Two Christmases

Cassie quickly discovered the stove in the RV and set about making hot chocolate. We got Becca a pole and one for Timmy. Timmy dunked his pole in a hole after watching Jeff. Becca handed her pole back to Jeff. "You can't give up yet Honey," he said. "You'll miss out on all of the fun."

"I just want to have different fun," she said. She walked over to where I was sitting and pulled up one of the milk crates we sit on. She turned on the iPad and handed it to me. "Uncle Alan, can I play games?" she asked sweetly.

Cassie opened the door to the shanty, bringing the wind in with her. She looked around the inside of the tiny room. The only person fishing was Timmy.

I was playing Plants versus Zombies with Becca. Uncle Jeff was watching us.

"What happened to all of the fishing?" she asked.

"We're all experts," said Becca. "Uncle Jeff, do you fish a lot?"

"I've done more than my share," he said.

"What do you call a fish with no I's," she asked. He scratched his head and looked at her.

"A Fsssshhhhhhh!" she said and started laughing crazily. Jeff walked back across the room and picked up his pole. Two hours later he was still cackling and saying, "A fssshhhhhh!"

Just as it started to get dark, we loaded up the RV and headed for Jeff's house

Once we got Jeff home, we jumped in the Jeep and headed for home. When we were almost home, I ordered pizza. I had it delivered to the house. We got there only a couple of minutes after the pizza guy. We pulled up just as he was starting to head back to his car. I paid him and gave him a healthy tip.

The kids woke up as soon as they smelled the pizza. They fell back asleep as soon as they were done eating. Cassie and I each grabbed an armful of pizza filled kid. We carried them upstairs and put them to bed.

"Hmm, I'm not the least bit sleepy," said Cassie.

"Okay, wanna watch some TV?" I asked. "I think the walking dead is on."

"I don't watch much TV," she said.

"How about cards?" I asked. "We could play Black Jack."

"How about Poke her?" she smirked. "Of course, I meant poke me."

"I have video games," I said. "Modern warfare?"

She stood in front of me tapping her foot on the floor. "We're going to be having Modern Warfare if you don't get your ass in that bedroom."

Over the next few days we bonded. Things were going great until reality crashed the party. It came in from multiple fronts and it came hard. The first came as we strolled through the aisles of a local supermarket with the kids in tow.

Becca was pointing out a box of cereal that was on one of the upper shelves. As I pulled it down, I ended up face to face with Connie Fargo. She was one of the stenos who worked for Elizabeth and she was the biggest gossip on town.

"Alan, how's Elizabeth?" she asked. "I'll bet she can't wait to get back to work and start ordering us all around again. She and John spend a lot of time trying to figure out new ways to torture us."

Her smile told me that she was trying to do two things at once. She was trying to hint that there was something going on between John and Elizabeth. And she was wondering why I was shopping without her and who Becca was.

"Who is this little angel," she asked.

"Becca," I said.

Connie was staring at her and Becca was staring back at Connie. Cassie showed up then and thrust her hand into mine. Connie turned and walked away with the biggest smile on her face. I was sure it would only be a matter of minutes before she was on the phone to Elizabeth.

"Who was that?" asked Cassie. She was tense and squeezed my hand as if she was expecting me to run away.

"I don't like her," said Becca. Timmy just came around to my other side and grabbed my other hand.

"Forget about her," I said. "Let's get back to shopping." We continued loading up our cart, the kids were easily distracted by the excitement of the modern world's equivalent of hunting. We no longer had to go out into the wild to hunt for food with a bow or a spear. Nowadays we hunted in the supermarket with a credit card.

Cassie and I weren't as easily swayed from what had happened though. "Can that woman make trouble for you?" she asked. I nodded.

"She can't stop me from divorcing Elizabeth, but if she runs back and tells Elizabeth that she saw me with someone, the terms of the divorce could become a lot more complicated.

"We'll leave as soon as we get back to the house," she said.

"I'll beat your ass if you try," I said.

"You like my ass too much to ever even scratch it," she said. She took a few steps in front of me and wiggled it, then turned around and stuck her tongue out at me. Before she could say anything, at least three other men in our vicinity started clapping their hands and whistling. One of the men got slapped on the head by his wife.

