Day: July 26, 2024

The Esses – Part 1
by
Jason Crow

The Esses

Part one
It was the third of September, the memorable day this all started. After I changed into something more comfortable, I headed upstairs toward the pool deck. I couldn’t immediately find the girls. And since I had been downstairs for almost an hour, they could have been anywhere. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t their camp counselor and didn’t need to watch them every minute. That’s when I heard their voices outside on the pool deck. Relieved that they were making themselves at home, I went to check on them. They had been swimming and were now emerging from the pool, their bodies dripping wet.

“Fuck me…” I mumbled under my breath.

The two bikini-clad preteens, with their glistening bodies, struck a nerve inside I never knew I had. But I didn’t want to have this particular nerve! These girls were about to turn thirteen, damn it! And they were family.

Sarah was wearing a red bikini, which matched her blonde hair perfectly. It hid everything nicely from view and was decent enough for a girl her age, but it did manage to accentuate her curves nicely. Sandra’s bikini was denim blue with a bit of purple around its edges. It was a bit skimpier than Sara’s, but she could still go to a public pool with it without gathering too much attention.

I acted like it was the most normal thing in the world for me to be around two scantily dressed preteen girls, and I did my best not to stare. I liked looking at women. I enjoyed beautiful women! But these two weren’t women yet; they were girls. They were probably oblivious to how they looked and what their effect on men could be. I didn’t need to gawk over them. No! I needed to help them and learn how to deal with their maturing bodies.

“Hi, Uncle Ronald!” Sarah said with a smile, “Your pool is amazing!”

“Yeah…” Sandra added, “But I’m so wet…”

Wait… what? What did she just say? I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my head as I was looking for words.

“That’s the whole meaning of a pool, you dummy,” Sarah giggled.

“Uhm… yeah…” I tried, “water is wet, you know?”

“Jeez! I was just kidding,” Sandra said with mock annoyance as she wrung out her hair. “I’m looking for a towel.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and tossed her a freakin’ towel. Both girls dried themselves as I did my best not to look at their young breasts that were hidden by the small bikini tops. Their low-riding bottoms hugged their developing curves magnificently, and their bronzed skin showed no signs of any tan line either. I quickly needed to find something to do. Otherwise, I’d be busted looking at their bodies, and my life would be over. Okay, maybe not over, but I’d have a lot of explaining to do. So, I started checking on one of the umbrellas and made sure it was… well… still an umbrella…

“Uncle Ronald?” Sandra asked innocently behind me.

I turned around and saw that she was holding out a bottle of sunscreen in her hand. Yikes! They wanted me to apply that all over them? While a growing part of me was all in favor of that idea, a wiser part wasn’t sure about how good of an idea it was. I mean, I’ve done that for leggy models in this very spot, but for these two….? I tried distracting them by saying, “Please! Call me Ronald or Ron! That whole ‘Uncle’ stuff makes me feel old and saggy.”

“Okay, Un- Ronald. Would you mind helping us with our backs?”

“Yeah, please…” Sarah added as she lay down on her belly on one of the chaise lounges, “But you don’t look saggy to us, Ron!”

“No, not at all,” Sandra said as she handed me the sunscreen and lay down herself. “You’re quite handsome, actually.”

I didn’t know what to say or do. If I didn’t know any better, these two girls were hitting on me pretty heavily. But this was probably me, reading into something that wasn’t there, combined with the fact that I hadn’t gotten laid in almost a month. And there was no harm in applying sunscreen, was there?

“Alright! Who’s first?” I asked, trying to be as casual as possible.

“Do me,” Sandra said.

Oh, fuck… I had to stop hearing these things in my adult mind…

She was lying closest to me, so I knelt beside her chair and squeezed some of the milky-white sunscreen onto my hand. Rubbing them together, I glanced down at her. She had turned her head towards me, wearing a warm yet mischievous smile.

As I reached out to apply the sunscreen to her shoulders, my hands trembled slightly. It felt a bit ridiculous—I was simply assisting her with something practical, nothing remotely intimate. Parents do this for their kids all the time. Nevertheless, I continued without dwelling on it, making sure to keep my touches purely platonic.

As I worked the sunscreen into her shoulders and back, I avoided any accidental brushes near sensitive areas. I wouldn’t accidentally want to touch some side boob or anything even remotely close. When I reached the top of her bikini bottom, she remarked with a playful tone, “You’ve got strong hands, Unc- Ronald!”

