Rear Ended

"Happy Birthday." I replied.

Nicole's breathing eased and she rolled over on her side toward me. I could feel her eyes studying me closely and it made me tingle all over.

"Happy Birthday." She said.

The next thing I knew, she rolled me over on my back, pinned me down with the weight of her body and ravaged my mouth with hers.

"You're the most incredible person I've ever known." Nicole told me.

"You're pretty amazing yourself, honey." I told her.

"God, I love it when you call me that." She said. "Gets me so hot."

"I know." I smirked and nuzzled her nose. "Why do you think I do it?"

"But I'm afraid I need a rest." She exhaled and literally collapsed on top of me, her head resting just over my shoulder. "You've worn me out."

As her last statement filtered into my mind, the implication of it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm a 40 year old woman who has just had a night of incredibly hot and passionate sex with a woman 20 years younger than me; and I wore her out? Sliding my arms around Nicole's exhausted little body and holding her snuggly against me, I just couldn't stop the shit-eating grin that filled my face.

"Cool!" I heard myself mumble.

"What?" Nicole murmured in a half state of sleep.

"Nothing baby." I whispered. "Nothing at all. You go on to sleep."

"Mandy?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

The words caught me completely off guard. In an instant, my mind was a whirlwind of scattering, scrambling thoughts, my stomach tied itself in knots and I felt my heart skip several beats. Could she have actually meant that? Was it just in the heat of the moment or did she truly mean it? People often say things they don't really mean in the throes of passion. And let us not forget the simple fact of her age. She's only twenty. She doesn't even know what love truly is. But then again, who does?

"Go to sleep honey." I whispered.

"I love you, Amanda. I love you so much."

As my eyes flooded with tears, I felt Nicole's heartbeat against my chest. It was thundering wildly. As was mine. I wondered if she could feel it. Holding Nicole protectively in my arms, my thoughts found their way to my ex-husband Daniel, and I suddenly realized that I could no longer stand in judgment against him for taking a twenty year old girl to his bed. God, if he only knew that his ex-wife now had a twenty year old girl in her bed too. What a scandal!

The faint and distant sound of running water finally stirred me out of sleep. As I opened my eyes, my bedroom was flooded with bright sunshine. It was a glorious Christmas morning. Rolling over, I made the unpleasant discovery of Nicole not being there and my heart began to spasm. Had she slipped out in the night? Was she gone for good? Would I ever see her again? Get a hold of yourself, Mandy! Sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, the sound of running water flooded my ears and my eyes shot to the bathroom door. And there she was! Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, beaming her gorgeous smile and wrapped up in one of my short, silk robes. My beautiful little Nicole. My beautiful Christmas angel.

"Good morning, my love." Nicole chimed.

Oh! There was that quiver in my belly again. What the hell is it with that? I thought we determined it was just carnal desire. But here it is again.

"Good morning." I replied. "What time is it?"

"Just after ten."

"Really? God, I haven't slept this late on Christmas morning in quite a few years."

"Well, when was the last time you had such wild and unbridled lesbian sex on Christmas Eve?"

"Good point."

"So, you ready to open your Christmas present?"

"Christmas present? What Christmas present? There aren't any presents under the tree yet."

"Who said it was under the tree?"

"What are you up to?"

"I'll give you a hint."

And with that, Nicole slowly untied the belt of her robe and let the robe fall open, stopping it just shy of revealing the gorgeous flesh and naked body beneath.

"There! I just took off the bow. Now, you want to come and un-wrap the rest?"

Nicole and I spent nearly three hours together taking a bath. Of course, only about five minutes of that was used for actual bathing. When we finally were able to leave each other alone long enough to get dressed, we went downstairs and reheated the leftovers from the previous night. Both of us were as famished as lionesses in the jungle dry season and between the two of us, we scarfed down almost every morsel of them and then shared a brand new gallon bucket of ice cream; and we ate it all. After we ate, we curled up together on the sofa and watched TNT'S all day marathon of "The Christmas Story." We both fell asleep halfway through our second viewing of it.

