It had been a long year for Emeka. The longest, most difficult of his life. His wife of 20 years – Lolade, the love of his life and mother of his two beautiful daughters – passed away two months ago, after a long and gruelling battle with ovarian cancer.
Now that the funeral and the initial chaos of it all was over, the reality of it all had begun to set in. She wasn’t coming back. Things would never really be normal again. He was on his own.
And that’s why he had returned to Onitsha, where he had grown up. He had only agreed to live in Lagos because his wife was from there and couldn’t stand the thought of moving far away from her family. But that wasn’t an obstacle any more and now, more than ever, Emeka needed to be where his heart was, where his family and best friends still lived, in Anambra.
He had travelled without the girls (who were with his wife’s parents) so he could interview for jobs and try to find a house for them. As much as he hated to leave them so soon after their mother had died, he badly needed some time without them, to get his head right and to figure some things out. And it would only be a week.
Rather than stay at a hotel, he had taken up his friend Odeh’s offer to let him stay at his place. Odeh was Emeka’s best friend since secondary school, and his wife, Iveren, was a wonderful person who had been very close to Lolade.
They had both insisted that Emeka stay with them in their amazing mansion. They had no kids and plenty of room, and Emeka liked the idea of staying out in their house, which reminded him a lot of the property he had grown up on, the one his parents had sold years ago.
It was absolutely beautiful, the grass fields, the evergreen trees, the lake in the background. He had forgotten how much he loved the East. There was nowhere better to clear his head.
But it was clear that Odeh and Iveren, like everyone else, didn’t quite know how to act around him. Everything was tentative like they didn’t want to do or say the wrong thing, like they thought they had to be somber instead of their normal funny and fun-loving selves.
So Emeka did his best to encourage them to just be themselves and to treat him like they would have if nothing had happened.
It took them a while, but by the second night, they had adjusted to his presence and were acting much more like the couple he had known for so long. Odeh grilled up dinner and cracked an occasional joke (though not as many as he normally would), and Iveren, who was one of the more beautiful people Emeka had ever met, inside and out, was a little closer to her normal effervescent self.
Emeka had always been a little captivated by Iveren, though he had tried his hardest not to let it show around Lolade.
Iveren was a professional massage therapist. And she was gorgeous. She had striking features and plenty of curves. And like a lot of people in the area, she had just a bit of witty in her.
Tonight she wore a loose, backless shirt that tied around her neck and showed quite a bit of her ample chest.
As beautiful as she was, it was her personality that really captivated Emeka. Though she didn’t have any kids of her own, she had a very nurturing, motherly aura to her and an effortless charm.
She was the kind of person who seemed completely comfortable in her own skin, not remotely arrogant, but the kind of person who Emeka could not imagine hid any insecurities or ever felt shy or inhibited.
As Odeh worked in the backyard, Emeka sat on the verandah, admiring the view. It was a perfect early day and the view of the lake was stunning. He felt an arm around his neck. It was Iveren coming up from behind him, a beer in her hand. He took the beer and thanked her, but she kept her arm around his neck and sat down next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“I’m so glad you decided to stay with us, Emeka. You know how much we love you, right?”
“I do,” Emeka replied, “And I’m glad I came. I had forgotten how beautiful it is here.” As Emeka said that, he glanced down to his side. With Iveren leaning into him the way she was, he could see straight down her shirt. She was not wearing a bra and the view was almost as beautiful as the lake in front of him.
The sight of her breasts and the warm contact of her body against his caused a stirring inside him that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It had been a long time since Emeka had had any intimate contact.
Lolade had been sick for a long time before she died, too sick for sex. How long had it been since he had done anything but jerk off? Nine months? A year? Whatever it was, it was too long. Emeka could feel himself getting an erection, which was a little embarrassing.
He stood up, maybe a little too abruptly, and walked over to talk to Odeh. He hoped he hadn’t offended Iveren.
Despite that brief moment of awkwardness, they went on to have a pleasant night, the best one Emeka had had since Lolade died.
The fried rice and beef were amazing and they each had quite a bit to drink, which helped them overcome the awkwardness and find that old familiar dynamic, or at least a reasonably close facsimile.
That night, as he lay in his bed in the guest bedroom, Emeka heard Odeh and Iveren. The house was very quiet, with walls dividing the rooms, but no ceiling other than the top of the A-frame itself. So sound carried easily across the house. It began with the rhythmic sound of a bed creaking, soon followed by a soft moaning, which grew steadily louder and more insistent.
They were clearly having sex. And the house’s acoustics made it feel like Emeka was in the room with them. It was the most voyeuristic thing Emeka had ever experienced.
