I was finally able to plop down on a sofa outside the banquet hall. They were all dancing inside and having a good time. The bride and groom were gone. The cleaning crew were waiting. People were starting to trickle out and go home or back to the hotel. I had organized things before—a company picnic, a family vacation, projects at work. Nothing compared to the three-ring circus that was my daughter’s wedding.

One of the ladies in the cleaning crew peered into the hall, rolled her eyes and shook her head at the others.

“We’re almost done,” I told her. “Wait.”

The lady glared at me for a moment.

“Where’s Julio?” I asked, naming their manager.

The lady retreated, giving me a quiet apology.

Months of preparation, intense days, dealing with guests, fighting with caterers, wrangling bridesmaids, managing rehearsals like a drill instructor, stressing over budgets, combating with a Bridezilla, and I wasn’t about to take attitude from a cleaning woman.

But we were going into overtime. I decided to get up from the comfortable sofa and get back to the party. It was a happy day for almost everyone except me. I just wanted to go home.

Leyla, my sister, was heading outside for a cigarette break. “Did Jack leave already?”

She was referring to my ex-husband Jack who reentered our lives after three years just to walk his daughter down the aisle. He stayed for the party. Now he was headed back Texas where he was living now.

“Yup. And good riddance to him,” I said.

“I think my kid’s waiting for you,” she said with a squinty, curious look and a smile as she went outside.

Hanging by the door inside the hall was Toby, my nephew. He had taken off the tie of his black groomsman suit.

“Aunt Mel,” he said, with a goofy grin, happy to see me.

I sighed. Everyone was dancing except him. His bridesmaid partner was dancing with several people. Toby had probably spent most of the wedding reception by the wall or at his table on his phone.

He came to give me a hug even though we had talked an hour ago.

“Mm,” I said playfully as he wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my cheek. Being a foot taller than me, he had to bend down to do it. Then he kissed the other cheek, like he always did. He was always so comfortable around me. He was probably the only family member I hadn’t yelled at during the wedding preparations.

I held his cute face in my hands and looked at him seriously. “Why aren’t you dancing?”

He shrugged. “I don’t want to.”

His body was moving with me to the rhythm of the loud music. “Really?” I said.

He laughed that sheepish laugh he does and started dancing with me.

“Don’t be a wallflower,” I said to him. “Where’s Cathy? She likes you.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“She said she doesn’t like me and that she wants to dance with other people.”

I put my hands on my hips and looked around for Cathy among the flock of women in pink dresses dancing in a line. I had specifically chosen her as Toby’s partner because I thought they’d have some chemistry being the same age, both being seniors in high school and into the same silly comic book movies.

“I don’t care,” Toby said.

“Did she really say that?” Ooh, I had more yelling to do tonight.

Then I spotted Babs, the bubbly, chubby college girl who loved to dance with anyone, who was flirty and sweet, a little promiscuous I heard but that’s okay. A popular girl, she usually had a whole bunch of friends around her, but for a moment she was alone, looking at her phone.

“Go dance with Babs,” I said to him urgently.

“I don’t want to dance.”

“Go. Now. I have to get back to work.”

“The party’s over.”

“Not for me. It’s not over till we land back in Chicago. Now go. Hurry, before someone else sweeps her up.”

He hesitated, shuffling his feet, looking a little distressed.

I pulled out my phone to send a text message, but I kept urging Toby.

“Don’t visit me later unless you’ve danced with her,” I said. And he sauntered over to Babs, who looked up at me having received my message. She smiled at Toby, gave him a warm hello, took his hand and secretly nodded to me. She pulled him onto the dance floor in time to finish up the cha-cha dance.

Julio, in charge of the cleaning crew, opened the door.

“Give us a half hour,” I said without even looking up.

“Ma’am—” he began to say.

I turned to him. “Just a half hour. We paid a lot for this fucking room. Don’t worry. We’ll be out in a half hour. I promise. Okay? Go chill for a bit.”

He exhaled angrily but walked away.

When he was gone, I looked over at the DJ who was looking at me and I twirled my index finger. He announced a last call for drinks. I looked back at the dance floor and smiled. Babs was spinning Toby around.

My daughter wanted to get married in California, where her finance was living. So, our families booked a hotel near the banquet hall in Anaheim for a week. And every night, Toby would come visit my hotel room to drink tea with me.

He wasn’t into tea. He just wanted to see me. I found it amusing. We’d have little conversations on the sofa, watching TV, sometimes holding hands, and then he’d give me an extremely long hug good night that sometimes ended with him smothering my face with kisses. It was cute. Harmless, I figured.