“Thanks,” I replied, feeling stupid for getting nervous about this. I grabbed the bottle of sunscreen, moved over to Sarah, and said as confidently as I could, “Your turn.”

It was the same routine with Sarah. But when I was at her lower back, she surprised me by untying her top and pulling the back strings out of the way.

“Can you please do that bit again? I don’t wanna get sunburned there.”

I swallowed when I looked at her bare back. It was really no different than it was a second ago, but with having that string untied… oh boy… I manned up and said, “Sure!” and rubbed her entire back again. I was trying to be as casual about this as I could, but my dick betrayed me when I felt it started to grow in my pants.

“There you go,” I said and oozed down on the spare chair next to Sarah.

“Why don’t you take off your shirt and chill a bit with us?” Sarah asked as she fixed her top and tied it back together again.

She was spot on. I really needed to unwind. I was currently wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt and loose-fitting khaki shorts, casual enough for me to chill with the girls. I knew I wasn’t bad to look at. Several other women had complimented me on my abs and pecs. I was far from buff but maybe even further from a typical dad-bod. This might have something to do with the fact that I wasn’t a dad and actually had time to work out. So I casually shrugged, slipped off my shirt, kicked off my boat shoes, and settled down beside my nieces on one of the chaise lounges. We engaged in some light conversation, and with each passing moment, I found myself sinking deeper into relaxation, basking in the warmth of the sun and the joy of my nieces’ company. I started thinking about how I had gotten into this unusual situation.

* * *

I had just wrapped up a Teams meeting with my financial advisors when my phone buzzed. Glancing at the screen, I let out a deep sigh. It was my sister calling, and history told me it wasn’t going to be good news.

“Hey, Laura,” I greeted with forced cheerfulness, attempting to conceal my annoyance.

“Hi, Ronald.”

Uh-oh. When she went for the full name, trouble was brewing. Judging by her tone, it was trouble with a capital T.

“I just got a call from Lisa. And believe it or not, she just announced her divorce too!” Laura said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Really…”

Not exactly breaking news. I didn’t see my sisters that much, but each time I did, I was amazed at how cold their marital relationships seemed. Lisa’s marriage had been on life support for ages, and Laura’s own divorce last month had practically telegraphed her twin’s imminent split.

Ever since I was a boy, my younger twin sisters have always copied each other’s actions. As identical twins, they considered it their prerogative. From the moment I first laid my eyes on them, I knew I was in trouble. They were four years younger than me, infinitely annoying, and had gotten themselves in trouble more than I can remember. I had to pull them out of a couple of tight spots numerous times.

“Yeah…” Laura continued, “She finally had the guts to tell that douchebag to go fuck himself.”

“Okay…”

I kept my responses short, a strategy I’d learned over the years to avoid putting my foot in it. Laura was clearly on a roll, and I had no desire to interrupt her venting session.

“So, as we were talking about that shitty husband of hers, we decided that we deserved a break.”

In typical drama queen fashion, she paused for effect. I simply said, “A break…”

“A break, yes! We were both married for thirteen years, and we think it’s time for us to party!”

“To party… Right. You do realize you’re thirty-six, and it’s a bit sad when divorced women your age start hitting the clubs?”

“We don’t care, Ron. We need to let off some steam, period.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked. It was obvious that something was up. She never calls me just to complain. She does that with Lisa. No, she wanted something.

After another dramatic pause, she dropped the bomb, “Because Lisa and I think it’s a good idea that you look after the girls for a while…”

“What!? No way! I’m swamped over here, and—”

“Bullshit! And you know it! We all think it’s good for Sarah and Sandra to see how a normal male role model behaves. And I know it’s a bit unsettling, but we think you’re the closest thing to a normal male for them.” 

“But… I don’t have a clue how to babysit two eight-year-olds!”

“They’re twelve, almost thirteen, Ron…” Lisa corrected me. “They practically look after themselves. You’re just there to make sure they eat and won’t accidentally set the house on fire. I… we… well… We think it’s good if you guys reconnect. It’s good for you, too, you know?”

I sighed audibly, but after another short break, Laura dropped another bomb, “And it’s only going to be for a week.”

“A whole week?” I exclaimed.

