Autumn 1990
Rosetta Lambert sits on her bed, partially wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by the clothes she had been wearing, all laid out around her like presents at a birthday party, after Nick had gathered them up off the floor for her in a haze of disbelief.
They met at the community college where she works, in the snack bar, not long after Nick started classes that fall.
She had married later than most girls her age but wisdom doesn’t always keep us from bad luck and she raised her daughter alone.
Most recently she was seeing a guy who stayed nights until he went to jail, or at least she says, because he found her 15-year old daughter interesting in ways she couldn’t compete with.
But at 46 she’s nothing to laugh at, sweet smile, short, blue-eyed blond and cleans up very well for church, at least when she had stopped in a few times over the years. They didn’t hesitate to strike up many conversations once he started at the college, and she needed some help around the house, and they always had something to talk about. At some point she managed to mention she’s unable to have any more kids.
One night they sat close on the couch and watched Harold and Maude. That was three nights ago.
Tonight he showed up unexpectedly and was met with a shy smile. He had no idea what he would say or whether he should bring flowers or a movie, so he just showed up and she invites him in without a word. She looked away as he touched her face, and they kiss as if they invented it.
They stood there for the longest time, he in control and she so eager to yield, and she began to gasp, they were taken off guard, over 25 years apart, her daughter was working late and she leads him to the bedroom and leaves the lights off.
Their clothes were off fairly quickly and they started connecting the dots, her bosoms are soft but hold their shape when untethered, he wants to taste them but she leads him to the bed and kneels in front him and promptly takes him into her mouth – how does her generation know about that? But she’s very patient, characteristically generous, then before long punctuates it with a kiss on the tip then reaches into her night stand and pulls out a tube.
She sits on the edge of the bed and applies a slightly cold gel to his member, then maybe a quick tap on her own area, and then she introduces his hand to the sour apple, asks if he was ready and he answers with a gentle slide home, taking pause to get his bearings, she reaches down and fondles the danglers, and it finally hits that this is the real thing. She gasps as they rock, they ride the waves, together, and somewhere along the way he realizes why those bawdy rock songs call it a motor.
Nick tries every trick in the book to make it last, baseball, farm smells, Buddy Hackett on Carson, but she’s just so...and then it was all he could take and dessert arrives somewhere among spasms and moans and gasps, they melt, glowing, cake on the stove right out of the oven.
They lie for an endless moment.
“Are you ok?” he finally asks.
“Oh Nicky...”’
“Yes?”
She turns around and kisses his nose, beaming widely, “you have no idea, baby doll.”
On the drive home he thinks of how he’s going to explain the evening to his folks, thankfully they’re asleep.
As he showers, one thing echoes over and over in his green mind, It’s gonna worth of river walks and conversations with Deke to sort all this out.
*****
They meet for lunch on Saturday, across town. He had called her the next night, she didn’t answer, he didn’t leave a message. Five minutes later he tried again and she answered. She spoke tacitly since her daughter was standing right there but she suggested the venue for their first talk since the world changed.
It still hadn’t hit him yet.
Rosie wore jeans and a pink top, she looked good, light makeup. He ordered them each a coffee and they sat in a vacant corner.
“Nicky...” she started down the path after a few sips.
“I don’t know what to say”
“Are you okay?”
“I guess so, I mean, I feel good, I just don’t know...”
“Darlin’ I don’t know either, here I am...the responsible party in all this...”
“I drove to your house, remember?”
She looks up into his eyes and smiles. “Oh Nicky I’ll never forget. I’m sorry I called you Baby Doll.”
“Why be sorry? I’m just surprised I had the bal- I mean, the guts to show up.” She starts giggling sheepishly, leans sideways and he almost reaches to catch her, then she winks and blows a kiss.
“Nicky...I hope we can keep our heads and have some sort of relationship, but I’ll understand if you don’t want to stay involved with...”
“I want us to have a relationship.”
She looks at him soberly. “Nick, let’s take it day by day.”
He smiles, “that’s what I mean. i’m not good with this kind of stuff.”
“You sure had me fooled...baby doll”
He grins, shakes his head, and finally takes a sip of coffee.