Ann: The Married Years Ch. 29

© 2019, All rights reserved -- mimaster

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"We need to stop," Ann quietly alerted Neil, her eyes nervously looking in his direction in anticipation of a negative reaction that didn't come.

"Okay," he nodded calmly, quickly scanning the road for their current location, mentally recalling what might be nearby on the road they were traveling so they could pull over. "There's a town about a mile ahead."

"Thanks, baby," she sighed.

She was amazed at his patience. While she'd found a way to help control her morning sickness; one that he was particularly happy about, traveling was proving to be a bit of an adventure. And not in the way she usually liked.

Entering a small town they would normally just pass through in western Ohio, he pulled into the only gas station it had. It was the last week of June and they were on vacation, heading to Indiana on a ten-day trip over the Fourth of July holiday to visit with their parents and friends.

They'd be staying at the Franklin home, having decided before they were married that they'd alternate where they'd stay whenever they went back to visit. They'd stayed with the Thomas's over Thanksgiving, so it was Jean and Marlin's turn to play host.

Ann wasn't necessarily looking forward to it. In fact, she dreaded the idea. Not of staying with her folks. Her relationship with her mother had gotten so much better since she married Neil that it was hard to believe she and Jean barely got along before he walked into her life. And it wasn't that they were going to be staying in a hometown she loathed growing up. She looked at it much differently now; it was the place where fate brought her and Neil together. What she hated was the idea of driving because of how she was feeling physically, and because of that, it was taking a lot longer to get there than normal.

Neil was pumping gas, even though he really didn't have to. He had more than enough to make it to their final destination, but to him it was the right thing to do. After all, Ann was using their restroom. He felt it only right to buy something from the business. In this case, it was four gallons of regular unleaded.

"Hopefully we won't ever have to stop here again," Ann groaned as she returned to the car, pulling out a sanitary wipe from the door holder to clean her hands.

"That bad, was it?" he smiled.

"Baby, you know it's bad when I have pee without sitting on the toilet. That was awful."

"Maybe next time we'll just stop on the side of the road," he joked, continuing the banter they'd been sharing throughout the trip.

"You think it's funny, but that was gross at a whole new level."

She had been lamenting earlier about how men have it so much easier than women do when they have to urinate.

Neil countered her complaint, reminding her how hard it was to always have to be tucking a big dick back into his shorts. She laughed, of course, but her point had been well made, then and throughout the day.

It was an odd conversation to be having, but that was pretty much what had been the topic of discussion to that point. It wasn't an exaggeration to say they'd had to stop every forty-five minutes or so for her to go to the bathroom. And it proved to be a challenge finding a suitable place for her to go. She was quick to point that out after the first stop they made in Maryland, where she'd gone into another gas station bathroom only to come out saying she couldn't go there.

He ended up taking her to a McDonald's down the street, buying a Diet Coke so he didn't feel guilty. It was a silly reaction, and he knew it. Hell, he'd spent so much money at the 'Golden Arches' in his lifetime that he deserved a lifetime pass to use their restrooms if he needed to, but something inside compelled him to buy the drink anyway.

"That one was much better," she said at the time as she came back out, a happy smile on her face.

At that point, it became a game of sorts. Ann would say she needed to stop, and then when she came out she'd absentmindedly comment on the cleanliness of the place she'd just visited. Neil began kidding her about it, and the frequent stops they had to make, calling it the 'Restrooms Across America Tour,' and asking if the information she was compiling was going to go into some book for travelers she was writing.

That's when she first commented about how men have it so easy when the go to the bathroom. When she complained about the latest bathroom in Ohio, he laughed.

"Uh... have you ever seen the inside a men's public bathroom?"

"Well, no. But I can imagine."

"No, you can't. Trust me... you wouldn't go into one without wearing a hazmat suit."

"How can it be that bad?' she asked naively. "You don't even have to undress... you just unzip."

"Men are animals, babe. Like I said before, we'd be better off just going on the side of the road. We'd be doing the world a service killing the weeds."

"Stop exaggerating."

"I'm not. Most men don't bother to aim, at least if you go by what you'd find in a public restroom. I know that's gross, but it's the truth."

"You've never done that."

