-08- The First Step

We lay in bed together, her body nestled into mine and her hands pawing at my chest playfully. After working in the bakery today, giving some math lessons to her daughter, and helping to make sup, followed by another batch of cookies which were requested by everyone, we had gone to donate bread to the orphanage once more, and stopped by the bathhouse to freshen up for our visit to Zedron’s tomorrow while the Bakery closed for a day.

But none of that explained the mood which currently existed right now between us.

“Gar… why do you choose to stay here with me?  With your knowledge you could certainly be a scholar or sage working for the nobility.”

“Are you saying that I have overstayed my welcome, Mrs. Thalica?”

“You know perfectly well that you haven’t. Since you’ve been here, every day I have spent with you has been enjoyable.”

“I can say the same.  Aside from a few outings with you, I still don’t have the first clue about the city I am in.  I’d still be lost or worse without your help, and I can only hope that the little bit I do around here can make up for the disruption I bring to you and your children.”

“What disruption? Having you here has been nothing but good fortune to me. Both Nefe and Trevor haven’t voiced one word of complaint, and I…”

In one motion my body was pushed over and she climbed atop me.  All she wore were her undergarments, yet there was a powerful erotic beauty in her form because of that.

“…haven’t been this happy in a long time.”

She reached for my hands and brought them to her belly, then slowly dragged them up until my hands rested on two plump and doughy treats meant for an adult to enjoy.

“Mrs. Thal–“

“Tally.” She said commandingly. “At least here, can’t you call me Tally?”

I relented.

“Tally.” I replied softly.

“You don’t have to be scared. I know plenty enough for the both of us, how to proceed.”

I didn’t doubt that for a second. I wasn’t without any experience watching adult videos, but there is a grand difference between being in the video and being in the audience. The latter was all I had the experience of.

Though she also said I didn’t have to be scared, it was more her than I, who was trembling right now.  Again, I’m not dense enough to not understand what is going on here. The only man she had ever known intimately until now was her husband who went off to war many years ago, only to never return.

“I’m not scared… exactly. But what… comes of it afterward?”

“Sleep, most likely. A warm, comfortable sleep.”

My hand gently kneaded the doughy bosom of Mrs. Thalica. She made a light gasping noise while sucking air in through her teeth. It was sensual and stirred a dangerous part of me. There was no way in these pants of her husband's I was still wearing that she wouldn’t be aware of my situation.

“I mean… of us. If… there is an us? Is… this just… me warming your bed, or…”

She exhaled and her top half went limp. I was holding on to the weight of her upper body exclusively through her bosom.

“Was I so mistaken, Gar? Do you not at all desire me? Is it because I was once married and have children? Is my body not to your liking…?”

I sat up and quickly embraced her body. I held her tightly to me in a reassuring hug.

“That is absolutely wrong. I’m… I haven’t proven that I’m even the least bit worthy for you to give me this kind of affection. It doesn’t matter one bit that you were married or have children. You’re a good and beautiful woman, Mrs. Thalica. Too goodly a woman for someone like me who can’t even–“

Her arms came alive then, wrapping around and clasping together behind my neck. Her beautiful sapphire eyes stared deeply into my own.

“First off, I told you to call me Tally. Secondly, what your worthiness is to me, is something that only I will decide, not you.”

She kissed me again, our tongues and passions for each other rose further with each moment our lips remained locked together. I continued to rub the soft and round lumps on her chest and she let go of me only long enough to remove her upper undergarment. The raggedy brassiere was tossed aside to some far corner of the bedroom, and with a shake of her head, her beautiful dull copper hair and mesmerizing eyes combined with a devious smile, began the first night of passion between us.

The body of Mrs. Thalica was impossible to endure. She was a strong woman, and being a bread maker gave her a solid foundation of upper body strength, so that when she pushed me down, I hadn’t a single hope of escaping from her grasp.

“Just lie back, Gar. It may have been a while, but I still remember what to do.”

“Tally…”

“Yes. Please continue to call me that, and be good to me as well, Gar. In return, I will make sure you have no reason to leave me again.”

That night, as the rest of her clothes came off, I climbed a few rungs up the ladder of adulthood. I was taken to heaven by my angel, our naked bodies resting among the clouds when we finished.

What she had given me now, was her reason for me to stay. I would not dare decline it. This was a huge gamble for her, a widowed single mother, I imagine. But was I truly deserving of such a kind woman’s affection?

Also, as things were happening rather quickly at the time, I had let something she said go in one ear and out the other, but now it sat firmly entrenched in my mind, playing on repeat.

What did she mean when she said leave me again?

No matter how I tried, there was no memory which contained her appearance in my life before I met her in that alley. But at the same time, there’s also no explanation for why… she’s been so close with me, a stranger she picked up off the street.

