"Another night in Spokane" Adam thought to himself, mentally sighing.
He generally enjoyed his job, but about once a month, he ended up spending a night or two in Spokane, a town quieter and more conservative than he enjoyed. And once again, he was driving across the state. He had to handle a sales demonstration the next day, on a Monday afternoon, so this was a Sunday afternoon and evening over there, which wasn't his usual time for a visit. Adam usually found some way to entertain himself. This time, someone had tipped him off to a wine festival. He wasn't deep into wine as a hobby. Still, he enjoyed several varieties and it seemed like a good way to spend an evening.
Being a frequent guest at the same hotel with status has its privileges, such as being able to check in when he arrived around 1pm in the afternoon and discovering they'd upgraded him to a corner suite. He went up the elevator to the top floor, which is only the third floor in this smaller town.
Adam settled in a bit and decided to change to head to the festival, which had just opened. He'd made the drive in a t-shirt and gym shorts. Plenty comfortable for his 40-year-old, almost-in-shape dadbod, but if he was going to have some fun at a wine festival, it seemed like he should look the part. Adam had been single for a few years after an amicable divorce. He dated here and there but wasn't attached at the moment. Given how often he found himself in this town, connecting with someone new here wouldn't be a terrible thing. Adam decided to keep things relatively casual with a dark green button-down shirt and some nicer (if that's such a thing) khaki shorts.
The festival was at a city park about three blocks from his hotel; after the quick walk, he passed through the entry and was given his tasting glass and tokens for sample pours. There was some decent jazz playing from a live band and the festival attendance was light. He walked over to one of the winery tables and got a pour of a chardonnay. After sniffing and tasting, he turned left to walk up the concrete path toward another table, observing that everything was laid out along this wide path circling the park. As he did so and got closer to the booth, he couldn't help but notice the two women approaching from the opposite direction. They caught his eye for a couple of reasons. First: they were both incredibly gorgeous, although quite different. One was a quite tall, tan, toned, long-haired blonde that had likely been compared to Barbie many times in her life. The other was a physique that was more of Adam's interests: short height, slender, pale skin, and chin-length straight black hair with a streak of bright blue. The second thing catching Adam's eye (and many others, of course) was that the other woman was in a power wheelchair and appeared to be sitting nearly motionless. Both were likely in their late 20s or early 30s.
Adam had been a devotee - someone with an attraction to disabled women - for as long as he'd had attraction to women. His experience had been limited, and all of a sudden this wine festival became a lot more interesting. Adam and the two women reached the booth about the same time; Adam smiled and gestured to let them go ahead of him. The tall blonde replied with a cheery "thanks," and her friend on wheels smiled as she turned her chair toward the table where wine was being poured. There were a few folks there already, and so as the two women waited, Adam stood slightly back and to one side, his eyes taking in the scenery. There was a lot for him to like about the woman on wheels.
As the two women reached the table for their tasting pours, Adam observed the blonde with both tasting glasses, receiving a pour for her friend as well. They moved to the side past the table, and Adam got a pour in his own glass before walking over near them.
"This beats a lot of things we could be stuck doing on a nice day like today, doesn't it?" Adam said to the two women in general, curious to see if they were friendly.
"It sure does!" said the tall blonde, who had just finished pouring one of the tasters into a plastic cup which she then placed into a cup holder on the wheelchair and added a straw so that her friend could drink the wine. Adam may have had a slightly quizzical look on his face.
"They're so uptight about the alcohol tasting regulations that they won't pour my wine directly into the cup so I can drink it on my own," the disabled woman said with an annoyed tone. "So Samantha here has to pour each taster into my cup and put it where I can drink it. You'd think some common sense might apply, and they'd realize that a quadriplegic girl just needs to have a drink, but there's not a lot of common sense with booze laws. I'm Heather, by the way."
"I'm Adam. Nice to meet you Heather... Samantha" he quipped, looking at each woman. Samantha extended a hand and Adam shook it, then gave Heather a nod.
"Hey, you're smarter than most," she said in a friendly tone. "You wouldn't believe how many guys stick out a hand expecting me to shake it with arms and hands that I can't move."
Adam chuckled. "Occasionally I do something smart. It's always nice when I don't screw up right away when I meet someone cute."
Over the next five or ten minutes, the three of them engaged in various small talk. Adam shared how he regularly visits for work. Samantha and Heather are lifelong friends who grew up in the area. They each sipped their wine; Samantha and Adam from the festival glassware and Heather from the cup with her straw. Adam noticed that while Samatha's ring finger indicated she was married (or at least engaged), there was no such ring on Heather's left hand. Like her right hand, it lay motionless on the wide black padded armrests that supported her forearms and hands. Adam noted what appeared to be a fresh manicure of a dark gray polish on her nails, although he thought that if you never move your hands, it probably is hard to mess up your manicure. During their conversation, Heather's body below her chest remained still, with no movement of her arms, hands, or legs. As Adam was checking out Heather's chest, he noticed a scar at the base of her throat. He surmised that she once had a tracheostomy, presumably from whatever incident led to her disability.
