New Habits

Before Trish could say anything, I continued, "You're one of the most talented people I know. You can do anything!"

"But can we afford it, Chris?"

"Yes. We can easily afford it."

"Please convince me."

I had to chuckle to myself. At the start of our marriage, Trish left our family finances completely in my hands. Anytime I made changes that needed Trish's approval, I simply put the paperwork in front of her. She signed it without fail, never asking a question.

I explained to Trish, "I still enjoy working and I don't have any plans to retire. At a minimum, I'll work for six more years and until I'm sixty-five. When I retire, between my 401K, IRA and social security, I'll make about 75% of my current income. When we add in your teachers' pension, 403B retirement fund and IRA, we'll make almost 70% of what we make today."

"Chris? What about that pile of money, I inherited from Mom and Dad?"

I smiled at Trish and told her, "That 'pile of money' has been in various investment accounts, earning interest for the last twenty-two years. It's a much larger 'pile of money' today. If we continue to live a reasonable, upper middle class lifestyle, we'll be able to spoil our grandchildren and go on one fabulous vacation a year. And when we're gone, we'll be able to leave each of our kids a 'pile of money' that they can invest toward their retirement."

Trish had tears running down her cheek, when I finished.

Two nights later, we were on our evening walk with Gordon. We had turned and had started the walk back home, when I asked. "Can we talk about something I've been thinking about?"

"OK."

"I'd like to sell our West Hartford home and move here."

Just as I'd bit my tongue and not blurted out my first thought, when Trish asked about retiring, I could tell that Trish held back her first thought.

"Tell me what you are thinking, love?"

"I've thought about moving here, but I don't know if I want to be this far away from the kids. I'm especially reluctant, with Lori and Gretchen pregnant."

I said, "From West Hartford, we're between twenty and forty-five minutes from each of the kids homes. If we move here, we're actually closer to Gretchen. All the kids will be within an hour drive."

We walked together in silence for several minutes before Trish asked, "There's more, isn't there?"

I admitted, "There are two things. One is easy to talk about. The other is a little tougher."

When Trish nodded, I continued, "We don't need a 5200 square feet home for two people. We don't need five bedrooms, four full baths and two half baths. We don't need a house keeper and lawn service. We don't need a pool that we hardly ever use, because we live here during the summer."

"I agree. Tell me the rest."

"I don't like what our lives became in the last few years. We loved each other, but we didn't like each other. We started fighting after the kids left. We bicker all the time. We drank too much and ate poorly. We were passionate about our careers but we were lazy...grossly lazy about our relationship. We developed too many bad habits."

I thought for a few moments, before continuing, "The other day you wondered about all the death and misery going on in the world and how we are so lucky to have a much more positive outcome. It wasn't just luck. We've worked hard. We exercise together every day. We've gone from four or five drinks a night to four or five a week. You're becoming an artist. I'm catching fish and cooking them like a five star chef."

Trish could tell there was more. After a minute she said, "Tell me the rest."

"The other day, I needed to talk to you. I went out to your art studio, but before I got there, I heard you singing. Trish, I haven't heard you sing like that in ten years. You sounded so happy." I sighed and finished, "We've worked so hard the last few months and we're both happy. I don't want to lose this."

Trish was softly crying, when she asked, "Can we hold off telling the kids, until I can wrap my head around our move?"

June 29th was a Monday and was the scheduled due date of our granddaughter. Our daughter-in-law was having a planned surgical delivery at 9:30 that morning. Needless to say, Trish and I didn't get much work done that morning.

At 10:47 we received a text saying, [Congratulations Grams and Pops! Your granddaughter Kaylee Patricia was born at 9:48 am. Mom, daughter and I are fine. We love you!]

At any other time, Trish and I would be in the car racing to Lori's bedside. But these weren't ordinary times. Lori and Kaylee were in isolation. Our son Mike was allowed to stay for three hours and was then required to leave the hospital.

While I was thinking about our situation, I heard Trish walk to my office door. When I turned toward her, she said, "My first thought was to ask, 'if you'd ever fucked a grandmother before', but decided that was gross."

"Can we lie in bed and cuddle?" She asked.

We'd been spooning for a while, when Trish wiggled her ass into my rock hard cock. "Jesus, Chris! Losing forty pounds, eating healthy and cutting back on drinking is a sure fire replacement for Viagra."

We laughed together, when I admitted, "I haven't gone soft and disappointed you in a while."

"It seems like exercise and eating properly is the fountain of youth. I haven't been this wet in years. Instead of fucking a grandmother, can you make love to her?"

