My wife, Clodagh is away for the weekend so it’s just supposed to be me and Aoife, my sixteen-year-old daughter sharing pizza and popcorn and watching something silly on Netflix.
“Hi Mammy, is it ok if Katie comes over tonight?”
I look up from my phone, distracted. Work is hell just now and I’ve seven different things on my mind.
“Yeah, sure,” I reply, not really paying attention. Not that it matters, Katie has been in and out of our house since she was eleven. She and Aoife met on the first day of secondary school and have been best friends ever since.
“Thanks, Mammy, you’re the best,” Aoife laughs as she kisses me on the cheek and skips out the door.
When I get home, all I want to do is open a glass of wine and slump. I open the front door and meet Katie walking past, carrying a bowl of popcorn.
“Hi, Mrs O’Connor.”
I remember Aoife mentioning this morning about Katie coming over. I watch as she heads up the stairs, her ass swaying in the regulation school skirt, knowing the sheer black nylons she’s wearing are definitely not school uniform. I step over the teenage debris on the hall floor; bags, coats, shoes and lunchboxes and make it into the kitchen. I turn the oven on and pull three pizzas out of the freezer.
We’d been worried about moving to a small town as a lesbian couple with a daughter but no one seemed to care. Aoife fitted in at school and Clodagh and I took it in turns to brave the school gate mums until Aoife assured us that she was fine and capable of making her own way to school. We’d moved as I’d got a job at the nearby university and it didn’t take Clodagh long to find work with one of the multinational pharmaceuticals that seemed to be setting up all over Ireland.
When the oven timer dings, I call the girls down and they bound into the kitchen, already changed into their pyjamas. I’d never understood how people changed into pyjamas as soon as they got home. I’ve always associated pyjamas with getting changed for bed, not loungewear, but each to their own. I look up and notice Katie properly for the first time and realise how she has really grown up all of a sudden. I suppose when you see someone virtually every day, you don’t notice the changes and I guess I’d always seen her as that gangly eleven-year-old with the wild red hair. But now, it’s a young woman standing in the kitchen, laughing with my daughter.
She flicks her long red hair back. Her green eyes sparkle. She’s got that classic Irish look; the red hair, the green eyes and the pale freckled skin that doesn’t tan. I remember Aoife said her new friend had orange hair the first day she came home from school but it’s darker than orange. It shines with hints of the deep burgundy and copper mixed through it.
They are both wearing summer pj sets; little buttoned-up tops and shorts and Katie’s looks a little tight. Her breasts have grown and I realise with a start that she isn’t wearing a bra as I can see her nipples poking through the pink cotton material.
I shake the images that are sneaking in uninvited from my mind and use the pizza cutter to slice each pizza into eight portions. The girls scoop their plates up and head into the living room grabbing cans of coke as they go. I pour myself a very large glass of Australian Shiraz and with a sigh, pick up my pizza and follow them.
I can’t keep my mind on the movie. I find myself gazing over at the girls, trying to listen in on their whispered conversations. The film is terrible. Liam Neeson is playing yet another hit man and it is only the fact it is set in Ireland that partially maintains any interest as I try to recognise the locations where it was filmed.
It may be my imagination but I’m sure I see Katie sneaking looks back at me. We both look away when either of us catches the other looking and I feel myself going red. I can’t believe I’m blushing over my daughter’s best friend but I’m sure she was checking me out the last time I saw her looking.
They are both slouched on the sofa. Katie has her bare foot up on the cushion and I get a perfect view of her thigh and the curve of her arse. The shorts are tight and it looks like she’s squeezed into them and when she half rolls over to reach for more popcorn, I get a full view of her ass.
When she rolls back, she gives a little smile but doesn’t look in my direction. Thoughts of her ass fill my head. Thoughts I know I shouldn’t be having about sixteen-year-old girls, thoughts about our daughter’s best friend, thoughts about pulling those shorts down and burying my face in her ass crack that I definitely shouldn’t be having.