My cell phone ringing woke me up around five that evening and it was Daniel, asking if he could bring the girls home early. He and Karen - that's her name; the twenty year old bimbo who he replaced me with. Sorry! Can't really call her that anymore. Anyway, the two of them were invited to a Christmas party hosted by one of his biggest clients at the last minute and children were absolute taboo at a party such as this. I told him the sooner the better and he proceeded to tell me they'd be dropping the girls off within the hour and then hung up.

As I informed Nicole of the girls coming home, her smile vanished and her face dropped into a sorrowful frown. Though she spoke not a word, I read her thoughts like words on a page. She actually believed that I would want her to leave now that my children were coming home. Letting her suffer for as long as I could stand it, I watched her get up from the sofa and go upstairs to retrieve her duffel bag and jacket from the guest room. I tiptoed up after her, cursing myself for being a cold and cruel bitch to be playing such a terrible joke. Nicole came out of the guest room with bag in hand, her head hung low and wiping tears from her eyes. Startled out of her wits to find me standing directly in front of her with my arms sternly crossed over my chest, a gasp of surprise leapt from her lips and she dropped her duffel bag. I quickly snatched it up off the floor and tossed it directly into my bedroom.

"Now you listen to me!" I stated matter-of-factly. "The only place that you're going tonight is back down those stairs to help me cook Christmas dinner for us and the girls. When the girls get here, the four of us are gonna eat Christmas dinner together. After that, we're gonna get the girls ready for bed and then watch ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE together. And then when the movie is over, you and I are gonna put the girls to bed, then we're gonna come back up here to our room, make love in our bed and then fall asleep in each other's arms. Questions?"

With my heart pounding wildly and my stomach somersaulting, I watched anxiously as the beautiful smile slowly crept back on to Nicole's lips and tears of absolute joy welled in her eyes.

"Just one." She said finally.

"I'm listening."

"Why?"

"Because I love you."

Nicole's eyes bulged and the tears that had been welling in her eyes were now streaming down her quivering cheeks and she placed her hand over her heart.

"You love me?"

"Yes." I replied, now fighting back my own tears. "There has been this bizarre quiver deep in my belly ever since you crashed into my life. At first I thought it was just nerves. Then I thought it was sexual desire. But now I know that it's love. I love you, Nikki." I took a breath and cleared my throat; not that it did any good. "I told you last night that I might just fall in love with you, and I have. I also said that I might just have to keep you here for the rest of your life, and I'm going to." I took a breath. "Any problems with either of these things?"

"None." She choked.

"Good. Now come on." I stated as I held out my hand to her. "The little monkeys are gonna be here in an hour and they're gonna be hungry in two. So we better get busy."

Nicole's hand was trembling as she took hold of mine. I kissed her hand softly and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"What are we gonna tell the girls about me? About us?" She asked.

"The truth. That you're Mommy's very special friend and that you're going to be living with us now. We'll worry about the details of that once they get a little older." I answered.

"And what about my eye?" She asked.

"I don't know. Maybe that you got kicked by one of Santa's reindeer?" I replied.

We both burst into laughter and then Nicole gently cupped my face in her hands and stared tenderly into my eyes.

"I love you so much."

"Merry Christmas, honey."

We kissed softly and then I led her downstairs and we cooked our first Christmas dinner together. When the girls got home, everything went just as I said it would. In fact, it was better than I even imagined. The girls fell in love with Nicole almost instantly and her with them. The girls accepted Nicole without question and my heart soared to the gates of heaven. And as I drifted off to sleep that wondrous Christmas night with Nicole in my arms, I felt totally complete - heart, mind, body and soul for the first time in my life.

I promised her that I would never let her leave, and I never have! And it has been 30 years since that magical Christmas. And here it is, just after midnight on Christmas morning again. As I sit, pen in hand, scribbling out the closing sentences of this story, the soft and slumberous breaths of my beautiful little Nicole, or Nikki, as I now call her, are drifting like beautiful music into my ears from across the room. Glancing over my shoulder, I see her beautiful form curled up snuggly under the covers of our bed as she sleeps in heavenly peace. The same bed that we first made love in on that long ago Christmas. The bed that we still make love in today.

