Life Imitates Art... Sort Of

Wendell liked Juliana and she liked him back, enough to smooch with him in the car when he dropped her off. Juliana was a smart girl—dummies didn't apply to, much less get accepted at Brandeis—but she misread her mom, because when it came to her daughter, Janet was indeed an elitist. No boy making just Cs at Simmons, a local college, mediocre and a haven for those rejected just about everywhere else (with the exception of Parsons, otherwise known as Flunk-Out U), was good enough for the beautiful and brainy Juliana. When she returned home from her second date with Wendell, all giddy and starry-eyed, Janet told her as much. "You can do better, Julie," she said. "Leave Wendell to the rabble at Simmons, as poor an excuse for higher education as I've ever seen."

"So he's not brilliant," Juliana admitted. "But I find him charming and cute. What's wrong with you? I thought you always liked Wendell."

"I do like Wendell. I just don't think he's right for you is all."

Janet took some solace in knowing that Juliana would soon be back at Brandeis; that is, until Juliana told her that they planned to see each other over the summer. This was crushing news to Janet, not only because she saw Wendell as her daughter's cognitive inferior, but also because it probably meant the end of their affair. She waited until Juliana returned to school before calling Wendell to tell him in no certain terms that Juliana was off limits, at least for him.

A piqued Wendell said, "So, I'm good enough to sleep with but not good enough to date your pride and joy. Is that it? Sounds like shades of Mrs. Robinson telling Ben to stay clear of Elaine."

"Except I didn't tell Julie that you raped me the way Anne Bancroft told Dustin Hoffman. Didn't even drop the slightest hint about what we've been doing."

"That's mighty big of you, Mrs. Wilcox, mighty big of you. Well, maybe I'll tell Juliana the truth, maybe Mr. Wilcox too for good measure." Then he hung up.

He did neither. Instead, he called Janet back to apologize, told her they had "a great thing going" and wanted more. On one condition, Janet insisted, and that's if he forgot about dating Juliana. Reluctantly, Wendell agreed.

Come late May, a week before school let out, the two were going at it two to three times a week, always during the week when Nathan was at work. Janet told Wendell what she thought was good news, that because Juliana had lined up a full time job for the summer, they could continue to carry on. This was good news for Wendell too until Juliana returned home in early June, looking prettier than ever, glowing and tan from studying outside. Screwing her mom still held its allure, but he wanted something more—a "legitimate" relationship with a girl his own age, one that was emotionally as well as sexually gratifying. Even so, he planned to keep his agreement with Janet.

He might have, too, had not Juliana dropped in on him at night and said, tersely, "Why haven't you called me? You know I've been home, right?"

Standing in the doorway in T-shirt and jeans, he shrugged. "Your mom told me you have a job." A lame answer but it was the best he could do on the wing.

Juliana threw her hands on her hip-hugging white shorts and sighed. "I work retail during the day. My nights and weekends are free. I thought we enjoyed each other's company over Spring Break. We exchanged letters after that, revealed feelings. Don't you want to see me?"

Of course he did, and it wasn't just because he'd rate her an 8 out of 10. She was a nice girl, a genuinely nice person, not the snooty, stuck-up princess he once envisioned, the sort of image that Ben saw in Elaine before he dragged her to that strip club. Plus, smart as she was, he had been able to hold his own in their conversations. No, Wendell might not be Juliana's equal in academics. But intellectually they were in sync when it came to discussing the protoplasm of adolescent life, with all its attendant joys and angst.

"Yes, I want to see you," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Only..." He looked away.

"Only what? Are you seeing someone else?"

"Not exactly."

"Not exactly? Then what EXACTLY is going on with you? Why are you acting so weird?"

He shoved one hand in his pocket, raised his other arm above his head and leaned against the doorpost. "There's something I need to take care of first."

"Like what?"

"Can't say."

"Can't say..." She stood there, slowly shaking her head, her look of confusion morphing into one of irritation. "You know what? Maybe my mom was right, maybe you aren't right for me." She turned and stepped down from his porch to the flagstone walkway.

"Wait a minute," he called, and took off after her. She didn't turn around until he caught up. "Look, can we talk this out?"

"What's there to talk about? You either want to see me or you don't. Your letters conveyed some lovely thoughts and sentiments. So I don't understand—"

Before she could finish, he pulled her to him, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. After a few seconds of resistance, she relaxed and surrendered to his affection. "Now, that's the Wendell I knew over Spring Break," she said.

