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- 08/23/2024
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Ralph: Breaking free - 3. Parental duties & football practice
"What on earth did you feed Jane and Alisa on Sunday?"
Ralph usually met his ex-wife, Therese once a week for lunch. Nowhere fancy, just a coffee bar in town that did a nice line in sandwiches. It was in a rather grim 1960s building near the bus station, the local council kept talking about re-developing the site but so far, the building, and the businesses survived. The café had plenty of space at the back, so there was usually a table. You had to live with plastic tables and chairs, as well as rather naff posters of exotic travel locations. But the very drawbacks were almost a bonus as they meant that Ralph and Therese could meet with little hassle. The clientele was a funny mix of local office workers and those killing time before going to catch a bus. And Therese had chosen it as their preferred venue because it was convenient for her work and on the right side of town for Ralph as well.
He'd caught the bus today, sometimes he walked, it hardly warranted using the car. He often wondered about getting a bicycle, Beth cycled everywhere and kept encouraging him. But Ralph knew that if he got a bike, then the girls would be interested and keen to join him. Anything outside and active was liable to catch their attention, and whilst family bike trips sounded a nice idea, he quailed from the idea of keeping his lively daughters on track whilst on public roads. Therese thought bikes dangerous and wasn't keen for the girls to have them, and Ralph was also aware that they cost. It was cowardly, he knew, but he was waiting for them to suggest it.
'Daddy, Parvati has a lovely new bike'
'Can we have bikes please'
'It looks such fun'
'We can go out with you on them'
He could almost hear the dialogue in his head already. But before Therese could accuse him of wool-gathering, he pulled his attention back to their conversation, and Sunday's spicy lentils.
"It was one of Beth at work's girlfriend's recipes. The girlfriend, Carine, does a lot of things for Beth's lunch. I thought the spicy lentils might suit the twins and", he shrugged, "it's simple enough for me to make in large batches."
Therese laughed, "You're living on the remains, I might have known."
"Of course, only makes sense."
She shook her head, "Make’s my life bloody hard work. I just don’t have the time, work's getting pretty busy and..."
"The girls are more demanding." Ralph smiled, but he sensed that Therese was getting narked.
Ralph and Therese had a fairly amiable relationship. Once they split up, they found they were more friends than they had ever been, though her temper remained somewhat uncertain. She was a human resources manager and a successful one, working for one of the large firms in town. As her career became more demanding, so Ralph was expected to shoulder his full weight of looking after Jane and Alisa.
"Anything else apart from you wanting recipe tips?"
Therese rolled her eyes, "Football."
"Football, as in watching?" Ralph stared at Therese, "They've never mentioned anything to me."
"Not watching, playing." She glared at him.
Ralph desperately tried to swallow his food before it exploded out his mouth. "Playing! The twins want to play football?"
"You’re telling me it's not your idea?"
"No way. I enjoy watching a match well enough, and we have plenty of banter about it at work. But playing?" He gave her a funny look.
She snorted, "Well, that’s something at least. They're starting a new club for girls, to encourage more to play the sport." She gave him a look which told him quite how stupid she thought that was.
"And..."
She smiled, a rather evil smile, "Sorry to land you in it”, though from her expression it was clear she was anything but sorry. “The club's at the Rec on Saturday mornings." The Rec was the old recreation ground which now had organised sports facilities and indoor pitches alongside the old outdoor football pitches.
"Jesus. So, I have to get up early and get them out the house."
She gave an expressive shrugged, "It’s Saturday, so it’s on your watch. Mind, when they first started on about it, I assumed that it was an after-school thing."
Ralph pulled a face, "But not a bit."
"Saturday mornings, so that as wide as possible a selection of girls can join in."
"Are we going to need football boots and all that sort of kit?"
" Just the usual gym kit, thank God. Don’t fancy shelling out for bloody football boots."
"Only for them to be left languishing in a cupboard."
She gave grim laugh. "I don't think there is any danger of that, they are both mad keen." Therese shook her head, "I've no idea where all this bloody came from."
