Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 22:34:15 -0800 From: J. Ocean Subject: my-seventeenth-summer-2 My Seventeenth Summer, Part 2 I ended up doing all sorts of things for Madeleine that summer. I went over to her place the next day. It was a beautiful house--kind of a bungalow, fenced in and set back from the street, surrounded by trees and garden. Madeleine answered the door dressed in a charcoal-gray suit, looking a little harried. "Come on in, Morgan," she said. "I'm sorry, but I'm kind of in a hurry. I didn't think I was going to have to go into the office today, but there's been kind of an emergency. As you can see..." she said, gesturing around her, "the place is kind of a mess. I haven't had much time for housework lately. Let's see...could you do the dishes, pick up the clothes, mow the lawn, and, well, anything else that seems like it needs doing?" I nodded. "Sure, Madeleine. No problem." She smiled broadly at me. "Great. Here's my card," she said, handing it to me, "in case you need to call me at the office. But try not to unless you really have to, OK?" "OK." "Thanks, Morgan. I'll try to be back in a few hours." And with that she was out the door. I spent a while just wandering around, getting a feel for the place. It was a great house, gorgeously decorated, but she wasn't kidding--it was a mess. Clothes were scattered everywhere, the kitchen was overflowing with dirty dishes, the garden was overgrown, and the lawn looked like it hadn't been mowed in months. So I put on some music and jumped into it, washing dishes, mopping, dusting, vacuuming, and scrubbing. I picked up the dirty clothes and washed them. Madeleine's underwear was uniformly of the highest quality. I have to admit that, feeling naughty with no one around, I couldn't help sniffing her panties. The aroma was powerful and intoxicating and got me to daydreaming about Madeleine standing there in just those panties, as I dropped down to my knees and slid them off.... But I shook it off and got back to work. It was a nice fantasy and nothing more. I headed outside and spent a long time weeding and trimming hedges, then took on the tall, wild grass with the mower. By the time Madeleine got home around sunset, I had made a lot of progress. She nodded approvingly as she looked around. "I can't believe you did all this in one day, Morgan. You're an angel." She asked me how many hours I'd worked and insisted on paying me $20 an hour. I was stunned; that was more than twice what I usually made. I told her that it was too much. She fixed me with a stern look. "Listen, Morgan, you're worth it. And you should never work for less than you're worth. If it's something you really want to do, then be ready to do it for nothing. Otherwise, don't accept less than you deserve. It makes people lose respect for you." I took the money. After that, Madeleine had me come back several times a week. She had me do more and more as time went on, from washing her car to cooking her meals. I made enough from working for her that I was able to drop my other clients and basically become her full-time employee. Madeleine's house became my home away from home. In fact, I was more comfortable there than at my own house, because Madeleine treated me much more like an adult than my parents did. There was never any doubt that she was in charge, but she was never condescending and generally assumed I knew what I was doing. At first I mostly saw Madeleine coming and going, but eventually I got to know her a little better. The more I got to know her, the more powerful became my feelings of admiration and attraction. She was so smart, so strong, so focusedŠnot to mention so beautiful. The combination made for a staggeringly sexy woman. Most of the time she was serious and no-nonsense, but when she relaxed she had a great sense of humor and a hearty, infectious laugh. Still, there was always an alluring air of mystery about her. I tried to figure out what the story was with her love life, but I didn't feel comfortable coming out and asking, and she never mentioned anything about it. I wondered if she might be gay, and tried to get a sense of if she was attracted to me, but for some reason I just couldn't read her. My usual intuition didn't seem to work on her. I learned that Madeleine liked to have a martini when she got home from work, so I started listening for her car in the driveway and trying to have one ready by the time she got inside. That always put a big smile on her face, and she'd take off her shoes, sit down, and tell me about her day before I made dinner. It was kind of like I was her wife, which was weird but also cool. There was just something about her that made me want to make her happy. I started to have these dreams about Madeleine. We would always be going some normal place, doing some normal thing--grocery shopping, eating at a restaurant, just driving around. Except Madeleine was always fully clothed and I was always naked. The weird thing was, even though we were in public, it felt completely natural to be naked. I never felt embarrassed or self-conscious; I was confident and content being with her. I'd wake up from these dreams in the middle of the night all hot and wet and have to jerk off to get back to sleep. I thought about her a lot during the day, too, but I didn't know what to do about it. I never considered trying to make a move on her. For one thing, I was afraid of ruining our relationship if she rebuffed me. For another, I was only 16, and even if she were attracted to me, it would be risky for her to get involved with me; people in our neighborhood were nosy, and she could go to jail. More than that, though, Madeleine just wasn't the kind of person you made a move on. She was always in control; if she was interested in me, she'd let me know. So I waited. I did my work and I looked at her and thought about her and made her drinks. I dreamed my dreams and, though it was driving my crazy, I just waited for something to happen.