What Do I Do?

Chapter 1

'Can I use your laptop?'

'Yeah, of course, it's in my bag.'

Molly rose up off the sofa and wandered over to the back door. She opened Peter's work bag and slipped the laptop case out. Walking back towards the sofa she unzipped the case and slid the laptop out. As she pulled it free, an envelope slipped out with it and dropped to the floor.

'Oops,' she leaned over and retrieved the envelope. The sound of it caught Peter's attention. He looked up questioningly.

'Sorry; this fell out,' Molly said as she sank back onto the sofa next to Peter and held the envelop out to him.

'Oh yes,' he said, taking the paper, 'I'd forgotten about that.'

'What is it?'

'Beckie gave it to me straight after the lecture this morning,' Peter flipped it over and started to peel it open, 'I was in a bit of a hurry, so I just slid it in with the computer and then I'd forgotten about it.'

'Well; difficult to keep up with fan-mail, I suppose,' Molly said with a sly sidelong glance, as she tapped on the keyboard.

'Ha ha,' Peter responded dryly.

'Did Katie eat those little yoghurts last weekend or did you?'

'We both had them.'

'She liked them then?'

'Yeah, she ate some of it, but didn't seem wildly keen.'

'She's going through a fussy food phase. Do you think she'd like these?' Molly pointed out a different brand of yogurt from the online shopping list.

'Are you implying I know the mind of our fussy four year old?'

'No more or less than me.'

'Give it a go,' Peter returned to opening the envelope. 'I'll eat them if she doesn't.'

Peter slid the letter out and took in the handwriting as Molly continued to tap away on the computer.

Dear Peter

I just wanted to say thank you, for being a brilliant teacher. I'm amazed (and a little terrified) that I'm almost at the end of my degree, and I've been thinking back over the last three years.

'Oh bless her,' Peter murmured.

I've had the best time of my life, and that is in no small part thanks to you.

'What?' Molly glanced over.

'For your information, it is fan mail,' Peter replied, adopting a deliberately ironic tone of smugness.

'Poor misguided girl,' Molly quipped without looking up.

There have been ups and downs and I thank you again for talking me out of leaving the course at the end of last year. You have been a rock of wisdom, advice and caring support. Thank you.

There is one other thing that I wanted to ask you. I don't really know how to ask! I certainly would never have the courage to say this in person, but I really do want to ask. I've been thinking about it for a while. So I'm being a coward and writing to you. I think you're one of the nicest people I've ever met and I completely trust you. It is a bit of a crazy idea! -- so you can just ignore this letter if you want to. I don't want to put you in an awkward position and I don't want to embarrass you. I'm sure I'm embarrassed enough for both of us! But you know I have landed this job in Bristol, largely thanks to you, so I'll be leaving pretty soon after the final essay hand-in. So it is now or never.

The thing is I'm a virgin and I would like you to be my first.

Beckie

'Errr,' Peter paused.

His eyes flicked back over the last line.

'Has she stunned you with flattery?' Molly asked after a moment, sensing that Peter had finished reading.

'Err. Not exactly.' Peter hinged the letter back closed.

Molly looked up from the laptop and met Peter's eye. She frowned a questioning look, flicked her eyes down to the letter and then back up to his.

'It goes off on a tangent at the end,' Peter said.

'About what?'

Peter stalled for a moment, indecisive.

'See what you think,' he responded and passed his wife the letter.

She quickly started scanning through it. Peter could see the exact moment her eyes reached the last line. She also went over the last couple of sentences twice.

'I see,' she said.

'Yeah.'

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

'What the fuck am I going to do about this?' Peter asked.

'Well it depends,' Molly replied.

'On?' Peter responded.

'Well; it depends doesn't it.'

Peter slightly shook his head, with a questioning look.

'You've had a couple of students come on to you before. The same way you dealt with them.' Molly focused back onto the laptop.

'Well, yes, occasionally. But that's been like a come-on in person, like in a pub, when they've had a drink. This is...' he left it hanging.

'This is what?' Molly said, whilst scrolling through the online shopping.

'Well, it's,' he paused, 'it's a bit different isn't it? It's sort of calculated isn't it?'

'You could ask David what to do.'

'I'm not going to tell anyone else! Least if all my line manager. I'd die of embarrassment!'

'Why?'

'Well, I just would.'

The couple sat silently for a minute. Molly continued to tap items on the laptop. Peter re-read the letter.