Ralph laughed, "Sorry, your two fairy princesses seem to be rapidly disappearing."
She snapped at him, "You encourage them”, but then gave an evil smile. “Anyway, you have to be at the Rec promptly at ten, with the girls dressed and ready."
---
The girls football club had colonised one area of the Rec. To Ralph’s surprise they were using one of the outdoor pitches, perhaps it was cheaper, but he wondered what happened when it rained. When Ralph and a very excited pair of girls arrived on the Saturday, there were around a dozen other girls there, all in the eight to ten age range. They were being dropped off by parents, most of whom seemed eager to disappear and presumably get on with their Saturday morning chores.
There was a banner, advertising the club and a table with what looked like refreshments for the break. Around this clustered a group of adults, parents presumably; some were in tracksuits whilst others were in ordinary casual clothes, and it looked as if they were there to keep an eye on the girls and Ralph had a sinking feeling. Would he get roped in? He'd anticipated getting an hour or so to himself.
Their details taken, Jane and Alisa were handed over to a competent young woman in a track suit, whilst Ralph was welcomed by a curly haired red head wearing football kit, but trainers on his feet. The man introduced himself as Nolan and he had an enthusiastic, puppy-ish air. Ralph introduced himself and explained that he was the twins' Father, but that the initial contact had been through his ex-wife. Ralph asked what they did when it rained, and Nolan had laughed and said that if the girls’ class took off then they would look to moving it indoors. The man seemed to know his stuff.
A bit of polite chat led Ralph to mention his business, and Nolan seemed most eager when he learned Ralph built websites, and Ralph found himself offering to help out if they needed a decent website. Nolan had laughed and asked if Ralph had seen their website. He admitted he hadn’t, and Nolan said let's chat afterwards, if we may, before dashing off to talk to another parent.
Ralph watched for a bit, alongside a few other parents. He nodded to some others, but no-one seemed inclined to chatter and frankly he was happy. It was all warming up exercises, fun and games first and the more serious stuff would come later on, and he knew that the twins were not keen on him being around for their first day, so he walked into town, got a coffee and did some shopping. When he returned, managing to carefully time his arrival for 11:30 when things finished, he found a gaggle of excited young girls being rather voluble as they were shepherded to cars by waiting parents. It was rather like school at 3pm. The twins were still chatting to a couple of other girls, and he waited on the sidelines.
Nolan spotted him and came up, shaking his hand and saying that the twins were a great asset and that he hoped to see them next week. Ralph looked up at the girls, both still very animated, and said that he expected that they would. Nolan's shirt had ridden up, he was clearly rather damp with perspiration, or his shorts had dropped, but he was revealing rather an unsuitable amount of naked, pink midriff. Ralph was wondering whether he should say anything, but Nolan had returned to the subject of the website. Was Ralph really willing?
Ralph had taken a quick look at their website when having coffee. It had clearly been put together in a hurry, it looked basic and wouldn't tempt anyone. He suggested that he meet Nolan for a drink, and they could discuss it further, and suddenly he was exchanging email addresses with the guy. Whatever had come over him? Certainly, they'd not get any money out of it and but maybe some kudos.
The twins were chatting happily all the way home, giving Ralph a running commentary on the excitement of the football session. When Ralph asked whether that meant they were eager to go back, the answer was a resounding yes.
Later that evening, the twins safely in bed, Ralph had another look at Nolan’s website. There was a whole section devoted to the children’s sports academy, but it was all part of a wider network of sports and sports-therapy related activities offered by Nolan’s company, Fitness for All. Plenty of scope for creating an engaging web presence, but his mind kept running to Nolan himself.
An idle thought, wondering what lay under Nolan’s outwear led to Ralph's shocked realisation that the man's body interested him, the expanse of smooth pink belly gave Ralph ideas, and he started to imagine what lay underneath. He was not having fantasies about his children’s football teacher, just wasn’t! It was inappropriate in all sorts of ways. He shut down the thoughts quickly, locking them firmly away but not before an image of slipping those shorts down to reveal…
An image that was disturbing in all sorts of ways.
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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