She found out two days later that when Fred had his heart attack he was in bed sticking his dick into a flight attendant named Henrietta. Bernie remembered meeting her and her husband at a Christmas party. She guessed it must have been going on for some time.
----
Death fucks up everything. Bernie would never have to tell her husband about why she got fired, but she would have to explain it all to Tina, and everybody else would find out anyway. Now she was a widow and would have to deal with all the shit widows have to deal with: funeral homes, burials, death certificates, insurance. And the embarrassment.
Bernie decided that there would be no big funeral, no viewings, no limos, no wake. Just a private memorial service and burial for family and a few close friends.
Bernie arranged everything at the cemetery so that when the body finally arrived, things were all set. There would be a service in the small chapel and then everyone would hike a hundred yards to the gravesite.
The day was gray and cloudy with a light steady rain. ‘Showers of blessing,’ the preacher said. There were only about twenty-five people there. Jayden skipped the service and burial but was at the house afterward. Bernie wanted him there. She said they all knew about him anyway so they’d probably want to get a close-up look at the handsome young man she was fucking.
Most of the people came back to the house, where food and drink were served. Jayden noticed everybody checking him out. A couple of people introduced themselves to him, and Bernie introduced him to others, including Tina and Jim. Tina greeted him rather coolly; Bernie had told her all about her affair with him but she was still not over the shock.
Tina was a younger, darker-haired version of her mother. Lean, shapely body, sleek good looks and a sexy smile.
“I’m sorry about your father, Tina,” Jayden said. “I know this is awkward for both of us, but I am sincere. I am close to my father, although I don’t see him as much as I’d like, and I couldn’t imagine losing him so suddenly. You have my sympathies.” This disarmed Tina a bit.
Later she cornered him. “So how did it happen?” she asked him.
“What do you mean?” he said.
“You know what I mean. You and my mother. How did it start?”
“I don’t know, it just did. She was training me, I don’t know. We liked each other.”
“You liked each other? That’s it? Men have been hitting on her for twenty-some years and she beat them off like she was swatting flies. Why you?”
“Tina, I don’t know…”
“Did you seduce her? Or did she seduce you?”
“You should ask your mother that question… Let’s just say it was mutual.”
Tina smiled subtly for the first time.
“Well, you must be okay. My mother wouldn’t waste her time with a loser.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Take care of her.”
----
The next couple of months were busy ones for Bernie. She had to deal with the life insurance companies. Between their personal policies and those of the airline, she would net almost a million dollars. And she had to get the house ready to sell. If the appraisal was even close, she should net another half-million on the sale. She knew she had to get out. She didn’t know where she was going or what she was going to do next, but when she figured it out, she would have the cash.
She didn’t want Jayden to move in with her at first because she knew it wouldn’t look good. But after a couple of weeks, she didn’t care. She knew she would be leaving, even though she hadn’t discussed it with anyone yet, so she didn’t really care what anybody thought. And she wanted the sex, as much as possible. She wondered if she had a sickness, and wondered what Tina would think if she knew her mother was such a nympho. She just wanted to come, and make Jayden come, in her mouth, in her pussy, on her tits, up her ass, she didn’t care. The only times she wasn’t thinking about everything else was when they were fucking. And she wasn’t sure how healthy that was. Yet as much as she craved it, she knew she would have to give it up for a while. She had to be by herself for a while to figure out where she was going from here.
One day Bernie was on-line and she thought she had found what she was looking for, or at least something that could be a bridge to the next phase of her life. It would also be an adventure, a vacation, and would give her plenty of time to think. A nice, long cruise.
She checked numerous cruise lines and looked at dozens and dozens of cruises of various duration and ports of call. They all ran together in her head. How would she know one from another and which ones were good or bad? And then one jumped out at her and her decision was made. It was a 145-day around-the-world cruise that started and ended in Miami. But what instantly clinched it was the port it sailed into on Day 119: Curacao.
For almost five months, no one would know where she was. Solitude. No phones. Communication only by email and only when she felt like it. It would set sail in less than three weeks and there were still cabins available. She booked it.
The next three weeks were spent tying up all the loose ends that were still dangling. She and Jayden and Tina worked around the house getting it ready to sell. They got rid of a lot of stuff and Bernie signed the documents to put the house on the market effective the day she left. She hired an attorney to handle the transaction. She arranged to donate all of the furniture to a local charity. Jayden would stay and house-sit until the deal closed and see that all of the furniture and personal property was picked up before closing.