"And that's the Wendell you'll see from now on. Are you busy tomorrow night?"

******************

Janet Wilcox knew that her daughter wanted to see Wendell when she returned home from school. Juliana had even told her that she and Wendell corresponded while she was away. Still, per their agreement, she figured that Wendell would brush her off. Little wonder that she was next to livid after Juliana told her about their date for the following night. "He betrayed me!" she snapped in front of a clueless Juliana and Nathan. "We had a—" She caught herself before saying agreement, and then had to dodge and weave around Juliana's and Nathan's questions.

The following day, after Juliana and Nathan left for work, she marched over to Wendell's house wearing a low-cut, short orange sun dress and red sandals. She knew he was home alone because both his parents worked and their cars were gone.

"I was kind of expecting you," Wendell said sheepishly, greeting her at his door. He expected her to launch into a tirade; it surprised him when she didn't.

"Look, it's not my place to come between two young people who want to see each other," she said. Her voice, beneath the surface of the calm, quivered with a bitter edge. "So, I thought we could modify our agreement."

His eyes focused on her luscious legs, now slightly tanned from sitting around her club's pool. "I'm listening."

She swished her tongue seductively across her mouth as she gripped the hem of her dress with her fingers, then lifted it just above her pussy. "Like what you see?"

His eyes widened. "No panties!"

"So, like I was saying," she continued, dropping her dress to the middle of her thighs, "we can modify our agreement. You and Julie can still see each other while we carry on as best we can. Frankly, I still crave your cock, not to mention your tongue, and from the way you're leering at me, I'd say you're not ready to give me up so fast either."

If not for his blue, terrycloth robe, Janet would have seen his cock pushing against the cotton fabric of his underwear. So no, he wasn't ready to give her up. Of course, that was his cock talking. His head conveyed a different message, one that told him to bid Janet farewell in favor of pursuing a summer romance with her beautiful daughter. Do them both? He wasn't sure he could.

"I can have my cake and eat it too. Is that what you're telling me?"

"I'm not much for clichés," she said, chuckling, "but yes."

As he stood there thinking, she began to raise her dress again. This time she gave him an extended show, rubbing her pussy, finger-fucking herself. "I'm getting really hot, Wendell." She took his hand and placed it over her cunt. "Wet enough for you?" Then she reached for his crotch. "Whatchagot down there? Oooooo, I see you're on fire yourself. So what's there to think about?"

Not much after that little display. Wendell invited her in and seconds later they got down to business—business conducted on the thick, wall-to-wall living room carpeting in his parents' house, a first. He tongued her as she lay on the floor, legs spread, dress pulled up to her waist, her cunt oozing a deluge of liquid, hot and sticky. "You can't resist me, can you, Wendell, you horny teen stud, you. Ahhhh...Oooooo...Lick my clit, baby. Yes! Yes! That's it! Oh my. You need to fuck me before I pass out, before I faint dead away in the middle of your folks' living room."

Now fully disrobed, he crawled on top and rammed it home. Damn right he couldn't resist her! She was so seductive, so sensual and that Arpege mixed with her own wonderful feminine scent produced an olfactory thrill to die for. He didn't fuck her the way he now normally did, slow at first, then building up to cruising speed before cranking it up to climax. Rather, this was, from the get-go, fast and furious and full speed ahead, his pelvis smacking against hers, thwack thwack thwack thwack—wham bam, unabashed, flagrant carnality. Minutes later, the room exploded in a crescendo of oos and ahhs and shrieks, as they both came in tandem, a duet of orgasmic bliss.

They lay there for a few minutes before Wendell saw her out. As he stood in the door, watching her cross the street, it suddenly it hit him that the gratification derived from this kind of sex was akin to a sugar high: great while it lasted, but short and shallow. He wanted something more. Long-term. Romantic. Deep. Sustaining. Juliana seemed like a good prospect. But, how could he face her after this, after screwing her mom in his own living room? He kicked himself for giving in to his primal urges, for letting Janet seduce him. It was just what he needed last winter. Now? Not really, not when a beautiful, sensitive girl he once thought unapproachable wanted to be with him.

He knew what he had to do, and putting it off would only make it that much tougher. Like a seasoned stage actor, he practiced his lines. Then, less than an hour after Janet left, he called her.

"Hi Janet, it's me. I—"

"Wendell! I was just about to call YOU. That incredible appendage of yours...whew! You're obviously calling to request a second round. To which I say, YES, I'll be right over!"

