Helping out an Old Friend

I really struggled with the right category for this. There is romance and sweetness but this isn't solely a romantic story. As with many of my stories there's a smattering of humor that I hope makes people smile but it's not LOL funny, so I felt like Humor/Satire was out. The characters are all mature but there is no May/December component so Mature was out. And the sex is only referred to, not described, so no go on Erotic Couplings. After a lot of debate, I've decided on Humor/Satire. I hope I made the right choice and that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed crafting it.

"Jim, you remember my friend Patti right?"

I lowered my morning paper and peered over my reading glasses to look across the breakfast table at Brenda, my wife of 14 years.

"The one who lives in Iowa?"

"Idaho."

"That's what I meant. Of course I remember Patti hun. Is this a senility test?"

"No, I do those in the evenings."

"What??"

"Don't change the subject. Would you mind terribly if Patti came out for a visit?"

I sighed a little inside. Ever since Brenda and I had retired to Arizona it wasn't uncommon for friends from colder climates to come for a visit during the winter months. We had a nice sized home with a small guest house, so it wasn't too intrusive. But my cousin from Indiana and his wife had just been with us for a month-long visit and I wanted our privacy back.

"Uhm ... when?"

Brenda sipped her morning coffee and appeared thoughtful. "In a couple of weeks maybe? Would that be okay?"

Brenda's bright blue eyes had a hopeful look in them and her smile was warm. I had never really been able to refuse that smile or those eyes anything. She knew I would say yes, and so did I. But the game must be played, so I put on a grumpy air, made a show of snapping the paper back up to the sports page and harrumphed a little. "I suppose."

I couldn't see it but I was pretty sure Brenda was still smiling.

"I'll call her later to work it all out. Thank you Jim. I love you."

"Mmmm hmmm, that's nice." I said in return. A piece of breakfast roll hit the back of my paper. I chuckled and said, "Love you too hun."

Two weeks later Brenda and I were driving to Sky Harbor airport to pick up Patti. It was a picture-perfect February day in the Valley of the Sun, low 70's and the cloudless sky was a bright blue dome from horizon to horizon.

Brenda reached over and squeezed my hand. "Oh I'm so excited to see Patti! It's been too long!"

I glanced over at her. The low afternoon sun was shining off of Brenda's silvered hair, which she was wearing in a very becoming pixie cut these days. It framed her heart shaped face and wide set eyes beautifully, which at the moment were sparkling with excitement. Brenda was a classic beauty, and at 68 her looks had aged like fine wine. Sure, there were a few wrinkles, but they gave her character. And I loved her and her wrinkles with every ounce of my being.

Brenda and I met back in Chicago 16 years earlier at a support group for people who had lost their spouses. We struck up a casual acquaintanceship but neither of us was ready for any kind of a relationship at the time. So I was surprised when she called me out of the blue about a year after we met and asked if I would like to meet her for dinner.

That first dinner became a weekly thing. We enjoyed each other's company, had a lot in common and never seemed to run out of conversation. I was normally somewhat taciturn in social situations, but Brenda had a way of drawing me out like no one ever had. Weekend breakfasts at our favorite coffee shops and diners were soon added to the weekly dinners at restaurants, and shortly thereafter we were alternating dinners and evenings at our homes. Naturally, and seemingly inevitably, we found ourselves in bed together and sharing breakfasts the next morning at home. We were married within a year. We had a comfortable and easy marriage. My marriage had been childless, and Brenda only had one adult son when we met. We both enjoyed our careers, were financially comfortable, and had our own individual hobbies and some we shared.

12 years after we married, we wrapped up our careers and left frigid Chicago winters behind to enjoy our retirement in the Arizona sunshine. And that's where we had been for the last two years. The summers were a little brutal, but it was worth it for the warm winter months.

Brenda and Patti ran to each other, laughing and hugging each other warmly when we met her outside of Security. In her late 60s Patti had the tan and wiry fit body of the outdoorswoman she was, with long dark hair lightly streaked with silver that she wore in a braid down her back. She and her husband Earl, who had passed away 3 years ago, had been outfitters and guides on the Snake River in Idaho for many years.

After Brenda and Patti had finished hugging and kissing cheeks, they walked over to me arm in arm. I held out my hand "Patti, good to see you again."

