Three
COLTON
I wake up fresh the next morning. I check my phone and remember today is the day I have dinner with Greg, his wife, and his daughter.
I sigh.
His daughter.
She’s the reason I haven't been to their house in ages.
Once Pearl turned eighteen, my mind went wild with thoughts of her.
Of her barely legal body. The things I think about are so dirty I feel like shoving a sponge up my brain to scrub it clean.
They are things that I shouldn't be thinking about. Not only because of her age but because she’s my best friend's daughter, and that’s a line not to be crossed. Ever.
It's why I was excited when Minx stole a lot of my attention. Her voice is so sexy, and just thinking about it turns me on. We talk every Friday. It’s become an accidental ritual of ours.
Though part of me still wants to be with Pearl.
I know she can’t be mine. She never will be.
She will be someone else's wife and the mother of their children.
That thought almost has me punching a hole in the wall.
I stand in the shower, trying to get Minx out of my mind.
But her voice is still so fresh in my head that I can't help it. She’s the drug I didn't know I could get addicted to.
My dick hardens at the whispers of her voice ringing in my head, and I turn the water on cold, but that doesn't seem to do much.
I put it back on hot, realizing I can't go to my friend's house with a hard-on.
So I grab some soap and lather it in my hand, getting to work on my cock.
I play back some of our conversations on the phone.
The way she says ‘baby’ or the way she moans.
Her moans are incredibly sexy. They’re smooth and dark, like melted chocolate.
It doesn't take long for me. After a few pumps, I’m coming on my hand and all over the shower wall.
I moan out her name against the tile and sag against it, trying to catch my breath.
My dick doesn't totally soften, but it's enough for now. I turn the shower on to the coldest setting and shiver as the freezing water cascades down my body, hoping maybe now it’ll help me get under control.
Alas. it doesn't. I just hope no one notices.
I step out of the shower and put on a towel.
Then I walk to the laundry machines and take my white dress shirt out of the dryer.
It's warm, and I drape it over my bed. While putting on a T-shirt, I reach into my closet and pull out a blazer.
It's a simple dark blue blazer with one breast pocket on the left side.
I was going to do a sweater, but it's better tonight if I went as someone who didn't look so much like a teacher.
Greg makes fun of me for looking like a hot school teacher from a romance novel.
I mean, I take good care of my body. I work out every morning and every night.
I also do like sweaters, so perhaps he's got a point. They’re just so much more comfortable than anything else in my closet.
When teaching something as stressful as law, I want to be as comfortable as possible.
Romance novels are my guilty pleasure. Whenever I need something to cheer me up, I pick up a rom-com with a cup of tea, sit, and read it.
Greg found out in our senior year of college.
He found it a little weird since romance novels were a ‘girls’ thing,’ but after I talked to him about how they make me happy, it became a joke with us but not in a wrong way.
In fact, every Christmas, Greg will give me a romance novel.
Last year was Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard, a literary masterpiece.
I have been a law teacher for many years now and still love it.
I’ve been obsessed with the law since childhood, but I was more interested in its aspects than becoming a lawyer.
It felt great to get the job at the University of Chicago, my alma mater.
Because I graduated from UC, I was thrilled when I got to teach here.
My students call me Professor Dad when no one is looking because I look like I should have two kids and live in a three-bedroom house with a white picket fence.
I do have a house, but I have no kids. Though, I do have a cat who hates me.
At forty, I thought I would have a family by now.
But that would mean I’d have to try to make one.
I went from not thinking about a family to pinning over a woman half my age who’s my best friend’s daughter.
I went on dating apps for about two months before I gave up.
Every date I went on was meaningless. I realized any woman could sit in front of me, and it would all be the same.
I also realized that I was comparing everyone to Pearl, which wasn’t helping since those women were in their late thirties, not twenty-one, and barely out of high school.
I slip on the shirt and button it up. Then I take off my towel and put on my underwear and pants.
A few days ago, I got a call from Greg, asking if I wanted to have dinner at his house.
I haven't in so long, I immediately say yes. His daughter just returned from a vacation to Greece and is going to school where I work. I haven’t seen her in years.
The last time I saw her, she was an eighteen-year-old redhead.
She liked wearing turtle necks and plaid skirts.
It’ll be nice to see that little cherub again.
I put on my glasses, then my tie, and walked downstairs.
I take my keys, head out the door to my car, start the engine, and head to Greg's house.
Greg lives a few miles away, so it doesn't take me long to get there. After fifteen minutes, I’m knocking on their front door, which has a wreath on it.
Marie, Greg's wife, opens the door, and I’m greeted by the smell of chicken and pine.
“It's so nice to see you, Marie,” I tell her as she hugs me. I have to lean down since I’m tall, and Marie is short.
“Oh, Colton. It's been too long,” she says in her North Carolina accent.
Greg and Marie met in high school. Sweethearts from the get-go, they were together when I met him for the first time in college. It was a short whirlwind romance, according to Greg. He swept her off her feet the day he turned sixteen.
Young love.
It wasn’t until just before graduating college that they had Pearl.
Speaking of Pearl…
“Is Pearl here?” I ask, and Greg walks into the entryway and hugs me. We pat each other on the back and exchange greetings.
“Pearl!” Greg shouts at the bottom of the stairs, “Colton is here!”
After a few seconds, I hear the pattering of footsteps from the second floor, then running down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs stands Pearl.
The woman before me was similar to the eighteen-year-old girl I last saw, but something was different.
Though Pearl has always been beautiful, she now holds herself differently.
Pearl’s no longer a girl. But a woman. She’s a beautiful woman with long curly red hair, pale skin, and tall like her father.
“Hi, Colton,” she greets me. “It's nice to see you.”
Her voice hits me like a tidal wave. That voice. I’ve heard it before. She sounds...no way! The smoothness and the way the words roll off her lips. It can't be.
She sounds exactly like Minx.