Rocky Mountain High

"You haven't said a word about him. Do you mind me asking about him?"

"No, not at all. He passed away right after I started law school. He was diagnosed with colon cancer and it eventually spread to his lungs and liver and after a five-year battle with it, he lost."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. He told me many times he'd lived enough for two lifetimes and made me promise to always remember him alive and enjoying his time on earth. It wasn't easy those first few months after his passing, but I've done my best to honor his request ever since. How about your dad? I haven't heard you mention him yet, either."

"Good question and there's a good reason why. I never knew him. I'm the product of one of my mom's epic blackouts after too much booze and weed and God-only-knows what else." He turned toward and said, "My mom was kind enough to remind me several times I was a mistake."

Layne's expression changed completely as she said, "My God. That's terrible. She actually told you that in those words?"

"More than once," he replied. "But now it's my turn to tell you not to feel sorry for me. She, and the way she lives, were the reasons I chose another path."

"An honorable path, I'd say," she told her. "You're a good man, Elton Carlson. My dad would have liked you."

"I'm sure I'd have enjoyed meeting him, too," he replied. "Coming back here has completely revalidated my choices and there's not a chance in hell I'd ever go back to that way of life. To say it disgusts me is a huge understatement."

"I've never tried it," she told him. "Weed, that is. Or any other drug for that matter. I drink socially, but I've never smoked a cigarette or taken a hit from a joint and never will. I know it's legal here, but the thought of doing anything to take me out of reality holds no interest to me. I love life and without sounding too cliche, that's what I get high on."

"You're all right, Compton," he said causing her to smile. "You're pretty hot, too. Just in case you forgot."

"Ha! You're just so old any reasonably attractive girl looks hot." She smiled at him again and said, "You're pretty cute too. For a geezer."

"Hey! I resemble that remark!" he said laughing with her.

No one spoke for a couple of minutes before Elton asked, "I'm curious, Layne. Why is it a girl as attractive as you doesn't have a boyfriend? Are you maybe just out of a relationship?"

"No, I haven't been in one since my senior year of college. Let's just say I had a lot of fun in high school and my first three years as an undergrad. Hooking up was great and that was all I wanted or needed at the time. Then during my senior year, I really fell for someone and that's when I realized sex without commitment was empty."

"Mind if I ask what happened?"

"It's a little embarrassing because this was um...one of my professors." She smiled and said, "He was about your age, by the way."

"Oh, I see. A fellow geriatric."

Layne laughed politely then continued. "I had no idea he was married, Elton. He didn't wear a ring, he seemed to live alone, and I never saw a hint of any woman around his place. Turns out she's an archeologist who was away on a dig somewhere in Egypt for a year. He had all of her stuff put in storage, hid all the photos, and basically erased her from his life. Talk about being duped."

"What a dick," he said honestly. "So how'd you find out?"

"That was the worst part. She came home unexpectedly to surprise him and she managed to surprise both of us—in bed—doing it."

"Holy shit! How did that go?"

"Surprisingly well. For me, at least. She stood there watching until I saw her and screamed. I pulled a sheet over myself as her husband jumped up and started trying to talk his way out of it. She looked at me and said, 'I don't know who you are, but I don't blame you. My husband is a very good-looking guy. Please collect your things and leave.' I was out of there in a matter of seconds clutching my stuff—just like you see n the movies—and he was her ex-husband a few months later."

"Damn! That's intense."

"Yeah, it scared the bejeezus out of me. After that, I just put my nose to the academic grindstone and haven't done much dating since. And truthfully? I don't miss it all that much. I mean, I'd love to eventually find someone who's as committed to love and marriage...and romance—I'm a hopeless romantic, by the way...as I am. But until that happens, I have more than enough to make my life interesting and fulfilling. Like studying to pass the bar."

They were on campus and almost at the conference room set aside for THEMIS students.

After three hours of very intense lectures on various aspects of the law, Layne said, "When each of those topics were presented today I remembered feeling like I'd mastered every one of them in law school. Now they seem like distant memories and remind me of just how much work lies ahead. And that's just so we...well, you...can get hired as a junior associate and work 90 hours a week as glorified slave labor!"