He felt like he was an intruder, that he was violating his friends’ privacy. But he was also instantly and intensely aroused. He felt like a man who hadn’t eaten in two weeks and had suddenly walked into the kitchen of an Italian restaurant.
His libido, which had been buried deep down by the hardship and grief of the last year, had suddenly reawakened, and with a vengeance.
Emeka pulled off the sheets and shimmied his boxers down, freeing his rock-hard erection. As Iveren’s moaning grew louder, he stroked his cock furiously. As she seemed to climax, so did he, letting out an involuntary groan that he only afterwards realized must have been audible to Odeh and Iveren. As he lay there, soaked in his own cum, the house was silent.
…
The next morning Emeka slept in. He had a little too much to drink. By the time he made it downstairs, Odeh had already left for the day. Iveren was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea. When she saw Emeka, she gave him a big smile and got up to pour him a cup.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, “you had quite a bit last night.”
“Not great, actually. I think I’m getting old. I can’t hold my liquor any more.”
She smiled again, “I’m sorry we kept giving you drinks. But I think you needed it.”
She was right. Last night was the closest Emeka had felt to ‘normal’ in a long time. It was absolutely what he’d needed.
“I tell you what,” she continued, “I think I know what’ll make you feel better. Let me give you a massage today. I don’t have to work until this afternoon.”
“I don’t know know, Iveren. I appreciate the offer, but…”
“Oh come on, Emeka. Don’t overthink this. I’m good at what I do. You’ll feel better afterward.”
Emeka felt a little awkward about having his best friend’s wife give him a massage. But she was a professional and he was just another client. And he didn’t really feel like arguing with her.
“Okay, why not,” he finally said.
…
A half-hour later, Emeka walked into the living room, where Iveren had set up her massage table. As instructed, he was wearing just a towel wrapped around his waist. And he felt very awkward about it. He never had a professional massage before and had no idea what was normal.
Iveren smiled as he entered the room. She was wearing a white dress with a string that tied around her neck, the kind of thing women wore over their bathing suits at the beach, but he wasn’t sure what (if anything) she had on underneath it.
It fit her snuggly, accentuating her curves, and it ended mid-thigh. Emeka felt a stirring in his groin and was suddenly aware of how little material he had covering his penis. He looked away, hoping to eliminate the source of the stimulation.
“Hop on the table, Emeka, and lie on your stomach. You can let the towel drape down.”
Emeka did what he was told, thankful to be on his stomach. He undid the knot in the towel and let it drape down over the table, his balls and semi-erect penis making direct contact with the cool vinyl surface of the table.
Iveren squirted some oil onto her hands and walked over to him. The second she touched his shoulders it felt like a jolt of electricity shooting through him. God, how he missed human touch, real skin-on-skin contact. Just that little bit of contact was enough to make him erect. He shifted his position a little to give his cock some space.
“Did that hurt?” she asked, probably noticing his squirming.
“Oh god no. It feels great. I’m just…well…it’s been a while since anyone’s touched me like that.”
As soon as the words came out, Emeka wished he could take them back. The way he said it made it sound sexual, which is not what he had intended. But Iveren was the kind of person who seemed immune to awkward moments, the kind of person who took everything in stride. And this was no exception.
“I completely understand, Emeka.” Her tone was immediately reassuring, calm, and unfazed. “Human touch is a basic need, like food or water or shelter. You can only go so long without it.”
As her hands moved from his shoulders to his back and sides, Emeka had to acknowledge the truth of her words. He needed this in the worst way. After massaging his lower back, she moved all the way down to the end of the table and began massaging his toes and feet.
She slowly worked her way up his legs, eventually reaching his hamstrings. She hadn’t said much up until that point, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. Emeka felt completely relaxed. As she began working his hamstrings, she began to talk again.
“You know, Emeka, I think we owe you an apology. We’re not used to having guests here and we forget how sound travels in this place.”
Emeka froze. She was talking about the sex last night, wasn’t she? With anyone else, Emeka would have been mortified and tried to end the conversation as soon as possible. But something about Iveren was disarming; he never seemed to fear where a conversation might go.
She continued, “We had a good time with you last night, and more to drink than we normally do, and, well, we weren’t really thinking. I hope we didn’t make things awkward for you.”
For a moment, Emeka considered playing dumb, acting like he didn’t know what she was talking about. But what was the point? Plus, he suspected his own climax had been audible as well, in which case, she would know he was lying. So he decided to just be honest.
“You don’t have to be sorry. It’s your house, and I would hate to think that I was cramping your style by being here. And … well … if I’ve learned anything over the last couple of years, it’s that life is short. Too short to pass up moments like that.” Tears welled up in Emeka’s eyes and he barely got those last words out.
A moment later, he felt Iveren’s lips press against his cheek. “You’re a wonderful person, Emeka.”
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