The Broken Closet Rod

He walked across the parking lot after work, the late afternoon heat shimmering from the asphalt as the sun started ducking behind the elm trees that bordered the parking spaces, filtering through the branches, momentarily blinding him for a step or two at a time. It was a walk he'd done many times, a walk he could do with his eyes closed, with little risk of bumping into anything, unless a car was driven through the lot at the same time. The chances of this were slim, as he liked to start work early, put in his 8 hours, and leave the office early, thus missing the bulk of rush hour traffic both ways. The company he was subcontracting for didn't mind his start-early and leave-early schedule. He played a key role in the company's profitable run of recent success, and his role didn't call for a lot of office interaction with other employees. He did his work thing, shared the results with key stakeholders, and went on to the next prioritized task.

The man was in Information Technology, a talented software developer, and although strikingly handsome and gregarious when the situation called for ripe communication, he kept mostly to himself, and preferred it that way. He was about producing results and letting them do the speaking for him. He didn't need to talk his way up, his work did the talking.

The man, Joseph, although he preferred to be known as Seth, shielded his eyes from the momentarily blinding sunlight. A light sheen of sweat showed on his forehead and cheeks. It was a very large parking lot, and even though Seth was one of the first people to arrive every morning, he parked in the slot that was furthest from the building entrance. Some people felt that was odd and talked about it a little behind his back, but Seth liked to start and end each workday with a brisk walk. He sat in his cubicle almost all day, getting up for the occasional meeting, cup of hot tea, or walk to the men's room in the middle of his floor. He liked to feel invisible in the office, underrated, almost a forgotten fixture, except by the leadership and executive teams who relied on his skills to help them forecast their future market moves. He'd been approached numerous times by Human Resources to join their team and company, to be an employee of high standing. Seth preferred the much higher rates derived from contracting, even if it was a little risky, and continually rebuffed the offers. One day, they would give him the ultimatum -- join us or be released. When that day came, Seth would walk, and be happy to look for the next company he could contract for. He didn't fear being unemployed. New challenges were welcome changes. Well, most challenges were.

Seth's cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Wiping away the sweat threatening to drip down his forehead towards his nose, he fished the phone from his pocket with his free hand, seeing that the incoming call was from his wife's work number. They spoke every lunch hour. Seth was faithful in calling her on workdays, without fail. He was a creature of habit and enjoyed the break in the day that chatting with his wife provided. She almost never called him from work, other than sometimes at lunch, and only if Seth was tardy in calling her first.

Seth had reached his car. Using his key fob to unlock the doors, he answered her call as he slid his briefcase and lunch carrier into the back seat.

"Hi honey, I'm just about to leave. What's up?"

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that Melinda and Matt will be at the house when you get there," his wife responded. This was unusual, as they lived over an hour away and weren't prone to surprise visits. Melinda was his 25 year old step-daughter, his wife Julie's youngest child. Matt was Melinda's 4 year old son, Seth and Julie's only grandchild. He was a handful.

"Is something wrong?" Seth inquired, knowing that something must indeed be wrong.

"Melinda and Rob broke up. Again. She has nowhere else to go so I told her she could stay with us for a while." Seth could hear the hesitancy in Julie's voice as she broke this news. Like Seth, Julie was happy with their empty nest home life. Quiet. Peaceful and quiet. Serene. But life wasn't always like that. Julie's 2 children, Melinda and her older brother James, were not exactly easy to live with. Both were prone to extremely vocal and occasionally violent outbreaks, mixed with frequent drug and alcohol episodes that fueled their angst. Melinda was 15 and James was 18 when Julie and Seth married. During the next 2 years the local police made 7 visits to their house to defuse escalating situations between mother and child, while Seth tried his best and often failed to keep things civil. By the time the following year ended, both James and Melinda were out of the house. James was asked to leave. Melinda ran away the day of her high school graduation. She got caught up in the wrong crowd, was heavily involved in drinking and drugs, performed as a stripper to support herself, and withdrew from her mom completely. Melinda eventually hooked up with Rob, who became the father of Seth and Julie's grandchild, Matt.

