Running into a new old friend

I decided to go out for another walk and see if any ideas came to mind. It had worked the last time. I didn't get far this time, though. I had just reached the sidewalk when Beth Ralston, our neighbor across the street, waved at me. Tools spread on the lawn indicated that she was getting ready to do some gardening; Beth was big on gardening. Although we weren't close friends with the Ralstons, gardening served as a connection between Beth and my wife.

Beth is 36 and works part time as a nurse (her husband Mike is a doctor, and a bit of a jerk, which is partly why I didn't hang out with Beth very much). They have an 18 year old daughter of there own, Melissa; she wasn't friends with either of my kids, though she was in the same class as Thomas. I took a good look at her: Beth is about 5'8", slender, with subtle curves. Her neck-length light brown hair, usually worn loose, was pulled back in a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes while gardening. I had always thought her a very attractive woman, in that abstract sense where married men, knowing they already have their partner, notice these kinds of things.

"Is Charlie in? I wanted to ask her for tips on these roses. Yours have been doing much better than mine," she asked.

"Charlie and the kids are out of town this weekend, visiting family," I replied. "I was supposed to go too, but work got in the way," I added conversationally.

"Damn," she said, looking at our garden. "Hers are beautiful, but my bushes grow and grow but don't put out any buds."

"You're talking to the wrong guy, Beth," I replied, smiling. "I know nothing about plants, as you well know."

"You and Mike, a couple black thumbs," she laughed, giving me a double thumbs down for emphasis.

I laughed a little in response, then asked "Where is Mike?" trying to sound causal. I had been subtly eyeing her up. I already had half an idea, and was wondering why I hadn't thought of it earlier.

"He's at the hospital, doing rounds this weekend," she replied. Perfect. Not that I couldn't have dealt with it had he been home, but one less thing to worry about. I had Power have her think it was perfectly reasonable and a great idea, then asked her if she'd like to join me for a swim (I had left the pool for now) before returning to her gardening. Of course, she agreed. I was worried for a second about Melissa, but as soon as I thought of that, she casually threw in that she was at her grandmother's house for the holiday. Beth went back into her house to get a swimsuit, while I headed back and changed into my trunks (I could find things again, now that my room was back to normal). I got a couple cans of soda for us, and then let Beth into the yard. I knew that she knew we didn't have pool, but at no point in this had she indicated this was strange.

I put the soda on the patio table (it came with the pool chairs) as she arrived. She was wearing a short terrycloth robe, open, over a fairly modest one piece suit, and flipflops. She sat down on one of the chairs, her robe opening in what might have been an interesting way in a less modest suit, and thanked me for the soda.

"Why hasn't she noticed I suddenly have a pool?" I asked Power, who appeared sitting on one of the empty pool chairs. "Unless you tell me otherwise, I simply have people ignore any inconsistencies that are generated, as you requested earlier (I guess I had, indirectly, when I had been playing with Lisa's body on the way from the ice cream shop). If you would prefer, I could change it so you always had a pool, but you have expressed **** in the past for such changes, as they will effect anyone who might have had cause to interact with the change." she explained. "For example, your family would now have had a pool and would have interacted with it all this time, which would change some of your specific history. Your son would be on the swim team instead of the soccer team, for example, as he would have spent much more time swimming as opposed to practicing soccer in the backyard."

I noticed during all of this that Beth was just sitting quietly on a pool chair, her arm extended, reaching for the soda but stopped midway, breathing but otherwise looking spaced out. I guess this was what happened when I talked to Power and nothing else was going on; other people would just 'pause' and not notice the passage of time. "Just leave it like this. You're right, I don't want to change things in the past unless I mean to. Actually, just leave the pool; no harm in having it going forward if it won't change anything in the past," I added, making my first permanent change. I figured no one would mind. Power vanished, sensing I was done talking to her, and Beth 'reanimated' grabbing for her (still cold; Power hadn't let things heat up while we talked) soda. She took a long swig of it, then put it back on the table, dropping her robe on the chair. We walked over to the pool, Beth stepping out of her flip flops at the edge, and jumped into the deep side. We each swam a bit, splashed each other a couple times, and then settled on the steps in the shallow end of the pool to sit and soak. I got out briefly to grab the sodas and set them on the edge of the pool, in easy reach.