She took my hand and pulled me into a hug with the strength of someone who had been rowing rafts on a river for decades. "How are you, you old cuddle bear?" she said.

Patti had been at our wedding, and we had visited her and her husband a couple of times in Idaho for rafting. After seeing me shirtless on the river she tagged me with her own personal nickname for me - "Cuddle Bear". It's not a completely inaccurate description. I'm a little over 6 feet tall and at present I'm a bit heavier than maybe I should be at 265. And thanks to some semitic heritage on my mother's side, I'm what you might call "fuzzy".

"Ooomph" I grunted. "Hi Patti." I returned the hug, which involved me bending over a bit to reach Patti's 5-foot 6-inch frame.

We stopped on the way home from the airport for brunch.

"Oh my god Jim how can you EAT that?" Patti exclaimed as the waitress brought my huevos rancheros with chorizo sausage.

I frowned a little down at my plate and then looked up at Patti. "What's wrong with it?"

Brenda responded. "Don't even try Patti. I've been trying to get him to ease up since we got here, but once he discovered southwestern food there's been no stopping him."

Brenda was probably right. But damn this food is good. So I liberally dosed the whole thing with tapatio and dug in while the two of them ate their more sensible meals.

I ate quietly while the two of them caught up. Over the last several years their contact had been limited to tracking each other's Facebook and the occasional note or phone call, especially during the last couple years of Earl's battle with cancer and eventual passing. Brenda bragged about her son's achievements and Patti shared pictures of her grandchildren that hadn't been posted on Facebook. Patti had spent the last two years selling off their rafting company to a couple of her senior guides and wrapping up her affairs with the intent of selling the remote property she and Earl had lived on. Her plan was to move somewhere more sensible. She was wistful about this, and Patti offered the appropriate condolences and words of encouragement.

Our brunch complete, we drove home to the "active living" retirement community Patti and I had bought into. Our home wasn't large or particularly fancy, but it was comfortable and had come with the added bonus of the small guest house. We had bought it with the intention of moving Patti's mother in, but sadly she had passed before we could get that done.

Nonetheless Patti gushed over the house. She said it was a palace compared to the cozy but rustic double-wide manufactured home that she and Earl had lived in. We got her settled in the guest house and then all decided to take a well-earned siesta before meeting back up for dinner.

Sedated by the huevos rancheros I dozed lazily on our bed with Brenda's warmth snuggled up to me, her head on my shoulder. She played with my chest hair under my shirt, dozing herself, but roused me with a startling statement.

"I hope I go before you do." she said softly.

"Huh?"

She sighed. "I don't want to be alone Jim, not at our age. And I don't think I could stand losing another husband."

"Is this about the huevos rancheros?"

She pinched one of my nipples. "Jerk." she said, with a small laugh. "But no, not really. Patti looks and sounds lost, unmoored. I don't think I could live like that."

I yawned a little. "She should go move in with one of her kids, be around her grandchildren. That would perk her up, give her some purpose."

"Maybe." Patti said. We both yawned and drafted into sleep.

Patti padded into our kitchen in bare feet through the open sliding door as Brenda and I were doing some early prep for dinner.

"You do know you two are living in heaven, right? It's the middle of February and I'm walking around barefoot in shorts and a tank top." She said with a laugh.

"You should be here in the summer." I responded. I gestured to the outside with the chef's knife I was using to prep the meat for the kabobs I was going to grill. "Then it's the OPPOSITE of heaven out there. You would have fried your feet on the stones."

"But it's a dry heat, right?" Patti asked.

"Yeah." Brenda answered. "Like a pizza oven."

Patti slid onto a stool at the small center island, opposite from where I was cutting up the meat. She wasn't wearing a bra under her tank top, and I got a glimpse of her small breasts when she leaned over to inspect the cuts of meat I was working on. I registered that they were remarkably firm and high for a woman of her age, and the lack of any tan lines suggested she spent a lot of the summer months topless outdoors. I flushed a little with embarrassment and quickly returned my attention to my work.

"Lamb?" she inquired.

"Yes kitten?" I answered with a small laugh.

"Smart ass."

"Yes, it's lamb. Any objections?"

She shook her head. "Nope. It sounds delicious actually."

