Yakov’s Mom

The doorbell rang. Yuliana hummed happily, wiping her hands on a towel, as she walked to her front door. Pulling it open, she was greeted by a smiling, bearded stranger.

He remained strange only until he said the words, “Hello Yakov’s Mom!”

Yuliana was instantly transported back to the millions of times that Danny had come calling for her son. ‘Hello Yakov’s Mom, can Yakov come out to play?’ was a catchphrase she’d heard nearly every day for over ten years as the boys grew up together. She’d watch them go, tearing off over to the park across the street and know that, whatever happened, they would at least have each other’s back.

“Danny!”

Yuliana grabbed the young man and dragged him inside, closing the door to shut out the Winter chill. She hugged him tight then kissed him on both cheeks and held him at arm’s length to examine his changes. Despite his shaggy hair and unkempt appearance he was the same boy; his shy, furtive, nervous look always made her want to reassure the little lost boy. Not so little now though. Yuliana was tall, even bare-footed as she was now, but Danny was beaming down from his elongated height. She held her hand on his cheek, just below the scar caused by her son shooting an arrow at his head when they were seven.

“I haven’t seen you in a dog’s age, look how big and handsome you’ve become.” She pinched both his cheeks and flubber-lubber-lubbed his face affectionately.

“Ow.” Danny protested playfully.

Yuliana called for her son, then stood gazing and grinning at the young man, she was excited by the imminent reunion of boyhood chums. It was going to be joyful. Yakov walked downstairs pulling on his jacket.

“Dan.” A single grunt.

“Ready?” Danny grunted back.

“Yup.”

Yuliana watched, bewildered, as her son slipped his feet into into his trainers.

“Bye Mom.”

“You knew he was back!? He never tells me anything, Danny.”

“Bye, Yakov’s Mom.” They were down the steps and on to the street when Yuliana called Danny back.

“Next week is Christmas. You have no family to go to. You will come here.”

“No I couldn’t jus-”

“What is this couldn’t?” Yuliana’s English always broke down when she was flustered, if you got her mad enough she would revert to her native Slovene until she calmed down again, “What couldn’t? How many times have you come to our house? We have cousins and uncles and all sorts coming so one more chair, one more mouth is nothing. Is decided! You come! Now, beat it.”

She waved him away imperiously and watched the two friends, bundled up against the bitter cold, traipse off down the street.

*******

Yuliana’s festive family gathering was in full swing. Loud music blaring from the front room for the youngsters, a Bizet opera playing softly in the back room for the adults to chat over and the smallest ones running around shooting Nerf guns or driving various remote control vehicles. Yuliana found Danny in the kitchen, sitting quietly at her dining table. She pulled up a chair and sat next to him.

“Caught you hiding.” She smiled wearily and kicked off her heels.

“I’ve not drunk this much Slovenian beer since we all came to Yakov’s eighteenth birthday party here.”

Her stilettos were red to match her slinky dress that seemed infused with a golden shimmer when it caught the light just right. Danny hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her whenever she was in the same room. The dress hugged her subtle curves perfectly, accentuating her lithe, graceful body. She had long dirty-blonde hair that framed a young face, her grey-blue eyes sparkled like a freshly poured gin and tonic.

She had the cheekiest smile he’d even seen. Her perky, impeccable breasts, her flawless, flat stomach and her pear-drop bottom added to her supermodel status but the real deal-breaker for Danny’s libido were her long, almost never-ending, legs. His eyes were magnetically drawn to her small feet shrouded in sheer black nylon. He scooted his chair closer then bent down and lifted her feet on to his lap. She watched him, bemused as he began to rub her soles. She let out a deep sigh as his adept fingers released waves of tension gained throughout the busy day. She smiled at him contentedly, like a cat lazing in the sun.

Danny observed, “You look a little tired.”

“Well, it’s late. I must look a mess.”

She viewed him from under hooded, sleepy eyelids that had been brushed with smoky eye-shadow, the effect on Danny was electric.

“I’ve never seen you look more glamourous.”

“Oh sure,” she waved away his compliment, “I’m a real glamourpuss. I’ve been on my feet all day, they may be a bit sweaty.”

Danny raised one foot and pressed his nose to her toes. She blushed. She leapt up out of her chair as some aged relation came bumbling into the kitchen to retrieve a handful of beer bottles from the fridge. Danny enjoyed watching how embarrassed she was as she smoothed down her dress and adjusted her hair. Yakov walked in and slumped into a chair.