During those three weeks, Bernie and Jayden fucked like rabbits on crystal meth. First thing in the morning, last thing at night and plenty of times in between. In the bed, in the pool, on the floor, on the chair, backwards, forwards, sixty-nines. It was like Bernie was a 117-pound sponge trying to soak up enough orgasms to last her 145 days. Her jaws, pussy and asshole were abraded and sore when the day finally came for her to leave.
Jayden drove her to the airport and Tina accompanied them. She would fly to Miami and board the ship the following afternoon. Bernie and Tina hugged and kissed a teary goodbye. Then Tina got to see her mother and Jayden really kiss for the first time. Lovers saying goodbye with tongues and their bodies in a tight hug and their breasts and groins pressed flat against the other's. She could tell by that one kiss that they would be animals in bed.
“Do you understand what she’s doing?” Tina asked Jayden as they watched Bernie walk through the gate to her plane.
“Not really. But her life’s been turned upside-down. Needs time, I guess.”
“Yeah, I guess. Do you think she understands what she’s doing?”
“I have no idea,” he said.
“Neither do I,” she said.
----
BERNIE:
I emailed Tina and Jayden as soon as I got settled in on the ship. I wanted to let them know that I’d made it alright but figured that would be our only contact for a while. We’d be cruising through some very remote regions of Earth, and internet would be sporadic and phone service almost nonexistent.
The ship was not as big as I expected. It only has about five hundred guests. But there is a pool and a nice workout room. I expect to do a lot of swimming and tanning and working out and to catch up on my reading. And of course sightseeing at sixty-some different ports. I will be filling my time with different things because Jayden’s not here to fuck at the drop of a hat. That is one concern I have. How am I going to handle going from being the most over-fucked woman in North America with an insatiable young lover to being celibate?
But I need this time. The last three months have been an earthquake of craziness, sadness, depression and embarrassment. Jayden…and the sex…was the only constant and is what kept me from losing it. Now it’s time for a cleansing of my mind, my body and my heart. I’ll see what’s left after 145 days.
JAYDEN:
Bernie is gone and I’m alone in her house. It’s kind of lonely but I agreed to house-sit and it’s a lot nicer than my crappy little apartment. I spend my time swimming, going to the gym, running, jerking off. I think of Bernie and wonder if she is fucking anyone on that ship. But I know I shouldn’t do that because when we started our affair I knew she was much older and married and our relationship was doomed in the long run. It wasn’t going to last. Was it?
Bernie left me her itinerary so I bought a world map and hung it on the wall in the room I’m staying in. I have a pushpin that I move every day or two as I track her voyage.
I have to keep the place real neat and clean and be ready to leave on a moment’s notice so real estate agents can show the house. Tina comes over occasionally to get something or check on things. She seems to have warmed up and accepted me, so that’s a relief. I guess she figures that if her Mom cared for me, then that’s good enough for her. She never brings her fiance; I don’t think he likes me much.
----
FIVE WEEKS LATER
BERNIE:
There are mostly couples on this cruise. There are a few recluses like me and several families, but mostly couples so I haven’t mingled that much. I’m fine with that but once in a while, some human interaction is nice. Also, I’ve noticed that new people board at most stops, and some get off. Evidently, customers can purchase different legs of the cruise and not the whole thing. There are many different nationalities aboard, which makes it interesting.
I’ve emailed Tina and Jayden just to touch base and let them know I’m having a lovely cruise. They both responded promptly and told me that the house just went under contract. Other than that, not much news on either end.
One thing I did not tell either one of them is that my inner slut came out last night. I was fine for a few weeks but I eventually got horny. I met this kid at the pool bar. He was Scottish, twenty-two years old, a year younger than my daughter. He was on the cruise with his family, some kind of combination reunion and graduation gift. He was kind of cute and started flirting with me and I led him on a little bit. I asked him if he liked older women; he said yes. I asked him if he liked oral sex; he said yes.
I asked him if he’d like to go to bed with me; he said yes. I asked him if he had any condoms and he said no. I told him to go get some.
He went to the ship’s store and was back in ten minutes with a three-pack. We went to my cabin and used all of them.
