All characters in sexual situations are 18 or older. Thanks for reading!
Penelope woke to an empty bed the next morning. Before her sorrow at her husband's early day could mount, she noticed something. His side of the bed wasn't quite empty. Her heart pounded as she took in the details of a small velvet box with a red ribbon. It was right on her husband's pillow. "A gift from my beloved!" She squealed. Wearing her nightdress, she sat up in bed and carefully placed the box on her lap.
He knows that I miss him when he's at work. He wants me to be happy.
The anticipation filled her with such joy that she delayed opening it. "You knew this would be a hard day for me, and you brightened it," she said to the empty room. She was a good wife, and she was suffused with gratitude. Everything was as it should be. She couldn't have wiped the smile off her face if she'd tried.
"Okay, I'll open it." She untied the ribbon carefully with bare fingers and opened the lid. "Oh!" Her hands went to her face. Tucked perfectly in velvet inside the box was a platinum band exactly like her lost wedding ring and a small note. With a trembling hand, she lifted the note and read:
The world may not know what you lost. But I will return to you whatever I can, starting with your ring. Keep it under your glove, close to your skin, a symbol of my once and forever devotion to my beautiful wife. Felix.
Such was the thing with wedding rings. A woman wore hers under her glove, so only her husband would see it after the wedding. It was a symbol of their shared secrets, she supposed. She picked it up and studied the well-crafted loop. It bore none of the small marks and scratches that her old one had. So, he hadn't found her old ring, but had reproduced something better than the original. It was a lovely symbol of their marriage. She slid it onto her finger and gazed at it from all angles. And it was beautiful. She couldn't wait to press it to the skin of her husband's penis that night after the party.
Oh, drat. The party.
She wasn't looking forward to hosting that evening. But she would do her very best. Felix certainly deserved it.
She stood, stretched, and checked the time. She had slept in again. She couldn't show the ring to anyone, but she could
talk
about it. She smiled at the thought of sharing her joy as she walked into the bathroom, disrobed, and stepped into the shower.
I will tell Winnie and... whom else?
Her smile faded as she scrubbed her body clean from the dried detritus of sex left by the night before.
Victoria? We're not close enough for that.
She tried to think of other friends. Surely, there must be a woman she was close with.
A good wife and mother is a devoted and caring friend.
Then why was this particular cupboard so empty?
A thought dawned on her, and she stopped scrubbing her body. She had not cultivated a thriving garden of relationships. Her own parents were passed. She had no siblings. She had had friends, but they often had the life span of cut flowers. A quick energetic blossom, and then a withering quicker still. She pressed her lips into a thin line and scrubbed her legs hard. That would change. Starting that night, she would build a splendid network of friends.
Suddenly, the dinner party was looking less like a chore and more like an opportunity.
~~
"Good morning, Mom." Theodore walked into the dining room where his mother and Winifred were hanging decorations.
"Well, good morning, Teddy." Penelope stopped what she was doing, smoothed out her pinafore, and smiled brightly. A thrill ran down her spine. Her son had greeted her of his own will. "You look very handsome today. Doesn't he look handsome, Winnie?"
Winifred continued working, but gave them her mechanical smile. "He does indeed, Penny."
Penelope nodded her agreement, thought about offering Theodore a hug, but decided they weren't ready yet. "What can a do for you, lambkin?"
"You can stop calling me 'lambkin.'" He frowned at her and slouched against the wall.
"But... that's what I called you when you were little." Penelope rubbed her gloves together with anxiety.
"Am I little?" A storm moved over his countenance.
"No... you're big." The image of his massive, mushroomed penis burst into her mind. "You're nineteen, a man grown." Penelope took a deep breath and tried to dismiss the butterflies in her stomach, her clammy palms, and her thrumming vagina. "May I still call you that sometimes?"
"Um..." Theodore rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure." He nodded but his brow remained furrowed. "I was wondering, can I use the sensorium with Victoria?"
"Oh... I don't know." Penelope put her hand to her chest. She badly wanted to give her son this. Would he use it to hump his girlfriend? That image flashed before her, and she blinked it away. She was going to need to relieve herself in the bathroom very soon. She rubbed her thighs together and scrubbed the glove on her left hand with her right, as if she was burnishing her remade ring. "What does your father say?"
"Felix says no." Winifred had stopped working. Her robotic face was impassive, her hands were on her hips. "He made that clear, Teddy."
"So... my mother can meet with my girlfriend in there, but I can't?" Theodore moved off the wall, his posture erect. "Is that fair, Mom?"
"I didn't mean..." Penelope's mind turned over the soothing mantras that so often came to mind.
A good mother is giving. A good mother is caring. A good mother does what's best for her son.
"You're my parent, too. You can overrule Dad." Theodore glanced at Winifred's passive, disapproving glare.
"I'm... sorry. If your father thinks it's best not to, then..." Penelope blinked back tears. Why was being a mother so hard?
"I'll pay for Victoria to rent a sensorium out of my allowance." Theodore's hands balled into fists.
