This is an unauthorized continuation of Jeremy Chandler’s, “My Summer in Pantyhose,” last added to by Jeremy 04/07/2023. The story line and characters belong to Jeremy Chandler and are used without express permission. What follows is intended as fan fiction with the greatest of admiration for Jeremy and appreciation for the original work.

  They arrived a little early Wednesday morning when Jamie's grandmother dropped him off to work. Lucille was putting out the outside displays and came over to the car.

  “Good morning Emma I’m glad you’re here early,” she said. “Jamie, you can clock in right away. We’ve not managed to get the sidewalk merchandise out on time all week. I’d like to have you in fifteen minutes early the rest of the week.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Jamie said as he headed in to clock in.

  Lucille watch him walk away in his Bohemian Wandering Skorts and smiled.

  “Jamie is developing quite an independent fashion sense,” she said.

  “Yes, he’s been influenced by nearly every female he knows. I really like the recent additions to his wardrobe.”

  “So do I. I really should get back to work. But I need to talk to you about Jamie.”

  “Is there a problem with his work? I thought he was doing well.”

  “He is. It’s not about his work. He’s really hustled this week and we’ve really needed that. The whole staff has given a hundred and ten percent. It’s just he seems to be down. But bless him, he powers through it. Tabitha pointed it out to me. Last week he came in every day all bubbly with good mornings for everyone. And through the day he’d always take a moment to talk with her and Margaret. But this week, he hasn’t said anything that wasn’t work related and he has as sad expression on his face the rest of the time. Is there something wrong?”

  “Oh, yes. His girlfriend broke up with him. He’s been in a funk ever since. Poor boy worshiped the ground she walked on and then out of the blue, she’s with the school’s top jock and won’t give Jamie the time of day.”

  “That would explain it. He just throws himself into the work here. As his boss, I should love it. I’d like to think that each employee is more than just an employee; a family member or at least a friend. I’ll juggle the lunches and see to it that he and Tabitha go out together. I won’t tell her what’s the matter, but maybe she can get him to confide in her and give him an out for the rough emotions that are plaguing him.”

  “Hi Aaron,” Julie said as she sat in the empty chair at his table.

  “Hi yourself. It’s been a bit crazy with Hank out sick Monday and Tuesday, but he’s back today.”

  “Well that explains why I couldn’t find you at lunch the last two days.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to ask because of that. Are you and your mother alright? I mean you aren’t in any trouble about me bringing you home, are you?”

  “No trouble. You suitably impressed her as a fine upstanding young man. I’m thinking of pushing the envelope and seeing if she’s up to inviting you for dinner this Saturday as a thank you for bringing me home.”

  “And just what do you hope to gain from that maneuver?”

  “I hope to convince her that you are such an upstanding young man that she will be good with me accepting a date with you.”

  “That would be nice. I hate needing to watch our back and plan our dates to be someplace where no one you know will see you. It cramps my style.

  “On another note; did Megan make good on her promise to break up with Jamie?”

  “In the worst way possible. That bitch sent out an email to all her friends, Jamie included, that told them she’d been hanging around with Jamie as a mercy project and there was no feelings involved. The topper is that she finished by saying the was waiting impatiently for her next encounter with Josh.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope; those are he exactly her words; ‘waiting impatiently’.”

  “She wants another encounter with Josh? Maybe we shouldn’t have rescued her. She wanted it and was saying no, so she could say it wasn’t her fault. ‘But I told him no.’ What a hypocrite.”

  Jamie and Tabitha sat across from each other in the tiny lunchroom.

  “How you holding up with the full time this week?” Tabitha wanted to know.

  “I’m good,” Jamie answered.

  “Seems like you’re different. You’re working hard and all, but you don’t seem to be the friendly, happy, talkative Jamie from before. I thought that maybe the long hours were getting to you.”

  “It’s nothing about work.”

  “Personal problem then.”

  “Yeah, personal.”

  “OK, I’ll leave you alone about it,” Tabitha said, reaching across the lunch table to put her hand on his. “But I’d like to think we’re friends. I look forward to us being good friends. If you ever feel you need to talk to someone about it, I’m here for you.”

  Jamie nodded and gave her a weak smile. He looked down at the table as he ate his bologna sandwich. But Tabitha was determined to bring out of his funk. Lucille had asked to see if she could get him talking. It kind worried her that he wasn’t coping with the breakup very well. It bothered Tabitha as well.

  “What do you do for fun when you’re not living it up at the Fabric Barn?” she asked out of the blue.

  Jamie looked up with surprise.

  “Oh, I read, Sci-Fi mostly, and some fantasy.”

  “I like to read Sci-Fi too. I like the classics mostly. I remember devouring Isaac Asimov's Empire series. But my favorite of all time is Heinlein’s ‘Stranger in a Strange Land.’

  “I've read those. They were great. I read mostly newer stuff. Not the really new, but whatever the library has in. I don’t think I’ve ever met a girl that really likes Sci-Fi. Have you ever read any fantasy?”

  “No, I mostly got sucked into the Sci-Fi during the lockdown. My dad has a large library of Sci-Fi books that he got when my grandfather died. He was a member of the Science Fiction Book Club. That was way before eReaders and the internet.”

  “I’d like to get an eReader. But they cost over a hundred dollars and my real passion, if I’m going to spend that kind of money is RPG games. I do RPG more than I read. I only have a couple. But they’re really old and the graphics aren’t nearly as good as the new stuff.”

  “Oh wow, I love to RPG. But I’m in the same boat. Not enough money to buy much.”

