DISCLAIMER: The character Wendy was inspired by the song “Wendy” by Russell Crowe. The characters Jeff and Harry are borrowed and gently used from the film "The Sum of Us". I owe the existence of this story to the creative efforts of those involved in the production of the film and the song.
"When Wendy Went To Sydney"
by Tamara
When Wendy moved to Sydney, Jeff was the first friend she made. She had been working as a receptionist in the plumbing company’s front office for about a week. She was usually there alone, which suited her fine. The boss, Mr. Johnson, stayed in his office when he was there. Sometimes she’d have company when Harriet, who kept the books, came in twice a week. Harriet was married with two grown sons, and was friendly toward Wendy in a maternal sort of way. The older woman felt for the younger one, working so hard, all on her own, and the little boy was too precious. Harriet couldn’t imagine life without her devoted husband. They did everything together; he even took her to and from the office. Harriet tried to chat to her, but Wendy kept very much to herself.
The company employed a staff of about a half dozen plumbers, and one of her duties was to give out the dispatches. On her second Monday, just after lunch, she received two calls back to back. The first was a request for service. The second was the kindy center, calling to say her 3 year old son had fallen off the top of the playground slide and been injured. He had been taken to the emergency room of the local hospital.
Wendy went pale and looked at Harriet. “I’ve got to go. Connor’s at the hospital.” She rose, unsteady on her legs and unsure of what to do next. Wendy didn’t have a car, and the hospital was a good 8 kilometers away. Each morning she and her boy would ride the bus to the kindy, then she would ride on alone to the office. Each evening they repeated the routine in reverse.
Jeff had worked for the company since getting his plumber’s certificate two years before. He was in his early twenties, like Wendy. He was handsome and athletic with wavy brown hair and green eyes. Jeff was good-natured and friendly with everyone. He always smiled at Wendy and had a joke for her and Harriet but Wendy barely acknowledged him. He came through the door just as Wendy was hurrying around her desk toward it. One look at her ashen face and he knew something was very wrong.
“What’s up?”
“It’s my boy. He’s hurt. I have to get to him,” she stepped quickly past him and out onto the pavement.
“Wendy! You can’t run all the way there!” Harriet called after her.
Jeff looked from Harriet to Wendy outside and saw her take off at a sprint down the street. Harriet turned to Jeff in exasperation, “What does she think she’s doing? The hospital is too far from here!”
Jeff ran out the shop front, jumped in his truck, and took off after Wendy. Pulling alongside her, he threw open the passenger door. “Get in!”
Relief flooded Wendy as they entered the emergency room and she saw Connor sitting and smiling up at the pretty young nurse attending him. A bruise was forming at his temple and there were some scrapes on his arms and legs. He’d hit his head hard, so they’d brought him here for observation.
“Mum!”
The smile on his face disappeared when he saw her. Wendy scooped him up, “Baby, I was so worried about you!”
The nurse reassured Wendy her son was fine. “He’s apples, he is, just took a nasty tumble.” Connor clung to her neck and crumpled into tears. He tried so hard to be her “little man,” as she often called him. Safely in his mother’s arms, he could fall apart. She held him and stroked his hair and talked softly to him until he calmed down. Jeff, who had lost his own mother very young, was struck by what a beautiful pair they made. Connor looked exactly like Wendy, both with curly dark blonde hair and expressive brown eyes. As Connor pressed his forehead to Wendy’s, she whispered to him. Jeff thought it was like a mirror image.
He said as much to her as he drove them back to their house.
“Yes, it’s a blessing he looks like me, really. That way I never have to see his father again,” she replied.
Jeff peered over at her, trying to read more to the story than her words gave him. Wendy sat expressionless, looking straight ahead through the truck’s windshield at something only she could see.
It was only after Jeff had pulled up in front of the big old house she rented with two other girls that Wendy remembered. “Shit!”
“What is it?” he asked anxiously, looking toward the boy seated between them.
“At the shop. Before the center called. I was supposed to send you on a service call. Bugger it! They’ll fire me for sure! Walking out in the middle of the day and then ignoring a customer.” Wendy had remained calm for her boy, but now she was close to tears. It was a good job and she desperately needed to keep it for both of them.
Jeff saw them to the door. “Not to worry, pet,” he said, suddenly feeling very protective of the pair he’d helped. “I’ll talk it over with the old man, it’ll be okay.”
And it was. Everyone liked Jeff.
From then on when he came in the shop, Wendy matched his smile and laughed at his jokes. Sometimes they took their lunch together. The other young men in the office were always jockeying for her attention, but she paid them no mind. She needed a friend, and she shared easy confidences with Jeff, but she didn’t want a lover. Wendy had already decided that men and sex were nothing but trouble to her, and she had no room for that kind of trouble with Connor in her life now. She always dressed in bulky sweaters or high-collar blouses, knee-length skirts, and flat shoes. She didn’t wish to call any attention to herself. Wendy often felt like the oldest 23-year-old in the world.
Jeff was delighted with his new friend. He was a very social creature and had been sorely missing the kind of intimate conversation and laughter he had with Wendy since his break-up with his last boyfriend. The other blokes at work or his footie mates just didn’t offer him that kind of friendship.
Jeff invited them over to dinner one Sunday. Actually, it was his dad, Harry who insisted after Jeff had told him about his friend from the shop and her little boy. Wendy liked Harry immediately. She thought he was just like Jeff, only more so. Warm and outgoing, he made her feel instantly at ease and he doted on Connor.
