Ryan whooped in delight on reading the letter.
A cherished ambition to find a job and put his master's degree in chemistry to some use had been achieved and against the odds. The selection process had whittled the applicant numbers down to a handful, and both practical and presentational skills had to be displayed before a selection panel. The letter he now held informed him of the outcome of that emotionally challenging and nerve-shredding process.
His mother, Lillian Powell smiled. "Good news? Tell me in a moment. I'll just go and see who it is at the door."
He had failed to hear the doorbell but, as he looked at his mother, and then the visitor, he knew that this was a morning to be treasured. His former music tutor, Susan Mayer, stood on the doorstep; his mother had not spoken of her calling in.
"I told Susie that you'd be here," his mother now said as they greeted each other. "She's moved into her new home in Newlyn Street, so...she's living not so far away."
"I know it. I did do a paper round...once." Ryan smiled at Susan. He waved the letter at them both. "I've got the job and start in two weeks. It's down in Bristol where I took my degree, so almost everything has fallen into place."
"That's wonderful! Congratulations darling!" His mother put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheeks. He grinned sheepishly at Susan, who smiled softly in response, as the scene between them played out. "I told Susie that you were at home for a while, and I said that you might help with a few things to help her move into her new home properly."
"I got
'volunteered'
you mean," he said with a teasing laugh for their benefit, but he was thrilled at the prospect of being with his piano teacher again, an attractive woman he had learned so much from and appreciated in ways that neither of them would speak of.
He had already taken in the look of an engaging and personable woman whom he knew so well, Susie's slender figure clothed in a flattering white blouse with embroidered details to the billowy sleeves and neckline; the easy flow of her beige skirt that finished just above the knee and revealed slender legs and ankles, strappy sandals adding a finishing touch. Her shoulder-length auburn hair, with its blonde highlights, framed her lightly made-up face and he soon felt ensnared once more by the look of her, just as he had been as a horny teenager with feelings for a woman close to his mother's age.
"It shouldn't take long, Ryan...I won't detain you for too long" Susie ventured for Emly's benefit, smiling softly, yet struggling to keep her emotions under control. She had missed him and wondered if he had felt the same way about her, even after they had agreed that they had fallen into, and then ended, what had been a fleeting and tempestuously pursued affair.
"And I don't mind if it does take long, on a day like today," he soon answered, "and it's been quite a while since I saw you," he told Susie directly.
The woman that he had once fantasised over, in his teens, stood before him and he would go with it, just as he had done a year or so ago. He had lost his gawky youthful awkwardness by then and Susie remained the carefully tended and voluptuous woman he had been taken to bed by; moments of flirting during his piano lessons finally flaring into what had felt like an unquenchable heat.
University, and then a post-grad course, had brought him many experiences but none had endured. He wondered how it was for the woman who stood before him, unsure where their reunion was to go.
"I had decided where the piano was to stand in the living room, but the removal people were in a rush and it's too much for me to move on my own."
"Then I'll be over to help you with that and we can set it up correctly." His mother was going out so he would be in no rush to get back home and the prospect of spending some time with Susie was too good to miss.
"Take your keys, won't you?" Lillian instructed, glad that he agreed to go along with her plan. "I'll be gone for a while and your father wants to meet me for lunch...so, I'll be home late in the afternoon."
"Okay, I can take care of myself,' Ryan answered casually. 'I'll go and get my things."
Susie watched him leave them and took in once more his easy strides. She had seen again an appraising look in his eyes upon her, but she had sensed a difference in that, and it was a gaze that revealed confident ways with her now. Ryan retained that engaging smile and there was still that mop of brown hair swept back from his forehead that she remembered so well.
She again felt a dizzying attraction to him and what his company might again lead to as her times with him were fondly remembered. The end of their affair had been understandable, but it had left an emotional void to be filled that she remained unaware of. At the infrequent times when she had heard from Ryan, she had not said anything fearing that to do so would make it abundantly clear that she was indeed the 'clingy' woman that she often felt herself to be.
As the saying went,
'vanity before the fall
', but she had never denied to herself that she had found uncommon pleasure whenever she and Ryan had been lovers. And now, she felt the gnaw of longing in her tummy once more and sensed, from Ryan's look upon her, that he was dealing with that emotion too.
She wondered who would be the first to express what they felt about being together again or who would make the first move.
♥
What she now sensed about being in his company again, and meeting his glances upon her, felt unreal. They had known each other well, as far as a pupil-teacher relationship had ever been allowed to go. They had been chatty, even as the music lessons became more serious and his technique began to blossom, as much from an innate musical talent that Ryan possessed, as from her teaching. All that had gone before had been grounded; based on trust and a bounded friendship that could arise between people of different ages.
Now, to have an engaging young man walking beside her, and soon to be in her new home, had an air of unreality about it. Her emotions were driven on by what had happened between them and what they now felt about being together again.
"I know that we shouldn't, not out here, but I can't help it."
