The Road Trip
Friday, June 19, 2026. Maplewood, New Jersey. – 8:40 am
Jack sipped from a paper cup as he pulled onto the highway.
“OK,” Beth said, phone in one hand, motioning with the other. “So check-in is at ten-thirty, but we’ve got to arrive fifteen minutes early.”
“We’re not even out of Maplewood yet, sweetie,” Jack said.
“Do you want to drive or be in charge of the itinerary?”
“Can I pick the music?” Mia reached forward from the back seat, her hand asking for the AUX cord.
“Shush!” Beth snapped, making a show of her teeth.
“Down, girl!” Jack said, laughing.
“How did this happen? Did you and the missus traumatize her as a baby or something?” Mia giggled as Beth spun around to slap at her, Mia’s forearms taking the brunt of it.
“Check-in!” Beth said, returning to the front seat, much louder now. “Is at ten-thirty. Let’s be there at ten-fifteen. Can we do that?”
“Yeah, we can.” Jack said.
Jack was relieved his high-strung daughter had fallen into the planner role for the trip. His own brain was too far in the gutter to plan. But he knew this would be good for Beth, and he was proud to see her take it seriously. Shit, she took everything seriously.
“We go to Parking Lot C.” Beth continued, then paused, reading. “Unless Lot C is full, in which case we’re supposed to use the visitor overflow behind Harrison Hall.”
Mia leaned forward from the back seat. “She’s been like this since middle school.”
Jack had a hard time not grabbing Mia’s head and pulling her in to smell her hair or kiss her.
“Some of us believe society functions better when people know where they’re going.”
“Some of us get lost in Target.” Jack chimed in.
“That was once!” Beth said.
Mia and Jack laughed.
“Anyway, ten-thirty welcome thing, eleven-fifteen campus tour, twelve-thirty academic advising session.”
“Mine?” Mia asked.
“No, mine. Yours is at one with the athletics department.”
Mia groaned. “Ugh. Athletes.”
“You’re an athlete,” Beth said.
“Barely.”
“You’re literally going there on a gymnastics scholarship.”
“Sure…” Mia didn’t seem as excited.
How was she doing such a good job keeping it together, Jack wondered. He figured he shouldn’t be surprised. Mia had taken charge with Ruby at the dinner last week, turning the tables on her. Shocking his wife was no easy task and this girl had done it.
“OK, what then?” Jack asked.
“Then we have a dorm walk-through at two.”
“We’re all going to that one, right?” Mia asked.
“Yep. Then we have an hour and a half until the Summer Welcome Mixer at Founders Hall.”
“Let me guess, you’ve filled up every one of those ninety minutes for us.” Mia said.
“Affirmative!” Beth snapped her fingers. “There’s a spot in town called Millie’s, reviews are good. I’ve got a feeling about this place. This could be our Luke’s.” She turned to Jack. “I’m thinking lunch there and then maybe you could drop us at the mixer?”
“Oh!” Jack said. “I see how it is!”
Mia laughed.
“Fine! Just discard me.” Jack faked offense.
“OK, can I have the cable now?” Mia’s head was up front again.
“No! After Dad picks us up around six-thirty from the mixer, we have an hour-plus drive to that haunted stagecoach inn Dad booked.”
“It’s not haunted! It’s historic,” Jack said.
“So you didn’t find it on a site called ‘besthauntedhotels.com’?” Beth’s eyebrow arched at him. He didn’t respond. “OK. Then tomorrow morning Mia has a gymnastics team… coach? Gymnastics meeting thing at ten.”
Jack nodded. Beth scanned the phone.
“You guys know I’m sorry, right?” Mia said. “You wouldn’t even have to stay overnight if it wasn’t for my dumb meeting.”
“Don’t be silly, kid.”
“Yeah. We’re a package deal for Fairleigh,” Beth said.
“And I get to stay at a haunted hotel,” Jack added.
“HAH!” Beth pointed at him and they laughed.
“And now?” Mia asked Beth a moment later.
“What?” Beth said.
“Cable?”
“Now you can, yes.” Beth put the free end of the cable in the air.
Mia grabbed it. Soon the center touchscreen said “Gracie Abrams - That’s So True.” The car got filled with the sounds of Mia singing.
She was alone at it at first. As she sang, she pulled Beth along with her. That was always their dynamic.
Beth joined her at the, what was it, chorus?
Jack couldn’t help but smile and tap the steering wheel with his thumb. Beth seemed really happy. Right at that moment there was no Christian, no plans, just singing a song with a friend on a road trip, a future full of hope. And it was Mia who pulled that out of her.
Beth leaned back toward Mia, laughing through the next line. Jack was observing through the rear-view, seeing Mia laugh too.
He caught Mia looking away for a moment when Beth didn’t see her, her face changing for a second.
He thought maybe he was not the only one in the car having to deal with invasive thoughts. The song pulled her back in. She seemed to let it.
As she hit another howling chorus she looked at him, and noticing his eyes on her, she lit up, head cocked forward, smiling.
God fucking damn it, how could she do that so easy? Jack felt like a little boy, head filled with silly ideas. Like maybe they could fake their deaths, get new identities? Go to Mexico or the Caymans. Like maybe if they crashed the car, Mia’s body would just explode in a cloud of flowers accompanied by angelic chants. What was that? Why was a grown-ass man harboring this silliness?
Maybe that’s what Mia does? Maybe that’s why they want her. Maybe that’s why she can turn his cautious baby girl into a road trip pop star.
Another chorus. Every howl getting louder.
Shit, had Mia coaxed him too?
No. He had wanted it. Planned for it.
And there it was. Sharing the car with them. The dirty secret that would never let him enjoy another family moment in true innocence.
