Parallel Lives of Jim & Linda

Grandma Gen and Mac, never Grandpa Mac or uncle Mac, were glad to watch the kids for a few hours.

Maria arrived at Jim's house and picked him up. At the front door, Jim asked, "Aren't I supposed to pick you up?"

The famous punch to his arm came next, "No, I asked you out." She turned and walked toward her car with her skirt flapping in the late spring breeze.

Jim watched, and as he did, he felt a flutter. Maybe more of an awakening, as he watched her walk over the gravel driveway and open the driver's door. Here was Maria, a woman as different from Linda as he could possibly find, but yet had qualities that Linda once had, before the 'incident'.

Maria was short, and Jim could tell that under he conservative dress, she hid a curvy figure. His old friends would have never called her a Soccer Mom, that was what Linda was. A mom that goes to the gym, and works out to show everyone that she looks good in her LuLu-Lemons. She was a mom, a working single mother raising a son, and helping her parents keep up their farm. She was what Jim thought of as 'country girl sweet'. Where Linda was pretty, Maria was cute, the kind of cute that ages well. Jim had seen it in her mother's face when they met the first time. She was optimistic and loving. He saw that with Emma and Tommy, not only with her son. She was what his father had called 'good people'.

For the date, she had gone the extra mile for Jim. Yes, even though she didn't want to admit it to herself, she was making the first claim for this newly single dad. Her make-up was perfect, she normally wore very little make-up. (She got her best gal friend to do her up.) For Jim, she splurged on a new spring floral dress with a slight scoop neck that showed a gentle view of a little cleavage when she leaned forward.

He rushed around her car and opened her door, as she got ready to get in, she turned to face him. Jim smiled. "You look beautiful tonight, Maria" She blushed as she got in the drivers seat.

They looked at each other as Jim got into the passenger seat. Her eyes seemed to twinkle.

"Where are you taking me tonight?" Jim looked intently at her. "I am not a cheap date so don't think that you can wine and dine into some cheap motel tonight."

Her laughter lightened the car. "You wish!"

He did.

Instead of heading south toward Shreveport, she drove them north to Texarkana. Not knowing what to expect, Jim was somehow not surprised when they drove through Texarkana and out another fifteen miles to a little country cafe that was surrounded by oak trees and a several unused picnic tables. The cafe was packed with cars.

"This place is busy."

Maria opened her car door. "Yeah, it's Friday Fish night. Come on."

She held out her hand, and he took it. They walked hand into the cafe. The older matron of the establishment greeted them. "Probably gonna be a while for a table."

Maria smiled friendly to the woman. "We'll get ours to go, and seat outside if you don't mind."

The lady smiled back. "It's a nice night to sit outside. Don't blame you for wanting to do that."

Twenty minutes later, the couple sat outside under a large Oak tree eating two dinners out of a styrofoam box. As a Northener, Jim had never eaten catfish before moving here, but Maria did get Jim to give it a try with hot sauce. He found that he rather enjoyed it, or maybe it was the company.

With a closeness that comes from their daily talks, they enjoyed each others time. Just being together. Without either realizing it, they were holding hands across the weather picnic table top. A soft connection that these two people needed. They each spoke of their dreams and desires. Maria had wanted to see the world, but knew that she would never be able to until Jason was grown. Jim admitted that he desired a simple life, well, a simpler life. He had small children, and knew that his options were also limited until the children were older. His desire for traveling was more, he wanted to see the USA. Maybe they could travel together, he wondered about that. Would she be happy with that. She had concerns about herself as she was a single mom, who had not been on a date before tonight in over five years. She had given up on being intimate with anyone before meeting Jim. With Jim, he wouldn't admit to himself or anyone else that he had concerns about his ability to please a woman. Before the 'incident', he never worried about such a thing. They each carried a lot of baggage.

As they sat and talked, enjoying each other's company without children, they noticed as all the diners left, and were still talking at the table as the cafe employees waved as they left work for their homes.

Jim stood and held out his hand. She took his hand. "Maybe you better take me home before I get grounded."

