So Much for Expectations

"Let's get a room somewhere. Better yet, take me home with you. That is, if you don't mind making an extra trip, bringing me back on Sunday."

"Your parents would let you go?"

"I don't see why not. They've CLEARED me for dating you. And somehow, I don't think they think we're just platonic friends."

When Chad pulled up to her house, he waited in the car, while Whitney went in to tell her parents and pack an overnight bag. Sure, it was lots of driving but Whitney was well worth it. Plus, if things progressed the way he hoped, he expected Whitney to drive to Baltimore, so taking her home would give her at least some familiarity of where he lived. That is, if Miles and Emily gave their consent. He still wasn't convinced. But, minutes later, he knew they had when he saw her emerge from the house, travel bag slung over her shoulder and making the okay sign.

"No arguments?" Chad asked when she got in the car.

"My dad's disapproving frown was the extent of their resistance. Like I said, they must trust you or I wouldn't be going. As we all know, it's the age thing that's the issue."

The age thing. It hadn't been an issue with this generation Xer and his Millennial lover in Florida and it sure wasn't now. If there was a generation gap, it was their taste in music. Chad hadn't warmed to Justin Beiber, Ariana Grande, Luke Combs, Lady Gaga or Lil Wayne, a few of Whitney's favorite recording artists. But they did find common ground with Green Day, REM and Taylor Swift. Both agreed that The Beatles and the Stones were timeless, their music finding favor across generations.

While Whitney scanned the stations on Sirius XM Radio, Chad drove south on I-83, thinking of things they might do besides the obvious. She'd only been to Baltimore once. Like many out-of-towners, she had come with her family to the Inner Harbor. But that was years ago when Harbor Place was a thriving business mall, drawing tourists and area residents alike. But now, as he had already told Whitney, the pavilions were half-vacant and violent crime was on the upswing. Tourists had been set upon by flash mobs of young kids, who assaulted people simply for the thrill of it.

"So, I guess the harbor is out," Chad said after telling her the reason. "Anything else you might want to do?"

Whitney stopped whisper-singing along to a Luke Combs song. "Other than make love to me in the thrilling, passionate way you did in Florida, you mean?"

"Other than that, yes. But needless to say, that will be included on our itinerary."

"I sure hope so. Well, believe it or not, I've always wanted to see Fort McHenry."

"Home of the Star Bangled Banner."

"Right. My parents said we didn't have time during that visit to Baltimore."

"It's been a while since I've been there myself. Okay, we'll do it."

*****

"Cute house," Whitney said when Chad pulled up to the three-bedroom, two-bath, glass and brick split-level that had been his home for the better part of two decades. The house looked somewhat out of place. Built in the early nineteen-fifties, it stood on a half-acre of ground among much older houses, some dating to just after the First World War in a development called Hilltop Park.

"I'll give you a tour," Chad said when they entered. That is, if you can hold out long enough," he added with a smirk.

She knew what he meant. "Yes, as long as your tour ends in the bedroom."

Whitney liked the modern look, the walls designed with a profuse amount of glass and the Danish/Scandinavian furniture in the living room, dining room and den. The kitchen was relatively small, big enough for a table but not an island one sees in the kitchens of those so-called McMansions. The appliances were stainless-steel, including the fridge, where a full bottle of White Merlo lay on the bottom shelf. "Would love some," Whitney said after Chad offered her a glass.

Chad poured two glasses, then led her back into the living room and onto the sofa. Then Whitney said, "I think we both could have used the wine my mom offered back at my house."

Chad admitted as much. "A glass of wine can be relaxing as long as you're relaxed beforehand. I just wasn't relaxed enough to enjoy it."

"I get that," Whitney said, after taking a sip. "But at least it ended well. We're now together, in your house. I still find that hard to believe."

"And just think, it all started with you splashing me from the pool."

Whitney drew a wistful smile, thinking back to just a few weeks ago. She could still see Chad, lounging on the pool deck, reading a book. "I never did that to anyone else. There was something about you that compelled me to get your attention in some way."

"You had MY attention way before that," Chad said. "Well, you know the story."

She nodded. "I do. But, be honest. If I hadn't reminded you of that other Whitney, would you still have been interested?"