She’s a good woman, and I could never see her doing crass things so frivolously, so why… was it me she chose?

~~~~~

Morning came.

With it a morning kiss, and a light some light touching as we embraced each other again. There was no light outside, but Mrs. Thalica’s circadian rhythm must have still taken effect even after all that late night exercise.

“This is nice.” She said with a serene voice. “I don’t even want to get out of bed until it’s time for sup.”

“And here I thought you might actually sleep in until the sun had already risen.” I said with some veiled humor.

“The last time that happened was a year past when I took ill for a few days. The children so worried at time, I had to trouble Gemma to look after us until I recovered.”

“Gemma? That’s the elderly woman who run the orphanage you donate the bread to, right?”

“Yes. You might say she’s something of a mother to me. She’s the closest thing to a mother that any of the orphans might ever have.”

“Orphans… huh…?”

“Do you not… care for orphans?”

“It’s nothing like that. I just don’t have the ability to grasp how hard it must be for them to grow up not knowing their parents, or worse, having known them and having to go on living without them being raise by strangers, whether for a good reason or otherwise. I’m not bragging in saying this, but I was fortunate to have grown up in a home where my parents loved each other and were good to both me and my older sister. And it’s not like I pity them either, I just think it’s unfortunate for them that it was how their lives turned out. But that’s not to say they can’t make the most of it. I’ve known and worked with a few friends over the years who grew up in orphanages, and most of them were very capable and self-sufficient individuals.  When they went on and had families of their own they turned out to be fiercely protective of them.”

While she traced circles around my pectorals, she asked me about my homeland and my family life. I talked about my parents, though I couldn’t recall their names or faces, the memories of who they were and the events of my past life on Earth were still real enough that I didn’t think I was making any of it up.

“My mother stayed at home after she had me. Before that she was an administrative assistant. She worked for a rather prestigious firm, and had a good career. She was an excellent housewife and knew her way around a kitchen. My father was a salesman, selling… hmm... let’s say something similar to a carriage. It ran on a special kind of oil, and needed no animal to pull it. We weren’t filthy rich, but I wanted for next to nothing. We lived in a house a little bigger than this, in a fairly good neighborhood with good neighbors, and public order.”

“So you were surrounded by people who loved and cared for you growing up?”

“For the most part, yes. There were times when I wouldn’t see my father for days when he went on business trips, or my mother, when she would turn to alcohol when lonely during his absences, choosing to coop herself up in her room and read books about the romance she often missed out on while he was away from her. My sister was for lack of a better word, promiscuous, in her teenage years. Though she settled down in her twenties and married a good man, having two children of her own was no easy task for her either. I often visited to keep up with the goings on in our lives, and brought plenty of toys for her children to play with. I was that kind of an uncle, probably similar to that Zedron fellow.”

“And you never thought of finding a good woman yourself and settling down to marry?”

“I would have, if I could have… My luck when it came to attracting the eye of one was abysmal. Until you, that is, I have never know the touch or the affection of a woman.”

She giggled. “And what do you think now, having finally known the touch and affection of a woman?”

“Would it be greedy of me to say I want more of it?” I scandalously implied my desire.

Our morning quickly turned into a repeat of the previous night. This time it was my turn to roll atop her body, full in many places desirous, and lithe in others so to accentuate the former. I was still a bit clumsy, but I performed dutifully to the best of my ability as a beginner.

I had come to discover that she much preferred this position to the other, due to the ease in which she could release her aggressive nature. When our tongues were not entwined, raising the heat shared between us, she scratched and bit me, her body rose and fell, her hips gyrated and I was like a raft being buffeted at sea during a typhoon.

I awaited judgment on my performance, terrified that it was not up to par, but she expressed no dissatisfaction. Our bodies sticky with sweat rolled around many times that morning in between the sheets, until there came a knocking at the door.

“Mommy! Mommy!”

It was the voice of her oldest, Nefetina, the seven year old carbon copy of her mother.

“Just a moment, sweetie!” Mrs. Thalica shouted, and those words heralded the end of our private fun.

“Mrs. Tha… Tally. Should… I be seen leaving your room?” I asked concernedly. “We… we’re not…”

She reached up to cover my mouth with her hands.

“We will talk of this later. For now it is fine.”

As I was being silenced by her, I nodded my understanding. We both got dressed, and the door to her room was opened. Immediately Nefe walked in with a worried look on her face, until she spotted me, sitting on the bed and putting on my shoes and socks.

“Gardavan! You’re here!”

She immediately ran over to me. She put her hands on her hips and began to scold me.

“I went downstairs and you weren’t anywhere! I thought… you left us.”

“Why would I leave, Nefe? I have more things to teach you, don’t I? I just don’t have any place to store my clothes, so your mother lets me put them here in her trunk.”

“Oh… that’s why…” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Today you’re going to visit uncle Zed and get the stuff for your special cookies, aren’t you?”