“I’m ready to crash,” he puffed, “These old guys can really put it away.”

“Da, that side of the family were always hard drinkers.” Yuliana had lifted the hem of her dress and was straightening her misaligned pantyhose, when she glanced up to see the two young men were watching her with a fascinated fixation. She blushed again and stood upright.

“Danny,” she said, plowing through the constricted silence, “Now you’re all grown up, I have always wanted to ask you a question.”

“Shoot.” Danny stood up, stretched his back and yawned.

“I’ve said Danny could stay tonight, Mom.” Yakov interrupted, joining in with the contagious yawn.

“Da, of course. Everyone else is. You’re very welcome. I’ll bring out some blankets and pillows for everyone later.”

“What was your question, Mrs Kolar?”

Even though she’d asked him many times to call her Yuliana, he still felt that it was somehow incorrect.

“Why…” Yuliana paused, looking for the words, “What happened to your mother?”

“You can’t ask that! Jesus, Mom.”

“Hush, Yakov. He can tell me ‘go to hell’ if he wants to.”

“Maaaaan.” Yavok stretched then waved his arms as he left, indicating that he was escaping all this craziness.

“I would never say that to you, Mrs Kolar.”

Yuliana and Danny both leaned back against the kitchen counter.

“You don’t mind I ask?”

“No.”

They stood, side by side, while Danny searched for the strength to talk about something that was obviously painful. Anyone other than Yuliana would’ve been met with a curt refusal.

“They told me she died in childbirth,” Danny spoke flatly, suppressing his emotions, “Having me.”

“That’s so sad.”

“I, I’ve never talked about her before. I often wonder what she was like. If I’m like her? They didn’t know if she had any relatives to take me in. I started off in a foster family, as a baby, then I bounced around different care homes or other foster families until I was sixteen.”

“And your father?”

“I don’t know who he is. I never met him.” Danny chuckled coldly.

“You had no one?”

“Not a soul in the world.”

“You’re breaking my heart.”

Yuliana embraced him, wrapping her arms around him and touching his hair, he could feel her long artificial nails poking his scalp. His libido reacted mechanically to the close contact of a sexy feminine body but it was overwhelmed by Danny’s genuine feelings of comfort.

Yuliana spoke into his ear, “I wish I was your Mom.”

She stepped back and cupped his face in her hands.

“I would look after you. And feed you, skinny boy!”

She rubbed his tummy and he laughed.

“I’ve been waiting for the right moment,” Danny held on to her, his arms around her waist, “To thank you.”

“It was just Christmas dinner.”

“No, I mean… all those times I came into your home. You never once failed to make me feel welcomed. Your warmth and kindness was the only… sometimes it was all I had.”

“Danny.” Yuliana’s eyes were misting over.

“At night, I’d be in some strange bed, in some strange building, wondering when they were gonna shove me on to the next place. Wondering if they’d be friendly, if I’d be attacked, or abused.” Danny’s voice was cracking slightly, “If I wanted to feel better, I would think of you, and your home here, and your cookies and your cakes, and your black-bread and soup, and you’re crying…”

Yuliana’s tears were trickling down her cheeks in tiny black rivers of mascara. A distant cousin chose this moment to enter the kitchen and discovered how upset Yuliana was and they began a hurried, passionate discussion in Slovene, with the cousin looking daggers at Danny.

More relatives joined them and the room descended into a cascade of their buzz-kazuzzing native language, the crashing sibilance a mystery to Danny who was trying to look as if he hadn’t just committed the heinous crime of the century.

Yuliana sat down at the table while her relatives crowded round to comfort her. From her gestures alone, Danny could tell she was relating his story to the burbling assembly. A very beautiful but thin girl broke from the group and came over to hug Danny as tight as her pipe-cleaner arms allowed.

She kissed him full on the lips, shook her head slowly, sadly, then rejoined the crowd. A small elderly woman, no taller than his belly-button, hobbled across the kitchen and reached up to pat his cheek affectionately. An loud uncle make a declaration and a bottle of spirit was thumped down on the table. Shot glasses appeared from nowhere and were soon filled.

Danny remembered these bottles from Yakov’s eighteenth. Home-brewed schnapps. The worse three varieties were, in order of appallingness, rancid raspberry, putrid pear and brutal blueberry. If they’d poured blueberry schnapps into the Apollo 11 space shuttle, it would’ve reached Mars. Everyone was handed a glass. Another declaration was yelled and the glasses were raised in salute before being drained. Danny felt the paint-stripper dissolving the sides of his throat as it went down.