The men had tried to make it a special occasion. The bungalow was neat as a pin; Jeff had even tidied his room. Harry had tried to cook a roast. Unfortunately, he forgot about it while watching Jeff play on the tiny back lawn with Wendy’s boy. Wendy and Harry sat on the old glider swing, tinnies in hand. Squeals of excited laughter filled the air while Jeff showed Connor how to catch the football, and then repeatedly tackled him.
Harry confided to her, “That’s my only real regret with Jeff. No hope for grandchildren, you know?” Harry gauged Wendy’s reaction to make sure she did know. He sensed she’d had some hard knocks in life already. He didn’t want to see her disappointed or upset.
“Gay couples adopt, you know,” she didn’t miss a beat. “He just has to find the right partner first.” Wendy tipped her head and smiled sideways at Harry. She clinked her can to his in toast of Jeff’s future family.
“What about yourself, where’s your family?” Harry pried her.
The distant, flat expression returned to Wendy’s face. “They’re not part of our lives anymore.”
“But they’re grandparents! Don’t they want to be part of their grandchild’s life?” Harry was incredulous.
Wendy took a long drink and considered her answer awhile before looking him in the eye. He was so unlike her own father it made her want to cry. “They’re deeply religious people, and I was their only child. We don’t see eye to eye. I left home at 18 when I started at college, and worked to pay for classes. When I got preggers at 20 and didn’t marry the dad, my parents cut off all ties with me. Mum came to see us once, when he was a few months old, then nothing. I’ve given them up.” She shrugged and turned her attention back to the roughhousing on the grass. Jeff was playing like he couldn’t get out from under Connor who was sitting on his chest, tickling him in the neck and armpits.
“So what’s your secret dream? What do you really want to do?” Harry loved to ask people this question. He was an incurable romantic.
“Dad,” Jeff, sounding pained, tried to interrupt Harry.
“I mean, you’re working in Jeff’s shop now for your crust, but what is it you’d really like to do?” Harry, as usual, ignored Jeff.
“I’d like to finish college and teach kids.”
Both men looked at her. “So why’d you leave school?” Jeff asked.
“I felt we needed to get away…from everything, and I had to support us.”
Harry couldn’t look away from her. She was so young! He wanted to rant about what fools her parents were but he controlled himself. He surprised her by grabbing her in a huge bearhug. Wendy could hardly breath he squeezed her so hard. When he released her she was surprised to see him wiping tears from his eyes.
The neglected roast came out dry and tough as shoe leather, and the veggies got burned on the stove. Jeff and Harry began to argue over who was at fault. Wendy quietly got up and began poking through their orderly pantry shelves and fridge. She salvaged what was still edible of the roast, chopped it up with an onion and tomatoes, and served them omelets and chips in less than half an hour. As they sat at the little chrome and Formica table in the kitchen, they all agreed that she should cook when they did this again.
Later when Jeff took them home he began his apologies for his dad. Wendy quickly stopped him, touching two fingers to his mouth. “I think he’s wonderful. Romantic, sweet, funny, and God knows he loves you. I’d just like to know why none of the guys I meet can be like that.”
Jeff thought that was the first time he’d heard anything like bitterness in her voice. “Well, we’ll just have to do something about that, won’t we?” he said and began to consider his friends for her.
She frowned at him and her tone was sharp. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” He was all innocence.
“Jeff, I mean it, don’t start plotting for me. I don’t want any part of it.”
But it was too late.
Mr.Johnson’s daughter Evie, a student at the university, liked to come by the shop and flirt with the men. She and Harriet were there the day Jeff came in and excitedly told Wendy, “Great news! The place next door to me and Dad is up to rent.”
Wendy had recently told him that the two girls who shared their large rented house were unhappy. They complained that Connor put a crimp in their romantic lives when he was ill or cried out in the night for Wendy from nightmares. They swore and hollered when they stepped on his small, sharp toys. And Wendy was concerned he was seeing and hearing things he shouldn’t. After Jeff left, Evie gave Wendy a long look. Wendy was attractive, if not stunning. Evie decided there was nothing particularly special about her. Evie thought she’d look less plain with some make-up and was irritated to realize Wendy had a peaches and cream complexion without it. Wendy’s face was open and pleasant, with freckles. It went with the unaffected way she conducted herself. She was in great physical shape, Evie gave her that. Wendy had begun running with Jeff.
“My, my,” Evie sing-songed at Wendy, “if I didn’t know that boy was gay as Paris in springtime, I’d say he had a thing for you. You know, he’s been known to go both ways before.”
Wendy looked at Evie steadily. “Jeff has been a great friend to me and Connor since we came here.” Something in Wendy’s direct gaze and even tone made Evie decide not to tease her any further.
After she’d left, Wendy turned to Harriet, “I hate to ask, but what exactly did she mean, ‘go both ways?’” Wendy had learned that nothing got past Harriet.
“He did her. She’s just jealous of the attention he pays you. Stupid cow probably thought she was going to convert him. He did the girl that worked here before you, too.”
Wendy was speechless. She’d known Jeff was gay almost from the moment she’d started working there, she’d always had good intuition about such things. Homosexuality ran in her family as well. But she would have never guessed he’d slept with girls as well and the news unsettled her more than a little.
Wendy had been at the job nearly three months now. She had the place running more efficiently than it had ever before. Except for the day she’d had the scare with Connor, she had been there every day, coming early and staying late. She asked Mr. Johnson for a raise and got it. She took the tiny bungalow next to Jeff and Harry’s place the next day.
Jeff and Harry helped them move into their new home. In fact, they wouldn’t let her move a thing. As they fussed over her meager possessions, she thought with amusement that they were a right pair of hens.
