Outercourse

I

It was the first day of work in the dining hall for Kevin Pearson. A job and position he very much did not want, but circumstances being what they were he was thankful to have a job, if only as a way to occupy his time and attention. Consequently, it was also something he absolutely needed.

Having turned 51 years old the previous summer, by the time the cold autumn rain arrived in Connecticut Kevin had proceeded to lose both his career of twenty-five years and a marriage of nearly equal length. It never rains but it pours, right?

Although, truth be told, he had an easier time letting go of his wife. Their marriage had been on the rocks for years anyway, held together by force of habit. As far as he was concerned... well, she could just go fuck herself.

Their marriage had been a burden for more years than he cared to recount. Now, at least, he was liberated - free in a way he hadn't experienced since his early 20s and, in many ways, it was exhilarating. Sure, there were times when he was lonely, but then he would watch some porn and rub one out. Honestly, it was the same thing he had been doing for years anyway. The only difference now was that he didn't have to worry about his bitch of a wife catching him in the act.

However, losing a career he had worked so hard at for so long was a sizable and painful blow. For a quarter century Kevin had worked in the insurance business and made a rather handsome income, which undoubtedly contributed to him getting the axe when the company decided to downsize. What a delightful word that is - downsize. It just means grab your dick and hang on because shit is about to get real and your ass is the first one on the chopping block.

He had degrees, designations beside his name, and years of knowledgeable experience. In the end, all of that counted for precisely jack shit. Thankfully, Kevin had already accumulated a sizable nest egg for retirement, but he didn't want to dip into that until it was absolutely necessary...which was why he was so desperate to find some kind of employment.

So...Kevin had never been one to wallow in self-pity nor rest on his laurels. Which is why from the moment he lost his job he was out searching for gainful employment if only as a matter of having something to do. To keep his mind occupied, his body busy and some measure of income coming in to allow him to survive.

But as the days turned into months he became desperate for something - anything - just so long as it came with a steady paycheck. After sending out over two hundred resumes - yeah, you read that correctly - Kevin had no choice but to alter his search criteria. He needed to examine things, and his situation, a little more realistically.

Almost on a lark, Kevin applied for a position in the dining hall of a prestigious boarding school right in his hometown. It seemed they needed a full-time dishwasher and, things being what they were, he thought what the hell. Why not apply and see what happens?

Low and behold, they were interested in hiring him. The head chef and supervisor of the dining crew had come to his job late in life, also out of necessity, and felt a little sorry for Kevin. As long as Kevin could accept working for minimum wage, the dishwashing job was his for the taking.

Knowing things would be tight, and hoping this would only be a temporary setback, Kevin accepted the job with a handshake and began working behind the scenes in the kitchen. His job could not have been any simpler - retrieve all the dirty dishes from the conveyer belt, stack them in designated racks and slide them through the huge washing machine where they came out on the other side clean as a whistle. Yet, cleaning dirty dishes from all the young, self-righteous, arrogant, selfish - and very rich - boarding students was a very humbling experience for him, to say the least.

All in all, the job was one of routine. But, really, aren't they all? This was just a different sort of routine, but it suited Kevin well nonetheless. He stayed in the background, did his job, kept his mouth shut and, as a bonus, was able to eat both his lunch and dinner for free. In fact, he considered that to be the biggest perk of the job. It helped considerably to cut down on his expenses at home and was almost worth having the fucking job to begin with.

However, what made his job equally worthwhile was Josie.

As a young, 21-year-old, Josie had the body of an angel and a temperament to match. She stood just a shade under five-seven with dark brown hair that was always pulled back in a bun and big, luminous brown eyes that were utterly radiant.

To Kevin... and everyone else...Josie's looks were intoxicating.

She possessed a slender, hot little body which was even more amazing in light of the fact that she had given birth to a little girl - Chloe - just a couple years before. But, you wouldn't have known it. Her tits were set high and perky on her chest, and her ass was as tight as a drum - or so it looked from behind.