Rob was a small step up from the scumbags that Melinda associated with. He had a factory job and owned a small house 75 miles away from his in-laws. That was the good part. He was also 14 years older than Melinda, frequented strip joints, which was how he met Melinda, used drugs, and his overbearing mom lived with him. Melinda tolerated Rob's mom but wouldn't let her manage her life, which is what she tried to continuously do. Melinda wouldn't put up with Julie, her own mom, no way would she put up with a domineering mother in law. The dynamic had a few good moments but mostly not so good. From what Melinda had told us over the past 4 years, there were frequent arguments with verbal and occasionally physical abuse. Rob didn't abuse Matt, his son, but he also didn't shield Matt from the abuse he heaped on his baby momma, Melinda. Melinda and Matt had fled to Seth and Julie a couple of times but went back to Rob within a couple of days. This time would prove to be different.

"How long do you think this might last?" Seth asked Julie.

"I don't think she's going back to Rob this time," Julie sighed. Seth agreed. They both saw this split-up coming, and had discussed their options in advance. They could let Melinda and Matt recuperate with them for a few days before Melinda tired of living under her mother's shadow and then they were off again to wherever. That would have been fine in the past, but now there was their grandchild to think about. He had to come first. It had been decided that if Melinda left Rob again, Seth and Julie would insist they stay with them for an extended time. It was a foregone conclusion that Melinda and Rob would break up, and of course they did. Goodbye peacefulness and serenity. Seth and Julie concluded the phone call by agreeing to talk with Melinda that night about the best options for her and her son.

Their conversation with Melinda that evening was a short one. She agreed to stay with Seth and Julie, save some money, and then consider her future options. She listened to Seth and Julie's advice, and had made a good choice for her and her son. New routines would need to be formed. Life had presented all with a new challenge, and they all tried hard to do the next right things.

The months rolled by. Melinda worked as a waitress in the evenings, saving her money as asked. Seth and Julie cared for Matt while his mom worked. Life was much, much busier and more hectic for Seth and Julie, but knowing they were doing the right thing for their daughter and grandson helped ease their concerns.

At 58 years of age, Seth tried to keep up with Matt but often struggled and needed to rest. It's not that Seth was out of shape, because for a man his age Seth was a pretty good package, but his grandson was a non-stop exhausting hurricane of activity and keeping up with him was futile. Seth stood 6'1" tall, with blue eyes, silver hair, broad shoulders, and a solid frame. Julie was still deeply attracted to Seth, but since entering menopause and especially since Melinda and Matt had moved in, sexual contact had simply ceased. This frustrated Seth a little, but he also was feeling the advancement of life's aging process and its downhill effect on his libido. But when he needed it, the release, it was easier to pleasure himself than to bother his wife, Seth learned.

Seth had thought that Melinda must be a sexual dynamo, which was his view on strippers in general, but was surprised to learn otherwise. According to Julie, Melinda and Rob had only had sex a few times since Matt had been born, which really frustrated Melinda. She assumed that Rob was seeing other women, but she didn't have the means to prove it because she stayed with Matt in the evenings when Rob went out to play. He rarely took her out on a date. This was one of the many reasons why Melinda finally left him.

Seth didn't have such a high opinion of Rob before, but when he learned this piece of news he downgraded his opinion to that of a complete idiot. Melinda was a complete knockout; 5'4", long blonde hair, big blue eyes, beautiful breasts and a rounded ass that was sheer perfection. What she lacked in brains she more than made up with in physical appearance. She wasn't dating anyone, and sometimes Seth wondered how Melinda took care of her physical urges. Since Seth's own physical desires weren't being taken care of by Julie, his mental meanderings about Melinda led to very satisfying self-pleasuring acts. He would envision Melinda with a dildo in her pussy, fingers massaging her aching clit, taking herself to a quiet release, knowing her son was deep asleep a few feet away. Seth fantasized about Melinda but never ever considered taking it to reality. Sometimes he wondered what Melinda fantasized about when she was pleasuring herself, and if she ever thought of him. That was a foolish thought, of course she didn't think about him. He was 58 years old, she was 33 years younger. Silly notion.

