Art in Reality Ch. 01: A New Beginning

He looked at his penis.

Well, few men were ever happy with the size of themselves he shrugged. He knew; he had seen the research.

'It'll have to do,' he said aloud.

He had intentionally not brought any fresh clothes into the bathroom with him. He wrapped the towel around his waist and briefly looked at himself in the mirror again.

Yes. Do it, he mentally said to himself. Go out there like this. Let her see you. Do it.

He took a breath and strode out of the bathroom.

*****

In the bedroom, Katie had been looking through Alex's wardrobe. She had found a pair of long shorts; the type that would have reached to about half way down his shins. On her they were baggy, but at least not an unmanageable length. She had also selected another shirt, not dissimilar to the one she had worn overnight. It was long on her, so she was forced to roll the sleeves into a thick ring of material that bounced around her wrists. She tucked the shirt into the make-shift trousers, but it did nothing to pad out the hopelessly oversized waist. The shorts would not even hang off her hips, let alone grip her slender waist.

She set about exploring the chest of drawers. Pulling open the top drawer, she found socks and boxer shorts. Nice undies, she noted; hoping to see more of them later.

In the next drawer down, she found neatly folded jumpers. She selected one that looked the smallest and threw it onto the bed for later use. It was cold outside, she remember from her earlier dash to the car for painting gear. In the next drawer down she chanced upon what she was hoping for. A set of braces. She clipped them to the edge of the shorts, front and back and then pulled the elasticated bands up over her shoulders. There was just enough adjustment in the sliding clips to make the set-up work. The shorts would now stay up, hanging from her shoulders. She imagined she must look like she was wearing giant clown trousers, with a ludicrous waist band and braces to hold them up.

Just before she closed the drawer she noticed one last item that she could not resist. A bow tie.

'Oh yes,' she said with a smile

It was the traditional variety; just a long strip of wavy black silk.

She had no idea how to tie a proper bow knot, but she decided there was probably more comedy value in a very badly tied bow anyway. She looped the fabric around her neck and under the collar of her shirt. Then looped the ends around each other into a very crude knot.

She just about heard the shower stop running, so she quickly raked her fingers through her hair and sat down on the bed to wait for Alex.

*****

As soon as he entered the bedroom, Alex smirked with a tight grin as he looked her up and down.

'Nice outfit,' he stated.

'You too,' she smiled sweetly, as she made no secret of checking him out.

Just a towel, she thought. Chose not to take clothes into the bathroom with him then.

'Nice accessories,' Alex waggled a finger at the bow tie and braces.

'I thought so.'

'Though I'm not sure you got the knot quite right.'

'Could you help me out?' she asked.

Okay go for it, Alex thought. He walked towards her. She was sitting, leaning back, resting on her arms, and she did not move at all to help. So Alex had to slightly straddled her legs, to get close enough to reach the tie, which pulled the towel taught across his thighs.

Please don't come undone, he prayed to the fabric.

Katie kept her eyes dead ahead as Alex stood right in front of her. His masculine physicality was suddenly quite intense. Katie fought to keep her breathing steady.

With the towel pulled tight, looking straight ahead she could see the bulge of his manhood, pressing through the material.

One quick tug and she could have that towel around his ankles she thought to herself.

No. Too much too soon, she decided.

As Alex reached forward and fiddled with the bow tie around her neck, Katie let her eyes wander up his body.

She liked what she saw. A flat and firm stomach, and a broad, strong chest, along with nicely muscled arms. She had always thought slightly older men were sexier than their twenty something selves. Alex's mature body confirmed it.

She kept her chin down, as she gazed up to his face, hoping it would give her a cute, naive look.

Alex tried to concentrate on tying the bow properly and not get distracted by the devastatingly sexy eyes that were looking up sweetly at him. His finished the job and took a few steps back to check it from a distance.

'Better,' he stated.

'Thank you,' she replied, and overtly ran her eyes down and then back up his body for good measure.

'I should get dressed really,' he said, 'if we're going to go for that walk.'

'Uh huh,' she said, and did not move an inch.

Alex looked at her, unmoving, sitting on his bed, looking at him.

I see, he thought. She's upping the stakes several notches here.

To be fair, he had seen a lot of her and, his guilt resurfaced, it had predominantly been without her knowledge or intention.