He wasn’t cheating. Mia was an adult. So why did it feel wrong?
OK, it happens to be his daughter’s friend. But, really, social pressures aside, who really cares?
Ah, who’s kidding who? He knew it was wrong and why. That’s why he couldn’t keep a thought straight in his mind. He had grown out of being a child not just aged into an adult, and that meant knowing when you’re full of shit and not running from it. It was wrong because he made Beth live a fabricated version of her life. He lied to her. And he had no choice but to keep lying, right? Same with Joan and Ron. Not best friends, but close enough that he had no desire to hurt them.
As the miles went by, the girls went from singing, to talking, to playing Zitch Dog. Ruby texted Jack. Asking how things were. Jack texted, “All good.” But he really wanted to say that he felt like a terrible person and would like Ruby to make it all better. There was a line between honesty and unproductive whining. At least he could still walk that one.
Beth had fallen asleep, sweater wrapped in a ball under her face on the window. The music was turned down low. Jack yawned and drank the last of his coffee. He looked up in the mirror, but couldn’t see Mia.
Then he felt a tingle on his neck. Mia’s fingers.
They didn’t say anything.
Jack looked at his sleeping daughter.
He took Mia’s hand in his, reaching over his left shoulder. He pulled it further ahead and kissed her knuckles. She touched his cheek, running her fingers over the side of his neck, where his hair turned to skin.
He smiled. Why the fuck did it feel like it was worth it?
*Fairleigh College Campus, Fairleigh, New Jersey * – 12:35 pm
Jack tagged along to the check-in, welcome session and the campus tour. During Beth’s advising meeting, he and Mia had a half an hour to kill.
“Where’s your meeting?” Jack said, pointing around at all the buildings at once.
“I think it’s that one.” She pointed.
“What do you wanna do?”
“You!”
Jack choked on his coffee. Mia laughed.
“Listen, I’m really flattered, of course, Mia, but–”
“Oh my god, Jack! I’m kidding!”
“Right.” Jack gave her a half-hearted laugh.
“You gotta learn to relax.”
“I’m relaxed.”
“Sure.”
He saw her smirk at him. It all felt like a challenge. Was she challenging him to contain himself? Or the opposite? Jack wanted to pick her up, kiss her neck, make her squirm. He felt twenty again.
They walked one of the many paved paths through the campus.
“So…” Jack said.
“Hmm?” Mia turned her head, her hair wafting perfume at him.
“At the dinner, you, uhh…”
“Yes?”
“Well, you know…” He didn’t know how to say it. It was weird to talk about.
“What, Jack?” She smiled, eyes excited. He felt like a fish on a hook. “Kissed your wife?”
“Among other things, I’m given to understand.” He scratched his head and laughed.
“So that’s a thing with you guys, huh?”
Jack didn’t quite know what to say to that. Was it? A thing? It hadn’t been up until very recently.
“Not really, no,” Jack said. “Not like this, I mean. It’s not a… thing, altogether.”
“So?”
“So - what?”
“So, what is it?”
“It’s… complicated.”
“OK, thanks.” Mia scoffed.
Jack thought about what to say. He didn’t feel like it was his place to dump on her the whole truth. Ruby would need to be involved. How had they not talked about what to tell her if she asks? The idea that she would ask was so probable. Would it have killed them to plan a little more? Use their heads rather than–
“She knew what happened in the car, right?” Mia asked.
“Yeah.”
Jack expected Mia to judge him.
“All of it?” she asked.
“Mhmm.”
“And she wasn’t mad?”
“No.”
“That’s insane.”
They walked a few more steps.
“She wasn’t angry at me?” Mia asked.
“No,” he said it quickly.
“You sure?”
Maybe too quickly?
“Yeah. She just didn’t want to be left out.”
There was fear and excitement in her eyes.
Whenever he looked at her he thought ‘life’. She was so full of fucking life.
“You guys are interesting,” Mia said.
They said nothing for a moment.
“So, what about you?” Jack asked. “This thing… what is it for you?”
Mia thought. Then she danced ahead, taking a few big, jumping leaps. Stopped. Spun around. Stood. “It’s fucking exciting, Jack, is what it is!”
Jack laughed. He was sure this girl would end him. But there was a lifting feeling somewhere in his stomach. Her presence made Jack happy. He thought he might welcome her ending him.
“It is that, kid!”
Jack had caught up with her and she fell back in line as they moseyed forward.
“And stupid,” Mia said.
“Right again!”
“Kid… I like it when you call me that,” Mia said.
“I like you.”
He saw Mia blush and smile as he looked over her at nothing in particular. He figured looking at other things would make him appear less like a man creeping on a college student. Or as your father creeping on your best friend, as far as Beth was concerned, were she to look out of one of the windows around here.
“Jack?”
“Hmm?”
“When do you think we might meet again? Alone.”
Jack didn’t know. He wanted to but he had no plan. Why the hell didn’t he?
“Soon. Just don’t know when exactly.”
“You want to, right?”
“You have no fucking idea, kid.”
He saw Mia’s chest rise with a large inhale, corners of her lips tightening.
“Alright, well,” Mia said. “Now I gotta go to this stupid meeting. And all I’m gonna be thinking about is how I’d rather climb you like a tree.”
Jack laughed, embarrassed. “I’m not a tree.”
Mia was picking up speed toward the Wexler Athletic Center, stride quick and sure, calves flexing with every step, the muscle in her back shifting under her tank top as she swung her arms. He watched her go longer than he should have. “Like a big sexy tree, Jack!” she almost yelled.
Jack couldn’t hold the smile in. He thought the last time he would feel something like this was twenty years ago.
*Outside Millie’s Grill, Fairleigh, New Jersey * – 3:20 pm
“This the place?” Jack asked.
