Stay Lady Stay

"Uhmm...yes, please, mint tea would be nice."

Sarah looked around. It was definitely a bachelor's apartment. It looked like Jude had moved in right out of college and never moved out. Thanks to rent control, this was probably the truth. Still, Sarah had never seen an apartment looking this forlorn since her own college days. It needed someone to transform it from "a place to live" into the home which a kind man, like Jude deserved. It simply needed a "woman's touch".

Sarah sat down on Jude's couch, motioning him to sit next to her, and started sipping her peppermint tea. "Jude, there are a few things I need to say. I have always thought that you were a very special man, kind, caring, thoughtful of others and a real gentleman. You also never pried into my personal life, though as I sit here in your home that is now impacting on your life. You just took off a sick day to help and care for me, when we hardly know each other, and you did so readily and unselfishly, seemingly without a worry of how you could be hurt."

Jude started to speak, but she shushed him to silence.

"I know you have many questions, let me try to answer some.

I suddenly stopped working for Avery and left at the end of June, a little over 6 months ago. I was very upset and so anxious to leave I didn't explain my actions to anyone. I did at least leave you a note in your desk file drawer and I hope you found it.

"You have welcomed me into your home without questions about why I am such a mess. I owe you an explanation.

"On June 22nd, Avery came to my desk and said he wanted to apologize to me for being so hard on me. It seemed so strange, so out of character. I'm sorry...I was SO STUPID! I actually believed him. He asked if he could take me out for lunch as a form of showing how sorry he was. Anyways, he took me to a nice Italian place in the North End. He ordered and I went to the Ladies Room to wash up. When I got back the food was already at the table, he must have ordered ahead. We had some homemade ravioli, a glass of red wine, and a small dessert. As we finished, I was suddenly feeling off and quite sleepy. Everything is cloudy after that. The next thing I knew I was sprawled on a cheap motel bed and he was on top of me. That horrible man was raping me and not using any protection. I was horrified! The next day I turned in my two-week notice. After leaving work I stopped to talk to a pharmacist. He offered a somewhat expensive pregnancy test that was new to the market and promised results by the 5th day of pregnancy. On June 28th the test was positive. Morally I could not murder my baby so that is why I am pregnant.

"I know I was stupid BUT..." Sarah was breathless, her face streaked red with tears. She couldn't continue. She just reached over to Jude, threw her arms around his neck, and deeply wept with her head against his shoulder.

Jude understood. He didn't need any more explicit details. He didn't want Sarah to have to relive more of such a painful experience. Jude let Sarah cry into his strong shoulder. His hatred for Avery Curry grew. Jude wondered how could a man treat a woman so heinously? He stayed quiet for the next 15 minutes as she cried her heart out. Finally, she slowed to whimpers and finally looked up into his face.

With a deep look of love, Jude released her. "There's a bathroom down the hall if you want to tidy up," he offered. "I'll bring you some towels."

Sarah nodded and stumbled down the hall to the bathroom.

Jude got the last clean towel from the closet as well as the fancy rose guest soap that his sister always sent him but he had never used, then headed down the hall to her.

It wasn't a fancy bathroom. It wasn't even that tidy, as a stray damp towel lingered on the floor from early that morning. Reflexively, Sarah picked it up and hung it on a towel bar. Sarah just needed a place to get warmer, soak her feet and just get all the grime off her so she could feel clean.

Emotionally her confession had left her feeling dirty in addition to the fact she had not washed since the previous night. She started the water to fill the tub. Its warm mist floated up and Sarah eagerly got in. She felt the wonderful warmth seep into her skin as she slowly sunk down into the bath.

"I'm going to need some help in here," Sarah called to Jude.

He came in. He opened the door and was jolted to a stop in surprise. It was strange to see a naked pregnant woman in his tub. She looked filthy and beautiful at the same time. Jude briefly wondered if he should get his swimsuit.

"Come on in. I've seen everything men have before. I have two boys and another kid on the way. I just need help." Sarah announced as she moved forward to make way for Jude to sit at the end of the tub behind her.