Chad placed his drink on the glass coffee table. Then, when Whitney did the same, he said, "You better believe it. Jasmine and Sarah are cute in their own way. But, as the song goes, I only had eyes for you."

He leaned over to kiss her when his cell went off. "Speaking of the other Whitney."

YOU HAVEN'T YET LET ME KNOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO MEET UP WHEN I'M IN MARYLAND. MAYBE YOU'RE TIED UP WITH THE YOUNG WHITNEY?

He texted back: YES, AS WE SPEAK.

NO PROBLEM...LATER

Chad showed the email to Whitney. "I wonder what later means."

"Sounds to me like she wants to get together with you."

Chad shook his head. "She lives in Florida and, as I told you, other than an occasional email or phone conversation, it was let bygones be bygones."

Whitney shrugged. "Maybe she had a change of heart."

"I doubt it."

"But let's say she did. What would you do then?"

"If she just wants to get together as friends, I might do it. But if reviving a long-dead romance is what she has in mind, no way. You're my one and only romantic interest, and I feel incredibly lucky about that. Meanwhile," he continued, turning off his phone, "the wine can wait. Right now, I want to get naked with you. Are you onboard?"

"Am I ever," she said, and proved it by climbing on his lap. She leaned forward and kissed him. Then she said, "Take me to your boudoir."

Chad wasted no time in doing just that. Glass covered three-quarters of one wall of his bedroom that afforded views of his backyard, where four old trees stood, including a thick oak. "I bet it's nice waking up to this," Whitney said, referring to the view. She noticed the tree fort nailed atop branches of one of the oaks and asked if Chad had built it.

"Built by kids of the previous owners," he said. "But I've been up there. It's still in stable condition."

She nodded, came away from the window and kicked off her shoes. She liked the soft feel of the carpet beneath her feet as she began to step out of her jeans, while watching Chad beginning to disrobe himself. She liked it even more when they were both naked, standing and holding each other, running their fingers over each other's bodies.

"You're so beautiful," Chad said, planting soft kisses on her small but firm breasts. "I mean that in every way. And I'm grateful to your parents for letting you come here."

Whitney blinked her big brown eyes, then drew a loving smile. "And I'm just grateful. For you."

Her concerns of the day, her parents' reaction and Chad's old girlfriend, soon melted away. Chad had said that she was his "one and only romantic interest," and he sure made her feel that way. The loving way he kissed her and the soft, sensual way he touched her told her more than any words ever could. It was obvious that the passion he had shown her in Florida had not faded one bit. It was Florida redux. Well, not exactly but close, at least when it came to this, being made love to by this wonderful man, older and wiser than she, but oh so young in body and heart.

Now on top of her, he said, "Whitney, I never fully realized how much I missed you until this moment."

She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Yes, me too. Florida was wonderful. But this is even more wonderful because I know that Florida wasn't an end but a beginning."

He kissed her breasts, then slid his tongue down her tummy and then into her honey pot, wet and wanting. His tongue worked its magic there, too, sending her into a zone of being that she had so craved to revisit during the weeks they were apart. 'It doesn't get any better than this,' she recalled him saying during their time in Orlando. No, it sure as hell doesn't, she thought, referring to the here and now, lying beneath Chad's youthful, athletic body, her lips on his as he slipped inside her. "Ohmygod, Chad, ohmygod! There are no words, no words that would do justice to the way I feel right now."

He brushed strands of hair out of her eyes while keeping up his rhythm. "I'm falling in love with you, Whitney. How do you like them words?"

"Oh, honey, I love them words. All the more so because I feel the same about you."

The words became fewer over the following minutes, given over to the universal language of two people in love, sharing their bodies and affection and even hinting at a future that wasn't even on their radar just a few short weeks ago. That last point wasn't lost on Whitney after they made love and she lay in Chad's arms. She remembered what her mom Emily told her years ago during one of their talks about the birds and the bees: "Your dad and I fell in love and then we got married. That's the way it usually works when two people fall in love." It sounded so simple to Whitney back then. She knew now that it wasn't so simple, that her own relationship with Chad wasn't so simple. In fact, given the age difference and other things, it could get damn complicated.

*****

"When I was a little boy, I used to climb on the cannons," Chad said. "I thought then that they were the same cannons the Americans fired against the British, only to learn later on that these are actually Civil War era cannons."