As the next round was being poured and more bottles appeared magically on the table, Danny tried his best to look invisible as he strategically withdrew.

Upstairs, he stepped into Yakov’s dark bedroom and closed the door behind him. Yakov woke and lifted his head.

“Can I doss down in here tonight?” Danny asked.

“Of course. I hear the noise. Has it all gotten a bit too East-European down there?”

“They brought out the schnapps, Yakov.”

“Ouch. It wasn’t blueberry?”

“It was blueberry.”

Yakov sucked air through his teeth.

“You were lucky to get outta there alive, man.”

He threw a pillow to his friend and returned to his beer-induced slumber. Danny lay down on the floor and eventually found a comfortable position for sleep as the sounds of an unintelligible riot rose up through the floorboards.

The revellers emerged from their blanketed cocoons around lunchtime. Danny stepped carefully around these extras from the Night of the Living Dead as they shuffled, mumbling, around the house. The only one seemingly unaffected by the

previous night’s liver-shrivelling alcohol consumption was the hostess. Danny watched in awe as she bustled around, floating from guest to guest with cups of coffee or tea, slices of buttered toast or other requests. The beautiful thin girl now looked about seventy-eight. The rambunctious uncle was a shell of a man. People nursed their hangovers in their own private hells.

Yuliana breezed around, dressed in a teeshirt and a pair of jeans so tight they looked as if they had been air-brushed on to her flesh. Danny tried, and failed, to not ogle her beautiful bum as it jiggled around inside the dark denim.

He was looking out of a window at the gathering grey clouds, feeling the coldness reaching in through the glass, when Yuliana discovered him. She put her arms around his neck and snuggled in close. She kissed him just under his ear then leaned back.

“I’m so glad you were here with us.”

Her gracious affection was disarming. She ran her hand up his cheek and through his tangled hair. She kissed him on the lips. She went to turn away, to resume her hostess duties.

“I, er, I was hoping,” Danny was his old uncertain self again, “Maybe, I could ask a favour of you?”

Yuliana cocked her head on to one side, waiting patiently. Danny opened his mouth to speak but was drowned out by the sound of crashing plates, raised voices and then a weeping child.

“Hold that thought,” Yuliana was walking down the hall to the kitchen, “I’ll be back.”

Danny lingered for a minute or two, then realised Yuliana had gone on to yet another crisis of hospitality. He sat at the bottom of the stairs and tied his boots. He pulled on his cap and Winter coat and slipped out of the front door.

*******

Two months later, Yuliana woke in the night, some unusual sound had disturbed her. She lay in bed, listening to the reassuring silence then decided to go downstairs for a drink. As she reached the bottom stair, a large shadow fell across her and she squealed.

“You made me jump!” Danny’s voice said in the dark.

Yuliana switched on the light.

“Made you jump? You frightened the life out of me!”

She was holding her palm flat against her chest, restraining her somersaulting heart, “What are you doing here, Danny?”

“Oh, I’m not alone. There’re a few dead soldiers in there.”

His thumb indicated the lounge so she poked her head through the door and found Yakov and half a dozen friends sprawled out in various sleeping positions. She walked past Danny to the kitchen. He followed, noticing that her only clothing was an over-sized blue shirt; he watched her thighs as she walked and became convinced she was completely naked under it. He was a little surprised by how much this excited him.

“You give me a heart-attack.” Yuliana pulled a juice bottle from her fridge and poured two glasses. She held one out for Danny.

He took it and explained, “They wanted to watch some pay-for-view boxing match. We tried not to wake you.”

“I hope he’s paying for this pay-for-view.”

They drank, watching each other from opposite sides of the room.

“You thought that I’d broken in, that I was stalking you.”

Yuliana laughed, “Da. For a minute there, I did.”

She rinsed out her glass in the sink, “Although I am sure you’d make a very nice stalker.”

After a minute Danny replied, “I can’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound creepy so I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

Yuliana’s bare feet padded across the kitchen’s hard floor as she came closer.

“Are you sure you weren’t thinking of sneaking upstairs to my big, cold, lonely bed?” She gave him a smouldering look, her lips quivered slightly then curved up into her cheeky smile.

“You’re teasing me!”

Danny dissembled into laughter and wiped his brow. He was suddenly very hot.

Yuliana poked him, “You’re easy to tease!”

“I’m always gullible when girls are involved.”

“I am a girl? Look again.”

“Why is your bed cold and lonely?”

“How you mean?”

