Grace Takes a Time Out Ch. 14

"No. Well, ice tea would be good. Thanks for being up front with me. But here's what was on my mind when I came over." Peter has risen to get some glasses and pour the ice tea, and he stops and turns to her to pay attention to what she has to say. She sounds uneasy and uncertain. "Saturday night was kind of a blurr of anxiety and information overload. I was so set on just getting it over with that I didn't pay a lot of attention to what was going on. And afterward it was all hard to process." He nods in understanding. "So," and she takes a deep breath, "would it be OK if you and I do it again sometime, on our own time, without Shirley there, so I can actually experience and feel it without all that other stuff going on?" She finishes and blushes deeply again.

The room is silent for a moment, then he resumes making the glasses of ice tea. He is busily finishing the ice tea to cover his own confusion, surprise, and total excitement that she might be interested in him, as he is in her. He tries to be matter of fact without sounding callous; he puts the glasses on the table and sits down across from her, and looks at her directly. "Yes, we can do that. I would be pleased to, flattered."

"Grace won't be upset or mind? I don't want to have her not like me."

"Our arrangement is open and non-exclusive. There will not be any ill feeling. She likes you and would be completely supportive of you finding out what you want to know. God, that sounds weird, doesn't it?" He looks to Alicia almost apologetically. "What I mean is, I would not conceal it from her and it would be OK with her. Completely."

"Thanks, Peter. All this openness sounds amazing. Is it?"

"Yes, but it can be hard work, too. I'm getting used to it with Grace, but at home and around other people it's more challenging." Pause. "When would you want 'sometime' to be?" he asks gently, getting to the heart of the matter. She looks uncertain. "Now?"

"But you've got work?"

"It'll take days and days to go through the garage. I don't expect Grace back for another couple of hours so now would be OK, or we could go out Wednesday or Thursday night."

"Here?"

"There's a guest room off the family room that has a bed."

"I'm nervous again."

"You relax, and I'll help you relax, and if you are uncomfortable at any time, I've taken some English classes at the JC and I understand and respond the meanings of both 'No' and 'Stop'." He smiles, she giggles nervously.

"OK. Show me." And she stands up from her chair. He stands, and motions her to follow him to the guest room. The bed is mussed from his and Grace's time there that morning, but Alicia doesn't seem to notice. He is behind her and puts his arms around her and kisses one of her ear lobes gently as he hugs her. She turns and they start to kiss and touch, slowly, but with less and less caution as the moments pass. Soon they are both breathing harder, more eager; they have removed each other's shirts. Peter undoes her bra, steps back to remove it, and once it's off he brings his hands up to gently stroke her breasts: she cries out, takes a sharply inhaled breath, and steps back with widened, surprised eyes. "Oh! That was a shock - it made me shiver all over." she blurts out.

"Sorry; am I going too fast? Did I hurt you?"

"No, I don't think that's it. My nipples are really sensitive. It's weird, like Sunday morning when Shirley sucked on me. Is it normal?" she's more curious than surprised now.

"My experience is limited, I don't know. Is it bad?"

"No, it feels like my whole body is tingly, in a good way." She smiles and pulls him back toward her. "Go easy on them - there's a lot of the rest of me you can work on." and kisses him full on the lips.

*

Over an hour later Alicia is leaving: she walks through the garage with Peter, gives him a hug and a quick kiss, and walks out through the still open double garage door. And almost bumps into Grace. "Alicia - what a pleasant surprise! How are you?"

"Fine thanks, Grace. I'm just leaving. I came over to talk to Peter but I've got to run. See you tonight at Mom's birthday!" She gives Grace a big over-the-shoulder smile and she walks briskly to her car; Grace walks into the garage and looks around for Peter.

"What's up with Alicia?" she asks when she finds him poking through a shelf. "What happened to the shirt? "

He turns to her with a smile; he's always glad to see her. "Ahh, Alicia came over to talk about some stuff, and when she saw the shirt she was put off enough she almost left, so I changed. It's on the car - I'll put it back on." He starts to move out of the aisle, but she blocks him and gives him a serious 'tell me more' look.