It was late Sunday morning and Chad and Whitney were looking at the huge cannons that stood on the periphery of Fort McHenry, the fort that defended Baltimore against the British in September of 1814. The day was balmy and clear, and behind them the sun reflected off the Patapsco River where the British ships had fired on the fort during that rainy night so long ago. Chad told her that Francis Scott Key, who was detained on one of those ships and was so inspired by the "rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air," that he wrote a poem that became the country's national anthem.

"The history is interesting," Whitney said, "and what a nice place to be with someone special, someone you care about."

"I can't think of anyone else I'd rather share this with," Chad said, taking in the view, the boats of all kinds streaming up and down the Patapsco and beyond.

Chad asked a young couple to snap some pics. After handing the woman his cell phone, he and Whitney hit a few poses in front of a cannon, arms around each other, wearing broad smiles.

Minutes later, they were taking a stroll along the path that wound around the fort, just steps away from the seawall. Runners were out in force today, as well as other couples enjoying the fine weather. "It's been quite a twenty-four hours," Chad said.

"I'll say!" Whitney said, reaching for his hand as they continued to walk. "That weird meeting with my parents and then our own rocket's red glare in your bedroom, not to mention that nice restaurant you took me to. Today is one of those days, Chad, that I don't want to end."

He stopped and put his arms around her. "Me neither."

Whitney closed her eyes when Chad pulled her close to him, returning his affection with long, deep kisses, acting as if they were alone on some deserted beach. The breeze lifted her short yellow dress a couple inches up her shapely thighs, but she was too intensely involved to notice or even care. They had already made love once this morning, and she wished they had the time to do it again. But she had to be back at a certain time; and that time was fast approaching.

Walking back to the car, Whitney sighed. "Somewhere I heard that time flies when you're having fun. Never truer in my case than right now. I wish we lived closer."

Chad put his arm around her. "So do I. But we'll have other days like this."

*****

How does a divorced, middle-age woman develop romantic designs on an ex-boyfriend who's involved with a chick young enough to be his daughter? Whitney Lyons wasn't sure. But that's where she found herself after Chad Houston showed up at her home in Florida decades after they had broken up.

Chad hadn't exactly been on her mind all that time. Once in a while, something would trigger a memory. Wistfully, she'd think back to the good times they had, and then move on with her life. But then, on one Sunday just this past May, while she was talking on the phone in her backyard, she looked up to see him standing there, hands jammed into his pockets, uninvited and unannounced. He was vacationing in Florida and just decided to drop in. Well, that was Chad, for you.

Chad informed her that just prior to his visit, he had hooked up with a Whitney Chaney, the young chick. They were staying at the same Marriott Hotel. Whitney (Lyons) thought it was sort of cute until Chad also informed her that he and the young Whitney planned to see each other after Florida. Good for him but not so good for his ex-girlfriend who had hoped that Chad would extend his vacation and stay with her for a few days. He could "check-out of the Marriott and check-in here," she had said. "Free of charge and with benefits I doubt the Marriott provides." But when he told her that his hookup was more than just, well, a hookup, she thought it best that he not stay over, not in her still "fragile emotional state...it was best to let bygones be bygones." Save for email and an occasional phone call, she didn't expect to see him again.

But then, months later, she had a change of heart, just as Whitney Chaney had suspected. She would be visiting relatives in Maryland and thought it might be fun to see Chad. She had enjoyed his company during that brief time in Florida and sensed that he might have "checked-in" at her place if not for his involvement with the young Whitney. Apparently, things were going great between them, if his last text was any indication. Nevertheless, she still wanted to reconnect, even if the only thing they did was go out for coffee. Not that she didn't hope for more. He looked good, damn good for a guy his age. And then there was that nostalgic feeling for a time long passed, with the desire to at least renew a spark of that, however brief, however misguided it might be. She knew that Chad harbored similar feelings, knew it by the way he had kissed and touched her in Florida, knew it when he showed her that photo taken during their memorable trip to California. She didn't want to make trouble for him and his young girlfriend. Would Chad see it that way? Only one way to find out.

*****

"What happened to let bygones be bygones?" Chad asked Whitney Lyons after she had been in Maryland for a day and then called him.

