LOUISE

Louise too was thinking about the new dynamics around the house. She wasn’t as worried as Alex, but yes, some things had happened during the second week and it couldn’t hurt to carefully examine them. First, there was the other night of course. She didn’t know how much he had heard exactly, but seeing Alex’s face the next morning she suspected that it was quite a lot. He had had trouble looking her in the eye ever since, which was something that should change soon otherwise it would become problematic.

How to broach the subject though? Tell him they needed to talk? Make a joke about it? Let him know that she didn’t mind, so he shouldn’t worry either? God, he was so serious and so close-minded about all things related to sex! So he had heard them make love? Well, big deal. She had always been completely at ease with her sexuality, and an eighteen-year-old boy walking in on her didn’t change a thing about that.

And he hadn’t even walked in on them, had he? Most likely, he had overheard them when he was on his way over to bring her the phone. She talked to Monique last night, who told her about Alex hanging up on her and her calling back almost right away. That had been the call that she and Rob had heard immediately after their orgasms. At the time, she hadn’t thought anything about it, but after talking to Monique it was easy to put two and two together.

So even though she understood his embarrassment, there was absolutely no need for him to feel that way. He probably thought she was horrified by the idea of him listening in, but she had already forgotten about that. However, there were other issues that she wasn’t so happy about.

The first week, she had thought of Alex as cute and shy and had hoped that he would open up to her. Lately, though, she had begun to feel more and more impatient with him. What was that about? Well, of course there was his slightly misogynistic attitude, but she might have already set him straight on that point. First, she had shown him who was boss on the tennis court, then on the meadow in the hills. She was certain he wouldn’t underestimate her or other women again anytime soon. No, lately the growing impatience with him was more about his excessive smoking of pot.

Although she had experimented with it too when she was young and she was really trying to keep an open mind about it, she was convinced that it wasn’t good for him. He simply smoked too much and that made him slow, clumsy and worst of all, terribly conceited. True, not more conceited than a week ago, when she had thought of his so-called 'wisdom' as cute, but they had spent much more time together since and well, she no longer thought it was adorable. She understood now why his parents were so worried about him. If he continued like this, his life wasn’t going anywhere.

So yes, she was quite annoyed with him at times, but who wouldn’t be? She remembered how he dropped a paintbrush a few days ago and had stood there giggling, while the paint was leaking into the cracks of the wooden floor. Or the other day, when he had thrown a burning joint under the table on the terrace. Who would do something like that? Only an idiot or a real stoner, right? And of course, she had been the angriest with him when he was supposed to take them to the theater but had zoned out on the sofa instead.

But what to do about it, that was the question. Tell him his days of freedom were over? No more smoking allowed? He wouldn’t like it, but well, she didn’t like the way things were now, and after all, it was her house.

There was something else she needed to think about too. Something that had been niggling at the back of her mind lately. It wasn’t directly connected to Alex, but went back much further. The annoyance she sometimes felt with him had triggered it though. How should she describe it? It was a double feeling or a feeling that was hidden underneath another feeling.

Take the night of the theater, for example. Rob and she had been waiting for Alex for more than fifteen minutes. When she had finally walked over to the annex to go get him, she had been furious. He had opened the door and stared at her with those red eyes that were so typical of a stoner. It had made her even angrier. She had given him a piece of her mind, and as she had felt the fury and seen his fear, she had become aware of another sensation deep inside of her. A thrill which made her realize that, as angry as she was, she also enjoyed wielding her power over him. Strange, perhaps, and maybe even worrisome, but there it was.

It had happened more than once too. She had felt it when she denied some of his requests, and she had felt it when she told him to pick up the joint from underneath the table. Oh, and she had certainly felt it when he had said those stupid, misogynistic things and they had ended up wrestling in the grass. At first, she had just played with him, confident that she could easily beat him. But when he had gone out of line and tried to trick her, she had felt her anger rise and with it came that strange thrill that made her want to dominate him. He had given in almost right away though, tapping out like a scared little kid, and that’s when it had hit her.

A memory of a long time ago that she had suppressed, but was now forced to face. It wasn’t new to her, this thrill she felt when she overpowered young Alex. Long ago, when she must have been about Alex's age, she had bullied one of the lonely nerds in her school. Without anyone else ever finding out, she had focused on him for a couple of weeks. She had forced the boy to give her his lunch and once, after school, she had even taken him to a quiet spot in the woods where she had convinced him to let her pull down his pants to take a look at his penis. The memory made her blush with embarrassment, but she had to admit that it explained a lot about the thrill she was feeling now with Alex. Especially because she remembered that this boy in school had annoyed her in similar ways that Alex did. The boy had been a teacher’s pet, and Alex was often way too smug and conceited too. Oh, she could kill him sometimes. Not really of course, but still. What was so annoying about him was that he didn’t know anything.

Yes, he could name all the songs of the second album of Bob Dylan, but what did that really mean? Nothing, of course. No, it was all just a mask behind which he was hiding his insecurity and total lack of experience with girls.

There, she had said it. That was it. The virgin who had created a disguise and really believed he could fool people with it. God, he was even fooling himself, thinking that he was somehow above all things physical. And he just wasn’t! She knew, because she saw how he looked at her. In the first week, it had been sweet, the way he had glanced at her breasts or butt, but lately, his furtive looks had turned into downright staring. Especially when she was wearing a skirt and heels, he seemed to really lose it. He reminded her of a boyfriend of a long time ago. A sporty guy who had always got a weird and goofy expression on his face the moment he saw her in nylons.

Wait a minute now - what if Alex had a thing for them too? She recalled some moments of the past week, like the trip to Saint Tropez and the other day, when she had tried on the red heels. On both occasions, she had worn pantyhose and indeed, on both occasions she had got the feeling that he was almost drooling over her legs.

Now a new idea occurred to her. Why not figure out what exactly made him tick? Test and tease him a bit. Give him something to look at, play with him. It could be fun for her and who knows, perhaps it would loosen him up as well.

TO BE CONTINUED...