“I have to finish cleaning,” Ashley told her mother.
“Now!!!” Jen shouted.
“I’m not done yet,” Ashley glared at her.
Jen turned back to the table to find Ryan retrieving his wallet from the back of his dress pants. This guy just wouldn’t stop. It was one insult after another.
“She’s not taking your money,” she scowled at him before turning back to Ashley. “We’re leaving!”
“But, Mom,” Ashley grunted, embarrassed by her mother’s behavior.
She stormed over to Ashley and grabbed her by the arm before leading her out the front door. This was the man she’d fantasized about? This was the guy she’d dreamt of having in her life? Ryan was an asshole!
“Mom, stop! Stop!”
It was like she couldn’t even hear Ashley. She was too flabbergasted from what she’d witnessed to think straight. This environment was toxic, and they both needed to escape its bad energy.
She dragged the annoyed eighteen-year-old across the grass and into their house.
“What’s wrong with you!?” Ashley shouted.
Jen couldn’t believe what her daughter just said to her. “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me!? What the hell is wrong with you!?”
“I was trying to do my job!” Ashley huffed, rolling her eyes in the living room entrance.
“It’s your job to prance around some pervert’s house dressed like a slut?”
“God, this is so unfair!” Ashley huffed.
“Grounded!” she announced. “One week!”
Ashley’s jaw dropped. “For what!? This is such bullshit!”
“Two weeks!” Jen exclaimed.
Ashley was stunned. “I didn’t even do anything!”
“You swore. Keep it up and it’ll be three weeks.”
“But you swear all the time!” Ashley shouted, throwing her hands into the air in frustration. “What the hell, Mom!?”
Jen took a step closer to her daughter, lowering her voice to a growl. “I can swear all I want because this is my fuckin’ house, and you’ll live by my fuckin’ rules. And if you have a fuckin’ problem with that, then you can spend the rest of the fuckin’ year in your fuckin’ room.”
Ashley turned her head to the side and screamed, “Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”
“Three weeks!” Jen announced as Ashley hiked into the kitchen and stomped toward the stairs. “Go ahead and say something else! I’ll make it a month!”
She listened to Ashley’s angry footsteps climb the steps, the sound of her bedroom door slamming shut soon ending the chaos that had just ensued. She couldn’t believe it, but she needed her husband. She desperately needed Tom.
10:22 PM.
Headlights appeared through the windows while she sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. For the first time in at least a decade, she impatiently anticipated the arrival of the man she once loved. Heavy footsteps trudged into the kitchen a minute later.
“Oh, hey,” Tom said.
“Sit down,” Jen told him, not in the mood for small talk. “There’s something you need to hear.”
Tom took a seat across the table from her. “Is something wrong?”
Something was wrong, alright. Something was wrong with their sex life, their marriage, and their lack of love for each other, but she didn’t see the point to have that discussion now. It was time to talk about Ashley.
“Our new neighbor hired Ashley to clean his house.”
“Okay,” Tom nodded.
“And I went over there today to check on her,” Jen said.
Tom looked on, confused from what he was listening to.
“She was dressed like a French maid,” she revealed.
He didn’t react.
“Like a slutty french maid,” she clarified herself, expecting a more passionate reaction from him. “Her butt was practically hanging out, and half her breasts were exposed. It was ridiculous!”
“He made her wear this?”
“Not exactly…” she muttered under her breath.
“Not exactly?” he asked. “What does that mean?”
“He didn’t make her wear it,” she huffed. “But he told her there was a cleaning outfit upstairs. He pretty much coerced her!”
“How’d he coerced her?”
“By implying that a maid costume was part of the job!” she yelled.
His confusion had yet to dissipate. “But he never said that it was, right?”
She was stunned. He seriously wouldn’t come to her defense on this? Weren’t husbands always supposed to have their wife’s backs? She couldn’t even receive support on the issue of Ashley dressing like a slut for their dickhead neighbor?
“Honey, Ashley’s a grown woman,” he said. “She isn’t a child. If she decides to dress a certain way, then that’s her decision.”
“Why are you siding with him?”
“Siding with who?” he asked.
“With our asshole neighbor!” she shouted, having completely lost her patience. Why wasn’t he just as mad as she was? “You’re taking his side!”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side,” Tom told her calmly. “I just don’t think it’s right to get mad at our daughter for making her own decisions.”
“She’s your daughter, Thomas!” she tried to point out the obvious, running her hands through her hair in frustration. “You’re supposed to protect her!”
“She isn’t a kid anymore,” he rebutted. “She’s eighteen.”
“Unfuckinbelievable…”
“Do you have to swear all the time?” he asked. “It comes off so trashy.”
She seethed. Out of everything that her useless husband could take a stance on, he’d decided to pick a bone with her sailor’s mouth? “Trashy? Trashy!? Our neighbor had Ashley parading around his house like a fuckin’ slut, but I’m the trashy one!?”
“What do you want me to do, Jen? Go fight the guy?” he asked sarcastically.
“Do something!” she begged. “Protect your daughter!”
“We aren’t cavemen,” Tom said, rolling his eyes. “We live in a civilized society. Our daughter made a decision, and it’s really none of our business.”
She couldn’t find the words to respond. How could she be so wrong? She was positive that Tom would come to his family’s defense, but once again, he’d let her down.
“Are we done here?”
She nodded, depressed and defeated.
He hopped out of his seat and disappeared into the basement.
She sat in her chair and stared at the oven for what felt like hours. She couldn’t even receive her husband’s support on this. Not only did she run their household and take care of everything, but now it was her sole responsibility to look out for their daughter as well. What exactly was the point of her marriage? He couldn’t even make her cum! The least he should be able to do was look after his own child! God, she just wanted to scream!
Well, it was all on her now. She had to play the role of dad as well. She needed to go confront this piece of shit who’d moved in next door before he did something else to Ashley.
Chapter 6 — Guidance
One Week Later. 6:24 PM.
Jen was a mess. She had no idea how to approach her new neighbor, and to make matters worse, Ashley had decided to not speak to her for the entire a week. A divorce would most likely be in her future if this was a sign of things to come after her daughter went off to college. She was so lonely. She had no one to talk to or gossip with. Her life had been reduced to a boring routine consisting of going to work, hitting the gym a few days a week, and finally coming home to an empty house.
She’d almost texted Anthony a handful of times over the past seven days–including sending him a picture of her taking the majority of her long purple dildo down her throat. Sure, it looked ridiculous when she viewed the image, but she just wanted to impress someone. Was it wrong to crave to be on a man’s mind? What was so taboo about desiring a powerful stud to call her a good girl after she followed an order? She didn’t see the problem with wanting to be submissive.