When I was around eighteen my best mate was Chas. We were the same age and had pretty much the same interests (football, bikes, "alternative" music and, of course, girls) and would hang out drinking the odd beer and smoking the odd joint. At about the time the events to be recounted occurred his Dad had pissed off leaving his Mum with him, his sister who was a couple of years younger and his little brother. Chas wasn't too bothered about his Dad leaving; he said a few times that "life is more peaceful now without that dickhead around". Still, it obviously affected him and his siblings, and of course Alice, his Mum.
I was an only child and spent a lot of time at their house, I suppose looking for the company of the brothers and sisters I never had, and I became quite close to all the family, Alice often using my metaphorical shoulder to cry on to let off steam about her absent husband. I was a good listener I suppose. Also Janet, the daughter, was going "a bit off the rails" and tended to listen to me where her immediate family couldn't get through to her.
Alice, or Mrs Burrows (or Mrs B as I usually called her) would have been in her early forties; about five foot six with shoulder length hair which she referred to as "dusty blonde". As a normal seventeen year old lad I had, of course noticed her full bosom and lovely shapely legs leading up to her still firm and rounded buttocks. At this time in my life I was painfully shy around girls and was effectively a virgin, my sexual experience limited to some fumblings in the back of the cinema and couple of mutual masturbation sessions with a girl I was no longer going out with. Mrs B had definitely featured in a couple of my fantasies, but I would never expect them to come to fruition.
One spring day I went over to call on Chas, as the sun was shining and it seemed like the perfect afternoon to lie in the nearby woods and smoke a joint or two. I went around the rear of the house an opened the door leading to the kitchen (the back door was never locked during the daytime and I was free to enter and leave as I wanted) to find Alice sitting at the kitchen table in tears, a bundle of papers in front of her. She straightened up as I entered and said with a forced smile, "Oh, hello there Dave. Chas is out I'm afraid".
"That's OK," I replied, "what's the matter Mrs B?"
She stood up and started wiping some already clean dishes that were sitting on the drainer.
"Just that no good bloody husband of mine." She said, obviously struggling to control her emotions.
I glanced at the bundle of papers sitting on the table. They were from a law firm, official looking, and contained phrases such as "irreconcilable differences" and "decree nisi".
Alice turned around, her face flushed and her eyes red. "That fucking bastard!" she exclaimed, "Six months without a word and he sends divorce papers through the post. The cowardly, gutless...." she didn't finish the sentence as she dissolved into helpless sobbing, her face screwed up and her shoulders heaving. I stepped over to her and, not sure what to say, placed a hand on her shoulder, whereby she took me in her arms and really let the floodgates open. I held her, muttering inane comments such as "there there" and "things'll be OK", (as I said I was a good listener, not a talker), to my shame noticing the warm smell of her hair and the way her ample chest pressed into mine.
After a few minutes she gathered herself and looked me in the eye. "Sorry to unburden all this on you Dave. You shouldn't have to listen to my crap."
I muttered something along the lines of "not at all glad to be of help," and we sat down at the table.
It turned out that Chas had gone in to town to collect something from another mate of ours and would be gone for the afternoon and his brother and sister were at their grandparents for the weekend. We sat and chatted for a while and as time went by Alice seemed to cheer up a little, and I managed to persuade her, at least for now, that she was better off without her good for nothing husband.
"You're right Dave. No more tears. In fact let's celebrate" she said, reaching into her purse. She pulled out a couple of notes and handed them to me. "Nip down to Jack's and get me a decent bottle of wine. He knows what I like. There's some beers in the fridge but I feel like a couple of glasses of vino! I'll straighten myself up while you're gone and we'll have a drink to celebrate."
Jack ran the local off-licence just around the corner, and although eighteen was the legal age for buying booze he knew both the Burrows and my family pretty well and would know that I certainly wouldn't be buying a half decent bottle of wine for myself and Chas to glug in the woods on a Friday afternoon.
When I returned after about fifteen minutes or so I entered the kitchen to hear Alice shout, "I'm out on the veranda! Grab a beer from the fridge on your way!"
We jokingly called it a veranda, but it was little more than a small platform at the side of the house overlooking the neighbouring fields, with just enough room for a table and two chairs. Chas and I would often sit out here to smoke a spliff so as not to smoke out the house and arouse suspicion.
Alice was already sitting in one of the chairs, on the table a bottle opener and two wine glasses. "I brought out another glass in case you fancied a drop of wine Dave. But you're welcome to the beer if you prefer."
She had indeed changed and straightened herself up. Her blonde hair was brushed, falling over her shoulders as it caught the afternoon sun. She had changed into a light print patterned sundress which came to about half way down her thighs as she sat cross legged in the low chair. She had a look in her eye that I couldn't quite make out as she sat in the sunlight looking beautiful and sexy in way I hadn't noticed before.
I realised I had stopped dead in my tracks and was blatantly staring at her shapely legs disappearing into the hem of her skirt and the way the low cut of her dress exposed quite a bit of cleavage, where I could just make out the lacy top of her bra peeking above the neckline.
I sat down, blushing furiously, stammering, "um, Jack said you'd like, er, this one. It's nice. Apparently."
"Open it for me would you Dave," she said with a smile as she stretched her legs out in front of her. I fumbled with the corkscrew, poured her a glass and then opened my beer.
"Cheers! To new beginnings," she exclaimed as she sat up in her chair, raising her glass. "Cheers!" I replied, clinking my bottle against it, noticing that how she was sitting let me see just a little bit more of her cleavage. I looked up to find her staring straight into my eyes, obviously aware of where my gaze was directed, but all she did was sit back and sip her wine with a strange smile on her face.