Several months passed by. The exhausted grandparents coped with the new reality of 4 people living under their roof instead of just the quiet twosome. Melinda switched jobs, had started making good money and was saving it smartly. Matt was still Matt, not showing any signs of slowing down anytime soon. The new normal. Not ideal, but it was for the better good of Melinda and Matt, which made Seth and Julie feel good.

One day the clothing rack in Melinda's closet came down. Julie asked Seth to fix it, and offered Melinda's assistance if needed. Julie watched Matt downstairs while Seth took his tools upstairs to the closet. He removed the old hardware and was drilling holes for replacement anchors when Julie popped into the closet to ask if he needed help. She was wearing her usual at-home attire of skintight yoga pants and a tee shirt, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. He dropped a mounting anchor bolt onto the floor. Both he and Melinda reached for it at the same time. His hand accidentally brushed against Melinda's gorgeous ass, which caused a lightning bolt of erotic desire to strike his groin. She reached the bolt first, right when Seth touched her ass. She handed the bolt to Seth and excused herself from the closet, red-faced and flustered. He couldn't help but notice something in Melinda's eyes, something that he hadn't seen before. Touching her ass had turned her on. And they both knew it.

Seth finished repairing the clothing rack and ventured downstairs to where Julie, Melinda and Matt were playing Go Fish. This was probably the most peaceful, interactive moment shared since they had moved in. No noisy dinosaur robots or Matt running around yelling, pretending he was a superhero. A quiet, orderly game of cards. Nice. Seth asked to join, and Julie gladly dealt him in. Matt was not exactly quiet, talking nonstop about superheroes and Avengers, yet somehow managed to be a part of the game. Melinda was quiet and didn't look Seth in the eye. Seth noticed her blushing in her thoughts a couple times. He wondered if she was thinking about him touching her bottom a little while ago. Surely not. It was brief, accidental, and just a brush, not a grab.

But what Seth didn't know was that it did affect Melinda. She couldn't stop thinking about the physical contact. When Seth touched her, she immediately got flushed and wet and had to leave the closet before he noticed her physical reaction. She could barely concentrate on the Go Fish game, even though everyone was having fun, her mind was consumed with a fantasy of being touched, licked, and fucked like crazy. She wasn't thinking about Seth specifically, but if she did turn her thoughts towards him she wouldn't be able to control the overwhelming erotic feelings. Melinda had always found Seth to be a very handsome older man. Being alone with him, seeing him work with his hands, had opened a new channel in her thoughts, but when he touched her it was too much. After the Go Fish hand finished, Melinda excused herself from the game to shower. She would be leaving for work in 90 minutes anyway, so she felt neither her mom nor Seth would think anything was strange.

Melinda went upstairs, got her work clothes together, went to the bathroom, locked the door and turned on the shower. She quickly undressed and admired her naked form in the mirror. As most women do, she focused on her slight imperfections. If Seth could have shared his opinion, he would have said "Perfection." She wondered why Seth's accidental touch affected her so deeply, finally attributing it to not having sex for over a year. Hell if damn near anyone would have touched her she would have had the same reaction, she reasoned to herself. She wasn't that attracted to Seth, was she? No, of course not. He's married to my mom, for freaks sake! Yeah he's good looking but he's old. OLD. And look at how young and vibrant I am, she thought as she soaked in her appearance in the mirror. The next guy that gets me is gonna be in for a wild time, she thought as she stepped into the shower. But as she relaxed in the hot spray from the shower, all she could think about was Seth.

His touch. A single, simple, fucking touch had overheated her desires. And so she went with it. When she washed her breasts, she did it roughly, imagining Seth's large hands caressing her. When she pinched and pulled her nipples, it was his lips sucking on her, his fingertips arousing her. And when her soapy fingers slid between her legs and touched her special place, it was Seth's lips and tongue bringing her to a massive orgasm that brought her to her knees in the bathtub. And while she was on her knees, the shower spraying on her head and her back, she fantasized about sucking Seth's big, hard cock inside her mouth, moaning while he fucked her mouth repeatedly, fingering herself to another, and another orgasm. When the fantasy finally slipped away and she stood to turn off the shower, she shuddered in the post-completion bliss of the strongest orgasms she had ever felt, even during real sex with men 2 or 3 decades younger than her old stepdad. She tucked those thoughts away but could not turn them all the way off.