“Don’t be a pussy, Ronald. It’ll be over before you know it. Trust me.”

I knew I was cornered, but I wasn’t about to surrender without a fight. “I… I can’t! I’ve got—”

My sister cut through my feeble protests, “We’ll drop the Esses off tomorrow morning so we can catch our flight in time. Make sure you’re ready.”

I paused for a second, feeling deflated, and said, “I’ll ask Maria to prepare two bedrooms.”

“You’re the best, Ron! See you tomorrow!”

“Whatever.”

I hung up, feeling defeated. Why did my sisters still have this much power over me? Sure, I liked my nieces, but babysitting was not on my agenda. Yet, as I contemplated the impending chaos to my life, Laura’s words stuck, and a small part of me looked forward to actually reconnecting with the girls. And I did feel a bit guilty for keeping them at a distance. Granted, their husbands had something to do with that. Actually, quite a lot, if I was honest. But they were still my sisters, and I was the one who always blew them off with some lame excuse. Maybe this was the start of reconnecting with them. Who knows.

My sisters did everything together. When Lisa had her first real boyfriend at fourteen, Laura had one a week later. Laura announced her marriage about a decade later, so Lisa announced hers six weeks after that. When Laura was pregnant, it only took Lisa a month to proudly announce her own pregnancy. As a result of this, my nieces were born four and a half weeks apart from each other. When the kids were together, which was nearly all of the time, people always asked if they were twins since they looked and dressed almost identically. And since both their names started with an S, the nickname ‘The Esses’ was born soon enough.

But the last time I saw them, they were about to turn nine, and now they were almost thirteen. I knew I wasn’t the best uncle in the world, and I felt a bit guilty for not seeing them as much as I wanted, as I didn’t have any children myself. So, the idea of looking after them now wasn’t as bad as I wanted Laura to believe. I actually looked forward to spending some time with them, but I didn’t want Laura or Lisa to know this.

However, my life had changed significantly since I last saw them. I had developed an early AI and ML model that caught the attention of big tech. When one of them came knocking to buy this tech, I initially refused their offer – and it was a generous offer! But I just knew I could do better. So, after almost another year of tweaking and tinkering, I had the feeling it was done and ready to conquer the world.

I realized I couldn’t market this alone. And I knew this would be a difficult task. As I was talking to a friend about this, by some miracle, the planets aligned, and I received the most important phone call of my life.

Another big tech company had been following me for a while and was highly interested in my project. And they made me an offer I just couldn’t refuse. I’d be filthy rich overnight, and I’d also get a decent percentage of stocks from that firm. Best of all, I could keep using my tech to further develop stuff I’d find interesting, and we’d renegotiate the terms if I would produce something interesting enough.

After I received the payment, I bought a vast piece of land near the ocean. On this land, there was an old, abandoned bomb shelter, lots of woods, but also a small, private beach. Steep cliffs surrounded my private beach, so I could work on my laptop while lounging in the sun and looking at the ocean without being disturbed by anyone. I hired an architect to build me a house on the cliff with lots of windows and natural light so I could see both the sea and the woods from up there.

This house turned out even better than I’d envisioned. It had a massive basement carved into the rocks, which I’d transformed into my workshop, seamlessly connected to the bomb shelter through a series of tunnels. It had a cozy movie theater that could fit a small group of people. A spacious outdoor and indoor pool that appeared to blend into the cliff, creating the illusion of diving straight into the ocean. And, of course, a generous living room, a fully equipped kitchen, and an oversized garage for my other passion: sports cars. I’d automated everything with AI and smart tools, but I’d also brought on some staff to lend a hand. Being a forty-year-old single man in a house this big was both liberating and suffocating.

My hair had recently turned more into a salt-and-pepper-colored bush. Thankfully, it was still a full and thick bush of hair. Despite working mainly behind a desk, I’ve always had the intrinsic motivation to stay fit. Before I struck it big with my software, I used to hit the gym at least three times a week. Now, with my own gym at home, I worked out almost daily. Good genes helped, but I never aimed to be buff. I didn’t want a dad-bod, but I wasn’t aiming for huge muscles either. I was fit, especially for my age, and proud of the shape I was in.

Enter Maria, my housekeeper. She was a pretty woman, and despite my attempts at flirting, she politely turned me down, revealing she was a lesbian. Initially disappointed, I considered letting her go, but our dynamic turned out to be perfect. We share a more roommate-like relationship than the typical boss-employee setup, with no underlying tension. It’s a powerful bond that transcends the professional.