Jeff lured Wendy out to his Saturday footie games by telling Connor about them until the child begged to go and watch. Wendy had seen the other young men at their practices, but she refused to let him introduce her. She waited what she felt was a safe distance away for him to finish. Then they went running together. Up and down the hilly coastal suburban streets until they were exhausted and drenched.
He pushed her but sometimes she could not keep up and would fall behind him. Then when he couldn’t see her, she watched his legs. She couldn’t help herself. She didn’t entertain romantic thoughts about Jeff at all, but help me she thought, the man had the most beautiful thighs and arse. Wendy wondered why she’d never noticed men’s legs before. Looking around at the other blokes she decided it was because none of them had legs as gorgeous as Jeff’s. She laughed and decided there was no harm in indulging this one tiny pleasure. It helped her keep pulling up the hill behind him.
When she finally agreed to come to a game, he excitedly went through her closet and told her what to wear. “These jeans, your arse looks great in them. This shirt, red’s your color, and it shows some cleavage.” He leered at her. “Don’tcha have a push-up bra, luv? And wear your hair down.” She threw him out her room.
As he’d expected, on Saturday the men swarmed around Wendy after the game. He watched with satisfaction as they flirted and bantered with her until she gave in to it and started to enjoy herself. After that a few of them started coming home with Jeff.
Wendy mistakenly thought he had a new boyfriend and teased him about it. “Looks like someone’s been getting lucky lately,” she grinned at him. She’d taken to talking to him over the top of the wood fence that separated their back yards. He was often out there with the radio blasting, sunbaking.
“Me? I wish. Why d’you think that?”
She was confused. “Well I noticed some of your mates from the team were coming round your place, so I thought….”
“Those guys? Hell, no, they’re all men’s men, spit on the floor, and what sheila did ya root last night, mate? I hafta meet my dates in the pubs, you know that.” He shot her a sly look. “The only reason those blokes are comin’ round here is to crack onto you.”
Wendy blushed and looked away.
“Are you gonna just give the game away then?” he asked her, suddenly annoyed at what he perceived as her playing coy. He stood up and walked over to her at the fence. “You’ve got opportunity practically beating down the door, yet here you sit with yer books and magazines every Friday night.”
She blinked back tears and fought to control her voice. “It’s not that easy.”
“Oh yea? Well hell I wish I had those kind of pickings.”
“I’ve got a son, Jeff.”
“Dad’s offered to babysit for you any time, Harriet too, you know that.”
“That’s not what I meant. Most guys just want to get rooted, and then they’re done with me. They don’t want someone else’s kid hanging around. If they’re in a family mind, then they want a girl with a clean slate. Connor is a constant reminder that I’m not a new package; I’ve been used and returned.” Hot tears sprang into her eyes now, she couldn’t hold them back, and her throat constricted. She turned from Jeff and fled toward her back door.
In a flash, he hopped the fence and sprinted toward her. He caught her a few steps up and grabbed her, pulling her back down into the yard with him. Wendy felt herself go weightless and was so surprised at how easily he’d apprehended her. She was still trying to comprehend what had happened as he pinned her against him with one arm and forced her chin up with his other hand. “Look…at…me,” he insisted. Wendy looked into Jeff’s eyes and saw so much love and concern it took her breath away. Why hadn’t she ever noticed how beautiful his eyes were before?
“I don’t want a blue with you. ” He released her. “Don’t be pissed with me. I just hate to see you wasting yourself like this. It’s been yonks since you’ve been on a date.”
Wendy felt suddenly weak and dizzy. She fought to focus on what he was saying, but all she could think about was how unbelievably strong he was and how much she’d liked it when he held her. She tried to joke with him, “you Mitchell men hug more than any blokes I’ve ever known.”
He smiled at her almost shyly. “Don’t you ever just want to get rooted?”
“What?” Her mind was still reeling.
“You know, just for shits and giggles. I know you’re not a virgin, right? And you’re not a little kid. Don’t you ever get randy?”
She smiled weakly at him. “Yes, Jeff, I get randy.”
“Well would it be the worst thing in the world if you just let yourself go out and have a little fun, even if it’s not for forever?”
Jeff had told her about being in love with Kevin, about how he’d just up and walked out of Jeff’s life one day, just over a year ago. It had broken Jeff’s heart. Wendy had seen him get into depressive moods, despairing that he’d ever find a lasting partner.
She looked at him seriously now. “How about you? Hmmm? You like the way you feel after those one night stands?”
He looked down at his feet.
“Come off the grass. Don’t bag me, Jeff, I know you. We both want the same thing, a real relationship, and meaningless sex just makes you feel that much more hollow and empty when it’s over.” She turned and marched purposefully up the steps, fearing he would grab her again. She went inside and closed the door on him. She prayed he hadn’t seen her shaking. Jeff stood in her back yard looking at her door for awhile, thinking about what she’d said. “Yea, but I still get randy,” he muttered to himself before jumping the fence back into his own yard.
“Let’s go!” Jeff was calling to them from the front door. It was Sunday and they were taking Connor to the beach.
“Hang on a tic!” sang Wendy.
Jeff let himself in and walked back to her room. “Are you in the nick?” he asked hopefully. She was just slipping up the last strap of her swimsuit. She spun around when she saw him out the corner of her eye. “Geezaloo! I said, ‘hang on,’ what are you doing in here?”
Jeff shrugged and gave her his lazy smile, “I let myself in. Why aren’t you ready yet? Don’t you have a bikini?” He gave her conservative-cut cozzie a critical look.