Normal, hectic life resumed at the house of Seth and Julie. Although he fantasized several times about Melinda in quiet moments, Seth laughed off his booty touch as something that she had surely forgotten moments after it occurred. He doubted if he would ever forget it, though. Oh he thought about it a lot, too much. It fueled his fantasies and brought him to powerful completion. He did notice that Melinda still avoided looking him in the eye, but he wondered if she ever did that anyway? Probably not, he concluded. It was just the way she was. Except, it wasn't.

Melinda was finding it harder and harder to cope with her erotic thoughts of Seth. This was crazy! She couldn't stop thinking of him taking possession of her physically, fucking her to submission. She couldn't look him in the eye, knowing she would fall deeper into this feeling she was having, something she couldn't explain. She was masturbating 2, 3, 4 times a day. Everytime she climaxed it was Seth taking her over the edge in her fantasy. This has to stop, THIS HAS TO STOP! She decided that she needed a night out with the girls. She would wear her Come Fuck Me dress and make some lucky guy very, very happy that night. She needed someone to fuck her fantasies away, and she was determined to make it happen. Although with her body and physical looks, it wouldn't take any effort at all. She could have anyone she wanted and she knew it.

Melinda got Saturday night off work and asked Julie if she and Seth could watch Matt like they normally do. Of course her mom said yes. Julie didn't even think of telling Seth because they would already be watching Matt, as planned.

All day long Melinda was thinking about cock: sucking it, fucking it, licking it, cumming on it, she was obsessed with cock thoughts. Matt kept her a little grounded, enjoying the day with his mommy. They played and grocery shopped while Julie cleaned house and Seth worked out in the yard. Just a normal day, from the outside looking in. On the inside, one person, Melinda, couldn't wait to get her hands on a nice, hard dick while another person, Seth, was daydreaming about his stepdaughter's fine ass. Neither one anticipated ever doing anything physical with the other.

While Matt was outside working, Julie chatted on the phone with Carolyn, a lifelong friend who lived around 90 minutes southeast. Carolyn had also become a grandmother a few months before Matt was born. She brought her granddaughter Megan over to visit occasionally. Matt and Megan always played well together. Megan bossed him around, which never failed to make the 3 grandparents chuckle.

Carolyn's car was in the shop. She was watching Megan overnight, and invited Julie and Matt to come keep them company and spend the night. Julie never turned down an opportunity for the 2 grandkids to socialize, quickly accepting Carolyn's offer and set about to pack up an overnight bag for her and Matt.

Seth came in for a little break from working outside, sweat running from his face, his tee shirt halfway drenched. It was typical scorching hot, summer day in Texas. The sky was cloudless; the sun was merciless. Seth had finished scrubbing the pool and cleaning the filters, needing a few minutes to relax with some ice water in the air conditioning before going back out to do the yard work. This was a lot to tackle even for someone half Seth's age, but he enjoyed the exertion and exercise. He wore a sleeveless tee shirt and gray shorts, lightweight clothes to keep him as cool as possible, if that was even possible. What he didn't know was that someone was eyeing him from the upstairs bedroom window while he was doing pool maintenance. Melinda was feeling warm rushes throughout her body while she stole some longing glances through the window at Seth while she was playing legos with Matt in the bedroom. She felt a touch of disappointment when he went inside, which was slightly lifted when she heard his voice downstairs, calling for her mom.

Melinda and Matt headed downstairs, where Julie and Seth were chatting in the kitchen. From the dining room she overheard her mom explain that she and Matt were going to Carolyn's for the evening and would be back the following afternoon. Melinda walked into the kitchen, with Matt her shadow, right behind her.

"Hi honey! You don't mind if I take Matt to Carolyn's for the night, do you?" Julie asked her daughter.

"Fine with me, mom" Melinda replied. "When are you leaving? Do you need help packing a bag?"

"I've got a bag started," Julie answered, grabbing the bag and motioning for Melinda and Matt to follow her upstairs. "Let's pack some special toys you want to share with Megan," she said to Matt. Matt screamed loudly "Yay!" and scampered upstairs ahead to get some of his favorite toys together.