“Yep, this is it,” Beth answered.
“Nowhere to park.”
Jack went past it, did a u-turn. “You guys jump out and go get us a table, I’ll find a spot.”
The girls got out and a few minutes and another couple of not entirely legal u-turns later a spot had opened up across the street from the restaurant.
“This is a private parking spot, man,” a jittery voice asserted, as Jack got out.
He looked around and saw a five-foot-nothing man in his twenties or fifties, clearly a junkie. His hand out, asking for money.
“No, buddy. Sorry. But I appreciate the effort.”
The junkie mumbled, as Jack locked the doors and waited for cars to pass before crossing toward the diner.
“You don’t hear so good?” the junkie wouldn’t leave it.
Jack said nothing, but kept his body angled partially to the traffic, partially to the man bothering him.
“I told you, man! You owe me twenty bucks.”
“Right!” Jack said, laughing through his nose, looking around for the passing cars to give him an opening.
The junkie approached. Jack put up his hands. “Don’t crowd me.”
“Oh, yeah! Big guy! Tough guy! Think you own the fucking street, tough guy? Do you? How about now?”
The junkie had a little Swiss Army knife-looking thing in his hand, holding it down by his side, blade chipped and stained, the twitchy man leaning toward him. Jack put up one hand between them to create space. “Bud, listen. Put that thing away, let’s not make–”
The junkie stepped forward too quick for comfort, eyes glassy and unfocused, lips twitching.
Jack backhanded him in the side of the face, sending him head first into the bumper of his parked Range Rover, the man then folding to the ground.
He could imagine breaking the man. Enjoying breaking him. The snap of his fucking bones. He thought he could threaten HIM!? This fucking lowlife?
He pushed the thoughts down. That’s not him. His anger talking.
“Just be on your way, man. Fuck.” He didn’t think there was going to be any retaliation.
Jack felt bad for the man. That was someone’s son. But the rage was still there, looking for somewhere to go. He swallowed it and crossed the street.
The junkie shuffled away, rubbing his head.
Entering Millie’s, he found Mia at the window table, eyes wide, looking at him. Shit, that’s right, the girls. But Beth was not at the table.
“You OK?” he asked, walking up and taking a seat opposite her.
“Me?” Mia asked. “Are you?” She reached for his hand. He realized it was a little bruised, maybe scratched.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“Jesus, what did he want?”
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, sighing.
He wanted to say something wise about how the junkie wanted what everyone wanted, he supposed, but some people went about it the wrong way. Something about the opioid epidemic, the human condition.
“Money,” he said.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’ll be alright.” Jack smiled. “Can we not tell–” He stopped himself. Suddenly considering he’s adding to the pile of lies, even if this one wasn’t that… heavy. He waved off the unfinished thought.
“No, yeah, I won’t.”
Beth came out of the restroom just then and Jack pulled his hand from Mia’s, turning his attention to the menu.
*Millie’s Grill, Fairleigh, New Jersey * – 4:00 pm
“Damn,” Jack chewed, wiped his hands.
“You said it,” Mia sipped the last of her milkshake through a straw.
“Huh?” Beth looked at them, asking for admission and admiration and approval. “Huh!? What did I say?”
“Don’t gloat, sweetie!” Jack said. “But, yeah, fair.” Jack looked at the menu. “Millie’s… I’ll have a reason to make the drive down here.”
“I like it here,” Beth said.
“Yeah?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. The campus is so nice and I met some people already, they’ll be at the mixer.”
His daughter seemed good. Really good now. Jack knew all her boy troubles and whatnot was all going to be silly shit even to her in hindsight. And still he had to swallow around the knot in his throat.
*Outside Millie’s Grill, Fairleigh, New Jersey * – 4:12 pm
“Dad?”
Jack joined the girls on the street after paying the bill.
“Hmm?”
“We have a flat tire.”
Jack looked across the street. His car did have a flat tire. Two of them, at least. And something stuck in the back left one. As they approached he saw it was the junkie’s little pocket knife.
He should’ve either paid him or slapped him much harder.
“Oh-kay.” Jack pulled out his phone. Shot a glance at Mia. She shot back. They said nothing.
“What happened?” Beth said, looking around.
“Man, I musta ran over something,” Jack said, yanking out and tossing the knife while Beth went around the other side of the car.
“Alright, well,” Jack pulled out his phone. “I’ll get you an Uber to the mixer and sort out the car in the meantime.”
“I got the Uber, dad,” Beth said. “Take care of the car?”
“Deal.”
Founders Hall, Fairleigh College – 8:05 pm
Jack pulled up to the mixer in a Toyota Yaris. He could barely fit inside it.
He saw the girls already outside, in a group of people split into handfuls, standing around, talking.
Jack got himself out of the car, its tiny size making him feel older than he was, having to grunt and muscle his way out.
He propped up against the car and waited. Beth was one of three people listening to an older, taller guy speak. He didn’t much look like a first year, maybe a senior or a TA or something. Jack wasn’t aware of all the terms. He had a lot to say, apparently. Jack’s suspicions confirmed that colleges were generally filled to the brim with dipshits in love with the sound of their own voice.
He saw Mia in a different handful, a small one, only two of them. Mia and some guy. Jack couldn’t help but take the boy’s measure. Taller than Mia, in shape, thin wet mustache.
“Yoohooo!” Jack hollered, hoping to embarrass his daughter.
Beth saw him and covered her face. Mia laughed, put down her drink and grabbed Beth. They both waved at the other kids.
“Our savior!” Mia said in a fake whisper.
“I could’ve remained unsaved for a while longer. But fine,” Beth said.
“You already got an extra hour and a half thanks to this whole thing.” Jack motioning then in the direction of the car. “I was supposed to get you at six-thirty, remember? According to your rigid plans.”