Wendy glared at him. “YOU try getting him ready,” she jerked her head in the direction of Connor’s room. “I told him where we were going but he just keeps running away from me. And I prefer a one-piece. It’s more modest.” She rolled her eyes and made a froggy mouth, “babies do things to your body that you can never erase, you know.”
Jeff was at her in two steps. He smacked her arse, hard. “You’re as tight as a drum, luv.”
“Rack off, you poof!” Wendy tried to smack him back but he was out her bedroom door, cackling. She went into the bathroom and tried to contain her wild curls in a hair comb. The mutineers danced around her face, but it was up off her neck and shoulders.
Jeff came down the hall chasing Connor toward the front door. Connor was wearing a flannel check shirt, jog shorts, and his short roper boots. Wendy surveyed the get-up and smirked at Jeff, “Thanks for dressing him. He looks daggy.”
Jeff caught her tone, “What’s wrong with it? That’s what I wear all the time! I think it’s a good look,” he finished somewhat defensively.
“I know.”
The weather was hot and perfect to do nothing but fart-arse about. It was just after Christmas, which they’d celebrated together, and Connor played in the sand with the trucks he’d got as prezzies from Jeff and Harry. Wendy and Jeff lay on the sand sunbaking while Connor chased the surf. They indulged in their favorite game of rating all the men that passed by. Jeff would score them physically and Wendy would make up stories about them or guess what was going on in their heads. They made each other laugh until their stomachs ached and people stared at them. Wendy had packed them a picnic and Jeff complained, as he frequently did, that she was making him fat.
Wendy pushed her big sunnies up on her small nose and was glad they hid her eyes so Jeff could not see how she watched him. She stifled a giggle. She had never seen a man adjust himself as often or as obviously as Jeff did, he seemed to be constantly grabbing his crotch and tugging it one way or the other. The semi-ups were another matter altogether. Every time Jeff had a good work out, laughed, drank a coldie, or was generally happy, he made a tent in his shorts. It was even funnier because he seemed unaware his pleasure was so obvious.
She remembered the day before. They’d come back from running and she’d followed him into his place. Harry sometimes picked Connor up from the kindy to give Wendy a break and they weren’t back yet. “You sure sweat a lot for a sheila,” he’d teased her.
“Yea? You look like someone’s turned the hose on you,” she shot back.
“Well I’m rooted. Gonna take a quick shower.” Wendy was in the room with him, standing in front of his dresser, looking at a book he’d left lying there. He pushed the door almost closed, and went to stand behind her by the bed. The floor length mirror on the back of the door gave her a full view, even with her back to him. His quick movements caught her eye and she looked up in time to see him pull off his sweaty shirt. Jeff paused a split second to make sure she was watching him in the mirror, then peeled off his shorts and jocks in one quick movement. He had an enormous erection. Their eyes met in the mirror and he grinned at her like the cat that ate the canary. Wendy was glued to the spot and could not turn around even as he strode past her and out the bedroom.
She heard him turn the water on, and was still reeling from the shock and arousal when he marched back into the room. He was wearing his bath towel slung so low she could see the top of his short and curlies. She was mortified to realize she was staring and hadn’t heard a word he’d just said. As she dragged her eyes up to meet his, Jeff grinned at her again.
“I said, ‘I’m gonna pop down to the pub tonight. Do you want ta come?’”
Wendy mumbled, “Um, er, should stay and give Connor a bath tonight, you go on.”
“Suit y’self. Wouldn’t want to come give me a bath, would ya?” Jeff paused and waited expectantly. He kept the shit-eating grin on but his heart was pounding. He could not figure out how to root her and keep his best friend, too, and it was making him crazy. He wanted to just seduce her; he was good at it and usually succeeded. Somehow it got all complicated with Wendy. She gave him true friendship and good companionship, things he had desperately wanted when she came into his life. If he didn’t handle this just right, he could lose all that.
Poor Wendy was too shook to speak. For some time now she’d suspected Jeff was hitting on her, but she wasn’t sure, and chose to ignore it. She enjoyed their time together so much, but she knew she was at serious risk for another broken heart if she went down that road with him. He may be genuinely attracted to her, but Wendy was no fool and she knew he could never really belong to her. She’d given the whole mess a lot of thought already. “Jeff, I don’t think that’s a good idea…” she began, and by the serious look on her face Jeff could tell this wasn’t going anywhere he wanted it to.
Jeff was out of the room again before she could finish. He whipped his towel off as he rounded the corner so she could see his arse. Wendy stood in his bedroom for awhile, hand pressed to her chest and waited for her heart to stop hammering. She slipped out of the bungalow and waited out front until Harry came home with Connor. Afterward, they both went back to pretending nothing had happened.
Wendy was shook out of her reverie as Connor ran up to them, shaking salt water everywhere, like a dog. “I’m rooted!” he yelled as he flopped down on the towels between them. Wendy slowly turned to look at Jeff, who was trying to avoid her gaze. “Yes, he’s definitely spending too much time with you.”
Connor could barely stand up when they were ready to leave, exhausted from a hard day’s play at the beach. Jeff carried him home and laid him on his bed. It was late afternoon, not quite evening. Wendy was already rinsing out and putting up the paraphernalia that goes with kids’ outings. Jeff stood watching her in the kitchen doorway. “Why don’t you come over while he’s asleep and watch the game on telly with me? We’ll get a pizza. You can hear him if we leave the windows open.”
“Where’s Harry?”
“Hot date.”