'It's a joke? They've gotten together and they're winding me up?'

'No.'

'No?'

'No.'

'Would you care to explain?' Peter responded with an unmissable hint of irritation in his voice, that he instantly regretted. Molly looked up at him.

'Sorry.' He put his hand on her thigh. 'What makes you think it's not a joke?'

Molly reached forward and put the laptop on the floor.

'Peter, we've had this conversation before. When you first started this job; and we've skirted around it a couple of times since. Except you don't believe me. Which is very sweet.'

She put her hand on top of his.

'You're a good-looking man. In your mid thirties. You're smart, funny and you care a lot about people. You work with young adults; a lot of whom are going to find you attractive. And you're an authority figure. A number of young girls, and boys, are going to find you very sexy.'

'But I'm their teacher. I don't think of them like that,' Peter responded.

'That makes no difference to what they think of you,' Molly stated, before quipping, 'honestly, for a so-called academic you can be very dense.'

'That's true of most academics I would say.'

'Have you given Beckie any signals that you're interested in her?'

'No,' Peter responded quickly.

'Then that's fine then isn't it?' Molly said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. 'As long as you've not led her on, you can let her down gently and that'll be that.'

'Hmmm.'

'Does she know you're married?'

'Yes. They all know I'm married. It's not a secret. And I do wear my wedding ring,' Peter said, holding up his hand.

'Is she good looking?'

Peter paused nervously, whilst trying not to look nervous.

'Why do you ask?'

Molly detected the tone.

'I'm not trying to catch you out. Neither of us are blind. We've both talked about people we find beautiful, in films and stuff.'

'Yeah. It's a bit different when it's someone you actually know and not a film star.'

'Yeah, but it's fine. Is she pretty?'

'Yes. She is.'

'Good. Then you can tell her, honestly, that she's very attractive, but that you are happily married. And that'll be that.'

Peter paused, thinking.

'Presumably that last bit is also true, so you can say that with honest sincerity as well?' Molly asked.

'What?' Peter came back from his thoughts.

'Happily married?'

Peter shook his head as though to shake the distractions away and leaned in to kiss his wife.

'Very happily,' he said, squeezing her thigh and then pushing a firm kiss onto her lips.

'Good. Can I finish the shopping now? Why don't you put something short on to watch, whilst I finish this? Then I don't know about you, but I think I'll be ready for sleep.'

'Yes, thank goodness it's Friday.'

Peter flicked the TV on.

*****

After brushing their teeth, they went upstairs and stripped off. They slid under the bed covers and naturally adopted a well-used, familiar cuddling position. Peter on his back, Molly on her side, pressed up against him. He had one arm under her neck, with her head resting on his shoulder. It enabled him to reach round and down so that his hand rested on her bottom. She lay on her side with one arm draped across his chest. His free hand rested on top of hers.

He sighed a deep breath out as they lay still together.

'You alright lovely?' she asked.

'Yes. Fine. You?'

'Yep.'

He squeezed her bottom and then began softly brushing his fingertips across each of her cheeks; feeling the smooth, firm roundness of her bum.

She slid her hand from under his and circled his chest.

'You really are very sexy you know,' she whispered in his ear. 'It's no wonder you're beating students off with a stick.'

He glanced down at her in the gloom and playfully smacked her bottom.

'Just saying,' she replied, as the circling movement of her hand wandered down from his chest to his abdomen, 'if I were one of you students, I'd have a go.'

With this last phrase she reached down and took hold of his penis. It was already fairly firm and quickly hardened up to fully erect as she held it.

As they cuddled each other, Molly gently played with his erection; she alternated between softly sliding her whole hand up and down the length of his shaft with gently teasing the underside of his cock-head with her fingertips. Occasionally she ran her fingers across his balls, making him twitch and murmur.

He enjoyed running has hand across her bottom; particularly sliding one finger softly up and down the crack between her cheeks.

Both were tired after a long week and neither had the energy for anything more active. After several minutes of loving caressing, Molly gave Peter's erection a firm squeeze, and then let it go.

'Night night lovely,' she whispered, as she rolled into a comfy sleeping position.

'Night gorgeous,' he replied contentedly, before they both drifted off to sleep.

*****

The following day, at the playground, Molly called out to her daughter, 'be careful jumping on and off Katie. Don't push it too fast.'.

Molly's friend Samantha added, 'you too Daniel,' to her little boy, who was trying to gauge a daring jump onto the spinning roundabout.