“You’re an intelligent, successful, beautiful, kind-hearted woman. Why aren’t there… hordes of men battering down your door to share your bed?”

She leaned in even closer, he was thinking that she must wear perfume in bed.

“I am picky.”

“I see. High-maintenance.”

“I know this phrase. You mean difficult. Like I am… argumentative bitch.” She pronounced it beach.

Danny floundered, but she was merciless and looked terribly offended.

“This is harsh, Danny, calling me bitch in my own kitchen.”

“I, I, I didn’t… you’re fucking with me again.”

Yuliana was giggling.

“Yakov’s Mom, you’re killing me tonight!”

They walked back down the hall to the stairs. She paused on the first step.

“You’d better go in the room, or I’ll think you’re looking at my bottom when I go upstairs.”

Danny held her gaze. Was this another tease?

“I’m only joking,” she smiled broadly, “Of course you can look at my bottom.”

She walked up the stairs then stopped near the top and looked down at Danny frozen in place. From his angle he could see right up her night-shirt.

“I didn’t think you’d actually look!”

A quick flash of delectable bumcheeks and she was gone. Danny heard the closing of her bedroom door. He adjusted the sizeable bulge in his pants and returned to his place in the heap of sleeping bodies.

*******

Danny was shooting pool in a pub with a few friends, it was a quiet suburban place. He lost his game and walked out of the small pool-room to console himself with a beer. Waiting at the bar for his turn to be served, he felt his shoulder tapped and turned around. Yuliana stood grinning, holding a cocktail glass. Danny’s breath was taken away. She was dressed entirely in black: spike-heeled boots, nylon hold-ups and an exceedingly short dress. She wore her hair up in an elaborate affair, showing off a delicious neck that would be luring vampires for hundreds of miles. He touched his face to make sure he wasn’t actually drooling.

She put her hand on his shoulder and twisted him around to face two tables full of gabbing, chattering women.

“This,” she announced proudly, “is my son’s best friend.” The gaggle of women brayed. One of them wolf-whistled. Danny turned back to the bar to order his beer. Yuliana stood next to him.

“How are you, Danny?”

“That was embarrassing.”

“Oh? I did not want them to think I am a cougar, chasing young men. These are women I work with, one of them has turned forty.”

Danny paid for his beer then chinked his bottle against her glass.

“Mrs Kolar, you are most definitely a cougar.”

She blushed, “Is Yakov with you?”

“Not tonight. We’re having a little pool tournament in the next room.”

“Well,” she kissed his cheek, “Good luck with your game.” Her dress barely covered her bottom and he couldn’t help watching her walk back to join her friends.

Later, Danny was stood watching a pool game when Yuliana walked in, now decently covered by a long coat that reached to her knees. She looked around the pool-room.

“I know some of these faces.” She smiled at the group of men lounging on the chairs.

They called in unison, “Hello, Yakov’s Mom!”

“Danny, I am leaving. If you’ve finished your games, perhaps you would care to walk me home?”

Somebody wolf-whistled. Danny ran his hand through his hair.

“Er, yeah, sure, of course.”

Danny grabbed his coat and cap, the young men cried out as one, “Bye, Yakov’s Mom!”

She waved to them then walked out, wrapping a scarf around her throat. Outside, the freezing air reddened their cheeks. Yuliana pulled on her gloves.

“Were the boys making fun of me in there?”

Danny zipped up his coat and began walking.

“What? No. No way.”

He pulled his cap down tight. Yuliana hooked her arm though his and they found a common walking speed.

“Are you sure? They seemed a little, oh I don’t know, too friendly, too pleased to see me.”

Danny looked at her as they walked, was this another tease?

“Surely you must know?”

“What? What must I know?”

“They’re all crazy about you. We all are.”

Yuliana stopped. She was frowning at him. Danny grinned.

“Come on, you’re being falsely modest. You were like a… a sex bomb dropped in our teenage pants. All us guys were completely in love with you, growing up.”

“I… I did nothing to encourage this.”

Danny put her arm through his and pulled her back into walking.

“You didn’t have to do anything. Just being you was enough.”

“I had no idea.”

“Well, let me tell ya, that pool-room is a seething snake-pit of envy that I get to walk you home, Mrs Kolar.”

They walked on in silence, Yuliana was stunned.

They reached the entrance to the park, despite the lateness of the hour the black wrought-iron gates stood wide open. Yuliana tugged on Danny’s arm.

