Ten Years Have Got Behind

"Stupid government regulations won't let me keep the ladies in the back office where they belong," Matt grumbled as he cut his steak. "Had to tell Mike in private I know he's right, Tania has no business driving the forklift, but legally I can't let him bully her."

"What's wrong, Matt? Afraid her hormones will have her dropping inventory with it?" Ellie was all too accustomed to her ex's chauvinism, but every now and then he surpassed even her low expectations.

"Careful, dear," chirped Scotty, touching Matt's hand affectionately. "You just might have hit a raw nerve there!"

"Matter of fact, Ellie, yes," Matt said. Scotty hooted with laughter. Ellie didn't. Matt went on. "You're talking thousands of pounds that could easily kill somebody if they slip off the forklift, not to mention the value of the inventory. It takes a steady hand and a calm demeanor. I don't believe women have the emotional stability for that."

"My god, you can be a nasty little bitch," Scotty needled him. Turning to Ellie, he asked, "How did you put up with this?"

"Back then I just thought all guys were like that," Ellie said. "That's probably why I married one like him, too. Hey, live and learn."

"Your divorce isn't my fault," Matt said. "I could've told you that guy was an asshole."

"I thought you never met him?" Scotty asked.

"That's right, he didn't," Ellie said. "I met Ronald in college. All Matt or any of my other high school friends saw of him was on Facebook."

"And that was more than enough to see what a little crumb he was," Matt said. "I sure wish you'd asked me what I thought of him, Ellie."

"Like she's going to ask the guy she turned gay for advice," Scotty teased.

"I didn't know!" Matt banged his fist on the table. Two years into his relationship with Scotty, his macho, homophobic past remained a sore point with him -- and Scotty's penchant for teasing him about it was an even bigger one. Scotty was lucky he was so good in bed. "You know I didn't get that I was gay until years later. You knew me then! I wasn't out to myself at all."

"I can vouch for that," Ellie said to Scotty. "In high school no one had a clue he was gay. Just the opposite, really. He was the first to pick on anyone we thought was gay."

"Sounds like you most of the way through freshman year," agreed Scotty, who'd already been out when he'd met Matt in college, though they hadn't given any thought to dating until years later. "Didn't touch my gaydar off at all, at first."

"Oh, that reminds me," Matt said. "I've found a new tenant for the spare room. Ellie, you're gonna love this. Jeremy Gleph!"

"Smurf?" Ellie hated herself as soon as she'd said it, but it had slipped out.

Matt grinned and nodded. To Scotty he explained, "Our sixth grade teacher always mispronounced his name, 'Glerf', so we called him 'Smurf'. Used to make the poor kid melt down! He cried almost every day."

"Gee, you're all heart, honey," Scotty said.

"I was a jerk, that's true," Matt said. "He's one of the ones Ellie was just referring to, that I used to pick on for being gay. Looking back, he probably really was gay. You can imagine his surprise when I told him I was!"

"How..." Ellie shook her head and set her knife and fork down. "I'm totally confused here. Why on earth would he want to move in with you after the way you treated him in high school? How did you even get in touch with him in the first place?"

"Facebook," Matt said. "I sent him a long message apologizing for the bullying, and oh by the way, guess who's gay? We've actually gotten to know each other pretty well."

"I smell a trick, honey," Scotty said.

"Me too," Ellie said. "You haven't changed that much since high school."

"Christ, you two can read me like a book, can't you?" Matt took a long sip of wine. "Okay, look, I really do feel bad for the way I used to pick on him, that much is true. But it wasn't a one-way street, you know?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Ellie said. "Not Adam? You guys were twelve years old!"

"My, you got an earlier start than I thought, then!" Scotty laughed.

"Nothing like that!" Matt snapped. "I didn't even like girls then, never mind boys! Adam was the best damn football player in our whole grade. Seriously, he might've ended up at Notre Dame! Then that little fucker Smurf..."

"It wasn't his fault, Matt!" Ellie said.

"What wasn't his fault?" Scotty asked.

"You wouldn't understand," Matt said. "And I still don't like to talk about it anyway. But yeah, I do blame Jeremy for the whole thing, and I just want to get even with him."

"And all those years of tormenting him didn't already do that?" Ellie asked.

"Hah!" Matt banged his fist on the table. "Graduated top ten in our class, went to some snooty East Coast college, and you know where he's moving back here from? Fuckin' Paris! He's got a master's degree and he's gonna be a French teacher at Saint Mark's!"

