Author’s Note – Revised Edition
I started writing the next two chapters for this series and after revisiting this one to refresh my memory of some details, I was mortified by what I read. I don’t know how I seemingly missed editing it and cleaning it up.
This is a newly edited and slightly expanded version of a story I originally posted about six weeks ago. If you’ve already read the previous version, I don’t expect you to read it again so soon, but if you do, you’ll recognize most of it. The bulk of the changes in this version includes numerous revisions for clarity, flow, and polish. I’ve corrected missed words, removed a repeated paragraph, fixed spelling and grammatical errors, and restructured sections to improve pacing and flow.
I’ve also added roughly a thousand new words throughout, focusing on deepening the sensuality and the emotional depth of the connection between the characters. If you enjoyed it the first time, and you read it a second, I hope this version offers an even more immersive experience.
If you’re stumbling on this and have voted on or read the original, I humbly ask that you vote this version again and favorite this one instead of the other. After letting it exist for a bit, to give people to become aware and hopefully read this, I intend to delete the other version that I’m rather embarrassed for having posted. The fact that it still scored a 4.72, as of the time I’m writing this, makes me feel so thankful that people were still receptive to.
And hopefully I didn’t mess this version up with my additions. I’ve also added “chapters” to help me locate parts and also organize how I perceive the flow. I have a feeling that this will be a much longer than I ever intended. Possibly a serial type series if people maintain an interest in joining Natalie in exploring herself.
Thank you for reading, and for giving the story another visit if you’ve been here before!
Chapter 1
The first thing Natalie did was clear out the guest room closet. Not that it was overflowing, it was just a few suitcases, an old space heater, and a pile of boots she hadn’t worn since before the divorce. He was going to be living her now though, and he would need the room for his own stuff.
Her fingers paused on a soft knit throw, brushing it, unable to deny memories that came with it from her old home. A previous life. The coming reality felt more real with every empty hanger.
She didn’t regret saying yes. Lisa had sounded so grateful, so relieved. “The dorms are just making the cost of college so much more expensive,” she’d said. “He just needs somewhere stable to live and study.”
And Natalie could use the help. Sure, she didn’t need a two bedroom, but it was originally supposed to be a home office-guestroom combo. The office never really got used though. Neither did it get used as a guest room. The only person that’d come to use it was a college friend, for one weekend.
The new city, the rent, and the mild panic of watching her savings thin out while she waited for a promotion that may never come, meant the modest monthly payment they’d agreed on wasn’t nothing.
But still. A 20-year-old. A boy? A man?
She leaned in the doorway, arms crossed, staring at the freshly made bed. The sheets were new. So were the towels. She’d even swapped out the nightstand lamp for something a little more masculine, not that she thought he’d care. But something about sharing space again made her suddenly, irrationally aware of the details. The angles. The proximity.
She hadn’t lived with a young man since she was in her twenties, newly married, and trying to build something solid. That had been a long time ago. She was 32 now, divorced, and focused on work. Trying to rebuild in a new city, in a new apartment, with a new routine she was only just getting used to. Yoga in the mornings, occasional late nights of work to show her commitment, finished up with wine and reruns until her brain slowed down.
She moved through the apartment assessing everything. What had been her place for nearly a year, was about to be his home, too. At least for a little while. She scrubbed the stove, rearranged the contents of the fridge, bought an extra towel set.
It was like she was nesting all over again.
But now? She wasn’t sure what to expect.
She remembered the last time she saw him, barely seventeen. All awkward shoulders and posture, and shaggy hair. Lisa said he’d grown up, that he’d filled out. “You’ll be impressed,” she’d said with a wink, half-joking, not knowing how strange that would come across. Natalie had laughed it off, but it lingered. She wasn’t expecting him. She was expecting company, noise, a warm body in the hall. Someone to fill the silence she only recently realized was becoming overwhelming and a constant throughout the house. At first it was welcome, in contrast to the fights her marriage had turned into. But lately, it seemed ever-present and lonely.
She walked to the kitchen, opened the fridge, then shut it again without taking anything. She already felt the shift, and he hadn’t ardahan escort even arrived yet. It would be nice to have someone around again. She told herself that. Repeated it. Just… she wouldn’t have expected that someone to be a 20-year-old.
Heading back to the guest room, more out of an anxious energy than anything else, she sat on the edge of the bed and let out a breath.