Doctor Nicole Foster celebrated her 50th birthday yesterday, whiles her loving spouse and devoted companion of 30 wonderful years, me, celebrated her 70th. Even now at 50 years old, Nikki is still the sexiest, most desirable and beautiful woman on God's good earth to me; and according to her, so am I, even at 70 years old. We still have a very active and passionate sex life; in fact, we just consummated our 30th anniversary together by doing just that. Our life together has of course had its ups and downs, and has by no means been easy, but I would not trade a second of it for anything in heaven or on Earth. I've been retired for nearly ten years now while Nikki has spent the last five years building her private practice as a pediatrician. She is a wonderful doctor and her patients and their parents absolutely adore her. I work three days a week as a part time receptionist in Nikki's office . Not that we need the money or anything; between my pension, a few long term investments and Nikki's thriving practice, we have more money than we can possibly ever spend. I just like to be near her during the day and it gives me something to do in my retirement years; it also has added nearly 40 adopted grandchildren to my life. And on the subject of grandchildren:

Our oldest daughter Stacy is now a beautiful woman of 36 and a divorced, single mother of two daughters and a son, while our baby girl Lucy is about to turn 34, married to her high school sweetheart and the mother of twin sons. And I say "our" daughters, because Nikki is every bit as much the girl's mother as I am. They accepted her as such the day they met her all those years ago and have loved her as such ever since. They both still loved their father, but whenever they spoke of their "parents", they meant Nikki and me. Then there are our sons: Zackary and Richard. About two years into our relationship, Nikki and I decided that we wanted more children, so after careful research and consideration, we asked a mutual friend; a man we respected, loved and adored to do this for us, and he happily agreed. Nikki was artificially inseminated, and nine months later, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy when she was 23. Three years later, we went through the process again with our same dear friend and Nikki gave birth to another beautiful baby boy when she was 26.

Zack is now 27 years old, engaged to a beautiful girl and working as an architect here in Dallas. Richard, or Ricky, is 24 years old, single and in his second year of medical school at John Hopkins; proudly following in his mother's footsteps. On a sadder note, my ex-husband Daniel passed away last year at the age of 79 after a six year bout with cancer. He is survived by his fifth wife. Just to refresh your memory, I was his second. And then there is Nikki's brother, Luke. Well, he ultimately got himself straightened out and sobered up a couple of years after Nikki and I got together. Luke and Nikki mended their damaged relations and have become very close. And in another bizarre twist of fate, Luke ultimately hooked up with, and married Karen, Daniel's third ex-wife (the 20 year old bimbo). They ended up having four children and are still married today. They live over in Fort Worth, Nikki and I see them often, and Karen has become one of my dearest friends. In truth, she's like the sister I always wanted. God truly does have a remarkable sense of humor.

Now, you might be asking, how did Nicole Leann Foster go from being a homeless stripper at 20 to a medical doctor at 50; and still find time to have done all the things I've just described so successfully? Well, the answer is simple - my Nikki is an amazing woman, and that's all you really need to know. She's made me the happiest woman alive and I have never once looked back on the last 30 years and asked the question - "What if?" True, it never even occurred to me in my wildest dreams that my Mister Right would turn out to be my Mrs. Right. I also would never have believed that she would be twenty years my junior. And I certainly never would've imagined that we would still be so very much in love, in every sense of the word after thirty years, but we are. I love Nikki more today than I did the first night we were together. I fall more deeply in love with her with each passing day; and she with me. She is more beautiful to me now than she's ever been, and she proclaims everyday that I am to her. And because she says it, I believe it. If you cannot trust the love of your life, who can you trust?

So, I guess the moral of my story is this: The next time you find yourself involved in a minor automobile accident - before you even get out of your car - do whatever it takes to be kind, stay calm and keep an open mind. Because you just never know who the other person involved might be. It just might be your Mister or Mrs. Right.

Love Always,

Amanda Lasden-Foster