But I liked to be alone. My sisters always teased me for being a hermit, but living alone in this spacious mansion feels like paradise to me. Sure, there was a brief stint when I lived the playboy life, cruising into town in my flashy sports cars, picking up one or two beautiful women to indulge in a night of passion at my mansion. Threesomes and foursomes weren’t uncommon, but every departure left me feeling like a sleaze and downright miserable.

Maria was always frank with me, and after another night of endless sex where she’d find me on the couch in my underwear looking like shit, she confronted me and asked, “Why do you put yourself through this, Ron?”

“Do what?”

“You’re pretending to be someone you’re not.”

“I’m not trying…”

“Yes, you are. Admit it. You’re a loner. You don’t need people. Just embrace it and keep a small circle of friends. That’s all you need!”

“I… I don’t…”

“Think about it,” Maria advised before walking away.

Maria was something else. Despite not being on my payroll for that long, she could read me like an open book and never shied away from telling it like it was. The more I reflected on it, the more I had to admit it. She was right! I loved being alone! Society had this misguided notion that solitude was a sad state and that people should pity those labeled as loners. But truth be told, I could go for weeks without a soul around, and I’d still be in high spirits.

Once I fully embraced this realization, my life settled back into a comfortable routine. Sure, I’d venture out occasionally, but the days of bringing a woman home were now more like a once-a-month thing rather than the nightly extravaganzas of the past. And you know what? I loved it! Maria’s company was enjoyable, and Hank, my groundskeeper, was a hilarious guy who always found a way to have fun with me. So, yeah, life was good.

And then, there was this impending disruption. Two young girls about to turn my peaceful haven into a playground. I gave Maria a mission: go out and stock up on board games, coloring books, and anything else that might entertain little kids. She gave me a curious look and shrugged but ultimately went ahead and did as I asked.

When she returned, I knew we needed to have a difficult conversation. Maria had requested a two-week vacation to Hawaii with her girlfriend Anna, and Maria was planning to propose to her during the trip. But I couldn’t manage the girls on my own; I needed Maria’s help. My heart sank when I heard her open the front door.

“What’s up, Ron?” Maria asked, noticing my expression.

“Can you sit down, please?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No! No… it’s just that…” I sighed deeply, “I can’t manage the girls on my own for a whole week. I know it’s short notice, but my sisters…”

“So… I can’t go on vacation?” Maria interrupted.

“It’s… uhm… I don’t think so, no. I’m really sorry, Maria, but I just can’t.”

“Well… fuck,” she muttered, leaning back in her chair, looking defeated.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you, and I’ll cover all the cancellation costs. But I really need your help right now.”

After a moment of silence, Maria stared into the distance, then stood up and looked me in the eyes. “Okay. But you have to promise to listen to me and not be stubborn. I practically raised my sister and little brother, so I know what I’m doing.”

“Deal!” I said, feeling immensely relieved.

I chuckled at how she stood with her hand on her hip, like a true diva. I stood up to give Maria a firm hug.

She quickly broke the hug and said, “I’ll go and call Anna. Not sure how she’s going to take this.”

“Good luck! I’ll call the travel agency and cancel everything. If you need anything, just let me know!”

Maria grabbed her purse and handed me all the information I needed to cancel everything. It was the least I could do, and I felt grateful and relieved that she was willing to stay and help me out.

“But don’t think I’ll forget this,” Maria said, her eyes flashing with intensity. “I’m helping you because you’re a nice guy, and I don’t want to lose this job. But I’m furioso about all this.”

“I understand,” I replied, knowing her well enough not to push back at that moment.

“It’s always me,” she continued angrily. “You don’t ask Hank to come back from his vacation.”

“That’s different, and you know it,” I said carefully.

Her anger seemed to simmer down a bit. The fire in her eyes softened as she looked at me and said, “I know. But it’s just…”

“I get it. And you have every right to be angry with me. But I promise I will make it up to you!”

“I know you will.”

With that, she turned and walked away from me. I had never seen her so upset before, and for a moment, I feared she might resign. Thankfully, her fiery Mexican temperament didn’t completely take over at that moment. 

End of part one

Copyright 2024 – Jason Crow
All rights reserved

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