“I can handle this,” she said aloud. “It’s just someone to share the space.”
But even as she said it, her eyes drifted to the hallway where the closed door to her bedroom suddenly felt just a little too close to his.
This wasn’t just a week or two. Lisa had said through college. Suddenly that felt so undefined. What did that mean? Two years? Would he be expecting to stay here if went for his masters? Aiden would come and go, sure, classes, internships, but the reality was he’d be living here. In her quiet, post-divorce space that she had finally made her own.
She was used to hearing only her own footsteps. To dancing barefoot through the kitchen with wine and music. To not worrying about someone else hearing her cry in the shower on bad days.
That life was starting to feel normal. And now she was about to share it with the 20-year-old child of her best friend. One who, if she was honest, she barely ever knew in the first place.
Still… it would be nice to have someone around again. Even if it wasn’t someone she wouldn’t’ve expected.
“I can handle this,” she said aloud. “It’s temporary.” She wasn’t actually sure if she believed that, especially not after her conversation with Lisa on the phone last night.
Chapter 2
“Seriously, Nat, you’re a lifesaver.”
Lisa’s voice crackled slightly through the speakerphone as Natalie placed a pair of folded towels at the foot of the bed.
“I owe you big time for this,” Lisa said.
“You say that like I’m not still trying to convince myself it’s a good idea,” Natalie replied, smoothing the fabric unnecessarily.
Lisa chuckled. “He’s not high-maintenance, I swear. You might even forget he’s there.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Natalie muttered. “That I’ll walk into the kitchen in my robe, or less, and scare the hell out of both of us.”
Lisa laughed. “You’re going to get along better than you think.”
Natalie paused. “I haven’t lived with anyone in a while and I wasn’t planning on it for some time.”
“Since Frank, I know, c’mon, there’s always room for one more.”
“Yeah.” She tugged at a loose thread on the comforter. “It’s been kind of… nice. Quiet.”
Lisa didn’t say anything for a moment. “Well, it’s not like Aiden’s going to disrupt your whole world.”
“Mm.” Natalie made a noncommittal noise, then added, “I just didn’t think the next person I’d live with would be your son.”
“He’s not a kid anymore,” Lisa said, with a tone that was almost teasing. “You’ll see.”
“I’m not looking,” Natalie shot back.
“Didn’t say you were,” Lisa replied, lightly. Then, after a moment, “He always thought you were kind of intimidating, you know.”
Natalie raised an eyebrow. “I was twenty-five and working all the time when he met me. And if I wasn’t working, I was trying to keep Frank calm while he tried to keep tabs on everything I did when I wasn’t home. I think I barely looked up from my phone.”
“He still remembers you as intimidating, for whatever reason.”
That made Natalie pause, but she kept her tone casual. “Well, I hope I don’t scare him off this time.”
“He’s not that easily scared anymore.”
There was something in Lisa’s voice that Natalie couldn’t quite pin down. Maybe it was simple motherly pride.
“I’ll keep him in line,” Natalie said. “Just promise you won’t start calling me his second mom.”
Lisa laughed again. “You? Please. Actually, now that you mention it, he’d probably listen to you more than he listens to me.”
A longer pause this time.
“You sure this won’t be weird?” Natalie asked, almost pleading for reassurance from the universe.
There was a lightness in Lisa’s reply. “Would it be the first time we agreed to something that wasn’t a little weird between us?”
Natalie didn’t answer right away. She reached for her glass of wine and took a slow sip.
“This is different” She replied. Not hearing Lisa respond, she added, “Fine, I’ll manage.”
“I know you will,” Lisa said, softer now. “You always do. You nervous?”
“A little.”
“You excited?”
Natalie smirked. “Don’t push it.”
Lisa laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop. Just be nice to him, will you?”
“I will,” Natalie said. “But I’m not making him muffins.”
Lisa paused. “You’re totally making muffins, aren’t you?”
Natalie sighed. “They’re banana nut. Don’t judge me.”
“Oh, I’m judging. But also, I’m touched you’d go through the trouble.”
Another small pause settled between them.
Lisa spoke first. “Crazy, isn’t it? When we met in that hot yoga class seven years ago, I never would’ve guessed my son would end up living with you.”
Natalie let out artvin escort a dramatic sigh, “Yeah… that definitely wasn’t on my bingo card.”
“Honestly, I would’ve expected me to live with you before Aiden ever did,” Lisa said a little more playfully.