“Shall we cut through the park? Normally I would be too scared, on my own, but with you…”

The sounds of traffic were muted in the park, all they could hear was the rustling of the trees and click click of Yuliana’s heels on the path.

“I have a question, Danny.”

“Shoot.”

“At Christmas, before you left without saying goodbye, don’t think I didn’t notice-”

“You were busy.”

“Still. Rude. Poredna.”

“Poredna? Naughty?”

“Ah, you remember some things.”

“Me and Yakov were often poredni fantje, weren’t we?”

“Yes. Little terrors.”

He could see her cheeky smile in the pale orange glow of the park’s lamps.

“Look, it all got a bit weird,” Danny explained, “Talking about my mother, the tears and everything. I’m not used to family stuff.”

She hugged his arm tighter as they walked, squeezing his bicep to reassure him.

“You were about to ask me a favour, before you vanished.”

“Oh. That was… not important.”

“It’s been bugging me. What was it you were going to ask?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. Why you not tell me if it’s not important?”

“Alright,” Danny chuckled, there was no arguing with this woman, “I’d been staying at a hostel downtown since I got back. But, I guess there’s more need for beds at Christmas for some reason ’cause the hostel was full. I’d been sleeping in a friend’s car for a week and I was hoping that I could spend one more night… in the… warm, what? What is it?”

Yuliana had stopped. She was staring at him, her face ice-cold and menacing. It almost looked as if her eyes were glowing supernaturally red, Danny could feel the stare boring through his soul.

“I am furious with you.”

“What? Why?”

“You felt you cannot ask of me this small thing? What must you think of me? What kind of person I am that you could not…”

She paced up and down in front of him, “In my culture, you must be, um… you open home and heart to your guests, you do everything you can to make them feel, I know not the words, for you to not ask of me this, you insult me!”

Danny stepped forward, held on to the front of her coat and kissed her. He could sense how startled she was but she did not pull away. It was a gentle kiss. After a minute Danny stepped back slightly.

“Why did you do that?”

“I’ve been wanting to do that for the longest time. I figured, you’re already mad at me, what have I got to lose?”

His face floated closer, their lips just a fraction apart, again she did not shy away, so he kissed her and felt her return the kiss. Their arms entwined around each other, hugging themselves against the Winter air. Yuliana tilted her head slightly and they kissed deeper and harder. Danny felt years of unrequited passion flooding through him, he was hoping some of it was conveyed to this amazing woman purely through the motions of his lips.

Eventually, they paused, looking close into each other’s eyes.

“I am still mad at you.” Yuliana broke free and walked off down the path, she paused and looked back over her shoulder, “Come.”

Danny caught her up and she hooked her arm through his again. They walked on in a mutual astonishment until they reached the far side of the park, the exit was in sight.

“You do not still sleep in your friend’s car? It is very cold.”

“Nah, he sold it.”

“You are back in the hostel? Or an apartment? Or?”

Danny shook his head. Yuliana stopped, again.

“Where you live?”

“Nowhere.”

Yuliana pointed behind her, at some imaginary place, “You sleep like a bum??”

Danny laughed, “Yeah I guess I-”

“I could slap your fucking face. I am so mad at you. I, I am beyond words.”

Yuliana began some heavy cursing in Slovene, Danny couldn’t translate but he knew the Wrath of God was being invoked; she was shoving him forcibly down the path.

Back at the house, Yakov was sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal and swiping through his phone when the maelstrom burst through the front door.

“Why you not tell me your friend, your best friend, your oldest friend, was sleeping on the streets like a bum!?”

Yuliana was pulling off her coat and scarf.

“What?” Yakov’s spoon was halfway to his lips.

“I hadn’t told him, Mrs-”

“Hush! You should know these things, Yakov.”

“It’s not his fault-” Yuliana twatted Danny round the back of his head.

“You! You are too proud! And you!” Yakov received a similar wallop, “You should pay more attention to your friends.”

Yuliana stormed off. Danny sat down at the table and they both rubbed the backs of their heads.

“Sorry dude.”

“S’alright. You coulda said something. You know you can always crash here.”

They sat listening to the stream of Slovenian complaints and doors being slammed.

“I didn’t mean to make your old lady crazy.”

Yakov chuckled and went back his cereal. Yuliana came downstairs carrying a bundle of blankets and pillows.

“I make up sofa until I think of something better.”

Danny stood up and went to help, “That is-”

“I not want to hear a word from you. Either of you! Annoying pair of…” Her English transmuted into Slovene and the boys were thankfully excused from learning what Yuliana actually thought of them. But they could probably guess.

