The next morning

It was barely past sunrise when Natalie **** herself into the kitchen, mug in hand and her robe belted loosely at her waist. The apartment was dim and quiet, streaked with beams of sunlight from the rising sun as it filtered through slatted blinds. She stood still for a moment, letting the warmth of the cup rest in her palms, though she hadn’t taken more than a sip. The coffee had gone lukewarm, but she couldn’t find the motivation to reheat it.

Across the apartment, Lisa moved with her usual bounce, dragging a small rolling suitcase behind her, the phone wedged between shoulder and cheek as she hummed along to some distant, hold music. She looked like someone in the middle of a layover, not someone saying goodbye with her phone and her suitcase. Her voice was too chipper, with too much energy for this early in the morning for Natalie. She was always full of motion, always on. It didn’t help that Natalie had barely slept.

A door creaked open down the hall, a moment after Lisa had knocked once and called through with mock urgency, “Get your butt out here and give your mother a goodbye kiss!”

Aiden appeared, barefoot and rumpled, with his sweatpants low on his hips and a faded college tee clinging to one shoulder where it had twisted in his sleep. He blinked against the light, rubbing at his face as he shuffled into the room, still half-asleep. The faint line of hair that traced down his abdomen caught Natalie’s eye. It was only a smidge peeking out below the twisted t-shirt, dark, narrow, disappearing beneath the waistband of his sweats and she looked before she could stop herself.

Lisa clicked off her call and the never-ending hold music she was listening to and turned, brightening as she looked at her son. “Be good, okay? And don’t give Nat a hard time. She’s doing us both a favor.”

Aiden muttered, “Yeah, I know. I won’t,” his voice was still thick with sleep.

Lisa stepped in and gave him a quick, familiar mom style kiss on the lips, ruffling a hand through his messy hair.

Aiden blinked, suddenly more awake than he’d been a second ago. Her mouth. On his.

There was no trace of it now, just the soft sheen of her usual lipstick, and the faint taste of mint toothpaste lingering where her lips had touched. But all he could think about was how that kiss might’ve tasted last night, lips still swollen from their activities, coated with Natalie’s fluids.

No. This was his mom. He pushed the thought away, swallowing hard until he could **** a small smile as Lisa turned to Natalie.

Natalie watched the exchange with a smile, but her stomach tightened. There was nothing unusual in the kiss, nothing off. And yet, she remembered. The sound of Lisa’s voice in the dark. The feel of her hand. The things she’d whispered that Natalie had let happen and she’d wanted.

It was a kiss goodbye, but her body remembered where those lips had been before they landed on her son.

Rolling her eyes at Natalie, with exaggerated exasperation, Lisa remained unaware of the thoughts around her. “You’re a saint for this. Truly. One of these days I’ll find a way to repay you.”

Natalie smirked, still nursing her mug. “Maybe just don’t send me any more college boys.”

Lisa grinned. “No promises. With him here, there may be more around than you bargained for.” She wheeled her suitcase toward the front door, then glanced back over her shoulder. “Take care of my little boy, okay?”

Aiden groaned. “Mom! Jesus. I’m twenty.”

Lisa just smiled. “You’ll always be my baby.”

He shook his head and turned away, disappearing towards his bedroom with a mumbled, “Whatever. I’m going back to sleep.” Before the door closed, two more quick words came out. “Love you!”

As soon as his footsteps faded, Lisa stepped in close, drawing Natalie into a warm, unexpectedly tight hug. Natalie’s breath caught, with a faint gasp of surprise, as Lisa’s arms crushed her gently against her. Just as Natalie finally started to pull away, Lisa’s hand slid lower, tracing the curve of her spine before settling firmly on her ass, holding her flush against her body.

Then, not giving Natalie a chance to react, Lisa leaned up and kissed her. It was a firm, direct press of lips, no opening, no tongues, just a firm kiss, accompanied by a teasing nip at Natalie’s full bottom lip that sent a shiver through her.

“Thanks for last night,” Lisa murmured in a low purr, and her face still pressed against Natalie’s. She had a wide, genuine smile spreading across her features. Then, pulling back just enough to look in each other’s eyes more easily, a wicked smirk played on her lips as she added, “Maybe one day you’ll be sweet enough to introduce me to the guy that caused you to need to buy that toy.”

Natalie flushed instantly, a small, flustered sound catching in her throat. “Mmm, I don’t know if he’s earned that yet,” she murmured, not quite smiling or saying no either.

Lisa grinned, gave one last firm squeeze of Natalie’s supple ass paired with a low, playful growl and then turned for the door. Her suitcase wheels clicked across the tile at the entry way to the apartment, as it trailed behind her.

The door closed shut behind her, and just like that, the apartment fell into silence again.

She set her mug down, Lisa’s voice still echoing in her head, Take care of my little boy.

It had been an offhand comment, intended for teasing, but the words stuck. Her little boy.

Natalie almost smiled at the phrase, except… Aiden wasn’t little.

But he was twenty. Still so young in her mind, still close enough to younger that Lisa said it without irony. And yet the woman he lived with now wasn’t his mother’s age. Not even close.

She pulled in a breath and told herself to let it go. Still, it felt strange having someone that age under her roof. The last time she’d lived with a guy in his twenties, she’d been in her twenties too. Back then it made sense, but now… now, it felt oddly out of place as well as unexpected. Lisa had implied there might be others, his friends, more noise. He was used to dorm life, which came with shared spaces and constant activity.

Aiden wasn’t a teenager, but he also wasn’t someone she would’ve imagined sharing a hallway with at this point in her life. College felt like another life altogether. She’d been married for part of it. Even then she was settled and focused on becoming someone else entirely. Filled with dreams of her career.

Now here she was, ten years later, divorced, rebuilding… and a twenty-year-old was about to start leaving dishes in her sink.

She let out a quiet breath and turned toward the sink. The wine glasses from the night before were still there, along with Lisa’s scent lingering faintly in the bathroom. A pink hair tie sat forgotten on the bathroom counter. The bed was rumpled. Everything already seemed affected by the mother, and the son she left behind, in what has been her home alone for almost the last year.

She walked past Aiden’s closed door on her way to the laundry room, paused, and considered knocking, but what would she say? Instead, she kept walking, remembering he said he was going back to bed. She opened her bedroom door and shut it quietly behind her.

This apartment had been her space. Her reset. Her quiet, post-divorce calm. And now? Now it came with a twenty-year-old living across the hall. Lisa’s little boy living in her grown woman’s life.

Enjoying the story? You can support my work on Patreon where this story is currently through chapter 67 at the time of this posting. Happy reading!