All of those attributes complimented Josie greatly, but they weren't even her greatest features. That belonged to her face. What a face!

Her complexion was soft and light - ethereal - with faint, almost undetectable freckles on her cheeks and around her cute little nose. Josie's face was like that of a china doll, which made her hair and eyes really stand out against her skin. In fact, when you looked closely (which was hard to do without appearing like a pervert) she revealed a rather long neckline while her eyes appeared slightly slanted in shape, as if she was squinting or perhaps sizing up someone from a distance. Regardless, there was an enchanting allure of mystery about her.

Stated simply - Josie was a captivating figure in every way and, not surprisingly, she was the focus of much attention in the dining hall, from the young men who attended the boarding school to the older men who were her coworkers.

Yet, she never seemed affected by the attention. Or she was really good at ignoring it. Josie just casually went about her business. She completely dismissed comments she didn't care to acknowledge and seemingly ignored people she didn't wish to engage with. It occurred to Kevin that was a pretty convenient way to go through life. It kept things smooth and uncomplicated.

It also seemed to Kevin, although he was certainly no expert on the matter, that Josie fit the description of what some people would call an "old soul." She possessed a unique inner quality that matched and complimented her exterior veneer perfectly. Things that bothered most people never appeared to fluster her at all. Josie always seemed above everything - removed from it all somehow.

She had an uncanny ability to keep herself distant and detached from nearly everything and everyone in the dining hall - completely comfortable in her own skin and in her own company. It was a gift, and Kevin could only sit back and marvel at the effectiveness of her behavior.

Nearly a month had gone by after he began working at the dining hall before a chance encounter in an elevator brought Kevin and Josie together. Up to then he had only interacted with her casually - a brief wave or nod of his head, the occasional quiet hello - or privately watched her from a distance as she scurried from one place to the next. There had never been an opportunity to chat face to face.

But, the brief meeting in the elevator allowed for official introductions along with a courteous handshake. Josie smiled warmly at him, which almost knocked Kevin right the fuck off his feet. In an instant, that fleeting smile unlocked a doorway into her soul. What he saw captivated him. He was hooked. Whatever it was about her, mysterious or completely obvious, Kevin was fascinated and immediately cursed himself for thinking explicit sexual thoughts about someone more than half his age.

Still...that smile...

The dining staff consisted mostly of a younger crowd - and by younger we're talking folks in their 20s and 30s. People who had been lucky just to have graduated high school themselves, if they did, and sought out the only real kind of steady employment that could be found in the area.

Sprinkled in the mix were a few people in Kevin's generation, but they were largely ignored as the more youthful group preferred to mingle together and kept their distance as if older people had the plague. Although, seriously, who could blame them. Interestingly, the older Kevin got the more annoyed and repulsive he found people his own age. However, while he chose not to socialize much with his own crowd, neither did the younger group choose to associate much with him.

So, that left him somewhere in the middle - which suited him just fine. He wasn't planning on working at the dining hall any longer than was necessary.

But, as Kevin grew more and more comfortable in his new surroundings and around those he worked with, he became privy to conversations just by being present. Many of those conversations were about Josie - especially from the older guys who, it seemed, had perverse inclinations toward any member of the opposite sex but most particularly toward Josie.

Their conversations consisted of typical inappropriate "locker room" talk - fantasies about what they wanted to do to Josie if ever given the opportunity. It never seemed to occur to them that Josie had about as much use for them as a soiled tampon, but that didn't much matter to those guys. Their fantasies and shit-talk got them through the shift with humor.

On occasion they would come right out and tell the young, attractive woman to her face exactly what they wanted, which usually produced an eye roll as Josie briskly walked past. Naturally, this did nothing to stop the men from talking and, in fact, may have contributed to them continuing it.

Of course, to be honest, Kevin could also imagine himself doing any number of things to and with Josie. There were many nights when he jerked himself off with those thoughts rolling around in his brain. However, he never would have thought to verbalize them. He had the decency to keep his thoughts to himself.