“This is a real upgrade, Mr. D!” Mia gestured at the car as they walked up, Jack moving to get himself back inside.
“Oh yeah! I’m doordashing while you guys are drinking spiked punch.”
“It wasn’t spiked,” Mia said.
Jack looked at her, eyebrow up. She mirrored him. They both looked back at Beth in the back seat like that. She put up her thumb and index fingers, shrugging with a squirm on her face.
Jack squinted, switching back and forth between both girls. Them trying not to giggle. “You seem fine…”
He turned the key and the little car spurted to life. Its engine sounding loud and comical compared to the Range Rover.
“Our car’s not getting fixed until the morning. This was the only loaner they had for us,” Jack said.
“Where are we staying?” Beth asked.
“Did you forget? The Publick House Hotel,” Jack said. “In Chester. We’re going there now.”
“Nope.”
Jack looked back at her. She was already on her phone.
Beth saying then, not looking up, “Your ghost hotel has a check-in cutoff at nine and it’s a ninety-minute drive.”
Jack looked at his watch. Eight past eight. “Shit.”
“More than that in this, actually,” Beth said, pointing to the roof of the Yaris. “I mean, dad, you did book a destination inn further away from campus than our home.”
“Yeah, I guess it doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. Sorry, sweetie.”
“No… worries!” Beth turned her phone around to show him. “Two rooms at a Super 8? And we get about three extra hours of sleep.”
“Nice!” Mia said.
“It’s all we can get on short notice and it’s only one night–” Beth said.
“No, no, I wasn’t being sarcastic…”
“You weren’t?” Beth asked.
“No! Vending machine dinner? Shitty TV? Sleepover with bestie?”
“As compared to talking about philosophy, politics and evolutionary psychology with like-minded and intellectually hungry peers?” Beth looked out the window. “Yeah, Funyuns and Maury, that’s all the mental stimulation a curious mind requires.”
Jack and Mia made a face at each other, Jack pretending to push glasses up his nose, Mia laughing.
“Sorry, I just heard myself,” Beth said.
“So you had a good time, then?” Jack asked.
“Such a good time! Thank you so much for driving us up here! I’m sorry for being a dickhead about it.” Beth touched Mia’s shoulder.
Mia winked at her.
“What about you?” Jack asked Mia.
“Yeah, good. I mean, I’m not sure I enjoyed it as much as Beth. But definitely good, thanks.”
Jack felt she was being polite.
Beth spoke from the backseat, as they drove off. “Jean-Jacques was telling me there were these chimps they did experiments on– Jean-Jacques is a senior at Fairleigh and a TA for Miriam Voss. Anyway they did this experiment where a chimp could unlock a door and let another chimp into the room. There was food on this platform, but sometimes it couldn’t pull it in alone. And when they gave it a choice, it learned which chimp was actually good at cooperating and kept choosing that one. So it wasn’t just understanding that it needed help. It remembered who was useful.”
“Well, I’m glad you had a good time,” Jack said as he punched the Super 8 address into the navigation.
“September can’t come soon enough!” Beth said, looking out the window, smiling.
Jack saw Mia smile at her. She seemed happy for Beth, but he felt like the happiness stopped there. Was she not excited about Fairleigh?
Super 8 motel Fairleigh (2.6 stars on Google) Jack’s room – 9:50 pm
Jack watched a rerun of Maury. Regina swears her twin boys are Eric’s.
A knock on the door had him jump a little. These motels, barely a wall separating you from whoever walks up to your room. That’s why he made sure the girls were in the room next to him. If he needed to, he could throw the old brick of a TV through the wall and Kool-Aid Man himself through.
He clicked the TV off, opened the door - in his boxer briefs, one of his fun Hawaiian shirts unbuttoned - to find Mia.
“Hey!” He looked around. “Everything OK?”
Mia nodded, looking up at him, smiling. He smiled back.
“What are you guys up to?”
“Oh, nothing. Bored.”
“Where’s Beth?”
“Sleeping.”
Jack looked at his watch. 9:51.
“No, she isn’t.”
Mia said nothing.
“Where is she?”
“She’s fine.”
“Mia.”
“She went back out with the people from the mixer.”
Jack froze.
“She really wanted to go. She asked me not to tell you.”
He felt his pulse in his scalp.
“You lied.”
“I panicked.”
“OK, I’ll get dressed and go get her.”
Mia sighed. “Jack, listen…”
“That’s my daughter.” He kept his voice calm. “She can’t just do what she wants.”
“She can make her own choices, though, right?” Mia said, leaning over trying to get him to look at her.
Jack didn’t listen. His shorts were on and as he zipped and buttoned them, he was looking for his car keys.
“She’ll be back here in like two months, on her own, she’ll be going out, it’s what people do in college.”
Jack found the keys.
“I have her location on my phone,” Mia said. “You do too, right?”
He was on the bed, tying his shoes, shirt still open save for one button down low.
He slowed down.
Maybe running out of here in a huff and dragging her back was not the right move.
He looked up at her. Mia standing by the open door, leaning on the doorway. The lights from the street made her smooth legs shine under the jean shorts. Her face barely visible, leather jacket over a tank top. He thought if they could somehow take all the bad decisions middle-aged men made and put them into a person, they’d come up with this girl.
“Look, here.” Mia came forward, opening her phone. “That’s the event page, it’s a planned thing with a local band and whatnot. It’s not just students, it’s some faculty as well, it says.”
Jack took the phone, looked at her, then at the page.
“It’s not a rager she’s at,” Mia said. “She’s safe. Or as safe as she can be without you standing next to her, making the college kids piss themselves.”