To hell with it, he decided.

'Right,' he stated, and walked over to face his chest of drawers.

Thankfully, with the layout of the furniture this meant he had his back to her. He was not sure he could have continued otherwise.

In one swift move, before he lost his nerve, he pulled the towel off his waist and dropped it to the floor.

Katie's eyes widened as she gazed down the whole length of his naked behind. She noted the irony of her mouth going dry, whilst another part of her quickly got wetter.

Alex tried very hard to not appear to be rushing, but he nonetheless moved quite quickly, opening the top drawer and pulling out a pair of boxer shorts. Minimising how much he bent over, but trying to not look like that, he lifted each of his feet in and slipped the underwear on.

Katie enjoyed a last look at his delicious, firm buttocks, before he covered them up with fabric.

Alex let out a breath.

He walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt, slipped them on and did up the buttons.

Katie watched the whole process silently.

Finally, he went back to the drawers and pulled out a pair of socks. Then went and sat on the bed to put them on.

'Am I presentable enough to be seen out with?' he asked.

'You'll do,' Katie smiled. 'Lead the way.'

The two of them went out into the hallway to get ready. Alex retrieved Katie's boots and socks from the bathroom.

'I'm worried these might still be a bit damp in patches, but they've not done bad,' he said as he handed them over.

'They'll be all right,' she said.

'I put the boots right on top of the radiator, and being thinner, the socks have dried much faster than the rest.'

Both of them pulled jumpers over their heads and put their footwear on. Alex offered Katie his scarf, which she gratefully accepted. She was a bit concerned that the breeze was going to steal away the warmth from under her baggy clothing. At least a scarf could be wrapped close around her neck and shoulders to hold on to some heat.

'Ready?' Alex asked.

'Yep.'

He led the way out the front door and round the back of the cottage to the garden. It was not large, but was pretty, and was planted mostly with shrubs so it could be easily maintained. Stepping stones meandered across the lawn to a little wooden gate in the low stone wall that enclosed the property. On the other side, they stepped into a large meadow of high grass and the remains of late summer flowers. There was no formal path through it, but Katie noticed they followed a rough line of trampled down grass, until they emerged onto a gravel track. Clearly an often used route for Alex to get from his house to the cliff-top pathway.

'You can go for miles and miles that way,' Alex pointed in one direction. 'You can pretty much follow this path all the way to Lands End. But we're going this way, down to the village' He pointed along the track in the other direction.

'What a place to live,' Katie replied as she gazed around at the beautiful landscape.

They set off, strolling side by side, along the path.

It was a glorious day. Bright and crisp, without a single cloud in the sky. It would have been really quite warm for November if it had not been for the brisk sea breeze.

After about five minutes Alex checked if Katie was warm enough.

'Yes, I'm okay,' she replied. Though she was conscious of the cool breeze that kept sneaking up her loose, make-shift trousers. It tickled places that were normally kept cosy by underwear.

A few paces further along, she added, 'although my hand is a bit cold.'

She held up the arm closest to him.

'This one in particular' she said.

Alex took the hint and took hold of her hand.

They smiled warmly at each other and continued along the undulating route, hand in hand.

For the first hour, they both happily walked in silence, completely content in each others company. The landscape was ruggedly beautiful. It was mostly tall, wild grasses and gnarled trees, hunched up against whatever the coastal weather threw at them. They passed a few other cottages and farm buildings from a distance, but did not see any other people out and about.

'Have you always been a writer?' Katie asked.

'No. I've been writing for,' Alex paused for thought, 'must be a bit over ten years now.'

'What did you do before?'

'I used to be a teacher,' he said softly.

'Oh, what did you teach?'

'A bit of everything. I was a junior school teacher.'

'Oh, little kids?'

'Fairly, yeah.'

'What made you stop doing that?'

'Erm;' he took a big breath and then let out an equally big sigh. 'A complicated set of circumstances, I suppose.'

'Oh,' Katie allowed him to decide whether to go on or not.

The silence stretched on and Katie was about to change the subject by asking where they were heading for lunch, when Alex began again.

'My life kind of crashed, you could say,' he started. 'Basically I split up with my partner.'

'Right,' Katie responded, 'I didn't mean to pry.'