'Still, at least we get a moment of peace; even if it is a precursor to phoning an ambulance,' Molly smiled as she sat down on the bench next to Samantha.

They sat watching their kids play. It was the short dip just after lunchtime, when most people were figuring out what to do with their Saturday afternoon. Consequently they had the playground to themselves.

'What was it happened yesterday?' Samantha asked.

Molly responded with a puzzled frown.

'You said whilst we were walking over, you had a funny evening.'

'Oh that; yes.' Molly gathered her thoughts before continuing. 'Well, I'll just have to make sure we always remain friends; because you know too much.'

"Ha! Of course,' Sam replied.

'One of Peter's students asked him to have sex with her.'

'Yikes. What did he say?'

'No, it was by letter.'

'What? I thought you meant a student had come on to him.'

'No. She wrote to him.'

'So he told you about it?'

'I saw the letter.'

'Oh right. I imagine Peter would die of embarrassment if it had been in person. He strikes me as, well, sort of modest, or naïve I suppose.'

The two women kept an eye on their kids whilst they chatted.

'He is,' Molly continued, 'I told him when he first started the job that he should be a bit careful with students getting a crush on him. But he dismissed it.'

'Ha, not any more.'

'Yep.'

'Right, now tell me from the beginning,' Sam adopted a feigned businesslike manner, 'how did he bring it up?'

'He didn't. It just sort of happened next to me. I borrowed his laptop and the letter fell out of his bag. He said that a student, Beckie, had given it to him earlier, after a lecture, and he had been in a hurry. So he had put it in his bag and then forgotten about it.'

'So he opened it next to you?'

'Yep.'

'Poor boy. How did he react? Did he tell you, or did you ask what it was?'

'Well, surprised really. Like you say, he is quite naïve about this kind of thing. He thought it was a thank you letter. It's not far to the end of the academic year, so there's a whole year group preparing to fly the nest into the big wide world. And he often gets little thank you notes and the odd present.'

'But instead, Beckie professed her undying love?'

'No, err...'

'No? Dear Peter, will you have sex with me please? Thank you very much.'

'Sort of. Not exactly. She said that she's a virgin. She must be twenty one; or twenty two, if she took a gap year before uni.'

'Oh bless her.'

Both of them instinctively lurched forward as they thought Daniel was about to fall off the roundabout. He managed to recover his balance, so the two mums sank back onto the bench.

'Yeah I know. I feel for her actually,' Molly continued, 'I was twenty three my first time. I mean I'm glad now, but at the time I had a bit of a complex about it.'

'I know, and they seem to start even younger these days,' Sam shook her head.

'Exactly. She probably feels like she's the only girl her age who hasn't done it. She thanked Peter, basically for being a good teacher, and then asked him to be her first. She's basically latched on to him because she feels safe with him.'

'And he's cute.'

'Steady.'

'He is. You can't deny it.'

'Yeah,' Molly said wistfully.

Sam smiled.

After a moment, Molly added, 'she's looking for someone to help her through her first time.'

'Help her through,' Sam said grinning.

'Sorry, I know I make it sound like torture.'

'My first time practically was.'

They both laughed.

'Yeah. I do feel for her. It must have taken a lot of courage to write.'

'And?' Sam asked.

'And what?'

'Did you discuss it?'

'Yeah a bit.' Molly thought for a moment. 'It was a bit tense to be honest. I think we were both a bit surprised. Neither of us quite knew what to say. He asked if she was joking. Like she'd been put up to it. But there was no way.'

'And?' Sam persisted.

'Well, it just sort of concluded. He's going to think how best to talk to her about it. I don't envy that.'

'So you didn't actually discuss the answer to the question?'

'What, you mean...?'

'Yeah,' Sam stated flatly.

'Sam! You're talking about my husband sleeping with someone else.'

'Yeah, it's the twenty first century girl.'

Molly gave her friend an incredulous look.

'Hey, I'm just keeping an open mind,' Sam followed up.

'He's not going to cheat on me.'

'No; of course he's not. Would it be cheating? If you knew about it in advance?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'Because...'

'Because? If he did it behind your back, it would be cheating. Whereas if you knew about it, well...'

'Well what?' Molly retorted

'Look; all I'm questioning is that both of you have adopted a default position that the answer is no. Which is lovely, and probably to be expected. Really. Everyone who knows you two knows you're stupidly in love. Which is beautiful. I'm just saying that's not the same thing as sex. You two make love, but sex can be just for fun; between consenting adults.'

