I've always believed that people experience several "seminal moments" in their lives that change their perspective. Some of these moments change a life for the better, such as getting married, or having kids, or maybe even a college degree. Other moments might not be so good, like finding out your husband is a serial abuser, and getting a divorce.
My name is Tiffany. Some of those moments I listed have happened to me. I thought getting married was going to be the best moment in my life, until the birth of my son changed that thought. Then when my ex-husband started abusing me when there started to be problems with his career, the divorce was one of those "good and bad" seminal moments. It was good to get away from him, but being a single mom wasn't what I had planned.
I love my son, and we have worked hard to make it on our own after I kicked his father out and moved on. We've never had lots of material possessions, but we've been able to afford the important things. I'm proud of him for the successes he's had as he matured through the years, and I'm proud of myself for raising an outstanding young man.
But being a single mom has meant that there haven't been a lot of social opportunities for me. I've dated some, but no one really indicated they wanted to take on an instant family, so the opportunities to find another life partner have been slim to none.
I figured the seminal moments in my life were over, and I was honestly good with that. It would be nice to have one special guy that could take care of my needs - including sexual. Finding guys that would be willing for a one-off evening wasn't difficult, but that's not really my style. So more often than not, I'd be by myself, resorting to taking care of my own needs.
I certainly wasn't expecting it when the next seminal moment came along. How it happened completely caught me off guard. But I know that once it happened, I was changed, and not necessarily for the better. In fact, I didn't know what I was going to do about it. But it created a problem, because it was all I could think about.
It started innocently enough. My son Jason had just completed his first year at the local community college. He's always been one to do whatever he can to help others, so he'd been mowing yards in the area for the past four summers. He took care of my small yard, and other people started asking him to work on theirs, and it became a nice way for Jason to make some spending money he could use while he was in school.
His usual pattern was to take care of his clients' yards first, and then when mine needed mowing, he'd usually take care of it in the late afternoon, and often on the weekends. I really didn't pay that much attention to his schedule. I just knew that when the yard needed to be mowed, he would take care of it, and it would look great after he was done.
My seminal moment happened late on a Saturday afternoon. I've told you that I didn't have a lot of gentleman friends since my divorce several years ago, but I did have a couple of other girlfriends that I relied on to help me keep my sanity as a single mom. They were both in the same situation as I, having been left single following their own divorces, although my two current friends have never had children.
We all worked, so usually we would get together on weekends, just to relax and unwind from the previous busy week. One of our favorite activities was to gather at each other's houses to drink some wine and spend time sharing stories and dreams and anything else when we would get together. As the weather warmed into the late spring and summer, we'd often sit outside on the back porch and enjoy ourselves as the late afternoon turned into evening.
That's where we were when my life was changed. It was Saturday, and I was on my porch with my friends Christy and Janice. We were into our third or fourth glass of wine when the back gate to the yard opened and Jason appeared, pushing the mower through so he could take care of the yard. It was no big deal to me, but hearing the sudden gasp of air next to me meant that one of my friends had seen something she didn't expect.
I glanced over to my right and discovered that gasp could have come from either one of them. Both were staring with their mouths open, and the object of their interest was obviously my son Jason. At first, I was amused, thinking that their seeing my son would create a reaction like that. I wondered if they were just being nice to me, making me feel good about the fine young man my son turned out to be.
But the more they watched Jason as he prepared to start the mower, the more I realized that they weren't being kind to me. They were smitten, and they were not trying to hide it at all. Any conversation we were having was halted. They had more important things to think about, and talking could wait for later.
I chuckled to myself. To think that my son could grab the attention of my friends so quickly and strongly was funny to me. I knew Jason was a good kid. He had played sports in high school, and his mowing business certainly helped him stay in shape. I suppose you could call him a good-looking young man, but I never really paid attention to that because he was my son, and no matter what he looked like, he was the main focus of my life once the two of us were by ourselves, and I wanted to make sure he had every opportunity to be successful in life.
Jason had no clue that my two friends were suddenly infatuated with him. So, when he reached for the tail of his t-shirt to pull it up over his head, he also didn't know that my friends could barely contain their excitement. If Jason in shorts and a T-shirt was enough to grab their attention, a shirtless Jason took that to the next level.
When he reached down to grab the starter rope and then rose to pull it, Christy could no longer keep silent. As the mower roared to life, I heard her mutter, "O my god, look at those muscles." I looked at her again in time to see her lick her lips. Another glace to Janice showed me that she approved of Jason's technique of mower starting as well.
I continued to watch them as Jason started on the yard. It was funny to me to look over and watch as their eyes followed his every step, as if they were watching a tennis match in slow motion and following the ball back and forth across the net. So far, they hadn't started touching themselves, but I was sure they were thinking about it.
After a few minutes, I couldn't help myself. I had to say something, even if just to break the tension that was now in the air. I looked over at the two of them and said, "Ladies, are you enjoying the show?"
It was Janice who spoke first. "What do you think? How often do you get your own show put on by a young hunk? I know he's thinking he's mowing your yard, but in my mind, he's out there sweating for me!"
Young hunk? I'd never heard Janice speak like this before, so I shifted to Christy and said, "Do you also think he's a young hunk, as Janice says?"
Without looking away from Jason, Christy replied, "Yes - he would certainly qualify for my definition of a young hunk."
