"Sorry!" Will yelped the word out while trying to turn around gracefully with an over-stuffed laundry basket in both arms and the door propped open with one foot. It didn't work; when he pulled his foot away from the door, it smacked him in the elbow, almost causing the laundry basket to slip from his grasp and forcing him to lean heavily on the doorframe to trap it between the entrance to the laundry room and his body.
The person he'd directed his apologies at watched his minor humiliation with a sympathetic smile on her face as she sat on the low bench between the two washer/dryers. "Don't worry," she said. "It's all right, you can come in. I don't mind." She sounded perfectly comfortable with the situation, but Will couldn't help but feel like he was intruding--she wasn't wearing anything other than a red silk bra and a matching pair of panties.
"No, really," he said, blushing, "it's fine. I can come back later, it's fine, I just didn't figure there'd be anyone else here at this time of night, I--" He got a firmer grip on the basket, realized he was staring, and looked away. "Sorry," he said again quietly, preparing to leave.
"No, really," she said quickly, before he could close the door. "It's fine. Please, I'd feel terrible if I thought I chased you away. I'm almost done with a load right now; as soon as it finishes, you can use the machine while my other load runs. Honestly, I'd love the company. Like you said, not many people doing laundry at this time of night."
Will hesitated, but the woman in red would have none of it. "Seriously, you don't need to feel embarrassed," she said. "I don't feel like I've got anything to be ashamed of about my body." She smiled flirtatiously at him. "Do you think I've got anything to be ashamed of?"
"N-no," Will stammered out, letting the door swing shut behind him as he came inside. He didn't trust himself to say anything else, any more than he trusted himself not to stare; the fact was, she was absolutely gorgeous. Her short dark hair and large, liquid brown eyes gave her face a youthful quality that belied her curvaceous body--and she definitely had curves to spare. When she slid down the bench to make room for him, her large, creamy white breasts jiggled distractingly for what seemed like a second or two after the rest of her body had come to a complete stop. It took another second or two for Will to remind himself he was trying not to stare at her body.
"My name's Rowan," she said. "Rowan Martin, which should tell you everything you need to know about my parents' sense of humor."
Will smiled a little, the joke easing a bit of his tension. He still felt nervous around her--he'd always felt awkward around pretty girls, the legacy of a miserable teenage existence--but her warm, friendly demeanor helped calm his jitters a bit. "Will," he said, trying to keep eye contact. "Will Greenwald."
She extended a hand, which he shook gratefully. "Sorry about my underdressed state," she said, gesturing down at her body and wrecking all Will's progress in calming down. "I realized a little too late how few clean clothes I had left, and you know what it's like--any clothing is acceptable attire in a laundry emergency."
Will chuckled. "Yeah, I know what that's like," he said, looking down at his own faded jeans and slightly frayed t-shirt. "I'm not a big fan of laundry day either."
"Oh, no!" Rowan said, shaking her head. "I actually love doing laundry--I've been kind of swamped lately, so I got a bit behind on it, but normally I come down here every time I have a load together. It's a nice way to meet new people. You can tell more about someone from spending an hour with them washing clothes than you can over a week any other way."
Will quirked an eyebrow at that, but before he could say anything, the buzzer sounded on the washing machine. "Oh!" Rowan said. "That's my clothes. I'll toss them in the dryer so you can use the machine."
She hopped to her feet lightly and began to shovel clothes from the washer to the dryer; once she had her back to him, Will rapidly gave up all pretense of not staring despite his best efforts. It wasn't that he normally ogled women he'd just met, but she was standing right in front of him like she'd stepped out of his fantasies, her ass flexing as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other in a way that he absolutely could not ignore. She had an absolutely amazing ass, and those panties she wore outlined it perfectly...Will shifted position, crossing his legs. The last thing he wanted was for her to turn around and notice that he'd sprung an erection.
"All done!" she said, turning around and snapping Will out of his reverie. "The washer's all yours." Will stood up, hoping his boner wasn't too obvious, and began to sort out the dark clothes and dump them in the washer.
"As I was saying," Rowan said, sitting back down, "the people-watching is the part I love about washing clothes. You can learn nearly everything about someone just from doing a little laundry with them and observing. It's like their clothes tell you all their secrets. Take you, for instance."
"Me?" Will said nervously. He didn't think there was much of anything to learn from the way he did laundry, except perhaps that he was doing laundry at midnight on a Friday night instead of going out and doing something fun. Which was something he really hoped Rowan wouldn't point out.
"Sure," Rowan replied. "For instance, that shirt you just tossed in the washer said, 'Bad Wolf'. The shirt before that read, 'Han Shot First'...and I see a Blue Sun t-shirt in there, a Banzai Institute shirt, an 'I Roll Twenties' shirt, and the one about 'English doesn't borrow from other languages, English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.' You know what all that tells me?"
Will's heart sank. This was going to be it, the moment where the beautiful woman started making fun of him. "That I'm a geek," he said dolefully.
"That you're a fan of science fiction and fantasy, and not ashamed to show it. Yes, the word 'geek' sums that up, but I like a guy who shows his geek pride." Will blinked. Had he actually heard that correctly? Was he maybe inhaling too much fabric softener or something?
