Note from Author: It's been a while since I've posted anything. This story is a relatively long romance story about the blossoming of love between two unlikely characters. There is sex in it but if that's all you want look in the latter pages. I hope you like the story, I've lived vicariously through it while writing it. If you like it or not please let me know. As always this is a work of fiction, any similarity to any persons is purely coincidental and this story is intended for adults, and where legal. If you don't like this kind of fiction please don't read it.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my story... JJ1
As they walked into the chalet after placing their skis against the house John and Carol shook the snow from their jackets. John sat down in the foyer on the floor to take his boots off, Carol stood there expectantly looking at John. He always seemed to be off somewhere in his own world, with a purpose no one else could understand.
The chalet was decorated in dark natural stained wood, deep and rich, the carpet light, almost white. It made John uncomfortable, afraid that he'd track mud in, or spill his coffee as he was always at risk of doing. It wasn't that he was clumsy, actually just the opposite, he was athletic, coordinated... occupied.
Carol never understood John. She couldn't understand how he always seemed so distracted when she was with him. She was almost 10 years his senior. At 31 she was well established, nearing tenure having taught for 6 years as a professor in physics. She was tall with long hair, trim without being skinny, and she had a habit of slumping slightly which served to take the emphasis off her breasts. They weren't overly large, very well shaped and they attracted attention, which embarrassed her. While not quite a wall flower she was demure, reserved... her expressive eyes were brown, sparkling, to compliment her hair. Her style of clothes was also reserved, long loose shirts, the same for the skirts she customarily wore to school.
She had met John on the Bus trip up, over a hundred people staying 12 to a chalet. John arrived late, the bus already running, and of course the only open seat on the bus was next to the physics professor. The group was made up of primarily students with a smattering of professors. For the next ten days there was no student-professor status, just young people and older people.
Carol thought the trip would be a chance for her to meet some of the people she worked with, a chance to get to know them out of the confines of school where tenure, time in grade, the pecking order of the grad students and their subservience to the professors had everyone on guard. She thought more of the professors would be on the trip and she almost cancelled when she found that very few of the professors decided to go. Of the hundred or so people that went, only a few were professors.
She'd tried the bar scene and found it grotesque. The men always seemed standoffish, and the few that approached her scattered when they found she was a physics professor. She didn't realize that most men found her, if not beautiful, well up on the attractive scale. Her grace and beauty put them on the defensive, most feeling she had to be out of their league, the ones that took a shot not able with the challenge of a beautiful, smart woman. Her fear of social interaction seeming to them to be arrogance, stuffiness perhaps. She thought she'd try the ski trip as a chance to get to know some of the people around the school.
John was quiet when he settled in the seat breathing hard.
"I'm late again, huh?"
Carol laughed. "Yeah, we were waiting for you." As if in proof of her statement the bus started with a rumble, the gears groaned in protest and the bus began to move.
Carol was always at a loss in these situations, talking to someone she didn't know. She got so frustrated with herself knowing it was a catch 22, not being able to talk to anyone until she got to know them, and not being able to get to know people without talking to them. "Do you get to ski often?" she asked. 'Christ' she thought, 'why didn't I just ask him if he lived around here, where you from? If I told you that you had a nice body would you hold it against me?' Hmmm... where the hell did that train of thought come from?
"No not really, I used to ski a lot when I was little but I haven't been in a while."
"So you ski well?" She cringed with the inane nature of the question. God she sucked at this.
"I used to." John mumbled as he leaned over and took a novel out of his back pack. He leaned against the window the book in his lap and settled a little in the seat. His message was clear... This conversation is over.
'Oh, my god...' John thought. This is the best looking woman I've ever seen. 'I wonder if her body matches her face. God I wish I was better at talking to women. What do I talk to her about?' John sat quietly trying to come up with some topic he could talk to her about. 'Oh my god... that's the physics professor... what's her last name? shit I wish I could remember...'
Carol leaned back in her chair, put her head back and closed her eyes as the bus pulled out of the parking lot. It was going to be a long ten days she thought. She glanced around the bus and saw that people seemed comfortable in the pairs of seats, quiet conversations, some of the guys playing cards. She felt awkward, out of place.
"Hey John, I didn't see you get on the bus!" The cute blonde in the row in front of them was kneeling on her seat and looking at John with a look of hope, fascination, dripping with opportunity.
"I was running a little late." John looked down at his book.
"I'm glad you made it John, will you ski with me this week?" The blonde turned on a brilliant smile, clean white teeth, almost too white. Her blonde hair silky smooth, finely textured, tucked behind ears that were petite, almost the perfect example of what a woman's ears should look like. Carol realized that this had to be the most beautiful person she had ever seen. She turned to look at John's reaction, thinking that she didn't have the tools to compete with that in any forum.