Silence.

"Wendell?"

"Yeah, I'm here." Pause. "Look, the sex has been fantastic and all but all good things have to end sometime, and it's probably the right time to end this great thing we've had over the past few months. I'm really starting to like Juliana and dating her while carrying on with you won't work for me. Sorry, I guess I'm not cut out to have my cake and eat it too."

Silence.

"Janet?"

"You know what you are, Wendell? You're an ingrate, a fucking ingrate. Okay, if that's the way you want it, don't eat that cake. Shove it up your ungrateful ass!"

He tried calling her back, no answer. He shuttered to think what kind of reception awaited him tonight and what she might or might not tell Juliana before their movie date.

Hours later he found out. Nathan let him in, told him that Juliana would be right down. Janet made just a brief appearance, glaring at Wendell in hostile, stone-cold silence as she brushed by him in the living room on her way upstairs. Juliana didn't look too happy either as she descended the steps in a blue mini-skirt and white v-neck blouse. "Let's go," she said, ushering him out the door as if the house was on fire.

Nothing was said until he drove off, heading for dinner and then movies to see "Wild in the Streets."

"Wendell, what's going on between you and my mom?"

"Why?"

"Because the very mention of your name has her spewing profanities under her breath. Last night and tonight, right before you picked me up, she was like a woman on the warpath."

"She thinks I'm not good enough for you. You know that."

"It's more than that, Wendell. She keeps saying something about you betraying her. What's that all about?"

Juliana's questioning made the early evening June heat seem even hotter, even with the top down. "Did you ask her?"

"Of course I asked her. Dad and I both did. She just shook her head and stormed away. Care to shed some light?"

He kept his eyes on the road.

"Wendell?"

His stomach started to churn. "Can we talk about his later, after we eat?"

She said nothing further until they pulled into the parking lot of Mancini's Restaurant. Then: "Actually, Wendell, I'd like to discuss it now, before we go in."

He signed and cut the engine. "I'm not sure there's much to discuss."

"Oh, I think there is. I'm not stupid, Wendell. Something's been going on between you and mom that I doubt has anything to do with your grades or college. Now suppose you man up and tell me."

He leaned against the driver's side door, rubbed his eyes and shook his head. "You might lose your appetite. Worse, I might lose any opportunity I had with you."

She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You underestimate me. I'm stronger than you think."

Silence.

"Look, I'll make it easier for you. I'm pretty damn sure what's been going on. But I want to hear it from you."

A few seconds passed before he spoke up. "What's been going on is over." He spoke slow, careful, deliberate, a picture of tact under pressure. "I told her that yesterday morning after, well, after the last time. That's why she's so angry. I'm really sorry. It must be very upsetting for you."

She let out a bitter chuckle. "No more than a few years ago when mom did the same thing, though her lover then was a guy closer to her age." She shook her head. "My parents' marriage is a joke. They haven't slept together in years. And mom isn't the only one who gets her nookie elsewhere."

"You're not mad at me?"

"You're a guy, Wendell, and guys think with that thing between their legs. Plus, there's no denying that my mom's still got it, if you know what I mean, and from our discussion, I know you do." She paused. "Only I want you to be honest with me. Is it over, truly over? I mean, suppose she comes on to you again?"

"How do you know she's the one who came on to ME?"

Juliana laughed. "Because I can't picture you initiating that sort of thing. Am I right?" He nodded. "She fits the image of Mrs. Robinson to a T. Sex-starved, unhappy, middle-age woman seduces shy college student, and then tells said student that he's not good enough to date her daughter." Pause. "Don't get me wrong, I love my mom. But what hypocrisy, what bullshit."

At last, he was starting to relax. "So, do you still have an appetite?"

"I can taste the lasagna already." She started to open her door, then shifted back in her seat. "One other thing."

"Okay."

"Were you...Let's see, how do I put this? Before you and mom got together, were you, I mean, was it your first time?"

"As ashamed as I am to admit it, yes."

"That's nothing to be ashamed of, Wendell. I've never done it either."

"Girls aren't under that kind of peer pressure. As you know, in some circles, girls who put out before marriage are called sluts."

"Well, I don't think that way and neither do my friends at Brandeis. I'd have no problem PUTTING OUT, as you say, for the right guy. And who knows, you just might be that guy. We'll see how the summer plays out. I suspect you learned quite a bit over the past few months, things you could pass on to me."

He grinned. "Would be more than happy to. Now let's eat. Movie starts in an hour."