"Because I'm not most men... you should know that by now. My mom would whip our hides if Gene or I did that. We were taught to clean up if we made a mess. And by god we cleaned up, because she was damn serious."

She giggled, thinking about how his mom had three men in the house, and how messy things might have gotten if she hadn't laid down the law. "Well thank god Betsy raised you right."

"Don't laugh. You'll be doing the same thing if we have a boy," he winked.

Ann giggled again; her usual response to whenever he reminded her that they were now expecting a baby. Her hand went to her tummy, the hint of a small bump showing. At thirteen weeks she was just starting her second trimester, but it still seemed so hard to believe she was finally pregnant.

The fact that she was already beginning to show bothered her at first, the idea of gaining weight being something she hadn't come to grips with quite yet. But she reasoned her way out of that. If she was anything like her mom, which she was in so many ways, it would just be her breasts and her stomach that would get big. The women in her family didn't traditionally gain a lot of weight when they were expecting. In fact, most of them didn't seem to get that big at all.

She was hoping for that, but she was willing to accept whatever would happen to her body. She wanted a baby, and she knew there would be some sacrifices she'd have to make along the way. Her petite, girlish figure might just end up being one of them.

Still, she was happy as she settled back in her seat, ready to resume the trip. As Neil pulled out, she finally changed from the subject that had strangely dominated their conversation most of the day.

"So, if it's a boy, what would we name him? I know you don't want a junior."

"No, but I told you... I don't care if Neil is the middle name."

"I think it should be," she nodded. "Do you have any thoughts on a first name?"

"Not really. What about you?"

"What about Aaron?"

"Aaron Neil?"

"Uh huh."

"No."

"Why not?"

"The same reason you didn't like being Anna Renee Franklin. His initials would spell a word."

"Fine. But there's a big difference between ARF and ANT."

"Not to a seven-year-old boy on the playground. Getting teased is getting teased."

"I was a barking dog!"

"And now you're a work of ART," he laughed, thinking of her new monogram. "But we should still shy away from initials that spell anything, don't you think?"

"Aw... I've always loved names that begin with a vowel."

"You still can. You just have to pick one that doesn't spell a word. Any of the other vowels would work."

"Like a 'U'? I don't think so."

"Still three other one's babe."

"Well there's too many that start with an 'E'. I wanted something different."

Laughing, he shot her a quick glance. "Aaron is different?"

"It's not that common. I don't want to make up a name, but I also don't want one that every kid would have. I don't know that many men named Aaron."

"Okay, but we're not naming him Aaron if we have a boy. Are you sold on it starting with a vowel?"

"I guess not. I just liked Aaron, because my name starts with an 'A', and so does your middle name. But I wasn't thinking about him getting teased. That would really make me angry."

"So, how about an 'I', or something that begins with 'O'."

"What, like Oscar?" she chuckled; her nose wrinkling up.

"No... he's a grouch. How about Owen?"

"Hmm... Owen Neil Thomas. Owen Thomas. I actually like that... a lot!"

Happy with himself, he asked, "So, we're good?"

"If it's a boy. What if it's a girl?"

"I just came up with that one."

"Seriously... do you have any in mind?"

"This is the first I've honestly thought about it, babe. I'm sure you have... probably since you were little."

"Well, yeah. When I was young, I always imagined my daughter's name would be Terri, with an 'I' on the end."

"Terri Thomas," he said chuckled, accompanied with a wicked smirk.

Seeing his instant reaction, she knew it hit home. "I take it you know someone with that name. A cousin?"

"No... definitely not a cousin. The first name only had one 'R' and the last name was spelled without an 'H'. But that's how it was pronounced."

"Okay, so who's Teri Tomas? Was she a girlfriend? Someone you knew growing up?"

"You could say that," he snickered.

"Seriously... who is she?"

"She was a teacher."

"Oh. One you had a crush on, I suppose."

"Ha. Oh yeah. I most definitely had a crush on her, but it's... a little more complicated than that."

"Neil, you're sounding like me. Stop stalling... out with it."

"Okay, but promise you won't think badly of me, alright?"

"What? Of course not."

"Alright, here goes. Our senior year, you know I didn't have a girlfriend."

