Party Time

Nancy sat beside Arthur holding his hand and saying, "Hold on, hold on."

But Arthur could not hold on. Around midnight he drew one last agonising breath and died.

"He's gone," a nurse said.

Nancy sat on still holding Arthur's hand.

When we are with someone who dies, for a while it seems impossible that they have slipped over that border between life and death; have gone from this life and entered the mystery that is beyond. That was how Nancy felt.

Life with Arthur had been difficult, but he had still been embedded in her existence, and now there was a gap... a hole in her life.

A hand touched her shoulder. It was a nurse. "Come now, I'll take you to the visitors lounge. It's empty at this time of night and I'll get you a cup of coffee."

Like an automaton Nancy allowed herself to be led by the nurse.

"Is there anyone you'd like me to call?"

Who... who was there to call? There were no nearby relatives, so who?

"My friend... my friend Cynthia."

"What's her number?"

Nancy delved into her handbag and bringing out a small notebook she found Cynthia's number.

The nurse left her with an undrunk cup of coffee before her a she stared out of a large window high in the hospital at the city lights.

There was no time, only now. Clocks and watches marked the passing minutes, but for Nancy the world had stopped spinning.

"Darling."

A hand touched her shoulder. It was Cynthia.

"You were with him?"

"Yes."

"Before I left I rang Byron; he's on his way."

"No; he wouldn't want to... "

"Yes he would; he loves you Nancy, and of course he'd want to be with you."

Nancy did not have the energy to speak further, and as Cynthia sat beside her, holding her, tears came. Tears of remorse; tears that told of the lost and wasted years; the words that had never been spoken, the things that had never been shared.

"Byron's here, darling."

Cynthia moved away to be replaced by Byron. He didn't speak. He simply sat there holding Nancy as she wept for her lost past, the wasted years.

"Don't go back to your house tonight," Cynthia said, "Come to my place."

Nancy allowed herself to be led out of the hospital to Byron's car. Following Cynthia they went to her house. There she was given a stiff whisky and put to bed. Byron stayed with her until she fell into a fitful sleep.

Not until after the funeral and the quiet wake at Cynthia's house did Nancy come to terms with the fact that Arthur was gone from her life. She had stayed on at Cynthia's place until then. The world was turning on its axis again, but it was a blur.

Byron frequently came and went, letting Nancy talk, but saying little himself. It was enough that he was there.

Cynthia and Byron went with Nancy when she returned to her house, but after a while she said, "I'd like to be alone."

They went, and Nancy began to gather Arthur's things together. She wondered why things had been the way they were. Could they have been different; could she have made them different?

She made no attempt to get rid of Arthur's things then, it was too soon.

Next day Byron came to see her. She talked again of life with Arthur and wept as Byron held her.

Amid her tears for Arthur Nancy wondered what his death meant for her and Byron. In a sense Byron had been safe while Arthur lived. Knowing that she would never leave Arthur, he knew that Nancy would make no demands on him for something more than their intermittent love making, but now Arthur had left her, so...?

She needed comfort and reassurance, but in more than words. Her body was responding to her needs, and she said to Byron, "Would you make love with me?"

He kissed her and replied, "If you're sure that's what you want."

Had they been in Cynthia's house this would have been the cue for him to pick her up and carry her to the bedroom. Byron did not know her house, so she took his hand and guided him to the bedroom.

Always gentle, this time he was very tender with her, lingering long over her, holding back his orgasm for as long as he could.

Afterwards she slept peacefully for the first time since Arthur's death.

It was early evening when she was awakened by Byron. He had found some food and prepared a meal for them. Again for the first time since Arthur died she ate with relish. She felt herself emerging from dark pit where she had mourned.

She wondered if she should ask Byron to spend the night with her; a luxury they had never had. Then she thought that she'd better not because it might be putting an unwanted pressure on him.

The matter was resolved when Byron asked if he could spend the night with her.

That night proved to be a major turning point in Nancy's life. As Byron took her repeatedly she came to understand his potency and her own seeming unquenchable desire for him. After being brought to orgasm twice by cunnilingus, and without any prompting from Byron, she administered fellatio, letting him shoot his sperm into her mouth; another first for Nancy.

When very late next morning she awoke, she felt like a new, free woman. She could give herself to anyone she chose, and her choice was Byron.

Thereafter, and feeling as they did about each other, there was a certain inevitability in what followed.

Byron came to spend most nights with Nancy. In the end it seemed ridiculous for him to live apart from her and he moved in.

The next link in the chain of their relationship came as a surprise to Nancy. She and Arthur had no children. After her early false pregnancy Arthur had expressed no desire for them to have children; nevertheless, he took the attitude, "If it happens it happens."

In physical terms this meant that neither of them took any precautions against pregnancy. Nancy, of course, never did get pregnant with him, and fortunately for Arthur, neither did any of his extra-marital inamoratas.

Had Nancy been aware of Arthur's extra-marital affairs, and their lack of progeny, she might have realised that her own apparent lack of fertility was not the case. It was Arthur and not her who was the problem.

This became apparent when she announced to a delighted Byron that his seed had borne fruit, and he was to become a father.

It might have been expected that they would then marry, but for all Byron's importuning, Nancy would not succumb. Not even when Cynthia told her, "You're being very foolish, darling," would she give in and get married.

Quite why she would not and has not married has never been determined, and perhaps even Nancy herself cannot explain. It might be that her experience with Arthur has deterred her; or the matter of their age gap still lurks in the back of her mind. Then again, it may be that Nancy feels a sense of freedom in there non-legally binding relationship.

Whatever the case, they have a daughter. After the birth and realising that Nancy might be endangered if there were further pregnancies, appropriate precautions were taken.

That it is how it rests at the moment. Nancy and Byron are still happily together, and for those who might be interested, they don't go to Cynthia's parties any more.