Cassie quickly turned a very bright shade of red, grabbed my hand and dragged me, cart, kids and all to the checkout lane.

"I'm so embarrassed," she said.

"Why?" I asked. "You're beautiful and sexy and men enjoy looking at you."

"I don't do things for men," she hissed. "I did that for you."

Her quick anger told me that there were things about Cassie that I had no clue about. I also realized a few things that had been staring me in the face all along.

When I first saw her, Cassie had been wrapped up in baggy clothes and a hoodie. She'd worn no makeup and even kept a very neutral, almost hostile expression on her face. Her body language and everything else about her had been meant to disguise how pretty she actually was. Since we'd gotten together, she'd blossomed and revealed what she was really like. I wondered if that was because she felt safe with me or was she just putting on an act, for me?

Even the sex thing was confusing. Cassie was, according to her claims and the license I'd seen in her purse, twenty three years old. And like she told me, she hadn't been a virgin our first time. But she acted like a school girl in her first romance. At first, she'd looked at me as if I wanted to rape her. After we'd gotten to the house, she'd offered herself to me and I'd turned her down. That really somehow made her open up. But now it was like she was binging on sex. She couldn't get enough.

The other night we'd left Uncle Jeff's house when it started to get dark, but in Michigan, it gets dark at around five p.m. during the winter months. By the time we'd gotten home, it was only around seven and Cassie looked and acted as if she couldn't wait for the kids to go to sleep.

As soon as the kids ate pizza and we got them into bed, Aunt Cassie was ready to do the nasty. It was another all-nighter...well to be honest it was a series of long sessions with a few short naps between them.

We got into bed and fucked like bunnies as we had the night before. Then we took a nap. I awoke to find Cassie sucking my dick and she actually asked me a question that had been puzzling the shit out of me. She asked me if she was doing it right. I nodded my head very vigorously, but I'd been wondering since then, if it had been the first time she'd ever done it.

When I returned the favor, Cassie was cumming before I really got a chance to get into it. I had all kinds of techniques that I'd learned on my ex and others. Somehow, I'd looked forward to doing them on Cassie. For some reason, I wanted to please her far more than I wanted to enjoy it myself. But I really never got a chance to try out any of my fancy pussy eating skills because Cassie was very nervous about having my face between her legs. And once I started, instead of lying back and enjoying it like most women do, her reaction had seemed strange to me.

After only a few swipes of my tongue, she sat straight up in bed, with her eyes open wider than it seemed possible and her mouth open. Her legs had clamped down on my head as if they were earmuffs and she screamed, "Oh my God," so loudly that I was sure she'd wake the kids.

I looked at her. And she just smiled and looked back at me, but her expression made me wonder if anyone had ever got close to eating her pussy before. The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that Cassie clearly hadn't had sex very often in her life.

I also began to wonder how she came to have the kids. A lot of things simply didn't add up. Becca remembered her mother and simply said that she'd gone away. Timmy, on the other hand, had no idea who his mother was. When we talked about parents, he told me that Aunt Cassie was his mother. Whether or not she was didn't matter in the least to me, but I highly doubted it. There were things that at least to me didn't add up.

Before I'd settled down and gotten married, I'd been around the block a few times. I'd been with a lot of women my age during college and had sampled a few older women as well. I'd even tried one or two of my friends' mothers. At the time, I'd been simply looking for some no strings fun and I'd never considered the damage it might have done to their families and their relationships.

In my defense, I'd never sought out those women. But I have to admit that I didn't protest too vigorously when they let me know that they were interested. Perhaps Liz cheating on me was my chickens coming home to roost and I deserved it. Maybe as they say, "What goes around comes around," and it was simply my turn.

If so, it came around with compounded interest. Because never in any of my assignations had a family or a spouse been hurt by what I'd done; at least to my knowledge that hadn't happened. I'd also never been with any married woman more than once. I'd always tried to avoid causing any pain and linkages with married partners always end up that way.

From the second I'd set eyes on Liz, I'd changed though. I had never been unfaithful to her. Well, considering last night, I hadn't until I found out about her. That set me thinking again. Was what I was doing technically cheating? I hadn't started with Cassie until I'd already decided to divorce Liz. Was that the only difference between us? What about intent?