“Oooh! Good for him!” she widened her eyes and smiled at him. She glanced down and noticed the semi was approaching full-mast. Jeff saw the look and held her eyes. Both their hearts began beating faster. Jeff rarely felt this kind of attraction to a woman, and he knew it was how well they got on that made him feel this way. He really didn’t want to hurt Wendy but his thoughts were turning more and more toward bedding her. It wasn’t his natural inclination, but he’d enjoyed it with girls before, they were just different. He suspected he’d like it even better with her because he enjoyed their relationship so much.
Wendy turned back to the sink. Her voice was very quiet, “I need to take a bath and clean up. Why don’t you go home and calm down. I’ll come over later.” She heard him close the front door behind him.
Wendy bathed and changed. She looked in on Connor. It appeared he was going to sleep on through the night. She quietly got the laundry basket and went out back to gather the clothes she’d hung on the line earlier.
She heard Jeff’s radio and looked over toward his yard. From the top of the back stoop she could see he was sitting on the swing, reading something. She set the wash basket on the ground and walked toward the fence. There was a large oleander shrub on her side of the fence that partially obscured her. She usually had to stand on her tiptoes and wave her hands in the air to get his attention since he couldn’t hear her over the radio.
She popped her head over the fence, about to call to him, and stopped. She could see the gay skin magazines spread next to him on the swing. He was bent over, sprinkling pot into a rolling paper, and didn’t see her. He held the finished cig in his hands and ran his tongue across the gummed edge to seal it. Something about that gesture made her shiver. She felt like she shouldn’t be seeing this and was suddenly afraid of being caught and embarrassed.
She dropped down and crouched next to the fence. Her heart was racing. She knew she should just go back in the house, as quickly and quietly as possible. Yet oddly she couldn’t move, didn’t want to move. “What’s bloody fucking wrong with me?” she thought, but still she stayed. Her heart was pounding. After a couple minutes passed, feeling ridiculous and not sure at all of what she was doing, she noticed a knothole in the fence. On her hands and knees she crawled over to it and looked through.
Jeff was still smoking the joint, drawing long tokes and holding them before slowly letting the smoke float away from him, watching it go. He giggled a little as he finished it and cracked open a magazine.
“I’m a freakin’ perve is what I am,” Wendy thought, disgusted with herself but completely unable to look away. Jeff was wearing his usual uniform of T-shirt and jog shorts. As she watched, Jeff slowly turned pages. Before long, there was no mistaking the outline in his shorts of an enormous erection. It seemed to Wendy that what came next happened in slow motion. Jeff reached his right hand into the waistband and gripped his cock. He began a slow pumping motion with his fist, still inside the fabric. Then he reached up with his left hand to pull the waistband down and his hand and cock were out in the open, completely visible.
Wendy jumped away from the fence as if she’d been electrocuted, and fell hard on her rear. She cried out a little and clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide in fear. Now she was terrified he’d see her and know what a perve she was. What was worse was the incredible heat between her legs generated by the peep show. She was furious with herself for getting all hot over Jeff but she couldn’t help it. Gay or not, he was simply irresistible. She crawled on her hands and knees to the back steps. She had to reach up to the back door knob and once on the landing, knew she was plainly visible to him. A quick look over her shoulder gave her relief followed by another immediate blast of heat to her loins.
Jeff was lying back across the length of the swing, eyes closed, his head and silky hair lolling off the side. His left arm was crooked beneath his head, one big leg draped over the swing’s edge for balance. His crotch was completely exposed and she could see he was fully aroused. He was going at it in earnest now. Wendy’s eyes took in his large, strong hand pumping furiously up and down his shaft. She could see how his thick bolt stood out from a chestnut thatch; his apricots resting in their sac against his thigh. The muscles in his arms and chest flexed and bunched with the jerking movements. Wendy looked at his face to see what he was feeling. His brows were pulled together in concentration and effort. This look gave way to one of sweet bliss as his cock began to jump and spurt thick shots of white cream. Wendy was almost in pain, she was so wrought up watching Jeff’s climax. It made the need to touch him unbearable. She tore her eyes away from the magnetic scene and quickly went inside, grateful he hadn’t seen her. She went into the bathroom and immediately took another shower, this one cold.
Jeff finished his work and slowly lifted his head, looking across the fence at her door, then at the knothole in the fence. He was disappointed she had gone but was certain she’d gotten an eyeful anyway. He giggled again and went inside.
Soon after this, Wendy accepted her first date with a man who worked in the bank down the street from the shop. She also filled out an application to the University at Melbourne.
“Why Mr. Pale and Dull?” Jeff wanted to know, “What’s wrong with my mates?”
“Because if it doesn’t go well, I don’t want you going crook on anyone.”
Wendy started dating more and Jeff returned to his pub-crawls. They began spending less time together. She went out with several different men, none past the third date, most not past the first. Twice when she got to the third date, Harry told her not to worry about coming to pick up Connor until the next morning.
“Third date rule.” Jeff told her. “After you go out with him three times you don’t have to worry about being called a slut if you sleep with him.”
She’d finally agreed to date one of Jeff’s footie mates, Brian. He was tall and attractive and hadn’t come on too strong when he asked her out. Wendy had a weakness for athletes and had deliberately avoided Jeff’s friends for this reason. It had been a long time since she’d got shagged, and this one seemed enough of a gentleman. He was also the only man she’d met in Sydney, besides Jeff, for whom she’d felt any attraction. She let him get her slightly drunk, they’d had a fun evening, and she went home with him. She didn’t get Connor that night. At six a.m. he woke her and said she’d have to leave now, his girlfriend was coming back that morning from college. It was Sunday morning and all the little blue haired ladies were on their way to early service. Wendy went home, hair disheveled, wearing the same wrinkled clothes from the night before, and slightly hung-over. She felt like the world was watching and mocking her. She’d given it away too easy again, and he hadn’t even been any good. The next day Brian began to blab it all over that he’d been the first in town to root her. He made the mistake of broadcasting this info at footy practice. Jeff was in a mean mood anyway after another of his own disastrous runs of romantic luck.