'I'm stunned.'

'Why?'

'I just, never thought you would think like this.'

'I'm not saying it's for everyone,' Sam elaborated, 'but since Tom died, you know my rule; if life throws you an potentially interesting opportunity, you should consider it, and not be stuck in a blinkered, cosy view of life.'

'I know, but this is...' Molly began.

'Just another of life's opportunities,' Sam interrupted. 'I'm not at all saying what you guys should do. I'm just pointing out that you appear to have made an assumption about what can and cannot happen. And I'm saying, why not discuss it?'

They both sat silently for a moment. The children had moved on to wandering around, picking up pebbles.

'How long have you two been together?' Sam asked.

'Sam. Don't go there. I don't need you making me feel insecure about whether Peter is satisfied with our sex life. I feel like we've only just got it back to something steady and comfortable. You know we struggled for ages after Katie was born.'

'I'm not trying to make you feel insecure. Sorry if I have,' Sam said sincerely. 'In fact the only reason I could have this kind of conversation with you is because I can see how solid your relationship with Peter is. That's why I think you're safe to keep open minded.'

'Okay, open mindedly, I'd feel like he was cheating on me,' Molly said with a hint of sarcasm. 'Even if I knew. Even if I said it was okay,' she added more seriously.

'Fair enough,' Sam held her hands up. 'The answer is no then. But at least you actually thought about it properly.'

The two women sat and watched their children comparing and swapping stones.

'Unless of course,' Samantha let the sentence hang.

'Unless what? Molly asked dubiously.

'Threesome.'

'Sammie!' Molly exclaimed.

'Do you think it would feel like cheating if you were with him?'

'I don't think I am going to dignify that with an answer.'

Sam shrugged her shoulders, before saying, 'not a little bi-curious then?'

'No.'

'You've gone bright red sweetheart.'

'Because you're embarrassing me.'

'If you say so.'

Molly stubbornly stared straight ahead, whilst trying to recompose herself.

'Think about it,' Sam pushed on, 'it makes sense doesn't it? Neither of you is cheating on the other, because it's an activity you're sharing. You both get to enjoy the fun, rather than it being something one of you has and not the other. You both add a bit of spice to your sex life, mix it up, try something new, keep it fresh. And Beckie gets her first time. With, it has to be said, the nicest couple a girl to hope to meet. You can give her a woman's perspective on sex. It sounds like a fun night out for everyone.'

Molly continued to stare straight ahead.

'Well, it's just a thought,' Samantha concluded.

*****

The rest of the weekend passed pleasantly enough, with a mix of routine jobs and playing with Katie.

On Sunday evening, Peter and Molly were watching the credits roll on a weekly TV drama. Peter had put Katie to bed whilst Molly had had a soak in the bath.

'Do I have to go to work tomorrow?' Peter asked, along with a deep theatrical sigh.

'Yeah, you probably better had,' Molly replied.

'Why do weekends go so fast?'

Molly shrugged. Peter drummed his fingers against his thighs for a minute.

'Do you fancy going up to bed?' he asked.

'Bit early,' Molly looked up.

'I know. That's the idea.'

'Erm, yeah, alright.'

'Well I don't want to force you.'

Molly smiled. 'Come on then.' She stood up, took his hand, and tried to pull him up off the sofa. He feigned stubborn resistance and stayed seated. Molly shrugged, let go of his hand and walked away towards the stairs. When she reached the doorway, she span on the spot and whipped her dressing gown wide open. Peter took in her whole naked body in one rapid sweep of the eye, and then leaped to his feet towards her. Just before he reached her, with his arms outstretched, she snapped the gown closed tight around herself.

'Wait for it,' she purred as she pushed one finger firmly against Peter's chest.

She turned again and headed for the stairs. Peter followed close behind and enjoyed seeing her bottom wiggle back and forth as she climbed up each step.

In their room, they each habitually walked round to their own side of the bed. Peter began to undress as Molly climbed onto the bed. She laid down on her front, across the width of the mattress, with her feet hanging off the side, and her upper body propped up resting on her elbows. Peter paused undressing and looked down at his wife. Her head was at the height of his waist, right in front of him. Her thin silk gown, draped across her back and legs, had fallen open at the front, revealing her breasts. Her jutting nipples stood out prominently in contrast with the white bed sheet.