He looked at the event page. “Fairleigh After Dark: Summer Sessions at the Rathbone Arts Courtyard.” Local student band, food trucks, lawn games, faculty supervisors, alcohol-free. Mia was likely right, but he still felt like he needed to do something. He checked his phone. Beth’s location was at the same spot as the event.
“What about you?” he asked Mia. “Why didn’t you go?”
“I had a headache.”
“And now?”
“Feeling much better, thank you.” Mia smiled a big smile at him.
It was clear there had been no headache.
“You said you panicked?” he asked.
“Mhmm.” Mia looked around, thinking. “She asked me to not tell you she went out. And I didn’t want to lie to you, but then…”
Jack waited.
“I don’t know, I just thought about the secret I’m keeping from her and it paled in comparison, I guess? I could lie for her for a change, not to her. You know?”
They said nothing.
“Is that dumb?”
“No.”
Jack didn’t know where to put his eyes. He wanted to say something to make it better, but what was there to say? He put his eyes on the little strip of skin between her top and the shorts.
“Mia, this is…” He gathered his thoughts. “I don’t like that I don’t know if I’m letting Beth go because it’s the right thing to do or because I’m choosing to stay here with you.”
Mia shut the door and leaned against it, hands under her back.
“You know, Jack, she’s my best friend. I sat next to her all day. I’ve been listening to her heart break over Christian lying to her, while I’ve been lying to her about something much worse. I’m betraying her trust in a way that makes me sick.”
“I’m sorry,” Jack said.
“Thanks. But I don’t think you’re hearing me.”
Mia pushed herself off the door and walked toward where Jack was still sitting on the bed, him having to look up at her for a change.
“I’m not here on impulse.” She moved closer. “I understand what you feel.” She stopped herself. “Maybe not all the way, but I understand. I love her.”
Mia was right in front of him now, walking in between his legs. She put her hand on his shoulder. She tucked her hair behind her ear on one side, looking down at him close to her. He noticed her hand shake a little as she did and her palm was a little cold and wet to the touch. She was nervous.
“This is a terrible idea, Jack. Maybe it means we’re terrible people. And I’m choosing it anyway.”
Mia kissed him.
“I need you,” she said.
There was something underneath the want in her eyes, something closer to fear than desire, gone as fast as he caught it.
Jack thought things that could not be said out loud. Things that scared him. Things he had to tell his wife and hope she won’t divorce him.
“Mia.” He looked at her and searched for words.
She looked at him, one eye, the other one and then back. Lips. She smiled in pain and Jack somehow was convinced he knew what she thought.
He stood up, wrapping one arm around her waist on the way up and lifted her. Her legs wrapping around him. He stood there, Mia feeling weightless, her strong legs hooked behind his back, hugging him, looking at him, smiling, he could see a little tremble in her face.
He kissed her. Slow. Tasting her with care. Taking little breaks to look at her, her smooth skin, naturally red lips. The way the light from the street and the little night lamp on the dresser hit her features. Her undivided attention.
“I want you, Jack.”
Jack exhaled, his stomach dropping at her words. She had a hold on him beyond… whatever he had thought this could be.
He slowly lowered her onto the dresser, the night lamp thudding to the carpet, unbroken, rolling under the dresser.
He unbuttoned her shorts. She used her hands against the dresser to push her body up a little, legs together, muscles around her stomach and ribs visibly contracting, as Jack pulled her shorts off her, along with the underwear, and tossed them at the chair in the corner.
She breathed shallow, fast breaths, following his every move with her eyes.
He couldn’t believe it. Was she really there?
Sitting on a dresser in nothing but a tank top and a leather jacket. Those tan lines, a pale triangle. He could live on those tan lines.
Her lips were so wet on his. Her face so small and delicate compared to his. He felt like a big monster in front of her. But she looked at him like only he mattered.
He ran his hands down her legs and could feel her tremble a little when he touched her inner thighs.
As he took the backs of her knees and pushed them up a little higher, he knelt down in front of the dresser, his face right in front of her pussy. He lifted her a little, she moved forward to the edge of the dresser.
Her pussy dripped. The flesh on her stomach twitched, tickled by his breath.
Mia’s hands found the edges of the dresser, gripped them as Jack kissed around her pussy. He ran his open mouth across her pussy, smearing her juices on himself, taking in her scent. Mia moaned.
His tongue started low and played around, light and easy.
Mia’s hand grabbed his hair as he made his way up to her clit.
“Oh, fuck, Jack!” she whispered what was to be a scream.
Her legs wrapped around his head, the soles of her feet running up and down his back. Jack had his hands on her waist, running under her legs. He felt her shiver and twitch. He’d barely licked her clit for twenty seconds and she was already…
“Make me cum, Mr. D! Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m cumming!” She pulled his hair. It hurt but he didn’t care. Her hands were grasping, grabbing at him, his shirt collar, back, sides of his face, hair. All the while her body shivered out of control.
As her shivering subsided a little, he stopped licking. He kissed her pussy and it amused him that her body shivered in response.
He stood up, going in for a kiss. Mia was still sitting up on the dresser, but she’d slumped back against the wall a little, recovering, a smile on her face. As he kissed her, she found his chest, her fingers looking for buttons. He tried to help her but she didn’t let him.
“Let me!”
Jack stood back a few inches, letting her look at what she was doing. She undid the one button still closed on his short-sleeve shirt. Her hands pushed aside the side of the shirt, palms open running over his stomach and chest. He saw her look at him with fascination, thirst, interest.
It tickled a little as her delicate hands made their way from his hairy chest down to the button on his shorts. She opened it, then slowly unzipped. His cock was all the way hard by then, expanded over his left thigh. She pushed his shorts and underwear down and he helped her a little.
“You have the biggest cock I’ve ever seen, Mr. D.”
