Taking Care of Family Pt. 02

Carrie was waiting for me at her front door and I could see she could barely contain herself. We hurried inside as she begged me to hurry up and tell her what was going on.

I explained that I found her old computer in a small local area network and guessed that many of the other computers on that network were old ones like hers that someone was exploiting. "Suddenly, I thought, what better way to deal with a blackmailer than installing Ransomware on their computers?"

Carrie gave me a funny look. "What's Ransomware?"

"It encrypted all the hard drives so that no one can access the data without paying a ransom and getting the codes to unlock them," I replied. "Only, in this case, they're never getting the codes and the drives will remain unusable forever."

"Can't they guess the password?" she asked.

"They can try, but three misses and the drives will be locked forever. I even locked up the external hard drive they seemed to be using for backups of their important files."

"So, what should I do?" she asked.

"Nothing. They may try to bluff you into paying, but tell them you want more proof than just the three pictures they sent you. I don't think you'll hear anything more after that," I said. "I also sent emails to the other people they were trying to blackmail and told them that whatever files were being used against them had been permanently locked up and they shouldn't pay anything to the blackmailers."

"Are you sure all of my pictures are gone and they can't get them?" she asked nervously.

"There's a very small chance they may have copied them to some other storage device or a cloud server, but I doubt it. I'm sure they believed no one could ever find them and there was no reason to move the pictures from their original computers," I replied. I suddenly felt dishonest for copying her files to my own server and every second that went by with her looking at me made me feel even more remorse.

"There is one more thing I didn't tell you," I said slowly. The concern and fear in her eyes were immediate. "I happened to make a copy of all your picture files and stored them in a safe place before locking down your old computer."

"Why would you do that?" she cried out in despair. "I told you I wanted them deleted forever and thought I could trust you to not look at them!" I could see she felt incredibly betrayed by what I had done.

"I know I shouldn't have done it, and I'll delete them for real, but when I happened to see some of your early pictures, I just thought they were too good to lose forever," I told her with genuine remorse. Carrie just looked at me with hurt.

"I mean, you looked incredible in those shots and I thought you might want to reconsider keeping them for yourself," I continued, as I tried to rationalize my breach of trust.

"I have kids now. I'm done with that part of my life. Why would I want to be reminded of what I used to look like now that I'm...," she looked down at her plump figure and waved her hands in disgust.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "You're still attractive."

"Yeah, right. Maybe to another whale," she said derisively.

"No, I'm serious. I mean, you were really hot looking when you were younger, but I still think you look great, right now," I told her earnestly. I found myself thinking back to my first impression of Carrie and how I hadn't felt any kind of sexual interest or arousal, but as we spent more time together, I found my view of her completely changed.

"You don't have to be that nice. I know I'm not much to look at. Certainly not as nice looking as I used to be," she countered. "Between giving birth to two kids and then dealing with the stress of my divorce, my body just went to shit."

"I'm not just saying those things to make you feel good. I'm saying them because I believe they're true. Over the last week, I've gotten to know you better and I can honestly say that I look forward to every time we talk or have the chance to get together, even if the reason is unpleasant," I surprised myself and I think I surprised Carrie at the forcefulness of my last comment.

"I'll delete the pictures I copied and you'll never have to worry about them again, but I have to tell you, the few images that I looked at were extremely exciting. And I wasn't always getting excited about the picture I was looking at from when you were 20-something, but I was thinking of you in the picture looking the way you are today. THAT was what really got me hard!" I couldn't believe I had just shared that with Carrie and I immediately regretted losing control and blurting it out. I was certain she would really think I was a douche bag, but she gave me a strange look.

"Why would you say something like that?" she said softly.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "I lost control and made you think I'm a pervert or weirdo or something."

"No, I don't think you're a pervert or a weirdo. You helped me when I really needed help and you've been very kind and understanding about how sensitive the whole thing is for me," she continued. "Do you really get excited thinking about me the way I am?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I could feel my face getting hot and was sure she could see it getting red from embarrassment.

"Why? Wouldn't you rather think about being with someone who was young, thin, and pretty instead of a woman who is fat and old enough to be your mother?"

"I mean, I think about things like that. Too. But the past week, I've only been thinking about you. I don't think you're old at all and what you call fat, I would call...," I had to think of the right word. Her eyebrows raised slightly and I finished my sentence. "I would call you voluptuous. Most of the time we've been together we've just been talking. I really like talking with you and I think you're a really smart, fun woman who just needs the chance to be herself instead of having to deal with shit like this last week."

"Is that why you kissed me the last time you were here?" she asked. I had no idea what she was talking about for a couple seconds and then remembered when she was hugging me before I left for home.

"I guess," I said. "You were in a bad place and it just seemed like the thing to do. I wanted to let you know that at least one guy cared about you."

"That was sweet of you," she said. For the first time in a while, her face gave me a genuine smile. "I wanted to kiss you back, but I didn't want to embarrass or scare you," she confessed. We looked at each other for a moment or two and then I stepped in and put my hands lightly on her hips. I got a thrill from the feel of her curves under my fingers and had a vision of her nude body against mine.

"You wouldn't have scared me," I told her quietly. "I'm sure you would have surprised me, but it would have been a pleasant surprise."

Without saying anything more, Carrie reached up and pulled my head down to hers. Our lips met and not wanting to push things too far, I left my lips closed. However, after a couple seconds, her mouth opened and I felt her tongue touch my lips. I opened my mouth and our tongues began their initial dance as we began to explore one another.

My arms moved around her waist and I pulled her gently against me while our kiss deepened. I heard her breathing become more shallow and rapid, and at the same time, her hands pulled me harder into her mouth. We kissed for at least a minute before separating and coming up for air. We were both breathing harder and I felt my arousal growing.

Carrie took another step back and with a deep breath, said "I think you should go now." I was both confused and disconcerted. Carrie clearly wanted and enjoyed kissing me, and there was no mistaking the passion we both felt. On the other hand, she was one of my mother's best friends and old enough to be my mother. There was no way we could ever have a real, long-term relationship. We let the emotions of the moment cloud our judgement and gone too far.

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered. "I shouldn't have done that."

"No. NO!" she said as her wet, pleading eyes looked up at me. "It was all my fault. I shouldn't have started it and you didn't do anything that I didn't encourage. Things are really complicated for me right now and I need some time to think. If you stay any longer, I'm afraid I'll lose what little control I still have and do something we both may regret later. I really appreciate everything you've done for me and everything you've said. I just need some time to process it. Please go now. I'll call you later, if that's okay."

"Yeah, sure," I said. I was still feeling awkward and uncomfortable standing there, so I turned and headed towards the door. Before closing the door behind me, I turned and told her, "I meant everything I said." She smiled back. "I know you did." She closed the door behind me and I heard the deadbolt click as she locked it. I barely remember the walk home. My mind was in a daze as I kept reviewing over and over what was said and what we did together. The whole discussion about the pictures I copied was completely overshadowed by what happened between us afterwards.