"Right, go on."

"Well, I had those nights where I'd see you at the basketball games, and that would take care of my fantasies every once in a while. But...."

"I get it. You had other women you dreamt about."

"More like I masturbated thinking about... but yeah."

"Neil, we didn't have a teacher in school with that name."

"I know. And she wasn't a teacher in my old school either. She was in a men's magazine."

"A magazine? Like Playboy?"

"Not like Playboy... it was Playboy... the February 1979 issue to be exact," he reminisced, recalling the pertinent information to mind like it was yesterday. "Candy Collins was on the cover wearing this lavender thing that barely covered her tits, and it was open all the way to her crotch... and the playboy bunny was drawn on her stomach with lipstick. Her navel was the eye."

"And she was the Playmate of the Month, no doubt," Ann nodded.

"Strangely enough, no she wasn't. She was just on the cover. The Playmate was Lee Ann Michelle from Surrey, England."

Ann's haunting laugh filled the car. "You remember where she was from?"

"I'm a guy, Ann. It was Playboy. Guys studied Playboy more intently than we studied anything else in school, especially if it was an issue you found...."

"Exciting?"

He grinned. "I remember everything about that issue because it stood out to me. I wanted to go to Surrey because there were women like Lee Ann there. They listed her as 5'4" and one hundred and seven pounds."

"A hundred and seven... really?"

"Probably not, but that's what it said. It also said her measurements were 35-23-35."

"Let me guess, you changed your locker combination to match," she giggled.

"Funny."

"I'm sorry. Go on, you're on a roll. What else do you remember about her?"

"Her turn-ons were kissing, cuddling, posing for the camera, fast cars and swimming nude."

"Well I agree with all of those," she winked.

"Wow, I never thought of that," he grinned as he looked at his wife, sporting a sexy smile.

"Bet you never thought you'd marry a woman that thinks like a centerfold. What turned her off?" she asked. Having leafed through an issue of the magazine a time or two, she knew how the format worked.

"She doesn't like spiders... and being told to look sexy."

"Hmm... I don't mind either of those, really. I don't care for snakes. And I don't like laziness. That really turns me off."

He found if funny that she was comparing herself to the centerfold of the famous men's magazine. He also found it a bit of a turn on for himself. "You know, you'd make a great Playmate."

"You'd love that, wouldn't you," she teased. "It would have to be soon. My body is about to get really ugly. I'm probably never going to look this good again in my life."

"Bullshit. First, you'll never be ugly. And... I know you."

"What's that mean?" she laughed.

"It means that I've seen your mother, babe. She obviously figured out how to get back in shape... she's your size now. I don't see you being any different."

His gentle reassurance made her blush. "Thanks, Neil. I really needed to hear that."

"Great, so you can pose for Playboy after you have the baby," he grinned.

"Ha... okay, Hef," she snickered. "So, anything else important I need to know about Lee Ann Michelle?"

"Her favorite sports are tennis and soccer, which isn't surprising since she's from England. Her favorite drinks are champagne and water. Oh... oh my god, you're going to love this!" he shouted excitedly as he recalled another tidbit from her centerfold bio.

"What's that?" Ann laughed.

"Her fantasies! One was being Henry the Eighth's last wife, which never made any sense to me at all. But the other one... she wanted to be one of Cleopatra's maids!"

Ann's girlish giggle fill the car as her hand flew over her open mouth. "You're kidding!"

"I swear babe... I remember it like I just read it. I had that issue memorized."

"Wow! That's too weird."

"Or its fate," he chuckled.

"Uh... I'm going to go with sexy coincidence. That's not even the reason we're talking about this. You still haven't told me who Teri Tomas is. Is she another model?"

"Not really. There was an article... well, it was an article with a pictorial, I guess. It was on the Girls of Las Vegas. And there was a part of it that showed an amateur stripping contest at the Palomino Club. They had all these women come up on stage, and they stripped out of whatever it was they wore to the show that night. One of them was a school teacher named Teri Tomas. I remember she was wearing a white cotton t-shirt and a pair of jeans. The captions of the pictures commented on how she was the slowest one to take her clothes off, but she won it. And because she won it, and she was so turned on by it, she quit her job teaching and started dancing there at the club full-time."