He was a good kisser but I had to teach him how to eat pussy. I sat him on the bed, slipped out of my sundress, then pushed him onto his back and sat on his face. His tongue was flying all over the place; I had to get him zeroed in on my magic bean. God, I came like a machine gun, soaked the kid’s face and half the bed. After that, I was all his. I watched him undress. His cock wasn’t big, maybe half of Jayden’s, but it was hard and would have to do. I tore open the pack of rubbers and sheathed his cock with one. I told him to fuck me.
He did a pretty good job, I must admit. He grunted like a wounded javelina but we rocked the cabin. After he came and pulled out, I couldn’t believe the sack of cum inside the rubber hanging from his cock. It looked almost the size of a golf ball. We fucked two more times, and I surprised him when I told him to do me up the ass. I pulled some coconut oil from the table while he put on a rubber, then I coated his cock with the oil. I knelt on the bed and opened and closed my sphincter a few times, winking at him, and he got a kick out of that. I had developed a good control of my muscles back there after having Jayden’s big bone up there so many times.
I told him to oil me up and soon I felt his slushy fingers in my asshole. I told him to lick it, to stick his tongue in there. He seemed hesitant at first but he did it; I guess the kid likes coconut. Then he stuck his dick up there and fucked me and it felt good after so long without. He had another big glob of cum hanging from the head of his dick when we were through. I gave him a blowjob before he left. After Jayden, deep-throating him was a cinch, and he was pretty impressed with that. He came again. He tasted like fish.
JAYDEN:
Bernie got a contract on the house. The lawyer called Tina and she came over to let me know. Now I have to get ready to move out. Back to my dingy apartment. What’s next? I’m not sure. I have some cash in the bank. I’m thinking it’s time to go to Curacao, finally go in the business with my father.
Tina has been over to the house quite a bit. I think she’s feeling nostalgic and emotional over selling the place. I’ve gotten to know her better. She’s much like her mother, has the same direct style, charisma and sense of humor. I showed her the world map on my bedroom wall. I had tracked Bernie’s cruise closely for a few weeks, moving the pin every couple days. But I hadn’t moved it in a while. I could feel her sailing away.
Tina asked me directly, do you love my mother? I told her that was a tough question with no easy answer, but I also said that maybe on some level I do. We knew going in that falling in love was not an option, there was the age difference, she was my boss, she was married, it could never work. But she’s not your boss and she’s not married anymore, she said. I said, I know, but she’s gone. So it was physical, she said, it was all about the sex. I said yeah, the sex was good. Then she said she could tell that our sex was good by the way we kissed at the airport.
She asked me about the age difference. I said that when we were in bed it didn’t matter but we knew it would catch up with us. Then she said, you know you are a lot closer to my age than you are to hers, and I told her I was aware of that. I couldn’t believe how open I was with her, but she was just so easy to talk to. She was staring into my eyes just like Bernie used to do.
----
The days and weeks passed quickly. Bernie cruised, caught up on her reading and her body never looked better, deeply tanned from the tropical sun and athletically toned from her workouts.
Her inner slut was getting an occasional workout too. The Scottish kid came back for seconds and used up another three-pack in Bernie’s cabin the afternoon before his family got off the ship. Then during a rainstorm, she shacked up with an older guy who had been eyeing her for a while.
Then there was the young Italian couple on their honeymoon. It started by the pool when Bernie struck up a conversation with the woman, Maria, who was funny, attractive and had a fabulous body that was barely contained by her microscopic bikini. After a few drinks, her husband, Al showed up, and he was attractive with a good body too and was wearing tiny, tight trunks with his bulge in front. They invited her back to their cabin. They were barely inside the door when Maria French-kissed her and Bernie went with it, kissing her back.
Nobody had much clothing on so it all came off pretty damn quick. Bernie realized that Al was watching them and he was already aroused, with his cock hard and straight and sticking out the top of his puny swimsuit. He started kissing her and soon they were all naked in bed and spent the evening kissing and licking and sucking and fucking and everything else that came to mind. The combinations were numerous. Bernie sucked cock and was fucked and eaten…Maria was expert at cunnilingus, making Bernie squirm and squeal and come all over her…and Maria even seemed a little jealous when Al fucked Bernie up the ass and he seemed to like it so much. And Bernie got her first taste of pussy since a couple of drunken experiments way back in college. Maria screamed her way through it and came in a torrent. Bernie hooked up with Maria one more time a couple of days later.