My wife, Helen, and I were still together, thatās about the best you could say about our relationship. We have just seemed to have grown apart over the years, it wasnāt dramatic, we just seem to have less in common as time passes. Now we are virtually strangers, we live in the same house, but we live separate lives. I am involved in my work, and Helen is involved with her friends and clubs. We still sleep together, but I guess that, after 19 years, is more out off habit than love. Occasionally we make love, but usually only about once a month or so. Probably the only reason we are still together is our children. We have two, Ronnie, our daughter, (just try and get her to answer to Veronica) at 19 a beautiful blonde who, when sheād started dating, had given her mother and I plenty of sleepless nights. And Drew, (short for Andrew, what is it about kids and nick names) who, at 18 is just finishing high school, where, as a 6 foot 1 swimmer, heād given a lot of other parents sleepless nights.
I was going out of town for a week on one of my business trips, when Ronnie surprised me by asking if she could come along, she wanted to look at some colleges in the city I was going to. Ronnie had taken a year off after high school, to āfind herselfā, she said. It seemed more like to have as much fun as she could before she went to college. I was pleased that she was actually going to go to college, Iād been afraid she wouldnāt bother. I want my children to have the best education they can. Of course I agreed and called my hotel telling them that I now needed a double room, what I didnāt tell them was that the second person was my daughter, that was why they assumed it was my wife.
So, finally it was time to leave, I gave Helen my usual peck on the cheek, waved bye to Drew and we left for the airport. We checked in and went to the boarding area to wait. While we were sitting there, talking about things in general, I noticed that everyone, or at least the men, were looking at us. I wondered why, then I realised that they were actually looking at Ronnie. I looked at her then, really looked, suddenly I realised how really pretty she was. I guess Iād always thought of her as my little girl, and always looked on her that way, no matter her age, now, looking at her as a woman for the first time I realised why we were the centre of attention. Ronnie was a really sexy young lady. I was still struggling with the idea that my little girl was all grown up, when we boarded our plane.
We got to the hotel too early to check in, so we left our bags and went out. I went to my first meeting, and Ronnie, well she just went out, we arranged to meet again that evening, have dinner and head to our room.
By the time we finally got to our room we were both tired, Ronnie opened the door and I carried our bags in. I realised immediately that Iād made a mistake when I changed my booking, there was only a double bed. āDamn.ā I said.