"Can't a girl change her mind? Look, I don't have a logical explanation. I'd just like to see you. Emotions don't run on logic. But if you're tied up, I understand. Are you alone?"

Are you with Whitney? he knew she meant. Then he broke into song: "Alone, alone with a sky of romance above. Alone, alone when you whisper goodbye my love..."

She chimed right in: "Alone, alone on this night that we two could share. Alone, alone with your kiss that could make me care..."

Alone was a song from Night at the Opera which they saw together years ago at a screening of Marx Brothers films. They both loved the song and would sometimes sing a duet. "Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle had nothing on us," Chad said.

"Except great voices."

"Yeah, if not for that. Anyway, what do you have in mind?"

"I'd just like to see you, maybe over coffee or a drink. Nothing heavy. I'll be here for another five days."

He'd like to see her again also. Why not? He didn't consider sharing coffee or a drink with an old girlfriend cheating on his new girlfriend. Chad had even told Whitney Chaney that he might see Whitney Lyons on a casual basis when she came to Maryland. 'Nothing heavy'...hmm, what did that mean? "Whitney, I'd like that. So lets compare calendars."

*****

For their 'nothing heavy' get-together, Chad chose The Salt Mill, a decades-old suburban bar-restaurant in Baltimore County, patronized by mostly middle-age to senior folk who liked the food as well as the conviviality of the place. Chad picked it after reading a write-up. This was his first time here, Whitney's also, and they were among the youngest patrons in the room. On this Friday night, most of the seats along the bar, a long oval of blond wood, were taken. After picking up two bottles of Blue Moon from the bar, they managed to find a table for two next to one of the arch-shaped windows. Lighting in the form of a globe attached to a long brass holder hung over their table.

Whitney joked that she liked the place because, "for no other reason, it makes me feel younger."

Chad glanced around. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Some of these people look like they haven't seen forty since Reagan was president."

Whitney nodded and took a sip. Then: "So, does being around Whitney make you feel old?"

He watched her grin, sensing that she meant that mostly tongue-in-cheek. "Old? Try prehistoric. No, seriously, if anything, she makes me feel younger. What's remarkable is that unlike her parents, she doesn't see our difference in age as an issue." He gave her a brief rundown of that meeting with Miles and Emily Chaney.

She shook her head. "Wow, Chad, you must really like this girl to go through all that."

Chad just nodded, choosing to keep his feelings low-key. "She's a sweet girl. What the hell she sees in me, I have no idea." He took a swig.

"Come on, Chad, she sees in you the same qualities I did all those years ago. What I still see in you."

Chad shrugged. "Thanks." He took a couple swigs, while thinking that this Whitney not only resembled Miss Chaney in looks when she was her age, but also, like the younger Whitney, possessed a lovable sweetness about her. Had Whitney the younger not contacted him when he was visiting with Whitney the older in Florida, he might not have left so soon. She still looked good, still had beautiful skin, virtually no wrinkles and a natural sensuousness in the way she spoke, in just the tone of her voice. Also, if he wasn't mistaken, she had dropped a few pounds since last May. He got a rush of excitement, thinking back to those nights in her bedroom, when she put on a fashion show for him, trying on various sexy outfits. Inevitably, the "show" led to great sex.

"You know," he said, "I was just thinking back to those times in your bedroom."

"Yes, we spent quite a bit of time there. You'd come over and sometimes wouldn't leave until after midnight. I spent more time changing clothes with you than when I went shopping." She knocked back a swig. "So what made you think of that?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's what you're wearing now, your crimson pleated skirt and matching top. It compliments you. Turns me on, if you want to know the truth. Excites me as much now as some of the other outfits you wore back in the day.

She flashed a hopeful grin. "Really?"

"Really."

"Well, had you stayed with me in Florida for a few days, we could have had a redux to those thrilling days of our youth. Of course, my family wouldn't have been around, which we had both agreed made things more exciting. I kind of wanted to do that. But then, well, you know. There was Philadelphia Whitney. And there still IS Philadelphia Whitney. Meanwhile, I'm divorced, not at the present time in a relationship and sitting across from a man who I like and still turns me on. Oh, and last but not least, I've been horny as hell."