'No it's fine,' he said, and gave her hand a slight squeeze. 'I had been with her a long time. But she wasn't well. Mentally I mean. It was a difficult relationship. It was great in the beginning, but as time went on I became more like her therapist than her partner. She had been abused, as a child and when she was a teenager. It all came out slowly over time. And, well it weighed heavily on our relationship. Not her fault of course. It hadn't been working for a long time, but I thought I could make it better. I thought I could help her.'

Katie's heart broke for him. There was a profound, quiet sorrow in his voice.

'I was wrong. And I was young and stupid and arrogant to think I could. She needed professional help. I tried to get her that, and I thought she was. But she was lying. And when I found out, I found out a number of other things as well, that she'd been up to; and it was too much. It just broke me really.'

Katie's eyes filled with tears as she listened.

'That's when I ran away down here,' Alex laughed humourlessly. 'We had come down here on holiday. My parents and my sister. When I left, I got in the car and just drove, and this is where I ended up. I took a holiday cottage and stayed. My school where amazing actually. Given that I just disappeared on them. It was a week before I even got in touch with them.'

'I bet you were an amazing teacher. They will have wanted to keep hold of you I'm sure,' Katie interjected.

'Well, I wasn't. I did go back, about a week later, and then limped on for another month. Teachers have to be positive and encouraging and fun. And I wasn't that any more.'

Katie could not stand it any more. His resigned detachment as he spoke was unbearably sad. She stopped them both walking and pulled him into a hug.

After a few moments he gave her a squeeze and said, 'this wasn't the idea of going for a nice walk.'

She looked up into his eyes. He saw a line of tears streaking down each of her cheeks.

'How are you so; together?' she asked. 'I would be a complete wreck. I am a wreck! And that's just from listening.'

'Well, I was a wreck for a while. But it was a long time ago now. I've made peace with what happened. Lots of walks along this path slowly sorted me out.'

Katie let go of him, to wipe both her hands across her cheeks, wiping the tears away as she sniffed.

'Ha, sexy me,' she said sarcastically and had to sniff again.

'Tears don't make you any less sexy,' Alex responded.

'Shut up you,' she smacked the palm of her hand against his chest. 'Don't you go paying me compliments now, you'll set me off again.'

He took hold of her hand and began walking.

'Come on you, we're supposed to be having a nice walk,' he said boldly and cheerily.

She squeezed his hand tight and walked alongside him, as close as she possibly could.

The path descended steeply down and into the village. Katie marvelled at the almost impossibly picturesque beauty of the little fishing town. They wandered through the narrow streets and Alex led them to his favourite pub on the waterfront.

They ate their fill of delicious fish for lunch; fresh out of the sea that morning. Their conversation was easy. They ambled through topics in much the same way as they had the evening before. Learning more about each other, discovering their shared attitudes and values.

After lunch they strolled around the village; window shopping around the few touristy craft shops and nosily peeking through the windows of beautiful little houses as they passed by.

As late afternoon approached, they decided to head back up to the cottage, wanting to make the walk back before it started getting dark.

The walk up to the top of the cliff was steep and made them both out of breath. When they reached the top they decided they could sit for a short while, on a bench that looked out over the sea.

'It's beautiful here,' Katie said as they both gazed out over the water.

'It is. Your enthusiasm has properly reminded me of it,' Alex replied.

They sat a while longer, in companionable silence, enjoying the view, the rustle of the wind through the grass and the salty smell of the air.

'I suppose I should head off, when we get back. Be on my way and leave you in peace,' Katie said quietly.

'I don't want to be left in peace,' Alex replied quickly, turning to her and placing a hand on her thigh.

'You don't mind me hanging around, distracting you from your writing?' she asked, scared of the answer.

'I wish I wrote poetry, not textbooks.'

'What?'

'Because then I could perhaps come up with better words to answer to that question.'

Katie broke out into an broad smile.

'Will you settle for this answer instead?' Alex asked, and leant in to her.

He let her decide whether to commit.

She leant forwards to meet him. Their lips met with the lightest and briefest touch.

They looked at each other for a few moments before both breaking into smiles and then happy giggles.

'We really should get going. It'll get very cold now as the sun goes down' Alex said, standing up and gently pulling Katie up to her feet.

'You'll have to think of a way to warm me up,' she replied.

