The next week passed as normal. Jade and I had sex most evenings, but it was in the privacy of the bedroom and little was said about the events of the previous weekend. As we lay together in post-coital bliss Jade suddenly propped herself up on her elbows and stared at me, looking deep into my eyes.
“What?” I asked, returning the stare.
Jade didn’t reply.
“Is there something on my face? Have a got a hair between my teeth, although if I have, I am not sure where it came from seen as you don’t have any.”
Jade laughed, “Chris, I have been thinking.”
“Whew, I wondered what that noise was, thought we might have ghosts or possibly rats.”
“Will you just shut up for a minute, I am trying to be serious,” Jade paused as she seemed to be trying to find the right words.
Just for a moment, there was fear in my mind that perhaps Jade was about to call time on our relationship but then she said something equally frightening.
“It’s my birthday next month and I am going to tell my parents about us. I think it is time I told people and so I want to start with those most important to me, my mum and dad.”
Early on in the relationship, I knew that I loved her. I also knew that she had parents who were around the same age as me, but I had blanked them out, feeling that it was perhaps better if they did not know about us. I was also a bit of a pessimist, thinking that the relationship would end before it came to the point where she would have to tell them.
“Say something, do you not want me?” tears had started to form in Jade's eyes.
“Of course I bloody do, but are you sure you really want to tell them?”
“Why not? Are you saying that you are embarrassed by me, am I not good enough?”
It was shocking to see this. She was normally so confident in everything she did around me, yet suddenly she had reduced to a frightened, tearful young woman.
I tried to make light of the situation, “Of course not, what guy my age would not want someone as beautiful and as fit as you on their arm?”
“And yet, have you told anybody at work about me, about us?”
“Well no, but...”
“So you are embarrassed by me then?”
“No, no I am not.” This was not going well. I was making a right cock-up of it, struggling to cope with all the emotions running around the room, “It was more that I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
I was about to say more, but decided that anything I said from there would only make things worse. In her worked-up state of wanting to tell her parents about us, Jade could very quickly twist anything I said.
“Just how would you embarrass me? Just be honest, you are just scared of being judged, called a cradle snatcher. Just be honest, you are viewing this as a bit of fun, shag a teenager and dump her if she starts to get feelings.”
“No, no,” I was almost shouting now, “I asked you to move in with me. I am blessed, you are the best thing to happen to me in the last ten, no make that fifteen years. I love you with all my heart, but in ten years I will be sixty and you will only just be turning thirty. Why would you want to be with me then?”
Jade was quiet for a second and then whispered, “Because I love you.”
I said nothing, but stared at Jade. Although we had been together for nearly six months by this point, neither had said those three little words with actual meaning before. Now, not only had she told them with real feeling but she also was at the point of wanting to tell her parents.
“And I love you,” I moved swiftly to stop her speaking by flipping her back so her head hit the pillow and kissed her our mouths melding together, tongues exploring each other. Breaking the kiss I looked down at her, “If you want to tell your parents then I will support you and happily join you when you tell them. Starting on Monday, I will also start telling my work colleagues when the opportunity arises. Don’t look at me like that. It is not the sort of thing that people talk about around me or do you want me to put an announcement in the company magazine?”