Their conversations continued on the drive back to Jim's house. When they pulled in the driveway the motion lights came on, and he saw Mac looked out the window. Jim got out and leaned in. "Do you want to come in, and say 'hi'"

"I should." she replied, 'But, I really need to use the bathroom."

He sat and spoke with Mac and his wife while she used the half bath. She joined the conversation, and before they realized it almost an hour had passed. Mac looked at the clock, "We need to get on home, and let our dogs out."

She acknowledged that her parents were probably worried that she was out this late (It's wasn't even eleven pm.) She was never this late.

Jim walked them all out to their vehicles. As the McMurphys drove away, he opened Maria's driver door for her. She moved between his arms, and gave him a deep hug. He felt the warmth of her holding him. He looked down into her face, and she reached up to him, and kissed Jim softly.

As they parted from her kiss, he felt a hunger that he had missed for so long, as did she.

"Thank you for tonight." Jim said as he looked into her eyes.

"You're welcome." A smile says a lot, and her smile did that. He watched her drive into the night with a smile on his face.

A few days later, Linda would find herself sitting in a group therapy group in Rehab. Like most people unwillingly put into Rehab, Linda couldn't acknowledge that she was guilty of any bad behavior. She was so entitled to her feelings. An argument with another addict, Sheryl almost became a fist fight.

Another two days, and she was really into her withdrawals. She had DTs from alcohol along with the drug withdrawals.

Her mother would visit a couple times each week. On this week, she brought Linda a copy of picture that Jim had emailed her of Emma and Tommy being pulled behind a four wheeler in hay filled wagon. Smiles of innocence adored their faces. Straw in their hair, and dirt on their faces.

The picture brought a feeling of loss, and possibly a revelation for Linda. During group that morning when another argument with Sheryl hit home. "Linda, you're an entitled white liberal bitch that had it all, Girl. Had it all. Good man, great family, apparently great job, and you did what. Threw IT away for some rich dude with a swingin' dick. Bitch, a dick is the least of a man. I ain't sayin' I don't like it too, but that's not what makes a man a man." After a pause. "All you do is bitch about how they did you wrong. Husband threw you out, and you big dick boyfriend threw you out. Maybe it ain't them, maybe it's you, bitch."

On this Saturday, her father joined her mother on her visit to see Linda. Her father didn't speak but he held her as only a father can hold his daughter. He held her tight making her feel secure.

As they each held a styrofoam cup of coffee in the common room, Linda sat her cup down on the table between them, she looked at her parents holding hands. "I screwed up."

As always, her father nodded his head. "Yes, you did, baby girl."

"I know that I hurt Jim with my mistake."

Gruffly, her father came back with. "Princess, a mistake is not balancing your checkbook and getting overdrawn, putting too much sugar in your coffee. No matter how you whitewash it, you fucked up." He never used that kind of language with her. His workers, yes, but not her or her mother. "You tried to destroy a good man, a good father with your bullshit intentions. How can you think that he would go along with your craziness?"

"Because he loves me."

"You know better than that. He's a 'one and done' kind of man. If you wanted out, Jim would have rationalized it, and gave you a divorce so you could be with other men. He would miss you, probably, hell, he did miss you until he didn't anymore."

She broke down, and her mother scooted around to hold her. "Mom, do you think that Jim will forgive me and take me back?"

Patting her daughter's head. "No, baby. He's moved on. He and the children have new lives now, and sorry, but you're not a part of that. When we went and saw them last month, I could see that he's at a point where he can be happy again."

She looked at her mother through tear filled eyes. "He's going to divorce me?"

Her father waved his head from side to side. "You're already divorced."

"How?" she looked around, back and forth between her parents. "I haven't been served."

He scooted his chair closer to her.

"In this state, if a person cannot be contacted, or be served by legal authorities, you can be processed by 'other means'. The process went through the newspapers, online sites, Fbook, and other social media sites as we tried to find you. You had, for all intents and purposed disappeared. No one knew where you were. You didn't call, or texted, nothing! Hell, your mom and I tried a half dozen times to get into that high security guarded neighborhood that your boyfriend lives in to see if you were there, but couldn't get in. Hell, it seemed that you wanted everyone to know that you had a new man. Family and friends saw pictures of you with that bastard, paraded out in public like a peacock, just rubbing it in all of our faces."

