

There was a loud slam as the door opened. It was then that they noticed Tory coming in. Martha gasped. She wondered how much Tory had heard.

"We better get out of here, Gloria." She said softly.

"Why? Tory's here. Hey dear." Gloria said smiling as she went to greet her sister.

Tory was white faced. She didn't know what to do. None of it meant anything to Jeffrey. She was just his first time girl. This is why he didn't want to make love to her anymore. She didn't want anyone to see her cry. So she turned to walk away.

"Tory?" Martha asked as she saw the woman's face. "You all right honey? Do you want me to come with you and talk about it?"

"I just came to..., I came to...," she didn't know what to say. "I came to tell you," she said to Martha. "Congratulations. You won the bet, and I lost." Martha could tell she was speaking in code. She had heard everything.

"You all had a bet?" Jeff asked oblivious.

She turned away and ran out of the house. They all heard her heels clicking quickly away.

"Go fix it, Jeff!" Martha gasped. "Go fix it!"

"I don't even know what I did!"

"Wait! What did he do?" asked Gloria looking curiously at the pair of them.

"How did you even know?" Jeff asked glaring at Martha.

"Tory told me."

"What's going on here?" asked Gloria standing up.

"Run! Go after her!" Martha shouted as Jeff turned and ran out the door.

"Listen, Gloria, I have to tell you something. You have to promise me you'll try and keep it together, and not flip out." Martha said as she went to stare out the window. "Jeffrey and Vicky are having sex. Okay? I don't know the whole thing, but it apparently means more to her than it did to him. Now she's really hurt because of what happened. I think she heard us talking."

"Whoa! Excuse me?" Gloria gasped. "There's something going on between my son and his aunt?"

"Yeah! She didn't tell me exactly how it started. Just that she'd been with him at least once."

Both women went to the door and opened it gently. Tory and Jeff stood at the end of the drive way. Tory was crying, and Jeff was standing there, staring.

"If I can't touch you, how can I help?" he asked desperate.

"I can't even look at you right now, Jeff." She said bitterly.

"Wait! What?" gasped Gloria.

"Shush! I'm trying to find out."

"Look, aunt Tory, I didn't know." He said in anguish. "I made a mistake! You said you'd made dates too. We said we didn't care if the other saw anyone. We said we didn't want it to get out. Which, it looks like it has." He said as he glared at his mom and her friend.

"So you spent your valentine's day with the girl from across my office!"

"Oh, my, god." Both women gasped in unison.

"It didn't mean a thing to me!" Jeff said throwing his hands up.

"None of it means a thing to you, Jeff. You just treat sex like nothing more than a good time."

"Excuse me! Before we got into this mess, you brought a lot of men to your bed! I knew! So I don't want to hear it about meaningless sex!"

"We're not talking about me right now, you..., ass hole." She spat. "I'm leaving."

"Come on now, aunt Tory! We need to talk about this!"

"Okay. You want to talk about it? How was she? What did you guys do?"

"Oh no." Martha gasped. "Tell her it was awful! Tell her it was bad!"

"Don't let him hear you."

"They know we're listening."

"So? Come on, Jeff! How was she?"

"She wasn't you."

"Wrong answer." Martha gasped.

"You are such a pig, Jeff! Get off my car, I'm leaving." She said as she glared at him.

"Look, I'm so sorry aunt Tory! I never wanted you to find out!"

"Yes, because that's the problem here." She said angry.

"Was she there this morning when I called you?" she asked putting two and two together. "Where were you, Jeffrey!?" she asked.

"Lie!" Martha hissed. "Lie!"

"You were at her place!" she shouted after she got no response from Jeff. She lunged herself at him and started punching every part of him she could.

"Should we do something?" Martha gasped.

"Oh god. I'm about to forbid those two from ever seeing each other." Gloria said angry. "I can't believe you encouraged them."

"Oh aunt Tory! I am so fucking sorry! When you called, all I could think about was getting dressed and getting the hell out of there! It felt so wrong. I knew I was doing something awful. The thing is, aunt Tory, I am not that kind of guy."

"You were in bed when I called you?" she asked as she stared amazed. "You!" she started punching him again. "Aaaarg! You disgust me!"