"No kidding," Ellie and Scotty said in unison; Saint Mark's was the most prestigious private high school in their part of the state; maybe even the whole state. Ellie envied the girls she saw from there when she was out and about, in their sharp uniforms and with their wide-open futures. If only...

"So no, the debt ain't paid. Besides, we're not really gonna hurt him, we're just gonna humiliate him."

"We?" Ellie said. "Oh, no you don't, Matt. I've got nothing against Jeremy."

"You do know he had a crush on you, don't you?" Matt said.

"I thought you said you thought he was gay?" Scotty said. No one replied.

"Everybody knew that," Ellie admitted. To her shame, she even recalled teasing him about it a time or two. All the more reason why she didn't want to hurt him any more now. "But it's ancient history, Matt!" she protested.

"Guess again, dear," said Scotty. "I haven't seen my childhood crush since the eighth grade, but if he walked through that door I'd be all over him."

"Exactly," Matt said. "I've already told him, the three of us have a clothing optional policy in the house, we shower together...oh, stop laughing, Scotty, you'd love it if we did do that! And we've got a big naked shindig planned for the first weekend in April. Ellie, you're going to get him comfortable with casual nudity, and then I trust you remember Jason and Mike and Chris? I'll be having them over that afternoon for a cookout, and when that little smarm goes out there in his birthday suit...April fool's!"

"Dear, you wouldn't!" Scotty said.

"And I definitely wouldn't!" Ellie said. "Forget it, Matt!"

"Oh, I think you will," Matt said. "How much would a room in any other house in this neighborhood run you?"

"You wouldn't," Ellie said.

"At least three times what you're paying, am I right? In fact, my parents have been after me to kick you out and get a real tenant who'll pay market price. I keep telling them, they're the ones who moved to Hawaii, the house is mine now and it's all paid off anyway. But I just might have to start listening to them..."

"You wouldn't," Ellie repeated, in a weaker tone this time.

"You've been talking about opening your own hairdressing place anyway," Matt reminded her. "That'll make a lot more money than working at the mall. Maybe then you ought to move out on your own."

"Maybe once I can afford it, yes," Ellie said. "But you know I'm not there yet. And all the bills from the divorce, I've only just paid the last few off!"

"And all I'm asking you to do is have a little fun with that nerd. Heck, you'll be doing him a favor! Think of what he'd have done back in high school just to take a shower with you!"

Tears came to Ellie's eyes. "You asshole," she said.

"Matt, that's right, you are out of line here," Scotty added.

"Screw you, you don't know what he did to Adam. And yeah, I'm an asshole, but it's my house, Ellie. Are you in or out?"

"In," Ellie sighed brokenly.

"I knew you were a smart gal," Matt said. Having finished his dinner, he stood up. "Now, the bitch and I here are headed to a movie. You're gonna do the dishes, aren't you?"

"Your wish is my command, Matt."

As soon as she'd heard Matt's car pull out of the driveway, Ellie went to the back porch and turned on the faucet for the hot tub. It was a night for that if ever there was one. Once the water was running, she went to her room and undressed, and put her bathrobe on. Then it was back to the kitchen to load the dishwasher.

The tub was nearly full by the time she was done cleaning up, and thanking Matt's parents once again for putting up a high fence around their property, she slipped her robe off and savored the thrill of being naked outside. It was something Ellie the golden girl of their high school never would have done back in the day, something for which she would have scoffed at any girl who was even rumored to have done such a thing. But that was just what she loved about it now. Miss Popularity no longer, at last she was her own woman, unabashed to bare her body to the dying sunlight.

Even the conundrum Matt had just placed her in couldn't destroy that pleasant tickle. Besides, she told herself, if she was going to have to spend some time naked with Jeremy Gleph of all people, she'd best get comfortable with the whole thing.

As Ellie stepped into the warm water and settled herself, she had to admit that alone didn't sound so bad. Jeremy had always been a sweet kid, and Matt was right, he had had a crush on her for ages. It would even be kind of fun giving him a good look at what he had no doubt imagined nearly every day throughout high school. The very thought of what a thrill that would surely be for him got Ellie feeling quite aroused herself, and she was tempted to get herself off then and there.

But she had no desire to humiliate him, quite the contrary! Once again she had the thought she'd had nearly every day since she'd moved out of her and Ronald's place and accepted Matt's invitation to move in with him and Scotty.