After a few moments of surprise, and uncertainty, Jude stripped and then got into the tub. Relaxing at last, Sarah let her head fall back against Jude's shoulder and closed her eyes. A soft sigh escaped her lips as the hot water continued to drain the chill from her body. The grime also quickly melted off her into the steamy air. After a night of tending to her boys and giving them most of her food, plus a morning of being on her feet desperately begging, Sarah thought she might fall asleep. She had trusted Jude and now she felt so comfortable and safe.

Jude moved and reached for something. Sarah, too tired from her exhausting struggle with life, didn't bother to open her eyes to see what was happening. She trusted Jude to help her feeling he was her friend, wasn't he? She would find out the truth soon enough.

"Lean forward," Jude whispered softly, kissing her earlobe and gently pressing her forward to prompt her into movement.

Sarah finally opened her eyes and saw that he had fancy rose-scented soap and a thick plush cloth in one hand. She leaned forward as far as a pregnant woman could bringing her chest down against her thighs and laid her head on her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs giving Jude full access to her back. She felt the soft cloth slide over her skin and she sighed contently, letting her eyes close again.

The rose fragrance filled her nostrils. It felt so luxurious to have someone take care of her for a change, even if it was in a messed-up situation like this. Jude rubbed more soap into the cloth and ran it along Sarah's arms and down her sides. He took his time, watching the suds slide down her skin and into the warm water.

Once he was satisfied her back was clean and beginning to get pink as her body warmed, he gently pulled her back into his arms and against his chest again. Next Sarah felt the soft soapy cloth skim over her breasts as he began washing her shoulders and chest. The soft cloth tickled over her skin. Her breasts were already swelling from pregnancy and her nipples were aroused. He spent some time soaping one breast and then the other. Sarah arched her back, pushing her breast into the palm of his hand and moaning softly. Arousal and exhaustion warred with each other in her body. Jude's hand moved down along her stomach, painfully slowly. It was as if he didn't want to harm what lay sleeping inside her tummy, but to her, it was very arousing.

Jude bent his head and placed a lingering kiss on her neck and nuzzled gently along her jawline, up to her ear, peppering random kisses as he went. She felt herself trembling a bit. It felt so good to have a remarkable man helping her and protecting her.

Jude was adoring the way she seemed to need him. He didn't really believe she wanted him as a man. After all, who could want him? He was a forty-three-year-old bachelor. He was average in every way from his appearance to his job. There was nothing special about him. Still, Jude was glad Sarah was willing to at least pretend that she could love him.

A small gasp of pleasure escaped from Sarah's mouth. Jude grabbed his "Just for Men Shampoo" from its spot and poured it into Sarah's oily messy hair. He gently massaged it into her scalp. She was beginning to feel overcome with the sensuality of it all. After it was well lathered, he rinsed it clean. Sarah finally felt warm and truly clean and thanked Jude for his wonderful bathing of her body. He carefully got himself up and then gently helped the very pregnant Sarah to stand so she could step out of the tub. Then Jude drained the tub and rinsed away the soap scum.

"Uhmm, I don't do a lot of laundry so I only have the one clean towel. I don't want you catching a cold so it's yours. We can get some warm clothes from the bedroom," said Jude as he passed her the towel. Jude stood naked in the middle of the bathroom. It was an uncomfortable situation for them both.

Jude's mind started racing. Jude felt a desire to open his body for Sarah's exploration. He wanted Sarah's gentle hands to possess every inch of him, to be acquainted with his entire body. Even more He wanted to be her safe refuge; to provide her with a home for both her and her children. At the same time, uncertainty filled his mind. Even when Jude was a teenager, he hadn't been a "catch".

Classmates, especially the "pretty girls" teased him for his crooked teeth and acne. Of course, there had been no money for braces to straighten his teeth. Jude could only apprehensively wait to observe how Sarah responded to his loving attempts to help her. Jude realized he had done all he could do and now the future, for better or worse, was now solely in Sarah's hands.

With the only towel wrapped around her swollen belly, Sarah followed Jude into the bedroom. The bedroom was dimly lit thanks to the cloudy weather forecasting the heavy incoming snowstorm.

Knowing Sarah needed help, due to the awkwardness caused by her swollen belly, Jude took the towel from her and started patting her down. After he finished drying Sarah off, Jude kissed her swollen belly and felt the baby kicking within. He was suddenly so excited; he hoped what he had done was alright, that his social awkwardness had not destroyed the budding friendship. He hoped he could see a day soon when he could see and even hold the child in his arms and hopefully take care of it.