When Wendy saw Brian at the grocer’s the next week, he pretended not to see her and quickly left. “What the hell happened to him?” she asked Jeff at home later. “He looked like he was hit by a truck.”
“Dunno.”
Later, details about Jeff acting mad as a cut snake and head butting filtered back to her.
Wendy and Jeff sat in his back yard consoling themselves and each other. They’d just finished their run and were cooling off. The days were getting shorter, the weather cooler, but the warmth of the sun this day made it seem like summer had crept back for one last visit. It was now nearly eight months since Wendy had come here and they’d become friends. Both had given up looking for love again, for the moment. They were alone because Connor was spending the afternoon visiting “Auntie” Harriet. Jeff’s dad was at work piloting the ferryboat.
“It simply isn’t fair, is it?” Wendy asked no one in particular. “Other people find love, have families, live happily ever after. Yet here we sit like two shags on a rock.”
Jeff joined in the rant. “ Like two stale bottles of piss. All I want is someone to share a laugh with, hold onto, have a coldie with, it shouldn’t be too much to ask, y’know?”
Jeff did a rolley and lit it. When he offered it to Wendy, she waved it away. She had never been high. He continued to hold it out for her each time he took a hit, and the way he was crinkling his eyes at her made her laugh. Finally she took it from him and inhaled, imitating what she’d watched him do. Wendy choked a little on the acrid smoke; it was certainly different than normal cigs. She managed to hold her own and they finished it together.
The first thing Wendy noticed about getting high was that it made her incredibly randy. “Oh shit,” she thought she said to herself. “You’re getting me high so I’ll do the naughty with you.” Jeff grinned at her and nodded his head affirmatively. He began to roll another.
“Oh shit,” she said again. “Was that out loud?”
“Yes, luv.”
They erupted in peals of uncontrollable giggles. Wendy rolled toward him and began tickling him with her fingers in his neck and pits. Then she pulled up his shirt and pressed her mouth down on his warm belly, blowing and making rude noises. She’d learned he was very ticklish and loved to make him laugh until he begged her to stop. He usually had to pin her to get her to quit. It was also a safe way for them to have physical contact.
After he wiped the tears from his eyes, Jeff went back to rolling. Wendy found herself staring at his mouth when he licked the seal. His lips were so sensuous and that tongue, it was always doing the most unpredictable things. Jeff lit up again and they lay on their backs on the lawn, watching the clouds float by. Before long, Wendy felt she could lift off and float with them. As she looked at Jeff, she thought how much he’d come to mean to her since they’d met. She reached out to stroke his silky hair without even thinking about it.
Jeff began to extol Wendy’s virtues. “There’s a million reasons why any bloke would be lucky to have you.” He started on the qualities he admired in her personality, “you’re a great mum and a great friend. We get on like a house on fire.” Then he worked around to her physical attributes. “You’ve got lovely tits. And a perfect bum.”
“Yea?” she giggled, feeling high and silly. “What the hell do you know?”
Jeff propped himself up on one arm to look at her better. “I know.” He reached his other hand over and with the flat of his palm began to rub slow circles on her belly. “I’ve fancied girls before, you know.”
“I know.”
“I know you make me crack a fat every time you smile.” He bent over her and held her gaze. The sky and all else receded until all Wendy could see were Jeff’s green eyes, mesmerizing and pulling her in. She felt his breath on her face and then he was kissing her deeply, pulling her further and further out of her world and into this perfect, warm space with him. The sun felt warm on her body and as they kissed she could feel the heat draw to her center and begin to pulse between her legs. His mouth was so warm and tender on hers, she felt she was melting into him. When he began probing her with his tongue, she responded in kind. Jeff ‘s kisses became more forceful and urgent as he slid his hand up from her middle, under her shirt, and began gently kneading her breasts.
He was nearly on top of her now. Wendy began running her hands up and down his back, pulling at his T-shirt. She desperately wanted to feel his warm skin next to hers. Soon they began frantically pulling clothes off each other, tugging and rushing to reconnect before the perfect spell could be broken and someone would have to admit this was a bad idea.
Jeff planted his mouth back on Wendy’s and wrapped his strong arms tightly under her back, pinning her beneath him. She was already lifting her hips, trying to generate friction against her groin by humping at him. Jeff wanted to nail her to the ground right there and then, but restrained himself. He flipped both of them over instead so that she could straddle him and have control. Wendy broke the kiss and sat up, on top of him. They were both naked now, and she briefly registered that they were very exposed out in the back yard, but she didn’t care. It was wildly exciting to feel the sun and the cool breeze on her bare skin. Her eyes drunk in Jeff’s gorgeous naked form in the late afternoon light. Jeff lay still, watching her, reading her face. Wendy began to crawl backward down him until she was crouched at his feet. For so long she had hungered to touch and see him like this. Now that it was finally happening, she wanted to savor every inch of him.
Wendy laughed with delight and began to suck on each of his big toes. She ran her hands up and around his calves, tickling under his knees, trailing her tongue along after her hands. She pushed the flats of her palms up along his thighs, pushing them wider apart, then licking along the tender skin on his inner thighs. She tasted the salt on his skin from his sweat and inhaled his scent as she rubbed her nose gently, just tickling his balls. She ran her tongue up the length of his shaft and around the head, then back down again. Then she bit him on the tender part of his thigh, just below his sac.