Natalie blinked, caught off guard. She gave a small laugh, unsure how else to respond. “Well… you probably would’ve been better at folding the towels.”
Lisa laughed with her. “Maybe. But I definitely wouldn’t stay out of your wine stash.” She smiled to herself, thinking for a second.
“Weird, huh?” Lisa said.
“Weirds one word for it,” she answered. She appreciated that she could be candid with Lisa, all things considered.
“Anyway,” Lisa said, slipping back into her usual chipper tone, “you’ll be great.”
“I’ll manage,” Natalie replied. “I usually do.”
“I know,” Lisa said, quieter now. “Night, Nat.”
“Night, Lisa.”
Chapter 3
The next morning, Natalie stood by the window with a cooling cup of coffee in her hand, watching as a silver sedan eased into the lot below. She hadn’t slept much, a mixture of anxiety and a restless awareness that the quiet comfort of her home was about to change.
After spending the day preparing, she spotted Lisa as soon as the car parked. Her friend stepped out with a quick glance upward, giving a wave even though she couldn’t possibly see Natalie through the tinted glass and the reflection of the world outside. She knew Natalie well enough to know that she’d be watching for them though. A moment later, Aiden emerged from the passenger side, taller than she remembered and more filled out. He moved with the loose, casual energy of someone comfortable in his own skin, slinging a duffel bag over his shoulder and grabbing a suitcase from the back seat.
Natalie’s stomach gave a small, involuntary twist.
That wasn’t the awkward teen she remembered from holidays and backyard barbecues. That was… something else entirely. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, maybe someone younger-looking, more boyish, but the man stepping onto the curb looked completely at ease with himself in a way that made her suddenly feel off-balance, knowing he was about to move in.
She turned from the window and set her mug down, brushing her hands over her jeans as if that would settle her nerves. It was time to open the door, make polite conversation, and act like she hadn’t spent the last twenty-four hours trying to convince herself this was a perfectly normal arrangement.
Before stepping into the hall, she took one last look around the guest room, smoothed the edge of the comforter where she’d been sitting, then moved to the kitchen to pour herself some water she didn’t really want, and await the coming knock at the door.
Time seemed to drag before she finally heard them talking outside. She glanced at the clock: ten after four. Showtime.
Natalie opened the door just as Lisa lifted her hand to knock.
“There she is,” Lisa said with a grin, stepping in for a big squeeze. “Told you we’d make it before dinner time.”
Natalie returned the hug, then looked past her to Aiden. He lingered a step back, shoulders relaxed, duffel slung over one side.
Stepping aside to let them in, she said, “Well, come on in. Don’t just stand there, come on.”
He stepped through the doorway behind his mom with a polite nod and a quick glance around. Now that he was in front of her, Natalie couldn’t help comparing him once more to the version she’d seen a few years ago. He’d been all sharp elbows and shaggy hair, slouched in a hoodie two sizes too big. Now, his posture was straighter, and he carried himself better, like he’d settled into himself. Still quiet so far, however.
Natalie shut the door behind them and gestured toward the hallway. “Your room is the first on the right. Closet is cleared out and extra towels are on the bed.”
“Thanks,” Aiden said, offering a brief smile before heading down the hall with his duffel over one shoulder and his suitcase trailing behind him. His footsteps were light, almost cautious.
Lisa followed her into the kitchen like it was still familiar territory, opening a cabinet uninvited and grabbing two glasses. “You’re not going to freak out and kick him out after a week, are you?”
Natalie raised an eyebrow. “Not unless he starts blasting music at 2 a.m. or leaves beard trimmings in the sink.”
Lisa smirked. “He’s not a slob. And he keeps to himself. Honestly, like I’d said, you’ll probably forget he’s here most of the time.”
Natalie leaned against the counter, arms crossed loosely. “I doubt that. It already feels different.”
“Good different or bad different?”
She considered the question for a moment. “Just… not mine anymore. The space, my routine… it’s going to take a minute.”
Lisa nodded, surprisingly understanding. “I get it. You’ve been solo for what, a year now?”
“Little over. In the apartment for almost a year.”
“Well, he’s not going to take over your world,” Lisa said, grabbing her glass of water and giving Natalie bodrum escort a pointed look. “He just needs a place to sleep, study, and occasionally eat all your cereal.”