Sarah was stunned by his action of kissing her belly, but at the same time saw it as an act of gentle love and caring coupled with absolute wonderment with regard to her pregnancy. Her husband had never shown her that kind of loving care and tender attention.

"Sarah?" questioned Jude earnestly even as he glowed red in embarrassment, "there's probably a proper romantic way to court you. But I wouldn't know anything about romance other than what I've seen in Nancy Myers movies...as impractical as they may be. Some guys just seem to know what to do and what to say. They can sweep women off their feet with chocolates and flattery and ... . I've never been a man like that. I'll never be a man like that. I can only be me! Will you let me tell you about me?

Sarah gave him a little hug and a peck on his cheek as she nodded in the affirmative.

"I'm just a simple man, a shy person, in fact, a very shy man. For a long time, I've tried to work up the nerve and gumption to talk to you, yet, I've never quite had the courage. And then it was too late as you had left the office."

Sarah kept smiling sweetly at him, her radiance encouraging him to continue.

Jude felt like he was playing all his cards. He had to let the dice fall where they would. "Sarah, I've never talked to a woman like this before and I'm probably not doing it right. Just know I have no ill-placed intentions or expectations. I just want you to know that I've always loved you from afar and that I still feel great love for you."

Jude had expected Sarah to kick him out of the room or at least smack him like women did to rogues in old-fashioned movies but, to his surprise, Sarah smiled sweetly at him and kissed his lips lightly. She didn't say anything. Sarah had become so emotional and was feeling so loved that she couldn't put into words what she was feeling. How could she explain the primal force that pulled her to Jude and she hoped Jude to her? It was what called swans together.

Jude gently kissed her back. Was she saying yes to him? He never knew with women. "Now, I know your other clothes are dirty but I have clean clothes. Wear some of mine for a while? They should suffice until yours are washed. If they don't fit, we'll get you some off Amazon.

Sarah nodded mutely and took the clothes he offered and went back into the bathroom to change. For some reason, all of a sudden, she was overcome with shyness and just didn't feel right about dressing in front of him. She knew he'd seen her naked body in the tub and tended to her needs, but, now that she was clean, and her lips tingled from their chaste kiss, she felt tingly all over. She didn't want Jude to think that she was some sort of strumpet.

As she dressed Sarah felt herself shiver as she remembered Jude's incredible green eyes, his well-muscled body, his sensual mouth that had closed over hers in something far less chaste than planned. She looked at herself in the fogged-up mirror sternly. 'You've got no business thinking those kinds of things,' she scolded herself quietly. "You have two young sons at school and you're seven months pregnant. You should neither want nor expect anything. He's your friend and a gentleman. Don't expect anything else; you don't deserve it"

Still, it had been months since she'd had a man, even longer since she'd had a man who really pleasured her. Avery didn't count.

'Besides' she sadly muttered to the image in the mirror, "Why would Jude want a knocked-up woman like you Anyway?' You look horrible. Pregnant but emaciated at the same time. Pale, gaunt, world-worn and...fat. The very antithesis of a desirable woman."

Still, Sarah was surprised as she smiled a secret smile to herself thinking that if Jude would put his lips upon her breasts, or perhaps somewhere less chaste, she would lie with him and show how strongly she had loved him from afar. They would be one! She realized how much she wanted that. She knew she would have no problem holding or caressing Jude in any manner. Sarah steadied herself. No matter how much she longed to be with Jude it would have to wait. She had responsibilities to other people than herself. She had her boys that need to be picked up from school and her unborn child in her belly.

Jude's clothes fit well enough, given that she was seven months pregnant and still often suffered morning sickness. Sarah knew she'd get bigger as she'd fill out in a few weeks with her now rapidly growing baby. She opened the door to see that Jude had dressed in some stylish jeans and a deep purple fisherman's sweater. She wondered where he got such dark blue jeans. He looked gorgeous, like a model, certainly too good for a fat, pregnant woman.

Walking over to Jude and looking into his eyes she commented, "You look really handsome in normal clothes, I've only seen you in dress suits at work." Then it hit her suddenly, as she realized she'd never before seen him outside work. They were only "work friends" even if it seemed that they both desired to be much more.