*******

In the early hours of the morning, Yuliana lay on her bed running things through her punch-drunk mind. The combination of cocktails and adrenaline meant that sleep eluded her. She had more things she wanted to say to Danny and she’d organised her English enough so that they’d make sense to the young idiot.

She wondered if he was awake downstairs. Eventually she pulled on her big blue shirt and went to see. In the lounge she found him sprawled, face down on the sofa, fast asleep.

“Danny?”

She stood next to him, watching him sleep. The blankets had ruffled down to reveal his body. His tight buns looked so cute in the gloomy half-light.

“Are you awake, Danny?”

She touched his shoulder. There was no response. Her palm dawdled down his warm back and, even more slowly, over his bumcheeks. He was a fine looking young man, there was no escaping this fact. Her touch must’ve penetrated the recesses of his brain because he stirred, grumbled sleepily and turned over. She watched him reveal his naked body in all its forbidden glory. She reached down and trailed her fingertips through the hair on his muscular chest.

He smelled a whole lot better since he’d showered and was out of his unwashed clothes. He must have borrowed Yakov’s shower gel because his scent reminded Yuliana of her son. This unnerved her a little. His prick was pointing directly at her, then slowly descended to lay across his belly. It was a beauty, a striking example of manhood. She was struggling with the urge to put her mouth to it.

Danny blinked awake, saw that he was exposed, that she was watching him.

“Sorry.” He pulled up the blankets to cover himself.

“I will give you some pyjamas.”

“I can’t steal Yakov’s clothes.”

“Hush. He doesn’t buy them, I buy them, I give them to you.”

Yuliana kneeled down beside the sofa, she touched his face in a gesture that was becoming pleasingly familiar.

“Listen, I love you. While there is breath in my body you do not sleep on the streets. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“And the kiss…” Danny enjoyed the way she pronounced it keys, “In the park? You should not…”

“I couldn’t help myself. You just looked so kissable.”

“These lips,” she touched her finger to her dark, soft lips, “Are not kissable to you. It is wrong.”

“It didn’t feel wrong. You didn’t hate it.”

“No, I didn’t hate it. But that doesn’t make it right.”

She ran her fingers through his clean, still damp hair. She kissed his forehead then stood up and left. Some minutes later Yakov entered carrying a soda can and some pyjamas.

“She sent me down to give you these.”

He threw them at Danny then shoved his legs off the sofa to sit down. Danny dressed in the pyjamas, they were tight on his tall frame, then they sat sharing the soda while Yakov flicked through channels on the teevee.

“Dude? I kissed your Mom tonight. Twice.”

Yakov looked at Danny for a moment, then pulled a wry face and lifted the can in salute.

“What was it like?”

“Oh man! It was… something else. She is spectacular.”

“Shit, I know. How she was dressed tonight? That short black dress, the stockings and the boots? Fuck! We’ve talked about it before, I can look at her objectively, abstractly, or whatever the word is… she’s a smokin’ hot milf.”

“You wouldn’t mind if, er, I tried to get with her?”

“You asking my permission?”

“Well, not exactly. I suppose, in a way.”

“Dan? If I weren’t her son… if I were, say, you, for example, I’d be trying to get into her panties.”

“You’re a pervert.”

“For sure. Even if loving your mother that way was illegal-”

“Which I think it is.”

“Hmmmm maybe. She would be worth the jail time, right?”

“In a heartbeat. No question.”

They watched the channels skipping by on the large screen.

“You think she’ll go for it?” Yakov asked.

“Never in a million years. What the fuck would she want with me!?”

*******

Yuliana returned from work. The house was uncustomarily dark. She hung up her coat and beret, kicked off her wet boots and walked into the kitchen. She switched on the light and found Danny sitting at the dining table.

“What are you doing in the dark?”

“I was just thinking. Pondering.”

He stood up, pulling on his coat.

“I’m heading out, for a walk. Give you some space.”

“You don’t have to go.”

She switched on the kettle then looked in the fridge.

“It’s no problem. How are you, Mrs Kolar? How was your day?”

“Was fine, thank you. Where is Yakov?”

“He went out with some friends, for drinks.”

“You did not want to go?” She laid some vegetables on a chopping board.

“Oh, I’m broke. I heard there may be some work, down at the harbour. Just temporary, but maybe enough to get me out of your hair.”

Yuliana filled a saucepan with water then placed it on the hob, she subconsciously tidied her long hair behind her ear.