The movie finishes and Katie stretches, giving a theatrical yawn. She arches her back so her boobs are pressed out, almost popping the two buttons holding her top closed.
“Night, Mammy,” Aoife calls and Katie chimes in with a “Goodnight, Mrs O’Connor.” The two girls head to bed, Katie wiggling her ass as they leave the room, still giggling. I sit in the living room to finish the second glass of red I'd poured. I hear the two of them thumping around upstairs and I put on the tv to try and distract me. I watch the end of the ‘Late Late Show’ but they are interviewing someone I’d never heard of and the new presenter isn’t a patch on Gay Byrne who I remember from childhood.
I head upstairs to my bedroom. I glance at the mess on Clodagh’s side of the bed. Yesterday’s clothes are still piled on the floor by the bed. The drawers are left half-open from where she rummaged for knickers and socks. I shake my head and strip off my blouse and skirt. Bra and knickers follow and I stand naked for a moment, seeing my reflection in the dressing table mirror.
I slide my fingers over my stomach and breathe in. Not too bad for having given birth and being on the wrong side of forty, despite the stretch marks, I think. I’m glad my tits didn’t lose their shape after I had Aoife. Everyone told me I shouldn't breastfeed as I’d never get my figure back but I did. And my boobs stayed the perky 32cs I’d had before. I run my fingers along the V of my crotch through the dark almost black triangle of curls. I dreaded finding my first grey hair. Clodagh started shaving hers after discovering her first but I liked my curls.
I climb naked onto the bed and reach underneath to pull out my vibrator. The feelings I’ve been having all evening while watching Katie have left me damp and needy. I turn on the vibe and slowly drag it down my body, stimulating first the left and then the right nipple. I imagine Clodagh between my legs, her tongue sucking my nipples as I squirm under her touch.
My hips jerk as the vibe glides over my aching clit. I slowly trace my folds as the vibrating tip smears my juices over my pussy. I tease my clit, slowly building the need inside me. As the vibrations increase, I suddenly see Katie’s face between my legs rather than Clodagh’s. She gazes up at me with her sparkling green eyes and when she opens her mouth and drags her tongue over my clit, I cry out.
“Fuck,” I curse. I snap the vibe off. Jesus Christ, Susan, I scold myself. She’s only sixteen and she’s Aoife’s best friend. Control yourself. I open the bedside drawer, drop the vibe in and head to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
I open the bedroom door and almost bump into Katie who leaps back from my door with a very guilty look on her face.
“Are you not asleep yet?” I mock scold when I see her.
Katie turns bright red and stands there with her mouth open, seemingly at a loss for words. Had she been listening at the door, I wonder. What did she see, what did she hear?
“Aoife’s asleep,” Katie finally manages to say. “But I can’t get to sleep for some reason.”
“Are you feeling ok?” I ask, placing my hand on her forehead to check her temperature.
“Maybe I’m a little hot,” Katie whispers, her head tilted back, her eyes locked on mine.
I don’t know what comes over me. I’m well over twice her age, but when my eyes glance down and see Katie’s nipples poking through her top, I can’t stop my hand from cupping it. My thumb sweeps over the swollen nipple as my hand squeezes her breast.
Katie moans and blushes.
“What.. what are you doing, Mrs O’Conner?”
I silence her with a kiss. I lean down and press my mouth to hers. I can’t believe I’m doing this, that I’m standing outside my daughter’s room and kissing her best friend.
Her lips are so soft. Her mouth is open and she responds, moving her lips to match mine as I kiss her in the almost darkness, the only light coming from my bedside light through the open door.
“What… what are you doing?” she gasps when I break the kiss.
“Ssssh,” I whisper, stroking a strand of long red hair back from her face. “It’s ok. Come in here to talk.”
I take her hand and lead her into the bedroom. She looks so small as she sits, perched on the edge of the bed. I sit beside her and stroke her hair again. She turns to look at me. There’s a mixture of excitement and trepidation on her face. A part of me is regretting this already, an apology is already forming on my lips when she leans in and kisses me back. It’s only a quick peck but it causes me to stop.