"She had questions about what we did Saturday night and Sunday morning and wanted to talk about it." He explains. "The 'whopper' didn't exactly suit her mood so I changed into my own shirt and we talked for a while."

"Talked?" Grace is curious.

He has a sheepish smile. "Yeah, and then revisited some of her issues about the weekend. In the guest room." She raises her eyebrows questioningly. "Hey, I don't talk about what we do with other people, and I'm not giving out the gory details of what Alicia and I did, except to say that after we were done we both felt pretty good about it."

"I guess that's a good thing then." she replies with only a bit of sarcasm. "I hope the shock is not too great next week when you discover the world is not really like this." Heavier sarcasm, but she smiles generously: "One of my goals has been to get you some action, and that seems to be happening."

He blushes slightly and then replies as he is now able to get past her to the car and change into the burger shirt. "I didn't actually get much done on the shelves yet; spent all morning magic-ing closets and then Alicia showed up after lunch. So I'm really just getting started." He gestures at the covered shape of the car. "What about this? You didn't say anything this morning."

"This is mine." She looks back seriously. "One year Joe asked me what I wanted for Christmas and he'd had a good year so I just said 'a red Miata' and I was totally blown away when Christmas came and there it was in flame red!" She smiles softly at the memory. "I was feeling pressed by the kids and being a stay-at-home mom and I wanted something to feel independent about, something wild and crazy and just for grown-ups, wind through my hair." She laughs lightly. "Ever known me to be wild and crazy?" He looks at her, the covered car, and nods a sort of 'been there, seen that'. "So I have this car, my car. We had some good times in it. But it's mine and I still want it and the independence it still represents to me! It hasn't been out much, but it's not a closet full of clothes or a shelf of project debris."

Peter is unsure of where this is going just nods to indicate if not understanding at least acceptance. "Hey, I have to stay home tomorrow morning to help Dad and Mom and Linda get out the door; I think I can be here by noon."

"Tell you what," she says after a pause to look at the car shape and think, "I got my hot date dress today and told Nora you'd be calling. Why don't you give her a call today and go over to the mall after your family gets on the road. She'll help you pick out a sexy, and I told her ALL CAPS SEXY, outfit for Saturday. I'll meet you there afterwards and we can figure out the rest of the day." Peter takes this in and thinks - 'what rest of the day? I have to do this stuff with clearing the shelves' but in his core he knows she's got an idea and he's not going to argue. "OK. I'll call when the family leaves."

There follows some discussion of the shelves and how to dispose of the junk, which to Peter sounds like 20 trips to the dump, but he figures he's there to help, not question. And maybe once he gets going he'll have some ideas. Grace leaves him to it and goes off to do whatever it is she has to do.

*

A couple of hours later she comes into the garage to see what Peter is at; she's in flip-flops, a loose short skirt, and a thin flimsy top. They discuss the pile he has accumulated to decide if it all goes or some stays. "Thanks for disappearing the closet stuff, Peter. My rational mind says 'what's the big deal' but my non-rational mind wants to hold on to a lot of those pieces of Joe: rational won out, but didn't want to be a witness. Thanks." She gives him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He mutters something about 'glad to help'.

They are standing in the garage at the edge of the shelf area, the car in front of them: she grabs one end of the cover and starts to pull it off the Miata, telling him: "I can do it. Stand back!" He watches as she flings the cover to the floor in front of the car not understanding her energy or anger, he can't figure out which. She fixes him with a stare: "It's one of my tickets out of widowhood. And fucking time to take it!" No question now, she's focused. "Want a test drive?" More of a challenge than a question; he nods 'yes'. "Then close the damn door!"

She points at the open door in the shelf spaces - now he's confused: if they're going to take the car out, shouldn't they open the single door rather than close the double? But he goes to the button on the wall between the doors, pushes the double door button so it starts to close, and the single door button to open it. "Not what I meant, stud!" she barks at him. "Both doors closed!" He punches the button again and looks at her in surprise. "We're test driving this baby right here in the garage!" she says with a wicked smile as she leans back against the flame red sheet metal, her feet well apart. The light dawns, he loosens his shorts, and advances on her. "Take my top down, whopper man, and get my motor running!"