At a pause in their conversation and after they'd all finished their wine, Samantha said "Shall we continue along to the next winery table?"
"Solid plan" said Heather as she moved her head and pressed on the headrest, first to the side and then behind her. Adam realized she was using a wheelchair control called a head array, designed for folks who couldn't use a regular joystick control. She turned and began rolling along the concrete path through the park to the next booth, probably 50 yards away. They walked past a few craft vendors; one woman was struggling to reach something attached near the top of the pop-up canopy. Samantha said "I got this" and used her height to help. "Turns out being a 6'1" woman is useful at times" she said in her bubbly voice as they paused.
"I suppose it is," Heather said with a bit of a chuckle. "I was a full foot shorter than that when I could walk."
"Short is sexy," Adam said with a smile toward Heather. "Just sayin. Can I ask how long ago it was that you could walk?"
"Hell no you can't ask!" Heather said and then a smirk gave away that she was just seeing how Adam would react. "It's fine; there's no reason to be secretive about it. I fell while bouldering when I was 19, so it'll be ten years in a couple of months. I only fell about seven feet, but my head and neck hit at just the wrong angle onto a rock, and that was the end of me using my arms or legs."
"I'd say something like 'that sucks' but I suppose that's a little obvious," remarked Adam. They continued along the path and reached the next winery's table. They approached and moved up to the table. "Tell us about what you have today!" Adam said, and the winery's representative began sharing about the offering. As he finished chatting, he took Samantha's glass from her and poured a few ounces. Samantha took Heather's cup as Heather spoke, "I don't suppose you can just pour into this?"
"Sorry, afraid I can only pour into the official glassware," the representative said, as Samantha then handed him Heather's glass as well. As he filled Adam's glass, Samantha again poured Heather's into her cup, put the cup into the cup holder, and added her straw so she could drink. Heather took a sip and then slightly shifted her head to touch her headrest controls. Her wheelchair turned to the left, and she cruised across the walkway to an area of shade. "Wanted to get out of the sun," she said as she took another sip of wine from her cup.
Adam decided to take the risk of some direct flirting. "It seems your mouth is good both with your chair and with the wine." He noticed Samantha with a subtle smile. He wasn't subtle.
Heather smiled and slightly narrowed her eyes. "My mouth is pretty good with many things you may or may not expect."
"Good to know," said Adam, as Heather took another sip and finished the wine taster.
"Samantha, I'm going to recline," Heather said, looking to her friend. Samantha took each of Heather's wrists and put her hands on her lap. Adam then noticed Heather shrug her left shoulder and realized she was hitting a button mounted near it. She then moved her head to activate the head array controls again. The leg and footrests elevated a bit, and with another movement of her head, the chair began to recline until she was only at a very slight angle. While this happened, Samantha said, "She has to make sure she doesn't stay in one position for too long."
Adam replied with "Well, it's good to enjoy a variety of positions."
As she finished leaning back, Heather added, "Now you've seen me in two positions, and we just met 15 minutes ago. That's a good start for you," with an exaggerated wink in Adam's direction.
They chatted about their favorite non-local wineries for a couple of minutes and then Heather resumed a normal sitting position, reversing the process and coming back upright. The three of them continued some friendly banter for a bit. Samantha then said, "I need to freshen up a bit. Heather, do you want to hang here or join me?"
"I'll wait here and entertain our new friend," Heather replied with a smile.
"Cool deal!" Samantha exclaimed as she headed off in the direction of the park restrooms.
Heather turned her chair a bit to face Adam more directly. "So you visit over here every month? Does anyone back home miss you that often?"
"Nah. I've been single for a while if that's what you're getting at. I enjoy some time away, and it's not that often. I get plenty of time around home."
"I guess you're right. Even a long weekend once a month isn't that much. Are you usually here just long enough for business, or do you like having some fun as well?" Heather inquired.
"Often, I'm just here for work. I drove over this morning. I have a presentation tomorrow afternoon, and I decided to stay tomorrow night so I didn't have to drive into the night. I would enjoy spending more time here if I had someone to hang out with. Fortunately, I kind of have a thing for short women with dark hair."
"Yeah?" Heather replied. "I can't complain about my present company. And I assume if my wine straw and reclining wheelchair antics haven't put you off, you're okay with that short dark-haired woman being paralyzed?"
Adam replied quietly, looking directly at her eyes. "Truth be told, I enjoy gently taking the lead, and it seems you might need someone to do that, don't you?"
"I... I do. Just know that getting to know me and my situation is a whole adventure. The wheelchair is just the beginning. If you're up for it, you could find I'm rather into serving in all the ways I can."
He smiled gently and simply said, "Good girl" to which Heather very quietly replied, almost in a whisper, "Oh fuck." She paused, then said, "That phrase... it's been too long." Adam smiled slightly broader.
"Did you miss me?" came Samantha's voice as she walked quickly up to the pair.