Wanting to move things along, I made her totally relaxed and trusting; I was now her dearest and closest friend, in whom she could confide anything. She leaned back against the edge of the pool, stretching her legs and relaxing, looking much more comfortable in my presence than she had just before. I admired her flat belly (the suit might be once piece, but it wasn't particularly loose) and long legs. Her top covered her breasts completely, and the one piece was very high necked, almost but not quite having a collar. The wet fabric clung to her curves, showing off her well-shaped breasts, though. They were about medium sized, much smaller than Lisa's but good handfuls, as well as I could judge.

I asked her how things were going, which drew a sour look from her. Not well, it seemed. Now that I was her best friend, I got an earful of what a self-centered bastard Mike was, in some of her own choice words. I had never heard her talk like this before, but then again up to now I had been the random neighbor she barely knew whose wife she traded gardening tips with. Hearing negative things about Mike was not a shock (I didn't now him well, but things I had heard from Charlie over the years hadn't left me with a great impression) but it was still surprising hearing it from his wife, who was at least publicly quite devoted to him. Mike apparently liked to spend lots of money on golf, but badgered her about money spent on herself or their daughter, and didn't take kindly to being reminded of that fact. He was also apparently quite up on himself for making much more money than she did. He had yelled at her the night before (after Melissa left for her grandmother's) about money spent on a math tutor for her. "Five hundred bucks for a new putter is fine," she spat, "but fifty to help your kid with advanced algebra is a waste of money," she griped, shaking her head sadly.

"How's the sex going?" I asked, getting down to the nub of things. She looked slightly shocked for a second (I was still a guy friend, so I guess my previous change hadn't quite covered that. I made her ok with anything I asked). "Same as usual," she shrugged, casually. "He wants me to give him a blowjob, then lay back and spread my legs. As long as I do that twice a week, he's happy. But god forbid I should ask him to do anything. I can't remember the last time he made me cum; I always have to handle myself."

Perhaps I made her a little too open, but I ran with it. "You mean with a beautiful woman like you, he's not willing to really make love?" I asked.

"Thanks, " she replied, laughing sadly. "I needed to hear that." She sighed. "No, he doesn't like kissing, or fondling or giving oral, really giving anything for that matter. He just wants to stick it in somewhere and get his rocks off. But enough about my problems," she said, trying to lighten things, "how are you and Charlie doing?"

I assured her things were fine, and filled her in on some recent events with the kids. I of course didn't say a thing about Lisa or Power. We conversed about kids and schools for a bit; all our kids were graduating this year, so we actually had a lot in common regarding the challenges of getting ready for the kids to go to college. I was really enjoying our conversation and getting to know Beth in depth after having known her on an acquaintance basis for a couple years. I was actually fine being her friend. I felt bad for her; I would have to see if there was anything I could do to help her out. My first thoughts were of having Mike run over by a truck on his way home, but I that was way too much of an overreaction to what seemed to be mild assholeism and slightly neglecting his wife. Punishable offenses in my book, but not **** penalty worthy. He still deserved something, but I'd wait until I came up with something both less violent and less messy, and more in line with the severity of the crime.

Eventually the talk and the sodas ran out, so I went in to get some more drinks. When I came back out, Beth was finishing swimming a couple lengths, and we decided to move to the pool chairs, where she dried off her hair. I handed her another drink. She smiled and thanked me as she took the can, and I sat next to her. The smile added to her beauty, and she was starting to look very good to me. I also noticed that despite this supposedly being something to do "before she got back to gardening", she was in no hurry to leave.

The conversation veered around a lot after that; some more about schools, and somehow (I steered the conversation, but not too hard) got into talking about sex education. This led Beth to tell me about her first experience (I swear this was her idea); it was a backseat fuck that was over almost before it began, as a fumbling boy shot his wad with the excitement of entering. We laughed about it, and I told her about how I had done the same thing with one girlfriend, obviously on the other side. "We all go through such things to grow up," she laughed.

"The thing is, Tom, you grew up," she said, suddenly serious. "Mike didn't. He's still selfish," she said with exasperation. "Sexually and in other things. He wants his toys, he wants to play with them, and he doesn't want to be told to do things." She took a breath, looking away as she spoke.

Based on "My Reward" by Azil