Legalese: Contains adult material. Anyone under age 18 must leave now. Anyone that might be offended by sexy or sexually explicit material or strong language must leave now. The activities in this story may be unrealistic, unethical and/or illegal, and they ignore the reality of sexually transmitted diseases β this is fiction, do not try any of this at home. All characters are over age 18, proof of age on file.
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Madolyn Caldwell knows first-hand how much it cost to raise her children β from college tuition, to her daughter's recent wedding.
Still, she's about to learn the true value of a dollar ...
Madolyn hardened up again overnight.
Jesus Christ! What had she been thinking?!
Her own son?!
She'd just gone to putty in his hands!
It must be something to do with those damned dollar bills! Some other spell he'd cast to make her act like some giddy schoolgirl on her first date!
I love you?! Had she actually repeated that over and over to him? To the little bastard that was paying her a buck apiece to do demeaning things for him?!
How could she have justβ?!
Tight-ass-Madolyn was indeed flailing the hell out of her.
And she embraced it. She deserved to be flailed! He was her own SON for godssake! And he kept making her humiliate herself for him! And she had just EMBRACED him last night! Both literally and figuratively!
How COULD she?!
But there was a point to it, she defended herself against tight-ass-Madolyn's lash. She'd gotten two more of the damned dollars. She was up to ten now. And he only had three more left, and then he'd be out of advantages over her.
Still, the lash beat her shoulders again, her OWN SON?!
A few minutes later, Rob wandered out into the kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee, and sat at the table with her. "I had a wonderful time last night, Madolyn," he sighed with a smile.
Her eyes moved to him, and there was a moment like a little bunny had waved welcome greeting to a squad of mercenary grizzlies. That hadn't eaten in three weeks. And were rabid.
Even Rob thought the bunny might should bolt from the room. As fast as he could go. A little faster even.
Instead he dropped his eyes to his coffee cup and stayed very still. Like the grizzlies might not notice him if he made no further noise.
"'What?'" Madolyn lowered her voice in mock imitation of her son, "'Didn't you have a good time?' Do you THINK I might have a good time, Rob?! On a date, with my own SON?! Where we kept KISSING each other?! ON THE LIPS?! WITH TONGUE?! Do you THINK that's a good idea?! In any way, shape or form?! Hmm?!"
Possums and rabbits will sometimes stay utterly still, the stillness of death, so that a scary predator might move on to better prey. Rob did this as well.
It didn't work.
"And you PUT YOUR HAND ... ON MY BREAST?! Rob, WHAT THE HELL?! Do you THINK it's a good idea to PAW YOUR MOTHER?!"
Foolishly, Rob twitched. A possum could have told him better. "You, uhm," he said very very quietly without raising his eyes, "seemed happy last night?"
"You PAID me! With those DAMNED DOLLARS! To be your date and to KISS you. And to ... LET you PAW MY BOOB!"
"I didn't MAKE you. You CHOSE to do that for a dollar. If you don't want the dollars, give them back."
"No way, mister! I earned them, I'm keeping them."
"Then QUIT BITCHING about it! If you CHOSE to do stuff for them, quit complaining!"
At this point, the little bunny would cover his eyes with his paw and slink away. Standing up to the bears like this, poor Rob was simply doomed ...
"You shouldn't be ASKING me to do things like that!"
"I DIDN'T ask you to do SOME of it! YOU were the one that went," he shifted to falsetto, "Oh, I WUUV you Rob! I WUUV you SOOOO much!" he dropped out of falsetto, "So I KINDA got the idea you were enjoying it!"
They glared at each other a few seconds.
Rob thought he'd gotten an advantage and pushed it. Foolish boy. "And at the end of the night, you pull me to you for another kiss and tell me what a WONDERFUL time you had! WHAT?! Were you just LYING to me?! Why?! You HAD no reason to lie to me at that point! You DID enjoy it!"
"I was still drunk on making out!" she growled, surly. "I ... wasn't thinking straight, dammit!"
"You ENJOYED it! You haven'tβ It's natural! It's natural for people to love each other! Including physically! But you haven't been out on a date since Dad was such a shit to you! You haven'tβ letβ yourself TRUST men! And ... you shouldn't HURT like that! Okay?! It's not right! If anyone else mistreated you like that β made it so you could never love and relax and be natural with someone ever again β if it were anyone else, I would KILL them! For mistreating you like that, I would kill them.
"But ... I can't. It's you. You're doing it. To yourself. And I just ... want to ... help it ... make it better. I ..." Rob stopped, shocked, like he'd just ripped off all his clothes in a tantrum and stood there naked and honest. Trying to be defiant despite being nekkid.
Madolyn was still just glaring at him, eyes furious.
He walked out, out of the kitchen, back to his room. He wasn't going to stand there, metaphorically stripped naked while she was still decked out in battle armor.
Goddammitβ he justβ he wanted toβ
Hell, he didn't even know anymore.
He grabbed his novel and buried himself in it for a while.
By 10:00, he wandered back out to the kitchen. He'd pulled on his metaphorical armor this time too β he wasn't going to get caught unarmored again after a night of honesty β and he was ready to meet battle with battle.
Which was good, because he could see Madolyn still had dark clouds over her head.
"Hi," he opened the match with the first move, the traditional saluting of your opponent.
She looked at him, eyes hung there a moment in contempt, then she looked back out the window. Her form of scornful salute, he guessed.
The match was on.
"I'll give you a dollarβ" he flicked the bill out of his pocket and held it up.
"Don't you DARE," she hissed warning.
"βif youβ"
"Don't you FUCKING DARE, Robert!" Profanity β she'd drawn the lethal weapons. Madolyn rarely cursed, and when she did, it meant she intended a decisive victory over the one she was facing. She meant to cut him down.
Rob continued with the weapon he'd started with. "βrun around naked for a couple hours here for me." That was HIS telling blow. She wouldn't go down immediately, she'd fight it, maybe for hours. But he'd snatched victory. He might be beaten bloody before she went down, but he'd won this point β she just wouldn't acknowledge it until she dropped.
"You ... SONOFABITCH!"