I'm taking a wonderful workshop called The Book Factory. Our instructor
Kerri Nelson , a multi published author, is wonderful!!! I'm enjoying the class very much.
She posted a few writing prompts and I worked on one of them in fifteen minute intervals until I got it finished. It turned out so well I thought I'd post it here for everyone to read.
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With three kids in the house, a
love life is darn near impossible. The only lip action you get is when one of
the kids back talks you. The one and only time our son caught my husband and I
in a clinch, he gagged so hard I thought he’d swallowed his gum and was choking
to death.
All of us have different schedules.
Since we have a child in each school one in elementary, one in junior high and
one in high school all three kids have different activities they attend—simultaneously
of course. With only two cars in
the family and two responsible adults acting as cabbies and spectators, we
don’t even get to have a quiet conversation in the car, unless you count cell
phone calls to discuss what fast food we can pick up for dinner on the way home.
My children are healthy, happy,
well adapted teenagers and they each have a life. But Jimmy, my husband, and I
have none. In fact, parenthood has pretty much become a time suck.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my
children. If I had to throw myself between them and a moving car, I’d gladly do
it. I carried them for nine months, and suffered through long, slow, painful
labors to bring them into the world. I have a lot invested in these three,
emotionally, physically, and financially. Certainly too much to give them away.
But of late I’ve begun to wonder when this hamster wheel is going to stop so I
might eventually get off. Forgive the pun.
Yes, I’m talking about sex. They say it’s like riding a bicycle and
that once you learn how, you never forget. But I have to tell you, the memories
have grown p-r-e-t-t-y cloudy. We’re talking sand storm in the desert, a fog
bank across a pacific coast bay, the ash cloud following a volcanic eruption
cloudy.
My hubby and I have become so
obsessed with doing for the kids, that
we’ve forgotten about doing each other.
After eight hours at work, four hours at whatever function the kids have and
all the other responsibilities of a household, we both seem to tumble into bed
and die.
So, I’ve made a decision. It’s
Thursday, and technically a school night, but this gal is tired of waiting her
turn. A turn that never comes. Tonight the kids are going to a movie and hubby
and I are going to have a romantic evening at home. Or at least two hours. End
of discussion.
***
The kids came in about five-thirty
from soccer practice, gymnastics and piano lessons. They were all able to catch
rides home so I could actually cook dinner tonight. As they were stuffing their
faces I asked, “How would you guys like to go to that new Hunger Games movie?”
All three were concentrating on
their food.
“Sure” Kelly, our son, said without
pausing. “I’ll call Chad and see if he wants to go too.”
“I meant tonight. It’s just come
out and I thought you guys might want to go.”
Every one paused, forks in midair
for at least three seconds. “It’s a school night,” Adriana our youngest said.
Now I know we’ve become extremely regimented as far as the rules
go. We insist on every scrape of homework being done, before the kids go out
with their friends. And they very rarely do anything on a school night, outside
their extra curricular activities. (who needs anything extra with ballgames of
some sort three days a week.) I can’t see how they’d have time without it affecting
their grades. Thus the rule. But I was desperate for some
alone time with my husband. And at this point desperation breeds, a bending of
the rules.
“You guys have been doing so well
in school and keeping up with things around here, so, I thought I’d treat you.”
“I have a test tomorrow,” Adriana
said.
Kelly and Sophie’s head snapped in
her direction so fast I thought I heard bones crack. Had their eyes been laser
beams, she’d have been a cinder.
“The movie will be over at nine and
that will give you an hour to study before you have to hit the hay.”
A smile flitted across her features
and I knew she’d mentioned the test out of pure devilment to torment her
siblings. “I studied in study hall today, so I think I’ll do fine.”
“Good.” I breathed a sigh of
relief.
Jimmy wandered in from work. He
made a quick trip to the bedroom to shake free of his suit and tie. He returned
wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
“The kids are going to the movies,”
I announced as he joined us at the table.
“Tonight?”
“Yes. I thought they’d been keeping
their noses to the grindstone and deserved a treat. The new Hunger Games movie
is on at the Cinema.”
He raised his brows but didn’t say anything. My husband is
good about reading between the lines and though he may not have understood why
the kids were going, he knew better than to argue about it in front of them.
The kids finished up in record time
and left the table to get ready to go.
“Did I miss something?” Jimmy asked
as soon as they were gone.
“Yes, you did. If you’re very, very
good, you might just get lucky tonight,” I announced as I rose to clear my
plate from the table.
The slow grin that spread across
his face almost wiped away the lines of exhaustion that marked the outer
corners of his eyes and bracketed his mouth. He’d been working sixty and seventy hour weeks and doing
things with the kids. “What do I have to do?”
“Think positive thoughts while I shove
the kids out the door and take a shower.”
He laughed and caught me about the
waist. I set aside the dinnerware and bent to give him a quick kiss and a
cuddle. He nuzzled my breasts and I brushed back the dark hair at his temple
liberally sprinkled with gray. He looked so tired. The phone rang— and rang,
and when it became apparent none of the kids were going to answer it, I tugged
free and grabbed it.
It was for him. With a sigh, I
passed it on to him and left him talking business while I shepherded the kids
out to the car.
Kelly, having just gotten his
license about a week ago, was hyped about driving to the movies. It was only
three miles from the house. I gave him the required cautions and reminded him
to take his time, then handed him the keys.
As he was backing out of the drive,
I wondered if I should follow them in the car just to be sure they arrived safely.
I fought the urge and watched the car progress down the street and turn the
corner.
Returning to the kitchen, I found
Jimmy had left his meal and had gone into his office. His voice droned on in a
discussion about water table studies and other things engineers understand and
we lay people don’t. I cleared the table, loaded the dishwasher and left
Jimmy’s meal in the microwave for him to reheat.