Over the course of a couple months, as Kevin fell into a kind of groove and the "newness" of everything and everyone had worn off, Josie would make a point to stop and talk with him occasionally as she passed by his area. She was always so nice - asking how he was or what he was up to. He really appreciated that, especially because he knew she didn't have to. She certainly didn't interact with any of the other older guys. But, she chose to interact with him and that made all the difference. In a way, he felt honored.

As expected, some of Kevin's coworkers - those he had labeled the "dirty old men" - would rib him about Josie being his "new best friend" and began saying other stupid shit to him. But, he brushed it off much like she did and dismissed the teasing altogether. Clearly, they were jealous. That was their problem.

There were times when some of the comments were highly inappropriate, or times when he really didn't feel like humoring them, and Kevin would respond with a "fuck off" or "go fuck yourself." Sometimes that worked and sometimes it didn't, but either way he would return to his little corner of the kitchen and do his job. If there were no dishes to wash he found another activity to engage in.

Before he knew it, seven months slipped by and summer arrived. With that, the boarding school closed as all the students left to go wherever it was they went during the holiday. Yet, despite the ghostly quality of an empty dining hall and bare campus, there were still events that happened every day at the school which required food service - seminars, meetings, banquets, etc. This also required Kevin to run the dishes, something he was very thankful for as others in the dining staff were given the summer off - without pay, mind you.

It was during that summer when Kevin and Josie bonded. At first, he thought it was merely a result of most of the other people being gone and Josie not really having any other options. But, as the days progressed, she admitted to him that she liked his company - actually preferred his company, she told him. She said he was easy to talk to and funny, and he was greatly flattered.

Josie had never been one to take easily to others, possessing a reserved quality that either intimidated people or confused them. At any rate, she always chose her friends carefully. As far as the dining hall was concerned, things were complicated. The workers her age judged Josie negatively for having a child at the age of eighteen, and the older workers - male workers - just wanted in her pants and mistook her early pregnancy for something bordering on prostitution. So, understandably, she remained guarded about who she let into her little world.

With Kevin, it was effortless as he was unlike anyone else in the kitchen. There was no judgment - of her or anyone else - and he had a very useful, practical sense about him that she found enlightening. Maybe more importantly than anything else, Kevin actually seemed interested in her as a person and always asked after her daughter with genuine care and concern. He was only one who ever did so, and that meant a lot to her.

Honestly, she found him to be a very likable person and easy to talk to. That realization came as something of a surprise to Josie, but also refreshing. What you saw was what you got with Kevin - no tricks, no hidden agenda, nothing false - and this endeared him to her.

In addition, probably because of his straightforward, honest and warm personality, Josie began to find Kevin attractive - which came as an even greater shock to her. If she hadn't known better, she would have guessed his age to be at least ten years younger than it was - maybe even fifteen. So, the fact that he was in his early fifties was just another interesting fact about Kevin that astonished her.

Truthfully, his age didn't matter to her - it was just a number, as they say. Josie had never cared much for people judging her, or making assumptions about her fitness as a mother, based on her youth and she wasn't about to judge someone else based on theirs. It was that simple.

Kevin stood a few inches taller than her but less than six feet, possessed a rather average looking body - not slim or athletic but definitely fit. Pretty ordinary, really. He had salt and pepper hair that she found rather handsome, and lovely green eyes that she considered his best feature - especially when he smiled or laughed. His whole face lit up.

Truthfully, compared to all the other guys in her world - most of whom were simply out looking for a piece of ass - Kevin was one of the nicest men she knew. Yes, she had to accept that maybe there were some "Daddy issues" she was dealing with, which made sense because Josie had no relationship whatsoever with her father and never had.