Ah yes, children have their priorities in life far more situated than any adult would. I reached up and gently patted her head.

“Yep. Your mother and I will be paying him a visit later, and after seeing what he has available, I can start thinking of all the recipes I can remember for breads, and cookies, and things every bit as tasty!”

“Are there things tastier than cookies?” She asked with all the innocence of a sugar-addicted child.

“There are, though not too many. Cookies are one of the tastiest things in the whole world.” I exaggerated.

“Yes, I think so too! Okay, I’ll tell Teek that you’re here. He was worried too.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t have any reason to leave.”

“Right. You don’t have to go anywhere, Gardavan.  You can stay and make lots of tasty things.” She said, before turning around and dashing back out of the room. I felt like such a cad saying those things in front of the both of them, when the truth was that at any moment Mrs. Thalica could tell me to leave, and that would be exactly what I did, albeit now with a heavy heart. Yet, if I was going to stay here and complicate things for her and the little ones, I had to step up and offer something equivalent in value.

Accompanying her downstairs, both of the children were sitting at the table, having nothing to do.

“Gard!”

“Good morning, Trev.”

“See, I told you he wouldn’t go anywhere, Nefe!”

“Don’t fib, you were worried too!”

“Nu-uh!”

“Uh-huh!”

“Bleeeeh!”

As the two kids did as kids do, we discussed the plans for the day. Mrs. Thalica and I would head over to Zedron’s mercantile establishment in a short while, and I would see what was available to work with. Nefe was tasked with watching her little brother, which of course was nothing less than an annoyance to her.

“Can’t we come with you?” Trevorkane begged.

Mrs. Thalica looked at me and shrugged. “It’s up to you if you want them to come with us, Gardavan.”

“Why not? It might be interesting to see what they come across that we might overlook.”

“And what exactly do you expect to overlook?”

“No idea. What about you, Nefe, would you like to come along as well?”

“To uncle Zed’s?”

“Yeah.”

“I want to go!”

“Alright, then why don’t you two get ready, and we’ll all pay a visit together.” Mrs. Thalica suggested.

One of the few things I enjoyed as a kid was going to shopping malls and browsing every little thing, even if I couldn’t buy it. I had smartphones and game consoles at home, but it was always fun to get out of the house sometimes and see what was out there.

The children hurried back upstairs and changed into their regular clothes. While they did that, Mrs. Thalica gathered a number of coins from the drawer under the counter and put them into a small drawstring pouch.

“There’s… not a lot of money to work with, Gar. At most, twelve silver coins. I might not even be able to pay you for a few days…”

I held on to her from behind.

“I have no intention of spending a copper more than for a few things at first. I think, with what I have in mind, you will soon find that pouch a lot heavier than it is. I also have about a silver and a half now worth of the copper you've paid me, and I will be spending that amount first before I even allow you to open that pouch. You shouldn’t have to burden yourself for the entire risk. That money belongs to you, and your children.”

She sighed, the spoke in a cold tone. “Am I not allowed to decide if I wish to spend my coin as I see fit on this venture?”

“I am merely trying to be a gentleman. A gentleman never asks a lady to pay when taking her out on the town.”

She turned around in my arms and poked me hard in the chest with her finger.

“Who is a gentleman? Cupping my buttocks and playing coy until the morn and then doing all sorts of lewd things to me. Honestly, what was that thing you did with your mouth?”

She was blushing terribly as she said that.

“That was something my sister said she enjoyed the most with her husband.”

Her finger relaxed into a palm resting on my chest.

“Yes, well… I… may enjoy... a repeat performance of that.”

“You wouldn’t be the only one.”

“Do… you not find it… filthy?”

“As long as it is with you, there is nothing filthy at all about it.”

“…”

I kissed the top of her head.

“I suppose you would like me to do the same in turn?”

“If it is not something you enjoy, then you don’t have to. It’s all new to me, and simply being with you is enough to fill my heart."

“Gar… what you told my children earlier… are there really things tastier than cookies?”

“There are. Not all of them are sweets though.”

“Then can I be greedy and ask you to make those things… for me?”

I stroked her hair, twirling it with my finger at the ends.

“I will deliver the all delights of the world to your dining table, my fair Tally.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“You will stay here and make me all sorts of delicious things?”

“Until you are as plump as a hen.”

“I’ve been plump as a hen twice, I’ll have you know.”

“Ah…”

She giggled.

“It's my win.”

It was my loss, though to be fair, I had lost more times than I won. My current win count is only 1, though if I think about it, as she was the one receiving the pleasure…

“Mommy! Gard! We’re ready to go!” heralded the voice of Trevor.

Both of the children came down at the same time, catching me with my arms wrapped around their mother. We quickly separated and after playing it off coolly, we all left together, Mrs. Thalica locking the door behind us.

We traveled the dusty and littered roads outside the bakery Northward, until the scenery and sanitation improved and we reached an elaborate building after a lengthy walk. There was a sign, but I was unable to read the letters, having to ask Mrs. Thalica to enlighten me.

“It says Zedron’s Wares.”

“Ah. Thanks.”

“Mmhm.”

It would be thanks to this very moment, that the ill fortunes of Mrs. Thalia and her family would finally begin a favorable ascent.

“Shall we enter?”