Jeff jumped and laughed. He reached his hands under her arms and pulled her back up and over him until she was lying on top of him. Wendy’s breasts pressed into his chest as they began kissing all over again. After a long while, she pushed herself up on her arms and smiled down at him. “I’m not done exploring you.” Jeff crossed his arms behind his head and complied, lying still again. She ran her fingertips over his chest, then out over his arms, feeling and squeezing the muscles there. She gently pulled at his nipples with her teeth until they were erect, then ran her tongue round and round them. She began to lick along the soft hair in his pits and again thought how wonderful he smelled, but he got too ticklish and she had to stop that.
Jeff pulled her up again until her breasts hung down even with his mouth. He gently kneaded one breast with his hand while he suckled at the other. He pulled her nipple into his mouth and gently bit at her. Wendy gasped as she felt him pull her nipple with his teeth to full erection. Then he switched and teased her other breast with his mouth, all the while rubbing the other nipple between his fingers.
Wendy began to grind herself against his belly, she was already so close to climax. She disengaged from his mouth and moved down him, grasping his cock in her hand. She rocked back onto her knees and looked down to see how to guide him in, when he stopped her. “Wendy, wait,”
“No!” Her eyes were huge. “I don’t want to wait. You’ve got me all toey, I want you in me now!”
“Wait, luv, get the franger. There’s some in my shorts, over there.”
Wendy paused, her hand still held him poised at her entrance and she did not want to stop. Two split-second mental pictures, one of Connor and one of Jeff out on a pub-crawl made her stop and retrieve the condom. She reached in his shorts pocket and pulled out a whole string of them.
“Cri-key, Jeff! What’d ya plan on doing today?” she asked with humor and surprise.
“I was hoping to root you until you couldn’t walk, same thing I hope for every day.” He wasn’t kidding with her anymore. His eyes blazed his lust at her as he took the packet away from her and ripped one open, handing it back to her. Wendy held his look a moment. It shot a huge thrill through her to know he felt like that. Then she carefully placed the rolled condom on his head, which was already sticky wet. She rolled it down over his shaft, savoring the velvety feel of his skin in her hand.
Wendy crouched over him again, squatting this time, and eased herself onto his massive erection. She put her hands flat on his chest and gently bobbed up and down, easing another inch into herself with each downward bob. Jeff lifted his head off the ground so he could see himself disappear into her. Wendy moaned in ecstasy as she closed on the last of him. She held still, savoring the sensation of being impaled on him. Jeff couldn’t take his eyes off her face. He couldn’t remember a woman ever looking so beautiful, and he was transfixed watching the pleasure he gave her.
Wendy felt her insides go all liquid. She had to move on him again, dropping to her knees and rocking forward to gain some friction. Jeff put his hands on the small of her back and tried to control his thrusts, letting her set the pace. Wendy smiled down into his eyes and thought, “This is how it’s supposed to be. This is what it feels like to have sex with someone you really love.” As if reading her mind, Jeff reached a hand up to her face, stroked her hair and said, “I love you.” Soon Wendy began to move faster, up and down on his cock, she was pulling her arse up and clamping her walls around him, milking him for all she was worth. They continued staring into each other’s eyes, breathing getting ragged, faces flushed with passion. Jeff’s hands were on her hips now, helping pump her up and down on him. Wendy ground against him. Soon everything else faded until all that remained was the connection in their eyes and in their loins. Wendy’s orgasm hit so hard she nearly blacked-out. Wave after wave of unbearably intense pleasure ripped through her body, centered in her pussy and radiating out over her entire body. She moaned and cried out again, until she was just whispering his name, “Jeff, oh Jeff….”
Jeff could tell she was ready to go. His big hands pushed her hips down onto him as he thrust upward repeatedly, battering against her back wall. His arse and legs tensed, he held his breath, and his cum ripped out of him. He reached up and grabbed her head, pulling her face down to his, hungrily kissing and sucking at her mouth as he finished spurting inside of her. They continued gently pumping away together for awhile until their climaxes slowly subsided. Wendy lifted her head and they looked at each other again, both smiling.
When Wendy had let herself imagine this scene with Jeff, she had convinced herself that they would both immediately regret it, recognizing their terrible mistake. But there was none of that. Instead, they touched each other tenderly and made little jokes about what would they say if the neighbors caught them. They quickly pulled back on their clothes, acting more like naughty children than doomed lovers, and snuck into the back of the house. Once inside, they collapsed in giggles again, pulling grass out of each other’s hair and clothes.
The second thing Wendy noticed about being high was feeling incredibly hungry. They raided the fridge. They sat silently eating sandwiches and cold milk, shooting each other furtive looks and grinning at their shared secret. Jeff pushed his plate away. “So do I get another chance or was that my one and only shot?”
“What’d ya have in mind?” she was hoping he’d ask.
“Want to take a shower? I think we both need one now.”
“Are you saying I stink?” Wendy was still playing, but Jeff was getting turned on again. “I want to explore you like you did me. You made me wait a long time for this.”
“Kay.” She suddenly felt shy with him again, but got up and followed him into his room. They stripped again and he grabbed her, pulled her up against him. He was already hard again. “You’re a giant rabbit!” she laughed.