"You really have a way with words, Layne," Elton told her. "You're right, though. This is not gonna to be easy. There are so many details and as the say...."

"The devil is in the details. Hey, you wanna get together and study after class? You could even come over to the house if you'd like."

"Um, I'm okay with the studying part. I don't think Trisha would be okay with the going to your house part."

"Oh, wait. You don't think I'm hitting on you, do you?" she asked incredulously.

"No. Of course not. I mean, just because I'm the same age as the guy you fell in love with only much better looking doesn't mean I think you'd hit on me," he said trying not to laugh.

Layne made a 'pshah' kind of sound and said, "You wish!" They both laughed before she said, "No, I'm not hitting on you. I just really, really want to pass the bar and having a study-buddy helps. If that doesn't work for you, just let me...."

"It's not that. Like you, I do better in a classroom than on-line and having partner to study with is very helpful. But I'd be a little jealous if Trisha was hanging out to even just study with some gorgeous guy and if she knew how beautiful you were...."

"Ahh! Thank you, Elton. That is the nicest thing anyone's said to me in a quite a while. Okay, so how about we spend a few hours each day together—in the library—and get through this thing?"

"You got yourself a deal—partner."

They shook hands and headed off to find a quiet place to study.

It was late when Elton got home. When he walked into the little cottage, Trisha was sitting at the small table near the window with a pile of papers all around her. She barely moved when he walked in. "Hey. How goes the dissertation?" he asked as he plopped his keys in a silver tray by the door.

"Just grinding away—as always," she replied as she double checked the data before entering it.

He walked over and kissed her hello and she finally asked how his day went. "Exhausting," was all he said. "I can't believe how much I learned...and forgot since my first year in law school. This is going to be brutal. I'm gonna need to put in a lot of hours studying. If I blow the bar exam, it'll be six more months until I can re-take it and that means...."

"Six more months in this hell hole." She finally looked up and said, "I'm really sorry. That was over the top." She shuffled through some papers then said, "Hey...do we have time to knock out a quickie?"

Just the thought of sex had changed her mood dramatically and as much as wanted to please her, Elton had zero interest in making love then and there. It was unusual for him and almost unheard of, but he really was that tired. Even so he told her, "Sure. Let me just grab a shower first." He hoped she'd join him so he could 'knock out the quickie' fast, but there was no such luck.

Trisha was undressed and in bed waiting for him when he came out. He finished toweling off and laid down next to her letting the towel fall to the floor. He was too mentally exhausted to care that was one of her pet peeves and ignored her when she mentioned it. The only thing that saved him was her horniness trumping her pettiness.

"You can get it later—this time," she said as she rolled on top of him. She kissed him and he did he best to kiss back. She made her way south and as she did, she took his flaccid member into her hand and said, "Looks like I have my work cut out for me, Counselor."

She took his limp dick into her mouth and engulfed it swirling her tongue around it as she sucked hard trying to give life into it. After several up and down motions, she was about to say, "What the fuck?" when she heard him snoring. She sat up, exhaled loudly into the air and said out loud, "Well fuck you, too," as she angrily rolled off the bed and went back to work.

Almost ten hours later there was a small knock on the door. Elton was still out like a light so Trisha got up to see who it might be. She expected it would be Leigh or maybe Weston, but Leigh likely wouldn't bother knocking regardless of the hour. She opened the door and saw the gorgeous young woman in a cute top and short skirt, and said, "May I help you?"

"Oh, sorry. I don't think we've met. Elton has told me a lot about you. I'm Layne. Layne Compton." She could tell Trisha had no idea who she was and felt very out of place. "Elton and I carpool together?" she stated in the form of a question.

"Oh! So you're the person he referred to as 'just one of the other students.' Okay. Now it all makes sense. Um...it appears Elton is still sound asleep." Trisha opened the door just wide enough so she could peek in.

Having heard voices, Elton woke up with a start and flipped the sheet off his naked body exposing it to both of the women just as Layne looked inside. "Jesus!" he cried out as he reached for the sheet.

