Whatever was the deal with Hollywood, or whoever made the television these days, it should have struck Stevie as ironic that she didn’t see the attraction with all the sex and nudity on show. It seemed that whatever the channel and whatever the show, if it was to entertain the grownups, it had to have fucking in nearly every episode.
Sometimes it was good. True Blood, the show about humans living with vampires and werewolves, seemed catered exactly to that. Game of Thrones, which was notably partial to a spot of incest, just wanted to shock people.
She felt otherwise that the diversity shows such as Sense8 and Orange is the New Black, were more or less out to use sex as a political soap box. They felt dishonest, like they were trying to disguise supply and demand as something relevant.
She now had no idea what her son was watching, but lo and behold, it wasn’t long before somebody was at it. The scene was terribly overplayed, over-emphasised, and frankly laughable. She snorted from over the top of her Kindle, a finger curled at her bottom lip as if she were hiding behind it.
Lee said nothing, but she had his attention, so she took her cue. ‘This guy must be close to fifty years old and by the way he’s humping up against her, you’d think he was a clueless virgin.’
She didn’t realise that she was still inebriated, and therefore lacking inhibition. ‘What, do you want them to show you where it goes?’ he asked.
‘No, I’d go to the internet for that,’ Stevie replied frankly.
‘You don’t really need to, though,’ he pointed out, nodding down at the device in her hand, and hinting at the pornographic tales she clearly liked enough to be reading as she sat right beside him.
Stevie smirked, snorted and shook her head. No, she supposed she didn’t. ‘Sex on television is just so corny sometimes. It’s too theatrical to have an effect.’
‘Is it supposed to?’ he asked.
‘What’s the point otherwise?’
‘True…’
And another thing that irritated her; ‘The only time they put their backs into a kissing scene is when it’s two women, as if people are still meant to be shocked by it. That used to be enough. Anyway I’ll shut up now. I’m rambling.’
The television show was already forgotten though. Lee now sat staring at her, and Stevie couldn’t shake him simply by resuming her reading. Nervously she looked up to him and offered a coy smile.
‘Sorry…’
‘No,’ Lee now insisted, and agreed. ‘You’re right. It’s cliche. There’s no feeling to it.’
‘Hmmm, exactly,’ Stevie hummed. ‘It’s all business as usual isn’t it? I mean I really love a nice snog,’ she gushed, and didn’t quite realise how it sounded. ‘Not on the television. I miss having a good long snog, you know!’
The room got quiet. Lee was staring harder now, suppressing the urge to grin at his mother’s uninhibited reverie. ‘Oooh,’ she crooned, slightly hunching her shoulders and gripping her Kindle book just a little tighter. ‘Don’t you?’
‘Who? Me?’
‘Who else?’ she snickered.
‘Well yeah, of course I do.’
Stevie scrunched up her nose as she smiled in response. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah who doesn’t?’ Lee questioned. Stevie regarded his rugged facial features, a balance of strong and smooth. She had kissed those ruddy lips of his a number of times — enough times to know how they felt — and felt a shiver.
‘Corr, I bet you’re a great snog as well,’ she imagined, indulging herself shamelessly, and then for a moment too long she just gazed at him and took in his handsome looks. She wouldn’t have minded finding out what it was like to really kiss him, and she had already come so close.
Lee shrugged as he thought about it briefly. ‘I haven’t had any complaints,’ he said modestly.
‘I bet you haven’t,’ Stevie agreed, and then; ‘Not from me so far, anyway.’
Lee tensed and shifted, suddenly aware of how close they were sitting. Her body heat was unusually warm, and so much so that the side of him facing away from her felt much cooler. Then she winked at him before returning to her story.
6
Those blessed endorphins! Having worked out a little too close to midnight, Lee was still wide awake and feeling sleep was nowhere closer. He had grown bored of the late night offerings on the TV but was in no mood to go find anything else to do either.
Beside him Stevie had burned through another novella mostly skipping pages because she didn’t want to get sucked in too deep with her son right there beside her. She could imagine being so absent minded and clumsy that she would have started to rub at herself through her pyjama bottoms right next to him.
Ironically she couldn’t imagine that being normal. Instead, as she pretended to read, she ruminated secretly over certain thoughts. Seeing the time, though, she was sad to have to call it a night.
Accepting that destiny and time likely had it in for her — daytime work hours crawling by so slowly, and yet time alone or with Lee flying by at an almost unnatural speed — she arched her back and stiffened, stretching her arms up high until her spine creaked and cracked.
With a yawn, she turned to him and asked; ‘What’ll you do tonight then?’
Lee shook his head. He was not usually a night owl. He could easily have fixed a snack and smoked a bowl, and he still might have. He surprised her with; ‘I’ll probably surf the internet a bit in bed.’
‘Hmm,’ Stevie responded flatly. That probably meant that he’d end up watching porn and she knew him well enough to know it. There was something still on her mind though, and she was daring herself to put it out there.
‘I err… I still have that thing I wrote,’ she hinted and a silence fell between them. ‘You remember what we talked about? Do you really want to read it?’
More silence…
Lee considered, or tried hard to look like he was giving it serious thought. In reality that thing had been the elephant in the room that he hadn’t dared mention since his mother initially told him about it.
‘Oh yeah, I could use a bit of erotic reading before I go to sleep,’ he joked.
And then more silence…
‘Okay, well, I can email that to you when I go upstairs,’ Stevie said hesitantly, shifting to the edge of the sofa. And then she shifted a little closer to him with a familiar twinkle in her eye. Lee knew that look. He was becoming well accustomed to it now. What was the catch, he wondered.
‘What?’ he asked. A coy little smile now accompanied that twinkle.
‘You have no idea,’ she mouthed, and found herself fixated once again by his good looks. ‘You’ll look at me differently tomorrow.’
And boy was that a loaded statement, and he was starting to accept that this was a given with most circumstances these days. But considering what little he already knew, her words echoed.
‘Actually maybe I should trade you while I still can,’ Stevie pondered aloud, trying to keep a straight face.
‘Hmm?’ Lee was all ears, but then; ‘Can you barter confessions?’
‘Maybe I can, or maybe I’ll just keep my secrets to myself from now on,’ she teased. ‘Depends on your response.’
Lee’s response so far was reserved curiosity. Again, he wasn’t saying no. So Stevie pushed the envelope. ‘Trade you for a quick snog…’
Lee certainly responded to that! His gut rocked like a boat on a rocky sea — with a sudden up and down that stole his breath. His cock began to respond too as he now stared uncertainly at his mischievous mother.
‘How much did you have to drink?’ he prodded. Maybe looks were deceiving, but then maybe she was soberer than she appeared on the contrary.
Stevie scoffed and stood her ground. ‘Does it matter?’
Lee could admit to himself, but not to her, that as much as he would have liked to, the only thing stopping him was his nerves, and the erection quickly growing in his sweatpants, under which he wore absolutely nothing.
That didn’t matter though, not to Stevie. Shifting closer, ever closer, they sat not eye to eye but almost nose to nose. She bit her lower lip, smoothing the vest over his shoulders and running her hands down his chest.
‘Fancy a cheeky snog with your mum?’ she asked again, and reeled in the wicked grin tugging at the corners of her eager lips.