He slapped her arse and she chased him into the bathroom. They jumped into the shower before the water warmed up. Jeff forced her under the faucet and Wendy squealed from the cold shock. Her nipples jumped up and the next sensation she felt was his warm mouth on her breast. They took turns lathering each other up. Jeff ran his hands round and round her soapy breasts and arse cheeks. He soaped her muff and slipped his fingers inside her, all the while kissing and sucking at her neck. Wendy was very close to climax again, and was pumping his soapy cock in her hand. Jeff turned her round to rinse her off, then himself, and shut off the taps. They dried each other off and he took her hand and led her into his bedroom.
They stood kissing a little while before he reached up and surprised her with a sharp shove, knocking her off her feet and onto his bed. She laughed again at his playfulness. He smirked as he climbed on the bed next to her and stretched out. Jeff reached out and stroked her face, then leaned in and began licking at her ear, her neck, her shoulders…. He blazed a path with his tongue down her entire body, coming back up her inner thigh and pressing her thighs apart with his hands. Wendy gasped as he thrust his tongue inside her. His mouth was so warm and soon again she felt like she was melting into him. Wendy moaned, “ohhh yes, your tongue, Jeff…umfff, amazing.” She humped at his mouth while he kept softly lapping at her, barely more than a tickle. Wendy begged him to mount her but he held her hips to the bed and kept his mouth on her sex. She thought she would lose her mind. Her climax built slowly and steadily as Jeff inserted a finger in her slit and began pumping. Wendy bucked against his hand. Jeff added another finger, stretching her wider. Wendy’s fevered mind reeled as Jeff’s nimble tongue made insistent circles on her clit, his big hand working her opening. Through her haze, she wasn’t certain at first, but slowly she registered the unexpected pressure against her fanny. She felt him pop his thumb in her bum, so that he held her entire sex in his hand. When Jeff squeezed her wall between his thumb and fingers, she screamed, wildly thrashing out her orgasm.
Jeff’s unmade bed was a tangle of sheets, legs and arms. They made love in every conceivable position. On the bed; on the floor; sitting wrapped around each other; standing up against the wall. Tongues, hands, and genitals in a frenzy to touch and taste it all before their time was up. Not one inch or orifice left unexplored. They did it until their legs shook and they were too sore to do it anymore. They knew it wouldn’t happen again.
As they lay sweating and exhausted, wrapped around each other afterwards, Jeff reached out a hand and tenderly traced the tiny silvery stretch marks on Wendy’s belly with his thumb. Wendy looked down at the place he touched. “See? That’s what I meant when I said there are things a baby does to your body that you can never erase.”
“It’s beautiful. It shows where you carried life inside you. You’re beautiful.”
Looking into his eyes, Wendy knew the answer to the question she’d been turning over in her mind for the past week.
The next day she invited Harry and Jeff over for dinner. She made them a lovely leg of lamb and all the things she’d learned they liked best. As they sat on the porch after, cracking their tinnies, she told them her plan. “I’ve been accepted at Uni, the teaching program. Connor and I will be heading there next week to get set up before the semester starts. Seems there are actually some advantages to being a single mum. The school is giving me a small grant and I got the student loan for the rest.” She smiled at them expectantly.
Harry stood up and embraced her. “Good on ya luv! Congratulations! Glad to see you pursuing your dreams.” Harry may have been a romantic, but he was no old fool. He had seen the looks between Jeff and Wendy for months. By the way Jeff was smiling and humming all the time now, he guessed something dodgy was going on. It made him want to shake Jeff, what was he thinking anyway? As if the poor girl hadn’t been through enough already. Harry could see by the anxious way Wendy was watching Jeff that he was right. Better for her to go now before things got any more of a mess.
Jeff was not so pleased. The color had drained from his face and he looked at her in shock. “Strewth! When did this come up?”
“I applied months ago, but didn’t want to tell you until I’d got an answer.”
“But you’ve got a home here Wen, with us. A good job. Why d’ya want to go and pack your kit now? Connor is happy here. We’re like his rellies now…” Jeff’s voice trailed off. He was getting very upset now, close to tears.
“Oh Jeff, don’t….” Wendy hated herself for hurting him.
Jeff turned abruptly from them and went back across the porch to his door, banging it behind him. They could hear him stomp through the bungalow and bang the back door on his way outside again. Wendy and Harry sat and talked quietly for awhile before Harry thanked her for dinner and went home.
Later that evening, Harry went out back and found Jeff sitting on the ground getting drunk. Harry watched his son for awhile before he finally asked, “So what did you hope would happen, Jeff?”
“I love her, Dad.”
“I know you do, son. But tell me this: could you ever wholly and completely give yourself to her, the way she deserves to be loved?” Jeff wouldn’t look at him. Harry continued, “I know you think you’ve got all the pieces of the puzzle, son. You get on great with her, you’re best mates in fact, you share everything. And you love the boy. And there’s the no-small-miracle you’re attracted to her, but can you tell me you’d be faithful to her? You’d never want anything else?”
Jeff looked at his dad, his eyes sad and old beyond his years. “No.”
“She knows that, Jeff. That’s why she has to go. She still has to build a life for them, while she’s still young enough. So may I suggest you let her go with grace? And then maybe you can keep your friend.” Jeff nodded slightly. He knew his dad was right, but it didn’t make it any less painful.
“Good. Don’t stay out here too long, son.”
“I won’t, Dad.”
Harry and Jeff helped Wendy and Connor pack up their things a few days later. They drove them to the station and put them on the train to Melbourne. There was a great deal of hugging and promises to visit. Wendy and Connor waved goodbye and watched the two men who’d meant so much to them in the past year recede from sight until they were gone. Wendy forced a smile through her tears, hugged Connor tightly to her and whispered, “We’re on our way.”
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