Layne immediately turned away saying, "I'm sorry! I had no idea."

Trisha just stared at her and said, "Did you get an eyeful?" She then told Layne whose back was still turned to her, "My boyfriend will be right out so he can...carpool...with you."

"I'm really sorry about all of this," she tried to say as Trisha slammed the door in her face. Feelings of déjà vu in reverse flooded her mind.

Two minutes later Elton walked out pulling on his shirt and apologizing profusely. "I forgot to set my alarm and...."

"It's okay. Let's just get going so we're not late," she said. As they got to her car she asked him, "Did you really not tell Trisha I'm a woman?"

He got in and sat down then pulled on his seat belt. "I guess it sort of slipped my mind," he told her not wanting to say he thought Trisha would be jealous if she knew his ride was a woman. He knew she'd be if she knew the woman was beautiful.

Another five days passed before Trisha even spoke to him and when he got home, she was finally ready to talk. And by talking, that meant letting him have it. She lit into him as soon as he walked in. The rant started with how sick and tired she was of being cooped up in this dinky little cottage all day, every day, and ended with a screed about how desperately horny she was. In between he got an earful about several other things he just let pass.

In spite of his extreme frustration he managed to get it up—and in—for what turned out to be an actual quickie. It might have lasted all of two minutes, if that, but it seemed to at least temporarily satisfy Trisha and that was good enough. He couldn't ever remember feeling so mentally exhausted every day, but this bar-exam prep was absolutely insane. This time, he set his alarm before falling into a very deep sleep.

After three more similar bouts with his exhaustion, his lack of interest in sex, and another huge blow up with Trisha, Elton decided it was time for them to discuss their future. He'd always thought he'd loved her, but he often wondered if she really loved him. Lately, her tirades were out of control and he was powerless to change anything, short of giving up on being a practicing attorney.

Making matters worse was Layne asking him about it on the ride home. "Any um...improvements on the home front?" He'd felt a lot more comfortable each time they rode together and he'd started opening up to her especially on those rides after a full six or seven hours of much-needed sleep.

"No, not really. Not unless by 'changes' you mean for the worse."

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked.

The rest of the drive to the university, he unloaded from soup to nuts.

"If she's also an academic working on her PhD, how can she not understand the reality of your situation? You can't become a practicing lawyer without passing the bar. Does she really not get that? And if this is bad, how will things be when you're doing grunt work 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week trying to make junior partner?"

"Don't remind me, okay?" he said with a wry smile. "I guess there's the reality of knowing what lies ahead and then there's the reality of living through it. It sounds sexy to talk about being an attorney. It's just not so sexy actually working all these crazy hours to get established. It's not a whole lot of fun while you're doing it."

"It just seems like there should be a little more understanding there." She looked over at Elton and said, "I apologize. That's none of my business. I'm very sorry I said that."

"Nah, it's okay." He glanced at her and said, "It's the truth so there's nothing to be upset about."

Emboldened by his comment Layne said, "I just find it so hard to understand that a woman as smart as Trisha doesn't get what a great guy she has. When I think about how you turned your life around by getting clean and sober then joining the Navy and busting your butt through college and law school, how can she not...I don't know...be awed by that?"

She saw Elton just raise his eyebrows in a kind of 'beats me' sort of way then said, "I know she's beautiful, but you're pretty hot yourself." She intentionally didn't look at him to see his reaction before adding, "You know, for an old guy."

She expected him to do the fist balling thing with an implied threat of punching her he'd done once before in jest when she teased about his advanced years, but he just sat there staring out the side window. "It's never easy, is it?" he said absent-mindedly.

"It should be. Or at least it seems like it shouldn't be that hard," she said politely. He looked over at her and waited for her to explain. "My parents were married for nearly 23 years. My mom was quite a bit younger when they met back when my dad was in law school. They fell madly in love and did pretty much everything together from sailing to the theater to just having dinner with each other every night. They were unfailingly kind to one another and although it's kind of 'icky' to think about, I think they were still doing it until my dad no longer could."