“I can give you some money, for beer.”

“Mrs Kolar,” Danny leaned in the kitchen doorway, “You have given me more than enough by letting me stay here. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I slept somewhere safe and warm. I am eternally thankful, I am NOT going take money from you as well.”

“You are too honourable, too proud, Danny.”

“If a man hasn’t got honour, what has he got? Speaking of which, I need to apologise.”

He walked over and took her hands in his.

“I should not have kissed you. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Yuliana nodded.

“I hope I can make it up to you, somehow.”

“It is not that I am rejecting you , it’s-”

“You don’t have to explain,” Danny held his hands up in defeat, “Really, I get it, I do. I wouldn’t want me either.”

He walked down the hall, zipping up his coat. It took a moment for Yuliana to process what he’d said.

“That’s not what I meant. Not at all.”

She followed him to the front door.

“I can’t waltz around thinking every stunningly attractive woman I meet will fall for me. You’re wonderful, you have every right to be picky. I should’ve known I never stood a ghost of a chance with you.”

He opened the door, the freezing evening air blew inside.

“I’m a nobody,” Danny smiled and pulled on his cap, “I AM a ghost. I’ll see ya in a while.”

The doorbell rang. Yuliana was sitting on her sofa, on top of the bedding she’d laid out for Danny, watching teevee. She got up and answered the door to find Danny dancing on the step to keep warm.

“What are you doing?” She look confused.

“Um? What do you mean? Can I come in?”

“You live here now. You just walk in! Tepka!”

Danny bundled inside, Yuliana closed the door and returned to the lounge.

“Hey,” Danny removed his shoes, “I know that one, I’m not an idiot. I didn’t know it wasn’t locked.”

He hung up his coat and cap. As he entered the lounge he was quietly moved by the pretty picture of an extraordinarily beautiful woman waiting to spend the evening with him. What, he wondered, was he going to do to fuck this up?

He sat down next to her, rubbing some life into his frozen fingers. He looked at his best friend’s mother, she was wearing a teeshirt and thick black tights. Her legs were tucked up under her body and she leaned on one arm on his pillow. He was imagining his face on that pillow later, knowing it will be scented by her perfume, by her body.

“You don’t mind I sit my bum on your bed?”

Danny laughed a little and kept his thoughts to himself.

“Yakov is home, a little drunk. He’s in his room if you want to see him.”

“I’ll stay with you if that’s okay?”

Yuliana gave him her cheeky smile and it seemed to look even more devastatingly powerful tonight.

Try not to say anything too stupid, he warned himself. He rubbed his hands some more, she leaned over and felt them, it made her shiver.

“How did you sleep out there in this weather?”

“Well, I had two sleeping-bags, one inside the other. You just sort of hunker down and… hope to make it to the morning.”

She was looking at him, assessing him. He ran his hand through his hair, she recognised his nervous action and she found it endearing.

“I know, I know,” he said, “Tepka, right?”

“I wasn’t thinking that.”

They looked at each other. Her glacial eyes glittered in the dim light like a wolf’s in the forest.

“I shall fix you some dinner.”

She went to stand up, Danny gently pushed her back on the sofa then lifted her feet back up.

“You don’t have to run around for me, just relax. I’ll get you something, if you want?”

“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”

Yuliana ran her fingers down her thigh, idly stroking the tips on the soft, smooth material. The action was innocent but it sent shockwaves through Danny’s libido.

“Danny? You give me dilemma.”

“Sorry ’bout that.”

“It is right that you, um, now do not pursue me… romantically. But you do it for all the wrong reasons.”

“What do you mean?”

Yuliana sat upright and looked into his eyes; she wanted to convey clearly the speech she had been running through her head while she waited for him to return.

“You say I am beautiful and attractive and stunning and… you think you are not good enough for me. This is not true. You are very nice man. You are very special to me. And any woman, any girl your age, will be lucky to have you as hers.”

“But… not you?”

“Danny, I’ve known you since you were a munchkin running round my feet. I have cared for you since you were a snot of a boy. I’ve fixed your grazed knees and sewn up your pants. I have held you when a girl has broken your heart, or when you have fought with Yakov. I have talked you down when you have been… so angry at the world. I’ve tried to make you feel that there is good in you, when you felt worthless, and alone. I have watched you grow… into you. You are like a son to me.”

Danny looked at her for a long minute. He touched his face and discovered his fingers were wet. He blinked and felt a teardrop, he wiped it away. Yuliana touched his face.

“Why you cry?” Her voice was soft.

