And after a long pause, she made her decision and reached over to turn off the stove."Okay, but we'll do this on my conditions or not at all. Come to ...y room in 15 minutes. I want us to do things right, in my bed."***When the time came, Tom slowly opened his mother's bedroom door. She stood there waiting for him. Her simple sun dress and her sloppily tied pony tail was no longer there. This time, her hair was let down, neatly combed, and was pulled behind her ears. She applied make-up around. Feeling an urge, I decided it was best to hold out a bitlonger, so I returned to my Mistress Kellie. She was relaxing on thecouch with a glass of wine, "All finished little one?" she chided. Shehanded me a toddler's sippie cup and told me to sit by her feet.Drinking my wine from a cup like that was a bit exciting; it wasdecorated with pink flowers and even had my name on it. She then asked,"Stacy, are your diapers still dry?" I nodded that they were. "Wellthey won't be for long" she replied.. I swam around a bit aware that the girl kept glancing at me. Finally after a few minutes she said "We live in the same building don't we?" "Yes we do" I replied, "I'm Dave by the way". "Hi, I'm Christy". "Nice to finally meet you Christy". We chatted a bit about the apartment complex and what my job was, the school she went to, just the usual banter. Turned out Christy was 16 years and just finished up the 10th grade.Our conversation continued when she asked me "Do you come to the pool often?". You doing what you did made me realize…” she doesn’t finish, pursing her lips, looking at the water between us. “Chanel, there aren’t enough ways to tell you how sorry I am,” I say, sitting up a little straighter. “I acted out of fear, angry after my first marriage ended . I didn’t want to feel the way I was feeling ever again. I wanted you in my life, but at arm’s length, and that wasn’t fair, and I’m sorry. But I’m not afraid to be serious about you anymore. I know how it feels to lose you,.