Natalie huffed a soft laugh. “I don’t even eat cereal.”
“Then you’re already that much safer from his never-ending hunger.”
Before Natalie could respond, Aiden reemerged from the hallway. He’d dropped his stuff off and was now taking in the apartment with more focus as his eyes scanned the layout, the framed prints on the walls, the neat stack of books on the bookshelf in the corner of the living room.
“It looks really nice in here,” he said.
Natalie gave a modest shrug. “It’s still coming together.”
“I like it,” he added.
Natalie gave a small smile, motioning her hands towards him slightly. “Thanks. It’s a work in progress.”
Lisa looked between them, then clapped her hands together. “All right, troops. He’s still got a few boxes in the trunk. Let’s get it all in before the afternoon heat turns ugly.”
Natalie set her water glass on the counter. “To late for that,” she quipped. “Lead the way.”
They filed out together, to head downstairs. Lisa chatted like always, and Aiden brought up the rear, quietly scanning the hallway as they walked. The apartment was nicer than he was used to since going to college. Cleaner. More put together. Not like the dorms, where peace and quiet was rare because your neighbors either slammed doors or played guitar badly at midnight.
This place had structure. It felt like someone actually lived here, and not in the half-hearted way college students pretended to, knowing they would be leaving in the summer. It made him feel out of place. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to fit into her world.
As they stepped outside, the afternoon heat rolled in fast. Lisa popped the trunk of her car and motioned toward the back.
“There’s your last two,” she said. “One of you grab the box, the other grab the bin.”
“I got it,” Aiden said quickly, reaching for both before Natalie could move.
“Don’t throw your back out trying to impress me,” she said.
“I won’t,” he muttered, adjusting his grip on the awkward plastic bin. It wasn’t heavy, just bulky but manageable.
Lisa opened the building door for them, and he followed Natalie in, trying not to focus too much on the scrape of her sandals on the floor or the fact that he was eyelevel with her ass, as they walked up the stairs.
This whole thing still felt strange. He’d spent the last two years crammed into shared spaces with guys who barely knew how to run a microwave, and now here he was, living with his mom’s friend off campus, a woman he barely even knew anything about. He didn’t even know how old she actually was.
Thirty… something? She didn’t look it, but she acted like it. He was used to living with people he didn’t know. That comes with dorm life. But he didn’t know how to live with a woman, not a girl, but a woman, that wasn’t his mom. This was new. All of it. And he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to act around her.
It was already a different world, and he hadn’t even unpacked yet.
Chapter 4
When they got back into the apartment, he dropped his things by the wall in his room, then returned to find Natalie and his mom in the kitchen, already opening drawers and debating whether the mugs were too high up. It seemed that Natalie was much more structured than his mom was. He’d have to be mindful of that, living in her place.
“It’ll be fun staying the night, right?” Lisa asked, turning toward Natalie. “Just like old times! One last night of freedom for you before the kid takes over.”
Natalie gave her a dry look. “You’re staying in my bed and he’s the one with his own room. How is that my last night of freedom?”
Lisa waved her off. “Details.”
Aiden hesitated just past the doorway, unsure whether to linger or leave them to whatever they were doing. They clearly had their own thing going on of shared stories and inside jokes, and he wasn’t part of that. Not yet. Probably not ever.
He cleared his throat lightly. “I’m gonna, uh… finish unpacking I guess.”
“Need help?” Lisa asked, half-turning.
“I’m good,” he said, already backing down the hall.
He shut the door behind him, sat on the edge of the bed, and stared at the bin he’d just carried up. The room was nice. Too nice. Clean, quiet, and… adult. This wasn’t going to feel like college. Not even close.
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands loosely clasped. The bin sat unopened in front of him. He knew exactly what was in it and none of it was urgent. Chargers, notebooks, a couple of extension cords, and a hoodie he hadn’t worn in months. He wasn’t really in a rush to unpack, but just needed a moment to take everything in.
Everything in the room felt intentional. The bed was already made, the spare blanket folded, and there was even a small dish of spare toiletries on the dresser, like he was checking into some kind of Airbnb. It was far from bad, but it felt super foreign. Quiet in a way he wasn’t used to. No background noise. No random yelling through dorm walls. No roommate clomping around in flip-flops after day drinking. Not even the noises he was used to back home with his mom. Just… calm. And that made him realize how much he’d relied on noise to distract himself from actually thinking.