John was looking down at his book again, the message was clear that he didn't want to talk to her right now.
"Sure." Just this side of rude, as non-committal as it could be.
Carol watched the look of frustration, the look of defeat on the blonde's face, the slight crease of her brow. She wondered what guy wouldn't be pursuing the blonde. Maybe she had a fat ass or something. Maybe she missed something when John slid into the seat.
She glanced over at John. He was attractive without being gorgeous. His face was chisled, a firm chin, high cheek bones, not a dark complexion, perhaps olive was the right description. His shoulders were broad, but in his jacket she really couldn't determine his body. He was attractive but not at the level where a blonde of that caliber wouldn't be a significant conquest.
"You're a professor..." His question sounding like a statement, surprised Carol out of her musings. It sounded almost like an accusation. 'Brilliant. I am so freaking brilliant. Come on John, think of something... ' John's mind raced, trying to come up with something witty, some beginning of a conversation, some way to let her know he wasn't some mindless twit.
"Yes."
"Physics right?"
"Yeah how'd you know? Were you in my class?"
"No." He looked out the window and Carol figured that question wouldn't get answered. She couldn't figure out whether he was just not a conversationalist or if he was just that arrogant.
"What's your major?" She asked. He smiled, and looked at her. 'God, that was the college equivalent to where do you live.' She thought.
"Business." His reply was curt, almost saying it was none of her business. She was struggling to figure out whether he wanted to talk to her or not. His demeanor, his tone was saying that he didn't but he had started the conversation. He was giving her a headache.
"You don't talk much do you?"
"Not Really." 'God I suck at this... shit.' John thought.
They settled into silence once again. Carol just wanted the trip to end, she wanted to get away from this guy, she wanted to be with somebody she had something in common with, god she hoped she'd find someone to hang out with once they got there.
The trip took several hours and it was dark by the time they got to the mountains. The bus pulled up to chalets, the driver reading off the list of who stayed in which chalet. Carol was surprised to find that John was in the same chalet. The cute blonde mumbled her displeasure when she found that she was not in John's Chalet. Carol couldn't understand why she found pleasure in that. She listened as the blonde asked John for his cell phone number and found that she was carefully trying to memorize it as John rattled it off.
She watched as John walked up to a group of guys smiling, shaking hands. She overheard their conversation as they waited for the others to pull their bags and skis out of the bus. "Got stuck with the Physics professor huh?" laughing and patting him on the back. She felt her cheeks redden, her head dropped, she couldn't understand the feeling of humiliation she felt, and she turned her back.
"Yeah... She's pretty cool..."
Carol turned her head quickly to look at him. They'd said what... 25 words in the four hour trip. What gave him the right to judge her? When she looked at him he smiled at her, just a slight curling of the lips, but she could see his eyes twinkle. She didn't know why but that really pissed her off. She glared at him and walked away listening to the others laughing and giving John a hard time.
As she settled into the chalet she found that not everyone had a bed. Some were destined to sleep on mattresses on the floor. There was a group of four or five that would sleep in the living room, the others were paired up in the bed rooms. Carol was the only person that got her own bedroom and it singled her out, made her feel different, more out of place than she already felt. It was obvious that she was the only "single" here.
She looked up as John and his friends walked in. John looked at the list and said "Nah... We don't need a room Billy, let's let Bob and Marge sleep in there." She could tell that Billy wasn't happy about that but John had put him on the spot, in a position that he couldn't say no. The arrogant ass!
She found out who Marge was when she ran up to John hugging him. "Thank you John..."
Carol wandered off to her room and found it small, a single bed in the corner, a dresser, and she had her own TV. She didn't watch it much but it was nice that she had her own little sanctuary to hide in. She set about taking her clothes out of her suit case and arranging them neatly in the drawers. When she finished and walked back into the living room she saw the younger people, the "students" as she thought of them, arranged around the kitchen table. Beers and sodas in front of them she could tell they were in for the duration. She went into the living room and found John sitting on the couch, beer in hand, lounging with his feet on the coffee table.
"How's it going teach?"
"Don't call me that." John just smiled and nodded looking away at the TV. A basketball game was on, the one sport Carol hated above all others. She never understood the male fascination of watching over grown adults try to throw a ball through a hoop, but she wasn't ready to sleep yet so she sat in the overstuffed arm chair.
"Who ya skiing with tomorrow?" John asked.
"I don't know." She felt an anger rising, and really couldn't understand why the bitch in her was rearing its ugly head. Perhaps it was that she didn't know anyone on the trip, she felt out of place and he just seemed to find all the subjects where she was less than confident. He just rubbed her wrong. "One of the girls I presume."
"Which mountain are you going to ski?"
"I don't know, I guess it depends."
"Oh. You don't talk much do you?"