I jumped in the shower and washed
away the stress of the day. I work as a nurse in a doctor’s office and I know
I’ve seen at least a hundred and fifty patients today. I lathered my hair and
washed it as well. It only took a few minutes to wrap up in my robe and
blow-dry my hair.
As I stepped out of the bedroom the
luscious quietness of the house settled around me. I wandered down the hall,
through the living room and pushed open the door to Jimmy’s office. He lay on
the couch, a sheet of paper in his hand and soft snores emitting from his open
mouth.
I almost groaned aloud in
frustration, then thought about how tired he’d looked at the dinner table and
hadn’t the heart to wake him. I tiptoed out and shut the door.
After shucking the robe and putting
on my usual gown, I settled at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. It wasn’t
that I was hungry for—sex. It was that I felt Jimmy and I had lost track of
each other because we were so busy keeping responsible track of our kids. I
just wanted a few moments to feel close to him.
Ten minutes later the kids came in.
“What happened?” I asked.
“They sold out. You wouldn’t
believe the crowd,” Sophie complained.
“Well, you can go tomorrow night.”
Jimmy appeared at the office door, yawning
and stretching. “Is the movie over already?”
“We never got to go. The place was
packed and we couldn’t get a ticket. We’ll go tomorrow,” Kelly answered.
Jimmy’s gaze met mine. With a small
deprecating smile, he shook his head.
The kids scattered, two to their
rooms and Kelly to settle in front of the television in the living room.
Jimmy crooked his finger at me and
I rose to follow him into the office. “Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked.
“You were tired, and besides the
kids came home just a few minutes later.”
He gathered me close and I rested
my cheek against his chest. He rested his chin atop my head. “I have an idea.
I’ll be right back.”
He returned with his car keys.
“I’m not dressed,” I complained.
“We’re not going far.”
He led me into the garage and
opened the passenger door of his car and motioned me in. Then jogged around to
get in.
He hit the garage door opener and
backed the car out.
“Where are we going?”
“How long has it been since you
went parking?”
I laughed. “Not since you and I
went a hundred years ago when we were young and stupid.”
“I’m glad to hear it. No one ever
comes down to the end of the cul-de-sac.”
“You hope.” Was he serious?
He pulled around the edge of the
circular drive and pointed the headlights into the woods. But where the
streetlight at the end could shine into the car enough for us to see one another.
He turned off the ignition. “So tell me what’s bothering you.”
Would he think I was awful? An
uncaring mom? A selfish bitch? Shit! Once I’d wrested with my guilt, it all
came out in a rush. “I miss us. I miss us having time alone, and energy to make
love, and just us without the constant interruption of the kids. I mean—we
can’t even carry on a conversation without someone butting in to tell us some
insignificant thing, or ask for permission to do that, or do this. I’m tired of
middle school dance team, and soccer practice and basketball, gymnastics and
piano recitals, and you name it. Our kids social lives have become ours.”
“Is that all?”
“Well, yeah. Well, no. We both fall
into bed so exhausted and just go to sleep. I want sex. I haven’t had sex in
four weeks and three days and I want it.”
He laughed. One of those throw your
head back, stomach shaking, laughs that make everyone else smile. When he’d
finally regained control, he shoved open the door, then came around to my side
of the car to open mine. He offered me his hand. If he thought I was going to make love in the woods and get poison ivy
or something he was insane.
Once I’d gotten out, he slipped
into my seat and pulled the lever at the front to push the seat back as far as
it would go. He hit the other lever and lowered the back of the seat so he was
almost reclined. “As I remember from the last time we tried this, you kept
hitting the steering wheel and blowing the horn.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t
realize you had thought about our one and only experience long enough to work
out the kinks.”
He smiled as he unzipped his pants
and wiggled them down. “You’re not the only one who hasn’t had sex in four
weeks and three days.”
I was suddenly aware of the
streetlight and the dome light inside the car being on and my husband exposed
to the world. I did the only thing I could—I climbed on board and shut the
door.
Maybe the memories weren’t all that
cloudy after all. Because once we’d worked out a few logistical things, we
seemed to do quite well. It was a good thing it was summer because the windows
would have been steamed up. We’d just finished and were cuddling in a shared
post coital bliss when headlights approached behind the car. I scrambled into the drivers seat so
fast I’m sure I bruised sensitive parts of my body on the parking break and I
know I saw stars when I hit my elbow on the steering wheel.
Jimmy laughed out loud as he pull
up his jeans and arrange his shirt overtop his unbuttoned fly. I turned the key to battery and rolled
the window down half way expecting to see a police officer approaching the car
at any moment.
A lone voice came from the back of
the car. “Dad?”
I laid my head down on the steering
wheel, my shoulders shaking with laughter. You can run, but you can't
hide.
Jimmy zipped up and opened the
door. He leaned out into the light. “Your mom and I will be home in ten
minutes, Kelly. Hold down the fort okay?”
I heard the words important phone
call from one of Jimmy’s partners.
“We’ve done this to ourselves, you
know,” he said as he leaned back in the seat and closed the door. “We’ve made
them into responsible people—well mostly, for now.”
“If they’re so responsible then
maybe we can take an evening now and then for just us,” I suggested.
He leaned over and brushed a kiss
across my cheek. “We’ll try the back seat next time.”
If you enjoyed this story— check out some of my published work on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, and ect.
BREAKING FREE
I've recently gotten my rights back to Highland Moonlight and Captive
Hearts my two Historical Romances. And I will be rereleasing them
shortly. Their currently getting new covers and I've done rewrites and
have sent both books to an editor. Be sure to look for upcoming
announcements about these books!!!
Teresa Reasor
