He brought her flowers, knowing how inappropriate it was. Their age gap was too great. They were friends, good friends and just a little more than friends, but that was all.
She accepted the flowers gratefully, knowing his feelings for her were far more than simply platonic, but not caring.
They talked, about anything and everything, not for long but comfortably over a coffee after work several times a week. Then he went home.
"Did you see that program on television?" she asked, "The one about the really big women?"
"No, I missed it," he replied.
"I can't see," she said, "How any man could like women that size? One of them said she gets paid for sitting on men!"
"Well," he hesitated, "A lot of men like big women, although there's big and there's enormous and repulsive! And a lot of men like women on top of them, in charge. That sort of thing." He was suddenly aware that he was blushing and he turned his head away from her.
She was thoughtful. "My bum's quite big," she said in a matter-of-fact voice, standing up and turning around to face away from him. She patted her buttocks.
He looked, trying to appear objective but with a sudden image in his mind of those buttocks descending on him to cover his face.
"You're just a nice shape," he assured her, "Not too big at all. Just right." Then aware that his comments might be out of place, he added, "Lots of men of your own age find you incredibly attractive, I'm sure."
"I don't think I could be a dominatrix," she said, a little sadly.
He was at a loss for words, and she saw his confusion.
"I used to do the Anne Summers parties," she explained, "Selling lots of stuff. I wasn't very good at it."
"Excellent," he said at once, "I mean.... I'm sure it was very interesting."
He was blushing again, and she saw it.
"Time I was going," he said. "It's getting late and I need to be home."
"OK," she said. He stood up and, as usual, she kissed him on the cheek and they hugged for a moment. He kept his hips back, away from her, well aware that the direction the conversation had taken had excited him and not wanting her to feel it and perhaps be shocked at his physical reaction.
She had noticed. She said nothing.
"Maybe see you tomorrow?" she said.
"Sure," he agreed, "If you don't finish work too late."
***
He got a text message from her the next day at work. 'I'll be finishing work early if you're not too busy and want to come round for a coffee. Make it five-thirty and we can have a good chat.'
He was there at exactly five-thirty. She was rummaging through a small stack of boxes piled in the corner of the living room.
"Hi," she said. "I've been sorting through some of the old Anne Summers stuff I kept when I stopped doing it. There's some other junk here too, from another load I tried to sell. I thought you might be interested."
"Shouldn't you have given it back?"
She shrugged. "I think I ended up paying for it out of my commission," she said. "Anyway, they never asked for it, so I just kept it."
"Some of it's a bit odd," she went on, "I can't remember what all of it's for."
She held up a small whip. "I wonder whether this would hurt?" she said. "It's a bit small."
"Try it," he laughed.
"Bend over then," she laughed back, but he did turn round and bend forward a little, jokingly.
She raised the whip and brought it down across his buttocks.
"Ouch!"
"So it does hurt," she smiled at him. "I wonder how effective it would be on bare skin. Maybe we'll try that later."
He looked at her to see if she was joking, but her expression did not reveal what she was thinking. She put down the whip and picked up a handful of small gadgets.
"What on earth are these?"
He looked closely at them. "I haven't seen anything like them before," he confessed, "But I think they're meant to be attached to electrical things and to appropriate parts of the anatomy."
"Ooh," she exclaimed, "Like a TENS unit. I've got one of those for my bad shoulder, but all it's got with it are sticky pads. I always thought it could be rather fun being in control of one attached to someone else – it feels rather nice when it's on really low, but as soon as you turn up the power or the pulsing the results could be rather interesting."
Her eyes sparkled.
"You've got a wicked sense of fun," he said.
"I know," she admitted, "So let's work out what parts of the body these things are meant to be attached to."
She held up the first. "What do you reckon?"
"I couldn't possibly say. Too rude."
She picked up the whip and waved it playfully in his direction. "Don't be bad. Play the game or I'll whip you!"
"OK, OK. Hmm. I think those are intended to be attached to nipples."
"And this one?"