"Oh it is!" Brenda answered. "We had some Armenian friends back in Chicago who gave us a wonderful recipe." She placed a large glass bowl filled with a marinade of yogurt and sliced onions next to me on the counter, which I started depositing the cubes of lamb into.

"Sounds interesting, and very authentic." Patti said.

I finished cubing the lamb, sealed the bowl with plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator. I glanced at my watch. "I need to get to the store for a few things. You two need anything?"

Brenda did a quick inspection of the cupboards and the refrigerator.

"Pick up a couple of boxes of wine. A pinot for the lamb I think, and maybe a nice chardonnay too."

"Don't we have a couple of boxes already?"

"Uh huh, both reds."

I bussed Brenda's cheek, grabbed my keys and wallet off the counter and headed for the garage. "Be back soon hun. You and Patti be good."

I really didn't need anything, I just wanted to escape the girl talk that was sure to be transpiring in the kitchen. It seemed a more polite solution than disappearing into my small den to watch television. I took my time wandering the aisles of Costco with no real intent of buying anything other than the requested boxes of wine, basmati rice to go with the lamb and maybe one or two personal toiletries to make my cover story plausible.

As I thoughtlessly browsed, the image of Patti's breasts kept flashing across my vision. I had been completely faithful to Brenda since we met, as I had been to my late wife Janice. But even at 69 years old, I'm still a man and am bound to look and even fantasize a little. I have always been a boobs guy, regardless of size. Big and bouncy, small and perky, high and firm or even a little saggy. They all had their charms. Janice's had been on the small size, on the upper end of A-Cup, but nicely rounded with nipples the color of cherries.

My reverie on breasts was interrupted.

"Excuse me sir. Would you mind?"

The young woman pushing a cart with a screaming toddler in tow was waiting for me to step away from the display of cherries I had been standing in front of.

"Oh ... sorry .... of course." I flushed a little with embarrassment, as if she knew what I had been thinking about. It didn't help that her extraordinary endowments were encased in a tight white tee shirt. I hustled away to pay for what I had in the cart and headed home.

When I got home Brenda and Patti were sitting on the patio, chatting and sipping red wine from a couple of oversized wine glasses. They were nibbling on some sort of "healthy" potato chips Brenda had bought. I thought they were vile.

I put away what I had bought, started the rice in the rice cooker, grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, a bag of old-fashioned pretzel sticks and joined them.

"So, Patti, what do you think of the desert so far?" I said as I settled onto a chair. She had never been to Arizona before.

She squinted into the sunset that was just starting over White Tank Mountains and then scanned the low scrub of the desert area that our home backed up to. "It's nice I suppose. Very different from Idaho." She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye. "Do you know when they plan to finish the landscaping?"

"Good one." Brenda said. "Well, we'll do some touristy stuff while you are here. Maybe take a drive up to Flagstaff so you can see that we actually do have trees."

We chatted amiably for a while about nothing in particular. Brenda and Patti refilled their glasses at least once as I went through two beers, and I finished the bag of pretzels. I checked my watch and rose from my chair. "I should get the kabobs started." I said as I headed to the kitchen.

"No more pretzels for you." Brenda called to my retreating back. "That's enough sodium for one day mister. You know what your doctor told you."

I grumbled as I skewered the kabobs. Brenda meant well of course, but sometimes I rankled under her dietary guidance.

I lit the firepit for warmth while the kabobs were grilling, and we ate dinner on the patio. The clear skies that day meant the desert night air would be chilly. Patti appreciated the lamb and complimented me on how perfectly it was grilled.

Brenda and Patti cleared the table while I relaxed, my bare feet propped up on the edge of the firepit. Patti was right, we were living in heaven. Back in Chicago we would have been in our den with the fireplace going and the heat on to beat back the below freezing temperatures outside.

"Jim, why don't you start the jacuzzi?" Brenda called from the kitchen as they finished cleaning up. "The sky will be very pretty tonight, and it will be a nice way to finish the day."

"Sure hun." I called back. I grabbed the remote for the jacuzzi off the small table next to me. The small 4-person remote controlled above-ground jacuzzi was one of the few small luxuries of our home that we both appreciated. There wasn't enough privacy in our backyard for it to have been the scene of any hanky-panky between us, but it was nice on relatively cold nights before bed.