Though Cassie and I hadn't said the words yet, I could tell that they were only an errant thrust away from one of us screaming it out as our bodies entwined. Those three damnable, yet desirable words would complicate everything, but without them we had nothing.

Cassie squeezed my hand again as we got to the house. "You're greedy," she said.

"I'm what?" I asked. We were putting the groceries away together while the kids scampered around the house.

"Greedy," she said and then she spelled it. "We've never spent even a third of that much money on food and there were three of us. I don't understand how adding one more person triples the amount you spend on food."

"So what do you three normally do on New Year's Eve?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said quietly. "Sometimes I get work waitressing at a party. If that happens, I usually have to pay someone almost half of my pay to watch the kids so I can work. If I'm not working, we just sit home and watch TV. The kids are usually asleep by nine thirty no matter what we plan, so it's usually just me."

I was depressed just thinking about it. "Would you like to go out?" I asked. "We have plenty of time to arrange something. We'll go shopping and buy you a nice dress. We can find one of your chosen baby-sitters and pay them. And then we could go out and paint the town red."

"Is that what you want to do?" she asked.

"I've done what I want for New Year's Eve hundreds of times," I said. "This year let's do something to make you happy. I like seeing you smile. So what would you like to do?"

"I want to stay home and watch a movie with the kids. They love everything we've been doing for the past few days. Honestly, this is the best Christmas we've ever had. I know this bubble will pop soon but I've really enjoyed seeing them happy," she said.

"I love seeing them happy too," I said. I let the part about the bubble popping go. But I too wondered where we were heading and how it would end.

"But after the kids go to sleep," she said nudging my arm. "At the very stroke of midnight..."

"Yes..." I said as she leaned her head towards me.

"Right when the clock strikes twelve...." She hinted.

"Uh huh..." I said.

"I'd like to have you inside of me...or maybe doing that thing where you licked me," she said smiling. "You could do that forever and I'd never complain."

At that moment I felt someone tugging on my pants. I looked down into Becca's eyes.

"Uncle Alan, we have a problem," she said.

"We do?" I asked. She nodded her head.

"We watched the Nemo fish movie the whole time we were in the car. I'm trying to be a good sister but Timmy isn't being fair. He wants to watch that stupid fish movie again, but I want to play the zombies game and..."

"Becca, you guys have to learn how to share," said Cassie.

"I've got this one," I said. She looked at me and nodded her head. I don't think that she believed me.

I went into the living room and scooped Timmy up. I handed the iPad to Becca who immediately started to fiddle with it. I put Timmy down on the couch and turned on my apple TV box. I put his movie on the TV and it picked up right where he'd been watching it on the iPad. Becca settled down right next to her brother to start killing zombies.

"I'm going to take a bath," said Cassie smiling. "I wonder if someone would like to scrub my back?"

"I'll be right in," I said. "I have to make a couple of phone calls." My intention was to start trying to find an attorney to handle my divorce. I had a lawyer already, but he didn't handle divorces. I was very sure that things would probably get messy in my dealings with Liz. I went into the office and just as I was about to pick up the phone it rang. I answered it.

"Hi, Alan," said a familiar voice.

"I thought that you might be there," she said. "Alan, for as long as I've known you you've been a very reasonable person. I know that you're very hurt right now, but what you're doing to Elizabeth is simply cruel. Right now, the two of you are supposed to be getting ready to renew your wedding vows. In a few minutes the two of you were supposed to be jumping on a plane to Florida so you could go off on that cruise. For the past six days the poor girl has sat in her room crying. She's called you at least a hundred times. Even if you're still angry at her Alan, you owe her at least the dignity of a chance to sit down and talk."

It was Elizabeth's mother. I loved that woman nearly as much as I loved her daughter. Losing her would hurt me almost as much as losing Elizabeth.

"Okay Mom," I said. "It's Monday afternoon. Both Elizabeth and I are due back to work on Wednesday..."

"Is she going back to work?" she asked me.

"Mom, how would I know what she plans on doing?" I asked. "I haven't spoken to her since..."