How did it come to this?

Eleanor Lenton, Ellie since grade school, cheerleader, honor student, homecoming queen, voted most likely to succeed...but she hadn't. After discovering high school popularity didn't transfer to college like AP credits did, she had at least managed to win the heart of her class' biggest track star, only to learn Division III athletic prowess didn't get anyone anywhere. Neither, it turned out, did a BA in English, and so she'd gone for her hairdressing certificate while living with Ronald's mother, just in order to have something to fall back on.

Six years and a divorce later, she was the most in-demand stylist at Catherine's Cuttery at the mall. At least none of her many clients needed to know she was also living with her ex-boyfriend and his boyfriend.

Ellie looked down at herself in the warm water, at the body that she knew had once been the object of Jeremy's fantasies and so many other boys'. While still in decent shape, she had put on a few pounds here and there. Her once-pert breasts looked and felt awfully heavy. With no need for intimate grooming for some time now, she'd let her natural ginger hair encroach upon her once-carefully trimmed bikini area. She rather liked the difference herself, like an ever-blooming secret under her clothes, but there was no missing what guys thought of such things these days. On that note, she had little doubt that Matt and Scotty tended to their own gardens rather meticulously, or that Matt would be shocked at the difference from the last time he'd seen her pussy, ages ago.

But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing?

Ellie smiled. Nothing wrong with showing Matt she was comfortable with having grown a bit older, after all. She wasn't happy at all about his plans for April Fool's, but surely there was something she could do about it.

Resolving to think about it, she was finally free to enjoy her solitary soaking. She closed her eyes and thought of Jeremy watching her undress, and soon her fingers were joyously busy.

Three uncomfortable days later, Ellie arrived home from her Saturday shift at Catherine's to find an attractive, bespectacled young man in an oxford shirt sipping a beer with Matt and Scotty in the living room. "Hi," she said with a cordial smile as she took off her coat.

The guest stood up. "Ellie! Great to see you!"

"Oh my God, Jeremy!" Her heart leapt -- the nerd had grown up! "Can't believe I didn't recognize you!" She opened her arms and, somewhat to her surprise, the guy whose life she had once helped make fairly miserable let her hug him.

"I wouldn't have known either, if I hadn't seen his pictures online," Matt said.

It wasn't just his appearance. As he hugged Ellie back, she felt his arms were strong, though gentle. Nothing like the weakling she remembered. Not that it'd be any excuse to pull this dirty trick if he were still like that, she admonished herself, but his warm welcome made her feel even worse. But she smiled through it. "You've sure grown up," she said. "So sorry you ended up back in this town like the rest of us!"

"Oh, I'm not," Jeremy said. "Saint Mark's, you know? What an opportunity! I used to envy those kids so much...you know, my parents even offered to let me apply there once?"

"Why on earth didn't you?" Ellie accepted a beer from Scotty and sat down on the couch, patting the spot beside her, which Jeremy accepted.

"I guess I was a reverse-snob or something," Jeremy said. "My parents were always reminding me they were broke, they spent all their money providing a good life for me, and I didn't want them spending even more when I didn't have the best attitude about school anyway."

"I'm really sorry for the part I played in that," Matt said. "I'm glad you let me reach out to you on Facebook to say that."

"And I'm glad you came out," Jeremy said. "I have to admit I never would've guessed." Turning to Ellie, he asked, "Did you have any idea?"

"None at all," Ellie said, having had to reassure Matt of as much on numerous occasions. "But who really knows who they are in high school? I sure didn't."

"I like your hair like that," Jeremy said. "Here I was wondering if you still wore it as long as in high school."

"Thanks! And not since halfway through college." Ellie patted her pageboy cut with her right hand. "This look gets me a lot of business, too -- women walk by in the mall and ask, could you do that to my hair?" She let out a sad sigh. "It's okay if you're thinking you never imagined I'd end up a hairdresser, you know. I thought I was bound for bigger and better things too."

"Don't we all?" Jeremy said.

"Oh, come on, Mister I Just Got Back from Paris!" Matt said.

"I didn't get there in the first place until three years out of college," Jeremy said. "Look, freshman year, I pretty much fell flat on my face. The other three years were all about coming back from that."

"I'm sorry, man," Matt said. "That's probably my fault too."

"Oh, don't be silly," Jeremy said. But Ellie couldn't hear a note of sincerity in that. Or was it just her own concerns about what was coming? To her relief, he promptly changed the subject. "So...what's this I hear about you guys showering together?" He let out a nervous laugh.