Jack didn’t say anything, just smiled. He let her pick it up in her hands. She looked at it, cocking her head, licking her lips.
“Do you think,” Mia said, lining it up over her abdomen, pulling Jack in gently. “Do you think it will fit?”
She held it against herself, staring.
Jack moved a hand under his cock, feeling for her pussy. He touched her hole with his middle finger, pushing inside just a tiny bit.
“I don’t know, baby,” he said. “What do you think?”
“Make it fit.” She bit her lip and smiled at him. Mia leaned forward. She cradled his cock in her hand and dripped saliva on it from her open mouth. Jack was dizzy.
Their height matched perfectly. Mia had gotten him wet and slippery and Jack rocked back and forth, sliding between her pussy and her hand.
“Fuck, girl…” he said. “You drive me crazy, you know that?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. D!” She grabbed his cock harder, rolling it around on her. Her breaths were shallow and irregular.
“You want it, baby?”
“Yes!”
“You want my cock inside you?”
“I haven’t been able to think… about anything else, Mr. D!” she said, almost panting. “I need it! Please fuck me!”
Jack leaned back just a little. He held it with the tip pressed to her clit. She still grabbed the edge of the dresser with one hand, the fingers on the other one bent against Jack’s abdomen, as if to make sure she could stop him if she needed to.
She was looking down. Jack rubbed her clit a couple of times with his cock and, he had to admit, he was flattered by how large it looked because of how small Mia was compared to him.
He slid the tip of his cock down to her pussy lips, pushing against her lightly now. Almost none of him went inside. Between Mia’s saliva and her wet pussy, his entire cock was wet, shiny and slick.
“Fuck me, Mr. D!” She grabbed his shirt and pulled him. Jack had to brace against the dresser himself, forcing into her inch by inch, her body clenched so tight around him it bordered on pain. She screamed. She put her hands on his face, looking into his eyes, her whole body convulsing. Jack looked down. He saw her slight frame had taken his cock fully. And his cock was being squeezed. He didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose.
They kissed, tongues pushing past each other, saliva dripping like they were no longer human.
Mia let go of his face and grabbed her own thighs, holding her legs open for him. He ran his hands from her hair to her face, shoulders, over the jacket, the tank top, down to her waist. He grabbed her around her thinnest part, feeling that he’s not missing that much from being able to close his grip around her.
He pulled almost all the way out and pushed back inside. Mia’s head fell back against the wall.
Again, harder.
He wanted to test how much she could take. He didn’t want to hurt her. And, at the same time, he did. That scared him.
She looked down between them, whispering, “Yes.”
He fucked her faster.
“Fuck, Mr. D, you’re gonna make me cum again,” she said louder now. “Please make me cum, Mr. D.”
Every time she called him that he felt like he got harder. He knew it wasn’t true.
“You like it when I fuck your little pussy, baby?” It felt weird saying it, but not weird enough to make it any less hot.
“Yes, Mr. D, I love…” she panted. “The way your big cock hurts me! I never want another one, just yours!”
The dirty talk was taking him to a dark place.
“Come on my cock, baby. Be a good little girl!”
“Fuck…” she stopped moving in a controlled way and instead her orgasm took over. She shook and grabbed him, wrapping him in a hug. He stayed still, his cock fully inside her feeling like it was a few pumps away from exploding.
“Holy shit, Jack!” she said, arms still wrapped around him, her legs now dangling off the edge of the dresser.
“Jack now, huh?” he said, smiling.
She pulled away enough to look at him and slapped his chest, embarrassed but smiling. “Shut up!”
“I ain’t saying nothing!” He laughed.
She leaned down and grabbed the base of his cock. “I somehow didn’t believe this would actually happen.”
“I know what you mean.”
Mia had probably expected a little pause, Jack thought.
Instead, he lifted her knees and fucked her more.
Long, steady, deep strokes.
He expected to be stopped and yelled at. But instead Mia closed her eyes and leaned her head back, breathless. He wished he knew what she felt.
Fully inside her, he stopped. He let go of her legs and started taking off her jacket.
Then her top.
She was finally fully naked in front of him — breasts just full enough to fill his palm, nipples tight and hard, a dusting of freckles across her collarbone he’d never been close enough to notice before, the muscle along her stomach flexing with every breath. He wanted to memorize all of it before this ended, however it ended.
Mia sat back, supporting herself on her arms. She wrapped her legs around Jack’s waist.
“You’re so beautiful, kid!” Jack said.
“So are you!”
As his eyes darted across her body, whenever he looked at her eyes, they were looking at him and smiling.
“No, but I mean, you are…” Jack said. “There are no words.”
“Get me down from here, please,” she said.
He pulled out, she moaned a little and quickly gathered herself before Jack put his palms under her arms and lifted her off the dresser.
Having landed, she put her hands on his waist and guided him backwards to the chair in the corner by the window.
“Sit down,” Mia said.
Her voice sounded confident and he obeyed, but Jack thought he could detect a hint of tentativeness in it. Was she trying to impress him? Did she know he wanted to impress her?
The chair had no armrests, so Jack didn’t quite know what to do with his hands, he just gripped the seat and watched as Mia leaned over, hands on his knees. She pushed them open and turned herself around, facing away from him.
As she bent over, saliva rushed to Jack’s mouth. He started leaning in to bite and lick her, but she had other plans.
Mia took his cock through her legs, she’d come all the way between his spread knees and was lowering herself now. Her hand guided his cock inside her. As the tip pushed past the tightest part of her, she gasped, going still for a second like she needed to adjust.
After a brief pause, she sat down on it all the way. They both moaned.
She stayed down there, sitting up straight, her hands on his knees. He admired her strong back, the curves of her hips, the way her whole body still carried the discipline of years of training even collapsed loose and open like this. He ran his hands over her back. She moved her hips in slow circles, not getting up. He felt her hands on his balls.