"I'm sorry Alan," she giggled. "We've been talking a lot. There are so many things going on here. John and his wife are getting a divorce. It has already gotten messy. That woman is trying to...you've heard the expression, rob him of the shirt on his back?" Well, she's trying to take the skin off of his back. Just suffice it to say that one of her threats is that if she doesn't get the money she wants from John, she'll go to the company and let them know what John was doing. If that happens, of course, both John and probably Liz would be fired anyway."

"Elizabeth is also willing to quit her job if you want her to. She doesn't know what she has to do to make things up with you. That's the cruelest part. She has no idea of what to do with herself until you and she have a talk. The two of you have been married for five years, Alan. Is something this stupid really worth ending that?"

"Tell Elizabeth we can sit down and have lunch together and work everything out on Wednesday afternoon. I'll call Paula and try to get her and John to come as well."

"Alan, would you like to come over to our house tonight for the New Year?" she asked.

"Thanks for inviting me," I said. "But I'd be very uncomfortable being around Liz right now."

"Well, drive safely and don't get drunk," she said.

"There's no chance of that. I'm staying in and watching some TV," I said.

After hanging up the phone, I checked on the kids; then I ran up the stairs and into the bathroom.

Cassie was lying in the tub with her eyes closed. I approached her as silently as I could and then leaned over and blew a gust of air across her nipples. Her eyes popped open and she splashed water at me.

"I could have drowned, you asshole," she smiled. "Your mom is the luckiest woman on earth. I love this tub. Are you here to scrub my back?" I just nodded. Looking at her I could just see the joy coming off of her in waves.

She rolled over in the water showing me the soft skin of her back. Just below it, two elongated globes of flesh rose majestically above the surface of her back. I could resist it. I leaned over and licked one of her butt cheeks, then gently bit it.

"Oh, fuck," she hissed. "Please don't start that because I'll put the kids to bed before we have lunch.

* * * * * *

Elizabeth

When my mom told me that she'd gotten Alan to agree to meet with me, I leaped out of bed and into my closet. I had to find just the right outfit to wear. She looked at me as if she couldn't fathom what I was doing and then told me that the meeting was a luncheon meeting on Wednesday. She also told me that Paula and probably John would be there too.

It wasn't the cozy meeting I'd envisioned between the two of us, but at that point, I'd take anything I could get. Of course, that meant I'd also have to wait for two more days before I saw my husband but anything was better than what I'd done for the past six days.

For the past six days I had barely left my old bedroom. I hadn't put on makeup and I'd only bothered to bathe when my mom told me I stank. My sister's visits had been few and far between and I knew what to expect from her.

My dad's subtle regret was the hardest of all to take.

"Well, by now, I'd be walking you down the aisle again," he'd say. "Since neither of my girls have any kids yet, I was going to serve as the ring bearer again too. The ring was a lot bigger this time. But who knows, maybe you kids will still patch this up. God damn, that cruise was going to be heaven for you Honey. I think your mom and I might have to take that same trip pretty soon."

"Daddy, I'm going to get him back," I said. "Don't give up on us just yet. Why are you talking about my marriage like it's over?"

"I feel the same way about Alan that you feel about Mom, and he feels the same way about me. If Mom had done what I did, wouldn't you have forgiven her? I mean maybe it would take some time before you'd trust her again, but you'd give her another chance wouldn't you?" I asked.

"Times are different now," he said. "You young people do things and see things completely differently than we did."

"Come on Daddy, it's not that different. You love Mom," I said. "You'd take her back."

"No Honey, I wouldn't have," he said. He looked me in the eye and he let me see that he meant it.

"I'm an old man," he said. "I grew up during a time where a man's word was his bond. It was the same way for women. Back then, calling a man a liar was grounds for a fight. Now people just laugh it off. Everyone lies," he said. "From school kids to politicians, everyone lies. Nothing means anything anymore. If your mother had done what you did...and none of us knows how long you did it for or why, but if she'd ever done that, I wouldn't have taken her back. Like you said, I love your mother. I love her far more than you'll ever understand. I love your mother like Alan loved you. Her happiness means everything to me. But if she had done what you did, it would have meant that she didn't love me."

"Daddy, are you saying that I don't love Alan?" I asked loudly.