"Hey! I am not the only one at fault here. You told me you wanted to keep it as normal as possible so this wouldn't slip to our family. You kept going back and forth about whether or not you wanted to date. I didn't know where we were on the matter!"

"I don't believe this. You think you can find a way out just because of something I said."

"I'm not trying to get out of anything!" He sighed. "What are we fighting about here, aunt Tory?" Jeff asked getting angry. "I had no idea how much I mean to you. I already said sorry that it clearly didn't mean as much to me. I don't know what you want. Please. Tell me what you want so we can get out of this mess."

She sighed. She buried her head in her hands. She was exhausted.

"I think..., I want to fire you." She said softly.

"You want to fire me?" he asked going white. "I can't believe this. You'd rather fire me than work things out? Where the hell are you going to find a secretary on such short notice?"

"I'll get the girl from across the hall!" shouted Tory as she got into her car. "Get off my car, Jeff. I swear I could run you over right now."

"Aunt Victoria, please. Let's just talk about it."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going on a date?" she sobbed.

"I didn't know I was going on that date! I went off and got a few beers with the guys. She asked me to dance! I did."

"Oh, there's that sweet gentleman crap you're trying to pull. You're just like any other man, Jeff. You are scum." She turned on her engine, and got ready to go.

"Please, aunt Tory! Give me a chance to--"

"There is no chance for you of anything! What you did was awful! It really hurt, Jeff!"

"I didn't know we were in that place in our relationship!" he shouted.

"We shouldn't keep listening to this." Martha said softly as she led Gloria back inside and they closed the door gently.

"I don't believe this. They have sex. You're sure?"

"Yeah. She told me. She said they did it at that convention they went to last month."

"Oh my god! She's taking advantage of my boy on business trips!"

"Listen, Gloria. It's all right. She said the last month event was the first time. And there's no way she's taking advantage of him. He likes it, Okay?"

"Oh Martha! How could you say such things? How could you let them have this affair and not tell me?"

"It's none of my business, Gloria. I only told you right now because of the awful fight they're having out there. It was going to come out eventually."

"What do I do?"

"Please, aunt Tory!" Jeff begged as he stuck a hand through the open driver's seat window. He touched her shoulder gently. "Please give me a chance to explain."

"Please don't touch me, Jeffrey." She said as she renewed in her tears. "Now, every time you touch or look at me, all I see is her." She wiped her eyes. "She's going to be across my office, not knowing she really hurt me."

"Why do we have to do something about this?" Martha asked as they went back to their tea. "They seem in love. Or at least, Tory did."

"You know, I didn't want to say anything, but it runs in the family." Gloria sighed. "His father had a couple siblings. She and her brother got it on, and had a pregnancy scare. That's how we all found out. Eek. This is so disgusting. What do I do if they make up?"

"Leave them alone. I'm sure they're careful enough not to have pregnancy scares. Just remember this is none of your business."

"But it is, Martha. Now, I know. They had a giant fight on my porch. I know. There is no going back. My sister and my son had sex."

"How am I gonna behave around her now? We do a lot of things together. How can I even begin to want to hang out with her after this?"

"Hey, now he can take both of you out sometimes." Martha smiled.

"This isn't funny Martha." Gloria sighed. "This isn't funny at all."

"Don't you get it, Jeff!? I don't want a damn thing to do with you!" She suddenly drove away. Jeff just stood there, shaken. He turned and headed for the door. Now they all knew. He wondered what they would say. He waited for a moment, then opened the door and went in.

"Hi dear." His mom said softly as he made his way to the kitchen. "Your aunt sounds so upset."

"No judgement here, Jeff." Martha said as he grabbed a bunch of Oreos. "How did this whole thing get started?"

Her heart was so broken. She couldn't believe it. She drove around for a long time. She had Jeff cancel all her appointments for today. She would pick herself up and resume all work tomorrow. Maybe she could get through his termination papers. She sure couldn't do it right now.

"Miss?" asked the man on the other side of the speaker. "Are you ready to order?"

"Sure. I'll take, four double cheese burgers, two large milk shakes. A couple large fries, and seven chicken sandwiches." She sighed. She was told to go to the next window. She drove right on through.