He rubbed tears away from both his eyes.

“I don’t know. I never cry. I had crying beaten out of me.” His voice failed him. She hugged him, her fingers in his hair, stroking him, comforting him.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what having a mom felt like, I’ve mistaken your, erm, affection for something else. I’m very embarrassed.”

He lay his head on her shoulder and they sat as if preserved in amber, a sculpture of their tender but confused relationship. Yuliana blinked away her own tears. Damn this boy, she thought.

Eventually she said, “You are not mistaken.”

Danny raised his face up and wiped it with the back of his hand.

“I too,” she continued, “Feel this way about you.”

“No, you don’t.”

She kissed him, to confirm her statement.

“I don’t understand.” Danny said.

“I can’t explain it either.”

Yuliana broke free from their hug and stood up. A brief laugh and she sniffed loudly, wiping her eyes. She guided Danny to lie down on his back and then arranged herself on top of him, propped up on one arm. Their faces were close, she gave him several tiny kisses.

“Mrs Kolar, you look so sad and serious.”

“If you don’t call me Yuliana, I’m going to punch you in the balls.”

“Okay,” Danny cleared his throat quietly, “Yuliana.”

She was touching his face, his hair.

“I will not make love with a man who cannot say my name.”

“Is that what’s happening here?”

“It seems… unavoidable, does it not?”

They kissed. Their hands began to roam, cautiously at first and then with more confidence. Danny reached down and touched her pantyhosed legs, he followed the curves of her thighs, the round globes of her bum. He felt her tongue slide into his mouth. He could taste dinner. She began to move her body against him. Their kiss was audible, wet, impassioned.

“I’ve fantasised this a thousand times.” Danny whispered.

“Really? I am your dream girl?”

She showered his face in the softest kisses, like snowflakes drifting down from the heavens.

“I too have fantasies, of you, Danny.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“In the park, after you kiss me, you sit on a bench,” Yuliana bit her bottom lip as she remembered, “I climb on your lap, I’m not wearing underwear. I feel your dick, pushing up into me… I think I should take you upstairs now.”

Up in her bedroom, Yuliana went to yank off her top, Danny stopped her.

“Not so fast.”

He stood behind her and his arms encircled her. They danced ever-so-slowly while entwined and Danny placed his lips on her neck. Their motions were of a passive urgency.

His hands sailed up inside her teeshirt and her soft, warm flesh was an alien surface. As his palms came to rest on her erect nipples, they caught gently on his skin. His cock swelled instantly to full size. The loss of blood from his brain made him giddy.

Dancing almost lazily, Yuliana pushed herself back against the body of her young lover and discovered his enthusiastic manhood pressing into her bum. He lifted off her top and she heard him gasp at her beauty as she turned around. It felt divine to be held in such wonder. They kissed, continuing their snake-like, undulating motion.

Their kisses lasted like they had all the time in the world. He watched her smile inbetween each separate delicate embrace. She removed Danny’s shirt then tugged his teeshirt off over his head, leaving his ruffled mass of hair spiked upwards. Their hands explored the landscape of their flesh. They smiled in a mutual excited disbelief as they kissed.

Danny said, “You are so kissable.”

Yuliana reached down and squeezed the bulge straining to be released from his jeans.

“Am I fuckable?”

Danny let out a breathy laugh as Yuliana unbuttoned his jeans and drew down the zip. As her fingers touched his pubes, she became suddenly still.

“Before we go further, before we go too far. Is not just me? Danny, this does feel… weird, right?”

“A little.”

She stepped back, obviously concerned. Her arms naturally, protectively, covered her breasts.

“See? I knew. I knew it. I knew we couldn’t get around this.”

She was agitated, pacing her room, “We’re both adults. And you’re, you’re pretty damn sexy Danny but… You’re still you. And I’m still,” she waggled her fingers in air-quotes, “Yakov’s Mom.”

She turned her back on him. Danny breathed, calming, taking control. He ran his hand across his beard and up through his hair. He stepped over and hugged her.

“I would never want to be something you’ll regret. If you want to quit, I’ll understand, and we can go back to how we were. Go back to normal. But. I know that you’re all I’ve been dreaming of for so long, if I didn’t get to spend at least one night with you… I’d regret that, for the rest of my life.”

She turned to face him, her arms dropped, her defences weakening. He ran his fingers through her fine, long hair.

“It may be weird, Yuliana, but it’s a good weird. How often do you get the chance to show the most important person in your life just how much you love her?”