“Fuck, Mia.”
She looked over her shoulder, not quite meeting his eyes, smiling.
She pushed herself up. Jack could not enjoy the view enough. He was going crazy. He was picturing taking her by her hips and slamming her down on his cock. Picking her back up and doing it again.
But he didn’t. He let her ride him.
Mia’s body was more than capable. This probably barely counted as a warmup for her. But he could sense she was trying the position for the first time. That made it better.
“You’re so good, baby.”
“You like it, Mr. D?” she asked.
She kept fucking him and stroking his shaft.
“Yes, baby! I can’t…” Jack strained for words. He grabbed her ass, his wedding ring catching light from the window. “I just can’t believe we’re doing this.”
She rode him faster. He couldn’t take it. He knew he’d cum if she didn’t stop.
Jack gently pushed her up off his cock, with his hands on her ass. He stood up and gently moved her to the bed, guided her down on it.
She lay on her stomach, legs hanging over the bed. Exposed. So exposed.
“You can do whatever you want, Mr. D.”
“I know, baby. I will,” he said, as he knelt behind her.
He spread her ass cheeks. “I will do whatever I want with you.”
She didn’t say anything, but Jack thought he could see her body react to his words.
“I will fuck you whenever I want.”
The words landed harsher than he expected them to. Was he still playing?
“Mhmm…” she moaned and nodded rapidly, back arched, head straining to look over her shoulder.
“Your little pussy, baby…” he put his hand on the top of her head. “Your mouth…” he ran his hand down the back of her head, over her back, not understanding why he was saying all of this out loud. “Your pretty, little asshole…” he spread her cheeks again and licked her asshole.
Mia grabbed and pulled sheets. She moaned into the bed.
He licked her all over, moving his hands wherever he could, pressing her into the bed, feeling her stomach, enjoying the feel of her in his hands and enjoying that he could reach so far while his face remained between her legs.
“Please fuck me, Mr. D!” she motioned.
She got up on her knees on the edge of the bed, her head stayed down.
“Please, please, please, fuck me!” she cried. “I need you to fuck me, I need your penis inside me! Please fill me up, Mr. D!”
The word “penis” - it sounded out of place and wrong. She knew exactly what it did to him.
She meant every word. So did he.
“Here, baby, take it,” Jack said, moving his cock under her pussy. “Put it in.”
She took it and put it right where it had to go. Jack did not hesitate. He pushed it in. Not all the way, but more forceful now.
“Mr. D?”
“Yes, baby?”
Mia’s fingers found her asshole. She rubbed it in circles with her middle finger.
“Will you share me with your wife?”
Fuck! His wife!
No, wait, right… He’s not cheating, this is OK. Moron.
“Do you want Ruby to fuck you too, baby?” Jack asked.
“Oh god, yes! I want Mrs. D to fuck me. I want her riding your penis while I sit on your face. I want to watch you fuck her. I want…” she moaned as Jack fucked her harder and harder.
He could feel it coming. “Fuck, baby. I’m going to cum.”
She got up and moved away, his cock sliding out.
“Come here, Mr. D,” she said and pulled his hand, coaxing him to the bed to lie down on his back.
He did as she wanted. He thought she would make him cum in her mouth. Instead she climbed on top of him and stood up on the bed over him, her feet at the sides of his hips.
She looked down at him and he looked up at her. For a second he got a vision of some ancient pagan goddess. He felt like she was the reward from a monkey paw wish. And it was so magical, he knew he should dread the price this all came at.
But just then… He just wanted to freeze this moment.
“I want you to cum inside me, Mr. D.”
Jack heard the words but…
“I know it’s wrong,” Mia said. “But I need it! I need you and I need you to cum inside me. I want to feel your big cock cum inside me, please.”
“Mia, I–” Jack tried to say and sit up.
“No, Mr. D. Don’t talk,” Mia said, squatting down and finding his cock and using her free hand to push him back down. “You have all the power.”
She guided his cock inside her, exhaling through pursed lips, breathing ragged.
“You can pick me up and stop me. You can do what you want with me. But please, please, please, Mr. D…”
She squatted up and down on his cock, the bed caving and creaking under them, the sound of her ass slapping on his lap.
“Just cum inside me, please! I need it!” she fucked him faster. “I’m going to cum again and I want you to cum inside me.”
Jack looked down between them. He saw all of it.
Her pussy lips with a tight grip on his cock.
She made him feel bigger.
Her juices were dripping, strings of them stretching from her body to his, snapping and falling, rejoining and stretching again.
Mia started shivering, he could feel she was getting close again and so was he.
“I’m going to cum, baby,” he said.
“Fill me up, Mr. D.” She started rubbing her clit. “Fill me up, Jack, I need it! I have to have it.”
“Take it, baby. Fucking. Take. It!”
As Jack came - one pump… two, three… four - so did Mia.
She shook and did her best to keep fucking him. But she couldn’t.
She collapsed on him, sitting up, still in a squat, but her hands rested on his chest as her legs gave out, shaking out of control.
He was cumming inside Mia, for fuck’s sake.
And he had more.
He grabbed her waist, gripped her tight.
Jack lifted her up, his cock leaving her pussy almost completely.
Then he slammed Mia back down.
She screamed with no sound.
Up.
She panted and saliva ran from her mouth down onto his chest.
Down. Slammed. Hard.
Again.
Her voice disappeared as he raised her for the last time. Her body hung helpless in his hands while his cock pulsed more cum inside her.
Down. Slow.
He sat up and hugged her. Her legs relaxing around him, her panting body collapsing on him.
Jack moved to the edge of the bed slowly.