"I usually only wear a suit at work," he admitted as he ran his hands over the jeans to smooth them a little self-consciously. "It's what society says a man is supposed to dress like to do well at his job. But since I'm just hanging out with you, I figured I could wear something comfortable." He walked closer to her and chastely kissed her cheek. "You look amazing, just as you have always been amazing."

Sarah blushed a little at the powerful compliment. "Thank you for letting me borrow some of your clothes," she said. "They're the nicest clothes I've worn in months" Suddenly, Sarah started coughing loudly. It was a wet hacking cough deep in her lungs. She steadied herself against the wall.

"I'm okay!" she quickly told Jude but failed to convince him.

He knew she was sick. 'Shit, this is the last thing I need,' Jude thought to himself--- 'must do something to help get Sarah better, otherwise, I'll have an irreparable disaster on my hands." Jude knew no medical treatments save the ultimate 'salve' when it came to people with a cold---chicken noodle soup. He knew he had a can or two up in the pantry, so, Jude went to heat it up.

"Sarah, you look like you are starving. Let's get you something to eat. I have some chicken noodle soup. The 'salve' for all illnesses," he chuckled, "let's go into the kitchen and get that." He patted Sarah on the back massaging the back of her chest trying to get the phlegm to come out.

Entering the kitchen, he grabbed the canned soup from the cupboard.

After a few minutes, he looked in the pot of heating soup and felt disappointed. It looked so plain and like something so common, so insignificant, for what he wanted to provide for his true love.

Jude was frustrated, he wished he wasn't such a bachelor, surviving off take-out and microwave dinners. He wanted to make his mother's chicken noodle soup. You could skim the fat off it. He was sure that it was full of the vitamins and minerals which a pregnant woman needed.

As he prepared the soup to put on the table, Jude also realized something that he'd been keeping from himself for a long time: He wanted someone to come home to, to hold and to love, someone who in turn would make him feel loved, someone to eat "real" chicken noodle soup with and on whom he could lavish all the love bottled up inside himself for so many years. He also wanted to have someone with whom he could banter on how to load the dishwasher, how to do the laundry, and whose turn it was to shovel the sidewalk. He wanted someone in his life with whom he could have inane arguments. Sure, Jude was living the ultimate bachelor lifestyle, and a million married guys probably wished for a life like his. They just didn't want to do the dishes, wash the clothes or argue with their wives. Jude wanted all of that and more. He now longed even more for a 'real life', instead of a life where he was just waiting for something intangible and unknown to happen to him.

The soup boiled. "Soup's on," he called to Sarah.

"Coming," yelled Sarah as she waddled down the hallway clutching a Kleenex to her red and runny nose.

Jude looked at Sarah. She was wearing his clothes. They fit perfectly due to the pregnancy. Sarah had his bathrobe wrapped around her. Sarah's hair was still damp from the bath. She looked remarkably sexy and yet unsexy at the same time.

Jude was a bit ashamed to think that he'd seen A LOT of 'plastic-fantastic' porn stars online, but realized after a while they all became the same woman and they were not real for him. Now, right here in his kitchen was Sarah and she was real and she was all woman. She was truly a genuine person; she was his Sarah.

"I took my dirty clothes and some of your dirty clothes and put them in the laundry. I hope that's not weird. I promise you won't get cooties from me." said Sarah, flirtatiously laughing a little as she sat down to eat her chicken soup.

Jude also let out a little laugh. He supposed it was a bit weird. For despite all his feelings of love, Sarah was really almost a stranger, and she had intimately handled his clothes to do his laundry. No woman, apart from his Mom, had ever done his laundry before. He liked it, though, because he felt like Sarah was taking care of him as if they were an old married couple.

Sarah finished her soup. She washed the bowl out as well as a few stray dishes, putting them on the rack to dry. Almost as if she'd been living in his house forever.

Jude's heart was pounding.

"My boys, Matt and Paddy will be getting out of school soon, so I should probably be headed out to pick them up," Sarah remarked much to Jude's dismay.

Sarah really didn't want to head out into the cold. She felt safe and treasured with Jude, but she couldn't impose two kids and a pregnant woman on him. He was a bachelor and used to the single life.