Her cell phone rang. She looked over at a red light. It was him. She clicked decline, and kept driving. She didn't know what to do, or how to feel. He gave her another call. She clicked decline again. Thirty seconds later he rang her again. The thing is, she wasn't getting annoyed by this. In fact, his persistence was so sweet. Maybe he really did care about her. He rang her again. When he was gone from the line, she called Martha.

"How long have you been driving?" Martha asked.

"For four or so hours. Jeff's trying to call me. He really wants to talk to me."

"I bet I screwed things up with Gloria."

"She's not happy. She's not going to stop you either. I had a little talk with her. She's not all right with it, but she'll leave you alone."

"I don't even care anymore. The friendship is trashed. The relationship is broken."

"Oh Tory. You've made mistakes in relationships before. This was just a mistake."

"Martha, I started dating when I was fifteen. Seriously when I was eighteen. I am over forty five now. I didn't have any relationships that lasted twenty-four hours. I didn't have relationships to make mistakes in."

"Oh." Martha sighed. "Well, just give him a break, Tory. Men think with their penis sometimes. He was drunk too."

"It just sucks. I was his first one, and then he goes out and does something like this."

"You'll always be the first one." She said trying to cheer her up.

"Do you really love her?" Gloria and Jeffrey were sitting in the kitchen. Gloria was shelling peanuts.

"I don't know, mom. If I haven't dated much, how can I know? At the same time, look at her. She's, she's so, she's a bomb shell."

"So do you want to go back and do that with her again?"

"I think I do. Something slightly hurt inside me when I saw her cry. Now I just want to hold and make love to her forever. Or at least, until I know she's smiling again."

"God Jeff. You're so sweet, I forgot for a moment it's my sister you're talking about."

"Who made the first move?" she asked sadly.

"I thought you didn't want to hear about it."

"Spill."

"She did. We were playing a game of would-you-rather. She kept asking about sex with the boss, and sex in general. So I questioned her. She wanted to have sex with me. I'm a twenty-four year old boy. I...," He didn't want to finish. "I was... Hor--"

"Yeah, yeah. We all know what you were." She sighed. "Now she's hurt. This is why family doesn't do these things." She moaned. "Jeff, she loves you like she's supposed to love a real man."

"Thanks, mom." He said bitterly.

"Oh come on. You know what I mean. She loves you like a real lover. Not just for fun. You hurt her. Do you love her back that way?"

"I'm eighty percent sure I do." He said landing on a random number. "Eighty percent is passing."

Tory asked him not to get too comfortable that Monday. She was really working on his termination papers. He felt awful inside. He truly didn't mean to make her cry.

"I'm going to the bathroom." He said as he took a sip of his coco. He watched as she went into her office and closed the door.

The offices in this building used to be hotel rooms. Some of the more bigger rooms have two smaller rooms, and a slight living area. One of the offices was for her, the other for storage.

He opened the door, and pretended to leave. He closed the door shut, and sat back on the couch. He heard the sound even before the door was fully shut.

She's crying again. It seemed all she did now between clients was cry. He had no idea what to do for her. He came back from the bathroom once in a while, and she shut her tears off around him.

He went to her big desk, and started looking through things for the day. His termination pages were the first thing he saw. It felt like a punch in the gut. Was he in love with her? Was she really going to fire him?

She came out during one of her breaks. She told him to make sure all the stuff on her desk was ready to go. All he needed to do was look over his exit papers. He felt so awful. What a team. Waste of a good one too.

"I got Cindy on the phone. She wanted to be called for a cancelation." He said as he heard the footsteps. Pete came and canceled."

"Great. If you can, would you go get us lunches?"

"Same as last week?"

"No. I want middle eastern food this time. Come on in Dusty." She said as she led him to her office.

"All right. It is lunch. She loves food. If I can order her a very good lunch, maybe she would consider talking to me."

When he got back with the lunch, her client was gone. She was in her office, typing away. It took her about thirty minutes just to get a break. When she came out, her food was still warm.

"Thank you, Jeffery." She said softly. "You really do a lot for me."

"Next time, be honest with me and tell me what you really want in a relationship."

"So, are we all right?" she asked as she grabbed the bundle of Jeff's paperwork. She tossed it into the paper shredder.

"So, my boss is not going to fire me?"