An hour later, as the last few of us finally left the banquet hall, I looked around for Toby and Babs. Babs came to me and told me Toby had left already with his mom and little brother. Babs was going to the after party at some club in Hollywood.

“You coming?” she asked. “I want to catch a celeb.”

“I don’t party like that. I’m going home to a shower and a nice cup of tea.”

“A cup o’ tea?” she said with a cockney accent. “You’re so old, Melinda. Come out and have some fun.” She looked around to see if anyone could hear. “Come out and get drunk and get fucked before you go back to work.”

“Ha,” I shook my head. “Sounds tempting. That’s more your thing.”

“Divorced and not enjoying it? What is wrong with you?” Babs gave me a hug before heading off. “Say goodnight to Toby for me. He ran off without saying shit to me. He’s so rude.”

“He’s shy.”

“Whatever. Shyness is still rudeness.”

I was hoping Toby would not come visit me. It was our last night in California and I had worked like a dog today and I just wanted to sleep. After a shower, I put on my long nightgown and I started preparing my herbal tea. I decided to put the “do not disturb” sign on my door to keep Toby from coming. I went to the door and opened it.

…Just as Toby was just about to knock on it.

I sighed. He was biting his lip and looking down at his feet.

“I danced with her,” he said finally, pointing at me without looking.

I leaned my head on the door and nodded. “You did.”

“I actually walked up to her.”

“And she was receptive, wasn’t she? See? All you had to do was ask someone at the right time, right? And she liked you. Even though you didn’t say bye to her…”

“I guess.” He saw the door sign I was holding, and his shoulders fell. “You’re going to sleep right away?”

“Yeah,” I said. He put his hands in his pocket and looked down the hall. “I’m sorry, Toby.”

He nodded. He sniffed. “Tea?” He finally made eye contact with me.

“Of course,” I smiled at him and took his hand. “Just for me, though. I’ll see you tomorrow morning when we head out, okay?”

“Okay,” he said. But he was staring at the floral print of my nightgown.

I swung his hand a little to shake him out of the little trance he was in. He moved closer to give me his signature hug. He bent his knees. He wrapped his arms around my waist. I was ready to put my arms around his neck when he kissed me.

Not on the cheek.

“Toby!”

That goofy mischievous smile on his face was infectious.

I shook my head at him, but he did it again.

“Gotchu again,” he said.

He tried to do it a third time, but I turned my head in time. And his lips landed safely on my cheek. But he wasn’t just kissing. More like nibbling. And he was moving to my neck. I started squirming a little. His arms were holding me tighter, pulling me even closer into him. I thought I felt wetness, too. I looked at him sternly but that only left my lips vulnerable. And he went for it.

My lips responded to him instinctively. Even as my head moved back, my lips betrayed me, kissing him back. I was holding his face now and tilting my head and opening my mouth wider. His tongue was out. I wanted to shake my head to say this should not be happening, but I was stunned by this, by my own reaction to it.

I pulled away from his lips and his tongue finally to catch a breath. He buried his face into the other side of my neck, kissing, licking and nibbling on all the parts he missed.

“Toby,” I tried to say. “Toby, what are you doing?” I looked down the hall. “Someone will see.”

He bent down a little more, so his face was beneath me. I held his face and looked into his eyes.

His hands, though!

I closed my eyes.

His hands were all over the silk of my nightgown, feeling up my back, playing with the thin straps. Then his warm hands were on my bare back.

It’s been a while since I had a hand on my butt, but there it was, my nephew’s hand fondling my ass cheeks, pinching it, grabbing it, tugging at the thin silk covering it, his fingers sliding between the butt cheeks. I was squirming crazily, jerking my body here and there, not used to these sensations.

And he was so strong. He wrapped his arms around my hips. He started lifting me a little.

“Oh!” I cried out in surprise, before covering my mouth quickly and glancing down the hallway.

He laughed quietly. I tapped him furiously to put me down. He shook his head. There was that goofy grin again. Oh, God, I want to kiss him some more. But I gave him an angry look.

“Put me down,” I insisted through gritted teeth.

He landed me gently back on the carpet.

I was ready to push him away, but he stood up tall, towering over me. All I could do was place my hands weakly on his chest and look up at him as he started kissing me again. My lips opened for him. I closed my eyes. I could feel his hands pulling up the nightgown. I mumbled a protest, but I couldn’t pull out of the kiss.

The tea, I remembered. And I pulled away from him to go back into the hotel room.

I hurried back to the small kitchen of the room. Most of the water in the pot had boiled away, but there was still some left. I turned off the stove. Then I held on to the counter, trying to process what was happening.