"So, what was the turn on?"

"For her... or for me?"

"For you?"

"Well for one, there's the fact that she actually looks a lot like you?" he laughed.

"She does?"

"Well, she looked a bit then like you look now, so obviously I was attracted to that. But the idea that she was a teacher, and she stopped doing that to strip for a living... hell, Ann, I jacked off to that part of the magazine so many times it's not funny."

"Was it the fact that she was a teacher, or that she had an ordinary job and she started stripping?"

"I suppose both, why?"

"Oh... I don't know. I was just thinking how much it might turn you on if say, a young mother might go do an amateur night at a local club," she winked.

"Wait... what?"

"I have fantasies too Neil," she grinned. "And I never got the chance to live that one out the night of my bachelorette party."

"So you were going to strip?"

"I was going to be made to strip. Tina tried to talk Tiffany... well Sarah, into getting me on stage. And Sarah actually tried, but their manager insisted that amateur night was on Wednesday's only. He didn't want to make an exception and open up a whole can of worms. I guess some strippers don't care much for amateur nights because it cuts into their money. He was worried about pissing off a couple of his girls if I did it."

His eyes narrowed, trying to process what she'd just told him. "So you're telling me you want to be a stripper."

"No, I'm saying I might want to strip on an amateur night and see how I'd fare against other amateurs. And you know how competitive I can get, baby... if I'm doing it, I'm doing it to win the prize," she grinned. "The again, if Anna Thomas is anything like Teri Tomas, who knows... I just might end up doing it full-time."

"Wow," he mouthed; a chill running down his spine. He recalled the times she'd danced for him. Other than not knowing how she'd do on a stripper pole, he knew she could pull it off. And with her background in gymnastics, he figured she would probably be incredible at that part of the job as well.

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, patting his suddenly erect cock through his shorts. "Relax, baby. We're a long way from that ever happening. But it's sure fun to think about."

"Uh huh," he moaned, trying to focus on the road.

"Maybe we should change the subject, back to where we got sidetracked," she said out loud, worried that he was distracted to the point it might be dangerous for him to be driving. "What do you think about April Renee for a girl's name?"

Snapping out of his erotic trance with a shake of his head, he came to her question. "April? Why April... beside the fact that it starts with a vowel?"

"Because you were gone that entire month, and that's when I found out we were finally pregnant. Knowing I was pregnant kind of made it feel like you were never away from me. And Renee is a family name. It's my mom's middle name, and her mother's... and grandmother's."

"Okay, I get Renee. But how would April be any different from Aaron, though? The initials would be the same. She'd still get teased, wouldn't she? You said you got teased?"

"Yes, but with a different last initial, Neil. You just said it yourself. She'd be a work of ART, baby. Our work of art... nobody would tease her about that."

"You're right, babe. I can't argue that. April Renee it is."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was a different McDonald's, on the outskirts of Fort Wayne, but for Ann it was the same happy result. It was the third one she'd been in during the day, and they'd all been extremely clean. The only downside was that this one had one of those air dryers for your hands, and she hated using them.

Neil was in a booth, waiting for her to come out so he could eat. She smiled as she saw him staring out the window, his food still wrapped up. It would never occur to him to start without her; his impeccable manners patiently drilled into him since childhood.

"He's going to make an incredible father," she sighed as she watched him.

"Hey... what's up?" he asked, wondering why she was just standing there looking at him with a grin on her face.

"I love you."

"I love you too," he grinned back.

She settled in next to him, patting him on the thigh as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. Opening her fish sandwich, she watched him finally open his Quarter Pounder.

"You're such a gentleman," she sighed, a tiny tear forming in the corner of her eye.

"Are you okay, babe?"

"Yes... my hormones are all over the place right now. Seems like I cry about anything these days," she said with a laugh.

He wiped away the tear, his other hand cupping the back of her neck. She moaned as his finger turned her chin, bringing her mouth less than an inch from his as they locked eyes. "I'm always going to be here for you, Anna," he whispered, sensing what she needed to hear.

Pressing against her lips, they shared a sweet, sensuous kiss; one that made her heart skip inside her chest.