By the time we had undressed each other we were almost in a 69 position. I pulled Trish on top of me and she straddled my face. As I sliced my tongue from her clit to her anus, Trish slowly swallowed my cock. We orally teased each other until Trish had her second orgasm.

After regaining her bearings, she shimmied down my body and impaled herself on my cock in a reverse cowgirl position. Trish took complete control. She held my ankles as she lifted her spectacular ass into the air, before jamming my cock back into her.

"I'm getting close, baby!"

Trish started fucking harder and harder. "Me too! ME Too! FUCKING ME TOO!"

I felt Trish's pussy pulse around my cock, as I erupted inside of her.

A few minutes later, as we continued to hug each other, Trish giggled and said, "That was great. There was a perfect amount of cuddling, making love and fucking."

We had listed our West Hartford home for sale in mid-June. It was priced to sell and we had a signed contract just before the 4^th of July weekend.

Rather than expose Trish to the possibility of coming in contact with the virus, I had her sign a Power-of-Attorney. It gave me authority to sign documents on her behalf.

The day of the closing, Trish kissed me goodbye and asked that I hurry home. Later that night, after we'd cleaned the dinner dishes, I grabbed Trish's hand and she followed me out onto the deck.

We sat in our Adirondack chairs facing the water. I told Trish, "I wanted to surprise you with some good news, but I'm regretting not telling you about the surprise. It's something we should have talked about."

I could tell the wheels were turning in Trish's pretty head. "Let me guess." She thought for a few more moments before saying, "You used the Power-of-Attorney and signed some papers that I don't know about."

I was stunned and said, "How the hell could you possibly know that?"

Trish laughed and leaned over to kiss my lips. "Listen Buster, I can read you like a book." When I continued to stare at her, Trish continued, "It was just a feeling, but you acted a little to giddy ... a little too relieved, when you got the signed document in the hands. I had a feeling that you were going to use it for more than the house closing."

I suspect that my face turned red, as I recognized how well my wife knew me. "I spent some of the money, from the sale of the house."

Continuing to laugh, Trish said, "Spill it!"

"First, I paid off the balance of the mortgage on this house. It wasn't a lot. I also paid off the second mortgage we took out to renovate the garage."

"That makes sense, but I know there's more. Keep going!"

"Do you remember Bill Malloy?"

"Sure. He and his wife moved to Florida a few years ago."

I nodded and told Trish, "He's selling real-estate in the Tampa area."

Trish turned completely in her chair and faced me. "What have you done?" She asked.

"I bought a small Clearwater Beach condo. It's furnished with the basics and is ready to move in. I thought that the blue waters and seventy degree temperature of the Gulf Coast might be a better option for us, during January, February and March."

When Trish's expression didn't change, I said, "I also bought you a present, in case you were a little annoyed with me." I reached under my chair and pulled out two gift wrapped jewelry boxes.

"So, you're planning to buy me off with diamonds? Trish wanted to know.

"Well, it's not exactly diamonds," I admitted.

Trish opened the first box and was utterly confused. She opened the second and was still at a loss for words. She picked up the two miniscule pieces of fabric that had been crammed into each box and shook them, until they completely unfolded.

I laughed, as I watched her mouth move, but no sound came out. "It's a bikini for the Florida beaches."

"A bikini?" Trish said in astonishment. "It looks like three cotton balls attached together with fish line." She laughed and said, where would I ever wear this?"

I pulled Trish to her feet, kissed her and said, "How about wearing it tonight? For me?"

We wrapped our arms around each other and walked into the house.

Present Day

My middle son, Steven had walked away from our family sitting on the beach and joined me on the deck. He asked, "Can I get you a beer, Pops?"

When I agreed, he reached into the cooler and took out two cold IPA's. He opened them both, handed me one and we touched cans.

He glanced back at our family sitting around on their blankets and said, "You and Mom are looking pretty good. Congratulations."

"Thanks. We've been working hard."

It took him a few moments before he continued, "Hey Dad?" When I looked over, Steve continued, "You look ten years younger."

"If you want to know the truth, I feel twenty years younger."

"Your attitude is different too, Dad."

"It's strange," I told Steve. "Last week I found out that two associates and an old college friend all lost a parent to Covid. Over the last several weeks, that makes seven people. I'm sad and distraught at the amount of carnage the virus has caused. At the same time, I've never been happier with myself, your Mom or our family. We're lucky people.

Steve reached out and pulled me into a hug. It took five seconds for a chorus of "Social distance", "You're spreading Covid" and "No hugs" erupted from our group on the beach.

I winked at Steven as we laughed and headed to the sand, to be with our family.