Elton made a face at the thought of two people in their 50s 'doing it' all the time but didn't say anything. As he thought about it, it was actually very romantic and it was exactly what he hoped he and Trisha would be doing well beyond that. He even hoped there'd be a couple of little Carlson kids running around the house someday.

"Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?" she said finishing her thought.

"Yeah, I guess so," he told her as they pulled in to the university. "In an ideal world, anyway."

As they walked inside, Layne said, "Don't we make our own reality, Elton? Isn't it up to us to decide to be happy or romantic or even faithful? If so, shouldn't it be easy to be happy with the person we chose and who chose us back?"

He opened the door for her and said, "I guess. Well, if you're with the right person, that is."

Within ten minutes, they were sitting in class and he didn't have time to contemplate the significance of what he'd just said, but the seed had been planted in the back of his mind and at some point he'd have to address it.

By Friday, he was as exhausted as he always was when Layne dropped him off. He had a million 'must-know/can't-forget' facts swirling around in his head. There was no way of knowing exactly what would be on the bar so each time an instructor said, "And this is critically important to remember...." he felt like his head would explode. He opened the door and saw the ever-present pile of papers around the laptop. What he didn't see was Trisha. The light was off in the bathroom, the only other room in the little cottage, so he was pretty sure she was next door at the main residence.

Too tired to go check, he took a quick shower and as he was toweling off, he looked out through the bathroom window and in the waning light of the long summer day saw people in the pool. He could only see about a quarter of its length, but he could clearly see his mother up against the side of the pool wearing, not her bathing suit, but her birthday suit. Elton just shook his head until he saw Weston walk behind her on the pool deck and hand her a joint. He shook his head again as he saw her take a long toke. Just as he was about to walk away, he saw another hand reach out and take the joint from his mom. The hand had painted fingernails and they were red, just like Trisha's. He dropped his towel on the floor and stood there staring dumbfounded as Trisha drifted into view. She was at least wearing a bikini, but there was no doubt she was getting high.

The last thing Elton needed was to get into a huge fight when the only thing he craved was sleep, but this pissed him the fuck off. He saw his mother look toward the cottage then nod his direction. He saw Trisha flip her head around then cover her mouth with her hands and he knew they'd seen him watching.

By the time he got ready to lay down, Trisha flung open the door and began apologizing. "Elton. I'm SO sorry. It was just a couple of hits on one joint. I didn't mean to...."

"Save it," he told her angrily pulling the sheet over him.

Trisha's temper flared and she ripped the sheet off his body. "You do NOT get to come home for a few hours every each night before you fall asleep and tell me what I can and can't do! I'm a grown damn woman and if I need something to break up the endless monotony of being alone all day, every day, then...."

Elton turned over and pointed a finger in her face. "Then get yourself a fucking hobby. Take a spinning class. Go skiing. Have a glass of wine. But you KNOW how I feel about drugs, Trisha."

"It's just a fucking joint, Elton! Jesus! Don't start getting all holier than thou with me about two hits off of one joint! Marijuana is legal in this state, for Christ's sake. Lighten the fuck up!"

He lay there and glared at her. Her eyes looked like a roadmap and he knew from personal experience that didn't come from two tokes on a single joint, but he was far too tired to argue with her. "I need to get some sleep. We can talk about this later," he said grabbing the sheet back and curling up as exhaustion overcame him. He didn't here the door slam moments later as Trisha headed out and back to the pool.

"Something wrong?" Layne asked almost as soon as he got in on Monday morning.

He and Trisha hadn't said a word to each other the entire weekend. He'd spent both days in the cottage studying and she'd spent hers in 'the big house' without her laptop. "I don't want to talk about it," he said angrily. "Sorry. It's not your fault."

"It's okay. I know you're not angry at me. But you are angry. It's written all over your face. I'm not gonna try and pry it out of you, but if you feel like talking, I'm here for you, okay?" she said very supportively.

Elton forced a smile and said, "Thanks. It seems like you're the only one who is these days."

They drove in silence for a few minutes before Elton said out of the blue, "I saw her getting high with my mom." He cut his eyes toward Layne then added, "In the swimming pool. With that current creep of a boyfriend of hers, Weston."