Pausing, he sipped coffee. "It was obvious to the courts that you had traded up as they say, so since you failed to appear in family court, the Judge granted Jim his divorce from you. It'll be final any day now."

A depression sat in onto her. Marc had never given her the impression that her parents had tried to see her. She felt horrible. What she had given up was so much, she had given it up for 'him'. It had taken a while but she was finally seeing 'him' for what he is. A User. He had been drugging her without her knowledge, giving more drugs like cocaine, keeping her drinking too. As she thought about it, every time she tried to have a conversation about their situation, he would take her to bed and have sex with her. She realized that at his place, she was always horny, but at Rehab, she hardly ever thought about sex. She as trying to by as good as she could.

Her father left the room with his wife comforting their daughter. She had made her bed and. now, had to sleep in it.

At twelve weeks, the end of Rehab was ending for Linda. She had a sponsor, but she needed to get a job. Her old company wasn't interested since she disappeared without any notice. HR seemed pleased that she had completed Rehab, but was concerned about future problems. She interviewed with several other firms, and businesses, but it seemed that she didn't get calls back for second interviews.

Her parents insisted that she stay with them, even though Jim was still making payments on the house, the old house.

In desperation, she took a servers job at a chain restaurant. After three weeks of training, she was finally making some cash. It helped her self esteem but the easy alcohol tempted her too much. Food service employees like to drink after hours, and the temptation was there every day. After a lengthy talk with her Sponsor, Linda quit the server job.

"I don't know what to do?" Linda cried to her sponsor. "I can't get a job that pays enough, and I can make enough waiting tables but it's not promising and I know that I can't be around alcohol."

"You haven't hit a real bottom yet, and I don't want you too. There are always options if you open your eyes. You're not looking outside of your box. Linda, you have managerial experience, you just need a new box." She pointed across the street to the Dollar Store.

Linda had never considered retail management. She went to college and took a corporate job. She had made around eighty thousand a year before she went off the deep end with 'Him'. She understood now that right now that was not a possibility.

With her father, she researched several small retail chains managerial jobs. They didn't have bad starting pay, and most had a bonus structure. On-line complaints about working long hard hours bothered her, but her father made her realize that long hours kept her out of trouble. Besides, the internet is for complainers.

She interviewed with several small retail chains, some were promising, others not so much. She did find that each like that she had a degree, and as long as she could pass a random drug test, they didn't care about her past.

She took a position with ABC Dollar Stores, a growing company with over five thousand stores across middle America. Starting salary was only 60k, but with quarterly bonuses, and an inventory bonus if her store did well. She spent a month training in Omaha, in a store in a horrible neighborhood. She had never worked with people like this before. She never had to socialize with poor people before, but it didn't take long to see poor people as either good or bad people. They weren't beneath them, most were better people than her. The training store worked her fifteen hours a day, and she was paid a training wage of $600/wk with hotel and meals. She took the ABC job because of the weekly pay schedule. She knew she'd have cash flow issues without it.

Once she arrived at the store that she was hired to manage, she was beset with issues from the first second. It took her almost a month to hire better employees and fire the bad ones. These stores were profitable between that run on short staffing, and buying cheap supplies from China and sell to poor people. Theft was high, and so was turnover, but by her fourth month, the turnover was down. At the end of that quarter, she received her first payroll bonus for hitting her payroll numbers. She missed her sales bonus because of theft, but she was working on that.

She stood outside of her parents house as she thought about maybe moving back to the old house. She had been living here since she left Rehab. A yearning filled her as she watched the school bus roll past the house. She missed her children. "How were they doing?'

Summer has come to it's end. Football was in the air. As Jim leaned against the chainlink fence, he watched Jason out on the practice field. With Jim's influence, the lad had tried out for the seventh grade football team. He was the tallest boy. Jim had worked with the boy, and had him catching passes across the front yard. Only time would tell how well the boy would actually play.