Consequently, part of the reason she was drawn to Kevin was because he filled a void left by the absence of a father. She knew that - and had admitted it to herself. On the other hand, she also had trust issues with men and Kevin was someone she not only felt comfortable and safe with, but also someone she implicitly trusted - and that, no doubt, was because of his age as well.

Regardless, they grew close together and by the time the fall semester commenced - when the boarding school was full of students and everything was running on all cylinders - Kevin and Josie were like two peas in a pod. Naturally, this didn't go unnoticed by their coworkers, particularly the "dirty old men." But, the pair kept to themselves and ignored the others.

On a Saturday night in early October, after dinner had been served and the dining hall had closed until early the next morning, some of the staff headed out for a late happy hour at the local pizzeria and bar. In any other place than a small New England town, this would have been quite the novelty rather than an accepted reality.

Josie wanted to go as her daughter was spending the weekend at her mom's, but she didn't want to go alone so she asked Kevin if he was planning to attend.

"Nah - my happy hour days have passed me by, I'm afraid," he responded with a smile befitting a man who knew his age and was comfortable with it.

"Oh, come on you old fool," shouted one of the dirty old men, this one named Paul. "Come out with us and have some fun. Might do you good."

"Blah blah," Kevin responded instantly. "Might do you good to go fuck yourself Paul. At least you would get laid for once."

"Ha ha - you're a riot," Paul responded dryly with more than a hint of sarcasm, then waved goodbye as he headed out the door.

Josie touched Kevin on his arm, diverting his attention away from the older gentleman and into the eyes of a much lovelier countenance. "Please?" she pleaded softly. "Won't you reconsider? It would be so good of you to come. I would have someone to talk to. Someone I prefer to talk to."

Kevin's eyes met hers and he could have sworn his heart actually skipped a beat.

My God

, he thought,

she's so beautiful. So young and so beautiful

. He stared into those gleaming pupils. How the fuck could he resist? Short answer - he couldn't. "Well...ok."

"Oh good," she answered brightly, causing any initial hesitation on his part to disappear like a snowball tossed into a roaring fire.

The actual gathering turned out to be much better than either of them could have realized. They ended up together in a booth since the one large table in the establishment was already taken up by their coworkers. It pays to show up late sometimes.

Of course, this caused the "dirty old men" to wink and whistle at the duo as they sat alone in their booth - to which both Kevin and Josie flipped them off.

"Oh...drink your fucking beer and piss off," Kevin jested with them as he slid sideways into the booth.

Despite having gotten to know each other during the previous summer and forming a close bond together, Kevin and Josie had never really talked much about their personal lives or had ever really talked very much at length. At least not about anything other than work. But, like usual, the introduction of alcohol dulled their senses and caused them both to loosen up and become more open. In time, they would look back and realize that this was the moment when the nature of their relationship changed direction.

Josie learned specific details about Kevin's marriage and divorce, and the fact that he had no children, which seemed to be the only thing he was earnestly sorry about.

"I always wanted a family," he said. "It just...never happened. I don't know if it was me or her but, try as we might, she never got pregnant."

"I'm really sorry about that. You would have made a great father." She reached across the table and gingerly squeezed his hand.

"That's sweet of you to say Josie. Thank you. I would like to think I would have been but..." he paused for a considerable length of time, closed his eyes and tilted his head. "Well...in the long run I guess I'm just as glad because I wouldn't have wanted to put any kids through a divorce, or any of our messed up bullshit for that matter."

"Maybe there wouldn't have been a divorce if you had had children," she offered encouragingly.

"Hmm - maybe not. But...well, it is what it is." And that ended that particular topic.

Soon it was Josie's turn to share details of her relationship with the "sperm donor," as she called him, and how they had come to be.

A young, impressionable seventeen-year-old Josie had fallen head over heels for an older guy - again, Daddy issues. But, in hindsight, she admitted that half the attraction she had for the then 25 year old man was that her mother detested him. That was all Josie needed to know at the time. And, sure enough, all the warnings from her mother - and everyone else - came to pass.