I have been your stepmom for three years now, and I have watched you grow up right under my nose. Lately I have noticed the way you look at me when you think I am not paying attention. I always notice. A woman like me misses nothing.
Yesterday I caught you staring while I was doing yoga in the living room. I pretended not to see, but I slowed down. I stretched a little deeper. I held the poses a little longer. I wanted you to look, and you did. You could not look away.
Do you know what it is like to want something you are not supposed to want? I do. I have wanted it for months. The way you walk past me in the hallway, a little too close. The way your eyes drop when I wear that sundress, the yellow one. I am a grown woman and I know exactly what I am doing, and I am doing it on purpose. Every single time.
Being your stepmom means I get to be the one who teaches you everything. I am patient. I am experienced. I know exactly what a young man needs and I am not shy about giving it to him. No fumbling, no guessing, no awkwardness. Just a woman who knows what she wants and is finally done pretending she does not want you.
Tonight everyone else is going to bed early. Your father falls asleep on the couch by ten, you know he does. And I am going to knock on your bedroom door and ask if we can talk. I will be wearing my silk robe, the one that barely ties closed. I will sit on the edge of your bed, and I will tell you that we need to stop pretending.
This is the fantasy I do best, the forbidden one that lives in the back of your mind and comes out late at night. The woman who raised you, who made your lunches and tucked you in, now standing in your doorway wanting you. Tell me you have thought about it. I know you have. I have seen it in your eyes every day for a year.
If you like experienced women, you should meet the ladies I work with too, but tonight I am all yours. Come home. I will be waiting up. Call the dispatcher and ask for Courtney, and let your stepmom take care of everything you have been dreaming about.
Waiting for you,
Courtney