  “My friend, Mike, gets all the latest stuff. His folks have lots of money, so he can afford it. I’ve only played his latest a couple of times. I’m planning on going to his house on Saturday. If you like RPG, I could maybe ask him if you could come along.”

  “That’d be great. What time on Saturday?”

  “I don’t usually go over there until about 1:00. He likes to sleep in and, well, so do I.”

  “I think our lunch break is over. We better get clocked in.”

  “Hey Mom, how was your day?” Julie asked as she came into the kitchen.

  Her mother eyed her suspiciously. Julie was still in her work clothes. She normally went straight to her room to put on some shorts and a pull-over top of some sort and she never asked her mother how her day was.

  “It was a good day, thank you.”

  “That’s great. I’m glad.”

  “OK, what’s up? You're still in your work clothes and I don’t ever remember you asking how my day was before. Sounds to me like a lead in for some sort of favor.”

  “OK, you’ve got me. You remember that guy, Aaron, who brought me home from the beach when I needed a ride last Saturday?

  “Yeah, what about him?”

  “I ended up at his table for lunch today. They were really crowded at the food court today. Anyway, I thanked him again for the rescue last Saturday. I was thinking that maybe we should do something nice for him by way of a thank you.”

  “I suppose I could go along with that. What did you have in mind?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe dinner on Saturday?”

  “So, you owe him a favor and I get to pay it off for you.”

  “Oh, well. It wouldn’t have to be fancy. I could do some baked chicken, so you don’t really have to do anything.”

  Her mother wasn’t born yesterday. She could easily see that Julie was interested in more than a simple thank you.

  “How often do you see Aaron at lunch?”

  Julie opened her mouth to answer, but thought better of it. She was already lying to her mother about how it was that Aaron gave her a ride home Saturday. She couldn’t bring herself to string together a full web of lies. Her mother was too perceptive and would surely be able sense it.

  “I don’t know. He’s good company and sometimes, if he sees me, he invites me to join him even if there are free tables.”

  “And of course, you never look around to see if he’s there before picking out where you’d like to sit… say near him so you have to walk by his table.”

  “Oh Mom…”

  “I thought as much. How long have you known him?”

  “Come September, it’ll be two years.”

  “Are you going to tell me you’re not interested in him?”

  “Mom, he’s going to be a junior in college this year, but he skipped a grade in grade school, so he’s only really three years older than me.”

  Her mother studied her for a while.

  “I’d advise you to never play poker. When you introduced him to me Saturday it was obvious that you think of him as more than a friend. He’s a little harder to read, but I’d hazard a guess that he reciprocates.

  “It’s time for the truth and the whole truth, Julie. You’re sixteen. You’re old enough that you could stand a good chance if you sued to have yourself declared emancipated; you’re almost an adult. Short of grounding you I can’t control where you go and who you see. Right now, three years seems like a long time, but by the time you graduate high school, three years will hardly be noticeable; by the time you graduate college it will be nothing.

  “As I said, time for the truth. I’ll make you deal. ’Fess up to everything and I’ll grant you amnesty. When you go to the movies with friends on the weekend do the ‘friends’ ever include Aaron?”

  “Yes, sometimes.”

  “And has it ever happened that Aaron was the only friend who showed up at the theater to watch the movie with you?”

  Julie looked to the ground. “Sometimes.”.

  “Now for the big one. Was Aaron invited to the pool party?”

  Julie chewed her lip for a while.

  “Amnesty?”

  “Me thinks I should have made that limited amnesty, but I didn’t. So yes, amnesty.’’

  “The truth is, there was no pool party. It was always the beach.”

  “And Aaron was the only one at the party?”

  “Oh no. There were some guys from the shoe store that Aaron works at and some he knows from school.”

  “Knowing that I really wish I’d made it limited. Was there beer or other alcohol at the beach?”

  “Not in Aaron’s group. They all drove themselves an there was no ‘designated driver.’”

  “Not in Aaron’s group; does that mean there were other people there with beer?”

  Julie sat at the kitchen table, unable to stand without shaking.

  “It’s a long story Mom, but in a word. Yes.”

  Her mother sat as well.

  “OK, let’s hear the whole story.”

  “I told you that I saw Megan there with Josh.”

  “Yes.”

  “The group she was with had a keg and all the kids were underage and all drinking. Megan was thoroughly drunk; Josh thought he’d take advantage of that and took her off behind one of the low hills there and Aaron and I were on the other side of the hill and heard her tell him no and to take her home. We went to see what was going on and stopped a date rape.

  “Long story short, we took her home and helped her cover up all that so her parents wouldn’t know. I was really ticked at her and told her that my brother didn’t deserve a girlfriend that would cheat on him. I told her that if she didn’t break up with Jamie by Sunday night, on Monday I’d confess to her parents how I helped her cover up her drinking and being far too intimate with Josh.”

  “But you said it was a date rape and you stopped it. They couldn’t possibly hold it against her that Josh attempted that.”

  “When I saw her sitting on his lap, she allowed him to touch her intimately. I’m sure that’s where Josh got the idea he had it coming and she’d be willing.”

  “That’s a lot of information to digest. But back to Aaron. Three years, right now… the college scene is totally different from the high school scene. I’ll have to get to know him much better before I’ll condone a dating relationship between the two of you. So invite him to dinner. Bringing your young man to meet your family usually signifies a serious relationship.

  “We’ll start slow and you two will be on probation. One screw up and it’s over.”

  She wasn’t too sure just how she’d enforce ‘it’s over’ but hopefully Julie wouldn’t think it through.