He took a step towards the path.

She pulled him back fiercely towards her, stretched up and kissed him again. Their lips pushed hard together and they wrapped their arms around each other, pulling their bodies close.

Katie ran a hand down Alex's back and slipped it into his jeans, inside his underwear, and grasped his bum.

The shock made him pull away from their kiss with surprise.

'I'm just playing catch up,' she purred. 'You've already had your hand on mine.'

'Oh. I see,' Alex said and pulled her in closer for another kiss.

'Warmer?' he asked when their lips finally parted.

'It's a start,' she smiled coyly, then starting walking back along the path, pulling him along to catch up.

*****

Back inside the hallway of the cottage, they both took off their boots and jumpers. Alex smiled as he looked at Katie.

'What?' she asked.

'I'd forgotten about the bow tie,' he replied.

Katie tugged on it with both hands, feigning to check it was sitting straight.

'Perfect,' Alex stated. Then asked, 'what would you like to do now?'

'Can we light the fire again? It's so pretty.'

'Of course.'

They both walked through to the living room and Alex crouched down in front of the fireplace. He winced as he reached for fresh fire wood and rubbed his hand against his neck.

'What's the matter?' Katie asked.

'Oh nothing. My neck has still got a bit of a crick in it. I don't think the arm of the sofa agreed with me. I guess that's price old men must pay for sleeping on sofas with beautiful young ladies.'

'Well I guess you had better sit down and let me do the fire then, old man,' Katie instructed playfully.

Alex pulled away and sat on the sofa as Katie crouched down to the fireplace.

'Though you'll have to tell this city girl how to do it.'

Alex issued step by step instructions on how to lay out kindling and a few larger lumps of split log; and there was soon a good fire dancing away.

Katie sat back on the sofa, next to Alex, and the two of them sat watching the flames.

They began kissing again, and steadily became more adventurous with their tongues and their hands on each others bodies.

'You're not too bad a kisser for an old man,' Katie whispered between kisses.

'Good job I can cook too then isn't it,' Alex responded. 'Between the two, I might stand a small chance of keeping you here.'

'Possible. Though I've only got yesterday's carbonara to go by.'

'Would you like pancakes?'

'Oh yes!' Katie pulled back abruptly. 'Now that is a very good idea.'

'Okay. Sit tight. They won't take long.'

Alex stood up and headed for the kitchen.

Katie used the opportunity to wander around the living room again. She took a closer look at the artwork on the walls and read several titles from some of the numerous books around the room. A delicious smell soon began to waft in the air.

'Do you need any help?' she called out.

'No. Nearly there,' Alex called back, 'sugar and lemon?'

'Yes please.'

A few minutes later, Alex appeared in the archway and asked, 'in the kitchen or in here.'

'In here, if you don't mind,' Katie replied.

Alex nodded and disappeared; re-appearing a minute later with a tray in hand.

'Could you grab that table over?' he asked as he walked towards the sofa.

Katie obliged, and set it down in front of the seats.

The tray had three lemons cut in half, with a fork to stab the juice out, and a small bowl of sugar with a teaspoon for sprinkling; along with two empty plates, two sets of cutlery and one big plate stacked with steaming, golden pancakes.

'Okay. Granted. You can cook,' Katie conceded after her first mouthful.

'They're okay?' Alex asked.

'More than okay. There's something about them, that I can't put my finger on. Something yummy.'

'Secret ingredient.'

'Oh?'

'Couldn't possibly tell you.'

'Well then you'll just have to make me pancakes whenever I demand them then. Which could be very often indeed.'

'My pleasure.'

When they had both eaten their fill, they sank back into the sofa cushions and resumed their study of the fire.

Alex slowly rocked his head from side to side and grasped his neck.

'You should have a hot shower,' Katie suggested, 'the heat would probably help relax it.'

'Hmmm,' Alex groaned, without moving.

'Go on,' Katie instructed, 'go and have a shower and I'll tidy up here.'

'No, you don't need to do that.'

'Yes I do. It's the least I can do. Go on. Shower,' Katie instructed as she stood and picked up the tray of dishes.

*****

The shower did help, Alex conceded, as the hot water pummelled the back of his neck. He stayed under the soothing jet only until his desire to spend more time with Katie lured him out of the cubicle.