"Every gay man's dream, right?" Matt said.

"This gay man's dream anyway," Scotty added.

"But yeah, the whole idea is we're adults now, we're open, and you know Ellie and I have a history."

"And I do like to look even if I don't want to touch," Scotty quipped.

"We do have a big shower with three taps in the master bathroom," Ellie explained. "Shame to let it go to waste, and it does kind of bring us together, you know?"

"I think I told you, Jer, the first weekend in April we're having a big naked party in the back yard, too," Matt said. "Hot tub and everything."

"You guys are welcome to get a head start in there tonight, if you want," Scotty suggested, looking back and forth from Ellie to Jeremy. "We've got a dinner date, but..."

Jeremy looked at Ellie and grinned. "No pressure, Ellie, of course! But I would love a soak."

"I'd be happy to join you." Ellie gave Matt a sidelong glance to let him know she meant every word. "Can't imagine a better way to catch up."

"Gee, I think I'm gonna love living here!" Jeremy said.

Scotty howled in laughter, Matt went along with an agreeable chuckle, and they both took their leave for Jeremy to finish unpacking.

Ellie went to her room to hide out until Matt got lost. As soon as she'd heard the garage door slam, she went out to the back porch and started filling the hot tub. Once she had the water running, she turned around and was surprised to see Jeremy standing in the doorway, still fully clothed. "Hey," he said, "If you'd rather wear your swimsuit or even not do it at all..."

"I'll wear a swimsuit if you'll be more comfortable with that," she offered. "But I really am fine with going nude." More than fine, she realized -- he was gorgeous, and he was still the sweet guy she remembered besides.

"I am, too, then," he said, and he allowed a nervous grin.

"Jeremy, relax! We're all old friends here." Ellie felt utterly ashamed of herself, but there was no pretending she wasn't dying to help him out of his clothes. "Here, if it'll reassure you that it's okay with me..." She reached back and unzipped her skirt. "Don't be shy!" She looked down to guide the skirt around her ankles as she stepped out of it, and when she looked back up, he was unbuttoning his shirt. "That's more like it!" she said, tamping down her embarrassment, and she followed suit with her top.

Jeremy had a bit of a paunch, Ellie saw when he took his shirt off. But that only made her more comfortable with her own few extra pounds. She wasn't at all surprised that his own eyes were trained a bit upwards from her belly anyway. "No offense," he said. "But I was always terribly curious about your bra size."

"It was thirty-four C," Ellie said wistfully as she now reached back to undo her 40-D bra. "Was."

"Well, they're still beautiful, you know."

"Thank you!" She almost believed him as her breasts fell free and she set the bra on the sofa just inside. She was as self-conscious as ever about the way they hung lower than back in her lighter glory days. At least, she reminded herself, Jeremy had never seen them back then.

But he really did seem to believe they were lovely, and she was delighted to see his boxers bulging so much he struggled to pull them down. "Always gets in the way at a time like this," he chuckled as he pushed them down and his hard cock sprung to attention.

"Lovely problem to have," Ellie said, longing to touch it. But she had her panties left to get rid of, and she forced another smile as she pushed them down and left nothing to his imagination.

"Sorry about this," he said, pointing at his hardness. "Doesn't really feel appropriate, but I guess you know I spent years imagining...this."

"Don't apologize!" Ellie was equal parts titillated and relieved that he seemed to still like what he saw; the feeling was certainly mutual. "It's very flattering. And yes, I remember the rumors about you having a crush on me. I probably owe you an apology for..." An excruciating memory hung in her memory of giving him a flirtatious wave in the school cafeteria and all her friends laughing at his shy response. "...For a lot of stuff."

"It's fine, Ellie. It was a long time ago." Both of them were still rooted to the deck, and he went on, "I'm fine with standing here and admiring each other if you want, but shall we get in?"

"Of course!" Ellie said. "We can admire each other all we want in there!"

"I like the way you think!" And he eagerly followed as she climbed into the tub.

A pleasant silence prevailed for a couple of minutes, as he settled himself beside her at a respectable distance of six inches or so. Ellie was tempted to invite him to snuggle up to her, But, she reminded herself, the closer they grew now, the more he'd be hurt by the April Fool's joke. So she contented herself with the view of his rigid cock bobbing in the water, and welcomed his own gaze upon her body.