Patti trotted past me to the guest house. "That sounds great! I'll change and meet you two in the jacuzzi."

Brenda followed Patti out, stood behind me and rested her hands on my shoulders. She kissed the top of my head, right in the middle of my expanding bald spot. "I love you." she said, with a little more emphasis than the situation warranted.

I craned my head up to look at her. She was looking towards the guest house where Patti was changing. "I love you too hun." I reached up and squeezed her hands.

I was changed and into the jacuzzi sipping on a beer before either Brenda or Patti. Patti came out of the guest house in one of the large, fuzzy hotel style robes we kept there for guests. As she walked past the jacuzzi she said, "I need another glass of wine."

Both she and Brenda had drank a lot of wine through dinner and over dessert. "What the heck." I thought. We were all retired and didn't have anywhere to be in the morning. I heard them both chatting in the kitchen and glasses clinking as they both got more wine.

When they walked out of the kitchen slider, they were a study in contrasts. Patti had discarded the robe. She still had on the short tank top she had been wearing during the day but was wearing dark colored tight-fitting boy-short type briefs. The tank top's hem was high enough above the top of the briefs that I could just make out her still flat belly, lightly silvered with faint stretch marks. Brenda was in a demurer one-piece, but all womanly curves. Despite the modest cut of the suit, her ample cleavage was still on display. They both slid into the tub with satisfied sighs and sipped at their wine.

"This has been a wonderful day, you two. Thank you so much for having me."

"You're always welcome." I said.

"You're such a doll Jim" Patti replied.

"Isn't he though?" Brenda said.

I shrugged off the compliment "You're both just buzzed from all the wine and satisfied from dinner." They both laughed and agreed.

"Hey, you know what this reminds me of?" Brenda said.

"I know exactly what you're thinking. Hot tubbing after those snowmobiling trips in the Upper Peninsula we took in college." Patti said.

"Oh my god yes! What was that guide's name we had for a couple of years."

Patti lolled her head back, closed her eyes and said "George." She drew it out. Obviously, George had made an impression.

Brenda smiled. "Gorgeous George."

Patti chuckled without opening her eyes or looking up "Uh huh, Gorgeous George."

Then they looked at each other and said in unison "Biiiiiig George." and giggled like girls.

"Ahem." I said. "Someone else is here." I'm not a prude and not jealous of any of Brenda's former lovers. We had all come of age in the wild 70s, the post-pill and pre-AIDS era. I had my share of flings and adventures during that time. I just didn't necessarily want to hear about 'Biiiiig George'.

"Sorry love." Brenda said, squeezing my thigh.

Patti sighed. "I do miss it though."

"Snowmobiling?" I offered.

"I think she means sex dear." Brenda was clearly a little tipsy.

"Oh sure, I miss sex. But what I really miss is having a big warm body to snuggle up to on a cold night."

"You could always get a dog." I quipped.

"Or a man." Brenda offered, her tone a little pointed.

Patti shook her head. "I'm too old and impatient for the dating scene. No, what I need is someone to just magically appear out of nowhere." She glanced at me briefly, a slight blush in her cheeks coming through her tan. She took a drink of wine to cover her embarrassment. Brenda seemed oblivious to what had just happened.

'Okay' I thought. 'This just got a little awkward'.

Patti stood up and said "I'm beat, and the wine has gone to my head. I'm going to bed. You two behave out here."

Brenda was already in bed after I showered off the jacuzzi chemicals. She was curled up on her side facing my side of the bed. She had a thoughtful look on her face. I had just gotten comfortable on my side facing her and was getting ready to sleepily kiss her forehead goodnight when she said "Hun, would you do something for me tonight?"

"Sweetheart, I'm awfully tired for any of that tonight. How about in the morning?"

She smiled and gave me a peck on the nose. "No, not that."

"Then what?"

"Would you sleep with Patti tonight?"

I sat bolt upright. "WHAT?!?!?"

Brenda only moved her head enough to look up at me and take my hand. "I don't mean for you to have sex with her. Just keep her company. She's so lonely and bereft dear. You heard what she said in the jacuzzi. She said the same type of thing over and over when we were talking while you were shopping. How lonely her nights were, even before Earl died. He was in the hospital for months before he passed you know."