Mia was digging her nails in his back, but gently. As she caught her breath, she kissed his neck. The big exhales from her nose sweeping down his shoulder cooled him down.
He was still inside her. He felt Mia’s hot wet pussy lips on skin around the base of his cock.
Jack moved her off his shoulder, took her face in a gentle hold, thumb on her throat, his big hand halfway around her neck, fingers behind her ear. He got her eyes to look at him.
They smiled big, happy, exhausted, stupid smiles at each other.
Jack felt so exposed and vulnerable. And powerful at the same time.
“How you feeling, kid?”
“Like…” Mia said, kissing him, then thinking, looking for words maybe. “Good!” She laughed.
“I know what you mean,” Jack said, bending his head down, Mia cradling it against her cheek.
Jack felt himself going soft.
He gently filled each of his palms with one of her ass cheeks, lifting her up a little, his cock sliding out.
Jack put her back down, her feet behind his back, knees in the air under his arms, her pussy lips rested on the top of his still plump cock.
He felt his cum dripping out of Mia, covering his cock, running down around his balls.
Jack took her face in his hands and kissed her. Slow, deep kisses, tasting her lips, letting his fingers explore her features.
“I really like you, Mia!”
“I really like you, Jack!”
Jack laughed because he knew how fucking stupid this was, how childish. But he also laughed because… she made him happy. Seeing her, being with her, pleasing her.
He stood up, holding Mia in a hug, her legs dropping straight down. He spun her around and put her down on the bed.
“Shower?” he asked.
“Umm…” Mia thought. “Maybe when my legs start working again?”
“You flatter me, Mia!” Jack said. “Let me get you a drink.”
“OK!” she said. Sparkling, she threw herself back on the bed, rolling around, legs clearly working.
He thought then that they really should get dressed and Mia should get to her room, in case Beth got back, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment.
“Hey, kid?”
“Yeah?”
“Not to fuck up the moment or anything, but can you check Beth’s location, please?”
Jack flicked on the bathroom light switch to get some light in the room without having to turn on the terrible ceiling lights in the room.
“Oh, yeah, right! Sec!”
Jack came back to bed with two cold cans from the mini fridge.
“Sprite or Coke?”
“She’s still at the thing, we’re good,” Mia said. “Sprite, please!”
Jack handed her the can and sat down beside her on the bed. Mia put her hand on his now soft cock.
“You know,” she said. “All the crazy sex talk aside, I really do love your cock, Jack.”
“Oh yeah? Even like this? All tiny and dead?”
“Tiny!?” she said, eyes wide.
“What?” Jack laughed.
“You’re crazy. This thing just…” she seemed to look for words and came up short. “Come on, man, it’s huge.”
“Whatever you say, ma’am!” Jack drank his soda, finishing half the can and trying his absolute best to not audibly burp.
“OK, so… Not to ruin the mood or anything, but we should maybe get to a pharmacy?” she said.
“Pharmacy?”
“Yeah, for Plan B?”
“Plan B?”
“You don’t know what Plan B is?” Mia laughed.
“No, I know what it is.”
“So, like…”
He kissed her. “Let’s just stay here.”
He moved lower, kissing around her chest, running circles around her nipple with his tongue.
“Hmm…” she moaned, reluctantly saying, “But we should really do it today. Tomorrow we have the thing and I don’t want to wait.”
“You’re not going to get pregnant, Mia.”
“Well, that’s not really a gamble I want to make.”
“No?”
“Not unless you want me to give birth to Beth’s sister.”
That sucked the air out of the room.
“I’ve had a vasectomy,” Jack said. “I tried to tell you.”
Mia stared at him. Then covered her face.
“Oh my god.”
“Yeah, sorry, I tried to tell you. You weren’t exactly letting me.”
“Yeah…” she touched his chest, thinking. She seemed embarrassed. “That was really fucking reckless of me, actually. I’m sorry.”
Jack didn’t say anything, just gently brushed her leg with the back of his hand.
A few seconds later he asked, “Is the moment over?”
She turned and jumped on top of him with one fast motion. Landing face to face. “You tell me.”
“I don’t know what you know about senior citizens, kid–” Jack started.
“Oh, Pshaw!”
“Pshaw?” Jack laughed.
“Yeah, Pshaw!” Mia laughed, taking a seat on his lap, rubbing her naked flesh against him. “You wanna tell me I couldn’t get you to go again?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“How much you wanna bet?”
“Not gonna work.”
“Oh yeah? What if I put your cock in my mouth right now?”
“Try it,” Jack said.
Mia squinted at him. He squinted back.
“OK,” she said and jumped back. In seconds, she had his soft cock fully in her mouth and held it there, not using her hands, just wiggling her tongue under his shaft. Looking at him the whole time.
“I admire the effort, of course, but…”
As he spoke, he felt something.
Her eyebrows went up a little and she cocked her head. As if to say “See?”
“You’re gonna kill me, kid.”
Mia spoke a whole sentence, maybe nine or ten syllables. Which made Jack laugh and she did too, almost choking. They both lost it laughing.
When they calmed down, Mia went back to sucking his cock, which was now almost hard again.
The phone rang. It wasn’t Jack’s.
Mia went to get it from her jacket on the floor. Jack waited, nervous. Was it Beth?
“Who is it?” he asked.
Mia got to her phone when it had already stopped ringing. It only rang a few times.
“Umm, it was Beth.”
Jack was looking at Mia, waiting for information. Had she gotten back so fast? Was she in trouble? Were they in trouble?
“What’s happening?”
“Missed message. She called me to get my attention in case my notifications were off.” Mia threw the phone to Jack on the bed, screen up, as she started shoving herself back into her clothes.
The screen said: “SOS! come get me! now please”