He reflected over the summer. The plant was operational, ahead of schedule. Production had begun. Currently, he was overseeing, the revealing of the cycle in Las Vegas at the Continental Cycle Show next month. Jim had the engineers working a half dozen prototypes for retailers to test ride at an event at the Speedway.

The nanny that Mrs McMurphy set up for the children didn't work out, but that was fine, as Maria stepped in, and took over the roll. He didn't ask her, but it made him happy. He would come home to happy children, and a cooked meal. Almost as if they were married.

As a couple, he and Maria were taking it slow. After their first 'date', they were inseparatable. The following Sunday, he and the kids joined her and her parents with Jason at their church. For Jim, it was a forty minute drive, and coming from Methodist church to a Baptist Church, it was an experience. The church members greeted him like a long lost member, and made him feel at home. It was a small country church with a few hundred members, not a mega church like he went to up north.

Some people thought it was strange that he and Maria saw each other every day, but to him it seemed natural. He wanted to see her, and she seemed to want to see him.

During the summer, as she came over every morning to babysit, her apparel got a little more casual. He longed for her. She turned him on, a lot. She had a large bosom that she had kept covered, but her summer tank tops couldn't mask them. Her little plump bottom jiggles as she walked away from him, and it excited him.

Personally, they blended. As a couple, they had spent many hours kissing and touching, but never going too far. She had her own issues, and she did not want sex to be the only reason they were together. He had his own issues and insecurity after what Linda had done so even though he wanted nothing more than to make love to her, he held back as well. He'd been touching her under her clothing, but always held back from touching too intimately.

It had been hot a few weeks ago, the swimming pool was getting a workout from the children everyday. He knew that Maria got in the pool with them, but she was dressed when he arrived home, but today, everything was running smooth, so he decided to leave early.

The sounds of joy were coming from outside. He could hear them through the walls. Putting his things on the kitchen island, Jim wandered to the sunroom to watch. She tossed Emma off her floating raft, and then swam to the edge to climb out. Water cascaded down her face across her chest and across the hot concrete. She pulled up onto her elbows, the long armed pushing herself upward.

The wet dark blue one piece swimsuit stretched across her ample bosom. She was incredible. Her breasts were so plump and her suit gave little support. She stood with her back toward Jim as she used a towel. The suit had ridden up her bottom, showing her perfect shaped round ass. His erection was obvious. At this moment, he would always reflect that she was perfect, perfect for Jim. He watched as her breasts moved as she walked around the pool picking up pool noodles and toys. Her pulling her swimsuit bottom back across her butt cheeks which also jiggled as she walked. He had never seen her this close to nude. The suit hid nothing.

"Hello!" Jim yelled as he came through the sliding glass door onto the patio. Maria smiled at him, and waved before covering herself with her towels. One around her hips, and the other over her shoulder covering her ample bosom.

He felt the water through his pants as his wonderful children hugged his legs. "Where's Jason?"

"He's helping his granddad get ready to cut some hay from the pasture."

"I was thinking of joining you in the pool. It's a good day for a swim." Looking for an opening, he added. "If you're not going inside."

Maria took Tommy's hand in hers. "I'd like that, but Tommy's had too much sun. He's so fair complected. Get your suit on, and I'll make the kids a snack, and they can stay inside and cool off for a while."

Changing into his trunks, he came outside while she finished with the kids. He dove in the ptool, and swam around. Doing some laps, then floating on swim noodles. He was so relaxed that he was startled when Maria jumped into the pool beside him. The wave pushed him over against the far wall.

She swam into his arms. He wrapped her into his chest as he felt the softness of her chest against his. They kissed with a hunger. He whispered into her ears between kisses. "You're so beautiful!" "Oh, Lord, you're so sexy."

"I'm not..." she plied to him softly.

"You are!" He stated firmly, as he ran his hands down her back and onto her sexy, plump ass. Touching and squeezing, as pressed his erection against her abdomen. The kissing fueled both of them, as she pressed back against Jim for the first time. He ran his hands over her hips, and upward to her breasts. Hard nipples etched their way into his palms as he touched them softly, then firmly. She didn't seem to mind.