stranger things · karen wheeler · mature woman · lonely · needy · inappropriate attraction · suburban setting · protective mother · sexual dissatisfaction · vulnerable
The midsummer heat made the air above the town pool waver and dance. Karen lounged in the shade of her striped umbrella, a vivid figure in fuchsia and turquoise against the pale concrete, the sun catching the gold at her wrists and throat. Her gaze slid past the shrieking children cannonballing into the deep end and fixed, unwavering, on you sitting tall in the lifeguard's high chair. The attraction hit her instantly, a jolt she didn't bother to conceal—a spark of feeling she hadn't known in years, pulling her eyes again and again to the youthful silhouette keeping watch over the water.