As with all my works, any characters engaging in sexual acts are adults, and are at least aged eighteen and above. I also want to thank the wonderful Kenji Sato for his help in editing and proofreading.
I'll go ahead and inform the reader, this story was first published at a length of only some three-thousand words.
However, with its original title being different from what it is now, there was a good reason to change it. So after editing, reworking and extensively expanding it, I heartily invite you to check out this all new version of that story, now renamed as...
A Woman Has Needs
It was around twelve o'clock midnight, when Liam Nichols had been awakened from a fitful sleep by noises. Obscure utterances that seemed as if they were sighs and whisperings of some kind. When he would look back on that night in hindsight, he couldn't understand why he hadn't figured out beforehand what the sounds were.
So, after he'd got up out of his bed to investigate, he noticed they weren't just sounds, but were actually voices. And the closer he got to the source of the voices, the more distinguishable they were becoming. And it became apparent where they were coming from. It was the room next to his, his mother's bedroom. So that made him wonder if he was correct in thinking he'd heard two voices.
As he'd quietly exited out his door, the louder and more distinct the utterances became. Standing where he was, the light coming from under his mom's door versus the darkened hallway, gave him an idea that she hadn't fallen asleep yet.
But why, Liam wondered a second time, was he hearing what sounded as if there were two voices inside her room?
And he had a good reason to be puzzled. His dad, Mark, had left the previous month, and due to his new job assignment, was going to be out of the country for, at least, the next four to five months. The family had come to accept it as just what had become necessary for him to make a living, and, at worst, to please the corporation he worked for, among other things.
* * * * * * * * * *
When Mark Nichols had first been offered the promotion, his wife Raven, was strongly dead-set against her husband abandoning his family for long periods of time. All because his supervisor had asked him to take the job. For one thing, she didn't feel up to the task of running a household by herself, as well as taking care of everything else that would need her managerial skills, while he'd be away from them. Even if it did involve him earning an impressively higher salary.
The day Mark and Raven had first talked about what seemed to be his coerced job offer, they had been sequestered in their bedroom. Their middle son Liam, sat on his bed in the room next to his parents.' As the discussion between them became somewhat strained, it sounded to him as if his parents were doing what they could to not begin arguing over the decision that needed to be made.
But as they continued talking in what they assumed was a private conversation, Liam knew he was basically eavesdropping on their personal discussion. But he felt it couldn't be helped because their bedroom happened to be right next to his. Listening in as best he could, his parents were trying to decide what was best for the family. And while Liam didn't want to think of himself as a snoop, he just about overheard everything the two of them said as they were only a few feet from him on the other side of the wall.
"Look, Raven, the kids, we know they're really not kids anymore. C'mon, Brooke's twenty-two years old now, and with her still going to the community college, she's never too far away. And Liam, he's nineteen, and got his own job. Sheesh honey, he's basically a man now."
"Yeah, well what about Eric? Even though my baby's only a few weeks away from turning eighteen, he needs his father. Mark, that boy still needs lots of parental supervision. He's got plenty of rebellion in him that Liam never had. And let's face it, with as wild as he is, Eric needs special help Mark. He needs to be tamed. And I don't think it's right that I should have to do it myself.
"And another thing, if you accept this position, they'll probably whisk you away so you won't even be here on his birthday. Do you think that he'll want his father to be off somewhere else when he celebrates it in a couple of weeks?"
As Mark Nichols listened to his wife, he could tell she was coming close to making him feel guilty if he was to leave...
"Okay, honey, let's just put our cards on the table. We really don't have a choice here. I've got twenty years with Loxton Enterprises, and hopefully only a few more to go until I can retire. Bob tells me he doesn't have anybody else to take over for Jerry right now. But, he says maybe in a year or so, there
might
be somebody who he can pull from one of his sales teams, but just not right now. Come on, honey, I need you in my corner on this one. I don't want to have to start over, working for another company and having to fuck around with my 401K and all that mess."
"So that means you want me to take care of everything while you're gone for God knows how long? Do you think that's fair to me, to our kids, Mark?"
"Honestly? No, Raven, I know it isn't. But it's all we have right now. Unless you think you can head down to the local 7-Eleven sometime today, and just happen to buy the winning lottery ticket for the Mega Millions payout they're giving away this Saturday night to some lucky schmuck."
"Mark, if you leave me, and your children, I can just about guarantee that Bob's never going to replace you with anyone else. That's how good you are. And that's why I'm telling you, you need to be here, with me, with us. But I can tell you've already made up your mind that you're taking this position with Loxton, because Bob wants you to, and you're doing it for the team, and all that other rah-rah bullshit that they feed you!
"And who knows, you'll probably end up liking this new job, having your freedom from your responsibilities as a dad. And maybe from me, too?"
"Come on Raven, that's so unfair. I don't deserve your accusing me of that, do I?"
As the middle son listened to his parents going back and forth about whether his dad would take the new higher-paying position or not, he could hear the pleading tone in his mother's voice begging her husband not to leave her.
What Liam heard his mother say to his father next, he's never really forgotten how forth-telling it sounded to him at the time. And from then on, when he heard her words repeat in his mind, over and over again, he wondered if she knew then about where all of it was going to lead.
"Hell no, it isn't fair, Mark. But you better understand something right now. If you go off to wherever the fuck they want to send you, you'll be leaving me high and dry. And I'll just tell you a woman has needs and desires that aren't going to go away just because her husband's somewhere else.
"Mark, honey, there's been these temptations I've been having...and I'm sorry, but I haven't been open with you about them. But I'm not sure what's going to happen if you aren't here to take care of me, I just don't..."
Because he'd been so preoccupied with his own situation with Loxton Enterprises, he'd only been paying half-attention to what his wife was trying to tell him...Mark just blurted out...
"Those bastards aren't even giving me a fucking choice, Raven. I might as well tell you now--Bob has told me if I don't take this position--I'm fired!"
As the startled wife's erotic thoughts were pulled away from the salacious temptations she'd have while masturbating, she almost screamed...