I heard Toby close the door behind him as he walked into the room. I was breathing hard. I was thinking about Leyla in the room down the hall. What would she think? I figured I should put a stop to this. I nodded to myself.

Before I could turn around, Toby was behind me.

Not just behind me. Right on me. Body grinding into mine. And those arms around my waist again. And his lips on my bare back. And his hands touching the silk over my thighs. Up to my navel. My stomach. He wouldn’t dare, I thought. He dared. His hands were on my breasts now, touching, groping, squeezing.

This is so wrong, I thought. Toby was already too attached to me emotionally. How crazy would it get if he became attached to me sexually? Someone must be the adult here, I reasoned. But I couldn’t listen to reason with my hard nipples being stimulated the way they were, or with his other hand sliding down my body and stopping right, ooh, right there between my legs.

I moaned.

I turned to face him.

The look on my face made him stop. Our eyes were locked.

I touched the straps of my nightgown. He stepped back, staring. I moved towards him and he moved backwards back into the main room. I pulled the straps slowly over my shoulders. And I let the nightgown slip onto the floor between my ankles.

Toby stood there in awe.

I stood before him only in my panties.

He was breathing hard.

I stepped over the gown and stared playing with the lacey hem of my panties. I moved towards him again. I made him sit on the bed. I stood between his legs. He sat up. I guided his head towards me. He held my body and suddenly started kissing everything he could—my chest, my breasts, my belly, my pelvis, my navel, my hips, my thighs.

He touched my panties and looked up at me, questioningly. I smiled at him and nodded. He pulled the panties down like he was about to discover long lost treasure. And it had been so long since I had been someone’s treasure. He had it down to my ankles but was staring at the precious discovery. I lifted a foot so he could pull the panties off and toss them aside.

Then he knelt on the floor and buried his face into the hair of my pussy. His tongue found its way in. I held the top of his head and threw my head back.

“Oh, God,” I whispered. “Oh, God.”

His hand held my ass while he licked every inch of my pussy, every nook, just exploring until he found a sweet spot. The way I jumped encouraged him. He focused on that spot.

“Oh, no,” I said hoarsely, grinding into his face. “Oh, God, yessss.”

I pushed him back onto the bed and took a second to recover.

Then I sat on him, straddling him, facing him. He was eager to start kissing again. I wanted to feel what he had between his legs. I writhed around on top of him so I could feel it. There it was. I smiled at him. He gave me a quick kiss. I moved around some more to feel it nice and hard.

“Ah,” I said and gave him a little giggle. I reached down and started undoing his pants. He helped to get it off quickly. And we pulled on his boxers together. A cute team effort. We laughed as we hurried to get his clothes off. And when his cock was out, I sat back and gave a shocked gasp.

“Toby!” I said.

I crouched down between his legs and touched it with one hand and reached up and touched his face with the other.

“My God, Toby,” I said again.

He had that sheepish look on his face again. I grabbed a hold of the cock. I moved my face closer to it. Now he was squirming with anticipation. His fists were clenched. My lips brushed past it. He looked tense. His muscles were tight.

I was going to be his first, wasn’t I? I opened my mouth. He gasped, waiting for it. I started slipping it into my mouth. A small audible breath escaped his lips. As I took it slowly into my mouth, he groaned. As I pulled it out, his body moved up. And just as I was about to put it in again…

There was a loud knock on the damned door.

I scrambled up to get my nightgown. He pulled his boxers and pants back up.

When I was sure he was fully dressed, I opened the door.

Leyla looked worried. “Have you seen Toby? I can’t find him anywhere. He’s not answering my messages. I know he usually comes to see you, but he should’ve been back by now—”

She stopped when she saw Toby walking towards her.

“Ta-da,” I said. “There he is. We were just about to have tea. Want some?”

“No, I’m good,” Leyla said, with a furrowed brow and a curious look on her face. “Everything okay in here?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. Why?”

Leyla shook her head. “You’re coming, Toby?”

“Yeah,” he said, marching over to her a little awkwardly.

Leyla moved aside and watched Toby go down the hallway back to their room. I focused on filling the pot with water, but I could feel her eyes on me. Once the water was in and getting hot, I had nothing else to focus on. So, I looked at my sister. She didn’t say anything. She just looked at me with her lips tight before turning around and walking out.

I exhaled loudly and buried my face in my hand.

Then I noticed them on the floor.

I closed my eyes and said to myself, “Oh, damn.”

My panties.

I pounded the top of my fist on my forehead. Our flight home tomorrow was going to be interesting.