when we were last together, Mr and Mrs Edward had learned many lessons about their ways. Now, the family was kept out of the loop of these counseling sessions. For reasons we may never understand, the couple felt they could handle the changes privately. After all, the only child who seemed to be affected was Andrew. He would need individualized attention, Mrs Edward concluded. The kind of attention that Mr Edward may not approve of, but if done correctly, would make everyone happy.

---

Trapped… so to speak

Helping out with his nephews and nieces was not a problem. Andrew had been prepared from very young to be a great dad. It just was not in the cards for him to be a young dad. He had thrown all his efforts into getting the proper paperwork in school to earn his parents’ love and approval. He was tired. He was spent.

So, instead of rushing to the next chapter, making babies the legal way, he was taking a much needed break. The “less than ideal job” he was enjoying gave him time to smell the roses and enjoy his life. Plus, he was very good at it. He had helped boost the company’s profits.

Sure, they were getting way more value than they were paying for and often thought Andrew was selling himself short by skipping promotions, but, Andrew didn’t care. In fact, he liked that arrangement. People always assumed, by his title, that Andrew wasn’t that capable. What this allowed him to do was sharpen a lot of skills below the radar of anyone’s attention.

These were skills Andrew felt he was lacking. Some were social, others were professional. This was the kind of schooling he wished he had time to have back in grade school. Sure, it annoyed his folks plenty, but that didn’t matter any more. The very valuable street smarts Andrew was lacking was getting filled. If Andrew was to successfully identify the type of woman he wanted to be with, he had to polish up his skills.

There was one other problem Andrew wanted to fully master. This was also proving to be extra difficult. No matter how many resources Andrew thew at the problem. He didn’t trust himself to find a great woman without fixing this weakness of his. Time was quickly running out on him too.

According to his well meaning misguided parents, if Andrew didn’t solve this conundrum by a certain age, the math was severely set against him of finding a woman of proper repute. While it was easy to intellectually laugh at this, emotionally, Andrew was worried.

Today, however, he was putting this all behind him. Andrew was heading over to his parent’s home. While this ordinarily would have been a cause for stress, Andrew was glad he was going to be spending time with his nephews and nieces. They didn’t judge him. They didn’t hate him. They didn’t try to change him. They just wanted to play and feel safe. Two things Andrew was good at providing.

He was their favorite babysitter. Andrew also knew that in a few short years, he would no longer be allowed to be such an influential voice in their lives. His siblings had drank the Kool-Aide of the family. They had accepted that he was a black sheep. As soon as his nephews and nieces reached the age to notice the opposite gender, Andrew would not be allowed to be of major influence. (unless his single status changed to married)

There was this unspoken fear that Andrew would lead them down the wrong path of mate selection. The running joke was that if one wanted to be single and without love, be like Andrew. Thankfully, that would not be for another handful of short years… before the upcoming generation worried about things like that.

Andrew was not that worried though. He knew that he was doing OK in life. No one understood the time shift that had been imposed by the academic route Andrew had taken. All his siblings had found love in college and had gotten married in college. They were popping out children by the time they had wrapped up their masters degree, which was paid for by their employers.

They had a different journey. They had a different path. Plus, they had their mom and dad to help select a suitable mate for them. That was great and good because their mindset was in perfect alignment. Anyone the parents had chosen would have been a pretty close enough match. Andrew was different. He had grown quietly inside. His tastes had changed over the years. One could not just pick from a list of resume candidates and expect a good match.

As his Uber entered his childhood neighborhood, Andrew reflected with a small smile. Funny how many secretes he had uncovered over the years about the families around his parent’s home. Things that would have shocked and scandalized his parents. Things they assumed Andrew would never know or understand.

Andrew didn’t blame them. His siblings didn’t know these things either. But he knew. His parent’s thought they hid their “shame” well and that they were the only folks struggling with it. But their “shame” was very tame compared to what others had to deal with.

That was the reason for the small smile. Other families did not see these things as shameful. Sure, it was not dinner conversation pieces. But it was not dirty secrets either. The neighbors didn’t talk about it because they didn’t want to make his parents uncomfortable.

What was this dirty little secret?

People had sex for fun and recreation.

Shocker!

Gasp!

Andrew shook his head.

His parents were not the only parents to enjoy kink in the bedroom. They just were the only ones who thought it had to be kept top secret. Granted, not every parent had a kinky side to them, but those who did, well, the Edward parents never knew. Andrew however, did. And that bothered him a bit.

Not so much the knowing part, but the understanding that kink was fun and a draw bothered Andrew. It made him weak. It made him act foolishly. It made him crave and desire what he shouldn’t have. It made him feel out of control. It was his kryptonite.

Ladies who knew the art…

The trip was over. It was time to go have quality time with children. They were pure. They were free. They were undamaged. They were the only connection to his past, the part Andrew missed, the part of him that was too short lived.

The time Andrew could forget about his struggle to rid himself of any weakness he still had.